Maybe Bush should just raise his hand and ask Kofi Annan for a hall pass....

Original photo caption form Reuters: U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Bette Davis Eyes?

Speaking of eyes....

Multiple choice test.

1. You are getting sleepy - very, very sleepy....

2. OK, I see the deer, now where are the headlights?

3. Using the same under-the-jacket voice prompter that Shrub wore in the presidential debates, Karl Rove has just given John Roberts an unexpected electric shock after Roberts told the Senate Judiciary Committee that stare decisis applied to Roe v. Wade.

4. All of the above.

Where is Ben Stein when we need him?

Ben Stein on Bush - not a "dry eye" in the place

Though Ben is most visible recently in his "dry eyes" commercials, he is also a well-regarded political pundit and former Nixon speech-writer. The Mandarin has a lot of respect for Ben. The Mandarin was a contestant on Ben's quiz show, and actualy won some of Ben Stein's money. In his chats with the Mandarin during taping breaks, Ben was charming and witty. But in this piece, I think he doth protest too much.

Bennie, you're doin' a heck of a job.

Remind me what Clinton did to get impeached? Fibbing about what?

Reuters today: Asked if Americans should be concerned their government remains unprepared to respond to another major disaster or a terrorist attack, Bush said: "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."

Georgie, to the extent you're doing a job, its a heck of a job.

Thinking about the meaning of the words "I take responsibility," the Mandarin wonders how such a taking of responsibility actually works in the real world of Bushland. Where does that pesky buck stop now?

Now, the Mandarin's head is starting to hurt.

I noticed a pattern right away

Kevin Drum summarizes the qualifications of the last four heads of FEMA. He quotes one line of a Sesame Street song as a hint to the pattern you're supposed to pick up. Here's the whole verse:

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

The headlines from Kevin's rundown. The full post is a must-read. The job is to coordinate the nation's emergency services, so some experience in that would be cool.

1990-1992: Wallace Stickney, a close friend and former next door neighbor of White House Chief of Staff John Sununu.

1993-2000: James Lee Witt, Director of the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services.

2001-2002: Joe Allbaugh, National Campaign Manager for Bush-Cheney 2000, and the guy who helped Karen Hughes sanitize Shrub's Texas Air National Guard files.

2003-Present: Michael Brown, Commissioner of Judges and Stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, and Allbaugh's college roommate.

Connect the dots.

Toasting marshmallows in the Astrodome

From Domeblog - a blogger at the Astrodome: Earlier today, Tom DeLay, Texas Congressman and House Majority Leader (for now anyway), visited a few thousand of his newest constituents.

While on the tour with top administration officials from Washington, including U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and U.S. Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, DeLay stopped to chat with three young boys resting on cots. The congressman likened their stay to being at camp and asked, "Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?" They nodded yes, but looked perplexed.

Kum-ba-ya, dude!

No argument from me

The West Bank was not going to become New Orleans

Thanks to NS for pointing me to this heart-breaking and infuriating personal account of Katrina's aftermath.

Money quote -- A large group of people who had been locked out of their hotels were told by a senior police official that evacuation busses were waiting across the greater New Orleans Bridge on the Pontchartrain Expressway:

"As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions. As the crowd scattered and dissipated, a few of us inched forward and managed to engage some of the sheriffs in conversation. We told them of our conversation with the police commander and of the commander's assurances. The sheriffs informed us there were no buses waiting. The commander had lied to us to get us to move. We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City. These were code words for if you are poor and black, you are not crossing the Mississippi River and you were not getting out of New Orleans."

Bush Told Hurricane Katrina Determined to Attack United States

"Junior" has a senior moment? Bush claimed nobody anticipated the hurricane could cause the levees to fail and flood New Orleans. Except, according to the guy giving the briefing in this photo (Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center), he warned the President of exactly that possibility in this video conference on Sunday August 28th, before Katrina even made landfall.. Picture source: White House web site.

Fire Michael Brown

Aren't there some Republican Arabian horses somewhere yearning for someone to give them legal advice? Its a start. Click me.

Dr. Frist sets an example his boss should follow

Senator Frist grabbed his doctor's bag and headed for New Orleans yesterday. Not for an hour of photo ops, but to stay and treat the sick. I don't like his politics, but that can wait. People need help down there.

Faith-based disaster relief - Bush-style

Shrub is telling his destitute taxpaying citizens to seek disaster releif from a religious charity.

