The morning newspaper was a real remind-me-why-I-live-here moment today, a survey course of local misery. Factories are dismantled and sold to the highest bidder. Those stamping presses aren’t just melted down; they’re disassembled, sent by freighter overseas, and go on stamping in Korea or someplace. (Sometimes, that is. The one in the lead of this story went across town.) More perjury suspected among the mayoral minions — there’s dog-bites-man. The freeways are going to be a mess for the foreseeable future, such as it is in Michigan.
Yeesh. Turned to the business page. More good news about the housing market — average home equity slipped below 50 percent for the first time since 1945. Don’t remind me. So what’s opening at the cineplex this weekend? “College Road Trip?” Grade: F, says the Sun-Times critic.
Well, Daylight Saving Time starts Sunday. There’s that.
A couple of housekeeping notes: As you might imagine, the volume of unanswered e-mail around here is reaching amnesty levels. I don’t plan to do that, but am working through the pile at a slower pace than I’d like. It was great to hear from so many people I haven’t heard from in ages — and I’m talking to you, Carol Salad Girl — and I want to at least tag them back. So if you’re waiting for a reply, wait a little longer, and I should have everything answered by next week. Maybe.
As for more literal housekeeping, you should see the state of my bathrooms at the moment. Also, my lovely orchid, which sits on its own stand next to my luxurious Ikea chaise, my preferred writing place most days, has something called scale infestation. I downloaded a six-page treatment outline, and now I feel like a freshman with a very heavy backpack. My impulse is to pitch it and buy another at the Eastern Market tomorrow, but I fear being without something of beauty to contemplate when the creative well runs dry. God knows the landscape outside isn’t doing much for us at the moment, even though I did see a nice hawk far up in a neighbor’s oak the other day. Too far away for positive ID, but I’d put my next freelance check on it being Cooper’s or Red-tail.
Which is my long-winded way of saying, I’m outta here for the weekend. (Like I said: You should see my bathrooms.) Be kind to one another.
Connie said on March 7, 2008 at 10:08 am
We’ve had a hawk around our house this winter, checking out the feeders on the deck. We think he’s looking for lunch. My husband has been trying to get photos with very mixed success. http://elmores.net/round-here/comments.php?id=1210_0_1_35_C and http://elmores.net/round-here/comments.php?id=1215_0_1_0_C are his pics of a cooper’s hawk.
So is it the links that puts me into moderation?
NANCE: Yes. More than one bumps you into moderation. I don’t mind links, if you don’t mind moderation. But if you saw the spam filter, you’d know why this is so.
562 chars
Dorothy said on March 7, 2008 at 10:22 am
Well, I don’t have a sickly orchid, but I did have a sticky spider plant that I finally decided to pitch. It made me very sad, because it was started 10 years ago from a “baby” given to me by my internet friend, Simone. She lives in Canada. Simply trimming leaves wasn’t stopping the stickiness. I just realized I had to get rid of it, because it was dripping onto the table where I had it perched. Ick. When we’re in a house again, I’ll buy a voluptuous spider plant for the new house.
491 chars
nancy said on March 7, 2008 at 10:29 am
If the stickiness takes the form of tiny “sprays,” you’ve got scale. (It’s the bug pee.) Adults look like brown bumps about half the size of a lentil, and the immature ones are just little yellows streaks or dots.
I just pitched the orchid. The easiest and most low-tech solution was removing the culprits with rubbing alcohol. But as far as I can see, they’re all on the blossoms. Ever try to remove a sticky bug from an orchid petal with vigorous rubbing? You see the problem.
482 chars
Carter said on March 7, 2008 at 10:46 am
Either Neem or an insecticidal soap are the way to go for the scale that have attacked my Areca palms. For the rubber plant, I do the rub n’ buff routine with rubbing alcohol.
176 chars
brian stouder said on March 7, 2008 at 10:48 am
Connie – great picture!
23 chars
Sue said on March 7, 2008 at 11:01 am
Here’s what I do for my houseplants, but I don’t know if it works for orchids. Mid-may, all my plants are moved outside to the north side of the house (no direct sunlight there). The plants spend the next four months outside, gracing the front steps or placed in various spots. They are happy as can be, and grow and thrive. Mid-September, they all get moved inside and are put on dormant status (watering but no fertilizer) where they stay until March 1. Most make it through the winter because they’ve grown so strong over the summer, and I seldom deal with any stickiness or stress-related behavior, like falling leaves. On March 1, everyone gets a dose of fertilizer and a haircut, and begins to grow again and wait for May.
734 chars
Sue said on March 7, 2008 at 11:02 am
Anyone heard from Danny lately? I’m getting worried.
53 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 7, 2008 at 11:15 am
Sometimes life is just too depressing. Nancy, go buy yourself some fresh flowers! They usually work wonders for me. And play all your happy music.
149 chars
4dbirds said on March 7, 2008 at 11:44 am
Nancy you only have one boy in your house. I have four. I bet my bathrooms beat yours. Not exactly something to brag about.
126 chars
nancy said on March 7, 2008 at 11:49 am
I am playing my happy music, if “Do Your Thing” by Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band counts. (For those who need an additional reference: It’s the song that was playing when Little Bill put his wife, and himself, out of their misery in “Boogie Nights.” It’s still a happy song.)
Thanks for the scale advice, all. I’m taking a break from bathroom cleaning to allow the Soft Scrub with Bleach to do its bleachy magic.
438 chars
alex said on March 7, 2008 at 11:51 am
Scale’s no biggie, really. I used to have houseplants galore when I lived in a glass box in the sky and when they’d start peeing the sticky stuff, I’d simply put them in the shower, fill a spray bottle partly with Ivory Liquid dish soap and part water and mist them with it. Scale gone. There was also some stuff from the plant place that you could put in the soil and it seemed to work well also.
These days no houseplants because I have too damned many outdoors to worry about. Tried to winter an orange begonia, but it croaked. The little frond of vinca that was in the pot, however, is now like a full head of Rapunzel’s hair. Can’t wait to put it in the ground. The greenhouse doesn’t sell starts one-tenth as vigorous or one fiftieth as long.
Edit: The scale problem only seemed to occur whenever I’d put indoor plants outdoors on my balcony.
855 chars
Dexter said on March 7, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Stamping presses were my career for a couple decades.
Many times a press would be unbolted and we were told it was going to Mexico.
I worked in a facility that would purchase a press for $2 mil and spend tens of thousands preparing space for it and hooking it up.
Huge things. Slowly, we heard the presses were all going away, and in the course of a few months , 40 presses had been moved out on trucks for foreign ports. This time we were told conflicting tales of exactly they were going—nunya bizness, they said. With no stamped parts, they closed down a multi-million dollar all-newly equipped heat treat department.
All the while this was happening, the union was fighting to keep milling machines, almost new, state-of-the-art SMS CADCAM machines, in production . The company insisted on selling most of the new mills and farming out the machining, also.
All they kept were the robotics for sub-assemblies , the final assembly departments, and shipping.
The workforce dropped from 475 to 125, and many of us whistled our way to the office and took our 30 and out pensions.
The other workers? They found something else, probably at a third the pay we received as a UAW facility. It’s the American Way, doncha know? Anybody tells you differently is a goddamn liar.
1290 chars
Mouse said on March 7, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Way off the subject– Dexter, is Kaufmans’ still open?Back in the 60’s we would drive over & pound many 3.2s then hit the bars in Edon on the way back to Angola.
161 chars
Danny said on March 7, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Sue, thanks for your concern. I was sicker than I thought when I prematurely announced my convalescence the other day. I’ve been flat on my back all week with a more or less steady 102 temp and body aches.
I came into work for a cameo appearance yesterday (had some things that just needed to get out) and today is my first full day back. Kinda. I am still light-headed.
Maybe if I find the energy later I can tell you all about my movie watching over the period of illness and why, as an evangelical Christian, I can say with absolute biblical authority that Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn are two of the four riders of the Apocalypse. The horror. The horror.
670 chars
Dexter said on March 7, 2008 at 2:12 pm
Mouse: Jim Kaufman died years ago…place changed hands a few times…now called “Rita’s”. I have no idea if the downstairs that was used as the nightclub “The Rathskeller” is used any more.
We’d hit Kaufman’s after “Our Place” (near Defiance) .
Edon Steakhouse was quite a place, eh? Tom and Dorothy ran it.
Once I and my buddies were sluggin’ back PBR and a couple came in wanting a steak. Tom had to tell them they didn’t real have steak. And the hamburgers sucked, too. Oh, gee…that was JUST forty years ago. Hand me my cane and fetch the vitamin pills.
569 chars
nancy said on March 7, 2008 at 2:18 pm
I hope you’re not talking about “Wedding Crashers,” Danny. ‘Cause that was sort of funny. Not a classic, but not bad for a cable-TV Saturday night.
Sounds like you had flu.
175 chars
brian stouder said on March 7, 2008 at 2:19 pm
Good to see you back in the saddle, Danny. A political digression:
It was disheartening to see Samantha Power’s ignominious departure from the Obama campaign; to me, she embodied all that was best about it, with her idealism and her impeccable scholarly credentials, and her powerful (so to speak) and clear-eyed Pulitzer prize-winning book A Problem from Hell.
At least twice in this primary campaign, the Obama operation seemingly had the Clinton campaign on the ropes, and they were in position to deliver a knockout punch; and twice the Clinton campaign came right back, full of fight.
It seems to me that, right now, after those two huge victories in Ohio and in Texas, the Clinton campaign is ascendant, and on the verge of delivering a knock out blow to the Obama campaign.
