I guess it's time..

... to bid this blog an official adieu.
I just haven't had the time to keep up with my older blogs, and this one was the last to go. But it bugs me when people just abandon blogs without a parting post, so here is mine.
I really have enjoyed keeping this blog for the last three years, especially in the early days of my politically-oriented job. In the first year or so, I was pretty prolific.
But there's no sense in dragging things out now that I'm down to a post every other month.
So here's to radical moderation, moderate radicalism, etc.!
To anyone out there who read this blog, especially those who really believe that there's power and sanity in the middle way (much of the time, anyway), please keep (nonviolently, always, and with respect for all humanity) fighting the good fight!

Wow, this is depressing.

Prominent scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is going to have a few things to write about this incident. And well he should.

On a Lighter Note (Congressional Quote of the Year So Far)

from The Huffington Post: "That Crack Cocaine Thing"

Senator Jeff Sessions simultaneously shocked and cracked up the Sotomayor hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday afternoon when he said he was looking forward to doing "that crack cocaine thing" with Senator Patrick Leahy and Wade Henderson, the president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

Sessions, in a casual tone, said "Mr. Henderson, It's good to work with you. Senator Leahy and I are talking during these hearings, we're going to do that crack cocaine thing that you and I have talked about before."

After an awkward pause, Henderson laughed to himself and said, "Thank you, Senator, I appreciate that."

While the Senate gallery laughed, and witnesses including NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former FBI director Louis Freeh snickered, Sessions sputtered, "Let me correct the record."

Sessions explained: "I misspoke. We're going to reduce the burden of penalties in some of the crack cocaine cases and make them fair."

Admiration...

... for the young students and other supporters (more of freedom itself -- for the first time in many of their lives -- than specifically) of Moussavi in Iran. This is courage and patriotism if I've ever seen it.
Things are getting dangerous over there and the supreme leader (whose names says it all) isn't giving an inch, yet the movement persists. What happens tomorrow will be pivotal.
For diplomatic reasons, the U.S., particularly at the administration level, is understandably cautious. If the new administration learned anything from the past administration's mistakes in Iraq (or Palestine), it's not to meddle directly in other countries' elections. And all we can do as citizens is assist in providing the protesters an international voice via reporting and technology, and wish them the best, which doesn't seem like enough. It's hard to just watch.

On Dreams... I sort of knew this, actually.

It makes intuitive sense. Dreams help us process the emotional component of memories, and being sleep-deprived makes us paranoid and cranky (for evolutionary survival reasons.)
This would explain why, even after a bad day, "things look better after a good night's sleep."

from Time magazine

Obama On Why We Need Health Care Reform Now

I think he makes a pretty good case here, and it's the first time I've heard him directly address the reasonable objections that have been made in a concise, straightforward manner. He should say this more often.

from his townhall meeting in Green Bay on Thursday:

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: So I just want to repeat, the single biggest problem we have, in terms of the debt and the deficit, is health care. It's Medicare and Medicaid.

(APPLAUSE)

That -- that is -- when you hear all these projections about all these trillions of dollars and red ink going out as far as the eye can see, almost all of that is because of the increase in Medicare and Medicaid costs that are going up much, much faster than inflation.

It's undoubtedly true that this economic crisis has hurt our budget situation. Because, again, a lot less money is coming in from corporate taxes, sales taxes, et cetera. So that reduces the amount of money coming in at the same time as we're having to put a lot more money out for food stamps and for unemployment insurance and all kinds of other help that people need when they get thrown out of their jobs, subsidizing COBRA so they can keep their health care.

That's contributed to some of it. Some of it is that I have proposed some investments in education and in energy and in health information technologies.

But there was just an article in the New York Times yesterday that showed that all that stuff -- everything that I've proposed, my stimulus package, what we've done in terms of bailing out the financial system, all that stuff -- that accounts for maybe 7 percent, 8 percent of what you've seen in terms of increased debt and deficit.

The real problem is Medicaid and Medicare. That's the nightmare scenario. If we can bend the curve, the cost curve down, so that health care inflation is no more than ordinary inflation; it's matching up with the amount of increases that you're seeing on your paychecks in your wages and your incomes, then we're going to be OK. And if we don't get a handle on it, we're not going to be OK.

