fountains of angst: January 2008

26 January 2008

The Thanks I Get

Tweedy!

Seeing him at the Vic tonight.

See you there.

Stealing the Nomination

But if this pushes her over the edge, the Obama camp, and their supporters, really will feel that she stole her victory. They didn't contest those states because they weren't going to count, not because they were so committed to the DNC's procedural arguments that they were willing to sacrifice dozens of delegates to support it. It's as hard as hardball gets, and the end could be unimaginably acrimonious. Imagine if African-American voters feel the rules were changed to prevent Obama's victory, if young voters feel the delegate counts were shifted to block their candidate.

They've made it clear they're willing to destroy the party to get Hillary the nomination, so why wouldn't they try to seat delegates for states where the other candidates agreed to not compete. Hell, she already left her name on the ballot in Michigan. People didn't see this coming?

Surprise

Now she wants the delegates from Florida and Michigan seated.

How convenient.

How Clintonesque.

21 January 2008

Audacious Faith

No comment on the debate tonight. (I'll pick that up tomorrow. I need a break.)

Instead I'm focusing my contemplation on the words of one of my personal heroes. I just realized today that he was my age (38) when he was assassinated almost 40 years ago. Makes me think even more about what I should be doing with my life these days.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the “isness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “oughtness” that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today’s motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

–Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, Dec. 10, 1964 in The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., pp. 225-26.

I need to reread this passage when I begin to question my faith in mankind.

Refuse to accept despair.

Yes we can.

Creative Extremists

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained. Consciously or unconsciously, he has been caught up by the Zeitgeist, and with his black brothers of Africa and his brown and yellow brothers of Asia, South America and the Caribbean, the United States Negro is moving with a sense of great urgency toward the promised land of racial justice. If one recognizes this vital urge that has engulfed the Negro community, one should readily understand why public demonstrations are taking place. The Negro has many pent up resentments and latent frustrations, and he must release them. So let him march; let him make prayer pilgrimages to the city hall; let him go on freedom rides -and try to understand why he must do so. If his repressed emotions are not released in nonviolent ways, they will seek expression through violence; this is not a threat but a fact of history. So I have not said to my people: "Get rid of your discontent." Rather, I have tried to say that this normal and healthy discontent can be channeled into the creative outlet of nonviolent direct action. And now this approach is being termed extremist. But though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label. Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing stream." Was not Paul an extremist for the Christian gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: "Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." And John Bunyan: "I will stay in jail to the end of my days before I make a butchery of my conscience." And Abraham Lincoln: "This nation cannot survive half slave and half free." And Thomas Jefferson: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal . . ." So the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be. Will we be extremists for hate or for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice or for the extension of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality, and thus fell below their environment. The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth and goodness, and thereby rose above his environment. Perhaps the South, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.

via Matthew Yglesias

Is It Right?

On some positions, cowardice asks the question, is it expedient? And then expedience comes along and asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? Conscience asks the question, is it right?

There comes a time when one must take the position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but he must do it because conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of goodwill to come with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “We ain’t goin’ study war no more.” This is the challenge facing modern man.

–Martin Luther King, Jr., Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution, Sermon delivered on Passion Sunday, Mar. 31, 1968, in: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., p. 268.

via Scott Horton's No Comment

Obama's Speech

MLK Music

U2!

MLK

My favorite speech.

Bill Clinton

The best characterization of Bill Clinton's behavior on the campaign trail is that of an obnoxious little league dad. My wife added or obnoxious stage mom.

People are noticing.

I don't know who on this planet has the stature to go face-to-face with Bill Clinton and look him in the eye and tell him he behaved in a discreditable fashion. His wife? His buddy Vernon Jordan? Whoever it is, someone had better stop him. He campaigned against a fellow Democrat no differently than if Obama had been Newt Gingrich. The Clinton campaign may conclude that, numerically and on balance, Bill helped. But, trust me, to the thousands of committed progressives who supported him when he really needed it, who went to the mat for him at his moment of (largely self-inflicted) crisis but who now happen to be supporting someone other than his wife, he's done himself a tremendous amount of damage.

via Andrew Sullivan

We Cannot Walk Alone

The Ebenezer Sermon. Just read the whole thing, but here's a favorite part of mine.

