It's The Last Random Flickr Blogging Monday Of The Year

Calista Flockhart appears to have really put on the pounds in recent months. Poor girl. Harrison must be devastated.

Even as his latest unwitting victim succumbs to his nefarious trick, Karl attempts to lure yet another unsuspecting person into "pulling his finger."

It takes years and years of practice to master the arcane art form known as Tibetan Sand Tattooing.

"I'd like to call this meeting of the Rabid Vampire Butterfly Appreciation Society to order... Gentlemen, would you please adjust your butterflies, and then we'll read our prepared statements..."

(Original images, #0217, posted here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by the all-done-with-2007 Tom Hilton here.)

The Reason For The Season

As many of you know, for some time now there's been an unstated, but very effective and widespread, effort to undermine the true holiday we're about to celebrate. Millions of people participate in this effort, some knowingly, many others not. Every December it's the same thing: in department stores and school rooms and corporate offices across this great land of ours, people wish each other "Happy Holidays!" without ever acknowledging the real reason for the season.

I'm talking, of course, about the War on Solstice.

When was the last time anyone wished you a "Happy Solstice" or a "Joyful Solstice" or just told you, "Have a good Solstice"? You never hear that any more. You don't see banners in the store windows proclaiming "Merry Solstice." No one sings Solstice carols or sends Solstice cards or gives Solstice presents. Apparently there's been a very successful, well-financed and concerted effort to surgically remove the Solstice from the holiday season and banish it altogether.

Personally, I think it's tragic. I mean, it's not like we can simply deny that, early tomorrow morning, the sun will be at its lowest southern point. Any damn fool can look in the sky and see that. The Winter Solstice will be upon us. We'll experience the shortest day of the year, but how many people will blithely just go on shopping like nothing's happened? No one will mention it, for fear of... what? Getting the Galileo treatment? Being out of step with the majority? What a shame.

So in the interest of looking out for the little guy, here at The Generik Brand, we -- meaning I, me; there's nobody else here -- want to wish all of you a very Happy Solstice, and may your days get increasingly longer every day from tomorrow until some time about six months from now, when we can celebrate the Summer Solstice in June. If it hasn't been outlawed by then.

...And don't even get me started on the War on Equinox!

There Are No Easy Answers

Am I the only one who remembers -- and still cherishes -- this album?

Well, I said this week's quiz might be difficult, and so it proved to be. Apparently I posted a number of songs that you folks have never heard or heard of before... and I have to say that, even though my goal was to stump you, I'm a little surprised. Maybe the fact that there was no theme this week helped make it more difficult -- or maybe I really did just post some songs that none of my readers have ever heard. In any event, here are the answers:

1. If I ventured in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream, where immobile steel rims crack... Astral Weeks; Van Morrison

2. I was walkin' down the street on a sunny day, hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba. Happy Boy; Beat Farmers

3. May seem peculiar, how I think of you. If you want me, darlin', here's what you must do. Room To Move; John Mayall

4. Well, ain't the sun surely takin' its time this morning (Don't you know)... Cool Metro; David Johansen

5. Well, a poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road, started down the road... Prodigal Son; Rolling Stones

6. There's a problem, feathers iron, bargain buildings, weights and pullies. Fall On Me; R.E.M.

7. They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom for trying to change the system from within. First We Take Manhattan; Leonard Cohen

8. Well, Annie's pretty neat, she always eats her meat, Joe is awful strong, bet your life he's putting us on. John, I'm Only Dancing; David Bowie

9. I remember one night the kid cut off his right arm in a fit to save a bit of power. He got fifty thousand watts in a big acoustic tower. So It Goes; Nick Lowe

10. As I walk this land with broken dreams, I have visions of many things... What Becomes Of The Broken-Hearted; Jimmy Ruffin

**Bonus** Sorry babe, but I won't be home, won't be home tomorrow. Sorry darlin', but I gotta let you, gotta let you down. Dear Jill; Blodwyn Pig

Back with a new quiz on January 8th!

Fight Media Consolidation

Click here to sign a petition urging Congress to stop the FCC-approved media consolidation that will concentrate information in the hands of Rupert Murdoch a very few conglomerates controlling radio, TV and print media, to the further detriment of an informed society and a free press. (h/t to my good friend nashtbrutusandshort for the link.)

**UPDATE** Related to this, our pal Snave at Various Ecstasies has a good post up defining the "Liberal Media" and demonstrating how this new FCC ruling will help to crush it. Once you're there, also check out the photo essay about the War on Christmas just below it. Good stuff!

