Was Weekend at Bernie's Not Good? Seriously I loved it when I was eight or whatever...

Essential Reading: Voter Fraud--Ain't nothing this time around! The future MAY be worse.

And one.

Sweet Lord Have Mercy

I couldn't agree, dis a I couldn't well, you agree me...I mean he's black!

The Moose Part 1

Heh Heh

Eventually I'll just post pictures, then maybe syllables, lastly, phonemes.

UGH

What the hell.

Someone Get McCain a Mouth Guard

TMJ in the house. Such anger.

M-Mavericks

The danger in laughing at her is that you forgot how dangerous she really is. But it's Saturday so here's some light fare.

Essential Reading: Reich (notthird) Wisdom

(That's a big picture of a little man)
Some wise words on the economy...

Ugh. Don't get comfortable. Is this really going to happen again...

An Unscripted Moment? Impossible!

One of Biden's high points in the debate (besides putting an end to this ridiculous maverick talk) showcased genuine emotion. It provoked a reaction similar to Obama's "black America/white America" speech, with some Bill Clinton sprinkled in for good measure. But speaking of Clinton...

Why Joe Biden's crying moment is different from Hillary's: because it's about how his wife and daughter died, not how much he wants to be president. It's about how he can understand the tough times and just because Palin has ovaries doesn't mean she is the only candidate who knows what it means to have a family. I don't even think he planned on saying it until Palin said (re: Biden's second wife, Jill, being a teacher) that her "reward will be in heaven". Let's not send Biden's second wife to heaven yet, okay Sarah?

But the feeling came from the heart. It's the actor's difference: Biden's trying to hold in the tears while Hillary's forefully extracting them for clear political gain. From what we know of Biden, I think this was a spontaneous moment.

Dear Karen 'I know how to use automated programs to post comments' Grube

See here for reference.

Somebody knows how to use Google search! I thought you were going to swear off all Google products forever?! Oh well.

Listen, spread your hate speech somewhere else. While I'm totally stunned and shocked and outraged that you have to write 'Party A' on your marriage certificate instead of 'bride', I guess the basic human and civil rights of millions of gay men and women probably supercede your caveman interpretation of the Constitution. I don't recall there being a 'vote' to enact civil rights in the country, the courts enforced a basic protection under existing law as declared in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence. While I'm sure writing letters trying to convince the world that discrimination is okay under the cloak of buereacratic procedure gets you all hot and bothered, I think you'd do better to go put your efforts into reinstituting slavery, creationism, and a 'woman's place in the kitchen'. Maybe you could start wearing a white sheet and burning crosses while you're at it.

HAIL

to the Native Americans.

The Right Choice

"However, while there are many objections to this proposition -- further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text -- it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 -- we should not eliminate anyone's fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love."

Google's position on proposition 8, which would make same-sex marriages unconstitutional in the state of California.

Nice, google. Encourage your sun-tanned and less depressed friends to join them!

What We're All Thinking

I know this is like #2 on YouTube; still, I can't help but post it. There are no excuses for her complete incompetence and while the previous post might be funny, there's really nothing funny about her. She adds a whole new level of scary to the Republican ticket.

Head of Skate

Amazing

Essential Reading: TBI in the Military

So this is the kind of stuff I help out with at work. While we usually don't work witih people as severely damaged as the soldier discussed in this fascinating piece, the patients are nevertheless struggling with brain injury in some form. We're also working to start a grant with the military to institute our rehab program down south. Moving stuff.

Breaking: He'll be there...

Told you.

"I don't Know...You Know...Reporters"

Watch CBS Videos Online

When Couric tries to help Palin out by saying: "Well, explain to me why that enhances your foreign policy credentials," I see the desperation in her face. She's thinking, PLEASE, if something substantive comes out of your mouth maybe I won't be so terrified.

You're Effed

Oops! The bailout plan is finalized before your grandstanding with Bush and Obama can go down. Oops! That means the debate is on and you haven't practiced. Oops, your 'suspension' ploy flopped miserably. See you tomorrow night.

What-sies?

McCain is postponing the debate to focus on the economy. We're not in college, John--you can't ask for an extension!

3:21pm: Oh, I get it, he's postponing to go back to Washington. Is ANYONE ELSE having Primary Colors flashbacks? When the Republican candidate decides not to run any ads and it's like, the most brilliant move ever?! Oh no.

