Saturday Night Souse

The 4^th of July Edition

“Wine is necessary for life.” — Thomas Jefferson

“My manner of living is plain…a glass of wine and a bit of mutton.” – George Washington

“Wine makes daily living easier, less hurried, with fewer tensions and more tolerance.” – Benjamin Franklin

“The 4^th of July is truly one the best holidays because it truly one of the most booze-soaked, and what’s more American than that?”– DFV the Scribe

Let’s Party Like it’s 1787!! The bill for a celebration party for the 55drafters of the US Constitution was for 54 bottles of Madeira wine, 60 bottles of claret, 8 bottles of whiskey, 22 bottles of port, 8 bottles of hard cider, 12 beers and seven bowls of alcohol punch large enough that “ducks could swim in them.”

Where We Lost Our Way: In America’s first twenty years, we elected to the presidency two brewers and a wine expert. Today we have a teetotaler who drinks a single non-alcoholic “beer” each evening. I’ll let you decide which training regimen seems to have been the more effective.

And it’s Not Just Presidents: Men in the U.S. who drink alcohol receive about 7% higher wages than do abstainers, according to data from the national Household Survey on Drug Abuse (United States Department of Health and Human Services). Women who drink receive about three and one-half percent higher wages than do abstainers.

Fall in the Rockies: Not far from the Conclub World Headquarters is the annual Great American Beer Festival. This year it will be held Oct. 11-13 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. It is the largest collection of beers at one location anywhere in the world, and last year almost 2,500 brews were sampled. It’s hard to think that George Washington (who liked dark porters) or Benjamin Franklin (who preferred lagers) wouldn’t be proud. And you can bet if they were around today, they’d be heading to Denver in October.

This week’s hangover remedy: Water, water, water! You already know this, but you still forget to drink enough water every time you get hammered and you only remember it the next morning when your body scream, “You idiot! You didn’t drink enough water again, and now we have to suffer through this together.” Especially if you are drinking beer, which will dehydrate more than spirits, and especially if you are drinking out in the sun while golfing or barbequing, dehydration is likely to be your #1 enemy. Drink aqua before, during, and after your partying, and of course right before bed and right when you wake up.

Obligatory Disclaimer: Saturday Night Souse® reminds readers to drink responsibly. If you are going to drink on July 4^th, plan ahead for safe transportation so you don’t drive. And if you do not plan on drinking on July 4^th, then just know that the Founding Fathers are turning over in their graves and wondering whether their sacrifices were even worth it, just so some snotty punk could come along two centuries later thinking he’s too frickin’ good to drink a damn Budweiser! – or else you’re the designated driver, in which case, thanks for your service.

Olbermann, Johnson and the Left on Terror

Whom do you call on in a pinch for expertise about jihadist plots if you’re a guy who hasn’t taken terrorism seriously since 9/11? Why, a guy who hasn’t taken terrorism seriously since before 9/11, of course. It’s a segment six years in the making, starting with Crazy Larry’s now-legendary “stop worrying about terror” op-ed published in July 2001 and continuing through to this morning when he wowed the dKos faithful by pronouncing the car-bomb plot a “crock of crap.”

Hot Air made that observation and posted this interesting exchange between Keith Olbermann and former CIA officer Larry Johnson:

Just for the record, the left has downplayed nearly every failed terrorist plot over the past few years.  But how are we supposed to take these gentlemen seriously when they wonder aloud why we are making a big deal out of failed car bombs in western cities but not out of car bombs in a war zone?  *Note to Larry,* we are also funny about Muslims running about shooting up our malls too, but somehow we don’t give much press to the daily gun battles in Iraq either.

But isn’t it nice to comment on your news program and always make those that you most detest wrong?  When terror plots are successful, it’s because we have created poverty and resentment with unilateral aggression and support for Israel.  When terror plots are thwarted, the perps were poorly funded, disorganized, stupid, or didn’t have enough material to cause lasting damage.  Its nice to always flip a two-headed coin!

Saturday Headbangers Ball II

Below is the Scorpions with the Berlin Philharmonic. Classical violinist Vanessa Mae joined them on stage for “Still Loving You” in 1996.

Metallica’s show with the San Francisco Symphony was even better, since conductor Michael Kamen had worked with the band before.

 

And for fans of the truly bizarre, here is Kiss performing “Love Gun” with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. I guess Melbourne picked third.

LOL Presidents

I don’t know if you guys are familiar with the LOL phenom, but it involves taking an ordinary picture and adding text to it that reads like a loser such as myself in an online game typed it (”I’m in UR base, killin UR dudes”),  to make it funny.

The most famous site is “I Can Has Cheezburger?” which does it with adorable little animals (mostly cats), i.e.

But now someone has done it with preznits. 

Some of them are pretty good, and it is the weekend, after all.

Saturday Headbanger’s Ball

Will be away for a few days, so will post the HB video now, which is technically Saturday.  The Scorpions Rock You Like a Hurricane in a way you have perhaps never heard it before.

Friday Night Punk- Fall Out Boy

“Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”

Posted them already, but I’m going to see them in concert on Sunday, so one more night, one more time.

It’ll be bubble-gum punkalicious!

I Almost Feel Sorry For Him

Almost.  (Via TPM)

Even the most ardent Bushie will admit that public speaking has never been his greatest gift, but today’s statement on the failure of the horrible immigration bill in the Senate was somewhat unique.  The bravado… gone.  The sneering… gone.  The attempt to speak to reporters as if he somehow knew something they did not (albeit monosylabically)… gone.

All that was left was a man who, at least appeared, to realize that not only is he a lame duck who cannot get Republican senators to return his calls, but that his legacy will be compared to Hoover and Carter, and probably not so favorably.

