Elfing Holiday

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Happy Holidays!

and some mail

THIS IS ALL ABSOLUTE BULLFUCK.
YOU PPL ALL REALLY BELIEVE IN A FUCKIN FLYING DINNER…..
GO DIE MUTHAFUCKERS
-franklin

Unity is not just a Pony

I have been feeling very sad this week about my internet family…I even thought about packing my possessions in a handkerchief, tying it to a stick and walking away to hitch a train yo Solitude land

I stopped packing when I read Heidi Li’s beautiful entry at No Quarter and the Confluence

Especially in the fight against the subjugation of women, men and women must ask themselves these questions, because one of the hardest obstacles to achieving progress toward the good of justice for women is the tendency toward infighting on the one hand and selling out on the other

.

and the closing:

Time is on the side of those who fight for justice, so long as those who fight for justice do so with patience and tenacity, and resist the parallel temptations toward selling out or excessive infighting.

Thank you Heidi Li for the wonderful words of hope.

What had started as an admirable, heartwarming rally to help one of us in a moment of unspeakable tragedy and hardship, is threatening to evolve into a B0botic type loyalty test, with boycotts and lists of naughty and nice.

Let’s please remember what all of us had to escape earlier this year before coming together as PUMAs and not make anything - not even righteous arguments into divisive tests.

I will never change my values or give up my fight. I would dearly love to continue to do it with my dear friends of the past year.

As long as I can do it PUMA way.

Happy Winter Solstice!

Tomorrow at 7:04 AM EST the longest night will end and the sun rising at 7:16 will start getting closer, brighter and warmer. Shining on all, big and small, naughty or nice, no matter what.



This morning solstice and sunrise - sun didn’t show up, but it was magic anyway

The Craven eleven

here I was, enjoying reading the results of a Pew poll on Bush

In a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, respondents were asked to volunteer their assessments of how Bush would be remembered after he leaves office. The most frequent response, from 56 people, was “incompetent,” followed by “idiot,” “arrogant,” “ignorant,” “stupid,” and so on. Nine people volunteered a three-letter synonym for donkey.

After all, this was my wish for him, since his coronation in 2000 - to be covered in ridicule. I’d say, I got my wish

Overall, though, the Pew poll underscored the depth of public disdain for Bush, who now ranks as the most consistently unpopular president since the advent of modern political polling. He has not had the approval of a majority of Americans since the beginning of his second term, and has hovered in the 20s in most approval rankings for more than a year. An NBC-Wall Street Journal poll last week found that eight out of 10 Americans would not miss him once he’s gone.

But then, a funny thing happened. As I got to the devotees, a familiar number surfaced:

“Just 11% said Bush will be remembered as an oustanding or above average president — by far the lowest positive end-of-term rating for any of the past four presidents.”

11%? Where did I hear this very number recently? I check my prior entries:

Only 11% think Obama is clean

Just 11% say it’s not at all likely (connections with Blagojevich) according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey

Ah, yes, that transition without drama - as WaPo calls it seems to have generated an identical low number of unconditional lovers.

I am sure an interesting scientific theory could start from these facts, but I am not a scientist. So, I’ll just enjoy the irony and the symmetry and leave to others to make something of those numbers.

And I am now officially creating a new word:

the “elevenpercenters”. We got W’s and we got B0’s. W ended with them, Obama is starting. His media has their work cut out for them.

Mind you, they are bigger than the minority I was part of after September 11 (another 11?): the “ten percenters” who did NOT believe W suddenly became the bestest POTUS of all because we have been attacked.

Which makes me wonder if “11″ isn’t a result of pollsters adjusting their numbers a bit to avoid saying “90% are against them”. You know, like $4.99 is a better price then $5. Or, 90% were for W after September 11, but we won’t say that now 90% are against him.

That could be a theory explaining the identical numbers. It would explain more than that: Jr and Jr.jr are both equally protected by the opinion makers.

