Come on, say it with me, "Dean is first."

 Barrack's speech needs a "solution"

Thank goodness the general election is still months away. It looks like some people may need that  much time to learn to spell our nominee's name.

"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
--Hillary Clinton, speech at George Washington University, March 17, 2008.

 From the Washington Post. Disarmingly cute little sniper, huh?

I tried posting this yesterday, but I think there was a problem with the server.

Jennie Lorrain - you're on a roll tonight!

Slow news night. Gonna go have some Limoncello with friends and family.

Back on CNN, King asked the obligatory question about the No. 2 spot on the Democratic ticket.

And Richardson said, "Well, you know, John. I love being governor of New Mexico and growing my beard and, you know, riding my horse. So I'm going to work very hard for him to get elected."

Translation: I'd accept in a heartbeat.

But here's something else to watch for. As of Feb. 29, according to The Times' Dan Morain, Richardson had a reported remaining campaign debt from his own doomed presidential effort of $420,848.

Other presidential dropouts who end up endorsing a former competitor have found those debts quickly disappearing through contributions from the grateful competitor's supporters. It's probably just a coincidence.
--Andrew Malcolm

Other presidential dropouts who end up endorsing a former competitor have found those debts quickly disappearing through contributions from the grateful competitor's supporters. It's probably just a coincidence.

This sounds like belittling. Richardson would have gotten the same deal from the Clintons.

Ah................, feels good to be able to stretch oneself on a more or less inactive blog~

Larry,

 Pasadena DFA salutes you guys!  I love seeing other groups around the country doing this work!  I'd like to find away to reach across the country to encourage each other's chapters.  We go through some times in the year when things slow down...and sometimes it seems like it's the same 20 people doing the work.

 How fun it would be to do a DFA Meeting with another chapter on speaker phone.

Keep up the great work!!

Patrick Briggs,
Pasadena DFA Chapter Coordinator

How fun it would be to do a DFA Meeting with another chapter on speaker phone.~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The DFA Night School training conference call had that feel to it.

Good morning, everybody

Yes, i happened across the GWU speech  

here's just one paragraph for your dilection--

I started my morning meeting with the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, to talk about the peace process in Northern Ireland, and it was a stark reminder of how long the road is toward peace, but how necessary it must be that we travel it. And we travel it with like-minded friends and allies and those willing to take risks for peace around the world. It has been five years this week since our president took us to war in Iraq. In that time, our brave men and women in uniform have done everything we ask of them and more. They were asked to remove Saddam Hussein from power and bring him to justice and they did. They were asked to give the Iraqi people the opportunity for free and fair elections and they did. They were asked to give the Iraqi government the space and time for political reconciliation, and they did. So for every American soldier who has made the ultimate sacrifice for this mission, we should imagine carved in stone "they gave their life for the greatest gift one can give to a fellow human being, the gift of freedom." And to our veterans and all those serving in Iraq today, I want to send a strong and clear message - your extraordinary devotion to our country and to your service makes us proud and profoundly grateful every single day. 

From a couple of threads back (I forgot to submit it):

Barrack's speech needs a "solution"

Did Martin Luther King's speech contain a solution?

Yes it did, just as Obama's did. The solution is for people to overcome and lay aside their prejudices. Perhaps it's too simple for some.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/03/sweet_in_advance_of_obama_even.html

Perhaps this is not legitimate.  However, 

Questions for Senator Obama





Lee Feinstein, Campaign National Security Director, Released





the Following Statement





Senator Obama has thus far failed to answer key questions about his qualifications to meet the Commander-in-Chief test. The following are questions that Senator Obama should address:





Will you stand by your definitive commitment to removing all combat brigades from Iraq within 16 months, or will you, as your former advisor said, not rely on "some plan" you "crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US Senator?”





Do you regret that you have never held any substantive hearings on Afghanistan or any other subject, since you became chairman of the subcommittee on European Affairs in January 2007?





Do you agree with General McPeak that you are more qualified to be commander in chief because you don't “go on television and have crying fits?” Are you prepared to remove General McPeak from your campaign for what is viewed by many as a sexist comment?





Are you still willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of an Obama administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea? Are there any circumstances in which you would not conduct such meetings?





As voters evaluate you as a potential Commander-in-Chief, do you think it's legitimate for people to be concerned that you have traveled to only one NATO country, on a brief stopover trip in 2005, and have never traveled to Latin America?



