Respect The latest right-wing smear on Obama is his "lack of respect" for, or even more ridiculously his supposed illegal use of, the Presidential Seal because of the campaign logo that is an obvious *take-off* on the actual seal. (Because nobody could possibly confuse the two, it is clearly not a violation of the code, which, anyways, has been ruled non-enforceable by the Supreme Court.)

Of course our Preznit' holds such symbols in the highest regard. So much so that he is willing to turn them into rugs and stand on them with his and Dick Cheney's family at a political convention.

Maybe the wacked-out permanently-outraged goofballs er... right wing smear machine er... our collegial friends in the Republican Party should spend some time researching the rumors that Cindy McCain wears a thong with the American Flag on it or that Ralph Nader uses red, white and blue toilet paper.

  ¶ 11:15 AM 1 comments

  No Country For Old Men I've been predicting this for the past 3 or 4 years:

In the past two years, I have spoken with two investigating magistrates in two different European nations, both pro-Iraq war NATO allies. Both were assembling war crimes charges against a small group of Bush administration officials. "You can rest assured that no charges will be brought before January 20, 2009," one told me. And after that? "It depends. We don't expect extradition. But if one of the targets lands on our territory or on the territory of one of our cooperating jurisdictions, then we'll be prepared to act."

Cheney, Rumsfeld and their henchmen had best check their flight plans and refueling stops very carefully after 1/20/09.  ¶ 9:46 PM 0 comments

  Oh Hell Yeah! This is gonna' be fun!  ¶ 1:38 PM 5 comments

  Dick Cheney Lying Through His Teeth? What will we tell the children?

Why, ask some Republicans, should the United States be thwarted from drilling in its own territory when just 50 miles off the Florida coastline the Chinese government is drilling for oil under Cuban leases?...

"China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami and an expert in oil exploration in the Gulf of Mexico. Martinez cited Pinon's research when he took to the Senate floor Wednesday to set the record straight.

Even so, the Chinese-drilling-in-Cuba legend has gained momentum and has been swept up in Republican arguments to open up more U.S. territory to domestic production.

Vice President Dick Cheney, in a speech Wednesday to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, picked up the refrain. Cheney quoted a column by George Will, who wrote last week that "drilling is under way 60 miles off Florida. The drilling is being done by China, in cooperation with Cuba, which is drilling closer to South Florida than U.S. companies are."

In his speech, Cheney described the Chinese as being "in cooperation with the Cuban government. Even the communists have figured out that a good answer to higher prices means more supply."

Seven more months.... Seven more months.... Seven more months.... Seven more months.... Seven more months.... Seven more months.... Seven more months....  ¶ 9:49 PM 0 comments

  Clark is good for business Today's letters to the editor contained a rather amusing "shove-it" to North Adams' most obnoxious City Councilor Clark Billings. (quoted in full to keep it from disappearing behind The Transcript's archive wall in two weeks. Click on the link anyways to give the paper credit.)

To the editor:

I have a question and a comment for Councilor Clark Billings.

I happened to catch your show ("Think About It") on June 4, when you were talking about the letter supposedly written by Sue Cellana (Transcript, May 28). I read the letter where it said the council should investigate the use of Joe Wolfe Field by the SteepleCats. You seemed to be bothered because you felt it wasn't the council's problem.

My question to you is that, as a teacher at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, don't you encourage your students to ask questions in order to get answers?

Oftentimes, as residents of North Adams, we also feel a need to ask questions. If it is your responsibility as a teacher to help students, it is also your responsibility as a council member to help residents find answers. If they cannot go to council members, who can they go to?

The most striking part of your show was when you decided to publicly correct the grammar in the supposed letter of Sue Cellana and the response written by Glenn Drohan.

Mr. Billings, most of us are not English majors. We just try to get our point across when there are things we need to know and would like answered
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by someone in city government. Your television performance said it all: Those who CAN, do. Those who CANNOT, teach!

