Banned In The USA

August 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Culture, Music, Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

Among our jobs at TNN is keeping readers informed about the rock and roll songs that artists object to Republicans using. The McCain campaign played this Sammy Hagar-era Van Halen song, “Right Now,” when Sen. McCain introduced Gov. Palin last week. The band predictably expressed its Roth. Anyway, Palin’s critics probably would’ve preferred “Runnin’ With The Devil.”

Broder Must Not Read The Right Blogs

August 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Election 2008, News media, Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

The unprecedentedly foul tactics of Sen. Obama’s blogging friends notwithstanding, the Dean has taken a considered look at Sen. McCain’s VP choice and decided it’s pretty good: Writes David Broder:

By picking Palin, McCain has strengthened his reputation not as an ideologue, not as a partisan, but as a reformer — ready to shake up Washington as his hero, Teddy Roosevelt, once did. My guess is that cleansing Washington of its poisonous partisanship, its wasteful spending and its incompetence will become McCain’s major theme.

The Democrats’ great advantage is that they are not responsible for the pain and frustration that many voters have suffered in the Bush years. But if McCain and Palin can shift the focus to the future, they may be able to appeal to the “change” voters who will in the end decide the election.

Was Don Fowler Improperly Overheard Too Soon?

August 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Election 2008 | Leave a Comment 

Nate Silver offers five ways that Gustav (may all God’s people be safe in its path) could help the GOP.

Everybody’s Laughing

August 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Democratic Party, Election 2008, Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

E. J. Dionne, Jr.:

It’s amusing to watch Republicans play gender politics.

It’s also amusing to watch Democrats practice mysogyny.

None Of It’s Working

August 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Election 2008 | Leave a Comment 

Sens. McCain and Obama are tied, 49%-48% — despite the DNC (which should’ve given Obama a 10-point bounce), despite the anti-McCain speech from the lofty fake Acropolis, despite the gutter attacks by pro-Obama blogs against Gov. Palin.

Going Too Far

August 31, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Ethics, Internet, News media | 3 Comments 

Catching out the pompous in their pretension and ridiculing the hypocrisy of the sanctimonious are among life’s pleasures.   Howard Stern has managed to turn it a $100-million-a-year career.  Sasha Baron Cohen is developing his own cottage industry based on the formula.  Here in Washington we have Wonkette.  And, as far as I’m concerned, more power to all of them.

But there’s a surreptitious recording of an embarrassing conversation now racing its way around the internet that strikes me as something else entirely.  

Don Fowler was the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 1995 to 1997.  Five-term congressman John Spratt is the Dean of the South Carolina delegation and Chairman of the Budget Committee.  They sat across the aisle from each other on a flight back home from the Democratic Convention in Denver and chatted in the idle and offhand way that old friends are wont to do.

For example, they made fun of Sarah Palin for several minutes, Fowler calling her “Dan Quayle” on steroids and Spratt creatively describing her as “just terrible.” They both agreed that, “Other than the simple fact that she’s a female,” she has nothing to offer.

Mr. Fowler, while doing some paperwork, observes that Hurricane Gustav is projected to hit New Orleans just as the Republican National Convention will be opening in the Twin Cities. In Mr. Fowler’s own now-infamousl words:

“The hurricane’s going to hit New Orleans about the time they start. [Chuckle] The timing is — at least it appears now that it’ll be there Monday. That just demonstrates that God’s on our side. [Laughter] Everything’s cool.”

 

Is it just me or does anyone else find this deeply disturbing?   Am I alone in being troubled by the notion that some creep in the next row, pretending to be puzzling over his Suduko, is actually Cecil B. DeMille with a cellphone?

Fun’s fun but fair’s fair and there is such a thing as going too far.

I wouldn’t have so much trouble with a report that began “Overheard speaking on a plane were…..”.   Like it or not, these days if you’re a public figure and you say or do something in public, you should either be mindful of your surroundings or consider it to be on the record.  It may not be nice and it may not be fair but if you can’t stand that kind of heat you shouldn’t be in this kind of kitchen.

At one point while we were working on the research for the President’s memoirs, John Mitchell came to San Clemente to visit with RN.  He brought his young daughter Martha (”Marty”) with him. That night Diane Sawyer and I joined the Mitchells at dinner at El Adobe in San Juan Capistrano, the Nixon family’s favorite restaurant.  

On Friday morning, a detailed account of portions of our dinner table conversation appeared in the political news column on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.  Only then did I realize that I had noticed —if only peripherally— that two men seated at an adjacent table had engaged in no conversation throughout their meal.  I had assumed it was either because they had nothing to say to each other or because they were struck by the unexpected proximity of General Mitchell; he had been out of the public eye for a couple of years, but the “Great Stone Face” was still very recognizable and very striking.  

I considered that conduct then —as I do now— unethical and lousy.  But realistically, I suppose it was just another example of Nixonians who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk; we have few illusions about the media but we’re still surprised when they turn out to act the way we always said they would.  

But this in-air stealth cellphone video seems to me to ratchet things up to an entirely new and distasteful and maybe even dangerous level.