I’ve read Power’s remarks, and it is not clear to me just what she meant by “We %^%$up in Ohio”. (possibly she meant they should have simply conceded the state? Buckeyes are all bug-eyed crazies??).
So the question is, what do you think is happening? Do you think the Obama campaign can come back from this? I’m ready to agree with the Clinton campaign’s complaints about the main stream media’s pro-Obama bias. Many pundits on teevee are nattering about how Obama needs to win North Carolina as he loses PA to remain in the race, whereas it strikes me that he has to WIN Pennsylvania or concede the contest.
After losing Texas and getting creamed in Ohio, if Obama gets smashed in Pennsylvania, then his campaign loses any credible rationale to go forward….other than “slaying the monster” [to paraphrase Ms Power]. And the press is already tamping down expectations for Senator Obama in Pennsylvania…..which simply makes no sense at all, to me
1900 chars
Julie Robinson said on March 7, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Brian, I’d love to see Clinton and Obama make nice. Let’s put both of them on the ticket, Hillary first and Obama as VP. Then in 8 years he can run for President as incumbent VP. Let’s raise money for the general election rather than spending it in a nasty primary fight.
There’s really little difference between the two, and Democrats, wasn’t this supposed to be our year? Although part of me is soooo excited about an Indiana primary where my vote will count.
468 chars
Connie said on March 7, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Thanks Brian, I will pass the compliment on to the photographer. My guy has become quite the nature photographer in his later years. (Remember the turtle pic?) Here is my fave for this winter, I swear this possum is smiling for the photographer. http://elmores.net/round-here/comments.php?id=1232_0_1_15_C
309 chars
Harl Delos said on March 7, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Dexter said:
There were four or five Kaufman’s. When I patronized them, which would have been the early 1970s, the one in Defiance was on 5th Street, several doors away from Morey’s News Stand, towards Clinton Street. Steve Kaufman ran that one, and said his mother owned it. I think she ran the one in Bryan. Best I remember, the one in Paulding was informally called Dan & Rita’s.
I remember going into Kaufman’s with my best friend on my 18th birthday. He announced to the bartender that he wanted to buy me my first legal 3.2. Made me a little mad; I’d been drinking 6.0 there for about a year, and had never been carded.
In fact, I never got carded anyplace until I was about 25, and that only because I went into a place in Indianapolis that carded everybody at the door. A year ago, though, my wife was carded at a restaurant with a liquor license. Given that we have great-grandchildren, she accused the waiter of trying to earn an extra-big tip. (He *did* get one….)
1288 chars
nancy said on March 7, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Harl, was it at Red Robin? I got carded there the other day. (Reminder: I am 50.) I thought it would be suitable for a quick hamburger, but turned out to be one of those assaultive, loud, in-your-face, all-the-waiters-gather-round-the-table-and-clap-for-your-birthday sort of hellholes. I couldn’t get OUT of there fast enough, and the waiter got about 14 percent from me. Just cut the bullshit and give me my Labatt’s, for god’s sake.
435 chars
brian stouder said on March 7, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Connie – yep! I’d say that possum is a bit of a ham!
52 chars
Harl Delos said on March 7, 2008 at 3:59 pm
Julie Robinson Said:
Never happen. That’s be like Ronald Reagan agreeing to be VPOTUS under Nikita Khruschev. Reagan ran as a staunch anti-communist, and Obama has run opposing nasty politics.
It’d be hard to find *anyone* to run as VP for Hillary. John “Cactus Jack” Nance Garner said it was the worst mistake of his life, agreeing to be vice-president, and said the position wasn’t worth a bucket of warm spit. But under Hillary, the role of the vice-president would be diminished even further, because Bill would end up doing anything meaningful – such as attending funerals – normally performed by the VPOTUS. Either of the two contenders would serve the country better as Senator than as VPOTUS.
The numbers say that Obama will have more votes, more states, and more pledged delegates than anyone else. What’s more, while Hillary is mining the existing Democrat base, and has extremely high negatives with independents and Republicans, Obama has been getting people supporting him that otherwise would be sitting on their hands. Even if he didn’t have a better chance to beat McCain than Hillary, running Obama would be a good idea in terms of building the party membership. There’s little doubt in my mind that Obama will be facing McCain this fall.
Disclaimer: my opinion doesn’t count; I’m a conservative independent, registered as a Republican here in the closed-primary state of Pennsylvania. Good grief, we need to open these primaries!
1616 chars
Harl Delos said on March 7, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Nance wondered:
We get ads for RedRobin on DirecTV, but I’ve never seen one.
From your description, it sounds like a Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor with a license to pour. I always kinda liked Farrell’s, but then again, I was a lot younger when they were still in business. These days, Friday’s and Damon’s are too raucous and noisy for me. I think a bar should be dark, quiet, and have a high relative humidity, so I can de-stress. Think Nick & Von’s, which would be wonderful even if the food was merely so-so. And if the waitresses are fat, friendly, pretty, and efficient, that’s great, too. (I blogged earlier today on islands of comfort in a stressful world.)
1201 chars
michaelj said on March 7, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Something Else. Fine writing about a not-well-enough-respected man.
Actually, the word John Nance Garner used was piss. I think you still can’t print that in papers of record.
If hawks are threatening the tufted titmice, call Tripp Isenhour. Randy Johnson atomized a seagull and nobody charged him with anything. A Tin Cup moment.
534 chars
Wally Wilson said on March 7, 2008 at 5:12 pm
You can get ready-to-use neem in a spray bottle just about anywhere…but it’s labeled as “Rose Pride” of all things (inexpensive _and_ safe to use indoors). The label will list the ingredient as “clarified extract of neem oil,” or somesuch.
Neem is harmless to mammals, acts as a fungicide (in most cases), and is a central nervous system agent for insects. All that from a tree.
It’s best to just take the plant into the bath tub or kitchen sink, give it a rinse with water, first, and then let them critters have it.
If you have a cat, never ever use anything that has permethrin as a component. Very toxic to catseses.
644 chars
Jeff said on March 7, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Why you’d let Samantha Power walk for what she said when & where she said it (if she’d been talking to a roomfull of high school yearbook editors, sure), and given who she is and what she represents, Obama’s campaign should have begged her to stay . . . unless people inside that camp are already angling for spots in the Clinton camp.
Harl, i couldn’t agree more — an experienced senator with seniority has more clout and room to maneuver than a VPOTUS, and Obama could show his bubble people that he really does have what it takes to hold down the Oval Office with another term or two in the Senate. But i still think a Hillary Clinton nomination is what’s gonna happen when the party gerontocracy of the 60’s generation finishes their lobster bisque in Denver, and i also think it’ll be the next best thing to handing this all off straight to John McCain, for all Terry McAulliffe’s energy and drive (that man is amazing, he said from the other side, an opponent worthy of respect).
Not saying it’s a good thing, just that it’s gonna happen that way. The deal is, people in all fifty states vote, they’re apportioned according to the Electoral College, and the math and the system and the trends as they stand means that the Reds and Purples are gonna vote Johnny Mac in, while the Blues muster the same 42% they keep assembling, with 4 to 7% “independent” voters flinging paint at Nader or Hagelin or whoever is on the ballot when they aren’t casting a halfhearted vote for the Ds.
And the 52-54% who don’t want major changes to the economy, want global markets to stay open enough to maintain the flow of consumer goods they use right now, dislike any tax increases, won’t accept having their health insurance changed from what it is currently, or the definition of human life and marriage significantly altered from what they’re used to, will keep voting in stiff, short-sighted, GOP-policy standard bearers.
Obama almost, but not quite changed the topic of conversation. A Democrat with a coherent, clear, not-just-anti-stuff platform needs to step up and swing the baton to a whole new tempo.
2120 chars
Dexter said on March 7, 2008 at 5:56 pm
“Every small town in Michigan, or Ohio, has generally been built around a large factory. And we’ve visited a lot of those towns,” said Stephan Wolf, executive vice president of Hilco Industrial Corp., the company that staged this week’s auction. [from the lead story, DetNews]
And Indiana. Remember the GE Tool & Die School? Teach you a trade and pay $65 a week, too.
Good job training , and I had several friends start a career there.
Now the trade is not so popular, as job offers are few; reading the numbers (57,000 in MI down to 39,000) is proof enough.
It’s been quite a run, from the Flint Sit Down Strike of 1937 to the post-Roger Smith era. The last 25 years, job security has been a myth and unions are surviving by the compromising methods. It’s a new day.
782 chars
michaelj said on March 7, 2008 at 6:31 pm
We used to have a gigantic jade, which became infected with spider mites. A mild solution of water and dishwashing liquid did the bastards in. When we owned a farmhouse in Brockton, MA, our trees, including pear and apple, were beset with tent caterpillars. You could actually hear them chomping. I truly lost my senses, and declared a borderline psychotically obsessive war on the bastards. Crushed them with hammers, burnt them with smoldering cigars. Bacillus thuringiensis proved effective.
McCain? Straight talk? If Americans vote for this mumbling equivocator against anybody we deserve what we get, and we’ll get it, good and hard. Everything with this guy is a youthful indiscretion, or, even better, a lapse in judgment that led to the appearance of impropriety. Should have spent time in Club Fed for Keating Five. His abject fawning over W goes way beyond gag reflex. Shrubco and Bush’s brain slandered McCain unmercifully in 2000, and now they’re best buds.
