In Pretense of Inurement

Beware the spew of Chlamydosaurus kingii, aka The Frilled Dragon

As a self-described word-wonk, I'm always up for the bite of nice, chewy neologisms, but when it comes to using them in writing, I regard them the same way I do a platter of chocolate-chip cookies: indulge in more than one or two and you're risking that sick-to-the-stomach feeling. When doled out or consumed in ill-considered bulk, that which is fresh and tasty becomes cloying, then stomach-turning. Witty turns to clever-assed, the kissing-cousin of shtick.

And so it is with the neologism-choked "writing" of Michelle Malkin.

Apparently, the rising star of Barack Obama--and more specifically, the appearance of his family's smiling faces in the racks of our grocery store checkout lines--is giving Malkin a bad case of agita:

People brings you the scoop on what really matters in this critical presidential campaign: Michelle hula-hoops with her daughters. They’re just like you and me! The kids have slumber parties. They’re just like you and me! Barack does laundry, but he doesn’t fold it. They’re just like you and me! The kids get small allowances. They’re just like you and me! The Obamas wear normal clothes while doing normal things.

THEY’RE JUST LIKE YOU AND ME!

Er, we are talking about People magazine, right? Last time I checked (yeah, I'll cop to it, it was the Oscars fashion double issue with photographs of all the gowns and jewelry), People wasn't exactly the go-to source for candidates' economic or national security policy outlines. It's a gossip lifestyle magazine--a fluffy-light marshmallow of a publication, the cover photos of which have brightened many an otherwise-gloomy morning for this accidental grocery shopper (see Owen, Clive; Pitt, Brad; Clooney, George).

Lifestyle as in, pictures of celebrities (actors, musicians, politicians) living their lives just like you and me. Photos of picnics, snapshots of little ones in strollers, informal family-gathering portraits with everyone in the frame smiling and trying to affect a thrilled-to-be-here mood despite the fact that Uncle Remus is lying face-down in the marigolds--again--having consumed three pitchers of rum punch all by his lonesome and then thrown up on the trampoline.

In other words, just like you and me. Only richer and possessed of newer, pricier outfits and top-shelf legal representation.

For Malkin, though, the tableaux vivants on display at her local supermarket this weekend reveal something false. Something false about Obama, that poseur, that presumptuous, that...that...actual husband, actual father, actual attorney-and-law-professor-turned-successful-politician. But really, everyone, how dare he try to be JUST LIKE YOU AND ME when you just know he darned well isn't? I mean, I mean...oh, what do I mean? I need some new words to describe what I'm feeling. Let's see...

Brangelina-fication
Hollyweird
Obamedia
Obamessiah
Chicago corruptocrats
fauxtographs
Snobama
JustLikeYou&Me Michelle

Which one to deploy today, though? Which will be most likely to irritate the Defeatocrats? Decisions, decisions. Ah, fudge, I'll just use them all--they make the piece so much punchier and more attention-getting.

Kind of like pom-poms and pleated minskirts, only you don't have to wax first.

(H/T Sadly, No!)

Also at Cogitamus.

McCain Finds (the Right) God: Forget the Baptism Pond--Where Do We Land Cindy's Plane?

Alternet brings us the brilliant Matt Taibbi riffing on John McCain, who's now in the spotlight finding his--or, at least, someone's--religion:

But here's how fucked that seemingly unstoppable coalition is this time around, now that the ticket is headed by an aging Goldwaterite named John McCain: The candidate has only recently come around to the idea that the Republican nominee in the age of Bush and the evangelical ayatollahs has to go to church regularly. When asked recently if he is an evangelical Christian, McCain answered, "I attend church." When asked how often, he said, "Not as often as I should."

So in recent weeks, to prove his piety, McCain has taken to dragging himself out of bed on Sunday mornings to attend services at North Phoenix Baptist, not-so-subtly announcing his devotions to his traveling press. ("Yeah, they started telling us he was going to church about a month ago," one McCain-beat reporter chuckled to me on the Straight Talk Express. "Like, Oh, by the way, he's going to church again. At this address, if you want to check. . . .") Originally baptized an Episcopalian, McCain claims that he's been attending this Southern Baptist church for some 15 years, despite the fact that his 2007 congressional biography lists his faith as Episcopalian. But in a touching display of his apparent unwillingness to do absolutely anything to get elected, McCain still hasn't been baptized in his new church -- he's not born-again, in other words. Dude is holding out for some reason. Like he's afraid to lie to God. A politician, afraid to lie!

