The End Is Near: Wherefore The Polls?

So it's beginning to look and sound as if Hillary will leave the primary race by June 4 after all and not take it all the way to the convention.
This has been a remarkably unusual election year, without recent or comparable precedent for the
historical nature of the two leading Democratic candidates, their contrasting strategies — how could there be a precedent for Obama's online fundraising? — and the drug-outedness of this contest.
Still, John McCain, who as the Republican nominee has had a clear field for months, flatlines in poll after national poll at 45 percent, seldom less, seldom more.
All the liberal commenters seem to agree Obama will get a big jump in the polls once Hillary is gone.
My question, purely for speculative fun, is how much will he gain?
And like Markos at Daily Kos, I won't bother with researching my entirely unscientific guesstimate.
I think the first polls after Hillary exits will show Obama with a 60-40 advantage.
The CW (conventional wisdom) is that national polls mean nothing this early in the game.
There's all the Swiftboating expected against Obama, and the entirely plausible scenario that he could stumble, maybe really badly.
But I still think this year's election will be a landslide for the presidency and both houses of Congress and I believe the Republicans know it.
But, of course, that's what I want to believe.

Clinton Exit Talks?

TPM put together a video of CNN's report about talks between the two sides regarding a dignified way for Hillary to leave the race. VP offer part of it, which the anonymous sources inside the Clinton camp say she would decline. Uh, is this appeasement or rational negotiating with the enemy, hmm?


UPDATE: TPM then called each campaign, and both adamantly denied the CNN report. Tha-a-at's journalism, folks.

Bread, Water and Abstinence

penance varied in the early Church, depending on the offense.
Examples cited today by Andrew Sullivan, a gay, Catholic Obama-supporting conservative:

Tony Perrottet studies the Church's ban on certain sexual positions during the middle ages. A guide to theocon heaven:

The handbooks listed recommended penance of bread, water, and abstinence for exotic congress. A consensus on the punishments included the following:

Dorsal sex (woman on top): three years
Lateral, seated, standing: 40 days
Coitus retro — rear entry: 40 days

For more, go here.

The Japanese: Way Ahead of Us

How about a solar-powered bra? No? Maybe a shopping bag bra then.

Clinton Mania

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, probably the most respected and credible political journalist/blogger, thinks Hillary is going way low now with blatantly false arguments about Michigan and Florida and also contending she's the popular vote winner. So do I.
(And Bill is talking her up for v.p.? WTF?)

...She is embarking on a gambit that is uncertain in its result and simply breathtaking in its cynicism...
And there are actually numerous quotes from the Senator herself saying those primaries didn't and wouldn't count. Michigan and Florida were sanctioned because they ignored the rules the DNC had set down for running this year's nomination process.

The evidence is simply overwhelming that Sen. Clinton didn't think this was a problem at all -- until it became a vehicle to provide a rationale for her continued campaign...

What she's doing is not securing her the nomination. Rather, she's gunning up a lot of her supporters to believe that the nomination was stolen from her -- a belief many won't soon abandon. And that on the basis of rationales and arguments there's every reason to think she doesn't even believe in.

Action Alert: Torture

Scott Horton, an attorney and active, longtime champion of crucially important causes and opponent of this administration's worst policies, offers a good perspective on the torture issue and asks only three things. Three phone calls. And you can sign up for further information as the movement evolves to persuade the three presidential candidates to abide by the anti-torture movement's proposed commitment.

Ferraro At It Again

From Politico:

"All the surrogates that they had out there, from the black journalists — you know, have you read Bob Herbert recently in the past six months? There wasn't one column that had anything decent to say about Hillary."

Of course, if Ferraro wanted to call out New York Times columnists for being critical of Clinton, she could have just as easily picked Frank Rich or Maureen Dowd. Instead she went with the "black journalist."

So I reached out to Herbert for a response, and received the following: “Geraldine Ferraro’s rants are sad and not worth responding to," Herbert said.

U.S. Tortures for Chinese

Andrew Sullivan picked up on this today from the recently released report.

According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China's ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator told him Uighur detainees were kept awake for long periods, deprived of food and forced to endure cold for hours on end, just prior to questioning by Chinese interrogators.

Susan Manning, a lawyer who represents several Uighurs still held at Guantanamo, said Tuesday the allegations are all too familiar.

U.S. personnel "are engaging in abusive tactics on behalf of the Chinese," she said Tuesday. When Uighur detainees refused to talk to Chinese interrogators in 2002, U.S. military personnel put them in solitary confinement as punishment, she said.

Your Aging Brain: Better Than Ever

Aha! My longtime theory is confirmed. Too bad I never wrote it up, just used it for quips.

When older people can no longer remember names at a cocktail party, they tend to think that their brainpower is declining. But a growing number of studies suggest that this assumption is often wrong.

Instead, the research finds, the aging brain is simply taking in more data and trying to sift through a clutter of information, often to its long-term benefit.

A Way for Hillary to Leave Gracefully?

She can say, "we're out of money."
Everybody understands what that means and while it may not reflect well on the campaign, it is not exactly like admitting you're beaten.
Because she is out of money.
TPM interviewed the campaign and confirmed the worst.
Figuring it in the best possible light, her primary campaign is a couple million in the red. Debt exceeds cash on hand.
Barack is $37 million in the black.

How Republicans Will Win

Lol in Missouri Congressional race


Think maybe Kay Barnes, former mayor of Kansas City, has a chance?

John McCain's Straight Talk

You can share this with friends who are McCain-uncertain by copying and pasting the URL from the menu at the end of the video.

It's Over

in case you hadn't noticed.
From the WaPo this morning:

Top fundraisers for Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have begun private talks aimed at merging the two candidates' teams, not waiting for the Democratic nominating process to end before they start preparations for a hard-fought fall campaign.

