Booman Tribune





Find textbooks at Alibris!

NOTE: Overstock bests Amazon's prices and is "blue."

THE BOOKS WITH "BUZZ":
______________

Learn the real story behind the WMD in Iraq:

The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism
by Ron Suskind

Read Barack Obama's vision for America:

The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream
by Barack Obama

DaveW recommends:

I Am a Strange Loop
by Douglas Hofstadter

Need some laughs?

I Am America (and So Can You!)
by Stephen Colbert

rae recommends:

Dark Ages America: The Final Phase of Empire
by Morris Berman.

On BooMan’s shelf:

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
by Doris Kearns Goodwin

This looks interesting:

Adventure Divas
by Holly Morris

Here’s a good one from
Elizabeth Gilbert:

Eat Pray Love
by Elizabeth Gilbert

"Crash" * Best Motion Picture, Academy Awards * Only $11.79 at Overstock * 2006 SAG Winner, Best Ensemble

Check out
Powell's new section:
NEW FAVORITES

Selected new arrivals at 30% off

Recommended by Indianadem and ejmw:
The Conscience of a Liberal
by Paul Wellstone

From northcountry’s bookshelf:

The New Golden Age:
The Coming Revolution Against
Political Corruption and Economic Chaos
by Ravi Batra

A novel about contractors in Iraq from the woman that runs The Spy That Billed Me:

Outsourced: A Novel
from RJ Hillhouse.


SOTW-120x90
Download Sleeper Cell on iTunes (Better than "24") Download Weeds on iTunes (Hilarious 1/2-hour adult comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker) Download Late Nite with Conan O'Brien on iTunes
John Belushi - SNL
Download South Park on iTunes
Verve Vault

James Hunter - People Gonna Talk:
James Hunter - People Gonna Talk
icon


Great Deals
----- * ^ * -----

Find mystery novels by Nancy Pickard ("Kansas")



Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy US Power by Phyllis Bennis (interviewed on DN!)


Featured by Keith Olbermann, New (Powell's Sale): Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower by William Blum (whose other books merit serious consideration)


"Explosive" State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
by James Risen


The book the CIA doesn't want you to read: Jawbreaker: The Attack on Bin Laden and Al Qaeda: A Personal Account by the CIA's Key Field Commander
Larry Johnson's review


BT's all-time best seller:

PERMACULTURE:
A Designers' Manual

$79.95 * Sale: $59.95


Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader in U.S. Women's History (Third Edition)


The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor And Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car!


The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
by Timothy Egan


Green Press Initiative
----- * ^ * -----


Journalistas: 100 Years of the Best Writing and Reporting by Women Journalists by Eleanor Mills * NYT review


Bury Me Standing: the Gypsies & Their Journey


1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus



Brokeback Mountain
by Annie Proulx
----- * ^ * -----
Check out Powell's
"At The Movies"


Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World by Noam Chomsky (Power & Terror: Post 9-11 Talks)


The Price of Privilege:

How Parental Pressure and
Material Advantage Are Creating a Generation of
Disconnected and Unhappy Kids

by Madeline Levine


Save 35-70% on
name brand clothing,
footwear, and outdoor gear
at SierraTradingPost.com

:





We listened to PEN American Center's "State of Emergency" and found 1940s books by Curzio Malaparte only at Alibris. (Selection (MP3) excerpted from "The Skin.")

Alibris - Books You Thought You'd Never Find
Banned Books * Are you a fan of Film Noir, Art House, Documentaries or Hong Kong Action? * Searching for a long-lost children's book or a first printing of Miles Davis' Kind of Blue on vinyl? Find it at Alibris!

:
:
www.Patagonia.com


Display:
extreme edge? Is that the filthy hippie edge, the feminazi edge or the clueless peacenik edge?

Oh, and other than that, nothing to say about my point that seniority doesn't MEAN anything anymore?

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott

by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 02:44:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
that typical of your argument style.  Ignoring inconvenient facts.  

First you ignore that the GOP's reforms on seniority were actually a positive that were wiped out by their other actions.  The original reforms on seniority were made by the Class of '74 that eliminated chairs for life.

