Ed.Note: This was intended to be posted yesterday, however, homefront difficulties surfaced and pulled me away, squashing my writing time)
There is something fun, almost liberating, about calling the Crony General of the United States a liar.
Mukasy's a liar! ... Mukasey's a liar! ... Mukasey's a liar!
Go ahead try it, it's fun, isn't it?
Mukasy's a liar! ... Mukasey's a liar! ... Mukasey's a liar!
Okay, not exactly earth-shaking news, but certainly, a most significant revelation.
And that is was water-carrying, for the Bush Grindhouse's egregious fearmongering, over Telcom Immunity, warrants multiple poxes to be placed on the new Crony General.
I mean, let loose ... Conjure up as many as you can! ... Empty out the cupboard! ... Just keep firing pox, after pox, after pox ... No pox will be too large, or too small ... We can take shifts, but keep the poxes coming!
Last week, at a speech given at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco, the Crony General for the United States, Michael Mukasey, puckered up, and tearfully added his voice to the chorus of lies the Bush Regime has thrown against the wall, in their pursuit of absolute power.
Glenn Greenwald is all over this, big time, first noting the speech last Saturday, and on Thursday, calling for action
The Crony General, in his speech;"Officials "shouldn't need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that's the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that's the call that we didn't know about. We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went."
At that point in his answer, Mr. Mukasey grimaced, swallowed hard, and seemed to tear up as he reflected on the weaknesses in America's anti-terrorism strategy prior to the 2001 attacks. "We got three thousand. . . . We've got three thousand people who went to work that day and didn't come home to show for that," he said, struggling to maintain his composure.
Think Progress has a video of it here.
The Raw Story also covers it, and has a video of Keith Olbermann, in his "Bushed" segment (Olbermann, nightly, hightlights three of the Bush Grindhouse's numberable, and still climbing, scandals)
More from Greenwald;"This isn't just a matter of academic and historical interest about the 9/11 attacks, although it is that. One of two things almost certainly happened here, each of which is of great importance. Either Mukasey is lying about the 9/11 attacks in order to manipulate Americans into believing that FISA's warrant requirements are what prevented discovery of the 9/11 attacks and caused 3,000 American deaths -- a completely disgusting act by the Attorney General which obviously cannot be ignored. Or, Mukasey has just revealed the most damning fact yet about the Bush's administration's ability and failure to have prevented the attacks -- facts that, until now, were apparently concealed from the 9/11 Commission and the public.
Now, the Crony General is a former judge (Greenwald: "Mike Mukasey was a long-time federal judge and so I feel perfectly comfortable calling that what it is: a brazen lie.") so it's not like he's merely a Bush Grindhouse political hack ...
Wait a minute, what am I saying? ... He's the Crony General ...With the shit train that was on the tracks at the time he was offered the position, no way he didn't agree to play inside the alternate reality, and climb aboard the shit train that is the Bush Grindhouse.
Sooooo ....
He's either lying, playing politics (not to mention exploiting the horror of Sept. 11th) within the long-running Bush policy of lies and fearmongering.
Or, he let slip just how deep an REM snooze the Bush Grindhouse was in when they hijacked the office.
And this would have come before the infamous blow-off of the now infamous August 2001 PDB - "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US".
Oh man, either way, this sucks and we can't do enough, can't get them out fast enough, can't heap enough criminal and moral charges on these dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds!
So, let off the steam ....
Mukasey's a liar! ... Mukasey's a liar ... Mukasey's a liar!
Bonus Mukasey Mish-Mash
Digby/Hullabaloo: Clever Gaffes
EmptyWheel/Firedoglake: Snowball
Glenn Greenwald: The DOJ comments on the Mukasey controversy
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Pass The Word ... Mukasey Lies!
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
5 April 2006 .. On The Garlic
Look What They're Saying!
5 April 2005 .. On The Garlic
Google Ups Ante In Email Wars; Now 2-Gig, plus Cars, Chickens and Pots
Washington Monument Reopened After Trim; 500-Feet Chopped Off For Security Precautions
Bewitched Tune Writer Dies; Third of Show To Fall From Spell Cast in 1964
Top Ten Cloves: New Changes At CBS Evening News
Friday, April 04, 2008
In Your Land, There Was A King ...
