You know - for the kids...

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The Breakup

In his weekend media escapade/freak show, Reverend Wright revealed himself as a spotlight hogging crank and vindictive asshole. Bob Herbert’s piece yesterday goes a long way to explain why Obama rightly turned his back on the man. On a personal level, that must have been a difficult thing to do but it was necessary from a political perspective. I say good riddance.

Fox News is run by idiots

If one purports to be a news organization, and with Fox that point is debatable, one ought to have a research staff smart enough to know that the famed Lincoln-Douglas debates were between Abe Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, a couple of white guys. If one is Fox and the frame of reference is Obama and Clinton, well then one puts up a photo of Frederick Douglass, who is of course black. Jay-sus people, this is fact checking not rocket science. Ever heard of the Google?

HuffPo has the video – too funny.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Miracles

Tornadoes destroyed 120 businesses and homes in nearby Suffolk and to this point, no fatalities have been reported - amazing. Mother Nature is as powerful as she is capricious.

Waaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Democratic National Committee has fired its first meaningful salvo at John McCain, blasting him for his patently insane assertion that it was hunky-dory by him if the US remained in Iraq for 100 years. The ad, see it here, is really quite good and the GOP, rather predictably, is full-throated bitch mode about it.

The advertisement drew immediate recriminations from Republican Party officials, who said on Monday that it took Mr. McCain’s words out of context and demanded that television outlets refuse to show it. The commercial is expected to run only on CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, a limited purchase of air time that the party clearly hopes will be amplified by news coverage about the advertisements.

Dear God, who are they kidding? When the Republicans start whining about being taken out of context, after Kerry’s Swiftboating and their molestation of Al Gore, well that is too rich. The word chutzpah comes to mind as does cry baby. So I hope the DNC doubles their buy and drives home the fact that on most of the substantive issues, be it taxes, spending, Iraq, energy, or consumer protection, electing John McCain is the same as re-electing George W Asshat Bush.

Monday, April 28, 2008

The too talkative Pastor

OMG – someone from the Obama campaign, preferably Barak himself, needs to tell Reverend Wright to shut the fuck up post haste. Rightly or wrongly, this dude is radioactive and every time he speaks, he puts Obama on the defensive. That the press is playing guilt by association is irrelevant. Until Wright is off the front page, he will remain the club with which Hillary and McCain will pummel Obama.

Food prices

The Post has a great article up on the causes behind the spike in global food prices and the implications thereof. The piece is as interesting as it is sobering. The Reader’s Digest: demand is high, supply is tight, those circumstances are not likely to improve quickly, and a lot of poor people are going to take it in the gut, literally.

Prolonged food shortages can have many awful side effects, some obvious and other not so much. On the obvious side, shortages can morph into famines. A person starving to death is, of course, bad. Millions meeting that fate is that much more so. Without some careful resource planning and policy coordination, a big hunk of the world’s poor are staring down that very gun. I am not suggesting that I think a famine is likely but that result must be considered.

The more likely and therefore more troubling outcome though, is an extensive period of political instability. Something like 3 billion people live on a dollar or less a day. When food prices double as they have, this population does not have the means to absorb that kind of increase. Instead, they go hungry and if history has taught us anything, it is that hungry people are desperate people and desperate people are dangerous. Not to overdramatize the current situation but chronic food shortages were among the driving factors behind the French and Russian Revolutions. More recently, the Haitian Prime Minister was forced from office a couple of weeks ago because of soaring food prices and the subsequent riots. Now I grant you that that may not the best example, given that Haiti’s governments are about as stable as Gary Busey on PCP, but a direct result of hunger is political instability. Now, I doubt we are, as yet, facing widespread uprising but that is not a trivial concern in places like Haiti, Egypt, Indonesia, etc.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Cracking down

For a while there, it looked as though Robert Mugabe might actually acknowledge that he lost the election and cede Zimbabwe’s Presidency to Morgan Tsvangirai. Most of the government’s strategy since the election seemed focused on stalling the opposition’s inevitable transition to power. After yesterday’s raids on the opposition headquarters and the offices of the election monitors, that no longer appears to be the case. In fact, I think this action makes clear Mugabe’s intent to stay in power by any means necessary. He has crossed a line here and I fear he is about to go all in. That is a VERY BAD THING.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

I cannot believe he said this

John McCain doesn’t think women deserve equal pay because they are just not that bright. Seriously. I wish I were joking.

