A video tribute to Thomas Jefferson, author of The Declaration of American Independence (July 4, 1776). Read by Bill Barker of Williamsburg, VA. Edited by Craig Crawford.
AP: Jefferson Changed “Subjects” to “Citizens” in Declaration
Happy Holiday Trail Mixers!
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213 Responses to The 4th Be With You
Now on The Trail
Looks like between us we’ve covered July 4, 1776 and 1863, Gracious Host--
http://fairweatherlewis.wordpress.com
Woo hoo and have a happy weekend--
John Adams is playing on HBO. Good stuff if you missed it on the first run.
I am patriotic today…I am sporting my flag-theme style cap, stripes on the bill and stars on blue on the hat.
Have a great 4th. End all US wars now.
http://images.reserve123.com/product/8416-1.jpg
Liberty Bell, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
And a bit of bedtime music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnS3FteQxnU
Damn, I miss Waylon--
Happy birthday USA !
We made it this far I reckon we’ll make it a ways farther
“There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.
Forward!”
the above by walt kelley seems fitting to consider on this great day.
“no need to sally forth” could also be read as we need not “sully the 4th”
ray charles ….oh beautiful
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghz4_kikLkE&feature=related
springsteen…. this land is your land
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuc4BI5NWU
muppets….. stars and stripes forever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDA9NbPAK8o
The old 48-star 5-1/2 x 9 flag went up the pole this morning. The people who fought under those 48 stars earned the everlasting gratitude of people on at least four continents.
Our local food behemoth, The Pig, in tribute to the Gamecocks victory over the Bruins at Omaha, have announced that they are sold out of bear meat.
Only in South Carolina.
36 years ago , I helped build the 1st stage in Riverside Park , glad to see it’s gotten better over the years. ………..
http://themountainmail.com/ftp/frontpage.jpg
And also may, be with you the 4th !
And may the Supreme Judge of all continue to Bless this Great Country
And May we return to the simple truths and Values of the founders that all may find happiness…..
American Flag Farthest From Home Is Leaving Solar System
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/04/american-flag-farthest-home-leaving-solar/
And May we return to the simple truths and Values of the founders ……..
Instead of Gordon Geko’s ” Greed is good ” deal.
Thought for the day :
” The bigger the bankroll, the tighter the band around it. ”
profit without sharing is like honesty without kindness. Good things that can turn to evil -- and disrupt the both the individual and collective pursuit of happiness
This Is My Country -- Cyril Neville
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHCsD9aIieM
Horse races with Harbor Woman today followed by family ritual watching of 1776 this evening.
I hope everyone else has a great day.
BAKU, Azerbaijan -- On America’s Independence Day, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is challenging what she calls a global crackdown on human rights, lamenting a “steel vise” squeezing the life out social activism……..
……..In Krakow, Poland, on Saturday, Clinton cited a broad range of countries where “the walls are closing in” on civic organizations like unions, religious groups, rights advocates and other non-governmental organizations that press for social change and shine a light on governments’ shortcomings.
“Some of the countries engaging in these behaviors still claim to be democracies,” Clinton said, adding, “Democracies don’t fear their own people. They recognize that citizens must be free to come together, to advocate and agitate.”
http://www.windstream.net/wind/portal/NewsChannel.aspx?ArticleID=D9GO7B5O0&CatID=TopHeadlines
and even to have tea parties
give me your tired, your poor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-vQwjenlJM
Happy Birthday America!
going to the family camp at the lake…. a little swimming, a little fishing, and lots of being in the sauna….
everyone stay safe and have lots of fun….
Why does it always seem to take root in Poland?
…your huddled white masses yearning to be free.
a native american’s take on independence day…. npr 2008
http://weekendamerica.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/07/02/4th_rez/
july 4, 2010 powwow
http://www.mantecabulletin.com/news/article/15728/
Glad you posted “America” by Waylon, Fair — it’s one of my favorites!
Enjoy the 4th of July everyone…& happy birthday U.S.A.
Enjoyed this Mitch Albom article that reminded me of growing up & fireworks…..
“Watching the Sparks Fly”
http://www.parade.com/news/backpage/mitch-albom/100704-watching-the-sparks-fly.html
I’ve posted this before, but it’s timely. Barney Fife recites the preamble to the Constitution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBuPQgV8yBM
Happy 4th to all!
“Recession Leaves More than Half of American Workers Jobless or Underemployed”
http://washingtonindependent.com/90745/recession-leaves-more-than-half-of-american-workers-jobless-or-underemployed
Jefferson’s abilities as a writer only serve to make my attempts at writing and commenting seem all the more feeble.
What an amazingly constructed and wonderfully worded document. The passage of time has not diminished it in the least.
Wishing you all a grand ol’ fourth. Enjoy!
jace
Ray Charles singing ‘America the Beautiful’, the absolute best…..thanks for posting it Patd.
And though many have done a great job of singing
the National Anthem….Jennifer Hudson, Marvin Gaye,
Beyonce (alll great versions) that come to mind, the one that still is the most memorable for me is Whitney Houston at the 1991 Super Bowl…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHmdu_I_0zI
Happy Fourth to all you fine patriots!
In the best sense of the word, Sea. To you and yours, too, and all the rest of the TMers out there, wherever they might be Mrs Calabash.
I dreamed there was no war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0sC_YDi98s
Not a possibility as yet--but someday.
Goodness, what made me think of Mrs Calabash?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp7r0j4XrO8
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305655
Mine too.
Most welcome, Miss Patsi!
Happy 4th Of July Trailmixers.
Someone has to woo hoo for me sometime I am just never going to get to woo hoo
I just watched a video of Marvin Gaye singing the National Anthem at the 1968 World Series in Detroit. Very straight-forward performance. Nothing like his 1983 performance at the NBA All Star game at The Forum in Los Angeles.
Hey, Ree, you can share mine--I just happened to still be online (doing my blog post) this AM right when Craig posted or I wouldn’t have gotten to woo hoo either--
Meanwhile, happy birthday to our WhskyJack--
Many of the people out there waving the flag most agressively would love to see a dictator take over and “set things right.”
They see this day as a celebration of nationalism born of violence.
For the rest of us it’s all about cookouts and fireworks.
Happy Birthday to Jack!
We were stationed in the Panama Canal Zone for the bicentennial celebration. It was really a big to-do. In the morning there was a parade through the center of Balboa, the capitol of the Canal Zone. It featured the Panama City Bombreros Marching Band, a really great bunch made up of firefighters from the Republic.
In the afternoon Ft Amador, at the Pacific terminus of the Canal, was opened to one and all. There were games for everyone as well as hot dogs and hamburgers and sodas, etc., all gratis. The folks from Panama City were absolutely thrilled at being able to participate in the happy event as many of them felt a really strong affinity to our country for a variety of reasons.
