The ConvergeSouth Blog

Converge!

ConvergeSouth, taking place this weekend in Greensboro, has a blog, featuring some of the speakers.

convergesouth

Dave Sifry on Tagging

State of the Blogosphere, August 2005, Part 3: Tags and Tagging

Technorati/Edelman Blog Survey

Technorati/Edelman Blog Survey

Inheriting the Winds of Tammy

Computer Model shows direct hit on Charlotte

Granted, it is only one several predictions, but there is a prediction that "Tropical Storm Tammy", as she's called , or its remnants, will pass through Charlotte, North Carolina and environs.
Tammy Bakker Testified in Charlotte right before Hurricane Hugo hit Charlotte. You could say she inherited the winds. And now another massive package of wind named Tammy is threatening Charlotte.

The Virginian

Panther Pussycats Don Cat Costumes

The Charlotte, North Carolina Panthers

We at anonyMoses are predicting that the Panther cheerleaders, The "Top Cats" will change their name to "The Pussycats" or "Panther Pussycats", and that they will start wearing cat costumes, and dance to songs from the Eliot play.
We also want to urge the team to study tai chi, judo, ballet, and public speaking. They should also focus on not only being better, but different...like Mohammed Ali, filled with charm and grace. Spiritualized like a cat. Like a Panther and a Pussycat.
Earning one's high pay. Being better than anyone ever.
Gods.

At least more than just a jock.

Emmanuel Hands Reynolds Arse on Plate

Ass on a plate

Rahm Emmanuel, like Barak Obama, John Edwards, and indeed, Wes Clark, represent the best hope for the future of the Democratic Party, and today, one of them, Mr. Emmanuel, showed how and why the future will be Democratic, and thus a benefit to health and humanity.

On today's "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, Emmanuel was paired with a boring old man named Reynolds, who will doubtless have any impact on the history of our great nation. And yet he had to sit there beside a gentleman whose equals rank among the pantheon of truly great presidents.

Without raising his voice, without losing repose or composure, Mister Emmanuel layed out the future, while all the boring old man could do was ululate and hyperventilate apothegms so barren of meaning as to render its bearer foolish and obsolescent.

He was handed his arse on a plarte, to be polite, passive and neologistic about it.

The five-point plan layed out by Mr. Emmanuel deserve serious consideration. These are bold ideas. They will get us out of the hole which the other guys would have you keep digging.

Here is where Rahm lays out the future:

REP. EMMANUEL: Let me address, though, the future of this country. I'll give you five quick ideas. One, we make college education as universal for the 21st century that a high school education was in the 20th.

MR. RUSSERT: And who pays for that?

REP. EMMANUEL: The American people, because it offers--Let me get to it. Second, we get a summit on the budget to deal with the $3 trillion of debt that's been added up in five years and structural deficits of $400 billion a year. Third, an energy policy that says in 10 years, we cut our dependence on foreign oil in half and make this a hybrid economy. Four, we create an institute on science and technology that builds for America like, the National Institutes has done for health care, we maintain our edge. And five, we have a universal health-care system over the next 10 years where if you work, you have health care. That says fiscal discipline and investing in the American people by reputting people first. The policies that the Republicans have offered have gotten us in the ditch we have today.

Ideas. Good ones. If the Republicans had ideas, they didn't bear fruit. And they've had five years. Staying the course is only digging the hole deeper. And we've already hit Hell.

They carry on:

MR. RUSSERT: (To Reynolds) What do you think of that program?

REP. REYNOLDS (as if to say "O come now, Emmanuel!"): Sounds to me like a liberal agenda: bigger government, raise more taxes to pay for it. That's the failed liberal policies. The last 40 years, the Democrats were in control of the Congress.

REP. EMMANUEL: Tom, in the last five years the government's gotten bigger...

REP. REYNOLDS: And when we look at this...

REP. EMMANUEL: ...under Republican rule...

REP. REYNOLDS: I have not heard...

REP. EMMANUEL: ...than anytime in the history.

