Bush's John Dean?

First two days in a row? You'd think I did nothing but Refresh all day.

Ahhh. So refreshed!

Reposting:

As far as book publishing: like father, Oliver Barr McClellan; like son, Scott McClellan?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barr_McClellan

Perhaps Vintage Lady was talking about, regarding her recent visit to Mont St. Michel, the marriage of my very distant great-grandpappy Richard II (he chose the building contractor for the famous Norman coast Gothic cathedral, who also happened to be the architect) to Judith de Rennes?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Cronological_tree_normandy.svg

Speaking of Rove, where is he physically these days? Holed up in his bed and breakfast bungalow in Ingram, Texas? D.C.? Will he show up to testify before the House in response to his recent subpoena or will the executive privilege he claims still shield him?

The White House spokepeople certainly dominated the broadcasts yesterday, ol' Danny Bartlett in particular (he must have been parked in that Austin hotel room for hours, with feeds to the various major and cable networks), followed by Ari Fleischer. The White House talking point for the occasion was, without doubt, "puzzled."

Far more importantly, how does the American public rid itself of "the permanent campaign culture in D.C.," as McClellan labels it? Will McClellan's book make any difference in the future as far as the how presidents govern?

Although I have read a lot about Dean (Most highly recommended is "Breach of Faith" by Theodore White) I have only three first-hand recollections about the man.

The expression "My mind is not a tape recorder."

His wife was a strikingly lovely blond woman.

He wore glasses with really dark frames.

Speaking of Fermat's Last Theorem. Did anyone else see the PBS "Nova" episode on Andrew Wiles, the guy who solved it? He worked for many years on this one problem. When relating his experience he broke into tears at the intensity of it.

Einstein once said that the secret to solving difficult problems is simply to endlessly think about them. This is harder to do than one might think.

For one thing, traffic cops can be terribly unsympathetic to this excuse.

Good lord. John Dean is 69. I remember him looking like a young man, and yes, RD, I also remember the good looking blonde. At the time, I thought Watergate was the worst scandal that could ever be. Of course, I was young and naive. So many scandals since then.

hi all. haven't been around these parts in a very long time.

mcclellan is no dean. as joel says, he had no access. he simply said what he was told to say.

sadly, i do think it's way too late in the game for accountability.

and yes, maureen dean was/is a very striking woman, with that tight, tight bun of hair. i've learned on older age that pulling one's hair back in a tight, tight bun is kinda like a face lift! pulls the old face right up with the hair.

hope all boodlers are fine and well. i'm sure mudge is still running the show here!! :-) waving to all of you!!!

oh, and rove? loomis, rove is now a respectable political commentator on fox news, and actually has a column for -- i believe -- Time magazine. why would he ever turn on ole' W? rove would only risk uncovering all his felonious actions -- and lose his cushy jobs as a "neutral" journalist too!!

So I scroll down to see RD has posted variations of the first two on kit things I thought of.

First-Maureen Dean was not only attractive, but stunning in her fashion sense. Her hairstyle (pulled back in a pony tail, no part) and accessories (pearls)are classics.

Second-My expectations of the prez have fallen so low that I would be satisfied if he had seen the Nova episode on Wiles and recalled "some tough math thingy."

Morning boodle. Been "at work" 4 hours already and only my second cup of coffee. Will be interviewing a young woman today for a summer research assistant position. The University of Minnesota is footing the bill for our countywide "Project Read" to develop "a social marketing assessment and plan." Truth be told, she has the job, we just hope she doesn't decline it. Early warning-I will drone on and on about social marketing and early literacy promotion strategies all summer.

Part of the success (if you can call it that) of the Bush Administration was the audacity and brazenness of their Big Lie campaigns. That includes the post-9/11 manipulation of an ovine press corps. Scotty's "just following orders"/"I see nothiiiiing" defense just won't wash with me. McClellan may not have been building the showers, but he painted all the "Welcome" signs.

Have I violated Goodwin's Rule strongly enough?

>Karl Rove is a [pick one: Machiavellian, demonic, mephistophelian] political schemer who...

Pick one? Can't I pick (d), all of the above?

Welcome back nelson and a belated welcome back to a bea c.

I know it is early to go off topic (at least I am sticking with books) but I saw this article and thought, I want to be a kid again and go to this library - it sounds so fun.

http://www.thestar.com/article/432693

NELSON!!! *politely-blocking-the-door-so-you-can't-leave Grover waves*

:-)

Hi All

Instead of referring to McClellan as an "accuser" we call him something that reflects his reptilian, swamp dwelling character.
I suggest "allegator"

Hey Nelson! So good to hear from you! Have you made your move to the Southwest? I hope everything is well with you.

James Hagerty, President Eisenhower's press secretary, kept a detailed diary for a while and eventually published it.

I assume that diary-keeping would be firmly discouraged by any modern Administration, not to mention that people like press secretarys would never have time to keep them.

Hagerty's diary ran contrary to Eisenhower's public image as a hands-off, golf-playing President. If McClellan had the kind of access that Hagerty did (which is perhaps unlikely), his book might be worth reading.

nelson! How are you? I hope you are in good health... have you headed west yet?

We miss you. Glad to see you again.

Another difference between Dean and McClellan is that Dean testified under oath BEFORE the book advance check cleared.

And the Liddy-Dean feud is one of the funnier post-Watergate sideshows.

It's like class-reunion week on the boodle. Welcome back, nelson.

Diaries are subpoena-able (is that a word?) and are highly frowned upon. The net effect on the quality of memoirs has to be dismal.

Boodle lawyers, please feel free to correct me.

Hi, nelson!

We were just talking about you recently when we had a guest-blogger named "Nelson"--hope you can stick around...

[Trying again - darn voracious Moveable Type]

This Kit is so well written and insightful that all I can do is heartily agree.

I will try to avoid stirring my Watergate obsession except to agree that McClellan was neither far enough inside nor smart enough to be Bush'a Dean. Nixon's mistake was to dis his lawyer. Yello is absolutely right: one should never assume a diary of one's years in public service cannot be aired in open court.

Howdy and welcome back to Nelson, please stay a while. Also hello to a couple of lurkers who posted on the last Boodle.

"Allegator" - Boko, I love it.

Excellent neologism, Boko, allegator is a keeper!

How much do you remember about Watergate, Ivansmom? I was in college and was riveted, as much as a college student can be. Of course, it helped that my dad was a career political reporter and knew Sam Ervin, who was a couple of years behind him at Carolina.

Yes, here is a life lesson: never get crossways with your lawyer. You will NOT win.

Ah, never thought I'd feel so nostalgic for Watergate. I remember being absolutely transfixed by the hearings. Sam Ervin and his incredibly wonderful eyebrows, the intensity of it all -- and Barbara Jordan (dang, I miss her). Wow. Those were the days, man.

This group is even more nefarious. I wonder if Katherine Graham were still alive and running the WaPo, what passes for investigative reporting would actually have been effective in reining in these current characters. Nah. Certain WaPo reporters and commentators still think things are hunky-dory. Hate to be so snarky, Joel, but I still have gripes about that.

Welcome back Nelson and A Bea C (capital letters to ya). Gotta go back into occasional lurking mode again. Too much to do. But, hey, it's billable, so that has to be good, eh?

Our favourite equestrian is back! Hi nelson!

Milbank is puzzled and right on kit.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/roughsketch/?hpid=opinionsbox1

Slyness, that would be nice to see Gonzo, Myers or even Addington turn coat but I don't think it's going to happen.

I was a teenager and didn't watch much of the hearings, but I was fascinated by Watergate. Beginning when I was a little older I read everything I could find on it. The combination of pettiness, arrogance and exhibitions of raw power took my breath away. The whole thing sparked a lifelong interest in the Constitution and led circuitously to my current job.

It was a real shock to me, during W's first term, when I realized that W was actually going to be a worse president than Nixon (and I didn't know the half of it then; see paragraph 1 of the Kit, above). Nixon was at least an intelligent pragmatist whose high crimes and misdemeanors, lies etc., were devoted to the ends of his personal power and gain, as well as those of his friends. That same pragmatism allowed him to open dialogue with China, impose wage and price controls, support environmental efforts - because he did not appear to govern based on some broad ideology but on what worked best for him. W has no such excuse.

Gonzo couldn't change his spots and tell the truth, because it's pretty clear he doesn't know what truth is.

nelson! I am sure I called you up from the depths by thinking about you yesterday --- a bea c brought other names to the front of my mind. Tell us how you are and what you are doing.

A belated good morning, all.

As I implied in my recent item on the 10thcircle.com, there is a business opportunity for blooping information from a brain into into a portable black hole storage device.

No surgery needed, no scars, no marks.
Any rumors that I've already field tested this technology on Alberto Gonzalez are compltely unfounded.

bc

Yesterday *Tim had a good idea - if McClellan is so appalled and disappointed now about the decision to go to war, let him put his book profits where his mouth is, with appropriate donations to soldiers' families, veterans etc. Or perhaps if his shock and shame are more generally spread across the spectrum of Adminstration incompetence, he could set aside some for Katrina survivors, homeowners caught up in the mortgage meltdown, folks without health insurance . . . the list goes on and on.

I know a guy, and I am not making this up, who claims that Watergate was all a plot by Hillary Clinton.

The frustrating thing is, nobody has been able to point to a specific compelling illegal act by Bush and Company. Stupid, ill-conceived, and disingenuous perhaps. But these things are not against the law. You need that specific verifiable "smoking gun" like perjury or obstruction of justice.

That's just silly, RD.

Hillary has never been a Trilateralist or a Rosicrucian. Watergate was plotted by Barack Obama and the Muslim Brotherhood.

Front Page Alert, BTW...

RD, please, PLEASE, assure me that your "Hillary did it" conspiracy-acquaintance is not a co-worker. Lie to me if you have to. It will help me sleep better at night.

"Space station incommoded by broken toilet"
http://au.news.yahoo.com/080528/15/171qv.html
The Shuttle is bringing a spare motor next month. If they are anything like me this new motor won't fit and they will have to go back to the hardware store at least twice with first a digital picture of the offending part and then its part and serial numbers.
Dean, the golden hair young man of Watergate fame will turn 70 next fall. Ouch.

RD, check and see if that guy is a member of the Illuminati (mebbe greet him with a quick "Hail Eris!" and see how he reacts) and goes on long vacations during the summer but comes back without a tan (you don't get much sun going around the world in a submarine).

Oy.

bc

Don't worry SciTim. He just helps to maintain one of the servers. He is what we call "colorful."

Just don't ask me his views on Global Warming.

Criminality rather than mere incompetence?

Arbitrary abrogation of the Geneva Conventions constitutes a violation of the law of the land. Just because the President does it, does not make it legal (I seem to recall that that particular jurisprudential argument was settled some time ago). I am fairly certain that this also constitutes crimes against humanity and war crimes. These constitute impeachable offenses, and might even be counted as treasonable. The fact that these actions were undertaken with the sanction of inaccurate legal authority does not make them less criminal or more Constitutionally acceptable. They are still crimes, albeit with mitigating circumstances.

Violation of habeas corpus for American citizens (e.g., José Padilla), who was arrested on U.S. soil, on suspicion of conspiracy to commit crimes that are defined by the criminal code and thus have well-defined evidentiary standards and consequences, whether or not he acted as an agent of a foreign government or other enemy. Willful disregard of plain and fundamental Constitutional rights, such as the right to a swift and speedy trial and right to confront accusers.

Violation of the Constitutionally-protected rights of foreign nationals on U.S. soil (e.g., Moussaoui), similar to the above.

Systematic abuse of the human rights of foreign nationals held in custody -- e.g., Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, plus the other facilities that Dana Priest reported on but that remain unacknowledged. This is different from the violation of Geneva Conventions in that one issue is violation of the treaty, whereas the second issue is the conspiracy and execution of the exact methods by which the treaty was violated.

I don't expect to see any member of the Bush Administration actually held to trial for any of this, but I'd like to see something like a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" that would iron out a firm understanding of what transpired and whether it really SHOULD have been charged as a crime or triggered impeachment.

Looking back at my wording, which simulates expertise, I think I should note that while I feel strongly on these issues and believe that I have a clear understanding of the situation, I have no relevant technical legal expert knowledge. I'm just a voter with a broad vocabulary and a deep personal commitment to precision in phrasing and ethicality in behavior.

Yello, Barack was only eleven at the time and living in Hawai but I think you're right; he did it. These Muslim guys start their lives of crime pretty young, just look at that Kadr kid who was murdering US soldiers in Afghanistan at the age of 15.

sd,
Just goes to show you how clever Barry Hussein is. After my son's graduation picnic we were down to the core yellojkt elders and my father held court on how Obama is just the front man for our eventual capitulation to Islamofascists.

My aunt asked him to take her off his e-mail bulk list. He says he never forwards any of the really crazy stuff. That really worries me.

*tim - but Bush had legal coverage in the form of memos and rulings from the Attorney General. See that's why it is so frustrating. It's like AIDS in which the very cells that are supposed to protect the body become the source of the disease.

But PlainTim,
Dubya has NEVER lied about someone placing their lips on his private parts. Keep things in perspective.

Now, if someone could prove that the Attorney General validated actions of the Bush administration because of bribery or coercion, well, then you would have a smoking gun.

Yello - the problem is Clinton lied under oath. Just telling lies to the American public isn't impeachable. So you would have to get Bush or Cheney to testify under oath and then catch them in perjury. Good luck with that.

Well, I guess McClellan has not chance of a job at FOX. The home of traitors like Rove and Oliver North and enablers like Krauthaumer, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc.

Wow. A really interesting story about Stonehenge (surely everybody's favorite weird site): they've found burial/cremation remains there going back 5,000 years. (No, not even I was around back then.)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052901973.html?hpid=topnews

Greg, I suspect that's why McClellan is flogging his book so desperately: he's virtually unemployable, so has to rake in the cash while he can.

I am well aware that as far as prevarication goes, this administration has a skill that far exceeds their abilities in other areas, such as winning wars and running economies.

Bill was such an amateur, he was just begging to be caught. If he had gotten the attorney general to issue a reading that oral sex isn't REALLY sex just like waterboarding isn't REALLY torture, Bill would never have had to put up with that indignity.

But then Hillary wouldn't have had the sympathy vote in New York to become Senator and then run for President. But now I've digressed onto a whole 'nother conspiracy theory.

Is it just me, or is there a decidedly different tone of voice in the kit today? It seems that normally, JA's mindset is like that of a pre-adolescent, someone who gets a kick out of pissingoff the grownups with his antics, but who isn't necessarily malicious. Today, however, he is on a real tear. It's like he just caught the neighborhood's mean old codger doing something very embarrassing, and he is going to get his money's worth out of it.

The idea that Karl Rove would stand up before the Senate, take an oath to tell the truth and then actually tell the truth is as farfetched as string theory. I mean, there's a remote possibility that I will hit the multi state lottery or get killed by a meteorite but they are much more likely than the idea that Karl Rove will tell the truth. I don't think there's a big enough advance a publisher could offer him to do that. Even if he were threated with a loathesome disease if he didn't, he would rather lie there embraced in pestilence. Not gonna happen.

I recall Joel using this particular passionate and acerbic tone occasionally. It doesn't occur often, but I believe that it because he deliberately reserves it. His ability to use this tone judiciously is one of his attractions for me as a writer.

Hi nelson! You were around when I first ventured out of lurkerdom! I'm glad you're back. If I'm not mistaken, didn't you live in the Tidewater area of Virginia or am I confusing my boodlers?
Also, hello to a bea c- I love boodler reunions.

I remember Watergate vividly. We lived in California when Nixon was running for governor and my sainted mother thought he was the anti-Christ. She couldn't say his name without using the word "crook". I remember asking her when he became president if she would even let him in if he ever showed up on her doorstep (I had no idea we weren't very important in the scheme of things!) and she grudgingly muttered something about respecting the office of the Presidency...

Anyway, the hearings were on every day and we talked a lot about them around the dinner table. I very clearly remember Maureen Dean. What a presence.

Mudge - I know you're prepared for disappointment, but I have high hopes for "Lost" tonight. I've got some Orville Redenbacher for the kids, hubby's latest fave beer, "Magic Hat" summer ale and some Fess Parker chardonnay for me. It better be good!

