This might explain Wobs' experience...

According to McClatchy: Porta-potties went largely unused

WASHINGTON — Among other things, the inauguration of President Barack Obama was "the largest temporary toilet event in the history of the United States," an official of Don's Johns, the firm that provided most of them, said Wednesday.

Here's the mystery, however: Did it have to be? According to Conrad Harrell, vice president of Don's Johns in Chantilly, Va., most portables were about a quarter full Wednesday morning. Harrell had thought they'd be half full, as they are after most events.

Adam Carter, the operations manager for Alpine Portable Restrooms of Round Hill, Va., was puzzled, too. He said Wednesday that he'd "found whole rolls of unused toilet paper in some."

Here are the possibilities: The planners overestimated demand. The crowd was so dense that people couldn't get to them.

I heard Jesse Jackson, and other bigwigs were unable to even make it to their VIP seats...makes ya wanna break down and cryyyyy.....(although it is actually sad that Jesse was unable to see the event live)

hard-hitting, embedded reportage

you wanna know how l'inauguration was? it was cold.

wobs and i are in agreement that the definitive microcosm, the single vignette that contains vast and diverse universes, was surely this televised Al Roker blowout.

other highlights included Barry's shout-out to the "non-believers" and the beginning of the U.S. of A.'s love affair with the dashing Joe Biden. (and how about Jill Biden's short skirt and Jane Fonda, 1983-ish boots, btw?)

Bush's legacy

John Roberts...

Hearsay....
from thinkprogress blog:
On CNN, Wolf Blitzer said, "John Roberts had one job to do today and he sort of screwed up." Jeffrey Toobin replied, "I almost fell out of my chair."

odyssey

"Can opener to top of beer can makes a great ashtray!" - kyle m'ccaterbear.

we will now begin our odyssey, jetting to Jersey and then training to the capitol of our united nation of fifty states and countless territories and bona fide bombing areas.

we will be encountering Wobs. sunday i will hold in my hands the tickets that will take the Wobs family and I to see Barry Obama inaugurated as top guy.

alarms

this is the way a world could end.
so help me cripes. if one more shoe drops, i'm moving to Birmingham faster n' you can say 'emo kid.'

Headline: Heavy coffee drinkers 'more likely to hallucinate

Drinking my morning cup a joe, I was perusing the star trib, looking for new tidbits on the Franken/Coleman contest, and I saw this article:

Heavy coffee drinkers are more likely to have hallucinations or feel "the presence of dead people," according to new research.

A UK-based study quizzed 200 students on their caffeine intake and found those with the highest consumption were also more prone to report seeing, or hearing, things that were not there.

I didn't find anything new on Franken...but I am fairly confident that he has won and will be seated, but I could be hallucinating...

Hilary Hearing (not very live) Comment Zone...

I am not able to live blog the hearing, but watching the hearing so far... it has been a snoozer...

Did hear some serious crap re: defense of Israel's recent war crimes....not surprised...

anyone else have a comment that must be voiced? Have at it...will check in periodically to update...

BHO from Pres-Elect to Pres

John Nichols has a darling piece for the Progressive that joins works by Adolph Reed and Doug Henwood in the canon of the left-Obama-critics. Nichols falls out with the latter two - if only as a matter of tone - with his insistence that Obama is at heart - if not in deed - "a progressive.*" Due to the ideological vagaries of American political culture, and the slings and arrows of electoral politics, Nichols believes Obama will gravitate towards centrism (maybe re-frame it as "post-political" or plain "pragmatism") and carry out what some have called "compensatory neoliberalism," or a plodding, market-based liberal reformism. But, but...Nichols contends that Obama, thinking as he does (progressively) and being who he is (a progressive), could be leveraged into behaving "progressively" by the Left - were the Left to mobilize, enunciate, get its shit together, etc.

Does this sound like an obvious point, one that you've made in your own heads 1,000 times? Absolutely. But sometimes it's nice to see your thoughts grafted onto someone else's voice. Well, it is for me at least. Great artcl, but given its 'self-evident' nature there's no blurb I can find that doesn't seem almost redundant, given the OG demographic. Anyway, it's bigger than the sum of its pieces and joints.

*In light of this blurbless link and my blurb about it, a question?

1) Does the term "progressive" denote a discrete set of ideologies/practices/texts in Barack Obama's USA 2009? If so, can we isolate some of those keystones?

2) Bonus question: how does the socialist wing of the Democratic Party feel about the Progressive Democrats of America? Do we get into Trot-style# ideologiko-rumbles? Or are we chums just like Lucy and Ethel? Obviously we know where the Trots for Romney come down on this one.

# Let me apologize. That link is horrid. 'Looks like a Maoist critique of les Trots, but it feels like an anthropological curiosity if you're me, which you aren't, so that link is unfair. Avoid it.

Hillary

Too bad I'm not in a place where I can live-blog tomorrow's Clinton confirmation hearings. Le politico reminds us to pay particular attention to the Kerry/Clinton interface:

While unlikely to be acrimonious, this exchange – tinged with the awkwardness most familiar to the high school prom court – is on the list for reasons of pure spectacle.

To wit: Kerry wanted to be president. Then Clinton wanted to be president. Then Kerry wanted Obama to be president. Then Obama became president. Then Kerry wanted to be secretary of state. But Obama wanted Clinton to be secretary of state. This all sets the stage for Tuesday’s confirmation hearing, where the back-and-forth will be finely parsed for any evidence of recriminations.

Or maybe Kerry will eliminate the need for such parsing by asking, “Why you and not me?”

More Solis

More reason for optimism that "greening"/stimulus/EFCA might could be integrated into a whole, big, New Deal 2-ish package: green Jobs jedi (and Ginger endorsee) Van Jones says, Hilda Solis = "not crap."

I'll See Yr Right-Wing HateJob and Raise You a Gay Whiskeypalian

Ezra Klein on the president-elect's decision to include the openly gay Rev. Gene Robinson in the Rick Warren-laced inaugural pageant:

This is, incidentally, why it's useful for progressives to criticize the president. Politicians respond to incentives. To noise. To anger. Warren, on some level, was a response to the loud protestations of evangelicals who believed the Democratic Party had no place for them. It's hard to see Robinson is anything but a response to progressive activists who sense that Obama was more willing to risk cross those who supported him than those who opposed him. Erase the anger from either side and it's not worth Obama -- or any president -- taking the risk to placate them. But this is a step in the right direction. This is genuinely inclusive. If it was the plan all along, the Obama administration sure did a good job keeping the secret. And if it wasn't, then equality activists have something to be proud of this morning. They changed the incentives.

