;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 9, 2012
** Paul Krugman: "Even though preliminary estimates suggest that Democrats received somewhat more votes than Republicans in Congressional elections, the G.O.P. retains solid control of the House thanks to extreme gerrymandering by courts and Republican-controlled state governments. And Representative John Boehner, the speaker of the House, wasted no time in declaring that his party remains as intransigent as ever, utterly opposed to any rise in tax rates even as it whines about the size of the deficit.... Mr. Obama should hang tough.... This is definitely no time to negotiate a 'grand bargain' on the budget that snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.... No deal is better than a bad deal." ...
... MEANWHILE, Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times writes, "Senior lawmakers said Thursday that they were moving quickly to take advantage of the postelection political atmosphere to try to strike an agreement that would avert a fiscal crisis early next year when trillions of dollars in tax increases and automatic spending cuts begin to go into force." Not. A. Good. Sign.
... AND, Annie Lowrey of the New York Times writes, "Congressional leaders have made clear that the debt ceiling will be part of the intense negotiations over the so-called fiscal cliff, with many members unwilling to raise the ceiling without a broader deal. That has raised financial analysts' worries of a financial market panic over the ceiling in addition to the slow bleed of the tax increases and spending cuts."
Tom Toles of the Washington Post.
As a consequence of this election & to reflect the will of the country, I suggest what we do now is enact Mitt Romney's tax plan. -- John Boehner, Rachel Maddow translation
... Rachelle Younglai of Reuters: "Top Republican lawmaker John Boehner said on Thursday he would not make it his mission to repeal the Obama administration's healthcare reform law following the re-election of President Barack Obama. 'The election changes that,' Boehner, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, told ABC news anchor Diane Sawyer when asked if repealing the law was 'still your mission.' 'It's pretty clear that the president was re-elected,' Boehner added. 'Obamacare is the law of the land.' ... A spokesman for Boehner said later the speaker and House Republicans 'remain committed to repealing the law, and he said in the interview it would be on the table.'" CW: Boehner obviously got a copy of Romney's playbook -- imply one thing to a large audience; deny it via a spokesperson or statement. So now we have this straight: it is not Boehner's "mission" to repeal ObamaCare, but he is "committed to" repealing it. Huge difference.
Tim Egan: "The challenge now, at a time when 40 percent of all wealth goes to 1 percent of the population, is to see if national policy can really do something to revert middle-class losses."
Marc Caputo of the Miami Herald: "Though votes are still being tallied, President Obama is all but assured a victory in Florida because the lion's share of the outstanding ballots come from Democratic-heavy counties. Obama leads Republican Mitt Romney by 55,832 votes -- or 49.9 percent to 49.24.... Miami-Dade finished tallying a backlog of 54,000 absentee ballots Thursday and it marginally increased Obama's lead.... Romney's Florida campaign has acknowledged their candidate lost in Florida as well.... With Florida's 29 Electoral College votes, Obama will have 332 votes to Romney's 206." ...
... Update. Jay Weaver, et al., of the Herald: Miami-Dade County officials finished their vote tally Thursday, following an around-the-clock tabulation of tens of thousands of absentee ballots and a few thousand provisional ballots. Mayor Carlos Gimenez also pledged to uncover what went wrong Tuesday, by asking four Miami-Dade commissioners to join a task force that will examine the long lines and frustrating delays that plagued polling places in different parts of the county.... Broward County finally finished counting ballots at about 11:30 p.m. Thursday.... Palm Beach and Duval were still tabulating their absentees as of Thursday afternoon." ...
... AND an interesting factoid from CBS Miami: "Exit polls of the Cuban-American community in Florida showed a split between Cuba-Americans who were born in Cuba and those born in the United States. Historically, Cuban-American voters have heavily favored the Republican Party since the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. According to the Wall Street Journal, Cuban-born voters broke for Mitt Romney by a 55-45 percent margin. However, among Cuban-Americans born in the United States, President Obama carried the group by a 60-40 percent margin. The Pew Hispanic Center reported Cuban-Americans favored Obama by a 49-47 percent margin."