In your land there was a King,
Who once said, "I have a dream",
Now there's a man who knew,
The Secret ...A verse, sung by the incredibly-voiced Esther Satterfield, on Chuck Mangione's "Land of Make Believe"
Big doings today, the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King.
Should Barack Obama prevail, win the nomination and general election, than the 41st anniversary will be huge doings, with President Obama presiding over a memorial ceremony.
That's certainly a dream worth dreaming.
We tip our cap today, with a Good Post Alert, to Barry Crimmins, who bullseyes' the day with his "The Giant Triplets"And today as EVERYONE bemoans the assassination of Martin Luther King, we remain largely silent as a mob of defenders of a hateful status quo, that's imposed and enforced by the still greatest purveyor of violence in the world today - the US government, gang-character assassinates Rev Jeremiah Wright for daring to say "Goddamn America!" America, a country where the poor continue to grow more desperate and hopeless. America, a country with over two million people in jail, including 900,000 African-Americans and a vast number of Latinos. America, a country that spends more on militarism than the next 46 highest spending countries combined.
There's more, including YouTube and links to King's "Why I am opposed to the Vietnam War" and "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" so go check out Barry Crimmins' "The Giant Triplets"
And when you finished there, Truthout has a pair of good ones up;.
Dr. Wilmer J. Leon III's, "It's Not the Dream; It's Our Nightmare"The best way to pay tribute to Dr. King and his total sacrifice is to understand what he stood for. Start by reading two speeches. First, read "I Have a Dream." Second, read "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence." Don't allow others to selectively define Dr. King for you. Read these two speeches for yourself.
Dr. King the strict constructionist referred to the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence as a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. He stated, "It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned ... Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check - a check which has come back marked insufficient funds." Again, a clear indictment of America!
It's Jeff Cohen's "Forty Years Later, (The Late) Martin Luther King Still Silenced"Last night, "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams enthused over new color footage of King that adorned its coverage of the 40th anniversary of the assassination. The report focused on the last phase of King's life. But the same old blinders were in place.
NBC showed young working class whites in Chicago taunting King. But there was no mention of how elite media had taunted King in his last year. In 1967 and 1968, mainstream media saw Reverend King a bit like they now see Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Back then, they denounced King's critical comments; today they simply silence them.
Before you click over to read these great posts, click here, and let Bill Evans be your reading soundtrack, his haunting "Peace Piece"
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
4 April 2006... On The Garlic
DeLay Resignation Clears Way For Medal of Freedom Award
Top Ten Cloves: Things To Look Forward To When Katie Couric Takes Over As CBS News Anchor
April 04 2005... On The Garlic - Special Pope Coverage
Who Gets Nod For Next Pope? Conclave Wide Open; Third World, Koppel, Buchanan, Schwarzenegger On Short List
Special Pope-Cam Gives Round-The-Clock Coverage
Frist Concurs With Vatican Diagnosis; Viewed Videotape of Papal Apartment For Hours
Top Ten Cloves: Things Overheard At The Red Sox-Yankee Opener
Thursday, April 03, 2008
No Doubt, Lou Dobbs Will Go Absolut-ely Apocalyptic
If I were in the predictions game, I might go out, on a very short limb, and say Lou Dobbs will soon be calling for a boycott of Absolut Vodka.
The Right Wing Freakshow is all atwitter today, with an ad campaign that conjures up the image of the mythical land of Aztlan, apparently found on, or tipped off to, a blog of a Latin American Editor and Journalist.In a perfect world, our loved ones wouldn’t die leaving us terribly saddened and alone. But in an “Absolut World,” wonderful things can happen, including getting the U.S.-Mexico border straight once and for all. (This print ad was taken from the current issue of Quién magazine, in Mexico City.)
Hmmm ... Think I'll have to whip up a batch of Vodka-and-Tonics tonight, kick back and watch Lou Dobbs meltdown
Ahh, screw Lou Dobbs ...
Better to fire up some Ruben Blades
Pedro Navaja. Ruben Blades & Seis del Solar
Azucar!, Laura Martinez!
The Hillary Deathwatch
Oh, those scamps over at Slate Magazine.
A most amusing series they are running - The Hillary Deathwatch.
