The Republican Oil Plan, in General

You know, there have been various ideas about energy policy, oil prices, gasoline, etc by both parties for the last few years. Not to sound overly dismissive, but has ANYTHING been done or planned by ANY of the Republicans in the last 7.5 years that made the fuel cost situation better? Has anything EVER come along in that time that benefited the consumer over the oil industry? heck, how about just if it was evenly good for both of us? outside of the bogus impossibility of 'drill now' [There's no physical way to drill 'now']? You will have to excuse me if i hold my wallet a little tighter when you guys walk by with your ideas on gasoline prices.

For that matter, have you ever noticed that the big complaint about Democratic oil policy plans always wrap around how we Dems will make the cost of everything skyrocket? the same GOP that thinks 40MPG cars as a standard somehow will do us harm. they're the ones that have made my food prices spike by their conservative prudence. Lunch prices on my lunch menu today have gone up by 40%. Thanks, jerks

GOP changes name to "Got Our Payoffs"

So you were wondering if the Republican indictments for bribery and graft would end sometime soon, the answer is no. After his son got into some trouble with his own local (Alaska) kickback schemes, it seems daddy didn't wipe the gravy off his mouth either.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Ted Stevens, the nation's longest-serving Republican senator and a major figure in Alaska politics since before statehood, was indicted Tuesday on seven felony counts of concealing more than a quarter of a million dollars in house renovations and gifts from a powerful oil contractor that lobbied him for government aid.

His response gives an insight to what is gonna come out....they clearly have something.

I have never knowingly submitted a false disclosure form required by law as a U.S. Senator.

[emphasis added] You may recall Sen. Stevens (R-AK) from the 'bridge to nowhere' scandal a few years back.

Did You Hear About the Shootings in that Tenn. Church??

It turns out the fact that they were a liberal church, too liberal for him, was the reason he decided to commit murder during a children's program. From the News in Knoxville, TN:

Adkisson targeted the church, [Knoxville Police Department Officer Steve] Still wrote in the document obtained by WBIR-TV, Channel 10, "because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."

Adkisson told Still that "he could not get to the leaders of the liberal movement that he would then target those that had voted them in to office."

Adkisson told officers he left [his] house unlocked for them because "he expected to be killed during the assault."

Inside the house, officers found "Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder" by radio talk show host Michael Savage, "Let Freedom Ring" by talk show host Sean Hannity, and "The O'Reilly Factor," by television talk show host Bill O'Reilly.

Just great.

In a Nice Turn of Events...

The Mississippi Coalition for Citizens with Disabilities awarded me with Advocate of the Year for 2008. I was honored and More than a little surprised. They are pretty nice people and do very important work.

Obama in Afghanistan

I've seen some of the photos with the troops. A lot of them actually. No one is saying it overtly, but I can imagine this is not what Obama is wanting in a photo Op. as a matter of fact, it can be said it is somewhat exactly what he's avoided in photo ops over the last year. I expect them to be used in the future in some way.

That unpleasantness aside, the coverage is more akin to a state visit from a president rather than a nominee, which makes all this more bizarre. Nominees generally try VERY hard not to go abroad during Presidential campaigns. I'm not saying its a bad idea, but they don't do it because SOMEBODY thinks its a bad idea. I am concerned that all this adulation will create some backlash...as if the press has anointed him our President/Pope.

Good and Bad...you decide!

OK, you should watch this. It is an interview from a couple of years ago with the President. It was conducted in the UK. it is worth watching just to see the depth here. I'm serious. we'd just found ourselves in a serious position in a serious war. The President is asked some straight questions and you will be shocked by his answers. Sharp as a tack, and completely informed. watch this and tell me if this isn't a President fully engaged in the how/what/why of the serious times he leads us through.

