Rogues vs. Imbeciles

Rogues are preferable to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.

- Alexandre Dumas
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Pardon me! Who gets the golden ticket when Bush vacates the White House?

More than 2,000 people have so far asked President George W. Bush to pardon them or commute their prison sentences as a parting gift.

Junk-bond king Michael Milken, big media owner Conrad Black and the American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh (good luck on that one John!) have asked the Justice Department for Presidential forgiveness.

Of course, some highly placed lawyers lobby the White House directly for pardons. This includes people who haven't even been charged with a crime yet, like the disgraced former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or that hormone-gobbling baseball pitcher Roger Clemens.

"I would expect the president's conservative approach to executive pardons to continue through the remainder of his term," said Helgi C. Walker, a former Bush associate White House counsel. And, in fact, Bush so far has pardoned far fewer people than his predecessors. A President can pardon people at any time, but generally wait until the end of their administrations for the most sensitive ones, typically before Christmas and after New Year's. An exception was President Ford pardoning Nixon. Nixon was on the hot seat and without that pardon would have been hauled in and out of court endlessly over the next few years. Instead, he got to write books, and consult presidents on up through Bill Clinton.

Last week, The President issued 14 pardons and commuted two sentences--for small-time drug offenses, tax evasion and unauthorized use of food stamps. His eight-year total is 171 pardons and eight commutations--less than half what either Ronald Reagan or Bill Clinton issued.

A pardon is a free pass that eliminates civil liabilities stemming from a criminal conviction. A commutation reduces or ends a criminal sentence. The president's constitutional power to issue pardons is absolute and cannot be overruled; can forgive anyone he wants, at any time. Thus there is always the possibility of surprises!

click to enlarge the Nixon-Ford pardon

Bush's father, President George H.W. Bush, pardoned Reagan-era Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who was indicted in the Iran-Contra arms scandal. Weinberger's indictment by a special counsel days before the 1992 presidential election is believed to have contributed to Bush's defeat.

President Gerald Ford narrowly lost re-election in 1976 in no small part due to pardoning former President Dick Nixon in the Watergate scandal.

Bush earlier saved I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from serving any time in the case of the 2003 leak of then-CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted of perjury and obstructing justice. He has not yet applied for a full pardon.

I believe President Bush could also pardon himself, as well as the vampire he selected as his Vice-President.

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The second biggest lie ever told

The second biggest lie ever told could be:

"Don't worry. I'm only changing one line of code."

[ Ed's note: see also: The biggest Lie ever told ]
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Alien Lore No. 145 - A landing party rehearses over Saskatoon

A fascinating light show played itself out in the skies of western Canada on Thanksgiving Eve. The light show certainly came from outer space. Some scientists say the lights and fireballs came from a meteor, or meteors. The light show was visible from Alberta to Manitoba, but appeared centered over Saskatchewan. Sure, it may have been a meteor, but we guess most readers of All This Is That will recognize it for what it actually was: an alien landing party in rehearsal maneuvers.

A dashboard chase camera in a police car caught the footage below:



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Thanksgiving with the Sanchez-Curran-Brummet-King-Ericksen-Stewart-Ford-Querfurth Clan from Boston, Canada, Texas, Ohio, California and Seattle

Click to enlarge. The Thanksgiving clan, missing Henry,
Bo, Rod, Mackenzie, and. . . Del, who snapped the photo

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Comments: Never go full retard

I love it when people comment here. I don't encourage it enough. Once BlogSpot got the comment spamming under control with the bitmap word challenges a couple years ago, things were great. The level of discourse here is almost always high (generally higher than whatever ramblings Jack or Pablo have posted on any particular day) and very intelligent. A lot of web sites and blogs mainly have people trying to outsnark each other. But, do you read the comments on the heavily-trafficked sites like, say The Huffington Post, or YouTube, or even Amazon.com? What are these people actually trying to prove? I was watching some YouTube vids of John Prine tonight (who seems like about the last person who would generate some sort of flame war in the comments). And this popped up in the comments on that great song Paradise:




click to enlarge


Which makes me flash back to this exchange in Tropic Thunder:



Kirk Lazarus: Everybody knows you never go full retard.