Reviews: Gimme Some PortaPro Son

My new headphones ya'll. They're comfortable if a bit flimsy. Guess they don't look all that great, though I kinda think they do, the sound is thick, rich, clear, and features a robust bass with great range at a mad cheap price point. Best headphones I've ever heard (on par with the ten times more expensive Bose). Check out some more detailed reviews if you don't believe me! Best part? They're from 1984 and haven't changed since.

Debate-Watching Party

Hey, we're having people over for the debates this Friday cause that's how we like to party. Seriously. Chris can't sleep thinking about these stupid debates.

Shall we create some sort of vices game. Shots when Obama says "change", body shots when McCain co-opts Obama's message, injectable drugs if McCain dies on the podium?

Daughter of a Copy-Editor

I love grammar girl. I was inspired to share this link because I got an e-mail from a great yoga studio that said "to loose your connection with the earth is to loose your connection with your body."

Ummm...agreed?

ps: Mockery for my grammar mistakes starts...now

Essential Reading: The Financial Meltdown

I don't know what the hell is happening, neither do you probably. These guys make it much clearer.

Damn, That's One Fun Record

Good lord, Black Kids are about as joyous a group as you can possibly expect from a lot clearly inspired by the Cure. But imagine if the Cure decided to create dance anthems a la Hot Hot Heat (from their 1st album glory days mind you). If you don't play this at all your parties for the next year you have no soul.

Internet Comfort Food

I'm feeling depressed about Sarah Palin's decision to charge rape victims for their exams. I needed a little boost of smart women, so I went to my favorite gal from Target Women (Current.com). It's not that she's particularly groundbreaking but the presentation is fun, the delivery accurate..it's like feminism light/Gender 101. Always enjoyable.



And also...

Perfect and Not

Great ad in the Clintonian sense that Obama articulates some specific things he wants to do with the economy. Horrible ad in terms of presentation. Where are the graphics? Even Ross Perot had pictures and that was sixteen years ago! Maddening. Americans need visual stimulation, especially if you're trying to hammer home the idea of tax cuts for 95% of Americans. So the message is on point, but the delivery is incredibly amateur. Get your act together Obama ad people!

Via Email: Hold Steady

Miller hittin it up one mo' time:

"Since my last post is looking faintly ridiculous now that McCain is, in fact, running the table in the toss-up states (serves me right for not waiting to see what effect the Palin bump had on the electoral map), I've asked Greer if I could post a follow-up. I'll be making the case that there's still cause for cautious optimism, but for different, better reasons.

If you'll permit a World War II analogy, we're in the dark days of the war. McCain's attack ads are akin to the London Blitz, or the "Happy Time," when German U-Boats torpedoed American ships and we were helpless to stop them. Putting Palin on the ticket is Pearl Harbor.

The reason I think the analogy is useful and not totally frivolous is this: Even though the situation seemed dire, and even though Germany and Japan had momentum at that point, once the United States entered the war, there was an underlying disparity in potential power that strongly favored the Allies, provided they had enough time to fully mobilize.

That the underlying conditions favor Obama in this election is well understood. But a more important point I'm trying to make with the analogy is that this is no time for risky game-changers. (That's what the other guy does in this situation, and what we've seen McCain do, skillfully.) It's a time to marshal those underlying advantages and methodically turn the tide. Ironically, I guess I'm advocating that Obama stay the course and indeed mount a surge, by reinforcing and refining his message rather than abandoning it to try something else.

I believe that Republicans would love to see Obama get mad and fight dirty (or try to, anyway). I also believe it would be disastrous for him, which is why they'd love to see it. Why would it be disastrous? First, Democrats in general will never be able to effectively practice Republican tactics, I don't think. We just aren't any good at it. We need our own playbook. Second, Obama in particular has built his campaign on the promise of a new kind of politics. To abandon that principle now would look like flailing, and it would mark him as just another full-of-it politician. Third, Obama is in a bit of a bind: he doesn't want to be seen as simply taking the abuse, the way Kerry did, but if he ever got truly mad, he might well come across as the Angry Black Man and activate certain people's nightmares. Whether or not that represents an unfair double standard, I believe the other side is giddy at the prospect. It would be playing right into their hands.

Fortunately, that's not likely, because of the fourth reason why getting mad and fighting dirty wouldn't work: It's not in Obama's nature, just as it wasn't in Gore's or Kerry's. Obama's a cool customer, not a hothead. And there's nothing more obvious or pathetic than a wannabe tough guy. In other words, acting like he'd lost his cool and was now fighting mad would be just as bad, in its own way, as getting mad for real. No one would buy it, and he'd look foolish. And thankfully, he hasn't gone that route, despite a great many commentators urging him to. (Well, urging him to get mad one way or the other, but given Obama's temperament, I think he'd have to fake it. Incidentally, as often as not, I hear this argument coming from the right, which should tell us something.)