Karen,
Rove's way of minimizing that risk is to never appear in front of Congress. He is already avoiding (contemptibly, I might add) a couple of subpoenas. He just ignores them the way other people ignore overdue library book notices.

Notice how the Red Bushies and their comrades never deny that the facts McLellan repeats are true - they just have different opinions of what their acts of Treason and betrayal of America "meant".

Still guilty. Still going to jail for War Crimes and Treason come Jan. 21, 2009.

Mudge, I saw that Stonehenge story earlier, wondered if anyone has measured the height of those skeletal remains. And if they've figured out how to turn Stonehenge up to 11... (My mom did visit it during summer solstice many years ago, when people were actually allowed in there - she said it was pretty loud).

Interesting that it appears to be a site for cremation and burial of the privaleged. (Note to self: When Time Travelling back to Stonehenge 5000 years ago, avoid the long pork barbecue at the concession stand. I 'spect boiled beef became popular over there for a reason.).

Back to McLellan for a minute: I suspected he had this kind of book in mind when he resigned from the WH. I was talking with a friend the other day and imagined Cheney leaving a VM message for him (clearly, McLellan isn't going to pick *that* call up when it pops up on his cell phone's caller ID), "Scotty, you'll *never* work in this town again!"

Something tells me that McLellan's soft LZ is LA, heading a Hollywood PR firm.

bc

I don't think it counts that the AG told them that they were acting legitimately. If that were sufficient, then the President could always get away with appointing any obviously biased crony, who can tell him whatever he wants to hear, without requiring explicit instructions. Granted, that is what happened, but my point is that this should not be an acceptable form of cover. Ignorance of the law is not an excuse. It can only be a mitigating circumstance, but I can't see how it permits the evasion of actual guilt.

I think Joel is resentful that McClellan is selling well, hawking a book that lacks things like historical perspective, deep research, cogent analysis, and talent. Plus grammar. Professional envy, pure and simple. Or, perhaps, a deep and righteous anger about the subverting, perverting, humiliation, and degradation of the good reputation that took more than 200 years for our nation to earn.

Yes, Scott could be Bush's John Dean, but of course, there is NO doubt in my mind Scott is telling the truth.

While I don't know about any of you commenting on this site or reading from home or work, I can tell you that I CANNOT WAIT TO GET MY HANDS ON THAT BOOK to find out "what happened" to the idealist George Bush I voted for in 2000 (notice there is NO mention of 2004).

KYj.d., I'd guess that the "idealist" W you voted for in 2000 is exactly the same guy currently holding the office. It is only his ability to self-present in the face of ever-worsening circumstances which has changed. I bet McClellan doesn't shed much light on that.

The great thing about McClellan heading a Hollywood PR firm is that he utterly lacks a discernible personality of his own. Thus, there is never any chance that he could overshadow or stain the coverage of his clients, even with the notoriety from this book.

There was no imminent threat from Iraq and the Bushies knew it. The invasion itself was a war crime. And that's just the start.
I'll be happy if Shrub and his minions are forced to stay in the United States for fear of being arrested and tried for war crimes in a civilizied jurisdiction(remember habeus corpus?).
Of course, I would prefer long prison sentences. It's too bad there's nobody in this administation with the courage, decency and integrity of Albert Speer, at least then we could look forward to a good prison book.

Fess Parker chardonnay, Kim? Does that come in a handy coonskin-lined canteen? And I don't think chardonnay pairs well with b'ar.

bc, I don't think they can measure the height of the skeleton, because they were cremated. I think their best chance at getting the height would be to look at the door jams of the huts in that village and see if the blue-faced cavepersons marked the heights of their kids as they grew up, like "Ong, age 8, Ong, age 11, Ong, age 17," and so on.

Bush isn't the first president to have a lot of trouble with a McClellan; Abe wound up having to fire his. Of course, any sentence that puts Bush and Lincoln in the same category is bound to be problematic.

Another quick comment, then I need to go off line for awhile:

Comapring GWB to Nixon strikes me as somewhat silly. I think of Nixon as arrogant and amoral and believed himself to be above the law, but he was reasonably intelligent.

I think GWB has been played like a poorly tuned violin and does not realize it.

Not sure if I could have beat Nixon in Scrabble, but I'm quite sure I could beat GWB.

bc

Mudge, that Stonehenge height thing was a 'This is Spinal Tap' reference (I thought the '11' was enough of a clue).

Maybe those stones are actually a mock up for the Stonehenge Summer Solstice Jam speaker stacks [Insert your own Rock Band joke here - that long form pun was my intent in the first place...]

bc

bc, I'm not sure you could beat Bush at Scrabble is he insists on words like "nuculer." The man's a cheater; don't play him for money.

I agree, bc. I didn't intend a personal comparison so much as to convey my deep surprise at the realization that within my lifetime we'd have a president who was all-around worse for the country than the man Robert Kennedy famously (and I believe accurately) referred to as The Dark Side of the Human Spirit. [If I'm wrong about the attribution I will cheerfully accept correction. All this is just floating around in the sieve which constitutes my brain.]

Yes, understood the "11."

If the same group that drew up impeachment charges for Clinton for having a blow-job with Monica, I don't see a problem with charges for this administration. If that wasn't out of left field, I don't know what was. No one died after the blow job, I don't think, this adminstration leaves a trail of blood. It is the attitude of the masses. Basically, it says we're okay with what went on. I agree with Tim.

And whatever happened to the guy that reported the break-in at Watergate? He was an African-American, and had a very hard time after Watergate. He lost his job, and could not get another one.

I forgot to say hello, nelson. It is good to hear from you. I hope everything is well with you and yours.

The g-girl is here, and we're getting ready to head to the Center. It has cleared up a bit, real cloudy earlier. The temps have warmed up a bit.

SciTim - clearly the AG was something of a crony. But this is why the AG requires confirmation by the Senate. Which Gonzales received. So the Senate is to blame as well. As well as those who voted for the Senators, and those who inform the voters about the people they are voting for.

I hope I'm not sounding like a Bush apologist. I'm just arguing that there is a lot of blame to go around. The system failed, and, as I have argued before, just getting rid of Bush isn't going to fix all the problems with the system.

Unfortunately there is a different between what is "wrong" and what is impeachable. Between what it heinous and obscene and what a politician can be sent to jail for. Bush and Co are shrewd. Many of them were around for Watergate and they know how to game the system. So we need to make sure that the system becomes harder to game.

RD

I had a man tell me the reason the country is in such a mess is because of Roosevelt and Johnson, the former Presidents. So I said to him, you're not a fan of the New Deal(?) or Civil Rights. Of course, this was said after he fixed the refrigerator.

Agreed, RD. But isn't it a great thing that the president has to face the people every four years, and can't serve more than eight? That limits the damage, to a certain extent.

Whew! I knew I shouldn't do it, but I did it anyway. I'm waiting for the air conditioner guy and I read a few Trail pieces and then I read some comments. DON'T GO THERE! (see they've rubbed off on me, I'm capitalizing, yikes! That's some crazy talk going on over there. I've never really read their comments before. Distressing.

I did read somewhere that Colin Powell said to someone who asked him "Why?" that he would explain it all sometime down the road, after the war was over or something. I'm not standing up for Powell here at all, just passing on that there is someone who knows what happened, who might actually tell the story. Just not right now.

Without giving anything resembling a legal opinion regarding *Tim's "crimes" argument I will note that the fact the Attorney General "cleared" the Administration's arguably illegal actions would not save them. It would just make him culpable for breaking the law as well. Assuming the acts were illegal, then the system could be used to effect to remove those involved from office or punish them. If laws were broken. Hypothetically.

"Bush isn't the first president to have a lot of trouble with a McClellan"

Hey 'Mudge, someone made the same comparison over on "Townhall." Pal o' yours? Hahahahaha

All this talk of Bush makes me want to destroy something. I'm lucky to have a dead tree that needs a good chainsawing.

That's a tree. Only a total dweeb would get excited about clearing bush.
Did I ever tell you guys about the time I was a logger, leaping from tree to tree?
Boy, those were the days, I remember one time....

I went and read The Trail despite (or because of) Kim's warning. It makes me aware that my feeble attempts at satire like my 12:46 PM comment are at least an order of magnitude too gentle to surpass the real thing.

I have some great pictures of Stonehenge, just not online. I was going to go for a Spinal Tap dancing around the stage joke, but I'm glad I left it in more capable hands.

McClellan is not John Dean, but almost as good. He has inside information on what actually happened and was close enough to the principle people involved to know their behaviors and motivations. His revelations are not necessary to hold this administration accountable -- but they help further establish culpability.

I wish this would further lower the support of this administration, but I doubt anyone left who supports Bush/Cheney actually reads. It would be wonderful if Representatives in Congress did and got some backbone to hold hearings -- also doubtful. The mainstream press, in my view, has been pathetic. They are deserving of our contempt for their inability to do good investigative journalism, inability to ask hard questions and/or follow up on inconsistencies.

What we are left with is what we should take away to change things. First, the purpose of government is not "whose got the power now, baby?" Second, the people have to DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY from their Congress or vote them from office. You don't get anything hoping it will just happen. Third, the press is suppose to help inform the public not help with pulling the wool over their eyes. I sure hope they learned their lessons from this. Fourth, we get the government we deserve when we ignore what they do, why they do it and for whom. There is a need for a real house cleaning in Washington and the replacement of Congressional leaders interested only in playing by the old rule book of Party Politics. We need people in Washington who respond to the public, care about making it work and who do the work of the people not the work of special interests for special interests and by special interests. When we just ignore all these points we get BUSH/CHENEY. We can never, never allow this kind of team in Washington again.

Boko, you were in British Columbia, as I recall...

:-)

They have bold text tags on The Trail.

Just sayin'.

Ivansmom - but who makes the assessment that a memo fron the AG is wrong? Who provides that kind of oversight, and why didn't it happen?

cassandra, your 3:10 made me laugh.

italics too.

But their comments are in reverse time order, so it's just as well.

Yes... that "idealist" folks voted for in 2000 hasn't changed one bit. I just don't understand how more than half the country recognized him for what he is and he still became president.

Talk about gaming a system.


Hey... just got this from a co-worker...

Just came across this in the comments on a news story about the scarf incident . . ."Next up, Fox news takes on Brad Paisley for being named after a pattern in a scarf worn by Rachel Ray which support murderous Palestinian jihad."

Good way to express
personal thougts
on politic.

Good way to express
personal thougts
on politic.

Here's the national geographic story on Stonehenge:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/stonehenge/alexander-text

Scotty, I was in N. Ontario hauling mostly 5-6 inch cedars for the stud trade.
In BC they cut the really big ones, in fact....

Every time Cassandra uses the BJ words I'm ROTFL.

re: "Karl Rove is a [pick one: Machiavellian, demonic, mephistophelian]"

W's nickname for him: T**d Blossom

I mentioned on another blog earlier today that Scott was Bush's John Dean. If Scott can remain focused and not rattled by the onslaught of the president's men and women, he stands a chance of being the John Dean of this president. As you know, JOhn Dean has graced various talk shows with his wisdom for several years now. It is always a pleasure to his his take on this president. He also wrote a book, "Worse than Watergate."

Scott is to be respected for his willingness to change his stance. Heaven knows that the arrogance and unflappability of this White House is unparalleled in modern history.

Boko, I was in the stud trade, too, for a while, but it's something I'd rather not talk about.

Couldn't help drag this gem out of the Milbank chat:

Dana Milbank: The bookshelf is groaning under the kiss-and-tells from former Bush staffers. Here's a partial list I found on the Internets:

George Tenet. Richard Clarke. Rand Beers. Paul O'Neill. David Kuo. John Dilulio. Eric Schaeffer. Bill Harlow. Christy Todd-Whitman. Eric Shinseki. David Iglesias. David Kay. Anthony Zinni. Lawrence Wilkerson. Matthew Dowd. Greg Thielmann. Jay Garner. John Brady Kiesling. Tom Ridge. John Brown. Charles Duelfer. Roger Cressey. Sibel Edmonds. Ken Mehlman. Karen Kwiatkowski. Joe Wilson. Thomas White. John Batiste. Paul Eaton. Tom Maertens. Coleen Rowley. Paul Bremer. John Danforth. Andrew Wilkie. Ann Wright. Mike Brown. Ken Adleman

Ivansmom - I am prepared to bow before your legal knowledge, of course. Perhaps what I have been arguing is total doo doo. Won't be the first time. But I really am confused and a little bit concerned. Where I work we are clearly instructed that if we have any confusion regarding what is legal and what is not (typically involving fiduciary matters with contractors) we should contact our government lawyers. And if they say it's okay then it is okay. If I rely on them and they are wrong - where's the legal coverage? Extrapolating upwards, if the President can not seek legal guidance from the Attorney General, then what's the point? How does a President figure out what is legal and what is not?

Shrub an "idealist"? St. Molly's having a good laugh at that one.

Wow, this boodle is almost entirely on-topic. I can't let that go on.

http://www.miamiherald.com/business/story/550193.html

Spam?

Please! Lil' Scotty is not "finally speaking the truth". He is just trying to distance himself from a radioactive White House, and hoping to redeem his reputation. The truth of the matter is that he worshiped at the Bush altar, and willingly told lies after lies after lies about Bush's real agenda. No one deceived him at the WH. That is, unless he was deaf, dumb, and blind, which he clearly is not.

Scotty is just another little sleazy opportunist and coward who is trying to distance himself from a widely discredited President. I hope his book is a total flop.

Oh, RD, by all means you should rely on the advice of your agency lawyers. If you have a good faith question as to a course of action and you act in good faith on the answer, even if their best legal opinion steers you wrong you shouldn't go to jail.

What I'm suggesting is a situation where someone in gummint office - say, in the current administration, hypothetically - wanted a legal opinion to help them get around what they perceived to be an irksome legal restriction on power they'd like to exercise. That is, they wanted a reason to not follow an existing law (including treaty, case law and statutes), or to argue that the law didn't apply to them. We in the criminal law sector call this "wanting to break the law". If they ask their lawyer to help them break the law, and he does so, then they are all liable for any consequences of getting caught. To give a common non-gummint example, this is why attorneys who give dubious (meaning illegal) advice to tax cheats get in trouble along with their clients. We now have documented evidence that members of Gonzo's staff disputed the legal go-aheads on some of the administration's actions, and communicated that disagreement, and even some of his supporters admit that the interpretations stretched existing law (at best). In fact, at least one AG authorization was later rescinded based on those disagreements. That is, this isn't a case where everyone was on the same page and they all coincidentally happened to be wrong.

You pointed out the great flaw in the system in an earlier comment. The Attorney General is the highest legal post in the administration. If the AG chooses to disregard the sound legal advice of his career (read non-political) employees and give the potentially law-breaking client what he wants, there is no effective internal check. The balance here, of course, would be Congress's investigative and subpoena power. The hope is that while wrongdoing might initially prevail, justice will out and evil will not triumph. [To use particularly purple prose]

RD-I'm not a lawyer either, but, the point brought out by lawyerly pundits, and in hearings where the AG lost so much of his memory, is that ultimately lawyers don't determine what the law is, judges do. Of course in most things, at most levels, lawyers give advice based on the facts, the law as written, and case law so getting and heeding their advice is a good course of action. Where AG AG overstepped was by giving advice on what the law said that ran totally counter to how 99.99% of the legal/judicial world saw it. He basically told the president that "you're the president, if you authorize something that automatically makes it legal." Kind of like how the instant Cheney reveals classified info it's no longer classified so he didn't reveal classified info. Makes your head spin, doesn't it?

If I'd know Ivansmom was in mid-post with a real legal opinion I wouldn't have posted my 4:36.

Spam Musubi, great dish.

Eureka! I've got it! The global rising price of food is not being caused by food shortages or fuel costs. No... it's Spam. That's right folks Spam is behind all of it. Why I'll bet Spam got Bush in the White House. Spam was the second shooter on the grassy knoll. Heck, I'd bet Spam orchestrated the events behind every major terrorist and military activity in the last ten years!

And all this just so people would be forced to eat more Spam.

I hope everyone who voted for this lying imbecile is proud of what he's turned the country into...

Off-topic: Wiki's entry on George Washington says that his commanding troops in the Whiskey Rebellion was one of two times an American president has lead troops in the field. Who was the other one? Mudge? RD?

Frostbitten, I thought you put it very well.

