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Showing posts from April, 2006

the Colbert moment

Blogger awol called me and told me to read /watch last night's "moment" at the Washington Correspondent's dinner. (Thanks to Frederick of dkos for the transcript.) Whoa . That speech was more than a roast. It was more than humor. (And even in that regard, if you ask me, the last part with the video falls flat.) What Colbert just did wasn't even, in the electoral sense of "who wins or gains," all that political or partisan. What happened last night night was an epochal blow for the unvarnished truth. The "wall" of BS that runs through DC...the "wall" of lies and business-as-usual that keeps us citizens on the outside of the cozy fiefdom of the press, the parties, the establishment...just had the first big chunk taken out of it in years courtesy of an accidental hero, a jester, a clown. That speech was a visceral repudiation of politics in this country made all the more powerful because the vehicle for delivering that message was a co

liz phair

It's hard to say to someone who didn't catch it at the time exactly how well Liz Phair hit the nail on the head with a series of albums (Exile in Guyville, Whip Smart, and to a lesser extent Whitechocolatespaceegg) in the nineties. Yeah, these discs (in particular the first one) were all over the critics lists...without buying into all that acclaim, and even though Phair has subsequently been less beloved by critics and fans, I think that work holds up well. To put it simply, Liz Phair had something to say and she said it. The music really speaks to a time (80's/90's)...and an attitude (raw honesty). For myself, I keep listening to these records and finding new things. If you haven't checked them out, I'd recommend any of the three. This lyric, from Exile in Guyville, gives a taste of what I'm talking about: I was flying into Chicago at night Watching the lake turn the sky into blue-green smoke The sun was setting to the left of the plane And the cabin

happy birthday

Happy Birthday to reader, colleague and good friend.... awol . Cheers! kid oakland

read it and weep

For base hypocrisy this must read article in today's New York Times takes the cake. States are currently, with the Bush Administration's encouragement, omitting the test results for minority students in a jerry-rigged attempt to manipulate provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. What does this mean? What it means is that many non-white children ARE deliberately left out and left behind...and, yep, discounted by the " soft bigotry of low expectations ." The hypocrisy is stunning. We've been told about the importance of test scores for years by this president, including emphasizing just this racial breakdown and accountability, and now we find that in many cases it's only the test scores of white students that matter: To calculate a nationwide estimate, the AP analyzed the 2003-04 enrollment figures the government collected -- the latest on record -- and applied the current racial category exemptions the states use. Overall, the AP found that about 1.9

ah, life! pt. ii

Okay, it's a fair bet that you are wondering where the hell I've been...and why I seem so sour when I do show up. Here's the scoop. #1: I really needed a blog hiatus to take care of some personal and financial issues. It's an ongoing process...but I AM doing much better on all fronts. Hooray. #2: Part of the changes I've made are seemingly minor things like...uh...completely changing my diet and lifestyle and hence, losing...rrr...27lbs and counting. What that means basically is...sitting with my third cup of coffee and grinding out a blog post while eating a doughnut...is a thing 'o the past. Drinking a couple (lite) beers with a bag of chips in front of the computer while that frozen pizza cooks? Ancient history. Staying up till 3AM reading blogs? UN-healthy, at least for me. I'm not going to lie. Drinking green tea, eating right and spending more time out of doors, while good for me, has pretty much disturbed my "blog-writing and research

Tom DeLay

Good riddance.