To come even close to justifying this kind of intrusion on individual privacy, the subject matter and the stakes would have to be very serious indeed.  If this conversation had involved something illegal, or if it had exposed really gross duplicity involving serious issues, there might be some justification for uploading it.

But the idea that either Mr. Fowler or Mr. Spratt are careless of, or cavalier about, the danger or suffering that might engulf New Orleans is ludicrous.  They are taking perfectly natural and understandable partisan pleasure in the notion that the Republican Convention might be thrown a bit off its stride; and I suspect there’s a subtext of relief because, had their own convention been a week later, they would have been facing the same problem.

To those whose response to all this is: morality schmorality……and to those who say it’s just Frank wearing his wimpy hat because it fits him so well……I say: some shoes fit both feet.  Today’s goose is tomorrow’s gander.  Turnabout is fair play.  Be careful what you wish for.  Because as far a tasteless joke can raise serious questions about a man’s judgment, anybody fashioning a dunce cap for Mr. Fowler better start sewing a hairshirt for Senator McCain.

Shame

August 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Hackosphere, News media | 20 Comments 

A left-wing web site, based on pictures of the women’s stomachs, insulting comments about their anatomy, and breathless speculation of the sort one hears from UFO and JFK assassination fanatics (and fans of “Desperate Housewives,” which, I’m told, once had the same plot line), says that Trig Palin is not Gov. Palin’s son. Instead, it says categorically that the child was born to the Palins’ 16-year-old daughter Bristol and that the governor concocted elaborate lies to cover it up.

Discouragingly, the story has been given substantial attention by Andrew Sullivan, who says that he has done so only to give the McCain campaign the opportunity to put it to bed. His rationalizations don’t wash. As a former editor of “The New Republic” and frequent contributor to MSM publications such as “The Atlantic” and the London Sunday Times, he was well positioned to contact editors or reporters and urge them to look into the story. Instead, he repeated and amplified the speculation on his blog. Some of his devoted readers may never forgive him.

You may search out the links yourself if you’re interested. The theory is full of holes. Pointing them out gives the story the attention its promoters desire, as would the official reply that Sullivan demands.

If the story’s true, then legitimate journalists will find out, and we’ll know, and in good time. If not, we will have had a vivid if sickening demonstration of the limitations of the blogosphere as a source of diligently and professionally reported news. It is one thing when ideologically-inspired bloggers give attention to an MSM-neglected political or policy story. But no one should speculate publicly about a public family’s private life, especially when it involves a minor child. Acting otherwise is unjustifiable and invites a descent into a utterly debased public discourse unworthy of our country.

Lucky Sen. Obama: He can take the high road while his blogging friends shoot from the sewer.

Prayer For The Victims Of Gustav

August 31, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Faith | 1 Comment 

Most merciful God, in the midst of natural disaster we look to you in hope and trust, acknowledging that there is much in life beyond our present understanding. Accept our compassion for the suffering; bless those who are working for their relief; and show us what we can do to share in their task, as your faithful servants. Amen.

(Taken from New Parish prayers, Edited by Frank Colquhoun)

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives

August 31, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Soundtrack Of Our Lives | Leave a Comment 

Every Sunday, The Soundtrack of Our Lives looks back at some of the music that was popular, and the performers who were influential, around the time Richard Nixon was elected President.

ODETTA

At the March on Washington in 1963, one of the artists who performed for the crowd before Dr. King spoke was Odetta. She had already been famous for several years as “The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement”. Before Washington she had sung at Selma. And not long after she played for President Kennedy and his cabinet on a nationally-televised civil rights special Dinner with the President.

This role and these commitments has tended to overshadow the seminal role she played in the establishment of folk music as a popular form during the 1960s.

It took the middle class white troubadours —Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Peter, Paul and Mary— to move folk music into the mainstream.

It was Ms. Baez who truly brought it all back home by making the cover of Time in November 1962. Scoring that spot doesn’t mean all that much these days; but in the ’50s and ’60s it was the secular equivalent of canonization. When her portrait (not particularly flattering but very period) appeared in that hallowed place, it was a clear signal that this new music —with its message, its lifestyle, its artists, and its vast new campus audience— was more than just a fad. When Time took notice America paid attention.

But a decade before Ms. Baez even arrived at Harvard Square or Mr. Dylan ambled into Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village, Odetta had been on the road and in the studio. It’s no disrespect to them to say that Odetta was a giant on whose shoulders they were able to stand — as they have been the first to acknowledge.

Bob Dylan: “The first thing that turned me on to folk singing was Odetta. I heard a record of hers [Odetta Sings Ballads and Blues] in a record store, back when you could listen to records right there in the store. Right then and there, I went out and traded my electric guitar and amplifier for an acoustical guitar, a flat-top Gibson. … [That album was] just something vital and personal. I learned all the songs on that record. It was her first and the songs were- ‘Mule Skinner’, ‘Waterboy’, ‘Jack of Diamonds’, ”Buked and Scorned’.”

