Light and dark.

Strange, how outside stimuli insinuate themselves into your dreams. I have an alarm clock that flashes before it buzzes, and it works well except when it doesn’t, i.e., when I’m facing the wrong way, or actually, you know, asleep.

Friday morning I had a vivid dream of being in a dark room, watching a slide show — the old-fashioned Kodak Carousel kind. Slide, brief moment of darkness, slide. I thought, freaky slide show. Then, this isn’t a slide show. The clock was blinking. For how long? Maybe 15 seconds.

Sometimes Kate says she wants a career that involves work with the human brain. Maybe she’ll be the one to figure it out.

Another too-short weekend. Last week’s homicide investigation looked like it was building toward an arrest (the husband), then didn’t. The police around here may work seven days a week, but they only answer phones on a M-F business-hours schedule, and when they do, rarely say anything. A lack of information is as bad as too much of it, and Facebook rushed into the vacuum, with the locals piling pig-ignorant comment upon half-wit observation, until I couldn’t take it anymore. I’ve been waiting my whole life to get a John Cheever reference into a column about Grosse Pointe, and whaddaya know: That day has come.

Do we learn anything as we go through this life? I have a policy I adopted around the age of 30, when the first marriages among my peers were cracking up, and it is: No one is qualified to judge a marriage other than the people in it. A corollary: Every single person in the world has it in them. Which is? Something extraordinary, on either side of the darkness/light divide. I think this is what makes life interesting and unpredictable — every day, we can be Lenny Skutnik or Some Guy Who Kills His Wife. I don’t know if this guy here in Grosse Pointe killed his wife, but I know that I’m not fit to say he’s simply incapable of such an act, because he comes from a good family and was a Rotary Club president and raised money for the poor of Detroit. More facts needed. I hope we learn them eventually.

We seem to have skipped to the bloggage already. So, then:

From Coozledad, a rabbit that herds sheep. Great video, love the music and it’s a reminder of why the border collies in “Babe” called the sheep morons.

Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune has been bird-dogging the Emmanuel Goldstein Saul Alinsky disinformation campaign, and has a couple of posts with more linky goodness than you could read in a month. Here’s the biggest one. In another, Zorn wonders:

Is Gingrich the historian really frightened of the influence of a man who devoted his life to helping poor folks find their political voice?

I doubt it. To me, this looks like the ultimate cynical tribute to Alinsky — the dark, repetitive intonation of a name that sounds vaguely foreign and Jewish in order to rile folks up with yet another gaseous myth.

I think he’s right. “Saul Alinsky” is the Barack Hussein Obama of this campaign cycle. What I don’t understand is why Gingrich’s patron, Sheldon Adelson, is OK with it. My guess is, he floats above anti-Semitism at this station of his life.

Oh, and Roy covers the crazy Alinsky angle.

And with that, I must run. The week is front-loaded, but should ease a bit by Wednesday. Here’s hopin’. I hope yours is good.

Posted at 8:19 am in Current events, Detroit life |
 

47 responses to “Light and dark.”

  1. coozledad said on January 30, 2012 at 8:37 am

    I frequently find myself having dreams in which I’m talking to someone who unaccountably starts screaming. Then I scream back “Why are you screaming?!” This goes on for awhile until the screaming geese or roosters in the yard succeed in waking me up.

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  2. Linda said on January 30, 2012 at 8:50 am

    I had a dream that rats were chewing off my fingers. I awoke to find one of my cats nibbling on me, trying to wake me, so I could serve them breakfast.

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  3. JWfromNJ said on January 30, 2012 at 8:54 am

    That feeling of shock and disgust you have experienced regarding the thoughts your “neighbors” used to harbor quietly until Facebook and news site comment sections gave them a voice, and a false perception of anonynity is by no means unique to Grosse Pointe.