The Signal & the Noise:
Wherein Karl Rove Explains What "Voter Suppression" Really Means. Dylan Byers of Politico: In a Fox "News" interview, Karl "Rove argued Obama 'suppressed the vote' by demonizing former Gov. Mitt Romney and encouraging people notto vote":
... Or, Maybe, Karl, You Can Blame Your GOP Friends. BACKFIRE! Craig Timberg & Lonnae Parker of the Washington Post: "For many African Americans, this election was not just about holding on to history, but also confronting what they perceived as a shadowy campaign to suppress the black vote. Black voters responded with a historic turnout here in Ohio and strong showings across a range of battleground states.... Buoyed by the Obama campaign's sophisticated ground operation, African Americans helped provide the edge in Virginia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and perhaps Florida.... Analysts, voters and politicians said that a series of episodes here in Ohio -- where exit polls showed black voters accounting for 15 percent of Tuesday's electorate, up from 11 percent in 2008 -- were seen by African Americans as efforts to keep them from voting, stirring a profound backlash on Election Day." ...
... CW: Timberg & Parker don't say so, but I wouldn't be surprised if here in Florida, with our high percentage of older voters, efforts to suppress the vote worked -- on Republican voters. For a week, the local news was about long voting lines with waits of several hours. I suspect many older voters -- who tend to vote Republican -- just decided they didn't have the stamina to stand in line for hours. So they didn't. Anyway, we all owe a debt of gratitude to those extraordinary citizens who stood up (for hours) to GOP tyrants.
Jan Crawford of CBS News: Romney really was confident he would win up through Tuesday evening. ...
... Steven Shepard of National Journal: turns out the polls were skewed, just as Republicans kept insisting. However, they were skewed against Obama & Democrats, not against Romney & Republican candidates. Democrats & Obama won in many states by more than the averages of polls projected. "It is worth noting that PPP's final preelection polls were among the most accurate of all the outfits polling the campaign." (Public Policy Polling [PPP] is a partisan Democratic pollster.)
Sorry, forgot to run this yesterday. Yo, cynics, he just might be the real deal:
Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "In races around the country, an unusually large number of lawmakers facing charges of wrongdoing were unceremoniously ousted from their jobs on Tuesday -- which is quite rare, because more than 90 percent of the incumbents seeking re-election to Congress typically return for another term."
Andrew Rosenthal of the New York Times: no, GOP House members, the election was not about you, and you do not have a mandate.
Helen tells Margaret: "Like a zoo, Fox News isn't so scary once you realize the animals can't get out of their cages." A funny post. Thanks to Bonnie for the link.
Local News
NEW. NBC News Orlando: David Siegel, "the central Florida timeshare mogul who made headlines by telling employees a vote for President Barack Obama could jeopardize their jobs, is making more news.... Siegel told Forbes.com ... he will give [his employees] a 5 percent raise. That means he will not be laying off employees as he suggested was a possibility if Obama were re-elected." ...
America's Most Embarrassing Governor. Nick Wing of the Huffington Post: "Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) maintained that he would continue to reject implementation of key aspects of President Barack Obama's health care reform law this week, despite the certainty that Obamacare will now remain intact due to the president's reelection."
Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times: "Hoping to set a precedent for other states, Michigan's labor unions spent months pushing a referendum to amend the state's Constitution to prohibit the legislature from ever enacting a law that would curb the powers of public employee unions. But this push to enshrine collective bargaining rights in the Constitution was roundly defeated in Tuesday's election, 58 to 42 percent -- an embarrassing loss for labor in a state known as a cradle of American unionism."
Rachel LaCorte of the AP: "Washington state has approved gay marriage, joining Maine and Maryland as the first states to pass same-sex marriage by popular vote. Voter returns released since election night show Referendum 74 has maintained its lead of 52 percent. Opponents conceded the race Thursday, while supporters declared victory a day earlier."
Dan Frosch of the New York Times: "Thursday..., Democratic lawmakers [in Colorado] elected the state's first openly gay speaker of the House. The new speaker, State Representative Mark Ferrandino, a Democrat from Denver, was a co-sponsor of [a] civil unions bill [which Republicans blocked from consideration last year] and has vowed to bring it back when the session resumes in January."
Other Stuff
Ellen Barry of the New York Times: a new Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, just opened in Moscow, Russia, is a "state-of-the-art complex underwritten by oligarchs close to President Vladimir V. Putin.... The project is meant to convey a powerful message to Jews whose ancestors fled or emigrated: Russia wants you back."
Paul Sullivan of the New York Times: a major gift-tax deduction is about to expire with the Bush tax cuts, & your average millionaire is scurrying to take advantage of it.
