Saturday "What I Found on You Tube" Post



Thinking about summer, even down here in Loosiana, where it's been a little on the chilly side...

Sorry for slow posting the last couple of days. Two things: since my father passed away (three years ago--and yes, I still think about him every day) my mom has asked me to play tennis with her in the St. Jude Charity tournament here in Red Stick. By the way, mom plays pretty good tennis, and not simply good tennis for her age. We managed to pull out three wins against good competition AND the weather.

Second thing: today I welcome a new member of the family, courtesy of the pet adoption agency. Meet Tigger:


As you might expect, he's a little on edge with the new place and all, though he did come out from hiding this evening and let me pet/scratch him under his chin, etc.

No, he'll never be sweet Earl, but here's to a long and happy partnership...

The Incredible Shrinking Candidate


Jeffrey has observations and analysis.

Gee Dubya's Manure & Electric Fan Company


At this point, I'd settle for smoke and mirrors instead.

Heckuva Job


So, I guess Cap'n Shrub's either gonna rearrange the deck chairs...or call for more tax cuts for the rich.

But Really, It's not THAT Much Blood...Is It?


I guess that because the surge is so successful, these victims don't count:

A suicide bomber struck Shiites as worshippers prepared Thursday for their most important holiday, killing at least 11 at a mosque in violent Diyala province — one day after a similar attack by a woman in a nearby village.

And just wait until the roughly 70,000 strong Sunni militia(s) decide(s) they've been quite adequately trained and equipped, thank you very much, and mobilize(s) on their own terms.

Oh, but right: the "Surge®" succeeded, so that doesn't count either.

Geez--wingnuts...the brains and attention spans of gnats.

Elwood


According to Oyster and Ryan, Woody Jenkins will run for the congressional seat Richard Baker is vacating. Bad, meet worse.

As I posted in comments at YRHT, I think I threw up in my mouth a little when I read that.

Boehner: They Give Me Bad Food

Rated W.A.T.B.

What really takes this pathetic display over the top is that there are literally dozens (plural) of places to grab lunch or dinner in the immediate vicinity of Capitol Hill, and it's not like Boehner's hurting for cab fare, much less lunch money.

And I'll bet he's a lousy tipper.

Reciepient of the Abdul Aziz Order of Merit, Etc., Etc.


But he still didn't have any heart, brains, or courage.

Maybe It Isn't Actually Extinct


Link.

Food Trivia

Hmmm...it says, "elect a Shrub at your peril"

OK, for a small diversion from the usual here, Pravda-Upon-Hudson features a story about the history of fortune cookies...and who knew they were originally Japanese? According to the article, perhaps a mix and match of West Coast merging of cultures, assimilation...and, um, internment of Issei and Nisei, contributed to the cookie becoming a standard item associated with Chinese restaurants. Interesting.

OK, back to the usual over here...

"Repeatedly Bitch-Slapped by the Invisible Hand"

Not New Orleans

Jeff St. Clair's concluding paragraphs on Michigan and the presidential "primary" reminded me of something I came across while channel surfing a while back. A sports show about a traveling "street ball" basketball team made a stop in Detroit, home town of one of the players, and a feature segement focused on his old neighborhood. Damn--it looked A LOT like the Crescent City post-flood:

In the end, this pathetic primary speaks most loudly about the tragic decline of Michigan and the industrial Midwest, laid low by the bipartisan free-trade policies of the Reagan, Bush/Bush and Clinton era. Michigan has been hit by an economic Katrina, playing out in slow-motion over the past decade and not a politician in the country seems to give a damn about it. Perhaps because their fingerprints are on the wreckage. There's a real conspiracy for you with savage consequences.

Even a century-long flow of defense contracts won't resurrect Flint now.

Sadly, so.

The Rose Mary Woods School of Recycling


Look, this one's a no-brainer: backup tapes simply are NOT erased within an organization that has more than adequate budgetary resources unless you're trying to hide something...like criminal activity. Geez.

I mean, we've been through this...twice. Nixon was lying about the content of the tapes (and almost certainly was responsible for the crudely erased 18 and a half minute gap), Ollie North didn't understand the intricacies of server-hosted email when he decided to have a shredding party. And while you'll never get an argument from me when it comes to Team Bush not exactly consisting of the sharpest knives in the drawer, basic record keeping is an essential function of ANY organization.

Hell, even if, by some exceedingly small chance, it WAS an "innocent" mistake, they deserve to have penalties levied against them on grounds of incompetence. But something tells me it wasn't so innocent.

WWJK


Who would Holy Joe kiss? The article doesn't say it, but the junior Senator from Connecticut had a prominent place on stage during Johnnie Mac's concession speech this evening.

Too bad he wasn't taking notes.

The Dick Cohen Ugly Rumor Mill


Like the pathetic, dutiful little wingnut water carrier that he is, Richard Cohen seeks fulfillment by...trying to conjure up an association between Barak Obama and Louis Farrakhan.

What an astonishingly shallow and stupid article...hey, just the sort of stuff wingnuts can--and WILL--sink their teeth into.

Mike bin Huckabee


After all, theocracy worked so well in Europe back in the day that they called it...the Dark Ages.

The Revolving Door

Baker decides to take the money and run.

Demonstrating where his true loyalties lie, 6th District Representative Richard Baker made it official. He'll bail on the Gret Stet and take a job as CEO of a hedge fund, thus ending a long and thoroughly undistinguished career.

In 22 years, I can only think of a single positive accomplishment--an $18 million dollar Hope VI grant that paid to demolish an absolutely awful public housing block in what's called Old South Baton Rouge/the Bottoms, and replace it with single family homes. In real terms, that was one small drop in an ocean-sized bucket, as anyone who's actually BEEN to the neighborhood can tell you.