In No Direction Home, Martin Scorsese’s 2005 documentary on Bob Dylan, Odetta’s influence was discussed and this short clip of her distinctive hammer-hits-rock version of Avery Robinson’s 1922 prison work song “Waterboy” was featured:

In some respects Odetta had been born just a shade too soon (in Birmingham, Alabama, on 31 December 1930) and was maybe just a tad too talented. The fact that she didn’t write original material undoubtedly limited her commercial potential (a limitation Judy Collins and others —including Ms. Baez herself— soon set themselves to overcoming). And her repertoire was so diverse that she never slotted easily into a single niche which is never good for building blockbuster sales or arena audiences. And her commitment to causes, and her availability for radical rallies and protests, was considered disturbing or risky by many managers and bookers.

An Odetta performance or LP could include classic Child ballads and traditional American folk songs, Negro spirituals and slave songs, civil rights anthems, foursquare hymns, weary love or strident protest blues, outright jazz, and, increasingly, the original compositions of the new generation. Christmas Spirituals was released in 1960; Odetta and the Blues appeared in 1962; Odetta Sings Dylan followed in ‘65.

She showed off the warmth and breadth of her range when she joined Tennessee Ernie Ford on the hymn “What A Friend We Have In Jesus” on his popular network variety show. Here’s how the show’s archives describe it:

One of folk music’s most stunningly original performers is Ernie’s guest for this March 10, 1960 show. In one of only two network television appearances in five years, Odetta graces this Ford Show with some of the most awesome music and powerful performances ever captured on kinescope. At a time when folk was on the cusp of completely changing the American cultural landscape, every other prime-time variety show out there was playing it decidedly safe and definitely conservative; booking The Kingston Trio, The Dillards or The Smothers Brothers. “Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley” was about about as controversial as the Big Three wanted to be. Odetta, however, was anything but conservative. A major voice among the rising ranks of folk artists in Boston, Connecticut and The Village, she had become, by 1960, one of the principal influences and architects of the new wave of social protest. …On the Ernie FordShow!?

Odetta Holmes grew up in Los Angeles. She started classical voice training at 13 and by 19 she had a degree in music from LA City College. She found her first jobs touring in road companies of Finian’s Rainbow and Guys and Dolls.

She settled down in San Francisco where she felt immediately at home in the burgeoning coffee house scene that combined caffeine with poetry and music and protest. She worked cleaning houses so she could play gigs.

She had a naturally commanding stage presence, and before long she was headlining in important night clubs, including San Francisco’s hungry i, Chicago’s Gate of Horn, and New York’s Blue Angel.

A gig at the legendary Chicago venue lent its name to one of her first hit LPs — 1957’s At the Gate of Horn —although it was a studio album. Odetta at Carnegie Hall (1960) was recorded live, followed by Odetta at Town Hall (1962).

Odetta participated in and performed at civil rights rallies and marches. Her signature song (which she sang at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963) was the “Spiritual Trilogy” comprised of “Oh Freedom”, Come And Go With Me”, and “I’m On My Way”.

After the Newport Folk Festival infamously plugged itself in for the first time in 1965, the folk movement started taking a decided turn towards folk pop and folk rock — the sound increasingly amplified not only by electrical current but by controlled substances. As folk became more flexible and market oriented, she remained committed to the causes she believed in and that made her less commercial by comparison to her erstwhile folkie admirers.

Although her recording slowed down in the late 1970s, Odetta continued to perform in colleges and clubs and at civil rights events right through the ’80s. She appeared in a couple of films including the TV classic The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

In the late 1990s, she signed with a new management and returned to the studio for To Ella — a tribute album to her recently-deceased friend Ella Fitzgerald. Blues Everywhere I Go, her tribute to famous blues singers, won a Grammy nomination in 2000.

David Letterman decided to bring The Late Show back on the air during the week of 17 September 2001; on the 19th, Odetta was the musical guest, backed by the Boys Choir of Harlem. Here’s how the Home Office’s diarist remembers that night on the show’s website:

They started with “We Shall Overcome,” which led into “This Little Light of Mine.” During the commercial break Odetta blessed us with “Amazing Grace.” “Amazing Grace” gets me every time. It’s a real “lump-in-the-throat” producer. I’m sure I’ll be hearing it quite a bit on the bagpipes in the days ahead.

As she has added on the years, she has added on the honors. In 1999 President Clinton presented her with the National Endowment for the Arts National Medal. She noted that it was a special honor to receive it in Constitution Hall on the same stage on which, sixty years before, her friend Marian Anderson had been forbidden to sing.

In 2004, Odetta received a Kennedy Center “Visionary Award” along with a tribute performance by Tracy Chapman. In 2005 the Library of Congress presented Odetta with a rare “Living Legend Award”.

For several years she had a productive performance and recording collaboration with Seth Farber (who accompanies her on the following clip as he did above on “Midnight Special/This Little Light of Mine”). Here is “The House of the Rising Sun” from a 2005 concert. Her version of the song alone is simply definitive. And her a capella interpolation of the old Anglo-American ballad “One Morning in May” is riveting.

