Motley Moose – Archive

A look at my favorite stand-up comic, after the jump …  

I have had several stand-up comedy favorites (among them Rodney Dangerfield, Phyllis Diller, Chris Rock, Steven Wright and Bob Newhart) but from my youth I have always like Robert Klein the best. I suppose in part it’s because – unlike many comics, who develop a ‘shtick’ on a given subject or range – he simply does well at what I refer to as ‘everyman comedy’; pointing out the absurdities of life. Add to that some of the cultural reference points he has in common with me (along with his liberal politics) and that he will use expletives (yet only sparingly) and even dabbles in music: he gives himself more opportunities to get a laugh out of you. In my case … he succeeds.  

Born in the Bronx, New York in 1942, he had what he referred to as a ‘prototypical’ 1950’s Jewish experience, which he often riffed-on in his stand-up routines. He planned on taking a pre-med course after graduating from high school, then changed his mind after attending Alfred University in upstate New York – which he said he chose because he liked “the cover of the college catalog”, mimicking a photo of a student walking with their foot up in the air while walking to class. The acting bug caught him, and after graduation went to Yale Drama School for a masters’ degree.

While at Yale, he wrote in his memoirs (more about that later) that he was not overly impressed with his classmates … with one exception. And this was Fred Willard – who went on to star along with Martin Mull in America 2-Night and the film Silver Streak with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Klein wrote that while the two of them could not be more different – he a Jew from New York City, and Willard a white-bread guy from the Midwest – they clicked on an acting level, and Willard surprised Klein with his quirky humor.

They had an opportunity to audition for The Second City comedy troupe – and he and Willard did a routine that resulted in the two being hired by that Chicago-based group. Robert Klein has been quoted as saying that someone else at the audition was also offered a spot … but Billy Dee Williams declined, not wanting to relocate to Chicago.

The exposure in Second City led to his first break – being offered the job as host of the 1970 summer replacement show Comedy Tonight – which was a role he was to reprise often in his career. More importantly, he was able to showcase the stand-up routines he had been developing (while holding a day job as a substitute teacher) which led to his big break.

Besides appearing on the Tonight Show, what often broke young comics in the 60’s and early 70’s were comedy albums – think Rodney Dangerfield, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart. And Robert Klein released several: with the first two becoming big-sellers for a comedy album, with both garnering Grammy nominations for Comedy Album of the Year.

1973’s Child of the Fifties reflected his observations about coming-of-age in that decade.

1974’s Mind over Matter was more political-minded (occurring during the Watergate scandal) and I recall his line about his dentist filling his mouth with cotton, then going to work on his teeth while saying, “Why don’t they get off President Nixon’s back?” – with him squirming to respond. He also had a less successful album New Teeth in 1975.

And all along, he included his efforts at singing: he recounted how singers like Johnny Mathis (plus the emerging blues artists) were among his favorites, as  were classical and opera singers. The songs he actually sang on record were partly comedic, yet in part wistful (“Fabulous Fifties”, “Mind over Matter” and “On the Bayou”, for example).

Before we move on – some examples of his routines (that I am recalling from memory):

While working as a substitute teacher, he recounted an early morning phone call, with the caller asking “I didn’t wake you, did I?” – which he says no one ever answers honestly. When told they need a substitute German teacher, he responds that the only German word he knows is sauerkraut. “Sauerkraut, solid! Be there at nine!”

He recounted his love for the NY Yankees, only to encounter a drunken player at a meet-up (which let some air out of his enthusiasm, he admitted).

He told many lunch lady jokes, including the (inedible) Yankee Bean Soup which seemed to be on menus constantly. He also had a noted line about Third World nations rejecting it, asking “Is this the Yankee Beans?!?” (which I suspect he does not look back at kindly today).

He told of finding a condom vending machine – saving him from having to ask someone older to buy them for him (only to fear having that person blurt out, “Hey, the kid’s embarrassed!”) His vending machine purchase remained in his wallet for four years, anyway.

He spoke of appearing on Celebrity Jeopardy!, where he got off to a such a horrendous start, Art Fleming recounted the scores this way: “Phyllis Newman, $520, (other celebrity) $200, Robert Klein: just watching”.

He did a routine about a blues singer who started tapping his foot to the music, then … “I can’t stop my leg!” became the entire routine.

If you recall the old commercials for Geritol where a husband sighs wistfully, “My wife …… I think I’ll keep her” … Klein thought when the camera stopped rolling she asked, “One more day, honey?” “Yes, one more day!”

