Fraad Wolff is....wait for it.....Right Again

At this point, the only thing annoying'er than MJ elegies're snobbish, lazy expressions of outrage re: the MJ coverage. But that doesn't change the fact that some way more serious shite is afoot then MJ's being dead -- even if, like MFW below, you think that MJ has become a symptom of the national anxiety re: the clearly worsening economy:

In these times our cable news system truly becomes irrelevant all the time. I will not pretend to know or understand exactly why Michael Jackson suddenly means so much for so many. I don't doubt the feelings are real and intense. I haven't the faintest idea why and how Jackson became the symbolic icon for national grief. But I do know that many missed a few very, very real news stories over the last two weeks.

The "green shoots" theory about imminent or arrived economic recovery has withered under the pounding rain of actual data. Last Thursday we learned that wages are completely stagnant, hours worked have fallen and 467,000 net jobs were lost in June 2009. Since December 2007 approximately 7 million Americans have lost their jobs and the total number of jobless Americans is just under 15million. Four and half million Americans have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks. Male unemployment is officially at 10%. The Bureau of Labor Statistics broad unemployment measure U-6 includes marginally attached workers and involuntary part-time workers. The June measure of U-6 unemployment stands at 16.5%. The average American work week declined to 33 hours in June. This is the lowest number recorded in the 45 year history of the measure. It is fair to think of the falling number of hours worked as another form of unemployment impacting millions. Perhaps this is part of the reason millions are interesting in grieving?

Hi, I'm Lex, and I'm an Enema Addict; or, New Moves

It's amazing how love and happiness can throw off my habitus, my swagger and my wannabe Slint-y, stop/start-y dynamics of irony/earnestness. This week I find myself filled with the kind of happiness I've forever associated with happy people - all sincerity and good cheer, y'know? But nonetheless, yesterday I forged a new path back to my old catholic-leninist cavern. Guess what? I found it bedecked, as always, in my same old, douche-y and definitive swirl of interpallative echoes: Who Do You Think You Are? [henceforth WDYTYA]/How, Then, Shall We Live?/What Is To Be Done?

How the hell are happy people supposed to live? To think? To dress? Who do they think they are, and how do they sleep? What sort of lexicon changes, tonal shifts and assorted other New Moves, accompany this transition into 'Bliss,' 'Innocents Abroad,' and a whole bunch of other Chisel references...

As I tried to tell a roomful of unionists a coupla weekends ago, WDYTYA? is a necessary, generative, and constitutive strategic question for social movements, families and all sorts of other collectives. But WDYTYA? amounts to little more than a moralistic enema kit when we pose it in self-centered terms. As with political philosophies, my self-understanding is at its most insidious when it is subject-centered (i.e., starting from me and my internal monologue, rather than the relays, relations and the reasons for relating from which my monologue and sense of 'me' should ultimately spring.)

It's an insult to love and happiness, receiving these latter two social materials in self-ish terms. These days I feel a sense of intimacy/embededness/security/assuredness I'd given up on years ago, but even that miracle - and even the triumph of 'Two-Beer Lex' over harder-partying days of old - doesn't guarantee a life without hangovers.

Maybe I can't control that part [- hell, maybe all this inward-facing horseshit is part and parcel of the vagaries of catholic school/graduate school/reading too much/thinking too much/ life on the losing side of medium-term political history. - ed] But, to the extent that an ideology of personal responsibility applies [it rarely does! - ed], I should probably accept the fact that most of these behaviors are part and parcel of a life-path I've chosen for myself...Shucks, though, here's my counter-mantra:

I may never totally vanquish these intermittent emo-bursts, but at least I can let them pass without confusing them with referenda on my character (pfft!), or without confusing my character (pfft!) with my life's work.

Doing right by people I love - and doing right by people I don't even know - is probably as close to a worthy undertaking as is to be found, non? It's also an assured ticket out of navel-gazing, moralizing, enamizing,who do I think I am?'-ing.

At some point, any good socialist, and anybody who's ever felt really loved, recognizes that relations of production, and/or relationships-en-generale, are the privileged venues for building a life worth living, an identity worth articulating or, even, a self worth 'finding' (c.f., Teenage Fanclub, 'Your Love is the Place Where I Come From.') I've been writing against the popular-therapeutic concept of 'self' since I was 21 (See the Spring 2001 issue of Southern Anthropologist, par example), and've sought to inoculate my-self with the widest swath of social-psycho-theoretical tinctures on display since long before then. But there still may be no exit, ultimately, from intermittent bouts of self-ishness that, among other things, define a certain strand of post-Old Testament modernity, and reign over these United States with all the self-evidence and goes-without-saying-ness of gun-related deaths and anti-intellectualism.

Either way, blaming my-self further elevates self, soul, essence, and personhood over the solidarity, love, material-being-in-the-world, and public/intimate socialities to which I long ago pledged my oath and faith. That's just dumb. And that's why today is the first day of the second part of the first day of the rest of my life. That's why I'm working out with some New Moves.

