The Leningrad Cowboys & Red Army Choir Channel Lynyrd Skynyrd with Sweet Home Alabama

Mercy heavens! I recall hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" while walking up "Honor Hill" as I completed the field exercise and a long walk back while winding up my summer at Fort Benning. I was surely ready to get across that river! John Gunn

The Platypus ~ A blend of mammalian, reptilian and avian from roughly 170 million years ago

King Friday of the Neighborhood of Make-Believe and Mr. Rogers are pictured to the left. Dating myself I'll confess that I do remember the Platypus family and immediately thought of William Duckbill Bagpipe Platypus the IV when I read the WaPo's Platypus Genome Found Fittingly Strange: Cobbled-Together Creature Yields New Evolutionary Insights from Rick Weiss. An interesting critter indeed. How would Southern Baptist Albert Mohler respond? John Gunn

One more example of the myth of St. John McCain

St. John McCain's relationships with lobbyists goes far beyond just the comely ones. Today's revelation that DCI's Doug Goodyear had close ties to the Myanmar gov't was soon followed by his resignation as Chair of the GOP's convention this summer. He's certainly not the only gun for hire up in DC that takes his money from all sorts of nasty folks. Ken Silverstein's Harper's piece is a good place to start understanding how the game works. The Center for Media and Democracy's Powers Behind the Throne is yet another. Paul Manafort was in fact McCain's original choice to Chair the convention yet ironically he was nixed for his own ties to repressive regimes. I know pols from the Democratic Party are often influenced yet I'd argue the GOP is far more easily managed. Huggy Bear's hypocrisy is certain when it comes to the role of lobbyists in his career. John Gunn

Navigation & Journalism ~ Getting your bearings

"Bearings" are explained here. I understand he was at the bottom of his class at Annapolis yet you'd think St. John McCain, the son and grandson of Admirals no less with his own service as a Navy pilot being well known and actively promoted, would grasp what Barack Obama was saying when he suggested Senator McCain was “losing his bearings” in repeatedly trying to link Hamas with the Obama candidacy.

It gets worse however! Honest Joe Lieberman might have "checked his bearings" yet he's merely one of The Chairborne who avoided Vietnam via deferments and the like to become a neo-conservative Hawk. If you're going to beat the drums of war then you ought to know a little about how it's done Joe!

Maybe the McCain campaign is worried about him being painted as an old coot yet you'd think a campaign built around militarism would get the navigation reference. Certainly Mark Salter, "the Voice of John McCain", ought to also know what "bearings" refers to with a Daddy that was in the Navy in WWII and the Army in the Korean Conflict.

"Losing your bearings" was a way of saying John McCain was losing his way, getting off track, not aware of his position, etc. St. John said he wouldn't campaign that way and then when he did Senator Obama called him on it. I'd have liked to see Obama do so less cerebrally and more assertively. Fighting back and calling BS is the way you must campaign when the GOP pulls their foolishness. This seems like a good chance to practice some jujitsu politics now that the "lost his bearings" dust up has gotten so much attention.

Mark Salter needs to be careful claiming anyone is acting in a "not-particularly-clever way" it seems given his background as the creator of the McCain myth. The Boston Globe's Sasha Issenberg tell us, "Salter grew up playing with toy soldiers and reading Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos comic books. On his honeymoon, Salter visited French-Indian war sites." What an exciting way to begin a marriage!

The bottom line is that the media should be able to supply a little context to what "bearings" surely meant plus also reveal who Mark Salter is. Yet, have they?

In a related theme please look at Paul Waldman's piece in The American Prospect titled How Deep Is Your Love?: Republicans are up to their usual tricks -- questioning the patriotism of their opponents. The media, as usual, is playing along because it lauds political success, not virtue. He writes

Republicans don't raise these attacks every four years because they truly believe that their exists some real relationship between a president's degree of patriotic fervor and the good he'll do for America. Instead, it's one more way of arguing that the Democratic candidate isn't “one of us,” that he stands outside the circle of our tribe. He doesn't share our values, he doesn't speak our language, he doesn't love what we love and hate whom we hate.