Rosie O’Donnell Posts Photo, Video of 4-Year-Old Daughter Dressed as Guerrilla Fighter With Bullet Bandolero

Vivienne “Vivi” Rose

I really feel sorry for this child. Her mother is a deranged and increasingly erratic nutjob who is using her to further her own twisted personal ideology. Since Rosie ‘came out’ she has embarked on a slide into a realm that is disturbing to say the least. It’s like watching a train wreck happen in slow motion and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Bizarre.

Hat tip to Neocons United, you can read more about this story on his site.

Paris Hilton exclaims “Let’s smoke some F%#ckin herb”

Despite her claims on Larry King last night that she has never taken drugs, the Smoking Gun has some evidence to the contrary.

“Welcome ever smiles, And farewell goes out sighing.” William Shakespeare

The romantic view of Great Britain sees her as Europe’s ballast, America’s wingman, and a leading world power in her own right. Indeed, Britain can fulfill all of these roles, but mostly only because that is how she has been cast, and those are her lines to recite. Should she ever seek to forge a strong identity separate from the United States, it is unclear whether the nation could muster influence beyond that of France or Japan.

Seen realistically, then, Britain’s past ten years have been a colossus of global influence. It is unlikely to be repeated again.

As late as his twenties, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair thought he might be a rock star. The guitarist for Ugly Rumours dreamed of a career as a musician, but prudently studied law as a fallback. After he married another talented lawyer, Cherie Booth, his ambitions began to move from the rock band’s stage, to the stage of public opinion.

When he became the youngest prime minister in history at the age of 43, Blair ran as someone with big dreams for British society, but what interested him most about the job seemed to be the world stage. While he was denied several of his signature domestic goals, his ten years in power became defined by foreign affairs and what can now be seen as a clear Blair doctrine.

Did Somebody Say ‘Right Said Fred?’

When candidate Thompson starts visiting the hollowed halls of Conclub, he will soon have his campaign song.

Dems - Drop Dead Fred

Democrats spooked by rise of New Reagan

The Democratic party is so alarmed by the prospect of competing against Fred Thompson, a Republican who portrays himself as a successor to Ronald Reagan, that it is advising campaigners how to attack the former actor and Tennessee senator.

And frankly, they should be. His rapid rise to the top of the pack, even as a ‘non-candidate’, shows his widespread appeal as a straight talking, common sense conservative and the desperate need the GOP has for someone like him. It may be impossible to beat Hillary in 2008, but Fred Thompson would give her a run for her money. There are multiple reasons I personally support a Thompson run, and I’ve read a couple of the Democratic hit pieces on him and they say more about the Dems than they do about Thompson. If anything, they tend to read like a list of why he should be supported as a GOP contender instead of reasons he would not be supported by a significant portion of the electorate.

They don’t have much on him and they know it.

And it scares them.

Run Fred, Run!

Sen. Thompson’s delay at jumping into the race early was a brilliant move and shows that he has a different strategy and different view on this race than the rest of the rat pack. If nothing else he spared himself the far to early and far to boring debates that have taken place so far. That alone is reason enough to select the man to run the country. He’s already experienced power;  has fame and fortune and a good looking young wife. Now he wants to serve his country in this hour of need.

I say let him do it.

Wednesday Late Nite Blues

Beer and the Blues.  That is what Wednesday night is for me.  One can listen to recordings of the blues, but it definitely is best experienced live, preferably in a small smoke filled room where everyone you see is smoking Doral Reds and drinking bottle after bottle of Budweiser, Original Coors, Miller or other American Beers that do not have Light (or Lite) in their name.

It is in this kind of environment that I ran across tonight’s featured artist, Jared Stewart and the Hideaway Blues Band.  These 2 short clips do not do his talent justice, but alas they are the only videos I can find.  When watching him live he seems to channel many of the blues greats through his playing and vocal talents. To listen to more samples of Jared’s album tracks, click here.   Jumpin Bean and Warm and Tender Love are must listens from this album.

The California GOP…

…is a joke. 

This is too funny not to mention:

Michael Kamburowski, the Australian immigrant hired as a top official in the California Republican Party, was ordered deported in 2001, jailed three years later for visa violations — and has filed a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, according to U.S. District Court documents.

Kamburowski was named in March to be the chief operating officer of the California GOP. He is responsible for the state party’s multimillion-dollar budget and oversees campaign funds and financing for the nation’s largest state GOP organization.

As the state GOP’s new operating officer, the 35-year-old Kamburowski was handpicked for the post by state Republican Party Chairman Ron Nehring, who became party chief in February.

Well, I guess we do have a (pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-gun, global warming believing, Kennedy marrying, Hollywood elite) Republican governor.  That must count for something. 

An illegal immigrant, filing frivolous lawsuits, running the largest state’s Republican party????  I LOVE IT!  Is it 2008, yet?

The Left just doesn’t get legal issues

Andre does not now, nor ever will, understand legal issues or the Constitution. He believes that James Madison wrote a legally binding document that prohibits forevermore any future school administrator from stopping any student from openly advocating illegal drug use.

And in an embarrassingly frank admission of his intellectual limitations on this issue, he admits can’t possibly fathom that anyone would hold the opposite position.

He mocks John Roberts, Sam Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy for their intellect (!) and throws in the tired, warmed-over-racism shot at Clarence Thomas. Andre hates democracy, administrators, voters, citizens, principals, and parents. He believes that a tiny group of usually liberal guys in black robes should decide for 300 million people their school rules, family rules, church rules, who can say what, wear what, do what, who can golf on the PGA Tour, what level of clothing strippers have to wear, whether a 9mm is an “arm,” if a Xerox is communication, if an email is a “personal paper,” whether a plastic reindeer is religious, if a school district’s budget is generous enough, whether a particular T-shirt is offensive or just jovial, if the “corn” in Corn Flakes is enough to be called that, whether a sworn enemy of the United States is really a threat, whether a staightforward law is secretly motivated by prejudice, if condors are best protected by federal policy, whether wolves are more valuable to us than cattle, if workers are overly scared by open ballots, and whether the local Santa on city hall is too big, too brightly lit, or too lonely (i.e., there are not enough plastic Jewish figures seated not close enough to it).

