Happy Bastille Day!

I know Bastille Day isn't until Tuesday, and I know Lula doesn't eat things that used to have faces, but I think she gets a kick out of my cooking posts. Here is tonight's French feast, accompanied by Parisian jazz from the 30s (Django Reinhardt)

BASTILLE DAY MENU

Escargots Provencal
Snails in the Style of Provence

Salade Française du Marché avec Chevre
French Market Salad with Goat Cheese

Paquets de Veau avec de la Sauce à Vin Blanc
Veal Packets with White Wine Sauce

Gateaux Peter
Peter's Special Chocolate Cake

Yahoo's Demographic: 70% YAHOOS!

Seen on the Yahoo main page today:


I dropped the following comment in their electronic suggestion box for comments on how to "improve" their service:

Re: Judge Sotomayor confirmation survey

Do you realize that 70% of your users (or those who answered the survey) are ignorant YAHOOS? Is this something you people are particularly proud of? Just wondering … I don't know why such numbers surprise me, but they do. I suggest you post a follow-up survey:

"Have any of the 70% (morons) who voted not to confirm Judge Sotomayor actually READ any of her decisions?

- YES

- NO

- I'm a YAHOO (functionally illiterate); I just vote as I'm told"

Rove, aka Turdblossom, Testifies on Prosecutor Firings

Former Bush White House official Karl Rove was questioned by House Judiciary Committee lawyers Tuesday on any role he may have played in politically motivated firings of U.S. attorneys. - msnbc.com politics

Robert Strange McNamara, Butcher of Vietnam, Is Dead

He was so utterly reviled in his time that a meek hippie artist from Martha's Vineyard tried to kill him and nearly succeeded. The architect of the Vietnam war died with the knowledge that every attempt he made at redemption was met with ferocious pushback from those who had witnessed the ghoulish consequences of his folly. They would not permit him to rewrite the history of the men and women and children who perished in Vietnam. There would be no whitewash. And no sympathy for a broken, delusional apparatchik.

The commentary (excerpted below) by Joseph Galloway is an eloquent reminder that the strong feelings McNamara provoked in those who witnessed his role as the architect of America's tragedy in Vietnam have not diminished over the years, nor on the occasion of his death:


Reading an obit with great pleasure

Joseph L. Galloway | McClatchy Newspapers

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." —Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)

Well, the aptly named Robert Strange McNamara has finally shuffled off to join LBJ and Dick Nixon in the 7th level of Hell.

McNamara was the original bean-counter — a man who knew the cost of everything but the worth of nothing.

Back in 1990 I had a series of strange phone conversations with McNamara while doing research for my book We Were Soldiers Once And Young. McNamara prefaced every conversation with this: "I do not want to comment on the record for fear that I might distort history in the process." Then he would proceed to talk for an hour, doing precisely that with answers that were disingenuous in the extreme — when they were not bald-faced lies.

Upon hanging up I would call Neil Sheehan and David Halberstam and run McNamara's comments past them for deconstruction and the addition of the truth.

The only disagreement I ever had with Dave Halberstam was over the question of which of us hated him the most. In retrospect, it was Halberstam.

Hitler Reacts to Sarah Palin's Resignation

"There is absolutely nothing I want to do in Indiana."

Johnny Depp as Dillinger gave us the title quote, but I have to agree with him!

While visting the mother-in-law in Fort Wayne this weekend, I went to the neighborhood bare bones fitness center/gym. They had 8 TVs in front of the treadmills. Four were tuned to Faux News and the other four to Nascar. I kid you not.

CNN's Castellanos Mired in 20th Century Cold War

Heard on CNN from their regular right wing Cuban-American contributor, Alex Castellanos:

"President Bush looked into Putin's soul, and President Obama blinked. The less Russia has to worry about nuclear deterrence, the more aggressive they will become on their Western Front."

