Right About Now Let's Ketchup Horn

I'm in a baaaaaaad mood this morning, and thinking I'll take it out on the political news over my cereal bowl and my goddamned motherfucking coffee cup. That's right, I'm breakfasting at 11:40! Let's go round l'horn:

The Public Option Lives. Wow. | The New Republic
People Power Matters: The Public Option Lives! - CEPR
Ezra Klein - An interview with Sen. Sherrod Brown: 'Reid listened to his senators'
Well, shit. Look at this! For once, popular opinion seems to've trumped Senate slowdown rules, and progressives have leveraged the fraid-y cats and conservatives in their Dem-caucus!

[Of course there's still a long way to go, blah-blah-blah etc. Of course this isn't a single payer plan, blah-blah-blah etc.] Myself, I still take solace in the actual people having actual access to care, and, shit, the evidence that the ostensibly pro-government party is demonstrating that it actually can govern. That's enough to please Foucault and Chris Matthews, people. How about you?

BEGIN SPECIAL 'ELECTIONS' HORN W/I A HORN.
NY-23 race first test of tea party power - Alex Isenstadt - POLITICO.com
I am fizzassinated by this most truly overdetermined congressional election facing voters in NY, the home of fusion voting. So far, Palin, Pawlenty, Fred Thompson and others have endorsed a 3rd Party, Tea Party-induced conservative against the incumbent Republican Dede Scozzafava. Noted moderate Republican (and presumed 2012 chasepack-er) Newt Gingrich has thrown his "reasonable man" weight behind Scozzafava, saying "“If you seek to be a perfect minority, you’ll remain a minority.” I will be watching, and watching close, as these conservatives eat each other's young -- mebbe, just mebbe, allowing the Dem challenger to win the seat for the first time since 1850! Boom!

The Nasty Battle Between Chris Christie and Jon Corzine in the New Jersey Governor's Race -- New York Magazine
Alright listen, if you know me, and if you're going to know me over the next coupla days, you could do worse than to check this well-written survey of the filth-swamp that is NJ politics, and the particularly nasty terrain this election seem's to have staked out for a staging area.

"We" must root for Corzine, without ever really identifying with him - that's politics, chaps and ladies! The incumbent Dem gov KNOWS his own vote has topped out at btw 42-44%, and, thus, that he'll need to a) continue nasty, gnarly, often petty attacks against his GOP adversary Chris Christie, and b) boost the third-party candidacy of one Chris Daggett.

New Jersey is all about this sorta "better to win ugly than lose pretty" ethos, and its Democratic organization is as good at winning as it is, well, very fugging ugly. Corzine is inside of 10% down with a week to go. Can he make it happen?

Tax measure vote deserves civil debate | statesmanjournal.com | Statesman Journal
Welcome to my personal apocalypse, the subject of my dissertation and the symbol of my discontent. This soft editorial summarizes the two sides battlings over Measures 66&67, so you can jump in and join a fella!
END SPECIAL 'ELECTIONS' HORN W/I A HORN.

News: Organized Against Labor - Inside Higher Ed
Teachers' unions uneasy with President Barack Obama - Nia-Malika Henderson - POLITICO.com
Fed up with McEntee - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com
Meanwhile, executives of the bourgeoisie continue to hate them unions!

Mark Sanford on Ayn Rand | Newsweek Books
Seriously?

Lex Dexter Thinks the Teevee's Funny Horn

Just cuz you don't understand what I'm saying, 'doesn't mean I'm cool, okay? For example, I'm right now wearing a button-down blue oxford shirt - symbol of everything unholy to me throughout my entire life - and laughing, enjoying the sight of my uncool, workaday dork-self (note: not enjoying face, teeth, bag-of-baloons torso.) To further this thesis of mine - Lex as big old dork - I would like to riff semi-endlessly and nerdily about the television, which all you mountain biking Ben Harper fans know to be the least cool medium in the world. I watch television every day.

1. Last night was "put up or shut up" time for Bored to Death AND the Cleveland Show. BTD is just a little bit too "2008" for me to handle, notwithstanding the always soothing presence of Zack Galifianakis....It's cool that they've got Ted Danson/"Sam Malone" experimenting with male prostitutes, and it's cool that Zack G's tummy is broader and denser than mine, but I'm not sure I care enough to regularly turn off Sunday nite Tortoise records in order to watch this thing seriously. Also, the show suffers from its lack of significant female characters. (No -- I'm not filthily calling for landscapes of ironically-lingerie-d Chloe Sevignys: I'm dead serious here.) Also, I should acknowledge a latent bias against Jason Schwartzman, who instantly reminds me of Rushmore and Wes Anderson. (Let me speak for the culture-at-large when I say, we've all had enough of Rushmore and Wes Anderson: it's "too much of a good thing," just like Portland and Brooklyn seem sometimes. See what I mean when I say "2008"? Here we are in Brooklyn, with Schwartzman as a witty, white wine-drinking, pomo private eye.)
   