Obama is dissembling about what he did on his Canadian vacation, and Hillary’s guilty of some double-talk on NAFTA, but how is it that nobody in the press mentions how W came in and simply abrogated the Environmental and Labor agreements B. Clinton grafted onto the unadulterated Free Greed situation left by Bush pere, who proved unequivocally that getting shot down doesn’t prepare you to be President? (HW did something similar with Somalia, spitefully leaving a no-win briar patch for his successor. Probably BaBar’s idea.)
Any problems with party message and party unity for Democrats are the daily newspaper landing with a thud on Dr. Dean’s doormat. Obama’s positions on issues differ from Clinton’s about as much as Clarence Thomas doesn’t judge cases Scalia-free. What’s going on is liberaller-than-thou Deany Babies have their guy and that’s about that. It doesn’t help when the hope candidate spouts Raygun hagiography and says he knows his opponent’s supporters will vote for him, but he’s not sure his will vote for her.
As for the invasion and McCain’s vision of endless occupation, it would be nice to think American voters had a clue about Public Law HJ 114. The so-called authorization required the Pretzeldent to allow the UN and el Baradei to proceed, and to return to Congress with additional evidence before taking action against Iraq. (The incredible campaign of disinformation by the misAdministration is actually beside the point, though it’s not far-fetched to think Congresspeople just wouldn’t believe a President would flat-out lie his ass off to Constitutional deliberators and law-makers.) Inconvenient for the Obama troops slagging Hillary’s vote, but, then again, he wasn’t there. Nobody voted for the invasion, and Barrack will persist in misrepresenting the facts of this matter.
2983 chars
michaelj said on March 7, 2008 at 6:44 pm
This is what Hillary Clinton said on the Senate floor when she cast her Iraq vote:
Because bipartisan support for this resolution makes success in the United Nations more likely and war less likely, and because a good faith effort by the United States, even if it fails, will bring more allies and legitimacy to our cause, I have concluded, after careful and serious consideration, that a vote for the resolution best serves the security of our Nation. If we were to defeat this resolution or pass it with only a few Democrats, I am concerned that those who want to pretend this problem will go way with delay will oppose any United Nations resolution calling for unrestricted inspections.
This is a difficult vote. This is probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make. Any vote that may lead to war should be hard, but I cast it with conviction. Perhaps my decision is influenced by my 8 years of experience on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue in the White House watching my husband deal with serious challenges to our Nation. I want this President, or any future President, to be in the strongest possible position to lead our country in the United Nations or in war . Secondly, I want to ensure that Saddam Hussein makes no mistake about our national unity and support for the President’s efforts to wage America’s war against terrorists and weapons of mass destruction. Thirdly, I want the men and women in our Armed Forces to know that if they should be called upon to act against Iraq our country will stand resolutely behind them.
My vote is not, however, a vote for any new doctrine of preemption or for unilateralism or for the arrogance of American power or purpose, all of which carry grave dangers for our Nation, the rule of international law, and the peace and security of people throughout the world.
Sounds considered and statesmanlike.
1884 chars
LAMary said on March 7, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Red Robins are all over the place here, and yes, they are obnoxious. And overpriced.
And that possum is definitely smiling.
127 chars
Dexter said on March 7, 2008 at 7:57 pm
LAMary, Brian, Connie:
A couple weeks ago , Loretta Lynn was featured on XMX, the wonderful XM radio channel that does long specials on artists, one-on-one.
Bill Anderson did the interview, and the topic turned to the “holler” where Loretta grew up in Kentucky. Butcher Holler.
Loretta and Bill started alluding to possums, and Loretta said they ate a lot of them when she was a kid. She said a possum recipe was in her cookbook. Bill laughingly admitted to eating possum, too. I didn’t research any recipes. I never ate possum and I never ate squirrel brains.
And I ain’t got no hankerin’ to, “nither” !!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Loretta_Lynn_house.jpg
679 chars
michaelj said on March 7, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Hawks (mostly redtails), ospreys, eagles (bald and golden), feral chickens and occasional peacocks (God knows where they came from). We have them all on our barrier island. Herons (Great Blues, many of whom are snow white), egrets (Peter Matthiessen’s plume birds), kingfisher (once), cormorants, anhingas (snakebirds!), turnstones, skimmers, all sorts of gulls.
The most impressive, easily, in grace and almost prehistoric magisterial presence, is the brown pelican. Seen from the right perspective, late on hot summer beach days after some Sam Adams, they strongly resemble pterodactyls, and can glide from out of, to into to out of sight without appearing to move a muscle, inches off the water.
We also have a pileated woodpecker that’s the bane of our early mornings. And all sorts of songbirds. Congresses of crows. Turkey vultures with 8-ft. wingspans. Redwing blackbirds and wood storks.
And gators and dolphins that pace our kayaks in the estuaries. Dolphins are shameless about mating. Libertines. Gators, more fastidious. We have signs that warn “Do not feed or molest the alligators.” Isn’t a human being dumb enough to “molest” an alligator somebody that ‘s swimming in the shallow end of the gene pool?
And we’ve got snakes, copperheads that swim in our pool but no water moccasins (which is fortunate, because they scare the shit out of me), small timber rattlers, much larger king snakes that supposedly eat rattlers. A friend claims to have seen a coral snake. A very large, non-venomous constrictor called a pine snake is pretty common and they keep the rabbits in check.
And we have deer, but they eat rich peoples’ azaleas, so they’re endangered by Homeowners Associations. People have “Save the Sea Pines Deer” bumper stickers to protest “culling” (foul euphemism for slaughter, try hand to hoof, you cowards). W have TShirts that say “Arm the Sea Pines Deer”. There is nothing much more funny than some dumbass hunter falling out of a deerstand and breaking his inebriated ass.
I imagine somewhere ‘Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole’, but they live underground so they’re hard to spot.
It’s all Bungle in the Jungle, and we never take it for granted.
2329 chars
LAMary said on March 7, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Michaelj, we’ve been calling those pelicans pterodactyls since my kids were little and in the the kiddie dinosaur loving phase. Aren’t they amazing to watch? They just dive into the water at full speed.
Lots of hawks here too. They get into fights with the crows over the canyon behind my house.
297 chars
Dexter said on March 7, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Random thought: I had beef barley soup today. Anybody remember the diner on Michigan Avenue in Detroit, a half block from Tiger Stadium , called something like The Left Field Inn? Best beef barley soup in the world. Also, in that ‘hood, Hoot Robinson’s poured the biggest shots of booze to go with your Stroh’s or Molson’s, and Paros Home Plate had the best grub, but Bill Reedy’s Saloon…THAT was a great bar. OK…baseball memories over…I always get this way when I think of the demise of Tiger Stadium (and even worse, Comiskey Park in Chicago…I cry about that and it’s been almost 17 years since it closed…here’s Frank singing about it:
http://ballparks.phanfare.com/slideshow.aspx?username=ballparks&album_id=338350§ion_id=-1
753 chars
Jeff said on March 7, 2008 at 8:22 pm
No comment dept. —
http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/trailhead/archive/2008/03/07/power-outage-part-2.aspx
107 chars
michaelj said on March 7, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Possums are one of those creations God should apologize for. Incredibly nasty animals, and they don’t smile, they smirk. Like raccoons without brains and a nice Ivy League coat. Wily and innately evil. Born to be roadkill, armadillos without the half-shell.
257 chars
Harl Delos said on March 7, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Dexter said:
I only ever tasted one possum, and it was a lifetime supply. I don’t mind fat meats, and I don’t mind “gamey” meats, but possum is greasy as hell, and it takes “gamey” to whole new levels.
They’re pretty, though, when they don’t feel threatened. It’s just that I don’t want to face a rabid one.
How many squirrel brains does it take to make one mouthful? I’m surprised that anyone even bothers. We used to have fried brain sandwiches every time we butchered beef or pork. They’re good with mustard. LOTS of mustard. We also had chitterlings, cracklings, and mom made a really great tripe soup. I wish I knew how she made it, because I can’t seem to make tripe edible, no matter what I do, and I can cook almost anything.
I was in a class at Defiance College that, last day of class, the prof had a tradition of having the class meet at Kissner’s, and he’d buy brain sandwiches for anyone that would eat the whole sandwich. If someone only ate part of the sandwich, they paid their own way.
I met my current wife online, and when she came to visit, I took her to Kissner’s and bought her a brain sandwich. She was willing to taste it, decided she liked it. I thought I had quite a catch, if a Main Line girl from Philadelphia would try eating brain. After we married, she told me that she hated it, but she pretended to like it because she wanted me to approve of her. Turns out she’s not from the Main Line, but from the next county, too. Sheesh. And women wonder why men don’t trust them in positions of power?
I don’t even know what kind of brain they serve at Kissner’s these days. Pork? Sheep? I know they changed a couple of decades ago, because they couldn’t get what they had previously used, but I can’t remember what they changed to and from.
2098 chars
Harl Delos said on March 7, 2008 at 8:55 pm
michaelj said:
I wasn’t sure how Mrs. Derringer felt about Thomas Bowdler.
I suspect she’s happy to use shocking words when they’re called for, but if you overuse shocking words, they lose their power. In that case, what are you going to do when you really *need* one?
415 chars
Jeff said on March 7, 2008 at 9:10 pm
On the other side of the Democratic decision, this is not to be confused with an endorsement, but —
[link]
She couldn’t explain how her mom would affirm federalism versus a federal solution for every problem, but she acknowledged the need for keeping room for local solutions, which made me smile! A very smart young woman, even if she did pose for a picture with me and the Little Guy.
