Spain closes the deal

After 44 years without a championship, Spain finally won the European Cup in what was one of the best 1-0 matches I have seen in years. Christ, they were brilliant and none more so than the freakishly talented trio of keeper Iker Casilles, midfielder Xavi, and forward Fernando Torres. For a team best known for folding like a card table when under pressure, they held it together like champions and beat the Germans from one end of the field to the other. So congratulations to the Red Fury. They exorcised quite a few demons yesterday and they did it in style.

New and Improved Straight Talk, Now with Extra Maverick Sauce

Oy. The important thing to remember is that John McCain was against the Swiftboat Vets before he was for them…

Could be a good one

I just heard to “Two Angry Kids” from the Street Dogs’ new release “State of Grace”. If that single is any indication of the rest of the record, this will be a very good album indeed. You can have a listen here – release date is 7/7.

Romney for Veep?

The Politico says that Mitt Romney is the leading contender to be McCain’s VP, mostly for his fundraising prowess. I, for one, hope he gets it because aside from Rudy Giuliani, Romney is the most mockable GOP contestant in the running. Between his ever-fungible policy positions, the Stepfordesque image, and that hair helmet, believe me, the strongest supporters of a Romney Vice Presidential run are the writers at Comedy Central.

Ya miss me?

I spent the past week starting the remodel of our bathroom, which took 200% longer than I expected and sort of ate away any free time I thought I was going to have (hence no bloggin' fun). And let me tell you, chiseling porcelain tile out of concrete is no fun at all. One the other hand, when I am done, that room will be so cool I may never want to leave it.

Wrenching

That was my reaction to Jeffrey Gettlemen’s NYTimes piece about the potential famine threatening the Horn of Africa. With the food prices escalating globally, this most depressed corner of the world will surely fare worse than most. This is grim stuff people so if you are prone to tears or would like to keep your Friday light and breezy, skip the article. I am not joking…

Doing right by vets

The House yesterday passed their version of Jim Webb’s updated GI Bill as part of a package funding the wars. That it had to be tacked onto “must pass” appropriations bill to overcome Bush’s opposition tells you all you need to know about what supporting the troops really means to him. With that in mind, I take comfort in knowing that we only have to endure that incompetent dickhead for 214 more days.

Like McCain said, 100 years

We went to war with Iraq because taking out Saddam was step one in the Grand Neo-Con Strategy to remake the Middle East into our democratic image, albeit one more oil soaked and darkly complexioned. That the Administration’s buddies in the oil industry could land a windfall, well that was a bonus.

BAGHDAD — Four Western oil companies are in the final stages of negotiations this month on contracts that will return them to Iraq, 36 years after losing their oil concession to nationalization as Saddam Hussein rose to power.

But that is really just half of the story.

Any Western oil official who comes to Iraq would require heavy security, exposing the companies to all the same logistical nightmares that have hampered previous attempts, often undertaken at huge cost, to rebuild Iraq’s oil infrastructure.

And work in the deserts and swamps that contain much of Iraq’s oil reserves would be virtually impossible unless carried out solely by Iraqi subcontractors, who would likely be threatened by insurgents for cooperating with Western companies.

And now we have can stay in Iraq indefinitely, under the aegis of protecting Western commercial interests. This is going to working out swimmingly.

Not on my "A" game today

Man, I am having one of those days where my motivation to do anything is non-existent.

So Internets, entertain me!

Today’s required reading

Matt Taibbi digs into John McCain’s conversion from a maverick “into just another liberal-bashing fearmonger” and how that will influence the tenor of our nation's political debate. What he finds is not pretty.

In the present day, it is George Bush who got us into this new Vietnam-like mess and revived the specter of tortured prisoners, but McCain's anger isn't focused in that direction. He's not mad that it's happening again, not looking to blame the people who actually started the fire. Instead he seems re-energized by the fact that we are all back in that same hell, back to living the PTSD-inducing nightmare that McCain himself never got to leave — and if it takes dumbing down his act and playing to the Rush and Hannity crowd to give his story a happy ending this time around, he won't hesitate. So if you thought Hillary was bad, buckle your seat belts: The really dumb stuff is just beginning.