What? In the space of a couple of sentences, this right wing agitprop talking head managed to interject three Cold War clichés: Obama "blinked" (Cuban Missile Crisis), "nuclear deterrence," aka MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), and "aggressive on their Western Front," which conjures up all sorts of Cold War imagery of an aggressive Russian bear surrounded by a wall of satellite states. It's worth noting that Castellanos is an old school right wing Cuban-American. These types are UberHawks who still believe the U.S. would be justified in invading Cuba.

The neocons count on the short attention span of the American people. Lest we forget, this kind of talk is what got us into Iraq. Who can remember when the neocon lunatics were drafting white papers in the 90s calling for the U.S. invasion of Iraq, based on the flimsiest of pretexts? Despite their sometime halfhearted mea culpas, the neocons remain true believers. We're bogged down in the quagmire of Iraq, thanks to the neocons, and now Castellanos invokes Cold War fantasies of a resurgent Russia with the old battle lines drawn. Never mind that Russia and the U.S. concluded an agreement to allow U.S. military aircraft ferrying weapons and supplies to Afghanistan to fly over Russian territory.

Neocons such as Castellanos are certifiably insane. Haven't they done enough when they were making disastrous foreign policy in the Bush White House? Now Castellanos is sniping from the sidelines making absurd Cold War statements -- one more reason to hate CNN.

The last of the 20th Century Cold Warriors, Robert MacNamara, is dead. He spent his waning days a tortured, pathetic soul trying to justify his tragic mistakes in Vietnam.

Get with the program, Castellanos. In case you've been sleepwalking for the past 40 years, this is the 21st Century. Really, it is.

Don't go away mad, just go away

She stepped down in part because the national media attacked her? I hope that people remember that if that moron runs again in 2012.

Happy Independence Day!

I do this every year, but TODAY is the actual anniversary of independence. On July 2, 1776, the 2nd Continental Congress adopted Richard Henry Lee's resolution that these colonies "are, and of right to be, free and independent states." [The actual declaration document was adopted on the 4th--I guess the 4th of July either had a better ring to it or a better press agent. Besides, you'd have to change all the white sale flyers]

As John Adams, the leading light of independence, wrote to Abigail:

"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

So you all have my permission to take today off!

From the Governor

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Office of the Governor

I am sure that everyone in this great state knows of my recent actions. I have embarrassed myself and damaged my family, this office and this state. After careful and prayerful reflection, I have made the difficult decision to stay in office and continue to say really stupid shit.

Thank you.

Governor Mark Sanford

No More Excuses

Does John Cornyn know something we don't? Because that's the message he sent out after Al Franken finally won his seat and his day in court. Clearly, Repug Sen. Cornyn is counting on the Dems reverting to their historic spineless form, hence his mocking challenge. What's he got to lose?

The truth is, the Democratic Party shouldn't be cowed by Cornyn's trash talking, simply because Cornyn happens to be right in this instance.

Elections have consequences. The Democrats have a SUPERMAJORITY in the United States Senate for the first time in a generation. The Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled, Norm Coleman has conceded, and Mr. Franken goes to Washington ... AT LAST.

Sixty votes. Count 'em, 60: SIX-ZERO.

Got that, President Obama? Got that, Harry Reed? Excuse my French, but SCREW THE REPUBLICANS. (No more than they're screwing themselves, anyway.)

Time to pass Healthcare reform, RE-REGULATE WALL STREET, and start implementing a green energy economy.

Is there reason to be optimistic? Sadly NO, not as long as there are six or seven ConservaDem DINOS tiptoeing through the tulips in the Senate, while President Obama persists in his tired appeals to "bipartisanship" only to have the Repugnants slam his policies like a piñata.

Time to stand and deliver, Mr. President -- if you must, make the jellyfish in the Democratic Party GROW A SPINE.

Obama-Be-Bobby. We'll see.

Will MN finally have two senators? - YES

MN Supreme Court rules unanimously (the real kind, not the Limbaugh kind) in favor of Franken. Will Pawlenty finally sign the certificate and declare this debacle at an end, or will he hold up the GOP standard and continue disenfranchising his state?

Apparently, Coleman conceded. Now we've got 60. Let's get something done.

