Here is a thread for you.
Shaping up to be one of those spectacularly humid West Virginia days, where the sun shines only long enough to heat up the asphalt so that when it rains, the rainwater cooks off on the blacktop, sizzling and hissing and taking you that extra ten percent from 90% to 100% humidity.
bago
Totally off topic, but Thai women are hard to fathom because they aren’t 6 feet tall.
Jason
So in my morning reading I’m checking out a link to the myBO (heh) page that has all the Health Care canvassing events listed, 407 in total:
Organizing for America: Healthcare Workshops
…and I’m trying to find a similar map for the Freedomworks.org events, but I’m only finding Google map pages. The differences in press coverage should be obvious, but am I missing a similar page for Tea Party events and the like on freedomworks.org?
Yelli
Good afternoon from here in Berlin. I miss hot days and nights. I used to sit in my driveway in Chicago until midnight (when I was younger) in shorts!
The weather is most schizophrenic here. It gets very warm and then rains cold for 10 min, then gets warm again. Enjoy the sun!
BDeevDad
California cancer patients are among those receiving state funds in the form of IOUs. The IOUs are now showing up on Craigslist as a secondary market since banks won’t take them. I love my state.
Brick Oven Bill
Good morning from the American high desert. It is dry and pleasant. The sun is shining spectacular morning rays through broken clouds that range in color from yellow to purple to pink. It is still.
Were somebody to be foolish enough to pay to put up a windmill here, it would not be generating electricity, and the local grid would be powered by the conventional coal plant, located to the west.
Were I in Berlin, perhaps breakfast would be a sausage. Here though, it will be left over BBQ pork on a bun with a pickle.
Nicole
Am enjoying CBS Sunday morning, but my brief concern that California politicians were finally getting some common sense by taxing pot was allayed by hearing the proposed tax- $50 an ounce. Because that won’t encourage a black market.
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Morning, everybody!
My crazy work conference is finally over — the delegates have mostly all left, and I have to say, it all went alarmingly smoothly. I was almost giddy last night because things were going so well. Not one roadbump to be seen. So I am hugely relieved. This week we tie up those loose ends and I work on the training manual for whoever my replacement will be, and next week I train my coworker to do my job so that she can train my replacement, and then on July 24th, I am out of here for a whole year! w00t!
SiubhanDuinne
Actually wrenching this back to the topic of CBS Sunday Morning: what a joy that they have acknowledged my all-time favourite cabaret singer Mary Cleere Haran (during the feature on Doris Day). I’ve been a huge Haran fan for at least 15 years and think she is woefully underappreciated (if not virtually unknown). Wish CBS Sunday Morning would do an entire segment on her one of these times.
JK
John,
As a West Virginia resident, do you hear much talk or concern expressed regarding the health of Robert Byrd? Do you have any thoughts about him resigning for health reasons? Do you think the Democrats can keep his seat from turning Republican after he leaves office?
A Mom Anon
I’m so excited,I just harvested my first cayenne and red chili peppers. I’m so easily amused,lol. My baby pear trees have some teeny pears on them,and the beans are coming along nicely. I got a late start this year,nothing planted til Memorial Day weekend,so there won’t be tomatoes for awhile. And lavender,oooh,I love it,and I have so much I had to give some away yesterday for the first time. I have six plants that just took off this year,they are more like big shrubs now. I had a 30 gallon trash can full of flowers still on the stems. I kept about a pound of flowers and gave the rest away. The weather here is hot,with a chance of blast furnace.
John Cole
The segment on our soldier was crushing.
John Cole
@JK: Nothing, in fact Manchin has gone out of his way to state nothing and that no plans for replacements have been made at all.
The Grand Panjandrum
It rained well over 1/2 inch last night and now the birds are out collecting earthworms. Should be a lovely day in the high 70’s to low 80’s here in the Upper Valley region of northern New England. Time to break out the bikes and ridr down to the lake for a picnic lunch with the three ladies in my life.
Have a good’un.
Laura W
@John Cole: Yes. I would like that to be The Final Word. Period.
