I ain’t a marchin’ anymore!

Hey Suzanne!

cinnamonape

guess i’m gonna have to start my christmas shopping pretty soon. i really dislike shopping.

War! What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’!

Dr Dick, I was surprised that one was not submmitted. I thought for sure it would have been.

Dr Dick, that’s just because you are not a defense contractor.

No. I am a defense supplier, however, given the number of my students who have been shipped off to Dubya’s sandbox.

Oh yea, well we’re all be typing in German right now without War!

/s

I’ve already done all my christmas shopping. A couple of cards and a trip to the ATM. Both my kids are in college and cash suits them just fine.

you got it easy, helpless dancer. my girls are still enjoy the opening of wrapped gifts with presents – but my oldest did say this year that she just wants gift cards which helps.

Hi you all!
Suz, great music.

“Oh yea, well we’re all be typing in German right now without War!”

That is not actually a foregone conclusion. It would have been a much larger effort for Germany to stage a trans-Atlantic invasion and they were already thoroughly bogged down in Russia. Everybody in western Europe, however….
The point is that war is never “good”, even if it is sometimes necessary.

Ronnies got a blimp.

-G

The comments are hysterical.

Back from my first encounter with Christmas – Tuba Christmas (over 80 players and a HUGE audience!!), Christmas tree getting, and building a much bigger stand for the 11-foot high tree. The crowds – even at Fred Meyer – were thick and uneasy. I can’t wait for Talk Like a Pirate Day shopping season, when the crowds are much smaller and more congenial.

too late for the contest, but i’ll leave you my fave, from Minneapolis’ own Brother Ali, Uncle Sam Goddamn.

It’s been grand to hang out at the Lake again, g’night all!

I’m going to make a set of custom desktop photo cds for everyone on my Christmas list that have computers, which is everyone, actually. I have lots of nice photographs to use.

I see a long illustrious future in Christmas gifts!

nite ndfg

Hey ET. Long time no see.

Night NDF.

g’nite ndfg

hey et

sleep well farmgirl.

Hiya, Betsy! Yeah, I’ve been busy giving and grading finals, playing Christmas gigs, helping the kids who are home from college, and paying for heeding the madman who told me “Go start your OWN Goddam blog!”

Greetings gang. Just got back from a big family holiday bash in Austin.

Think I’ll wander off as well. Take care and enjoy the music.

Hey Gnome.

g’nite dr (pause) dick

Oh man, this is funny…

http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..v-oreilly/

night dr d.

i am right behind you.

my last night in the old bed.

pain free sleep wishes tex – whoohoo for the last night of the old bed

Apparently Mike Huckabee has plans to replace Air Force One with something a little more humble.

_G

Dr. Dick – on that German thing – I heard way back somewhere that during the Revolutionary War or perhaps before, that there was serious discussion that German become our national language. There was (is) a large German population in PA and the Dutch who had settled New York. Do you know if that is true or just a myth?

spew

A close parallel. I went to a saxophone christmas today. 193 people with saxophones playing christmas music. My daughter was playing a bass sax damn near big as she is. Has to be seen to be believed.

the comments on the ron paul blimp were very informative as well as hillarious…seems it’s a forgone conclusion that all his supporters have a bunch of unpleasant issues. I only know one ron paul fanatic and that is my neighbor who gets mail promotions (that land in my box) for gun holsters, is in love with his chickens, and wants to seal the border – tight. He lives in fear, of what I can’t figure since it is pretty safe here where we live.
He announced he’s for ron paul and that he is trying to persuade his parents to support him but his mom thinks ron paul might not know how to handle the financial end of things in the US. She voted for King George – twice.

I didn’t know there WAS a Saxophone Christmas! Sounds cool, though. I’ve been thinking of starting a Trombone Halloween. Or maybe a Harp Valentine Day.

Lotsa Ron Paul signs on freeway overpasses around Anchorage over the past week or so. At least Paul is against the war. I saw four today.

hey spidey… sounds like your neighbor is wrapped too tight.

Halloween should be a piccolo

Urban legend

Halloween should be theremin

My neighbor believes the best way to deal with the I – Rak war is to “bomb the place to smithereens”.