Second, you suggest that the Democratic caucus will seek to emulate the GOP.  Third, you fail to give any evidence to support your contention.

Here is a fact.  The only ranking member that is currently rumored (on the hill, not conspiracy blogs) to be at risk of being denied their chair is Jane Harman.  Apparently, Pelosi is not happy with her performance.  The rumored replacement?  The second ranking member BY SENIORITY, Alcee Hastings.  

Hastings is black, he is more progressive than Harman, and he has a controversial background that would provide justification for denying him such a sensitive position (if that was what Pelosi wanted to do).  

Back up you claims with anything.  And where is your list of third-party candidates?

by BooMan on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 03:29:15 PM EST
[ Parent ]
evidence? I've been watching the Democratic Party fumble every opportunity, slide ever more to the right and abandon their base for more than two decades. Your list, impressive as it is, is no more evidence or fact than MY observations. We look at the same thing and see different outcomes. Time will tell who is right.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott
by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 03:38:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
yeah right.

Like you knew what the progressive ranking of the ranking members was before I told you.

You're not looking for evidence, you have an agenda, which is transparently to drive down turnout and encourage people to vote for non-Democrats.

You make no distinction between Democrats.  Where is your list of third party candidates?  I'm waiting.

See, my concern is, if you don't have such a list or cannot speedily produce one, that you are serious about third party candidates.

Have you even examined the policy positions of any of the over 400 democrats running for the house?  Surely some of them would be able to garner your support?  Care to list a few challegers that you think might share your values?  How about 3?  Just three?

C'mon, you can do that?  Surely, right?

No?

Oh, I forgot, we can't reward bad behavior by voting the Democrats into power because they might get the wrong idea and think they are popular.

by BooMan on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 03:50:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
You got me, I don't spend much time worry about arbitrary rankings. What good is it in a party where someone like Sherrod Brown, #53 on that list, crosses the aisle to destroy the Great Writ? Hell, that site ranks Holy Joe, enabler of tyrants, at 39 in the Senate, with very good ratings on many issues. It doesn't make him any less worthless on issues that really count.

I support Bryan Kennedy, running against the excreble Sensenbrenner, with little or no help from the party. Go give him some love.

I'll be voting for Ray Vogeler on the Green line against the worthless, barely there Herb Kohl.

I pay attention to local races now, as the national party is worthless.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott

by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 04:21:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
wow, i tried to give you a break and only ask for three third-party candidates to support and you gave me one.  

Outstanding.  

You're clearly very involved in the third-party movement you claim to support.  

You only focus on local races....and ranking on Democrats.  All you do is follow the Dems to see when they fold on things and then you rank on them.

Shit, I can't forgive Sherrod Brown's cowardice either...and I said so.  

So, who are the third party candidates for OH-Sen?

I bet you don't even know.  Don't cheat and google it.

I'm calling you on this bullshit.  I never said people should shut up and get behind the party, but your focus is bizarre at this time of year.

It's negativity all the time.  

I just found out that Patrick Murphy (PA-08) is ahead by 4 points in a new DCCC poll.  You know what?  That's got me excited.  You know why?  Because he is a great guy from a great family with a great wife that is going to go to Washington and make things just a little bit better.  

That's what we're all working for.  I have no idea what you are working for, except to drive down turnout and make everyone cynical.  I think we're all pretty cynical around here already.  

One third-party candidate in the whole country that you can identify for us to vote for in this upcoming election.  And you expect me to take your call for third party voting seriously?

How about here in PA, where the Green Party is the wholly owned subsidiary of the Rick Santorum campaign and was kicked off the ballot?  

You might remember I supported Pennacchio.  I lost.  I decided to focus on other things, like PA-06-07-08-10.  Four seats we are going to win.  Four seats that will no longer belong to DeLay style republicans.  

by BooMan on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 05:12:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]
you're a better man than I, Gunga Din.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott
by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 05:14:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Your non-responsiveness is just trollish.

Seriously.

Do you seriously have no rebuttal to this?  

That's telling.  

WTF?  