Overheard on Twitter

Fantasy Island had that crap right: "careful what you wish for" is the ultimate frame for the Revenge Movie that is this life.

[micro-blogging is like blog-bonsai. and twitter is off the chain if you know the right people.]

Hilda Sollis Confirmation Hearing Re-Run Live Blog

That's right. It is Friday night. What's your point?

The meme that they deserve

Via dave, if this is the zombie frame that a kleptocratic GOP wants to keep running with for the forseeable future...

Bush’s grand achievement on the domestic side was the most recent turn of a triple play of tax cuts — John F. Kennedy’s, Ronald Reagan’s and his own — all of which prove the incredible economic wisdom of allowing people to keep more of the money they make [emphasis added]. It is unfortunately a lesson that is as quickly unlearned as it is productive when relearned. We are watching its unlearning now.

... then I says, "Let's talk about it, shall we?"





You were saying?

we now resume politico-theoretico-wonk programming!/around the horn, 2009!

I know, you missed the horn, didn't you? 'Always thought the old el Horn-0 was too disorganized, too acentric, huh? Until it was taken away from you, that is. Well, lemme tell you something. You cannot escape 'Around the Horn.'

[ And nobody should think I'm abandoning this here OG just because there's some signs of life over at the Prisonship. 'Seeing how writing is pretty much the only activity that doesn't make me want to fire myself out of a fucking cannon, lately, I think I can handle two blogs. Let alone twitter, which really and truly is the bonsai of the blog-realm.]

Anywho....

In Which Bowl Games Deliver Me Into the Hands of the Far Left - The Plank
"Sadly, all the Marxists are in academia rather than broadcast sports. That's the problem with Marxists. They're everywhere you don't want them to be and nowhere you really need them." I don't agree with this sentiment, necessarily, but I do think this here article is hilarious. And it's always satisfying to hear somebody voice an anthropological interest in the "Far Left." Somebody that isn't me, that is. [PS - Postmodernist grad unionists will be happy to hear that I kicked off 2009 decrying dialectical materialism - in front of a buncha sociologists, no less - in the name of my appropriation of the "slobs vs. snobs" rubric put forth in Caddyshack and by Tom Scharpling. That's right. It was over a champagne/bourbon toast. Slobs vs. snobs! ]

NW Republican: Oregon Public Employee Unions and "Pay to Play"
That's right. Blago from Chicago and our little ramshackle "influence" in Salem? Same fuckin' thing, dude. 'Just wanted to remind everybody that NW Republican is out there.

Caroline Kennedy Wins Friends with Salad: The New Yorker Blog: Online Only: The New Yorker
And now we arrive at the "you've gotta be bleeping kidding me?" entry. Oh wait, it's the New Yorker. Sy Hersch aside, it seems like this sort of thing is all these kids are capable of. Oh, and unfunny cartoons for snobs. Did I mention I'm wearing a denim workshirt right now (if I didn't, it's because I'm not.)? Anyway, what are we thinking about this Caroline Kennedy 'candidacy?'

1. I'm sure she'd vote my way most of the time, but
2. It is incorrigble and distasteful for the Dems to participate in the dynastic bullshit and the hero-worship bullshit and the all-powerful popular fascination with rich whites that this appointment would have to be based on.
   
3. More careerist: if I were a career pol in NY who'd worked my way up the system only to lose this appointment to an amateur...well, if I were a career pol from NY I'd probably expect no less (I'm not, and I still don't).

There's yr politico-wonk-horn for the Sabbath night, titans. Have at it.

2009 Hints for Living

1. Sure there's no god, but there actually are demons. Night demons, day demons, dog-demons, rake-demons. Visible or invisible, looking like The Thing or a phone or a kid. Demons.
2. Sure there are demons, but there are definitely not any faeries. This can be particularly hard to swallow in Eugene, where it seems like there are lavender scarves and jingling bells everywhere. But those aren't faeries, they're just graduates of some kind of outdoor leadership school who decided that "enchantment" is the only viable compliment to their newfound capacity for "survival." (This is reason #671 to leave town. There are still 800+ reasons to stay.)
   
3. Life is not like a blog. It's not a steady, collaborative, dialogical medium that rewards honest effort. Au contraire, life is more like a message board, on which you need to post 100 times before a new set of topics/features is revealed to you, and you're starting from scratch again. What are the new features, you ask? Demons.
   
4. Sure, the personal is the political or whatever, but personhood ain't reducible to politics. We can recklessly conflate our bodies and our lives with causes, but we cannot evaporate into these causes. Doing so just tangles up "me" with "the struggle" in pretentious and ineffective ways, such that you cannot separate your, say, libertarianism from your stocking fetish. And then you're not helping anybody or "taking your desire for reality because you believe in the reality of desires." [special note - French theory, let alone the anarchic whatevering of the Situationist International, is of no help whatsoever when it comes to boxing gate-demons]
   
5. Your friends (probably) don't secretly hate you. They (probably) want you to ask them to use their laundry machine or whatever. They (probably) aren't looking at you and thinking, "this guy looks like a bag of balloons and his entire being is smoldering beneath a foul, acrid, pus-like silence." You should try to convince them to cook for you or go to the movies. You shouldn't let them think you somehow are benefiting from being alone.
   
6. There is no such thing as 'being alone.' It's not that hell is other people or whatever. Purgatory (read: earth) is the place where you feel too sick or too embarrassed to seek out the people who can help, thus trading good company (friends) for bad company (raft-demons, turntable-demons).
   
7. Don't sit in a dive bar reading a book. You look like an asshole.
   

What I did for NYE

Man, sure are a lot of cobwebs in here....

We saw two very excellent shows in SF for the new year. Phil and Bobby put on a nice set of shows at the Bill Graham civic center. They alternated sets between ratdog and phil and phriends with phil and bobby doing a 5-7 song semi-acoustic jam in between the two. Also they dropped a third set NYE...it was a very nice time...

and upon returning home...