On not one of these issues, nor hundreds of others, does Andre believe that we as a nation may freely govern ourselves.

This is a scary place we are heading.

Yes, terrifying. Now in the Andre/Orwell America, minors who openly advocate crimes can actually (brace yourself) be told to knock it off. “Now boys,” the principal may say, “nice try, but that’s not allowed at school functions.” My, it’s practically Nazism revisted.

One of the aspects of the Court’s free speech jurisprudence is a balancing test between the interest an entity has in prohibiting the speech vs. the interest the other entity has in invoking it. In this case, the message “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” had nothing whatsoever to do with the torch procession of the Winter Olympics. According to the logic Andre advocates, the students could have unfurled a banner that read “Eskimos are Retarded” or “Homosexuals Should be Burned Alive.” If a school official had walked over to the group to suggest that banners advocating burning gays wasn’t allowed, Andre would have found this “a scary place we are heading.”

Finally, in case anyone was still giving the slightest credence to his Bolshevik views, he comes clean with his partisanship.

We can now regulate speech based entirely on content, and you approve? Really?

But Andre actually favors precisely that. Should an honest citizen believe that his government has gone awry, and he says so in a radio spot around the time of election, Andre believes that federal marshals should jail the man.

If someone wants to send a true reformer to Washington to advocate that person’s democratic beliefs, and they write unauthorized letters to their friends asking them to support the cause, Andre believes agents with guns should silence the letter-writer until after the election has passed.

And if a 10 year old wants to send his daddy to Congress, and holds a lemonade stand to raise money, Andre would send the Justice Department to the stand in question, to see whether all of the quarters collected for lemonade are given under the federal limitations and with proper documentation. And Lord help the poor child if Andre should get wind that the sugar he added to the drink wasn’t fully reported.

All of this, Andre is not only okay with, he actually loves it. But if a teenage stoner who bizarrely unfurls a sign about bong hits at an Olympic torch ceremony is scolded, Andre fears for the future of freedom in our nation.

A more asinine position could hardly have been created had he set out to do so.

Must… Not… Post… More… Sadly, No!

OK, I must. 

Once again, Just for E.

When it rains, it pours, and all that.

You homophobe! hehe

Who the **** Cares????? Paris Hilton is Getting a Limo Out of the Big House!

I’m such a nerd that I like to fall asleep to either MSNBC or CNN, but tonight it is all about “When is Paris Getting Out?”

An actual line… “Wait… Wait… Here comes a Sheriff’s Deputy, but there’s nobody interesting behind him, so let’s go back to our guest”.

Can someone PLEASE clue me in on who really cares about this nonsense?

BONG HITS 4 JESUS!

We’re going to have to live through thirty years of this?  

Christ, just shoot me now.

For those of you who “don’t really care” about politics, I would like to remind you that this is why elections matter, unless you support the decision *glances at E, Dave, and probably DFV*, in which case I want you to remember how bad the GOP field is, so stay home in 2008.

For those of you who just love the crazy, be sure to read Justice Thomas’ “Get off of my lawn you damn kids” concurrence. 

Sigh.

Update:  John Cole at Balloon Juice, a conservative who, like Sully, was a little late to the “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON” party, sums it up well:

I guess we will just let the strict constructionists explain their position on this one. Apparently the founders were in favor of every kind of speech except those that got in the way of government aims. If Larry Flynt’s case went to the court right now, he would be a convict.

My support for Roberts and Alito was yet another instance in which I was little more than a useful idiot.

Yeah, you were.  Thanks.

Ted Kennedy’s Spanish Serenade

We aren’t yet sure how many rounds of Jose Cuervo brought this about, but I will bring that information to you as soon as it is available.

And I, for one, am very glad to hear his pledge to the illegals that ‘he won’t let them down’. How reassuring. He even thanks them for ‘your  soul and your heart’.  I, for one, am touched.

Ay Jalisco No Te Rajes (Don’t Give Up On Me).

My reaction?

 NO MAS!

Historical Anecdote of the Day

Alexander and Diogenes

Alexander’s  encounter with the Cynic philosopher Diogenes at Corinth. Cynics believed that it was right to live “according to nature”, showing contempt not only for wealth and social position but even for the common conveniences of daily life. Diogenes eschewed all possessions and lived, at least for a time, in a pithos (large storage jar), eating and drinking with his hands and performing all bodily functions in public. A sharper contrast between the ascetic and the all-powerful and wealthy king would be harder to imagine, and the encounter clearly “had to happen”. According to the account of Plutarch, Alexander asked Diogenes to request a favour from him, to which Diogenes replied: “You can step out of my sunlight”. Alexander was impressed. “If I were not Alexander,” he said, “I should wish to be Diogenes.” Whether such an exchange in fact took place has been questioned, (only Plutarch and the Greek historical novel, Alexander Romance, tell the story), but if the two did meet, it is very probable that Diogenes took a suitably disdainful attitude.

From Alexander the Great

I Wanna Be an Ex-Gay

Just for E

It could work.

Korean War Memorial Day

 57th Anniversary of Korean War; war photos

Largely ignored, the Korean War is consided at best a ’stalemate’ by some and the opening battle in the Cold War by others. The results can be clearly seen today. The South is a prosperous, energetic, well-fed country with religious and political freedom for its population.

The North is one of the worlds most backward states with an indoctrinated and cowed population, a psychopath for a leader and a pariah reputation on the world stage. Meanwhile millions languish in horrendous punishment camps or have succumbed to tortuous death by starvation.

The difference is striking. ’Western values’ may not be perfect, but the alternatives are frightful and in the end little more than blood splattered totalitarianism ideologies that smother the human soul.

Shriek! More of Those Scary Gay Folks in Schools!!