There is a young, 23-year-old white woman named Ashley Baia who organizes for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She’s been working to organize a mostly African American community since the beginning of this campaign, and the other day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

So Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”

By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we begin. It is why the walls in that room began to crack and shake.

And if they can shake in that room, they can shake in Atlanta.

And if they can shake in Atlanta, they can shake in Georgia.

And if they can shake in Georgia, they can shake all across America. And if enough of our voices join together; we can bring those walls tumbling down. The walls of Jericho can finally come tumbling down. That is our hope – but only if we pray together, and work together, and march together.

Brothers and sisters, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle for peace and justice, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle for opportunity and equality, we cannot walk alone.

In the struggle to heal this nation and repair this world, we cannot walk alone.

So I ask you to walk with me, and march with me, and join your voice with mine, and together we will sing the song that tears down the walls that divide us, and lift up an America that is truly indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all. May God bless the memory of the great pastor of this church, and may God bless the United States of America.

18 January 2008

Friday Morning Music

Rilo Kiley!

17 January 2008

Fair Tax

Not really fair for most of us.

Good deal for really rich people.

Seriously.

Four Winds

Bright Eyes!

Whiners

Waaaaaaaaah.

I'm sure he'd have no problem with the caucus sites had the Culinary Workers endorsed the correct candidate.

How dare they get in the way of a coronation?

More Crazy Republicans

From someone who, I think advises Rudy!

Yes, he does.

Scary Republicans

Not long after endorsing frying up squirrel in a popcorn popper (is there a fried squirrel voting bloc?), Huck equates homosexuality with bestiality.

Especially now. In an interview with Beliefnet.com, a religion Web site, Huck has just clarified his view that the Constitution should be amended to be brought in line with God's will -- and he directly equated homosexuality with bestiality.

So, Huck what you're saying is, there's no difference between humans having sex with say, a squirrel, for example, and humans having sex with another human being of the same sex.

No slippery slope argument. Directly equivalent.

Wow.

Republicans, please nominate this guy.

Please.

15 January 2008

I Don't Like Mondays

My favorite song when I was 10 years old. Still love it.

La Costa Brava

Ted Leo!

Scary Comics

Courtesy of our Segregation-loving friends in the South. Some of them (Trent Lott) would call them the good-old days.

The Black Establishment vs. Obama

Interesting concept from a reader of Andrew Sullivan's site:

For years there has been an iron triangle of racial politics in the Democratic party. The largely white party establishment has banked on the loyal support of black voters (easily its most reliable source of voters since the mid-1960's), which is turned out and kept loyal by a clique of "black leaders." These black leaders have used this power to produce votes to promote agendas which they have felt benefitted their constituents, but they have also used this power to obtain a great deal of personal wealth and status (probably more important than the money).

Obama breaks this triangle.

He appeals directly to the average black voter. His appeal is so obvious and great that he potentially renders the "black leadership" irrelevant and unnecessary. When this happens, where is the incentive for "grassroots campaign building" contributions and "get out the vote" contributions, or as they are referred to among Democratic party pros, "gift offerings"? There is none.

Timely example here.

Infuriating Pundit of the Day

Richard Cohen.

The more I think about it, the more disgraceful that column was. Pure identity politics paranoia. A Jewish columnist sees a black man running for president and the first thing he asks himself is: where is this guy on Farrakhan? And Obama has to disprove his connections, even though there is not even a smidgen of evidence connecting the two, and even, as Greg Sargent points out, Obama's own spokesman explicitly disowned any support for Farrakhan in the same column.
If Obama has to disown a man he has never had anything to do with and a man whose toxic racist politics Obama has consistently and continuously opposed with all his might, then every black candidate is forced to jump through Cohen's petty little racist litmus test. They're all guilty of anti-Semitism until proved innocent. And Cohen's transparent disavowals of such an insinuation make it worse not better.

