Tip of the Chapeau to R+B

Hey Minxar,

Thanks for alerting me to the pressing news that Billy Corgan's career trajectory is even more obscenely disappointing than Rod Stewart's! there's no shortage of coverage of the current Pumpkins meltdown - even video - but I particularly recommend Fluxblog's reportage of two nights in NYC. not that i ever loved this band (Smash. Pump.)... it's just such a compelling thing to watch from the middle-distance...

think of this as a primer, by the way. as it stands, my Draft alb review of Cardinology includes significant references made to the Mary, Star of the Sea alb by a group unconditional endorsees' call the "sorely missed" Zwan.

Rooting for Pat Buchanan? "Economic Nationalism"

I hope some of you will tough out the full 11+ minutes here, because I need to share it with somebody. Pretty unusual for Matthews to get to moderate between far-right types - one a libertarian, the other a, uh, Pat Buchanan - and you can tell he's enjoying himself.

What do you think? There may be a moment or two where Pat B. is "right for the wrong reasons," but his is a really powerful pro-bailout argument, no? And when Pat goes after the Heritage Foundation towards the end? This is the sort of television I should hope to be watching while I quietly (but not joylessly) die.

Mournful OG Horn

Hugo Chávez and the U.S. Media | venezuelanalysis.com
finally, the frame analysis I've been looking for. Here's Jules Boykoff's shorter, summary version of an article soon-to-appear in New Political Science. methodologically this is very similar to what Chris Martin does for unions in the very excellent Framed, and by extension very similar to some ground i'll be a-covering in the diss.

The End of Wall Street's Boom - National Business News - Portfolio.com
tell your parents to read this. definitive.

It's Time to Give Voters the Liberalism They Want - WSJ.com
Thomas Frank on EFCA and so much more.

NW Republican: Joni Mitchell has a thing for the Coyote
(for Brown Beard, who wondered if I've stopped following NW Repub becuz I dropped 'em from the blogroll. I should make some qualifications about the blogroll, btw. In reality I have way more "everyday reads" than those captured in my tiny list below and to the right. In fact, both my Thunderbird RSS and Google Desktop receive feeds from many, many places just as, uh "essential" to my, uh, "worldview." In fact, the "everyday reads" list is the most fickle, least informative glimpse of the three. Obviously I read the Bellman, North Country and Courtney, par example - but they're already mentioned in my (former) co-authors' lists, so it'd be redundnant to namedrop 'em again. Also I try to limit the blogroll - with the exception of RK's - to either my most current fetishes (these shift) or to blogs that I absolutely do read every damned day like First Read, et. al. So that's that. Now that this blog's on the brink of oblivion I thought I'd clarify that.)

Anywho... So I guess the NW Republican author fancies himself a coyote. And I guess he just discovered this unlikely confessionial tale of Joni M's that I first heard at 9 years old, cuz my dad was obsessed with his VHS copy of The Last Waltz. It was weirdly formative, this song, which is by the way entitled "coyote," (hence the crossover), weirdly formative on my 9 year-old ideas of what grown-up relationships were like. All women are rockers and men are ranch hands, I guess. Sure. What do you want me to say?

Al Jazeera Interview with Evo Morales « Kasama
Obviously.

prisonship self-cleaning survey utensil

is it more precious - more presumptuous - to describe your dreams or your bowel movements in conversation with another?

do you ever describe either? do you never describe neither? to how many people? are the people you talk to about "elimination" the same people you talk to about being back in junior high but, like, with elephant hands or whatever it is you people dream?

aren't dreams waste matter, or dirt (i.e., "matter out of place"), even if we mean "waste matter" in the elevated manner of Julia Kristeva's "abject?"

bonus points: who's ever dreamed of going to the bathroom? who hasn't? high praise to anybody who has fallen asleep (and dreamed a memorable dream) while going to the bathroom.

merit-pay: mebbe in 2017

I thought so. You?

speaks for itself

Dean Baker, Big Three Bankruptcy: Now or In Two or Three Years Matters

Market Place radio presented a comment by University of Maryland economist Peter Morici on the bailout of the Detroit auto makers. Mr. Morici said that the auto companies will face bankruptcy, the only question is whether it is now or three years from now.

While this is presumably meant as an argument against the bailout, it misses the main argument as to why a bailout is needed. The economies of Michigan and Ohio are still heavily dependent on the Big Three. If these companies go under at the moment, it will mean that a whole group of suppliers suddenly incur large losses due to the money owed to them by the Big Three, which they will not receive, as well as their lost orders. This will lead to a large second wave of bankruptcies as many suppliers go under. In addition, state and local governments will see plunging tax revenue.

While this process will be extremely painful for the region at any time, it will be devastating in the middle of the current recession. The federal government would have to step in with large amounts of money so that governments in the region can continue to provide essential services and to support the unemployed workers. In two or three years we can reasonably hope that the economies of the region have rebounded enough so that they could withstand a bankruptcy, if it occurred.

Tom Daschle for HHS Sec

Not a surprise (sorry, not a very informative link but the story just broke.) Comments?

Tea leaves

So fine - I get that Obama campaigned on ending the divisiveness and distractions that have characterized the politics of the last fifteen years in order to solve the urgent problems that face us as a nation. And that somehow justifies letting bygones be bygones after a certain senator from Connecticut repeatedly fucked over his nominal allies.

Ok. Whatever.

So we can expect the Senate Dems to be super friendly to avoid enraging their GOP colleagues "for the good of the country" (the House will still, theoretically, be a den of poo-flinging monkeys).

I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb to declare EFCA DOA.

beyond academic emo: prisonship inventory of sentiments/commodities

one of the things that stinks about giving advice is how platitudinous, catch-all and relatively hollow our hard-earned lessons sound when churned out in sentence-form. thus, you'll understand how i half-grimaced, half-mewed long ago when a certain family member told me earnestly how

things seem like they're going great guns for you, Pat. and that's really great. I'm proud. and you need to really make sure you enjoy these times, Pat. cuz it's sure as shooting that there'll be times when the world rains cats and dogs upon you. enjoy these times, Pat, cuz eventually times'll suck eggs, and, by extension, you'll suck, too.

