Engendering Change

Textually as well as visually, Nancy Pelosi has taken an incredible amount of political and media abuse in her career, particularly over the past year or so.  She has been written-off for her "LIBERAL" voting record as well as her representation of moonbat "SAN FRANCISCO."  She has been criticized for her speaking style and for how she looks.  Overall, her treatment has mirrored the worst combination of gender and partisan politics.

With yesterday's Democratic landslide, there are dozens of new faces to focus on.  In the coming days, you'll see them all over The BAG, not just because of America's fundamental political and tonal shift, but also, because of the hastened start of the '08 Presidential race.

That said, last night was, as much as anybody's, Pelosi's night.

As I've mentioned before, I have issues with Nancy.  And, come Thursday, we can expect to see Dems pulling intensely in at least two directions, with centrists and liberals grabbing hard for the wheel.

For at least one full day though, I'm taking off my critical hat and just enjoying the picture.  We have struggled for such a long, long time. So give me the confetti.  Give me the little flags on the wooden handles.  Give me the hugs and the celebration shots, and as much patriotic wallpaper as you've got.

Like America's first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives in this buoyant image, I'm feeling the joy.

(image: Larry Downing/Reuters. Washington, November 7, 2006. Via YahooNews)

Comments

[PTate in MN]

I love that she is dressed in lavender. Pale purple against the red, white and blue.

I hope it symbolizes a return to a less partisan political era, where the red and blue work together and everything is a little less intense.

[Ksue]

I'm with you, Bag. While she's never been a personal favorite, I'm giddy with the excitement of her being Speaker.

Finally, oxygen is reaching my brain once again. As a longtime progressive/liberal moonbat, it's been like living at the bottom of the ocean with only lungs, not gills, since 2000.

I can now breathe once again!!!!!!!!!

[limapup]

Charlotte Whitton:
"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult."

Kick ass, Nancy!

[MonsieurGonzo]

Washington Post : “At the center of all this will be Bush, who enters the final phase of his presidency with an opposition House and the sting of a campaign in which he was deemed to be an albatross... ”

“Albatrosses have been described as "the most legendary of all birds". An albatross is a central emblem in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge; a captive albatross is also a metaphor for the poète maudit in a poem of Charles Baudelaire. It is from the former poem that the usage of albatross as a metaphor is derived: someone with a burden or obstacle is said to have 'an albatross around their neck', the punishment given in the poem to the mariner who killed the albatross. In part due to the poem, there is a widespread myth that sailors believe it disastrous to shoot or harm an albatross; in truth, however, sailors regularly killed and ate them, but they were often regarded as the souls of lost sailors.”

The Cooler

But an even better pop-metaphor was spoken by Chris Matthews in the wee hours last night: Bush was like the William Macy character "Bernie Lootz" in the American film, The Cooler, in that whomever he was associated with, either by physical campaign stop or virtual image visit, suddenly that candidate began to lose :)

imho what happens next, is that certain persons (eg., Mr. Rumsfeld) and prop-agendas (eg., neo-conservatives) will become “radioactive...”

...as the written, spoken and visual language must change, to reflect the new RealPolitik ~ evolving the American Conversation.

[Aunt Deb]

Iraq is the albatross.

And how 'bout that Rumsfeld, now rumoring his resignation?

[jt from BC]

Rumsfeld has, hes just the first to fall on the sword to cover for the C in C.

[jt from BC]

Robert Gates, new Sectary of Defence, hm-mm a very interesting hobby

"I also enjoy cultivating shrubberies"

[readytoblowagasket]

Not so fast, jt. Bush's choice of Robert Gates as the "new" Secretary of Defense must be confirmed by the Senate. Ha ha ha!

Payback time.

(This is why the Republicans are stalling the "outcome" of the now-Democrat-controlled Senate, by holding up Virginia and Montana for as long as they can.)

Say good-bye to John Bolton, too.

And with the (re)empowerment of women such as Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton in the Democratic Party, Condoleeza Rice won't have a chance to shine. Not with a lame duck boss. So she won't be running in 2008.