He starred in HBO’s first stand-up comedy special in 1975, and continued to do appear on many more. He was the host of a USA network show Robert Klein Time from 1986-1988, and also was the host of a VH-1 show Stand Up, Sit Down – which featured both young comics doing routines as well as interviewing them (the sit-down portion) in the early 90’s. Years later, he hosted an HBO special Monty Python: Live at Aspen in 1998. He later released a box set that covers his HBO shows from 1975-2005.

And from the 1970’s through (at least) the 1990’s: any late-night host (from Carson to Leno to Letterman to Arsenio Hall, et al) has had him on, with over 100 appearances on such shows. During Johnny Carson’s reign, I recall him as guest host a few times (interviewing the basketball coach Red Auerbach, for example).

In my youth, I had not known of his attending drama school at Yale, and thus was (pleasantly) surprised when I saw him on stage, TV and films in various roles, not all of them comedic.

In films, he has appeared in The Owl and the Pussycat plus Hooper, Primary Colors, Radioland Murders, One Fine Day and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days with Kate Hudson.

On television (other than pure comedy shows), he hosted Saturday Night Live twice in the 1970’s, made several guest appearances on shows and in the 1990’s I was glad to see him with the recurring role of Big Al Barker on the NBC series “Sisters” (one of my favorite shows of the decade). More recently, he had a (somewhat less) recurring role on Law & Order.

He has also had some success over the years on the stage, which he admitted was what drew him away from a medical career. In the 1979 Neil Simon musical They’re Playing Our Song he received a Tony nomination, and won a Los Angeles critic’s award. Years later in 1993, he won an Off Broadway (Obie) award for his appearance in The Sisters Rosensweig by Wendy Wasserstein.

In 2006 he released his memoirs covering his youth up to the advent of his show business career. He fleshed-out a good deal of his youth (that he only hinted at in his stand-up routines) and spoke of his college days and work with Fred Willard (as previously noted).  He dated a German woman he met at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, having to assure his parents he had not forgotten his World War II history. He wrote of his love of classical and opera music and – although it came later in life (and thus not in this book) – he was  married to an opera singer (named Brenda Boozer) for several years. He lamented the regard Americans have for opera; noting that opera singers on the old Ed Sullivan Show usually came after Topo Gigio (and before a dancing bear act).

There is one drawback with his memoirs: I agree with the reviews that he has too much information (TMI) about his sex life. Not all of it; his recounting how he and his frightened fellow virgins used a prostitute (worrying about the police noticing) was pertinent. It’s that he describes his relationships in more detail than we really needed to know – never going into braggadocio, just too eager to share. That aside, it’s a great read – and I hope he will follow-up with a second book, about the years after his career took off.

I was glad to see him appear at an awards ceremony a few years back for my favorite disk jockey of all time, Pete Fornatale (whose passing I noted in a previous Top Comments diary). Three months ago, on Jay Leno’s last show: he and guest Billy Crystal noted the influence Robert Klein had on them (including having a bedroom poster of Klein) when they were young comics entering the business. And Chris Rock has noted that no single comic had more of an influence on Jerry Seinfeld than Robert Klein.

At age 72 he is still active, and hopefully has a few more laughs in him.

From his Child of the Fifties album: he had a song that asked the age-old question: can white people sing the blues? I cannot embed it, but at this link is his singing Middle Class, Educated Blues.

President Barack Obama from Omaha Beach, Normandy:

President Obama:

Omaha — Normandy — this was democracy’s beachhead.  And our victory in that war decided not just a century, but shaped the security and well-being of all posterity.  We worked to turn old adversaries into new allies.  We built new prosperity.  We stood once more with the people of this continent through a long twilight struggle until finally a wall tumbled down, and an Iron Curtain, too.  And from Western Europe to East, from South America to Southeast Asia — 70 years of democratic movement spread.  And nations that once knew only the blinders of fear began to taste the blessings of freedom.

None of that would have happened without the men who were willing to lay down their lives for people they’d never met and ideals they couldn’t live without.

Full transcript below the fold …

Remarks by President Obama at the 70th Anniversary of D-Day — Omaha Beach, Normandy

President Hollande; to the people of France; friends; the family; our veterans:

If prayer were made of sound, the skies over England that night would have deafened the world.

Captains paced their decks.  Pilots tapped their gauges.  Commanders pored over maps, fully aware that for all the months of meticulous planning, everything could go wrong — the winds, the tides, the element of surprise — and above all, the audacious bet that what waited on the other side of the Channel would compel men not to shrink away, but to charge ahead.

