We brought this up a few weeks ago, and, again, yesterday, in her Murdoch Street Journal column, she's all over the place, the wine swishing out of the glass with her sweeping arm motions, dissing - again - President Obama, in a greatest hits tribute to the Right Wing Freak Show.
And, of course, as the #1 Ronald Reagan Groupie, she brings her sweetheart, love bunny touchstone to the forefront, letting us all know that, according to her, if only we had Ronny's steady hand to guide us today, the world (well, her world) would be Shangri La.
Such impressions—coolness, slightness—can come to matter only if they capture or express some larger or more meaningful truth. At the moment they connect, for me, to something insubstantial and weightless in the administration's economic pronouncements and policies. The president seems everywhere and nowhere, not fully focused on the matters at hand. He's trying to keep up with the news cycle with less and less to say.
It's the "Obama is too cool" thing, again.
And, too busy.
Mr. Obama likes to say presidents can do more than one thing at a time, but in fact modern presidents are lucky to do one thing at a time, never mind two. Great forces are arrayed against them.
See, Obama is supposed be more like those Republican Presidents of the past, just chillin' out, not getting too worked up about punching the time clock, just, kind of, go at, in a nice soft pace.
I guess that is the impression you get of how the job should be, if you happen to be a speechwriter for a President in his mid-to-late 70's, and in the early stages of dementia (but we know, in her heart, Little Miss Peggy was much more than just a speechwriter to her Ronny).
With naps built into Ronny's schedule, we can see how Peggy must think Obama is too busy.
And, in her first salute to the Right Wing Freak Show, in their unending meme of Obama's use to the teleprompter, Little Miss Peggy has to dwell on that, just a bit (well, actually, more than just a bit), and lets us know her Ronny didn't need a teleprompter, and could tell jokes better than Obama;
This in part is why the teleprompter trope is taking off. Mr. Obama uses it more than previous presidents. No one would care about this or much notice it as long as he showed competence, and the promise of success. Reagan, if memory serves, once took his cards out of his suit and began to read them at a welcoming ceremony, only to realize a minute or so in that they were last week's cards from last week's ceremony. He caught himself and made a joke of it. One was reminded of this the other day when Mr. Obama's speech got mixed up with the Irish prime minister's. Things happen. But the teleprompter trope has taken off: Why does he always have to depend on that thing?
There is a new Web site where the teleprompter shares its thoughts in a breathless White House diary. It's bummed that it has to work a news conference next week instead of watching "American Idol," it resents being dragged to L.A. in Air Force One's cargo hold "with the more common electronic equipment." It also Twitters: "We are in California! One of the interns gave my panels a quick scrub and I'm ready to prompt for the day." And: "Waiting for my boss's jokes to get loaded for Leno!"
Mr. Obama's second job is America's safety at home and in the world. Dick Cheney this week warned again of future terrorism and said Mr. Obama's actions have left us "less safe." White House press secretary Robert Gibbs reacted with disdain. Mr. Cheney is part of a "Republican cabal." "I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy." This was cheap.
[Snip]
Mr. Cheney's remarks, presented in a cable interview, looked political and were received as partisan. The fact is he was wrong and right, wrong in that a subject so grave demands a well documented and thoughtful address.
[Snip]
But Mr. Cheney was, is, right in the most important, and dreadful, way. We live in the age of weapons of mass destruction, and each day more people and groups come closer to getting and deploying them. "Man has never developed a weapon he didn't eventually use," said Reagan, without cards, worrying aloud in the Oval Office.
What can be used will be used. We are a target. Something bad is going to happen—don't we all know this? Are we having another failure of imagination?
And, Ronny kept us safe, without a teleprompter, or index cards.
All Ronny had to do was, sigh, "worry aloud".
I don't know, we get the feeling, perhaps with an empty wine bottle knocked on its' side, the little bottle of her prescription nearby, the wine left in her glass still swishing around, spilling over the edge, as Little Miss Peggy throws in the CD player, the Luther Barnes classic, and sings along, substituting the word "God", with "Ronny".
The Obama's are eschewing the giant, chain supermarkets, not wanting to spend their arduously-produced money, maybe with an eye to keeping themselves in the lower tax bracket, and will be growing their own food.
No, what am I saying, there's likely a draft sitting in Michelle "Stalkin" Malkin's computer, calling this move another step to Socialism, or Communism, that President Obama will soon be dictating the elimination of pre-packaged food, with Malkin exhorting the Flying Monkeys to start up "Garden Parties" in protest.
Michelle Obama will begin digging up a patch of the South Lawn on Friday to plant a vegetable garden, the first at the White House since Eleanor Roosevelt’s victory garden in World War II. There will be no beets — the president does not like them — but arugula will make the cut.