So you don’t think 60 or 70 trombones are scary? Actiually, the more I think about it 60 or 70 piccolos playing at once might be scary as hell!

Our Alaska governor, Sarah Palin is going to be in Vogue this February – made the news here yesterday. My friend Ishmael Melville in Kodiak got a hold of an early version of the cover…..

Hey, is that crooked law firm of Suz’s running the results through the RNC servers, like Ohio in 2004? I call foul. Call BradBlog. Something smells.

they are accountants, teddy, not lawyers

Tell your friend we’ve been doing that for about 17 years. Hasn’t worked for us yet. Been even harder on them. Maybe your friend has a different idea about “smithereens” than I do.

news ticker fed

So you don’t think 60 or 70 trombones are scary? Actiually, the more I think about it 60 or 70 piccolos playing at once might be scary as hell!

Our Alaska governor, Sarah Palin is going to be in Vogue this February – made the news here yesterday. My friend Ishmael Melville in Kodiak got a hold of an early version of the cover…..

How do I say this – Your Governor isn’t absent the hotness. No, that can’t be right.

Thanks Steve. I shoulda googled that and put it to rest long ago, but my 75% German heritage kept me from doing it I guess.

Suzanne, how’s that dendrobium doing? I grow all sorts of orchids extremely well, but I kill dendrobiums (dendrobia?) for some reason.

Aaaahhhh. I love the smell of democracy in the evening.

I was thinking about doing a something like one of these this week – any thoughts about it? I am hoping to have the results by tomorrow on the vote and those winners will be spotlighted. last i heard, there was a tie.

gnome, its shed all its flowers but still alive – so far. keeping my black thumbs crossed.

She’s interesting. Her first political victory was to defeat a very close friend as Mayor of Wasilla. I’ve known her for years, watched her rise, and evolution as a politician. She’s gone from dogmatic bible-thumping conservative to pragmatic muckraker of corruption. She’s more interested in cleaning up Alaska politics than most Dems here.

Now she’s forced big oil to swallow an enormous tax hike, and gets to decide how to spend $4.7 billion extra next year alone.

It may actually be in the forties here tonight

At the risk of sounding like a cad, Gov. palin is MILFtastic.

-G

i’m sitting at 40.9 tonight… clouds are back and it warmed up tonight. this time last night, i was around 34 or so.

Well she can’t wear that dress very often up there.

She’s interesting. Her first political victory was to defeat a very close friend as Mayor of Wasilla. I’ve known her for years, watched her rise, and evolution as a politician. She’s gone from dogmatic bible-thumping conservative to pragmatic muckraker of corruption. She’s more interested in cleaning up Alaska politics than most Dems here.

Now she’s forced big oil to swallow an enormous tax hike, and gets to decide how to spend $4.7 billion extra next year alone.

I think I recall you saying something to the effect that if it had to be a Republican, this would be the the one. I’m glad you like her.

And because I haven’t been watching closely enough, has she weighed in on the Stevens’s?

Cad!

Harmonica wise-man is a dead ringer for Hucklebee.

the pre-weight loss huckster teddy?

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom………………Huckabee….Huckabee…Huckabee……Huckabee….Huckabee…

-G

There will be an answer…..Huckabeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

US To Change Surge Strategery

Anyone check out the article above and notice how the whole surge has changed what it was supposed to do?

Remember the purpose of the surge ONE YEAR AGO was to allow time for the Central Iraqi Government to resolve several of its issues dealing with the desire for autonomy by the regions, and to enable the training of the Iraqi National Guard to replace US Forces as areas were stabilized. The startegy was to stabilize things in Baghdad and then move outward, allowing the Iraqis to take over progressively.

Seems that things have utterly flipped. There is to be no replacement of US Military forces in Baghdad (which means that there has been no success in placing TRUSTWORTHY ING forces into neighborhoods there). Instead the USM is giving up control to regional authorities, like Sunni Sheikhs, the Kurdish Peshmurga, and Shiite militias in the South…while pulling back INTO Baghdad. In other words the Federal “model” enunciated by Bush has been completely modified by Petraeus. Whether this change was unilaterally undertaken by Petraeus or secretly agreed to by Bush is an interesting issue, but it is, nevertheless a complete repudiation of the original rationale for the “surge”.