On another note, i found this interesting news footage about yet another American natural disaster.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Worth Reading

Sometimes I think the Harper's Weekly Review is worth reading in its entirety.
--

HARPER'S WEEKLY

Colombian military commandos infiltrated a settlement
operated by the guerilla group FARC and freed 15 hostages,
among them three U.S. contractors and the Colombian-French
politician Ingrid Betancourt. President George W. Bush
called Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to congratulate
him. "What a joyous occasion it must be to know that the
plan had worked," said Bush. "That people who were
unjustly held were now free to be with their families." A
federal appeals court ruled that evidence against Hozaifa
Parhat, a Chinese Muslim held at Guantanamo Bay for six
years, consisted of nothing more than the reassertion of
his guilt in three top-secret documents. "Lewis Carroll
notwithstanding," wrote one judge, quoting "The Hunting of
the Snark," "the fact the government has 'said it thrice'
does not make the allegation true." Former inmates of
Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were suing contractors in four
American states for subjecting them to electrical shocks,
mock executions, and forced nudity, and the Iraqi
government announced that the United States had agreed to
strip private security contractors of their legal
immunity, though the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad refused to
confirm the statement. A survey found that Americans
feared terrorist attacks less than at any point since
September 11, 2001, and President Bush removed Nelson
Mandela from the terrorism watchlist. A poll revealed that
a third of Welsh college students believe that a
flirtatious or drunk woman is to blame for being raped,
and a survey of the National Assembly for Wales found that
3 of the 8 legislators who responded had been raped but
had not reported the crime. In Australia, where inflation
is at a 16-year-high, Treasury Secretary Ken Henry left
his post to look after 115 endangered hairy-nosed wombats
for five weeks. "I think," said an opposition politician,
"we all love the hairy-nosed wombat."

Bozo the Clown and Jesse Helms died, and the new waxwork
Hitler at the Berlin Madame Tussauds museum was
beheaded. Fifteen boys were killed and 90 hospitalized in
Eastern Cape, South Africa, due to botched circumcisions,
Ottawa firefighters sprayed children with
E. coli-contaminated water to celebrate Canada Day, and a
Dublin, Ohio, man was arrested again for using Saran Wrap
to collect and drink little boys' urine. Google co-founder
Sergey Brin explained that he had decided to raise his
company's on-site daycare fee to $57,000 a year because he
was tired of employees who felt entitled to free "bottled
water and M&Ms" (although a spokesman denied that he had
said this), and a judge ruled that Google subsidiary
YouTube must provide Viacom, which is suing over copyright
claims, with details of the viewing habits of everyone who
has logged in and watched a video. Psychologist Himanshu
Tyagi claimed that children raised to use online social
networking sites will "put less value on their real world
identities" and may be in danger of "impulsive behavior
or even suicide." British studies warned that eating junk
food during pregnancy might cause lasting damage to the
child, and that eating too much tofu could lead to
dementia. Researchers at Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable
Improvement Center found that watermelons have a
"Viagra-like effect," but a researcher in Oklahama pointed
out that this benefit may be offset by the melon's
diuretic properties.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average officially entered a bear
market. The cost of oil surged, and shares of General
Motors fell to their lowest price since 1954. Speeding
drivers in Holly Springs, Georgia, were paying police a
fuel surcharge to cover the price of their pursuit, a
Kentucky woman was arrested after trading sex for a $100
Speedway gas card, and Nevada brothels were offering
customers "double your stimulus" incentives that included
$100 gas cards. The United Nations brought female
excrement carriers from India to New York City to appear
on the catwalk alongside top models at a fashion show,
crowning one woman the princess of sanitation
workers. "This is the dream coming true of Indian
independence hero Gandhi-ji," said an organizer. An
unemployed former trucking company owner posing as a
federal agent was under investigation after he worked with
local police to search homes and make methamphetamine
arrests in a Missouri town, and a fake priest was caught
trying to take confessions in St. Peter's Basilica. It was
reported that a stone tablet inscribed decades before the
birth of Jesus described a messiah who would come back to
life after three days. "What happens in the New
Testament," said Bible scholar Israel Knohl, "was adopted
by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah
story." The George Washington Foundation unearthed the
founding father's childhood home in Fredericksburg,
Virginia, uncovering slave quarters and a Civil War trench
but no cherry tree. "I don't think we'll ever find the
cherry tree," an archaeologist said. Mercury was
shrinking, and Earth, said scientists who study radio
waves, is shrieking.

-- Chantal Clarke

I'd Be Much More Relaxed...

If I had a nice Eames Chair....or maybe even a dog!

B.I.H. Jesse Helms

RALEIGH, N.C. — Former Sen. Jesse Helms, an unyielding champion of the conservative movement who spent three combative and sometimes caustic decades in Congress, where he relished his battles against liberals, Communists and occasionally a fellow Republican, died on the Fourth of July. He was 86.