[KingElvis]

KSUE:

TELL ME about it!

I personally have always thought Nancy Pelosi was a moral and earnest person - without being Pollyanna. Democrats are not supposed to be triumphalist as nationalist/macho GOPers, but my heart lept with this picture. There's something about a good guy (ahem, good GIRL) who, after years of suffering slings and arrows, finally tastes the sweet wine of triumph.

Maybe it's sleep deprivation, but I get a lump in my throat looking at this picture of Pelosi as a conquering hero(ine). But of course it's not just about one woman winning - it's bigger than just her...

She is now literally the most powerful woman in the history of US government.

Like Princess Leia turning the tables on Jabba the Hut (Hastert the Hut?) - the last shall be first indeed.

This is the first reallly big win for Democrats in 12 long years and the end of 6 years of wandering in the desert. I've felt like the US was going to Hell ever since Scalia crowned Bush Pharoah in Decebember 2000.

Touch screens, irregularities, demagoguery and robocalls be damned!
Pelosi's collosal, historical victory is America's redemption and renaisance.

[momly]

Oh, so our new SecDef will be Roger the Shrubber?

YEEEEEE HAAAAAAWWWW!!!!

Sorry, that just sort of slipped out.

I am simply tingly today. The day started out pretty good with the news from last night and got better with the news from this afternoon. I don't know if I can stand much more good news. After six years of being beaten down by the idiocy and complacency, this picture of SPEAKER PELOSI just about makes me want to cry - for joy!

Man, I hope I'm not jinxing this...

YAY!!!!!!!!!

[boxcar]

Pause to congratulate you, BagMan, and all of the fantastic, hard working "had enough" americans. This image and news is beamed around the planet and for the first time in a very long time i can look at our friends around the world and hold my head a little higher.

Noone in power should be spared investigative scrutiny, but today we can at least have hope that our democracy may have steered itself just shy of the cliff...once again.

peace
box

[jt from BC]

rtbag, I wager $1.00 Canadian (= 0.8868 US ) that Robert Gates will be confirmed, but definitely won't bet on Bolton.

Alas the real payback is, Bush avoiding Rummy *facing the music* of a congressional hearing.

Jim Baker probably insisted that Rummy go and Gates step in, before he presents his "winning plan" for Iraq, one I suspect many Democrats of the right wing variety will conditionally accept as one half the them are not against the war just the tactics.

Before 2008 if simultaneously, Dicks heart failed and GWB's plane crashed or he chocked on a pretzel, Condi could shine as president.

[PTate in MN]

jt from BC: "Before 2008 if simultaneously, Dicks heart failed and GWB's plane crashed or he chocked on a pretzel, Condi could shine as president."

Condi?? Perhaps you meant Nancy???

[jt from BC]

PTateinMN, my understanding is, that the Secretary of State is third in succession should the event I speculate on occurred, is this not correct ?

[D from MO]

Speaker of the house comes first, then the sec of state

[D from MO]

oops...actually speaker of the house, then pres. pro tempore of the senate, THEN sec of state.

[KingElvis]

JT: You sound like Al Haig in '81 (look it up)

[jt from BC]

Thanks Dfrom Mo, I recalled a US border guard in 1990 querying an American citizen who responded with the Secretary of Justice, this overbearing martial macho guy brought her to tears with "nope its the President, the Vice President and The Secretary of State." I should have followed "Trust, but verify." - Ronald Regan, its something I recall that he was correct about.

[jt from BC]

KingElvis,

Sorry I posted before reading your comment.

But thanks I agree Haig was a difficult General to pin down, as your (look it up ) advice notes the source is unknown, hence its *attributed* so its credibility is no more valid than my lower ranked border guard, hearing myself echoing either gentlemen are not sweet sounds indeed.

[Cactus]

Nay, let us savor this moment of victory for the first woman to wield such power in the HOUSE! At last, something I've been waiting for since forever, a powerful woman stuck in the house! The suffragists are breathing a deep sigh of satisfaction.

