Weekend Open Thread

 

"Harlan County Line" - Dave Alvin & the Guilty Ones

Calling it an end to a long, long week.  March has been surreally beautiful around here with the last couple of days in the mid-80s -- of course it is going to rain all weekend.  The cherry blossoms were in full bloom yesterday when I drove by the Tidal Basin.  My only fear is that if it's 85 in March is it going to 105 in July?

- Go to jail, go directly to jail - Wow, it appears that Jon Corzine ordered that customer accounts be raided in order to cover an overdraft of an MF Global corporate account.  This is what we call stealing or, if you want to be all fancy, "conversion."  Methinks Mr. Corzine has upcoming reservations at the gray bar hotel.  I am baffled by this sort of thing -- Corzine is an extraordinarily wealthy individual.  Why would you risk imprisonment in this kind of situation -- why not just let the company go bankrupt?  (Of course the question might also be asked why are you still trying to make money -- why not do something decent with the rest of your life?)

- As someone who still wears a hoodie frequently, I have this overwhelming urge to kick Geraldo Rivera in the balls.  Jesus, what incredibly racist claptrap.  I mean I know its Fox, but really.

- The latest polls from Virginia would suggest that vaginal wanding is not a winning position for the Republicans and Obama is the beneficiary of the crazy.  Obama has a 17 point lead over Romney in the latest NBC/Marist poll.  Two predictions - if Obama once agains carries Loudon and Prince William County, he wins Virginia.  And if he wins Virginia, he wins the election.

It's primary day in Louisiana -- a probable Santorum win, although it looks like his lead in Wisconsin has been evaporated once again under an onslaight of Romney advertising.  The Human Etch a Sketch is blasting his way to one ugly win.

Time to begin the weekend chores.  Be back later. 

Update:  The polls just closed in Louisiana and CNN has already called it for Santorum, who leads Romney 40% to 29% thus far in very early voting.  I don't know if it's just me, but I get the sense that Santorum is getting very little mileage for his win.  Maybe because it's a Saturday night, maybe because it's in the middle of the NCAA tournament, or maybe people have just gotten bored and (rightly) don't see this vote as a game changer, but this seems to be generating no buzz at all.  Too bad.  I am in favor of any additional discomfort that can be thrown the way of the Romney campaign.  

Santorum has stretched his lead now to 49% to 26% with about 70% of the vote in.  I believe that if Romney falls under 25%, he does not take any of the delegates allocated by the primary vote unless he wins in an individual congressional district, which seems unlikely at this time.  You would think that this might be a bit of an embarrassment and may generate comment in the press tomorrow. 

And speaking of embarrassments, Gingrich is getting only 16% of the vote in a deep southern state.  This really would be the last gasp for any normal candidate -- but for the grifter supreme, I assume that some preposterous reason to soldier on -- no doubt for the good of the republic and civilization -- will be asserted.

Ron Paul garners another paltry 6% of the vote.  Would someone remind me again why we were supposed to take this guy seriously?

Well it looks like Santorum will take 49% of the vote and Romney will just limp over 25%, finishing with about 26.5% -- not a stellar performance.  Turnout was light, but superior to 2008, when Mike Huckabee just slipped by John McCain.  Interestingly, once again in a southern state, Santorum performed significantly better than he polled. 

Comments

[jeanne marie]

First!

[Sir Charles]

jm,

Doesn't seem like a lot of competition.

It's slow out there. People must be living their lives -- the nerve of them.

I'm waiting to see what the Louisiana primary vote looks like -- I know it's academic, but I'd like to see Mr. Etch-a-Sketch take another loss.

[nancy]

Think a comment was eaten, so again...

Paula has been scarce lately and tells me it's project overload, not to mention that the topics she's researching and reporting are emotionally draining. Since she's not here, thought I'd link to her terrific post today, Beware sluts, women with brains and other real and present dangers . We women with pre-contraception era stories to tell are out of patience as you'll see. Don't mess with Paula.

Oh, and I can remember when Geraldo was the ABC 'edgy cool-hip sexy' news-guy-in-the-field. Lordy.

The etch-a-sketch cartoon of the day I like shows the screen with shaky etched words OH NO coming out of Mitt's mouth. Molly would have had fun.

[Sir Charles]

nancy,

That's a great post by Paula.

I, too, remember when Geraldo was hip and edgy in the 70s and would periodic late night specials that I was a huge fan of.