Wayne Andreatta

North Adams

I've got admit, every time Mr. Billings goes off the deep end on this blog, my numbers predictably double. This past weekend's rants are no exception. It seems the two things guarenteed to drive internet traffic to a North Adams web site are naked pictures and Clark H. Billings.  ¶ 9:33 PM 7 comments

  North Adams circa 2018 In response to our resident naysayer and crank, city councilor Clark Billings, I posted the the following ways I see North Adams changing in the next 10 years in the comments of a previous thread:

By 2018, there will be a street or a building named after John Barrett III and many of the businesses and various pieces of civic infrastructure he helped put/keep in place (library, Y, parks, etc...) will be thriving, but the city will be very different.

• The average age will be considerably lower and closer to the state average.
• Much of the housing stock will have been rehabilitated and some of the neighborhoods close to downtown will be more owner-occupied than rental.
• [Clark's] employer, MCLA, will have re-established itself as a cornerstone of the city. And it will have shed its reputation as a glorified community college, which will in turn attract better students and a faculty that doesn't commute from other towns.
• Main Street and Eagle St will have gentrified to serve the younger population. (that's an oxymoron if ever I've heard one.)
• MoCA will no longer be a fledgling institution. Instead it will be a fully endowed entity with a permanent collection that is topped only by MoMA and the Guggenheim.
• Williamstown's anti-growth policies will continue to make North Adams an attractive place for middle class transplants.
• The school system will benefit as the proportion of students living in poverty along with transient students decreases. It is even possible that north county may be combined into a single district by then.

.... and the list goes on.

What do YOU, the readers of this blog, think will be different in 2018?  ¶ 5:51 PM 9 comments

  Gouging On the way to Brattleboro this morning we passed eight gas stations. On the return trip this afternoon every single one had raised the price of a gall of gas between 6 and 13 cents. Billmonts in Stamford had the biggest jump.

Somebody's gettin' rich and it ain't me.  ¶ 7:50 PM 3 comments

  People with Ideas Eagle St:

In addition to music and bands on the sidewalks outside the businesses, the group suggested several art projects, including a sidewalk chalk activity that would give both youth and local artists the opportunity to showcase their talents.

My personal suggestion for such things on Eagle Street is to cordon it off on Saturday mornings for a Farmers/Artist/Flea Market. It is truly the perfect location for it.

Obviously people want to try. Obviously some are willing to put their own necks on the line.

Will the powers-that-be get out of the way? Maybe even help? We'll see.  ¶ 3:19 PM 13 comments

  How Else Do You Explain It? McClatchy:

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator.

Iran, which was a mortal enemy of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and fought a bloody eight-year war with Iraq during his reign, has been the primary beneficiary of U.S. policy in Iraq, where Iranian-backed groups now run much of the government and the security forces.

The aborted counterintelligence investigation probed some Pentagon officials' contacts with Iranian exile Manucher Ghorbanifar, whom the CIA had labeled a "fabricator" in 1984. Those contacts were brokered by an American civilian, Michael Ledeen, a former Pentagon and National Security Council consultant and a leading advocate of invading Iraq and overthrowing Iran's Islamic regime.

Ghorbanifar is the guy who gave the Italians the fake "yellow cake" documents.

Let's not forget about the most famous Iranian/Dick Cheney double agent of all, Ahmed Chalabi.

Sometimes the stupidity of our leaders absolutely astounds me.  ¶ 8:56 PM 1 comments

  Swift Boat circa 2008 After doing a quick perusal of the standard right-wing noise machine blogs who seem to be the test balloons for all things GOP-dirty tricks, as well as Limbaugh's little comment about Obama being an affirmative action candidate (I wonder what his buddy Clarence Thomas thinks about that?), it has become quite clear what the line of attack is going to be against the presumptive Democratic nominee:

"He's Black!"


More on this nonsense later.......  ¶ 12:23 PM 0 comments