To expand tediously on my previous explanation, a few years back (still during W's terms) somone in the gummint decided to have patent law judges appointed by a non-cabinet level gummint official instead of his cabinet-head boss, and the appropriate shop at Justice cleared the idea. Nobody that I know of has suggested that this was with nefarious intent, and it probably seemed like an efficiency move. However, as a law professor finally noticed and recently pointed out, it is pretty clearly unconstitutional. Nobody will, or should, go to jail over this mistake of law. However, it may have a huge effect on the last few years' worth of patent cases, many of which were presided over by persons who had not actually been properly appointed to the bench. Good faith mistake of law, possible serious consequences to innocent parties, nobody gets charged with a crime.

RD, I think there is a difference between being an employee who seeks legal advice/cover from lawyers who are roughly equal in rank to you, and being the boss of the lawyers -- i.e., the President. As a civil servant, you are supposed to uphold the Constitution to the best of your abilities (I believe you took an oath to that effect). You are not expected to be a Constitutional scholar, and you have wiggle room for being ignorant. You also lack the authority to defy an instruction without expecting consequences, which you may fight later, in court. Not very convenient. I believe you may take as your cover the filing of a memo that records your opposition to an instruction, in case of later legal action. This still will not protect you if, for instance, you were ordered to execute an unarmed foreign national without due process. Unless you are under threat of death, yourself, it would still be murder, because you should know that the order is not legal. This is the long way around noting that "I was just following orders" is a defense only insofar as the orders are not obviously illegal, unethical, or immoral.

The President, on the other hand, is effectively a Constitutional scholar because he is making Constitutional law all the time. Unlike an ordinary civil servant, he is held to a higher standard of personal accountability, because he has a much greater range of discretion in his actions. If the AG tells him something is legal, but his own conscience tells him (or should tell him) that it is wrong, then he oughtn't to do it, whether or not he can get away with it. Unlike you, the Pres. has access to the nation's top 9 Constitutional authorities in case he really needs the advice.

Maybe most importantly -- the President never should be in the business of skirting legalities. "Play the game, not the rules." Obviously, limits get tested from time to time, but it shouldn't be a matter of policy to see how far they can be pushed, because you might step over the line. The Bush Administration obviously has chosen many fronts on which to test the limits on the legitimacy of Presidential authority, which means they need to expect that they've gone too far somewhere and need to be reined in -- possibly by criminal trial. In the case of torture and treaty obligations, they have elected to employ radical new definitions of words whose meaning is generally held to be unambiguous. You don't get to evade a charge of murder because you tell the judge that "murder" is a word you interpret to mean "to defeat severely in a game of tennis" rather than "the commission of homicide." It won't wash. The act itself remains obviously wrong, regardless of the way in which you might choose to distort language.

I don't mean you, of course, I mean the generic "you". But "you" understand that, right?

Ivansmom thanks, very much, for that clarification.

So it comes down to intent. If Bush's intent was to break the law then the AG memo doesn't help him. But how does one establish intent?

I guess this is where, as frostbitten points out, the Judges would come in.

Anyway, let me retreat and admit that there certainly might be grounds for legal action . But I still assert that it would be so messy and difficult to prove that I question the wisdom. Far better, in my opinion, to devote attention to those weaknesses in the system that Ivansmom points out.

Got me for the moment, slyness. I'm tempted to guess Andy Jackson, but that's basically a shot in the dark.

Running for the bus.

Kim, you gonna be online during "Lost"?

A propos of the last kit -- why do I keep insisting on stating a firm opinion on various legal questions, when I know perfectly well that there are actual lawyers in these parts (among whom, even more a propos, there happen to be women)? I have succumbed to the Culture of Bluster.

Shutting up now.

Yep, I'll be checking in, Mudge.

yellojkt - don't you wish you hadn't gone over to the Trail? You're right, I don't think they can be satirized, they are just too scary.

PlainTim, I find your explanation interesting. However, let me assure you that a President is not a constitutional scholar in any sense. As an aside, should Obama win, as a former constitutional law professor he would probably be the first constitutional scholar in that role.

Presidents do not make constitutional law, ever. They may follow it; they may try to avoid it; they may ask their attorney general or solicitor general for interpretations of it, but they do not make it. Technically presidents don't make law at all. They can accomplish a lot by means of executive order, but even those do not have the force or effect of constitutional law.

On the federal level, the only folks who can legislate (enact statutes) are the elected members of Congress. The only folks who make or interpret constitutional law are the federal courts (state courts may opine on federal law but have to follow the feds' interpretations or risk reversal), and of those the Supreme Court gets the last word. The president can ask his attorneys for an opinion on whether he may exercise a particular power under the constitution, but that opinion will always be subject to Supreme Court review. They may choose not to review it but that's a different issue.

The president may not ask any of the members of the Supreme Court informally for an opinion on a matter of constitutional law. That is, he can't just call one up and say, what do you think about this? They can't give him that kind of advice, or any advice unless the question is before the entire Court in a lawsuit. Then they can decide the question and issue an opinion. No judge of any court, great or small, can indicate how he or she might vote on an issue not before that court, and particularly not to a potential party. If the president wants legal advice, he has to ask Justice. That's their job. Presidents also have counsel on staff - remember Harriet Myers? - and that is also their job. Staff counsel's job is exclusively to advise the President. Part of the tension at Justice is the dual responsibility of being the legal authority for the executive branch and simultaneously advising the president. Ideally, these duties should not collide. In Watergate they did.

And let me assure you, PlainTim, that your post was not an unreasonable summary of belief by any means. I used to work advising Congress. My federal/state and federal powers explanations are well honed because congressional staff members often seemed completely clueless. They kept wanting opinions on things they couldn't do. They never liked that answer.

I'll bet you had to deal with some doozies, Ivansmom. I'm well acquainted with staff like that. Isn't it fun to shoot them down with elegant, subtle but clear, airtight memos without a hint of sarcasm or irony? My favorite kind to write. (Not that I ever gave legal opinions, but I loved a good policy fight.)

Ivansmom, thank you for your 5:03 and 5:07. You are very kind, considering I was being so terribly certain about things of which I had little factual knowledge, and less wisdom, before you imparted some to me.

I'd assume Madison was the other field commander, out of necessity rather than choice, after the British occupied D.C. in the War of 1812. At all other times the president was too important to field, and the country well established enough to keep the fight well away from him.

Psst! Boko, It's after 5; there's no one here, so admit it. You wore ladies' clothing and hang around in bars, didn't you, You Naughty Boy.

Hmm... Looks like I was close. Madison commanded at the Battle of Bladensburg to defend D.C. as the British approached, not after it was razed. Otherwise I was on target.

I'll never tell, Maggie but this morning I wiki'd prescriptive linguistics and found out that it and descriptive linguistics exist in "dynamic tension." Made wonder if I still had my fishntets and cami for the next Rocky Horror Picture Show wig out.

Yay!

Last day of SOL testing (excluding a few make-ups).

I don't know enough about Watergate to make any comparisons, but I know about Latin American politics and how everyone is laughing at the US.

College Parkian, your comment on the previous kit about millenial kids and their parents made me think you might enjoy this.

http://psychologytoday.com/articles/pto-20041112-000010.html

It is a very interesting article about how parents are crippling their kids by paving the way too smoothly.

This is fun. You never see words like Machiavellian or blow job in the edu-blogosphere.

Thanks, Josh! That makes perfect sense.

You never know what interesting tidbits a day will bring...

great comments everyone. hi to all again! sorry i didn't respond right away -- got caught up in other stuff.

it would be really cool if mcclellan managed to stay cool and calm -- but i don't think he has much of the goods. and he still says he is fond of bush.

all the same names still here! wow -- scottynuke -- thanks for the grover wave.

am still in williamsburg. situations developed that made it actually good for me to stay here. one of these years i may even make the drive up for a bph -- you guys still having them?

mcclellan is gonna be on nbc news in a few minutes. brian williams has already defended the press' complete abdication of any investigative work during the run-up to war. wonder how he's gonna handle this interview.

will be back again. i gotta check out the stonehenge story.

a bea c-good link, and here's a sentence fragment from it, in reference to seeking that highly selective college admission, that I'd like every pushing parent to see-
"...it's possible to get a meaningful education almost anywhere."

Query: I have 300 gallons of perfectly rotted compost and 245 sqft.* of weeds in a raised garden. Should I feel guilty?

If so. What to do?

* - 9 sqft. rhubarb & chives

Guilty about what, Boko? :-)

Just pull the weeds and go about your business. What's to go in the raised bed?

I just noticed that there are several small tomatoes on my Roma plant. Considering the weather and how bad the soil is, that's a big deal for me!

Howdy All
I just noticed that my abbreviated name GWE is way too close to GWB. Therefore I will now use the boodle handle "little fish in big pond swimming away from snakeheads,but eyeing up worm on hook"

naw not really but it made me laugh.

Little known fact about the british occupation of washington during the war of 1812. A tornado touched down in the city and did damage to the city as well as the british fleet in the Chesapeake.

http://www.roanoke.com/weather/wb/79760

Are they still having BPH's? Yeah, I think so. Big one planned for the first weekend in October. I may have to get Cassandra and bring both of us.

Nelson, are you gardening? Would love to hear about your successes.

Hi a bea c and nelson.

Been home for 30 minutes doin' this and that. Earlier, did a google image search of Maureen Dean, and one of the first images that drew my eye (hotness factor)... looked a lot like The Insouciant One...Yes: Gwyneth Paltrow...it was ... A good choice for movie casting???

I didn't start reading the paper till four years after Watergate. Mostly outside playing around that time, with the occasional Saturday morning TV show. So to me, Watergate is historical. (Am I on topic,oops, how did that happen. twice in one post...)

I'm wide awake now, and have been since arrival to work.

Home now, and will finish movie from last night that put me to sleep for an hour.

I used to read 'Moby Dick' when insomnia struck. Worked like a charm for awhile. Unfortunately, now it makes me sleepy and as soon as I put the book down and turn off the light I'm wide awake again.

SCC: (not that any of you all would have noticed): In an earlier post I said 'mind numbingly boring' , that quoted part should be aggravatingly tedious. I'm about two thirds finished. Lessons learned along the way will probably allow me to finish tomorrow. Then I'll be back to boodle hogging :)

Yea, two weeks:one third

day fifteen:another third

day sixteen(tomorrow):fingers crossed

I should keep a journal to see if there is any correlation:

work carp::insomnia

??

Moovie time, be back in a half or so...

SCC everything above. Pre-emptively...TY

Hi Nelson and a abea c, good to have you back.

I can't add anything to this discussion except to agree that because McClellan is a more minor player, he can't have the impact of Dean. I so enjoyed the drama of Watergate. It seemed like every day brought a new bombshell revelation. It was my dad's last summer when Nixon finally resigned and we spent hours discussing the news and gloating over Nixon's fall. My dad had figured Nixon for a phony after the Checkers speech in 1952.

This administration has gone far beyond Watergate in destroying lives and shredding the Constitution so I'm not enjoying anything this time. Just waiting and counting the days til the whole rotten bunch of them are out of office.

slyness , just be sure to water them and talk to them everyday (the Roma's, that is)

And YES to bringing Cassandra if possible, after all, she is one the Boodler's favorite Boodler

To paraphrase Brody: We're 'gonna need a bigger' venue

I just looked: 235 days till January 20, 2009...

Here's Jonathan Yardley's review of McClellan's book. It seems pretty reasonable to me:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052901727.html?hpid=sec-artsliving

Welcome back, a bea c and nelson!! It's great to see you again.

Joel,

McClellan (I used to refer to him as Scott McClown)is no John Dean. he comes across as a Jeb Magruder, who referred to the people in the White House having lost their moral compass.

CNN reports Harvey Korman is dead at 81...

That's HEDLEY!!!

*SIGHHHHHH* :-(

Here's a story on Harvey Korman:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903348.html?hpid=artslot

Sigh, indeed, Scotty.

Harvey Korman was a brilliant talent. We loved so much watching he and Tim Conway crack each other up on the Carol Burnett show. And, of course I will always remember Harvey's most memorable role.

By which I mean, of course, Monty Rushmore in "Americathon."

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078766/

I consider this the funniest movie ever made and Harvey's most brilliant performance.

Of course, I have also never seen it sober.

Joel,

I love the last sentence to this kit. It makes monkeys producing "Hamlet" seem reasonable.

Here's a link to the PBS "Nova" show that RD referred to earlier. It includes an interview with Andrew Wiles on the first link and a transcript of the entire show. Alas, the video of the show does not appear to be on-line.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/proof/textindex.html

And when it rains, it pours...

(LA Times) Joseph Pevney, a film and television director who directed some of the most popular episodes of the original "Star Trek" TV series in the late 1960s, has died. He was 96.

"City on the Edge of Forever" and "Trouble with Tribbles" were among his credits...

*SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH*

:-(((

Also sad news, Scotty. But I can't see the title "Trouble with Tribbles" without smiling. After all, it introduced us to the first graduate of Harry Mudd College. That was a good thing and a memory that will live on.

I'm going to pretend I didn't read that pj.

Sometimes I think I shoulda just gone to Caltech.

It is not the privilige nor the business of the Attorney General to write nor rewrite the laws of this country.That is the job of the congress.If he deliberately misinterpits the laws,as written by congress,then he is in contempt of congress.The law is the law and no matter who tells you it is okay to disregard it you are still liable.

not necessarily on topic...

At the county where I taught previously, the student database administrator's name is Dorothy Tribble. The first time I saw that on the phone directory, I laughed so hard I dropped the phone. The speakerphone button never worked after that.

Then I met her. She had short, curly, reddish hair that looked like a Tribble flattened on her head.

I've gotta add my RIP over Harvey Korman, too. I don't think in my whole life I've ever laughed as hard as I did when Tim Conway was trying to break him up. I particularly remember a skit where they were German sailors on a submarine.

We have an adjusted count on the number of bluejay chicks we have: the number is five for certain, and possibly six. I saw five an hour or so ago. The other day, my wife was standing on the walkway looking at them when the mother bluejay attacked her and pecked her on the head. She had to go inside to see if she was bleeding (she wasn't). But now thenever she goes out to the garage she carries a newspaper over her head to defray any dive-bombing.

OK, Kim, time to crack open the Fess Parker and let it breath a little.

Clue nes ness is not a vurt u ue

I too am sad about Harvey Korman.

RD thanks for the reminder about Americathon - I loved that movie.

Just wanted to check in and say good night.

I've laughed so hard at some of the comments, and it felt good. Sunday is my son's birthday. I will think of him with much love and joy.

Night, boodle. Sweet dreams.

So sorry to hear about Harvey,but it sure sends the laugh-o-meter to ringing the bell when thinking about his antics.

Just went out for gas 3.89 and I thought that was a bargain.I heard Todd Rundgren's cover of Jimi's "if a 6 turned out to be 9" and it was Great!!! Most amazing was that Todd played every instrument on the recording.

nelson, great to see you!

John Dean was on a panel on C-SPAN the other day - with Egil (Bud) Krogh and 2 of the prosecutors. One of the things they talked about was how hard it is to question what is going on. You keep doing what is asked of you, because it's the President, even when you know it may not be the right thing. When Dean questioned whether they should be having meetings with G. Gordon Liddy, he was uninvited - the meetings continued, without him. He did tell Nixon about the "cancer on the presidency" - and then got fired, I think. And he and Krogh both went to prison. The video's on the C-SPAN website, for you junkies - search for John Dean.

Looking forward to seeing McClellan with Keith Olbermann - if McClellan has a voice left. Seems like he's been on all the shows today. But I don't see much of a comparison with him to Dean. Had he resigned, or done something to bring down Cheney or Rove, maybe then, yeah. Now it's a little late.

That is too bad about Harvey Korman - I remember laughing till my stomach hurt when I watched him and Tim Comway and Carol Burnett.

Utah Phillips passed away too. I've heard of him, not that familiar with his music. But I liked that in his obit he was called a "rabblerouser".

I'm eating funyuns

I opened them upside down

Can't believe still awake

Oh, wait, I mean I opened the bottom not the top. Am not eating off floor

Maybe tomorrow when I finish work tasks, I'll be able to boodle regular and be more coherent.

