tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-141331072012-01-05T23:54:55.551-05:00jpmistnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1071100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-11280724562283133082012-01-05T23:54:00.004-05:002012-01-05T23:54:55.561-05:00

Ouch, sounds painful.  I've decided at this point to split off my content into the two things I still have some enthusiasm for. One being my music and the other the quest to understand what happened that caused the 2008 financial crisis.  If you scan my Bush era posts you'll see that I did a lot of heavy breathing over the sad state of affairs back then. With the passing of time I realize

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-82534866329571843932011-10-26T21:34:00.009-05:002011-12-12T20:15:23.832-05:00

So here begins a few of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. I remember playing his Highway 61 Revisited album to death in high school and college. It's amazing to me how long those songs have been in my head and I appreciate now how influential that album was. Mainly due to the poetic imagery of his lyrics which encouraged bands from The Beatles to Jimi Hendrix to try to emulate. No one did it better

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-12707516095744390642011-07-06T10:16:00.004-05:002011-07-07T22:40:33.125-05:00

Another cover of an old jazz standard written by Hoagy Carmichael (Stardust, Georgia on my Mind) in 1929 and was popularized by Mildred Bailey as well as Louis Armstrong who utilizes a "call and response" to create a dialogue between an aged father and his son. I learned the song from a recent Eric Clapton album and recorded it with my trusty ol' Taylor 312 on the second take.Rockin' Chair

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-44146511550684290312011-04-25T14:32:00.002-05:002011-04-25T14:41:01.456-05:00

A sad sweet wistful little tune I heard on a recent Eric Clapton album. This album opened my eyes to a completely different genre of music than I've ever played before, but I really like it. It fits my style of playing and it's a fun challenge to figure out chords I've never played before and don't know the names of. I tried to bury my singing in the mix but it does build nicely. Hope you enjoy

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-35289550036324372011-04-02T20:48:00.005-05:002011-04-02T21:05:23.358-05:00

My nephew Joel got married on the beach to his lovely bride Amanda last week. They were kind enough to honor me with playing Pachelbel's Canon while she walked up the sandy aisle. I learned it by ear somewhat hastily but I think I did ok. But I worked on it some more so here it is.Pachelbel's Canon

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-73870466100388881212011-01-26T22:19:00.004-05:002011-01-26T22:33:04.589-05:00

A new recording! This one on my Larrivee OO-03 using the new Audio-Technica mic. Lot's of squeaks, but I can't help that much. It's a sweet little melody, I think. Enjoy!Remember Me

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-2848038812479006512011-01-22T15:03:00.003-05:002011-01-22T15:12:12.873-05:00

If all advertisers made commercials as fun as this, I'd watch more of them. The actor who plays Lincoln is Timothy Simons who had 5 hours in makeup to think about what he was gonna do. What I love about his performance is the shift of expressions on his face as he wrestles with what he should say and how he should say it in reply to one of the eternal questions of the ages: "Does this dress make

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-59873144567860900502011-01-13T20:02:00.003-05:002011-01-13T20:08:28.160-05:00

Here's another acoustic melody I wrote and recorded. This one is a bit more atmospheric and, yeah, reminiscent of the randomness of raindrops falling. . .Rain

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-25020608675704849442011-01-12T15:13:00.002-05:002011-01-12T15:24:51.176-05:00

With Atlanta's current SnowJam, I'm finally getting around to recordings some little acoustic ditties I've had on the back burner for a while. This one is called "Pomp". It feels kinda formal and regal. . .Pomp

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-31064110878130321272010-08-29T10:06:00.011-05:002011-01-30T23:56:32.035-05:00

The link I've posted below is my latest recording, a cover of a sad Mark Knopfler song I like. Reminds me of the last few moments I spent in a house I lived in for 9 years during a really good time in my life. After having cleared out all my belongings I wandered around looking at the empty rooms and wondering if those 9 years ever really happened– "everything is gone, but my heart is hanging

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-42187959128916188982010-06-18T19:05:00.004-05:002010-06-18T19:54:38.508-05:00

Speedway At Nazareth is a song I passed on when Mark Knopfler's album "Sailing To Philadelphia" came out several years ago, but I stumbled on the track again and it stuck the second time. It's a bit more country than I usually go for, but I found the rhythm chord structure intriguing as it was far different than I was used to.For the main rhythm track I used my new (to me) Larrivee LSV-11e guitar

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-33769017684196372002010-06-11T21:45:00.004-05:002010-06-11T21:56:50.333-05:00

Yea, I'm cast in another British farce!When I first read the play I thought it started a bit slow, but I did appreciate how well written it was. The dialogue flowed easily and before you knew it you were into a story of monstrous miss-communications and devious machinations.I play a well-to-do British corporate type who in his first scene accuses his wife of cheating on him and without skipping a