This summer and fall we'll once again see the GOP machine in action. They can do little right when the win, or steal, an election but I'll admit they do amazing work when it comes to the campaign. John Gunn

UPDATE ~ Evening of May 10, 2008 - The following suggests John McCain had trouble adjusting to the discipline of Annapolis. Does that explain his trouble understanding navigation>

Here's one telling of his family. Again, there's something about him not grasping certain lessons until later in life. Are they trying to prepare the true believers for bad news to follow?

A new favorite beer ... and it's nearly 500 years old

New Belgium Brewery has crafted the nectar of the Gods! Their 1554 Enlightened Black Ale is superb and as they describe it is "highly quaffable". I concur! Shiner Bohemian Black Lager is another recent find and it is a close second. Big Sky Brewing Company's Moose Drool 'aint bad and on tap it is divine. Lagunitas' Censored Copper Ale is another recent find. Dechutes' Cinder Cone Red is yet another. And there's ... The Northwest is at least full of solid beer choices. John Gunn

An old CIA guy hates Obama like a dog hates cats

Matt Stearns of McClatchy Newspapers shares Where did the Web rumors about Obama come from? Poor form perhaps but I told you so. John Gunn

How will they handle Cindy McCain's tax returns?

Up front I'll accept an argument can be made that Cindy McCain's tax returns might be none of our business. Still, I could got the other way on the matter. I'll need to ponder this one for a while. My question is how the right and the so called liberal media, like NBC's Ann Curry for instance, will treat her refusal to release her tax returns? I note that back in 2004 Bill Kristol's The Weekly Standard asked, Sugar Mommy - From the May 3, 2004 issue: Why won't Teresa Heinz Kerry release her tax returns? Their Matthew Continetti wrote

Making Heinz's tax returns public would confirm that she's Kerry's sugar daddy (sugar mommy?). It would also strike a blow against Kerry's populist rhetoric by detailing the lavish lifestyle he and his wife enjoy: the vacation home in Nantucket, the ski chalet in Ketchum, Idaho, the estate outside Pittsburgh, the Georgetown manse. Not to mention the red-and-white Gulfstream jet. And the tax returns could embarrass the Kerry campaign further if it's revealed that Heinz has contributed to independent organizations working to unseat President Bush.

The National Review had Donald Luskin doing pretty much the same thing. Media Matters tells us Wash. Post, WSJ editorial pages urged release of tax returns by Teresa Heinz Kerry, but have yet to call for Cindy McCain's. The GOP, or at least various tiers of their message machine, went after John Kerry on the issue so their die is cast I'd think. Still, they managed to paint Dubyah as a man of the people didn't they?

John McCain got on the "Straight Malt Express" when he married into the beer distributor fortune. But for Hensley money he might have never gotten even that first election win. The fact he shed his first wife Carol after having been a bit of a rake is also accepted. She's rich as Roosevelt! I think it good that Joe and Jill Sixpack might actually be able to learn these facts as I'm sure they'll use their regular "elitist of the left" angle if Barack Obama or at least his surrogates will not fight back against their foolishness.

Finally, I was pleased to see MSNBC/WaPo coverage titled McCain pushed land swap that benefits backer: 35,000 acres of Ariz. grassland traded for property ready for development that might reveal to more and more Americans that St. John the Maverick's label as a Straight Talker is more about perception than reality. I've posted on his cheeky behavior before plus there's his recent lies on health care plus his "purple cow letter" to the FCC and ... John Gunn

Nothing I'll moan about today so here's ...

Perhaps I'm tired or maybe it just seems like everything has pretty much been covered. It could be that I'm merely sad? I learned last night and this morning that a guy I went to high school with, and then roomed with briefly at Auburn, just committed suicide over his financial troubles in real estate development. He had practiced law in Georgia mostly yet we sat for the Alabama Bar Exam way back in February of 1992. He had two young children and was still presumably married to their mother. I only met her once yet she seemed like a fine woman. I understand his folks found him in his office. A damn shame and a waste of a smart soul.

Whatever is going on, I'm finding little today that I want to comment on. So here's an image of an unknown tree and its blossoms that I walk past nearly every day. Even though the blooms have faded a touch, these trees remain striking. There's been way too much death lately. I need nature even more than normal in times like these.

