1965 Blackout Anniversary

Forty-four years ago, this evening, panic swept through the Northeast, beginning around 5:30PM, as what became known as the Great Blackout, began



Power Failure Snarls Northeast; 800,000 Are Caught in Subways Here; Autos Tied Up; City Gropes In Dark

The largest power failure in history blacked out nearly all of New York City, parts of nine Northeastern states and two provinces of southeastern Canada last night. Some 80,000 square miles, in which perhaps 25 million people live and work, were affected.

Imagine something of this scale happening today.

No Twitter ... No Facebook ...

And the Right Wing Freak Show conspiracy theories ...

Asked whether there was any belief that sabotage might have been involved, Bill D. Moyers, the President's Press Secretary, would say only that "all of the resources of the Government" were being invoked in the investigation.

Later Mr. Johnson was advised that utility officials were "pretty well agreed upon the belief that there is substantially no chance of sabotage." Mr. Moyers said one theory was that the failure had been in automatic frequency control equipment.

If it occurred today, obviously, it would be some grand plot of the Obama Administration, to take over the electric grids, and dictate what people can do in their own homes.

Back then, we only got some innocuous UFO reports.

And, no doubt, some Ignorant Dolt of a PartyofNoican would probably use it to seek dissing woman, and ban abortion in this country.

More on Wikipedia - Northeast Blackout of 1965

Or, The Blackout History Project

She's Stalking Donuts Now!

The fall seems to be worse that previously thought.

We offered a Top Ten Clove List on some of the things we thought Michelle "Stalkin'" Malkin would do, after being fired from The O'Reilly Factor and, darn it, we didn't have in there that she would hassle, spewing her bile in the direction of Dunkin Donuts, and their advertising star, Rachel Ray.

Actually, M-Stalkin'-M was only picking up something Charles Johnson, of Un Poco Cojones Verde sent flying out into the alternate, Your-With-Us-Or-Against-Us, universe.

Dunkin' Donuts yanks Rachael Ray ad

Some observers, including ultra-conservative Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin, were so incensed by the ad that there was even talk of a Dunkin’ Donuts boycott.

‘‘The keffiyeh, for the clueless, is the traditional scarf of Arab men that has come to symbolize murderous Palestinian jihad,’’ Malkin yowls in her syndicated column.

‘‘Popularized by Yasser Arafat and a regular adornment of Muslim terrorists appearing in beheading and hostage-taking videos, the apparel has been mainstreamed by both ignorant and not-so-ignorant fashion designers, celebrities, and left-wing icons.’’

The company at first pooh-poohed the complaints, claiming the black-and-white wrap was not a keffiyeh. But the right-wing drumbeat on the blogosphere continued and by yesterday, Dunkin’ Donuts decided it’d be easier just to yank the ad.

I guess I missed that DHS memo, the one indicating to be wary of terrorists popping out of Boston Crème donuts.

I also have to wonder, did M-Stalkin'- M set out and stalk any 12-year-olds on this one, to see if they were wearing one of the jihadi chic keffiyehs, while eating a Dunkin Donut?

I think the boycott thing would have been great.

It would have pitted these dwarf, finks, phonies and frauds against the Bush Family, along with their pals, the Bin Ladins, being that The Carlyle Group is the owner of DD.

Renaissance, over on DKOS, pointed up some of the more famous owners;

More famous Carlyle members and alums, of course, include George H.W. Bush, Reagan defense secretary Frank Carlucci, James Baker III, some of the Binladins, Colin Powell, former British P.M. John Major, and several other ex-heads-of-state (e.g. Anand Panyarachun of Thailand, Fidel Ramos of the Phillipines, and Park Tae Joon of South Korea).

Since she's so good a whipping up things, perhaps Rachel Ray will come up with a zinger.

Something like, on her "30-Minute-Meals" program, wearing her verbotten jihadi chic keffiyeh, cook up a nice spread of Middle Eastern Food, and add a little twist on it, like celebrity helpers, say, Republican John Sununu and General John Abizaid, Army, Commander U.S. Central Command.

That oughta throw them in a tizzy.

One last thing there, M-Stalkin' M ....

Next time you go to the local Fractured Prune, may all the sprinkles fall off your favorite treat!


Bonus Links

Source Watch: The Carlyle Group

Erin Kotecki Vest: Dear Dunkin' Donuts-Rachel Ray is Not a Terrorist

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

When A Michelle Malkin Quits The O'Reilly Factor, And No One is Around To Hear it, Does It Make A Sound?

