Changes?

"What, me worry?"

Words.

"It's been a year since the financial system collapsed like a botched souffle, and the sense of acute crisis has eased. The wizards of Wall Street are raring to get back to business as usual -- and if we let them, we'll have only ourselves to blame when the next meltdown comes.

The Obama administration and the Federal Reserve get too little credit for skillfully managing this terrible recession in a way that has kept it from turning into an all-out catastrophe. Too-big-to-fail financial institutions were put on life support or eased into oblivion in creative ways that involved massive injections of taxpayer funds -- but prevented massive defaults. The auto industry, a victim of collateral damage, was expensively defibrillated and once again has a pulse. Nearly 100 banks have failed so far this year -- compared with 25 in 2008 and just three in 2007 -- but depositors' money was saved.

In the process, though, the behemoth financial firms have gotten even bigger. And now that the economy has begun to revive, the stock market is getting happy again. I'm as pleased as anyone else to see a rising Dow, but somebody needs to slap the incipient grin off Wall Street's face."

THE WASHINGTON POST: The Wall Street Casino, Back in Business

BOY?...STOP.

Words. For Your Consideration...

"I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race.

I tended to agree with some Obama advisers that Democratic presidents typically have provoked a frothing response from paranoids — from Father Coughlin against F.D.R. to Joe McCarthy against Truman to the John Birchers against J.F.K. and the vast right-wing conspiracy against Bill Clinton.

But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it.

...Barry Obama of the post-’60s Hawaiian ’hood did not live through the major racial struggles in American history. Maybe he had a problem relating to his white basketball coach or catching a cab in New York, but he never got beaten up for being black.

Now he’s at the center of a period of racial turbulence sparked by his ascension. Even if he and the coterie of white male advisers around him don’t choose to openly acknowledge it, this president is the ultimate civil rights figure — a black man whose legitimacy is constantly challenged by a loco fringe.

For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Boy, Oh, Boy

As Above, So Below.

A Moment of Clarity.



Words. For Your Consideration....

"THE day before he gave his latest brilliant speech, Barack Obama repeated a well-worn mantra to a television interviewer: “My job is not to be distracted by the 24-hour news cycle.” The time has come for him to expand that job description. His White House has a duty to push back against the 24-hour news cycle, every 24 hours if necessary, when it threatens to derail his agenda, the nation’s business, or both. This was a silly summer, as wasteful in its way as the summer of 2001, when Washington dithered over the now-forgotten Gary Condit scandal while Al Qaeda plotted. The president deserves his share of the blame.

After a good couple of years of living with the guy, we know the drill that defines his leadership, for better and worse. When trouble lurks, No Drama Obama stays calm as everyone around him goes ballistic. Then he waits — and waits — for that superdramatic moment when he can ride to his own rescue with what the press reliably hypes as The Do-or-Die Speech of His Career. Cable networks slap a countdown clock on the corner of the screen and pump up the suspense. Finally, Mighty Obama steps up to the plate and, lo and behold, confounds all the doubting bloviators yet again by (as they are wont to say) hitting it out of the park.

So it’s a little disingenuous for Obama to claim that he is not distracted by the 24-hour news cycle. What he’s actually doing is gaming it for all it’s worth.

As a mode of campaigning, this tactic was worth a great deal. Obama not only produced eloquent speeches — especially the classic disquisition on race that silenced the Jeremiah Wright pogrom — but also executed a remarkably disciplined tortoise-vs.-hare battle plan that outwitted and ultimately vanquished the hypercaffeinated political strategies of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. As a style of governing, however, this repeated cycle of extended above-the-fray passivity followed by last-minute oratorical heroics has now been stretched to the very limit."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Obama’s Squandered Summer

HEALTH.

Words.

"President Obama set out a long list of worthy goals in his healthcare speech to Congress last week, but at least one of them was utterly unrealistic. "I am not the first president to take up this cause," he said, "but I am determined to be the last."

If Obama succeeds in winning a comprehensive healthcare bill, he will have established, for the first time, a federal government obligation to make some kind of health insurance available to every citizen. That's a monumental achievement.

But it will be only the first step in a process of designing, launching and improving a new healthcare system for a nation of some 300 million. That's a monumental task.

...Whatever bill gets through Congress this fall -- and it seems increasingly likely that one will -- is almost certain to obligate citizens to obtain insurance, require insurance companies to offer "affordable" basic policies and impose taxes and Medicare payment cuts to help pay the insurance bills of low-income families.

But no matter how specific the bill gets, it can't guarantee that the president's proposals for funding the plan will generate enough to cover the costs.

And the bill won't reshape the medical system to focus on overall care instead of individual procedures.

...Right now, the U.S. healthcare system is a patchwork of different systems -- Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor, military and veterans' medicine, private insurance for the fully employed, and a lot of cracks in between.

Decisions about how much to spend on health, and how, have often been made through backroom battles among big institutions: employers, insurance companies, drug companies and hospitals. Doctors and patients have been among the least influential players.

By expanding the federal role in healthcare, and by setting up a system that guarantees all citizens access to affordable insurance, Obama's plan gives everyone a stake in its success. Voters will want to know that this system is working well at a reasonable cost. They'll demand -- even more than they do now -- evidence that their money is being well spent. Future Congresses and presidents, far from being relieved of the issue, will find themselves debating it year after year. American medicine is being politicized -- and that may not be a bad thing."

LOS ANGELES TIMES: The long road to healthcare reform

Erotica.

New flava in ya ear!

Keri Hilson.

Slow Dance.

"I know your Girlfriend hates SHE!"

New flava in ya ear!

Annie.

Songs Remind Me of You.



