Below: A view of the Hyannis Green on the snowy morning of December 31st, 2008. Up to eight inches of snow are expected today, according to the Cape Cod Times.
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So, to summarize, a leading candidate to lead the Republican National Committee promoted a song calling the next president a "magic negro." This has improved his chances of getting the job.
"Do you believe for a moment that leveling Gaza will stop the rockets? Well, then you've lost your right to call the peaceniks naive. You want the cycle broken? Then you can start by breaking your own."Bryan, pointing to BBC reporter Katya Adler's candid dispatch:
The BBC’s Katya Adler in Jerusalem says the timing of Israel’s operation is significant, as Israeli politicians are keen to score points ahead of a general election in February.More from Adler's report:
Israel holds parliamentary elections in just over a month's time.Indiscriminately killing lots of people makes you blind but gets you votes in Israel. As Glenn Greenwald points out, our own politicians suppose that encouraging American taxpayers to pay nearly $3 billion a year for this insanity is good politics here at home, too.The Israeli public has a generally low opinion about how their government has handled what they call "Hamastan" - Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Until it started talking tough, the hawkish opposition leader, Binyamin Netanyahu, was leading in the polls. Now the gap has narrowed.
Dear Santa Claus - I would like to have a nice express wagon, scrap book, and most anything that would suit a boy eight years old. Don't forget pap a box of tobacco for I am tired running to the store every evening.
Eugene Law, 28 Chestnut St.
Dear Santa Claus - Please bring me a bicycle, nice story book with lots of pretty pictures in it and anything else you can spare.
Gilbert Kohl, 300 N. Centre St.
Dear Santa Claus - I would like to have a ten dollar suit and a twelve dollar overcoat, four dollar hat, three dollar pair shoes, pair skates, sled, tool box, steam engine, magic lantern, story book, drawing slate, drawing slate, gun, drum, horn, texes pony, carriage, blackboard, ship, set of dominos, watch and chain, ring, engine and train, sandmill and false face.
John W. Yergiin, Md. Ave.
Dear Santa Claus —Please bring me a blackboard to write on, a little wagon and a nice Christmas tree and a nice yard, gun and lots of candy and nuts.
Frank Blaul, 252 N. Mechanic st.
Dear Santa — Please bring me a nice pocketbook, a pair kid gloves, a friendship bracelet, new dress, and umbrella.
Katharine Giles, 41 Decatur st.
Dear Santa Claus — Please bring me a doll, a bupgy, set of dishes, bureau, a ring, bracelet, watch, story book, stove, table lamp, candy, nuts, and oranges, wash tub and board, a glove, knife and fork, iron board pair shoes and clock.
Edna Johnston,105 Madison st.
Dear Santa Clause — Please bring me a double slate, double school bag, pair shoes and a pair gloves.
Regina Ryland, 128 N. Centre st.
Dear Santa - I think I have been a very good girl. I would like to have a new doll and a muff as my old one is too small and some new handkerchiefs, new dresses for my old dolls, you know I am satisfied with any thing you bring me, so bring me what you think best, and don't forget to trim my tree.
Beulah Kimble
Dear Santa - I hope you will not disappoint me. I would like to have a pretty book, a satchel, a sled, story book, pair kid gloves and some candy and nuts.
Myrtle I. Valentine, N. Centre street.
Dear Santa Claus - I would like to have a gold ring, a Golf cape and mackintosh and anything else you wish to bring me and don't forget my little sister Leota, for this is her first Christmas.
Bertha Scuber, 80 Decatur street.
Santa Clause— I send you this short note to open your heart for Christ-max & to fill the little girls & boys saks full of candy & tell Santa clouse not be stingy about it. Santa clouse help us out at the end of this year for you might be dead next year. For I hope we live to see another Santa Clouse & I hope you will be filled up with candy this max so we may all get some, divide small and serve all, & dont forget my little sister she is one year old but she cant write yet she is to little. But dont forget her in your prayers Santa Clous.
Susie McFadden, 137 Walnut street.
Dear Santa Clause - Please bring me a doll, a doll wash stand, a doll bed, some games, a box of paints, a doll stove, a little doll table and some story books.
Lillian Laing.
Dear Santa Claus - Please bring me a drum and a horse, a monkey in a box and toffie candy, nuts and oranges.
