Fitz?

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS?

YEP, IT’S SUNDAY..YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS! GEORGE BUSH *DOESN’T* GET AN INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING TODAY.

Bush on Larry King the other day:

G. BUSH: One way to look at it is he in charge of the folks he was in charge of before, have they got training — you know, places, and a safe haven, the answer is no. We’ve got him on the run. And they’re hiding. I, of course, would like to bring him to justice but we’ll get him. We’re, we’re — it’s just a matter of persistence and patience. Every day I think about this.

KING: Getting…

G. BUSH: Every day — well, everyday I think about al Qaeda. Every day I think about protecting this country. I mean, every day. The thought has not — the thought has entered my mind and I think about it and talk to people about it and strategize about it every day.

KING: Obsessed with it.

G. BUSH: No. Well, in a way I guess you could say obsessed, but obsession is the wrong word. Doing my duty. That’s what the American people expect. They expect this government to protect them and so long as there’s an enemy lurking out there, I’m going to — I’m going to talk to people, work with people. I HAVE AN INTEL BRIEFING EVERY MORNING EXCEPT FOR SUNDAY.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITI.....ript.bush/

Hurrican Katrina hit New Orleans on a Sunday. The attack on Pearl Harbor happened on a Sunday. Bush can’t be troubled by trivial stuff like that on his Jesus day, damnit!

What an idiot. NOT just because he doesn’t care about Intel matters on a Sunday and thinks that he’s safe in his Jesus bubble but he’s also dumb enough to tell everyone in the world on national/international tv. By Bush revealing that, it helps the terrorists, the ‘lurkers’, the ‘plotters’, the ‘planners’, the ‘evil-doers’, the ‘Saddamists’, the ‘Rejectionists’. Why does Bush hate America? Why does he want to help the enemy? I’m sure his aides back stage smacked their own foreheads when the little Dictator let that slip out. Doh! Bush…what an absolute boob.

For those who like recipes, slow-cooked boneless chuck ribs. Just made it. Wonderful!

I found that part of the presser most illuminating, Paige. I think Amerika should be so proud of their dear leader.

dumbasses.

Well, President Bush is a pious, godly man. You can’t expect him to work on the Lord’s Day, can you?

via www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004519.html
Two big calls for the press “to rise to the occasion” in the face of bullying and not so subtle messages to pull punches, from the nation’s top journalism deans and Frank Rich.
One of the links is to a great WaPo article titled “When in doubt, publish.”

Did I mention that August is the Lord’s Month? Little-known Bible fact.

Man, why do my YouTube links never work? I’ll try again…

Eli, the terrorists surely take Sunday off too. Right? I mean, that’s why he does it, cause he knows it’s safe.

Right…

Is the closing supposed to be there?

oops PARAM tag…got eaten up…
Is the closing PARAM tag supposed to be there?

nvm, it is…

Getting men and women like Rick Penberthy, Ned Lamont, John Laesch, Jon Tester, Larry Kissell, Jerry McNerney, Coleen Rowley into office actually means even more than the crucial task of getting a Democratic majority or even of removing from office really dangerous, hate-filled and criminal characters like Brown-Waite, Lieberman, Hastert, Burns, Hayes, POMBO and John Kline (who I’ll be introducing, along with Coleen, next weekend). The Blue America Democrats are extraordinary men and women who will bring something very positive and refreshing to Congress: intergrity, intelligence, INDEPENDENCE, real American values. Every single member of Congress should be like our candidates. Look at that video Christy put up. It really choked me up to think Rick and Kevin would do that for us. Right now we’re helping voters compare Rick Penberthy to Ginny Brown-Waite. After November, people can compare him to Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer and Chuck Schumer.

I have made an important(to me) observation about FDL and I hope noone minds me sharing. This is the second “liberal” blog community I’ve been a part of. The difference is stunning actually. At the first blog I went to for liberal slanted news there was a strong attitude and the power to mobilize was used to attack anyone and everyone who irritated the proprietor of the blog. Here it’s different, you folks use your readership to help push forward what you believe will be positive changes and I respect that even if I don’t always agree about the particulars of an issue. Good for you and keep up the fight.

