From the "Inner Circle"...

April 1, 2007

Ex-Aide Details a Loss of Faith in the President

By JIM RUTENBERG

AUSTIN, Tex., March 29 — In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush’s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal.

A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.

Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he said. He added, “I think he’s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in.”

In speaking out, Mr. Dowd became the first member of Mr. Bush’s inner circle to break so publicly with him.

He said his decision to step forward had not come easily. But, he said, his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s presidency is so great that he feels a sense of duty to go public given his role in helping Mr. Bush gain and keep power.

Mr. Dowd, a crucial part of a team that cast Senator John Kerry as a flip-flopper who could not be trusted with national security during wartime, said he had even written but never submitted an op-ed article titled “Kerry Was Right,” arguing that Mr. Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat and 2004 presidential candidate, was correct in calling last year for a withdrawal from Iraq.

“I’m a big believer that in part what we’re called to do — to me, by God; other people call it karma — is to restore balance when things didn’t turn out the way they should have,” Mr. Dowd said. “Just being quiet is not an option when I was so publicly advocating an election.”

Mr. Dowd’s journey from true believer to critic in some ways tracks the public arc of Mr. Bush’s political fortunes. But it is also an intensely personal story of a political operative who at times, by his account, suppressed his doubts about his professional role but then confronted them as he dealt with loss and sorrow in his own life.

In the last several years, as he has gradually broken his ties with the Bush camp, one of Mr. Dowd’s premature twin daughters died, he was divorced, and he watched his oldest son prepare for deployment to Iraq as an Army intelligence specialist fluent in Arabic. Mr. Dowd said he had become so disillusioned with the war that he had considered joining street demonstrations against it, but that his continued personal affection for the president had kept him from joining protests whose anti-Bush fervor is so central.

Mr. Dowd, 45, said he hoped in part that by coming forward he would be able to get a message through to a presidential inner sanctum that he views as increasingly isolated. But, he said, he holds out no great hope. He acknowledges that he has not had a conversation with the president.

Dan Bartlett, the White House counselor, said Mr. Dowd’s criticism is reflective of the national debate over the war.

“It’s an issue that divides people,” Mr. Bartlett said. “Even people that supported the president aren’t immune from having their own feelings and emotions.”

He said he disagreed with Mr. Dowd’s description of the president as isolated and with his position on withdrawal. He said Mr. Dowd, a friend, has “sometimes expressed these sentiments” in private conversation, though “not in such detail.”

During the interview with Mr. Dowd on a slightly overcast afternoon in downtown Austin, he was a far quieter man than the cigar-chomping general that he was during Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign.

Soft-spoken and somewhat melancholy, he wore jeans, a T-shirt and sandals in an office devoid of Bush memorabilia save for a campaign coffee mug and a photograph of the first couple with his oldest son, Daniel. The photograph was taken one week before the 2004 election, and one day before Daniel was to go to boot camp.

Over Mexican food at a restaurant that was only feet from the 2000 campaign headquarters, and later at his office just up the street, Mr. Dowd recounted his political and personal journey. “It’s amazing,” he said. “In five years, I’ve only traveled 300 feet, but it feels like I’ve gone around the world, where my head is.”

Mr. Dowd said he decided to become a Republican in 1999 and joined Mr. Bush after watching him work closely with Bob Bullock, the Democratic lieutenant governor of Texas, who was a political client of Mr. Dowd and a mentor to Mr. Bush.

“It’s almost like you fall in love,” he said. “I was frustrated about Washington, the inability for people to get stuff done and bridge divides. And this guy’s personality — he cared about education and taking a different stand on immigration.”

Mr. Dowd established himself as an expert at interpreting polls, giving Karl Rove, the president’s closest political adviser, and the rest of the Bush team guidance as they set out to woo voters, slash opponents and exploit divisions between Democratic-leaning states and Republican-leaning ones.

In television interviews in 2004, Mr. Dowd said that Mr. Kerry’s campaign was proposing “a weak defense,” and that the voters “trust this president more than they trust Senator Kerry on Iraq.”

But he was starting to have his own doubts by then, he said.

He said he thought Mr. Bush handled the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks well but “missed a real opportunity to call the country to a shared sense of sacrifice.”

He was dumbfounded when Mr. Bush did not fire Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld after revelations that American soldiers had tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib.

