Be My Baby has nothing to do with my post today:

It is just up there with Hey Jude and Gimme Shelter as the greatest rock tracks of all-time.

************

No, this is a post about my prediction for the 2012 OEE (Orchestrated Electoral Extravaganza), or 2012 General Election to most of you.

I was going to post this on Monday evening next week, but I got some grief from the Javelin Boot guy, godblesshim, Dan O; and then we already had our October Surprise, Sandy the Hurricane.

(Fox News is furious.  They so want to bludgeon Obama on Benghazi, and whatever, and anything, but they just can not.  Because there are thousands of folks without power.  Thousands of folks hurting.  Thousands of elderly folks wondering if this is going to be the end.)

Really, if I did not express that I am not being flip, let me tell you now:  I am not being flip.  I am being realistic, like this guy, a flipping Republican:

And, this:

************

This is a work in progress, Angels.  More much later tonight, or early tomorrow:











All my Liberal love,
Ardent

I will be in Norman, OK on Saturday, October 27

For the epic Sooners/Notre Dame Top Ten tussle.  The Irish have seven wins against no losses, and are ranked No. 5 in the AP Poll.  The Sooners are five and one, and are ranked No. 8 in the AP.

The Sooners have only beaten the Irish once in their history, and have never beaten Touchdown Jesus at home.

It is going to be one of the coolest things I ever do.  The game will be nationally televised, and should be one of the most heavily viewed college football games of the BCS era.

We will be striping the stadium, as well.  Alternating sections of the bowl, fans are instructed to wear either crimson or cream, depending on where you sit.  My parents informed me today that we will be sitting in a crimson section.

I will take lots of pictures and give you the whole lowdown on fauxluxe when I return.

(The video above retells the Sooner Magic story of Oklahoma scoring late to beat Nebraska in 1976.  Galen Hall was OU's offensive coordinator, and Elvis Peacock (great name!) was instrumental on the game-winning drive, which included a halfback pass and a hook and lateral play to set up the winning score.)

I love you all!
BOOMER SOONER!






michael

What can you say?

Really? What can you say? Once again a GOP candidate has come out and told us what they all really think.  Mourdock did the standard non-apology apology, and Mittens was disgusted, naturally. (Not disgusted enough to remove his ad for Mourdock in Indiana, though.)

And, then Sarah Palin starts talking jive on the friendface, today.

What the eff? And this OEE is close, really close, ...

Or, maybe not so much.  This will get you off the ledge, perhaps.  Some good news for today, at least.







Ardent

Oh dear,

Here is a rock band (from frickin Oslo Norway) who are ready to spell it out, like it is:  

Kubrick, Pynchon, Room 237, etc, ...

There is certainly a shade of eerie Collective Subconscious going on at "room" 223 in Walnut Creek right now.  Is it Halloween? (A holiday I could not give two hoots about.) Is it something in the stars? A Mercury fucking retrograde; that my lover, my life, the fire of my loins; an amateur astrologer herself, might predict with her ephemeris?

The facts are these:  He (MDS) finally posted about The Master, a film made by PT Anderson, a supine adorer of Kubrick's work, which resembled, in parts, some of Pynchon's great novel, Gravity's Rainbow.  Moreover, there were set-ups in Mr Anderson's film that also reminded him (MDS) of Kubrick's work, as well.  (Lolita, Barry Lyndon, etc, ... )

And, the Lonely Boie, I, MDS, discovered through research that PT Anderson's next film would be an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon's latest (comic) novel, Inherent Vice.

(Right now, can I say:  My largest problem with PT Anderson is that he is just not fucking funny.  One of the greatest play productions I have ever seen was in college, The Bacchae, which ain't no fucking comedy, but was absolutely hilarious -- presented in an absolutely truthful manner to the period, NOW and THEN -- and was still amusing and tragic at the same time.  Pynchon is, at the heart of it, a comic novelist, perhaps the greatest American novelist of that genre ever.  Pynchon's great play is:  I can do everything, anything.  He is as Prince, or Hendrix; I cover all; I am absolute.)

So, there is your Pynchon connection.

So, then I, Lonely Boy, MDS, was taking a shower, thinking of Halloween, and that I would love to watch The Shining.

(No, MDS was thinking about something else in the shower.  What is up with the bear and the oral sex scene? What is up with Nicholson's over the top performance?)

Kubrick, The Shining consumed my brain.  And, then I fell asleep.