Christy, it worked when I hit your link.

Any one know where to pour in the Drano? I think my internets tubes are clogged. This page didn’t want to load.

Margot - thanks for the Laura Rozen piece. She is so good.

And for all the Dems running and hiding on the national sec. issue - Hoekstra hasn’t crawled out of the woodwork bc he caught a case of viral patriotism on the 4th and is proceeding, consequences be d*mned. The Republicans are realizing that eventually it chips throught o Americans when their government is being used as a weapon against them.

The Italian case is cooking and it may have some ramifications. NSA program is illegal after Hamdan IMO and anyone in DOJ who still blesses it courts disaster. How often is the program supposed to be renewed - every 45 days? Who signs off?

Hoekstra knows enough to want to lay some cover for what may be coming IMO.

I dunno, Busted, but when you find out, please spread the word. I gots no Refresh Comments button and assume others don’t either. Hope Jamie’s not at the beach.

So, I wrote a commercial for the Democratic Party. Anybody know who I should send it to? It’s issue oriented and meant to target the Joe sixpack voter.

Howie, I live to see the day that a Dem president awards you the Medal of Freedom! Our freedom is exactly what you’re defending and promoting in this work of yours that’s unlike any other I’m aware of. Bless you.

Howie — I hope you are taking a look at Charlie Brown who is running against John Doolittle in CA-04. Charlie is the strongest candidate we’ve had on the blue side in my lifetime, and John Doolittle is increasingly entangled in scandal. I know you simply don’t have time to turn your attention on every good candidate, but I hope Charlie will be one of them.

Howie @12:

Exactly right. A Democratic majority in Congress means nothing if the majority of Democrats aren’t, well… Democrats. Thank you so much for the work you’re doing - I never would have heard of (much less from) any of these candidates other than Lamont if not for you.

Okay, I have fiddled and fiddled with the YouTube direct post and cannot get it to work for me. So there is a link to it through the text for everyone and I’ll try to figure out how to do this for the next time. Sorry everyone.

LindaR,
Isn’t Doolittle expected to be caught up in the Dukesters mess?I can’t recall. Jerry Lewis is getting ready to be smacked down. It just seems to me he’s related to that mess somehow.

lol, Christy’s fiddling around. My Dad calls it “piddle farting around’.

Oh goody, everything seems to work again — thanks, mechanic Christy!

Everybody, I mentioned/linked to this earlier this morning, but if you missed it, let me again encourage you to go this Hartford Courant column, scroll down a bit, and on the right, click on the paper’s five columnists’ and one blogger’s reax to the debate. A good range of Nutmeg opinions there — none of them good news to Joe.

Sorry I’m so tech challenged, gang. One of these days, I will figure out the magic of posting a YouTube. LOL

In the meantime, Howie is absolutely right — the video is awesome and well worth the click through. It’s really short — but it was SUCH a nice thing for them to do as a thank you to all of us. :)

Oops, I mean four columnists — two of ‘em are repeats.

Bustedknuckles @ 23

Doolittle has worked closely with Tom DeLay over the years, so you can imagine. Doolittle is involved in the Abramoff stuff. Also, his wife Julie has been taking off the top of campaign contributions.

It’s ok if Jamie is at the beach. When we were at the beach our house had wifi. So I could sit on the porch, watch the ocean, and still help save the nation :D

Something from the book he allegedly reads:
Matthew 12:
9Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, 10and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked him, ”Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

11He said to them, ”If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? 12How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

And Mark 2:
27Then he said to them, ”The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Besides, the Sabbath is Saturday, so he’s breaking a commandment anyway…

Ofg, contact Howie Klein and prob he has ideas what to do next.

Christy 26 –

O brave new world that hath such people in it!

