ROKY ERIKSON

So, it's the hieght of summer and I'm working against time. I think I have to go to the Chateau and work for two weeks at the end of next week for the Vendenge Verte.
We have a guest here and are trying to be good hosts and then there's this bicycling thing...and assorted incidents with dogs, neighbors who want to store hay in my barn, barbecues...etc.
I have a lot of ideas for posts, but I haven't had time to sit down at the cranky old computer and write. I will tomorrow, though...after I bike to Ayen Bas!
Tonight, though, I am posting a video of Roky Erikson, performing his song Two Headed Dog live in 1980.
Roky should have been a huge star. He had a huge hit in 1965 with his band from Austin, Texas, The Thirteenth Floor Elevators called You Gonna Miss Me.
He had a huge soulful voice and a manic delivery and a band that really was ahead of its time in its truly grungy authentic way. Then in 1966, Roky was busted for possession of marijuana. Being a punky white rock musician in Texas, things l;ooked grim as far as sentencing. His lawyer advised him to plead insanity. He did expecting to be senttenced to counseling and treatment. Instead he was committed to an institution on Texas and subjected to years of electro shock and drug therapy. When he was finally released in the mid 70's, it was clear that the mans brains had been severely scrambled by the system. He was totally unable to cope with the day to day reality of the real world.
One thing though that wasn't affected...his sheer raw talent. He still had his voice and his ability to write and perform great songs. The subject matter of the songs changed. He wrote about Zombies, Aliens, Lobotomies, Ghosts, Alligators and Two Headed Dogs, billiantly.
Roky became a legend and a group of supporters became his life support system and made it possible for him to keep recording and performing. Roky is around 60 now and he is still writing great rock songs and performing with the manic energy of man half his age.
In 1983, I performed his song I Walked With A Zombie and I still take requests....

What America Wants...brought to you by FOX NEWS

On the day after the Columbian hostages, Ingrid Betancourt, 3 American Mercenaries and 11 Columbian Military Personell, FOX NEWS reported that perhaps the fact that John McCain was in Columbia that day, there just might possibly have been a connection.
After all they are a news service and we expect a news service to give us real news, right? We count on FOX NEWS to give America what they want! America doesn't want leaders who want to sit down and waste time with fancy diplomatic negotiations! We want a straight talkin man of action and they don't make them any more!
John McCain and Ronald Reagan were the last of a breed. They don't negotiate and sit around drinking tea and eating scones, dotting the i's and crossing every t on a sissy little treaty!
America wants a leader who can walk into the middle of the FARC stronghold in the Columbian jungle armed only with a Ginzu steak knife and sneak up behind the FARC commander and whisper in a chilling voice which inspires utter cold fear, "Cut the bullshit, beaner. Let the hostages go, now..."
This is the kind of man of action America wants and FOX NEWS can give it to them!
Aren't you glad America has FOX NEWS instead of boring, depressing real news?

A Mission Truly Accomplished

In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden, the Saudi Terrorist organizer of the 9/11 World Trade Center Destruction and figure head leader of the Al Qaeda Movement, listed as one of his many grievances against the USA, that "Americans have stolen 36 Trillion Dollars from Muslims by purchasing oil at absurdly low prices".
At the time of the interview, crude oil was $11.00 a barrel.
He said at the time that he felt the real price should be arouind $144 a barrel.
This month heralded the altime high of $146 a barrel, a 13 fold increase in the price in the ten years since bin Laden made his statement.

One month after 9/11, the New York Times wrote of possible “nightmare” scenarios that would deliver bin Laden’s goal. Neela Banerjee warned that among the “misguided decisions” that would put oil supplies at risk would be “that the United States attacks Iraq.” The Times included this quote in its story:

“If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he’d turn off the tap,” said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. “He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel” — about six times what it sells for now."

bin Laden didn't have to become "King of Saudi Arabia" to achieve his goal. Through the Bush administrations tragically misguided poliicies, we handed it to him. The chain of events surrounding the decision to invade Iraq sank the nation into trillion dollar debt to pay for the war crippled the dollar and caused oil prices to soar astronomically as a result.

Anne Korin, the co-director of the Institure for the Analysis of Global Security testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee last May. In her testimony, she reminded Congress:
"[A]bout ten years ago, Osama bin Laden stated that his target price for oil is $144 a barrel and that the American people, who allegedly robbed the Muslim people of their oil, owe each Muslim man, woman, and child $30,000 in back payments. At the time, $144 a barrel seemed farfetched to most.

I would like to impress upon this Committee that $144 a barrel oil will be perceived as a victory for the Jihadist movement and a reaffirmation that the economic warfare component of its campaign against the West is a resounding success. There is no need to elaborate on the implications of such a victory in terms of loss of U.S. prestige and our ability to prevail in the Long War of the 21st century."

I really don't like saying this, but to me, it sounds like Osama bin Laden is the person who really can say "Mission Accomplished!"

Je suis la.........

This is kind of neat.... a panorama shot from a walnut plantation on a high hill near here. Walnuts are one of the main agricultural products of this region. The road that cuts through here is labled La Route de la Noix.
It starts with a close up of Hautefort, across the valley and you can see the chateau which is one of the great chateaux of the Dorgogne with a formal hill top garden overlooking the very well preserved village below. Hautefort was started in the 13th century and continued until the 16th. It was destroyed by the Germans in WW2 and rebuilt by an American Woman. There is quite a lot of history, the original owner was Bertrand LeBorn, the first of the Troubadours, the warrior poets.
The style of the village and chateau ranges from medieval to Baroque.
Then the camera goes across around the valley and focuses for a few seconds on the Citie de Clairvive, a social institution from the 20's. A small community on a hillside in high art deco style dedicated to rebuilding lives. People live there and learn new trades and have access to counseling and education. It's pretty remote as everything is here. If there was a road, you could drive or bike there in a short time, but there are no straight lines in the Dordogne.
We go there in the spring because part of the social program is gardening and they have the best greenhouses I ever seen. A huge complex of art deco glass greenhouses totally self contained which offer garden vegetables and flowers at the best prices.
The camera swings around and focuses for a few seconds on our village, Badefols d'Ans and its 11th century donjon tower and chateau. Badefols has been around since the Romans and the church was supposedly founded by St. Cloud, a son of the legendary Merovingian King, Clovis around 600 ad.
Badefols is a very well preserved town, the heart of it is crowded with architecture from the middle ages until the early 19th century. Commerce? We have a nice Hotel, a small but very good little restaurant, a very mediocre bakery, a little market open at very unpredictable hours and a family run sawmill.
Then the camera continues full circle...somewhere in this sweep, on a forested hill in the distance, I am sitting, typing this post in an old farm house recued from collapse and decay.......

One Nation Under A Groove

Just for your summer enjoyment, one of the coolest songs ever recorded.
The Band is Funkadelic and the year was 1978...........

This Machine Kills Fascists!

Happy 4th Of July, America. This is a 1945 film of Woody Guthrie performing his simple but eternal anthem for a country that existed as an ideal, a nation built on dreams...
This Land Is My Land, This Land Is Your Land!
Will that dream ever be realized?
Will the ideal ever become perfected in the flesh?

Woody Guthrie inscibed the words on his guitar, This Machine Kills Fascists!
Do you think he could even get it past airport security today?
Do you think he would even be allowed to board a plane?