Buy O' Teh Week

I was over at the dairy case at my local QFC yesterday, looking for the sour cream we needed for the evening's planned deluxe baked potato.
My eye memory casually swept the yogurt section, unconsciously identified the familiar brand I use for breakfast smoothies and stopped short at something that didn't belong. Consciousness bloomed, I opened the door and reached for the novel golden carton with Greeky looking letters.
I had read a few weeks ago a great New York Times story about how great Greek yogurt is. I figured I might try it next time I was in New York, but the likelihood of finding it here was nil.
Seattle maybe, but not sleepy old Jefferson County, WA.
The NYT said Greek yogurt is creamier, smoother, more substantial than ordinary yogurt. Of course I bought it, and as an extra bonus, it was on sale, two 24 oz. cartons for $3. I bought one, the honey flavored one. I wish I'd bought two.
The Greek Gods brand, made in nearby Mountlake Terrace, was the first thing I pulled out of the grocery bag.
I opened it, and tasted it before even unpacking the rest of my grocery stash.
Mmmm.
I've never really liked yogurt. It has a chalky aftertaste. As a convenient, quick breakfast I've tolerated it off and on over the years. As a filler for the regular morning smoothies — an easy way to get orange juice, blueberries and banana into my meat-centric diet — it's basic sour flavor is hardly noticeable.
But this Greek stuff is entirely different. (My mouth begins to water. I go to the fridge, pull out the Greek yogurt, spoon out a serving and photograph it. Return to the laptop, enjoy a few spoonfuls of subtly cheesy, sweet smoothness that is totally reminiscent of Haagen Das. I think they even have a honey flavor.)
It isn't the sort of thing I want to add fruit to. Maybe with the plain, but this stuff is too good to adulterate and needs no improvement.
This flavor has 160 calories per 4 oz. serving, 90 of them from the 10 grams of fat. It also has 4 grams of protein. As we now know, we all need fat and protein in the morning, not just carbs.
I just had mine, and they were delicious.
No, they don't pay me for this.

Politics Is...

"...the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.." ~Groucho Marx

Teddy Kennedy

Update: It was a seizure, so far cause unknown.

NPR is reporting he has had a stroke and was rushed to a hospital this morning. He is 76.

From Reuters:

Kennedy had preventive surgery in Boston in October to unclog a partially blocked carotid artery in his neck.

The blockage was discovered during a routine check of Kennedy's back and spine, doctors said. A blocked carotid artery can lead to a stroke and death, they said.

Kennedy has suffered from back problems since a plane crash in 1964 in which the pilot and one of Kennedy's aides were killed and the senator was pulled from the wreckage with a back injury, punctured lung, broken ribs and internal bleeding.

The youngest brother of assassinated U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Kennedy was elected to the Senate in 1962 and currently serves as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

He helped win an increase in the national minimum wage this year and worked with Republicans to produce broad immigration reform, which failed in the Senate after stiff opposition from conservative Republicans. (Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Fear Of Failure?

Consider this.

Bad, Bad Media

So it probably won't make p. D12 (okay, it probably will, but still) the Senate today reversed the controversial FCC ruling allowing more media consolidation.
I don't think it's a cure all for what ails the public conversation, but people smarter than me think it's necessary. Likely to make it in the House as well. Bush, of course, promises veto.
Good, short summary on what it all means here.

Drinking Game

From Porchow over at TPM on the story of McCain's past position on talking to Hamas, an apparent contradiction to the now-running "appeasement" narrative:

My friends and I have a drinking game. Whenever we see the headline "McCain Responds to Hypocrisy Accusation" we have to stop whatever we're doing and take a shot of tequila. So far, three of us have ended up in rehab, 2 are in jail and and one is on YouTube dancing in his underwear in a supermarket.

The evidence:

God, I miss Hillary already. There's just no challenge in this general election campaign.

Oh, speaking of Hillary, What Went Wrong is a short, readable piece based on anonymous campaign insiders, in the New Republic.

Snippet:

"There were a number of people who advised the Clinton campaign back in the spring of '07 that this could easily become a longer battle--a war of attrition. She needed to build a broad base of supporters beyond the virtually limitless number of Clinton friends and supporters who they counted on to not only max out, but to use their not inconsiderable Rolodexes to help her. That would have been fine if this thing had ended Super Tuesday. It didn't, and she ran out of money."

But I figure what went wrong is that she lost me. 'Cuz it's all about me, me, me. (snark)

Truth Or Dare

Okay, so I haven't the faintest idea whether this comment at Wonkette is true or not and I'm not going to research it either. This is a blog after all.
But I want it to be true so I'm republishing it.

At his third press conference, President Reagan responds to the following:
· The Israeli attack on Iraq - "I can't answer that"
· Israels' refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty - "Well, I haven't given very much thought to that particular question there"
· Pakistan's refusal to sign the treaty - "I won't answer the last part of that question"
· Israeli threats against Lebanon - "Well, this is going to be one, I'm afraid, that I can't answer now"
· The tactics of political action committees - "I don't really know how to answer that."
When faced with skepticism about his administration's grasp of foreign affairs, the President declares "I'm satisfied that we do have a foreign policy."

And how come Wonkette is the only one of my favorites to pick up on this giant McCain re-write of documented Reagan/Iran history, anyway? What's with that? TPM, I'm looking at you. Kos? Anybody?



Well, thanks to The Google, I find Think Progress wrote about it. Maybe I'll have to put them on my list.
So, if your memory is kind of poor about all of that stuff 20 or more years ago:

McCain’s praise of Ronald Reagan is wholly misplaced. To recap, during the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, hostages (held by Hezbollah) were not released because of Iran’s fear of Reagan, as McCain suggested. In reality, Iran released them after Reagan administration officials infamously sold arms to the country, which were transfered to Ayatollah Khomeini. As a result, 11 Reagan officials were convicted of crimes.

Furthermore, Reagan did not have to “negotiate” with Iran during the hostage crisis of the 1970s because he wasn’t involved in it. The extensive negotiations with Iran were done before his presidency. In fact, Reagan’s inauguration occurred only minutes before the hostages were released.

McCain should take note of what Reagan said in 1981: “Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will.”

(It should be noted —so I'm noting — that theories that Reagan campaign officials actually prevailed upon the Iranians to hold back on releasing the hostages that they held until inauguration day Jan. 19, 1981, has been pretty thoroughly debunked. Commenters seem to agree that the Iranians purposely did it to embarrass Carter as he left office, after his envoy Warren Christopher, had succeeded in negotiating the release.)

Oh, I know. It's hard enough remembering who all the neocons are, much less the crimes of past administrtions.

Iraq War

Just so you know, a little reminder from Daily Kos today.

Estimated number of Iraqis still in exile outside their country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: 2.5 million.

