Olbermann on Rumsfeld.
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."- Sir Winston Churchill
"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."- Sir Winston Churchill
"The records I used to listen to and still love, you can't make a record that sounds that way," (Dylan) explains. It is as if having taken his new material down to the crossroads of the recording studio Dylan isn't wholly sure the deal struck with the devil there was worth it. "Brian Wilson, he made all his records with four tracks, but you couldn't make his records if you had a hundred tracks today. We all like records that are played on record players, but let's face it, those days are gon-n-n-e. You do the best you can, you fight that technology in all kinds of ways, but I don't know anybody who's made a record that sounds decent in the past twenty years, really. You listen to these modern records, they're atrocious, they have sound all over them. There's no definition of nothing, no vocal, no nothing, just like -- static. Even these songs probably sounded ten times better in the studio when we recorded 'em. CDs are small. There's no stature to it. I remember when that Napster guy came up across, it was like, 'Everybody's gettin' music for free.' I was like, 'Well, why not? It ain't worth nothing anyway.' ". . .Ah, so that's why Bob made this deal with iTunes. It all makes sense in a typically Dylan way...
On the eve of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush returned to the devastated Gulf Coast today promising to continue federal assistance, and eagerly pointing out signs of progress.George Bush STILL Doesn't Care About Black People:
“It’s amazing, isn’t?” he told a gathering under a sweltering sun. “It’s amazing what the world looked like then and what it looks like now..."
Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass.
I feel pretty,For those of you who care, it turns out the original stage lyrics for West Side Story were "bright" and "tonight" and they were changed to "gay" and "today" for the movie version. You would've thought it was the other way around.
Oh, so pretty,
I feel pretty, and witty and gay (bright),
And I pity
Any girl who isn�t me today (tonight).
Three and a half years ago, on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, commentators across the board agreed that the coming war would be a gamble—“the greatest shake of the dice any President has voluntarily engaged in since Harry Truman dropped the bomb on Japan,” Thomas Friedman called it. The metaphor came up again and again as the war approached. “This is the biggest gamble any President has taken in my lifetime,” a foreign-policy specialist at the Heritage Foundation said. “By accident or design, President Bush has allowed Iraq to become the gamble of a lifetime,” the Washington Post noted. Some viewed the gamble with apprehension. “Whatever this war’s effect on the region, globally it may be an even bigger roll of the dice for the United States than either its proponents or critics have argued,” Charles W. Freeman, Jr., who was the first President Bush’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, wrote. Others were thrilled by the audacity, the swagger, the sheer “High Noon” moral clarity of it all. “This is Texas poker, with the President putting everything on Iraq,” a Republican senator told the columnist Robert Novak, with relish.Forget that Bush gambled on his place in history. He has gambled away lives, money and America's goodwill:
It is in the nature of gambling that the gamble may lose. The dice have now been well and truly rolled, and they have come up snake eyes. The war’s sole real gain—the overthrow of the murderous Saddam Hussein regime—is mocked by the chaos and suffering that have overwhelmed millions of Iraqis, whose country is again a republic of fear. The concrete losses are horrific: nearly three thousand American and “coalition” troops killed; thousands more maimed; scores of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead; a third of a trillion dollars burned through. So are the less tangible ones: the unprecedented levels of anti-Americanism throughout the Muslim world and Europe; the self-inflicted loss of America’s moral prestige; the neglect of real nuclear dangers, in Iran and North Korea, while chimeras were chased in Iraq. The neoconservative project of a friendly, democratic Middle East, with Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace, is worse than a charred ruin—it is a flaming inferno.George W. Bush should no longer be allowed to say his version of "nest-egg": 9/11. He should be looked upon with scorn and contempt should he ever utter a 9, an eleven or a "September."