Sotomayor and the Supremes

In the bizarro world that the gelatinous Rush Limbaugh inhabits, the Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that Circuit Judge Sotomayor is a racist.

What a joke.

Title VII discrimination law is a VERY complex area in which the previous Supreme Court precedents on disparate impact were muddled at best. Judge Sotomayor did NOT write the opinion (which admittedly was rather brief given the complexity of the matter and the importance of the case) which 1) AFFIRMED the district court's holding, 2) was consistent with controlling, while murky, precedent, 3) was left undisturbed by the 2nd Circuit sitting en banc (and Rush, that doesn't mean where you go to cash a check) and 4) would have been affirmed by FOUR Supreme Court justices, while the conservatives and Kennedy actually re-wrote the law in their opinion.

The case shows one thing, and one thing only--she is a jurist sitting smack dab in the middle of the American legal mainstream.

Interactive Guide to recent Republican Sex Scandals 2006-2009

We need a flowchart to keep up with the Repugnant sex caucus:

Michael Jackson, Dead?

Mark Sanford, off the front page.

As weird/criminal as he's been the last decade or so, there's no way to explain to younger folks how big Michael Jackson was in 1983. Heck, I think Thriller was the first LP I bought (the first 45, a couple of years later, was the Super Bowl Shuffle).

First, Farrah Fawcett goes (icon of the 70's).
Then, Michael Jackson may have gone (unconfirmed) - icon of the 80's.
Who's next?

Mark Sanford's New Career: Pulp Erotica Writer?

Released today, the Governor's emails to his mistress, Maria:

"Two, mutual feelings .... You have a particular grace and calm that I adore. You have a level of sophistication that so fitting with your beauty. I could digress and say that you have the ability to give magnificent gentle kisses, or that I love your tan lines or that I love the curve of your hips, the erotic beauty of you holding yourself (or two magnificent parts of yourself) in the faded glow of the night’s light - but hey, that would be going into sexual details ...

... In the meantime please sleep soundly knowing that despite the best efforts of my head my heart cries out for you, your voice, your body, the touch of your lips, the touch of your finger tips and an even deeper connection to your soul.”

Screw him

I've seen a few people now making positive comments about Mark Sanford, because he admitted all (or so it seems) in his press conference today.

Screw that.

He cheated on his wife for a year (which is their business, sure, but I'm not going to think of him as a stand-up guy) and left the citizens of the state of South Carolina without a governor for days. That alone should be an impeachable offense.

I don't care that he apologized, I don't care about God's laws and our laws, I care that this guy screwed around on his family and on his job (a somewhat important one, even if it is South Carolina). You don't get to mea culpa your way out of this one, bub.

Gov. Mark Sanford: Don't Cry for Me, Argentina

It seems that accepting President Obama's stimulus money was just too much for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. The Governor was not hiking on the Appalachian Trail, as his staff told the media, on Sunday Solstice NAKED HIKING DAY, but on a cruise off the coast of Argentina, without telling his wife and kids, the Lt. Governor, or his constituents. This is dedicated to the Governor (pictured below):

The more things change...

I was listening to Thom Hartmann this afternoon, and he was interviewing a guest advocating that the U.S. ratify the United Nations Law of the Sea Treaty.

I seem to remember a brilliant, thoughtful, thin and single young man who wrote an insightful article urging the same thing way back in 1981. I think you can find it at 1981 University of Illinois Law Review 762--if you happen to be near a law library!

Meanwhile, back in Frostbite Falls...

From Juan Cole:

Bombings and other violence left 30 dead in Iraq on Monday, and the three-day death toll is 100. Monday's strikes included a bombing of a mini-bus with students aboard in Shiite Sadr City.

In my own view,the Shiites won the battle for Baghdad and largely ethnically cleansed the city of Sunni Arabs, who I suspect are now only 10-15% of the capital's population. So this sort of terrorism is now more revenge than anything else, and it is hard to see what political change it could effect. It is just a way of keeping the pot boiling and challenging the ensconcing of the Shiite-dominated al-Maliki government.

In my worst GWB--Freedom..liberty. Mission accomplished.