Jerry Wexler, dead at 91.

Genius comes in many guises; Jerry danced like a white man, like a marionette with a broomstick up his ass, but he had a sense of rhythm and an ear for the poetry behind the pain of roots music, blues and jazz and soul, that reached beyond race and gender and age into the center of all that is human.

There is a lot of talk these days, about post-this and post-that. Jerry Wexler was post-everything petty and mean and low; he was crazy and wild and had no regard for limits and never backed down from a fist fight, but first and foremost he was a decent human being who saw all others as human too, no more and no less.  Read more 

And use me as your surrogate! What could be better?  Read more 

Have you ever started out with what seemed like a good plan, what might even be thought of as a delicious plan, and then had it linger on a little too long without completion? So long, in fact, that you are forced to consider that maybe the plan wasn’t quite thought through properly in the first place, that maybe you hadn’t considered all the consequences? So very long past any hope of actually achieving what you set out to do that it starts to smell a little odd, to appear discolored, to get all soft and mushy but still, against all reason, you just can’t bring yourself to let go?

Of course you have. It isn’t a secret; everyone knows, and you don’t have to be ashamed.

You aren’t alone, we’ve all had it happen at least once in our lives, and there is hope. You don’t have to cling, bitter and weeping, while little flies start to gather and circle the slowly corrupting remnants of your decomposing dream; come with me, let me show you how to get past the grief.  Read more 

This move of the 2008 Democratic Convention to an outdoor venue for the Nominee’s acceptance speech isn’t the first time it has occurred.  Read more 

Containers, tomatoes and great huge pink balls.  Read more 

All coming soon, to a planet near you.

Twenty years ago, June of 1988, Jim Hansen of the Goddard Space Institute presented the first sound data showing human involvement in changing the Earth’s climate. Since then all of his predictions, from temperature rise to melting of the polar ice caps and the glaciers, have come true. With new data, a more comprehensive understanding of the feedback mechanisms and better modeling, he sees much worse to come: sea level rises that will displace hundreds of millions of people, floods and drought on a scope and scale far beyond anything known in human history, extinction of half or more of the species on the planet and collapse of entire ecosystems.

Not to worry, though; we still have twenty years before it all spirals hopelessly out of control.

Maybe.  Read more 

Yet another attempt is being made to pass a FISA revision bill that will provide immunity for the telecoms against lawsuits for their part in illegal spying on American citizens. The cabal planning this maneuver expects to take their plot to both the House and Senate next week, where coalitions of Republicans and BlueDog Democrats could provide enough votes for passage.

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Update 3: NYT article and a blogger talks to Hoyer’s office

Update: More on the new FISA deal from The Hill and Glenn Greenwald. Text is down at the bottom.

Update 2: Congressional contact information list  Read more 

“A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

V.I. Lenin

Are there any limits to what can be said about political opponents? Should there be any limits? Does anything go, no matter who is the target? Are we all no better now than Karl Rove?  Read more 

[Hillary’s speech: Since bringiton has framed the issues so nicely, let’s use this post as an open thread for Hillary’s speech, which TalkLeft and RiverDaughter are liveblogging. CSPAN here.]

It would be a grave error for anyone to underestimate Hillary Clinton.  Read more 

Lambert asked a question, buried way down below the weeds in an update of a Quo Vadis Hillary? post, that needs some broader consideration.

Lambert writes:  Read more 

What is the rush to end this thing? Why the hurry to have it over? What, exactly, are so many people concerned about? All the wrong things, apparently. There are more and better reasons for her to persist than not.

Hillary should continue her pursuit of the Democratic nomination because:  Read more 

Up your house, and gone again.  Read more 

CNN-FOX-ABC-NBC-CBS-AP-UPI-Reuters-New York Times-Washington Post-Murdoch Syndicate Exclusive
by Katharine Q. Seelye and Julie Bosman. June 2, 2020 - BREAKING NEWS -

The first contact in several years with remnants of a holdout band of Hillary Clinton supporters took place yesterday, with a helicopter flyover identifying the handful of survivors. Unwilling to concede that the 2008 Democratic presidential primary had been fairly conducted, the hardy but dwindling tribe became increasingly isolated during the Obama/Hagel administrations, eschewing television and rumored to be surviving only on home-grown vegetables and the occasional squirrel.  Read more 

There’s a lot of upset among Clinton supporters over this weekend’s events, but on balance it wasn’t all bad for her. One thing and another, the weekend may turn out to be a net plus.  Read more 

Polls last week confirmed the weak showing of Barak Obama in a couple of key states that will be crucial in winning November’s general election. They also showed that Hillary Clinton has maintained an Electoral College advantage over John McCain, while other polls show Clinton dominating McCain in overall voter preference.