Jessie Helms got his start in North Carolina during the Civil Rights era. He would give his "commentary" for the local station after the national news would air footage civil unrest and oppression. He'd defend what had been put into a 'bad light'. He rode the worst in our national character into decades at the US capitol. He has the legacy of a shameful degenerate and left the world a worse place by his breath and shadow across our soil. My condolences go out to the family carrying his name. God bless America.

...And Another Thing....

This is maybe a little personal for me, but EVERYTIME i hear someone talk about Obama being some smug elite, i want to ask them to name for me that last President (Hell, i'll take a contender!) that was SOOO rich and elite that he had to take out student loans to go to school! I live as part of a generation that spends at LEAST a decade or two paying off the sheep skin that gets us 'through the door" and have a hard time listening to the well off cry and moan about the out-of-touch-snobby-power-elite BLACK guys going to school on STUDENT LOANS! Maybe somone in a past election wanted a President that they would like to have a beer with...I like the idea of one that knows what its like to pay the bills of going to school a decade after the degree is done.

If you EVER Hear Anyone Talking About Obama Being a Flip-Flopper...

Keep this handy little list at the ready! Provided by Steve Benen:

• McCain was against the repeal of Roe v. Wade before he was for it.
• McCain was against torture before he was for it. Really for it.
• McCain was against crazy right-wing preachers like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson before he was for them.
• McCain was against Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy before he was for them.
• McCain was against shady Bush “Pioneer” Texas billionaire swift-boat financiers before he was for them.
• McCain was for the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law before he was against it and began breaking it.
• McCain was against Grover Norquist, whom he called “corrupt, a shill for dictators“ before he was for him.
• McCain was against BJU because of its “hateful,” “racist and cruel” policies before he was for it.
• McCain was against ethanol before he was for ethanol and then he was against it again.
• McCain was against a Martin Luther King holiday before he was for it. …

Chris McMillian, My Favorite Bartender in the World

Mr. McMillan used to be the Bartender of the Library Lounge in the Ritz Carlton. Now, I understand he's at the Renaissance Pere Marquette Hotel just off Canal St. in New Orleans. He's the sort of bartender that knows more drink recipes than you can name and knows their histories and stories. Many times he's kept the bar open way past closing for me just to chat about drinks or politics (his mother was an old-line union organizer) or the city. Not that I'm anything special, he's just a nice guy. the kind of person you would want to see at a cocktail lounge. watch the video. seeing him work is nothing short of watching someone craft their art.

[More at the link up top]

And the Lord Said, 'Let there be Eames'

I've always admired Eames design and I was lucky enough to have a little brother that FOUND a vintage leather Eames chair in a dumpster!

The Week for You...From Harper's

I like the use of "conquest" to describe the actions of the Iguanas in South Florida.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
HARPER'S WEEKLY

Oil reached a record $139.89 a barrel. Four Western
companies met with Iraq's Oil Ministry to finalize no-bid
contracts to tap Iraqi oil fields, and the Nigerian
government distributed billions of dollars of windfall to
corrupt state officials. Thirty-five countries and 25 oil
companies met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to try to fix
global oil prices, which have caused strikes, riots, and
inflation around the world. Many OPEC countries blamed
speculators for the price increase, as did some
representatives of oil companies and oil-dependent
industries. United States Energy Secretary Sam Bodman
blamed supply and demand, as did lobbyists for Goldman
Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the International Swaps and
Derivatives Association. Drivers in the Gaza Strip, where
Israel limits fuel supplies and black market gas costs $27
per gallon, used vegetable oil and turpentine as fuel,
producing toxic fumes that result in diarrhea and stomach
pain. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
cancelled four global-warming research expeditions, citing
the cost of fuel. American cowboys could not afford to
drive their horses to rodeos, and those who lived near the
border were filling their tanks in Mexico, where gas is
subsidized. Giant iguanas continued their conquest of
South Florida, surrounding Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commissioner Bob Kanjian at a golf course in Lake
Worth. "I had 25 to 30 iguanas," he said, "staring at me
while I was playing."