This is gonna be one ugly campaign.

Some rare good news from Middle East

There has been some real movement of late on the peace front between Israel and her neighbors; a truce with Hamas, dealing with Hezbollah, back door negotiations with Syria and pushing talks with Lebanon. Olmert, despite his problems, appears to be really making a go of this and he is getting help from Turkey, Jordan, and Egypt. After so many failures and disappointments on this issue, I feel almost foolish for even thinking that this flurry of diplomacy might actually lead to something concrete, but hey, at least they are not shooting at each other.

The Big Day

From NPR:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom officiated one of the first same-sex weddings Monday night. Two elderly lesbians — icons of the gay-rights movement — held a private ceremony at City Hall.

Phyllis Lyon, 83, and Del Martin, 87, became a couple more than half a century ago and went on to start the first national group for lesbians. After marrying in a small ceremony in Newsom's office, the elderly women emerged to an adoring crowd.

Newsom said presiding over the wedding ceremony was a great privilege.

"I think today marriage as an institution has been strengthened," he said. "I think today marriage has been affirmed."

I love this story. Any couple that puts in fifty years not only deserves the right to marry, but also our respect and a damn medal for being able hang together for that long. I had never heard of either Phyllis Lyon or Del Martin before today but I am as happy for them as if they were family. And props to Gavin Newsom for seeing gay marriage as a civil rights issue and one that he would fight for.

Smoke

That is a daylight view from Norfolk of the Portsmouth Naval Hospital, across the Elizabeth River. The entire area has been shrouded in a smoky haze from wildfires to our south on and off for about 10 days. And while we get smoke periodically, this morning is as bad as I have ever seen it.

Cracking the door on a la carte service

The package-oriented subscription model employed by cable and satellite television services annoys me to no end. Aside from the rapacious greed of the program creators and the enabling providers, there is no reason why they should not allow me to pick which channels I like and be charged for those alone. No offense to those that enjoy them but I have no use for a soap opera channel, a Philippines-centric station, or the entire Lifetime family of networks. And if these networks cannot sustain themselves because of lack of interest; I see no reason why I should subsidize their existence through higher subscription fees. Furthermore, providers use these throwaway channels to fluff their offerings and justify exorbitant subscription rates (“We offer 200 channels for $100 a month! That is just $.50 per channel! What a bargain!).

And while there have been numerous attempts at the federal level to force providers to offer such an a la carte subscription model, each has been thwarted by the extremely well-funded telecom lobby. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, the proposed XM/ Sirius merger may present an opportunity for an end run around that opposition.

“As I’ve indicated before, this is an unusual situation,” Martin said in a statement. “I am recommending that with the voluntary commitments they (the companies) have offered, on balance, this transaction would be in the public interest.”

The companies also agreed to an “open radio” standard, meant to create competition among manufacturers of satellite radios, according to FCC officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement had not yet been made public.

Other conditions are similar to promises made by Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin last year.

They include a three-year freeze on prices and packages that include programs from both services, including a so-called “a la carte” offering that would be available within three months of the close of the deal [emphasis mine].

If a relatively new radio company can offer an a la carte option, the much more established television services can as well. Most cable systems are granted local monopolies by the municipality in which they operate (my market ranks in the top 30 in the country and I have but one cable option) though the FCC maintains a high level of authority in the industry. Both local and federal government has the opportunity to demand an a la carte programming option, something that would grant subscribers a cheaper point of entry into the market as well as a measure of flexibility in an industry long dominated by the provider side of the equation.

Now, I grant you cable TV is hardly a life or death issue. But it would be nice to see consumer protection arise as a topic of discussion aside from when things go terribly wrong (see the FDA). It seems like this is as good a place to start as any.