2. Like Family Guy, The Cleveland Show foists all sorts of non sequitur side-bits onto hollow plot points, but has a very high slugging average when it comes to taking half-verboten topics or unexamined media worship and "hitting 'em outta the park." If I see the reruns on the Cartoon Network some night, or if I never see these Cleveland episodes ever at all....well, that's fine. Again, my Sunday nights are trending in the "listen to records" direction. And that's, well, fine.
   
3. Cult Month on MSNBC Did I ever tell y'all how I took a class on the Millennium in the Fall of 1999? It was a blast, and the place I learned about cargo cults, Derrida, eschatology, etc., for the first time. Last night I tuned in to Witness to Waco mostly because it reminded me of hanging out with my girlfriend the previous weekend with the tv in the background. But, as was the case last week with Witness to Jonestown, I was impressed by the reporting and filmmaking going on. (When I say "impressed," I am talking about impressions relative to lowered expectations we all no doubt bring to cable broadcasts.) Despite MSNBC's predilection for "true crime" blah-blah-blah, "Cult Month" has so far featured both specific authors and more generally academic documentary viewpoints than I first encountered in that Millennium class from oh-so-many knife hits and milkshakes ago.
   
4. Vincent D'Onofrio exiting 'Criminal Intent' Law and Order: CI is my favorite of the Law and Order franchise and, since we lost the superior (in every way) Wire, my favorite police-ish thing on tv. At this point, D'Onofrio has employed every affect possible to make his reoccurring Sherlock Holmes qua Joe Friday character interesting, and for the last coupla seasons has been wandering around in a late-period-Orson-Welles kinda stupor. Thus his leaving is probably for the best, although the departures of the show's two supporting actresses, Kathryn Erbe and Julianne Nicholson, is more disappointing, because they both could have enjoyed the foregrounding that coulda/shoulda come after D'Onofrio's exit. [And alas, we're losing Eric Bogosian, too?!? I appreciated having one person on the cast with whom we could play "6 degrees of Sonic Youth."] Only now does the Jeff Goldblum era begin in full swing, I suppose.
   
5. Over the course of a very transgressive Thursday nite, 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation treated us to two timely, topical, satirical episodes involving labor unrest on one hand, and Chavez/Venezuela on the other. I am a sucker for Parks and Recreation -- not just because it's funny, not just because it has Aziz Ansari from the funny/not funny Funny People, and not just because it involves at least a coupla public employee gags per episode. I'm also a sucker because I am biased towards Amy Poehler and the Upright Citizens Brigade crowd as I am biased away from Wes Anderson.
   
6. 30 Rock Review: "Season 4" (Episode 4.1) :In what way is Tina Fey not an icon for our times? Everybody watches this show, right?
   
7. As I've mentioned so often on le twtr, Sons of Anarchy is probably the worst program that I find it in my heart to watch on a weekly basis. It is professional wrestling-style dude-writing with Hamlet pretensions, and features regular gun battles, and now, this season, white supremacists. Season 2 got off to a "why the fuck am I watching this?" start when Katey Segal/"Peg Bundy"/"Gertrude" was raped by Henry Rollins, who wore a Micheal Meyers mask. Thank you, FX network, for helping me remind myself that in addition to being an uncool dork, I still appreciate "hard R" renditions of Die Hard 2 played out with motorbikes and leather. Help me!
8. I also watch political news programming on cable. Have I mentioned that before?
9. I also watch television programmes on digital video disc. Most recently, I have been speeding through the first two seasons of Weeds, which remind me a lot of what it's like to be a solipsistic but well-meaning young grownup beset by the slings and arrows of family life. (The show is about marijuana sometimes, blah-blah-blah.) Way more than the shitty-shitty-shitty American Beauty, Weeds talks about exurban anomie in a non-judgmental way that is comic but not unserious. I am a Mary-Louise Parker fan since seeing her in Proof on Broadway, and her unassumingly great performance here underscores her being not just a great actress but most likely a cool dorky person to know.
10. Of course, the only reason I need fill myself with all of this other television programming is because the DVD gods have yet to release Dynasty Season 5 for my home library. It is the pinnacle of something, who cares what.
    
11. What kind of television do you watch on tv?
    

Horn of Chasepack(s) -- Then and Now

Romney Praises Tea Partiers At Values Voter Summit - Hotline On Call
Huck's win - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com
Ah, these two little-bitty anecdotes are nice gestures in the direction of the inevitable. Be it sooner, later, or whenever: the blithely anti-government, anti-politics, anti-politician Tea Party movement is going to be pressured back into a) electoral politics, b) candidate-based activism and, c) the (impossible) necessity of sullying themselves with the businesses of governing and government.

The WWE wing of the GOP? - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com
Linda McMahon Has Some Talent Working For Her - The Atlantic Politics Channel
No, seriously, Linda McMahon -- WWE co-founder, spouse of the ever-annoying Vince McMahon -- is entering the Republican primary to dance with (ultimate chasepack legend) Chris Dodd. See below for a true, true, too-true summation of McMahon's prospects that amounts ever-so-pleasantly to a textbook example of damning-with-faint-praise:

"At some level it's not a surprise that someone with a lot of money who is bored in her job would run," said Roy Occhiogrosso, a veteran Democratic strategist and Dodd supporter. "It certainly lends itself to all kinds of interesting metaphors."