Interesting that E believes this to be the “force-feeding of gay rights in the school.” Force-fed by whom, exactly? It was on a single page, paid for by the student’s own money, that showed him kissing his boyfriend (he is gay, after all).

In answer to Andre’s question,

Prior to publication, officials at the school, in the city’s Iron bound section, set parameters for yearbook pictures, banning gang signs, rude gestures and graphic photos. However, several photos of heterosexual students kissing were included in the final product. In fact, Jackson said that on the very next page of the yearbook is a picture of a female student kissing her boyfriend.

Hmmm. A smoking gun, it would seem. Now one way out of this would be a call for a robust defense of heterosexual norms and a defiant declaration that guys kissing their girls is okay, but gay guys kissing their guys is not. But Eric’s hero could offer no such defense.

When asked to explain the discrepancy, Bolden said Friday she didn’t look at the entire yearbook and was presented only with Jackson’s page for review. She said yesterday that an assistant superintendent brought the yearbook to her at a luncheon the day the books were to be distributed and she had to make a quick decision.

Well, we know how vexing those quick decisions can be.

It’s a good thing I wasn’t a student at this high school. Apparently students forked over $85 for the yearbook, but since the horrifying photo wasn’t noticed until after printing, the “quick thinking” administrator had a student go through each book prior to purchase and scratch out the offending pic with black marker. Had I shelled out 85 bones for my book, only to find that a systematic scraggling of Sharpie had been unleashed on my property, I would have raised hell.

And by now, members of Conclub and readers of our humble site know well that I would have the administrators begging for mercy before I was done.

I’m actually glad E found this article, though. I would have to search it out myself to post it as another example of the lunancy of school administrators. I might’ve posted my write-up under the tags Idiots and Political Correctness. But thankfully, E the Wise saved me all that trouble.

Monday Morning Quarterback

Dedicated to rehashing the big sports story of the weekend. 

Because it is so much easier to say what you would have done!

                             

Meet Juan Pablo Montoya

The Scene:  Every so often NASCAR veers off of the circle track to make the races interesting to the non-NASCAR types like me.  The Toyota/SaveMart 350 in Sonoma, CA was one of those races.  While I am not a race car afficionado I have always been intrigued by the explosive growth in fan base and money of NASCAR.  The marketing of the sport is something that students at Ivy League schools will soon study in their 300 level business courses.  It is nothing short of phenomenal.  So what can NASCAR do to expand their already burgeoning empire?  Hope guys like Juan Pablo Montoya win, of course!

So at the Nextel Cup Series Toyota/SaveMart 350, the talk of the race was that the winner would be the team that pits the smartest.  The 12 turn track is much less predicable than the circle track we usually identify NASCAR with.  I read yesterday that crews were actually running their cars out of gas during practice just to see how far the car and driver would go.  Montoya began the race way back in the 32nd position out of 43 cars.  During the race, Montoya went in for gas at lap 68 of the 110 lap race.  His own team calculations had him running out of fuel with one or two laps to go. 

The Call:  What the hell do I know other than the car needs fuel to run. 

The Result:  Being a foreign born driver, Montoya is a man among boys on road races.  After passing Kevin Harvick for the lead with 18 laps left, he downshifted later and let the car roll through corners.  Harvick was convinced Montoya would run out of fuel but it never happened.  Montoya solidified his place on his team, and may help NASCAR reach a world more accustomed to open wheeled cars.

I’m Not Worthy

Since E has apparently decided to go on some uncharacteristic gay tangent, I guess I will break with my usual two line “I hate Bush” posts and write about something along the same line that I think needs to be addressed.

It’s time to end “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. 

Now.

When I tried to join the army after high school, my ASVAB score was high enough that I was told I should be a linguist.  My recruiter said that it was among the most important roles that an enlisted man could play in the military.  Collecting intelligence was meaningless, he said, without being able to quickly interpret and apply it.  I signed papers to head out to basic training, followed by nine months in training in Russian (Damn, I’m old), and then he asked me five questions, one of which was “are you a homosexual or bisexual”.

I lied, though at the time I was confused enough that I didn’t think I was.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), I was PDQed (Permanently Disqualified) based on other health reasons.  Such occurances shape our lives, and had I been allowed to enlist, I probably wouldn’t know any of you now, but I digress.

This brings me to Bleu Copas. 

Sunday Timewaster

The 30 Second Bunnies Theatre Library…in which a troupe of bunnies parodies a collection of movies by re-enacting them in 30 seconds, more or less.

The wheels are coming off the Straight Talk Express

McCain could pull out of race by autumn: Presidential hopeful drops campaign staff as Republican consultants predict he’ll be gone by September

“The wheels are coming off his wagon and it’s hard to see how he can recover. He won’t be able to pay all the good talent he has hired and they’ll want to drift away from a loser.”

A poll by Rasmussen Reports last week showed McCain lying joint third with Mitt Romney, the Mormon former governor of Massachussetts, with the support of just 10% of Republican voters. This compared with 28% for Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, and 27% for Rudy Giuliani, New York’s mayor at the time of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

The amnesty bill was probably the last straw. He’s too old, too erratic, has alienated the Right wing base, and would get stomped by the Hilderbeast.  He has also slipped to single digits in a Nevada presidential poll. The seeming, ever imminent,  addition of former Sen. Fred Thompson to the race has managed to deflate what little McCain had going for him.

It will come down to Guiliani and Thompson in the primaries. Will Rudy have enough to pull it off? I increasingly think not. The ‘base’ is just too leery of him, and his moment as ‘America’s mayor’ following 9-11 is fading with time. I’d like to see him as a possible Veep, but he’d be a great Secretary of State.

The question really comes down to whether or not Guiliani or Thompson (or a combination of the two) has what it takes to beat Hillary Clinton. The Scribe says no, but I say yes. But I’m really afraid he might be right.

Andre adds:  Reason # 1,220 Why McCain will never be the GOP nominee.

