Bad news yesterday — both of the classes I’ve been teaching this year failed to fill for summer term, so I’m not exactly out of work, but my patchwork quilt of income sources just developed a large hole. My income stream lost a tributary, making it more of an income rill. (Rill: a small stream; a shallow channel cut in the ground by running water.) It’s not all that much money, but teaching was one of those things that tended to push other income-earning activities out of the way. In the spinning plates of my career, my freelance-writing plates are wobbling badly; now I have to run back there and give them another push. Just as I get them back up to speed, it’ll be time to teach again, assuming the courses fill in the fall.
Position wanted: Writer who knows what a rill is, plus facility with antique metaphors like plate-spinning and patchwork quilts, seeks paid employment. New and old-media expertise with portfolio that covers journalism to marketing, books to explainer copy in museum displays. Jane of all trades involving a pen.
Better get started on that Critical Mass piece.
Do you have Critical Mass in your city? Doing a little research on it the last few days, I’m amazed at the diversity of its impact. I first heard of it via Jon Carroll’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle some years back, and I gather the Bay area is where it was born. Much of cycling culture has its roots there, and Critical Mass rises out of a certain obnoxiousness born out of unpleasant encounters with cars. We can go back and forth on this and probably will, but it’s fair to say that in cities like San Francisco, or Chicago, New York and a handful of others, motorists and cyclists are the Israelis and Palestinians of transportation, and Critical Mass is a monthly intifada, a deliberate traffic jam of hundreds of cyclists moving through them on a rush-hour Friday, blowing lights, in yo face, saying, essentially, Fuck you.
My school of thought says obnoxiousness is no attitude for diplomacy, but I went on the Critical Mass ride anyway. I can explain rationalize: The Detroit ride is at 7 p.m., not 4:30, an hour when Friday-night Detroit is largely deserted. Our knot of 100 or so made for a pretty small peloton, and I’d be shocked if anyone in a car was delayed for more than one extra cycle of a traffic light.
And man, it was fun. Illegal fun, perhaps, but on the grand continuum of all the illegal fun being had in Detroit on the last Friday of any month, blowing through lights on a bicycle doesn’t even rate.
Breakin’ the law: It’s all relative.
So, bloggage:
I’m continuing to go through the bin Laden mop-up stories, and find nearly all of them fascinating. A sub-sub-ancillary story was the fake Martin Luther King Jr. quote, and this Q-and-A with the woman whose innocent Facebook status update started it all might be worth your time, if that sort of thing interests you. It only interests me in terms of my career as a tester of internet-related bullshit. I guess I’d be suspicious if anyone quoted MLK to me outside of the “content of our character” chestnut, but most of my Facebook friends know better.
I know one of our loyal commenters — I’m looking at you, 4dbirds — is a poker player. Getta loada this. We are all laid low by our vices, one way or another. (And may I just say? Why do lamestream media sites waste FTEs on internet-culture reporters, i.e., the person whose job it is to stay online all day long and report on the Shiba Inu puppies? They will never beat Adrian Chen at Gawker at this game. He is the Dexter Filkins of the internet.)
Eric Z. remembers another daring raid approved by a president — which didn’t go so well.
Ha ha. I promise, no Rickroll or Linda Blair devil-face at the end.
Finally, I keep forgetting to post this, which I shot with my now-obsolete HD Flip camera last weekend, at the Dorais Velodrome in Detroit, reclaimed from nature last summer by the Mower Gang. I could be wrong, but I suspect this was another renegade event, held in a city where doing these sorts of things is so, so easy. Which is one reason I love it. This was the “tiny triathlon,” three laps on the bike, one lap on foot, and finish through the flooded infield.
Off to earn a living. More or less.