Christy, I think Youtube’s embed code is faulty. I always get HTML errors when I post Youtube videos in Blogger, but they post okay when I tell it to override. You might want to try this variation if you haven’t already, since I got Blogger to accept it without errors:

[embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/9LZxa8_lyww” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” width=”425″ height=”350″][/embed]

Christy, The link at the top of the article worked just fine for me.

Oops! gotta go. My little girls all star softball game in 20 min. See y’all later.

Christy, the text link works fine. I missed the conversation yesterday, so I gave a little just now.

Listening to the pontificators “explain the blogs all for you” on CNN this morning just made me laugh. What the trad media don’t get is that we are raving hoards! But we are not raving hoards of lunatic fringe. We are the raving hoards of the ignored normal, and we really are not taking it anymore now.

We are using the new media, for it is not a personality; the new media is a two-way tool. Hell, it’s a multi-directional tool, not even bound by time! The Penberthy fundraiser here was yesterday. I just gave my donation; someone else is going to give one later, maybe after reading this comment and clicking here. It’s a new world, it’s only the beginning. Omigod, I’ve typed myself into a triumphal mood!

Um, and back in the abysmal old world . . .

4 More Soldiers Accused of Rape and Murder in Iraq

Listening to the pontificators “explain the blogs all for you” on CNN this morning just made me laugh. What the trad media don’t get is that we are raving hoards! But we are not raving hoards of lunatic fringe. We are the raving hoards of the ignored normal, and we really are not taking it anymore now.

We only sound crazy because we’re frustrated and angry, at being called traitors by the Republicans, and ignored and dismissed (when not actively dissed) by the media and even our own party.

That makes it really difficult (and unwise) to stay calm and quiet and civil. You know, like the Republicans are.

Oy.

From the Los Angeles Times

Police Abuses in Iraq Detailed

Confidential documents cover more than 400 investigations. Brutality, bribery and cooperation with militia fighters are common, a report says.

By Solomon Moore
Times Staff Writer

July 9, 2006

BAGHDAD — Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq’s police force, with abuses including the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings, according to confidential Iraqi government documents detailing more than 400 police corruption investigations.

A recent assessment by State Department police training contractors echoes the investigative documents, concluding that strong paramilitary and insurgent influences within the force and endemic corruption have undermined public confidence in the government.

Officers also have beaten prisoners to death, been involved in kidnapping rings, sold thousands of stolen and forged Iraqi passports and passed along vital information to insurgents, the Iraqi documents allege.

The documents, which cover part of 2005 and 2006, were obtained by The Times and authenticated by current and former police officials.

. . .

In full here.

You know, if I recall, nobody on the Rick Penberthy thread yesterday sounded like angry, deranged far-left nutjobs. It was all very reasonable. What would David Brooks think?

You know, if I recall, nobody on the Rick Penberthy thread yesterday sounded like angry, deranged far-left nutjobs. It was all very reasonable. What would David Brooks think?

Oh, sure, everyone’s nice enough to their own kind.

You know, like in the Lieberman-Cheney debate.

This is a wonderful post and an example that I will be sharing with the people I meet whose eyes kind of glaze over (or roll slightly) when I mention blogs as my source for news and information. I met a few of those folks yesterday at the American Legion event here in Richmond; active, concerned good citizens who are missing out on a powerful tool!

From David Brooks:
“I can’t reproduce the typical assaults that have been directed at him over the Internet, because they are so laced with profanity and ugliness, but they are ginned up by ideological masseurs who salve their followers’ psychic wounds by arousing their rage at objects of mutual hate.”

Now I want to say this in the nicest possible way, free of profanity and ugliness: I simply feel inadequately massaged, and therefore demand that my ideological masseusses of the lake immediately come to my house and massage me more. And make that two, my wife also feels inadequately massaged. And if you don’t, our psychic wounds will suppurate, with even direr results to mental health everywhere.

Lotus: The panda was getting real close to that pool….busy little fellow. Is that the baby or the mother?

