YES: I READ ANDREW SULLIVAN

AND I AGREE with him.

MORE GARFIELD minus Garfield is found here.

That is all.

A CULTURAL SINGULARITY BEYOND WHICH THERE IS NO RETURN

IF YOU ARE TRULY interested in fact-fiction event horizons, please see:

COULTON playing his own STAY ALIVE on Rock Band accompanied by that old anthem rock power trio,

LAPORTE, MANN, & BELMONT

I am very angry I could not be there.

AND NOW SO ARE YOU.

That is all.

COURTESY: Ms. Belmont for the link and video. Click the second link above to learn more about these INCREDIBLE MUSICIANS.

CRYSTAL METH: FRIEND OR FOE?

THERE IS NO TIME FOR pithy commentary.

IT IS SIMPLY IMPERATIVE that you go here, now.

LINK COURTESY: Sean McDonald.

That is all.

IN OTHER NEWS: TOUGH

IN OTHER NEWS, I always knew that my friend and my editor Paul Tough was a very smart person and a very fine writer about aliens and humans

(AND not a bad singer, as you will recall if you attended the LITTLE GRAY BOOK LECTURE on the subject of "What Will Happen in the Future").

BUT I AM ASTONISHED by how astute and readable his political blogging is.

ESPECIALLY compared to mine.

WHY DON'T YOU SUBSCRIBE TO HIS WEBSITE RIGHT NOW?

There is no reasonable answer.

That is all.

THE CENTER OF THE WORLD

RAMONA brings my attention to this SHIRT

DESIGNED BY one Ian Leino.

IT IS the best picture we have to date of the world of the MOLE-MEN.

SO WHY DON'T YOU IMMEDIATELY BUY IT?

I trust you see my logic.

That is all.

FROM THE COMMENTS

"TIM" WRITES from the comments:

"You know what would really complement a cape? A goatee. The last time we elected a president with facial hair was 1908. Exactly one hundred years ago. The time for a comeback has arrived."

OBVIOUSLY I agree, and that is why I was so excited when Al Gore grew a beard.

HOWEVER, not a goatee. NOT IN A MILLION YEARS. As we learned in the NINETEEN NINETIES, the goatee is the facial hair of the desperately ambivalent, and that is not what we need in a PRESIDENT today.

(ALSO, The Potts Famous Beard Manual indicates that a GOATEE signifies "false hopes" and "flash over substance." As well it is suggested that the GOATEER is someone who might lead a "CULT OF PERSONALITY" and maybe even "QUOTE WITHOUT ATTRIBUTION." And as you know, THOSE ARE THE WORST THINGS ON EARTH.)

That is all.

AND REGARING THE ELVEN vs. ERMINE vs. SUPER-HERO CAPE-CLOAK DEBATE GOING ON IN THE COMMENTS

WHAT I HAD IN MIND was more of a Roosevelt-at-Yalta cape, as per this HISTORICAL IMAGE.

I THINK THIS IS SOME KIND OF TRADITIONAL naval watch cloak.

(BUT IF THERE IS A CAPE HISTORIAN or "cloakist" in the crowd, please do enlighten me.)





UPDATED: Though of course, your imagination need not be restrained to this particular model if something like this is more up your alley.



I JUST DON'T THINK IT'LL WIN ELECTIONS.

That is all.

OBAMA EN-MANTLED

Obama with cloak
Originally uploaded by Trophiogrande.

AS PER yesterday's post. Here is Trophiogrande's rendition of Obama wearing a cape.

That is all.

SINCERITY POST

IT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS by the tenor of my recent posts and the recent Obama victories that

I AM NO LONGER TOTALLY FREAKING OUT.

I AM NO LONGER AS DESPERATELY WORRIED AS I WAS that my preferred candidate for President (hint: Obama)--who represents what I consider to be the smart, inclusive, decent, and inspiring Democratic politics of the future--might be KIDNEY PUNCHED TO DEATH by the grim Rovian politics of the past.

AND I AM NO LONGER AS PROFOUNDLY DEPRESSED AS I WAS that Hillary Clinton, whom I've always liked and defended, was the one doing the Rovian kidney punching.

SO YOU NICE PEOPLE MAY GET SOME RELIEF from the relentlessly sincere posts about politics and my worries

AND SOON WE CAN ALL GET BACK TO THE MOLE-MEN.

That said, I will offer just 2 MORE BLASTS OF PURE, EMBARRASSING, NAIVE SINCERITY...

SINCERITY BLAST ONE!:

If you are perceived as being the darling candidate of the young, educated, liberal activists, you don't really change that impression by having your triumph in MADISON, WISCONSIN.

TO THIS POINT: Obama's little joke about his whispered conversation with a Republican who had come to the Obama fold was funny. But I winced when it became clear he was only using the exchange as a joke.

