This month's Esquire cover story. Worth reading every single word of Charles Pierce's staggeringly great prose. (Link) It definitely crystalizes, for me, perhaps the one nagging aspect of the whole hope-and-change zeitgeist of the Obama campaign: That the candidate promises absolution without penance. A four-paragraph snippet (though as I said, you should really, really, read the whole unbelievably great story. Hell, while you're at it, buy the magazine, or even get a subscription. It's only...

(Link) Danation: The situation: doom With bedbugs and morons in the nation's newsrooms, has political journalism gone apocalyptic? By Dan Sweeney <snip> The signs are everywhere, to those attuned enough to see them. But maybe they don't bespeak the rapture. Last week, after all, was also the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, the Big Dumb. (The week also saw the milestone of 4,000 American soldiers dead, but hey, who's counting?) The benchmark was celebrated with a typically bizarre, Op...

As one's support for a particular candidate increases, one's tendency to only notice flamebait directed at that candidate also increases. Practical application: Clearly, there cannot be more attacks on Hillary than Obama and more attacks on Obama than Hillary in GDP -- the two events are mutually exclusive. And yet, given the complaints of both sides, this would appear to be the case. My theory, then, explains how it is possible for the most strident Obama supporters to complain about the mass...

(Link) Sen. Barack Obama faces an uphill battle now that Democratic voters have given him a big, white elephant. By Dan Sweeney February 20, 2008 With an eight-for-eight post-Super Tuesday run, Sen. Barack Obama is the front-runner in the Democratic presidential campaign. Hell, it’ll be 10-for-10 by the time you read this, as Obama will pick up Wisconsin and Hawaii before this hits the racks Wednesday. But if this primary has taught us anything, it’s that Obama’s campaign is now surely doome...

(Link) As Sen. John McCain's campaign races toward the Republican nomination, Dan Sweeney doesn't hold back. By Dan Sweeney February 13, 2008 <snip> Whatever happens in the next few weeks, the Republican nomination is already a done deal. Sen. John McCain will be the Republican nominee, and there is nothing anyone can do about it, regardless of Gov. Mike Huckabee's weekend wins in Louisiana and Kansas. Even as I turned in my first draft of these ramblings, word came down that Gov. Mitt R...

(Link) In predicting projectile plasma in the presidential primary debate at FAU, one writer never guessed it would be coming from him. By Dan Sweeney January 29, 2008 The belly of the beast was a cafeteria at Florida Atlantic University. The school was kind enough to host a media dinner from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at its Centre Marketplace before last week's Republican presidential debate. The place was alive with old men in bad suits and young men in good ones — telling newspapermen from broadca...

Aside from the one admittedly lengthy and nasty spat between Hillary and Obama, this was actually the best debate we've seen yet. The focus on that one fight takes away from the fact that the three candidates actually had a long discussion of real issues both before and after it, especially on the economy and healthcare, while also touching on the candidates' withdrawal plans for Iraq. And Wolf Blitzer, to give credit in this rare case when it's actually due, was a great moderator. When things ...

Football is the new national pastime. Whether it's the steroids scandal, the strike of '94, or Barry Bonds, something caused baseball to be eclipsed by football in the last couple decades. And why not? Football far better represents Modern Pax Americana. It is violent and quick and boasts mindlessly loyal fans who stand by their faction regardless of feat or folly. The losers may not be as vocal as the winners -- where are those 49er fans of 20 years ago now, with their Joe Montana jerseys gathe...

As is typical when election results come in, I spent the evening glued to the TV and drinking heavily. I ran out of Cavit Pinot Grigio first -- I am, after all, an effete, intellectual, wine-and-cheese liberal. Then went the sixer of Sam Adams -- not my usual beer, but I drink it during elections because of the patriotic bent. Finally, on to the Evan Williams Single Barrel. I think I was on my second glass of the rotten stuff when I growled at the TV, "If she pulls ahead by more than 3,000 vote...