Fresh-faced GIs rubbed trinkets, kissed pictures of sweethearts, checked and re-checked their equipment. “God,” asked one, “give me guts.”  And in the pre-dawn hours, planes rumbled down runways; gliders and paratroopers slipped through the sky; giant screws began to turn on an armada that looked like more ships than sea.  And more than 150,000 souls set off towards this tiny sliver of sand upon which hung more than the fate of a war, but rather the course of human history.

President Hollande, distinguished guests, I’m honored to return here today to pay tribute to the men and women of a generation who defied every danger — among them, our veterans of D-Day.  And, gentlemen, we are truly humbled by your presence here today.  (Applause.)  

Just last week, I received a letter from a French citizen.  “Dear Mr. President, and the American people,” he wrote, “[we are] honored to welcome you… to thank you again for all the pain and efforts of [the] American people and others in our common struggle for freedom.”

Today, we say the same to the people of France.  Thank you, especially, for the generosity that you’ve shown the Americans who’ve come here over the generations — to these beaches, and to this sacred place of rest for 9,387 Americans.  At the end of the war, when our ships set off for America, filled with our fallen, tens of thousands of liberated Europeans turned out to say farewell, and they pledged to take care of the more than 60,000 Americans who would remain in cemeteries on this continent.  In the words of one man, we will take care of the fallen “as if their tombs were our children’s.”  And the people of France, you have kept your word like the true friends you are.  We are forever grateful.  (Applause.)

Here, we don’t just commemorate victory, as proud of that victory as we are.  We don’t just honor sacrifice, as grateful as the world is.  We come to remember why America and our allies gave so much for the survival of liberty at its moment of maximum peril.  We come to tell the story of the men and women who did it so that it remains seared into the memory of a future world.

We tell this story for the old soldiers who pull themselves a little straighter today to salute brothers who never made it home.  We tell the story for the daughter who clutches a faded photo of her father, forever young; for the child who runs his fingers over colorful ribbons he knows signify something of great consequence, even if he doesn’t yet fully understand why.  We tell this story to bear what witness we can to what happened when the boys from America reached Omaha Beach.

By daybreak, blood soaked the water, bombs broke the sky.  Thousands of paratroopers had dropped into the wrong landing sites; thousands of rounds bit into flesh and sand.  Entire companies’ worth of men fell in minutes.  “Hell’s Beach” had earned its name.

By 8:30 a.m., General Omar Bradley expected our troops to be a mile inland.  “Six hours after the landings,” he wrote, “we held only ten yards of beach.”  In this age of instant commentary, the invasion would have swiftly and roundly been declared, as it was by one officer, “a debacle.”

But such a race to judgment would not have taken into account the courage of free men.  “Success may not come with rushing speed,” President Roosevelt would say that night, “but we shall return again and again.”  And paratroopers fought through the countryside to find one another.  Rangers pulled themselves over those cliffs to silence Nazi guns.  To the west, Americans took Utah Beach with relative ease.  To the east, the British tore through the coast, fueled by the fury of five years of bombs over London and a solemn vow to “fight them on the beaches.”  The Canadians, whose shores had not been touched by war, drove far into France.  And here, at Omaha, troops who finally made it to the seawall used it as shelter — where a general barked, “If you’re Rangers… lead the way!”

By the end of that longest day, this beach had been fought, lost, refought, and won — a piece of Europe once again liberated and free.  Hitler’s Wall was breached, letting loose Patton’s Army to pour into France.  Within a week, the world’s bloodiest beach had become the world’s busiest port.  Within a month, one million Allied troops thundered through Normandy into Europe, and as our armies marched across the continent, one pilot said it looked “as if the very crust of the Earth had shaken loose.”  The Arc de Triomphe lit up for the first time in years, and Paris was punctuated by shouts of “Vive la France!” and “Vive les États-Unis!”  (Applause.)  

Of course, even as we gather here at Normandy, we remember that freedom’s victory was also made possible by so many others who wore America’s uniform.  Two years before he commanded armies, Eisenhower’s troops sliced through North Africa.  Three times before D-Day, our GIs stormed the beaches at Sicily, Salerno, Anzio.  Divisions like the Fighting 36th brawled their way through Italy, fighting through the mud for months, marching through towns past waving children before opening the gates to Rome.  As the “dogfaces” marched to victory in Europe, the Devil Dogs — the Marines — clawed their way from island to island in the Pacific, in some of the war’s fiercest fighting.  And back home, an army of women — including my grandmother — rolled up their sleeves to help build a mighty arsenal of democracy.