More Force-feeding of Gay Rights in Schools

Obscuring photo of male kissing boyfriend is illegal, gay advocate says

Calling the directive homophobic and unlawful, Steven Goldstein, chairman of Garden State Equality, said yesterday the school also should redistribute a new batch of uncensored yearbooks at the district’s expense. 

“This action by the school district will have an unspeakably vile chilling effect on other gay and lesbian students coming out,” Goldstein said. “Her (Bolden) trying to erase a student and his boyfriend is a metaphor for her trying to erase the gay and lesbian community out of Newark and its school system. It’s wrong and it’s ridiculous.”

“Unspeakably vile chilling effect?”  Spare me!  What about the unspeakable vile chilling effect of telling our kids that whatever the hell their ‘rutting rabbit’ instincts are telling them, act on it. 

On Executive Power and Future Intentions

On the ‘re: re: Wake up time’ thread, here is a summary of the argument:

Me:   I would argue that the Bush papers will be (released) too, when the time is right . . .  .  . And while you may be skeptical of the Executive gone awry, I am so much more critical and pessimistic of this Congress gone awry.

Phlebas:  Right, just trust your government. Always truthful, never wrong, consistently wise.

DFV:   Let me be clear, I am not concerned about a strong executive. In fact, I think in practice, ours is too weak because of Congresses nibbling. I just think we need to get better men to wield that power.

Believe me, trusting executive authority and the power of the Federal government is not normally my cup of tea.  In fact, this is the first time I would give Phlebas some latitude in his sarcasm.  My statements about future hopes of Bush and Cheney turning over their papers do seem rather hokey.  But at the same time, I believe that Presidents are judged 20 years down the road.  So it is with that fact that I do think DFV’s misgivings about the historical record are out of line. 

Look, lets be clear about what the great minds of Conclub have said about the War on Terror all along:  we believe that it is essentially in its infancy and that there are many more players, tactics, battle fronts, goals and issues than the public is now able to wrap its collective minds around.  I don’t think that in 20 years, the Bush White House will even want to keep their dealings and maneuvers a secret.  I believe that those documents will validate what Conclub knows and has written extensively about.  And the President in 20 years will use the works of an elderly George W. Bush to continue fighting the war that was birthed in 2001. 

So the crux of the debate is this:  DFV, Andre, Phlebas and the nutroots believe that this administration is completely incompetent and that the recent archives flap only underscores that the White House is dealing in secrets, overstepping Constitutional authority, and ultimately has no intention of showing history what it did in the bowels of the White House.  Ever. 

I believe that instances of incompetence can in no way be indicative of what a President will do once he is fully out of office and completely insulated from the vengence of a Congress hellbent on making criminals out of political opponents.  Those papers will be released as a small form of vindication one day. 

Frank Deford Backs Title IX, But Claims Not To

Frank DeFord is a committed liberal. He is also a believer in college athletics, and apparently doesn’t harbor an abiding hatred for males. All of which puts him in a terrible quandry.

That’s because Title IX to the 1972 Educational Amendments is widely acknowledged by unbiased analysts to be a deadly bludgeon for men’s intercollegiate athletics. It is also held up by extreme feminists as just the type of sweeping and inflexible federal law that we need to shape this nation’s unnecessarily masculine boys into, well, less masculine boys. So what’s a leftist sports columnist to do?

DeFord is either clever or lucky, depending on whether he wrote his own subheadline, or had a friendly editor who looked kindly on him. It declares that Title IX should “be reevaluated,” even though the column itself mostly defends the ghastly legislation. And DeFord uses arguments so patently false, that one is left to conclude not only that he has no interest in the reality of the debate, but that Sports Illustrated has no editors on staff.

Re: Re: “Wakee Time”

Eric said, in response to my claim that Bush’s secrecy was unprecedented:

That’s funny because I would love to see the FDR papers.

Read away: The CD ROMs available include “Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘Safe Files’, dating from 1933-1945. These files consist of formerly classified materials kept locked in Franklin D. Roosevelt’s White House safe, mainly from the World War II period. The Safe Files include correspondence, reports, and memoranda concerning: the Manhattan Project, the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations, the O.S.S., the War, Navy, Treasury and State Departments, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia, China, Great Britain and France, General George Marshall, Generalissimo, Ambassador Averell Harriman, Admiral Ernest King and Harry Hopkins, as well as the American-British Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pacific War Council, and ‘Plan Dog’.”

We can all thank God that FDR didn’t have Vice President Cheney at his side.

Or wouldn’t the Lincoln papers be intriguing?

I’m sure they would. Start here.

The law didn’t exist until 1974 because the twin bandits named J. Edgar Hoover (whose chief secretary destroyed an incalculable number of documents upon the boss’s death) and Richard Nixon had not even been imagined in the legislative mind.

E’s use of the Ford quote only proves my point. Ford was arguing for more openess, not less, and sooner rather than later. The Bush administration opposes him on this. They aren’t seeking to protect only “the most highly sensitive documents involving our national security,” but rather everything. The most sensitive documents are, and have always been, secret. But Bush had to issue the brand new Executive Order so he could keep secret everything his heart desired. Ford pretty clearly opposes this.

Re: Some Mad Guitar

I had never heard of Richard Thompson either…fantastic.  Love great guitar work.  Here is a little clip of Leo Kottke, who must be one of the greatest fingerpickers of all time. 

Headbanger’s Ball

Some days I just need some really aggressive music.  Tonight, it’s Pantera with Cowboys from Hell.

Some Mad Guitar for a Saturday Night

Via Brad at Sadly, No!

I’ve never heard of Richard Thompson, and it’s not my usual taste in music, but damn.  I want to kill this guy, grind him up, and drink him in some tea, just to possess a wee bit of his talent.

Saturday Night Souse

Dedicated to the Demon Rum and all her acquaintances

I drink, therefore I am

“He was a wise man who invented beer.”              