And it indicates that there is no longer any support for the Central Government of Maliki. In fact, the US Military has now created a situation on the ground that the Central Iraqi Government may be unable to wrest power out of the hands of these warlords. If they try it will erupt into a Civil War. And where precisely the US will be when this happens is in Baghdad, surrounded by battling militias and groups attempting to bring down the Central Government.

Ain’t that swell?

I was predicting a couple of months ago that she might be sorely tempted to file to run against Sen. Stevens in the GOP primary. But she has three young daughters – her 18-yo son, same age and local school peer group as my son, just enlisted in the Army – and is trying to keep them in small schools with their friends. Besides, if you had $4.7 billion extra bucks to spend on a population the size of Sonoma County, CA or Pierce County, WA, would you leave to go to the DC snakepit? She’s having a helluva a lot of fun being the most popular governor in the USA.

thanks, gsd, i’ll add that to the ticker

Everybody’s hoping that if they pretend to be mostly nice, we’ll go away.

Suzanne, congrats on running a swell news ticker, and thanks to ‘pups for the great links that populate it.

That’s the way to get troops bottled up with no way out.

An option to shopping give to charity. Make a pact with those you exchange to do some good. Happiness is giving not grtting. It makes for a smaller carbon footprint and saves time and stress.

Suzanne, what’s de ticka?

-G

Cin-ape, I read tha earlier. Sounds like a recipe for an absolute disaster.

big brother, last year my budget did not have any extra pennies for xmas gifts so they got handmade stuff like scarfs and caps and cinnamon raisin apple butter.

gregb, the news ticker. on the front page are the 4 most recent headlines and there is a news page at the lake now too and comments are welcome on the news articles

cinnamon raisin apple butter…

Hell, I wanna be on your list!

Gotcha.

-G

Can’t wait until I have time to start robust comment threads on the news items.

Guess I’ll give up sleep, or bathing. Oh, wait….

that LA times article is from November, GSD. sorry, the ticker is for new news only :(

LOL Teddy~!

wait, gsd, my computer is acting all funky and i’m showing two dates on that article, dec 16 and nov 30th.

What article?

Breaking News:

Tim Russerts’ head leaked a quart of Bosco on his pillow last night.

Updates to follow.

-G

Night all.

g’nite gsd, i’ve rebooted and that article is showing only the dec 16th date and not the november 30th… its going up and thank you

November is some secret internal date to this version of wordpress. When previewing new posts, that date (with the year 1999) appears in the place of the author’s name. I think it just hops around (11-30) and populates fields that contain non-robust data.

And, on another note, WaPo’s coverage of St Rudy of 911 is tomorrow.

thanks, teddy (exhaling) was worried there was something wrong with my system for a bit but the reboot cleared it up

just a heads up. site will be down for around 5 minutes around midnight (pacific) for an upgrade, don’t panic. come back with news headlines for me. i wonder what they upgraded – fingers and toes crossed we get edit back

Ron Paul Comin’ To The Rescue!

These Paultards are really something. On some sites you’ll find several versions of great conversions from the front-runner de jour like Huckabee (never Tancredo, strangely) to RiP…using the same slavering adjectives like “honesty”, “integrity” and “consistency”. Just in different order. In some cases I wonder if someone is simply spoofin’ their enthusiasm though.

“Ron Paul is Good As the GOLD Standard”

“UNBORN and Voting For Ron Paul”

“Pro-Life and Against Anchor Babies~ Ron Paul is for all Americans!”

WaPo finally prints the essence of Hillary’s problem:

“The fact of the matter is, they are two different people,” said James McConaha, a Concord Democrat who campaigned around the country for Bill Clinton after the 1992 primary and later was made director of the state branch of the federal Farm Service Agency, but is now backing Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.). “Not that their positions on issues are different, which they might be. It’s that they are really two different people. They are dramatically different, in my opinion.”

All of the GOP front-runners have serious problems. IMHO, the GOP nominee will ultimately be McCain.

Consolidation is a form of retreat.

