fattie Time

ES!

es

eureka
happy friday night

From EPUville, Suz! 8-P

Dam save some for me… don’t bogart that joi*nt!

Digg it

Aloha, Spidey! What’s in the stars for Yoo, cosmic justice? 8-)

thanks nahant, that’s an excellent description you used in the digg

Here’s a lovely cake that’s been in the freezer since Easter. I’m sure it tastes just fine though.

*yawning* boa noite, pups. I’m gonna go snuggle with the mr and watch some movie he bought.

Hey nahant, How are you recovering?

looks thawed to me… and therefore edible

thanks tex

Oh sugar cookies, my favorite. How is that the ears always come off first?

It’s my job officer :-)

boa noite wobbly

sleep well wobbs.

Still trying to figure that one out. Scheduled for a CT scan early May to see hows things are going.. other than the usual colds flu and what not doing great!
Thanks for asking ES.

Had dinner with friend from Canada — trading Customs stories of searched luggage and such. What a world.

baseball shudda been yours nahant

Aloha, Wobbly!

glad to hear you are feeling good.

Sure shudda!

If the B* had offered it to me I would have told her to keep it. But no she is the kind of person I want nothing to do with… they only think of themselves. Karma will bite her in the ass one day!

Dang, did Spidey snag the zed and leave…?

true dat.

and on the positive side, its not like ya broke your fingers so your typing is fine. bet it still hurts to talk.

Nah the nose is healing quickly… the scab already fell off and the black and blue on the thumb is almost gone.
I just wish I had seen the clip on the TV the other night of me getting boinled in thye nose… I bet it was funny *G* ear to ear

hee hee hee

And look, I found a cake for the official lurkers.

nahant, I clearly missed something. What happened?

What game was it, nahant?

OMG all that icing makes my teeth hurt.

thanks ES. definitely in need of finding a way through…

i just finished a quick transcription to share. this is from from mark danner’s talk, “Into the Light of Day: Human Rights after Abu Ghraib” at stanford, 2006. available for download at itunes. (this talk was after danner’s debate with yoo).

long time standing – this technique is described as among of the most effective. prisoners are forced to stand handcuffed and with their feet shackled to an i-bolt in the floor for more than 40 hours. exhaustion and sleep depravation are effective in yielding confessions….

forced standing is a very old technique. the soviets used it, and the cia studied very intensively soviet techniques of interrogation. i want to read a paragraph of what forced standing does, physically… and remember that it’s approved by the cia for up to 40 hours.

another form that is widely used is requiring the prisoner to stand throughout the interrogation session or to maintain some other physical position which becomes painful. this is the cia’s study of the kgb, where some of these techniques come from. this, like other features of the kgb procedure is a form of physical torture in spite of the fact that the prisoners and kgb officers alike do not ordinarily perceive it as such. any fixed position which is maintained over a long period of time ultimately produces excruciating pain.

now, forced standing in particular. after 18-24 hours of continuous standing, there is an accumulation of fluid in the tissues of the legs. this dependent edema is produced by the extravasation of the fluid from the blood vessels. the ankles and feet of the prisoner swell to twice their normal circumference the edema may rise up the legs as high as the middle of the thighs. the skin becomes tense and intensely painful. large blisters develop which break and exude watery serum. the accumulation of fluid in the legs produces impairment of the circulation. the heart rate increases, fainting may occur. eventually there is total renal shutdown, urine production ceases, urea and other metabolites accumulate in the blood. delirium, disorientation, fear, delusions, visual hallucinations and psychoses is produced by a combination of circulatory impairment, lack of sleep and uremia.

danner goes into many other much worse things, including descriptions of prisoners being sodomized. but i wanted to share this bit because it highlights, for me, what the language we use (”enhanced interrogation” “long time standing”) only serve to obscure.

and this is what yoo was attempting to provide legal cover for.

waving and smiling to the nice nsa monitor – see, tex even brought you a special cake

It’s not for you. It’s for THEM!

Ah Ha! Trying to lurk, eh?

…nah, just stepped out to empty the trash

Oakland/Boston Boston won 5-0 which made me happy… funny thing is most of the crowd was wearing RED… we were surrounded with Sox fans made us feel at home just like Fenway.
Text a high fly came down right at me and all I could do was try to catch it…BUT it went right through my hands and hit me in the nose… no glove.. my son forgot to bring it!

