Fitz!

Fitz me again!

Please tell me that the Kerri Strug line was inserted as a joke … to see if anyone was paying attention maybe?

Shudder.

Unless it’s actually Chris Kattan pretending to be Kerri Strug. That might be worth watching.

LaMont !!

dws at 3 — nope, I double checked it on the This Week website. It’s true. You can click thru on the link and see with your own eyes. *g*

Sure needed that photo this morning, Christy. Thank you.

CNN: the doctor who blew up his townhouse has died.

But doesn’t Hezbollah watch every Sunday talk show on satellite? Isn’t this Rice’s cagy way of sending them death stares and secret messages without appearing to actually talk to them?

Biden and Gingrich in an AssClown jerk-off, Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Honestly, when I read these things I am soooooooooooooo glad I don’t have a TV.

Hairplug and FatBoy gumming each other to rhetorical death. Does not sound edifying.

Apologies for all the Os.

I thought a photo of two dissimilar living beings getting along might be appropriate for this morning. Seeing how mucked up the world is and all…a little peace and harmony and contentment seemed like a nice counter-balance.

Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts and George Will — join me to debate the week’s politics

Are you serious, Christy? Are you personally going to be there joining the debate?

Gonna be a food fight if true! *g*

Good morning America! I’m watching Chuck Todd from “Roll Call” and Jennifer Duffy from “Cook Political Report” on C-SPAN preview the up-coming Congressional races, and over-all I’m encouraged. Before that, they took viewers’ calls on the situation in the Middle East. Again, I’m encouraged. If younger people today are dismayed by the current world political situation, all I can say as a person who remembers Air Raid drills in Kindergarten back in 1958…this too shall pass. Do NOT let the Chicken Hawks cause you to become discouraged! Good will always win, because love is always stronger than hate.

More from Frank Rich today:

“The Bush doctrine was a doctrine in name only, a sales strategy contrived to dress up the single mission of regime change in Iraq with philosophical grandiosity worthy of F.D.R. There was never any serious intention of militarily pre-empting either Iran or North Korea, whose nuclear ambitions were as naked then as they are now, or of striking the countries that unlike Iraq were major enablers of Islamic terrorism. Axis of Evil was merely a clever brand name from the same sloganeering folks who gave us “compassionate conservatism” and “a uniter, not a divider” — so clever that the wife of a presidential speechwriter, David Frum, sent e-mails around Washington boasting that her husband was the “Axis of Evil” author. (Actually, only “axis” was his.)

Since then, the administration has fiddled in Iraq while Islamic radicalism has burned brighter and the rest of the Axis of Evil, not to mention Afghanistan and the Middle East, have grown into just the gathering threat that Saddam was not. And there’s still no policy. As Ivo Daalder of the Brookings Institution writes on his foreign-affairs blog, Mr. Bush isn’t pursuing diplomacy in his post-cowboy phase so much as “a foreign policy of empty gestures” consisting of “strong words here; a soothing telephone call and hasty meetings there.” The ambition is not to control events but “to kick the proverbial can down the road —far enough so the next president can deal with it.” There is no plan for victory in Iraq, only a wish and a prayer that the apocalypse won’t arrive before Mr. Bush retires to his ranch.”

Only slightly OT since it is part of Sunday mornig politcal spin:
but some wingnut from the “New America Foundation” has a ginormous op-ed int the NYTimes this AM and in it he says that liberals joined with neo-cons to take us to war with Iraq.

I kid you not. Read it, rub your eyes, and read again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07.....ref=slogin

He said:

shared idealism is what led many liberals to join neocons in supporting the Iraq war, which hasn’t turned out ideally.

You see? The Iraq war is the fault of LIBERALS!!! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. The Times gave this lunatic the eqivalent of a full page, actually did better than that. They gave him two half pages above the fold. The damn thin has “chapters” wih roman numeral headings.

Krazy World. I’m living in Krazy World. Wait till Cindy Sheehan finds out that LIBERALS like her forced the US into war with Iraq. Her head is going to spin 360.