Or at least as coherent as am Usually...

and A Boodle hogger...to boot

Eldorado children may be going home soon, as reported on washingtonpost.com's home page:

Removing, transporting and housing and feeding them was expensive. Total costs to Texas taxpayers as of May 21, as reported by the Austin-American Statesman:

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/21/0521eldoradocost.html

The $5.3 million includes:

Nearly $1.7 million in overtime, mostly for Child Protective Service employees.

$1 million for buses to transport sect children and parents to shelters and foster homes.

$132,400 for janitors to clean shelter sites; $120,000 for doctors, nurses and psychiatrists; and $102,100 for ice, food and other supplies.

Hawkins told senators that the costs -- plus an additional $1.74 million a month to keep the sect's children in foster care -- will not affect other agency programs.

nelson, glad to see you pop in. Never in a million years was I even remotely suggesting that Karl Rove would not stand by Bush. My question or wondering was where Rove is today physically? If he's a regular guest on Fox News, does that mean he's in NYC? Living there? Or is the camera set up in Florida, as an example?

John Dean was on Olberman, and I was listening as best I could while in the next room, the kitchen trying to fix a late dinner. Didn't Dean say that it's possible that McClellan could face subpoenas? And if McClellan testified under subpoena, more could be be revealed Dean suggested, although McClellan discredited that idea in his interview with Olberman earlier in the same program. Even if Rove were subpoenaed by Congress and appeared and spoke, I still think getting straight answers from Rove would be as difficult as trying to shear an elephant (as they say in these parts).

The thing about McClellan is that he's the first whom I'm aware of the "Texas on the Potomac" crowd to write a d@mning tell-all.

What the heck does that have to do with the kit or the on or off topic boodle

Linda, you bore you

go away

you bore and annoy me

go away

and us, GO away

Yeah, that's right...OMNI

(I told you all I was in a foul mood)

BOoO

Well, whaddaya think, Kim? I gotta say, I'm liking this episode, though I have a thousand questions and only have a tenuous grasp of what's going on.

So what is Jeremy Bentham's real name (or the other way around)?

Oh, efit. am going to try to sleep.

Going to think of Mums and

Johnny Darko?

tvgttthnj nmnhjoi k

Ow

Lump

Goodnight Gracie

I can't believe I never heard of "Americanthon", it looks great. I've got hours and hours, of Proctor and Bergman audio.
A copy will be on it's way shortly.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Poor Dorthy Statton.

Omni. Get some sleep, man. Yer gettin' crabby.

Hi all, heading to bed soon myself.

I enjoyed Pevney's work with "Star Trek," of course, and Harvey Korman is a legend, IMO.

They'll be missed.

It'll be interesting to see McLellan's Q&A in the Post tomorrow...

bc

Omni, backboodling to the last kit. Your supersensitive hearing is always possible with partial hearing loss, since not all frequencies are killed equally.

However, even with profound hearing loss, I also heard things other people didn't. It wasn't until I became much more deaf that I realized it wasn't sound at all but synesthetic sound triggered by motion. So theoretically, you could have heard the object fall synthestically if it was in your utmost peripheral vision.

I don't know if that was the case, but if you do, wwww.synesthete.org has various test batteries. I selected the motion-to-sound test and it was useless at first, went back, restarted it, gave me a different battery and then we were cookin' auditorially. One thing is for sure, the test is dead boring if you don't have any reactions, and it continues forever.

This motion-to-sound synesthesia also gets triggered by certain motions of my hands and such, which makes sense neurologically, I think.

However the killer reality was when I became too deaf to hear ambulance sirens yet I was hearing them faintly in the distance because of lights flashing off distant windows, and then when the ambulance got closer and whizzed past me... I heard nothing. NOTHING. Which is why I have Wilbrodog.

I have contacted somebody else with slight and gradual hearing loss and he reported he indeed could stimulate sound by motion-- waving his hands in the dark, so you don't have to be really deaf to experience phantom sounds from motion.

Bentham is Lock!!!!!!!!!!! (If you haven't watched "Lost" you'll never understand. Just forget this conversation is going on.) As Hurley would say, "Whoa, dude!"

One more proof that truth is stranger than fiction..... You wouldn't have believed this if somone told you this in 2003. Now you have it from the horse's mouth

What happens when someone can't let go of a question and comes up with a totally new answer.

Joshua Klein: The Amazing Intelligence of Crows

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXQAgzfwuNQ

Can't find a transcript but if you scroll down here
http://www.ted.com/index.php/speakers/view/id/220
there's a summary

Jack Cork... I did believe it in 2003. Never had a doubt.

2002 for me. Compared to Afghanistan, where the cause was clear, the rationale for Iraq was a shell game, and when they didn't find any weapons of mass destruction after all...

Mudge, the hubby chose tonight to do some virus scan thingie as he knew we would all be watching Lost! So I couldn't do my play by play.

I am happy to report that my bottle of Fess Parker Chardonnay was delightful...buttery, yum.
What a smackdown between Sayeed and Keamy!

I KNEW Locke was in that darn coffin! But no on in my family remembers me saying that.

Anyway, I only had one moment where I had to stifle my bs meter, so I can report that I enjoyed the season finale. As frosti and Ivansmom say....carry on.

Please, I beseech thee, use a *SPOILER ALERT* banner when talking about LOST!!!! I haven't had the opportunity to watch Season 4 yet!!!!

I try to avert my eyes and to avoid all Lost discussions, but sometimes, Wham! There it is, before I can do anything about it.

Oh no, I hate when that happens, Dreamer! It's bad enough being 3 hours behind - are you entire seasons behind?

Here's a really sweet story with tie-ins to the Nat Geo, Australia, marsupials, the younger generation, and writing:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/364944_geo29.html

And I would not have known about it without my local dead-tree paper - I doubt I would have run across it online.

Yep, mostlylurking -- Season 4 starts here in June. So close, yet so far. I just can't wait!!!!

You know, I didn't think that I'd live to see the day when you could fit seventy-five bucks worth of petrol into the storage tank of a small automobile, but that day has arrived.

But I REALLY didn't think that I'd be around when Cassandra became comfortable using the term "blow-job" in her anecdotes!

I actually had a few observations (about various stuff) that I intended to share, but it all seems somewhat anticlimactic, if you will. I'm not at all shocked, but I AM mightily amused.

So RDP's a Muddite, then? :-)

Hey Dreamer!!!! *jumping up and down* :-)

*Friday-at-last-and-darn-glad-of-it Grover waves* :-)

Am I first up?

Hey batter...

Hey Wilbrod, while I do believe I have excellent peripheral vision, I had my face buried in a book, so don't think that's it.

The other story is that, when hanging out with friends, blaring the stereo, I always knew when my Mom was arriving home from grocery shopping. I just had this 'feeling' I could hear her car. I would get up turn the sound down, and sure enough, looking out the window I would see her car. In this situation there could absolutely be no visual cues. Hence my 'sixth sense' comment...

I should add: my Mom did grocery shopping at the Fort Dix commissary, which was at least an hour and a half away. So it wasn't a timing thing either (though I admit to having a good sense of time)

*Tim...it's not lack of sleep...it's just that that perpetual annoyance machine is really annoying...

oops, took to long composing that, and Scotty beat me to the homer...Hey Scotty *some kind of waves*

*Tim, I guess you could say I'm PAM's #1 hater...

Oops, sorry, Dreamer. I had no idea you were a season behind. I'll be more careful.

'Morning, Boodle. Not a lot of news to report. I couldn't help myself: I actually read Gerson's column, prepared to be outraged. But it was just stupid, is all. He's fighting some mythical battle in his head, I think. (Spoiler alert: No, Jesus was NOT a Libertarian, in his view. Ron Paul will be crushed, I'm sure.)

Stephen Hunter has a chat today at 12:30, but I think he's gonna be swept away by Scott McClellan's chat at noon. I wonder which chat will produce the all-time WaPo record, McClellan's chat, or the "Lost" chat at 2 p.m.?

I see where the Vatican is about to excommunicate women priests. Where is Loomis and where is all the feminist outrage, I wonder? Still fighting the lost cause for Hillary, no doubt.

OK, onward and upward.

In backboodling, I see Ivansmom, Loomis and one other mentioned Mont-St-Michel. We have photos we took, but I don't know how to put them on the A-blog, so googled a couple that will do.

We left Cabourg on the way to Rennes in the morning, traveling through pretty little villages and relatively flat land. Suddenly, someone said "there it is!". This huge, looming rock in the distance. As we approached, before we got to the causeway, the driver stopped and everybody tumbled out to take pictures.
http://www.discoverfrance.net/France/Provinces/Normandy/Mont-St-Michel.shtml

Here's the romantic, misty version, Ivansmom:

http://www.highonadventure.com/Hoa98oct/Normandy/normandy.htm

Until the causeway was built, the castle was only accessible at low tide. Did I mention there was a banker's holiday? LOL the French have lots of holidays and we were in the middle of five day one, so there were many tourists there, many tour buses, etc.

Our guide was a pretty 20ssomething girl, and she had on plain street shoes with a little heel, so I thought, OK, this climb won't be so bad. HA! Starting out I could see the levels, with people stopping to peek over the walls, many at the lower and mid-levels, a few at the top. There were slightly elevated paths, then fairly reasonable stair cases, on and on steeper and steeper, until about a third of us surrendered halfway up. My feet, calves, knees are still strong, but my thighs simply froze. That little guide had thighs of steel! On and on to top they went, my husband among them. The rest of us joined the throng of people coming down, and we prowled around the shops for a while. We had been warned to stay off the little beach that surrounded the castle, quick sand.

Happy husband returned and informed me it was great at the top, lots of rooms, library and that there are still priests and nuns living there, and services still held for the townspeople and pilgrimages. The castle has been used (begun to be built in 8th century) as a monastery, fortress and prison.

If you desire to see this fantastic place, go while you can still climb, go while you can keep up a licketysplit pace, or go with someone who wants to do a leisurely, fairly often resting pace.....

When and where does the Catholic Church have female priests, Mudge? That's a new one on me.

G'morning and happy Friday, all. I'm not as sore as I thought I might be, given all the work I did in the yard yesterday. Maybe I'll do more today. Or, better yet, maybe I'll go see two baby boys. That would be more fun.

Interesting story that the CIA says al-Qaeda is in retreat. 'Bout time. I'm glad to hear that our massive outlays in money and lives are finally having an impact.

Slyness, some rebel bishops have ordained women, the b@stards. PanzerPope sacked them and want to excommunicate the women. Got to follow the rules you know and Germans are good at that.
Bob S. says: "You know, I didn't think that I'd live to see the day when you could fit seventy-five bucks worth of petrol into the storage tank of a small automobile," How about $40 for a 7 gallon jerrycan of premium? (The lawnmower is a bit finicky about gas.)

VintageLady - Thank you very much for that post. I have always been fascinated by castles, and those pictures combined with your vivid description makes me long to, one day, visit such places.

Between your overseas exploits and those of my own mother, I am making a long list of trips to look forward to. It gives me motivation to stay in shape. And invest in good footwear.

Those Gitmo Military Commissions are great. When the judge's taking the side of the defender and/or the prosecutor isn't happy about the pace of the trial the judge just gets fired. As Barney says in today's Marcus column, we'll win that war on Terriers.
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/05/29/judge-khadr.html?ref=rss

Vintage Lady, I am enjoying your posts on your trip. The disadvantage of waiting til we're older to travel (which is necessitated by money and time) is that we aren't as young as we used to be! I try to stay in shape, but anticipate some difficulties such as you encountered with the stairs. No matter, you were there and had the experience!

For Karl Rove to be Bush's John Dean would require that Rove have a conscience, as Dean and now McClellan have demonstrated. From Rove's history and actions, there is no sign that he has such a conscience.

Good morning all.

Dreamer - so sorry! I didn't realize you were waiting for season 4. It's a good one.

Vintage Lady - I have also been enjoying your posts about your trip.

Gorgeous day here, a little cool so far. I'm taking the faithful beagle for a long walk and then making a meal for a friend who has been ill. Then I've got to think of something else to avoid doing the housework that is crying out to be done.

Good morning, all.

Here's the link to the WaPo chat with McLellan:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/05/29/DI2008052901874.html

It will be interesting to see how that goes...

bc

Given Harvey Korman's death, thought I'd mention that Carol Burnett's childhood home was saved by smarter heads here last year:

The dilemma:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA030707.01A.Burnett_House.3747c6d.html

Bill Miller Bar-B-Q wants to buy the house at 2803 W. Commerce St., and, after trying to have it relocated, has requested demolition. Ann McGlone, the city's historic preservation officer, is recommending denial of the request and is seeking a "finding of historic significance" that would protect the house.

She's [Burnett] shared her early memories of the house, of baths in the kitchen sink, cold enchiladas for breakfast, donated used girl's clothes and roller-skating on the hardwood floor in the hall of the three-bedroom house, while her "Nanny" played ragtime piano. It was where she began developing the trademark Tarzan yell that helped make her a famous television star in the 1970s.

The outcome:

http://www.therealestatebloggers.com/2007/06/06/carol-burnetts-childhood-home-to-be-saved-as-after-school-learning-center/

The childhood home of Carol Burnett is being saved. While not earth shattering news, it is pretty cool how it is being done. The home in San Antonio, Texas, was in danger of being destroyed to put a BBQ restaurant in its location. The combination of corporate and the American Sunrise Foundation is providing the money to move the home and let it be used as an after-school learning center.

bc, I think it'll be interesting to see if Chatwoman (or whoever moderates the chat) can find the .01 % of relevant questions swimming in the ocean of partisan venom sure to be already flooding the WaPo servers.

Will have to take on Lost, at some point. I saw a picture this morning in the Post of Naveen Andrews. Splendid figure of a man, as my maternal granny would have said. Bold boy, might have remarked the Irisher-granny. "Bold" is a compliment that only is applied to males.

I first saw him in the Rumer Godden novel-film
The Peacock Spring (1996) ... as Ravi Battacharya.

And, of course, he was the sapper-romantic in The English Patient (1998).

Thanks for the link sd.

My favorite blurb was written by HemiRT.

"Once again, due process is trampled in the interests of appearences.

"Those that would trade a little liberty for a little security deserve neither and lose both." - Ben Franklin"

omni,

Maybe your sense of 'hearing' that let you hear your mom's car is the same hidden sense that alerts dogs that their owner is almost home.

I went and uploaded my pictures of Stonehenge and wrote a blog post comparing them to the Nat Geo's guy's and then I open the WaPo to find a whole 'nother article on the rocks.

I had to update my post so it didn't sound too out of date. Never thought a blog on 3000 year old rocks could be rendered obsolete by breaking news.

http://livebythefoma.blogspot.com/2008/05/stonehenge-snaps.html

And my post does go to 11.

When the Episcopalians started ordaining women, several parishes broke away. The Catholic Church adopted them even though many of the rogue parishes had married priests. That is a bellwether of what order to expect things to change in the Catholic Church.

At our family reunion, my lapsed uncle was making the argument that Pope Ratzi should have been arrested the minute he set foot on American soil as an accessory after the fact to child sexual abuse.

VL,

When touring Europe it's easy for me to get castle and cathedral fatigue, but that description of Mont-St-Michel makes me really want to go. And I would have no objection from my wife. She desperately wants to see more of France.

I don't follow Lost at all, but I read some Battlestar Galactica spoilers that are going to blow my mind tonight.

McClellan is also going to be interviewed on the NewsHour tonight.

Another crane collapse in Manhattan...

*SIGH*

From the Reuters article on the washingtonpost.com homepage about the Vatican:

They cite the letters of Saint Paul, some of the earliest texts of Christianity, to show that women played important roles in the early church.

From this website:

http://www.americancatholic.org/Messenger/Jul2006/Feature2.asp

While Paul acknowledges women's ministry and leadership in house churches, 1 Timothy [LL: attributed to Paul] maintains that "a woman must receive instruction silently and under complete control" (2:11).

As I mentioned yesterday, Paul's attitude toward women:

1 Corinthians 14*

33: ...As in all the churches of the saints, 34: the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be subordinate, as even the law says. 35: If there is anything they desire to know, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church.

LL: Women have never broken the glass ceiling of the Catholic church, just as they have never broken the glass ceiling of the Oval Office. Certainly a woman priest wouldn't have made comments that are as offensive (note the corny drama) of those of Father Pfleger! See on the washingtonpost.com homepage the op-ed titled "Obama's Latest Pastor Disaster."

