Portland After Dark

Nice picture. I don’t think we have a local brand of bourbon here in Minne-so-blah-ta, but we did have some crackin’ good hotdish down at the church potluck this past Sunday.
The show “sounded” great Adam. And you were the Champ! I distinctly heard a drunken roar at the back of the audience when it was announced you had won. Was that Piglet?

Wow, sounds like a great time! And what a great-looking group! Though SeattleTammy should have stood on a chair or something so we could see her better!

Ann, have you now been at every official or semi-official FanAp gathering?

Yes, Harold, I think I’m the only one who’s been at the events on both coasts. Do I get a prize for attendance? Ooh, I don’t want Adam to think I’m stalking him…

It’s Pat - no, I’m afraid it was more like a drunken squeal.

Well, compared to something like possession of a ounce of dope, it really wasn’t that serious a crime. Was it?

I am so jealous of you guys! Thanks for the pics!

But, back at the show, couldn’t somebody have pointed out that ferrets are not rodents!?!

What a handsome group! Though, Jim, I don’t think I need the make-up artist. I need the fitness coach!

Jim (OJNTNJ), I know exactly what you mean. My pictures from the Labor Day/Ernesto Plagued Felberpalooza had some really old looking guy photoshopped into where I was sitting. Murray, the photographer, has a really twisted sense of humor, I tell you.

But the plus side of your picture - I’m sure you noticed - shows the lovely and talented Ann with her lovely arm around your undeserving shoulder. All of us in the AnnFanClub are trying not to hate you.

Actually, that is a wonderful picture. I’m glad you could all be there, enjoy the show and have a great time with Adam afterwards. Is he a fun guy, or what? I’m just wondering how Peter will open next week’s show, what with Scooter getting to scoot, and all. Another thing I was thinking about I. Lewis earlier today - How much of a slimy, unprincipled sociopath do you have to be to get a job as Dick Cheney’s rainmaker anyway.

Two thousand frequent Felber miles for Ann! (And my, you look like Maureen Dowd).

Now enough of this Portland reunion talk. It´s the Eastern conference´s turn. Or do I sense a vast left coast conspiracy?

WHOA.

Transformers Kicks A**.

I went, preparing to be amused, but not really drawn in. I went because my son, age almost 10, is obsessed with the 1980’s transformers (20-some years after the fact. sob!) and has been eagerly, no, impatiently, no, OBSESSIVELY waiting for the movie release. I was HOOKED from the opening scenes. Now, with the exception of only one or 2 autobots, I couldn’t tell you one from another, but they all ROCKED. I kept leaning over and asking, “Who’s that?!” He’d tell me, in that almost teen-age tone that silently says, “DUH!”; and then I’d ask, “Good or evil?” and he’d tell me in that tone that indicates severe eye-rolling is occuring in the dark.

My biggest laugh was from something that was only supposed to be a throw-away line in the movie, but instead brought down 2/3’s of the theater. ***this is NOT a spoiler*** The hero is an 11th grader, quasi-loner. Not quite a geek, but nowhere near popular. At one point he is in his room and there is quite a commotion going on, and he is trying to shush the noise makers before they alert his (TOTALLY clueless) parents. His parents come up, banging on the door, demanding to know what is going on. He opens the door, and tries the “what noise?” line, that so many of us tried unsucessfully on our parents. His mom says, “Were you masterbating up here?” The theater laughed. Then Michael, in that carrying voice of a 10 yr old, says, “Mom, what is masterbating?!” The theater exploded. No pun intended.

Special effects ROCKED. Casting was superb. It is not cinematic genius, but it is definitely a good time!

Katie

Katie, you remind me of taking young SeattleTony to movies and being asked embarrasing questions. In particular when he talked me into seeing “South Park:The Movie” when he was too young to watch it. As funny as it might have been. (I shudder as a parent).

But not as embarassing as when I took my youngest brother (a year older than Adam) to see the first release of “Chinatown” and young bro asked me “What’s rape?”. Not something I wanted to discuss during the showing. But maybe I shouldn’t have been taking an 11 year old to the movie.

Maker’s Mark was courtesy of acronym Jim. Hey! I didn’t get any!

That´s okay, I went with my mother to see Jerry Maguire (me 20ish, she 45ish) and she at one point leaned over and loudly asked me what ¨booty¨ was.

Doesn’t this all teach you a little lesson about talking during the movies? Nothing good can come of it!