Several associates said Mr. Dowd chafed under Mr. Rove’s leadership. Mr. Dowd said he had not spoken to Mr. Rove in months but would not discuss their relationship in detail.

Mr. Dowd said, in retrospect, he was in denial.

“When you fall in love like that,” he said, “and then you notice some things that don’t exactly go the way you thought, what do you do? Like in a relationship, you say ‘No no, no, it’ll be different.’ ”

He said he clung to the hope that Mr. Bush would get back to his Texas style of governing if he won. But he saw no change after the 2004 victory.

He describes as further cause for doubt two events in the summer of 2005: the administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina and the president’s refusal, around the same time that he was entertaining the bicyclist Lance Armstrong at his Crawford ranch, to meet with the war protester Cindy Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq.

“I had finally come to the conclusion that maybe all these things along do add up,” he said. “That it’s not the same, it’s not the person I thought.”

He said that during his work on the 2006 re-election campaign of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, which had a bipartisan appeal, he began to rethink his approach to elections.

“I think we should design campaigns that appeal not to 51 percent of the people,” he said, “but bring the country together as a whole.”

He said that he still believed campaigns must do what it takes to win, but that he was never comfortable with the most hard-charging tactics. He is now calling for “gentleness” in politics. He said that while he tried to keep his own conduct respectful during political combat, he wanted to “do my part in fixing fissures that I may have been part of.”

His views against the war began to harden last spring when, in a personal exercise, he wrote a draft opinion article and found himself agreeing with Mr. Kerry’s call for withdrawal from Iraq. He acknowledged that the expected deployment of his son Daniel was an important factor.

He said the president’s announcement last fall that he was re-nominating the former United Nations ambassador John R. Bolton, whose confirmation Democrats had already refused, was further proof to him that Mr. Bush was not seeking consensus with Democrats.

He said he came to believe Mr. Bush’s views were hardening, with the reinforcement of his inner circle. But, he said, the person “who is ultimately responsible is the president.” And he gradually ventured out with criticism, going so far as declaring last month in a short essay in Texas Monthly magazine that Mr. Bush was losing “his gut-level bond with the American people,” and breaking more fully in this week’s interview.

“If the American public says they’re done with something, our leaders have to understand what they want,” Mr. Dowd said. “They’re saying, ‘Get out of Iraq.’ ”

Mr. Dowd’s friends from Mr. Bush’s orbit said they understood his need to speak out. “Everyone is going to reflect on the good and the bad, and everything in between, in their own way,” said Nicolle Wallace, communications director of Mr. Bush’s 2004 campaign, a post she also held at the White House until last summer. “And I certainly respect the way he’s doing it — these are his true thoughts from a deeply personal place.” Ms. Wallace said she continued to have “enormous gratitude” for her years with Mr. Bush.

Mr. Bartlett, the White House counselor, said he understood, too, though he said he strongly disagreed with Mr. Dowd’s assessment. “Do we know our critics will try to use this to their advantage? Yes,” he said. “Is that perfect? No. But you can respectfully disagree with someone who has been supportive of you.”

Mr. Dowd does not seem prepared to put his views to work in 2008. The only candidate who appeals to him, he said, is Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois, because of what Mr. Dowd called his message of unity. But, he said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if I wasn’t walking around in Africa or South America doing something that was like mission work.”

He added, “I do feel a calling of trying to re-establish a level of gentleness in the world.”

My favorite quote...

"All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be the blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king."

-J.R.R. Tolkein
The Lord of the Rings
The Fellowship of the Ring

from that i gleened... "Not all who wander are lost." its my mantra. my theme. it totally encompasses all that i think and know i am.

Kelly's New Album....

Kelly Clarkson Announces New Album Title: "My December"

February 28, 2007 6:51 a.m. EST

Maira Oliveira - All Headline News Reporter
Los Angeles, CA (AHN) - Pop star Kelly Clarkson, who recently completed recording new music material, has revealed the title of her third album, set to hit stores sometime this Spring.

On her official website, the Season One "American Idol" winner revealed the new record, which is the follow-up to her 2004 album "Breakaway," will be called "My December." Although the singer has not said why she chose the specific title, she describes her upcoming tracks as "intimate, raw, personal, and rock (although some are very sweet and soft)."