Of tragedies and dogma

Recently one of our PUMAs family was met with unspeakable tragedy. I am sending my best wishes for recovery and justice to them and kudos to all those coming around to support.
The other sort of tragedy - to me - as I feel alienated from my PUMA family - is that the same person seems to be using the leverage of support for excommunicating another PUMA she disagreed with.
From posting private correspondence on her blog to challenging her to post her family story on their site "or else she isn't worthy" - there is a chilling B0botic wind blowing in the PUMAdom.
So, I took refuge on this my other blog - to lick my wounds and decide whether to go alone or stir the shit.

Puppet on string - strings for Caroline

The incomparable Wayne Barett at Village Voice gives us some insight in the blue bloods and rich people coalition that is going to stick us with a brat even more unwilling to work for us than W:

It would be an oversimplification to say that Mike Bloomberg is the main man behind the Caroline Kennedy tsunami that’s hit in the last two days. There are others behind the wave of support, as well. Some, for example, say that Rahm Emanuel has such a need to fill senate seats he’s now calling David Paterson instead of Rod Blagojevich.

Interesting, as Rahm Emanuel ducks reporters these days and NY Times threatened Paterson that not picking the Princess will subject him to speculations of corruption. And Reid is mentioned as well. As for Bloomberg?

Bloomberg’s 2009 campaign and Kennedy’s 2010 campaign will be run out of the same offices at Knickerbocker SKD, where consultant Josh Isay already helped orchestrate the term limits coup for clients Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn, and where he is now trying to help pull off his second coup in three months by securing the Clinton seat with a resume-reinvention for Ms. Kennedy..

Bloomberg wants Caroline’s name support for his forever mayorship

And we also get some glimpses of that resume reinvention:

The most tawdry part of the Bloomberg cheerleading, however, has been the exaggeration of the Kennedy resume. Aside from Caroline’s books–some of which have been collections of her mother’s favorite poems and other people’s essays–the only significant career accomplishment is the two months she worked part-time at Bloomberg’s Department of Education.

Two months, uh? It didn’t say this in the media blabber. And how much work did she do?

The former Klein aide who would only talk to the Voice anonymously said that he sat near Kennedy’s cubicle and that when she came in, she would “only stay a couple of hours or so.”

NY Post reveals she wasn’t too crazy about voting either.

And then comes credit for other people’s work:

Klein “credited her with bringing in a $51 million gift from Bill Gates’s foundation,” according to a Times piece yesterday, but a top former Klein aide told the Voice that the Gates grant “was totally put together” by Michele Cahill,..


The frequently-cited $65 million for the Academy,is also hype.The Partnership for New York City raised $30 million of it from its own members, and hardly needed any heavy lifting from Kennedy to do so. When Caroline left, Kathy Wylde, the Partnership’s presiden

t, tried to depict Kennedy’s role delicately. “Her stature was absolutely critical”

As for the media? Writes Barett:

Kennedy has so far outdone Sarah Palin by enjoying media adulation virtually without talking to reporters.

Actually, Palin was crucified by the media and talked to plenty of reporters. But the comparison is welcome, seing that experience - or lack of it - was such a major issue with Governor Palin but is completely overlooked for Princess Caroline.

The best part is how she came to work for the awful Klein:

Klein, whose wife went to Radcliffe with Kennedy and was a bridesmaid at her wedding, recruited her at a social gathering in Martha’s Vineyard.

No wonder we are told that

The Senate could end up looking like an American House of Lords.

Joe Biden’s Senate seat may go to his son Beau. Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, Obama’s pick for interior secretary, could end up being replaced by his brother, Rep. John Salazar.

And Obama’s own seat could go to the son of the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. – less likely now in light of developments in the R

od Blagojevich scandal – or to the daughter of Illinois’ current House speaker.

The Conscience of the Misogynists - W's gift under the tree

Just the day when Rick Warren was praising Obama on his “courage” to stand up to his base and Jon Favreau became object of jealousy

W finally issued the announced blow to Roe rule designated to

protect health care providers who oppose abortion and other medical procedures on religious or moral grounds.

Because one should not have to bomb abortion clinics unprotected.



The timing was perfect

The measures announced on Thursday, sometimes described collectively as the “conscience rule,” were issued just in time to take effect before the start of the new administration. They will go into effect 30 days after their publication in the Federal Register on Friday.

