Clinton Hints Obama Drug Use::::::maybe Kev was right & I should switch my allegiance to the guy I liked in the first place: Senator Biden

I have, of late, been dodging some the barbs hurled my way by Kev, claiming the Clinton campiagn is coming apart at the seams and devolving into a jumbled one-ring circus of mud-slinging, obfuscation, innuendo, outright prevarication, and cheapjack skullduggery launched like a desperate Hail Mary as the campaign drifts downward in the polls.

Maybe he's right. She may have crossed the line on this one. Maybe it's just hardball, but I don't think so. This one kind of has an air of savage desperation. Remember when they floated ominous and unsubstantiated rumors about something dark in Barack's past? The Associated Press reported from New Hampshire yesterday that the Clinton campaign has once again begun dropping sinister hints about Obama remarkable for their lack of proof and specificity:



"A top adviser to Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said Wednesday that Democrats should give more thought to Sen. Barack Obama's admissions of illegal drug use before they pick a presidential candidate.

"Obama's campaign said the Clinton people were getting desperate. Clinton's campaign tried to distance itself from the remarks.

"Bill Shaheen, a national co-chairman of Clinton's front-runner campaign, raised the issue during an interview with The Washington Post, posted on washingtonpost.com.

"Shaheen, an attorney and veteran organizer, said much of Obama's background is unknown and could be a problem in November 2008 if he is the Democratic nominee. He said the Republicans would work hard to discover new aspects of Obama's admittedly spotty youth."

Kev would have me switch allegiances to Senator Barack Hussein Obama. I'm not ready for that yet. If I had to vote my heart, my choice would be Senator Joe Biden. But I am a pragmatist, and if Clinton falters I'm not quite sure which way I should turn. Not that it matters much in this heavily front-loaded primary season. By the time my caucuses roll around, the matter will have been decided. All the contestants want from me is a check.


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Seven years ago today, The Supreme Court put the screws to the American people

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000), is the United States Supreme Court case heard on December 11, 2000. Do you remember we had to wait over a month to find out who "won" the election? It only took the court one day to render a decision.

In a per curiam opinion (ed's note: A "per curiam" decision is delivered in an opinion issued in the name of the Court rather than specific justices. In short, I think it means no one personally wants the stink upon themselves of their almost criminally partisan decision) by a vote of 7-2, the Court (to at least one of their rumored later regrets) held that the Florida Supreme Court's scheme for recounting ballots was unconstitutional, and by a vote of 5-4, the Court held that no alternative scheme could be established within the time limits established by Florida Legislature.

The decision ended the whole circus—thousands of lawyers and observers, fixers, and spin-meisters, bagmen, horse-traders, and talking heads flown in to the swampy scene of massive voter fraud and election board malfeasance—and allowed Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris's previous certification of George W. Bush as the winner of Florida's electoral votes to stand. Florida's 25 electoral votes gave Bush, the Republican candidate, 271 Electoral College votes, defeating Democrat Al Gore, who had won the majority of the popular vote. Al Gore went on to become a crusader for the environment, and win the Nobel Peace Prize. George Bush presided over an unpopular war, episodes of criminality in the White House, and numerous domestic disasters, economic setbacks, and an enemy attack on U.S. soil, and will probably be remembered best for the war he fomented, and his cure for all that ails the country, and world—widespread retrenchment of civil liberties.

Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 11, 2000
Decided December 12, 2000

Full case name: George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al.
Docket #: 00-949

Citations: 531 U.S. 98; 121 S. Ct. 525; 148 L. Ed. 2d 388; 2000 U.S. LEXIS 8430; 69 U.S.L.W. 4029; 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Service 9879; 2000 Colo. J. C.A.R. 6606; 14 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 26

Prior history: On writ of certiorari to the Florida Supreme Court

Argument: Link to Oral Argument

Holding: "In the circumstances of this case, any manual recount of votes seeking to meet the December 12 “safe harbor” deadline would be unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. "

Court membership: Chief Justice: William Rehnquist; Associate Justices: John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O'Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Clarence Thomas, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer

Concurrence by: Rehnquist
Joined by: Scalia, Thomas
Dissent by: Stevens
Joined by: Ginsburg, Breyer
Dissent by: Souter
Joined by: Breyer; Stevens, Ginsburg (all but part C)
Dissent by: Ginsburg
Joined by: Stevens; Souter, Breyer (part I)
Dissent by: Breyer
Joined by: Stevens, Ginsburg (except part I-A-1); Souter (part I)

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President Lyndon Baines Johnson orders trousers from Joe Haggar

Thanks to Bill Schneider for pointing this out. It's been a while since we've written anything about LBJ. It's not The Johnson Treatment exactly, but LBJ puts the Haggars through their paces! It's classic Lyndon--at once imperial, demanding, profane, and fawning. If you'd like to hear the fascinating audio tape of this call, click here.

Earlier articles on LBJ appearing on All This Is That:

The Johnson Treatment

LBJ and Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King meet up

LBJ howls like a dog

Another good LBJ photo

And another. . .

One of the heroes and villains paintings

LBJ In A Characteristic Pose

Running Mates: Senators Lyndon Johnson And JFK

The Johnson Treatment, Part 6: The Hump and Senator Russell get the treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 5: Senator Richard Russell (Dem., Georgia) Undergoes The Treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 4: President Johnson Gives The Treatment To Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas

The Johnson Treatment, Part 3: LBJ Gives Eartha Kitt The Treatment

The Johnson Treatment, Part 2: Richard M. Nixon, Republican Presidential Front-runner Gets The Treatment

He's Not Close Enough To Give Him The Johnson Treatment, But LBJ Appears To Be Answering A Pointed Question From Dan Rather

This is the White House transcript of an Aug. 9, 1964 conversation between President Lyndon Johnson and Joe Haggar:


Operator: Go ahead sir

LBJ: Mr. Haggar?

JH: Yes this is Joe Haggar

LBJ: Joe, is your father the one that makes clothes?

JH: Yes sir - we're all together

LBJ: Uh huh. You all made me some real lightweight slacks, uh, that he just made up on his own and sent to me 3 or 4 months ago. There's a light brown and a light green, a rather soft green, a soft brown.

JH: Yes sir

LBJ: and they're real lightweight now and I need about six pairs for summer wear.

JH: yes sir

LBJ: I want a couple, maybe three of the light brown kind of a almost powder color like a powder on a ladies face. Then they were some green and some light pair, if you had a blue in that or a black, then I'd have one blue and one black. I need about six pairs to wear around in the evening when I come in from work

JH: yes sir

LBJ: I need...they're about a half a inch too tight in the waist.

JH: Do you recall sir the exact size, I just want to make sure we get them right for you

LBJ: No, I don't know - you all just guessed at 'em I think, some - wouldn't you the measurement there?

JH: we can find it for you

LBJ: well I can send you a pair. I want them half a inch larger in the waist than they were before except I want two or three inches of stuff left back in there so I can take them up. I vary ten or 15 pounds a month.

JH: alright sir

LBJ: So leave me at least two and a half, three inches in the back where I can let them out or take them up. And make these a half an inch bigger in the waist. And make the pockets at least an inch longer, my money, my knife, everything falls out - wait just a minute.

Operator: Would you hold on a minute please?

[conversation on hold for two minutes]

LBJ: Now the pockets, when you sit down, everything falls out, your money, your knife, everything, so I need at least another inch in the pockets. And another thing - the crotch, down where your nuts hang - is always a little too tight, so when you make them up, give me an inch that I can let out there, uh because they cut me, it's just like riding a wire fence. These are almost, these are the best I've had anywhere in the United States,

JH: Fine

LBJ: But, uh when I gain a little weight they cut me under there. So, leave me , you never do have much of margin there. See if you can't leave me an inch from where the zipper (burps) ends, round, under my, back to my bunghole, so I can let it out there if I need to.

JH: Right

LBJ: Now be sure you have the best zippers in them. These are good that I have. If you get those to me I would sure be grateful

JH: Fine, Now where would you like them sent please?

LBJ: White House.

JH: Fine

LBJ: Now, uh, I don't guess there is any chance of getting a very lightweight shirt, sport shirt to go with that slack, is there? That same color?