Off Topic (of course it is)

Ga - I’m not throwing out my dictionary, or taking back my point.

I would agree the definition of religion vs. the definition of philosophy in the West is based upon Western cultural beliefs and traditions (which if you want to call bias (gasp!) is your right), rather than Eastern ones. We do live in the West after all. And that Eastern philosophies don’t “qualify” as religions in the Western meaning of the word.

So, in the society WE live in, a “religion” cannot be “non-secular,” b/c if it is, then it is a “philosophy” uninformed by a supernatural godhead, which in the West a “religion” requires.

I don’t see that dichotomy as a false one. Sorry.

cc, the busier one is baby Tai, and he was in the pool a few minutes ago (wonder if he peed?). I think he’s just climbed a tree while I wasn’t looking, so it must be his naptime now. Momma Mei is prolly either stuffing her face with bamboo or snoozing in the grotto in the rocks . . .

Time’s cover story tomorrow:

Cowboy Diplomacy, RIP

I missed the pool scene. I’m cooking a very large pot of chili, doing yard work and laundry…blah! Thanks for the link. This morning when you posted it early it must have been sleeping. It was laid out on a tree and not moving…..so I assumed either the link was bad or the tubes were filled.

Oilfieldguy –

Good Luck getting someone with the Democratic Party to pick up your Joe Sixpack ad idea — you might try posting at the DCCC and DSCC blogs.

The tough part is finding someone influential to pitch to. Anyone who’s not in a decision making position acts like a filter, bouncing the over-the-transom submissions into the round file.

In September 1988, I got so frustrated with the Dukakis Campaign message that I threw myself into writing position papers and strategy briefs for them. Faxed, mailed, called, it all went nowhere — until I ran into someone from Boston who just happened to be in Denver. I gave her my stuff, she marked it up with a highlighter, saying how great it was; I brought back the rest in the morning, but she’d flown back to Boston overnight. I was disappointed, but to my amazement, the stuff I’d written was all over the evening news for several days.

When the Dukakis Campaign came to Denver for the Nightline interview, I bumped into John Sasso at the Airport Terminal. Gave him more stuff, flew to Boston on my own dime, was welcomed into the inner sanctum, kicked out (but they still wanted my work), kept writing, went to DC, NYC, and then flew home.

The big thing my work did was help break the power struggle log jam in favor of the Sasso Team — Susan Estrich was shoved aside; launching her career as a Democratic concern troll. The moral is, you can make a difference — if you can reach a decision maker.

Good Luck . . .

So sorry, I hate to be OT here AGAIN, but wanted to mention that there’s some small progress being made with Barbara Boxer - not on the Lieberman front, but she said on Wolf Blitzer this morning that “we won the war in Iraq - this is now an OCCUPATION!” And, of course, she begged to differ with Huckleberry Graham who’s still repeating the crap that Iraq is part of the “waronterra.”

That “we are occupiers in Iraq” meme comes from George Lakoff, I believe, and it looks like the congressional dems are starting to pick it up - I hope.

Also, I just bought a new lawn mower yesterday. We did the front yard yesterday and my son just tried to start it to do the back and the thing you pull to start it is like it is locked. Any Janes or Jacks of all trades know what it could be? I need some troubleshooting here!

hear yea, here yea, Dru, and thank you for fighting for us in the Old Dominion!

I am not a pajama wearing nutjob. I have to admit, it did take me awhile to find my voice on the blogs, but what I have found at FDL and other sites is powerful– it has started the conversation I now have with real, live conservatives and brain- numb humans. It’s a wonderful pond, lake, ocean to try out civility and ideas. Anyone who ignores the blogs, including the wingnut hate sites, is doing do at their own peril, imho.

not “do” but it at their own peril

ccmask –

Was your son holding the lockout handle? They won’t start if you don’t hold the safety down.