But it was here, on these shores, that the tide was turned in that common struggle for freedom.  What more powerful manifestation of America’s commitment to human freedom than the sight of wave after wave after wave of young men boarding those boats to liberate people they had never met?

We say it now as if it couldn’t be any other way.  But in the annals of history, the world had never seen anything like it.  And when the war was won, we claimed no spoils of victory — we helped Europe rebuild.  We claimed no land other than the earth where we buried those who gave their lives under our flag and where we station those who still serve under it.  But America’s claim — our commitment — to liberty, our claim to equality, our claim to freedom and to the inherent dignity of every human being — that claim is written in the blood on these beaches, and it will endure for eternity.

Omaha — Normandy — this was democracy’s beachhead.  And our victory in that war decided not just a century, but shaped the security and well-being of all posterity.  We worked to turn old adversaries into new allies.  We built new prosperity.  We stood once more with the people of this continent through a long twilight struggle until finally a wall tumbled down, and an Iron Curtain, too.  And from Western Europe to East, from South America to Southeast Asia — 70 years of democratic movement spread.  And nations that once knew only the blinders of fear began to taste the blessings of freedom.

None of that would have happened without the men who were willing to lay down their lives for people they’d never met and ideals they couldn’t live without.

None of it would have happened without the troops President Roosevelt called “the life-blood of America… the hope of the world.”

They left home barely more than boys and returned home heroes.  But to their great credit, that is not how this generation carried itself.  After the war, some put away their medals, were quiet about their service, moved on.  Some, carrying shrapnel and scars, found that moving on was much harder.  Many, like my grandfather, who served in Patton’s Army, lived a quiet life, trading one uniform and set of responsibilities for another — as a teacher, or a salesman, or a doctor, or an engineer, a dad, a grandpa.

Our country made sure millions of them earned a college education, opening up opportunity on an unprecedented scale.  And they married those sweethearts and bought new homes and raised families and built businesses, lifting up the greatest middle class the world has ever known.  And through it all, they were inspired, I suspect, by memories of their fallen brothers — memories that drove them to live their lives each day as best they possibly could.

Whenever the world makes you cynical, stop and think of these men.  Whenever you lose hope, stop and think of these men.

Think of Wilson Colwell, who was told he couldn’t pilot a plane without a high school degree, so he decided to jump out of a plane instead.  And he did, here on D-Day, with the 101st Airborne when he was just 16 years old.

Think of Harry Kulkowitz, the Jewish son of Russian immigrants, who fudged his age at enlistment so he could join his friends in the fight.  And don’t worry, Harry, the statute of limitations has expired.  (Laughter.)  Harry came ashore at Utah Beach on D-Day.  And now that he’s come back, we said he could have anything he wants for lunch today — he helped liberate this coast, after all.  But he said a hamburger would do fine.  (Laughter.)  What’s more American than that?

Think of “Rock” Merritt, who saw a recruitment poster asking him if he was man enough to be a paratrooper — so he signed up on the spot.  And that decision landed him here on D-Day with the 508th regiment, a unit that would suffer heavy casualties.  And 70 years later, it’s said that all across Fort Bragg, they know Rock — not just for his exploits on D-Day, or his 35 years in the Army, but because 91-year-old Rock Merritt still spends his time speaking to the young men and women of today’s Army and still bleeds “O.D. Green” for his 82nd Airborne.

Whenever the world makes you cynical, whenever you doubt that courage and goodness is possible — stop and think of these men.

Wilson and Harry and Rock, they are here today, and although I know we already gave them a rousing round of applause, along with all our veterans of D-Day — if you can stand, please stand; if not, please raise your hand.  Let us recognize your service once more.  (Applause.)  These men waged war so that we might know peace.  They sacrificed so that we might be free.  They fought in hopes of a day when we’d no longer need to fight.  We are grateful to them.  (Applause.)  

And, gentlemen, I want each of you to know that your legacy is in good hands.  For in a time when it has never been more tempting to pursue narrow self-interest, to slough off common endeavor, this generation of Americans, a new generation — our men and women of war — have chosen to do their part as well.

Rock, I want you to know that Staff Sergeant Melvin Cedillo-Martin, who’s here today, is following in your footsteps.  He just had to become an American first — because Melvin was born in Honduras, moved to the United States, joined the Army.  After tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was reassigned to the 82nd Airborne.  And Sunday, he’ll parachute into Normandy.  (Applause.)  “I became part of a family of real American heroes,” he said.  “The Paratroopers of the 82nd.”