Here's today's offering;
The Hillary Deathwatch: Strong head winds put the Clinton camp back in ironsLastly: Less money, more problems. Early estimates put Obama's March fundraising total north of $30 million. Not as hot as his $55 million February haul, but enough to dwarf Clinton's estimated $20 million for March. This despite what many consider Obama's worst news month yet. Meanwhile, Clinton's debts are reportedly as high as $9 million, not including her $5 million self-loan. Obama is already outspending her 3-to-1 in Pennsylvania—and he can afford to continue. There's a saying that candidates never drop out; they just run out of cash.
You can go here, to Deathwatch 2008: Down and on the way out, to catch up from the beginning.
(And you can click on the 2007, to review the last throes and fall of former Crony General Alberto Gonzales)
They also offer you the opportunity to send in your own prognostications
I don't know ... We might see those striking Daily Kos diarists start picketing Slate ... 
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
A Little Yoo Wop
Something this big needs some music.
It's not every day, we finally get documents released, that detail the war criminality of the Bush Grindhouse, and one of their star players, John "Torture Sounds Good To Me" Yoo.
Just in case, you're still playing the video over-and-over, in slow-motion, trying to find the snipers that Hillary Clinton had to avoid in Bosnia, or, you're scouring through the IMBD site, looking for Hillary Clinton in the credits of any one of the hundreds of Rocky films, blockbuster news dropped yesterday;
The March 2003 Yoo Memo Emerges! (not an April Fool's Joke): The Torture Memo to Top All Torture MemosSubhead: The Big Kahuna: The Torture Memo that Makes the August 2002 Memo Look Like Objective and Thoughtful Legal Analysis
Yoo's memo was, The Green Light, as Phillippe Sands writes in Vanity Fair;
"On Friday, March 13, 2003, Jay Bybee resigned from his Office as the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel, to become a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The very next day -- a Saturday, mind you -- John Yoo, merely a Deputy AAG in the Office, issued his notorious memo to the Pentagon, on behalf of OLC, which effectively gave the Pentagon the green light to disregard statutory limits on torture, cruelty and maltreatment in the treatment of detainees. This is the version of the 2002 Torture memo, which was addressed only to the CIA and the torture statute, as applied to the numerous statutes restricting the conduct of the armed forces. None of those statues, you see, limits the conduct of war if the President says so. It is, in effect, the blueprint that led to Abu Ghraib and the other abuses within the armed forces in 2003 and early 2004 ...""We talked about the methods of interrogation. “In terms of their effects,” she said, “I suspect that the individual techniques are less important than the fact that they were used over an extended period of time, and that several appear to be used together: in other words, the cumulative effect.” Detainee 063 was subjected to systematic sleep deprivation. He was shackled and cuffed; at times, head restraints were used. He was compelled to listen to threats to his family. The interrogation leveraged his sensitivities as a Muslim: he was shown pictures of scantily clad models, was touched by a female interrogator, was made to stand naked, and was forcibly shaved. He was denied the right to pray. A psychiatrist who witnessed the interrogation of Detainee 063 reported the use of dogs, intended to intimidate “by getting the dogs close to him and then having the dogs bark or act aggressively on command.” The temperature was changed, and 063 was subjected to extreme cold. Intravenous tubes were forced into his body, to provide nourishment when he would not eat or drink."
If you want to prime your scorecards, you can start adding the names of, well, The Commander Guy, and his distrustful sidekick, Vice President Darth Vader, and his home boy, David Addington.
There's lots more that the "War Criminal" placard should hang on, and there'll be a YooMemoPalooza of links below.
But we gotta get to the music, the fanfare for this occasion
And we turn to the legendary Sam Cooke, to provide us the tune.
