Fireworks

Say what you will about this wacky little town, but when it comes to the 4th of July fireworks, they know what they're doing. It is non-stop fireworks for a good 20 minutes, and when I say non-stop, I mean multiple explosions a second. I've got some video of the finale, below. The fireworks are synchronized to an orchestra playing the 1812 Overture. It's so cool. (Unfortunately, my neighbors were playing cool jazz, oh well). The grand finale starts to build about halfway into the video below, definitely watch it from there.

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Here are a few pics I took down at the national mall a few years ago, they're some of my all time favorites. Some guys were standing in front of me, so I decided to just incorporate them into the shots - these were not doctored at all.









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Open thread

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One man's Islamic fundamentalist is another man's Christian fundamentalist

This photo in today's Washington Post of Islamic fundamentalist students rioting in Pakistan got me thinking about the difference between Islamic radicals and America's religious right. Both want to live in a theocratic state where they can force others to live under their own warped, hate-filled, minority version of an otherwise peaceful mainstream religion. And yes, the Islamic radicals are more violent than our Christian radicals, but only because our Christian radicals know that violence isn't acceptable in America. So they express their violence in their hearts, and their souls, and their politics. But at their core, they're no different. They hate all the same, and they'll happily bash with the power of a club or the power of the state. Both claim to represent the true God, both think they speak for all Muslims and all Christians, and neither does. Read the rest of this post...

Oliver Stone on Iran's president

AP

“I wish the Iranian people well, and only hope their experience with an inept, rigid ideologue president goes better than ours.”

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Dems. thumping GOPers in Presidential money race

Some interesting facts about the collection of campaign funds in today's Washington Post:

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama's 258,000 contributors since January exceed the combined number of donors of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), according to estimates provided by the campaigns.

That's an amazing statistic. It's an understatement to say that the top GOP candidates aren't raising money like the Democrats. Romney has already resorted to spending his own fortune -- and McCain, well McCain, is in a tailspin. He's fading fast:

Romney announced yesterday that he has lent his campaign $6.5 million from his personal fortune to supplement the $14 million he raised from April through June. Giuliani's campaign said it raised about $15 million during the quarter. Last week, McCain announced a dramatic staff shake-up after raising only $11 million, leaving him with just $2 million in the bank.

As much as the GOP candidates don't want Bush on their shoulders, he's there. They own Bush -- especially McCain. None of the Republicans can escape the Bush legacy that they helped to create and foster. Read the rest of this post...

Olbermann speaks to Bush and Cheney: Resign.

Olbermann says enough already. Bush and Cheney should just resign:

It is nearly July 4th, Mr. Bush, the commemoration of the moment we Americans decided that rather than live under a King who made up the laws, or erased them, or ignored them—or commuted the sentences of those rightly convicted under them—we would force our independence, and regain our sacred freedoms.

We of this time—and our leaders in Congress, of both parties—must now live up to those standards which echo through our history: Pressure, negotiate, impeach—get you, Mr. Bush, and Mr. Cheney, two men who are now perilous to our Democracy, away from its helm.

For you, Mr. Bush, and for Mr. Cheney, there is a lesser task. You need merely achieve a very low threshold indeed. Display just that iota of patriotism which Richard Nixon showed, on August 9th, 1974.

Resign.


And give us someone—anyone—about whom all of us might yet be able to quote John Wayne, and say, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.”

Think Progress also has the video. And hat tip to JFM in Maine for the heads up. Read the rest of this post...

Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Yes, it's the Fourth of July. That whole idea of declaring independence was pretty ballsy back in the day. And, the American revolutionaries were basically an insurgency fighting the most powerful military in the world. Course, the Americans were fighting on their turf and the Brits were half a world away. We know how that turned out. History is full of valuable lessons -- some of them are right before our eyes.

Happy independence day....and news? Read the rest of this post...

Happy 4th of July from Paris

There is a wonderful book available locally (and also online) called Paris: Birthplace of the USA which details American history in Paris. Despite what some like to think, France has been a good friend to the US. After all, it was Beaumarchais who was the financier of the American Revolution. It was Lafayette who came to America as a young officer to help the cause. And of course, the most critical naval battle in the war of independence, the Battle of the Chesapeake, was led by French Admiral de Grasse. That naval battle prevented the British navy from supplying Cornwallis with troops and supplies, forcing him to surrender at Yorktown.

Besides the extensive French links to America, many famous Americans who helped form the country lived in Paris such as Franklin, Jefferson, John Paul Jones and Thomas Paine. Recently I stumbled upon a plaque marking the location where Thomas Paine lived, just steps from the Odeon Theater and the Luxembourg Gardens. Besides writing in favor of the American Revolution, Paine was very anti-slavery and even fought with Washington over his ownership of slaves. Even today, the issue of Washington and slavery is in the news.

Paine was later invited to France during their revolution and participated in the National Convention before being sentenced to die for voting against the execution of King Louis XVI. Robespierre's terror claimed many who did not agree with his policies. Luck would have it that he managed to survive (he was held in the prison at the Senate, a stones throw from his house) but he later left France after concluding that Napoleon was leading France towards a dictatorship. Paine eventually moved back to the US where he died in 1809. Read the rest of this post...

Romney thinks Libby commutation was "reasonable"

Remember, this is the man who as governor of Massachusetts did not issue one single pardon, including from an Iraq war vet who as a young kid shot another with a BB gun which hardly broke skin, yet despite his efforts to move on from the mistake and serve the US with honor, Romney saw no reason at all to reflect those changes and held firm in his belief that this war vet was definitely a criminal for life and should be labeled as such. Whether this is a characteristic of his Mormon beliefs or just a Romney being inflexible and stubborn is hard to say because while he wants to talk about his all-so-important beliefs without telling America what exactly that means or what they are and then goes crazy if anyone talks about Mormonism.

Such inability to bend comes as no surprise since this is a man who cruelly strapped his family dog in a cage on the roof of his car for a twelve hour road trip, showing no mercy for the dog who was unable to control itself over the long journey and then robotically hosed down the messy car and carried on.

If only that soldier had been important enough in right wing circles, but hey, the guy only went to Iraq to fight for his country while Libby was back home exposing CIA agents for political gain. Romney consistently shows he's a man who is so desperate to win he will say just about anything. He's also a man who can easily brag about showing no mercy to anyone. Except now, Libby. Read the rest of this post...

John Howard plays familiar tune in Australia

Still searching for a divisive issue to propel his reelection campaign to victory, conservative Australian PM John Howard may have found the answer: sleeper cells are all over Australia and could strike at any given moment. Ah yes, the old "everyone is going to die" campaign of fear that worked so well for Howard's friend Bush and the Republicans until 2006. Read the rest of this post...