Mini-Roundup: I'm Going To Die

No full-length roundup today, because it's the hottest week of the summer down here in North Carolina and my skin is slowly melting off my face. However, read:

--TEACHERS' UNIONS: THREAT, OR MENACE? Kevin Carey and our boy Ezra Klein look at the peculiar tendency of liberal elites to blame teachers' unions for everything, including the weather. In rebuttal, Tim Lee at the newly redesigned American Scene thinks Kevin and Ezra are peculiar.

--NOT ACTUALLY A SQUARE-DANCE CALL: Open Left, Matt Stoller and Chris Bowers' new project (as well as some guy named Mike I've never heard of), kicks off with a bang. Read Chris with a long, possibly definitive study of the condition of the netroots.

--I PREFER THE FRENCH "EUH": Language Log, which is always worth your time, looks at differences in pausing between gender and age groups. Check this out:

Turns out "um" and "uh" are pretty reliable identifiers of gender. ...There is a moment in "Clue" that has bothered me for years, where Wadsworth the butler (played by Tim Curry) is talking very quickly and says "the uh, um, uh, library." I had wondered why that phrase stuck in my brain. Now I know: it was essentially androgynous! (Of course for Tim Curry that's hardly a stretch.)

--SENTENCE OF THE DAY: Roy Edroso channels Dylan:

How long can a man scream epithets in a cemetery before he loses the status of outrage and devolves into a figure of fun?

--AND: You may know that "musician" Avril Lavigne has been accused of plagiarism by 70s bubblegum-rockers The Rubinoos. But you probably do not know that The Rubinoos also recorded the seminal theme to 1984's "Revenge of the Nerds." Yes! In honor of their reappearance, I present the wonderful first ten minutes of that godawful movie:

A tip to our incoming freshmen: that is exactly what's in store for you this fall.

That's all I got. Stay indoors, everyone.

Roundup -- Blazing Sun, Flaming Hearts

It's HOT as a motherfucker outside (by Boston standards), and lately it seems people's tempers and temperatures seem to rise in tandem. In the city, with heat comes stress. Of course reading period doesn't help -- it's the time when everyone is pretty much expected to sit in their rooms and be Studious, drives you stir-crazy -- but the level of irritation and downright hostility still seems a little oddly high. Maybe you can blame the CEB, pitting us against each other in this colossal Risk tournament (and if you're not playing yet, why the hell not?). I don't know. But everybody's in high gear and about ready to snap.

You could see it at the Stand for Security rally today (they're every day at 1 outside Mass Hall, please do come). Of course on that front there's real reasons to be agitated. One of the hunger strikers, Javier, has already been hospitalized, and still nothing from the administration -- whose response still basically amounts to "LA LA LA LA WE CAN'T HEAR YOU". Today got a little confrontational outside Holyoke Center, which was actually locked down at both entrances by HUPD once we swarmed it, and it's to everyone's credit that a scuffle didn't break out; it's important to bear in mind that nobody here wants to harass anybody, and I hope that was a one-time occurrance. Still, tensions are running high on the security front; another few days of hostility like this (including from Harvard) and I don't know what'll end up happening. While we all need to splash some cold water on our faces and remind ourselves it's not 1969 anymore -- nevertheless, one can only handle so much.

Hear that sound, Harvard? That's your students getting angry.

ANYWAY. On to pleasantries!

--Gadfly has returned, with a vengeance. Mark Shepard kicked it off with a thoughtful post about Harvard's current campus initiatives, which is worth a read though I disagree with many of his conclusions; now Sahil's followed up with a barrage of current-events post that make a very entertaining mix. Welcome back, boys!

--I'm also assuming I don't need to mention that Cambridge Common should be on your daily reading list, both in general and for their in-depth coverage and commentary on Stand for Security. Endria Richardson has just done a great post on today's protest that I haven't quite processed yet, but that will definitely spark a serious discussion.

--And in less serious Harvard blog news, over at the Indy my friend Georgia Kelly Faircloth liveblogged the Female Orgasm Seminar. Good times.

--Turning to the outside world: if you haven't yet, read Jon Chait's excellent piece on the rise of the netroots and their role in Democratic/liberal politics. I actually agree with his assessment moreso than most bloggers (see Crooked Timber, Matt Stoller, and Whiskey Fire, all of whom think he missed the point), probably because I sympathize with his focus on the pure electoral-strategy side of things. Democrats should aim to become a coherent, powerful progressive force, and to my perspective the ideological program behind it is of secondary importance. But it's an open question. (...For an interesting contrast, read Alien & Sedition's latest bit on the implosion, and lately cannibalism, within the conservative movement.)

--THE POLITICO: Ever since it started something has smelled funny over there, hasn't it? Sure enough -- Glenn Greenwald reveals, in a story that should have gotten much more play, that it's owned and funded by hardcore conservatives. No wonder they ramble about John Edwards' hair so damn much.

--Michael Bérubé, on one conservative writer's crazed proposal for a military coup:

OK, well, call me cynical, but I think Sowell’s setting a trap, and Kevin Drum and Eric Alterman have walked right into it. I’ve watched the right play this game over the past five years, and I know what’s coming next: Why don’t liberals trust our men and women in uniform? What have they got against a coup? Is it that they don’t . . . support the troops?

--Mortage foreclosures: not just for the poor anymore.