532 chars
Jeff said on March 7, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Both pics we got after Chelsea’s appearance at Denison University can be seen at http://knapsack.blogspot.com.
110 chars
brian stouder said on March 7, 2008 at 9:18 pm
Jeff – great “no comment” article! – But still, gotta comment! I really like Samantha Power – and her fate is just a preview for the legions of younger folks who might be tempted to believe that President Bush is the worst president ever, ever, ever.
Remember that general who got whacked for stating the truth about how many troops it would take to stabilize Iraq – Erik Shinseki?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/853859/posts
Power’s remarks about withdrawal from Iraq just provided Senator Clinton with her own ‘Shinseki moment’, and if she wins the presidency (as now looks more likely) we will see the video of her criticism of “the amateurs” within the Obama campaign again and again
edit: great Chelsea pics!
734 chars
michaelj said on March 7, 2008 at 9:44 pm
It’s like Art Linkletter said, “People eat the damnedest things. Or something like that. I’m sure I’ve eaten both squirrel and possum, disguised as Brunswick stew on blue Sundays at the bootlegger’s in Athens. Why do people eat rodents with bushy or cottontails but would be hohorrified by rat cassoulet? Who were the intrepid gastronomes that first braved things as revolting looking as squid, or conch or Quahogs, or snails? (I’m partial to all four, but slugs and gastropoda are still slugs and gastropoda.)
Brains? Tripe? Sweetbreads? Giblets? There’s a word for that stuff, and it’s offal, but I guess it’s all protein.
627 chars
Dexter said on March 7, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Harl:
I quit Kissner’s 15 years ago when I gave up booze, but what a wonderful place it was . It’s still there. I really liked Maag’s, too. The bartenders in white aprons out of a bygone era, the liverwurst and all the other great sandwiches, and if you were observant you knew they kept a bottle of Corby’s Whiskey in a cold well . Somebody liked a cold shot with their beer, and I sampled it, and thought it was OK that way, what the hell. I liked to go there and bullshit with one of the part-time bartenders who used to drive a truck to Bridgeport, Chicago, where I liked to go after Sox games and hit the bars.
He knew good Chicago stories. I liked to listen.
Every winter holiday season I think fondly of that special drink they made at Kissner’s…”Tom and Jerry’s”, a brandy specialty with a secret ingredient list. Damn , I reminisce too much, I’ll try to be better!
884 chars
del said on March 7, 2008 at 11:52 pm
No reference to senate floor Iraq speeches can pass without mentioning Robert Byrd. Here’s part of his . . .
One can understand the anger and shock of any President after the savage attacks of September 11. One can appreciate the frustration of having only a shadow to chase and an amorphous, fleeting enemy on which it is nearly impossible to exact retribution.
But to turn one’s frustration and anger into the kind of extremely destabilizing and dangerous foreign policy debacle that the world is currently witnessing is inexcusable from any Administration charged with the awesome power and responsibility of guiding the destiny of the greatest superpower on the planet. Frankly many of the pronouncements made by this Administration are outrageous. There is no other word.
Yet this chamber is hauntingly silent.
Made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention when I heard it realtime. . .
Jeff, nice picture. Not too different from the Jeff in my mind’s eye.
993 chars
Harl Delos said on March 8, 2008 at 2:50 am
Michaelj said:
To a vegetarian, sirloin steak is offal. I’m not sure someone with Wonder Bread sensibilities would appreciate it, but I recently read a book by Tom Parker-Bowles (Camilla’s son), called “The Year Of Eating Dangerously.”
There are 9 chapters, each one having him go to a different locale to eat all sorts of strange things. He starts out in Gloucestershire, trying to catch elvers (baby eels), goes to a chilli festival in the southwest, eats all kinds of strange things in China, judges barbecue in Nashville, eats fugu in Japan twice (the first being so-so, the second time exquisite), struggles to eat dog in Korea (but the wet-dog smell has him retching – his only real failure), has various bits and pieces in Laos, visits a celtic community in Iberia for shellfish that are like pink penises, and finishes by eating dinner with the Mafia in Sicily.
It’s a *really* amazing book. Writing a book about eating is impossible; heck, even doing a TV show about food is impossible. Molto Mario made bread soup this week, from broth, broccoli, and stale bread, and I couldn’t imagine that it tasted as good as his guests proclaimed, so I made some, and it’s VERY good, although I couldn’t possibly tell you what it tasted like. Not like bread, and only a little like broccoli. (If you want to try it, the recipe is at the Food Network site, called “Pancotto con Broccoli”)
But this book really made me crave some of the foods he ate.
In the last few years, I’ve been eating more and more pho. It wasn’t worth all the blood and gore and guts we spent in Nam, but Tom lists pho as one of the ten most special foods (I think his list of 10 items actually has 11, but cheating IS allowed) in the world, and I’m inclined to agree. Yet the type of pho I like best has tripe and tendon in it. Isn’t tendon another word for gristle?
Was “Beef Manhattan” invented at Balyeats? It’s the only restaurant I’ve ever seen that offered it. It’s an open faced sandwich – white bread with a scoop of mashed taters, with beef and gravy over all. If you want to really do it up well, you use a hearty bread (Innkeepers, available at Costco, is great) instead of whitebread, you don’t peel the taters before you make them into mashed, and you boil beef shank to flinders and thicken the broth to get your beef and gravy.
People down in Dayton and Cincinnati have never heard of it, although when I lived in Cincinnati in the late 1970s, I found that nobody there had ever heard of Hills Brothers (“Head For The Hills”) coffee, either. And here in Pennsylvania Dutch country, stores have MJB coffee, which wasn’t available in Cincinnati supermarkets, but it’s from the same San Francisco company that roasts Hills Brothers.
And nobody here seems to know about church basement beef sandwiches. As best I can tell, you bake a whole brisket in a roaster at 225 for about 6 or 8 hours, until it falls apart into strings, and then you turn the juices into a gravy, so the whole thing is about sloppy joe consistency. And sometimes, they make the same sandwich spread from chicken, turkey, or once in a very great while, pork. When I was growing up, it was as important a ritual to eat those sandwiches at the wedding reception as it was for the older unmarried sister to dance in the pig’s trough. Are all the people in Pennsylvania living in sin? I guess that’d explain all the bastards working in government….
Dexter, a “Tom & Jerry” is just an alcoholic egg nog, and if you think about it, the recipe for egg nog are as closely guarded a secret as the recipe for barbecue sauce. There are a million recipes, and they’re all similar, and all different, and most of them highly tasty.
Brian, I have my qualms about the Senator from Illinois. He reminds me too much of Winfield Moses. When he first went into office, he had all these people from IPFW advising him on what to do, and he started out to be so promising, but it didn’t take long before he was one of the dirtier politicians I’d run into. Someone who was in the inner circle at the beginning, and several people told me ended up quitting in disgust, told me that his wife led him down that path.
As a conservative independent, I ought to be supporting the Senator from Arizona, but the thought of a century more in Iraq is unacceptable. There’s an old joke about the guy who moves into a housing development where every house looks the same. He turns down the wrong street late one night, and only discovers his mistake when he’s making love to his wife – she moves. Now, if you find yourself in that, ahem, position, is it the honorable thing to make sure she climaxes before you leave – or should you grab your pants and run for the door as fast as you can?
And I don’t relish continuing this 28-year oligarchy of Bush and Clinton for another four years. As the judge supposedly said of sterilizing Deborah Kallikak, “seven generations of imbeciles is enough”.
5109 chars
basset said on March 8, 2008 at 7:00 am
>>it was as important a ritual to eat those sandwiches at the wedding reception as it was for the older unmarried sister to dance in the pig’s trough
dance in the pig’s trough? what’s that about?
207 chars
Jeff said on March 8, 2008 at 8:01 am
Harl — “Was “Beef Manhattan” invented at Balyeats? It’s the only restaurant I’ve ever seen that offered it.”
Dude, you gotta eat at more midwestern truck stops is all i can say. From Wheeling to Joliet to Omaha, Beef Manhattan is at every diner and 24 hour roadside affair i’ve ever picked up a menu at. And washed my hands after handling the menu. (Yes, i travel with some Purell in the car: why do you ask?)
424 chars
brian stouder said on March 8, 2008 at 8:58 am
Harl – I despised Win Moses, back in the day. Odd bit of resonance in your post, though, re Obama/Moses; when Samantha Power came to Fort Wayne, and I got her book signed and yapped with her a little, Win Moses his-own-self was orbiting ever closer, as if he wanted to hear what was being said (and in fact, I was recommending to her that she should stop and see the Lincoln Museum while she was in town, since she quotes Lincoln on the title page of her book; which got a rise out of her!)
Re Sheets Byrd – if the GOP is stuck with its share of wide-stance senators (etc), at least it doesn’t have that self-righteous grand wizard (or whatever the hell) klansmen in their fold. ..
and re truck stops – I once found myself at a truck stop at Grantsburg, Maryland, at about 9 at night (although maybe it was 10 local time), because it was the only place I could find to eat. Whatever I ordered, the waitress asked if I wanted potatoes with gravy, and I said “sure!” – and I got crinkle-cut fries with gravy drizzled on them!
1044 chars
Jeff said on March 8, 2008 at 9:14 am
Best Beef Manhattan i’ve had in the last few months — right before the great-nieces and nephews did Aunt Georgia’s funeral, at “The County Kitchen” in Arcola, Illinois. Wasn’t just sentiment, it was fine Amish-esque cooking. Plus they have a pretty good Amish lifestyle museum around the corner worth the stop off the interstate.