—Plato

Obscure alcohol factoid: Johnny Appleseed probably distributed apple seeds across the American frontier so that people could make fermented apple juice (hard cider) rather than eat apples. Almost no one in America at the time ate apples (most apple trees grown from seeds produced sour apples) but almost everybody drank hard cider. Johnny Appleseed helped domesticate the American frontier not with food but with drink

 

This week’s hangover remedy:  This week’s hangover remedy is courtesy of E the Wise. He called me up and said, “Menudo is apparently the Mexican Cure.” I thought, that’s odd, Menudo sounds nothing like The Cure! 

      

“No, stupid,” he gently intoned. “Menudo’s a soup and I guess it’s the Mexican cure for a hangover.” So there you have it. After gazing at this delicious-looking tripe-based stew, you might be wondering, “Okay, DFV, but what’s the cure for that?

Why a double gin and tonic, of course.

Obligatory Disclaimer: Constitution Club in no way seeks to imply that the decision to drink alcoholic beverages is one to be taken lightly. Before deciding to drink, you should carefully consider the inherent risks involved. And if, after having weighed the evidence, you decide to abstain from liquor, knowing full well that by doing so you are pissing on the memory of Plato, Johnny Appleseed, and Ricky Martin, then that’s on you.

Re: “Wakee Time”

It is my hope to return the argument to sanity so this is the last time I type the word “wakee.”  Good grief.

DFV begins with an innocent but completely unecessary question about whether I think “Bush doesn’t hire his friends” (who doesn’t), or if “Cheney is trying to get information to the archives.”

I believe that I made it quite clear what I disagreed with.  In fact, I quoted your completely whacked out line in the first part of the post.  You said, “they loathed us all along” and I said that was so over the top that it was overkill.  I then went on to say that both the Cheney and Gonzales episodes are not the big deal that people want them to be. 

But if Executive Orders are what you have a problem with, then I suggest you take that up with the Supreme Court.  They have the power to overturn such orders as they did when Bill Clinton tried to prevent federal contractors from hiring replacement workers for strikers.  Now I certainly understand a person’s issues with Executive orders.  They confer a broad range of powers on a single person without the constitutional process.  DFV presumably has a problem because the Bush papers may not get scrutinized for the historical record.  But the devil is in the details of what the Scribe doesn’t tell us.  He states that “the upshot of it is that every previous president’s papers became the property of the federal government upon his departure from office.  Until now” (emphasis mine).  Really?  Thats funny because I would love to see the FDR papers.  Or wouldn’t the Lincoln papers be intriguing?  Whats that you say?  Oh, the law wasn’t enacted until 1974!  DFV intentionally left off that nice piece of information in order to play to our historical sensibilities.  If DFV is so concerned about executive deception, perhaps it would behoove us all if he would not engage in the practice himself.  Even Gerald Ford had this to say on DFV’s Executive Order 13233 link:  “I firmly believe that after X period of time, presidential papers, except for the most highly sensitive documents involving our national security, should be made available to the public,” Ford said, “and the sooner the better” (again, emphasis mine). 

Basically, DFV and Andre and the nutroots are on one side of this issue while the sensible people are on the other.  But DFV would have us believe that Bush and his gang of merry men are burying documents in their pants so that the better judgment of the American people can be avoided at all costs.  Hardly. 

I won’t qualify the Scribes other points because they have all been refuted by my record of sound analysis.  The Harriet Meyers debacle was a joke.  The tight circle-jerk of Bush cronies has cost us billions of dollars and countless lives in Iraq.  And regardless of the scope or sequence of the presumed offense and whether it has been fixed, DFV will always be there with the netroots to expose the rascals.

Just don’t expect honesty in the analysis. 

Get up sleepy, it’s wakee time

I’m not sure which part of my opinion Eric disagrees with. Is he arguing that Al Gonzales IS competent? That Bush DOESN’T hire his pals? That Cheney is trying to GET information to the public?

Less than a year into his presidency, George Bush signed Executive Order 13233, perhaps the most sweeping secreting away of official documents in US history. The upshot of it is that every previous president’s papers became the property of the federal government upon his departure from office. Until now. Now, every Bush paper can be kept secret by him forever. Even when he dies, his estate can continue the coverup. If this Order isn’t rescinded by future Presidents, then the historical study of the American presidency as we have know it is over.

E would have you believe that this comes from an administration that loves and respects the judgement of the people.

Yawn Squared

“And then Andre in the first comment chirps in with his “same shit different year” as if he didn’t base somewhere in the range of 95% of his Bush hatred on the issue of gay marriage.  Like Andrew Sullivan, the outrage is so transparent that you could use it as saran wrap and cover your leftovers with it.”

Sadly, NO!  (Cheap plug… I LOVE that blog)

If you’ll recall, after I came out, I stayed a loyal Republican.  I could understand that while my party was not a big fan of my “lifestyle choice”, they were still the better of the two.  I voted for Bush (once), and had great hopes for him.

It was the Iraq war (and a good helping of common sense) that woke me up, and Andrew as well, although he arrived late to the party.   Nobody was even talking about the FMA when I changed parties.

Nice try, though. 

Still, what’s sad for you is that this president is going to be your side’s Carter for the next thirty years.

Enjoy.

Update:  BTW, Next time you want to whip out the gay card, just go all Ace of Spades on me and get it over with. 

**Yawn** Ridiculous Indeed

The Scribe  - At least on this point, Bush and Cheney have a defense. They didn’t develop animosity toward the thinking of the American people when the people rejected them, they loathed us all along.

Once again, **yawn**

Can you say overkill?  And I was wondering what agency the Vice President is under?  That the most assertive Vice President in history wants to protect national security information at this juncture in the war on terror is such a non-issue that only the left - and the Scribe - dare feign outrage.