NEW ORLEANS - Republican Sen. John McCain, campaigning through poverty-stricken cities and towns, said Wednesday he opposes a Senate bill that seeks equal pay for women because it would lead to more lawsuits.

[Snip]

McCain stated his opposition to the bill as he campaigned in rural eastern Kentucky, where poverty is worse among women than men. The Arizona senator said he was familiar with the disparity but that there are better ways to help women find better paying jobs.

"They need the education and training, particularly since more and more women are heads of their households, as much or more than anybody else," McCain said. "And it's hard for them to leave their families when they don't have somebody to take care of them.

Putting aside his rather odd (some would say chauvinistic) assumption that all working women have families to abandon, this is total corporatist bullshit. To begin with, lawsuits are not bad things, in and of themselves. Indeed, filing suit is often the only weapon one can use to redress a grievance. This is especially true in the David versus Goliath scenario of an employee seeking to remedy an employer’s practice. Furthermore, saying that the bill would likely increase the number of suits implies that there is an injustice that is not being addressed through other means. Why is that discrimination not the issue? Put another way, McCain’s statement means the notion that protecting corporations is of greater import than reducing exploitation and inequality. That is just plain wrong.

Finally, this business about education and training – um, WTF? Look, it is simple. Women get paid, relative to men, something like 76 cents on the dollar (if I remember correctly). That disparity is not, as the Senator seems to be implying, because they are only three quarters as smart as their male counterparts and only need some extra training to get up to speed. To suggest so is kind of a remarkable proclamation of female inferiority. The reason why companies pay women less than equally qualified men is because then can. It is a matter of exploitation. One need not be a Marxist to realize that fact.

Ironman = awesome

I don’t normally get hyped up for superhero movies, having had my enthusiasm for such fair tempered by Joel Schumaker’s schlocky and cartoonish treatment of Batman, but the trailer for Ironman is amazing. The effects are insanely good and the cast is outstanding. Most heartening however, is Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark. Downey Jr., who by most accounts has gotten his shit together, looks every bit the part of billionaire playboy industrialist. I have a feeling that this movie is going to be a ball.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Worst. President. Ever.
















And it is no longer just an opinion.

WASHINGTON — President Bush has set a record he'd presumably prefer to avoid: the highest disapproval rating of any president in the 70-year history of the Gallup Poll.

That is quite the achievement actually. When one can outsuck Nixon during Watergate and Truman mired in Korea, one has broken new ground. There are quite a few other interesting tidbits in this poll but really, it hard to follow that lede.

(hat tip to Atrios)

Damn you Pennsylvania

First, the state gives the Clinton campaign yet another lease on life and if you thought the primary was nasty before, just wait until you see the shit that a cash-strapped operation will pull. Ugh.

Then the Philly Flyers beat the Caps in overtime in game seven.

Not a happy night at my house.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Game Seven

























Tonight, 7 PM, on home ice, the Capitals look to finish the series with Philly. Last night’s third period was about as good as it gets. I expect tonight will be more of the same. Go Caps!

So, so right

Rob O’Connor has posted a Top 10 list of the most annoying singers and I gotta say, the man hit the nail on the head with his #1.

1) Michael Bolton: OK, this was easy. C'mon, you knew Mr. Bolton would top the list. Who else can take a love song and turn it into a hernia? When a man loves a woman he doesn't do so by screaming in her ear--so why should it be acceptable for a man to sing a sensitive love song as if he's directing traffic for the hearing impaired? R&B classics deserve their place in musical history and should be protected from this man's desecration of all that is holy. It's only right. Let's make it a law.

