i would highlight

the dc football team is 1 of 8 teams to win 3 super bowls

andrew sullivan walks the company line:

Here is a young president, prepared to allow himself to be portrayed as “weak” or “dithering” in the slow and meticulous arrival at public policy. He is trusting the reality to help expose what we need to do. He is allowing the debate – however messy and confusing and emotional – to take its time and reveal the real choices in front of us. This is politically risky, of course. Those who treat politics as a contact-sport, whose insistence is on the “game” of who wins which news cycle, or who can spin each moment in a political storm as a harbinger of whatever, will pounce and shriek and try to bounce the president into a decision. And those who believe that what matters in war is charging ahead regardless at all times will also grandstand against the president’s insistence on prudence.

But he won’t be bounced and his concern seems to be genuinely to do the right and the most sustainable thing. Which is a kind of strength we haven’t seen in a president since Reagan.

sally jenkins:

[Riggo] certainly doesn’t regret anything he’s said about the 2-6 Redskins, or their owner, Daniel Snyder. It’s an awkward fact that Riggins, arguably the most beloved player in the history of the franchise, a Hall of Fame running back who from 1976 to 1985 hauled the team on his back to its greatest victories, has become the harshest critic in town. He accuses Snyder, the billionaire entrepreneur, of possessing “more ego than intellect” and ruining the team with meddling. He suggests: “It won’t be long before the logo is a profile of the owner. . . . I mean, that’s where this is going. He’s branding himself. I kind of like that, actually. At least it would be truth in advertising.”

cant say that wouldnt be preferable. absolutely no fucking reason to insist on using a name that offends the very group its supposed to honor.

little green footballs walks the company line:

National security is still an important issue. But the main reason I can’t march along with the right wing blogosphere any more, not to put too fine a point on it, is that most of them have succumbed to Obama Derangement Syndrome. One “nontroversy” after another, followed by the outrage of the day, followed by conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory, all delivered in breathless, angry prose that’s just wearying and depressing to read.

if some of the words in my head were pictures.

a year ago:

he said he hung the flag out at 530 in the morning for veterans day. the rest of the conversation slurred, his statements crossing and re-crossing the border of comprehension; he is on the tail-end of a binge brought on by a ship finally sinking. i dont know whether any of us will understand why he held on like ahab when no one would have judged him had he sold the fucker in some glitzy seaside town for 40 million. probably because there are too many reasons to consider why: insecurity, narcissism, his word, because he is the son of an immigrant. like some henry james industrialist he reminded himself that all you need is two credit cards and an idea. but like the aging boxer who cant quit he also left the door open for swimming to the bottom in search of usable wood.

well the shits been dredged and there aint no more wood nowhere and of all them things im supposed to be pissed about i only half joke that missing a band ive never seen pisses me off most. thankfully i will be back in time to see the other oblivian.

michael scherer:

Under the military system, the President of the United States must affirmatively approve of the execution. In July of 2008, President Bush approved the execution of an Army private, Ronald A. Gray, who had been convicted in connection with four murders and eight rapes in the late 1980s. Gray has since appealed his case to federal courts, delaying his execution again.

no chance obama approves hasans execution, and not because of some sudden revelation about the barbarism of state-sponsored murder, but because of stone-cold calculation. will be hard to watch.

sullivan:

The US is now bankrupt, trapped in Iraq and Afghanistan for the rest of our lives, unable even to prevent the two most potentially dangerous Islamist states, Pakistan and Iran, from getting nukes, morally compromised and hanging on to global support only because of a new president who is even now being assaulted viciously at home for such grievous crimes as trying to get more people access to health insurance.

sad.

fantasy worlds colliding: lena headey will play the vile, incestuous and totally hot queen cersei.

people who slow down or stop entirely atop subway stairs to check their phone or light a cigarette as if dumbstruck by andean vistas instead of a wendys or a 99 cent store.

i thought reckoning was finally at hand once peggy dropkicked don so soon after betty had. but of course the writers dig don way too much to realize any suggestion of entropy. so here we are, suckered once again into rooting for dude because of our faith in others.

lost with marriage is the particular optimism of drinking beer with one hand while scrubbing the nut sac just so (clean but hopefully not soapy tasting) with the other.

