The Garlic: 03/21/2010

Saturday, March 27, 2010

Brown Street

Sorry, Garlic fans, we were jammed up today, leaving little time to hunker down, and delve into the abundance of things, big fat juicy items, to riff on.

So, as we typically do in this kind of situation, we turn to Jazz, and hip you to some incredible piece of music.

Tonight, we go with one of our all-time favorites, Weather Report, and a monster tune, from their legendary '8:30' album;

Many of the group's earlier albums had received the highest possible (5-star) record rating in Down Beat's record reviews. However, in 1978 the group recorded the controversial and experimental Mr. Gone, which received only a 1-star review from Down Beat magazine. The group arranged for a rebuttal interview with the magazine to defend their efforts. Zawinul and Pastorius were defiant in their responses to the interviewer, Shorter more philosophical, and Erskine the most reticent of the four. Some say this particular Down Beat review was the most controversial in the magazine's history.

They would make a comeback and follow up with their last album of the 1970s. 1979's 8:30 is considered to be one of their best, combining both live and studio recordings on a double LP release. The group won the 1979 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance for 8:30. Despite the Mr. Gone controversy, the band's follow-up 8:30 tour was probably their best attended. Zawinul has been quoted as saying there were more stage hands hired for that tour than at any other time in the band's history.

Put on your dancing shoes, as this tune is will get the toes tappin', and the hips a swayin'!

Enjoy!

WEATHER REPORT brown street 1979

This Date ... On The Garlic

27 March 2008... On The Garlic

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

Bad Day At Black Rock

The Sweet Smell of Success

27 March 2007... On The Garlic

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

27 March 2006... 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

Friday, March 26, 2010

See Spot Run ... See Spot Eat A Police Car

This is, truly, bizzaro world material.

A dog, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, literally, chews the bumper off a police car!

Update: Cop Car Biting Dog Released to Owners

Winston ripped the front bumper of the vehicle loose and destroyed the tires. The officer said he was running radar on Workman Road on March 14th when the canine emerged from behind a chain-linked fence and "locked in" on the car.

[snip]

Thursday afternoon, Winston was released back to his owners in the lobby of the McKamey Animal Center. Hamilton County Judge Sherry Paty ordered Emerling take several steps to prevent a similar incident from happening again. Emerling must secure his fence and take Winston to obedience classes. The case will be passed for six months and if there are no other incidents, Winston's case will be dismissed. He must also wear a tag labeling him as a 'potentially dangerous dog.' The owners must also pay McKamey for the costs of his care.

(Here's a YouTube report on it)

So much for "That Doggie In The Window", the one with the waggly tail.

We may have to correct ourselves

Previously, on The Garlic, we advocated that bears should be drafted, and sent over to Iraq, and Afghanistan.

We can throw that plan out.

Send this dog!

Bonus Bonus Riffs

Top Ten Cloves: Ways To Tell Your Next Door Neighbor May Be Conducting Illegal Dogfights

This Date ... On The Garlic

26 March 2009... On The Garlic

What Would TouchDown Jesus Do?

26 March 2008... On The Garlic

"Oh ... THAT Conspiracy ..." Or: Being Hillary Clinton

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

Cachao ... Siempre!

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

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Assforwards, For Mark Halperin

It's a wonder that Time Magazine's Mark Halperin doesn't have, permanently, the imprint of ass on his face, for his obsequious kissing (and, often, at times, firmly planted up) the PartyofNoican's behinds.

He whines, incessantly, about Obama, and the Democrats, apparently, their existence so disrupts his reality-free airspace.

He all but inserted him himself as Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's campaign manager, offering "Things McCain Can Do to Try to Beat Obama" include attacks on his race and name", and, as we wrote, back in August 2008, he was so over-the-top that "About the only thing missing for Time Magazine's Mark Halperin, during his appearance yesterday on 'This Week with George Stephanopoulos', was having "McCain 08" tattooed on his forehead, and the Dead Campaign Express bus parked on set, behind him."

