Imbi Market, Yut Kee and Chinatown, Kuala Lumpur

Forget the museum, the art gallery, the church or the zoo. Wet markets are one of my favourite plates to visit when aboard, the culinary underbelly of a city with its maze of makeshift stalls, occasional puddles, and smiling locals determined to feed the people with good fresh produce, poultry and seafood.

Our second day in Malaysia would take us to Imbi Market, one of the last surviving wet

Waiting for G'Duh.

If any more Republicans join the 2012 presidential race in this upcoming political Special Olympics, they may just put the Onion out of business. Birther king Donald Trump reminded us why we loathe him so much for the double comb-overed, pussy-mouthed misanthrope he is and before his candidacy was even announced, it crashed and burned like a Hindenburg still tied to its mooring lines.

Mike Huckabee is so boring he's not even good for laughs but he announced he wasn't interested in the presidency after being told it was mutual among the electorate.

Then there's Newt, good ole Newt, who before and after his candidacy was announced hoarsely screamed about a mosque at Ground Zero, claimed that his love for America made him fall into vaginas that weren't between his wife's legs and called the president an anticolonial Kenyan. Newly anointed as the most allegedly credible GOP candidate, Newt just couldn't live up to that elevated status and before long his spokesman came out with some of the worst poetry this side of The Stuffed Owl and tried to defend then sweep under the rug an old $250,000-$500,000 no-interest Tiffany's loan. The former Speaker then tried to claim he was a Washington outsider. The only commonsensical thing that's come out of his mouth was when he called Paul Ryan's Medicare "plan" "right wing social engineering."

Now even the Republican Party, starting with el Rushbo, hates his guts and it's obvious the Great Apostate lost all GOP support now and forever.

But what we're seeing with the unfolding Sarah Palin soap opera is unprecedented in American history. Never have I ever seen a failed Vice Presidential contender continue to be the focal point of so much blind, misguided and even sick and obsessive interest. At times, even the former Alaska governor seems to be taken aback and even scared by it, jealously guarding her privacy. And who could blame the lady?

But over the last 33 months since John McCain inexplicably named her to be his running mate, anyone even remotely connected in the most tangential way has been chased by literary agents and had multimillion dollar book contracts and TV appearances and whole series catapulted at them. Bristol Palin herself made more than $200,000 last year alone and the Palin family's yearly income from just reality TV was $3,000,000 last year. Even Levi Johnston, a 21 year-old unwed hockey dad, is making 6 figures and is coming out with his own memoirs.

Now, taking a cue from McCain, Sarah Palin has begun a whirlwind east coast tour on a bus unimaginatively dubbed, "Rolling Thunder."

Call her and her entourage Jerry Farcia and the Grateful Deadheads but Sarah Palin, whether or not she intended to, is sending Tea Baggers and others with too much spare time scrambling for Civil War battlefields like Gettysburg merely on the strength of a quote she'd used from the Gettysburg Address.

Granted, for a so-called publicity-seeking bus tour, Palin's itinerary is strangely private but if that's the way she wants it, that's the way she ought to get it. If Mrs. Palin wishes to attend a historical site without being followed by the common rabble and the "lamestream" media, then she ought to be allowed to so do.

But flocking to Civil War battlefields out of morbid and idle curiosity is something we used to do during the Civil War. We've all heard stories of the landed gentry literally having picnics on the outskirts of Civil War battlefields during the actual engagements. There's something about watching catastrophe unfolding that's irresistible to humans and perhaps the deer-on-the-headlights phenomena isn't peculiar only to ruminants. Perhaps this accounts for Palin's so-called appeal.

So now those of us in the reality-based community have to play witness to another sad chapter in American History as written by Samuel Beckett, "Waiting for G'Duh", in which Vladimir and Estragon (the American people) wait and hunt in vain for their savior. The problem is, unlike Beckett's Godot, Palin will eventually make an appearance because that is what she does for a living and nothing more.

It's a Sarah Palin world, we just are allowed to live in it...for now

And so it begins again, the media love affair with Sarah Palin. If you watched the news at all yesterday, you know that it was all Sarah Palin, all the time. Every news broadcast was turned into the Sarah Palin show. This morning it's the same thing -- the only story that the news broadcasts think is important is whether this aging prom queen is going to run for the presidency.

Has it ever occurred to these people that this love affair may just put this incurious, mean-spirited, idiotic sociopath into the White House?

You'd think that they'd have wised up by now, what with the 2008 debacle and the relentless self-promotion that she's done since. But no, all Sarah Palin has to do is put on yet more drag (this time a motorcycle helmet) and they're all ejaculating in their pinstripes. (And didn't we have enough from 2000-2008 of a moronic so-called "president" who liked to dress up in costumes?)

I realize that Tim Pawlenty is colorless. I realize that Mitt Romney is plastic. I realize that all the other would-be Republican nominees are batshit crazy (as if Palin is not?). But at what point does the giant maw of cable television news have to do something like actually INFORM, instead of just providing a platform for this blatant self-promoter?

Yesterday was Memorial Day. We still have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, though for what end is now a mystery. Thousands of families spent the day yesterday remembering their loved ones instead of grilling burgers, developing melanoma at the beach, or shopping at the mall. You'd think the media would pay attention to some of them. But no, all Sarah Palin has to do is flash her lovely capped teeth, and the media are right there bearing the Greatest Gift of All -- endless, nonstop attention.

Malaysia food tour with Adam Liaw: Nasi lemak, roti and char kway teow

Oh Malaysia. It was like I never left you.

Last Sunday night I landed in Kuala Lumpur with a contingent of fellow journalists, invited on a week-long media famil of Malaysia. The trip was a follow-up to the phenomenally successful Malaysia Kitchen Food Market, and the invitation to attend was definitely a rhetorical question. Adam Liaw, MasterChef season two winner and official ambassador for

Amerika: No dancing allowed

Nice to know the D.C. park police are protecting us from Dancers of Mass Destruction:

The guy on the ground is lucky these cops let him live.

Just in case you thought anything would be different just because the president has a "D" after his name.

All this in the shadow of a statue of a man who said this:

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."

"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."

"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent. "

More here.

In non-Sarah Palin-related news...

Meanwhile, in news NOT related to Sarah Palin's bus tour (and there is some, though you'd never know it from the teevee), Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant may be in more trouble:

Officials from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) are apologizing in advance for the fact that the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant is not ready for the high winds and heavy rain of Typhoon Songda, a massive storm that could make landfall in Japan as early as Monday.

The BBC quotes a TEPCO official as saying, "We have made utmost efforts, but we have not completed covering the damaged reactor buildings. We apologize for the lack of significant measures against wind and rain."

Buildings housing the plant's nuclear reactors are still standing open in the wake of crippling hydrogen explosions that followed Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The approaching storm could scatter highly radioactive materials into the air and sea. Plant operators are currently spreading "anti-scattering agents" around the buildings housing reactors one and four.

I don't know about you, but my days of eating wild Pacific salmon are over.

Fete des Meres une occasion purement commerciale

Les Origines de la Fête des Mères

Les grecs anciens fêtaient leur déesse Rhea au printemps, pour les romains, la fête des Matraliae (du latin Mater, mère) se situait en juin.

Puis au XVIème siècle les anglais ont instauré un dimanche de fête des mères.


La France tente de lutter contre sa "dépopulation" et organise des "Fêtes des enfants" mettant en avant les vertus de la famille et prônant l'importance de la fécondité.

Au début du XXème siècle ces manifestations connaissent des variantes : fêtes de la famille ou manifestations familiales à l'occasion de la fête nationale du 14 juillet, avec une forte contribution des enfants.