Meanwhile, across the pond…

...Gordon Brown and the Labour Party have gone wildly astray. This week, in a despicable betrayal of liberal principles, Labour voted to extend the period a suspect may be held without charge to 42 days, up from the traditional 28. That may seem a trivial expansion but the act itself set a new and scary precedent, that even the most settled of legal questions can be re-examined if the politics make sense. The Guardian, quite correctly, tears Brown up. The lead graph just sets the table.

Is this what Gordon Brown had in mind when he promised a progressive consensus? His plans to detain terrorism suspects for 42 days before charge survived yesterday thanks to the connivance of parliament's most reactionary faction, the Democratic Unionist party. He won last night's divisive vote - just - but lost the argument and shredded his majority. That is not the only reason why the victory was hollow. The prime minister has squandered parliamentary time, goodwill and his reputation as a man of principle on a symbolic sacrifice of liberty. That sacrifice is gratuitous, a vote on a law that would not work, is not needed and which, quite possibly, will never come into force.

Indeed.

Mugabe throws done his thug trump card

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has declared his faction’s intention to take up arms should the opposition win the June 27th run-off election. But it is even worse than that.

Earlier Thursday, news had emerged that a shipment of 20 tons of U.S.-donated grains, beans and oil being sent to a school in eastern Zimbabwe was hijacked by security forces and then passed out to Mugabe backers at a pro-government rally.

It takes a soulless motherfucker to steal food from hungry kids for political gain. That is just low.

What he said

In today's Times, Paul Krugman does a far better job making the point I was getting at Wednesday, namely that food safety should not be an ideological issue.

Fox News Alert: Fox News Run By Racist Assholes

Shocking, I know but in the past couple of weeks they’ve had E.D Hill refer to Michelle and Barack Obama’s fist pound as a “terrorist fist jab” [Ed. Note - WFT does that mean anyway?], Bill O’Reilly essentially state that public nudity is an “inner city” (read black) value, and the cu de gras, the network’s multiple references to Michelle Obama, a Princeton educated lawyer, mind you, as Barack’s “Baby Mama”. That is quite the trifecta of bigotry, fear-mongering, and general sophomoric assholedom.

I just wish that Roger Ailes would drop the “Fair and Balanced” pretense and change all of the studio backgrounds to a looped montage of burning crosses, the LA riots, police hosing down protesters, and a fluttering Confederate flag.

The theme for 2008

W is hugely, massively, and undeniably unpopular. He is, in fact, the Worst. President. Ever. The numbers do not lie. If I was a Republican candidate in this cycle, that downward trend line would send shivers down my spine. Or as Tom Toles put it:

The Constitution still matters

From HuffPo:

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that foreign terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay have rights under the Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

The justices handed the Bush administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The vote was 5-4, with the court's liberal justices in the majority.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, said, "The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times."

Damn straight and good on Kennedy for siding with the good guys this time.

Oh boy did McCain screw up

You can bet this will be in an ad before long.

Sen. John McCain appeared on the Today Show this morning and continued to promote his idea of a long occupation in Iraq. But whatever merits there may be for his message, his delivery is once again promising to get him into trouble.

When asked if he knew when American troops could start to return home, McCain responded:
"No, but that's not too important. What's important is the casualties in Iraq."

Now that is what I call mavericky! Seriously, if I was running his campaign, I would consider not allowing him to speak publicly again.

And now it is tomatoes

One would think that with the recent rash of food poisoning cases the FDA would do its level best to fix the rather obvious problems with the inspection system. Alas, that would be a losing bet.

At a news conference, Mr. Leavitt said he “would like to once again strongly urge Congress to act quickly to enhance the safety of food and medical products,” comments that angered some in Congress, including Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Specter said that administration delays in seeking money for food protection efforts at the food and drug agency amounted to “criminal negligence.”