Number of Iraqi refugees admitted into the United States since March 2003: 5675

Number of Iraqi refugees admitted into Sweden in the same period: 90,000.

The Smart Drug

One man's experience. Fairly short, decide for yourself.

Quote O' Teh Day

All's Well That Ends Well

We seem to have arrived at an equitable compromise: Sen. Clinton is staying in the nomination race while Sen. Obama drops out to move on to the general.

--Josh Marshall

John Edwards: AG or VP

He's said publicly he wouldn't be vp, but that was a while ago. Now, according to the Huffpo, the NYT is reporting that he'd be interested in an AG or VP spot. Not surprising.

Send NARAL Some Love

Formerly known as the National Abortion Rights Action League, it has been taking some severe flak from female Clinton supporters for their endorsement yesterday of Barack Obama.
NARAL said it took the action because it was clear Obama was going to be the nominee and it hoped to help heal the divisions that have split female Clinton supporters and African Americans.
I hope they can do that, but the vitriol in comments on their Web site is pretty remarkable. I stopped reading after awhile, and as a 'sphere veteran, I've got a strong stomach.
What really got me though was hearing Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz on the News Hour last night warning in a very stern voice that NARAL would be subject to severe retaliation for the "betrayal."
W-S herself is not exactly a clean pol, she's been under fire in from progressives for refusing to support two liberal Democrats running against Republican incumbents in her home state of Florida because, she says, the Florida delegation values its collegial relationships.
Anyway, I sent NARAL a small check and a supportive note. You can go here to do either or both.

After The Rain

Edwards It Is

Confirmation that Edwards will endorse Obama on stage in my hometown of Grand Rapids, MI, tonight just warms the cockles. Or whatever.
"Working Americans, hardworking Americans, white Americans," as Hillary put it not too long ago.

Something to Think About

I'm never going to read Sidney Blumenthal's book The Strange Death of Republican America, so I'm glad I read Scott Horton's interview with him.
It's a bit of a slog for a blog, but insightful regarding the Democratic congressional dysfunction and liberal notions about things like the youth vote.
I should note, too, that Blumenthal is also the Hillary campaign operative who daily sends out to the press anti-Obama items, many unsubstantiated stuff from right-wing sources. He is unapologetic about it, but many former fans find it reprehensible.
Nevertheless, he's got a valuable take on things.
B

ush, Cheney, et al. sought to create an unaccountable and unfettered executive. In order to do that they kept the Congress under their heel (when Republican) and at bay (when Democratic), as well as exploiting and intimidating a craven and status-driven national press corps. Following the dictum that people are policy, Bush & Co. used the power of presidential appointment to fill the administration with more than loyal Republicans. Bush built a regime, not just an administration. For example, the appointments of Federalist Society lawyers from the commanding heights of the Department of Justice to counsel offices of every department and agency was intended to install cadres of a new ideological clerisy. Professional standards have been construed as mere instrumentalities of conscious “liberal’ ideology, a counterpoint and obstacle to power. Cherry-picking information to support a priori political conclusions has pervaded government methodology from intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to climate change.

Once again, a new government would have to have extensive understanding of the federal apparatus in order to reconstruct it. The Congress cannot do the job, even if it conducted the most far-reaching investigative hearings and maintained diligent oversight. Only a president can truly fix the executive branch. The Bush model of a president who casts himself as a big picture man, while dependent on advisers for working the actual machinery, inevitably leads to a president who would soon find himself in control of neither.

27 Pantsuits

I'm sorry, I have to send you to Wonkette for this.
But it's worth it, second photo from top.

P.S. If anybody finds a picture of this woman somewhere besides Getty Images, send me a link.

Sweetiegate

Huffpo thought this was important. Do you? Me? Nah.

John Edwards to Endorse Obama?

That's the scuttlebutt out in the 'spere about a major announcement to take place at 4 p.m. EST.

Hillmentum

First, McAuliffe put it out there. Then Rendell. Both campaign insiders.
Exit polling shows about 60 percent of Dems want Hillary for V.P.
(Exit polls suck, btw. They also show a disturbing number of Dems of both sides refusing to vote for the other if s/he wins the nomination.) NPR's promoting a story on it today.
So, here's M.J. Rosenberg's take on it, in short.

My only concern is that Obama win. If it takes Hillary to do it, that is what I'm for. I'm a liberal, obviously, and prefer a more progressive type.
But if Obama has to go the center right Evan Bayh route, I'd prefer a Hillary because she will energize women voters, and plenty of others who just like her. My real choice would be one of the 22 senators who voted "no" on the war. For me, the war vote was the #1 test of leadership and character.

I admit I'm torn. Will all those women really rally only if it's Hillary? I must run with the wrong crowd.
Plus, how betrayed will blacks and Obamaniacs feel if the woman they've begun to hate gets a prize for her misbehavior?
I won't like it one bit, but it won't keep me from voting. Can't say for the others.
Oh, and then there's the Bill factor, and the Clinton regime thing overshadowing the new president. And the R base that might actually vote to defeat a Clinton. I dunno. I don't like even more now.

Polar Bear Officially Endangered

I try not to put too many causes on this blog. I don't have time, and neither do you.
But the good guys won a big one this time.
Besides, it is related to climate change, so it fits.

UPDATE:
Oops, not so fast. They're "threatened," not endangered. And the pro-bear groups say the whole ruling is full of loopholes and was just concocted to meet tomorrow's court deadline demanding a decision.

But my daughter tells me she saw a nature show on TV that showed how polars are learning to catch salmon, an activity that may spare at least some of them starvation when they seals become impossible to hunt because of lack of ice.
So, how long do the salmon last? Haven't seen anything on that.

NARAL Endorses Obama

They said the board decided to back Obama over Clinton because he is overwhelmingly favored to win the nomination and to heal what the organization viewed as a growing rift between black voters and white female activists that the protracted Clinton-Obama contest may have caused.

Yeah, I haven't forgotten what Hillary's people pulled in New Hampshire either.

ACLU Gets More Torture Docs

NEW YORK - The American Civil Liberties Union has obtained previously withheld documents from the Defense Department, including internal investigations into the abuse of detainees in U.S. custody overseas. Uncensored documents released as a result of the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit shed light on the deaths of detainees in Iraq and internal disagreement within the military over harsh interrogation practices used at Guantánamo Bay.