Pundits such as Cohen aren't well. They are sick, sick people.

Theocracy in Action

Huck!

Huckabee first observed that some of his opponents don't want to amend the Constitution on both of these topics. "But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God," Huckabee said. "And that's what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards."

Republicans, please nominate this guy. Please.

14 January 2008

Kirsten Dunst

A song by Ezra Furman.

Truce

Dear Hillary,

I hear that you followed up Obama's call for easing the tensions with a call of your own.

So it's safe to say we won't hear Charlie Rangel calling Obama's remarks stupid anymore?

Or Robert Johnson playing Republican dog-whistle politics?

Or Andrew Cuomo talking about shucking and jiving?

Or campaign workers forwarding madrassa smears about Obama?

Or Billy Shaheen's insinuations about Obama?

Happy to hear you've rejected "the politics of personal destruction," so we can get back to the issues like why you voted for the Iraq war, the bankruptcy bill, and the Kyl-Lieberman amendment.

And, of course, we'll just take "Bill's word" for it, that there was no coordinated effort to inject race into the discussion to bait Obama into talking about race and later claim he was the one who brought up race (a claim Charlie Rangel just made).

He's a trustworthy guy, right?

love,

st3veh

Attention Clintons!

This is what class looks like.

Mr. Johnson

Still a scumbag. He apparently wasn't satisfied with just blowing the dog-whistle about Obama's drug use. He also had this to say.

That kind of campaign behavior does not resonate with me, for a guy who says, ‘I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’ And I’m thinking, I’m thinking to myself, this ain’t a movie, Sidney. This is real life.”

Who's injecting race into the discussion? Nice friends the Clintons have.

Stay classy, Hillary.

Here's to the State...

Some young unknown talent does an updated version of the song Phil Ochs plays for you here.

Maybe you've heard of him.

Hillary's Friends

Robert Johnson, a.k.a. W's favorite race baiter.

Robert L. Johnson came to the Bush administration's attention when it needed him most. The cause of the White House's duress was an annoyingly munificent collection of millionaires, headed by Bill Gates Sr., who had banded together to oppose President Bush's plan to abolish the estate tax. In newspaper ads and press conferences, they held forth on the obligation of the wealthy to give back to society. So effectively did they seize the moral high ground that even the most fervent opponents of the estate tax resigned themselves to it. "$(I$)t is looking increasingly doubtful," reported The Wall Street Journal a week later, "that large estates will escape federal taxation altogether."

Evidently this didn't sit well with Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television (BET), whose family stood to gain millions if Bush succeeded. Johnson is not a man with a deep sense of social obligation. Not long ago, when an interviewer prodded him for his views on philanthropy, Johnson scoffed, "$(B$)eing a very wealthy person is not something that I wake up in the morning and say, 'Gee, I got all this money. How do I give it away?'" There is, however, an important exception to this every-man-for-himself ethos: society's duty to aid extremely wealthy African Americans. This social obligation Johnson takes very seriously.

So Johnson did what he often does when his interests are at stake: He played the race card. Johnson gathered a collection of black business leaders and demanded an end to the estate tax. Taking out newspaper ads of their own, Johnson's group attacked the tax for draining wealth from the black community. Unlike "very wealthy white Americans" who supported the tax, he declared, "We as African Americans have come to our wealth on a different path, a different road than they have." Gates and his friends, Johnson implied, were not really promoting the common good; they were trying to keep the black man down. All of a sudden, it was not so clear who held the moral high ground. Estate tax repeal had become a civil rights issue.

He's the one who said this about Obama the other day.

And to me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood – and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book – when they have been involved.

And, of course, since we're not stupid either, we know exactly what dog-whistle he was blowing, and it wasn't about community organizing.

Cynical As Hell

Guess who?

