text:
'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for Sept. 1
Video via MSNBC: Worst Persons
Guests: Chris Cillizza, Melanie Sloan
Rummy, sanitized. The secretary of defense comes back for more, not swinging, but gently tapping, in an op-ed piece under his name in "The Los Angeles Times." Nothing this time about those who disagree showing moral or intellectual confusion, but the words "appease" and "appeased" are still there. He's added a comparison between terrorists and communists, and he blames the media anew.
"Those who know the truth," the piece reads, "need to speak out against the myths and distortions being told."
Agreed, we're doing the best we can. Tonight, another special comment.
"The Washington Post" throws Joe Wilson under the bus, blaming him for the end of his wife's CIA career, the curious conclusion from an even more curious source.
Just to the south, beach roads and even interstates closed, hundreds of thousands without power in Virginia and North Carolina. But the second punch of Ernesto could have been far worse.
Speaking of punches, it's Brad Pitt back in New Orleans, back advocating rebuilding it green.
BRAD PITT: We're still the most powerful nation in the world. Beyond policing the world, we could be inspiring the world, and we could be at the forefront of this kind of movement.
OLBERMANN: You should watch this. Ann Curry busted her butt for this interview. Well, busted her nose.
Hey, look, it's a book, "Worst Person in the World" in hardcover.
And we may have left these guys out of it, but we're still working towards Oddball's Plays of the Month.
Plus weather with Uncle Walter and Steve Sports.
This is Friday, September 1, 67 days until the 2006 midterm elections.
And the leftovers don't taste any better than did the original serving of repression, distortion, and anti-Americanism.
Our fifth story on the Countdown, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld again, this time with a piece appearing in the editorial pages of "The Los Angeles Times," a largely rehashed version of his controversial speech to members of the American Legion in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Tuesday, the one in which he insisted those who disagreed with the administration on Iraq or counterterror did so at their own peril, and necessarily suffered from either moral or intellectual confusion.
If Mr. Rumsfeld can regurgitate his comments, so can I. A brief special comment in a moment.
The secretary's comments first, four straight days of fallout apparently leading him to conclude he needed a second take, a kind of, Why would anybody be offended? attitude. He dropped all references to the moral or intellectual confusion of those who dissent. That obviously had not gone well. But to his comparisons to Hitler and his appeasers, Rumsfeld followed the president's lead from yesterday and threw in the cold war just for good measure.
"Those who warned against the rise of Nazism, fascism, and communism were often ridiculed and ignored." And he concluded, "I do worry about the lack of perspective in our national dialogue, a perspective on history and the new challenges and threats that free people face today. Those who know the truth need to speak out against the myths and distortions being told about our troops and our country. My remarks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion conventions have generated much discussion. I encourage everyone to read what I actually said."
Not that we at Countdown have not already read or listened to the speech many, many times, despite the conclusions of Mr. Rumsfeld's press spokesman that we clearly had not even read it once.
But today, in the spirit of Mr. Rumsfeld's request, we read it again, and discovered that entire portions of what he said on Tuesday overlap with his newspaper commentary today, almost word for word.
On his basic premise, quoting from Mr. Rumsfeld's print rebuttal, "The struggle is too important, the consequences too severe, to allow a blame-America-first mentality."
Secretary Rumsfeld on Tuesday.
DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The consequences are too severe, the struggle too important to have the luxury of returning to that old mentality of blame America first.
OLBERMANN: On the media's role, quote, "A database search of the nation's leading newspapers turns up 10 times as many mentions of one of the soldiers punished for misconduct at Abu Ghraib than of Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in the global war on terror."
Secretary Rumsfeld Tuesday.
RUMSFELD: A database search of America's leading newspapers turns up literally 10 times as many mentions of one of the soldiers who has been punished for misconduct, 10 times more than the mentions of Sergeant First Class Paul Ray Smith, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor in the global war on terror.
OLBERMANN: On what should be done about it, quote, "Those who know the truth need to speak out against the myths and distortions being told about our troops and our country.
RUMSFELD: Those who know the truth, need to speak out against these kinds of myths and distortions that are being told about our troops and about our country.
OLBERMANN: We're doing what we can, sir. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Ironically, someone that Mr. Rumsfeld would undeniably believe knows the truth was speaking out today about the state of the war in Iraq. His own department, and what it had to say, was not very encouraging at all, the Pentagon telling Congress in its new quarterly report that sectarian violence in Iraq is spreading, making security problems there more complex than at any time since the U.S. invasion in March 2003, today's report saying that while a Sunni-led insurgency is still potent and viable, it is now being, quote, "overshadowed by the sect-on-sect killing."
Quote, "Death squads and terrorists are locked in mutually reinforcing cycles of sectarian strife. Conditions that could lead to civil war exist in Iraq, specifically in and around Baghdad, and concern about civil war within the Iraqi civilian population has increased in recent months."
Attacks against U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians up 24 percent in the three months since the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister al-Maliki was seated.
Time now to call in Chris Cillizza, political reporter for WashingtonPost.com, who joins us again.
Good evening, Chris.
CHRIS CILLIZZA, POLITICAL REPORTER, WASHINGTONPOST.COM: Good evening, Keith. I braved the conditions, the elements in Washington to be here.
OLBERMANN: Thank you for doing so.
CILLIZZA: I do my best, only for you.
OLBERMANN: Secretary Rumsfeld's op-ed, titled in "The L.A. Times" today, "I Meant What I Said," yet he sanitized a lot of what he had said on Tuesday. He's blaming the media for misinterpreting much of what he said, in fact, or in effect, the whole thing reads, I meant it, at least I meant part of it, but don't believe a word of what you saw me say on television. How, Chris, can all three of those things be true?
CILLIZZA: Well, they can't. I think what you're seeing is, and this happens quite a bit is, on both sides, politicians on both sides, when they commit not necessarily an error, but maybe they step a little bit over the bounds of where they wanted to go, or where sort of the powers that be, whether it's President Bush or whoever it is, wanted them to go, they blame the media.
It used to be we would get it from one side. Conservatives said, Well, the media's too liberal. Well, now we also get it from the other side. I get tons of e-mails every day that say I'm an apologist for the Bush administration.
So, look, the media is a frequent, common, and much-used whipping boy. So I think you're seeing that again with Secretary Rumsfeld. It's not that he said something that caused controversy and maybe got the administration off topic, it's that we interpreted it wrong.
OLBERMANN: Or that we didn't interpret it at all, or didn't read or didn't listen. This theme continues. The secretary's sending letters to Senator Reid and Congresswoman Pelosi telling them, quote, "I assume your comments to the press were made in reaction to inaccurate media reporters." When we called the Pentagon press office yesterday, we were told Mr. Rumsfeld was not talking about critics of the administration in his speech on Tuesday. The appeaser stuff did not pertain to them. But it would not tell us about whom the defense secretary was speaking.
How can it claim an inaccuracy without providing an accuracy?
CILLIZZA: Well, look, I think it - the best way to understand this, the best context to put this in, is exactly what you said at the top of the show, 67 days until the election. Everything right now is politicized. Letters back and forth. We're probably going to get a vote of no-confidence in Secretary Rumsfeld by Democrats on the House floor next week.
Everything is overly dramatic. It's sort of you're your last few days of high school. It seems like these are the only great friends you're going to have. Your boyfriend or girlfriend (INAUDIBLE) only person who's ever going to matter to you.
Everything, when you get that close to an election, is played out on this huge stage where people get enthusiastic one day and the next day they're in the doldrums.
So, look, put it all in the context of 67 days before the midterm elections. Republicans need to make this election about security, and that they're the party better able to keep Americans safe. And I think that's what you're seeing with Secretary Rumsfeld.
I would remind people that we saw Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, way back in January, frame this election in the minds of Republicans. He said, This is a choice between a pre-September 11 party, being the Democrats, and a post-September 11 party, being the Republicans.
So this should not come as a huge surprise that we're seeing this theme come up again when we're nine and a half weeks from election day.
OLBERMANN: But the electorate's enthusiasm for all the spin and all the interpretation, is there actually no burying the idea that the problem of the administration's message about Iraq is not how it's being interpreted, not how they're getting out, but that Americans are dissatisfied with the results?
CILLIZZA: Look, I think there's some real validity there. And look at polling. If you looked in 2002, when people were asked, Which party do you trust to better handle the war on terror, to keep you safe from terrorists? Republicans had a huge lead, a generic Republican had a 20 to a 25-point lead. Two thousand four, that lead was smaller, but it was still measurable, it was 10, 15 points.
If you look at that question now, it's dead even. Republicans may be up a point or two, Democrats may be up a point or two. But the saliency of this argument, I think, is up for debate.
The reality for Republicans is that they simply don't have that many wonderful things to talk about at the moment on most of these issues. Education, health care, energy bill, if you ask the American public, they say they trust Democrats overwhelmingly. So Republicans certainly don't want to talk about that. Security is their best bet. It doesn't make it a winner, but it makes it their best bet in a bad circumstance.
OLBERMANN: And we'll see the latest version of it next Tuesday, when Mr. Bush gives his next version of the Islamofascism speech at that time.
Chris Cillizza, political reporter for WashingtonPost.com. Again, sir, great thanks for joining us, especially under the circumstances.
CILLIZZA: Keith, thank you for having me, as always.
OLBERMANN: And as promised, a briefer version now of my previous special comment on the speech, and now the writing of Donald Rumsfeld.
It did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence, indeed, the loyalty of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse still, it credited those same transient occupants with a total omniscience, a total omniscience which neither common sense nor this administration's track record at home or abroad suggests they deserve.