Me, I gotta put my eyeballs back into my head. The shock of reading this lunacy caused them to jump right outta my skull

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200.....israel_110

The attack on Haifa raised Israel’s death toll from the fighting to at least 23 — 11 soldiers and 12 civilians. Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon have killed 130 people, mostly civilians.

Mad Dogs at 11 — nope — it’s a Stephanopolous cut-and-paste. Thanks — usually, I go back through and clean all those up — but this morning, certain small peanuts were a little hands-on and I missed that one. Will fix it…

Who can explain it? The talk show hosts are no more interested in reasoned discussion as the Middle East explodes than their bike-riding King.

I Emailed Bob Novak after he “outed” Valerie Plame and complained to him that he had helped criminals in the White House to commit a felony. He called me (and others) “left -wing nut jobs” on CNN. I also Emailed CNN and demanded that he be fired. I’ll be watching Face the nation to see how he tries to repare his image. Should be fun !!

Does anyone have a guess how quickly its going to take Condi to tell us that “no one could have anticipated” the situation in Lebanon? Once again, we knew NOTHING.

I’m not about to venture into the “whose fault is it” waters, today…however…

How is it that the European nations are already getting their people out of Lebanon and yet the US is saying that a rescue plan will happen “this week”, but that it will only be able to accomodate 4,000 of the 25,000 Americans estimated to be in Lebanon? Oh yeah, an immediate plan would involve buses and, as NOLA so aptly showed us, we don’t do buses very well.

Fucking terrific!! Well,no one could have anticipated….

Steve — he’ll be on Meet the Press on NBC. Just FYI.

Christy at 16:

Dagnabbit…I was so looking forward to that food fight. *g*

Thanks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5184946.stm

UK prepares for Beirut evacuation

Preparations are being made to rescue UK citizens from Lebanon, the British ambassador in Beirut has said.

James Watt says there are a “number of options” open to assist Britons in the country following Israeli air strikes.

Two Royal Navy ships, aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious and assault ship HMS Bulwark, are heading to the Middle East on stand-by for a rescue operation.

Other countries including Spain, Italy and Greece have already begun removing their nationals from the capital.

Thanks lina at 6:08, Frank really nailed it.

*ilson

John C 24: He always does.

*ilson
It’s times like these I remind myself of the (guilty)comfort I have in knowing I have duel citizenship.

lhp,

The last time I checked, 56% of Democrats voted against the war in Iraq. That would be more than half.

lhp : duel citizenship? do your two nations often war with each other?

And how pathetic will it be to watch Tim Russert interview Bob Novak about the Plame case acting like he’s not involved up to his eyeballs? It’s such a farce. You would think some overlord at NBC would get a clue that you don’t get the journalist (cough) who is involved in the story to interview someone about the story.

But that would be in another era, I guess.

Wot’s the other half of your duality, lhp?

CNN: LBC says a team has arrived at the US Embassy in Beirut to suss out the American evacuation.

oilfield

I know that, you know that, but evidently the moron at the NYTimes that accepted this piece of fantasy fiction for publication is completely out of the loop on that.

Has the Times compleely given up on fact checking? Hell, it’s summer. They should be hip deep in summer interns eager to prove their mettle byvigorous fact checking.

What? It’s too hard to ask some kid to do the work the editorial board is too lazy to do themselves?

Nice photo Christy! (you DO have a certain eye…)
—-
Ed*ard Teller’s piece late last thread was really cool, I thought. Hanging out at the 10,000-year-old nexus of inter-continental migration; and a time-machine meditation.
——
For the first time this AM I delved into the Globe’s (online, that is…back in the day paper it was a routine stop) Editorial page. Today they give a little coverage of ‘Political blogs’. Unsigned; but the lede is full of ‘wacko’ (words like ’soapbox’…which to me is remindful (word?) of “The End Is Near! Repent!…and who’s to argue with that given what’s going on ME-wise) Anyway, they end it with basically, “This could be a Good Thing. More, please.” kinda take.
—-
Overnight, streamed some BBC. Had “Political Analysis” show. Asked if Tony the Poodle might be brought down by his own very ‘fund-raising scandal’ (Peerages for Pay) One astute fellow: “By itself, no.”

