The Hobbits that run typepad are in revolt against the AXE. I think I made a disparaging remark in an email about not wanting to have to eat mutton burgers and make my living busking on the streets of Hobbitland, down under. Perhaps they're confused -- I was referring to New Zealand, they perhaps feared I would invade the halls of their Dot.Com with a bank of Marshall Amps and start blasting out Goddamn the Pusher by Steppenwolf or something along those lines. So, it appears that our videos are all hanging up...given the variety and sources, I'm pretty sure it's not the source. Actually, it's hanging up on crap as I type. Ah well, Defeatist central did go with the lowest bidder.
Speaking of low and being surprised, this bit from the Times caught my attention:
Justice Department officials over the last six years illegally used “political or ideological” factors to hire new lawyers into an elite recruitment program, tapping law school graduates with conservative credentials over those with liberal-sounding resumes, a new report found Tuesday.
Now, the word found is interesting. When lawyers talk, they don't use that word loosely. It means they have evidence and are prepared to go to court with it. Most attorneys really do not like to have the word thrown around. If the reports says it found illegal practices, someone may be headed to jail. Now, as old man Bumble said, the law is an ass. Although the Hatch Act has only been around since the civil service reforms in the 1880s, the regulations that implement it change a lot. And, we know that the administration thinks that the law means what it thinks it means, and if a bunch of their toadies actually oppose them (think Supreme Court) they will be stomped. (By the way, isn't the whole idea of "activist judges" related to the idea that the Constitution is immutable and means what it means, and anyone who wants to interpret it to achieve some political or social goal is wrong, evil and unAmerican ? Just wondering? Habeas Corpus has been kinda consistently applied since the Magna Carta...)Anyway, if I screw something up legally, it probably is due to error and not malignity. If a lawyer screws up something that's legal, the burden of proof to prove they're an idiot, not evil, shifts.
Now, I listen to all the whining about FISA and the theory that Batboy is planning on skipping immunity from civil suits and going directly after the Telecoms and the DOJ and eveybody else in criminal trials. Certainly, that may be a strategy, although I don't think he's the sort to do that. Michelle, hell, she'll eviscerate them. But, he's a "uniter" and on and on and on. But, there are no limit to the potential criminal conspiracies to violate the law, obstruct justice, violate Habeas Corpus on US citizens like the governor of Alabama who is, last I looked a US citizen. So, their violations of due process run the gamut and I frankly think we could, whether the Prez wants it or not, see four years of making all of Keith Obermann's non-sexual, non-athletic fantasies come true --
Which is good, and bad. Maybe after this administration flushes down into history, we need a Truth Commission a la South Africa and Rwanda. Oh, and speaking of The Pusher, here's a bit of history. Song was written by Hoyt Axton, of all people. It's trash-garage rock from the 60s, brought to you by one of the more preteniously named bands. I know a lot of people who went out and bought and read Steppenwolf expecting it to be about sex and drugs and rock 'n roll, and were vastly disappointed.
AXE: can't let a plug for John Kay & Co. go unremarked on. They were the first post-Beatle band I became obsessed with. (Had to be something to do with "Easy Rider", a film I was forbidden to see when it first aired!) As I recall, on the album - long since swiped, along with a cool, double LP live release - "Born..." came blasting out of "The Pusher"; which was the first overtly "trippy" song I got into (not counting "Blue Jay Way" of course).
Dan Shaugnessy - who has penned for the Boston Globe forever - still uses their line: "Fire all of your guns at once, and, explode into space". Groovy!
I was mocked at the time, by older brothers and hipper dudes for my defense of The Wolf, but I ask you, where would we be without "Magic Carpet Ride"?
Several more vintage vids with the one you linked to, for the young dewds to get their history lessons from.
The Sixties...what a time to come of age.
Posted by: uncle buck | 27 June 2008 at 06:40 AM