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Monday, August 27th, 2007
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Gonzo got got.
Plans to spend more time with Rove's family.
Keep firing!
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Ghost of Christmas Future?
Toot sweet!
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Which one of these guys still has a job?
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Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
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Highway of BLOOD!!!!!
Owoooooooooo!!!
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Saturday, April 7th, 2007
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Thursday, April 5th, 2007
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Friday, November 10th, 2006
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Cigar Log Bitch: Rocky Patel Connecticut
Maybe I’ve had a little too much coffee today, but I will vent, anyhow..
Just bought a $4 Rocky Patel Connecticut Toro
at Houston’s finest liquor store (Spec’s downtown – though I am always appalled at the clerical psychodrama that’s always going on in the humidor there)
and am smoking it now. Patel has a big reputation, but this stick isn’t backing that up. Tastes merely ok, and has some hints of depth beyond the usual “mild” natural wrapper cigar (ie.a Por Larranaga or 5 Vegas Gold), but not an extra dollar’s worth. My biggest bitch is the construction. This sucker is burning very unevenly, is full of veins, and the tip is pooching up like a goddamned California prune. The stick is also burning very hot: guess I should have laid it down in the humi for a couple of weeks :-[. This is far less than satisfactory, and no doubt far less rewarding than the $4 Romeo y Julieta Reserva Real Corona I bought at the same time and will be smoking next.
WTF, Rocky?
PS. To top things off, Jack Palance died today, too! Sheeeit.
PSS. And Mike’s Cigar’s website crashed Firefox while I was composing this. I’m in Hell, I tell you!
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Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
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The Big Payback!
Goodbye Rumsfeld! Last ghost of Nixon.
Goodbye Santorum!
Goodbye Delay!
And don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out.
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Wednesday, July 26th, 2006
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Reality and Republicans do not mix.
from CNN.com:
"Senate passes interstate abortion notification"
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/07/25/interstate.abortion.ap/index.html?section=cnn_topstories
"Another [bill], sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, would have encouraged the federal government to provide money for more sex education. That bill failed earlier in the day, 48-51.
'If we do nothing about teen pregnancy yet pass this punitive bill, then it proves that this (bill) is only a political charade and not a serious effort to combat the problem,' Lautenberg said.
"'Abstinence is the best way to prevent teenage pregnancy', responded Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Oklahoma.
'How many people really think it's in the best interest of young people to be sexually active outside of marriage? Does anything positive ever come from that?' Coburn asked."
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NO FUTURE FOR YOU!
Remember that "Compassionate Conservative" thing? Double BULLSHIT!
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Jack Jackson was an amazing cartoonist, one of the earliest American "Underground" comic book creators, but also a long-time Texas historian and scholar. He combined cartooning and history in unique, groundbreaking, and monolithic "graphic histories" which are mostly still available and must-reads for any serious comix fan. He was also a thoughtful and friendly man who worked hard all his life for very little reward. Rest easy, Jack.
A page from Jackson's controversial history of the Reconstruction Period in Texas, Lost Cause
Jackson's Obituary from the Austin-American Statesman
http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life/stories/other/06/18jackson.html
Friends, fans remember Jack Jackson
Ahead of his time, this creator of comics and histories managed to
transform both
By Joe Gross
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Sunday, June 18, 2006
To his friends and admirers, Jack "Jaxon" Jackson was an artist's
artist, an historian's historian, a Texan's Texan.
And to his artistic credit and financial detriment, Jackson was
always a little too ahead of his time.
Jackson, who died June 8 in Stockdale, published the underground
comic book "God Nose" in Austin in 1964, three years before
alternative funny books sprang forth half a continent away in San
Francisco.
Five years later, he founded San Francisco's seminal Rip Off Press,
which would become a staple of the burgeoning countercultural
economy.
His comics moved away from hippie-flavored shock value and into
Texas history well before nonfiction cartoonists such as Joe Sacco
galvanized the form.
Jackson's graphic novel "Los Tejanos" (1981) was the first book
published by pioneering art-comics house Fantagraphics.
But the years of laboring on the cutting edge — if not the more
lucrative center — of art, comics and history took a toll on Jackson.
Tina Jackson, his wife of 22 years, said Jackson was struggling with
prostate cancer and diabetes at the time of his death, which is
being investigated as a suicide. Jackson also is survived by his son
Sam, 19.
