Future Stella or Darwin Award Winner?

Typically, I eschew such things, and if I had received this in an email (as is a daily annoyance, from various people, sending every tired Internet joke or "Funny of the Day" or "Send This To 10 People And Your Life Will Change" missive), it probably would have been deleted, with nary a glance.

However, I found this link and was absolutely fascinated by the headline;

Man Shooting Hole Through Wall Kills Wife; Deepwater Man Fatally Shoots Wife While Installing Satellite TV

DEEPWATER, Mo. -- Officials are trying to decide whether to file charges against a Missouri man who fatally shot his wife while trying to install a satellite TV system in the bedroom of their home.

Patsy Long, 34, of Deepwater, died after being shot in the chest with a .22-caliber handgun on Saturday. Her husband, Ronald Long, fired the shot from the inside of their home after several unsuccessful efforts to punch a hole through the exterior wall using other means.

Utterly amazing.

It's horrible enough that we have people with guns that walk onto college campuses, or in to fast food restaurants, now we have to deal with Bob Vila-wannabe-DIYers that are going to be adding guns to their toolboxes?

I'm sure the NRA has prepared a press kit on this on this, to beat back any criticism, arguing that any American citizen has the right to use a gun to make home improvements.

Hell, they probably have booklets, offering advice as to which type and gauge of gun to use for a variety of home improvement projects.

I suppose we'll have to wait to see how this plays out, as to which award Ronald Long ends up with.

If he sues the Satellite TV company, for not warning him about using a gun to install their product, we'll have to nominate him for a Stella Award.

Otherwise, start fast-tracking Mr. Long into the Darwin Award Program.















See. Mr. Long, you could have asked for help

So Much For The Family and Friends Plan

Only a little more than eight months left ...

Sigh ...

It's almost as if he wants to embrace and fully live up to his Lame Duck status. Let's face it, with the economy tanking, his great war in Iraq going south, yet another another Bush Grindhouse crony facing possible criminal charges, The Commander Guy is probably going to have his days filled with these little ceremonial things ... You know, something to occupy his time, give him a reason to get up in the morning ...

You think they would go a little extra distance, to make sure he doesn't look ridiculous (yes, I know, a Herculean task). We had this yesterday;

Bush Gives Out Wrong Phone Number For Homeowner Help Hotline

Yesterday, President Bush visited Novadebt, a credit counseling service in New Jersey, to promote his Hope Now Alliance, which is intended to help homeowners facing foreclosure. But while there, Bush gave out the wrong toll-free number (despite a large sign with the correct number hanging behind him). This isn’t the first time Bush has given out the wrong Hope Now number. In December 2007, Bush told the American public that the number was 1-800-995-HOPE, instead of 1-888-995-HOPE, leading people to call a Christian education academy near Dallas.

I don't know, maybe that Christian academy slipped him a few bucks, for the plug.

That was with telephone numbers, check out here for how he does with road maps.

This Date ... On The Garlic

Garlic History - On This Day

29 March 2006... On The Garlic


“Mission Accomplished” and “The insurgency in its’ final throes” May Be Put On Card.”; White House Tense As Many Wait, Impatiently, For Card Exit; Rove, Hadley, Cheney Watching Clock For Timing; Have Smear and Blame Programs To Launch Against Former Chief

Top Ten Cloves: Testimonials Of Support That Didn’t Work For Jack Abramoff


29 March 2005... On The Garlic

Garlic Exclusive! Easter Egg Hunt Yields Sadam's WMD's

Hughes Plans International Tupperware Party For First Image Effort

Top Ten Cloves: Ways To Tell Your Identity Has Been Hacked

Oh Ronnie, How I Long For You ...

Peggy Noonan, the nation's most prominent Ronald Reagan groupie, takes apart Hillary Clinton today, calling her a liar, chastising her campaign for being heavy-handed thugs and, otherwise, regales at the sliding poll numbers of the intrepid, courageous candidate.

Getting Mrs. Clinton

"That's what the Bosnia story was about. Her fictions about dodging bullets on the tarmac -- and we have to hope they were lies, because if they weren't, if she thought what she was saying was true, we are in worse trouble than we thought -- either confirmed what you already knew (she lies as a matter of strategy, or, as William Safire said in 1996, by nature) or revealed in an unforgettable way (videotape! Smiling girl in pigtails offering flowers!) what you feared (that she lies more than is humanly usual, even politically usual).

But either you get it now or you never will. That's the importance of the Bosnia tape."

That people are now "getting Hillary", not for her policies or record, but because they all know now that she lies.

Quite the hit, coming from little, pining Peggy.