"Twenty-two, twenty-two, come on back to me, come on back to me!"Our empty-headed President obviously has no plan, no ideas. He's just throwing dice and hoping for a big win. And he hopes that, by playing the fear card (the "if we don't fight them over there" nonsense), he'll be seen as a bold visionary and protector of America instead of the man who has helped make the world a more dangerous place:
At the end of the week, after British authorities foiled what was evidently a large-scale plot to destroy transatlantic airliners and murder thousands of passengers, President Bush called the plot “a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom.” But the war in Iraq is wholly irrelevant to the means chosen by the London terrorists, and the means that thwarted them—dogged police work, lawful surveillance, international coöperation—are precisely those which have been gratuitously starved or stymied on account of the material, political, and human resources that have been, and continue to be, wasted in Iraq. Why not change the game to one that relies less on gambling and bluff and more on wisdom, planning, and (in every sense) intelligence?Or as David Howard said to his wife:
"If you pick up that Keno card, I'll kill you. I'll kill you."
I used to say "I" and "me"
Now it's "us", now it's "we"
Ben, most people would turn you away
I don't listen to a word they say
They don't see you as I do
I wish they would try to
I'm sure they'd think again
If they had a friend like Ben
(a friend) Like Ben
(like Ben) Like Ben
"... deep in your heart, you know the guilt would drive you mad
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
'Cause you start out stealin' songs, then you're robbin' liquor stores
And sellin' crack and running over schoolkids with your car"
"I talked to him about how important this person was to me," Halley recounted, speaking of her husband. "It's not just a soldier who died. Lives are changed forever...I said, `This doesn't make sense to me.'"Think? Our president has no time for thinking.
"He said, `Terrorists killed three thousand people, we had to go to war.'" Halley continued to me. "I said, `Well, who put the Taliban into power? The United States did.' He said, `I'm not going to have a philosphical debate over politics.' The whole conversation was very gentle."
(snip)
"I said, `what would truly bring healing is to start working on changing your policy towards the Middle East...as President, you're here to serve the people. And the people are not being served with this war.'"
She added: "I told him, `It's time as a Christian to put our pride behind us."
Halley said that the President appeared moved by what she'd said, but that she doubted it would bring about any real change. "He cried with me," she recounted. "I feel he responded to me emotionally. I don't know if that's going to change policy. It probably won't. But I hope it makes him think a little bit further."
"We leave before the mission is done, the terrorists will follow us here."- President George W. Bush
"We either fight them there, or we fight them in the supermarkets and streets here."Are you scared America?!?- Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa
"It's just to attract people. There is no intention to hurt anyone," said (owner Puneet) Sablok about his spacious restaurant, which serves pastries, pizza and salad (in New Bombay)...
Deputy PM criticises US handling of Middle East, condemning 'cowboy' President at private meetingJohn Prescott has given vent to his private feelings about the Bush presidency, summing up George Bush's administration in a single word: crap.
The Deputy Prime Minister's condemnation of President Bush and his approach to the Middle East could cause a diplomatic row but it will please Labour MPs who are furious about Tony Blair's backing of the United States over the bombing of Lebanon.
"We're doing a thing called "Orphans," a lot of songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner, about 60 tunes that we collected. Some are from films, some from compilations. Some is stuff that didn't fit on a record, things I recorded in the garage with kids. Oddball things, orphaned tunes."Can't wait...
“I don’t take anything he (Cheney) says seriously anymore. I think that he has been a very counterproductive, even destructive, force in our country and I am very disheartened by the failure of leadership from the president and vice president.”You go girl. But please don't run for president...
(via firedoglake) I just want to say how nice I think it is that the Lamont people are rising above the level of dirty politics being engaged in by the Luddite LieberLiars and their techno-challenged Hail Mary "liberal dogs ate my server" pass in offering to send a competent tech person over to fix Joe’s site.Team Lieberman: Hilariously Incompetent. Oh, and did I mention cheap?!?
The problem could’ve been fixed 15 hours ago if they’d bothered to simply switch their normally low-traffic site to another server when it began, but it seems to be serving their purposes. I’m frankly at a loss to explain their reluctance to accept any help from the Lamont campaign, or secure it for themselves.