The marriage of fundamentalist Christianity and the conservative movement has been a powerful force in world affairs. It has been the best smoke screen the archpriests of supply-side economics could possibly have had, giving Wall Street a populist in with the very people victimized the most by their union-busting, deregulatory policies. It turned out, for decades, that Bible-thumping Americans didn't mind having their jobs shipped to China, so long as someone was worrying about the air supply to Terri Schiavo's brain lump. As political cons go, this was the ultimate gift that kept on giving.

It all had to end sometime, though, and that sometime might be now. Nervous, white, sexually inhibited Protestants with fourth-grade educations are becoming a smaller and smaller share of the country's population, and the Christian right is increasingly frustrated with the Republican Party's failure to transform America into a fundamentalist caliphate. (Forget about abortion: After eight years of Republican rule, Christians can't even put up the Ten Commandments in Alabama without someone bitching about it.) But the last straw just might come down to one Republican politician's personal idiosyncrasies. All the party needed was one more pious, Scripture-quoting, hair-spray-soaked whore to hold this thing together for another four years, and instead they got John McCain. And John McCain may break up three decades of GOP Jesus-flogging simply because he is too afraid to get his forehead wet. Wouldn't that be something?

(Emphasis mine, by the way--DNT)

Oh, it would be something all right. But given what I know about a) fundies and b) the GOP, I think it's safe to say we would be treated to at least three or four thousand rationalizations and spinjobs within seconds of McCain's concession speech in November. The fundies--and the Gathering Of Plutocrats who love them--will come up with something, anything, in order to bubble-wrap their respective worldviews and, more disturbingly, to preserve the shared trajectory of their work to create an authoritarian state.

Will they say McCain was a Manchurian candidate after all? Will they concoct some Brobdingnagian conspiracy theory involving Obama's ex-pastor and Teh Clenis? It would be irresponsible not to speculate! Please do so in comments. (And of course, read the whole, well-written thing.)

(H/T oddjob)

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Frank: From 1968

This is a wonderful Very Vintage Frank music/film compilation. The piece has a witty, art-film quality thanks to its black-and-white footage, not to mention the unintentional special effects caused by the technological shortcomings of the era. Musicians featured herein:

FZ--guitar, piano, vocals
Don Preston--keyboards, electronics, vocals
Ian Underwood--alto sax, clarinet
Bunk Gardner--tenor sax, soprano sax
Motorhead Sherwood--tambourine, percussion, snorks
Roy Estrada--bass, vocals, gas mask
Jimmy Carl Black--drums
Arthur Dyer Tripp III--drums

Bon Weekend, everyone!

(H/T and thanks to bongolampo, who consistently uploads great Zappa videos.)

Also at Cogitamus.

Libertarian Troll Bingo

Sabotabby posted this terrific graphic* at Punkassblog last year, yes. But it would seem that no-one has given the rabid Randians a heads-up about their dire need for some fresh, as-yet-undebunked talking points (and especially, some talking points that don't immediately inspire howls of derisive laughter among thinking people).

Thus, Libertarian Troll Bingo can be as much fun as it ever was. I mean, take the comments on Ezra's latest health care post--it's uncanny! I'm on my way to WIN, I tell you.

*Unless you're blessed with a Super Best Friend's laserscope eyesight, I'd recommend clicking the image to enlarge it.

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Frank: Muffin Man (live); 1977

With Adrian Belew, Patrick O'Hearn, Terry Bozzio, Ed Mann, Tommy Mars, and Peter Wolf.

And lotsa great guitar.

Stay cool, and have a very Bon Weekend, everyone!

Friday Saturday Frank: Oh No; Los Angeles, 1974

Terrific vintage footage of Frank with Napoleon Murphy Brock, George Duke, and Ruth Underwood.