You know it, so sing, or hum along ... Yoo Tortured Me
Dammit, Yoo tortured me
I know Yoo tortured me
Dammit You tortured me
Dishonest John Yoo, dishonest John Yoo
Dishonest John Yoo, whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Yoo beat me
I know Yoo, Yoo, Yoo beat me
Dammit Yoo, Yoo, Yoo, beat me
Dishonest John Yoo
At first I thought it was interrogation
But Yoo, it's lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To query Yoo and break Yoo alone
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Yoo beat me
I know Yoo, Yoo, Yoo beat me
Dammit Yoo, Yoo, Yoo, beat me
Dishonest John Yoo
Whoa-oh-oh, whenever I'm with Yoo
I know, I know, I know when I'm near Yoo
Mmm hmm, mmm hmm, dishonest John Yoo, dishonest John Yoo
Whoa-oh-oh, I know-oh-oh-oh
At first I thought it was interrogation
But Yoo, it's lasted so long
Now I find myself wanting
To query Yoo and break Yoo alone
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
I know, I know, I know, Yoo tortured me
I know Yoo tortured me
Whoa-oh-oh-oh, Yoo Yoo Yoo Yoo tortured me
Dishonest John Yoo
Bonus YooMemoPalooza Links
Sam Cooke - You Send Me 1958
Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo's war crimes
emptywheel/Firedoglake: Acting Counsels and Torture
Jack Balkin/Balkinization : The Legality of Evil: The Torture Memos and the Living Constitution
Christy Hardin Smith: Yoo Torture Memo: I’ll Take Addington At Cheney’s Behest For $1,000, Alex…
Space Cowboy/Shakesville: Bush: Legacy of S&M
emptywheel/Firedoglake: The “John Yoo, Let’s Pretend We’re Lawyers” Game
Paul Kiel/TPM: The Timeline Behind Yoo's Memo
I Missed Home Ec For This!
Quick, somebody get Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain some GPS for his trip down Memory Lane!
No doubt, as the the Sometime Straight Talk Express pulled into his old High School yesterday, lounging back in one of its' seats, SB John must have had a smile on his face, dreamily recalling his youthful exploits.
While SB John may have been pleasantly ensconced in the somniferous sounds of a Victrola tune long gone, he stepped off the bus into an iPod-MySpace-YouTube-World Wide Web-24/7 kind-of-life and, it looks like he's gonna have a tough time with it.
Student calls McCain out for political motivations of school appearance
Today Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) stopped at his alma mater, Episcopal High School in Virginia, to lecture on the importance of teaching and the honor code. McCain’s toughest question came from student Katelyn Halldorson, who called the senator out for the political motivations of his appearance:“I think judging by the amount of press representatives here and also by the integration of your previous political endorsements in your earlier personal narrative, we can see that this isn’t completely absent – er political motivation isn’t completely absent,” she said. “Yet we were told that this isn’t a political event. So what exactly is your purpose in being here – not that I don’t appreciate the opportunity, but I’d just like some clarification.”
“I knew I should have cut this thing off. This meeting is over,” McCain joked, before launching into a long description of his biography tour…
McCain concluded the visit by saying, “I hope that attendance here was not compulsory…I apologize if you were unwillingly in attendance here.”
According to one EHS staff member, attendance was required.
Space Cowboy, over on Shakesville, offered that "I don't remember any classmates whatsoever that were as cool as the student quoted above, Katelyn Halldorson. Maybe there's hope after all."
Wonkette gave Halldorson their "High Schooler Who Harasses John McCain Of The Day", for calling out McCain's "bullshit".
Looks like SB John, if he's going to called out and dumped on by teenagers, is going to have to adopt something else from The Commander Guy
Invitation-Only, Military audiences.
This Date ... On The Garlic
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
Don't Tell The Lincoln Group About This ...
Oh boy, I smell trouble ...
The Wired's Danger Room had this yesterday;
Military Report: Secretly 'Recruit or Hire Bloggers'A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested "clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers."
And this;
This 2006 report for the Joint Special Operations University, "Blogs and Military Information Strategy," offers a third approach -- co-opting bloggers, or even putting them on the payroll. "Hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering," write the report's co-authors, James Kinniburgh and Dororthy Denning.Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence…to pass the U.S. message. … On the other hand, such operations can have a blowback effect, as witnessed by the public reaction following revelations that the U.S. military had paid journalists to publish stories in the Iraqi press under their own names. People do not like to be deceived, and the price of being exposed is lost credibility and trust.
Don't the different branches of the Bush Grindhouse talk to each other?
An alternative strategy is to “make” a blog and blogger. The process of boosting the blog to a position of influence could take some time, however, and depending on the person running the blog, may impose a significant educational burden, in terms of cultural and linguistic training before the blog could be put online to any useful effect. Still, there are people in the military today who like to blog.
