First?

Link to YouTube clip of Tahoe fire and story of how the current blaze got its name at the end of the last Kit's comments.

Good morning boodle
Two Turtles and one snake were rescued from the road today, sheesh it was a busy morning. Off to bed.

I was really enjoying the first part of your Kit, Joel, about Cheney, laughing, in fact, until I tripped across the word, Klamath. Furious, does not begin to describe...

Is it just me?

Whenever someone says something like "I always thought the U.S. should have a Minister of Culture," I always hear what sounds like the entire nation of France laughing.

SCC: "laughing" = "snorting, howling and hooting with derision."

And Mr. Cheney just might be the single-biggest threat to democracy in America in decades.

(And that's counting OBL, Kruschev and Castro.)

Bong hits for Cheney!

Bong hits for Alito/Scalia/Roberts/Thomas/Kennedy!

Bong hits for Joel! (cuz I love you man, for real)

Bong hits for all the beautiful people on this blog (again, with love, for real).

...(phew)..And a new lame internet catch phrase is now played out....snarky mashups ensue..."Snakes on a bong hit"? "Best. Bong. Hit. Ever."? Anyone?

Hi y'all! Hi Bayou Self! Are you "off" for the summer (meaning working a second job)? Hi a bea c & kurosawaguy from yesterday. Howdy Martooni (keep working on it) and Nelson, Pat, Annie, and other former or lurking posters. Cassandra, I'm with you on the head-turning and rule-bending that got us in the immigration mess.

Very funny Kit. It makes me remember with embarrassment my freshman high school biology experiment. I took my cue from a counterculture comic, "Odds Bodkins", where a character went fishing with dynamite because he liked to kill fish. Another character suggested that he use detergent, which really killed fish. As they wouldn't let me use dynamite, I decided to see at what concentration ordinary dish soap killed fish. I don't remember the results, though I probably would if I'd used explosives.

Somewhere along the way, my dad ended up subscribing to many, many magazines. Which of course I'm now getting. One of these is Readers Digest, which I have always considered the perfect bathroom reader.

Yeah... it's ultra-conservative bent has always kinda gotten to me, but how can you argue with Humor in Uniform, Life in These United States or the story of the Mother Who Saved Her Child From a Shark?

But this month there is a story called "World's Most Dangerous Leaders" and includes Kim Jong-il, Bashar al-Assad, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hugo Chávez.

It angers me that they can print an article called that without including George W Bush and Dick Cheney in the list.

Cheney as champion of industrial power elites, including agribusiness and the energy industry, brings to mind number 9 of the "14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism:"

"9. Corporate power is protected. The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power..."

You know, I tried to angry about the Cheney and Murdoch stories, but their behavior seemed so typical of them that it failed to shock me. How can you be shocked at continuous villany? It's the lobbyist segment of the kit that got me depressed. Who'da known lobbying would be where the big bucks are? If only I could get my kids interested in going to law school...

(Re-submitted, with effusive apologies, and corrections)

You know, I tried to get angry about the Cheney and Murdoch stories, but their behavior seemed so typical of them that it failed to shock me. How can you be shocked at continuous villany? It's the lobbyist segment of the kit that got me depressed. Who'da known lobbying would be where the big bucks are? If only I could get my kids interested in going to law school...

Along these same lines, did anybody catch Samuelson this morning?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601687.html

Generally I find him enlightning, but I dunno about this one. As a person who spent years (YEARS!) trying to come up with appropriate benchmarks for a public service, I'm not sure that the US News survey is worth the paper it's printed on. We've got a looong way to go, before we find really meaningful ways to measure educational progress. Or fire service, or police protection, or social service. Public service measurement is a field with incredible mines in it.

i love the url for this kit: "dick_cheney_shoots_fish_in_bar.html"

btw, i think a cheney-thompson switcharoo would be way too much like admitting a mistake for this administration to actually do it.

Dick Cheney, Rupert Murdoch, Tony Blair, Lobbyists.

Take away Blair and bring me a Putin. I don't have time to mess around with small fry.

Decisions, decisions. Read the Cheney article in the morning and ruin a day, read it at night and ruin a good night's sleep. Sure it all seems to be business as usual, and just what you'd expect of him, but somehow having it all in one articulate dot connecting place is so much more depressing.

Loomis-thanks for the reports and links on the Tahoe fire.

CP, thanks for the sea holly recommendation yesterday. I looked them up, and they are simply spectacular. However, I think planting them in zone 2a (our part of the city) would be a big risk. I've never seen this plant in any garden in Calgary.

Our front bed gets almost no sun (maybe 15 minutes early in the day). Since I'm planning to pull out everything that is there, except maybe one juniper, we have free rein to amend soil and pick plants that will tolerate the dark, dry conditions. What say you about very hardy plants?

One of our neighbours has a beautiful ladyslipper, but I don't think they come in blue or silver.

It's really hard for me to be ironic and cool about Cheney. I really fail to see why this man is in a position of power. Is there one positive thing that he's done in his public life, not only during the last 6 years, but over the last 40 years? Why was he whitewashed before the first appointment as vp by sources like Time magazine? I remember reading their glowing words in '99 during the election season and wondering why he wasn't running for president instead of W. He sounded absolutely marvelous. People like to mock Cheney when he should be serving time, pure and simple.

After months ensnared in the medical-industrial complex, I finally saw the cardiologist yesterday who completely ruled out any heart disease. Have had stress tests and cat scans and echocardiograms and blood work and... nothing.

Hypertension is gradually coming under control, too.

As you can imagine, I'm chuffed.

I've added some links, fyi.

re. the 10-cents beer night riot.
A 10-cents doobie night would have been a lot quieter.

For all you Salive growers, check out SFGate.com for a medical study of the LSD effect one gets from chewing the leaves. Be on the lookout for a DEA agent in your front yard.

Speaking of the 10 cent beer night riot, I wrote that as part of a blog item re. The Comapany...

http://www.10thcircle.com/10/?p=189

I hope everyone has a chuckle or two over it.

bc

Little bird so linky, linky,
Fill my head with stuff to thinky.

Brilliant, bc. I loved the speculation that Cheney may be a "bizarre biotech experiment gone horribly awry." Most of the rest, particularly disco and Scientology, seem to me to be the simple truth.

Wow. BOO on me, Big Time.

I hadn't refreshed my browser to note that Joel had updated the Kit.

If I had any shame whatsoever, I'd be embarassed.

bc

Good ones bc. Unfortunately, I think Cheney is too human. Another unpleasant trait of the Dark One is his love of the canned hunts. Shooting cage-raised birds that were released hours before just ain't hunting. They make perfectly good targets out of clay if you feel like shooting a hundred shots in one morning.
http://www.hsus.org/legislation_laws/wayne_pacelle_the_animal_advocate/cheneys_canned_kill_and_other_hunting_excesses_of_the_bush_administration.html

Dick Cheney is the absolute worst VP the US has ever had. Total disrepect for the law. He pockets mega money from the Iraq war. Maybe his pacemaker will quit.

Scott Kutos, Cheney's pacemaker won't quit until it is indicted.

Which would not come as a surprise to anyone.

bc

bc, nice job!

I'm still not sure abouut Chuck Barris though.

Major front page alert. I've got the bunker open and stocked, just in case.

Excellent piece on your blog, bc! Hmmm, Cheney as an experiment gone awry. Or is he the experimenter?

Thanks, CowTown.
And you have a good point.

No reason Cheney can't be both, but I think of him as Vaderesque, more concerned about means to an end, rather than experimentation and implications of such.

bc

I smell a rotten fish of an argument---Didn't you people read the Cheney article? Hello!---The farmers (i.e., people species, not fish species) needed water for their growing season. Their needs are more important than some stupid fish beloved by wimpy liberal eco-crazy Democrats. Not to mention that there are lots of other types of fish still swimming around someplace.

Maybe you should tag along the next time Cheney goes hunting.