Will O'Neal
Dear Santa Claus - Please bring me a little trunk, little caster, wash-board, tub, wringer, clothes horse and if you have the clothes-line and pins I would like to have them and the rest of the toys give the other children.
Helen Stanley, 169 N. Mechanic street.
“Because the pardon power is constrained only by executive discretion, the president usually takes care to get it right before making the decision."When historians look back on the Bush administration, they will be flabbergasted at the breathtaking width and depth of incompetence in every sphere, on every issue from virtually every perspective. This gang of nincompoops and criminals couldn't even get the grace of a presidential pardon right.
Steve Benen is calling attention to an exceedingly strange article on the Politico web site. It's against our principles to link to Politico; there, however, two reporters by the names of John F. Harris (editor of Politico) and Alexander Burns are snidely implying, to quote Benen quoting them, "that Barack Obama faces a possible 'backlash' for his 'ostentatious embrace of all things Lincoln.'"In Barack Obama's appearance last month on CBS's "60 Minutes," the conversation turned to the president-elect's long-time love of Lincoln.What makes the Politico piece fundamentally misleading and even mendacious is that the two Politico writers then go on to scatter a few historians' quotes around the rest of the article as if the historians were being critical of Obama for using the Lincoln bible or for finding "wisdom" in Lincoln. Here's just one classic example you can file away with your Jayson Blair memorabilia:
"There is a wisdom there," Obama told interviewer Steve Kroft, "and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful."
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On January 20th, President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office using the same Bible upon which President Lincoln was sworn in at his first inauguration
Eric Foner, a Columbia historian who has written extensively on the Civil War era, agreed that comparing one's self to Lincoln sets a rather high bar for success, and could come off like "a certain kind of hubris."Do you see the John Wilkes Booth in this journalistic theater? Foner isn't saying that Obama compares himself to Lincoln. How could he? Only Harris and Burns are making that claim. What Foner does say is that if someone were "comparing himself to Lincoln" it would take hubris.
Since 2006, when he became House budget chairman, Sansom helped the college get $35 million above what the Department of Education recommended. This year, while the Legislature was attempting to close a $6 billion shortfall, he secured $25.5 million for the school, which was $24.5 million above what had been initially budgeted. That was the single-largest public education capital outlay for community college projects this year.Today's PNJ joins in with an editorial summarizing how Sansom is now avoiding all questions about the recent revelations. It's titled "Sansom Has No Place to Hide."
Instead of a religious invocation delivered by a raging homophobe, president-elect Obama would have been better off if he had asked Tiger Woods to kick off the inauguration by sharing a few golfing tips.
From the Truly Terrible Ideas Dept., courtesy of the Associated Press: 'Let's use taxpayer money to bail out the rich people who were scammed by Bernie Madoff to the tune of $50 billion.'Robert Schachter, an attorney with New York-based Zwerling, Schachter & Zwerling, which is representing several Madoff victims. "If we're bailing out Wall Street and the auto industry, maybe these individuals should be bailed out too."We're as sympathetic as anyone to the charities and pension funds and universities and even entire cities that got taken by Bernie Madoff. The fact is, however, almost everyone who gave money to him knew Madoff was a crook. They just assumed he was their crook.
The men I swindled were also motivated by a desire to acquire money, and they didn't care at whose expense they got it. I was particular. I took money only from those who could afford it andAlexander Cockburn, of all people, has more:
were willing to go in with me in schemes they fancied would fleece others.
Of course many of them thought Madoff’s famous model was dubious. After all, how could the laws of financial gravity be defied, year after year, producing an unending yield (for the fortunate) of 10 to 12 per cent annual returns on capital invested. But the thought came with a knowing wink, that Bernie was scoring these huge returns, by being in the know, running on the inside track, using insider knowledge. As my father pointed out to me many times, many people have a bit of larceny in their bloodstream, and it’s what con men trade on, as Gogol imperishably described in Dead Souls.Actually, there's a strong possibility that most of Madoff's investors will be getting bailed out by the Treasury Department, as Bloomberg News explains. All they need to do is convince the IRS that they suffered "theft" losses, not "investment" losses.