For a couple of days.  I woke up about seventy-two hours ago, early early these things mean something, I went to the porch, and smoked.  High on that, checked out the intertubes, Grantland, Klosterman, his take, on all this.

I do not believe that Kubrick faked the Apollo 11 landing.  I believe that Kubrick gutted The Shining by Stephen King, gutted it to reveal that the moon landing was a fraud.  (The moon landing was NOT faked.)

************
Kubrick and Pynchon, amongst the greatest American artists in history, share the same belief: There is a club of folks really rolling the dice and ruling over us.  You are not a member.  You might mingle with those that are the deciders.  To join the cult, you must pass a test in public, and even that may not be enough to grant you entree.  

Humbert refuses to declaim his love for Lolita.  He is excluded from Qulilty's private, decadent world.  And he suffers by executing his ultimate expression of true love.

Jack Torrence passes the test, yet attempts to kill his family.  Tom Cruise appears to meet the standard, but is brought down by crazy, silly rules.

You may play with us, yet, you are NOT one of us, for sure.

If that is not an allegory for our modern times, I do not know what is.

mds

Good morning! Much more coming tonight about

The Shining, Kubrick, Pynchon, the Apollo 11 mission, and who knows what else.  I love you all. Miss you Pnut.






M

THOMAS PYNCHON National Book Award 1973

The trees are better than the forest.

There is a lot to like about The Master.  Like Amy Adams' performance, for instance; the skeptic scene; the breathtaking sixty-five millimeter cinematography -- a real poke in the eye to the Hollywood auteurs who have switched to digital; the first two sequences of the film, one of which reminds me of Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (the rumor is that PT Anderson's next project is an adaptation of Pynchon's latest novel, Inherent Vice), and the other an absolute marvel of production design, performances, palette, photography, and story, that one becomes disheartened with the next two hours of the film -- and is left wondering what is on the cutting room floor.

You have a great chance this time, but you should have won for Junebug (a much better film than The Master.)

Did someone lose their nerve?

Expectations are nearly always a problem for the critic. They are impossible to subdue completely, and I should give you a short back history re my relationship with PT Anderson.  I like Boogie Nights.  The convenience store scene is one of the finest things I have ever seen in the cinema.  It, somehow, completely breaks down the barrier between the audience and the images on film.  Every time I see it, I always feel like a witness in that Hollywood "buy it and go fuck yourself" shop.  I am in the movie.

Magnolia, on the other hand, is an absolute disaster.  One of the most pretentious and derivative one hundred and fifty minutes of any one's life, as far as I am concerned.  The performances are awful.  The stories are ludicrous, yet predictable.  The resolutions to each story are delivered in the most ham-handed, melodramatic way; and the frogs, and Supertramp, and Aimee Mann, etc, ...

That is when I swore off PT Anderson.  I skipped Punch Drunk Love and There Will Be Blood -- despite a dozen of my cinema buddies swearing I should see it.  But, when I heard that PT Anderson was going to do a film about Scientology; perhaps a film that would satirize, or skewer Tom Cruise's beloved cult, then I became a bit more willing to forget and forgive.

Of course, well before the time I put my fanny in the chair at the cinema, I knew that this was not going to be as I had hoped.  Anderson was not going to lower the boom on Scientology.  (Or, did he? Is there a five hour Director's Cut due for release in 2022? One can only hope, yes?) Even understanding that, I was willing to give Anderson another chance.  I asked Renee if she was interested in seeing The Master, and she gave me a flat, No.

Fair enough.  I am not gonna cry about that.  Then Renee had a sudden change of heart.  She did want to see The Master, and we saw it, and finished off our fabulous date with a meal at Va De Vi.

We talked about the film at great length, and we have one major disagreement.  She thinks Phillip Seymour Hoffman really cares about Joaquin Phoenix and wants to change him.  I, and a couple of my friends disagree, and think that Hoffman wants Phoenix around as a bully, and as a reminder to himself that he, Hoffman, is not an animal.

This is tough.  I do not want to spoil anything for any one who has not seen the picture.  But, it appears to me that the driving force behind Hoffman's cult is Amy Adams.  Yet, we barely see her, at all.  It seems Anderson (to me, at least) goes to great pains to illustrate what a fraud Hoffman is, but, is reluctant to display Adams as the real master mind.  Why? What sort of sense of mystery are you trying to create here? And Adams delivers the finest performance in the film. How subtle are you trying to be?