Yet, though dissent and disagreement with government is the life's blood of human freedom, the first roadblock against tyranny, and also essential, because just every once in a while, it is right, and the power to which it speaks is wrong.
Despite those inalienable truths, Tuesday Mr. Rumsfeld compared those who have asked merely for the receipts for the emperor's new clothes to those who appeased Hitler. And today he has now added the comparison to communist sympathizers in the '30s.
I ask again, in what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? And with what country has he confused the United States of America?
The full version of the special comment still available at our Web site, Countdown.MSNBC.com. And it will run in its entirety several times this weekend on MSNBC television.
From blaming the media to the media playing the blame game, an editorial saying the person most responsible for Valerie Plame losing her CIA career was her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson. The Wilsons' attorney joins me next.
And a celebration of the end of the week, the end of the month, from ridiculous festivals, to amazing animals, to idiots with buckets on their heads. That would be the amazing animal, that would be the idiot. Oddball's Plays of the Month, Labor Day weekend edition.
You're watching Countdown on MSNBC.
OLBERMANN: Our fourth story on the Countdown, another clash in the ongoing battle over the battle over the war in Iraq. You will recall that earlier this week, we learned the identity, apparently officially, of the first source to tell columnist Robert Novak that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative. Specifically, it was Richard Armitage, top deputy to Colin Powell, who told Novak that Plame had suggested her husband for a fact-finding trip to Niger, which ultimately led him to publicly challenge President Bush's claim that Iraq tried to obtain uranium from Niger.
Today, "The Washington Post" editorial page draws two startling conclusions from this. One, "It follows that one of the most sensational charges leveled against the Bush White House, that it orchestrated the leak of Ms. Plame's identity to ruin her career and thus punish Mr. Wilson, is untrue."
You took logic 101, you know it not only does not follow, it doesn't even hang out with. Armitage's supposed inadvertence might send the orchestra home, but it has no impact on the obvious opportunity the White House seized to discredit Wilson via his wife.
But even more shocking, perhaps, "The Post"'s second conclusion, the real person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame's CIA career is Mr. Wilson. And even Dennis the Menace's neighbor, that would have made more sense. Joe Wilson, why?
Quoting the editorial again, "Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming, falsely, as it proved - " or "as it turned out," rather, "that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium shopping in Niger, and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission, and that the answer would point to his wife."
One of the attorneys representing the Wilsons, Melanie Sloan, joins us now.
Ms. Sloan, thank you for your time tonight.
MELANIE SLOAN, WILSONS' ATTORNEY: My pleasure.
OLBERMANN: Have you spoken with your clients about this? And if so, can you characterize their reaction to this extraordinary editorial?
SLOAN: Yes, I have spoken with them. And, of course, they're outraged by the editorial. And it's completely inaccurate. And not only that, it is in great conflict with what "The Washington Post" itself has written about this story over the past several years.
OLBERMANN: In fact, let me quote some of those things. From October 5 of last year, "Wilson's central assertion disputing President Bush's 2003 State of the Union claim that Iraq was seeking nuclear material in Niger has been validated by postwar weapons inspections." And then from April 9 of this year, "Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a 'concerted action' by 'multiple people in the White House' using classified information 'to discredit, punish, or seek revenge against' a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq," namely, Ambassador Wilson.
How would you or your client reconcile this, theoretically, even, this violent disconnect between what is correct on "The Post"'s front page, and what it believes to - it should be expressing on its editorial page?
SLOAN: Well, it's entirely schizophrenic. And I don't think you really can reconcile the two. I think the real problem here is that the White - is that "The Washington Post" has always supported the war, and now they need new justification to go ahead and continue that support for the war. And I think this effort to discredit Mr. Wilson on the editorial page is outrageous and is completely undercut by all of the facts. And, in fact, none other than Patrick Fitzgerald said that it was hard for him to conceive of any evidence that could come out that would discredit that the White House was, in fact, all along had a plan to discredit Mr. Wilson and punish Mr. Wilson.
OLBERMANN: In all fairness, your clients and this legal team is suing the alleged other source, Mr. Rove, as well as Mr. Libby and Vice President Cheney. Should Mr. Armitage be on that list?
SLOAN: You know, we're looking into whether Mr. Armitage should be on that list. But whether or not we eventually do add Mr. Armitage to the suit, it doesn't in any way undercut the suit against Mr. Rove, Mr. Libby, and Mr. Cheney, who were all involved in a concerted effort, a conspiracy, to discredit Mr. Wilson by - and punish him by outing Valerie Wilson.
But there are questions now that have been raised about Dick Armitage's role, and we're looking at those closely. And we'll be making decisions in the coming days as to whether or not to add Mr. Armitage to the suit.
OLBERMANN: If this - if the Armitage revelation is as it is stated, if it is factual, does it merely change this from a concerted, planned opportunity - situation to a sort of crime of opportunity? Is that the major difference here, in your opinion?
SLOAN: Well, it would be a crime of opportunity. Just because Armitage first said it doesn't mean that, of course, Rove, Libby, and Cheney weren't then trying to push the story out. They talked to at least six different Washington journalists, trying to get out Valerie Wilson's covert identity.
But the fact is, what Armitage did is also not OK. He went and took information in a classified memo, and he was just dishing with Bob Novak. And somebody who was number two at the Department of State should have known better.
OLBERMANN: Attorney Melanie Sloan, who is representing Joe and Valerie Plame Wilson. Great thanks for joining us tonight. Have a good weekend.
SLOAN: You too.
OLBERMANN: And this guy seems well on his way to getting his dream job, becoming a U.S. senator in Washington, D.C. Professor, is that you? Step one, get arrested at the debates. Step two, learn how to play golf, perhaps from the gentleman there in the hood.
His antics and other oddballs all part of the Plays of the Month, ahead here on Countdown.
OLBERMANN: On September 1, 1807, probably the first guy to make most Americans realize that not everybody they would entrust to run the country would actually merit that trust learned his fate.
Aaron Burr, the former vice president, who actually killed Alexander Hamilton in a dual and then fled south in hopes of perhaps beating the U.S. to the Louisiana Purchase, or seizing control of Texas and parts of Latin America, or something else nefarious, 199 years ago today, he was found not guilty of treason, setting another kind of precedent for our political animals in Washington.
On that note, let's play Oddball.
And we begin in Maryland, where luckily the democratic process has come a long way in the last two centuries. The man in the handcuffs there Democratic and progressive U.S. Senate wannabe, Professor Alan Lichtman. He's polling less than 15 percent in the September 12 primary, so it seems as if he was left off the guest list when the front runners had themselves a little debate last night.
Ah, but Lichtman showed up anyway and did a little point-counterpoint from the audience before being dragged away by the coppers. Now he's been debating the business end of the billy club in the Big House.
In London, where a man claiming to be 100 years old is celebrating a century on earth with a little birthday party at work. Yes, even at 100, Buster Martin refuses to retire. He's still on the job every single day, polishing up ice cream trucks, apparently.
BUSTER MARTIN, 100 YEARS OLD: (INAUDIBLE) life (INAUDIBLE) working. Money's not everything. As long as you got enough for your few pints, that's it.
OLBERMANN: Your few pints.
All right, here's the deal. This is obviously a scam for free cake.
If that guy's a day over 75, I'll buy him a pint right now.
No end to the merriment tonight. First Friday of the month means Oddball Plays of the Month, including the innovative Russian solution to a shortage of river rafts.
And the residents of the Carolinas could use that kind or any other kind of flotation device this holiday weekend. Seven inches of rain from ex-hurricane Ernesto.
But now, here are Countdown's top three newsmakers of this day.
Number three, the U.S. Postal Service latest special stamps commemorate motorcycles. Problem, the first-day postmark on the new collectibles misspells the word "motorcycles," leaves out the second C. Reads "motorcyles." But there'll be no upside-down airplane here. They will now offer collectors both the misspelling and the correct one at the same price and the same value.
Number two, an unidentified 72-year-old woman from Vail, Colorado. According to police, she went to her kitchen for some coffee and found two surprise guests there, a bear and her cub. The bear hissed at the woman, so she did what she learned on the Fox series "When Bears Attack." She clapped her hands and yelled at it, Go away, and stay tuned for an all-new "Family Guy."
Number one, former Miss Universe, now Australian TV star Jennifer Hawkins. When 17-year-old Daniel Dibley (ph) wrote her a letter inviting her to be his date at his senior prom, Ms. Hawkins thought it was sweet. She accepted immediately. And then came the nonstop publicity and media circus. And yesterday, Ms. Hawkins called young Daniel and said she'd have to back out.
"It wasn't really like, Oh, actually, I just don't want to go," she said. As to young Daniel, we understand his only comment was, quote, "I suppose this means a photo-op in the parking lot is out of the question."
OLBERMANN: Today a national weather forecasting service downgraded its expectations for this year's Atlantic storm season saying will come in below average, that average 10 named storms, six hurricanes. But in our No. 2 story on the Countdown, tell that to the 400,000 who had their power knocked out in Virginia and North Carolina as Ernesto raped those state's eastern shores overnight.
Ernesto had strengthened to a tropical storm, it was feared it could regain hurricane strength, but did not. But the water it's dumping is more than a holiday weekend inconvenience. Our correspondent in Alexandria, Virginia is Tom Costello - Tom.