If we swing around to pick up E.J. Dionne's op-ed as well this morning, it is pretty amazing what Scott McClellan's mom accomplished in Texas--as far as firsts:

From Wiki:

Strayhorn is notable for several "firsts" in Austin and Texas politics. She is the first woman elected as mayor of Austin and the first Austin mayor elected to three consecutive terms. She was the first woman elected to the Texas Railroad Commission [just starting in this position when we arived in '94...which has nothing to do with railroads for quite some time, which makes me question if she helped her ex, McClellan, with his conspiracy theory book about LBJ and JFK] and the first woman elected as comptroller. She also was the first woman to serve as president of the Austin school board and as president of the Austin Community College board.

Letter reply to Samuelson's bromide that what the poor need is simply more economic growth, aka, the trickle-down or all boats rise in the incoming tide ....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/29/AR2008052903600.html

This was my econ professor last semester.

And NatGeo has a Stonehenge quiz.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/06/stonehenge/quiz-interactive

I only got 5/10 and I had read the article. I wouldn't make a very good druid.

*sigh* 5/10. And I've *been* there. Didn't help much.

We in the US are likely to be forced to concentrate more on becoming more efficient rather than more affluent (in the sense of living on a 2-acre lot and driving to work an hour each way). Elsewhere, I don't see much downside to having more Taiwans and fewer Burmas. The International Herald Tribune ran a grim story on what happens when there's no "right to do business"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/28/asia/aid.php

From the "Make me an offer that I can't reefuse." file:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucla30-2008may30,0,717284.story

5/10

Listening to too much Eddie Izzard stand-up didn't help.

:-)

Love this CP-
"Mr. Samuelson merely echoes the sonorous snoring of supine economists in deep, dogmatic slumber. They should wake up!"

G'morning all. Off to "town" today with a million errands and the attention span of a gnat. I will be completely without patience by the time I make it to the grocery shopping part of the trip. But, I will try to remember to buy some Spam. Spam fried rice is one of Mr. F's favorites and he will be here next week.

This town trip is really a blow to my goal of driving no more than 10 miles this week. I had 4 miles left to spend today and tomorrow and now I'll put in about 110. I must say that having the goal did change my behavior-I could easily have made a town trip yesterday but pushing some personal errands to today when I have business to take care of eliminated 90 miles.

Later 'maters. (How are everyone's tomatoes doing?)

7/10 on the Stonehenge quiz.

In my case, repeated viewings of "This is Spinal Tap" beat actually Being There.

Huh.

bc

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Morning, morning, friends. The g-girl is here because school is out today. This more than likely will prove to be a trying day. I had plans, but now......

I am late to the conversation, and alas, it is the same thing. Vintage Lady, I know nothing at all about France, but it is good that you're telling us about your travels there. I did take French in school, but never mastered the language or English for that matter.

I hope I get to watch PBS tonight and see that interview. Somehow I've always felt the media just did not have the heart to do what needed to be done during this administration. There wasn't any "fire", for lack of a better word. There was "fire" for Watergate, but not this. After the way the election turned out, the election with Bush/Gore, I alway felt that eyes should have been everywhere, and every rock, stone, gravel, all of it turned over and examined with a magnifying glass. Just never felt that was done. I guess folks were still afraid. Living in fear is just awful. No peace. No rest. I pray everyday for God through Christ to help me with that.

Mudge, Slyness, Scotty, Martooni(where are you?)and everyone, good morning.*waving*

Have a great day, and terrific weekend,folks. The weather here is bright and sunny, and the g-girl and I will dress and get out and enjoy it. My grandsons should be here in the next two weeks, and I'm looking forward to that. And I'm sure after a week I'll be looking forward to something else(smile).

What's up, Loomis. Women kind of catch it in a lot of things. Yet I'm so happy to be a woman. I love it. Dont' you?

And I know I give you guys a hard time, but hey, I love all of you too.

Time to go, and a shower to get.

I can easily understand Mr. F's affection for spam fried rice.

This frightens me for some reason.

:-)

bc,

What perchance does Peter Sellers have to do with Stonehenge?

8 of 10 on the Stonehenge quiz.

I'll freely admit to outright guessery.

I think that the problem *may* have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being *crushed* by a *dwarf*. Alright?

Pliers,stat

You all know what a tune cootie is, of course. Now we have to come up with a different phrase, this one some sort of "image cootie." In this case, the image cootie I'm having a lot of trouble shaking off comes from VL: a 20-something French girl with thighs of steel.

*sigh*

CP, Naveen Andrew's character of Sayid on "Lost" is very problematic for me. He started off as a torturer in the Iraqi Republican Guard (so he was a bad guy), but he had to torture a woman named Nadia, and couldn't do it, and she became the love of his life whom he's been searching for for the last seven years. And for the last 3 1/2 years of the show he's been "reformed" and is one of the good guys. All of which has been fine by me; I root for the guy, as does everyone. (I don't exacly see the "hunk" thing, but I'm a guy and there's lots I don't quite get along those lines.) The problem is (Dreamer, avert your eyes) for the last few episodes he's been running around (in the flash-forwards) assassinating people pretty willy nilly, and doing so for Ben, of all people. Which makes it kinda hard to root for him when he's reverted back to cold-blooded killer. I'm very conflicted over this.

My whole life I've always wanted to visit Mont-St-Michel. Now, my legs are so bad it wouldn't do me any good if I went there this afternoon. The moral of the story is, go to Europe when you are young; don't wait until you are "retired."

Cassandra,
I think the question in your 10:31 a.m. post is a "gotcha." You could reverse it and ask if men here love being a man...? As if each of us had a choice in the matter...

However, I will be happy to respond to your question of yesterday about the weather. We have had less than four inches of rain since the start of the year, making this the sixth driest spring on record. The Friday before Memorial Day was the worst--99 degress (excuse my typo of 97 at that time), a 70 dewpoint, making for a 107 heat index.

We are in that current meteorological bubble that hugs the southwest Texas border labeled "extreme drought." Temperature during the last week or so have been in the upper 90s, about 10 degrees above normal, far more like late July or early August. Global warming?

Even local weather TV meteorologists would welcome some precip coming north from the Gulf--they get tired of the same forecast day in and day out--low 70s at night, in the 90s by day. The Pacific Alma is now raining over Mexico, which should extinguish some of the agricultural burns there, as well as our "May Murkies,"--smoke here from those same fires carried north from Mexico by the winds.

With conditions like these, it affects lifestyle. Go out in the mornings if you need to run errands. If your lifestyle permits, a siesta during the hottest part of the afternoon, compensating by staying up late when its cooler. On Memorial Day weekend, it was really two choices: either stay indoors or get to water--local lake or river or pond or pool.

Am I surprised by all the tornadoes in the central and southern U.S. lately? So much overcast (not counting the smoke) and heat here--all feeding to the north and strong air currents and colder air masses there.

One upside is that produce is coming in early. On my birthday on the 17th, we stopped in Burg's Corner in Stonewall to see the first fresh peaches from the area's trees were for sale. We bought jams there. We bought later that day in next-door Fredericksburg where the peaches were bigger, more ripe, and cheaper. We were surprised at the fancy entrances being built along the highway between Stonewall and Fredericksburg for wine tasting rooms. Texas entrepreneurs are attempting to turn this area into the next Napa-Sonoma-Mendicino--the renowned wine growing counties of California. Watermelons have now been offered here in the stores since mid-May in quantity.

It would be nice to have some rain in this city.

I did purchase as a birthday gift a new book titled "Seneca Falls," published in February and written by Sally McMillen, the Mary Reynolds Babcock Professor of History and Department Chair at Davidson College--in North Carolina!

I swear I got 8 of 10 correct answers, half of which were pure guesses, but the final screen said I got 3 of 10.

Stoopid quiz.

At some point today I'll be finished my two and a half week marathon, and will finally be allowed to relax a little. All my programs are fixed and run just fine.

Mudge -- not a crazed celebistalker on NA, nor anyone save perhaps Neil Young should I become unhinged. But, I like that actors without the Hollywood insipid, androgynous face can make it too.

NA has a regal nose and lustrous dark glossy sheen. I simply see this as the broadening of telegenic beauty away from the Meg Ryans and Rob Lowes of Tinseltown thinking.

Had not known he was so complex in Lost.

Many ways of being beautiful. Sort of like the Shakespeare quote voiced by Hamlet:

There are more (beautiful) things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your (lens of) philosophy.

Speaking of Hamlet (we were, weren't we)... I saw an excellent short play last night... a re-telling of Hamlet written by a soon-to-be-graduating senior at my kids' high school.

The young woman who wrote and directed the play has always had this other, very funny, script running through her head while reading or watching Hamlet, which she considers her favorite play.

It was really wonderful... the writing and the young kids' acting. It made me once again feel confident in handing over the world to the Millennials.

4 for 10 on the quiz, and 3 1/2 were guesses. You'd think someone with a blue bottom and older than dirt would have an affinity for this stuff. Apparently not.

4 for 10 on the quiz, and 3 1/2 were guesses. You'd think someone with a blue bottom and older than dirt would have an affinity for this stuff. Apparently not.

CP, I thought The English Patient was overrated, but my favorite thing about it was Kip. That character was not difficult to admire; he was a handsome and sensitive hero. I'm glad I haven't seen Lost--

(Dreamer don't look)

I hate it when my heroes go bad.

It almost ruined Juno for me when (spoiler) Jason Reitman's character turned out to be a jerk.

My current enthusiasm is Ryan Gosling--cute guy, cute name, took his mom and sister to the Oscars, and he's a very talented actor. We just saw "Lars and the Real Girl," which was quirky and original; and "Fracture," which was a somewhat hackneyed plot idea but with excellent acting by Gosling. When I checked his filmography I was reminded that he was the young actor in "The Notebook" and the even younger one in "The United States of Leland." This guy has an impressive resume! I'm looking forward to watching his Oscar-nominated turn in "Half Nelson," maybe tonight.

Sorry for the double post. The first time I hit "Submit" I got one of those government bloackage pages.

CP, my basic problem as a guy is that I've never understood the attraction of the grunge look, long, stragely, unkempt hair, and three-day 5-o'clock shadow. Doesn't matter if it's NA, or Sawyer (who I'd understand if he was cleaned up) or Jack (though I kinda like Jack with the full beard). But otherwise I "get" NA (especially in "English Patient"). Of course, I never understood the attraction of the "bad boy" thing, either.

(I didn't know Neil Young unhinges you. That, I can understand, though.)

You women baffle me sometimes, you really do. (Though still my favorite gender, for all that. You are all kinda like a Jackson Pollack painting: I really like what I'm looking at, but I'll be d@mned if I can figure it out.)

Jacques Berlinblau has a fairly good column on the lastest Obama-cursed-by-yet-another-clergyman problem, at http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/georgetown/2008/05/pursuing_the_jewish_vote.html . But here's what's really odd to me: look at the URL and somebody tell me why it is tagged "pursuing the jewish vote"???

Speaking of Spam: http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/departments/education_1/?page=quiz133&Quizid=133

I'll give you all one guess what I scored on this quiz.

Mudge, I don't like the grunge look myself, but do think that NA in the English Patient was quite wonderful, as KB notes he was Kip. In Montana, the grunge look is the fishing-with-the-lads look. When you come home you embrace everyone in a bear hug, apologize for the earthiness of it all, and hit the showers. Shaved and smelling of Safeguard and a lick of either Old Spice or Bay Rum stuff, you then approach the fine and fair lady.

This means that Michael Ondaatje, auther of the EP, knows the interior spaces of women.

I tried three times to post this sensuous pome but the Nervous-Nellie bot said no;

Go here:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-cinnamon-peeler/

I screwed up on "Hugh Tuches, Tight Pants."

I got the internet questions correct but not the ones referring to Presidents, Sesame Street.

So it's 12:19 and Scott McClellan has answered two questions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/05/29/DI2008052901874.html?hpid=topnews

Cinnamon, huh? *furiously dashing off memo to self for future use*

Very nice.

Wonkette has pointed out this great headline. Everyone apparently does drugs in Florida...

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/community/news/windermere/orl-spelling3008may30,0,3064445.story

12:29, four questions. Scotty (not *our* Scotty) is a little slow.

I have this theory that many women like a man who presents a different face, both literally and figuratively, to them than he does the rest of the world.

I haven't seen Lars and the Real Girl yet - my film buff friend really liked it. I wasn't that crazy about Half Nelson - more the story than the actor - he is good. But a bit on the grungy side, which I don't find so appealing. My kid often has that look - he looks great with a full beard or clean-shaven - I don't like the in-between.

I think Naveen Andrews was in Bride and Prejudice - the Bollywood take on a modern Pride and Prejudice. Didn't like the movie so much, but he was yummy. (That sounds so undignified - a thousand apologies.)

Hi everyone, sorry to go AWOL but I drove up to the almer matta today to be on a panel at Reunions to discuss the presidential campaign. I'm the moderator and will enforce moderation with all due rigor.

I hope not to get bogged down in process stuff, like the Electoral Map -- but I do think the one question everyone wants to know -- the question everyone asks me (not that I have an answer) -- is: Who's gonna win? That's a process question but still a pretty good one and I'll pose it to a bunch of reporters who might have something to say on it.

Beyond that I want to ask whether the campaign sheds any light on what kind of president we'll be getting. Or maybe a campaign and a presidency have little to do with one another.

Anyway I'll report back when it's over.

It's a glorious day in central New Jersey.

I certainly AM slow at some things, 'Mudge, but answering questions or posting to the Web ain't among 'em.

:-)

DVD suggests that I ask how come, with such an unusual campaign, so much of the coverage seems so stale.

And why have indiscrete statements by peripheral supporters become so central to the campaign coverage.

Pretty specatular (color-enhanced) photo of the supernova remnant in Casiopeia, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2008/05/30/GA2008053001431.html?hpid=multimedia1&hpv=national .

SCC: Cassiopeia, two S's.

7/10 on Stonehenge. I wrote a paper on it in college, after having been there when I did a history course at Oxford in the summer of 1972. At that time, people were still allowed to wander among the stones. I've got slides, somewhere...

Back from seeing my favorite baby boys, who are growing gangbusters. W has the Churchill double chin and round cheeks. P smiled at me, sorta. They are so precious, and I'm so glad I don't have to get up with them at night.

Joel, I don't think it does. I think there is a huge difference between running an effective campaign and running an effective administration.

Campaigns are all about getting votes. And as you have pointed out, voters often yield to their reptilian hindbrains. Many view Presidential elections as referendums on "values" and philosophical positions. The candidates involved matter less than seeking bragging rights in societal arguments that sometimes go back half a century or more.

Clearly, in this election we have seen the election dominated by gender and racial politics. And I fear one of criterion people use to justify their votes is disdain for those who support the opposing candidate.

None of these is a particularly good indicator of what makes a great Chief Executive.

As I am sure you are keenly aware, this is a major theme in White's book "Breach of Faith." Nixon ran an absolutely brilliant campaign. But those same dirty techniques that worked so well on the campaign trail ultimately led to his downfall.

I contend that the lack of discretion on the part of candidates' supporters has furnished the opportunity to wink and slyly note that "You know, he/she isn't really one of us. You just can't trust someone who associates with people like *that*. Not that the candidate him/herself is guilty of any such thing; but clearly, it's a question of judgment."

In other words: finally, an opportunity to be a bigot and sound terribly perceptive for doing so. What a breath of fresh air! What a great country!

Wow! That infrared data from the Spitzer telescope is hot!

Forgive me for not backboodling first, but dag: Now "Star Trek" theme composer Alexander Courage warped out of orbit...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/30/AR2008053001387.html

I note he also worked on a lot of Boodlicious TV and movie projects as well.

He, too, will be missed.

bc

And why gaffes?

When you have so much complex information thrown out there people with short attention spans are going to naturally gravitate to the salient and easy to understand gaffes at the expense of a candidate's overall message.

Or, in slightly different terms, in a high noise environment a narrowband filter detects impulsive signals much better than stable ones, even if the latter have far greater integrated power.

In my view, campaigns are significantly different from presidential administrations in almost every regard except one (which I'll get to in a minute. During a campaign, the candidate spends nearly all his/her time fundraising and (obviously, duh) campaigning, which once the White House has been achieved the president-elect and president can stop doing (although he/she will have staff working on the next one). So the hand-shaking/baby-kissing nation-traveling aspect of the job is cut down severely, and a great deal of the administration's time is spent attending meetings and sticking closely (some might say too closely) to the White House.