Right on, tough VP!!--let the Democrats drink the proverbial VP's warm pitcher of spit!

This is me keeping my mouth shut.

We got us a monsoon here at the moment, with thunder and lightning and such.

Hi Mudge! Yes, you're awfully quiet.

Without wishing to be seen as a wimpy fish-lover, I note that the Klamath water decision actuall ended up with opposing big-business interests: agriculture on one side and fishing, including commercial fishing, on the other. Were the farmers' needs more important than the fishers'? They're both multimillion dollar businesses which provide food.

>Their needs are more important than some stupid fish beloved by wimpy liberal eco-crazy Democrats.

I don't give a fig about salmon and don't even like it.

Didn't you read the part where they had to declare a commercial fishing failure the next year because all those fish died? I'm sympathetic for the farmers but all they did was save the farmers and screwed the fisherman.

AND killed the fish. Brilliant.

Same weather here Curmudgeon. Krrrack Boum!This is a bi-Capital storm.

The farmers that got the water were growing that all important crop - Horseradish.

Big, cracking storm with hail and a short blackout at the G house. But now the sun is shining and it's HOTTER
& MUGGIER THAN EVER out there.

Poor daughter had to leave the poolside (community pool is across the street) and find haven at a friend's house. Oh to be 13 and jobless again.

NOT!

"Boum," Shriek? Is that the British spelling of "boom"? Frankly, I like it. It has class, and as they say in Alaska, "Juneau Say Kwa." Keep it in, sez the copy editor.

The trouble with your replies, sensible and correct though they may be, ivansmom and EF, are that they don't leave room for reading-comprehension-impaired J. Molay to trot out "wimpy liberal eco-crazy Democrats" in his post (I'm betting he's not a her). In his world, WLECD is an argument-stopper. And of course one presupposes all the salmon and coho fisherman of the Northwest must all be WLECDs, otherwise VP Iago wouldn't have intervened against them. Q.E.D., really.

not a drop up here in Bethesda.

Good news, Yoki! Yet, if you still feel just a bit funny, then it's time for another treadmill with the doctors.

Sometimes I wish you didn't have to go through so many "nopes" until you get to the "uh, yeah..."

I'm quite glad your hypertension is under control.

J Molay-

You had me at "you people."

bc

To get the truth about 911 -- including his order NOT to shoot down the planes -- lets torture Dick Cheney using his approved torture program for Gitmo. It ought to more effective that subpoenas.

You caught me Mudge. Boum is French for boom. Those false-friends get me every time.

Storm is temporarily over. The sun is shining. I'm sure the old lab is hidden somewhere and whimpering. The poor thing is afraid of thunder.

Error & I were evidently thinking alike. I'm pretty sure we're not the same person though, at least most of the time.

For me, the use of "wimpy" as a dire insult usually signals a comment by the male gender; I don't think women are as a whole as concerned with the "wimp" factor.

Yes, Congratulation, Yoki! I hope Cassandra's rounds of tests have as good a result.

I can't post comments on the Insurgents-using-the-Internet story (the first time I tried, it said I had just posted within the previous few seconds), so I couldn't point this out:

"More immediately worrisome for Americans, perhaps, is the hiding in plain site of everything in this report."

Hiding in plain site? If it's a typo, it's a pretty good one.

I bet I could wolf down steak at 26 dollars an ounce so fast, I could bill 390 dollars a minute to eat it!

Bring it on, folks! Lobby and consult me! Wags!

Four second steak

Thanks all. Not to worry, Wilbrod. The cardio guy said "we never close patient files. Call me if you ever have a worry." I will, too.

Dick Cheney is the very best thing to happen to the Democrat Party since FDR and JFK. Thanks Dicky Baby

Dick Cheney is the very best thing to happen to the Democrat Party since FDR and JFK. Thanks Dicky Baby

Dick Cheney is the very best thing to happen to the Democrat Party since FDR and JFK. Thanks Dicky Baby

Dick Cheney is the very best thing to happen to the Democrat Party since FDR and JFK. Thanks Dicky Baby

I'd give anything to be 13 again, TBG. So much to look forward to that I never even dreamed remotely possible when I was a kid: BJs in the stairwell in high school; a mind-numbingly vast array of beers, ales, lagers and malts instead of just Pabst, Schlitz and Rolling Rock to get adults to buy for me; major swaths of my skin to disfigure with tats and piercings; being allowed to wear jeans and T-shirts (in some places with quasi-obscene logos and messages on them) to school; spending well over a thousand bucks on prom (with the attendent increase in probability of "getting some" that night raised from .000000089 percent to something around 99.867 percent); a vertible smorgasboard of drugs and hallucinogens to chose from, instead of just dropping two aspirin in a coke and drinking it through a straw, or smoking dried banana peel (whatever happened to Donovan, anyway?), the only two mind-altering choices when I was in high school [I suppose we could have sniffed model airplane glue, had we but known; instead, we stupidly built model airplanes with the stupid stuff]; a variety of races AND a choice of genders of whom to have sex with (neither category of choice being remotely available back in the 1950s and earlier 60s, so far as we were aware, without being run out of town on a rail); a cornucopia of electronic devices with which to escape the reality-based world; the name of one less planet to memorize; complete abandonment of tree-based printed reading material; the impending collapse of Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid; the trial, conviction and life imprisonment of Darth Cheney and his evil but stupid henchperson G.W. Bush; the election of Britney Spears AND Paris Hilton to the U.S. Senate; the burning at the stake of Ann Coulter by an enraged mob of Log Cabin Republicans; the three-foot rise in sea level by the year 2050, resulting in the doubling of recreational facilities in Boulder, Colorado, to include water skiing as well as snow skiing; the use of the greater Chicago area as the setting for the reality show "BladeRunner: Who Wants to Marry a Replicant?"--oh, the list goes on and on!

This is for bill everything...

James Gandolfini Shot By Closure-Seeking Fan

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/63130

Let's all go fishing at 'Mudge's

I rarely have time lately to peek in during the day but picked the right time today. Thanks TBG! (Loved the photo!)

'Mudge, my daughter turns 13 on Sunday. After reading your 3:02 I think I will go have a nice quiet lie down.

Form NPR
WASHINGTON June 27, 2007, 3:03 p.m. ET · The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush's controversial eavesdropping program that operated warrant-free for five years.

About time. Let the Constitutioanl Crisis begin.

" the name of one less planet to memorize; "

They really have it easy, don't they?

Sorry, bill. My oldest granddaughters are 15 and 16, so I'm spiritually with you.

As a footnote, I neglected to mention that when Britney and Paris are elected to the Senate, they will be be memebers of the "I'm Going Commando" Party, though from different states. Paris will be elected from Cancun [technically, Quintana Roo], and Britney will represent the great state of Maritime Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, Nova Scotia & Corregidor (Canucks, don't ask; you DON'T want to know).

bill everything, if it helps, my daughters were almost human again by 13. Ten and 11 nearly killed me - and them. But we all survived and still maintain good relationships. (They are 25 and 21 now.)

Oh, jeez. The bald eagle is coming off the protected species list. Cheney's oiling up his shotgun. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062701171.html?hpid=topnews

from AP: WASHINGTON -- The American bald eagle, once nearly extinct, is making a comeback. The government will confirm that when it takes the revered bird off a list of protected species on Thursday.

I am doing ok with Everythingdottir, so far; the wife, not so much. Hoping a little maturity allows for a reconnect.

The Post doesn't have it yet, so here's AP:

White House, Cheney's Office, Subpoenaed

Jun 27 03:03 PM US/Eastern
By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush's controversial eavesdropping program that operated warrant-free for five years.
Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D- Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council. The four parties have until July 18 to comply, according to a statement by Leahy's office.

The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal disputes within the administration over the legality of the program, which Bush put under court review earlier this year.

"Our attempts to obtain information through testimony of administration witnesses have been met with a consistent pattern of evasion and misdirection," Leahy said in his cover letters for the subpoenas. "There is no legitimate argument for withholding the requested materials from this committee."

