Let’s start with an upper for a change: when they got home from school yesterday, a couple of little girls we know had a treat from their maw and paw:
AP
That plaque (Fallows and I could do without the last line) is attached to this:
AP
WaPo has more views here.
In news that may interest Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, Michael Steele took off yesterday again on Republican Senators with tastes for the stimulus and earmark spending. (See the DJournal for more on the Cochran-Wicker booty.)
Meanwhile, under a White House-brokered deal, GWB’s top political adviser and White House counsel — Karl Rove and Harriet Miers, respectively — will testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee in closed depositions whose transcripts will probably be made public. (I like this idea, since it’s apt to rein-in the showboats and produce more serious questioning than televised sessions do.) They may also give some public testimony. CBS News reports that “the key to the agreement was that the Obama White House stopped short of acknowledging that ‘executive privilege’ still applied to Rove and Miers — though the House Judiciary statement says ‘it was agreed that invocations of official privileges would be significantly limited.’”
In Stanford news, ToL reports:
Officials investigating the alleged $8 billion fraud of the Texas cricket financier Allen Stanford have reacted in disbelief to a request from one of his customers, that a special delivery of 100 solid gold bars be allowed to go ahead as planned.
The reason?
The $3.3 million worth of bullion — each bar weighs 1kg — is needed for a Beverly Hills art exhibition that explores how “duality resides in both the literal and figurative aspects of weights and measures, as well as in the layers of meaning embedded in the known hierarchy of materials”.
The artist responsible, Chris Burden — whose previous stunts have included being shot in the left arm, crucified on the top of a VW Beetle, and set on fire — still hopes to open his show, entitled “One Kilo, One Ton”, with a reception at the Gorgonian Gallery on Saturday. …
According to the DJournal, some smaller Stanford investors (those with $100,00 or less invested with him) may see their frozen accounts released starting as early as tomorrow.
Wooie and good luck widdat. Same goes for those 4 million or so Americans whose home mortgages need the Obama Administration’s two new plans to avoid foreclosures. Some folks will remain out of luck, though: “About 20 percent of the country’s 50 million mortgage holders owe more than 105 percent of their house’s value, and so do not qualify for refinancing under the plan,” reports NYT.
Back in mid-November, JPD officer Robert Watts announced his intention to sue Mayor Frank Melton for transferring him to the night shift in Jackson’s highest-crime area after he testified to a federal grand jury investigating Melton. Yesterday, Watts followed through, and here’s his 36-page complaint (pdf).
FEMA nominee Craig Fugate joins his new boss-to-be DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan for a first look at the Katrina Zone today and tomorrow, says an AP story in the Sun Herald.
Bless you, Bruce Newman, for showing me Ole Miss’s daffodils!
Oxford Eagle
Ahhhhhhhh . . . ……..
R.I.P., Horton Foote. Thank you for the script of Mockingbird and so much else.
Another good Obama pick: Julius Genachowski to head FCC.
Lots of leftie-bloggers have had it to here with all this GOPer guff about a budget appropriation for an alleged but nonexistent “Disney-to-Vegas mag-lev TRAIN fer chrissakes!” This has been going on for days — in fact, just yesterday Benen told one of the funniest stories yet about it (starring Mary Bono).
So imagine my surprise, driving home from an errand yesterday PM, to hear David Frum repeat on NPR what he has to know by now is the out-and-out lie. Now I’m pissed-off too.
If any of y’all find a YouTube of Jon Stewart’s whole show last night, PLEASE DIRECT ME TO IT, okay? I hear it’s a masterpiece.
The GOPers looked for a bridge to nowhere in the budget. Couldn’t find one, no problem, made one up.
Lotus @ 3: Bono’s behavior is a prime example of a human phenom I refer to as believing your own BS. Very dangerous condition when the author of a lie begins to believe the lie himself.
Lotus @ 4 – Jon Stewart’s intro rant on CNBC from last night is on Comedy Central’s website and on Gawker see link below. Hulu.com will have the whole Daily Show from the 4th in a day or two. Right now all they have is the 2nd.
Gawker’s piece with video: http://tinyurl.com/b7ebxn
Well, here’s 8:29 of Stewart (note Stanford allowing that it’s fun to be a billionaire), but I’m still looking for the whole thing.
Thanks, DLM!
Lotus-4,
Comedy Central will re-run it a couple of times today…7:00 p.m. (central) for one.
Don’t know where to find CC on my cable, Phantom (in fact, not quite sure what JD and Isom did with the clicker — haven’t seen it in a few weeks), but thanks on behalf of others. I’m thinking about just ditching the ancient big/old TV in my living room and and the little newer one here in my bedroom entirely — could better use the space for books.