I also need to go home and see the bride and boy and ... Flying out two weeks from tonight! John Gunn

EPA's George Gray and ... covers for Bu$hCo

Renee Schoof of McClatchy Newspapers reports Senate Democrats criticize EPA for impeding science. His unwillingness to explain his involvement with the Annapolis Center is duly noted. Michael Scherer was kicked out of one of their events yet I helped Jerry McNerney kick out the sell out (Richard Pombo) in the fall of 2006. EPA administrator Stephen Johnson has of course refused to attend Congressional hearings yet George Gray, as did Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, covered for the whole of Bu$hCo. Only a few more months. John Gunn

Turning the idea of patriotism on its head

AP/MSNBC reports U.S. defense contractors seek offshore havens: Lawmakers want these companies to pay Medicare, Social Security taxes yet no mention was made of Halliburton's recent move to Dubai or KBR placing certain subsidiaries in The Cayman Islands. It's about time Congress acted. John Gunn

Some wisdom from Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti is credited with, "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." So I'm healthy? I have long been frustrated with the world around me. I enjoy people for the most part and feel like I do some good in the world yet I surely do get riled up about many of those in charge in DC and Montgomery. Our popular culture often disgusts or at least escapes me. Will I wind up a complete curmudgeon or merely a touch grumpy? John Gunn

Is Bama Senator Rusty Glover a conspiracy nut?

Bryan Lyman of The Mobile Press-Register reports Senate backs 'urban legend': Alabama resolution alleges that a conspiracy is brewing to form a 'North American Union' although experts discount the idea. Doh! State Senator Rusty Glover from Semmes sponsored the resolution. I regret to admit he's a high school history teacher. He's also a Southern Baptist and a Republican. He's also a decent softball player it would appear with homeruns noted by Dana Beyerle.

Mr. Lyman reported, "The senator said he had been asked by Birmingham-based members of the Eagle Forum, a conservative group, to carry the resolution." Carrying water for that kooky outfit is bad enough yet this whole foolishness is tied back to the John Birch Society. Senator Scott Beason got in on the act as did Hank Erwin in the Alabama Senate. You can't fly with the eagles when you run with the turkeys Rusty. Plus, I'd like to think you had enough going on upstairs to see this for what it was.

I also noted that Virginia Congressman Virgil Goode, who earned national scorn for sending, presumably on the taxpayer's dime, his constituents a letter claiming the election of Keith Ellison, a practicing Muslim, to the House was a threat to the nation's traditional values, had a similar resolution pending up in DC. I'll close with a YouTube of that stellar Republican from Virginia that might reveal something about those weak minds who fall for and then perpetrate such paranoia. Enjoy! John Gunn



UPDATE ~ May 8, 2008 - The Anniston Star ends a recent commentary with "Thus, maybe it is appropriate that the Alabama Senate spend time on something that's this ridiculous. Since our senators have spent so little time on the business of the state, they had to do something to while away the unproductive hours. And look at what they chose."

UPDATE ~ May 9, 2008 - The Mobile Press-Register opines, "What's ludicrous is not that someone would believe in such a conspiracy; people can believe whatever they want. What's astonishing is that people for whom reality isn't an issue are entrusted with running the affairs of this state."

Here's to exposing the failures of conservatism!

Greg Anrig's The Conservatives Have No Clothes: Why Right-Wing Ideas Keep Failing is on my Amazon Wish List yet just reading his TPM Cafe piece titled Time to Win the War of Ideas ... Finally will do for now. Not just Presidential candidates, but rather all Democratic candidates, even in Red State Alabama I'd argue, need to take on the "modern right-wing's deep-seated hostility toward government". Those that seem to loathe gov't naturally can't make it work. He closes with

Those ideas failed because they were radical -- the antithesis of how many Republicans and independents define their own conservatism. This election presents a huge opportunity for Democrats to make the case not just for the own candidacy, but for progressivism. If the case against the dominant belief system of recent years is presented clearly and forcefully, many Americans who used to think of themselves as conservative will realize that they now have more in common with progressives.