Can we make them stand?

…and this is what yoo was attempting to provide legal cover for.

Attempting and succeeded at, for a spell… Click on my name for a Yoo post…! *g*

Ooh, I’m so jealous… Busted nose and all, you saw the Bosox!

awesome ct…. great to see you blogging at main and central.

Lester pitched a gem, eh? ;-)

Hope the nose feels better nahant.

CT sent you a message on facebook… did you see it yet?

I went ballistic locally when the Clinton School paid Yoo to speak to their students last fall.

Will check out the podcast, thanks selise.

Sure did and Bostons were hot!

ok, that was my latest excuse to stop reading yoo. i’m going to try one more time to see if i can get through it tonight.

bats that is…

Thanx, selise, I’m bummed that Siun hasn’t responded to my email… I want to talk to her and see what she has to recommend for more Iraq coverage!

Thanks, Betsy, it looks delish.

jen, the bride to be, is an east bay sports fan and says that nahant found out that karma is an a’s fan

I am going to try to get some sleep. A favor please. I need all the pain-free wishes y’all can muster. Prayers too, if that’s your style.

pain free sleep wishes, tex, and hand held to monitor

Given Betsy,

*hugs*

Prayers for you, Betsy

hey eg – nice to see ya on late late nite. tis a benefit of you being a west coast pup now

You have all my prayers and wishes, Ma’am! Aloha!

thanks y’all. the wishes do help.

I replied back!

Pain free wishes, texb.

Sweet dreams sans pain dear Betsy.

hey npb – hows the south side of monterey bay?

Breathe deeply and sleep well Betsy.

I need my pillow and blankie now.

Hey Margot! What’s up?

Aloha, EG! Thanx for commenting at M&C!

ok, enjoy your sleep and remember, when you wake up, there is not going to be any snow

Hey CT, well you’re doing a good thing to help out after the loss of Lurch. Sad.

I agree, I miss him too…! 8-(

No snow, anywhere? Does ET know about this?

sorry, i meant no snow where you are

Got it.. I guess I was there earlier than you….

Not in my neck of the woods… (ducking)

ct, is what i heard true about living in paradise, that the cost of living is about 50% higher for everything?

also, how often does it rain there?

I missed it too. I hope you’re feeling better, nahant.

No post @ Gorilla’s Guides since march 31st. hmmmm

What time frame were you there?

Isn’t that stuff supposed to run down the drain??… This is why I am here in California where the snow knows it’s place… on the mountains

What snow we have left in michigan is almost gone. i’m amazed at this point. I’m going stir crazy and it isn’t even summer yet. Much less real spring weather in this state. I need to find a way to stop being so twitchy around people right now. Just little things setting off my moods and tempers. *sighs* Much less a rather mean spirited comment from a coworker which didn’t help matters. So improving weather will help, at least. AND this weekend off, i hope.

67 to 69 went home to Woodstock… got all that army shit out of my head :-)

hey alias

that is not like them, es.

It’s beautiful here..when it’s not flooding.

50% would be an exaggeration, but, 25% would not be far off the mark…! And , it depends on what side of an Isle you live on, if you live on the Leeward side not much, if you live on the Windward side almost daily rainfall…!

Hi Chris, not much, about to go to bed and read the end of a thriller.
This writer sounds like he’s reading FDL or maybe Marcy. Torture, unlawful detention, no writ of habeas corpus, “mainstream media,” etc. Finally a mystery/thriller that has the good guys actually promoting bedrock American ideals rather than jingoistic sh*t.

Heh, a twenty year differential…! *g*

you must be still wet behind the ear :-)

Well? What’s the name of the book?

No post @ Gorilla’s Guides since march 31st. hmmmm

I know! I’m getting worried! I’m sure Siun would’ve told us if something tragic occurred…

Am up late only because Mr. CE has an all day conference tomorrow so I don’t have plans to go anywhere. I am reading John Berendt’s book about Venice, and plan to finish it before lunch.

CT, Do you have this Iraq link? It’s not military, but…

I’m just glad the bitter cold is gone. I think my twitchy aspect is coming from months on end of work with no real downtime from the job and outside stress with all the issues i’ve had. Most of it got ironed out with some help but otherwise, i think i’m still recovering from that. I want more time off than just 2 days here and there, but haven’t got any vacation time. I haven’t had any left since november during the last breakdown of the Lemon before i got the new car.