I've only been concentrating on her all too recently since I really didn't foresee this possibility. Granted the repukes will be constantly demeaning her in any way they can. But from what I've observed, she will be more of a consensus maker than most people think. My hope is that she will not be a centrist apologist like Hilary but, rather, will remember that the democratic party is for the working, the poor, the under-advantaged, the unions, the children. Not necessarily in that order.

[Jo]

It's been five days, the joy is of the lingering variety. There were so much doubt, SeeingTheForest's tagline was changed to 'A web magazine investigating how the Right is beating the Dems.'

There was enough naysaying fodder to write whole essays about, thank god citizens who kept their eyes and ears unclosed for the past two years pulled through and geve Bush his well deserved damning verdict.

[Enlightenment]

Good. Now that our side has a majority in both houses they should actually USE the subpoena power and launch a REAL independent investigation into 9/11.

One thing that struck me as odd in the days after 9/11 was Bush saying "We will not tolerate conspiracy theories [regarding 9/11]". Sure enough there have been some wacky conspiracy theories surrounding the events of that day. The most far-fetched and patently ridiculous one that I've ever heard goes like this: Nineteen hijackers who claimed to be devout Muslims but yet were so un-Muslim as to be getting drunk all the time, doing cocaine and frequenting strip clubs decided to hijack four airliners and fly them into buildings in the northeastern U.S., the area of the country that is the most thick with fighter bases. After leaving a Koran on a barstool at a strip bar after getting shitfaced drunk on the night before, then writing a suicide note/inspirational letter that sounded like it was written by someone with next to no knowledge of Islam, they went to bed and got up the next morning hung over and carried out their devious plan. Nevermind the fact that of the four "pilots" among them there was not a one that could handle a Cessna or a Piper Cub let alone fly a jumbo jet, and the one assigned the most difficult task of all, Hani Hanjour, was so laughably incompetent that he was the worst fake "pilot" of the bunch. Nevermind the fact that they received very rudimentary flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station, making them more likely to have been C.I.A. assets than Islamic fundamentalist terrorists. So on to the airports. These "hijackers" somehow managed to board all four airliners with their tickets, yet not even ONE got his name on any of the flight manifests. So they hijack all four airliners and at this time passengers on United 93 start making a bunch of cell phone calls from 35,000 feet in the air to tell people what was going on. Nevermind the fact that cell phones wouldn't work very well above 4,000 feet, and wouldn't work at ALL above 8,000 feet. But the conspiracy theorists won't let that fact get in the way of a good fantasy. That is one of the little things you "aren't supposed to think about". Nevermind that one of the callers called his mom and said his first and last name, more like he was reading from a list than calling his own mom. Anyway, when these airliners each deviated from their flight plan and didn't respond to ground control, NORAD would any other time have followed standard operating procedure (and did NOT have to be told by F.A.A. that there were hijackings because they were watching the same events unfold on their own radar) which means fighter jets would be scrambled from the nearest base where they were available on standby within a few minutes, just like every other time when airliners stray off course. But of course on 9/11 this didn't happen, not even close. Somehow these "hijackers" must have used magical powers to cause NORAD to stand down, as ridiculous as this sounds because total inaction from the most high-tech and professional Air Force in the world would be necessary to carry out their tasks. So on the most important day in its history the Air Force was totally worthless. Then they had to make one of the airliners look like a smaller plane, because unknown to them the Naudet brothers had a videocamera to capture the only known footage of the North Tower crash, and this footage shows something that is not at all like a jumbo jet, but didn't have to bother with the South Tower jet disguising itself because that was the one we were "supposed to see". Anyway, as for the Pentagon they had to have Hani Hanjour fly his airliner like it was a fighter plane, making a high G-force corkscrew turn that no real airliner can do, in making its descent to strike the Pentagon. But these "hijackers" wanted to make sure Rumsfeld survived so they went out of their way to hit the farthest point in the building from where Rumsfeld and the top brass are located. And this worked out rather well for the military personnel in the Pentagon, since