Thursday

So it’s Thursday and I’m off work for a nice four day holiday. I’m hoping to get some work done on the main domain lahdee.com. Goodness knows I’ve been screwing around enough.

It’s not beer any more, but it is just as inane. AP reports

While many are still deciding who should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Obama than McCain to their summer cookout, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday.

Yahoo, more bullshit, nonsense crap from AP. Next thing you know we’ll see Caroline Kennedy wearing sensible silver flats as she departs a meeting with the Hispanic caucus.

I remember working for Harry Mitchell’s campaign in the last cycle. On the day before the election I was outside his Tempe office talking with a fellow volunteer. We spoke of our hopes for Harry and to the end of dubya’s years as President. Much to my surprise the lady I was talking with said that she would like to see John McCain as President. As we discussed this it became apparent that her perception of McCain was not rooted in the facts. As I pointed out issues with his record she poo pooed them as products of “the liberal press.” Taegan Goddard reminds us

because his brand was cemented over years, he's been given more of a benefit of the doubt with the public.

This is why we attack John McCain’s record, this is why we question his leadership, to breakdown the myth and open some eyes. Sure it’s a struggle, but John is doing his part with silliness such as saying he knows not of the economy. Keep it up John, it only makes our job easier.

Stoopid

I've seen some discussion on the web about what constitutes stupid and how we're such an ignorant people; Sadaam had WMD, Obama's a Muslim, etc.. I've seen arguments about what someone said or didn't say, all the while the exact quote is available for everyone to see; lots and lots of cable TV hours burned up here. As long as mass media is controlled by corporations whose first priority is profit and not the citizenry's best interest there will be stupid. Unfortunately mass media is easy and good citizenship, well it takes work. Why bother if our media keeps reminding us we can't do anything about it anyway. Moron America, looks like we're stuck with it.

Oh, and did you hear about the wingnuts and whackjobs who are dissing Disney's newest animation, WALL-E? Seems that there's too many attacks on laziness and stupidity. No pun intended, but what planet are these people on?

History

Thirteen years ago today I got on an Airplane in Phoenix, AZ and moved to Seattle, WA. I didn't know a soul in Seattle and had never been there. My only reason for going was that I didn't like living in Phoenix, couldn't handle the heat and missed seeing "weather." Ten years after leaving I returned having missed sun and warmth. We are fickle creatures are we not?

Got a kick out of Digby's Does Anyone Have A Spare Lace Hankie? Oh the outrage! It's so pathetic it's funny, and who'd a thunk the republicans would be this funny, this early, in a cycle that doesn't bode well for them.

Under the weather today. Thank goodness for telecommuting.

CIC

I agree with Kevin Drum,

There's nothing out of line here.

Monday Monday

In this country we get to start our work week on Monday. Those of us who still have jobs sigh, we can't explain why but somehow it seems appropriate. Given the state of the economy can we be grateful for much beyond that?
Over at Ben Smith’s Blog we scored the quote we’ve been waiting for from no less than General Wesley Clark during his appearance on Face the Nation.

“I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

Three quesses who the General was talking about.

From the ‘Somebody’s paying attention’ file Mediabistro has a piece on how Nas is beefing with Fox News. Nice to see the youngsters are paying attention. I couldn’t ask for a more powerful way to get the message out, bravo Nas!

Via NewsJunk and CNN, Terry McAuliffe told Candy Crowley that President Bill Clinton and Senator Barack Obama will be having a tete a tete about Mr. Clinton's role in Mr. Obama's campaign. Why would anyone want to tell Candy Crowley anything?

Oh, and that 20 point lead McCain polled in Arizona in April appears to be gone.

Sunday Liberty Blogging

Ms. Liberty before her refurbishment. I took this photo some years ago. I don't remember for sure, but I would bet it was in the late seventies.

Although I was born and raised in the NY metro area I have not been back there in close to twenty years. Truth be told the NY never quite comes out of your blood regardless of how long one has been away. I've been out west since the early eighties, but every once in a while when I get excited the NYer in me shines through.