Clarkson says she has begun scheduling promotion dates and interviews for "My December" and is excited about playing her songs live before an audience, saying "I really hope y'all dig it!"

The 24-year-old singer rose to fame as a contestant on "American idol" during its season debut in 2002. Out of 10,000 hopefuls, Clarkson became the first "Idol" winner and went on to record her album "Thankful" shortly thereafter.

"Thankful" debuted at No.1 on the Billboard charts and sold more than two million copies. Her sophomore album "Breakaway" became only the fourth album ever to remain on the Billboard charts for a consecutive year.

Summer...

ignore the horrible notes in the fiddle, but check out guitar man. now THAT is some guitar pickin'!

The Runner In The Family...

jason ran the inaugural ing marathon/half marathon today. he ran with one of our friends, seyed. they ran the half in 1 hour and 51 minutes, though jason said he could have easily run it in an hour 30. and the scary thing is, he didn't even train for the damn thing. some people are just born runners. the pic is from right behind the loft, at edgewood and elizabeth streets, which was three miles into the race. it took over an hour for all 15,000 participants to filter past.

Celine...

Upcoming Projects and Events

February 16, 2007 - Dion's song "I Knew I Loved You" appeared on the Ennio Morricone tribute album called We All Love Ennio Morricone. She peformed it during the 79th Academy Awards ceremony on February 25, 2007. This song is based on the famous "Deborah's theme" - one of the unforgettable Morricone meldoes - from the Sergio Leione Film Once Upon a Time in America. It was produced by Quincy Jones. Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyrics. This was Dion's sixth Oscar performance, which means she performed at the live awards ceremony more times than any other artist.
April 2007 - new duet "Si Dieu Existe" (meaning "If God Exists") with Claude Dubois on his album Du Haut Dubois.
October 2007 - new duet with Annie Lennox on her forthcoming album.
October 2007 - new English album. Artists/Songwriters such as Ben Moody, Ne-Yo and Bryan Michael Cox are rumoured to have contributions on the album. "I Knew I Loved You" will likely be included on it.
December 15, 2007 - end of A New Day... show
December 2007 - A New Day... TV Special
December 2007 - A New Day... DVD. It will be produced by Julie Snyder's French Canadian company Productions J. The bonus for the DVD will be four documentaries: "The secrets of A New Day...," "A New Day... in the life of Céline," "The world comes to see Céline" as well as the making of the DVD. It will be released worldwide in English and French.
2008 - World Tour

this is the cover of her upcoming french language album, d'elles.

D'elles

The Absolute Truth...

i LOVE maureen dowd. read, laugh and enjoy. but also remember... SHE'S COMPLETELY RIGHT!

January 27, 2007
Daffy Does Doom

By MAUREEN DOWD

"Dick Durbin went to the floor of the Senate on Thursday night to denounce the vice president as ''delusional.''

It was shocking, and Senator Durbin should be ashamed of himself.

Delusional is far too mild a word to describe Dick Cheney. Delusional doesn't begin to capture the profound, transcendental one-flew-over daftness of the man.

Has anyone in the history of the United States ever been so singularly wrong and misguided about such phenomenally important events and continued to insist he's right in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

It requires an exquisite kind of lunacy to spend hundreds of billions destroying America's reputation in the world, exhausting the U.S. military, failing to catch Osama, enhancing Iran's power in the Middle East and sending American kids to train and arm Iraqi forces so they can work against American interests.

Only someone with an inspired alienation from reality could, under the guise of exorcising the trauma of Vietnam, replicate the trauma of Vietnam.

You must have a real talent for derangement to stay wrong every step of the way, to remain in complete denial about Iraq's civil war, to have a total misunderstanding of Arab culture, to be completely oblivious to the American mood and to be absolutely blind to how democracy works.

In a democracy, when you run a campaign that panders to homophobia by attacking gay marriage and then your lesbian daughter writes a book about politics and decides to have a baby with her partner, you cannot tell Wolf Blitzer he's ''out of line'' when he gingerly raises the hypocrisy of your position.

Mr. Cheney acts more like a member of the James gang than the Jefferson gang. Asked by Wolf what would happen if the Senate passed a resolution critical of The Surge, Scary Cheney rumbled, ''It won't stop us.''

Such an exercise in democracy, he noted, would be ''detrimental from the standpoint of the troops.''