(Seriously now, anyone who truly believes the media in America are "liberal" in any way, shape or form -- especially those who believe that they get their marching orders from George Soros and/or Media Matters for America -- is simply too fucking stupid to live.)

New Life

For somewhat obvious reasons, I found this article in the Washington Post yesterday fascinating:

It has been 50 years since scientists first created DNA in a test tube, stitching ordinary chemical ingredients together to make life's most extraordinary molecule. Until recently, however, even the most sophisticated laboratories could make only small snippets of DNA -- an extra gene or two to be inserted into corn plants, for example, to help the plants ward off insects or tolerate drought.

Now researchers are poised to cross a dramatic barrier: the creation of life forms driven by completely artificial DNA.

Scientists in Maryland have already built the world's first entirely handcrafted chromosome -- a large looping strand of DNA made from scratch in a laboratory, containing all the instructions a microbe needs to live and reproduce.

In the coming year, they hope to transplant it into a cell, where it is expected to "boot itself up," like software downloaded from the Internet, and cajole the waiting cell to do its bidding. And while the first synthetic chromosome is a plagiarized version of a natural one, others that code for life forms that have never existed before are already under construction.

The cobbling together of life from synthetic DNA, scientists and philosophers agree, will be a watershed event, blurring the line between biological and artificial -- and forcing a rethinking of what it means for a thing to be alive.

"This raises a range of big questions about what nature is and what it could be," said Paul Rabinow, an anthropologist at the University of California at Berkeley who studies science's effects on society. "Evolutionary processes are no longer seen as sacred or inviolable. People in labs are figuring them out so they can improve upon them for different purposes."

Read more on the subject, if you're interested... The last few lines of the story were very thought-provoking:

"It could be that synthetic biology is going to be like cellphones: so overwhelming and ubiquitous that no one notices it anymore. Or it could be like abortion -- the kind of deep disagreement that will not go away."

The question, if the abortion model holds, is which side of the synthetic biology debate will get to call itself "pro-life."

Moron Huckabee

Speaking of Mike Huckabee, here's the latest from Jackie and Dunlap of Salon.com's Red State Update on the subject:



I tried to find the one where they came up with a new campaign slogan for the Huckster ("Huckabee? Fuck me!"), but I have a feeling that it's no longer available. However, you can see more of Jackie and Dunlap expounding on politics and current events here.

Moron The Same

Lean Left has a good post up on the mendaciousness, the bumbling and the outright stupidity of presidential candidate Mike Huckabee (now soaring in the polls, thanks mainly to his personal relationship with Baby Jesus). Seems the guy has trouble with the truth, trouble with facts and trouble with science... much like a certain White House occupant who shall remain nameless (though certainly not blameless). Which brings me to my larger point... what is it about the current crop of Republican candidates? They all seem to want to out-Bush Bush, whether it's in the torture-condoning or the saber-rattling or the theocracy-embracing or just the pure dumb-assedness of the man. Isn't this the president who is barely keeping his head above that 30% approval rate? The one that most people in America think is incompetent, malevolent and not at all trustworthy? I would think anyone trying to succeed him in office would be running as far away from his record and governing style as possible -- and yet, here's McCain, saying we need to step up and continue the Iraq War, here's Romney, saying he wants to expand Guantanamo, here's Giuliani, saying... jeez, pretty much everything he says, which is just so goddamned scary I don't even want to think about the possibility of him occupying that office. Does anyone out there -- with the exception of that brain-dead, authoritarian-worshipping 30% that still backs Bush -- want another W in the White House?

And if so -- why?!?

Whose Opening Line Is It, Anyway: Now In HDD

Because of the holidays the next couple weeks, this will be the last one of these until after the New Year. As a special treat (or maybe a lump of cyber-coal), I'm pulling out some of the more obscure songs -- without a theme to unify them. Just songs that I'm familiar with, and that you may or may not be. I'm kind of thinking it will be the latter in many cases, but I'm willing to be surprised (really, they're not that difficult). But I can pretty much guarantee that no one will get all of these, and if anyone gets more than three or four, that person earns my undying respect and mention in the answers post on Friday.

And who knows, there may just end up being a theme in here after all. (Or is there...?)

1. If I ventured in the slipstream, between the viaducts of your dream, where immobile steel rims crack...
2. I was walkin' down the street on a sunny day, hubba hubba hubba hubba hubba.
3. May seem peculiar, how I think of you. If you want me, darlin', here's what you must do.
4. Well, ain't the sun surely takin' its time this morning (Don't you know)...
5. Well, a poor boy took his father's bread and started down the road, started down the road...
6. There's a problem, feathers iron, bargain buildings, weights and pullies.
7. They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom for trying to change the system from within.
8. Well, Annie's pretty neat, she always eats her meat, Joe is awful strong, bet your life he's putting us on.
9. I remember one night the kid cut off his right arm in a fit to save a bit of power. He got fifty thousand watts in a big acoustic tower.
10. As I walk this land with broken dreams, I have visions of many things...