--Does it bother anyone else that the White House basically stopped everything for several days and spent bazillions of dollars simply to entertain the Queen of England? Maybe it's just my Canadian upbringing (she's on our money, I'm sick of this woman), but I don't see why an unelected monarch deserves more of a dignified treatment than a duly elected national leader. BAGNewsNotes has a couple slightly disturbing visual analyses of the event that sum up my feelings pretty well.

--Turns out Mitt Romney is even more of a space cadet than you think. What is it with conservatives always confusing science fiction with reality?

--My favorite Crimson feature: Police Log! Not much of interest this time though, other than an oblique Lampoon reference, someone in Cabot burning noodles, and some incredibly expensive clothes lifted from 45 Mt. Auburn. Oh, and -- this freaks me out -- the home plate from Harvard Stadium was stolen by vandals, and apparently it is worth $200. Good grief. They know you can get a home plate for like 20 bucks, right?

--And finally, my heartfelt thanks to Garrett for sending out Radar's amazing piece about everyone's new favorite presidential candidate, Mike Gravel. This guy rolls up to an event driving a vintage Checker Cab and wearing velcro shoes -- how BADASS is that? Choice quotes:

Gravel smiles broadly and says, "Hey, can you straighten out David Broder?" Broder, an influential columnist at the Post and the unofficial godfather of the D.C. press corps, has been a target of much criticism from liberal blogs for seeming to provide political cover for Bush on Iraq, even with a majority of Americans now opposing the war. "He doesn't believe in the power of the people!" Gravel says. [Post writer Tom] Edsall blinks and looks perplexed. "David Broder is the voice of the people," he replies matter-of-factly. Gravel starts to smile, assuming Edsall is making an absurdist joke. But Edsall is not joking. The two men look at each other in awkward silence over a great gulf of unshared beliefs, then Gravel chuckles and walks ahead into the restaurant.

[...]"I don't understand it. They're pointing to Iran and saying, 'By God, those people are dangerous.' Christ, we're dangerous! You're very familiar, I'm sure, with the neo-con plan. It was in writing a few years before Bush even got elected: first Iraq, Iran, Syria, then Saudi Arabia," says Gravel, an apparent reference to a 1996 paper entitled A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, by Richard Perle and several other prominent neo-cons. "Wolfowitz and Perle and all those guys—they're crazy as loons! Not one of 'em has even seen a gun fired in anger. Dammit, it just galls me no end! Why should Jessica Lynch go over there and get all shot up—why not have Bush's daughters do it?"

While Gravel says this, [Newsweek's Jonathan Alter] looks down impassively into his salad as though peering into a bottomless pool. "I need to get going," he announces, offering the distinct impression that one-liners about sending Barbara and Jenna off to get shot at are going to be a bit too pungent for the gatekeepers of mainstream media culture.

Too pungent indeed. This dude is the conscience of the Democratic Party; if Edwards drops out I might seriously consider throwing my support to him. Yeah, I know he's like 90 years old and crazy -- but think critically for a minute. What has Gravel said yet that isn't completely true?

Also, a Checker Cab. You have to admit. That rocks.

Anyway. Happy studying, and good luck to everyone in Risk (except Currier, to whom I send my condolences.) This is an open thread, for discussion of Mike Gravel, the hunger strike, or anything else.

Roundup -- Get It Off! Get It Off Me!

It's around this time -- the last real weekend before Reading Period comes to take our souls away -- that everyone on campus basically turns into a blithering idiot. YardFest, which helpfully caused everyone to go around singing Third Eye Blind songs uncontrollably for hours, did not help in that regard. At the moment, after spending hours today cleaning bathrooms as part of the Dorm Crew Day fundraiser (executive summary: "Eww! Hair!"), my body's limp and my brain feels like a boiled cabbage that's been repeatedly mashed with a fork. So I'm going to forego my usual discursive introduction and dive right into LINKS FOR YOU. Enjoy.

--The Stand For Security movement is picking up steam and needs everybody's support. (The backstory is basically that Harvard security workers are being screwed in their contract negotiations and they need our help.) First, if you haven't signed the petition, do that, and if you're a stronger person than me you can join the fast on Monday and Tuesday. But generally, we should do everything we can to help this campaign before the end of the year. These people put themselves on the line to protect us every day; at very least we owe the same back to them.
---UPDATED (2:00 AM): There is a sit-in or protest of some kind today at 1:30 outside University Hall. Also I'm told there's a big rally planned for Wednesday, 2:30, at Holyoke Center; and if after those events the demands are not met, a hunger strike starting Thursday is in the works. Keep an eye on this developing situation.

--Garrett linked to an amazing clip from that Bill Moyers documentary we've all been hearing about; turns out you can watch all 90 minutes of it, in excellent quality, at PBS. When you find the time, please do; it's a powerful look at how deeply fucked-up our media really is.

--In non-fucked-up-media news, the Indy has launched a blog! Awesome! Those who don't read the Indy are missing out, it's often hilarious. (Also fill out their annual sex survey, it'll make you think.)

--Loud cheers for our friend Andrew Golis, of Cambridge Common fame, who looks like he's made the jump from being TPMCafe's open-thread slave into a legit writer. And it's a great, erudite post, too, worth a read on its merits as well as for its awesomeness factor.

--Meanwhile at TPMCafe, it's about time someone made this argument: "The Case For Bureaucracy". ...God, I'm such a Democrat.

--From the NY Sun, a charming Mitt Romney story:

"I feel old," Ann Romney told a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "You are!" her husband chimed in. The crowd winced. "It's a joke, we're the same age," he clarified.

I repeat: please, please nominate him. Please. (...via James Walcott, who incidentally is absolutely hilarious and should be read regularly. In this same post he compared Fred Thompson, wonderfully, to Wilford Brimley).