One of the reasons the last couple weeks have been so frustrating is that we've essentially seen the Republicans and their shills in the press taunting Obama. They're like assholes in a bar, or on the playground back in the day, "accidentally" jostling him, coughing the word "wuss," and generally seeing how much they can get away with before he snaps. (It would be nice if members of the press, who unfortunately don't fit neatly into either of my analogies, would point out how idiotic the provocations were instead of chanting "Get in the ring!" with everybody else, but alas.)

It's infuriating, for sure. And in one version of the story--one I consider tied to Republican sensibilities--here's where your Clint Eastwood or Chuck Norris decides he's had enough and whups some ass. Only, we all know that's not how it would go down. If they're picking a fight, it means they're pretty sure they can win. Take the bait without knowing Aikido or something, and you're likely to come away bloodied and humiliated.

So what can you do about it? What should Obama do? You can try telling yourself that you're better than they are, which is no doubt true, but not much consolation. It didn't do wonders for Kerry. A better option is the one we fantasize about deploying in such a situation when we're not fantasizing about judo we don't know: the snappy comeback. This, I believe, is Obama's best bet.

There are many varieties, some of which he's used fairly effectively: for example, playing something off with humor, as when he started referring to his cousin Dick Cheney. Or the scathing non-sequitur, as when both Obama and Biden went after McCain's seven houses. So far, we haven't seen Obama execute the perfect comeback, which would not only defuse or deflect an attack but turn it right around on McCain. Still, Obama's doing a much better job of this than Democrats traditionally have. The main thing, though, is that you want your response to play to your strengths and your opponent's weaknesses, not the reverse.

Getting back to favorable underlying conditions and inexorably turning the tide, one development that gives me hope is that I think McCain may have reached the point where he can't go any lower without risking a backlash. Both the "lipstick on a pig" kerfuffle and the allegation that Obama supported sex ed for kindergarteners seem to have finally drawn cries of foul from the sidelines, most visibly on The View, but also in The Post, for example. It would be nice if a backlash actually developed, but I'd settle for McCain's having arrived at the limit of what he can get away with.

What else gives us cause for cautious optimism? Well, the debates are still ahead, and I expect Obama to win. As one luminary put it, "a roast chicken could out-debate McCain, especially if the debates are after 7:30 pm (McCain's bedtime)."

That still leaves the Biden-Palin debate--impossible to predict, but potentially combustible--and the Palin phenomenon in general.

One thing that worries me there is what I see every time I settle for Safeway instead of Whole Foods: People magazine and its ilk, showing Palin playing with her golden retriever (or something--I don't remember the actual cover) or the McCains looking like the kind of family you'd have over for Thanksgiving dinner, if you're a People reader. I don't think we should underestimate the effect of such testaments to McCain's and especially Palin's folksiness and approachability.

I'm also discouraged by the way they've been able to neutralize media scrutiny of Palin by decrying it as a witch hunt before it had even really begun. But surely, even if potential scandals like Troopergate don't amount to anything, we'll hear more about her being for the bridge to nowhere before she was against it, or the earmarks--in other words, not scandals, but cases where she's quite plainly misrepresenting herself. (It would also be nice to hear more about her more extreme views, or for the media to find occasion to test her knowledge of foreign affairs, past easy-to-memorize answers. That doesn't exactly qualify as an attack, you know?)

I think that may be the best we can hope for on that front. I don't think we'll see enthusiasm for her wane--I don't think there can be any doubt at this point that she's formidable and energizing, and that picking her was a masterful choice--but we might see people figuring out that she and McCain aren't really the straight-shooting, truth-telling maverick reformers they're supposed to be, and that Obama, while also a savvy politician and not a saint, has at least been conducting himself somewhat more highmindedly, and that he's been steadfast about it. If that counts for anything.

It's not a sure thing by any means, but I still see the tide turning before it's too late."

Via Email: Don't Panic Just Yet!