After the losing campaign, Assboy Halperin blamed the media, for being Pro-Obama, his shrieking on it moved Bob Cesca to immediately nominate him as a "Hackery Hall of Fame Inductee".

Then he writes a book about the campaign, with John Heilemann ('Game Change'), which Glenn Greenwald noted;

"This reaction has nicely illuminated what our press corps is. The book is little more than royal court gossip, churned out by the leading practitioner of painfully sycophantic, Drudge-mimicking cattiness: Time's Mark Halperin ..."

[snip]

The real value of a book like this lies in the opportunity it presents for Washington's elite class to distract themselves and everyone else from the oozing corruption, destruction, decaying and pillaging going on -- that these same Washington denizens have long enabled. With some important exceptions, that is the primary purpose of establishment journalism generally. Even better, the book lets our media and political elite -- and then the public generally -- feel good about themselves by morally condemning the trashy exploits of Rielle Hunter and the egoistic hypocrisies of the irrelevant John and Elizabeth Edwards.

As The Nation's Chris Hayes so perfectly put it: "Just when you think the news cycle can't get any stupider, Mark Halperin publishes a book."

So, naturally, Assboy Halperin gets the A-List treatment as to bookings in the Cable Newsarama

Yesterday, with Tweety, Halperin was matched up with Salon Editor, Joan Walsh (Yeah, I know, with that stirring duo, advantage Walsh, right off the bat);

Mark Halperin: Obama must still chase GOP support

Halperin disagreed. "The biggest story in politics right now is the White House calculation, do they do things substantively and politically, to try to build bipartisan cooperation, or do they do, as Joan was suggesting, learn that they can ram things through on education, on economic development." Then things got strange; from my point of view, Halperin was describing Opposite Day reality: "They could make the choice -- rewriting the choice they made at the beginning of the administration, when they went another way, they went with an all Democratic solution -- to go for Republicans, and I think they will."

[snip]

Then Halperin asked me directly: "Would you like to see [Obama] work with Republicans -- on education, financial reform, on economic development -- or not?"

"You know what, Mark?" I answered. "Actually? 'Not.' Not for the sake of just working with Republicans." I explained how Obama worked hard to craft a bipartisan stimulus bill that was smaller than many Democrats wanted, and that was low on funding for infrastructure building programs as well as support for cities and states that were shedding cops, firefighters and teachers at the same time the stimulus money was coming down. Keeping people employed is an excellent unemployment program, I noted, but thanks to the president's efforts to win Republican votes, the Obama stimulus was too small to do more than a little of that.

Now, Mark, in the case that your computer is down, and your television has been on the fritz, it's been out there, for some time, that the PartyofNoicans, openly, have stated they will be obstructionists, that they will diss anything coming from Obama, and the Democrats.

I mean that, just exhaustively, played out the past few months, with the Healthcare Reform bill.

Even that old ass you sucked for so long, Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain has said not to expect GOP cooperation on legislation for the rest of this year.

So really, step back out into reality, or get some professional help.

We don't want to see the day, where the bosses at Time have to hire someone to walk around with you, shadow you with a crowbar, to pry your face out of the PartyofNoican asses.

This Date ... On The Garlic

25 March 2009... On The Garlic

Chuck Todd Disappointed Americans Aren't Begging In Bread Lines ...Or: "Hey Brother, Can You Spare A Good Question?"

25 March 2008... On The Garlic

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

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

Weekend Smackdowns ... Cheney and Lieberman

25 March 2005... On The Garlic

Bonds Now Denies He Ever Played Major League Baseball

Avaya Faces Class Action Suit; Parties Charge Can't Fit Office In Autos

Top Ten Cloves: Things The Vatican Has Done To Make Good Friday Even Better

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Quote of the Day

With the PartyofNoicans not knowing whether to piss, or wind their watches, and the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show in full-scale, DefCon 5 feces-throwing, over the new law-of-the-land Healthcare Reform, John Cole, over on Balloon Juice gets the crown for Quote of the Day.

