BLCKDGRD

Stlumped

I am in the worse reading slump of my life. I can’t retain anything I’ve read, I can’t finish a novel. This has been going on since before Christmas.

On the recommendation of a friend, a teacher of fiction and Irish Lit in particular, I tried this:

    

      

and got through 120 pages before jumping ship.

I’m 50 pages into this:

    

      

and cannot imagine reading page 51.

In the past, to break out of reading slumps, I’d go back to favorites, not reread for at least a couple of years, and it always worked.

In the past three weeks I’ve tried:

      

             

and

                   

            

and

                     

               

and

             

 

Couldn't finish a one.

 

Favorite poets?

 

 

and

 

 

and

 

Nope.

This is how I imagine insomnia feels, deathly tired and incapable of sleep.

Juggling fanaticisms is the root cause, but knowing why is not the same as knowing how to fix. Any suggestions would be welcome.

King. Then?

Suppose that Bushco does succeed in consolidating all power into the Executive Branch. Lord knows, they're still trying:

President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.      

I've got a question for Conservative supporters of Bushco's goals and tactics: Whatcha gonna do if Hillary Clinton is elected President and she has all the dictatorial powers that currently chubby your world:

 

                                       

Splatterrific!

For the record, I expect and will demand that whoever wins in 2008, especially if it's a Democrat, undue the damage to the Constitution done by these Monarcho-Assholists.

I don't want any President, including a President of my flavor, to be Emperor. I'm an American.

We Are Soooo....

George Bush was interviewed by Juan Williams for NPR yesterday.

MR. WILLIAMS: Well, another question about Vice President Cheney – he said last week that – here I'm quoting – "we've encountered enormous successes and we continue to have enormous successes in Iraq." Two weeks ago you said, quote, "there hadn't been enough success in Iraq." So it sounds like there's a conflicting message there.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Oh, I don't think so. I think that the vice president is a person reflecting a half-glass-full mentality....

                        

Mister 1% - this ogre - is a "half-glass-full" kind of guy?

Dick Cheney is the optimist of the two?

We are so....

UPDATE: I predicted Cheneycide a couple of years ago and thought - and think - I was wrong, but the predictions have started again.

Would Bush off Cheney to save his fratboy ass and his fantasies about his legacies? Only if Cheney lets him. But if rumors start swirling about Cheney's bum ticker, watch, cause that'll be the exit strategy.

Honor, Celebrate

DCU has opened camp.

Praise to Ba'al.

Sundaggregator (Bushco: 001)

Short refresher course: There is more at stake for Bushco in Iraq than Bushco's legacy in Iraq. I know this is obvious, but it needs reminding: this is about domestic power and, especially, the domestic power of information.

When you consider what we know about everything Bushco wishes we didn't know, and given that obsessive secrecy is, in Bushco, loyalty's number one bitch, imagine all the things we don't know (like for instance, the promises made between Bushco and its corporate sponsors). Consider: what will be revealed about the immoralities and criminalities of Bushco under a Democratic administration with a Democratic congress? How far will Bushco (and the Pigs who want to succeed Bushco) go to remain in power if for no other reason than to keep its secrets?

It's all or nothing. All they got is war. War fever - we haven't seen it yet. It's coming.

This weekend, in my state, albeit that red shithouse of the Eastern Shore, Pigs and Prez gathered to coordinate strategy and propaganda. I'm guessing reducing tensions with Iran was never debated. I'm willing to bet that NOT calling us traitors who hate America was never considered.

Iraq was never about Iraq and never about Democracy and never about oil. When His Codpiece smirked his way across the aircraft carrier and declared mission accomplished the mission they thought they'd finished was a generation of Pignican rule, and on that signal all the greedy spiders of Pig corruption were released. We have no idea - no idea - of the scale and scope and depth of the what's been loosed.

If the original goal was permanent power, the current goal is root survival. Failure, so they say, is not an option. Think what they'll do, how far they'll go, to survive. We only think we've seen ugly.

* * * * *

Oh - all those plans about governance in Iraq after conquering Iraq that weren't made the first time? Is anyone in Bushco planning on how to govern in Iraq on the laughable chance the surge works?

* * * * *

Still hates the Clintons. Still crotchedy with his imagined influence. Still an ass.