ALL THIS (and more) Happened Horn

Works Cited:
Rick Perlstein -- Birthers, Health Care Hecklers and the Rise of Right-Wing Rage - washingtonpost.com

Sam Tanenhaus on the Death of Conservatism | Newsweek National News | Newsweek.com

Greetings from the Nuclear Burn Zone

Business School Horn

EzraKlein Archive | Those Scary Union Organizers
Hipster's Complaint | Culture | The American Scene
Q & A with Alyssa Picard - The Boston Globe

Personal Health - High- Functioning, but Still Alcoholics - NYTimes.com
Wilco's Jeff Tweedy Responds to Jay Bennett Lawsuit :: Music News :: Articles :: Paste
Disgraced John Edwards back in the spotlight - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com

Start Making Sense: The Obama Administration's new international tax proposals
Obama Dines With Economic Critics - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com
The Health-Care Talks: Will Obama Get More Involved? - TIME

Twilley/Seymour Sunday Horn

Robert Kuttner: Obama's Banking Rescue: O for Opaque
Obama Officials Think Krugman Is Naive: Newsweek's Evan Thomas
Frank Schaeffer: The Krugman/Limbaugh Nightmare: President Obama Might Succeed

Well, the story of my wk is pretty much a) Dwight Twilley doing 'Looking for the Magic' and b) my rapidly-deflating faith in the Obama administration's ability to get us outta this mucky political economy-y quagmire. You?

Oxdown Gazette » Shorter Elizabeth Warren: Timothy Geithner, WTF?
We're Still Getting Screwed: Geithner Plan Will Make the Rich Richer! | Dean Baker
Dean Baker, "Unemployment Jumps to 8.5 Percent, Economy Sheds 663,000 Jobs"
Bankruptcy Would Be Tinkering Around the Edges of Detroit's Problems

No, seriously...I think we're very effed here.

Benjamin Dangl and Michael Fox, "Beyond Elections in the Americas: An Interview with Michael Fox"
Reid to liberals: Back off - Manu Raju - POLITICO.com
Van Hollen asks liberal groups to lay off - Alex Isenstadt - POLITICO.com

Better look elsewhere for some inspiration, because there's nothing about Evan Bayh that's ever going to get you too hot/heavy. At the same time, it's apparently very important that all we 'liberals' remember that anything that upsets Harry Reid's re-election plans is terrorism, indeed.

Salute Your Shorts: Godard, Truffaut and A Story of Water :: Paste
L'arrivée d' Sylvia Kristel
Badiou-101-for-the-rcpusa
On The Idea Of Communism: Badiou On Politics, Economy And The State « Kasama
The US maoists are reading Badiou, eh?

"With malice for being a sty:" Listening to Spiderland Horn

Clinton Pessimistic on Iran Outreach - washingtonpost.com
I was once a young man with squarely chopped locks. I was once an older man who sung about myself as a younger man. What's your bleeping provenance?

New spin on vinyl: Bundled MP3s - Mar. 2, 2009
Sometimes I think that the combination of bundled mp3s and the new Administration is enough to make 2009 one promising sunovabitch. Sometimes I stay out late and slippy-dip with the lads in the lanes.

Firedoglake » Things Rahm Left Out Of His Love Note To Himself
The Limits of a "3 Minute Rahm" in Obama's Kitchen Cabinet - The Washington Note
Are you an activist or an operator? Have you ever heard of the Tuxedo Killer, who would periodically require his victims to say "I love you" if they were to be afforded a merciful evisceration?

Very Few Small Business Owners Would Face Tax Increases Under President's Budget
I should start a distro operation that specializes in 7"s from 1990-1998, if only to honor this here lax tax.

NPA, "Let's Do It, like the Workers of Guadeloupe and Martinique!"
Once I heard a Castro-ite (?!?) from Dominica and an evangelical/black nationalist/Trot trade unionist from Guadeloupe debate whether I was an angel or just a "young man." This was next door to a barbed wire-d Club Med.
‘Socialism!’ Boo, Hiss, Repeat - NYTimes.com
Socialism is the new socialism, kids. Take the good with the bad: an exotic political desire called 'socialism' lives on, even in mainstream US newspapers. But it does so in the shape of an unconvincing, Hollywood movie shark.

No, I Will Not Perish (yet) Horn

Ben Smith's Blog: Anuzis joins campaign against EFCA - POLITICO.com
SEIU head fights to merge labor unions - Ben Smith - Politico.com

Indeed, the anti-EFCA campaign is turning into something close to a full employment project for Republicans in exile. They were also giving away a Wii at CPAC yesterday.

Punditry: re the labor movement paints us as intrinsically tied to the electoral/legislative process and thus "special interest"-y...Maybe that's appropriate? We should ask Dave "I was born a Democrat and I'll die a Democrat" 3544 about this some time.