Then, that evening there were to be fireworks, but I believe they were postponed a day because Thor made artificial ones unnecessary.
Jefferson was NICE to his slaves.
Nash, if you really want to go there today, I suppose we can, but if we do, I’d like to broaden it to include the entire spectrum of time that we’ve self-identified as being American. And when, during that period, many of us thought that, because we were bigger, wealthier, better connected, more powerful, had monetary handcuffs over the victim or her family, that what we now quite honestly and openly call rape, was simply a fringe benefit of one’s station in life.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OETwbVBPI1U
democracy is coming to the usa
Flatus
That is why I ave trouble with Pings statement of returning to the simple virtues and honesty of the founders. We have made great progress as a people and a nation since the founding. It has mostly been change for the better. That is why I believe in the living constitution rather than a static document stuck in the past.
Jack
jack……but then also a living constitution open to change opens the door for bad changes as well as good……that may be the rub…….
i think cop shows and private eye shows are the soul of america……must be…..there’s so many of them thrown up as entertainment…….hell, even andy griffith was a cop show…….
If we put the Founders’ words and actions in the context of the God awful mess that was Europe and Asia and the Middle East and Africa, then they probably quite honestly thought they were doing pretty darn well.
I’m inclined to want to give them some empathy if their other writings or statements or overt or legislative actions don’t show glee in their reprehensible actions. Actions over which I believe they are probably now turning over in their graves as they have been doing for over a century.
Sturge
True , but I think less of a risk than trying to freeze the past.
After all change is.
Jack
yep……that’s the rub, all right………
Flatus
They were a product of their world and just like our world it was changing.
In the same vein
Last night on the westerns channel the movie McClintock with John Wayne was on. It basically advocated a man keeping his wife in line with corporal punishment.
Not something that would be made today.
Jack
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-07-02/karl-rove-fiscal-sociopath-paul-begala-on-bushs-financial-legacy/?cid=hp:beastoriginalsL1
“Karl Rove’s Colossal Hypocrisy”
The man they called Bush’s Brain blasted Obama for putting the country on the road to fiscal hell. Clinton strategist Paul Begala on the outrageous claim by the real villain.
Stop, Karl, you’re killin’ me.
“I mean it. This stuff is hilarious. Your latest column in The Wall Street Journal is a masterpiece of postmodern satire. You make Swift look slow. You make Twain look plain. You make Colbert and Stewart look like Huntley and Brinkley.
In case you missed it, The Architect’s latest missive excoriates the fiscal irresponsibility of the Bush era through the satirical device of pretending to call Barack Obama fiscally reckless. He quotes a 16-month-old speech by a European leader (Get it? Rove citing a Eurocrat with approval. Oh, it is savagely self-hating.) saying Obama is on the road to “fiscal hell.” In a sentence whose every syllable is pregnant with irony—mordant, burlesque, self-flagellation—Rove writes: “Deficit spending did not begin when Mr. Obama took office.”
No shit, Sherlock.”
good party……..where’s the whiskey?
took one of me alter-egos from that movie…….Professor Birnbaum………
And, Jack, that’s why I want to cut Ping slack. I think he’s an idealist who looks at the words that people have said, and the Founders have said marvelous, absolutely marvelous words that will inspire people long after our nation is forgotten.
So, Here’s to Ping!
That’s what I was wondering. How do some of these words and beliefs of our founding Fathers translate/fit into today’s world? Especially concerning everything that conservative politicians are pushing for where I live.
Corey, if you’re talking about the same types of conservative politicians and the same types of words, quite simply, they don’t.
What I want to see is words describing how the Founders’ dreams unfold in today’s world with today’s problems. I want them to talk about our problems and how we, together (that’s the big we) are going to make things work in today’s world. I want to see their vision of the dream.
Thank You Fairweather, Woo Hoo
Happy Birthday Jack and Many Many More.
What Best Represents The American Spirit?
It’s not that easy to put into words.
http://youhavetobethistalltogoonthisride.blogspot.com/2010/07/american-spirit-still-alive-and-rocking.html
And I want to see workers and families and government employees who will buy into a dream and make joint sacrifices if the dream is realistic and attainable and will result in lasting benefit. It doesn’t make and difference who’s presenting the vision so long as it’s a true visionary.
i believe patriotism, like spiritualism, to be a quiet and private abiding faith……..I see gaudy displays of 50-60 flags stuck into the ground at the entrance to the island on a certain day of a certain month of any given year to be superficial and half-hearted efforts at prodding people into jumping for joy……doesn’t really hurt anything, of course, but it just looks like litter.
yeah, and i feel the same about christmas, birthdays, easter, and tooth fairies……
so I’m Scrooge of the Forth, i suppose. As it is written, so let it be…………
Just finished “1776″ the movie version.
I tend to drag it out about this time every year.
The John Adams description of congress seems pretty apt for our current bunch of congress critters.
“I have come to the conclusion that one useless man is called a failure. Two useless men are called a law firm, and three or more become a congress.”
Can’t say for sure if Adams ever uttered such a sentiment, but if he did, he damn sure knew what he was talking about.
Hope every one is having a great 4th.
Yeah, Sturg, cloaking themselves in the flag. Goodness I hate that. And it seems as if all these miserable governments, including the last Republican one for sure, and the current one at its outset, adopted the, what I call, the totalitarian fold where the flags are made to look like identical carefully folded cravats. And placed behind the leader to form an ersatz wall of solidarity as if we had the support of 75-nations behind us. When in fact, it’s the support of 75-multinational corporations.
most might agree that the founding fellows put a lot of thought into and made great strides toward devising means as stringent as possible by which the Government could be prevented in perpetuity (or as long as humanly possible) from encroaching upon or taking advantage of the populace, its citizenry.
they, being freshly out from under a tyrannical gov’t, were really pre-occupied with this concept of protecting the people from the gov’t.
and as far as i’m concerned they made their greatest humanitarian and enlightened effect by totally separating religion from affairs of state.
unless, of course, god told sanford to go ahead and cry for argentina…….
something tells me there’s more steel than magnolia in the former mrs sanford……..
That was a nice reading of the Declaration by that Barker fellow. As usual, Craig did a very professional job. I kept waiting, at the end, for the admonition to have our pets spayed or neutered. Then I realized it wasn’t Bob Barker.
i remember when bob barker was in the process of taking up where jack bailey left off………..
that was back when Beulah was blowing her horn……..
“…more steel than magnolia…”
Oh, I agree with that. From the beginning I thought she was the one with both the MBA and the plan. He was perfectly happy hanging out there in D.C..
I suppose it’s too early to tell if this has the makings of a hit musical.
Fairweather,
Thanks for the Tale of Two Cities. I did enjoy reading it.
I could not help but wonder what would have happened had there been a 24 hour news cycle in 1863?
The first week in July had been be any measure, what we now refer to as a “good week” for the Lincoln White House.