Grace Nearing has it about right:I really had been hoping for a secular invocation, which may seem like an oxymoron until you realize that invocation is itself a contradictory term, meaning both a prayer asking God’s help and an incantation used in conjuring up a spirit. (I’d be for the latter if the Founding Fathers could be conjured up and we could at last get closure on some nagging Constitutional questions.)Of course, if "we the people" were to get the inauguration we deserve, it would mean no Yo-Yo Ma, no Itzhak Perlman or Gabriela Montero or Anthony McGill, and no John Williams, either. Obama's swearing-in would be preceded by four hours of television sit-coms.
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[I]f I were managing the Inauguration, there’d be no poetry reading either. We the People do not read poems. We the People do enjoy stand-up comedy, however. Instead of hearing a poem (with or without references to poking, prodding, or pickling), I’d much rather hear Lewis Black do a routine about Alan Greenspan’s belated realization that his long-held model of free-market capitalism has a tiny flaw and now the entire universe is in the crapper!!!
[H]er poems have the qualities of most contemporary American poetry—a specificity that’s personal and unsuggestive, with moves toward the general that are self-consciously academic. They are not poems that would read well before an audience of millions.You can evaluate Elizabeth Alexander's poetry for yourself. Not to our taste, we confess. But apparently the question of the day should be, do you detect in it traces of the Poetry Industrial Complex?
"Christianity is the more dangerous when it gives its attention to this life."Nationwide, congregations large and small are presenting programs of practical advice for people in fiscal straits — from a homegrown series on “Financial Peace” at a Midtown Manhattan church called the Journey, to the “Good Sense” program developed at the 20,000-member Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill., and now offered at churches all over the country. Many ministers have for the moment jettisoned standard sermons on marriage and the Beatitudes to preach instead about the theological meaning of the downturn.We may be facing an economic Depression, but for evangelical preachers, self-proclaimed prophets, and other assorted mountebanks and charlatans, it's Boom Times again.
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Part of the evangelicals’ new excitement is rooted in a communal belief that the big Christian revivals of the 19th century, known as the second and third Great Awakenings, were touched off by economic panics.
This is the same Rick Warren who recently said that the relationships of his 'many gay friends' are no different from child rape, incest or polygamy. He also jumped on the paranoia bandwagon surrounding same-sex marriage by falsely claiming that Prop 8’s failure somehow would have overturned the Constitution’s First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and religion.Others see the decision to give Warren his 5 minutes in the sun as a divisive act of "wedge politics."
Mrs. Colman and myself have in most things seen eye to eye but in the matter of Spiritualism we are widely apart. While to me the knowledge, for such it is to me, that my departed loved ones can and do come to me is a blessing so great that I cannot describe it, she has no faith in it whatever. What matter? Our friendship is too strong, too sweet to be disturbed by difference of opinion. I cheerfully recommend the work to all reformers of whatever name and grade.To be sure, fundamentalist Christianity can be "more dangerous when it gives its attention to this life," as the estimable Lucy Newhall Coleman wrote. But the tasks ahead for Barack Obama are many and daunting. He will need the support of as many Americans as he can get. If some among them also are attracted from Rick Warren's flock, so much the better.
In the Sock and Awe browser game (screenshot above), players toss shoes at the bobbing-and-weaving president. The Flying Babush and Bush's Boot Camp games offer similar action.Where Muntazer al-Zaidi went wrong is he didn't get rich by filing for trademark protection on throwing stuff at Bush. It's the American way, right? Those Iraqis who have survived the Bush administration still have a lot to learn.
The harsh reality is that this was not a noble undertaking done for good reasons. It was a criminal enterprise launched by madmen cheered on by a chorus of fools and cowards. And it’s seen as such by virtually everyone all around the world — including but by no means limited to the Arab world. But it’s impolitic to point this out in the United States, and it’s clear that even a president-elect who had the wisdom not to be suckered in by the War Fever of 2002 has no intention of really acting to marginalize the bad actors. Which, I think, makes sense for his political objectives. But if Americans want to play a constructive role in world affairs, it’s vitally important for us to get in touch with the reality of what the past eight years of US foreign policy have been and how they’re seen and understood by people who aren’t stirred by the shibboleths of American patriotism.If he did nothing else, crazed by the deaths of family and friends or not, al-Zaidi is among the first in the world to try to hold Bush accountable. Is our own legal system as interested in equal justice?
Pensacola has what is surely one of the lamest mass transit systems in the nation. Buses, only, and even they run on a schedule only a banker could use. 