Americans learned an important lesson from Vietnam about supporting the troops even when they did not support the war. From media organizations to Hollywood celebrities and lawmakers on both sides, everyone backs our troops.

It is W. and Vice who learned no lessons from Vietnam, probably because they worked so hard to avoid going. They rush into a war halfway around the world for no reason and with no foresight about the culture or the inevitable insurgency, and then assert that any criticism of their fumbling management of Iraq and Afghanistan is tantamount to criticizing the troops. Quel demagoguery.

''Bottom line,'' Vice told Wolf, ''is that we've had enormous successes, and we will continue to have enormous successes.'' The biggest threat, he said, is that Americans may not ''have the stomach for the fight.''

He should stop casting aspersions on the American stomach. We've had the stomach for more than 3,000 American deaths in a war sold as a cakewalk.

If W. were not so obsessed with being seen as tough, Mr. Cheney could not influence him with such tripe.

They are perpetually guided by the wrong part of the body. They are consumed by the fear of looking as if they don't have guts, when they should be compelled by the desire to look as if they have brains.

After offering Congress an olive branch in the State of the Union, the president resumed mindless swaggering. Asked yesterday why he was ratcheting up despite the resolutions, W. replied, ''In that I'm the decision maker, I had to come up with a way forward that precluded disaster.'' (Or preordained it.)

The reality of Iraq, as The Times's brilliant John Burns described it to Charlie Rose this week, is that a messy endgame could be far worse than Vietnam, leading to ''a civil war on a scale with bloodshed that will absolutely dwarf what we're seeing now,'' and a ''wider conflagration, with all kinds of implications for the world's flow of oil, for the state of Israel. What happens to King Abdullah in Jordan if there's complete chaos in the region?''

Mr. Cheney has turned his perversity into foreign policy.

He assumes that the more people think he's crazy, the saner he must be. In Dr. No's nutty world-view, anti-Americanism is a compliment. The proof that America is right is that everyone thinks it isn't.

He sees himself as a prophet in the wilderness because he thinks anyone in the wilderness must be a prophet.

To borrow one of his many dismissive words, it's hogwash."

Dapple Light...

this afternoon i went on an enjoyable 10 mile rollerblading trip around town. from the loft i went down the freedom parkway trail to candler park, then through to dellwood park which runs parallel to ponce right by the druid hills country club, then all the way back up the trail and across boulevard to the very beginning of freedrom parkway, where it overlooks downtown. i brought along my trusty digital camera and snapped a few pics. i LOVE the look of the sun's rays filtered through, well, anything. thus the title of this post. hope y'all like 'em. let me know what cha think. if you've never been downtown to the freedom trail, you really should take the time to go. it starts at the martin luther king jr. memorial and center and makes it's way down and around the carter presidential library and center. well worth fighting the traffic for a leisurely stroll through some historic atlanta beauty.

Freedom Park

Dellwood Park

Chandler Park

Downtown Atlanta

Our Bitch...

tell me this isn't the cutest puppy in the history of puppies! our miss claudia jean (c.j.) simpkins.

I Love Maureen Dowd...

February 28, 2007

OZONE MAN SEQUEL

By Maureen Dowd


Al Gore now has a movie with an Oscar and a grandson named Oscar.

Who could ask for anything more?

Al Gore could.

The best ex-president who was never president could make one of the most interesting campaigns in American history even more interesting. Will he use his green moment on the red carpet in black tie to snag blue states and win the White House?

Only the Goracle knows the answer.

The man who was prescient on climate change, the Internet, terrorism and Iraq admitted that maybe his problem had been that he was too far ahead of the curve. He realized at a conference that ''there're ideas that are mature, ideas that are maturing, ideas that are past their prime and a category called 'predawn.'

''And all of a sudden it hit me,'' he told John Heilemann of New York magazine last year. ''Most of my political career was spent investing in predawn ideas! I thought, Oh, that's where I went wrong.''

As Mr. Gore basked Sunday night in the adoration of Leo, Laurie David and the rest of the Hollywood hybrid-drivers, Democrats wondered: Is this chubby guy filling out the Ralph Lauren three-piece tuxedo a mature idea or an idea that's past its prime?

With Hillary overproduced and Barack Obama an unfinished script, maybe it's time to bring the former vice president out of turnaround.