Slowcore Week: Slint and Codeine - a shared musical language? / In Depth // Drowned In Sound Pukekos: Codeine

Okay, in its matter-of-fact way, this is some of the best writing about Slint that I've read. Indeed, some of the speculation about possible Slint influences even kinda makes sense: Ubu, late Birthday Party, King Crimson, s/t-era Sabbath. Read this, even if you don't know who Slint are, because you need to know who Slint are. (Also, of course, Codeine are the original, glacial rock formation. But we've spoken of Codeine before, much more than Slint, who made what is probably, if I'm honest, my favorite record of all time with Spiderland. Check out the complete Codeine 7" discography on the Pukekos link above, btw.)

Economist's View: The Employee Free Choice Act
Bloggers and Unions Join Forces to Push Democrats - NYTimes.com

Anyway, back to Big Labor. 'Seems we've even got our own squadron of Post-Keynesians, these days, telling people, shucks, maybe doing something to stimulate growth in real wages'd be interesting, and maybe it'd be even more stimulative than, say, lowering interest rates and/or maintaining a strong dollar policy? I wonder to what extent the MoveOn, kos-ish "progressive" crowd can be said to be on board with the Economic Policy Institure, CEPR milieu? Or are they more of a Center for American Progress Crowd? Do they have their own research institutes? Increasingly, I dwell upon the in-politics of those privileged wonks who're allowed to "shape" policy "debates."

Michael D. Yates, "Michael Steele Is a Nitwit and Wolf Blitzer Is a Jackass"
Ben Smith's Blog: Coming back to Romney - POLITICO.com

And then there's the old Republican Party and the old conservative movement. Notice that I don't put "movement" in scare quotes: their thing is as real as any cargo cult or drum circle, to me. Conservatism is a social fact.

Letter from Washington: The Gatekeeper: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
Twitter / clairecmc

As I mentioned before, I do love my glimpses into the inner workings of staff meetings, staffers and staffers' bosses. "The Gatekeeper" is a long, fascinating portrait of Rahm, probably my most guiltiest pleasure of a good time in recent days. Claire McCaskill is easily one of our coolest senators and also one of our least snobbish.

Open Left:: Nate Silver to Progressives: STFU and Defer to the Serious Experts and Czars
Digby populism tango

What does it say about me, that I cannot quite bring myself to "care" about rival tendencies and rival formations within the Netroots? I dunno.
But I do know this: remember our legendary (and worth-revisiting) "let's eliminate these adjectives" thread from the Prisonship? I have a less elitist, more parochial, but nonetheless similar directive in mind for mainstream political discourse: nobody should be allowed to use the term 'populism' until having read Ernesto Laclau's On Populist Reason. Surely I have no authority, and only a scoffing, sardonic-at-best relationship with the kinda at-large political philosophy that informs whatever kinda dumbed-down 'realist' orthodoxy permeates pundits' collective consciousness. But in my ideal world, let's say, 'populism''d have a stable referent. And activists, at least, could drag it out of the gutter of commentator-speak and the graveyard of flippant, loose snob-lips.

Stephen Malkmus | Pitchfork

Do you know what? Malkmus never seemed that likable to me in interviews, until now! Dig his really interesting, sober appraisals of what was going on during the short life of "indie rock" (1989-1994).

Language and Obama’s Budget - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com

Who else has budget mania? Don't stop until you get enough.

Wonk-Wank Two-Fer Horn

1. Who's Afraid of Jake Tapper? - The Daily Beast
2. Ben Smith's Blog: McAuliffe, Trippi exchange brickbats at Virginia dinner - Politico.com Only the strong will survive when "ClamHands" Trippi and" Ex-Paul Williams sideman" Terry McAuliffe throw down in Virginia! Tale of the Tape: Trippi ran Edwards' and Dean's campaigns, etc., and McAuliffe is a DNC shill most recently associated with HRC's failed primary charm offensive. Check this post out: there's video!
   

Short-Form Art Horn

Nat Hentoff
Meet Nat Hentoff, guy who wrote liners for Miles and so many others, and...... member of the Cato Institute? I hope he writes shit like this in all the big libertarian magazines: "The fearsome blues advance of Cecil Mcbee has captivated European audiences and the hippest bop bandleaders for more than a decade now."

Hardcore for Nerds: Reasons to be Emo #200 / Hoover - The Lurid Traversal of Route 7
(This should probably go without saying.)

AN OPEN LETTER TO: Ryan Adams on Blurt Online
Congratulations on being engaged to the Actress/Chanteuse Mandy Moore, Ryan. Now go retire.

CD Review: "Willie and the Wheel" - washingtonpost.com
That's right, Willie Nelson and Asleep at the Wheel've made an alb ensemble. This collaboration makes a lot more sense than the Wynton collaboration, for sure...but that's all I am prepared to say. (Inspired by SolidCitizen's big splash entry, apparently I cannot help but wanna make a name for our blog by giving Willie Nelson a sustained hard time? How long can this go on? Not long.)

Making Fun of Little Children Horn

AC/DC's Big Score, by Andrew Earles :: The Memphis Flyer
Do I need to remind you that unconditional endorsee Andrew Earles is half of the force behind the Prisonship's 2008 Alb of the Year, and the engine behind m'b'loved Failed Pilot? I shouldn't have to.