Vicksburg was in Union hands, and Lee’s army had been stopped in ts tracks at Gettysburg. With any luck the war might have been over or at least shortened by a good deal.
However Lee’s army, much to Lincoln’s disappointment and dismay, managed to make their way south and escape to fight another day.
We can only imagine what the pundits and talking heads of our day would have said about this development. They would have crucified Lincoln, and demanded that he resign, would have called him soft on national defense, would have insisted on him replacing General Mead.The net work military experts all retired from the military of course, would have questioned his military knowledge, and provided any number of successful strategies for winning the war.
In short there would have been Hell to Pay twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
Not that Lincoln’s critics weren’t hard on him, indeed they savaged him, but they at least had to wait for the next edition of the newspaper to come out before taking up the attack, which at least gave Lincoln time to formulate his arguments and replies.I would imagine that modern day presidents wish form time to time that they had that small luxury.
Enjoy the rest of your 4th.
We were stationed in the Panama Canal Zone for the bicentennial
————-
I was at Point Conception , Calf. with Robin Hardister , naked as jay birds.
We had the whole thing to ourselves , built a huge driftwood sculpture .
“And May we return to the simple truths and Values of the founders”
ping,
1790
Total population: 3,929,214; farmers 90% of labor force
1990
Total population: 261,423,000; farmers 2.6% of labor force
http://www.agclassroom.org/gan/timeline/farmers_land.htm
My favorite words in the Declaration: “Let facts be submitted to a candid world.”
ping, don’t hold your breath on that “return” wish. the percentage of prisoners in the us population alone is getting close to the current percentage of farmers in the us (see figure in my 5:43 post).
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world/americas/23iht-23prison.12253738.html
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305703
That’ the process Korea has been going through in the months since the sinking of their corvette in March. And facts they have, in voluminous detail. And past history of nefarious acts by the North with Soviet acquiescence at the least.
I can’t help but think that there’s a tie-in between the pick-up of these low-level helper-agents and Russia’s less than stellar cooperation in setting things right on the Cheonan sinking. Time will tell.
Oh come on Pat, the simple truths were those thought through by the great philosophers. And the values? Those were those ideals that we thought and hoped might materialize sometime hence. Now tell me, what have you done to reduce the shameful prison population in this country, 234-years later?
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305699
Thank you, Jace. & you’re absolutely right about what would have happened with a 24 hr. news cycle.
“what have you done to reduce the shameful prison population in this country, 234-years later?”
Not that you asked me but I stayed out of one for all these years.
Oh, forgot *knocks on wood*
Oh, crap, Rez, we were having a pretty good 4th until now. Damned knuckles are sore as hell.
Flatus, As in most years past, if I was home in OK today, we’d be headed to either Pawnee or Comanche Homecoming dances and that’s what I’m thinking or missing. . much too serious in here today for me. Hasta, out for beer run.
patd,Thx for the npr link
Have a good one Rez. On the 4th at Lawton, we’d be out at the lake.
Hey Rez — have you been keeping up with all the flap between the Cherokee Nation and several tribes in Tennessee?
Here’s what was in the Tennessean:
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20100701/NEWS01/7010334/Native+Americans+dispute+recognition+of+new+tribes+in+TN
Hi Patsi,
Happy 4th! Nope, haven’t heard of the latest dust up. I wouldn’t be surprised though cause there’s always some group wanting to be (wannabe) a full fledged “subsidiary” of the CN. (I know this will be taken wrong, but) It always someone like Chief Billy “Stumbling Bear” Jones and Princess Palemoon, probably with dubious credentials, seeking recognition from the Cherokee and ultimately some of the benefits thereof. The CN fights these battles all the time.
They are, however, having a tough time shaking the Cherokee “freedmen” from tribal citizenship. These are the descendants of black Cherokee slaves the CN was forced to accept into the tribe by the gov’t as part of Reconstruction and siding with Rebs. They voted to oust them a couple years back and now are fighting Congress (Black Caucus) who has been threatening withholding money unless they relent. It’s quite ironic but the gov’t says they have to honor their agreements. Ha! It’s not my fight although my sister married one of them “bonefide’” Cherokees.
I wish to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. And about that 1976 date…..
Well face book allows one to be any age one wishes and I was feeling rather young and feisty the last time I updated my profile.
Jack
I can’t help but think that ol’ TJ would have made mincemeat of the Tea Baggers and even Patrick Henry who was a God besotted nut case would have thought them to be uneducated yahoos.
July 4,1910 Jack Johnson and Jim Jeffries squared off in a
scheduled 45 round fight for the heavy weight championship of the world, in Reno Nevada.The fight went 15 rounds with Johnson knocking out Jeffries “the great white hope.”
AP reporter Tim Dahlberg has a fascinating article about the fight in today’s Las Vegas Review Journal.He describes the lead up to the fight, the fight itself and the aftermath. The public reaction to the out come of the fight was amazing.
Both Johnson and Jeffries were interesting characters both inside the ring and out, neither one what you would consider your typical prize fighters.
Thought that their might be some boxing aficionados that might care to chime in.
Another interesting event that took place on a 4th of July.
Holy crap--sounds like heavy artillery down on the creekbank! Rednecks w/leftovers, I guess.
Oh, well. At least if they set the woods on fire, they’re close to water--
Damn, now it’s up the hill behind the old tobacco barn! Bombarded from two sides--
And that bunch is nowhere near water--
Gunpowder smell heavy in the air. Not good--
a6kMy4
Meanwhile, some bedtime music:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk
Very calming. And tonight, with all the ruckus outside, calm is needed.
I’m bacheloring it today with the dogs. DW and SIL are on a road trip to Seattle for a few days to see the sights.
As much as I was wishing just to have an enjoyable holiday to myself without much seriousness, a good friend reminded me earlier of some interesting tidbits of history we’re not generally introduced to as a part of our education, along with a good link somewhat fitting for today’s thread. A few nice anecdotes courtesy of a scholar of the Haudenosaunee, “People of the Long House.”
As much as I’m sure some hate to keep hearing about it, it’s tough when we’re surrounded by it.
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp8.html#fn19
flatus asked:
”
“what have you done to reduce the shameful prison population in this country, 234-years later?”
rez replied:
“Not that you asked me but I stayed out of one for all these years.
that makes two of us, rez.
flatus also said in support of ping’s longing to return to better ideas:
“the simple truths were those thought through by the great philosophers. And the values? Those were those ideals that we thought and hoped might materialize sometime hence”
flatus, i did not mean to focus on the negative (such as the incarcerated percentage). i meant to remind ping of what a very different world it was for the average, greater percentage of americans when those truths were discussed and proclaimed.
and flatus much of the campaign for legalizing, regulating and taxing mary jane is a very serious attempt to seriously “reduce the shameful prison population”
Rez- love the quote from Franklin, yet still he uses the term Sauvages
“Happiness is more generally and equally diffus’d among
Savages than in civilized societies. No European who has
tasted savage life can afterwards bear to live in our
societies.
