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Kudos to Elissa Wright

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

As My Left Nutmeg reports, our state representative Elissa Wright has a 100% rating from the League of Conservation Voters. Elissa has done a great job since she became a member of the House. What’s with the Republicans outscoring the Democrats in the Senate?

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It all depends on your intent in using the word “intent”

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Some folks just can’t catch a break. First, Larry Craig taps his foot in a restroom stall, and the next thing you know he’s announcing his intent to resign from the Senate. Almost no one noticed that he didn’t actually resign. After all, he wouldn’t be misleading us, would he?

Well, yes he would. The very next day Arlen Specter pointed out that, since Craig hadn’t actually resigned, he, Specter, felt he should fight the charges to which he’s already pleaded guilty. After all, Specter pointed out, he had only said he intended to resign. He had not, in fact, resigned.

Sure enough, Larry soon seemed to be considering changing his mind. It would be cynical of us to believe that while he had an “intent” to resign, he also had an “intent” to deceive, wouldn’t i?. Well, no, it wouldn’t, because Craig is a Republican, and almost by definition a liar and hypocrite.

Turns out that he used the word “intent” intentionally with the intent to deceive as to his intent, and at the urging of Arlen Specter no less.

How do we know this? Here’s where old Wide Stance’s inability to catch a break comes in. He spilled the beans in a telephone message to his lawyer. How is it that you can hear the whole thing here? Because Wide Stance was stupid enough to leave a substantive message on an answering machine that didn’t identify its owner. Guess what, it was a wrong number, and the unidentified patriot who found it on his/her tape duly handed it over to Roll Call.

If they had a Stupidity Code in the Senate Craig would have violated it by leaving that message. Rule one when you can’t tell if you’ve reached the right number; leave your name, number and the name of the person you’re trying to reach and then hang up.

How do people this stupid get into the Senate? Or is he subconsciously looking to get caught. At least he didn’t proposition his lawyer on the tape.

EDITED to meet my wife’s objection that not all Republicans are liars or hypocrites. (see italicized “almost”)

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Bill Richardson-comic genius (not)

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Sometimes, methinks, folks in the leftmost portion of the blogosphere take things just a little too seriously.

Yesterday, in the grand tradition of John Kerry, Bill Richardson tried to make a joke. In the grand tradition of present day politicans of all stripes, he failed miserably. Richardson was in Iowa, and, seeking to curry favor with his audience, tried to justify Iowa’s undeserved place in the presidential nominating process. Since neither logic nor reason justifies Iowa’s privileged place, only two entities are left to to blame, neither one of which can defend themselves these days. Per Richardson:

“Iowa, for good reason, for constitutional reasons, for reasons related to the Lord, should be the first caucus and primary,”

Now there are two possibilities here. Richardson either really believes that Iowa comes first by constitutional mandate and the will of God, or he does not. If the first, then he is almost as deranged as George Bush, who believes even more bizarre things about both God and the Constitution, and thinks God talks to him to boot. If, on the other hand, Richardson does not believe these assertions, then he was attempting, as his campaign now claims, to do something that all Democrats should attempt with extreme trepidation: tell a joke.

I incline, indeed I positively avalanche, toward the latter conclusion. On a scale of 1 to 10, the joke is minus 10 funny, about par for the course for politicians these days, but that doesn’t diminish his mens rea (the word is apt, it was a crime against humour) one bit. Nonetheless it appear that even the mighty Kos feels that it is an example of pandering and some appear to think that Richardson was serious.

If it was a pander it was of the harmless sort, so over the top that it is practically a parody of pandering. In fact, that might very well be what he was intending to do, he just couldn’t pull it off. In any event, this isn’t the sort of thing we should pile on one of our candidates about. It’s bad enough that the media often run with these things, as they did when they crucified Kerry for telling a Bush is stupid joke. There’s no need for us to inflate a story that’s essentially meaningless. Stupid statements, when uttered by Republicans, are usually ignored (e.g., Mitt Romney’s assertion that his five sons were doing the equivalent of Iraq service by working on his campaign), while those from Democrats often have a long shelf life. There’s no need for us to add fuel to the fire.