All of the GOP front-runners have serious problems. IMHO, the GOP nominee will ultimately be McCain.

HUCKABEE – PAUL 1908 2008

Gonna look real good below the stars and bars and above the blue-smoke tailpipe on my rusty ‘72 Chevy pickup truck, wigwam…

All of the GOP front-runners have serious problems. IMHO, the GOP nominee will ultimately be McCain.

I think you’re right. I remember Kerry rising to the top as the “adult” choice, once Gephardt and Lieberman were done smearing Dr. Dean in Iowa in ‘04. Kerry was nowhere until very late, as I recall.

americablog has a post up about huckster getting in trouble for yet another problem release from jail, this time a drunk driver

Huckabee scares the shit out of the neocons and the country-club/corporate GOP. They are going to be all over him within a month, and they have a lot to work with.

the r’s dont have any candidate they can really get behind and support.

And just because it’s Late Late Nite:
Justin Timberlake’s appearance on SNL from last years Christmas show is being rerun for West Coast types, and features (I don’t know if it has aired yet) the now-famous “Dick in a Box” short.

Here it is in the toobz, uncensored…

the r’s dont trust romney for a variety of reasons but their main one is his religion. i think it should be illegal for a presidential candidate to buy a media empire such as clear channel no matter how much romney claims he has no ties to the company he created.

newton, remember that got my box in a box video that came out shortly thereafter. totally cracked me up.

newton, remember that got my box in a box video that came out shortly thereafter. totally cracked me up.

Yeah, but you’re on your own with the linky there, Suzanne. My sisters would hear it across the toobz and slap the shit out of me…

that uncensored video is a hoot newton. thanks

But McCain – as much as I admired him for denouncing torture in the recent debate – probably doesn’t give good focus group head. I’m afraid the neo-cons have decided they’re “stuck with Huck,” and that we’re going to see the media wonks find nice things to say about him.

box in a box

McCain is going to have a hard time if he is the nom. lots of my r kin got all pissed off about the south carolina treatment he got last time but still think he is a bush ass-kisser (my mother’s term)

But McCain – as much as I admired him for denouncing torture in the recent debate – probably doesn’t give good focus group head. I’m afraid the neo-cons have decided they’re “stuck with Huck,” and that we’re going to see the media wonks find nice things to say about him.

I’m not sure I disagree with you about the wonks, but Dr. Dean was anointed very early, and this little fracus amongst the Goopers leaves St. McCain unscathed. He is so irrelevant that he can’t get splashed. And at the end of the day, he’s a war hero with huge experience who kissed Fundy asses when it counted, he absolutely loves Chimpy’s fucking “war”, and the Goopers are looking for their “Hillary-Killer” now.

As for his fellatrist tendencies, well, we already know how McCain is on his knees.

I agree. IMHO, McCain is a schmuck. I lost all respect for him when he legitimized the good-faith variant of the Nuremberg defense in his Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, and then included it by reference into the MCA.

That said, the neocons are very powerful and have nowhere else to go. To them Romney and Huckabee are loose cannons, especially Huckabee. They want a warrior president, and McCain is the closest thing they’ve got. They’ll go with him.

That said, the neocons are very powerful and have nowhere else to go. To them Romney and Huckabee are loose cannons, especially Huckabee. They want a warrior president, and McCain is the closest thing they’ve got. They’ll go with him.

Their saint, their warrior, their savior. He has played it just right if he was going to abandon his “maverick” footing. I never saw him coming until they took a pick-axe to Rudy. I’ll give him this – he has been very patient.

I don’t think it was they who took a pick-axe to Rudy. Rudy himself did a superb job of they. But, even they were unable to keep his misdeeds and flaws out of the news. There’s simply no way they can sell him to the Christianists, or even mildly principled libertarians. He’s a nonstarter, and they should have seen that much earlier, unless they saw him as ablative cover for McCain.

I don’t think it was they who took a pick-axe to Rudy. Rudy himself did a superb job of they. But, even they were unable to keep his misdeeds and flaws out of the news. There’s simply no way they can sell him to the Christianists, or even mildly principled libertarians. He’s a nonstarter, and they should have seen that much earlier, unless they saw him as ablative cover for McCain.

