First Draft

All in Darkness: Game of Thrones Thread

HODOR!

There's a t-shirt on the Internet somewhere, I'm sure, that reads "What Would Hodor Do?" and I think I need that t-shirt in my life.

Spoilers for the episode affectionately known as "here's where it all starts to go to shit" inside.

Saturday Night Music: My Old School

This is a live version from 2006. It seems to have been their encore because it ends with outro music and Becker and Fagen walking off stage like rock stars, which they are even if they don't look the part:

 

Weekend Question Thread: Hard Work Edition

What was the hardest job, physically, that you've ever done?

In high school I worked at a farm store, which meant heaving around crates of sweet corn and bushels of apples and other heavy stuff, and in the winter helping the farm guys wrangle Christmas trees. Later jobs just depended on my ability to stay awake long hours; this was the one that actually made my muscles ache.

A.

Friday Night Music: Deeper Water

Paul Kelly is a legend in Australia and more or less unknown in the US and A. That's a pity but what the hell can I do about it other than posting this great tune? Not a damn thing:

 

Friday Catblogging: Willie Bees!

Today answering the age old question of --What puts the B in Willie B?

Class-based politics

A fine line exists between academic freedom and politicking when it comes to classroom discussions. This week, a professor up in Wisconsin learned that the hard way.

Stephen Richards, a criminal justice professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, has found himself the darling of right-wing talk radio and the blogosphere for taking a position on the recall of Randy Hopper during his class. In a recently released recording of one of his classes, Richards talks for almost 10 minutes about the recall and notes that some students were hanging around with recall petitions if anyone wanted to sign them. The recording was made in March; the university dealt with the concerns and life appears to have moved on.

However, the recording landed on Charlie Sykes’ desk over the past week and has been posted on the state Republicans’ website as well. Media fervor quickly followed, as is to be expected and university officials have declined to issue any additional statements about the matter.

For his part, Richards has remained silent on the issue, saying the university told him to keep is mouth shut, a charge the university denies.

If you listen to the recording, which you can find here, it’s clear this wasn’t a passing moment of some kid asking “Hey, how can I get involved in a recall thing?” and a professor saying, “There are petitions around campus. See me after class.” Richards spoke at length on the issue and clearly brought his own opinions to the table.

While most of the crying, wailing and gnashing of teeth on this is a load of crap, that doesn’t excuse his actions. This was a ton of dumb from an educated guy.

The outcry of students saying, “I’m paying good money to go here and not have my time wasted” is total bullshit.

Spare me.

If he decided to let the class go 10 minutes early, there wouldn’t be a huge hue and cry. Also, based on the number of texts, Facebook updates and other technology-based distractions students engage in, something tells me they aren’t coveting every moment of class time. Yes, you can be upset that you were subjected to this, but let’s not pretend that a professor never wasted time in some other stupid way or that you didn’t blow off at least one minute of your academic career. To complain in this way is disingenuous at best.

The Republicans who are calling for this guy to resign are going after a fly with a sledgehammer, and for good reason as well. The recall elections will likely see six Republican senators fighting to keep their seats in hotly contested races. Hopper appears to be the most vulnerable among these. Media reports have questioned if he’s actually living in the district he represents, if he got his mistress a sweet-heart state job and other things you don’t want hanging over your head in an election cycle.

Best way to get the story to change? Make the story about someone else.

Thus the story goes from “Randy Hopper: sex machine, cheating husband and political twerp” to “Randy Hopper: target of indoctrinating professors and zombie-voting students.”

The public reaction, however, is most disturbing. The student newspaper reported that several people had heard this guy was getting death threats. In addition, the comment boards have been on fire with people calling for his job and saying he’s indoctrinating students.

First, no matter what he said in class, the threat thing is way over the top. If citizens were allowed to kill people for saying stupid crap, Glenn Beck and Donald Trump would already have their faces on a commemorative stamp set.

Second, and more importantly, no one is being indoctrinated. Most of my students (and those of most professors) will tell you that students don’t do things just because you tell them to. If it worked that easily, I’d have more kids studying for tests and fewer of them spelling things wrong.