    The publication I’ve been writing for disables comments on any crime story, or story involving a death, which leaves the mouth breathing masses confined to comment on things that seem innocuous. This weekend’s case-in-point: a story on neighbors in a largely African-American neighborhood who oppose a plan to build a cell tower in the community. It took less than 10 comments for someone to work BBQ spareribs into the discussion. Other things to take away from the discussion – white people play the NIMBY card, but black people only play the race card.

    Learned something new today from NN.com. I knew who Lenny Skutnick is, but I hadn’t realized it was also a term for the prop people at the SOTU speech.

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  4. Mindy said on January 30, 2012 at 8:56 am

    I have the most wonderful alarm clock, evah. Makes the day a little easier to start, especially for those of us who are P. G. Wodehouse fans.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z2h7sjkcI0

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  5. cosmo panzini said on January 30, 2012 at 10:23 am

    Gingrich’s patron Sheldon Adelson is OK with the vague anti-semitism of repeated Saul Alinsky references because he wants an Israeli and/or American strike on Iran, and his boy Newt is the man for the job. Some of Newtie’s recent policy proposals make this very clear.

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  6. nancy said on January 30, 2012 at 10:27 am

    He’ll take a little coded Jew-bashing in exchange for explicit Iran-bashing? Yeah, that’s pretty clear. Does he really think this doughy pustule has a chance of winning the nomination? Even Republican women despise the guy. My fave quote, from a friend’s wife: “He looks the way sour milk tastes.”

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  7. Deborah said on January 30, 2012 at 10:28 am

    Nancy, I read your GP column, excellent. I’m a Cheever fan so that part was a treat. It also reminds me of a movie by the Polish director Krysztof Keislowski (unfortunately deceased) which was part of his trilogy Blue, White Red. The movie Red had a character who was addicted to listening to his neighbors phone conversation with special equipment, he uncovered some sad situations.

    I think the term “lucid dreaming” somewhat explains when real life enters into dreams. It’s fun when you realize it while it’s occurring, you can make something pleasant happen in the dream, like flying (or sex).

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  8. Dexter said on January 30, 2012 at 10:37 am

    Early yesterday afternoon I took a nap. I turned the TV on just for that fine-tuned background noise, and what was on but New York Yankee broadcaster Michael Kay interviewing Snoop Dogg.
    Kay asked Snoop for his Shizzle name…Mike Kizzle…but after watching Snoop talk for a while I did indeed settle in for a winter’s nap. The Yankees station changed topics at one point when I was out. I went into full-power dream status. I was sitting in bleachers on an ocean beach. There were endless bleachers with millions of people stretching the length of the beach. High bleachers. On the beach was a wired microphone on a mic stand. Slowly a huge tuna came tail-walking up out of the water. He was wearing a biker’s hat, sunglasses, and he was tatted up and he had large stud piercings implanted. He then went into a crazy intro about “The Chairman of the Board” and I thought I was going to see a vision of Sinatra, but no, it means something else in Yankee lore.
    The giant tuna then goes into revealling a bunch of stats and a mini-life history of the speaker, and then then introduces Whitey Ford. I snapped to attention, awake, to see the great old left-hander on my little bedroom TV screen.
    If I have anything on the radio or TV, in my dreams I climb right into the conversation or action, no matter what it is. It’s really bizarre. And I have never take Ambien.

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  9. Dexter said on January 30, 2012 at 10:56 am

    Newt ain’t the only one. Listen to Santorum. Listen to Romney. They are all crazy with intent to bomb Iran. I have watched most of the debates, and almost every one has a segment in which Santorum and Romney try to prove which one would bomb Iran at the slightest provocation. Gingrich isn’t even close to those two , but yes, he will surely feel obligated to bomb Iran since he’s being funded by the tens of millions by this Adelson character.
    Again, the only one of the five, Paul, Santorum, Romney, Gingrich and Obama who won’t bomb Iran is the guy who is just along for the ride, Ron Paul.
    http://tinyurl.com/7wp4nop
    Read the above linked story if you were sap-enough to believe the US is out of Iraq! Tension is high already as the US is monitoring everything, EVERYTHING via drones. If Obama does lose in November, I just wonder how many days after January 20, 2013 it will take for the repuggs to stir more shit up to crisis level in The Region.

