The Garlic: 06/29/2008

Saturday, July 05, 2008

So Nice ... The Very Last Moments of Jesse Helms

I'd like to think that Jesse Helms was crippled with dementia, perhaps drooling on himself, when, in a sudden moment of crystal-clear lucidity, he saw a headline, or caught some cable news, and it became knowledge to him, that the country is on the verge of electing an African-American president and, BOOM!, his brain explodes, oxygen shuts down, and he's gone.

Actually, Andrew Sullivan was on the same path today, with his "Jesse Helms At An Obama Rally".

And, yesterday, Martin Lewis, over on The Huffington Post, rang in with the winner-of-the-day;

He's a Yankee Doodle Jesse
A Yankee Doodle do or die
A real live nephew of the Ku Klux Klan
Died on the Fourth of July...

(Check out the Lewis post, "Jesse Helms: Yankee Doodle Jesse", he quotes the distinguished racist at length)

Now, it would have been infinitely better, if he lasted until Election Night, so nice it would be, after his life-long record of vile hate, that the last thing Jesse Helms learned, was that Barack Obama is to be the next President of the United States.

Yes, that would be so nice ...

Bonus "Ding Dong, The Racist Senator Is Dead" Riffs

Tbogg: Hell gets a little more crowded

Wonkette: Hell Jesse Helms Finally Dead

Pam Spaulding: Bye, Jesse, you left quite a legacy

Matthew Yglesias: Helms' Vision of Freedom

Ron Beasley: A New Paradigm

Teddy Partridge - Jesse Helms: Bigot, Racist, Homophobe

Bonus Bonus

In an effort to help erase this from your minds, to think of something much more pleasant and pleasing, we turn to Astrud Gilberto

So Nice - Astrud Gilberto

This Date ... On The Garlic

5 July 2006... On The Garlic

Garlic Exclusive! 1st Draft Of Coulter’s Plagiarism Response; Coulter Speaks (Sort Of)

Top Ten Cloves: Possible Reasons For North Korea To Run Missile Tests

5 July 2005... On The Garlic

Conservatives Threaten Taco Bell Boycott, Justice Weekends; Economic Message To Bush If Gonzales Placed On High Court

Founder of Earth Day, Gaylord A. Nelson, Dead at 89; Mother Earth To Offer "Volcanic Salute To A Great Friend"

Live 8 Concerts Generate Over 26 Million Text Messages; Over 24-Million Exchanged About "The Blond In Front of The London Stage"

Top Ten Cloves: Most Surprising Things NASA Discovers With Deep Impact and Comet Tempel 1

Friday, July 04, 2008

Garlictorial: He Did What? ... Where?

Well, we posted earlier today, the positive, goodwill deed that could be engaged in on this, the 4th of July.

However, there was a darker, ugly, evil, nastier one that did take place.

Looking at it, it would be akin if Richard Speck was asked to speak to a nurses union, or, Juan Corona, representing and speaking on migrant worker rights.

President Bush Attends Monticello's 46th Annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony

Say What?!

Jesus, the founding fathers, they couldn't have just been rolling in their graves, they had to be trying to climb out of them, to stop the insulting, insane decision (by who?) to have the Worst, Court-Appointed President (h/t Barry Crimmins) in the country's history speaking at the home of one of the writers of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson.

This isn't comical irony, in the least.

It is outrageously, and hideously insulting.

Now, unless the Bush Grindhouse pulled rank, and placed the guy that has done nothing but piss on the Constitution there, whoever runs the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the organization that controls Jefferson's place, should be fired.

A Karen Silkwood-type scrubbing and shower can't wash this one away.

And listen to what they had to say

I have to give my buddy, Vern, from the Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus, a kudo for sending this one along;

Sacrilege at Monticello
A Letter to the Charlottesville Daily Progress
By Ray McGovern

I write as a Virginian, the father of four graduates of Mr. Jefferson's university and of another who is an alumnus of the university Mr. Jefferson himself attended.

I have just spoken with Emily of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation to register our family's dismay that President George W. Bush has been invited to speak at Monticello on July 4th. I cannot imagine a greater insult to Mr. Jefferson, who played such a huge role in securing for us the freedoms we enjoy as citizens of this great Commonwealth and country. George W. Bush at Monticello? Desecration of what until now has been hallowed ground.

