Gnashing of Teeth

NY Times reporter Jeff Zeleny wrote this account of the response to the announcement that Michigan delegates, with 1/2 a vote each, will in fact be seated at the convention.:

Supporters of Mrs. Clinton jeered the decision, loudly booing and hissing the members of the group as their faces were shown on a large screen in the room.

One woman, wearing a blue “Team Hillary” shirt, shoved a man in a suit and tie with a small Obama button on his lapel. Another woman in a white Clinton shirt hung her head in her hands.

“That was a crime!” a man shouted. “McCain in 08! McCain in 08!” a woman yelled from the back of the room. “No-bama! No-bama!”

Hillary, can you tell your supporters to chill the fuck out? This is not "vigorous debate," this is some kind of intra-party Two Minute Hate. Yes, the outliers of the group are not representative of the whole, but where is your leadership in this? These people and stories like this become, fair or not, your legacy.

Make a statement decrying this shit.

Titular Break

Quick reminder of how quaint the Chelicerata are:

The chelicerae, which give the group its name, are pointed appendages that grasp the food in place of the chewing mandibles most other arthropods have. Most are unable to ingest anything solid, so they drink blood or spit or inject digestive enzymes into their prey

.

Infiltrate the Vegans

Oh, good gracious:

“She told me that I had the perfect ‘look,’” recalls Carroll. “And that I had the perfect personality—they kept saying I was friendly and personable—for what they were looking for.”

What they were looking for, Carroll says, was an informant—someone to show up at “vegan potlucks” throughout the Twin Cities and rub shoulders with RNC protestors, schmoozing his way into their inner circles, then reporting back to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a partnership between multiple federal agencies and state and local law enforcement.

Friday Directions

This why I follow Warren Ellis on Twitter:

I'm about to chisel off the top of my skull and pour Red Bull over my naked brain. And then stick a lit cigarette on top. NAKED BRAIN

Life's Too Good

This album is sounding great this afternoon, so... a test of Amazon's MP3 Store widget.

Cleaned

This is the perfect cleanser for a week of overpoliticking.

Once you think it can't get any better, it steps up to a whole other level around 1:10.

Tense

In response to all this "verb tense shit" from McCain campaign, who has been claiming it's just petty semantics that McCain said "we have drawn down to pre-surge levels" (FALSE by 20,000 humans) and he meant "we are drawing down to pre-surge levels" (sure, with ponies on the way, too), Hilzoy writes:

Still, it's nice to know in advance that we can expect John McCain not to care about the difference between past, present, and future. It will be very useful, if he becomes President, to know that he regards a statement like "I have taken action" as equivalent to "I will, eventually, get around to doing something, but I haven't yet", and that he takes "I have already made all the documents available" and "several decades from now, I will get around to releasing them" to be interchangeable.

Bleg

I probably could have guessed this in context, but....

Bleg

A blog entry consisting of a request to the readers, such as for information or contributions. A portmanteau of "blog" and "beg". Also called "Lazyweb."

Another day, another word.

Sure is pretty out today.

Should We Maybe Sweep Up or Something?

I love this post from Deeky at Shakesville:

The other day Liss and I were talking and she said "Doesn't it seem like we don't even have a government right now? When was the last time there was a major piece of legislation worth discussing?"

I replied, "It's totally like working someplace that is going out of business, and it's like the last couple weeks and everyone's sort of sitting around wondering, hey, should we maybe sweep up or something, but then they think, fuck it, why bother."

Liss added, "It's like we're all just waiting for January Twentieth of next year so the country can start again. Political purgatory."

234 days until something happens.

The Danger of Fulbright Scholars

Oh, for fuck's sake:

Seven Palestinian scholars may lose their prized Fulbright scholarships to attend American universities because Israel won't let them out of the Gaza Strip.

And apparently, this new "restrict scholars" policy is fairly new.

Before the restrictions were imposed in January of this year, between 1,000 and 2,000 Gaza students traveled to study abroad every year, according to Gisha, a group that advocates freedom of movement for Palestinians.

This should be an international embarrassment. It actually seems like one of those stories where international media/blog/etc pressure and humiliation could actually have an effect.

What's Dunkin' Malkin up to?

One...Two...

It takes rotten-hearted Michelle Malkin two paragraphs in her NYC crane collapse story to mention "illegal alien labor."

