And I Thought I Was Busy?!?

Three days in, and let's look at a few of the things Obama's been working on...

• Shuttering Gitmo.

• Halting extraordinary rendition.

• Guaranteeing habeas corpus rights to detainees.

• Revived FOIA.

• Yanked Bush's Executive Privilege.

• Reversed the international "gag rule"

• Halted a buttload of Bush's Executive Orders

• Closed since 9/11, he's re-opening the top of Statue of Liberty to the public.

The Camera Eye: This Guy's Askin' For It...

'Cause I'm too busy to celebrate or to rant about anything—and there's plenty of each piling up—I'll stall with a shot from my collection of Warning Stickers.

You Cannot Be Serious

ATTENTION NORTH CAROLINA:
This is not a snowfall. This is what happens to the kitchen counter when you brush off the ice cream carton.

Seriously. Kid F's school was canceled this morning. Not as a result of this apocalyptic blizzard, but in anticipation of it. Yes, the message this morning said, "Due to the weather forecast for tomorrow, school will be closed Tuesday, January 20."

School was canceled throughout the land on the threat of snow. No word on milk and bread supplies...

UPDATE: Mrs F agrees, and reminds you what a snow day SHOULD be.

01.20.09

The best part of all of this is the fact that after the years of waiting for this day, when it finally arrives, it's no longer about George W. Bush in any way.

The Mountaintop

I cannot think about Martin Luther King, Jr. without recalling this clip from the "Kid Logic" episode of This American Life...

A Few Questions...

• How come AM radio reception is totally fucked at night? As soon as it gets dark, I lose reception for every AM station in Asheville except the Rush Limbaugh/Hannity station—BUT I can then pull in 770 from Manhattan?

• How many times will it take the detective, the D.A. and the husband on "Medium" to stop being total dicks to Allison, and just believe her the FIRST fucking time she tells you who the murderer is?

• How freaking crazy was that plane crash in New York? And how much of a bad-ass is that pilot?

• Who's getting a pardon from President Douche?

• Am I the only person in America who doesn't plan to treat Inauguration Day like a big deal? I celebrated Obama's win in November. This is just signing the paperwork...

• If I have to contend with single-digit temperatures in Asheville, I want some snow. Where's my fucking snow?

• Why can't I just go to sleep right now?

(Un)Reality TV

Kevin Drum watched "24" last night, and comes away concerned...

...it's obvious that the show is going to deal head on with the subject of torture this season. Episode 1 opens with Jack testifying before a Senate committee about his past transgressions, which he wearily but defiantly confesses to, and then rolls through two hours of FBI agents wondering "how far he'll go" — because, you see, Jack's exploits with the dark arts are apparently the thing of legend in the hallways of the Bureau.

Is there any way for this end other than badly? After all, here in the blogosphere we opponents of torture like to argue that we don't live in the world of 24, guys. And we don't. But Jack Bauer, needless to say, does live in the world of 24. And in that world, there are well-heeled terrorists around every corner, ticking time bombs aplenty, and torture routinely saves thousands of lives. What are the odds that it won't do so again this season — except this time after lots of talk about the rule of law blah blah liberals blah blah it's your call blah blah?

It's clear the FOX has decided to have a fictional "debate" about torture in a widely viewed arena here—though I suspect only a fraction of the show's original season viewers have stuck with it. Bauer will be unashamedly portrayed as a hero subjected to second-guessing by a chamber of desk jockey pussies in D.C. You can be sure that any Congressman (or likely a faux-Pelosi Congresswoman) who questions Bauer in a hearing will be portrayed in the weakest pansy-ass liberal light possible. I can pretty much see this scenario working out with Jack getting to channel Col. Jessup, "You NEED ME on that wall!"—except without the plot twist that nails Jessup in the film.

My position has always been this: Torture needs to be illegal. Period. No allowances for "ticking time bombs" and "24-scenarios." And penalties need to be extremely harsh—the same as a kidnapper who tortured or killed a victim-harsh. If it is left in the toolbox for interrogators under ANY circumstance it will be reached for all the time. There needs to be the utmost deterrence for anyone involved in a potential decision.