"If Clifford Antone was like my kid brother," a clearly upset
Threadgill's owner Eddie Wilson said Wednesday, "Jack was like my
older brother." Blues champion Antone died May 23.
The inspiration
Jackson was born May 15, 1941, in the south-central Texas ranching
community of Pandora, the descendant of Texans who settled here
during the Republic years after 1836.
Like many Texans of his generation, Jackson grew up reading "Texas
History Movies," a collection of comic strips on Texas history that
was distributed in schools, a book that inspired and influenced many
Texas cartoonists and aided Jackson's fascination with the state's
complicated history.
Jackson worked at the Texas Ranger humor magazine while at the
University of Texas. "Jack had this list of college bookstores and
traded the Ranger with other schools," said friend and Rip Off Press
co-founder Dave Moriaty. "It's how the Ranger was voted best humor
magazine over and over. Jack made those connections."
In 1964, Jackson created "God Nose," regarded widely as the first
commercially available underground comic, featuring discussions
between the Almighty and "the fools he rules."
" 'God Nose' was printed in secret in the basement of the Texas
State Capitol building on a state-owned printing press," said
Moriaty. "He hawked it on the Drag. Little old ladies claimed he was
a godless Communist and others claimed he was a fascist. It was a
nice, middle-of-the-road comic book."
"Jackson was first, but he was stuck in Austin," Fantagraphics co-
founder Gary Groth said Tuesday. "Robert Crumb was better able to
tap directly into the zeitgeist in San Francisco."
Jackson moved to San Francisco in '66 to join the "Texas Mafia," the
transplanted Texans who were juicing up the San Francisco scene. He
became the art director and informal accountant for the Family Dog,
a music booking concern founded by fellow Texan Chet Helms, for whom
Jackson created wild posters.
Along with "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers" cartoonist Gilbert
Shelton, Moriaty and college buddy Fred Todd, Jackson in 1969
founded Rip Off Press, which became an internationally known
publisher of underground comics and the counterculture's printer of
choice.
"Jack still had that list of bookstores from his time with the
Ranger," said Moriaty. "It occurred to him he could sell Family Dog
posters to college bookstores. To everyone's amazement, they sold
incredibly well and were a major source of income for the company.
Rip Off used the same list and suddenly we had a distribution
network." Jackson's underground comics work has been collected in
the books "God's Bosom," the surrealist history "Secret of San Saba:
A Tale of Phantoms and Greed in the Spanish Southwest" and "Optimism
of Youth."
A page in history
By the late '70s, Jackson had returned to Austin, where he produced
comics about Texas history, including "Los Tejanos," "Lost
Cause," "Comanche Moon" and "The Alamo."
"Jackson's histories were studies in misapprehension and out-of-
control appetites," comics critic Tom Spurgeon wrote on his "Comics
Reporter" Web site. "(They were) authoritative portraits of a region
whose future was shaped from the buffeting winds of greed and desire.
"Of all the early graphic novels that appeared in the late 1970s,"
Spurgeon continued, "Jackson's were the most like the form as we
understand it now and would stand out the least were they published
for the first time today."
Fantagraphics published "Los Tejanos" in 1981. "(Jackson) was doing
this stuff long before it was commercially viable," said
Groth. "Jack was a genuine historian, and there was an authenticity
to the art, that gritty visual aspect. He could really capture that
period, re-create it, dramatize it and make it relevant to readers.
But it's historical, and how many Americans really want to know
about history?"
"These are confrontational histories," lifelong friend and writer
Mike Price said Wednesday. "He defied his readers not to wallow in
glamorous mythology."
On a more local level, Jackson also drew "Threadgill's: The
Cookbook," (1996) with Eddie Wilson of Threadgill's. "He really paid
me the biggest compliment that anyone has ever paid me by turning my
life story into a comic book," Wilson said. "I knew how serious he
was about his history. He told me, 'I'd love to do it, you just
can't be in a hurry.' He really believed anything worth doing was
worth doing slowly."
Groth is torn about Jackson's direct artistic impact. "What Jackson
did was so sui generis and so noncommercial that I think a lot of
artists wisely chose not to follow in his footsteps. The comics
underground was about breaking taboos, and Jack moved away from
that, breaking comics into a new field. I think it was only in
retrospect that people saw how mature that was."