This land was made for you and me.........................

tEknicKLe diFFiKULtyS

Posting has been rather erratic here. It's hard working around summer storm power outages...and having to shut the computer down when a storm approaches....lately when ever we get a good one, we invariably lose power for a few hours.
Then, there was the general internet outage that lasted 2 days this week. Everyone around here was affected.
Last but not least, my 10 year old iMac is beginning to show its senility. I somehow have defied the basic laws of physics and stuffed OSX in it and pushed the memory to the max, but it gets really cranky on hot days.
I'd sure love to get a nice new iMac with a lot of memory and keep it running for another 10 years...but that's a wish for the future.
I think my brain is on summer vacation, I really enjoy the disciplne of writing this blog and the opportunity to express myself and communicate to the readers who stumble across it.
But, it's summer and I find myself taking long bike trips, and the work of gardening here...we have a massive vegetable garden in progress...and a commitment to landscaping take up most of my days. Am I complaining? Ha!
So, here is a little bit of Detroit, 1970, the greatest band in America for a few short months...The MC5 performing Looking At You
A return to more serious idiocy tomorrow! I promise!

RELEASE THE BATS!

"Ahhh, Doctor, my preliminary readings seem to indicate that the project is reacting in an erratic manner. There seem to be certain vital functions that are not performing satisfactorily..." the technician looked at the readout on his monitor with alarm. Dials were spinning rapidly, red lights were blinking with gay abandon.
The doctor studied the readings for a few seconds and sighed...."It was only to be expected. You get inferior equipment and materials, the Republican Party has trouble raising the neccessary funds for the project and then this...."
The Doctor looked disdainfully at the large glowing hunk of mismatched parts slowly ambulating across the room with what could be considered strident shuffle toward a plate of Dunkin Donuts on a table in the corner.
"Do....nuts...." the creature mumbled.
The doctor laughed silently with a sneer ot derision, "Can it remember anything it said more than 5 minutes ago?"
The technician moaned and started to say something about it's tendency to say the reverse of any statement it made when questioned about it....
"I don't know how to get it to stop. I've tried reversing it's polarity, but then it starts serial flipflopping and the meter goes into the red and there is a funny smell...."
The Doctor glumly muttered, "When we got that shipment from Cheney's supplier, we should have known better.....but still, it's almost actually...uhhhh...alive. At least that's something!"
A strange glow of realization began to grow in the Doctors eyes as the readout from the screen illuminated his fevered face. "It reverses it's position on any given subject instantly, it can't remember what it said for more than 5 minutes...why, this is crazy, but..."
The technician looked with a new appreciation at the doctor and the the strange pile of protoplasm slithering towards the donut tray..."You know, doctor, you're right! I do believe we have a candidate!"
The doctors hand trembled as he reached for the toggle switch that would beam the power blast that would make the creature fully operational. Beads of sweat glistened on his forhead as he hit the switch, cackling almost insanely, "RELEASE THE BATS!!"

Louignac

I am a little lazy this evening. I have been taking longer and longer bike rides lately and planning out trips with local maps. I found a reference to a Merovingian Era Cemetary outside the village of Louignac a few weeks ago and being passionately interested in vestiges of that era, the early middle ages, I began researching a trip.
Today was perfect, a little hot, but I left about 11 am and rode to the village of Coubjours, which is at the limit of the Dordogne and crossed over into the department of the Correze. It's quite hilly here and as you head east, the hills get bigger, but when I turned off of the D31, I headed straight down hill into a region called the Basine d'Objat. The Basine is a long valley that extends for perhaps 30 kilometers, threading its way between the hills. Many of the bigger villages are on the hilltops, but some very important old places are along the small rivers and streams that thread their way through this lush agricultural and forested region.
Around 1:15, I made it to Louignac, then found the dead end road out of town that went to the Merovingian site. When I finally found it, I was pretty unimpressed. It was more like the place that the stones for the graves were quarried from and if you didn't know what you were looking at, you would never know.
I stayed about a half hour then headed back to Louignac. When I got back, I decided to investigate the church, L'eglise de St. Julien. It was a curious structure, as I looked at it, I realized that it was a very old romanesque structure from the 12th century and it had been modernized around 1900 with the rather bizarre cloche.

Entering, I was taken by surprise by the baptismal font. There was a paper under plastic on the wall by the door that stated that it was definitely from the pre Merovingian era...it was a surviving object from Gaullic Roman France. This doesn't surprise me. My local village, Badefols d'Ans has been around since before 600 ad and the church, l'eglise de St. Cloud was supposedly founded by a son of Clovis. The present structure was built in the 11th century.
So, by this time, it was getting pretty hot, around 30 Celsius and I had a long uphill ride no matter which way I decided to return. I was able to fill my water bottle and I took off for Villac. Here is a picture of the 12 Century church in Villac, where incidentally, one of the very best local boulangeries is! Then, uphill, out of the Basine d'Objat through the cool forest road and I was home by 4. It was an adventure and the mysterious baptismal font of Louignac kept me occupied for a while as I tried to find out more about it. I still actually had enough energy to take the dog for a hike, make guacamole and barbecue hamburgers. My wife made dessert, a creation called Framboises en neige......Raspberries in snow!
Perhaps I will post the recipe tomorrow...it was incredible.
It's raspberry season here again and I have more than ever.
Today, I picked over 2 kilos!

Can we get a mop in here?

Yesterday, McCain campaign strategist, Charlie Black managed to piss all over the Senators Thom McAnn Hushpuppies with his comment in Harpers Magazine "that a terrorist attack on America before the election would be a real asset to McCains Campaign...it would certainly give us a boost."
It made some shock waves in America, but today on all the French Television Networks, there was editorial shock as analysists tried to figure out what possible sense it made for the McCain to sink to such ridiculous depths of fearmongering already.
The analysist on France 2 used the term "a desparate senility".
I chalk it up to sheer mental incontinence.

George Carlin

I was deeply saddened to hear that George Carlin died today. He inspired a generation of comedians with his political and social comedy. He deliberately pushed the limits of language and his comedy was about language and ideas.
In the 70's, much of his comedy was head trips, playing with language and drug references. He challenged the FCC with his routine about the 7 little words that were forbidden. No matter how silly his work somettimes appeared on the surface, it was always rooted in an intellectual paradox and he used language to reveal the absurdities.
In the last 10 years of his life, his monologues became more of a lecture on government, society and the banality of oppression. He used his fame as a platform and never was a hypocrite. He fought a heroic fight of ideas with humor.
Just this week it was announced that he was to recieve the Mark Twain Lifetime Acheivment Award for humor.
This is just one of many routines I considered posting, but it is typical late Carlin, brilliant, hilarious and deadly!
Long may his memory and influence create extreme discomfort!

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?

This is a very powerful rap piece based on an folk song written in 1931 by Florence Reese during a bloody coal miners strike.
The original song pretty much lays it on the line honestly and directly. Which Side Are You On? Repression or Freedom? There's no in between.
This is an updated version by the Bronx Hispanic Group REBEL DIAZ. They take the same message and illustrate it forcefully in todays terms. They show how all struggles for human rights are part of the same struggle.
These guys live their ideas. The entire group was beat up by the NYC Police last week for interfering with a questionable arrest in the South Bronx.
If you like this, check out their very political selection of videos on YouTube!
Thanks to my friend, Suze for the link.

