Roundup 3/19/09

Melina has a good post on Eliot Spitzer, AIG and related financial skullduggery at Brilliant at Breakfast and RIP Coco.

Dave Johnson's posted on stopping corporate lobbying with taxpayer money at Seeing the Forest and the Commonweal Institute.

Richard Blair of All Spin Zone spent St. Paddy's Day up in NYC "tilting at a very large windmill - American International Group." He's got a series of posts on it.

More, you say? How about Suzan at Welcome to Pottersville 2, a Dan Froomkin roundup, and Robert Scheer on Democracy Now about the financial shenanigans (and the ridiculous opposition to nationalization).

Bill Scher points to a page for Dogging the Blue Dogs at the Campaign for America's Future, and don't miss Kevin Drum's sarcastic take on this preening, self-serving lot.

Over at Raw Story, Brad Jacobson of Media Bloodhound reports that the Feds were involved in the Nevada ACORN raids last October. This contradicts previous denials and raises the issue of political motivation (shocking, I know).

At They Gave Us a Republic, Blue Girl has been following the Republican effort to obstruct Chris Hill's appointment as the ambassador to Iraq. (Well, golly, the position's hardly important or anything.)

Newshoggers weighs in on "The Cost Of A COIN War In Afghanistan," and Juan Cole of Informed Comment discusses Afghanistan and the Middle East on Democracy Now and The Colbert Report.

Brad Blog is working to save radio's progressive Peter B. Collins Show. (Then there's Diebold, Diebold, Diebold…)

Finally, on a lighter note, Jon Swift explores the very essence of modern conservatism in "Why Bristol Palin is Different" - and receives an e-mail from National Review's Lisa Schiffren.

(Cross-posted at Blue Herald)

Roundup 12/4/08

Sara Robinson's "Talking Turkey: Ten Myths Conservatives Believe About Progressives" over at the Campaign for America's Future is a good overview of the subject, especially for surviving the holidays. (I believe Right-Wing Cartoon Watch has a dozen cartoons at least for each of those ten myths.)

Media Bloodhound catches the latest example of a major media outlet trivializing the Iraqi death toll, a serious and persistent problem.

On a related note, Mock, Paper, Scissors has a CNN video about another back door draft. Great family values, indeed.

Over at Newshoggers, Cernig looks at some dangerous assumptions in "Mumbai: Tortured Confessions and The Justification For War" and examines dangerous framing in "Manly Men And Hard Power" (bringing to mind an earlier post here, "Brave Cowboys of the Junior High Lunch Room"). Also, Fester takes on Bernard Finel's defense of Bush on WMD. It's a subject I hope many people revisit, especially since Bush is embarking on the revisionist no-fault legacy tour.

Over at skippy's, there's important but discouraging information about a possible Screen Actors Guild strike, and a reader survey if you've the time. Remember, blogging is better in a skippy t-shirt.

FranIAm commemorates a sad anniversary.

Blue Gal has a good meditation on the not-poor contemplating the poor and outsiders examining insiders who contemplate outsiders.

I'm overdue for linking Jesse Wendel's post on the Obama job application going over the line.

Meanwhile, Lance Mannion is a vampire snob and an elitist who values reading habits. Oh well, that's the fashion these days. And while an Interview with Obama about Vampires is probably out of the question, when it comes to musing about Obama and creature of the night Batman, well, the outlook is good.

Update: Bernard Finel's e-mailed a correction:

Actually, I didn’t defend Bush. I did, however, defend people who in 2002 might have supported the Iraq war resolution. There is a notion going around that everyone who supported the war was either a dupe or a Bushie fanatic. That just isn’t true, and it oversimplifies what was actually a complicated issue of intelligence assessment and strategy.

I've had a polite exchange with him, and may post more on these and related issues later on. But you can read the Bernard Finel post Fester was critiquing here and an article with a more comprehensive explanation of his views here.