News Ledes
Stoner State. CNN: "The prosecutor's offices for two Washington counties -- including the one that contains Seattle -- announced today they will dismiss 175 misdemeanor marijuana possession charges, days after the state's voters legalized the drug. The dropped cases all involve arrests of individuals age 21 and older for possessing one ounce or less of marijuana."
New York Times: "With many states lagging far behind schedule, the Obama administration said Friday that it would extend the deadline for them to submit plans for health insurance exchanges, the online markets where millions of Americans are expected to obtain private coverage subsidized by the federal government."
New York Daily News: "Federal prosecutors in upstate New York have dropped their year-long sex-abuse investigation into Bernie Fine, saying there is not enough evidence to support allegations that the former Syracuse University assistant basketball coach molested a boy in 2002."
** Washington Post: "CIA Director David H. Petraeus has resigned, bringing a surprisingly abrupt end to his brief tenure at the agency as well as his decorated career in national security. Petraeus sent a letter to President Obama on Friday indicating that he was stepping down, citing an extramarital affair." New York Times story here AND has been greatly expanded. CW: I thought Jay Carney was giving awfully cagey answers re: Petraeus in his briefing, just concluded. I see I was right.
NBC News: "... President Barack Obama on Friday invited congressional leaders of both parties to the White House next week for talks on how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, but reiterated his insistence that higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans be part of a deficit reduction plan."
ABC News: "President Obama will today call upon Congress to work with him on preserving the lower tax rates first pushed by President Bush for those Americans who earn under $200,000 a year, but he will state his belief that voters were clear in re-electing him that they support a 'balanced approach' to deficit reduction -- meaning that the lower tax rates for higher wage earners should expire." ...
... Politico Update: "President Barack Obama said Friday he's ready to get to work on a deal to avert going over the fiscal cliff at the end of the year. But, he stressed, he believes he has the authority after winning reelection to a second term in the White House":
Reuters: "A former oil executive was named leader of the world's 80 million Anglicans on Friday, ending months of closed-door intrigue as the church struggles with bitter rifts over women bishops and gay marriage. Justin Welby, 56, has been bishop of the northern English city of Durham for barely a year and will replace the liberal incumbent Rowan Williams as archbishop of Canterbury in December. Welby is against gay marriage but favors the ordination of women as bishops."
ABC News: "Seven current members of the Navy's elite SEAL Team Six, including one involved in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, have received non-judicial punishments for having served as paid consultants for the video game 'Medal of Honor: Warfighter.' Four other SEALs who previously belonged to the unit remain under investigation."
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Reader Comments (28)
I'm starting a campaign to sedate Allen West, collar and tag him, and put him back in his cage.
How the fuck he got out of it originally remains a mystery.
After all the publicity the GOP got for their voter suppression around the country--all their open disdain of common sense and morality--you would think that their apologists would keep a low profile. OF COURSE NOT (channeling Cenk). This editorial in today's Columbus Dispatch is enough, in the words of one of my relatives whose name I cannot remember, enough to gag a maggot. I think that description is probably the equal of all the expletives that Akilleus can fling at the GOP, when you consider the actual details of a maggot gagging on something.
Good job indeed! The Dispatch is the newspaper unit of the Wolfe family dynasty in the city, a clan of baboons whose paper is notably more liberal these days when Columbus is the largest city in the state and is controlled by a popular Democratic mayor. However, in this editorial they exceed their previous examples of crazy bias. I will try to give the link.
Here's the link (I hope):
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/editorials/2012/11/08/good-job.html
Let me try that again....
Good Job
Here's the link, for real:
Good Job
@Alp: Looks like the commentators didn't agree with this editorial at all! No wool pulled over their eyes. It's amazing how that fecal matter is spread by the losers in this election. Maggot gagging,indeed.
On a higher note: Saw a clip of Obama thanking his election crew; tearful, thankful and very emotional.
@Roger Henry: You didn't like Team of Rivals, I gather. You say it screwed Obama up for the first two years of his presidency. I'd guess you're not thinking of the Hillary Clinton appointment or the failed attempt to get a Republican into his cabinet as Commerce Secretary, so I'm wondering what you had in mind. His wish to negotiate and compromise with the disloyal opposition, or what? I'd like to hear more. What's the coulda/shoulda you had in mind that Obama did or did not do?