Wow, but 1974 seems like several lifetimes ago. That year, I was in the ninth grade and we lived in Tegucicalpa, Honduras. The city's only rock station--Radio Mil--never broadcast any Zappa creations (I think I'd remember); mainly the dj's played the odd Rolling Stones hit and plenty of pop. When they weren't playing military marching music in honor of the latest coup, that is.

Bon Weekend A Bit Late, everyone.

(H/T bongolampo)

Also at Cogitamus.

Thank You, Thank You, Ah'll Be Here 'til January...

"Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter!"

Our president actually said this at the close of the G8 yesterday. And then pumped his fist in the air as other world leaders reportedly "looked on in shock":

One official who witnessed the extraordinary scene said afterwards: "Everyone was very surprised that he was making a joke about America's record on pollution."

Mr Bush also faced criticism at the summit after Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, was described in the White House press pack given to journalists as one of the "most controversial leaders in the history of a country known for government corruption and vice".

Heaven help us.

(H/T TRex)

Friday Saturday Frank: G-Spot Tornado; Berlin*, 1992

Darkblack recently sent me the link to this great Frank Zappa/Ensemble Modern performance; I'd posted it before--one day short of a year ago, in fact!--and felt it was due for a re-run. In addition to the energetic piece itself, this clip offers terrific (and to my weekend-warrior's aching limbs, kind of terrifying) high-octane interpretive dancing and several shots of one very bemused Zappa at the conductor's helm.

I'm going to be in and out of the 'Tubes for the next several weeks; please forgive my lightweight posting--not that I've ever been much of a heavyweight blogger at any point, but anyway...how much longer until school resumes?! *Enormous Sigh*

Happy Fireworks Weekend, everyone.

*I'm not 100% certain, and the YouTube poster doesn't say, but I seem to remember this concert as being held in Berlin?

Also at Cogitamus.

Weekend Mood: The Yellow Shark Rehearsals; Frank Zappa and Ensemble Modern, 1992

Darkblack recommends this gorgeous footage of Frank Zappa rehearsing with Ensemble Modern, and so do I (thank you, DB). The music's slightly hypnotic, profoundly memory-evoking quality is one that floats through all of FZ's Yellow Shark compositions.

(Consider yourselves warned, softies.)

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Frank: Reggae Guitar Improvisation; Prague, 1991

As Czechoslovakia celebrated its new freedoms, Frank picked up the guitar and joined the fun before a crowd of thousands. There are a few minutes of preamble in English and Czech, but hang in there and enjoy Frank's solos. (This film is a rare pleasure; I don't recall seeing any clips of FZ playing guitar onstage this late in his life--readers?)

I know George Carlin didn't believe in Heaven, but I have to say, I am profoundly comforted, on this rainy, gray Friday, by the imagined notion of his spirit somehow hooking up with Frank's over black coffee and politically-incorrect, roll-your-own cigarettes.

Bon Weekend, everyone.

(H/T tapesinthemail)

Also at Cogitamus.

Well, You Can Knock Me Over With a Feather

MoDo surprises even this not-too-easily-surprised Mama:

Unlike W., Obama doesn’t have a chip on his shoulder and he doesn’t make a lot of snarky remarks. He tries to stay on a positive keel and see things from the other person’s point of view.

He’s not Richie Rich, saved time and again by Daddy’s influence and Daddy’s friends, the one who got waved into Yale and Harvard and cushy business deals, who drank too much and snickered at the intellectuals and gave them snide nicknames.

Obama is the outsider who never really knew his dad and who grew up in modest circumstances, the kid who had to work hard to charm whites and build a life with blacks and step up to the smarty-pants set. [...]

Charlie Black crassly argued in Fortune that a terrorist attack would “be a big advantage” for John McCain. And what’s scary is, Black is the smartest adviser McCain’s got.

It’s hard to believe that if Americans get attacked after all these years of getting strip-searched at the airport, they’re going to be filled with confidence at the performance of the Republicans on national security. And at least Obama wants to catch Osama and doesn’t think he’s getting his directions on war from “a higher Father.”