Echoing its response to previous congressional subpoenas to former administration officials Harriet Miers and Sara Taylor, the White House gave no indication that it would comply.

"We're aware of the committee's action and will respond appropriately," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "It's unfortunate that congressional Democrats continue to choose the route of confrontation."

In fact, the Judiciary Committee's three most senior Republicans--Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, former chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah and Chuck Grassley of Iowa--sided with Democrats on the 13-3 vote last week to give Leahy the power to issue the subpoenas.

The showdown between the White House and Congress could land in federal court.

Leahy's committee and its counterpart in the House have issued the subpoenas as part of a sweeping look at how much influence the White House exerts over the Justice Department and its chief, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The probe, in its sixth month, began with an investigation into whether administration officials ordered the firings of eight federal prosecutors, for political reasons. The House and Senate Judiciary committees previously had subpoenaed Miers, one-time legal counsel, and Taylor, a former political director, in that probe.

But with senators of both parties already concerned about the constitutionality of the administration's efforts to root out terrorism suspects in the United States, the committee shifted to the broader question of Gonzales' stewardship of Justice and his willingness to go along with the wiretapping program.

The Bush administration secretly launched the spy program, run by the National Security Agency, in 2001 to monitor international phone calls and e-mails to or from the United States involving people the government suspected of having terrorist links. The program, which did not require investigators to seek warrants before conducting surveillance, was revealed in December 2005.

After the program was challenged in court, Bush put it under the supervision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, established in 1978. The president still claims the power to order warantless spying.

Debate continues over whether the program violates people's civil liberties, and the administration has gone to great lengths to keep it running with extensive presidential discretion.

Piquing the committee's interest was vivid testimony last month by former Deputy Attorney General James Comey about the extent of the White House's effort to override the Justice Department's objections to the program in 2004.

Comey told the Judiciary Committee that Gonzales, then-White House counsel, tried to get Attorney General John Ashcroft to reverse course and recertify the program. At the time, Ashcroft lay in intensive care, recovering form gall bladder surgery.

Ashcroft refused, as did Comey, to whom Ashcroft had temporarily shifted the power of his office during his illness.

The White House recertified the program unilaterally. Ashcroft, Comey, FBI Director Robert Mueller and their staffs prepared to resign. Bush ultimately relented and made changes to the classified program that the Justice officials had demanded, and the agency eventually recertified it.

The fight was one of the most bitter disputes of the Bush presidency and questions remain over whether the program tramples people's civil liberties. The administration says the program is crucial to preventing more terrorist attacks.

Fratto defended the surveillance program as "lawful" and "limited."

"It's specifically designed to be effective without infringing Americans' civil liberties," Fratto said. "The program is classified for a reason--its purpose is to track down and stop terrorist planning. We remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping Americans safe from an enemy determined to use any means possible--including the latest in technology--to attack us."

Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the subpoena to Gonzales is under review and that the department recognizes Congress' oversight role.

"We must also give appropriate weight to the confidentiality of internal executive branch deliberations," he said.

Majority Democrats and some Republicans are skeptical and have sought to find out more details about the program and how it has been administered.

Leahy's panel is required to serve the subpoenas to specific people within the offices named. One is addressed to Gonzales, while the others are addressed to: David S. Addington, Cheney's chief of staff; White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, V. Phillip Lago, executive secretary of the National Security Council - or "other custodian of records" in their offices.

The subpoenas themselves seek a wide array of documents on the program from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to the present. Among them are any documents that include analysis or opinions from Justice, the National Security Agency--which administers the program--the Defense Department, the White House, or "any entity within the Executive Branch" on the legality of the electronic surveillance program.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Great. Deadeye Dick will start looking for a canned hunt for bald eagles then.
He got 70 pheasants in a single morning so he should be able to execute a dozen eagles in the same time. He should shoot them straight in the cage; that would be much faster and cleaner.

The kill is not hunting, its just killing. However, it seems to fit with much of the rest of his thought process.

NOt a sporting fellow IMO.

Dick Cheney is the Very Best thing to happen to the Democrat Party since FDR and JFK. Thanks, Dicky Baby!

Yoki, such good news about your tests, here is a site for Alberta native plants as well as info on the climate zone you are in, you really are in a tough climate and natives might be your best choice.

http://www.evergreen.ca/nativeplants/search/search-results.php?mode=guided&province=AB&type=Wildflower

One more thing Yoki you can also specify by your zone using the advanced search, which I believe is, Montane Cordillera.

I am going to go cower in the corner now fearing for when my pre-teen reaches 13, thanks Mudge.

Hello Mr. Everything,

Can you accept a bit o' free advice? Help Mrs. E out with EDottir. Here is a sample response to a fidget moment (substitute b for f, as needed):

"Hey there, Penelopy Louisey E! Don't talk to your mother and my bride that way."
(take a page from Jimmy Stewart and cultivate that look)
OR

"Mind your Ps and Qs there, Penelopy Louisey E. Hurts me to hear my two best gals at it."
(mug a John Wayne western bluster)

Does this work instant wonders? No. But the setting of a boundary and idenfification of your wife as special to you can help all through the fidget-days.

For me, they were better somewhere between 17 and 19. Both CeePeeDots cannot believe how much I have"matured": reasonable, fair, cool, smart, etc.

And From the Dept. of Non sequitors: currently ESPN.com/boxing has up to polling the Best of Mike Tyson comments. They are as follows (and try not to gut-laugh or snort soda):

1) "I'm gonna make you my girlfriend"
2) "I got my issues"
3) "I want to eat his children"
4) "I'm going to fade into Bolivian"

My vote is #3

I'm tryin' CP, I'm tryin; problem is wife too nice a person and too easily takes push back personally; me, jaded lawyer, will use any psychological trick available to steer behavior in acceptable direction.

Thanks for the suggestion, though. Explaining that she is crossing my boundary when she goes ballistic on wife not explained often enough.

Good for you, CP! I second the recommendation. It can cut disrespectful talk off *like that.*

Of course, I have also seen M-D relationships where the mother was the one instigating and being unreasonable and hateful. Don't know what you do about that.

How is the bald eagle not under perminent protection?

Yoki -- Those interactions are devasting to be around, to say nothing of the M-D dyad. What can be said? Those engaged in such, typically can't or won't hear.

In my in-law family, well, the wages of that dynamic continue (about 40 years, I belive. I try to hold compassion for the parties, but I would like to turn a water cannon on them!

In that case, Yoki, one does one's best to provide support and sanctuary for the dottir, until she comes of age. Tough situation.

Interesting take on the golden rule here. Wonder what capital our esteemed VP has in the Bank of Altruism?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062602243.html?hpid=topnews

That is excellent news about the Cheney Branch subpoenas. Now I can only wait in glee to hear NPR mispronounce "subpoenas" to agitate my lobes of indecency.

$#%@^ preview/submit on that one: SCC here:
In my in-law family, well, the wages of that dynamic continue (about 40 years, I believe) and let's just say that no one is happy. I try to hold compassion for the parties, but I would like to turn a water cannon on them! (Knit. Knit. Knit. Ignore. Avert head.)

Some families define themselve by a kind of casual cruelty in words and deeds. Years of military travel and hush-hush Mil Intel/the Firm culture also shaped this. They are clannish and like their damn crabbing just fine. Butt out.

If I suddenly disappear, you may surmise that they broke my CeePee cover and Soprano-ed me, for revealing the uglier of the family jewels.

On the bald eagles: "While no longer declared endangered, the bald eagle will continue to be protected by a 1940 federal law that will make it illegal to kill the bird _ as well as state statutes."

Whew! Isn't it awful that, even when good news is announced (bald eagles are back in a big way!) that we immediately question the motive of that announcement? It would be refreshing to be able to trust our government, but for me it will take more than an election to ease my cynicism.

I confronted Mr. Kennicott with the "plain site" line and he reports, and this is an exact quote, that it was "a devilishly clever and entirely intentional play on words."