More Bling Bling!

This week, a very low profile announcement was made that the Elie Weisel Foundation is awarding it's Human Rights Award to Nicolas Sarkozy on the 22nd of November in New York City.
The award, along with conferring the illusion that the honoree has been instrumental in forwarding the struggle for Human Rights, also brings the recipient a $150,000 bonus.
I would be very curious to know what Mr. Sarkozy has specifically done to merit this honor.
He has advanced the cause of DNA Testing to determine nationality. An idea that was shot down, but went a long way to gather him favor with the Far Right Front National.
His policies have resulted in the deportation of thousands of people with improper documentation from France. His policies have separated families and allowed children to be held in detention centers after they were pulled out of school.
These policies have been almost exclusively aimed at minorities.
The response in France is almost like a resistance movement which has resulted in an underground network to protect these families to keep his policies from tearing them apart.
He openly expresses his admiration and friendship for his very fascist fellow leader, Silvio Berlesconi of Italy, who is following the same racist anti immigration policies except, the Italian fascists are actually violently persecuting minorities whether they are in the country legaly or not!
He wants to use his current term as president of the European Union to push an agenda of harsh anti immigration laws that would be binding in all EU Countries.
(We can only thank the Irish for putting the damper on his term by their rejection of the Treaty of Lisbon!)
He is doing business with dictators all over the Middle East and Africa.

I think that awarding him this honor cheapens and devalues the meaning of it.
It reduces it to just another piece of bling bling to adorn the ego of a vain and cruel man.
Is this simply a reward for pandering to the Israeli Lobby? Just a benefit of social connections? Is that all it takes to be a Champion of Human Rights?

Orchis Bouc

Here is a close up photo of the flowers of oneof my very favorite wild orchids, the Orchis Bouc. The Goat Orchid or Himantoglossum hircinum.
This particular specimen is about 2 and a half feet tall and is growing next to my lilac near the vegetable garden. It took about 5 years for the soil to lose the fertility from being a cow pasture and allow this plant to florish and flower.
This year, I also noticed a bee orchid beginning to come up next to the house.
The Goat Orchid was totally unexpected and quite spectacular. I noticed some unusual leaves coming up iin the grass earlier this year and did not mow around it.
Now that the soil is losing its over fertility, I think I have to be very careful in the spring when I start to mow as there seem to be a lot of wild plants beginning to appear.
The flowers of the goat orchid are very unusual. They are hooded, and if you look carefully, you can see the typical orchid structure, but the sepals are incredible!
Long crazy twirly appendages give the plant a slightly deranged look. There is a strong spicy smell, very apparent if you bring the flower spike into a closed room.
I was very pleased to find this in my own property, perhaps in the next few years, more wild orchids will make their appearance. The plants will grow but remain flowerless and near dormant waiting for the soil chemistry to agree with it
Orchids need the proper soil chemistry to germinate and most of the species have evolved a relationship with a specific fungus to achieve germination of the seeds.
Here is a photo of the entire plant.
I have some friends across the valley who bought a property 10 years ago that had been used as a sheep pasture. About 5 years ago, wild orchids began to make their appearance and today, there are at least 8 species, including some of the tiniest. Some of the plants are lest than 3 inches tall. They have hundreds of a specie called Serapia, the form is not supposed to be common in this region, but for some reason, the conditions are perfect. This year, they found one of the vanilla scented rarities that hide here.

hedgerry and shruberry

Mr. Politeness has submitted this image of creative topiary for your consideration, he is available to transform your shrubbery into his inimitable witty ecologically humorous works of hedge art as soon as he recovers from the beating his wife gave him..........
Thank you Mr. Politeness.......

Buckethead

A few posts ago, I featured a group called Praxis, a project by Bill Laswell that over the last 12 years or so has featured an eclectic line up of musicians and encompassed many styles. One of the main stays of the group is a guitarist who goes by the name Buckethead. He is an enigmatic figure, a brilliant multi instrument player who rarely has allowed his face to be photographed. He usually appears with an expressionless blank mask and a Kentucky Fried Chicken Bucket on his head.
He has released 38 cds and played on many other cds.
This is one of his compositions called Soothsayer and The Buckethead shreds!

Republican Pride!

This item is on sale at The Republican Market...check out their entire line of snazzy products designed to incite racial fear, ethnic hatred and destroy the social fabric of America so a Senile Narcissistic Power Crazed Old Coot can despotically continue their noble destruction of your freedom and trashing the Constitution.

I'm Voting Republican This Fall!

No Comment...................

Jes' Like Us Common Folks

Here we have America's Jes' Plain Folks first couple wanna bees, the McCains posing in front of one of their three Arizona residences and some of Cindy's inherited 20 Million Dollars. John McCain recently stated that if you aren't making over $200,000 a year, then you are still middle class, not really rich.

His proposed tax cut plan again favors those who make more than $500,000 a year.
Economists have called his plan fiscally irresponsible and in reality, his proposed benifits to the middle class would be three times less than those proposed by Barack Obama.

John McCain’s new Senate Financial Disclosure Form, look like he was either running his campaign off the American Express Platinum Card his wife gave him (Honey, I think I maxed out the American Express Card), or they have one hell of a high living lifestyle.

The bulk of the McCains’ obligations stemmed from a pair of American Express credit cards that are held in Cindy McCain’s name. According to the disclosure reports, which present information on debts in a range rather than providing a precise figure, Mrs. McCain owed $100,000 to $250,000 on each card. Hey! That's just like the majority of Americans! Maxed out credit cards and paying interest through the nose just to keep afloat! That's the same economic policy of the Bush Administration! Who cares what it cost? Charge it! Jes' Like Us Common Folks!

But then again, who's counting? Economics were never John McCains forte.

I know what American Express charges for interest on a Platinum Card. A fiscally responsible household should probably sell some of the million of Anheuser-Busch stock they own and stop paying that 17% ARP on $500,000 worth of Amex charges. There are some stark contrasts between the McCains and the Obamas. The McCains have a net worth around $40 million, almost all of it from Cindy’s holdings. The Obama’s net worth is closer to $4 million, most of it earned from Barack’s two recent books. Instead of going into debt they have managed to put $250,000 in a college savings account for their two daughters.

McCain Debates Himself And Loses!

Thanks again to the JedReport for another all too much reality video.

While we are on the subject of all too much reality, John McCain actually admitted in an interview today "Sometimes it is rally hard to be proud of America."
This would seenm to take the air out of the overinflated retreads of the Conservative noise machine with their criticism of Michelle Obamna on patriotism and pride.

FOX Celebrates Americas Rich Legacy of Hate!