LindaR (#21), I am planning a Charlie Brown BLUE AMERICA day. I’ve had suggestions for a dozen candidates around the country but none more than for Charlie. I just did a mini-refresher on John and Julie’s criminal activities on Down With Tyranny.

Making this for dinner;

http://lcbo.com/lcbo-ear/Recip.....cipeType=1

If anyone saw Washington Journal today you now know how very ugly the Ct. Primary is going to get. Lanny Davis following Joe’s talking points trashed Ned without mercy and words like “bigot”, “anti-semite”, and other stong words flowed like water in response to callers. This group is going to the bottom quick as was evident in the debate, so be prepared for a South Carolina (2000) type camipagn.

howie, are you only doing Congresscritters on Saturdays? Would you do an Angelides day?

BTW, Russ Warner is sticking to it. He’s going to candidate’s school and will try again next time. Looks like we’ll have another term of Dreier.

ck- I’ll ask him.

Eli (#42)- And this is a note I just got from Rick a few minutes ago: ” What a group of people, I’ve never seen such kind and thoughtful responses on a blog community this large. Thank you.”

So it looks like there were no angry, deranged far-left nutjobs on either end of the conversation. Now Lieberman certainly isn’t far-left– or even near-left– but angry and deranged? I think angry and deranged is an apt description of people afraid of progress and worried that the Joneses are going to get ahead of them. The far-right has always been and will always be angry and deranged. It’s part of the job description. When they bought the mass media, they got it to try changing the definitions.

Phil, ya gotta wonder: what makes Rove and his client JoHo think that what worked in SC will work in CT? Jeebus, they’re doofi.

No, ck, not holding a lockout handle. Imagine, it has been in use 2 hours.

I think fans of our man Hugh, creator of the famously brilliant ‘Defense of English’ series would appreciate this morsel from today’s Boston Globe:
http://www.boston.com/news/glo.....w_spanish/
“Today, English. Tomorrow, Spanish.
In a Chelsea production that reaches out to the community, the actors perform in two languages

By Johnny Diaz, Globe Staff | July 9, 2006

The sound of a galloping rhino thunders on the busy Parisian street.

“It ran over my cat, it ran over my cat!” the Housewife wails. “My cat, my poor little cat . . .”

Later that night, the Housewife, played by Mari Davila , becomes “La Seora.”

Cue the pounding rhinoceros and the crying housewife.

“Ha aplastado a mi gato! Ha aplastado a mi gato!” she bawls in Spanish during a rehearsal. “Mi pobre Misu, mi pobre Misu!”

The scene is from Eugene Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros,” or “Rinoceronte ,” which Chelsea’s TheatreZone is presenting in English and Spanish along the Chelsea waterfront starting Wednesday.

Davila plays the same role in both languages. And in doing so, she’s part of a sustained effort to make theater more accessible for Spanish-language audiences in Chelsea and Greater Boston.”…
——
Of course, in any language, theatre fans might have interest also.

When you lay down with dogs….

Oh, and P.S., Phil — on CT Dems/Indies instead of SC Goopers . . .

I believe we in Ct. are ready for this dirt and Joe will pay the price. This War in Iraq is too big for him to run against.

OT, although related to angie’s (@ 53) comments about not ignoring the blogs, and the hate sites.

Sadly, No! has a super post about the latest manufactured rage over in Right Blogostan:

http://sadlyno.com/archives/003206.html

No need to rush over there and read it unless you follow the inter-blog warfare on sites like Eschaton, TBogg, Sadly, No!, etc. I bet a bunch of us do, but FDL seems to have a different spin, to be sure (much more aimed at community building, for sure … cf Eli @ 42 and Howie Lein @ 61).

Long story short: somebody left inflammatory and disturbing comments on Protein Wisdom (well-known to the Atriots here), the Wingnuts exploded into a Ragegasm (props to TBogg for that one), the poster was quickly found out to be an adjunct professor in Arizona and she immediately resigned. In other words, she spectacularly self-destructed in public.