the side that was hit was the part that was under renovation at the time with few military personnel present compared to construction workers. Still more fortuitous for the Pentagon, the side that was hit had just before 9/11 been structurally reinforced to prevent a large fire there from spreading elsewhere in the building. Awful nice of them to pick that part to hit, huh? Then the airliner vaporized itself into nothing but tiny unidentifiable pieces most no bigger than a fist, unlike the crash of a real airliner when you will be able to see at least some identifiable parts, like crumpled wings, broken tail section etc. Why, Hani Hanjour the terrible pilot flew that airliner so good that even though he hit the Pentagon on the ground floor the engines didn't even drag the ground!! Imagine that!! Though the airliner vaporized itself on impact it only made a tiny 16 foot hole in the building. Amazing. Meanwhile, though the planes hitting the Twin Towers caused fires small enough for the firefighters to be heard on their radios saying "We just need 2 hoses and we can knock this fire down" attesting to the small size of it, somehow they must have used magical powers from beyond the grave to make this morph into a raging inferno capable of making the steel on all forty-seven main support columns (not to mention the over 100 smaller support columns) soften and buckle, then all fail at once. Hmmm. Then still more magic was used to make the building totally defy physics as well as common sense in having the uppermost floors pass through the remainder of the building as quickly, meaning as effortlessly, as falling through air, a feat that without magic could only be done with explosives. Then exactly 30 minutes later the North Tower collapses in precisely the same freefall physics-defying manner. Incredible. Not to mention the fact that both collapsed at a uniform rate too, not slowing down, which also defies physics because as the uppermost floors crash into and through each successive floor beneath them they would shed more and more energy each time, thus slowing itself down. Common sense tells you this is not possible without either the hijackers' magical powers or explosives. To emphasize their telekinetic prowess, later in the day they made a third building, WTC # 7, collapse also at freefall rate though no plane or any major debris hit it. Amazing guys these magical hijackers. But we know it had to be "Muslim hijackers" the conspiracy theorist will tell you because (now don't laugh) one of their passports was "found" a couple days later near Ground Zero, miraculously "surviving" the fire that we were told incinerated planes, passengers and black boxes, and also "survived" the collapse of the building it was in. When common sense tells you if that were true then they should start making buildings and airliners out of heavy paper and plastic so as to be "indestructable" like that magic passport. The hijackers even used their magical powers to bring at least seven of their number back to life, to appear at american embassies outraged at being blamed for 9/11!! BBC reported on that and it is still online. Nevertheless, they also used magical powers to make the american government look like it was covering something up in the aftermath of this, what with the hasty removal of the steel debris and having it driven to ports in trucks with GPS locators on them, to be shipped overseas to China and India to be melted down. When common sense again tells you that this is paradoxical in that if the steel was so unimportant that they didn't bother saving some for analysis but so important as to require GPS locators on the trucks with one driver losing his job because he stopped to get lunch. Hmmmm. Further making themselves look guilty, the Bush administration steadfastly refused for over a year to allow a commission to investigate 9/11 to even be formed, only agreeing to it on the conditions that they get to dictate its scope, meaning it was based on the false pretense of the "official story" being true with no other alternatives allowed to be considered, handpicked all its members making sure the ones picked had vested interests in the truth remaining buried, and with Bush and Cheney only "testifying" together, only for an hour, behind closed doors, with their attorneys present and with their "testimonies" not being recorded by tape or even written down in notes. Yes, this whole story smacks of the utmost idiocy and fantastic far-fetched lying, but it is amazingly enough what some people believe. Even now, five years later, the provably false fairy tale of the "nineteen hijackers" is heard repeated again and again, and is accepted without question by so many Americans. Which is itself a testament to the innate psychological cowardice of the American sheeple, i mean people, and their abject willingness to believe something, ANYTHING, no matter how ridiculous in order to avoid facing a scary uncomfortable truth. Time to wake up America.