Someone ought to wake up these military people, as what they are proposing is already in place.
It's called Fox News.
Along with those like Matt Sludge, Michelle "Stalkin" Malkin, Dennis Miller, Ann Coulter and a whole bevy of other Right Wing, Freakshow bloggers and pundits who echo Fox News, simply recite the Bush Grindhouse talking points, or just make up their own stories.
And there's The Lincoln Group.
You remember them, don't you? ... The propaganda company the Pentagon hired to plant pro-USA stories in the Iraqi newspapers and media?
Is this a turf fight in-the-making?
Will the propaganda pro's have to compete against the pajama-clad, basement dwellers?
Holy Baghdad Bob, what a bubbling bruhaha, Batman!
Wait a minute!
How do we know this story, this study, isn't a planted piece?
Yikes!
They're trying to flush something out .... Or maybe, its to see how many of the previously-referenced Right Wing, Freakshow bloggers and pundits raise their hands, salivating at the opportunity to start shoveling it for the government.
Cuts down on the recruiting costs, I suppose.
Bonus Spiked Media Riffs
The Carpetbagger Report: The military plan to ‘clandestinely’ put bloggers on the payroll
Jeff Fecke/Shakesville: Working Undercover for the Man
When A Michelle Malkin Quits The O'Reilly Factor, And No One is Around To Hear it, Does It Make A Sound?
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
Rififi Director, Jules Dassin, Blacklisted, Dies at 96
I may have only paid glancing notice to this obit, based on the element of it being a blacklisted director.
But the name, "Jules Dassin" carried my full attention to it, for Dassin made, IMHO (and a a lot of others) the greatest crime caper film of all time.
Jules Dassin directed "Rififi".
Rififi is classic Film Noir, tense, pulsating and with an unbelievable nerve-shattering segment of the heist.
Jules Dassin, 96; blacklisted director was master of film noir Mr. Dassin, considered one of the leading American filmmakers of the postwar era, directed his most influential film, "Rififi," while living in France after being blacklisted as a communist in the early 1950s. "Rififi" earned him a best director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955. Turan noted that "Rififi's" influence "is hard to overstate." The critic wrote that one section of the film is "a model of tension and precision." In the sequence, Mr. Dassin spends "a full 30 minutes on the actual robbery, a completely wordless half-hour (though it makes good use of sound effects) that racks the nerves and provides a master class in breaking and entering, as well as filmmaking."
From Wikipedia; Rififi is based on a novel by Auguste le Breton; le Breton assisted in adapting it to film. However, Dassin expanded the safe-cracking job, which is negligible in the book, into a 32-minute sequence that occupies a fourth of the running time and is played entirely without dialogue or music, intensifying the suspense. So meticulous is the construction and so specific the detail of this scene that the Mexican interior ministry banned the movie because there were a series of robberies mimicking it.
From an essay, by James Hook; And yet, even in a film of such generous superlatives, something does stand out, towering over it all. For Rififi is that most hallowed of films, a film that contains a monument within. Like the Grand Hall ball in The Magnificent Ambersons or the pickpocketing sequence in Pickpocket or the crop-duster chase in North by Northwest, the virtually silent, gleefully long heist scene at the center of Rififi is a tingling, ecstatic, sustained act of brilliance—a sacrament of the cinema. For an astounding 33 minutes, Dassin removes all dialogue, hushing the soundtrack to the mere sounds of breath—the accidental note from a piano is enough to stop your heart—as we observe the criminal team at work, breaking through the floor, silencing alarms, cracking safes, checking watches, and signaling each other. It is a scene you’ve seen before (shameless imitators have been cannibalizing it for decades), but you will never see it so purely, respectfully done as here.
Rififi (1954) Roger Ebert / September 1, 2002
I highly recommend, the next film rental you make, or purchase, check out Rififi, you will not, repeat, you will not be disappointed.