Conjure up your worst Jack Bauer scenario...a nuclear bomb about to destroy L.A., and Jack needs to get those codes. Assuming torture works (which it doesn't), any Agent Bauer would need to gamble his own potential jail time versus saving millions of lives. If someone in that scenario actually believed they and everyone in a 20-mile radius would die, and there was no other course available, they'd sacrifice themselves for the cause, so to speak—"I'll spend the rest of my life in jail for this, but otherwise ten million people are dead in five minutes—I can live with that." But short of that, the knowledge they will rot in a cell would bring them (or an authorizing superior) up short.

If in retrospect, it somehow demonstrably worked, its likely they would be pardoned before any jury had a chance to (not) convict them.

Even that involves hypotheticals that have never occurred and likely never will, and no one in there right mind would think otherwise. Oh, wait...

"Scalia responded with a defense of Agent Bauer, arguing that law enforcement officials deserve latitude in times of great crisis. “Jack Bauer saved Los Angeles . . . . He saved hundreds of thousands of lives,” Judge Scalia reportedly said. “Are you going to convict Jack Bauer?” He then posed a series of questions to his fellow judges: “Say that criminal law is against him? ‘You have the right to a jury trial?’ Is any jury going to convict Jack Bauer?”

“I don’t think so,” Scalia reportedly answered himself. “So the question is really whether we believe in these absolutes. And ought we believe in these absolutes.” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Asshat. Even "Jack Bauer" himself doesn't believe it...

“You torture someone and they’ll basically tell you exactly what you want to hear, whether it’s true or not, if you put someone in enough pain,” Sutherland said last year.

Worth the Wait

It wasn't out in time to make The Year in Review Review, but better late than never...

THE BEAST 50 MOST LOATHSOME PEOPLE IN AMERICA, 2008.

A sampling:

20. Joe the Plumber

Charges: The Che Guevara of bald, pissed off white men. In a lot of ways, Samuel Wurzelbacher really does represent the average American—basing economic opinions on unrealistic expectations of personal future success, blaming his failure to meet those expectations on minorities and old people, complaining about deadbeats getting his taxes when he isn’t actually paying his taxes, and advertising his own rudimentary historical and mathematical ignorance by warning of creeping socialism in a country whose highest income tax rate has dropped by half in thirty years. “Joe” indeed symbolizes the true American dream—to become undeservedly rich and famous through a dizzyingly improbable stroke of luck. As American folk heroes go, Wurzelbacher ranks somewhere between Hulk Hogan and Bernie Goetz.

Exhibit A: "Social Security is a joke...social security I've never believed in, don't like it. I hate that it's forced on me."

Sentence: After blowing his fifteen minutes and all his money on coke and Thai hookers, an infirm, elderly Joe finds that social security actually is a joke, and is finally forced to snake toilets for a living.

Sheer awesomeness. Mr Furious wants to be the Buffalo Beast when he grows up.

Dick of the Week: Corky Simpson

Who the fuck is Corky Simpson and how the hell did he nab D.O.W. over Harry Reid?

Corky Simpson is a retired sportswriter. One who will henceforth be known as "The writer who didn’t vote for Rickey Henderson." Or, more generally, "the worst fucking sportswriter of all time."

Indeed, this is the first year that Rickey Henderson is on the ballot for the Hall of Fame. Henderson is arguably the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history, and unquestionably one the best, most exciting, players in my lifetime. There should be no question that he should walk straight into the Hall of Fame, and then easily steal whichever spot he chooses for his plaque. No writer with a ballot has any reason to leave his name off. None. Not based on actual baseball anyway. But here's the thing...

No one has ever received every vote in the history of BBHoF voting. Not Babe Ruth, not Ty Cobb, not Tom Seaver, not Willie Mays, not Jackie Robinson, not Nolan Ryan, not Cal Ripken, Jr., not Cy Young.

Uh Oh. Sounds like the perfect reason for some holier than thou jackass writer to "protect the legacy" of the Hall and leave Henderson off, just to keep him from being the first unanimous selection...