Shoutout to Maura over at

Idolator for putting this on my radar! That's what's up!

Health. Care. First. AID.

A Moment of Clarity.



Words.

"Any critic who still questions the need for health care reform or rails against a “government takeover” of health care should look at the latest Census Bureau estimates of the number of people without health insurance in this country — and the number who have avoided disaster precisely because of government help.

The overall number of the uninsured rose from 45.7 million in 2007 to 46.3 million in 2008. The fact that tens of millions of Americans may be one major illness away from bankruptcy is unacceptable. But there is also some heartening news: The increase was relatively small considering the depth of the economic crisis. That is only because government programs helped offset the decline of private insurance and employer-based coverage.

...Critics of health care reform have done Americans two great disservices. They have obscured and denied the very real suffering of tens of millions of uninsured Americans and the very real danger that millions more could soon join them. And they have twisted and denied the goal of health care reform when they rail against a fictitious government takeover.

As Mr. Obama said in his speech, when facts, reason and civility are thrown overboard, he said, “we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves.”"

THE NEW YORK TIMES: A Clear Responsibility

For Your Consideration.

Stream here.

An Inconvenient Truth.

Words.

"At the annual Bioneers convention in 2007, Van Jones described to an audience of scientists, activists and environmentalists how he had spent 20 years trying to get Americans to pay attention to the urban poor. "We would call newspapers, television stations, saying kids are dying, we're going to funerals every weekend. 'Not interested.' We'd say we've got kids going to school in Oakland, 30 kids in the classroom, six books, no chalk.' 'Not interested.' "

Finally, the Yale Law School graduate turned community organizer told the crowd, "We said, 'Well, we want green jobs and not jails for our youth.' And they said, 'Green? Green? Green!' GIVE THAT MAN A MICROPHONE!' "

"Green," at least in the beginning, was a marketing term to Jones, a means to an end. But the deeper he got into it, he said, the more he realized that the environment was central to the kind of social justice he cared about. For the affluent lefties in the audience, he teased, environmentalism might be about polar bears and other "charismatic megafauna." But "in the poor part of town, when they say, 'Oh, the environment is terrible,' they're talking about air pollution, asthma, cancer clusters and birth defects."

Working with inner-city residents required a new approach. "If I go and knock on the door in West Oakland, or Watts, or Newark, and say, 'Excuse me, I got a big problem here. ... WE GOTTA SAVE THE POLAR BEARS!' are they going to join my group? No. Because in the poor part of town ... if they're talking about global warming, they're not talking about polar bears drowning. They're talking about people drowning -- that's Katrina."

Soon, the crowd was on its feet, applauding.

I was in the audience for that speech, and I remembered it last spring when I heard Jones had been named special advisor to President Obama on green jobs. And I remembered it again last weekend when I heard he had resigned from that job under pressure. Jones' resignation came in the wake of reports that he had once used an expletive to describe Republicans, and that he had signed a petition in 2004 asking Congress to investigate whether the Bush administration had failed to prevent the 9/11 attacks in order to justify war.In the end, both liberals and conservatives condemned him.

But Jones' departure is a big loss. He should be judged not by a few missteps but by his long history of working toward a highly desirable but elusive goal: an environmental movement that crosses boundaries of place, skin color and class. By working to bring green jobs to "the poor part of town" and involving mainstream environmental leaders in the cause of fighting poverty, Jones has made a huge contribution."

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Meet the real Van Jones

Me & Julio Down by the Schoolyard.

A Moment of Clarity.



Words.

"Anyone who watched Wednesday night as President Obama explained his health-care reform proposals to Congress saw a chief executive making what sounded like a genuine appeal for bipartisanship -- and his opponents behaving like a bunch of spoiled first-graders. Obama should ignore them, even if they hold their breath until they turn blue.

House Republicans were particularly ostentatious in showing their disrespect not just for Obama but for the office he holds. The outburst by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina -- who shouted "You lie!" when Obama said his plan would not cover illegal immigrants -- was only the most egregious display of contempt. Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the House minority whip, fiddled with his BlackBerry while the commander in chief was speaking. Other Republicans made a show of waving copies of their own alleged reform plan, which isn't really a plan at all.

And Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas waved hand-lettered signs at the president, as if he thought he were attending one of those made-for-television town-hall meetings rather than a solemn gathering of the nation's highest elected officials.

Throughout the speech, there was grumbling, mugging and eye-rolling on the Republican side that was not only undignified but frankly un-American. When I was a correspondent in London, I covered far more raucous sessions of the British House of Commons -- that's how Parliament treats the prime minister, who is the head of government. In the United States, that simply is not how Congress treats the president, who is the head of state."

THE WASHINGTON POST: No Way to Treat a President

...

New flava in ya ear!

Jooce.

Hit Me On My Twitter.



No words. Ironically.

Space Oddity.

New flava in ya ear!

Empire of the Sun.

Without You.

Outta Sight, Outta Mind.

Words.

"It happened at 8:40 pm, just after the president vowed to lawmakers that his health-care reform proposals would not provide benefits to illegal immigrants. As millions of Americans watched from home, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouted at the president from his fifth-row seat: "You lie!"

Murmurs of "ooh" filled the stunned chamber. Nancy Pelosi's chin dropped. Obama moved on to the next sentence in his speech, about how no federal money would be used to fund abortion. "Not true!" came another shout.

The national debate, already raw for years, had coarsened over the summer as town hall meetings across the country dissolved into protests about "death panels" and granny-killing. Guns were brought to Obama appearances. A pastor in Arizona said he was praying for Obama to die.

