Duane and Dickey fashionably floral at the Warehouse.
Wail on, Skydog!
Update:
Since Dickey seems to be the man of the hour this week, more below the jump:
Dickey: a portrait in floral (now with 100% more nuts).
Another Dickey pic, same Warehouse strap.
Carter had governed a state. Why people are so wild for this man of no experience is puzzling. Maybe they really do think he's Barack Jesus F. Kennedy Christ Jr.
I've included the write-up of tonight's debate. It's odd, but interesting.
Hillary Rodham Clinton accused Democratic presidential rival Barack Obama of political plagiarism Thursday night and said he represented "change you can Xerox." Obama dismissed the charge out of hand, adding in a campaign debate, "What we shouldn't be doing is tearing each other down, we should be lifting the country up."The exchange marked an unusually pointed moment in an otherwise civil encounter in the days before March 4 primaries in Texas and Ohio — contests that even some of Clinton's supporters say she must win to sustain her campaign for the White House.
In a university auditorium in the heart of Texas, the two agreed that high-tech surveillance measures are preferable to construction of a fence to curtail illegal immigration.
They disagreed on the proper response to a change in government in Cuba in the wake of Fidel Castro's resignation. Clinton said she would refuse to sit down with incoming President Raul Castro until he implements political and economic reforms. Obama said he would meet "without preconditions," but added the U.S. agenda for such a session would include human rights in the Communist island nation.
They also sparred frequently about health care, a bedrock issue of the campaign.
Clinton said repeatedly that Obama's plan would leave 15 million Americans uncovered.
But he, in turn, accused the former first lady of mishandling the issue by working in secrecy when her husband was in the White House.
"I'm going to do things differently," he said. "We can have great plans, but if we don't change how the politics is working in Washington, then neither of our plans are going to happen."
Clinton largely sidestepped a question about so-called superdelegates, members of Congress, governors and party leaders who were not picked in primaries and caucuses. She said the issue would sort itself out, and "we'll have a united Democratic party" for the fall campaign.
But Obama, who has won more primaries and caucuses said the contests must "count for something ... that the will of the voters ... is what ultimately will determine who our next nominee is going to be."
Clinton went into the debate needing a change in the course of the campaign, and waited patiently for an opening to try to diminish her rival, seated inches away on the stage. "I think you can tell from the first 45 minutes Senator Obama and I have a lot in common," she said.
Barely pausing for breath, she went on to say there were differences.
First, she said she had seen a supporter of Obama interviewed on television recently, and unable to name a single accomplishment the Illinois senator had on his record.
"Words are important and words matter but actions speak louder than words," she said.
Obama agreed with that, then noted that Clinton lately had been urging voters to turn against him by saying, "let's get real."
"And the implication is that the people who've been voting for me or are involved in my campaign are somehow delusional," Obama said.
Clinton also raised Obama's use in his campaign speeches of words first uttered by his friend, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.
"If your candidacy is going to be about words then they should be your own words," she said. "...Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in, it's change you can Xerox."
The debate audience booed.
Obama said the entire controversy was evidence of a "silly season" that the public finds dispiriting.
The two rivals sat next to one another in swivel chairs in a University of Texas auditorium for the 90-minute debate, one in a dwindling number of opportunities for the former first lady to chart a new course in the presidential race.
She has lost 11 straight primaries and caucuses to Obama — including an overseas competition for support among Americans living aboard — and has fallen behind in the chase for the number of delegates needed to become the presidential nominee.
Obama's strong showing has made him the man to beat in a historic struggle between a black man and a white woman, and even some of Clinton's own supporters conceded she needs victories in both Ohio and Texas early next month to preserve her candidacy. Rhode Island and Vermont also vote that day.
Clinton and Obama articulated well-worn campaign themes in the opening moments of the encounter, she stressing years of experience, and he underscoring a need for a change in the way business is done in Washington.
"I offer a lifetime of experience and proven results," she said, adding that "if we work together, if we take on the special interests," the lives of middle-class Americans would improve.
Obama, too, scorned the power of special interests. "The problem we have is that Washington has become a place where good ideas go to die....They go to die in Washington because too many politicians are interested in scoring political differences rather than bridging differences get things done."
The Democrats have had at least 18 debates and forums of the campaign, a series that has ranged from highly civilized to hotly confrontational.
The last time the two met, in Los Angeles, they sat side by side and disagreed politely. But in an earlier encounter last month, in Myrtle Beach, S.C., each accused the other of repeatedly and deliberately distorting the truth for political gain in a highly personal, finger-wagging showdown.
In The Associated Press' delegate count Thursday, Obama had 1,358.5 to 1,264 for Clinton. It takes 2,025 delegates to claim the nomination at this summer's convention.
In a further sign of his growing strength, Obama won the endorsement during the day of the Change to Win labor federation, which claims 6 million members. The Teamsters union announced its support for Obama on Wednesday.
The debate was sponsored by CNN, Univision and the Texas Democratic Party.
After his initial claims failed to get him the John Mark Carr treatment, Larry Sinclair has now filed suit for something or other related to his unsubstantiated claims of sex and drugs with Obama.
I've read people blaming this on the machinations of Ron Paul, Huckabee, or Hillary. I say never sell an attention whore short.