She's, um, running for President. Petraeus was going to get confirmed. There were broader issues that needed addressing. If pushing the broader issues are part of running for President, that's called politics, oh Elder Fart of Washington Politics.

What an fatuous ass.

* * * * *

HRC 24-7.

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The state of Conservative commercial discourse? Pathetic.

If particularly vicious Wolcottian smackdowns are issued, I'll pass along.

* * * * *

Swopa on the Libby trial.  Whiskey Fire on loyalty oaths. Tennessee Guerrilla Women on Rich on Hillary. Sadly, No! on Our Lady of the Concentration Camps. Austin Cline, posting at The General, on Democracy and treason.

Coetzee reviews Mailer. Don't know if I'll read Castle in the Forest or not, but I can certainly wait for the paperback. Chabon reviews McCarthy.

Bud Parr at Metaxu (cross posted at Chekhov's Mistress) on Against the Day and Against the Day reviews. It's one book away in my pile.

* * * * *

Aiiee! Fag music! Aiiee!

Actually, this is probably the only time in the history of mankind that Elton John and Bob Mould are on the same list.

And Frank Sinatra's gay?  He did it his way.

* * * * *

Guardian has a review of a new history of Punk. Amazon says that Babylon's Burning is not yet published in America, though it lists the release date as 1/10/07.

Well, while waiting, don't forget Our Band Could Be Your Life, which covers the 80s through bios of the seminal bands. Like this one:

FRIDAY MUSIC FRIDAY

NEW! Apples in Stereo NEW! As they say, Woot!

Camera Obscura

Loney, Dear

The Impossible Shapes

Catfish Haven

Fruit Bats

QWANK! New music from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Modest Mouse, and Lucinda Williams on All Songs Considered.

New Lucinda Williams?

As they say, Woot!

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UPDATE!  You can hear the entire new Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter album streamed on the Barsuk Records website. It's the top link. Very cool, and thanks.

Start with Station Gray.

Webb, Savage, Bet

I confess: the rush of seeing a Democrat make the speech Democrats should have been making for years did make me swoon, and when I swoon I think about..... winning elections. And I do think the twin themes Webb hit - economic fairness/Iraq - are exactly right politically and morally.

Dionne's column today is entitled Reagan Democrat:

In his reply to President Bush's State of the Union speech on Tuesday night, Webb defined the two central moral issues that animate most of the Democratic Party's rank and file: the mess in Iraq and the fact that the fruits of a growing economy are not being shared by all Americans.

Then Webb did something rather astonishing: He didn't fudge on his language or try to take the hard edge off his impatience with the status quo.

All good, but. I sincerely hope that Webb believes what he signaled in his speech, but in my enthusiasm I floated a daydream about a dream team of Obama/Webb as if I was sure that Webb believes what he said, and I'm not. And remember, he is one ill-advised racial epithet from being already forgotten.

In almost every consideration, the 2008 election cannot come soon enough, but in the case of Webb, time is what's needed. Maybe he is what I thought after watching the speech. If he is, he'd be a formidable asset, whether as candidate or in support of the candidate. But he hasn't earned promotion yet.

* * * * *

I listen, out of morbid curiosity, to Michael Savage every now and then. He's talking to an entirely different audience than Rushsean and Seanrush, who tell the Pantload Pigs what to think.

Savage is talking to that uncle of yours who lives in a house that smells of stored newspapers and gunpowder, who rants against the gas company and the phone company and black football players sleeping with white girls. Savage is talking to the angry mid-50s divorcee, screwed by his ex's lawyer, hated by his kids, whose job was exported to a country full of brown people. He's talking to the bullied twenty year old pulsing with military fantasies of revenge, armed with automatic weaponry, waiting for an authoritarian screamer to transmit the orders to begin the righteous cleansing.

He is talking to people who have the same worldview as the terrorists they proclaim to hate. They are furiously jealous of the terrorists' freedom to terrorize, and they blame everyone, but especially Liberals, for not being allowed to terrorize their enemies - foreign and, particularly, domestic.

They hold the Pantload Pigs in as much, if not more contempt, than we do, btw.

In any case, last night Savage and a guest were debating whether Nancy Pelosi, while sitting behind His dWindleness during SOTU, was blinking madly because she's on anti-psychotic drugs (the guest's position) or was morse-coding marching orders to us clued-in Liberals on our plan to turn over the government to Al-Qaeda. Or maybe sending a signal to Hugo Chavez to send more illegal Mexicans across the border. Savage rants free-form.