--Benjamin Franklin,
1770[2]
Belated Happy Birthday Jack!
Corey- thanks for posting Barney link, very funny.
“Wyoming governor puts slice of national park on the market
By Mean Gruver
Monday, July 5, 2010
MOOSE, WYO. — For sale: two square miles of Grand Teton National Park.
Majestic views of the Teton Range. Prime location for luxury resort, home development. Pristine habitat for moose, elk, wolves, grizzlies.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/04/AR2010070404003.html?hpid=moreheadlines
I really didn’t know what to make of the neighborhood fireworks last night. Because the 4th was on a Sunday, many of the folks were out of town leaving their second and third cars in the driveway with their burglar alarms on hair trigger.
So, every time an aerial munition exploded anywhere within 1/2 mile it seemed like every dwelling on our street had at least one car responding with sirens, honkings of horns, and assorted klaxon sounds.
The cacophony certainly made it seem like Chinese New Year in San Francisco, but since it was the 4th of July and with the traditional playing of the 1812 Overture by Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops still implanted on our memories, I simply had to wonder what he, and the Pyotr Ilyich would have thunk about the whole thing.
It sent me to bed at ten with a pillow over my head.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305724
Pat, I think it’s more important coming to grips as to why we feel compelled to incarcerate minorities at such horrendous rates. Of course, I suppose we know that most of them are nothing more than pushers, etc.
desperate times for states… desperate measures ensue
see link above re selling off nat’l park part
and below reducing all ca state emp’ees to minimum wage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/02/minimum-wage-for-californ_n_633446.html
flatus, after last night’s noise, are there any dogs left in your neighborhood?
wonder what wrath will be wroth due to the extreme high heat expected in the big cities along the east coast this week. tempers flare as the temperatures enflame. and stuff melts along with civility.
The other week Stinky and I took our granddaughter down to SC State in Orangeburg, SC.
She was pleasantly surprised by what she saw, a small campus that was well maintained, with an on-campus apartment available for her and her child. That relieved a tremendous amount of anxiety.
She wasn’t able to see a classroom in action. She wants very much to see the dynamics of what transpires.
While she was collecting handouts, etc., I talked with some of the other prospective students. They were a thoroughly engaging bunch from all over the Southeast. They clearly were well educated up to this point and were eager to get on to college.
Should she choose to go there, I’ll feel quite comfortable in that decision. Right now, I suspect she wants to tie up some loose ends which means taking a full load of core courses at a local community college here in Columbia and then transferring at the start of the winter semester. Sounds like a plan.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/my-private-obama_b_635289.html
“My Private Obama”
“In my imaginary speeches, Obama gets serious about the jobs crisis — and then dares Republicans to try to block his efforts to put Americans back to work. But Obama and his political advisers have convinced themselves that economically vulnerable people somehow care more about the abstraction of the public debt than the immediate threats to their livelihoods.
Even if relentless conservative propaganda had moved public opinion in that direction, which in fact it has not, the job of a president is to educate. For the definitive refutation of the elite misreading of the public views of the deficits and debts, see the fine testimony of Larry Jacobs and Ben Page, two scrupulously insightful political scientists and public opinion scholars.
But despite our hopes, Barack Obama is unlikely to offer bolder policies or give tougher speeches any time soon, even as threats of a double-dip recession and an electoral blowout in November loom. This is just not who he is. If the worst economic crisis in eight decades were going to change his assumptions about how to govern and how to lead, it would have done so by now.”
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305731
Golly, the poor critters must think its the end of civilization as they know it!
flatus, she sounds like a very sensible young lady. must be something in the ohldfart dna.
tony, thanks for the article re jobs effort or noneffort to be precise. wonder whatever happened to restoring the wpa and ccc, ideas of creating public works projects. there are a lot of parks, community work projects languishing out there and a lot of folks needing jobs…. even a neocon could see that it makes more sense to put ‘em to work rather than extend unemployment comp. oh yeah, i forgot, those folks don’t even want to do that.
Pat, neither Stinky nor I have made any contribution to the DNA of any of our family--the kids were adopted, and one has adopted, in-turn, etc, etc..
When we are all through, we will look like a United Nations tour group.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305715
LMAO, Rez! Chief Stumbling Bear indeed!
One great thing the Cherokee Nation did was bury the husband of an old high school friend of mine. He was a Vietnam vet who returned in bad emotional shape and never quite got it together. She worked until she had several heart attacks in her mid fifties, then everything really went to hell. They were really down and out when he died a few years back, she didn’t even have the money to bury him. But he was part Cherokee, and so the Cherokee Nation stepped up to the plate.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305737
“wonder whatever happened to restoring the wpa and ccc, ideas of creating public works projects. there are a lot of parks, community work projects languishing out there and a lot of folks needing jobs’
Pat,
I wonder about the very same thing.Why didn’t the President use most of the stimulus money(800billion) for shovel ready jobs?One third of the stimulus was tax cuts,to PLEASE Republicans,wow,like he could ever do that..Remember when those stimulus checks were sent to us in the mail,nice to receive but seems as though it would have been better spent employing folks…
Pat, I guess you’re not an employed middle-aged woman of color living in a neighborhood in the midst of social disintegration. If you were that woman you would be at your wits end trying to find people in government who would listen to you and your friends’ responsible approaches to dealing with neighborhood problems using neighborhood resources with support from local government.
Solutions created in DC simply will not work; they must be created neighborhood by neighborhood in partnership with local government with neighborhood leaders and elected officials ultimately responsible for goal achievement.
Solutions created in DC simply will not work:
Flatus, Truer words were never spoken.
It is in the very nature of government to assume that one size fits all. Whether it is the farm bill, health care, unemployment,
you name it, they have a single all encompassing answer for every thing. That is why so many well intended programs go astray and seldom yield the benefits that were promised.
The law of unintended consequences almost always applies to these programs, and generally to the detriment of the program and those it is intended to help.
Hey. I just got that. “May the fourth be with you.”
I prefer “Live long and prosper.”
“WE will live long and prosper, YOU should work for minimum wage without health insurance.”
-Fortune 500 CEOs
“nor I have made any contribution to the DNA”
i tho’t the venerable name “ohldfarht” was a dynasty created by a very fertile mind and therefore assumed you passed on virtual not actual dna.
Nash, Re: your 9:56 AM Post
Sounds about right. Good on you.
LONDON (AFP) -- – BP’s costs arising from the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico have rocketed to 3.12 billion dollars (2.49 billion euros), the company revealed on Monday
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100705/tts-us-oil-environment-pollution-bp-cost-972e412.html
I just love the morning after a holiday, because my only breakfast option is pie.
