Our team

I love it when we're the ones who can speculate about our Dream Team Cabinet. As for who will run the show at Labor...

• Former Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.)
• Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union
• Kay Hagan of North Carolina
• Jeanne Shaheen, former New Hampshire governor

As of right now, I see one and only one politically acceptable name for this post. Et tu?

Wall of shame

It's no surprise that social networking sites allow millions of individuals to put their jackassitude on display, but unless you're "friends" with these people (for some odd reason), their stupidity probably goes unnoticed by you.

Fortunately, said social networking sites also provide the tools for public shaming. And this bunch particularly deserves it.

Now, can we put the "post-racial" rhetoric to rest and honestly confront this nation's racial problems?

Am I Wrong Here?

I am being deluged with calls to hold Obama's "feet to the fire." With some exceptions, I didn't recall the people sending these missives being big Obama supporters in the first place. They are pissing me off already. This is why I have a blog, to spew about people that piss me off.

One, if you didn't support Obama because he wasn't "radical" or "progressive" or "leftist" enough for you, where do you get off attempting to hold his feet to anything? If you didn't support him, you're opposition. He has no more obligation to listen to you than he has to listen to Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich. You decided long ago that Obama was not the man for you. Guess what? He's still not the man for you. You can keep right on criticizing him for being a centrist sell-out, but you have no right to speak as if he owes you something. If you want to hold someone's feet to the fire, how 'bout you turn to your man Nadar and remind him that even though he is the most awesomist American evah!, that still doesn't give him the right to use racial slurs in the direction of our newly-elected black president.

Two, can you allow for the possibility that Obama is appointing people that he doesn't necessarily agree with? That he has no interest in surrounding himself with "yes" people? The he has some political debts he has to pay back and he's doing so by appointing big name friends of friends who may have little influence over him? If there is one thing Obama is, it is confident in what he is doing. How many times during that race did you doubt that he made the right move?

I remember at the end of the second debate where McCain, unprompted, launched into a closing where he touted his lifetime of service to America and his humble desire to keep on serving. Obama, awkwardly, went with being the son of a Kenyan immigrant, raised by his grandmother in Hawaii, etc. I was thinking, "No, no, no! Be All-American, emphasize your love of the flag, and that your dreams are the same as Joe the Plumbers'." I was wrong, he was right, and I was remind (when I shouldn't have to be) that his story is just as American as McCain's or Joe's.

Obama ran this campaign well. He ran as himself. I have no doubt that's exactly how he'll govern. As everyone has said, he'll make decisions and advance policies that we disagree with. He can't please everyone. Lord knows the progressive faction ain't exactly in agreement over EFCA and Big Labor ain't exactly the most progressive aspect of the Dem coalition.

Which is to say that before we go crying "Betrayal!" maybe we should wait for the man to actually "betray" us. I don't recall him promising to put together the most progressive transition team in the history of transition teams. Jesus, he turned nine Bush states blue, does that not earn him three fucking days of credibility?

More News You Already Knew

You can try to convince me otherwise, but I am seriously convinced that the Beastie Boys were on drugs when they made Check Your Head.

In other election news

True Blue, Baby!

It's official: We turned NC blue!

I am speechless.

(By the way, political junkie + newly-discovered battleground state = heaven. Best. election. ever.)

Woo hoo!

Oh Yes, Please God, Make It Happen

We're reading everywhere about Republicans returning to core principles of "small government" and "self-reliance." I hope to hell this is exactly what they do. In a time of (potential) global economic meltdown, I hope the Republicans return to their blame-the-victim ways.

I want to hear them tell the woman who was laid-off from her job that it's her fault that her company couldn't get a short-term loan to make payroll. I want them to keep decrying unemployment benefits. I want them to keep upholding Wal-Mart jobs and E-Bay profits as the solution to all our problems.

I want them to tell the family that is losing its home that it is their fault and they will have to make do. No "government handouts" for them, they would only destroy their will to achieve.

I hope that the 47 million or so people that will have brand-new government-backed health insurance keep hearing the GOP message that this is a horrible thing, and, worse yet, socialism!

In a time when people will be flocking to colleges and universities, I want the GOP voting against Pell Grants and touting the private sector loan system, which will be broken and unworkable, but better than the government paying someone to become a more productive citizen.

Speaking of education, I read somewhere (sorry), that given the huge number of young people that voted for Obama, it was time for the wingnuts to really crack down on the Marxist professors. Oh please, please do. Because, again, in a time of global financial panic, what people will want to hear about is the guy who got an F on his term paper because he was supposed to write about the causes of the Holocaust, but instead chose to write about the holocaust that is abortion.

Somehow, these crazy mofos have it in their head that people voted for Obama because McCain ran as a liberal. Please, let them return to core principles. (For now) The people have caught on and I believe that the words solidarity and brotherhood are about to have a rebirth.

Classic Seasonville

Fuck you, Ralph Nader

Seriously. Fuck you.

(via LGM)

What circular firing squads look like from the outside

Get the popcorn ready, because the GOP implosion is just beginning. The first order of business, it would seem, is to torpedo any possibility of Sarah Palin having a shot at national office. This morning we saw wardrobegate become more embarrassing, and now FOX (of all networks) airs this report:



And there's more to come.

While I'm certainly going to enjoy the show, it only increases my anger towards the conservative movement. It looks like Palin's dangerous lack of qualifications was an open secret in right-wing camps, and they didn't fucking care except to make her the first to take the fall. Fucking appalling.

Taking Their Time

Not sure why the vote count is so slow in Multnomah and Lane counties (Portland and Eugene), but with 70% or so of the vote counted in those two counties, Merkley has finally moved ahead of Smith. Right now it's by a few hundred votes, but with more than 125K left to count in Portland, where Merkley is winning 3-to-1, he should pull well ahead.

