Date

Candi's Nightmare (Cheney's Dream?)

susan — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 14:55:46 -0500

My friend Candace is a woman of many skills, among them cooking, catering -- often at huge rock 'n' roll venues, and making me laugh. She recently had the following dream: It's short.

Botched Attack on Basra: Maliki takes lessons from a master bungler

susan — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:38:03 -0500

The snow that piled up here on Monday is melting away almost as quickly as it fell, and V-formations of tundra swans are squawking overhead on their way north. I should be outside basking in the warmth of this delayed bit of spring, but no. Here I sit, powerless over my need to know. My need to know what the hell's going on out there, the big out there, the frickin' political out there. As with most addictions, after the high of knowing comes the crash of --knowing.

Take today’s New York Times lead story: U.S. Cites Planning Gaps In Iraqi Assault on Basra. It describes all that went wrong with the recent Iraqi-led attack on the “insurgents” (aka, residents) of Basra, which was pretty much everything. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal a-Maliki is credited with the loss, impulsively leading an ill-prepared and ultimately bungled invasion, resulting in a cease-fire brokered by Iran, and further damaging his government's credibility and world-standing.

According to the Times, “Mr. Maliki overestimated his military’s abilities and underestimated the scale of the resistance. The Iraqi prime minister also displayed an impulsive leadership style that did not give his forces or that of his most powerful allies, the American and British military, time to prepare.

Sound familiar? There’s more.

More on Maliki, MSM and the madness in Iraq

barbara — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 08:25:20 -0500

barbara writes but not really

(barbara note: I'm moving leftyMN's comment from Susan's thread below up here because it adds some important information to that post.)

leftyMN writes:

Not much is clear about what is going on in Iraq because our government and a compliant media are not reporting the true story about what is going on. (barbara note: this is an ongoing problem that we need to resolve!)

What is going on is a civil war for control of the country. There are 3 to 4 players. Two large Shiite factions, a grouping of many Sunni factions, and finally a Kurdish minority in the north.

The USA is inextricably linked to Al Maliki and the current government of Iraq. The main problem with this is that the current government was put in power without the participation of the Sunni minority or the largest Shiite faction (Sadrists) who more or less boycotted the elections. Read the rest.

MLK a Hero to McCain? Not So Much

susan — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 12:11:57 -0500

On the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's death, we should take note of the vast differences on race between John McCain and Barack Obama, and not just the obvious one.
Color of Change sent out the following reminder of John McCain's record in honoring the legacy of Dr. King.
***
McCain will bring his "Service to America" tour to Memphis on Friday, but many people don't know the service he touts includes voting against the federal holiday honoring Dr. King. In August 1983 he fought the holiday, voting to block a piece of bipartisan legislation honoring him that was supported by even conservative Republicans--including Dick Cheney--and signed into law by President Reagan. It gets worse.

When mission accomplished is really Mission Impossible

barbara — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 21:33:20 -0500

barbara writes

All right. Let's get busy.

My first task is to try to embed a video for the first time.

Assuming I succeed at this, take a look at the following MoveOn video. Even if you've already seen it, watch it again. Then spread the word. Better still, spread a link to the Clothesline, because we are not above shameless self-promotion, even when we've gone missing for several days running.

Turn up your speakers and wish me luck. Here goes.

Booyah! I did it! More shortly.

(h/t Alan!)

Political analysis American style

barbara — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:43:30 -0500

barbara writes

This just in!

That fiendy guy, Barack Obama, drinks orange juice!!

Yes, it's true. Hardballers Chris Matthews and David Schuster excoriated Obama for requesting orange juice instead of coffee at a diner in Indiana. Thank God for journalistic integrity.

Orange juice. The choice of homophobic Anita Bryant. Orange juice. Lack thereof results in scurvy or rickets. Orange juice. The fluid in which mothers of yore foisted repulsive cod liver oil on their kids. And don't even get me started on O.J. Simpson!

See for yourself.

Obama to debate whoever shows up

barbara — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:12:17 -0500

barbara writes

UPDATE: Turns out it didn't really matter whether anyone showed up. It was a world class mega-mess of a debate. Vapid questions. Intrusive moderators. Non-issues. Nit-picky weirdness. And those were the good things. Shame on you, ABC!!

People, people! I finally figured it out. All that snarly crap emanating from the Hillary Clinton campaign? It’s really a gesture of goodwill. Yup. Those fine folks are all about the business of girding Barack Obama’s loins for battle with the dark side. No, no. I mean the really dark side. Darker than James Carville’s attitude. Darker than Mark Penn’s soul.

All of which explains why there’s so much chatter today about how negative Hillary should be/must be in tonight’s debate with Obama in Pennsylvania. Will it be slap-on-the-hand snark or Tonya Harding kneecap-busting? The thing is, it could go either way. Because if we haven’t learned anything else in the past few months, we know it’s not possible to second-guess which Hillary will show up. Read on.