Amen! The problem of course comes with the "presented clearly and forcefully" need as so many of the candidates and consultants come from the centrist weenie camp but hope springs eternal. John Gunn

Stenography from Newsweek's Daniel Stone

Newsweek's Daniel Stone reports Bear Necessities: Washington has to decide whether to protect polar bears under the Endangered Species Act. Inside the politics of the debate. And to take us inside he uses "Dr. Kenneth Green, a biologist and environmental scientist who is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research" with seemingly no qualms and with no disclosure of his/their agenda. They were offering cold hard cash for "scientists" to support their clearly sought outcome yet apparently Newsweek will give them ink with no payola required. This fella, pictured over to the left, is cited favorably by the Heartland Institute, in the news just today for sending thousands of unsolicited DVDs and the like to Canadian schoolchildren, plus he's been on the payroll of the Reason Foundation and the Fraser Institute. To have Newsweek consult Dr. Green seems remarkable. John Gunn

Josh, I'd not count on sympathy from Jeffy B.

I just received an email from Josh Silver, the Executive Director of Free Press Action Fund, which asks me to contact Senator Sessions. Josh writes, "Sen. Jeff Sessions sits on an influential committee that could hold hearings and investigate whether this “selling of the war” violates federal law. It is crucial that your elected officials hear from you now." The selling of the war is in reference to the NYT's reporting that I posted on, albeit late, yesterday.

I'll do what I can Josh but Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III hasn't earned the name of "Senator Water Carrier" for nothing. He has been a frequent apologist for "The Reign of Error" that has been Bu$hCo. Still, I'll use the handy dandy tool Free Press provides and urge others to consider doing the same.

A prior letter to Jeffy B. on censuring Dubyah was hardly successful and scolding him for voting for Stripsearch Sammy didn't fare much better yet here goes another effort. Maybe he'd listen to Steve Williams? John Gunn

Will Torie Clarke roast or merely simmer in hell?

If she does go to hell I'd think she'd at least not have to wait in line. The NYT's David Barstow reports,

"Torie Clarke, the former public relations executive who oversaw the Pentagon’s dealings with the analysts as assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, had come to her job with distinct ideas about achieving what she called “information dominance.” In a spin-saturated news culture, she argued, opinion is swayed most by voices perceived as authoritative and utterly independent.

And so even before Sept. 11, she built a system within the Pentagon to recruit “key influentials” — movers and shakers from all walks who with the proper ministrations might be counted on to generate support for Mr. Rumsfeld’s priorities.

In the months after Sept. 11, as every network rushed to retain its own all-star squad of retired military officers, Ms. Clarke and her staff sensed a new opportunity. To Ms. Clarke’s team, the military analysts were the ultimate “key influential” — authoritative, most of them decorated war heroes, all reaching mass audiences.

The analysts, they noticed, often got more airtime than network reporters, and they were not merely explaining the capabilities of Apache helicopters. They were framing how viewers ought to interpret events. What is more, while the analysts were in the news media, they were not of the news media. They were military men, many of them ideologically in sync with the administration’s neoconservative brain trust, many of them important players in a military industry anticipating large budget increases to pay for an Iraq war.

Hell is too good for this heifer and those she co-opted, not to mention those that have profited from this mess, as she sold the Bu$hCo and neo-conservative foolishness. Eventually that lipstick wears off Torie. There's a statue I walk past every so often out here that has a good number of names engraved on it. I expect their families and other loved ones they left behind might not appreciate your "winning" of "the game". John Gunn

Is Dan Lips earning his Wingnut Welfare?

Mr. (not Dr. please note) Dan Lips of The Heritage Foundation got space in The Anniston Star for "The nation's risk: Improving how our children learn" to praise The Gipper, "high standards", school vouchers, ... Dashing Dan left off the fact that The National Commission on Excellence in Education was a Reagan appointed group made up of such ideologues as Diane Ravitch and Chester Finn. George Will seemed to leave all that off as well when he whined about "coersive federalism" in education when I scolded him in December of 2007. Reckon if Dan's omission has anything to do with his being in politics and PR rather than education?