I knew a woman in Seattle who'd never been to NY so her idea of a NYer was the typical, they're gruff and they're rude and they're not nice people view propagated by some folks. I told her that the size of the city and it's effect on people is something that can only be understood when experienced. I can't say I was the reason, but she did go off and spend a week there. Her outlook changed completely. She came back from her visit and said, "now I understand you better." I asked her what she meant by that. She said that when she first met me she considered me more direct then she was used to, but after her visit she understood that it was not rudeness. It was just a NYer's upbringing that doesn't allow for wasted time and wasted effort. She found NYers direct, but very helpful and very pleasant, not at all what she had expected.

Casus belli

Casus belli - An event used to justify starting a war. Seymour M. Hersh writing in The New Yorker tells a chilling story of how Cheney and Bush have been preparing for and actively fomenting armed conflict with Iran in his piece Preparing the Battlefield.

The potential for escalation became clear in early January, when five Iranian patrol boats, believed to be under the command of the Revolutionary Guard, made a series of aggressive moves toward three Navy warships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. Initial reports of the incident made public by the Pentagon press office said that the Iranians had transmitted threats, over ship-to-ship radio, to “explode” the American ships. At a White House news conference, the President, on the day he left for an eight-day trip to the Middle East, called the incident “provocative” and “dangerous,” and there was, very briefly, a sense of crisis and of outrage at Iran. “TWO MINUTES FROM WAR” was the headline in one British newspaper.

The crisis was quickly defused by Vice-Admiral Kevin Cosgriff, the commander of U.S. naval forces in the region. No warning shots were fired, the Admiral told the Pentagon press corps on January 7th, via teleconference from his headquarters, in Bahrain. “Yes, it’s more serious than we have seen, but, to put it in context, we do interact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and their Navy regularly,” Cosgriff said. “I didn’t get the sense from the reports I was receiving that there was a sense of being afraid of these five boats.”

Admiral Cosgriff’s caution was well founded: within a week, the Pentagon acknowledged that it could not positively identify the Iranian boats as the source of the ominous radio transmission, and press reports suggested that it had instead come from a prankster long known for sending fake messages in the region. Nonetheless, Cosgriff’s demeanor angered Cheney, according to the former senior intelligence official. But a lesson was learned in the incident: The public had supported the idea of retaliation, and was even asking why the U.S. didn’t do more. The former official said that, a few weeks later, a meeting took place in the Vice-President’s office. “The subject was how to create a casus belli between Tehran and Washington,” he said.

Hersh does a superior job of telling the story. Read the whole thing to get a sense of how nothing has changed with this administration; their continued incompetence and their sacrificing of some in the military who have stood up to this lunacy.

It's Unity!

Looking a lot like a 500 pound gorilla "Unity" arrived yesterday in a small New Hampshire town. The residents were stunned and slightly overwhelmed at the arrival and relieved as it waddled out of town.

Unity is a lush green blip on a hilly highway, easy to miss.

The perfect political photo op — and this was a pretty darn good one —isn't aimed at the rational faculties of an informed electorate. It seeks whatever section of the brain it is that triggers a tummy rumble at the sight of a moist doughnut. It's about instinct, not reason.

"I know firsthand how good she is, how tough she is, how passionate she is, how committed she is to the causes that brought all of us here today."

“The one consistency Barack Obama has going today is that he’s once again surrounded himself with Democrats.”

"I know what we start here in this field in Unity will end on the steps of the Capitol when Barack Obama takes the oath of office as our next president."

"I'm feeling the love."

Questions

Or things I don't understand. Please, can someone tell me why I can't bring myself to read the Great Orange Satan? I've been registered over there since early in 2004, I've had a diary on the recommended list, I was an irregular in C&J, but I can't bring myself to go back since the lunacy of the primaries. I miss mcjoan and some of the other writers. I think that I'm disappointed in the vitriol from the youngsters and even from some of the older members of the community and I'm surprised at how much I have lost respect for the site owner. ACK.

