The Garlic: 01/31/2010

Sunday, February 07, 2010

It's a "Who Dat" Kind of World Now!

We took it kind of easy today, being, after all, that it was Super Sunday.

Also, we had to give ourselves a "head-slap", for missing, earlier this past week, noting our 5th Anniversary of writing The Garlic, as well as hitting our 3,400th post.

Ahhh, but that be nothin'.

The big news today (aside from Wannabe Teabagger Den Mother, Sarah Palin, and her magical set of hands), is that the New Orleans Saints beat (whipped - outscoring the Colts 31-7 over the last three quarters) the Indianapolis Colts tonight, 31-17, ending a 42-year drought for the historically beleaguered franchise.

They can leave the "Aint's" behind, and shuffle up into Payton Manning's face, bellowing, joyously "Who Dat!".

As we posted earlier, to Facebook and Twitter, "A lot of Super Bowl workers getting big OT Pay tonight - Having to pack away all those "Peyton Manning Best Ever" crates ..."

Dave Weigal ReTweeted that "Haitians about to get a shipment of Colts Super Bowl Champion T-Shirts."

Manning, heh, heh, threw the game-killing interception, trailing, at the time, by only 7-points, and on a march downfield, as Tracy Porter returned the pic 75-yards for a touchdown, sealing the deal.

And, Saints QB Drew Brees was named MVP of the game.

The most clutch play ever, perhaps, in a Super Bowl, however, goes to Saints Coach Sean Payton, for making the call to go with an On-Side kick, for the Second Half kick-off, recovered by the Saints, and they just stole, from that point on, all the momentum away from the Colts.

A little partying, maybe, huh?

Barry Crimmins announced that "FEMA commences emergency airlift of crucial beer, wine and liquor supplies to French Quarter."

So with that, we will reprise something we used, just a few weeks ago, to celebrate the Saints ...

Louis Armstrong - When The Saints Go Marching In

This Date ... On The Garlic

7 February 2009... On The Garlic

Quote of the Week!

7 February 2008... On The Garlic

Mukasey Plays The Card ... So, Pelosi, We Need That Table - Now!

Maybe He'll Run As An Independent Super-delegate? ...Or: Karma Pays A Visit To Joe Lieberman

What Are They Using, Carrier Pigeons?

This Date ... On The Garlic

7 February 2007... On The Garlic

Libby Trial Update - The Scooter and Cheney Show Theme Song

7 February 2006... On The Garlic

Nagin Takes Back Apology; Sets Sights On Building Imported Chocolate City

Senate Republicans, GOP In Discord Over Bush's Possible Illegal Wiretaps

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons GOP Senators Wouldn't Put A.G. Gonzales Under Oath At Hearings

Saturday, February 06, 2010

Twisted

The one, absolute certainty of this evening, regarding the Wasilla Whiz Kid's reversed-Sally-Field-I Love-You-Tea-Party-Nation-I-Really-Love-You $100G speech, is that Peggy Noonan must have had a half-dozen, or so, orgasms, for the number of drippingly pandering times Mommy Moose gave (and encouraged) virtual blow jobs to Ronald Reagan.

The way the Teabaggers were lapping her up like happy soup, Ms. Ya'Bet'cha's could have just said the name "Ronald Reagan" for 90-minutes or so, and they still would have carried her off on their shoulders.

The way she opened the gig, the earth was rumbling at Forest Lawn, as Frank Capra had to stand up, from his grave, and applaud the way the former PartyofNoican clothes horse covered just about all there is in Americana, just short of baking an apple pie on stage, as she stuttered out how proud she was to "be an American", blew kisses to the soldiers, slammed CSPAN, let everyone know she wants to knit American Flag underwear for Scott Brown, and, of course, groped, and French kissed, for the first of many times, the old Gipper.

From there, it was pedal-to-the-metal boilerplate bashing, of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, the Democrats, liberals, and even poor Joe Biden.

And, surely, the MSM will grab onto her "Hopey-Changey" zinger.