While the organic garden will provide food for the first family’s meals and formal dinners, its most important role, Mrs. Obama said, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern.
[Snip]
Whether there would be a White House garden had become more than a matter of landscaping. The question had taken on political and environmental symbolism, with the Obamas lobbied for months by advocates who believe that growing more food locally, and organically, can lead to more healthful eating and reduce reliance on huge industrial farms that use more oil for transportation and chemicals for fertilizer.
[Snip]
The Obamas will feed their love of Mexican food with cilantro, tomatillos and hot peppers. Lettuces will include red romaine, green oak leaf, butterhead, red leaf and galactic. There will be spinach, chard, collards and black kale. For desserts, there will be a patch of berries. And herbs will include some more unusual varieties, like anise hyssop and Thai basil. A White House carpenter, Charlie Brandts, who is a beekeeper, will tend two hives for honey.
Well, President Obama has touted, frequently, about doing things different in the nation's capital, and it sure looks like they, the Obama Family, is walking the talk.
The article does state that all the Obama's will be working it, even the President will be "pulling weeds", but, let's face it, I'm sure the grounds staff there at the White House will be pitching in, as well.
I suppose, somewhere, perhaps late-night cable, the shopping channels, the "Presidential" set of gardening tools will be popping up.
The bestselling author has been pushing for the garden since at least 1993; she may see her wish come true with the current White House occupants, both of whom know a thing or two about healthful food. Then again, former President Clinton is a known Chez Panisse fan, and we saw no garden bloom at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. under his watch, other than a small one on the roof that Hillary Rodham Clinton helped set up (It also should be noted that Laura Bush, to her credit, advised the White House kitchen staff to buy organic produce whenever possible, even though no large garden grew under her watch, either).
I suppose, if the garden does take off, we can, perhaps, see cattle, and other livestock, roaming, and grazing, the White House grounds.
They'll need some free-roaming, chemical-free meat to go with those home-grown vegetables.
Then, the Right Wing Freak Show can drop the "celebrity" bromides, and start calling for the impeachment of Obama, for dragging down the country by going Farmer Dell on us.
Bush said that he doesn't know what he will do in the long term but that he will write a book that will ask people to consider what they would do if they had to protect the United States as president.
He said it will be fun to write and that ``it's going to be (about) the 12 toughest decisions I had to make.''
``I'm going to put people in my place, so when the history of this administration is written at least there's an authoritarian voice saying exactly what happened,'' Bush said.
``I want people to understand what it was like to sit in the Oval Office and have them come in and say we have captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, the alleged killer of a guy named Danny Pearl because he was simply Jewish, and we think we have information on further attacks on the United States,'' Bush said.
Bush didn't specify what the 12 hardest decisions were but said Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.
Yes, we quite sure it will be done in an "authoritarian voice".
Funny, Boot-Lickin' Mike Allen doesn't mention that malapropism in his article today, gushing, almost breathlessly, "Former President George W. Bush has already written about 30,000 words of a memoir tentatively called “Decision Points” that will cover everything from how he found faith to how he quit drinking to how he chose Karl Rove and Dick Cheney for their jobs" and "The chapters include: the terrorist attacks of 9/11; the decisions to send American troops to Afghanistan and Iraq; the response to Hurricane Katrina; his commitment to fight AIDS around the world; the formation of his stem cell research policy; and his relationships with his father, mother, siblings, and wife."
We already know, with reams-and-reams of documentation, what he did in those circumstances.
He ginned up, manufactured evidence, and lied about having to invade and occupy Iraq, and, when they started catching some of the terrorists, they launched a chain of black hole prisons, Abu Ghraib and Gitmo, and ordered torture.
It was Us versus Them.
And, that included domestically, calling anyone who challenged his decrees, traitors and appeasers.
HIS Executive Office, HIS Vice President engineered the exposure of a covert CIA Agent, for political retribution, for calling out one of his lies.
Listen, from the Allen piece, how Chris Michel, Bush’s last director of speechwriting, is already spinning it;
The former president often e-mails and calls Michel and people from the White House, including Josh Bolten, his former chief of staff, and Steve Hadley, his former national security adviser.
“He’s having a lot of fun doing it,” the aide said. “He’s reliving some great moments, and thinking about how he can bring the reader into his shoes or put them in his seat for a fascinating period in history.”
He’s having a lot of fun doing it!
He lied us into war and melted down the country, but the important thing, he's having fun with revising his legacy!