This service was provided to remind you that in the Mandatory Seesaw of Balance the MSM must obey, you, who read Liberal blogs, are the morally equivalent up to Michael Savage's down.

* * * * *

And a lost bet honored:

I sereby hwear I'll pever nost
py noetry on by myline
(nor sy bocktuttepry)
mo natter wow honderful.

Yadsendewwednesday

As of right now, for now, I'm backing Obama.

Obama is aggressively going after Fox News today for pushing that smear-job report claiming that he went to an Islamic “madrassa” school as a child. The report has already been completely debunked by CNN, but Obama isn't letting up. The Senator's office has just emailed out a blistering memo targeting Fox....

His relative inexperience is often cited as a weakness - and it's a valid concern - but paradoxically, his inexperience gives him a position of cleanliness to fight back against the Oink Machine's farts. Because of his inexperience, he hasn't been stenciled with impermeable memes that reverberate louder the more they're disputed. HRC could wage a righteous war against her slurrers, which would only, perversely, exagerrate the slurs' stink. Obama can confront the slurs before they've had the chance to set.

And he's fighting back. Never forget that Meme One in Pigbook of Piggy Politics is Democrats are cowards who won't fight even to protect themselves. Obama, in the first test, is fighting back.

Which further convinces me Obama's got good political instincts and chops. And who do you think the RNC wants to face in 2008? Obama or HRC?

* * * * *

Obama/Webb?

Populist. Telegenic. Tough. Just saying.

UPDATE: Though this is a good question.

* * * * *

No Kerry 08. Which is a good thing. The country would not be halfway to Bananastan if he'd won, but he's had his chance and been stamped LOSER. See above bullets about the resilience of memes (and think, maybe SOMEBODY - Obama - learned a lesson from the Pig Swifties).

* * * * *

Why would anyone publish Ruth Marcus? Her strongest asset is the consistency of her stupid.

Drum cleans up the poo so you don't have to. Atrios, too.

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Chris Hedges on suburban despair and the Christian Right. Cheney still a Dick. The most smackable person in America. Don't forget to vote.

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I confess, I see two or three movies a year, max. I don't dislike movies, it's just that when I have free time it doesn't occur to me to go to movies. I enjoy them when I go, though the infrequency with which I do tends to make me over-hate or over-love whatever I see, having little to judge them against, compounded by the taint of novelty.

Last year I saw the second Pirates of the Caribbean, which was the single worst movie I've ever seen (I lost a bet with Planet and payback WAS hell), and Little Miss Sunshine, which I thought wonderful and dark and slightly heavier than slight. I was surprised to see it nominated for Best Picture, and Wolcott explains why that nomination is silly.

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Updike reviews new Smiley. Ilse tackles Hemingway and Dickens: their relative suckitude debated. Librarian whine.

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Hey! Some new blogroll additions:

Cruelest Month  The Millions   Yglesias   Alternet   Discourse

Start Soon

Hey, read this, from MLS Underground:

Even more love for our friends from South America as it pertains to DC United. "Have you heard any of the names being linked with DC? They've frequently talked about one or two more South American signings, but none of the names have popped up beside Emilio and Ruy. "

MLSU - Emilio is a good signing, but DC and Ruy were unable to reach an agreement. The rumors about Martin Palermo are still out there (though waning). The most interesting name I've heard mentioned in connection with DC lately is Pavel Nedved. Chicago has been interested in him all along, but the whispers are that DC has thrown their hat in the ring. His signing as a DP would certainly make a splash for the new DC ownership group.

Pavel Nedved? Pavel Nedved? I'll believe it when I see the pixie running around RFK, but are you shitting me?

Nedved on a wing, Gomez in the middle, Moreno and Emilio up top? That would be, um, sweet. I'll believe it when I see it, (somewhere I read that Nedved has said numerous times that Juve will be his last team), but sweet.