REP. REYNOLDS: ...any agenda coming out of the Democrats in Congress. It has been all slash and burn, nay. There has been no debate, Tim. This is not the debate of Dole and Moynihan. This is slash and burn, have no new ideas, and attack.

FULL TRANSCRIPT

Anonymoses welcome Mecklenburg Electric to the Blogosphere

If you need an honest and reliable electrical contractor to handle your wiring needs, look no further than Mecklenburg Electric. They have been wiring Charlotteans for over 25 years, and the owner, George Kirby, has been a trusted friend for even longer. They have decided to start blogging, and their blog can be seen here. Call, email, or comment to the Wiring For Charlotte blog, and George or someone on his staff will get back to you. Tell then that Dave sent you, and you will get a nice discount on any services rendered.

Tarheel Tavern...at Pratie Place!

Tarheel Taverners

Rush on over and see what's been going on!

What would Jesus the Clown do? (WWJTCD)

Jesus the Clown


These are trying times, these are tiring times. These are the times that try men's souls, and the time to change men's tires. These are unctuous times.

At times like these there is no greater hope, no greater voice, no greater emulator of sad sAtisfaction than our very own Jesus the Clown: President of War. A frightful thought now that one thinks of it.

Granted, I am no Lee. I have no ear of JTC, nor any pull. But if'n you were to have a quextion whose answer has undeniable universal appeal, I will see if I can get Red Roverer, his make-up artist, to construct a reasonable simulacrum.

OFFER DOES NOT INCLUDE POSTAGE, BATTERIES, OR HANDLING FEES. IF YOU EXPERIENCE A LIGHTNESS OF WALLET OR DIFFICULTY URINATING, IT MIGHT BE BECAUSE YOU HAD SEX WITH A SLATTERN AND A STRUMPET, AND YOU WILL PROBABLY HAVE TO HAVE THE OFFENDING ORGAN REMOVED. DO NOT TAKE JESUS THE CLOWN WITH A GRAIN OF SALT AS IT MAY INDUCE EXISTENTIAL VOMITING OR A SARTRIAN STRABISMUS. USE ONLY AS DIRECTED.

Fun with words: Glossary of Linguistics and Rhetoric

Hey kids! Loopy about linguistics? Ready for some rhetoric?
Here goes a page with many fun greek terms for oblique ways to tweak what you speak...and make knees weak with wonder.

Here is a sample of what you will learn:

adnoun
the use of an adjective as a noun. Blessed are the merciful. See also: adnominal.

anadiplosis
rhetorical repetition of one or more words, particularly a word at the end of a clause. "Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business." -- Francis Bacon. See also: anaphora, epistrophe, symploce.

anastrophe
transposition or inversion of normal word order; a type of hyperbaton. "Once upon a midnight dreary..." -- Edgar Allan Poe. "The helmsman steered; the ship moved on; yet never a breeze up blew." -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge. See also: hyperbaton, synchysis.

antanaclasis
repetition of a word whose meaning changes in the second instance. "Your argument is sound...all sound." -- Benjamin Franklin.

apophasis
mentioning something by declaring that it shall not be mentioned. Same as "paralepsis" and "preterition." "I need not remind you to get your Christmas shopping done early." See also: autoclesis, parasiopesis.

aposiopesis
a halting or trailing off of speech caused by the speaker seemingly overcome by an emotion such as excitement, fear, or modesty; a form of brachylogy. "When your father finds out...." See also: brachylogy.

asyndeton
lack of conjuctions between coordinate words, phrases, or clauses; a form of brachylogy. "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground." -- Abraham Lincoln. See also: brachylogy, polysyndeton.

...and those are just some of the A-list.


Here are some I put to use. Can you guess which rhetorical device was used?

