Quote of the day.

“Listen up Republicans: It’s been almost 100 days, and your country is not coming back to you. She’s found somebody new.”

Bill Maher

Quote of the day.

“I think you might be confusing tyranny with losing. And I feel for you, because I’ve been there. A few times. In fact, one of them was a bit of a nail-biter. But see, when the guy that you disagree with gets elected, he’s probably going to do things you disagree with. He could cut taxes on the wealthy, remove government’s oversight capability, invade a country that you thought should not be invaded, but that’s not tyranny. That’s democracy. See, now you’re in the minority. It’s supposed to taste like a shit taco.”

from John Stewart.

Cartoon of the Day.

The Old Fart’s Thursday Recommendations.

• A bit of humor to start. “Although it was promised that the Meek shall inherit the Earth, there appear to have been some delays fulfilling this aspiration.”
• Joshua Kezer exonerated after spending 14 years in prison for a murder he didn’t commit. “This is proof that God is real,” Kezer said from prison. “This is proof. This is wonderful.”
• David Ignatius, on the media obsessing over the political ball game of the stimulus package while the Country suffers. “Did President Obama have a good day Tuesday when he signed the stimulus bill? You bet he did. But the point that weirdly seems to get relatively little attention is that it was a good day for millions of Americans who are getting hammered by the recession.”
• Arnold defends Obama and the stimulus package.
• Hypocritical GOP legislators now fight for money they opposed. Is anyone surprised?

The Old Fart’s Wednesday Recommendations.

After a couple of days where I was doing other things, mostly cooking, I’m back with a few recommendations for you:

• MoDo on “Cheney and the Goat Devil.”
• Marc Ambinder on the shifting tone among potential GOP presidential candidates on the issue of support for gay civil unions/marriage.
• Lots of interesting editorials and op-eds on bipartisanship and on the GOP just saying no. Thomas Frank on the media obsession with bipartisanship, James Morone on a historical picture of bipartisanship, and even Bush’s former speech writer, Michael Gerson thinks the GOP needs to move from its “No” posture.
• Thanks but no thanks for that senator from Chicago. As Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, “you have your black senator now, isn’t he a dandy.”
• A great article in The Atlantic on how the current economic crash will reshape America. It’s long so take the time to read it and weep (or not).
• Cathleen Falsani on is A-Rod forgivable.
• Paul Martin posts a new creed for the “Church of the Free Market.” All I have to add to that is, “Amen!.”
• And, finally, an interesting blog post on “Amish Hackers” by Kevin Kelly. Having grown up not too far from Amish Country in Pennsylvania, I found it an interesting read.

Guess the yearbook photo.

Can you guess who these politicians are based on their high school yearbook photos?  (See more here.)

Deep thought.

If 67% of Americans, according to this poll, believe they could do a better job managing the economy than our congress, why do so few participate in the system?

The Old Fart’s Wednesday Recommendations.

• Paul Begala on the GOP strategy of Denial, Delay and Do Nothing.
• “What Rocky Start” by Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post.
• Even Senators have tax problems.  But who’s surprised?
• Former Whitney and SF MOMA Museum Director, David Ross, has some contemporary art recommendations for the Obama’s private White House quarters.  Interesting ones that I must say would make me exceedingly happy, especially my friend Laura Owens. I love it that the Obamas are considering having art by living American artists in the residence.  Another change I can believe in.
• And, then there is this January 2006 LA Times article which, thanks to the Internet, I just read this morning. Did you spot the reference to the old fart in a past life?

The Old Fart’s Sunday Recommendations.

• Randall Balmer on The Daily Show, about God in the White House. (Click on the Randall Balmer segment in the “Coming Up Next” box.
• Paul Krugman on the impact of the centrist cuts in the stimulus plan. 600,000 fewer employed Americans. DAMN! I could be one of them.
• I know this is not the point of this NY Times story, but I thought it was interesting (in a weird sort of way) that Mike Tyson was once married to the sister of Michael Steele, the new GOP head.
• SNL’s Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi press conference. Sometimes we have to laugh at ourselves. “Maybe if we spent more money on education and sex ed the next generations won’t have so many stupid people…”
• Brad Gooch on Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, two artists whose work first got me interested in contemporary art.  In fact my first piece of real art I ever purchased was by Rauschenberg.
• And then there’s The Grammys tonight. I won’t watch but am always interested.

Are you suffering from postpartisan depression?

Diana Butler Bass explains the difference between “postpartisan” and “bipartisan.”