Earlier in the campaign you were asked how you would respond to a terrorist attack on two cities in the United States. You talked about the need for an effective emergency response but were initially unclear about the need for a military response. What do you think that says about your readiness to be Commander-in-Chief?



You publicly broadcast your willingness to attack Pakistan unilaterally, a statement which caused unrest in that country. Recognizing that we need to combat terrorism wherever it exists, do you wish you would have made your comments in a way that didn't cause unrest?

 

What I was looking for was the story about the march Clinton hint to the press that Obama's lack of foreign travel should be addressed.  But, the story has been removed from KOS.  Though the title and the subject of my comment is still indexed on my page.

Anyway, one has to wonder if the feed-back loop is broken.  Why bring up northern ireland again, when that story has been a fiasco from beginning to end? 

Well, I'm shocked.  I'm shocked by the quality of the questions suggested by the Clinton campaign's supposed national security director and I'm shocked that someone would presume to spoon-feed the press in that manner. 

I realize that the press likes to be fed, but I assumed that campaigns would put out press releases about their own activities and positons--not "wife-beating" questions aimed at another candidate.

But, what's really bothersome is the reliance on conservative logic--that one person's words can determine the behavior of whole nations on the other side of the globe.  In positing that Obama's statement "caused unrest" in Pakistan, the author of that question displays an inability to accurately define cause and effect.   Never mind that the assertion about what Obama had actually said was false to begin with.

my goal has been to make the political process as engaging and exciting as baseball or football.  i think we're getting closer--

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/22/04155/3116/67/481985 

At the restaurant, we all talked about the rally, our personal encounter with Obama, and were overheard by a table of diners nearby. Two elderly men came up to us to talk about what we’d witnessed. One told us, "He made me see that his being black doesn’t matter. After his speech this week, I see that now. And that’s not a small thing- I’m a redneck, and proud of it. And a republican too, but he’s got my vote. He reminds me of John F. Kennedy." He recalled McCain’s involvement in the Keating Five scandal, saying he could never forgive McCain for violating seniors like him during that time. "Anybody who tells you to vote for McCain, you remind them of the Keating Five. He can’t be trusted." The other gentleman said he was also a republican, but was considering changing his registration to vote for Obama in the primary.
I’ve never witnessed the kind of excitement and energy about a candidate from so many people- to the point that strangers stop to join the discussion with you. We are thrilled to have the experience we did today as a family with Barack. We will never forget it.

I sure would question the qualifications of that questioner to be Commander in Chief.

Obama passes the "keeps his cool" test which would be my first.

and he has the ability for nuance, which is the central quality for appropriate response.

Please recommend this post. Thanks!

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/24391...

re: Pat in Colorado's good post about Now (I think) and Phil Donahue and Body of War, believe Phil will be on C-span's Q & A tomorrow night at 8 pm.

http://www.q-and-a.org/Program/?ProgramI...

Annilow you would have thought I had traveled to Patagonia and the start of fall as we had 4-5 inches of snow yesterday.

thanks for blogging on your travels

Johnny S. who had blogged from China,Teri in Tokyo, Roald, Judy, and Robert from the ME.

We have had more foreign correspondents than AP  

my goal has been to make the political process as engaging and exciting as baseball or football.  i think we're getting closer--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

an Obama rally sure is

What really happened to Ron Brown?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my question to the Clintons

did he know too much?

Good morning folks...7:40ish
I finally have a Sat. off and I'm glad that it's today...we have our Democratic delegate caucuses here in Vermont this morning. I was a Dean delegate to the State Convention in '04 and I think I'll toss my name in to be a delegate for Obama this time around.
Phil, we haven't had any snow in almost a week and we have had some melting...I think I see light at the end of the tunnel. We're getting just what the doctor ordered too...sunny days and cold nights...takes the frost out slowly so not that bad of a mud season yet and the maple sugarers are having one the best years in many...they're boiling fancy grade at record amounts. Can fishing be that far behind?

I don't know when this hearing was but it was recently posted on youtube showing Mccain's hot head...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXkr6AJGi...

Good morning, BFA!

**********
I'm a bit delayed getting on this am as I was finishing the clean-up after last night's dinner party. We had mostly Moroccan dishes. They are actually quite easy to prepare ahead of time, but they did require my spending more time in the kitchen than I usually do since I am usually a firm believer in the fact that if God wanted me to live in the kitchen, She wouldn't have created easier options.