"These documents provide further evidence that the torture of prisoners in U.S. custody abroad was not aberrational, but was widespread and systemic," said Amrit Singh, a staff attorney with the ACLU. "They only underscore the need for an independent investigation into high-level responsibility for prisoner abuse."

Read the whole thing here. And join. These folks are working for us.

Playing With Food

You'll have to go to the NYT site to see what I'm talking about, but it's worth it. N.B. Not gross. Pretty.

FISA Again, Again, Again

Steny Hoyer (House whip or something) and a key Republican senator are "talking" about the R's proposed FISA fix, which you and I both know will include immunity for the telecoms who helped the administration spy on us.
So, here's a petition, again, again, again.

w00t!

Do you have an obsessive desire for cool things that are cheap. Or do you just appreciate good humor writing? Either or both, you'll find it here.
Example:

I

t’s spring. Things are warming up. People are wearing less and less everywhere you go. And your mind is firmly in the gutter.

All those leaves to clean, all that wet mulch and strange molds and maybe a venomous millipede with a rifle. You don’t want to go up there. You certainly don’t want to pay a stranger. And your kid’s been at a slumber party for a week. They always know, those kids.

But never you fear, because if your gutter fits well against this template, the iRobot Looj will be there to fulfill Issac Asimov’s dream. No, it doesn’t have breasts, that was Heinlein’s dream. Pick up a book, jerkface.

This recertified iRobot Looj is a little bot with only one prime directive: to clear your gutter. The Looj moves both forward and backward and has a three stage auger that spins in both directions. You keep the remote. Rebellion is impossible!

No, they don't pay me, it's just one of my favorite sites. There are plenty of user comments to guide your buying decision. I have bought a video and digital still camera, and both the robotic vacuum and floor scrubber and am delighted with all four.

I never get there in time for the $1 bag-o-crap, though. Sigh.

One item, one day, when they're sold out, they're sold out. Refurbished is your friend.

Hope Index Rising?

UPDATED BELOW
Travis Childers apparently isn't what you or I might call a "better" Democrat (as in "elect more and better Democrats," as in "Ah'm pro-loff and pro-gun"), but it's Mississippi for god's sake, and he just beat a Republican in a deeply red district by more than 7 points, a district that went 67 percent for George Bush last time.
This is the third deeply red seat the R's have lost in special elections this year, the second in which a 527 tried to use Rev. Wright against the Democrat and failed, and the first in which the R's can't legitimately claim they had a bad candidate.
This gives me more hope than I had yesterday.

UPDATE
Oops, it was 62 percent, not 67 percent.
Josh Marshall of TPM notes there are 25 open House seats this year, meaning no incumbent problem to factor in.
Here's his good, short video report.

McCain in W. Va.

Got fewer votes than Obama.
Obama got 91,652 votes vs. McCain's 89,683 votes.
Huckabee got 15 percent, Paul 5 percent and 9 percent are unaccounted for on the CNN primary report. Go figure.
I guess Edwards got about 7 percent among the Dems, since their totals add up to 93 percent.

Somebody Named Rosemary Watson

does a mean Hillary Show, especially the voice.


From Dana Milbank at the Washington Post:

2:57 p.m., Yeager Airport, Charleston, W.Va.: A steep descent brings Clinton's plane to Charleston's hilltop airport. After an appropriate wait, she steps from the plane and pretends to wave to a crowd of supporters; in fact, she is waving to 10 photographers underneath the airplane's wing. She pretends to spot an old friend in the crowd, points and gives another wave; in fact, she was waving at an aide she had been talking with on the plane minutes earlier.

Want Real Political Change?

Kneel before Zod.

War Crimes

Torture is illegal. Period.
While the news media are busy telling us all what we knew was going to happen before it happened — Hillary wins West Virginia — three lawyers with impeccable credentials were testifying before a Congressional committee about the administration's policies and the individuals responsible for them and thus subject to investigation and prosecution.
If you missed Phillipe Sands' interview on Bill Moyers, here's a 5-minute clip of his testimony.
His new book is called Torture Team. Bottom line: there should be investigations, something Obama has said he would initiate.

Women's Voices Women Vote

Guess what? Yeah, that's right, they're still at it.

The following is the latest installment in the ongoing controversy surrounding Women's Voices Women Vote, first surfaced at Facing South and DailyKos two weeks ago. We believe the following piece is important because it confirms that, contrary to the claims of WVWV and several of its defenders, the voter confusion resulting from WVWV's tactics is not the product of a "mistake" or isolated error, but the predictable result of a conscious strategy. -- Chris and Sue, Facing South

Horse O' Teh Day

Apache by Kerstin Stelter

MoveOn's Obama Ad

Will run in Ohio, Wisconsin and Colorado. The progressive activist organization, formed to defend Clinton during the Lewinsky years, and honed on the Dean campaign, held a contest. I watched all 10 finalists, and agree this was one of the best.

Liddy Dole

is in trouble in North Carolina. Forgot she was still around, didn't you?

Women's Voices Women Vote

Still fucking up elections and confusing — female! — voters in primary states.
What's left to say? They do it, they claim they didn't mean to, and they do it again.
Twelve states so far.
Oh, and their Clinton ties are pretty much documented at this point.

Oh, Death

Nuala O'Faolain (Noola O FWAY lawn). Her last interview. One woman's end of life thoughts. She's frail, fragile, absolutely honest whether you want to hear it or not.
I couldn't help wanting to hear it.

No Treats At The End

A friend sends news that Nuala O’Faolain has died. At 68. Of lung cancer, Julimac!
I first heard her in an extended radio interview, probably on Fresh Air, after her memoir Are You Somebody? came out and her telling of her childhood life in Ireland was so compelling that I went out and bought it.
But as it turns out, the novel My Dream of You was much better.
Here's her summation of her lingering death from the last line in the Times obit:

“The world said to me, ‘That’s enough of you now, and what’s more, we’re not going to give you any little treats at the end.’ ”

Note To Readers

UPDATE II: It's erratic.
UPATE:Okay, all better now.


Blogger is funky this morning. I ran across a similar problem on Dave Postman's Seattle Times blog yesterday, but I don't think he's on blogger so it's probably not related.
Anyway, some of the photos are not publishing and help is inaccessible, probably because everybody and his brother is experiencing the same thing and overwhelming them.