Sadly, No!’s post is a good primer, however, on the hypocrisy of Right Blogostan … which only mirrors the overall hypocrisy of the movement, IMHO.

Read it if you need some red meat instead of coffee. Otherwise, enjoy a lazy Sunday!

Howie: Civility Я Us !

It’s working!! Shoot….

Howie Klein @ 56 –

This is wonderful news! I am going to the Charlie Brown grand opening tomorrow night, and (full disclosure) I’ve volunteered to work on the campaign. If you haven’t met him yet, he is a great guy.

ccmask –

If the lawnmower runs without holding down the lockout, you should take it back to the store that sold it, and have them fix it. The lockout is a very important safety feature, designed to prevent hands and feet from injury by the mower blades.

OT: Someone in an earlier thread referred to a “formal grammar” as promoting physiological changes in the brain.

“Formal grammar” is a non-sequiter in linguistics. Any combination of meaningful units (morphemes) requires the use of grammatical forms. Grammar, in other words, is a formal feature of any language, or as Leonard Bloomfield puts it in his classic text, Language, “a linguistic form, as actually uttered, always contains a grammatical form. The languages of the most ‘primitive’ cultures are all highly complex formally.

Now there is some scholarship (Havelock, Ong, Goody)that strongly argues that there are significant changes in consciosness when a culture moves from oral to literate. No idea if someone has tried to make a physiological argument as well.

masaccio, I as a long-time nurse tech (read: aide) will massage your neck and scalp and your wife’s as well. I can’t promise you ease from those nasty psychic wounds, though.

Zidane strikes on PK.
7 min first half
France 1
Italy 0

Now there is some scholarship (Havelock, Ong, Goody)that strongly argues that there are significant changes in consciousness when a culture moves from oral to literate.

There were poet bards still living in the Balkans into the late 19th century, that preserved the oral epic poems in the tradition of Homer. They used the same lyric constructs as the Iliad and Odyssey, which are very different than the written epics like the Aeneid.

The bard that recites from memory relies on phrases with a certain rhythm, to bring forth the epic tale — Sing Oh Muse, of the man of many turnings . . .

Can we get a referee for 104 at the Sunday talking heads thread?

David Ehrenstein posted a truly nasty link and is now calling people ’sissies’ for opposing it. The opponents are being polite and he is spreading filth.

[ Moderator: the baby has been split, so to speak ]

Maybe, somebody forgot to tell him that the lord’s day the sabbath is on Saturday……and since we all believe in the litteral interpreatation of the Bible. We observe the Christ’s rising on Sunday. Never have understood the Sunday = Sabbath thing. Anyway…..Somebody tell him to get back to work, slacker….. It’s a glorious day here in the quad cities.

egregious, do you remember that, some weeks ago — well, on that thread that TeddySF left in protest — someone else posted that link, though with careful warning. Like lhp, I waded into it a few feet and soon wished I hadn’t.

I recall reading a few years ago (Nature? Science?) that those who read in different directions, the Japanese (reading Kanji) being the example, IIRC, have different “wiring” in their brains.

OfT:

via Aravosis, this NYT article about Orrin Hatch helping get a pardon for a guy carrying 1.26 grams of cocaine and some Ecstasy into Dubai.

Friends in high places, indeed:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07.....&_r=1

lotus, can that link itself be banned?

egregious, you asking ME a tech question? We need *ilson.

Lanny Davis on CSPAN today was downright dispicable - repeating the claim that Lamont was basically a Republican when he served in Greenwich back in the day.

Has Lamont’s campaign developed any literature or public information campaign rebutting this claim? I thought Lamont did a nice job of fighting this claim in the debate, but what Lamont said needs to be repeated and supplemented with factual information.

Overall, it is interesting that Lieberman is trying to attack Lamont from two directions that are somewhat inconsistent.

On one hand, Leiberman is claiming Lamont is basically a closet Republican (yes, Hojo’s hypocrasy knows no bounds) and simultaneously, Lieberman is claiming that Lamont’s supporters are a bunch of angry liberals. So essentially Lieberman is saying Lamont is a Republican with crazy leftist supporters. It makes no sense. I hope the public sees this.