This after he gasped in horror.

Simple Yoki, teach the daughter to express her boundaries!

I gotta say, the WaPo homepage layout right now sux. They continue to have the Cheney series as the major lede, and have the subpoena stroy as the second subhead under it. I think they ought to drop the Cheney series down and blast the subpoenas story across the top. And then they have the immigration bill second-round shoot-down as the third story, behind the Blair resignation, which is a non-breaking story, been known about for weeks and weeks.

*stalks off grumbling*

Yoki -- I pulled a native plants list down from the Calgary Horticultural Society site....some of us will confer over the next few weeks on plantey possibilities. We can do this at my gardening site.

Can you tell us about the exposure? Shady? Part shady? Wind? Soil type? Shady in spring? (I see Siberian Squill there with February Gold or Tete Tete daffies!) The first thing that I expect Frosti to say is that in extreme gardening, should you enrich the soil with good stuff: leaf mold, compost, earth worm castings, SMALL amount of fire-place ash -- all to a two feet depth. I BET you could coax hardy Zone 3 planties to stay awhile at your spread.

DMD is in the maritimes? DR -- is it dryer for Yoki than you? More steppe than forested?

Sorry to bore the none flower-peeps. Carry on with the Cheney biz, etc. Me? I need to cleanse my palette with something lifegiving.

CP, I believe Yoki is in an extreme dry location, at altitude, in the foothills and prone to wild swings in temp. Not maritime more desert. The link I provided I guessed at Montane Cordilla, I will look further at home.

Yoki you said dry shade correct?

The San Francisco Chronicle -SFGate.com- has the headline story as *VP Office Subpoenaed* along side the Tahoe fire update.
The govenator is on site giving pep talks.

"Paranoia" literally means "around/near the mind" - too much emphasis in common usage is put on the fact that paranoia puts you outside the mind, and not enough on being just outside, but near to the mind.

The best cure for paranoia is to take a walk. To go around the block. Or jog around it.

Good luck with the family travails, bill E, and CP. If you fear repercussions, then strike first and strike hard. Metaphorically, of course. Even if you're wrong, you've removed all doubt from the moral calculus, and you can take comfort in being certain that you were the bad guy. Natchally, dey is utha opshuns.

Don't take any advice from yours truly, however. My personal tarmac is littered with unanswered phone calls and bruises.

Contra bonum fidei is grounds for annulment in Canon Law - "against the good of faithfulness"

Conra bonum conjugum is also grounds for annulment, when the spouse is absent for long stints and fails to fulfill marital obligations, or when the spouse acts cruelly and indifferently to his or her partner

Not that a lawyer needs a Canon lawyer...

Raysmom-- good comment.

I'm seeing a brilliant editorial cartoon emerging from somebody's pen soon, with the central motif of:

Dick Cheney shooting a bald eagle wearing a Uncle Sam Hat ;).

General conditions: semi-arid grassland verging on the desert-like, high altitude, always windy, wild temperature swings (like, up to 30 degrees in 12 hours, both winter and summer).

Specific front bed conditions: full shade, under the eves so dry. Soil conditions? Non-existent. Whatever the developer left there 10 years ago. I shall dig it all out and replace it with top soil/soil amendments and will take the organic matter recommendation to heart.

Specific back bed conditions: full sun, very dry. There is in fact no back garden at all right now, so given the sun/dry general conditions, I can make a couple of different sorts when I get to it.

I spent some time at lunch looking at local garden centre web sites, and there is in fact one sea holly that is said to be suitable for zones 2 and 3! It is the one that is more silvery/greeny blue than deep blue, but I can live with that. I am so excited. I will use some in the back, when the time comes.

I should have added that in the overall design of this garden, I wish to, if not exactly exclusively xerescape, at least respect the environment and our impending water crisis, and use native plants as much as possible. I need more education on all of that, as the last time I really gardened was in Eastern Ontario with my grandmother in the 60s, and that was an entirely different kettle of fish.

Nonetheless, I do want some colour and have a few favourites that I would like to nuture teaspoon by teaspoon full of water at a time.

I added two more links.

Mudge, I disagree. Gellman and Becker spent a year on that series, it's a huge Web sensation, generating much buzz and analysis, and it's not the kind of thing that ought to be bounced, "rolled over," or shunted lower, because of a breaking story that, though important, is essentially an incremental escalation of an ongoing confrontation. Hard to know how it will all play out; but I do think the dot.com newsdesk is right to keep our unique product (unavailable anywhere else -- and produced at a great cost over a long period of time) at the top of the page with the big headline.

[It's weird how I'm ALWAYS right.]

"gunner" and "idiot boy" are not going to be happy until they have turned our planet (or at least our continent) into a festering garbage dump. the damage done by these two morons in so many arenas should be reason enough to start impeachment proceedings. AND STILL we cannot get pelosi off of her grandma _ss to get started on the articles.

Well, you might have a point, Joel. Of course, I'm also the guy that first defended the Gellman series here, and I don't denigrate it in the slighest. But my point was, it ain't every day the White House and Veep Iago get their a$$ses subpoened by the Judiciary Committe, either. If you wanna keep Gellman up top, OK. But I think the subpoena story deserves a lot more than a crappy subhead. (On the other hand, the Achenblog link has equal weight and nearly equal position to the subpoena subhead, which of course is only right and proper.)

*But stalks away still grumbling anyway, cuz the prize in my CrackerJacks was the same dinky, cheesy, quiz item the answer to which is George Washington that I also got last week*

Busy day today and way, way, way off-topic, but I had a good time last night at the BPH too. Great to meet L.A. Lurker and I had only met Raysmom very briefly so it was as though I met her for the first time. And it's always nice to catch up with bc, Mudge, and omni.

While the Gellman and Becker series is important and puts in context a lot of the VP's evilries I think the Senate finally issuing supoenas on the administration is the most important domestic story since the Dems took control of congress.
How these should compete on the front page I bow to the opinion of the decorators.

Mudge, the subpoena story certainly ought to have bigger play than the link to the Achendrivel. I don't dispute that. Indeed let's just come right out and declare that we agree that the subpoena story is underplayed. Maybe I'm not as persuaded that it's a really big story (yet). And I'd hate to see anything detract from the play of Becker/Gellman today.

OMG, Joel, Tina's wearing the same dress that bc wore to the BPH last night!

I think I need to take a cold shower.

Big wheel keep on toynin', so to speak.

Yeah that dress was working for me.

Tonight I'll practice those dance moves.

Joel, you're such a dawg. That damned clip is more than 9 and a half minutes long, and I'm on my second go-through, and getting no work done whatsoever.

OK, so they made the subpoena story bigger. Either they were listening to me or I wasn't paying attention to begin with. Hmmm.... Let's go with the first explanation.

Yeah...but the Achenblog link is still on top of it, so all's right with the world.

I always love it when a story starts a cascade of questions in my noodle.
Do the recent SCOTUS decisions throw any light on how they would handle a showdown between branches of govt.

How serious is congress? Will they fight or cave into some partial disclosure?

In these days of e-news how important is the placement of stories on the screen. Is there a virtual 'above the fold"?

That Romney story reminds me of Chevy Chase in the movie National Lampoon's Vacation.

Maybe when Romney finally gets to Wally World it will be closed. We can only hope so.

Dick Cheney is the Anti-Christ.

His daughter is right, he's not Darth Vader.

Darth Vader started out as a likable child
and found redemption at the end of his life.

Cheney won't change until his dying day.

Dick Cheney is 100% Evil.

God can't kill him and the even the Devil doesn't want to have anything to do with him.

We may be stuck with him forever.

Dick Cheney has already been practicing his response to subpoenas from Congress:

*F++k you!*

He will get away with it this time, too. Maybe he can even say it to the voters in November 2008. Welcome to The New America.

Joel, that kit made me laugh out loud in the hotel lobby. Now I'll have to show my new boss what I found so funny. I hope he doesn't start questioning his decision to hire me when he finds out I have imaginary friends.