**Bonus** Sorry babe, but I won't be home, won't be home tomorrow. Sorry darlin', but I gotta let you, gotta let you down.

Early Random Flickr Blogging, Featuring Nude Ann Coulter

"Wonder Twin Powers activate! Shape of... a dominatrix!"

Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaaa... Batdog! (Teach the controversy!)

"...and you were there, and you were there, and you, and... oh, Auntie Em!!"

As promised, here is a close-up shot of Ann Coulter's left nipple.

(Original images, #2550, posted here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by Batboy enthusiast Tom Hilton here.)

Why Does Harry Reid Hate America?

From Glenn Greenwald in today's Salon.com:

Harry Reid's FISA games

The Senate majority leader appears poised to ensure that the Bush administration gets everything it wants on telecom immunity and new FISA eavesdropping powers.

Glenn Greenwald

Dec. 14, 2007 | (updated below)

The Senate is going to take up debate today on the new FISA bill -- including the provisions for telecom amnesty and presidential surveillance powers -- and Harry Reid is apparently bringing the bill to the floor (a) in precisely the way designed to help the administration's goal of ensuring there is telecom amnesty and fewer surveillance oversight protections and (b) contrary to the way his office has been assuring everyone concerned that it would be done.

I am traveling today (the last day for some time, thankfully) and will not be able to write more until much later today. FireDogLake and others will undoubtedly have updates throughout the day, more thorough explanations than I can provide now, and suggestions as to what can be done.

The summarized version is that there were two competing bills which Reid could have brought to the floor -- the Senate Intelligence Committee version engineered by Jay Rockefeller and Dick Cheney which gives the administration most of what it wants, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, which does not contain telecom amnesty and contains far more extensive oversight protections. Reid could have brought the bill to the floor using whatever process he wanted, and he has decided -- contrary to weeks of assurances -- that the SIC bill will serve as the "base" bill, meaning that improving it (by removing amnesty and increasing oversight) will require 60 votes, rendering such efforts virtually impossible. In doing so, Reid is brazenly ignoring the demands of 14 Senators -- including all of the Democratic presidential candidates -- to have the Judiciary Committee bill be the base bill.

Worse still, Reid is completely disregarding the "hold" placed by Chris Dodd on any amnesty bill -- simply refusing to honor it, even as he respectfully honors literally scores of "holds" from GOP Senators such as Tom Coburn. And while Dodd is interrupting his campaigning to fly to Washington to lead the filibuster he vowed, Reid has ensured with scheduling manuevers that the filibuster will take place only over the weekend -- when all of the members are away raising money anyway and journalists aren't paying attention -- with the intent to try to force cloture once everyone returns on Monday.

There are two key objectives for today: (1) do as much possible to pressure Reid to honor Dodd's hold and (2) do as much possible to encourage the presidential candidates and others to actively support Dodd's filibuster, not merely in a cursory way, but through authentic leadership. At least as of now, Reid is the clear villain here, doing everything possible to enable the Bush/Cheney FISA agenda on telecom amnesty and surveillance powers, and doing everything possible, yet again, to ensure that Senate Democrats stand up to nobody except their voters and their base who put them in power.

Reid is extremely vulnerable in Nevada and if he follows through with his stated plans, those vulnerabilities ought to be exploited to the fullest, whether it be with anti-Reid ads in Nevada to drive his numbers even lower or concerted, all-out support for a serious primary challenge to Reid's re-election bid in 2010, etc. Until Congressional Democrats know that there are consequences from siding with the administration and attacking their actual suppoters, they will continue to do that. Anyone interested should continue to check in with FDL and others for further updates today.

UPDATE: The availability of wireless airport internet service permits me to make this additional point: Whenever complaints are voiced about Congressional Democrats, invariably there arises in comments and elsewhere protests that complaints should only focus on Republicans, that most everything is their fault, and that Democrats are doing the very best they can but are simply helpless due to GOP tactics and the constraints of their own caucus. I rarely answer such protests because I know that Democrats will soon provide an answer with their actions far more compelling than any I could construct with words.