Because now

The Bush administration had signaled its intention to issue the measures, which are part of a flurry of regulations it is announcing before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. The new president will be able to undo the regulations, and is virtually certain to, given his previous comments on the issue. But undoing them will be a time-consuming process.

Recipients of funds from the Department of Health and Human Services are required to certify their compliance with the rule by October 2009.

So, let’s see who will be willing to consume their time.

W managed to leave the stinker behind while avoiding a red flag issue that would have brought out voters for McCain

I will not hold my breath for the Favreau administration to give a rats ass.

Not Your Sweetie

It's where I am

Bush & king funeral

hatrack (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-08-06 10:03 AM
Response to Reply #39
55. "Shine the light" on this Bush lie - enjoy!
Once again George Bush is a day late and a dollar short. He was supposed to be giving a Budget Photo-Op today, until he got shamed into appearing at the funeral along with Clinton, Carter, and Bush Sr.. I'm sure he couldn't stand the thought of being upstaged. What will happen to the unused backdrops? Scotty came up with the lamest excuse possible for the change in plans - see the second article below.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/05/national/05bush.html
In a Change of Plans, Bush Says He Will Attend King's Funeral
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: February 5, 2006
CRAWFORD, Tex., Feb. 4 — The White House announced here on Saturday that President Bush would attend the funeral of Coretta Scott King in Atlanta on Tuesday, postponing a scheduled trip to New Hampshire.
White House officials told reporters on Friday that Mr. Bush would be speaking about the federal budget on Tuesday in Manchester, N.H., but on Saturday afternoon the White House sent out an e-mail message saying that Mr. Bush would attend the funeral instead and was switching the New Hampshire trip to Wednesday. The president is also expected to speak at Mrs. King's funeral.
Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, said in an e-mail message on Saturday that the change had been made because "the funeral arrangements were only very recently finalized" and the White House had not been ready to make an announcement until then. Mr. McClellan said "the president and Mrs. Bush are honored to be attending."
But Bishop Eddie Long, who will be officiating at the funeral services at the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, said in a telephone interview on Saturday that he had initially heard from the King family that Mr. Bush would not be attending and that he planned to send Mrs. Bush and his father, the former president, instead. Mr. Long said he found out only on Saturday morning that Mr. Bush would be present after all.
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0206/299504.html
Scott King's Funeral to Be Tue. in Atlanta
RSS Feeds From ABC 7
Thursday February 02, 2006 1:03pm
ATLANTA (AP) - Coretta Scott King's funeral will be held Tuesday at the suburban Atlanta Baptist church where the Kings' youngest child, Bernice, is a minister, according to the funeral director assisting the family with arrangements. Willie A. Watkins, director of the Willie Watkins Funeral Home in Atlanta, said Thursday that the funeral will be held at noon at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, a suburb about 15 miles east of Atlanta.
Emphasis added.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

NYT cover - king 184

DU comment on snoop hearings

PATRICK (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-06-06 11:04 AM
Response to Original message
71. I don't get how
they can argue without the deepest humiliation. First Bush shoves aside all their laws and consent and FISA, tooled especially for a presidency under a separate unequal law, and then they must hold him to account for not availing himself of the approved super powers? In essence they have to sound pathetic no matter what tack they take that avoids centering on abuse of power and contempt of Congress and subverting the law recklessly, needlessly and in perfect textbook example of the most insulting cartoonish fashion WHY there were regulations to begin with. Nixon was the textbook. Hitler was the monster. Bush is the flippant cartoon of an utterly degraded system of law.
Yet the solemn debate. Like those high society dinners when the three stooges disrupt it with pie throwing. Except it isn't funny but mean and the Congressional stuffed shirts just pretend the pie are not in their faces and keep posing.