Mirror, Mirror ... She's Still The Sickest! ... But The Bush Grindhouse Is Gaining Ground ... Follow-Up On The Graeme Frost Conflagration

"The Wheels On The Bus Go Round and Round ..."

(Editor's Note: Peeling off a quick one here ... To follow-up, some complications with the Aunt in the hospital, and, likely, a procedure will be needed tomorrow, to correct the problem ... At least, hopefully, that will be the case - the other option is surgery)

Quick, someone update the Rodney Dangerfield line;

"Hey ... I went to a political campaign the other day ... And a bus caravan broke out ..."

So many bodies under buses lately.

Are we, have we, slipped down to being some backwater banana republic, where the candidate that promises to have the buses run on time (with or without bodies under them) will be the winner?

I think you only need one, or two, more to have a quorum.

And the big question, will this be a new metric for the Clinton Campaign, that they threw more (or less, if you want to base it on golf) people under the bus then Obama, therefore, that makes Hillary the rightful, fit, nominee, ready to throw more people under the bus on Day One!

Question - If you have already been thrown under a bus, can you still, is it possible, to throw someone else under the bus, while you are still under it?

Following the Jeremiah "I Ought To Be In Pictures" Wright World Tour, it was the MSM meme that he threw Barack Obama under the bus.

This wasn't promulgated by the MSM with a tremendous amount of sympathy for Obama, mere reporting "just the facts".

And it wasn't until Obama's press conference yesterday, that the MSM could shift into their latest meme, the morphing of Obama, from, as you may remember, he entered this campaign with the question mark of "Is he black enough" ... That soon morphed, with a healthy push from the McCain-hugging, 3AM Bashing from Hillary Clinton, to "Is he experienced enough" ... And now, with the Obama denunciation of Wright yesterday, we have "Is he angry enough" in play.

Rather than note, and discuss, how Obama has taken a substantial problem (that is both political and personal), and not once, but twice now, handled it, took it straight on, looked it dead in the eyes, and articulated, with great eloquence, and simple language, what his position is, what his thoughts are, what he wants to do with it, what he will do with it.

Obama gave Wright back, in his press conference yesterday, and to paraphrase Wright, "You think you're going to come in here and throw my campaign under a bus ... You got another coming!"

And, from what I saw last yesterday afternoon, and evening, that wasn't the meme coming from the pundits.

It was "why did he wait so long" and "why didn't he do it sooner" and, as Margaret "Marcie" Carlson noted how he handled it, it was a "disaster".

Yeah, they're right, Obama should have handled last week ... Or., maybe two months ago ... No, back when he first decided to run for president ... Still late, he should have done it when he was in college ... No, perhaps back when he was a toddler, or, even, still, in the womb ...

And let's not forget how the MSM (and certainly the RWFS) will pile on now, with additional memes, of why did he join this church, why did he stay with this church, why did he even go to church ... Wright's rage will be painted on Obama directly, subtly, through smears and innuendo, perhaps prompting Obama to come up to the plate a third time on all of this ...

This should put a stake in the heart of "guilt by association" for Obama, but, likely it won't.

And don't you think, for a moment, that Hillary Clinton and her campaign, aren't retro-fitting those kitchen sinks to accommodate holding Obama, Wright, and a bus, or two, in them.

I'm hoping, that maybe, now with Obama's press conference yesterday, the natural order of the news business can be restored, and the week's mega story - Hannah Montana's Pin-Up Girl Photos - can finally land on the front page, and dominate cable news - and, of course, Brian Williams, on the NBC Nightly News.


Big, Roomy Bus Links

Andrew Sullivan: Obama Divorces Wright

Richard Blair: Delicate Flowers

Greg Sargent: Obama On Wright: "I Might Not Know Him As Well As I Thought"

Steven Benen: When Obama gets pissed

Errol Louis: Is Jeremiah Wright a colossal disaster for Barack Obama or a press trick?

Rush Calls Operation Chaos Pause

Wright's Right ...

If you didn't have a chance to catch the full program (and not just the press previews, endlessly played yesterday by the cable news pundits), head on over to Bill Moyers Journal, where you will see, clearly, how the Reverand Wright controversyis such an over-hyped, partisan, prejudiced bag of you-know-what.

Much of what Moyers and Rev. Wright discussed could have easily been a handful of break-out sessions, had it taken place the day of Obama's Race Speech.

Here's two passages, the full context, of what has been so hideously displayed in the video loops aimed at bashing Obama.