--From another excellent Pew poll (click for larger version):

People seem to have the ideological affiliations of Dem candidates exactly backwards. Edwards is way to the left of the other frontrunners on basically every issue; but that perception is not out there in the public yet. How will the structure of the race change as that comes forward?

--Paragraph Of The Week honors go to Whiskey Fire: "Harry Reid is not calling for "defeat." Liberals are not calling for "defeat." We're telling you that the bloody clown show is over. Take off your floppy shoes, doff your giant red noses, and go home."

--Mystery Pollster has wonderful tag clouds for the various Dems at the debate; it's a fun way to see how on-message they are and where their heads are at (if anywhere). You can make your own tag clouds, of anything, here.

--In unrelated debate news, note that when Williams asked candidates to raise their hands if they believed there was such a thing as the "global war on terror", the split was interesting -- Edwards, Biden, Kucinich and Gravel found themselves in agreement that there wasn't, while the other four agreed there was. Myself, I find "war on terror" to be a conceptual impossibility, or at best an absurdity, so I tend to agree with Edwards and Biden (a man who knows his stuff on foreign policy, one must admit). Thoughts?

--I have got to get a copy of Rahm Emanuel's new book, "The Thumpin'", if only because in it he apparently describes Washington as "Fucknutsville". A man after me own heart.

--Band Madness is down to the Elite Eight (thankfully, AFI finally got knocked out). Remaining: Queen, Bowie, the Beatles, the Stones, Zeppelin, the Who, Pink Floyd, and the Doors. While I'm still hurting over Neil Young (and also, I'm sorry but Queen did not deserve to beat Hendrix), we must soldier on. I'm pulling for The Who, underdogs to the end; who's with me? Voting opens Monday.

And I'll leave you with a quote. Michelle Malkin recently referred to Mike GW and his friends (who got arrested protesting that FBI speech last week) as evidence of liberal media bias, through logic I don't quite follow. In that spirit, I wondered if the Dems had ever been similarly held up by right-wing pundits as examples of evil liberalism. Sure enough -- National Review, 9/25/2001, from future "Corner" celebs John J. Miller and Ramesh Ponnuru:

If there really were a Captain America, he probably wouldn't be a member of the Harvard College Democrats.

We must have been doing something right. Good night everybody. This is an open thread.

Roundup -- So Close And Yet So Far

About this time in April at Harvard everything comes to a head. It dawns on you, and your TFs, that we have what -- five, six weeks left of classes? Holy shit. Crunch time. You expect the next 20 days or so to just rocket by in a barrage of papers and problem sets and Student Group Activities and housing lotteries and PANIC! But of course, time never goes slower than when you have lots of unpleasant crap to do, and you'll still spend what feels like most of the day watching asinine YouTube videos and weeping softly into your keyboard. The end result being, from now until reading period will feel like longer than the rest of the year combined. Hooray for college! Now look at this:

My favorite graph of all time. (Professor Pollkatz puts it together.) I love to show it to haters who claim that public opinion surveys are arbitrary or inaccurate -- TRY and tell me there's no science to that trend.

But the real insight here: look closely. The only periods post-9/11 where Bush approval has increased or levelled (other than the spikes for the invasion of Iraq and the capture of Saddam) were July-December 2002, June-December 2004, and June-October 2006, all of which contained intense electoral campaigning which put the GOP in a better light. (Clearly, by the end of the 06 cycle, Dem messaging had got through and negated that effect.) At all other times, Bush's approval has been constantly declining at a remarkably consistent rate, and it continues to today. Logically, then, one should not necessarily assume it's going to bottom out. We could potentially see a decline even further, below Nixon territory and into uncharted waters, within the next few months. Hypothetically: impeachment could be on the table, and more importantly it could be widely popular.

Anyway. Why dwell on the "public" and its silly "opinions"? We have more pressing roundup matters to attend to! Like:

--STUPID BULLSHIT! Yes, the White House claims that it has magically "lost" a jillion emails that might pertain to the fired attorneys, presumably while the I.T. guys were waxing out the Intertubes. Every commenter on Daily Kos immediately pointed out how patently ridiculous this is; even Patrick Leahy had the sense to describe it as a "dog ate my homework" excuse. (DKos's Kagro X went on to suggest that we start calling this scandal "DogAte." You know, like Watergate and Travelgate, except cleverer. Truly we live in the end times.) Up next: Alberto Gonzales gets "stuck in traffic" on the way to his Senate committee deposition and is never heard from again.

--On a happier note: warm welcome to Endria Richardson, making her blogdebut at Cambridge Common with some cool poetry. Looking forward to more!

--Read David Sirota on the so-called "labor shortage," which he argues is a fiction produced by business interests trying to justify outsourcing and keep costs under control -- meanwhile wages here continue to stagnate (and let's not even get into the ugly truth about disposable income and purchasing power). Our economy is in deep shit. (But hey, did you hear? That American Idol guy survived another round! BIG NEWS!)

--An unwitting RedState writer sums up the mentality of the entire conservative intellectual movement. Special treat for Garrett:

I was listening to the re-run of an obvious spinster-to-be named Jenny Ballantine on Rush Limbaugh's radio show as she was kvetching and whining in New Hampshire in front of the Edwards "Couple" and I thought of that flag with the snake that said "Don't Tread on Me." It's still on the license plate, if I'm not mistaken.