Today, they provide but the latest iteration of the answer as to why there is so much dissatisfaction and anger towards them, including from those who fully recognize the pragmatic constraints involved. This isn't a case where they are trying to oppose Bush's demands on telecom amnesty and warrantless surveillance powers but are sadly thwarted by a lack of votes. Rather, Harry Reid is doing everything he can to thwart those who are attempting to impede Bush's demands and thus doing everything he can to ensure that the White House is liberated from the prospect of accountability for past lawbreaking and vested with vast, new eavesdropping powers with as little oversight as possible -- just as Mitch McConnell would be doing if he were Majority Leader (though even McConnell might lack the audacity to simply run roughshod over Dodd's hold, as Reid is apparently doing -- while treating Tom Coburn's holds as sacred).

Put another way, the issue isn't that they're failing to impose limits on the President. It's not even that they're failing to do everything they can to do so. The issue is that they are devoting their efforts and energies -- again -- to ensuring that the White House wins, its radicalism enabled and bolstered, and the people who support them thwarted in what they believe.

The criticism isn't that Harry Reid is being insufficiently aggressive in opposing the White House. It's that he's doing what he can to support the White House, serving as their key ally. I suppose one option is to cheer on Democrats anyway, no matter what they do. But I can't understand how anyone who actually believes in anything other than partisan power for its own sake would consider that option to be an attractive one.

"Crime? What Crime? I Dont See Any Crime."

Shorter Michael Mukasey:

"Destroyed CIA tapes? Politics as usual. Nothing to see here, folks, move along."

Thank you so very much, Senators Useless Feinstein and Dodd and all the rest of the Cave-In Dems who voted to confirm this worthless, Bush-protecting asshole.

GYWO, Bitches!

The rude and brilliant Get Your War On has a couple new pages up since the last time we shilled for them here at The Generik Brand. Check 'em out, and laugh until you cry. Or vice versa.

All Hail These Answers, There's Something About Them (Go Long!)

I've certainly got a bunch of smart -- and some smart-ass -- readers. Every line but one was identified this week, and most of them were spotted pretty quickly.

Of course, it was a rather easy quiz this week... *cough cough!* And the theme was readily apparent. Right? Right.

Okay then, for anyone who still doesn't know them all, here are the answers (including the one obscure one that everybody missed):

1. Every time I think that I'm the only one who's lonely someone calls on me. Along Comes Mary; The Association

2. After all the jacks are in their boxes and the clowns have all gone to bed... The Wind Cries Mary; Jimi Hendrix

3. A screen door slams; Mary's dress waves. Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays... Thunder Road; Bruce Springsteen

4. Left a good job in the city, workin' for the man every night and day. Proud Mary; Creedence Clearwater Revival

5. Some other girls are fillin' your head with jive, so now you're acting like you don't know that I'm alive. The One Who Really Loves You; Mary Wells

6. I love the tone that's in your laugh, gasping for an extra breath... Mary; Scissor Sisters

7. Baby, one breath away, I'll find the words to say. I'll sit and light the bong. I'll hold my hit in real long. Mary; Sublime

8. Between Marx and marzipan in the dictionary, there was Mary. The Short Answer; Billy Bragg

9. His friends say stop whining, they've had enough of that. His friends would say stop pining, there's other girls to look at. There's Something About Mary; Jonathan Richman

10. When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me... Let It Be, The Beatles

**Bonus** If I could, I surely would stand on the rock that Moses stood. Oh, Mary, Don't You Weep; Traditional (recorded by various artists including Pete Seeger, The Kingston Trio and, most recently, Bruce Springsteen)

As Melville pointed out, the Bonus line appears in the song When You Awake by The Band. It's also featured in the song Linin' Track by Taj Mahal, and I suspect that, like many lines from many older, traditional songs, it has made its way into quite a few other works as well.

I'll see if I can't come up with one that's a little more difficult next week.

Yet Another Blogspot Stop

My pal Dean in Connecticut, who has lately been working in a homeless shelter there, has joined the blogging ranks with his new site NightTrain's Blog. He's a good writer and a good liberal. Check it out if you get a chance.

George Bush Hates America

George W. Bush, the Preznit Of Rich, White Americans has, in his infinite wisdom, once again vetoed SCHIP legislation that would have provided health care for some 6 million children whose families don't qualify for Medicare and can not otherwise afford it.

*sigh*

Why does he persist? He's already got the Worst President Ever title sewn up, hands down, he's miles away from the competition with no hope of ever relinquishing it (well, perhaps unless Giuliani somehow gets elected...); what's the point at this point? It seems like piling on.

We get it, George. We're convinced. You're a heartless, dim, incompetent, cruel, bullying, evil, lying sack of festering demon manure, who couldn't be any worse for the country if you began a campaign of personally knocking down every old lady and kicking every small child and dog you see from now until the end of your term. How about if you give it a rest?