Deborah said on May 4, 2011 at 9:56 am
They have Critical Mass in Chicago. One evening awhile back on my walk home from work there were thousands of bike riders going down Michigan Ave (seems wrong to call them “bikers” as that makes me think of Harley riders). Folks sitting in their cars in the stopped traffic seemed to be furious, horns blaring like crazy. But the bicyclers were having a blast. It made me smile all the rest of the way home. They also have “Bike the Drive” every year, where people can ride up and down Lake Shore Drive on a Sunday morning in May. Little Bird and I wanted to do that one year until we found out it cost $35 per person, but it’s probably worth it.
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Julie Robinson said on May 4, 2011 at 10:02 am
Tiny triathlon, finally an event for couch potatoes!
If Critical Mass events make for more angry drivers around cyclists, then they worry me. I must fess up to complete weenie-hood though, about riding on the streets. My childhood was spent riding up and down our driveway after a young boy on a bike was hit and killed on our busy country road. Now I’m thrilled to have a bike path fairly close.
OTOH they look like a lot of fun, and dammit, we should not have to feel fear on the streets.
For those in the Fort: does anyone else remember when Paula Hughes was so liberal she almost ran as a Democrat? This was back when she was a new candidate for County Council. After seeing her hate ads in the primary, I anticipate a very ugly mayoral campaign.
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Randy said on May 4, 2011 at 10:30 am
I think we are due for this year’s Critical Mass in Wpg within the next few weeks. It’s always done in rush hour, and it’s mainly hard-core cycle commuters who want to really stick it to The Driver. They flip the bird to the cops who try to provide a somewhat safer route too; the cops are so peeved at these guys that one of them was caught straight-arming a guy off his bike.
This is not a cycle-friendly town, yet. But these guys aren’t really helping. Maybe one day it will be a constructive event.
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brian stouder said on May 4, 2011 at 10:46 am
Julie – I remember having that same impression of Ms Hughes, back in the day. But in any case, I think Henry will make short work of her, especially when she tries the big-smear tactic on him (some sizeable portion of this city is related to him, either by family or employer)
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Dexter said on May 4, 2011 at 10:52 am
Second time watching the video for me and I cringed again when the bikes were slammed down and the run began. No help. Looks like fun for sure. Without verifying this, I am feeling the Critical Mass movement started in Berkeley and the first ride that gained national press notice was held on a Friday , rush hour, in San Francisco. Time magazine ran photos…I remember a truly motley crew, old fixed gear clunker bikes, hockey and football helmets, goofy cut-off short pants….
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Dexter said on May 4, 2011 at 11:03 am
The Critical Mass event that occurred in NYC in which a cop shoved a cyclist hard to the ground happened in 2008. The cop was reprimanded and stripped of his badge for at least a time.
Denver had a cop beating a cyclist, Brazil had a crazy driver trying to kill a cyclist. Beware!
I got only three miles on my bike last night before the 39 degrees and no gloves combo U-Turned me back to the garage.
NYC Critical Mass fiasco
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prospero said on May 4, 2011 at 11:03 am
Knowing about plate spinning basically means you’re old enough to know about Topo Gigio, and saw the Rolling Stones sing Let’s Spend Some Time Together on the Richard Nix, er Ed Sullivan Show.
Very entertaining thrill of victory, agony of defeat video, Nancy. Best line: “Good thing he had his helmet on.” But shouldn’t full immersion be required for the aquatic leg?
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Catherine said on May 4, 2011 at 11:24 am
If you liked Michelle Obama in Valentino, you will love this: http://abcn.ws/lCZcQj
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moe99 said on May 4, 2011 at 11:32 am
6 degrees of separation time.
I was Special Assistant to the General Counsel for the Department of Defense in the last year of the Carter Administration. Immediately after the botched raid in Iran, the General Counsel was tasked with providing a formal legal memorandum to Congress justifying the raid as an exception to the War Powers Act. In reminiscing about the major flurry of activity that took place then, I am laughing ruefully since that little law seems to have been ignored by our current incarnation of Congress for over ten years.
I am so glad that the OBL raid resulted in no US casualties.