And, possibly, could it be out of a fit of jealousy? Was she blind with rage, lashing out, not at her true target, but the closest person, projecting on to Hillary what she wants to scratch out of the eyes of the other one?

The Garlic, holding our nose, for the benefit off all, jumps into the subconscious mind of Peggy Noonan;

After all, earlier this week, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain was with HER ...

How dare she embrace McCain, or anyone else.

How can she be so callous, so heartless, so cold, as to not to stay away, and burn candles for dear, beloved Ronnie?

None of these nitwits can hold a lick next to The Great Communicator.

Oh Ronnie, how I long for you ... How I wish your big, broad shoulders were nearby, so I could lay my head on them, feel your heartbeat, hear your soothing voice.

Instead, I have to deal with all this screeching white noise they call a campaign ... I have to watch HER, trot out and slobber all over McCain, like the slutty tart, who bamboozled you away from Jane... Oh yeah, she wasn't looking out for you, not the way I do, anyway ... "

Actually, the best part of Noonan's screed was a passage, written by another (she didn't provide a link), who she credits as a "poster called GI Joe who wrote in to a news blog" (The Garlic, after an exhaustive search, could only find one item with it, from a comment on a Ben Smith post);

"What struck me as the best commentary on the Bosnia story came from a poster called GI Joe who wrote in to a news blog:

"Actually Mrs. Clinton was too modest. I was there and saw it all. When Mrs. Clinton got off the plane the tarmac came under mortar and machine gun fire. I was blown off my tank and exposed to enemy fire. Mrs. Clinton without regard to her own safety dragged me to safety, jumped on the tank and opened fire, killing 50 of the enemy." Soon a suicide bomber appeared, but Mrs. Clinton stopped the guards from opening fire. "She talked to the man in his own language and got him [to] surrender. She found that he had suffered terribly as a result of policies of George Bush. She defused the bomb vest herself." Then she turned to his wounds. "She stopped my bleeding and saved my life. Chelsea donated the blood."

Funny Stuff!

She doesn't, at least yet, want to diss ol' Stumblin-and-Bumblin' John, just in case, and yes, she must know, it's an extremely long-odds stretch, that he actually morphs, or shows, some kind of Reaganesque duende.

Nobody will replace her beloved Ronnie, but she's gotta keep her dance card open.

After all, the McDreamy Mormon, Mitt Romney is still, at least, with a wink-and-nod, in the running as being named VP.

Maybe, just maybe, a girl can fall in love again.


Bonus Links

Ed Kilgore/TPM Café: In Re Peggy Noonan

Deeky/Shakesville: The Lady In Red

"Oh ... THAT Conspiracy ..."

"Have darkness ... Will travel."

I was tempted to title this "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House", playing off the theme we ran with yesterday.

But that was a comedy, and Jim Blandings (played by Gary Grant; Mrs. Blandings, the lovely Myrna Loy) was a ad man, not a lying, covert-CIA-Agent-exposing, Turd Blossoming, Railroading-Democrat-Governors-into-jail, thug of the Bush Regime.

Karl Rove's next move: A million-dollar home on Florida's Emerald Coast

"Whatever the next chapter of Rove's life has in store, some of the action will probably take place in Rosemary Beach, Florida, where he bought land in 2002.

According to political journalist Jim Moore, many factors probably influenced the timing of Rove's resignation--including the desire to cash in on lucrative speaker's fees and the prospect of reinventing himself as a political pundit on the national stage.

"Ultimately, though, what probably appeals to Karl the most is being a sort of freelance Dr. Evil," Moore –- a Rove critic -- explained in an email to RAW STORY. "He can do his work now for hire under the guise of any organization that wants to hire him or he can do it for fun and generally avoid the restraint of party or candidate. Have darkness. Will travel."

That isn't getting off to a good start.

Late last year, it was reported the hawking of his memoirs wasn't, exactly, setting the publishing world afire, and, very recently, he got hounded at one of his speeches, with an attendee asking "Can we have our $40,000 back?"

And what digs!

Rosemary Beach, Florida bills itself as a vacation community, but Rove's home is no beach bungalow. His Dill Lane pad is a 2,578-square-foot cedar and white stucco structure with a stoop, 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, and an outdoor shower. Opposite the main house, separated by a small walled courtyard, is a two-story carriage house with a two-car garage on the ground floor.

But, we're not sure the locals are all to happy with the move.

One waitress who works at Bud & Alley’s restaurant downtown, said she's seen Rove and his guests sequestered in the large downstairs area of the popular eatery. Saying she was happy not to have been his server, she quipped, “I would have told him what I thought of him and gotten fired.”

