Thursday, September 10, 2009

Crazy 'Bout A Mercury

Bring on the retrograde:
Yes, Mercury Is in Retrograde. So What?
Perhaps you’ve noticed that things have gone a bit screwy the past couple of weeks.
Traffic jams materialize out of nowhere. Your luggage makes an unscheduled stop in Sumatra. The computer eats your dissertation. Your favorite political party loses control of both houses of Congress.
If you have friends who follow the stars, they may have had a ready explanation for you: the planet Mercury is in retrograde.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

A Flood Of Idiocy

Reading the wack-jobs so you don't have to. This, from the Baptist Press:
'Gay marriage' in Iowa more damaging than a 500-year flood
The Flood of 2008 is arguably the most destructive disaster that the state of Iowa has seen -- at least, that is, until last Friday.

On April 3, the Iowa Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a state law limiting marriage to one man and one woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution. Licenses will be issued to homosexual couples April 27.

It is not hyperbole to say that this ruling has the potential to be the worst disaster to strike the state of Iowa.

Flood waters erode the soil. "Gay marriage" erodes the soul. A flood impacts for a decade. "Same-sex marriage" destroys generations. A flood draws a community together. "Homosexual marriage" tears the family apart. Communities recover from floods. The promotion of un-natural unions has an eternal consequence.

Legalized "homosexual marriage" is not the only way that marriage is attacked and dishonored.

Marriage is attacked when church members go undisciplined for fornication and adultery. Marriage is dishonored through abusive husbands and disrespectful wives, through the use of Internet pornography and the reading of smutty novels.

Government is established by God to approve of what is good. [That would be news to the founding fathers, no? —ed] I do hope and pray that our state's constitution is amended to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. I've encouraged my legislators to pursue it.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

A Gathering Storm Of BS

This is rich. In response to the recent batch of gay marriage victories, some silly anti-gay marriage group (National Organization for Marriage, formed by National Review's lovely Maggie Gallagher) puts out this cheesy-ass video:



As you can imagine, it's full of lies and distortions of the truth. Hell, they couldn't even find real people for the vid, deciding instead to use actors:



HRC responds with its own cheesy video:



Now, it's become clearer and clearer to mainstream America what us gay-lovin' folk have seen for years: GM foes simply don't have a rational, reasonable argument in their arsenal. Their arguments against GM have been aired and distilled down to two basic pieces: religious doctrine and/or personal ick factor (or bigotry, if you prefer)—the rest simply don't stand up under scrutiny.

All they've got left is fear-mongering lies.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Waters Of March

Lisa Hannigan and Damien Rice perform two of my favorite bossa nova songs, "Desafinado" and "Aguas de Marco."


The two of them collaborated on some achingly gorgeous songs (like this and this) from 2001 to 2007, when they stopped working together, their relationship reportedly having "run its creative course."

Too bad…they were good together.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Drip, Drip, Drip...

Bit by bit, sanity is popping up across the country.
Albany Reaches Deal to Repeal ’70s Drug Laws

By JEREMY W. PETERS
ALBANY — Gov. David A. Paterson and New York legislative leaders have reached an agreement to dismantle much of what remains of the state’s strict 1970s-era drug laws, once among the toughest in the nation.

The deal would repeal many of the mandatory minimum prison sentences now in place for lower-level drug felons, giving judges the authority to send first-time nonviolent offenders to treatment instead of prison.

The plan would also expand drug treatment programs and widen the reach of drug courts at a cost of at least $50 million.

Friday, March 13, 2009

The Lessons of Herbert (And George)

Herbert Hoover and his dismal reign are more instructive than ever nowadays. Conde Nast's Portfolio.com has an interesting review of a new Hoover bio, which is worth a few minutes of your time. After acknowledging the clear parallels between W. and Hoover, the author takes us through Hoover's earlier life, where we learn that he was once a competent if dour figure.

Fascinating tidbit:
Hoover’s middle career is one of the great little-known sagas of American history. Based in London at the outbreak of World War I, he set up relief efforts for starving Belgians and displayed a genius for organization. Celebrated for his achievements, he became the U.S.’s wartime “food czar,” prodding the citizenry to economize and dictating flour rations to bakers. He similarly helped war-stricken Austrians, Armenians, and sundry other European tribes—and later, even Bolshevik Russians.

