Poem: Into The Wind.

Into The Wind
by Jack Brummet



Three pearl grey and ivory herring gulls
Fly south into the wind
Over Puget Sound, wheeling, tumbling,

And losing ground
As shifting currents
Scour the air.

They don’t actually want
To migrate south
So much as not go north.

Something in the gulls'
Inner compass says steer clear
Of Ketchikan, Skagway, and Nome.
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two Jack Brummet drawings - Faces Nos. 136 and 144

click drawngs to enlarge

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The Vera Baker story rapidly fades away

By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor


The "investigation about an alleged rumor," as Mark Ambinder of The Atlantic quoted Slate's John Dickerson, appears to have hit a dead end, and the story and rumors are rapidly running out of gas, despite the semi-respectable Enquirer's efforts to keep the story alive.  It appears that the birthers and teabagger/tea partiers are trying to keep the story alive, but the absence of even a shred of evidence makes that rather difficult.

The Drudge Report moved the story toward the middle of the page last night, and today, pushed it off their main page entirely.  A story too flimsy for Matt Drudge?  Doesn't that pretty much tell you all you need to know?   If it's too flimsy for Drudge, you can bet you can't even blow your nose with this one.

http://jackbrummet.blogspot.com/2010/05/did-bho-play-hide-salami-with-vera.html
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Smoke!

By Pablo Fanque

National Affairs Editor

A portrait of Jack Brummet. . .

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Did BHO play hide the salami with Vera Baker, or did The Enquirer pillage their medicine cabinet again?

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

The story of an alleged Barack Obama affair is based on unconfirmed allegations and the flimsiest possible whisperings.  As you know, however, The Enquirer has broken other unlikely/unbelievable stories in recent years; we're hoping they jumped the gun this time.   It's not a new story; let's face it, it's not even a news story. . .but it's breaking wider this time around. 

Earlier incarnations of the story were usually brushed aside as the ravings or deliberate disinformation of deranged bloggers.  However--and how times have changed!--the Enquirer picking up the story almost grants their (rather dubious)  imprimatur to the rest of the press.  Or at least the rest of the press willing to go way out on a limb.

The story alleged that BHO was caught in a Washington, D.C. Hotel with a former campaign aide, Vera Baker.  Baker was the Finance Director for Barack Obama's 2004 Illinois Senate campaign

The Enquirer writes:  "A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions."

Interestingly, the Wikipedia has an article on her under consideration for deletion.  There are numerous pictures floating around on websites and blogs that may or may not be Vera Baker.  By all reports, she is a good looking woman, for whatever that's worth.  You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to track down--she was an Obama campaign official in 2004. 

Investigators (not clear whose--Obamas?  The National Enquierers?) are searching for a hotel surveillance videotape.   According to The Enquirer, Baker has insisted in the past that "nothing happened" between them.  The magazine also reports that top anti-Obama operatives (could that be you Ex-Gov. Palin, tossing around your $12 million in royalties?) are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair.

Someone has apparently offered cash to a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous in a Washington hotel where Obama was staying in 2004.   "A reporter confirmed the limo driver's account of the secret 2004 rendezvous and has also learned that on-site hotel surveillance video camera footage could provide indisputable evidence to the investigation."

Sandrarose.com claims "the Hillary Clinton campaign dug up background information on Barack Obama’s mistress, Vera Baker, in 2008, but decided not to run with the scandal — probably because Hillary knew she would lose the campaign and might need a favor from Obama later on."

Another blogspot blogger writes that "the woman was purportedly sidelined from her duties after Senator Obama’s wife, Michelle, became convinced that he had developed a personal friendship with her."

Without any new, concrete evidence, it seems like this story is destined to fade away quickly, just as it has when it has appeared before in the fringe press, or, new media as they prefer to be called.

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Jack Brummet Painting: Equilibrium

click to enlarge

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Drilling Pals: Pres. Barack Obama and Ex-Gov. Sarah Palin on offshore oil drilling

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Ex-Governor Sarah Palin: "Drill, baby, drill."


President Barack Obama: "We have to compromise in terms of a careful, well thought-out drilling strategy that is carefully circumscribed to avoid significant environmental damage"
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Happy birthday, April 30th!

April 30 is a huge date in the history of the the United States. On this date in history:

Former General George Washington was sworn into office (1789).

Adolph Hitler commited suicide in Berlin as Patton and Montgomery's armies closed in on him.

The Vietnam War officially ended, or, as Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger claimed, we achieved "Peace With Honor."

I missed the first event by about 166 years, I missed the second by eight years, and I was around for the third.  I still remember those images of Saigon on that day, where everyone was trying to bug out by any possible means.

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A favorite poem: James Wright's "Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota"

"Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota"
By James Wright

Listen to the recording on Poets.org.

Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.
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Alien Lore. No. 171 - Ancient Astronauts

By Jack Brummet
Paranormal and Alien Lore Editor

[ed's note: thanks once again to frequent news tipper Jeff Clintion.

The Ancient Astronauts have always been an interesting and even tantalizing theory. You may remember, if you were alive in the 1970's, Erich von Däniken's books--like Chariots of the Gods--that claimed the ancient astronauts gave us important technologies and enabled us (or even did it for us) to build monuments like the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge, and the Moai of Easter Island.

