An old postcard map of Puget Sound

click to enlarge

---o0o---

A colloquy in the executive branch

Thanks to regular tipster JC for this one. . .

---o0o---

Heaven (or something quite like it) - a Jack Brummet poem

Heaven (or something quite like it)


1
You wink at St. Peter
As the gates whir open.

You're off the map, boy,
With just a soul to your name

2
You pile your clothes and credit cards
On top of your toys and bones,

And walk in whistling.
Adios Republicans, cops, and money.

3
Concupiscent thoughts drift in
Where’s the women, music, and beverages?

4
Rod Serling strolls around the corner
In a cloud of pearl grey smoke.
---o0o---

Derfwad Manor is back --

One of my favorite blogs has been resurrected.  Welcome back, Mrs. G. 

Check it out.  This story is especially excellent. . .
---o0o---

digital art: The Dance

41 years ago, we landed on the moon. Links to alternate theories on whether we actually made it, or made it first. . .

By Jack Brummet
Paranormal & Extraterrestrial Affairs Editor

Forty-one years ago, the American astronaut Neil Armstrong, a quarter million miles from Earth stepped on the moon saying, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." He became the first human to walk on the surface of the moon.  Probably.  Or did he?  We've covered this story a few times in the last six years as part of our Alien Lore series.  Here are links to some of the possibilities, ranging from wildly improbable to somewhat plausible:

Alien Lore: Neil Armstrong's Moonwalk and Oral Sex
Alien Lore No. 81 - The Skeleton on the moon
Forty years ago today, we landed on the moon
Alien Lore No. 154 - Life on the moon?
Nixon's back pocket speech in the event of a moon landing disaster
Alien Lore No. 134 - Moonwalker claims cover-up
Michael Jackson moonwalk video clips
The Six Faked Moon Landings?
Alien Lore No. 29 - Nazis On The Moon!!
Alien Lore 53 - The Moon Dust File
Alien Lore No. 108 - The spaceship on the moon

---o0o---

Video: The U.S. Army's "Personal Hygiene"

"A film you will remember long after others are forgotten. This U.S. Army production introduces us to 'Homer,' a hillbilly-type who smells real bad. The guys in his barracks have to figure some way to encourage him to take a bath. They hit upon the idea of creating new lyrics for folk songs, and at this point the film quickly spins out of control, as Homer's loveable gang of GIs warbles tune after tune, such as 'Fresh And Clean,' and 'Wash Your Socks.'

Jump here to view or download the movie.
---o0o---

Day of the Dead rocks!

Day of the Dead (George Romero's third Zombie movie) is excellent. It was panned, and totally stiffed at the box office, when it came out. But in the pantheon, it's way up there now, at least in mine.  This was a sweet trifecta: Night of, Dawn of, and Day of). Glad I finally took the time to watch.
---o0o---

Ex-Governor Palin riding low in the water & high in the polls

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
& Jack Brummet, Social Mores & Ethics Editor

Holy S***t!    People laughed when Jack wrote a year and a half ago that Sarah Palin had a serious shot at succeeding President Barack Obama--after one term.  Pablo laughed, and didn't take his jabbering as half-serious...it was just Jack being contrarian Jack.   But then, a few months later, the Teabag movement began gathering momentum, Sarah Palin had sold millions of books, and piled away millions of dollars. She was making highly paid speeches.  She's been racing around the country and beating the drum for teabagger-approved candidates. 

This recent Gallup Poll raised the collective hairs on our necks. 

We haven't seen any recent Palin-Obama head to head polls, but this is feeling more than a little spooky.  The juggernaut we all thought would blow itself out by now is still picking up steam.  Even Levi is back on the bus.
---o0o---

Presidential Succession, now, and then. . .

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

I'm pretty sure my fascination with Presidential succession began sometime in about 1973, when it became clear that we would actually experience once.  After the death of FDR, Harry Truman worked to clean up the succession system.  And mostly it was a good job.  We got through the JFK assassination; we got through the Nixon succession relatively unscathed. 

Things got a little weird after the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, but only because the Secretary of State, Al Haig, misspoke:  "I'm in control here."  This was a tempest in a teapot, since Haig knew from his days as Nixon's Chief of Staff exactly what the order and protocol of succession was.  Since then, all has been more or less, well.  I'll admit, 'though, that the line up during President Bush's eight year term was spooky, largely because it could have catapulted Dick Cheney into the Oval Office.  That being said, that was probably not nearly as gut-wrenching as the four long years Dan Quayle was just one heartbeat away from the Presidency. 

In the list that follows, I have also added the succession counterparts from the George W. Bush administration.  The lists don't quite match up anymore, since the Homeland Security Secretary is no longer in the top ten.

Potential successors to President Barack. H. Obama:

1 Vice President Joe Biden (VP Dick Cheney in the Bush years)
2 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (House Speaker Dennis Hastert in the Bush years)
3 President pro tempore of the Senate Daniel Inouye (Senate President Pro Tem Ted Stevens in the Bush Years...wait...isn't he doing time now?)
4 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in the Bush years)
5 Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (Treasury Secretary John Snow under GWB)
6 Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (Donald Rumseld during the Bush years...how Rummy as Pres is such a toe curling prospect, I don't even like to think about what have happened had that went down).
7 Attorney General Eric Holder (Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the Bush reign...wait...isn't he in jail too?)
8 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (No. 8 slot was formerly held by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff)
9 Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton under Bush)
10 Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke (Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns under W).
---o0o---

Opening 2012 dustup: Romney v. Palin

By Pablo Fanque, National Affairs Editor
on assignment in New Orleans

Yesterday, a Romney insider told Time Magazine that they "do not believe Sarah Palin is a ’serious human being,'."  Politico called someone in the Ex-Alaska Governor's camp, where they were told that comment was “frankly immature."  Romney more or less Tweeted an apology.

I suspect there will be lots of great back and forth between the Palin camp and all the (so far) many other candidates.  Ex-Governor Palin is definitely on steadier ground when she can have the ghost-writers cook up her press releases.  But, I for one, mainly look forward to her debate performances.  Read more at one of my favorite political snark sites:  Wonkette. 

---o0o---

BP's incontinence

By Pablo Fanque

National Affairs Editor

I worked for a year in college as an orderly in a nursing home.  I know something about bowel management.  For the last three months we have witnessed and been victimized by a savage case of mismanaged corporate & government bowel management. 

BP is incontinent, and only yesterday were they able to staunch the flow, momentarily.  It looks like Plan M may actually work.  For the first time in three months, the oil filling the Gulf has stopped.  Fortunately, incontinence in holes drilled several miles down through the sea floor, through a mile of water, may be corkable.  Alas, such is not the fate of home sapiens experiencing incontinence. You just can't put a cork in it.

If this latest corking scheme actually does what it's supposed to do, the sea floor doesn't crack or open a gaping sinkhole or port from Hell, and if the relief wells they've been feverishly digging actually work. . .well, we can at least call it over and maybe get serious about the enormous damage the oil leak wrought upon the southeast already.  Maybe people will even start thinking about how we can use less oil.  Right.

BP finally stops oil spewing from Gulf gusher
---o0o---