The Master, honestly, begins to resemble The Magnificent Ambersons in the end, in the sense that you are shocked to discover that perhaps a half hour of the film has been lopped off between the desert motorcycle scene and Phoenix's cinema dream scene.

I am fine with that, actually.  I love Welles' studio-butchered Ambersons, despite wishing I could see the film as Welles' intended.  But, what I can not abide is what should be the most crucial scene in the film be such an absolute let down, when Phoenix finally goes back home.

The film picks up for one scene set in England, and then ends on a completely useless, predictable note.  (I am starting to suspect that Anderson has a real problem with resolution.)

Despite the sterling cinematography, and impeccable production design, and a couple of fine performances, Anderson has not made me like him more.  Or, made me more likely to sit through three hours of There Will Be Blood, than you v much!

Still, if Inherent Vice truly is his next project, as much as I love that novel, and Pynchon, I will most likely be putting my arse right back in to that cinema seat, with a big bag of popcorn and hody.

Ugh! Sometimes we never learn, yes?

************

In terms of the "horse race", I fully expect The Master to be nominated for Best Picture (along with the other Anderson's much more deserving, yet, no chance in hell of winning's, Moonrise Kingdom.)  Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman will all be nominated, as well.

The Master has a great shot at winning for cinematography, deservedly so.  Phoenix, at this point -- despite the fact that I thought his performance was markedly dripping of Method, screaming affectation, and, "Hey, look I am an actor, acting! How cool." -- is the clear leader for Best Actor next Spring.  Adams and Hoffman have an outside shot, too.  There is no way in hell that The Master wins Best Picture.

In my eyes, the only actor truly deserving of an Oscar from this motion picture is Amy Adams. (The bathroom mirror scene with Hoffman is one of the finest moments of the picture, and it is in spite of Hoffman.)  Hoffman was good, but not deserving of special accolade, for sure.
















All my love,
Ardent

************

I am feeling better about things today.

(And I am stealing from the splenderific Miss Sarah, Proud and Tall, when I say, that this is a long post.  So, you might want to brew a cup of tea.)

But so are a lot of Democrats, Liberals, Progressives, Pragmatic Half-assed Socialist/Anarchists (like myself), and others of the left leaning persuasion.  My Wife said it best on friendface, "Someone wore their big boy pants today."  And, about time.

Really, where does one begin?

I am going to start with the Mittens phrase that blew up the intertubes.  To wit, that he had (has?) binders full of women candidates for his cabinet as Massachusetts Governor (and for his prospective Presidential cabinet?) This phrasing was ridiculous enough, but what it covered up was that not only was it not really an accurate anecdote, but that the real sin of Mittens is that he refused to come out in favor of equal pay for women in the workplace.  

(And, that my friends, is one of the most frustrating things about modern day politics.  I am just as guilty as most, even though I am trying to rectify the situation now, somewhat.  There are benefits in our era to go after the Big Gaffe, sometimes they do pay big dividends.  But just as often, or actually, most of the time, they do not move the needle one whit.  Big Bird did not change this election at all, for example, as much as I hoped he would.  Because it is much easier to expose the Big Gaffe.  The real hard truth is not nearly so sexy, and harder to explain.  It is the job of the press to dig down deep for the Hard Truths, but, sadly, the press and Twitter/Tumblr/friendface Nation are starting to resemble themselves before a mirror.)

Let us move on to something that I think has a better chance to truly influence this election:  The Mittens Libya Debacle.  I mentioned something to my Wife when this question was raised that this was a potential minefield for Obama.  Obama did a fine job, and I breathed a sigh of relief.  I knew Mittens was going to come back hard, and I was actually worried, but hubris, most often, kills.  Dr Maddow said it best last night (I am seriously paraphrasing), that there are serious perils to only listening to your supporters and your echo chambers.  The GOP Clown Car will be spinning this crushing, awful misstep for years, but it will always be on tape, and should rival the "You're no John Kennedy," and "There he goes again," as one of the greatest US television debate moments in its' very young history -- fifty-two years.

But, once again, the thing that will be replayed and remembered was Mittens being rightfully corrected.  The truly powerful moment was right before, when Obama called Mittens out for politicizing this issue, and daring to believe that Obama and the State Department, and our intelligence agencies did not care, or, that they had no grasp of the treacherous situation that is our influence/power in that part of the world.