Today’s offering is cherry with vanilla bean ice cream,and a really good coffee courtesy of a local roaster.
Some days it just doesn’t get any better.
Have a great one all.
“U.S. President, Barack Obama has announced over the weekend, an ambitious plan by his administration to set-aside close to $2 billion for his renewable energy initiatives……
According to the White House, the companies that will receive the funds from the president’s $862 billion economic stimulus include Abengoa Solar, which will build one of the world’s largest solar plants in the state of Arizona creating 1,600 construction jobs; and Abound Solar Manufacturing, which is building plants in Colorado and Indiana.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-50960-King-County-Business-and-Current-Affairs-Examiner~y2010m7d5-President-Obama-to-award-2-billion-for-solar-power
patd,
At that rate sounds like Obama better grab that 20 billion
sooner rather than later. 3.12 billion and they haven’t even scratched the surface of the eventual costs.
jace, does that 3.12 b include and have they accounted for what the crude that’s being recovered is worth? not only the skimmed and processessed, but the unadulterated stuff that will bring a good price.
in early june it was reported that they were recovering/catching 630,000 gallons a day and that
“When it sells the oil recovered from the Gulf, BP will use the revenues to create a fund to protect wildlife in the region, the company said.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/09/national/main6564327.shtml
In bee-YOO-tee-ful downtown Knobite Corner, we’re about nine inches in the hole on our annual rainfall total, air quality is a constant Code Orange (not a good thing, even in the Vol Nation), Mom’s COPD is acting up badly, the grass is dying, and tempers are short. Mine’s about the shortest.
I’m thinking of doing a rain dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebt0BR5wHYs
Couldn’t hurt. Might improve my temper.
Pat, there’s no ‘d’ in Ohlfahrt.
Here’s how the name came about. When my Cockney great grandfather arrived at Ellis Island, all 62″ of him, toothless, hungry, tired and yearning to be free, he faced the immigration inspectors:
“Name?”
“Justin Oldheart”
“Say it again.”
“Justin Oldheart”
“One more time”
“JUSTIN OLDHEART!” says Grandpa, his chest puffed out, and his face purple with the effort of it all.
So the inspector writes down “Just an Old Fart” and passes the form to his supervisor who calls him a wise ass and changes it to, “Justin Ohlfahrt.”
And Ohlfahrts we’ve been ever since.
the msm excitement about the spies among us is surely going to spark some bestseller, movie or sit-com. a comedy sitcom would be best.
maybe a d.c. outlying area location like lake barcroft or silver spring or alexandria. a walter mitty type spy wannabe meets nextdoor undercover families from various countries who have no idea of their closeted (in more ways than one) neighbors. inspecter clouseau meets james bond meets hapless boris and natasha over bbq. throw in a faux au pair and exchange student for the teen young love interest. all very french farcical.
patd
I think it’s already been done The Coneheads
kgc, but so much has changed since then.
in case you missed lard’s latest news (like i did until now) here’s the link from last wednesday:
http://seanholton.wordpress.com/
i suggested his proposed survivor tee shirt he wants to don on the 24th for his anniversary be printed so we all can wear one like it as a team shirt. on the front “i’m a survivor” and on the back “now what?”
Ah, the huge rise in BP’s oil spew expenses must include all those indirect, but related, expenses such as pensions for their executives, maintenance of the corporate yacht Bob, etc., etc.
Can that yacht skim oil? Just a thought.
Thought for the day :
” Are you a good witch, or are you a bad witch? ”
1794 Sylvester Graham developed graham cracker
LONDON—BP PLC’s standby loan has inched up to around $9 billion as more banks join the group of lenders supporting the company against possible claims related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a person familiar with the situation said Monday.
Around eight or nine banks have agreed to lend around $1 billion each to BP on a bilateral basis…..
…….The standby loans provide the company with immediate access to liquidity to deal with the cost of the oil spill and meet its liabilities while BP considers longer-term funding options, the person said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704535004575348873317451584.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Jebediah Nightlinger: [praying to God before he's about to hanged by Asa Watts and his gang] I regret trifling with married women. I’m thoroughly ashamed at cheating at cards. I deplore my occasional departures from the truth. Forgive me for taking your name in vain, my Saturday drunkenness, my Sunday sloth. Above all, forgive me for the men I’ve killed in anger
[eyes shifting to Asa Watts]
Jebediah Nightlinger: … and those I am about to.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
400 PM EDT MON JUL 05 2010
WASHINGTON NAT PTSUNNY TMP-97 DewP-63 RH-32
http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=md&prodtype=hourly
C’Bob,
I tended bar to my surprise at a place called (at the last minute) Jose Sent Me. (It was going to be an ersatz speakeasy but the Tex-Mex reflux just had hit the city so… things sort of changed. Well, not really — sometimes when patrons truly were unhappy with their meals, I had ordered out the same dish from a genuine Mexican restaurant around the corner. Also… every job I ever had occurred “to my surprise:.)
The place had permanent fans (like Paul Schaeffer and his then girlfriend who would sit and read their books in a sort of warm silence — it would take that near fatal car crash in Hawaii to bring them so much closer together) and those who’d come and go at high and low tides like the folks from CBS News.
But Jebediah Nightlinger was the best company ever to be seated at the bar.
At the time he pulled a steal the show star turn in the second act of My One and Only. Bits and pieces of the cast would show up after the curtain but Mr. Roscoe Lee Browne was there regularly. We talked about so many things… starting with his playing Benito Cereno in Robert Lowell’s unforgettably moving and imaginative stage adaptation of Melville’s novella.
We just talked about so much that we had heard and read for weeks. One day he asked me (more than a bit flirtatiously) what role would I like to see him play. And the name “Baron de Charlus” just fell out of my mouth. He pulled a fine look of astonishment… and left to go reread Proust.
We got back in touch when I (again to my surprise) become a working playwright. And still, three years after his death, I have had dreams about his beyond perfect Baron de Charlus in some non-existent stage version of Proust.
Someone asked me once who had ever flirted with me in a way that actually made me feel kind of wonderful. The only true answer is always Roscoe Lee Browne.
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BALTIMORE MD/WASHINGTON DC
400 PM EDT MON JUL 05 2010
WASHINGTON NAT PTSUNNY TMP-97 DewP-63 RH-32
http://www.weather.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=md&prodtype=hourly
9/11 -
I always felt sorry for anyone who had to share a scene with Roscoe or Strother, they never had chance . Each one’s voice and delivery, knocked back some of the greatest. Be it Paul Newman or the “Duke” .
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/04/AR2010070403856.html
“Obama’s CEO problem — and ours’
“Most of the business leaders I spoke to had voted for Barack Obama. They still admire him. Those who had met him thought he was unusually smart. But all think he is, at his core, anti-business. When I asked for specifics, they pointed to the fact that Obama has no business executives in his Cabinet, that he rarely consults with CEOs (except for photo ops), that he has almost no private-sector experience, that he’s made clear he thinks government and nonprofit work are superior to the private sector. It all added up to a profound sense of distrust.