John swings his Louisville Slugger with this post;

We’re Gonna Ram It, Ram It, Ram It Up Your…

The bill was passed with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, as required by law and Senate rules. It was then passed in the House by majority rule and in accordance with all House Rules.

It was done so by a Democratic majority elected sixteen months ago along with a Democratic President who campaigned daily on Health Care reform, and who received the most votes in the history of American elections and won by the widest margin in decades.

The bill was crafted quite openly, after a year and a half of public debate, and the exact Senate bill that was passed in the House yesterday has been available for people to read and discuss for three entire months. This was the slowest, most open, most thoroughly discussed piece of legislation in my lifetime.

Anyone who says this was “rammed down” anyone’s throats simply does not know what they are talking about.

Way to swing the bat there, John ...

Kudos, also, to GottaLaff, over on The Political Carnival, for, similarly, telling the PartyofNoicans to STFU.

(H/T to Michael Stickings, at The Reaction)

Retro Garlic: HuffPo Still Impacting Auto Industry

I was a bit surprised by this;

PaidContent.org reports that Huffington Post has hired Focus Media to go after the rebounding Detroit automakers for potential advertising deals.

In a statement, Huffington Post chief revenue officer Greg Coleman said: "Given the size and importance of the big three domestic carmakers, hiring a designated rep to work with them is a milestone for HuffPost in our continued national sales expansion," according to PaidContent.

Hmmm ....

If we wanted to stay with the universe of The Garlic, we could say, after revolutionizing the Auto Industry, HuffPo now wants to go collect the spoils.

The Retro Part;

Breaking News! GM Cancels UAW In Favor of Adopting Huffington Post Business Model ... Celebrities, Auto Enthusiasts and Bloggers To Build Cars For Free; Huge Spike In Profits Forecast

(Barry Crimmins also riffed on it - "Financial Modeling for Fun and Profiteers")

Hey Boss, I Won't Be In Today, I've Got PHCFS

If we had a pile of money, we'd throw this out as a contest, the first verifiable usage of an excuse not to go to work, due to having "Post-Health-Care-Fatigue Syndrome."

David Corn has catapulted PHCFS into the lexicon today with this post;

Will Post-Health-Care-Fatigue Syndrome Thwart GOP Plans?

There is a palpable sense in Washington that this battle over health care reform has nearly broken the town. Legislators and their staff aides, the president and his people, reporters and pundits, political strategists and advocates -- they've all been consumed by this fight for nearly a year and they're experiencing Post-Health-Care-Fatigue Syndrome (PHCFS). After all, this long-running drama followed months of political and policy intensity: the economic collapse, the subsequent bailouts, the start of the Obama administration. Moreover, that stretch came after a titanic and tiring presidential campaign, with competitive primaries and multiple candidates on each side, that lasted for almost two years. Obama and his crew have basically been going non-stop for three years, and on some days at the White House, it really does show.

Go read the post.

We're almost going to be gridlocked, or prone, exhausted, to get anything meaningful done for the rest of the year.

And Corn pegs the PartyofNoicans the bigger loser of PHCFS.

Paging Rachael Ray

In the WTF Department;

Judge: No school prom but lesbian's right violated

JACKSON, Miss. – The prom's still off at a Mississippi high school that canceled it instead of letting a lesbian student bring her girlfriend, but a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the district's actions did violate the teen's constitutional rights.

U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson refused the American Civil Liberties Union's demand to force the Itawamba County school district to put on the April 2 prom. However, he said canceling it did violate 18-year-old Constance McMillen's rights and that he would hold a trial on the issue.

That would come too late for the prom to be salvaged at Itawamba Agricultural High School. Still, Kristy Bennett, ACLU Mississippi legal director, called the decision a victory.