But even by that standard, there was something appalling about the display on the House floor for what was supposed to be a sacred ritual of American democracy: the nation watching while Cabinet members, lawmakers from both chambers and the diplomatic corps assembled

Wilson was only the most flagrant. There was booing from House Republicans when the president caricatured a conservative argument by saying they would "leave individuals to buy health insurance on their own." They hissed when he protested their "scare tactics." They grumbled as they do in Britain's House of Commons when Obama spoke of the "blizzard of charges and countercharges."

...while the majority of both parties' lawmakers behaved as adults, the insolence by House Republicans stole the show. There was derisive laughter on that side of the chamber when Obama noted that "there remain some significant details to be ironed out." They applauded as he spoke of "all the misinformation that's been spread over the past few months." They laughed again when he said that "many Americans have grown nervous about reform."

...Toward the end of Obama's speech, the text of which was handed out before the congressman's outburst, was a fitting rebuke of the sort of behavior Wilson had just exhibited. When "we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter," Obama said, "we don't merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves."

THE WASHINGTON POST: The Republican Response, Arriving a Little Early

Oh by the way,

THIS.IS.THE.REMIX!

Kid Cudi.

Day 'N' Nite.

The Crooker's Remix.

"GET DOWN ON IT!"

A Moment of Clarity.


Once more with feeling!

Words.

"After keeping his great powers of persuasion and elucidation under wraps all summer, the president at long last comes forward to explain his health care plan to an utterly confused and increasingly skeptical and wary public.

He should have done this speech back in June and conjured up a better glossary. You can’t combat a scintillating term like “death panels” with a somnambulant one like “public option.”

President Obama is so wrapped up in his desire to be a different, more conciliatory, beer-summit kind of leader, he ignores some verities.

Sometimes, when you’ve got the mojo, you have to keep your foot on your opponent’s neck. When you’re trying to get a Sisyphean agenda passed, it’s good if people in the way — including rebellious elements in your own party — fear you.

Civil discourse is fine, but when the other side is fighting dirty, you should get angry. Don’t let the bully kick sand in your face.

...It was one thing for Obama to delegate freely when he was on the Harvard Law Review, but it’s madness to go play golf and delegate freely to Congress, letting Nancy Pelosi make your case. After signaling that there was nothing he’d fall on his sword for on health care; after dropping Van Jones at the first objection from Glenn Beck — a demagoon who called Obama a “racist” — the president is getting to be seen as an easy mark."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Less Spocky, More Rocky

Each One, Teach One.

Unless you're President Obama.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Words.

"Just when you thought things couldn't get any stupider, schools across the nation decided to censor President Obama's speech urging kids to work hard because "being successful is hard."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the terribly scary bit of propaganda that prompted certain Americans to cry "socialism" and "indoctrination" and force some schools to opt out of hearing the president's message Tuesday.

When and how did we become so ridiculous?

As it turns out, we've been this way for a while. Such protests -- a review of which follows shortly -- aren't new. The difference is that now the masses are technologically enabled, amplified by a twillion tweets. Everybody's got a megaphone, bless democracy's heart.

But when a protest of one (or a few) can instantly morph into a babble of thousands, rabble-rousing becomes a hobby -- and rational debate becomes an oxymoron."

THE WASHINGTON POST: An A in Overreaction

"Who you with?"

A Moment of Clarity.

ILL DOCTRINE: The One Where Michael Steele Makes Me Yell At My TV

"NEW MONEY!"

For Your Consideration,

New flava in ya ear!

Dirty Money.

Angels.

"SERENITY NOW!"

A Moment of Clarity.



Words. For Your Consideration...

"We need therapy. President Obama is planning to address the nation’s public school students today, urging them to work hard and stay in school. The folks who bray at the moon are outraged. Some of the caterwauling on the right has likened Mr. Obama to Chairman Mao (and, yes, Hitler), and a fair number of parents have bought into the imbecilic notion that this is an effort at socialist or Communist indoctrination.

As one father from Texas put it: “I don’t want our schools turned over to some socialist movement.”

The wackiness is increasing, not diminishing, and it has a great potential for destruction. There is a real need for people who know better to speak out in a concerted effort to curb the appeal of the apostles of the absurd.

...We seem unable to face up to many of the hard truths confronting the U.S. as we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

...The serious wackos, the obsessive-compulsive absurdists, may be beyond therapy. But the rest of us could use some serious adult counseling. We’ve forgotten many of the fundamentals: how to live within our means, the benefits of shared sacrifice, the responsibilities that go with citizenship, the importance of a well-rounded education and tolerance."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: It’s Time to Get Help

"Y'ALL READY FOR THIS?!"

New flava in ya ear!

Pretty Ricky.

Tipsy in Dis Club. [ED'S NOTE: Really fellas?]

Erotic City.

New flava in ya ear!

Ryan Leslie.

You're Not My Girl.

Mortal. Kombat.

"I can't be your Superman!(?)"

Words. For Your Consideration...

"What happened to President Obama? His wax wings having melted, he is the man who fell to earth. What happened to bring his popularity down further than that of any new president in polling history save Gerald Ford (post-Nixon pardon)?

...After a disastrous summer -- mistaking his mandate, believing his press, centralizing power, governing left, disdaining citizens for (of all things) organizing -- Obama is in trouble.

Let's be clear: This is a fall, not a collapse. He's not been repudiated or even defeated. He will likely regroup and pass some version of health insurance reform that will restore some of his clout and popularity.

But what has occurred -- irreversibly -- is this: He's become ordinary. The spell is broken. The charismatic conjurer of 2008 has shed his magic. He's regressed to the mean, tellingly expressed in poll numbers hovering at 50 percent.