But every writer was putting Henderson on their ballot, usually followed by the words “no-brainer.” Could it be done? Could Rickey make HoF history? I was getting kinda excited.

And then, I got to the ballot of the Award-Winning Corky Simpson - who, you guessed it … didn’t vote for Rickey Henderson.

So, is Simpson deliberately playing spoiler and screwing Henderson? I mean, he must be. He even voted for the extremely-poor man's Rickey—Tim Raines. Obviously he must be making a point. Maybe he's one of those dicks who won't vote for guys the first year on the ballot...nope, he voted for Matt Williams—a guy who should buy a ticket to get in. (To Simpson's credit, he DID vote for Jim Rice.)

Writers get ten slots on their ballots, and Simpson wrote eight names down—and then he submitted his ballot. With two blank slots. And no Rickey.

Amazingly, worse than the omission, is Simpson's excuse...

I screwed up on the Henderson nonvote,” said Simpson, who detailed his choices in a Dec. 10 column for the Green Valley News. “You get to vote on 10 and I only picked eight. I probably did it too quickly.”

Take away his privileges. Right. Fucking. Now.

Seriously. Only a handful of people have the authority to cast HOF ballots. They should do so with due diligence and impartiality. This fossil employed neither. Clearly I spent more time on this blog post than he did considering his HOF ballot.

There are only three possible genuine reasons for this, because the "oversight" is a load of shit. A play for attention—and he's getting it; Deliberately spoiling the unanimous induction, but not having the balls to admit it; Or racism. I can't think of anything else.

--

A list of all the HOF votes cast so far.

MORE: Deadspin, Flannel Boy, Pinto.

I came across a fantastic photo of Henderson's outstretched 1982 Oakland A's gloves hitting second, and a Bill James quote, so I combined 'em...

Get On It!

Are you voting?

Mrs. Furious is getting pummeled by the worst most inexplicable blog I think I've ever seen. And being in the same bracket as dooce.com and her HUGE readership is certainly a tough draw, but Mrs. F kicks her ass in quality and quantity—Armstrong's just mailing it in these days...

Makes me wish I'd learned some web design, and gave Mrs. F template worthy of her content.

Pick me up. Vote every day from home and work. My audience of six can close that gap!

UPDATE: I'm NOT hatin' on dooce—I like Heather (and Jon) quite a bit—but that blog should be in one of the large-size categories. Honestly, except for a vastly superior site design and earning potential, dooce has got nothing on Mrs F.

UPDATE 2: Removed a link and toned down the rhetoric. Just because I'm not "getting it" doesn't negate somebody else's hard work blogging, or their readers.

My Better Half...

...literally.



Mrs. F has moved up in the world from a "Best New Blog" finalist to "Best Diarist" finalist in this year's Weblog Awards.

As they say in Chicago, "Vote early and vote often."

UPDATE: Plus, if you read Mrs F's blog it's like a "Furious: Behind the Music" episode...all kinds of crazy shit I never reveal goes on over there daily. On second thought...

Drink Me

Hilzoy has an excellent, but disturbing and outrageous, follow-up post on that Valdez on the Tennessee spill...

[from the NYT]: Though the E.P.A., the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and the authority have spoken daily about their efforts to monitor air, soil and water quality, complete results have been released for only two samples, both taken from a drinking water intake site that is upstream of the spill. The water there met drinking standards.

Heckuva job. Those samples from UPSTREAM should make good "before spill" comparisons to the water supply actually affected by 2.2 million pounds of toxic materials.

Independent testing done by environmental groups and a university are looking a little more bleak:

According to the tests, arsenic levels from the Kingston power plant intake canal tested at close to 300 times the allowable amounts in drinking water, while a sample from two miles downstream still revealed arsenic at approximately 30 times the allowed limits. Lead was present at between twice to 21 times the legal drinking water limits, and thallium levels tested at three to four times the allowable amounts.

Granted, that's straight from the river and untreated, but how many people in rural Tennessee get their water from wells? They're fucked. And for everyone else, I'm not sure even a municipal water treatment facility can cope with contamination at those levels.

And of course acres of this shit is still laying around leaching into the soil, washing into the rivers with every rainfall, and soon will begin to dry up and blow around in the air.