[snip]

Davidson said a private prom parents are planning will serve the same purpose as a school-sponsored one. He wrote that "requiring defendants to step back into a sponsorship role at this late date would only confuse and confound the community on the issue."

So, the Judge acknowledges the young Constance McMillen's rights were violated, yet he endorses a "private prom" sponsored by the "parents".

Hmmm ...

Seems like this "private prom" was in works, before the court ruling, which, pretty much broadcasts (to the point the Judge made reference to it, so he was aware of it) that McMillen, in tux, with her date, is not going to be welcomed.

Yeah, I guess that "will serve the same purpose."

Pam Spaulding weighs in;

In the greater scheme of things, this acknowledgment that Constance's rights were violated -- is a big signal to adults in schools administering policy based on bigotry that this no longer flies.

In places where homophobia runs deep, however, adhering to the law will not make the hate go away -- it simply turns a prom into a private, discriminatory affair. McMillen is not invited to the privately organized prom. Cultural norms will change only over time as more Mississippi teens come out knowing Constance led the way with her bravery.

I realize it's getting late, the clock is ticking, but maybe they should reach out to Rachael Ray.

She knows how to throw a prom at the last minute;

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Having Rachael Ray Planning Your Prom

The only thing to worry about then, is if Michelle Stalkin Malkin will get riled up over it.

This Date ... On The Garlic

24 March 2009... On The Garlic

Obama Spams The World

24 March 2008... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Other Metrics The Clinton Campaign Will Suggest, In Order For Hillary To Gain Nomination

24 March 2006... On The Garlic

Rumsfeld On Iran: "They’re just a big, paper tiger"; Bush Passing, Perhaps, Only Half-Buck To 2008 Winner

Garlic Update of "Fixin' To Die Rag"; The Anti-Iran War Anthem?

Top Ten Cloves: Slogans and Tag Lines For Caffeine-Free Diet Sprite – If Dick Cheney Was Pitchman

24 March 2005... On The Garlic

Microsoft Signs Pope For Marketing Deal

McGwire Shifts, Softens Stand; Will Speak

Stadium Deal Falls; Jets New Home To Be In PA

Top Ten Cloves: Other People Florida Gov. Jeb Bush Wants To Take Into Protective Custody

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Top Ten Cloves: If The Teabaggers Were Present At Other Historic Moments

News Item: Health care protesters say the Tea Party has only just begun

10. Likely would have protested, and possibly interfered, with Titanic crew lowering the lifeboats

9. As first immigrants arrive at Ellis Island, Teabaggers talking about "sending them home with a bullet in their head"

8. Would have heckled and laughed at the Lindberghs, for losing their child

7. Easily dismiss the Cocoanut Grove Fire as a "bunch of liberals" and probably "frustrated taxpayers"

6. Teabaggers would call for hanging, since he had the wrong crowd with him, President Jimmy Carter, for giving away Panama Canal

5. Port Chicago Disaster would have them going apeshit, charging the Democrats with being soft of security

4. Blame for the "Storm of the Century" would have been heaped onto President Bill Clinton

3. Would have found a way to blame deaths in 1980 Heatwave, and 1995 Chicago Heatwave on ACORN

2. If standing on Dallas's grassy knoll, in 1963, would have erupted with cheers, and celebration

1. Seeing President Roosevelt in wheelchair, they would have taunted him, throwing money at him

Bonus Teabagger Riffs

Pareene: Zombie Founders Weep As Obama Signs Socialist Health Care Grandma-Death Bill

Bob Herbert: An Absence of Class

mcjoan: Republicans Now the Party of Un-governing

Think Progress: Tea Party sign threatens gun violence if health care passes

BruinKid: Rep. Louise Slaughter's (D-NY) CHILDREN get death threat

Lance Mannion: The Constitution as Holy Writ

Life Validating Old Tom Lehrer Joke

When the flock starts fleeing, if you're the Christian Scientists, you yell "Wait!";

Christian Science Church Seeks Truce on Medicine

Since the founding of their church 131 years ago, Christian Scientists have been taught to avoid doctors at all cost. It is a conviction rooted so deeply in church dogma that dozens of members have gone to jail rather than surrender an ailing person to what they see as the quackery of medical science.