The "Dead" just announced a spring tour. the lineup will be Phil Lesh, Bob Weir, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann, joined by guitar monster Warren Haynes and RatDog keyboard ace Jeff Chimenti
Only 2 shows on the west coast...may 9 LA forum and may 10 SF shoreline

I hope everyone (anyone?) had a nice NYE and extend happy vibes for your new year...

and for the audiophiles, here is the Dark star jam from the first night mid set it was more jazzy than the second night mid set Dark star (not a bad audience rec., but only 3 min):

I believe this riff might have actually been responsible for the destruction of a small city

Back when I thought "rock star" was a plausible career option, I'm fairly certain that White Denim is the band I would've applied to be in.

PRM

It's been awhile, so let's see if I remember how to do this. Live clips of some band, right? Of Montreal qualifies as a band, no? Okay then! Your last PRM of 2008!

"Bunny Ain't No Kind of Rider"


"Lysergic Bliss"


"Gronlandic Edit"

Merry Xmas, it's a distasteful collaboration

Okay, so Dave already beat me to name-checking the Onion's very funny list of obscene, absurd albs ("least essentials") from 2008. But I'm left with a question from the otherwise-semi-all-knowing women and men in the a/v control room: how in the motherfudge did Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis' Two Men with the Blues get omitted?

Listen. I am not wet behind the ears when it comes to the business of Willie albs. I know this guy'll pretty much roll tape with whoever the bleep can put together a few thousand clams and a session band [ed. note - wait, it's a live collection! live from the ever-bluesy Lincoln Center, baby!]. But nonetheless... this is the sort of thing that deserves at least some perfunctory remarks from the peanut gallery, non? Did everybody else decide just to bow their heads and zip their lips about it while I was out getting a Sun Drop?

See, here's an example of the New Me I was talking about previously. Old Me would say, "who knows what the future holds?" But New Me is not afraid to see the future, to know the future. There are three things I know for sure about 2009:

1. This alb cannot not be terrible, but will enjoy strong sales in Lane County, OR .
   
2. I will have to hear it at some point(s). I will eventually seek it out. In particular I will eventually need to know what "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" sounds like avec trumpet (blues trumpet!)
   
3. Only the recession conditions will keep me from buying it for our friend Robes. (That and the fact that I still feel kinda bad about a live Bobby McFerrin slab I bought for him. If yr ever over at Robes' house, please ask him to play said slab for you.)

Oh, and if the prospects for this alb excite you, be sure to check out the Amazon customer reviews (here.) Hell, I think I'll chuck a few choice quotations in the damned comments section. It's Christmas, you know? Blues Christmas.

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!

Holiday traditions

You know my favorite thing about the holidays? The carols. Who doesn't have memories of gathering around the tree with family and loved ones and singing this chestnut?



God, I fucking love Christmas! What's your family's twisted tradition (aside from your uncle getting drunk and ruining the holiday)?

SoCal in the House!

I love this article from market watch:

Worker Advocate: Solis Nomination Slap in the Face to America's Independent Minded Workers

Last update: 6:21 p.m. EST Dec. 18, 2008
WASHINGTON, Dec 18, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ --
Mark Mix, President of the 2.2 million member National Right to Work Committee, has released the following statement about President-elect Barack Obama's selection of Congresswoman Hilda Solis (D-CA) as the next Secretary of Labor:
"Obama's appointment of Hilda Solis is very disturbing news for America's independent-minded workers.
"Congresswoman Solis is a die-hard forced unionism activist who apparently believes that all workers should be gathered into union collectives -- whether they like it or not. Throughout her political career, she has unfailingly carried water for Big Labor and voted in favor of every forced unionism power grab that has come before her. In fact, she had a 100% voting record from the AFL-CIO, in support of their radical forced unionism agenda.

how much can an independent minded worker in a forced union collective expect to bring home?

We may get our progressive yet...

Latest dirt on the DoL search is centering on Harley Shaiken out of Berkeley. And I'm saying that a Shaiken nomination is definitely "not crap."

Here's Shaiken's 2007 House committee testimony in favor of the Employee Free Choice Act, and here's that testimony distilled down into an LA Times op-ed.

OG needless suffering/essay contest

whoever downloads, digests and most thoroughly reviews this "vintage" Pearl Jam demo gets a fancy piece of vinyl from me for a trophy (or a fancy cassette: your choice, i've got cool trophies available in both formats.) i'll be looking forward to some earnest, scholarly, scathing whatever. may the worst person win!

Next We'll have Tony Blair and Jeff Tweedy...

...talking about Harold Wilson and the other fall of the house of labour.

(h/t Washington Note)

".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.

marxist nerd adult comedy here

from an email list i won't name because i don't know who would or wouldn't want their identity revealed. and Human Subjects is the order of the day, people.

>From Engels: "Hungary, Poland and Russia are the only countries in Europe where invasion is impossible in winter."

Wow. If only Hitler had read some more Engels!

-(Poster 1).

^^^
(Poster 2): Actually, I'm kind of glad he didn't (smile).

(some of) NAM's Greatest Hits - Then and Now

National Association of Manufacturers, (1895-???)

*On the need for Employers to Organize (against the free press and direct democracy, etc):

We must co-operate – we must get together and stick together to uphold our honor and honesty, we manufacturers and merchants, or rampant labor men, socialists and demagogues will be our undoing. All these new fangled ideas about the initiative, referendum and recall, and all these attacks on capital, no matter how honestly obtained, are for the sole purpose of putting more power into the hands of the papers and politicians. In fact, I think the greatest menace that our country has today is a so-called “free press,” bidding for popularity with the thoughtless mob.

* Contra the eight-hour working day, from a pamphlet entitled, Eight Hours by Act of Congress: Arbitrary, Needless, Destructive, Dangerous:

The National Association is committed to an unrelenting opposition to this vicious, needless, and in every way preposterous proposition…The worst that can be said of it is none too bad.

The chief work of the Association is an educational one – the molding of public opinion. [If successful] the public spirited masses of the country will rally to their side, and the featherheads and mountebanks who have been casting discredit on many of the labor unions will drop back into obscurity from which they were originally dragged.

We must point out to the people that all this legislation that is going on affects them; shorter hours increases the cost of living, raises taxes, creates a condition for them that is really worse than it is for the manufacturers. We owe that to them. We must do it. That is the most important thing for this organization to do.

* Contra the Employee Free Choice Act

Union bosses have made it clear that their highest legislative priority next year is passage of EFCA.