“The failure to have these inspections is subjecting people to bodily injury and death,” said Mr. Specter, who sent a letter to Mr. Leavitt on Tuesday insisting that the additional money for the F.D.A. should be included in a supplemental request this year, not in next year’s budget.
Food-safety advocates criticized what they said was the government’s inaction in preventing outbreaks of food poisoning.

“How many times does this have to happen before F.D.A. gets serious about food safety?” asked Sarah Klein, a staff lawyer at the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

Klein is asking the wrong question. The right question is: who should run the FDA so that it can get serious about food safety? Look, I know this will sound repetitive but when the Party that controls the Executive Branch is more interested deregulation than actually performing its proscribed duties, failures of this nature will continue, be it in FEMA, the FDA, the VA medical system, etc.

In general, the GOP takes as gospel the notion that government is the problem. As such, they have very little interest in seeing government provide solutions that serve the commonweal. When government programs succeed, that success undermines the very bedrock of modern conservatism and contradicts the notion that we must fear the Federal boogeyman. Put another way, when one believes that government is the problem that belief very easily slips into self-fulfilling prophecy. Hence we have a Food and Drug Administration incapable of executing its mission. What we need is new leadership.

Good news if true

Thomas Friedman is among the most egregious Iraq War cheerleaders/Bush apologists in the current punditocracy and as such, I generally take his Times column for a grain of salt. I mean really, if you are that wrong about the single biggest foreign policy decision of the last 20 years and then consistently make excuses for that misjudgment, how freaking credible can you be?

So with that caveat, his piece today on how Obama’s nomination has changed for the better the perception of America in the Muslim world is really quite heartening. Again, I am talking about Friedman, a man who possesses a pair of rose-colored glasses second to none, so this may be entirely bullshit. But if his observations are correct, then I find it reassuring that the Bush Years have not fucked up irredeemably our national reputation.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Democrats’ nomination of Obama as their candidate for president has done more to improve America’s image abroad — an image dented by the Iraq war, President Bush’s invocation of a post-9/11 “crusade,” Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and the xenophobic opposition to Dubai Ports World managing U.S. harbors — than the entire Bush public diplomacy effort for seven years.

[Snip]

Yes, all of this Obama-mania is excessive and will inevitably be punctured should he win the presidency and start making tough calls or big mistakes. For now, though, what it reveals is how much many foreigners, after all the acrimony of the Bush years, still hunger for the “idea of America” — this open, optimistic, and, indeed, revolutionary, place so radically different from their own societies.

In his history of 19th-century America, “What Hath God Wrought,” Daniel Walker Howe quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson as telling a meeting of the Mercantile Library Association in 1844 that “America is the country of the future. It is a country of beginnings, of projects, of vast designs and expectations.”

That’s the America that got swallowed by the war on terrorism. And it’s the America that many people want back. I have no idea whether Obama will win in November. Whether he does or doesn’t, though, the mere fact of his nomination has done something very important. We’ve surprised ourselves and surprised the world and, in so doing, reminded everyone that we are still a country of new beginnings.

And boy do we need a new beginning...

Now that is some high quality mocking

It is one thing to be derisive of John McCain but laying into him on his own website is just fucking beautiful.

My personal favorite: “I’m voting for the black guy”. Perfect.

These trips rarely turn out well

George Bush is on his farewell tour of Europe [Ed. Note – Thank God]. It goes without saying that this will be anything but a victory lap.

PARIS - Leaders will bid a polite but tear-free farewell to George W. Bush in his valedictory tour of Europe this week, looking beyond his ebbing presidency and to his successor.

The most disliked President in the history of United States-European relations will kick off his eight-day trip at a summit tomorrow and Wednesday with leaders of the 27-nation European Union in Slovenia.

Yeah, there is not much more to add to that other than I hope he can at least keep himself for manhandling Angela Merkel.

More of this please

Something that every Democratic candidate for office needs to do is wrap their incumbent opponents in the banner of the Bush Presidency. The Republicans made this bed; time to make them lay in it.