During his whirlwind (pun intended) visit to the gulf coast yesterday: "In Biloxi, Miss., Bush encountered two weeping women on a street where a house had collapsed and towering trees were stripped of their branches. 'My son needs clothes,' said Bronwynne Bassier, 23, clutching several trash bags. 'I don't have anything.' 'I understand that,' Bush said. He kissed both women on their heads and walked with his arms around them, telling them they could get help from the Salvation Army. 'Hang in there,' he said." [Associated Press]

Maybe he should have given her a set of Air Force One cufflinks, too? If I wanted a clueless President, I would have voted for Cher Horowitz.

Plenty of room at the ranch in Crawford these days

Maybe now that Shrub has decamped early to avoid Cindy Sheehan and (until this morning) the Katrina disaster, he might open up his ranch to the refugees? There is room for thousands of cots, plus the lovely bike trails will provide hours of exercise for people who have been stuck in those cramped seats at the Superdome.

I hope to God Bush (or Rove on his behalf) has the brains gets his picture taken today, during his visit to the area, spending a few hours (not a few minutes) on the relief line handing out food and water to his fellow Americans. Otherwise the $6,000 an hour in jet fuel that Air Force One burns to get him down there (again, after his flyover the other day) will have been a disgusting waste.

I have to imagine that in their day Bush Senior or Reagan or B. Clinton or Carter or someday McCain or Giuliani or Gore or H. Clinton or Ahnuld or Jeb Bush would be there sweating, in muddy boots, passing out bottled water and food while the Marine One presidential helicopter rescued desperately sick people from hospital rooftops even if the nice clean Presidential seats were going to get all damp and stinky from the mud and blood....

The Mandarin is planning to make a donation to the Red Cross, but a friend of his, something of a Mandarin himself, just pointed out something the Mandarin had been mulling over in the shower this morning. The Mandarin and his family, more fortunate than many of those we see in the horrific TV images, paid enough in various federal taxes last year to buy everyone at the Superdome a square meal and a big bottle of water (or enough for the gas Air Force One is burning to fly Shrub from Washington to the gulf coast and back today)... Those dollars ought to be available for assisting our fellow Americans in distress, but the Mandarin is afraid that President Bush has blown them on some neocon nation-building stunt in Iraq. So, another dip into the wallet seems the thing to do.

And where are the Bush twins? Not burdened by onerous 9-to-5 jobs, they could certainly spend a few days showing the family flag down in the disaster zone. Just tell them its an all-expense paid week in the French Quarter. Chips off the old Shrub, they probably don't read newspapers or watch TV news anyway, so think what a nice surprise would await them when they stepped off the plane.

A President from the Flyover States, well, flies over them....

This picture is worth a thousand words, and Arianna Huffington said them best. Her opening salvo:

"The president's 35-minute Air Force One flyover of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama was the perfect metaphor for his entire presidency: detached, disconnected, and disengaged. Preferring to take in America's suffering -- whether caused by the war in Iraq or Hurricane Katrina -- from a distance. In this case, 2,500 feet. Apparently, the president 'sat somberly on a couch on the left hand side of the presidential jumbo jet peering out the window' at the catastrophe below, joined at different times by White House staffers including Karl Rove and Scott McClellan. McClellan later quoted the president as saying, 'It's devastating. It's got to be doubly devastating on the ground.' Ya think?? Hey, here's an idea, Mr. President: maybe you should, y'know, get off the plane and see for yourself?"

Why is that man still grinning?

Gosh, I expect him to break out any minute with, "The sun will come out, tomorrow..."

The New York Times: "George W. Bush gave one of the worst speeches of his life yesterday, especially given the level of national distress and the need for words of consolation and wisdom. In what seems to be a ritual in this administration, the president appeared a day later than he was needed. He then read an address of a quality more appropriate for an Arbor Day celebration: a long laundry list of pounds of ice, generators and blankets delivered to the stricken Gulf Coast. He advised the public that anybody who wanted to help should send cash, grinned, and promised that everything would work out in the end. Sacrifices may be necessary to make sure that all these things happen in an orderly, efficient way. But this administration has never been one to counsel sacrifice. And nothing about the president's demeanor yesterday - which seemed casual to the point of carelessness - suggested that he understood the depth of the current crisis."

Josh Marshall: "We're hearing again and again now that there just wasn't enough money for a lot of this stuff. Terrorism was our big focus. Some kinds of preparedness aren't simply a question of funds. They turn on less elastic resources. But most of what we're hearing about is dollars and planning. So when we hear, 'well, there just wasn't enough for this and terrorism', or 'we needed the money for Iraq', the real answer is 'nice try'. The president cut taxes every year of his first term in office. He's trying to push through a major tax cut right now. So it's not terrorism that took away the money. It was tax cuts. And to a degree, same thing for Iraq. Choices have consequences. And bad consequences require accountability."