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Jeff Borden said on May 4, 2011 at 11:37 am
Nancita,
You are lucky you even had a possibility of a teaching gig this summer. My efforts to teach run aground every June as the tenured and tenure-track folks get all the summer classes and the adjuncts are shut out. I have been given two more public speaking classes to teach this fall, which is great, but they’ll be challenging. The classes will be weekly and run from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Since more than one of my students has dozed off during an afternoon class, it will be a pretty neat trick to keep them awake and energized for that length of time.
I’m scouting for work as a tutor. There are a lot of students in need of help with writing if you can just find them. And if that fails, I’m going to volunteer at the community center where I did my internship. It’s a place that can use the pro bono work and I found the students and their stories pretty fascinating during the 11-weeks I worked there.
Funny. I am groveling for jobs that might pay me what I was earning maybe 30 or 35 years ago and I’d do a victory jig if I ever got one. Lengthy periods of unemployment followed by lengthy periods of underemployment will do that to you, I guess.
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James said on May 4, 2011 at 11:41 am
Here’s my take on Bin Laden’s death, as a cartoon.
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Peter said on May 4, 2011 at 11:45 am
Oh Nancy, I do remember that botched raid rather well.
If my memory serves me right, I think all of the presidential candidates – save one – lampooned Carter for the raid. I remember George Bush telling an audience in Michigan that you have to support the Commander In Chief when events go bad, and that the President should not be criticized for using any means necessary to rescue Americans.
I don’t think you would have heard that from anybody if this raid went south as well….
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A.Riley said on May 4, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Okay, this is going to sound like a complete Marie Antoinette moment, but I have to tell you about the first time I saw Critical Mass doing their thing.
My husband and I go to the Lyric Opera in Chicago (it’s our one culture-vulture indulgence besides free concerts in the parks) and on our opening night we like to have a nice dinner at the white-tablecloth steak restaurant across the street from the opera house (instead of a sandwich at Cosi’s) before the performance. So we’re sitting there having a very nice meal and a very nice bottle of wine, looking out the big plate glass windows at the gorgeous Renaissancey facade of the opera house across Wacker Drive on a lovely autumnal evening, and up the drive comes this immense crowd of bicyclers in crazy costumes, deely bobbers on their helmets, crazy lights all over their bikes, filtering through the taxis and cars until they finally take over the entire street. There must have been thousands of them — it took a long time for them to pass.
That sight: Costumed bicyclers filling the street, opera house as backdrop, fancy-schmancy dinner as foreground — well. I never would have seen such a thing if I’d stayed in Logansport, I’ll tell you that.
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Suzanne said on May 4, 2011 at 12:27 pm
A. Riley you made my day! Love the Lyric! Love the picture you painted!
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Alix Felsing said on May 4, 2011 at 12:34 pm
I love, love, love the “tiny triathlon.” What a great idea. Godspeed on re-spinning all those plates.
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velvet goldmine said on May 4, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I fell victim to the MLK quote, so admitted as much on Facebook. That Mark Twain obit one better effin’ be real, I’ll tell you that much.
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Deborah said on May 4, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Off topic, but what do you all think about showing the gruesome photos of dead Bin Laden? I think it’s a bad idea.
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nancy said on May 4, 2011 at 1:16 pm
Julie, I remember interviewing the new GOP nominee for Fort Wayne mayor some years back. Can’t remember why; I think she was running one of the nonprofits in town. She struck me as the quintessential empty vessel, a human version of one of those fish that attaches itself to bigger fish to hitch a ride across the ocean. When I checked in on the race last week, I found a JG story on the money being spent by the GOP field. She refused to do a live interview, insisting on e-mailed questions that she answered with the blandest possible statement about how happy and proud she was of her “team.” When I heard she was polling behind Blonde Michelle Bachmann, I figured the voters had figured her out. And when I heard she won after unleashing a barrage of nasty-ass mailers in the final days, I thought, I guess the lady hired the right sharks.
And only 20,000 voters turned out in their primary? Tom Henry might as well pick out his second-term office decor now.