I just don’t get this. They’ve learned that as long as you can say, “That’s NOT a Smoking Gun.” (Even though the thing is in plain sight.) then they can go with coverup, obfuscation and denial. Or something. What does it take? Seems even ‘dead girs/live boy’ will just end w/”We’ll never know” sputtering, Or something like that.

Sorry. Just pissed off.
—
More coffee, plz.

Latest news from here in Norway is that our bunch is moving now, in a joint norwegian/swedish evacuation - they’re expected to reach the Damascus and the plane that’ll carry them out in about 10 hours or so.

That doesn’t help the quarter of a million lebanese who’re watching as the infrastructure around them is being reduced rubble once again.

I grow weary of the constant meme put forward that the dems supported this war and had the same facts the Preznit had. It flies in the face of the facts. Yet the Dems will not defend their voting record in fear of appearing weak.

*ilson

Howcome I never see the typos when I’m typing them.

If I could only be so funny INTENTIONALLY

Lotus

I am Irish as well as American

I was born here, but my mother registered me with the Irish consulate as a “registered foreign birth” So, the Republic of Ireland claims me as one of their own

op99 : it’s OK ! Israel promised not to misuse the armaments … there’s a piece of paper correctly filed somewhere in the Pentagon with that promise all properly certified.

Last night I read this Dkos Diary:

Americans not getting the whole story on Lebanon by gjohnsit
snip

I bet most of you didn’t even realize that the Hezbollah had given terms for the release of the soldiers:

The capture of the soldiers fulfills a longtime promise by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah to snatch Israelis and swap them for the remaining three Lebanese prisoners held by Israel — boosting his standing among followers. Eight other Israeli soldiers were killed in the raid.
Nasrallah was smiling and confident at a press conference in his stronghold in south Beirut as he dubbed the raid as “Operation Truthful Promise” and sent a message to the Lebanese held by Israel: “You are now on the road to freedom.”
“The (Israeli) prisoners will not return home except through one way — indirect negotiations and a trade,” he said. “Nobody in the whole world can return them home except through a (prisoners) exchange.”
snip
Wait a second. What is this about Lebanese prisoners?
It seems that Israel has been holding three Lebanese soldiers prisoner since before the Israeli withdraw from Lebanon in 2000.
snip

So there you have it. Hezbollah taking prisoners makes them terrorists. Israeli’s taking prisoners makes them what, victims?

I’ll never understand this war on error.

Side note on my Appalachian foothills youth was a beautiful swimming hole we use to venture to that Christy might also know for those Morgantown hot days, Blue Hole Big Sandy Creek, I think was the place.
also:
A few days ago there was an article in the times “Redefining American Beauty, by the Yard” http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07.....?8dpc?8dpc
I remember how lawns became more and more competitive and the use of chemicals became common use. Green lawn chemical crazy neigbors were concern to my family because we got our water from a well and the suburban sprawl that engulfed our small town had little concern for water tables.

*ilson 37, oh, well, that really sets my mind to rest, then. Phew!

Lucky you, lhp — what a fine haven you have in yer back pocket. How them pup girls this morning? How them tootsies of yours?

I’m a potato(e) eatin’ Irish myself. But I don’t have a certificate for it. Would really like to visit Ireland someday. And Spain.

I am relieved that your dual citizenship is with Ireland … for a few fleeting moments, I was afraid the can of worms about US/Israeli dual citizenship was going to be opened. “Dual citizenship” is a code-word by anti-Semites for accusing US Jews of being under the control of the Elders of Zion.

Found this on another site:

A funny to start your day. Well, the last part is so serious it could make you cry.

A Japanese doctor says, “Medicine in my country is so advanced that we
can take a kidney out of one man, put it in another, and have him
looking for work in six weeks.”

A German doctor says, “That is nothing, we can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him looking for work in four weeks.”

A British doctor says, “In my country, medicine is so advanced that we can take half of a heart out of one person, put it in another, and have them both looking for work in two weeks.”

The doctor from Texas, not to be outdone,

“You guys are all way behind. In the US, we took a man with no brains out of Texas; put him in the White House and now half the country is looking for work.”

Galway’s looking pretty good about now.

Puppies are getting fat already. They are the most active at this age of any litter I have seen.