So is McCain a lock? Despite all the media's bloviating about McCain's reinvigorated campaign, a lone voice of reason rises amid the cries of despair. I give you Miller:

"To the question, would you say it's time for everyone to panic ("yes i would, kent"), i'd say the answer is no. i mean, the prospect of mccain winning is terrifying, and there's no way not to be on pins and needles to some extent. but open pollster.com up in another tab and check out their map. (the reason it's better than the realclearpolitics map for our purposes is that you can hover on a state and get its stats.) as i write this, they've got obama at 243 likely electoral votes, meaning he'd need 27 more. if he won ohio, where he's leading, that would net him 20. michigan, where he's leading, 17. virginia, where he's leading, 13. he could win any two of those and do it. he could win just ohio and colorado (worth 9), where he's also up, and do it. he could win just michigan, colorado, and any other tossup state, no matter how small, and do it.

to come at it from the opposite angle, mccain/palin can win florida, they'll no doubt win north carolina... that only gets them to a piddly 221. they'd have to run the table and get practically all of those tossup states to win. not likely in this climate.

to come at it from still another angle: notice how almost all the traditional blue states--all the states that went to gore or kerry--are solidly blue in this election. traditional swing states, like michigan, ohio, and florida, are still swing states. but where's that traditional all-but-coast-to-coast sprawl of red states? a considerable number of those states are in contention this time around. can obama win some of them? of course he can. they're running a tight, sklllful campaign. he's more appealing than either gore or kerry by several orders of magnitude, and those elections were close. mccain is also more appealing than bush, but the country's wised up (a little), so mccain's facing skepticism and resistance that bush didn't.

finally, it's been said (by mencken, apparently) that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the american public. however, if the american public fails to recognize that the last eight years have been disastrous (that part, at least, seems to have sunk in), that mccain is not identical to bush but way too close to be believed when he talks about change, that obama, though not the second coming, is an immensely talented, once-in-a-lifetime politician who would get our rebound underway the moment he was elected through symbolism alone, and finally, that we're incredibly lucky to be offered this chance at a do-over of sorts, it would mean that america has its head so far up its own ass--that we're so colossally, unforgivably stupid--that we surely will continue to decline as a power (at any rate, in terms of soft power and influence), and we'll deserve to. we're stupid, but i'd like to think we're not that stupid."

Voter Purges - 2000, 2004 Redux

Don't know the full story, but this seems incredibly alarming no?

Essential Reading-The Game in Pakistan

Another brilliant long form piece from the New York Times Magazine. Real, vital and dangerous journalism. I don't know what the answer is in Pakistan, but I can't help but think it must involve circumnavigating the Pakistani government to operate in the tribal regions ourselves and maybe cutting off aid. Or else it's the 'Forever War' and nuclear armaments in the hands of Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Republican Hypocrisy

What can you do? Try not to hang yourself. When you have the memory of a goldfish, America...



From a comment on BoingBoing:

XOPL: "If the main stream media covered these "flip flops" the presidential race would be over. The only reason it is a "close" race is because the media is making it a close race, because as long as it is a close race then the candidates have to buy more ad space and the networks can make more money. There's no profit in a landslide presidential victory.

Protest the media, not the war. Even if we end the war we will have done nothing to prevent the next one."

Why (Most) Journalists Are Idiots

Of course conservative journalists are going to talk about how amazing Palin was last night, it'll be the first duty of partisan hacks to hype what was a stylistically interesting but substanceless and angry speech. How entitled Republicans always are! How dare anyone threaten to take away control of the country, even if conservative governance has been an unqualified disaster, and currently suffers from idealogical bankruptcy and exhaustion. What gall democrats have! So it's not surprising to see the talking points on half of realclearpolitics saying this was the greatest speech God never gave. But what I find most repugnant is the tendency for the mainstream media to always tell a story in terms of what is most dramatically compelling, as opposed to what is actually true. Why the fawning over Palin's nasty sarcastic speech? What did it offer to the country in terms of how to fix the economy, improve health care, how to get off oil, or get out of Iraq (all issues that Americans agree upon)? Nothing, nada. But saying Palin 'electrifies the country' is a way to sell newspapers even if polling data doesn't actually, you know, prove it. I'm betting most independents found the speech nauseating, but we'll have to see.

Sidenote: Who's still an independent after the last eight years? Can you really not figure out who to vote for by now? Is it really that tough a choice either way? 'I really like that Barack guy but, you never know, he could be a terrorist who'll kill us all'. How? By giving you health care and tax breaks? I just don't get it.