Tinted Flickring

In motion at the LA County Fair.

Fruit on display at Pike's Place Market, Seattle.

So after posting a couple hundred black and white photos over at Flickr, I've gone all, like, color 'n' stuff (including a few color versions of previously posted b&w images). Check it out, if you're so inclined. More pictures of buildings and food!

Top 10 Bushisms

One thing our Lying Sack Of Preznit most definitely will be rememebered for is his way with words. Here are the Top 10 Bushisms of 2007 (h/t to Snave for the list):

10. “And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it.” –interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007

9. “I fully understand those who say you can’t win this thing militarily. That’s exactly what the United States military says, that you can’t win this military.” –on the need for political progress in Iraq, Washington, D.C., Oct. 17, 2007

8. “One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be.” –on military benefits, Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007

7. “Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction. Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit.” –addressing Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the APEC Summit. Later, in the same speech: “As John Howard accurately noted when he went to thank the Austrian troops there last year…” –referring to Australian troops as “Austrian troops,” Sept. 7, 2007

6. “My relationship with this good man is where I’ve been focused, and that’s where my concentration is. And I don’t regret any other aspect of it. And so I — we filled a lot of space together.” –on British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Washington, D.C., May 17, 2007

5. “You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 — 1976.” –to Queen Elizabeth, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2007

4. “The question is, who ought to make that decision? The Congress or the commanders? And as you know, my position is clear — I’m a Commander Guy.” –deciding he is no longer just “The Decider,” Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007

3. “Information is moving — you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it’s also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets.” –Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007

2. “There are some similarities, of course (between Iraq and Vietnam). Death is terrible.” –Tipp City, Ohio, April 19, 2007

1. “As yesterday’s positive report card shows, childrens do learn when standards are high and results are measured.” –on the No Child Left Behind Act, Washington, D.C., Sept. 26, 2007

Whose Opening Line Is It, Anyway: Full Of Grace

Okay, we're back at it today with a theme that's probably just another in the series of gimmes I've posted in the past few weeks. Seems to me it will be pretty easy, though some of the songs might give you a little trouble. Of course, I could be wrong about that, and often am, so bring it on!

1. Every time I think that I'm the only one who's lonely someone calls on me.
2. After all the jacks are in their boxes and the clowns have all gone to bed...
3. A screen door slams; Mary's dress waves. Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays...
4. Left a good job in the city, workin' for the man every night and day.
5. Some other girls are fillin' your head with jive, so now you're acting like you don't know that I'm alive.
6. I love the tone that's in your laugh, gasping for an extra breath...
7. Baby, one breath away, I'll find the words to say. I'll sit and light the bong. I'll hold my hit in real long.
8. Between Marx and marzipan in the dictionary, there was Mary.
9. His friends say stop whining, they've had enough of that. His friends would say stop pining, there's other girls to look at.
10. When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me...

**Bonus** If I could, I surely would stand on the rock that Moses stood.

Answers Friday!

Random Flickr Blogging The Day After Sunday

After he retired from the Storm Troopers, Alfred spent most of his days at the local park, but he has been known to make occasional trips to Hawaii when he can afford it.

"I've got Intel inside -- and it tickles!"

"Honey, you're using your Intel outside voice on the inside again."

"Catch the toy and u can haz cheezburger!"

"Or u can haz cheezdog. Ur choice."

He who controls the Spice Girls controls the universe!

(Original images, #0852, posted here, here, here, here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by non-participant Tom Hilton here.)

Olbermann: The NIE Reflects An "Unhinged, Irrational Chicken Little Of A President"

We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War Three about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole — or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked — at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so — whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed, were still even remotely plausible.

A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency: an unapologetic war-monger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.

You go, Keith.

Losing Support

David Horsey gets it just right in the Seattle P-I today (and thanks to Buffoon for the link!):


While in other, even less surprising news, it appears that Preznit Pants On Fire is getting another rug pulled out from under him by losing support even among military families. Gee, there's a shocker -- the folks that he is sending off as cannon fodder for his misguided and illegal Desert Dance with Bullets (and their families) are finally waking up to the fact that he has been playing them all for chumps for the past five years.

The views of the military community, including active-duty service members, veterans and family members, mirror those of the overall adult population, a sign that the strong military endorsement that the Bush administration often pointed to has dwindled in the war's fifth year.

Nearly 6 in 10 military families disapprove of Bush's job performance and the way he has run the war, rating him only slightly better than the general population does.

And among those families with soldiers, sailors and Marines who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan, 60 percent say the war in Iraq is not worth the cost, the same result as all adults surveyed.