Everyone seemed to enjoy and requested recipes. The problem with that is that I have one cookbook that I think is a real jewel (*Couscous and Other Good Food from Morocco* by Paul Wolfert who was living in Tangier with her around the same time that I was), not only for the recipes but for the insightful way that Wolfert writes about the culture. But then, I also mix and match, and do things the way that I observed them being done when I lived with my Moroccan *family,* who were outstanding cooks.

Reconstructing recipes is always a challenge as a result. While I was in MD, one of my neighbors also told me about a quickie recipe for preserved lemons, which are a staple in Moroccan cooking and in lots of Mediterranean cooking generally.

For anyone who is interested, here's a link to Wolfert's web site. You can also get her books through Amazon.

http://www.paula-wolfert.com/

If you are interested in the recipe for Quick Preserved Lemons, here's the link. If, for some reason it does not work, go to the Wapo website www.washingtonpost.com/recipes and use the term *Quick Preserved Lemons* and it should pop right up.

http://projects.washingtonpost.com/recip...

Woops ... should have been *living in Tangier with her husband, Bill Bayer ...*

Must have had a brainf***.

Sorry about that.

********
I am glad to see that some did get to see the Bill Moyers program last evening.

Yes, the portions of the IWR debate just highlight how nearly all Dems went along with the putzCo hype.

That anyone can still, knowing everything that we know today (and that many of us knew even then because we, unlike those in Congress, were paying attention), still defend their role in that, shows poor judgment indeed.

And, of course, Paul s/b *Paula* ... wow, another cup of coffee is in order ... and I have been up for awhile, so I have no excuse.

Almost forgot again...

WUFT FM Gainesville FL classical music trivia question:

What composer's piano work Vexations includes the instructions to repeat it 840 times without a break? Answer: Erik Satie

from Wikipedia entry on Erik Satie

Vexations: with 840 repetitions of the musical motif (and many more of the melody of the bass), this is definitely the longest single-movement work with a defined number of repetitions (note that, without the repetitions, the actual music takes less than two minutes to play). No explanation by Satie survives regarding the exceptional length of the piece. If excluding the Tango mentioned in the next point, performing the Vexations takes longer than all his other music played in sequence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Satie

++++++++++++

Phil hope your water is fixed -- it's a little cold in N FL this morning low 50's maybe -- I have the heat on. Y'all have a great day. Gonna do some chores then collapse again. I'm still recovering from the 30 hours it took me to get home from El Calafate Argentine Patagonia. Phil I'd forgotten about Teri in Tokyo -- think she wins the 'greatest distance' prize? (I'm not very good at geography.) BYE

Paul Theroux, Chris Dodd and I all share the Peace Corps experience, along with many, many others.

Paul is in today's papers.

Our Anni could easily join the illustrious line of travel writers.

======================
To the end of the line
For the young Paul Theroux, travel books were self-indulgent, predictable and dull. No one was capturing the truth about travelling. Then he boarded the Orient Express and began a journey that took him across Asia and into new writing territory
Saturday March 22, 2008
The Guardian

I had been travelling for more than 10 years - in Europe, Asia and Africa - and it had not occurred to me to write a travel book. I had always somewhat disliked travel books; they seemed self-indulgent, unfunny and rather selective. I suspected that the travel writer left a great deal out of the book and emphasised the bright surfaces. "Couleur locale has been responsible for many hasty appreciations," Nabokov once wrote, "and local colour is not a fast colour." I hated sightseeing, and yet that was what constituted the travel writer's material: the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, the Vatican, the paintings here, the mosaics there. In an age of mass tourism, everyone set off to see the same things, and that was what travel writing seemed to be. I am speaking of the early 1960s.

The travel book was a bore. It annoyed me that a traveller hid his or her moments of desperation or fear or lust. Or the time he or she screamed at the taxi driver, or mocked the folk dancers. And what did they eat, what books did they read to kill time, and what were the toilets like? I had done enough travelling to know that half of travel was delay or nuisance - buses breaking down, hotel clerks being rude, market peddlers being rapacious. The truth of travel was interesting and off-key, and few people ever wrote about it.