My youngest brother is a jazz/blues pianist who plays with a couple traveling bands out of Bloomington, IN, and he’s the Manhattan aficionado. He likes it at a place in Jasper, and there’s a place called Bill Zuber’s in Amana, Iowa that’s finest kind. But he put the Arcola place in the top five.
633 chars
del said on March 8, 2008 at 10:22 am
Dexter, I lived for a while in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit close enough to Tiger Stadium that our yard became a parking lot on sellouts; the diner with the great beef barley soup was probably the late Max Silk’s place (don’t recall the name we just called it Maxie’s). He became a local treasure for not only his soups (corn chowder, my fave) but his charity –would feed the guys on skid row. Max was Jewish and teamed up w/ Msgr. Kern to help those in need. Everyone loved Maxie — a big heart. As a young man, however, he spent 10 years in prison for his “crime” while part of the infamous Purple Gang. That crime? Hauling a truckload of booze during prohibition. One of the greats.
701 chars
del said on March 8, 2008 at 10:58 am
Brian, the first time I heard about Sen. Byrd’s past was after I recalled “the speech” to another. Kinda reminds me of the movie O Brother Where Art Thou and this clip in which a younger R. Byrd? makes a cameo.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=hfTUvFj6kvc
253 chars
Harl Delos said on March 8, 2008 at 11:21 am
Basset asked:
It’s teasing about becoming an old maid, but it’s self-deprecating humor, if you know what I mean, because nobody is holding a shotgun on the sister, if you know what I mean.
Some churches do it, and some don’t. No sillier than tossing the bouquet or the garter.
Brian wrote:
When Philips bought Sylvania, they closed their factory in Seneca Falls, NY, and a lot of people moved to Ottawa to work in the Philips Display Components factory there. Not much demand for TV picture tubes these days; the factory has probably closed by now.
But in any case, around Seneca Falls, people popularly order a “quickie”, which is a hamburger basket (do younger readers know that’s a burger and fries?) covered with beef gravy. When they came to Ottawa, they’d go into a restaurant, and ask the waitress for a quickie, and they’d get blank stares. I suppose in some towns, they’d get their faces slapped, but… (I imagine that they ordinarily get a little soft solder first, instead of being approached so bluntly.)
del said:
One of the large-format magazines – possibly Colliers, because I think it was too early for Life or Look – did a story on Paulding County, because it had an extremely high unsolved murder rate. The Purple Gang dumped their bodies there. The sheriff said that he didn’t see any reason to waste local taxpayers’ money solving Detroit’s crimes.
Of course, there have been few sheriffs in Ohio that were re-elected at least once who weren’t millionaires when they retired. Among other things, the sheriff gets paid a per-diem for prisoners, and the less he spends to feed and care for them, the more goes into his pocket, and it’s all legitimate.
Of course, there were other things. When Rick Yocum was at the Crescent-News, he said he sent a case of liquor to each sheriff, in order to get cooperation from them. And news is legal. Whorehouses, places selling Indiana liquor and North Carolina cigarettes, places with payoff pinball machines, and after-hours establishments all contribute to the sheriff’s retirement fund, because they may not be legal, but voters don’t seem to object much to those businesses.
2656 chars
Jeff said on March 8, 2008 at 11:49 am
Ohio and West Virginia sheriffs also used to have almost feudal control over property foreclosures, and of course knew before anyone else which properties were going up for foreclosure, sheriffs sale, etc.
You could get rich on speculating directly, or by charging for early access to the info. But yes, it used to be hard to end you career as a sheriff in any category other than rich, or convicted. Not much in between.
They assure me down at the Courthouse that those days are long gone — well, since the 80’s anyhow. Or at least the 90’s they got it all cleaned up. It’s been years, OK? Nothing to see, move along . . .
635 chars
basset said on March 8, 2008 at 1:25 pm
so how do they actually do the dancing in the pig’s trough? probably pretty hard to find a genuine trough in most places these days. I suppose it’s something symbolic, bring in a kid’s plastic sled and hop around on that for awhile maybe.
and why the pig’s trough, why not the horse’s? amateur folklorist, that’s me.
never heard a basket with gravy called a “quickie,” but here in the south you want to be careful about saying “give me some sugar” to a waitress.
470 chars
MichaelG said on March 8, 2008 at 3:26 pm
We lost several silkies (a type of bantam chicken) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie to red tail hawks. You could always tell when there had been an air strike. The girls, banty and otherwise, would all be clustered near tree trunks looking fearfully at the sky. The only attack I ever witnessed was when a hawk hit our white silkie rooster. The rooster fought back and ended up being more than the hawk wanted to handle. What a spectacular sight it all was. Lots of screaming too. It took me an hour to coax the little guy out of the bushes. He was scared shitless but other than losing some feathers, unharmed. A year or two later he fed a fox. Oh, well.
Were Sen. Clinton to be nominated and offer the VP job to Sen. Obama, it would pose a true dilemma for him, I think. Look at where presidents have generally come from and you don’t see a lot of senators making the jump. I don’t really know why other than maybe senior senators have some sort of Washington insider aroma to them that the electorate doesn’t like. On the other hand the VP spot seems to be a shoo in. A governorship is a good stepping stone as well. Other than the above, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be veep under Hillary with that other guy around.
And I also don’t like the dynastic aspect of having 28 years of nuthin’ but Bushes and Clintons in the Pale Palace.
The stuff mentioned by michaelj is known as “offal” because that’s what it has been called for hundreds of years. It’s not a value judgment. I have seen what you guys call “Beef Manhattan” all over the place called a hot beef sandwich. It can also be had in turkey flavor as well. Slices on white bread topped with mashed potatoes and gravy.
Pho is wonderful stuff. There are several varieties of it. There are any number of excellent Vietnamese restaurants around here selling it with those great piles of aromatic greens to accompany. Yum. Best I ever had was from a street vendor in Ho Chi Minh City a couple of years ago.
I’m not familiar with the Italian version of bread soup, but the Portuguese version called “Sopa Acorda” (the “c” should have one of those little things on it that tells one to pronounce it as an “s”). It’s a classic in Portuguese cooking.
Scariest thing I ever ate was one of those eggs with the fully formed baby duck inside. I choked it down with copious glugs of Heinekens. This was also in the RVN a few years ago. Once was more than enough.
Hills Bros coffee used to be roasted in a plant right at the SF end of the Bay Bridge so that people crossing the bridge would be welcomed into the City (in SF the word “City” is capitalized) by the aroma of freshly roasted coffee. It was wonderful. I have no idea where it is processed now. Nor do I know where MJB is processed. I’m too lazy to google all that stuff to find out. MJB is Max J. Brandenstein. I once worked for a guy who was married to a Brandenstein. Max’s granddaughter I think. Same guy dated Diane Feinstein back in the day.
3022 chars
nancy said on March 8, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Jeff, in Indiana sheriffs get a cut of any delinquent property taxes they can collect. In most counties, the sheriff is the highest-paid public official by far. And many of them had no higher education.
I was also interested in how they were invited to put their wives on the payroll, usually as jail matron (at least in the smaller counties). It’s like getting a nice little bump to the household income. Thanks, taxpayers!
427 chars
brian stouder said on March 8, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Say – did someone already mention it and I missed it ? – in all this talk about birds and wildlife, the PGA golfer who deliberately took aim and drove a golf ball at a hawk – and HIT it? The bird (who was perched in a tree) dared to shriek while the golfer was trying to tape a segment for a tv show called “Shoot like a pro”. (maybe it would be better titled “Shoot like a maniacal psycho!)..!!!
http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3279958&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines
According to court documents, Isenhour got upset when a red-shouldered hawk began making noise, forcing another take. He began hitting balls at the bird, then 300 yards away, but gave up. Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.
Isenhour allegedly said “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk. “About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and [Isenhour] was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.
A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.
and then
Isenhour said his family has adopted three cats from a local shelter.
“I am an animal lover,” he said. “We ask that everyone accept my sincerest apology, and please be respectful of my family’s privacy.”
1418 chars
Harl Delos said on March 8, 2008 at 4:32 pm
According to dictionary.com, which is based on Random House unabridged, offal has three definitions.
of·fal /ˈɔfəl, ˈɒfəl/ –noun
1. the parts of a butchered animal that are considered inedible by human beings; carrion.
2. the parts of a butchered animal removed in dressing; viscera.
3. refuse; rubbish; garbage.of·fal /ˈɔfəl, ˈɒfəl/
It all depends on your criteria for “inedible”, it seems to me. A sufficient quantity of polar bear liver is lethal from all the Vitamin A in it. That’s pretty clearcut, but deer liver, on the other hand, is the most desirable of the venison cuts….
You can buy pigs’ troughs at any tractor store. And yeah, it means you pretty much dance without moving your feet very much.
A horse trough would be awfully difficult to carry into the church basement, and even more difficult to carry out. When we moved from Milan Center to Florida Avenue, we brought along a 1952 International Harvester deep-freeze. Getting it into the basement was difficult. It was still working very well when we moved out, but we decided to donate it to the new owners; freezers are pretty cheap these days, and medical treatment isn’t.
Not only are sheriffs, even honest one, paid extremely well, but it’s a pretty secure job. Running against the sheriff can be foolhardy, if you know what I mean.
