2012 Grammy Awards

It was with some nostalgia that I had looked forward to seeing the Beach Boys in the up coming Grammy Awards. It was certainly unexpected to have the passing of Witney Houston to add sadness to the nostalgia. It was with appropiate irony and timing that I inaugurated my new DVD recorder by missing the Beach Boys during the previous two sentences. If you will note the anachronism, Glenn Campbell is being honored at the moment, as I have switched rooms and computers. The Boss opened with an interesting number^*^, speaking of anachronism** and honors*.

* all links now being added (The Grammy Foundation is just explained, $12 million for MusicCares.)

** Meanwhile it seems that Target hit the cross hairs of the popped culture***.

*** French song in colorful commercial seems to be an in your face.

^*^ We Take Care of Our Own.

Welch Rare Bit?

The Cycle: Rep Peter Welch 3-5-14

Spoiler alert or Stay'n the Course:  Good Cop / Bad Cop / Rowbeau cop (*)?
I should not be so hard on Beach Boy McCain, as he serves the part of a bad cop, in order for Obama to have any stick for his bully pulpit. 

(*) Bully Pulpit Not for Pitbulls

['n Ari Melber Toast!]

3-20-14:   ^ too dig stochastic rhetoric? [Godwin/s blog search? Pare a digM, Pair a docs. ] [Stock Home Vaccine?] ** it also might be RealDiploma$y[to pu(i)n on c or k?]

Bah bah bah bah bah a ram beau.

The Beach Boy sheep(1) and the Dixie Check(*)? 

(1.)  [a.] Mmmm MOW, MOW, [b.] R.S.V.P., c.Red Bull..., [d.] Tin Foil Herman
(*) spell check[!]

3-6-14 un-reads.
M-beds

Obama Explains Wright, Will McCain Explain the Far Right?

I have only heard snippets of the speech but I can already hear where others could mishear snippets of it.* I look forward to reading the whole thing, and then wonder, if as much attention will be placed on McCain and his allies. While the connections are not on the same level, neither are the understandings.

So In his own words.

[3-19-08: The above link was distributed by the campaign and includes the written text, the link at bottom has a few more words of introduction and better segue.
For more later: see Pew wars(which lists for now - The Pew Forum; Odd pews?); and earlier Politics of the Past was here --
I think I will reserve my time to review some files and reorg work or 4:
Hillary ? McCain ? Obama! RESORT/CYCLE! ]

* [3-20-08: finally heard ]

- - - - -
[3-22-08 Media Moment: Billed as a "BC Moment", there seems nothing wrong with the quote. The follow-up seems lame, but standing alone it is a plug for his wife as opposed to McCain. "Wouldn't it be nice..." another Beach Boy song comes to mind,(mine not Bill's): "...and people could actually ask themselves who is right on the issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." This seems a swipe at the media and the reaction by McPeak, while harsh, should allow us to be reminded of Joe McCarthy and in further comment from the Clinton Camp: "...the need to keep the race focused on issues, 'rather than falsely questioning any candidate's patriotism'." Remember that the media was in the middle of this; "patriotism" was their word, and in McPeak's defense, if he had not over reacted it may not have brought as much attention to it.]

Recess War!

While war with Iran is hopefully on a far back burner, Bush has turned up the heat at home on the domestic diplomatic front by appointing Sam Fox, for "voluntary services" as ambassador to Belgium.

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), another member of the Foreign Relations Committee -- one of three '08 presidential contenders on the panel -- made it clear the White House declared war through its recess appointment.

My last post, $hotgun $abbatical refers to a focusing of my scattered thoughts and a breather to focus on more local realities. I even noted it would be hard to hold to, but it seemed appropriate to note some recessed topics.

Here are more links, which I have not filtered, meaning taken more than a glance at:
Since the above quote raised Senator Dodd, in my mind, Edwards should be noted as doing well in my mind. Not as the Right would say "out of sympathy", well actually Edwards said that(they flip-flopped that), which is the point, it is about how he dealt with the media and and now his Efront operations. Not just the money, but the media.
Also sideshow smackdowns are good for the process if they steer debate or even take others from the need to distract. Kerry, The Gingrich Washington Post

IRAN POSTS:
Not the most recent Hersh post: The New Yorker

Who's paranoid and who's out to get whom? SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

LATE RADAR
War Games: Who will blink, and will it matter? Atlanta Free Press
Is compromise something in anyones deck of cards? Or
can a mad man blink or who should he blink to? Deepjournal

Flip-Flop of the War on Terror. Huffington Post
A cautious horror, the "Samson Option". TPM CAFE

Not exactly beach reading material...
Oh, somewhere up in these links may be the concept that Pakistan has an interesting zone where who knows what is going on. Outsourcing terror or Iran Contra anyone?