Whatever happened to the rock-ribbed New Englanders that Norman Rockwell immortalized back in the day when Life Magazine and Saturday Evening Post covers portrayed a different reality, one of a nation that worked out its difficulties through grit and gumption?

Yup. That'll solve our problems: grit and gumption. And we'll all wear an onion on our belt, 'cause it's the style at the time. Prohibition forever!

--Speaking of the olden days, Phyllis Schlafly is still alive and still writing op-eds about those darn feminists. Who'd have guessed?

--Have you been following the Michael Godelia story? Me neither. But kudos to Kameron Collins for handling it with such class. He's done the Harvard community a service.

--Mystery Pollster has a great look at some recent FOX polls that are insanely, ridiculously biased. We call them a "news" organization why?

--Best look yet at the New Populism, and how John Edwards fits into it. If I say it enough times maybe you guys will listen: this is how we win. "Edwards is a one-man 50-state strategy."

--If you'd like to be really disturbed, watch this British documentary on the Westboro Baptist Church (those people who protest soldiers' funerals). It's like a car accident, you can't tear your eyes away.

--MyDD's Matt Stoller, who has been strange and off-kilter lately, suddenly shouts out a wonderful and impassioned articulation of everything the New "Netroots" Left (or whatever we're called) stands for. Read it.

--Random Wikipedia Curiosity: "Erdős–Bacon number." Mathematicians apparently have lots of time on their hands.

--Band Madness's 4th round ends at 4:00, and Neil Young needs our help. He's down 400-some votes to Guns 'n' Roses. This cannot stand (I mean, "Sweet Child of Mine" is classic, but come on.) We can do it, liberals!

..AND that's all I got, save a closer; of all the tributes I've seen for the late Kurt Vonnegut -- who was one of my heroes, literary and otherwise -- James Wolcott's somehow seems to be the most appropriate.

But I can't say the atmosphere was any cheerier when I left. I was escorted down a corridor, a door opened, and standing there, waiting to enter, was Kurt Vonnegut, looking rumpled, baffled, and tired after his long inward journey through life. It was such a startling apparition--I had no idea Vonnegut had been booked and was taping immediately after me--that I couldn't even rustle up a hello, not that he seemed to notice. He was there to do his television duty, no more, no less. The look on his face so matched the mood in the studio that additional comment seemed superfluous. I wonder what he and Cavett chatted about during the commercial breaks, or if in lieu of small talk they sank into separate compartments of silence as the crew made busy little adjustments to the lights, sound levels, camera angles. It was all so long ago, sometime during the Age of Chivalry. Anyway, that's my non story about not meeting Kurt Vonnegut.

So it goes. This is an open thread.

Roundup -- Now With Exclamation Points! (!)

Boy oh boy has it been a rolling start here on campus -- Spring Break was all well and good, but there's nothing to get that blood pumping like good old-fashioned grey Cambridge drizzle for fucking days on end! Woo-eee! I'm so excited I'm mixing up my ironic exclamations!

Seriously, great roundup for you tonight. First a note -- to your left is the Peace Dollar, issued in the 1920s and 30s. I got one from my late grandfather last week; it's the most remarkable piece of currency I've come across (and I say this coming from a country that routinely puts beavers on its money). There's something comforting in the knowledge that, at one point, our government had no qualms about printing such hippie-ish designs; hopefully, in the next few years, we'll be able to use this wonderful image less wistfully. (And I'm sure President Kucinich would be up for a reissue.)

Meanwhile though -- to arms!

--Josh Marshall thinks that photo of John McCain in Baghdad is a latter-day Dukakis tank moment -- except way more substantial and significant. As usual Marshall's quite right. (Here's a sentence we never thought we'd find ourselves saying about John McCain: "if only they'd nominated him first...")

--In case you still need convincing that the electability argument is bullshit, Sifu Tweety of Poor Man has your back. Read it all. Then for dessert read the next post down, The Editors' hilarious demolition of Jonah Goldberg:

...in my head, I have a brain. Using this “brain”, I am able to determine that the conservative movement - meaning the people who control the White House, who until recently controlled the Congress, their political operatives, seamlessly integrated with the media apparatchiks who “work” at places like National Review - is a lot more important than what some dude I never heard of said this one time, particularly when the only reason I know this dude exists is because you douchebags won’t shut the fuck up about him. Hence my lack of interest.

--Speaking of The Corner: I guess when conservatives say "support our troops," they mean "support our troops, not the British troops, those pansies." I wish I were making this up. And I still haven't quite parsed Derbyshire's whopping statement that "whether or not I could stand up well to torture, I expect Marines to."

--Of course perhaps I'm just expecting too much from these people. We are talking about men whose reaction to the Iran crisis is -- quoting verbatim from Fred Barnes -- "Hey, they could use American ships!" (Kondracke later added that we should "put the whammy on them." Honestly, FOX News could just replace all its commentators with eight-year-old Hulk Hogan fans, it'd be a lot cheaper.)

--I was struck by this graph, posted by Jerome a Paris in an excellent Kos diary. Note that the last time the top few had such a large share of national income was the late 1920s, roughly 1928. History concentrators: what happened to our economy right after that? Hmm...

--Speaking of crashes, Chris Matthews has gone off the deep end. (Well... *further* off the deep end.)

--I should have known it existed: grammar blogging. Sample quote: "the understood verb phrase inside the though-clause has to mean something that does not correspond to a syntactic constituent in the antecedent main clause." I barely understand 1/3 of this blog and yet I can't stop reading it. For instance -- and here's another sentence I never expected to write -- this discussion of gerunds is hilarious.