Manchester Union Leader: "As the extent of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation became clearer on Tuesday — millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews can’t reach some regions — President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before. Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage. A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease. The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty. Wherever the old George W. Bush went, we sure wish we had him back."

Rudy G, where are ye?

Why is this man smiling?

"That Sheehan woman has gone back to California for a while. Now if the rest of her friends would go home, I could have some peace and quiet, and just get on with my life."

Original photo caption: "President Bush smiles as he arrives at Caterpiller's Aurora facility in Montgomery, Ill., Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005. With anti-war protesters continuing their vigil outside U.S. President Bush's ranch, the president began a five-day push Saturday, Aug. 20, 2005, to tell the U.S. why he thinks U.S. troops must continue the fight in Iraq." (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

To bring out the worst in someone, the worst already has to be in there somewhere

Who in the hell are these people? Where do they come from? How can they be wearing the same uniform I wore, the same uniform my father and grandfather wore? It is beyond belief. Or should have been....

Reading this article literally brought tears of fury to my eyes.

I don't see this as doing much for Shrub's "Democracy on the march" ad campaign. It is just thuggery and murder, pure and simple, encouraged from the middle and condoned from the top. If we are supposed to have the moral high ground, to be better than the "terrorists," these criminals are doing us more damage than roadside bombs ever will.

And, if Shrub's crony Alberto G ("torture is OK if you call it something else" memo author) is ever nominated to the SCOTUS, all hell better break loose.

Day by day, the truth seems more and more obvious.

Not the new Vietnam, but even worse.

Why they kill us

I have been meditating recently on a post to explain why I think our government leaders, especially President Bush and his inner circle, fundamentally misunderstand the enemy we face in Bin Laden-style Islamic fundamentalism. Despite what Mr. Bush says, they do not kill us because they "hate our way of life," or because they "hate freedom." I believe they kill us because of our financial and military support of Israel, who in turn they hate because of Israel's occupation of Jerusalem and their treatment of the Palestinian Arabs.

Well, Juan Cole, an expert on Middle East politics and culture, has written it much more thoroughly and persuasively than I could have done. What I have been thinking, he explains convincingly. I was going to say I wish Mr. Bush would read it, but in reality, I doubt he would understand it or recognize its truth. I hope our next group of political leaders, of whatever party, have more open minds. I just wish we didn't have to wait another three and a half years to find out.

Read it yourself: Jerusalem and Terrorism.

Up Close and Personal

A prominent pro-war academic, military historian and pundit writes about his feelings as his son, an infantry officer, prepares to deploy to Iraq.

Cheney has a dictionary. Does he have a clue?

You can't make this stuff up, folks.

Let me get this straight: Newsweek should apologize for offending Muslims!?

Reports already published describe things like: female US interrogators wearing revealing outfits intended to offend Muslim men, a female US interrogator pretending to rub menstrual blood on a Muslim man's face, Army guards at Abu Ghraib forcing a group of naked men to stand in a line and masturbate in front of each other and in front of female guards, in fact the entire sorry scandal of our gulag in Iraq, and the Muslim world was fine with it until last week. Then Newsweek's source corrects himself and says the description of a US interrogator flushing a Quran down a toilet wasn't in the confidential Army report due out in a few days, it was in some other confidential report he saw recently. So, what is Newsweek to retract? How have they inflamed the Muslim world? By saying, 1) a government report confirms that at least one Quran was flushed down a toilet by a US interrogator, but 2) we attributed it to the wrong confidential US government report. In other words, it did happen.

So, tell the Mandarin again why Shrub and his puppeteers are in high dudgeon about it? Because it is Rathergate all over again. Just as with reports of Bush's dereliction of duty in the Texas Air National Guard, the story itself is unequivocally true and already proven. But by calling out the mob to scream about bad reporting, the truth of the story is forgotten and the mainstream press is cowed into talking about something else. You gotta love that Karl Rove. Pure genius.

Update: As usual, Andrew Sullivan made the same point, but said it better: here.

That Goldwater was my kind of guy....

Andrew Sullivan's Quote of the Day:

"[O]n religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism.'"- Barry Goldwater, September 16, 1981.

We can be Republicans and Democrats and disagree about things. Sometimes, it gets a little too heated. But, now with all this Dobson-Frist religious radical fundamentalism stuff forcing itself into the political realm, calling liberals "enemies of people of faith," etc., will we move toward a mini-theocracy, a place where "every sin becomes a civil crime?"

