The Most Interesting Link Here Today. . .

. . .comes from Finland, from the Jalka käytävällä blog. Most of the visitors are from Helsinki, but many others have arrived from Hkansker, Karjaa, Uusikaupunki, Keuruu, Espoo, and other towns, as well as dozens from Denmark.
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Jalka käytävällä
pni • 15.12 2006, 10.47


Tästä kuvasta muistui mieleeni se miten valokuvauksen ollessa vielä ihan lapsenkengissään, ulkona otetuissa kuvissa kadut näyttivät tyhjiltä. Ei ihmisiä, hevosia tai muutakaan liikkuvaa. Ei elämää, vain rakennuksia ja puita. Syynähän oli tietenkin pitkä valotusaika. Hitaastikin liikkuvat kohteet (tummat hahmot vaalealla taustalla) katoavat näkyvistä kun kuvaa valottaa useampien, jopa kymmenien, minuuttien ajan.

Ensimmäisenä ihmisenä katuvalokuvaan on tarttunut heppu joka oli pysähtynyt kengänkiillotukseen kadunkulmassa eräänä päivänä Pariisissa vuonna 1838 (plus miinus vuosi, riippuen lähteestä), juuri kun Daguerre valotti kuvaansa, joka tunnetaan nimellä Boulevard du Temple (katso suurennos täältä).

— en synpunkt —
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Photo: The Knitting Club Gets A Little Out Of Hand

click photograph to enlarge
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Poem: Changes 24/The Turning Point (for S.A.D.)

1.
The time of darkness peaks.
Winter solstice brings a victory of light,
Going out and coming in. On time every time.

We all need somewhere to go.
After a time of decay comes the turning point
When the banished light returns

At its appointed time,
Like the San Juan Capistrano swallows.
Turn turn turn turn.

Thunder within the earth
Is the turning point:
The unwobbling pivot.

The old kings
Closed the passes
At the time of solstice.

Merchants and strangers
Did not go out
And the King did not travel.

2.
Day by day, then, the sun returns
Like the return of understanding
After an estrangement.

In the midst of others,
You walk alone.
In the middle of the road

In the middle of the night
You tread the earth with no regrets
Because this is as good as it gets

And it gets this good
At your command.
Selah.
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The Worst President Ever, Or A Close Second

click to enlarge
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Iraq News: 1) Dems Intel Head Flubs The Quiz; 2) Iraqis Line Up For Saddam Hangman Job; 3) President Bush's Numbers Sink Ever Deeper Into The 'Loo

You have three weeks to get up to speed Silvestre - Rep. Silvestre Reyes of Texas, incoming Speaker Nancy Pelosi's choice to head the House Intelligence Committee pooched a quiz that most of you could have passed. In an interview with Congressional Quarterly, Reyes flunked a test on some extremely basic questions about al Qaeda and Hezbollah (the two terrorist organizations we have focused on since 9/11).

When asked by National Security Editor Jeff Stein whether al Qaeda is one or the other of the two major branches of Islam -- Sunni or Shiite -- Reyes answered "they are probably both," then ventured "Predominantly -- probably Shiite." al Qaeda was actually founded by Osama bin Laden. They consider the Shia infidels. Reyes could also not cogently answer Stein's question on Hezbollah, the Shiite splinter group in Lebanon. He didn't quite know who they were. Read the story on CNN. In a followup on CNN: "Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the Texas Democrat tapped to head the House Intelligence Committee, said Monday that despite failing to answer basic questions about al Qaeda's makeup, he is aware of the threat the terrorist group poses."

The Necktie Transfer - Saddam's death sentence may be under appeal, but hundreds of Iraqis are volunteering to be the person who springs the trap door at his upcoming execution. Click here to read The New York Times story.

The President's Polling Numbers Continue their Descent Into The 'Loo - President Bush's job ratings continue their plunge into the basement. According to Pollingreport.com, the President's latest numbers are grim:

Source-date-% approval-%disapproval:

CBS 12/8-10/06 31 63
USA Today/Gallup 12/8-10/06 38 59
Newsweek 12/6-7/06 32 60
CNN 12/5-7/06 37 57
FOX/Opinion Dynamics 12/5-6/06 38 54
AP-Ipsos 12/4-6/06 33 64
WNBC/Marist RV 11/27 - 12/3/06 37 56
CNN 11/17-19/06 38 59
Quinnipiac RV 11/13-19/06 35 58
AP-Ipsos 11/13-15/06 36 62
CBS 11/12-13/06 34 61
Pew 11/9-12/06 32 58
USA Today/Gallup 11/9-12/06 33 62
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Revelation: President Now Suffers Enuresis--More Trouble Every Day

President Bush is suffering a relapse of enuresis after having been cured approximately forty years ago.

The bed wetting began intermittently around the time of the Scooter Libby troubles. By early November, and the firing of Secretary Rumsfeld, the devasting mid-term elections, and reports the situation in Iraq has become untenable, the enuresis became chronic and acute.

A mistress of Governor Jeb Bush, Heather Hunt, revealed the news in a phone call to Phil Ronson at the All This Is That National Affairs Desk in Washington, D.C. The closely held secret has been kept tightly under wraps since the President's relapse. According to Ms. Hunt, Laura Bush has assumed the task of laundering the first family's linens. Ms. Hunt could not state whether or not the President was undergoing medical treatment for the disorder.