TOM COSTELLO, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Keith, good evening from Alexandria, Virginia where they're expecting six to eight inches of rain tonight and already they've got the sandbags out. Behind me the Potomac River is running absolutely full and in some cases running its banks. The storm has already created significant travel problems on the highways and also in the nation's airport, significant delays.
We'll talk about that in a moment, but first we've got flashflood warning up and down the east coast.
(voice-over): After churning in the Atlantic, Ernesto roared back ashore just before midnight, lashing the Carolinas with torrential rain and gusting winds topping 70-miles-per-hour. Wilmington, North Carolina seemed to take the brunt of the storm, 10 inches of rain in a little more than 24 hours. Downed trees and stalled cars. In Guilford County, some four-legged residents need rescuing while further north in Elizabeth City, five to eight inches of rain with the National Guard called in to evacuate families from homes suddenly submerged.
GOV. MIKE EASLEY, NORTH CAROLINA: People need to pay attention, because everything, as we've seen with this storm, in particular, everything could change.
COSTELLO: In Norfolk, five plus inches of rain with widespread flooding. In Newport News, door-to-door evacuations and across the region, power outages, 80,000 without electricity in North Carolina, 320,000 in Virginia.
The storm did lose some of its punch as it moved north, downgraded to a tropical depression with winds clocked at 35-miles-per-hour.
DENNIS FELTGEN, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: So, now it's interacting with the land and all that friction is breaking the storm up and opening it up and all of that tremendous energy that is in the storm is breaking apart in the form of heavy rain.
COSTELLO: But forecasters say Ernesto is still going to dump a tremendous amount of moisture on the mid-Atlantic states, just as heavy traffic is forecast for the holiday weekend. The governors of Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina, have declared states of emergency, cautioning residents to steer clear of high running streams and rivers.
GOV. TIM KAINE (D), VIRGINIA: So when the rain is done, the emergency response doesn't stop until it looks like the - those - the surges on the river start to come back down.
COSTELLO: In Washington, crews spent the afternoon piling sandbags in front of government buildings anxious to avoid a repeat of the flooding in late June that inundated the IRS and National Archives buildings.
While in Baltimore, umbrellas and slickers, as the East Coast prepares for a very wet weekend.
Now more about those travel delays at airports up and down the East Coast, everything from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore to Philadelphia, to Newark and into New York City, significant travel delays, in some cases one, two, and three hours this evening, as they deal with the effects and the after effects and the spin-off effects of this particular storm now gaining strength and moving back up the East Coast.
Keith, back to you.
OLBERMANN: Tom Costello, in Alexandria, Virginia, great thanks.
On the Pacific Coast, meantime, Hurricane John is making landfall on the southern tip of Baja, California Peninsula. Looking at the forecast now for both storms is Bill Karins of NBC's Weather Plus.
Bill, good evening.
BILL KARINS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, good evening to you, Keith. We're watching the landfall now of a Category 2 hurricane almost a Category 3. This is almost the same strength as Hurricane Rita was when it made landfall right along the Texas-Louisiana border and that's what the residents here in the Southern Baja are going to go through over the next 24 hours. Let's go in and take a closer peek at this storm.
As we go in, we're watching Cabo San Lucas, big resort town in the southern tip of the Baja, being spared from the worst of the winds. The eye of the storm, you see it to the north here, now coming onshore. So we don't have official landfall quite get, but at least that Western half of the eye wall is now raking the coastline. It looks like the worst of the hurricane forced winds will be felt in the small coastal villages here, just outside of Cabo San Lucas.
So what are we dealing with? Category 2 storm, 110-mile-per-hour winds, gusts to 132. The storm is moving at about 10-miles-per-hour, so they're going to have hurricane force conditions all across the southern peninsula of the Baja all evening long. Finally by tomorrow we think it'll be down to a tropical storm.
And so here is the wind field. You notice the orange colors here is just our tropical storm force winds. And so right now, just tropical force gusts in Cabo San Lucas. Only right near the center of the storm, this is a pretty compact system, are we going to see those horrible winds and the devastation.
Now, by tomorrow morning we're talking about a Category 1 storm, then a tropical storm and then all that moisture could sneak up into California and Arizona by the tail end of the Labor Day weekend. We could have a flooding threat here as we go throughout, it looks like Tuesday and maybe even possibly Wednesday.
Now, let's talk about the rain from Ernesto. Heavy rain continues to fall across Delaware, Southern New Jersey, and all through Pennsylvania. This moisture will head north as we go throughout the weekend. So Sunday and Monday does not look at wet for this area of the country. But Saturday morning is going to be very rough, especially on the New Jersey coastline and out on Long Island where we could see wind gusts up to 40-miles-per-hour.
So Keith, as we mentioned, looks like Hurricane John is now making landfall.
OLBERMANN: Bill Karins, meteorologist at NBC Weather Plus. Bill, great thanks as always.
KARINS: Sure.
OLBERMANN: It is, of course, one storm from one year ago that still shakes the Gulf Coast and our collective conscious. The effort to rebuild getting more juice tonight from Brad Pitt.
And in advance of Hurricane Couric, a not so smooth sign-off for Bob
Schieffer at the "CBS Evening News" - just - excuse me - I just want to
don't go there. Sorry, sorry, sorry - details ahead first here are Countdown's "Top 3 Sound Bites" of this day.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He just told me if I didn't end, he's going to make me listen to one of his songs. And he's a great songwriter, but not as good a senator - as he is a senator. And that's saying a lot.
DAVID LETTERMAN, "LATE SHOW": Top 10 Kyra Phillips excuses - No. 5:
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: I was set up by those bastards at FOX News.
LETTERMAN: Yeah! Yeah!
PHILLIPS: I just wanted that hunky Lou Dobbs to notice me.
LETTERMAN: And the No. 1 Kyra Phillips excuse.
PHILLIPS: You have to admit it made the speech a lot more interesting.
JON VOIGHT, ACTOR/GRANDPA: Happy birthday, Maddy's 5-year-olds, it's
a big one. Five-years-old, you're getting to be a young man and I send my
love to you and I send my love to Shakira and - Shahera - is it Shahera -
Shahira - Zahara, Zahara. OK I'm going to start over again.
Madox, you're 5 years old, this is wonderful.
OLBERMANN: From Branifer to Branjolina to master rebuilder of New Orleans, Brad Pitt's new pursuit, next.
And August is called "silly season" for a reason. Oddball's plays of the month, it's only on Countdown, next.
OLBERMANN: This interview with celebrity stuff only looks easy. Consider Brad Pitt tries to promote the rebuilding of homes in New Orleans in an environmentally friendly way, gets ask about if everybody's in friendly in the environment of his home. Consider my old local news pal, Ann Curry, preparing to interview Mr. Pitt, she's so focused she breaks her nose in a revolving door - a locked revolving door. So as you watch them in our No. 2 story in the Countdown, remember has a true nose for news.
BRAD PITT, ACTOR: The first responsibility is to help those that are most vulnerable and we failed and failed miserably and to some extent we're still failing.
ANN CURRY, "TODAY" SHOW (voice-over): Brad Pitt, disappointed by the pace of recovery in New Orleans, is a movie star playing a new part in the future of this city.
PITT: We're a country of great ingenuity and the fact that we can't get in there and clean up this quagmire is ridiculous and it's shameful.
CURRY: Together with the environmental non-profit Global Green, Pitt sponsored a housing design competition, and Thursday he helped select the winner.
This winning blueprint is low-income housing planned for the neglected, still almost deserted, lower 9th ward.
CURRY (on camera): What do you love about this design?
PITT: I love that it can be replicated, and not in a cookie-cutter style. At the same time, where it really wins is that, if done properly, we can completely get rid of the idea of an energy bill.
CURRY: People listening now are thinking, Oh, come on.
PITT: It's not that difficult.
CURRY: Come on. How?
PITT: You can cut your energy bill down 65 percent just by the way you position your house, the way you structure it for air flow and ventilation and shielding from the sun.
CURRY: It's possible, you're suggesting, that people living in these homes will pay zero.
PITT: That's right.
CURRY (voice-over): The winning architects from New York, created a versatile model of energy efficient design, using the sun's rays for power, rain for the water system, and stored heat from the earth.
(on camera): Do you know this is going to work?
ANDREW KOTCHEN, WORKSHOP/APD: We know this is going to work.
CURRY: Why do you know it's going to work?
KOTCHEN: We know it's going to work because they're not new systems. The difference between what existed then and what exists now is that technology has improved.
CURRY (voice-over): Matt Petersen heads Global Green and is something of a guiding light for Pitt's ideas.
PETERSEN: We estimate that if 50,000 of the homes in New Orleans - of the 200,000 that are going to be rebuilt in Louisiana used our energy goals for this project, on a very conservative level, people would save $38 million to $56 million dollars a year, $1,200 a home, conservatively, on average.
CURRY (on camera): You mentioned Brad's help. How much do you need this kind of star power to get the message out?
PETERSEN: When somebody like Brad steps up to the plate, and he is passionate about, not just architecture, but how we build differently, how do we improve people's lives, how do we build green, that means that there's a greater chance for success because he's deeply committed to this.
CURRY (voice-over): And, committed to planting the seeds of green living wherever possible.
PITT: This is where it gets really exciting. We're still the most powerful nation in the world. Beyond policing the world, we could also be inspiring the world and we could be at the forefronts of this kind of movement.
CURRY: But here in New Orleans, he says, his work is about something more basic.
PITT: This is tied into that bigger issue that we talked about of justice and it bothers me to see these people left behind and not getting a big hand up. These are the people that need the most help. So, we gotta start there.