Mothers Day

Et c'est la grande guerre. Les américains qui avaient opté pour un vrai "Mothers Day" le deuxième dimanche de mai à la fin du XIXème siècle, la développent ardemment durant la première guerre mondiale, éloignement oblige.

Les français chargés du courrier constatent alors des envois massifs à cette date qui leur est mystérieuse. Et la France ayant encore plus besoin de se repeupler après la guerre 14-18, cette coutume bien implantée outre-atlantique de "Fête des Mères" va faire des émules.

Dans le même temps, en pleine guerre, la municipalité parisienne organise une "Fête des familles nombreuses" dans les locaux de la SNHF, Société nationale d'Horticulture de France. Suivie à Lyon d'une "Journée des mères" en 1918, puis d'une "Journée des mères de familles nombreuses" en 1919, fixé au 15 août, jour de l'Assomption de Marie, mère de Jésus.

De nombreuses manifestations se déroulèrent en province, mais l'institution n'était pas encore établie.

C'est en 1920, et en mai cette fois, que le projet aboutit, permettant aux "mères méritantes" de recevoir des fonds d'une collecte publique recueillis à leur intention, et la fameuse médaille d'or remise à une mère de treize enfants.


Une Fête Officielle

On en est loin aujourd'hui de la fête de la déesse Rhea. On reproche à la fête des mères d'être une occasion purement commerciale alors qu'au départ l'objetif n'avait rien de mercantile… Mais le succès avait cette fois été grand, et national. Le gouvernement d'alors décida d'instituer l'événement en "Journée des mères", qui sera officialisée en 1928.

Cette fête est régie par une loi depuis le 24 mai 1950, suivie deux ans plus tard par la Fête des pères. Elle est fixée au dernier dimanche de mai, sauf si celui si est le dimanche de Pentecôte. Dans ce cas assez exceptionnel, la Fête des mères est reportée au premier dimanche de juin.

Saturday Big Blue Smurf Blogging: What They Said

Today's honoree (once again), is Bustednuckles, on the Idiocy of Dana Rohrabacher.

Money quote:

I would bet a hundred bucks that this fucking idiot doesn't know that the Sahara Desert used to be a sub tropical paradise.
Anyone with an IQ over their shoe size knows what happens when you cut down too many trees in a certain environmental zone, the top layer of soil goes away and the local climate changes.
The next thing you have is a desert.

Dude, cutting down trees is the answer to our problems?
Halleluja! We are SAVED!

Fuck me, there must be over a billion trees in this state, let's start here!

Think of the economic boom!

Thousands of out of work lumberjacks, log truck drivers, saw mills and ships to take those pesky fuckers somewhere else, all working 24/7 to cut down all those trees to save the planet!

Genius.

Then we can all stand around and watch every inch of top soil get washed off the hills and clog up all our rivers and wonder why there is no wildlife in our hills and no fish in our rivers, why we have nothing but mud and dust to eat.

I want these two kids to meet up in college, get married after graduation, and have awesome progressive babies

Amy Myers:

and Zack Kopplin:

It's kids like these that give me a wee glimmer of hope.

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The Daily Weiner

My Congressional Hero (at least until Grayson wins again):

You know, Sarah, you can take something for that

It happens more often once you get north of age 45. I take Tums unless it gets too bad; if it's really severe I take a Zantac 75.

If you think you've got fire in your belly now, wait till you start living on a diet of corn dogs, funnel cakes, and fried butter on the campaign trail.

Kambozza, Parramatta

This month's Time Out Sydney column is all about Burmese food. I headed to Kambozza in Parramatta and found a nine-page menu filled with traditional Burmese dishes.


Eat this...Mohinga

WHAT IS IT?
Mohinga ($6.50) is the unofficial national dish of Burma, a fish noodle soup that is eaten primarily for breakfast, but is popular at lunchtime and dinner too. Find it at Kambozza, one of Sydney's

A High Fly Into the Stands

From Tuesday night's episode of The Last Word, in which Lawrence O'Donnell says a few things that'll make Bill O'Reilly swallow his tongue.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

A bit simplistic, but gives you that "Ahhhhh" feeling, oui?

Marco Pierre White masterclass

Marco Pierre White's reputation precedes him. Vaunted as one of the original bad boy chefs, Marco is infamous for his history of kitchen rage: legendary incidents that include kicking out customers from his dining room if they clicked their fingers at a waiter, and cutting open the back of a young chef's uniform with a sharp knife when he complained about the heat in the kitchen.

And yet

You can't vote to keep subsidies to Big Oil and then say that the sick elderly have to sacrifice

Americans clearly have no sense of what a trillion dollars is, nor do most people realize where their tax dollars go. Ronald Reagan succeeded in convincing most Americans that "Federal spending" = "Welfare for lazy minorities in Cadillacs", and ever since then, Republicans have been able to frame their particular cause in terms of what it costs taxpayers. Federally-funded abortions. Food assistance for the poor. Museums devoted to the mating habits of the hedgehog. The result is that Americans have no idea what the government spends, and overestimates the spending on the trivial:

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday, most Americans think that the government spends a lot more money than it actually does on such unpopular programs as foreign aid and public broadcasting.

The poll's release comes one week before current funding for the government runs out. If there is no budget agreement between congressional lawmakers by next Friday, some government programs and offices may shut down.

"The public has a better idea of how much the government spends on programs like Social Security and Medicare, but there is a related problem - cutting them has little public support," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "The result: cutting unpopular programs would probably not cut the deficit very much, and cutting the deficit would probably require cuts in programs that Americans like."

Let's start with international assistance. Sixty percent of people we questioned say they'd like to put foreign aid on the chopping block. So would that make a dent in the deficit?

No - but try telling that to the American public. According to the poll, on average, Americans estimate that foreign aid takes up 10 percent of the federal budget, and one in five think it represents about 30 percent of the money the government spends. But the actual figure is closer to one percent, according to data from the Office of Management and Budget from the 2010 fiscal year's $3.5 trillion budget.

OK. Let's try more low-hanging fruit - funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Our survey indicates nearly half of all Americans would like to see major cuts.

According to our poll the public estimates that the government spent five percent of its budget last year on public television and radio.

Not even close. The real answer is about one-tenth of one percent.

And so on.

What Americans DO know is what the government spends on Social Security and Medicare, but as stupid and self-sabotaging as average Americans have become, they haven't become THAT stupid and self-sabotaging. And when Republicans continue to insist that tax increases are off the table at the same time that corporations are paying little or no taxes AND getting refunds on taxes they didn't pay, they are not going to get Americans to agree with cuts to Social Security and Medicare. When Republicans continue to insist that tax cuts to the wealthiest people create jobs after the tax cuts instituted by George W. Bush at the same time as he was spending us into oblivion on two futile wars have been in place for a decade and there are still no jobs, they are not going to get Americans to agree with cuts to Social Security and Medicare:

Most Americans say they don't believe Medicare has to be cut to balance the federal budget, and ditto for Social Security, a new poll shows.

The Associated Press-GfK poll suggests that arguments for overhauling the massive benefit programs to pare government debt have failed to sway the public. The debate is unlikely to be resolved before next year's elections for president and Congress.

Americans worry about the future of the retirement safety net, the poll found, and 3 out of 5 say the two programs are vital to their basic financial security as they age. That helps explain why the Republican Medicare privatization plan flopped, and why President Barack Obama's Medicare cuts to finance his health care law contributed to Democrats losing control of the House in last year's elections.

Medicare seems to be turning into the new third rail of politics.