Emily explained that the Foundation had decided that it could invite the office of the president, without appearing to invite the present incumbent. That distinction is one worthy of the lawyers whom the Bush administration hired to justify torture, ignoring the dictum of another Virginian, Patrick Henry, that practices like the rack and screw must be left behind in the Old World.

Those who invited the president to Charlottesville to help celebrate the Declaration of Independence, which asserted basic freedoms that Mr. Bush has now curtailed, dishonor Mr. Jefferson in a most offensive way, scandalize our children and grandchildren, and desecrate Monticello itself.

A shameful day for the Commonwealth.

Raymond L. McGovern
Arlington, Virginia

***
Ray McGovern, Co-Founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, spent 27 years in the CIA with duties including presentation of presidential daily brief

Now, I don't want to give you an "I-Told-You-So", but in our July 4th Garlictorial last year, we called for, since the 110th Congress wasn't (and still isn't) doing their duties, to place The Commander Guy under Citizen's Arrest, and we laid out all the benefits one could get from performing such patriotic services.

Alas, it still remains an uncompleted task.

If someone had undertaken this action, it could have saved the Thomas Jefferson Foundation the embarrassment, and stain that will live on them for scores-of-years to come.

Doesn't anybody in Washington D.C. understand the concept of "Lame Duck President"?

Why on earth would anyone give him something to do (let alone an appearance in a celebration of the Declaration of Independence)?

The concept of "Lame Duck President", and especially this lamest one, should be that he is left to sulk and suck in his nest of bile, until they have to scrape the crap off him on the morning of January 20th, and make him slink out the rear door.

Considering his record, his caretaking of the Office of the President, even that would be too generous.

Bonus Riffs

Larisa Alexandrovna: Founding Fathers turning in their graves... Happy 4th

Melissa McEwan: Brand New Americans Celebrate 4th by Heckling President

TBogg: Life imitates artlessness

What Better Way To Capture The Essence of the Day

...no country can be well governed unless its citizens as a body keep religiously before their minds that they are the guardians of the law and that the law officers are only the machinery for its execution, nothing more.

Mark Twain, The Gilded Age

Ahhh ... July 4th ... The jingoist of holidays!

March in a parade of flags ... Wave a flag ... Oou-and-Ahh over firework displays of flags ...

Have Flag/Am Patriotic

Well, we don't need to discourse on what a flag is (Barry Crimmins has a "Holiday Salute" today).

Or, that, while everyone has unfurled their flags over the past seven years, the Bush Grindhouse has waived goodbye to the rule of law, and our civil liberties

Jane Hamsher, over on Firedoglake, has a good civic exercise, very much in the spirit of the above-mentioned Twain quote, you can engage in today;

"But Christy was dogged, and thanks to her efforts (and those of our fabulous readers) we now have almost 40 events set up across the country where you can join together with fellow like-minded FISA buffs and tell your member of Congress in person exactly what you think of the upcoming capitulation they plan."

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

* The Senate will soon be considering immunity for companies that helped President Bush illegally spy on Americans. Do you think the President should be able to collude with corporations to cover-up his crimes—does our constitution allow the president to be above the law?

* Will you join Senators Feingold and Dodd in standing up for our constitution by filibustering any legislation that lets president Bush and the phone companies off the hook for wiretapping American citizens without a warrant?

* Alternative phrasing of the second bullet: We need you to show backbone and not help Bush's cover-up. If these lawsuits get thrown out of court, Americans may never know how far Bush went in breaking the law by spying on innocent Americans. Will you join Senator Russ Feingold's filibuster of any bill that gives retroactive immunity to phone companies that helped Bush break the law and spy on Americans?

Check out Jane's FISA: Whip It Good!

Now, with or without a flag in your hand, how much more can you be a good American patriot, then by holding your elected representative accountable for the welfare of our country?

Bonus Bonus

Eddie Izzard - Do you have a flag?

Have You Thanked America?

A little something for the holiday ...

George Adams Quartet - Have You Thanked America?
(with Ray Gallon, Santi Debriano and Lewis Nash)

Happy 4th - However you celebrate it!

La Cage aux Florida

This isn't a holiday-related item, other than it broke today (and it's too rich to let alone).

Sorry .... Err.. .Ahh ... Ladies ...

He's getting hitched!