Great pictures from Portland! Now I know how all you left coasters felt seeing the Felberpalooza pics from last year. (Except for Ann, of course, who’s like a freakin’ Zelig.)

Consider yourselves all invited down to Winston-Salem in September for the taping here. I can’t promise our very own bourbon, but I have a few friends who could score a couple Mason jars of ’shine.

And cooper — piranhas in the Catawba?????? Sweet Mother of Pearl that’s going to change a lot of plans for tubing on the 4th.

So I know it’s naive to ask…but I just don’t get it.

Finally had a chance to read the Washington Post article series on “The Angler” that I’d previously read excerpts from (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney/chapters/chapter_1/) and I was reading another article documenting how the admin had stomped on science: (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/15148655/the_secret_campai gn_of_president_bushs_administration_to_deny_global_warming/1).

I know I asked this before, but how is this public knowledge and still OK? Have we become that cowed over the last 8 plus years of every dissent and protest being attacked and of hearing that everyhing is fine that we can’t see how wrong this is??

I want to be active and try and help change things, but if revelations like these (and everything else that’s come through over the years including Libby/Cheney/Plame, WMD, etc.) don’t change the indifference level, I really don’t have any idea where to start or what can be done.

Sigh….. Need to go watch Adam and go again so that I can laugh instead of cry.

Zelig? Zelig? I think I liked “Maureen Dowd” better, although I don’t see it myself.

I’m going to meet SeattleDan and SeattleTammy at a Drinking Liberally event tonight. We’ll be thinking about all of you!

Hopefully … and real soon, too.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/03/write-your-own-caption-32/

7/03/07

Dear Diary,

I have been hearing tonight from the pundits of the vast left wing conspiracy that is MSNBC that Bush circumvented the usual protocol for commutations, that he rushed his decision to commute Libby’s sentence and did not consult with his any of his trusted advisers. Well I have to say that’s not exactly true. Yesterday morning I had to see a man about a horse (if you know what I mean) and ducked into one of the downstairs restrooms in the White House. I had just settled in when a phalanx of Secret Service agents burst into the restroom and tossed the joint. The head G-Man kicked in the door to my stall and I had to stand up, salute, and show him my photo ID to avoid a trip downtown. He apologized and told me to stand down - “As you were, Sir!” and closed the door to the stall. About one minute later, the President entered the room and sat down in the stall next to me. I knew it was the President because he started humming “The Yellow Rose of Texas” in that God-Awful tone deaf monotone of his. To keep from jumping over the stall and assaulting him (and getting beaten to a bloody pulp by the S.S. agents), I asked W about Scooter’s next move to clear his name (Yeah! Right!). Bush said Mr Cheney had greased all the judicial wheels and that he would commute the sentence later in the day, after the nightly newscasts. I told him I thought that would be a good idea, except for the appearance that he had commuted the sentence to keep Libby from incriminating the VP, that he had only commuted 4 people so far during the first six years of his presidency and that this commutation would be a bit suspicious, and finally, if he did this, he would be assumed to be a complete moron and he would have cemented his position as the worst president in this nation’s history. Other than that, it was a good idea. I’m hoping my transfer back to the Idaho Fish and Game Dept will go through now. I’m hating this town and the politicians, lobbyists and remoras that populate it. Plus, it’s July in DC and not fun here anymore.

Dirk

I saw a bumper sticker today which surprised me with its simple and direct honesty, and it rhymed…

Kick Their Ass
Take Their Gas

Perfidy, Bush/Cheney be thy name(s).

Olbermann’s Special Comment last night was truly special. And David Shuster laid Tucker Carlson out regarding the Scooter Libby commutation. Fascinating who is emerging among the ranks at MSNBC.

Oh, and this - Paul Wolfowitz got a new job at the American Enterprise Institute. I think that is a great idea - he can work in there for a couple of years, make a complete hash of it, and we have one less functioning conservative think tank. There is justice in the world - it’s just not always immediate.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/04/paul-wolfowitz-has-a-new-job/

Dale, having lived in New Jersey for a year-and-a-half and NYC for two summers in the mid-60s (157 W. 33rd St, which brownstone is probably now history), I got an extra chuckle out of that headline. It really sounds quite plausible on any number of levels.

Hard to see a group of Felbernauts (especially with Ann in it) gathered around Adam and not feel bad for not being there.

Adam makes the party. We are a group of intelligent and funny folk but Adam raises us by the power of 10.