It all their fault, all our debt, unemployment, that they are running a panty-boy National Security and Foreign policy, and all we have to do, to get our "economy soaring again", is cut spending and cut taxes.

In fact, it would be much later, when asked to describe, if, cough, cough, she was "President Palin", what her National Security and Foreign Policy would be, flags popped out of sleeves, and I swear, the Liberty University Marching Band came out on stage, playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" and she machine-gunned out;

We win, they lose

Yabetcha!

Give her credit, for knowing her rabid audience, as her jabs, slurs, misinformation and lies were often punctuated with a proverbial rim shot, and, she gave a nod to any geezer Teabaggers, with raising "high, high, high" the godfather of what used to be the Conservative Movement, Barry Goldwater (if he were in the mix today, the teabaggers would chase him down the street and beat him to death with their misspelled signs).

But the big moment, the money shot, came at the end, in a sandbagged Question and Answer period, with the money-grubbing Convention producer, Judson Phillips, who winked-and-nodded to the crowd, that the questions came from "Tea Party Nation".

If the Teabaggers didn't have flaming-arrows-in-the-eye blind loyalty, and love, of Palin, the room would have deflated, perhaps been torn apart and burned down, when, before the questions began, Mommy Moose advocated, after nearly 90-minutes of kissing the grass-roots ground they walk on, that the PartyofNoicans "embrace" the Teabaggers into their white-only tiny tent.

Come to think of it, not sure if that was an olive branch, or a fatwa, that if they don't, they will be hunted down, skinned alive and used for kindling wood, when the Teabaggers embark on that revolution Palin, earlier said, they were ready for.

Anyway, back to the money shot.

Phillips asked that, with the pending Conservative takeover of the House and Senate, in the Fall Midterms (he presented this, less as a hypothetical, and more as a given), what should be the three top points of their agenda?

Oh no, a wild card question, requiring the former abdicating half-term Governor to, yikes, think.

Onward Comrades, as Palin jumped right in, saying, first, we have to go back to our roots, and be a "God-fearing nation".

Then, it was okay not to have all the answers, you know, have ideas, vision, facts, she was giving her future government a pass on, you know, actually doing anything.

That's because she saved her best, for last.

The definitive policy of Sarah Palin;

Divine Intervention

Everybody just get down on your knees, start praying, start beseeching the Good Lord, to take away the scary monster in the closet, and make us okay again, you know, give us back OUR country.

Divine Intervention.

Oh, good grief ...

Take it away, Annie Ross

Twisted - Annie Ross

This Date ... On The Garlic

6 February 2009... On The Garlic

Rios Negroes

6 February 2008... On The Garlic

Retro Garlic: "Tell Me Reverend, How Much Is It For A Massage and Redemption?"

The Blizzard of '78 ... 30th Anniversary

Comedy Alert - The Optimistic Curmudgeon's Last Thoughts on 2007 Comedy Albums

6 February 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Reverend Ralph Verified Tim Haggard Was "Completely Heterosexual"

6 February 2006... On The Garlic

Joint Chiefs Release Other Complaint Letters

Art Schools, On-Line, Matchbook, "Learn To Draw" Courses Flooded With New Muslim Students

Top Ten Cloves: RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman Believes Hillary Clinton Is So Angry That …

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Scooter Libby Is Happy With Trial Date Set For Next January

Friday, February 05, 2010

First Rule of Harold Ford ...

You don't talk about Harold Ford

Second rule of Harold Ford, you don't talk about Harold Ford.

Now, it would really be story, if it comes out that the that the helicopter-flyin', wanna-be-carpetbagger was a member of 'Fight Club'.

That would seem to be the case, as The Smoking Gun has unearthed Ford's rider, for his nicely-paid speaking gigs.

Harold Ford Superstar - U.S. Senate wannabe's tour rider anticipates swarms of adoring fans

Like Jay-Z and Lady Gaga, Harold Ford, Jr. has a tour rider.