So yeah, stir crazy and a little worn down. I’ve basically been on the go with either car issues or issues related to money taken by said car since may of last year. It’s slowly coming back to balance, but i don’t get a major vacation until may 15th. You can believe i’m counting down the days until it gets here! My turnover is in 3 weeks and that means i get my paid week in may to be a geek in chicago. It’s the one thing keeping me from going postal at this point, i think. (and the promise of a new job, as i’m filling out apps for everywhere else)

Heh, I ain’t no spring chicken tho…! 8-P

(((((alias)))))

I couldn’t resist the pun

No, I didn’t, but, I do now! Mahalo!

fingers and toes crossed you get the 2 off this weekend alias.

Oh sorry, it’s by David Baldacci, titled “Simple Genius.” Paperback.

oh. i DO have this weekend off. I just don’t think it’ll be enough to make sure i’m no quite so twitchy when i return to work on monday. I’d love some tips from you guys. All my usual ‘detox’ tricks aren’t working so well. Didn’t help that a coworker criticized me for talking about finally taking a bit of time for ME this time around, when i’ve been living on what amounts to roughly 20$ a week for about 8 months straight(with the rest going to pay bills). I normally can shrug it off, but not tonight for some reason.

Bush loses out in Bucharest

As the Nato conference in Bucharest comes to a close, it is clear George Bush did not get much of what he bargained for.

There was no big bang as Nato postponed its membership action plan for Georgia and the Ukraine and approved an already agreed upon missile system.

Sceptical West Europeans have not turned their back on the Bush administration, but neither did they behave as generously or acquiescently as they have at previous summits.

Bush’s adventures in Afghanistan and Iraq have hurt Washington’s standing within the alliance, even if it remains its only prospective leader.

sitting in the sunshine. enjoying the sounds of silence around you (or as silent as it can be). letting the warmth of the sun warm your inside has always helped me.

It would probably not have been politic for them to haul his ass off to the Hague then and there. Sigh!

Walks in the woods and music keep me sane grounded. Not to forget FDL and books.

maybe that is why he left early. he got nervous…

He he.. This photo shows all of their discomfort.

i love that photo

I do have some new books to peruse so maybe i’ll spend some time with them too. Thanks for the reminder! I think i just need time away from people period. My week in chicago is with 14,000 or so others and my usual group of 4 to 6 friends i meet there every year. It’s also several hundred miles away from work a all it’s trouble, which makes it so worth it. Just all that time with friends really.

Need to find someplace without so many people to read. Wish my mp3 player hadn’t gone belly up, i’d take it with me to some quiet spot in the sun tommorrow.

CLASSIC!

Try freezing it.. Some folks claim it helps when all else fails.

there are times i need the noise but other times when i need the silence more. being still, listening to the silence within me, around me, does more for me and doesn’t cost a thang.

I just sent it to all my Republican friends… not you Suz:>)

I hope this doesn’t provoke moderation, but I wish the worst for those members of the Bush Administration who were involved in authorizing war crimes and crimes against humanity. IMHO, it is essential for our national dignity that they be brought to justice here.

On Jan. 21, Renault and Project Better Place signed an accord to establish mass-marketing of electric cars in Israel, with Renault producing the cars and Project Better Place agreement to provide 500,000 battery-charging stations. Renault said at the time that the project might be duplicated in other sites.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb…..147/AUTO02

Half a million battery charging stations for cars is the entire state of Israel going Electric Car?
I guess Israel has voted with its feet they don’t think Bush will ever get control of the Middle Easts oil.
I just wish we could think this big.

justice, with every i dotted and every t crossed so that it is true justice.

absoforkinglutely, wigwam, absoforkinglutely

It must happen!

Under the terms of the Danish project outlined Thursday, Renault is scheduled in 2011 to provide customers with zero-emission electric cars equipped with advanced lithium-ion battery packs made by Nissan Motor Co.’s battery venture with NEC of Japan. The Danish government will provide tax incentives for the electric vehicles, while Better Place Denmark will construct and operate an electric recharge grid across the country.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb…..147/AUTO02

Renault is also cutting deals with Denmark on Electric cars?

ok, pups, i’m outta here early tonight. have to be over the hill in the morning for the bridal shower for my baby. as she said on the phone ‘ohmygawd, i’m getting married next month‘.