Perhaps, it was not the altitude, or being ill-prepared for the first debate.  Maybe it really was the Obama rope-a-dope? I do not really believe that, but I can see how some could.

Many spinmeisters last night pointed out that what really had Mittens reeling was that he was being challenged, by both the moderator, and by the President; something he had not encountered before on a stage this big.  (That GOP Clown Car Show and those Fox News GOP debates do not frickin' count.)

And, I would also like to point out the observation that someone on MSNBC made last night (I am so sorry, I can not remember who it was), that Romney resembles the CEO, who at first (i.e. the first debate) seems reasonable, but, that upon future meetings comes across as a twat.  Of course, few of the not lefty nonTradMedia has picked up on what a smug asshole Mittens is.  I applaud MSNBC for showing up last night.  (CNN is such a joke these days.  It is v sad.) But, viewers out there last night got their first real taste of what Willard's administration would look like. And, it ain't pretty.

Is it going to move the needle, last night?

I think it is.  In one whole stroke, over an hour and a half, Obama (re)exposed Mittens as a selfish, presumptuous, spoiled rotten little brat, who, honestly deserves his comeuppance.

Obama was aggressive, without appearing the Angry Black Man.  Obama thumped Mittens last night, and the Mittens team know it.  (They are spinning furiously "binders" right now, and is "terrorist act" the same as "act of terror", and trying to twist Ms Crowley's statements last night after the debate as a refutation of her real-time fact-checking last night.)  Mittens will hit Libya hard next Monday, over and over again, etc, ...

But last night was the denouement.  We will see merely the epilogue re these debates (and election.)

(And, once my Wife knows how a film is going to wrap up, she completely loses interest.)

I honestly believe that a whole lot of people (mostly women) know what they are going to do, that Obama is their guy, and that, "Could we get this shit over with, and turn this thing around.  Jeez."

I did not even get in to my Karl Rove material, or my disgusted reaction to a bunch of white dudes on the teevee, talking about what women thought about the incivility of last night's debate.  What a bunch of malarkey, as Crazy Uncle Joe would say.  Another time, maybe.

In the meantime, (and you should do as Bowie suggests for the Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars elpee) and play this video at MAXIMUM volume.

All my love,
xxxoooxxx

Many of you probably already know this:

LL Cool P showed up late for his "I really care about the help those less fortunate than I" photo op this weekend.  Those who were there to eat, had eaten, and the kitchen was closed, having been all cleaned up.

No problem! Ryan lined up the photographers and the beat writers, and he and his wife promptly washed perfectly clean dishes just so everyone would know what a real empathetic, sweetheart of a guy he was.

And the press went along with it.

Man, Armando Iannuci and his crack writing team -- the folks behind In the Loop, The Thick of It, and Veep -- have got to be kicking themselves right now, "Why didn't we think of that?!"

Oh, I am sorry, they already did write something like this for their fro-yo episode of Veep! I think the Mittens/LL Cool P campaign is suffering from the usual and expected Conservative Inability to Recognize Irony -- which is one of the greatest tests of intelligence -- and are now taking clues from Selina Meyer's team on how to run a campaign.

That this OEE is even remotely close right now says a lot about our electorate.  Ugh!

************

On a completely different -- and much happier -- note, Treme keeps chugging along.  We got to see Sugar Boy Crawford last night, who just passed away last month.  And, it was great to see Marcia Ball, too.  She looks and sounds fantastic, still.

So, here's a video of her:

Mwah, ... 






P.S. Special thanks to Pnut for part of this post.









mds

You got to love crazy old Uncle Joe.

He totally is that guy who has, perhaps, a couple more beers than he should at Thanksgiving dinner.  He is the guy who might start talking about politics a little too late when every one would rather be watching the football game.  And like the great Charlie Pierce has noted, Uncle Joe actually relishes, loves being Veep.  How on earth did we find someone like that? Who is going to love that thankless job?

Crazy Uncle Joe, that is who.

The GOP have got their panties in a twist because Biden laughed too much.  That has always been part and parcel of Biden's nature, and I agree with those who feel that Biden's schtick, if you will, actually plays very well to the rust belt crowd in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc, ...

But, do not fret about the GOPs whining, anyway.  It is concern trolling.  If Uncle Joe had been "respectful", the GOP would have spun it as him being pusillanimous.  They know they had their asses handed to them last night, and that Democrats are fired up again, and now the GOP are desperate to spin anything to their favor.  Their commercials will be Biden laughing.  Ours will be Ryan's actual, ludicrous policy positions, read straight from his crib notes.