For a man who only recently bred a cult, ordinariness is a great burden, and for his acolytes, a crushing disappointment. Obama has become a politician like others. And like other flailing presidents, he will try to salvage a cherished reform -- and his own standing -- with yet another prime-time speech.

But for the first time since election night in Grant Park, he will appear in the most unfamiliar of guises -- mere mortal, a treacherous transformation to which a man of Obama's supreme self-regard may never adapt."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Obama, the Mortal

NO!

No, No, No, No, NO!



Aww hell naw y'all. Hollywood has officially ran out of ideas. Videogum reports:

"The Hollywood Reporter hollywood reported this morning that a movie about jerkin' is in development.

Melee Entertainment and indie film producer Shariff Hasan are developing a movie that will center on jerkin,' the hip-hop dance trend that has been attracting a host of mainstream coverage.
Jerkin,' which has landed coverage in L.A. Weekly and the Los Angeles Times, is a form of dancing that, like breakdancing and other performance art, originated in the streets. But unlike some other forms of street art, it's underlied by a specific political ideology of providing a positive, anti-gang message in the inner city. The movement is marked by dancers wearing brightly colored, nonbaggy jeans and shirts, in marked contrast to conventional hip-hop wear.

Melee is the banner behind the Mos Def action comedy "Next Day Air," which earned $10million when Summit released it in May, and Screen Gems' $40 million breakout "You Got Served." It is prepping the thriller "Day One.""

Say it with me now y'all, UGH!

VIDEOGUM: Hollywood Better Not (But Of Course Will) Ruin Jerkin': The Movie

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga...

Words.

"Back when that song "Beautiful" was all over the radio, a DJ friend of mine once said, "The devil didn't invent rock and roll for James Blunt." And I can't help but agree, as a woman raised on filthy Prince lyrics, Madonna writhing to "Like A Virgin" (at the VMAs!) and sexual innuendo in George Michael hits. Lots of people can sing. Lots of people write songs. Pop music should be more that that. Not a lot of people sing well, or write catchy songs; Lady Gaga does both. But more importantly: Lady Gaga makes it exciting. Titillating, unexpected. With Muppet coats, teacups, awful (untrue) hermaphrodite rumors and general pantslessness. Without her, pop would be a bland landscape right now..."

I second that emotion. Now if we could just work on producing a straight up start to finish bangin' ass LP...In due time ladies and gents. In due time...

JEZEBEL: In Defense Of Lady Gaga, Whose VMA Performance "Will Inspire A Movement"

Magnum P.I.

Words.

"After the C.I.A. inspector general’s report on prisoner interrogation was released last week, former Vice President Dick Cheney settled into his usual seat on Fox News to express his outrage — not at the illegal and immoral behavior laid out in the report, of course, but at the idea that anyone would object to torturing prisoners. He was especially vexed that the Obama administration was beginning an investigation.

...It’s easy to understand Mr. Cheney’s aversion to the investigation that Attorney General Eric Holder ordered last week. On Fox, Mr. Cheney said it was hard to imagine it stopping with the interrogators. He’s right.

The government owes Americans a full investigation into the orders to approve torture, abuse and illegal, secret detention, as well as the twisted legal briefs that justified those policies. Congress and the White House also need to look into illegal wiretapping and the practice of sending prisoners to other countries to be tortured.

...Americans need much more than glimpses of the truth. They should not have to decide whether to believe former interrogators, whom they do not know, or Mr. Cheney, who did not hesitate while in office to mislead them when it suited his political aims."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Dick Cheney’s Version

Never Can Say Goodbye?

Words. For Your Consideration...

"Since U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq's cities, two months have passed, and so has the illusion that Iraq is smoothly transitioning to a normality free of sectarian violence. Recently, Gen. Ray Odierno, commander of U.S. troops there, "blanched" when The Post's Greg Jaffe asked him if the war is "functionally over." Odierno said:

"There are still civilians being killed in Iraq. We still have people that are attempting to attack the new Iraqi order and the move towards democracy and a more open economy. So we still have some work to do."

No, we don't, even if, as Jaffe reports, the presence of 130,000 U.S. troops "serves as a check on Iraqi military and political leaders' baser and more sectarian instincts." After almost 6 1/2 years, and 4,327 American dead and 31,483 wounded, with a war spiraling downward in Afghanistan, it would be indefensible for the U.S. military -- overextended and in need of materiel repair and mental recuperation -- to loiter in Iraq to improve the instincts of corrupt elites. If there is worse use of the U.S. military than "nation-building," it is adult supervision and behavior modification of other peoples' politicians."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Time to Leave Iraq

"You know it's hard out here for a PIMP!"

A Moment of Clarity starring Soulja Boy and his,

Successful Remix.

WHO'S BAD?

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

"LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS!"

A Moment of Clarity.


Words.

"August was a tough month for supporters of healthcare reform. Instead of pushing a comprehensive bill close to passage by the time Congress adjourned for its summer break, they were still struggling to get to a vote in the House and a key Senate committee. The news media were filled with reports of protesters howling that "Obama-care" would socialize medicine, promote abortion and ration care for seniors. Polls showed support for the reform effort dropping steadily. The month ended with the death of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the advocate historically most effective at striking the compromises necessary to get a bill signed.

With the momentum for reform fading, some lawmakers are thinking about abandoning the far-reaching House and Senate bills in favor of more modest changes to the insurance market. We think it's far too early to give up on a comprehensive bill, and we fear that incremental steps won't do much to solve the interrelated problems of high cost and shrinking coverage. The current proposals have flaws -- for instance, they aren't aggressive enough in trying to control costs or reduce demand -- but excessive ambition is not one of them.

...there's no question that lawmakers have to act. It's time for systemic change, not half-measures."

LOS ANGELES TIMES: Patient approach

"IT'S HOVI BABY!"