figured on kittys back for piss breaks 1 & 2. that i instead stood through the entire thing slack-jawed and happily immobile is todays notable irony.

there is no other place on the fucking planet id rather be than this loud fucking arena has always been the magic of bruce and i havent felt that magic in 10 years. but standing in front of the stage under them big madison square garden speakers i was 16 all over again listening on my aiwa headphones and hanging on to every life-affirming breath.

ill stand outside the door rather than pack into a tiny pisser. such was the case when some big motherfucker with tattooed dots all over his face bust past me. i walked in after him and said something like hell no. he slowly took off his sunglasses and asked me to repeat myself. i did. he then slowly took off his hat and again asked me to repeat myself. i repeated myself once more after which he calmly turned and walked out. pissing i wondered how the fuck i was going to explain to my sleeping wife and kids a broken jaw. but i was instead met by a bouncer who asked what i had said in the bathroom. i said there was a line. no foul language? i said there was a line. the big motherfucker remarked that i had in fact used inappropriate language and that as a reliable patron he shouldnt have to suffer such crass indignities.

she spits glottal approximations mostly but this morning she removed her pacifier, nodded with intense purpose and began to beatbox.

to be near is to hold on like hell and to fall away is to oversleep summer, but for a moment each morning i let go and i stare; at a sleepy smile knock-kneed and new.

cant help but like the guy. sue me.

brian beutler:

Most of the commentary about last night’s elections has centered around Republican pickups in the New Jersey and Virginia statehouses. But what’s gone largely unnoticed is that the two congressional seats up for grabs last night both went to Democrats, and that will have immediate ramifications for health care reform.

The NY-23 seat abdicated by Republican John McHugh (who resigned to become Secretary of the Army) went to Democrat Bill Owens — the first Democrat to hold the seat in over a century. And the CA-10 seat abdicated by Democrat Ellen Tauscher (who resigned to become Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs) went to Democrat John Garamendi.

That creates some simple arithmetic. Yesterday, Democrats had 256 voting members in the House. By week’s end, they’ll have 258. Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could afford to lose no more than 38 Democratic votes on a landmark health care reform bill. Next week, after Owens and Garamendi are sworn in, she can lose up to 40. For legislation this historic and far-reaching, she’ll need every vote she can get — and both seem likely to support reform.

tomasky:

New Yorkers’ Democratic-ness is all about national politics. It’s about supporting candidates like Barack Obama and opposing people like Sarah Palin. But locally, New Yorkers believe in the old adage about there being no Democratic or Republican way to pick up the garbage. They want what works, and they suspect that the local Democratic party can’t and won’t.

which means i didnt vote at all.

nyt:

Yet White House officials have shown little interest in Republicans, with the exception of Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, whom they have wooed assiduously, and one or two others. Mr. Obama did meet with some Republicans early on, when his aides still believed it was possible to get the support of Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee.

The No. 3 Republican in the Senate, Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who attended one session with the president, recalled that in the 1960s, when he was a Congressional aide, Democrats and Republicans worked together on civil rights. He said he saw no possibility of a bipartisan health bill.

“White House officials don’t want one or don’t know how to do one,” Mr. Alexander said.

yglesias:

This is very confused, starting with the fact that Alexander started working as a Senate aide in 1967 by which time the main civil rights debate was over. Then any competent observer of American politics should realize that it’s no coincidence that the bipartisanship of the civil rights era vanished in the post-civil rights age. It was the debate over civil rights itself that created the unusual bipartisanship of mid-20th century America.

Last there’s the small matter here of the actual history of the health reform debate. Chuck Grassley is not just some guy, he’s the top Republican on health care issues. And the Grassley courtship process took a long time. And Grassley abandoned it in a blaze of hypocrisy, eventually slamming Democrats for embracing an individual mandate to purchase health insurance that he had long supported.