I don’t know if there are a lot of coffee roasters everywhere these days, but there sure are a lot in Pennsylvania Dutch country. They even roast Starbucks coffee here. Lots of smaller roasters, as well. Interesting piece of trivia: Starbucks didn’t sell beverage coffee until they had five stores. Initially, they just sold beans and grind. That surprised me; I figured they were a drink store from the get-go.
1770 chars
del said on March 8, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Harl, your comment about sheriffs having a secure job reminds of metro Detroit’s Macomb County sherrif. After decades in the job he was convicted of criminal sexual conduct with an intern. Spent 3 years in prison. But that didn’t turn off the electorate towards his son, who ran for his seat and won. He’s still there. Among the elder’s accomplishments — bringing back the old-time black and white striped garb for prisoners. Public ate it up. Kinda like returning the fire engines to fire engine red after dabbling with optic yellow.
As to Brian’s note about the golfer who mistook the endangered hawk for a varmint, anyone notice the maximum prison sentence? 14 months. Hmph.
688 chars
nancy said on March 8, 2008 at 5:21 pm
Yeah, I say screw his family’s privacy. His kids need to learn daddy’s a prick. Let’s all send them postcards saying so.
Growing up in Jack Nicklaus’ hometown, I learned about golfers early. After nearly being run over in Foster Park about a million times — by golfers who thought the biking/walking/jogging track was their personal cart path — I can think of a few people who’d be much improved by having some balls shagged in their direction.
449 chars
Dexter said on March 8, 2008 at 5:43 pm
The current Allen County Sheriff is the son of my English teacher.
I don’t know Sheriff Fries, but the old man was the wittiest teacher ever, and when I saw him a couple years ago at a reunion he was still smoking that pipe, same as 48 years ago. All the “kids” loved, and still love, Corky Fries.
http://www.allencountysheriff.org/
337 chars
del said on March 8, 2008 at 7:09 pm
I had a college English Professor (Leon Linderoth) who’d been a/the sheriff with/of Chippewa County (MI). He was terrific; much life experience.
145 chars
Connie said on March 8, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Indiana legislature passed a bill this session meant to control Sheriff profit making. And they used to also make huge profits from feeding jail prisoners cheaply as they got to keep the unspent funds.
202 chars
Kafkaz said on March 9, 2008 at 3:58 am
Even miniature golf pisses me off, so it’s not that hard to imagine real golf giving a person murderous thoughts. (Games aren’t my best thing. Scrabble is fun, but that’s about it.)
Bird watching, conversely, is very calming. We live in a old neighborhood surrounded on three sides by forest preserve, so we get lots of most excellent birds. When a hawk is in the vicinity, the other birds get very nervous–amazing how quickly the “on alert” status spreads when a predator shows up.
For several summers, we had a red headed woodpecker who frequented one of our feeders, but I have not seen another of those in years. They’re swoopers, and when they swoop from a tree on one side of a road to a tree on the other side, they tend to get done in by cars.
Used to keep a drawing pad and colored pencils nearby when I was reading on the deck so I could draw the more striking birds. Good way to really get to know them. Should take that up again. (Should also diet, exercise, and stop swearing, but shoulds have a way of getting tumbled to the bottom of the to do heap.)
Anyway, seems like whenever I happen to glance at whatever golf thing my husband might be watching on tv, even the pros are hard pressed to get that silly white ball where they want it to go. So, how in heck did this guy manage to hit a hawk, and hard enough to kill it?
Guess he’ll be pondering that one for awhile, too. (Besides, isn’t “don’t aim at any living thing” one of the first rules when learning to wield any potentially dangerous weapon?)
Supposed to be “a murder of crows” and “a tedium of golfers,” isn’t it? Not a murderous golfer and a hawk defunct.
1662 chars
brian stouder said on March 9, 2008 at 10:17 am
Earlier, Nancy referenced a good article in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel featuring the views of Gerry Prokopwicz,
http://www.news-sentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/NEWS/803040321
regarding the looming disintegration of the Fort Wayne Lincoln Museum, and today we have this feature in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, by Harold Holzer
http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080309/EDIT05/803090352
an excerpt –
Consortiums are needed; advisers are required; ideas are needed. I am relieved to know that the company has already indicated its intention to convene a group to explore these possibilities. If it takes longer than four months to craft a plan, perhaps the chains can even be left off the doors for a few more months. One final exhibition of the collection’s best pieces would at least inspire the kind of send-off the place deserves.
Lincoln once warned, “We cannot escape history.” Lincoln Financial never has, and it shouldn’t now. Its historic obligation, first to Robert Lincoln himself when the foundation was first established, and all through the years as the collection was amassed, does not vanish with the publication of a news release.
Otherwise what has been described as a shutdown will in reality be an assassination.
To which all I have to say is – Hear Hear!!
PS – and once again, Mitch Harper’s Fort Wayne Observed seems to be hamstrung, offering almost complete silence on (what seems to me to be) a HUGE, HUGE Fort Wayne story, while nn.c has it covered. When nn.c isn’t bitching* about the weather, or the need to clean bathrooms, the site has the pulse of Fort Wayne politics and culture, and the ever present ability to make nationally relevant news. Thanks, Nance (Sincerely!)
*yesterday the question whether it is worse to be a ‘bitch’ or an ‘asshole’ arose over on Laura Lippman’s site (without clear resolution)
PPS – Kafkaz – the moron shot ball after ball at the bird – and then the bird moved closer, and he let fly many more shots on video tape! I think the thing is on youtube, if you can stomache it)
2134 chars
Kafkaz said on March 9, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Urgh, no, Brian, I think I have to give this recording a pass. He was *determined* to hit the bird, then? Sigh. Somehow, I was kind of hoping this would turn out to be something like the opposite of the dumb luck or blind chance of a hole in one. Would still be horrible, but the cruel determination makes it an entirely more evil thing.
Watching hawks circle and glide is one of my favorite things. Always makes me think of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ “The Windhover”: “My heart in hiding/Stirred for a bird–the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!”
554 chars
michaelj said on March 9, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Could somebody just phone in where and how Clinton went so negative on Barrack. Just one comment. Anything? Didn’t happen.
I just don’t see that having happened. Basically, utter bullshit. Or maybe udder since W tried to milk bulls on more than one occasion, and boy I thinkthis is Rovian. All hat ring a bell? MMMoron. Maybe he thought that was Kennyboy whose teats he was yanking..
You couldn’t in a zillion years hit a bird with a golf shot. Even if you really wanted to. And I love watching hawks circle. They’re going to eat the tufted titmouse that’s just been blathering on our balcony,
Kafkaz, second or third best poem, But who cares? Houseman, Gerard Manley Hopkins, William Blake, Christina Rosetti?. Everybody’s second to Yeats in channeling something mystical, or nystifying. Well, there’s Under Ben Bulben which puts most other attempts at poetry to abject shame.
Think about Yeats’ contemporaries. I think hawks concatenate. I don’t think ospreys do. They just choose to dine, rapaciously. Awesome sight. Raptors only eat things still alive. Neocons regulalary dine on the dead.
If you live in what passes for the country, but it’s really the city, you probably think the brother was the poet. I’d say Christina ate his lunch.
1265 chars
brian stouder said on March 9, 2008 at 5:12 pm
Could somebody just phone in where and how Clinton went so negative on Barrack. Just one comment. Anything? Didn’t happen.
Well, to me THIS qualifies, MichaelJ –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHFREDHB-nQ&feature=related
unless you would accept that a person as well-read and intelligent as Senator Clinton has any doubt as to whether Senator Obama is a radical Muslim or not.
397 chars
del said on March 9, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Not quite with you on this one Brian. No mention of radical anything.
70 chars
brian stouder said on March 9, 2008 at 6:24 pm
from
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/03/clinton-says-ob.html
To be fair, Clinton went on to say that having “been the target of so many ridiculous rumors… I have a great deal of sympathy for anybody who gets, you know, smeared with the kind of rumors that go on all the time.”
That said, it’s the “as far as I know” that has some Obama supporters up in arms.
(Like the one who posted the clip on Youtube under the header: “Hillary Clinton Stokes False Rumors about Obama’s Faith”.)
I guess the question is how would this look if the shoe were on the other foot.
Let’s try just one of any number of ridiculous anti-Clinton smears.
HYPOTHETICAL STEVE KROFT: You don’t believe that Senator Clinton killed Vince Foster?
HYPOTHETICAL BARACK OBAMA: Of course not. I mean that’s, you know, that, there is no basis for that. You know, I take her on the basis of what she says, and, you know, there isn’t any reason to doubt that.
HYPOTHETICAL KROFT: You said you take Sen. Clinton at her word that she didn’t kill Vince Foster…
HYPOTHETICAL OBAMA: Right, right..
HYPOTHETICAL KROFT: …you don’t believe that she killed Vince Foster.
HYPOTHETICAL OBAMA: No! No! Why would I? There’s nothing to base that on. As far as I know.
Hmm.
And lest we forget this context, from the perspective of Obama supporters: two Clinton campaign volunteer coordinators in Iowa were asked by the Clinton campaign to resign after it came out that they had circulated those insane Obama-is-a-Muslim-Manchurian-candidate emails.
What if Obama answers a question about Samantha Power’s remark in the same way – “She’s not a monster as far as I know”?
1689 chars
del said on March 9, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Michaelj, many observers attribute any negativity directed at Obama to Hillary’s surrogates. Can’t be disproven. Hillary’s resiliency reminds me of Danny’s clever remark: “If you my last feeling I will be invincible,” or sumpin like that.
P.S. Kafkaz is right, bird watching is calming. Saw a hawk today soaring in frigid clear skies (playing catch outside with my son as a reward for completing his “wordly wise” homework.)