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  10. Deborah said on January 30, 2012 at 11:09 am

    The NYT magazine had a good article yesterday about Israel vs Iran, if you can get to it on-line:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/will-israel-attack-iran.html?pagewanted=all

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  11. Jeff Borden said on January 30, 2012 at 12:15 pm

    It’s an interesting commentary on how elections are covered these days that no one is asking the Republican candidates much about their foreign policy intentions, which as noted above would seem to include the immediate bombing of Iran. Folks, if that happens, the hounds of hell will be set loose. Iran ain’t Iraq and if our adventures in Saddamland were horrifying, they will be the kiddie cartoon before the main feature compared to what we would face in Iran. Not to mention, of course, that the entire Middle East will blow up real good, oil production will fall to nil, economic chaos will reign and the only happy people will be those Rapture loving idiots who are certain J.C. himself will be driving them through the gates of heaven in Elvis’ pink Cadillac.

    If you want to worry about what an unstable government might do with a nuke, isn’t North Korea a far larger worry? Or even our “allies” in Pakistan? But no nation has a lobby as deft, as powerful or as well-funded as Israel, so guess what we fixate on?

    Newticles already is on record as saying he would move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a nice little provocation that fits beautifully with his recent statements that Palestinians are an “invented people.”

    Man, there are so many reasons to vote against Republicans this fall I’m losing count, yet the economy and the possibility of some big game changer –another terrorist attack???– makes the O-man’s election anything but certain.

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  12. beb said on January 30, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    No one is qualified to judge a marriage other than the people in it. Words to live by Nancy. When you meet co-workers for the first time in the day you always ask “How are you?” and they’ll say “Fine.” But people will say ‘fine’ even as the bottom is falling out of their life. You never know what other people will do.

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  13. Jolene said on January 30, 2012 at 1:41 pm

    Great column, Nancy, and great use of the Cheever story to provide a frame for your argument. Nicely done,

    Re what else is going on: Republicans. Sheesh.

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  14. Jason T. said on January 30, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    Facebook rushed into the vacuum, with the locals piling pig-ignorant comment upon half-wit observation, until I couldn’t take it anymore.

    A wonderful, pointed (no pun intended) column, Nance. Thanks for writing it.

    We prefer Topix.com in our neck of the woods, in part because you can stay anonymous (or for even more fun — use someone else’s name). From Topix.com I’ve learned that every local official is corrupt, a moron, a manipulative genius, a drunk, a cokehead, or an adulterer, and always, always, with a strong undercurrent of racism.

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  15. Jason T. said on January 30, 2012 at 2:07 pm

    As for Gingrich, Paul Krugman said it best: “He’s a stupid man’s idea of what a smart person sounds like.”

    I think he looks like every bully I’ve known in my entire life — a clenched jaw, a need to always play the victim, and a smile that never quite touches his beady little eyes. He looks and acts like a sociopath.

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  16. Minnie said on January 30, 2012 at 2:11 pm

    Mindy @ 4: Must have that clock. It’s as close to having the often-wished-for Jeeves to hand as I’ll ever get.