College students are adults. They can think for themselves. Just because a professor says, “I think Randy Hopper’s an idiot,” it doesn’t necessarily follow that the students will all stagger into the streets craving brains and bad Randy Hopper jokes.

The more important argument here is that there is a perception of undue influence. Professors have authority over grades, which you can argue are one of the more important things a student deals with. A professor can fail a student, forcing the student to retake a class or costing the student access to scholarships and financial aid. If the professor is a big name in a particular field, going against that professor can be career suicide for a student.

(Should grades matter this much? Not in my book, but kids view them as important and thus they are in their world. Perception is the word of the day here at the ol’ FD.)

In this case, none of those things might happen, and only one allegation of undue pressure has come to light (An “unnamed” student made allegations here. As a journalist, this wouldn’t have passed the sniff test for me, but it is something to ponder.). However, several students noted that there was a sense that you might get a bump up or a bump down depending on your petition position. That’s not good for the classroom and that’s not good for democracy.

Richards might think Hopper should be recalled, but the classroom isn’t the venue for that discussion. Had he been in a field like political science, journalism or even a gen-ed on current affairs, maybe he gets a little more leeway in terms of the topic, but not his approach.

Regardless of if he was pro-Hopper, anti-Hopper or a bunny-Hopper, Richards should have understood his efforts put his students in an untenable situation.

Friday Ferretblogging

In which Riot, who knows he is not allowed on the desk, thinks about it and decides that it's impossible for Mr. A to hold the camera and reprimand him at the same time.

He's so much smarter than us sometimes, it terrifies me.

A.

Friday Catblogging: Sunbathing

Oscar and Della don't like the beach; too frakking sandy. Then there's the matter of being loaded into a kitty carrier. They do, however, like sunning themselves at home:

Insert Portuguese for 'Fuck Yeah' Here

Go on, Brazil!

A.

Thursday Night Music: Oye Isabel

Today is Cinco de Mayo, and the Iguanas closed out the Fais Do-Do stage at Jazz Fest so here's a swell tune by one of NOLA's most unusual bands:

 

Malaka Of The Week: C Ray Nagin

I've kinda sorta missed having C Ray to kick around. I haven't missed having him as my Mayor but he was so easy to mock that he was good for the satire business. It got to the point that he was such a soft target that I laid off. It was probably sometime around the point when his approval rating sank to 19% or thereabouts. It was like kicking a shiny headed dog with worms or something.

C Ray is back in the news this week, which gives me an excuse to take this stroll down malakatude memory lane.  As you can see from the picture above, Nagin has written his very own Katrina tome even though back in January he told the Picayune that he had no plans to write a "tell all thing.' Knowing Nagin he probably said man at the end of the sentence, man. The Mayor as hipster doofus or is that douchebag?

The book is called Katrina's Secrets. I have a hunch that there won't be many secrets divulged or truths told because Nagin is terminally delusional. I doubt if I'll buy it but it could have some new foot in mouth masterpieces such as "crime keeps the brand out there" or "Ground Zero is just a big hole in the ground." It probably won't discuss the 90 minute shower he took on Air Force One while other Gret Stet guvmint officials were trying to get W to do something. C Ray had to shave, buff and shine his empty head. The man was never able to walk past a mirror without admiring himself: vanity can be a form of malakatude too.

 C Ray has also hit the lecture circuit with middling success: people aren't that eager to hear from someone whose reputation lies somewhere between buffoon and poltroon. He's also billing himself as a "recovery expert and green advocate." Not many people in New Orleans would agree with either characterization. Recovery expert is laughable on its face and "green advocate" is almost as funny: his administration ended curbside recycling here and his sanitation director, and Whitney Houston wannabe, Veronica White said that "recycling was so 20th Century." Ms. White was, if anyhting, funnier than her boss; unintentionally, that is...

I could go on and on about Nagin's malakatude but since he's yesterday's man I won't. I did, however, once dub him malaka of the century and that should suffice.

See ya later, C Ray; after a while crocodile:

 

Hope that spinning platter didn't make anyone dizzy. If it did, I blame the vain, which is the title of yet another riff on Hizzhonor the former Mayor as well as a great song by Dwight Yoakam.