The one exception I'd note is that how a candidate runs his/her campaign does tell you a few things about how his/her administration is likely to run. For instance, Obama's campaign (according to most press reports) has been run pretty efficiently and smartly, and relatively mistake-free. The few well-known problems, mainly Rev. Wright and now this other guy, were serious problems, all right, but were NOT aspects of campaign functioning; rather, they were things that cropped up outside of the campaign itself. Then the question is, how well (or badly) were they handled? In my view, and the view of most observers, was that Obama handled the Wright thing pretty well, and that his speech about race was an "A" if not "A-plus." So the fact that his campaign has been well-run, cohesive, focused and above all, "smart" (in that he won all those caucuses that Hillary and her staff were too effing dumb/arrogant to realize the importance of). Further, as just about everyone, friends and enemies alike, agree on, is that he is a cool customer.

Now, compare all that to Hilliary's campaign: it made tactical mistake after tactical mistake. It shuffled and reshuffled the staff a couple of times. It has had just about zero dedication to a theme or idea, but rather has jumped from one cynical, half-@ssed notion to another, with a great deal of calculated triangulation, much of which hasn't worked (and some, such as appealing to the lesser aspects of the electorate, rather than the nobler) and which haven't spoken well of her or her campaign.

Granted, Obama has made several unfortunate remarks, and his wife has made one. Compare to Hillary, who has made, oh, maybe a dozen or more, as well as her spouse, who has stuck his foot in it a dozen times. So compare the Obame foot-in-mouth tendencies (a few) to the Clinton foot-in-mouth tendencies (a lot). This tells you something, and tends to tell you how their administrations are likely to be.

One can also predict how their administrations are likely to be run based on the campaigns: Obama's is likely to be, once again, well-run and efficient and relatively mistake-free. (Sure, there will be some blunders and some gaffs; that's a given.) Clinton's administration is likewise likely to mirror her campaign: Not very efficient, NOT very well run or organized, likely to include a fairly high number of blunders (compared to Obama), and so on.

One can also add to the analysis two inescapable facts: for whatever legitimate or illegitimate, rational or irrational reason, Hillary is a highly devisive figure who is widely hated in many parts of the electorate. You can argue until you are blue in the face that this is unfair, sexist, not her fault, yadda yadda yadda, and I might agree to every one of those points. But at the end of the day, it is true.

And for whatever equally unfair, irrational reasons, a lot of people who loathe and despise Hillary like Obama, or at least don't loathe and despise him the way they do Hillary. That, too, is a given. Yes, there are racists out there who won't vote for him, but even among the blue collar Dems who say they won't vote for him, they don't despise him the way other people loathe Hillary.

Those factors, I submit, would carry over to their administrations. No matter what President Hillary does, a substantial part of the country will despise her no matter what. Obama, at least, may or may not be successful in this or that aspect of his presidency, but except for the hard-core Ku Klux-type racists, he won't be loathed and despised. Repubs won't like his liberalism, of course, but that's a given, just as they won't like Hillary's wishy-washy centrism.

I just read an article about the latest priest to cause problems for Obama. It was a Catholic priest invited to speak at the church Obama attends. Did Obama invite him? How can he share any responsibility.

What am I missing because I do not get it.

RD, Joel-

I agree that getting getting oneself elected is far different from effective governance and/or representation of constituients in a government.

To your topical reference, the Bush folks are said to have continued to govern in the same manner as they ran their election campaign.

How's that been working out for everybody?

So, can we tell much about Clinton, McCain, and Obama as Chief Executives based on their campaigns?

My initial reaction would be: No, probably not that much.

Having said that, look at GW Bush's tenures as a senior exec/CEO at Arbusto and Harken.

These, some might say, were indicators of his performance as Chief Executive of the US. So far, the trend continues.

bc

dmd,

Your 2:18 just gave me the worst quasi-random tune cootie:

In a couple of days they come and take me away
But the press let the story leak
And when the radical priest
Come to get me released
We was all on the cover of newsweek...

I'm still humming it.

I mostly don't get it either, dmd. The rap is that Obama and this guy are pals, and Obama has claimed him as one of his "spiritual advisors." It's all just part of the "gotcha" game.

If I had a nickel for evey one of my friends who opened his/her yap and made an inappropriate remark I didn't agree with, I'd have so much money I'd be living in the south of France, squandering my cash at Monte Carlo, and (inappropriately) dating starlets and 20-year-old French girls with thighs of steel.

I am enjoying the Boodle today. Y'all are so interesting I'm just basking.

bc,

It's probably been said better, but Dubya is the ultimate poster child for the Peter Principle if you ignore the fact that he has never been competent at anything.

Hmmmmm... Interesting bit of business news here:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-credit30-2008may30,0,1312903.story

I have a big, highly emotional day tomorrow: my oldest granddaughter's high school graduation ceremony is in the afternoon, and her little brother's kindergarten graduation is in the morning (the invitation says he's getting his bachelor of kinder arts degree). I know I'm gonna get pretty verklempt in the afternoon. (I'm not old enough to have a granddaughter graduating from high school...or am I?) And if you think *I'm* gonna be verklempt, my wife is gonna be in even worse shape.

Afterward the entire clan (about 30 people) are all going to celebrate the dual graduations at the restaurant where my son is sous chef. More verklempt.

My poor daughter has gone just about bonkers arranging the seating, which is even more complex than designing the peace talks table with the North Koreans. The school only allots six "reserved" seats in the parents' section up front, and our daughter has to figure out who gets them-- and who gets to sit/stand way in the back. My wife is one of the select; she's going up front (next to her ex-husband: bwahahahahaha; they'll both need to be frisked for weapons). Me, I'm relegated to the rear (which is OK by me) along with the ex-husband's child bride (yeah, he is one of *those*), various aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, etc.

I'm thinking about wearing my rain slicker; there's gonna be saltwater every d@mn place. (Never mind the rain.)

*faxin' 'Mudge a bushel of Kleenex and a wet vac for tomorrow*

Vaya con queso, Mudgelettes...

:-)

We have an academic (Ph.D. in international relations from UC Santa Barbara, working on his third book) of Libyan descent who also writes a column for our local op-ed pages. Mansour O. El-Kikhia takes a lot of heat from local readers for his opinions--and has received some serious threats. Far more often than not, I enjoy his point of view. He does discuss something in today's column about local pastor John Hagee that national media has not mentioned, including the very recent op-ed by Rabbi Saperstein at washingtonpost.com. I do recall the time when Hagee arranged for Bibi Netanyahu to speak at Cornerstone Church--we were tempted to go for Netanyahu's presentation some years ago, but didn't.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/melkikhia/stories/MYSA.053008.OPEDMansour.2a00744.html

Or, better yet, attend the annual "Israel Night," where he [Rev. Hagee] invites Israeli politicians so he can display his affection for Israel. Over the years, I have not heard a single reporter or politician condemn Hagee for his diatribes against Islam, Muslims and Arabs.

Scotty, this is so weird, I was on the latimes site reading that same article, just now.

Thanks, Scotty, they'll come in handy. Especially the wet vac.

It all depends what your meaning of lobbyist is...

http://www.newsweek.com/id/138519

Obama's Lobbyist Connection
By Michael Isikoff | NEWSWEEK
Jun 2, 2008 Issue

Great minds browse alike, eh kbert? :-)

Tweren't nawthin, 'Mudge, just don't get the darn thing all blue-stained, OK?

mudge,
I can hear the blubbering from here. You'll float away the blue-bottomed boat. Enjoy.

Just wanted to point this out in case no one else has done so....

http://www.wjla.com/news/aploader.html?js=wciv&id=524350

DLD

The kid from Charleston, SC is still in it.

DLD that is wierd I was just about to post this (the girl in the picture is from my local vicinity).

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24893447/

A lot of those words are unfair, IMHO. It's supposed to be an English-language spelling bee. I can understand some relatively common foreign (i.e., French) words, but they go too far. Etagere. Jeez. How many foreign languages are they expected to know? French, German, Spanish, Portugeuse? What about words that use foreign alphabets, like Russian, Japanese, Chinese? Which is right, Sichuan or Szechuan?

Hi All, hope this Friday is treating you well. Can't contribute to the Lost discussion even though that show is filmed in my hometown. I haven't watched it past the very first episode although I have had Lost star sightings in the local Safeway. As for the guilty by association problem for Presidential candidates, I think things are going a bit far huh. It seems that if you run for President you must cleanse yourself of any possible problematic association with anyone in your current and past lives. If it were me, I would be left with very few friends and probably a lot less relatives. Good thing I'll never be running for office.

Mudge - enjoy the graduations. I get all misty-eyed at these things too. My kids both had preschool graduation and it took all I could do to keep from bawling. Alohaspouse thinks I'm just a wimp.

Our spelling bee representative fell out of the running already.

Happy weekend!

But that's the beauty of the English language, Mudge - it borrows from everywhere! And has idiosyncratic spelling, to boot. I don't suppose there are spelling bees in Spanish-speaking countries, eh? Or maybe they would be limited to words with "be as in boca or be as in vaca"...

Mudge, enjoy. Felicitations and salutations, and yes, this role is very hard on you because you were a child-groom!

Enjoy the weekend, dear boodlers. I was not on topic, and for this I know I am forgiven. My lawn is mowed, the basement and garage in better shape, the leaky corner of the house graded, the flowers watered, the dog treated for ticks, the wisteria cut back, the trellis hung for a Heavenly Blue morning flower courtesy of RI down the street, the old soccer gear delivered to the community center (My twelve years as soccer coach are over!)...tonight I dine with two aged nuns in their mid-80s. One survived the coup in Chile but lost many men and boys dear to her, the other "womaned" a health clinic in rural Chad for more years than you want to imagine. She still believes that air conditioning and antibiotics might be proof of the existence of God.

'Tis Friday, and the weekend commences soon. Enjoy. Tie up the 'maters carefully. RD will give instructions if you ask.

...and on the Massive Denial/Global Disaster Front, this just in:

White House issues climate report 4 years late

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Under a court order and four years late, the White House Thursday produced what it called a science-based ''one-stop shop''
of specific threats to the United States from man-made global warming.

While the report has no new science in it, it pulls together different U.S. studies and localizes international reports into one comprehensive document required by law. The 271-page report is notable because it is something the Bush administration has fought in the past.

Andrew Weaver, a Canadian climate scientist who was not involved in the effort, called it ''a litany of bad news in store for the U.S.''

And biologist Thomas Lovejoy, one of the scientists who reviewed the report for the federal government, said: ''It basically says the America we've known we can no longer count on. It's a pretty dramatic picture of all kinds of change rippling through natural systems across the country.
And all of that has implications for people.''

White House associate science director Sharon Hays, in a teleconference with reporters, declined to characterize the findings as bad, but said it is an issue the administration takes seriously. She said the report was comprehensive and ''communicates what the scientists are telling us.''

That includes:

-- Increased heat deaths and deaths from climate-worsened smog. In Los Angeles alone yearly heat fatalities could increase by more than 1,000 by 2080, and the Midwest and Northeast are most vulnerable to increased heat deaths.

-- Worsening water shortages for agriculture and urban users. From California to New York, lack of water will be an issue.

-- A need for billions of dollars in more power plants (one major cause of global warming gases) to cool a hotter country. The report says summer cooling will mean Seattle's energy consumption would increase by
146 percent with the warming that could come by the end of the century.

-- More death and damage from wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters and extreme weather. In the last three decades, wildfire season in the West has increased by 78 days.

-- Increased insect infestations and food- and waterborne microbes and diseases. Insect and pathogen outbreaks to the forests are causing $1.5 billion in annual losses.

''Finally, climate change is very likely to accentuate the disparities already evident in the American health care system,'' the report said.
''Many of the expected health effects are likely to fall disproportionately on the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the uninsured.''

The report was required by a 1990 law which says that every four years the government must produce a comprehensive science assessment of global warming. It had not been done since 2000.

Environmental groups got a court order last summer to force the Bush administration to produce the document by the end of this month. Hays said the White House has preferred issuing studies on individual global warming issues, such as an agricultural effects report that was released on Tuesday.

''It's totally begrudging,'' said Rick Piltz, director of Climate Science Watch at the nonprofit Government Accountability Project, a whistleblowers' organization. ''It's important the government go on record honestly acknowledging this stuff.''

------

The science report:

http://tinyurl.com/4hojv5

On a happier note - I have been taking pictures of my Wisteria as it began to bloom this year. Last year was our first year in the house and the blooms were shortly after my Dad's funeral so I never really took the time to enjoy them - this year I have and the vine seems to have liked the trimming I did as it is loaded with blooms.

Sorry about the poor quality of pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.ca/dmd2921/Wisteria2008

Talk about a Friday News Dump. Four years late and released in the dead of night.

Love the pictures, dmd. Do keep the wisteria trimmed so that it doesn't take over your whole world.

Yello, what do you expect from this administration? I must say I'm rather glad I won't be around in 2080, though.

Running for the bus. My wife and a bottle of riesling await me on our back deck. Everybody have a good weekend.

Scotty, I'll return the wet vac on Monday.

Does anyone else notice the face in the photo of the supernova. Its part of the blue. Maybe I have just been focusing closely on for too many hours...

dmd, the pictures are so lovely. someday, I tell you. Someday. Wisteria, tea roses, rhodies, and azeleas, such are my flowery dreams. And hydrangeas that will last for years and years. But then I dream of dishes that do themselves too.

See I told you I have been focusing too hard.

MSNBC is rotating the photos at the top of that story, dmd. Currently Mr. Evans is shown. Who is yours in the competition?

DLD

yup, It is still there. OK , I can't just be me seeing that. It almost looks like a certain curmudgeonly sort, if you were a small child looking up at him from just one step to his left. Only with curlier hair. Or so I assume, never having looked up at Mudge from floor level.

dmd,
What a lovely wisteria lane you have.

dr, I see a face, too -- blond hair, blue face, green eyes. I don't know if it's the same one you're seeing though. Mine is narrower-faced, with a long chin. Kind of an elongated blond Jay Leno, looking to my left.

dmd, I've been meaning to tell you how gorgeous the wisteria is. I'm too timid to try it - afraid it would take over my entire place.

I'm excited because my last surviving agapanthus, in a container, is sending up flower buds. Saw them yesterday. It hasn't bloomed in a couple of years. The ones I put in the ground have disappeared - or maybe they're waiting to surprise me some year. At any rate, if they're still alive they're indistinguishable from the daylilies that have taken over.

dmd, lovely. :-)

CP, sounds like a perfect weekend rolled up into a day.

Ivansmom, I saw this and thought of you!http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11410011

This is the first in many years that I'm planting 'maters. Cages? Stakes, tied with rags? What works best?

I'd planned on Friday afternoon at the movies again, but stopped in Hagstoz & Sons on Sansom Street (where all the hippies used to meet in Philadelphia), also known as Jeweler's Row.

While they don't have the range of one of the mega-supply stores, they keep what they carry in stock. Sometimes touching this stuff prior to purchase is good! Plus, now that I'm without a full studio, being able to call and have them draw silver rectangular wire to order (width, gauge) is pretty wonderful. Cuff bracelets all around!

Now, to the gym, I think. Then to build level 3 of the raised bed garden. Planting tomorrow?

Have a good night, all.

Minnesota Republicans have taken leave of their senses. The big speakers at the state convention, which commenced today, are Gov. Pawlenty (T Paw) and Karl Rove. Did they really want to knife Sen. Norm Coleman (R) like that? Who could possibly be swayed by Rove? Certainly not the Paulites who were rallying outside the hall. They were mad because the Reps declined to allow Ron Paul to speak. Knowing he doesn't stand a chance they are still fighting for delegates so that he'll be allowed to speak at the national convention.

Who Coleman's Democratic opponent will be is still somewhat an open question. Franken has some 'splainen to do about a "sexually explicit satirical piece written for Playboy eight years ago." Reminds me of how some in VA tried to bring up the smutty bits in Jim Webb's novels. So the guy writes leaden s3x scenes? Which makes me wonder, could this scandal hurt Franken because he writes smut too well?

Back from town and what an ordeal. School is out so all the summer people were clogging roadways, store aisles, and the wonderful nursery I've been used to having to myself as I peruse the plants. Just a few odds and ends and then it's time to crack open some Bohemian Highway Merlot. No idea if it's any good, but it was a gift and I don't look gift wine in the cork.