Hillary's henchmen try to prognosticate the Goracle's future by looking at his waistline, according to Newsday; they think if he's going to run, he'll get back to fighting weight.

With her own talent for checking the weathervane, Hillary co-opted Mr. Gore's eco-speak right after the Oscars, talking environment throughout upstate New York. Given his past competition with Hillary, Mr. Gore must have delighted in seeing his star rise in Hollywood as hers dimmed.

If he waits long enough to get into the race, all the usual-suspect-consultants will be booked -- which would be a boon for Mr. Gore, since his Hessian strategists in 2000 made him soft-pedal the environment, the very issue that makes him seem most passionate and authentic. The same slides about feedback loops and the interconnectedness of weather patterns that made his image-makers yawn just won his movie an Academy Award.

But what's going on in his head? Like Jeb Bush, Al Gore was the good son groomed by a famous pol to be president, only to have it snatched away by a black sheep who didn't even know the name of the general running Pakistan (the same one he just sent Vice to try to push into line.) It must be excruciating not only to lose a presidency you've won because the Supreme Court turned partisan and stopped the vote, but to then watch the madness of King George and Tricky Dick II as they misled their way into serial catastrophes.

Even though Chickenhawk Cheney finally got close to combat in Afghanistan, his explosive brush with a suicide bomber has not served as a wake-up call about the danger of Osama bin Laden's staying on the lam, and Afghanistan's slipping back into the claws of the Taliban and Al Qaeda while we are shackled to Iraq.

A reporter asked Tony Snow yesterday what the attack on the Bagram Air Base that targeted the vice president and killed at least 23 people said about the Taliban's strength. ''I'm not sure it says anything,'' he replied.

Mr. Gore must be pleased that he's been vindicated on so many fronts, yet it still must rankle the Nobel Peace Prize nominee to hear the White House spouting such dangerous nonsense. He must sometimes imagine how much safer the world would be if he were president.

The Bush-Cheney years have been all about dragging the country into the past, getting back the presidential powers yanked away after Watergate, settling scores from Poppy Bush's old war, and suppressing scientific and environmental advances. Instead of aiming for the stars, the greatest power on earth is bogged down in poorly navigated conflicts with ancient tribes and brutes in caves.

Surely the Goracle, an aficionado of futurism, must stew about all the time and money and good will that has been wasted with a Vietnam replay and a scolding social policy designed to expunge the Age of Aquarius.

When he's finished Web surfing, tweaking his PowerPoint and BlackBerrying, what goes through his head? Does he blame himself? Does he blame the voting machines? Ralph Nader? Robert Shrum? Naomi Wolf? How about Bush Inc. and Clinton Inc.?

With the red carpet rolled up, the tux at the cleaner's, and the gold statuette on the director's mantle, not his, the Goracle is at his Nashville mansion, contemplating how to broker his next deal. Will he cast himself as the savior of the post-Bush era, or will the first Gore in the Oval Office be Karenna, mother of Oscar?

Dumbass Dubya and His Cronies...

"With this week’s release of more than 3,000 Justice Department e-mail messages about the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors, it seems clear that politics played a role in the ousters.

Of course, as one of the eight, I’ve felt this way for some time. But now that the record is out there in black and white for the rest of the country to see, the argument that we were fired for “performance related” reasons (in the words of Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty) is starting to look more than a little wobbly.

United States attorneys have a long history of being insulated from politics. Although we receive our appointments through the political process (I am a Republican who was recommended by Senator Pete Domenici), we are expected to be apolitical once we are in office. I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political.

Politics entered my life with two phone calls that I received last fall, just before the November election. One came from Representative Heather Wilson and the other from Senator Domenici, both Republicans from my state, New Mexico.

Ms. Wilson asked me about sealed indictments pertaining to a politically charged corruption case widely reported in the news media involving local Democrats. Her question instantly put me on guard. Prosecutors may not legally talk about indictments, so I was evasive. Shortly after speaking to Ms. Wilson, I received a call from Senator Domenici at my home. The senator wanted to know whether I was going to file corruption charges — the cases Ms. Wilson had been asking about — before November. When I told him that I didn’t think so, he said, “I am very sorry to hear that,” and the line went dead.

