Just hanging out on a Saturday night…
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
Ooooh, lucky me, I popped in just in time to be the first to post, cool pic. Mr. Boo…..
How exciting is my life? I’ll be balancing my checking account and paying bills tonight. I’ll bet no one can top this for a saturday night.
Come on over to the Cafe When you want a break — It’s 4s for everyone at the Froggy Bottom Dance Hall. And I’ll probably be paying my bills while I wait for customers!
Gotcha beat, I’m in a office trailer outside an auto plant until 7am tomorrow. Not very exciting at all. (At least I hope:)
I’ve been lurking here for a while, appreciate the thoughtful discussions, have left a few drive-by comments lately, & today just wanted to alert you to two wide-ranging radio interviews that I enjoyed last week, both of which aired on KPFA: one with Robert Fisk and another with Daniel Ellsberg.
I haven’t listened to the Fisk interview yet, but the Ellsberg commentary was incredibly good.
Many thanks for the link. I hope many others here check out Ellsberg’s perspective.
I’ll be doing what I usually do…lay around on the couch after a hard day of walking around the internet..then watch a rented movie.
And if anyone wonders about that 700 million cut from food stamps to trim the budget..yeah right, Informationclearnghouse had a link to an article with the title-‘US to Secure Sahara Desert’. A vast new front on the global war on terror and Congress has given some military group here 500 million to help secure the desert from terrorists. And according to bushco also that West Africa is of vital interest to our oil supply-imagine that. I can’t begin to say how gd stupid this is.
Wanted to drop by and invite my BooTrib friends to visit “Sabbath Time” at MLW. Some musings on giving thanks, centered around a piece of artwork my eldest son (now 10 1/2) gave me when he was 3.
Sabbath Time is a regular series over on MLW. I invite you to drop by.
hmmm, let’s see, still putt’n out fires from work, up to my ass in (human) alligators, converted 3 more repubs today, and paying bills over the phone while watching a re-run on politics in the work place….(by the way, I’ve told two of them to kiss my ass so far tonight) LMAO….I love it
peace to all, and whenever you get the chance, convert a repug…it’s exxxxxxxxxcccccciiiiiiiting ; )
My dad got into it with one of my cousins a month ago or so. My cousin lives in Texas as was telling my dad about how great Bush is. And my dad basically told him all the reasons Bush is not great. From what dad said afterwards it was a pretty emotional discussion.
The weird thing is that 2 weeks later the same cousin calls my dad back to say that he and his wife can’t stand Texas any longer. That it’s filled with idiot Bush supporters and they’re moving to Iowa (I’m not sure this is such an improvement, but what do I know, I live in Kansas) to get away from them.
Now he’s a Democrat.
Isn’t it usually harder to convert people? Could my dad really be that convincing?
Wow. Your Dad has GOT to run for office. Seriously.
But, I kind of think it was also a “coming home” for my cousin. Who at that point was the only known Republican in the family. His parents were actual beatniks. His mother marched in one of the southern Civil Rights marches. And they both spent their lives in public service.
I have a feeling that what my dad did was tap into that family history.
(He’s 86 and still very active, but a campaign would probably be beyond him at this point)
Usually it’s pretty difficult to convert people, but in this case the Bush regime itself, by virtue of it’s staggering incompetence, it’s opposition to democratic principles, and it’s ruthless contempt for any and all who don’t march in lockstep with them; all of this means the Bushwackers themselves are doing most of the heavy lifting of the converting themselves, alienating people just as fast as they can offend them.
I think you’re very right about this.
I feel that I’m failing in my duties here. I don’t know any Republicans. Very rarely run into them. Perhaps you’d give us some tips, just in case I do?
I’m actually going out tonight to see/hear a friend play. She posts here as songmaker (apt handle).
I usually find them at the gas pumps…whooooaa..what a place to catch them, filling their tanks and emptying their wallets…puuuurrrrrfeeeccct time ; )
I remind them that all the thanks go to our Tex-Ass administration…then it goes from there…after the laughs… ; )
Another good place is the store, and the price of things…it all revolves around fuel…the cost that is..and again..BINGO..it’s a lead in…works well..but then, the TRUTH usually does, especially when it’s in their wallets ; )
driving lesson, on city streets, at least–in a car with a very touchy stick shift. He did great. Then I drove him back to his dad’s. Now I don’t know what to do. I know, I”ll head over to the dance hall.
Come on over — business is booming!
if I start drinking beer I’ll be dictator by midnight.
not if I get there first…
You on EST Trace? If not, I am so becoming dictator before you… if so we may need to play a game of quarters or something to figure it out…
He who dictates last has the most dedicated secretary, I’m on my second beer and everything is already funny……even when it’s stupid, I’m a light weight.
arrogant bastard (ale, not male) with my dinner tonight…and now I’m just happy…
Just wondering if this is the last ASPEN to turn?
Hate to bring down the party, but I’ve been thinking about the Friday night outrage (I really think too slow to keep up with blogpace — the topic has blown itself to oblivion by the time I have something to say).
I think focusing on the insult to Murtha, the way the Dems voted and so on misses the political strategy point. I think the GOP resolution itself is the sword that, in capable hands, can come as close to bringing down the GOP since the Great Depression (in the context of all the other outrages, at least.) If I’ve got it right, the GOP leadership and its troops blatantly lied in the halls of Congress.