With the book, scheduled for a Fall 2010 release, Steve M., of No More Mister Nice Blog, calls attention to the Mid-Terms at that time, and The Bush Grindhouse program of "The Permanent Campaign";
This isn't going to be a memoir -- it's going to be a campaign book. The timing is based on the assumption that the GOP base will be more motivated than the Democratic base in the next round of midterms, that they'll be furious at Obama (they already are), and that (after being softened up by Laura) they'll be ready to be moved again by the story of the brush-clearin' good ol' boy whom God personally steered away from Demon Rum and directly into a fight to the death with the evildoers, as opposed to the Kenyan-born Muslim America-hating effete basketball-playing interloper. There'll be a torrent of compare-and-contrast op-eds from right-wing hacks, and a book tour will ensue, managed as carefully as Bush's campaign appearances, with Dubya packed into pre-selected crowds of worshipful loyalists.
That ought to be very interesting, the PartyofNoicans having to carry that dead weight through, yet, another election.
Now, if they really want to put a book out that captures the Bush Grindhouse, that "puts us in his shoes" and flies off the shelves, he should write about the "12 toughest lies"
You know, takes from the facts, to how the cronies of the Bush Grindhouse, the White House Iraq Group(you can probably cull a good number of whoopers from these files), the VP's office, would dissect them, start inserting the lies, spins and smears, and then, the final product.
You know, kind of along the lines of a "Before" and "After" picture.
Be sure to have, at least, one chapter on the "mushroom clouds", 'cause that has to bring up fond memories
Oh yeah, two more things.
Remember your mouthpiece's advice, about "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August", so when you say "Fall of 2010", be sure it's after Labor Day.
And, embrace the Shoe Cannon, for, more than likely, it will be accompanying you on your book tour.
Not exactly as riveting as Gabriel Garcia Marquez, in his awesome "Cien Anos de Soledad" (One Hundred Years of Solitude), where he spent about the first page-and-a-half having his protagonist describe, while standing in front of a firing squad, the first time he discovered ice, but interesting nonetheless.
It has taken almost 10 years of work, but North Korea has acquired the technology to launch a project very dear to its leader's heart - the nation's first "authentic" Italian pizzeria.
The launch of Pyongyang's first Italian restaurant meanwhile brings to fruition a ten-year effort by Kim Jong-il - a renowned gourmand and lover of western food - to create the perfect pizza and pasta in his homeland
Imagine that.
All that huffing-and-puffing by The Bush Grindhouse, the Axis of Evil bullshit, when all they had to do was woo him with "a couple of slices".
Perhaps, we need to update that old saw of "guns-and-butter", to "nukes-and-pizza".
Last year a delegation of local chefs was sent by Kim to Naples and Rome to learn the proper Italian techniques after their homegrown efforts to mimic Italian cuisine were found by Kim to contain "errors".
In the late 1990s Kim brought a team of Italian pizza chefs to North Korea to instruct his army officers how to make pizza, a luxury which is now being offered to a tiny elite able to afford such luxuries in a country that cannot feed many of its 24 million inhabitants.
Despite the food shortages high-quality Italian wheat, flour, butter and cheese are being imported to ensure the perfect pizza is created every time.
Ahh, Little Kimmy, you need to go the distance with this.
Last week, a juror in a big federal drug trial in Florida admitted to the judge that he had been doing research on the case on the Internet, directly violating the judge’s instructions and centuries of legal rules. But when the judge questioned the rest of the jury, he got an even bigger shock.
Eight other jurors had been doing the same thing. The federal judge, William J. Zloch, had no choice but to declare a mistrial, wasting eight weeks of work by federal prosecutors and defense lawyers.
[Snip]
Last week, a building products company asked an Arkansas court to overturn a $12.6 million judgment against it after a juror used Twitter to send updates during the civil trial.
And on Monday, defense lawyers in the federal corruption trial of a former Pennsylvania state senator, Vincent J. Fumo, demanded that the judge declare a mistrial after a juror posted updates on the case on Twitter and Facebook. The juror even told his readers that a “big announcement” was coming Monday. But the judge decided to let the trial continue, and the jury found Mr. Fumo guilty. His lawyers plan to use the Internet postings as grounds for appeal.
If you are jonesin', pacing the floor, not be able to sit still, awaiting the opening tip-off for March Madness, than jump on over to Crooks and Liars to get in on the action.
John Amato, C&L's big cheese, has a contest for you
Well, I don't know about you, but I certainly could enjoy a respite from the cacophony of blowhards, in Day Two of the A.I.G. conflagration, that even, if he were still around, the legendary Red Adair would find it difficult to cap.
Those on the Obama Team, and in Congress, have been caught with their pants down, and can't say "I'm shocked ... shocked to find gambling going on here ..." fast enough, or often enough, over the Always Incredibly Greedy bonuses.
We, here, offer you a wonderful oasis to get away from it all, found on Open Salon(to which, The Garlic, has staked out a little piece of turf, primarily, for cross-posting purposes).