Rove’s mythmaking about Obama won’t fly. If he means that Obama has brains, what’s wrong with that? If he means that Obama is successful, what’s wrong with that? If he means that Obama has education and intellectual sophistication, what’s wrong with that?

Many of Obama’s traits are the traits that people in the population aspire to.

Welcome, Ms. Dowd, to the thinking corner of the public square, also known as The Enemies List. Most of us don't actually smoke, but as TRex said to Scott McClellan, "It’s going to be okay. We have cookies!"

All About Your Precious F*cking Rights

"If you think you do have rights, one last assignment for you: next time you're at the computer, get on the Internet...in the search field at Wikipedia, I want you to type in Japanese Americans 1942, and you'll find out all about your precious fucking rights."

George Carlin
1937-2008

R.I.P. George Carlin

The brilliant American comedian George Carlin has died at age 71.

We are all long-time and enthusiastic fans of George's, here at Casa Litbrit. And I'm afraid I can't think of anything witty or clever to say right now, so I'll just thank George for the all the laughter and joy he has given us over the years. How I wish we could have a few more decades--or years or even months!--of his pitch-perfect observations about the deeply flawed but endlessly comic creature known as Man.

Rest in peace, genius funny man, rest in peace.

Will Someone Please Install This on Barack Obama's iPod So It Runs on a Continuous Loop?

Senator Obama, let the record show that I, one of your most energetic and earnest supporters in the blogosphere, am extremely disappointed to learn that you're apparently okay with the FISA compromise bill. I'm still crossing my fingers that you'll surprise all the naysayers and support a big old filibuster in the Senate--because, well, I'm just hopeful that way. From Glenn Greewald:

It is absolutely false that the only unconstitutional and destructive provision of this "compromise" bill is the telecom amnesty part. It's true that most people working to defeat the Cheney/Rockefeller bill viewed opposition to telecom amnesty as the most politically potent way to defeat the bill, but the bill's expansion of warrantless eavesdropping powers vested in the President, and its evisceration of safeguards against abuses of those powers, is at least as long-lasting and destructive as the telecom amnesty provisions. The bill legalizes many of the warrantless eavesdropping activities George Bush secretly and illegally ordered in 2001. Those warrantless eavesdropping powers violate core Fourth Amendment protections. And Barack Obama now supports all of it, and will vote it into law. Those are just facts.

The ACLU specifically identifies the ways in which this bill destroys meaningful limits on the President's power to spy on our international calls and emails. Sen. Russ Feingold condemned the bill on the ground that it "fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home" because "the government can still sweep up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in the U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards to protect against abuse of this power." Rep. Rush Holt -- who was actually denied time to speak by bill-supporter Silvestre Reyes only to be given time by bill-opponent John Conyers -- condemned the bill because it vests the power to decide who are the "bad guys" in the very people who do the spying. [...]

Making matters worse still, what Obama did yesterday is in clear tension with an emphatic promise that he made just months ago. As the extremely pro-Obama MoveOn.org notes today, Obama's spokesman, Bill Burton, back in in September, vowed that Obama would "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies." MoveOn believes Obama should be held to his word and is thus conducting a campaign urging Obama to do what he promised -- support a filibuster to stop the enactment of telecom amnesty. You can email Burton here to demand that Obama comply with his commitment not just to vote against, but to filibuster, telecom amnesty:

bburton@barackobama.com

Incidentally, Chris Dodd made an identical promise when he was running for President, prompting the support of hundreds of thousands of new contributors, and he ought to be held to his promise as well.

I'm composing my e-mail to Bill Burton even as I type out this post. Please join me. The Fourth Amendment--when it isn't being pissed on and shredded, that is--is a thing of timeless beauty, and it is absolutely beyond me to understand how Democratic Congressmen (indeed, how any Constitution-respecting Congressmen) can buckle and collapse--so quickly, so hopelessly and haplessly!--before the blasts of fearmongering and hot air coming from the Bushian factions of our legislature. Perhaps it has something to do with them not having even a modicum of spinal rigidity--something with which I had long believed Senator Obama was blessed.