Can we stop hearing about "clean coal" now please? At least the waste from a nuclear plant fits in a barrel and is regulated.

UPDATE: Per the photographer's request, I've removed the pictures. They are incredible pictures—Antrim Caskey has captured some hauntingly beautiful images of the utter destruction wreaked on this area. There is a slideshow at the end of this article.

The Year in Review Review

Because Mr. Furious can (still) never get enough hatred and harsh judgment...

• John Cole is counting votes on the Dumbest Thing Said By a Politician in 2008. I went with, “I think — I’ll have my staff get to you. It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.” Not the worst or most offensive thing to pass a politicians lips by any means, but perhaps the most unintentionally honest and revealing, and marked the beginning of the end for McCain in my opinion.

• The Guardian's list of The 19 Worst Americans of 2008.

• Andrew Sullivan's Annual Daily Dish Awards

• The New York Times' Year in Pictures

• Seemed Important at the Time...The Top Nontroversies of 2008

• Peter Travers' Best and Worst Movies of 2008. I didn't see ANY of them.

• Rolling Stone's 50 Best Albums of 2008. 50? Don't you guys have editors? You certainly have no taste—putting the Raconteurs at #44—behind the fucking Jonas Brothers.

• Alas, the two of the best year-end lists from 2007 (The Beast's Most Loathsome List and Bill Maher's Dickheads of the Year list) either went behind a pay-wall or don't seem to exist for 2008. Losers.

• I also did a worse job this year on Dick of the Week. Pick your favorite from a whopping field of five...

• Slate.com's Best Political Cartoons of 2008.

• WaPo's What's In and Out for 2009

• ESPN baseball man Jayson Stark compiles his Strange But True Year in Review

• Sports Illustrated's Best Photos of the Year

• Deadspin's Best of 2008 Jamboroo: The Year in...Substance Abuse...Horrifying Injuries...Bad Officiating

• Hillary's Downfall. Yet another hilarious Hitler subtitle video. These fucking kill me every time...

New Years Meme

Via Toast, it's time to take stock of the year that was 2008...

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before? I'm at a loss here. I think my life has really settled into a routine. A comfortable one.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I'm back at the exact same weight—181. So I failed on that one. The goal was 170, and I'm setting sights on that again. Since I fell out of the highest preferred category for life insurance and got bad cholesterol numbers back, I have renewed motivation.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My youngest sister had her first child—Mazey.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Nope.

5. What places did you visit? Greenville, SC; Charleston, SC; Asheville, NC; Martha's Vineyard.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? First: No worries about the health of Kid Furious. Last month marked two years seizure-free, and discontinuing her medication. And in February she had the second and hopefully last procedure on her eyes. Second: Financial security.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Tuesday, November 4 would be the biggest specific "date." But other events include a new job and moving and the medical milestones noted above.

8. What was your biggest achievement(s) of the year? Finally getting that long sought-after new job. I am finally back in my specific area of expertise (magazine art direction) and am totally reinvigorated about my career.

9. What was your biggest failure? Probably letting my weight stagnate and health decline.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing beyond #9.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Our house.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My kids. Barack Obama. The publisher who hired me.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? John McCain, Sarah Palin and just about everyone with an (R) after their name. The media. Bill and Hillary Clinton.

14. Where did most of your money go? Mortgages and realtors.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? New job. I really like our new house as well.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008? Anything off "Consolers of the Lonely" and "Signed, Sealed, Delivered" (Obama's theme music).

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) Happier or sadder? Happier.
b) thinner or fatter? +/- a pound.
c) richer or poorer? A wash. New job has a much higher salary, but less benefits and I lost all my freelance work. The income is more secure and steady however. And that means a LOT.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Exercise. Sleep. Relax.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Eating. Worrying. Procrastinating. And, alas...blogging.

20. How did you spend Christmas this year? In our new home, in my pajamas the whole day with absolutely nowhere to go. It was great.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? Already fallen...