[snip]

According to the below contract for an appearance Wednesday at a Missouri college, Ford demands that when his limo driver picks him up, the chauffeur must be carrying a sign reading "H.F.." Presumably, if the Democrat's name was spelled out, hordes of fans/groupies would be alerted to his impending arrival and swarm him (something that has bedeviled the Jonas Brothers).

The Smoking Gun as a copy of the rider, so go check it out.

Alex Pareene, over on Gawker, had some fun with it, as well;

Presumably, if the driver just wrote "Harold Ford" (or "Ford"?), the would-be candidate would be swamped by a mob of adoring fans. So the rider stipulates that the sign read, cryptically, "H.F." (What if Howard Fineman is at the same airport? Or Hank Finkel? Or... Hitler Frankenstein?)

Bonus points to Alex, for using "Hank Finkel" in there.

Now, this isn't as extensive as the former Shadow President's rider, which demanded that Faux News be on any television within his eye range (and, we riffed on that with "Top Ten Cloves: Slogans and Tag Lines For Caffeine-Free Diet Sprite – If Dick Cheney Was Pitchman"), as the rider says, no shellfish, but nothing about caffeine-free drinks, or Faux News.

And, since Ford took to calling Senator Kirsten Gillibrand a "“parakeet", here's hoping he does run against her, and that she shits all over him.

This Date ... On The Garlic

5 February 2009... On The Garlic

Is There Some Kind of Stimulus Package Going Around Out There?

5 February 2008... On The Garlic

Which Candidate Will Be Singing This Song? ... And Give A 'Shout Out' To Colin Powell

5 February 2007... On The Garlic

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

Excuse Me Congressman, That's My Lawn Chair You're Stepping On ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll

Thursday, February 04, 2010

Too Big To Succeed

I gotta tell ya, it must have sucked to be Bill Gates today, waking up, and finding out one of his former VPs pissed all over his Coke can.

That would be Dick Brass, in an NYT Op-Ed today, writing that Microsoft, for all it's billions, is not much more then a Director's Cut of 'Heathers'.

Microsoft’s Creative Destruction

Microsoft has become a clumsy, uncompetitive innovator. Its products are lampooned, often unfairly but sometimes with good reason. Its image has never recovered from the antitrust prosecution of the 1990s. Its marketing has been inept for years; remember the 2008 ad in which Bill Gates was somehow persuaded to literally wiggle his behind at the camera?

[snip]

For example, early in my tenure, our group of very clever graphics experts invented a way to display text on screen called ClearType. It worked by using the color dots of liquid crystal displays to make type much more readable on the screen. Although we built it to help sell e-books, it gave Microsoft a huge potential advantage for every device with a screen. But it also annoyed other Microsoft groups that felt threatened by our success.

Engineers in the Windows group falsely claimed it made the display go haywire when certain colors were used. The head of Office products said it was fuzzy and gave him headaches. The vice president for pocket devices was blunter: he’d support ClearType and use it, but only if I transferred the program and the programmers to his control. As a result, even though it received much public praise, internal promotion and patents, a decade passed before a fully operational version of ClearType finally made it into Windows.

[snip]

Not everything that has gone wrong at Microsoft is due to internecine warfare. Part of the problem is a historic preference to develop (highly profitable) software without undertaking (highly risky) hardware. This made economic sense when the company was founded in 1975, but now makes it far more difficult to create tightly integrated, beautifully designed products like an iPhone or TiVo. And, yes, part of the problem has been an understandable caution in the wake of the antitrust settlement. Timing has also been poor — too soon on Web TV, too late on iPods.

Ouch!

No doubt, Stevie Ballmer was heaving a few chairs around the office today.

MG Siegler, on Tech Crunch;

Brass’ comments have caused such a fuss, that Microsoft’s vice president of corporate communications was even forced to respond on their official blog. And while obviously Microsoft’s PR team is going to downplay some of Brass’ comments, and refute others with counter examples, the post completely ignores what I see to be Brass’ main point: that Microsoft has become a place with dozens if not hundreds of civil wars going on within the company.

Rob Beschizza, at Boing Boing couldn't help but wonder "Imagine what would happen at Apple if whoever was in charge of iWork set out to suppress development of an iPad version because he didn't believe it was real computer."