We seem tp keep coming back to:
Investigate!
Impeach!
Prosecute!
Incarcerate!
Send them to the Hague for Final Justice.
Keep all of the enablers/perpetrators in a deep damp dark hole for the rest of their pitiful lives!
JUST REWARDS come to those who deserve it!

OMG! Hang in there Momma Suz… Rest well, if you can..)

Don’t get wet in that shower thing..
Good night Suz sleep well and don’t let the bed bugs bite!

Awww, I had to do a complete reboot, and, I get back and have to say Aloha to Suz? Bummers…!

A few years ago, I had regular access to electric cars. They’re really cool. Lots of guts off the line. No noise when you stop, say in stop-and-go traffic. No need to start them or shut them off.

The ones I drove topped out at 80 MPH which wasn’t so all that bad, but they had very limited range, which was a real killer.

Hybrids, however, are great:

1) regenerative braking, which saves/recycles energy in stop-and-go
situatons, e.g., in-town driving

2) augmented acceleration, which allows the use of smaller, less
powerful engines, which are lighter, cheaper, and more economical.

3) instantly accessible power, which covers for the turbo lag in
highly turbocharged engines, which are lighter, cheaper, and
more economical

4) overnight precharging, which allows part of the drive to work to
be powered by cheaper energy from the public grid.

5) elimination of any need to idle; the engine can be shutdown instead.

Renault is a French firm, partnered with Japan’s Nissan France and Japan are likely next.

“Prices for the electric vehicles haven’t been set, but they are expected to retail for less than gasoline-powered models because of tax and other concessions granted to green technology, the report said.”

I assume prices will be cheaper in EU countries where they got real green incentives. But could you imagine getting an electric car for cheaper than a normal sized gas car? I hope Nissan builds some big cars and doesn’t go the ecobox minicar route, people need something they can haul the family around in.

http://money.cnn.com/news/news…..000009.htm

He he.. This photo shows all of their discomfort.

Heh, and Shrub was left all by his lonesome…!

So, here’s the electric car I want: http://www.teslamotors.com/

Zero-to-sixty in 3.9 seconds!

As he should be… would YOU want any thing to do with him?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDTqUNFLfvc

I have been green with envy when I first read about them Zoom Zoom Zoom!

Whaasss? The president everyone wanted to drink beer with!

Sweet looking ride!

I agree but Israel and Denmark with France (plenty of cheap Nuclear Power) and Japan likely to follow, this is huge!
Plus we can show up the Conservative Real Serious people like Joe Klein, Bobo Brooks etc who said that we have to be in the Middle East because we could never go green enough to get rid of oil.
Well electric cars are no gas, no oil, and the Israeli’s are building half a million charging stations of infrastructure.
They seem serious to me its not impossible to go green quickly folks!

Considering oil is back up around 106.00.. sounds better everyday. I looked into electric but range is very important for me since I am about 60 miles (one way) from the nearest medium sized city/airport.

Dang, Spidey, I need to save that one…! ;-)

The Chevy Volt http://gm-volt.com/ is a hybrid where the internal-combustion engine is essentially a “range extender”, and also an “acceleration augmenter.” It is basically an electric car which can turn on a gasoline-powered electric generator when the battery runs down. IMHO, that is the near-term wave of the future.

At Balkinization, Lederman asked if Yoo was truthful in his Esquire mag interview, in regards to the Geneva Conventions, the first comment out of the gates…

Per Goldsmith’s entire first chapter:
Gonzales asked him whether 4th GC covered “terrorists in Iraq”…. Meaning they had no ruling previously.
Goldsmith Said yes, covers all Iraqis including “terrorists” but not foreigners who entered Iraq after the conflict began.

Gonzales Response:
“Jack, I don’t see how terrorists who violate the laws of war can get the protections of the laws of war.”

Addington’s response:
The President has already decided that terrorists do not receive Geneva Conventions protections.”

So it seems pretty clear that the existing OLC March 2003 Yoo memo that was in place was felt- at least by Addington- to be applicable to Iraq.

Yoo is lying or fooling himself.

IMHO, Yoo was a tool, and has to be made to turn on his masters.

As long as there’s no major organ failure… Karma’s a bitch, no? ;-)

Careful, the mods are listening (so to speak).