Today, Pat Buchanan, in analyzing the sagging political fortunes of the Republican Party said that the Republicans only strategy could be one which emphasized the exoticness of Barack Obama. Exotic? Is this Mr. Buchanans new code word for race?
It's very sad and extremely depressing that a political party in America has decided that their only chance to hold on to power is to try to turn back the clock and deny the progress America has made in the last 50 years in coming to terms with its legacy of racism.
Already, the anti Obama forces are selling Obama in 2008 "Curious George" t shirts and cute little Obama sock monkey puppets.
You would think that the Republican Party would be ashamed to be associated with such backwards, borderline senile hateful idiocy. You would think that they should be able to see the writing on the wall and tht to engage in such behavior is only self destructive in the long run.
But, no, and the proof is the fact that the party has been taken hostage by an cruelly ambitious, amoral and impossibly vain aging narcissisist who will use any tactic that catches his shortening attention span in last gasp at personal glorification.
John McCain pompously hides behind his smoke screen of surrogates who spread rumors, innuendo, hate and lies while he acts as if he is shocked by the fact that anyone in America could listen to such idiocy.
Hillary engaged in it in her campaign. Her staff was caught spreading racist emails and even when pressed for her stance on the "Obama is a Secret Muslim" rumor, she very coyly refused to deny it.
We saw FOX News get censured last week for the insinuation that a photo of Barack and his wife making the joyful gesture of hitting fists was some kind of secret terrorist signal. Yesterday, FOX ran the caption over a picture of Michelle Obama saying "Obama's Baby's Mama". Without even going into the trash talk definition of my baby's Mama...implying that the relationship between Barack and his wife was somehow illicit, the terminology is something they would never use in describing the relationship of a white couple.
FOX has crossed the line ethically by hiring Karl Rove and Mike Huckabee as political commentators. Both men are working for the McCain Campaign.
The FOX Network has never missed an opportunity to inject racial fear into this campaign. Their commentators have been responsible for spreading every lie, distortion and rumor they can fabricate or dig up. When the heat gets too much for them to bear, they issue a half assed apology, but the slime has already spread.

That's why I would like to take this opportunity to direct you to a website called
Fight The Smears. This was set up by the Obama Campaign to take each rumor as it appears and give the truth, photographic, an entire quote in context or the actual news item from which the smears and distortions originated.

Fight The Smears, Fight Lies with the Truth! Let sunlight into all of the dark corners where hate and racism festers, because that's what it is and that's all they have in their empty arsenal this time.

COUNT SMOKULA

The most recent aparition of Count Smokula, the 496 year old accordion playing bluegrass/blues rock vampire from Smokesylvania.
I am a great fan of this guy, he inhabits the vanishing nether world of freak shows, topless bars and cabaret/vaudeville and seems to be carrying on a tradition that bridges centuries of sleazy entertainment. His tongue is longer than Gene Simmon's.

The High Road

The Republican PAC, National Campaign Fund headed by Floyd Brown released this ad today. I picked it up from You Tube where comments on the content have been disabled.
Floyd Brown is the man who created the infamous Willie Horton ad and has always used racism as a tool for his smears and slime.

It's not even worth it here to go into debunking the claims and insinuations in the ad. I would hope you have the sense to see how utterly ridiculous it is, but the target is the ignorant fear filled masses of Americans who are still easily manipulated by the unresolved xenophobic and racial fears that lurk in their closets.

I said in the previous post that all John McCain has to run on is lies. He admitted today that he was probably going to lose his own home district in Arizona.

Cottage Cheese in Lime Jello

The Swiftboating season has officially begun as in todays press:
The conservative Regnery Publishing just announced two books for August: David Freddoso’s “The Case Against Barack Obama: The Unlikely Rise and Unexamined Agenda of the Media’s Favorite Candidate,” and Thomas Blood’s “The Clinton Collapse: How Bill Clinton Lost Hillary Her ‘Sure Thing’ Nomination (And Might Even Make Obama Lose Too).”
“We intend to put him under the microscope, and we think readers will be very interested to learn what we uncover,” says Marji Ross, president and publisher of Regnery, which in 2004 released “Unfit for Command,” the best-selling attack against Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry.

As you remember, the Kerry book was a slash and burn collection of fabrications and gross exagerations proven false, but at the time provided fuel for the conservative talking heads. Kerry was accused at the time of not fighting back and trying to ignore the slander.
The smears against Obama started long ago and the exagerations have taken on a life of their own.. Just check the John McCains Blog or even the posts on Hillarys blog and you will see trolls insisting that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim, the focus on the style of his Pastor, Reverend Wright and using his rhetoric as a portrayal being anti American
Obama on the other hand is able to confront his detractors and has been able to use their negative energy against them. He is able to inspire in a way that Kerry could never dream of. The fervor of idealism that he has been able to tap, the ability to inspire hope and enable people to dream of a better future is positively threatening to the bland anti ideal conservative movement stuck in a corrupt past and trying futilely to control a future they cannot even begin to envision. Lies are all they have.

That seems to be the level of McCains campaign. He has nothing to run on, so he makes a mistatement and lets his supporters elaborate it.
He seems to be counting on the xenophobic racism that is a real unresolved issue in America to do most of his work.
His campaign seems to feel confident that they can count on the fact that most Americans would rather listen to whast they would like to believe rather than the truth.
As in the lead in to the Iraq War, I personally felt the frustration of trying to talk to friends and family and state facts and instead be countered with statements that began,"My friend Debbie said....." And of course Debbie knew for a fact that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center, because her husband told her.

And who is McCain? Why should he be president of the United States? Why should Americans want to give this man their votes and trust? he has demonstrated over and over again that he is totally out of touch with the realities of economics and has flip flopped all over the place about Iraq. He has no personal grasp of issues. He has no working knowlege of constitutional law.
He offers no vision for the future or real plans or understanding the problems Americans face today. He has never had to pay for health care or insurance. He was covered, free of charge from birth as the son of an Admiral. He is covered today as a United States Senator.
He has voted against bills to assist the military re entering civilian life and the amount of medical aid they recieve...yet, because of his sacred status as a war hero and an insider who knows how to play the system, recieves $58,000.00 a year as compensation since the 1970's. That makes over 2 million dollars in compensation.
He has played fast and loose with the campaign financing laws and is technically in violation. He is surrounded by lobbyists who run his campaign and tell him what his opinion is on economic and business related issues.
We hear so much about his character. It seems that every incident of his temper is swept under the rug. His wife's legal problems with her charity and drugs have been made into untouchable issues.
Recently, his first wife, Carol has talked about her relationship with John McCain.
While he was a prisoner of war, she was in a tragic auto accident which almost killed her and left her an invalid.
When John came back to the US, a hero, he was given much assistance and support.
He was reunited with Carol and his 2 children and they had a new house built with assistance from those who wanted to honor him. One of the main benefactors was H. Ross Perot, who paid for all of Carols medical bills and helped John McCain regain his health and stability.
According to Carol, out of the blue, he told her he wanted to end the marriage. He had been aggressively courting the Heiress, Cindy and wanted to marry her. He told Carol if she agreed, he would see that she would have her bills taken care of for the rest of her life. She said at the time, it was a complete shock and that she was in no position to fight him. McCain told her that he was disappointed that he would never have a career in the Navy and now this was his big chance to get into politics.

‘This is a guy who makes such a big deal about his character. He has no character. He is a fake. If there was any character in that first marriage, it all belonged to Carol.’...

But Ross Perot, who paid her medical bills all those years ago, now believes that both Carol McCain and the American people have been taken in by a man who is unusually slick and cruel – even by the standards of modern politics.

‘McCain is the classic opportunist. He’s always reaching for attention and glory,’ he said.

‘After he came home, Carol walked with a limp. So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona. And the rest is history.’

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR

This is a great video to lose your mind to on a Sunday night. An unbelievable band, my personal role model, Bootsy Collins on bass, or as he puts it, Space Bass and vocals, the master, Bernie Worrell on keyboards, AF Man Flip on turntable, Brain on drums and the enigma known as Buckethead playing guitar.
This was produced by Bill Lazwell.