Check out and read (it's loaded with pictures) Karl Rove's next move: A million-dollar home on Florida's Emerald Coast

And one last thought ...

Is Rove setting himself up in The Sunshine State for legal reasons?

Isn't there something about Florida, and Florida law - one of the things that has kept a roof over O.J. Simpson's head - that, in losing lawsuits, you can't have your residence taken, or pensions carried away?

Perhaps someone more versed in this law can weigh in on it, in the comments (and, perhaps, we may post a follow-up, as this story develops).


Bonus Karl "New Math" Rove Riffs

Libby Spencer/Newshoggers: A small serving of justice for Siegelman

Steve Benen/The Carpetbagger Report: After having been railroaded by Rove machine, Siegelman released

Oxymoron of the Day: Karl Rove at an Idea Festival

Karl Rove: “Be prepared! Find the bastards. And pile on!”

Karl Rove, Living In An Etch-A-Sketch Kind of World

Retro Garlic: Did D.B Cooper Jump Out of Hillary's Plane In Bosnia?

Oh, I'm sorry, I misspoke ... I've been sleep-deprived and, I do write millions of words, so, there is the chance I that I am human, and will misspeak at times.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that if Hillary Clinton was on the same plane with D.B. Cooper, than, she would have left the plane, he wouldn't be her co-passenger, that's for sure.

Of course, D.B. Cooper couldn't have jumped from Hillary Clinton's plane, it was a different time, different place (though, we're sure, he would have ducked his head and ran for the cars).

Well, after raising an eyebrow, that the FBI was putting resources and manpower on a 37+ year-old case, still the only unsolved hijacking, stunningly, new evidence has, allegedly, surfaced.

Has DB Cooper's drop zone been located?

Some kids pulled a parachute out of the ground near Vancouver in Clark County, and now the FBI is working to determine if it may have been one of the chutes used by infamous skyjacker DB Cooper.

The chute was unearthed as their father was plowing for a new road and now the FBI in Seattle is analyzing it to see if it matches a reserve chute left behind by DB Cooper when he hijacked a Northwest Orient Airlines 727 on November 24, 1971 during a flight between Portland and Seattle.

The Retro Part ...

D.B. Cooper Is Barbarosa ... Or Is It Barbarosa Is D.B. Cooper?

This Date ... On The Garlic

Garlic History - On This Day

28 March 2007... On The Garlic

The Laura Bush Bummer Bombing-of-the Day; Warning - Bypass this post if you don't want to be discouraged


28 March 2006... On The Garlic

Bolton: Card Had White House In Coma; White House Shake-Up Causes Bolton Snafu

News In Brief: New Immigration Bill Sidelines Fox News; Dobbs Says “Ruins My November Sweeps”

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Afghanistan Prosecutors Found Abdul Rahman Mentally Unfit


28 March 2005... On The Garlic

President In Late Push To Add Daylight Saving Time To SS Bill

Red Sox To Remain At Fenway For Long Term; Seeking Eminent Domain Ruling for Large Chunk of Boston

Top Ten Cloves: Ways To Tell Spring Has Sprung

This Is Huge! ... Siegalman Released On Appeal!

At some point today, Karl Rove's shirt collar must have, inexplicably, tightened up on him.

Late today, perhaps the first whisps of justice finally seeped into the case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegalman;

"Thursday’s ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta said Mr. Siegelman’s larger appeal had raised “substantial questions,” and so the former governor should be released from the federal prison where he has already served nine months of a seven-year sentence.

Well, that, pretty much, makes mincemeat out of the joke-of-a-trial-judge, Judge Mark E. Fuller.

Fuller, among other things during the trial, refused to grant Governor Siegalman bond, so he could be out of prison for his appeal (not to mention whisking him immediately to jail right from the courtroom, not giving the Governor the typical month, or so, to report to prison)

It's far from over, however, it loosens up a few bricks in that wet dream, one-party rule that railroaded Siegalman, with brick dust leaving a trail that goes all the way back to the Bush Grindhouse.

Here's some links to check out - and stay tuned to this, it could end up being a blockbuster that shreds any possible legacy of the thugs of the Bush Regime


The Raw Story: Siegelman released from jail, pending appeal

Larisa Alexandrovna: Siegelman out on appeal bond...

The Birmingham News: UPDATE: Siegelman to be released from prison Friday

Brad Blog: ALABAMA'S FORMER DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR FREED FROM PRISON PENDING APPEAL

Ben Smith: A victory for the blogosphere

Paul Kiel/TPM: House Panel to Seek Hearing with Jailed Alabama Ex-Gov


The Garlic has highlighted this case a few times and here's some links to help you get the back story

Larisa Alexandrovna has been all over what's going on in Alabama and you can catch up on the Siegelman Case here

So has Scott Horton, over at Harpers

And for the primer ...