Watch People Exercising

Blogger Jon Swift is back, and it's good to hear what his little blogging break afforded him:

However, I soon realized that I had a lot more time to do some important things I had been neglecting in my life since I started my blog. I began watching a lot more television and playing more videogames, some of which were quite challenging. I became active in local community issues such as fighting to stop bilingual Esperanto education in our schools instead of forcing Esperantos to learn English. Some days I even went outside of the house and drove to the park to watch people exercising. And most important, I spent some quality time with my daughter Schlafly and my son Spiro, though not actually in the same room since they never seemed to be around the house. But I did have more time to text message them about how they are ruining their lives and how they are so much luckier than I was when I was growing up, which I think has made us closer.

Question Marks

Could Jonah Goldberg be any dumber?

"Fear"

Michelle Obama:

Fear is the reason this country is where it is today. Fear is a useless emotion. Don't ever make decisions based on fear. Make decisions based on hope and possibility. Make decisions based on what should happen, not what shouldn't. Don't ever make decisions based on fear.

Andy's Setup

Andy Bell's guitar setup from 1991. Andy was one of the guitarists from Ride.



(via Dead Flowers: Anglophiles Anonymous)

Ready, Begin

Reuters.com:

During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama — a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office.

“I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued by George Bush and overturn those laws or executive decisions that I feel violate the constitution,” said Obama.

(via Obsidian Wings)

EVAR

Sadly, No has the greatest bitch slap in history.

Needs of the Many

Warren Ellis, on Twitter, re: Twitter's uptime problems:

You know, when Twitter hits capacity, they could just cut off the Bay Area's usage and let the rest of the planet use the service...

18

Gallup: 18% of Americans believe the Sun revolves around the Earth.

(via Ben Smith, in the context of a discussion that perhaps 10% of Americans thinking Obama's a Muslim is not really that high.)

And yes, that poll's from 1999, but that's still 450 years after Copernicus. Four hundred and fifty. Half a millenium.

Recursivity

Nice.

The 10.5.3 Software Update includes this fix:

Improves the accuracy of the Software Update progress bar indicator.

It'll be fun watching the progress bar of the "last" inaccurate Software Update.

Blood

I pretty much love every single last Dinosaur Comic, but this one provides a fine example for my technique of including only a couple of panes to get you to go read the whole thing.

Invisible Hand

David Boaz writes a hilarious Op-Ed at the Wall Street Journal complaining, basically, that Obama, in his commencement address on Memorial Day, spent too long speaking to the students about working for non-profits, and not enough time telling them to pursue careers in business or in the military.

But the final paragraph cracks me up the most.

Your life counts. You have a right to live it as you choose, to follow your bliss. You have a right to seek satisfaction in accomplishment. And if you chase after the almighty dollar, you just might find that you are led, as if by an invisible hand, to do things that improve the lives of others.

Shorter (and not really that paraphrased!) Boaz:

You know, you just might find that the best way to help others is to chase the almighty dollar. An invisible hand will do this.

The Democratic Party should frame this very telling piece.

Decisions

There's an "anthropomorphized prairie dog" in the opening scene of the new Indiana Jones?!

Netflix it is.

Caricature

That Rachel Ray Terrorist Scarf Michelle-Malkin-Madness sure is some funny pathetic shit. It got me riled up at first, but now I can see it for what it is: plain silly.

And this will be part of Malkin's "legacy," what she is remembered for.

Orders

Bill on Kos is much more critical with Scotty than I was, and I concur:

Once again, we come face to face with a White House official who could've done the right thing...but instead decided that the lives of American troops, Iraqi civilians, Katrina victims, and a network of covert CIA operatives were worth less than the luster of his master's lapel pin. When our country needed him to tell it straight, he hid behind propaganda and spin and bogus talking points and outright bamboozlement.

He told us to our faces we could trust him, when all along he knew that he was committing deception on a massive scale with horrific consequences. The lies he left in his wake, placed end to end, could reach the moon and back. He helped put the welfare of a handful of maniacal warmongers ahead of the welfare of the country. The time to reveal the way the Bushies were "restoring honor and integrity to the White House" was back then---years ago---when such revelations might've done some good. Instead, he waited until 2008 for his conscience dump. What bravery. What a mighty mighty man.

If there was any justice in the world, Scott McClellan would have to travel to the home of every family member who lost a loved one in Iraq, get down on his knees, and beg forgiveness. But he won't. Instead, we get 341 pages of, Hey, I was just following orders.