If you are familiar with Buckethead, you know he is an ultimate performance artist. He is a great experimental Jazz/Rock guitarist and visual artist, but he is an art work. He has never let his human countenance be photographed.
Bootsy is one of the seminal bass players, he started playing with James Brown when he was 18 and then formed a band with his Brother Catfish Collins and gradually became a performance artist in a classs by himself. He was part of Funkadelic and had many hits with his own Rubber Band. He invented the beats and the grooves that still are fueling funk and hip hop today. Bootsy's sense of style, humor and art and sheer talent still inspire me.
Bernie Worrell is the guy on all the records, he crosses all barriers. He was in Funkadelic and Talking Heads at the same time. He is brilliant.
This band recorded in the early 90's and made great visual art and music at the same time...
Bill Laswell is still performing with his long time project, Material in which all these musicians have been a part of as well.

Basic Garbage Skills.....

Last week, I posted a piece that related my extreme uneasiness with the prospect that Nicolas Sarkozy was negotiating a deal with Berlusconi to restart the Italian Nuclear Energy program. Under Berlusconi's previous administration, the present Italian garbage crisis began to grow to the insanity of the present situation. The Mafia is allowed to controll the garbage industry and the country is fast choking on the illegal and inefficient non disposal of the waste.
I mentioned that the Mafia Companies were able to devise a scheme by which they hired old boats, took out insurance policies on them, filled them with garbage and then the boats have accidents and the garbage and the boat is lost at sea and the company gets paid for the disposal of the trash and then collects the insurance from the accident.
I also mentioned that the famous buffalo mozzarella cheese is now unfiit for exportation because of the dioxin contamination from illegal and uncontrolled dumping.
Now, as of Friday, Germany has refused to accept garbage from Italy for recycling and landfill. Why? Because the levels of radiation in the waste is over 80 times the acceptable level! The nuclear waste from hospitals is not being properly dealt with.

Until, Italy demonstrates that it can deal with such a basic operating skill as proper waste disposal, without corruption and endangering the welfare of its neighbors, it would be improper and immoral to help them start a nuclear energy program. It would be a criminal and obscene act to provide them with the technological assistance and materials to produce deadly nuclear waste.

Celeri Remoulade

This rather intimidating looking object which is larger than a softball is a celery root.
It is a specific type of celery grown for the root rather than the stalks and leaves called
celeriac. I have been able to find them in American vegetable markets and bought them regularly at the Farmers Market at Union Square in New York City.
Celeriac can be prepared many different ways, I've had it cut into matchstick sixed slivers and friend crisp. It can be pureed like a potato and a good way to enjoy it is to mix pureed celeriac and mashed potatoes together. It has a nutty fresh flavor when cooked.
The best way in my opinion to enjoy celeriac is raw in the classic French Celeri Remoulade.
This is a salad which is always available in charcuteries and a classic bistro side dish.
I love it and had it for lunch today with a slice of ham.
It's fairly simple, grate a celery root. The salad will keep for a day in the refrigerator.
I use a hand Moulinex with a crank.
Then you make a mayonaise. I take an egg and emulsify it with some oil and add mustard and vinegar. To make mayonaise, all the ingredients must be at room temperature. Break the egg in a bowl, use a hand whip and add oil, a little at a time until the mixture emulsifies and get s quite thick. Add a nice tablespoon of Dijon Mustard and a little vinegar to taste and thin it a little. Home made mayonaise is very easy and takes only a few minutes.
Mix the mayonaise with the grated celery root and perhaps a few branches of chopped parsley........
One of my favorite things.

By The Company They Keep

ABC News reports on the humorous story of Gaith Pharaon, a Saudi financier who is wanted by the FBI for alleged bank fraud that cost US taxpayer $1.7 billion. The funny part is that the US military just awarded him an $80 million contract to supply jet fuel to US military bases in Afghanistan.

The US military has awarded an $80 million contract to a prominent Saudi financier who has been indicted by the US Justice Department. The contract to supply jet fuel to American bases in Afghanistan was awarded to the Attock Refinery Ltd, a Pakistani-based refinery owned by Gaith Pharaon. Pharaon is wanted in connection with his alleged role at the failed Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), and the CenTrust savings and loan scandal, which cost US tax payers $1.7 billion.

As a purely coincidental aside: "Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy."

I wrote an extensive history of George Bush and his dealings with the BCCI Bank in a post called
Cheney Was Right which explains how the true link between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein ran right through Crawford, Texas. Pharaon might be wanted by the FBI, but for the Bush Family, the business of screwing the American Public is just plain Business!

Poulet Saute aux Girolles

Another cloudy and rather chilly day...I spent the morning digging drainage for the garden. We still haven't been able to get it cultivated because of all the ground water.
I made the rather disappointing discovery that during the night, slugs had eaten half the lettuce. Still, in spite of the unseasonable gloom, the first raspberries were turning red. This is going to be my biggest raspberry haul yet. In celebration, Janet thawed out some of last years and a package of rhubarb and made a crumble.
I decided to make the main course, I thawed some chicken legs and duuring the late afternoon, I went on a walk in the woods with J.J., the dog.
I was sure that the girolles were over. Luckily, I had a plastic bag in my pocket...
I suddenly was aware of hints of gold beneath the leaf litter and in no time, I had managed to find another kilo of very nice girolles.
On the way home, the wheels began to turn and here is what I made for dinner.

Poulet Saute aux Girolles

Take a cut up chicken, or as I did today, chicken legs and thighs cut up and fry them in a pot which you can cover and put in the oven. I lightly salted them. Fry them in oil and a little butter and let them get golden.
Cover the pan and put it into a 220 degree oven for 20 minutes or so. When they are done, take the pan out of the oven, remove the chicken pieces and keep them warm.
You can pour off some of the grease if there is too much, but you will need some to saute 500 grams of girolles and a chopped shallot on the stove top. Cook them quickly. The girolles will give off a bit of liquid. Make sure to scrape the pan as the girolles cook to get the crusty chicken bits off the bottom and incorporate it into the liquid.
When the liquid almost evaporates, add a splash of cognac or armagnac and flame it.
When the flame is out, only a few seconds of terror...add 30 cl of cream and stir over the heat until the cream thickens. This only takes a few short minutes.
Put the chicken back in the pot and coat with the sauce and serve!
This is really good with Pureed potaotes.

You can saute chicken breasts with out putting them into the oven and do basicly the same sauce on the stove top.
You could use regular mushrooms, but girolles are especially good like this and a rare seasonal treat!

MICROGENERATION!

An interesting report this week from the British Department of Business, Energy and Regulatory Reform states that even with existing technology, a proposed program to subsidize the microgeneration of electricity, could generate 5% of Britain's power by 2020. This represents 5 nuclear power plants. It also would represent a cut of 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year.
This would entail the use of photovotaic panels, biomass boilers, solar water heaters, heat pumps and small scale wind and water generators.
Private owners are already going ahead with the installation of these units, but with government funding, it is estimated that one in five buildings could be self sufficient in 5 years.

If no action is taken, says the report, Britain can expect about 500,000 microunits to be installed by 2015 and 2-3m by 2020. But, with the right incentives, nearly one in five buildings in Britain would effectively become mini power stations, feeding electricity into the grid, or generating enough to be largely self-sufficient. Some of the greatest gains would be in combined heat and power units which are suitable for large blocks of flats, estates and businesses.