DLD - the picture on the MSNBC story when I posted was of a 10 year old girl from Ancaster = they describe her in the story as covering her face with her hands when she thinks.

Thanks for the comments about the Wisteria - I love it but I quickly learned last year it is a very high maintenance plant = at least three trims last year = and it is very messy - good thing the flowers are beautiful and it smell nice.

bia, I think I see that face too.

I'm not crazy!

Mudge's grand is graduating from high school, it's the younger sib who has the newly minted kinder arts degree.

How many of you have rode into town with six-shooters, 3-day beards, and an bad attitude just beggin' to be locked up for all the laws you've broken?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/22/AR2005052200963.html

Wilbrod, fortunately (for them) that's the wealthy side of the clan. My side lives across the tracks in the working stiff part of town.

BTW, the Boodle has entered a time warp again. My posts at 8:32 and 8:36 were posted at 7:32 and 7:36. And right now it is 8:23.

I hate it when they start messing with the space-time continuum.

Watching the original M*A*S*H on AMC channel.

Call me hyper-sensory, but WHY oh WHY must every childrens' toy make noise? As if a six year old doesn't make enough noise all by her lonesome.

I think these toy designers should be forced to sit in a room with their toys, a couple of representatives of their target demographic, and just TRY to watch the evening news.

I have a feeling many a goatee would be pulled out hair by hair.

Now that I've missed the news, I get to watch "Ghost Whisperer" and try to pretend that I'm not watching only to ogle Jennifer Love-Hewitt's curves.

With an incessantly talking toy train circling the living room.

I can't win for losing.

Sorry, not seeing a face (even my own).

A while ago I mentioned my granddaughter's graduation tomorrow. I can report that I have now been thoroughly briefed about her subsequent graduation party to be held at her house Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Pay heed:

150 people, more or less.
1 very large tent has been rented and set up.
12 tables of 10 seats each under the big top. (One assumes a dance floor and DJ.)
Fully catering by Famous Dave's BBQ.

My wife and I are to arrive about 11 a.m. to help with the logistics and set-up, etc.

I am soooooooo glad I don't have to pay for anything like this.

This just in: the "deal" to return all the children to their parents in the Texas polygamy compound on Monday has just collapsed.

No, Maggie, somebody at WaPo has been messing with the space-time continuum again. My posts were submitted an hour earlier than the stamp says. (It's 8:39 now, and I'm watching the original M*A*S*H on the AMC channel.)

Yes it appears we have shift to Atlantic time.

At least it wasn't a skeleton in the closet.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_re_as/japan_closet_woman;_ylt=AjmqoZQN.pHMvefzNcUSE1JbbBAF

And Mudge, she's graduating from... preschool? (Checking backboodle). My bad. High school. I had like 70 people, no tent, homecooked BBQ.

But for 150 people I can understand the desire not to be grillin' that much.

Let's see if there's an open bar and a DJ. Maybe there'll be a little pirate ride rental.

Weird. My 8:44 post was in reply to Maggie's 9:29. I must be clairvoyant.

Or something.

Is the time stamp screwed up? Wilbrod's post is stamped at 9:01 pm. Say it ain't so, Joe, I got 3 hours of Lost to watch tonight!

SCC: With me, it's always the SCC. I forgot to mention that I posted the above at 8:30 EDT according to my watch and TV, and the posted stamp on it says 9:29.

Is it the result of time disturbance I'm about to encounter when I turn on Lost?

That is quite a shindig they have planned, mudge. Our graduation picnic had a peak attendance of 35. Make sure to show those whippersnappers how to bust a move old school style.

I was blaming my stoopidly slow 'puter, Maggie, but I think there may be a timestamp anomaly. I posted my post after Mudge's, but it shows up before it.

I switched to the kitchen 'puter, so maybe a P4 that actually has sufficient RAM will make the difference.

Good news... just got confirmation on a *very* large order of fairy doors from a customer (and friends) in Germany.

Them darn Germans are vunderful peoples.

And I can now make the mortgage payment.

Ausgeseichnet Herr martooni! Viel Gluck mit der Fairy Doors.

Or is it das...

/checking my PC for any time-warping mini-black holes/

I just backboodled to see Mudge's reply... I thought the boodle had up and died. It's not 9 pm here yet, and wasn't when I posted. That's... Bermuda time or something.

Baseball bat story:

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-bats052908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

So while my wife and daughter are visiting the in-laws in Myrtle Beach my son and I are watching, wait for it, Sweeney Todd. My son has this thing for Tim Burton films.

Anyway, there is this scene in the movie when the flaxen-haired residents of an insane asylum are allowed to take vengeance on the abusive warden.

Or, as my son put it, "It's like Night of the Living Dead...but with blondes!"

There may be hope for the lad yet.

Does anyone know what time it is?
Does anyone really care?

We're not sure.
Apparently.

9:01

Loomis

I just wanted to say Happy Birthday to you before going to bed. I do hope your day was everything you wanted it to be. And here's to many more.

Just got back from visiting my family. A lot of folks sitting outside, and trying to keep grief at a distance. I so dreaded going, but was okay after getting there. I did not stay long because I wanted to get back before dark.

Mudge, I'll be thinking about you and the clan. Enjoy yourself and use all the tissue you need.

Goodnight, boodle. Sweet dreams.

25 or 6 to 4.

Just finished 'The Great Debaters' Great movie. Awesome. I cried.. I clapped, yeah that's right I clapped... Stellar performances by Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker. A couple of up and coming stars as well in the younger cast members. Put this in your NetFlix cue...

RD... my German stinks, so I don't know if you called me a stinky bum or said something nice. If it was something nice, thank you. If not... well... vee can meet at zee bike rack after zee recess and settle zis like men.

I got a thing for Tim Burton films, too. Especially "Nightmare Before Christmas". Even Little Bean and Mrs M. like that one. And "Edward Scissor Hands"... Good thing he kept to shrubberies, otherwise I'd cringe at the mere thought of the damage he might inflict.

Oo! Oo! Ice cream! Mrs M. just pulled out a pint of Rocky Road!

Needless to say, I gotta run.

Peace out, peeps :-)

Just testing before shuffling off to dreamland...

It looks like we shifted from EDST to CDST at around 8PM.

They must be really confused in parts of Indy

I just watched Half Nelson; it was about what I expected. Depressing, but cathartic in a way. Those people who are gifted but screwed up, brilliant but enslaved to addiction--I know why they fascinate us so: it's because we're all struggling to live up to our potential, and few of us ever do. Those extreme cases are just all of us, magnified.

I was on the Daily Princetonian site this afternoon and that led to a Vanity Fair profile of Barack Obama, written by one of Joel's classmates, Todd Purdum. Obama may be a person who has a chance to realize his potential and really do some good in the world. (Nicotine addiction notwithstanding.) I am satisfied, after reading this article, that he is sufficiently "experienced" to handle the position of POTUS.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/03/obama200803

Mudge, congrats to you and yours, sir.
And enjoy all the good eatin' this weekend.

martooni, congrats on the fairy door order. We love Tim Burton movies over here, too. "Nightmare" is the clear favorite, my oldest dresses up as Sally for Halloween every few years, and I have a Jack key fob... I don't think they'd like "Ed Wood," though I think the oldest *may* go for "Mars Attacks" (and I had never seen that until recently, tip o' the Martian bubble helmet to Scottynuke for that).

As far as the timestamp problem goes, er, I haven't been field-testing the black hole-powered Memory and White House e-mail Brain Blooper today. I think.

And I cannot confirm the rumors that it's an all-black monolith with the apparent (to humans) physical dimensions of 1 by 4 by 9, or that it looks like an HD TV when mounted on the wall. I call it Boodle Memory Adjuster-1 (aka BMA-1).

I saw a story about Neil Young's biodeisel Lincoln about a month ago in one of the car rags. An interesting project, and one guranteed to help one put on weight. I don't think I could drive a car with exhaust fumes that smell like french fries without being hungry *all* the time.

Good night, boodle.

bc

I can't resist the potential time warp. It is 9:39 pm here. congrats on der Deutsches fairy door order, martooni - I'd go with "dem" fairy doors, RD, just for the sound of it.

The Boy has a friend over. The boys have been fed (several times), the dog and rabbit have been separately fed and watered, the vegetables and herbs are watered, and a handful of blackberries are picked. The dishes are done. Many many emails were perused. This is not as worthy a litany as college parkian's (I bow to you) but good enough that as soon as Ivansdad returns from rehearsal I will be off to bed. Fortunately both boys agree to the House Rule of sleep between midnight & 12:30 am (no staying up till 3 here). They're watching School of Rock and I bet they don't make it till the end.

Mudge, enjoy tomorrow (and the shindig Sunday). It sounds like a wonderful day.

Martooni, I said "Excellent! Good luck with the Fairy Doors!"

But you probably got that last bit.

Neil Young is converting a 1959 Lincoln to biodiesel:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/neil-young-47020413
and making a documentary about it. A colleague of mine heard Neil was in town where the work is being done, and went to see if he could catch a glimpse of him. He wound up getting his autograph and was pretty excited to have gotten to chat with him a bit. Said he looked to be in great shape. Pretty kewl.

6:44 PDT

Cool. My 9:41 (CDT) posted at 10:41 and about five posts up.

RD, enjoy "Sweeney Todd". The Ivansclan watched it together a few weeks ago, and we all liked it. We've seen the other filmed versions too and Ivansdad has seen the stage show. Lotsa critics seemed unhappy because Burton's wasn't a definitive version. Nope, but it sure is vintage Burton and can be greatly enjoyed for what it is. The Boy still goes around singing "Worst Pies in London".

Hi mostlylurking! Just chatted with my sister down in Orting. Sounds like you have a beautiful evening out there. I hope you enjoy it!

My 8:10 was in response to Wilbrod's 9:01. Wonder when this will show up, and is it BC's doing?

A quick search revealed we have cheap friends. Bohemian Highway 2004 Merlot can be purchased for $5.99-$8.99. However, I must say this is one good wine. Just bordering on sweet without being sweet.

Toodles boodle, can't keep up with the posts bouncing around.
2210 CDT

It is a beautiful evening here. The temperature needs to be just a smidge higher, but I can't complain.

Hey, just watched Sweeny Todd. Certainly keeps your interest. The music is light and airy for such a dark display.

Mudge, you and the mrs watch out for those sweet blue jay chicks. They get big and noisy but oh so regal.

It has been so windy here I think it's turing into Wyoming. I had to walk to a building high on a hill yesterday at work and a gust of wind is stuck in my ear. Drat!

Good for TWP--the front page has a picture of a fuel cost protest im Eurpoe. Right on.

SCC...uh, that would be Europe.

When do we finally find out about the Deathly Hallows on "Lost?"

I have NO idea what time it is because I have just finished watching 3 hours of Lost.

My reaction: very few commercial interruptions (yay!) and lots of explanations. A few conundrums remain. For 1, when did we first learn of Jeremy Bentham? I looked at Lostpedia.com, and I found nothing.

Dreamer, avert your eyes.

Basically, Maggie, we only learned about Bentham in that episode. However, way back when (in the flash forward when Jack meets Kate at night at the overlook and tells her they have to go back, he shows her a newspaper clipping of an obit. That's the obit for "Jeremy Bentham," though no one knows or says it. But some Lostie types blew up a clip from that and could make out the guy's name started with a B or Bent, like that. But basically we didn't know the name Bentham until that episode you saw. Of course, we've known about the mysterious body in the coffin for a couple months, with no name attached to it.

OK, what time is it?

oh my, time warp again.

i made it back to the left coast yesterday from my several day stint back east. still catching up. hope y'all had a good long weekend and a good short work week. happy friday. or saturday. whatever day or time it is.

hmmmm. my last message previewed with the right EDT time but posted an hour later.

What I liked most about Sweeney Todd were all the fingerless gloves. CP, dr, take note. I could have down without the meat grinding. Really. I do like Tim Burton movies, though.

Just had a scare with my cable modem. Thought I might have to call Comcast in the morning. I've begged them to replace this dratted modem, but no, they always tell me it's working fine. Grrrr.

All this talk about time made me realize...I got up at 2am to jot down a quick idea that popped into my head in between dreams. And it is now 5am. I'll be a mess at the T-ball game today.

Good morning, all.

Here's something funny for the weekend.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/broward/sfl-worst-album-ugc,0,5066300.ugcphotogallery

I missed more timestamp fun?? No fair!!!!

*stompin' feets*

Celtics are in the NBA Finals! Way to go, guys! :-)

Well, it's gonna be a wonderful weekend, I can tell. Gotta dig up the newly cleared-out flowerbed to uncover some leaky pipes so's the plumber can work on them Monday. *SIGH*

*slow-and-methodical-so-as-to-save-my-shoulders-for-digging Grover waves*

6:01 EDT :-)

Morning boodle. I'm off for a bicycle ride. I've imagined up a new route called Park to Park. I will ride to Centennial Park, through Ellicott City and then at Ilchester Road there is a new pedestrian bridge and paved path that will take me out to US1 and then back home. I hope it ends up being about twenty miles.

I better remember to take a power bar with me.

*peeking*

Is the time fixed yet?

G'morning everybody.

It's 8:15 and Mr. T is still abed. I didn't get up till almost 7:30 myself. Just love a day to sleep in!

Yello, have a safe and fun ride.

Mudge, I hope you have a happy celebration and a good time with the fam.

a bea c, those covers were...awful!

mostly, check out the RadioShack sales every week for a while. They put cable modems on really good sales, and it's a lot less than monthly rental charges. :-)

Nothng normal ever happens to daughter #2. She was walking her dog Friday morning when another dog came along and in the act of playing with daughter's dog, ran fulll force into my daughter. Her knee is broken. Part of the tibia fractured and slid off (I may not be describing this properly or well). After xrays and a cat scan at the local hospital, a friend of hers called an orthopedic surgeon he knew who somehow happened to be in the area. The surgeon said that the surgery she needed was specialized and not something the local hospital could handle, so he went to the hospital and transported my daughter in his truck to the hospital he works at. She is having surgery this morning. The worst part of this is that my daughter waitresses all summer at a very busy waterfront place and she depends on this as a large part of her yearly income. Not this year. She will be on crutches for the entire summer.

8:52 am EDT

Good morning, all.

Looks like some rain coming in today, hopefully it won't affect anyone's parades.

Have a safe and enjoyable day, all.

And Scotynuke, take it easy on your back, my friend.

bc

Phoenix has figured out a way to reach and teach the young'uns:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/science/space/31mars.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

http://twitter.com/MarsPhoenix

mostly, check out the RadioShack sales every week for a while. They put cable modems on really good sales, and it's a lot less than monthly rental charges. :-)

g'morning boodle. I see we are still in multiverse mode with comments appearing one place at first, then bouncing about. Have an enormous bit of house cleaning ahead of me, along with lawn mowing but the weather promises to cooperate and I'd rather be industrious in pursuits that don't require thinking, or at least not much. Thought I was having a good mayor day yesterday until I found out the chief of our volunteer fire department resigned. I'm only peripherally involved, the members will have to elect someone new, but the transition will be tough.

Mr. F has taken Bess (my Miata) to get an oil change in preparation for her big move north. They depart on Wed. and will arrive in St. Paul on Friday afternoon. That I am letting him drive my sleek green beauty up here just shows the scales have finally tipped in his favor. I still have grave doubts that my clutch will survive, and he follows too close, but in the grand scheme of things I guess I am more attached to him than the car.

0813 CDT

My ride ended up taking 26 miles. But the beautiful view along about 8 miles of the Patapsco River is worth the long uphill slog home. Baltimore City is having a charity ride called Tour dem Parks next week with 12, 20, 30 and 60 mile rides. I may have to register.

Bad sneaks,
That sounds like an awful injury. I hope dot#2 recovers fast and can get back to normal. Orthopedic surgeons are miracle workers these days. Sorry to hear that her summer is ruined.

Proctor and Bergman wrote Americathon?! Thanks, RD, I will hunt it down.

Wilbrod, you have explained what I "heard" the night I realized I could detect the motion of the moon traversing the sky so slowly. I could have sworn I heard a "whish" sound.