Can you say ratfuck?
Matt Stoller has more.
FYI: Colin McEnroe just noted that the Secretary of State had projected 40% turnout this morning, and has now upped it to 50-55%, which is unheard of. You can stream Colin’s show here.
Update: Kos says:[I] have the definitive answer as to why Lieberman’s site went down.
They are paying $15/month for hosting at a place called MyHostCamp, with a bandwidth limit of 10GB. MyHostCamp is currently down, along with all their clients.
Here’s the deal — you get what you pay for. My hosting bill is now over $7K per month. A smaller site doesn’t need that much bandwidth, but if you’re paying $15 because your $12 million campaign is too freakin’ cheap to pay for quality hosting, then don’t go blaming your opponent when your shitty service goes out.
- Dixie Chicks leader singer Natalie Maines, introducing "White Trash Wedding" at a recent concert.
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
"I've had enough of this. Our government sitting on the fence with the U.S. while World War 3 appears to be breaking out in Lebanon and Northern Israel. We must throw Tony Blair out of office NOW. He does not represent the views of the British people. He does not represent the views of his foreign office and officials. He does not even represent the view of those in his cabinet. He cares far too much about his relationship with Bush, and Murdoch. The man is not fit to be our Prime Minister. It's a nice sunny day. Come on, let's do it. You know it makes sense. A vote of no confidence. Or something. Anything."
# The Buggles - Video Killed the Radio Star(Playlist courtesy of stereogum)
# Pat Benatar - You Better Run
# Rod Stewart - She Won't Dance
# The Who - You Better You Bet
# Phd - Little Susie's on the Up
# Cliff Richard - We Don't Talk Anymore
# The Pretenders - Brass in Pocket
# Todd Rundgren - Time Heals
# REO Speedwagon - Take it on the Run
# Styx - Rockin' the Paradise
# Robiin Lane & The Chartbusters - When Things Go Wrong
# Split Enz - History Never Repeats.
# .38 Special - Hold on Loosely
# April Wine - Just Between You & Me
# Rod Stewart - Sailing
# Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
# REO Speedwagon - Keep on Loving You
# The Pretenders - Message of Love
# Lee Ritenour - Mr. Briefcase
# The Cars - Double Life
# Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight
# Robert Palmer - Looking for Clues
# The Shoes - Too Late
# Stevie Nicks & Tom Petty - Stop Draggin' my Heart Around.
# Rupert Hines - Surface Tension
# Madness - One Step Beyond
# Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
# Pat Benatar - I'm Gonna Follow You
# Tom Johnson - Savannah Nights
# Rockestra - Lucille
# Styx - The Best of Times
# Carly Simon - Vengeance
# Iron Maiden - Wrathchild
# Blotto - I Wanna Be a Lifeguard
# Rod Stewart - Passion
# Elvis Costello - Oliver's Army
# REO Speedwagon - Don't Let Him Go
# The Silencers - Remote Control/I'm Too Legal
# Juice Newton - Angel of the Morning
# Rockestra - Little Sister
# Bootcamp - Hold on to the Night
# Cliff Richard - Dreaming
# Lee Ritenour - Is it You?
# Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
# Michael Stanley Band - He Can't Love You
# REO Speedwagon - Tough Guys
# Blondie - Rapture
# The Who - Don't Let Go the Coat
# Rod Stewart - Ain't Love a Bitch
# The Pretenders - Talk of the Town
# Rainbow - Can't Happen Here
# Andrew Gold - Thank You for Being a Friend
# Gerry Rafferty - Bring it all Home
# April Wine - Sign of the Gypsy Queen
# Kate Bush - The Man With the Child in His Eyes
# David Bowie - Ashes to Ashes
# April Wine - Just Between You and Me
# The Specials - Rat Race
# Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime
# Bootcamp - Victim
# Rod Stewart - Tonight's the Night
# Nick Lowe - Cruel to be Kind