Britain has been widely criticised for not doing as much as other countries to encourage a mass market for small-scale renewables. The few existing schemes have failed to kick-start the industry. But the report says this could be swiftly changed: Germany has invested nearly 1o Billion in photovoltaic technology and Sweden has made it very attractive for consumers to install heat pumps.

The numbers which are the most interesting is the number of nuclear reactors that this kind of passive technology could replace. The amount of money invested in passive energy research by big corporations and government is a drop in the ocean compared to the incalculable amounts wasted on nuclear technology. If there was a "Manhattan Project" for passive energy to develop the existing ideas into practical solutions to solve the worlds energy problems, we would have workable, practical answers in a few short years.

Nuclear Technology is a dead end. It is a money pit in which we shovel our future. The real dangers of nuclear technology will be with humans for thousands of years. There is obviously a lot to be learned from the pursuit of atomic energy, but the present direction and state of an industry that generates electric power with it is a clear present deadsly threat to our planet.

Time For A Change

John McCain boldly declares himself as the real "candidate for change". I have no problem with that, in fact the sooner the better! Grampa McSame is starting to smell a little funny these days. Remember, don't compare him to George Bush, it makes his blood pressure take off like a Palestinian home made rocket!
Great speech last night, gramps!

HEY BO DIDDLEY!

The TAMI Show, 1966. Bo Diddley and the Bo-ettes show the kids how it's done!
Bo Diddley died today at the age of 79. He was an unstopable force. He forged the beat and beat the shit out of his unique square guitars!
The original Bo Diddley Beat never stopped, it goes on and on!

Democracy's Skull Crushed and Shot In The Back

There is no reason to think Robert Mugabe is going to give up power without a bloody fight. Compare this to Iraq, where they are rolling in petro-dollars and US taxpayer dollars and yet, nobody really cares about democracy. Iraqi soldiers abandon their position, money constantly disappears and nobody cares much about democracy other than repeating a few words to the US in order to keep the money flowing. Meanwhile, the people of Zimbabwe are actually risking their lives to promote democracy with very little help from the outside world. To hell with Iraq, we should be supporting people like this who really give a damn.
Tonderai Ndira was an activist campaigning against Mugabe. He was very active in his neighborhood in Harare in the last election when Mugabe was in reality defeated. He will not be campaigning in the "run off" because he is dead.
His body was found by accident in a morgue about 2 weeks ago with his tongue cut out and his eyes gouged out. He was so badly beaten, that his father had trouble identifying his body and was only able to confirm it was him by the ring he always wore.
Ndira has been compared to South Africa's Steve Biko. He had been arrested over 30 times but kept up his resistance to the Mugabe government. His body, with a crushed skull, bullet wound in the chest and blood stained shorts are a depressing silent testimony to the violent repression of the Mugabe's forces. Now the Mugabe Government wants to disinter his body. His family and supporters are sure it is to destroy all evidence of the murder.
This June 27, this bankrupt and terrorized country will will go back to the polls. A wave of murders and beatings of activists is surging as the government tries to crush all hints of opposition. At least 50 organizers have died, 1500 are in hospitals and 25,000 have been driven from their homes and countless more have lost their livelihoods.
In spite of all this, the opposition, led by Mr. Tsvangirai, still believe that the people will triumph in the election. The head of the army has decreed that all the soldiers had better vote for Mugabe or quit the army. Perhaps, finally, some of the soldiers will realize that life might be better without Mugabe?
Would it be too much for the rest of the world to show real support for the opposition in Zimbawe, instead of simple lip service? Would it be too much to ask for some real assistance in helping these oppressed people get rid of this murderous tyrant? Will the death of Tonderai
Ndira and other brave individuals like him forever be in vain because there was nothing to be gained by assisting them?

A Freewheelin' Time

I just finished this new book by Suze Rotolo. She is the woman in the picture. An iconic image that opened the door to a new era in American music. The album cover was Freewheelin' by Bob Dylan and there has been much written, mostly speculation over the last 40 years about the blond woman with Dylan.
Suze finally broke her silence regarding her relationship with Bob Dylan when she was interviewed by Martin Scorcese for his Dylan documentary, No Direction Home.
In the book, we learn that Suze Rotolo is a force to be reckoned with. A daughter of an Italian Family from Queens, she grew up in a politically radical house hold. She is an artist and has always been involved with theater. She met Bob Dylan when she was 17 and was involved with him as he was learning the craft and becoming the performer and cultural force he is known as today.
In the book, she sets the record straight and gives many insights into the relationship and speculations which have swirled around her for years. The real craft of her writing is to say enough, but know when to close the door. She reveals herself with out embarrassing the reader.
She gives a unique history of a special time and place. The evolving folk music scene in Greenwich Village in the early 60's. She introduces you to the characters and the places and gives a good taste of what it was really like.
She really seems to have struggled with the very idea of breaking her silence and relinquishing her privacy after living a life and raising her own family in the same neighborhood as much of the book takes place. She makes us appreciate her decision to do so.
More over, though the focus of the book is the relationship, the story is really about Suze and her remarkable life at that time. She travels to Italy and lives there for a while, she protests the travel embargo on Cuba by actually going there and having her passport revoked as an act of protest. She tells all of this from a heart felt personal point of view. She tells of herself at an age when so much can be packed into such a little time.
Above all, this is not a celebrity "tell all" book.
This book is really about change. Living with it, making it and accepting it.
A truly impressive book by a very impressive woman.

A Freewheelin' Time
Written by Suze Rotolo

Cousins!

Here is moveon.com's hilarious new ad! Visit their sebsite and let thme know how much you appreciate their efforts with a donation to keep this stuff on the air!

N'issi N'issi

I mentioned this piece in earlier. This is N'issi N'issi by Khaled, produced by Don Was. This is horn driven funk bassed propelled Algerian Funk that will make your camel get up on his four feet and get down on his good foot!

What We Believe

In my post, yesterday, I wrote of the technique of delegitimazation in destroying a candidate or politician. One of the biggest examples of how it has been used against Barack Obama by the Conservative Noise Machine is the use of the lie about his attendance in a Madrassah Islam School in Indonesia as a child. This also was expanded to infer that he is a secret Muslim, an Islamic Manchurian Candidate as it were.
When asked about this, Hillary Clinton refused to give a straight answer and responded ambiguously saying "Not to my knowlege."

I have been amazed and appalled when I look at blogs and news sites with items about Obama and find that there are always hysterical trolls frantically posting their dire warnings that Obama is a Muslim. I have a hard time believing that the people posting can actually believe what they are writing. I have a hard time concieving that they actually think that their dire warnings could actually sway an intelligent reader.
I wonder about the validity of polls that state that a full 10% of Americans actually say they believe that Obama is a Muslim, yet that is the finding of a vary recent PEW Poll.
Other polls give even higher numbers.

But, perhaps I can take solace with the findings of recent polls that state:
22% of Americans still believe that President Bush knew of the 9/11 attacks in advance.
30% still believe that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.
23% firmly believe that they have been in the presence of a ghost.
18% believe that the sun revolves around the earth.

I'm not quite sure if I am reassured to know that 7% more American believe the sun revolves around the earth than the percentage of Americans who believe that Barack Obama went to a Muslim Madrassah in Indonesia.