Any notion that age or honor have made Odetta lose her bite will be dispelled by a viewing of a recent concert performance of Leadbelly’s 1938 “Bourgeois Blues” which manages to be scathing and rollicking in almost equal parts. Its embedding has been disabled (my guess would be by the Washington D.C. Chamber of Commerce) so I can’t do the work for you. But if you take my advice —and when have I ever misled you?—-you will watch it by clicking here.

Her most recent album is last year’s Grammy-nominated Gonna Let It Shine — a live concert recording of Christmas songs.

In 2005, on the eve of her 75th birthday, she talked with Steve Inskeep on Morning Edition about her early life. She serenaded him with “Amazing Grace” and sang the segment out with an abstract account of “Home on the Range”. In January of this year she appeared on the Tavis Smiley Show. It’s an excellent interview and worth listening to.

Here’s a clip from that show’s conclusion — her performance of “Keep On Movin’ It On”. This is a master class in authority, mastery, restraint, presence, commitment, joy, spirit, and soul — and all in two minutes. Odetta will be 78 on New Year’s Eve; she is now confined to performing in a wheel chair, but she shows that you don’t need legs to give a song wings.

DSPQ

August 31, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Comedy, DSPQ, TV News, TV News Personalities | Comments Off 

Take a look at the video of Campbell Brown’s highly partisan hectoring intemperate inappropriate unprofessional weird bizarro lively interview with McCain Political Director Mike Duhaime on CNN after Sarah Palin was named for the GOP ticket’s veep slot.  

In this interview Ms. Brown achieves levels of animation that would be envied at Disney.  I suppose one explanation could be that she’s simply frightened out of her mind by that ominous exploding graphic just over her shoulder.   Or, as a native Louisianan and daughter of a former Democratic State Senator and public official, perhaps she’s worried sick about Gustav.  

What else could explain locutions like “just give me a reality check here,” “…can you concede that point and just be honest with me on that?” and “I mean, doesn’t naming Governor Palin as his running mate really undermine your entire argument against Senator Obama?” 

DUHAIME:. Campbell, I realize you’re very upset about this, obviously.  This is somebody who…

BROWN: I’m by no means upset about it. But I’m asking you to try to be honest with here [sic] — let’s cut through the bull and give me an honest answer. 

Mr. Duhaime is a real pro who does his job and takes not even a scintilla of crap.  Would Ms. Brown have dared to pull all those faces if Mr. Duhaime had been sitting across from her at the desk?

But maybe it’s just me.  Take a look and see what you think.  

Of course, Ms. Brown, who cut her network teeth as co-anchor of NBC’s Weekend Today show has never been known for her restraint.  Her reputation in this regard has already achieved sufficient critical mass to be parodied by Tracey Ullman on her Showtime series Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union:

 

Featured Articles — August 31, 2008

August 31, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Abroad:

Joe Biden’s Mythical Blue-Collar Roots By Steve Chapman
Joe Biden once got in trouble for plagiarizing a speech and inflating his academic record. So it will not surprise you to find that his famous working-class background turns out to be mythical. But it may surprise you to learn that Biden isn’t the one who has trouble with the facts.

Postcard From South China By Thomas L. Friedman
The Communist Party in China is trying to break the old mold without breaking its hold by searching for ways to make the economy greener and smarter.

Watch Out for Arnold’s Post-Partisanship By George Will
If John McCain becomes president, he will be confronted by a Congress with significantly larger Democratic majorities than today’s — majorities furious about high hopes dashed by an eighth Republican victory in 11 presidential elections. And if the normal pattern of off-year elections obtains in 2010, those majorities will expand. So McCain would have to deal with a hostile legislature for four years, as Arnold Schwarzenegger has done for almost five years.

This Isn’t the Return of History by Fareed Zakaria
The Georgia attack will go down not as the dawn of a new era of Russian power but as a major strategic blunder.

Obama Should Come Clean on Ayers, Rezko and the Iraqi Billionaire By John Fund
The truth will come out eventually.

But Will It Get Votes? By Matthew Continetti
McCain’s post partisanship may cost him.

The Audacity of Hype By William Safire
By becoming the first African-American to win a major party’s presidential nomination, Barack Obama made history, but he failed to come up with a historic acceptance address.

Big Government Is a High-Stakes Affair By Ernest S. Christian & Bill Frenzel
If Washington did less it wouldn’t matter so much who won.

Life in Russia’s Shadow By Tara Bahrampour
In Georgia, watching a young democracy’s spirits flag.

Tortured, but Not Silenced By Nicholas D. Kristof
America needs to stand behind Dr. Halima Bashir, a young Darfuri woman whom the Sudanese authorities have tried to silence by beatings and gang-rape. 

PU-tin, mehd-VYEH-dehf

August 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under International Affairs, Republican Party | 1 Comment 

H/T to Andrew Sullivan for this sensible James Fallows post about Gov. Palin’s learning curve:

If someone is campaigning for the presidency or vice presidency, there’s an extra twist. That person has to have a line of argument to offer on any conceivable issue. Quick, without pausing in the next ninety seconds, tell me what you think about: the balance of relations between Taiwan and mainland China, and exactly what signals we’re sending to Hamas, and what we think about Russia’s role in the G-8 and potentially in NATO, and where North Korea stands on its nuclear pledges — plus Iran while we’re at it, plus the EU after the Irish vote, plus cap-and-trade as applied to India and China, and what’s the right future for South Ossetia; and let’s not even start on domestic issues….