It doesn't matter, you know, that we eliminate earmarks or do all that other stuff. That won't make any difference. We'll still be consumed by huge debt for the next generation.

That's why it's so important. That's why we're going to get it done. That's why I need your help, Green Bay.

With Time, A Grim and Haunting Perspective on the Toll of War for Iraqis

While we were debating whether or not to call what was happening between sectarian militias "civil war," Iraqis were living it, and still are.

Inside Iraq: Living With the Enemy

The Early Objections...

... to Judge Sonia Sotomayor's nomination leave something to be desired.
Megyn Fox was playing devil's advocate on Fox News this morning, but perhaps she was playing too hard for Mr. Franks, whose main argument seemed to be that he can read the president's mind. (Also, the issue of abortion, via that conveniently co-opted phrase "right to life," was, in his view, first and foremost in the minds of the nation's founders when they were drafting the Constitution.)

REP. TRENT FRANKS, R-ARIZ.: She, you know, has been touted as a bipartisan pick, but she is a reliable liberal on the Supreme Court. And I think Mr. Obama knew that, that she would probably very likely have a pro-abortion perspective that would overcome any right to life, that really is the whole foundation of the Constitution.

And there is clearly a liberal bias in her -- in her votes, and that's borne out in the -- in the record, across the board.

MEGYN KELLY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: But where do you get that from? I mean, I've looked back at her opinions, and granted, it hasn't been that long that we've been poring over her history, but I see no pro-abortion ruling on there. I see one ruling she issued that was actually pro-life.

FRANKS: Yes, no, I'm not -- I'm not pointing out the life issue, in particular, in any rulings that she's made, but I'm convinced that Mr. Obama knows what her perspective there is.

Today's Reading: Killer Robots and Invisible Agents

I just think the following is the best MSNBC web article title ever:

Robot Warriors Will Get Ethics Guide

And Scientific American has a really good article by Michael Shermer, author of Why People Believe Weird Things:

Why People Believe Invisible Agents Control the World

Music Opens the Heart (It's Not a Metaphor)

Music and laughter open up blood vessels and produce protective chemicals, says Maryland cardiologist.
It has to be music one enjoys, however, and it can't be played in a loop. (I have my doubts about the latter, though. Some songs just seem to get better after the fourth consecutive listen.)

Breaking News in Moderate-land

Arlen Specter switches parties.

I don't care precisely why he did it right now, because it was long overdue. He held out for a revival of the moderate wing of the GOP, but instead it's continued to shrink, and now extinction seems likelier than not. No doubt, he'll miss being ranking member of Judiciary, but hopefully the warm welcome wagon will be some consolation.

Yeah, I've always liked this guy, my former senator, but today seals the deal.

Fascinating Article on Infant Cognition...

... and creativity/ Zen "beginner's mind" in adults.

Inside the Baby Mind

I just don't get it.

If a bunch of people sat in a room with the task of imagining the most f***ed-up thing they could think of, it couldn't be much worse than this:

A 13-year-old girl is raped by three men, and when her father complains to the authorities, they accuse her of adultery and sentence her to be stoned to death. She is taken to a football stadium where 1,000 people watch as she is placed in a hole in the ground and buried to her neck. Fifty men stone her, and at one point nurses are sent to check whether she is still alive. She is, so they put her back in the hole until she dies. Then a story is fabricated for the press in which she is 23 and pleads guilty to "adultery," accepting her fate, rather than pleading for her life, as she did in reality -- as if these changes of detail makes the hideous spectacle somehow excusable. Later, Amnesty International learned the factual details from witnesses to the execution. One boy was shot in a crossfire as members of the crowd attempted to assist the girl.

So, yes, this is what is happening on the mainland in Somalia.

After reading that horrible, enraging story, I needed to search for organizations that are helping women in places that hold little hope for them -- although, in the case of the organization below, not specifically Somalia, but perhaps they will include that country in the future. But it is helping women in Afghanistan, Iraq, Congo, Sudan, etc. It looks like a wonderful organization. I have been looking for something like this to support.

Women for Women International

Quote du Jour: Obama in Turkey

Obama: "I've said before that one of the great strengths of the United States is, although as I mentioned we have a very large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values."