--Over at Slate, hidden behind a sensationalistic title about Grand Theft Auto, is a thought-provoking article about liberal activist culture and the need for individual empowerment. This one will require some digesting.

--Fred Thompson's campaign is over; if he even hints at running, executives from Bravo will have to personally assassinate him. This is America, TV comes first.

--Did you know that Lee Atwater destroyed funk and invented gansta rap? Me neither! (Apparently MC Rove is just part of a long Republican tradition.)

--OK, one more shameless link to mockery of conservative bloggers -- Michelle Malkin has been reduced to delusional fantasies about Frank Capra, and it's really just too easy. HuffPo's Chris Kelly does a great job though ("Stirring words. It's like Pat Benatar wrote Braveheart").

--Apparently our generation is called "millenials," and there's a whole group of people dedicated to getting us more involved in politics. This introduction to the issues involved is worth a read, particularly in the way it (correctly) characterizes our understanding of community and and the public. More detailed writing is at Future Majority, a blog dedicated to youth-voter issues. Look forward to more from these people.

AND that's all I got. Let me close with a wonderful quote from Richard Nixon, as revealed in Henry Kissinger's secret transcripts; his wisdom still rings true today.

"Goddamn newspapers—they're a bunch of sluts," Nixon said. In another taped conversation, two weeks later, he said, "I don't give a goddamn about repression, do you?" "No," Kissinger replied.

Our President, ladies and gentlemen! (Slow clap.)

This is an open thread.

Roundup -- So Very Alone

Campus is eerie this evening; deserted, less than a day into spring break. Walked through Leverett and Mather Courtyards without a soul in sight. I thought maybe the world had ended and I'd missed it. (Typical; I'm late for everything these days.) But no, HARVARD LIVES, if only on the Internets; so here's yet another Roundup for you. Since those of us who aren't going to Cancun need something to do, after all.

To begin with, check out this graph to the right -- it's from the huge Pew poll released this week, which contains a gold mine of interesting data. The most heartening one for us is, as indicated to the right, Democrats have a bigger advantage over Republicans in generic support than we've seen in decades; dig further into the numbers and you see slow but certain gains for the liberal position in every single category, from gay rights to military interventionism. The country is moving our way.

--On the Harvard blogfront: Hooray for the return of Immigration Orange! Also, glad to hear Ryan's recovered -- I was very worried after reading he'd shoved a contact lens behind his eye. (Eww.) And once again I'll plug Planet 02138, which is mind-bogglingly useful. (Speaking of which, can we get a blogroll update sometime soon? Anyone? Bueller?)

--I'm sure everyone heard Elizabeth Edwards' sad news, and I don't think there's any need to rehash the subject. However, it's troubling that so many people seem to think that this calls for Edwards' withdrawal from the race, to the point of suggesting he's callously ignoring her needs out of ambition; most of these concerns are genuine. Nevertheless they're invalid. Firedoglake's Jane Hamsher, battling breast cancer herself, has the best description of them: "condescending bullshit".

--Depending whose poll you check, Iraqis are either completely hopeless or trembling with hopeful joy. It's science!

--Well-established among progressives, I think, is the idea that "you can't win a 'war on terror'". War on an abstract concept is impossible from the get-go. But this Wonkette satire brought to mind an interesting corollary: you can't really lose a war on terror, either...

--John McCain owns a ferret, three parakeets, and over a dozen fish. For his part, Sam Brownback has a dachshund and a fish named "Marvin Three". Meanwhile all we can counter with is Bill Richardson's cat Squeaky and maybe Barack Obama's as-yet-hypothetical dog. One thing I'll say for the Republicans, they have us beat when it comes to awesome pets.

--Speaking of Sam Brownback, I gave him guff in a thread last month for his amateurish web design; if I recall, I compared it to a white-supremacist site from 1996. Well, the Senator's updated his website and has a sweet new logo:
Now, why does this font and color scheme seem so familiar... oh yes:

Zing! Mike Huckabee, you just got very very subtly served!

--Quote of the week is from Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, with a message for the types who are constantly pushing for "unity," and opposing "rancor" and "division":

“If you take a principled point of view and people fall down on one side or the other, you can either be characterized as being principled or being tough,” he said. “Or you can be dismissed as being divisive, and I think if that’s the definition of divisive, we need more people in politics who are divisive.”

Hear hear. (h/t Hit & Run; and I die a little inside every time I approvingly cite libertarians, but what can you do.)

--Tom DeLay has not read his own book. Why doesn't this suprise me at all? (Here's the video, btw.)

--WHY do pundits insist on calling Jim Webb a "centrist"? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HE'S A SOCIALIST REVOLUTIONARY. Jim Webb is in my wing of the Democratic Party, with Russ Feingold and Bernie Sanders and most of Minnesota and the smiling ghost of Eugene Debs. Just because Webb's macho and Southern and straightforward doesn't automatically make him "centrist", you pricks.

...I'll leave you with a thought, found via Band Madness (a fascinating March Madness-style voting competition between every major band of all time. Music fans owe it to themselves to check this one out). Seems commercial hip-hop can sometimes lead to deep existential quandaries, and it falls to the Village Voice to sort them out:

Mims is hot because he's fly. But it raises the question: Does being hot guarantee one's being fly? You ain't 'cause you not" would seem to clear that up: it would appear that fly and hot are interchangable. If you are one, you are both; if you aren't at least one, you are neither.

Deep, man. (...What is the sound of one hand rapping?)

