Painting: The Twin Greys From Out There

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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

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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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Ron Jeremy, The Hedgehog

When he entered the "adult entertainment" industry, Ron Jeremy dropped his last name at his father's request. Jeremy is referred to as "the clown prince of porn" and also as "The Hedgehog" for his hirsute and massive thing.

I saw him on a TV show last week. He's a funny guy. He's and a little homely, and heavy but has appeared in thousands of shorts and movies. He is famous for certain cinematic sexual specialities, up to and including autofellatio. In a 2003 interview, however, he confessed he was no longer able to perform that particular act.

According to Jeremy, every woman is beautiful---regardless of age, race, color, creed or size.
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Collage: Another Rough Day At The White House

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President Takes Three Body Blows: Bolton Out, Rumsfeld Saves A Bullet For POTUS, And The Washington Post: Worst President Ever? He'll Drink to that!

Click Prez to enlarge

I'm sitting here chuckling over George Bush's day. If there was ever a time when The President thought of hitting the gargle again, it had to be today.

I don't usually blog "live" but this is just too good. I am in a hotel room in Newport Beach, California [1] watching Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, and reading feeds from various newspapers. Pat Buchanan just said "discipline in the White House has broken down," and "When they came for him, Rumsfeld saved the last bullet for The President."



First "someone" leaks the damaging--no, thermonuclear--Rumsfeld memo [2] directly contradicting Dubya's "stay the course" gibberish, and then he throws in the towel on John Bolton as U.N. Ambassador (he was appointed in a "recess appointment,"). Reuters said Bolton's resignation caught White House officials by surprise while they were "still searching for a way to keep him in his job." Bolton submitted his resignation Friday. Aides said Bush thought about it over the weekend before accepting. Of course, today The President unloaded on Democrats for blocking the appointment. As ever, he accepted no responsibility for appointing a skillful, but bellicose, partisan, and factionalizing delegate to the U.N.

And now, on the Scarborough Report, they are debating "Is George Bush the worst President ever?" Joe Scarborough's topic was suggested by the Washington Post Op Ed piece by Eric Foner "He's The Worst Ever."

I look forward to waking up to see just what The President has in store for us tomorrow! Is this what it's going to be like for the next two years, one month, two weeks, and six days he has left to salvage any facsimile of his laughable "legacy"? Is he on the precipice of becoming a historical laughing stock while he is still in office? Or, is that a fait accompli?
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[1] Not before I took a long walk on the beach and watched the sun set over the Pacific. After the last week in Seattle, it's kind of nice to be in t-shirt and shorts again!
[2] Needless to say, access to that memo was seriously restricted, ergo the leaker is Right Up There in The Administration. This document was classified.
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Lyrics to The Beatles All You Need Is Love

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been absorbed with the new Beatkes remix album Love. This is one of the tunes that I'd never really taken seriously before. I do now. . .



All You Need Is Love
(Lennon/McCartney)

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.

There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in time
It's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
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The Beatles "New" Album, Love, Is A Revelation

I have been listening to The Beatles "new" album, Love, almost non-stop the last four days. At least seven of the remixes are brilliant. A couple--maybe--are duds. The rest are just wonderful. If you've listened to this music for the last forty years like I have, you are struck by the shimmering fidelity of the new mixes.

My favorites are Octopus's Garden, a Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing medley/remix, the brilliant acoustic and strings version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, and the amazing backwards version of Sun King--Gnik Nus--which sounds like a Beatles song, but one you'd never heard. I couldn't even tell what they had actually done in the remix of All You Need Is Love, but I heard it like I never had before. I'd always dismissed the tune as hippy-dippy pop psychology. It's a brilliant lyric and a sensitive performance by John Lennon (just as he was getting into heavy vocal processing and screaming). It's a great song, after all.

Buy this record! It's only $10 at Amazon right now. Or better yet, spend a few bucks more and buy it from your local indie music shop.

Beatles albums on CDs never sounded like this. There is gold in those multitracks, and they cry out to be remastered. In one way I hope they never do it, because I really don't want to replace my complete Beatles collection. In the meantime, we have these new versions by George Martin and his son Giles.

Track listing:

1. Because
2. Get Back
3. Glass Onion
4. Eleanor Rigby/Julia (Transition)
5. I Am The Walrus
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing
8. Gnik Nus
9. Something/Blue Jay Way (Transition)
10. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
11. Help!
12. Blackbird/Yesterday
13. Strawberry Fields Forever
14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
15. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
16. Octopus's Garden
17. Lady Madonna
18. Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light (Transition)
19. Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry (Transition)
20. Revolution
21. Back In The U.S.S.R.
22. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
23. A Day In The Life
24. Hey Jude
25. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
26. All You Need Is Love
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The Michael Richards a/k/a Kramer Video

I never actually heard this before today. I'd read the transcript and apology, and written about it here and here. Pathetic.


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