"sure," i'd thought at the time. sounds reasonable enough - like a paraphrase of a parable from a Randy Newman song, or something. and it is reasonable - shit, it's probably even "true," (i'd thunk.) but that was all before the current conjuncture, when oddly enough, graduate school got hard again. (i know, who'd've thunk it? you could knock me over with a feather.)

now, i have a lot of uncomfortable things in my life, like everybody else: some things - by no means all - that are much more uncomfortable than grad school's sudden difficulty. but grad school is something tuff that is both "personal" and "general" enough as to be appropriate for weblogs (aka, "blogs.") so here we go with a thoroughoing personal inventory in light of this recent, panic-attack-ish element to "school," which once was a padded cell for holding-forth, but which is now a caged structure reminiscent of "Hell in a Cell."
Part 1. Problem Areas

1. Health and welfare? Oh no. I've had some sort of walking plague since I boarded that aeroplane last Weds. Clammy hands, cough, headache, shakes, sniffles, snot, phlegm, etc. All the rest (upset tummy, too!)
   
2. Social Encounters? Nope. Does Election Night count? I barfed.
   
3. Eating Right? More like, "eating out." 'Can't afford it, but also can't seem to stop, or, can't seem to take the time to cook.
   
4. Body/Mind, Work/Life Balance? Oh, p'shaw. My body is a two-legged sack of balloons. My skin is the consistency of a paper shopping bag, but it looks like a potato sack because there are tuffs of hair pasted on to the bag (, which holds balloons of various sizes).

But that's just the downside. See me, I gotta lotta upside in my life. Part 2. Upsides

1. Herself: But that's obvious. We're like the Footprints Prayer over here in the Brown House. Or Smith and Jones, in that Silver Jews number.
   
2. SonicYouth/SonVolt/Slint(/Springsteen?!?): update post soon.
3. Shoegaze: It matches the weather. In particular I've listened to the magnetic morning full-length thrice since I e-music'd it yesterday (even notwithstanding the american apparel-ish alb cover). Do you guys do the emusic? I'd like to, uh, monitor yr playlists and share recommendations with you.
   
4. Over-the-counter cold medicines: this has to stop. Not sure they help at all. I just like the plop-plop, fizz-fizz aesthetic. (Honorable mention: cough drops [not lozenges.] "Honey-lemon" and "eucolyptus," specifically.)
   
5. It's sweater weather: what? This post has 'emo' in its title. Do you need a road map?
6. Cardinology vinyl pack: 'love the t-shirt, 'haven't rocked the bonus 7" yet...comic book is awesome. Lengthy alb review coming soon. Commenter David, among others, received a warped 12". 'Mine has a surface scratch but no audible flaws.
   
7. Crime Novels: crime novels in particular, Ross MacDonald and Lawrence Block in particular. I'm going back to the well, even opting to crack the seal on what may be the last (?!?) of the Matt Scudder novels, certainly the last one I haven't yet read.
8. "Organizing Grievances" and organizing grievances: top-shelf!
   
9. The return of implicitly (not explicitly) lewd texts/emails/voice messages/ground mailings from evil r+b: how long until I start posting poems again, at this rate?
   
10. Chris Matthews: much to a lotta peoples' chagrin(s), including, sometimes, mine.
    
11. French fries: yeah, there's this place just a block away from the Brown House that makes, I think, the best french fries in Eugene. (Better yet, they come with a special "french fry dipping sauce" that features horseradish, but nonetheless reminds me of the famous white sauce" that accompanied the mozzarella sticks back at Shenanigans', where cool kids like evil r + b once glommed underage frat sodas.) Eugenians, which restaurant do you think has the best fries? I'm prepared to get exploratory about starch this Rainy Season.
    

so anyway, there's the nov 2008 catalog. what works for you when "times" are "tuff"?

Merit Pay and the AFT

I seem to remember a certain union offering Obama's support for merit pay as a prime reason to support his Democratic opponents in the primaries. Oh the times, they are a changin'.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A teachers union said it is open to President-elect Barack Obama’s effort to tie pay raises to student performance.

Many teachers dislike the idea; Obama was booed when he mentioned it at union meetings in 2007 and again this year.

Yet Randi Weingarten, the newly elected president of the American Federation of Teachers, said Monday there is a role for teacher raises based on how pupils are learning.

“Of course there is,” she said in a speech at the National Press Club.

She described the teacher pay system in New York City, where schoolwide bonuses are based on overall test scores in high-poverty schools. Weingarten, as head of the New York teachers union, negotiated the system last year with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The new system is working, she said: Teachers already are getting bonuses for improving pupil achievement in 128 of 200 eligible schools.

“If an innovation is collaborative and fair, teachers will embrace it, and it will succeed,” she said.

Monday’s speech was the first major address for Weingarten as newly elected president of the 1.4 million-member AFT.

It came at a time of great anticipation by the two big teachers unions — AFT and the larger National Education Association. Both were effectively shut out of the administration of President George W. Bush. Bush’s first education secretary, Rod Paige, once labeled the NEA “a terrorist organization.”

As Obama seeks education reform, “no issue should be off the table,” Weingarten said, with just one exception: Her union opposes publicly funded vouchers for parents to send kids to private school.

In her speech, Weingarten avoided serious controversy. Though she mentioned the New York system — and was introduced by Bloomberg — she said nothing about the thornier issue of pay raises for individual teachers, as opposed to schoolwide bonuses.

Actually, I have no problem with this, as we should always be up for ideas that are collaborative and fair; but as our friend Han Solo once said, that's the real trick, isn't it? Management doesn't like to give up control and they'd have to give up a lot to make sure merit pay didn't just become "raises for ass-kissers." It would probably also be good for teachers unions to make this a bargaining, rather than electoral, issue.

More Benny Hill than Beckham

In case you weren't keeping up with the latest tactical innovations in the beautiful game:

Catania, a team in [Italy]'s top division, unveiled the new look while taking a free kick. The players lined up in a wall and dropped their shorts in an effort to block the goalkeeper's vision.