We Can Over Come

Beginning in 1994, we began to see the general technique of delegitimization and contempt as a polictical tactic by the "Contract With America" Republican Conservatives led by Newt Gingrich. It was a deliberate attempt with directives given to use specific language to deny Bill Clinton the right to his office as President.
Instructions went out in memorandums as to which words to use and they were sent to conservative talk radio hosts. They cooly decided which words to use and to characterize the Clintons and their policies as "sick".
This story was documented in the disillusioned Conservative insider, David Brock's book, Blinded By The Right.

The delegitimization of Clinton led to the fruitless Whitewater investigation, the Paula Jones case, the interrogation of Monica Lewinsky and the attempt to impeach him.
What ever the Clintons felt at this time is hard to imagine and they have taken great pains to avoid this period during Hillary's present campaign.

We have already seen a predictable return to the politics of delegitamacy by the extreme Republican Right. The most surprising development, though, is the use of the technique by Hillary Clinton. We knew race was going to be an unavoidable theme of this campaign, but to hear Bill Clinton compare the victory of Barack Obama in South Carolina to Jesse Jackson's marginal candidacy was shocking.

Then, after Hillary's victory in Ohio, she made the comments about the "Commander-In-Chief" Test, which she said both John McCain and herself had mysteriously "passed", but Obama had mysteriously failed to "pass". This was a second attempt to deligitimatize Barack Obama. There was no criteria to her comment, it's success could opnly be shown by its success or failure.

Now we are dealing with the aftermath of her assassination rational as to why she is staying in the race. This is a tactic as wierd as anything the Clintons had pitched against them during the impeachment attempt.

The most disturbing element of her remark was this: that it chose to treat assassination as just one more political possibility, one of the things that happen in our politics, like hecklers, lobbyists, and forced resignations. The slovenly morale and callousness of such a released fantasy is catching. So when, a few days later, the Fox News contributor Liz Trotta was asked her opinion of Senator Clinton's statement, Trotta said: "some are reading [it] as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama...Obama. Well...both if we could!" Liz Trotta laughed as she said that. Later, she apologized, as Senator Clinton also has apologized.

Let's face it, race is never too far from the surface in discussions about Barack Obama.
There is a still fresh, still glowing ember of race fear and bigotry ready to be ignited...
If you listen, you will hear, "I am afraid of him" or "He could never win the white vote, the white working class just aren't ready for him."

William Jones wrote on the hope of democracy after the Civil War:

"The deadliest enemies of nations are not their foreign foes; they always dwell within their borders. And from these internal enemies civilization is always in need of being saved. The nation blest above all nations is she in whom the civic genius of the people does the saving day by day, by acts without external picturesqueness; by speaking, writing, voting reasonably; by smiting corruption swiftly; by good temper between parties; by the people knowing true men when they see them, and preferring them as leaders to rabid partisans or empty quacks. Such nations have no need of wars to save them."

"We shall overcome" doesn't mean: We will win equal rights for all people. It means:
We will overcome our savage impulses to settle our disputes with violence.

The acceptance of political violence, apparent in the recent casual chatter of assasination, shows a despair of overcoming that is monstrous as violence itself.

Algerian Cuban Bliss

Here's a true cultural mash up...this is incredible. Compay Segundo, the 96 year old Cuban singer who died just 2 years ago and the incomparable Algerian King of Rai Music, Cheb Khaled.
If you saw Buena Vista Social Club, you will remember Compay. He has been a Cuban music legend for many yers.
Khaled is one of the greatest artists in Algerian Rai. If you haven't heard him before, perhaps you should check out his 1996 CD, N'issi N'issi. A lot of the material was produced by Don Was and he plays bass on a few cuts including the title track which is a very danceable hybrid Rai-funk big band piece.
One of Khaleds most famous songs is called Aiysha and it is worth finding...
I will post a version on YouTube in the near future.

Omelette aux Girolles

So, it has been raining and raining here in Southwestern France for weeks. There have been some days of heat and sun and last week things almost began to dry out enough for us to plant our vegetable garden, but then the rain started again..
Yesterday was a day long deluge with storms that brought power outages twice. I realized that we were setting records when I was out in front of the barn and water was spouting from a mole hill, like a little fountain! Luckily, we are on high ground and the water flows down into the valleys surrounding us. The valley below was flooded and the little stream had widened into a raging torrent.
Today on the news, there were reports of the worst flooding in 42 years in some areas.
So the rain let up for a while and the sun came out. I took the dog for a walk in the forest, bringing a plastic bag. We waded into the entrance and down the trail which was gouged out by the torrent which had roared down hill yesterday.
Light rain started to fall, but in the forest, we were perfectly dry. I knew where I was going and soon, I started to see points of apricot golden yellow glowing in the leaf litter.
With in 15 minutes, I had collected over a kilo and a half of nice golden Girolles. Girolles are chantrelles. The name is used interchangeably, but there are a few varieties of chantrelles. The name girolle refers to the fragrant apricot golden mushrooms. They are impossible to mistake for anything else. The color, form and fragrance are unique. They do not have gills or pores, but ridges under the cap and they give off a heady scent which for me is very like apricots. I have seen them for sale in markets in the USA and I have found them in Michigan, Ohio and the Palisades on the Hudson River above New York City.
They are extremely delicious and there are many ways to enjoy them. They are quickly cooked, in fact they suffer from over cooking. I have found that they freeze well. I put them on a flat surface in the freezer and when theyy are frozen, I put them in a plastic bag.
Here is a very satisfying, classic and easy way to enjoy fresh girolles:
Omelette aux Girolles
For 4 persons

Take 500 grams of Girolles and clean them and make sure there is no sand.
You need a large frying pan or skillet. Put in a little, perhaps a soup spoon of oil and 20 grams of butter.
When the butter is melted and hot, add the girolles and a clove of garlic cut in two.
Let the girolles cook until the water they give off is evaporated, this does not take long.
Add some chopped parsley.

You need to break 10 eggs into a bowl and mix them with 20 grams of cream...creme fraiche if possible.
Pour the egg mixture into the pan and make your omelette. I always lift up the edges and let the uncooked egg flow under the omelette. Then it's a matter of letting it cook until it's set. For me, there is the moment when it "lets go" and slides around in the pan. If you have experience with omelettes, the smell changes when the eggs are just beginning to get brown on the bottom.
When the omelette is set to your taste, some people like them runny, some like them puffy...a hint, for a truly puffy omelette, finish it in a hot oven...
Slide the omelette out of the pan and fold it onto a serving plate and enjoy it hot!
Bon appetit, bien sur!

Nuclear Garbage Crisis?

In case you haven't heard about it, the city of Naples, Italy is still suffering from a garbage crisis. In fact all of Italy is suffering from a garbage crisis. They can't get rid of it and the garbage industry is controlled by the Mafia. The Berlusconi Government was elected on a pledge to do domething about the garbage. After a month in office, nothing is happening. There were demonstations Friday in Naples and what did the government do? They sent in the police and army to break up the demonstrations and old people, women and children were beaten by the good old Berlusconi law and order fascists.
Huge portions of Northern Italy have been polluted by indiscriminate dumping by the Mafia trash collectors. The region where buffalo mozzarella is made is so polluted by dioxins that the very famous cheese cannot be exported anymore.
The preferred method of trash disposal by the Mafia is to load it onto a big rotting freighter, insure the boat, then, you get the picture, stuff happens...the boat is tragically lost at sea and they make a big profit off the insurance.
Which leads me to my main point: If a country wants to run nuclear power plants, shouldn't there be some kind of basic competency test? Like at least a drivers license exam and road test?
Last week, Italy announced it intended to start its nuclear power program again and Berlusconi's good buddy, Nicolas Sarkozy is all to willing to supply French technology and get more billion dollar contracts to build the plants.
I have a simple question. Who is going to be responsible for taking out the trash?