This is an open thread, but only for the fly and/or hot. Happy Spring Break, everybody.

Roundup -- I Hear There's Some Kind Of Weather Thing Going On?

There's a palpable sense of terror vibrating through Cambridge, as though some kind of meteorological Armageddon might be happening. I wouldn't know; I've been here at work, minding the conveniently underground Fung Library since noon, and when I left Mather it was just a pleasant dusting of snow, no worse than my Canadian hometown gets in July. (I'm exaggerating, but not by as much as you think.) Possibly it's gotten worse this afternoon -- whatever, damned if I'm going outside. I think I'll just assume that you're all a bunch of shrinking violets who can't handle a little bit of weather. Typical Americans.

Anyway, maybe that explains our sudden blogcoma these past couple days. Or midterm season, or March Madness. I don't know. Fact is, if John McCain's ghostly bifurcated face occupies the front page much longer it's going to start haunting me at night, and nobody wants that. So here's a few links that will hopefully push him down the screen. Get thee behind me, Senator!

--If you haven't already, bookmark Planet 02138, an excellent new Harvard blog aggregator put together by Renat Lumpau. It does subject us to the opinions of Greg Mankiw, but I suppose that's a price we'll just have to pay.

--You may have heard about Hillary's weird response to a question about homosexuality -- apparently, whether or not being gay is immoral is "for others to conclude." Which is a fair answer, but also a shitty one, for obvious reasons. Barack had a similar non-response after Newsday asked him three times -- first he discussed the Joint Chiefs, second he commended military sacrifice, and third:

Signed autograph, posed for snapshot, jumped athletically into town car.

Ouch. After a day, both issued statements to the effect that no, they don't think homosexuality is immoral, please go away. Terrible showing by all concerned; this really ought to be something we fundamentally believe and are willing to say openly.

--So I was going to write about how Governor Patrick's first couple months have been a colossal fuckup, marked by amateur mistakes / borderline-tonedeaf imaging, and he really needs to get his act together. Unfortunately, the Crimson editorialized about this on Wednesday, and as we all know the Crimson is wrong about everything. Thus I'm forced to defend the Governor -- so BRAVO, Deval, for shaking up your staff and eliminating that stupid $72,000 job for your wife's assistant! This definitely indicates that you're back on the right track, and not likely to keep bumbling around and wasting money like a drunk guy at a hotel minibar! Woohoo!

--Zogby reports that 97% of conservatives think the media has a liberal bias. This is incredible. You can't get 97% of conservatives to agree that the earth is round, for crying out loud, yet they all seem to think that CNN has it in for them. Even 17% of Democrats perceive a liberal bias. Can somebody show me this bias? I honestly don't see it. Kos has a liberal bias, not the goddamn mainstream media. (Caveat: this is one of those Zogby Interactive polls, which historically have the same accuracy rate as your horoscope.)

--"Egad! The game is afoot!"

--"Political Insider" (a spinoff of the normally respectable Political Wire) has a helpful guide on becoming a "Political Junkie", which details the reading habits of your average respectable Washington observer. Apparently this involves sucking in massive amounts of Drudge, Novak, and even -- dear God -- ABC News' "The Note". Do read the whole thing if you want to fully appreciate the magnitude of the head-up-assedness. And then we wonder why our Washington journalists all seem so dopey... no wonder they call them "junkies," this is the political equivalent of sniffing glue.

--It's been brought to my attention, somewhat belatedly, that Gilbert Arenas has a blog.

And let’s talk about "Mister 50." Can you believe that crap? Mister 50 ain’t had more than 30 points in one game yet, but he’s Mister 50. I’m not paying attention to a proclaimed Mister 50. If he was Mister 50, why did he lose to a one-armed man? Tell that to Mister 50. If he ain’t scoring 29 points a game, he can’t talk to me. I’m Mister 29... Forget that, I don’t need to be Mister 29. I’m Agent Zero, son.

You need to see this. It's like something out of McSweeney's, only real.

--More and more buzz is building, thanks in part to Josh Downer on GOP-Open, about the potential Republican candidacy of fmr. Sen. Fred Thompson. I agree with Paul of Alien & Sedition (which, again, everyone should be reading): if we're going to have a "Law & Order" President, seriously, it'd have to be Sam Waterston.

--You know what? I can't top that. Have a good weekend, everybody, up to and including St. Patrick's Day. This is an open thread.

Update (7:32 PM): OK, I admit it, the weather sucks. Objectively. It's the fucking Day After Tomorrow out there. Anyhow, I can't believe I missed this -- here's John "Tears Of Blood" McCain delivering his traditional direct, honest, unvarnished "straight talk":

Q: “What about grants for sex education in the United States? Should they include instructions about using contraceptives? Or should it be Bush’s policy, which is just abstinence?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “Ahhh. I think I support the president’s policy.”

Q: “So no contraception, no counseling on contraception. Just abstinence. Do you think contraceptives help stop the spread of HIV?”

Mr. McCain: (Long pause) “You’ve stumped me.”

Q: “I mean, I think you’d probably agree it probably does help stop it?”

Mr. McCain: (Laughs) “Are we on the Straight Talk express? I’m not informed enough on it. Let me find out. You know, I’m sure I’ve taken a position on it on the past. I have to find out what my position was. Brian, would you find out what my position is on contraception – I’m sure I’m opposed to government spending on it, I’m sure I support the president’s policies on it.”

He's a maverick, all right!