Wilson, you should know that Specialist Jannise Rodriguez joined the Army not even two years ago, was assigned to the 101st Airborne, and just last month earned the title of the 101st Airborne Division Air Assault Soldier of the Year.  And that’s inspiring but not surprising, when the women of today’s military have taken on responsibilities, including combat, like never before.  (Applause.)  

I want each of you to know that their commitment to their fellow servicemembers and veterans endures.  Sergeant First Class Brian Hawthorne’s grandfather served under General Patton and General MacArthur.  Brian himself served two tours in Iraq, earned the Bronze Star in Baghdad for saving the life of his best friend, and today, he and his wife use their experience to help other veterans and military families navigate theirs.  And Brian is here in Normandy to participate in Sunday’s jump, and here, just yesterday, he reenlisted in the Army Reserve.

And this generation — this 9/11 Generation of servicemembers — they, too, felt something.  They answered some call; they said “I will go.”  They, too, chose to serve a cause that’s greater than self — many even after they knew they’d be sent into harm’s way.  And for more than a decade, they have endured tour after tour.

Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg has served ten.  And I’ve told Cory’s incredible story before, most recently when he sat with my wife, Michelle, at the State of the Union address.  It was here, at Omaha Beach, on the 65th anniversary of D-Day, where I first met Cory and his fellow Army Rangers, right after they made their own jump into Normandy.  The next time I saw him, he was in the hospital, unable to speak or walk after an IED nearly killed him in Afghanistan.  But over the past five years, Cory has grown stronger, learning to speak again and stand again and walk again.  And earlier this year, he jumped out of a plane again.  The first words Cory said to me after his accident echoed those words first shouted all those years ago on this beach:  “Rangers lead the way.”  (Applause.)

So Cory has come back today, along with Melvin and Jannise and Brian, and many of their fellow active-duty servicemembers.  We thank them for their service.  They are a reminder that the tradition represented by these gentlemen continues.      

We are on this Earth for only a moment in time.  And fewer of us have parents and grandparents to tell us about what the veterans of D-Day did here 70 years ago.  As I was landing on Marine One, I told my staff, I don’t think there’s a time where I miss my grandfather more, where I’d be more happy to have him here, than this day.  So we have to tell their stories for them.  We have to do our best to uphold in our own lives the values that they were prepared to die for.  We have to honor those who carry forward that legacy, recognizing that people cannot live in freedom unless free people are prepared to die for it.

And as today’s wars come to an end, this generation of servicemen and women will step out of uniform, and they, too, will build families and lives of their own.  They, too, will become leaders in their communities, in commerce, in industry, and perhaps politics — the leaders we need for the beachheads of our time.  And, God willing, they, too, will grow old in the land they helped to keep free.  And someday, future generations, whether 70 or 700 years hence, will gather at places like this to honor them and to say that these were generations of men and women who proved once again that the United States of America is and will remain the greatest force for freedom the world has ever known.  (Applause.)

May God bless our veterans and all who served with them, including those who rest here in eternal peace.  And may God bless all who serve today for the peace and security of the world.  May God bless the people of France.  And may God bless our United States of America.  (Applause.)

Good morning, Moosekind. TGIF!

Friday Coffee Hour and check-in is an open thread and general social hour.

It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:

Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:

Be kind to each other… or else.

What could be simpler than that, right?

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.

For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.

The important stuff to get you started:

– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.

– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)

– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).

– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”

– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”

(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)

You can follow the daily moosetrails here: Motley Moose Recent Comments.

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So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania?

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Found on the Internets …

Lawmakers Change Their Minds After Demanding ‘Every Effort’ Be Made To Free Bergdahl

Republicans are almost uniformly criticizing President Obama’s decision to swap five Taliban fighters at Guantanamo Bay for the release of U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only American held hostage in Afghanistan. But many of the administration’s loudest critics have previously demanded that it do more to bring Bergdahl to safety. Since his release, these lawmakers are emphasizing their criticism of Obama’s handling of the prisoner exchange while downplaying the successful return of an American servicemember.

In the clearest contradiction, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in February that he “would be inclined to support” “an exchange of prisoners for our American fighting man,” like the one Taliban officials had offered in 2012. He has since labeled Obama’s deal “ill-founded” and a “mistake.”

Former Bush Official Blasts GOP On Bergdahl: Bush Would Have Done The Same Thing

“Year of the Establishment Republican”? How about “Year of the Discredited Narrative”“:

When the smoke clears on June 24, Mississippi will likely join Kentucky and Georgia as states where the loss of a Republican Senate seat in November is possible, and the dissipation of GOP resources better spent elsewhere is certain. Beyond that, Republican pols everywhere would know that not even four decades of genial service and effective money-grubbing for a very poor state, or the support of virtually everyone there ever elected to a position above dogcatcher, is enough to survive the ever-rightward tide of the conservative activist “base.”

