Mid-Term Wrap Up

(via Medium) Why are Steele and Palin not ok with anonymous quotes, but ok with anonymous donors?

(via VH1) Krugman destroys the myth that "Obama didn't focus enough on the economy."

Best concession speech wardrobe: Tancredo's western pearl-button.

Best concession speech closing: Feingold quoting obscure Dylan.

A under-commented on result of the elections: GOP wins at the local level will give them an advantage in redistricting and also may gum up the wheels of health care implementation.

William Saletan has a wonderful article in Slate describing how Democrats actually won - by enacting historic legislation. They actually used their power to pass laws ... and actually sacrificed some of their power for long-term accomplishments. Majorities come and go, but Obamacare is here to stay.

Take Aim

(via Meals) The NYT reports on a new type of hunting competition where hunters compete using video scopes that allow judges to watch the tape and determine who is the most accurate shot by the amount of "kill shots" a hunter would have had (shooting real bullets) during the event. The sponsors are hoping to spur interest in hunting by emphasizing the skill needed to take down an animal ethically and without killing a bunch of animals on TV. The event will be aired on the Outdoor Channel.

Live Free or Drown

Wired magazine has a short spot highlighting a group of Libertarians who are dead-set on creating floating communities out in the ocean where they'll be out of any Nation's reach. Sex, drugs, rock and roll ... and no taxes! Milton Friedman's grandson is one of the leaders - and the PayPal millionaire is a financier.

The Education of Barack Obama

NYT Mag has an exceptional article looking back on Obama's first 1/2 term and revealing some of the lessons learned - as Barry sees it.

As the World Burns

Ryan Lizza has an extraordinarily depressing article in the New Yorker about how the Kerry-Grahm-Lieberman climate change bill got scuttled. Read em and weep.

Roberts Court Magic

Slate has a good article on the ways in which the Roberts Court has put a right-wing stamp on the law without most people knowing.

Glenn Beck Profile

NYT Magazine has a great expose on Glenn Beck. Take a read.

New Woodward

The Post is running excerpts from Bob Woodward's "Obama's Wars" this week with great inside reporting on the decisions behind the Afghanistan strategy.

Part One.

Part Two.

Axe Man

Noam Scheiber has a wonderful profile on David Axelrod in the new TNR - wondering why/if he's leaving Washington. Great background on his career and how he and Obama conflict and agree.

Aquaculture

(via Meals) A great NYT article on urban farming - combining fish hatcheries and vegetable gardening!

Wild Graph

(via Mississippi) You can view it better here.

Education: Cost -Benefit Analysis in a Pre-Collapse Economy

(via Syd O) Coming out of law school with a lot of debt has opened my eyes to the cost-benefit educational analysis I never did. I've even encouraged several people not to go back to school. Obviously a temporary economic downturn wouldn't make it wise to forgo higher education, but what if it's not temporary and a new post-collapse economy is approaching? That's the gist of this article by ex-professor Carolyn Baker. Aside from describing the lackluster student ethic found at undergraduate universities, the piece does a good job of asking the question of whether "skills" for an infinite-growth, petroleum-based economy is something a youngster should invest $150,000 in. It's a question worth asking.

How to Break Up With a Friend

That's what I feel like with John McCain. (via VH1) Jacob Weisberg has a good article on the sad state of McCain affairs these days.

The Round-up Revolution Will Not be Televised

Monsanto's "Roundup Ready" seed has created a revolution in farming. The GMO seed is used in nearly all crops in nearly all conventional farms... and has likely infiltrated Organic seed as well. There's a strong possibility that the prevalence of the GMO has even displaced conventional, original, and heirloom seeds such that in the near future (if not already) there will be no corn, bean, rye, alfalpha or other crops planted that do not contain the gene. Read this High Country News article from 2007 to get a better picture. "Food Inc." also documents the way that "frankenfoods" have taken over and how Monsanto has used its corporate power to put seed cleaners out of business (on breach of contract grounds) for trying to save and reuse non-GMO seeds.