Debunking Popular Mechanics lies:
http://www.lookingglassnews.org/viewstory.php?storyid=6880
someone else debunking Popular Mechanics crap:
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/pop_mech/reply_to_popular_mechanics.htm
still more debunking Poopular Mechanics:
http://letsroll911.org/ipw-web/bulletin/bb/viewtopic.php?t=5505
and still more debunking of Popular Mechanics:
http://www.reopen911.org/ericreubt.htm

Poopular Mechanics staff replaced just before laughable “debunking” article written:
http://www.reopen911.org/hiddenhand.htm
another neo-con 9/11 hit piece explodes, is retracted:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2006/180806hitpiece.htm
Professor Steven Jones debunks the N.I.S.T. “report” as well as the F.E.M.A. one and the 9/11 commission "report":
http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/wtc_buildings_collapse_steven_jones.htm
N.I.S.T. scientist interviewed:
http://www.teamliberty.net/id235.html
F.B.I. says no hard evidence linking Osama bin Laden to 9/11 which is why his wanted poster says nothing about 9/11:
http://forum.afghansite.com/index.php?showtopic=9349
Fire Engineering magazine says important questions about the Twin Tower “collapses” still need to be addressed:http://fe.pennnet.com/Articles/Article_Display.cfm?Section=OnlineArticles&SubSection=Display&PUBLICATION_ID=25&ARTICLE_ID

