Real Fireworks

Direct from my camera and our back deck...(and Cali again handled it like a champ - came out from under the bed two minutes after it was over!)

Ah Hah

McCain. Visiting Colombia. Hostages freed. Suspicions arise. Suspicions confirmed.

Forbes (yes, Forbes) via All Spin Zone:

Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting 'a reliable source'.

The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army 'were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,' the radio's French-language channel said.

Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million.

The radio said its source was 'close to the events, reliable and tested many times in recent years.'

Buh buh buh BUT buh buh BUSH doesn't talk to or make deals with terrorists!

Well, except this time. And that time (bin Laden's wish for the US to vacate Saudi Arabia). And that time (the whole axis of evil thing). But talking to or making deals with terrorists is strictly verboten.

Bozo, 1925-2008

Yup. Bozo's dead, boys and girls. Actually, Larry Harmon.

Larry Harmon, the man who popularised the show business character Bozo the Clown, has died of congestive heart failure at the age of 83.

Mr Harmon did not create the balding, flame-haired character, but played him in numerous appearances over the years.

He purchased the copyright in the 1950s and licensed the character to others, including TV stations across the US.

The stations then hired their own Bozos who were trained by Mr Harmon. The Bozo Show aired on US TV from 1961-2001.

The Fifth Annual Hoffmania Fireworks Show

Grab the mouse, put on some Souza and go nuts. Happy Fourth!

It Truly Is Time for Donald Wildmon to Retire

Truly.

Now It's Getting Really Disturbing

His soulmate. His constant companion. His significant other. It's starting to cause the first national outbreak of the willies.

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain (L) accompanied by U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman walk in the Port Society during a visit in the Caribbean port of Cartagena July 2, 2008.

US Republican presidential candidate John McCain (left) and his wife Cindy are received by Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (right) upon their arrival in Cartagena, Colombia July 1.

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., left, , talk about the rescue of 15 hostages in Colombia as his wife Cindy looks on aboard his campaign jet in flight between Cartagena, Colombia and Mexico City, Wednesday, July 2, 2008.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., second from left, his wife Cindy McCain, second from right, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., right, listen as Monsignor Diego Monroy Ponce, left, discusses details from an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe at the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Thursday, July 3, 2008.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., center,leads his wife Cindy and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., right, into a meeting room at the Casa De Huespedes presidential retreat in Cartagena, Colombia, Tuesday, July 1, 2008.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, and Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., center, visit with Colombian government officials at the Casa De Huespedes presidential retreat in Cartagena, Colombia, Tuesday, July 1, 2008.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., left, waves as he arrives with Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., second right, McCain's wife Cindy McCain, second left, and U.S. ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, right, in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 2, 2008.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., left, pats Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on the back as McCain begins to talk to the campaign traveling press about the death of television commentator Tim Russert upon their arrival to the airport in Washington, Friday, June 13, 2008.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., right, hugs Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., before saying goodbye to each other after arriving in Washington, Friday, June 13, 2008, on the campaign charter plane.

"DAMN, I Wish I Said That" Dept.

If I read this (sent by BKLN) before my last post, it would have saved me a pantload of time.

Al Giordano, as always, put it so much more eloquently than I did and put it in so much more detail. The result is an extremely smart piece on Obama and absolutism - and how so many people on both sides chose to ignore (or chose not to sit through) his speech on patriotism the other day while everyone was focused on Wesley Clark. It begins:

If you've been sprouting Chicken Little feathers in recent days, gnashing teeth over the nominee's reported "move to the center" (or "to the right"), worrying about whether Wes Clark got pushed - or leaped on his own - under the proverbial bus after his remarks distracted from the message of this speech yesterday (Clark, himself, on Good Morning America today acknowledged, ""I'm very sorry that this has distracted from the message of patriotism that Sen. Obama wants to put out"), I have an interesting homework assignment for you.

Please put aside 28 minutes and 22 seconds today to give your full attention to the video of that speech. And then, if you still feel this nominee is offering more of the same as previous nominees, come back here and make your case at least with the benefit of the full knowledge of what exactly was trampled upon during yesterday's Chicken Little stampede.

WARNING: It's a whole lot of words and commands your attention. If you choose to read it all, and if you truly have an open mind, you'll be rewarded. Give it a shot. Also read the comments if you have spare minutes, where you'll find gems like

I just want to say that I only know one person who meets the constitutional requirements for President with whom I agree on every issue, and I am not running.  So I go to the next closest.  And that is Obama hands down.

(For the closed-minded, Al even has words of comfort for them.)