22. How was work? I think I've covered this by now...I love my new job.

23. What was your favorite TV program? "The Daily Show." I don't really watch any tv regularly.

24. What did you do for your birthday in 2008? Become old.

25. What was the best book you read? "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane" by Kate DeCamillo

26. What was your greatest musical discovery? I won't count the Raconteurs as a "discovery," but I guess these three qualify.

27. What did you want and get? Aren't you sick of hearing about my job yet? Some new camera gear.

28. What did you want and not get? Year-end bonus.

29. What was your favorite film of this year? In the theater: "Iron Man." At home: "No Country For Old Men," perhaps?

30. Did you make some new friends this year? Yes. A new office-full.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Getting more money for our house in Michigan.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Spendthrift. Thirty-fucking-six-inch waist.

33. What kept you sane? Focalin™. Blogging. Photography.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Barack Hussein Obama.

35. What political issue stirred you the most? Presidential primary and election.

35a. What political issue stirred you the least? The rats fleeing the sinking Bush Administration? I don't really know.

36. Who did you miss? Friends and family in general. I never went home to CT this year, and missed my opportunity to go Up North, or to New York, etc...

37. Who was the best new person you met? I've met too many people...I'm withholding judgment.

38. Burn any bridges? Yeah...things got kinda rocky with my parents, but it's on the mend.

39. Best new restaurant you went to? 12 Bones (BBQ place here in Asheville).

40. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. It'll sound cheesy, but "keep plugging away." It took a couple years, untold dozens of resumes, and several interviews around the country, but I nailed down a good job back on a magazine.

(here's last year's list for reference. Like you care.)

Blagojevich

It's been a while since this whole Blagojevich Bust went down, and I realize I never really posted on it. Early on, I snagged a few good pics and political cartoons to maybe use in a post, but it never materialized...mostly because I had other shit I wanted to discuss. But now that he's made his appointment to replace Obama in the Senate and thrust himself back into the spotlight, I suppose I'll wade in...

When this all broke, I'd heard the guy's name before, and I knew he was bad news, but I'd never heard the guy speak, nor could I pick him out of a lineup or pronounce his name. My immediate reaction to all of this was, "That guy's got a pair." and "Here's hoping Obama and his team gave this jackass a wide berth." I enjoyed the initial round of mockery and ridicule of his foul Chicago mouth and Fisher-Price hair, and wondered who the fuck would ever vote this guy into office. But as the story began to fill out I found myself departing—somewhat—from the company of just about every blogger I like.

This guy looks to be a douchebag of the highest order and probably should do the honorable thing and step aside because he's certainly too big a dick to be Governor. And it makes sense that he should probably refrain from making an appointment under these circumstances. But here's where I depart from the mob: I haven't heard ANYTHING CLOSE to a smoking gun regarding this allegation of his selling Obama's Senate seat

People are acting like this guy was busted like Jimmy Serrano with a cash-filled suitcase exchange. I'm not seeing it. I've heard and read nothing beyond what I imagine to be the sort of horsetrading that probably happens all the time in these situations—ie: "I appoint you, you campaign for me, scratch each other's back, fundraise, etc." Hell, even Obama's appointments are in some cases surely rewards for support.

I think he's probably guilty of this, and whatever drew him into U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald's sights in the first place—but that's my impression, and not based on any actual evidence that I'm aware of.

Fine, if you're Obama, or the party: distance yourself from the guy, throw him under the bus, even ask for him to "step aside if he's guilty." I'm all for zero tolerance and purging corrupt people from office regardless of party. By all appearances, Blago deserves to be alone on his self-constructed island, but at a certain point it boils down to this: he's innocent until proven guilty and deserves a chance to defend himself. And frankly, if he thinks he did nothing wrong, he should tell Obama and everyone else to "Fuck off. I'm Governor, and I'm not going anywhere."

And if that's his position, I have no problem with him fulfilling his Constitutionally-required duty and appointing someone to Obama's seat. Viewed in a vacuum, Roland Burris appears to be a perfectly good selection. Taking into account Blago's situation, Burris appears to be the perfect appointment, and the Governor probably deserves credit for selecting him.

What's unfortunate is Burris is now inextricably tied to Blagojevich, and if the Senate holds to it's stated position that any appointment by Blagojevich will NOT be seated, a good man was probably sacrificed as part of this ridiculous standoff.