We're bundling up in South Florida today. With windchill, it's somewhere in the 30s this morning, which may be perfectly normal in other parts of the country, but down here, it causes mass panic. Moth-eaten scarves dragged out from trunks for the first time since the '70s. Weathermen swearing that there's a chance we'll see some rare weather-related phenomenon called "snow." No one is quite sure what it is, except that it's similar to rain, but colder. We fear it. But the cold is an apt metapho...

I'm sure a lot of folks here have checked out Politicalcompass.org in the past to see where they sit on its x-y axis. If not, please do so! It's often enlightening. I personally sit way the hell out there in the bottom left-hand corner, the furthest reaches of the left-libertarian wasteland occupied by few politicians (but hey, according to political compass, Gandhi and the Dali Lama are in my quadrant, so what the hey). But on a recent revisiting of the site -- something I'm inclined to do ev...

I've been working this out for a while. Your constructive criticism (hell, even your flamey, harsh criticism) is greatly appreciated. Let me know if I've overlooked anything! ALABAMA Incumbent: Jeff Sessions (R) is running for re-election Challenger: After Rep. Artur Davis said he wouldn’t run last year, the challenge was left to state Senator Vivian Davis Figures. There probably won’t even be a primary, and if there is, it won’t be particularly notable. Outlook: Sessions will crush Figures by ...

Originally posted at In the fall, the war was still there, but we did not go to it anymore. -- Ernest Hemingway, "In Another Country" Autumn is nearly upon us now. Down here in South Florida, it's almost impossible to tell from the weather. Each day is a sweaty, messy struggle filled with the whines of blood-sucking mosquitos and the shouts of Haitian cabbies and cracked roads only slightly less traffic-filled than in season, when the Creole of the Haitians mixes with the French of the Canad...

Originally posted at Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza's , handicaps the presidential race. Cillizza does these handicapping posts fairly regularly, and he's usually on point. I have my own of , and I've been right a lot more often than I've been wrong. But in this case, Cillizza speaks for me -- at least as far as the Democrats go. He's got the top 5 Dems as Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson and Dodd. The Top 5 Republicans come in at Giuliani and Romney tied for first, then Fred Th...

(After the locked, 300+ post thread in GD Politics today, I'm a little paranoid of posting this, but what the hell. It's basically a retread of a couple of posts I made here earlier anyway. Flame on!) (Link) My parents visited this weekend. Oddly, I come from Republican stock -- neither of my parents has voted for a Democrat since JFK and his brains went their separate ways in Dallas. My father is a bit further to the right than my mother. Dad and I have a standing agreement to avoid most p...

(Link) <snip> What can I say about Karl Rove that hasn't been said already? I could go the way of most on the left and say he forever coarsened political dialogue. I could say this with a hint of irony by adding that he's a steaming pile of shit and if his heart was on fire, I wouldn't piss down his throat to save his life. All of this is true. I could go the route of more-moderate voices and say what a genius the guy has been over his career. This, however, is not true, and so I'll ...

(Link) <snip> But more important than any of this -- for our politically minded purposes here at Doomed Generation, in any case -- is brain fog. Wikipedia defines brain fog as "episodes of cognitive dysfunction or confused thinking. Brain fog is associated with forgetfulness, losing one's train of thought, depersonalization, the inability to remember the correct words when speaking or writing (aphasia)." Sound like any presidents you know? You bet, ace. Brain fog, notably, is a symptom ...

(Link) Radical cartoonist Ted Ralls' view of Pat Tillman, that he was some sort of lame Bush poster boy, has begun to look more and more dim as time has gone on, especially now that word comes down that Tillman's death wasn't even a friendly fire incident, but more of a fragging. I usually depend on Wonkette for little more than a sort of political version of Perez Hilton or TMZ.com (did you see whose vomit Jean Schmidt was cleaning off herself in the bathroom? OMG! WTF?), but under the cruel...

(Link) A.G.A.G. is dead now, even though he's still on his feet. He's lurching around in those last gasps, like King Kong at the top of the Empire State Building, just after the last round of machine gun fire, but before letting go of the radio antenna. And that's as it should be, on both counts. King Kong was too huge and mean, even for New York City, and A.G.A.G. was too dumb to survive. Pure Darwinism at work. Politics is as forgiving as gladitorial combat, and today's attorney-general is ...