Word.

CNN continues its march towards irrelevance

Since J. has gotten to the age where I don’t feel entirely comfortable watching the news with him in the room, I seem to have broken my CNN addiction. And that is a good thing I think. For one, I save myself the trouble of explaining a lot of unpleasant realities to a two year old. There are just things that kids that age should not see, like war footage or Mary Matalin. Another benefit I have found is that these days, I rarely have the urge to kick in the television. That was not always the case, a fact to which Lo can attest. Remember the dark days leading up to the war when damn near everyone was talking about how awesome kicking the shit out of Iraq was gonna be? Let’s just say that in 2001-2002, my TV was skating on some very thin ice. More than once, I barely suppressed the urge to put a coffee mug through the screen.

Well, in its efforts to ensure that I continue my cable news blackout, CNN has hired former Bush shill, Rush Limbaugh stand in, and all around douchebag Tony Snow as a “political commentator”. WTF CNN? The last thing this world needs is another Bush synchophant bloviating on the wonders we have brought to Iraq, the Administration’s super excellent energy policy, or any other issue in our nation discourse. Seriously, the dude was Bush’s spokesman, which means he used to lie to the Press for a living. Why the Hell would anyone find him to be a credible voice on anything?

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Lo knows

So it is Friday night and I should be downstairs cooking dinner but instead, I am standing in the shower naked, with my genitals in a plastic coffee mug filled with ice cold milk. You may ask why on earth I would be doing such a thing. It is simple; I broke one of the fundamental rules of the kitchen and I motherfucking paid.

There are rules to working in the kitchen, some live or die and others just suggestions that will keep you from unnecessarily hurting yourself. Here are but a few:
1. Don’t try to catch a falling knife.
2. Don’t put water on a grease fire.
3. Never work a blade towards yourself.
4. Wash your hands thoroughly when moving from one ingredient to another.

It was the last one that got me. I was making fish tacos with cabbage, pico de gallo, and habanero cilantro cream sauce. I had the fish marinating, the cabbage shredded and the pico resting on the counter so I turned my attention to the pepper sauce. Into a bowl I threw a bit of mayo, some sour cream, cilantro, lime juice, a couple of pinches of Lo’s spice rub, and some habanero I had just diced. At that moment, I felt the urge to relieve myself so I washed my hands, took care of business, and went outside to light the grill.

It was while I was watching the lighter fluid burn off the coals that I felt the first twinges of fire on my Johnson. At first, I stupidly ignored the reaction, unaware of the full-on assault that awaited me. And then the torrent came, like the fury of a thousand suns. No other way to put it, my junk was on fire. I had not washed my hands thoroughly after I had cut up the peppers and now I WAS GOING TO PAY.

When the devil burn came, I explained to Lo my situation and that I HAD TO SHOWER RIGHT NOW. While ignoring her laughter, I ran upstairs, stripped down, and hopped into the shower. I had hoped that soap would cut the capsaicin enough to prevent the approaching firestorm. Alas, I was wrong.

The cold water helped at first but the warm water kicked in soon enough and then the real pain began. Let me just say that it felt as though my entire package had been dropped into a bubbling cauldron of fire, a veritable Szechuan hot pot for my crotch. It was agony and I knew not what to do. After several minutes in the shower, switching for cold water to cool the burn and warm to stop my shivering, I was at the end of my rope. It was then that Lo poked her head in and asked if I wanted a cup of milk. I had no other ideas so yes, please. She returned quickly and in a rather undignified manner, I crammed my whole business into this Holy Grail of pain relief.

It worked. Let me just say that there is a reason people do not plunge their peckers into vats of freezing milk for fun. It was colder than Joan Crawford in Mommy Dearest but as the minutes rolled on and the lactic acid dissolved the flaming oil, I said a prayer, thankful that I have wife so wise as to suggest the appropriate remedy and also understanding enough to provide it.