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-48154533607071595682009-02-11T19:01:00.006-05:002010-06-16T09:24:00.542-05:00

 var addthis_pub = 'canada.com'; function textCounter(field,cntfield,maxlimit) { if (field.value.length > maxlimit) // if too long...trim it! field.value = field.value.substring(0, maxlimit); // otherwise, update 'characters left' counter else { var divLabel = document.getElementById("divLabel"); divLabel.innerHTML = maxlimit -

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-90756559822745853262009-02-10T21:46:00.009-05:002009-02-11T10:59:50.087-05:00

From Threat Level - Wired BlogsShepard Fairey, the street artist who created the highly recognized "Hope" image of Barack Obama, filed a preemptive lawsuit claiming he did not violate The Associated Press's intellectual property rights. Fairey acknowledges his drawing was based on an AP photo of Obama before he was elected president.The AP last week claimed the drawing violated its copyright and

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1156178638744598322006-08-21T11:32:00.000-05:002006-08-21T11:43:58.923-05:00

I was thinking of breaking my self-imposed Festus-derision embargo with this question which seemed far too interesting to resist. But I hesitated, worried that this might not rise to the level appropriate to break my long silence. WTF, I make the rules around here. . .Paired with this quote from some guy it seems satisfyingly complete.It's the burning question failing to divide America.Unlike

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1144452217546094442006-04-07T18:10:00.000-05:002006-04-07T18:23:37.573-05:00

And so now I'm announcing a sabatical of sorts. It really doesn't do me any good to be getting my bile up about the clown show in D.C and it's depressing to think that Festus hasn't been laughted out of public office by now.I give up.I may be back should Festus get impeached by some miracle or should Fizgerald finally get off his ass and bring down some heavy weight on the Festus debacle. If not

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1144451421376519792006-04-07T17:54:00.000-05:002006-04-07T18:10:21.393-05:00

A guy named Harry Taylor has the biggest stones in the entire United States of America. How he managed to find the balls to ask Festus point-blank a question that hundreds of professional journalists have failed to is simply jaw-dropping to me.A striking exchange from President Bush's Q+A session with an audience in Charlotte, North Carolina on Thursday: Q: You never stop talking about

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1144450460286592022006-04-07T17:37:00.000-05:002006-04-07T17:54:20.360-05:00

That's french for the state is me. Sounds more meaningful in french for some reason, I dunno. So as it turns out, Bush is OK with outing a CIA agent for purely partisan political reasons, and then lying about wanting to find out who did it. There are a wealth of blog sites that say it far better than I. Here's one:CLASSIFIED LEAKS AS POLITICAL WEAPONS....Did George Bush authorize Scooter Libby to

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1144116020433090842006-04-03T20:54:00.000-05:002006-04-03T21:00:20.446-05:00

U.S. Pulls Plug on Iraqi ReconstructionUSA Today is the only paper to lead today with what, in our estimation, is pretty big news. The head of U.S. reconstruction efforts in Iraq has declared that America is done paying the bills to rebuild the country. "The Iraqi government needs to build up its capability to do its own capital budget investment," said Daniel Speckhard, director of the Iraq

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1143742924282069312006-03-30T12:46:00.000-05:002006-03-30T13:22:04.396-05:00

AKA theft, I guess. Here's a brilliant riff from AMUG's venerable RAG, our resident Hunter Thompson Chair EmeritusIt seems that Royce got his iPod stolen from his unlocked truck in his driveway. Speculation ensues.Royce Brown writes:No a Republican would have got a copy of the car title then hired a democrat to steal the car. Then RAG replies:Wrong, a republican would have spent $20,000 in

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1143515859231258172006-03-27T10:59:00.000-05:002006-03-27T22:19:37.846-05:00

This Sunday's AJC had a very important commentary in their @issue section, but unfortunately it's not online. (???) Nor is there any mention I could find of it being published anywhere else, at least per GoogleNews. It's surprising to me how fast Michael Scheurer has fallen out of the public eye, since he spent most of his career in the CIA studying Osama bin Laden. Because of that, I tend to sit

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1143424939536965012006-03-26T20:06:00.000-05:002006-03-26T21:02:19.556-05:00

Events have recently conspired to depress my glee in posting these offerings, so here are the sweepings I recently found in my Blog fodder folder...Interesting dicussion of Festus's policy on tortureMark Danner: When you look at the record, the phrase I come back to, not only about interrogation but the many other steps that constitute the Bush state of exception, state of emergency, since 9/11

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1143421184695904022006-03-26T19:53:00.000-05:002006-03-26T19:59:44.713-05:00

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1142474809546507972006-03-15T21:00:00.000-05:002006-03-15T21:06:49.563-05:00

This is really kind of amazing. This guy reports how he tore up his credit card application, taped it up, checked off the box where he wanted it sent to a different address and got a brand new credit card. Damn, if he could do that, anyone going thru your garbage could too!