"I'm pretty confident Medicare will be there, because there would be a rebellion among voters," said Nicholas Read, 67, a retired teacher who lives near Buffalo, N.Y. "Republicans only got a hint of that this year. They got burned. They touched the hot stove."

Combined, Social Security and Medicare account for about a third of government spending, a share that will only grow. Economic experts say the cost of retirement programs for an aging society is the most serious budget problem facing the nation. The trustees who oversee Social Security and Medicare recently warned the programs are "not sustainable" over the long run under current financing.

Nearly every solution for Social Security is politically toxic, because the choices involve cutting benefits or raising taxes. Medicare is even harder to fix because the cost of modern medicine is going up faster than the overall cost of living, outpacing economic growth as well as tax revenues.

"Medicare is an incredibly complex area," said former Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., who used to chair the Budget Committee. "It's a matrix that is almost incomprehensible. Unlike Social Security, which has four or five moving parts, Medicare has hundreds of thousands. There is no single approach to Medicare, whereas with Social Security everyone knows where the problem is."

It turns out that when there is a program that benefits people who Americans perceive as having been hard-working, especially when everyone has already paid into that system, they do not want the budget balanced on their backs while the CEO of Exxon Mobil gets to buy himself another yacht in an attempt to fill the hole in his soul.

How about we do something to keep people healthier during their working years so that they can be healthier in their senior years? Perhaps if workers actually have time for fitness in their day instead of working 100-hour weeks to prove their value to the company, we'll have fewer obese adults. Perhaps if people in poor neighborhoods can buy quality foods for a reasonable price there won't be as much Type 2 diabetes. Perhaps if we acknowledge just how difficult quitting smoking is and finding ways to make it easier to quit smoking without risking telling the wrong person to go to hell in the middle of a meeting, there will be fewer lung cancer deaths. Perhaps if we make towns bicycle- and walk-friendly, people will get out of their cars more often. Perhaps if we stop trying to be "the most productive nation in the world" while working our citizens into early health problems, we can spend less per capita on Medicare.

But that's not likely to happen, because those who rely on Medicare now and in the future don't buy politicians. Corporations do.

And I'll bet he doesn't tip, either

I have a thing about tips. I believe in them. Usually I leave at least 20% as a tip, more if the service is exceptional or if it's a holiday. I think it all goes back to the time in high school when I interviewed for a job at Friendly's, which was allowed to pay less than minimum wage because of the tips. Or a childhood memory of a diner waitress in her fifties balancing a half-dozen plates without spilling even a crumb. Jobs that relied on tips always seemed to me to be the crappiest jobs in the world, and as an adult, I've always felt a responsibility to do my part to make them not quite so crappy.

One area where I always tip generously is hotel housekeeping. It's not that cleaning up after me is such a chore. For some reason, I'm a better housekeeper on the road than I am at home. It's just that the monotony of changing beds and cleaning toilets and tubs after strangers, even on holidays, seems like a particularly depressing way to spend one's work life. For all that I'm working ridiculous hours again on a project with a timeline that I'll be lucky to meet, the work I do is interesting, varied, and I hope, meaningful. Hotel housekeepers don't have that luxury. So the only things I can do is to a) not make their jobs even more difficult, and b) tip well.

When I'm just crashing over someplace because of weather, or I'm too tired to drive any longer, a Comfort Inn or Holiday Inn Express is fine. If I have a clean bed, a clean bathroom, a TV, and an internet connection I'm happy. But when I travel for work, it's usually for a conference or a intra-company meeting, so the hotels are pretty nice. In 2009 I lived in a Hilton in Europe for two weeks. I've stayed at Westins, Hyatts, Doubletrees, and yes, even a Sofitel. The Sofitel in Philadelphia has the most awesome beds I've ever slept in. They have these down mattress toppers and duvets that make you feel like you've gone to heaven and are sleeping on a cloud.

There's an interesting thing, though, about what happens in these hotels. A generous room tip means that I come back to a room with a fistful of Andes mints instead of just one. Or a full extra complement of toiletries. Or extra pens. And on the day I leave for good, I leave an even larger tip. It's as if we are exchanging, through hotel swag, a bond of female solidarity. Acknowledging that the person who cleans up after you is a human being too can be a powerful force for good.

I thought of all this while reading this op-ed in the New York Times today by a hotel housekeeping manager, about the risks these women take every day when they go into a room. And then I thought of the news segment I watched last night, about an Assemblyman from Queens who has proposed a law requiring hotels to provide housekeepers with "panic buttons" -- small electronic devices that a housekeeper can press to alert hotel security. The segment asked for the opinions of random New Yorkers, and most seemed to think it was a good idea -- except for the obviously wealthy woman in the posh neighborhood who thought it was "too much government interference" in people's private lives; too much "nanny state."

Because ensuring worker safety is too much government interference into the "private affairs" of giant hotel companies. This woman's attitude so perfectly encapsulated the greedy scumbaggery, the utter lack of empathy, the doctrinaire illogic of today's right-wing conservative, that it got me thinking about Dominique Strauss-Kahn and men like him who believe that the peons who wait on them are somehow less than human. I'd be willing to bet that Strauss-Kahn never, ever, ever leaves a room tip.

Crab, marmite pork ribs and 1m roti, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Forget the humble nut cracker. I love that in Malaysia you get a little hammer to crack open your crab.

After three days in Phuket exploring James Bond and Phi Phi islands, we make our way back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a finale of shopping and eating. Crab has been at the top of our To Eat list, and we head to Wong Poh in Petaling Jaya, a local favourite famous for their crab.


Pickled

The Rupture

Maybe I was sitting on the toilet when the Rapture occurred last night. Maybe it bypassed me because Mrs. JP and I were watching the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Maybe it came and went while we were listening to the Red Sox get blown out by the Cubs in their milkmen uniforms last night.

Or maybe I haven't been sufficiently religious enough during my life. But apparently, the baby Jebus either didn't think I was as pious as the 200,000,000 pre-chosen or... Or maybe it didn't happen at all.

Anyway, consider this an open thread to tell me what you did to prepare for the Rapture (Gotta admit, it was awfully convenient for that 89 year-old crackpot to choose a Saturday for the grand Skyline moment).

OK, it's time for someone to write a sitcom for Takei and Shatner

We already knew Shatner was funny. But George Takei is funny AND awesome.

Isn't it time for a reunion of some kind? Did they yank S**t My Dad Says yet?

Get on it, Lorre. Angus isn't a fat kid anymore and has actually become kind of cute, and Kutcher is just going to be playing Kelso again. Isn't it time for something new? Shatner. Takei. Get on it. You could even call it "The Odd Couple."

The greatest thing in the history of television

In case you missed it, John Lithgow reads Newt Gingrich's bombastic press release:

It's disconcerting because Lithgow bears a striking facial resemblance to Andrew Breitbart the way he's lit here. And it's doubly hilarious if you saw Lithgow's chilling performance as the Trinity Killer in Dexter season 4.

Meet Your Average Republican Voter

Here's how Republicans manage to pull stuff out of their asses and have people believe it: Because they target people like these:

They spent months warning the world of the apocalypse, some giving away earthly belongings or draining their savings accounts. And so they waited, vigilantly, on Saturday for the appointed hour to arrive.

When 6 p.m. came and went at various spots around the globe, including the East Coast of the United States, and no extraordinary cataclysm occurred, Keith Bauer — who hopped in his minivan in Maryland and drove his family 3,000 miles to California for the Rapture — took it in stride.

"I had some skepticism but I was trying to push the skepticism away because I believe in God," he said in the bright morning sun outside the gated Oakland headquarters of Family Radio International, whose founder, Harold Camping, has been broadcasting the apocalyptic prediction for years. "I was hoping for it because I think heaven would be a lot better than this earth."