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  17. JWfromNJ said on January 30, 2012 at 2:21 pm

    @Jeff Borden – I think the threat from NK may be overrated in that they don’t seem to have been able to develop a nuke small enough to mount on a rocket. The first test had some indications of a “fizzle” and it seemed like they may have built a massive device underground – something a graduate physics student could develop with access to enough nuclear materials.
    Iran OTOH seems more focused on developing a weapon of sufficient size to be mounted on a rocket and has likely had help from our “allies” in Pakistan. The most bang for the buck for either nation if the intent was to attack us would be to launch a nuke off a ship at sea and explode it high in the atmosphere – setting off a massive EMP. Iran however would likely attack Israel.
    Some aerospace sites have suggested that while WE have retired the F-117 steath fighters, they may have been transferred to Israel to facilitate a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

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  18. caliban said on January 30, 2012 at 2:31 pm

    The aspect of Iran and nukes that always seems to get short shrift is that Iran has every right and reason to be scared of Israel’s massive nuclear arsenal at Dimona. Look what Israel did to Lebanon last time they got a wild hair across their ass. Blew it to smithereens. The Israeli government is, North Korea notwithstanding, the most bellicose on earth, with the most gigantic chip on it’s shoulder, and incredibly facile rationalizations whenever they decide to go off on another neighbor. The Israelis built their nukes in concert with the DeClerk apartheid government of S Africa, using fissionable material and technology stolen from the USA. Given Israel’s history of aggression, it would seem to be understandable, even reasonable that Iran might seek a deterrent equal to the weapons Israel has had at it’s disposal for decades. After all, Pakistan was given a pass by the world to develop nuclear weapons because they viewed Indian nuclear capability with much trepidation. Maybe Iran and Israel should try the India/Pakistan method for blowing off steam.

    With that barmy Run rabbit song on the shepherding video, you’ve got some Updike mixed with your Cheever.

    When I was a kid in the late 60s, The Points were home to mafioso like Anthony “Tony Z” Zerilli and his torpedo, Anthony “Tony Jack” Giacalone, the last people to see Jimmy Hoffa alive at the Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township.

    “Saul Alinsky” as GOPer shibboleth includes the strong implication that the man was not just Jewish, he was one of them dirty Trotskyite bomb-throwing type of Jew. Given the Kwality of the Klown Kar Kandidates, it’s really a little surprising that Trent Lott and Tom Delay never actually got involved beyond the money train.

    I never gave serious thought to leaving the USA because of Shrub’s appointment by Scalia in 2000 or Blackwell’s election robbery in 2004, but if one of the current crop of GOPer Bozos beats Obama, I’m thinking Baja California looks inviting. Good free single-payer health care, too.

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  19. JWfromNJ said on January 30, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    The purported joint Israeli-South African test baffled the world for a few years since it was a double flash but later it was determined that it was most likely two explosions within nano seconds of each other, with South Africa testing a neutron bomb, and that one device was on a fixed platform with the other device suspended from a balloon.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vela_Incident

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  20. jcburns said on January 30, 2012 at 3:36 pm

    A five-year-old’s reaction to brands and logos. “A panther. A panther. A panther. That’s an M for McDonalds but it looks like a french fry. That one’s the coffee place.”

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  21. caliban said on January 30, 2012 at 3:39 pm

    Brilliant graphic explication of how the big bankster crooks and gansters and corporate criminals burned the American economy to a crisp.

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  22. alex said on January 30, 2012 at 4:19 pm

    Alinsky, Alinsky. Whitewhater, Whitewater, Whitewater.

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  23. Rana said on January 30, 2012 at 4:40 pm

    Every time I hear Gingrich described as a historian I regret that my profession doesn’t have a tradition of being able to disbar members for misconduct and for damaging the field’s reputation.

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  24. brian stouder said on January 30, 2012 at 5:03 pm

    Rana – indeed.

    Newton Leroy McPherson WAS asked about his “invented people” canard at a recent debate, and he defended it, and the subject was dropped.

    But the pop-quiz question that the ‘nutty Newtie perfesser’ should be hit with is – how does the “invention” of the Palestinian people differ from the “invention” of the American people?

    If a person might (rightly) take pride in the invention of the American people (Spirit of ’76, Boston tea party, Concord and Lexington, Bunker Hill, Yorktown, etc; and invading Canada and sending the army into Mexico [several times], and so on and so forth), then how can that same person cast aspersions on another “invented people” – as if to de-legitimize them?

