Turnabout Is Fair Play

Ah, it's good to be back. Good job, Bill!

FOX Ambushes Bill Moyers; Journalists Ambush FOX
At the National Conference for Media Reform 2008, a producer for FOX's The O'Reilly Factor, Porter Barry, ambushes PBS's Bill Moyers and peppers him with questions regarding his political affiliations and his "refusal" to appear on O'Reilly's show. Moyers disputes FOX's "facts" for the record and asks to interview someone at The O'Reilly Factor about Rupert Murdoch and the show's coverage during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The journalist crowd then reacts, chasing down Barry and intentionally giving him a dose of FOX-style bullying reportage.

Checking In

Well, I'm back. Checking in with exhaustion, gratitude, joy, and relief. 

What a weekend! I'm still physically spent from it. I went into this past weekend with a great deal of fear. Fear of fucking up, fearing of looking stupid, fear of having to be responsible and accountable, fear of being bored in down times, fear of the discomfort of being out of my comfortable life. But I just leaned into it and pushed through. And I came out feeling proud, excited, grateful, happy, and, most of all, relieved.

Seeing the weekend from the other side was intense and instructive. Tons of effort and energy goes into making it all go smoothly for the new men. It was a blessing getting to work with such smart, powerful, caring, and cocky men in the service of helping other men deal with their (sometimes very substantial) shit. 

It was my third time going up to Wa-Ri-Ki and by far my favorite road trip. Will and I had a blast and I really loved getting to know him better. We didn't listen to music once (well, we tried once, but suffered from technical difficulties that I just wasn't interested in resolving), and I hardly noticed. I'd road trip with him again at the drop of a hat.

By all accounts my dear friends who's initial weekend it was had the heart-blowing experienced I'd hoped they would. I was honored to be a part of the deepest pieces for one of them. It was a deeply satisfying and pleasing thing to see both of them shining bright on Sat. night and Sun. morning. 

There is serious magic that happens on those weekends. It's awe-inducing. I am impressed beyond words at both the processes and the men who facilitate them. I'm just blown away. And grateful to be a part of it. And honored. And proud of myself. 

And it's damn good to be back!

Ciao

Well, looks like this will be my last post in a while. I'm heading up to Washougal, WA to help staff a weekend for the New Warriors. I'll be completely offline for four—four—mother fucking days! Yeesh. Enjoy the blogosphere without me. See you soon.

Awww...

Clinton's Comic Sidekick

I have to admit, this guy's grown on me this cycle. His whole jump-the-shark persona is strangely endearing.

Gl-Obama

Headlines from around the world.

Oh, Yeah…

There was another speech last night. McCain's. I thought it was god-awful. He's just a terrible orator. (And who's decision was it to use a bright green backdrop? It looked more like a golfing event.) 

Anyway, as I said, I thought it was a bad speech and poorly delivered. But then, I would, wouldn't I? He's the opponent of my preferred candidate. And I've thought many of Bushes speeches were atrocious only to see them lauded in the media. So I didn't exactly trust my opinion to be objective. 

But it turns out I was right. It was just a leaden, boring speech. How do I know? Even conservatives are bashing it. DKos has reax here. 

One example from the National Review:

McCain's speech was creaky, ungracious, and unnecessary. I never understand why politicians don't take the opportunity, when so easily presented, to simply be gracious and hold their fire. Watching McCain, I couldn't help but think of the astonishing contrast Barack's triumphant speech to a massive and adoring crowd will be. It was not a comparison McCain should have invited.

It would have been more statesmanlike ‹ precisely the profile McCain is attempting to craft ‹ to acknowledge this historic moment in American politics. A major party is on the cusp of selecting an African American to be their nominee for President of the United States. It's a tribute to America that we've come this far. It would have been magnanimous to leave it at that, and wait until tomorrow to declare with enthusiasm and relish, "It's on!"

Update: "We're just trying to lower expectations." TPM has a humorous video roundup of reviews:

Bonus: Notice Harold Ford (D-Tenn.) at the very end of the clip, praising the clip. What a knob. A prime example of what the moribund DLC has to offer the party. Sheesh.

The Guy Is So Damn Smart

The Field explains:

Associated Press has a cryptic one-sentence report out:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama taps three people to lead veep search, including Caroline Kennedy.

…
The signals sent with this move are multiple. They suggest a search for a running mate that is ideologically compatible, acceptable to the Kennedy wing of the party, that acknowledges the generational aspect of the change at hand, and, importantly, it brackets the disqualifying words uttered by one Veep aspirant late last month and looms as an ever-present reminder of vigilance regarding such unspeakable acts. Obama has picked someone in Caroline Kennedy who nobody is going to be able to push around. Nice.

