Yeah, there's still poetry.

6 days to go...

You can vote however you like.



But you ought to vote for Obama-Biden.

Feinstein says No on Prop 8.

Finally, a bigshot politician makes an ad.

A Tale of Three Ashleys.

A great post by Sean Quinn over at 538 -- that is, FiveThirtyEight.com, which you should all check out.

Money quote, actually from Obama's speech on race in America:

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

And the video of that speech, "A More Perfect Union," which is definitely worth watching again:

The liberal media?

Watch Joe Biden handle himself well (I think) during a local Florida TV reporter's ridiculous interview.



Oh, and to answer Biden's question about who wrote the questions: I'm fairly certain it was Stephen Colbert.

Dylan the Evangelical.

This Washington Times article is about a new movie coming out (straight to DVD, it seems) that explores Bob Dylan's "evangelical" years -- 1979-1981. Basically asking: Really? Why?

Money quote:

"Jesus Years" surmises that the inspiration factor was crucial but the conversion was real. Mr. Gilbert unearths broadcast TV footage of Mr. Dylan answering critics befuddled by what appeared, for a time, to be a wholesale abandonment of secular music. "The old songs won't save you," Mr. Dylan said.

Now, I haven't seen the film yet. These are just thoughts off the top of my head. But I rather doubt Dylan meant to imply that his new songs (the evangelical ones) could save people. I expect he was more reacting to other people's confused reactions -- responding, dismissively, to their pleas to keep writing the old songs that had saved and inspired them. But maybe not. Obviously, we need to hear the whole exchange -- though I'll say from the start that even a clear, face-value implication wouldn't convince me of Dylan's sincerity on the point.

Which, I expect, exposes my biases. But I'm inclined to think Dylan was just reinventing himself as completely as he could -- not exactly a concept that has been foreign to his nature during his 4+ decades in the public eye. The Washington Times writer, and presumably the movie-maker, suggests that there is something nefarious in Dylan fans' tendency to puzzle over or ignore or disdain those years and their music. I think he/they might have it backwards -- not that there's something incongruous with paying little attention to those years, but that there's something incongruous about paying special attention to that particular transformation. Why not the transformation from Minnesota fraternity boy to the hillbilly who wrote lines like "That light I never knowed" and "They'll be drownded in the tide"? Knowed? Drownded? Or his recent transformation into a lingerie ad-man and entirely conventional disc jockey on satellite radio?

It seems to me that Dylan's singular magic over almost 50 years now has been his uncanny ability to keep an audience, generally by ignoring what they assume to be their own desires. He was never the voice of a generation. That implies that he spoke the words they wanted to speak. No. When he seemed their voice, it was only by coincidence. He was out in front of them all along, moving on to something new. Not leading them, so much as out-running them. Not a pied piper. Just a song-and-dance man. Puzzlement, ignorance, and disdain are part of the show. To focus on whether Dylan was actually born-again for the 3 years straddling 1980 misses the point. The point was then--as it has always been--reinvention.

(Image: BobDylan.com)

11 more days...

Yes we can.



Hat tip: Andrew Sullivan.

[UPDATED] Either terrorists are dumb, or they aren't very committed to their causes.

I've been saying this, somewhat jokingly, for years.

But apparently the TSA actually thinks it's the former. Or, at least, they've set up security procedures on the assumption of terrorists' inferior intellects.

Not entirely certain that's the right tack, guys.

UPDATE: By the way, Jeffrey Goldberg's Atlantic article about TSA "security theater" is hilarious and-- I almost wrote "frightening," but actually it's really not. And that's sorta the point.

[UPDATED] I know this is old, but...

...how much do you want little kids in the White House? Adorable.



Apologies for the annoying Maria Menounos (especially the veiled Spiderman reference).

Oh, and the video is making the rounds again because of the news about Sarah Palin's rather expensive campaign wardrobe. If you missed Jon Stewart's take on the story tonight--including his brief rendition of "Small Town"--you should find the video. I'll post it when it's up.

UPDATE: Daily Show clip below.

Abandon your kids while you can...

Nebraska's ridiculous safe-haven law--which allows parents to abandon children up to age 18 at hospitals without fear of prosecution--will soon be changed. Gotta keep your teenagers now, folks. No more seventeen-year-olds. In fact, no more seventeen-day-olds. Looks like the new age limit is going to be 3 days.

Talk about switching extremes. I say give 'em a month or so, like most states. Someone should remind those Nebraskans not to throw out the month-old babies with the seventeen-year-old bathwater.

McCain accidentally calls Western Pennsylvania racist...in Western Pennsylvania.

This clip can be summed up as follows: Booo...Oops...Oh god...Huh?



Oh. And how much do I love Cindy McCain's smiling nod as McCain drums up the boos about Obama? Soooooo much.