- ...like mind from a thought did spring.
- ...til night doth shut our eye.
- Immortal lips from words did spring.
- Let me die, and pierce the blade across my chin.
- Let me live, and ward off sad silence once more.
- I will say nothing of his virtue, though I find him to be courageous of spirit, untiring of conscience and a friend and brother eternal.
- When the victory? When the Peace?
- Thought makes the man; thought is the quintessence of what motivates man.
- Still he chased ambition -- ambition, that trickledown juicecarrot (Judas Carrot) which dangles in perpetuity, yet jangles in but the pocks of few.
- Arrogance took no swipe at Belvedere; and he fed no coin into arrogance.
- Happy is he who calls God love and Love God.
- Raising Hell and my children.
- She charged my senses and my dinner.
- His wisdom will the nation's food.

All entries will be accepted until the ughten on the fortnight of yesternoon.

Cats of Peace

Notes on "Darconville's Cat"

protoglottalogical theory that words initially began as shouts
beauty palliates evil
imperscrutible winds of autumn
nomadic gulsar
lugubrious frontispiece
obligate room
spare as the skite of a recluse
archonic wardens of Heaven
blinking anablept
desperviews
sapphonically whisper
strained against their cinctures
sententious ballachers
praeternatural somnolence
astropoetic light
soft as nainsook
intervenient with
the slippered voluptions of his prose
pteriopes wrapped in procinian cloaks
electuaries
projecticians
slonk
a nulliverse of stifling monotony
cattle, skewbald, roan and dappled
rantipole heroes
acromegalic jaw
unijugate ears
chawbacons
klonvocated
klankraft
pantomancing
hypocause of fate
horror dorsifixed him
maidens blushworthily abud
obliviscible

Anti-Peace Rally Draws Over a Hundred Numbskulls

Anti-War & Anti-Peace. Looking Left, Looking Right.


While over a hundred thousand anti-war protestors descended on Washington, DC this weekend, a little over a hundred of the anti-peace clueless also showed up...apparently unaware that there already was no peace in Iraq. Doh!

Blessed are the peacemakers. Cursed are the warmakers...

Songs for Katrina: Sting

Moon Over Bourbon Street
-Sting

There’s a moon over bourbon street tonight
I see faces as they pass beneath the pale lamplight
I’ve no choice but to follow that call
The bright lights, the people, and the moon and all
I pray everyday to be strong
For I know what I do must be wrong
Oh you’ll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet
While there’s a moon over bourbon street

It was many years ago that I became what I am
I was trapped in this life like an innocent lamb
Now I can only show my face at noon
And you’ll only see me walking by the light of the moon
The brim of my hat hides the eye of a beast
I’ve the face of a sinner but the hands of a priest
Oh you’ll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet
While there’s a moon over bourbon street

She walks everyday through the streets of new orleans
She’s innocent and young from a family of means
I have stood many times outside her window at night
To struggle with my instinct in the pale moon light
How could I be this way when I pray to God above
I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing I love
Oh you’ll never see my shade or hear the sound of my feet
While there’s a moon over bourbon street

Senator John Kerry's Speech at Brown University

Providence, RI - I want to thank you for what the Brown community has done to help and comfort the many victims of Hurricane Katrina. This horrifying disaster has shown Americans at their best -- and their government at its worst.

And that's what I've come to talk with you about today. READ ON

EXCERPTS:
Katrina stripped away any image of competence and exposed to all the true heart and nature of this administration. The truth is that for four and a half years, real life choices have been replaced by ideological agenda, substance replaced by spin, governance second place always to politics. Yes, they can run a good campaign -- I can attest to that -- but America needs more than a campaign. If 12 year-old Boy Scouts can be prepared, Americans have a right to expect the same from their 59 year-old President of the United States.

This is about the broader pattern of incompetence and negligence that Katrina exposed, and beyond that, a truly systemic effort to distort and disable the people's government, and devote it to the interests of the privileged and the powerful. It is about the betrayal of trust and abuse of power. And in all the often horrible and sometimes ennobling sights and sounds we've all witnessed over the last two weeks, there's another sound just under the surface: the steady clucking of Administration chickens coming home to roost.

They didn't listen...

This is the Katrina administration.