I should have waited until I got to my room before jumping on the free wireless.

Of course there's a 'virtual above the fold', that's why I have a scroll wheel. duh.

I wonder if the veep retteated from his not being part of the exec. position so he can claim executive privilege.

Hang around, Simon D, this place could use a lawyer.

I like a little horseradish on my salmon. I am conflicted. Such a conundrum called for fast, wise leadership. Such as a quickly-arranged water lottery with some placating crop insurance. Enough water held back to save some salmon; breeding stock. It did not happen.

Subpoena! Woof woof!

Isn't it time for a kit about beer? After 9/11 I made the switch to no imports (well, certain occasional exceptions.) All domestic. A challenge.

I don't think THAT could be called a dress, Mudge. Perhaps a shaggy, glittery sarong made from a cargoful of military braid.

You certainly couldn't wear it in anything less than 85 degree weather.

And Bc... gold isn't your color. Try another color, wouldja? ;).

For you sarong fans, here's a lesson in tying one on-- (thankfully bc is not the model here).

http://www.keciasworld.com/tieasarong.html

For a little less sarong wrappage:
http://www.keciasworld.com/tieasarong2.html

If anybody plans a sarong BPH-- warn me WAY in advance.

I don't think I could take Mudge in a fishnet sarong, blue speedos, loafers, and a lei. Even if the fishnet was dyed a becoming shade of blue.

Futurenews: In an exquisite opinion rendered in newspeak, the USSC has ruled that the office of Vice President is neither executive nor legislative and therefore is not within the jurisdiction of the court. Commenting on the ruling, Vice-president Cheney said "It is what I say it is, nothing less and nothing more."

Wilbrod, thanks for the link. I've somehow ended up with 4 or 5 sarong-lengths, but have never been able to figure out the little diagrams on folding.

If Mr. Curmudgeon will promise never to appear at a BPH in a sarong (or a lungi) I will make the same pledge.

I am really really determined to be welcoming to newcomers (or silent, at least). Imagine if we didn't have Kim or Rainforest! But I absolutely deplore and reject the inflamatory language employed by the likes of CITAC, and I think oldhonkey's post should be zapped for violating the anti-profanity (though it is not so much profane as obscene) rule which is prominently displayed.

what are the MEN AND WOMEN IN IRAQ DYING AND LOSING BODY PARTS FOR??????

OIL and drug trafficking...

are the United States Soldiers getting a cut, of _t_h_a_t_ M O N E Y?

no they are getting their legs blown off, getting medals of honor and waiting two years to be declared disabled as they lose homes that they can't make mortgage payments on.

Just as the Iran-Contra scandal evolved to include drug smuggling, the Iraq War also is closely related to drug smuggling. While the Bush regime has so far managed to keep the drug smuggling aspects of the war from reaching the media, evidence is beginning to emerge. The evidence comes largely from a former FBI translator turned whistle-blower, Sibel Edmonds. Hired to translate intercepted messages soon after 9/11 this Turkish lady first blew the whistle on the FBI for dragging its feet. She has state emphatically that she has seen documents that prove the Bush administration was fully aware of the terrorist attack before 9/11. While ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASHCROFT, has imposed a gag order on her, this courageous lady has only been able to speak in generalized terms. However, she has repeatedly stated that when viewed as an international drug smuggling operation the picture becomes clear.

Sibel Edmonds has provided a huge clue in her generalized statements, a clue that points directly at the BUSH FAMILY and DICK CHENEY. Haliburton the oil services company formerly headed by CHENEY has a long history of involvement in drug smuggling and gunrunning especially through its Brown and Root subsidiary. Brown and Root also has a long history of providing cover for CIA agents. In the late 1970s Brown and Root was implicated in drug smuggling and gunrunning from oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico built by Brown and Root and using ships owned by Brown and Root. In the 1990s Brown and Root was implicated in smuggling heroin to Europe through Russia. The heroin originated in Laos.

The Russian incident surfaced in 1995 after thieves stole sacks of heroin concealed as sugar from a rail container leased by Alfa Echo. Authorities were alerted to the problem after residents of Khabarovsk, a Siberian city became intoxicated from consuming the heroin. Alfa Echo is part of the Russian Alfa group of companies controlled by Mikhail Fridman and Pyotr Aven. The FSB, the Russian equivalent of the FBI firmly proved a solid link between Alfa Tyumen and drug smuggling. The drug smuggling route was further exposed after the Ministry of Internal Affairs raided Alfa Eko buildings and found drugs and other compromising documentation. Under Cheney's leadership of Haliburton, Brown and Root received a taxpayer insured loan through the Export-Import Bank of $292 million dollars for Brown and Root to refurbish a Siberian oil field owned by Alfa Tyumen. The Alfa Bank is also implicated in money laundering for the Colombian cocaine cartels.

THERE IS $80 BILLION IN UNRECORDED PROFITS IN THE FIRST STEP OF AFGHANI OPIUM COLLECTION, refinement...three steps later it could be worth $400 BILLION, in unrecorded profits...

think I am crazeeeee?

who cares?

search on Gary Webb, Cocaine, Letter of Understanding, PARRY, GEORGE H.W. BUSH

and notice that the letter of undersstanding allows the CIA to drug traffick without disclosing profits or being responsible for criminal actions...

what does that mean? it means that every year about $400 BILLION DOLLARS in drug money gets pocketed off record in Afghanistan and Central and South America...

any reports of drug dealers controlling L.A. or San Diego...

and look at this:

WHY DOES BUSH WANT AMNESTY, with NO BACKGROUND CHECKS?

and you braindead CONGRESS PEOPLE, what do you think would happen if all of the CONTRAs, COLOMBIAN drug runners, Mexican drug runners and soldiers of the

CHILEAN, COLOMBIAN, COSTA RICAN, SALVADORAN, HONDURAN, GUATEMALEAN, PANAMANIAN, HAITIAN, PERUVIAN, ARGENTINE... conflicts

UNDER CHENEY AND the bush family control? not United States control, bush family control....LIKE BLACKWATER... martial law, border gaurds with drug running experience? $4.4 BILLION DOLLARS to put IRAN CONTRA GUNRUNNERS/DRUGRUNNERS ON THE BORDER?

do you guys have a fricking pulse, are your brain scans flatlines?

all of a these TERRORISTAS suddenly get a free pass to come IN_COUNTRY with no background checks?

these are the guys that taught nuns to fly after raping and torturing them by throwing them out of HELICOPTORS in HONDURAS...

think I am crazy? paranoid, unlearned, doubt me? good...search on these topics and look at the end of this post.
Loophole 7 - Terrorism Connections Allowed, Good Moral Character Not Required:

Illegal aliens with terrorism connections are not barred from getting amnesty. An illegal alien seeking most immigration benefits must show "good moral character." Last year's bill specifically barred aliens with terrorism connections from having "good moral character" and being eligible for amnesty. This year's bill does neither. Additionally, bill drafters ignored the Administration's request that changes be made to the asylum, cancellation of removal, and withholding of removal statutes in order to prevent aliens with terrorist connections from receiving relief. [Compare §204 in S. 2611 from the 109th Congress with missing §204 on p. 48 of S.A. 1150, & see missing subsection (5) on p. 287 of S.A. 1150].

Loophole 8 - Gang Members Are Eligible:

Instead of ensuring that members of violent gangs such as MS 13 are deported after coming out of the shadows to apply for amnesty, the bill will allow violent gang members to get amnesty as long as they "renounce" their gang membership on their application. [See p. 289: 34-36].

nice to see you too.
.

Ahh, somebody with the energy to rant on our behalf. Hello, Hello it's me...

If oldhonky is "obscene," then so is Dick Cheney - who used the same expletive in referring to Members of Congress. Cheney's vulgar language is less obscene than his perversion of the Constitution.