I’m going to immediately switch away from any further media attention to the false idol. Not that I already don’t, but I appreciate having her wrenching words and emotions the last impression in my mind and heart about the whole god awful spectacle.
Seals it all up very powerfully for me.
Brick Oven Bill
I will not be remiss in my responsibility to gloat and analyze regarding T. Boone’s project.
At a subsidy of $23.44/MW-hr, his 4,000 MW plant would have received up to approximately $100,000/hr, $2.4 million/day, or $850 million/year from the federal government at full capacity. At a reported cost of ‘up to’ $10 billion, those subsidies would yield a rate of return of 8.5%. This is a very good rate of return.
But even if the capacity was only 50%, and the whole project did not make one penny off of anything other than government subsidies, T. Boone would still be making a rate of return of over 4% in this market, which is good, especially considering the up-side potential.
The project cancellation is blamed on ‘credit markets’. But Billionaires are not very dependent on credit markets, and this one in particular is also being bankrolled by Nancy Pelosi. So the question presents itself: why did T. Boone cancel his wind project?
Because wind power is a hoax. This is why many of you should go to church this Sunday morning. Church will give you something more tangible to believe in than wind power. Better yet, just pick up a Bible and read for yourself. The answers to life are not to be found in a wind turbine.
JK
David Gregory is about to take a dive in his interview with McCain. It’s only a matter of how much he sucks up to the make believe maverick.
donovong
The segment from the soldier’s aunt should be replayed on every network every hour until every one of our troops comes home.
Take that, Michael Jackson Memorial Networks.
garyb50
I’ve lost count of the number of 100+ degree days we’ve had here in my little place in Texas. Fifteen tomato plants & not ONE tomato set on yet. It’s ridiculous. I’ve been told I should just give up and yank them but I’m too stubborn.
Laura W
@Brick Oven Bill:
How about Tarot cards, Bill?
I just chose my cards for the day. The major theme is “New start with sharp, focused reflection upon my past path.”
I did not see any wind in my cards. I think that is a good omen.
JK
From today’s Meet the Press
McCain: “I don’t think Palin quit.”
McCain: I’ve never seen another politician attacked the way Palin has been attacked in recent Amer political history
Elroy's Lunch
‘Morning to everyone. Shaping up to be a nice day here on the Ches. Bay. Light breeze and moderate temps but if John’s got the heat then we’ll be getting it next.
First sweet corn of the season with dinner last night. Basted with olive oil and salt and roasted over the grill with (most of) the husk on.
Violet
@JK:
No kidding. Is it a lot, a whole lot, or completely? I about threw something at the TV when I saw McCain was on MTP. Can’t they get any new guests?
How can anyone respect McCain at this point? He’s the one who chose Palin as his VP candidate. He should be held accountable for that decision. She could have been Vice President. I still shudder when I think of that.
Bob In Pacifica
Cool and foggy out here on the Coast this morning. We actually had the most unusual of things last evening, a little rain shower that passed through near sunset. Folks at the ballpark got a rainbow.
And that’s the big news out here. There was some outrage that Panda isn’t going to the all-star game but most of that was gone with Sanchez’s no-hitter on Friday. Then Saturday Cain got knocked out with a line drive, may miss the all-star game with a sore elbow, but the bullpen pulled that one out too. And the Panda’s hit blasts two days in a row.
For the first time since 2003 it’s fun to watch baseball. Used to be the Giants were to keep the eyes occupied until the Niners started camp. Much much more this year.
+++
BOB: Regarding windpower, it’s just that no one’s figured out how to harnass all the windpower on the internet.
SiubhanDuinne
The segment on the 24-year-old soldier had me — still has me — in tears. There just aren’t words for this damnable waste. What a tragedy.
But wow, if there is any glimmer of good to come out of this story, it’s that the hotel desk clerk attended the funeral, and that drivers stopped and got out of their cars in respect as the funeral procession moved by.