Therefore I must say I love you dearly darling and thank you from the bottom of my heart (and elsewhere). You are the best.

Friday, April 18, 2008

Big props for the Norva

Although no one will refer to the Hampton Roads area as a major cultural center, we do sport some of the best music venues I have ever seen. In fact, my two favorite places to see a show are local. The nTelos Pavilion in Portsmouth is a wonderful, open-air facility seating about 6,500, situated right on the Elizabeth River. There is no other place I prefer for an outdoor show and if the beer were cheaper, it would be perfect.
The other jewel in our local crown is the uber-fabualous Norva, a converted movie theater/health club. Now, I must admit I have a bit of personal bias towards the joint because my brother (wassup bro?) once worked there and cousin is the General Manger (hurray for Will!), but it truly is a favorite for both the acts that play and the concert goers. That awesomeness has been recognized by none other than Rolling Stone magazine which has named the Norva as one of the top 5 rock clubs in America. Congratulations to the Norva crew – you deserve every bit of that respect.

Hillary Clinton shots self in foot, reloads

One of the main rationales behind the Clinton campaign was the notion that she was more electable than Obama. Well, it appears that her recent strategy of attacking Barak by parroting right-wing talking points has backfired spectacularly. And really, who could have predicted that Democratic voters would reject her embrace of Republican Light-ism?

"I would love to vote for Hillary," said Nancy Costello of Bellevue, Ky., one of the more than 1,800 randomly selected adults whose opinions are rechecked every few months. "I'm 67, and I'll probably never get another chance to vote for a woman."

But Obama now appears to be the stronger candidate, she said, and electing a Democrat in November is paramount. If McCain wins and continues many of President Bush's economic and foreign policies, Costello said, "I think I would just sit down and cry. [Ed. Note – I am with you there sister.]"

By tracking the same group throughout the campaign, the AP-Yahoo! News poll can gauge how individual views change. It suggests that Clinton has paid a price for hammering Obama since early February on several issues as she tries to overcome his lead in delegates and the popular vote. Among those Democrats who no longer consider her the more electable of the two, most now see her as less likable, decisive, strong, honest, experienced and ethical than they did in January.

Meanwhile, those same voters are more likely to see Obama as strong, honest and refreshing than before.

Beulah Barton of Leesburg, Fla., said she initially backed Clinton, partly because she liked Bill Clinton's record as president.

"But the more I hear her talk, and the more I hear him talk, the more put off I am," said Barton, 69. "I think she's brash, I think she's rude. I get the feeling that she feels she deserves to be president" and doesn't need "to earn it."

Now, I know these are but to anecdotal accounts, but these two women are Hillary’s base. Without them, her nomination is even more hopeless than it seems. The longer this goes on, the more likely Democrats are to completely turn on her, crippling her chances in the future. Someone needs to talk some sense into her and fast.

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Worst. Debate. Ever.

Off the bat, I must admit that I didn’t watch the debate but after reading some of the outraged reactions on the Intertubes, I had to read the transcript. Let me say folks, I could not stomach it. For a Cliff Notes version, please read Will Bunch’s blow by disgusting blow commentary. See, just fucking awful.

This travesty of a “debate” was every bit as bad as advertised. Seriously, do we, as a nation, need to know Obama’s philosophical stand on flag lapel pins? Or more directly, what the fuck do fashion accessories have to do with one’s ability to be President? This shameful episode highlighted everything that is wrong with our national discourse; stupidity, banality, and shameless sensationalism with commercial breaks. Because above all else, the Mouse must get paid.

Tom Shales may have put it best in the title of his Post column, “In Pa. Debate, The Clear Loser Is ABC”. Indeed.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

One year and a lot of tears

Go Hokies.



