no points … aw

Well, no one was able to identify the woman in this morning’s extra credit question. That’s Valerie Plame Wilson. Better luck next time.


I thought maybe someone, perhaps starting his/her St. Patrick’s party a wee bit early, would guess Ann Coulter. That would’ve been funny, and kind of ironic.

oh yeah

Alright, all you fellow poets and writers, here’s a Deep Thought for your weekend’s work:

The first draft of anything is shit.

— Ernest Hemingway

No green beer for you. Sorry, but you’re a Creative; you’re compelled to try to create something that will outlive you. No fault of mine.

ambitions

Well, our impervious Emperor, new clothes and all, seems to have weathered the Ides of March yet again. Which is good for the Republic, I suppose. Let’s keep our daggers rhetorical, I say. And let’s move on.


Want to get some metaphorical extra credit points to end your worksome week? Here’s your chance. Identify the arguably attractive woman pictured herein. Any correct part of her name, 5 points; full name for 10. Just drop it in the comments. Good luck!

Boxer working to restore HC

Dear Friend:

I am writing to tell you about my support of Senator Christopher Dodd’s Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007, S.576. This comprehensive legislation would restore habeas corpus for those detained by the United States, ban evidence gained through torture, and reaffirm America’s commitment to the Geneva Conventions.

The U.S. Supreme Court has recognized habeas corpus as “the fundamental instrument for safeguarding individual freedom against arbitrary and lawless state action.” The principle of habeas corpus mandates that a person held in prison can petition a court to determine whether the imprisonment is lawful. This 900-year-old legal standard was effectively violated by the Bush Administration’s Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Reaffirming our commitment to the principles that were erased by the Military Commissions Act is extremely important. I believe that Congress must act to help repair the damage that has been caused by the Bush Administration’s harmful and misguided policies. I am proud to cosponsor and support the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007 and will work for its passage and for tough anti-terrorist legislation that is consistent with American military doctrine and our nation’s guiding principles of fairness and justice.

Sincerely,

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

good to the last drop

Mmmm, my coffee’s good this morning. When you get something just right, even something simple like a little pot of coffee, it’s a good feeling. I wish it was raining; that would be the perfect accompaniment to this cupa joe.

We can’t rightly say that, in his entire tenure as AG, Alberto Gonzales has gotten anything right. He might have a better record if he’d been making the coffee at the D.O.J., but I doubt it. Instead, he has undermined civil liberties and pushed the Home of the Brave toward being an unconscionable Police State. Now, maybe there’s a flicker of light at the end of his tunnel, with a Republican Senator from NH by the name of John Sununu calling for Gonzales to be fired.

Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire called for Gonzales’s ouster Wednesday, just hours after Bush expressed confidence in the attorney general. … “I think the president should replace him,” Sununu said in an interview. “I think the attorney general should be fired.”

Of course, it’s not over illegal surveillance, habeas corpus, or torture. It’s not over the fact that Alberto Gonzales was never qualified for his job. That’s SOP for the Bush administration. It’s over the firing of 8 US attorneys; an issue which, in the scheme of things, doesn’t really kick up my blood-caffeine level. But ought to. There’s a strong back-of-the-fridge stink to those firings, an allegation that government lawyers were fired to stop them from pursuing investigations of political corruption.

Gonzales’ testimony on the Hill should be good theater. When you think about it, this whole administration has been much better TV than the last one. Everything they’ve done has been a failure; illegal, amoral, unethical, and deadly on a Shakespearian scale. How pale seems a mere Oval Office trist, compared with wars and rumors of wars, the sacking of the Constitution, and the faltering of a superpower in the face of a storm? Bush has been so preoccupied, frenetically scrambling to shore up his White House against implosions of his own making, that he’s all but forgotten that he’s president of this country. When was the last time you saw him at work our economy? He has been manifestly absent from domestic politics – notwithstanding the war on terr’r and last fall’s elections – since 9/11/2001.

[Sigh] I’m loosing steam. That first cup is wearing off. … Hey, Alberto, you’re doin’ a heckuva job. But for goodness sakes, stop by Starbucks and try to wake up.

the economy, stupid

“I place economy among the first and most important virtues, and public debt as the greatest of dangers to be feared. To preserve our independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and in our comforts, in our labor and in our amusements. If we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.”

—Thomas Jefferson

a gift

On the first day of school, the children brought gifts for their teacher. The florist’s son brought the teacher a bouquet of flowers. The candy-store owner’s daughter gave the teacher a pretty box of candy. Then the liquor-store owner’s son brought up a big, heavy box.

The teacher lifted it up and noticed that it was leaking a little bit. She touched a drop of the liquid with her finger and tasted it.

“Is it wine?” she guessed.

“No,” the boy replied.

She tasted another drop and asked, “Champagne??”

“No,” said the little boy, “It’s a puppy!”

literary 2fer

Kiran Desai, who already snared the Man Booker Prize in October for her novel The Inheritance of Loss (Grove/Atlantic), last night added the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction …. [Link]

Whoa, must be some book. I’m going to put it on my wish list at Amazon.