Clarke had an incredible arc, of both pre-and-post Bebop, playing with all the cats and giants of the times, a majority of his career spent in Europe.
If you don't recognize the name, singularly, you may know him from the Kenny Clarke-Francy Boland Big Band, a monster group that was a bit under-the-radar, but, certainly, well critically-acclaimed (and they were as tight as Ellington or Basie).
When I taste madeleines, I remember sitting at the feet of the great jazz drummer, Kenny Clarke, in his modest living room in Montreuil-sous-Bois, while his wife, Daisy, plied us with those fluffy scallop shells.
As a starving young journalist, I'm sure I ate more than my fair share.
[Snip]
But the "most enjoyable moment of playing jazz for me was with Dizzy Gillespie," he said. He had known Dizzy since at least 1940 but he said that "the big band he brought to Paris was the most fantastic and stimulating band I had ever played with. It was so advanced, so new, so, ohhh."
[Snip]
Despite his own failing health at the time of our interview, Kenny was still teaching drumming at schools and conservatories in Paris and throughout Europe.
He also played "from time to time" at Le Dreher, a popular jazz venue on the Place Ch âtelet in the heart of Paris. I went to hear him perform in that cramped, smoky subterranean club, several winding sets of stairs down into the ground.
It's a good read, a small window, in a smaller time machine, of a piece of Jazz history.
Controversial radio host Don Imus announced on the air Monday morning that he has Stage 2 prostate cancer.
Colleagues said the cancer was considered treatable and that the prognosis was good.
"The day you find out is fine," Imus told his listeners on the "Imus in the Morning" show. "But the next morning when you get up, your knees are shaking. I didn't think I could make it to work."
Now, there could be numerous factors to bring about his cancer, including genes, lifestyle, diet, environment, etc., but you do have to think about it ...
"In the last six months, AIG has received substantial sums from the U.S. Treasury. I've asked Secretary Geithner to use that leverage and pursue every legal avenue to block these March Madness pools and make the American taxpayers whole," Obama said.
Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that President Obama ordered the action late yesterday, shortly after the NCAA Basketball Tournament selection process was completed.
"We expect this will net hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars," a stern Gibbs announced, citing much it taxpayer money already given A.I.G. in the previously-released TARP fund bailout.
"The President found in unconscionable that public funds would be used in this manner."
Reaction to the move by President Obama, against A.I.G fell along party lines.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi hailed the action, saying it was "unfathomable" that A.I.G would be running March Madness pools in light of the dire circumstances facing the company.
"The President talks about creating, or saving jobs. Well, he just wiped out dozens of them, the people that create the squares, run around the office selling them, collecting the money, having to monitor the tournament and update the squares ... That's not change you can believe in."
Senator Richard Shelby (R-ALA) called on the President to direct General Motors, and the UAW, to downscale their March Madness office pools, to match the March Madness office pools of non-union shops.
In a scathing press release, A.I.G. Chief Edward Liddy cited he was "extremely disappointed in the President's actions" and that there may be "legal ramifications" to the seizing of A.I.G.'s March Madness office pools, citing some of the employees "may have used their own, personal funds".
When pressed by reporters, Liddy admitted that he drew in his square, University of Connecticut, to win the tournament.
Cheney dissed President Obama, stuck to the script on his disastrous record, and pissed-and-moaned how Scooter Libby is innocent, and a really great guy.
I mean, that dropped on us in the past week (mixed in with other Torture News of The Bush Grindhouse) with, despite the evil we already know about, like the mushroom clouds The Commander Guy's keeper used to gush about all the time.
Until now, President Obama has been discouraging retrospective investigations of Bush lawbreaking by Sen. Patrick Leahy, but Hersh has opened an ugly can of worms that can't be resealed.
Stopping the operation of American death squads, as the Commander-in-Chief has just apparently done, is one thing. But now that news about them has been made public by the most respected investigative reporter of our time, it's unthinkable that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will not be called to answer for possible war crimes.
It very likely, has King asked the question, Cheney would have huffed it off as "garbage", but if King didn't cower (I suppose, he did have to think about, like, if his car brakes would work on the way home, or would his house have an "accidental" gas leak and blow up), it would have been fascinating to hear what Cheney would say.
Would he go off on a tangent, how he, and the other cronies, had the task to keep us safe, and you don't do that by playing tiddlywinks.
King could have gotten, for the record, the first public response on, answering the question if a then-sitting Vice President was running a Death Squads.
How could he let that one go by?
There he was, the glob of molten evil, sitting right in front of him, and he babbles on about Cheney having a Blackberry, and Cheney now driving himself around now, bemoaning how he doesn't get his cooked intelligence reports anymore (over-easy, sunny-lies up).