Angelique? (trying to publish here as an experiment).

Awesome

is the first word I would ban from the language, except maybe for church. And liaison as a verb. Task as a verb. I'll think of more in about 20 minutes as I'm driving to the library.
In the meantime, last year's spontaneous crowd amusement at the Preakness. They throw beer at them.

Myanmar

NPR is not identifying its correspondent there "for security reasons."

Book Rec

I haven't read it, but it comes out in paperback next week and I'm going to read it. Never mind that Kate Christensen is only the fifth woman to win the Penn Faulker award, NPR's excuse for interviewing her and pushing the book.
What I liked was that it's about "love and sex and revenge among 70 year old women."
The Great Man. Look for it.
There's an excerpt from the book at the link, too.

Weekend Getaway

Not for the squeamish (heights!) H/t Andrew Sullivan. Six minutes.

Angelique

It's a tulip, but I really love that I can tweak the exposure and crop the original and it looks like an abstract painting. Click on it and you'll get a screenful of it.

Catholic Voters

One of every four voters is Catholic. I did not know this.

In a recent survey of 19 states that have held a presidential primary this year, 63% of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats, compared with 37% for Republicans, a sharp increase from 2005 when 42% of Catholics identified themselves as Democrats. One of every four voters in the U.S. is Catholic.

More here.
h/t Andrew Sullivan

South Dakota Deserves Its Day in the Sun

Bob Somerby is probably the best all-round media critic I know of who's actually readable, even though his blog is worse looking than Drudge.
He seems to like Democrats more than the other guys, but he's an equal opportunity critic when it comes to newspaper writing. Also, pretty inside baseball a lot of the time.
And I've never understood how a stand-up comic became a serious, albeit witty, media critic.
Last time I looked, he was slamming Gail Collins for making fun of small towns in North Carolina. Or was it Indiana? Or Pennsylvania.
But making fun is what Collins is supposed to do. She's not exactly hilarious, just satisfyingly wry.

South Dakota wants its turn. It wants to have Chelsea visit its community colleges and refuse to answer questions about Monica Lewinsky. It wants to have Bill demonstrate his humility by visiting Badger and Peever and Ferney and Tea while Hillary and Barack show up for a state party fund-raiser that would, for the first time ever, actually raise some funds. “Montana had a huge dinner a while back, and there were 6,500 people for an event that usually got 400,” said Hauffe wistfully. “It just hasn’t rained in South Dakota.”

There’s no reason this can’t go on for a while longer. Hillary — who’s taken to mentioning her Web site address as often as the star of an infomercial — seems prepared, if necessary, to pay with her own money for the privilege of making 10 speeches a day, sleeping four hours a night and answering the same questions over and over again. Barack looks so tired that he seems ready to topple, but if you want to be the most powerful elected official on the planet, you ought to be able to outlast a 60-year-old woman.

Quote O' Teh Week

I've been sitting on this one. It was so obviously funny but insidey.
But I can't resist it.
From Paul Krugman's blog.

The great economist Robert Solow once declared, “Everything reminds Milton Friedman of the money supply. Everything reminds me of sex, but I try to keep it out of my papers.”

Hillaration

Am I turning into a Hillary hater? Nah, I reserve hate for things like soggy potato chips.
Oh, sorry about the BP ad. Eyeballs.

Is It Really About the Money?

A really good diary on Daily Kos cites a Slate article ("real journalism," not blogging) that details the dire prospects for Hillary getting back the $11.4 million she loaned her campaign unless she does, indeed, take it to the convention.
It's not like they can't afford it or anything, but money is money.
I really don't like the way this is looking.

Losing His Bearings

is what Barack Obama said regarding McCain's recent statement that Hamas wants Obama to win.
Losing His Bearings. Gotta ring to it.
Campaign theme, perhaps? Bring on the general!

Sex And The City: The Movie

Doesn't open until May 30, but Huffpo summarizes two reviews that say it's great.
From FOX:

It's going to be a very, very big hit.

I saw it on Saturday night at a private screen

ing. Women wept, cheered. It's the Neiman Marcus catalog on steroids.

The four female stars -- not to mention Chris Noth as Mr. Big, David Eigenberg as Steve and Evan Handler as Harry -- are the most appealing ensemble of the year.

It is not politically correct to say so to some of my friends, but I do miss the girls.

Aw, Jeez, Hillary!

from Huffpo, which was written before Clinton dismissed Michigan's proposal to split delegates 69 for her and 59 for him. If you haven't been paying attention, the Dems are in a kind of limbo over the votes in Florida and Michigan because party rules prohibit seating their delegates after they defied the rules and held early primaries.
Is Hillary going all the way to the convention after all? I mean, this is blood feud stuff.

On a day when it appears that the Michigan controversy may be resolved in a way that's fair to all parties -- but not in a way that gives Hillary Clinton all that state's delegates and Barack Obama none, as her campaign insists -- Clinton has just upped the ante by issuing what seems a hastily penned open letter to Obama, pretending that he is the sole obstacle to a fair resolution of the Michigan and Florida brouhaha and that she has always supported revotes (neither of which is accurate).

Headline O' Teh Day

Robert Kagan Protests: Neocons are NOT Vampires and Werewolves!

Subhed: Neocon Thursday!

I love Steve Clemons. He's usually too wonkish to cite, but not today.

Don't know what to label this.
Corruption?
Open to suggestions.

Erm, About Rumsfeld

and those network "military analysts."
Who, said "Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, it does."
Well, me, for one.
TPM's got some frightening stuff up now, including audio of them worshipping at his feet.

10 Best Mothers

Esquire again. Guess I should subscribe. But I was gonna take Vanity Fair! Oh, well.

9. Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw

As any college student will tell you, sometimes the nicest thing parents can do is provide financial support until their child discovers what he or she wants to do. Of course, this is taken to an extreme when the child in question, like George Bernard Shaw, doesn’t know what he wants to do until he’s almost 40. Born in 1856, Shaw didn’t support himself as a writer until he began working as a theater critic in 1895 (and didn’t have his first real literary success until he was 41, with the play The Devil’s Disciple). Since Dad was an alcoholic with an inoperable squint -- society did not look kindly upon squinters in this era -- there was only one person to turn to: Mom. Her allowance/free housing kept him going until he established himself as one of the major writers of the twentieth century, winning a Nobel Prize for Literature (and an Oscar for the My Fair Lady-inspiring Pygmalion). He repaid her by tirelessly defending women’s rights. (Luckily, she was dead before she could witness his less-rousing senile final years, when he championed Joseph Stalin.)