Violet
@garyb50:
Not sure where you live in Texas, but it’s way, way, way past spring tomato season in that kind of heat. You can leave the plants in, but don’t expect anything to set until it cools down. General rule of thumb is that when the nighttime temps are above 70 degrees, the tomatoes won’t set.
We have two tomato seasons here – spring and fall. It’s about time to put in fall tomoatoes. They have to be shaded and watered a lot this time of year, but if you’re good about that now, you can get a reasonable harvest once the cool weather arrives.
I’ve had fall tomatoes winter over in a warm winter. Harvested tons of tomatoes off a plant like that one Feb/March.
linda
How can anyone respect McCain at this point?
the clip just played on msnbc re the latest cheney revelation, had president mccain intoning ‘what did the cia director know about this program and when did he learn of it’… uh, someone might want to tell grandpa that panetta was informed of the program on june 23 and shut it down on june 24.
did dancin’ dave gregory happen to note that?
JK
@Violet:
I’ve lost count of how many appearances McCain has made on the Sunday shows since election day. Given his Joe McCarthy style campaign rhetoric, I find the MSM treatment of McCain as a wise elder statesman despicable and nauseating.
McCain is the teflon Republican. I was hoping Gregory would have asked McCain about the report from the upcoming book by Hanes Johnson and Dan Balz that Steve Schmidt and Nicole Wallace sent Palin an email suggesting that she use the line that Obama was paling around with terrorists.
John Cole
I quit watching the Sunday shows. I learn nothing. They are nothing more than a vehicle to insert wingnut talking points and “known knowns” into the discourse. There is no value in even spending a minute watching them. None. In fact, they are worse than offering no value, they are destructive. Half of next week will have to be spent shooting down the bullshit that was chummed up on Meet the Press and Face the Nation.
I’m going to go prune my tomatoes, do my weekly herbing, and then I am going to come back and finally try to get control of the closet in my bedroom, which is loaded with clothes I have been too fat to wear for ten years. I’m not fooling anyone by keeping them around.
Beeb
On CNN, Judd Gregg and Lamar Alexander were going on about how the Dems are undermining the CIA and thus helping terrorists and hurting the country. Gregg said Congress is heading back to the Frank Church days. FSM, I hope so.
Violet
@John Cole:
I don’t watch them either. I was watching the Today Show to see what they deemed to be the latest “important” headlines, and also to catch my local weather, and they did a quick preview of MTP and I saw that John McCain would be on. I wasn’t going to watch it anyway, but seeing that he was going to be on decreased the already slim-to-none odds that I would
Someone should come up with a Sunday show where they ask really tough questions. It would be interesting to see if they could book any guests and what would happen to ratings.
linda
finally try to get control of the closet in my bedroom, which is loaded with clothes I have been too fat to wear for ten years. I’m not fooling anyone by keeping them around.
oh man, does that hit a note. just last weekend i emptied out a storage chest and tossed half a dozen pair of size 10 button fly levi’s & calvin kleins… finally accepting i’ll never fit into them again in this lifetime. lol.
JK
@John Cole:
You’re absolutely right regarding the Sunday shows. They are a total crock of bullshit. If I tune in to them, it’s simply to fulfill a masochistic impulse. I know damn well that I’m not going to see something informative or honest.
dbrown
We are having a mild summer here in MD – our normal 90+ degree and 85%+ humidity days haven’t hit (much). One thing about AGW that most wingnuts don’t get, the weather patterns due to over-all warming will also allow some summers to be cool for a lucky few here and there! Still, the NASA data on the artic ice thickness is really, really bad and looks like the artic ice caps may be a thing of the past in the summer not too far in the future.
John Hamilton Farr
I’m going to be kind and not tell you about the weather in northern New Mexico, except to say that the way we dry clothes is to take them out of the washer and carry them to the clothesline, then turn right around and carry them back.
And BRAVO HUZZAH WHOOPEE WOOT WOOT for your comment about the Sunday shows!!! Damn, John, this is so true. I think the blogospheric preoccupation with them is insane, too: “LOOK, an idiot said something stupid!” etc., etc. Geez, as if the universe would produce any other outcome.