Where have all the journalists gone?

barbara — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 13:08:35 -0500

barbara writes

It is altogether fitting and proper that, on the heels of the execrable "debate" on ABC last night, I received a snail mail today from MinnPost.com.

If you've missed it, MinnPost.com is a relatively new web journal that in its infancy is attempting to do the job that the MSM has abdicated, i.e., responsible, probing, bi-partisan, honest-to-goodness, old-fashioned journalism. They're doing a pretty good job and I suspect they're tweaking as they go.

Check 'em out here.

They've attracted some of the best and brightest from the dwindling and increasingly irrelevant and right-tilting Minneapolis Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press, including Joel Kramer (a former editor of the Strib) and former editorial editor, Susan Albright, along with the likes of Doug Grow, Eric Black, Joe Kimball, and Steve Berg, for starters. Real journalists! But wait, that's not all.

Repubs to delegates: You're just props.

susan — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:57:54 -0500

Why this photo? Because we can't see it enough.

(UPDATE: Server hiccup this morning. Seems okay now.)

Next week is my DFL (Democratic, for those who don't live in MN) district convention and I'm thinking about trying to get elected to the Democratic National convention. Barb may be too, but we both know that the portal narrows considerably at this level, and the rationale for who gets through is more art (to be kind) than science. And I don't mean to imply it's the high and mighty who get through it. Nope, we're the DFL. We make our selection on more amorphous criteria.

So I'm thinking about this national convention. Will there really be much of a reason to be there other than to be part of some HUGE frickin' historical moment? I mean, people tell me you get a much better view of it all, actually see (and hear) the speeches if you're not on the convention floor.
Read on.

Where have all the journalists gone? Part 2

susan — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 12:36:46 -0500

Appropos of Barb's post on the so-called ABC debate, watch this and weep.
I'm not even going to try to figure out how to post a video, because this one involves two videos. Go to The Brad Blog to see how Fox "news" will do its "fair and balanced" best to make sure John McCain is our next president. (And hat-tip to son Max.)

Okay, so it's Bill O'Reilly, and no one takes him seriously, right? Right. And everyone knows that Fox news is a biased font of misinformation. Right? So why do so many people still believe that Barack Obama has a "muslim" past and that he hates America? If you thought the campaign so far has been repugnant, you ain't seen nothing yet. If I were Barack Obama I'd be very tempted to say, "Know what? I don't need this." and walk away. Hillary? She seems to thrive on it. Read on for a recap.

Morning after blues . . .

susan — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:08:49 -0500

We knew it was coming, knew she'd win, but we all hoped the margin would be single digits and it slopped over into double digits, by a hair. If I were Barack I'd be sorely tempted to just walk away from it all. You know? Just say, "This whole process is demeaning. It's demeaning to me and my family, personally, but it's demeaning to America and to democracy. So she can have it. She can live in that gutter, I choose not to." But he can't and won't. The Clintons do seem to be cut out for this stuff though. She's got a point about being able to take it. She can get down in the muck and look like she's loving it. Yeah, more.

And just wait until September!

barbara — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:59:51 -0500

barbara writes

We have become a violence-saturated people. Passive violence, mostly. Voyeuristic violence. We love pitting people against each other and watching them duke it out. We say we enjoy competition and feign distaste for conflict. But I would submit that it takes escalation of conflict to hold our collective micro-second interest. We've been conditioned to this by video games, print media, broadcast media, a plethora of "R" rated movies. We eat this up, a few pockets of peacemakers notwithstanding.

Don't believe me? Think "American Idol" and the ultra-snarly Simon-Whatshisface. "Survivor." The Donald Trump humiliation show. Talk radio, both sides of the aisle. The Coen Brothers' films. Pro football. A hockey game is a big disappointment if blood doesn't spatter-paint the ice. A NASCAR race is never more thrilling than when someone wipes out in flames. Dick Cheney’s face-blast would have had longer shelf-life if his hunting buddy had died. There's more.

Who's sorry now, eh?

barbara — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 16:35:31 -0500

barbara writes

Can someone please get me in touch with the Obama people, stat? No, really, I mean it. I have a sure-fire, two-part campaign strategy for Barack.

(1) Barack Obama must pre-emptively denounce everyone, every thing and every place immediately. His wife and his children. His extended family. His friends, colleagues, neighbors. Former friends, former colleagues, former neighbors. Dead people. His teachers, taxi drivers, wait staff, barbers. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Greens, Grays, Plaids. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Moonies, agnostics, heathens and Wiccans. People of color. People of no color whatsoever (meaning no offense to albino humans, squirrels, goats, and cows). Iraq, Iran, Iceland and the Iberian Peninsula. Mall of America, the Mojave Desert and the Mitchell Corn Palace. Also all alliteration.

Then, in the fullness of time, Obama can un-denounce on a carefully considered, selective basis. He can hold a daily press briefing, announcing the names of those persons, places and things that he no longer, uh, denounces.

Read the rest of my sure-fire plan.