The Mandarin is beginning to worry.

Well, its all over but the finger-pointing

Shrub didn't cover himself in glory after all. His handlers had him rush back to D.C., pen in hand, to promote a culture of life, for a poor woman whose EKG has been flat-lined for fifteen years. His major slip in the polls is part of his just deserts. His handlers now are trying to put some air between him and the Republican bunglers in Congress and their wacky, f*ck the Constitution "do-over" Bill. ["He didn't really want to come back to D.C. early, they made him do it."] Dumb and dumber, for sure. But who is the dumber one?

As for the fundamental issues in the last-minute legal circus, Andrew Cohen says it far better than the Mandarin can.

Mrs. Schiavo has been dead for fifteen years. May the rest of her family, Schiavo and Schindler, now rest in peace, too.

Three-ring Media Circus

This week, the Mandarin has been meditating on the Bush Republican team’s astonishing turnabout on “states rights” in the case of Terri Schiavo (Italian pronunciation: skya-vo).

The same Bush camp who had the federal Supreme Court overturn the Florida Supreme court’s ruling (about its own state’s voting rules) in the landmark 2000 election case, has once again asserted the big government prerogative (or click is it “arrogative?”) of meddling in affairs reserved by the Constitution to the individual states.

Marshall Wittman – a political centrist in the Teddy Roosevelt tradition – has written it far better than I could in his Bull Moose Blog [here] on “Conservatism, R.I.P.” An excerpt:

“At its heart, conservatism had reverence for process and order. But what we are witnessing now is the triumph of ends over means. That is exactly what the right loathed about the left. In the eye of conservatives, the left would stretch the Constitution and the law to serve its so-called noble ends. Liberals would turn to the federal courts to nullify the judgments of localities. In the end, according to the right, the law of unintended consequences would prevail and the rule of law would be obliterated.”

Now, the Bush camp has hijacked the word “conservative” and turned it on its head.

The stakes in this media circus are high: Tom DeLay wants to appear moral to counteract continuing allegations of his dishonesty. Senator/Doctor Bill Frist, juggling Hippocrates and hypocrisy, is preparing to run for President in 2008. Current President Bush, as always wearing his religion on his sleeve, claims that in any case of doubt, “life” must get the nod no matter what the courts have ruled. Even though Mrs. Schiavo stated several times, to different people, her wish to be able die with dignity when the time came, “life” must get the nod, so Congress and the Federal courts must strike down her right to choose as granted by Florida law and upheld by Florida courts.

But, this is not really about Terri Schiavo at all. It as about Roe versus Wade. Pure and simple. If you doubt it, look who is advising Mrs. Schiavo’s parents and making statements to the media on their behalf: high-profile anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue. Go look: the “pro-life” movement has adopted Mrs. Schiavo as their new mascot [here].

And what of Mrs. Schiavo herself? Is she really “alive” in there? Senator Frist (2008 Presidential candidate and a cardiologist who no longer practices medicine), saw a home video of Mrs. Schiavo rolling her eyes and blinking when someone touched her hair. Diagnosis: not a vegetable.

But, at the Obsidian Wings blog [here], imbedded in a long and thoughtful essay on the ethical and political issues at stake, there is a comparative CAT scan [click] of Mrs. Schiavo’s brain and a normal one (actually the brain of one of her doctors). All neurologists consulted agree – there is little of her brain actually left in there, most of the area formerly occupied by her brain is now just a pool of spinal fluid. Eye and head movements interpreted by her parents as signs of consciousness are, in medical terms, reflexes originating in the surviving brain stem and spinal cord. The cerebrum, the large white organ we usually refer to as “the brain,” is essentially gone.

It is a shame Terri Schiavo didn’t execute a living will, or even better, a durable power of attorney as the Mandarin and many others have done. It is an even bigger shame that the so-called Religious Right and their political servants pandering to the anti-abortion movement have made this poor woman’s death a national circus attraction.

Here’s a final irony. Now, near death, she has become a slave to special interests. Mrs. Schiavo’s name means, in Italian, “slave.”

And, speaking of not being one’s own master, as Ed Kilgore said [here]:

“One thing is for sure: this case will boost the execution of Living Wills into the stratosphere. After this weekend, each of us must decide if we want to control what happens to us if we wind up like Terri Schiavo. Otherwise, Tom DeLay will decide it for us.”

***
P.S. For a time line with linked documents and far more than you ever wanted to know about this case, go here.

When I'm Sixty-four (apologies to the Beatles)

Apologies to the Beatles.