For Your Consideration:

MTV: Jay-Z | The Leak | Album Preview - The Blueprint 3

Kinda like a Big Deal?

Lil Boosie.

Top Notch.

Pause.

A Moment of Clarity?...


"Don't ask. Don't tell."

Words.

"Wonder what it's like to guard State Department facilities in Kabul? In photos first published by Gawker, security contractors get their kicks peeing on one another, simulating anal sex, doing "butt shots," and "eating potato chips out of ass cracks.

...What sort of hazing? The traditional desperately homoerotic frat boy kind, mostly involving eating and drinking things off of other men's butts. Also some nipple-biting, as you can see below. One POGO whistle blower described it thusly [PDF link]: "They have a group of sexual predators, deviants running rampant over there. No, they are not jamming guys in the ass per say [sic], but they are showing poor judgenment [sic]." Most of it appears to have been voluntary, but those who didn't really want to drink vodka shots out of the clenched butt-cheeks of their male co-workers were penalized and reported barricading themselves in their rooms."

GAWKER: Our Embassy in Afghanistan Is Guarded by Sexually Confused Frat Boys

"DO THE HUSTLE!(?)"

If only things were this easy...

Words. For Your Consideration...

"Two tides swept over American politics last winter. The first was the Obama tide. Barack Obama came into office with an impressive 70 percent approval rating. The second was the independent tide. Over the first months of this year, the number of people who called themselves either Democrats or Republicans declined, while the number who called themselves independents surged ahead.

Obama’s challenge was to push his agenda through a Democratic-controlled government while retaining the affection of the 39 percent of Americans in the middle.

The administration hasn’t been able to pull it off. From the stimulus to health care, it has joined itself at the hip to the liberal leadership in Congress. The White House has failed to veto measures, like the pork-laden omnibus spending bill, that would have demonstrated independence and fiscal restraint. By force of circumstances and by design, the president has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralizes power in Washington.

The result is the Obama slide, the most important feature of the current moment. The number of Americans who trust President Obama to make the right decisions has fallen by roughly 17 percentage points. Obama’s job approval is down to about 50 percent. All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but in the history of polling, no newly elected American president has fallen this far this fast..."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The Obama Slide

In Ghost Colours.

New flava in ya ear!

The xx.

Basic Space.

Remember the Time?

A Moment of Clarity.


In the Pocket!(?)

Words.

"...surveying current politics, I find myself missing Richard Nixon.

No, I haven’t lost my mind. Nixon was surely the worst person other than Dick Cheney ever to control the executive branch.

But the Nixon era was a time in which leading figures in both parties were capable of speaking rationally about policy, and in which policy decisions weren’t as warped by corporate cash as they are now. America is a better country in many ways than it was 35 years ago, but our political system’s ability to deal with real problems has been degraded to such an extent that I sometimes wonder whether the country is still governable.

...So what happened to the days when a Republican president could sound so nonideological, and offer such a reasonable proposal?

Part of the answer is that the right-wing fringe, which has always been around — as an article by the historian Rick Perlstein puts it, “crazy is a pre-existing condition” — has now, in effect, taken over one of our two major parties.

...But there’s another reason health care reform is much harder now than it would have been under Nixon: the vast expansion of corporate influence."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Missing Richard Nixon

"MESSAGE!"

From Bob Dole RE: Healthcare.



Words. For Your Consideration...

"Health-care reform is the No. 1 domestic priority. With all the charges and countercharges, those who will be affected, the American people, are understandably confused. Many are angry. Reform of our health-care system is a gigantic undertaking, but too many measures have been drafted in congressional committees by liberal Democrats. It's become too much for many to grasp.

...If I were a White House adviser, I would suggest that the day Congress reconvenes, President Obama's version of reform should be introduced by Democratic leaders in the House and Senate. Health-care reform is the vital issue of our time, and Obama should be out front with his specific plan on this make-or-break issue.

Many of us were taught that the president proposes and Congress disposes. Today, Congress is doing both -- with the president relegated to the role of cheerleader in chief as he campaigns for various House committees' efforts. Certainly, Obama supports much in these proposals -- but Barack Obama is our president, not a commentator."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Starting Over On Health Care

Butta Love.

With Drake & Trey Songz.

Successful.

"I ROCKS ROUGH AND STUFF!"

New flava in ya ear!

Mary J. Blige feat. Drake.

The One.

I Gotta Feeling.

New flava in ya ear!

Basement Jaxx feat. Sam Sparro.

Feeling's Gone.

Good Vibrations.

Just you watch...



Say it with me now, y'all: "COMEDY!"

FOURFOUR: The Marky Mark Workout

CHANGE!

HOW MANY OF US WANT IT?

Words.

"The reason Americans have turned against health-care reform, after electing President Obama in part for promising it, is simple: Despite protestations to the contrary, Americans don't like change. You wouldn't know it, of course, if you listen to politicians in high-pander mode, or to talk radio hosts of the right or TV pundits of the left. Or, for that matter, if you listened to the president of the United States. You would think that while we might disagree about what kind of change we want, Americans are in total agreement that the current situation is intolerable in all areas and that change -- big, immediate change -- is essential. Americans do agree about this -- in the abstract. But as soon as it seems that change might actually happen -- as soon as we leave the abstract for the particular -- we panic. We suddenly develop nostalgia for the comforts of the status quo. Sure, we want change -- as long as everything can stay just as it is..."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Change We'd Rather Do Without

Oh On and On!

And on and on...



Words. For Your Consideration...

"SILKY straight hair has long been considered by many black women to be their crowning glory. So what if getting that look meant enduring the itchy burning that’s a hallmark of many chemical straighteners. Or a pricey dependence on “creamy crack,” as relaxers are sometimes jokingly called.