The Sicilian team carried out the maneuver to perfection Sunday. Three players dropped their shorts practically to their knees so Torino goalie Matteo Sereni couldn't see the kick by Giuseppe Mascara, who scored during Catania's 3-2 victory.

State of Hillary

I wonder what you all think about this.... crap? not crap?

as for EZ.....

not crap...

You've Gotta Be Bleeping Me

Oh jeepers! Colorado's M54, the anti-union-security initiative we narrowly defeated under the name of M64 here in Oregon, has passed! Note how the authors over at UnionNews seem to've conflated collective bargaining with "no-bid contracts."

"Detroit"/"GM" bailout Open Thread

Weaver's Way Co-op - Beyond Green Blog
h/t ezra klein

(Anybody expecting me to lay down an un-measured "not crap" or "crap" on this topic overestimates me. But let's read this article above - which looks it emanates from just the vantage point I needed to hear from - and hold forth, spew links, etc., in the comments thread. Or we can just pretend this post never happened.)

Take That, You Mainstream Science Guys!

When I arrived on campus today, I noticed that the ubiquitous green newspaper boxes that normally carry a daily dose of college newspaper goodness were empty or still sporting last Friday's edition. Thinking that the kids at the Daily Emerald must have screwed the pooch and not gotten an edition out, I headed over to the webpage for some sort of explanation.

There is no apology for not getting the edition out, nor any overt explanation as to why there are no hard copies available in the boxes, but today's top story might provide some clues.

A Global farce?
A number of researchers say that despite public opinion, global warming may be a result of natural causes

That's right, it appears that the Emerald has come out against human-caused global warming.

All I can say is, WTF? No wonder they don't want to print that shit.

Is This Helping Anything?

This ad has been up at LGM since before the election. It bothers me. A lot. The ad bothers me, but it also bothers me that the LGM guys and gals have let it be up, but I haven't said anything about it, so I'll let them slide for the moment.

What is the purpose of this ad? Well to get me to click on the link, of course, but what is the fucking connection between scantily clad women who would be slightly more likely to sleep with me because I am a Democrat and the progressive agenda? The only connection I can figure out is that they are the exact fucking opposite of each other.

We have a lot of work to do in this country. We have a fucked up health care system. We have a fucked up education system. We have a fucked up tax system. We are currently engaged in more military conflicts than the government sees fit to tell us about. What we don't need to have to do is remind our ostensible allies that treating women as sex objects to sell products is bad for everyone. You can't sell progress with retrograde means. You cannot uplift while you degrade.

In short, we are not the party of sexism. Our tent cannot be big enough for this. Sexists find comfort in the Republican party. If this is how you reach out to people, we don't want you.

Now, to write to the LGMers.

Related Tangentially At Best

Obviously, there is much discussion of the potential bailout of US automakers, with each ideological side picking it's particular bete noir for blame. I am personally in the "crappy car" crowd. I am being assured that this is all in the past and American automakers are churning out excellent cars that everybody loves, but I am not so sure. For instance, Scott assures me that "Cadillac makes as good a car as anyone in the luxury market," but I am not convinced. My sources tell me otherwise.

Moreover, I have just had the (mis)pleasure of driving an American car around for a week and I was not much encouraged by the experience. As mentioned before, my rental car was a Chevy HHR. Not sure what the people at Chevy were thinking exactly when they designed the HHR. One likes to believe that before an automaker spends millions rolling out a new car that years of extensive market research have gone into it and that Chevy identified a huge market that wanted a PT Cruiser, just more expensive. I get the sense, however, that the research put into this car was five guys sitting around a table making pronouncements about what Americans want. In the end, they settled on the tried and true, "Americans want large cars that get slightly better gas mileage than the larger cars they already own, so let's build a 'smallish SUV'" line of thinking that has served them so well.

As for the actual design of the car, I am assuming that monkeys were involved. Monkeys that were unfamiliar with actually driving a car. I won't get much into the handling and all that. I was driving up and down freeways, so it really wasn't much of a factor. I do agree with Car and Driver that overall the ride was mush and you had to pay attention to keeping the car going straight. Keeping the thing going a constant speed also proved a challenge as I would slowly drift up toward 85 without realizing it. I never really found a comfortable position for my foot to rest without it applying too much pressure to the gas. As far as interior styling, hard plastic cannot be beat, so there is no point to be made there. More important, however, we the serious design flaws that were a danger to me and others.

The seat was set very high up. It did not go down. The high seat was combined with a seat that was set at a pretty steep incline, so that in order to sit with your back against the seat, you were leaning pretty far back and forced to sit up straight. Sitting up straight is good, except when the high seat means that you are sitting high enough that you really can't see out of much of the windshield. I literally had to duck down to see traffic lights from more than 300 yards out.

Then there was the issue of the blind spot. Looking over the left shoulder gave me the view of nothing but the interior of the left side of the vehicle. There could have been any number of things rolling next to me on the driver's side, but I would not have known what they were. The passenger side was a little better, but heaven help the bicyclist rolling up on one of these babies.

I am also not a big fan of tinted windows, as I like my review mirror to be functional, but I realize I march out of lock-step with my fellow Americans on that score.

In the end, I wondered if anyone had driven a proto-type of the car before they rolled it out, or if it went from design to production without a pause. I have to assume so, or someone at Chevy might have realized that this car was destined to become another American joke that wasn't going to help anyone sell more cars.

Any American car drivers out there want to make a pitch for American cars that doesn't involve union loyalty?

Sonics, Funnies Horn Circumambulated

1. SCORE! Merge is 20! I must own this boxed set, if only as penance for being such a Superchunk-a-dummy, and of course for the Scharpling and Wurster materials.
   
2. Andrew Earles has won himself a long-due place on my "everyday reads" blogroll. Need proof? Note his forthcoming Hüsker Dü book, his hipping me to the new Unsolved Mysteries series, and of course this insane spree on Matador Records' Matablog.
3. Patton Oswalt is writing a book?!?
4. So happy, so honored to see Gabba citing the OG as he goes about his own mode of politico-punk exposition. And god knows I cannot wait for that Hoover 7" to be upped.
5. Oh, and seriously... no love for Wobs' fab Sat5 survey?
   

