"I Just Remembered Chris Matthews Was White"

Memeorandum reminds us what an excellent writer TNC is.

Link blag

Coates: Nihilism and Gay Marriage...

[...] paranoia is key, and it really defines, not just anti-Semitism, but bigotry itself. The most laughable aspect of America's long war against racism, is the justification racist would always trot out--the specter of interracial union. I can remember being a kid and reading about black folks struggling for some small right, that, these days, we take for granted. So you'd have some black dude who'd been born a slave, in some one room shack, but had risen to become a lawyer, arguing for, say, school funding for black kids in rural Alabama. And then you'd see some bigot responding with, essentially, the following, "If we give the nigras school funding, they'll take our women! Do you want a nigra marrying yer daughter?!?!?"

Cato: Terrible Example, Mr. Secretary...

Duncan [Obama's Secretary of Education] had the gall to frame as a protector of the status quo the same governor who for years has been crystal clear that schooling in his state is dismal and that school choice – real change that takes power away from politically ferocious special interests and gives it to parents – is the key to real change. It’s also the same desperately sought after reform, by the way, that President Obama and his education secretary are happy to let die a slow – but politically convenient – death in Washington, DC.

Mother Jones: Pouring Biofuel on the Fire...

Food prices have risen 130% since 2002. The World Bank estimates that up to 75% of the increase is due to demand for biofuels.

Clearing grasslands to plant biofuel crops releases 93 times as much greenhouse gas as will be saved by the fuels grown on the land each year. Destroying Indonesian peat bogs releases 420 times as much.

There were food riots in at least 30 countries in the past 2 years. More than 40 people were killed when Cameroonians protested rising prices.

The US government spent $9.2 billion on ethanol subsidies in 2008. It spent $1.5 billion on food aid.

Wilkinson comments:

[That's ] what the green government does when it picks winners. But now we’ve got better people and won’t destroy the environment and cause food riots this time! Right?

TIME: The Queen and Mrs. Obama: A Breach in Protocol...

On Wednesday, Michelle Obama put her hand on the Queen only after the Queen had placed her own hand on the First Lady's back as part of their conversation. So there is room for theological argument as to whether the American reciprocity of touch was allowable given the social dynamics of the situation. (Less explicable was when President George W. Bush winked at the Queen.)

Jeffrey Goldberg: Is This How The Israeli Media Works?...

A half-hour ago, my phone rang; it was a reporter from Israel Channel 10 News.
"There's a big controversy about your Netanyahu interview," the reporter says.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Netanyahu's people are denying that he threatened President Obama. Do you have proof that he threatened him?"
"What are you talking about?"

TIME: Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense...

there are big issues here, issues of economy and simple justice, especially on the sentencing side. As Webb pointed out in a cover story in Parade magazine, the U.S. is, by far, the most "criminal" country in the world, with 5% of the world's population and 25% of its prisoners. We spend $68 billion per year on corrections, and one-third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes. We spend about $150 billion on policing and courts, and 47.5% of all arrests are marijuana-related. That is an awful lot of money, most of it nonfederal, that could be spent on better schools or infrastructure — or simply returned to the public.

Economist: Mexico is going back to the IMF for the first time since 1995.

TAPPED: The GOP budget is a naive attempt at messaging?

ThinkProgress: Republicans continue to spread false claims about cap and trade costs.

Note to criminals: It may not be a good idea to announce your theft on national television.

Obama speaks to Dems

This is a speech to Congressional Democrats on Thursday, February 5th, after the House passed the first version of the stimulus and not a single Republican voted for it:

Savage on marriage

Making the rounds:



Also on Colbert

Good stuff. But my favorite part was actually Cooper mentioning the arc of history. Of course it bends towards justice. It just takes some time for bigotry to shift out of the population enough. Silver hits the nail:

The good news for supporters of marriage equity is that -- and there's no polite way to put this -- the older voters aren't going to be around for all that much longer, and they'll gradually be cycled out and replaced by younger voters who grew up in a more tolerant era. Everyone knew going in that Prop 8 was going to be a photo finish -- California might be just progressive enough and 2008 might be just soon enough for the voters to affirm marriage equity. Or, it might fall just short, which is what happened. But two or four or six or eight years from now, it will get across the finish line.