WaPo
Saturday, February 17, 2007; Page A30

IT'S THE KIND of story that seems to confirm everything people believe is sleazy about the way Washington works. Last March, Sue Ellen Wooldridge, then the head of the Justice Department's environmental division, bought a $1 million vacation home with Don R. Duncan, the top lobbyist for oil company ConocoPhillips. Nine months later, Ms. Wooldridge signed off on a settlement agreement that let ConocoPhillips delay the installation of pollution-control equipment and the payment of fines.

Just to make matters cozier, the third owner of the beach house is J. Steven Griles, the former No. 2 official at the Interior Department who's now the target of a Justice Department criminal investigation into his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Oh, and Ms. Wooldridge, who lives with Mr. Griles, once worked with him at Interior, where she gave Mr. Griles ethics advice and defended his actions during an inspector general investigation.

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, June 27, 2007; Page A02

Love is a many-splendored thing -- unless you're under investigation by the feds. Then it can be quite a nuisance.

Had J. Steven Griles not been busy with so many lady friends while serving as the No. 2 official in the Interior Department, he probably wouldn't have scored a date yesterday with another woman: Judge Ellen Huvelle of U.S. District Court, who sentenced Griles to 10 months in prison for obstructing an investigation into the Jack Abramoff scandal.

Griles asked Abramoff for favors for the women in his life, prosecutors said, and in exchange helped Abramoff's clients with their government business. One of Griles's girlfriends, Italia Federici, got $500,000 for her nonprofit from Abramoff's Indian tribes.

"I concealed the nature and extent of my true relationship with Italia Federici," Griles confessed to the judge yesterday in a statement interrupted by stifled sobs. Choking out the words, a burly, red-faced Griles told Huvelle that "this has been the most difficult time in my life. My guilty plea has brought me great shame and embarrassment."

Mr. Griles and Ms Wooldridge are now man and wife. Aww, ain't love grand.

Well, oldhonky's post is pushing the envelope but he's only quoting the Veep. and anticipating his probable response to the subpoenas. I think we're in 'fair comment' territory here. Like Cassandras use of the phrase blow job in the earlier boodle.

Now Wilbrod's posting the links to the sarong porn is really going too far.

I thought porn was being nekkid, Boko.

Good gosh golliwogs Wilbrod, I hope not. I don't think my ticker could take it.

I think porn, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Anyway, I save a bundle cause Sears, Walmart and Canadian Tire clog my mailbox with free stuff every Wednesday like calenderwork.

It's about time Todd Rundgren weighed in.

I always will remember his tribute to Mary Cheney: "We Gotta Get You a Woman."

Not that there is anything wrong with that . . . .

SCC In my 7:58 I should have pointed out that Sue Ellen Wooldridge is mentioned in the last of the Gellman/Becker series.

Next time you post links to dog abuse, warn me first.

That poor dog had the crap scared out of him being alone in a container that was shaking and sliding on a car going 60 mph, and strong deaccelerating stops without a seatbelt. I'm getting the trots just thinking about it.

"Doggie Strap-On" Romney is too mild an appellation. I call on all patriotic dogs to bite him on sight. Aren't there laws about that sort of thing?

'Mudge, loved the ripostes with Joel. But, given the new "fourth" branch of government that Cheney has created, the subpoena is but one step in what is sure to be an elaborate dance ("kabuki" is the usual metaphor), eventually through the court system, that is unlikely to end before 1/20/09 or, at least, until after the '08 elections.

I would say "The Angler" series did benefit from the recent "unique" approach to constitutional jurisprudence emanating from the VPOTUS. I still think was a really important piece of journalism, not that I know a damn thing about it, although it's sort of like Justice Powell and pornography, i.e., "I know it when I see it."

Now if Cheney were to preside over the Senate, begin frothing at the mouth and whilst cursing declare "I'm mad as hell and not only am I not going to take it anymore but I am going to devour the Senator from Vermont, Mr. Leahy, then, and only then, do we have a leadoff story.

I hope you're all watching the Paul Simon award show on the PBS station of your choice right now. I just missed the intro to this song; who are the two ladies doing a very nice job singing "The Boxer"?

OK, OK, I'll make the no-sarong pledge. Jeez. You guys drive a hard bargain. And Wilbrod, I would have NEVER worn that ensemble (fishnet sarong, blue speedos, loafers, and a lei) unless you'd have let me also wear a pair of almost-to-the-knees black socks with garters, and a three-sizes-too-small "I'm only here for the beer" T-shirt. Whaddaya take me for, anyway? I DO have a fashion sensibility, yanno.

bh,
Thanks for the 4:35 update. Pep talk, you say? I say once a body builder, always a body builder. From the lastest AP story posted at the Tahoe Trib:

The governors of the two states Lake Tahoe straddles, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger and Nevada's [Republican]Jim Gibbons, toured neighborhoods charred by the fire.

Examining the remains of a house in the Tahoe Mountain neighborhood, just outside South Lake Tahoe, the ex-bodybuilder Schwarzenegger hoisted a dumbbell from the debris, marveling that it was one of the few objects to survive. "Amazing," he told an aide.

Little else survived the inferno. Metal mattress coils, a bicycle, tools, half-melted televisions, concrete foundations and chimneys were about all that was left of the burned houses. Some neighboring buildings stood virtually untouched.

"It could have been much worse, if we hadn't had such well-trained firefighters," said Schwarzenegger, mentioning his decision in May to free up more money for firefighters and equipment after the dry winter.

[When in May? Have the 1,884 firefighters working on the blaze had advanced training since those funds were appropriated? What new equipment has been purchased in the last four to six weeks? Just asking'...]

More from the Trib:
At a 1 p.m. news conference in South Lake Tahoe, Calif. with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Executive Director John Singlaub addressed residents' concerns that the TRPA interfered with efforts to clear dry brush and trees. [and defended his agency]

The news conference:
At a 1 p.m. news conference in South Lake Tahoe, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger praised firefighters on the front lines of the Angora Fire and assured visitors that it is still safe to come to Lake Tahoe.

State officials estimated the damage at $150 million so far in the fire that has blackened more than 3,000 acres of forest and destroyed more than 200 homes.

Sharing the stage with Lt. Governor John Garamendi, Schwarzenegger said efforts to bring in state and federal funds are well under way. But the governor, just returned from a European visit, emphasized that firefighters battling the wildfire are ready for whatever comes. ...

Garamendi, the state's Democratic lieutenant governor who declared the Angora fire an emergency while Schwarzenegger was out of the country, said he "fully expects" the federal government to declare the Tahoe Basin a federal emergency.

Federal funds would not be available to individual homeowners, although Small Business Administration loans would be available, he said. The state is already documenting its expenses, which could be reimbursed by the federal government, Garamendi said.

I love the Liz Claiborne photo that alternates on the home page that looks oh so much like Jim Carrey in "The Mask."

Ah, that's a relief. I do agree that the elongated leg effect of the black knee-highs are a good fashion addition, and the tight shirt is certainly a good complement to the fishnet sarong.

Still... I want the warning ;).

Alert readers noticed that I was directly quoting the VPOTUS*s earlier riposte to Senator Leahy, who has now signed the (bipartisan!) subpoena aimed at him. That is why I said that out esteemed VPOTUS was just practicing his response to the subpoena. Free speech! Democracy by expletive!

OK, gang, list-making time. I have no problem whatsoever with the LoC giving Paul Simon the first Gershwin Award. So start your lists: who's next in line? Gimme your next 5 to 10 picks (don't have to be in rank order). [Anybody who puts R. Kelley on the list is going to spend serious quality time in the woodshed.](They gotta be still alive and Murican. Can be a team.)

I'll start:

1) Bob Dylan
2) Stephen Sondheim
3) Joni Mitchell
4) Carole King
5) Burt Bacharach/Hal David (no rotten tomatoes, please)
6) James Taylor
7) Billy Joel
8) Laura Nyro
9) Bruce Springsteen
10) Glenn Frey/Don Henley
11) Stephen Stills
12) Willie Nelson (wrote Patsy Cline's "Crazy," if you need reminding)

Joni Mitchell's a 'Merkin?