I really need to start paying closer attention

to the seemingly-endless stream of e-mails that flood my inbox from my "why interact with another human when you could send them 68 electronic messages" director. One of said communications, which I barely half-digested, landed me at the conference I am currently attending (or will be, as soon as I finish my latte) in Minnesota. This is the first time I have been to a conference in my "new life"--that is to say, the first time I have attended a conference that is not (a) in/related to my academic discipline or (b) pertaining to grad employee unions (insert long, mournful sigh here...). It probably speaks to my current mental state vis-a-vis my job that I really didn't even look that closely at the conference announcement. Me: "Wha? Go to conference? I'm on it, boss..." Logistics? Check. Family arrangements made? Check. Close examination of content? Uh-oh...

And so it happens that I am sitting in a coffee shop in Saint Paul, about to attend the U.S. Department of Education's 22nd Annual Meeting on Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention in Higher Education conference, "Ensuring the Safety and Well-Being of Our Students: Widening the Lens of Prevention." I am so checked out from this that until I arrived late last night I had not even processed that the DOE was the sponsor!

I am (obviously) here for the violence prevention part. The fact that alcohol and drug "abuse" are in the mix is a delicious personal irony. (But the fact that every day starts and ends with a twelve-step meeting--seriously, I kid you not--suggest that I am not the only one in the warning: hypocrisy alert boat.) As I always do at the beginning of a conference, I am poring over the program and marking the sessions I plan to attend. I am going to be a good girl and actually attend the sessions devoted to violence against women (a program on reporting options; a two-part case-study about a comprehensive violence-prevention framework; a session on program assessment; maybe something on social marketing).

But, oh! Look what I will have to miss in the process: There is a session on FERPA led by--guess who???--LeRoy Rooker! There's a name I remember fondly! And an intriguing-sounding session called "U.S. Dept. of Education-U.S. Secret Service Threat Assessment Training." That will, no doubt, be a blast. It's led--as it turns out, many workshops are--by the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. 

Um, how did I get here again?

A lesson in the improper attribution of causality and demographics

From the comments (Nov. 16, 5:07 AM) of an article posted at the hilariously mistitled American Thinker:

I live in an Atl, GA suburban county voted in the same precinct for the last 16 years. My County is 68% White, 16% Black and 16% minority mix of hispanic, oriental, hindu and muslim.

In the last 5 years three muslim mosques and one gigantic Hindu World Temple have been built within 1 mile radius of my residence. The property values have dropped here nearly 75% in that same time period.

(h/t Sadly, No!)

Po-mo ear candy

I've always been a fan of the cut-and-paste sample technique employed by musicians since the mid-80s (my two favorite examples being the Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique and Beck's Odelay). I've lately become interested in "mash-ups" where bits of music are spliced and/or layered together to create re-contextualized sonic landscapes (check out Dangermouse's Grey Album (a mash-up of Jay-Z's Black Album and the Beatles' White Album - torrent here) or the disappointing Beatles mash-up Love). Stumbling upon Girl Talk's Feed the Animals, however, has taken my interest to a whole new level.

To call this composition jaw-dropping is to sell it short. Feed the Animals is quite simply the most compulsive listen I've acquired in at least the last ten years. With literally over a hundred different pieces of pop ephemera sampled for this album, it's fun just to try to pick out all the songs you know from the mix - and you'll know tons. Greg Gillis (the computer jockey with the world's most awesome record collection who is Girl Talk) draws equally from 60s pop, 70s arena rock, 80s and 90s alternative, and even some modern pop hits to anchor a smorgasbord of hip-hop rhymes (some of which I even recognized, thanks to long hours in the GTFF office with dave). On paper, an album which samples Twisted Sister, Salt 'n Pepa, Kenny Loggins, L'il Jon, Chicago, 50 Cent, Argent, Tone Loc, Phil Collins, Busta Rhymes, and Huey Lewis would seem like an unmitigated disaster. In Girl Talk's actual execution, though, it's sublime.

After the novelty of the first few listens, Feed the Animals reveals itself as more than the sum of its parts, becoming a cohesive whole where the constituent pieces seamlessly blend as if they were meant to be together. The various splices and layers are remarkably, if ironically, conversant with each other. Hearing Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone" mixed with Nine Inch Nails' "Wish" and MC Hammer's "Too Legit to Quit" is hilariously good listening. Youngbloodz and L'il Jon chanting "If you don't give a damn we don't give a fuck" over the iconic organ riff from Procul Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" works on a number of different levels. But when I heard Salt 'n Pepa's "Push It" layered over Dee-Lite's "Groove is in the Heart" and Nirvana's "Lithium," I knew I was in the presence of genius.

The album is a 53 minute bacchanal frenzy. I read somewhere that if you like music, you'll love Girl Talk. I heartily endorse this. And the best thing about it? It's available at a name-your-own-price fee over the internets. Fair warning: you will have to justify being a cheapskate and trying to pick it up for free. But seriously, kick the guy down some corn to keep him in business - I paid the $10 plus $3 s&h so I could get a copy of the CD in addition to the mp3 download, and I've gotten my money's worth several times over.

A final word to those who believe that because it's a bunch of samples mixed on a computer "anyone can do it." You can't. Fuck off.

Bonus fun fact: this is post #666.

Reunited (and it feels so good)

I'll just quickly interject a personal post to report that the much-anticipated east coast OG reunion happened this week--albeit without wobs and lil' e., which was a shame but, apparently, wholly unavoidable--and it was lovely! I had the pleasure of socializing with Dave and his lovely wife in my very own home after being separated from his dave-y goodness for five long years. (Almost impossible to believe it's been that long since I left Eugene...) I finally got the chance to introduce my old friend to my, um, high-spirited two-year-old (who was extra-exuberant for the occasion) and Dave and the missus were kind enough to join us for a small birthday celebration on Friday night, where we shared gossip and bbq while toddlers and Duke mathematicians ran amok around us. As always, Dave took the chaos in stride and reminded me why I miss having him around so much. (And no, Dave, that's not sarcasm. We do truly miss you!)