Sheehan, SOTU, Clinton times

On a thread discussing Sheehan's arrest, freeper tries the "they all do it" argument. Of course, he only highlights the differences:

Pryderi (917 posts) Wed Feb-01-06 09:03 AM
Response to Original message
25. Clinton did the same thing.
In the early days of the Senate's impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton in January 1999, a Pennsylvania man named Dave Delp was removed by the Capitol police from the Senate gallery for wearing a t-shirt that said, "Clinton doesn't inhale, he sucks."
A Pennsylvania school teacher was yanked out of a VIP Senate gallery and briefly detained last week during the impeachment trial for wearing a T-shirt with graphic language dissing President Clinton.
Dave Delp, 42, of Carlisle, Pa., and a friend had just settled into their seats when four Capitol security guards approached them. Delp said at the time that he was ordered to button his coat and follow the guards. Outside the chamber, he was told "several people felt threatened by your shirt."
Even after establishing that Delp was a guest of Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), the guards wouldn't let him back in and escorted him to a basement security area, where they questioned and photographed him.

leveymg (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-01-06 09:13 AM
Response to Reply #25
30. Yes, but he wasn't arrested for "disorderly conduct"
That's the term for "protestor", a crime in the Constitution-free zone that has become anywhere Dubya happens to be.
Alert Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top 
Spazito (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-01-06 09:15 AM
Response to Reply #25
32. Ummm, where does it say the man was arrested and charged?
Cindy was arrested and charged, quite different wouldn't you say?
Alert Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top 
DemonFighterLives (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-01-06 09:20 AM
Response to Reply #25
33. Why don't you stick with the present
and stick with the party. I'm sure the freepers will find this ammo without your help.
Cindy Rocks!
Delp was an assclown.
Glad I could help!
Alert Printer Friendly | Permalink | Reply | Top 
robbedvoter (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-01-06 09:20 AM
Response to Reply #25
34. Nice try. VIP, important issue, Santorum, no arrest - good parallel.
Thanks for bringing it up. It dramatizes more your guys' hypocrisy....Also, I don't remember the newspapers howling: "Republicans badly damaged by Delp's display"
But hey, we have our heroes, you have yours. We have our messages, you have yours. Always good to keep perspective.

A google search reveals this a freeper fabrication - which Drudge is now also spreading. No source in the past.

> Bin Laden family to end ties to Carlyle

> Bin Laden family to end ties to Carlyle

> http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,5-2001365686,00.html
>
> TUESDAY OCTOBER 23 2001
> Bin Laden family to end ties to Carlyle
> FROM CHRIS AYRES IN NEW YORK
> THE family of Osama bin Laden is close to ending its relationship
> with the Carlyle Group, the US investment group backed by George
> Bush Snr, the former President, and John Major, the former Prime
> Minister.
>
> It is understood that Carlyle Group and the Saudi Binladin Group,
> the Middle Eastern conglomerate owned by the family of bin Laden,
> have decided to part company by “mutual consent”