When You Are Old

Okay, I'm still reading the Esquire thingie (below) and I owe it big time today. (Weeps)

WHEN YOU ARE OLD

When you are old and gray and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

--William Butler Yeats

Gotta Move My Back

Huh?
When nobody has your back, you gotta move your back.

Cool advice from Esquire's 75 Things Every Man Should Be Able to Do.
Most of 'em good for me, too.
Liveblogging this:
Well, not scoring a baseball game, but still.
Not throw a punch, either. Cooking I got. Not outdoor grilling, though. Heh.
Nobody needs to know how to chop down a tree. That's what chainsaws are for. I missed the memo on escape paths though.
Square footage, check.
Bow ties? No! No.

42. Talk to a dog so it will hear.

Go ahead, use baby talk.

No more liveblogging. They're all good, even the ones you don't need.

Kudos, Esquire, especially the one about women's orgasms.

Oh, Death

I loved that song by Ralph Stanley in Oh, Brother Where Art Thou.
Still.

No psychological insight, no brilliant self-awareness, can alleviate the dark realities of life, one of which is that it is finite. But just labeling it, understanding what is happening, can refocus you and put you back on a positive path.

Workin' on that.

Fat, Fat and More Fat

Turns out, some kinds may be good for you. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, muffin top.

Lies

and the Lying Liars That Tell Them Dept.
Speaking of neocons, Glenn Greenwald's post today really isn't about them, although it starts out that way.
It's about the re-emerging neocon argument, abetted by the Israeli government, for an attack on Iran. Is that why Hillary used the obliterate word only days ago?
When I started this obsessive reading of blogs, it was largely because Sy Hersch and Scott Ritter and others had convinced me Cheney really was planning an attack on Iran. I found out who AIPAC was.
But by the time Joe Biden said Bush would face impeachment if he did it, I sort of felt like everybody was backing off a bit.
Now it rears its ugly head again.
From Glenn:

Bush has less than eight months left to fulfill his history-mandated mission "to prevent another holocaust" by attacking Iran, or else "be in the historical dock if he allows Iran to get the bomb." They're as transparent as they are dishonest and bloodthirsty.

Dark Night of the Soul

Wow, TPM is right. The amazing photos of the erupting Chilean volcano are worth noting. Go look. Scary beautiful.

27 Ugly Dresses

THIS!



NO, THIS!

More here.
My all-time favorite dress was an Army green linen sheath (it was the 60s), sleeveless with narrow red or orange piping. Very cool, very designer, bought on sale. I wore it for about a minute because I weighed 108 lbs. for about that long. I was 17. Alas, there is no photographic evidence.
The all-time worst was a calf-length white formal with Kelly green trim and a very pouffy skirt. Alas, there is photographic evidence, but I'm not posting it. Maybe some other time. I was 17.
And yours?

Toni Morrison

has always struck me as an admirably no-nonsense woman.



I'll never forget her interview with Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air. Gross asked one of those questions that admirers seem to consider evidence of her superior interviewing skills.
"Why don't you have any white characters in your books," she said. (Would she have asked Phillip Roth or John Updike why they don't have any black characters? Heh.)
"Because white people don't interest me," said Morrison, coldly.
I think that's when Gross's stammer really kicked in. The conversation remained uncomfortable, and when Gross thanked Morrison at the end, the real kicker came.
Instead of "it was a pleasure" or "why, thank YOU" as most of them say, Morrison replied, "you're welcome." I laughed out loud.
And she's a wonderful writer. My favorite book of hers still is The Bluest Eye, because its candor just stunned me. And I always advise people who are listening to audio books to get her own version of Jazz, it's like the music itself, her clear intention.
There's a little snippet of a Q&A with her in Time this week.
Money quote:
Do you regret referring to Bill Clinton as the first black President? —Justin Dews, Cambridge, Mass.
People misunderstood that phrase. I was deploring the way in which President Clinton was being treated, vis-à-vis the sex scandal that was surrounding him. I said he was being treated like a black on the street, already guilty, already a perp. I have no idea what his real instincts are, in terms of race.

Start the General Election Campaign Now

Personally, I don't see how McCain can win. There's just so much ammunition.

A Conservative Comic

P.J. O'Rourke, who isn't really a comic the same way Jon Stewart isn't really a newsman, is much funnier than Dennis Miller, the only other conservative comic I know of.
O'Rourke, who makes a living writing and occasionally commenting from the right, has published a 2008 commencement address.
Sometimes, he lies.
As in:

"In a free society, with the rule of law and property rights, no one loses when someone else gets rich."

But you know he's just joking.
And sometimes, he's hilarious. As in:

All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I'd be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I've got three kids and three dogs in my family. We'd be eating Froot Loops and rotten meat.

That Mark Penn Thing

Digression:
Liberal bloggers hate Mark Penn. When I first started paying obsessive attention to the presidential campaign and American politics in general about a year ago, I didn't know who he was except he was some guy associated with the Clintons.
I mean, really, what person with a job and a family and a real life has time to keep track of all this stuff? Like most people, I had never heard of Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz or Douglas Feith either before the Iraq War, which produced a rash of publicity for the neocons.
Which is just to say that there are plenty of rich and powerful people we've never heard of even if we did read a story in Time magazine ten years ago that mentioned some of them.
End of digression:
A TPM writer thinks it's notable that an anecdotal story emerging in Time's story about the Clinton campaign's mistakes relates a meeting at which Penn apparently believed that a Hillary win in California would net her all 370 delegates from that state. The campaign's chief strategist didn't know that the Democrats do not have a winner-takes-all system, like the Republicans. Instead, delegates are designated in a proportional manner according to the votes for each primary candidate.
It is rather appalling, although Hillary herself is falling back on the argument that she'd be the nominee today if the Democrats did it like the Republicans, evidence some say that she's really a closet Republican.
This anecdote is supposed to show that the Clinton campaign, like the Bush pattern, valued loyalty over competence.
As one commenter put it, "I think this is testament to the idea that just because someone is a ruthless bastard doesn't meen they are a SMART ruthless bastard."
Karl Rove, anyone?
Rove was once believed to be the smartest of all. Mark Halperin (I call him Mr. Smirky), former political director at ABC News and now with Time, actually wrote a whole book about how the Democrats should follow Rovian tactics to win and if they didn't, they'd lose.
That was before the 2006 election, I think, and I suspect the book didn't sell too well afterwards.

