For those of you who haven’t been to the gym the cardio machines are upstairs. On one side you have the stationary bikes, on the other the treadmills. For some reason I can get MSNBC on the treadmill side but not Fox News. On the bike side I get Fox, but not MSNBC. Read into that whatever you can.
I had been watching Maddow and while I thought her treatment of the Palin family feud was gentle and tactful, I’m pretty much bored with the whole topic. Wake me up if I-got-off-on-a-technicality-and-I’m-righteous-about-it Ted Stephens actually follows through on his threat to run against her. So I decided to switch to the bike and treated myself to a slobbering love fest between Sean Hannity and Dick Morris. They were ranting about Obama’s trip and how Europe is socialist and doesn’t value individual initiative, is culturally and economically stagnant, tries to make everything equal – everything you got from your Republican friend in the ninth grade when debated socialism and politics in general. As usual there were more generalized pronouncements than facts to chew on, conclusions spouted as if they are self-evident. Morris may be good at what he does, but he’s no intellectual heavyweight and Hannity is, well, Hannity.
So they drifted into a discussion about North Korea. Although the missile test failed in both the second and third phases the pair thought we should take it seriously as a threat and when they got to Obama’s response it got interesting.
Remember the foreign policy debate in 2004? The first debate, which caused Kerry to catch up briefly in the polls. But there was one point in the debate where I actually side with Bush. Kerry was calling for direct talks between the US and PRK. It makes sense, except that there was already a summit of sorts in progress – the so-called “Six Nation Talks.” Bush didn’t want to undermine them by by-passing that process, and the irony is that Bush’s foreign policy position in that instance was more classically liberal than Kerry’s; the premise being that the U.S. is not the center of the world and collaborative regionalism should be promoted as a model for keeping individual nations accountable to their neighbors. Would that Bush had pushed a similar policy in the Middle East.
So here was Morris confirming my characterization by dismissing the six-nation talks, with Hannity nodding, as a liberal pipedream and suggesting that the only way to get North Korea to back down is to arm Japan with nukes (why not South Korea?). You know, I don’t consider myself an expert on foreign policy, but I do occassionally recognize the stupidity of a proposal, and that one doesn’t even make sense. But that’s beside the point. The Right is now framing the six-nation talks as a liberal pipedream. Think Carter the “choirboy” as opposed to the definitiveness of George W. Bush who…. armed Japan?
Anyway, I don’t even ask why Morris and Hannity were silent on the subject 4 and a half years ago. But I’ll be curious to see if the Republican leadership takes that route. I think they’ll probably keep quiet, focus on the trees, and ignore the forest.
Hannity, meanwhile, will never forgive the drubbing.
….
As the next big Ponzi scheme crook being brought up to the chopping block, Alan Sanford isn’t taking it well. He’s suffering folks. Take the link and prepare for the tears. Some of the trials and tribulations he’s endured:
*He lamented how the charges had deprived him of being listed by Forbes as the 405th wealthiest person in the world.
*He complained about being forced to fly commercial after the government seized his fleet of private jets. (“They make you take your shoes off and everything, it’s terrible.)
*And he reasoned: “I’m the maverick rich Texan where they can put the moose head on the wall. And that’s the only reason they went after me.” Because rich Texans always get a raw deal.
(sniff). Something’s in my eye. Excuse me.
….
Okay, here’s Bob Dylan in an interview commenting on Obama.
Well, a number of things. He’s got an interesting background. He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. First off, his mother was a Kansas girl. Never lived in Kansas though, but with deep roots. You know, like Kansas bloody Kansas. John Brown the insurrectionist. Jesse James and Quantrill. Bushwhackers, Guerillas. Wizard of Oz Kansas. I think Barack has Jefferson Davis back there in his ancestry someplace. And then his father. An African intellectual. Bantu, Masai, Griot type heritage – cattle raiders, lion killers. I mean it’s just so incongruous that these two people would meet and fall in love. You kind of get past that though. And then you’re into his story. Like an odyssey except in reverse.
Maybe some of you older sixties types can explain all that to me. Then maybe you can explain the lyrics to Desolation Row. I know, I know…. I had to be there to “feel it.”
Feel it again. This clip is from 1966.
….
Frost and Nixon is playing in Garberville this week. I’m hoping to see it on Thursday night. Heard good things, but are we ever going to run out of material on Nixon? I think he’s been depicted in more movies than any other president, including Lincoln and Washington. When are they going to do a movie about Millard Fillmore?
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April 7, 2009 at 7:42 am
The pump don't work
Wikipedia has only this on Desolation Row.
“In an interview with USA Today on September 10, 2001, the day before the release of his album Love and Theft, Dylan claimed that the song “is a minstrel song through and through. I saw some ragtag minstrel show in blackface at the carnivals when I was growing up, and it had an effect on me, just as much as seeing the lady with four legs.”[2]
It has been suggested that the title is a reference to Jack Kerouac’s novel Desolation Angels and John Steinbeck’s Cannery Row.[citation needed] Suggestions over the exact “location” of “Desolation Row” include Dylan’s response to an interviewer on a television press conference on December 3, 1965 that it was “someplace in Mexico” and Al Kooper’s (who played organ and piano on the album) assertion it was New York City’s Eighth Avenue.[3]
Many suggestions have been made as to the different inspirations for the song’s lyrics, including the Duluth lynchings (“They’re selling postcards of the hanging… The circus is in town”)[citation needed] and T. S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land[citation needed].”
April 7, 2009 at 8:19 am
Ernie's Place
Eric you wounded my sixties pride and my answer got so long that I posted it on my blog. If you interested. Acid Flashback.