Just last month SCOTUS (with only Stevens dissenting) provided another win for corporate America by reversing an injunction that ceased distribution of Roundup ready seed until an EIS could be conducted (read the summary here).

Full speed ahead Frankenfood.

Unfortunately Monsanto and GMO's and Roundup are here to stay, but awareness

Toons

Toon

This cartoon captures my feelings exactly on the blame Obama has been saddled with. Why is this Obama's fault? And why does he "own it"? Bush failed to realize the size of Katrina and send in FEMA fast enough ... Obama doesn't have expertise in deep sea oil drilling. He can't go scuba dive down with a ratchet set. There are probably useful technologies in the Administrative agencies, but I haven't heard anything that would lead me to believe that, say, NOAA, can stepin and plugged the hole faster than BP (hopefully) can.

The Peak Oil Transition

(via Syd O) The Oil Drum has a really good article giving 3 (actually 4) hypothesis of how nations will react, cope, and transition from peak oil. Nations could react like North Korea, Cuba, Japan, or the American South after the civil war. Really interesting account of how cultural memes of individualism, community, and militarism may account for how a nation reacts.

Rejected Fortune "500" Cover

(via Snead 303)

Here's how Gawker reports it:

Fortune commissioned a cover from comic-book artist Chris Ware. He used the opportunity to question some of the foibles of modern capitalism, depicting a "Stocks and Bonds Casino" among other satirical places. So the magazine apparently shelved his work.

The cover, apparently for an upcoming issue, would have been tough for any ardent capitalists to swallow. It depicts the Fortune 500 towering over a map featuring places like 'Cash Loans on House Titles' and 'Toxic Asset Acres'. According to one blogger who attended panel discussion for Pantheon books at Chicago pop culture convention C2E2 earlier this week, Ware:

...showed a cover he did for Fortune magazine which was supposed to be on the Fortune 500 issue. He accepted the job because it would be like doing the 1929 issue of the magazine, and he filled the image with tons of satirical imagery, like the U.S. Treasuring being raided by Wall Street, China dumping money into the ocean, homes being flooded, homes being foreclosed, and CEOs dancing a jig while society devolves into chaos. The cover... needless to say, was rejected.

Fortune and Ware did not immediately return calls for comment.

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Fortune responded thus-ly:

As we often do, Fortune commissioned multiple artists to submit cover concepts for our iconic Fortune 500 issue. Being huge fans of Chris Ware's work, we asked him to participate, but in the end we chose a design submitted illustrator Daniel Pelavin.

BP Exempted from EIS Study

WaPo reports that the EPA exempted the, now gushing, Deepwater Horizon from NEPA and and EIS:

The decision by the department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) to give BP's lease at Deepwater Horizon a "categorical exclusion" from the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on April 6, 2009 -- and BP's lobbying efforts just 11 days before the explosion to expand those exemptions -- show that neither federal regulators nor the company anticipated an accident of the scale of the one unfolding in the gulf.

No Big Government Unless You Have an Oil Slick

(via Armando) Dana Milbank has a great article on the hypocrisy of "small-government" Republicans from the Gulf states who suddenly have a profound interest in federal assistance.

"We're here to send the message that we're going to do everything we can from a federal level to mitigate this," Sessions said after the flight, "to protect the people and make sure when people are damaged that they're made whole."

Sessions, probably the Senate's most ardent supporter of tort reform, found himself extolling the virtues of litigation -- against BP. "They're not limited in liability on damage, so if you've suffered a damage, they are the responsible party," said Sessions, sounding very much like the trial lawyers he usually maligns.

Toons

1st Amendment and Kittens

(via Snead) Stanley Fish has a poignant NYT post on how first Amendment jurisprudence has developed to the point of protecting animal torture as a sexual fettish (U.S. v. Stevens). Good read.

Justice Wood?

NYT does a short profile of Judge Dianne Wood from Chicago's 7th Circuit. Some consider her a good pick to replace John Paul Stevens.

Meteor Shower

This is very cool. Check out the video of a meteor shower this morning.

Michael Pollan

(via veggie meals) Huffington Post has good excerpts from an interview with Michael Pollan.