Her campaign's strategy seems to be to taunt Obama and his supporters into calling her and her campaign a bunch of racists, and then because black people outnumber white people she wins an election that's all about race. It's cynical as hell, and I don't want to be a part of it. Now Bill Clinton's on the radio whining that Obama called Hillary a racist when Obama never did any such thing.

Still whining, Bill?

Be a man and own up to your cynical tactics.

Change from the Clintons?

Ha.

Good luck with that.

13 January 2008

Deeply Misleading

Guess who?

But on another, it's deeply misleading. It's a "Meet the Press" attack. The issue isn't the issue -- about which Obama was correct -- it's his consistency on the issue. Barack Obama was right on Iraq, and Hillary Clinton was wrong. Obama could have made a couple more speeches, but there really wasn't much he could do to divert the course of the war as a lone Senator. By contrast, there was very much Hillary Clinton, and her husband, could have done to divert the war -- and all it would have taken was exactly what Obama did. A prescient, fiercely oppositional speech during the run-up to the invasion. Nor has Clinton, who routinely promises to end the war once in office, exercised political leadership in the Senate, using either her media power or parliamentary pull to sustain a brave stand against the conflict. Instead, she has spoken of her desire to end it and, in reality, gone along with the cowed, ineffectual approach of the Senate Democrats: Register opposition, vote against bills, eventually pass spending measures that continue the war. I understand that the narrative she's trying to push is that real change takes perpetual work, but she's not been working for this change. That may be because she doesn't believe in this change, but either way.

When Clintons Attack

Apparently, there's no level they won't stoop to. It's all about getting Hillary to the White House after all.

Bob Johnson's claim that he wasn't referring to Obama's admitted youthful drug use is too silly to even repeat. Indeed, the logic of his remarks make no sense if he was referring to Obama's time as a community organizer.

Let's review what Johnson said ...
And to me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted that the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues since Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood – and I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book – when they have been involved.
Now, the clear logic of this statement is that the Clintons were fighting the good fight back when Obama was just off goofing off. Being a community organizer is like the epitome of engaged involvement in community issues. So Johnson's statement literally makes no sense if it's a reference to Obama's time as a community organizer. So Johnson should just shut up or be a man and admit that it was a reference to Obama's admitted youthful drug use.

And if it's community organizing, why is it unmentionable?

Mr. Johnson should shut up or be a man, and Hillary should disavow his statement and apologize for this crap. Democrats deserve to lose if they nominate her.

Alienation

Dear Hillary,

You may want to be a bit more careful about alienating Obama supporters with your dirty tactics if you win the nomination and want to win the general.

Keep this up and I may just stay home if you're the nominee.

Love,

st3veh

12 January 2008

Is There a Ghost?

Band of Horses!

I could sleep.
I could sleep.

And now, I think I will.

Good night.

Voter Suppression

Whatever it takes, right Hillary?

Now, the Nevada State Education Association (the state teachers' union), which is seen as supportive of Clinton though it has not formally endorsed her, is suing the Democratic party to prevent block those at-large caucuses from meeting on the grounds that similar arrangements have not been made for other Nevadans.

I don't know the particulars of how the Nevada caucuses are arranged. But the 'tell' is the fact that the teachers' union apparently didn't think this was a problem until Sen. Obama bagged the key union endorsement. When asked why the union had never approached the state party about this issue until Friday, union president Lynne Warne, tellingly replied, "We're approaching them now."

If there's one thing that's core to the modern Democratic party is that voter suppression tactics are always wrong. Much of the US Attorney purge scandal was at root about Republican voter suppression tactics. I suspect this is doubly wrong -- both in the sense that the suit is meritless on its face but certainly also in the sense that you don't decide how easy to make it for people to vote depending on who you think they're likely to vote for.

Please leave these shameful tactics to Republicans.

More fair-weather tactics from the Clintons.

Shocking.

As Josh said, let's leave the voter suppression to the Republicans.

Experience and Records

Let's compare legislative records, shall we?