The Permanent Republican Majority Part I

The Permanent Republican Majority Part II

The Permanent Republican Majority Part III

Bad Day At Black Rock

We got a little movie theme going today with our titles, so, no, this isn't about the tremendous Spencer Tracy movie.

It's about Wal-Mart.

You know them - The mega-enormous company that had a certain Presidential Candidate as a board member (H/T to Barry Crimmins)

They're going to have to shelve that annoying little, flying, yellow smiling face for awhile.

Yesterday was a bummer for them.

First, they lost in court;

Judge blesses "Wal-Qaeda," "Walocaust" anti-Wal-Mart Web sites

Fortunately a federal judge in Atlanta had sense enough to strike down the suit. "The fact that the real Wal-Mart name and marks are strong and recognizable makes it unlikely that a parody -- particularly one that calls to mind the genocide of millions of people, another that evokes the name of a notorious terrorist organization ... will be confused with Wal-Mart's real products," wrote U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr.

As the AP points out, the judge also noted that very few people were even interested in Smith's charming work: He has only sold 62 T-shirts, 15 of them to Wal-Mart's law firms.

Who knew they didn't have a sense-of-humor?

So, as the wallowed in their sorrows, trudging back from the court, who drops another, well-earned, bucket of you-know-what on them?

Keith Olbermann.

Wal-Mart - emphatically - earned the title of 'Worst Person in the World' last evening

Wal-Mart sues disabled former employee

March 26: Worst: A Wal-Mart employee got into a truck accident – then sued and won. But now, wheelchair-bound and brain damaged, she’s being sued by her employer. It turns out there’s fine print in the company health plan.

Oh yeah, Olbermann later added this this poor woman got the news last week (if she could understand it) that her son was killed, while serving in Iraq.

Olbermann let them off easy.

Asking that "may your stores melt in the hot sun" wasn't enough

Something like this should have gotten them Worst Persons of the Year

Update ...Update

Olbermann whacked them again this evening.

He bestowed Lee Scott, Wal-Mart CEO with a "Worst Person" award, adding at the end of it "Wal-Mart ... Always low prices ... Always low humanity ..."


Bonus Wal-Mart Riffs

Wal-Mart Watch

Robert Greenwald's 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price'

Breaking News - White House Launches “Save The Ports, Save Claude” mission; White House Sought Deal With Target To Let Bush Aide Off; Coleman Played Point Man; Offered “Halliburton-Sized Contracts” and Would “Shut Down Wal-Mart”

Wal-Mart To Appeal $172M California Fine; Workers Will Have To Continue To Go Without Meals While Case Stays In Courts

With New War Room, Bush Calls On Wal-Mart To Join Coalition Forces; Retail Giant 'Could Outfit Millions of Troops"; Military Will Limit Benefits and Consider Waiver For Illegal Workers

The Sweet Smell of Success

No, not the awesome movie.

It appears that the Pentagon has adopted the Hillary Clinton Campaign strategy, of, well, making up the benchmark of success as you go along.

Exhibit A - Pentagon says new Iraq fighting arises from surge's success

The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite militias, was a "by-product of the success of the surge."

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said it showed that the Iraqi government and security forces were now confident enough to take the initiative against Shiite extremists in the southern port of Basra.

Morrell, however, disputed suggestions that the fighting showed the risks of drawing down US "surge" forces.

"This has just begun this week," he said. "But I think at this early stage, it looks as though it is a by-product of the success of the surge," referring to the sharp hike in US troops in Iraq from earlier last year to quell violence.

"I think they would tell you just the opposite: that this is a sign that the Iraqi security forces are now capable of confronting, fundamentally, their problems," he said.

Got that?

Silly us.

We believed, as we were told, by The Commander Guy himself, that the Bush Grindhouse Surge Policy was to end the violence and give the Iraqi Government the time and space to get their business done.

Now it comes out, that it was merely a confidence-building exercise.

We just had to be patient, so the Iraqi Security forces were "capable of confronting, fundamentally, their problems."

And, the biggest surprise of all, the the Surge was really designed to increase the violence, to turn the dial up!

Brandon Frasier, over on VetVoice was knocked out by it;

"That's some impressive spin, if you ask me. Takes balls to get up there in front of the media--and the world for that matter--and tell everyone that the conflagration we're on the verge of witnessing is due to how awesome we are."

Michael Stickings, at The Reaction, says it's a sign that "Iraq returns to "normal".

The only thing left now is to wait for John McCain to ride in, and explain to us who was training who for this.