JH: We don't make them, but we can have them made up for you.

LBJ: If you might look around, I wear about a 17, extra long.

JH: Would you like in the same fabric?

LBJ: Yeah I sure would, I don't know whether that's too heavy for a shirt.

JH: I think it'd be too heavy for a shirt.

LBJ: I sure want the lightest I can, in the same color or matching it. If you don't mind, find me somebody up there who makes good shirts and make a shirt to match each one of them and if they're good, we'll order some more.

JH: Fine

LBJ: I just sure will appreciate this, I need it more than anything. And uh, now that's a..about it. I guess I could get a jacket made outta that if I wanted to, couldn't I?

JH: I think that - didn't Sam Haggar have some jackets made?

LBJ: Yeah you sent me some jackets some earlier, but they were way too short. They hit me about halfway down my belly. I have a much longer waist. But I thought if they had material like that and somebody could make me a jacket, I'd sent them a sample to copy from.

JH: Well I tell you what, you send us this, we'll find someone to make it

LBJ: - ok

JH: We'll supply the material to match it

LBJ: Ok, I'll do that. Uh now, how do I - can you give this boy the address because I'm running to a funeral and give this boy the address to where we can send the trousers - don't worry, you'll get the measurements out of them and add a half an inch to the back and an give us couple of an inch to the pockets and a inch underneath to we can let them out.

JH: What you 'd like is a little more stride in the crotch

LBJ: Yeah that's right. What I'd like is to give me a half a inch more then leave me some more. Ok here he is.

JH: Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the others

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Video: Bob Dylan with The Rolling Stones Playing his "Like A Rolling Stone" (wth lyrics)

An odd pairing, with Bob and the Stones around the turn of the century, playing one of Bob's greatest tunes.



Like A Rolling Stone, by Bob Dylan


Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging for your next meal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
And nobody has ever taught you how to live on the street
And now you find out you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not selling any alibis
As you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And ask him do you want to make a deal?

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

You never turned around to see the frowns on the jugglers and the clowns
When they all come down and did tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
You used to ride on the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that
He really wasn't where it's at
After he took from you everything he could steal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?

Princess on the steeple and all the pretty people
They're drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all kinds of precious gifts and things
But you'd better lift your diamond ring, you'd better pawn it babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal.

How does it feel
How does it feel
To be on your own
With no direction home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone?
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Poem: But you can't

You can withdraw it
Marginalize it
Forget it
Hide it
Lie about it
Or deny it three times before the cock crows.

You can laugh about it
Weep about it
Shout about it
Hide it under a bush (oh no)
Sing the blues about it
Or sweep it under the rug.

You can get an ulcer over it
Commit suicide over it
Lose your family over it
Lose your shorts over it
Lose your mind over it
Or pretend it never happened.

You can dream about it
Run away from it
Rationalize it
Explain it away
Or drink it away
But you can't take back love.
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This week's photographic update on Jeri Kehn Thompson

There were few interesting Jeri Kehn photos from the campaign this week, so instead we put up a few of her miscellaneous photos we have kicking around. Who knows how much longer anyone will even be interested as the Thompson campaign sags. The incredible surge of Mike Huckabee has been mainly at the expense of Ex-Senator Fred Thompson. In the meantime, if Fred was smart--and anyone watching his campaign has to question that--he'd send Mrs. Jeri Kehn Thompson to even more campaign appearances.

Some other recent pages of Jeri Kehn photos on this blog:

Photomontage: Jeri Kehn pressing the flesh (includes one photo of her husband) and links to Jeri Kehn photo motherlode

Latest Jeri Kehn sightings and photographs

Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos

Latest Jeri Kehn sightings and photographs

Jeri Kehn Thompson photo update No. 12--eleven new Jeri Kehn photographs

Two more Jeri Kehn Thompson Photos

A Jeri Kehn Thompson cameo appearance in a Fred Thompson campaign video, four new Jeri Kehn photographs, and a Mrs. Fred Thompson photo roundup

Three additional photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson a/k/a Jeri Kehn

Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)