Florida Gov. Crist says he's getting married

Gov. Charlie Crist, single for nearly three decades, on Thursday morning became engaged to his girlfriend of nine months, Carole Rome.

"She's special in every way. She's brilliant, beautiful and sweet. I'm very, very lucky," Crist told the St. Petersburg Times in an exclusive interview

My, My, My ...

So much for the rumors, I guess ...

And, this is a power-boost to the stakes, as to who wants to get tagged as Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's VP ...

Can we expect, in the days ahead, that ...

Does this mean they can take down the cameras pointing at the door of the Mens Room, at the Minneapolis Airport, during the Republican Convention?

Stay tuned, Ambiguously Gay Duo fans!

Bonus Riffs

Pam's House Blend: Breaking: Charlie Crist's getting hitched...to a woman

Wonkette: Charlie Crist Getting Married So He Can Pretend To Be McCain’s Vice President Until November

Andrew Sullivan: Old School Crist

This Date ... On The Garlic

4 July 2007... On The Garlic

Garlictorial: Happy 4th of July ... Okay, It May Be Down To This .... Citizen's Arrest!

4 July 2006... On The Garlic

Garlictorial: Happy 4th of July - To Be A Fly On The Potato Salad Up In Kennebunkport Today

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons New Superman Isn’t Fighting For Truth, Justice and The American Way

Thursday, July 03, 2008

This Date ... On The Garlic

3 July 2007... On The Garlic

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment: Bush, Cheney should resign

You Got Away With It Once, Cheney, But We're Watching You ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll

3 July 2006... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Things Superman Will Do To Show That He Is Not Gay

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Raymond, Why don't you pass the time with a game of solitaire?

Okay, we covered the obvious 'Manchurian Candidate' reference with the title and got that out-of-the-way.

Though it could be possible, some schlep-of-a-detainee got programed, with the Queen of Diamonds as his trigger, but that remains to be played out.

Better Dead Then Red, right?

Oh, was he ever in the wrong era ...

Think of what Senator Joe McCarthy could have done with this one;

China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

You think they would have been more discreet ... More hip ...

Like, if they going to go Chinese with the torture, they'd just have them brush their teeth with Chinese-made toothpaste, or, perhaps, put some Chinese-made toys in their mouths.

Or, since they were going global with the torture techniques, they beat them with one of Tom Friedman's books (hardcover, of course).

Just when you think the Bush Grindhouse couldn't go any lower ...

Hmmm ... I wonder if this record came with the program;

Dean Martin - On A Slow Boat To China

Bonus Links

Eric Martin: Unconscionable

PraireWeather: Commie sympathizers in US military, in US intelligence, and in the White House

John Cole: Durbin Was Wrong

Marty Lederman: Made in China: What We Have Become

I Could'a Had Class ... I Could'a Been A Contender ...

As we run out the clock, on the lamest - ever - court-appointed President (h/t Barry Crimmins), there's going to be a veritable roto-league of legacy wrap-ups.

Well ... Actually ... They'll all look more like a criminal rap sheet.

Yesterday, Brad Reed, over al AlterNet, kicked things off with his "The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency", which Brad subtitles "A shorter version of our long national nightmare?"

And, before you start pounding your head on the table (similar to one that Nancy Pelosi can't seem to find), or writing angry screeds of "Only 10!!!";

Narrowing down the Bush administration's various debacles to a mere 10 was no easy feat. In fact, I expect that many people will express dismay that their least favorite moment was left off the list. "How could commuting Scooter Libby's sentence not even make the top 10??!!" I can hear some of you shrieking already. Well, I'll tell you. Essentially, I tried to rate each Bush disaster by two main criteria: its body count and its damage to the country's reputation. So while Bush's awkward groping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel may be personally humiliating to everyone, it doesn't have the same heft as, say, the Iraq War.

I won't spoil the fun ...

Go over to "The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency" for a good read.

Bonus Legacy Links

It's Time To Bring Down Rollo Tomasi

"He aggressively and successfully pursued public corruption ..."

"I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person ..."

"Anyway, look, nobody has accused me of being Shakespeare, you know?"