But he added, "It's God who leads you, not Harold Camping."

Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, began the voyage west last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen." After seeing the nonprofit ministry's base of operations, Bauer planned to take a day trip to the Pacific Ocean, and then start the cross-country drive back home Sunday with his wife, young son and another family relative.

[snip]

In New York's Times Square, Robert Fitzpatrick, of Staten Island, said he was surprised when 6 p.m. came and went. He had spent his own money to put up advertising about the end of the world.

"I can't tell you what I feel right now," he said, surrounded by tourists. "I don't understand it. I don't know. I don't understand what happened.

"Obviously, I haven't understood it correctly because we're still here," he said.

It tempting to feel sorry for gullible dupes like these, except that these gullible dupes are the same people who made Rick Scott the governor of Florida, and Scott Walker the governor of Wisconsin. These gullible people are the same people who read Andrew Breitbart and listen to Sarah Palin. These are the same people who gay-bash and want their particular brand of Christianity to become the mandatory state religion. These are the same people who scram "Keep the government out of my Medicare" and elect people like Paul Ryan. They are stupid, frightened ignorant people who are beyond learning, who are beyond allowing anything like empirical reality to interfere with their already-established worldview. So today we get to point at them and laugh.

Blogrolling In Our Time

Throw another multigrain blueberry waffle on a plate and give it to a long-overdue addition to the blogroll, Bill Tchakirides of Under the Lobsterscope.

Some advice for the Zombie Apocalypse

Sahr Ngaujah as Fela Anikulapo Kuti in last year's musical, Fela!, educates us about zombies:

It's about friggin' time

Those who are long-time readers of this blog know of our long-standing wistful feeling of bereftness, even after lo these five-and-a-half years, that we will never again be able to turn on the radio at six minutes past six AM and hear the opening bars of that bumper music from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, followed by "It's six past the hour and this...is Morning Sedition!" And we at Casa la Brilliant are not alone. There's Melina and Seanie and Vernon and PJ and Krista and many, many more, for whom a radio show that ran for not even two years created a special kind of community. And at the forefront of some of the most brilliant radio comedy ever recorded was Marc Maron, who started out as a neurotic basket case, but who learned in that short time how to do radio. Because Maron might be a really funny comedian, but he's a GREAT radio host and interviewer. And in the last year, with his increasingly successful (and important in the industry) podcast, he's begun to be able to finally hone his craft without a bunch of inept suits being scared to death of what he brings to the table.

And now, at least on some NPR affiliates, Marc Maron is going to be back on terrestrial radio -- not live, not daily, but in a special version of WTF put together specifically for public radio.

Jesse Thorn of The Sound of Young America announced the good news a few days ago:

For about six months now, Sound of Young America editor Nick White and I have been working on a secret project. Now, the secret can be revealed... please welcome WTF with Marc Maron, the public radio series!

We've taken the hundreds of episodes of the WTF podcast and boiled them down to what we think is ten hours of exceptionally compelling radio. We've chosen the best stories and the best guests and made a ten-episode public radio series, produced by Marc, Nick and me.

Thanks to the kind support of Torey Malatia and Ira Glass, our first station commitment came from WBEZ and Chicago Public Media. We've got lots of other stations on tap, but feel free to let your station know it's available on PRX and that you love it. We hope that stations will air it this summer and early fall all over the country. (It was Torey and Ira's insistence, by the way, that led us to keep the name "WTF".)

If you want to hear the show, you can check it out, share it and review it on PRX. Our goal was to capture what makes WTF special and communicate it to folks who aren't comedy nerds - or even necessarily comedy fans. I think they sound wonderful.

So far only a few affiliates have picked up the show, and it looks like it will be a 10-episode run at first. But hey...you've got to start somewhere, and after a five year absence, it will be nice to have Marc Maron back where he belongs.

Losing our democracy

It would be a comforting thought to believe that now that Americans know exactly what the teabaggers they elected to office last year are all about, they'd have the opportunity to vote these lunatics and greedmongers out next year. However, it's not going to be that easy, as out of mind of a media that's been obsessed with Charlie Sheen, Pippa Middleton's bra, Newt Gingrich, and Donald Trump, these new Republican leaders, in particular the teabagger governors, have been hard at work shoring up the voting system so that it benefits them.

In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott has signed a bill specifically designed to suppress the vote among low-income and elderly voters -- those most likely to vote Democratic:

Gov. Rick Scott on Thursday signed a controversial overhaul of the election laws that Republicans say is needed to prevent voter fraud and Democrats call a cynical act of partisanship to improve GOP chances in Florida next year.

Critics assailed him for endorsing “voter suppression” tactics aimed at making it tougher for President Barack Obama to capture Florida’s prized 29 electoral votes in 2012.

“I want people to vote, but I also want to make sure there’s no fraud involved in elections,” Scott said. “All of us as individuals that vote want to make sure that our elections are fair and honest.”

But some supervisors who run elections in Florida say the state’s voter registration database is highly reliable. A statement from their statewide association warns Scott that the changes could cause chaos and confusion at the polls next year.

The League of Women Voters says it will suspend voter-registration activity because the bill requires such groups’ volunteers to register with the state and face fines of up to $1,000 for not submitting voting forms within 48 hours.

The bill also cuts early voting days from 15 to eight and requires some voters who have moved to cast provisional ballots, a change most likely to affect college students.

The bill wipes out policy in place for four decades in Florida that allowed voters to update their legal addresses when they voted.

Republicans call that an invitation to fraud, so the new law allows only voters who have moved within the same county to update their addresses at the polls.

None of the bill’s most controversial provisions was pushed by Scott’s chief elections expert, Secretary of State Kurt Browning. He broke weeks of silence Thursday about an hour after his boss, Scott, signed the legislation.

“I know bad election law when I see it,” Browning said. “I don’t think this bill is bad for Florida. … It doesn’t negatively impact Florida voters.”

The law takes effect immediately, which means its first test will be in Miami-Dade, the state’s largest county, which is electing a new county mayor and other officials Tuesday. Supervisor of Elections Lester Sola will end early voting Saturday — three days before Election Day, as the new law requires — a decision candidate Marcelo Llorente is fighting in court.

But in five counties it won’t go into effect until the federal government approves. Any change in state election laws that affects those counties — Hillsborough, Collier, Monroe, Hendry and Hardee — requires approval by the Justice Department in a process known as “pre-clearance.”

The legislation generated far more public opposition than any other bill of the 2011 session. Some was engineered by the League of Women Voters, which has thousands of members in Florida.

Scott’s office reported 14,000 calls and e-mails in opposition; nearly 1,300 in favor. A notation by Scott’s staff said:

“Majority oppose. Urging Governor to veto these bills because they change our voting laws, making it more difficult for some voters to cast their vote.”

But Rick Scott doesn't give a rat's ass what the voters want. Now that he's safely ensconced in office, and now that his approval ratings are plummeting as those in Florida who participated in voting-by-tantrum last year realize just what they've done, it's imperative for him to shore up his power by making sure he can't be voted out.

And what's the excuse given for the new law? To prevent "voter fraud." But as the St. Petersburg Times notes, only 31 cases were referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement between 2008 and 2011. Think about it: For ten cases a year, Rick Scott has just disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters. This is not about "voter fraud." This is about cementing power in the hands of a health care fraud.

And it isn't just in Florida. In Wisconsin, teabagger Governor Scott Walker is attempting to similar disenfranchise those who might dare vote him out of office. Last month Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed a similar bill.