Moving Arm Today

If you haven't been following the MarsPhoenix via Twitter, I highly recommend it. A really charming tone to the posts:

Looking forward to moving arm today. Will bend the wrist and flex the elbow. It's been stowed for 10 months so I'll move it slowly/gently.

Coates on "I Ain't No Punk"

Ta-Nehisi Coates on The Logic Of "I Ain't No Punk", contrasting that approach to the "humor" Obama showed in the primary, where he " repeatedly exposed the stiff, stilted nature of Hillary’s whole campaign."

But the jujitsu period of this campaign seems to be over, and now its Obama who has to show that he “ain’t no punk.” Of course, war hero John McCain is going for the gold in the "ain't no punk" olympics. So now we reconcile ourselves to a long hot summer of dueling press releases, miscellaneous rants, and feigned rage. Yay. Obama really shouldn't drop the humor from his pitch--it's one of his best qualities.

One Person

If this small post helps just one person...

In OSX, when it seems that your number pad is no longer working, it's probably because you have "Mouse Keys" turned on. This is a feature that is designed to help those with difficulties using the mouse better navigate by using the keyboard instead. For me, it is mostly the cause of frustration when I press the #5 button and, somehow, my machine stops letting me click anywhere.

The radio button to turn Mouse Keys OFF is located in the Universal Access tab, under Mouse. Not Keyboard. This is why I always forget where it is. To fix the behavior of your keyboard, go to the Mouse tab.

'Kay.

1/6000th

Friendly Atheist says Happy Birthday!:

Today is the first birthday of… the Creation Museum!

(Which, by Creationist math, makes it approximately 1/6000th the age of the universe…)

Heh. I'm only about 171 times younger.

Rusty Tack

Tim F from Balloon Juice on the the pattern of Bush insiders (like Scott) writing critical memoirs:

Here’s the deal: early bailers get some credit for being first (or second or third) out of the gate. Rats that take longer to get off the ship won’t get the same bonus, and anyone still supporting the administration by inauguration day is left holding the legacy. It’s like a game of musical chairs where every seat has a rusty tack on it.

Middle Finger March

Brad, at Sadly, No!:

Incidentally, I’m looking to organize a Million Middle Finger March in Washington, DC next year. The premise is simple: we get a million people to gather in our nation’s capital to flip Bush the bird as he takes off in his helicopter after the new president is sworn in.

Amen.

Better Served

Former Bush Press Secretary Scott McClellan, in his new book::

The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. ...In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.

Yes, he should have spoken or acted before, when he had a sliver of power, but still, this is not unwelcome.

Also, he just turned 40 this past February. He looks 55. Pretty shitty job, being Press Secretary.


Bonus Quote:

What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary.

Practice

An old old friend on his recent fatherhood:

I think good training for having a baby would be to hire an ambulance and park it in your bedroom. Then at undisclosed and random moments throughout the night, turn on the siren. Then get up, poop on your hands and wee on the floor and then clean it all up. Repeat.

Enough Is Enough!

Go, Joe!



Joe Biden on Bush's comments insinuating Obama is like a Nazi appeaser.

“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

Speaking before the Knesset, Bush said that “some people” believe the United States “should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," Bush said. "As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Step down, Bushie! You're done.

Can We Spare One State For Them?

John Cole:

How do you engage in legitimate debate with people who think that rainbows make people think of gay sex?

Amen.

Whatever Do You Mean?

GOD these people are assholes.

Here endeth my analysis.

Fireworks, Street Parties, City Proclamations, Etc

Michael D at Balloon Juice:

We should have a January 20, 2009 countdown ticker at this blog, and I think we should have a national celebration when this criminal leaves office. I mean a truly national celebration, with fireworks, street parties, city proclamations, etc that would be televised all over the world. I want President Bush’s last day in office to be the most huniliating experience of his life – one where the American people show him how absolutely jubliant they are that he is no longer the leader of this country. We could call it “National Thank Fucking God Day” or something like that.

(his emphasis)

Seat of His Pants

Hilzoy, on the untruth that Bush "gave up golf" in Aug 2003:

Did Bush consider giving up golf and then imagine that he had actually done it? Or did he just hear the question and decide that, yes, giving up golf "for the families" sounded like a good thing to pretend to have done?