By the way, I did like the book. Her rumored sleeping (and substantiated borrowing) habits aside, she writes quite well, I think.
Have a nice day, all.
I'm not sure where we are with the swan song of RealityChex, but let me go on record that I will chip in monthly to convince Marie to keep on keeping on. The NYT and NYTX aren't doing nearly as much with my contributions as Marie does without them. The election is over, so where else would I want to ship my money? The alternative is unthinkable.
Re: Deep Pockets Mr. Mahoney; Dear moneybags, as we approach the time year for giving (along with the end of a tax poophole for hiding big piles of cash) one must look to those deserving of a nice little present. What could be more fitting than a tax free gift to someone you don't know? You must realize if you read Rechex comments that JJG would be an excellent choice for your bequeathal. His is a hard luck story with a Dickensian shadow cast over his advanced years. Much like Mitt Romney he pulled himself up by his own loafer tassels. Born an idiot savant he rose above the savant part to become a complete idiot. By sharing your vast wealth with JJG you would assure yourself that your hard earned treasure would be spent on the essentials of life and secure the single blend whiskey industry of the Irish. Thank you in advance. Close personal friend of JJG.
Alphonse,
Thanks for that "Heckuva job, Husty" link.
I'm tempted to declaim on the astounding fantasies with which the right hypnotizes each other. I'm not sure whether it's out and out lying or complete denial of the real world, or some combination, but whatever it is it's keeping them all in some weird never-never land.
The Dispatch knuckleheads curtsy to one of the most corrupt enemies of democracy, a secretary of state who operates solely for the benefit of his party, whose vote suppression mission fell short of the goal of outright election theft only because Republicans failed to account for the anger their arrogance and racism would elicit in urban Ohio (and Florida). Reading conservative post mortems one discovers that Republicans who are supposedly brilliant tacticians and political tarot card readers are baffled that their evil plans didn't work. All that wonderful wickedness wasted, defeated by Democracy in action.
The reference at the top to Heckuva Job Brownie is not quite accurate. Brown was just another Bush hack whose disastrous and shameful failure during Katrina was due mostly to incompetence, laziness, and the usual innate Bush racism. The situation with Husted in Ohio was the result of highly organized election stealing coordinated with right-wing gangsters and abetted by billionaires and corrupt voting machine companies. The fact that they failed doesn't mean they didn't try (a burglar who breaks into your house to steal your stuff doesn't get to walk just because he wasn't successful. He still goes to jail. But not these guys. Newspaper publishers write paeans to their heroism and bemoan their victimhood. That's how they do it in right-wing world).
It seems, in the end, that most of those despised 47% ers know what it means to take responsibility for their lives after all.
They told people like Husted and Romney and Ryan and Rove to drop dead.
Sounds like a plan to me.
POOR OLE JJG
Needs some money from Jack Mahoney––
The Dickensian shadow hanging over his years
brings anxious tremors and copious tears––
Pulled up by his dumb bells and loafer tassels
he forged ahead unimpeded by certain assholes––
So please take pity, Jack Mahoney
and send our guy a piece of baloney
to go with his single blend of Irish whiskey
to keep him lovable and mighty frisky.
The Telnaes cartoon with the 'visiting bluebird of happiness' to the shellshocked crew at the bar is hilariously splendid.
Ah, yes the bitter aftertaste of Kool-Aid!
James,
Not sure I can answer why Allen West is still running around screaming. Like most teabaggers, he believes he is entitled to things that aren't necessarily his, and besides, he spent a passel on his reelection.
Strangely enough, I've never done this before but if you figure that he spent $13.8 million and got about 158,000 votes, he spent about $87.34 per vote. In comparison (using figures from October, rounded off with another $100 million or so to account for the last few weeks of the campaigns--not perfect, but it allows for a rough calculation), the president spent about $900 million for 61 million votes (about $14.75 per vote--a bargain at twice the price!) and Romney spent roughly $800 million to collect 58 million votes (roughly $13.80 per vote. Cheapskate).
So West outspent the big boys by a huge margin, per vote, at least.
Yesterday marked 80 years to the day since the FDR was elected to his first term. According to Mother Jones, the combined cost (FDR and Hoover) of the 1932 race was about $100 million in today's dollars meaning an average of about 40 cents a vote. Life was simpler then. Republican arrogance, depression brought on by Republican administration laissez faire economics, robber barons and their families still lording it over the rest of us. Not much different than today after all.