Bonus Bush Grindhouse Riffs

Flutie Sends "Cease-and-Desist" Letter To Media Over 'Hail Mary' References Regarding Surge; Diminutive QB Longtime Copyright Holder; "It Still Feeds My Family"; Says Open To Negotiate On Usage

Breaking News! Analyst: President May Soon Need To Deny He Has Troops In Iraq; White House Plunges Into New Iraq Strategy; Moving From ‘Keystone Cops’ To ‘Marx Brothers’; Denials Of “Stay The Course” Signal Major Shift; Possible Complete Erasing Of Iraq May Come In Time For MidTerms

Breaking News! With DisneyBaghdad, Bush Says “Nobody Wins Hearts and Minds Better Than Disney; Disney, With Secret Contract, Working With White House, Military On Building Baghdad Moats; ‘Pirates of the Caliphate’, Other Attractions To Mask Security Measures; State Dept. Touts “DisneyBaghdad Will Pay For Itself”

Top Ten Cloves: Difficulties DC Comics' Batman May Have Fighting Osama bin Laden

This Date ... On The Garlic

Garlic History - On This Day

27 March 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Katie Couric Could Have Made The Edwards Interview Better


27 March 2005... On The Garlic

Bush Immigration Plan Gets "Some Influence"; White House May Employ Lincoln Group In Border, Immigration Clash; Unlike Iraqi Program, PR Firm Will Plant Anti-American Stories in Mexican Media

Top Ten Cloves: Other Things K.T. McFarland Says Hillary Clinton Is Doing To Her Besides Spying

"Oh ... THAT Conspiracy ..."

Or: Being Hillary Clinton

The Hillary Clinton run for the Presidency is getting stranger by the minute.

She seems determined to live up to the Samantha Powers-bestowed moniker of "monster".

I half expect it to burst open, that screenwriter Charlie Kaufman, and director Spike Jonze have teamed up again, and have been making a movie "Being Hillary Clinton".

Yes, I know the thought of that, of being "in there", inside Hillary's head, is thoroughly, skin-crawling, creepy, and that may offer some (certainly not all) explanation.

But they could keep the element of, when ejected from Hillary Clinton, you still get dumped off in New Jersey (or perhaps, they can tailor it to Hillary, and you are rudely exited in Arkansas).

When we posted last evening (see "Classic Clinton - Or: Hillary, Unwittingly, Cuts An Army Commercial"), we did note and link to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, for Hillary's kitchen-sink-trashing of Obama, but it wasn't until watching the replay of 'Countdown, with Keith Olbermann' that our mathematics skills kicked back in, allowing a recovery and the ability to add up two-plus-two.

There it came out that the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review is owned by, none other than, Richard Mellon Scaife.

MISTER RIGHT-WING CONSPIRACY













Josh Marshall, from TPM, hits it good;

"This alone has to amount to some sort cosmic encounter like something out of a Wagner opera. Remember, this is the guy who spent millions of dollars puffing up wingnut fantasies about Hillary's having Vince Foster whacked and lots of other curdled and ugly nonsense. Scaife was the nerve center of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. Those of us who spent years defending the Clintons from all that malarkey learned this point on day one."

And this, from Wikipedia;

"Regardless of his role, the project not only accused Clinton of financial and sexual indiscretions (some later verified, others not), but also gave root to hyperbolic conspiracist notions that the Clintons collaborated with the CIA to run a drug smuggling operation out of the town of Mena, Arkansas and that Clinton had arranged for the murder of White House aide Vince Foster as part of a cover-up of the Whitewater scandal."

I believe we can safely speculate that Barack Obama will not book himself on Sean Hannity's show this evening, to go tit-for-tat with Hillary, or phone into Rush Limbaugh, to make his case - again - about Reverend Wright.

And we really have to watch this, to see if there was a Quid Pro Quo for Hillary's sitdown with Scaife, if there was a deal made.

If we see something in the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, or should start hearing whispers, random postings or comments on some of the Dittohead, Freak Show blogs, that Reverend Jeremiah Wright killed Vince Foster - and Obama knew about but didn't say anything - we'll know why Hillary did the interview.

At least presently, even the Rightwing Freak Show is stunned by this.

In a recent Garlic Survey Poll, on Hillary's Campaign slogans (H/T to Barry Crimmins), the winner was "Keep Hopelessness Alive!".

Boy, does she ever look to be living up to that.

Word is out that Hillary is, or, is about to, employ the Tonya Harding Option.

We go from kitchen sinks to lead pipes.

Is this the new Clinton strategy, she's going to run the Elements Chart on Obama?