The name Fess Parker thing always makes me think of Festus (Ken Curtis). Previously I mocked the Germans for being avid collectors of his old albums. Before I heard him actually sing. How surprised I was by this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXQAgzfwuNQ

Again our station would like to remind our viewers of our "no SCC" policy for Jumper's typos. We assume the audience understands he can spell "emperor" but just hit the wrong key. We now return you to your classic movie hit.

No, Jumper, I can't say that I'm familiar with Buffalo ginger ale. Wonder if it was affiliated with Blenheim ginger ale? That stuff is so hot I can't drink it, but 2nd dottir's boyfriend is addicted.

Sneaks, so sorry to hear about your younger's accident. Hope she heals quickly! Do I remember that she and her significant other were going to move to Central America?

Slyness, I recently found a trove of old bottles circa 1939 to 1965, I'm guessing, and among them are a couple of Buffalo brand ginger ale. With Charlotte NC on the side. The internet has let me down. Ring any bells with you? I met one guy who said it rings a bell from his childhood, and claims that's the last he ever thought of it.

DNA girl, thanks for those Phoenix links.

I found this montage showing the Phoenix landing site, taken from the Mars Recon Orbiter:

http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=080527-phoenix-overview-02.jpg

Couple of quick items this morning:

The DNC is supposed to "hash out" the FL and MI delegates and what they may or may not do at the convention.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/30/AR2008053002974.html

Though I'm registered "Unaffiliated" and am not a resident of FL or MI, I hope for the fairest possible ruling (though I can't say I know exactly what that would look like).

A Question for the Boodle: Will this matter in the end, and why? [Feel free to make comparisons to the 2000 Presidential Elections, though I'm not sure how I'd make them stick, myself.]

bc

bc-This matter will end in time for Obama to declare victory on Tuesday in St. Paul, where he is scheduled to speak at the X-Cel center. Interesting in your face move to McCain since this is where the Republican convention convenes in September.

Now on to how it will end. Best case, someone is able to broker a deal that saves face for HRC and reminds her that "legalistic" is not a complimentary adjective. Another reminder that the XFL folded primarily because Americans do demand rules and good sportsmanship would probably be appropriate but her most ardent, supposedly feminist, supporters would just say "there you go again, communicating in guy only sports metaphors." An appeal to vanity, like "being the next Ted Kennedy is a great and much longer term gig" may work along with some help with her campaign debt.

Worst case, Hilary sets women back a couple decades and destroys the chance of overwhelming victory for dems this fall. Fair or not she is the "first" and there are special above and beyond demands on firsts, and one of those is not coming across as a whiner, even when complaints are justified. In other words, she's no Jackie Robinson. You play the game the way it's played now, and work to change it for those who come after. If you're lucky enough to still be on the team when the rules change in your favor, great.

In more direct response to your question-I think the rules committee will apportion the delegates in a way that is favorable to Clinton, but not so favorable that the Obama campaign opposes it. She will try to leverage the bump in her pledged delegate count to win over super-delegates who won't be swayed. Bill will say ill considered things about power brokers, she will whine about an undemocratic process and this will go on long enough for stupid people everywhere to think Obama is backed by fat cats instead of all those little donations from previously unmotivated voters that have really fueled his run. I don't know who will win the general elections, but HBO would be insane not to have a writer working on Recount II.

RD - this is one woman in the supposed strong Hillary demographic that largely agrees with your 12:33 assessment. I can't say I thought she would be a good President, simply because there has always just been too much Clinton baggage to make for a successful HRC presidency. But I always liked her and thought that there really was a vast right wing conspiracy unfairly aimed at her. However, her initial support for sanctioning Florida and Michigan when she needed New Hampshire and Iowa and then abandoning that position when she needs Florida and Michigan is one cynical political ploy too much for me. I understand that politicians are all at one time or another cynical in their machinations, but geez...this stinks to high heaven. Comparing what's happening now in Florida to what happened in 2000! Criminy!

That and the way she said, "as far as I know" when she was questioned about Obama being a Christian just sealed the deal for me. Not a fan any longer.

Wow, slyness answered Jumper's 10:50 at 10:45.

I think drug abuse is a symtom of deeper problems and the money wasted on prisons and the "Jihad on Drugs" could be better spent.
I wonder how Bloombergs "War on Violence" is going.

It's still crazy time in the A-blot. My reply regarding RD's 1233 was posted at 1213 which is the time I actually posted. Does that make sense? So I guess RD posted at 1130 really? Whacky.

Mudge and Maggie - I don't get to deep in the weeds with all the Lost stuff, but this was interesting info....

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2008/05/lost_dueling_analyses_theres_n.html?hpid=entnews

Since the Kit still deals with McClellan, there is a snippet of news on our op-ed page today, written by Gary Martin, Washington D.C. correspondent for the Express-News--beyond what was in the Wiki info to which I provided a link (Kit's second post).

Barr McClellan (he doesn't use his first name of Oliver) is a native of San Antonio.

The Wiki link mentions that Barr McClellan lives in Mississipi. According to Martin, the father McClellan has a new book out that follows his 2003 book, "B1ood Money & Power: How LBJ Killed JFK"--which sold 100,000 copies. Martin say's Barr's new book "Made in the USA" is an analysis of the outsourcing of American jobs to foreign countries and its impact on the U.S. economy and will compete with his son's nonfiction work in books stores nationwide. Surely Martin must be joking.

Terribly sorry to learn this morning, via the crawl on CNN, that Lorenzo Odone is dead at the age of 30 from pneumonia, after getting food stuck in his lungs. He was the subject of the film "Lorenzo's Oil" with Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon.

The Odones challenged Lorenzo's genetic disorder every conceivable way that they knew how, extended their son's life expectancy by decades, and their hard work benefitted many of the boys born with the X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy.

frostbitten - that is the most clear-headed analysis of this mess I have ever read.

I'm just steeling myself for the inevitable righteous outrage from those whose limited deck consists of nothing but the gender card.

jumper - Regarding Americathon, remember - to quote Pink Floyd - I was really drunk at the time.

Heading down to the basement now to try and clean it. I just hope I can find my way back.

Thanks Slyness. Yes, they are getting married the end of October and are planning a move to Costa Rica sometime after that. They are building a small house down there and were supposed to go down to pick out colors and other things in a few weeks. Now, of course, she won't be going but I think he is still planning to go so that the building isn't held up. A little nervous waiting to hear how the surgery went. She was lucky to find this surgeon. I think she would have been transported to a Boston hospital otherwise.

Been listening to some of the DNC hearings while doing chores. I wish this thing was over!!!
11:32 am EDT

You know, the tragedy of this for me is that I used to really *like"* Hillary Clinton. I thought she would be a good president. But the self-serving tone and tortured logic of her arguments have just left me disillusioned and cold.

Hey, all. Have been lurking recently and now finally have a wee bit of time to post. Haven't back-boodled much, but just enough to wish all well. Terrible about your daughter, Sneaks. My knees cringe in sympathy.

Of course, I'm a bit testy this morning, having witnessed my Pistons losing YET AGAIN in the conference finals. Geez. I feel particularly unhappy for Antonio McDyess, who has never won a championship and has horrific knees -- this may have been his last chance. {expletive}

That being said, I honestly do think that the Red Wings are gonna win the Stanley Cup. They have to win tonight in Pittsburgh, so they can bring that Game 5 home to Detroit ice and win it all. Oh, people, do indulge me. This is wonderful.

And, yes, they are only games, but it is fun to be part of it. In fact, to demonstrate just how flexible I am, my dear friend who is originally from Massachusetts (and has been wearing a Celtics jacket throughout the playoffs) has invited me over when the finals start to watch the Celtics eviscerate the Lakers. Both of us despise Kobe Bryant (primarily, but not exclusively for his off-court, um, "activities") and I am not at all averse to now support the Celtics -- the team that beat my team. Like I said, it's only a game.

So there.

Tornado watches throughout the day here. It was awfully humid at my local farmers market down the street, but I got my stuff and now I'm settled into my air conditioned condo (until the power goes out (crossing fingers that that doesn't happen)) and doing some relaxing after a frenetic week.

I'm now doing what I promised myself months ago to do -- rereading John LeCarré's Karla Trilogy (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; Smiley's People). I've about 20 or so pages to go in the first book, and am about to get into Schoolboy -- a book I remember as being incomparably sad, but really fantastic in spite of and probably because of that sadness. I've got the videos of Alec Guinness as Smiley (whom I thought completely captured him), but Schoolboy has never been filmed, to the best of my knowledge. Even knowing who the players are, and who the mole is, and all of that, does not diminish the power of these books. I highly recommend them.

Gonna go make some lunch. Be well, fellow boodlers.

Found a bit on the Buffalo ginger ale...

I didn't WANT to be an old bottle collector. Now I am one... The old Nugrape bottles I found are odd, too. I'll find 'em a good home, then.

This campaign year, the primaries were earlier, but the convention dates will be about the same. It's the longer uncertainty period that makes people want the Dem process to end sooner. This seems obvious, but the pundits I've seen have not touched on it.

Second attempt to tell RD I feel the exact same way about Hilary. I was ready to vote for her until she started to wear her cloak of inevitability too comfortably. I'm so glad I held my tongue on some trash talking to Mr. F, who loathes HRC in a most unreasonable manner. Going on about "tortured logic" being better than tortured people isn't as witty as it seemed before McCain became the presumptive Rep. nominee.

i tried to post yesterday at 6:15ish. got a message telling me my comment was being held by blod owner for approval. it never showed up.

so much more has been posted since then.

slyness, dmd, other gardeners -- post was catching y'all up on my current gardening projects and where i'm currently living.

also discussed the stonehenge stuff. will wait and see if this posts before i try the full one again. perhaps i've been gone so long from the boodle that it rejected me!!

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ.

Morning, morning, friends. Bad Sneakers, I hope your daughter's surgery goes well, and that she mends quickly.

Martooni, Scotty, Slyness, Mudge, and all, good morning *waving*.

I'm still trying to figure out if I should attend the funeral. I may just go.

I read a really good article on the front page of the Post or the magazine about the change in the sentencing laws in regard to crack cocaine and other drugs. This story was about a young man name Micheal Short, who spent almost twenty years in prison for 65 grams of crack. I think murderers get less, although I used to think one should line all them up and shoot them, drug dealers that is. They kill a community and children's lives are forever damaged by drugs. Yet I also see how some of those sentences were in the extreme.

Have a great day, folks. Hope to talk to you later.

This is so weird.

SCC my 12:21 - TOO deep in the weeds

Really weird, boko. I'm easily confused so this is a nightmare for me.

I think drug abuse is a symtom of deeper problems and the money wasted on prisons and the "Jihad on Drugs" could be better spent.
I wonder how Bloombergs "War on Violence" is going.

Posted by: Boko999 | May 31, 2008 12:19 PM

Second try. Maybe it didn't like the cut and paste job above.

That was the 3rd try

Hi Kim!

This is the kind of thing you'd expect if bc had a time machine. I'll go check his blog for signs of nefarious doings.
12:30 PM
Honest!

Hi boko! Can you tell that I am at work and it's very quiet today? Let me know if bc is up to some nefarious shenanigans.
it's 12:40 where I am...let's see where I end up.

Wow. Wall of water outside. Massive thunderbolts. Shivering dog hiding under my feet. Rabbits seem undisturbed. I guess they are made of sterner stuff.

My 11:55 comment just jumped back 7 comments to the correct EDT time. Yipes, I've probably triple posted the same thoughts to triple the usual number of universes.

Just back from bc's.
Nothing more nefarious than trying to convince people that the universe is a giant doily. His usual schtick:-p

It's not really a doily, it just looks like one. I've seen the pictures.

October 26, 4004 BC, 9:00 AM

weird -- none of my posts are showing up. boko999's 2:03 post appeared at 1:06

nelson, I see you at 1:06, doesn't that show up for you?

Oddly unsyn'ed conversation. Here is a link to a garden play list on my gardening blog.

The rain is coming down. Flowers are glad. I am heading down to the battle station at sump pump II.

You can get a playlist generator from the post by clicking on the player. As far as I can tell, this dis-aggregated playlist does not violate copyright laws. I'll let you know if I discover otherwise.

A student sent me a playlist as a "thank you for teaching me" gift. I like digital gifts!

Enjoy. Ry Cooder, Joan Baez. Neil Young. June Carter. John Fahey. Harry Belfonte....etc. Must have a plant or flower thingie to qualify,.

Stay dry.
http://minxterbloom.squarespace.com/display/ShowJournal?moduleId=1360075&SSScrollPosition=348

kim -- it just now showed up. i went to another website -- then came back. but the one from last nite is gone for good.

will reconstruct it later. don't have the stomach to watch/listen to the dnc meeting today.

i too used to have a lot of respect for hrc. but so many comments and behaviors have really poisoned my attitude towards her.

the stuff about mccain being better presidential material than obama. the thrilling "corkscrew" landing during wartime in bosnia that wasn't. and her self-serving position changes on the rules that were laid down early in the campaign about michigan and florida.

i very much like what howard dean said when he kicked off the proceedings today. it's not about the candidates personally -- it's about the country!

that said, i do think obama will be the nominee and hrc will eventually rally her troops for him. she doesn't want to be a pariah. even if she does it out of self-interest, she'll do it.

i also disagree with all those polls that show some clinton supporters saying they wouldn't vote for obama in the general. time heals the hot anger of the moment. i doubt any of these people would prefer to see mccain be president.

well, my post showed up instantly, but it jumped an hour ahead! very cool.

CP-I think you have identified the mystery iris. Not Siberian at all. Here's a blogging gardener from Houston with good pictures and her experiences. I had them in my NoVA garden in a perpetually wet spot. http://herselfshoustongarden.com/2007/04/yellow-water-flag-iris-iris-pseudacorus-l.html

On my own Siberian Iris front I discovered, after transplanting my two clumps because they did not bloom these last two years, that this is not uncommon and leaving them in place would have been the thing to do. I've probably delayed bloom another 2-3 years. Ah well, I bought a potted peony in bud yesterday, so I will have peony bloom this year even if I do feel I've cheated. I hope the two plants I bought last year as bare roots don't withold their bloom out of jealous spite.

Great play list!

As my grandfather will say," Better early than out of sequence."

2nd 1:38

I love irises and don't have any here. I must remember to remedy that next year. Let us know when your photos are up, Mostly.

Well, daughter is out of surgery. Doc reconstructed her kneecap 'as best he could' and said it wasn't the first time he had seen this type of injury caused by a dog! I am still getting used to the fact that this happened. When she first called to tell me yesterday, I kept waiting for her to say, "Just kidding." Thanks for the good wishes for her. I know her recovery will be long, but some of you have gone thru similar with your children so... I think I deserve a nap.
3:05 pm EDT

I was listening to NPR today, "The Vinyl Cafe," a Canadian show whose motto is, "We're not big, but we're small" and they had this newsflash: A scientist has named a new spider species after Neil Young.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080508181914.htm

Hey, I've just put up a new kit...sorry to do that out of the blue. It's rainy day behavior.

Missing Dan?
"A refresher on how the press failed the people"

http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=background.view&backgroundid=00255

I think I should apologize to Mr. Froomkin for "channeling McClatchy." That's all he really had to work with on the war and DA scandal.

It may just be coincidence, or my plants really enjoyed the 3 months of cold and constant rain - they're blooming their heads off. I have irises of all kinds that haven't bloomed in years that have flowers. One of my favorites, a Siberian iris called Summer Sky, is blooming much better than it has in awhile. Also a dark purple one called Caesar's Brother (not sure why it's called that, anybody know?), and a white one that hasn't bloomed in ages. I took pictures of Summer Sky - lovely small flowers, light sky blue with yellow and white - must post them to my pathetic blog.

11:56 PDT

New Kit!!! On a Saturday, no less!

nellie, I'll post my blog link when I've got the iris pictures up. I call it pathetic because I blog so rarely it's kind of embarrassing. Thanks for asking.

*BANG BANG BANG*

You're out of order mostly!

Mostly, do post a link to your blog. I cannot find it in my favorites, not even in the subfolder "blogs" where it is supposed to be!

I'm sure somebody already tried to post NEW KIT!
but it just skipped back where peeps can't find it, so
NEW KIT!

New kit - 4:02 Eastern Daylight time.

New kit!

Ha ha, Boko. Let the record show that I posted my reply to nellie *AFTER* her comment! For real.