Plots haven't been purchased, and headstones have not been engraved, just yet, but Sebastian Rupley, over on Gigacom has '3 Surprise Scenarios for Microsoft’s Future' that Billy and Stevie can mull over.

For there will be no rest for the company "Too Big To Succeed.

Bloomberg says "Google reportedly plans online store" and the Law Librarian Blog toots the trumpet for the soon-to-come "Google Pad, or gPad", singsonging that "I somehow think Google does projects such as a Google based tablet not to make money but to tweak their competitors. A dollar a consumer spends on Google hardware is a dollar not spent on Apple or Microsoft products."

Ah, like the movie;

But as Veronica soon learns, even death cannot stop the HEATHERS. As one Heather dies, her red scrunchee (the symbol of all power) gets passed on to the next Heather in line ...

Bonus MicroSuck Riffs

Law Google Fires Back At Ballmer - Microsoft Omitted From Searches; Google Maps Highlight Home

Breaking News! President Makes Unannounced, Surprise Visit To Redmond Tech Giant ...Bolten Continues White House Sweep; Boots Out Microsoft’s Gates and Bush Speechwriter ...Cites Need To Keep Week’s Momentum Going; Gates Long Tenure and Possible Economic Slump Prompted Action

Top Ten Cloves: Other Surprising Things Found With Microsoft’s New Windows Vista Software

This Date ... On The Garlic

4 February 2009... On The Garlic

Que Sera Sera

4 February 2008... On The Garlic

He's A Senator - And A Dessert Topping!

Top Ten Cloves: Good Things About Losing The Super Bowl and Ending Up 18-1

4 February 2006... On The Garlic

Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Tea Time, Avec Beignets

Oh boy, the Flying Monkeys of the Teabagger Uprising sure aren't gonna like this.

"This" being a tremendous Op-Ed today in that dreaded Obama-lovin', liberal media fortress, The New York Times, bringing attention to their rabble-rousing, and the parallels to the French revolt, in the 1950's.

Robert Zaretsky's "The Tea Party Last Time", will, (or should) have a lot of heads being scratched down in Nashville this weekend.

MORE than 100,000 angry citizens united in the nation’s capital to take their country back: back from the tax collector and the political and financial elites, back from bureaucrats and backroom wheelers and dealers and, more elusively and alarmingly, back from those who, well, were not like them.

These weren’t the incensed Americans who helped elect Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race and who rallied around conservative candidates in the Illinois primary on Tuesday; this scene didn’t take place at the Tea Party demonstration in Washington last year. These protesters were gathered in France a half-century ago: Last week was the 55th anniversary of the mass demonstration in Paris of the Poujadist movement, a phenomenon that bears a close resemblance to our own Tea Party. For a brief moment, the movement threatened the very foundations of the French Republic. A comparison between France then and America now may be instructive.

[snip]

During the subsequent national elections, the Poujadists bulldozed their way into town meetings, shouting down opposing candidates and threatening violence: a grim rehearsal for Tea Party tactics during last year’s health care debates. Their tactics, if not their platform — they did not, in fact, have one — worked. Poujade’s party won more than 10 percent of the votes, taking more than 50 seats in the National Assembly.

The election, though, proved to be Poujade’s swan song. He had demanded the nation’s ear, but once he and his fellow deputies had it, they had nothing substantive to say. Slogans and placards were poor preparation for governance, and the group’s rank and file soon either retreated from the political arena or joined the traditional right.

[snip]

Historical parallelism is the duct tape of my profession: we apply it to the most disparate things. Sooner or later the tape frays, revealing unique fissures that require individual attention. Perhaps this is the case with the Poujadists and the Tea Partiers. Saint-Céré is far from Wasilla, Alaska; questioning Mendès-France’s origins is not quite the same as demanding President Obama’s birth certificate; the mendacity in the claim of France’s imminent coca-colonization is of a different order from that concerning the misinformation about death panels in the United States. In both instances, however, the despair and disconnect with politics seem similarly great and real, as does the common tendency to grasp for simple solutions to complex problems.