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1142390346576090892006-03-14T21:27:00.000-05:002006-03-14T21:39:06.610-05:00

Festus lies again. Amazing. Either he's so divorced from reality that he doesn't know he's not saying anything factual or he's apparently unaware of the concept of written records. Or worse, cause it doesn't matter, he'll get away with it because no one ever calls him on it.What Festus's said:"Within five days of the publication, using details from that article, the enemy had posted instructions

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1142385246289213282006-03-14T20:11:00.000-05:002006-03-14T20:14:06.300-05:00

This is another cool thing by Google. Would make a neat desktop.

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1142384339309685892006-03-14T19:49:00.000-05:002006-03-14T19:58:59.310-05:00

I don't like this.We already know Google keeps track of every search we make on it's search engine and what we click on from that search page and now it's evident that the Festus White House is free to data mine phone calls and whatever it can get it hands on to spy on us as well. Scary thing when Festus forces Google to become partners. . .In a closely watched case pitting prosecutors' demands

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1142383377821083212006-03-14T19:16:00.000-05:002006-03-14T19:42:57.836-05:00

From this report it seems that a surveillance program that was so egregious in it's violation of civil rights that it was dismantled a few years ago after the details were made public. Guess what. . .A controversial counter-terrorism program, which lawmakers halted more than two years ago amid outcries from privacy advocates, was stopped in name only and has quietly continued within the

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1141311197123210742006-03-02T09:42:00.000-05:002006-03-02T09:53:17.143-05:00

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." George W. Bush, Sept. 1, 2005Only now the AP has unearthed videotape of the president being warned that just that could happen the day before Katrina hit. In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1140922984332772362006-02-25T21:55:00.000-05:002006-02-25T22:03:04.350-05:00

This is an interesting report from Time. The Justice Department has a message for Congress: clean up your house or else we may have to do it for you. A senior federal law enforcement official told TIME that the paralyzed and often lax House ethics committee has created a vacuum that prosecutors won't hesitate to fill. The House’s internal mechanism for keeping corruption in check is “broken,”

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1140653011102971302006-02-22T18:43:00.000-05:002006-02-22T19:03:31.130-05:00

I dunno what to think on this, but it's fun to watch Festus squirm and threaten a veto so passionately over an issue that not even he knew about last week.On the negative side:. . . the White House shouldn't be surprised by the fear-based reaction the port deal has received — the Bush gang has been tilling this soil for a while.Bush has long been successful in persuading Americans they were under

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1140543731553387772006-02-21T12:36:00.000-05:002006-02-21T12:42:11.576-05:00

From The CarpetbaggerFrom the State of the Union: "Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1140403098510620142006-02-19T21:21:00.000-05:002006-02-19T21:38:18.526-05:00

This is an addendum from an earlier post. Apparently the guy who wrote the orginal article stirred up a lot of stuff from it. This is an interviewI was tongue-in-cheek about the introverts' rights movement, but the main principle would just be that it should be as respectable for introverts to be who they are socially as it is for extroverts. We ought to be trying to make extroverts conscious and

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1140236113680783842006-02-17T21:45:00.000-05:002006-02-17T23:15:13.723-05:00

I'm way backed up so here are some links I wanna keep track of. . .Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq:The former CIA official who coordinated U.S. intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring warnings that the country could easily fall

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1140230357068764792006-02-17T21:23:00.000-05:002006-02-17T21:39:17.083-05:00

This should be a new branch of the science of Economics; Political Economics. Weary of trying to convince everyone who'll listen that the key to a prosperous US economy is lower taxes the Festus White House is going to open a "tax analysis division" to utilize smoke an mirrors to establish the lower taxes mantra as a new reality.Treasury officials said yesterday that the president's proposed

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1140228769741695702006-02-17T21:07:00.000-05:002006-02-17T21:12:49.753-05:00

"My family and I are deeply sorry for all that Vice President Cheney and his family have had to go through this week," Whittington said.

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1139927852028714812006-02-14T09:27:00.000-05:002006-02-14T09:37:32.046-05:00

But not for you. Reeling under the weight of massive amounts of profits the domestic Oil and Gas industry will have to absorb more billions courtesy of obscure Federal government regulations allowing them to take all the gas and oil they want off of federal land for absolutely nothing.New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1139862170727646402006-02-13T15:15:00.000-05:002006-02-13T17:21:34.750-05:00

Your Muslim religion doesn't give you the right to kill and declare jihad every time you get your feelings hurt or some infidel trods on sacred soil.So here is one of the cartoons you feel is worth killing people over. Come get me. This is the 21st Century, jackasses, I suggest you get used to it. . .