Monday, April 14, 2008

Image is everything

In the wonderful film The Princess Bride, the Vizzini character, masterfully acted by Wallace Shawn, repeatedly, inappropriately, and hilariously uses the word “inconceivable”. After several malapropisms, Inigo Montoya, played by the brilliant Mandy Patinkin, finally states “You keep using that word. I do not think it means, what you think it means”. It is a classic line, delivered with a look that said (in the less eloquent parlance of this here website), “you don’t have any idea what the fuck you are talking about, do you? We just watched that dude scale a cliff free-hand and the only you seem to be saying is that it was impossible for him to do so”. Sadly, such is the case with the media, John McCain, and his bullshit “independent” label that seems to follow him regardless of how he votes, what he says, or any other relevant yardstick of the guy’s politics.

Make no mistake, McCain is a hardcore rightwing conservative, straight up, no chaser. The dearly departed and much missed Molly Ivins once said of McCain that he is “so conservative it makes your teeth hurt”. And yet, this misperception of independence persists. The media seems to think that a fellow who is pro-business, pro-gun, anti-abortion, anti-gay rights, and a war hawk to boot can somehow be absolved of those positions because he occasionally bucks his party. That view is weird, obnoxious, and by my reckoning, applicable only to McCain; perhaps, however, that worm may be turning.

The AP, in a piece from the Better Late Than Never file, attempts to set McCain’s conservative record straight.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The independent label sticks to John McCain because he antagonizes fellow Republicans and likes to work with Democrats.

But a different label applies to his actual record: conservative.

The likely Republican presidential nominee is much more conservative than voters appear to realize. McCain leans to the right on issue after issue, not just on the Iraq war but also on abortion, gay rights, gun control and other issues that matter to his party's social conservatives.

Bravo to the AP for actually, you know, reporting. Would it were so prevalent elsewhere in the press, we might actually know something of Saint John aside from this manufactured persona of tough guy, no-nonsense truth teller. Seriously, is it too much to ask that McOldGuy* face the same scrutiny as Obama’s preacher? What, a boy can dream can’t he?

(*credit to the brilliant and gorgeous Lo for McOldGuy moniker - I am not that good)

Progress in Kenya

In what may be an act of national salvation, Kenya’s competing political factions have worked out a power sharing deal that could prevent further violence and resolve some of the outstanding issues from the recent disputed election. This is obviously a Very Good Thing. Once one of the more stable governments in sub-Saharan Africa, Kenya had been teetering on the brink of civil war. Thank goodness cooler heads prevailed and a resolution, albeit a fragile one, was found at the bargaining table rather than the business end of a machete.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

This is just absurd

The following headline is from today’s NY Times:

Clinton Portrays Herself as a Pro-Gun Churchgoer

So the new strategy is to run as a Southern Republican for the Democratic nomination. Um, riiiiiiight - how is that going to work?

Friday, April 11, 2008

Go Caps!

Just a friendly reminder that the game starts at 7 EST. For those interested, The Post has a great article up on this year's NHL Cinderella.

It is getting bad out there

So yesterday, we had Fed Chairman Bernanke state that the current economic slowdown “is nothing like the Great Depression”, mostly because of the awesomeness of the current Federal Reserve. Aside from the obvious self-serving nature of the remark, that he was forced to even make that statement is a testament to the degree to which people are hurting right now. Oil and gas are at new highs, food prices have climbed dramatically, and many other commodity prices are rising as well. Indeed, food riots have broken out in Egypt, Haiti, etc. and skyrocketing rice prices, the staple for half of the planet, are making quite a few governments very, very nervous.

It should be noted that there has never been a serious famine in a functional democracy. Furthermore, there has not been a widespread famine since the early 1960’s when Mao’s Great Leap Forward screwed up China’s farm (or really anti-farm) policy and killed 30 million people. Not to diminish those episodes of hunger in Africa since then but those, while heartbreakingly severe, were mostly geographically contained and more limited in scope. Moreover, technology has improved crop yields and transportation efficiency and allowed nations facing shortages, should they choose, to import their way out of droughts, crop failures, etc. Due to increasing demand, loss of arable land, and a few other factors, that flexibility, however, may no longer exist.