Tea Party activists might find it infuriating ever to be compared to the nation they consider the anti-America. But French observers of our country may be forgiven if they feel a certain déjà vu when they see a movement that brings nothing to the ballot box except anger.

Sacre bleu!

PrairieWeather says "In the end, the Tea Party fizzles";

Therein lies the problem for the Tea Party. As long as they reside in a fantasy land of alien, illicit presidents, elitists, and vague socialist threats, they will continue to alienate the majority of voters.

And, Will Bunch, over on Attytood, with his "Vivent longtemps la partie de thé!;

Today in America, we're seeing this already play out to some degree even before the fall 2010 elections, thanks in part to the fulcrum shift between the 60 and now (technically, as of Feb. 11) 59 Democratic votes in the Senate. People wondered if and how Obama would "pivot" in the State of the Union and related events, and I think the pivot was trying to place more responsibility on the GOP to...do something, anything. The "Party of No" may be offering a tiny ray of hope to the Democrats by giving them a chance now to run in November against the "do-nothing 41." (Although voters can and should also ask the Dems why they did absolutely nothing during those months that they had a supermajority.)

The other interesting parallel: Who is the Tea Party/GOP deGaulle?...no doubt this mass movement would rather rally behind an authoritative leader than all the hard work of holding rallies, carrying signs, etc. But who is that person? Sarah Palin? I think she'd only run for the job if they raised the presidential salary to at least $5 mil, right?

So, what's a saggin', non-swaggin' Teabagger to do?

They would rather be boiled in oil, with Freedom Fries, than line themselves up with beret-wearing, stinky cheese-eaters.

I don't know why I'm doing this, but I think we can bail them out.

And, they can stay in-character, all Apple Pie, jingoistic, Americana.

They need to go out, rent, and have a group viewing of 'Meet John Doe', one of the lesser shown Capra classics.

Wikipedia describes it as "The film, about a "grassroots" political campaign, created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist and pursued by a wealthy businessman."

Apple doesn't fall far from the Teabag Tree, does it?

Substitute "newspaper columnist" with a feces-throwing army of Right Wing Freak Show, and NeoNitWit Flying Monkeys, and replace "wealthy businessman" with "wealthy businessmen", the likes of Dick Armey, and all the other front-companies for the PartyofNoicans, as well as Rupert Murdoch, Roger Ailes, and the pool of smegma over on Faux News.

It's like a living, breathing remake of the movie, right before our eyes.

Well ... Almost ...

They'll need someone, like this, to step up, and pull the curtain back;

Meet John Doe: speech scene

This Date ... On The Garlic

3 February 2009... On The Garlic

We Defer Today ... To Buddy Holly!

3 February 2008... On The Garlic

18 - 1

Say "Happy Anniversary" To The Garlic, and, also, Happy Blogroll Amnesty Day!

3 February 2007... On The Garlic

Our Girl Condi Gets A Theme Song - Neocons and Lovers

3 February 2006... On The Garlic

Bush Prepares "Brand New Strategy For Victory", Changing, Again, Reasons For Iraq War

Top Ten Cloves: Reasons Scooter Libby Is Happy With Trial Date Set For Next January

3 February 2005... On The Garlic

Notes from the Uber Rally ... Err, the State of the Union

Tuesday, February 02, 2010

Breaking! ... Groundhog Sees Palin's Shadow, Predicts Winter Through 2012

The first signs of something gone awry came on Punxsutawney Phil's new Twitter account;

Eek! A horrifying shadow!

Stunning his handlers, from the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, as well as tens-of-thousands of fans and spectators who make the pilgrimage to this tiny Pennsylvania berg, the infamous prognosticating groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil, saw the shadow of the abdicating, half-term former Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, which spelled out we are in for winter, extending through 2012.

"This is terrible, just terrible," offered club president Bill Deeley, adding "we've never had anything like this happen before."