With many voters blaming Bush for the economic woes, Republican candidates for federal and state offices are scrambling to distance themselves from the bad news without abandoning core principles such as low taxes and modest government intervention in activities like banking and lending.

Democrats are trying to cut off any escape routes.

[Snip]

Obama criticized McCain for originally opposing Bush's first-term tax cuts but now supporting their continuation. He said he would place a windfall profits tax on oil companies while McCain would reduce their taxes.

"At a time when we're fighting two wars, when millions of Americans can't afford their medical bills or their tuition bills, when we're paying more than $4 a gallon for gas, the man who rails against government spending wants to spend $1.2 billion on a tax break for Exxon Mobil," Obama said. "That isn't just irresponsible. It's outrageous."

Ladies and gentlemen, that is how you do it.

The truth about zombies

I have long been a fan of the zombie movie genre, a fact to which Lo can no doubt bear witness. Seriously, when it comes to watching any of the “Living Dead” films, how many times is too many? If you are like me and answer Infinity to that question, you must read this interview with the Godfather of Cellulosic Zombification, the great George Romero. And for what it is worth, according to the man, zombies cannot run.

“Their ankles would break,” is Romero’s stand. “It doesn’t make sense to me.

That is indeed very good news.

Well done

I watched a good bit of Hillary’s concession speech and I think she hit exactly the right tone. I was fully prepared for her to throw out the victim card and bitch about her treatment in the media but she handled it with grace, class and decency, noting the historic nature of her run, calling for party unity, and endorsing Barack Obama without reserve (transcript here).

So hats off to Mrs. Clinton. What she did was not easy but it was right and good.

Unless Delay proves me wrong, he is a criminal

Tom “the asshole from Sugarland” Delay took time out from his busy schedule of fighting off a prison sentence to slander Barack Obama. From the Hill:

Explaining that Obama clinching the Democratic nomination is a good thing for John McCain, DeLay said Obama's "weakness" is that "nobody knows him."

"And if McCain does not define him as what he is — hey, I have said publicly, and I will again, that unless he proves me wrong, he is a Marxist," DeLay said.

The radio host agreed with DeLay, who is facing money laundering charges, saying Obama is "desperately trying to cover up what seems to be the kind of old school Marxist radical liberal failed ideology."

"Absolutely," DeLay said. "No doubt about it."

Uh-huh. So Obama is not only the Muslim Manchurian candidate but a closet Commie as well? Well, OK then.

A fun night out

Lo and I attended a taping of Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me last night and it was a riot. If you have the opportunity to see the show live, I highly recommend it. Peter Sagal is truly hysterical and Carl Kasell is quite spry for a 70-something year old; when he ran onto the stage (I say again, ran), I could not believe he was moving that fast. Laughter must keep one young.

And laugh we did. When Tom Bodett described an astronaut as “hittable” and Senator Webb declared his desire to “return beer and tattoos to the Democratic Party”, well that is good comedy people.

Virginia’s 2nd could get interesting

I have to admit that I have a bit more personal bias in this race than most because I went to school with Glenn Nye, the Democratic candidate. Though I haven’t seen him in years, I remember him to be a great guy, always pleasant and decent to everyone. That he spent the intervening years trying to save the world, one development project at a time in some really nasty spots, tells me he is enormously qualified to replace reactionary conservative Thelma Drake. And it looks like the district might be getting that message too.

“Glenn Nye is a unique fit for a unique district in a year of change and this change shows that even political pundits in Washington are recognizing this,” said Rick Fromberg, Nye’s campaign manager. “Glenn Nye is an independent problem solver who will work for solutions to the challenges we face and provide real leadership to change the partisanship and bickering in Washington.”

The demographics of the district and other races in November also factor heavily into the change. “Obama's position at the top of the ticket is likely to increase this percentage substantially,” Wasserman wrote. “Throw in popular Democratic Senate nominee Mark Warner's position directly above Nye on the ballot, and this race becomes an even more plausible GOP trouble spot.” (Cook Political Report, 6/5/08)

In 2008, we have great shot at turning Virginia blue.

