oh, book of faces

aren't you fabulous

liberal mud wrestling cage match extroardinaire

I have become slightly fascinated by a particular bout of personality-run-amok circulating around the intertubes recently regarding Glenn Greenwald, Jane Hamsher, Rogers Cadenhead, et al. If you know what I'm talking about, no need to rehash anything; you've already spent too much time reading about this.

If you don't, just picture scantily clad women mud wrestling (apparently, a lot of people do, as a quick Google Search turns up 766,000 links) and then replace scantily clad women with liberal activist blogger nerds.

Much fun.

P.S. Holy cow. I clicked on the Google Search link, and it said 808,000 links. That's 42,000 new web pages in like a day. Either I accidentally started some massive new trend, or there's going to be 15 million pages on mud wrestling come my birthday next year. Or, perhaps, mathematics isn't quite so simple as extrapolating linear trends forever. But then what would Wall Street hotshots do to claim they should make gobs 'o money?

And dude, check it out. All you have to do is come up with long phrases not usually found together, and presto, Google gold. Search mud wrestling liberal activist blogger nerds and guess who's number 1?

Really, you would never guess.

I even out-Malkined Michelle, whose post wasn't even number 2.

Just don't make me update this again when someone else steals the top spot that clearly and rightfully belongs to moi.

ha, just kidding

(P) I clearly can't read an invitation. The Obama/McCaskill event is obviously next week...

quick reminder - Obama's in town tonight

(P) I'm helping out with my Clayton kiddies tonight, but if you've got nothing else to do, Obama and McCaskill are scheduled to put on a fundraiser at the Renaissance Grand at 6:30. You can get SRO tickets for just $25. I assume many of the local politicians will be there.

Alderwoman Triplett's link-through page at Act Blue is here.

Proceeds go to the Show Me State Victory Fund, which I believe is basically McCaskill's 2012 re-election fund.

the SF Fed exists in another dimension

I have decided that aliens abducted the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and replaced it with a drab building that could be anything but an illegal secret conspiracy aimed at controlling the world.

I find this the only possible conclusion after being thoroughly disappointed. The location is perfect; you hop off the BART and you are in the heart of the financial district, literally at the gates of the SF Fed. You just don't know it. There's no gleaming white marble and stone structure. No statue ideal for the casual picture. I have generally thought San Francisco to be a far superior city to Atlanta. But I may have to reorient my whole worldview now. They've got the western kingdom of the rulers of the free world holed up in a bunker.

You almost feel sorry for the suckers.

beach, park, or art museum

This week has been full of difficult choices!

blunt's website cracks me up

(P) I've been enjoying checking out Representative Blunt's website over the past year as he's the de facto GOP candidate for Bond's Senate seat. What cracks me up is how there will be one news headline that will just completely contradict the headline before it. Do the Congressman's advisors think we're morans? For example, if you're opposed to making the national debt larger, then fine, support policies that shrink the debt.

As a headline from 2/4 states: Blunt votes no on Greatest Debt Increase in American History. Never mind the reasoning behind that logic; let's take it at face value for a moment.

Contrast that with a headline from two days before and a headline from the day before: Blunt Slams President's Tax Hike on Charitable Donations and Blunt Blast's President's removal of C-17s from Budget. Again, set aside the reasoning for why it might be good or bad to reduce the tax breaks that wealthy Americans get for donating to charity and why it might be good or bad to reduce defense spending. Just take the statements at face value.

Within two days, Blunt's office issued statements saying that

1) We should increase the debt, and
2) We should decrease the debt

Or as another example, if you believe in free trade, great. I went to business school to major in management and international business. That's speakin' my language.

So on Blunt's issues page, he talks about

Promoting the free flow of goods, knowledge and innovation around the world

But on the very same page, he talks about

Enforcing our border, standing up for the rule of law

Again, set aside for a second whether you believe we should have free trade or a closed border; both have legitimate arguments backing them up. Rather, consider that the issues section of Blunt's website declares that

1) We should promote trade around the world, and
2) We should restrict trade at our borders

With leadership like that, he's sure to earn a promotion!

Seriously, Republicans support that guy? Democrats have their problems. I'm the first to call them idiots when they're, well, idiots. But Congressman Blunt takes it to a whole other level.

Whose side is he on? The Republicans blasting government spending? Or the commie-hippie-tree-hugging tax and spenders throwing away money on homeless people?

remembering three great speeches

It's been a busy year. Hard to believe another year has gone by since we remember the life and work of the Reverend Doctor. You never want to lionize a person, we're all flawed and mortal, but it's good to seek wisdom from the past, from those who have blazed a trail we merely try our best to navigate anew.

Some of my favorite bits of some of my favorite speeches. Over four decades old and as relevant as anything uttered today.

I Have a Dream - 1963

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

Nobel Prize Acceptance - 1964

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history. I refuse to accept the idea that the "isness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "oughtness" that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsom and jetsom in the river of life unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him. I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of thermonuclear destruction. I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today's motor bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow. I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up. I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed, and nonviolent redemptive goodwill will proclaim the rule of the land.

A Time to Break Silence - 1967

It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

[snip]

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand the arguments of those who are called "enemy," I am as deeply concerned about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we create a hell for the poor.

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home, and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to stop it must be ours.

holy cow, cnbc is doing investigative reporting

I'm almost flabbergasted. CNBC, the network that didn't seem to even know it's stupid to attack the Daily Show, has an in-depth special on this evening about the new world of Walmart. Now, of course, it ultimately is still largely an advertisement for Walmart. Fairly new Walmart CEO Duke gets very good air-time for his interview.

However, this is borderline real news, a shocker from the business channel seemed destined for irrelevance.

I'm not sure if this is a first time air, or a repeat broadcast, but consider:

There is video footage of everything from Obama (circa 2007) speaking to the United Farm and Commercial Workers about supporting workers as they demand better wages and the right to organize from Walmart to protesters with Jobs for Justice and others outside Walmart stores to a trip to DC organized by UFCW to lobby for EFCA (the bill making unionization easier).

There are interviews not just with the aforementioned CEO and other senior executives, but also a store manager, associates of various persuasions (even those speaking out about wages and healthcare), wake up walmart (an advocacy group dedicated to pressuring Walmart), and Chinese factory workers speaking out against working conditions.

Just, wow. I'm having to re-evaluate my whole opinion of GE.

Well, let's not go that far. But for the whole time I've been eating dinner and then on my laptop, I haven't bothered changing the channel.

i have a new project

Let's get real, while it would be cool to eat lots of green leafy vegetables and workout every day for one year, that ain't happening. A few years ago, I made my new year's project about ties. Specifically, getting rid of them.

I've got a project for this year.

I want to see how many Fed branches I can get my picture taken in front of. I've actually kind of thought this through accidentally. You see, Doug's condo overlooks the Atlanta Fed. Julie's work is right next door to the St. Louis Fed. My parents happen to live within decent driving distance of the KC Fed. Julie's sister happens to live near the Minneapolis Fed. We happen to be visiting San Francisco this February. That's like half the list right there.

It'll be fun!