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)

Roundup 10/7/08

Religulous: Reviewed by skippy and Dennis Hartley.

Winks and Starbursts dissected by Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings , Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast, Marlene H. Phillips, Kathy G, Sadly, No, LG&M, Fighting Liberals and Steve Audio. Plus, Blue Gal expresses her undying luv for that dreamy Joe Biden.

Bonus: If you missed Rebecca Traister's much-discussed piece on Palin, do check it out (it pretty much sums up my take), John Cole states what should be obvious about the "real" Sarah Palin, and Jill considers the Palin 'Rapture Fever' angle.

Finally, there's the Campaign for America's Future's latest national debate ad: "Even the Rope We're Hanging Ourselves with is Made in China"

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)

Radio and TV Roundup

This American Life's great episode from 5/9/08, "The Giant Pool of Money," is one of the best, clearest explanations of the current housing crisis you're likely to find. Basically, short-term greed overcame any consideration of long-term consequences. Funny how that works. (But glibertarians and fat cats will still tell you all regulations, even those that would have prevented this conduct a decade or so ago, are bad.)

Rick Perlstein discusses his new book Nixonland on Fresh Air, with some great anecdotes. (Plus, Mark Evanier discusses his new book about comic book icon Jack "King" Kirby, true believers!)

Reverend Carroll Pickett's interview on Fresh Air is thought-provoking stuff:

Reverend Carroll Pickett was the death-house chaplain at the Walls prison unit in Huntsville, Texas for 13 years. During his tenure, he ministered to 95 inmates executed by lethal injection. He is the subject of a new documentary, At the Death House Door.

"Rape in the Military" is PBS show Now's look at a very troubling trend that QuestionGirl covered not long ago (and BH has covered for some time).

Democracy Now! recaps everything known to date about Pat Tillman's death, and for Memorial Day, ran another piece on Winter Soldier.

Robert Scheer discusses his new book The Pornography of Power on The Politics of Culture, from L.A.-based NPR station KCRW (my regular listening destination). Plenty of dissection of the neocons and the military-industrial complex.

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)

Blogroll Amnesty Day 2008

The scene was terrible, as a giant strode the landscape, leaving devastation and chaos in his wake. Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies, rivers and seas boiling, dogs and cats, living together, mass hysteria!

This weekend has witnessed a blogswarm in honor of Blogroll Amnesty Day. It's dedicated to the idea of linking and promoting the fine work of bloggers who aren't gigantic mutant lizards breathing nuclear flame the usual "A-listers," and may be off one's radar. Jon Swift has a good write-up about the original Blogroll Amnesty Day and the response. His piece also compiles and links the posts of participating bloggers. Co-sponsor Skippy also has a great post for the occasion, and has been similarly linking participating bloggers. The indefatigable Blue Gal naturally has an entry, and thanks to her for spreading the word.

Personally, I'm rather fond of gigantic mutant lizards, as well as the work of many "A-list" bloggers. But there are times I read posts that seem surprisingly dismissive of bloggers who aren't as prominent, and who aren't necessarily blogging as their primary job, for greater influence with a given political party or for media gigs (luckily, the blogosphere also allows for dissections of such posts and more measured followups by their authors). Those are all valid reasons for blogging, and sincere kudos to those bloggers who can make a living doing it, but of course, the vast majority don't.

I wouldn't think writing about why people blog would be necessary, but I'm also surprised when people don't see the point of supporting the arts, or when friggin' professors don't understand the value of teaching literature. I understand why some bloggers are loathe to write about blogging itself, but given the mainstream media's still frequent dismissal of even prominent bloggers and their fact-checking, sometimes it's sorta necessary. ("Why the hell are you spending all that time blogging" is also a question many bloggers with families or the similarly over-committed may face fairly often, from others or ourselves!) Every blogger can speak for him or herself, and there's certainly not one way to blog — where would be the fun in that? But in my experience, I'd say blogging is about personal expression, about community, about an exchange of ideas, and giving more people a voice. Political blogging specifically is a way of more directly engaging in democracy, giving vent to justified frustrations and engaging in positive activism. Jane Hamsher put it nicely when she wrote:

During the '90s, railing at the TV set was the isometric sport of the silent majority... That isolation ended with the advent of the progressive blogosphere, which acts as a virtual water cooler for those who not only want to rail at the TV set, they want the TV set to listen.