Don't know what it would cost to run for dog catcher, but Allen West might want to find out. On second thought, he'd probably just shoot the strays. The NRA would insist. I guess it's time for him to write his memoirs.
The source for the election totals (votes and dollars) is the Times.
Oh yeah, and the Allen West totals come from Politico. Not sure that qualifies as an unimpeachable source given how partisan they are, but I used it as a source for rough calculations for purposes of comparison.
Don't you just love Margaret and Helen?
This post is a scream. Loved the line about "...irrelevant talking parrots including Shepard Smith, Greg Gutfeld, Tucker Carlson..." that were spied on a visit to the Fox Zoo during the election returns.
The only distinction I'd make is that most animals have a greater sense of morality, and most certainly of the real world, than anyone in the Fox lineup.
Don't feed the animals in this zoo. And if Bill O'Reilly swings into the primate exhibit looking for another monkey to groom, watch to see if he's carrying a loofah.
JJG, Thank you for your kind offer. I have been feeling lonely since the election in that I'm receiving about 100 fewer fundraising emails featuring personal messages that used to have different meanings such as "Wow!" and "Let's not stop now!" That being said, I only mind the store for Mr. Scrooge. When he comes back, I will pitch him on sending a few pence your way. It's possible that a picture of you with a crutch or a severe overbite will help.
I've gotta say, Helen and Margaret are a breath of fresh air.
Jack
Man if this blog shuts down I am going to miss you guys so much!
@Marie, I'm shocked that you don't want this full time job. The pay is so great!
Re: Answer Lady
I guess some readers are as lazy as many of today's reporters.
For the second time this week--WHEW!!! First President Obama is re-elected and now Marie announces the continuation of RealityChex. Can it get any better?
As to the fiscal cliff. Lawrence O'Donnell sometime ago was doing a little campaign about going over the cliff. He reported that Senator Patty Murray from Washington was working to get her colleagues to rally round the effort. At the time I was a little unsure as to whether or not that was a positive thing. But then I Robert Reich on Elliot Spitzer's show explaining why jobs are more important than the deficit and we should go over. Last night, Elliot Spitzer did a "My View" segment about why he believed it would be a good idea, and today Paul Krugman seems to make the case for it, too. Reading the first snippet in today's ledes gave me hope that the president will realize voters gave him a strong message to stand up to Mr. Orange and his ilk at the same time standing up for those who believed in him enough to vote for his re-election. Hope all Democrats in office take Marie's observation that it pays to "do something" to heart and stand together to ensure the Republicans attempt to say they have some mandate in the house is firmly squelched.
I absolutely LOVE this! Now the crazies want to escape to Canada. HA!
******************
Fox Station Tells Romney Supporters How to 'Beat the Traffic' to Canada (Video Blogs Cafe)
The Fox station in Oklahoma on Wednesday gave supporters of former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney some helpful tips for fleeing the country before President Barack Obama starts his second term.
In the Fox 23 "Beat the Traffic" segment on the morning after Obama won re-election, traffic reporter Jeff Brucculeri took a look at some of the delays around Tulsa before having some fun with disgruntled voters.
"We had some folks make a special request," Brucculeri explained. "I know a lot people said that if their candidate lost the election, they'd be moving to Canada -- not sure why, but that was some of the folks' promises out there."
So, the traffic anchor proceeded to give "the quickest and directest route" up north, where big government, same sex marriage and universal health are a part of everyday life.
Brucculeri advised Tulsa residents to take Highway 75 to Omaha, and then I-29 to the Canadian border.
"This is serious stuff," he told laughing staff in the newsroom. "When you get to Canada, you're going to hit the border here, make sure you got either your [passport] card or your passport, OK, to get into Canada now. Then you're going to get back on Highway 75 in Canada or it's actually the Lord Selkirk Highway. If you're moving to Canada, you're going to need to know this. Lord Selkirk Highway, OK?"
Montreal-based immigration lawyer immigration lawyer David Cohen told CNN that he had received calls from all over the United States after Romney lost on Tuesday.
"That's the amazing thing, when they speak on the phone. They're adamant. They feel very, very strong about it," Cohen said. "This government doesn't speak for me' is the language that we often hear."