I don't fucking care if he stops playing golf. He's free to leave the table and go play.

Pat

Pat Buchanan is going insane on the MSNBC coverage of the Edwards endorsement tonight.

Update: Pam has the video footage of Buchanan freaking out that night.

Math

CNN just told me that "the math is not necessarily on Hillary's side."

"American" DNA

The most inane article of the year so far? Michael Medved:

In today’s ruthlessly competitive international economy, the United States may benefit from a potent but unheralded advantage: the aggressive edge sustained by the inherited power of American DNA.

Update: PZ saw this trash, too.

Endless

Dear Media: Don't worry.

Even if when the Democractic Primary ends, you'll still have stuff to talk about.

Wil's Plan

Wil Wheaton's got a plan.

Until

Clinton:

I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard

This doesn't sound particularly disruptive to me. Just that she's planning on stopping the campaign once "everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard," ie. after the final primary vote.

Maybe I'm just being optimistic.

Do Not Want

Eeek! The NY Times is scaring me!

Shakesville: "No and No"

Melissa McEwan:

Mike Myers, Adam Sandler, you're no Sacha Baron-Cohens.

Blame Game

The BBC News gets it right with this little promo, currently appearing on their home page.

A Biblical Plague of Obama via Robert Novak

Robert Novak, in an article that is ostensibly about McCain's problems getting the evangelical vote (and whom he might select as VP to help that), actually spends quite a bit more time spreading this idea that Obama is viewed as a fucking "biblical plague" among that group.

Some U.S. Christians are not reconciled to McCain's candidacy but instead regard the prospective presidency of Barack Obama in the nature of a biblical plague visited upon a sinful people.

Cute, Bob. And then later:

Nevertheless, the word is that some evangelicals dispute Huckabee's support. One experienced, credible activist in Christian politics who would not let his name be used told me that Huckabee, in personal conversation with him, had embraced the concept that an Obama presidency might be what the American people deserve. That fits what has largely been a fringe position among evangelicals: that the pain of an Obama presidency is in keeping with the Bible's prophecy.

Now you're passing along an anonymous comment of some loon that says Obama is the "anti-christ?!"

According to this activist, at the heart of the let-Obama-win movement is longtime Virginia conservative leader Michael Farris -- the nation's leading home-school advocate, who is now chancellor of Patrick Henry College (in Purcellville, Va.) for home-schooled students. Best known politically as the losing Republican candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia in 1993, Farris is regarded as one of the hardest-edged Christian politicians. He is reported in evangelical circles to promote the biblical justification for an Obama plague-like presidency.

This is the "note the freaks" approach to smearing the Left that Glenn Greenwald has written about multiple times. Greenwald:

That's how the right-wing always works. The more respectable venues promote more tepid versions of the filth being spewed by the darker corners of the noise machine, so as to keep a safe distance while simultaneously ensuring that it ends up widely circulated.

Pitfall Pitfall

This new version of Pitfall for Wii just seems really depressing:




The original:

One for the Ages

Fierce and concise post from Sadly, No! of a visual history of Bush's legacy.

But Remember How Smart He Was In Starship Troopers?

Redstate has taken to pointing at Obama and saying he's young and inexperienced like Doogie Howzer. Snap!

You and 100 Million Others

Susan Arendt from Wired on The Dangers of Driving After GTA:

I must admit, I'm a bit of a leadfoot by nature, but the flow of traffic on a highway is usually rapid enough to keep me content. That day, however, despite the reasonable pace being set by the cars around me, I quickly grew impatient with my perceived lack of progress. I looked for holes in the traffic that I could use to my advantage to make faster progress.  As I approached a stop light at an empty intersection, the thought flashed through my mind that I should just drive right on through it. I didn't, of course, but the thought was there, just the same.

The Man Died

I agree with Hemant Mehta that PZ sometimes needs some perspective.

19,602

Gothamist observes that now that NYC restaurants have to post calorie counts for their foods, we can calculate that last year's Hot Dog Eating contest, Joey Chesnut, won by eating 66 dogs: a grand total of 19,602 calories in 12 minutes.

False Balance

Another pathetic example of the fake balance style of media coverage, courtesy of CNN.

Doug Goodyear resigns from the position of heading the GOP National Convention when it is found that he worked as a lobbyist doing PR for the Myanmar military rulers.

