I got an ABC freebie

I spent many of my summers and days off, growing up, filling fire extinguishers. My dad was a fireman with five kids and his "moonlighting" job was as the owner and proprietor of Columbia Fire Extinguisher.

I carried old school soda and acid fire extinguishers up and down stairways in schools, department stores and factories all over New Britain. At about twenty pounds (one in each hand), it was the equivalent of a stairmaster workout every day. And the sulfuric acid burned tiny holes in my jeans that were the envy of every hippie girl who saw them. I also filled pressurized water and powder extinguishers in the company headquarters (the basement of 86 Columbia Street - get it).

A few weeks ago I saw a neighbor throwing pans of water on a fire in the engine compartment of a car he was fixing.

"You need a fire extinguisher?" I asked.

"You got a fire extinguisher?" he asked back.

He used my household ABC ten pounder to put the fire out readily.

I was left with a half-pressurized extinguisher and no idea where to turn since the basement business has closed down.

I eventually called Roybal Fire Extinguisher, the Middletown company that bought my dad's book of business, and watched as Larry did the refilling. He had some tricks and gadgets that my dad could never have conceived of, but the process was similar. When he was done, I told him how I spent many a summer doing just what he did.

He handed me the fire extinguisher, and said, "This one is on the house. Compliments of Roybal."

It somehow made all those sweaty summers worthwhile.

Erring on Ayers

If you haven't had the opportunity to read any of Bill Ayers' own defense of his life or his relationship with Barack Obama, take the time to her what he said on Good Morning America today. He is honest, smart and forthcoming under the heat of questions by an interviewer who can't believe that political lies might not be true.

Creepy Joe's™ republican talking points

On ABC's This Week, Creepy Joe™ Lieberman debated Senator Jack Reed about Iraq and Iran.

In the kind of crazy logic that he calls non-partisanship, Lieberman criticizes Obama for shifting his position on Iraq to one that he says is closer to John McCain's. One would think, therefore, that if the only issue keeping Lieberman from supporting a fellow Democrat was Iraq, that he could now fully back Obama.

But no, Lieberman confounds by saying that Obama has been inconsistent, and incorrect in his Iraq policy. In fact, Lieberman does everything but call Obama a flip-flopper, and he reprises a tactic from his campaign against Ned Lamont, remember this:

My opponent is running against me, as you said, on this one issue. And yet even on this one issue, he has not leveled and been consistent with the people of Connecticut. He has taken all sorts of positions. One day saying he is for withdrawal and another day he is not. One day saying he is for a specific deadline, another day he is not.

Today, he said the same thing about Obama. It's a tired, old strategy, although one which worked for Lieberman against Lamont.

And with his fearmongering on Iran, Lieberman once again demonstrates that he represents Israel first, his version of the U.S. second, and Connecticut in a distant third.

You know what you do with an anchor, don't you?

Let's just say that Brian William's sensibilities are as leaden as his opinions. A Pulitzer for Peggy Noonan? Why yes, and another gold star for General Petraeus.

Glenn Greenwald observes the irony of a talking head who should leave the blogging to experts.

Man overboard?

The news media is broken

I went to bed last night after watching the debate, actually after tuning in to Keith Olbermann to see a bit of analysis about the debate.

I was already disgusted at the quality of the questions by Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous. They dwelt on the petty and trivial minor issues discovered by bloggers and inflamed by a media who don't know how to address important issues and maintain an audience. I was furious at the questions chosen by Pennsylvania voters who seem obsessed with nonsense like Barack Obama's flag pin and Hillary Clinton's exaggerations about Bosnia. I was appalled that Stephanopolous followed the wing of right-wing bloviators and questioned Obama about a 60's radical with whom he had a very tenuous relationship, and then Clinton amplified the ridiculous inference.

And after determining that Clinton was being as negative as she could be while hoping not to alienate the last of her supporters, and that Obama handled the nonsense with as much dignity as he could muster, I heard NBC Political director Chuck Todd tell Olbermann that Obama had been pummeled and appeared "shaken." I couldn't believe my ears about a debate I had just watched myself.



And if you think I'm the only American disgusted with the quality of the questions delivered by Gibson and Stephanopolous you can begin by considering that the audience at the debate booed Gibson, and that many commentators are as furious as I am, including Greg Mitchell, Colin McEnroe, Josh Marshall, Marty Kaplan, Greg Sargent, Tom Shales, Niall Strange and Andrew Sullivan.

And then there are the nearly 13,000 people who commented directly to ABC.

What's the difference between a tyrant and a dictator

If you don't know, you shouldn't be President.

George Bush gave an entirely unprecedented look into his dark soul when he told Charlie Gibson of ABC that the dictator Pervez Musharaf, had not yet "crossed the line," in his declaration of emergency law, his jailing of opponents, lawyer and judges.

Makes you wonder where exactly Bush's "line" is. We know it doesn't stop at torture, or abridgement of civil liberties. Time to take Naomi Wolf seriously.

And yet another nod to SF Hansen.

Pills and soap

With thousands dying needlessly in Iraq. With all the horrors of Darfur.
With Palestine a powder keg about to ignite the middle East. With a President who belives in science that's more hocus-pocus than hard research.

This is what the networks are spending their money on.

And this is what most Americans will pay attention to.