Yes, these comments may be controversial to some here at home who, while dropping the term "founding fathers" quite a lot, appear not to have read them very thoroughly. If they had, they might realize that our nation is based as much on secular classical principles of justice, equality and democracy (principles inherent in early community-based Judeo- and Hellenistic Christianity, but not in Christianity as it was later conceived as a state religion) as it is on Abrahamic or Judeo-Christian values.

Except for the unfortunate concession on Armenia implied by his phrasing, the conciliatory Ankara speech is another very encouraging example of the new tone Obama is setting.

Overseas Contingency Operation

I, for one, like it (the name, that is.)
Because, as John Oliver so sagely put it on "The Daily Show" last night, after eight years of an administration appealing, through its nomenclature and other means, to our basest war-mongering instincts, America needs to "calm the f*** down."

Why I Like Barack Obama

His place on a political spectrum notwithstanding, he's at heart a moderate, intellectually, temperamentally.
Here's just one example. It's not so much that I agree with his campaign position against Hillary's vision of health care. I think perhaps scrapping our present system might indeed be the thing to do... but not for the sake of burning down a house just to build something on top of it; only if it's really the smartest way to do it.
In any case, I guess I just like the way the guy's mind works. If anyone equated his conception of "change" with "revolution," they may be disappointed. But on the other hand, they may just see some change.

from Thursday's "town hall" meeting on the economy:

OBAMA: Let me just see a show of hands. How many people here have health insurance through your employer?

OK. So the majority of Americans, partly for a historical accident -- I won't go into -- you know, FDR had imposed wage controls during wartime in World War II.

People were -- companies were trying to figure out how to attract workers, and they said, well, maybe we'll provide health care as a benefit.

And so what evolved in America was an employer-based system. It may not be the best system, if we were designing it from scratch, but that's what everybody's accustomed to. That's what everybody's used to. It works for a lot of Americans.

And so I don't think the best way to fix our health care system is to suddenly completely scrap what everybody is accustomed to and the vast majority of people already have....

Spike in Military Suicides: Is it reallly still such a mystery?

I've heard this issue discussed enough in congressional hearings; the questions are always asked, but there are never any answers...
Could the repeated (up to four!) deployments have anything to do with it?

From Gen. James Amos, the assistant commandant of the Marine Corps: "We have looked at the data to try to find answers that will enable us to address this needless loss of life.... The most likely cause is a failed relationship with a woman."

And I wonder why that's happening... would it possibly be related to the repeated deployments? Is it possible for anyone to deploy three or four times in seven years and not have some form of combat stress that would be extremely destructive if not treated?

And in many cases, it's not being treated, acknowledged, or understood. As for Congress, it seems they need to try a new tack.

Sad Money

I know my blog-rate is petering out here, but I had to comment on the heartbreaking mastery of Jon Stewart's Frost/Nixon job on "Mad Money's" Jim Cramer. I guess everyone who hasn't been living under a rock has seen the show, and those living under rocks have probably seen at least a clip, but if you haven't seen the full interview, it's HERE.
Not surprisingly, the parts that weren't aired were the more amicable moments. I know I shouldn't, but I hope Jim is OK. I'll just keep thinking of all those CNBC viewers who lost their life savings.

Religious Pluralism and the Nonbeliever

I like how Eboo Patel, executive director of something called Interfaith Youth Core, parsed his terms in last Thursday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on engaging Muslim communities -- specifically how those terms didn't exclude nonbelievers or promote unity at their expense.

PATEL: Mr. Chairman, I believe that the question of the 21st century will be the question of the faith line -- that is, how diverse religious communities choose to interact, whether that interaction moves toward conflict or toward cooperation.

The biggest mistake we can make on the question of the faith line is to define it wrong. The wrong definition of the faith line pits Muslims against Christians, or believers against nonbelievers.

If we define the faith line as Muslims against Christians, we are left with a world of 2 billion people at war with a world of 1.3 billion people. That is an eternal war.

I prefer to divide the faith line -- to define the faith line as a line that divides people I call religious pluralists from religious totalitarians.

I have a very simple definition for a religious pluralist. It's somebody who believes in a society where people from diverse backgrounds live in equal dignity and mutual loyalty.

I have a very simple definition of a religious totalitarian. It's somebody who wants their community to dominate and everyone else to suffocate.

In honor of Valentine's Day...