Of course the Democratic caucus holding to a position other than bent-over is a goddamn joke. If Burris doesn't get seated it's more likely to be because Harry Reid has given Joe Lieberman a second Senate seat.

UPDATE: I could have saved myself the trouble and just posted a link to John Cole

Being Frank About Warren

Frank Rich has a good column on the Warren affair. He annoyingly cites the canard about Obama dissing Clinton as "likable enough", but other than that I think he pretty much nails it. He includes a good quote from the always quotable Barney Frank as well:

Much more to the point is the astute criticism leveled by the gay Democratic congressman Barney Frank, who, in dissenting from the Warren choice, said of Obama, “I think he overestimates his ability to get people to put aside fundamental differences.” That’s a polite way of describing the Obama cockiness. It will take more than the force of the new president’s personality and eloquence to turn our nation into the United States of America he and we all want it to be.

Obama may not only overestimate his ability to bridge some of our fundamental differences but also underestimate how persistent some of those differences are. The exhilaration of his decisive election victory and the deserved applause that has greeted his mostly glitch-free transition can’t entirely mask the tensions underneath. Before there is profound social change, there is always high anxiety.

Coal In Your Stockings. And your living room…front yard…neighborhood…the whole damn valley…

There's no fucking way this can be anything close to the end of the story:

Environmentalists worry the ash-laden sludge that coated a Tennessee neighborhood when a power plant dike burst could pose a health risk, although initial tests by a public utility company have shown no threat to drinking water.

Crews were expected to work through the holiday weekend to contain the aftermath of Monday's breach at the coal-fired Kingston power plant, run by the nation's largest public utility about 50 miles west of Knoxville.

Officials at the Tennessee Valley Authority have said preliminary tests suggest there is no danger to millions of people who get their drinking water from the 652-mile Tennessee River.

And TVA spokesman Gil Francis said crews were cleaning up the sludge.

"The cleanup is making progress," Francis said Thursday, adding the group was moving from the road to other areas. TVA brought in 30 pieces of equipment and more than 100 workers for the work that will take four to six weeks to complete, he said.

And the air at Ground Zero was safe to breathe.

Sorry, but there's simply no way a spill of 2 million cubic yards of industrial waste isn't doing serious damage to the environment.

Since moving to Western North Carolina, I've become keenly aware of the evil that is the Tennessee Valley Authority—we breathe the shit pouring from its smokestacks all year, and in the summer, visibility mileage here is often measured in single digits.

The TVA is a federally owned corporation, and as such, I expect Obama to kick its fucking ass into shape. Scrubbers on every goddamn stack, and no more mountaintop-removal mining or sludge pits. There's no such thing as "clean coal", but it can be a hell of a lot cleaner than this.

Video at Crooks and Liars.

UPDATE: The spill is much bigger than initially reported—5.4 million cubic yards (over 1 billion gallons; the Exxon Valdez oil spill was about 11 million gallons). Somehow that much sludge spilled from a retention pond the TVA claimed held only 2.6 million.

UPDATE 2: Officials are warning area residents with wells to "boil their drinking water." Are you fucking kidding me? Boiling water is a nice precaution after a water main break or to kill germs from sewage contamination, but I'm pretty sure it does jack to remove heavy metals. The river looks like the goddamn adamantium vat from X-Men.

Achille's Heal

I can understand Obama's desire to embrace constituencies that have rejected him. Evangelicals are in that category and Warren is an important evangelical leader with whom, Obama said, "we're not going to agree on every single issue." He went on to say, "We can disagree without being disagreeable and then focus on those things that we hold in common as Americans." Sounds nice.

But what we do not "hold in common" is the dehumanization of homosexuals. What we do not hold in common is the belief that gays are perverts who have chosen their sexual orientation on some sort of whim. What we do not hold in common is the exaltation of ignorance that has led and will lead to discrimination and violence.

Finally, what we do not hold in common is the categorization of a civil rights issue -- the rights of gays to be treated equally -- as some sort of cranky cultural difference. For that we need moral leadership, which, on this occasion, Obama has failed to provide. For some people, that's nothing to celebrate.