Some of this is a product of chance. The economic crisis forced the government to expand its authority in dozens of areas, from finance to automobiles. But precisely because of these circumstances, Obama needs to outline a growth and competitiveness agenda that is compelling to the business community. This might sound like psychology more than economics, and the populist left will surely scream that the last thing we need to do is pander to business. But the first thing we need is for these people to start spending their money — soon. As a leading New York businessman who publicly supported Obama during the campaign told me, “their perception is our reality.”
C’Bob,
So strange that 50000 actors and stand ups daily would do Strother imitating (particularly as the Captain in Cool Hand Luke)… but does anyone remember anyone mimicking Browne?
I don’t.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/7871421/With-the-US-trapped-in-depression-this-really-is-starting-to-feel-like-1932.html
“With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932
The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation.”
A view from Europe…
Craig…
Do you remember the politically dead summer when you turned Crawfordslist in the finest gossip salon ever?
Now THAT was fun. (Miss Birdies agrees.)
Breaking news!
This city has gone wild from something hotter than this heat --
James Dolan (who I still think was married to young Catherine the Great) announced that the greatest, most amazing, stirring, breathtaking, lifechanging, raising the dead signing EVER in the world of sports.
Brett Favre will NOT retire. He has signed a nine figure contract to be the Knick’s championship bound power forward.
In his own remarks, Favre mentioned that his only condition for signing the contract is if the Knicks get Kate Gosselin as well.
9/11 -
Roscoe’s voice was like aged burbon …… Strother’s more like echo in a trash can. Harder to do that aged stuff , than bang on the can.
Hey 9/11,
Nice to have you drop in every once in a while and share. btw, I ‘ve spent more than my share of time on both sides of a bar, but mostly sitting, and think you’d be most excellent company sitting or tending.
just the other day i had a project manager on a huge house construction impressing upon me that “what we have heah is a failyah to communicate”…..
(I told him in return “I bet I can eat fifty boiled eggs…….”)
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/02/cycle/index.html
“A cycle of stupidity”
“RNC Chairman Michael Steele today lashed out at President Obama by saying: “if he’s such a student of history, has he not understood that you know that’s the one thing you don’t do, is engage in a land war in Afghanistan?” Of course it’s absurd for Steele to voice that criticism without mentioning that it is his own Party which started that war and waged it for 8 years — as well as the fact that virtually every Congressional member of his Party continues to support the war — but Steele was right in the substance of what he said. In response, look at this truly repellent and classically Rovian statement issued by the DNC condemning Steele:”
Anybody wanna slow dance???
)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TC-d2AkPqcE
(I’m talkin’ to you, Paul--
Oops. Sorry--that didn’t come out EXACTLY right--(^_^)
If the Knobite wants to slow dance, here’s a little Ronnie Milsap to help her along
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPDBGtr5asM
Jace
Librettist and composer for 1776 took much of the dialogue from recorded public meetings and private letters. Naturally they took some liberties, but that quote is direct from Adams.
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305781
LOL Jamie--that’s a good one--I’ve been channeling my inner rock chick for the past five days and she’s wearing me out, so I thought slow dance tunes might help--
Jamie,
Thanks for the info on 1776. I suspected that might the case but could not find the quote or reference. At any rate Mr. Adams was spot on about congress.
Liberties or no it is still a very enjoyable musical, can’t help but smile whenever I watch it.
Thanks for the link.
jace
We’re having a heat wave. New daily high temperature records beat new cold records by nearly 5 to 1 in June
How hot is it? So hot that June “breaks the record for the warmest average temperature observed for any calendar month in Miami”
http://climateprogress.org/2010/07/05/heat-wave-global-warming/#comment-283714
Tar balls reach Lake Pontchartrain
http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/07/tar_balls_reach_lake_ponchartr.html
I had a wonderful ywo-day holiday -- reminiscent of the kinds of holidays of my youth.
Jack, Happy happy birthday!
I have been lurking but saying nothing, but be warned. My brain has been creative and I may have the makings of two (2) deeply interesting theories
which I will probably have to let loose soon. In addition I have a story re Gracie Greyhound to share.
Understand, my theories might not be original -- well, they are to me.
CNN is reporting that the corps of engineers was closed for the holiday weekend; among those whose tries to contact them were CNN, BP, and a captain of a ship trying to unload an important cargo. Hmmmm…
Point of contact for the Corps should be through the Natl Incident Commander for extraordinary matters on weekends and holidays, otherwise by advance coordination. Captain of the ship trying to unload an important cargo? Did he call whoever manifested the cargo? The captain of the port? The union steward? Did CNN try Larry King? Waddya mean he’s not answering?
Morning Bethy! Glad you had one of those really special holidays from the past. See, Norman Rockwell IS alive and well, we simply must look for him in all the right and best places.
c’bob -- Don’t ya think “The Texas Tarballs” would be a good name for some indy/rock band in Austin?
I woke up this morning to find that Barak Obama is now Neville Chamberlain. (Did anyone see who sponsored that ad & are they proposing we go into a 3rd theatre of war?)
Oh, and I also woke up to ants.
DC elites, politicians & media, believe that the middle class is dying, and they’re OK with that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/the-war-for-financial-ind_b_635574.html
Hope you all had a nice Holiday..
unfortunately, why NASA won’t last much longer..
http://ht.ly/27hlW
Greedy business people are destroying the environment, and you can’t stop them because they control the government, here and everywhere else. This will eventually cause the collapse of civilization.
BUT, before that happens, the upper class has decided that sharing the wealth with the middle and lower classes is no longer necessary. As long as they control the media they can control the peasants and get them to blame scapegoats for their steadily worsening economic circumstances.
So lets all join the Tea Party, buy some guns, and figure out who to shoot. (Illegals, blacks, liberals, Jews, cops, and that guy next door who doesn’t have a flag decal on his car.)
This all sounds like dark humor but think about what’s going to happen if the GOP regains control of Congress and Palin gets elected president in 2012, which, I would estimate, is about a 30% possibility.
Nash, all this is remarkably like the beginning of the last century.
Every time we speak of a possibility such as what you describe, I immediately start thinking of Taylor Caldwell’s compelling piece of fiction, Captains and the Kings. It’s been ages since I read it, and my library copy has long since vanished, but it is so topical for today.
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/07/05/bp/index.html
“The BP/Government police state”
“Last week, I interviewed Mother Jones’ Mac McClelland, who has been covering the BP oil spill in the Gulf since the first day it happened. She detailed how local police and federal officials work with BP to harass, impede, interrogate and even detain journalists who are covering the impact of the spill and the clean-up efforts. She documented one incident which was particularly chilling of an activist who — after being told by a local police officer to stop filming a BP facility because “BP didn’t want him filming” — was then pulled over after he left by that officer so he could be interrogated by a BP security official. McClelland also described how BP has virtually bought entire Police Departments which now do its bidding: “One parish has 57 extra shifts per week that they are devoting entirely to, basically, BP security detail, and BP is paying the sheriff’s office.”