But I don’t watch cable, so need some facts before going further. Maybe the better connected can help out? Specifically:
I think the answers could be bigtime important in next year’s elections. Drunken party that this is, I’ll confess that I spent more time working in PR than is admirable. But I did develop a nose for what will work, and I swear the resolution fraud is the meme that will decimate the Republican Party — If I correctly understand what went on.
So if you can help out on the questions, please take the time to do so. We might be able to shift the balance next year.
But for now, party on.
And yes, this was all a ploy that the Republicans intended to use against the Democrats but instead is one that we can use against the Republicans. They are idiots.
Thanks, Andrew. So the Reps explicitly refused to allow the Murtha bill to come for a vote? And instead substituted one calling for immediate withdrawal, and tried to call it the Murtha bill or something like the “Democratic bill”? Video of them saying “Democrat bill” or whatever would be pure gold in every House and Senate election next year. This is something every American can understand and be disgusted by.
today. It seems that more people than ever are doing some part of their work at home. This appeared to be a “more people are telecommuting” story. Then came the revelation that most of the work was not paid work at all – it was just work that people were voluntarily bringing home with them because they were unable to complete it in their allotted hours at the job.
This changed it to a “just how much has Bush fucked-up this economy?” story.
My not so political wife just walks in and says…
“Bush wants the Chinese to accept religious freedom…
< pause >
… for all Christians.”
And she smiles and walks back out again.
I must be out of my mind late at night thinking about this. But here goes:
I usually frequent the Madison Farmers’ Market, the one that goes round the Capitol. I went over to their winter location today, and for the second time, one particular vendor said how much he liked my hair.
I’ve been so out of the compliment and dating game I have no idea what may be going on with this guy, so help me out here:
If a guy is going goo-goo over a woman’s hair, is he merely complimenting, or does he have an ulterior motive?
Is he really saying, boy I’d like to see your hair on my pillows?
Or is he saying, god, that is some interesting mop of hair there?
Just wondering.
OK, here goes. I’d say it could be either way, depending… which tells you nothing, obviously,(too many unknowns)but I will relate a memory of a time I complimented a perfect stranger’s hair.
It’s been at least 5 years, and maybe a whole lot more, since I saw this black woman entering an office store that I was exiting, in Grand Forks, ND.
I couldn’t not compliment that lady on her hair. I was just dumbstruck. I don’t really even know how to describe it, (none of the Scandinavian women I know do anything like this with their hair) but the braids were very small, very long, and a whole lot of them, just everywhere, just absolutely beautiful. Besides the hair, she was very stylishly dressed. And she very graciously accepted my compliment.
Only way to know for sure is stop by the same vendor and see what else develops for conversation.
Ummm, well. I thanked him, of course.
But it was startling because it was a gushing endorsement of my ringletted hair.
I’ve heard this from a couple of black guys, too. One of them, a married guy, said flat out that it fit me.
I just wish some guys would get off the hairstyle and focus on the unprocessed mind. Ya know?
(Not that I mind being impressive and stunning.)
For all the bluster, almost all the guys I know are a whole lot more shy than they let on. So… I’d say it’s easier to say something about the surface appearances, hair, earrings, etc, than to get into something more serious.
So, let’s say I’m on the way out of the supermarket, visiting with the checkout women; I like to compliment nice earrings, especially ones with some flair, as the women are so very conservative with their earrings here vs. west coast (N CA), generally small, not very long…
Somehow it just doesn’t seem to fit to ask them if they think Rove will be indicted, for example. But I think I’ll try something like that soon and see what sort of reaction I get…
Not that I’m looking for a new girlfriend, but I’ve had some of those boring jobs where you stand on concrete for hours at a time, so I figure, what’s wrong with a little conversation to break up the work day.
from Miami Book Fair Street Fair Day 1 and couldn’t find a Republican anywhere. Certainly not in the auditorium packed with 1500 “Reenie” Dowd fans! (Sorry, though, guys. She told us that scientists have decided that your “Y” chromosome is genetically “melting” and you won’t be around in another 100,000 years or so. But not to worry, Ms. Dowd assured us, women intend to keep about 100 of your cutest selves to be milked them daily for your sperm. All is not lost!)
Amy Tan spoke without the accompaniement of her Yorkie and told us about her shock at discovering her undead self already immortalized in the classic slim yellow volume sporting the famous black chevron motif. Yes, I’m talking “Cliff’s Notes.” It’s not often that a living author gets to check up on what Cliffy has to say about her. And she was surprised at what she learned biographically speaking, as well as in terms of literary analysis. “I had no idea I was so deep!” she exclaimed.
Not a Bush supporter within 360 degrees of the hundreds of us waiting in line prior to sitting at the feet of the eminent historian, Dr. John Hope Franklin who, at 90-ish, retains the mental dexterity (can one say that about a brain’s operation?) of a man half his age. For nearly 90 minutes he spoke withour notes with the panache of a self-assured raconteur about the sub-story in his own autobiography. Fascinating. He’s an absolute National Treasure and should have been given the Medal of Freedom ages ago, or whatever the highest civilan honor in the land is called.
And tomorrow, as Scarlett O’Hara pointed out, is another day.
Dr. John Hope Franklin received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1995.
Under Clinton’s watch.
I listend to the introduction of Dr. Franklin today, and while I caught the names of a long list of other distinguished awards, I don’t remember hearing the Medal of Freedom as one of them.
Appreciate your knowledge!