Most travel writing was about vacations and comforts, not real journeys and ordeals. [...]

http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/...

excellent syrup harvest for my neighbor too, Reed

the commericial operation a county away is having trouble hiring help, the recession hasn't reached Iowa yet and a whole generation left during the Reagan Depression in the eighties, and we have a labor pool donut hole with the kids that should have been coming of age now inTexas or California

platform day for me, hope you are elected, I serve as an alternate so I can work behind the scenes keeping the convention moving

bbl

IMO, putz is the *Un-Christian.*

==================
A funny kind of Christian
His thirst for scapegoats shows how poorly George Bush understands the meaning of Easter
Giles Fraser The Guardian, Saturday March 22 2008

Somewhere in the Middle East, Jesus Christ is strapped to a bench, his head wrapped in clingfilm. He furiously sucks against the plastic. A hole is pierced, but only so that a filthy rag can be stuffed back into his mouth. He is turned upside down and water slowly poured into the rag. The torturer whispers religious abuse. If you are God, save yourself you fucking idiot. Fighting to pull in oxygen through the increasingly saturated rag, his lungs start to fill up with water. Someone punches him in the stomach.

Perhaps this is how we ought to be re-telling the story of Christ's passion. For ever since the cross became a piece of jewellery, it has been drained of its power to sicken. Even before this the Romans had taken their hated instrument of torture and turned it into the logo of a new religion. Few makeovers can have been so historically significant. The very secular cross was transformed into a sort of club badge for Christians, something to be proud of.

Two weeks ago, the most powerful Christian in the world vetoed a bill that would have made it illegal for the CIA to use waterboarding on detainees.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...

Our Anni could easily join the illustrious line of travel writers.
-------------------
And photographers Judy...her photos were breathtaking.

Mud season and syrup season go hand in hand but in my 30 years of taking care of Vermont roads, never saw anything like this...

http://englishrussia.com/?p=315

Gotta get moving if I'm to be on time.

Of course, putzCo do not want *reformists* in Iran to succeed ... that would defang their excuse to invade and ruin completely yet another ME country.

==============
Conservative wins in Iran poll show sanctions are failing, say analysts
· Religious forces take 70% of seats in election so far
· Anti-nuclear measures by west 'harming reformists'
Julian Borger in Tehran
The Guardian, Saturday March 22 2008

The conservative consolidation of power in Iran's parliamentary elections has shown that international sanctions are backfiring, according to liberal analysts in Tehran.

Religious conservatives have won 70% of the seats decided so far and are likely to maintain their grip after an imminent run-off vote for about 90 undecided seats.

The election has strengthened the hand of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, a militantly conservative force with growing control over the economy. At least 120 of the 290 members of the new parliament will be former guardsmen like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Reformists, barred from standing across the country, have only won 40 seats. They expected to do well in Tehran, where they were allowed to compete, but are yet to win a seat there, and demanded a recount.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/mar...

Boy, Phil, Reed & Anni all here. What a treat! Phil, I read about your pump mishaps yesterday, but was under the impression that you had gotten things fixed (after about USD 1500 ...!)

After my experiences with the Peace Corps and in the field as a USAID worker much later on, I have always considered our easy access to clean and drinkable water to be one of the most taken-for-granted things we have. Having easy access to hot water is something that I still consider to be a luxury.

When putz and prick are finally imprisoned, I wish on them both the same quality of water that their policies and corruption have inflicted on Iraqis and our troops.

That cannot happen too soon.

Speaking of water (although I am sure that there are several in the US right now who are ruing it; very sorry to hear about the flooding, which looks quite awful), here is something to think about.

==========================
Water will be source of war unless world acts now, warns minister
By Ben Russell, Political Correspondent
Saturday, 22 March 2008

The world faces a future of "water wars", unless action is taken to prevent international water shortages and sanitation issues escalating into conflicts, according to Gareth Thomas, the International Development minister.

The minister's warning came as a coalition of 27 international charities marked World Water Day, by writing to Gordon Brown demanding action to give fresh water to 1.1 billion people with poor supplies. "If we do not act, the reality is that water supplies may become the subject of international conflict in the years ahead," said Mr Thomas. "We need to invest now to prevent us having to pay that price in the future."

His department warned that two-thirds of the world's population will live in water-stressed countries by 2025. The stark prediction comes after the Prime Minister said in his national security strategy that pressure on water was one of the factors that could help countries "tip into instability, state failure or conflict".

[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/...

Post above by Judy, about waterboarding, should be the post of the day. No, of the weekend.