The further point is that not even the most accomplished person knows all this off the top of his or her head. Example: Barack Obama. He is a quick study and has been campaigning very hard for 18 months. But this summer, when he tried to offer a reassuring message about his commitment to Israeli security with his AIPAC speech, he made a rookie error by getting the standard phraseology slightly wrong.

Let’s assume that Sarah Palin is exactly as smart and disciplined as Barack Obama. But instead of the year and a half of nonstop campaigning he has behind him, and Joe Biden’s even longer toughening-up process, she comes into the most intense period of the highest stakes campaign with absolutely zero warmup or preparation….

So the prediction is: unavoidable gaffes. The challenge for the McCain-Palin campaign is to find some way to defuse them ahead of time, since Socrates, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz reincarnated would themselves make errors in her situation.

Even now, she’s being armed with binders filled with the same “Economist” articles and country surveys that everybody else reads to sound smarter than they are (plus the State Department “top secret” briefers that, RN always said, read like they’d been cribbed from “Economist” articles and country surveys).

Happy At Last To Be Second Among Equals

August 30, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Election 2008 | Leave a Comment 

On this afternoon’s All Things Considered, Geraldine Ferraro gave a very interesting interview to NPR’s Jacki Lyden about John McCain’s choice of running mate.

It’s worth a listen.

Not least interesting is her response to what was probably intended to be a perfunctory question about whom she plans to vote for in November.

Ms. Ferraro never let her status as a Fox News contributor inhibit her ardent support for Hillary Clinton.  So it’s hard not to draw a conclusion from what she says — or, more to the point, declines (indeed, declines at length) to say.

First Crisis

August 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Republican Party, Richard Nixon | Leave a Comment 

The pro-Obama “Huffington Post” is in full cry against Gov. Palin. It’s politics and posturing except for the charge that she acted improperly in connection with her sister’s divorce. Based on what we know, she’s been open about her role and eager to have the matter fully investigated. It doesn’t sound as bad as Sen. Biden’s plagiarism, which drove him out of the 1988 Presidential campaign, and his lies about his academic record.

RN would say that weathering a crisis one’s first few days on the national stage, while unpleasant, is a useful learning experience. At best, she’ll come away with a deepened appreciation of the hazards of big-time politics and the reputation of a strong woman who admits her mistakes and stands up for her family.

The Handbags And Gladrags Of Loudoun County

August 30, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Culture, Lifestyle | 3 Comments 

If you decide to read this post, please click the arrow below and use the song as a soundtrack.  This will save your time and relieve me of having to supply all the head shaking, tongue clucking, finger wagging, and old fart moralizing for which this story cries out to heaven.

What father doesn’t want to give his children all the things he never had?  And what could be a more noble and inspiring motivation?

But what if all the father never had was…..everything?  When you start with rags, how do you calibrate the riches you find yourself capable of bestowing on your offspring?  

In today’s Washington Post, Laura Yao describes the birthday party —her sweet sixteenth— given by a local dad in honor of his high school sophomore daughter.

Although I will claim to be shocked, I can’t claim to be surprised.  I’ve indulged the guilty pleasure of MTV’s My Super Sweet 16 often enough to know that such things exist.  But I never imagined they existed, you know, in real life — the kind of life that exists in the Virginia suburbs surrounding the nation’s capital.  

Here are the basics:

• The party cost $300k.  
• The theme —the birthday girl’s choice— was “Hollywood Chic”.  (A party theme based on an oxymoron is asking for trouble from the getgo — but she’s only 16 so we can cut her some slack on that I suppose).   
• It was given at a downtown DC nightclub that had been hired and specially fitted out for the evening.  
• The 200 invitees were picked up in a local high school parking lot in limo-busses.  
• The entertainers flown in for the event were rap stars Soulja Boy and Bow Wow.
• As if Soulja Boy and Bow Wow weren’t enough, Mom’s contribution to the evening was to pony up the extra dough to fly in R&B superstar Mario on a private jet just to sing “Happy Birthday”.
• Giant photographs of the birthday girl on the walls; 50 TV screens continuously looped more photographs of her; 72 LED panels were brought in just for the party.
• Outside the club the 15-foot JumboTron showed her face.

Aside from the already mentioned fact that the limo-busses picked up the guests in a high school parking lot, here are some of my favorite details from the article:

[the birthday girl] named the evening’s three mocktails after things she likes, says the club’s general manager, Sherwin Robinson: “Hollywood Mojito because that’s the theme, Sunset Smoothies because she likes sunsets, and Sweet Devil, I don’t know, I guess she has something with the devil.”

Gifts from her family include a tricked-out Range Rover from her dad with “Little Devil” plates. “My mom got me a ring from somewhere exotic; I don’t remember where. My sister got me a bunch of clothes and makeup because I love clothes and makeup.”