A Thank You

To everybody who went out to a town hall and gave Paul Ryan's disciples what for.

Obviously you changed some minds.

Or scared the shit out of some people.

Good on you.

A.

"That's what happened, that's called fact"

I love this woman:

h/t Susie: Who has more info

To See, Or Not to See

From Album3

I feel like I've seen more than enough shots of the gory, bloody reality of war; however, Steve Clemons and Jon Stewart both make cases to release the Kracken picture...

The Scott Walker F#%k You Award

 
(Mike Konopacki, Capital Times) 

Last Friday, Gov Walker released a video thanking public employees and announcing a state employee recognition system and asking for nominations to recognize individuals. Words Fail.

However here is a re-make (by filmmack) of Walker's video  with what he really means to say to WI public employees....F#%k You:

Wednesday Night Music: Blood and Roses

I had a lot of women from New Jersey in the shop last weekend. They were in town for Jazz Fest and ready to see their local heroes, Bon Jovi, in my town. They're not my cup of tea but the Smithereens are and they're from the Garden State too. One lady from Jersey recognized Green Thoughts on the tune box and informed me that she'd gone to high school with the Reens lead guitarist Jim Babjak. I asked her if she knew him, or even dated him, back in the day.

"Heavens, no," she said, "he was a leather jacket wearing bad boy and I was a goody goody."

Sounds like Dr. A's verdict on whether she would have dated me in high school. Guess you can figure out who was the bad one...

 

A Nation of Busy Bodies

This is, in a way, a followup to Athenae's post this morning. Over my lifetime, we've increasingly become a nation of busy bodies. The right wants to tell women they don't have control over their own bodies and gays that they should neither smooch nor have sexy times. My brothers and sisters on the left have spent the last few days telling people how to react to the death of Osama bin Laden; including trotting out a quote from MLK that was only partially accurate. The sub-head on Joan Walsh's post at Salon sums up my reaction quite succinctly: "The frenzy over a "fake" quote reveals our desire to outsource our moral decision-making to someone else." Joan is a smart woman.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion but no one is entitled to tell other people what to think or feel. I didn't do the boogaloo in the street when I heard about the demise of the master criminal bin Laden but was tempted to do so when *my* personal bete noir Slobodan Milosevic died. I hope that if Hitler had died in 1938 that folks wouldn't have berated the people he persecuted-Jews, Gypsies, Lefties to name but a few-for being glad he was dead. Yes, Osama was a piker compared to the Fuhrer BUT the anaology is still applicable.  

My late mother was a kind person who was always willing to help others BUT she's the one who taught me to mind my own business and not offer unsolicited advice. She once said: "They call it unsolicited advice because you weren't asked. If you're asked, be honest and straight forward but nobody likes a Nosy Parker."

I never quite knew (or cared) who Parker was and why he or she was so bloody nosy but it was sound advice then and just as sound in this era of social networking. In short, mind your own beeswax and don't be a fucking busy body:

 

Let's Ban Some Stuff

I have an idea for a ban. Instead of gay kisses, let's ban this. Let's ban politicians giving a flying fuck who anybody is kissing, sexing, dating, on television or in real life, until we have everybody fed.

Until literally everyone on the planet has enough to eat, and nobody is dying because we can't find the fucking box of Mac n Cheese to give to the food pantry or the sheep to start the farm somewhere, you may make out with whoever you like, without fear that some jackass is going to try to ban it. 

I say we ban that. We can also ban freakouts about the occasional swear word on the news or in an awards show, on the grounds that until no children are blown up by landmines anywhere, and no adults are dying of preventable diseases, it's just plain old embarrassing to spend ten seconds on an f-bomb.

A.

Hell of a Fighter

Treading a bit on Adrastos's rightful turf as First Draft DJ, but I wanted to send this one out to my family tonight. My Uncle Bob, my dad's brother, died today after one of the hardest fights against an illness I've ever seen. He started tangling with brain cancer when he was a little kid and he made it come back TWICE before it finally got him, that's what a badass he was. He fought cancer, a real son of a bitch of a cancer, to a standstill THREE TIMES. I can't even imagine what that must have taken. What that must have done.