By 1920, Hoover, 46, was an international hero, famed as “the great humanitarian.”


For most of the 1920s, Hoover served as commerce secretary, a backwater that he transformed into a pivotal federal bureau. Governing by fiat, he imposed his will on virtually every nook of American industry. He forced builders to adopt standard-size boards, and airports to install lights on landing strips. Without clear legal authority, he commanded firms to reduce their varieties of products from bedsprings to milk bottles. In 1927, when the Mississippi overran its banks and dislodged thousands of families, Hoover directed the rescue. The next year, he was elected president by a landslide.
Who knew?

Of course, the thrust of the article—and presumably the book—is the lesson to be drawn from both W and Hoover:
But the Hoover story does suggest a contemporary moral. Consistency in Washington is praiseworthy only when it yields a positive result; otherwise it devolves into rigidity and dogma. The tragedy of Hoover was not that he was wrong but that he refused to see it.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Schadenfreude 2009, I

The latest in a series of fuckups from RNC chairman and dead man walking, Michael Steele:
Steele In Serious Hot Water With Social Conservatives
Michael's Steele statement of support for an "individual choice" on abortion has provoked deep concern among social conservatives and spurred further speculation that his tenure at the RNC will be brief.

On Wednesday, the RNC Chair walked back a remark he made in an interview with GQ Magazine, declaring unequivocally: "I am pro-life, always have been, always will be." But even with the quick clarification, the damage was done.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: "Comments attributed to Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele are very troubling and despite his clarification today the party stands to lose many of its members and a great deal of its support in the trenches of grassroots politics."

Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition: "I'm a little surprised that Michael Steele, being the leader of the Republican Party, is at odds with the pro-life platform, the platform that conservative put in place... If this is his viewpoint, he has made it be known. I'm just surprised that the leader of the party is at odds with the pro-life platform."

Evangelical leader Lou Engle: "Steele's argument that abortion is a matter of "individual choice" is extremely disappointing, especially in light of past statements in which he promised to protect and defend human life. "Steele's remarks to GQ indicate that he may be confused about "choice" and the "law." The law is supposed to protect human life, not permit the taking of it. And, it can never be a "choice" for an individual to take a life."

This is just the best fucking time to be a liberal, eh?

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Porcine Prevaricator Pens A Prickly Post

Ms. Maddow reminds me of the number 1 reason I'm relieved Hillary didn't win the Dem nomination. Two words: Mark Penn.

Monday, March 9, 2009

A House Deserted?

Now for some happier news…
The coming evangelical collapse
ONEIDA, KY. - We are on the verge – within 10 years – of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown will follow the deterioration of the mainline Protestant world and it will fundamentally alter the religious and cultural environment in the West.

Within two generations, evangelicalism will be a house deserted of half its occupants. (Between 25 and 35 percent of Americans today are Evangelicals.) In the "Protestant" 20th century, Evangelicals flourished. But they will soon be living in a very secular and religiously antagonistic 21st century.

This collapse will herald the arrival of an anti-Christian chapter of the post-Christian West. Intolerance of Christianity will rise to levels many of us have not believed possible in our lifetimes, and public policy will become hostile toward evangelical Christianity, seeing it as the opponent of the common good.

Millions of Evangelicals will quit. Thousands of ministries will end. Christian media will be reduced, if not eliminated. Many Christian schools will go into rapid decline. I'm convinced the grace and mission of God will reach to the ends of the earth. But the end of evangelicalism as we know it is close.

Dude, stop whispering sweet nothings in my ear. You're making me all weak in the knees.

Welcome To The Depression

Time to start a new series, this one chronicling the nascent depression.

Here is the link and video I've already posted on Facebook:


And a cheerful post from The Moderate Voice.

Choice cut:
Longtime readers know that I have long thought a depression was inevitable for the US and the world in general because of the enormity of our debt.