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1139803234159147682006-02-12T21:00:00.000-05:002006-02-12T23:00:34.190-05:00

No, I'm not referencing the tv show nor the Eddie Murphey movie, but the 24 hours that elapsed between the time VP Cheney shot a fellow hunter and when the news was released to the media. Boyo, the liberal web logs are going to go nuts over this one. Imagine the scheming that went on in those 24 hours, the frantic phone calls arcing between Texas and Rove's cell. My best guess is that Cheney was

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1139516507004344732006-02-09T15:19:00.000-05:002006-02-09T15:21:47.020-05:00

The chart sez it all. Let's see, the Republican have controlled the House and Senate since 1996, right?

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1139365507348976392006-02-07T20:59:00.000-05:002006-02-07T21:25:09.930-05:00

This is gonna be just a quick hit and run, but this is some stuff I've been peeved about for some time, it's just the right graphic hadn't come around yet to expound on it. The above chart is Festus's 2007 budget showing what's changed from last year.Notice the fifth largest category is the interest paid on the federal deficit. $247 billion is a substantial piece of change and would probably pay

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1139116338885497372006-02-05T00:07:00.000-05:002006-02-05T00:12:18.900-05:00

In his first day at home since stepping down from his post as Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan made a series of cryptic, inscrutable pronouncements that left his wife, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell, totally baffled.The former Fed chief was renowned for his confusing, often incomprehensible statements about the markets and the economy while testifying to Congress, but according to Ms.

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1139021479934259482006-02-03T21:41:00.000-05:002006-02-03T21:51:19.956-05:00

If you'll recall, the Festus White House makes it a policy to highball the expense of a program or deficit so that later they can come under it and brag that they did. Guess what?The Department of Health and Human Services says the Medicare prescription plan is coming in under budget!When the program was being developed, before we had any actual experience with the cost of drug coverage, it was

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1138910469780688812006-02-02T14:32:00.000-05:002006-02-02T15:01:09.823-05:00

Isn't it amazing? Cindy Sheehan is an official enemy of the state? She can simply be removed and arrested for fear of embarrassing or otherwise offending The President of the United States! Without any legal justification whatsoever she can be removed from the State of the Union Address for which she had an actual valid invitation because she was wearing a tastefully black tee-shirt with the

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1138908040004300472006-02-02T14:08:00.000-05:002006-02-02T14:20:40.016-05:00

The most recent count was that there were 20 rought drafts of the SOTU address before Festus read if off the teleprompter so is the following evil, stupid or both?One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1138892392628299112006-02-02T09:56:00.000-05:002006-02-02T09:59:52.646-05:00

For those of you who were born post-1850, the telegram was a method of communication (before telephones) that required writing down your message and bringing it to the telegraph office, where someone would dot-dot-dash it off to another telegraph office near the intended receipient for transcription and delivery- a process not nearly as efficient as the email or IM. Well Western Union, which has

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1138812909031670782006-02-01T10:39:00.000-05:002006-02-01T11:55:09.083-05:00

In a speech in Buffalo, NY on April 20, 2004, Bush states that "a wiretap requires a court order." He goes on, "When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important to our fellow citizens to understand when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1137438585502506262006-01-16T13:52:00.000-05:002006-01-16T14:09:45.530-05:00

Can't you just feel it coming? That was Festus a day or two after New Orleans drowned complimenting the head of FEMA. No reason to think he won't say the same about his new Medicaid Prescription boondongle and throw in a medal while he's at it.With tens of thousands of people unable to get medicines promised by Medicare, the Bush administration has told insurers that they must provide a 30-day

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1137437376159752392006-01-16T13:36:00.000-05:002006-01-16T13:49:36.226-05:00

It's deja vue all over again.Yesterday, in a conference call with reporters, White House officials estimated that this fiscal year's federal budget deficit would likely top a whopping $400 billion -- an estimate that was much higher than had been expected. According to the White House, the increase in the projected budget deficit was due in large part to Hurricane Katrina.Today, various news

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1137337843498318942006-01-15T09:40:00.000-05:002006-01-15T10:10:43.533-05:00

File this under Irony:(subhead)Wheels of Justice/SlowThe AJC has an initial feature story about Atlanta's former Mayor Bill Campbell who ran the city (into the ground) during the 90's. Campbell was the apex of Civil Rights era black politicians who ran for office on their history with the subtext of "get whitey". His City Hall was simply inefficient and inept but I remember him as the Mayor who

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1137100317478716822006-01-12T16:03:00.000-05:002006-01-12T16:11:57.503-05:00

Scientists in Taiwan say they have bred three pigs that glow in the dark. They claim that while other researchers have bred partly fluorescent pigs, theirs are the only pigs in the world which are green through and through. The pigs are transgenic, created by adding genetic material from jellyfish into a normal pig embryo. They are the only ones that are green from the inside out. Even their

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1136991966743116102006-01-11T09:37:00.000-05:002006-01-11T10:06:06.760-05:00

