Five Paintings: The Presidential Candidates Left Standing

Click to enlarge Barack

The Presidential Candidates Left Standing, are paintings of the last candidates in the race for the Presidency (excluding the absolutely hopeless Communists, Socialist Workers, Libertarian, and other fringe parties). Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee are just barely standing. Hillary is standing, but becoming very wobbly.


Click to enlarge Ron Paul



Click to enlarge John McCain

Click to enlarge Huck

Click to enlarge Hillary

---o0o---

Obama's response to fainting at Barack rallies ("here, have a Brawndo. It's got electrolytes") , with a brief history, and video clips

This is a really weird story and it is spreading rapidly--as these things tend to do--over the 'net.

My son, Del, came home from the Obama rally in Seattle a week ago today and told us about a woman fainting in the audience, and how Obama asked the crowd for help, and then passed a bottle of water down from the stage. At the time, I jokingly told Del, "yeah, she travels on his plane. She's his fainter."

Fainting is not unusual at campaign rallies. If you do a G.I.S., you'll find several stories of people fainting this month at rallies held by all three Clintons: Bill, Hill, and Chelsea. It will be interesting to see if this story has legs. I hope not.

There is a hint in some accounts I've read that the faintings are a direct response to Senator Obama's power as a vector of hope, love, and change; to his almost Messianic followers who look at him figureatively and literally as a sort of savior. When I was a young river-dunked Baptist, I went to a few revivals, and it was a feature of these big meetings in arenas, racetracks, and camps. When there was serious testifying going on, women would faint. The "Deacons" were all equipped with smelling salts and extra handerchiefs. And people would faint when The Call came (the call to come on stage and accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior) and you could stand up and wash away your sins with the blood of the lamb.



As it turns out, the usual Republican suspects are trying to make something of all this fainting. Like James Vicevich, a Connecticut radio talk show host, who has gone into some detail on this. Like Dory Monson, a conservative and reactionary hater and talk show host at Seattle's KIRO 710 AM.

This story is either a shocking revelation, or the usual Republican/Conservative claptrap. Today a Connecticut radio host show host cites several instances of an occurrence that has become common during Obama events:

The formula-->a woman faints-->Obama pauses his speech to speak about the fainting woman-->a bottle of water is passed down from the podium-->someone in the audience shouts "what a man!"

Seattle, Feb. 8, 2008. "Obama tossing a bottle of water to a woman about to faint received big cheers," MSNBC.com reported. " Obama told the crowd to part so that the woman in question could leave and called for help. A young girl in the crowd shouted out, 'What a man!' [ed's note: We can verify this one, because Jack's son Del was at the rally and repeated the above story almost verbatim]. The audience roared with laughter (although "the press that has seen this happen before rolled its eyes").



Hanover, N.H., Jan. 8, 2008. "A young woman in the Dartmouth College gym fainted, and was eventually rolled off on a gurney by emergency medical technicians," the Los Angeles Times reported. " Obama was speaking of the episode from the stage: 'She's OK,' 'She's talking.' The Times reported "Obama looked worried as the medical crew worked." Minneapolis's WCCO-TV has a video clip of Obama handing a bottle of water to the Dartmouth fainter, and asking the crowd to part for the EMTs.



Madison, Wis., Oct. 22, 2007. According to the Associated Press, "Three people fainted in the midst of all the enthusiasm."



Montecito, Calif., Sept. 8, 2007. " A woman standing in front of the stage fainted. The Associated Press reported. "The candidate paused and asked the crowd to make way for firefighters. A supporter shouted, 'You're a good man,' and Obama appeared a little embarrassed. "

---o0o---

Video: Bert and Ernie Try The Rock Band Game

A video of Bert and Ernie rocking.



---o0o---

The end of the line for Senator Clinton

It's just a little sad for me to realize we won't have a female President, after all. This is an important thing, and it's shameful we've let it go this long (and now, for four, eight, or twelve years further out).