Thanks, guys! It was the best birthday I have had in years. Thanks, too, for the "Baltar is my Homeboy" shirt, which so perfectly showcases my inner geek and which I will treasure, and for quite possibly the rockingest grad union t-shirt around, which arrived in the mail yesterday and which I am wearing as I type this from the Charlotte airport on my way to Minneapolis. Can't wait to see you again--maybe in Miami? maybe back in the 541 some time soon?

(By the way, while I am blogging from the airport and writing about travel, does anyone have any idea why rocking chairs are such a ubiquitous feature in Southern airports? I'm sitting here in Charlotte--on the floor by my gate, not in a rocker--and rocking chairs are everywhere. In fact, the information signs actually highlight this feature, putting it on par with other conveniences such as free wireless internets. I am from here and I still can see how this is a selling point, an amenity, or  a travel essential...)

Anyway, glad everyone made it back safely. I'm sure you'll be hearing more from me once I reach the Twin Cities.

Next Up: Supplemental Watercooler

I was watching some television programing and a commercial for Aflac came on. Everyone knows I love ducks, so I was hooked in for the full fifteen seconds. This particular ad was touting Aflac for business. One of the main selling points was that I could provide Aflac for my employees "at no direct cost" to my company. I am somewhat familiar with the health insurance field, so I know that in the employer-provided insurance world, there are generally only two payers, the employer and/or the employee. It seemed as if Aflac was encouraging me to provide my employees with the benefits of supplemental insurance by making them pay for it themselves. Since the words "benefit," "provide," and "pay for it yourself" are not naturally found in the same sentence, I thought I'd check out the website.

I first learned that adding Aflac benefits was a great way to attract and retain quality employees. Seems reasonable. Lord knows that if any other union offered me supplemental insurance, I'd drop the GTFF like yesterday's hush puppies.

The second thing I learned was that I could do this at no cost to my company. This was, of course, what we were here for. How could I attract top-notch employees without paying a dime for it? Here's how:

Aflac’s policies are 100% employee-paid and are purchased on a voluntary basis. Many companies choose to make Aflac policies available as a cost-effective solution to help employees with the rising cost of out-of-pocket health care expenses.

Sweet Jeebus! Apparently, I can not only attract super-duper employees with the promise of teh deluxe in supplemental insurance, but I can get my employees to pay for it themselves, and...and...I am being lead to realize...that I can stop paying those burdensome health insurance costs once I have provided my employees with the opportunity to buy their own supplemental insurance! I might have to maintain some sort of minimum coverage, but still, combine these savings with the increased profits I'll be making with my A-1 workforce, and I'll be able to finally start living the small businessman's dream. Unlimited coke and hookers, here I come!

Oh, God

The new Oregon football jerseys.

This is how Phil gets us back for the WRC thing.

Yes, these exist, and yes we are wearing them. Happen to be kicking Arizona's ass, but I don't think the jerseys are a factor.

PrimeTime Crime, Thyme

For reasons that no doubt pertain to my life story (yawn), I hold The Killing of a Chinese Bookie alongside seminal personal texts like Ulysses, Spiderland, and Larkin's Collected Poems. It's worth noting that the curatorial gods at Criterion have released the film in a deluxe, two-dvd package that includes Cassavettes' original cut, the theatrical version and a whole bleeping bunch of features. I'd've put it on one of my holiday wish lists, but I couldn't wait. Sunovagun is coming my way, asap! (Read the "Customer Review" for high praise from a civilian.)

Ross Macdonald, The Instant Enemy
The great thing about Ross Macdonald's coming-after Chandler is how, by extension, Macdonald's gumshoe protagonist Lew Archer confronts the late-60s, early-70s milieu that only a genius satirist like Roger Altman was capable of contriving for Philip Marlowe (in the film version of The Long Goodbye). Anyway, I inhaled this Archer gem in one sitting, another dry and eerily thoughtful installment in an unfuckwithable noir series. It deals with a poor little rich girl and LSD against the archetypal backdrop of rich and fucked up Southern California. What else could I want?

Richard Price, Lush Life
Wow, how haven't I read this guy before? He's the last of the hot shots from the Wire dream team (avec Simon, Pelecanos, Lehane) I've gotten to, and probably the one with the most critical esteem behind him going into that project. I read a lotta crime novels, kids, and let me tell you that this thing is as near-flawless as anything not attached to the name Mankell, albeit of a totally different style/tone/diction.
Holy shit! Set on the Lower East side, Lush Life is filled with cops, kids from the projects and a deep ensemble of "arty" also-rans living out their vie boheme in the believable, wage-labor terms we're all so familiar with. More than Pelecanos (and this is saying something, for me), Price rivals David Simon when it comes to serving up multiple socioeconomic strata at a time with his storytelling. And his dialogue is pitch-perfect, sonorous and just like life.

Lawrence Block, A Long Line of Dead Men
Another admirable installment in my beloved Matt Scudder series, though the plot centers on a contrived silly secret society that is below Block's usual standard of reasonableness. That said, even without a completely A+ plot line (it's an A-, no worse), there's still plenty to enjoy in Scudder's first person narration and Block's really fluent manner of setting things up. If you're interested, and don't want to start at the beginning, I recommend a Eight Million Ways to Die/When the Sacred Ginmill Closes book 7", both of which may be in my top 10 detective novels of all time.

Sat 5: Guilty viewing edition

When you're alone, you know there are DVD's you pop in that you don't necessarily want others to know how much you love. Share your favorite guilty viewing pleasures.

1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - Yes, I'm a Star Trek geek. Yes, this movie is teh awesome. KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
2. Jackass - Both of them. I suppose there's something timeless about the comedic tradition of getting kicked in the nuts and other pratfalls. I'm eagerly awaiting Jackass III.
3. Half Baked - I still enjoy a stoner comedy, and one starring Dave Chappelle and featuring some awesome cameos (Willie Nelson! Jon Stewart!) really floats my boat.
4. Zoolander - Ben Stiller's finest role, or something.
5. Popeye - I actually know the words to many of the songs in this flick.