"When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now,
Social Security won't pay my bills, Medicare won't pay for my ills.
Stock market tanked my "private account," money out the door;
George Bush deceived me, cat food will feed me,
when I'm sixty-four.

Cat food is lovely, mix in some beans, if you hold your nose,
Shiver in a sweater by the railroad tracks, missed my gas bill,
can't pay my rent.
Got to the food bank by quarter to three, someone
locked the door,
George Bush deceived me, cat food will feed me,
when I'm sixty-four."

Yada yada

If capital is to be taxed less, then labor must pay more

Another letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal that they won't print:

Your editorial today, "Reform at home...," stated your opinion we have a tax code "that over taxes savings and investment." You imply, unless deficits are to grow indefinitely, that something else is under-taxed. Since you also support lowering income taxes for the wealthy, where will you make up the difference? The answer is clear: to extinguish the massive Republican budget deficits without over-taxing savings, investment, and wealthy incomes, you must tax what is left: the wages and salaries of the less than wealthy. If capital is to be taxed less, then labor must pay more. Why not be honest about it?

Iraq Votes

The Mandarin just sent this to Andrew sullivan, but I doubt he will print it:

There are people all over the world who would love to be waving their purple fingers - in Burma, Tibet, North Korea, Chechnya, you finish the list. Bush's inaugural declaration of support for liberating the oppressed peoples of the world was a sick sham, as the Rove spin machine taught us within hours after Dubya stepped off the podium. "What President Ford meant to say,..." The hypocritical thing is why Bush decided to stretch our active and reserve forces to the breaking point to invade Iraq without provocation, among all the possible countries out there full of people yearning to breathe free. I think it is simple: there is a popular myth that Saddam made Dubya's Dad back down in the first Gulf War and Dubya (No Mission Left Un-Accomplished) was going to do whatever it took, for whatever shifting justification his minders could come up with as facts came and went, to erase that yellow stain on the Bush name. I am full of hope that the Iraqis can move beyond centuries of clan and sectarian feuds and achieve a government with broad popular support. Now Iraq has voted and we are celebrating a great victory. But are we all going to forget the means (Abu Ghraib for example) and the lies that brought us to this "end"?

I guess I should re-read the subtitle under "The Mandarin" again,...

and stick to banking and Chinese literature, things I know a lot about.

I think -- among other errors -- the pollsters who saw a Kerry victory in the early exit polls underestimated the turnout potential of the famous 4,000,000 ultra-right nutcase Christian "evangelicals" who didn't vote in 2000 but who were bamboozled this time into voting for Dub because he claims to get personal advice from God and promises to continue incorporating the strictures of Deuteronomy line by line into the civil laws of a country once prized for its separation of religion from the administration of government.

I liked this posting, too:

QUOTE

Pottery Barn Rule

Assuming, for the moment, that Bush's lead in Ohio holds and is real, there's a lot to say about the election, and many weeks to say it. The fact that the result seemed to end up in almost exactly the same place as four years ago should not obscure how much has changed. It's easy to condemn the Democratic Party, but there is so much that is healthier about this party and its satellites than four years ago. The development of a real small donor and activist base, a sophisticated turnout mechanism, and fundamental unity of purpose are huge achievements. They didn't quite go far enough this time.

One important thing to remember: Now Bush is fully responsible for the consequences of his mistakes. He's responsible for Iraq, he's responsible for the budget, for Medicare, etc. What Colin Powell called the Pottery Barn Rule applies: He broke them, he owns them. That's not good news for the world, because Bush wasn't competent to deal with the situation of peace and prosperity handed to him in 2001; he certainly isn't be competent to handle a mess. The dangers are profound.

But politically, it at least avoids a situation where Kerry would have borne the responsibility and blame for Iraq or for raising taxes. All accountability now rests with Bush and his party. Everything that's been swept under the carpet until after the election will come creeping out. And the best use of all the resources of people, brains, money, and coordination that's been built this year, in addition to developing a stronger base of ideas, is to find ways to hold Bush, DeLay et. al. absolutely accountable for their choices. I really believe that this will be like Nixon's second term, and thus the seeds of a bigger long-term change than could have occurred just by Kerry winning the election.

This is not a look-at-the-bright-side comment. Just a thought about what comes next.

UNQUOTE

Kerry 292, Bush 246

You read it here first. Or maybe somewhere else, but that's what my gut tells me. Popular vote? 50/46 wth 4% for fringe names. We'll see.

VOTE!!