I should prune my tomatoes, too, after I look up how to do it.
4jkb4ia
@John Cole:
Absolutely. The one time I tried to watch This Week, it was last year and the only value I got was from yelling at the TV.
In SportsSunday, Tim Wakefield above the fold Also, Clark Hoyt marks the 20th of Tammuz by writing about wedding announcements.
steve s
Same here. Do I really need to watch George “Lapel pin” Stephanopoulis ask Newt Gingrich “How do you think Obama’s doing?” It just makes me dumber to hear what they say. The only sunday show I’ve seen worth watching is Fareed Zakaria GPS, because he tends not to invite so many R-Tards as the other shows.
JK
@Violet:
Agreed. I’d also like to see balanced roundtable panels and an end to this practice of having 2 rt wing republicans, 2 centrists, and 1 liberal and calling it balanced.
I ‘d like to Joe Conason, Michael Tomasky, Alexander Cockburn, Amy Goodman, Laura Flanders, Joan Walsh, Seymour Hersh, Norman Solomon, James Wolcott, Dan Froomkin, and Glenn Greenwald included on some roundtable panels.
SGEW
VICTORY!
Elroy's Lunch
We fixed the Sunday Morning News Show problem by not having a teevee here. Forces us to read those no-nothing bloggers.
@John Cole and @linda
I did the same thing last weekend. Went through and cleaned out all the closets and drawers. Any clothing that wasn’t rags material went to charity. In my case it was because they were too big.
/ducks/
steve s
Being morbidly obese is not something to resign yourself to. Get a tiny bit of discipline over your eating habits and exercise occasionally.
JK
Something to look forward to this week.
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher return from vacation.
burnspbesq
@Yelli:
You would have loved Friday. Overcast in the morning. Rained pretty hard from noon to 12:30, which delayed the start of the Cubs game (my first game ever at Wrigley) by about 40 minutes. By 2:30, it was 90 degrees and 10,000 percent humidity.
Stan of the Sawgrass
Harvested the first of my pineapples yesterday!! It’s only a little bigger than my fist ( I got big hands), but it’s the sweetest, mildest, most intensely-flavored pineapple I’ve ever had. Barely enough to share, though.
The lavender has barely done more than sprout. Literally. And it’s been that way for over two months, probably due to the constant rain.
And why watch the damn sunday shows, anyway? To have something to complain about? It’s not as though you thought they were going to actually inform you, except maybe in some negative way.
Do what I do: scan the tv listings to see who’s going to be on the shows, then write a scathing letter to the network. You can now go something useful instead of watching and yelling.
I’m going to fix the siding, myself.
linda
@JK:
the coverage of the latest cheney revelation is maddening. it’s always framed as which party benefits politically from the latest outrage; and all too often those invited on to talk about the latest outrage are democratic/republican operatives who know eff-all about the details and could care less. it’s all about the spin.
how many times have you heard the phrase ‘rule of law’ mentioned in the past couple of days…
A Mom Anon
@Stan of the Sawgrass:
OK,spill it,where are you and how do you grow pineapple?
Laura W
@Elroy’s Lunch: @John Cole and @linda
Me four. Some too big, more too small, and even more no longer cough age appropriate cough, whatever the hell that means. I took them into the Domestic Violence Safe House thrift store. The only reason I did not take them to a Humane Soc. thrift store is that it requires walking past all the kitties in cages just inside the front door in a stifling building with no freakin’ A/C.
Can. Not. Do.
I am in total walk procrastination mode because the longer I sit here and dither around the cooler it’s going to get outside.
You betcha.
glasgowtremontaine
@steve s
WTF are you talking about? Do you KNOW how much this man walks his dog?
SIA aka ScreamingInAtlanta
It’s overcast and humid here in GA – hope we get some rain for the garden.
Celebrating my birthday with Mr Screaming tonight…should be pretty sedate since it’s also 29.5 years to the day of being clean and sober. A crab cake and some french fries will rock my world! :)
Besides the annoying right tilted guest roster on MTP, Gregory is extremely annoying as a person and interviewer. Palin & Gregory are prime examples of being promoted above their capacity. Also alot of the time the “liberal” is some concern troll blue dog like Harold Ford.