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
1 April 2007... On The Garlic
Hey, Wait A Minute ... We're Not Falling For That One Again ... The Results - The Garlic Weekly Poll
1 April 2006... On The Garlic
Weekend Special - Sautéed Cloves 1 April 2006
1 April 2005... On The Garlic
Happy April Fools Day! Entire World Clicks Onto The Garlic Sets New Web/Blog Record
Top Ten Cloves: Special April Fools Headlines We'll Never See
Monday, March 31, 2008
Top Ten Cloves: Excuses Hillary Clinton Is Giving For Not Paying Her Campaign Bills
News Item: Clinton's new campaign motto: BYO
10. "Some would say, let's get everybody together, let's get unified ... The sky will open ... The light will come down. Celestial choirs will be singing ... And everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect ... And we won't have to pay any bills ... "
9. It's not the pledged bills that matter, but the popular bills that count
8. Thought that once she crossed the Commander-in-Chief Threshold, she didn't have to pay the bills anymore
7. “I know there are some people who want to shut this down and I think they are wrong,” Clinton said in an interview during a campaign stop here Saturday. “I have no intention of paying any bills until we finish what we started and until we see what happens in the next 10 contests and until we resolve Florida and Michigan ..."
6. She's been sleep deprived
5. Holding off paying bills, to put pressure on the striking Daily Kos diarists to get them to start writing about her again
4. "We tried to go to the accountants' office, but we came in in an evasive maneuver... I remember arriving under sniper fire... there was no greeting ceremony... we ran with our heads down, we basically were told to run to our cars... there was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the accountants' office, we basically were told to run to our cars, and not pay the bills
3. Checkbook was in kitchen sink thrown at Obama
2. She didn't have any plans, after Super Tuesday, to pay any bills
1. “It’s not easy, it’s not easy,” Clinton said shaking her head. Her eyes began to get watery as she finished answering the question, “I couldn’t do it if I didn’t passionately believe it was the right thing to do. This is very personal for me. I have so many ideas for paying the bills and I just don’t want to see us fall backwards. It’s about our bills, it’s about our kids’ bills,” she said softly crying, her voice breaking.
Bonus Hillary Riffs
Kenneth Vogel: Clinton didn't pay health insurance bills
Mark Murray: Clinton: Not paying the bills?
Prairie Weather: Clinton sustaining damage on two fronts
What About On Day Two?
Top Ten Cloves: If Hillary Clinton Is A Monster, The Movies That Would Be Made About Her
"Oh ... THAT Conspiracy ..."
We Bring You The Head of Alphonso Jackson
Well, he went out, a little bit off-form."Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson announced his resignation today, citing "personal and family matters." He has come under pressure from Congress for his refusal to answer questions about a federal lawsuit and whether he tried to steer land to a business friend."
For the first time in awhile, a politico, either knowing what a shit-train the Bush Grindhouse is, or, under the glare of possible criminal charges, didn't cite "wanting to spend more time with family", for their hasty departure.
That may not be a option available to Jackson in the not-too-distant future.
The "personal and family matters" are Jackson facing a grand jury, on his cronyism, so, possibly, Daddy won't be coming home some day soon.
Chalk up another one for the Bush Regime.
Meanwhile, Alfredo Garcia can stay at rest.
Bonus Links
Think Progress: Jackson Gets Evicted: White House Officials Questioned His ‘Ability To Continue To Lead The Agency’
And just last month, the now former HUD Secretary was featured in one of our Retro Garlic
Retro Garlic: Mirror, Mirror On The Wall ...
It's Now Dirt Nap Time In America
Legendary Ad Man Hal Riney died last week.
One of the more celebrated creatives that made his mark, helping to create, and coming out of, the boon of the 1960's, to usher in a new mode of operation for Ad Agencies.
Included in his highlights was creating an ad for Crocker Bank, and with it a song that, a few years later, became a #1 hit for The Carpenters;"We've Only Just Begun" is The Carpenters' signature song. Although it was recorded in early 1970 it is still much in demand as a wedding anthem. [1] Written by the songwriting team of Roger Nichols (music) and Paul Williams (lyrics), the song originally debuted in a commercial for Crocker Citizens Bank in California in 1970, with Williams providing the vocals.[1] It is ranked #405 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
Riney was also behind foisting on us Wine Coolers, through the, interpreted by some, whimsical, folksy wit and humor of fictional Bartle and Jaymes, fronting for fat wine cats Ernest and Julio Gallo.