Oh, and did I mention that Lanny Davis is a dispicable human being?

OT - Maybe someone can help. I am not a member of NYT SELECT, but now I can’t access the NYT site at all. It won’t load or, if it does load, it looks strange and doesn’t work.

Anyone else having this problem or have any ideas on what’s wrong? I thought maybe the NSA took the site down, but I think others are reaching it, so that can’t be the problem.

‘A nobody expects the Liberal Inquisition‘

Now — you will stay in the Comfy Chair until lunch time, with only a cup of coffee at eleven. Biggles! Fetch…THE CUSHIONS!

;>)

I have attached a “Parental Advisory” to David’s comment. I am loathe to ban a well-intentioned link by a ‘regular’, unless it contains obviously racist or sexist language … personally, I didn’t find the link all that humorous.

Mommybrain at 59, could you elaborate on your comments about Russ Warner? I have relatives in Drier’s district; they put a Warner sign in their yard, but I haven’t heard anything from them lately about his campaign.

Thanks to the moderator. Fast work.

OhioBlue, I’m getting NYT normally, and you must be getting FDL normally, so who knows? Weird.

Play nice, everyone –

Here’s a great link rich post from eriposte, that asks the question — Were Bush and Berlesconi Separated at Birth?

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/008163.php

Thanks, lotus. I am getting everything normally but the Times. Friday I was doing some China research on the Times site and it’s been screwed up for me since then. Maybe the Manchurians got me?

-ck -

That does it. Now I’m gonna root for France.

not since 1911, OhioBlue

NYT has a habit of sometimes not loading right for me the first time, as well, so I exit and retry in another window. I’m not NYTSelect, just a registered user.

…..

I certainly don’t want to see trusted commenters banned or their links disabled for a single, stale, questionable comment and link. Having seen David E’s link — perhaps elsewhere linked, if it was in the Ann thread I walked out on — a coupla months ago, I guess I have to ascribe the different reception it gets to difference audiences (and their different moods, if the same audience) on Sunday morning rather than late night.

Certainly unfunny to me, but I appear to be humor-impaired on the internets…..

An Italy corner kick headed into the FRA ‘gol’.
21st min first half
FRA 1
ITA 1
—–

*ilson—excellent decision by a judicious moderator.

btw Teddy: your drama-queen flouncing out in a huff a coupla months ago was quite successful. Discussions about that Coultergeist have tended to eschew gratuitous verbal trannie-trashing … good work !

massacio 44 - you have been undermassaged bc it is difficult, idiomatically if not ideologically, to be masseussing massacio.

Try saying, or bloggin, it three times in rapid succsession and even Bobo would understand why there is so much profanity involved.

egregious –

Yeah, but the Italians are prosecuting Berlusconi . . .

Anyway, check out the lyrics to La Marseillaise — bloodthirsty, much?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Marseillaise

Leslie in CA - Russ Warner was defeated in the primary by Cynthia Matthews, an openly gay woman. Should make for an interesting election between these two. CM is nuts and DD is vicious.

THere was a pushpoll the day before the primary in which one of the questions was “If you knew Warner’s son had committed attrocities in Iraq, would you still vote for him?” Warner lost the primary by 10% (2000 votes).

No one is sure who commissioned the push poll. They’re expensive, can easily run a half-mil, and we know for sher CM doesn’t have that kind of $$$. The DCCC is sending emails around to all registered Dems in Dreier’s district to find voters who actually received the phone call. Suspicions center on three people: CM and her band of supporters, some of whom are Republican Dreier haters; Dreier; Rover.

Pushpolls are nasty but business as usual. The questions on this one, however, crossed the line and should not be allowed to go unpunished.

Russ remains committed. He will run again next time and in the meantime take steps to become a visible, viable candidate. He’s a good man; not necessarily a blinking liberal, but good man nonetheless.