President Obama campaigned as a postpartisan candidate.  Postpartisan means that politics must move beyond the current party structure.  A postpartisan vision recognizes that there are many voices in the larger body politic–and that a good number of those voices have never been heard in the American process.  Thus, postpartisan, a sort of generational mantra for those under 40, is an attempt to create new relationships, draw diverse people and perspectives to a table, and develop innovative possibilities to address social and political issues.

In case no one in Washington has noticed, postpartisan does not mean bipartisan.  Yes, the root word–partisan–is the same, but the prefix is different.  “Post” means “after, beyond, or subsequent to;” “bi” means “two.”

The Old Fart’s Monday Recommendations.

• Cathleen Falsani’s interview with Former President Jimmy Carter.
• “If Obama were Pope.” Ruth Gledhill had the full English translation of Hans Kung’s article but had to take it down as the English rights were sold to a different source than the Times of London but you can read a bit and go back for the full link later.
• Financial issues have effected art museums throughout the US, most recently MOCA here in LA and now the Rose Museum at Brandeis University.  The question of who owns the art in museums is raised in this NY Times article.
• Senator Stormy? Prostitute frequenting Senator Vitter’s soon to be competion?

Get off the stage now! Your 15 minutes are over.

Will Rod Blagojevich get off the political stage now that he’s been impeached?  I doubt it but he should. We all have more important things to do than to listen to or read his rants.  He can fight the legal charges in a court of law where he is innocent until proved otherwise, but he is a distraction for the people of Illinois and the rest of us who have to see his face every day on the TV machine.

Some readers think I only harp on the idiocy of Sarah Palin but other politicians (some who I agree with on more issues than I disagree with them on) drive me crazy too.

Get Ready, Here She Comes Again!

Not that she ever left the stage, but SarahPac is here.

Looks like we will have Sarah Palin to kick around for some time to come.  Let’s just hope we don’t end up her in any capacity more than Governor of Alaska.

Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address.

With Obama’s Inaugural Address coming up next Tuesday, here is a word cloud, where larger words are words more frequently spoken and smaller words less frequently spoken, (courtesy The Smithsonian) of what has been deemed the greatest Inaugural Address of any president (Lincoln’s second) wherein he spoke these words:

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

You Gotta Love the Young.

This map sure makes me think that perhaps for my old age the democrats might have a chance at being in charge, if they don’t screw up. Viva young voters.

The Old Fart’s Sunday Recommendations.

• Richard Kew on why he is no longer willing to pay for daily print journalism. Hint: it’s not worth paying for and the future is electronic.
• The passing of Richard John Neuhaus and the end an era of Catholic neoconservatism and the religious right.
• Disgraced evangelist Ted Haggard on his gay cure where he claims straight and gay are “stereotypical boxes” and he doesn’t fit in either.
• A few days late (my recommendation, not her post) but Cathleen Falsani has an excellent post about the meaning of the Epiphany or the “Feast of Aha.”
• Tom Friedman on the impact of teachers on bailing us out and moving the US to renewed prosperity.

And, of course, there are fewer than 10 days (9 to be exact) left in the W administration. I’m sure I missed a lot, during the last few weeks, about the transition but will catch up. Obama has a big job to do, lots of things need attention and I am thankful he is our new president and not the other guy–what was his name?

Question of the Day.

When was the last time a Nobel Prize winner was in a US President’s cabinet (before he won the prize)? Ever? Sounds like a smart choice to assist in changing directions of US energy policy and taking us to the future.

Here’s an interesting article from 2007 regarding new and cheaper alternatives to gasoline where Chu talks about using biology to find more efficient fuels.

In one experiment, Illinois researchers converted miscanthus grass into ethanol at a rate of 2,500 gallons per acre, said Christopher Somerville, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution and Stanford University.

If the technology could be commercialized, Chu said, that yield would be “2.5 times higher than sugar cane,” which is the crop of choice for Brazil’s booming ethanol industry. Theoretically, cellulose-based ethanol could replace at least one-third of the gasoline used in the United States today, Chu said.

Idiot GOP Congresswoman.

Illena Ros-Lehtinin, is a Republican Congresswoman from Flordia who has always annoyed the heck out of me with her idiot statements and policy positions.  Now, she outdid herself by hanging up on President-elect Obama.  Not once but twice.

Come on Barack, Break Another Barrier.

After the prop. 8 fiasco here in CA, this would be good news.  I can’t wait for the day when questions about race, sexuality, etc. will not be discussed as issues in anyone’s qualifications for anything.

For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.

Photo of the Day. (Everybody Jump on Board Edition.)

From a Seattle retailer.  Now, everyone steals the Obama graphics and message.