Mr. Alice Doesn't Live Here Any More

Okay, okay, alright...
A live performance from Was Not Was in their current reincarnation. They were playing in London in April. This is a cut from their new album, BOO on Rykodisc and it's a piece called "Mr. Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore".
It seems it was a collaboration by Don and Dave and Bob Dylan for Paula Abdul...but she didn't want it....does this seem like the beginning of a joke?
It's great to have more music from Don and David Was after so many years.
I may post more of this stuff in the next few days if they don't try to stop me....

What's Death Got To Do With It?

You know, I really don't want to write about Hillary Clinton anymore. It's almost as if I feel that by even mentioning her name, I am giving her power, but this item is beyond the pale.
Today in an interview with the Argus Leader, Hillary actually cites in a rambling train of thought, the idea that she isn't dropping out of the race because it's only May and uhh..Bobby Kennedy was assasinated in June.
The quote occurs about 50 seconds into the interview.
Now please, someone tell me that there is another trail of logic here rather than the obvious.

America does not need this woman as president. She is destroying the chances of the Democratic party in what should be a true opportunity to win the presidency. Each day she proves herself to be less and less noble and more and more DESPARATE!
This quote is the sound of Hillary pounding the nails in the coffin of her candidacy with her own mouth!

Thanks to Americablog for breaking this story!

Here I am back home in La Sechere after 2 weeks slogging in the mud...there were a few hours of sunshine, but rain episodes nearly every day!
I worked with any where from 2 to 8 people every day trimming and cleaning 20 hectares of grape vines for the Chateau Vieux Chevrol with my trusty empamphrette. It was an interesting group. A Dutch friend who is a professional bee keeper, a Frenchman from Plazac near here, a group of 3 Moroccans and a few other of the Chateau regular crew and this year, there was a young Chinese girl from Canton who was doing a stage in France, learning about Gastronomy and Culture.
She lived at the Chateau and got to learn up close about the care and cleaning of grapevines, thousands of them!
While we were there, the 2006 wine was bottled. It has been maturing in oak casks for a year. That was pretty neat, as the bottling is done by a company that has a mobile bottling plant on a truck which can turn out 22,000 bottles a day!
We also sampled the 2005 Vieux Chevrol which already is proving to be a marvelous wine.
At the harvest, the producers in Lalande Pomerol raved about the quality of the grapes and perhaps it would be one of the great vintages.
As I am learning about the Bordeaux appellations, the true character really appears after 6 years, but the 2005 is off to a great start. If you invest in wine, take heed!
While I was working, I was literally out of touch with all media. I had no access to the internet and I had a small personal radio, but reception with BBC was touchy and usually I would start to listen and then fall asleep with the earphones in my ears...

I heard about the Burmese Typhoon and the subsequent horror and then the Sezchaun Chinese Earthquake, but details were sketchy. American politics were commented on briefly and I was able to get more from the French stations from Libourne and Bordeaux.

I am just catching up with reality. When I arrived back here, we were having grave problems with the phone lines which only got resolved yesterday afternoon. Now I am catching up with the realities of French politics as well. We filled up the car today as diesel fuel hit a record high and the fishermen threatened to blockade ships delivering fuel and the refineries! The government made some kind of concession to the fishermen...the fishermen were rightly pissed off because the government had promised to help them last year and then had done absolutely zilch!

Today, the trains are on strike...alors?

TEFLON JOHN

One last post beofre I go. Teflon John by Max and The Marginalized!
SEE YA!

Call Of The Grapes

Here I am again, the 7th year....
I am leaving to morrow for approximately 14 days for a trip back to the middle ages.
It's time for l'embourgeonage et l'empamphrage! Me and 20 hectares of grape vines armed only with my medieval empamphrette. Actually, I will be working with a team of 7 others. We take the extra buds off the vines and clean the base of the plants so hopefully, the Fine Lalande Pomerol wine from Chateau Vieux Chevrol we be as good as it can be from the 2008 harvest!
I will go back in July for the Vendenge Vert...we take off the excess leaves and grapes to insure against mold and mildew and so the grapes on each vine are fully developed and full of concentrated flavor.
Then, at the end of September, the Vendenge. The grapes are harvested and pressed and a new wine will be created!
A bientot!

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BARACK

This is pretty good and extremely accurate!
I guess I'm posting this mainly in response to the borderline hysterical anonymous post I received on the Hillary vs The Coffee Machine clip I posted under the title "I Wanna Be Like Common People".
Anonymous told me "Leave Hillary alone, you Nerd!" and "She's an awesome candidate!"
It was kind of like the viral Brittany Spears video that was going around a few months ago....LEAVE HILLARY ALONE!

I don't think so..................

Science Makes You Kill

Ben Stein, a former Nixon aide and game-show host, probably best known for his role as a monotone teacher in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” released an anti-evolution documentary recently called, “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.” The premise, as I understand it, is that those who reject modern biology struggle professionally in the sciences.

Kevin Drum recently saw the movie, and reported back that towards the end, the documentary veered into the insane: “Stein spends the final half hour wandering around Dachau and telling us outright that his real motivation for attacking evolution isn’t any real flaw in the theory, but his belief that Darwinism leads directly to Nazi-ism, eugenics, atheism, the breakdown of morals, and mass slaughter. Can’t have that, so evolution needs to go too.”

Regrettably, Kevin wasn’t exaggerating. Stein recently chatted with Paul Crouch, Jr. about his film.

Stein: When we just saw that man, I think it was Mr. Myers [i.e. biologist P.Z. Myers], talking about how great scientists were, I was thinking to myself the last time any of my relatives saw scientists telling them what to do they were telling them to go to the showers to get gassed … that was horrifying beyond words, and that’s where science — in my opinion, this is just an opinion — that’s where science leads you.

Crouch: That’s right.

Stein: …Love of God and compassion and empathy leads you to a very glorious place, and science leads you to killing people.

Crouch: Good word, good word.

I vaguely recall the point, not too long ago, when Stein was considered something of a mainstream figure at the intersection of politics and entertainment. He’d show up on Fox News, and then make a cameo on “Married with Children.” He seemed quirky, conservative, and harmless.

And now he’s going on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, telling a crazed televangelist that science kills, and that modern biology led to the Nazi Holocaust. It’s breathtaking.

This one's for the Doodle!

Why waste your time on John McCain? Small potatoes! Cthulu 2008! Destroy all the humans! Fast, efficient! Make your vote count!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Mystic Eyes

1965 live performance in Paris by Van Morrison and Them.
This song was a Top Ten Hit for a few weeks in 1965. Hearing it was enough to make you realize that nothing would ever be the same again.

I Wanna Be Like Common People....

This is what we refer to a blown photo op....
Today in South Carolina, at a gas station, Hillary tries to convince us that she is just like "common people" but obviously, she has never had to get her own coffee before.