The Condoleezza Rice Ballroom Dancing & Charm School

This Date ... On The Garlic

2 July 2007... On The Garlic

"What Did He Know and When Did He Know It" ... The Monday Massacre

Appellate Court Playing Our Song - Libby Denied Bond Pending Appeal

2 July 2006... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Another spirited week of voting, on The Garlic’s Weekly Poll ...The Garlic's Weekly Poll Results - Cheney/Rice Beat Out Coulter

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Top Ten Cloves: About The Only Way General Wesley Clark Could Have Done Worse

News Item: Clark: Outrage over my comments a 'manufactured issue'

10. Clark making the statements, but not being aware of the Internet

9. Clark and his wife didn't pay their property taxes

8. While being touted as a VP candidate, it comes out that Clark participated in an exorcism

7. Clark having a Mini-Me, like Joe Lieberman, who would amplify the remarks

6. What's the big deal? Clark made his comments on a weekend

5. If Clark had announced a plan for a new car battery, but the prize was only $200-Million

4. Clark making the same statements, but he was the one that was a member of the Keating Five

3. That MoveOn.org did a commerical and said General Wesley Clark couldn't have Little Alex

2. Clark going out and angrily barking that McCain's wife was a C****

1. If Clark was the one that thought Iran was training Al Qaeda in Iraq

Bonus Phony Outraged Stumblin' Bumblin John McCain Riffs

Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld: Now A McCain Surrogate Demeans Wes Clark's Service

Nicole Belle: John McCain: I’m Shocked–Shocked!–That There’s Campaigning Going On Here!

Steve Benen: Note to McCain campaign: Stop going to the empty well

MediaMatters: What Gen. Clark Actually Said; Media Falsely Claim Clark Attacked McCain's Service

Brilliant at Breakfast: And why CAN'T a 4-star general ask the question?

This Date ... On The Garlic

1 July 2005... On The Garlic

DC Holiday Fireworks To Feature Bolton; Park Service Officials Livid At New Novak Leak

GoldenPalace.Com Rumored To Win Lunch With Buffet for $351G's; Funds Go To Charity; Extra's Included Oracle of Omaha Being Tattooed With Casino Logo

Top Ten Cloves: Things That Will Ruin Your Summer Vacation

Monday, June 30, 2008

Round and Round and Round ...

Get ready for a dizzily, spinning week.

Between yesterday, and this morning, a handful of storylines have broken, that is going to generate forceful spinning, counter-spinning and blowback, likely enough to jar the needles on the Fujita and Saffir-Simpson scales.

Exhibit A - McCain's War Record/Qualifications for President

Dday, over on Hullabaloo, has a title for this - "Get Ready For The Mother Of All Hissy Fits"

It started yesterday, when retired General Wesley Clark, and Barack Obama supporter, questioned McCain's war record, saying (after giving Stumblin' Bumblin' John some props), that “I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president.”

John Aravosis jumped in, with the question that Brilliant at Breakfast didn't have to, of "Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?"

Let loose the hounds! ... Game On!

No doubt, the Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain Campaign will come out swinging on this one, despite the fact that their candidate, at nearly every conceivable opportunity, plays off his time in the service.

And, to bone-up for the ensuing gale winds, you can read TPM's Paul Kiel, from February, on Stumblin' Bumblin' Johns' tough stance on torture, and Ted Rall's "Puffing up John McCain, POW"

Update

From the time I wrote this, earlier today, all hell is breaking loose!

Go to Memeorandum, and check out the brewing dog fight on this one ...

Exhibit B - My Sister/My Daughter ... We're Attacking Iran/We're Not Attacking Iran ...

Sy Hersch provided the match-to-the-fuse yesterday, with his "Preparing the Battlefield - The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran", detailing we're already conducting Special Forces operations inside Iran, and it's just a matter of time before the whole thing explodes ...

And, if you have been paying attention, Little Billy Kristol has already predicted that the Bush Grindhouse will let the bombs fly, especially if it looks like Obama is going to take the election.

This drum has been beating for some time now .... If you have to go with one, or the other, bet on The Commander Guy donning the flightsuit again, and after they transform Tehran into the Flintstones' Bedrock City, another 'Mission Accomplished before passing on the baton (and if Stumblin Bumblin John McCain does manage to win, or steal, the election, then no baton passing, the bombs will keep dropping).

Exhibit C - My Sister/My Daughter ... We're Hunting OBL/We're Not Hunting OBL ...