All good points.

wigwam, you think rudy sold himself to the gop as having a handle on the bad stuff and that it would not come out or he would be able to counter it, etc? its not nice to lie to the party and get caught – bet that is why he is floundering with little support now.

ok, gang, time for me to head out. i had a hard day of wedding dress fitting in the morning and shoe shopping in the afternoon. bride to be did, however, find the perfect shoe – but i’m plum tuckered out. see you tomorrow nite for teddy’s late nite.

IMHO, Rudy has some sort of wacko charisma. (One of my best friends is working for him.) I think the GOP strategists thought he’d appeal to the southerners for keeping the ethnically undersirable in their place in NYC. But his violations of Baptist ethics overwhelmed even the race card, especially when Huckabee showed up.

G’nite Suzanne

nite suzanne

Correct. Huck was a god-send for McCain.

But one very large point – the Goopers didn’t just dismiss McCain the way ‘04 Democrats did Kerry. They beat him mercilessly until he got to where he is, admittedly a pounding of his own design. They are going to have a very large bill to pay at the convention if they need him, and I think they will.

They can’t be really comfortable with McCain. Despite his fellating, he does have some independent thought and character left. That sort of thing should make Norquist, Kristol, and the rest of those crazy bastards very nervous. Gotta love it.

Oops! Time to crash. G’nite all.

nite wigwam

On that note, adios with the ABA backpeddling (not fast enough) wrt AbuG’s “Lawyer of the Year”

lol! I was going to say Lawyer of the Year!!!! WTF!

And in the days that follow, Scooter and AbuG and Ari and Scotty and all the other enablers and conspirators are going to go out for pleasant nights out with their families. And folks will boo and hiss at these roaches.

If you go into public service, take your cues from Andy Card – lie down with dogs…

too much going on for youT00bz right now.

I thought I was in a subdir and did a “rm -rf *” as root in / :’(

LOL!
nite tw3k. im out

lol :)

have a good night

Mornin’, gang -

Have you guys seen this one?

Lady Jane and da Lake make McClatchey with the brother love travelin’ salvation show!

[snip]

Now that Romney has put religion in play, Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake and George Packer at Interesting Times want to ask him about Mormonism and race. “Why did you never publicly question your church’s exclusion of blacks from full membership?” Packer wonders. “The policy ended only in 1978, when Romney was thirty-one. Past candidates, including Bill Clinton, have had to explain their membership in discriminatory country clubs. What’s Romney’s reason for his long silence on the racist practices of his church?”

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/234/story/23162.html

Other tidbits from the same article:
[snip]

After famously declaring in 2000 that Jesus was his favorite political philosopher, George W. Bush has delivered war, torture, neglect of the victims of Katrina and tax cuts for the rich. So this time around bloggers are wary of how Huckabee’s biblical pronouncements — “You don’t punish the child for the crime of the parents”; “You treat others as you wish to be treated” — might translate into action.

[snip]

So, as John Cole irreverently puts it at Balloon Juice, “Grab the popcorn and soda, because the GOP is providing the nuts.” This is going to be fun.

Good morning and good catch!

Luvs my indy ISP…no high speed toobz but they post a number of articles with which I might not cross paths otherwise. Heading out to have coffee with neighbor; catch up with ya later.

Give a shout-out to Jane if you see her tho’ someone’s probably already e-mailed.

I thought I was in a subdir and did a “rm -rf *” as root in /

Arghh. Why not set your prompt to display current directory?

set prompt=” %/>%b ” in tcshrc, for example.

Good morning tw3k + Waccamaw. You folks are up early. Thanks goodness for McClatchey.

That part why it was such a bad move. I do have pwd displayed at the prompt! Thankfully I noticed when it got to /dev.

Hope you had good backups. I don’t have root anymore. Used to have it on a local shared box for which I was a semi-administrator. Now my only *nix shell account is at pairNetworks (FreeBSD 6.2). No root there though, so I have to work harder to really damage myself.

Just read the McClatchy article Waccamaw found. Pretty impressive coverage for MSM. Doubt we’ll be seeing anything like that in the NYT or WP.