Richard Cohen, The Washington Post

I've now read plenty about the whole "Rick Warren getting a prime slot at the inauguration" from all sides—hard-left liberals who are incensed and/or devastated, and others who make valiant, and at times even convincing, rationalizations for the move. But none summed it up a well as that Cohen column—go read the whole thing.

Ultimately, I still come down where I did a couple weeks ago: This sucks, and Obama fucked up.

Big time.

No, not because this bigoted asshat getting a mic for two minutes during an event that will outshine anything he might possibly say, and this will hardly derail Obama's Presidency before it even gets started. Hell, most people—even Obama supporters—will be unaware of this whole behind-the-scenes drama, and blissfully unaware of the coded bullshit Warren will lace into his remarks.

It's the decision itself that reveals something to me: Obama has shown either a horrible and shocking tone-deafness, a calculated political callousness, or an immense ego that has him believing his own hype that he can heal any wound or close any rift.

Or some disturbing combination of all three.

His decision to offend a very real segment of his most avid supporters to appeal to a mythical segment of his detractors—or at the very least, skeptics—is a poor attempt at playing both ends against the middle. It's Clintonian triangulation and I hate that shit.

I know I've been proven wrong EVERY time I've doubted him, but I think Obama miscalculated here. Obama's detractors and skeptics will need much more than the token affirmation that Warren's presence provides to become his supporters—but even among Obama's strongest supporters, he has revealed a flaw that has justifiably made many of them skeptics.

Movie Résumé Meme

Toast has a new meme up...it's a seemingly random list of movies and you check off which ones you've seen and count 'em up. I'm not about to bog down my front page with that freaking list, so if you want to check it out, I posted it in the archives here.

I've seen 90 out of a possible 213—same number as Toast, actually. A lot of overlap, and like Toast, most of the movies on this list that interest me, I've seen. And considering I've consumed far fewer movies since the kids were born that means there's a lot of shit on this list...

The few on the list I'm curious about: Shaun of the Dead, Pirates of the Caribbean (both), Spider-Man (they only list 1 and 2, I want to see all three), Night Watch (maybe?). Bourne Supremacy

Movies you might not have seen that I'd highly recommend: Run Lola Run, A Bronx Tale, Lone Star (excellent).

Avoid at all costs: Four Rooms

No interest in the past, present or future: Baseketball, Team America, Orgazmo (I hate those fucking South Park guys), Hannibal (shit novel, after two awesome ones)

UPDATE: The more I think about it, the more annoyingly arbitrary that list was. I need to come up with a better one somehow...

"He's Almost Here!"

This is awesome.

Cabinet Refacing

President-Elect Obama has filled out his Cabinet, and there are surely a couple of posts there worth second-guessing, if not outright complaint-worthy. But only as a matter of policy, idealogy, or the fact that I don't like them—but, at this point I'm trusting they'll be following Obama's lead.

What I DON'T want to hear anyone bitching about is who didn't get picked for some stupid-ass demographic reason...

NOT BLACK ENOUGH
The Congressional Black Caucus is bent out of shape because apparently Obama's Cabinet doesn't closely resemble the S1Ws enough...

Black lawmakers irked by Obama’s diverse Cabinet

Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are disappointed President-elect Obama did not appoint more African-Americans to his Cabinet.

Obama tapped four blacks for Cabinet posts, including Eric Holder. If confirmed, Holder will be the first African-American attorney general.

But Obama passed over black candidates in selecting Cabinet nominees for positions central to setting policy for urban America, such as the departments of Education, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development.

[...]“On balance, I’d say a great deal of thought went into the shaping of this Cabinet,” Davis told The Hill. “And he ended up with a real rainbow. But some people, sure, thought there should be a bit more color in it.”

Another senior member of the CBC who requested anonymity said more pointedly that Obama “isn’t doing enough for the black folks.”

As dumb as that is, THIS one is even worse...

NOT SOUTHERN ENOUGH
Yeah. Twenty straight years of Southern Presidents surrounded by other Southerners and these fucking rednecks are bitching about what?