The first time momma, however is just nuts. Won’t pee or poo. Won’t drink water. Keeps trying to hide the puppies. She is SOOO anxious.

I had to trick her to get her outside for 5 minutes to poop.

Tooties are fine. Got all my chores out of the way yesterday, kid is off to Boston in a few minutes and I will spend the day putting the book outline in final. Yeah! I whole day of peace, quiet and getting some work done. Yippee.

I am not snarking, I am so chomping at the bit with this election fraud book and life keeps interrupting my progress.

I tell you I cannot figure out how Christy manages her rate of productivity considering all the interruptions she has each day. I am in awe of that

CNN’s Barbara Starr (the Pentagon spokeperson posing as a CNN correspondent) is reporting that DoD folk who are experts in US civilian evacuation have arrived at the American Embassy in Beirut.

Ms. Starr is using the phrase “American troops in Lebanon” with trepidation …

We are all Earthlings first. Too bad we have to think in terms of nationality and borders. Are we not human beings ? Let’s show some compassion to our brothers and sisters who are dying around the globe today.

*ilson at 43

No, but I have been accused of being under the control of Druids *g*

lhp -
Lucky you. I looked into going ‘dualie’ around ‘90. Never did follow through…(chagrin)
—-
Link to Globe Op/Ed re: political blogs:
http://www.boston.com/news/glo....._politics/

Godspeed to you and peace to Baby Mitten’s and Bridget’s Momma today, lhp!

Baby Mittens’

my six 6-week-old pitpuppies have reached the synchronized screaming phase — damn, those mutts are noisy! Mommydog acts so nonchalant…

“Let’s show some compassion to our brothers and sisters who are dying around the globe today.”

WHEN have we ever NOT, SC?

I figure the U.S. evacuation will be:
Air drop 25k inflatable rafts; each one a has a copy of Catch-22 taped to it.
—-
(Remember Yosarian rowing across the Mediteranean? TO ESCAPE THE INSANITY!)

Blank Kluge

Read the Globe Op Ed about the blos. How do you suppose this Ed Wonk guy got so lucky, that outta all the blogs in all the world, he is the only one who gets a plug?

Rice, Biden, Gingrich, Cokie R., G. Will, Novak, Feinstein, George Allen, Dan Bartlett, Shimon Perez, Moustapha, and others. Genuine promoters and pillars of abject compassion, credibility, objectivity… and… truth, justice, and the American way… all. Yuk. The world is on fire. And our proxy is carrying the torch. Burn baby, burn.

B K

Re: the life raft scenario:

If it weren’t so likely to be true, it would be really funny

*ilson, these little guys are what? 72 hours old? They yip already. Not cry, little yips trying to be woofs.

They were also amazingly mobile after only about 4 hours. They are like puppies from the planet Kryton. Not big, but amazingly strong for newborns

Timmeh’s giving R Novak a pretty thorough grilling, hope you’re taping it, Christy.

Right after the anthrax attack, a customer came in my restaurant. He was a truck driver and short of cash. He asked if I could feed him and next time he was in the areqa he would bring two gas masks for me and my son. Sounded like the best deal of the day so I fed him as much as he could eat and tipped him a doggy bag on the way out.

He returned in about 2 weeks with my gas masks. They were two clothes pins painted red white and blue and each had a little tag hanging off the end reading “US Government issued Gas Mask. It was so funny.

lhp,

As a part-time blogger, I am not interested in fame or recognition. I merely put forth my views as a sort of self-therapy. I know absolutely nothing about how to promote, market or increase traffic to my site. And as far as I know, only one other blog has placed me on their blogroll. That would be Eli’s and Lizzies place.

Further to my comment at 19 above, from the latest edition of Newsweek:

The Bush team didn’t see this one coming. Maybe it was simply that too many other volcanoes were erupting at the same time. Iraq was tipping closer to civil war, Iran was getting more brazen by the day and North Korea’s missiles were roiling East Asia. The president, meanwhile, was preoccupied with what would likely be a testy G8 summit hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. True, the two top U.S. Mideast envoys—David Welch and Elliott Abrams—were in the region when hostilities began. But they had been reassured by Lebanese contacts that Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah leader, didn’t plan to “stir things up” while Hamas and Israel contended over a kidnapped Israeli corporal, according to a senior U.S. diplomat who would divulge the details only if he remained anonymous. “You had six and a half years of, if not calm, basically a stable deterrence between Hizbullah and Israel,” the official told NEWSWEEK. “I did not expect this at all.”