Moratorium!

What's a torium!!!!


Two NYPD officers were gunned down in their own squad cars on Saturday afternoon. Words are far from sufficient to express the horror and tragedy that such an event represents.  My above(~)nuance is only a beginning but is unfortunate that it seems to have become an instant blame game.  It seems that if freedom of speech is not protected only criminals will be using it. (punctuation is a beach!) 


(~)also below[!]
Bob Hebert on MSNBC: needs a refresher on Manichean.*

[!] See beach and lede or ship!

12-23-14 2+* inserts
* he is not alone !

QCON: TruthOut

Quick Comment On the News or Question Context:

The following pieces deserve a more careful read, but for me, not yet.[*] TruthOut does a filtering of sorts, and I notice rather heavy reliance on the NY Times. Not that that is a bad thing, just not necessarily a liberal thing. The left, right and the middle can characterize a source as from a different perspective, but that should be the mark of good journalism. Again, not that they have hit the right mark, from our own perspectives.

While Super Delegates are an example of a problem that voters wish they could fix without being a part of the process, so are the choices of primary, or caucus, and financing and electoral college procedures. These are all complicated by the nature of our goverment, its three branches, a bi-cameral legislature, and the individual composition of state governments and their rights in relation to the federal government. And have I thrown in partisanship? This is not a civics lesson, but it would be nice if it were in schools.

For me this is the first time in 24 years I have not come out of my precinct caucus a delegate for some candidate. This year it was by design or rather lack of design. I was for Edwards. I ran the caucus as a PCO and was a decimal point or voter or two shy of ending up an uncommitted delegate. This is more than I intended to say today, but I guess it ties in. Because even if civics were in schools, the media and the voters would still have a very big job to understand what mechanisms are operating in each state. Did I mention partisanship? Not to mention the constitution? I won't go there, but too many feel that there is a conspiracy, and there is, only if you are not part of it.

What is represented in the following articles may very well be best efforts to represent reliable pictures, but that is not to say that other perspectives and sources do so well. [*] While some of the tactics candidates use are not appreciated by many, they are apparently working on some. And it must be remembered that we filter as well or poorly as the media or format we use.

I would like to close this comment with the feeling that it is hard to unite when the leader is still unknown, but it is better than being party to having a leader who will unite without knowing who the enemy is. If there is any obtuseness in this, maybe it is a riddle to solve.

In Two Battlegrounds, Voters Say, Not Yet
By Patrick Healy
The New York Times

Ballot Shortages Plague Ohio Election Amid Unusually Heavy Primary Turnout By Ian Urbina
The New York Times
A Clean, Fair Fight
The New York Times | Editorial

McCain Clinches GOP Presidential Nomination By Michael D. Shear and Peter Slevin
The Washington Post

[Update: Just as I put the finishing links on this post, breaking news on Thom Hartmann Show, about the Texas crossovers that Rush Limbaugh encouraged. (Guest David Sirota) Where in the primary, voters got their ballots, and if they were Republican and wanted to vote for Hillary, found that there were no Rebulicans on their ballot. Hmm. Who needs a civics lesson? Well, of course it seems wrong, but parties should be able to decide their candidate not a talk show host who wants a circus. Republicans were disenfranchised, by trying to vote for Hillary while not intending to support her in the general election. They could not vote for Hillary, and hope to influence their own party on local elections too. This "monkey business" is why the parties and the process is so complicated. It is further complicated by the electoral college process not to mention the winner take all nature of that delivery system. Independents and third parties are so hard to fit into this picture without major changes that themselves are so hard to bring about, but I really don't want to go there.(the link not the idea). Oh and that ploy by Rush Limbaugh may have hurt some local candidates and I won't hurt our heads by figuring that out, but it is a way to sort out some math.]

[*] I have yet to fully digest the four links above, but apparently the press have nibbled on some ribs. (Links, sausage, democracy: get it?) But I did scarf this down and indeed have had my own beach party.