I duuno, this scares me. . .USERS WILL will be able to install Microsoft Windows on their new MacInteltosh systems, but Apple will not offer a Mac running Windows.According to Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, Job’s Mob will not sell or support Windows, however it has largely given up preventing people loading Windows onto the machinesMaybe it's good

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1136753915931714192006-01-08T15:47:00.000-05:002006-01-08T16:18:43.250-05:00

I never knew this was a regular part of when the President signs a bill into law, but Festus has, of late, issued "signing statements" which seems to serve as a clarification as to how much he plans to be held by the bill he just signed. One such "signing statement" was offered attached to the Defense authorization bill signed Friday:A number of provisions of the Act, including sections 905, 932,

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1136235049891025612006-01-02T15:27:00.000-05:002006-01-02T15:50:49.906-05:00

Nothing surprises me anymore. Festus fights hard for the right to maintain an illegal surveillance program for several years when all he had to do to make the surveillance legal was to ask for it.Festus speaks: This is a limited program designed to prevent attacks on the United States of America, and I repeat limited," Bush said before flying back to Washington after six days cloistered on his

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1135013640301807282005-12-19T12:30:00.000-05:002005-12-19T12:34:00.323-05:00

From the Washington Post.After five years in which the GOP-controlled House and Senate undertook few investigations into the administration's activities, the legislative branch has begun to complain about being in the dark. . . ."In an interview last week, Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said 'it's a fair comment' that the GOP-controlled

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1134778053489718982005-12-16T19:00:00.000-05:002005-12-17T23:22:16.313-05:00

Step forward: 1000 days after invading Iraq against UN Security Council approval, Bush finally wakes up to the concept that many of us think he made a huge mistake. So he says something like, yeah, the intelligence was wrong, but I'm not. No contrition, no acknowledgement that we might even have a problem with that. Just I made a decision and it was a hard one.And that was the step forward.The

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1134093103796274122005-12-08T20:46:00.000-05:002005-12-08T20:55:32.876-05:00

Harold Pinter is a playwright who won a Nobel prize recently. During much of his acceptance speech he takes to opportunity to rip Festus a new one which is actually pretty interesting to read. (Sorta reminds me of Le Carre's tirade.)The following is the best part, though, where Pinter nails Festus's third grade diction and monosyllabic delivery perfectly:"I know that President Bush has many

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1134061113586232882005-12-08T09:55:00.000-05:002005-12-08T12:20:05.726-05:00

My Blog Fodder folder is filling to the brim with links I've been meaning to rant on. But it's all too much lately. So I offer you another link-fest. . .Festus: Today they have more than 100 battalions operating throughout the country, and our commanders report that the Iraqi forces are serving with increasing effectiveness.Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, told the Senate Armed

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1132972881510724302005-11-25T20:57:00.000-05:002005-11-25T21:41:21.523-05:00

Against my own better judgement, I drank too much of the Google-koolaid and bought shares in Google about 2 months ago. They are now up about 42%. I want to brag on it, but it's important to note that I haven't taken a profit yet, so the jury is still out on this being a good idea.At around 280 I just got tired of reading all these media stories about Goog and hoping that the Winter Santa rally

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1132970221482687392005-11-25T20:27:00.000-05:002005-11-25T20:57:01.496-05:00

Festus does it again. What contempt he must have for us. . .Some Americans ask me, if completing the mission is so important, why don't you send more troops? If our commanders on the ground say we need more troops, I will send them. But our commanders tell me they have the number of troops they need to do their job. . . . As we determine the right force level, our troops can know that I will

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1132968334368422922005-11-25T19:54:00.000-05:002005-11-25T20:25:34.386-05:00

The Washington Monthly is keeping an ongoing talley of the manipulations of data the Festus White House blathered at us to go to war in Iraq. It's good info, check it out. Here's a few. . .The Claim: Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, an al-Qaeda prisoner captured in 2001, was the source of intelligence that Saddam Hussein had trained al-Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons. This information

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1132862274668576362005-11-24T14:16:00.000-05:002005-11-24T14:57:54.696-05:00

More and more comes out that suggests that Festus hasn't come clean with us from the beginningTen days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1132710062324682632005-11-22T20:33:00.000-05:002005-11-22T20:41:02.353-05:00

One of the gems you stumble on browsing web logs, this one really spoke to me. Check it out.The worst of it is that extroverts have no idea of the torment they put us through. Sometimes, as we gasp for air amid the fog of their 98-percent-content-free talk, we wonder if extroverts even bother to listen to themselves. Still, we endure stoically, because the etiquette books—written, no doubt, by

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1131918520385442562005-11-13T16:47:00.000-05:002005-11-14T14:13:44.403-05:00