Thanks for asking.

-ck- 91: Have they ever been seen in the same room at the same time and if so — where was that guy Lenno uses on that day?

-ck -

You make an excellent point.

Let’s see the CM ignore the entire story.

David E’s link was to low-grade, 15-year-old boy porn. No warning at all. Yuck. I read a couple of paragraphs hoping for the snark/humor/ANY reason for a regular on the Lake to have posted that thing. So glad I wasn’t at work–the Mrs. Grundy program would have set the klaxons blaring the instant of connection and I’d lose my job for going to a porn site. Irresponsible, David. Maybe you just didn’t think. We’re all guilty of that from time to time.

# 84 I wonder if Lanny Davis was speaking for the Clinton part of our party when he trashed Ned so strongly. Is this another example of triangulation?

if France wins that soccer game today, the normally-nice Punaise will be insupportable for a week or two … oh well

gossip: until recently, he’s been sleeping with a Frenchwoman ! At least, he’s sleeping with an American citizen these days! ’bout time…

gratuitous verbal trannie-trashing . . .

That’s what happens at the AllPar.com tech forums, whenever we discuss the A-604 4-speed automatics in Mopar Minivans. Standard recommendations for curing bump shift are changing the fluid to ATF 4, and trying Lucas tranny additive . . .

Oh, wait . . . isn’t this a car talk thread?

-ck-, that’s quite the head-spinning summary — many thanks. I’m reading another Italian-true-crime saga in the current Atlantic. Will be interested to see whether some of the same names surface . . .

-ck- @ 100

Thanks for the link.

It is us they dare
To return to the old slavery!

I wonder: If Americans sang words like these every time we sang our national song, would we be so willing to let our “representatives” sign blasphemies like NAFTA into law?

Dang, TEddy, I missed your flouncing huff. What was it about?

I didn’t care for the piece David E. linked to - it was so hard (no pun intended) and mean, there is no real reason to read it and it reminded me of that GROSS site Protein whatchamacalit - but I’m not declaring him dead to me over it.

-ck- more seriously, while the fraud charges against Berlusconi are related to his families media empire - Mediaset - the significance, to me at least, seems broader. If you go to Larry Johnson’s no quarter piece that includes some outside analysis, one of the things they mention is that SISMI is/was expected to use Mediaset to go after journalists and politicos if they push too far into SISMI’s fiefdom.

It seems to me that the independent investigation forces over there have done a nice little endrun on some of that. FWIW.

ck: There were poet bards still living in the Balkans into the late 19th century, that preserved the oral epic poems in the tradition of Homer.

Exactly! Albert Lord’s The Singer of Tales has the tale; his mentor, Millman Parry was working with Yugoslavian singers who composed their epics poems orally, in the 30’s [one of which is ‘The Taking of Bagdad’ (sic)]. Walter Ong’s “Orality & Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word” is a short, readable summary of the field, which among other areas informs Marshall McCluhan’s work. Fascinating stuff.

Howie: if your’e reading this, that was a great piece on the Doolittles; thanks!

I missed out on the film thread last weekend, but wondered if anyone else has experienced watching “Battle of Algiers” back to back with “Syriana,” followed by “Paradise Now”? We found it very thought-provoking.

???Anybody know what’s up with the Book Salon thread upstairs - F*U*B*A*R - II?? The posting is timed a little over an hour ago and it says “No responses” and “Comments closed”. Troll attack??

RE: The Bush and Berlusconi Separated at Birth question . . .

No way — absolutely impossible. Berlusconi is a self made man, who began as a salesman and worked his way up to media mogul.

Absolute proof they are not related — Berlusconi is smart.

Read the Altercation (june 29th) excerpt of a review of “The Sack of Rome” — a biography of Berlusconi:

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13554357/#060629

Ahhhh…Tazo chai tea and a splash of half-n-half (fat free, because of the diet, but tasty nonetheless…).