The Gershwin award is for a songwriter who also performs music?

I'd put Dolly Parton up there, just because she's the only songwriter/musician I know of that has the honor of having her own name in sign.

Ooops. OK, scratch Joni Mitchell.

Damn. Gonna miss that gal.

Can't top Mudge's list, nor think of any American songwriters, at least that I know are American.

But here's a list of those who probably won't win the award, British list of the all time most annoying songs. Yes Celine in on the list.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/music/story/2007/06/27/most-irritating.html?ref=rss

I don't think singing is necessarily part of the award, Wilbrod. Gershwin never sang, and it would knock Sondheim out. I could also see people like Leonard Bernstein, Kantor & Ebb, Jimmy Webb, Brian Wilson & Van D yke Parks, etc., making it on the list.

(You know that *&%$# Wirty Dird filter wouldn't let me post Van D yke Park's name? Jeez.)

Randy Newman

Neil Young
Randy Bachman
Celine Dion
Gordon Lightfoot
Guy Lombardo (what's the diff stiff?)
Leonard Cohen

Any idea how they classify "popular music"?

In spite of his not being my sentimental favourite (I *loved* James Taylor as a teenager), I've always thought that future generations of merikans would crown Billy Joel (particularly the Joel of the "Brenda and Eddy" days) as the equal, at least, of Stephen Foster and the Gershwin brothers. It's just gonna take a while.

And 'Mudge, thank you for reminding me of "The Boxer." Haven't thought of it in years. And when I read your post, the whole song, complete with background arrangements and lyrics, played in my head. I enjoyed it very much.

That Liz Claiborne picture really does look like "The Mask."

http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/homepage/hp6-27-07ff.jpg

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/061201/13857__mask_l.jpg

I nearly put Randy Newman on that list, Bertooch, and was thinking about Neil Young, but decided two from CSN&Y was too much.

Boko, somehow I suspect your nomination of Celine Dion lacked, shall we say, sincerity on your part? Don't want to accuse you of anything, but, um, er, ah...

Ditto on The Boxer, that song is completely linked in my mind of watching my Dad place the speakers just so - in order to properly hear the song, its a good memory.

I believe Alison Krauss is one of the singers on The Boxer - forget who else is - the WaPo did a story about this when it occurred. I'll see it later, of course.

I'd add to the list:
Leon Russell
Stevie Wonder
Brian Wilson
Lyle Lovett

Would Neil be excluded like Joni Mitchell?

Stevie Wonder

Wow.. some more drama in the Tahoe fires...

'Last-ditch' shelters saved Tahoe firefighters

(06-27) 17:32 PDT South Lake Tahoe, Calif. (AP) --

A patchwork of small blazes exploded into an inferno, surrounding the two young firefighters. Separated from the rest of their crew and with trees turning into matchsticks all around, they had seconds to act.

They raced to a meadow, flung open the thin, heat-resistant emergency shelters all wildland firefighters carry, and threw their bodies on the ground. It would be nearly an hour before U.S. Forest Service officials working the wildfire near Lake Tahoe knew the pair survived the searing gases and heat...

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/27/state/n173223D03.DTL

Mostlylurking, I was on my way to bed and turned around to add my nomination for Mr. Wonder--I should have realized it wasn't necessary. Thanks for taking over, it's bedtime on the east coast for me now.

Cheers, all

Neil Young's Canadian. I think they should allow Canadians - it's so close, yeah, and Boko's list, with a few notable exceptions, is good.

Yoki, you should have heard those two women sing The Boxer. They were wonderful. (One might have been Alison Krauss, who is now singing "Graceland.")

Alison Krauss and Shawn Colvin. Here's the review of the live show, which was somewhat plagued by trouble:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/24/AR2007052402577.html

I'm going to see Alison Krauss in about a week - really looking forward to that.

You can't have Neil either. And if any one of you even looks at Shania I'll burst into tears.

Two books of green stamps and you can take Celine with you.

Graceland! I gave birth to #2 (all natural, for the second time) to the tape cassette of Graceland. Good driving rhythms, just what was needed.

On one of my first flights back from Washington to Montreal, when my career took off, a bunch of very good looking black men were on the same flight (c. 1994, I should think). After take-off, they began to sing. It was Ladysmith Black Mombasso between tour gigs. Every single one of us on that very uncomfortable regional jet smiled all the way to landing. A wonderful spontaneous experience.

I think Paul Simon was the perfect choice for the first Gershwin award. Thanks Mudge for alerting us to the show.

I'd burst into tears, too, Boko, if I looked at Shania.

This is my favorite line from the review:
"...the crowd, which was so very Washingtonian: lots of dark suits, politely enthusiastic and apparently incapable of proper rhythmic clapping, no matter how hard Yolanda Adams tried to keep everybody in time"

Ha! (Seattle crowds are much the same.)

I'm really conflicted about opening it up to Canucks (tho' it'd let me sneak Joni back in, along with Robbie Robertson and most of The Band), cuz then we'd have to let other nationalities in, and we'd be overrun with Paul McCartney, a couple of Stones, and other Limey/Liverpool riffraff, a couple of frogs like Michgel LeGrand and Pierre Lai (I think he's still alive, not sure), Andy Lloyd-Weber, etc., and we'd be up to our arses in "Phantom of the Opera" and "Cats" and one damn thing after another, like Lars-Bjorne Lutefisk of Abba {OK, that's probably not his real name, but you kinda know who I mean, and there's no freakin' way I'm letting the writer of "Mama Mia" on the list}, plus whoever writes those Gipsy Kings tunes that Nicholas Reyes growls that I like so much.

Here comes Garfunkel to sing "Bridge..." with Simon.

Anybody wanna nominate Joan Baez?

Lyle Lovett, Yeah!
Tom Waites
Leon Redbone

Carol King should get the next one.

Mudge... so would Sondheim be a sound choice?

Not Andrew Lloyd-Webber! Please. I'll just stab myself in the eyeballs. I *laughed* when I heard Robert Simpson interviewed on the CBC one day in 1997, deploring the fact that ALW was now considered "a composer, when really he is a tune smith." Hah!

I can second the Redbone nomination.

Yoki,
A useful source for Canadian gardening advice is the forum run by the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden, presided over by Daniel Mosquin.
http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/forums/index.php

Of course a lot of contributors are mild-climate people.

The Klamath's waters have three claimants. In addition to fish and farmers, there's Native American rights, which I think have generally been ingnored. The federal government promised far more water to the various parties than actually exists.

In another somewhat-overpromised system, the Miccosukee Tribe is spending whatever it takes on lawyers to ensure an appropriate outcome for Everglades restoration.

But if we're going to go so far outside Pop as to nominate Redbone, what about Clifton Chenier?

Oh, absolutely Joan Baez. And come on, we can't even remember who's a Canadian, so they should qualify (I'm joking!). Honestly, I keep thinking of Canadians. It's not fair!!!

That is because we are so very, very talented.

It has been lovely to be back here today. Good night all.

Perhaps a good way to judge would be to consider how many of the originator's songs have been covered by other singers.

Carole King would be a really big shoe in.

Yoki - dry shade - the gardener's nightmare. It will be interesting to see what we come up with. I have a tough pyracantha in dry shade - and an eglantine rose, which would be much happier with some sun, but grows like crazy.

mostly | I can remember who is and who was a Canadian. Jim Carrey, the guy who looks like Liz Claireborn, ferinstance, used to be one. We Canucks have long memories. That's why the CIA did all those mind experiments up here.

I don't know a lot about Leon Redbone's stuff, but most everything I've heard him sing were old classics somebody else wrote.

Never heard of Clifton Chenier. What did he write? Keep in mind that we're talking about a songwriter prolific enough and stroing enough to merit a top national award and capable of sustaining a 90-minute or 2-hour show of his/her hits and golden oldies. We gotta have 15, 20 songs that everybody knows, though they might not know who wrote them.