Photograph of The President Around The
Time Of His First Enuresis Cure

Ms. Hunt further stated that the President was a late-adolescent bed wetter until approximately age 19, when his parents flew him to Switzerland for extensive psychiatric and medical treatment, prior to his matriculation into Yale.
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Painting: The Twin Greys From Out There

click painting to enlarge
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Congress shuts down: The end of 12 years of Republican control...

In the headline of this post "Congress wraps up session; curtain comes down on 12 years of Republican control," I use the word control loosely. . .the control was like a frat boy's bowels after a three day bender in Tijuana. Twelve years of runaway G.O.P. House and Senate control have wrought, just off the top my my head: missteps, bungling, hetero- and homo- sexual affairs, gropings, harrassment suits, outright thievery, graft, and kickbacks, setbacks for women, gays, and people of color, tax breaks for the rich we could not afford built on top of social service cuts, the endless cross negotiations and crossed palms for porkbarrel legislation slipped into the margins of legitimate legislation, the continuing march of the middle and lower classes toward the sea, the accelerating deterioration of the safety net and infrastructure, and acceding to a war we cannot win, that is breaking the bank and spirit of America, and always, an Administration relentlessly hammering away at tax breaks for the rich, the one thing that is never tabled, an end to what they cynically call the death tax, and playing footsies with Big Business every step of the way.

As always happens at the end of a legislative session, leaders tried to lump popular items like extending expiring tax breaks with other more contentious measures and the relentless prowl for pork. Good riddance to the 109th! Farewell to Rick Santorum, Bill Frist, and the rest of this pack of jackals.

Of course, now we'll have ourselves to kick around and every eye will be on the Democrats. We have two years to begin to undo the excesses of 12 years of GOP and take back The White House. Watch out McCain, Giuliani, and Romney!
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The Iraq Study Group Unloads More Bad News On POTUS

On Monday, I was enjoying the kind of day George Bush was having. That particular day, his trouble had indeed come in threes. Now, the Baker Commission Report has been released.

They took the middle road on the Iraq invasion and occupation, in many ways. . .and yet, in the end, it is a rehash of every misstep and f***up that has occured since 2001. They took the middle road, but these days even the middle road allows that we have made a grievous mistake oursuing this war. The ISG does not actually point fingers, but they do come up with 79 recommendations--none of which remotely suggest that we stay the course. Interestingly, at least some of the commission are serious Bush partisans. Baker, you might remember, helped him in November 2000, when he lost the popular vote, and the electoral votes were under serious challenge. Sandy Day O'Connor was one of the Supreme votes that went his way, and ended the election in his favor.

The Bush administration was not involved in creating the ISG, but the White House welcomed it, and has provided access to people, documents, and travel to Iraq. I should say The Administration welcomed the styudy group until this week, when their findings were another frontal assault on The President. Following the earlier embarrassments of this week, the study group's finding were just another nail in the coffin. The group has been focused--and their report tows the line--on a forward-looking assessment of the situation in Iraq, including advice on how to fix or ameliorate the disaster.

The Troublemakers:

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III (R) (co-chair)
Former chairman of the House International Relations Committee Lee Hamilton (D) (co-chair)
Lawrence S. Eagleburger, former U.S. Secretary of State ;
Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., Senior Managing Director, Lazard, Freres & Co. LLC;
Edwin Meese, III, former U.S. Attorney General;
Sandra Day O’Connor, former U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice;
Leon E. Panetta, former White House Chief of Staff;
William J. Perry, former U.S. Secretary of Defense;
Charles S. Robb, former U.S. Senator;
Alan K. Simpson, former U.S. Senator.

The Iraq Study Group issued its report on December 6, 2006.
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Painting: Double Skull

click painting to enlarge
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Poem: Changes 23/Splitting Apart

The mountain
Rests on the earth
An image of splitting apart

You ensure your position
By giving generously to those below
A shoal of fishes

And a large fruit still uneaten
The house
Of the inferior man splits apart.
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Is Mitt Romney The G.O.P. Guy? All This Is That calls Mitt Romney The Presidential Frontrunner.

Is Mitt Romney The Guy? From his public appearances, it looks like he's making a run. In my booklet, he's the frontrunner, despite what the conventional wisdon says about McCain. For all the reasons you've already heard. Some people say his biggest downside is that he is LDS--Mormon, a member of the Latter Day Saints. So what? The incomng majority leader is LDS. The Mormons believe in some crazy stuff. I believe in some really crazy stuff. And the rest of you all have your own jangled theology that may or may not in the long run end up being the final word on our situation. We have Mormon senators and governors--this is the next logical step.

Would I vote for Mitt Romney? You gotta be f***ing kidding me. He has taken numerous positions on issues like gay rights that I find repugnant. But he is the guy to watch. I think he's going to move toward the middle. The Republican base--which may no longer, after all, exist following the November 7 election--has nowhere else to go. John McCain, with all his curb appeal just seems to spook a lot of the faithful. Giuliani? People like him in theory, but he is a prickly fellow, and I don't think he could survive the political campaign. And, really, in the eyes of the Republicans he is just barely a Republican. . .
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