But faced with dwindling membership and blows to their church’s reputation caused by its intransigence concerning medical treatment, even for children with grave illnesses, Christian Science leaders have recently found a new tolerance for medical care. For more than a year, leaders say, they have been encouraging members to see a physician if they feel it is necessary.

When we espied this article today, our thoughts went, immediately, in nano-nano seconds, to the great satirist, Tom Lehrer, his album ''That Was the Year That Was', and his tune "Send In The Marines".

On the album, Lehrer intro's the song with this;

What with President Johnson practicing escalatio on the Vietnamese and then the Dominican crisis on top of that it has been a nervous year and people have begun to feel like a Christian scientist with appendicitis. Fortunately in times of crisis just like this America always has this number one instrument of diplomacy to fall back on. Here's a song about it.

No more, apparently, will a Christian Scientist have to gut out appendicitis.

Though, I am confident, Lehrer still would have managed to come up with, and squeeze in, a Christian Scientist joke to any number of tunes.

Here, by the way, is "Send In The Marines";

Tom Lehrer - Send the Marines - with intro - widescreen - now on DVD

This Date ... On The Garlic

23 March 2009... On The Garlic

We're All In The Dance

23 March 2008... On The Garlic

CHRIST SLEPT HERE: A TALE OF EASTER

23 March 2006... On The Garlic

Catholic Church To Follow IRS Lead; Will Begin To Sell Confessions

New Bush Brouhaha – Did Lincoln Group Clear Themselves Of Wrongdoing?

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Condoleezza Rice Becoming NFL Commissioner

23 March 2005... On The Garlic

Castro Shocker - Offers Parties to Drop Case; He'll Take Schiavo and Send Elian Back

A New Twist; Queen Takes Out Living Will

Top Ten Cloves: If CEO's, World Leader's Could Wear Pajamas To Work

Monday, March 22, 2010

This Date ... On The Garlic

22 March 2009... On The Garlic

In A Nutshell ...

22 March 2008... On The Garlic

Oh No! ... Missing White House Emails ... Lawyers That Fly ...

22 March 2007... On The Garlic

Top Ten Cloves: Expected Republican and Freakshow Blowback Against John and Elizabeth Edwards

22 March 2006... On The Garlic

Reports Show Iraqis Confused; Can’t Find “Road To Democracy”; Google Maps Comes Up Empty; Scores of Thousands Say Adds “Hours” On To Their Travels

Top Ten Cloves: Issues Behind France Making Apple Open Up iTunes

22 March 2005... On The Garlic

Geraldo Rivera To Go Under For Investigative Report, Schiavo Scoop

Rumsfeld Waivers On Japanese Sub Found; Intimates Country Invaded by North Korea

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Chief Justice William Rehnquist Will Be Welcomed Back To Supreme Court

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Paging Norma Desmond

She was the greatest of them all. You wouldn't know, you're too young. In one week she received 17,000 fan letters. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Later he strangled himself with it!

Max Von Mayerling, in 'Sunset Boulevard'

There will, soon, be a generation, that will have graduated from watching movies on tiny cellphones, or downloading DVD's, onto the next great, must-have, electronic fly-trap, that will have absolutely no direct knowledge, or contact, with the incredible, glorious old movie palaces.

They will be left to peruse articles, like the one today, in 'The Boston Globe';

Now showing - Movie theaters used to be even more of a show than the movies were

During Hollywood’s golden age — the 1920s through 1940s — nearly every American city and town had its own movie palace. Whether an extravagant, neon-clad jewel or a more modest structure, the neighborhood theater was a center of community life. Designed in a wide range of flamboyant architectural styles, America’s historic theaters have entertained millions, first as vaudeville houses and later as movie theaters.