Archive:WH wanted to run government without congress

> THE WHITE HOUSE MADE A POWER PLAY TO RECEIVE EXTRAORDINARY POWERS, IF
> CONGRESS IS OUT OF SESSION, WITH ONLY THE APPROVAL OF DENNIS HASTERT!
>
> FROM THE WASHINGTON POST:
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35905-2001Oct22.html
>
> By Dana Milbank
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Tuesday, October 23, 2001; Page A04
>
> Congressional negotiators balked at a White House proposal that would
> give the president new powers to keep the government open if Congress
> could not meet because of a crisis.
>
> The Bush administration last week suggested an emergency spending
> procedure that would allow a president, in consultation with
> congressional leaders, to continue government operations for 30 days at
> existing funding levels if spending authority expires during a time of
> crisis when Congress cannot convene.
>
> The White House dropped the proposal when congressional and
> administration aides could not agree on the structure of such a
> mechanism. In their haste to vacate Capitol Hill because of an anthrax
> scare, lawmakers instead agreed to extend interim legislation to keep
> the government running until Oct. 31 without making a policy for future
> emergencies.
>
> Rep. David R. Obey (Wis.), ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations
> Committee, said the White House had sought to give the president power
> to extend government operations for 30 days if the president had the
> permission of the speaker of the House, in this case J. Dennis Hastert
> (R-Ill.).
>
> "We were willing to give them some short-term authority if they had the
> agreement of both parties in both houses," Obey said. Aides to President
> Bush talked about such a plan with congressional aides, but the Bush
> proposal "was very different from what had been discussed on the phone,"
> Obey said. "On both sides of the aisle in the House it was felt that was
> too far-reaching."
>
> Bush aides now indicate that getting such powers for the president is
> not a top priority, making it unlikely such a proposal will become law.
> But the proposal, which comes in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist
> attacks and when congressional offices have been closed because of fears
> of anthrax, underscores the government's new concerns about catastrophic
> terrorism in the United States.
>
> While scholars say it would be controversial, if not unconstitutional,
> for Congress to delegate its purse-strings authority to the president,
> Amy Call, a spokeswoman for the White House Office of Management and
> Budget, said the emergency provision would only be activated when
> congressional leaders gave their approval. "This would be a decision by
> congressional leaders in participation with the president," she said.
>
> Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget
> Office and now president of the Urban Institute, said there would likely
> be nothing unconstitutional about members of Congress delegating
> authority to their own leaders. "It's not a crazy thing to develop some
> kind of mechanism to ensure the government can continue operating," he
> said. "If the alternative is shutting down the government, I can't
> really see why it would be objectionable."
>
> Bush aides said that while the proposal is not meant to shift power from
> the legislative to executive branch, they were not optimistic Congress
> would approve a measure that even appeared to make such a shift.
> "Publicly, they're not going to give up any prerogatives," an official
> said.
>
> Existing law does not have a provision stipulating what would happen if
> Congress could not meet to authorize government spending, Reischauer
> said. But under the Civil War-era Feed and Forage Act, the military
> could continue to buy supplies without budget authority, he said.
>
> The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Vice President Cheney's
> staff promoted the idea of giving the president authority to keep the
> government operating for up to 30 days if Congress could not convene.
>
> The current federal fiscal year began on Oct. 1 without Congress passing
> any of the 13 annual spending bills needed to fund the government. The
> government has continued to operate under short-term spending bills
> Congress has passed and Bush has signed.
>
> Staff writer Dan Morgan contributed to this report.
>
>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> FOB1-unsubscribe@egroups.com

New offer on Bin Laden (Archive)

New offer on Bin Laden
http://www.guardian.co.uk/waronterror/story/0,1361,575593,00.html
Minister makes secret trip to offer trial in third country

Rory McCarthy in Islamabad
Wednesday October 17, 2001
The Guardian

A senior Taliban minister has offered a last-minute deal to hand over Osama bin Laden during a secret visit to Islamabad, senior sources in Pakistan told the Guardian last night.

For the first time, the Taliban offered to hand over Bin Laden for trial in a country other than the US without asking to see evidence first in return for a halt to the bombing, a source close to Pakistan's military leadership said.

Yahoo caption

Yahoo photo caption

US President George W. Bush arrives at Osaka International Airport in Japan with First Lady Laura Bush. Americans trust US President George W. Bush less than they trusted his predecessor, Bill Clinton, and they are increasingly losing confidence in his leadership, a poll showed(AFP/Paul J. Richards)

Kerry/Edwards victims? (DU exchange

DU exchange: Are Kerry/Edwards victims?
82. Victims of the theft, perpetrators of the lie (that Bush won)

The theft is the primary crime, but the lie itself (that even you buy to some extent) is damaging too - as it makes us fight the wrong battles ("the perfect candidate" "work harder" raise more money" - all meaningless in a no elections country)

NYT: Bloomberg cruises, Corzine wins costly...

.
2 elections with obscene spending - in one both candidates spend (Corzine and the GOP) in the other one candidate obliterates the other with 100 million (that we know of) plus scares donors from opposition. Yet, one's victory is a cruise, a lansslide, reason fr celebration. The other guy's is "surprising" - and dirty tricks (ex-wife for the opposition) are brough back in the news.
Why? because the "cruiser" is GOP, and the "costly winner" a dem.
And I mentioned NYT, but all media , print and Tv is doing it - and NOBODY NOTICES

Tough question (W - Rov)

Scotty refuses to answer "W has confidence in Karl Rove?"
Al Franken played a clip from the last press conference:
The question is posed repeatedly.
Scotty zigs and zags "won't respond in context of an ongoing investigation" and "check transcripts of previous answers"
Al Frenken did - and the answer was then "yes" (ongoing investigation being also present). Hmmmm...so what changed?