As Chris Rock would say, “Right on time. That train’s never late.”

my 6-week old pitpuppies are quite variegated vocally. Mommydog is a “talking dog” — I kept one of her babies from 6 months ago (Bebecito Evo) who is built like Denny Hastert but has a voice like Yma Sumac. He can bark loudly in a deep voice but he can also scream for attention with a horrendously high pitch just for the fun of it.

lhp-

You’re smarter, more collected, etc than I am. I hadn’t considered how/why Ed blog (whatever his name is) got the only mention.
—–
You’re doing a book? I didn’t know that. Good on you!
Best wishes. It’s already on my list.

lhp, my mother, who was a dual citizen born in Canada of a US father, said that by the act of voting in the US, she thereby renounced her Canadian citizenship. Was she all wet, or is that a function of Canada but not Ireland? (I assume anyone who lives at the Lake votes.)

O F G

Internet marketing has always been a mystery to me too.

i came here for the Fitz, stayed for the friends.

don’t forget Kerri, Oklahoma @ 57!

Madeline Albright on This Week pretty much carved up Rice for sitting in Russia while the Middle East burns. Pointed out to George that she never really answered the question of why Bush hasn’t even spoken to Ehud Olmert.

Whoever said Rice will be dragging out her stock “no one could have anticipated” line is no doubt spot on…

Loved the pic, Christy.

Am off to the kitchen: raspberry/blueberry tart to make, chicken to marinate. Then house to pretty up for guests.

Oh - good news, everyone: my future son-in law put us out of our misery and spoke to my husband last night about marrying our daughter, so the cat’s officially out of the bag and I can bring all the Bride’s magazines and books from the library into the house! No more biting my tongue for fear of giving it away!

Sorry for the OT bit, but couldn’t help myself!

George Bush has probably been talking to Arial Sharon recently, seeking advice …

Whew, Anne — “two weeks” DID sound like an awfully long time to keep that kitty bagged. Good stuff!

Jesus Christ! There’s a hard-hitting bunch of bushCo cheerleader’s and apologists, if ever seen.

I guess knowing which questions not to ask guarantees you some interview pub.

Dual Citizenship is a tricky thing and varies from country to country. *ilson referred to that upthread. Isreal conveys daul citizenship on any jewish person (i’m sketchy on this, don’t know if it applies to converts) who cares to claim citizenship.

I can maintain dual citizenship as long as I don’t really exercise it. If I vote in an Irish election or serve in the Irish army or government, I will effectively renounce my US citizenship.

Years ago, you had to be an Irish citizen to own farmland and the US government allows you to do that w/o endangering your status as a US citizen.

During the Reagan/Bush I years and because of the Achille LAuro murder, the US started looking the other way if you travelled on another passport that you were leaglly entitiled to.

during that period, one of my sisters was doing a travelogue through Africa for BBC radio and travelled on her Irish passport. In fact she had her US passport hidden in a fals bottom of a suitcase b/c she did not want anyone at a border search to know she was an american. Not only was it dangerous to be an american, you could not get interviews for squat if you were a known american back in those days.

Robin Wright of WaPo : http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13884768/

Israel, with U.S. support, intends to resist calls for a cease-fire and continue a longer-term strategy of punishing Hezbollah, which is likely to include several weeks of precision bombing in Lebanon, according to senior Israeli and U.S. officials.

For Israel, the goal is to eliminate Hezbollah as a security threat — or altogether, the sources said. A senior Israeli official confirmed that Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah is a target, on the calculation that the Shiite movement would be far less dynamic without him.

For the United States, the broader goal is to strangle the axis of Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran, which the Bush administration believes is pooling resources to change the strategic playing field in the Middle East, U.S. officials say.

Whatever the outrage on the Arab streets, Washington believes it has strong behind-the-scenes support among key Arab leaders also nervous about the populist militants — with a tacit agreement that the timing is right to strike.