But he always had a smile for me every time I saw him. He was kind to everyone he knew. And that took courage, too.

Life is eternal and love is immortal; And death is only a horizon, And a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight. -- Rossiter W. Raymond

A.

A quiet political earthquake in Canada

Canada is a civilized country; even when they have political upheavals, they tend to be polite ones. Yesterday, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper won a majority in an election that was forced by the opposition who assumed that they'd win. They did not. The center-left Liberal Party, until recently, were the traditional party of government. The earthquake yesterday was not in Harper's victory but the Liberals finishing third with a mere 35 seats in parliament while the social-democratic New Democratic Party suddenly has well over one hundred MPs. Another seismic shift was the collapse in support of the soverigntist/separatist Bloc Quebecois whose parliamentary caucus could now meet in a phone booth if any still exist in Canada.

Beyond the above, my knowledge of Canadian politics is broad but shallow. I do, however, find it disturbing that the Tories won 53% of the seats in Parliament with only 39% of the vote. It's quite similar to what routinely happens in the UK where they're having a referendum on electoral reform with the reformers looking like the losers. Here's the last graph of the Guardian's Heather McRobie's perceptive take on what happened up north in Canada from a British perspective:

Although the UK's 2010 election and Canada's 2011 election produced vastly different outcomes – one a period of coalition government, the other ending a of minority government rule – the two elections show that first past the post doesn't ensure a stable two-party system; actual votes still bend the structure in dynamic ways. On his day of legitimate victory under Canada's electoral system, perhaps Harper would prefer it if we didn't notice that one of the interesting parallels is that, for most of his rule so far, Harper's Conservative party, like David Cameron's Conservative party now, didn't have a majority. In any case, now Harper finally has his majority, the image of Canada as America's liberal, progressive neighbour might – like [Liberal leader] Ignatieff and the Bloc Québécois – also suddenly drop off the political radar.

Unlike previous Canadian Conservative Prime Ministers, Harper is a bona fide Right Winger and now that he has a majority, things should get very interesting in Ottawa. So much for Canada being our stolid, stable and slightly boring neighbor to the North...

Also Try Not to Stick Your Dick in People You're Not Married To

Ensign resigned yesterday, while everybody was busy with some dead dude, and this is just gross:

"My caution to all of my colleagues is to surround yourself with people who will be honest with you about how you really are and what you are becoming, and then make them promise to not hold back, no matter how much you may try to prevent them, from telling you the truth," Ensign said. "I wish that I had done this sooner, but this is one of the hardest lessons that I've had to learn."

Okay, so the real lesson here is to get better FRIENDS? To find people who will stop you from being a douchebag? I'm not saying friends who will call you on your bullshit aren't invaluable. But they're not responsible for your bullshit. It is not their job to stop you from sucking. It is your job to not suck. I am thinking of having that last tattooed on me somewhere, no kidding.

If he'd gotten up there and said, "My caution to all of my colleagues is to divorce their wives like grownups if they want to fuck around, and not lie about it or try to buy their way out of it," THAT would have been a valuable lesson we all should pay attention to. This is just ... yick.

A.

May Day for bin Laden

I'm Greek so I understand vendettas and the desire for vengeance. The Greeks aren't as obsessive about revenge as the Sicilians but try ordering Turkish coffee in any Hellenic eatery. If you do so, prepare to duck because some crockery may be headed your way. Smash.

I had a Greek-Greek relative who was convinced that everything good was invented by the Greeks: it was like hearing a Stalinist insist that Russians had invented the telephone, telegraph and Tina Turner's dance moves. I once asked this Uncle (a third cousin but every guy who's older than you in a Greek family is called Theo or Uncle) to explain why baklava was made throughout the former Ottoman Empire if it was strictly a Greek dish. His answer: it was spread by itinerant Greek chefs who fed phylo to the Turkish phillistines. (Okay, that last bit was embellishment.) He went on to remind me that if it was Turkish, it was skattah (shit.) I didn't buy it but I enjoyed busting the old boy's chops.  