431 chars
Harl Delos said on March 9, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I suppose the comments that her husband keeps making don’t count?
In Nevada, Bill complains that there’s a lot of crossover vote without consequences, that someone can decide to be a Democrat for the caucuses, and then decide they were a Republican after all, and vote in the GOP primaries a couple of weeks later. And, of course, that’s the *only* state in which Senator Clinton has beaten Senator Obama in a caucus. Golly gee, must be a coincidence.
And there in the Carolinas, Bill seemed to have a lot of trouble remembering that Senator Obama wasn’t Senator Rainbow Coalition.
And Senator Clinton has been talking about her 35 years of experience, such as choosing the china for white house teas, and leading important international policy discussions in which Sinbad, Cheryl Crow, and Chelsea are participants. And she’s been crowing about her legislative accomplishments, as if renaming a federal building after Thurgood Marshall required reaching across the aisle to work up bipartisan support, and as if Senator Obama’s passage of a law requiring that cops videotape ALL interrogation, not just the confession that is made after the cops browbeat an innocent suspect, was nothing. They play hardball in Illinois, both in Chicago and downstate.
And she’s been insisting all along that Senator Obama hasn’t been “vetted”, as if being disbarred was no big deal. And she talk about being a fighter, but the first time, something goes wrong, she’s in tears. Do you suppose North Korea is going to think she’s a tough cookie, the way she treated Bill for raping women in Arkansas, and sharing a cigar with Monica, and humiliating her in the world press for months on end?
No, she disses Senator Obama, as just another dumb, uh, Hawaiian. Yeah, that’s the phrase I was thinking of. Dumb Hawaiian.
I can’t see how Senator Obama has been able to hold his tongue so long. Yes, Senator Clinton has been “vetted” and everywhere they turn, there’s more lies and deceit. Want to explain that cattle futures business, Mrs. Clinton? Want to explain the travel office shenanigans? Were you involved in the sale of pardons, Mrs. Clinton, or was it everybody else in the family *except* you? What about those Rose law firm billing records that disappeared for two years only to mysteriously show up on your reading table? Did you have *mice* in the White House, ma’am? Why did you refuse Jack Anderson’s request for your senior thesis at Wellesley for months – and then tell him that no thesis (and no explanation) would be forthcoming? Why can’t you reveal the *topic* of your senior thesis? Was a college senior in the 1960s writing a paper that *still* is so important to national security that it must remain secret?
And for that matter, why are you waiting until after April 15 to release your income tax returns for 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006? That’s when the 2007 return is due, but didn’t you file taxes those other six years? Or is that $5 million loan to your campaign really not your money after all, but a gift from a lobbyist?
Tell you what, I’ll furnish Mrs. Clinton *two* pillows, if someone will just pin her down to answering some of these questions on camera, so they can be uploaded to YouTube.
It’s no secret that Karl Rove wants Mrs. Clinton to be nominated. It’s the one thing that will get Republicans to turn out in droves for McCain, guaranteeing not only the White House, but keeping a lot of house and senate seats in GOP hands.
3621 chars
Jeff said on March 9, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Wow, Harl, you just saved me a bunch of typing. Y’all, what he said. And what Josh Marshall said at TPM — http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/182191.php
The new politics has to cross the rickety but familiar bridge to the 21st century of the old politics, and Obama has to decide if he’s gonna cross it, or build a new one, but he can’t stand on the shore much longer skipping pretty stones over the creek.
414 chars
del said on March 9, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Brian, I didn’t bother with the youtube post because it’s over 6 minutes and dull, but the Obama madrassa story started in print through the owners of the Washington Times, then it was on TV’s FOX News; both attributed it to unnamed sources close to Hillary’s people. (Things that make you go hmmmmm.) Commenting on accusations that one’s opponent is a Muslim is a helluva lot different than commenting on one’s opponent being a murderer. (See “paralipsis?”)
Harl, you’ve said a lot but still haven’t answered Michaelj’s original question. If it’s out there please bring it to the table for all of us . . .
611 chars
Jeff said on March 9, 2008 at 8:38 pm
SNL covered it for Harl, too, but i’ll swing — Hillary, her “first laddie in waiting,” her ads, and her staff are all saying Obama isn’t up to the 3 am phone call. They’re indicating that he might, well, sound like Fred Armisen doing a phone-it-in imitation of a nervous Barack on the phone, begging the grown-ups to bail him out of the real problems he didn’t see coming.
In presidential politics, that’s pretty harsh — not saying your opponent is wrong, or that you’re more right, but that they can’t cut it. And Obama’s answer is still just a repeated refrain of “Yes, We Can.”
My worry is that David Axelrod has a good idea how to manage union contracts and keep city services going during a heavy snowstorm, but who’s the campaign gonna pick up to help them say effectively “We do *so* know what to say when the phone rings at 3 am and a crisis is brewing in Gotchabackistan, and here’s who we’ll have in the room to help us make the answer work.”
Am i saying McCain is better? Not sure — the problem is we’re nowhere near talking about that (who will Johnny Mac listen to at 3:08 am? still unclear); Obama has to answer effectively why he’s changing the subject, or answering with an illuminating parry, but na-na-na-i-can’t-hear-you is wearing thin, even on college campuses.
1298 chars
del said on March 9, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Harl, Clinton won the New Mexico caucus too. As for it being no secret that Rove wants Clinton to be the nominee, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. One thing we can always lie about with impunity is what we think and feel. Of the the 3 great lies one of them falls into that category (1) the check is in the mail, (2) (little help), and (3) I love you. If Karl Rove is as smart as they say, he must know that he’s held in low regard (with Dick Cheney like approval ratings) and therefore would make sense for him to publicly support the Democrat he secretly wants to lose. And which candidate do you think would look into any of his potential wrongdoing more, the “change” candidate or HRC?
693 chars
michaelj said on March 9, 2008 at 8:46 pm
McCain’s worse than W. He believes he’s honest. And worse than that shitheel isn’t a good idea.
95 chars
Jeff said on March 9, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Unless Karl wants us to think that he thinks we’ll think he’s going to support the one he actually fears, so we’ll think that he’s thinking the other way, but anticipating that, he’s already thought of it, so is actually for Hillary.
This way lies madness . . . don’t bother, we’re here.
290 chars
del said on March 9, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Jeff, Touche. Are you the commenter who referenced my new favorite word, apophenia? Love it. As for the second great lie, a lawyer who was number 3 in the Justice Dept. under Clinton used to tell it thusly (to lighten up the crowd): Knock, knock — “Hello, we’re here from the federal government, we’re here to help you.”
325 chars
Jeff said on March 9, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Don’t mean to be so chatty, but after three days of shoveling, shoveling, shoveling . . . i don’t want to leave this recliner for a while, and my back may not let me.
Anyhow, Jack Shafer at Slate, who really ticked me off with his take on the McCain story in the NYTimes (short version: i think he’s wrong) couldn’t be more right in his analysis of why plagiarism matters . . . and i thought denizens of the NN.C might find it of interest:
http://www.slate.com/id/2186029/
[Yes, del, i’m that Jeff, currently hiding under a “mild-mannered” disguise until all the other crankier Jeffs calm down or wander off. Apophenia is a useful category to keep in mind, even – especially? – for a person of faith.]
711 chars
Harl Delos said on March 9, 2008 at 10:08 pm
> Harl, Clinton won the New Mexico caucus too.
She did? Last I heard, she was leading by 1700 votes, with 17,000 provisional ballots still to be counted.
But then, I haven’t heard what ever happened to the recount in New Hampshire, either. Large district or small, Clinton and Romney did a LOT better in precincts that used Diebold equipment than in ones that didn’t.
> As for it being no secret that Rove wants Clinton to be the nominee, I wouldn’t be so sure of that. One thing we can always lie about with impunity is what we think and feel.
What you tell large groups of your followers to *act* upon is hard to conceal. In previous elections, Rove’s followers have suppressed black votes by sending out literature that intimated that people with outstanding warrants would be arrested when they showed up, or with the wrong date to vote, or the wrong location. In Ohio, they made sure there were plenty of voting machines and thus short lines in some precincts and not in other precincts, and golly gee, isn’t it a coincidence that country club precincts were the ones not shortchanged? I don’t think it was Rove who did all that – but when he gives speeches saying that GOP members should pray that Hillary is running against them, I think they get the idea.
> Of the the 3 great lies one of them falls into that category (1) the check is in the mail, (2) (little help), and (3) I love you.
Walter J. Hickel, back in the Nixon administration, said, the check’s in the mail, of course I won’t come in your mouth, and I’m from the government and I’m here to help you. The press services cleaned up the second part to “of course I’ll respect you”. He got fired, though, when he said you’re guaranteed the minority vote if you promise loose shoes, tight pussy, and a warm place to take a shit. I think he got fired because that’s what they try to promise the *white* voters.
> And which candidate do you think would look into any of his potential wrongdoing more, the “change” candidate or HRC?
Rove doesn’t really matter. If they couldn’t defeat Dubya’s re-election with Rove, they surely can’t use it to beat McCain, who was in the Senate, not the White House.
What Karl’s been teaching the GOP, and Democrats are too stupid to learn, is that people don’t vote for a candidate they like, they vote against a candidate they hate or are scared of. It’s not something the GOP invented – the daisy ad against Goldwater was the ultimate scare/hate ad. On the other hand, the GOP has learned their lesson, and the Democrats never have.