“What is out there is concern among conservative Arab allies that there is a hegemonic Persian threat [running] through Damascus, through the southern suburbs of Beirut and to the Palestinians in Hamas,” said a senior U.S. official who requested anonymity because of sensitive diplomacy. “Regional leaders want to find a way to navigate unease on their streets and deal with the strategic threats to take down Hezbollah and Hamas, to come out of the crisis where they are not as ascendant.”

Anne, congratulations on your impending mother-in-law-hood. I’m sure you’ll be a good one, judging from the restraint you have shown in keeping your yap shut even though you were brimming with the news. :>)

A “hostage situation” is looming in Basra.

If Israel bombs Syria, 8,000 Brit troops will find out how the Iraqi Shia feel about it.

As ol’ Matt says: “developing”….

Oh, I gotta go read the Sports page…

The “Who could have IMAGINED…” stuff is out already.

ugh.

(usually I’m kinda stoic, up close and personal, regardless what I type here…well, maybe not so much…) anyway, I’m usually avg/low blood pressure wise. I don’t have a cuff handy just now, but I’m certain the heart rate ain’t like the song:
“Check my pulse;
it don’t change.
Stays seventy-two,
come shine or rain.”
—
Grateful Dead
“U.S. Blues”
http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/usblues.html
Ironic, but not on purpose.
Guess I need a dose of Jerry Radio (thanks Urban Pirate)

…and a kilo of Soma.

Anne

vcongratulations. I think it is SOOO charming that your son in law did the old fashioned asking for your daughter’s hand thing.

If you can find it, the first MArtha Stewart weddings book (from the mid 1980’s) was amazing. Just bursting with easy to implement ideas.

The early MS stuff was so much more idea dense

lhp,

I came here much after the “All Plame, all the time”, and truthfully, I am not involved in the minutae of the case. It is a bunch of legal hairsplitting over an outrageous breach of national security. There exists no rational for it and any defense, IMHO, really sux.

I too stayed for the friends. And in my short friendship, I have managed to have lunch with CHS, a chat with Ambassador Wilson, and coffee with Jane. This hat-trick has shown me that these are very nice and honorable people, people who have earned respect for their accomplishments but truly dislike idolization.

This is especially true of Ms. Hamsher. She has a Masters Degree in Business (Administration?) and it shows in the structure of this blog. I respect her for all she has done, but idolization is something most “targets” find creepy and boring.

The General has a new Joe ad online: http://patriotboy.blogspot.com.....5460852788

Thanks for the info on dual citizenship, lhp. While I am in full “save my country from the fascisti” mode at present, I have idly wondered whether my Canadian ancestry, and the fact that I have tons of relatives there, would give me a leg up on getting Canadian citizenship should our best efforts here be for naught. Sigh.

Newt is clearly trying to appear “Presidential”.(out here in Arizona meet the press just came on.)

The Bush Administration didn’t see this one coming!?! I long for the days when the president would be too embarrassed to admit such a thing. And maybe even pretend to know about it, if need be, to reassure the citizens that he is on top of things.

Sadly,
There are no idols in my life. I tend to have an overcritical eye. Ironic from a cjick who can’t even type straight, eh?

I have been fascinted with the Plame thing ever since I read the Joe Wilson Op Ed. I don’t know why I, like Dick Cheny, cut it out of the paper and put it on my desk to read and re-read.

I became even more involved in following the case when the rumors started flying around the courthouse that Cmey was about to take it over from Ashcroft. Then Jim appointed PatFitz and I knew there was something very very heavy going on that would probabaly never be in the public record.

You don’t call on a guy like Pat for something like this, lightly. You also don’t expose your best friend to the wrath of the Sith Lord, w/o a good reason.

Is the USofA evacuating its citizens from Isreal too?

“Precision bombing”? Does that mean that the elderly, the disabled, and women and children won’t be extinguished?

“Washington believes…” Well, that is comforting. If Washington (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, etc.) believes something, then it must be gospel. Now I can go back to sleep.

Glory beeee! Washington believes.