    And for extra credit, Newt should have to write 5 paragraphs (and no more!), with citations, defending his absurd allegation that President Lincoln disregarded the United States Supreme Court, with respect to the Court’s Dred Scott decision.

    And now – it’s time to run off to the Red Cross. (I think this will be platelet donation #98…which means I’m within 2 of CAKE, baby!)

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  25. caliban said on January 30, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    How about the invention of Israel, Newtria, where somebody else was already living? That was genuine benevolence on the part of the USA and GB, eh?

    Apple boycott?

    That little girl is scary good on the logos. Brainwash ’em young.

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  26. Jeff Borden said on January 30, 2012 at 7:24 pm

    JWfromNJ,

    You make excellent points. I’ll rebut only to the extent that Iran, while it may indeed harbor some genuinely evil, repellent assholes who would like to vaporize Israel, is not about to initiate a nuclear attack because even the most crazed jihadists recognize the nation would be turned into the world’s largest parking lot pretty much immediately. Whatever we may discern from the laughably inadequate coverage of the region, Iran is Persia, an ancient land with a proud history and a prouder people. It has a middle class and something like 60% or 65% of the population is under 25 and chafing at life under the mullahs. When 9/11 occurred, more than 100,000 Iranians marched in a candlelight parade in Tehran for the victims while most of the region was dancing in the streets and firing AK-47s into the air. And there is tension and saber-rattling between Ahmenijiad , (sp??)and the mullahs and the army and the business class, etc. In brief, I think the talk about destroying Israel is akin to Saddam’s claims of WMD. . .a way for the petty little tyrants to look larger and scarier.

    North Korea, on the other hand, does indeed seem like a nation led by men who are so out of touch with reality that they might imagine emerging victorious from a nuclear exchange. They have so very little to lose. Can you imagine a more pathetic place on earth?

    An aside: One of the scariest books I’ve ever read was called “Red Mafia,” by a superb investigative journalist who has since died. In addition to cataloging the usual things Russian gangsters do, he noted how many unsecured nukes were floating around the former USSR and that any number of mobsters might be able to sell them to anyone with the money. In fact, one of the Colombian cartels almost bought a former USSR submarine (sans nukes, thank god) for a mere $8 million bucks! It might well be that the weapon that starts World War III was purchased on the black market by a non-state entity with a hard-on for war and chaos.

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  27. ROGirl said on January 30, 2012 at 7:28 pm

    The Jews, of course, can be attacked for being both commie pinko socialist radicals, like Alinsky, Trotsky and all the other -skys, and greedy, influence-peddling money-grubbing manipulators of world events and leaders like Adelson, the Rothschilds, Hollywood execs and the rest of them. Some of them Tea Partiers gotta be worried about both ends of that spectrum.

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  28. caliban said on January 30, 2012 at 8:00 pm

    Joan Didion really thought Newt was a stultifyingly banal jackasswhen she reviewed two of his booksalmost 15 years ago. I’ve gotta say, in my opinion, Ms. Didion has always been more ineffectually gifted than the Bad Speaker.

    Interesting comments on Irani nukes from Leslie Gelb, who actually knows what he’s talking about.

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  29. mark said on January 31, 2012 at 12:46 am

    The NYT magazine had a remarkable piece on the Iran situation. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/magazine/will-israel-attack-iran.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

    Great journalism.

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  30. Dexter said on January 31, 2012 at 1:44 am

    This is going viral. What a way to kick off Black History Month, a day early.
    http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/01/to-my-old-master.html

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  31. Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on January 31, 2012 at 7:19 am

    Jeff Borden, neatly summarized. The Persia factor is underneath much of this outward oddity of Iran, and they have the potential of changing course as a nation if rightly handled, not that I have any idea how to do that myself. Bombing threats, that’s not gonna do it, I am sure. North Korea, though – whew.