Lies, lies and more lies. Instead of using the occasion to honor our soldiers on Veterans day, Bush used the occasion to do a little political judo. This clip from the CJR says it better than I:One part of the speech directly tackled questions over the intelligence used as justification for the invasion of Iraq, and one quote in particular has shown up in most press reports about the speech. The

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1131857274912649872005-11-12T23:39:00.000-05:002005-11-12T23:47:54.940-05:00

Capote and Good Night and Good LuckInteresting that these should come out around the same time as they both serve to fill in the backstory to events I was aware of but too young at the time to get the whole picture. Both have an awful lot in common as they fill in the backstories of what was going on when CBS and McCarthy were sparring during the commie witch hunt days as well as what Capote went

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1131474932931608332005-11-08T13:06:00.000-05:002005-11-08T14:25:12.163-05:00

Festus finally had his definitive "is is" moment. Recall Clinton defending his parsing of the term "sexual relations" by stating something like, "well, that depends on what your definition of is, is." I'm sure it made sense to him at the time, but it doesn't read well now.Probably the most outraged I've been lately at Festus's total lack of competence and honesty was in response to a news

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1131468794297837332005-11-08T08:40:00.000-05:002005-11-08T14:44:01.530-05:00

The political sh*tstorms are raging so heavily lately I can't keep up, so here are some links for your outragement. . .Bills to Cut Social Programs Move Forward in Senate and House Got no link here cause it's WSJ (here's one)but it's still ongoing but the gist is that they're finding ways to gut saftey net programs to pay for a seperate $70 billion bill to extend Festus's treasured tax cutsThe

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1130466354781882142005-10-27T21:18:00.000-05:002005-10-27T21:25:54.813-05:00

Network dates back almost 30 years ago. It was satire at the time, but I saw it again a few months ago and it seemed like prophesy."We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true. But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1130437691857311002005-10-27T12:52:00.000-05:002005-10-27T13:28:11.913-05:00

At last the long National Nightmare is over and done with. Miers, as it turns out, isn't as hopelessly lame as I thought. She wisely saw the handwriting on the wall and decided to withdraw from consideration for the Supreme Court nomination. Would that Bush had such judgement.I understand and share her concern, however, about the current state of the Supreme Court confirmation process. It is

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1129861194105234542005-10-20T20:35:00.000-05:002005-10-22T08:54:37.230-05:00

This kind of thing is always arguable, but Charleze Theron is a pretty hot looking woman. Amazing face I actually sculpted in clay once from pictures when I didn't have access to my actual model. I came pretty close to a likeness and in doing so came to appreciate what perfect classical facial features she has. She's got some other nice features as well as talent. The girl can act. Monster, was

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1129858535369439922005-10-20T20:33:00.000-05:002005-10-20T20:35:35.376-05:00

HOUSTON - U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay on Thursday turned himself in at the Harris County sheriff's bonding office, where he was photographed, fingerprinted and released on bond on state conspiracy and money laundering charges."He posted $10,000 bond and they have left the bonding office," Lt. John Martin with the sheriff's department said.

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1129682202030342952005-10-18T19:28:00.000-05:002005-10-18T19:36:42.050-05:00

Please, make her stop. Miers keeps getting quoted saying the most bizarre things:I was with him on Sept. 11th, 2001,' she said in June. 'The nation witnessed a resolute, determined, strong leader who swiftly responded to the challenges our country faced. . . . I believe I can say for all of us here, never were we so proud to be Americans, and never were we so proud of a president and first

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1129675716077957582005-10-18T17:31:00.000-05:002005-10-18T17:48:56.790-05:00

The Fitzgerald thing is driving me nuts. There are so many tantalizing bits of speculation floating around, the majority of which are probably wrong, but the ones that almost gives me goosebumps is:almost all of the members of the White House Iraq Group have been questioned by Fitzgerald. "The team, which included senior national security officials, was created in August 2002 to 'educate the

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1129598310452272812005-10-17T19:17:00.000-05:002005-10-18T17:50:50.506-05:00

Condi Rice has accidentially said something truthful. Too bad she didn't know it at the time.The fact of the matter is that when we were attacked on September 11, we had a choice to make. We could decide that the proximate cause was al Qaeda and the people who flew those planes into buildings and, therefore, we would go after al Qaeda . . . Or we could take a bolder approach, which is to say we

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1129242417162916052005-10-13T17:04:00.000-05:002005-10-13T17:26:58.276-05:00

David Brooks of the NYT found some of Miers' scrawlings and sniped the following snarks.Can Harriet Miers write a lucid Court decision?If she has difficulty writing and communicating her positions on important judicial decisions, she won't be perceived as a force of her own but rather as a stooge of the President, even after he has left office.In the early 90's, while she was president of the

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1129038014069268962005-10-11T08:07:00.000-05:002005-10-11T08:40:14.086-05:00