IF WE ARE ALL INDEED EACH OTHER'S KEEPER, he needed to call back to that Republican handshake in his speech, and remind his young, educated, liberal activists that the Republicans are humans as well. We need to welcome and talk to them, and not just in an embarrassed whisper. We need to stop demonizing one another by party, by region, by class, by race. And the logical next step after that rally was to urge every one of those young, educated, liberal activists to go out into their state and meet their neighbors--not just to spread the word; but also to just shake hands.

It's not just good politics for the primary. It's not just how we'll form a new, strong, young, inclusive Democratic party. It's what the Obama candidacy, at its best, is all about.

SINCERITY BLAST TWO!

I like the fact that Obama is ahead of Clinton by about .338787 of a delegate, or whatever it is. It is appropriate for him to take up the mantle of the front runner at this point.

(AND WERE YOU AWARE of the meaning of the word "mantle" in this context? It means a kind of ceremonial cloak or cape)

HOWEVER: It seems to me wrong to promote Obama's nomination as INEVITABLE, as Obama's campaign seems to be doing.

Many have come off the crazy ups and downs of this race and called it absolutely unpredictable. All roller coasters feel that way when you're on them. But when you actually look at it from the outside, you see the peaks and valleys, and twists and turns are clearly structured and very predictable.

EVERY TIME CLINTON OR OBAMA is coronated as "inevitable"--by themselves or others--they lose. Look at what happened between Iowa and New Hampshire.

EVERY TIME CLINTON OR OBAMA is portrayed as the insurgent--by themselves or others--they win. Look what happened bewteen New Hampshire and South Carolina.

HISTORICALLY, no matter what you've read, AMERICANS HATE AN UNDERDOG--they love a winner. HENCE: BUSH.

BUT IN THIS RACE ESPECIALLY, voters HATE HATE HATE the presumption that someone else will be making this decision for them--be it the press, the superdelegates, the pundits, or the candidates themselves--before they've made up their own minds.

Obama is absolutely correct to capitalize on his winning momentum and A GENIUS to start taking his arguments directly to McCain, where he should finally show off the substantive policy chops the voters want and need to see.

But the primary races still to come will be hard. They could easily shift the balance back to Clinton, especially if she is able to cast Obama, perversely, as the establishment candidate, the pre-coronated king.

If Obama is to limit the inevitable sympathy vote that will accrue to her in the states to come, he needs to resist wearing a crown. He needs to remind Americans that his candidacy, if only by virtue of its inclusiveness, is ALWAYS at a disadvantage next to the harsh political gaming of Rove and his proteges.

The real triumph will come when he wins in spite of it.

OK, that is all I am going to say about all this. Since I have become NOTHING BUT A SHILL, I'll encourage you now to donate.

BUT NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS, I THINK YOU WILL AGREE: it is time for Obama to start wearing some kind of actual cloak or cape on the campaign trail.

BECAUSE I THINK THAT WOULD LOOK AMAZING.

(Maybe Ape-Lad can envision it for us some day.)

That is all.

I GIVE UP

JUST GO here.

That is all.

THERE IS NO OS CONSPIRACY

I merely entered the embed code wrong.

I APOLOGIZE.

Try this:




THAT IS ALL

WOODCHUCK COME LOOK AT IT?

THE DRIEST JOKE on the internet today.



THERE ARE TWO PROBLEMS with this idea:

1) WRONG operating system.
2) UNTIL they get a monotreme up and running, I REMAIN SKEPTICAL.

That is all.

DERRICK

NOT MUCH TIME for pontificating today. I AM TRYING TO WRITE EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT MASSACHUSETTS.

BUT ENJOY THIS if you like watching pointless confrontation become meaningful conversation.



That is all we need right now

THAT IS ALL.

THERE SEEMS TO BE SOME CONFUSION

THE PERSON WHO DELIVERED BEACON, NY to Obama and did all that volunteering and good writing below was DAVID REES, not me.

I live in Brooklyn and have just been blogging.

POORLY.

That is all.

FROM DAVID REES PART 2

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT FROM DAVID REES

We held Hillary to a measly five-point victory in Dutchess county, one of
the slimmest margins in the state.

Obama won in Beacon [NY]

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF MY ENORMOUS YARD SIGNS.

Here's an interesting article, positing that Obama's campaign itself speaks
to his strategic and executive abilities.

To which I can only add: Any candidate that can convince an agoraphobic,
depressive internet addict like myself to stand on a highway overpass waving
a sign and talking to strangers is a GODDAMN STRATEGIC MASTERMIND.

END QUOTED TEXT

That is all.

HOLD NO LEVEL OF FEAR

That is all.

HOPE

AND VOTE

NO MATTER WHOM YOU ARE SUPPORTING, there are few actions that are so profoundly entwined and joyfully United Statesean as these.

AND FEWER STILL that have been so hard won, and so nobly, by those who were unable to do either.

AS YOU KNOW, these two rights and responsibilities of citizenship were not won in 1776.

IF YOU ARE TO BELIEVE JEFFERSON, we were born with them long before that year, for one is liberty, and the other the pursuit of happiness.