The larger context is that the president laid out some goals for health reform. He wants a bill that expands coverage in a way that’s deficit neutral in the medium-term, doesn’t disrupt people’s existing health insurance in the short-term, and bends the long-term cost curve. A lot of different ideas were put forward in Congress about how to do this. None of them were put forward by Republicans. One of them, produced by the Senate Finance Committee, was embraced by one Republican, Olympia Snowe. But the others are opposed to all the different proposed ways of achieving these goals and don’t have an alternative approach to offer either. Which is fine. Political parties can have profound disagreements about objectives. But it is what it is. Acting as if inviting Lamar Alexander over for tea would have fundamentally altered the landscape is silly.

textbook.

meghan mccain:

The older generation needs to understand that my generation does not respond well to anger, hate, and personal attacks. We are a generation of communicators, and to us, actions speak louder than loud words. Perpetuating negativity will only result in the tuning out of another generation of voters, and we simply can’t afford that. I find it especially ironic that most of those who criticize Senator Lieberman more often than not have never run for elected office. But as the old saying goes, those that can’t do, criticize.

that mccain finds those who criticize the self-serving use of the anti-democratic filibuster ironic is todays notable irony.

i dont do gore. never have. prolly cuz my first r-rated movie was night shift instead of friday the 13th.

tnc:

I think I really like a scared Don–that’s really his truest self, and the rest is a facade. One of my favorite scenes happens in season one, when Rachel Menken berates Don for wanting to run a way and calls him a coward. It was like seeing him undone offered a view of what’s really happening inside.

the series best scene (or when jimmy barrett dismisses draper) is of course emblematic of the disconnect. psychology for dummies says drapers past makes him prone to running. but so easily from his kids? nothing up to that point suggested anything but a certain devotion.

tomasky:

TNR’s James Gardner surmises that the Obamas are the first first couple to prefer abstract art to representational. Bravo. High time. Of course, it’s just more proof what a couple of socialists they are. I mean, before you know it, they’re going to be forcing everyone to hang only abstract art in their homes.

dont know whether ive ever been moved by an abstract art piece. but i can stare at this winslow homer (slide 5/9) long past dusk. because im that fucking predictable.

kathleen parker:

Obama’s basketball game, thus, has become a convenient metaphor for an inconvenient truth. Generally speaking, guys prefer to play ball with other guys, just as women prefer to form book clubs with other women. That’s not because women don’t like men (and vice versa) but because when relaxing, women mostly want to drink wine together. And talk about men. I don’t know what men do on the basketball court that is so compelling, but they apparently need it, and I don’t.

how dopey. competitive ballers only care about competition. and obama has probably played basketball with enough d1 women to know that shit is gender-neutral. besides which i probably only say three words during pick-up: lets go back.

UPDATE: the interns have been flooded with email regarding re: lets go back. it means lets go back on defense. as in lets go back on defense because of the purity of the three i just launched in dudes eyeball.

my favorite single malt:

Here the peat is grassy and mossy, mixed with heather, wood, sand and even seaweed. In its raw state it doesn’t smell at all, but once lit it releases a wonderfully rich, earthy aroma that is replicated in the whisky itself. And as for the iodine and salt I also detect, Heads simply waves his hand towards the sea breaking on the cobbles of the old jetty just yards from where we stand.

we have the word terroir. but what have we for the sea?

i wrote:

the wiz finished with 19 wins. i figure next years over/under will be double that based on health alone. add flip saunders and maybe blake griffin and were talking 45.

the over/under is 41.5. agent zero will hit that handcuffed in a motherfucking milk can.

the coolest dude on television.

bruce bartlett walks the company line:

As if we needed further evidence that transfers have virtually no stimulative effect, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just issued a report on the 2008 tax rebate showing that only 30 percent of the money was spent; the rest was saved, thus providing no stimulus to short-run growth. (See also this CBO report and this new working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research confirming this analysis.) On January 24, 2008, George W. Bush assured the country that a tax rebate was just the right medicine to prevent an economic downturn.

…

I think there are grounds on which to criticize the Obama administration’s anti-recession actions. But spending too much is not one of them. Indeed, based on this analysis, it is pretty obvious that spending – real spending on things like public works – has been grossly inadequate. The idea that Reagan-style tax cuts would have done anything is just nuts.

midnight soul serenade, heavy trash.

as if charlie rich walked out the swamp a vampire.

[slice: (sometimes you got to be) gentle]