Listening Post

Happy Friday, boys and girls.

It's Q-Tip and the lovely Norah Jones -- Life is Better.

What Have We Learned?

Just a quick note: On a day when sweeping (but largely toothless) Wall Street reform passed the Senate, BP claimed victory by finally capping an undersea well that's spilled somewhere around 130-million gallons of oil into the ocean and will eventually cost the company billions, and Goldman Sachs settled its fraud case with the SEC to the tune of 550-million dollars and still saw an upswing in its stock prices, what's the ultimate lesson?

These monolithic entities aren't simply too big to fail.

They're too big to even effectively punish.

Dough Nation: The Squeakquel

A reminder that this is it -- the last official night of our mini-Summer Pledge Drive.

A lot of you nice folks have already dropped a buck or two into the little hat I've set down on the digital sidewalk directly in front of my pathetic self; for that I can't thank you enough. If you're a fan of this site, a regular reader, whatever, and you want to show DXM some love, all you have to do is click the Paypal link in the right-hand sidebar. Or if you'd like, you can pick up a copy of my book, Dead Star Twilight -- which can be purchased and downloaded immediately to your computer by clicking here.

Even though we're doing this quick and dirty and I'm not pressing the issue, quite a few people have still been kind enough to step forward and make their support for my tiny corner of the internet known over the past 48 hours, and that really humbles me.

So thanks -- and thanks for reading.

For Me To Paean

Two moments of swellness from Time magazine's resident butt-kissing hack, Mark Halperin -- specifically, his new piece in which he dutifully sucks the toes of Sarah Palin:

"Palin's video proves that she is savvy and sophisticated enough to harness her star power for political effect, shrugging off the cartoonish taint that has clung to her since she and McCain lost."

Meaning that, yes, she's no longer a cartoon. This he's somewhat right about -- she's actually more of a reality TV star these days.

And then there's this bit of pretzel logic:

"A new TIME poll shows Palin losing to Obama 55% to 34%, a lopsided margin that leads some Republican strategists to predict a wipeout if Palin is eventually chosen as the party's nominee.

But that might not matter."

While this is admittedly taken somewhat out of context, understand that Halperin is actually referring to Palin's chances of winning the White House in 2012; he's not pitching some "if you strike her down she will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine" theory. No, in Halperin-Bizarro-world, person who get most votes not always win election. And Halperin himself actually serious journalist.

Bonus Quote of the Day

"It's right up there with 'That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.'"

-- Jim Norton, on the cultural significance of the Mel Gibson quote, "I deserve to be blown first... before the fucking jacuzzi"

Quote of the Day

"There's an attitude in some progressive circles suggesting that if we constantly hector the president about everything, it'll actually move some mountains. What's totally ignored in this approach are the political consequences -- the self-defeating aspect of demonizing the only president in decades who's more closely aligned with a progressive worldview. Which is why I've been shouting about "smart accountability" for more than a year now.

Smart accountability, if you're just joining us, is holding the president accountable in a way that doesn't undermine the movement by inadvertently weakening the president and enabling the Republicans. Unfortunately, constant badgering by some of the cool kids in the progressive blogosphere directed at anyone else who says something nice about the president appears to be the order of the day. Political consequences be damned. And now, anyone who points out the political consequences, like suggesting the potential of President Palin, is shouted down by the cool kids as well."

-- Bob Cesca

This is one of those themes I've also been repeating ad nauseam for longer than I care to remember -- that the indignant demand for the Great Progressive Utopia or Bust by some on the left amounts to little more than shooting yourself in the foot. No, it's not wise to let a president -- even one you happen to agree with on more than a few fundamental issues -- get away with anything he damn well pleases. But at the same time you have to accept that there may well be consequences -- extraordinarily negative ones -- to publicly beating him down for every little goddamned thing when he's already getting it in perpetuity from the other side. The other side, by the way, which has already proven how mind-numbingly good it is at standing together as one and backing a candidate or idea simply in the name of getting it thrust into a position of power. The other side that's just waiting in the wings, rubbing its collective hands together and salivating at the notion of this president's failure and its inevitable return to glory.

Listening Post

After posting Demons last week, it really got me in the mood to hear more from Fatboy Slim's damn good 2000 album Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars, since it's something I haven't much listened to in years.

This is actually my favorite track from that record. It's a "duet" with Jim Morrison.

Here's Sunset (Bird of Prey).