There's not much more to the story than that, other than who conducted the poll, when and how many people participated, etc., but it's still worth looking at if only to read the comments and catch the one from a typical Bush apologist who dismisses the whole thing as a "bogus poll, as would be expected." How do these people who still, in the face of all evidence of his mendaciousness, incompetence and complete disregard for the laws of our land, support the president manage to feed and dress themselves every day? Given what we've all seen from him since the Supreme Court installed him in the White House, isn't someone who still thinks he's doing a good job by definition too fucking stupid to live? Oy.

All Aboard These Answers

After an initial burst of recognition, a number of lines from this week's train-themed quiz never got answered. Eric the DiscoBoy must have taken the week off, or I'm sure he would have identified at least a few of them. Kudos to George for recognizing Hank Williams (not Hank Williams, Jr. -- never Hank Williams, Jr.) as the Bonus question.

Here are the answers:

1. Don't say what you mean, you might spoil your face. If you walk in the crowd, you won't leave any trace. Jumping Someone Else's Train; The Cure

2. The walls are built up, stone by stone, the fields divided one by one. Driver 8; R.E.M.

3. Two train tickets into L.A., one round trip the other way. Hitchcock Railway; Joe Cocker

4. Why should I care, why should I care? Girls of fifteen, sexually knowing, the ushers are sniffing, eau-de-cologning... 5:15; The Who

5. I'm always running behind the time... Just Like This Train; Joni Mitchell

6. I lost everything I had in the '29 flood, the barn was buried 'neath a mile of mud... 2:19; Tom Waits (I'm also partial to the very fine cover version done by John Hammond, Jr., on his Waits-tribute album Wicked Grin)

7. Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby, can't buy a thrill. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry; Bob Dylan (what, no Dylan fans here?)

8. Outside there's a box car waiting, outside the family stew... Here Comes Your Man; Pixies

9. L.A. proved too much for the man, so he's leaving the life he's come to know. Midnight Train To Georgia; Gladys Knight & the Pips

10. Say you stand by your man, tell me something I don't understand. Train In Vain; The Clash

**Bonus** I can settle down and be doin' just fine, 'til I hear an old train rollin' down the line... Ramblin' Man; Hank Williams

Robert Greenwald's War On Greed

Class war? Send me to the front, sir.

Watch the video clip, then send your own suggestions of what you would do with one of the Kravis mansions here. For more on Henry Kravis and other borrow-and-buyout corporations, go here.

New Local Site

Brian Shields of KRON, who used to post the blog The Bay Area is Talking (and who has attended more than one BARBARian meet-up in the past), has a new enterprise going. He calls it todayscoolnews, and it is, by his own description, "general news including everything from politics and the deathly serious to goofy, 'cool' stuff."

There's now a link to it here along with the other BARBARian links on the right. Check it out, won't you?

Here's A Damn Good Idea

Courtesy of Tom Harper at the blog Who Hijacked Our Country comes news of a bill that would "amend the Internal Revenue Code so that corporations will no longer get tax deductions when they pay 'excessive compensation' to their top executives. If any employee is paid more than 25 times what the lowest-paid employee makes, the money beyond that 2500% mark would not be tax deductible." It's called the Income Equity Act of 2007, and it makes a whole lot of sense to me. The disparity between rich and poor in this country has not been as great as it is now since the Gilded Age. The middle class of this country is being squeezed out, not so slowly but surely, and we are becoming a nation divided into a small group of super-wealthy elite and a permanent, mostly poor, underclass serving them. This bill is just one small step in attempting to rectify that situation.

Of course the plutocrats and the corporate-supporters in both parties will cry foul at this, and the term "class war" is bound to be bandied about by demagogues and obfuscators appealing to the baser emotions of people who should know better, but the truth is that it is that very class of wealthy elites who have been waging a highly successful class war against the poor and the middle class for years now, and it's past time the American people woke up to what is happening to them. If you want to add your voice in support of this bill, go here and fill in the blanks.

And That's The Way It Is

Published on Tuesday, December 4, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

Our Troops Must Leave Iraq

by Walter Cronkite and David Krieger

The American people no longer support the war in Iraq. The war is being carried on by a stubborn president who, like Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon during the Vietnam War, does not want to lose. But from the beginning this has been an ill-considered and poorly prosecuted war that, like the Vietnam War, has diminished respect for America. We believe Mr. Bush would like to drag the war on long enough to hand it off to another president.

The war in Iraq reminds us of the tragedy of the Vietnam War. Both wars began with false assertions by the president to the American people and the Congress. Like Vietnam, the Iraq War has introduced a new vocabulary: “shock and awe,” “mission accomplished,” “the surge.” Like Vietnam, we have destroyed cities in order to save them. It is not a strategy for success.

