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Saturday, April 10, 2004 |
Bass Master.
President Bush skipped a scheduled fishing outing Saturday morning to
deal with the Iraq crisis, but his catch the day before was something
to brag about. "He took the biggest one of the day," a bass nearly four
pounds, said... [Whiskey Bar]
9:38:19 PM Permalink
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WOW – Dr. Rice's Grammer Jammer. Focused on details, as always, I listened to Dr. Condoleezza Rice's congressional testimony this morning with admiration. One sentence especially impressed me. In it, Dr. Rice used an astoundingly agile combination of conditional and subjunctive moods in the past tense... [AETHER]
10:33:11 AM Permalink
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Bush Fiddles While Baghdad Burns. Powell Calls U.S. Casualties 'Disquieting': "Powell served as the administration's point man while President Bush spent the second straight day out of public view on his ranch in Crawford, Tex... Bush spent the morning watching national security adviser Condoleezza Rice's televised testimony to the commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, then toured his ranch with Wayne LaPierre Jr., chief executive of the National Rifle Association, and other leaders of hunting groups and gave an interview to Ladies' Home Journal." Here is the extraordinary crux of the matter:
"This is Bush's 33rd visit to his ranch since becoming president. He has spent all or part of 233 days on his Texas ranch since taking office, according to a tally by CBS News. Adding his 78 visits to Camp David and his five visits to Kennebunkport, Maine, Bush has spent all or part of 500 days in office at one of his three retreats, or more than 40 percent of his presidency." —Washington Post [Follow Me Here...]
10:32:33 AM Permalink
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Iraq in 1920. Niall Ferguson in the Daily Telegraph gives a history lesson :
… in 1917 a British general … occupied Baghdad and proclaimed: “Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators.” … What happened in Iraq last week so closely resembles the events of 1920 that only a historical ignoramus could be surprised. It began in May, just after the announcement that Iraq would henceforth be a League of Nations “mandate” under British trusteeship. … Anti-British demonstrations began in Baghdad mosques, spread to the Shi’ite holy centre of Karbala, swept on through Rumaytha and Samawa - where British forces were besieged - and reached as far as Kirkuk. Contrary to British expectations, Sunnis, Shi’ites and even Kurds acted together. Stories abounded of mutilated British bodies. By August the situation was so desperate that the British commander appealed to London for poison gas bombs or shells (though these turned out not to be available). By the time order had been restored in December - with a combination of aerial bombardment and punitive village-burning expeditions - British forces had sustained over 2,000 casualties and the financial cost of the operation was being denounced in Parliament.
[Crooked Timber]
9:39:07 AM Permalink
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Ralph Stanley for President
Saw Dr. Ralph at Frieght and Salvage in Berkeley last night; he's been
playing there since 1971, and I've seen him, oh, four or five times.
This was the first time he's been there in 3 years, I think, as he had
commitments from the O Brother tour.
Gosh, but he was in fine voice last night. 77 years old, and his voice
rang strong and clear. Before intermission (when they peddle CDs in all
corners of the room -- what's fun is you get to chat with anyone in the
band you want to, as long as you by a CD), he said they were going to
take requests for the second half. I asked for Little Maggie, hardly an
unexpected song, and he said, "sure, we'll do Little Maggie," and they
opened the second half with it.
Besides Little Maggie, they did a lot of songs Dylan has covered from
time to time: Sittin' on Top of the World, Stone Walls and Steel Bars,
Man of Constant Sorrow, Pass Me Not Oh Gentle Savior, and more. The
Clinch Mountain Boys are fantastic, excellent players one and all, and
everyone gets to show off. Ralph's 11-year old grandson Nathan played
too, in the first half of the show (he didn't have a CD to sell, just
8x11 pictures of himself, and they said if he doesn't sell pictures,
then he doesn't eat). There's a lot of schtick in the show, lots of
jokes (generally corny) and lots of back and forth between the band
members. Ralph Stanley is a charismatic, attrative pro, who puts a lot
into the music.
Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys are world-class entertainment.
8:56:16 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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