[snip]

Some of these architectural treasures have been saved, finding new life as performing-arts centers, but most are lost forever. In 2001, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the single-screen historic theater atop its Most Endangered Historic Places list.

(See more photos here)

The author of the article, photographer Stefanie Klavens, has an exhibition of his movie palace photos at the National Heritage Museum, Lexington, Massachusetts, through May.

The Next PartyofNoican War

Good Frank Rich today, as he lays out the next front for Mitch McConnell and John Boehner to lie, distort, and, otherwise, continue their gameplan of obstructionism.

Obama, Lehman and ‘The Dragon Tattoo’

Anger over the last crash and the bailout of its high rollers spans the political spectrum, from neo-New Dealers on the left to Tea Party protesters on the right. As the battle over financial regulatory reform began in earnest with Chris Dodd’s introduction of a Senate bill last week, Lewis told an interviewer, “There is a war that is about to happen over not just who regulates Wall Street but what the rules are.”

The question for the politicians at the center of this battleground is simple enough: Which side of the war are they on? The Republican leadership revealed its hand unequivocally last week. Addressing the American Bankers Association, the party’s House leader, John Boehner, promised to delay and fight any finance-reform bill. “Don’t let those little punk staffers take advantage of you, and stand up for yourselves,” Boehner instructed the poor, defenseless bankers. In late January he met the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, to make a pitch for donations. That may have been unnecessary. Chase and its employees, an A.T.M. for the Democrats in 2008, gave 73 percent of their contributions to the G.O.P. in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Republicans in the Senate will be no different. Mitch McConnell’s strategy of unmitigated obstructionism remains gospel there. Just as Charles Grassley and Olympia Snowe played the Democrats with months of fruitless negotiations on health care reform, so Richard Shelby and Bob Corker have been stalling a financial reform bill with similarly arid feints at “bipartisanship.” Corker insisted that any bill exclude regulation of extortionate “payday lenders,” who just happen to be among his biggest campaign contributors.

No doubt they will still be whining about healthcare, as they rev up the Right Wing Freak Show to go out and defend, honor and shower with platitudes, the slimeball Wall Street dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds, who pulled the greatest heist in our history, thanks, in large part, to all that PartyofNoican deregulation.

Well, it will pump up the economy, to the extent Cable News covers it, and how many empty talking heads they rope in, and the shields we'll have to purchase, from all the flying bullshit that comes with it.

Teabaggers Can't Count, Either

Following up on last night's post, where we referenced the great Teabagger protest yesterday, vociferously, and proudly, standing, showing off their prodigious ignorance, spewing their trademark hate, spewing their trademark hate, we have, yet another, instance where a small gathering gets blown up to gigantic proportions.

Over on one of the vilest, feces-throwing, Flying Monkey perches of the Right Wing Freak Show, Gateway Pundit screams the headline "100,000 RALLY IN WASHINGTON AGAINST OBAMACARE";

The rally was called just two days ago and over 100,000 made it to Washington to protest the democrat’s unconstitutional take over of the health care industry. FOX News reported:

[snip]

Thousands of Tea Partiers descended upon the Capitol in an effort to derail the march toward “Obamacare” by pressuring undecided lawmakers to vote “no” Sunday.

Hold the phone!

They quote Faux News, which only cites "thousands of Tea Partiers".

And, this is the same Faux News that has, consistently and aggressively, promoted the Teabaggers, even going the extra mile of displaying false footage to inflate the size of a Teabagger-Mommy Moose get-down.

I believe it is generally accepted that "thousands" is no way near "100,000", or Faux News would have presented it as "tens-of-thousands", or perhaps "scores-of-thousands".

Here's a view of the "100,000 RALLY IN WASHINGTON AGAINST OBAMACARE";

Even Queen of the Flying Monkeys, Michelle Stalkin' Malkin, rather surprisingly, stayed away from any exploding head counts.

Ignorant Dolts, the bunch of'em ...