The Bush administration has attempted to forestall ending the war by putting in more troops, but more troops will not solve the problem. We have lost the hearts and minds of most of the Iraqi people, and victory no longer seems to be even a remote possibility. It is time to end our occupation of Iraq, and bring our troops home.

This war has had only limited body counts. There are reports that more than one million Iraqis have died in the war. These reports cannot be corroborated because the US military does not make public the number of the Iraqi dead and injured. There are also reports that some four million Iraqis have been displaced and are refugees either abroad or within their own country. Iraqis with the resources to leave the country have left. They are frightened. They don’t trust the US, its allies or its mercenaries to protect them and their interests.

We know more about the body counts of American soldiers in Iraq. Some 4,000 American soldiers have been killed in this war, about a third more than the number of people who died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11. And some 28,000 American soldiers have suffered debilitating injuries. Many more have been affected by the trauma of war in ways that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives - ways that will have serious effects not only on their lives and the lives of their loved ones, but on society as a whole. Due to woefully inadequate resources being provided, our injured soldiers are not receiving the medical treatment and mental health care that they deserve.

The invasion of Iraq was illegal from the start. Not only was Congress lied to in order to secure its support for the invasion of Iraq, but the war lacked the support of the United Nations Security Council and thus was an aggressive war initiated on the false pretenses of weapons of mass destruction. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Nor has any assertion of a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda proven to be true. In the end, democracy has not come to Iraq. Its government is still being forced to bend to the will of the US administration.

What the war has accomplished is the undermining of US credibility throughout the world, the weakening of our military forces, and the erosion of our Bill of Rights. Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz calculates that the war is costing American tax payers more than $1 trillion. This amount could double if we continue the war. Each minute we are spending $500,000 in Iraq. Our losses are incalculable. It is time to remove our military forces from Iraq.

We must ask ourselves whether continuing to pursue this war is benefiting the American people or weakening us. We must ask whether continuing the war is benefiting the Iraqi people or inflicting greater suffering upon them. We believe the answer to these inquiries is that both the American and Iraqi people would benefit by ending the US military presence in Iraq.

Moving forward is not complicated, but it will require courage. Step one is to proceed with the rapid withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and hand over the responsibility for the security of Iraq to Iraqi forces. Step two is to remove our military bases from Iraq and to turn Iraqi oil over to Iraqis. Step three is to provide resources to the Iraqis to rebuild the infrastructure that has been destroyed in the war.

Congress must act. Although Congress never declared war, as required by the Constitution, they did give the president the authority to invade Iraq. Congress must now withdraw that authority and cease its funding of the war.

It is not likely, however, that Congress will act unless the American people make their voices heard with unmistakable clarity. That is the way the Vietnam War was brought to an end. It is the way that the Iraq War will also be brought to an end. The only question is whether it will be now, or whether the war will drag on, with all the suffering that implies, to an even more tragic, costly and degrading defeat. We will be a better, stronger and more decent country to bring the troops home now.

Walter Cronkite is the former long-time anchor for CBS Evening News. David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Joe Biden Comes On Strong

I've never been a big Joe Biden fan or supporter (though I do like some of the things he has to say), but in light of the recent news out of Iran (and analysis, here), this fundraising pitch from him certainly caught my eye today (emphasis in the original):

In October, when President Bush raised the specter of World War III with Iran because of its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, he knew that our own intelligence community had concluded months earlier that Iran had halted its weapons program in 2003.

This is as outrageous as it is irresponsible. It's exactly what he did in the run up to the war in Iraq in consistently exaggerating intelligence suggesting that Iraq had WMD while failing to tell the American people about intelligence concluding that it did not.

For many reasons, war with Iran is not just a bad option, it would be a disaster. So I want to be crystal clear on this: if the President takes us to war with Iran without Congressional approval, I will call for his impeachment.

The President's actions further undermine America's credibility around the world -- and the government's credibility here at home -- at a time when that credibility is at an all time low. And it injects more tension and instability into the Middle East at a time when we should be doing everything in our power to prevent that region from spiraling out of control.

Finally, someone besides Dennis Kucinich and Barbara Lee is willing to bring up the I-word. You go, Joe. Are you listening, Ms. Pelosi? Can we get you a new table for Christmas, one that will hold some Constitutional checks and balances?