Here are a few of Biden's best haymakers last night:

He actually mentioned the forty-seven per cent.
He crushed LL Cool P on the stimulus that Ryan voted against, yet, still had his hand out for.
He eloquently, and with great deftness, answered Ms Raddatz' woefully inappropriate question about faith and abortion, by stating that abortion is strictly a choice between a woman and her doctor, full stop, no matter what his personal beliefs are.
He made Ryan look silly re Afghanistan.
He tied Ryan in knots on Medicare, garnering a frustrated declaration of what Ryan thinks vouchers really are,
And, Biden spoke from his heart the entire time.  He showed compassion, empathy, and horse sense.  He spoke in simple language, and got away from talking points.  Not only will that fire up the base, but it should play well in Duluth, too.

(Plus, I am going to mention it again, one more time, because it is so crucially important:  It was because of a Biden "gaffe" that Obama was forced to finally "come out", if you will, in favor of Marriage Equality months before Team Obama had planned to.  Sometimes, the only person who can make the family face up to doing the right thing is when the Crazy Uncle speaks out of turn. Right on, brother.)

Now, here are some real writers, and what they thought about last night's debate:  Charlie Pierce, and TBogg.

I have a feeling today is going to be a wonderful Friday, and the whole weekend should be special, too.












Ardent

I will probably get around to watching

Martin Scorsese's documentary, A Letter to Elia, just to see what he has to say about Kazan's testifying before the House Un-American Activities Committee.

In the meantime, Renee and I watched The Front, instead, starring Zero Mostel (blacklisted), Woody Allen, and Michael Murphy.  The Front was written by Walter Bernstein, and directed by Martin Ritt, both of whom were blacklisted, also.

It was because of people like Elia Kazan that many artists in Hollywood and New York were blacklisted.  And, not just writers, actors, and directors, but technicians and studio people of all types.

Honestly, I have never been a big fan of Kazan's anyway, or of "The Method", period.  I think On the Waterfront is one of the most egregiously over rated films of all-time.  And, I have never cared much for A Streetcar Named Desire, either.  Even Kazan's mea culpa, if you will, A Face in the Crowd -- a film he made after naming names -- is uneven and truly short shrift for all those he helped put out of work, branding them as villains for simply believing that free market capitalism might not the be all and end all form of government systems.

And, like, David Thomson discusses here, Kazan had plenty of opportunities to repent, most notably when he received a completely unwarranted special Oscar, but never did.

I was disgusted when Kazan got that last Oscar.  And, I was not the only one.  There were a smattering of boos as he walked on stage, and folks had a picket line outside the event, as well.

I am disappointed that Scorsese has made this film, and that PBS has included it as part of their American Masters series.  Elia Kazan is about as much a "Master" to me as Phillip Seymour Hoffman's charlatan extraordinaire, Lancaster Dodd, in Paul Thomas Anderson's, The Master.

Some things, I suppose, I just can not forgive.











Michael

So, this idiot Teabagger Rep

Has got be one of the worst human beings ever.  His name is Scott DesJarlais and he is an Anti Choice Rep from Tennessee.  But when his mistress got pregnant by him, Anti Choice Douchwacket DesJarlais got her bundled up to Atlanta to get that "taken care of" pronto.  It nearly makes me sick.

Yeh, I should just run more John Lennon vids, hunh?

UGH!

P.S.:  I swear I am going to write about The Master, and also The Front (the video above), Elia Kazan, naming names, and why I am disappointed with Martin Scorsese.



mds

Happy birthday, brother, and amen!

We all miss you terribly down here on this third stone from the sun.

Ardent Henry

This is good, and so right!

Here are some political videos for ya: (UPDATED)

Jon Stewart via TPM about Obama "cooking the books".

And, via Charlie Pierce, LL Cool P gets huffy with a local Michigan teevee guy.  (I like that Charlie Pierce says that Mr Ryan keeps thinking of himself as the Robert Plant of the PowerPoint.  "AAAAH-AH! /AAAAH-AH!/ Valhalla/ I am coming."  Actually, at our house we call Robert Bobby.)

Mittens definitely got a debate bounce, and is leading in a couple of respected left leaning tracking polls, Pew and PPP.  I have not checked out 538 yet today, but yesterday Mittens was still pegged at a one in five chance of winning.  So, I am not sweating it, yet.