Roundup -- Coming Up For Air

GodDAMN, there's nothing more frustrating than spending days finding nuggets of promising blogmaterial, but having to let them slide because you feel guilty about not writing your fifteen-page gov paper--
         (Question for anyone taking sophomore gov tutorial: WTF?!?)
--which you naturally put off until the last minute anyway, instead spending a solid 30 minutes playing WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006 on your roommate's Xbox, and wind up incoherently flailing at your keyboard about "revolutionary assessments of power vacuums" at 4 AM on a Tuesday while plotting transfer to the U of Western Ontario where you won't have to deal with this shit.

Point being, I'm still a little loopy, but here's a random collection of links to entertain you anyway...

--Scooter Libby: fall guy. Fitzgerald: finished. FOX News: still fair and balanced.

--Crimson Blues, the HLS Dems blog, continues to impress: writer Ehren J. Brav gives a great examination of whether the government's accounting of the budget deficit may be misleading. Check it out.

--The Washington Post has an important story, this from the CCES study of election returns:

The visual representation of the nation's voters isn't a nicely shaped bell, with most voters in the moderate middle. It's a sharp V.

The nation is polarized, and the hallowed "middle ground" is largely nonexistent. Where's your "triangulation" now?

--Congrats to Justin, Jarret, and all of LegCom, who got their op-ed published in the Crimson. It's top-notch. Also, Jess Coggins (why does that name sound familiar?) responds at Cambridge Common.

--Beyond the Ann Coulter unpleasantness, CPAC might contain some lessons for us about the state of modern conservatism. The best summaries have come from alien & sedition, an obscure but fantastic blog dedicated to analyzing the conservative movement. This one deserves to be on your must-read list. (Also, Stephen discusses his CPAC experiences at RedIvy.)

--Breaking from politics for a moment: Uleaileuleaileaeuleaileae!

--Speaking of incoherent babble, Joe Klein's decision to list the characteristics of a "left-wing strawmanextremist" got a lot of attention all over the blogosphere; the best response I've seen came from BooMan, who gave it a thorough demolition. (My only note is that Klein's mentality seems to operate in absolutes, which strikes me as awfully inappropriate for someone whose job it is to seek nuance and realism. Then again, it's Joe Klein.)

--There was always something about the Republican Congress (R.I.P.) that vaguely reminded me of Galaxy Quest; it doesn't help that Tom DeLay has a book coming out titled -- I swear to God -- "No Retreat, No Surrender".

And that's all I got. Consider this an open thread.

Oh, also, I want opinions on this:
The Mather House open list exploded with argument the other day (archives here, for masochists only) over our Freshman Housing Day T-shirt, after some members of the house alleged that it was sexist/tasteless/offensive. The shirt's design is: on the front, a picture of King Kong--

--climbing the Mather tower, holding a tiny blonde woman who shouts "Ahhhh! Mather!" The bone of contention: on the back of the shirt reads the phrase "That's what she said." I think it's hilarious, but I'm not sure it's appropriate or tasteful... Thoughts?

Intersession Roundup - Yes, You ARE That Bored

Anyone ever stay on campus during intersession? I highly recommend it. This place is different when school's not running; what few people remain are always calm and peaceful, happy to sit around and watch TV or whatever it is they like to do. And I think the vibe spreads, even to the Square, which is usually a nails-on-chalkboard place full of urban frustration and overpriced coffee; today it was nice, the CVS clerk was friendly, even the homeless people were almost smiling.

Peculiar thing happened to me on the way back, too; I was coming down Memorial Drive like I usually do, 'cause it's prettier by the River and there's never anybody on that sidewalk, when Alice's Restaurant came up on my CD player. And I wanted to listen to all 18 minutes of it before I got back to Mather House, so I went over to the river and sat down on a bench where I could see the sunset. And I swear to God, as I sat there for eighteen minutes listening to Arlo Guthrie sing, the clouds parted overtop of me. There were clouds on either side, clouds off in the distance, the sun was about to duck down behind a cloud -- but right above me, all of a sudden, this humongous swath of clear blue sky. Absolutely stunning.

You should listen to it as well; it's intersession, surely you have eighteen minutes. I find that nice things tend to happen while that song is playing. Anyway. Here's some more diversions for you:

--While we're on the topic of folk music, R.I.P. Denny Doherty. He sang for the Mamas and the Papas, one of the most important bands of the 60s, and later hosted a Canadian public-TV kids' show I used to like. More people should be aware of the Mamas and the Papas; they didn't record much, but what they did was beautiful. In case you didn't want to listen to Alice's Restaurant, here's one of my favorite songs of theirs:

--And speaking of clouds, this is much better than the actual State of the Union, which would have been intolerable had it not been for the great work of Kevin, Rob and Matt putting together our study break. Thanks, guys. Also take a look at this excellent play-by-play of Dick Cheney's performance last night. ("11:21 - possible chewing...")

--A very warm welcome back to Red Ivy, now revived and relocated outside the CampusTap garden. In a sure sign of fun times to come, their second post compares Hillary Clinton to Satan. I love these guys.

--Meanwhile IvyGate, much like President Bush, does not understand political humor. I'm saddened that these philistines failed to grasp the satiric genius of... uh... of a giant apple... throwing... smaller apples... um... You know what? It was exam period. Fuck off.

--If you want to be an IOP liaison for Ned Lamont, Carl Cannon, or any of this season's fellows, the applications are due by Tuesday. I strongly encourage freshmen, especially, to apply; I was a liaison last year, most Dems were at some point, it's a great time. Form is here.