Tugg Speedman: What do you mean?


Kirk Lazarus: Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, 'Rain Man,' look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Counted toothpicks, cheated cards. Autistic, sho'. Not retarded. You know Tom Hanks, 'Forrest Gump.' Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and won a ping-pong competition. That ain't retarded. Peter Sellers, "Being There." Infantile, yes. Retarded, no. You went full retard, man. Never go full retard. You don't buy that? Ask Sean Penn, 2001, "I Am Sam." Remember? Went full retard, went home empty handed...
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Williams Words - another generator--Williams Words

I have been fascinated with these image and text generators lately. Here is one I just encountered--Williams Words (and no, I don't know why there is no apostrophe).

Williams Words takes a word(s) you type in and creates a "poem." They look cool, anyhow. Unfortunately, at the moment, it can only handle ten words. Here is the output for my last name.



brummet
ru e
ru t
b e
b u t
m et
rum
me
et
b et
b u m
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painting: Woman 33

Click to enlarge
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Russian analyst predicts the breakup of the United States

click to enlarge

The U.S. will collapse and break up into separate parts (ala The USSR, Russia, Ukraine, and the 'Stans) according to a highly regarded Russian political analyst.

Wait, won't the Red States have all the guns and the farms???

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Alien Lore No. 142 - The UFO sightings outside Istanbul, Turkey

Many people in the UFO community, and elsewhere believe this sighting, and video, to be "one of the most significant UFO videos of all time." The footage also shows two extraterrestrials on tape. The sighting/incident took place in a compound in Kumburgaz/Istanbul and was witnessed by nearly a dozen residents and filmed by a night guard (unfortunately I missed it, although I was in the vicinity last summer). The images captured are expected to have a tremendous impact throughout the world and be listed as the most important UFO/extraterrestrial images ever filmed.

As is often the case, thanks to Jeff Clinton for the tip...Jeff is often rumored to be the progeny of President William Jefferson Clinton. He is no blood relation to the soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. . .

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BFF: Best Friends Forever? Hillary and Barack start down the road of world affairs

By Pablo Fanque,
All This Is That National Affairs Correspondent

Painting by Jack Brummet


Click the BFFs to enlarge

Global warming definitely exists, at least in the relationship between the two former arch-rivals Ex-Senator Obama and Senator Clinton. They are now unquestionably the most powerful man and woman in the Democratic Party (and soon, arguably, the world).

After all the bitterness on the campaign trail, Hillary's masterful speech at the Dem's convention this summer sealed it. In fact, Obama's top aides jumped out of their seats backstage and gave her a standing ovation as she walked by.

Obama soon called to thank her. Fast forward to when--->>

Late last week future President Obama reassured Clinton she would have direct access to him and that she could select her own staff as secretary of state. And the deal was done.

Some people even think ('though most people doubt) that Obama and Clinton could become close friends. There is a lot of mutual respect and they are both extremely intelligent. As it turns out, Obama is much more a centrist that the rabid Obamanistas could have ever believed, which seems to be a page from the Bill Clinton playbook. Dean Acheson was no friend of President Harry Truman and Henry Kissinger, while in agreement with Dick Nixon intellectually, clearly was no personal friend. Rusk, McNamara, et al. were not JFK pals, and were, in fact, more conservative. It will be fascinating to watch the relationship unfold between Clinton and Obama. . .whether it becomes a train wreck, or whether they become close, or even BFFs, as they work the world.
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Sheer profundity from the poet E.A. Housman

This snippet is from a longer poem by the Victorian poet A.E. Housman, written in the 1890's. I've noticed this poem quoted a lot in various places in relation to our current economic woes.

The thoughts of others
Were light and fleeting,
Of lovers' meeting
Or luck or fame.
Mine were of trouble,
And mine were steady,
So I was ready
When trouble came.
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