Robert Malley, "an unpaid Middle East policy adviser to the Obama campaign," resigns after it is revealed that he would occasionally "meet" with members of Hamas in his role as part of the International Crisis Group.

And those are similar, how??

Chiwhoah!

Holy Crap! Have you seen this 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' movie shit?

"I'm the real hot dog, so hold the bun!"

Georgette

Hey, little kid - would you like to be named after George W. Bush?

And already, the first lady is joking about names for possible grandchildren down the road.

"George or Georgia ... Georgina. Georgette," she said.

Access to Millions

Fascinating and in depth article from the AP: Wife's beer fortune gives McCain access to millions

Maverick-y Government

Well then.:

John McCain's choice to manage the GOP convention this summer is lobbyist Doug Goodyear, whose firm once represented Burma's repressive regime.

Cool!

Wait, there's more fun stuff in this. Doug sounds like a great guy.

[S]ome allies worry that Goodyear's selection could fuel perceptions that McCain—who has portrayed himself as a crusader against special interests—is surrounded by lobbyists. Goodyear is CEO of DCI Group, a consulting firm that earned $3 million last year lobbying for ExxonMobil, General Motors and other clients.

Potentially more problematic: the firm was paid $348,000 in 2002 to represent Burma's military junta, which had been strongly condemned by the State Department for its human-rights record and remains in power today. Justice Department lobbying records show DCI pushed to "begin a dialogue of political reconciliation" with the regime. It also led a PR campaign to burnish the junta's image, drafting releases praising Burma's efforts to curb the drug trade and denouncing "falsehoods" by the Bush administration that the regime engaged in rape and other abuses. "It was our only foreign representation, it was for a short tenure, and it was six years ago," Goodyear told NEWSWEEK, adding the junta's record in the current cyclone crisis is "reprehensible."

When Obama Wins

Kottke has a site showing all the things that will come about "When Obama Wins."

Movin' On Up

A friend of mine has just informed me that my ranking in the world has increased.

We had been in the #2 slot for a while, but this blog is now #1 for those searching Google for "M&M Licking Itself."

Victory!

Memories

Jenna and Henry souvenirs, anyone?

Words Bubbling Up

The internet provides me with io9's Nine Reasons Why I Hate E.T.:

E.T. is too cute and too ugly at the same time. We've already established that E.T. looks like an unattractive genital. At the same time, he is way to freakin cute. What the hell with the waddling and cutsey voice and big giant eyes. Big beating heart? Gross. I am barfing now. Plus that egregious "looks like a toy" scene, where he hides in with the dolls? Puh-leez.

Thanks, Big Network of Humans!

Understanding

It's a good day to repost one of my favorite sections of the famous "Race" speech Obama made back in March, "A More Perfect Union." It's a marvelous example of how he again and again takes understanding beyond where you expect a living, breathing politician to take it - let alone one who very well might be our damn president!

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

This kind of thoughtful consideration makes Hillary's attacks look even more clumsy, disingenuous, and, um, bullshitty.

Wait for an "OK"

Gruber, in a post called Is This Microsoft-NBC 'Copyright Cop' Thing Bullshit or What?:

Google’s scheme for YouTube involves a centralized database of “ID files” created from videos uploaded by copyright holders. When you upload a new video, their tool creates an ID “fingerprint” and attempts to match it against the database of ID fingerprints from the reference videos submitted by copyright holders. Regardless how well this scheme works for YouTube (and it doesn’t exactly seem to have eliminated copyright-infringing material), it doesn’t seem feasible for a desktop player, unless Microsoft plans to host such a database centrally and require the Zune desktop software to upload “fingerprints” and wait for an “OK” before allowing you to sync new videos to your Zune.

That would be hot.

(Alternate punchline: "Don't give them any ideas!")

"Their Real Goal Is an Enslaved Humanity"

Mark Noonan is truly insane:

Obama and his fellow liberals talk a great game about hope and humanity, but their real goal is an enslaved humanity, because they really view the world as a hopeless place. Lacking any real faith in God and thus any hope for the life of the world to come, they view the world through the dark, narrow eyes of despair, and only seek to make misery more palatable for most, while desperately clinging to their own personal wealth and privilege. The sickest joke of our modern world is a liberal - like Obama - who talks of hope but also tells the tale again and again about how this or that person just can’t make it unless Obama - or someone like him - graciously comes along to save the day. John McCain deals in reality - the harsh realities of the world, but also the reality of God, and his justice in the world - and the resultant need for each of us to do what we can, where we can, to make things actually better for the people around us. The difference is best described as the difference between “ah, you poor, helpless person; let me sustain you just above complete misery” and “hello, brother, let me lend you a hand so that you, too, may take your rightful place in the world”.