For years now I've been scratching my head every time I plugged my cordless shaver into it's charger and without any electrical contact whatsoever the damn thing recharges. I recall wondering if I'd get shocked if the thing was wet when I placed it in it's base. How do you get electricity from one thing to another without wires?Today I read of a new gadget that promises to erase the gang of wall

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1128828088518774752005-10-08T20:43:00.000-05:002005-10-08T22:29:40.396-05:00

A local nonprofit agency, the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board, gave Alaska Airlines a $500,000 grant to paint the jet. The money came out of about $29 million in federal funding U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska and his congressional colleagues have appropriated to the marketing board, created in 2003, to promote and enhance the value of Alaska seafood. The senator's son, state Sen. Ben Stevens,

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1128821323044991342005-10-08T20:16:00.000-05:002005-10-08T20:28:43.060-05:00

From CJR DailyPresident Bush's speech yesterday to the National Endowment for Democracy was billed as a major foreign policy pronouncement on the state of the "War on Terror." But it didn't seem to contain much new. The war was framed as it has been for the past four years as a battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil. The only slight change was that evil was a bit more

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1128808431651520942005-10-08T16:52:00.000-05:002005-10-08T16:53:51.650-05:00

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1128808018200539522005-10-08T16:13:00.000-05:002005-10-08T16:50:14.423-05:00

Thats a line from Monty Python's The Holy Grail, a rather pithy sentiment and one I'm sure the Nobel Prize committe had in mind to Festus when they gave the 2005 Nobel Peace prize to the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei.ElBaradei and Festus are old pals, go way back to the UN inspections of Saddam Husein's imaginary weapons of mass destructions. ElBaradei keep trying to point out that Iraq

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1128364488980033722005-10-03T13:11:00.000-05:002005-10-08T16:10:26.620-05:00

I happened to have been listening when Festus announced his choice for the Supreme Court Justice seat. It was somewhat embarrasing that Festus had to dig so deep in Miers resume that he was reduced to dredging up the fact that she served on the Dallas City Council as well as the Texas Lottery Commission. Damn, the suspense is killing me, just how many boxes of Girl Scout cookies does she sell a

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127933506280983562005-09-28T13:06:00.000-05:002005-09-28T18:42:05.810-05:00

I actually remember when Ari was quoted saying the following some 4 years ago. This was around the time of Cheney's Energy Task Force controversy where he seemed to have a lot of pals come in, off the record, and give advice on how many more tax breaks it would take to convince them to build new refineries. Q Does the President believe that, given the amount of energy Americans consume per capita

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127759592951167162005-09-26T12:48:00.000-05:002005-09-26T13:44:45.336-05:00

Few things in life are more fun than observing a politician attempt to squirm out of an obvious baldfaced lie. In June, Frist ordered his portfolio managers to sell his family's shares in HCA Inc., the nation's largest hospital chain, which was founded by Frist's father and brother. A month later, the stock's price dropped nine percent in a single day because of a warning from the company about

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127504678568648792005-09-23T14:25:00.000-05:002005-09-23T14:44:38.583-05:00

Ok, one more time for now, then I'm gonna give it some rest, but I'm not the only one with a fascination for Festus's semantic gymnastics:White House Briefing reader J. Harley McIlrath of Grinnell, Iowa, e-mailed me yesterday some insightful questions about just one sentence of Bush's speech.In fact, his questions about that one sentence alone were more penetrating and important than any of the

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127427526801823512005-09-22T17:10:00.000-05:002005-09-22T17:18:46.810-05:00

I dunno what else you call it:Bush said: "You know, something we -- I've been thinking a lot about how America has responded, and it's clear to me that Americans value human life, and value every person as important. And that stands in stark contrast, by the way, to the terrorists we have to deal with. You see, we look at the destruction caused by Katrina, and our hearts break. They're the kind

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127330180729260122005-09-21T14:05:00.000-05:002005-09-21T14:16:20.766-05:00

Another one that's too good to touch. . ."If you do a Google search on the word [failure] or the phrase [miserable failure], the top result is currently the White House’s official biographical page for President Bush. We've received some complaints recently from users who assume that this reflects a political bias on our part. I'd like to explain how these results come up in order to allay these

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127241449758237722005-09-20T13:26:00.000-05:002005-09-20T13:37:29.776-05:00

Like, I'm not the first one to think of this. . .