In fact, it goes all the way to the Oval Office, and anything that stops short is a national disgrace.

~~~ModNote: Edited for content in quoted text.~~~

As tempting as it may be, violent comments, even imaginary ones, are prohibited here.
Comments of that type will be deleted.

Until I know Cheney/Addington didn’t tell Yoo to write the memo in the first place.. I wouldn’t claim to be certain who is throwing whom under the electric bus.

Yes’m, we’ll behave!

Vehicles are to be provided by Renault, using Nissan produced Li-ion batteries, and will have a 90-mile range between recharging. Batteries will use excess power from Dong’s wind turbines, but revert back to coal-powered sources on calmer days. Even then, project organiser’s claim that CO2 emissions will still be around half of that associated with gasoline engines.

Currently, there are many days when Denmark’s wind capacity actually exceeds its country’s needs, and power costs approach zero. In order to continue to make money, the power is sold cheap to neighboring countries. Theoretically, this new project could use that wind power to charge thousands of car batteries in cars and at Project Better Place’s battery swapping stations.

http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/1505/69/

“Currently, there are many days when Denmark’s wind capacity actually exceeds its country’s needs, and power costs approach zero”
Denmark is so green that on a windy day they get all their power from the wind and have some to spare.
They could store some of that extra energy in their electric car batteries.
So could we if we ended this war. We are being passed up by the world.

It would behoove us to behave, provided that we want to be hoove about thing.

That’s the weird part, it’s seems the release of the Yoo memo has started the toppling of their house of cards! It seems to have exposed their soft underbelly, and, they don’t know which way to turn to avoid the thrust of the knife…!

Until I know Cheney/Addington didn’t tell Yoo to write the memo in the first place.. I wouldn’t claim to be certain who is throwing whom under the electric bus.

It goes all that way to the Oval Office. A few weeks ago, a WH spokesman admitted that Bush authorized waterboardings, and that he’ll do so again if he deems it necessary. This goes to the top and ought to be prosecuted to the top. Cut that plump pig Yoo a deal if he’ll testify.

GM better work fast it seems the competition is already sewing up entire countries with their plans. That and the Green movement is a little skeptical of GM after they killed the electric car.
Funny the GOP never tries to save an American job if its Union, Green or just lowers our dependence on oil.

WHat’s stopping congress, MCA ‘07?

V for Vendetta – “Someone” Hooverphonic

Cut that plump pig Yoo a deal if he’ll testify./blockquote>
Only after they can be sure he’ll give up the real dirt, otherwise, he should be sitting in the same docket as Shrub, Cheney, and, Addington at The Hague…!

WHat’s stopping congress, MCA ‘07?

Nancy Peolosi? The gang of 20 who intimidated her into backing down on the obligations of delegates? A*P*C? DLC?

I simply don’t know.

What I do know is that the American electorate is far to the left of the Democrats in Congress. The center is to the left of everyone but Dennis Kuchinich.

On its Web site, Project Better Place says its goals reflect two trends — the rise in oil prices and a drop in the cost of production of advanced batteries. “Within a decade,” it says, “the cost of energy production and storage for the lifetime of an electric vehicle will fall below the fuel costs for a single year of a traditional automobile.” My Bold

I would like to see some numbers but what if the electric was just a penny a mile cheaper to run? You would still not be polluting the air, or giving Ossama or Darth money. The benefits of a reduction in pollution caused disease would be huge.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pb…..147/AUTO02

Cut that plump pig Yoo a deal if he’ll testify.

How about; he can do his life sentence here in the U.S. instead of being shipped of to the Hague? How about that for a deal.

Hey, don’t be dissing DK now! :-)

Thats why we need Dennis as VP McCain will attack the choice as proof that we Dems are not in Synch with American values. Which is an odd choice of words for a Maverick but the Press likes to play pretend.
Anyway we hit back with Dennis is more inline with the Majority of Americans than Obama is. Yes Obama is to the right of the majority of Americans which makes McCain the person not in synch with American values or apparently even aware of American Values.

Are you nuts if he were housed in general population…oh I get it a reverse Briar patch he doesn’t want to go to the Hague so we cut him a deal and let him stay here.
Too bad Yoo and the Bushies never had much time to push for prison reform.

I’m cool with that!

Unlike most progressives, I have a lot of hope for nuclear power. Specifically, Thorium-based nuclear power.