Another tidbit:

According to CNN exit polls, an overwhelming majority — 67 percent — of 18-29 year-olds voted against stripping gay couples of their right to marry.

America "working as intended"

Haha:

Yes, it's a World of Warcraft screen, or rather a fusion of the news and WoW. On the right, we see that Obama's completed the quest "Crush the Republicans!", which called for the heads of McCain and Palin and at least 270 electoral votes. He hasn't yet completed the Transfer of Power quest, since "Take Office" is still grayed out.

The ZZZ on the little picture of Obama in the upper left shows that he's in a friendly location and therefore getting rest bonus (which'll increase the experience points he gets from future efforts). The smaller picture of Biden in that position shows that he's grouped in the same party.

Both Obama and Biden are at full health, as shown by the green bars. Obama is a member of the priest class, as shown by the blue bar for his accumulated mana and the tooltip in lower right for Prayer of Hope, a priestly spell. Each class has several different kinds of talent; Ta-Nehisi suggests that Obama went for the shadow talent tree, which allows for some awesome damage dealing - "you will melt faces" is the standard explanation for people playing shadow priests - rather than the healing-focused holy talent tree.

The red bar by Biden shows that he's a warrior: that's rage, which accumulates as a warrior hits and gets hit, and is spent to power special attacks and defenses. He's charged up and ready to go wallop someone.

Achievements commemorate distinct achievements. In WoW, they come for mastering new levels of skill, defeating particular monsters, exploring the world, and so on. It appears that becoming President of the United States is a fairly high-point achievement, as is appropriate.

Compare and contrast

Something you'll never see at a McCain rally:



Something you'll never see at an Obama rally:



The arc of the universe, it bends toward justice.

Quote of the day

One thing that's come to me, during this election, is how so many people view pre-Civil Rights movement America as this distant aberration. There's sort of this belief that--at some point in the past--there were slaves in this country. And then Abe Lincoln ended it all and saved the union, though the people who fought Abe were honorable men themselves (can't forget that caveat). Then later someone put up some signs saying "Whites Only." A few bad apples killed some black people who didn't like the signs. Then Martin Luther King proclaimed he had a dream, and it was huggie time--until some fool, motivated only by his own individual sense of evil, killed him. But we're mostly all better now. --Ta-Nehisi Coates

Fun with negative advertising

Another Coates find:

What it means for some II

Coates gets a note:

My father (85 year old African-American and, in fact, a "public intellectual" who helped coin the phrase "African-American" 40 years ago, a phrase we now take for granted on our census forms) and his wife (77 old European-American, the term they both hope will replace "white" someday, and life-long civil rights activist and academic) voted this morning in Atlanta, GA.

My stepmother emailed me this morning to tell me about their experience, early voting, getting "fragile elderly" treatment from the poll-workers, wishing she could kick up her septuagenarian heels after casting her vote.

I sat in my office, reading her email, and wept. Then, I went down the hall to my colleague's office, sat down, and wept. After seven decades of constant struggle, my father walked into that booth and knew that his life's work was now done. My stepmother can think of every person who secretly and not-so-secretly thought of her as some kind of race traitor, smile and think "I told you so!"

Obama will win, I'm sure he will. But today, my parents did. I am so deeply, deeply grateful.

Sarah Palin's insanity

Video from yesterday in California:



"There is a place in hell reserved for women who don't support other women."

The mind reels. Correct quote:



Does Sarah not understand the difference?

Don't stand by while other women are hurting, or you'll burn in hell! (not that I agree with this message, but at least it's sensible rhetoric)

vs.

Vote for me because I'm a woman, or you'll burn in hell!

This might be an appropriate place to vomit.

Here's Coates:

Incredible. Sarah Palin's message to undecided women is "Support me, or burn." Is she out of her mind? Has she mistaken Sean Hannity for America? Does she really think this is going to sway women who are on the fence? Does she think Madeline Albright is going to give her cover? Does she have any concern for her own career?