CURRY (on camera): Why?
PITT: To actually - to be able to have some small hand in improving anyone's life, I mean, I'm a father now. And it - what that does to you is make you more aware of other children and the plight of other families. So, that makes me relate to others more and I want the same for them. So, if we can play any hand in that, it just makes me feel pretty good.
CURRY: I see a change in you.
PITT: Really?
CURRY: Yeah. Big change. You seem to be open to more philanthropy, to do more...
PITT: Possibly, I'm the same - you know, I mean, you know, I'm the same guy. There are a lot of great things in my life and that comes from this family that we've created and it's incredibly grounding and, walking in the door at the end of the day and seeing these faces light up, it's -
I don't know anything more rewarding.
CURRY (voice-over): But as rewarding as his new family is to him, this movie star said it also gives him a greater sense of duty.
PITT: I believe that there is a responsibility if we truly believe - and that's the question that this is putting to the test, especially here in New Orleans - do we really believe that someone else's life matters as much as our own? And the answer to me is obvious.
OLBERMANN: Book of Revelation tell us that when we get hard information from Brad Pitt and Bob Schieffer is tabloid fodder, either the end is neigh or our nightly round-up of celebrity and entertainment news, "Keeping Tabs" is neigh.
And that the CBS Evening News may be neigh if this is any indicator. Bob Schieffer graciously passed the baton to Katie Couric who starts Tuesday and oh, boy is that not gonna go well. First CBS News president Sean McManus turned the event last night into that TV news landmine, the awkward segue. Mr. McManus appearing committed to a pro-forma man-hug that executes the rare half-hug, no-air kiss jackknife with a hand-in-hand dismount. We'll see if he sticks the landing.
"Vanity Fair" is reportedly going to extreme lengths to protect the world from the sight of Tom Cruise's baby. All right, maybe I've got that backwards or sideways. As you may know, an upcoming cover of the magazine is slated to feature Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes and the so far unconfirmed, unseen, unauthentic spawn of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, AKA the Loch Ness Suri, or in some quarters, Surisquatch. According to an internet gossip site, "Vanity Fair" has hired armed guards for the Kentucky printing press where the issue will be published. Meaning we will have to wait to see her until precisely one day after we no longer give a crap.
And if they do catch people leaking the Suri pictures, this is what will happen to them. One of the many reasons Japanese TV is better than ours, ahead on the "Oddball Plays of the Month."
But first time for Countdown's latest list of nominee, of the "Worst Person in the World."
And wait, look, it's here! The book version of the "Worst Person in the World" hits stores next week. But guess what happened after the Rumsfeld special comment, the sales ranking of the "Worst Person in the World" on Amazon.com went from No. 19,000, to No. 18. Bill-o's new book ranks No. 728. Our thanks to our web boosters like "Crooks and Liars" for the love. All right, to tonight's nominees.
The Bronze tonight to Albuquerque, New Mexico Congresswoman Heather Wilson. In past years, she has been among those who've ridden at the front of the official parade at the New Mexico State Fair, but in the latest parade, a week from tomorrow, she'll be in the middle with a bunch of other politicians and she's steamed. She's written a whiney letter to the head of the fair demanding to know why she's being discriminated against and if there are political motivations and she's made the letter public.
The head of the fair says, Well, yeah there are political reasons. Representative Wilson is up for reelection and they thought it was more fair to put all the candidates in one space rather than show anybody any favoritism.
Our runner-up, Gary Scott Harding of Bend, Oregon, arrested after twice visiting the drive-through at a coffee stand while naked from the waist down. He told the police that before he and his wife once used drive-through, she removed his pants and he couldn't stop thinking about the experience. Yeah, you can't buy memories like those.
But our winners, ABC television. It still plans to air, next weekend, what it calls a documentary, supposedly factual, supposedly based on the 9/11 Commission report, which it calls, "The Path to 9/11." This, even after it was revealed that the program puts primary blame for 9/11 not on Osama bin Laden or terrorism, but on Bill Clinton.
You know, blame America first, as Secretary Rumsfeld would say.
ABC television today's "Worst Persons in the World."
OLBERMANN: Engelbert Humperdinck was born 152 years ago today, not the British singer, the guy who was born Jerry Dorsey, this was German opera composer who was born - well, Engelbert Humperdinck. But it calls to mind comedian Eddie Izzard's version of how in the world Jerry got talked into it, I mean, I just wanted to be in the room when they were working that one through. Zingleburt Vembelback, Tringlebert Wangleback, Sluck Von Walla, Clingy Von Fistalvase, Zindleberg Zindledack, Jerry Dorsey, Englebert Humptyback, Zangerbert Vingledack, Englebert Humperdinck, Vinglebert Winglebank - no, go back one.
On what better note to bring you our No. 1 story on the Countdown, the "Oddball Plays of the Month."
(voice-over): We begin in (INAUDIBLE).
We begin in Plymouth, England.
We begin in Miami with covalence camera video from a porn shop, there. Oh, this is going to be hot. Caught on camera is a customer who police say set fire to the place. The man reportedly walked in, asked for change and entered the video booth to watch a movie and do his dirty, dirty business. After a time he came out and told the clerk he felt guilty. So he proceeded to ruin it for everybody else by torching the joint. The rest of the customers were able to zip up scramble up, unharmed. But the guilty-conscience arsonist got away. But I bet he still feels dirty.
While in New Delhi nothing says "Oddball" like a bunch of Indian long-haul truckers having themselves a condom party. Woo hoo. It is an organized effort to get truckers to protect themselves to help slow the spread of disease. So AIDS workers handed out condemns to guys at a local truck stop and let the boys familiarize themselves with these things. And as you see, the seem to know just what to do with them. I don't think we are going have to worry about these guys at all.
That's (INAUDIBLE) 14-year-olds old, 10 pounds, 20 inches tall. His parents are taking him on a tour of (INAUDIBLE) and say they're close to achieving (INAUDIBLE) lifelong dream of playing power forward with the Golden State Warriors.
To Syracuse, home of the New York State Fair and this year's giant-sized butter statues. Can't be entirely sure here, but it appears to depict the mother knocking back a big bottle of booze while two children kneel down before her, perhaps begging mom to stop drinking. We'll check on that for you, I could be wrong.
And we begin in Ware, England where a guy from Abu Ghraib is taking some time to unwind on a local golf course.
Security camera video from the Mont Bleu Casino showing a black bear roaming the halls. Officials say the 150 pound bear entered through loading dock and only toured the casino for a couple of minutes, but he still managed to lose almost $800 playing Acey/Ducey.
A robbery suspect on the run from the law dived into the Kansas River to get away. Cops had him in the boat so he made another escape attempt, wriggling out of his pants and back into the river. Marco! Polo! You can just tell the cops were thrilled - oh, you're going to come and make me get you, huh? Then you're going to get the flying elbow chop. Chicken fight!
More video we found on the internets, this of an Australian shopping channel host, Tim Stackpool, demonstrating a new product that makes cookies, except they come out looking like something else.
TIM STACKPOOL, AUSTRALIAN SHOPPING CHANNEL HOST: When you're piping (ph) and doing all that sort of stuff, decorating cakes, this is where this will (LAUGHTING) (INAUDIBLE). I'm making cookies. (LAUGHING)
Olbermann: It is a special fun with food edition tonight as we begin in Bunol, Spain, home of the festival drunken tomato hurling and shattered facial bone that is La Tomatina.
It's La Tomatina time! La Tomatina time.
Where ya at, where ya at. There ya go. There ya go.
Of all the morons on all the internets in every part of the world, this guy is our new favorite. Oh, it looks like this last one here might have hurt a little.
And speaking of nationalism, we begin once again with our award winning series, 527 reasons why Japanese television is better our is. No. 261, when you mess up a tongue-twister on a Japanese game show, the punishment is swift and brutal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Am I a liar?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yea, you have lied on this program about the issues.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you fat?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Hi America, good to see you, I lied about...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You get up and show them your fat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Sorry, Tony.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your hands off of me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey guys, please. Don't, please. Folks, I am sorry you had to see that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is not right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa!
OLBERMANN: Now to holy apparitions in food products department. Last night we brought you the first look at the Holy Virgin Mary of the George Foreman grill grease collection tray. Tonight we feel like seafood Jesus Christ on the half shell that's Jesus Christ on the half shell. Once again the face of Jesus has appeared, this time on the side of a shrimp. Clearly it's a prophecy of coming $2.99 all-you-can-eat buffet at Shucky's Seafood Shack.
That is Countdown for this the 1,217 day since the declaration of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq. From New York, I'm Keith Olbermann, goodnight and good luck.
Our MSNBC coverage continues now from SCARBOROUGH COUNTRY. Joe, good evening.