One More Jeri Kehn Thompson photo

Jeri Kehn Photos, Part 3: Three more photos of Mrs. Fred Thompson

More Jeri Kehn photos--> A follow-up to "Meet the Thompson Twins: Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri Kehn (with photos)

Not Jeri Kehn: people who are not Mrs. Fred Thompson, yet who often turn up in search engine searches on "Jeri Kehn"

Three new Jeri Kehn photos; links to Jeri photos; and Fred Thompson describes the beauty of having a hot first lady;"

New photographs of Jeri Kehn Thompson on the campaign trail (and a couple of her husband Fred too)

Where All This Is That readers come from...

click to enlarge

Every once in a while, I check into Site Meter's tracking of people who end up on All This Is That. On Sunday, just under 400 visitors came here. Most were from the USA. A handful hail from Canada, Europe, Australia, and a couple of people arrived from Africa, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand.

The US map is interesting. The west coast has a line of people stretching from Victoria, British Columbia to Tijuana, Mexico. It's fascinating how this line hugs the Pacific Coast, but then there is no one until you get to Denver, and Austin, Texas, and a few other cities sprinkled in the middle of the country. There is a swath of people running down the industrial rust belt, in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and other cities, and then a cluster around the east coast, mostly in the NYC metro area. Clearly, we're not hitting that middle-west demographic, nor our brothers and sisters in Canada!
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War is over for The Brits?

According to The Sun, war is over for the British troops. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has saidhe wants his troops home. Soon. Click here to link to the full article.


click to enlarge
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27 years ago today, John Lennon was assassinated

John Lennon was assassinated by a deranged fan outside his home 27 years ago today. We lived in the neighborhood at the time, and could hear the sirens. I was listening to Vin Skelsa that night on WNEW when he broke in in tears, to tell us the news about his friend. Lennon had just released Double Fantasy (his best record in years) two weeks earlier. It was an incredibly depressing time, especially in New York City. Hostages were being held in Tehran, Jimmy Carter had just been trounced in the election, and Ronald Regan would be sworn in as President in a few weeks. For months fans gathered across the street from The Dakota, in what would become Strawberry Fields in Central Park.
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Poem: Stages

I am no one's grandchild
Or nephew or great nephew
I've never been a great grandson

I am still a son
Still a brother and uncle
Son- and brother-in-law
First second and third cousin
Daddy and husband

I am still to be a grandfather
Great uncle and father-in-law

And always have been
And always will be God's boy.
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Happy Birthday, Washington Monument!

In 1884, 123 years ago today, the Washington Monument was completed as workers placed a nine-inch aluminum pyramid on the tower of white marble. The city's (and my state's) namesake, George Washington finally had a fitting monument. 100 years earlier, Congress decided a statue of the great Revolutionary War general should be placed near the site of the new Congressional building, wherever that ended up being. It wasn't until 1832, 33 years after Washington's death, that much really happened on the monument front. After holding a design competition and choosing an elaborate Greek temple-like design by architect Robert Mills, the society began fundraising money for the statue's construction. These efforts raised some less than a fourth of the the $1 million needed. Construction began anyway, and on July 4, 1848, they laid the cornerstone of the monument: a 24,500-pound block of pure white marble.

By 1854, with funds running low, construction was halted. Around the time the Civil War began in 1861, author Mark Twain described the unfinished monument as looking like a "hollow, oversized chimney." In 1876, President Grant ordered the construction to be completed.


another phallic monument,
known locally as "The Brick
Dick"in Ypsilanti, Michigan

At the time of its completion in December 1884, those 36,000 blocks of marble and granite stacked 555 feet in the air, were the tallest structure in the world. A city law passed in 1910 restricted the height of new buildings to ensure that the monument will remain the tallest structure in Washington, D.C.
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Alien Lore No. 119: The Holloman AFB meeting between President Ike Eisenhower and The Greys

Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing this one out. Holloman, of course, has always loomed large in the alien lore world. This is the first time I ever heard about Ike's involvement (the story reminds me of the episode in Dark Skies were President Truman meets with The Greys and then orders the army to shoot down with departing "UFO").