The card check bill would eliminate over 70 years of precedent established under the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 by taking away employees’ freedom to choose under a federally supervised, secret ballot election when deciding whether or not to join a union. It would replace the private, secret ballot election with a system called “card check” which allows a union to organize if a majority of employees simply sign an authorization card. Under this system, the employees’ signatures are made public to the employer, the union organizers and co-workers.

Trading federally supervised private ballot elections for a card check process tramples the privacy of individual workers. Secret ballots are the only way to protect an individual’s freedom to choose without subtle or overt coercion.

(Good to hear this defense of the secret ballot/democracy from a group that has publicly opposed the free press, direct democracy and the direct election of U.S. Senators, eh?)

OG commenter/AFT guy Martin on Arne Duncan

from 11/20/2008, back before Obama tapped this bleeping "CEO" for the Education Sec. gig:

As a Chicago Public School teacher, I get very worried when Arne Duncan is mentioned as a possible Secretary of Education. The number of CPS students who have been murdered continues to rise on his watch. The number of neighborhood public schools who are closed (and replaced by charters) continues to rise each year. The only schools in CPS which are not segregrated (mine is 99.7 % African American) are the magnet schools. Working in this system, I see very little the federal government can do to actually help inner city schools (policy-wise anyway, we haven't received money from the state of Illinois to build or maintain school buildings in 6 years. That's for the entire CPS district. So, some infrastructure money might help). If Arne Duncan is put in this post, he offers no real education change.

Praise to Martino for being way out front on Arne Duncan. But heaven help those galldarn teachers' unions! [update, as of 12/16, Wobs tells me some higher-ups say it could be a lot worse. and Ezra Klein has a nice summary post that portrays Duncan as a sort of "Switzerland" between/among the unions and the reformers.]

Let's talk about restructuring for a moment, shall we?

To the Senators from the Deep South who decided that clinging to a dying ideology was more important than thousands of middle class jobs:

I couldn't help but notice that many of your home states receive much more federal revenue than you pay in taxes. Hardly the model of self-sufficient, pull yourself up by your bootstraps-tuitiveness, eh? Yet somehow you manage to pony up massive subsidies in order to lure automotive manufacturers from overseas into your states. In other words, the hippy-dippy West Coast, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts, and yes, Michigan - the very people you just completely fucked over - are making it possible for your state governments to give massive handouts to automotive companies (some based in "socialist," big gummint countries with free shriek! health care) that are directly competing with the domestic industry.

Let's say we withhold highway dollars, medicare funds, and social security payments until your states "restructure" those sweetheart deals. What's that? That will hurt people whose jobs and livelihoods depend on the flow of those federal dollars? That didn't seem to keep you from fucking anyone over, now did it?

clumps

(so anyway i have a long nite ahead of work tonite so i thought i'd send out a relay.)

*goes without saying politico clump
Robert Kuttner on the current BHO conjuncture
Bidenland will be Laborland!

Joe Biden and Robert Kuttner are in their different modalities both sort-of "go-to" guys at this moment. God knows it's great to hear that Biden will be a major labor liaison in the WH. Meanwhile, Kuttner's timely and perspicacious book has rightfully won attention far and wide, and he has subsequently half-emerged even on the stodgy old Sunday Morning circuit as the farrest out left-liberal prognosticator.

*introducing some important blogs clump
Will and the Grits
Mc'CaterbaronvonBear produces fearful catalog
Elvira, embroideries.
here we encounter three figures with whom i've shared a lot of collegiate thundering, but with whom i've also done, let's face it, years of blogging going back prior to even the early prisonship days. (who else misses friendster, folks?) but seriously, here we have three evocative blogposts from three tried and true OG commenters. first, Wilbro re-engages the questions of Southern self-identity that plague the post-Faulkner, pro-Cracker Barrel (or "profauckobarro") impulse that defines so much of our crowd. secondly, recalcitrant blogger kyle mc'caterflare has delivered a terrific festoon of albs straight out of his personal wheelhouse, which is of course the horror-soundtrack milieu. thirdly, the ever-Elvira-like Elvira does outstanding work with primary texts and pedagogical anecdotes that come off with a kind of, uh, gravitas that say, your average pattyjoe clump-post doesn't. highest recommendations

*ooh, cinema! clump (featuring survey question)
gabba drops this (apparently British) cartoon The Snowman on me, and reminds me how I've been emo since way before i ever heard slint or whoever.
the a/v club on cool but unnecessary movie sequels
it's important to me that Weapon X is important to Ezra Klein.
so here's the big question...has anybody seen The Two Jakes (Chinatown sequel). i've heard it's alright - Nicholson directed it? - but i'm more than a little fearful of it, seeing how Chinatown is such hallowed ground...(seriously though, a survey question: name your three favorite sequels.)

wow

have a nice day.

Not what was intended by nature

The skateboard video aesthetic was never meant to be applied to... golf:

for the record

i've listened to Dave Emory's anti-fascist research for more than a decade, and have written plenty about his importance to my "life of the mind," which is not to say his influence on my politics. that said, i think i've only ever forced his work on to jerobaim and angelor to any serious degree.

that said, during my tenure at the OG my taste in "alternative" political theory has trended towards the libertarian and/or union-busting. for those (between/among) us who are looking for a new flavor of off-the-rails spoken prose...well welcome to Dave Emory in the BHO era. You might be familiar with some of these Rezko-Syria-Norquist-Terror associations, but never before from a nominally pro-Obama point of view. from the most recent of the web texts that now accompany Emory's weekly broadcasts/podcasts:

This program explores a web of associations in Chicago that connect Obama to the urban political machine of the Daley family and–more importantly–to a milieu of slumlords who’ve generated much of their wealth at the expense of poor African-Americans. (As disturbing as this connection is, Mr. Emory stresses that this is not necessarily to be held against Obama. Dave opined that no one can ever become President or even a major party candidate without associating with some pretty unsavory individuals.) Of greater significance for our purposes is the fact that one of the principals in this slumlord network–Syrian-born Antoine “Tony” Rezko described by some as Obama’s political godfather–has links to the Bush administration, GOP string-puller Karl Rove and to people associated with the Carlyle Group. In addition to Rezko’s links to the very Republican elements who are ranged on the opposite side of the aisle from Obama, Rezko has links to terrorist elements as well. (This is explored at greater length in FTR #655.) Interestingly–possibly significantly–Rezko’s elevation into the ranks of Illinois politicos came courtesy of Talat Othman, a close associate of the Bush family and administration, as well as the man who interceded on behalf of the individuals and insitutions targeted by the Operation Green Quest raids of 3/20/2002.

See Emory's full-blown and fancy new website for way, way, way more info.

(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.

cards' acoustic "fix it"

i was captivated by this performance when i first saw it and now it's available on le youtube, hoorah!

some thoughts:
1) sad how post-Unplugged acoustic rock situations require drummers to try to "Rock" with brushes. it's an emasculating set-up (even for ladies), akin to "Rock Saxophone" and "Standing-Up Keyboard Rocker." Certainly the winter hat makes Brad seem like an approachable potential dormmate, though.
2) i'm showing this vid as testimony to my grandiose claims about the Cards' vocals. but Damn if neal casal's tiny-framed glasses and face-squelching aren't a little uncomfortable to look at. he plays unbelieveable comp gtr on this song, tho.
3) i wish bill ayers had taken a page out of ry-ry's book and dressed up like 1951 Ginsberg for his Hardball interview.

Unionization as Stimulus

Ezra Klein joins in our speculation about the chances of getting the Employee Free Choice Act folded into BHO's early, massive stimulus bill for 2009:

In 10 years, you can imagine the history being written either way. You can imagine EFCA being rammed through atop the stimulus package, and it ascends into the pantheon of crucial changes that would never have survived our system if not for the reformist opportunities of a national emergency. That is, after all, how the National Labor Relations Act passed in the first place. There's precedent here. But you can also imagine the stimulus bill getting bogged down in a fight over worker ballots, with business interests spending hundreds of millions on the campaign, and the Obama administration suffering a humiliating early defeat as they find themselves unable to overwhelm a Republican filibuster. In that world, EFCA will look like Clinton's damaging effort to allow gays in the military. Like with most policies, the question is passage. If EFCA is tried and passed, it will be a great victory, If it's tried and failed, it will be a deep wound.

Will Barry step up to the plate? Is it even doable with the threat of filibuster...My teeth are gonna be chattering for a long time over this. Those congressional hearings are going to give me seizures, I just know it.

"this is rock history/narcissism and pedophilia"

• Axl Rose On Chinese Democracy, Bipolarity, Running Late & Kanye West - Stereogum AXL talking in MYGNRforum.com - Dec 12th 2008 - mygnrforum.com Guns N Roses sometimes i confuse myself. the only Guns and Roses product i ever paid money for was the You Could Be Mine cassingle, but somehow i find myself entranced by the Chinese Democracy and related hoopla. it's weird and Citizen Kane-like to read transcripts of Axl's speech, par example. (read the first link first, you cows!)
• green blog of revolution: I'm Not So Sure About That no matter how many of us may be "hardly getting over it" when it comes to Dave3544's new, sidelined Achilles posture (let alone Ash)... this is a must-see thread. hop on over and help warm things over! the idea of a rock and roll class in middle school is really silly, but the idea of a Top 30 list in that context is just a fucking car wreck. seriously, see for yourself. the list reads like the Happy Days soundtrack for a while, then turns into the Monterey Pop guest list. throw in elton john, and you're done! and how the hell did BB King get dissed?
• (blog title, of course, from a fantastic, underrated joan of arc alb that helped define my year living in the fraternity house.)
  

How do you prepare for the world's largest tailgate party?

I'll be honest - I'm excited that I'll be able to go with T. and E. downtown on January 20 for the Inauguration (whether we'll be watching at the Mall or staking out a spot for the parade is still up in the air). The level of security that's going to be on display is to be expected. It's the rest of the wackiness that's making the event seem like a Dead lot for straight people:

Sgt. Robert LaChance, a U.S. Park Police spokesman, said that it is "not legal to camp on the Mall" and that tents would be banned.

Raise your hand if you were wondering if there's anything more pleasant than sleeping outside in the middle of January in DC.

Unlike at the Capitol or on the parade route, backpacks, chairs and strollers will be permitted on the Mall, he said. People can also bring food and coolers there.

Raise your hand if you were wondering how you were going to keep your tasty beverage ice-cold in the middle of January in DC.

In case of disaster, the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency plans to use a new loudspeaker system on the Mall to tell people what to do, officials said.

Really? It sounds like I'm about to see more cops in a roughly six hour period than I've ever seen in my entire life. What sort of disaster could possibly befall us?

What's that?

Still to be determined: how many portable toilets will be set up for the events.

Fuck.

ryan adams & the cardinals - cardinology

ryan adams & the cardinals, cardinology

( editor's note. do you know the Billy Joel song, "The Stranger?" Do you understand the sense - it goes back to Kafka, at least - in which various forms of mistaken identity result in our inability to distinguish ourselves and our desire from our antagonists? It has to do with all sorts of freud/lacan/etc suspicions about the ultimate ineffeable lust/death horizon. )

Anyway, here's what i'd say in regards to Ryan Adams. It is perfectly possible to write great songs without writing good lyrics. It is also true that the work of one of our preeminent songwriters can be filled with horrible lines. It is above all true that our best gtr rock needn't brandish "meaningful" words.

Yes, this is a magnificent, groovy, stony rock album. The Cardinals are the best thing ever to have happened to Ryan Adams - Neal Casal (gtr) and Jon Graboff (steel) work to make him a better gtr player, and even manage to cultivate a collective band-persona that undermines Adams' own tendencies towards (justified and unjustifiable) solipsism. Above all, they allow for his seemingly-contrived-but-actually-very-self-evident blend of grateful dead/faces/smiths/sonic youth/replacements. what do all of these rock groups have in common? They write memorable verse-choruses that are shot through with and defined by guitars even more than their sing-song-y lyrical qualities.

Now, this is not to say that the album doesn't benefit from its vocal component. regardless of the often vacuous words, the singing on the album is phenomenal. The harmonies are way more realized than on previous Cards albs, and Neal Casal is really foregrounded rather than sounding like just a backup guy.

Anywho, the songs can be lumped into roughly three seperate categories: Dead-ish, generic FM 70s and "modern."

Dead-ish: "Born Into a Light," "Evergreen," "Fix It," "Natural Ghost."
Generic 70s: "Let Us Down Easy," "Like Yesterday," "Stop."
"Modern Rock:" "Go Easy," "Magick," "Crossed Out Name," "Sink Ships."

Okay, so I've mentioned how awesome and sonic youth worship-y the Cardinals gtr tone is, right? It's just jammy, reverb-y Fender city (see the pic above.) The album recording retains this 'verb-y, live-sounding stereo gtr jangle vibe, often over- or under-laying a tasteful Garcia-ish acoustic strum-pick. Graboff's steel is often ambient, supplanted by keys or otherwise reserved - rarely is it deployed in the strict "country" sense we'd expect usually. And the rhythym section stops and starts adeptly and interestingly, in a way that reminds me of Mike Heidorn on the first 3 Son Volt records, that are herky-jerky, but always stopping and starting in 1-2-3-4 clowckwork installments. Does that make sense? Brad Pemberton of the Cards is a great drummer and seems like the dude in the band I'd most like to have a grilled cheese avec.

I've also already mentioned how much I was enamored with the packaging of this album, and its accompanying 7" and t-shirt. Lemme also mention this about the mp3 download that came with the 180-gram LP: the mp3 is a direct rip from the fucking vinyl! you hear the crackles! that impresses the crap outta me, and it should impress you too. 2008 is the year that mp3s and fancy vinyl tag-teamed compact discs to effing death!

Anyway, song by song in the key of post(ph)vainne:

1. born into a light: this follows in the tradition of the awesome "Goodnight Rose" from Easy Tiger. if Cold Roses was clearly sort of going for a Terrapin Station vibe, 2008 Ryan is really feeling things more of a bearded, Reckoning-ish way. Great song, bad lyrics. "Keep the faith," Ryan? Really?
   
2. go easy: bad lyrics, great singing. short, pretty, Cards come in and get out.
   
3. fix it: great single. great swanky disco strut. great neal casal guitar break. one of the songs i will remember when i remember 2008. inoffensively carole king-y lyrics here.
   
4. magick: this song is absolutely abysmal and reminiscent of the lamentable rock and roll album. ryan actually sings "later on we hit the mall" in this song. gripping, i know. i mean, it's cool that the guy lives in a bubble and decides not to write songs about Bolivian tin miners... but this is va-pid. the only way i can get through this song is imagining that it's Trefz Minx (/evil r+b) singing the "let your body move" part of the chorus. this is a phenomenally bad entry into the "New Wave Ryan" canon, and totally inappropriate alongside the other songs.
   
5. cobwebs: now this i love. 'intro is the most (new school-) sonic youth-y part ever in a Ryan Adams song. as lyrics go, the haunting chords on the "if i fall/will you catch me?" make it more acceptable than it reads.
   
6. let us down easy: wow, this is the Cardinals' version of Magnolia's epic "Hammer Down," which is itself a re-statement of the great Band/Crazy Horse Woodstock balladry school. how do you like the Casal/Ryan vocals here? hard to deny.
   
7. crossed-out name: see, these lyrics are unbelievably emo and black-rimmed-glasses-wearing-y. but they actually pull it off, for my money! the problem is that my patience has been so stepped on with all of the less-fitting earlier new age/rich kid tripe that i cannot appreciate this small, good thing. sure i can, actually. but you get me, no?
   
8. natural ghost: another high-point, for me, albeit the most blatantly kinda 80s-Dead-ish ballad. i love the guitar break, tho there's no solo and nothing really "happens." (pretty much tracks 5-8 amount to the "high-water mark" on the alb.)
9. sink ships: this song is really boring until an uber-goth, uber-emo, uber-love is hell bridge turns us into a weird elevator shaft. it's a grand left turn.
   
10. evergreen: not as silly as "Monkey and the Engineer," but at the same time it's a way more tasteless tiptoe through the tulips than anything this side of Eugene's lavender fleece factory. are you really singing to a tree on this, ryan? i thought you were mister death metal -sylvia plath guy. there is a billy corigan-like privileged whimsy when it comes adams' selection of motifs on this album. if Ryan ever finds Jesus, we're all effed.
    
11. like yesterday: boom! this is the song with the 70s-sounding, interlocking/harmony gtr leads! be-au-ti-ful singing! what a treat!
    
12. stop: now here's the unkindest cut of all. this is an arresting, well-written song with lean and clean lyrics and an effortlessly everyday, humane theme. it's also wrist-slittingly sad. 'so weird... after so many songs about nothing or songs that are just doused in sentimental abstractions, songs housed in hackneyed architecture... we end on this grown-up a note?

And that's how we leave it. I can bitch all i want about everything about ryan adams that doesn't directly relate to my listening to his songs... But when i'm listening i'm pretty enthralled and pretty forgiving of his trespasses. his sonics and his phonics and his sins are endlessly understandable to me. And his band's tone is my favorite one. Again, not all great songwriters - let alone great singers - have necessarily always written good lyrics. That's as silly as expecting athletes (or artists) to be adept at politics!

So long as the Cardinals remain the irresistible rock guitar force that they are, and so long as ryan adams and neal casal keep wrapping their throats around each other like lovers wrap around their nude legs... Well, there's no need for Ryan Adams to say anything "literary" or even "sonorous," let alone "true" (sic). I mean, all Van Morrison does these days is scat, right? That's what you can do when you've got the voice, right?

I guess i just don't quite understand why ryan adams gets a book deal, tho i can guess i understand why he'd wanna try to be a novelist (wouldn't you?) isn't this going to distract him from making me alternately Rumors, Planet Waves and Goo-influenced FM sounds?

NY Sen. Chasepack: Fran Drescher

this is getting wild, child.

Two (musical) notes

1. I'm embarrassed to admit that I missed most of the developments in modern rock from roughly mid-1994 until about late 1998, for reasons which will shortly become apparent. I'm currently in the process of trying to catch up on that period, which is also coinciding with my re-discovery of Sonic Youth. I had followed the band avidly through high school and up through Dirty, but after that I kind of lost track until Lips dropped their very good Rather Ripped on me a couple years back.

At any rate, I recently bought another copy of Daydream Nation to replace the cassette that had long since disappeared into the ether, and that has set me off on a mini-SY binge that has ultimately led me to 1995's Washing Machine. My question to you (or at least those of you who are Sonic Youth aficionados) is why the fuck haven't you repeatedly been telling me that this is a must-own album? The dissonant experimentalism crossed with a songcraft and, well, warmth has made it damn near impossible for me not to dial it up daily. I'll put it this way - Washing Machine just replaced Daydream Nation in the CD changer. And you know that says something.



2. The reason I missed out on the mid-90s musically was due to my obsession with Phish and Phish-related music. In retrospect, it's not something with which I'm particularly proud. These days, it's hard for me to get excited about them. Their studio albums are famously blasé, and even the copious live recordings I've managed to acquire over the years have lost their ability to convey the "you had to have been there" vibe of a Phish show.

The one exception to that has been my meh audience recording of the December 30, 1997 show at Madison Square Garden which I've thrown on from time to time. From beginning to end, the show crackles with the quintessential energy that propelled the best shows the band performed. From the surprise opener of Robert Palmer's "Sneakin' Sally thru the Alley" to an epically funky "AC/DC Bag" kicking off the second set to the scorching half-hour encore, the show is a gem. These days, I don't typically recommend any Phish recordings to anyone unless they ask. But now that they've released a dank soundboard/audience matrix of this show in their Live Phish series, I'm saying that if there's one piece of Phish to own, this is the one.

Meanwhile, in clusterfucks that matter

Don't get me wrong - I love watching corrupt morons implode under the weight of their own arrogance and stupidity. But the media black holes created by the massive gravitational pull of sheer dumbassitudity tend to swallow up more... minor matters.

For example, you might remember that a couple of months ago, some financial institutions asked us to loan them a ten-spot or some other completely non-consequential amount of dough to cover some bills until they could cash a few checks. I believe that we were given some assurances that they would, and I quote, "totally pay us back."

So how's that going?

Lawmakers focused on a warning in a report last week from the Government Accountability Office, represented at the hearing by Gene Dodaro, the acting comptroller general. In that report, Mr. Dodaro’s office found that the Treasury does not yet have the tools in place to ensure that banks that are receiving federal money are lending it to consumers and small businesses.

“The anecdotal evidence is still overwhelming that there are people who think they are good borrowers who can’t get loans,” Mr. [Barney] Frank said.

I see. They still haven't paid what they owe, and we're not quite sure what they actually did with the money. Maybe the check's in the mail. Maybe they spent it on hookers and blow. Maybe the put it down on the bookshelf, then went and got completely baked and then totally forgot where they put it - hey, it happens to the best of us.

Mr. Frank warned him that Congress was unlikely to approve the next $350 billion installment in the overall $700 billion bailout program unless it was convinced the Treasury was effectively measuring lending by participating banks. To that end, Mr. Frank said, he has agreed to a request from lawmakers that he summon bank executives to explain how they are using federal money.

What a novel idea! Let's ask Stony McForgetsalot what he did with the tenner we loaned him! Brilliant!

In response, [Deputy Treasury Secretary] Kashkari drew a distinction between the conditions imposed on failing institutions as they were being rescued and strings tied to the money being injected into healthy banks to strengthen the financial system.

Whoa there - you're telling us some of those guys didn't actually need the money? That they were good to go, but just thought they'd ask to see if we'd be generous? Because you know, we could've really used that cash for, I dunno, food...

Mr. Kashkari, while polite, nevertheless stoutly defended the department’s efforts to stabilize the financial system, saying that the nation had avoided a major bank failure and that credit markets had shown some improvement.

Well la-dee-freakin'-da. They borrow our cash, do something with it, even though they have nothing to show for it, and then want us to be impressed that they didn't have to sell off their sweet Wii video game system. Yet.

The committee also heard from Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas and a member of the Congressional oversight panel monitoring the bailout, and Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and the panel’s chairwoman.

The panel’s initial report, posing a set of questions it intended to explore as it studied the bailout program, was delivered on Wednesday without Mr. Hensarling’s endorsement.

He told the committee he did not endorse the report because he was not sure the oversight panel was working as he thought it should, though he commended it for its efforts. He wondered if “every panel member has the resources and rights necessary to conduct effective oversight.”

We're totally not getting our money back, are we?

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.

Bill Ayers, Chris Matthews, Hardball

i am really interested to see what you people think of this little word-prance between these two dandies.

one thing, and then, by all means go ahead and watch the thing and tell me what you think. just one thing:

1. Couldn't Bill A. have slapped on a collared shirt for the big national television interview? Or is it somehow integrally important to him and his vibe that he appear to be "keeping it real.?" (Of course after the interview the pundits got all snobby about Bill's demeanor and I quickly sprung to his defense.)
   

Jackson Five

Oooh baby give me one more chance...
Josh at TPM notes:

It's looking increasingly like Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr., was truly uninvolved in Rod Blagojevich's alleged Senate-seat-for-sale scheme, other than expressing the usual interest in getting the appointment. Most telling was the report from Jackson's lawyer today that the feds called Jackson as Blagojevich was being arrested to give him a heads up that the arrest was happening and that Jackson might see his name in the news. If this all bears out and Jackson turns out to be a victim here, too, it's hard not to feel pretty bad for the guy. Yeah, yeah, he's an experienced pol and a big boy and all that. But still a pretty a raw deal thanks to Blagojevich

I read some speculation (can't find now) that it was the end of Jesse Jr's career...he might not be moving to the senate, but his house seat is not in any danger...

I loved Obama's " I would give my appreciation" bit re: his preference for a replacement...priceless... and Blogo's rant afterward probably clinched the deal "Blagojevich was overheard complaining at one point that Obama's people are "not going to give me anything except appreciation." He added: "(Expletive) them.""...

It was interesting that BofA caved to pressure on the Republic window and doors strike, offering a loan for their severance package right after Blogo's call for boycott of them...then he got Fitzed....

MR for Car Czar?

Mitt Romney, anybody? I've almost totally lost touch with the "Trots for Romney" elements that co-edited the Prisonsheep, but I'm certain they have something to do with this whisper campaign. How else can one explain somebody like Ezra Klein entertaining the idea?

NY Senate chasepack news

the AFT's very own Randi Weingarten in on the list now?

(h/t Reihan Salam sur L'American Scene. Salam also dilly-dallies with Doug Henwood on the Dan La Botz/UAW episode of Behind the News. Is Reihan my fave conservo-blogo? Prolly. It's interesting to hear a conservative intellectual decrying the Right's tax cut fetish, that's for sure. Mebbe I'll send 'em a gratis copy of the solo alb.)

The Good Staffer: Was it Rahm who Dropped the Dahm?

Was it Rahm who dropped the dram on Gov. B?

Local Chicago press is reporting that Rahm Emanuel reported Blago after someone approached the Obama folks about who he wanted for the Senate seat. In other words, yes, Rahm may well be the good guy here.