Say it ain't so, Senator--say it ain't so!

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Frank: Whipping Post; Barcelona, 1988

The title says it all, I'm afraid. But thankfully, it's Friday. Yeah.

(And by the way, does Bobby Martin have an amazing voice, or what?)

Bon Weekend, everyone.

Also at Cogitamus.

Slime Beneath the Surface; Scandal Under the Radar: John McCain and the Enron Loophole

Why are per-barrel oil costs soaring like...well, like an enormous soap bubble? Watch this Special Report and gain a broader understanding of the factors and players involved.

Hint: the rich get richer.

Second hint: the rich have friends in high places.

Third hint: "My friends..."

Also at Cogitamus.

One-Ton Tomato, Seriously Rotten

TRex observes, with disgust and dismay, the festering compost heap of hypocrisy and evil that is Guantanamo, along with other taxpayer-funded offshore prisons:

McClatchy is confirming the worst of what many of us suspected:

An eight-month McClatchy investigation in 11 countries on three continents has found that Akhtiar was one of dozens of men — and, according to several officials, perhaps hundreds — whom the U.S. has wrongfully imprisoned in Afghanistan, Cuba and elsewhere on the basis of flimsy or fabricated evidence, old personal scores or bounty payments.

This is one of those pieces of information like Phase 2 of the Senate investigation into the Bush administration’s manipulation of intelligence in the run-up to the War in Iraq. You knew it, I knew it. We hoped in our hearts that it wasn’t really true and that we were being cynical. Now we know that with BooshCo, you can never, ever be too cynical.

Read the whole thing, please. And continue to express outrage to your own Senators and Representatives.

Sunday Catblogging and Invitation to De-lurk

Tension is who you think you should be;
Relaxation is who you are.
~ Chinese Proverb

Behold Marley Tornello, the only truly still, non-fidgety (hell, non-airborne) male in my house. That kitty tower's third-level platform has a climb-through hole so cats can slither up and down--you know, an encouragement to get some exercise--but as Marley and his prodigious paunch recently discovered, the hole is also an excellent comfort feature: No pressure, baby--no pressure.

In the spirit of the proverb above, then, an invitation to de-lurk: Who are you, and how are you relaxing today? Say hello in comments.

Happy Sunday and Father's Day, everyone!

Olbermann & Turley on Thursday's Supreme Court Smackdown

It was a very, very close call, but the rule of law ruled the day: a provision of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 that stripped Federal courts of their jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus petitions from detainees who've been imprisoned in Guantanamo for as long as six years was, according to the Supreme Court, unconstitutional. Meaning, prisoners who have until now been held without charge, denied counsel--indeed, denied due process--can challenge their detention in America's courts. Keith Olbermann discusses the landmark ruling; Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley (my hero) weighs in.

The money quote (well, one of them):

Turley: "I think what we really gained here is credibility--that is, we show the world that having an idiot-proof system doesn't mean you don't have idiots; it means you can transcend them."

(Read the transcript of Thursday's Countdown here.)

Also at Cogitamus.

Friday Frank: Improvisation (ca. 1978); With Tommy Mars & Terry Bozzio

When most of us fiddle around with guitars and keyboards and sticks, it tends to sound...well, like we're fiddling around.

When Frank Zappa, Tommy Mars, Terry Bozzio and company came out to play, though, it produced something I want to hear over and over (and indeed have played three times already, despite it being 8:30am here).

I'm actually pretty thrilled with YouTube today, since there were several fresh Zappa videos from which to choose. But this one! It seemed so appropriate, so weekend-wild and pitch-perfect for the kind of attitude one should have on a steamy summer Friday. And since the morning is moving along, I, too, should probably get busy: sitting in an ice-packed cooler in the garage is a nice fat watermelon that's just crying out for someone to puncture its rind with an ice pick or switchblade and upend a bottle of good vodka into it.

Summertime heat may suck, but summertime improvisation can rock in all the best ways if you know what you're doing.

Happy Friday the 13th and Bon Weekend, everyone!

XX
D.

(H/T andreabubus)

Also at Cogitamus