– Iowa GOP Senate Nominee is ‘Sarah Palin Of Iowa’

– Mississippi GOP Senate Primary Likely Headed To Runoff

“In race after race, Republican candidates have been pulled so far to the right by the Tea Party that it is a distinction without a difference,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “The likely runoff in Mississippi caused by Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel shows that the GOP is the Same Old Party, which has failed to learn its lessons from recent elections. Come November, voters will reject a Republican Party which opposes an increase in the minimum wage for hard working Americans, has blocked equal pay for women, and is obsessed with repealing the benefits of the Affordable Care Act for millions of Americans.”

NRA Apologizes For Calling Guns-In-Restaurants Crowd ‘Weird’

The National Rifle Association has disavowed its recent criticism of pro-gun demonstrations in Texas.

In an interview on Tuesday with the organization’s own news site, the head of the NRA’s lobbying arm blamed a staff member’s “personal opinion” for the content of an unsigned statement published Friday on the organization’s website, and he apologized for “any confusion” the statement may have caused.

“It’s a distraction,” Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, told NRA News. “There was some confusion, we apologize, again, for any confusion that that post caused.”

Wait wait … we forgot that “weird” and “scary” is what we are!! Never mind.

More …

More news and views …

Ken Gude: Why The Five Taliban Detainees Had To Be Released Soon, No Matter What

When wars end, prisoners taken custody must be released. These five Guantanamo detainees were almost all members of the Taliban, according to the biographies of the five detainees that the Afghan Analysts Network compiled in 2012. None were facing charges in either military or civilian courts for their actions. It remains an open question whether the end of U.S. involvement in the armed conflict in Afghanistan requires that all Guantanamo detainees must be released. But there is no doubt that Taliban detainees captured in Afghanistan must be released because the armed conflict against the Taliban will be over. […]

… the statistics show that there is a 5 percent chance at most that these detainees will engage in militant activities upon release, they will be in Qatar for at least a year by which time the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan will be over, and they would have had to be released soon anyway. When put in the proper perspective, obtaining the release of the sole U.S. prisoner in Afghanistan is a masterstroke and worthy of congratulations.

Jim Wright: Negotiating With Terrorists

Are we now so filled with foul bilious hatred, are we now so consumed with soul-destroying fear, do we now despise our own selves so much that we would actually protest the return of one of our own? Is that it?[…]

Is this who we are?

Because the utter unmitigated, unhinged, unbounded yellow-eyed hypocrisy that defines this sick twisted morally bankrupt philosophy has finally, today, reached its zenith.  There is nowhere left to go.

I didn’t think these people could dishonor the spirit of this country any more than they already had, but I was wrong.[…]

I get that they are so consumed with rage and so filled with naked hate and so programmed with their diseased ideology that it poisons their minds like a computer chip submerged in acid.

I get that they are so utterly terrified of the world that they piss themselves in abject fear at the mere thought of going to the grocery store without a goddamned gun stuck in their pants like an extra oversized prick.

More than anything, I get that they are afraid of Barack Obama, everything about him, every single thing about the president terrifies them. Obama stalks their feverish nightmares and he is the very symbol of their shameful impotence – so much so that they’ve written him into their precious bible, in a starring role as the devil, the destroyer of worlds. […]

… Bergdahl has been condemned by the popular media, by social networks, by pundits and politicians, not because they know more about the situation than you or I do, but solely because they hate the president. If Obama was behind Bergdahl’s release, then Bergdahl is a traitor, Q.E.D. because the president must never, ever, be allowed even the slightest acknowledgement of patriotism.

This condemnation isn’t about Bergdahl, it’s about Obama.

Anger explodes over treatment of Bergdahl’s release as veterans, troops call him a deserter

Other veterans of U.S. wars warned, however, that the high-pitched tenor of the desertion debate is harmful to the military’s reputation and damaging to the age-old ethos of never leaving a service member behind. Like him or not, the more muted camp said, Bergdahl was captured by the enemy, endured untold hardships, and must first be repatriated and rehabilitated before it’s appropriate to discuss punitive action.

Army To Probe Circumstances Of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s Capture: “There is no timeline for this, and we will take as long as medically necessary to aid his recovery.”

Conservatives Go From Zero To Impeachment In Record Time On Bergdahl

June 4: The Day That Defines, And Still Haunts China .