Generally, ancient astronaut theories postulate that we were visited thousands of years ago by Visitors. Some alien lore goes so far as to speculate that not only were we visited, but that we are the fruit of seeds planted by these ancient astronauts. In short, our great great great great grandparents were Greys or another form of alien who not only populated the earth, but left behind clues that would eventually enable us to fly and practice medicine and other sciences. This theory is shaky, considering that bloodletting was still standard medical operating procedure up until the late 1800's.  Only around the same period did we realize that hand washing and sterilizing surgical instruments would prevent infection and death following surgery.


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Sarah Palin claims "a swing and a miss" on her ethics violations

By Pablo Fanque, All This Is That National Affairs Editor
Painting by Jack Brummet

The Ex-Governor fails to tell you that the defense fund she established to beat these many allegations (most of which were in fact quashed by technicalities, and not on the merits) is in fact itself probably an ethical violation since she used her office (before she quit) to solicit funds. As it turns out, the $12 million she has since squirreled away in the bank would have more than covered beating these charges of her nefarious activities.

Sarah Palin's Facebook page yesterday:

Swing and a miss


Yesterday we learned that another “ethics” complaint that was filed against Governor Palin was dismissed as baseless. (If you are counting, the Governor is 26-0-1 regarding such complaints or suits, with one still pending). Only this complaint was actually filed after she left office, and alleged that the mere existence of the Alaska Fund Trust (the legal defense fund set up for her to help defray the costs incurred during the Troopergate fiasco and related machinations that followed in its wake) was violative of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act as well as its solicitation or receipt of contributions. The raison d’être of the legal defense fund was inexorably linked to Governor Palin’s nomination as the Republican candidate for Vice President and the post-nomination political tactics arising therefrom; thus making the nomination sine quo non for the fund. In a detailed opinion, the complaint was dismissed as lacking a factual or legal basis. Last June, upon learning that a complaint against the Governor’s Anchorage Office Director was dismissed as baseless, Governor Palin’s then Chief of Staff Mike Nizich said, “This is not about holding the governor or state employees accountable. This is pure harassment.” That still rings true today.


When I discussed this with Governor Palin, she had an interesting take: “My reaction upon reading the opinion in this matter was not what I expected. Though I’m always pleased with the results of these investigations that prove the false allegations wrong, and I appreciate the detailed reasoning set forth in this recent opinion, I was primarily disappointed that the State of Alaska, the Attorney General’s office, and others, still have to spend time and resources addressing the abusive onslaught of frivolous complaints directed against me—even after I left office.”


At times (indeed, as recently as Sunday in a magazine cover story) people allege that the “real” reason Governor Palin stepped down was to “make money” (citing primarily her best selling book). As this most current complaint again emphasizes, Governor Palin stepped down for the right reasons—she did not want to see her state government continue to get bogged down with inane “ethics” complaints that were transparently political, plainly partisan, and diverting state resources. The voluntary relinquishment of power for the greater good is normally praised as an example of true leadership—just review any biography of George Washington—and it should be in this case as well. But for those who seek power for the sake of power, a selfless act is confusing, so a new narrative is created, such as the “profit” motive now being asserted with renewed vigor. Rest assured Sarah Palin had obtained approval to write her memoir while still in office without running into any conflict with the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Her financial future from her best selling book, though unknown then, would not have altered much whether she stayed in office or resigned, except the number of “ethics” complaints did dramatically decrease, so any legal fees associated with such complaints decreased concomitantly.



Let this latest dismissed complaint serve as a reminder for one of the real—and stated—reasons for her voluntary relinquishment of office, an office she campaigned for diligently, tirelessly and effectively. It stands as a marker that occasionally, every so often, there are public servants who can recognize the difference between self-interest and public interest. Sarah Palin is one such public servant.


- Thomas Van Flein, personal attorney for Sarah Palin

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Alien Lore No. 170 - Steven Hawking on why we should avoid The Greys (and quit searching for our cousins)

By Jack Brummet             
All This Is That Unexplained Phenomenon Editor 

 

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing out this news story on Hawking's pronouncements...

Stephen Hawking believes, and probably rightly, that we should fear aliens, who likely come to earth in search of something (Tungsten? Soybeans? Nitrogen? Beer?)  and ready to destroy us, or at the best, utterly indifferent to our fate.  I wrote in a poem a couple of years ago: 

We can't picture
Greys or martians

Coming in peace
Because we never came in peace.

That pretty much echoes Dr. Hawking's take on the matter.  He says on the Discovery Channel that he believes aliens exist, and that we should do everything we can to avoid them. I think this means we should probably quit sending radio signals out into deep space, trying to contact our cousins, and otherwise maintain a low cosmic profile. God knows what kind of global blitzkrieg these wackjobs from way out there could unleash?

Any creatures smart enough to find us "will probably be seeking resources", according to Hawking.  You can just imagine how that might work out for us.  "We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn't want to meet," said the good Doctor.  Just ask the Buffalo and Native Americans.

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