The Republican Party has become so corrupt that it no longer can claim to represent the people of this country. And having lost the war of ideas, the party is http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnow all about power -- getting it, consolidating it, keeping it. And the most certain way to do that without bloodshed is to make sure that those who would use the electoral process to remove them from office have no way to do so.

But why should the media report how our representative democracy is being taken away from us? Newt Gingrich said something stupid again, there's a high profile rape case in New York, and who knows -- perhaps Lindsey Lohan will act up again.

UPDATE May 22, 2011: Leslie Parsley looks at all of these efforts nationwide.

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Posting Will be Sporadic

My Dell shit the bed... again. So we're back down to one laptop. I don't have the money to fix it right now nor do I have the money to buy even a used one. Keeping a roof over our heads, food in our stomachs and the utilities on is more important. Plus it's going to be a brutal summer because renewing./converting Barb's license to Massachusetts this July, renewing our auto insurance (June 24th, 20% down again) and renewing AAA in August will cost upwards of $450 or more.

So whatever help you could give us in even the smallest measure would be immensely appreciated and would certainly make a difference.

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Message de Ben Laden diffusee par une site islamiste

Dans un message posthume audio capté par le centre américain de surveillance des sites islamistes (SITE), le chef défunt d'Al-Qaïda, tué au Pakistan par un commando américain le 2 mai, appelle les musulmans à tirer avantage d'une «rare opportunité historique» pour se soulever.
De son vivant, Oussama Ben Laden ne s'était jamais exprimé sur le «printemps arabe», ces mouvements de contestation qui
ont balayé les régimes égyptiens et tunisiens, enflammé la Libye, la Syrie ou le Yémen. Mais dans un message posthume audio capté par le centre américain de surveillance des sites islamistes (SITE), le chef défunt d'Al-Qaïda, tué au Pakistan par un commando américain le 2 mai, appelle les musulmans à tirer avantage de cette «rare opportunité historique» pour se soulever.
Le message, mis en ligne sur les forums jihadistes mercredi par le site As-Sahab, proche d'Al-Qaïda, dure 12 minutes et 37 secondes, est accompagné d'une photo de l'ancien chef d'Al-Qaïda. Il évoque les révolutions en Egypte et en Tunisie, mais ne mentionne pas les soulèvements en Libye, Syrie et Yémen. Ben Laden y recommande la mise en place d'un Conseil chargé de donner des conseils révolutionnaires et de décider du meilleur moment pour répandre la révolte dans le monde musulman.

Today in WTF

No, not Marc Maron's terrific podcast (though you should check it out if you haven't already), but just general What the Fuckness: Ben Stein on why Dominique Strauss-Kahn could very well be right that "she asked for it":

1.) If he is such a womanizer and violent guy with women, why didn't he ever get charged until now? If he has a long history of sexual abuse, how can it have remained no more than gossip this long? France is a nation of vicious political rivalries. Why didn't his opponents get him years ago?

2.) In life, events tend to follow patterns. People who commit crimes tend to be criminals, for example. Can anyone tell me any economists who have been convicted of violent sex crimes? Can anyone tell me of any heads of nonprofit international economic entities who have ever been charged and convicted of violent sexual crimes? Is it likely that just by chance this hotel maid found the only one in this category? Maybe Mr. Strauss-Kahn is guilty but if so, he is one of a kind, and criminals are not usually one of a kind.

3.) The prosecutors say that Mr. Strauss-Kahn "forced" the complainant to have oral and other sex with him. How? Did he have a gun? Did he have a knife? He's a short fat old man. They were in a hotel with people passing by the room constantly, if it's anything like the many hotels I am in. How did he intimidate her in that situation? And if he was so intimidating, why did she immediately feel un-intimidated enough to alert the authorities as to her story?

4.) Did the prosecutors really convince a judge that he was a flight risk when he was getting on a flight he had booked long beforehand? What kind of high-pressure escape plan is that? How is it a sudden flight move to get on a flight booked maybe months ago?

5.) Mr. Strauss-Kahn had surrendered his passport. He had offered to stay in New York City. He is one of the most recognizable people on the planet. Did he really have to be put in Riker's Island? Couldn't he have been given home detention with a guard? This is a man with a lifetime of public service, on a distinguished level, to put it mildly. Was Riker's Island really the place to put him on the allegations of one human being? Hadn't he earned slightly better treatment than that? Any why compare him with a certain pedophile from France long ago? That man had confessed to his crime. Mr. Strauss-Kahn has not confessed to anything.

6.) People accuse other people of crimes all of the time. What do we know about the complainant besides that she is a hotel maid? I love and admire hotel maids. They have incredibly hard jobs and they do them uncomplainingly. I am sure she is a fine woman. On the other hand, I have had hotel maids that were complete lunatics, stealing airline tickets from me, stealing money from me, throwing away important papers, stealing medications from me. How do we know that this woman's word was good enough to put Mr. Strauss-Kahn straight into a horrific jail? Putting a man in Riker's is serious business. Maybe more than a few minutes of investigation is merited before it's done.

7.) In this country, we have the presumption of innocence for the accused. Yet there's my old pal from the Ron Ziegler/ Richard Nixon days, Diane Sawyer, anchor of the ABC Nightly News, assuming that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is guilty. Right off the bat she leads the Monday news by saying that Mr. Strauss-Kahn is in Riker's... "because one woman stood her ground..." That assumes she's telling the truth and he's guilty. No such thing has been proved and it's unfortunate for ABC to simply assume that an accusation is the same as a conviction. Maybe he's in jail because one person didn't tell the truth. I don't know one way or the other, but I sure know that there has been no conviction yet.

8.) In what possible way is the price of the hotel room relevant except in every way: this is a case about the hatred of the have-nots for the haves, and that's what it's all about. A man pays $3,000 a night for a hotel room? He's got to be guilty of something. Bring out the guillotine.

Let's go down the list, shall we?
1) Perhaps because he's a very powerful guy? Or because it's is extremely difficult to get a rape conviction, especially in Europe, where in 2006 France had a conviction rate of only 25%, despite the fact that reported incidents had seen a steady rise over 15 years. With 75% odds against conviction, can you blame women for deciding not to bother?

2) This sounds like code for "Only black people commit crimes". But as Randall Munroe notes, Paul Bernardo was an economist. The name Paul Bernardo doesn't ring a bell? Here's what HE did. And again: He's an economist. James Urbaniak has more criminal economists.

3) Where does one even begin with this one? I've written before about what happened to me in college. I chose not to define myself as a rape victim, but today what happened would qualify as rape. There do not have to be life-threatening weapons for there to be rape. Fists and the ability to twist a person's arms so they can't fight back works just fine. And as for "un-intimidated", well, that's the most insulting of all. What Stein is saying is that a REAL rape victim would have gone home, taken a shower to get rid of all evidence, and then, when it's too late to get any evidence, reported the crime. Perhaps this woman was "un-intimidated" enough to report the crime because she comes from a country where rape is rampant. But I guess Stein would say that since she was used to it, it's not a crime.

5) Stein bemoans that a man of such power and prestige is held at Riker's Island after surrendering his passport. Has Stein ever heard of the Hudson River? Is he aware of how big a country this is? It would not be difficult for Kahn to hop a ferry to New Jersey, take a Greyhound to Florida and hop on a friend's boat -- and out of the country. Not saying he would, but surrendering a passport doesn't mean shit for a determined sociopath.

6) Stein talks about how he loves hotel maids (maybe too much...is that why he's coming to Strauss-Kahn's defense?). He loves them the way Trump gets along with "the blacks" -- by stating such and then talking about those who were "complete lunatics", robbing him blind. I guess if the woman Strauss-Kahn assaulted had been a wealthy socialite, it would have been OK to put him in Rikers. But because this woman is "just" a hotel maid, the perp should be allowed to walk around.