Some people on the Gulf Coast are having a difficult time getting compensated by BP for lost income. It seems that they are often paid in cash, and so have no record of the income that has been lost. Maybe they wish they had filed that 1040 after all?
Jace
If you are interested, the following site has the Adams papers on line both with images of the originals and with typed text. The letters between Abigail and John are truly wonderful.
http://www.masshist.org/adams/
http://politics.usnews.com/opinion/mzuckerman/articles/2010/07/02/mort-zuckerman-obama-is-barely-treading-water.html
“Mort Zuckerman: Obama Is Barely Treading Water
The president’s problem is simple: the economy and jobs”
“The hope that fired up the election of Barack Obama has flickered out, leaving a national mood of despair and disappointment. Americans are dispirited over how wrong things are and uncertain they can be made right again. Hope may have been a quick breakfast, but it has proved a poor supper. A year and a half ago Obama was walking on water. Today he is barely treading water. Then, his soaring rhetoric enraptured the nation. Today, his speeches cannot lift him past a 45 percent approval rating.
There is a widespread feeling that the government doesn’t work, that it is incapable of solving America’s problems. Americans are fed up with Washington, fed up with Wall Street, fed up with the necessary but ill-conceived stimulus program, fed up with the misdirected healthcare program, and with pretty much everything else. They are outraged and feel that the system is not a level playing field, but is tilted against them. The millions of unemployed feel abandoned by the president, by the Democratic Congress, and by the Republicans.”
yes… we are having a heat wave here in the northeast….
yes…. I am frickin’ melting….
to which I say….. give me the Arctic Circle or give me death!
another book: EMPIRE, by gore vidal
mornin’
Renee, I hear ya. Saw 97 degrees on the car thermometer yeaterday -- supposed to get hotter than that today. To paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, it’s too hot to fish.
Nash, I coulda gone to a Tea Bag rally yesterday over at Veteran’s Park. Even here in the middle of the stupidity, parking was not an issue. Musta been the heat. Yeah, that’s it, too hot for tea.
so hot i saw two dogs chasing a rabbit and they were all walking……..
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7093815.html
Brewster Cty. Texas -- a hotbed of anti-governemnt sentiment -- is worried the government might not count enough folks there in the census -- you know, so they can get their fair share of assistance and funding from the government. I think they call this irony.
It is going to b in the 90′s for a few days here in the Willamette Valley. We have a very moderate climate with few extremes.
I think I will head for the coast later.
I hope everyone had a good Independence Day.
People who don’t cooperate with the census are simply, nuts.
This is really cool if you’re a cycling fan who follows teh Tour de France -- If you go to Letoru.fr and click on the big box just below the banner, ir throws a popup onto your screen that tracks the goings on with a graphic showing the gaps, sprint points, hills and distance and time elapsed and distance remaining that updates every minute. It’s very cool (and anything cool on a day as hot as today is welcomed)..
…make that Letour.fr …
Flatus: I should read more Taylor Caldwell. I just read one of her novels, “Pillar of Iron” and it had a profound influence on me.
Here’s a link to the Tour de France website
http://www.letour.fr/us/homepage_courseTDF.html
cajunjoe: My experience is that most small business people, who deal in cash, NEVER declare all their income.
Yeah, just let them try an collect from BP.
It’s also ironic that most of the them go around calling themselves “conservatives” and laugh at environmentalists.
renee: It’s going all the way up to 88 degrees in northern Maine today. That doesn’t sound so bad but it rarely gets above 80 up here.
If this global warming keeps up, I may have to buy one of those “air conditioner” things we hear about, but no one up here has ever seen, except in the Sears catalog.
Do they run on wood fuel, like stoves?
Someone here mentioned over the weekend about the fireworks at the end of the annual Boston Pops concert. Those are NOT Chinese fireworks. They are American made. They are produced by a company called Atlas… which is located about 10 mile up the road from me in Jaffrey, NH. They also produce the fireworks one sees in places like D.C. and Disney World.
http://www.atlaspyro.com/ff/
pogo: All those cyclists are on drugs, so it’s really just a race between one drug company vs another.
It should be called the “Tour De Dope.”
Besides, only kids ride bikes. Real men drive cars, or better still, a 3/4 ton truck with an “off road package.”
These days, Chinese fireworks are probably more expensive due to higher wages than NH.
Nash…. LOL!
I hear New England Wood Pellets, Inc. is working hard on this new product.
http://www.pelletheat.com/
crap…. I hit the submit button too soon….
I meant to say that New England Wood Pellets is the biggest producer of wood pellets in this country. They too are located in Jaffrey, NH.
Yeah, well, whoever uses the best mountain drugs is gonna win the Tour this year. Won’t know much about how this tour is gonna shakeout until the end of the 4th mountain stage -- which is next Tuesday. Not sure how many kids I know who ride 120 miles a day at about 25 m.p.h. for 3 weeks, but I hope they have good drugs -- they’ll need ‘em.
Thought for the day :
” Blessed are the peacemakers, they will never want for work. ”
C-Bob…Amen.
I don’t think palin has even a 30 % chance of winning the republican nomination.
Still, if republicans have a 33% chance of winning in 2012, which I think is fairly accurate, that yields a 10 % chance of the nation suffering a President palin. willard rates a 11%, and the Huckster rates 12%.
I actually doubt that palin will make a serious run. She needs a voice coach to scrub down the ‘Fargo’ accent (actually it’s a Moorhead accent), the way that dormin’ norman coleman got 60% of the Brooklyn scraped off of his accent. Otherwise, people will ask themselves if they really want to hear the ugly palin squawk and twang at newstime every evening for 1,461 days. She’ll toy with running for president to keep her ratings up, and therefore her income, but she’ll find a way to remain in the private sector and make herself into the Oprah of the fascisti.
I am not pretending to read her mind on this, rather I am making a prediction, based upon what I see in her -- a 100% committed opportunist, who knows that she doesn’t enjoy governing.
Pray that she doesn’t become dictator under a scenario such as Nash described. You don’t want to hear her sing, ‘Don’t cry for me, Wasilaska’. And, you’ll hate being one of the disappeared.
Hey everyone…thanks to all who jumped over to my blog recently to send me encouragement. Hearing from my Trailmix pals always gives me a good lift!
LL -
Keep posting those Homer Simpson brain scans …….
Been waitin’ for this one to hit.