...the highest calling of patriotism is not dissent. It is smart dissent, that based not on self-indulgence or the blurting of one's frustration's out in ways that seek to share the panic or the misery, but based on - even sometimes against great odds - building the objective conditions by which we will win the important battles worth fighting. We don't need any candidate's permission or endorsement of our issue or position to do that, and we sure don't have to wait for any politician to begin organizing the people to set him straight once in power. Ironically, we, the people have more leverage - if we organize - after a candidate becomes an official, than we do during the heat of an electoral campaign when he or she is so singularly focused on the goal of getting elected. And if we can use his own campaign as the basis through which to become organized, that much stronger will be our ability to move mountains when and if that campaign is victorious.

Time to Untwist the Knickers

I'm not sure what I'm marveling over more - how the Obama campaign is playing out or the reaction to it.

I'll either be called a pseudo-progressive or an Obamabot (after all, there are no shades of gray anymore), but so far, I've only had one big issue with him - FISA. I really don't see how he has otherwise veered from his game plan. His perceived "move to the middle" is more of an image which was created for him, not one he created himself.

So he's not a 100% progressive. So he's a spiritual guy. So he wants to keep the campaigning on the high road (or more precisely, give the appearance he is). Shocked? It's who he is, folks. Always was. Continues to be. It served him well this far.

So far, Obama's managed to keep himself above the fray. The heat from the right-wing faction has been mostly confined to third-parties (Rev. Wright, Wesley Clark, MoveOn for examples), weak "scandals" like his 2005 mortgage, or email rumors. That's IT. So far, all McCain has been able to muster is fainting-couch indignation on Clark...for three days now. And that replaced the big fat town hall challenge and the time since Obama was in Iraq last. Whooptie-freakin'-do.

Obama's playing this well-tuned violin beautifully. Is he selling himself to the middle? Damn right he is, and damn right he should. Is he doing it at the expense of the progressives? That's up to the progressive. If anyone feels so horrifically betrayed by Obama's methods that they will just throw their hands up and quit, then that's something you'll have to work through. I'm far from there - far enough to not even see it beyond the November horizon.

I know a lot of you disagree, but I'm really enjoying watching how it all plays out. To a great extent, it's McCain doing all the blinking so far. He's feeling harsh discontent from his withering base. He had a free pass for almost three months before Obama won the nod, and he squandered it. His campaign has just gone through yet another overhaul. His whining about being criticized is making him look less and less like the strong national security figure he hoped to be.

A campaign in trouble? It has a name: McCain.

Obama has several touchstone moments coming. The debates. The running mate. And holy crap, that convention speech. Mark our words, each one of those will underscore what much of the GOP knows.

John McCain and the current version of the Republican party have very, very big problems.

Come on. Grab a drink. Untwist those knickers. Enjoy the show.

'Shrooms

They're not just for omelettes anymore.

In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project.

She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open.

But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day.

"I feel more centered in who I am and what I'm doing," said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. "I don't seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected."

Scientists reported Tuesday that when they surveyed volunteers 14 months after they took the drug, most said they were still feeling and behaving better because of the experience.

Two-thirds of them also said the drug had produced one of the five most spiritually significant experiences they'd ever had.

The drug, psilocybin, is found in so-called "magic mushrooms." It's illegal, but it has been used in religious ceremonies for centuries.

The study involved 36 men and women during an eight-hour lab visit. It's one of the few such studies of a hallucinogen in the past 40 years, since research was largely shut down after widespread recreational abuse of such drugs in the 1960s.

Fox News Proves the Point

This morning, they demonstrated why viewers are getting fed up with their bullshit.

McCain: I Didn't Say That! I Didn't, I Didn't, I DIDN'T!

Man, it's not even lunch time, and we have an embarrassment of riches. Heeeeeere's Johnny again.

On ABC this morning, Robin Roberts remarked to McCain: "You have admitted that you are not exactly the expert when it comes to the economy and many have said that... "

McCain interjected, "I have not. I have not. Actually, I have not."

While McCain has never said that he wasn't an "expert" on the economy, he has acknowledged that it is a shortcoming -- which was at the heart of Roberts' question ("not exactly the expert").

"The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” McCain said in December 2007. “I’ve got Greenspan’s book.”

And here's what he told the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore in 2005: “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

McCain's Two-Fisted Diplomacy

Easy, John. Easy, pal: Part II.

Hint: "McCain Diplomacy" involves grabbing a guy by the collar and throwing him out of his chair. We're guessing you already assumed that.

One of John McCain's Republican colleagues says he saw the presumed GOP presidential nominee roughly grab an associate of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and lift him out of his chair during a diplomatic mission to the Central American nation in 1987.

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said he saw McCain, who has a reputation for being hot tempered, rough up an Ortega associate during a trip to Nicaragua led by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.