That was a circuitous way of saying that, while I don't plan to dance in the street to celebrate bin Laden's demise, I'm not shedding any tears for a mass murderer. Slaying that particular bearded dragon doesn't really change much but I've enjoyed observing the political contortions of folks on both the far left and far right; all of whom are determined to fit this unwieldy narrative into an ideologically tidy box. Forget about it, y'all. The world is not only a mess, it's messy.

Even before May Day, Osama bin Laden was yesterday's man. I'm far more interested in seeing if we yet again send the Pakistanis to bed without supper and then throw another a few billion dollars at them. Spare the rod, spoil the Pakstani security forces. It's clearly time to put them on a starvation diet since Osama was hiding in plain sight not far from the Pakistani version of West Point. What does it take for us to get properly pissed off at the Pakistanis? If this doesn't do it, nothing will. I suspect, however, that our abusive relationship with Pakistani will continue...

And Then

First of all, I have zero interest in scolding anybody for being happy today. For dancing or singing or spraying champagne. For celebrating for the TV cameras, for Twitter, or just for themselves. For cracking jokes. We grieve how we grieve, and make no mistake, this is still grief. It's impossible to get an A in it, and it's grotesque to try. Lecturing others on how to do it right is just a way to draw attention to yourself, to make you the Virtuous Voice of Truth. I've never liked that voice. Ever.

But let me ask you this: Read this and tell me, could we have done this before now?

In an interview at CIA headquarters two weeks ago, a senior intelligence official said the two proud groups of American secret warriors had been “deconflicted and basically integrated” -- finally -- 10 years after 9/11. Indeed, according to accounts given to journalists by five senior administration officials Sunday night, the CIA gathered the intelligence that led to bin Laden’s location. A memo from CIA Director Leon Panetta sent Sunday night provides some hints of how the information was collected and analyzed. In it, he thanked the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency for their help. NSA figured out, somehow, that there was no telephone or Internet service in the compound. How it did this without Pakistan’s knowledge is a secret. The NGIA makes the military’s maps but also develops their pattern recognition software -- no doubt used to help establish, by February of this year, that the CIA could say with “high probability” that bin Laden and his family were living there.

Could we have had the champagne at Ground Zero, could we have had the dancing and the singing, the silence and the reflection, the closure and the open wounds, without the past 10 years of pointless death in Iraq and Afghanistan? There were no military casualties from killing bin Laden, the president said, and it hit me like a fist in the gut. Could we have done this, brought justice however brutal, without killing another American soul?

There are times I go to a Pat Robertson-type place, I really do, and think about the karmic bitchslap we are so utterly due for what we've done. And I pray, almost, an argument, "lots of us tried to stop it." Tried, of course, meaning nothing to the dead. 

So this morning the wars continue, because after all they weren't about bin Laden. If we had done this 10 years ago, would it have been enough? The president talked about how united we were on 9/11; I was working that day and every day thereafter, not too far from where he was, and he is telling us a pretty story, a pretty lie. We were not united. We were fractious and enraged, and quite a few Sikh and Indian men, quite a few innocent Muslim women, can attest to that if we choose to listen to them. In that furious fear-driven anger, would this have been enough?

Look at the pictures. Look at the joy and sorrow. You tell me.

A.

 

Today on Tommy T's Obsession with the Freeperati - Big Birther Bonanza edition

OK - let's get the shameless bid to send your humble narrator to the Kos-a-thon this year out of the way first.

Just click on the "add your support" button at the bottom and vote, and you'll increase my chance of winning a scholarship from nil to barely possible.

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/netroots_nation_scholarships/1333-tommy-t

Now - let's get down to it!

Well, needless to say, post-"Birth Certificate 2, Electric Boogaloo", the iso chamber is awash in exploded Freeper heads, with chunks of cranium imbedded in the chamber walls.

Also needless to say, the contents of said crania didn't contain much, which is making cleanup easier, but there's still a lot of muck in there - so stay on the catwalks, please.