You seriously can't tell me of any candidates to support?  You seriously cannot back up your claim that the DLC is going to strip Conyers, Waxman, Thompson, Frank, Slaughter, etc. of their seniority?

You've got nothing.  All you have is your assertion that the Dems have moved to the right for 20 years.  When I point out that the House is poised to move sharply to the left and I back that up with an hour of research, you come back with gunga din?

At what point am I to begin to wonder about your sincerity when it comes to supporting what you ostensibly support.

I have always given you the benefit if the doubt, but today's performance is really making me wonder.  

by BooMan on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 05:32:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
what, I don't jump through your hoops, so that means I have no basis for what I think?

Really, I'm past caring about races in other states, especially with two parties that suck up to scared, ignorant suburban white people while they ignore huge swaths of the population.

And again, when I don't dance to your tune, I'm called a troll. Meanwhile, the leader of this so-called party is joining his wife on triangulating on torture.

Now I see that former President Clinton has offered a similar proposal. In a recent interview on National Public Radio, Clinton was asked, as someone "who's been there," whether the president needs "the option of authorizing torture in an extreme case."

This is what he said in response: "Look, if the president needed an option, there's all sorts of things they can do. Let's take the best case, OK. You picked up someone you know is the No. 2 aide to Osama bin Laden. And you know they have an operation planned for the United States or some European capital in the next … three days. And you know this guy knows it. Right, that's the clearest example. And you think you can only get it out of this guy by shooting him full of some drugs or water-boarding him or otherwise working him over. If they really believed that that scenario is likely to occur, let them come forward with an alternate proposal.

"We have a system of laws here where nobody should be above the law, and you don't need blanket advance approval for blanket torture. They can draw a statute much more narrowly, which would permit the president to make a finding in a case like I just outlined, and then that finding could be submitted even if after the fact to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."

Clinton was then asked whether he was saying there "would be more responsibility afterward for what was done." He replied: "Yeah, well, the president could take personal responsibility for it. But you do it on a case-by-case basis, and there'd be some review of it." Clinton quickly added that he doesn't know whether this ticking bomb scenario "is likely or not," but he did know that "we have erred in who was a real suspect or not."

Clinton summarized his views in the following terms: "If they really believe the time comes when the only way they can get a reliable piece of information is to beat it out of someone or put a drug in their body to talk it out of 'em, then they can present it to the Foreign Intelligence Court, or some other court, just under the same circumstances we do with wiretaps. Post facto….

"But I think if you go around passing laws that legitimize a violation of the Geneva Convention and institutionalize what happened at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, we're gonna be in real trouble."

So he'd destroy what this country stands for, only he'd keep a layer of bureaucracy over the process. This is the modern Democratic Party.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott

by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 05:52:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm headed for DL, but one last exchange.

  1. you just took a 2% position and bashed Clinton for taking a 98% position.  In the ticking bomb scenario there is not time to establish repoire, and there are no options other than coercion that violates the stict laws of the Geneva convention.  Some things might work, like truth serum.  Others probably will not, like physical violence.  Regardless, the President is correct.  If you need to do it, you authorize it and take the consequences.  

  2. I'm not asking you to jump through hoops.  I am inquiring about whether you have any knowledge, any plan, any alternatives to the two major parties.

You don't.  And therefore it is impossible to credit you with sincerity.  

If there is nothing you support there is no option for the people that would agree with you on the surface.  

Telling Democrats not to vote at this moment in history can only be interpreted as a fear that Democrats will take control of a slice of power.  To believe otherwise, I'd have to see an awareness of the third-party candidates across the nation that you support.  You don't have any, so I can't give you any more benefit of the doubt.

If you were serious, LSF would have been raising money or giving free media to real alternatives.  

It's not asking you to jump through hoops and it isn't saying that nothing you say has merit.  It's just an observation about where you stand and how sincere you are.  

Are you really hoping the GOP retains their power so that things can get worse so that...what?

by BooMan on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 06:21:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
so the only way to be "serious" is to raise/make money or be an activist?