Meanwhile, the country is seeing record home vacancies. “More than 14 million housing units are vacant. That number does not include an estimated 4.8 million seasonal or vacation homes, most of which are occupied part of the year.” This is completely insane.
And the financial system? It’s still as close to complete collapse as ever for the United States, and in worse shape in developing countries and Europe. I would be very surprised if we didn’t see sovereign bankruptcies (even Ireland and Spain are increasingly at risk) of rather important countries in the next year, bankruptcies that could potentially lock up the European and hence global financial system to the extent it was for a few days last fall — but this time for much longer. I have a feeling the tent cities are going to get a lot larger.
A little something from The UK's Daily Mail:
With America's economy in freefall and its housing market in crisis, California's state capital has become home to a tented city for the dispossessed.
Those who have lost their jobs and homes and have nowhere else to go are constructing makeshift shelters on the site, which covers several acres.
As many as 50 people a week are turning up and the authorities estimate that the tent city is now home to more than 1,200 people.

Foreclosure rates last year rocketed by 327 per cent, with up to 500 people a day losing their home.
And a slideshow from MSNBC.

Strap yourselves in, folks, it's going to be a bumpy-ass ride.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Good News?

The whole Kellogg's/Phelps fiasco has spawned new slang

We're All Pisces, Now!

Screw Christmas and Thanksgiving, we should have a major holiday honoring these newfound "ancestors":
Prehistoric Fish Pioneered Sex
LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Sex has been a fact of life for at least 380 million years, longer than previously thought.

Sex has been a fact of life for at least 380 million years.Internal fertilisation was widespread among prehistoric fish living on ancient tropical coral reefs in the Devonian period, research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday showed.

The discovery sheds new light on the reproductive history of all jawed vertebrates, including humans.

"It shifts how we think about how reproduction evolved. You're a jawed vertebrate and I'm a jawed vertebrate, so this is our own history," said Zerina Johanson, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
Thank you, thank you, thank you!


Throwing Limbaugh Under The Bus

Could we be witnessing the beginning of a new trend? For the good of the country, let's hope so.
Sanford Implies Rush Limbaugh Is An "Idiot"
ThinkProgress flags this line from an interview Real Clear Politics did with Republican Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina in which he calls Rush Limbaugh an idiot, albeit indirectly. Asked for his reaction to the idea that some conservatives, most notably Limbaugh, are hoping that Obama's presidency fails, Sanford replies (bold font is mine):
I don't want him to fail. Anybody who wants him to fail is an idiot, because it means we're all in trouble. But I do think, in that same vein, if you've looked at the pages of history, if you've looked at the pages of economic data that I've looked at over a long period of time -- I've got a masters in business from the University of Virginia, I've worked up in New York in finance -- if you've looked at that kind of stuff and you legitimately think that something ain't going to work, you'd be cheating him and cheating yourself if you didn't lay it out and call an ace an ace in terms of where you're coming from.
Sanford makes the distinction between legitimately believing a plan is not going to work and explaining your reasons why, and just openly rooting for a presidency to fail, as Limbaugh has, no matter what the cost to the nation.
It's too early to tell, of course. But wouldn't it be sweet if Limbaugh went the way of his role model Father Coughlin?

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

For That Porn Star Finish

Stumbled across this page from a men's health site:





















Because, you know, we all need a bigger money shot.

Best News Of The Day

Kelloggs is feeling some pain from their inane, venal punishment of Michael Phelps.
Kelloggs Suffers
Good news, everyone! In an admittedly algorithmic-driven survey of positive and negative stories about the company, their handling of the Phelps issue did the brand some damage:
Out of the 5,600 company reputations Vanno monitors, Kellogg ranked ninth before it booted Phelps. Now it's ranked 83. Not even an industry-wide peanut scare inflicted as much damage on the food company's reputation.
The peanut scare was much less toxic for them. One step at a time ...
Anyone else smell an opening for General Foods or Post? 

Monday, February 9, 2009

Holy Shit!

I knew this was coming, but still, now that it's here...damn!
1.5 million books in your pocket
One of the great things about an iPhone or Android phone is being able to play Pacman while stuck in line at the post office. Sometimes though, we yearn for something more than just playing games or watching videos.

What if you could also access literature's greatest works, such as Emma and The Jungle Book, right from your phone? Or, some of the more obscure gems such as Mark Twain's hilarious travelogue, Roughing It? Today we are excited to announce the launch of a mobile version of Google Book Search, opening up over 1.5 million … public domain books in the US (and over half a million outside the US) for you to browse while buying your postage.
Wow.