BO is starting to concern me. His positions on FISA and the gun ruling are a disgrace. Well I guess that's what you get for allowing smoke and mirrors to dictate who you select as a nominee. RonK may be right after all. I shutter to think that, but who knows.

It's Unity Day tomorrow. Great piece by David Lightman at McClatchy, N.H. Clinton supporters slow to follow her embrace of Obama.

Unity is a lush green blip on a hilly highway, easy to miss.

Wonder if Hillary will get blamed for that?

Greenwald

Glen Greenwald at Salon has done some superior work around FISA. If you wonder whether or not your right to privacy will remain intact then you'll want to read Greenwald and his reporting on FISA.

I quit smoking over two months ago. Thank you I'm proud of it too.

Happy Thursday. Take a Ms. Molly to lunch day is next week. I'm thinking some Mexican food maybe.

Thursday in DC

So the buzz I expected to begin earlier on the joint appearances of Obama and Clinton has now begun. Chris Cillizza makes the case for selection of HRC as BO's VP candidate.

Democratic voters believed she was ready to be president.

He makes all the arguments; she got half the vote, she'll cement PA, OH, MI and FL (this is the biggie for me - without HRC the numbers I've seen out of FL indicate it may go McCain) and she has the tenacity necessary in a VP candidate.

On Friday Mr. Cillizza says he will review the negatives of a Clinton VP selection. In the meantime I get to enjoy watching all the ponybabies whose heads will explode at this:

Given the history -- real or imagined -- between the two candidates, many voters would see the choice of Clinton as a sign of Obama's "bigness," i.e. his commitment to reaching outside of his comfort zone to pick the best candidate. The symbolism of such a pick would cement the "Obama as un-politician" -- a position that meant victory in the primary season.

Heh.

Thursday they make a joint appearance in Washington to address Clinton's bundlers. I wonder what they'll want from Obama. Oh to be a fly on the wall.

Friday in Unity

Seems that on Friday Senators Obama and Clinton will present their first joint campaign appearance in Unity, NH. Oh, the cute. It's intent, no doubt, is to soothe Clinton supporters and to demonstrate her fealty to the nominee. The news has been out for almost a day now and no one has speculated on how this will effect her chances to be named to the ticket. I am surprised about that. Could this be the first of many joint appearances prior to the convention? I am intrigued.

Oh, and James Dobson is a loon. Listen to him, read his diatribes at your own risk.

Sunday "Moment in the Sun" Blogging

Sunday has returned, the full moon is past and there is time for a Moment in the Sun.

This is my niece Lauren. The picture was taken twenty some years ago in my brother's front yard. My sister's child, she was a student of her mother in third grade. I've always wanted to ask her what that was like. She went on to graduate from Georgia, with honors.

It's nice to look back. It's almost like a renewal, a reminder of what mattered, for those times when one may get lost. Hopefully we all have refuges beyond the external, those places we can go for some quiet and spiritual refreshment.

I've had interests come and go in my life, but the one that remains constant is music. Some months ago my 2nd generation iPod died so I went out an got a shiny new one. I couldn't wait to get it loaded up with music and pictures as I have a connection to the car radio. Unfortunately it wouldn't behave. I just couldn't get it to load my playlists despite having had that capability in my previous iPod. Just last night the situation resolved with the discovery of a plug in for Winamp, yes, Winamp. It seems that Winamp can manage your iPod with the addition of a plug in called ml_ipod. Now instead of frustration I have my playlists on the iPod. Huzzah!

Saturday Already?

Wow, I just noticed it's Saturday already. Good day for chores so I'll do the Saturday thing. I did manage to get the Garden/Pool shed (can composite plastic be called a shed?) done so the pool chemicals, rakes and such now are hidden from view. Now I have to tackle the box it came in and it's large. It may take a few weeks because it can't fit in the recycle container.

Maybe I'll get some writing in today, hopefully later.