Will Bunch, of Attytood offers a "Being Hillary Clinton" view of that;

"I'm afraid that's really hitting the nail right on the kneecap. Of course with the Tonya Harding option, none of the Democrats wins and -- as Tapper notes -- John McCain becomes Oksana Baiul. Does this also mean that Hillary turns up later in celebrity boxing matches?"

Hmmm ... Hillary Clinton versus Tonya Harding ... Hillary can utilize her dash-and-dodge skills she honed in Bosnia, I suppose, to avoid being hit

But, I would bet it will never happen.

To many people would line up to kneecap both of them.


Bonus Being Hillary Clinton Riffs

Timothy Noah: Hillary's Rev. Wright - His name is Richard Mellon Scaife

NYT: Clinton Seeks to Soften Impact of Misstatement

A.J. Daulerio: Seriously, Regardless of How Many Bosnian Bullets She Did/Didn’t Dodge, Clinton Will Lose

A Tiny Revolution: Post Leaves Something Out About Richard Mellon Scaife

Greg Sargent/TPM Election Central: Hillary Finance Committee Member Compares Wright And David Duke, Says Obama "Used Race Where It Suited Him"

Good Post Alert: What Will Life Be Like in the Year 2008? (Nov, 1968)

Modern Mechanix is our diversion this day.

While I am tempted to post a few choice quotes from this, I will refrain, leaving you to click through and check this out for yourselves.

It is most entertaining, and you will find yourself, as you read through it, saying "We have that now" or "We have something close to that now".

Check out and read "What Will Life Be Like in the Year 2008? (Nov, 1968)"

(H/T to Good Morning Silicon Valley)

Cachao ... Siempre!

Sorry I am late with this, as I intended to post it on Sunday past.

We lost another tremendous artist and musician, as Israel "Cachao" Lopez passed away last Saturday, at the age of 89.

I was most fortunate to see Cachao perform live, once, in San Francisco, and it was special.

From Wikipedia;

He was born in Havana, Cuba. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and has been described as "the inventor of the mambo". He is considered a master of descarga (Latin jam sessions).

Cachao was, in his last years, the most important living figure in Cuban music, on or off the island. And according to Cuban-music historian Ned Sublette he was arguably the most important bassist in twentieth-century popular music, innovating not only Cuban music but also influencing the now familiar bass lines of American R&B, ``which have become such a part of the environment that we don't even think where they came from.

From The Guardian;

Initially, the mambo was too radical for most Cubans and the style did not win wide popularity until bandleader Pérez Parado popularised it in the late 1940s. Not that this bothered Cachao and Orestes: they went on to compose more than 3000 danzóns - a 1938 composition was called Buena Vista Social Club and would, more than 50 years later, provide the name for the multi-million selling veteran Cuban band.

His brother, Orestes, was a great musician in his own right, and Cachao's nephew (Orestes' son), Cachaito (Orlando), was the bassist with the Buena Vista Social Club.

Andy Garcia helped bring back the spotlight on Cachao and, if you are not familiar with his music, suggest you start with Master Sessions CD Garcia produced and work backwards.

However you do it, get into Cachao's music, you won't be disappointed


Cachao Obit Links

McClatchy-Tribune: 'Cachao' Lopez, legendary Cuban bassist, bandleader dies

Miami Herald: Cuban bass player, mambo pioneer Cachao dies in Miami area

Los Angeles Times: Israel 'Cachao' Lopez, 89; pioneered mambo music

This Date ... On The Garlic

Garlic History - On This Day

26 March 2007... On The Garlic

"No Dick, Not Again ... They'll Never Go For it" ... The Results - The Garlic Weekly Poll

Editor's Note - Sorry For The Light Posting


26 March 2006... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Classic Clinton (Or: Hillary, Unwittingly, Cuts An Army Commercial)

Somebody get this girl a clock.

She needs to be working later in the morning.

She busied herself, invested tons of time and money into the 3AM, I'm-Ready-On-Day-(Or Night)-One, Commercial (and, oh, how the tables turned on that one), when she had a better one in the can all along.

Establishing Shot

Large, U.S. Military Plane landing in Bosnia

Medium Shot

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton emerging from Military Plane, surrounded by soldiers, their weapons drawn, bending low as rifle and gun fire fly overhead.

Hillary and Chelsea run, in a zigzag pattern, bullets ricocheting off the ground near her, just a few feet away.

Hillary and Chelsea, panting with fear, as well as out-of-breath, reach the safety of a military hanger and taking off their coats, we see both wearing bullet-proof vests.

Cut to Hillary today, standing in front of large screen, replaying her zigzagging run, wearing her trademark school-bus-yellow pant suit.