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Julie Robinson said on May 4, 2011 at 1:31 pm
When I got a call from her campaign the night before the election, I made a point of saying I would never vote for her because of the vicious and hateful campaign she ran. Beware the politician who wants a position so much they will dance with the devil.
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Peter said on May 4, 2011 at 1:32 pm
Nancy – “Blonde Michelle Bachman”? Isn’t that Ann Coulter?
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moe99 said on May 4, 2011 at 1:35 pm
for the guys here:
http://gizmodo.com/#!5797898/color-the-walls-with-your-pee
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4dbirds said on May 4, 2011 at 1:42 pm
Sorry about not having your teaching gig this summer Nancy. I would have taught you poker for fundage. 🙂 It’s true, I am an avid poker player and especially enjoyed online poker until the Department of Justice pulled the plug on it a couple of weeks ago. No one has ruled on poker being a game of chance hence ‘gambling’ and the Poker Players Alliance, several lawmakers and other notables are fighting to get it declared a game of skill. I don’t live near any casinos and would probably play online poker even if I did live close to one. I like playing at home in my jammies. I have found it to be a profitable game and it truly is a game of skill. It is simply math. What are your odds of holding the best hand with limited information and how much are you willing to risk to find out. Roulette is gambling and I’d never play it. Poker has bought my hardwood floors, my kitchen remodel, paid tuition for college and a few other perks. I played on two of the major sites and never had a problem withdrawing my winnings before the shutdown . I felt they offered a fair game and I knew exactly what I was getting into. They told me the cost including their rake and I (along with other players) accepted the terms. I have paid taxes on all my winnings.
If they truly did track Bin Ladin by the play of one of his minions, the US government wouldn’t have had to shutdown the sites if they had regulated and taxed them from the beginning. I had to give identifying information to the sites when I deposited and withdrew money so I assume the same process takes place in other countries.
There are several forums dedicated to the ‘poker playing community’ but I stay away from them for the most part. A old lady like me would be ridiculed there. Women poker players are only as good as how “hot” they are. The worst of the worst commenters hang out there so I’m not surprised that the ‘online poker caught Osama’ started there. Here are a couple of links if anyone feels like getting dirty. http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/ http://www.pocketfives.com/forums/
Until online poker comes back, I’ll have to be satisfied with an occasional homegame and rare trip to Atlantic City/Vegas.
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Bitter Scribe said on May 4, 2011 at 1:56 pm
I’m still waiting to hear the true story of just how the Reagan people arranged for the hostages to be released the day he was inaugurated. Given the Iran-Contra affair a few years later, I suspect someone made a not very savory deal with the future hub of the Axis of Evil.
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4dbirds said on May 4, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Deborah, I’m in the show the photos camp. We’re adults and can choose to view them. I also don’t see how showing the photos will make extremists any more angry at us.
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Jeff Borden said on May 4, 2011 at 2:05 pm
Peter,
A blonde Michele Bachmann could not be Ann Coulter. Bachmann has curves. Coulter has an Adam’s apple. Additionally, while Bachmann is as dumb as a bag of hammers, she is not quite as vicious as the largely forgotten and mostly ignored Coulter, who finds herself replaced by younger and prettier versions of herself.
Oh, the pity. I wonder if La Coulter will finally retire the LBD she favored for television appearances?
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Jolene said on May 4, 2011 at 2:20 pm
Obama has decided not to release the bin Laden photo. I think that’s a good thing. Given what we’ve seen recently of the failure of evidence to convince those unwilling to believe, I don’t think there’s much to be gained by publishing it.
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brian stouder said on May 4, 2011 at 2:31 pm
Jolene – agreed. In any case, sooner or later they’ll come out anyway – much as (pardon the infelicitous reference) the JFK death photos (and even the death movie) eventually came out.
As an aside, when I was a young’n – single-digit age, mind you – we had a paperback book about Bonnie and Clyde in the house (I bet this was when the Warren Beatty/Faye Dunaway movie was a new release down at the Embassy). It had photos in it, including their death photos – which bothered me very much; it’s not too much to say they haunted me.