Measure 64 continues to pass. It is up by 15K or so, down from 25K earlier in the day. I'm not sure were going to make this one.

It's Not Over Yet

Why am I up at 8 in the morning? Because there's a Senate race still up in the air I can't sleep with that shit going down.

Oregon Live seems to have most up-to-date results.

From what I can gather, Lane county (home to Eugene) had a major glitch last night and only 33% or so of the ballots have been counted. They are also way behind on counting ballots in the Portland and Corvallis areas, so Merkley should pick up major votes there, but Smith is still ahead.

I am assuming that as Merkley goes, so goes Measure 64. It was passing last night, but should go down as blue ballots are counted.

I should also mention that the mayor's race Eugene is still up in the air, as is a very important bond for Lane Community College.

More later, surely.

[UPDATE]: Looks like the Minnesota Senate race will go into December. Sorry, Jen.

Back to work kids

Step one: Sweep the Dems into office. Boom.

Step two: Keep George Bush from burning down the house on his way out.

Step three: Get to work fixing the mess our country is in.

We're off to an awesome start. Now comes the hard part.

Liveblogging the Election

LA county is estimating 80% turnout...OC not so much.

BO just won PA... what is next?

VA too close to call...

The OG's Word Cloud for October

h/t Jason

created with wordle

There's Good Taste, Then There's NJ

Jeepers, nobody's closed any polls anywhere, but already the NJ pols are yelling out random names for US attorney. What is this, a cartoon?

The Red Guard

We in Eugene like to argue about whether or not the Register Guard, our locally-owned newspaper leans liberal -- The Red Guard, or conservative -- The Register Greed. It's one of those things that keeps this town lively and provincial.

To tell the God's honest, the Guard is pretty liberal in the opinion section. Only their complete and total anti-union stance keeps the argument alive. Every now and again, however, the newspage throws something out there that is so biased for Republicans, I am forced to go with the Greed crowd (greed is good, no?).

Today's front page had a blurb about Palin being cleared in the ethics probe in Alaska. Now, you and I know that the Personnel Board investigation was a sham put on by Sarah's own people to clear her of wrong doing, but the blurb gives no hint of that. The article itself is amazing. Check out the original article from the AP, then read the RG's "edited" version.

Palin cleared in ethics probe

ANCHORAGE, Alaska –

Gov. Sarah Palin violated no ethics laws when she fired her public saftey commissioner, the state personnel board concluded in a report.

"There is no probable cause to believe that the governor, or any other state official, violated the Alaska Executive Ethics Act in connection with these matters," the personnel board's report said.

"Gov. Palin is pleased that the independent investigator for the personnel board has concluded that she acted properly in the reassignment of Public Saftey Commissioner Walt Monegan," her attorney, Thomas Van Flein, said in a statement.

An earlier, separate investigation by the Legislature found that Palin had abused her office.

Monegan said he felt pressure from Palin, her husband and her staff to fire a state trooper who had gone through a contentious divorce from Palin's sister. Palin denied the claim and said Monegan was fired in July because she wanted the department to head in a new direction.

Monegan said he was "perplexed and disappointed" by the latest report. It was prepared by Timothy Petumenos, an independent investigator for the Alaska Personnel Board.

"It conflicts with the first investigation and then casts doubts on both of them. So, it doesn't really resolve anything," he said.

Red Guard, indeed.

I Felt the Same Way About Wham!

In an otherwise banal editorial decrying sexism and fantasy in rap lyrics, Daily Emerald author Natasha Martin concludes with this mind-blowing sentence:

If people continue to listen to and use this music carelessly, I'm frightened that future generations will entirely wipe out real meaning in music.

just thinking aloud

shouldn't we all be a little dismayed by the preponderance of logistical mishaps with the early voting (i.e., people having to wait in long and time-consuming lines?) why don't we have the infrastructure in place to handle 100% voter turnout? i mean, couldn't we put a bunch of people to work constructing electoral infrastructure? it'd like, encourage participatory democracy and crap.

evil r + b guy could hang weird "murals," and in return be paid $47,500.

Surrogates

(via tbogg)

What I deduced from empirical evidence today

Martinique, apparently, does not observe the temporal strictures of Daylight Savings Time.

Prisonship Self-Cleaning Survey Module (c)

The "Say Something Nice About Led Zep" edition.

The other nite, Dave3544 questioned my loyalty to the albums of Led Zeppelin. I mean, jeepers!

Let's all take a moment to mention something specific we love about the boys.

For me, I'll mention "Dancing Days." It's so, so weird. The Jimmy Page gtr melody is so, so weird. It's total DC math-rock at points. What a weird, awesome song. Led Zep!

PrisonShip Self-Cleaning Survey Module: Name Yr Subs!

Let's talk periodicals!

Name 5 such publications that yr household subscribes too.

I'll start:
1) The American Prospect
2) The New Left Review
3) Baseball Digest (!)
4) Anthropology of Work Review (snore!)
5) Artforum

(I wish I could mention Backstreets, the official fan publication of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band; however, I let that sub elapse when Bruce put out that fucking Pete Seeger alb. I mean, who the fuck cares, am I right? And didn't Pete Seeger name names in the Party when the heat came down? That's how Tom Scharpling tells it.)

Makes Me Proud

Avi Zenilman and Ben Smith give credit where credit is due, to the "older, industrial unions" that have, in their opinions, actually answered Obama's call for dialogue about race in the USA. I've over-ranted about this aspect of "Labor 2008" already, but the fact is that it's a welcome galldarned thing.