With the flawed Democratic primary likely resulting in Obama leading Clinton in the primary race for pledged delegates but not by enough to win outright, the nomination decision will fall to a small group of leaders; Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. What should they do?  Read more 

This shouldn’t be so difficult, but it is. Even an “expert” can be confused by nomenclature and imprecise press releases; an interested but less than fanatic follower of the process has no chance to keep things straight.

A while back I wrote about a change in the DNC Rules and Bylaws Standing Committee, with a new membership that did not include Donna Brazille – good news, thought I. But as it turns out, I was wrong. And boy, am I embarrassed.  Read more 

And why does anyone care what she thinks?

Lambert asks what is up with the latest craptaculence from Julie Bosman’s keyboard, and where have all the decent reporters gone? Good questions; there’s a story beneath the story here, and it encapsulates everything that is wrong with what is fraudulently passed off as contemporary “journalism.” Let’s dig down into the muck a bit, shall we?  Read more 

[Welcome, InstaPutz readers.]

[Welcome also, Taylor Marsh readers, thanks to Grey.]

After Hillary Clinton’s historic 41-point victory in the West Virginia primary, two questions loom: How long will Barak Obama cling to his shattered dreams of the presidency, and how much damage will be done to the Democratic Party by his stubborn and divisive refusal to accept the obvious?

UPDATE – Below: How will Obama win an Electoral College majority? at Salon by Paul Maslin, former pollster to Howard Dean. (h/t BDBlue)

UPDATE 2 – Below: Skirting Appalachia, an Op Ed in the NYT opining on Barak Obama’s Electoral College strategic options by Charles Blow, Art Director at National Geographic -and why not? (h/t again to the sharp-eyed BDBlue)  Read more 

[Readers, the comments section is long and noisy, but interesting. See if, in your judgment, the points the bringiton makes are addressed head-on, or not. And watch for the duellling haikus! —lambert]

[Update below, 11 May 08, bottom of main text - BIO]

Only one thing matters; winning the Presidency in November. Hillary Clinton has proven she is by far the strongest candidate an most likely to achieve that victory. How can she convince the Democratic Party delegates?  Read more 

What ever happened to my Democratic Party? Why doesn’t the donkey love me anymore?  Read more 

I don’t like Steny Hoyer. There’s just no way around it. Now he’s conspiring with Jay Rockefeller to force retroactive telecom immunity through Congress, so George Bush and his criminal conspiracy won’t have to answer any questions about violating the Constitution by spying on American citizens without warrants.

Again.

Did I mention I don’t like Steny Hoyer?  Read more 

This Obama phenomenon is a puzzle. Why him, why now? I have thoughts, but still more questions than answers.

I don’t want to get caught up in the “sheeple” thing, that’s a shallow and ultimately meaningless term, but bear with me for a moment on the concept of a bellwether. Not in the common political sense of a district that has had a voting pattern the same as the national outcome, but in the Old English sense of a lead sheep that the rest of the flock will follow out of instinct, the need to do so transcending rational thought or consequence.  Read more 

The Democratic voters of Michigan and Florida are unhappy, or so we read. They, or if you will, their representatives, moved up their primary dates and drew a punishment from the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. Since then, what have the voters of Michigan and Florida actually done to try and reverse or repair their problem? Nothing but complain.  Read more 

It turns out that if we feed our bodies with the diet we evolved to accommodate, we are healthier and live longer.  Read more 

Al Gore gave a talk at the recent TED Conference. It’s an updated and abbreviated version of his climate change slide show, with both alarming new data on the increasing speed of climate change and some heartening information on the growing public awareness that we need to act and soon.  Read more