All you people that check it, be polite and return back here!
April 7, 2009 at 8:38 am
Anonymous
“Wake me up if I-got-off-on-a-technicality-and-I’m-righteous-about-it Ted Stephens”
Holy crap, Eric,
Stephens had the charges dropped due to a bit more than a “technicality”.
Personally, I think the guy is guitly as sin, but he is entitled to due process, just like the rest of us.
Personally, I am just as concerned about the prosecutorial misconduct and the fact that it can happen to any of us, as I am sure you have most likely seen it happen to some of your clients, and you had to fight against a stacked deck in court.
As an attorney, your blood would be boiling if what happened to this guy happened to one of your clients by prosecutors.
Set your partisanship aside for a moment and look at
From the SF Chronicle:
04-07) 09:07 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) —
A federal judge dismissed the corruption conviction of former Sen. Ted Stevens on Tuesday and took the rare and serious step of opening a criminal investigation into prosecutors who mishandled the case.
“In nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said.
Sullivan appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Justice Department lawyers who repeatedly mishandled witnesses and withheld evidence from defense attorneys during the monthlong trial that ended with Stevens’ conviction in October.
April 7, 2009 at 8:58 am
suzy blah blah
Maybe some of you older sixties types can explain all that to me.
sheeeeesh, how dense can you be? Suzy could expalin it to yuo and i wasnt even born yet then.
April 7, 2009 at 11:19 am
Anonymous
Gotta agree with 838 on this one, Eric. Hardly seems that this guy got off on a technicality if CRIMINAL CHARGES are being considered for the prosecuters.
You need to get beyond your politics on this one. I’d be outraged if it happened to a dem, repub, or anyone; the thing that concerns me is that it appears you have a double standard, as I have to believe as a lawyer you’d be screaming to the heavens if something like this happened to someone you represented.
April 7, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Eric Kirk
Okay, I have a few minutes.
First of all, I use the term “technicality” with irony. To those of us who have represented criminal defendants, we like to refer to the “technicality” as the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments. But in Stephens’ pre-conviction Republican view, any dismissal not based upon proof of innocence is a “technicality.” Failure to abide by warrant restrictions is also not just a “technicality” but that’s the lexicon of law and order politics.
I wasn’t questioning whether the prosecution committed misconduct. I’m questioning the sudden outpouring of sympathy for Stephens.
Suzie – you left me hanging! You said it’s “easy” and you haven’t explained it. I was looking forward to one of your colorful explanations!
Ernie – if politics were always understandable, they wouldn’t be so fascinating. I’ll expand on why I found this exchange so fascinating later, and I’ll comment over at your blog too.
April 7, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Anonymous
Actually flying commercial is a horrible experience these days.
April 7, 2009 at 1:25 pm
suzy blah blah
Suzie – you left me hanging! You said it’s “easy” and you haven’t explained it. I was looking forward to one of your colorful explanations!
Oh alright Eric if you insist. But the frost thing you must remember is that Dylan is a poet and has a poetic license.. OK then so lets deconstruct the thing:
He’s like a fictional character, but he’s real. –its a projection. Dylan as always is talking about himself.
Like an odysse –thats just dylan in his odd trippy way of talking just saying yes to drugs.
Guerillas –when Dylan mentions a gorilla he means God, or that we evolved from a god
Wizard –means that Bobby is endowed with powers
Afric –this refers to when Bobs 5th wife cheated on him but Bob knew becuz of his powers
raiders –bob new telepathically that she cheated with one of the Oakland raiders
lion killers –so Bob hired a hitman and had one of the Detroit Lions offed –he didnt have the raider offed cuz that would be too offious and Bob as usual didnt want to be too offious.
Never lived in Kansas –Dylan was born and raised in North Dakota and then spent the rest of his life in Oz
incongruous –when dylan says ‘in’ he means ‘ex’. Here hes referring to the pot that an excon grew for him and his band.
off to sniff drainpipes, a b c d e ….
s
April 7, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Ernie's Place
See, I told you Eric. It is plain to see that Suzy has a expanded mind. We should all be so lucky.
April 7, 2009 at 4:34 pm
suzy blah blah
Ernie, i get the feeling that yeur saying things between the lines. Can’t you just speak plain english? what continent are you on? Suzys confused. What do you mean when you say ‘expanded’? Do you mean ‘ex’ in the american way? or do you mean ‘ex’ means ‘in’ like the Dylan way? –or is the answer my friend european in the wind ?
April 7, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Unk John
Sweet Bobby hasn’t changed. He still speaks in tongues. People would sit around for hours while stoned discussing what the hell that song meant. It meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people and it all seemed to make sense.
Then someone would turn on an old black and white TV and start messing around with the contrast and brightness controls. There would be a lot of oooos and aaahs. Then someone might say, “Wow, that looks like a beauty parlor full of sailors!” Lots of laughter would follow. Lots of laughter. Life was simpler then. Stuff that in your ipod and smoke it.
At least, that’s what I read about it.
April 7, 2009 at 8:26 pm
ED Denson
Here’s a southerner who would be delighted if Omama is in some way a descendant of Jefferson Davis. Its not as good as Bush 1 and 2, but still its one president the ancestor of another, and would finally fulfill the prophecy “The South shall Rise Again.” Talk about healing. Talk about irony. Any idea what makes Dylan think Obama is related to JD?
April 7, 2009 at 10:42 pm
moviedad
The timing was the wrinkle for me. What was Palin’s act at that time, What was at stake? I’m always suspicious when they hang their own. Wasn’t it Bush/Cheney who sent two federal prosecutors to Alaska, making much press about it?