But Jackson's study of history wasn't confined to comics.An
independent scholar who published a number of works on Texas
history, Jackson's books included "Los Mesteños: Spanish Ranching in
Texas, 1721-1821," "Almonte's Texas: Juan N. Almonte's 1834
Inspection, Secret Report & Role in the 1836 Campaign" and "Indian
Agent: Peter Ellis Bean in Mexican Texas."
"In my opinion, Jack is the only professional historian I knew,"
said fellow historian Tom Lindley, author of "Alamo Traces." "Most
historians don't write history to make a living. They teach. Jack
wrote history, and he was always very generous with his research."
Lindley says Jackson's scholarship was pioneering, especially his
work on early Texas ranching. "Those books aren't going to sell in
the thousands," he said. "They're going to go to libraries and
specialists. But he was a unique and irreplaceable guy."
"I could ask Jack questions on Texas history all day and all night,"
Wilson said. "The information that flowed out of him. It turned me
into a little kid."
A final salute
A memorial service for Jackson was scheduled yesterday at Hyde Park
Christian Church. The cover of the program was drawn by Jackson's
son Sam, who has inherited his father's skill and has started
drawing his own comics.
"When we found out about Jack," Tina Jackson said Thursday, "Sam's
pals came over to be with him, and he stayed up all night drawing a
portrait of himself from the back drawing his father drawing comics.
He called it 'A Meager Salute to an Artistic Genius.' "
Nobody's arguing with that last part.
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Alex Toth died Saturday. Comix will never see such power and grace again. He was the grand master.
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May I say, Studs Terkel is the MAN!
Thank you, STUDS!
http://tinyurl.com/rpjvx
Yahoo! News
Suit Seeks to Stop Phone Records Release
By CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 47 minutes ago
A lawsuit filed Monday on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other professionals seeks to stop AT&T from giving customer phone records to the National Security Agency without a court order.
The plaintiffs, who also include a doctor and a state lawmaker, said they rely on confidentiality in their work and are worried their clients will be less likely to phone them if they think the government collects lists of the numbers they are calling.
USA Today reported on May 11 that AT&T and other phone companies complied with an NSA request for the phone records of millions of ordinary Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks.
San Antonio-based AT&T said Monday it's obliged to assist government agencies responsible for protecting the public, as allowed within the law.
The six plaintiffs, whose legal team includes lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union, claim the telephone giant violated the federal Electronic Communications Privacy Act, which prevents phone companies from releasing records to the government unless there is an emergency.
The lawsuit, filed in federal district court, seeks to include all Illinois AT&T customers as plaintiffs in a class action. The plaintiffs are not seeking monetary damages.
"Having been blacklisted from working in television during the McCarthy era, I know the harm of government using private corporations to intrude into the lives of innocent Americans," Terkel said in a statement. "When government uses the telephone companies to create massive databases of all our phone calls it has gone too far."
Harvey Grossman of the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois said the NSA program could interfere with the ability of lawyers to deal with their clients and doctors to communicate with patients.
The plaintiffs besides Terkel are State Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago; Rabbi Gary Gerson of Temple B'nai Abraham Zion in Oak Park; Diane Geraghty, a Loyola University law professor; attorney James Montgomery, former corporation counsel for the City of Chicago; and Dr. Quinten Young, a doctor and advocate for health care reform.
The action follows similar lawsuits filed in other states.
The Bush administration has urged a judge to dismiss a similar case, saying it threatens to divulge state secrets and jeopardize national security. The government argued in briefs that the courts cannot decide the constitutionality of the president's asserted wartime powers to eavesdrop on Americans without warrants.
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Saturday, April 29th, 2006
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2006 is my year of wallowing in ugly Americana. I've taken a cruise, I've returned to cigar smoking in a large way, I've hardly left the house, been very lazy, am working a job a middle-manager, and am even planning a fall vacation to Las Vegas. The only thing missing is a large SUV, but I just can bring myself to go that far. But I will bow to the mediocre practice of keeping a cigar log, mostly just to keep a good record of these brands and their quality to aid my shopping. Maybe it’ll aid yours, too, dear reader/smoker.