Also, let me say this: for all of the babbling I do about enjoying the writing-about-rock, you'll know I'm really bought in to that venture when I abandon my too-easy-to-be-'good,' faux-Meltzer voice for a more expository (but no less writerly) one not unlike Earles'. This essay is about the (foreboding and horrible) irony of the legendary Aussie filth-mongers' team-up with WalMart. It'll be anthologized before you know it, but you should read it now. This is how you write about the social ramifications of rock records without coming off like Simon Frith or Greil Marcus of one of those munches. Why do I want to compare this essay to an Alan J. Pakula film? When I do so, I don't necessarily have this blurb in mind:

To a distant society in another part of the world, it might have looked like Americans were buying one album from one retailer for fear of electrocution by government-mandated shock-collars. Take out the shock-collar part, and you're getting warm.

What if Celebrity Nudity Database.com picked the Oscar winners? | A.V. Club
Celebrity nude database, huh? It's about damned time.

Prindle Record Reviews - Bruce Springsteen, Working on a Dream
Of course, the other reason I must veer away from the Coley/Meltzer vibe is that Prindle is Undisputed Reigning King of this style, and all the rest of us are just sort of historical re-enactors.

At this point in his career, Bruce just doesn't have the inspiration to write a great straightforward rock album like Born In The USA (or, for that matter, a dark acoustic masterpiece like Nebraska). As evidenced by The Rising and The Seeger Sessions -- the only two of his past five records worth buying -- he needs an overriding concept to wrap his brain around. This allows him to get into a certain mindset and craft an entire sonic and emotional experience for the listener, just as he did with The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle so many years ago. Otherwise, the result is exactly what we have here - a bunch of perfectly listenable pop-rock songs that nevertheless bring nothing new to our lives. Bruce fanatics will be happy because it's new Bruce, but casual listeners will be left wanting. Wanting and craving. With mad lustful desire.

(*sticks dick in Clarence Clemons' saxophone*)

Actually, the real problem might be that this is Bruce's fourth studio album in FIVE YEARS! I doubt that even a strong today's artist as formidable as Lenny Kravitz or Jamiroquai could pull that off with flying colons. Probably Soul Collective or Live could though; those guys are killer, and will have hit after hit for generations to come.

Of course I quite disagree with the positive appraisal of the Seeger Sessions, as I do with all positive appraisals of Pete Seeger. But Prindle's conclusion, that the alb is "just another batch of okay/not great pop-rock songs with a few stylistic surprises thrown in," rings true after my initial .95 listens.

TAD's Weird Ass Music and Books - Powered by CO.CC
Just a very, very good new site of reviews that tends towards my beloved 1970s rock. Get involved, huh?

Cluedo revamp: Jack Mustard, in the spa, with a baseball bat | Life and style | The Guardian
Movie Novelizations #2: Clue The Movie
A new version of Clue, which apparently the kids call "Cluedo" across the drink? Who knew? And also, I HAVE to own this novelization, which I believe might threaten even Hank Searls' Jaws 2 in my pantheon of righteous novelizations. For more on Jaws 2, see this review from a 29 year-old man named Jessica:

Jaws 2 ?It is a reading experience you?ll never forget. A novel of paralyzing terror that will grab you from the opening chapter?Jaws2.? Jaws2 is one of the most spine-tingling books I?ve ever read. It?s descriptive, scary, and the characters are realistic. The book by Hank Searls is descriptive; I always had a movie playing in my head when I read it. One part of the book that was descriptive was, ?A flattened, blood-red sun rose dead ahead?Twenty feet below the surface she swam dead on course for Montauk Peak?Before her, an invisible cone of fear swept the sea clean, from bottom to the surface.? I could really picture it in my head. A movie was playing in my head the whole time. It got so descriptive at times that I got scared at what I was picturing like I was watching a scary movie. Jaws 2 was scary because it explains what it is like to be attacked by a shark. My biggest fear is that exact thing. My mom said, ?When you read it it?s like you?re there inside the story, like you?re in the characters place.? That?s what I think too. Every once in a while I had to put the book down and take three big breaths for one minute. The realistic characters added some of the effect. The characters are realistic because of the way they?re described by the author; it is so real. I can picture a person perfectly from the author?s descriptions. An example of a realistic description is, ?The little attorney was burdened with all equipment money could buy. His mask was prescription- ground so that he needed no glasses. He wore a pressure equalizing vest. On the lawyers left wrist was a compass, and in his right was an underwater watch to give him below time. From his neck dangled a Nikonos underwater camera. Strapped to his left calf was a Buck diving knife, on his right was an aluminum scallop iron for their prey.? Jaws 2 is one of the most spine-tingling books I?ve ever read. You should get this book and read it right away! If you do, you?ll experience a frightening journey on the sea.

What novelizations make you twich, Rich?

Horn(ed) Pheasant

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/28/cable-news-stimulus/
I don't like this one bit. Surprisingly or not surprisingly (depending on yr definition of 'liberal') even the liberal-leaning network MSNBC is trending against the stimulus package, betraying the much more significant pro-Wall Street bias that transcends the station's 'politics.' I am much more worried - but not that worried - about seeing congressional Dems pitching the Recovery and Reinvestment in public/on the tube than I am about the non-story of House Republicans opposing the economic solvency of our nation and voting against le stimulus.