Poor Mom.  She clearly doesn’t get it.  She should have saved the money on that lame ring to which she devoted so much time and thought and done something that would have been appreciated like flying in Lil Wayne.

And my favorite detail of all — which may give a clue about how Dad (an immigrant from Turkey who arrived here a penniless boy) amassed some of his fortune:

“You would think she’s a celebrity,” says Soulja Boy. (He, by the way, is a little miffed because he thought it was a club performance, not a private party. He charges more for those.)

If you did as you were asked at the outset, the song to which you have been listening is Mike d’Abo’s “Handbags and Gladrags” performed by Chris Farlowe.  It has been one of my particular favorites since I first heard it on the radio in England when it was released in 1967.  The anger of its lyrics had a special meaning to the Britain of the late-60s when the transition from grim post-war austerity to Swinging London had begun to engender a backlash from its own Carnaby-Street-style excesses.

It has recently become familiar as the theme for the British version of The Office.

Ever seen a blind man cross the road
trying to make the other side?
Ever seen a young girl growing old
trying to make herself a bride?

So what becomes of you my love
When they have finally stripped you of
The handbags and the gladrags
That your granddads had to sweat so you could buy?

Once I was a young man
And I thought all I had to do was smile
You are still a young girl
And you’ve bought everything in style

But once you think you’re in you’re out
‘Cause you don’t mean a thing without
The handbags and the gladrags
That your granddads had to sweat so you could buy.

Sing a song of six-pence for your sake
And take a bottle full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds in a cake
And bake ‘em all in a pie.

They told me you missed school today
So I suggest you just throw away
The handbags and the gladrags
That your granddads had to sweat so you could buy.

Earl’ll Explain It To You

August 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Culture, Election 2008, Hackosphere, News media, Republican Party | 1 Comment 

Andrew Sullivan predicts Gov. Palin will be driven from the race:

I would not be surprised if she is not the veep finally on the ticket. We’ll see.

That’s pretty bold, since no one’s stepped down from a major party ticket since 1972. Sullivan builds his argument from a reader e-mail referring to Palin’s “‘troopergate’ incident,” in which the governor is alleged to have fired an Alaska state official for refusing to fire a trooper, Mike Wooten, who’d been married to Palin’s sister. “Talking Points Memo,” which has been covering the story, has this detail:

The Palins claimed, among other things, that Wooten had used a taser on his 10-year-old stepson, and shot a moose without a permit.

A deft juxtaposition by TPM — the alleged abuse of a child using a weapon meant for violent criminals and shooting a moose. Presumably the idea is that the governor’s sister’s charges against her husband were…trivial? False? The hysterical rantings of a woman?

Palin should be accountable for abuses of governmental power, if any, in this case. But observers’ use of “Troopergate” to describe it misses an important point. Gov. Bill Clinton’s Arkansas Troopergate had to do with his adultery. It sounds as though Gov. Palin’s may have had to do with protecting her family. Those who miss the political tension inherent in the distinction are invited to follow this link and ponder why the Dixie Chicks’ “Goodbye Earl” was a hit.

Tougher Than The Rest

August 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Election 2008, News media, Republican Party | 3 Comments 

Fred Barnes on Gov. Palin’s coming challenges:

Republicans have a ways to go. Mrs. Palin now must clear a daunting hurdle — first the media, then public opinion. Since the press is unfamiliar with her, she will be treated as a target for aggressive scrutiny. In the past, surprise picks like Mrs. Palin have faltered in the face of a media onslaught and never recovered. Mrs. Ferraro, though more familiar, became an albatross for Mr. Mondale. In 1988, Dan Quayle was quickly turned into a joke for late-night comics.

Mrs. Palin’s task is to show she’s presidential material, or close to it. Since she’s not someone who will instantly strike voters as a plausible president — as Mr. Romney or Mr. Lieberman might have — she will have to demonstrate her judgment, temperament, knowledge and seriousness of purpose through her behavior and remarks over the next few days. The media will deconstruct her every word and reach a verdict, which will then affect how the public regards her. It’s a fast, brutal and often unfair process.

Sarah Palin made the decision to carry a Down Syndrome child to term and care for her “beautiful baby boy” for the rest of her life. She was back at work in the governor’s office three days after Trig’s birth. I’m guessing she can handle the news media. There’s a Bruce Springsteen song, “Tougher Than the Rest.” I wonder if Bruce will let her use it? (Here’s Cher’s version.)

Speak Softly And Carry A Hockey Stick

August 30, 2008 by Robert Nedelkoff | Filed Under American Politics, Election 2008, History, Republican Party, U.S. History | Leave a Comment 

My favorite comment about Sen. John McCain’s selection of Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running-mate has to be the opening paragraph of a letter to the editor that appeared in the Washington Post this morning:

What was John McCain thinking of in naming an inexperienced woman to be his vice presidential candidate? To paraphrase Ohio Sen. Mark Hanna’s remark about William McKinley’s choice of running mate in 1900: Doesn’t Mr. McCain know there’s only one heartbeat between that woman and the presidency of the United States?