A few weeks after those phone calls, my name was added to a list of United States attorneys who would be asked to resign — even though I had excellent office evaluations, the biggest political corruption prosecutions in New Mexico history, a record number of overall prosecutions and a 95 percent conviction rate. (In one of the documents released this week, I was deemed a “diverse up and comer” in 2004. Two years later I was asked to resign with no reasons given.)

When some of my fired colleagues — Daniel Bogden of Las Vegas; Paul Charlton of Phoenix; H. E. Cummins III of Little Rock, Ark.; Carol Lam of San Diego; and John McKay of Seattle — and I testified before Congress on March 6, a disturbing pattern began to emerge. Not only had we not been insulated from politics, we had apparently been singled out for political reasons. (Among the Justice Department’s released documents is one describing the office of Senator Domenici as being “happy as a clam” that I was fired.)

As this story has unfolded these last few weeks, much has been made of my decision to not prosecute alleged voter fraud in New Mexico. Without the benefit of reviewing evidence gleaned from F.B.I. investigative reports, party officials in my state have said that I should have begun a prosecution. What the critics, who don’t have any experience as prosecutors, have asserted is reprehensible — namely that I should have proceeded without having proof beyond a reasonable doubt. The public has a right to believe that prosecution decisions are made on legal, not political, grounds.

What’s more, their narrative has largely ignored that I was one of just two United States attorneys in the country to create a voter-fraud task force in 2004. Mine was bipartisan, and it included state and local law enforcement and election officials.

After reviewing more than 100 complaints of voter fraud, I felt there was one possible case that should be prosecuted federally. I worked with the F.B.I. and the Justice Department’s public integrity section. As much as I wanted to prosecute the case, I could not overcome evidentiary problems. The Justice Department and the F.B.I. did not disagree with my decision in the end not to prosecute.

Good has already come from this scandal. Yesterday, the Senate voted to overturn a 2006 provision in the Patriot Act that allows the attorney general to appoint indefinite interim United States attorneys. The attorney general’s chief of staff has resigned and been replaced by a respected career federal prosecutor, Chuck Rosenberg. The president and attorney general have admitted that “mistakes were made,” and Mr. Domenici and Ms. Wilson have publicly acknowledged calling me.

President Bush addressed this scandal yesterday. I appreciate his gratitude for my service — this marks the first time I have been thanked. But only a written retraction by the Justice Department setting the record straight regarding my performance would settle the issue for me."

David C. Iglesias was United States attorney for the District of New Mexico from October 2001 through last month.

The Way A Man Should Dress...

from The Sartorialist. i totally agree with everything he says. for you guys out there who haven't a clue, read and take note! in addition to what he says, also notice how well the jacket fits, notably around the mid section and on the shoulders. despite what we think in the U.S., a jacket should actually fit quite snug, with very little extra fabric in any one area. also notice the height of the shirt collar. all of these things add up to a perfect ensemble! click on the picture to see more detail.



"This is Dario, he works at Cesare Attolini, one of the top sartorial clothiers in the world. When I look at this photo the first thing I notice is the perfect jacket/sleeve cuff ratio, but the second thing (and maybe more subtle but equally important) is the perfect length of the shirt sleeve itself. Similar to what we do to pants, most men in America wear their shirt's sleeves with way too much extra length in the arms. If you notice Dario's sleeves hit right at the base of his wrist without having the shirt cuff buttoned. I know a couple of guys in New York that like to do the "cuffs unbuttoned thing," but they wear the sleeves too long so it makes them look like the shirt doesn't fit correctly. I also think this way of wearing your shirt sleeve gives a very subtle illusion that makes a person look taller and more lanky. Think about it, tall people with long arms rarely wear sleeves that are too long. Their sleeves ride up on their arms a bit. I think it is something we see everday but don't really notice. Charlie Rose is a perfect example of this. I watch his show sometimes and I think the way he wears his shirts looks great and gives him a heightened sense of lankiness. Maybe because I am more of a muscular, square shape I'm always on the lookout for things that might, maybe, possibly give me just one ounce of "lank". I'd kill for a little lank."

Addicted...

new band, called the cliks, all girls, who look like boys. :-) i am ADDICTED to this song. i can't get enough of it. so catchy! yay for lesbian songmakers who can write an unforgettable riff.