"McCain was down at the end of the table and we were talking to the head of the guerrilla group here at this end of the table and I don't know what attracted my attention," Cochran said in an interview with the Sun Herald in Biloxi, Miss. "But I saw some kind of quick movement at the bottom of the table and I looked down there and John had reached over and grabbed this guy by the shirt collar and had snatched him up like he was throwing him up out of the chair to tell him what he thought about him or whatever ...

"I don't know what he was telling him but I thought, 'Good grief, everybody around here has got guns and we were there on a diplomatic mission.' I don't know what had happened to provoke John, but he obviously got mad at the guy ... and he just reached over there and snatched ... him."

Yeah! Why talk to your enemies when you can just grab them by the collar and throw them out of their chair?

So He Saved a Big Fat $300 a Month

Hey, so that means Obama has $300 to pump back into Bush's economy by buying online porn. The Washington Post has uncovered the horrific scandal of OBAMA'S MORTGAGE.

Um...did he ignore four years of property taxes? Just askin'.

Republicans Want Him Near The Button

Easy, John. Easy, pal. His sponsors in his 12-step anger management program had to step in here between McCain and ABC's David Wright:

McCain became visibly angry when I asked him to explain how his Vietnam experience prepared him for the Presidency.

"Please," he said, recoiling back in his seat in distaste at the very question.

McCain allies Sen. Lindsey Graham stepped in to rescue him. Graham expressed admiration for McCain’s stance on the treatment of detainees in US custody.

"That to me is a classic example of how his military experience helped him shape public policy in a way no other senator could have done,’’ Graham said.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman, also traveling on the trip, expressed admiration for McCain’s wartime service as well.

McCain then collected himself and apologized for his initial reaction.

McCain then demanded that the Obama campaign must fire ABC News from its surrogate list.

Stimulate This!

ThinkProgress:

When President Bush announced his economic stimulus in January, he bragged that his package was the “right size” and would “boost” the economy

It sure has led to “higher consumer spending,” but not where Bush had probably hoped. The adult pornography industry reports that has seen a huge uptick in business thanks to Bush’s package. According to a press release from the Adult Internet Market Research Company:

An independent market-research firm, AIMRCo (Adult Internet Market Research Company), has discovered that many websites focused on adult or erotic material have experienced an upswing in sales in the recent weeks since checks have appeared in millions of Americans’ mailboxes across the country.

McCain - Validating Terrorism Wherever It Is!

Guess it's important to keep bogeymen in business.

The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for Sen. John McCain oversaw the payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States.

John Stossel Hasn't Been the Same Since That Wrestler Clocked Him

What a maroon.

(And here's what I'm referring to.)

Part of Stossel's idiocy here isn't ASKING Dave Schultz if wrestling's fake. It was his confrontationally stating "I think it's fake." Bad move, John, but it explains your brain damage which causes you to say that "oil companies are heroes."

Waaah! (Hey, Second One Today!)

John McCain is all unhappy that Sen. Jim Webb is criticizing him, and he wants the Obama campaign to stop it.

This whining is coming from a war hero?

McCain's New Strategy: Attack Obama's Character

This will work until Americans realize it's coming from the party that wrote the book on having zero character, zero scruples and zero conscience. Not to mention an 0-2 record on wars it declared, and a candidate who had the character to praise his captors while in their custody to get better treatment than his fellow POWs. But we won't go there.

GOP Sharpens Attacks On Obama

Sen. John McCain's allies have seized on a new and aggressive line of attack against Sen. Barack Obama, casting the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee as an opportunistic and self-obsessed politician who will do and say anything to get elected.

McCain typically leaves the sharpened criticism to others, in the hope of being able to claim the high ground of conducting a "respectful" campaign. But the abrupt shift in tone among his paid staff members, volunteer surrogates and other Republican staples of the cable news circuit is unmistakable, and it resembles the unified message the GOP used to paint the 2004 Democratic candidate, Sen. John F. Kerry, as a flip-flopper.

It also reflects a growing belief among McCain's strategists that the campaign for the White House will be won or lost based on voters' view of Obama's character. In a strategy memo released Thursday, McCain's top political adviser accused Obama of "self-serving partisanship."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said he is not surprised by the sharp attacks from McCain's surrogates: "It's our view that's exactly the politics that the American people are sick and tired of. The only ideas they have to promote are the failed ones for the last eight years."

Targeting a politician's character flaws is a time-tested strategy, but it is a complicated argument for McCain, who has also shifted his positions in the course of the campaign. This month, with gasoline prices soaring, the Republican reversed his position on offshore oil drilling.

Chronotopic Anamorphosis

Always fun to see a cool new vid technology in its infancy. The possibilities are fascinating. That's a roll of masking tape he starts with.