That is called knowing your base

Josh Marshall posted this over at TPM and I cribbed it shamelessly and in its entirety.

Golf We Can Believe In
After McCain's Tuesday night prebuttal speech trainwreck I was afraid he might keep going with no discernible message and just a lot of imagery and themes stressing age, being part of yesterday and generally being completely out of touch. But boy was I wrong. Here's a screen capture of the front page of McCain's website as of 3:55 PM this afternoon with the four tabs across the top apparently signaling McCain's top four agenda items ...

The Obama campaign needs to keep this in their back pocket when the charges of “elitism” pop up (which they most assuredly will BTW). And for those interested, I understand that the McCain 2008 themed Polo uniforms will be available some time next week.

Election news

The WaPo has a great piece up on responses to Obama’s victory.

Hillary will drop out Saturday and endorse Obama.

Howie Kurtz reports on the feedback to Tuesday’s big speechs and the verdicts are as follows.
Obama was marvelous. Clinton was needlessly gauche. McCain oratory achieved near absolute suckitude – really, it was that bad.

This is what history sounds like

The speech.




Last night was just an extraordinary moment for our nation.

Obama wins

Even more fun than that was contrasting McCain’s speech with Obama’s. Saint John stood before an ugly green background and a couple hundred tepid supports, dryly laying into Obama’s “Change” message, with each jab punctuated with his crowd’s boos. Dear God, it was bad. He was hectoring, angry, and frankly, downright bitchy. His acidic rant concluded with audience feebly chanting “John McCain” with all the heart of near hopeless football fans staring at the scoreboard, down by 30 with 4 minutes to go, as their quarterback trudged out to the huddle. How very uplifting…

Obama, on the other hand, led a raucous crowd of 30,000 on a rhetorical rollercoaster full of hope, promise, and optimism, at the very venue in which McCain will become the GOP nominee this summer. It was awesome; he was awesome and owned their house. It was truly one of the most energetic and charismatic performances I have seen in quite some time. By the end of the speech, everyone was on their feet, clapping, whooping, and chanting “YES. WE. CAN.”

Oh Hell Yes. Yes we can.

Florida crackers fly their flag high

Just because one can do something doesn’t mean one should.

The i's are dotted, t's are crossed and a 139-foot flagpole is ready to fly the Stars and Bars over one of the busiest highway interchanges in Florida.

The Sons of Confederate Veterans in Tampa plan soon to raise what they claim is the world's largest Confederate flag on a private triangle of land tucked near where Interstates 75 and 4 meet. The flag measures 50 feet by 30 feet.

I don’t know about you but to me, nothing says “Welcome to the Sunshine State” like 1,500 square feet of fluttering racial agitation. I will bet that when the Florida Commission on Tourism found out about this little plan, the whole lot had to be put on suicide watch.

Road trip

Lo and I spent the weekend at a wedding in Indianapolis (Hurray Matt and Beth!) and I must say that I really enjoyed our short time in the city. The people are friendly (true to that Midwestern stereotype) and the city is clean, attractive, and pretty navigable. I particularly enjoyed the Ratskeller, a HUGE German bar/restaurant/beer garden. So if you happen to find yourself in Indy with some time to kill, you ought to check it out.

P.S. - it also helps if one is accompanied by two dozen friends, all intent on having a 48 hour bender of epic proportions. By Sunday morning, my liver was ready to abandon ship.

Good news

Ted Kennedy is recovering well from brain surgery. That is obviously a very good thing but I must add that I was taken aback to learn that he was awake during the operation. Yikes! Be it known to everyone, if you are going to cut open my head, knock my ass out first please. OK, thanks.

The end is (finally) nigh

From the Note:

The Clinton era in Democratic politics comes to an end on Tuesday -- and the only question left is how Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton chooses to acknowledge it.

I have no gut feeling what she is going to do but I hope she takes the high road and exits gracefully.