The point I am making here is that the increasingly democratized global economy has never had to respond to a harsh, widespread and prolonged food shortage. And that globalization is part of the issue; global markets mean that food shortages have the potential to spill across multiple nations, rather than remain isolated. Just as the US credit crunch spread to economies around the world, so to can food price inflation.

I am not sure that the economic caretakers around the world have the tools to combat this sort of thing or the political will to take the necessary steps to correct it. Even during the worst days of the Great Potato Famine, because of policies indifferent to the suffering of the natives, Ireland was a net exporter of food. History is full of other equally foolish practices that inevitably punish the poorest of the afflicted society. I seriously doubt there exists much incentive in Western nations to mandate that their farmers stop producing biofuels in favor of food stocks because Southeast Asia needs rice but such somewhat Draconian measures may be required to forestall the shortage from getting really nasty. As always, time will tell.

The larger point is that a few billion people around the world must now pay an ever increasing share of their meager income providing bare sustenance. This is obviously a Bad Thing. High food prices may well be the new normal and an organized global response may be needed. Here's to hoping that the central banks, economic policy coordinators, agronomists, and the like can get their shit together before this gets out of hand. But as has been said before, hope is not a plan.

It is funny because it is true

A good West Virginia joke is always appreciated.

(Hat tip to the lovely and talented Lo)

Thursday, April 10, 2008

John McCain is no student of history and the press doesn’t care

From the New York Times:

WESTPORT, Conn. – When Senator John McCain was asked here this afternoon how he plans to balance the budget, he said that he hoped to do so by stimulating economic growth – and approvingly cited the example of President Ronald Reagan.

There was one thing he did not mention during his response: the deficit nearly tripled during the Reagan presidency, partly due to tax cuts and increases in military spending.

Mr. Straight Talk, eh? Either McCain is lying his ass off or utterly clueless of Reagan’s legacy. In any case, the press would club mercilessly any candidate named Gore, Kerry, Clinton or Obama for such a woeful misstatement; McCain, not so much. When it comes to Saint John of Arizona, the Beltway Press just swoons, behaving less like adversarial journalists and more like Lifetime VIP members of the John McCain Fan Club.

So forget McCain, can we talk about Obama’s preacher some more?

Science is cool















This little bugger is a recently discovered lungless river frog from Indonesia. Apparently, these frogs breathe through their skin, a trait unique to this species.

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Not buying it

Driving to work this morning, I heard Brookings fellow and noted liberal war hawk Michael O’Hanlon on NPR tell me that things in Iraq are getting better because the violence was down 75% from last year. OK, I am not here to dispute statistics but really, give me a fucking break. Things are 75% less horrible than they were last year because we flooded parts of the country with soldiers. Those soldiers, however, are preparing to rotate out with no replacements to follow. So this fantastic 75% reduction in mayhem, death and destruction is only temporary. Even worse, the political solutions that the extra security was supposed to buy never materialized. Indeed, Maliki is weak and incompetent, Sadr is preparing to get back in the game and unleash his hordes once again, oil and even territorial disputes are nowhere near resolved, and the Green Zone is taking rocket and mortar fire daily.

Look, the situation in Iraq is utterly, thoroughly fucked up. So when people like O’Hanlon, people who have staked their reputations on this misadventure, start telling us that things are getting better, we need to understand that they are full of shit. They are either willfully denying the truth or completely clueless to the situation altogether. Upton Sinclair once said that it is very difficult to get a man to understand a thing when his salary depends on not understanding it. That notion is epidemic, even fundamental, to this pro-war crowd and shame on them for it.

So after embeds, Shock and Awe, the death of Saddam, the Provisional Authority, Cheney’s “last throes”, turning Bush’s corner God knows how many times, the mighty Purple Finger of Suffrage, Ahmad Chalabi, Abu Ghraib, 4000 soldiers dead, tens of thousands more wounded and uncountable numbers of Iraqi causalities to boot, these incorrigible war mongers still demand that we listen to them because they are serious, conscientious thinkers. I say FUCK THAT. Being so wrong, so often should deprive this crowd of any credibility on the subject of Iraq. So I played Rancid’s “Wrongful Suspicion” on repeat until it scrubbed all of Mr. O’Hanlon’s nonsense out of my brain.