Oh, speaking of public housing, remember this?

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."

Asshole.

That said, I'll give him credit for at least proposing the Baker Bill; however, the congressman evidently possessed so little clout that the Bush administration was able to kill it. So much for being the "dean" of the Gret Stet's delegation.

Oh, and I can think of several things offhand that the district truly needs (mainly infrastructure improvement), but for which Rep. Baker hasn't. Done. Squat. Gee, thanks.

About the only other aspect of Baker's career that's somewhat noteworthy is the fact that he faced genuine electoral opposition only twice in two decades, which speaks volumes about American "democracy" these days. Why bother with what amounts to a phoney choice when you can have no choice at all?

And now Baker chooses to ride off into a multimillion dollar sunset just as the economy nose dives. I suppose it's smart for him personally...and, all in all, maybe it will be good for Louisiana in the long run, given that we're at least getting rid of true mediocrity, a representative who couldn't even translate seniority into legislative accomplishment.

"Historic" Near Miss


As noted below, I skipped the inauguration ceremony here in Red Stick, although the F-15's were quite audible here in my humble abode. That said, I couldn't resist a quick look at the aftermath. Besides, the whole shebang was about a ten minute walk and the weather was pleasant: a little on the chilly side, by Loosiana standards (high 50's-low 60's), but not a cloud in the sky.

As I walked up Fourth St., I noticed a crew removing American flags that had been placed for the event: wingnuttia might have gotten all atwitter given that the procedure was more workmanlike than reverential, but hey, it's not like the flags were going to remove themselves. Others were busily taking down the temporary stands put in place for the ceremony. For a minute I thought about seeing if the upper floor viewing deck was open, but decided to skip it...odds are it was closed anyway.

Interestingly, the memorial/grave of Huey (centrally located on the Capital grounds, as you can see in the picture above), had a wreath in front. Upon closer view, it was signed by "The Long Family."

Jindal's speech seems pretty standard at first read: the people are good, corruption is bad, ain't freedom great...as far as delivering what the Gret Stet really needs, I suppose time will tell.

I expect I'll also get to witness some of the egress from the inaugural ball--exiting traffic from the Centroplex/River Center routinely flows through my little neighborhood, as drivers look for a way to avoid traffic (thereby creating traffic in the process).

Let's hope that's not an omen.

Update: Well, no traffic--yet--but damn if some stupid helicopter isn't annoying the hell out of me, flying lazy circles in what I guess is a pattern between the Centroplex and, I don't know, from the looks of it, maybe the Governor's Mansion. Geez. Worse than a lawnmower.

Another Update: So far, it's calm around here...I couldn't resist and walked over to a local watering hole (and yeah, it's nice to FINALLY have some "local watering holes" in downtown Red Stick)...but there was ZERO spillover from the festivities just down the road. Oh well. Tomorrow's a workday. Catch you then.

When a Monkey Meets a Monkey...


Comin' thro' the rye.

After All, Business is Business


Why should something like a little terrorist attack get in the way of of a big deal?

Jesus, Jesus--Why are You Always Getting into Trouble?


Alas, I couldn't resist amping up my outrage meter despite it being an otherwise pleasant day--thanks to the "historic" event, I was given a day off...most probably because it's already going to be a traffic headache with the closed roads, and adding several hundred cars to the mix would make it a nightmare.

Anyway...via Oyster, Ashley, First Draft, and Morwan, I took a look at American Digest's latest exercise in relying on the analytical power of the brain-stem when it comes to New Orleans and the flood.

You know, to me one of the saddest elements of the entire line of genuinely demented thought is that many of the people so disposed somehow manage to warp a veneer of Christianity on top of it all...as if God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and all the assembled saints in heaven decided that compassion was for wussies, and that what New Orleans residents really needed in 2005 was suffering, devastation, loss of property, death...followed by the contempt of their fellow citizens. Sort of an arbitrary "tough love" on an mass scale.

Fortunately for all of us, this is certainly an opinion NOT shared by the vast majority of Americans; nonetheless, the fact that some folks evidently feel ZERO shame in expressing it is troubling. Troubling enough for me to note the following in A.D.'s (no pun intended) comments:

I certainly hope that Mr. Vanderleun and all the others who feel compelled to demonstrate their antipathy towards their fellow citizens will likewise denounce such antiquated notions as, say, the Christian religion. Compassion? Empathy? What for?

After all, Jesus knew what was going to happen, he had plenty of warning, but evidently was too dumb and/or lazy to get the hell outta Jerusalem (you know how THOSE people are). I guess he expected the Roman government to bail him out in the end, but Pilate gave the people a choice...and they chose Barabbas (kind of like choosing Houston--or Metarie--over NOLA, come to think of it).

On the other hand, Judas Iscariot would make a fine symbol of worship for the anti-NOLA crowd: no mere handout for him, but instead, a valuable service for his thirty pieces of silver, pointing out a known troublemaker, hustler, grifter to the proper authorities. He also didn't demand any namby-pamby librul compassion when he'd outlived his usefulness but took matters into his own hands...something I certainly hope the anti-NOLA contingent will know to do once they likewise are no longer fit for useful work. And if the work they're presently engaged in is NOT useful, then let's hope they don't waste any more of our resources: rope, tree, some assembly required.

Christians: geez, they almost dragged the whole enterprise down with their silly empathy and compassion...

Sigh.

Well...I just heard the F-15's pass overhead, which I think means the Jindal administration has officially begun...because what's a more appropriate way to celebrate the peaceful transfer of power than a display of military might? As for me, maybe I'll take a walk that way...then try to knock out some chores. Hopefully I'll also be able to budget in a post or two more. Cheers.