Sunday, September 9, 2012

One Year Ago Today

the serotta forum explores the darkstar carbon chinese frames

sweet jeebus, something i'm actually interested in on that board!  i haven't been sniffing around about that darkstar rig, but i did wonder about where to get one el-cheepo at the time, and now it looks like there's quite a few of 'em bobbing around out there.  e-bay schmee-bay.  drop shipped from china just like a macbook air


there is an alternative

slashing the defense budget.  restoring civil liberties protection.  standing up for science and the scientific method.  protecting and encouraging the right to organize.  modernization of infrastructure.  atrios's superduper trains.  protecting and encouraging the free and creative expression.  living wage.  universal health care.

lots of possibilities that we as a society pretend don't exist just because barack obama and pete peterson don't want to talk about them.


craig crawford was really cranky on countdown

has he recently been banned by joe 'dead intern' scarborough and msnbc?  he pretty much said the president's plan last night was not any good and all about obama's job and not anybody else's.  jesus. 

john cole has faith, susie madrak not so much

at least someone is paying attention.  it must be so much more pleasant to be fat and happy like john cole, not a care in the world.

the scott lemieux/jonathan chait axis

i understand that establishment tools like chait, and lesser establishment tools like lemieux, have one and only one function: cheerleading toady.  that's fine, but when they take on soft targets like drew weston just because that target might not be sufficiently deferential to their leader, that's pretty bush league.  weston's kind of a dope, but lemieux and chait's thesis is pretty fucking lame: because obama failed to be a leader, presidents have not ever been leaders and are incapable of being leaders, so obama is really cool--and shut up! 

a simple question for simple times

as i commented over at rortybomb:

is it really possible that the whitehouse didn’t understand the severity of the situation from day one? or was it that they simply didn’t listen and didn’t _want_ to understand because it didn’t fit with preconceived notions and policy positions? that sort of thinking explains the failure to stake out better positions on so many issues at the outset. as has been stated over and over again, his vague rhetoric during the campaign may have sounded sorta liberal and activist, but the concrete policy ideas and administration personnel were anything but.


they want to believe!

not just the usual bj-style fluffers got a chubby over the speech last night and completely forgot just who barack obama really is, but also reality-based smart asses like the lee papa and the krugman and frequently pissed-off whiny bloggers on the digby rejoiced in the twinge of renewed hope they got from a mildly adversarial speech a little about jobs but mostly about cutting social programs.  this pivot to jobs and challenge to republicans to embrace their own goals is all about obama's reelection, and any benefit to actual americans beyond election day in 2012 who are not barack obama is purely coincidental. 

as much as krugman et al were happy with the size of the program and the stimulative fragments in the speech, it does not erase the facts of what the obama presidency has stood for every day before 8 september 2011.  i guess that the fact that he can still inspire a krugman chubby just illustrates how much obama has failed and just how much was indeed possible if obama had been a man of ideas and principles.  



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