The letter writer (Rosanne Desmone, a public-relations professional in Virginia) then goes on to point out that, given McCain’s age, there is a stronger possibility than usual that Palin may become president. Her letter concludes:

I am horrified that Mr. McCain is willing to take the chance of leaving the leadership of our country in the hands of an inexperienced person, all for the sake of trying to win over some disenchanted Sen. Hillary Clinton supporters and grabbing media attention.

And indeed, when President McKinley was assassinated in 1901, there were more than a few people who were worried when his “inexperienced,” “unpredictable,” “headstrong” Vice-President, the man to whom Mark Hanna referred, put his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office. Before I give the name of this fellow (as Ms. Desmone, despite her apparent familiarity with Hanna’s quote, neglected to do), let’s look over his background and compare it to Palin’s:

He had spent a lot of time on the frontier, and, like Palin, was a moose hunter (or, as they say north of the lower 48, a caribou hunter).

Like Palin, he had served for years as an appointee on commissions in the public sector, and had made his name there as a determined reformer.

Like Palin, when chosen to be the Republican vice-presidential nominee he was a sitting governor who had served less than two years in that position. The only previous electoral office he had held was that of New York state assemblyman, where he served a few years, much as Palin served six years as mayor of her hometown before seeking statewide office. Again like Palin, his selection to the vice-presidential spot on the ticket was greeted with relief by various entrenched old-guard elements of his party in his native state who had not cared for his commitment to transparency in governmental practice.

Like Palin he had a reputation for being straight-shooting and plain-spoken, and many marveled that a person of his temperament could rise as high in political life as he did.

Like Palin he was devoted to his family of four sons and two daughters.

When tragedy made him our nation’s Chief Executive in 1901, few knew what to expect.

His face is on Mount Rushmore, alongside Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. In surveys conducted among American historians to rank our greatest Presidents, he has always placed somewhere between third and seventh, alongside those three, Andrew Jackson and his cousin Franklin.

His name was Theodore Roosevelt.

It seems to me that the McCain campaign has the makings of a good 30-second or 60-second spot here.

One Less Headache In St. Paul

August 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Bush Administration, Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

The AP this morning:

In public, Bush displays no frustration about having to do a departing president’s dance: stand close when needed, but not too close. Asked this year if showing up for McCain could hurt the candidate more than help him, Bush joked that he would do whatever — endorse McCain, be against him — as long as the Republican beat Democrat Barack Obama.

Aides say Bush feels the same privately. He does not take offense at being distanced. He knows it is just politics.

Like all of us, the President has his faults, but acting like a prima donna is evidently not among them.

Equal Time

August 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Democratic Party, News media | Leave a Comment 

“Huffington Post” thinks Gov. Palin’s “yup yup” to “People” magazine was funny:

PEOPLE: Do you feel ready to be a heartbeat away from the presidency? SARAH: Absolutely. Yup, yup. Especially with a good team around us.

Time to start counting the number of times Sen. Obama says “you know” when the TelePrompTer’s not available.

GOP Fluoride Builds Stronger Democrats

August 30, 2008 by John H. Taylor | Filed Under Republican Party | Leave a Comment 

A thoughtful Ariel Sabar analysis in the Christian Science Monitor on the GOP’s dim prospects concludes thus:

“What is remarkable about the cautious, unimaginative campaign speeches of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is how much they bear the stamp of conservative intellectual debates that preceded them,” Daniel Casse wrote in April in the conservative Weekly Standard. “These liberal Democratic presidential aspirants coyly demur on tax increases. Their discussions of foreign policy invoke American credibility. They talk about efficiency in government. Yes, conservatives know these are poll-massaged, manufactured personas; yet surely they reflect how much of the conservative flavoring has seeped into the Democratic drinking water.”

TNN Weekly Weekend Reward

August 30, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under Weekly Weekend Reward | Leave a Comment 

Madame Sarkozy’s new day job hasn’t prevented her from continuing her musical career.  (One wag has styled her “Francoise Hardy with diplomatic immunity.”)

Carla Bruni was already a world famous leggy supermodel when her first album of original songs was released in 2003. Based on the fame that preceded her, Quelqu’un m’a dit (someone told me) debuted at number one on the French album charts.  What couldn’t have been predicted was the critical and popular acclaim that kept it in the top ten for the next thirty-four weeks.

One of the album’s tracks was “L’Amour”.

Drawing on four years of college French, I feel at least relatively confident saying that this chanson is a blues and that it has something to do with the subject of love.

Ms. Bruni was nothing if not adventurous, and her second album, last year’s No Promises (no promises), was entirely in English.  And not just any English —  she composed sophisticated and sympathetic pop genre settings of poems by Emily Dickinson, Christina Rossetti,  Walter De La Mare, Dortohy Parker, and W. H. Auden.  My own favorite is her take on William Butler Yeats’ “Those Dancing Days are Gone”.   Happily, a live performance on the French TV music program Taratata is available on YouTube:

Come, let me sing into your ear;
Those dancing days are gone,
All that silk and satin gear;
Crouch upon a stone,
Wrapping that foul body up
In as foul a rag:
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.