1. The God Damn America Brouhaha

REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT: Where governments lie, God does not lie. Where governments change, God does not change. And I'm through now. But let me leave you with one more thing. Governments fail. The government in this text comprised of Caesar, Cornelius, Pontius Pilate - the Roman government failed. The British government used to rule from East to West. The British government had a Union Jack. She colonized Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Hong Kong. Her navies ruled the seven seas all the way down to the tip of Argentina in the Falklands, but the British government failed. The Russian government failed. The Japanese government failed. The German government failed. And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed. She put them on reservations. When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed. She put them in internment prison camps. When it came to treating citizens of African descent fairly, America failed. She put them in chains. The government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton fields, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into position of hopelessness and helplessness. The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law, and then wants us to sing God bless America? No, no, no. Not God bless America; God damn America! That's in the Bible, for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating her citizen as less than human. God damn America as long as she keeps trying to act like she is God and she is supreme!

2. The Chickens Come Home To Roost Brouhaha

REVEREND WRIGHT: Yes, I did. I was trying to show how people- how the anger- and we felt anger. I felt anger. I felt hurt. I felt pain. In fact, September 11th, I was in Newark. September 11th, I was trapped in Newark 'cause when they shut down the air system I couldn't get back to Chicago. September 11th, I looked out the window and saw the second plane hit from my hotel window. Alright, I had members who lost loved ones both at the Pentagon and at the World Trade Center. So, I know the pain. And I had to preach to them Sunday. I had to preach. They came to church wanting to know where is God in this. And so, I had to show them using that Psalm 137, how the people who were carried away into slavery were very angry, very bitter, moved and in their anger from wanting revenge against the armies that had carried them away to slavery, to the babies. That Psalm ends up sayin' "Let's kill the baby-let's bash their heads against the stone." So, now you move from revolt and revulsion as to what has happened to you, to you want revenge. You move from anger with the military to taking it out on the innocents. You wanna kill babies. That's what's going on in Psalm 137. And that's exactly where we are. We want revenge. They wanted revenge. God doesn't wanna leave you there, however. God wants redemption. God wants wholeness. And that's the context, the biblical context I used to try to get people sitting again, in that sanctuary on that Sunday following 9/11, who wanted to know where is God in this? What is God saying? What is God saying? Because I want revenge.

REVEREND WRIGHT: The people of faith have moved from the hatred of armed enemies, these soldiers who captured the king, those soldiers who slaughtered his son and put his eyes out, the soldiers who sacked the city, burned the towns, burned the temples, burned the towers, and moved from the hatred for armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents, the babies, the babies . "Blessed are they who dash your baby's brains against a rock." And that my beloved is a dangerous place to be. Yet, that is where the people of faith are in 551 BC and that is where far too many people of faith are in 2001 AD. We have moved from the hatred of armed enemies to the hatred of unarmed innocents. We want revenge. We want paybacks and we don't care who gets hurt in the process.

I heard Ambassador Peck on an interview yesterday. Did anybody else see him or hear him? He was on Fox news. This is a white man and he was upsetting the Fox news commentators to no end. He pointed out. You see him John? A white man he pointed out -an Ambassador! He pointed out that what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true. America's chickens are coming home to roost! We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arawak, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism! We took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism! We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenagers and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard-working fathers. We bombed Gadafi's home and killed his child. "Blessed are they who bash your children's head against a rock!" We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy. Killed hundreds of hard-working people; mothers and fathers who left home to go that day, not knowing that they would never get back home. We bombed Hiroshima! We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye! Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school, civilians - not soldiers - people just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and Black South Africans, and now we are indignant? Because the stuff we have done overseas has now been brought back into our own front yards! America's chickens are coming home to roost! Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred and terrorism begets terrorism. A White Ambassador said that y'all not a Black Militant. Not a Reverend who preaches about racism. An Ambassador whose eyes are wide open, and who's trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised--

Peck's Bad Boy

The Ambassador Peck Rev. Wright refers to?

From Counterpunch, Oct 11, 2001;

"Why it is that all of these people hate us. It's not because of freedom. It's not because Britney Spears has a belly button or because we export hamburgers. They hate us because of things they see us doing to their part of the world that they definitely do not like."