--I fully expect that within 8-10 months we will all hate every Democratic presidential candidate with a passion (except possibly Mike Gravel). But it's always nice to see Republicans well ahead of us on that front -- RedState puts it well:

They all suck. Let's just admit it. Every one of the thus far announced Republican candidates for President sucks.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Ahhhh.

--There is a huge and intense discussion in the comments section of Sahil Mahtani's latest Crimson column, on that Princeton-racist-joke-column-controversy thing. It's worth a look, if only to give you some idea of the intensity of feeling among Harvard' students on the topic. (However, none of it beats the appearance of Adam Goldenberg's mother in comments for one of his columns; I feel your pain, Adam, but you have to admit. That was pretty badass.)

And that's all I got. Enjoy the holiday and I hope you all come back in one piece. This is an open thread.

Roundup -- 2007 Lurches Onstage

Wake up, children! 2007 is here and it waits for no man. I understand that many of you, in defiance of Harvard's airtight schedule, are still at home enjoying friends and family -- how ludicrous. I laugh ("Ha ha!") at your pathetic friends and family. Because (after an excellent flight on Air Canada) I am here, by God, in CAMBRIDGE, the intellectual capital of the United States, and I'm... well... ok, I'm playing video games and screwing around on Facebook. Nevertheless. You should be ashamed of yourselves, you, you time-wasters, you.

And the Internet is likewise rolling along, whether we like it or not. Some recent events of note:

--The Harvard Law Democrats have started a new blog, Crimson Blues. There's a nascent discussion about centrism over there that cries out for contribution. Hope they keep it up.

--Rumors are floating that not only has Sen. Chuck Hagel's presumed presidential bid fallen through, he may leave politics altogether. They're probably unfounded, but they're also unsurprising -- after all, he's a Republican with common sense, and that (Republicanus brainiensis) is an endangered species. Note his wonderful recent description of the Iraq "surge" plan as "Alice in Wonderland"; you're OK with me, Hagel.

--John Edwards has been awful sexy of late (politically, that is). His presidential announcement had amusing pictures; then he slapped Barack Obama with a much-needed attack on "hope"; now he's coined the phrase "McCain Doctrine" and has Kos eating out of his hand. Not bad for a week.

--Ha ha, Sean Hannity. I can't quite figure why I like this so much.

--Gadfly pantsed us during our brief website outage last week. I'll get you someday, Mulcahy!

--Pretty much everyone agrees that Gerald Ford was a very good man and we'll miss him -- although, thanks for speaking out on Iraq when it mattered, dude. Good job. (Harsher take: Matt Stoller, who made even me blanch when he called Ford "a coward, an elitist, and a loser".)

--And Dave Barry's Year in Review is, as usual, brilliant.

Speaking of vegetables, the United States Congress is rocked by yet another scandal with the publication of e-mails and instant messages sent to male pages by Congressman Mark Foley of Florida, in which he explicitly discusses acts of a sheepherding nature. As the scandal expands, House Republican leaders issue a statement claiming that they "are not aware of any so-called Congressman Mark Foley of Florida." Democrats cite Foley as another example of Republican corruption, declaring that they would never, ever, under any circumstances tolerate such behavior, unless it involved a consenting page.

After days of chaos at the airports, the TSA issues a new directive stating that "passengers may carry small quantities of liquids on board, but only if they are inside clear, one-quart, sealable plastic bags." This leads to still more chaos, as many TSA employees interpret this to mean that the passengers must be inside the bags. Eventually the TSA issues a clarification stating that "if necessary, the bags can have air holes."

That's all I got. Leave more in comments. And now, a YouTube video:

Blogsnacks 9/5/2006

Just some gruel to chew on, as we count the days to Camp Harvard...

- Hearty congratulations to our incoming Membership Director, Rob Winikates, and his all-star team of Yard Captains: Jenessa, Elizabeth, Indira, and Sergio.

– Ben White has found — maybe “dredged up” is a better a word — a couple of new blogs which will focus on Ivy League gossip. They are called, in two stunning displays of originality, IvyLeak and IvyGate. Take a look for yourself; they are so terrifyingly elitist, cliquey, and vapid they make Scene Magazine look like the goddamn Socialist Worker. I expect them to be smashingly successful.

– Dick Cheney is coming to the Harvard Club on the 8th — which is, of course, just before all the students move in, so expect tiny protests at best. What a happy coincidence of timing!

– Post your predictions for 2006 in Harlan’s thread. I dare you to be more optimistic than me! (Hint: that is not possible.)

– Take a look at this chart of median-income declines since 1999, from the Detroit Free Press (MI was worst-hit of all states). If you’re into economics maybe you can make something of Mike Shedlock’s analysis, which to me is frightening in a vague, generalized, don’t-quite-grasp-the-basics kind of way. (This is also how I feel about oil prices, global warming, and Cats.)

– News from up here in Canada: Somebody really needs to tell the U.S. contigent in Afghanistan to, y’know, quit killing us.

– An actual question from me, to our Californians: is Arnold a lost cause or what? Huh? What’s going on out there? (Also, how come Feinstein’s Senate challenger has a porn name?)

– And of course, R.I.P. Steve Irwin, aka Crocodile Hunter. At last, even if only in death, he is not a punchline; really that’s all that any of us can ask.

Have I missed anything? Consider this an open thread.
Also, if there are any Class of 2010 reading, please introduce yourselves! We’d love to know who we’ll be dealing with, so when frosh week rolls around we can prepare for the ritualistic sacrifices. (No! Just kidding, frosh! Please come to Dems introductory events! Especially if you have all your organs!)