“They loathed us all along” is one of the most vacuous and leftist-like statements I have read from a conservative.  It is completely hysterical and leads me to wonder what the Scribe is drinking tonight.  I would condemn a right winger that said something so ignorant of Bill Clinton.  Moreover, to compare this move to stuffing your pants with documents as you leave the archives is, to put it mildly, a stretch.  I expect more from DFV.  And then Andre in the first comment chirps in with his “same shit different year” as if he didn’t base somewhere in the range of 95% of his Bush hatred on the issue of gay marriage.  Like Andrew Sullivan, the outrage is so transparent that you could use it as saran wrap and cover your leftovers with it. 

Spare me your dual plunging, Bush bashing and find a real issue.  Firing lawyers and securing information, despite your assertions, is just not a big deal.

Re: Simply Ridiculous

Andre is absolutely right. Once again, we see the most glaring deficiency in a Bush leadership style that is ridden with lesser faults. Cheney and Gonzales are Bush buddies, and thus untouchable. That one is charged with oversight of the other’s conduct is at once comical and tragic.

Cheney’s chicanery is not only embarrassing to the office, it is reckless. The vice president’s dual roles in the executive and legislative branches can be tricky, and may on occasion require some thoughtful judicial administration, but seeking to exempt the position from oversight because of these roles is a clownish legal maneuver.

The ham-handed threat to abolish the agency responsible for the oversight is the classic move of a bully whose power outstrippes his guile. Cheney used raw force when he ran out of legitimate arguments.

The necessity of having Alberto Gonzales investigate the matter highlights both why it is is bad for Presidents to have buddies in important cabinet offices, and also why General Gonzales is ethically and intellectually unequal to the office he holds.

And finally, the bare fact that this administration is seeking — however farcical their attempt — to wall off an office at the highest levels from any oversight regarding national security information, staggers the mind. Do they care nothing about the protection of national secrets beyond their own lamentable years in office? Have they learned nothing from the Sandy Berger infamy?

In the waning months of the Bush presidency, many are waiting for some sort of mild turnaround — wherein Bush regathers things a bit, and the euphoria of post-9/11 and the loathing of 2005-06 each give way to the middle ground which he will occupy for the near history. Instead, the passing days seem only to highlight the  weaknesses that have weighed down this administration from the start. The character flaws of Bush and Cheney (most prominently their incessant contempt for the thinking of voters, citizens, and the average person) seem only to have hardened as this group has turned on them furiously. Like so many political leaders who lose the trust of the governed (Hitler and Carter come to mind, though not in the same thought, I hasten to add), they begin to hate the people they have led.

“They weren’t good enough for me, it seems,” the vanishing leaders console themselves with.

At least on this point, Bush and Cheney have a defense. They didn’t develop animosity toward the thinking of the American people when the people rejected them, they loathed us all along.

Simply Ridiculous

The Office of the Vice President is not part of the executive branch?  These guys would make Nixon blush. 

Unlike many of my moonbat friends, I don’t think Bush has actually committed an impeachable offense, but this one from Cheney strikes me as something that might qualify.

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President’s position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President’s staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President’s executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: “I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. … [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials.”

Friday Night Punk- X

“Hungry Wolf”

Dedicated to my “kids”.

In case you’re curious about my absence, I found out last Friday that one of Bassets has liver cancer (hence no FNP), and today the other had a severe allergic reaction to his vaccines (he’s now fine).  Not caring as much about politics as I usually do.

Other than that, things are great.

Colorado Buffs put on 2 years probation for “major” infraction

Who forgot to charge the walk-on players the correct price for meals at the training table?  It is obvious that the University enjoyed a huge competitive advantage by offering this benefit to it’s walk-ons.  In fact, many players offered scholarships at other Div. I schools turned those offers down because they could get cheap food at the C.U. training table.  Ridiculous.

The University of Colorado is being punished by the NCAA for inadvertently undercharging 133 student-athletes for meals totaling $61,700 over six academic years.The violations, announced Thursday, are considered “major,” the infractions committee said.The school was placed on two years’ probation, fined $100,000 to be paid to a hunger- or homeless-relief charity and ordered to cut one football scholarship for the next three seasons.

The infractions happened between the 2000-2001 season and 2005-2006 season.

Hoo Ah! Al Pacino Honored for Lifetime Achievement

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to have been living in Europe at the time van Gogh was painting? Or to be a patron at the London theaters during Shakespeare’s prime? The reality is that those lucky souls probably knew their associate was truly gifted, but they couldn’t possibly have known how he would stand the test of time. I happen to believe that we live among just such masters in the contemporary art form of film.

100 years hence, college students will take courses called “Introduction to Speilberg” and they will study such themes as the transmigration from the romanticised cinematic violence of c. 1950-1980 to the the graphic violence of the two decades thereafter. And some of them will wonder aloud, “I wonder what it would have been like to have been an average American filmgoer of this era.”

On Monday, the American Film Institute awarded their lifetime achievement award to Al Pacino. The AFI put forth a fantastic show, and as they showed clip after clip of Pacino’s various roles, it became clearer than ever the sheer spectrum of characters into whom Pacino breathed life. 

From my perspective, it’s difficult to overstate Pacino’s genius. He doesn’t merely play his roles, he inhabits them. It is a testament to his greatness that he brought awesome resonance to a Miami drug lord and a NY cop; to a charming retired Lt. Colonel and a heroin junkie.

         

    

But his true mastery of the craft is revealed within Pacino’s individual performances. Frank Serpico, Donnie Brasco’s ‘Lefty’ Ruggiero, Carlito ‘Charlie’ Brigante,  Sonny Wortzik from “Dog Day Afternoon,” right-wing homosexual Roy Cohn, and other roles were quintessential Pacino–roles where he would play rougues-with-humanity, or more accurately, complex human beings with both great and awful characteristics.