Hillary's In Until...

Here, she's talking about the DNC meeting May 31.
Obama campaign says it'll cross the magic halfway mark on pledged delegates May 20. I figure they'll just let it go to the DNC, piling up superdels all along the way.
Larry O'Donnell had something this morning that said by June 15. Somebody else had an unnamed Clinton staffer saying they lost it in February.
Some say she's got to keep going to raise money to pay off campaign debt. As of today, she's loaned the campaign $11-plus mil.

On To The General Election

Love, Sweet Love

The Math: Post-Tuesday

There are six state primaries left with 217 delegates at stake.
And there are 270 uncommitted superdelegates.
Total, 487.
Total needed: 2024.5 (.5, heh)
Obama needs: 184.5 (.5, heh)
Clinton needs: 341

You see, she could win every delegate in every state and still not make the math work.
But, of course, they'll split each state. In some, West Virginia, Kentucky, she'll get more. In others, Oregon, whatever, he will.
So it comes down to the superdels, just like everyone has been saying from almost the beginning.
Obama's campaign thinks he'll be the nominee shortly after May 20, two weeks from yesterday.

Thomas Edsall has a good story on Huffpo today.
More math:

Conversely, the significance of Clinton's victory in Indiana was undermined by indications that a statistically significant number of Republicans, perhaps as many as 7 percent of all the votes cast, were following the suggestion of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh to cast ballots for her in the Democratic primary.

The Other Candidate

Oh, yeah, John McCain had two primary contests tonight. He won 78 percent of the Republican vote in Indiana and 74 percent in North Carolina. Ron Paul, who hasn't yet dropped out, got 7 percent in each. The rest went to Romney, Huckabee and "no preference."
There's a lesson here, but I'm too tired to think about it.

It's Over

Hillary barely squeezes by with a 2 percent ( I meant 2 point lead) lead in Indiana. Obama takes N.C. by 14.
"There's a Democratic nominee now," comments ... wait for it...wait for it. Karl Rove.

As for the delayed count in Lake County, which took Hillary down another two points, not likely there was any funny business. The Republicans would have had to collude, and that's really unlikely.

Hmm, Indeed

From Josh Marshall at TPM.

Hmmm

NBC just reported that Hillary Clinton is holding no public events tomorrow. We'd earlier reported that she'd cancelled her morning show appearances. But that's not that surprising. There's not a lot good to talk about. But canceling all public appearances, if that's what they're saying, is a different story.

Hillz!

Okay, I guess they're counting Lake County. The spread is now 2 points, 51 Clinton, 49 Obama, with 91 percent of the vote in.
And she says, "Well, tonight we come from behind," Clinton said in an otherwise subdued speech. "We've broken the tie, and thanks to you, it's full speed on to the White House."
What tie? Where? States won, delegates won, popular vote? Not any of those.
Was there a tie in Indiana? Maybe there was in some polls, some time.
On to the White House. Yeah, right, as a guest.

Oops, Kos is skeptical of the Gary results.

The question is whether this was legit. The way the vote is being released makes this stink to high hell.

If this was legit, that's some serious machine action at work. If it's not legit, that's some serious machine action at work.

Flowers

Gold-edged primroses

Their origins are one of botany's enduring mysteries. Darwin called the mystery "abominable."
Heh. Quote tonight from Nova's "First Flower," while awaiting the final primary results.
Come on Lake County.

Yawn, Numbers

Half hour to go before the Lake County, Ind. results come in. That's Gary, baby, Barack country. Some pro-Obama types think he could cut the gap to 2 points.
Why so late? They're counting 11,000 absentees. Where I come from, they count late absentees over the next week. Jeesh.

As of 8:40 p.m. CDT, about half of 11,370 absentee and early voting ballots had been counted, said Michelle Fajman, the county’s elections supervisor. By contrast, in the 2000 presidential primary, 2,822 early and absentee votes were cast in Lake County. In the 2004 primary, 4,053 early and absentee votes were cast.

“This has far and away surpassed any primary we’ve ever had. We don’t see these kinds of numbers until a general election,” Fajman said.

In the meantime, his campaign thinks it will be all over in two weeks on May 20, when he sweeps Oregon and Hillary takes Kentucky. But the Oregon win puts him over the 50 percent mark of pledged delegates, able to make a case to the Supers that it's time to step up.
As of tonight's results (so far), Obama gets 42 delegates, Hillary gets 35. His gain makes up for her win in Pennsylvania.

Waiting It Out

Waiting for more N.C. results and watching the gap in Indiana fall from 12 points to 4 as more and more of the heavily Obama precincts are counted.


So, here's a quote of the day:

Political analyst Stuart Rothenberg on the News Hour on PBS a few minutes ago.
"At the end of the day, Jeremiah Wright hurt Hillary Clinton." Because the whole controversy should have helped her and hurt him more, and it didn't.

Here's another, from Obama in N.C.
(not direct quote) Somebody (he means Hillary) said North Carolina would be a game changer, but it turns out the only game that's going to be changed is the game in Washington (D.C.).

Should be noted here that Hillary, Bill and even Chelsea spent a lot of time in N.C. A lot of time, Bill was doing 8 and 9 events a day. Somebody, probably that dependable and reprehensible pollster Mark Penn, must have said there was a way to turn the flood. They were wrong. They've been wrong all along. Remind you of anyone?

Be Still My Heart

Updated: Uh, polls in Indiana close at 4 p.m. PST, N.C. 4:30. I'm going to the store. I can't stand this.

Indiana polls close in an hour, N.C. a half hour later. Ignore the exit polls.
And Josh Marshall at TPM picks up on a little noticed trend. The more ridiculous Hillary gets, the better she seems to do.