After eight defeats, Hillary Clinton finally snags another win. You could rebuild Berlin with all the bricks she's been shitting since Super-Tuesday:
Hillary Clinton got a badly needed piece of good news Thursday with word she had won last week's New Mexico Democratic presidential caucus over her surging rival Barack Obama.Clinton received 73,105 votes while Obama had 71,396 votes in the February 5 caucus that drew record turnout, state Democratic official Brian Colon told a televised news conference from New Mexico.
It was a welcome result for the former first lady who had lost eight straight nominating contests to her Senate colleague Obama since splitting the "Super Tuesday" slate of races on February 5.
The tightness of the race is causing Democratic Party strategists to take a second look at the DNC's decision to leave Florida's Democratic delegates to wither on the vine for scooting the primary date up. While Michigan was also stripped of Democratic Party delegates for changing its primary, Obama was not on the ballot there. Florida's 210 delegates could put somebody over the top, so it's likely that the DNC will be looking to come back and harvest this particular crop of oranges after all -- unwittingly cheating Florida's illegal alien citrus pickers out of a day's work.
Not everybody gets to sing "My Way." Life's unfair like that.
A great song and video from Sparks:
The ABB at Washington and Lee, 1971.
Wail on, Skydog!
And a close-up:
Duane's hand is moving so fast, it's just a blur. Or something like that.
But never fear -- he'll run for president a million times if that's what it takes to get that groove just right:
Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign on Thursday, effectively sealing the Republican presidential nomination for John McCain. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told conservatives."If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror," Romney told the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.
Interesting that he's holding onto his delegates. What did they cost him out of his own pocket, about a million per?
Duane as the victim of a basketball jones at Washington and Lee.
Wail on, Skydog!
Panning out, the gentleman in the beconchoed Hi-Roller looks to be frequent guest Thom Doucette:
Thanks to our own Carl the sleuth for tracking these down for us to enjoy:
Attached for your collection are three shots of the ABB playing in the Doremus Gymnasium at Washington and Lee University, in Lexington Virginia in either late 1970 or early 1971. For years I've been trying to remember exactly when the ABB played that concert at my alma mater; I still don't have an exact date, but I believe it was in early March 1971 and that the ABB was the featured band for W&L's 1970-71 academic year Fancy Dress Ball, an annual tradition going back 101 years at the school. I do remember being there and standing in front of DA, down and a bit to his right. The attached 'open mouth' photo captures my memory of him exactly.
Somewhere along the way I lost my 1970-71 Yearbook, but did remember who the school photographer was during my day and was able to get in touch with him; He said he's lost the negatives of these shots, but was able to point me to the right yearbook and page numbers in the yearbook.
I contacted the W&L library and had them scan the attached shots.
Thanks again, Carl. You're a peach.
Johnny McAngry and the Hildebeast. Woo hoo! I wish Andy Warhol were still alive. He could do one of his experimental movies and film me sleeping. It would be four years in length.
I can see McCain wanting to select Huckabee as running mate -- he and Mitt certainly won't be braiding each other's hair. But will a Southern Baptist minister balk at sharing a ticket with the oddly arid Baptist that is McCain? (John the Baptist's not so much as dipped a toe in the water.) And what about total-abstention from ethanol?
I've no idea who Hilary would select, but I'm sure Bill is angling for the slot. Like people in Hell and their requests for ice water, he ain't getting it. It's payback time in the Clinton household.
My neighbor's house burned down yesterday. It was dramatic for the neighborhood, probably slightly more dramatic for the family involved.
Our cul-de-sac was blocked off for hours and even the mailman was trapped on his route and had to abandon his truck. A while later some postal employees walked in, beating their way through the bushes from the main road, and delivered our street's mail on foot. They bagged up the rest of the mail and carried it out on their backs. Good work.
L. and her little six-year girl A. were on the patio when the fire started somewhere inside. The husband was at work. Natalia, another little girl of the same age, was out on the street and she's the one who first noticed the fire and raised the alarm. L. & A. got out, but the little girl's puppy, Princess, was trapped inside in a crate. Luckily the firemen found her and revived her with oxygen from a mask made just for dogs.
We're all good friends with the couple across the street, so we went there and I got to take care of the little girl for the evening. Everybody needed a minder: the injured puppy had to be taken to the hospital, there was an escape-artist dog in residence, and there were detectives going in and out conducting interviews with some frazzled people who needed whatever help could be had. The girl was wonderful and I was tickled by some of the things she managed to enjoy despite all her things burning up. Some unknown person left a tray of food for her on the front porch where we were -- a little pizza, some round jars of apple juice, and some granola bars for a snack. She knocked her knuckles on the plate and exclaimed "It's real!" Who knew kids had an appreciation of china? She enjoyed her food, so thanks to whoever brought it over. Also, when I was bringing over clothes, I brought an unopened toothbrush for her. She squealed when she took possession of it, and I'm thinking it might be because it was an adult-sized version and not a kiddie one.
Natalia and her mom came over with more clothes and the all-important My Little Pony items so essential to a first-grade girl's well-being.
The husband had an unenviable homecoming, but he did a good save and took care of things -- even managing to laugh at the $3,000 estimate the animal hospital faxed over for the care of the puppy. Disaster ain't cheap.
I'm seriously not getting Obamamania. He's an empty suit; a political cipher. Give this guy a talk show, sure - but the Keys to the Kingdom? Compared to him, Jimmy Carter was a colossus of a contender, his feet astride the continent as he slowly turned his head from side to side and made eye contact with voters while smiling warmly. 
