Link Dump

BETTER THAN EZRA? NOT THIS WEEK
Ezra Klein's on a roll. He had perhaps the best 20 column-inches of blogging I've seen in weeks the other day: Lieberman, Daschle, De-regulation, Global Warming, among others...

Today he has a good follow-up on Obama's options for Secretary of Agriculture. I'm still down on Vilsack, but he's not the worst guy up for the job. On the plus side, this guy looks interesting...

John Boyd, president of the National Black Farmers Association. Boyd helped lead the fight to hold USDA accountable for its long history of stiffing black farmers; his nomination is being championed by the Congressional Black Caucus. Virginia-based Boyd himself runs a relatively small-scale farm; seems like his position as a USDA outsider might lead him to champion the interests of small farmers in an agency that's long been beholden to large industrial operations.

WAX ON
This and this make me feel even better about Waxman bouncing Dingell.

YOU BE THE JUDGE
Minnesota Public Radio has an awesome online ballot inspection test with real examples of contested ballots from the recount—how would you rule?

ENERGIZE
New "Star Trek" Trailer here. Looks excellent, except for the casting of Kirk—too young. Then again, who's fit to carry this guy's jock?

"a formidable enemy"

Another benefit of Hillary finally dropping out of the race will be the subsequent release of the "good" Paul Krugman from wherever the Clintons have imprisoned him.

Then this parallel-universe interloper and his propaganda will be forced back to wherever he came from and the power of this column can once again be brought to bear on the true enemy—John McCain and the GOP.



For the uninitiated, I'm talking about a classic among classics.

MeTube

Deep in an unrelated thread (on sleep) at Toast's place, the topic of television was raised. It started with "Greatest Sitcom of All time" and became a general debate on television in general. I thought I'd sit down for a moment and throw my thoughts down.

First of all, it should be noted that between my Kids' Bedtime Duty, and my freelance workload, I hardly watch television at all right now. Even with the Sox in the Series, I am TiVoing, and/or catching games online, not always live. So any judgements on current television are going to be speculative or based on year old data (at best).

Sure-fire shows I would watch if I had the time: The Daily Show, Colbert Report...um...that's about it.

Shows I enjoyed recently, but may have slipped: The Shield, Rescue Me, Definitely Slipped: Grey's Anatomy, 24, Scrubs, Without a Trace

Shows I've heard really good things about that I wish I could see: The Wire*, The Office, Heroes, Deadwood*, Battlestar Galactica, 30 Rock, Prison Break, Jericho

Fantastic (recent) shows I mourn the loss of: Arrested Development, Firefly (which I never saw, but I loved "Serenity"), actually good Simpsons

Recent guilty pleasures: Everwood, Bones, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars

Shows that seem to me to be utter crap/overrated: South Park, Family Guy, CSI: Miami, Entourage

All-Time Favorites: Homicide, good Simpsons, The X-Files, Seinfeld, Star Trek (original and TNG only)

*I imagine all these HBO-type shows are good, but I will NEVER pay for them, so if I ever see them, it will be on DVD from the library.

So that's all I can think of off the top of my head. Feel free to have at it in the comments, and I will add things as they occur to me...

Damn Straight

While riding with Rickey, I found out that Rickey reads Wil Wheaton's blog. Yes, that Wil Wheaton. How funny is that? Anyway, I did a search for a pic of Wheaton as galactic puss Wesley Crusher, and I found this instead.


Yes, he is. Yes. He. Is.