Throw Sammy’s pictures on ice, and let ‘em come out in 2051
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coozledad said on May 4, 2011 at 3:31 pm
It’s pretty much the President’s call.
Unfortunately, Saxby Chambliss has gotten hold of some of the Bin Laden photos and is showing them around Capitol Hill. They ought to yank his intelligence committee assignment.
You’ve got to wonder if that goober has a boxed set of Faces of Death DVDs.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/senator-has-seen-a-photo-of-slain-obl.php?ref=fpa
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prospero said on May 4, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Speaking of JFK, did any of y’all see his daughter on D. Letterman last night. She’s smart as hell, gorgeous, poised, sellf-deprecating and extremely funny. I don’t think she’s been on talk shows before, and I’m hoping she might be ready for politics.
Photos will get out one way or another. For one thing, Drudge and/or Breitbart will purport to publish photographic proof it’s not bin Laden. Non-existent font when the shooting took place, registration 3 pixels off. One way or another, the photos will not be more gruesome than the first 5 min. of any episode of Bones.
Grasping at straws on the subject of Muslim on Muslim violence.
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Deborah said on May 4, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Brian, I had a similar experience seeing photos of dead bodies in a book about Adolph Eichmann we had in our house when I was growing up. Those photos were gruesome and I was way too young to see them when I did. Even though they were black and white, not bloody color. I realize that it was important to show the reality of the atrocities that were perpetrated during the Nazi regime. But those photos haunted me for years at a very young age. My parents shouldn’t have let it be accessible to me then.
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prospero said on May 4, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Bitter Scribe:
Iran-Contra and the criminal abuse of American hostages to elect R. Raygun. I am sure as hell, to this day, that this is the origin of the insane enmity in Republic circles for John Kerry and the repugnant behavior of the Swiftboaters during the 2004 campaign. What Kerry did was to GOPers like drawing Mohammed with a bomb for a turban was to Muslims.
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mark said on May 4, 2011 at 3:57 pm
A very nice, very entertaining post, Nancy. Thank you for it.
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moe99 said on May 4, 2011 at 4:28 pm
The pictures I probably should not have seen as a child were the Gustav Dore illustrations from Dante’s Inferno.
http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1013&bih=852&q=gustave+dore+inferno+illustrations&gbv=2&aq=1sx&aqi=g-sx2&aql=&oq=Gustaf+Dore+in
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4dbirds said on May 4, 2011 at 4:48 pm
I grew up on army bases around the world and often found myself in the back of the base libraries exploring the numerous historical pictorials which included crime and war photos. Before the age of ten, I saw the Bonnie and Clyde photos, holocaust photos, Civil War/WWI/Franco Spanish/WWII and Vietnam War photos. Similar to many of you, I was haunted by them. In a strange way I think they help make me the liberal I am. I don’t know if I would choose to see the Bin Ladin photo but if the picture is passed around on the hill, release it.
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nancy said on May 4, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Typically, I thought the prez chose just the right metaphor: “We don’t need to spike the football.” That’s what it would be.
$P disagrees. Also typically.
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MichaelG said on May 4, 2011 at 4:59 pm
With reference to John G. Wallace’s comment yesterday at #53, yes those were rather special models of the Blackhawk called (if I recall correctly) MH-60s. They would have been operated by the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. The choppers have augmented avionics suites including an absolutely dazzling Forward Looking Infrared Radar. They are quickly convertable from slick to gunship and back. They carry booms for mid-air refueling. They can be equipped with air to air missles and carry flare and chaff dispensers for air defense. And other stuff. So yes, they would have destroyed a disabled helicopter.
My son in law was with the 160th SOAR for ten years. They provided transportation for the Seals and for Delta Force. All their stuff was secret. He would get a call in the middle of the night and disappear for two weeks. I have no idea what all he did. I do know that in late 2001 he and another chopper were the first ones into A-Stan and that they operated with CIA operatives while there. Join the Army and see the world.