(Link) On edit: Read it at the link, where there's links and pictures and stuff! <snip> With the remote control lying across the room, and with a belly full of booze, I sat still, unable to help myself, as the best cable news show in the country, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, ended, and I crossed the border into Scarborough Country. My eyes glazed over. It was almost as if I watched myself watching Joe Scarborough -- an out-of-body experience, like people who lie dying on operating-...

(Link) All Democrats have to do to turn the tide on this ridiculous war on terror bil being debated today. "Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for giving me this time. The Republicans have offered a bill for purely political reasons. They say it is to 'support the troops' with more than just platitudes. But the bill itself rules out a timetable for withdrawal, possibly leaving our troops in harm's way for years upon years to come. Shall we have this debate in the 120th Congress? The 130th? T...

GOP Flop: (n) 1. An ineffective political ploy by the Republican Party (e.g. the gay marrige amendment push of June 2006). 2. A contraction of "GOP Flop Sweat," the state of mind that leads Republican Party officials to believe that such ploys will actually bring them in more votes, as opposed to just continuing the support of the same 27 or so percent who would vote for Bush even if he raped their babies. Learn it, use it! Who's with me??!!! This is gonna be hugh!!!!1111!!!

(Link) MEXICO CITY -- Mexican President Vicente Fox will sign a bill that would legalize the use of nearly every drug and narcotic sold by the same Mexican cartels he's vowed to fight during his five years in office, a spokesman said Tuesday. The list of illegal drugs approved for personal consumption by Mexico's Congress last week is enough to make one dizzy -- or worse. Cocaine. Heroin. LSD. Marijuana. PCP. Opium. Synthetic opiates. Mescaline. Peyote. Psilocybin mushrooms. Amphetamines. Me...

Again, please feel free to comment. I desperately need comments. (Link)

(first posted at my myspace blog) My final word on Ben Domenech, RedState.com co-founder and plagiarist Category: News and Politics I've been holding off posting any blogs, because they keep threatening to give us blogs at work, and I wanted to save all my thoughts for that. But it's still in the works, and I'd be a fool to not get my thoughts down on the trials and tribulations of Ben Domenech, the newly disgraced conservative blogger for Washingtonpost.com, whose tenure lasted approximatel...

He wasn't like most political sorts. He didn't try to be your friend to your face while stabbing you in the back. Casper Weinberger was unrepentant pond scum. He was a raging asshole with, to steal a line from Hunter Thompson, all the morals of a weasal on speed. But unlike his ilk in Washington, he understood and accepted this fact. He never tried to be other than he was -- an utterly amoral apparatchik with a belly so full of hate that he occasionally had to excuse himself at cabinet-level met...

This NY Times story is mostly about Knight Ridder President P. Anthony Ridder's regret over the sale and eventually break-up of his company -- new owners McClatchy Company intend to sell off a dozen of the papers, including KR's two papers in the Philadelphia market, the Inquirer and the Daily News. But for me, the interesting part is the 8th-10th paragrpahs of the story: "In Philadelphia, for example, State Senator Vincent J. Fumo, a powerful Democrat from South Philadelphia, said that he was...

Very instructive. (Image) Courtesy of pollkatz.homestead.com/files/BNCapp_12756_image001.gif

A bit of funny from my blog: Keep Your Friends Close, and Your Enemies Closer The big word on the left right now -- and, hell, even on the much of the right, if Senate Majority Leader Bill First and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert are any indication -- is that Bush is selling out our ports to a bunch of crazed Arabs from the UAE. And while Bush has been roundly criticized and, predictably, has fought back like a trapped rat, threatening to veto every bill the House has ever passed, retroac...

In Memoriam, from 2003's Kingdom of Fear: "We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world-a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us... No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you.   Well, shit on that dumbness. George W. Bush does not speak for me or my son or my...