Cigar, the first: La Caoba Extra
Purchased: This item came to me in a grab bag assortment, one of 2 types available from the excellent Hialeah, Florida dealer, Mike’s Cigars (http://www.mikescigars.com). Mike’s has a “Mike’s Baker’s Dozen” bag that they sell for $12 that contains a variety of 13 high and low smokes, worth quite a bit more than the asking price. They also have a top shelf baker’s dozen, for a few more bucks.
La Caoba Extra, at more than 7 inches, is the largest cigar I've ever smoked. I've been watching a lot of historical and biographical Orson Welles clips and films lately and am puzzled at the cigars he always seems to be smoking: always a newly lit stick, never a stub and the ash seems to be growing in volume as he smokes. He and Sam Fuller seem to have shared the same tobacconist.
La Caoba Extra is not Welles' brand. It just took an ash dump on me while I was typing. La Caoba Extra has good construction and a consistent, fairly spicy flavor. The smoke is smooth and almost creamy. You have to slow down to match its pace, though. Confronting or pushing this cigar can only end in frustration. It's a good companion while sitting back and watching THE DAILY SHOW on the computer, catching up on the funny and the threatening in world lately. And as I cooperate with this big stick, relax under its heavy and lengthy hand, I am feeling very fine. No doubt, the couple of tumblers of Old Forester’s 100 proof bourbon I’ve downed along with the smoke are aiding this onslaught of serenity, but this is a steady competitor and a boon companion for the last portion of a fine day.
20 or so minutes later, the flavor of La Caoba Extra has come forward gently -- a nice hint of leather steady behind the spice. The construction is going a bit awry, however: the burn is getting inconsistent on the last third.. This would not be a cigar to smoke in any kind of breeze.
Ah, the end came suddenly. With its wrapper curling obscenely, the big fucker just died when I put it down for just a minute. And now La Caoba Extra is failing my acid test: the flavor doesn't compare to my followup smoke, one of my beloved Cuban Sandwich Dom Toros. The CS whups La Caoba Extra for spice and complexity as well as structural consistency. Neither does the big mutt compare well to the sharp Partaga knock-off "Old Fashioned #350" ($2) I smoked in the car earlier on the way home from the cigar store. Adios, motherfucker.
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Wednesday, March 15th, 2006
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| Subject: | Why not. |
| Time: | 10:23 pm. |
| Mood: |  crappy. | | Music: | http://pri.kts-af.net/redir/index.pls?esid-d6db0505e3039738a. |
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Bad day today.
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Friday, February 17th, 2006
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Following up on the Popular Book Meme in my last entry, here are 50 really good books. Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Pass it on.
Women by Charles Bukowski
Factotum by Charles Bukowski
War All the Time by Charles Bukowski
Post Office by Charles Bukowski
Ham on Rye by Charles Bukowski
Tales of Ordinary Madness by Charles Bukowski
Love Is a Dog From Hell by Charles Bukowski
Hot Water Music by Charles Bukowski
Mockingbird Wish Me Luck by Charles Bukowski
Dangling in the Tournefortia by Charles Bukowski
South of No North by Charles Bukowski
Confessions of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame by Charles Bukowski
Dog of the South by Charles Portis
How We Die Now by Charles Willeford
Something About a Soldier by Charles Willeford
I Was Looking For a Street by Charles Willeford
Under the Volcano by Malcolm Lowry
Hear Us O' Lord From Heaven Thy Dwelling Place by Malcolm Lowry
Death Ship by B. Traven
That Old Ace in the Hole by Annie Proulx
Accordion Crimes by Annie Proulx
Cathedral by Raymond Carver
Will You Please Be Quiet Please by Raymond Carver
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver
A New Path to the Waterfall by Raymond Carver
Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson
Already Dead: A California Gothic by Denis Johnson
Continental Drift by Russell Banks
The Sweet Hereafter by Russell Banks
Affliction by Russell Banks
Trailerpark by Russell Banks
Far Tortuga by Peter Matthiessen
Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison
Woman Lit by Fireflies by Jim Harrison
In Pharoah's Army by Tobias Wolff
The Night in Question by Tobias Wolff
This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff
Back in the World by Tobias Wolff
Rock Springs by Richard Ford
Joe Hill by Wallace Stegner
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Wolf Willow by Wallace Stegner
The Big Sky by A. B. Guthrie
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Typee by Herman Melville
Typhoon by Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Burmese Days by George Orwell
Old Jules by Mari Sandoz
Sandhill Sundays by Mari Sandoz
Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
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Book Meme
Here are the current top 50 books from www.whatshouldireadnext.com.