Like raw U238, the major isotope of Thorium, Th232, is not fissionalble but is fertile, i.e., when bathed in neutrons it eventually produces fissionable fuel. Specifically, Th232 produces Th233, which decays to U233, which is fissionable and not very good for making bombs. By contrast, when U238 is bathed in neutrons, it produces Pu239, which is great for making bombs.

Pretty much, a Thorium breeder reactor would burn up its byproducts, leaving very little toxic waste and almost nothing that is useful for weapons.

Kucinich is a scrapper. I like that about him as much as his competence, honesty, integrity, determination, and his political ideas.

How many years?

The only Presidential Candidate to come to the Isles to campaign, I met him and shook his hand, while looking down on him…! ;-)

Well folks, I’m calling it a night. I bid ya’ll a fond adieu! Aloha Oe!!!

nite tuttle
i’m enjoying reading your place

The Norwegians and Indians are working on it. And a couple of U.S. companies are developing Thorium as an additive for standard reactors. Here are some of the things I bookmarked when I was looking around at what was happening on the near term:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pebble_bed_reactor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…..ar_reactor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HT3R

Come on WigWam conventional Nuclear power produces a lot of waste what your talking about would be a big improvement that I could support. So have they had any breakthroughs lately?

Well I am off to count Yoo guilty verdicts til sleep takes over..

G’nite fabulous firedogs..

Good Night.

Hard to tell. The Norwegians, Indians, and a couple of U.S. companies are working on it.

Oops, my earlier post didn’t show up, so I tried again. Then the earlier one suddenly appeared. Sigh!

Come on WigWam conventional Nuclear power produces a lot of waste what your talking about would be a big improvement that I could support.

The U.S. doesn’t recycle for fear of proliferation. France and England do. Apparently, one can get rid of most of the waste by recycling and/or buring it up in breeder reactors, which are great for making bomb grade Plutonium. The cool thing about Thorium is that it requires breeder reactors but it breeds U233 contaminated with U232, which is so radioactive that it’s no good for weapons. But it burns up really well in a reactor.

Breeder reactors are the nuclear equivalent of incinerators. They’ll burn up most anything, including weaons-grade Plutonium.

But, I’m talking too much about things in which I lack expertise. One of my very good friends is a nuclear physicist who worked on this stuff years ago, and he got me reading about it. So, at this point, I’ll shut up and get some sleep.

G’nite all.

nite wigwam
bailing out here, too
nite pups

I’m out to good night all

Insomnia is ugly. I need to sleep.

Am I the only one terrified McCain will win?

In relaxed moments, I think of how I’d love to force Bush or Cheney to go into the state Jim Carrey was in in Liar, Liar, where they feel compelled to tell the truth.
Thinking of this posts theme, I remember reading that the War of the Worlds radio broadcast struck terror into the hearts of many because it “sounded to them like the footfalls of approaching justice.”
I’d like to place Bush under a truth-telling spell and then ask him about the Bush family property in South America (Argentina, I think), “Are you planning to escape American justice?”

that needed a spew warning!

Just home from the party after work. Anyone up?

al’lo thar Ed*

God morning. Anyone up?

morning ecahn!

Hi selise. I was looking at my list for the June FDL BBQ, and I didn’t note a reply from you. Did I mess up, or are you still deciding?

ahh… my apologies, was waiting for your second email on places to stay, etc. will email you immediately.

I’ve been travelling (Savannah, where, among other things, I had drinks with Marion) and I have a retreat today, so I’ll get to the second email next week.

don’t rush! i knew you were on vacation and am glad you got to meet marion. enjoy your retreat… and ygm.

Good morning, pups. It’s La Collins and Mr. Egan this morning. La Collins says “White Guys Are Back,” and that white male voters have turned into the deciding factor in the big primary in Pennsylvania. I guess soccer moms are passé. Mr. Egan writes about the “Big Sky Slugfest,” and says that in Montana, Democrats love the extended campaign, with its huge rallies and relentless pounding of John McCain.

http://mgpaquin.wordpress.com/

The coffee, tea and hot chocolate are ready, and I’ve got blueberry muffins to share. I was hoping to be able to do some work in the garden today, but it looks like we’re in for more rain over the weekend. Maybe it will break a bit… (eCAHN took the nice weather back to NY with her!) But the jasmine seems to be loving it, and the first sprout of the new asparagus is up so I probably should stop crabbing.

Ahem. It was cold the last two days we were in Savannah. And now it’s raining here. I would like spring to come.

Mornin’ all!

Good morning!

Sorry about those last 2 days… The weather is simply nuts here now, as it often is during the spring. We’ll go from a high in the low to mid 60s one day to 85 the next. So you get people with the very fashionable look of short sleeved shirts and heavy jackets… And then comes summer, when people who shouldn’t wear things that they oughtn’t.