Broken bones, broken rules
They can all be fixed (oh yeah)
So let those who battle with the pen
And the others with the fist (its the gospel now)
The strong ones will be defiant with words that can convince
You can take this as rules but I'll take it as a dis.

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Rain, rain, go away

In the Seven Cities over the past two weeks, it seems like it has rained every day. Sometimes torrential downpour, sometimes light mist, but always and incessantly wet. When I walk outside, I should feel “lovely Spring day” and instead I feel England. This never-ending monsoon has its upsides though. The grass in my back yard has flourished like a bumper crop of summer wheat and with no dry days to mow, it has reached knee high. Were it not for the GPS chip we implanted into our son [Ed. Note - gotta love that little cyborg], I no doubt would have lost him out there. Hurray for baby LoJack!

Okay – just kidding about the GPS thing.

The comeback














The Washington Capitals won the Southeast Division and made the playoffs for the first time in 5 years. That is a monumental feat when you consider that the team has finished at the bottom of their division in the previous three years and was dead last in the league on New Year’s Eve. Simply amazing.

The first game is Friday at home against the Flyers. Go Caps!

Monday, April 07, 2008

Oh hell no

The New York Post is reporting that Condi Rice is campaigning to be McCain’s Vice President. For McCain to accept her would be patently insane. This is one of the least competent and hence, least popular Administrations in American history. It must be excised from the body politic root and branch. That Rice believes she is a viable political entity at this point highlights the absolute cognitive dissonance that, along with the ability to fuck up everything, is one of the hallmarks of the Bush Presidency.

Not to put too fine a point on it but she was the head of the National Security Agency on 9/11/2001. That should not be considered a resume builder. Following that spectacular blunder, she failed upwards to become Secretary of State and oversaw the steady decline of American prestige and influence around the globe. And she once referred to George Bush as her husband [Ed. Note – I wonder what Laura had to say about that]. This is not the stuff of a solid running mate.

Now if McCain is willing to hang this albatross around his neck, so be it and bully for the Democrats. I doubt this will happen. I think McCain is smart enough to understand that he must distance himself from the current Administration wherever possible and running with Rice would totally undermine that strategy.

Later loser

In what can only be described as a day late and a dollar short, the Clinton campaign has finally canned Mark Penn as its chief strategist. This should have been done months ago. Penn is an arrogant blowhard and all around political jackleg. Seriously, his super awesome 10 state strategy and numerous conflicts of interest should have gotten his ass fired forever ago. That he hung around so long is yet another knock on Hillary’s judgment, IMHO. Loyalty has its place, to be sure, but there are limits.

Look, Penn devised the plan that is now forcing Senator Clinton, once the prohibitive Democratic favorite, to seek a route to the nomination that would overturn the will of the people. Depending on how far the Clinton campaign is willing to go with this, the Democrats could be looking at a nasty internecine war. And that, people, in a year that by all rights should be ours, is unforgivable.

Penn’s incompetence helped set this table. The only question remaining is does Hillary have the capacity to walk away before the bloodbath begins? I pray that booting Penn is a sign that she does.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Forty years

Forty years ago today, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. The King assassination is, and will remain, one of the seminal moments in American history. Simply put, the man was a giant, the likes of which we may never see again. It is hard to underestimate the effect of his murder on the African-American community. We are nearly two generations removed from King but I have seen no shortage of remarks from African-Americans wondering whether or not someone would do in Senator Obama. It does not take much to see the genesis of the fears. King and Obama are of course very different men and any comparison of the two, beyond the obvious, does a disservice to both. At the same time, it is not difficult to understand why so many see a man striving to be the first black President and perceive at least shades of a fallen hero that broke down so many other barriers.