Arlen Specter at Employee Free Choice rally part 2

Shit, if you're still living with the OG in our "Mob Rules" period [Dio=solid citizen, Tony Iommi (still) =Lex]-- well then, maybe you've got the patience to stick around for six minutes of a poignant, EFCA-related stump showdown that makes me glad I'm not Arlen Specter.

I believe that we can all agree that when the revolution does come, these two will be first against the wall

Greetings from the Nuclear Burn Zone

TGIF

Serious thinking on a sunny day

If we are going to kowtow to minorities to the point of giving up our own language traditions, we should not be surprised that the left wants to destroy not only our traditions and our culture, but also us. And before anyone gets huffy, look at the hundreds of American towns named for places in Europe but pronounced as if they were simply American.

By the way, my surname comes from Belgium and no one outside of my family pronounces it correctly and we have been here since before 1620.

Matthews/Burris: 21 slow-burning Minutes re: 'pay to play'

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Au Contraire, Mon Frere

Far from being a blight on the visual environment, outdoor advertising is a valuable part of the business community.

Shut 'Em Down

I gotta say, I am at a loss on this Guantanamo closure thing. Have any of you all seen one tiniest bit of argument about why we can't have the alleged terrorists in prisons in the United States? I mean I can think of arguments, but I haven't seen them. It seems that most people seem are intimating that it is a safety issue, as in "I don't want them in my state!" Is that it? Because that makes no sense. It's not like our maximum security prisons are being escaped from every day. Are people afraid that their state would become a target of a terrorist attack? Is that it? Somebody help me out here.

And while I am here, I might say that while I was born a Democrat and I will die a Democrat, that doesn't mean I can't be ashamed of being a Democrat when we have "leaders" like the ones we currently have. Will somebody in my party grow a fucking backbone and do the right fucking thing every once in a while?

EZ, you love to defend the party in all matters, what do you got to say about Pelosi and Reid?

US Chamber of Commerce Still Horrified About EFCA

Five state-specific commercials about "card check!" Aren't I one lucky sonuvawhatever!

Hot Talk

Making an ass of myself over at NW Wingnut again. Join me, won't you?

0-4, damn

Consider four attributes of the ideal man: self-control, bravery, confidence and sex appeal.

TGIF - free agent edition

This one goes out to our favorite quarterback.

TGIF - welcome back edition

I'm sure we can all get down with NWA's strong stance against the use of mind-weakening narcotics.

the War is over....Time for Celebration?

The war, first declared by Nixon in '71, is over!

I new BHO would end a war, just wasn't expecting this one:
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske said Wednesday: "Regardless of how you try to explain to people it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he said. "We're not at war with people in this country."

Good to hear.....

Now if we actually stop locking up 100,000's of otherwise law abiding Americans, that would be a real victory!

Super-Weird Chris Matthews Content

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

13 minutes of power. Just disregard this, pretend I never posted it, etc.

I've had a good night's sleep, but this clip is still on my mind.

Is it simply the subject matter - the characters involved herein - or something else, about Matthews' 'performance?' Is he starting to remind me of some ensemble character in an Altman-ish rendition of my wonky-(we)blog-life? I fucking hope not, Jesus. When did Matthews gain the ability to turn into an ultra-avunvular, asshole-ish Jack Lemmon at will?

Disregard this.

The rise of the dead?

Just thought I would let ya'll know that the LA forum show was very hot. the setlist:
(Set 1)
Viola Lee Blues->
Bertha->
Viola Lee Blues->
Caution-> (raging! warren screaming something about a Gypsy woman)
Viola Lee Blues->
Black Peter
Cosmic Charlie

(Set 2)
Shakedown Street
New Speedway Boogie
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Drums >
Space
Dark Star
Wharf Rat
Dark Star
Satisfaction

(Encore)
One More Saturday Night

Warren was sharp, there was very little aimless noodling, and the sound was excellent. I would recommend catching any and all possible future shows (with this lineup)

I am finishing up my finals week, and intend to begin posting more frequently (as in more than not at all) but first, piles of tests to grade....

I love reading Lex and SoliCit, but I wish that Wobs, Dave3544, and Ash would come out of retirement or "whatever", return to the OG, and we could have even more extended dialogue and good-natured back-and-forth over the ongoing apocalyptic deterioration of the "free" market system, the debate over holding torturers accountable, and of course the sad saga surrounding EFCA. Helloooo????? Are you out there?????? Would it kill you to post once in a freakin blue moon? (like me....)I know you comment here and there, but that isn't the same thing......just sayin. organize some serious grievances.... work it out........love is the answer... (I might be slightly influenced by my experiences from last night, but still....)

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

How Not to Join a Union

from the Center for American Progress, prolly the liberal wonk-Tank closest to l'administration.

if you've been avoiding the jargon-y EFCA talk up until now, here's as accessible a place as any to jump in.