Embarrass yourself below.

The Boardroom- National Ad for the Employee Free Choice Act

Underwhelming, though the message (if you think this is going to happen by itself, yr dreaming) is right on.

3 Yes/No Questions post-Election

With Apologies to Greil Marcus, Here Comes the "New Weird America"

To be perfectly honest, I've felt little beyond weird, foreboding vibes since BHO's election. I kind of lead a catharsis-less life, tho, so that's not unusual. (Election Night did induce vomiting, if that means anything to anybody.)

That said, I'm completely enthralled by the new constellation, or the new conjuncture, or whatever-the-crap people want to call this moment besides "this moment." There is a Weird New series of questions floating out there in front of an insipid, Weird New Government - questions that pertain as much to the changing fate of neoliberalism as they pertain to the office of the presidency. Here goes:

1) Will Max Baucus lead us to universal health coverage for every damn man, woman and little woman/man? Avowed health-wonk-jedi Ezra Klein has been way out front, early and often, in profiling Committee Chairman Baucus and "bringing it" with the live coverage of the opening salvos. See for yourself.

2) Can a weak dollar, an energy crisis and a progressive government somehow cause manufacturing to "come back" to the USA in general, and bolster the labor movement in particular? Is it right to think of labor-management partnership when talk emerges of a cabinet-level "automotive czar"? Probably not, right? For some union activists, the question of manufacturing is fraught with a wide array of both hopeful and depressing connotations. If nothing else, the collision of the EFCA debate and the ongoing Detroit bailout guarantees that the media discourse around the labor movement will continue in the reified form of Movement conservatives and centrist pundits' endless riffing on "Big Labor" as a special interest akin to the gun lobby or evangelical christianity. Can somebody, for chrissakes, maybe once interview somebody from a labor union when they're talking about the labor movement?

3) Is Hank Paulson's recent bailout two-step a positive thing? We've moved from the so-called TARP initiative involving govt buyouts of "toxic" assets, to a new strategy of buying up preferred (but non-voting?!?) shares of bank stock. This sounds more like "nationalizing the banks," and thus might seem sensible to some of us. But at the same time, Paulson is certainly "calling an audible" when it comes to how the bailout and the buy-backs were framed. And while I am for nationalizing just about everything (including my hair and teeth), it would be nice if "our" stock in the banks allowed "us" some sort of authority vis a vis corporate governance.

In Loco Parentis

Suffer Luke Russert's palaver for a couple of minutes to get to Brian Williams going out of his way to make sure that Russert gets no loving on election night.

h/t: LGM

Our thunder. Stolen.

First they rip off the name of our beloved GTFF newsletter.

Then they post content which, in a just world, would first appear on our blog.

Jerks.

Now, That's Free Market 'Stachitude!

John Stossel. There's a man we can all love. He's got the hardcore libertarianism. He's a host of 20/20. He's got the 'stach.

Today John is very, very worried that Obama might do something crazy, like think that the government can make anything better.

He says the air is filled with talk of FDR "ending the Great Depression" and Obama's need to emulate him. You and I have not heard such talk, mostly because anyone who goes through American History 103 at even the community college level, like I did, knows that one of the major talking points is that FDR did not end the Great Depression. Jesus-Blesus, this is a true/false question and a gimme at that.

John not only wants us to know that FDR did not end the Great Depression, he made it worse! In fact, FDR and his pal Herbert Hoover caused the Great Depression by interfering with natural market functions. Let me quote:

Please. FDR's "bold" moves didn't end the Depression. They prolonged it by discouraging capital investment. Hoover and Roosevelt turned what might have been a brief downturn into 10 years of double-digit unemployment.

Now, this runs counter to everything I know about the Great Depression, which I will admit isn't much. I mean, I thought it was a global crisis, which had its origins in multiple places, having something to do with German's inability to pay back the reparations mandated in the Treaty of Versailles, rampant speculation in the American stock market, something with the gold supply, and crop failure in India. Alright, that last one I might be making up. I only vaguely remember.

So I was skeptical about Stossel's claim, but being a sophisticated blogger, I noticed that he included link. This was bad news. A fucking link. A link that will surely take me to a a devastating argument proving that not only did FDR not solve the Great Depression, but, in fact!, caused it. Before I clicked it, I sent up a brief prayer that my father-in-law never get hold of this magic link, or my holidays would be ruined from here on in (ha!). Then I clicked it. Have you clicked it? Click it now, it'll be alright.

Ha! (To be read in that high-pitched laugh Chris Matthews has that let's you know that no matter how much you agree with the man, he's clearly crazy and should be nowhere near a television camera). John got me/us. His link only goes to a chart proving that unemployment went way up before FDR became president then dropped back down after. Slowly, but steadily. Until 1937. What happened in 1937? Let me think back to those history classes. Hmmm...I seem to remember that after being elected to a second term, FDR decided to try to balance the budget by slashing government spending and ending welfare programs, and the economy tanked. So..the opposite? of the point Stossel is trying to make?

Stossel also warns us about the dangers of government getting in the business of interfering with the economy, as it inevitably leads to...well, he doesn't really say. The title of the article mentions serfdom, his commenters run to fascism and socialism, but in that Jonah Goldberg they're-the-same-thing type way, and Stalin gets a few mentions. I only wish there was some massive government intervention in the American economy that didn't result in a massive loss of freedom by the American people I could point to so as to refute Mr. Stossel.

As always, don't read the comments.

Surprised Not to See My Name

Digby has a post up about a flowchart (of questionable origin) describing the possibles at various cabinet levels.

She seems to think that the Powell listing as a possible at Defense and State is a joke, I, again, fall back on the political favors argument. Powell endorsed Obama at a time when the race seemed to be tightening, his name on the list might be payback enough. Or Obama could be signaling to moderate GOP members that if they play ball with him, he'll play it back.