The Little Unions That Couldn't - T. A. Frank
No, it's not my Thomas Frank. This Thomas Frank comes bearing the first considered, pro-labor argument that labor should cut "majority sign-up" from EFCA in order for it to pass. I've heard similar sentiments in the whisper-stream during some of the heavier "NJ pol" moments I've had since getting marrooned in the Garden State. This. would. be. a. mistake.

The power of Obama's hand - Andie Coller - Politico.com
Okay... the next time I berate the Bolivarian Revolution for being too dependent on the Chavez personality cult, remind me of things like this. Sure, I noticed the "love touch" BHO gave Biden after his very Biden-ish remark the other day. Hell, I even read half of this article! But let's not confuse this sorta starpower-hysteria with "thinking" about "politics."

Beat the Press Archive avec Dean Baker: a snarky, Dave3544-ish look at the Economic News

The Post's front page news article on the House's approval of the stimulus package described its cost as "staggering." Usually such characterizations are reserved for the editorial pages. Perhaps the Post should find reporters with more steady footing.

Carrying through with this liberal use of adjectives, the article refers to the TARP as "massive." It also describes the TARP as an "effort to free up the credit markets." This is a questionable characterization. To date, the TARP has helped to keep many banks out of bankruptcy. Arguably, this is the main purpose of the fund, since Congress has thus far rejected proposals that would focused the money more on freeing up credit as opposed to paying dividends and executive salaries.

[Seriously, you don't need to be any kind of wonk to get this stuff. I'd recommend that even the least politically obsessive make Baker's blog their 'go-to' news site for a week. Afterwards, you'll be surprised how much corporate media senselessness makes sense.]

PETA add dubbed too sexy for Super Bowl...Alternet
What exactly is PETA's point? We all agree they are pretentious, etc. My question is, what do they think they're doing? Sometimes they're so obnoxious I wonder if I'm missing something. Mostly, I blame them for making people think vegetarianism = Hollywood elitism. In point of fact, it can also mean punk rock-ish elitism.

"Chevy Chase/Billy Joel" | TV | A.V. Club
The petty, elitist, Northeastern vegetarian "hipster" (fuck that word) in me would love to be the person to figure out a justifiable reason for talking shit about the Onion. But the troof is, projects like this SNL archive that would've been unfathomable before l'Onion's ascendancy, and the A.V. has really distinguished itself by attracting the best rock/'culture' (pfft!) writers. Why would I be all "contra" about this? It's like when I run into friends who "don't have a tv" or whatever. That's fine, I say, because I'd never begrudge people's urges for stripped-down living or a life without Flomax commercials. But do you realize that 'we' run tv now? It's different.

And it really is different, the television set these days. Or, maybe I'm the one who has changed. But that's not what they tell me at the nail salon.

PShip Lowest-Common-Denominator Talk « for Adults Only!
As the Prisonship gets tied up in a very specific project, and as I strive to bring back stolid "arts and entertainment" to l'OG, I feel it necessary to direct you ladies and germs to this wildly important thread, which rocked my yesterday, and features some half-filthy 'bestuv' writing from some of yr fave OG celebs.

No Team of Rivals on Economics: Bob Rubin Acolytes and Goldman Sachs Alums Dominate Obama Team and Have Blocked Alternative Views from Entering White House Ranks - The Washington Note
You know this critique by now, but Clemons actually reports in addition to editorializing:

Interestingly, I learned recently -- and this is a bit of a counterpoint to my argument -- that Lawrence Summers called Stiglitz privately to get some counsel on what was going on. Summers apparently made clear that he didn't want to be making the call to Stiglitz -- but had to. In other words, there is someone above Summers who wants diverse inputs into his economic policy thinking. The problem is that this interest in diversity is completely missing on his actual team.

Spike Lee's James Brown biopic to feature original music :: Film & TV News :: Articles :: Paste
Lemme be the first to say, I don't think Spike has it in 'em to pull this off. Anybody else agree that 25th Hour is his best movie in the last decade-plus?

Frown-Horn

ABC News: 'Zero' Arrests, Secured Obama Inauguration Rolls On
Props to my friend from FEMA and all the personnel who managed not to find any "anarchists" to arrest.

Obama's Secret Record Collection : Rolling Stone
I'm sending him Spiderland, Vampire on Titus, Evol (he needs "Green Light") and Trace. You?

Nando on Kasama: Engagement and Audience « Kasama
This article calls for US Maoists and Trotskyists to look past their doctrinal divergences and join forces for whatever. Imagine, the coalition of hundreds that could emerge from such a hatchet-burial!

The Dialectics of Marx, Althusser & Mao: That Lonely Hour of Last Instance « Kasama
Fuck yeah. Kasama's the best marxist blog, period. God bless this ex-RCP undertaking for having a) the intellectual will to tackle Althusser (a wife-strangling, personal thought-hero of mine) and, b) the political honesty necessary to tell a buncha commies that 'economic determinism' of a certain prevailing "marxism" is a red herring.