As China prepares to mark the 25th anniversary of its brutal repression of protests around Tiananmen Square, its leaders have presided over an unprecedented pre-anniversary crackdown. Rights groups say at least 50 people have been detained, put under house arrest or disappeared

Can Civilian Health Care Help Fix The VA?

To address the crisis in wait times, the VA is ramping up a system that would explicitly allow veterans to get private care if they’ve been waiting more than 30 days for medical attention. Some in Congress have put forth measures to do the same. But that’s something the VA already has the authority to do – in fact, in 2013 the department spent $4.8 billion on care outside the VA system.

While veterans’ service organizations support many of the measures before Congress, the majority of such groups say the VA’s medical care is excellent once vets get access to it. And they worry that the private sector doesn’t have needed expertise.

Mad at Obama? Blame Republicans

The carping is familiar. President Obama has “overreached” and abused his authority by releasing terrorist prisoners without notifying Congress and in promulgating new environmental rules. But, as usual, Republicans have few remedies beyond press releases and the promises of hearings.

That’s the state of play in Washington: trench warfare that has lasted more than three years.

Obama began 2014 vowing that he would no longer be sidelined by Republican obstructionists-and he appears to be making good on his threat. More executive actions are likely on the way, as the president may well impose deportation curbs if the GOP won’t constructively work toward immigration-reform legislation.

House Republicans should stop and consider it-not because of the political benefit the party might, maybe, enjoy by helping to broker an immigration solution. No, the better reason is this: If they truly fear the unchecked growth of presidential power, then their best option is to come to the table and force compromise. It’s the one sure way to keep Obama from going cowboy (or, in their minds, tyrant).

One Day After U.S. Announces Emissions Target, China Says Carbon Cap Is On The Way

Major Companies Distance Themselves From U.S. Chamber Campaign Against Obama’s Climate Plan

In Ireland, A Macabre Discovery At Old Home For Unwed Mothers

The harsh conditions at the St. Mary’s Mother and Baby Home weren’t exceptional: In post-independence Ireland, thousands of women were abused or exploited in church-run homes.

Other church-run homes pretended children were orphans and gave them up for adoption – in exchange for donations – regardless of their mothers’ wishes. The 2013 film Philomena was inspired by the true story of such a forced adoption. And, as government reports have detailed , the sexual and physical abuse of children at Irish church-run schools and orphanages ran rampant – and was covered up by the church hierarchy.

Editor’s Note: Feel free to share other news stories in the comments.

Good morning, Moosekind.  

The common Moose, Alces alces, unlike other members of the deer family, is a solitary animal that doesn’t form herds. Not so its rarer but nearest relative, Alces purplius, the Motley Moose. Though sometimes solitary, the Motley Moose herds in ever shifting groups at the local watering hole to exchange news and just pass the time.

The morning check-in is an open thread and general social hour.

It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:

Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:

Be kind to each other… or else.

What could be simpler than that, right?

Hubert Horatio Humphrey at the 1948 Democratic Convention

Last week was the 103rd birthday of great American, Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978).

Not only a great American but a great liberal, a great Democrat and a courageous leader.

A few years ago, on the occasion of Hubert Humphrey’s 100th birthday, I had the good fortune to come across an article on his life and even more fortunate to discover a speech he made in 1948 which forever changed the face of the Democratic party and of our country.

Speeches can contain words to live by, words that call us to action for an important cause and words that connect to our deepest feelings about fairness and compassion.

In 1948, Hubert H. Humphrey was the 37 year old mayor of Minneapolis and a candidate for the U.S. Senate. As head of the Minnesota delegation to the nominating convention that year, he led a group who wanted a plank in the party’s platform to include a federal fair employment commission. Southern Democrats, who were upset by the civil rights movement, threatened a walk out.

Humphrey made the speech anyway despite being told that it could risk President Harry Truman’s election chances in the fall.

He carefully set the stage and identified the risks.

I realize that I am dealing with a charged issue – with an issue which has been confused by emotionalism on all sides. I realize that there are those here – friends and colleagues of mine, many of them – who feel as deeply as I do about this issue and who are yet in complete disagreement with me.

Because of this very respect – because of my profound belief that we have a challenging task to do here — because good conscience demands it – I feel I must rise at this time to support this report – a report that spells out our democracy, a report that the people will understand and enthusiastically acclaim.

Humphrey quoted the keynote speaker, Senator Alben Barkley (D-KY) who said of Thomas Jefferson:

“He did not proclaim that all white, or black, or red, or yellow men are equal; that all Christian or Jewish men are equal; that all Protestant and Catholic men are equal; that all rich or poor men are equal; that all good or bad men are equal.