The NYT kicks the dust up today, with their "Amid Policy Disputes, Qaeda Grows in Pakistan", detailing how the military has been set to rush through Afghanastan and into Pakistan to go get - now some 7-years after-the-fact - Osama bin Laden, and other top Al-Qaeda chieftains ...

But, the Big Cheeses in Washington won't pull the trigger.

Which leads Oliver Willis to observe, "Republicans Soft On Terror", and Jill, over on Brilliant at Breakfast, to question "You'd almost think they WANTED a stronger Al-Qaeda"

The Garlic speculates Vegas will post this one as a "Pick'em"

So, with the Lapel Pin orgy-of-a-holiday approaching, July 4th, expect the jingoistic fur to be flying, spinning and counter-spinning, and every tiny iota of it making it's way, blaringly so, at times, into your news.

If you need some help in getting through it, grab a dance partner ...

Perry Como ~ Round And Round (1957)

A Wolcott Howler!

If you need a "pick-me-up" today, we got one for you.

It peels back the curtain for a glimpse, a fleeting glimpse, of the Washington insiders, the Tim Russert/Golden Calf worship, Sally Quinn, the always-apocalyptic Bill Donohue, Jon "Jesus Saves, And I Write About It" Meacham, and more.

A hearty H/T to Barry Crimmins, for pointing to this gem from James Wolcott;

Think Twice Before Joining the Buffet Line

The tempest in a chalice began when Quinn, co-creator of the Washington Post's On Faith website (an accident waiting to happen), paid memorial tribute to Tim Russert and went a bit overboard with the best of intentions, telling her readers...

At Tim's funeral mass...communion was offered. I had only taken communion once in my life, at an evangelical church. It was soon after I had started "On Faith"; and I wanted to see what it was like. Oddly I had a slightly nauseated sensation after I took it, knowing that in some way it represented the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Last Wednesday I was determined to take it for Tim, transubstantiation notwithstanding. I'm so glad I did. It made me feel closer to him. And it was worth it just to imagine how he would have loved it.

Leonard Pinth Garnell would be so proud.

Go read Wolcott's Think Twice Before Joining the Buffet Line ... It will make your day!

Bonus Riffs

Remembering Russert - What media eulogies remember--and forget

The Canonization of Saint Russert: The media overdo the death of a journalist

We've Gone Well Past The 15-Minutes Thing ...

Developing Story - MSNBC Making Pitches To Become Eulogy Channel

This Date ... On The Garlic

30 June 2006... On The Garlic

Breaking News! White House, Congress To Clear “Outrage Backlog”; Bush, Congress Plan Retro Rebuke Of Novak, Sun-Times Over Plame Leak; Tracing Funds, Gay Marriage, Flag Amendment, War On Terror Cited For “Outrage Backlog”

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard On President Bush’s Trip To Graceland

30 June 2005... On The Garlic

Army Recruiting Up; Now Eyes Increase In Applause; White House To Investigate Low Clapping During Ft. Bragg Terror Speech

Top Ten Cloves: Ways The Army Met Recruiting Goals For First Time Since January

Sunday, June 29, 2008

No, Wait ... I Think It's Iran Training al-Qaeda To Pump The Gas ...

The Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain Campaign needs to establish some new media ground rules, if they plan on making to November.

Out, as-soon-as-possible, with the softball questions.

They need to lower their sights, and go with Whiffleball queries ...

Now, there's no guarantee that Stumblin' Bumblin' John still won't go down on three strikes, but they, at least, may be able to slow down the hemorrhaging of headlines like this;

McCain: It doesn't matter that I don't know cost of gas

Senator John McCain said he can't remember the last time he pumped gasoline or the cost of a gallon of a gas in an interview with the Orange County Register earlier this week.

The OC Register's Martin Wisckol asked McCain when he had last pumped his own gas, to which McCain replied:

"Oh, I don’t remember. Now there’s Secret Service protection. But I’ve done it for many, many years. I don’t recall and frankly, I don’t see how it matters," McCain said.

"I don't see how it matters"?

It's only that the cost of gasoline is in the news, oh, about 23.5-hours of the day!

And if the media (in particular, the clowns on the cable news programs) isn't lathering on the sad-sack stories, people making choices between filling the tank, or filling their medical prescriptions, or forced to dine on cat food, you have the other screaming heads, complete with their Rudy Valle megaphones, painting a gruesome future, with gas at $12-$15 before you can say "before your can say".