His bio reads in part, "Before joining Heritage in 2005, Lips was a Senior Policy Adviser at Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a nationwide organization dedicated to advancing every individual's right to economic freedom and opportunity. ... Before that, Lips was an education research associate at the Cato Institute. In addition, he co-wrote the 2004 book, The Reagan Vision, published by the Goldwater Institute."

Mr. Lips is advancing a right wing agenda rather than looking for true solutions. I'm sure he's paid well to do all of this while those on the left barely can get by as they work to find the best method by which to educate our young people and thus transform our society. John Gunn

Thomas Friedman asks Who WIll Tell the People?

At times I have to hold my nose as surely Thomas Friedman, the "Mustache of Knowledge" himself, is a true globalist plus his FUs of six months represent much of what is wrong with our Iraq "policy". Still, I have several of his books and will be happy to buy or at least read more. His Who Will Tell the People? from today's Gray Lady is solid indeed. He ends with

We need a president who is tough enough to tell the truth to the American people. Any one of the candidates can answer the Red Phone at 3 a.m. in the White House bedroom. I’m voting for the one who can talk straight to the American people on national TV — at 8 p.m. — from the White House East Room.

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”

It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”

Well written and certainly correct. I hope Barack Obama might be that President. John Gunn

The Nation comments on our Lapdog Media

The Nation says what needs saying on the many failures of our nation's corporate media in these recent years. I confess I completely missed Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand from The Gray Lady. Those “military analysts” and their ties to the military-industrial complex being jetted about and fed rosy news by the Defense Department ought to not have been missed by a fellow like me that craves information. Maybe it was when I was in Yakima yet I'm appalled that this news got past me. The summary of The Nation's ideas follows ...

There are always honorable exceptions, but the tendency of the corporate press is to serve as stenographer for the powerful rather than the muscular check and balance intended by the country's founders. Rapid consolidation has brought us dumbed-down media, with broadcast and cable networks that rarely challenge the status quo, even as they maintain their monopolistic stranglehold on the airwaves. What do the people get in return? A diet of "news" and commentary with retired generals telling us quagmire wars are going well, former CEOs telling us a sputtering economy is "basically sound" and former political aides telling us presidential campaigns are about lapel pins and made-up scandals. ...

The constant is a major media system that, with all too few exceptions, sacrifices real journalism for access and abandons debate on real issues for manufactured controversy.

I concur and agree with what the piece ends with. They close with

The full Senate and the House should move swiftly to reject more consolidation, but they can't stop there. Congress should investigate the Pentagon's propaganda programs with an eye to determining whether laws were broken, especially regarding the sharing of classified information. Congress should also broaden its investigation into how the Administration and its media allies have politicized communications. And the presidential candidates should stop playing the media's game and start addressing the role Big Media has played in debasing rather than illuminating this historic election.

Given that Senators Clinton and Obama just recently chose to go on Faux News it is obvious that The Nation's last suggestion isn't being followed by Democratic Party "leaders". John Gunn

Alaska's GOP House Speaker John Harris sure 'aint no polar bear loving hippie!

I'd previously posted on Federal Judge Claudia Wilkin being forced to order Bu$hCo to get in gear on the polar bear issue and also on how Oklahoma Senator James Mountain Inhofe was carrying on about those whacky tree hugging, polar beat loving environmentalists. Senator Inhofe keeps getting elected in Oklahoma, giving some measure of pleasure to this son of Alabama haing to suffer through Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III continuing his "service", yet I expect the oil barons would also welcome him to Alaska.

Tom Kizzia of the Anchorage Daily News delivers Legislature wants polar bear study ... Conference would seek dissenting views where he reports "A $2 million program funded with little debate by the Legislature last month calls for using state money to fund an "academic based" conference that highlights contrarian scientific research on global warming. Legislators hope to undermine the public perception of a widespread consensus among polar bear researchers that warming global temperatures and melting Arctic ice threaten the polar bears' survival."

Also mentioned was the "flat earthers" at The Heartland Institute and their recent effort to claim global warming was BS, something I posted on way back here. They first tried to tell people they had tons of scientists on their side but they clearly didn't learn their lesson as reported by deSmogBlog. The Republican's War on Science continues. John Gunn