text:
THE.STiXXclusive.BLOG
Because, these are my words, and I make them stick
Pusha T – My Name Is My Name – The STiXXclusive Review
Pusha T aka the other half of Clipse aka the one who didn't go to jail or find Jesus aka the one who was supposed to drop an album two years or so ago, but never did. Yes, that Pusha T. He gave Hip Hop some of its best years with his brother, providing drug raps and portraits of the street life of Virginia. As a soloist, there was much skepticism as to if he could hold his own without his brother, but Kanye West saw what he could be and took him under his good wing (you see what I did). After dropping Fear of God, and adding in a couple of solid features that sparked him up, there was a lot of buzz that started to circulate, and the anticipation was real for an album to come out, but unfortunately, it didn't happen. Big Sean dropped an album, Kanye dropped a couple, and it was looking like Pusha was about to be Jay Electrocuted, but alas, here we are – a Pusha T album. The criticism of Pusha is that he only talks about cocaine in his lyrics. I mean, if Drake is allowed to talk about haters, money and ex-girlfriends for 3 albums in a row, why can't Pusha talk about some drugs? Sure, we've heard the same thing since most of the kids my age were in grade school, but people like it, and that's what's made him successful. Turning away from his own style is not one that I think he's going to change anytime soon (and throw in the odd fashionable name drop every now and then). After, what I like to call, Wrath of Caine Bullshit, I had no idea what to look forward to on his album because I was so disappointed. Given the fact that I had no expectations until some singles came out, and another fact that Fear of God is one of the better mixtapes to come out in recent years, I knew that he still had it in him to make something good under the tutelage of Kanye West. Pusha T is Pusha T, his name is his name, and the music speaks for itself.
"This is my time, this is my hour
This is my pain, this is my name, this is my power
If it's my reign, then it's my shower
This pole position, I made a lane cause they blocked ours"
The opening lines for King Push speak for itself because the people have been waiting so long to hear the album now that he's in the spotlight. Pusha T (real name Terrance) went on and proclaimed that this was the album of the year even before it was officially released (basically when it leaked). Every artist should feel like they have the best album of the year, and the fans respond accordingly if it is or isn't. To be honest, the title 'album of the year' gets used from January to December, so it always changes. In Hip Hop, because there have been a string of good albums to come out, people's perception of just what the best album is changes more often than fluctuating weather. Pusha's making his claim saying that it's his time, and the intro track is ominous of who he is and the portrait of character that he paints – dark, tough, and concrete to the streets, and he makes that quite clear in the hook
"I'm King Push, this king push
I rap nigga 'bout trap niggas
I don't sing hooks"
Throwing a bit of jabs in certain rapper/singer's direction, at least he's being honest. Besides, there are a lot of rappers who have gone the route of singing their own hooks, so instead of one who many think Pusha's referring to (Drake), there are actually quite a few who do some singing on their tracks. The verses themselves were in typical Pusha fashion as he contrasted music and the streets in comparison to where many have seen the bright lights type of success, his came on the total opposite, but what it felt like to him was on that same level
"My first grammy was my first brick
Red carpet, every bad bitch
More BMF than billboard
I got a label deal under my mattress"
If you're still living under a rock, or you're simply and genuinely new to Pusha T and everything that he has to offer, his raps of the drug game and his involvement being a drug dealer isn't anything new, which is why it's surprising that so many people now still complain about it. Since he was with his brother and they were Clipse, they've always emphasized street anthems, and since Pusha has had his own voice to speak up, it's been heard and he's still going to talk about what he talks about.
"No Soundscan for a bricklayer, square nigga, you a brick hater
We see a bitch, you fall in love, I fall back cause my bitch date her
Where I'm from, we go crazy with them choppas
Sellin' dope, goin' diamond on my blocka" – Blocka (Wrath of Caine)
The streets of Virginia is where Pusha T started, and that's all we're going to get of him; pure honesty and a look into his world from a dope perspective.
When Numbers on the Boards dropped a couple of months before the album, the simplicity of the beat was just so rugged that it was contagious. The rumbling bass line and minimalism of instruments used were what made the song itself easy to put on repeat for a while. The constant of 'numbers' that were mentioned throughout the song played on words like he was an athlete scoring points (numbers on a scoreboard), and in comparison, he was putting out numbers that related to the drug culture.
"Mix drug and show money, Biggs Burke on tour
Twenty-five bricks, move work like chore
Hit Delaware twice, needed twenty-five more"
"How could you relate when you ain't never been great?
And rely on rap money to keep food up on your plates, nigga?
I might sell a brick on my birthday
Thirty-six years of doing dirt like it's Earth Day, GAWD"
Pusha T may not be regarded as one of the best rappers out, but when you look at his lyricism and how he strings words, metaphors and allusion together, he's truly skilled at what he does, and you definitely wouldn't be able to catch onto what he's saying the first time around. He boasts a lot about calling himself 'King Push' and that he wears the crown. When you want to be the best, being assertive is what needs to happen. He's definitely been showing confidence from the beginning and he even stated that "his records don't have to sell", because (as stated on the track), he's been able to make money through music and drug dealing – no worries. Only the 2nd track in, and it's feeling like a good rap album is about to take shape, and that's all the game needed.
There's always a call for celebration when you're winning, which is the entire point of a Sweet Serenade. The Virginia collaboration of Chris Brown and Pusha (in case you forgot that Chris Brown was from Virginia) is one that many thought was well overdo, or one that people didn't think would happen at all because they were really in different lanes; however, it happened and here it is – there's softness of the hook that somewhat covers up the aggression of Pusha. Much like Exodus 23:1, that whole song were shots directed to the Young Money camp (specifically Wayne & Drake), and on this track you hear more subliminal messages that give off the idea that he's not even done yet.
"Look, my ouija board don't never lie to me
The best rapper living, I know who's alive to me
Yeah, the competition's all but died to me
Raah, I make these mothafuckas hide from me"
Much like how Kendrick stated that he's trying to murder his competitors on Control, Pusha just said the same thing, and tracing back to the YMCMB feud, they haven't said anything back to him because they're stifled to retaliate (although Lil Wayne made a stupid diss track called Ghoulish). Competition is back in full swing as you can tell, but there are still those protected behind their feelings and "taking the high road" is better for their public image (Hip Hop in 2013, ladies and gentlemen). More metaphors and contrasts of drugs to music are being made, because he's essentially ascended in the ranks of both cultures to a top position where he's winning, hence why he's celebrating. This one had to grow on me because I wasn't feeling the hook (I'm still on the fence), but the verses alone made up for it, and were the reasons why I tolerated it so much.
On the tracklist (that was criticized for being so feature heavy), Rick Ross was on it, and having collaborated on Millions from Wrath of Caine, I wasn't too sure how to go about it, because I hated the song besides the hook (let's be real – that's 75% the reason why people like the song). What Hold On would bring, as I was listening, was Kanye West doing his Autotune harmonizing (like his Autotune solos on Runaway & Blood on the Leaves), a dope beat that was produced by Hudson Mohawke & Kanye, and also 2 fully laid out and open verses by Ross & Pusha.
"I sold more dope than I sold records
You niggas sold records, never sold dope
So I ain't hearing none of that street shit
Cause in my mind, you mothafuckas sold soap"
When you have so many rappers claiming to have sold drugs as their come up into the rap game, but not have the accuracy to back them up, it's good to see Pusha take the stand to call them out (although we'd love some names). Trap is the popular thing to be a part of, and it takes away from the actual rappers who sold drugs to pretty much live off of because music was an option.
The highlight of the track was Rick Ross' verse, because he wasn't about his usual "big bank take lil bank with a shark in the fish tank while I'm rolling down the block in an army tank" style, but he brought it back to his roots and got real humble for a bit. The honesty that people would rather listen to (like myself), is what made it so good and to me it was his best verse since Devil In A New Dress from Kanye's MBDTF (ironically, G.O.O.D Music).
"I seen children get slaughtered, niggas' grandmothers assaulted
Throw a gang sign, dare you do something about it
Fuck copping them foams, when you copping the home
Cop a kilo and have them people on top of your home"
As people get caught up in the material world (I mean, Ross & Pusha are very open about their material things), when it gets down to the fundamentals of what's important: family, stability and prosperity, you have to think about where your priorities stand, and that's what I felt Ross was saying on those couple of bars. The track itself definitely was beyond what my expectations were, and I'm glad that it surprised me, because from the rappers who you feel are going to do the same old same old, it's good to know that they still embrace the notion that it's sometimes deeper than rap.
Suicide brought in some of the older elements of Pusha's career and brought it together. With Pharrell producing (who was a frequent collaborator with Clipse) and Re-Up Gang's Ab-Liva as a featured rapper (also used to be a frequent collaborator), there was something for older fans to have an appreciation of whether it was a production or on the lyrical level. Where there are drugs, there's bound to be violence, and this track is a statement that if you mess with Pusha, well, that's your life – you just ordered your own funeral (for your career, at least). It reminded me of Fabolous' Suicide, but it really all stems back to KRS-One, since he was the originator of the hype and constant use of it in Hip Hop for many years to follow. There were even more shots at Drake on this one (everyone's gunning for him, and I like it)
"I build mine off fed time and dope lines
You caught steam off headlines and co-signs
Young niggas cliquing up with my rivals
Like the bible don't burn like these bullets don't spiral
Like I can't see the scene that you mirror in your idol
But a pawn's only purpose is completely suicidal"
Whereas Pusha is self made self paid, everyone knows that Drake had the big co-sign by Lil Wayne, and also Drake's song 'Headlines' was one of his biggest songs that helped propel his stardom (although he was pretty much already there with other singles). I already know that the jabs are just going to continue being jabs with no return in sight, and it's Pusha's obligation to keep adding fuel to the fire. He essentially said the same thing on Exodus that he's saying here, meaning that he's just a pawn for the higher ups until his career eventually spirals down. I just find the whole thing funny because back before Drake was even a common household name, he looked up to Pusha T & Malice…now the tables have turned, and considering that Drake is the higher up on the Hip Hop food chain (if we're looking at right now), it's only natural that others will be coming after your seat on the 'throne'.