I want MSNBC to start a Sunday program moderated by Lawrence O’Donnell.
passerby
I hate when that happens, really, it’s my least favorite weather condition. Here in E TN, the temps have been hovering around 87-89 degrees, we got some much needed rain and it’s been very nice.
Stan of the Sawgrass is channeling me this morning. I’m not even interested is reading Jason Linkins on HUffPo this morning. He’s usually funny but today, yawn. Just not interested in bullshit today.
gnomedad
What is your adbot keying on that keeps popping out mail-order bride ads? Is is because we keep mentioning Republican governors and congressmen?
passerby
@SIA aka ScreamingInAtlanta:
Well done SIA.
Happy Birthday to you!
John Cole
@glasgowtremontaine: I may walk my dog a lot, but I think I’m pretty damned fat.
But back to the point, I wil never have a size 32″ waist again. I’m getting rid of stuff I haven’t worn since, well, 1992. Not sure why I still have it. But I am trying to get rid of all the useless crap in my life.
Except Tunch.
denisedh
John,
After spending my first 28 years in Illinois and Missouri, I experienced many summers of days like you described and I don’t miss them.
Load up Lily and take a vacation this summer up north or out west.
JK
@SIA aka ScreamingInAtlanta:
All you need to know about David Gregory is that he did a dance routine behind rapper MC Karl Rove at one of those stupid correspondents dinners.
Steeplejack
@RedKitten (formerly Krista – the Canadian one):
How did it end up with the douchey director who was making demands at the last minute?
Redshirt
I haven’t watched the Sunday shows in years — as you say quite well, what’s the point? However, I do enjoy reading about the Sunday shows, for no other reason than to take the temperature of Greater Wingnuttia. So, do please keep posting the Sunday thread.
Huzzah! Boston finally has a string of not bad days. Today is the first time we have hit the 80’s since May, I think. Could be wrong — but if I am, it’s not by much.
I was on vacation in Maine last week and it rained and rained and rained some more. I was prepared for this, and did near everything I wanted to, in the rain. It was very cold and wet.
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Yep, we all go through that. Besides, most of that shit from 1992 is probably out of style now anyway. Even if you did get back down to a 32″, you’d want new stuff.
And steve s, you’ve just proven yourself to be an ignorant dick. You know nothing about John’s eating or exercise habits, and yet think that you’re somehow being helpful by telling him to exercise and to develop more disciplined eating habits? People like you suck.
Actually, it reminds me of this one time when I was in the midst of losing quite a bit of weight. I had already lost 30 lbs and was well on my way to losing another 35. I was doing great and felt fantastic. I was jogging, and a car passed me, and some idiot yelled out the window “You’d better run, tubby!”
steve s reminds me of that douchebag.
Steeplejack
@JK:
I have been thinking about this a lot lately, with regard not only to Byrd but to Ted Kennedy. Is there some point at which they should realize, “I can’t do the job, so I should resign”? Or is there some faux sense of royal entitlement in the Senate that if you’ve occupied the seat for a long time you get to die in it?
And this is not just about the Democrats. I remember Strom Thurmond being wheeled around in his last days, and it was very hard to believe that he was still up to the job.
I realize that there are perks of seniority, committee chairmanships, etc., that either party would be loath to give up. But what does it say when the actual governing, or legislating, is being done by aides behind the scenes?
I guess the ultimate defense is “Hey, the voters reëlected him,” but somehow that is not satisfying.
Anyway, just thinking out loud.
Steeplejack
@JK:
That is why I can’t watch that show. My blood pressure would be off the dial for the rest of the day.
I assume David Gregory said nothing after McCain said he didn’t think Palin quit. Jeebus.
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
It actually worked out well. I kept him so in the loop, and had everything so organized that even the little last-minute additions didn’t fluster me like they normally do. Everybody was in really great spirits through the whole thing, so that helped a lot.