The Clinton Is Dead, Long Live The Clinton

Reactions from across the blogosphere on Clinton's self-serving speech last night, courtesy of The Daily Dish. 

My fav: "Whoever said that after denial comes acceptance hadn’t met the Clintons." —Maureen Dowd.

"This Is Our Moment…

This is our time." He's finally over the top.

Here's the speech:

Woo hoo!



And if you want to know what I'm going to look like in November, here's the sneak peak:

Milan 2-1 Inter commentaire Italien
by t_m

The Big O

A little quick on the trigger, The Associated Press declares Obama the winner. I think it's too soon, but what the hell, let's bask in it. Think of it as a preview of November!

Her Rightful Appointment

While most reports suggest that the Clinton campaign is at least feinting at wrapping up, mixed signals abound. (They do like their drama.) This report on a conference call earlier today says that they're still threatening to go to Denver. None of which is shocking or even interesting anymore. What is interesting to me is a letter that Clinton's Illinois finance chair is circulating which promises to fight through August (courtesy of Ben Smith at Politico): 

We, the Illinois Finance Committee, want to show our full commitment to and support for Senator Hillary Clinton, in the fight for her rightful appointment as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee at the convention this August. [emphasis mine]

We believe she is, by far, the best candidate of the three, and the candidate most able to turn the ailing economy around, solve the housing crisis, end the war in Iraq and defeat the terrorists in Afghanistan, bring universal healthcare to our citizens, and finally make our country energy independent.

We also know she is the Democratic candidate best able to beat John McCain in the fall. One thing we are certain of is that the Republicans are good at winning elections. We, as Democrats, allowed them to win the last two contests, and we cannot afford to let that happen again.

Senator Clinton is ahead in the popular vote, and neither candidate can secure the nomination with pledged delegates alone. The automatic delegates can change their mind up until their vote at the convention, and that is why this nominating process must be resolved in August, and no earlier.

We Democrats will be united after our nomination process is completed, but only if that process is completed justly and in fair representation of the opinions of the members of our party. We believe nominating Hillary Clinton is the only way our party can guarantee victory in November.

If you click on the link, you'll see Smith focuses on the "August, and no earlier" sentence. But we've been hearing that type of thing for a while now. What's more striking to me is the continued arrogance which comes across most glaringly in the section I highlighted. The sense of entitlement is so thorough that even now it continues. It's rank arrogance, and is being deservedly punished by primary voters. I'll be glad these people aren't in the White House.

Birth Of A Killer

This is pretty amazing. 

Genesis of a Virus
Scientists witness the birth of an HIV particle as it happens.
Over the years, HIV has proved a tricky target. No one could definitively show where in the cell it assembled, or when it was released. Certainly no one knew how long it took a single virus to be born. And so much of what's known about HIV and other viruses has been pieced together through experiments that rely on inference: microscopic and chemical probing of cells frozen in different states of viral infection provide only information about what was happening in that cell at a particular moment in time. Now researchers have been able to watch as hundreds of thousands of molecules assemble inside a cell to create a single particle of HIV.

"No one's ever actually observed virus particles assembling before," says Paul Bieniasz, a virology researcher at Rockefeller University and the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, and one of the scientists involved in the project. Their study marks the first time that scientists have been able to observe a virus--any virus--being built, and it holds the potential to revolutionize the relationship that scientists have with the viruses they study.

Click here to see video.

A Blueprint

For how Democrats should deal with Hillary if she refuses to concede after Tuesday night.



h/t: Daily Dish

How An Adult Discusses A Difficult Decision

In heavy contrast to the overgrown children throwing tantrums a few posts back, here's Obama explaining his decision to leave his church. Without disrespect, without inflammatory language, without drama. What a concept.

If it's true that we get the politicians we deserve, then, should Obama make it, this will be the first time in a generation or so that that concept doesn't reflect poorly on us.

House Mother

A great article on Nancy Pelosi's background and her rise to power from Michelle Cottle at The New Republic. 

Ask Not For Whom The Finger Wags

Ever unwilling to accept responsibility, The Finger whines about MoveOn.org, the media and party leaders: 

Bill Clinton’s enemies list
Pieced together from the former president’s public remarks at his wife’s campaign events and a private conversation last week with top donors to her campaign, the theory goes something like this: After Hillary recovered from a string of losses to rival Barack Obama with March 4 wins in Texas and Ohio, powerful forces conspired to pressure the superdelegates who will decide the nomination to back Obama by discouraging her supporters from voting and trying to hide evidence proving she would fare better than Obama against presumptive GOP nominee John McCain

While the former president has offered parts of this theory publicly, he fleshed it out more explicitly during a conference call last week with maxed-out donors to his wife’s campaign, a recording of which has been obtained by Politico.