Meanwhile, the experience thing is obviously a good issue for Clinton but I feel like when you put it this bluntly, it sort of evaporates. I mean, compare their records? Clinton's record turns out to be really thin -- she's only been a Senator since 2001 and hasn't authored any major legislation. Barack Obama's been in the US Senate even more briefly, but did write some significant bills as an Illinois Senator, and has served more years in elected office than has Clinton. Like everyone else, I can't shake the sense that Clinton's years of first ladying amount to some kind of substantial experience, but they don't really amount to a record. What's more, in a lot of ways she's really not running on her husband's record -- she's certainly not emphasizing the idea that she's going to be a committed free trader and budget balancer.

As a commenter on Matthew's blog noted, on 2 major issues, Iraq and Health Care, Hillary made the wrong decision on the first (still thinks she did the right thing) and failed on the second.

Nice record.

And, as a second commenter noted, clearly Obama is lacking in first lady experience.

She does have Obama on that issue.

Whiners

The Clinton machine.

We have all been witnessing some Clinton campaign carping about the Democratic nominating process since this became a political horserace rather than a coronation. According to the campaign principals and surrogates, the Iowa caucuses were disenfranchising (notwithstanding record participation fueled by the Obama campaign message), the New Hampshire primary (when it didn't look good for team Clinton) followed Iowa too closely and allowed, gasp, independents to participate (notwithstanding desperate party-building needs for Democrats), and now the Nevada caucuses (now that the Culinary Workers have had their say) are disenfranchising.

11 January 2008

Stop Hillary

Yeah, Obama's just my hip black friend.

Stay classy Clintonistas.

Your Ex-Lover Is Dead

Stars!

Live through this and you won't look back.

Mistaken For Strangers

The National! The drums in this are wicked.

Sweetness and Pain

Good enough for me.

“My favorite thing in all of rock ‘n’ roll is that pleading, eager voice full of sweetness and pain,” Furman says. “You can hear it in the Smiths, in Jonathan Richman – the personality is right there in their songs, and is open-hearted and is asking you to open your heart. I want every minute of all of our records to be about that.”

Friday Morning Music

Apples in Stereo!

The Difference

It's all about Saul Alinsky.

Both have considerable talents, both no doubt believe in the causes they espouse. But there is a difference in the effect of their success--Hillary if she wins will prove Alinsky wrong, Obama will prove him right. Hillary has invited the voters to install her in the White House because she can fix the country for them; Obama, on the other hand, is inviting voters to vote for him because, in doing so, they can demonstrate the power of people to fix the country for themselves

I haven't read a better description of the difference between Obama and Hillary, or a better illustration of why we need Obama now.

10 January 2008

Poor Hillary

Whatever.

09 January 2008

On Heavy Rotation

Rogue Wave.

Good night.

Change You Can Believe In

Not Hillary.

Hillary is on the wrong side of her own rhetoric. She voted for the PATRIOT Act. She voted for the war. She takes lobbyist money and defends their contributions. And she voted for the PBR, and also couldn't pass it. None are issues that give her any advantage. And it's testament to the magnitude of her task that she's trying to battle on such unfriendly turf. The change narrative just isn't one that suits her. What she's trying to argue here is that Edwards and Obama are liars, but since she feel she has to frame everything in terms of change, she's attacking them for tendencies and failures that are, in fact, far more exaggerated within herself. She's battling under their frames rather than reemphasizing her own.

Boo! Here Come the Terrorists!

Is this Rudy?

“I don’t think it was by accident that Al Qaeda decided to test the new prime minister,” she said. “They watch our elections as closely as we do, maybe more closely than some of our fellows citizens do…. Let’s not forget you’re hiring a president not just to do what a candidate says during the election, you want a president to be there when the chips are down.”

Nah, it's Hillary, the fear-monger, from a few days ago.

via Matthew

So Long Ronny Cedeno

Please let it be true that Ronny Cedeno is included in the impending deal for Brian Roberts.

I can wear my number 5 jersey with pride once again.

Regardless, I will be very happy to see Brian Roberts in a Cubs uniform.

WWOD

Believe it or not, i did the same thing these people did last night (and i was feeling the same emotions), except i wasn't drinking wine. (My wife was though, while also commenting that Obama's concession speech was ridiculously more inspiring than Clinton's laundry list victory speech of relief that she is still in the race).

Obama speaking before Hillary is like Wilco going on before Macy Gray.

Nevertheless, I started thinking about "WWOD" (What Would Obama Do). I decided he would do something positive. So I decided to send some cash his way to show him some love for his uncanny ability to inspire me whether he wins or loses.

(On a fundraising note, now would be a good time to throw some money his way if you were thinking about doing so. Not much time between now and February 5th's Super Tuesday.) I think the matching donor program is also going on, so you can double your donation and be matched up with another Obama supporter.

Yes We Can.

08 January 2008

Guaranteed

EV always makes me feel better.

Yes We Can

And we will, with no thanks to New Hampshire.

What is N.H. known for other than cutting front-runners down?

Losers.

Enjoy tonight, Hillary, because you're not going to stop Obama.

We're tired of boomer rhetoric and boomer hang-ups.

We're tired of dynasties. We're tired of people who think they're entitled and get pissy when they finish in third in Iowa.

I'm tired of calculating Senate votes that make you no different from John McCain or Joe Lieberman when it comes to foreign policy.

We know real change when we see it.

You're not it.

So you won N.H. by around 6000 votes (maybe less) after leading him by double digits until this week. Congratulations.

Not impressed.

On my way to give Obama some cash to fight in Nevada and S.C.

Not giving you any money.

Anyone want my Clinton book? After he started talking trash about my man Obama, I'm done with him.

05 January 2008

The Speech

Go ahead, watch it again. It's that good.

via TPM

03 January 2008

Obama's Victory

What it means.

And atop it all, Barack Obama won. A black man just won the Iowa caucus. And he won not because of his race, nor in spite of it; not because of the novelty of his campaign, nor because of its historic import. He won because a broad swath of Americans found him to be the most inspiring, the most elevating, the most attractive of the candidates. He won because so many Iowans felt their heart quicken before his words that they smashed all turnout records in order to add their voice to his. It's a remarkable night. Not just for Obama, or for Democrats, or for political junkies. For the country.

Quote of the Day

Scott Horton

America, Sinclair Lewis said, is “the most contradictory, the most depressing, the most stirring, of any land in the world today.” And his message was one that the voters should take to heart. We must not fear self-criticism and fault-finding in this process, we must not accept those who glorify everything which is American, for that may mean a glorification of our faults as well as our virtues. It is a time for introspection and for self-criticism. A time to check the voices that populate our political landscape against the nation’s shared values and ideals. Who among them will withstand a test of time and truth? This election is not like the ones that went before it. Americans are not making this judgment solely for themselves. At this point, they hold the proxy of all humankind.

Change You Can Believe In

Obama!

Media Idiot of the Day

Chris Matthews, who wants to have John McCain's baby.

02 January 2008

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Ouch.

I would have like to seen the Illini at least make a game of it, and they almost did until the ball was punched out of Jacob Willis' hands in the third.

I can't complain too much though. I have a feeling quite a few teams would have met the same fate had they been facing this USC team. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that they would beat Ohio State in Columbus and play in the Rose Bowl this season.

So, good job Illini and thank you seniors for bringing the program this far. Underclassmen, don't forget yesterday. If you want to compete consistently with the big boys (and in college football these days, USC is the biggest on the block), you have some work to do.

"I told the young guys we've brought you this far, now it's up to you to take the next step, to win Big Ten championships and national championships," Leman said.

01 January 2008

New Year's Day

I... I will begin again
I... I will begin again.

The New Year

So this is the new year
And I have no resolutions
For self assigned penance
For problems with easy solutions

Happy New Year!