going through some of the mlk tributes from yesterday…. here are few of my favs:

from chris floyd:

Forty years ago today, the last public figure to pose a serious, fundamental threat to the power structure that sustains the American elite in unmerited wealth and privilege was shot down in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King Jr. had gone there to help garbage workers win a living wage. He saw their struggle as part of an emerging campaign to give birth to a new paradigm for American society; in effect, to form a new union, based on economic justice, social equality — and an adamant repudiation of state violence and empire.

john caruso quotes king and decries the “Smilin’ White Disney Martin Luther King”

I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

… In a way we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath–
America will be!

Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If America’s soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of men the world over.

and from mike marqusee

Increasingly, King identified the war in Vietnam as part of a global struggle against colonialism, and black inequality as a function of class inequalities that also affected many whites. Though he opposed the separatism espoused by black nationalists, he had his own view of what “integration” meant: “We are not interested in being integrated into this value structure.” A “radical redistribution of economic power” was needed. “So often in America,” he observed, “we have socialism for the rich and ragged free enterprise capitalism for the poor.”

King’s political direction alarmed the FBI, which planted stories in the press to discredit him as a “Communist” and link the Poor People’s Campaign to violent plots against the government.

“All labour has dignity,” King told the strikers in Memphis. “It is a crime for people to live in this rich nation and receive starvation wages.” He urged them to stay out till their demands were met. “Never forget that freedom is not something that is voluntarily given by the oppressor. It is something that must be demanded by the oppressed.”

In the US in recent weeks the sermons of Barack Obama’s pastor, Jeremiah Wright – notably his “God damn America” speech – have been denounced by all and sundry. Wright’s anger and “divisiveness” has been contrasted with King’s gentle and unifying approach. But I doubt many of Wright’s critics would be much more satisfied with “the indictment of America” pronounced by King on that night in Memphis in 1968: “If America does not use her vast wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too is going to hell.”

“If America does not use her vast wealth to end poverty and make it possible for all of God’s children to have the basic necessities of life, she too is going to hell.”

Thanks for pulling all the above quotes together, because it shows the hypocritical bullcrap the media constantly feeds us.

If Dr. King was alive today and Sen. Obama attended his church, the above excerpt would cause the exact same reaction he’s received re: Rev. Wright.

“Dr. King said ‘America’s going to hell!’, and Sen. Obama didn’t leave the church!”

I am still reeling over the yoo memos, I can not sleep, they are in my dreams

I do not believe there will be an election for Obama to win, there is too much to loose, they have amassed too much power, they are lawless and they know no crime too great

let me repeat that because it is brutally obvious once told;

“they know no crime too great”

that my friends is a fact, there is NO crime too great, they have committed treason, stolen, killed, tortured, committed mass murder, and they are still in power

“there is no crime too great”

what does a man do when he is near certain he is right but prays he is wrong?

I’ll tell you what a man does;

he sits and watches Hitler take the helm…that’s what he does, and that is what we are doing

bush and Cheney must be impeached, they absolutely must

at the very least, that impeachment will inoculate us from martial law, at the very least we will bring their plans to a screeching halt

I am certain this post will be on topic throughout the day so be ready to read it again

and again

On a cheerier note…

Today’s ‘Weekend Tweety’ (a.k.a. ‘All Hillary, All The Time’) closed with Andrew Sullivan stating that Yoo, Addington & Rumsfeld shouldn’t leave the country anytime soon because they will be indicted for war crimes, and they should be.

The Tweetster asks “Really?”, stifles a yawn, then gets back to Hillary.

Because, of course, suggesting the above Gang Of Three be indicted for war crimes isn’t worth a follow up discussion, not when there’s more Hillary talk to serve up.

A very nice post Selise! I echo STTP’s sentiments, you did a nice job pulling that all together.

Perris@189, I am in the same boat, they won’t go. The framework is in place allowing them to remain in power & I am sure they will use it. Too many of them are at risk, should they let power pass to decent people. Precedent has been established, ironically by us, that water boarding is a war crime and that “Following orders” is simply not a viable defense.