The Benefits of Exercise...

oh to be this spry and healthy when im her age. see what keepin' in shape will do for ya! you'll get your own music video. no really, i swear!

American Idiots...

if you voted for san-gina, feel free to stick your NEW at&t cell phone UP YOUR ASS! i mean COME ON people. he cant sing! he's a skinny homo with big teeth and a bad sense of style (yes, gays can call other gays homos. kinda like african americans can call other african americans... well, you know). oh and btw, farah fawcett called... she wants her hair back! seriously! can we PA-LEASE just get to the inevitable moment and kick his scrawny booty off! he even said last night that he KNOWS he isn't the strongest singer in the competition. ITS A SINGING COMPETITION FOR KELLY CLARKSON'S SAKE! STOP VOTING FOR HIM ALREADY YOU SILLY SKANKY TWEENS! sheesh!

luckily, though, i have no opinion on the matter. ;-)

The Shame...

pretty much says it all about abu ghraib.

A Prediction...

our next american idol... Miss Melinda Doolittle!!! YOU GO GIRL!

Lust...

the all new, not yet released audi S5, the newest thing that i lust for. if anyone has some extra mola laying around they aren't using, say about 70 grand (est.), feel free to send it my way. pwease? :-)

The Titans...

some random trivia that every classical music buff should know...


Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) composed 205 musical works. of those, 138 were cataloged and given opus numbers by himself and his pulishers. 138 works that turned music forever on its ear. the renegade. the revolutionist. in my mind, the greatest composer to ever live.









Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) composed right at 1000 musical works. of those, 626 were cataloged and given opus numbers by ludwig köchel (kv). 626 pieces of sheer perfection, typically flowing straight from the maestro's pen with not a single correction required.

Paula Cole...

in light of her forthcoming album "courage", which is her first new album in 8 years, i thought id talk a little bit about paula cole. (i know it seems like a lot of music talk thus far, but whatever, i love me some music!) most all of you know her songs "where have all the cowboys gone" and "i dont want to wait", two songs that helped to earn her the grammy for best new artist in 1997 and get nominated for producer of the year (she produced the whole album herself). she didnt win for producing, but was only the second female in history to be nominated for that coveted award. the album that carried those two songs is called "this fire." it is without a doubt a BRILLIANT album, and one of my all-time favorites. dont be turned off by the previous two songs if you don't like them. do me a favor and LISTEN to the album first. some of the most melodic, lyrical, powerful songs you will ever hear. there is a reason she won that grammy! seriously!




the album she followed "this fire" with is called "amen." this was the album that helped me through my rough times in cincinnati. again, an amazing album. and on this album is contained, im my opinion, one of the most amazing songs ever composed, called "the pearl." the words talk about taking on life, starting out as a plain ole piece of sand, and through lifes journey eventually becoming the pearl inside an oyster. such an amazing analogy and one of the most moving songs i have ever heard. i couldnt find the video for "the pearl" but instead found "be somebody," also from "amen," and just as amazing. the woman can do no wrong! t-boz from tlc makes an appearance on this song.

listen to the words and revel in the beauty that is paula cole. take my advice and get acquainted with her! NOW DAMMIT!

The Neighbor...

the chicks released this song last week on itunes. the song was written for their documentary shut up and sing that chronicles their tumultuous past few years. if you haven't seen the movie, GO RENT IT NOW! it is fabulous. we own it if you'd like to borrow it. this performance is from the chicks accidents and accusations tour that wrapped this past december. if you haven't seen them in concert, i cant even begin to describe what amazingness you have missed!



The Neighbor

Don’t let them tell you what it’s all about
I’m right beside you, a dreamer you can do without
I know you well, but we’ve never met
Always the same, always the safe bet.