AND EVEN AFTER OUR REVOLUTION, many of us had years of fighting still before they got them.

AND WE ARE ALL STILL FIGHTING, year after year, election day after election day. Because as difficult as it is to accept, there are those still, this very day, who will rob us of both if they can.

PLUS: you get a little sticker and maybe a brownie if there's a bake sale on.

SEE YOU AT THE POLLS.

That is all.

3,000 PEOPLE IS NOT NO PEOPLE

I WILL SAY THIS THOUGH, whoever suggested the Meadowlands for today's Obama rally should consider resigning.

ESPECIALLY WHEN the alternative was a much more public-transit friendly arena in Cory Booker's backyard.

"Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark, who was at the rally, said that the rainy and snowy weather, the mid-workday timing and the relative lack of access to the Meadowlands were to blame. Mr. Booker said that he had hoped to play host to the event at the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, which is much easier to reach via public transportation and — for the city’s thousands of office workers — by foot."

That is all.

FROM DAVID REES

THIS JUST ARRIVED in my mailbox from the great David Rees, creator of the comic strip GET YOUR WAR ON.

I DO NOT KNOW ANY CLIP ART CARTOONISTS who are funnier, more principled, and less likely to swoon for a politician.

AND THAT IS WHY I feel compelled to pass this on.

REES has been organizing for Obama tirelessly up in Beacon, NY, as he knows that even if Obama loses the state, he will keep the delegates he wins here.

(CHECK AND SEE IF THIS IS THE CASE IN YOUR STATE AS WELL, and then vote, for heaven's sake).

WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING? Bloggin'.

SO YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO DAVID REES:

BEGIN QUOTED TEXT.

Dear Mailing List,

In the eight years I've managed this list I've never agitated for a politician. I hope you'll let me abuse your trust this one time.

If you're a friend of mine, or a fan of "Get Your War On," you probably know how important the issue of cluster bombs and landmines is to me.

It was America's use of cluster bombs during Operation: Enduring Freedom that led me to start GYWO seven(!) years ago this fall, and it has been my pleasure and my honor to donate the royalties from the two GYWO anthologies to Mine Detection & Dog Center Team #5, a landmine removal team in western Afghanistan.

If you ever attended a GYWO reading, you probably sat through my video of landmine removal teams in the field, or listened to me read off statistics about that dangerous mission, or indulged me by taking an informational flyer about MDC Team #5 and the sacred work they do.

(If you bought one of the GYWO books, you've helped that work, and I thank you.)

Cluster bombs and landmines are particularly terrifying weapons that wreak havoc on communities trying to recover from war. They are fatal impediments to reconstruction and rehabilitation of agricultural land; they destroy valuable livestock; they disable otherwise productive members of society; they maim or kill children trying to salvage them for scrap metal.

Over 150 nations have signed the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty. It pains me that our great nation has not. But in the autumn of 2006, there was a chance to take a step in the right direction: Senate Amendment No. 4882, an amendment to a Pentagon appropriations bill that would have banned the use of cluster bombs in civilian areas.

Senator Obama of Illinois voted IN FAVOR of the ban.

Senator Clinton of New York voted AGAINST the ban.

Analysts say Clinton did want to risk appearing "soft on terror," as it would have harmed her electibility.

I'm not a single-issue voter. But as Obama and Clinton share many policy positions, this vote was revelatory for me. After all, Amendment No. 4882 was an easy one to vote against: Who'd want to risk accusation of "tying the hands of the Pentagon" during a never-ending, global War on Terror? As is so often the case, there was no political cost to doing the wrong thing. And there was no political reward for doing the right thing.

But Senator Obama did the right thing.

Is Senator Obama perfect? Of course not. Nobody who voted for 2005's wack-ass energy bill is perfect. Nobody who voted to reauthorize the Patriot Act is perfect.

But of the two remaining Democratic candidates, one decided her vote on Amendment No. 4882 according to a political calculation. The other used a moral calculation.

I'm 35 years old, and over the years, I've had two experiences in the voting booth: I've voted for politicians I really respected, who I knew could never win. And I've voted for politicians I didn't really respect, because I knew they could win.

Tomorrow, I'm going to vote for a politician I really respect, who I know can win.

(DEEP BREATH)

I urge you to vote Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Party's nominee for President of the United States.

Thanks,
David Rees

END QUOTED TEXT

Please note that David is interviewing Amy Sedaris on Feb 7 at 7PM at the Brooklyn Public Library, and for free TO BOOT!

That is all

CARTOON COURTESY: Rees

NOW WE NEED A COULTON VERSION

That is all.

I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY

I CAN SEE a cynical argument that points out that most Americans don't care what Michael from LOST or Scarlett Johansson thinks about politics.

BUT I SURE THINK this is beautiful.



Whatever you do: VOTE. And PS: NY is not a winner-takes-all primary.

That is all.