Yeah, Wilbrod, I don't think there's any question Sondheim is in. We're talking about all the lyrics to West Side Story, to "Send in the Clowns," A little Night Music, and a couple of songs from "Gypsy," if nothing else. But West Side Story seals it.

I love John Paul Stevens. Sure hope he can hang on for a few more years, till we get a Democrat in the White House.

I'm all sillied out, I'll let the grownups get on with it. Goodnight.

Carole King next for sure.

The WaPo home page is pretty frightening at the moment. Ya got Liz Claiborne on one side, and a mugging Rosie O'Donnell on the other side (in an ad).

Sondheim after King.

I thought Marc Anthony did a nice job. He wouldn't have been on my short list of artists to perform Paul Simon songs but it worked for me.

Billy Joel is a one trick horse that had no traction and has spent the last 25 years trying to stay in the news even if it meant DWI. Geez

So much to cover this evening.

You're right, gold's *not* a great color for me, but I carried Tina's dress off reasonably well, I think. I have the legs and the back for it, anyway.

Willing to try a sarong, but can I go commando? (no photos, please).

I'd nominate John Hiatt and Tom Petty for Gershwin awards/shows.

Oh, look Michael Moore's on the Daily Show.

bc

Meant to add that I really appreciate the Gellman/Becker series on Cheney, and I liked the format used by the WaPo.com folks.

bc

I am in the Carole King camp too, Frostbitten.

One of my favorite Carole King songs of popular music is Aretha Franklin's take on "You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman"

Listen to the opening quiet piano notes, the sadness is clearly stated.

The way the song builds into a grand affirmation of love is just something that makes life worth living for.

I didn't know Leonard Cohen was American. Is he, really? I should look it up but I don't have the energy right now. I think Famous Blue Raincoat is one of the saddest songs I've ever listened to.

The other saddest song is Lost In the Moment, which funny enough, is the last track of Edie Brickell's album, Picture Perfect Morning. And she is, of course, Paul Simon's wife.

Bill everything:

"We didn't start the fire, it's been burning since the world's been turning, we didn't start the fire, no we didn't light it, but we tried to fight it..."

Come on, that's one song I know more than one verse of. And it's all the more true now that we look at the world.

"'Nauts in Diapers on long rides, gangsta rappers, suicide,
Foreign debts, legless Vets, AIDS, Crack, Scooter Libby
Hurricanes hit on the shores, Iraq is under martial law,
Global Warming won oscars, I can't take it anymore....

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it "

It's the anthem of a generati9n.

Of course, I understand Weingarten loathes "Piano man". Which is all the more reason to vote Billy Joel in ;).

But generally if you can nominate an ensemble for a Gershwin award... all I can say is, it's too bad the Rolling Stones are a british band.

No, a bea c, Boko was kidding - Cohen is Canadian.

From the Library of Congress website:
http://www.loc.gov/today/pr/2007/07-010.html

"Named in honor of the legendary George and Ira Gershwin, this newly created award recognizes the profound and positive effect of popular music on the world's culture. The prize will be given annually to a composer or performer whose lifetime contributions exemplify the standard of excellence associated with the Gershwins."

So, let's add Aretha to the list, and maybe Bernice Johnson Reagon (Sweet Honey in the Rock), and Emmylou...Tina Turner (must watch that video)...

Looked it up...Leonard Cohen is Canadian...Cross him off the Gershwin list.

oops...BOO

Has anyone else read Leonard Cohen's poetry? Beautiful stuff.

Billy Joel wrote Honesty. Love that song. And we don't have enough of it anywhere, especially the government.

Wilbrod, loved your update. Just have always seen Billy Joel as an oppotunist, without a message.

He wanted to be a history teacher once, Billy Joel said-- that's why he wrote that song-- lyrics before music.

And well, what is the message in gangsta rap nowadays? "Bam-bam, whacking wham die, yo' fool made fun with the gang lords, thought you'd played and won, got shy with the gun. Now your eyes be sky, bro...your eyes be sky..." (and that's a massively bowdlerized and almost literate version, I must say).

Honesty:

http://freelyrics.virtuale.org/BillyJoel_honesty.htm

And I like this song about the cold war:

http://www.lyricsbook.net/lyrics/2512.html

All the more poignant when you have had Russian friends.

Also check out "Goodnight Saigon" "Pressure" and "Angry Young man".

\\Imagine if we didn't have Kim or Rainforest!

Thanks Yoki. I had no experience in posting comments on blogs before this. It was frightening at first. Not so now. This is a friendly place and bloggers are civil. I lurk in a M'sian political blog but have never posted any comments because what I have to say, others have already said it and said it better. They never go off-topic!

We can criticize our leaders in the blogs but we can't make statements that are deemed defamatory. The beauty of it is, sometimes it's true but it's still defamatory. Our leaders are a bunch of very touchy people. Recently, 2 blog owners' rear ends got hauled to court because of what a couple of bloggers posted and the blog owners refused to release the bloggers identity. Case is still pending.

Thanks Wilbrod for the sarong link. Most men and women (except for the ethnic Chinese) in this region wear sarong in one form or another. In formal settings, Malay women wear baju kurung (tunic over a sarong) without exception. The sarong looks simple but wearing it in the traditional way can be time consuming. The sarong must be wide enough to make 4 to 6 pleats by hand about 4-6 inches wide on the side. All the pleats must be level with the rest of the sarong before they put a belt on. I once watch a colleague tried to get it right for 10 mins. Nowadays, women just have it sown dead. Problem solved. For the men, a variation of the sarong is worn outside the shirt and trousers.

http://histclo.com/style/ethnic/ethnicmal.html

http://www.alibaba.com/catalog/11349330/Baju_Kurung.html

'Morning, Boodle. Guess what the top story is today? Uh-huh.

Didn't realize the Gershwin award could go to a pure performer who ISN'T also a songwriter, so that opens it up considerably. So we have to add to the list. Next year's winner (you heard it here first): Tony Bennett.

David Broder has a pretty good column on the Cheney thing, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/27/AR2007062702234.html?hpid=opinionsbox1 . George Will continues to keep his head buried in the sand, nattering on a about liberal Supreme Court justices.

Rainforest, I am humbled by what you said about blogging in your corner of the internet. Would what is said here ever cause trouble for you?

Good morning, friends. Did not have time to read all the comments, although I'm still laughing at yours, Mudge. The one where you talk about being thirteen and what we have now.

We're running late this morning. Yoki, I'm glad it is going well with you. Keep hanging in there.

Ivansmom, my test were good. I'm clear until the next time.

Have a great day, folks. Will try to check in later.

Will anyone seriously do anything about Cheney even with this new thing of asking for documents. I mean is this just for the press?

Morning, Mudge, Slyness, Scotty, and all.*waving*

God loves us so much more than we can imagine through Him that died for all, Jesus Christ. Peace.

A belated thank you Mudge for the heads up on the Paul Simon tribute. I love Ladysmith Black Mombasso.

I can't decide who is more loathsome, Cheney or Coulter.

Good morning everyone. And I have good news!
The UN has designated the Rideau Canal, connecting Kingston and Ottawa Ontario, a World Heritage Site.

At the time it was proposed, shortly after the War of 1812, there remained a persistent threat of attack from the United States on Britain's colony of Upper Canada. To impede and deter any future American invasions, the British built various forts (eg. Citadel Hill, La Citadelle, and Fort Henry) and canals (eg.Grenville Canal, Chute-à-Blondeau Canal, Carillon Canal, and the Rideau Canal) to defend their territory.- Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rideau_Canal

So you see, a heathly fear of American invasion can have wonderful results. Why ,oh why, can't those silly Iraqis see the fabulous opportunity they're frittering away? Oops to late, oh well. I wonder what clever device the Iranians are contructing.

Now the Rideau Canal (celebrating its 175 anniversery this year) is used as the world's longest skating rink in winter and in summer it's a marvelous greenback extr