The battle is joined - and which world do you want?

Nobody does it better than Mark.

Whether We Like the Doctor

Ezra Klein:

Indeed, I think the question of the Surge has actually been overwhelmed by the question of Bush, to the detriment of folks on both sides. Rather than argue about the patient dying on the table, we've been debating whether we like the doctor. But what else were we going to do? Until you change the doctor, you can't change the treatment.

Devil Made It

T-Rex finds the Devil taking credit for Grand Theft Auto IV.



Today in Dinosaur Comics. Check out the whole thing.

Little Brother - Read It Now, Fools

I've been having my mind blown for the last couple of mornings reading Cory Doctorow's latest novel, "Little Brother."

I hate paraphrasing Cory and his ideas and I feel the same way about the book, so my main urge is that you should just go get it and read it. He offers all his books for free (actually, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike license), or, if you prefer, the book is available as a Printed Thing, too.

The book is actually described as a "Young Adult" novel, which mostly just means there are young main characters, and the tone of the book seems to be speaking to teenagers.

It's about so much about what it means to be alive today in the US and the world, and it's an incredibly respectful buffet of ideas and suggestions and how-tos and warnings and encouragements. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The general plot is about terrorism and privacy and do-it-yourself construction and just generally teaching yourself stuff, feeling empowered by technology and not constrained.

And, thankfully, the characters are believable, not black and white in terms of motivations or ethics, and I'm really starting to care about them.

This book makes me wish I had a 14 daughter or son so I could give it to them.

Get the digital versions at Doctorow's site.

Well-Spoken, Mitt?

Mitt Romney calls Obama "well-spoken" this morning, ahem.

And Clif at Sadly No tells him to fuck off.

MyDD :: The Tie Has Been Broken

Clinton supporter Todd Beeton at MyDD.com:

I still think an Obama/Clinton ticket is operative (not to mention best case scenario at this point) and as I wrote earlier, I think she was signaling to the world with her speech tonight that she'd be open to taking the VP slot. It actually makes sense for many reasons as Andrew Sullivan recently laid out in surprisingly compelling terms.

Would it happen in a million years? There are still many that believe not but I'm an optimist at heart. Which is why I also believe that Clinton supporters for the most part will join in embracing Obama as the presumptive nominee once he is so designated. It's a difficult transition to make, I know, but I'm finally at peace with it because for the first time I feel tonight delivered a clear verdict that Democratic primary voters have chosen Obama as their nominee; the tie has been broken. And let's be honest here, you and I know he is a far stronger candidate for having had Hillary Clinton as his opponent. And just as hopefully our ultimate Democratic ticket is stronger for having gone through this crazy extended primary season, hopefully the blogosphere can emerge stronger as well for having weathered our own internal battle.

Now, does this mean I am going to take my Hillary Clinton sticker off my bumper? Hell no, but it does mean I've brushed off my old Barack Obama window sign that I picked up at an event last spring and returned it to my window sill, the first of many expressions of support for the man I believe will be the nominee of our party and the next president of the United States.

Hazard Duty

Kevin Drum:

I generally try not to read Maureen Dowd's columns because, you know, they just don't pay me enough for that kind of hazard duty. But today's column about Hillary Clinton was a train wreck of epic proportions. I couldn't avert my eyes

Read it. It's rough, and I love his response.

Blitzer's Hand and Arm

Roger Ebert:

When Wolf Blitzer got out of bed in the morning, were his hand and arm already extended, so that the clipboard had only to be inserted by an aide?

Learninginging

The Editors:

[The Poor Man Institute] factoid: global warming has already caused all TV news people to be named “Stone Philips”.

I is learning.

PR Slug

I love this comment from DarkSyde about Laura Bush's press release the other day, and her criticism of the Miyanmar Junta's failure to take care of their people in a natural disaster:

[W]hat lowlife, imbecilic White House PR slug intentionally sent the First Lady out into the international public spotlight dressed only in this painful irony?

Free Lunches!