*ilson -

That WaPo article sorta DIRECTLY CONTRADICTS Ms. Rice’s et al assertions re: ‘who could have imagined…’ doesnt’ it.
—
ps - I’ll just reiterate my appreciation for your efforts and intellect, etc.
—-
This site provides excellent analysis, info and commentary. For free.

Thanks all. No idolatry here, just appreciation for the whole shebang (and maybe just a wee addictiion…)

Few things in my life have kept me away from the Sunday Globe Sports section. Still havent’t clicked to it yet. ‘I could never have imagined…’ … oh, nevermind…

;->

O F G

The Plame coverage here is the best anywhere that I can find. B/C it is so thorough and current, it helps me avoid the temptation to ask questions I should not ask, seeking info from those who should not give it to me.

Keeping current by reading FDL allows me to know what is going on w/o having the sorts of awkward conversations that can lead to slip ups.

US citizens in Israel can leave anytime and anyway they may wish to. Normal transportation continues in and out of that country.

Israel has bombed, destroyed and blockaded travel from Lebanon. Special evacuation methods have to be devised for those 25,000 American citizens trapped by Israeli aggression.

lhp, in order:

How many puppies?

When does your book come out?

Thnx *ilson46201.

egrigious

2 puppies born alive (one stillbirth) Names: babby mittens and bridget

Working first draft is due for August 18th DNC meeting

Congratulations and hurry, respectively.

egregious 93, LOL.

Nut-job at The Corner (guess who):

They are taking a risk here, hoping that we will understand the gravity of the moment and the dimensions of the opportunity. The great opportunity, and indeed the just consequence of the attack against Israel, is to bring down Assad along with destroying Hezbollah. That must be the mission. There are many Syrians who are ready to act, but the first step toward the removal of Assad is for the president and the secretary of state to call for regime change in Syria.[my emphasis]

The immediate response in same forum is:

…a wonderful notion, that — America helping to take the lead in destroying Hezbollah and taking down the regime in Syria even as we fight a difficult war in Iraq. Wonderful. And science-fictional.

The “Didn’t see this one coming” meme reminds me of nothing so much as Fawlty Towers. Those familiar with the greatJohn Cleese series surely recall the episode where Basil, tryingto hide something from Sybil tells Manuel (the hapless Spanish busboy) that if she asks about anything to say “I know nothing.”

So Manuel goes about loudly proclaiming “I know nothing!” 24/7.

Thus Condi has taken up the Manuel Defense

egregious

Today is the last verssion of the expanded outline.That gets circualted for comments (the maddening part b/c I have to wait a week or better for the comments from other dem lawyers–the chomping at the bit part)

However, by the end of today, the outline will be SOOO expanded and detailed that the first draft of text should probabaly only take a weekend. it is actually miuch further along than it seems.

For me, figuring out the narractive arc is the hard part. the actual writing goes fast. The thughts come faster than the fingers can keep up.

But you knew that from the crappy typing

Until the so called Palestinian “question” is solved there will be no peace in the Middle East. Ever! The Palestinians need a homeland, to be treated with human decency, afforded basic dignity, self-rule, taxation with representation and assurance that the hell that is Gaza will be halted. We need to treat these peoples as we treat the Israelis. As human beings.

Was just scanning Courant for anything Ned and found this little beauty about R primary in the CT-1st Congressional to face incumbent D in Nov:

http://www.courant.com/news/po.....tics-state

…”has turned on religion with challenger Miriam Masullo attacking the religious denomination of the GOP’s endorsed candidate, Scott MacLean.

In a recent letter to the district’s Republican leaders, Masullo accused the leadership of the United Church of Christ of supporting terrorists and suicide bombings. And because MacLean is a retired minister in the church, Republicans should reject him in the Aug. 8 primary, Masullo said.”…
…”Masullo’s accusations amounted to “delusional ramblings.”

“All that stuff is just looney tunes….”
——
LMAO. Might be funny to keep track of.

CNN: standing by for statement from Nasrallah.