I believe he was also Kurt Vonnegut's son in law, which gave him extra cred with the young me.

[Joe S]

I remember Geraldo Rivera's specials as a kid "The Secrets of Al Capone's vaults."

[Joe S]

Does anybody have an opinion on whether the comments section is completely fixed and reliable ? After a long comment containing long defense of Bob Dylan's Time out of Mind; and a long comment on the disappointing aspects of the Obama Administration's foreign policy both got eaten, I got a little gun shy.

[Sir Charles]

Joe,

Rivera was quite the crusading young journalist back in he day. He hosted a show called "Good Night America" in 1975, which I recall loving as a 15 year old.

He is -- gasp -- a lawyer by training.

[Sir Charles]

Joe,

I wish I knew about the comments and could vouch for its reliability.

It seems like longer comments are causing some issues for people. You might want to copy them and/or post in multiple parts, a la Prup.

Sadly, my technical skills are non-existent. I pray to the Typepad Gods and hope that they are merciful.

[nancy]

Joe S -- I'm not sure I have the mystery solved, but first, when a 'session expired' happens, you do have to copy your text, bring up a new tab, pull up the site, paste and add a stroke. You've been here longer than I have, so I assume that drill is familiar to you.

But I noticed today that having the site sitting open on a tab and then going back hours later to comment, I got a comments closed announcement. Brought up fresh tab and the closed announcement disappeared. Hope that helps. Long comments seem to trigger the 'expired" or we "we cannot accept this" blah blah at about 30-40 minutes. Impatient little imperious beasty. :-)

[big bad wolf]

joe, i am sorry that you lost the time out of mind comment (the other one too, but politics is everywhere :)). i was looking forward to your response.

i've found that on those few times i think on things long enough to get the comments program edgy, that copying the comment, opening a new window, putting the comment in that window and immediately posting seems to work.

[Joe S]

bbw, My comment in a nutshell was that you focused on the weakest tune on Time Out of Mind (Make You Feel My Love) which was arguably overproduced-- although nothing like the folk version Wall of Sound that the new Springsteen album is (which, I'm sorry for Springsteen fans, but the new album sounds like a cross between a late career farce from "A Mighty Wind" and a Country Bears Animatronic Jamboree tune).

[Joe S]

On the other hand, the strongest songs on Time Out of Mind (Lovesick, Dirt Road Blues, The Highlands, and Til I Fell in Love With You) are just pitch perfect. Lanois didn't overwhelm Dylan's voice- he complimented the voice and style of Dylan perfectly. On the above mentioned blues tracks, Lanois gave the tunes enough of a retro feel to make them seem timeless while staying true to the blues genre which is where, when combined with Dylan's lyrics, Dylan often creates a classic song. I think you can put any of the blues tracks on Time Out of Mind next to Highway 61 Revisited and they stand up.

I also think you can put "Not Dark Yet" up against "Spanish Boots of Spanish Leather" as Dylan's best ballad, and part of that is Lanois' filling in sound around Dylan's voice.

[nancy]

Ron Paul garners another paltry 6% of the vote. Would someone remind me again why we were supposed to take this guy seriously?

He was to be paving the way for his heir apparent, remember? Someone remind me why we were supposed to take that idea seriously?

bbw and joe -- At the end of the day, Time Out of Mind goes with me to the desert island. Maybe it's a sentimental thing -- it co-mingles with memories of being a young mother falling into new daily rhythms -- but that was the mature and evolving Dylan I found fascinating and was not expecting at the time.

[big bad wolf]

joe, thanks. i love to hear what folks think; it gives me more things to listen to or for and to keep in mind while listening.

i agree that not dark yet is a great song. i think i singled out trying to get to heaven, not make you fell my love. i think the former much stronger. i guess in the end i favor the more anarchic feel of the HWY 61 sessions more than the control i hear in lanois. the anarchic sound in 61 may be fake and controlled, but i like it better. similarly, for me, the grabbag of spare, tin-pan alley, and acoustic blues that mark love and theft and modern times sound more suited to the ambiguity, starkness, and existential play that late bob brings us. but it's all, i think, good.

[kathy a.]

we ran away to celebrate our wedding anniversary. i don't actually remember the last time we did something like that...

go, paula!

i always thought geraldo was slimy, self-promoting, and not so devoted to the rational and factual. those qualities seem to have ripened with age.

the "new black panthers," whoever they are, managed to say something more vile and stupid than geraldo.

our nation must be severely depleting the national strategic reserves of vile and stupid during this endless primary season.