Reports indicate that other club members, as well as an untold number in the crowd, closest to Punxsutawney Phil , apparently also saw, what appeared to be, the likeness of Palin.

Deeley went on to say that "I hope this isn't that O'Keefe kid, or one of his friends, trying to pull a stunt... Or that Andrew Breitbrat guy, sending someone here ..."

William Kristol, the person who first promoted last years' losing Vice Presidential candidate, thought "it would wonderful for the groundhog to see Sarah Palin."

"Maybe, the day after she gets elected President, in 2012, the sun will come out."

A spokesperson for the National Weather Service declined comment, stating, "We need to look at this more closely."

At the White House, a team of both administration personnel, as well as scientists, were abruptly dispatched to Punxsutawney, to investigate the claim further.

Peter Orszag, the President Obama's Director of the Office of Management and Budget was devastated by the news.

"We just released our budget and, now, that's all out the window."

Orszag indicated that most of the budget will have to recalculated, to take into account the loss of crops, and jobs, from the extended period of cold, snow, and ice, as well as the potential for catastrophic healthcare needs.

"We're talking about almost two-years of being in a deep freeze ... That's unprecidented, no government in our history has had to contend with something like this."

Palin, an undeclared candidate for President in 2012, and, under fire for using PAC money to make bulk purchases of her own book, said, through a spokesperson, that she welcomes the news.

"Snow and cold, youbetcha ... That be some good huntin' and dogsleddin' weather."

The Palin spokesperson added that "the governor was, no way, near Punxsutawney today", and immediately cast suspicion, blaming the prolonged winter, on White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

Bonus Punxsutawney Phil Riffs

Ker Than - Groundhog Day & Punxsutawney Phil: Facts Behind Forecast

Chris Gaylord: Groundhog Day: PETA wants to replace Punxsutawney Phil with a robot

Altoona Mirror Editorial: Hey, PETA: Don’t bother Punxsy Phil

Bonus Bonus: Punxsutawney Phil On The Garlic

Groundhog Lied; Investigation Launched

Breaking News! ... Bush Administration To Tap Punxsutawney Phil To Bolster Foreign Policy ...Gobbler's Knob Appearance Tomorrow Will Be Last For Famous Prognosticator

More Discord In The White House ...White House At Odds With Groundhog Hire, Handlers Over Cheney Shooting ...Bush Said To Be "Livid, As Famous Prognosticator 'Never Tipped Us Off"; UK's Blair Said To Be Frantic For Direction

Breaking News! Bush Sees Shadow; Another Year of Lawbreaking Predicted ...Oval Office Event Draws Thousands; Top Hat and Tails, and an Outcome "Just Like The Movie"

Breaking News! Groundhog Sees Obama's Shadow

Good "Third Man' Post

We discovered on Facebook today, a link to Edward Copeland on Film, highlighting a great post on the classic film, 'The Third Man', one of this writers' all-time favorites.

Regular Garlic readers will know this, from our periodic use of the tremendous Harry Lime (Orson Welles) riff, in the infamous "ferris wheel" scene, where Lime, who's been on the run, is tracked down by his friend, Holly Martins (Joseph Cotton), and Lime, colorfully, explains the way-of-the-world to Martins;

Don't be so gloomy...After all, it's not that awful. Remember what the fellow said... In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michaelangelo - Leonardo Da Vinci, and the Renaissance...In Switzerland, they had brotherly love. They had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce?...The cuckoo clock ... So long, Holly.

Copeland features today, a guest post from Ivan G. Shreve, Jr., a writer, and blogger from Thrilling Days of Yesteryear;

“A parrot bit me.”

Sixty years ago on this date, the Grand Prize winner of the 1949 Cannes Film Festival had its American premiere in New York City — and I mention this only because there may be one or two people confused as to why Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949) is being commemorated in 2010 as opposed to 2009. Since its introduction to American audiences, the film has become a yardstick by which classic suspense thrillers are measured, telling an engrossing tale of crime and corruption in post-war Vienna as concocted in a novella by author Graham Greene, who also wrote the screenplay for the film.

