All this excitement about Barrack Obama has got me to thinking about a ditty by Ken Nordine, called Flibberty Jib.

Ken Nordine is a spoken word and voice-over talent known for his "word jazz" recordings from the late 50s. From wikepedia, "Many of his word jazz tracks feature critiques of societal norms. Some are lightweight and humorous, while others reveal dark, paranoid undercurrents and bizarre, dream-like scenarios."

"Flibberty Jib" is a story about a dark stranger who comes to a small town, gathers them together and chants "Fibberty jib on the bippety bop. Fliberty jib on the bippety bop." over and over until the whole crowd is chanting with him.

It's one of those stories with a chorus and the chorus is, of course, flibberty jib on the bippety bop.

The experience with the stranger brings the townspeople together but he has to go. He comes back now and again and each time the same thing happens...he gathers them together and he starts to chant "flibberty jib on the bippety bop" and they chant with him and the magic is back.

Pretty soon the people want the stranger to be their king. He comes back less and less and by the end of the story, the people are just waiting for him to come back. (That's my recollection after hearing it only once)

Ken usually ended the story by saying, "So, how are things in your town?"

I saw Nordine do this piece with the Grateful Dead, in Chicago in the 80s. It was totally amazing. The other level, when you hear it live, is that you are the townspeople and Ken is the dark stranger. Like I said...amazing.

I would love to reprint the lyrics or link to it but Mr. Nordine doesn't wish for his work to be passed around like so. So what follows are three links to help you "get the picture" of Fibberty Jib, Nordine and how it relates to...Obama & Yes, we can!

How does a citizen of Washington State who is working/assigned out of the state participate in the Washington State Democrat party's selection of delegates for the presidential race?

How does a Washington State citizen who is a member of our armed forces assigned out of state or out of the country participate in said Democrat Party delegate selection?

I know that the Washington State Republican Party will choose approximately half of its delegates from the primary election where citizens working/assigned out of state can vote via absentee ballot.

How are the Washington State Democrats ensuring that these citizens are able to participate in their political process?

Thanks,

Jeff Brigham

and appear to have lost a couple of posts to continuing conversations in the process of getting denied. 

So, maybe the posts will emerge later or maybe they are gone.  Too bad because I was enjoying the electoral college and long emergency discussion, but I can only think, look up links, insert the links etc so many times before I give up and figure that the site just occasionally steps in and stops the conversation.  

That's the way it is. 

SNBL USA is one of the largest a contract testing organizations in the country. They are in the business of animal cruelty - conducting animal experiments for businesses such as Pfizer, Inc and Eli Lilly. On January 31, 2008 KIRO 7 broke an investigation that revealed horrible animal suffering at the Everett facility (They also have a facility in Alice TX). In one case, a female monkey was scalded to death during a 20 minute wash cycle inside of a searing hot 180 degree cage washer. Whistle blowers have also alleged that monkeys are sprayed with acid, dropped on their heads and that when monkeys are not fed or cared for as required by law, employees are required to fake entries in official records.

To read these stories see:
KIRO TV
KIRO TV
Seattle Times

I just want to follow up on something that Ehver Green said in the caucus results thread. He said:

This whole thread is amazing. Isn't this what it should be about? Thanks to everyone who has posted this evening - the turnout is telling. Obama looking good.

EDIT: Olyblog was my first news source for results tonight!

I want to emphatically say YES! This is EXACTLY what it should be about. The caucus results thread was a perfect example of CJ in action. And I think we can do lots, lots more. I would love to see this kind of collective reporting about every important event in our community. We all have the stuff to do it (e.g., digital cameras, computers, video cameras, flickr accounts, etc.). Don't be a passive news consumer any more. Go out and find the answers to your questions and then share them with others. Discuss what you find, and you'll know more than any network or newspaper can tell you. As a zen master might say: "Be the news."

12 mini-reviews for the short attention span, taken from dark corners of stevenl's video vault:

From Talking Points Memo: "As we have mentioned, the Washington State GOP stopped counting caucus returns last night after only 87% of the caucuses were counted and declared John McCain the winner, even though his lead over Mike Huckabee was a mere 1.8%. Nice to know the Repubs have progressed from 2000 where they refused to count Democratic votes, to 2008 where they are now refusing to count their own votes."

From the Seattle Times: Huckabee sends lawyers.

NGUYEN HUY VU

Read the full AP article here