A Doll's Sacrifice


watch more at aniBoom

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Good Riddance

To bad rubbish. Apparently, someone still cares what our former vice-president has to say about the world. Interview courtesy of Politico.com.

Chioce cut:
Cheney warns of new attacks
Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.

The choice, he alleged, reflects a naive mindset among the new team in Washington: “The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes.” 
Thank god—really thank fucking god, allah, goddess, et al. and all that is right in the universe—that this tool is nowhere near the White House anymore. What a cretinous man.

Wet Dream, XI

Well, this is quickly becoming a regular feature. The way things look now, I'll be posting so many Wet Dreams that it may finally dawn on me that it's not a dream at all and that I'm actually having sex. (And, right there for all to see, is the moment when a metaphor gets stretched to its breaking point and twangs in the writer's face.)

Anyway...here's a very good analysis of the rise of the modern conservative era post-WWII and its concomitant 21st-century demise. It's a good, long read. Grab your cuppa and enjoy.

Choice cut: 
Conservatism Is Dead
An intellectual autopsy of the movement.
In the tumultuous history of postwar American conservatism, defeats have often contained the seeds of future victory. In 1954, the movement's first national tribune, Senator Joseph McCarthy, was checkmated by the Eisenhower administration and then "condemned" by his Senate colleagues. But the episode, and the passions it aroused, led to the founding of National Review, the movement's first serious political journal. Ten years later, the right's next leader, Barry Goldwater, suffered one of the most lopsided losses in election history. Yet the "draft Goldwater" campaign secured control of the GOP for movement conservatives. In 1976, the insurgent challenge by Goldwater's heir, Ronald Reagan, to incumbent president Gerald Ford was thwarted. But Reagan's crusade positioned him to win the presidency four years later and initiate the conservative "revolution" that remade our politics over the next quarter-century. In each instance, crushing defeat gave the movement new strength and pushed it further along the route to ultimate victory.

Today, the situation is much bleaker. After George W. Bush's two terms, conservatives must reckon with the consequences of a presidency that failed, in large part, because of its fervent commitment to movement ideology: the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy; the blind faith in a deregulated, Wall Street-centric market; the harshly punitive "culture war" waged against liberal "elites." That these precepts should have found their final, hapless defender in John McCain, who had resisted them for most of his long career, only confirms that movement doctrine retains an inflexible and suffocating grip on the GOP.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Wet Dream, X

The Wet Dream continues:
Poll: Republicans Want Party To Be Like Palin
A new Rasmussen poll further demonstrates that the GOP could be in for a long stretch in the wilderness: A majority of GOP voters now say that the party should be more like Sarah Palin.

The numbers: 55% of Republicans say the party should be like Palin, compared to 24% who say they should be like John McCain.

As I've previously noted, poll data like this could indicate that the Republican Party is getting ready to relive the classic cycle of ruling parties who get turned out of power in a landslide: With the party base itself shrunk down, the people who are still around are the most hard-line members, and are really the least fit people to fix the situation.
May they spend countless generations in the wilderness.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Uncut Travesty

Despite his better judgement, some jackass writing in The Daily Beast accedes to circumsizing his newborn son…because his wife is grossed out by uncut cocks. Then he's stupid enough to write about it
When my wife insisted we circumcise our son, I wondered why the little guy couldn’t just look like me. Then I began to re-evaluate our entire relationship with half the self-esteem and twice the paranoia.
I am an uncircumcised man.
This has never bothered my wife, Nicole. Or so I thought. “It’s like your penis is wearing a turtleneck,” she’d sometimes say, seemingly benignly.
As such, there was never any doubt in my mind that, should my wife and I ever produce a miniature me, he would also go uncircumcised. We would leave his little thing alone. No snip-snip, just like daddy.
Until, that is, the late-September day when we brought our newborn son home from the hospital. It was chilly, and the tightly wrapped baked potato of a boy felt warm in the crook of my arm.
“We’re getting Dalton circumcised,” my wife said as she fastened the potato into his car seat.
“What?” I said. “Since when does he need that?”
“Ever since uncircumcised penises are weird.”
She paused before adding, a little backpedally, “Except yours, of course. Yours is OK.”
This is how I learned my wife’s true feelings about the type of penis I have—by comparing it to our infant son’s. She thinks—has always thought—“OK.” I knew what “OK” meant, of course. “OK” meant weird, just like she’d said.
The author continues to paint a picture of two exceedingly superficial dolts who really had no business breeding. Sadly, their boy has  already paid his price for entry into their house. 