Southerners are the missing group in Obama's Cabinet
By Jim Morrill | Charlotte Observer

There are Democrats and Republicans, liberals and moderates, Hispanics and Asians, whites and blacks, Northerners and Westerners.

But one group arguably was missing when President-elect Barack Obama rounded out his 15-member Cabinet Friday — Southerners.

[...] "Obama scored a tremendous advance for Democrats in winning the three large Southern states and ignored them," says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "I'm just stunned. It was the one grouping completely ignored."

[...] "There really ought to be one (cabinet post) from each state," says Sabato. "These are three really big prizes, and they're tenuous. None of these states is guaranteed for a Democrat in the future."

There's more:

The disparity isn't an accident -- critics already are calling it a snub -- and that perception could slow the pace of recent electoral gains Democrats have made below the Mason-Dixon line.

"Southerners need not apply," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. "It's hard to believe that there wasn't anybody qualified for something from the South." [...]

Dan Carter, a political historian at the University of South Carolina, said the shortage of Southerners among top White House aides is highly unusual and could invite criticism.

Um...Fuck You? Seriously. Perhaps the fact that Obama is picking qualified, knowledgable people to man the posts eliminated all the yokels at the door? But that's not really even true. Obama's got people from Texas, North Carolina, D.C., Florida plus Arizona and New Mexico. I guess not all of them are the "right kind" of Southerner...

Go read the whole AP piece, it's filled to the rim with stupid.

The best thing I saw on this? From the comments at Benen's:

Fine, fine, three new cabinet posts for the south then. Here are my suggestions;

Secretary of Tobacco
Secretary of NASCAR
Secretary of Obnoxious Whiners

Will that make them happy?

For the record, Obama’s Cabinet has 11 whites, four blacks, three Hispanics and two Asian Americans. Several are women, and one is the first openly gay cabinet-level appointee. It's a diverse—yet extremely qualified—group by almost any measure, so haters can sit back and drink up...

The Camera Eye: Winter Solstice

Time to mix it up a bit around here...I'm going to be tossing in some photography with your irregularly-scheduled programming. I'm not foolish enough to try for a "daily photo," but I will try to put up things at a reasonable frequency that I think are interesting in one way or another—even if just to me.

So without further ado, here is a shot of our house, modestly dolled up for the holidays. It was taken shortly after the earliest dusk of the year, while bitterly cold (for N.C.) and extremely windy (for anywhere). Fitting, I think, for the first day of winter. This marks the debut of the new Sigma 17-35mm f/2.8 lens. So far, so good.

Not Feelin' It...

Sorry folks, just not in a blogging mood today. I had such a busy week at work—and not 9-5, I was going back to the office after the kids went to bed—I fell way behind in my surfing and reading and I feel ill-informed, combined with some general lethargy.

I'll be back. It shouldn't be too long before someone/thing pisses me off.

I did put up some new photos...

Quick Hits

Its been a hellish week at work so I've hardly even had time to read anything online, never mind write anything...but here are some wuick thoughts about some things I've seen flash past my eyes of late:

• Caroline Kennedy has no business getting appointed to Hillary's Senate seat, and the thought of it happening fucking pisses me off.

• Barack Obama's selection / allowing / or even tolerating Rick Warren's participation at his Inauguration is terrible. I don't EVER support elevating the platform of asshats like Warren, but especially not in the wake of Proposition 8 and Warren's role in passing it. I understand Obama's call for unity and a desire to represent diveristy of viewpoint, but fairness dictates a like desire from the opponent. Warren is an intolerant asshole and has no intention of advancing a discussion on gay rights, controception, abortion or anything else. He cares only to advance his agenda. Obama's ceremony should not serve it.

• As bad as Warren is, at least he won't be delivering policy. Tom Vilsack will. I was against this guy a month ago, and nothing I've seen changes my opinion that this guy is a bad pick. Period. The best one can hope for is an aggressive Ag policy by Obama and that Vilsack is merely the best player to advance the ball. If that's the case, Vilsack needs to shut his cornhole in the huddle.

• I've completely lost track of the auto industry stuff.