... I thought this photo was cute (no, it's not a kitten and a duck, but still cute ;)

The Oddest of Odd Couples

Newsflash: Chris Wallace Believes What He Reads In "The Media."

on Fox News today:

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Since you became president, you have warned Republicans, quote, "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done."

PRES. BARACK OBAMA: Now, how do you know that's a quote?

WALLACE: Well, I read it in the media.

OBAMA: Yeah.

WALLACE: Did you not say...

OBAMA: I just wanted -- I'm not sure that was the exact quote.

WALLACE: Let me throw another one at you and you tell me whether this is an exact quote. You were widely quoted, when you met with the House GOP caucus saying, "Go ahead, free feel to whack me. I'll watch Fox News and feel bad about myself."

OBAMA: That one I did say.

WALLACE: Is perhaps -- let me just raise the possibility -- are you a trifle thin-skinned?

OBAMA: No, no, no. I said it in good humor. I think everybody understood that that was a joke.

Yep, Chris, this guy is no Clinton in the hot seat, but no Bush, either. What did we learn today? Chris Wallace follows the MSM and has no sense of humor.
I like our president more and more every day.

Weekly Schiefferism

OK, yeah, I like Bob Schieffer. Here's yet another of his quotable "final thoughts," from Sunday on "Face the Nation":

Finally today, it is an example I have cited many times over the years, that Hubert Humphrey once said the 1964 Civil Rights Act was America's single most effective foreign policy initiative.

It had nothing to do with foreign policy, but it told the world who we were and what we stood for and that our system was about fairness and equal treatment, and that it worked.

I thought about that when Barack Obama announced that torture would never be part of our national policy. America has always been the most successful when it is leading by example, when we have practiced what we have preached.

America's weapons did not win the Cold War. They kept the Soviet Union at bay. The war was won when the people on the other side looked across the Iron Curtain, saw a better way of life there, realized their system of government could not give it to them, and so the walls came down.

With a simple declaration, President Obama told the world our system of government is so strong, we don't need to torture people to survive. That is the way of those who would destroy us. But that is not us. We have found a better way.

That is what our message to the world must be. More importantly, that is what we want our children to know. When we are admired and respected by others, we are far more secure than any weapon can ever make us.

Quote du Jour: Hope Over Fear

The inaugural speech

"On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord." -- President Barack Obama

Important Presidential Update: Obama is Keeping his BlackBerry!

on John King's new CNN Sunday show, "State of the Union" today:

KING: Well, actually, one last question. And it's, in part, silly. But it's not always silly. You like these [holding up BlackBerry]. I was just with you before this, and you have a couple of them. And there are a lot of people who say, because this will end up in the presidential library, because you don't have privacy any more, your life's about to change.

Tuesday noon, you have to give this up.

OBAMA: Yes.

KING: You going to do it?

OBAMA: I think we're going to be able to beat this back.

KING: Beat this back?

OBAMA: I think we're going to be able to hang onto one of these. Now...

KING: Do you want mine?

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: My -- my working assumption, and this is not new, is that anything I write on an e-mail could end up being on CNN. So I make sure to -- to think before I press "send."

But what this has been -- what this does is -- and it's just one tool among a number of tools that I'm trying to use, to break out of the bubble, to make sure that people can still reach me, that if I'm doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an e-mail and say, "What are you doing?" You know? Or "you seem detached" or "you're not listening to what is going on here in the neighborhood."

I want to be able to have voices, other than the people who are immediately working for me, be able to reach out and -- and send me a message about what's happening in America.

Good for you, Mr. Soon-President. Bring us into the 21st century, in yet another sense.

Quote of the Year (so far): Joe the Plumber...

... I mean Middle East war correspondent:

"I think media should be abolished from, uh, you know, reporting."

More words of wisdom from Joe

Some clerical errors are worse than others.

This is probably the worst I've seen.

Army apologizes for "Dear John Doe" letters

Where do they find these contractors? I guess I shouldn't ask.

More ex-presidential photo ops

Don't you feel nostalgic just looking at those guys? (Well, some of them, anyway...)

And a belated ball-drop moment...

Given how I've followed the Clintons' ups and downs this past year, I couldn't resist posting this cheerier moment from New Year's Eve.

New Year's Day Special: Why You Should Sleep Late

from Wired:
3 Smart Things About Sleeping Late