“Don’t know why I didn’t see this sooner, but the Clintons are Republic[an]s who found a way to run against other Republic[an]s” – Dave Winer.
The folks on ScriptingNews.com argue that Obama should name a VP now, figuring that the right choice would end the “self-immolation” of the next six weeks. Living in Pennsylvania, I think I’m going to *enjoy* the next six weeks, but I have to agree, it’d be smart for him to name his veep now – and I came up with a name I haven’t seen anyone else mention: Claudia Kennedy. Explanation on my blog.
3192 chars
michaelj said on March 9, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Yeah, del, but some of us just have an aversion to lying. Barrack says “trust me” but as far as the invasion and NAFTA are concerned, he’s not only lied his ass off, he’s accused his opponent of lying, when she was telling the truth.
That’s news that will not appear on MSNBC. Keith will stick with the lie and slag Hillary. I swear, this is Deanie Babies gone wild. People with no idea of the process, that think Kucinich is cute. And never bothered reading Public Law HJ 114.
And the guy gets all hagiographical and post-climactic about Raygun. Did Ronny open a big tent for black people? Does Barrack think Raygun did, when he waxes poetic? The worst bullshit is Kennedy comparisons. Ms. Obama sure as hell hasn’t got Jackie’s class. More like L’il Kim or Courtney Love. And Jackie wasn’t Ethel, either. But I’m sure that’s inserting the race card.
What’s stupid is, these people are talking about Jack when they’re dying to mean Bob, but they’re too dense to get it.
1082 chars
michaelj said on March 9, 2008 at 10:20 pm
Do y’all think bumrushing caucuses is remotely democratic? Caucuses, by definition, are exclusionary. It’s Deany Baby heaven. We’re more liberal than thou. Which makes us, ta-da, progressive, so we get to tell the whole state how to vote.
238 chars
brian stouder said on March 9, 2008 at 10:31 pm
Walter J. Hickel bzzzzt! Earl Butz – a hoosier – Dept of Agriculture
He had gotten away with a quip about the Pope issuing pronouncements on birth control – saying something like ‘you can’t make the rules if you don’t play the game’…..but the loose shoes (etc) got him whacked
288 chars
del said on March 9, 2008 at 10:31 pm
TPM post above’s got no dirt on Hillary — just blames Hillary for Samantha Power’s resignation over her Hillary-is-a-monster comment. Don’t see how she’s to blame for that. It also likens her “involvement” in Power’s resignation to the swift-boating of John Kerry. With Hillary, people see what they want to see –she’s the Rorschach woman. To all of her critics, Michaelj’s Walter Mondale-era query remains: Where’s the beef?
Random thought: polls overstate Obama’s but understate Clinton’s support. After the NH primary a pollster wrote about the phenomenon (Time or NYT) that people tend to overstate their support of African American candidates to pollsters vs. what they do in the polling booth. (Could this help to explain Obama’s caucus vs. primary results?) And I can see a similar dynamic playing out as pollsters call women voters at home to poll them at the dinner hour. Some wouldn’t be comfortable voicing support for Hillary in front of their husbands, but once they get to the polling booth . . .
It’s different with me; my wife’s the boss.
1076 chars
del said on March 9, 2008 at 10:56 pm
Michaelj’s caucus analysis rings true.
38 chars
Harl Delos said on March 9, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Different people have different ideas about what qualifies as “monster”. Virginia passed a bill Saturday that makes it illegal for an adult to french-kiss a minor. It’s a misdemeanor that puts you on the sexual predator list, gives you up to a year in prison, and a fine of $2500. It was unanimous in their upper house, and one person voted against it in the lower house; he wanted to make it a felony.
But I think a monster is the fellow who killed Nancy Eagleson and left her nude where coon hunters found her. And an even greater monster is the sheriff who knew it was one of his deputies that did it, and didn’t lift a finger to do anything about it.
I had a friend who was a paraplegic, and as a little girl, her mother didn’t bother with a chastity belt for her daughter, she just used a needle and carpet thread. Mama also rented her out to a group of men to make a movie with a goat. I think that group of men were monsters, and her mother even more so. And I don’t think charging them with a felony is appropriate; I wouldn’t want monsters like that getting prison, or even the electric chair. I want to see humungous Osterizers built. Just press the “frappe” button.
But a guy who has a jailbait girlfriend, and french kisses her? That’s almost a model of restraint. My wife disagrees; she thinks the law is necessary, and the punishment appropriate.
So while I wouldn’t call the junior senator from New York a monster, I note that after knowing what was happening in terms of renditions and at the Abu Ghirab prison, she voted to authorize the same force against Iran that she authorized for Iraq.
The link to “Public Law HJ 114” doesn’t work, and that’s not the name, anyway. The AUMF is not “Public Law” at all, but “H.J.Res.114 of 2002”
And the AUMF allows the president to
1. defend the US against the continuing threat posed by Iraq
and
2. enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions
Given that Iraq does not have the capability of launching an attack on the United States, and is in full compliance with all applicable U.N. Security Council resolutions, the “war” in Iraq is NOT supported by the AUMF.
If I were advising Obama, I’d suggest he introduce a bill in the Senate declaring war on Iraq, pointing out that since the AUMF has long ago expired. That puts the shoe on the other foot. Instead of needing to achieve a supermajority to override a veto, Obama simply needs a majority to vote down the declaration of war.
2474 chars
michaelj said on March 9, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Seating Michigan delegates makes more sense than awarding delegates by caucus states. And those folks aren’t more liberal. They seem to believe in election by anointment. These people stabbed Kerry in the back, and let Kenneth Blackwell do the dirty work. Obama may think he’s Bono, but Michael Stipe mumbles more effectively than Bono over-emoting to truly obnoxious effect.
NAFTA? Well he told a foreign government that was just window-dressing. And the Authorization? He’s about as familiar with what that said as Rush Limbaugh is. Nobody in Congress authorized Shock and Awe. Not Kerry, not Hillary, not anybody but Cheney and Rummy and the aholes that tried talking Clinton intoNeocons this stupidity in 1998. Thanks to later signees Rummy and Cheney, they just went ahead and did it. And then, with Ken Blackwell’s help in Cuyahoga and other Ohio counties, Americans were stupid enough to re-elect thesejerks that figure they can whipe their pimply white asses with the Constitution, or maybe just do that Grover thing and drown the government like unwanted kittens.
Invading Iraq was just the ultimate signing statement. Almost half of American voters voted for this war crimina, after his crimes were painfully apparent. We live in a country where people let Swift Boaters decide their votes. And re-elect Stalinists to export democracy by force. If he had a clue, Johnny Cougar would say “Ain’t that America.” Real Americans are waiting for Independence Day.
1570 chars
michaelj said on March 10, 2008 at 12:06 am
Once it was engrossed HJ 114 became a Public Law. What it said, in part, was that W had to allow el Baradei’s investigations, and consult Congress before proceeding in any fashion. If you say that’s not so, you dissemble in a Barrackian fashion.
Obma knows what the bill said, and he’s admitted that he’d have voted for it given the manufactured evidence. When you write your own myth, you’re probably too close in time to clean up all the inconvenient details.
464 chars
michaelj said on March 10, 2008 at 12:15 am
It’s revolting that Americans and Iraqis got killed because some idiot draft dodger was the perfect brain-dead tool for bastards that want to make America a one-party state with no government but Kennyboy’s elect.
213 chars
Harl Delos said on March 10, 2008 at 2:10 am
There was never an HJ 114. There is no such thing. They have HB (House Bill), HCR (House Concurrent Resolution), HJR (House Joint Resolution), HR (House Resolution), SB (Senate Bill) SCR (Senate Concurrent Resolution), SJR (Senate Joint Resolution) and SR (Senate Resolution). Each of them has their own numbering, which starts over each year.
And if they become public law, the numbering changes.
The last House Joint Resolution 114 was “Making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2005, and for other purposes”. Neither the current congress nor the former one has had 114 joint resolutions. The AUMF is Public Law 107-243, but it is most decidedly NOT “Public Law HR 114”.
And since you don’t know that, you obviously haven’t read it. So why are you chiding US for not reading it?
(Since his link doesn’t work, here’s one that DOES work: http://canthook.com/files/AUMF.pdf You’ll notice that the Government Printing Office puts the proper name at the top of the first page of the document.)
Caucuses are undemocratic, because it’s *difficult* for people to express their preference, so it’s better to use a process where it’s *impossible* to express a preference, because there’s only one candidate on the ballot?
Cite, please.
Who in that foreign government did he talk to?
When and where was this conversation?
Do you have a recording of the conversation, or just a transcript?
Or perhaps are you relying on a summary, written by a non-participant, of a conversation which did not include Senator Obama, which has been refuted by those who *were* participants in the conversation?
2012 chars
Harl Delos said on March 10, 2008 at 2:19 am
If you’ll quote the part that says Dubya had to allow el Baradei’s investigations, I’ll concede the point.
And if you quote the part that says Dubya had to *consult* Congress before proceeding, I’ll concede *that* point. He does have to notify Congress within 48 hours AFTER using force, but not consult, and not before. And he has to give them reports every 60 days. But that’s not at all what you’re positing.
697 chars
del said on March 10, 2008 at 8:14 am
Great link Harl. I’d never read HJR 114 or whatever it’s called. It essentially granted Bush authority to defend against any threat posed by Iraq (inter alia).
161 chars
del said on March 10, 2008 at 8:45 am
Uh. . . I mean take reasonable and necessary actions with the Armed Forces.
75 chars