In that vein, without King, there would be no Obama. The civil rights movement was not just about equality before the law. It was also about changing white attitudes towards race and what the words “equally” and “freedom” actually meant to people. In that respect, I believe that MLK would look upon the Senator’s candidacy as an extraordinary triumph for the civil rights movement. Forty years after King’s death, the nation is prepared to elect a black man as President, heretofore, the single whitest job in America. That fact alone signals a tidal shift in our country and one that, despite its mean origins, is something for which we should be proud. This may not the “promised land’ of which the late Reverend spoke so eloquently, but damn if it is not a significant milestone on the path to it.

Not happy

It looks like most of my fellow Americans rolled out of bed this morning, took a look around, and got pissed.

Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the early 1990s, according to the latest poll.

In the poll, 81 percent of respondents said they believed that “things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track,” up from 69 percent a year ago and 35 percent in early 2003.

Although the public mood has been darkening since the early days of the war in Iraq, it has taken a new turn for the worse in the last few months, as the economy has seemed to slip into recession. There is now nearly a national consensus that the country faces significant problems.

A majority of nearly every demographic and political group — Democrats and Republicans, men and women, residents of cities and rural areas, college graduates and those who finished only high school [Ed. Note -that's pretty much everyone, no?] — say that the United States is headed in the wrong direction. Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the country was worse off than five years ago; just 4 percent said it was better off.

Wow. There is a whole lot of anger out there. I bet this has a lot to do with it. Worst. President. Ever.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Huh?????

Lo told me about a recent conversation she has with J. whilst attempting to convince him that YES, HE MUST SLEEP. Here is a rough transcript of their bedtime tête-à-tête.

Lo: J., it is time for you to sleep.

J: No, I have a better idea. I have a dump truck downstairs and it is not scary.

Lo: …

If anyone has any idea what the hell that meant, I would love to know.

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Pastafarianism goes mainstream

Now this is funny.

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

New (to me anyway) music

By dumb luck, I stumbled across a link to Blackheart Records, Joan Jett’s indie label. After listening to her killer rendition of the Replacement’s classic “Androgynous”, I decided to check out some of the other bands in the stable. Ladies and gentlemen, please avail yourself of the opportunity to give the Dollyrots a listen. This pop-punk trio is pure genius. Now I admit that I am a sucker for bands fronted by women, especially hot, talented women (remember Belly and L7? - love them). But they are really good even beyond my own bias. The few songs that I listened to were enough for me to buy their latest album, along with Jett’s for that matter – reviews forthcoming maybe. But let me just say their version of “Brand New Key” is alone worth the purchase price. It is sheer bubble gum cum power chord brilliance.

Mugabe stepping down?

Robert Mugabe has turned the once thriving nation of Zimbabwe, a nation that was nicknamed the “breadbasket of Africa”, into a dysfunctional klepto-oligarchy, run by looters of the national treasury, and dependant on international food aid.

Today, a third of the population depends on imported food handouts. Another third has fled the country as economic and political refugees and 80 percent is jobless. Life expectancy has fallen from 60 to 35 years and shortages of food, medicine, water, electricity and fuel are chronic.

It really is a stunning example of government corruption, criminal mismanagement, and proof that unchecked power is the surest route to ruin. Indeed, Mugabe has become so unpopular that he can no longer credibly steal an election and as such, his day of reckoning may be nigh.

A person close to the Electoral Commission told the AP that Mugabe has been informed he is far behind Tsvangirai in preliminary election results, and that there could be an uprising if Mugabe were declared the winner. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said aides to both men were discussing Mugabe’s ceding power.

Here is to hoping that Mugabe does right by his nation and, at long last, takes leave of office. It will take decades to undo the damage he has wrought and there is no time like the present to begin. New political leadership must be the first step.

Bad things are afoot

Bush is in Europe, always good for a bout of collective national mortification, and the dreaded Kathie Lee Gifford is returning to the teevee. I should have stayed in bed.