Perhaps, more famously, Riney is the one that created the Republican's rallying cry during the resurgence of the 1980's, that being Ronald Reagan's "Morning In America" campaign ad.
Full text of the ad:It's morning again in America. Today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. With interest rates at about half the record highs of 1980, nearly 2,000 families today will buy new homes, more than at any time in the past four years. This afternoon 6,500 young men and women will be married, and with inflation at less than half of what it was just four years ago, they can look forward with confidence to the future. It's morning again in America, and under the leadership of President Reagan, our country is prouder and stronger and better. Why would we ever want to return to where we were less than four short years ago?
The Career Thumbnail - The Carpenters, Ronald Reagan and a Wine Cooler
Yeah, I suppose, if you work at it, suspend certain tenets and beliefs, you can sell anything.
Ad Age has a piece today - Hal Riney Explains His Own Best Commercials - and a video to go with it.
Hal Riney Explains His Own Best Commercials: Video Excerpts From His 2002 San Francisco Presentation
(Note: This was not professionally recorded, and, at least on my computer, the audio is not so great)
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
31 March 2005... On The Garlic
Yankee's Have More Than The Unit For Sox Opener; Tensions High As Many On Team Bringing Big Brothers For Retribution
Media Hunts For Next Med Case; Looking For High Tensions, Legal and Rights Extras
NIST Warns Of Caution In 'Springing Forward'; Cites Annual Deaths, Injuries Climbing
Top Ten Cloves: Highlights of First Lady's Trip To Afghanistan 
Sunday, March 30, 2008
It's Here! ... Baseball and The Garlic's Infamous Essay!
The smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd ...
Oh, sorry, wrong medium ...
It's Batter Up! and Play Ball!
The 2008 Major League Baseball season, technically, started last week (Red Sox and Oakland A's played in Japan), but, for all intents-and-purpose, Opening Day is today.
And regular, longtime readers of The Garlic knows what that means ... It's time for the growing-infamous-by-the-minute (we may have to put one of those counter clocks up) baseball essay;
"Could You Please Tell Me, What Is This Thing Called Baseball?"Some pitchers (remember, he can be a starter or reliever, long or short) will wind up before they pitch. Other will deliver it from a stretch. They can throw sinkers, sliders, spitters, knucklers, curves, screwballs and change-ups. Some are plain fastballers, others sneaky lowballers. A few are outright screwballs, but we digress.
A hitter can hang in there by fouling one off or fouling it upstairs. He can also foul it out of play, foul it back, chop it foul or pop it foul. Sometimes the ball just drops foul. There are times when a hitter will foul out. If a pitcher (starter or reliever, long or short) throws a spitter, you’ll see the hitter cry foul. The umpires, the men in dark suits who stand behind the bases and enforce the rules, take a lot of foul abuse from players and fans, who holler foul when they don’t agree with the umpire’s decision. Foul weather will cancel a game, putting everybody in a foul mood.
Thousands, perhaps, tens-of-thousands have had their understanding of baseball greatly enhanced by this essay!
Including Presidential Candidates;Great piece! I’d like to ask if I can record ‘Could You Please Tell Me, What Is This Thing Called Baseball?’ for my next Spoken Word project?”
Barack Obama, Senator, U.S. Senate
“I took some time off from spying on K.T. McFarland and read ‘Could You Please Tell Me, What Is This Thing Called Baseball?’ – Great stuff!”
Hillary Clinton, U.S. Senator
And World Leaders;Since I’ve been in a letter-writing mode lately, thought I’d drop you a note to say how much I enjoyed the baseball essay and how much I learned from it. Perhaps, someday, we’ll have the game over here (and with the stadium lights powered by our new nuclear energy!)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
I so much liked your story on American Baseball, I am going have copies printed and make it mandatory for passengers of our new Himalayan train service to read it (sorry I can’t let them go out on the Internet and look it up for themselves)
President Hu Jintao, China
Don't go through the 2008 Baseball Season scratching your head ... Wondering ... Feeling left out ...Don't miss out ... Get all the 411 on baseball you'll need, so you can jump in with the gang at the water cooler and sound like a pro ..
Read "Could You Please Tell Me, What Is This Thing Called Baseball?"