Brian Williams: NBC News to open a bureau in New Orleans

Brian Williams Look-alike

On the NBC front, we're all thrilled at our decision to open a formal bureau here. It's simply a recognition of the obvious: this is going to be an ongoing story, with ramifications and recovery stretching years ahead of us. While our compound here operates beautifully, it still amounts to a collection of RVs, tarps and folding tables. It will be great to have a bricks-and-mortar operation.

On September 3, I had expressed just such a hope on a blogpost for Daily Kos:

My hope is that Brian Williams, Bob Woodruff, Shepard Smith, Anderson Cooper, and the other brave new stewards of the poor and disenfranchised, will stay in New Orleans, and be the voice of those whose need is most great.

Congratulations to NBC News for this new development.

3 Cheers for George Bush the Liberal

George or Andy?


The Andy Griffithization of George W. Bush


I am not in the habit of saying complimentary things about our current president, but when it is warranted, I will freely give credit. Notwithstanding the opening paragraphs, the New Orleans speech is the best speech of his career. It is also his most liberal, certainly in terms of heart. And I suspect it will go a long way toward helping people understand the importance of liberality.

But here's the weird thing.

I think the president enjoyed being liberal. I also think David Brooks enjoys his newfound freedom. This speech represents a trimph of liberalism, if not Liberalism. And maybe that too. A liberal triumph benefits everyone. Since Bush needn't worry about re-election, he can be as liberal or magnanimous as his maturing soul might demand.

Here is another completely unscientific proof of his recent, and perhaps televised, evolution:
He resembled Andy Griffith.

Let me explain. While normally, Mister Bush will resemble Paul Wolfowitz, Pat Robertson or Karen Hughes, being a shape-shifter and all -- on tonight's performance, he, during his best moments, looked like Andy Griffith. The consummate liberal. And during his first presidential campaign, he sounded like Martin Luther King. I suspect he would watch or listen to these folks, on tape or in person, and then imitate, consciously or un-, that person.

I don't know if he actually met with, or studied, Andy Griffith. I like to think he didn't, and that, instead, he evolved into Andy Griffith, much like Walt Whitman was reputed to have evolved into cosmic consiousness.

Andy Griffith is who people want to see being the sheriff, or chief law dude, as the kids say.
A benevolent friend who uses his power to make life better for everyone.

May Bush become that benevolent friend who uses his power to make life better for everyone.

Everyone.

Robert Benchley Society announces winner

The Daily News Online

This winter, members of the Robert Benchley Society announced a writing contest that would be used to identify the second coming of the renowned 20th-century humorist. They believe they have found him in Kelso, Washington.

In May, the Society named Joe Daggy's essay, "When You Can't Sleep," the first-prize winner. Daggy spent Labor Day weekend in Boston, where he accepted the award. The essay will be published in Espree magazine.

Congratulations to Joe Daggy for a job well done.

End of the Bush Era

The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.

E.J. Dionne explains how and why the Bush era came to an end on September 2, 2005...

Excerpts:

And so the Bush Era ended definitively on Sept. 2, the day Bush first toured the Gulf Coast States after Hurricane Katrina. There was no magic moment with a bullhorn. The utter failure of federal relief efforts had by then penetrated the country's consciousness. Yesterday's resignation of FEMA Director Michael Brown put an exclamation point on the failure.

But the first intimations of the end of the Bush Era came months ago. The president's post-election fixation on privatizing part of Social Security showed how out of touch he was. The more Bush discussed this boutique idea cooked up in conservative think tanks and Wall Street imaginations, the less the public liked it. The situation in Iraq deteriorated. The glorious economy Bush kept touting turned out not to be glorious for many Americans. The Census Bureau's annual economic report, released in the midst of the Gulf disaster, found that an additional 4.1 million Americans had slipped into poverty between 2001 and 2004.

Promises! Promises!
Broken promises!

"Biopolis", Research Campus, part of Kannapolis revitalization plan

via Charlotte Internet Blog