Go check out “A parrot bit me.”, it's a good read.

Also, take the time to stop by The Reaction, where Copeland has an engaging Healthcare tale.

This Date ... On The Garlic

2 February 2009... On The Garlic

Breaking News! Groundhog Sees Obama's Shadow

Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard Watching The Super Bowl With President Barack Obama

2 February 2008... On The Garlic

Breaking News! Bush Sees Shadow; Another Year of Lawbreaking Predicted ...Oval Office Event Draws Thousands; Top Hat and Tails, and an Outcome "Just Like The Movie"

Minced Garlic: New Keith Olbermann Special Comment ... Bush put telecoms ahead of citizens

2 February 2007... On The Garlic

The Garlic Celebrates 2nd Anniversary!

HuffIt! - New Huffington Post Feature ... Vote For The Garlic On HuffIt!

2 February 2006... On The Garlic

White House Besieged With Would-Be Energy Inventors As Bush Backtracks From Pledge

Top Ten Cloves: Things You Can Wear That Will Get You Arrested By The Capital Police

Monday, February 01, 2010

Thank God It's Friday

There an old Oscar Brown Jr. tune, 'Hymn To Friday' (from his 'Between Heaven and Hell' album), a calypso-beat number;

"It's the eagle fly day ... It's my day to get high day ... If you see what I say ... Thank God it's Friday ..."

It may (or may not) have become a bit clearer, why President Obama so eagerly wiped the floor with the PartyofNoicans last Friday, and, perhaps, left Baltimore singing "Hymn to Friday".

It was their GOP House Issues Conference, they extended the invitation to the President, but did not, initially, agree to have it televised.

This, from Steve M, on No More Mister Nice Blog, quoting an NYT article;

Although he and other presidents have addressed opposition caucuses before, they usually close the doors for questions, but this time the White House insisted on letting the news media record the give and take.

Hmmm .. Why would they insist? .. Let's see if we can come up with a reason ...

Ahh! ... It would dominate the news cycle for the rest of the day, perhaps two, or three?

Bingo!

It did, including MSNBC, who preempted Olbermann and Maddow on Friday night, to have them, with Tweety, rerun the event, adding their commentary.

And, what was thrown out on the Friday Night Trash Dump?

Obama's DOJ Clears Torture Memo Authors John Yoo, Jay Bybee of Professional Misconduct

The Truthout post culls from a report in Newsweek, "Holder Under Fire";

try the alleged 9/11 conspirators in New York City and his handling of the Christmas bombing plot suspect. Now the left is going to be upset: an upcoming Justice Department report from its ethics-watchdog unit, the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), clears the Bush administration lawyers who authored the “torture” memos of professional-misconduct allegations.

While the probe is sharply critical of the legal reasoning used to justify waterboarding and other “enhanced” interrogation techniques, NEWSWEEK has learned that a senior Justice official who did the final review of the report softened an earlier OPR finding. Previously, the report concluded that two key authors—Jay Bybee, now a federal appellate court judge, and John Yoo, now a law professor—violated their professional obligations as lawyers when they crafted a crucial 2002 memo approving the use of harsh tactics, say two Justice sources who asked for anonymity discussing an internal matter. But the reviewer, career veteran David Margolis, downgraded that assessment to say they showed “poor judgment,” say the sources. (Under department rules, poor judgment does not constitute professional misconduct.) The shift is significant: the original finding would have triggered a referral to state bar associations for potential disciplinary action—which, in Bybee’s case, could have led to an impeachment inquiry.

Jack Balkin cuts through the crap;

That is, the torture memos were written not to define "torture" with respect to new situations where the statute was unclear; rather they were written to allow the CIA to get around the legal ban on torture, even to the point of arguing that the torture statute would be unconstitutional if applied to persons acting under the direction of the President as commander-in-chief. The torture memos were not a hypothetical lawyer's exercise to guide future conduct. They were written in order to ensure that members of the CIA would never be prosecuted for torture.