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LAMary said on May 4, 2011 at 6:07 pm
$P wants Obama to stop “pussyfooting around” with the Bin Laden photos. Excuse me? Pussyfooting? He just authorized a pretty badass operation and it worked. Does she think he’s a wuss?
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nancy said on May 4, 2011 at 6:09 pm
Someone made the apt observation that virtually no one made a joke about her at the correspondents’ dinner. Proof positive that she is Over.
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coozledad said on May 4, 2011 at 6:33 pm
She’ll have to get her daughter Candida to go on Dancing With the Stars again.
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paddyo' said on May 4, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Hey, cooz, this follow-up just showed up at the TPM page where you took us for Saxby Chambliss et al. . . . apparently it was a hoax photo all along?
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coozledad said on May 4, 2011 at 6:59 pm
The Guardian apparently has some photos of the the carnage in the compound. Those might be fakes too.
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prospero said on May 4, 2011 at 7:01 pm
Paayo’,
No way Sackless would know that. That guy is a nitwit and a crook.
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joodyb said on May 4, 2011 at 7:08 pm
moe, am in possession of a dore litho of the matterhorn disaster if you’re interested. i’m told it’s one of three in existence. there was one weird artist dude.
true dat, nancy, @38. that’s why she’s especially peevish right now.
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Jolene said on May 4, 2011 at 7:41 pm
Cooz, I think those are real. According to al Jazeera, Reuters bought them from a Pakistani soldier. The are, apparently, the two couriers and the bin Laden son.
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coozledad said on May 4, 2011 at 7:52 pm
I haven’t looked at them. I’m still creeped out by the pictures of the dead from the Paris commune, and it’s been a couple of decades since I saw them.
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moe99 said on May 4, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Joodyb, I googled the lithograph and the history behind the Matterhorn disaster. Interesting stuff that I didn’t know. Thanks for that!
—————————————————————–
And now for something completely different, here’s the WH celebrating their success Sunday:
http://www.dependablerenegade.com/dependable_renegade/2011/05/the-white-house-breaks-out.html
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brian stouder said on May 4, 2011 at 11:10 pm
Leaving aside the terrible images from Abbottabad, I was quite taken with Moe’s “for the guys” link at #21
Aside from the whizz-bang (so to speak) techno-arty urinal displayed there, there is a Philips Norelco (presumably) advertisement that caught my eye.
http://www.shaveeverywhere.com/
The advertisement features a cheesey little video game, with the headline “Everytime you play, and help Willy find his tools, we’ll donate 25 cents to plant trees”. And the tagline they have is “DEFOREST YOURSELF, REFOREST THE WORLD” and “Help Willy Deforest himself to help us Reforest the World.”
I’m thinking that either it’s a faux ad, or else Philips Norelco hired the same ad agency that Subaru utilizes
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Dexter said on May 5, 2011 at 12:53 am
In 1989 the Ron Kovic book, “Born on the Fourth of July” was released as a movie starring Tom Cruise. If you have been near any cable channels you have seen part of it…it was shown many times.
Late in the film Kovic travels to the home of one of his battlefield comrades, the Marine Kovic is pretty sure he accidentally shot and killed. Everything was confusing in the marker-smoke, the chaos of a firefight, and the helicopters doing their thing above.
This is the fog of war. Sometimes it really is foggy or smoky, impairing vision, and leading to fatal mistakes.
And sometimes “The Fog of War” is your leaders blowing smoke at you, and me, and that bullshit is what happened Sunday night.
It’s not just Palin and Bachmann who are upset. Obama claimed a firefight…Wednesday night it was revealed as a hoax.
Similarity in this deceit, this whole women-as-shield thing was mis-reported.
I first heard Osama bin Laden was shot twice in the left eye, no, the chest and the head…24 hours ago I heard Osama bin Laden had his head detached by one round to the head.