Unless Hillary comes up with unprecedented margins in the upcoming primaries, it's over, and it may already be over. Nine months until the General election leaves nine months to doubt and wring our hands. I am hoping that instead, we can enjoy the next year as one that will leave us Bush-free and Obama will come on strong and decimate the competition by mid-summer.
---o0o---

Johnny Winter rocks...Video (and lyrics) of Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo

I am not a huge fan of Johnny Winter, but I enjoy his blues. [ed's note: Disclaimer: Jack does not actually own any recordings by Johnny Winter]. At one point in time, and maybe even still, he knew how to rock. Rick Derringer wrote this song and had a huge hit with it (and I think Johnny may have charted with it). I never cared much about the tune--until I saw this video. Johnny Winters and his two sidemen tear the song up and Johnny shreds on guitar. This is an incredible rock and roll performance.





Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo
lyrics by Rock Derringer

Couldn't stop moving when it first took hold.
It was a warm spring night at the old town hall.
There was a group called 'The Jokers' they were layin' it down.
Don't ya know I'm never gonna lose that funky sound.

Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Lordy mama, light my fuse (Light my fuse)
Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Drop on out and spread the news.

Skeeters start a buzzin' 'bout this time a year.
I'm goin' 'round back, said she'd meet me there.
We were rollin' in the grass that grows behind the barn.
When my ears started ringing like a fire alarm.

Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Lordy mama, light my fuse (Light my fuse)
Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Drop on out and spread the news.

Yeah, did somebody say keep on rockin'?

Hope you all know what I'm talkin' about.
The way they wiggle that thing really knocks me out.
Gettin' high all the time, hope you all are too.
C'mon little closer gonna do it to you.

Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Lordy mama, light my fuse (Light my fuse)
Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Drop on out and spread the news.

Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Lordy mama, light my fuse (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Jump on out and spread the news.
That I'm tired of payin' dues (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Done said goodbye to all my blues (Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo)
Lordy mama, light my fuse.
---o0o---

Alien Lore No. 123 - Two Recent British UFO sightings

1


The Portsmouth sighting - click to enlarge



Hab Rahman stopped to take snapshots [that word snapshot, is slowly fading into obsolescence, isn't it?] of a strangely lit sky. When he downloaded them to his computer, he noticed a mysterious glowing object. A fawking UFO!

Hab (of Portsmouth England) said: “I didn’t spot anything when I took the picture but then later on when I looked a bit closer and zoomed in, there it was. I’ve never really believed in UFOs but this is a bit weird and quite freaky."

“I’m not really sure what to make of it but I can’t think what else it could be.” The photo of the flying saucer-like object was taken just after midnight in a Portsmouth car park.

Hilary Porter, from the British Earth and Aerial Mysteries Society (BEAMS), said the sighting could be credible/legit. She said: “It would be very difficult to fake that photo and the UFO is at a tilt, which is the way they normally fly. You don’t normally see that sort of UFO over this country, we generally get orange orbs, so the photographer who got this photo has got quite a coup.”

The Ministry of Defense refuses to comment on individual sightings. A MoD spokesperson said: “The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity. Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported.”

2

click to enlarge

This photo of a UFO over Cornwall was this week hailed by experts as one of the best ever taken in Britain. The classic flying saucer shape is seen above two ships. And UFO watchers believe it could be proof we are NOT alone. You think!?

Kelvin Barbery snapped the mystery object from a coastal path between Swanpool and Maenporth, near Falmouth. In a weird twist (and just like the sighting/photo above), Kelvin, 55, did not even see the UFO at the time.

He thought he was just shooting a seascape—but when he loaded the digital camera photos into his computer, the round metallic “craft” was in the centre of the shot, about two miles away.

Kelvin, a facilities manager for schools, said: “There were a couple of tankers out in the bay and I thought that it made a nice shot. "

“There was nothing in view and certainly no fault on the camera. "

“When I got home I couldn’t believe what I had. I thought, ‘Wow, where did that come from?’ I’m not the sort to believe in UFOs — now I’m not so sure.” '

Nick Pope, one of Britain’s foremost UFO experts, said the photo was one of the best he had seen. The former Ministry of Defense UFO analyst, said: “If I was still there I’d be looking at this very closely. The object looks structured, symmetrical and metallic. This man has caught something very interesting indeed.”