On a related note, I was telling Ging about my post defending Obama's consideration of Summers and other neoliberal, corporatist swine and the trouble, if only imaginary, it caused me. I, of course, had to explain who Summers is. She immediately became outraged that Obama would consider appointing a sexist to anything and said that she wanted to retract her vote. My explanation that no one was particularly upset about Summers "sexism" did not help. My explanation that the reaction the "science and math" speech was less about sexism as it was that Summers relied on a biological determinist argument in a socially constructed world did not help.

I now join you all in fervently hoping that Summers ain't appointed to shit.

Hopefully seeing RFK, Jr.'s name at EPA and Al Gore as Climate Czar might cool her fire. And that's politics!

Party of Hate

Just listened to a Talk of the Nation segment on how the Republicans can recover from the last two election defeats.

Fortunately, for you and I, the callers all seemed to be in agreement that the way forward was through an emphasis on "social issues," or as we like to call it, "hate." It seems that the more they can hate gays, immigrants, taxes, and single mothers, the better off they'll be.

Unfortunately for you and I, there were GOP spokespersons on the program that seemed to realize that while the anti-gay marriage stance is currently a winner, the trend it toward more gay rights. Young people especially aren't going for the anti-gay thing. Blacks and Latinos might be going for it, but they are unlikely to be voting Republican in significant numbers any time soon.

The best part was listening to them talk about immigration as if flat-out racism had nothing to do with it. Everyone was very eager to make sure that everyone else knew that Republicans were not anti-immigrant, but rather anti-illegal immigrant. Too bad they have all fallen into the habit of dropping the "illegal" part whenever they speak about the issue for more than three sentences. Apparently, GOP passions get stirred up on this issue, not because of the color of anyone's skin or the ways of their culture (heaven's no!), but rather the fact that illegal immigrants have, by definition, broken the law, and that is something that will just set the blood to boiling. Lord knows, the GOP has taken a strong stand against any illegality.

Santorum seemed like he wanted to jump out of his chair and give full-throated support to the "social issues" agenda, but he also wants to be president in 2013, so he kept it to a minimum.

Oh, this is fun.

Change is

There's a fair number of people out there who - despite witnessing spontaneous worldwide street parties - are having a hard time actually grasping that this election really was about change and that more change is possible. That includes the vast majority of the Right and a decidedly small fragment of the Left. The former maintain that nothing's changed because we're still a center-right nation; the latter attributes stasis to Obama's centrism.

The Right is, of course, delusional, as dave has been busy (and I suspect will continue to be busy) documenting. The farther Left has a valid criticism, but misses the larger point.

While not discounting the change at the very top, it is the change in the attitudes and actions of the citizenry that is remarkable. Consider this: a presidential candidate spoke openly of sacrifice to the electorate and won. Before last Tuesday, there were very few people alive who could say they'd ever seen that. Not only that, during the campaign that sense of sacrifice was palpable - the Obama campaign ran on a huge and extraordinarily well-trained group of volunteers. Moreover, Obama carried professionals making over $200K - those who were explicitly told would have their taxes raised. A pluarality of Americans believed Obama was going to raise their taxes. They didn't care.

There's two things I carry from this - 1) A motivated chunk of the electorate understands the gravity of our current situation and is willing to sacrifice in order to meet those challenges and 2) this portion of the electorate now believes that it can rise to meet these challenges - after all, we just helped elect a black man to be President of the United States.

All of this is to say that in the past four years, a formidable, well-trained, and broadly-based left-wing grassroots coalition has matured. It will be mobilized to provide political cover for the initial pieces of the president-elect's agenda. It can be mobilized to pull that agenda a little further to the left.

There are millions of people ready to get to work transforming this country. Engage with them.

Really?

Ad on Facebook.

I have no idea, though. Anyone shave the chest on a regular basis? Getting tired of it? Is the chest here used as a place holder for other areas?

A Is A

Our good friend Ayn Rand taught us that there are no contradictions in this world.* If we arrive at an apparent contradiction, then we must reexamine our premises to find our error. This bit o' thinking is serving our friends across the aisle well these days, as they are forced to reexamine their premises. Here's what they had pre-election:

1. America is a center-right country.
2. Obama is a socialist-Marxist-terrorist.
3. Therefore, America will not elect Obama president.

Obama's election is an apparent contradiction, premises must be reexamined.

Obviously, one course of action would to be to blame the media for convincing Americans that they are not, in fact, center-right. And, as we know, there has been much blaming of the media. Never before in the history of mankind has the media been so in the tank for one candidate. Just look a Jay Leno's monologues for Christ's sake. (Oh, God, please don't. You'll hurt yourself.)

The problem here is that A is A. To suppose that the media could convince Americans to temporarily forget that they are center-right would be to acknowledge that A is sometimes not A, which causes a rip in the fabric of space-time, which could be dangerous, given that, as of yet, we have no way of routing a tachyon beam through the deflector shield.

So we must go back to those original premises. Perhaps the easiest route would be to conclude that maybe there is a fundamental problem with the first premise. To do so would be treason.

So, we must look at the second premise, that Obama is a socialist-Marxist-terrorist. Thank God for Sherlock Holmes, am I right? He taught us that when one has eliminated all possible solutions, save one, that one answer has to be correct, no matter how illogical. Let's take another stab at our logic puzzle, shall we?

1. America is a center-right country.

We know this is correct, because to believe otherwise carries implications too frightening to contemplate. Plus, conservatives really, really want to trumpet exit polling showing that voters identify conservative.

2. ???

3. Therefore, Obama wins the presidency.

What could fill that spot? America is center-right and Obama won. Then, logically, Obama must be center-right? No? Yes!

No one has put this as explicitly as Brent Bozell, but it ungirds the whole "If Obama governs from the left, then he'll lose the American people" line of bullshit.

And this same line of thinking explains the "Bush as liberal" line that was being advanced and is now accepted dogma all over wingnutia. His failure can only be explained by his being a liberal.

Obama is a Reaganite, while Bush is a big-government liberal. Good to know that even after the election, for some people white is still black and black is still white.


*I am aware that is not original to Rand, but like all good Americans I believe in only two philosophizers, Jesus and Rand, in that order.