I tell you, in my perfect world, that couple would be frog marched down to the local mohel for a taste of their own medicine. Both of them. 

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

InauguPorn IX


InauguPorn VIII




InauguPorn VII



InauguPorn VI





InauguPorn V





InauguPorn IV





InauguPorn III



Team Obama

A pretty cool slideshow of the new power players in Washington, courtesy of New York Times Magazine

InauguPorn II


A satellite pic of the inauguration. Those swarms of ants are people gathered around jumbotrons. Click here for full size and better res.

InauguPorn I

A collection of front pages from around the world. 

A Fitting Send Off

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

B's Got The Biggest Of Them All













Bummed that you're not at the inaugural parties in DC like I am? AC/DC is here to ameliorate our disappointment. So in honor of the president's balls…

President Obama

He's in!


Monday, January 19, 2009

12 Hours And Counting…

The Team

Track the status of the new cabinet-to-be here.

Imminent Front

"The American Revolution did not end when British guns fell silent. It remains an ongoing struggle in the minds and hearts of the American people, to live up to our creed." —President-Elect Barack Obama



I Have A Dream Today



It's nearly impossible to be unmoved by this almost unbearably eloquent speech.

A sampling of the lesser known passages:
Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And, of course, the climax:
And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Making Racists Squirm

Contra the spirit of unity which is pulsing through the country in anticipation of tomorrow's swearing in, I offer this little vignette courtesy of Ta-Nehisi and his wife. Enjoy the schadenfreude: 
From the annals of Ultra-Racial America
When I was kid, I always thought it was weird how much white racism, basically, revolved around keeping white women from having sex with black men. I'd be reading some book on black history, where people would be devoting [sic], say, the right of black people to vote. And, inevitably, some white segregationists would say something like "If we let them vote, they'll be marrying your daughters!!! And they'll take over the country!!!" And I think, "Whaaa??" Talk about your non-sequitur.

But then I was talking about this with Kenyatta this morning, and it all suddenly made sense. She nodded to Barack Obama and laughingly noted, "They were right."

President-Elect Obama

My god, I can't get enough of that phrase. Sends the tingle right up my leg… 

So, I'm sitting here on the couch skimming articles with the tv on in the background. A stupid show comes on, so I start surfing and come across a CSpan2/BookTV rerun of Obama speaking about his memoir in Nov. 2004. 

I start watching and notice that while his cadence is the same, his timbre is slightly different, less dramatic. 

Then I get hooked into what he saying. He's describing the overall themes of his book at great length in these long sentences with subordinate clauses and parenthetical asides. Suddenly, he shifts gears and starts talking about the basics of the book: his father, his upbringing, the story's structure. And I realize, here's this guy, a politician(!), who's just discussed his book on multiple levels and from different angles. And it was interesting. 

He then starts talking politics and his views on policy, our poisonous political discourse and assorted other things. Again multi-layered thinking, thoughtful language, long sentences. Surprisingly interesting content. 

During the Q & A, he gives equally thoughtful, and often funny, answers. His humor, by the way, is even drier than it is now. 

While he's signing books he takes the time to ask book owners their names and what they do, where are they from, etc. He looks them in the eyes and thanks them for being there. And there's not a trace of insincerity about the guy. He's respectful (especially of the elderly ones), kind, and unbelievably gracious. 

***

More times than I can count, he spoke of ideas and issues in such a way that had me wanting to video tape them and show everyone. I mean, he not only oozes authenticity, he has the right takes on things, and speaks our language.  I'm shaking my head wondering who the fuck is this guy? I mean, politicians don't speak and act this way. It's like he's one of us (but smarter)! Is this dude for real? 