Michael Soper, of the Contact International UFO group, agreed: “This does appear genuine. Digital photos can be doctored but everything about it appears consistent.”
---o0o---

Would you fire this woman? Patti Solis Doyle photos

---o0o---

Bill Clinton: Hillary is the underdog; the campaign is running on a shoestring

Say what you will about President Clinton, he's a loyalist, and he'll be out there plugging for Hillary until there is no one left to browbeat and armtwist...

It's all over except the wheezing? The Clinton campaign in tatters?

Maggie Williams: took control of the campaign

The Senator Still skinnin' and grinnin'

Harold Ickes: still in, on the hunt for superdelegates

Senator Hillary Clinton, in public at least, keeps right on whistling past the graveyard. Yesterday, she campaigned across South Texas trying out a more grass-roots sort of message in at attempt to staunch her recent string of eight straight lost primaries in one week.

Patti Solis Doyle: out

Deputy Campaign Manager Mike Henry: out!

Maggie Williams, a confidante of Mrs. Clinton when she was first lady, has taken control of the campaign since the departure last weekend of Patti Solis Doyle. Ms. Williams is running a daily triage on what ads to buy and is also expanding the inner circle of advisers to extend beyond the old Clinton crony network.

Communications Director Howard Wolfson, now charged with

making Hillary more likable

According to insiders, the campaign is in shell-shock.

And cork it, Senator Barack Obama's camp yesterday declared the Clinton campaign doomed. Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said that Mrs. Clinton can't become the Democratic nominee without winning every remaining contest in "blowout form." In a conference call with reporters, he said that "even the most creative math" won't do it. Listening to the pundits on Hardball, I'd have to agree. Yes, Hillary has upset the pollsters and pundits over and over in this campaign, but this time it looks like there won't be any miracles; it's all over except for the wheezing.

---o0o---

Jesus Christ struck by lightning!

click to enlarge...

The world's largest Christ was hit by lightning this week. A thunderbolt over Rio de Janeiro hit the statue Christ the Redeemer.

The 130 foot tall, 700 ton, concrete statue sits on top of 2,300 foot Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio.

I don't know if this is a meteorlogical quirk, or God was sending a message. Or both.
---o0o---

Guy Brummet's Road trip/Or Growing up hillbilly, part 14

This is a verbatim transcript of an email from my brother Guy. The trip he describes happened last week.

"One of our more interesting vacations, if you like to spend lots of money.

"We started out leaving Friday at 2:30 after work, but both passes were closed, so rather than driving through Portland to get to Montana, I suggested going over White Pass, which worked okay, until my brother in-law, Harold blew his transmission ($4,000 to repair), so we called back home and had someone bring another truck and they would pick up the trailer on the top of the pass [ed's note: you have to love that back home they have all this spare rolling stock to deploy].

"Well that seemed like a good thing, but, I took my trailer to the top of the pass, unhooked it, and went to retrieve the trailer a couple of miles back to get it off the road. My brother in-law hooked it up (well he thought he did) then he noticed the lights went off on the trailer as I was towing it up the pass, well the light didn’t just go off the hole damn trailer broke away, broke the safety chains and went across a lane of traffic! Well luckily it ran into the bank, oh yeah, then I seen it going backwards down the pass so I drove my new truck backwards past it down the pass, got in front of it and just before I had to let it ram me, the trailer safety brake decided to work and it stopped about three feet in front of my truck.

My wife would have killed me if she seen me drive the truck and use it for a sacrifice, but I didn’t want to see the trailer go down the hill either.

"Well we realized he did a crappy job of hooking it up, I just got it re-connected and moving when a cop pulls up, I didn’t stop to chat, but my Harold told him I lost control but recovered. He was still waiting for me to tow his truck up to the top. 9:00 PM rolls around and we are finely on our way again, while Harold waits for a tow truck and the back up truck to arrive, 4 hours later the tow truck arrives and he spends the night in Yakima, and we arrive in Spokane at 3:00 AM.

