I don't even remember what Craig KILBORN was like back then, just that I was a fan, and didn't follow KILBORN when he moved to late night network, and the couple of times I peeked he was awful.

So when Jon took over, I was bemused in his first shows when he was beseeching and obsequious about us previous Daily fans to give him a break. So I hung in there, and when he appeared to be a brilliant Lib comedian I was thrilled and signed on totally.

But after a few years the first big red flag flew, when he attacked Crossfire. While I could agree with attacking the polarization that LIMBOsevic initiated with Scorched Earth, why Crossfire where at least Lefties got a dig in?!1 I was just puzzled.

And later I didn't mind that he sprinkled barbs at Lefties when deserved. But the big reveal for me was when he piggybacked on the BecKKK "million" march or whatever it was, and put on a thoroughly bullshit fakery complete with the Mythbusters nobodies and other hippie-dippy/street-performing crap. He was like the flip BecKKK sermonizing about Let's Get Along, which he intensified like taking off a mask in years after, reaching out to wingnuts.

MAHER nailed him with the event, "If you're going to stage an event, you should make it about something." I have never EVER watched Jon since, and MAHER and COLBERT are where it's at and no looking back.

V-P BIDEN's recent comment that Al "GORE was elected president" led to a couple of nostalgic posts about how we coalesced into DU over the trauma of Coup-2000 and how that trauma has lasted for most of the past dozen years. There might be some DUers who are young enough not to have this that much in their psyche. As a refresher, the picture below of buttoned-down staffers of Republican congresscritters, thuggishly attempting to stop the recount, is what led to the "Rethug" word.



1. Tom PYLE, office of House Majority Whip Tom DELAY (R-TX)
2. Garry MALPHRUS, Majority Chief counsel
3. Rory COOPER, staff member, Nat’l Republican Congressional Committee
4. Kevin SMITH, former House Republican Conference Analyst
5. Steven BRODY, Former Aide to Sen. Fred D. THOMPSON (R-TN)
6. Matt SCHLAPP, BUSH Campaign Staff, Austin
7. Roger MORSE, Aide to Rep. Van HILLARY (R-TN)
8. Duane GIBSON, Aide to Chairman Don YOUNG (R-AK)
9. Chuck ROYAL, Ass’t to Rep. Jim DeMINT (R-SC)
10. Layna McCONKEY, Former legislative ass’t to former Rep. Jim Ross LIGHTFOOT (R-IA)

1) My broad framework in politics is the Big Umbrella of the Democratic Party coalition: Each coalition group having its top agenda item its own --- civil rights, social justice, unions, humanitarian protections -- but down below on their lists of top one or two items, all groups in general consensus with those of all the other groups. The Democratic AGENDA is primary, not (generally) the messengers.


2) As a youth I looked for heroes and found them in Woodrow WILSON, Al SMITH, FDR, and HST. I was wary of JFK from the start and picked LBJ (not old enough to vote). With an older perspective, I learned that it is the AGENDA that matters, and that the AGENDA is separate from the personal drama of biographies, although fantastic personalities with the right direction can further the agenda immeasurably - or hurt it disastrously.

In my list, FDR and HST retain the high majority of my Personality Worship, with the others keeping somewhat smaller portions. The KENNEDYs were never on my list. Before CLINTON, they became my example of how Personality Cultism gets in the way of the party agenda, disastrously. How much of RFK's anti-war sentiment was deeply rooted in his own personal tragedies and hatred for LBJ and his own career decisions (prosecuting the Mob) that might have led to his personal family tragedies?

So it has been a long process for me NOT to be swayed by Personality Cultism. It would have to be somebody of FDR/HST or even LBJ levels for me to succumb, IF I could recognize them in real time.


3) As for the '08 primary and the future for Hillary: I was really really strong for her all the way until it was clear she had lost (when she finally conceded), and then I opened to giving a second look at OBAMA, and while my original doubts remained over the superficial faddism of the youthful supporters and the hundreds of promises within any given speech and "the heavens opening up" as Hillary put it, my ONE objective was to dump everything Shrub-CHEENEE in the garbage where they should always have been. What the one word "Change" was all about, despite being an elephant in the room, was ANYTHING AWAY FROM SHRUB. But as with all my Dem nominees, I thoroughly threw myself in OBAMA's support, and gloried in any shred of sticking it in the Rethugs' eyes. That's why the Nobel was important, not for what he had done (what?) but because his very election meant a rejection of all-things-Shrub/Rethug.