As to the value of linking smaller blogs from those vituperative, foul-mouthed bloggers of the left, I would hope that, given that "democracy" thing, explaining such linkage isn't necessary, but Joe Gandelman at The Moderate Voice has a nice summary (via Skippy).

In any case, thanks to Jon Swift and Skippy, thanks to Blue Gal, and thanks to all those who make a habit of linking less trafficked blogs (such as Melissa McEwan and her thrice-weekly blogwhoring links and threads). Thanks especially to Mike Finnigan of Mike's Blog Roundup at John Amato's Crooks and Liars, where they do indeed celebrate Blogroll Amnesty Day the year 'round.

Finally, here's a set of blogs I'm highlighting for Blogroll Amnesty Day. While VS is rather low on the totem pole (and I suppose I should release sitemeter data to tracking sites), I get to fudge on the "less-trafficked blogs" thing thanks to BH. (Ha! Just try and stop me!)

House of the Rising Sons: Fade has a nice habit of highlighting other people's work, and has gone all poetic for this Blogroll Amnesty Day.

Ice Station Tango: It's hard to keep up with all the places Station Agent blogs, but head down to the chilly south to see Tom Cruise acting creepy and Bush acting even creepier. (Funnily enough, VS and BH got a shout-out for this event over there I just saw now. Thanks!)

Suzi Riot... Rants from the Left: Some days Suzi riots, and other days she just dissects the BS. (Okay, now I'm getting embarrassed, since she kindly linked VS in her B.A.D. post. I swear, I didn't plan this!)

Sugar Land is Dreaming could use a little love, and spending five hours on Arabic homework certainly does make the world a better place.

Cheyanne's Campsite: When not discussing Deer Hunting with Jesus, Chayanne considers the quality of all those jobs mentions by politicians.

The Non Sequitur provides "A Logical Analysis of Political Media." Run by two philosophy professors who sure know their informal logical fallacies, it makes for a fun and educational read. Check out "The Goldberg Variation."

The Nefarious Lair of LGPPP, Inc. (Lesbian Gangs Packing Pink Pistols): "An Organization Bent on World Domination," and doing it in style. To paraphrase Kent Brockman, I, for one, welcome our new lesbian overlords.

There are too many good blogs out there, and too little time to read them all, but I promise to do a better job this year reading, linking, learning, and spreadin' the luv. So more to come. Happy blogging!


(Cool pic courtesy of Skippy.)


(Another cool pic, courtesy of Zen Comix.)

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald, for more link luv, natch.)

Roundup 10/12/07

I read many interesting stories and posts every day that I never get around to writing about, mainly due to lack of time (or maybe it's just personal sloth). In any case, I thought it'd be good to try to link some of those pieces more regularly.

Newshoggers' Cernig interviewed General Petraeus' spokesman, Colonel Steven Boylan. They have some follow-up pieces here and here. Well done!

Over at Truth in Politics, Little Miss Know It All is starting a series looking at the Democratic presidential candidates' campaign ads. First up is Bill Richardson. She also has a good piece about politicians and autism.

Speaking of Democratic presidential candidates, via Blue Gal, here's Dennis Kucinich at Santa Barbara City College, pro-blogging and pro-activism.



Finally, blogger Maura Keaney of My Left Nutmeg rocked the house explaining blogging on Connecticut's Face the State. Way to represent, Maura! (Via Melissa at Shakespeare's Sister.)



(The cartoon is of Will Rogers.)

(Cross-posted at The Blue Herald)