More honesty, but in the form of getting more on a personal level, 40 Acres (helped with The-Dream on the hook) gets into a history of Pusha that deals with two sides: his escalation in the drug game after his manager Tony got locked up in jail for a drug bust, and personal relationships – looking at his parents how they divorced and also his relationship with his brother, Malice. On a freestyle-turned-track on Fear of God, Pusha summed it up in one line
"Tony found prision, Malice found religion, I'm still tryna find my way up out this fuckin' kitchen" – Blow
40 Acres and a Mule are what were promised to the former slaves, but it never happened. It was supposed to be part of their reparations, and it's like Black people in America are still hoping to receive some sort of benefits from their history of pain, torture, and sorrow. The idea ties in to the point where everything that Pusha went through and continues to go through, he wouldn't want to revisit his past, because he'd rather work to get what he deserves (basically, get rich or die tryin').
"Trouble world, trouble child
Trouble times destroyed my smile
No change of heart, no change of mind
You can take what's yours but you gon' leave what's mine
I'd rather die, than go home
And I ain't leaving without my 40 acres"
There are a lot of references to how his past experiences are reflected on his black skin (hence the presumed album cover of what looks like Pusha looking towards the heavens but has a pitch black skin tone), and it's just the evils of his past taking shape as like a permanent stain he can't rid of. Although he has financial success and can buy his own 40 Acres and a Mule, it doesn't take away the past and that it'll always stay with him, which is exactly what America's problem with slavery is – accepting that it happened, and it's a dirty stain in their history that they won't be able to get rid of.
At the beginning of No Regrets, I honestly thought that I was going to hear "DJ KHALED! WE DA BEST!" because it sounded like that type of beat, but it had that 'we made it, we're victorious, look at us' attitude behind it. When you're the one who makes it and you're putting on for the boys in jail who have to see your success from behind bars and on the TV screens, it's a great deal to embrace the success that you have, and have no regrets about the past to reap the benefits of now.
"Nowadays I sell hope, what you rather I sell dope?
What I sell is a lifestyle, naked bitches on sailboats
Foreign cars on a freight train for every nigga they railroad
Rent-a-cars we road run, money longer than train smoke
I done been in that same boat, I ain't letting this chain go
Representing my niggas down till they free 'em like Django"
It's cool how the themes of 40 Acres and this song tied in together. What I also noticed was that since Pusha T is an orchestrator of beef with YMCMB, having 2 rappers who have had known beef with each other over the years on the same album is genius that a lot of people might have not noticed (Rick Ross & 'no-longer-Young' Jeezy). Jeezy's verse was actually good, and I'm not a known Jeezy fan at all (more of a Ross fan, funny enough), but I do respect the craft of his hustle, because he is one of the original trap rappers who was about the life that they rapped about. He's also another rapper whom a lot of people claim talks about the same thing, but it has got him to astronomical heights – so he sold some drugs; whatever. He got rich from it, and he's has no regrets about it.
"Streets taught us, streets raised us, had it less determined
Dodging jackers, dodging murders, federal to state pen
Uncle got power, now I see him in another 10
We was set up just to lose, Lord know we trying to win"
Because the track sounds very DJ Khaled-ish (or maybe a little All of the Lights-ish), it still has room to grow. It's not bad, but I don't love it.
The album takes a bouncy turn, and when you hear the lovely Kelly Rowland on Let Me Love You, for some reason I got reminded of Clipse's track Ma, I Don't Love Her from years and years back, so maybe this was a more grown and mature approach to match that song's background. The craziest thing that happens is when Pusha starts rapping and I'm sitting here thinking that I'm listening to a Ma$e track. It's insane how he was able to perfectly replicate Ma$e's voice and flow; it was very impressive. In what sounded like a Neptunes production (which it wasn't – all The-Dream on this one), Pusha played the role of a player who has this chick that he just wants to have sex with and nothing more – he has a girl, and that's where the Ma, I Don't Love Her story comes into play, although he's buying her all of these things if she remains on her best behaviour (looks like he's on his worst), and doesn't blow the cover for the both of them. It's a playful song, and in most cases, it's true that these men and women have flings and affairs while wanting to spice things up in their own lives. I liked it a lot, actually. I think it's because I can do a little Harlem Shake to it; that boosted it up in my likeability.
Alright, the beat for Who I Am is crazy, but when it breaks down, even till this day, I still found it difficult to catch it, but this track was the G.O.O.D Music collective (minus CyHi & Kanye) just saying a whole bunch of nothing except for who they are and that they want to be the same people who they are currently, forever. Pusha's verse was too short, 2 Chainz was alright, but get Big Sean off this track with himself feeling like a grown ass little boy, although he still looks like a little boy, all 5'3 of him. The track could have been so much better and I felt like the beat went to waste (or maybe just get Big Sean off the track so I don't have to skip past it halfway through).
The main track that a lot of people who anxious to hear was Nosetalgia, because it featured Kendrick Lamar, who was the same person to call out Pusha T on that infamous verse. Pusha responded on Twitter by simply saying "I hear you loud and clear, my nigga", and here we are. No subliminal lyrics, no interviews on how emotionally sick and tired you are of being asked about it, but the challenge was accepted to make good music, and although this track was recorded before Control happened, it was still monumental because this would be the first time someone that Kendrick named would be on the same track as him. Now, the title of the track is straight forward, because it's a play on the word Nostalgia, which is reminiscing on the past, but it's spelled with 'Nose' because, you know…cocaine is snorted through the nose and Pusha was its distributor – simple as that. I watched the 'Decoded' video of him breaking down the verse bar through bar, but both of their verses (KDot & Push) are reflections of upbringing from childhood and how they tie into the drug game. With many references to the movie Boyz N Tha Hood (the video was also shot in Compton), that adds to the nostalgia, because that's a classic hood movie.
"Zhivago tried to fight the urge like Ivan Drago
If he dies he dies, like Doughboy to Tre
If he rides he rides, Throwing punches in his room
If he cries he cries, we don't drink away the pain
When a nigga die we add a link to the chain
Inscribe a nigga name in your flesh"
Also something that was a constant on the track was the BDP sample of The Bridge Is Over, by using "You better change what comes out your speaker" and "they must be on the dick of who" and that in itself is pretty much the actual response to the challenge that Kendrick issued in the first place – make better music. Pusha's verse was nuts, and the beat (shout out to long-time producer, Nottz) is hypnotic to the point where I found myself having it on repeat for a long time. There are so many pop culture references to the past in Pusha's verse that you literally would spend have the day on Wikipedia and YouTube figuring out just what he was talking about: Simon Red aka Suge Knight, Ferris Bueller, Starter Jackets, Beepers, and Timex.
Kendrick's verse started off with a line from Boyz N Tha Hood ("y'all wanna see a dead body?"), but he says "you" instead of "y'all". His verse put him into the perspective of his childhood witnessing the crack use in his own home, from his aunt's abuse and her behaviours that made it obvious that she was a crack addict. His father was also a gangster back in the day, so he had his fair share of wheeling and dealing drugs, getting caught up in the street game, but what changes is that Kendrick starts giving his dad assurance that he's doing to be a better drug dealer than him because he himself is a merchant of dope product – his raps.
"He said "son, how come you think you be my connect?"
Said "pops, your ass is washed up with all due respect"
He said "well nigga, then show me how it all makes sense"
Go figure, motherfucker, every verse is a brick
Your son dope, nigga"
A lot of people were surprised to hear Kendrick rap about cocaine, and even Pusha said that he was surprised to hear it because he took a walk into his scene (ironically, the video is them walking in a one shot take). If you knew Kendrick when he was K Dot, he has a song called Compton Chemistry, and he basically teaches someone how to make crack without ever doing it in his life (the benefits of being a fan coming in handy). Like Pusha, Kendrick also had some pop culture references, like Friday (Ice Cube & Deebo) and Sega Genesis. Not only is it the most hyped track, but it's arguably the best track, and it was just proven that when there's a challenge issued, there's nothing wrong with inviting the challenger to spare in the metaphorical ring that is the rapper's booth to see who has the better of the bout. It was an unlikely collaboration, but it definitely worked.
A collaboration that many didn't think would have made sense (as I slowly raise my hand) was on Pain with Future on it. He's one of the most popular rappers to get on a track and get it wild (See: Bugatti), but on this one, thankfully he wasn't the focal point – it remained on Pusha, and I think that's what was the misconception of the abundance of features. The days when rappers just rapped out their hooks has pretty much diminished, but you're going to have other singers or even rappers singing their own hooks (which Pusha stated in the beginning that he doesn't do). The beat had a feel that Jesus Walks did with the repetitive marching drum at the beginning, and you know it was about to get real authentic with its message. The emphasis of Pain ran through the track from start to finish, and it really highlighted the pain of the drug came and Pusha coming up from it. He understands that he could have been anyone else, but he chose the lifestyle with the pros and cons that came with it, and hence "my name is my name" comes alive (he pushed not only drugs, but himself to get to this position).
"It's no risk without gain
It's no trust without shame
It's no us without 'Cain
Push, my name is my name
In the kitchen with a cape on, apron
Tre-eight on, coulda been Trayvon
But instead I chose Avon"
The title of this album My Name Is My Name is a line from HBO's The Wire (I'm still watching Season 2), and the character it comes from is Marlo Stanfield (whom I've yet to discover in the series). Pusha could've chosen to just be an innocent kid and end up being like Trayvon (hopefully, not dead), but he chose to be like another Wire character, Avon Barksdale, who's a drug dealer – a successful one, at that, and he ran West Baltimore for a period of time, even while still locked up (which is pretty much where I'm at in the series). Your name is what you have, and you have a certain reputation that comes from it, so of course you have to defend your name, because there's entitlement and status that comes with it. Even in The Godfather 2 when Michael is on 'exile' in Italy and he meets Apollonia's father, he told him that people would pay a lot of money just to know his name – it's a powerful thing. This song also had to grow on me a bit, because the flow was very stop and go (the intent of the track to deliver emphasis, I guess), and Future – I mean, I just can't get into the guy when he's constantly on Autotune. I know that he used to rap without it, so perhaps he'll go back to that (Magic is still my guilty pleasure track for no reason – "FREE BANDS!").
