Tip for today: When you put a couple of beers in the freezer to chill while you eat dinner, try to remember to take them out before THREE HOURS have passed.
Another Tip for today: Do not do as I did - I mean, do 'save' your diary-draft often - either use the diary-editor or a program that auto-saves when you're too dumb to do it. My computer crashed a little while ago and I lost a very fine diary. Unfortunately, I didn't recover in time to re-create it so you're going to get quickie potluck tonight.
On this date in history - oh what a day it's been - bitter AND sweet!
1789, The crew of the British ship Bounty mutinied, setting Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in a launch in the South Pacific.
1847, George B Vashon becomes 1st black to enter New York State Bar
1848, France freed its last remaining slaves in French colonies
1914, 181 die in coal mine collapse at Eccles WV
1924, 119 die in Benwood WV coal mine disaster
1931 Program for woman athletes approved for 1932 Olympics track & field
1945, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed.
1967, Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the Army.
1968, "Hair" opens at Biltmore Theater NYC for 1750 performances
1975, John Lennon appears on "Tonight" & Ringo on "Smothers Brothers" and the last Americans evacuated from Saigon
1986, Catastrophe at Chernobyl, USSR site of world's worst nuclear power plant disaster
2004, The first photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal were shown on CBS' "60 Minutes II."
AND Harper Lee turns 82 years old today.
Great sig-line I ran across today: Hope Springs A Kernel! Sounds like something one of my kids (or yours) might have said...
Final tip for today: Do not do this on DKos!
One of the users making the list of top comments-by-the-numbers in a FP story also rec'd a very high number of HRs for his/her tip jar in a diary that stayed far too long on today's rec-list:
Some times being a little bitch doesn't help you.
He could have gone on Fox and been a total scary queen. Like KOS would have liked. But he has to seem friendly and reasonable first. Otherwise none of the fox viewers would even attempt to listen.
You can't play the blame game while you are on the network interviewing you. Otherwise you look like a total pussy.
I'm not one for censoring free speech but this went over the line, I thought. Fortunately many people agreed and it was quickly hidden. It wasn't the worst thing I read today but ... it was bad enough.
~~~~
There's been a fierce debate hereabouts today regarding Obama's appearance on Fox News. A deeper query goes to the netroots' campaign to boycott the cable station. Ever since their dreadful Path to 9/11 program, we are also supposed to be boycotting ABC. Well, I can easily boycott both Fox News and ABC News. But, then again, I get my news online and turn on the television primarily for entertainment.
For that reason, I find it difficult to boycott the entertainment divisions of Fox and ABC. I mean, I should give up House? As for ABC, even as I write this, contestants on Dancing With the Stars are slugging it out on the tv to the left of my computer - I want to know who the hell decided that Kristi Yamaguchi should compete as an amateur anyway! I like the show mainly because I was once married to a man who was so dance floor challenged that I actually hid in the bathroom often and once even faked a sprained ankle to avoid being seen on the floor with him (don't know how much that had to do with our divorce but it's nonetheless true). Still I do love seeing bad dancers get better with good instruction, especially in the dripping-hot Latin dances.
I've written before here about my devotion to the ABC program Boston Legal. One of the regular highlights of that show is uber-liberal producer David E. Kelley's propensity to use the character 'Alan Shore' to deliver fabulously scathing attacks on BushCo. What I love most about the show is that I am delightedly entertained even as my left-leanings are nourished.
For example, I can still get all teary-eyed by the 'Stick It' episode of 2006. Background: When Alan Shore’s secretary, Melissa, is arrested for tax evasion (she affixed a Post-It note reading 'Stick It' to her tax return and mailed it in), he takes on the case of this outspoken young woman who salutes her late, patriotic grandfather by challenging the federal government. From the show's transcript, here's Alan Shore's closing argument (you can listen to it here as the soundtrack for an OPOL-worthy, YouTube video-rant titled We The People vs US Government.):
Alan Shore: When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn't.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven't.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we're okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we've lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed....
Actually, I'm sick and tired. ... And what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled unAmerican.
U.S. Attorney: Evidently, it's speech time.
Alan: And speech in this country is free, you hack! Free for me, free for you. Free for Melissa Hughes to stand up to her government and say "Stick it"! ... I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And, God forbid, anybody challenge it. They're smeared as being a heretic. ...
Last night, I went to bed with a book. Not as much fun as a 29 year old, but the book contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, "The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism."
Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, "It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them."
I know we are all afraid, but the Bill of Rights - we have to live up to that. We simply must. ...
Still gives me chills. So fast forward to today. For the past week, all over the Internet, people are talking about David E. Kelley and Boston Legal's Alan Shore speeches (e.g., Crooks and Liars and Democratic Underground, among many others). Even as some conservatives are screaming for Kelley's head (or at least that he be sent to Gitmo for treason), many others again are standing and cheering - this time for last week's episode wherein Alan Shore argues a death-penalty case before the Supreme Court. Some commentators described it as fantasy-tv, that NO ONE would speak to the high court's justices like this and retain his law-license. Others said, Not so fast! One lawyer wrote:
There are plenty of attorneys, including myself, who would speak to the Supreme Court this way. I for one lost all respect for this institution after Bush v. Gore. Never again will I believe that this court actually stands for anything more than an extension of a political agenda.
For way too long attorneys have given other attorneys who wear a black dress (judges) way too much respect. As someone who works in the Public Defender’s Office I’m sick of these good ole boys who get into office based upon who their daddy was or who they’re friends with at a particular moment. The black robe disease is not just a euphemism, at this point I would make the argument that is a full blown mental disorder which should probably be included in the new addition of the DSM.
So knowing that I would probably never have the opportunity to get in front of the Supreme Court to let them have it, ala Alan Shore, it was very enjoyable knowing that at least someone out there, David Kelley, thinks like me. I would gladly give up my bar card and risk a contempt citation to make the case that was made on Boston Legal.
Judge for yourself.
Rather than boycott ABC, I think I'll start calling their CEO every day to lobby that Kelley become head of their news division.
~~~~
On to Top Comments - first up, as submitted to our TopComments AT gmail.com account - send your nominations each day before 9:30 pm Eastern for inclusion in that day's diary. And don't forget to give your user-id.
From cultural worker:
Trix, gchaucer 2 and mistersite explicate the perils of a simple salutation in this primary season.
~~~~
From TheBlaz:
I recommend reading the whole diary for all the funny comments, especially mine.
Not Marcus Tullius's though. He sucks.
But this one made me snort and laugh, so it's worthy. Meta is another form by Pluto.
~~~~
Top Comments by the numbers - thanks, sardonyx, for riding once again to the rescue.
Top Mojo excluding search-identifiable tip jars, first diary comments, and Cheers and Jeers:
~~~~
Final thought - Ugh! My hyper-racist brother just came by and, trying to get a rise out of me, announced that 'Obama is the Anti-Christ.' Fortunately, I was able to sidestep yet another argument by having this diary to finish - whew! That was close... I've given up trying to reason with him - he flies a wee confederate flag from his truck antenna (I sneak over at night occasionally and steal 'em but he always replaces them). Go figure - he's a HUGE Boston Legal fan... wtf??!! Too bad that family can't be hide-rated.