Meanwhile, the odd silence from DCU has DCenters wondering if 2007 is a rebuilding year:

I think "rebuilding" is too strong a phrase, but I agree that, as of today, this is a team with more questions than any team since 2003. If I had to offer a complete guess as to what might be in play, I would think that the 2008 and 2009 seasons are more important to the Front Office than this season. Yes, I know we have SuperLiga and the CONCACAF Champions Cup. But that'll be old news as we enter the stadium push* endgame. When that time comes there will be real political considerations to having a team that looks strong. Remember that RSL supporters even theorized that the Freddy Adu deal was made to give Dave Checketts some momentum in his stadium maneuvers. I've made fun of Checketts for many things, but that made sense to me.

Holding pattern is the metaphor I would choose, but I don't even choose that. I don't want to revisit all debates Nowak, but if this team, which DID win the Supporters Shield last year, was the best team in the league before Nowak burned them out, why not give Soehn a slightly upgraded version of the same team and see what he can do? Especially with a captain whose meter is running low?

I do think there's a strange lack of urgency coming from DCU considering they play a internationally meaningful game IN LESS THAN A MONTH. What would be the starting eleven if no additions are made? (And remember, Carroll isn't officially back yet.)

Perkins

Namoff - Boswell - Erpen

Olsen - Carroll - Gros - Gomez - ???
(Simms, Mediate - is he healthy? - rookie - ???)

Moreno - Emilio

My guess is that the front office is reviewing past practices - financially, especially - and crash-coursing on Business of Soccer (BUSI-001) before making new decisions, and what I perceive as a lack of urgency is actually only my freaking jonesing for the season to start.

But Pavel Nedved? Are you shitting me?

*I'll bet anyone a frosty malt beverage of their choice at RFK (no, not a Coors Light, I said a malt beverage) that if there is a new stadium, it's not until 2010. Bets to be paid after official announcement of the date of new stadium's first game.

UPDATE: Post has given Steve Goff a blog - now added to blogroll.

In today's latest, he notes DCU's dismissal of a Robbie Fowler to DCU rumor. Hope that be true.

******

AND: That Arsenal - Man Utd game this past weekend? Goodness.

Arsenal's home kit is the best in the world.

Speaking of kits, UniWatch devoted a column recently to soccer kits and the business of. Lotsa good links.

Drive-By Mondaze

I'm still working through my own conflicts about Hillary Clinton's candidacy, but this sentence, in an editorial in the Post, regarding Clinton's evolving positions on Iraq, illustrates her inherent problem:

More than a little self-serving, perhaps, but Ms. Clinton's approach is, in fact, more responsible than those of some of her opponents.

Even while praising her, Fred Hiatt has to stick the shiv. Dear Fred, what politician, on matters small to matters large, holds ANY position that ISN'T self-serving?

* * * * *

Dionne, btw, today handicaps the Clinton/Obama Super Bowl:

Thus the third difference: Clinton, more than any other Democrat, has been both scarred and toughened by the partisan warfare of the past 15 years, while Obama is unscathed and untested.

This contrast was reflected in their announcement speeches. Obama attacked a politics that "has become so bitter and partisan" and pledged himself to "our common interests and concerns as Americans." Clinton spoke proudly of her ability to take on partisan foes. "I have never been afraid to stand up for what I believe in or to face down the Republican machine," she said. "I know how Washington Republicans think, how they operate and how to beat them."

Only 21 months to the general election. Oy.

* * * * *

Sky blue, water wet, Bush sucks.

Only two presidents have had lower approval ratings on the eve of a State of the Union speech. Richard Nixon was at 26 percent in 1974, seven months before he resigned in disgrace because of the Watergate scandal. Harry S. Truman was at 23 percent in January 1952, driven down by public disapproval of the Korean conflict and his firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.

Just 29 percent approve of Bush's handling of the Iraq war, which is only one percentage point off his career low, recorded a month ago. Seventy percent disapprove. Similarly, Bush's approval rating on handling terrorism is at a near-low; just 46 percent give him positive marks, while 52 percent are negative.

Freedom freedom terrists freedom democracy freedom terrists freedom. Just won't work tomorrow night like it has in the past.

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Commercial Radio - you just thought you thought it sucked.

Go listen to this.

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Bought this for Earthgirl over the weekend - Suitable Boy being her favorite novel EVAH, and adoring novels about India in general - and it does look like it'd be a fun read. I've heard good things.

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Sprezzatura reviews new Mailer in Sunday NYRB. Due mocking ensues.

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National Book Critics Circle announced over weekend. Snore.