I love this quote from the prologue to Cory Doctorow's new novel, Little Brother, now available for free under Creative Commons (as well as for $ as mp3 and ebook):If I could loan out my physical books without giving up possession of them, I *would*. The fact that I can do so with digital files is not a bug, it's a feature, and a damned fine one. It's embarrassing to see all these writers and musicians and artists bemoaning the fact that art just got this wicked new feature: the ability to be shared without losing access to it in the first place. It's like watching restaurant owners crying down their shirts about the new free lunch machine that's feeding the world's starving people because it'll force them to reconsider their business-models. Yes, that's gonna be tricky, but let's not lose sight of the main attraction: free lunches!

$100 Million

Family Guy was canceled twice, and now Seth MacFarlane just signed a "megadeal" for $100 million over the next 5 years, for various writer-producer duties:

"I get a lot of pleasure out of making shows," MacFarlane said. "It's a bonus to be getting paid well for it, and it's a double bonus to be getting paid exorbitantly for it."

Um...Laura?

CNN.com:

U.S. first lady Laura Bush, who has a long-standing interest in Myanmar, urged the government to allow the team into the country, saying she expected Washington would provide "substantial" aid if it could conduct its own assessment of the situation on the ground.

And she blasted the junta, saying the lack of warning before a deadly cyclone hit on Friday was the latest example of "the junta's failure to meet its people's basic needs."

Um. Um.

"Reinventing"

Wil Wheaton is skeptical about JJ Abrams saying he was going to "reinvent" the Star Trek universe in his new movie:

Without a lot of context, it's tough to puzzle out exactly what this means for guys like us who've loved Trek forever and ever. If he's just talking about bringing modern special effects to Star Trek, which totally would make it more thrilling to watch, this is great news.

However, if this "reinventing" -- which is such a loaded term in this post-Episode One world (5-19-99 never forget!) -- extends to some of the fundamentals of the Star Trek mythos, and if he wants to make Star Trek more like Star Wars, we could be looking at the biggest geekriot in history.

More Or Less

It's "progress" in Iraq if there's less violence. It's "progress" if there's more.

We're never leaving.

Michael Yon writes the latest version of this same "we're almost there" Op-Ed:

That means, for the next few months, expect more blood, casualties and grim images of war. This may lead to a shift in the political debate inside the United States and more calls for rapid withdrawal. But on the ground in Iraq, it's a sign of progress.

Hearts and minds, hearts and minds.

Fake Steve Jobs:

Facebook is Webkinz for adults.

Find A Disaster

Wolfrum investigates Bush's $770-million "help the poor" headlines:

Using history as a guide, it is quite easy to see what Bush and crew are after. It's a basic two-prong plan:

1. Find a disaster

2. Profit

Stray Dogs

Treasure of Baghdad:

By the time millions of Iraqi civilians have become refugees inside and outside Iraq, the perpetrators of the war have the guts to show up on TV and say they are paying thousands of dollars to save some stray dogs. Instead of helping those who were affected by their war, the Americans are helping cats and dogs. I wonder how those who worked for the Americans and risked their lives without any appreciation would feel after seeing this “operation”!

Interview with GTA4 Writer

NY Mag:

"Fuck all this stuff about casual gaming," [Rockstar VP and GTAIV co-writer Dan] Houser said, adding: "We're hopefully going to prove that there's also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies."

Awesome interview across the board.

(via Game | Life)

Closed Until June

Not me...Lawrence Lessig:

As tiny compensation for (almost) spending more time on the road than at home each year, when our first child was born, we started the best tradition I've ever known: 1 month, off the grid, somewhere amazing. That begins today. It is a real, and essential, luxury. My apologies if it is a burden.

Arugula on the Docks

25,000 elite dockworkers protest the Iraq War.

(via Think Progress)

We Told You!

Ugh. This is going to reverberate in right wing coverage for a while.

Ex-Guantanamo inmate in Iraq suicide bombing: TV - Yahoo! News:

DUBAI (Reuters) - A Kuwaiti man released from the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay in 2005 has carried out a suicide bombing in Iraq, his cousin told Al Arabiya television on Thursday.

Bee Wants It More

This is why Fafblog is King:

c. Ritual hand-to-hand combat with bee champion

- Too difficult

  - You have the weight advantage but the bee wants it more

  - Biased bee referees will always rule in favor of the bee

Simulated Imagery

No link or comment. This ad just cracked me up.