Yesterday I was hearing how Hillary lost my nephew's support because of her and Bill's bad behavior. She, too, should stop looking for a scapegoat.

Bravo, Bill Richardson! Since his endorsement, James Carville has likened him to Judas Iscariot. The more you think about that comment, the more revolting it becomes. James Carville should also stop looking for a scapegoat.

It was in January when I started noticing how much Obama made me remember Jack Kennedy. Now, I was never an idolater of Jack Kennedy. He made some terrible decisions as president, the Bay of Pigs fiasco chief among them, and he also had many brilliant moments. It is hard to know how history would have treated him if he had lived. There was also a kinder, gentler press corps that refused to report his sexcapades.

But the key thing about Jack Kennedy was his wit, urbanity and, yes, cool. He always projected an aura that, no matter what the difficulty, we were equipped to meet it and therefore needed to worry less and plan more and always with a confident smile.

It was the same quality FDR had and it doesn't come along very often.

IMO, the fact that Obama stays cool no matter what comes his way is what is winning him the nomination and will eventually win the election. We are living in exhausting and frightening times and we need a leader who is cool, calm, and confident under pressure. One of the other two choices seems to be radiating desperation while the other one gets angry first and thinks later. No thanks.

-- volney

More water problems, I'm afraid.

Global warming is well and truly here.

===================
Sea levels rising too fast for Thames Barrier
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Saturday, 22 March 2008

A fear that sea levels will rise far faster than predicted this century has led to a revision of the plan to protect London from a devastating flood caused by the sort of storm surge in the North Sea that resulted in the closure of the Thames Barrier yesterday.

It was the 108th time that the barrier had to be closed since it became operational in 1982 but scientists are concerned that rapidly rising sea levels could significantly shorten the expected lifespan of one of the world's biggest anti-flood structures.

When the Thames Barrier was being designed in the 1970s, global average sea levels were rising at about 1.8 millimetres a year and global warming was not seen as a threat, but in the past 15 years the rate has nearly doubled to about 3.1mm a year and many scientists expect it to accelerate still further.

[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment...

As Andrew Grice reports, there are some interesting attempts at revisionism.

This is the last for now. Enjoy the rest of your day, as I intend to enjoy mine.

==============
Andrew Grice: The Week in Politics
There's no way to dodge the Iraq inheritance
Saturday, 22 March 2008

Five years on, the history of the Iraq war is being rewritten by those who played a role in it. No wonder they try. In their worst dreams in 2003, surely they could not have imagined that Iraq would be in the state it's in today.

There have been a lot of "if onlys" this week. If only the Americans had put in more troops at the outset, British ministers sigh. If only they had listened to us and not disbanded the Iraqi army, leaving a vacuum for al-Qa'ida to exploit. There's a different version on the other side of the pond, where some in the Bush administration don't recall the Brits making much fuss at the time.

Jonathan Powell, who was Tony Blair's chief of staff and longest-serving aide, published a fascinating book on Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion. Unfortunately, the timing was about yesterday's 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement and his book, Great Hatred, Little Room, is about the Northern Ireland peace process. In the index, there are 112 references to the IRA but none to Iraq.

[...]
Mr Powell said he took full responsibility for the war but did not feel "shame or guilt" about it. "I think it was right to get rid of Saddam Hussein," he added. "It would have better if we had been clear that the aim should be to get rid of Saddam ... With the benefit of hindsight, we should have made more of the threat that Saddam was to his own people."

You can see where the Blair camp is heading: if only "regime change" rather than non-existent weapons of mass destruction had been our casus belli. Ironically, George Bush, the man calling the shots, did use "regime change" as well as WMD. In Britain, the legal advice about toppling Saddam was decidedly wobbly, so Mr Blair used WMD as cover.

Mr Powell's retrospective attempt to justify the war doesn't quite work. He has perhaps forgotten that Mr Blair told the Commons three weeks beforehand: "I detest his [Saddam's] regime ... but even now he could save it by complying with the UN's demand."

[...]
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/com...

New thread

http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/24364...

Thanks, Patrick! Best wishes and congratulations to everyone in Pasadena, too. I think a joint meeting might be tough to pull off, I am not sure how we could do that, given the time difference, but we are all together in spirit, always, anyway.

Larry

What really happened to Ron Brown?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

my question to the Clintons

did he know too much?

There's no call for spewing crazy rightwing nonsense.