Great Randolph Scott!! That playground set made my heart skip beats. Our oldest son bought one of those exact same kits at Costco a coupla years ago, then invited me to bring “some screwdrivers and wrenches and stuff” to “help” him put it together.
That kit musta had 8000 screws, nuts, washers, lock washers, pins, dowels, and associated doodads, plus at least a ton—a full
2000 lbs., or more—of wood cut into myriad lengths, shapes, angles, plus roofing stuff, ropes, rubber bumper pieces, and other bewildering things.
Holy moly … I wake up nights in cold sweats dreaming about assemblying that thing. If you get roped into “helping” someone assemble one of these things, just go ahead and pay the $800 or whatever Costco asks to have a crew do it for you.
Betcha the company put it together for these customers (in fact, one of NYT’s pix is their delivery van). Tellya what, Ben, I’d love to scamper around on that rig, and I’m 61 years old!
Speaking of hopping-up-and-down, check out kingfish’s latest — he’s found out that Michael Taylor (remember him from the Melton trial?) has been out on parole since November. k’fish is calling for Yerger’s head, or nearly.
No message. System test.
Earth to Fomalhaut: How copy? Over.
Agreed, Ben-12..and the one I assembled was nice enough to include the phrase “the assembly requires at least two grown men” on the LAST page of the instruction manual.
The only thing missing from the “first playground” is Mayor McCheese peering down from above.
NMC, regarding Double Decker – will you be having punch and giving office tours?
Yippee, John Cole has the whole Stewart show PLUS Colbert’s whole Glenn Beck-pantsing in one post.
Dragging the kicking-and-screaming U.S. Government into modern times:
After telling WBAL yesterday that “I am putting the party on a 12-step program of recovery,” Michael Steele confirms to WaPo today, “I’m in the business of ticking people off. That’s why I’m chairman.” Furthermore, he’s banned the word “outreach” from the RNC building. And though “everyone has a role to play, … at the end of the day, all roads are going to lead to this desk. From the Hill, from the grass roots, the donors, it all comes here. They’re all going to look to me to speak on issues.”
Such the smoovie, no? Confidence-inspiring.
Just put your mouse on a city anywhere in the world and the newspaper front page headlines pop up… Double click and the page gets larger:
http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/
Joyner/Baydala report the Melton lawyers and judge are teleconferencing this morning on whether there’ll be a retrial. Also this:
It’s on. The Clarion-Ledger is reporting that a new trial for Melton is set for May 11.
The first RNC member to call on Steele to resign is one of the three black members.
Holy shit — Citigroup busted $1/share this morning. Last trade, $1.02.
HRC just called for a high-level meeting on Afghanistan on March 31, to include the Iranian foreign minister and be chaired by a special rep of the UN SecGen.
Interesting that, about two hours ago, Laura Rozen linked a WaPo op-ed by James Dobbins (GWB’s first special envoy to Afghanistan after 9/11) that says the best way to start talking to Iran is just to stop NOT talking to them. HRC’s ministerial-level meeting idea may exceed Dobbins’ personal speed-limit, though.
Josh has an interesting wrinkle on the RNC member calling for Steele’s resignation:
Josh calls this a “harmonic convergence,” but I doubt that’s the music of the spheres we’re hearing.
Lotus @ 24 – just think of it as a lottery ticket.
EXACTLY a lottery ticket, MrS (I don’t go for those either).
Wait a minnit. If a fictional high-speed rail system connecting LA and Vegas raises Republicans’ blood pressure THAT much, just imagine what a REAL one might accomplish! I say build the damn thing. Couldn’t be any harder than that darn backyard playground kit was.
Lotus, to cheer you up a little bit, forget Citi. I just read a delightful, short piece titled, “The Three Ways GE Can Survive”. G. FREAKING E.
*Buying canned food on the way home.*
Ben @ 30 – Yes, but you’d need to route it between Disney Land and a house of prostitution to really get the effect you want. I’m not sure the madame would agree to that.
Somebody else stepping out into the fresh air: Israel’s ambassador to the US resigned today, and Laura Rozen is picking up talk around town that he skedaddled before Bibi’s sh*t hits Obama’s fan.
GO BARNEY!
The GOPers in the MS senate have the Commercial Appeal scratching its head (h/t lilaruby).
Vaccine Contamination!!
http://www.infowars.com/%E2%80%98accidental%E2%80%99-contamination-of-vaccine-with-live-avian-flu-virus-virtually-impossible/#
Fallows has most interesting friends.
Sanjay Gupta ‘cided he doesn’t wanna be Surgeon General after all. Hm.
The History Channel is running a Brokaw documentary “1968″ if anybody wants to tune (and turn on). Interesting teevee.
Lotus @ 38 – I have a an alternate to recommend (scroll past old news about Daschle).
Thanks, Cujo. Smitherman sounds good, but I think Redlener sounds even better. Either far outclasses Gupta.