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Will get fooled again

Monday, September 3, 2007

If this is September, it must be time for the Bush Administration to roll out a new product. This year, as back in 2002, the nature of the product is not in doubt. Then it was the war itself, this year it is stay the course, repackaged with a new salesman but with the old sales techniques intact. Here’s Paul Krugman from this morning’s Times:

In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, addressing the United Nations Security Council, claimed to have proof that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. He did not, in fact, present any actual evidence, just pictures of buildings with big arrows pointing at them saying things like “Chemical Munitions Bunker.” But many people in the political and media establishments swooned: they admired Mr. Powell, and because he said it, they believed it.

Mr. Powell’s masters got the war they wanted, and it soon became apparent that none of his assertions had been true.

Until recently I assumed that the failure to find W.M.D., followed by years of false claims of progress in Iraq, would make a repeat of the snow job that sold the war impossible. But I was wrong. The administration, this time relying on Gen. David Petraeus to play the Colin Powell role, has had remarkable success creating the perception that the “surge” is succeeding, even though there’s not a shred of verifiable evidence to suggest that it is.

…

So here we go again. It appears that many influential people in this country have learned nothing from the last five years. And those who cannot learn from history are, indeed, doomed to repeat it.

There’s an old saying, with two variants. The first, and most widely known, goes something like this: Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. The other, no less monitory, if far less grammatical, might be called the Bush variant:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qDuG0ZYD5I[/youtube]

Unfortunately, only Charlie Brown is more willing to cast doubt aside than our beltway media, and to their eternal shame, some Congressional Democrats, who have not yet learned that the irrefutable presumption about anything Bush and his minions have to say is that it is a lie.

As to Petraeus, is there anyone outside of the Beltway who thinks that this pre-UN-Colin Powell-wannabe is anything other than just another administration lying con man? There are people in Washington, in the media and in Congress, that are ready to believe anything the man says. My sense is that the truth has sunk in to the American people, and they’re not going to be convinced by anyone’s flimflam, no matter how many stars on his shoulder. September may be the best month to roll out a new product, but not every roll out succeeds. Just remember the Edsel, which, coincidentally and to my surprise, rolled out 50 years ago today.

Unfortunately, the people that matter, the folks in Washington with gravitas and the Democrats despereatly seeking their approval will buy what Petreaus is selling, and more and more this war, Bush’s war, will become a war partially owned, though by no means controlled, by the Democratic Party.

By the way, you can read Krugman’s entire column for free at Truthout. As always, must reading.

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Labor Day Concert

Sunday, September 2, 2007

We are a union family. In my former life, prior to private practice, I helped organize the legal services union, and had the honor to be chosen to represent my fellow workers before the NLRB. My wife is still a member, and my son has spent two years in various union organizing activities. Labor Day should belong to workers, and workers should belong to unions. If we bring back unions, we can bring back the middle class, which is slowly dying.

From the old days, Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie singing Union Maid:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCPUCzjlMlU[/youtube]

And, just because, here’s the same duo singing This Land is Your Land, with the subversive lyrics included.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK10l8VNvmE[/youtube]

Back to politics tomorrow.

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Remembering the Battle of Groton Heights

Sunday, September 2, 2007

On September 6, 1781 Benedict Arnold burned New London to the ground, and then turned his attention to Groton, where he stormed Fort Griswold, on Groton Bank, and the troops under his command massacred the Fort’s defenders. Today we attended a memorial wreath laying for the men and women who fought that day. (The women may not have borne arms, but at least some were at the battle site, tending to the wounded).

Today, as it does every year, Groton commemorated the sacrifice of those men and women. We attended the ceremony, at which various luminaries spoke. This was a landmark year, inasmuch as most of the speakers were Democrats, including newly elected State Senator Andy Maynard, and newly elected Congressman Joe Courtney.

One must wonder if the empire that exists today would meet with the approval of the hardy Yankees that defended Fort Griswold. They were, after all, insurgents fighting to detach themselves from an Empire that was just beginning the slow unraveling that overreaching always brings about.