I know what’s happening, I’ve seen it before
Uninvited, I’ll be coming to your back door
Lock all your windows, hide under your bed
I hear you breathing, I know you’re there

You can turn off the light
You can turn off your mind
You can shut me out

But I’ll still be here
I'll still be here
You can turn me off and try to shut me down
But I’ll still be here

You want to see things all the same
Why don’t you see things in color for a change
I’m waiting and listening, trying to walk in your shoes
They walk a straight line, such a straight line

I’ll drop my fences, if you drop your guard
Meet me on the front porch stop hiding in your backyard
Unlock your windows, come out from the bed
Your tv's glowing, I know you're there

You can turn it around
Til you like how it sounds
You can turn me off

But I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here
You can turn me down but I'll just shout it out,
I’ll still be here

Who did away with empathy
How do you love without sympathy
And who will be the one that still believes

It's the powerless who seem to fall
Between the cracks of those who have it all
And who's gonna be the one to speak for me

I’ll still be here
I’ll still be here

I'll still be here
When you like it or not
Oh I’ll be here

Even when you're not
When you think I forgot

Come out in your backyard Monday
Let's meet on your front porch Friday

I’ll still be here

Amy Winehouse...

for those of yall who haven't heard of her yet, check out this video. i LOVE this girl. she is freakin' amazing! her album was just released in the states, so do yourself a favor and GO GET IT!

Patriotism...

so i was watching the view. ya know, babs, ro, liz and joy. very enjoyable, made much more enjoyable by the recent addition of miss o'donnell. i heart her. :-) so any way, elizabeth was talking about some article she had read in the ny times this past weekend about patriotism, how much it is or isnt still displayed, and questioning whether todays kids are being raised to be patriotic. she made the point that when she was in high school that when the president came on t.v., everyone stopped talking to watch. she said it was out of reverence. she asked "whatever happened to that? today, people dont do that for the president. children are being raised to disrespect our president." then rosie and joy chimed in saying that when they were kids, they were raised to believe that nothing displayed patriotism MORE than questioning our leaders, for speaking up and speaking out against what they saw as the wrong decisions our government was making. as i sit here, dubya is speaking at a press conference, talking about the fourth anniversary of the war in iraq. i dunno, maybe its just me, but i dont care about him or anything that comes stumbling out of his mouth. sure, he is our president, so we can't really ignore him. but at this point, he has lost every single bit of what little credibility he might ever have had. i never trusted him. i didnt trust a single thing he said in either election, and his words still hold no weight with me. to me, everything he says rings false. it rings hollow. i think that, in the case of elizabeth's words about respecting our president, i do not believe that any president is rubber stamped with an unending supply of respect. i think every single one of them has had to earn it. i do not believe this one has. he has not done one single thing that i am aware of (and i am a pretty aware person) that would in any way have earned him any sort of respect from me. believe what you will about this war and the intentions our government had going into it, but the bottom line is that nothing good has come of this jaunt in the sand box. saddam hussein is dead. big whoop. it has now been proven that he posed no threat to us. iraq is free. or is it? if you call being free to walk down the street to be car bombed free, then okay. the number of iraqi casulties estimates range from 60,000 to 665,000 depending on what you read. the total number of american soilder deaths thus far in iraq: 3217. the total number of injured (non mortal casualties as they are called) american soilders thus far in iraq: 32,544. fyi, this whole war started because of the attack on the united states on sept. 11, which took the lives of a total of 2,297 lives. we as a nation have lost all credibility with most of the countries we used to call friends. and our invasion has done nothing but anger even more the person we were out to catch in the first place, who by the way, WE HAVE YET TO CATCH! thats right, osama bin laden is STILL out there. so i ask you, and this isn't rhetorical... why should i respect our president? how can he say he's made us safer when the man responsible for those 2,297 deaths IS STILL ON THE LOOSE!?!?!? can i be patriotic, love this country and all that is stands for with all my heart, get chills everytime i hear our national anthem played and yet still not respect our president? absolutley! how do i know this? BECAUSE I AM!!!!!!!!!!

The Genesis...

so i was sitting in the bathtub, searching for an outfit for my mom to wear to my best friend jessica's upcoming wedding. the water had cooled and i was geting bored, so i did a self google search. dont lie, you know you've done it. i came across this site offering to make myself more easily found on the internet (ya know, so old friends can track me down), so i signed up. it asked for a blogger account. i didnt have one. i used to have a blog, but technical difficulties and a lot of wasted time later, it was no longer active. so i created this one. tah dah. thats the big news. thats the story. thats the birth of my ramblings... again. and believe it or not, im still in the gaul dern bathtub. my feet look like two baby sharpei's. they're cute. ill resist the temptation to name them. and now, jason just woke from his slumber and shuffled into the bathroom to pee, one eye half open whining that "water is bad for your skin." so, three hours later, i guess ill get out. and so it begins... joshua holcombe, from the bathtub!