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127231285478050662005-09-20T10:34:00.000-05:002005-09-20T10:48:06.816-05:00

That's the punchline to the lawyer joke, "what do you call 1000 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean?"Well, the news about the CEO of Tyco is a good start too. . .Ex-Tyco Executives Get 8 to 25 Years in PrisonBy ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, Published: September 20, 2005L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former chief executive of Tyco International who was convicted of looting the company of $150 million, was

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1127186207302887972005-09-19T22:15:00.000-05:002005-09-19T22:16:47.313-05:00

This from Reuters:Power-dressing Aussie leaves trail of destructionFri Sep 16, 2005 8:37 AM BSTSYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian man built up a 40,000-volt charge of static electricity in his clothes as he walked, leaving a trail of scorched carpet and molten plastic and forcing firefighters to evacuate a building.Frank Clewer, who was wearing a woollen shirt and a synthetic nylon jacket, was

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1126823162688111132005-09-15T17:17:00.000-05:002005-09-15T17:26:02.706-05:00

Like Festus has to ask? " 'I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?' he wrote. A photographer with a high-powered zoom managed to capture the moment during yesterday's UN Security Council meeting, which was held to discuss threats to international peace and security. . . .This one is just too damn easy, insert your own snarky comment here: ___________________________________________

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1126623793445987612005-09-13T09:12:00.000-05:002005-09-16T20:40:45.846-05:00

One of the small talents I've honed from taking acting classes is deconstructing dialogue to find what, at heart, the character is saying, what his point of view is, how he thinks. Maybe this is why I am frequently baffled at the apparent acceptance of Festus's complete and utter inability to speak coherently without a prepared text in his hand. I was convinced after both sets of Presidential

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1125600718832602702005-09-01T13:36:00.000-05:002005-09-13T10:32:58.586-05:00

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees"Festus said that today. It has a familiar ring to it because Condi Rice said something similar about planes hitting buildings during her confirmation hearings. ("I don't think anyone could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center." - May 17, 2002) She was incorrect then, because

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1125193764209116802005-08-27T20:44:00.000-05:002005-08-27T20:49:24.216-05:00

I dunno, every now and then there are stories you simply can't add anything to. . .A circumcision ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jews has alarmed city health officials, who say it may have led to three cases of herpes - one of them fatal - in infants. But after months of meetings with Orthodox leaders, city officials have been unable to persuade them to abandon the practice.The city's

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1124377772462356942005-08-18T09:07:00.000-05:002005-09-16T08:57:32.846-05:00

I was kinda tickled to see the small mob of people milling around the intersection of Scott and N. Decatur last night waving signs in sympathy with Cindy Sheehan last night. I waved and honked, what else can you do?I was on my way to a rehearsal for a theater production I'm in and made a cautious mention of the protest and someone started huffing about how horrible it was that Cindy was defaming

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1123295464473314022005-08-05T21:17:00.000-05:002005-08-05T21:31:04.496-05:00

Within the heirarchy of bad movies is your standard mundane crap, then below that is your steaming crap which is overshadowed only by the category of vile steaming crap. The only thing that saved “Broken Flowers” from surpassing vile steaming crap was about 5 seconds of totally gratuitous nudity.It was one of those films where I seriously considered checking with the people in line to buy tickets

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1123170276884274982005-08-04T10:31:00.000-05:002005-08-04T10:44:36.890-05:00

In another totally incompetent effort to clarify exactly what level of semantic conflict we are at with terrorist, Festus states "We're at war with an enemy that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001," Got that? "War" is now back in, "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism." is out. What a relief.We still breathlessly await clarification on where the terrorists responsible for 9/11 were the

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1123124777335502562005-08-03T21:58:00.000-05:002005-08-03T22:06:17.353-05:00

Nice pic huh? Ya gotta love the smartasses that put out this kinda stuff. . .OK, so like, Apple finally figured out that some people want more than one button on a mouse. So since putting two actual buttons would be tanatamount to admitting maybe they made a mistake all of these 20 years or so since the Mac's been out, they decided to go completely ape-shit and put two programable sensors and a

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1122590933488079742005-07-28T17:19:00.000-05:002005-07-28T17:48:53.496-05:00

This month is the first corporate earnings season since the The American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 bill passed and I'm astonished at how much tax dollars Congress has pissed away for so little gain.Within the bill is a provision that allows corporations to "repatriate" earnings made outside the US at a tax rate of 5.25% instead of 35% for this year only. The rationale was to reap at least some

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1122580446109776862005-07-28T14:30:00.000-05:002005-07-28T14:54:06.123-05:00

The War on Terror is over! Well, the phrase is anyway. Reports are that it's going to be replaced with the less pithy "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism." Gosh that just doesn't get the adrenalin going like the original, does it?"For three years, the president didn't let an opportunity go by without repeating that we were in a global war against evil terrorists. But he's gone strangely

jpmistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14133107.post-1122062582286725602005-07-22T14:56:00.000-05:002005-07-22T15:03:02.286-05:00

I dunno why I associate Boris with Festus just now, but after you read this quote from a recent "press availability" it just seems to fit.But Bush is not known for actually giving substantive, responsive answers -- and this time, his answer was almost shockingly unvarnished.After trotting out a few well-worn phrases ideal for stalling -- "I'm comfortable with where we are in the process," and "I

jpmistnoreply@blogger.com