From the "Rat Deserts Sinking Ship" desk:
You've probably heard this already but it's just another indication of the kind of person Willard the Rat is and what a terrible president he would have been (counterfactual thinking being a Romney specialty).
As his loyal (but severely misguided--as in severely conservative) staffers waited with heads bowed at exactly the prescribed angle (specified in Lady Ann's Rules for Commoners, page 3, paragraph 2, figure 5), for the Lord High Rodent to appear and bless them all with his presence, and spit a concession sentence or two out through clenched butt cheeks (one could hardly call it a speech), little did they know that their allegiance and faithfulness to the Lord of RatWorld would be paid back in true Romney fashion.
He canceled their campaign credit cards. Before they even left the ballroom.
And we're not talking about low level staffers. People with credit cards in a campaign are pretty serious workers. They weren't licking envelopes. They must have been busting their humps for a full year or more to get this rectal cavity elected. And this was how that cheap little gnawing rodent dispensed with their services.
Thanks for coming. Fuck you on the way out. I lost and you're on your own. I don't owe any of you shit.
You can just imagine what he would have said to citizens when his economic "plan" for recovery augured into the nearest toilet and was flushed into the Potomac.
This asshole deserves to go through several hundred more nights like Tuesday. Odes of joy to the heavens that I don't have to see this smarmy snake oil salesman's puss anymore or hear that oily voice.
Christ, what a creep.
Marie, thanks for the Sister Mary Elephant clip ~ it brought back soooo many memories of my youth! And, more important, thank you for continuing RealityChex. You are THE premier fact checker, surpassing anyone on the internet and the MSM. And, no, I have not checked that fact but think anyone who reads RC agrees, so it now becomes a fact ~ hey, we can play that game, too!
Thank you, thank you ~ and, like a few others have suggested, I am more than happy to 'donate to the cause'. You are awesome!
Just read the latest David Brooks demented pablum.
Can this guy become any more irrellevant?
Mēnin aide Thea Pēlēiadeō Akhillēōs!
(Sing, O Goddess, of the wrath of Achilles, son of Peleus!)
Akilleus--You noted that the GOP seemed shocked that their voter suppression did not work. My son and I are conspiracy nuts, I guess, but we believe that Blackwell delivered Ohio to Bush in 2004. We are in the company of the professor who was ridiculed in today's NYT :
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/09/nyregion/professor-skeptical-about-integrity-of-electoral-process.html?ref=todayspaper
Right away my son decided that the reason the GOP was so sure of itself is that they thought they had enough of the vote suppressed. Not only did their Citizens United millions not buy them the election, but their Republican Secretaries of State failed them!
Calyban:
Yes! The wrath of Akilleus--good call. I recently destroyed my college "translation" of the Iliad, abandoned about ten pages in, and all I remember is the wrath of Achilles--but did not connect that to our wrathful friend.
Now, are you Caliban?
Ay, that I will; and I'll be wise hereafter,
And seek for grace. What a thrice-double ass
Was I to take this drunkard for a god,
And worship this dull fool!
A repentant Republican?
Re: Canada
And, the taxes are high!
Alphonse,
You may have had the Fitzgerald translation. Although not a bad one, I'd suggest the more recent Fagles translation. It jumps off the page. My favorite of the five I've read so far. Funny we're talking about the Iliad, I just bought the latest (somewhat controversial) Stephen Mitchell translation today.
I'll let you know how well he communicates my wrath. "Sing, O Muse" and all of that.
Speaking of Cal(i)yban, I was wondering if the name comes from the Tempest. Ban, ban, ca-Caliban, has a new master, get a new man. and all that.
I guess all we need now is an Ariel and a Prospero and we'll be in business.
I realize this is way off the mark, but has anyone out here seen Prospero's Books? Peter Greenaway's experimental riff on Will's old autodidact and occasional curmudgeon. If so, what'd you think?
Akilleus--
I was referring to a translation that I was doing in a Greek class which, however, was cancelled due to low enrollment (one). My desire to translate Homer did not extend to doing it on my own as my desire was to learn Greek, and translating classics was how they taught it.
What translation of the Iliad I read in English, I have no idea. In my college, one did not use a translation version to help one read I the original, which perhaps explains the low enrollment. I had read Koine the previous year but thought to step up from the gospel of John to Homer. Eyes too big for stomach perhaps.
On second thought, no perhaps about it. Influence of my hero of the time, Ezra Pound.