And this;

Edward Peck, former US Ambassador to Iraq and deputy director of President Reagan's terrorism task force.
PECK: You have to understand now. Just like the colonel here, I'm a veteran of the armed forces. I have had two tours of active duty in the Army. And I don't take a back seat to anybody in terms of patriotism. This is the greatest nation that ever was and may be the greatest nation that ever will be. But that's my view, and it is not universally shared. So we have come out with 21 pages of proof that Osama bin Laden was involved. I have read that material. That's allegations. That's not proof. It's an entirely different thing. Proof of what it means to us. So, yes, he's not a nice guy, Saddam Hussein. But I think that the costs to our nation and its interests of taking him out are probably vastly exceeding anything we would gain by doing it.

You can also check out this: Meet The (White) Man Who Inspired Wright's Controversial Sermon

Hmmm ... I didn't see, in that Obama-bashing, Rev. Wright video loop, any footage of Ambassador Peck and his criticism ...Then again, as we know from the revelations last week, the Bush Grindhouse didn't put anyone on television that they didn't approve of, so, it's very likely Peck didn't make Rumsfeld's, and Torie Clarke's list, as to going out and selling the war.

And I chuckle when I think of the Right Wing Freakshow, and their flying monkeys (they're already up-in-arms over it, here and here), salivating at the prospects of a McCain-Obama final, so they can claw and bash Obama with Rev. Wright ... This from the people with Hagee, Robertson, Falwell, etc in their closets ...

Why let facts and context get in the way, when it's just as easy to make things up and smear people ... Play the Fear Card and you hook'em everytime ...

Oh, what a tangled web we weave ...

Links

Bill Moyers Journal

Transcript of Moyers-Wright Interview

Watch The Video

Good Thing Time Travel Isn't Here Yet

Announcer: [opening narration for most episodes] Two American scientists are lost in the swirling maze of past and future ages, during the first experiments on America's greatest and most secret project, the Time Tunnel. Tony Newman and Doug Phillips now tumble helplessly toward a new fantastic adventure, somewhere along the infinite corridors of time.

The Time Tunnel (ABC 1966)

Maybe she could take the Dr. Ann MacGregor role (there's a vibe for this; on the show, the part was played by Lee Meriwether, who also, around the same time, played Catwoman).

But, me thinks, after getting an earful of her toxic BS, Drs. Newman and Phillips would program the dials, and send her through the tunnel, sans a return trip, and, possibly, with an eye towards saving mankind, destroy the machine, once she's been deposited, oh, say in the cave around 500 BC.

We talk, of course, of Ann Coulter, the doyenne of the Right Wing Freakshow.

Mark Kleiman has a most amusing and funny post today;

If Ann Coulter had liveblogged the Gettysburg Address

Ahhh...now he slips it to us! "Fourscore and seven," indeed! He's bringing us back to the Marxist rant of 1776, completely ignoring the Constitution of 1787 in rhetoric as he has in practice. I'll believe we're all equal when I'm as tall as Lincoln, or as ugly. And the slaves he's so fond of may be his equals, but I'm damned if they're mine.

Highly recommend you check it out.

And, no need, necessarily, for a Retro Garlic, but we had placed Coultergeist in a different historical era;

Garlic Exclusive! 1st Draft Of Coulter’s Plagiarism Response

Well, At Least We Should Get Some New Lies ... When He Launches Against Iran

Na, Na, Na, Na
Na, Na, Na, Na
Hey Hey Hey, Goodbye!

So long, nefarious meetings in Prague

See ya later billowing Mushroom Clouds

The cross has been plunged into the heart

The fat lady is singing her aria

Exhaustive review finds no link between Saddam and al Qaida

"An exhaustive review of more than 600,000 Iraqi documents that were captured after the 2003 U.S. invasion has found no evidence that Saddam Hussein's regime had any operational links with Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.

The Pentagon-sponsored study, scheduled for release later this week, did confirm that Saddam's regime provided some support to other terrorist groups, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. officials told McClatchy. However, his security services were directed primarily against Iraqi exiles, Shiite Muslims, Kurds and others he considered enemies of his regime.

President Bush and his aides used Saddam's alleged relationship with al Qaida, along with Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction, as arguments for invading Iraq after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld claimed in September 2002 that the United States had "bulletproof" evidence of cooperation between the radical Islamist terror group and Saddam's secular dictatorship.

The new Pentagon study isn't the first to refute earlier administration contentions about Saddam and al Qaida.

A September 2006 report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that Saddam was "distrustful of al Qaida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al Qaida to provide material or operational support."

Boy, would I like to be a fly-on-the-wall, in either Cheney's office when the news hit, or at the next PNAC meeting.

But then again, this crew of thugs never let facts and the truth get in their way.