Into the sunset

Beloved readers - with the conclusion of the 2008 presidential elections, I'm sad to inform you that we'll be retiring the "Maverick" label, that is, unless someone decides to get all post-partisan and nominate McCain to run Veteran Affairs (which would really, really suck). But before we bid adieu to that venerable label that has served us so well these past... how long have we been blogging here? Oh - served us, yadda yadda, we'd like to honor the man who inspired the label with what every True American Hero deserves: a photo montage set to a grunge-lite power ballad.



So long Mavericky McMaverick, and thanks for all the fish.

Music, sweet music

It is way better to be having a conversation about the difficulties in shutting down Gitmo than one about the necessity of maintaining it.

I'd also like to hear about people being held responsible for that particular criminal site, please.

The Gods Must Have Moved to Australia

When I first saw this, I thought it was a joke. About halfway through I realized that it was a joke, but in a different sense than I originally meant.

The Games We Play(ed)

Conversation down thread leads me to ask what competitive drinking games did you all play when you were in the age range of 16-26? (I put it this way instead of "in college" because I went to undergrad late and in graduate school the only competitive drinking I did involved seeing which would last longer, the pain or my liver.)

I'll start.

High school it was quarters. We played full cup of beer, bounce the quarter in the cup of beer, assign the cup to be drained, recover quarter, repeat. This game was not great for me in that until I was 25 or so, I could never burb. Not on command, mind you, but at all. So after chugging a few brewhas, I was bloated like a guy with three or four beers' worth of carbon dioxide building up in his stomach. I later discovered speed quarters, which was very fun, and burbing, which is just practical.

Post high school quarters were still played, but other games came up. Does anyone know "three man"? You roll dice and when certain number combination come up, a mini game was played or a certain function had to be preformed. We usually had "categories" when an eight came up. The roller would call a category, say "cars" and you'd go around the circle and have to name types of cars. When one repeated or the person couldn't think of one, they had to drink. Of course, the three man drank every time a three was rolled. It sucked to be the three man.

We also played a very epic game called "New Kids on the Block." My friend Mark had a deck of cards wherein the face cards were the five New Kids. The game was played like a combination of rummy and poker, where you went around the table and had to take the card off the top of the pile or draw, then discard. You were trying to collect a high poker hand. If you thought you had it, you had to call "New Kids" and everyone had one more chance to draw to beat you. In this last round cheating was freely encouraged. I don't know how many times I asked someone if it would possible for them to "slip me a Joe, if they had it." The highest hand was an NKOTB straight, holding all the New Kids, worth ten points. Or in our parlance, 10 drinks to assign out as the winner saw fit. If you called "New Kids" and lost, then you automatically had 10 drinks and had to pray you weren't assigned the other 10. A drink was commonly thought to be an ounce, but less strictly enforced as the game wore on. It sounds lame, but no one who played New Kids failed to enjoy it. Games would go on for hours. I wish I could play it with you all right now.

What you got?

Oh, the Places We'll Go

I am in Raleigh, home of...well not sure what Raleigh is the home of other than the NC State Wolfpack and the Carolina Hurricanes (hockey). I sure am looking forward to discovering things!

Ging and I went out last night. We're staying near the NC State campus, so we we're in a campus neighborhood, which fits right into our comfort zone. Here are some stray observations.

Our first reminder we were in the South came in the form of people smoking in the bars. It really wasn't so bad, although Ginger seems to think our clothes bear a permanent smokey smelly, so those pants and sweaters are out for a re-wear.

I order the house special chicken wings at a place called the East Village Bar and Grill, which our hotel's guide claimed to have the best appetizers in town. Now, I would not say I am a wing man normally, but when in Rome, right? Ordering a dozen chicken wings, I expect, well, what everyone expects when they order chicken wings, but I got a basket full of whole chicken wings. Still all tri-folded and everything. I immediately regretted having ordered the BLT to go with my "appetizer." Can't say they were all that spectacular, either. But then, they are just chicken wings.

On our way to another bar that was advertising that they were showing the Calzaghe - Jones Jr. pay-per-view fight, we stopped at a convenience store to get Ginger some conditioner. I had only been in the South for about three hours at that point, but
I came face-to-face with a walking stereotype. White guy, red hair, white dress shirt with light pink either stripes or checks, navy blue sweater vest, khaki pants. It was the notorious Southern Frat Boy come to life. Not only that, but he was carrying on about the doings "back at the house." Had I been here a week earlier, I would have applauded the perfection of the costume. As it was, I just tried to call Bob to get some snark in.

Finally we get to the bar. We're practically the only ones there and the only people interested in watching the fight. I guess this is why bars don't buy the ppv for these things. We watched a crappy undercard fight and we're in the middle of the main undercard fight when the bartenders and their friends haul out a table and put it in front of the teevee. Apparently, someone had decided it was time for some beer pong. Sure, set up the beer pong table in front of the only teevee anyone in the joint is watching. All of this was fine, as really I only had one guy's head blocking the screen every now and again. I have never seen people work so hard to drink 30 oz of Bud Light. With one round to go before the main event, they decide that beer bong wasn't good enough, they need some tunes to go with the pong, so they turn down the volume on the fight and put on some middling rock. Ginger identified it as Soundgarden, but I wasn't so sure and it sure as hell wasn't Badmotorfinger. We left. I don't think they noticed.

Other than that, not much has happened. We rented a car. I asked for a compact, they gave us a "Specialty/Novelty" car. I am driving a Chevy HHR LS. Oy. The turn signal noise is really high pitched "clickity-click" that never fails to draw laughs. There's no trip odometer, so no tenth of a mile reading, which can come in handy on a rental car, and I have a hard time not feeling like a git driving it. And of course, a rock hit the windshield and chipped it. Like any good American, I am trying to call the rental agency to tell them that the chip was already there, but they don't seem to be big on answering the phone.

These are just the beginnings of a week in vacation land. I have eaten nothing but meat in the last 24 hours, so I am sure some Courtneyesque bowel-blogging is coming up.

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.