The ultimate (meaning 'last') track of the album is an acronym that spells out S.N.I.T.C.H and stands for Sorry Nigga I'm Tryna Come Home, meaning that I can't listen to you or I can't have a connection with you because I want to go home, not stay in a jail cell. When some of your boys go to jail, the question always is "is so-and-so gonna snitch?" and you always hope that no one does. The reason why people snitch is because they can't handle jail, so they break the code and tell on others just so that they can become informants, and get paid to lock up people they were once considered good friends with. I've had friends locked up, and yes the suspicion of snitching did come about, but I don't think that was the case for any of them. They did their time, got out, and are slowly moving on with their lives. Pusha is going through the feeling of one of his best friends turning into a snitch because they weren't man enough to handle prision.
"I never thought I'd be the last man standing up
I never thought I'd had have to question "Were you man enough?"
Long letters how the streets got the best of you
Telling all your cellies how come I ain't sitting next to you
Yeah, see I can read between the lines
So it's awkward when you call and I gotta press 5"
It sucks when it happens in your circle, and one of your own turns their back and tries to use you to get to others out of their own benefit. It's painful in a way to know that you can never look at that person the same, and that's exactly what Pusha's expressing on this track
"Break your heart when the man you call your brother
Be the same one that setting in motion all them undercovers
Called my mom mother, was at my graduation
When I signed my record deal you was my motivation
Uh, from great friends now it's no affiliation"
I said that Pusha T hadn't made a better song than My God or Alone in Vegas, but this one might be it, given the fact that it hit on a personal level that people could relate to (I mean, if you live in the hood), and the honesty of the emotion is what brings it to life. Not to mention that Pharrell on the hook and The Neptunes on the beat brings back good times Hip Hop had, and will hopefully have for years to come.
Pusha T wasn't lying when he said he had the album of the year, because I do believe that he is in contention for having it. Honesty is the best policy, and there was a lot of that. Yes, he's been fully open and vocal about his drug dealer history, but he expressed it differently than just an everyday mixtape track – there was crafted art that went into making this album, and it was worth the wait. The contributions from (almost) every rap feature added to the bar that Pusha set in terms of execution, and the production was great because there was a bit of everything here and there. Pusha T is who he is, and he's not going to change how he is as an artist just to suit the needs of a greater audience. He's been around for years, and just because he's a solo artist with his first album, it doesn't mean that the content changes in a drastic way (as many artists do when they change scenarios). There was aggression when it came to the jabbing at rivals, and those are certainly conversation starters. Overall, it was concrete content that delivered on different levels. Mind you, some songs took me longer to get into (because I don't just give 1 listen write-ups), and it's not a perfect album, but it is a good album that I proudly spent money for. Sometimes, you just want to hear raps from the environment that you've known your whole life. Some of my friends sold drugs and I knew drug dealers where I used to live in my own building. Where you find a connection with music, it often hits home on a personal level, and although it may not be the most amazing, you find it amazing to you because you can relate easily to it than others. I'm definitely a fan of this album, and I'd definitely encourage you to listen to it. I was a big fan of Clipse, so it was only natural that I'd be a fan of Pusha T. But for now, this is my opinion, this is my review
That's My Word & It STiXX
Published by Mr. STiXX
I'm a video editor, a sports fan, a movie fan, a music fan. A lot of layers.	View all posts by Mr. STiXX
Posted in Music ReviewsTagged Clipse, G.O.O.D Music, Hip Hop, MNIMN, pusha t, Virginia5 Comments
5 thoughts on "Pusha T – My Name Is My Name – The STiXXclusive Review"
Massacred says:
Just Damn,
In a year ladled with many major releases, Pusha T's, My Name Is My Name some how manages to buck both trends and every other major release, to become one of best records released this year. In many ways it seems to be Yeezus done right, while the rest reaks of raw undiluted metaphors and lyrical skill. But where Yeezus and Magna Carta Holy Grail failed, My Name Is My Name gets it so right. Pusha T has undoubtedly cemented himself as a true quality driven artist with this LP.
Every track feels carefully thought out and is mechanically sound, while all featured artists are utilized to their max potential, enhancing both the mood and style of the album. (Especially Kendrick Lamar on Nosetalgia) All of the beats are both creative, while still folding into the album nicely. Particular Standouts include those done by the Neptunes and Good Music.
Pusha T is quite effective at painting a lifestyle turned bad to an artist hungry to reach the top of the game. While Yeezy, excellent production serves as a suitable backdrop. The differece between this and Yeezus, however is that Pusha T, truly retains the lyrical ability to back it up.It is difficult not to reap this album enormous praise, when it so perfectly delivers on exactly what was promised.
The album manages to string together so many elements beloved from Hip-Hop, from minimalist 90's beat to theatrical good music production, R&B hooks that came out of the 90's, witty sharp lyricism, as well as an aptitude for clever story telling. And of course, the constant that ties it all together, testosterone fuelled, yet some how well collected coke raps something of a signature for the artist.
Perhaps the only real "issue" with this LP are the questionable additions of MC's; "Big Sean" and "2 Chainz" neither of which can even come close to holding their own lyrically with Pusha. Both of there versus feel unintentionally awkward and funny on and all but introspective and fascinating album.
Yet, neither of them are truly enough to detract from the album as a whole.
Surely, a classic in the making.
A well deserved, 4.5 out of 5.
Isometrisized says:
As far as I can tell the diversity of production takes us a musical trip through the past two decades from the prestige of a drug dealer all the way to Hip Hop hustler on the brink of Zeitgeist enlightenment. The production is pretty comprehensive and shows his appreciation of G.O.O.D., the 90′s as well as R&B.
Its very much a trip through a few decades through the eyes of a drug dealer. And of course, the constant that ties it all together, testosterone fueled, yet some how well collected coke raps something of a signature for the artist.
Lastly, to me what makes this a truly interesting listen is him drawing parallels from the gang banging lifestyle to being a hip hop mogul. The "Hustle" is still alive and well. One must look no further than SIMPLY the album artwork. The parallel being white albums to white kilos. The bar code indicates, hey this is just another day at work for Pusha T, whether is selling coke or albums, its much the same to him.
PshClipse says:
Here's the thing though. Typically I'm wary, when artist says things like I have album of year, but in this case, the statement is 100% true.
This is just about as good as gets when modern hip hop production and the 90's collide.
EXCELLENT album.
No joke, if you truly want to support hip hop you will pick this one up.
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What is Ethiopia Coffee?
January 2, 2021 January 2, 2021 / By NWB
What is Ethiopia Coffee? Ethiopia is regarded as the home and the birthplace of coffee and to this day reports for 70% of the export earnings in the country. It's very vivid and distinctive in flavor.
The way they appreciate Ethiopia coffee back in the home of coffee is completely different to anywhere else in the world.
We'll be filling you in on the background and history of Ethiopian coffee, letting you know how to make it and how to drink it (the right way), and guide you on everything you'll need to know about it.
Background & History of Ethiopia coffee
Some speculate that coffee was discovered in Ethiopia as far back as the ninth century.
Experts tell the made-up story of an Ethiopian legend called Kaldi, a goat herder who discovered coffee by noticing how much stamina and energy his goats had after eating the cherries of coffee.
He shared his findings with a local monastery, who declared they were the devil's work and threw them into the fire, where the incredible smell tempted them to change their mind.
They then put boiling water over them to brew and discovered how great it was for giving them more energy to pray during the middle of the night.
Whilst this is a fictitious story, it encompasses the history and culture of the coffee itself. It was probably the Oromo or Galla tribe who discovered coffee.
Coffee rearing in Ethiopia has faced many challenges due to war struck land and economic downfalls but still remains to be the largest export of coffee in the world.
There was a large amount of time where farmers and women in the industry were not compensated well for their work, but now there are fair trade organizations that ensure they are paid properly and that to help build businesses.
Ethiopian's love and role in coffee are reflected in their language and is not always just associated with coffee itself, it's integrated into language whilst socializing about life and relationships.
A popular phrase is 'Buna Tetu' which literally translates as 'Drink Coffee' which can be used in that essence, but it is most commonly used as the western world would say 'let's meet up for a coffee'.
To this day, coffee is an inherent part of Ethiopian culture and over twelve million people in the East African nation help pick and rear coffee for their own consumption and for the rest of the world.
You'll want to get green coffee beans and rinse them in cool water, removing any beans that look weird, shake off the water and then put them in a pan (not a nonstick) on a medium-low heat and wait till they pop and turn dark brown (you can have them as dark as you like).
You'll want to stir them continuously and shake the pan. You can grind the beans by manually by hand if you'd like to do it the traditional way, or you can use an electric grinder.
You can then brew the ground coffee as you normally would (the traditional way is stated later in the article). You can then serve your traditional Ethiopian coffee in small cups and with lots of sugar.
What does it taste like?
Ethiopian coffee has about ten thousand varieties, but the most popular and commonly grown type of coffee is arabica coffee which is mild and aromatic.