But that isn't even the half. McCain--equally stupid--has somehow gotten it in his head that Palin is an effective attack dog--but she has no credibility, why would anyone believe her? She basically represent a profane, thuggish populism--but nothing else. George Bush had "compassionate conservativism" and "the ownership society." What else do these guys have? They're just running on a kind of tribal neandrathalism--nothing else.

UPDATE: What manner of Christianity is this? I can't talk because I'm not exactly a believer, but seriously--is claiming to know who will burn for eternity Christ-like? If you're a serious Christian isn't this offensive? There's something almost Taliban-like about it. Imagine Barack Obama saying "there's a special place in hell for black peojavascript:void(0)ple who don't support other black people."

I for one am aghast. If the Republican party is trying to lose my vote for the next 2 decades, they're doing a heck of a job by making Sarah Palin their standard-bearer. When will they realize that the nomination of this vacuous, patently unqualified pathological liar is toxic and highly offensive?

If the Republican party is to have any medium-term future, her brand of politics must be disowned ASAP. As they say, you can only put so much lipstick on a pig...

Palin, age, and sexism

Coates reproduces a comment:

When it comes to Palin, there's an intersection of sexism and age that the Republicans don't understand (which is why they keep crying sexism and wonder why it's not working).

For many Boomer women, the primary sexist experience of their lives is: "Those men gave the job to that guy instead of me, even though I am more qualified and/or have more seniority."

For many Gen X women like myself (and Palin is Gen X) the primary sexist experience is: "Those men gave the job to that clueless chick instead of me, because the boss thinks she's hot and/or will be a yes-man with no ideas of her own."

If, for some Boomer women, Obama's win over Hillary represents the guy they lost the promotion to, Palin's selection plays the same role for Gen X women. We've seen it: first the incompetent yet babelicious woman is promoted over her head, then the boss orders the attention of the entire team/department/etc. to focus on ensuring that "we" shield her from "mistakes" (or worse, we get blamed for her mistakes). Palin reminds us of when we got screwed by this sort of bullshit. And it shows in voters' response to her.

Now do you understand?

Handbasket express

Rob vents some frustration:

As a black man this infuriates me. There is no way that an African-American who sounded like Palin would ever be taken seriously. No way. Obama almost had to be a Harvard Law magna cum laude grad just to be plausible, taken seriously. But that very fact makes him an elitist. This country is a complete joke. Please tell me why I shouldn't damn it to hell

Because a few hundred years ago, your ancestors came here in chains. It may take awhile, but this too shall pass. Obama has created the strongest hope yet. Let's hope he can live up to it. But even if he fails to change things for the better, life goes on. Or so we must continue to hope.

They cannot take away your hope. Or if they can, what will there be left, and will it even have mattered?

Deep thoughts today.

Quote of the day II

"You don't try to understand people because you expect something in return--the understanding is the return."   --Ta-Nehisi Coates

Blame the media II

Ambers:

A reporter asks the McCain campaign to back up some basic claims made by a senior strategist in a public conference call.

The campaign refuses, with a prominent spokesperson accusing the reporter, Ben Smith, of being "in the tank."

As in -- no, we don't have to justify what we say, and the fact that you would question our assertions is proof-positive that you've absorbed the Obama campaign's worldview.

He goes on to hope "today's outburst was an abberation."

It had better be; they can't keep this up and expect to be taken seriously.

UPDATE, Sullivan:

We're all in the tank. Anyone asking a fricking question is "in the tank." I'm with Coates:

It's clear that the McCain campaign has basically decided on using the Bush playbook for handling the press. But I think the campaign made one critical error. The whole bully/lie/clamp-up method of handling reporters works swimmingly if you're already in power. Not so much if you're still trying to get power. It's fine to appoint unqualified hacks to office, especially if you're in your second term. Not so much when you're still running for your first.

Macaca diversity

Ta-Nehisi disbelieves that George Allen (yes, that George Allen) will be speaking at a rally for minorities. I think his first commentator put it mildly.

Not that blacks in VA needed much of a push towards Obama, but if Reps keep up the shocking tone-deafness they may as well kiss the state blue.

Equal time

Look out! It's an American guitar.

Ta-Nehisi chuckles.