"I guess this is a bit long, so here is a brief description of the rest, blew up one more truck engine in Montana on the way home, blew up two snowmobiles in Montana, but we brought two spares:>) got so much snow the last two day we couldn’t go anywhere, and the area we rode in had a broken groomer, so the trails were not very good. We did have a good time in the hot springs at out Lolo resort, but all that was, was a heated swim pool, they claim a hot spring heats the water. Of course the mountain passes were all closed coming home, so we sat in my truck on the pass until midnight when they reopened Snoqualmie, so we got back home Sunday at 2:00AM.

I must admit I am glad to be at work!
---o0o---

Barack Obama, Kevin Curran, & All This Is That

Jack and Kev, in non-debate mode -- click to enlarge

If you are a regular reader, you will know that we frequently engage in verbal fisticuffs with reader and frequent participant Kev. We have tilted frequently on the viability of Obama v Hillary. One thing we do agree on (aside from most of our core values) is Mario Cuomo. And we are slowly perhaps coming to agreement on Senator Obama. An exchange from today:

Kevin said...
You've been slogging him pretty hard and long now, Jackie. What do you have against the guy? And don't say it's his supporters cuz you have been steadily negative since right after you called him tougher than dirt and figured his experience to be roughly equivalent to your gal, Hil's. That goes back a year or more. I'd bet a quick review would show you've steadily ragged him since then.

Jack Brummet said...

OK. Are you calling shenanigans?

I was absolutely stunned and humbled by the speech he made at the Democratic convention in 2004. And he was a huck; an Illinois legislator. His keynote address was extremely good. Maybe not quite at the Cuomo level of speechification, but the best I'd heard in years.

He was elected to the U.S. Senate that fall with 70% of the vote. In thr Senate, he co-sponsored bipartisan bills on controlling conventional weapons and on tightening accountability in the expenditure of federal funds (a position you have to admit is not so different from that of Ronald Wilson Reagan). In the current session of Congress--contrary to my frequent claims of near total absenteeism--he sponsored legislation on lobbying, electoral fraud, climate change, nuclear terrorism, and medical and psychiatric care for returning military basket cases.

In ways, I've been fighting against Obama because I don't think it's his time (and boy I know he's tired of hearing that old saw). And I don't want him to waste his shot. Because he does deserve to be President, and in my booklet, solely because he has the love and the strength and the passion to draw this country together. And if we had to wait four or eight or even twelve years for that, that would be OK. If we run him now, you have to guess we only have one shot. But I'm not so sure we have those four or eight or twelve years to sparel

On the other hand, I guess, I am willing to sacrifice Obama now, because I am not at all sure there will be a second chance. I don't want a sacrifice...I want him to win.

Will I fight for Obama? Of course. But I also worked for Carter, Mondale, Dukakis, and Kerry (well, with Kerry my involvement was only through checks). I hope Obama supporters have the stomach for the compromises their candidate will need to make to be elected. Hey guys, it's not the 60's! Ok. Maybe he won't nominate Lieberman, but whoever he does nominate will not likely sit well with his core supporters.

Yeah, I've been very tough on Obama. But he needs that. He has just about shown he can take anything that gets hucked at him.

So, at this late date, I too, am about to join the Obama bandwagon; he is my fourth and final choice.

I started out with John Edwards, and hung with him for a long time, and in the last couple of months, leading up to the first primaries, I settled on Joe Biden--even at that point a hopeless long shot. Then it was straight into Hillary's clutches. So, I come to Obama as my fourth (and final) choice. What spooks me the most is that Mondale, Dukakis, and Kerry were also my fourth choices. But even at this (comparitively early) date, I feel far more positive about the prospects of Barack Obama than I did with any ot those other three disastrous candidates.

Jack Brummet said...
Let me also note that I am all for Obama making the Supreme Court nominations that will surely come his way. There will likely be at least 2,3, or 4 in his first term alone. I'd be fine with Hillary's choices too. However, I also do not think Hillary will get the same kind of honeymoon as Obama. If he really is the uniter, and the vector of change we hope he is, Obama will be able to move mountains. And in my heart, I know that when Hillary tries to move mountains, she encounters the proverbial irresistable force. . .
---o0o---