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  32. Judybusy said on January 31, 2012 at 10:54 am

    Dexter, thanks for that link. I love how it shows that people in bondage were no grateful fools; it gives lie to the claim that they were all so happy working for the masters.

    I also love the site; I foresee many hours of pleasure ahead of me!

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  33. Dexter said on January 31, 2012 at 10:58 am

    Damn…what, are they going to call this election in The Sunshine State at noon? How boring when a couple polls decide the outcome days earlier.

    After eight years of Cheney-Bush, Obama looked like a saving agent for the country.
    Broken promises and no progressive movement for betterment, generally speaking, made millions of us perplexed and mad at Obama. “Yes we can!” ah, bullshit!
    Now, compared to Romney, Obama certainly looks like a winner again. I just don’t see any fire at all for him. This could be ugly after November.

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  34. Dexter said on January 31, 2012 at 11:00 am

    Judybusy, Rob Bartlett, Broadway actor and comedic genius of “Imus in the Morning” linked it to my Facebook and then it popped up five more times on my facebook and it was all over Twitter yesterday.

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  35. coozledad said on January 31, 2012 at 11:05 am

    Watermelon plinking shithead set to go home so we can peacefully await his transition to literal, as well as metaphorical, humus.
    Don’t linger, Danny boy.
    http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/updates/4911

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  36. alex said on January 31, 2012 at 1:13 pm

    Dex, I don’t recall Obama ever promising to be an ultra-liberal. He sold himself as a centrist and that’s exactly what he has been. Which makes all this radical socialist nonsense from the right all the more ridiculous.

    Cooz, I couldn’t be more pleased to see that old dolt taking a powder. Wish we could say adios to the rest of the Hoosier delegation.

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  37. caliban said on January 31, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    Dan Burton got 15 minute famous by calling President Clinton a “scumbag” in public, about a week before his own youthful indiscretions came to light. Horse’s ass.

    Something else to consider regarding smart phones, tablets and other tech products.

    By any rational standard, particularly given the poisonously negative atmosphere created by Congressional GOPers, President Obama has accomplished a remarkable number of decidedly progressive advances. Critics on the progressiver thn thou left are mainly peeved about dropping the public option from the ACA, and the fact that Guantanamo still houses detainees. In the former case, public option was added to health care reform late in the game, and never had a chance against GOP opposition. It was assuredly never part of Obama’s campign, no matter what bullshit spin Politifact puts on the subject. In the case of Gitmo, there is no rational, workable solution, as long as NIMBY Congress refuses to allow empty prisons on the mainland to be used to incarcerate dangerous detainees. Many of these people face death if they’re returned to their own countries. I have no doubt that a number of Americans with their noses out of joint about this shit would be dumb enough to forget the disaster of the 2000 election and support a ruinous run by some navel-gazer like Darth Nader. They might get what they deserve, and we’d all be up Shit Creek heading for the falls.

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  38. JWfromNJ said on January 31, 2012 at 3:59 pm

    @Dexter – I wouldn’t be surprised to see the election called at 7:05 p.m. Turnout was very heavy in the early voting and throughout today. I’m working my county for the AP tonight and the elections folks expect to post early & ab totals at 7:10, with the supervisor of election estimating that our county will have all precinct’s results posted by 9 if not sooner.
    I’m eager to see the klown kar roll out of state but despite the news reports of a massive Mitt media blitz, the only ads I have seen and heard, and the only signs that popped up were for Newt.

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  39. caliban said on January 31, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    Paul McCartney has a new album of standards from American ’30s and ’40s songwriters. Strong vocals, mostly, but mildly depressing from the guy that sang Helter Skelter and Why Don’t We Do It in the Road. I do love the song Bye Bye Blackbird. But, Glow Worm? Holy shit.

    Very funny Bill Maher bit on the bizarre Saul Alinsky obsession from Gingrich.