Hillary (speaking directly into camera)

I'm Hillary Clinton, and I do more before 9AM than most candidates do all day

Cut .. Print ... It's a wrap

It's also a crock!

It may be the grand movie, the blockbuster, playing in her mind (or, perhaps, the voices are whispering it to her), but it isn't what went down.

You would have thought, with all the PR geniuses in her campaign, that someone would have told her not to tell deer-hunting stories (since the campaign is in Pennsylvania, we'll go in-theme), when there's videotape that she's never splashed on deer piss and sat for days in a tree.

Instead of "Be All You Can Be", Hillary opted for "Spin All You Can Spin".

From Greg Sargent, over on TPM Election Central;

“I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn’t go, so send the First Lady. That’s where we went. I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

And she got caught - big time

Here's the CBS video that, whether they did this intentionally, or it's just how it played out, it be pretty funny, almost in the spirit of a Leonard Pinth Garnell riff.

CBS Exposes Hillary Clinton Bosnia Trip



And here's another take from Jedreport;

Coming soon to a superdelegate near you: Hillary in Tuzla.

It's an unbelievable tale of heroism, written and directed by Mark J. Penn.

The Baltimore Sun calls it a "whopper."

"Four Pinocchios!" says the Washington Post.

"Requires enormous suspension of disbelief" raves the Huffington Post

Hillary in Tuzla: The Tale of Bosnian Sniper Fire (TRAILER)

Now, being caught like a deer-in-the-headlights (PA Theme, again), we got the classic, and totally unbelievable, "I misspoke" line, before Camp Clinton locked itself down.

And, of course, the Obama Campaign weighed in on this tall tale.

"Rival Democrat Barack Obama's campaign quickly scoffed at the attempt to dismiss the fib, noting that the mistaken wording was included in the text of Clinton's speech"

So, what's a losing candidate, behind in almost every conceivable manner, caught in an embarrassing position that puts a spotlight on her credibility, to do?

If you're Hillary Clinton, first you add on to the "misspeak" thing, that you were "sleep-deprived", inferring the lack of slumber caused you to "misspeak".

Then, if you've been slapped around, as she has deservedly been, you PUNCH BACK, whipping out and serving up a fresh platter of Reverend Wright!

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a wide-ranging interview today with Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reporters and editors, said she would have left her church if her pastor made the sort of inflammatory remarks Sen. Barack Obama's former pastor made.

"He would not have been my pastor," Clinton said. "You don't choose your family, but you choose what church you want to attend."

And it hasn't gone unnoticed.

From Steve Benen, over on The Carpetbagger Report;

"This may sound cynical, but my guess is that media interest in Clinton’s debunked Bosnia story had become too great a distraction. The controversy (and damaging videos) undermined Clinton on two fronts — credibility and national security experience — both of which are of critical significance.

So, how better to change the subject that to revive the Jeremiah Wright story with brand new criticism?

Actually, considering what her husband said last week, it's, more-or-less, Classic Clinton, a 1-2-punch, two kitchen sinks being hurled in the direction of Obama.

Has Hillary Clinton ever been to Darfur?

I can hardly wait for the narration of that trip.

I suppose she can use the sniper/gunfire theme again, but, perhaps, we'll get something like she rolled up her sleeves and lugged sacks of food off the plane.

Heck, if we go down the line of all her travel, she'll have to claim, after she "misspeaks" on all those, that she was in a coma.

We can only offer one prediction out of all this;

I suspect some lonely intern is tucked away in the Clinton Campaign, culling through videotape and matching it up against her speeches this very evening.

While another one hunts down more Reverend Wright video and quotes.


Bonus Hillary Threshold Links

Joe Gandelman/The Moderate Voice: Clinton Admits She “Misspoke” On Bosnia And Enters Credibility Danger Zone

Washington Post: Candidate Watch - Hillary's Balkan Adventures, Part II

NYT The Caucus: Clinton ‘Misspoke’ About Bosnia Trip, Campaign Says

Pam's House Blend: Why padding your 3 AM-ready resume is a really bad idea

Josh Marshall/TPM: That's Not Wright

Top Ten Cloves: Things Hillary Clinton and Howard Wolfson Think Barack Obama Can Do To Pass National Security Threshold

Rah, Rah, Rah ... Sis Boom Bah!

Tough slogging on the war cheerleading front these days.

I mean, can't a good, healthy, loud-lunged, pom-pom-waving girl get a break?

In the Asked-and-Answered Department ...

Michael O'Hanlon, as good a pom-pom waver as there has been, is inserting himself in the news this week.

O'Hanlon has been wrong on his assessments of the Iraq Invasion and Occupation about as often as ... Well ... As the sun rises.