But to clarify my points about Hillary: She ran a totally INSIDE the box campaign, paying the career p.r. people millions, wasting the millions on conventional by-the-list things without originality or riskiness. As for everybody's saying what a fantastic Secretary of State she was, I will appreciate anybody's telling me what significant negotiation she facilitated. Her statements sound like soulless recitations of positions that have been totally vetted in a way that makes them "safe" and nearly uncriticizeable, and this goes for her recent statements on Women and Gay rights.


********Just to round out my making of more enemies, I've said here several times that McGOVERN was not my choice in that primary and I wrote him a letter saying that and saying that I thought he had NO chance to beat NIXON and that all that mattered was to BEAT NIXON. I wish I had kept the reply, which would be a historic document, whether it was written by staff or the signature was original, in which he said he himself DID think he could win and hoped I would give him a chance. I admired him for his character and beliefs and, of course, voted for him. My point in bringing him up is not JUST that ANY Dem is better than any Rethug, which is true, but that no amount of purity and nobility are good for the AGENDA if the candidate loses. And candidates who are incapable of assessing their own viability are already seriously flawed. They see 400 people at an airport rally and who wouldn't be personally thrilled, but they can't see this doesn't translate into a winning vote.

All of this adds up to, I love and support ALL Dems who are not personally corrupt. The point is that it be a Dem who appoints the Supreme Court and the thousands of policy making bureaucrats and being good-try effective in getting the Congress to follow. As ABBA says, the winner takes it ALL. And if the personal baggage of a Bill CLINTON detracts from the agenda, the personality is just not a help. (I stood by him, too, during that whole FAKE impeachment thing.)

Does the blade length go from the non-blade base part or only the blade? The sharp/blade part is 2 3/8" but the whole is 2 5/8" and the width is 5/8". Whoopi said these things were always allowable INSIDE the luggage, not on-person, correct?




**********QUOTE******

The illustrated Camillus Knife is the Camillus Camp Knife that features a 2 3/8" spear blade, can opener, punch and screwdriver/cap lifter made of stainless steel. The stainless steel handle of this Camillus knife, 3 3/4" closed, has U.S. embossing and a shackle.
Camillus Knives: Camillus Camp Knife, US Embossed, CM-1760

Knives Plus ® Home

This item is discontinued and out of stock - it is left for reference only.

**********QUOTE*****

He seemed pleased/relieved with something (anything/whatever) getting sort of done, no matter on the last minute of the last day, the last *artificial* crisis deadline, saying something like, this ain't perfect and I hope this doesn't become THE MODEL of how things will be done!1

Actually, seeing REID and BIDEN smiling about it creeps me out almost as much.


"Model," indeed. Beyond the other criticisms of the deal itself, my beef is the deadwood that is the whole 18th Century "checks and balances" crap that keeps everything logjammed. In CARO's bio of LBJ, there is a whole chapter (in "Master of the Senate" describing the workings of Congress, the inter-locking committees, the rule by seniority, everything built in to keep things jammed. It takes somebody working up from the bottom like LBJ for 30 years to know the buttons to push and where the bodies are buried to get something done and there's no time for that anymore or nobody willing to sacrifice that much to do it. This is the reason CHEENEE and RUMSFELD were able to slap Shrub around and take over for themselves, because they had spent 20-30 yrs inside the bureaucracy and could warp policies and procedures to their will.

CARO describes how the country had been ready for 40 years to do something about civil right but the entrenched Southern Committee Chairs blocked every move. There is so much dead wood in what we profess to believe, and it can't/won't be fixed, so it will have to crumble on its own for something else to take its place.

The preening, the perks, the showboating, the cameras-love, the decisions being made on the basis of personal piques, barf barf BARF!1