Scott Horton is calling attention to the annual "Ten Worst Prosecutors" award ceremony, sponsored by Houston lawyer Bob Bennett this month. The award certificates are here. The award-deserving details are here.Leading the list for the second year running is former attorney general Alberto Gonzales, the man who, doing the bidding of Karl Rove, introduced new standards of ineptitude, dishonesty and political corruption to the U.S. Department of Justice. The award comes just at the right moment, as word spreads in Washington that the man George W. Bush addresses with the mafioso moniker “Fredo” is the target of a special prosecutor appointed by his successor.Close behind are neighboring Alabama U.S. attorneys Alice Martin (Birmingham) and Leura Canary (Montgomery).
Martin and Canary have mastered the art of using their prosecutorial powers to advance the interests of their political party and political associates, as Bennett notes. And they have done so with a wink and a nod from the Bush Justice Department, which has systematically swept all complaints against them– notably led by their career employees– under the carpet.We expect president-elect Obama to cleanly sweep these disgraces and other "dishonorable mentions" out the door. If there's any justice left in the land, they'll all be as unemployed as Gonzalez, who's been reduced to groveling for college campus speaking engagements where he stands at the podium and lets students throw epithets at him.
By contrast, the AP has both feet on the ground:
Do you think this story has legs?
Vice-President Richard Nixon narrowly escaped serious injury at the hands of a howling mob here Tuesday shortly after he landed in Caracas to wind up his goodwill tour of South America. The vice president was the target for spit, debris, eggs and rocks and he was showered with glass when practically all the windows in his limousine were smashed by the screeching horde which tried to break into the car to drag him out and when that failed, to overturn it. Mrs. Nixon also was pelted with spit and debris.At the time Venezuelans were mad because the U.S. was threatening to control exports of their oil and propping up a corrupt Venezuelan regime. Fifty years later, we are threatening to control Iraqi oil and propping up a corrupt Iraqi regime that was recently ranked worse than Somalia.
First shoe: “This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog.”
Second shoe: “This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq.”
As it ended, a couple Iraqi security guards in suits took away two more Iraqi journalists because one of them called Zaidi's protest "courageous." * * *Many of the broadcast reporters feared the Iraqi government would take their cameras and tapes. They expect that things will be tougher for them next time they cover one of Maliki's events.Exporting democracy and freedom to Iraq. Mission un-accomplished."This will have consequences for us," one reporter told us.
Florida has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, and the problem steadily is getting worse.Rick Harper, the economist from Rosecoloredglassesland, reads those numbers and tells Wernoski, so she says, "Northwest Florida was somewhat insulated because the local economy is less dependent on tourism, and the buying frenzy of investors never completely materialized here."Escambia County ranks 37th, and Santa Rosa County ranks 42nd among the state's 67 counties in percentage of foreclosures, according to RealtyTrac.com, which collects national foreclosure data.
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In Escambia County, 724 foreclosure suits were filed in 2005. In the first 11 months of this year, 2,248 were filed.
In Santa Rosa County, 292 suits were filed in 2005. Through November of this year, 1,332 had been filed.
Kirsten Dahlen, 38, passed away unexpectedly on December 9, 2008 at her mother's home in Hockessin. She died peacefully in her sleep. Kirsten was a marine biologist, environmental educator, author, photographer and intrepid traveler who was always seeking new adventures. Her writing echoes the many paths she walked, from the Head Hunters Trail in Malaysian Borneo to the white sands of Antigua's 365 beaches. While she called the U.S. home, her work made it hard to predict where she actually was.
Kirsten grew up in Hockessin, Delaware, graduating from Ursuline Academy and then Goucher College in Townsend, MD. Kirsten spent 15 years working with sea turtles in the Caribbean, Latin America, South East Asia and the United States. Kirsten has worked on world-renowned sea turtle nesting studies in Jumby Bay, Antigua and Little Cumberland Island, Georgia, USA.
She worked with communities worldwide to develop sea turtle friendly beach practices and educational outreach programs. Kirsten also worked with industry, lending her experience in attempts to mitigate harmful effects on the marine environment. Through this work she was asked to contribute to the clean up efforts at the World Trade Center in September 2001.
Her lifelong passion for the sea is shared with all in her recent works "Wrong Way Peach Fuzz: A Turtle Tale" and "Peach Fuzz: The Early Years", in addition to her photography, essay collections and blogs.