“What he declared was, that all men are equal; and the equality which he proclaimed was equality in the right to enjoy the blessings of free government in which they may participate and to which they have given their consent.”

Putting country above party, a concept sorely missing in today’s discourse, Humphrey continued:

Yes, this is far more than a party matter. […]

I do not believe that there can be any compromise of the guarantees of civil rights which I have mentioned.

Was he anticipating the “keep your powder dry” argument?

There are those who say to you – we are rushing this issue of civil rights. I say we are 172 years late.

There are those who say – this issue of civil rights is an infringement on states rights. The time has arrived for the Democratic party to get out of the shadow of state’s rights and walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.

People – human beings – this is the issue of the 20th century. People – all kinds and sorts of people – look to America for leadership – for help – for guidance.

My friends – my fellow Democrats – I ask you for a calm consideration of our historic opportunity. […]

For all of us here, for the millions who have sent us, for the whole two billion members of the human family – our land is now, more than ever, the last best hope on earth. I know that we can – I know that we shall – begin here the fuller and richer realization of that hope – that promise of a land where all men are free and equal, and each man uses his freedom and equality wisely and well.

The Southerners walked out, Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina ran on the States’ Rights Democratic Party ticket, Dewey did NOT defeat Truman and the Democratic party would go on to sponsor civil rights legislation that would lose them the southern states but underscore their belief in the worth of all human beings, a belief that defines the party to this day.

So not only a great speech but an important speech and a history changing speech.

And because reading about history often yields bonuses, here is a Hubert H. Humphrey quote I found that is just as applicable in 2014 as it was in 1977 when he uttered it:

It was once said that the moral test of Government is how that Government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.

As we are faced in this election year with political adversaries who believe that our country cannot afford to care for our elderly, our sick, our needy and our handicapped, remember that when people speak up they can energize a party and inspire a generation of Americans to do the right thing.

Another Hubert Humphrey quote, especially pertinent given the attacks on Democrats this year:

“Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism.”

Our party has a long history of leaders showing courage when it is politically risky. It is a history we can be proud of.

  Make sure you let your peeps

  know where to find you!  

The morning check-in is an open thread posted to give you a place to visit with the meeses. Feel free to chat about your weather, share a bit of your life, grump (if you must), rave (if you can). The diarist du jour sometimes posts and runs, other times sticks around for a bit, often returns throughout the day and always cares that meeses are happy … or at least contented.

For those new to the Moose, Kysen left a Moose Welcome Mat (Part Deux) so, please, wipe your feet before you walk in the front door start posting.

The important stuff to get you started:

– Comments do not Auto-refresh. Click the refresh/reload on your tab to see new ones. Only click Post once for comments. When a diary’s comment threads grow, the page takes longer to refresh and the comment may not display right away.

– To check for replies to your comments, click the “My Comments” link in the right-hand column (or go to “My Moose”). Comments will be listed and a link to Recent Replies will be shown. (Note: Tending comments builds community)

– Ratings: Fierce means Thumbs Up, Fail means Thumbs Down, Meh means one of three things: I am unFailing you but I can’t Fierce you, I am unFiercing after a mistaken Fierce, … or Meh. Just Meh. (p.s. Ratings don’t bestow mojo, online behaviour does).

– The Recommended list has a prominent place on the Front Page because it reflects the interests of the Moose. When people drive-by, we want them to see what we are talking about: news, politics, science, history, personal stories, culture. The list is based on number of recs and days on the list. Per Kysen: “The best way to control Rec List content is to ONLY rec diaries you WANT to see ON the list.”

– Finally, the posting rules for a new diary: “Be excellent to each other… or else”

(Some other commenting/posting/tending notes for newbies can be found in this past check-in and, of course, consult Meese Mehta for all your questions on meesely decorum.)

You can follow the daily moosetrails here: Motley Moose Recent Comments.

~

So … what’s going on in your part of Moosylvania??

Good morning Motley Meese! Hope your weekend was lovely. I went up to Big Meadows in Shenandoah National Park to try out my new 60x ultra zoom camera. I give it 2 1/2 thumbs up.

The check-in is an open thread and general social hour.

It’s traditional but not obligatory to give us a weather check where you are and let us know what’s new, interesting, challenging or even routine in your life lately. Nothing is particularly obligatory here except:

Always remember the Moose Golden (Purple?) Rule:

Be kind to each other… or else.

What could be simpler than that, right?