Endnote: Community organizing, that is, helping poor people who lost their jobs because of steel mills closing, being a state senator and getting health care for thousands of people, being a US Senator and helping to secure stray nuclear weapons abroad so we don't all get killed by terrorists, passing ethics reform, and opposing the debacle in Iraq can't really hold a candle to supporting a Bridge to Nowhere, using your public office to get your sister's ex-husband fired, instilling the kind of family values that get your daughter pregnant at 17, choosing to have a baby when you're 44 and thus dramatically increasing the odds of the child having some kind of learning disability or birth defect, to saying global warming isn't man made, to supporting an organization that says Alaska should secede from the US and to forcing a woman who is raped by her Dad to have the baby. I surrender!

Still an Untapped Opportunity for Obama: Say You'll Kill Them

As I've argued before, I still think Democrats have failed to capitalize on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan to undo the Republican meme that liberals are soft on national security. In fact, recent developments show the Bush administration may finally be coming around to the fact that incursions into the tribal regions of Pakistan beyond the occasional predator strike are necessary to block Taliban advances in southern Afghanistan. If it's true that a deal has been struck to allow Allied Special Forces operations in Waziristan, and other tribal territory, it has been done quietly, and it's unlikely most of the US public know about it. Obama should adamantly argue the need for further US incursions into Pakistani territory to exterminate residual Al Qaeda forces and a newly invigorated Taliban insurgency. While it's true that on the stump he calls for the addition of two combat brigades, or about 10,000 troops, he has been unclear about what role they would play in Pakistan. It will certainly be difficult to navigate the treacherous waters of US-Pakistani diplomacy, but surely Obama could argue more vociferously for an expanded role for US forces in Pakistan by saying on the stump he would push the Pakistani government to allow an ever greater presence of US military forces to 'assist' in the destruction of the Taliban. Obama continues to face questions about how strong he would be abroad, and by forcefully arguing that America needs to finish what bin Laden started on 9/11, he could win over a number of independents nervous about electing a foreign policy novice when, on the other ticket, a war hero continues to press his own military advantage. The opportunity that Afghanistan presents, however, is slipping away and Obama needs to present a hawkish plan detailing specifically what he wants to do with his two new combat brigades. Subsequent to that, he needs to make such a plan a major part of his appeal to independents on the campaign trail.

SPORE

This is going to be awesome right?

Take Your Money

I'd like to point readers towards the #6 most popular NY Times Article, sandwiched between Palin's preg daughter articles...

Recently I've been having conversations about salary, specifically with women who have been hired by the same companies since out of college and since then have not received significant raises, although their responsibilities have increased. I'm not sure a man with put up with that neglect. In my experience, men often start somewhat higher on the ladder and their salaries increase regularly because they ASK for the increases.

From another article on this issue (specifically the pay gap), Linda Babcock has this suggestion for women: For example, don't go to a manager and say, "I have another job offer and unless you match it, I'll leave." That approach would be seen as threatening from a woman, even if it could be accepted from a man, Babcock said. So instead, reframe it: "I have this other offer, but I'd like to find a way to stay here. Can you match it so I can stay?"

Only vaguely insulting. But I think it's more than just female negotiation skills--it's the type of jobs women get considered for at the start. It seems that men don't get the assistant(work your way up!) jobs quite as often. Or maybe they do, but the jobs change shape and stick to purely work related tasks. Maybe it seems MORE ridiculous to ask a man to get your dry cleaning?

Women need to learn how to shape their jobs to be the kind of work that THEY want, while saying NO every once in a while to the occasional mad-men throwback. It's good for people to get their own coffee sometimes. Or say that the coffee will cost them-- 3% of your annual salary.

Me: Always an Up-to-the-Minute Part of the Zeitgeist

So this came out years ago, my friends sang its praises way before me, etc...Nonetheless, a delightful flick full of hilarious choreography; it's refreshingly light-hearted and a great antidote to the mindless thugfests to which we're so often subjected. Sometimes you don't need your dark knights to be so airlessly dark. Chow likes to compare himself to Fred Astaire and why not? The movie is relentlessly playful and a joyous reminder that movies can still thrill and entertain as sheer spectacle. So what if it doesn't always make a lot of sense? It's Tarantino without the cloying need to be hip and an unabashed geekfest that cleverly weds Chaplin, kung-fu, and Stan Lee. Looking forward to checking out Shaolin Soccer and CJ7.