After rattling off a series of poll numbers showing Hillary Clinton faring better than Obama against McCain, Bill Clinton told donors: “We are in the strongest conceivable position electorally and not in a good fix with the superdelegates, because they have felt all the pressure from the Obama side, from the media, from the MoveOn crowd — who they think is an automatic ATM machine for everybody for life. So, they’re reluctant to take on all that.”

While the campaign has been blasting the media for weeks for prematurely calling the race for Obama, President Clinton has added a new entry to his enemy list: MoveOn.org, the anti-war group that endorsed Obama and that, through its political action committee, has raised millions for Democratic candidates, money the Clintons apparently believe has unfairly purchased superdelegate support for Obama.

Call the wah-bulance. 

Today's Civic Lesson

Apologies for light posting lately. I've got several projects going including one at the BRI where I'm spending the lion's share of my days. It's likely that posting will continue to be light, but you never know...

Anyway, the Rules and Bylaws Committee met today and finished their business. It seems like a fair outcome to me considering the circumstances (Fla. docked half their votes/Mi. delegates go to Clinton 69 to 59). Naturally some of Clinton's diehard feel differently. I'm calling them the Jong Coalition after the deranged rants that Erica Jong spewed out over at Huffington Post earlier this year. So here's some footage of the more unhinged members of said coalition. 

McCain? Really? Pro-life, 100-years-in-Iraq McCain? But, she's not an idiot, right. 

(She really ought to get back on her meds.) 

Really, though, what are these people talking about? It's pretty clear that they don't know. That Clinton has stoked their passions with her rhetoric is irresponsible and pathetic, but I'm not going to blame her for all of her supporter's craziness. That's on them.

Then there's this long-winded gem from Clinton adviser Harold Ickes threatening to take their beef to Denver. Keep in mind, Ickes was on the committee deciding what to do with errant states and voted for the penalization of states who jumped forward on the primary schedule. He was for it before he was against it, I guess. 

What can one say? 

The entitlement and cynicism of the Clinton camp knows no bounds and the craziness of her supporters is disconcerting. (For more fun, check out this report on a hallway scuffle between Clinton wingnut Lanny Davis and DNC member Jon Ausman.)

A Daily Dish reader sums it up best, I think:

After watching the RBC meeting come to a close, I can't help thinking that Hillary's slowly withering support has been whittled down to two main camps. From the nutty Clintonites in the crowd shouting "Denver! Denver!" to the disingenuous moral posturing of Harold Ickes, she's left with what she deserves:

Hicks and Hacks.

The Sun Also Rises

"I have never seen anything like it. I have never seen a candidate treated so disrespectfully just for running. ... I can't believe it. It is just frantic the way they are trying to push and pressure and bully all these superdelegates to come out." 

—Bill Clinton, 5-25-08

Clearly people are calling for Hillary to drop out because of sexism. Because never before in our history has anyone faced such pressure before the final primary state has voted. I mean, right?

Well. 

I can envision a new game show: contestants are challenged to watch video clips of either Clinton saying something and guess whether they're speaking truthfully or not. Bonus final round is tougher: the contestant will have to determine whether they're telling the truth, flat out lying or shading the truth. I'm not sure anyone could win (though the safest bets would be to guess lying all the way through).

Big wet sloppy kiss on the mouth to Jed Report who has already put together several of the best video compilations of the season and continues to crank them out.

The Hagee-Lieberman Coalition

Though I'm someone who supports Israel's right to exist and is generally supportive of pro-Israeli policies, I find this whole coalition of some American Jews and Evangelicals way more than creepy. I mean, what kind of ally is it that supports you because it'll bring about their reward at your (eternal) expense. 

I guess I can almost understand it from a practical perspective—when you feel your and your people's very existence is threatened, you might be inclined to take your allies where you can find them. After all, at least the evangelicals don't want to drive you into the sea like many of the anti-Semetic wackjobs like Hamas, Hizbollah, and Iran's Ahmadinejad, (no, they just figure God will take care of that). Still, fear often drives people to bad decisions and this one seems like a devil's bargain to me. And unnervingly odd. Watch this video and see what I mean:

P.S. Nothing like a cameo from the creepiest politician of the past 30 years—Tom Delay—to spice up a vid clip, eh?

h/t: Crooks and Liars