No doubt, it probably won't be an unwise bet, that the Rightwing Freak Show, and the Neocon Nitwits will continue to employ this bullshit, and equally undoubtedly, will cite articles that have already debunked the lies.

When there's a mission to accomplish, no sense wasting time with cumbersome details.

So, there's likely, at least, one faction of the Bush Grindhouse that welcomes this news - The Lincoln Group.

After the shining work ginning up the misinformation for the occupation of Iraq, they may very well be tapped to gin up some new lies and propaganda for the launch against Iran.

Likely, since Iran is building a nuclear program, they'll try to hang on to the Mushroom Cloud thing.

There'll probably be new, breaking reports of ties, just discovered, from the documents of dead or captured terrorists, that shows ties between Al Qaeda and Ahmadinejad, though they'll have to use a different European city, other than Prague, if they want to create some non-existent meetings.

And, of course, they'll brush aside this report, citing the repetitious party line of how the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was the correct course of action.

And, if a lap-it-up, MSM reporter actually presses The Commander Guy on it, you can also bet safely, The Commander Guy will reply, citing the "available intelligence" to justify his actions.

You know, the "available intelligence" they made-up and fabricated.

And there will be no shame or irony showing when he does it.


Update - Breaking News!

As I was getting ready to post this, an email arrived containing the following news;

Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?

ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.

The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.

Hmmm ...

Bonus Riffs

Emptywheel: SSCI Leaks

The Carpetbagger Report: Putting to rest the non-existent Saddam-al Qaeda link (again)

John Cole: A Comparison

Paul Kiel: Today's Must Read


Bonus Bonus Lincoln Group Riffs

White House "Embarrassed"; Bush Victory Strategy Speech Written By PR Agency; Gave President Wrong Folder; Iraqi Newspaper Prints Slams Against Murtha, Kerry, Pelosi

Rumsfeld Blames Contractor, If Media Plant Stories True, But Defends Outsourcing Program; Says "Still Gathering Facts"; If It Turns Out Positive, Will Be Adopted Into New 'National Victory Strategy' Plan

Secretary Says No Reflection That We Don't Know What's Going On; More Bush Troubles As Rice Backtracks, Corrects Comments, Blames Lincoln Group; Meant To Say Was Surprised Levees Breached, Not By Hamas Election Victory; Backs Pace That There's No Civil War

The Ignornant Congressman from Iowa

This is nothing but pure, unadulterated hateful ignorance.

Rep. Steve King smears Obama’s name says: the al-Qaida, and the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11

"I don't want to disparage anyone because of their, their race, their ethnicity, their name - whatever their religion their father, father might have been," King said just before doing just that.

"I'll just say this that when you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States -- and I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam?

"And I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the, the radical Islamists, the, the al-Qaida, and the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11….

"It does matter, his middle name does matter. It matters because they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world, it has a special meaning to them. They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle name. They will be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and because of his posture that says: Pull out of the Middle East and pull out of this conflict.

So there are implications that have to do with who he is and the position that he's taken. If he were strong on national defense and said 'I'm going to go over there and we're going to fight and we're going to win, we'll come home with a victory,' that's different. But that's not what he said. They will be dancing in the streets if he's elected president. That has a chilling aspect on how difficult it will be to ever win this Global War on Terror."

And the guy is standing by his hateful ignorance!

Unfortunately, both the Podcast offered, and the YouTube of the interview, doesn't carry forward, to see what the reaction was of the interviewer, and if they challenged this cretin on his remarks

And this is not new.

Think Progress has The Hateful And Divisive Record Of Bigot Steve King

Two thing need to happen here;

1. Nancy Pelosi, and the entire U.S. Congress should drag him to the floor and give him an unbridled censure, for his ignorance and how that reflects on the body of Congress.

2. The good people of Iowa need to reject this moron, and send him dancing out of office and into the unemployment line.

Actually, we can add a third item.

The RNC/GOP should call for a calvacade of there Rightwing Freak Show stars, and include, perhaps led by John McCain, to go on Fox News with the statement that Barack Obama is not a Muslim or terrorist, but an American citizen, and U.S. Senator, and anyone spewing such ignorance will be shunned, blackballed, their employers should fire them, their supporters should disavow them, and they be, otherwise, persona non grata, in the discussion.

Criticize Obama, if you like, but on his policies, his record, his statements, not simply based on hateful ignorance.


Bonus Links

ABC News: King announced bid for fourth term

Radio Iowa: King suggests terrorists will celebrate Obama victory

Today's Must Read: Al Giordano's "Damn you, Barack Obama" ... It Lays Out What We Are Seeing Now