BARBARians And An Outsider

This Sunday, 12/9, our good friend (and frequent commenter) George, proprietor of I'm Not One To Blog, But... will be in San Francisco with his lovely wife, visiting us from their home base, Santa Barbara. Because we don't need much of an excuse to drink, we BARBARians are using the occasion to gather together and meet up for beers and/or cocktails at Elixir, 16th and Guerrero in SF. We'll be there starting about 1 in the afternoon, and may end up there the rest of the day if past meetings are any indication. Please feel free to join us in our endeavor; we love new faces, and readers are always welcome!

(Cross-posted at the BARBARian Blog.)

Eight Things You May Or May Not Know Or Care To Know About Me

Ben Varkentine, proprietor of the blog Dictionopolis in Digitopolis, has tagged me with a meme -- which I believe is cyberspeak for "virus" -- that is going around the internets. Here are the rules:

1. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged write their own blog post about their eight things and include these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged and that they should read your blog.
5. 8 is a magic number. Not three.

I'm an iconoclast and a rule-breaker from way back, so I'm choosing to ignore rule #4. If any of you folks out there reading this want to participate, consider yourselves tagged.

Here goes:

1. I moved to San Francisco in 1981 with less than $200 in my pocket, and spent the first three nights here sleeping in my car in the Safeway parking lot on Market Street.
2. For reasons that had more to do with tagging than with procurement or pandering, I was known to a select group of people in high school as "Willie the Pimp" (after the Frank Zappa/Captain Beefheart song).
3. My great-aunt Elinor Donahue was a regular on the old TV show Father Knows Best (she played Betty, the older daughter), and has appeared in many other shows and movies before and since. My favorite of these is Girls Town, with Mamie Van Doren, Mel Torme and Paul Anka.
4. I got kicked out of a private Lutheran school in the fifth grade for arguing with the principal (who was also the pastor of the church). I asked him why the school had a dress code (because my hair was getting long, and they objected to that). He said, "All the other schools have dress codes." I said, "If all the other schools jumped off a bridge, would you?" It was a shining moment for a 10-year-old.
5. When I was 16, I was in a band with some older guys who worked with my mother at the local state hospital. I played guitar, very badly. The band was called Chuck Wagon and the Rolling Wheels.
6. I've been an extra and had a bit part in two porno movies, back when they were still shot on film. I did not have sex with that woman... or that man, or that dog or that gerbil or anyone or anything else on either set. In fact, I kept my clothes on the entire time.
7. I was also an extra in a Sony handycam commercial a number of years ago, and saw myself on TV quite a few times afterward. I got paid a flat fee, no residuals.
8. I worked for Culligan Soft Water for a few years in Southern California (yes, I was the Culligan Man). During that time, I grew a big, bushy beard. I had many regular customers that I would talk to on my deliveries. One day I shaved off the beard. The next day, I went to the home of one of my regular customers, and he asked, "What happened to that Mexican boy that used to deliver the water?" "You mean the one with the beard?" I asked. "Yeah," he said. "He was a nice kid." "Oh, he's on another route now," I told him.

That's it, and it's more than enough, don't you think?

Whose Opening Line Is It Anyway: Where Do You Get Off?

Pulling in with another easy one this week, and another one for which I have more entries than I have slots to put them in. There are an awful lot of songs out there about... this week's theme. Let's see if you can identify the ones listed here (I know you can; some of them, at least).

1. Don't say what you mean, you might spoil your face. If you walk in the crowd, you won't leave any trace.
2. The walls are built up, stone by stone, the fields divided one by one.
3. Two train tickets into L.A., one round trip the other way.
4. Why should I care, why should I care? Girls of fifteen, sexually knowing, the ushers are sniffing, eau-de-cologning...
5. I'm always running behind the time...
6. I lost everything I had in the '29 flood, the barn was buried 'neath a mile of mud...
7. Well, I ride on a mailtrain, baby, can't buy a thrill.
8. Outside there's a box car waiting, outside the family stew...
9. L.A. proved too much for the man, so he's leaving the life he's come to know.
10. Say you stand by your man, tell me something I don't understand.

**Bonus** I can settle down and be doin' just fine, 'til I hear an old train rollin' down the line...

Answers Friday (though I expect most of these will already be identified by then).

Blonday Blandom Blickr Blogging

(I was having all kinds of trouble getting Dashboard to upload any images today, so I had to wait until I got home to do this. Thus the lateness... and I hope it's just a one-day glitch and not a sign of things to come.)

It's taken over 35 years, but outtakes from the photo shoot for Joni Mitchell's Blue are finally starting to see the light of day.

"Good news, Rex! The certificate is here, graduation is less than an hour from now, and after that... you'll be a REAL kangaroo!"

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring."

-- Rogers Hornsby

(Original images, #5744, posted here, here and here. Random Flickr Blogging explained by Tom Hilton, who's never late, here.)