Meet the Press is on in NYC now. Newt and Timmeh are saying that WW III has begun

Love the photo, Christy. I too got it in my email awhile ago. My first reaction was to ask whether that was some sort of pygmy deer, since the fawn was so small. On the farm where I board my horses, a young pig (probably an escapee from a place in the area that would have turned him into bacon) found his way through a gap in the fence into one of the paddocks. He set up residence, eating the horses’ grain, wallowing in the mud around the water trough, and playing with the horses, who seem to like him. The proprietess wound up naming him Iggy and buying him pig chow. He responded by growing so big that he couldn’t get back out now if he wanted to, which he doesn’t. Iggy the Piggy is presenting a bit of a problem, though. He is very protective of his herd and charges anyone who comes too close. Does a pig version of barking at strangers, too. So she is trying to find him a home where he can concentrate on siring junior Iggies. The horses will miss him if he leaves.

Now that every conceivable political volcano has erupted around the world, the full stupidity of invading Iraq is on display. On top the horrible situation we have created there, we have next to zero credibility OR ability to deal with all the escalating conflagrations.

Imperial designs always dream beyond the capacity of the nation-that-would-be-an-empire.

For years I have been saying it has to get worse before it gets better because of American irrationality. The public cannot believe we can f*** up so completely and be so helpless. I guess we need full-on global hostilities to wise up to the insanity of conservative politics. Its a tragedy and would make a great script if it weren’t all true and so intensely painful to live through.

OFG and LHP -
Hey there. On the issue of “liberals joining neocons to support the Iraq war” way back when - back in 2002, leading up to midterms, how many of us saw 1.) there were no WMDs (digby/poputonium has a great quote here http://digbysblog.blogspot.com.....5011824501), 2.)the war was both a long-term wet dream of the PNAC folks as well as an expedient maneuver to win the 2002 midterms, 3) an added benefit of 2. would be that when the whole thing blew up and fell apart (what that GWB has touched hasn’t done that, with the possible exception of the Rangers), the neocons would be able to say, “but the liberals thought so too!” about the Dems they were able to cow into supporting AUMF.
There is no common decency with these people, no common rules for dealing with having the fact demonstrated that your position is utterly wrong - when a normal person (i.e. motivated by the desire to serve/govern effectively/achieve some common purpose) faces such utter repudiation of their ideas, the normal action is to back up, rethink, learn fom mistakes. With this crew - yell louder that the fault is liberals and that conservatism was betrayed. Josh Marshall sums it up far better than me here:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.c.....009059.php

Rat bastards…

On the topic of animals…
Took my boys (4 and 10) out to the farm we just subscribed to (weekly basket of veggies, flowers, eggs now ’til October). Pulled them away from audio/visual overstimulation in front of computer and took them to the country. They loved it! They were chasing/holding chickens (little guy wouldn’t put down the big old hen he was hugging with two arms - except to pet bunnies), checking on peacock chick (being raised by a chicken hen!), donkeys, pygmy goats, geese - it was animal wonderland. The farm produces veggies - the animals are mostly pets, though the hens work. What was amazing were the hierarchies - boss hens and young junior girls, strutting roosters and the older guys they displaced. papa goose yammering at everybody, especially if the missus was off her nest, the two donkeys looking for trouble like a couple of teenagers, and speaking of looking for trouble - the goats, however cute were ALWAYS looking for trouble to get into. There were all these societies that had organized themselves, but interacted little to none between species (except with the hen raising the peacock chick - the had a pea egg that wasn’t being sat upon, and a hen getting “broody” and they put the two together - which will make it interesting to see which crowd - peacock v. chicken - the youngun hangs out with when he/she gets bigger.) Really wonderful.

why does Bush assume Iraq will remain quiescent about the Israeli actions and its US protector?

Does anyone have any particularly inspiring quotes on the subject of the importance of honest elections or related thoughts?

Preferably, historical quotes. I am sorting through some some now and am looking for more suggestions.

Biden’s teeth look even whiter than last week.

Yes this could be the genesis of WW III. But it wasn’t the Israelis that started it. They just do what America let’s them do. Bush started this.

left of liberal

You said it brother

poor Bob Novak is backtracking all over the place — stumbling and admitting to mistakes. This interview is worth reading carefully — I’m sure has has slipped up enough to make it very revealing of something (aside from general-purpose douchebaggery)