Getting “good hair” often means transforming one’s tightly coiled roots; but it is also more freighted, for many African-American women and some men, than simply a choice about grooming. Straightening hair has been perceived as a way to be more acceptable to certain relatives, as well as to the white establishment.

“If your hair is relaxed, white people are relaxed,” the comedian Paul Mooney, sporting an Afro, says in the documentary “Good Hair,” which won a jury prize at the Sundance film festival and comes out in October. “If your hair is nappy, they’re not happy.”

The movie, made by Chris Rock, explores the lengths black women go to get long, straightened locks, from a $1,000 weave on a teacher’s salary to schoolgirls having their hair chemically relaxed.

In the face of cultural pressure, the thinking goes, conformists relax their hair, and rebels have the courage not to. In some corners, relaxing one’s hair is even seen as wishing to be white.

...Although legions of black women in America straighten their hair (including Michelle Obama), hair salons specializing in natural styles have proliferated, and more black women are working with their virgin hair. Many wear their twists, locks or teenie-weenie Afros (known as TWAs) with an attitude — proud to have not given in to the pressure to straighten hair. In “Good Hair,” Nia Long, the actress, describes the conventional wisdom that straightened hair is more desirable: “There’s always a sort of pressure within the black community, like ‘Oh, if you have good hair, you’re prettier or better than the brown-skinned girl that wears an Afro or the dreads or the natural hairstyle.’”

For some, the battle lines are drawn.

But in recent interviews, a number of people of color expressed a weariness with the debate. They asked, essentially: Why can’t hair just be hair?"

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Black Hair, Still Tangled in Politics

"EVERYBODY!"

"Y'all already know what this is!"...

New flava in ya ear!

Backstreet Boys.

Straight Through My Heart.

Dear Mr. President,

A Moment of Clarity.


Words.

"I am afraid there has been a misunderstanding since that election in 2008, during which 66,882,230 Americans cast their votes for you. Perhaps one of your trusted advisors has given you bum information. Maybe they told you that we voted for you -- walked, marched, prayed, fund-raised and knocked on doors for you -- because we hoped you would try to reunite the country. Of the total votes cast that long-ago November day, I'm guessing that about 1,575 people wanted you to try to reconcile the toxic bipartisanship that culminated in those Sarah Palin rallies.

The other 66,880,655 of us wanted universal healthcare.

...People, get ready, you said; there's a train a 'coming. And we did get ready. We hit the streets. We roared, whispered, cried, whooped and went door to door, convinced that even if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had not specifically dreamed of you, his dream of justice and equality and pride might come into being through your vision, your greatness, through the hope that your words gave us, through the change you promised.

...You said you would push back your sleeves and begin, that it would take all of us working harder than we ever had before, but that you would lead. While acknowledging the financial and moral devastation of the last eight years, you said you would start by giving your people healthcare. You would do battle with the conservatives and insurance companies. You said in your beautiful way many times that this was the overarching moral and spiritual issue of our times, and we understood this to mean that you took this to be your Selma, your Little Rock.

...And we believed you. Now you seem to have abandoned the dream. That is why moderates and liberals and progressives like myself all seem a little tense this summer. It is time to call your spirit back.

...Do it for Teddy Kennedy, boss. Do it for the other Kennedys too, for Dr. King, for Big Mama, for the poorest kids you met on the trail, the kids who go to emergency rooms for their healthcare, do it for their mothers and for Michelle. Just do it."

LOS ANGELES TIMES: President Obama: Healthcare; you promised.

In Memoriam.

THE WASHINGTON POST: Ted Kennedy's Humanity

Hearts Afire.

A Moment of Clarity.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Beat Beat Heartbeat.

Words.

"As the health care debate enters its decisive weeks, the left doubts President Obama’s commitment, and the press doubts his competence.

For MSNBC-watching, Huffington Post-devouring liberals, the administration’s fancy footwork on a public health care plan (maybe it’s out, maybe it’s in, but either way it’s negotiable) is just the latest example of the president’s unseemly unwillingness to steamroll the opposition. He has been too solicitous to Republicans, too hands-off with Democrats, too detached and technocratic — even as a once-in-a-generation opportunity is passing liberalism by.

Where the left sees betrayal, the press sees ham-fistedness. The White House’s messages have been mixed — fiscal hawkery one day, moralism the next. The administration has allowed distractions like the Skip Gates affair to crowd out his agenda. It has overlearned the lessons of the Clinton-care debacle and given Congress too much leeway. It has underlearned the lessons of the Bush-era Social Security debacle and gone to war before there’s an actual piece of legislation on the table.

Some of this is true — but some of it is overstated. And at its worst, it’s an example of the bipartisan derangement that Gene Healy of the Cato Institute has dubbed “the cult of the presidency.”

To the disciples of this cult, the president is the government. “He is a soul nourisher,” Healy writes, “a hope giver, a living American talisman against hurricanes, terrorism, economic downturns and spiritual malaise.” Anything that happens on his watch happens because of him. Anything that happens on his watch happens because of him. And just as important, anything that doesn’t happen can be pinned entirely on his mistakes.

...In reality, the health care wrestling match is less a test of Mr. Obama’s political genius than it is a test of the Democratic Party’s ability to govern. This is not the Reagan era, when power in Washington was divided, and every important vote required the president to leverage his popularity to build trans-party coalitions. Fox News and Sarah Palin have soapboxes, but they don’t have veto power. Mr. Obama could be a cipher, a nonentity, a Millard Fillmore or a Franklin Pierce, and his party would still have the power to pass sweeping legislation without a single Republican vote.