And I'm thinking, how did this happen? How the hell did this country just elect this guy? How did a country that values thuggishness, watches American Idol, and elects Bush find the good sense or luck to elect a smart, caring, thoughtful, funny, liberal former law professor? 

What the fuck?!?

All I know is, I feel lucky, relieved, and proud that this guy is going to be our president. It's ridiculous, I know, but I am filled with joy at the prospect. 

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Goodbye, Tara

We're two days away from the big day—the finest transfer of power in our lifetimes. In all likelihood, it's an event on the magnitude of Buchanan-to-Lincoln or Hoover-to-FDR. (Even as I read that last sentence I find myself torn between my sense of excitement and possibility and my wariness of grandiose pronouncements. And yet I leave it there because this is, by any objective measure, a big historical moment.) But before the celebrations end and the heavy lifting begins I thought I'd take some time to share a few thoughts about what's happening from my narrow historical perspective. 

We're about to be led as a nation by a man who is, among other things:
• African American (yes, we can stop right here, but I'll go on)
• an intellectual / constitutional scholar
• rooted in the liberal political tradition (albeit with a moderate/conservative temperament)
• a writer
• an urban dweller (the first non-"rural" president in nearly a century)
• isn't not afraid to speak extemporaneously and in complete sentences
• is politically shrewd 
• is emotionally intelligent
• is from the midwest / is not from the South/West
Think about that for a second. Just let it sink in. 

Now, all of that is great enough. And I don't want to take anything away from Obama and his/our victory. But we've had a smart, kinda liberal guy in the White House before. And we remember how that went. (In fairness, Clinton probably did the best he could given we were still in the thick of a conservative political era—not to mention his lack of discipline and sabotage-inducing appetites.)

What makes this moment doubly exciting is what else has gone on. This most recent conservative era that we've lived through—suffered under—has clearly come to an end and we're on the cusp of a new era in American politics (a period Michael Lind posits will be a Fourth Republic). 

In addition to being exciting for its own sake as a large historical event, it's amazing to me as a) a liberal, b) a coastal dweller from the midwest, c) a sane person. For the first time since I was a zygote, this country will not be dominated by Jacksonian, Southern culture and its retrograde mores. For the past 40 years or so Jacksonian politicians have controlled the levers of federal power and dominated the political playing field (even as they lost ground in popular culture, thank you, Hollywood*). Delay, Gingrich, Bush, Cheney, et al were merely the apotheosis (nadir?) of this virulent political strain. It's as if they took the old confederate mantra "the South will rise again" as a prime directive. 

And rise it did. But instead of a civil war they got elected (or not) and waged a culture war. We've lived with the repercussions since. 

And it has finally, finally played out. Ding, dong. The goddamn witch is dead.

****

All of which isn't to say we're entering a golden era of butterflies and rainbows and kumbaya. It's merely an opportunity. An opportunity to remake the country according to our highest visions, instead of complaining about the injustices caused by the other guys. Whether the opportunity is squandered or utilized remains to be seen.

Because power will be fought over as it always is. Nasty, evil shit will still happen in the country and the world. New factions and new divisions will form. Liberals will have to hold Obama's feet to the fire, lest countervailing pressures push him backwards. There will be failures alongside the wins.

We don't know what this new era will be called or what it will bring. But the emphasis and overall direction is shifting—has already shifted. And all of the energy and momentum right now is with progressive ideas and proposals. This is our moment. Let's enjoy it.

* Never thought I'd write those words.

Friday, January 16, 2009

Arrivederci, Toadies!

He's president until Tuesday, but the flunkies are gone as of today. Buh- bye.
It's over: Bush staffers make exits
The president will be the president until 12 noon Tuesday, but most of his employees will be gone by the close of business Friday.

They’ll turn in their BlackBerrys, laptops, building passes and gym keys.

And by the time the weekend is out — before the new administration can reverse course on waterboarding or SCHIP or anything else — teams of painters and carpet cleaners will have wiped away any hint that they ever set foot in the White House.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Oscar Grant RIP

If you haven't seen this disturbing footage yet, you're sure to dozens of time in the next couple of days. Let's hope the offending cop gets sentenced with more than a slap on the wrist.



Hat tip: Ta-Nehisi over at The Atlantic