The Freeperati were chugging along on their usual mix of hate, fear, and stupidity, and everything was normal (for the inside of an asylum, anyway)..

 

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When suddenly:

CNN via BREAKING on Drudge: White House releases Obama birth certificate
CNN ^ | 27 APR 11 | DCBryan1

Posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:09:26 AM by DCBryan1

Edited on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:22:09 AM by Admin Moderator. [history]

 

(CNN) The White House released President Obama’s original birth certificate Wednesday.

The surprise release follows recent and sustained remarks by businessman Donald Trump, among others, that raised doubts as to whether the president was born in the United States.

Hopefully Buckhead can see if it is fake ;)

1 posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:09:33 AM by DCBryan1

            HUH?

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Wowzer. Where to begin?

First of all: "CNN via breaking on Drudge"?? You don't know what's happening in this world unless Drudge puts a whirly flashing light on his silly-ass site? I guess Laputa doesn't have the market on flappers cornered, after all.

Secondly: I thought they might have actually gotten past the news flash and into the comments until these morons started crying "forgery". Apparently not.

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To: DCBryan1

Is he gonna show us the goods?

3 posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:10:54 AM by texanyankee

.

Late to the party:

To: DCBryan1

Obama to show long form birth certificate!

So, I guess they installed a new Photoshop Czar?

5 posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:11:05 AM by Puppage (You may disagree with what I have to say, but I shall defend to your death my right to say it)

.

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To: DCBryan1

He should’ve had one forged 2 years ago....

9 posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:11:09 AM by freebilly

And now..the 

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To: DCBryan1

In before the “It’s a fake, two citizen parents, Indonesia, Pakistan” comments.

12 posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:11:33 AM by FewsOrange

.

To: DCBryan1

Goody.

Then we just “move the goal posts” hee hee hee

Where is your original passport? Where are your college records and financial aid info? etc.

28 posted on Wednesday, April 27, 2011 8:14:10 AM by wilco200 (11/4/08 - The Day America Jumped the Shark)

.
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"You have chosen....stupidly."

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More "LALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" after the flying leap.

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Osama bin Laden Dead

Raise your hand if you secretly thought Cheney had him on ice all this time.

Livestream of the president here.

The Freepi threads on this are going to be AMAZING.

A.

He Stands on a Wall: Game of Thrones Thread

Spoilers within.

Saturday Night Music: Cherry Bomb

I'm going to Jazz Fest tomorrow. John Mellencamp is playing but he's headlining one of the big ass stages so I may not see him. But I've always thought that he's a pretty darn good songwriter. Cherry Bomb is a purt near perfect roots rock single. It makes me think of summer and even if it's not quite summer,  it's creeping up on us. And what's better than a swinging tune with a bit of fiddle to herald the season? Did I actually write that? Holy crap, I guess I did. I'm going soft somewhere: the brain most likely...

Anyhoo, here's the artist formerly known as John Cougar; glad he dropped the stage name, particularly given its current connotation:

 

 

Weekend Question Thread

Where do you wish you were right now?

It's a tossup between a hammock on a beach and my own damn bed.

A.

Far From Over in Wisconsin

If anyone thought it is Over in Wisconsin... It Is Not!

Here is a video of scenes from April 25th to the 29th.

The People are still here demanding Justice....Everyday.

They are still marching around the Capitol.... Everyday.

They still come out to Sing for Justice.... Everyday.

They are still here and will remain until that day when our government heeds the needs of those they were elected to serve.

Let the People be Heard.

Honor them.

Watch.

It's well worth it just to hear Damon Terrell, at the half way point, speak. This young man has a future in politics though I hope he remains an activist.

WI Protests: Far From Over from scoutwillie on Vimeo.

I want to thank the students and members of the ASO who speak out in this video and the many anonymous citizens, who march and sing, in hope for a more just and better day.

 

UPDATE: YOUTUBE Version of Same video. I noticed the Vimeo version can stutter a bit on slower pc's. So here is a YouTube version that does not.

Friday Night Music: Real Fine Love

Johh Hiatt is one of the most confessional/personal songwriters around. Here's another slice of his life for all the Hiatteers out there: