I've got so much to do today, so I hope you can forgive me for my laziness; blogging with pics is a boatload of work. Anyway, here's a new set of photos at my other place, to go along with this one of the gates of Buckinham Palace. Which, as far as palaces go, isn't very impressive.  Read more…

So, in addition to being an untrustworthy but highly attractive fox, I'm also a bitchy princess who is a tease. So, you only get 10 for tonight. Heh, I could write a whole blog on what I experienced in London. I won't bore you with that, but rather show you what post Empire is really about. That is: bragging rights! If you can kill it, steal it, imitate it, coerce it, and be snobby about all that...you could be a Citizen of the Empire! Just kidding, blokes. Seriously:I loved your nation (what I saw of it) and I want to live there. Any Brit Dykes in need of a footrubbing, politically active, art-loving gardener and cook? I'm available for an EU contract. Standard warning, plenty of pics to follow.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...The Rosetta Stone:

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So, up here in 5b land, it's dark, bleak, and cold. A lot. The moon is shining and making pretty play on the snow just now here in MI, but of course that never lasts. Like many, I fill my winter 'downtime' with indoor hobbying and crafting. Last year, as you may remember, it was tiling. I plan on doing more this season, but I like to try to learn new things every season. This year, I have to confess: I'd scheduled learning to sew "for real," but coming back from London and all the museums, I'm more inclined to...paint. I just love "modern" art! It's probably pathetic, but I don't care.

Given that I've rebuilt my house over the last few years, room by room, floor by floor, etc., I've got a lot, and I do mean a lot, of 'spare' paint lying around. And some brushes, and not a few flat, white-ish papery surfaces to mar. So I think I will! What about you? I know we're officially the knitting-home construction-tiling-gardening political blog these days, what are you adding to that list? I promise I won't torture you with pics unless I'm really high. Read more…

Feh, working all day sux. But, I'm curious: are you getting more emails than ever, from corporate concerns, begging you to click the link and check out "savings like never before!" at this or that business website? It's sort of annoying to have to sift thru a lot of "you told us it was OK to email you" spam, as you're trying to get work done, yo?

I don't do a lot of online shopping, compared to your average American consumer. But obviously it's impossible to keep an email addy "private," and once one has used an addy, it gets whored around with the same promiscuity of a desperate blogger looking to generate new traffic at a new site. But it's notable, at least to me and anectodally, to consider how many "Sale of the Century!" emails I'm getting right now, and even from business concerns I've not had relations with for years.

The saddest/funniest ones are from the garden-related businesses, who don't seem to realize that I'm a few thousand away, in terms of savings, from having the self-heating eco-correct greenhaus that would make me more inclined to want to buy plants and gardening supplies in the early dead of winter. I suspect that, economically speaking, it's going to be even more Cold, come February.

This is going to get me in all kinds of trouble, but feh, what else is a blog for?
Exhibit A:

CHICAGO (AP) - President-elect Barack Obama says he is saddened by allegations that Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich tried to trade favors for Obama's Senate seat—and says he had no contact with the governor or his office on the matter.

The governor was arrested Tuesday on federal corruption charges. Prosecutors say Blagojevich wanted to give Obama's Senate seat to the highest bidder.

Obama says he will have no further comment on the matter because it is an ongoing investigation.

Where have I heard those phrases before? Hmmm....

Now, the first part I put in bold is critical, as it related to Axelrod's words in this video. Notice how Axelrod is very careful not to say what subject, or any other relevant details, about what the conversation was concerning. Gee, I wonder why?

I am really trying here. It's a hard, fine line to walk. I don't want to be overly rhetorical, or run away with the latest emotion-based villification of the moment. I'm not looking for attention, and I already know: few, if any politicians in DC are going to "satisfy" me. Etc. But there are a couple of different ways to contrast and compare these two links, and most of them don't make Team Obama look good.

Boilerplate: I've read the pdf, I know what Blago said about Obama; it's clear they didn't get along and I'm inclined to believe that Obama was, let's say, too professional a politician, to get involved in Blago's blatant and sloppy corruption. But then an unpopular blogger (hey, just like me!) throws this out there, and what the hell am I left thinking? That we can't be cynical enough, and that "not quite a lie" is the new "lying their asses off."

I'm so fucking sick of it. Team Obama: just say, "Sure, we talked to him about the appointment choices. He wasn't too fond of ours. You know what he wanted in return for it? Money. We weren't prepared to give him any. That would've been wrong, and corrupt." Can't you see how much better you'd look right now if you'd said that? No, I guess you can't.

I'll admit: I'm a little bit jealous. Or at least, jealous for Lambert. He's a WASP, and therefore is "worthy" of making the NYT's political pages, right? Oh well. Bowers has become the new, eminently misquotable whipping boy for the "angry Left," and thus not to be contacted directly, lest some terrible germ infect the sacred flesh of reporters. He's calling from Inside the House!!!

I just noticed this article in the New York Times now. Emphasis mine:

Markos Moulitsas, founder of the influential Daily Kos site on the Internet, said it was way too early to begin judging Mr. Obama. "Some people may be nit-picky about his choices but at the end of the day, he's going to make better choices than John McCain would have made," Mr. Moulitsas said by telephone. "There will be a time to push him, but as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to wait to see what it means on a policy basis, not on personalities."

Some bloggers have been less patient. "Why isn't there a single member of Obama's cabinet who will be advising him from the left?" asked Chris Bowers on his site, OpenLeft.com.

The reason I emphasized those two lines is because I was never contacted by the author of the piece, Peter Baker, about an interview for the article. So, if you are a blogger perceived as supportive of Obama, you get a phone call. However, if you are perceived as critical of Obama, you are just selectively quoted in order to fit into the existing narrative.

Come to think of it, I wasn't I contacted by The Politco for their piece that quoted me. Nor was I contacted by the New York Times for the piece where they quoted me last month. Nor by USA Today last month. Nor by UPI. Nor by Salon. Nor by Time (even though Beinart actually works with someone who is dating one of my cousins, and it wouldn't have been hard to fine me). Nor by The Washington Post. I was actually contacted by Fox News, which has quoted me a few times recently, but I declined to appear on their network. MSNBC also contacted me, and I had a great time on Hardball. Read more…

Peter is talking about you, kidz! There's plenty to chew over, and suss out. This part caught my attention:

How does this affect the triangle of media, political establishment, and online community? For the press and punditry, an important reversal: their agenda-setting role is eroded and they are now compelled to partner with the online commentariat for validation and legitimation. For the political establishment, the standard methodology - where strategists and pollsters conjure and test messages to be disseminated by media teams and press shops through traditional channels - is inadequate. Politicians and public officials must now contend with higher levels of risk and uncertainty that confound traditional communications strategies. They must posses the awareness and agility to navigate a churning ocean of opinion where every word, every press release, every policy paper, every speech, every document, every surrogate remark is recorded, magnified and repurposed by the online community. Image making and message crafting, enduring political arts once the back-room purview of a select few, are now in the public domain.

Our very own Shystee has done some brilliant work on this topic, and has a slightly different take on it, I think. But to me the best part of the Daou piece is "risk and uncertainty." I like chaos, I don't like top-down flow of information models. Daou wants your thoughts, leave them here or at his place.

Question for the group, asked in honest and open-minded interest:

What "good in the world" can the CIA claim? What, specifically, has it done that makes America safer, and/or the world a better place?

There's a lot of chatter about Obama's pick of Brennan, of whom I don't really know that much, and his experience and position on the use of torture as a valid interrogation technique. I'll leave aside that argument for now (except to say it still shocks me we even have an "arugment" about it, feh) and wonder instead about what we need, what we have and don't have, and what we might and should have, in our premier intelligence agency.

I can run down a pretty long list of CIA failures. Just off the top of my head, they were totally wrong predicting the timing and reasons for the collapse of the USSR; they propped up torturing dictators in South and Central America; they failed to provide anything useful in the criminally misguided effort in Vietnam; they've covered for drug lords and murderers and Nazis, allowing them to go unpunished and even rewarded for their crimes; Osama Bin who?; WMD and Iraq...really, it's sort of like shooting fish in a barrel.

So I have a hard time understanding why some people on the left would bother to defend practically anything or anyone associated with today's CIA. Especially after what I imagine to be the usual contamination with cronies and criminals that has been the hallmark of the Bush administration's treatment of virtually every government agency. Via CQPolitics, comes this little gem which more or less sums up how I feel about the Agency today:

"Almost anyone working at the agency since [Sept. 11] is tainted," says retired CIA veteran Milt Bearden, a former Pakistan station chief, expressing the facts of life.

"If he wants experience, get an old-timer who left before that. Or go with a completely new face, maybe someone like a [Richard] Holbrooke, though I doubt he'd take it."

I know some people who've worked in intelligence, and I'm not trying to paint with an overly large brush. I understand there is a difference between the Directorates of operations and intelligence, the people who work in them, and what they do. I know that there really are Bad Guys in the world who are on a mission to hurt and kill Americans for all the wrong reasons, and that it makes sense of a nation like ours to have eyes and ears in dangerous places, the better to anticipate groups who would bring another 9-11 to our shores.

But I'm also always most interested in results. So I'm asking: are there any that CIA can point to, and recently, that would convince a progressive like me that CIA is not in need of massive housecleaning and investigation? My mind is truly open on this, if anyone wants to step up and defend them.

So I assume you know why today is an historical day. In the spirit of looking back and forward, and at ourselves, I thought I'd share a personal, family story about some of the things we're supposed to be thinking of, as we all break bread in thanks that we're not all speaking German.

My grandfather on my mother's side came from a sleepy, tiny, West Virginia town. During the time of his funeral, I got to check it out a little bit; can't say I really liked it or that it seemed so different than many other inwardly-looking small towns. Grandpa was one of those trouble-making types, and he had many reasons to be so. Bright, but not white. Poor, but not beaten down. Raised "right with god," but intellectually irreverent. And worst of all: light-skinned, handsome, and with a tongue that could shame the Devil. Read more…

Change you can believe in!

The Washington Post appears to have changed an already published article without noting the change. The original article started out:

President-elect Barack Obama's transition team has agreed to accompany Treasury Department officials to meet with Capitol Hill leaders to help the Bush administration gain access to the second half of the $700 billion financial rescue package, government sources familiar with the matter said. Read more…

OK, I'm no economist. And hey! I'm really fucking glad! Next to "child rapist" and "warmonger," I can hardly think of a more despicable title to hold right now. What I'm going to write here is likely flawed, unrealistic, naive, and all that other stuff Serious People tell me at the cocktail parties when I've had a few too many and start talking like this. But I'd like to stimulate some conversation about what Our Leaderz can do right now, to help our economy, and not just that of their richee buddies and buttboi friends. Because believe it or not (heh), I'm told that part of the problem with the incoming bunch is that they, um, well...don't really know what to do, when it comes to fixing the actual majority economy. You're shocked to hear that, I'm sure. Read more…

Hoss makes a good point about this utterly devastating critique from Digby on yet another shitstain excuse for a piece of journalism, but I'd like to make a gooder point, if I may. I actually suffered to read Nooner's entire article, and what struck me was the completely self-absorbed tone and perspective she employed. Which isn't really surprising unless like me you tend to avoid that sort of writing, but still, what does Pegster really mean when she says "Bush kept us safe?"

Surprisingly, even the comment boards at the WSJ took her to task for such a ridiculous and willfully blind assertion of facts screamingly in evidence to the contrary. But she wasn't really talking about "safety" and "national security" in the way that you and I do. She was talking about how Bush has kept Villagers and the very wealthy safe...from us.

If you can stomach it, follow the link at Digby's (I won't give the WSJ linklove here) and read the piece and see if you agree with me. It's all there. Sneering condescension for the new "oh my god he's black!!1!" president who can't possibly be smart enough to govern without the advice and consent of the Village on account of his race, the usual hatred for HRC and her lack of membership in the Kewl Kidz club, the casual dropping of elites status and invitation to the 'right' parties, and most importantly for me, a soulful review of the material culture of her world, in the form of people's (read: people like her) homes. Ah, how I miss being so close to McClean and all those monstrous, sprawling megahomes that would've made Scarlett O'Hara blush, after she married Rhett for his money.

But Noonan's pride and defense of Bush are telling to me, for they reveal what it is she really fears: masses of angry, didn't-go-to-the-right-Ivy, showering after work DFHs and Flyover rubes, beating down her doors in angry mobs, demanding a return for all the money her class has stolen from us, and acting in full command of the rights they've taken away from us. Noonan knows that Terraists will never darken any doorstep that only she and her kind may enter freely. But now that Bush is finally leaving, her nervousness is increasing. Like so many wingers, I have no doubt she sits around in frenzied masturbation, mentally and perhaps otherwise, daydreaming of "Red Dawn" scenarios and "24" episodes, safe in the knowledge that her Hero Bush and the rest of the Terror Warriors will keep her Village cocktail parties Free, just like the Constitution says they should be. But that time is coming to an end, and when she relates the question of Republicans at her party "are still we important?" she really means "do we still have the clout to keep them from coming after us for all our crimes? I'd like to say, "No, It is not safe." We'll see if I get that chance Read more…

How is it that for days now, our SCLM has presented all manner of ciritical detail about the many reasons why "bailing out the auto industry" is a Very Bad Idea, but when the financial industry bailout was being passed, against overwhelming public opposition, the only song the SCLM could sing was "Unlimited, no guarantee trillions, NOW! or you'll all DIE!!!"

It is especially interesting when one notes that the amounts in question are roughly $50b (in loans that will be repaid, as they have in the past) vs $3trillion and counting (for nothing).

Just a little reminder, because I've got the snow-covered 5b Blues, and missing my blooms: the Seed Exchange is coming soon. I've got zillions, and I hope at least a few intrepid garden bloggers are interested in doing some exchanging as I would like to. I've got a few links in my gardenblog bookmarks that do exchanges, but I'd like to at the very least tie into that with something a little more separate and Corrente-specific. So consider this a heads up post, and if you know any good exchanges, or have participated in them before, share your links and thoughts here. Here are some I left for the birds to eat.  Read more…

ArsT:

A key program in the Federal Communications Commission's Universal Service Fund overpaid telecommunications carriers by almost a billion dollars from July 2006 through June 2007. This disclosure, which is sure to provoke more cries for a massive overhaul of the USF, comes from a preliminary FCC audit of the USF's High Cost fund released just before Thanksgiving. The review says that 23.3% of the payments the USF made to telcos were "erroneous"—that's up from an earlier estimate of 16.6 percent. The latest total comes to $970.3 million in bad payouts.
FCC cracks down on Universal Service Fund cheats
Universal Service Fund should be "blown up" like Death Star

The Commission says that this money cannot be recovered, because it is based on a random sample audit of USF beneficiaries. "In order to recover erroneous payments that are approximately $970.3 million," the Office of Inspector Generals' (OIG) report observes, "an audit of the entire population of High Cost beneficiaries would be necessary." This also suggests that the actual total sum of incorrect grants could be much higher than what the audit found.

I mean, we wouldn't want to have to do an audit, heavens forfend, no! That could cost money.

Ho, ho, Correntians. I'm fairly sure I'm the first here to link to this. And galdurnit, don't tell me if I'm wrong, in the holiday spirit of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Baby Jeebus cries if you do. Even so, Haw! I love this kind of shit:

A gay version of the Bible, in which God says it is better to be gay than straight, is to be published by an American film producer.

New Mexico-based Revision Studios will publish The Princess Diana Bible – so named because of Diana's "many good works", it says – online at princessdianabible.com in spring 2009. A preview of Genesis is already available, in which instead of creating Adam and Eve, God creates Aida and Eve.

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Aida, and she slept: and he took one of her ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from woman, made he another woman, and brought her unto the first. And Aida said, 'This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of me. Therefore shall a woman leave her mother, and shall cleave unto her wife: and they shall be one flesh.' And they were both naked, the woman and her wife, and were not ashamed."

The film studio said it would also adapt and direct the revised Bible as a two-part mini-series, The Gay Old Testament and The Gay New Testament, once it is completed.

"There are many different versions of the Bible; I don't see why we can't have one," said Max Mitchell, who directed the science fiction comedy Horror in the Wind, in which an airborne formula invented by two biogeneticists reverses the world's sexual orientation. Read more…

Haw.

An atheists-rights group is suing the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security because state law requires the agency to stress "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."

American Atheists of Parsippany, N.J., and 10 non-religious Kentuckians are the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, set to be filed Tuesday in Franklin Circuit Court.

Edwin Kagin, a Boone County lawyer and the national legal director of American Atheists, said he was appalled to read in the Herald-Leader last week that state law establishes praising God — and installing a plaque in God's honor — as the first duty of the Homeland Security Office.

The state and federal constitutions both prohibit government from getting involved in religion, Kagin said Monday.

"This is one of the most outrageous things I've seen in 35 years of practicing law. It's breathtakingly unconstitutional," Kagin said.

Yes. Yes, it is. Go KY atheists! And FSM be praised for McClatchy for bringing us this news.

The whole thing is very good.

This goes to the other side of how this nation is changing radically - with a series of programs conceived largely by executive fiat that weakens civil liberties protections and subverts the plain letter of the law. This includes illegal wiretapping of American citizens, indefinite detention of prisoners without charges, and the dehumanizing practice of torture, which is ineffective and deeply dangerous to the lives of our troops, as this senior interrogator in Iraq explains.
... Read more…

Feeling rather unclever today, I don't have the snappy intro I wish I could have for this:

KABUL (Reuters) - The U.S. general commanding NATO forces in Afghanistan has ordered a merger of the office that releases news with "Psy Ops," which deals with propaganda, a move that goes against the alliance's policy, three officials said. Read more…

Suzie asks some important questions concerning this report on young people's ethics. It doesn't surprise me at all that more boys than girls believe that lying and cheating are necessary for success in life. Now, I'm not one to bemoan Those Kids Today, as I've been doing some reading on 18thc politics and know we've got a long way to go before we hit rock bottom. But I do think that another point that should be raised re: this endemic of cheating and lying is that politics have far reaching consequences, and to me that is reflected in the survey. If the President and high elected officials lie like rugs and no one calls them on it, why shouldn't young people take that as a model and example?

Personally, I've come to understand that educators must take real care, and guard against cheating and lying, when it comes to teens today. There's a certain culture that crosses races and income levels, which lauds those teens who are able to 'get away with it,' whatever it may be. Again, I don't think this is too different than when I was a teen, or before that, but I think that teens who adopt this aesthetic will carry it on into adulthood, unless some authority in their lives teaches them that there are serious consequences.

It will be interesting, as the coming population wave assumes political and cultural power, in the many battles in which we find ourselves engaged today. People who don't believe that lying and cheating are great evils to be avoided will be more or less likely oppose gay marriage? More or less likely to believe that our nation should be engaged in wars of choice? More or less concerned with government spying? More or less tolerant of "the war on drugs?" I don't know the answer to any of that, but I suspect the political scene will be different, when this generation begins to exhibit its peak influence.

I think of this as one of those "what comes around, goes around" sort of things. Republicans have enshrined lying and cheating as legitimate forms of public behavior, and Democrats have failed to oppose that in a significant way. Soon, we'll get to find out just what it's like when a large portion of the population shares those beliefs. Short form: if the rubes don't follow the rules set up for them, it's a lot harder to suck up obscene profits from their enslavement.

It has gotten to the point where Mr. A takes away the sharp objects at the table when someone brings up "the terrible times facing newspapers these days" or "isn't it just awful how no one reads anymore." Newspapers make plenty of money. PLENTY of money. They are wildly successful businesses. If you or I owned them we'd be jumping for joy.

They just don't make enough money to satisfy the greedy, rapacious assholes who own and run them. This isn't a death, you know. It's a homicide. Newspapers aren't dying. They're being murdered. And until somebody convenes an academic conference on how to overthrow these fuckers and raise funds for employee buyouts of every last one of these newspapers you cannot pay me in solid gold ingots to listen to one more stupid lecture about the Internet. Read more…

So I have some kweshuns for you:

How worried are you, at this point, at much of the econ news that's coming down the pipe right now? How are you faring, personally, and how are your fortunes, for what they are, growing or shinking or otherwise changing? I love Meaningless Personal Anecdotes, I'd love to hear yours.

Also: have you ever made "brine pickles?" If so, how'd they turn out? Where did you 'age' them? What veggies did you use? There's this brand of Israeli pickles I love, with the very simplest of ingredients. But they're brined, and I'm not willing to do that...yet. Have you? Did it work out? What did you use?

I'm fortunate, this year at least. I found/saved up enough to put up a very nice holiday table. I may not be able to buy such luxe again, soon. So I'm all about Grandma's Special Recipe and any gourmet touches you've found to add to your homegrown. I invite all area liberals to my "family is gone away for the holiday visit" party at my post-Thanksgiving holiday weekend party this year, and likely others in future gawdless holidays. I don't think I can stand to read about one more "my family called and said we won't be talking politics this year" dinner request/invite/command. Call me crazy, but no one tells me what I can say, or not, at the dinnertable. Evah.

Bailout humor, anyone? SFW, even. "Mooooooo-ney. Moooney." Heh. For Ali.

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I know this is linked to below, and that Avedon has joined the bandwagon, but I think this simple point is worth repeating, over and over and over. Call *me* boring, I can hack it, but don't dismiss the essential truth of this:

No presidential administration keeps its promises without relentless pressure from below.

From the American Revolution to the Civil War, abolition to women's rights, the Civil rights era to Stonewall, it's the same story every time. Ugly, poor, fat, tranny, unhip, powerless, "criminal," outcast, unpopular, drug using, cat loving, "loosers" have been at the forefront, in the vaanguard, the most vocal and far-seeing, when it comes to progressive change. You can add "unpopular C list bloggers" to that list, now. But the bottom line is that no one listens to "people like us," until they do, because they have to. On so many issues (FISA, Iraq, the "bailout," health care) we're sofa king right, and have the only real and lasting solutions, and everybody else, no matter how well connected, paid, or "popular," are wrong and will be proven so, in the "meaningless" eyes of historians, people who benefit from the programs we advocate, and those millions of current and future generations not killed or forced to suffer so that a few hundred rich people can be richer. I know this in "my soul." More importantly, the history of the West, the religious wars, and science, back me up. Read more…

I confess: I have no idea what's going on down there in TX. I do know: 1)Cheney is a monster 2)Gonzo is a liar 3)The American prison system is a horror and 4)It's a time-honored Republican tactic to muddy the waters and meddle with those seeking to prosecute them, by employing countering lawsuits and legal claims.

Anyway, this sounds like a carnival of corruption and anyone who knows more about this should chime in. Via Off the Kuff, and the local SCLM:

McALLEN — A South Texas grand jury has indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on state charges related to the alleged abuse of prisoners in Willacy County's federal detention centers.

There are more links at Off the Kuff, and someone else suggested that it could be useful for bloggers to peruse the SEIU's Eye on Wackenhut for related background details. Read more…