“The U.S. Justice Department is filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s new law targeting illegal immigrants, setting the stage for a clash between the federal government and state over the nation’s toughest immigration crackdown.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/06/justice-department-arizon_n_636431.html
And I love this part:
“Arizona State University constitutional law professor Paul Bender said the federal government’s involvement throws a lot of weight behind the argument that federal law pre-empts Arizona’s measure.
“It’s important to have the federal government’s view of whether state law is inconsistent with federal law, and they’re the best people to say that,” Bender said.
“Kris Kobach, the University of Missouri-Kansas City law professor who helped draft the Arizona law, said he’s not surprised by the Justice Department’s challenge but called it “unprecedented and unnecessary.”
“He noted that the law already is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups opposed to the new statute.
“The issue was already teed up in the courts. There’s no reason for the Justice Department to get involved. The Justice Department doesn’t add anything by bringing their own lawsuit,” Kobach said in an interview, [well, except that their resources are much less limited than the ACLU...]”
OK, I added the part in square brackets.
Oh, btw, apparently AZ can’t find their own law professors to draft their laws, and Kobach is apparently unaware of the precedent set by Bushco when it sued Illinois over its state-based E-verify system to combat illegal immigrants, which Bushco won.
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/113857.html
The 4th clelbration was quite upbeat, especially if you watched the PBS special w/ Jimmy Smits. PBS featured a lot of non-Whites blessing the USA, plus the US Army Band, and the US Marines Drum and Buble Corps wearing red coats just like king george’s soldiers. I suppose that these new tunics were chosen and ordered during our own george III’s recent usurpy.
Anywhat, it was all very upbeat. This, plus the polls indicating that Americans are upbeat about the future, plus the anger over the tar on the red state beaches and hotel carpets, will all probably decrease the vote totals of many pro-Big Oil, Hate & Fear Party candidates.
I am looing forward to a satisfyingly pro-environment, anti-Wall Street, anti-racist, anti-t-hugger election.
Mr. Liberal,
Thanks for popping in on us. I always like having you around.
Boner redux.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/05/john-boehner-barack-obama_n_635644.html
“The video is an extension of an ongoing feud between the GOP leader and the Obama team over comments Boehner made comparing the financial crisis to an “ant.”
“Mr. President, what about the country?” Boehner says in the video. “Why aren’t you focused on cutting spending now?”
“He continued: “Why isn’t the president focused on creating jobs that the American people are asking for?”
Who says Boner doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Hey, Lard, great to hear from you. Don’t be such a stranger now that they’ve done whatever they did to your brain. Sounds like it’s less scrambled now than mine (no great feat, btw).
Wall street’s taking sides -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/05/AR2010070502913.html?hpid=topnews
Now who coulda seen this coming? hmmmm?????
“The first couple held the White House’s Fourth of July barbecue for military members and families and government employees and families on the South Lawn on Sunday. ”
Hey, Daryl, I bet you’re relieved that the O’s didn’t spend a bunch of money flying AF1 to some exotic clime for the 4th.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/04/obama-fourth-of-july-firs_n_635268.html?ir=Politics
Well, I be gone for the day. Happy 6th of July.
Pogo -
You want to ants ? Bigger tax cuts , that’s the ticket. They will all be crushed under the weight of their new found wealth.
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305811
If this is the comment you were thinking about, Renee, I’m innocent!
http://blogs.cqpolitics.com/trailmix/2010/07/the-4th-be-with-you-1.html#comment-305728
I am also looking forward to the vote on Elena Kagan. It will be interesting to see which Senators voted against Breyer, Ginsburg, and Kagan. I am assuming that votes against all 3 can and will be used effectively by political fund raisers in the Jewish community to help defeat the bigots.
Monty Python…”It’s hot enough to boil a monkey’s bum in here.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_p0CgPeyA
x-republican:
If a dictatorship arises in the USA, EVERYONE who posts comments here is going to end up in a concentration camp.
Yes, you too, Max. In order to consolidate power, one has to get rid of the people on your own side who are “too opinionated.” You never know when they might turn against you.
Better to have followers who don’t think at all, but just follow orders.
I think Socrates said that.
Or maybe it was Julius Caesar. I always get those two mixed up.
Speaking out to protest our membership in G-20, Rep. bachmann said she doen’t want the United States to be a part of the “global economy”, cuz soon we’ll have to “cede United States authority to a transnational organization.”
She wasn’t talking about bp, to whom she had earlier apologized for America’s worthless beaches soaking up their precious oil.
“…EVERYONE who posts comments here is going to end up in a concentration camp. ”
Then, that means TM will be the distilled essence of American, indeed, World opinion!
Socrates was one of the first up against the wall. He was an opponent of the War with Sparta, after all.
I think that Plato’s Symposium was merely an attempt to remind Athenians that the Make More Wars Party lost the elective War with Syracuse.
Juius Caesar, on the other hand, never met a war he didn’t both like and win. His enemies, the republicans of the Senate were alarmed and angry that Caesar won every war he ever fought. After Caesar died, they made their point by promptly losiong the Battle of Philippi
Flatus….
nope… I wasn’t thinking of your comment. I kinda sped read the comments for several days and someone actually mentioned the Boston fireworks and concert. I just thought I’d say where those fireworks were made.
a boiled monkey’s bum…. hmmmmm…. might not be too bad with a little barbecue sauce….
We grew up with a fireworks factory not far from the family farm American Fireworks in Hudson Ohio. They had some absolutely horrendous accidents in the 50s and 60s--deaths and major destruction.
I worked with serious military munitions for about half of my career--everything from hand grenades to things in the megaton range. I’m a helluva lot more scared of fireworks than any of the American military munitions I worked with.
New Thread
republicans of the Senate today seem to be modeling themselves after Cassius, or is it Casca ?.
Pogo, I still check in and try my best to keep up with the great discussions here — but you guys usually have all the bases covered and I haven’t had much to add.
Oh wait, a few days ago I came up with a great way for John McCain to triangulate his way to re-election. Let me know if you think this kind of stuff would have been worth posting:
Step 1 — McCain leads a push to repeal the new Arizona immigration law and replace it with a law making gay marriage legal in Arizona. (Okay, so now the righties are REALLY pissed at him but he’s starting to win back some centrists.)
Step 2 — Taking advantage of the new gay marriage law in his home state, McCain immediately divorces his wife Cindy and proposes marriage to General David Petraeus (upon whom we all know he has a huge crush, anyway, right?) They elope, driving every other Republican in Congress (straight or gay) insane with jealousy.
Step 3 — During their blissful honeymoon, McCain gives Petraeus the best nude backrub of his entire life, then convinces him to push for an immediate shutown of all military operations in Afghanistan so that all troops on the ground there can be transferred promptly to the U.S.-Mexico border to secure it. (And now the righties are satisfied and will vote for him, even though he’s married to a man).
Should I be charging for this kind of advice, or what?
lard, new thread. i’ve reposted your 4:07 post.