Bonus Shameless Pitch
Visit the Savvy Girls of Summer and order their new book "It Takes More Than Balls - The Savvy Girls' Guide To Understanding and Enjoying Baseball"
Some Slaps For His Taps
Boy, it's been Smackdown City lately.
The Garlic pointed out last week, the much-deserved putdowns of Vice President Dick Cheney and the Other Senator from Connecticut, Joe Lieberman.
Now, a most delicious upbraiding comes along, courtesy of Patricia Ward Kelly, the widow of the great Gene Kelly, via Nicole Belle over on Crooks and Liars.
The Backstory
You remember, a few weeks ago, when Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain was annointed the nominee of the Republican Party, and was to be officially dubbed it with the sword-tap-to-the-shoulder by The Commander Guy, at the Bush Grindhouse.
However, Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny Boy was running late (which may be the reason the cuisine for this grand occasion was hot dogs), leaving The Commander Guy, dangerously so, with free time on his hands.
So, Flightsuit Man starts jabbing with the assembled media and, suddenly, begins an awkward attempt at a soft-shoe tap routine.
Ha, Ha, Ha ... The President thinks he's a tap dancer ...
It was one of those things that the MSM finds so charming, cat nip to the managing editors, meaning, it got heavy play on the evening news, cable news, et all.
Subsequently, Maureen Dowd writes a column, and serves up; "The dollar’s crumpling, the recession’s thundering, the Dow’s bungee-jumping and the world’s disapproving, yet George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly, tap dancing and singing in a one-man review called “The Most Happy Fella.”
Well, Mrs. Kelly didn't find much humor in it
None, in fact.Surely it must have been a slip for Maureen Dowd to align the artistry of my late husband, Gene Kelly, with the president’s clumsy performances. To suggest that ”George Bush has turned into Gene Kelly” represents not only an implausible transformation but a considerable slight. If Gene were in a grave, he would have turned over in it.
When Gene was compared to the grace and agility of Jack Dempsey, Wayne Gretzky and Willie Mays, he was delighted. But to be linked with a clunker — particularly one he would consider inept and demoralizing — would have sent him reeling.
Graduated with a degree in economics from Pitt, Gene was not only a gifted dancer, director and choreographer, he was also a most civilized man. He spoke multiple languages; wrote poetry; studied history; understood the projections of Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes. He did the Sunday Times crossword in ink. Exceedingly articulate, Gene often conveyed more through movement than others manage with words.
Sadly, President Bush fails to communicate meaningfully with either. For George Bush to become Gene Kelly would require impossible leaps in creativity, erudition and humility.
Patricia Ward Kelly
Los Angeles, March 16, 2008
Ouch!
That one has to leave some palm prints on the ol' kisser.
Maybe the Bush Grindhouse, to help him pay for the new digs, will put out a call to Karl Rove, have him work up some kind of smear campaign to get back at Mrs. Kelly.
Bonus Taps
There was a great documentary back in the late 1970's (1979), titled "No Maps on My Taps", which Direct Cinema Limited states "This spirited film offers unique insight into jazz tap dancing as an indigenous art form. The spirit of tap in its heyday, shown in rare photographs and Hollywood film clips of the 1930s provides a backdrop for intimate portraits of three surviving "hoofers." Sandman Sims, Chuck Green and Bunny Briggs tell the story of tap as an expression of black heritage and culture. For all dance aficionados, NO MAPS ON MY TAPS is an indispensable historical record of this distinctly American art form."
Chuck Green "Caravan" - Chuck Green in a film called "No Maps On My Taps" doing a song called Caravan
Sandman Sims
PORTRAIT OF THE SANDMAN
This Date ... On The Garlic
Garlic History - On This Day
30 March 2006... On The Garlic
Politics and Sports Collide: Paperwork Mix-Up Has Feingold Censuring Bonds and MLB Investigating Bush
Top Ten Cloves: Problems Iraqi P.M. al-Jaafari Has Telling Bush To Stop Interfering In Iraqi Politics
30 March 2005... On The Garlic
Google Acquires Urchin; Sets Up For Revenue Windfall
White House Eyes Role For Annan
Top Ten Cloves: McDonald's New Hit Rap Tunes