Ardent






UPDATE:  Mittens increased his chances of winning from one in five to one in four according to Nate Silver.  Nice bump.  We will see if it lasts.  Here is the 538 link.




AH

Thanks to TBogg for this little jewel:

Right here!







Much more later, after my dentist appointment.















Ardent

I feel pretty good about

Today's Rangers game against the Orioles.  I mean, heck, we're not playing the Athletics anymore, right? 

I am not guaranteeing a victory, or anything.  The Orioles are a good team and another great baseball story this year, like the A's, Reds, and Nationals.  But, it is at home, Darvish is on the bump, and the Rangers, despite their recent meltdown, are the better team.

We will see how it goes.

(Hamilton's mysterious ailment, his dropped pop up, and his inability to take a single pitch have all added up to a "Happy trails" attitude amongst Ranger fans.  I feel the same way.  He was a great story, and he was a big part of the Rangers recent success, but there is no way he is deserving over the twenty million per annum offers he will entertain this winter.  He really screwed up his job dialogue, for sure.  Ciao, baby, and amen.)















Ardent

Everybody knows

That the economy and the jobs situation in this country suck.  The stimulus was not nearly big enough, and we desperately need another one, and the Administration and the Democratic Party let the Koch Bros' Teabagging henchmen (and right wing Tradmedia) highjack the national conversation and make the deficit the big issue -- no matter how many refutations by Krugman or lefty New Media.

All Obama and his team really have to do is sell that the economy is improving; that there is light at the end of the tunnel; that there is, yes, wait for it, hope.

That is why today's jobs/unemployment report is so huge, and such a welcome relief after Wednesday's "Denver Debacle".  (Which was not really a debacle so much, as a "No Big Deal At All".  Most people were watching Honey Boo-Boo.  Trust me.)

And in addition to the fact that jobs are being created, and that the raw headline number went down significantly, there are other peripheral benefits for Team Obama.  The GOP (and Fox News) now have to dredge up esoteric new unemployment numbers that most Americans do not understand or care about, and they have to stand on camera, grousing about improvement and recovery.  Or they have to trot out conspiracy theories that Obama has cooked the books, himself.  Forget that "or" to start that last sentence.  Fox News, just this morning, has used all three of those tactics on its' programs.

If Obama can convince folks in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Colorado, Virginia, and Florida that the recovery is coming, and that he is the guy to coach it to the finish line, then he will be re-elected.  Simple as that.  And, debate "disasters", aside, I have seen nothing in the polling data in those key states that leads me to believe that Obama has not been successful pleading his case.

Today's good news should blunt the debate's impact, fire up an already pissed off Team Obama, and boost their chances in the OEE.

And, if that has not gotten you off the ledge, read Nate Silver's excellent 538 NYT blog.

Mwah, ... 

That's right!

Ardent

I just watched the spin.

I did not watch the debate.  We will find out over the coming days through polling if Mittens' victory last night means anything.  Like I said yesterday, most of the time, these debates are not game changers, at all.

And seeing Tweety (Chris Matthews) go apoplectic last night reminded me of the Chomsky quote that I used yesterday, as well:  "the orchestrated electoral extravaganza".  OEE for short.

Here is Kos on last night's supposed Obama debacle.  And here is TBogg's version of events (and he quotes Charlie Pierce, too -- two for one!)

I think Charlie Pierce got it right when he asked,

... is it possible that the whole angry-black-man kerfuffle ginned up on the right on Monday got into the man's head a little?

That is the tightrope Obama has had to walk his entire political life.  And other stupid prejudices and stereotypes influence elections all the time.  That is one of the reasons Brown is losing to Elizabeth Warren right now.  People still do not like men being rude to ladies.  Of course, gender (or race) should not matter.  You should not be mean or rude to anyone.  But, it still does matter.

Honestly, I do not think this is going to be a big deal for the OEE.  And, Obama will probably attack a bit more next time, and maybe talk about women's issues, and labor unions, and other things Dems are desperate to hear about.  But, Obama is never ever even going to give a hint of a performance that would suggest the faintest whiff of Huey Newton or Angela Davis.  It would be political suicide.  Obama and his team are way too smart.

But, that does not mean I can not enjoy a little Black Power today, right?