Twin Towers’ construction certifiers say they should have easily withstood it:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/november2004/121104easilywithstood.htm
USA Today interview with the last man out of the South Tower, pursued by a fireball:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2001/12/19/usat-escape.htm
Janitor who heard explosions and escaped has testimony ignored by 9/11 whitewash commission:
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/ignoring_9-11.html
Janitor starts speaking out about it and his apartment is burglarized, laptop stolen:
http://kurtnimmo.blogspot.com/2005/08/apartment-of-nine-eleven-hero-william_28.html
Firefighters tell of multiple explosions:
http://www.wnbc.com/news/1315651/detail.html
Eyewitnesses tell of explosions:
http://research.amnh.org/users/tyson/essays/TheHorrorTheHorror.html
Interview with another firefighter telling of explosions:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Banaciski_Richard.txt
Firefighter saw “sparkles” (strobe lights on detonators?) before “collapse”:
http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/Fitzpatrick_Tom.txt
Other eyewitnesses talk of seeing/hearing explosions:
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2005/11/more-proof-911-inside-job-witnesses-to.html
Surviving eyewitnesses talk of multiple explosions there:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/911/veliz-bombs.htm
Cutter charge explosions clearly visible:
http://www.rense.com/general63/cutt.htm
The pyroclastic wave (that dust cloud that a second before was concrete) and how it wouldn’t be possible without explosives:
http://st12.startlogic.com/~xenonpup/physics/
Detailed description of the demolition of the Twin Towers:
http://gordonssite.tripod.com/id2.html
Freefall rate of “collapses” math:
http://www.911blimp.net/prf_FreeFallPhysics.shtml
More about their freefall rate “collapses”:
http://www.serendipity.li/wot/second_wave.htm
Video footage of the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers:
http://www.plaguepuppy.net/public_html/video%20archive/
Video footage of the controlled demolition of WTC # 7 building:
http://911research.wtc7.net/talks/wtc/videos.html
More
http://www.wtc7.net/
Photos of the Pentagon’s lawn (look at these and see if you can tell me with a straight face that a jumbo jet crashed there):
http://www.911blimp.net/cached/HuntTheBoeing!.htm
More photos of this amazing lawn at the Pentagon:
http://cryptogon.com/docs/Introducing%20the%20amazing%20Penta-Lawn%202000!%20(9-11).htm
Very unconvincing fake “Osama” “confession” tape:
http://welfarestate.com/wtc/faketape/
More about the fake “Osama” tape:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/osamatape2.html
Fake “Mohammed Atta” “suicide” letter:
http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/fake-letters.txt
Commercial pilots disagree with “official” 9/11 myth:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/september_11_us_government_accused.htm
More commercial jet pilots say “official” myth is impossible:
http://www.masternewmedia.org/2001/10/31/commercial_jet_pilots_analysis_of_the_twin_tower_attack.htm
Impossibility of cell phone calls from United 93:
http://www.physics911.net/cellphoneflight93.htm
More about the impossible cell phone calls:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO408B.html
Experiment proves cell phone calls were NOT possible from anywhere near the altitude the “official” myth has them at:
http://physics911.ca/org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9
Fake Barbara Olson phone call:
http://www.vialls.com/lies911/lies.htm
Where the hell was the Air Force?
http://www.welfarestate.com/wtc/af-scramble.txt
More about the Air Force impotence question:
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0331-11.htm
Sept. 10th 2001, Pentagon announces it is “missing” $2.3 trillion (now why do you think they picked THAT day to announce it? So it could be buried the next day by 9/11 news):
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml
Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0513/p05s01-wosc.html
Unocal pipeline-through-Afghanistan plan mentioned:
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2006/05/19/OutOfAfghanistan
More on Unocal Afghan pipeline:
http://www.newscentralasia.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1031
The attack on Afghanistan was planned in the summer of 2001, months before 9/11:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1550366.stm
Pentagon deliberately misled 9/11 Commission:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=EGG20060802&articleId=2887
9/11 whitewash Commission and NORAD day:
http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/071204_final_fraud.shtml
The incredible fish tales of the 9/11 Commission examined:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=%20GR20051213&articleId=1478
Jeb Bush declares state of emergency 4 days before 9/11 for Florida, saying it will help respond to terrorism:
http://www.eionews.addr.com/psyops/news/jebknew.htm
Steel debris removal from Ground Zero, destruction of evidence:
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/cleanup.html
Over two hundred incriminating bits of 9/11 evidence shown in the mainstream media:
http://thewebfairy.com/killtown/911smokingguns.html
Tracking the “hijackers”:
http://www.welfarestate.com/911/
“Hijacker” patsies:
http://911review.org/Wiki/HijackersPatsies.shtml
“Hijackers” receiving flight training at Pensacola Naval Air Station:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0208/S00085.htm
No Arabs on Flight 77:
http://www.sierratimes.com/03/07/02/article_tro.htm
Flight manifests (tell me if you find any Arabs):
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/AA11.victims.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/AA77.victims.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/ua93.victims.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/ua175.victims.html
Thirty experts say “official” 9/11 myth impossible:
http://911fraud.blogspot.com/2005/06/us-governments-offical-911-story-is.html
“Al Qaeda” website tracks back to Maryland:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/alqmaryland.html
Al Qaeda videos uploaded from U.S. government website:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/july2004/140704governmentwebsite.htm
Operation: Northwoods, a plan for a false-flag “terror” attack to be blamed on Castro to use it as a pretext for America to invade Cuba, thankfully not approved by Kennedy back in 1962 but was approved by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and sent to his desk:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/us_terror_plan_cuba_invasion_pretext.html

[jt from BC]

Obviously just another Coincidence

A former British intelligence agent, jailed in 2002 for linking the British government with paying an Islamic militant group $160,000 in a failed assassination attempt on Colonel Mu'ammar al-Qadhafi of Libya, said ...
“First, we learn about **the training exercises going on here just like 9/11**. . www.lewisnews.com/article.asp?ID=107376 30jul2005

Paul Joseph Watson and Alex Jones have elaborated: "The exercise fulfils several different goals. It acts as a cover for the small compartmentalized government terrorists to carry out their operation without the larger security services becoming aware of what they're doing, and, more importantly, if they get caught during the attack or after with any incriminating evidence they can just claim that they were just taking part in the exercise."
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20060718232126585

the training exercise !!!
http:/www.youtube.com/index (search > london bombing terror games (1.26 min)
Ludicrous Diversion - 7/7 London Bombings Documentary - Google Video (27.minutes)