You may remember.

After penning (with his co-cheerleader Ken Pollack) last summer the NYT Op-Ed "A War We Just Might Win", the dynamic duo got slapped down by - of all the nerve - actually U.S. Soldiers, serving in Iraq, in their response, "The War As We Saw It" (to which O'Hanlon got a little miffed)

Yesterday, O'Hanlon just had to throw down his pom-poms and have a little cry.

O’Hanlon Gripes About His Waning Influence: I Now Get ‘Less Than One’ Interview Request Per Day

“I was getting on average three to five calls a day for interviews about the war” in the first years, said Michael E. O’Hanlon, a senior fellow on national security at the Brookings Institution. “Now it’s less than one a day.”

But, with the game on, he couldn't just sit on the sidelines and weep ...

No siree Bob, it was time to pick up those pom poms, clear his throat, dry his eyes and start chanting 'Go Team Go!" again.

O’Hanlon: Surge architects are the ‘Vince Lombardis’ of Iraq war

"I want to call them the Lombardis of this war. … And in addition to Fred and Ken who have been two of the most important people. Andy Krepinevich is another important think tanker. Retired Gen. Jack Keane from the outside. A small group of people inside the administration, smaller than it should have been, but people like Meghan O’Sullivan. […]

These people did two things that I think would have made Vince Lombardi proud. One, they stuck with it, and they persevered through difficult times. And two, they stayed focused on fundamentals."

Though, actually, O'Hanlon, if he wanted to make a more accurate analogy of the Iraq Invasion and Occupation to football, he might have been better to choose Ohio State's Woody Hayes and his strategy of "three-yards and a cloud of dust".

That seems like the much more accurate view of what we have going on over there.

Weekend Smackdowns ... Cheney and Lieberman

Quite the weekend ...

While our Darth Vader Vice President backhanded the American people (and, yesterday, cowardly, threw The Commander Guy under the bus), an old colleague of his surfaced in the pages of The Washington Post this past weekend to slap him around.

Mickey Edwards, who served with Cheney in Congress, has had enough, becoming "increasingly frustrated by the Bush administration's repeated betrayal of constitutional ..."

In his Op-Ed, "Dick Cheney's Error - It's Government By the People", Edwards set out to remind The Bush Grindhouse, to give them a 5th grade civics lesson;

"Cheney told Raddatz that American war policy should not be affected by the views of the people. But that is precisely whose views should matter: It is the people who should decide whether the nation shall go to war. That is not a radical, or liberal, or unpatriotic idea. It is the very heart of America's constitutional system.

That is the difference between a strong president (one who leads) and a strong presidency (one in which ultimate power resides in the hands of a single person). Bush is officially America's "head of state," but he is not the head of government; he is the head of one branch of our government, and it's not the branch that decides on war and peace."

Somebody, please, copy this, laminate it, and then staple it to the foreheads of the everyone in the Executive Branch, and, might as well do the same to every single person in The Congress

But Wait, There's More ...

Then, on Sunday, John McCain's wingnut, the Democrat-in-title-only Senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman, got his turn in the slapping dock, this coming from 'The Day', a New London, CT newspaper, who, essentially, took back their endorsement of Lieberman (H/T to Jane Hamsher on Firedoglake)

"Meanwhile, the junior Connecticut senator is not only backing the Republican nominee for the presidency, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, but appears to be making a contest of trying to get into every photo and TV news video with him. Perhaps Sen. Lieberman is taking delight in needling the chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, his 2004 opponent for the presidency, whose leadership he once dismissed as a “ticket to nowhere.”

Rather than building the bridges The Day expected when it endorsed Sen. Lieberman, he appears busy burning bridges with the party of which he is allegedly still a member. Perhaps the senator is positioning himself for a top cabinet post in a McCain presidency. But if the Democrats prevail, and enlarge their control of the Senate, it is hard to imagine this Connecticut senator being welcomed back with open arms."

Hmmm ... Here a nice, little daydream ...

As McCain stumbles along in his campaign, with his trusty sidekick Joe Lieberman riding shotgun, one-by-one, Connecticut newspapers follow the lead of The Day, and start taking back their endorsements ...

Maybe Lieberman will get confused ... Mis-speak ... Have his own "senior moment" ...


Bonus Links

Blue Texan/Firedoglake: Cheney To 66% Of The American People: Go F*** Yourself

Arianna Huffington: A McCain Moment: Do You Want Four More Years of This?

And, Today, Representing the "Clueless-They-Don't-Get-It" Team ... Senator Joe Lieberman!

The Bob Dole For The New Millennium


"Joe ... What the hell day is it?"