Bold the books you have read. Italicise the books you might read. Underline the books you probably won't read. Pass it on:
The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams
The Great Gatsby - F.Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6) - J.K. Rowling
Life of Pi - Yann Martel
Animal Farm: A Fairy Story - George Orwell
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
Lord of the Flies - William Golding
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
1984 - George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3) - J.K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Book 4) - J.K. Rowling
The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5) - J.K. Rowling
Slaughterhouse 5 - Kurt Vonnegut
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (Book 1) - J.K. Rowling
Neuromancer - William Gibson
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson
The Secret History - Donna Tartt
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Book 2) - J.K. Rowling
Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
American Gods - Neil Gaiman
Ender's Game (The Ender Saga) - Orson Scott Card
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
Good Omens - Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Atonement - Ian McEwan
The Shadow Of The Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Dune - Frank Herbert
So basically what I'm saying is:
FUCK HARRY POTTER.
Random picture of Eddy Izzard, to puncuate this entry. Thanks!
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Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
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The "War on Poverty" doesn't mean "War on the Impoverished".
What's wrong with this picture?
House passes, sends Bush $39B spending cuts
CNN Money.com, February 1, 2006: 7:17 PM EST
Narrowly passed bill will cut health care spending on programs for the poor and elderly.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives narrowly won passage on Wednesday of a controversial bill to trim about $39 billion from domestic spending over five years, capping a year-long push to cut health care for the poor and elderly and other programs.
By a partisan vote of 216-214, the House approved the bill, sending it to President George W. Bush for signing into law.
The bill, approved in the Senate in December only after Vice President Dick Cheney cast a rare tie-breaking vote, was approved by the House late last year. But a small change made by the Senate forced another House vote.
The spending cuts are a high priority of conservative Republicans who want to continue cutting taxes amid huge budget deficits, which could top $400 billion this year.
"Today we can begin the process of controlling out-of-control government spending," said Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, a conservative Republican.
Referring to $70 billion in proposed Republican tax cuts, Rep. Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, said, "You don't have to be much beyond sixth grade to know that's going to add to your deficits" when offset by only $39 billion in spending cuts.
The Senate on Wednesday began debating a $70 billion tax-cut measure that would extend alternative minimum tax relief through 2006, ensuring that millions of middle-class families will not end up paying the tax that originally was intended for the very wealthy.
Besides the debate over whether the "Deficit Reduction Act" would actually live up to its name, lawmakers argued over how the spending cuts were being carried out.
Republicans said the reductions would begin to rein in "entitlement" programs that will account for a growing part of federal spending as the baby boom generation qualifies for government health benefits.
"These programs need our reform," said House Budget Committee Chairman Jim Nussle, an Iowa Republican, who said the spending cuts would force improvements.
But Democrats blasted provisions to save about $8 billion over 10 years by cutting federal enforcement of child support payments and saving billions by allowing college student loan costs to rise.
Medicaid cuts
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office this week said cuts to Medicaid spending would affect 13 million poor people, 20 percent of the program's participants. Many of those would be children, the CBO said.
The savings would include higher out-of-pocket costs for prescription drugs and other medical care for the poor.
Lonny Lefever, 53, who lives in the small town of Rosewood in western Ohio, is a Medicaid participant who was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1995.
Lefever told Reuters in a telephone interview that higher copayments on the $1,800 in life-saving prescription drugs he takes each month will erode his only source of income, Social Security disability payments.
Asked how he would cope with higher out-of-pocket costs, Lefever said: "I'll be honest with you. My thought would be to get it (money for prescription drugs) any way I could. But I don't want to go to jail." He added: "I would just hope I'd last until we got some other responsible government in position to change these laws. It's scary."
Besides slowing the growth in many domestic programs, the legislation has a wide impact on U.S. policies.
It would change some banking regulations and increase the premiums companies would pay to the federal pension insurer, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.
It also would end a U.S. trade law, declared illegal by the World Trade Organization, that let the government distribute duties it collects on foreign goods to American companies.
The bill also sets Feb. 17, 2009, as the deadline when television stations must switch to airing only new digital broadcasts. It provides up to $1.5 billion to help some consumers buy converter boxes so existing televisions do not go dark after the transition.
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apeshooter's journal