(By the way, Kim Weston's performance here is mesmerizing and powerful.  She bends notes occasionally, but generally eschews flash and hits notes solidly, with such force and volume that you can not help but be moved.  Amazing.)












All my love,
Ardent

I understand this point of view.

Five or ten minutes probably is all you need. And, we should all be more like Chomsky, trying to change life rather than reform the system.  (Love how he calls the 2012 General an " orchestrated electoral extravaganza".)

And, Obama does a lot of awful terrible stuff.  But even Chomsky says he would vote for Obama if he lived in a swing state.  He lives in Massachusetts and will be voting for the Green candidate, if he votes at all.

It is this simple:  If Romney has a chance to win your state, and you are a lefty,  you have to pull the Obama lever.  You have to.

************

I will watch the debate replay tonight, but I am not getting all hyped up about it.  Debates so rarely mean anything.  They are practically PSAs these days.   But I'm a politics junkie.  Curl up with a book, your sweetie, the beach, a sunset or a great movie instead.

Do not be like me.













All my love. Ardent

This will not be up long, I am sure.

Starting tonight,

At a game I will be attending -- thanks Pnut -- the Rangers will have three chances over the next seventy-two hours to win one game and win their third straight American League West title.

I am not optimistic.  Of course, the season that marks the tenth anniversary of the amazing Moneyball twenty-game winning streak A's would be a miracle one for your 2012 Oakland Plucky Athletics.

I would not be the least bit surprised if the A's did sweep the Rangers and stole the flag.  And, even if the Rangers do win the division their playoff prospects do not look very good.  In point of fact (h/t Beat the Devil; an aside, me and a buddy were obsessed with Beat the Devil, and even had a drinking game -- drinking Pernod, natch, which is what Bogart orders in an early scene -- where we drank every time Jennifer Jones says, "In point of fact."  She says it three times in three seconds in that clip, starting at the 3:04 mark.  You could get pretty drunk playing our game, depending on what you are drinking.) Ahem, in point of fact, the Rangers just do not look very good.  They are having runners picked off; they are not getting good jumps on fly balls; the rotation is seriously leaky -- with the exception of Darvish and Harrison; Nathan -- uncharacteristically -- has blown two saves in just the last couple of weeks; the offense is a serious roller coaster ride with longer valleys than peaks; Wash keeps bringing Lowe out to pitch in high-leverage situations; and some of the players look flat-out bushed.  We probably would not even have made the playoffs if not for Adrian Beltre.  (And he tweaked his shoulder again last night! Do not know if he will be at third or the DH tonight, but he insisted last night that he is playing today.) However it turns out this has been one of the strangest Ranger seasons ever. Despite being considered one of the best teams all season long, Ranger fans have never seemed satisfied.  There have been mystery flus and viruses; our rotation was nearly completely wiped out; Hamilton either looks like Mickey Mantle or Joe Shlabotnik (lately, more like Shlabotnik); Roy Oswalt has been much more pain in the neck than savior; Kinsler is acting like Kinsler (and not hitting much recently); it has just a been a wacky wacky season for the Rangers, and there could be a real sense of relief when it ends, however it ends.  Baseball is a seductive, yet cruel lady, ...

To wit, every game matters in a very long season of Major League Baseball.  April is just as important as September.  Just ask the Los Angeles Angels of Disneyland, who spent one-third of a billion dollars on two players, and despite being one of the best teams in the Majors at this point, will be working on their golf game next weekend.  They simply could not overcome their horrible start and are on the outside looking in.  Not that I am all that wracked up about it.

Wash will have tonight's starter on a very short leash tonight, Martin Perez.  The A's roughed him up for five runs in two-thirds of one inning last week.  We will probably see Oswalt or Scooter Feldman if Perez can not get it done.

Honestly, this is not the best chance for the Rangers tonight.  Tomorrow is.  But, "That's the way baseball go," as Wash likes to say.

The Rangers have clinched a playoff spot.
The Rangers' Magic Number for the division title is two.
The Rangers' Magic Number for home field advantage is three.

The Athletics' Magic Number for a playoff spot is one.
The Athletics' Magic Number for the division title is six.
The Athletics' Magic Number for home field advantage is six.

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Here is a fun chart of the AL West playoff chances throughout the season:  (Poor Mariners.)

And here are some more screen shots of an interesting philosophical discussion on the Rangers SBNation blog:

I will talk about The Master, which I saw yesterday, another time.

I love you all,
Ardent