Ethiopian coffee is a blend of fruited and floral flavors and is highly acidic, whilst having a light to medium body.
You taste hints of jasmine, blueberry, and bergamot in the aftertaste of the nation's coffee, but in general, they are heavier and more wine-like than coffees elsewhere in the world.
The coffee ceremony
The coffee ceremony is Ethiopia's most important social connection and signifies great respect and friendship within communities.
The Ethiopian coffee ceremony is traditionally hosted by the youngest women in the family and children are often involved, serving the coffee out to elderly guests.
The ceremony lasts from 2-3 hours and it is not uncommon for a family to have this ceremony 2-3 times a day.
There is a greater significance to the coffee ceremony, as the history of coffee has a rich history with Islam, it is said that the spirit is transformed and evolved 3 times during the ceremony.
Before beginning the brewing part of the ceremony, the woman will spread aromatic flowers across the floor and = will continuously burn incense throughout the ceremony to scare off any evil spirits.
The ceremony involves coffee beans washed and then being roasted in a pan, then ground down by using a mortar and a pestle, then brewing slowly in a pottery bowl called a jebena over an open fire.
The coffee is taken with lots of sugar but milk is not typically distributed.
The social side is spent catching up on the community, politics, and just general life with family or any invited guests and importantly, everyone will spend time praising the host for their coffee and its flavor.
More water will then be added to the pot to brew two more times until it is all gone. Each serving is called abol, tona, and baraka. The third brew is said to be a blessing for all those that drink it, despite it being incredibly weak.
The hostess sometimes adds cardamon or other spices to their coffee and those who live out in the country often add salt instead of sugar.
Snacks can sometimes accompany the coffee, one of the most common being a roasted grain mix called Kolo. However, the primary purpose is 'Buna Tetu' e.g drink coffee and socialize.
In the west the ceremony is still practiced, however, they use espresso machines to speed up the process.
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LightSquared, federal agencies continue squabbling over GPS interference
Sep 8, 2011 10:53am
LightSquared's battle with federal agencies over GPS interference concerns continues, and federal officials plan to tell a congressional committee that the company's proposed wholesale LTE network will harm hurricane tracking.
According to testimony obtained by Bloomberg, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Transportation Department and a federal advisory body plan to testify that LightSquared's planned network will interfere with precision GPS systems for the tracking. "We support further testing of LightSquared's proposal," Mary Glackin, a deputy under secretary at NOAA, will say in the testimony before the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
LightSquared is prepared to argue that its terrestrial network and GPS can coexist. GPS device makers have argued that LightSquared's network will cause harmful interference, especially to precision GPS devices. LightSquared, in turn, has blamed the GPS industry for not complying with GPS receiver filtering standards from the Department of Defense, an argument the GPS industry has rejected as misleading.
FCC officials said in August they have no timetable for evaluating LightSquared's revised network deployment proposal, and that finding a solution that protects GPS is a top priority. They said more testing may be needed, but declined to say how long that might take.
A report issued in June that was commissioned by the FCC found LightSquared's initial LTE network design interfered with GPS signals. In response, LightSquared released a revised network design, which uses the the lower 10 MHz of its L-Band spectrum and would create more of a buffer between LightSquared's spectrum and the spectrum used by GPS.
Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation and Timing, which coordinates federal agencies' interest in GPS, will say in testimony that more study of LightSquared's revised plan is needed, especially for the effect on precision GPS devices. The company "should not be allowed to commence commercial operations until the identified problems are resolved," he said.
LightSquared signed a 15-year, $9 billion network-hosting deal with Sprint Nextel (NYSE:S) in late July, but the deal is contingent on LightSquared getting FCC approval to operate its network.
For more:
- see this Bloomberg article
LightSquared blames GPS industry for inadequate filters in interference debate
FCC won't guarantee timetable for LightSquared review
LightSquared CMO: We'll get $3-3.5B more in funding over the next few years
European official worries over LightSquared GPS interference
Sprint confirms $9B LTE network-hosting deal with LightSquared
LightSquared CEO Ahuja confident FCC will approve network plan


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package com.cognizant.devops.platformcommons.core.enums;

public class ReportTemplateTypeEnum{
	public enum ReportTemplateType{
		ROITemplate, Others

	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Now that our temps are on the rise, we are looking for quick and easy recipes that don't require turning on the stove. This Spanish gazpacho with strawberries, tomatoes, cucumber, and red peppers fits the bill. It's not only incredibly easy to make, it is refreshing and absolutely delicious. The hint of sweetness from strawberries provides the perfect finishing touch to this chilled soup. It tastes like the Mediterranean summer!
I adapted this recipe from Cooking Light Magazine. Believe it or not, I've never had gazpacho before but when I saw this recipe on their pages I was instantly craving this cold soup. Normally, I wouldn't combine strawberries with tomato, cucumbers, and peppers but for some reason, it looked just so inviting to me. And no, you don't have to be pregnant to have strange cravings.
Traditionally, gazpacho was made by pounding the vegetables in a mortar with a pestle but thankfully we have food processors. Could you imagine? The Spanish, especially Andalusians still sometimes use this laborious method as it helps keep the GAZPACHO cool and avoids the foaming and the completely smooth consistency that blenders and food processors create.
The Cooking Light version instructs to reserve a cup of chunkier mixture, purée the rest and mix it together, but I like to simplify things (as we already know). Just be careful not to over blend and you'll have the texture.
Gazpacho is a spicy soup that is usually made from chopped raw vegetables (such as tomato, onion, pepper, and cucumber) and sometimes in combination with fruit that is served cold. A classic of Spanish cuisine, it originated in the southern region of Andalusia. Gazpacho is widely eaten in Spain and Portugal, particularly during the hot summers, as it is refreshing and cool.
I've made food that I don't particularly enjoy for the blog before, like my 15-minute Spanish garlic shrimp tapa (I'm not a fan of the shrimp), but I truly like this cold soup. My husband made "the face" when I told him what's in the soup, but was a good sport to try it. He took a few spoonfuls and declared: I can eat this!
Hey, the shrimp would go perfectly with gazpacho for a Spanish night with your friends. Both are easy and quick to make, so you can actually spend more time enjoying your company who will definitely think you spent hours cooking, ha! Don't forget some good artisan bread to go along.
And since we're into quick, easy recipes and STRAWBERRIES are in season, I'd recommend this no-bake quick and healthy recipe for dessert. Man, your friends will be talking about this dinner for months!
You can top the soup with croutons or serve with crusty bread.
In a food processor, place tomato, cucumber, and bell pepper. Pulse until finely chopped but not puréed. Transfer to a large bowl.
Add strawberries (reserving a few for garnish) and pulse until chopped. Add strawberries to the tomato mixture and stir to combine.
Return the mixture to the food processor. Add minced garlic and thyme and pulse until puréed, leaving small chunks for the texture if desired.
Return the mixture to the bowl and stir in olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper. Cover and chill minimum four hours.
Stir in the broth before serving and garnish with sliced strawberries and thyme.
This Spanish strawberry gazpacho is delicious and refreshing chilled soup perfect for summer entertaining.
Featured on: The Cottage Market, Sugar Spice and Family Life, and Sugar Spice and Family Life.
Perfect for warm weather! Thank you for bringing your yummy gazpacho to the Fiesta Friday party!
I would have never thought of Strawberry Gazpacho but it sounds so refreshing. Bring on summer and all of the wonderful recipes! Thank you for sharing at Friday Frenzy.
I never had one before because was put off by the name – chilled soup. It's a mental thing, I guess. Soups are meant to be hot. I'd call this a liquid salad, because it tastes just like that, lol! Yummy, though!
It truly is refreshing, Susan! Perfect for hot summer days 🙂 Thanks for stopping in!
This Spanish strawberry gazpacho sounds so good right now, pinning this goodness away!
I appreciate it so! 😀 Hugs!
This looks so refreshing! Thanks for sharing on Friday Frenzy!
I love gazpacho so this sounds so delicious and refreshing. It is perfect for the warmer months.
I love Strawberry Gazpacho and your recipe looks delicious! Hope you are having a great week and thanks so much for sharing with us at Full Plate Thursday!
This recipe is totally new to me. It looks amazing and nutritious. I would love to try making this, I am on the hunt for more natural food recipes.
It was my first too and I liked it. Hope you'll try it, Kathleen. Thanks for stopping in!
Precisely so. 🙂 Thanks for visiting!


This book explores the development and operation of the Mir Space Station over the last ten years, focusing on the engineering technology aspects of constructing and operating an orbital complex designed to be occupied by humans for long periods of time.
Russia in Space: The failed frontier?
Saturn, the a ~ringed planeta (TM), was first inspected close-up by NASAa (TM)s Pioneer 11 space probe in 1979. The two Voyager spacecraft followed up in 1980 and in 1981, but as a ~fly-bysa (TM) these craft had only a limited time to study the planet, its rings and its many moons. Now, after a seven-year interplanetary voyage, the Cassini-Huygens mission, which is a joint venture by NASA and Europe, is due to enter orbit around Saturn in July 2004 to make an in depth survey. In December it will release the Huygens probe, which will dive into the clouds of Saturna (TM)s largest and most enigmatic moon, Titan, and land on its surface, a month later.
The authora (TM)s highly successful first book on this topic, a ~MISSION TO SATURN a" Cassini and the Huygens probea (TM) presented a review of our state of knowledge and looked forward to the arrival of the new spacecraft. Published in September 2002, this book has sold to date 1,090 copies worldwide (726 USA, 364 ROW).