Ben Smith's Blog: An Obama-McCain alliance? - Politico.com
'Been thinking about this since I read it weeks ago. If BHO were to keep the stimulus bill a) loaded with the relatively un-stimulative tax cuts that turn on congressional Republicans and, b) free of earmarks and "pork"... McCain might come out in favor, and leave only the marginal House Repubs. to wave their snob-flag.

Year-End Self-Horn/Holiday Horn

While my role models Wobs and EZ patiently await their Xmas Phish albs, yours truly's present to himself is a blog spree. For starters, the first of three long, grand, bestuv 2008 music posts is up on le prisonship! Get to it, if yr the sort that "gets to" that sort of thing.

Aye, this's what passes for thrilling on my holiday eve, but don't take that as a complaint. The loved ones I love are safe and hopefully warm and that's enough, and it's so much gravy on the ice-cake if I get to write to "you," too. Maybe I'll write to U2 while I'm at it. ("Dear Bono, what the eff happened, mahn? And when did it dawn on you to appropriate Mark Arm's style of sunglasses...?)

2008 was a great year for politics and a tough year internally. But here's one thing I've noticed that's blog-worthy and un-maudlin: 2008 seems to be the year I've put down the gtr and picked up the pen (again.) Writing hasn't seemed so important or so fulfilling since Sewanee. I don't know what it means, and I don't know where it'll go, but web-blogging is not going to be enough for 2009, and I'm not sure a dissertation will be either... So what does that mean? Do I re-visit the faux-Beckett, semi-autobio-roman? Do I turn back to churning out poems - actual poems, the kind I actually revise/edit/try to publish? Or mebbe the world needs a mystery novel featuring socialist-stoner-art-sleuths? You think? I don't know, but it's time for something, and that passes for a "positive" in my mind.
Another thing, this one a rare ur-resolution from somebody who mostly cannot distinguish between resolve and Palmolive: I'm going to back off on the lex-as-insufferable-agnostic meme. It already goes without saying, you know? If you know me, you know (and I already know) what I do and don't doubt and what I do and don't believe. Like no less a mind then Tom Scharpling, I figure that we've got a grown-up president coming, and if Tom takes it to mean that 30+-year-olds should stop shopping for Star Wars memorabilia, I take it to mean that there's gotta be something else worth grumbling about then the godheads and politics-s that I already know are nowhere to be found. There are other "known knowns" and "known unknowns," the seeds of which are way more under-sewn. God - (not) the one whose existence I question - knows I'll revert to my Bergman and Beckett and much-ballyhooed practice of negative dialectical doubt. But I've seen that movie, and I've cut that solo alb. It's about time to stick dandelions and daisies in the eye-holes of my Converse.... (Another ur-resolution, natch, is to do something about the oft-evoked bag of balloons north of my midriff.)

That's it, friends. I'll soon bury this unsolicited-but-necessary bit of solipsism/sentiment beneath a far more characteristic bit of non sequitur whatever... but I needed to perpetrate this exact spew just exactly now. And as always, froonds, there's nobody to whom I'm better fit to spew than "you."

Finally, OG regulars: Merry Holidays. I love you jerks!

".exactly these cans." horn

[i'm working through an obstacle with exactly these cans on my ears. dual volume controls! i am enjoying very much the new Deerhunter and Lambchop records, and speaking of Lambchop the newest Giant Sand would go well between your Lambchop and your Testface records.]

The Interview: Barack Obama - Person of the Year 2008 - TIME

don't even think about not reading this, because it's lengthy and candid.

Palin leads top 10 list of memorable political economic quotes - Politics- msnbc.com

what a year of politics we've lived through? huh. this is a pointed kind of scrapbook, this list.

Electrical Audio - Best Albums of 2008

outside of our immediate circle, this is where the real top 10 conversation goes on. i am having a great time preparing my top ten...especially since i've already leaked the identity of my #1 on the other blogo.

Golden Girls Jewelry! » Is The “Thank You For Being A Friend” Necklace The Best Christmas Gift Since Christ Was Born?

i come to Best Week Ever exclusively for Paul F. Tompkins. but they've got me by the elbow now. shoegaze and pop-gossip, merry New Year!

blog.aflcio.org, "double-standard-critics-of-big-three-loan-subsidize-foreign-competitors"
again, i keep wondering why it took labor so long to get this winning message out to people!

back to work.

(horn) friday nite Sprites

• prisonship seasonal phonics (prisonship forensic rorschach) « The PrisonShip really, nobody's hitting up the Advent thread? do you not believe that the Prisonship has re-risen for some indefinite interval?
• Pearl Jam to reissue Ten in four different packages when i told frequent commenter robes about this development, he unwrapped his salmon wrap and cried into the spinach tortilla. anyway, that's how i remember it.
• Kids in the Hall reuniting for new series i hope this doesn't turn out to be underwhelming.
• Ben Smith's Blog: Clintonites against Kennedy i cannot get enough from this NY chasepack saga.
• Obama's Smoking Drama what brand do you think BHO smokes? i'd say either Marlboro Reds or Camel Lights. Winston Lights on the outside.

it's always more than JUST a horn, folks

Bugs & Cranks » CC Sabathia is Dead to Me
this just sucks. the Yankees are the very worst thing in all of American sports.