I'm a writer, a critic, a polemicist. I never pretended to be an activist. What I am is a citizen and a voter, and that is all that is necessary in this supposedly free country to make commentary on the state of my government.

When you accept or raise money, people begin to pull your strings ... a fact of life for which there is ample evidence in many of the "liberal" blogs.  

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott

by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 06:54:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
I'm a writer, a critic, a polemicist.

A damn good one.

"First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." Mahatma Gandhi

by Street Kid on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 07:51:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
thank you.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott
by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 07:58:11 PM EST
[ Parent ]
you're welcome.

"First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." Mahatma Gandhi
by Street Kid on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 08:04:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Suprised that all of the links to "donate" don't accept food stamps.  I mean, if that's all that counts...

"First, they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win." Mahatma Gandhi
by Street Kid on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 08:03:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
How do you know the methodology was arbitrary when you have no idea what the methodology was?  You probably don't agree with which issues they chose to call progressive, nor with the weight they chose to give each issue, but it is extremely insulting to call their choices arbitrary when you haven't even bothered to see what they were.
by Shalimar (srbaxley@yahoo.com) on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 05:16:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Term limiting chairmanships came in w/ Newt, which was a CLEAR sign that legislative control would shift from cmtes to leadership. As did awarding plum positions based more on loyalty and not as much on seniority--including chairmanships.

There's nothing to say what Pelosi will do. But don't think it hasn't been noted that the structure Gingrich instituted wasn't perceived to be all that bad...by those in leadership.

This isn't about ideology but power (see above). It makes it harder for Members to exercise their independence. So...if she thinks that a Conyers (or anyone, whether Blue Dog or DLC or CHC ... whoever) won't play ball, she may opt to keep the term limits on  chairmanships and may opt to bypass seniority when selecting chairs.

(Of course, Alcee Hastings getting a chairmanship would be very sweet for him, since the House hasn't always been very kind to him.)

I'm not saying that she'll definitely do that. I haven't heard that. But it's not beyond possibility. I just wouldn't refer to this as a fear of a progressive purge but a leadership power play--that may disproportionately affect progressives.

Can't hear ya, Peach!

by AP on Wed Oct 18th, 2006 at 09:00:20 AM EST
[ Parent ]
that's assuming that the Speaker even becomes Pelosi. I'm convinced that Hoyer and the other Blue Dogs/DLC scum will work to block her.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott
by Madman in the Marketplace on Wed Oct 18th, 2006 at 09:05:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
...Like a Jack Murtha challenge. And don't think Pelosi will shed any tears over it if it comes to pass.

One day, I'll have to write a posting a/b Hoyer's political evolution. He wasn't always seen as more conservative. Part of that was redistricting (from mainly Prince George's to some of Prince George's--some may say the "whiter" areas--and Southern MD, including Charles Co. and points south. Prince George's is a large county, majority African-American and a Dem stronghold that's actually has 3 Reps., Hoyer, Van Hollen and Wynn, but Wynn represents the lion's share of the county).

Part of it are "the political realities."

But part of it is history.

Can't hear ya, Peach!

by AP on Wed Oct 18th, 2006 at 09:31:25 AM EST
[ Parent ]
In my opinion, you're on the Horowitz-lite, holier-than-thou, fight-the-corrupt-system extreme edge that mainly feels powerful by disagreeing with everything mainstream and is in most ways indistinguishable from the extreme edge of conservatism.  Phrase it however you want, Booman is right this time: your goals for the next month are exactly the same as Republican goals.
by Shalimar (srbaxley@yahoo.com) on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 04:58:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
actually, I am Horowitz's evil doppleganger ... I come out of the mirror when he sleeps, like Niki Sanders on "Heroes".

Bwahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Now I'm off to my meeting with Ralph Nader so that we can plot the end of western civilization in the name of our communist Red Chinese masters!

I hope all of you guys' fantasies come true in January, but I'm not holding my breath.

"Whenever a Voice of Moderation addresses liberals, its sole purpose is to stomp out any real sign of life." - James Wolcott

by Madman in the Marketplace on Tue Oct 17th, 2006 at 05:12:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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