 

---

But no role more defined Al Pacino, nor brought out his guile more fully, than that of a reluctant Mafia kingpin from Long Island, trying to get on with life in post-war America. Al Pacino was a Bronx native who was unknown outside of the New York theater scene in the early 1970’s, when a relatively green Hollywood director named Francis Ford Coppola tapped him–and fought for him–for the role of Michael Corleone. The studio heads were dismissive of this short, Broadway WOP. They weren’t much more enamored with the New York director, who was in love with his choice for Michael Corleone. All of Hollywood wanted the role of Michael–Mario Puzo’s novel haven risen to bestseller status. Redford, Nicholson, and Beatty just touched the tip of the list, but Coppola only wanted Pacino. Even today, as I watch the movie, I am constantly struck by the dramatic transformation of Michael. In the course of a single film, he traverses the bridge from a shy, simple, idealistic Army veteran with clipped speech to the Don of the Corleone empire, oh so cold and ever so calculating. But to think that the film was shot out of order! Pacino had to go back and forth. Watch it again, and tell me you can detect anything other than a pristine, seamless progression from Army lieutenent to Mafioso Godfather!Pacino was a true craftsman. He was one of the select few to have won a Tony, an Oscar, and an Emmy for best actor, all for different roles. He was an avid fan of Shakespeare, who played Richard III on stage and still dreams of adding Hamlet to his list of characters.

If, during the late 15th century, you were to have wandered down to the Milan plaza to see da Vinci finising a painting, or to have happened upon a Florence bazaar and bumped into Michaelangelo, you would have known greatness, but you could scarcely have imagined the pedestal upon which history would place him.  Instead of commisioned paintings and crown-financed sculptures, today we have cinema. And if you happened to find yourself in contemporary Hollywood or New York, and you should bump into Al Pacino, know that this too would be a brush with greatness, and a contact between the personal, real, concrete with the ethereal, lasting monument of the artistic contribution to Western Civilization.

And know, too, that someday students at western universities may study the artistry of Pacino the way today’s students study that of Olivier, or Shakespeare, or Chaucer.

Historical Anecdote of the Day

One last one from Inside the Third Reich before we move on to some other periods and figures in history. 

Hitler must already have realized the immense drama that his life was, the high stakes he was playing for, by the time he had a long conversation with Cardinal Faulhaber at Obersalzberg in November 1936. Afterward Hitler sat alone with me in the bay window of the dining room, while the twilight fell. For a long time he looked out of the window in silence. Then he said pensively: “There are two possibilities for me: To win through with all my plans, or to fail. If I win, I shall be one of the greatest men in history. If I fail, I shall be condemned, despised, and damned.”

-Albert Speer - Hitler’s personal architect and later Minister of Armaments for Nazi Germany

Space Shuttle Atlantis

The wife and I were fortunate enough to step outside and watch the space shuttle and space station fly across the sky this evening. They appeared as two bright looking stars moving at a fairly brisk pace across the nighttime sky from out of the Northwest towards the South. I called my mother on an unrelated matter tonight and she said “you know you can step outside and watch the shuttle and the space station at 10:24 tonight.” She then asked what time it was, I looked up and said 10:23 and we both jumped up and ran outside. We continued to talk on the phone for about another two minutes and sure enough they emerged from behind some low clouds near the Rocky Mountains. They were in view for about a minute to a minute and a half before they once again disappeared from view. Not necessarily riveting, but certainly interesting to watch, not to mention some amazing timing on our part….

Poker Players Tougher than Hockey Players

Paul “Eskimo” Clark is a veteran of the Vietnam War who has been playing cards for a living since his tenure overseas. Although on Monday, at the Rio, we may have seen him barely survive one of the toughest battles he’s fought since. Tall and burly with a thick brillo-pad-black patch of hair on head and face, the surly Clark fell to the floor twice to disrupt play. What made it amazing is that both times, he held the chip lead in Event 29: $1,500 razz. You have to love a man playing to near-death that insists you sink as low as possible.

“I’m taking him to the hospital!” laughed old friend Kenny Johnson, himself a vet. Johnson confirmed that Eskimo’s fall a week earlier, plus the two collapses Monday, were all mini-strokes. He also confirmed the rumor that in one collapse, Clark had fractured his foot, but had been walking on it since because hospitalization would have kept him from coming back to the tournament.

Eskimo kiss … of death

Re: Carter

My favorite part of Carter’s statement was when he cited as evidence of Hamas’ “superior organization” the fact that they were able to successfully thwart Fatah’s governmental leadership through murder and pillage. My, how organized their gunmen were!

This is perhaps the most repellent aspect of Carter’s overall execrable worldview. He has always played himself as a pacifist, opposing any western military action on behalf of almost any cause. But beneath that veneer lies a grim fascination with the use of arms by criminals. He is put off by American military power, but loves to flirt with leftist dictators and even mass murderors.  Like the true believers of communist revolution or fascist domination, Carter seems enthralled by the brutal measures outlaws take to achieve their grand ambitions.  In an earlier time, he might have praised German “efficiency.” Whether it’s Fidel Castro or Kim Jong Il, Yassir Arafat or Hamas, Carter doesn’t merely tolerate them for diplomatic reasons, as any statesman might; he seems to genuinely adore the men, and not only never speaks out about their well-documented atrocities, but eagerly hails them as humanitarians.

I honestly believe that after Carter dies and biographers begin to closely pour over his words, a consensus image will emerge that reveals Carter as akin to the Communist sympathizers of the 1960’s and the Nazi defenders of the 1930’s.  Perhaps if I have time this summer, I’ll try to put something together.

Consider this: Carter’s list of bogeymen now includes even the European Union. His recent attackers have included Alan Dershowitz and various Democrats in Congress. Even today’s radicalized Democratic Party has had to feverishly distance themselves from him.  He seems now to stand alone, with only the company of anarchists, terrorists, and aging revolutionaries.

And to think that he was once the President of the United States of America.

Evidence of Hamas’ “superior organization”