I got yur reasons

Not sure about Barack Obama? Really can't make up your mind? Listen to these folks who think you should vote Republican.
HT to The No Sin Zone at Landover Baptist

Wednesday

I loaded Firefox 3. It's going to take some time for some of my extensions to update to this version, but most of my favorites are available. Sage needed a lot of work, but that's done and I have my RS Feeds available. The early review is it's very good, fast, lightweight and just as adaptable as ever.

How ever did we live in the days before mass media? I can't say, but I'll bet a lot of thought went into how we could get to where we are today. Two things I remember that I couldn't wrap my head around at the time, but make perfect sense now: cell phones and the internet. Yeah, I know cell phones were obvious, but I remember when it took months and lots of paperwork before the FCC would grant a mobile telephone for an automobile. The internet was a wonder because at the time personal computers were in the $3,000 range and nobody that I knew had one.

Firefox 3

Woot! Today is release day for Firefox 3. Mozilla advises that general release is set for 4PM Pacific today.
I can't wait!
Mozilla Firefox

Kerfuffle

Quite a little dust up yesterday over the meaning of Patti Solis Doyle joining the Obama campaign as chief of staff for his running mate. What, you say, Obama hasn’t annointed a Vice Presidential candidate yet. That would be true, so what does this appointment mean. Some say, Jerome Armstrong among them, that this bodes well for the selection of Senator Clinton to the ticket, while some, such as this supporter think differently.

"It's a slap in the face," Susie Tompkins Buell, a prominent Clinton backer, said in an interview. "Why would they put somebody that was so clearly ineffective in such a position? It's a message. We get it." She said it was a "calculated decision" by the Obama team to "send a message that she [Clinton] is not being considered for the ticket."

Why would the Obama campaign make such a move? Following Solis Doyle’s retirement from Clinton’s campaign (the time with family thing, heh) and her estrangement from Clinton make it hard for me to believe this signals a Clinton VP offer.
Kevin Drum sums it up for me,

If this is true, it's beyond bizarre. Obama has every incentive in the world to make nice with Hillary, and nothing in his past behavior suggests that he's given to gratuitous insults like this. Either the conventional wisdom is wrong, or else there's a much deeper game going on than anyone thinks.

I love drama.

Moron Americans

For all the whinners complaining about the Supreme Court’s ruling last week concerning The Writ for detainees McClatchy has a story from Sunday, America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men.

The McClatchy investigation found that top Bush administration officials knew within months of opening the Guantanamo detention center that many of the prisoners there weren't "the worst of the worst." From the moment that Guantanamo opened in early 2002, former Secretary of the Army Thomas White said, it was obvious that at least a third of the population didn't belong there.

The Military Commission Act is overturned, the same MCA that John McCain played a large role in getting through Congress. What does that say about McCain? IMO it says he’s not very effective, one and two, his judgment is not to be trusted.

John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, told a crowd of supporters in New Jersey Friday that the Supreme Court’s latest Guantanamo Bay ruling is “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

Link Habeas corpus is bad for America? No John, it's not.

I've always been fascinated by "Moron America." Digby is too and explores some of the reasons Americans know so little about politics.

Sunday Bambino Blogging

Photo by Lahdee

What was mighty Casey like as a child?

I took this photo sometime ago at a family function. With baseball season under way and school letting out back east I'm reminded of the determination and wonder of youth.

I've purchased the domain lahdee.com. One of these days I'll figure out what to do with it. Why spend money on a domain and then a host, Dream Host? Sooner or later I'll remember what it means to write meaningfully and maybe even find that I've taken up photography again. I miss that, photography I mean.

Justice Antonin Scalia has declared that because habeas corpus protections apply to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay it “will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.” Great, just what we need from a Supreme Court Justice, hyperbole.

As long as the court's current composition continues we will be subject to fear as an "judicial activist" weapon. I'm hoping his head will ache in January '09 when the politics of fear is shown the door. I'd sure like to see a Democratic Congress impeach and convict his butt.