Curse as you may I sing it through;
What matter if the knave
That the most could pleasure you,
The children that he gave,
Are somewhere sleeping like a top
Under a marble flag?
I carry the sun in a golden cup.
The moon in a silver bag.

Last month she released her third album Comme si de rien n’etait (as if nothing happened).  Perhaps her recent distractions account for its charming but generally pedestrian material.  There was inevitably a lot of prurient speculation about the suggestive nature of some of the lyrics. As one British reviewer put it:

A woman, rather breathlessly, sings songs of regret, desire and love’s splendours and obsessions over a vaguely jazzy, acoustic world beat. “Je te donne mon corps, mon ame et mon chrysantheme” (I give you my body, my soul and my chrysanthemum) she huskily declares on a song called Ta Tienne. So far, so Gallic.  But then you remember, this is Carla Bruni, France’s first lady, married to president, Nicolas Sarkozy. Blimey. Is that who we think it is she’s promising her ‘chrysanthemum’ to? Crikey….

Those with more than four years of college French —or who got better grades than I did, which would not have been difficile to do— may want to check out Mr. Bruni’s lyrics for “L’Amour” in the original francais:

L’amour, hum hum, pas pour moi,
Tous ces “toujours”,
C’est pas net, ça joue des tours,
Ca s’approche sans se montrer,
Comme un traître de velours,
Ca me blesse, ou me lasse, selon les jours

L’amour, hum hum, ça ne vaut rien,
Ça m’inquiète de tout,
Et ça se déguise en doux,
Quand ça gronde, quand ça me mord,
Alors oui, c’est pire que tout,
Car j’en veux, hum hum, plus encore,

Pourquoi faire ce tas de plaisirs, de frissons, de caresses, de pauvres promesses ?
A quoi bon se laisser reprendre
Le coeur en chamade,
Ne rien y comprendre,
C’est une embuscade,

L’amour ça ne va pas,
C’est pas du Saint Laurent,
Ca ne tombe pas parfaitement,
Si je ne trouve pas mon style ce n’est pas faute d’essayer,
Et l’amour j’laisse tomber !

A quoi bon ce tas de plaisirs, de frissons, de caresses, de pauvres promesses ?
Pourquoi faire se laisser reprendre,
Le coeur en chamade,
Ne rien y comprendre,
C’est une embuscade,

L’amour, hum hum, j’en veux pas
J’préfère de temps de temps
Je préfère le goût du vent
Le goût étrange et doux de la peau de mes amants,
Mais l’amour, hum hum, pas vraiment !

Whiff-Whaff By Any Other Name

August 30, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under China, Sports, UK Politics | Leave a Comment 

It’s always fun —and sometimes even informative— to keep track of the doings of London’s recently-elected Mayor Boris Johnson.

At a “Handover Party” in Beijing last week, he remarked on the completion of the Olympics there and the beginning of the countdown to London 2012.

In typically exuberant and deceptively disheveled fashion, he covered a number of topics and indulged in a little facetious jingoism.

Because we here at TNN have a highly raised consciousness where ping pong is concerned, Mayor Johnson’s remarks concerning the history of the game caught my eye. (You may enjoy his entire brief remarks or go directly to 2:49. But if you do, you will miss his reasons for not regretting the absence of the Pancreateon from Olympic competition.)

Featured Articles — August 30, 2008

August 30, 2008 by Jonathan C. Movroydis | Filed Under Featured Articles | Leave a Comment 

Interesting Takes from Home and Abroad:

Let Palin Be Palin by William Kristol
Why the left is scared to death of McCain’s running mate.

Drug war bodies are piling up in Mexico By Ken Ellingwood
A police officer guards the scene in the Mexican state of Yucatan where 11 headless bodies were found piled. The nearby city of Merida is normally tranquil and touristy.
The heap of 11 decapitated bodies found in Yucatan shows that the battle to control the multibillion-dollar drug trade knows no boundaries.

A Turbulent Youth Under a Strong Father’s Shadow By Michael Leahy
McCain’s Maverick Nature Would Fuel His Political Climb.

McCain’s ‘Hail Sarah’ Pass By Jonathan Alter
His choice for veep is all but set up for failure in the fall.

McCain’s Baked Alaska By Gail Collins
The idea that women are going to race off to vote for any candidate with the same internal plumbing is both offensive and historically wrong.

Champagne and Tears By Bob Herbert
For black residents in and around Detroit, Barack Obama’s nomination helped to redeem some of the grief of many years of racial humiliation and oppression.

Star wars, tsar bright Austin Bay
As the Russo-Georgian War’s August gunfire slips into a murky September cease-fire, the Pentagon reports that the Russians “are still not living up to the terms of the cease-fire agreement.”

A Brilliant Trap Makes Dems Look Like Male Chauvinists By Kirsten Powers
SHE’S just a beauty queen., She’s another Dan Quayle., And ironically, the biggest criticism of Sarah Palin, John McCain’s veep choice, is she has no experience. Funny, coming from the Barack Obama camp.

Palin Fought for Reform in Alaska By Fred Barnes
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, John McCain’s pick as