The good guy is one way of looking at it. Another is that Rahm is smart, and ruthless. Blagojevich is legendarily corrupt and known to be under investigation. His willingness to reach out to the White House and try and embroil them suggested a willingness to compromise Obama and his presidency. So Rahm cut him down. It's reminiscent of nothing so much as Tony Soprano killing Christopher Moltisanti when Chris becomes a liability. Rahm may have been a key figured in getting Blagojevich elected, but he's not going to sit and watch Blagojevich compromise the rest of the party. This sort of strategic ruthlessness, incidentally, was the whole argument for hiring Rahm.

(h/t Firedoglake, via Ezra K.)

Security, Freedom, Choice, etc.

Labor activists have always believed that union security prevents non-members from benefitting unfairly from the sacrifices they make to obtain fair wages and conditions. But union security has always had an even greater relevance for labor leaders because union building in the United States - with its extremely dynamic economy, its divided working class, and its business interests seemingly intransigently opposed to unionization - has made leaders all the more aware of the insecure nature of their organizations. For union officers, the ability to achieve some form of union security protected against employers or non-members undermining wage and labor standards. It also enhanced organizational stability, particularly financial stability; and most importantly, it made the threat of a strike much more potent. By freeing union leaders from these bedeviling problems, union security practices aimed to establish a stable power base for their organizations.

Grounded as it was in a power relationship, the controversy over union security could easily assume expansive conotations. When it did so, the discussion was not really over individual freedom - or the ethics of labor solidarity for that matter. The dispute instead resembled something akin to a debate about the desireable extent of union power in American society. When viewed from this perspective, the volatility of the subject and its keen concern to both unions and employers is easier to understand.

- Gilbert Gall, The Politics of Right to Work

God's Love

allow yrself the 78 seconds it takes to see this, at some point. (this goes extra specially for you non-cable-television types.)

don't let this luscious, creepy little riblet pass you by. (the 30 second ad embedded herein aired during rachel maddow just now!)

i sincerely hope television advertising and "small business" continue in this zesty and/or fervent new direction. you?

On the Verge of a Bridge Loan, Pelosi Quotes Corker

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said negotiations were continuing with the White House, and lawmakers were hoping to create an auto industry that could thrive on its own — an effort she said would require concessions from management, labor, creditors and others.

"We call this a barbershop. Everybody's getting a haircut," Pelosi said.

(h/t: ap, by "ap" i mean the 'press association.' not the other AP.)

ah, and here's Corker's response to the proposed deal.

PrismShift: Inventory 2

MI-5 or Spooks, title depending on which side of the drink you're on. This is your slick, techno-laced representation of the 9/12 Anglo-American alliance. Quality acting and the writing fine. The show has also withstood quite a few major cast changes without "jumping the shark"or otherwise plummeting into the crap-realm. Certainly I don't like spies as much as I like cops or private eyes. But I certainly do like spies. (And wonky research spies, in particular. And government bureaucrats. And every other imaginable genre of "functionary.") Can you hear the laptop-based-drum-sequenced blips, yet? So what if, in addition to its being "good," the show is like 24 for fans of the Crystal Method?

1. Bowie in Berlin. Where in the hell did my $0.99 copy of Station to Station go? Is it wrong of me to consider the I. Pop/D. Bowie work of this period to be "of a feather" with Lou Reed's contemporaneous Berlin?
2. Grave Error and Death Bed (John Marshall Tanner novels) by Stephen Greenleaf. This series is another reshuffling of the CA private eye vibe, unfolding the San Francisco of them 1970s. Greenleaf/Tanner's politics certainly don't suck, but more importantly these are very sharp, deadpan stories. They help me to feel like a) I'm not alone in the universe, and b) someone hears my screams.
3. The bleeping Neil Halstead album that completely has bleeping captivated me. Surprising to hear me fixate on acoustic-y wish-wash? i know, i know. esp in this cntxt:

   One night while in the studio with Neil Halstead a friend questioned him as to what kind of music he played. Neil's extremely thick beard turned into a smile as he said "Nylon Rock" before laughing and turning back to his beer. I don't think that description offered any clarity to the asker, but to me it seemed perfect: a self effacing term to help him deal with the fact that he, a former shoegazer, was making a solo record and his main weapon was simply a nylon string guitar and a couple of shakers.

4. DC Vs. Mortal Combat Video Game that I have never played, will prolly never play. But I take great solace in knowing that somebody out there is getting to simulate my fantasy of a death bout between Raiden and whoever-the-crap. 2008, people!
   

   The series loves gruesome combat, but pines for the mainstream adulation. When games were less bloody, that was an easy balance to strike. Gouts of gore plus catchphrases ("Finish him!") and the allure of shocking hidden fatalities added up to massive sales and popularity. Now that those elements are commonplace, how to recapture the attention of old?
   
   Throw Batman into the mix, obviously. Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe mixes up the stable of MK fighters with heroes (Superman, Wonder Woman) and villains (the Joker, Catwoman) from DC's comic-book pantheon.

5. quality time with uncle. and uncle's pronouncements on behalf of the Democratic party.
   
6. Cards play-by-play and, more embarassingly, the solo ryan spew.
7. Gone Baby Gone is le non-crap, so far as adaptations of Lehane novels go. Not so good as Mystic River, tho.
8. The film criticism of Bruce Bennett for the NY Sun.
9. The Shop Around the Corner by Ernest Lubisch. It's a lovely film to watch with a loved one, so I watched it (and A Holiday Affair) with my loved one on the morning of the dur-befur-yursturdur...Cripes, I love it, even though it was used as the script-skeleton for, shucks, You've Got Mail.
   

BHO on Occupation: Not Crap

See for yourself. This is meaningful, I think. So does Ezra K.

Here's hoping this inspires a hilarious revival of the ACORN-Alinsky shuffle from the Right. Goodness knows the UE deserves a place (between/among) those latter two.

Labor Sec Is Not Sebelius

h/t Ben Smith:

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, mentioned as a potential veep and then as a likely secretary of labor, e-mailed Kansas reporters that she's taking herself out of the mix, the Kansas City Star reports.

Her choice leaves unclear whether Obama will pick a prominent labor secretary — Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm has also been mentioned — to speak for labor on the economic team, or a lower-profile one whose job could be largely to reorient the Department of Labor.