This guy gets it best:

The day begins with the Clinton campaign “leaking” something to the Drudge Report to set expectations for the day. That then gets repeated on political blogs and cable news, where Clinton surrogate Terry McAuliffe elaborates. Today’s “expectation”: That the Clinton campaign expects a “15 point” defeat in North Carolina. Clinton’s yapping puppies in the news media repeat the manufactured expectation all day long, in which the bar is supposedly now that if Clinton comes within 15 points in that state that she has somehow “won” with a 14 point (or 6 point) defeat.

Pentagon Propaganda Program

that placed pre-programmed ex-military as "advisors" to the news media for the Iraq War was busted by the New York Times two weeks ago.
Response so far from the outed networks. Bupkis.
The program is illegal and was suspended by the Pentagon following the news story. I personally believe the networks haven't covered the story because they are afraid they may be legally liable as well.
John Kerry wants an investigation and he needs your signature on a letter.

It Is About Rape

so you might not want to read reporter Joanna Connors' first-person series in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. And it's long.
But it is exactly what I am convinced journalism must be to remain relevant in the age of the internet.
It explains the world to people in a way that nothing save long-form can do.
At least read the first of the five. I think you might just keep on with it, as I did despite my first instinct to drop it because I had no time.

White Knuckle Primary Day

I actually declared a temporary hiatus following the Pennsylvania primary, thinking I just couldn't take it anymore. But I couldn't stay away even a week.

A few days ago, Hillary said today's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana could be game-changing, suggesting her campaign knew something, something good, no one else did from their own internal polling.
Most polls have consistently shown the race tightening in N.C., with Obama winning by as little as 5 points, while Clinton has consistently led in Indiana by less than 10 points. Such an outcome changes nothing and the race goes on to June 3, the day of the last primary.
Then this morning, the Zogby two-day tracking poll has Obama up by 15 points in N.C. and with half a chance at taking Indiana by a slim margin, or losing by a slim margin.
Such an outcome is expected to bring the superdelegates out of the woodwork for Obama and possibly even convince Clinton to throw it in before the next primaries. Even though she's supposed to win big in both West Virginia and Kentucky, it's just not going to be enough.
In fact, everyone who does the numbers including "independent analysts" say it's already not enough.
(Obama's up by 12 points in upcoming Oregon, can't remember who's got the edge in the other Western state. Can't even remember whether it's Montana or Wyoming. Wyoming, I think.)

Keith Olberman is usually a little too much for me even though he's on my side, but this bit is kinda funny.

Oprah, Spielberg, Gates: Where They Live

And more. C'mon. Forbes knows you wanna see them.

No, Bill and Hill didn't make the cut. We're talking Billionaires here.

Loving Couple

Mildred Loving died today at age 68. Her husband Richard died in 1975 following a car accident.
Their case Loving v. Virginia established in 1967 the right of people of different races to marry.


Bettman/Corbis

Gas Tax Holiday

You know it's a crock, right. Tell 'em.

Inside Passage To Alaska

There's more than the cruise ship option, according to Ross Anderson at Crosscut. Mmmm, sounds kind of cool.

For the boatless, the most popular option is the Alaska ferry, the Columbia, which (thanks to Alaska taxpayers) remains one of the great cruising bargains. It's essentially a small cruise ship, which leaves Bellingham at 6 p.m. each Friday, year round, steaming the Passage to Southeast Alaska. The one-way passenger fare is $240 to Ketchikan, which takes two full days; $325 to Juneau or Sitka, which is another full day. Kids 6-11 sail for half price, under six for free. (The vehicle fare is much stiffer — $740 to Juneau. But what would you do with a car up there, anyway?)

The hitch, of course, is accommodations. There are a few cabins, but they're pricey and they're usually booked months in advance. So most travelers set up backpacking tents and inflatable mattresses on the stern deck. I've always done it that way; the last time, I counted 80 tents, lashed to each other to keep them from blowing away in the slipstream.

There is a decent restaurant, a bar and a coffee shop on board. But no casino, no dancing girls. Entertainment is provided by the scenery, a good book, or the Alaskan in the next seat.

Then there is the BC ferry, a similar ship that runs between Port Hardy at the northern tip of Vancouver Island, and Prince Rupert, near the Alaska border. This route takes in some of the most spectacular stretches of the Inside Passage, with the added advantage of being able to transfer to other boats for travel into the BC fjords.

Tough On Crime

Funny, I don't hear any candidate talking about crime this election season.
The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any developed country, maybe even in the world, I'm not sure about that last part.
Anyway, the cost of locking up non-violent drug offenders started catching up with the states a few years ago. Even Republican legislators began to rethink the knee-jerk policies.
Now, it's come to this.

Between 1987 and last year, states increased their higher education spending by 21 percent, in inflation-adjusted dollars, according to the Pew Center on the States. During the same period, spending on corrections jumped by 127 percent.

In the Northeastern states, according to the Pew report, prison spending over the past 20 years has risen 61 percent, while higher education spending has declined by 5.5 percent.

No Comment

It's Just Wrong

that...

1. The pump tube in every body lotion is (purposely?) designed to reach only to the top of the last 1 1/2 inches of liquid, thereby requiring you to replace the product at least two months early. So the "bonus" ounces were no such thing, but just a waste product. Oh, sure, you can unscrew the top every time and tip the bottle to get a few drops out, smacking the bottom. But where do you put the gunky top in the meantime? So you fish a piece of plastic or paper out of the waste basket and gingerly set it on that. This will last a day or two, then you'll replace it rather than deal with the hassle. Exactly! "They" count on this.

2. The lace panels on your panties are placed exactly where your thumbs just naturally go to pull them on. This guarantees that your thumbs will tear the lace, meaning that eventually the panties will have to be replaced long before it would otherwise be necessary. Exactly! "They" count on this.

3. Aging women begin to grow whiskers at the same time they begin losing their near sight. They can't even see them with their glasses on, which is why they mostly give up on mascara. (Hillary has an artiste to do it for her.) The only way to detect these black, coarse, vile straggles is to stroke for them, feel the stump and then wander, hands shaking across the chin, trying to capture the bugger with the tweezers.
The chin stroking is not a sign of wise old age, it is a nervous habit.
Don't tweeze, you say? Shave.
Now, I love the tiny little lady razors as much as anyone, but the thing is, the buggers grow back.
Like, right away. Arrgh.

4. — 10. Your choice