7) Regarding the presumption of innocence: There are tens of thousands of people in jail even as I write this, who have not yet been convicted of any crime. They are held for various reasons. Why should this mean be treated any differently?

8) When all else fails, play the class war card. I guess because Strauss-Kahn could afford a $3000/night hotel room, he doesn't have to play by the same rules as someone in the same income level as, say, the victim in this crime.

Ben Stein's essay tells us more about him than about either of the people involved in this case. And what it tells us is that Ben Stein is a repulsive piece of shit.

Don't insult my intelligence

You know, I can understand that sometimes when two people are in a room together, there can be a point where the line between consent and rape can become blurred. This is one reason why I've always wanted our society to stop this ridiculousness about women having to be "swept away" by the moment in order to not be considered a slut. It's what keeps girls from carrying a diaphragm or condoms if they don't want to be, or can't be, on the pill. The double standard was kept at bay for many years, even if it is making a comeback now, fueled by conservatives who, masters of projection that they are, can't control themselves and can't imagine being someone who can.

But there is no universe in any kind of human consciousness where a 32-year-old West African hotel housekeeper enters the room of an aging lecher and is so seized with desire for his sagging scrotum that she falls into bed with him. And yet that is what the lawyers for IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn would have you believe.

One of the few benefits of Frank Rich leaving the New York Times (and there are precious few), is that Maureen Dowd seems to have decided it's time to grow the hell up and work on fighting her inner high school mean girl. Today in the paper she blasts this insulting framing right to smithereens:

Oh, she wanted it.

She wanted it bad.

That’s what every hard-working, God-fearing, young widow who breaks her back doing menial labor at a Times Square hotel to support her teenage daughter, justify her immigration status and take advantage of the opportunities in America wants — a crazed, rutting, wrinkly old satyr charging naked out of a bathroom, lunging at her and dragging her around the room, caveman-style.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s reputation as a thrice-married French seducer loses something in the translation.

According to the claims of the 32-year-old West African maid, what took place in the $3,000-a-day Sofitel suite had nothing to do with seduction. If the allegation is true, Strauss-Kahn’s behavior, boorish and primitive, is rape.

Was the chief of the International Monetary Fund telling other countries to tighten their belts while he was dropping his trousers? Lawyers for the 62-year-old Frenchman, who had been a leading Socialist prospect to run against Nicolas Sarkozy next year, seem ready to rebut any DNA evidence by arguing that sex with the maid who came in to clean his room was consensual.

[snip]

Strauss-Kahn’s French defenders are throwing around nutty conspiracy theories, sounding like the Pakistanis about Osama. Some have suggested that he was the victim of a honey-pot arranged by the Sarkozy forces.

Bernard-Henri Lévy, a friend of the accused, says he is outraged at the portrayal of Strauss-Kahn as an “insatiable and malevolent beast.” He wrote on The Daily Beast: “It would be nice to know — and without delay — how a chambermaid could have walked in alone, contrary to the habitual practice of most of New York’s grand hotels of sending a ‘cleaning brigade’ of two people, into the room of one of the most closely watched figures on the planet.”

At least he didn’t mention Dreyfus.

For years, I’ve stayed at the Sofitel and other hotels in New York City, and I’ve never seen a “brigade,” simply single maids coming in to clean.

In Washington, they have now nicknamed the street that separates the I.M.F. and the World Bank, where Paul Wolfowitz lost his job over financial hanky-panky with his girlfriend, the Boulevard of Bad Behavior.

These are the two institutions that are globally renowned for lecturing the rest of the world on discipline and freedom, when it’s the West that’s guilty of recklessness and improvident behavior. First in finance, then in sex.

People who can’t keep their flies zipped lecturing other people.

We've had so many instances of rich and/or powerful men in rooms with women where what emerges are battling famewhore lawyers, with the lawyer for the accused rapist insisting that the women are lying, or that they consented. But to use this claim with an immigrant woman, working as a hotel housekeeper, who goes into a hotel room to clean, is just an insult to our intelligence.

Last year Mr. Brilliant and I took a 5-day cruise to Canada. Perhaps the high point of the entire trip was returning to New York on our last day, early on a sunny morning, with cool temperatures and a light breeze blowing as we stood on deck. And as we entered the harbor, there she was -- a giant green statue of a woman holding a torch. The rising sun cast a golden glow around the Statue of Liberty that morning. And as I gazed at her, I found myself moved to tears, thinking of my own grandparents, and the millions of others who saw that same statue, perhaps at that same time of the morning, standing in the harbor with a golden glow around her, beckoning like a goddess as if to say, "Come on in...you are welcome here."

The woman at the center of this case probably didn't have that view; she probably came in by plane. But though I don't know her, I know that she came here with the same hopes that my forebears had. I hope she prevails in court against one of the most powerful men in the world. I hope that this country, the promise of which drew her here and now draws her into the system of justice that the green lady in New York harbor represents, lives up to its own self-image.

Common Nonsense

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari Goldstein.)

"(Y)our music is very positive. And you're known as the conscious rapper. How important is that to you, and how important do you think that is to our kids?" - Fox "News" reporter Jason Robinson to rapper/poet Common, October 2010.

"Oh lovely, White House." - Sarah Palin on Twitter

I'm thinking of Robert Lowell. Specifically, I'm thinking of Robert Lowell in 1965. I'm also thinking of Plato's The Republic and how the right wing seems to have misinterpreted one of his and Socrates' dictums.

LBJ had an inferiority complex regarding the Kennedys and for good reason. While JFK and Jackie held lavish parties honoring Nobel laureates and other men and women of distinction in the sciences and humanities, Johnson was letting loose with war whoops in the Taj Mahal and picking up dogs by their ears.

So it came as no surprise to those in LBJ's inner circle as he sought to show they were just as cultured as their predecessors when Lady Bird Johnson organized the Festival of the Arts for the middle of June, 1965. But when Lowell was invited to participate in the Festival, he knew who'd actually tendered the invitation. Like any other American, Lowell at first accepted then thought better of it.

On May 30th, 1965, he sent Johnson a letter which was published in the NY Times the following June 3rd. Declining the invitation, it read,

Dear President Johnson:

When I was telephoned last week and asked to read at the White House Festival of the Arts on June fourteenth, I am afraid I accepted somewhat rapidly and greedily. I thought of such an occasion as a purely artistic flourish, even though every serious artist knows that he cannot enjoy public celebration without making subtle public commitments. But, after a week's wondering, I am conscience-bound to refuse your courteous invitation. I do so now in a public letter because my acceptance has been announced in the newspapers and because of the strangeness of the Administration's recent actions.

Although I am very enthusiastic about most of your domestic legislation and intentions, I nevertheless can only follow our present foreign policy with the greatest dismay and distrust. We are in danger of imperceptibly becoming an explosive and suddenly chauvinistic nation, and we may even be drifting on our way to the last nuclear ruin.

I know it is hard for the responsible man to act; it is also painful for the private and irresolute man to dare criticism. At this anguished, delicate and perhaps determining moment, I feel I am serving you and our country best by not taking part in the White House Festival of the Arts.

It was said the roar from the Oval Office could be heard all over the White House. Just as the 1964 general election was to be a referendum on how much LBJ was loved by the post-Kennedy electorate, so the 1965 Festival of the Arts was supposed to be a referendum on how cultured the Johnsons were. Then along came that troublesome poet Robert Lowell. As with virtually everything save his successful domestic legislation, Vietnam emerged and defined even something as non-political as Johnson had hoped the Festival would be.