Was this another Stumblin' Bumblin' John attempt at humor, like he's trying to compete with Steven Wright, or something;

Last year we drove across the country. We switched on the driving...every half-mile...We had one cassette tape to listen to on the entire trip...I don't remember what it was ..."

Or perhaps, we need to be asking - Where was Joe Lieberman?

Why wasn't McCain's Mini-Me there, to whisper in his year "About four-bucks-a-gallon"?

I mean, if they are going to let him take softball questions, geez, you gotta have some back-up, some help, a designated question-answerer, to stay in the ball lingo.

This is, yet, another breakdown in keeping Stumblin' Bumblin' John's incompetence under wraps.

Is this, as in his Shiite-Iran-Sunni-Al Qaeda gaffe, back in March (twice), like Josh Marshall put it, that McCain is "Just Totally Out of It?", or, Cernig's "McCain As Ignorant As Dubya"?

Perhaps, as one of the friendly fluffers at Faux News, Britt Hume, let slip, a McCain "Senior Moment"?

I mean, this was one of the softest of softballs tossed his way and he muffed it.

This had to have prompted his wife to return the favor, and scream at him "You dickhead!".

Back, earlier this month, Steve Benen, on The Carpetbagger Report, had a good rundown on Stumblin' Bumblin' John's confusion;

The kicker is McCain really has been confused. Whether he’s 72 or 22 is irrelevant — he’s been consistently wrong about Iraq, demonstrating time and again that he just doesn’t understand the basics.

* McCain has been confused about how many U.S. troops are in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about whether the U.S. can maintain a long-term presence in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about the source of violence in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about Iran’s relationship with al Qaeda.

* McCain has been confused about the difference between Sunni and Shi’ia.

* McCain has been confused about Gen. Petraeus’ responsibilities in Iraq.

* McCain has been confused about what transpired during the Maliki government’s recent offensive in Basra.

* McCain has been confused about Gen. Petraeus’ ability to travel around Baghdad “in a non-armed Humvee.”

* McCain has been so confused about Iraq, in November 2006, he couldn’t even do a live interview about the war without reading prepared notes on national television.

So what can we expect ... How will this one be mopped up?

Will his friends in the MSM give him another box of donuts (and with his favorite, sprinkles)?

Or, ... Oh God, I don't even want to think about it, especially with the flag-waving, apple pie of holidays coming up, July 4th ...

The photo-op.

Stumblin' Bumblin' John, all decked out in a retro attendants' uniform, complete with pointy boat hat, pumping gas at some middle-of-the-country gas station, waxing on for the cameras, about his energy policy...

Naturally, it would be "invited guests" only, coming in to fill up ...

Can't take any chances, that someone would pull in and actually ask him a softball question ...

And, definitely, not on a weekend.

Family at gas station, talking to, watching Attendant

Bonus Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain Riffs

Brilliant at Breakfast: And THIS guy is trying to paint BARACK OBAMA as the elitist??

Newhoggers: McSame is more ways than one!

John Cole: McOutofTouch

Blue Texan: Will McCain Have Lieberman Next To Him At 3AM?

Faiz - Think Progress: McCain Strolls Through Baghdad Market, Accompanied By 100 Soldiers, 3 Blackhawks, 2 Apache Gunships

More Carlin ...

Man, it was a gas last night, NBC and Saturday Night Live replaying the very first show, from back in October 1975, in which the recently departed George Carlin was the programs first host.

Numerous references (nervously) made about it being "live" ... Not one, not two, but four musical features (two artists - Billy Preston and Janis Ian - with two sets each) ... A short 'Weekend Update' (and "Generalissimo Franco is still dead" hadn't hit yet) ... The Not Ready For Prime Time Players ... And, of course, the, now legendary, debut of Andy Kaufman, and the hilarious "Mighty Mouse" routine ...

I can remember, very well, those first two years of SNL ... Wherever you were, whatever you were doing on a Saturday night, you made your plans to be at, or near, a televison by 11:30PM ...

But we digress ...

Nick Zaino, otherwise known as The Optimistic Curmudgeon, has, in his last two posts, provided encores of interviews he conducted with George Carlin;

OC Archive: George Carlin 2002

George Carlin: Complete Comedian

Check'em out ... Good stuff!