Obama can end the recession, personally find every unemployed person a job, perform, himself, medical operations that save lives, but letting the Bush Grindhouse, and their cronies, get off scott free, from their illegal actions and war crimes, he will be wearing that failure, that "not looking in the rearview mirror" like a scarlet letter.

And it doesn't help his obtuseness, when other countries take action, that he doesn't;

International Arrest Warrants Requested

Professor Francis A. Boyle of the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign, U.S.A. has filed a Complaint with the Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague against U.S. citizens George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, Condoleezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales (the “Accused”) for their criminal policy and practice of “extraordinary rendition” perpetrated upon about 100 human beings. This term is really their euphemism for the enforced disappearance of persons and their consequent torture. This criminal policy and practice by the Accused constitute Crimes against Humanity in violation of the Rome Statute establishing the I.C.C.

This might mean that these dwarfs, finks, phonies and fraud can't summer in Europe, or attend the Cannes Film Festival, but they are free to roam this country, weigh in on current events, continue their lying, smear the President and, otherwise, enjoy their lives, unfettered with any annoyances, any accountability, for their heinous crimes.

Now, during the State of the Union Address, again in his emasculation of the PartyofNoicans, Obama, as the suddenly naked GOP and Right Wing Freak Show, pointed out, Obama did quite a bit of "Bush Bashing".

He inherited the financial shit train from The Bush Grindhouse.

The Commander Guy, and his cronies, took us from surplus, to trillions-of-dollar in debt.

Obama hasn't been shy of falling back on that, and it surely, pisses off the PartyofNoicans, because it is true, it is fact.

Also, true, and also anchored in a boatload of facts, is the illegal activities, and war crimes, of the previous administration.

Mr. President, you are becoming hypocritical, to single-out the financial mess, but, when it comes to holding your predecessor, his Shadow President, Rumsfield, the two former Crony Generals, Condi Rice, Addington, Libby, Yoo, et all. accountable for the laws they violated, you, suddenly, can only look forward, you can't turn your neck, to look in the rearview mirror.

Glenn Greenwald tackled this, earlier this month, in his "The crime of not "Looking Backward";

Every Obama-justifying excuse for Looking Forward, Not Backwards has been exposed as a sham (recall, for instance, the claim that we couldn't prosecute Bush war crimes because it would ruin bipartisanship and Republicans wouldn't support health care reform). But even if those excuses had been factually accurate, it wouldn't have mattered. There are no legitimate excuses for averting one's eyes from crimes of this magnitude and permitting them to go unexamined and unpunished. The real reason why "Looking Forward, Not Backwards" is so attractive to our political and media elites is precisely because they don't want to face what they enabled and supported. They want to continue to believe that it just involved the quick and necessary waterboarding of three detainees and a few slaps to a handful of the Worst of the Worst. Only a refusal to "Look Backwards" will enable the lies they have been telling (to the world and to themselves) to be sustained. But as Horton's story illustrates, there are real victims and genuine American criminals -- many of them -- and anyone who wants to keep that concealed and protected is, by definition, complicit in those crimes, not only the ones that were committed in the past, but similar ones that almost certainly, as a result of Not Looking Backwards, will be committed in the future.

Yeah, we have a recession, astronomical unemployment, you're on the verge of blowing Healthcare Reform, so many things, all so much piled on the plate.

Ahhh, you probably think that we're going to tell you to get off your ass, and start rounding up these creeps, hauling their "no-bid-contract" asses into court and getting it on with them, right?

Wrong.

Since your so busy, since you have so much on your plate, we have an easier solution.

Let The Hague indict them, and all you have to do is not stand in the way of extraditing over there for trial, say the United States will cooperate, and stand behind whatever decision comes from The Hague.

All in the name of justice, and the rule of law.

Heck, you'll even authorize a gang of U.S. Marshals go out and get them, and, in a rather ironic twist, you can use one of those CIA "Extraordinary Rendition" airplanes, to get them over there.

If you want to put a little lead in the "Hope You Can Believe In' pencil, you'll be able to write your own ticket, as the person that didn't let them get away with it.

Whaddya say, there, Mr. President?