David Gregory and Chuck Todd, at least those two, have been brandishing this “Fog of War” theme way too much.
I could buy it, but we all saw photos of a live satellite feed being watched by all the important players, in the White House, right?
Damn! What other revelations? Did he really go to the ship and be tossed overboard and sunk? Maybe down there with Kennedy’s missing brain, for all we know.
And after making us watch Uday and Quasay Hussein , dead on the autopsy table, and Saddam on a rope, we deserve to see this mass murdering creep dead in a pool of his own blood.
We who are calling for viewing Osama bin Laden death proof photos are not the ones who established precedent in showing these type od photographs. Obama is wrong, nothing is more American than showing them…yes we ARE that kind of people.
It might not be in the history books, but it’s true.
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Jakash said on May 5, 2011 at 2:06 am
My wife and I went on a Critical Mass ride in Chicago on Halloween a couple years ago. It’s a bit out of our usual mild-mannered comfort zone, plus we were about 25 years older than almost everybody else, but it was loads of fun. Though there were a number of annoyed drivers, I didn’t feel that the group was so large that it caused major delays. Also, many of the riders were calling out “Happy Friday” randomly throughout the ride — I’m sure that endeared them to anybody that was being held up. (Ahem.) The fact that it was Halloween and lots of people were dressed up and in an even more festive mood than usual was a definite bonus.
Re: the MLK quote fiasco. I saw this choice citation on another blog. Perhaps Brian has come across it in his research: “The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never tell if they are genuine.” – Abraham Lincoln
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Julie Robinson said on May 5, 2011 at 9:01 am
Now we know why GWB isn’t joining Obama at Ground Zero; he’s too busy looking for the taco bar at Sizzler:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/4b3afc5c2f/president-bush-reacts-to-osama-bin-laden-s-death-with-will-ferrell?playlist=featured_videos
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prospero said on May 5, 2011 at 9:34 am
Then again, Dexter, all of the new, corrected information comes from the same source as the original, pressurized excited utterance. Who but the administration could have gainsayed the original report credibly? The Seals in the raid are never going to say anything. So if the original misinformation was intended purposely as disinformation, why contradict it when there was no conceivable source to discredit it? Makes no sense, except to be truthful.. Now the Jessica Lynch “rescue” in Iraq, that was a pure D fabricated Bruckheimer production. debunked and ridiculed by the America’s sweetheart warrior damsel in distress. Did the misAdministration then ever admit to promulgating pure bullshit? Not to this day. Has anyone been held accountable for the totally invented propaganda myth of the heroic death of Pat Tillman? Nope. His parents learned the truth and are in the process of squeezing it out of the Army like caulk from an old, blocked tube.
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Jolene said on May 5, 2011 at 10:02 am
Good points, pros. It does seem odd that a maneuver so carefully thought through would be followed by such seeming careless communication about it and the public hemming and hawing about whether to release the photo, but I attribute this more to the human propensity to fill in details and speak from assumption rather than to attempts to mislead.
It’s also worth noting that the corrected version might be regarded as less dramatic than the initial reports, which also points to the truthfulness of what we are hearing now.
Finally, the corrected version makes most sense–that, in the middle of night, they might encounter people that were unarmed, that the “fight” was over quickly and that they spent most of their time gathering items that might yield useful intelligence.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on May 5, 2011 at 10:19 am
Julie, the Dallas Sizzler does, in fact have a taco bar. It’s over here . . .
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Catherine said on May 5, 2011 at 10:57 am
The fact that I can listen to a GWB imitation (or maybe even GWB) without cringing is a good sign of healing, I think. Julie, that was hilarious. And while I understand GWB not going to Ground Zero may have been about politics, and not giving Obama an opportunity to proclaim bipartisanship, it’s also consistent with his low profile since leaving office. I’m not a fan, but I think he’s shown some grace in recent years.
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4dbirds said on May 5, 2011 at 11:03 am
Jakash, I’m stealing that quote for my facebook status.
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