...health care reform is the Democratic Party’s signature issue. Its wonks have thought longer and harder about it than any other topic. Its politicians are vastly better at talking about the subject than Republicans: if an election is fought over health care, bet on the Democrat every time.

...If the Congressional Democrats can’t get a health care package through, it won’t prove that President Obama is a sellout or an incompetent...And it will prove that the Democratic Party is institutionally incapable of delivering on its most significant promises."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Don’t Blame Obama

"Here's a little story that must be told!"

"And it goes it little something like this!"

Words.

...As we head toward next month's congressional face-off on a national healthcare bill, the news media are infatuated with town hall meetings. Over and over, we see angry citizens screaming about a Big Government takeover of the healthcare system, shouting that they will lose their insurance or be forced to give up their doctors and denouncing "death panels" that will euthanize old people.

Of course, none of this is even remotely true. These are all canards peddled by insurance companies terrified of losing their power and profits, by right-wing militants terrified of a victory for the president they hate and by the Republican Party, which has been commandeered by the insurance industry and the militants. But the lies have obviously had their effect. Recent polls show that support for healthcare reform -- reform that would insure more Americans, would force insurance companies to cover preexisting conditions and prevent them from capriciously terminating coverage, and would provide competition to drive down costs -- is rapidly eroding.

Maybe Americans should know better. Maybe they shouldn't fall for the latest imbecilic propaganda and scare tactics. Maybe. But a citizenry is only as well-informed as the quality of information it receives. One can't expect Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin or the Republican Party or even the Democrats to provide serious, truthful assessments of a complex health plan. Truth has to come from somewhere else -- from a reliable, objective, trustworthy source.

That source should be the media.

...It was because we didn't have a committed, truth-telling media that the country marched happily into Iraq, with tragic consequences that should have been foreseen...It was because we didn't have a committed, truth-telling media that the country plunged off the economic cliff with so little warning. And it may very well be because we don't have a committed, truth-telling media that we will fail to get the healthcare reform we so desperately need.

...Telling the truth requires shoe leather. It requires digging up facts that aren't being handed to you, talking to experts, thinking hard about what you find. This isn't easy. It takes time and energy as well as guts, especially when there are conflicting studies, as there are on healthcare. But finally, we may not have a journalism of truth because we haven't demanded one. Many of us are invested in one side of the story; we are for Obama or against him, for healthcare reform or against it. These are a priori positions. Truth won't change them.

Yet the danger of not insisting on the truth in a brave new world of constant lies is that it subjects our policies to whichever side shouts the loudest or has the most money to spend to mislead us. That is likely to lead to disastrous governance: a needless war, a great recession, a continuation of a failing healthcare system.

What it comes down to is that sometimes the media have to tell the truth not because anyone really wants them to but because it is the right thing to do -- the essential thing to do -- for the sake of our democracy."

LOS ANGELES TIMES: 'Truth' vs. 'facts' from America's media

American Promise.

An "Oh Word?" Moment of Clarity.


Educating America: "Easy as 1-2-3!(?)"

Words. For Your Consideration...

"Let's go back to that "teachable moment." It was proclaimed by Barack Obama after he said that police in Cambridge, Mass., had acted "stupidly" in arresting Henry Louis Gates Jr. for essentially being black in his own house. It has been a month now, and the one sure thing we have learned in this extended teachable moment is about Obama himself. He can't teach.

This is clear when it comes to two of the major challenges confronting his administration: health-care reform and the war in Afghanistan. Both are losing popular support. Increasingly, Americans are becoming convinced that Afghanistan will cost lots of lives and that health-care reform will cost lots of money -- and both will have paltry payoffs or none at all. Teacher, please explain.

Obama cannot -- or, to be both fair and precise, he has not been able to. This is because of an insufficiency I have noted previously -- his distinct coolness, an above-the-fray mien that does not communicate empathy. If you recall, for instance, that teachable moment about Gates, you will remember it was about racial profiling and such. Commentators galore jumped right in and in some cases -- Glenn Beck comes to mind -- proved they were whores for controversy, but Obama stayed above the fray. Class was in session but he was not.

...some of it has to do with the president's inability to simply say what he wants and why that's good for us. The failure here is twofold: the message and the messenger.

...Obama brims with energy and charm. His brilliance is not brittle but supple. Yet, another teachable moment is upon him and he seems lost. The country needs health-care reform and success in Afghanistan, and both efforts are going in the wrong direction. The message needs to be fixed, and so, with some tough introspection, does the man."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Teachable Moments Lost

Pomp and Circumstance.

Words.

"Time for an unreality check. Maybe all of us who think that making universal health care the law of the land is the most important issue of our lifetimes would not be feeling so angry and bitter if we took a step back and looked at the true cause of our rage: the liberals who raised such impossible expectations of Obama in the first place.

...if it weren’t for months of giddy rhetoric about the post-racial society, and the triumph of cosmopolitan values, and the dawn of a new golden consensus on everything that is socially just and decent—if it weren’t for all that good, old-fashioned American optimism that has such an egotistical, deluded underside, then we would have known what to expect when Obama started his health-care push and how to deal with it politically, intellectually, and emotionally.

...it almost goes without saying that many of the rapturous optimists, if not most, were people honestly, and in good conscience, wrung out by the badness and deceit of the previous eight years. They poured their despair into this one remarkably iconoclastic-seeming figure. Obama himself, in one of his books, acknowledged that he had long felt he was a screen onto which people projected their own aspirations. He certainly did his share to raise expectations. He had a million accomplices, though, who went even further than he did.

But November elections don’t usher in new epochs. Obama was elected by a freakish perfect storm of crises, not a sudden transformation of attitudes. The economic meltdown that made him now threatens to unmake him.