But enough preaching. It’s a holiday, and I’m staying away from politics (sort of). Here’s some pictures, which will mostly be in the form of small thumbnails, which you can enlarge by clicking.

First, the monument from a different angle than I’ve shown before. Our monument, by the way, was constructed 20 years before the copycat ripoff at Bunker Hill.

By the way, to paraphrase Freud, sometimes an obelisk is just an obelisk.

No Revolutionary War commemoration would be complete without some re-enactors, who I unfortunately can’t identify, having forgotten the name of their group:

Next, Andy Maynard and City Deputy Mayor Paul Duarte:

Joe Courtney gave a good and appropriately short speech:

I took some video, but am having a hard time figuring out how to post it-the one place WordPress falls behind my old blogging software.

After the ceremony a lone bagpiper stood on the fort ramparts and played. Unfortunately, he had not been included on the written program and a lot of people, I think, were unaware he was there. A real shame because he played well. 99% of the time a bagpipe is a wretched thing to hear, but somehow they work well certain contexts, and this was one.

A number of the people present were descendants of men who fought in the battle, some of whom still live in the shadow of the monument. But the locals were not the only descendants there. Some folks from Alabama make the trek every year. Their last name is Ledyard, so I assume (this wasn’t made clear) they are descendants of Colonel William Ledyard, who led the defenders, and according to the local version of events, was killed with his own sword after surrendering it to a British officer.

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60’s mini concert

Saturday, September 1, 2007

This being a holiday and all, I’m taking the day off. I spent some time last night getting links to youtube videos of female singers. I’m not sure why I decided to go in that direction, but there you are.

You tube is quite definitely uneven in terms of what’s available. I couldn’t find much of anything decent for Joni Mitchell, for example. I generally look for videos with good quality sound and real singing-no lip syncing. I think I’m breaking the latter rule today, but for a good reason, as I’ll relate later.

First, a couple of Janis Joplin videos. I agree with some of the Youtube commenters that the Germans from the audience can’t dance, but I’m in no position to criticize. This version of Piece of My Heart is top rate.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjxFu_NXET4[/youtube]

And Ball and Chain:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PG2TDaJDhQ[/youtube]

And finally, Gracie Slick with the Jefferson Airplane. Probably lip-synched, but the Smothers Brother’s introductions are worth making the compromise.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1cfTMdjkYM[/youtube]

As I write this, by the way, I see from the TV running in my Mac that a Red Sox pitcher named Buchholz, just up from the minors, is throwing a no-hitter in the eighth.

UPDATE: Good Lord, he did it!

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An oldie but goodie from John and Stephen

Friday, August 31, 2007

The Singin Senators, featuring former Senator Larry Craig in better days (for him):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW1Mpp0HZVI[/youtube]

Which, but the way, was added to youtube by Myleftnutmegger. This may not stay up long, considering Comedy Central’s scorched earth policy re: youtube.

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Friday night music-the Clash

Friday, August 31, 2007

Know your rights

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPeWSpB_7w4[/youtube]

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Iran war coming

Friday, August 31, 2007

Must reading at firedoglake. Bush-Cheny want a war with Iran, and the Democrats have played right into Bush’s hands:

Throughout this inexorable march to war, the Democratic Congress has done worse than nothing. They’ve voted for resolutions condemning Iran without having the factual basis for knowing what Iran is doing or intends, relying only on neocon and Administration propaganda. They’d listened to dishonest and crazed warmongers like Joe Lieberman, for heaven’s sake. They’ve voted for resolutions that would support regime change, but they’ve refused to pass resolutions or amendments that would require the Administration to seek new authorization to start a war with Iran. Most of our Democratic Presidential candidates — Kucinich and Gravel excepted — have pretended to be “serious” people by refusing to rule out military strikes against Iran, even nuclear strikes. These are not serious positions; they are seriously irresponsible.

This is a war that, at this point, upwards of 75% of the people in this country would oppose, yet it’s likely our Democratic Congress will do nothing to stop it. As for Bush, it’s almost as if he was trying to take vengeance on this country for turning against him by doing the maximum harm possible in the time he has left.

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