Lowell was pragmatic enough to know that anything of this nature was all window dressing that would be forgotten in a day. He would write to a contemporary about how poets would be feted one day at the White House then in the next he'd read in the paper about the administration sending more troops to Vietnam. At least as far as politics went, Lowell was much more pragmatic and realistic than the Republican Robert Frost, who was so desperate for public honors in the last years of his life that he shamelessly sucked up to the liberal Kennedy administration.

Yet for all our 235 year history, there is no single, annual event that honors distinguished people of the sciences and humanities, at least nothing at the same time of the year and under one name. We have the Easter Egg roll in the spring, the pardoning of the national turkey in November and the lighting of the White House Xmas tree in December.

The Bush administration made one abortive effort to prove its cultural bona fides until they got wind of some left wing poets protesting the event and canceled it by taking Plato's and Socrates' theo-fascist take on banishing poets from the Republic a little too literally.

Then a week ago, Fox showed its true color (I'll give you three guesses which one that would be and the first two don't count) by posting a blurb with the headline, Michelle Obama Hosting Vile Rapper at White House?

Vile, huh? See epigraph above.


As usual, the message was quickly organized and strictly enforced at The Reichstagg Fox News HQ and the usual suspects were quick to jump on the rapper it had once deemed "responsible" and a "positive" influence on kids. Along with Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity was already chomping at the bit when news of this window dressing at the White House was put up front and center as if this was the biggest news story they could find. And even though no one in the MSM has come out and said it, it's essentially the same old meme that Fox was peddling in 2007, 2008 and even up to the present day: Warning white people about Angry Black Man Syndrome.

Common, you see, had in the past defended Assata Shakur, a woman convicted of killing a New Jersey cop in 1973. Exhibit A is the song, "A Song for Assata." Common, to those of us who aren't motivated and guided by racism, was merely questioning whether or not Shakur got a fair trial.

Hannity dutifully trotted out two African American right wingers to prove there was no racial bias whatsoever, although it's tough to see how the pair of panelists could be construed as experts on or even having any sensibility for rap music or modern day poetry.

Eventually, even Sarah Palin, another white person and one who's no friend to the Alaskan State Police, chimed in from her little Twitter balcony.

How soon Fox forgot and how completely bereft of irony they were in condemning a man today for a song he wrote and sang years ago since they sang his own praises just last October. How how fast they forgot about how they embraced and defended Ted Nugent's more legitimate white rage at then Senator Obama by telling him to suck on his machine gun and how he's "a piece of shit." (For good measure, the aging rocker also spewed misogynistic diatribes against future Secretary of the State Senator Hillary Clinton and future Speaker of the House Representative Nancy Pelosi.)

But we all know that Fox "News" and its Republican Party ventriloquist dummies are insensible to irony and even the most universally acknowledged and abstract truths.

Lowell, in his own unintentionally loud way, criticized the establishment for the "strangeness of (its) recent actions." He had taken a brave stand by banishing himself from one day in the Republic without any of the Republic's help. Common's only mistake seems to have been defending someone whom he thought had not received a fair trial regardless of the heinousness of the crime.

Fox's mistake was in lauding the usually noncontroversial Common then turning on him when an administration led by a black man decided to invite him for a fluffy poetry reading before the president went back to killing innocent Afghans, Iraqis and Pakistanis. Suddenly, it was, Angry Black Man Goes to White House to Read for Other Cop-Killing-Condoning Black People.

It stands to reason that if Bono or Bruce Springstein or Bob Dylan or any other white person had written "A Song for Assata" this issue would've been a non-starter.

But the folks at Fox "News" seem to have taken Plato's and Socrates' theocratic-based fascism to heart (although it's tough at best to imagine anyone in Rupert Murdoch's circle having even read Plato's The Republic) when they called for the banishment of poets from the state.

The draconian call for the banishment of poets was based in part on Plato's and Socrates' belief that all poets not divinely inspired be expelled from the polis on the grounds they would eventually delude and mislead the public (Socrates, ironically, was executed exactly for the same charges). While not touching what exactly constituted "divine" inspiration in the polytheistic world of ancient Greece, their intentions were morally pure in calling for a stringent set of guidelines for all poets past, present and future: Thou Shalt be Honest, Truthful and Work for the Public Good.

Like Jon Stewart, I can't speak for Common or any other poet but one must assume he felt his song had at least hugged the baseline of truth in questioning if Shakur's conviction was a just one.

Plato's greatest inspiration was his mentor Socrates, a man who never put pen to paper because he was illiterate. It's ironic that Fox's contributors are also functionally illiterate when they, too, start chasing phantoms out of their vision of the Republic based on words they truly cannot read.

Phi Phi Island, Thailand

"Maya Bayyyyy....... Maya Bayyyyyy......"

Our second island day trip from Phuket felt more like a cattle call as we were herded into groups, labeled with stickers and then hustled along to our waiting speedboat, ready to take us to Phi Phi Island.

Our squawking guide was a stark contrast to the quiet start the day before, a tour to James Bond Island that included sea canoes and cave systems.

And there you have it

Paul Ryan thinks Social Security and Medicare are welfare programs:

Speaking in broad terms Monday before the Economic Club of Chicago, House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) defended his controversial proposals tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif slash entitlement spending and privatize Medicare.

Though billed as an effort to revamp his widely criticized budget, Ryan avoided describing his health care plans in specific detail, eschewing even the friendly terms he and other Republicans have used to explain it since he first unveiled it earlier this year. Instead, Ryan reframed the entitlement cuts in his budget as "strengthen[ing] welfare for those who need it," and accused Democrats who have attacked his budget as engaging in class warfare.

Gee. Then what's the nearly two hundred thousand dollars I and my employers have paid into the system over the last nearly forty years that I've been working?

The madwoman in the attic

I hate to rip off the title of both a book about Victorial literature AND the first episode of the great CRACKER mystery series, but nothing else seems appropriate when you're talking about Janet Barton, who is perhaps the reason Mike Huckabee decided against a presidential run.

Because Janet Barton, who used to head up Huck's Faith and Values Coalition, brings a new dimension of Teh Crazy to a right-wing that's already elevated batshittery to an art form. And if Huck ran, perhaps he'd have some 'splainin' to do about the people with whom HE associates.

Tim Murphy at Mother Jones explains:

Since the 2008 election, the two have largely gone their separate ways. For Huckabee, that meant a well-paid gig on Fox News as the host of his eponymous television show. Porter, meanwhile, found a new target in the current president—a topic she explored in the detail in the pages of WorldNetDaily.

"Brace yourself for what I am about to say next," Porter began one column, published shortly after the inauguration. She then detailed an email that had been forwarded to her raising questions about the president's status as an American citizen. But that was the least of it: If the email were correct, the president was a Soviet agent—and so were his parents. He had been conceived, in other words, with the sole purpose of destroying the nation from within.

As Porter explained, the letter had originally been composed by a software developer named Tom Fife. "All I know is that Tom Fife is a real guy—not some e-mail scam," she wrote. "I've talked to him." In the email, Fife recounted a dinner-party conversation he'd had with a Soviet scientist in Moscow in the early 1990s.

"Since I had dabbled in languages," Fife wrote, "I knew a smattering of Arabic. I made a comment: 'If I remember correctly, 'Barack' comes from the Arabic word for 'Blessing.' That seems to be an odd name for an American.' [The Soviet scientist] replied quickly, 'Yes. It is 'African,' she insisted, 'and he will be a blessing for world Communism. We will regain our strength and become the number one power in the world.'"