The crazy thing is that every year, we have conference delegates who keep saying that our conferences are the best-organized and most enjoyable out of any they’ve ever been to. And these are people who go to major international conferences all over the world. So I don’t know what we’re doing right (or what the others are doing wrong), ’cause we’re just two chicks with a bunch of volunteers, in a tiny rural village with hardly any amenities. But, as long as everybody’s enjoying themselves, that’s good enough for me.
JK
@Steeplejack:
I wish the Democrats could persuade Byrd and Kennedy to retire. This is a perfect example of the arrogance of power.
Unfortunately, many senators view their seats as lifetime positions. This does not serve the best interests of the country. I’d rather see 2 healthy Republican senators serving in the Senate than 2 Democratic senators who lack the strength to report to their offices. The longer this situation persists, the more disgusted I become. Kennedy and Byrd need to resign right now.
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Happy birthday and happy anniversary, SIA! And there is NOTHING wrong with a crab cake and french fries…yummy!
SIA aka ScreamingInAtlanta
@JK: I remember it well and that did indeed clinch it for me.
SIA aka ScreamingInAtlanta
@passerby: @RedKitten (formerly Krista – the Canadian one): Thank you! As my husband says, I am so dry I am a fire hazard.
Elroy's Lunch
Congrats SIA and well done. For those crabcakes try and be sure they use real Callinectes sapidus in the mix. Don’t accept any imitations if you don’t have to.
SIA aka ScreamingInAtlanta
@Elroy’s Lunch: OK you managed to make me google Callinectes sapidus. Hey, I learned something!
donovong
@JK: “
Considering the current state of the Repugnant party, I would rather see two near-dead Democrats serve in the Senate.
Laura W
And while you’re at it, MSNBC, give him the 7:00pm EST slot. We can all live without a double dose of Tweety, for Christ’s sake.
JK
@Laura W:
I can do without any dose of Tweety.
@donovong:
I agree with Bill Maher that the Republican Party has largely become the party of mental patients. Pragmatically speaking, Kennedy and Byrd are not physically up to the job of being senators anymore. It sickens me that the prevailing attitude in Congress is that a senator or representative should be allowed to serve until he or she simply drops dead. I don’t want senators or representatives holding office once they already have one foot in the grave. Kennedy and Byrd must go and they must go now.
Brachiator
I feel like a slacker compared to most of you. I only recently got up, indulging a late morning wake up in Southern California, and have not tended a garden or done anything remotely useful. And I will probably go see a movie this afternoon (Public Enemies).
Nicole — Am enjoying CBS Sunday morning, but my brief concern that California politicians were finally getting some common sense by taxing pot was allayed by hearing the proposed tax- $50 an ounce. Because that won’t encourage a black market.
I’m pretty much sure that the current market for pot is a black market.
.
I think actual journalism on Sunday pundit shows has been outlawed.
JK
@Brachiator:
It would make sense, given the fact that it has been outlawed on cable news M-F, with Olbermann and Maddow being rare exceptions.
donnah
I gave up the Sunday morning political commentaries by about February, when it was clear to me that the guests would be 59% Republican Sore Losers and 41% Obama Bashers. Meh. I hardly miss them.
We just got back from our family reunion in Beckley, W Va. It was a nice get together with folks from my mother’s side of the family. The weather was nice; a little rainy late in the day Saturday, but the party was held indoors, so it didn’t matter. Saw people I hadn’t seen in many years. Most of them didn’t know me, but it was fun to “meet” them again. And there was a ton of home made food!
I must say, our drive from Dayton, Oh to Beckley gets shorter and simpler every year. They keep extending Rt 35 East/South and it cuts more and more time off our drive. I can remember that our visits “down home” when I was a kid would take 6 to 7 hours. Now it’s 4.
Yelli
@ burnspbesq – Well, it is about time you went to cheer for the Cubbies! What took you so long?!?!?
Although I do have to say that 10,000% humidity seems pretty high even for Chi-town! (I still miss it!!!!)