Obama’s own near-obsessive, Lincoln-like harping on the nation’s divisiveness throughout his campaign was both a warning of the coming storm and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

He has been, from the beginning, the most divisive president since Lincoln. As well he should be. In personal origin, public demeanor, and social agenda, Obama is the most original president the country has ever had.

...Liberals might be more tolerant of Obama’s patient maneuverings and brilliant gamesmanship if they tried to look beyond their surreal expectations. For what Obama is up against is not just stubborn political and cultural realities that do not obligingly turn with the election season. He is contending with something both more prosaic and more overwhelming: tax rates.

...Let him assure people that pre-modern tax rates for the wealthy—i.e., Republican reactionary tactics—won’t stand in the way of government funding, that just as anyone with a household budget knows how to take from here to give to there, health care will find its funding as a sound bill, once made law, finds its footing in society. Let him say whatever he has to say, so long as he keeps reminding people what is truly at stake. And let liberals stop punishing him for disappointing the moral vanity they once felt in declaring a black president the First Man of a New Age."

THE DAILY BEAST: Divider in Chief

Coming Attractions.

For Your Consideration.

"Is it my turn?"

Make that Change...

Words. For Your Consideration...

"According to news reports, the Obama administration — which seemed, over the weekend, to be backing away from the “public option” for health insurance — is shocked and surprised at the furious reaction from progressives.

Well, I’m shocked and surprised at their shock and surprise.

A backlash in the progressive base — which pushed President Obama over the top in the Democratic primary and played a major role in his general election victory — has been building for months. The fight over the public option involves real policy substance, but it’s also a proxy for broader questions about the president’s priorities and overall approach.

...there’s a growing sense among progressives that they have, as my colleague Frank Rich suggests, been punked. And that’s why the mixed signals on the public option created such an uproar.

...progressives are now in revolt. Mr. Obama took their trust for granted, and in the process lost it. And now he needs to win it back."

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Obama’s Trust Problem

"Burnin' Up!"

Come on Dems, take heed and get up LIKE THIS!

Words.

"Here's the least surprising news of the week: Americans are souring on the Democratic Party. The wonder is that it's taken so long for public opinion to curdle.

...A poll released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center reports that just 49 percent of respondents have a favorable view of the Democrats, compared with 62 percent in January and 59 percent in April. This doesn't mean, though, that Americans look any more kindly upon the Republican Party -- favorability for the GOP has been steady at 40 percent throughout the year, according to Pew.

...What it does mean, however, is that Republican efforts to obstruct, delay, confuse, stall, distort and otherwise impede the reform agenda that Americans voted for last November have had measurable success. And it means that Democrats, having been given a mandate -- one as comprehensive as either party is likely to enjoy in this era of red-vs.-blue polarization -- don't really know how to use it.

...There's not enough passion on the Democratic side, not enough heat. There's some radiating from the Democratic majority in the House of Representatives, too little emanating from the Democratic majority in the Senate, and not nearly enough coming from President Obama. Republicans, by contrast, have little going for them except passion -- but they're using it to impressive effect.

...Passion finds expression in anger, but also in hope. Democrats knew and felt that during the campaign. If they forget it, they might as well also forget about achieving the kind of fundamental change that the country sorely needs."

THE WASHINGTON POST: A Little More Heat, Please

Law & Order.

Not. To. Day.

Words.

"Try a thought experiment: What would conservatives have said if a group of loud, scruffy leftists had brought guns to the public events of Ronald Reagan or George W. Bush?

How would our friends on the right have reacted to someone at a Reagan or a Bush speech carrying a sign that read: "It is time to water the tree of liberty"? That would be a reference to Thomas Jefferson's declaration that the tree "must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

Pardon me, but I don't think conservatives would have spoken out in defense of the right of every American Marxist to bear arms or to shed the blood of tyrants.

...What needs to be addressed is not the legal question but the message that the gun-toters are sending.

This is not about the politics of populism. It's about the politics of the jackboot. It's not about an opposition that has every right to free expression. It's about an angry minority engaging in intimidation backed by the threat of violence."

THE WASHINGTON POST: Leave The Guns At Home

Liberal Bias.

A Moment of Clarity.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
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Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Knock Down, Drag Out Extravaganza!

Words. For Your Consideration...

"...it seems likely that end-of-life counseling will be dropped from the health-reform legislation. But that's a small point, compared with the larger issue that has clouded this summer: How can you sustain a democracy if one of the two major political parties has been overrun by nihilists? And another question: How can you maintain the illusion of journalistic impartiality when one of the political parties has jumped the shark?

...The most liberal members of the Democratic caucus — Senator Russ Feingold in the Senate, Representative Dennis Kucinich in the House, to name two — are honorable public servants who make their arguments based on facts. They don't retail outright lies. Hyperbole and distortion certainly exist on the left, but they are a minor chord in the Democratic Party.

It is a very different story among Republicans. To be sure, there are honorable conservatives, trying to do the right thing.

...But they have been overwhelmed by nihilists and hypocrites more interested in destroying the opposition and gaining power than in the public weal.

...Why are these men so reluctant to be rational in public?"

TIME: The GOP Has Become a Party of Nihilists

COMPUTER LOVE!

New flava in ya ear!

Jamie Foxx, Drake, The Dream, and Kanye West.

Digital Girl.

The Remix.

Beyond Thunderdome.

With Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Kanye West in,

Run this Town.

"Tell it like it is!"

Just you watch...

"WHO'S BAD?"

New flava in ya ear!

Ace Hood feat. Ludacris.

Born an OG. [ED.'S NOTE: Oh really now?]