[kathy a.]

ok, right. if a group is considered by The Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to be a hate group, that's good enough for me. guess that's why that story got lost so fast.

[nancy]

My GOP congresswoman contacted me on twitter to relay this *devastating* critique of the Dems. Am howling. A GOP win in the twitter stakes. Champagne all around.

Sir C -- I think there's rich material for a slow day there. Remember Cantor texting away for the cameras during the SOTU last year? He was possibly just busy being responsible and twitter savvy.

And if this woman doesn't show up on Romney's VP list in an effort to erase Palin from history, I will eat a hat or two.

[nancy]

Sorry -- left this part out:

In a statement to Red Alert Politics, Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers said:

“House Republicans are committed to using social media to listen, engage, and stay connected with our constituents. Our Members recognize that we have to continue to stay head of the curve online. Our challenge now is to make the most effective use of the social web, and to tap the potential of more directly involving the American people in their Congress.”

Now if they can just remember that birth control is a settled issue, they can tweet to one another and us about it.

[Sir Charles]

nancy,

Yet another reason to hate twitter.

[kathy a.]

seriously, they are judging their effectiveness via feedback on twitter? holy guacamole. i guess it must work for them since no thought can be very long.

[KN]

One on topic comment, weather here has been tweaked a bit. Usually it would be next month before things really dried out but we have gone now 8 days with no rain at all which is just a bit remarkable. I have just finished reading Michael Mann's The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars and I can reccommend it. Saddly, it will not have much impact because the vast majority of people do not read much.

Don't get me started on Dylan. I'm too busy dancing beneath the diamond sky...

When I get the timeout error posting a comment I highlight and copy to the clipboard all I have written then just click on reload and refresh the page, 9 times
out of ten the original text is all there you just have to add a carriage return and a space or to to the text and then you can submit the response and it will work.

kathy, nancy et al. Ever hear of game theory? Just curious but it makes a point for me, in game theory, at the very simple levels where simple strategies are chosen and then played out through simulations, one of the "rules" that crops up is that once your opponent has defected from a cooperative strategy, you never trust them again. This is a principle that I have usefully employed throughout my career both professionally and in other contexts. So my point is this; women who are offended, disturbed, disquieted by the radical extremist laws being proffered and instituted by republican zealots should forever banish them from acceptability as a candidate for public office. Having seen some gender gap stats recently, males as a group seem to have a big blind spot.

Personally, I think it is more useful, productive and efficient to persuade people than to cudgle them into compliance with some point of view.

Regrettably, I also know that sometimes, you canot avoid confronting violence with violence.

On the open thread side my situation is still in limbo.
Luckily I anticipated this would be the case so I have things to do which keep me busy, otherwise I would be nuts by now. I have hundreds of boxes of drill core to examine. 15 meters of core per box. I do though wish I could prepare thin sections and had a petrographic microscope.

Royal handwave to Washington for the near bush....

[oddjob]

The cherry blossoms were in full bloom yesterday when I drove by the Tidal Basin.

Unfortunately in Boston that weather was just warm enough just long enough to push the apple blossoms far enough that tonight's killing frost is going to damage the state's apple crop.

:(

We also are 5" behind in rain since the New Year! March has been eerily sunny and warm.

[oddjob]

Methinks Mr. Corzine has upcoming reservations at the gray bar hotel.

A not uncommon destination for New Jersey politicians, regardless of political party.

[oddjob]

This really would be the last gasp for any normal candidate -- but for the grifter supreme, I assume that some preposterous reason to soldier on -- no doubt for the good of the republic and civilization -- will be asserted.

I figure as long as casino magnate and "Greater Israel" advocate Sheldon Adelson is willing to keep paying the bills Newtie will keep making a hateful ass of himself. It really is what he does best.

[oddjob]

...The AFL-CIO is set to call on a Republican member of the National Labor Relations Board to step down in response to a new report alleging ethics violations, perhaps the first time the union has taken this step. But there’s also an angle involving Mitt Romney: One of his advisers has also been implicated in the tale.

Last week, the NLRB’s Inspector General released a report finding that one of its members, Terence Flynn, had violated ethics rules by revealing confidential information about internal NLRB deliberations to former board members who used the info to benefit their private sector clients. This has been referred to the Justice Department, and if the charges are true, he may have badly compromised the integrity of the agency....

[KN]

Oddjob, you appear to have missed the link to the Romoney campaign.