Sent email telling of McClatchy article to FDL mail address, giving h/t to Waccamaw, natch.

Of course, once the submissions for protest songs are over I find this!

Of course, once the submissions for protest songs are over I find this!

Interesting. When I followed the link, this message was presented:

This video or group may contain content that is inappropriate for some users, as flagged by YouTube’s user community.

and I had to “confirm my age” before being allowed to watch the video.

Back and well-coffeed up for the morning….tks for the h/t! Was just reading your comments 125/127 and thinkin’, “Say whuuuuuuuuut?” Talk “Greek” to a computer illiterate and that’s the response you can expect. *G*

So what’s on Smgumby’s vid that’s so bad you gotta give your age? Dial-up here. :-(

So what’s on Smgumby’s vid that’s so bad you gotta give your age?

Well, that’s what I’m wondering too. It’s an anti Iraq War song. The lyrics don’t have any “foul language”. But, there are a lot of images of the mayhem we’ve caused in Iraq, including bloodied children, etc. I guess the fact that we’re doing actually creating this mayhem is not a problem, but viewing images of it is out-of-bounds. Just interesting.

The mumbo jumbo was Unix shell speak. Sorry.

You might want to check out C-Span2…running something from 9-19-07 including Maxine Waters who just said, “Thank God for the bloggers.”

Bilbo @ 132 -

Other languages are always interesting…even when you have no idea *what* is being said. *g*

Other languages are always interesting…even when you have no idea *what* is being said.

The command that tw3k issued would have deleted all the files on the computer if it had been allowed to continue executing. Just to give you an idea.

I gotta scoot. Time for my morning constitutional. Will probably check back in later if I have the time.

Showing the results of our wars is “offensive” to some viewers on youtube apparently.

Youtube has a user moderated content application. If you (or anyone) doesn’t like what they see they can “flag” the video as inappropriate. After a few flags you get the “warning/confirmation” page. After a few more flags the video disappears.

Good way for the right-wing to take of content they have political issue with, but it is much, much better now. In 2003 it was common to have anything anti-bush taken off as inappropriate… …kind of an unofficial way to see how views have changed since then. Lots of anti-war stuff now.

Good morning, pups. It’s MoDo, Friedman and Rich in the NYT today. MoDo typed a fiction piece called “Reefer Madness in Iowa” where she has a fever dream about a debate between Clinton and Obama. Hmmph. Mr. Friedman is writing from Bali about climate change and he says there was one widely shared, if unspoken, sentiment: that “later” is over for our generation. Mr. Rich says that instead of handing down tablets of what constitutes faith in America, Romney-style, the Oprah-Obama movement practices an American form of ecumenicalism.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got French toast made from challah for breakfast. Help yourselves, and there are real maple syrup and gingered peach syrup to choose from. I’m doing my happy feet dance today — it RAINED yesterday and last night! Nice, slow, soaking rain. You can hear everything green going “aahhhh…”

Good Morning!

Yay for the rain Marion! Hallelujah!

and thanks for the waffles, yum!

Good morning. More snow here in the mid-Huson, after 10 inches on Friday.

Thanks for that background on Utube; since I can’t watch *anything* to be found there it’s good to know what goes on behind the scenes, both past and present.

Marion -

Ditto the same kind of rain here and I join you in the dance routine. :-)))

the dance routine

Well, it’s hardly that since if you look up “left-footed” in the dictionary they have my picture there! Picture Snoopy, with happy feet…!

Good morning. More snow here in the mid-Hudson, after 10 inches on Friday.

must beautifully quiet there.

We had freezy rain here which took the power out for a bit overnight.

Waccamaw December 16th, 2007 at 3:59 am – 133
You might want to check out C-Span2…running something from 9-19-07 including Maxine Waters who just said, “Thank God for the bloggers.”

Hope some others have had a chance to watch this, either this morning or earlier. It’s a Q & A with members of the progressive?out of Iraq caucus and William Polk, author of Violent Politics and apparently lasted two hours. Has anyone read the book or has he appeared on the book club? Definitely going on my to-read list. If you get a chance to see it later on C-Span or maybe on-line, it’s absolutely a must-see.