According to Clark C. McClelland, once with the U.S. Space Shuttle Fleet, a UFO landed in front of former U.S. President Eisenhower and other officials at Holloman Aair Force Base. Holloman looms nearly as large as Roswell or Area 51 in Alien Lore.

The old Alamogordo airfield (aka Holloman) had been a training base for heavy bombers. But one day, to the surprise of almost everyone, President Dwight D. Eisenhower landed there.

There was no band or parade--only a few birds calling in the distance. Everyone wondered "why is Ike here? What's going on?" The civilians and military were told that while the president was here, this would be a "business as usual" day.

Whatever was happening would happen was as far away as it could be from the base. Little could be seen unless one had a vantage point and binoculars. Soon, the radar officers gave instructions to shut off all radar. He had turned base operations over to his deputy base commander as long as the President was here. He felt it his duty to be with him with no distractions.

A phone rang in the tower with a report of two UFOs passing over Range Road 12. A minute later, the bogies were over Range Road 7, just a few minutes from the runway. Men in the tower swung their glasses to the north in the morning haze.

Something glinted in the sun, and then something else just below it. Now, a report came in of a third bogie five minutes behind the first two. The tower personnel who did not know what these were, were stunned. The objects had no tails, no wings, and no motors. They were just round objects heading toward the president's plane. They reported the objects, logged them and did their job which was "business as usual." The two objects stopped 300 feet over Air Force One, and then one touched about 200 feet ahead of the plane.

The other UFO hovered above the buildings over the tarmac. The disc had a good vantage point of anything that might come towards the president's plane and the UFO on the ground. Most people who saw or heard about the two craft at the base that day did not believe they were ET, but possibly new Russian or German innovations.

After the UFO landed in front of Air Force One, a man (whom people assumed was the President), came to the doorway of the plane, and approached the saucer on the ground. The man walked up the ramp, stood at the opening, shook hands with someone, and went inside.

Observers thought the President was inside the UFO about 45 minutes. When he emerged from the craft, he walked towards Air Force One. Most observers believed it was President Ike. Many of the witnesses recognized that famous bald pate and his stiff military walk.

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Video: a sylvan car ride

I don't know who made the video (if it was you, contact me!), but I like it. A nice little sylvan ride in the boondocks. . .

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Senator McCain Senior Moment (video)

Senator McCain loses his place.


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Idaho Statesman unearths more dirt on Senator/chocolate thief Larry Craig (with bonus audio clips)

Two months after Senator Larry Craig weaseled on his promise to resign, his old nemesis, The Idaho Statesman is back with interviews (and audio clips) of some of the randy Senator's pickups and victims. It's not just foot tapping this time, friends.

Five men came forward with lurid tales of Senator Craig, most of them were offended by Craig's vehement denials, including his now famous "I am not gay, I never have been gay." [1] Yes, it's a case of he said/she said, but four of the men are willing to make their names and accusations public:

David Phillips, a 42-year-old IT consultant in Washington, says Craig picked him up at a gay club in 1986 and that they subsequently had sex. Audio clip: David Phillips talks about oral sex with the Senator. Audio clip: David Phillips talks about the Senator performing anal sex on David Phillips.

Mike Jones, a former prostitute (who you may remember also told the world he had sex with another Republican, the Rev. Ted Haggard, last year). The former evangelist denied it but later 'fessed up and went off to be "cured." Audio clip: Mike Jones explains why the Senator's backing out of resigning drove him to go public.

Greg Ruth was hit on by the Senator in 1981 at a Republican meeting in Idaho. Audio clip: Greg Ruth describes a bathroom encounter with Larry Craig at the Republican convention.

Tom Russell, now 48, a former Nampa resident had an encounter with Craig in the early 1980s.

An anonymous fifth man from Boise who declined to be named said he was in a restroom at Denver International Airport in September 2006 when the man in the next stall moved his hand slowly, palm up, under the divider. Freaked out, the man said he waited outside the restroom and identified his stallmate as Craig, whom he had met once in Idaho.
______________________________________

[1] Craig's denials are now also available in a Talking Senator Larry Craig Action Figure.
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