She is preceded in death by her father, Dr. Rolf J. Dahlen. She is survived by her mother, Mary Carr Meunier Dahlen of Hockessin; her brother, Peter Rolf Dahlen of Stockholm, his wife Helene and son Sebastian; sister, Meghan Dahlen Freeland of Hillsborough, NC, husband Tom and son Gabriel; and brother, Sean Dahlen, who like his sister calls the world home.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, December 13 at St. Catherine of Siena Church, 2501 Centerville Road, Wilmington, DE. Doors will open to visit family at 10am followed by Mass at 11am. Burial services will be private.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you visit Kirsten's website for current information on donations in her memory: http://aturtletale.blogspot.com.
Reprinted from the Wilmington News Journal
See also: "Memorial Being Established for Kirsten Dahlen"
Phil Klotzbach and Prof. William Gray of Colorado State University have released their annual December forecast for next year's hurricane season, which starts June 1. Here's a shorter version:In a November 11 intercepted call, Harris allegedly told Blagojevich that Tribune Financial Advisor talked to Tribune Owner and Tribune Owner "got the message and is very sensitive to the issue." Harris told Blagojevich that according to Tribune Financial Advisor, there would be "certain corporate reorganizations and budget cuts coming and, reading between the lines, he's going after that section." Blagojevich allegedly responded. "Oh. That's fantastic." After further discussion, Blagojevich said, "Wow. Okay, keep our fingers crossed. You're the man. Good job, John."So it is alleged, in effect, that Sam Zell's ethics seeped downward in the newspaper's chain of command to the presently anonymous "Tribune Financial Advisor," as surely as it is alleged Blagojevich's ethics were embraced by his assistant, John Harris. Nothing should surprise about this.
In a further conversation on November 21, Harris told Blagojevich that he had singled out to Tribune Financial Advisor the Tribune’s deputy editorial page editor, John McCormick, “as somebody who was the most biased and unfair.” After hearing that Tribune Financial Advisor had assured Harris that the Tribune would be making changes affecting the editorial board, Blagojevich allegedly had a series of conversations with Chicago Cubs representatives regarding efforts to provide state financing for Wrigley Field.(emphasis added)
“I’m here to tell you that the transaction from hell is done,” Mr. Zell said last December when he sealed his $8.2 billion takeover of the publisher of The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times.Wall Street calls this a "leveraged buyout" to give it a tony-sounding aura of legitimacy. But if you were to grab other people's money without their permission and then try to buy something with it, the cops would call it robbery.
* * *
Mr. Zell financed much of his deal’s $13 billion of debt by borrowing against part of the future of his employees’ pension plan and taking a huge tax advantage. Tribune employees ended up with equity, and now they will probably be left with very little.
If I understand this correctly, Sam Zell basically bought his newspaper empire by pretending the employees were actually the owners and then borrowing lots of money in their name, paying it back by deducting from payroll.It's thievery, as we said above, made legal only if you're a Wall Street tycoon.
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Innovation!
But, personally, we blame the very idea of journalism schools. The fate of newspapers was sealed the moment someone got the notion that a college degree in journalism would qualify you to do the same job as young Mark Twain, Bill Nye, Margaret Fuller, Eugene Field, Lincoln Steffins, Nellie Bly, H.L. Mencken, Grantland Rice, Walter Lippman, Martha Gellhorn, Ernie Pyle, William Shirer, Edward R. Murrow, A.J. Liebling, John McPhee, Izzy Stone, Scotty Reston, Murray Kempton, Tom Wolfe, Walter Pincus, and Seymour Hersh, among perhaps a couple of thousand others.
Still, you're gonna miss 'em when they're all dead and gone.
Currently, all of Citizens’ residential wind-only policies are written on a unique policy form. This form can cause confusion for policyholders, agents and claims adjusters. We are transitioning these policies to improve our service to you. This will make our claims process smoother and will enable us to handle your requests more efficiently. This new Internet-based system will give your agent the ability to do more for you."Transitioning" is Pencil-Head Speak for "we're canceling your policy and you'll have to reapply for coverage." Here's an example of the cover letter every wind-only residential home owner will be receiving "six, four, and two months prior to the renewal date of their existing policies":
There are some exceptions. "Wind-only" policies that expire before February 1 will be renewed without change for one more year. Multi-peril policies covering hazards other than, or in addition to, wind damage are not affected, Citizens says.