Sarah Palin

Reports coming in that it's going to be her. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise considering how successful the dem convention was. This will complicate the campaign in many fascinating ways, like, isn't the whole point of a VP pick that they're ready to be president if, for example, your older-than-the-pyramids nominee happens to expire a month into his term? She's been governor for two years of...Alaska. Population: 10,000 elk, 1,500 Inuit. The struggles she's had to overcome in this unwieldy state with a diverse population and a massive budget of...right. The Republicans sure love them some tokenism. How many ladies are gonna buy this? That said, she's wildly popular in Alaska, a true reformist, pro-life, a killer of pork (she ended the whole Bridge-to-Nowhere debacle) and a maverick who beat the Republican party's choice in the Alaskan primaries. What a great way for the Republicans to control the news cycle and minimize the importance of Barack's solid speech last night. She'll be dangerous.

Good One Son

From the ever interesting, sometimes wrong, and always conservative Noonan:

"By the way, the best line of the convention so far? Ted Strickland of Ohio, when he echoed the 1988 Democratic convention joke about George H.W. Bush, that he was born on third and thought he hit a triple. Strickland said of George W. Bush that he was born on third and then stole second."

The Right Side of History

Did anyone else get the sense that Biden seems like an inveterate angry drunk? Anyone else think that's exactly what Obama needs as a counterweight to his thoughtful, polite, nuanced, and maddeningly meandering demeanor? Me three. While no doubt shrill at times, the kind of anger Biden exhibited, and the general passion on display from a masterful Bill and an exceptional Hillary Clinton, means this election is America's to lose, not John Kerry's or Michael Dukakis's. We'll see how tonight goes, but Plouffe, Axelrod, et al. have put together the most invigorating and electrifying convention I've ever seen; if we can't pull this one out in the wake of Bush's disasterous policies, it won't be Obama's or the Clintons' fault, it'll be our own.

The Tuesday Morning Piss Fest!

Hi guys, it's Emily. Chris's blog has been invaded! Hello to all Empire Files readers! (Hi, Mom.)

NYC Pissy:



To start off, I'll say that maybe it's just been a bad couple of weeks for my relationship with good ole NY. I spent the last couple of weeks searching for an apartment AND my phone was stolen! I was stupid enough to think that the guy who found it was going to return it. Or maybe he was just stupid enough to pick up my call from my office during his phone call joy ride. I should have realized when he said "yo don't blame me if it don't show up again" that it WASN'T going to show up again. Yes, I blame him.

In the midst of these couple of weeks, the trailer for New York I Love You seems particularly asinine. NY Mag hits it somewhat when they say: "This trailer's constant, pie-eyed refrain — "New York's not such a big place!" "God, I love New York!" — reminds us painfully of a bunch of tourists wandering around Times Square."

Let's stop pretending that NYC (or Manhattan particularly) is anything other than a playground for the rich. Yes, you can lay your head dramatically on the train while shuffling between 59th Street Lexington and your Murray Hill condo. What about the woman with the hour commute from Flushing? Is her story of actually struggling to pay the rent not interesting? Why do NYers have this cuddle-blanket comfort story that we tell ourselves about the types of people that live on the island? Does anyone who has actually paid rent in this city buy this crap? And why is the entire cast white (ooo! look! an Orthodox Jew, how authentic). Yes, Manhattan is full of white beautiful bohemian ARTISTS. Go find them!

Woman Pissy:


I'm not all cynicism. This gal's eyes got watery when Michelle Obama did her thing last night. After watching that speech, I'm particularly irritated by videos like "Why Do You Let Me Stay Here" by She and Him. Yeah Zoey Deschanel is cute but I am SO TIRED OF WOMEN PRANCING. You look cute in costumes and hipster bangs. I get that it's fun and light and I'm just being a kill-joy (this song reverberates on the L train walls) but this video hurts me a little bit inside.

ps: I'm not saying she needs to be dancing around little starving children in Darfur, I'm just exhausted by grown women being trotted out like children for sexual attention (and therefore validation). Sigh.

Essential Reading

Great piece in the NYTimes about Obama's economic policies and the split between Rubin and Reich (now mostly mended).

What?

So, I'm half-way through listening to this on recommendation from Christgau who, if you don't read him, you should, as he's a million years old, still listens to hip-hop, and understands that music and art should be about meaningfully engaging with life as opposed to empty posturing; and all the sudden I get it, this guy, K'Naan, is the greatest hip-hop artist of the last several years. I don't think he'll ever have much mainstream appeal even though he pushes through meaty major-key pop-hooks, but he's successfully fused American hip-hop and Africa in a way that's more compelling than anything any American has done in recent pop music history. He's got a sick flow. He's from Mogadishu.