    [The] eternal search for those values of equality, justice, freedom, peace, a deep concern for the preciousness of human life, and all those rights and values propounded by Judeo-Christianity and the democratic political tradition…. This is my credo for which I live and, if need be, die.
    -Saul Alinsky-

    Whew. Some scary shit, eh?

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  40. Dexter said on January 31, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    Actually, Alex, Obama was downright right wing in his AIPAC speech as well as his hardcore determination to go full force with the Afghanistan invasion. Iraq is blowing up again into total chaos, but the media has really toned it down. What’s next, I wonder?

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  41. Lynn said on January 31, 2012 at 7:29 pm

    Your GPT column reminded me of The Conversation, (arguably) Francis Ford Coppola’s best film. I won’t give away the ending, but sometimes being on the other side of the wall is not a good place to be, and eventually drives a person crazy- a little or a lot. Some people think of GP as Mayberry, and maybe it is. But there’s definitely some Peyton Place in the mix, too.

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  42. alex said on January 31, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    Dex, do you really think any president, Democrat or Republican, will ever cross AIPAC? To do so would earn Obama an even bigger target on his back than the one that’s been placed there by the NRA. As for Afghanistan, we’re in a military industrial quagmire and getting out isn’t anywhere near as easy as going in.

    I think a lot of people are disappointed that he isn’t stridently pursuing a full-on progressive agenda, and I’ve had such moments, but consider this. Right now the teabagger Republicans who swept the house and the state legislatures in 2010 act as if they have a mandate to bust unions, privatize education, put creationism in the classroom and put semi-automatic pistols in every pocket. Their overreach will likely send the public into the arms of the Democrats, so don’t you worry. Our day will come.

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  43. alex said on January 31, 2012 at 9:57 pm

    Next time the Susan G. Komen Foundation hits me up for a handout I’ll tell them I’m giving what would have been their share to Planned Parenthood. And tough titty, as the schoolchildren used to say.

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  44. Dexter said on January 31, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    Alex, you may just be right…Democrats will rule both Houses and 1600 Penna Ave as well!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–8Ju1jb8Bw

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  45. brian stouder said on January 31, 2012 at 10:57 pm

    You know, Cooz’s news (and Alex’s reaction) about Indiana’s retiring member of congress Dan Burton gave me a sudden realization….which seems perfectly obvious now, but which never occurred to me quite as starkly as it did just now.

    A few weeks ago, I was flatly jealous of the out-sized impact that states like Iowa or New Hampshire or South Caro-goddamn-Lina have on the presidential primary election process……

    But the ongoing cracker-crack-up in these early contests, coupled with the undeniable fact that my state – Indiana – tends heavily toward cracker-hood on most days (although NOT in the 2008 presidential campaign, we can proudly state!) almost surely means we would have been Indi-goddamn-ana, every bit as much as SC was.

    If Indiana went second or third or fourth in the process, then the campaigns would inject millions of dollars worth of toxic and negative ads into Indiana – call it Super-PAC fracking – and this would release cascades of crackerhood all across Indiana’s landscape.

    So, three cheers for our May primary! Hurrah! Hurrah! Huzzah!

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  46. Deborah said on January 31, 2012 at 11:32 pm

    Alex I’m with you on tough titty. I’ve had issues with those pink ribbon folks. Long story, don’t want to go into it now.

    Tonight I saw the movie Pina in 3d. May I say run don’t walk to see this movie. One of the best movies I have seen in 20 years. Definitely see it in 3d if you can. Beautiful.

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  47. Jolene said on February 1, 2012 at 12:02 am

    I was surprised by the announcement re the Komen Foundation too. I sometimes think that, had I an estate, I’d leave it to Planned Parenthood, beleaguered as they are. Used to be that Junior Leaguers aiming for social betterment would volunteer and hold fundraisers for Planned Parenthood. Now, they’re spoken of in terms formerly reserved for godless Communists.

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