It's sad, really, to see how desperately some people on the right NEED the Communist boogeyman, and how unmoored they've been ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The Soviet Communist Threat™ gave them a convenient vessel into which to pour all their anxieties, and nothing else has really replaced it. Scary Swarthy Men™ filled in nicely for a while, but a few car bombs and numbskulls with powder in their underpants just don't pack the same punch as atheistic high-cheekboned guys in uniforms speaking an unfamiliar language imposing totalitarian rule at the point of an atomic bomb. That the Soviet Union was dismantled twenty years ago doesn't matter to people like Janet Barton. To them, it's lurking just under the surface like 17-year cicadas, lying in wait to jump out and say "Boo!" to frightened wingnuts. No, if anyone's going to impose totalitarian rule on this country, then by gum it's going to be a Christian!

(via)

Top 10 Reasons Why Donald Trump Bowed Out of the Presidential Race

Last night on NBC, billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump announced that he will not be seeking the Republican nomination for president next year. While maintaining he could easily win the nomination and the general election, Mr. Trump stated he was not ready to leave the private sector. But his statement provided other reasons for not running. What were they?

10) Said his hair wasn't in it.

9) Fears Russian spy satellites will discover secret to patented combover.

8) The Apprentice was renewed by NBC and Trump heard rumors he would be replaced as host by fellow billionaire George Soros.

7) Speaker of the House John Boehner privately informed him Washington DC wasn't big enough for two orange men and that he couldn't carry the Oompa Loompa demographic.

6) Presidential run would distract him from planned hostile takeover of Hair Club For Men.

5) The president showing his birth certificate and killing Osama bin Laden within days deprived him of vital "I am a querulous, racist douchebag" political platform.

4) The multibillionaire was skeptical he'd have the cash flow all but guaranteed to Obama's reelection campaign.

3) Was recently told proposed running mate Daddy Warbucks didn't actually exist.

2) He couldn't guarantee he'd still be a Republican by the end of the election.

1) Ex-wife Ivana would've proved Trump's combover actually started as a prop in 1980 during their socialite/gigolo role-playing sex game.

Just to Play Devil's Advocate...

(By American Zen's Mike Flannigan, on loan from Ari.)

It's been said many times before that media saturation in the 20th and 21st centuries puts a politician or political candidate's personal life under a microscope. With television in the mid-20th century and the rise of the internet these past 20 years, a public figure's personal life now is grist for the mill of public opinion, a grist mill that historical political figures perhaps wouldn't have survived.

For instance, suppose television and the internet had been around in the 19th century. Suppose these twin juggernauts had given us a presidential candidate who'd never been to college, was reputed to have suffered from depression and had bankrupted a business. That plus his ungainly appearance and high, squeaky voice would've all but guaranteed that Abraham Lincoln never would've been elected as our 16th president. Yet all historical scholars agree that Lincoln was perhaps the only man who could've kept the nation together during and after the Civil War. If anyone else had been elected president in 1860, the United States would be a radically different country (or two).

It's also been said that public opinion is almost always in the wrong. And media saturation and manipulation makes public opinion even more susceptible of being misled than ever before. While effecting the illusion that an intrusive 24/7 news cycle makes us closer and chummier as a nation, it also insulates us from politicians and candidates who are essentially chosen and rejected despite our wishes and whose carefully-chosen words are spoon-fed to us in what are known as "sound bites."

Opinions and the right to express them regardless of political ideology is a cherished American right granted to us by the First Amendment but in the present day and age where we're no longer restricted to three networks, the endless opinions of endless talking heads can. understandably, bewilder an already bewildered and apathetic electorate. A political platform during an election year is instead a microscope slide, with the microscope being the electronic media. We the people take turns looking through the eyepiece and see different things.

So the question becomes an increasingly relevant one: Should a presidential candidate's life pass a public litmus test in order to be suited for the highest elected office in the land?

The jury is still out on President Bill Clinton's ultimate place in history. Yet, if you were to ask 100 conservatives and 100 liberals as to whether his own moral turpitude should've gotten him thrown out of office 13 years ago, your answers will likely be along party lines. The same proportions would no doubt be reiterated were you to ask those same 100 conservatives and liberals whether or not the 42nd president should've been impeached for lying to a grand jury.

But one ought to also keep in mind the hypocrisy of the right wing in spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars in assembling a grand jury and investigating a presidency over what amounts to a blow job. And one also ought to keep in mind the chief force behind that impeachment, Newt Gingrich, the soon-to-be-disgraced Speaker of the House who was secretly conducting his own extra-marital affair with a staffer who was even younger than Monica Lewinsky. Plus, at the time of President Clinton's infidelity, First Lady Hillary Clinton wasn't in a hospital bed recuperating from cancer surgery.

Yet how much should our moral belief system be allowed to inform and make our decisions regarding the fitness of certain presidential candidates and incumbents? We on the left and many in the center who decry the government legislating morality from the wells of the House and Senate as well as from the Oval Office hypocritically have no problem whatsoever in using that same morality rubric when deciding who our next president will be.

Otherwise, if we do not allow our moral belief systems and religious mores to inform us during an election, then we must look beyond the candidate's personal life and look to his/her prior statements and review their positions, which is also a slippery slope to 55-60% of an electorate that chooses to stay home every election day.

Outwardly, if we're to use a superficial rubric such as family and the stability it promises, George W. Bush would've been a far more appealing candidate than William Jefferson Clinton were the two men to run against each other. Clinton came from a broken home and spent much of his childhood hovering right around the poverty line. His estranged father was a used car salesman. He also dodged the draft. Hardly what one would call a presidential upbringing, if there is any such a thing.

George W. Bush, on the other hand, was the scion of a powerful political family, with a Senator for a grandfather, a former CIA Director, vice president and president for a father, a sober and religious man blessed with a beautiful family consisting of an educated wife and lovely twin daughters, a successful businessman, a military veteran and, like Clinton, a state governor. And, best of all, not a hint of marital infidelity.

At least that's what the media insisted on showing us. When Dan Rather tried to puncture the military palimpsest that had been wallpapered over Bush's real Texas Air National Guard past, he was forced out of the business. When John Kerry, a real war hero, ran against the sober, God-fearing military man from Texas, the media gave Kerry's detractors much, much time and got just enough of us to believe that perhaps Bush was the real deal and Kerry was the fraud. It was the political version of OJ Simpson all over again.

Otherwise, if we the people had allowed our own native moral belief systems to make a more informed choice in both 2000 and 2004, the world and our nation would be radically different today.

So what place should our own mores have on who ought to be President or not? Should it have a place in the electorate's decision-making process or not? Should we let Christian virtues color our perception of a candidate or should our focus be on more secular matters? And is it even possible for any of us to make such a distinction?

Only one answer is for sure: Men like Dominique Strauss-Kahn rarely make it easy for us to decide whether or not he's fit for the highest office in the land but Strauss-Kahn proves that we need to set some moral parameters. If we had, perhaps we wouldn't be too mired in two unwinnable wars with the incumbent afraid to pull out and look weak against terrorism, an incumbent who gratefully accepted the neofascist infrastructure left to him by his sober, God-fearing predecessor.

Nothing to say today

Nothing from me today, I'm afraid. After reading this, this, this, and this -- all before 6 AM, I'm too depressed to say a word.

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Voracious: The Best New Australian Food Writing

My name. On the front cover of a book! I'm so pleased I can finally reveal my work has been published in Voracious, a collection of newly commissioned essays that celebrates "The Best New Australian Food Writing"

It's one matter to have my words published in a book with my byline, but to be included with noted food writers like Gay Bilson, Jill Dupleix, Matthew Evans, Helen Greenwood, Alan