Breaking an earlier vow, Senator Barack Obama announced
that he will opt out of the public campaign-finance
system, in order to be able to spend unlimited amounts of
money in the last two months of his presidential campaign,
rather than merely $84 million, the amount to which
Senator John McCain will be limited under public-funding
laws. "It'll be like George Steinbrenner's Yankees in the
90s," Democratic consultant Chris Lehane said of Obama's
campaign, which could spend as much as $500 million,
"against the 90s Kansas City Royals." Al Gore endorsed
Obama, as did Donatella Versace, whose spring-summer 2009
men's line, which includes slim pants with a "slick
techno-fabric sheen," is dedicated to the
candidate. Ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
declined to endorse McCain, who has called him "one of
the worst secretaries of defense in history," and Air
Force veteran, comedian, and self-described "old fuck"
George Carlin died at 71.

Water gushed down the Mississippi from last week's floods
in Iowa and Illinois, overflowing at least 20 levees above
Saint Louis, and the Flood Museum in Fort Madison, Iowa,
remained under water. The federal government warned that
climate change will make rainstorms less frequent but more
intense in years to come. A polar bear named Ofeig ("He
Who Should Not Die"), recently arrived in Iceland after
traveling via ice floe from Greenland, was shot and killed
by the police after he panicked and threatened to attack
some journalists. A left human foot wearing a running shoe
was found in the ocean near Vancouver. Police were
checking to see if it was related to any of four right
human feet found in the area since August. "This might
take a long time," said Sharlene Brooks of the Delta
Police Department. "This is not C.S.I." A forensic
pathologist and an anthropologist studying what appeared
to be a sixth human foot concluded that it was an animal
paw and some seaweed stuffed into a sock. Kermit Scott, a
former philosophy professor who inspired Jim Henson's
puppet Kermit the Frog, died. A sweeping revision of
surveillance law, extending the NSA's domestic wiretapping
program and granting immunity to telecom companies that
have helped them spy on Americans, passed the House and
was expected to pass in the Senate. The bill, explained
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.), "abandons the
Constitution's protections and insulates lawless behavior
from legal scrutiny." It was revealed that the Veterans
Affairs Department had tested an anti-smoking drug on
veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder but failed to
warn them that possible side effects included psychotic
behavior and suicide. A bomb in a Kia truck exploded in a
market in Baghdad, killing at least 65 people. "I feel
very tired and sad," said clothing merchant Salam Hashim,
who lost three friends in the attack. "I just want to
smoke."

-- Sam Stark

* * * * * * * * *
NOTICE

EVERY HARPER'S MAGAZINE ever published is now online and
free to all subscribers. Subscribe and gain instant access
at:
https://harpers.org/subscribe/order.php

Just Dreadful

I'm getting pretty sick of my insomnia. I went to bed a little after 3am twice in the last week. those were the "full" night's sleep. every other time was well after 4am. It's 7am now and i'm pretty sure my Sunday is now shot.

great.

Martian Umpire...

...finally starts to clean off home plate!

Mascot/Ump throwdown

We had an additional mascot today at the game today. He was pretty good. We're ahead 1-0 in the 3rd.

Separated at Birth?

For years now, i've thought that Tom Collichio (famous chef and judge on the Top Chef TV show) looks JUST LIKE Baseball hall of famer Cal Ripken Jr.

How Do You Get to ...?

Wow! this was a pretty good version of Superstition by Stevie Wonder...ON SESAME STREET! Check out the kinds in the background totally freaking out.

A Delta Boy Who's Awfully Proud of Himself

I bought a copy of Delta Magazine (about the MS Delta) Saturday. It is pretty much one of those magazines dedicated to cheerleading the region/state/city it's about. I'm not the biggest fan of this type of magazine, but sometimes they can be a great mirror back to the place you live. highlights of wonderful treasures you never knew were right under your nose. I still find myself shocked at the places i've never been (or even heard of!) after living in New Orleans for several years (and living a, let's say, active social life).

So, this issue has a picture of a BBQ sandwich on the cover. It has a GREAT map/guide of stops to make on a trip through the Delta (Hwy 49 or Hwy 61, your pick!). I've been to about 60% of the places and the rest seem like discoveries waiting to be made! now back to the picture. What finally hooked me to buy the magazine was that sandwich. i knew what it was. i knew what was on it. I knew when the restaurant was opened. i even knew the plate. When i saw that sandwich I got a warm feeling and had to buy the magazine.

Now i'm hungry for no good reason.