NW Republican: GW Bush getting blowback for his UAW bail-out scheme
don't forget about NW Republican, people. as the bailout verges on coming down, NW Republican sees the worst in Bush:

Perhaps it should be called the "UBaBL" (Union Bailout and Bush Legacy) bill?

President Bush is pushing back against Republicans AGAIN and siding up with Democrats (it has been the story of his administration) to try to push for ANOTHER taxpayer bail-out.

Of course this bail-out scheme is the United Auto Workers scheme and Bush/Reid are asking for about $14 billion more dollars to funnel to the auto worker union thug pockets.

yep, there goes President Bush and Big Labor again! You know how they are when they get together. (you can really see the Joni Mitchell influence on this post.)

Inside Obama's Idea Factory in Washington - TIME
the Center for American Progress, ladies and germs. I'd really like a copy of that 1,000 page "transition" document they rolled about after Election Day. Help a wonker/(wanker?) out, Wobs? I know you go to all those luncheons that I drool over when C-Span re-runs 'em.

Another Venezuelan Labor Leader is Assassinated in Aragua | venezuelanalysis.com

Another trade union leader, Simon Caldera, was assassinated Tuesday in the state of Aragua, in Venezuela.

This is the fourth assassination of a union leader in this central state in less than a week, and occurred amidst protests from labor unions regarding the assassinations. Caldera was the president of the pro-Chavez Bolivarian Construction and Industry Union.

The shots were fired from a moving vehicle while Caldera and two other trade unionists drove on a national highway. Caldera was shot in the head and the two others were injured in the attack. The gunmen fled the scene without robbing the victims.

The government has yet to issue a statement on the latest killing. On Tuesday, Venezuela's Interior and Justice Ministry announced that it arrested a suspect in the three previous murders, which the head of that ministry Tarek El Aissami called a "hired homicide."

Lazerus: Badiou Amid the Cracks and Gaps of Marxism « Kasama
kudos to Kasama. More than any other explicitly marxist - let alone Maoist - blog I've found, Kasama really tries to engage recent theory in a non-dogmatic, inquisitive and agnostic way. With his Althusserian past, lifetime of leftist activism and his radical appropriation of mathematical set theory....uh, Alain B. is a force to be reckoned with. In particular Badiou's "The Communist Hypothesis" really influenced my thinking re: electoral politics this Summer.

NYC right now people horn

Dr Pepper Drinks Its Words on ‘Chinese Democracy’ Promise - ArtsBeat Blog - NYTimes.com
finally, a journalistic-ish update on the soda component of this Year in Rock.

Gambler's Care Package
I hope somebody with loose money is reading about this, a prospective xmas gift that couldn't've twinkled my heart-taser any more if it had been designed specifically for me. was it designed specifically for me? and all for a meager thorty clams!

What is Will Oldham's best work to date?
Paste wants to know. I'd answer in two-album clusters: it's either the Days in the Wake/Viva Last Blues clump or the Ease Down the Road/Master and Everyone one. On With the Show: Critic's Notebook: The New Yorker
Shucks! They're doing a stage production of Cassavettes' Opening Night in New York for five nights only? Somebody better go to this.

sound-horn (boof!) avec sep 2008 1 mixtape

*Download the 2008 sep 1 cassette.(And please join me at the prisonship to bask in the long, expository efforts that accompany these sounds. We will be witnessing a downplaying of the "mixtape" format on future blocks, because the files are unwieldy to the point of turning off potential downloader--and/or-listeners. The point of posting the music is to foster writing/conversation about it (and about writing), so I will unabashedly do a good deal of probably pointless catering to a probably non-existent "audience" on this or some other blog. All of that aside, there will definitely be a year-end "best of," highlights mixtape. And if you don't download that, it will inevitably hurt our friendship. If we're not friends, of course, you should definitely just listen to dave emory instead of reading my blog or any other periodical.)

*even the likes of kev("-ron hubbard") are enjoying the exciting new June of 44 gene-thing project at Time Isn't on My Side. 'good to see gabbagabba's garden growing.

* similarly, the erudite, ever-so-curatorial and admirable pukekos houses absolutely essential, often-out-of-print weirdness including chris leo, bastro/codeine, swell maps, macha & bedhead, joan of arc, treiops treyfid, vague angels, secret stars.... the site is a bleeping golden mine. it's even got that mocket 7" kev waldo emerson gave me!

* not to be outdone, magicistragic goes to show (me, at least) how to write about rock in the not-crap, blog world of rock writing that has inherited the 90s zine tradition commemorated so dutifully by mike lupica, this bad man, and so many of us in our different ways. in particks, you'd no doubt benefit from visiting with the V-3, dillard and clark and tall dwarfs, mebbe? but there's so much more.

* and how about this domino/caroline comp. on outdoor miner? speaking of them 90s.