No, not really. My birthday is actually months away. But you wouldn’t know it from my gmail account, which is chock full of emails wishing me a happy birthday, and while I’m at it, here’s 10% off whatever they are selling.

Yep, I lie when I fill in my birthday on any non-essential website that asks. It’s easiest to always use January 1st as the date, and I choose a year just based on how I feel. Sometimes it’s my year, sometimes it’s my sister’s, sometimes I go nutty and make myself several years younger.

Anyways, it’s not my birthday, but it is a new year, and I have high hopes for this one. However, given the economic climate among other things, this Zen story seems to me to be something well worth keeping in mind:

A farmer had a horse but one day, the horse ran
away and so the farmer and his son had to plow
their fields themselves. Their neighbors said, “Oh,
what bad luck that your horse ran away!” But the
farmer replied, “Bad luck, good luck, who knows?”

The next week, the horse returned to the farm,
bringing a herd of wild horses with him. “What
wonderful luck!” cried the neighbors, but the farmer
responded, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows?”

Then, the farmer’s son was thrown as he tried to
ride one of the wild horses, and he broke his
leg. “Ah, such bad luck,” sympathized the neighbors.
Once again, the farmer responded, “Bad luck,
good luck, who knows?”

A short time later, the ruler of the country
recruited all young men to join his army for battle.
The son, with his broken leg, was left at home.
“What good luck that your son was not forced into
battle!” celebrated the neighbors. And the farmer
remarked, “Good luck, bad luck, who knows?”

A very happy new year to you and yours!

So, count me in the group of people who thought that Obama had shot himself in the foot more than once during the primaries and general election, only to see that he was a heck of a lot smarter (or perhaps luckier) than I gave him credit for.

In that vein, I must admit to finding a couple of recent nuggets re his choice of Warren for Inauguration invocation to be interesting. First, Melissa Etheridge’s partner, Tammy Lynn Michaels, shares that Etheridge had quite the meeting with Warren recently:

rick is not a televangelist. rick is not falwell. rick spoke of some “stupid” things he’s said (his word, not mine), some missquotes that were given, and lots of ammunition from the media. all excellent points. (we’re all war-minded right now, you know. it’s easy for the media to distract us by throwing us into our own verbal wars here at home.) ) what to do, what to do…. the rest of the public is given an animation of rick warren… and then my wife meets the man behind the projections, the quotes, the “OTHER SIDE”. and he is warm, caring, effusive, and LOVES gays. since he nearly swallowed honey when he hugged her, i tend to believe him. he wants our gay marriages to be just as respected and embraced as the straight marriages. he just wants to wear his yamaka, and me wear my hat.

If you read the whole thing (recommended), that last part makes more sense.

So that’s the first nugget. And now, John Aravosis over at AMERICAblog notes that Rick Warren has pulled anti-gay language from his website:

So Rick Warren pulled the anti-gay language from his church Web site. The site used to explicitly ban gays from membership in the church.

Now the offending language is gone, but you can still find the anti-gay language via Google’s cache.

I’ve mellowed out a bit re the Warren pick. I still think he’s a terrible choice, and not just because of his stance wrt gays or gay marriage. But there’s something to be said for the fact that there is conversation going on that wouldn’t have happened but for the choice.

I’m not sure that pulling offensive language off a website is the end-all, be-all. Ditto with Warren’s embrace of a major gay celebrity. But maybe it’s a start?

Seeing the top photo in Google’s new archive of LIFE magazine images prompted me to go searching Flickr for a recent shot of the Pittsburgh skyline. While surfing, I found an image from 1964 as well.

So this is the Pittsburgh of my parents’ youth, the Pittsburgh of my youth, and Pittsburgh today.

Click on the middle image for comments that talk about the various bridges that served the area now encompassed by Point State Park.

1936:

1964:

2006:

If I was still in school for info design, these two videos would make for a great study/paper. Both feature design with type as their primary communication method, but the results are 180 degrees apart. The first video is getting great reception, the second, not so much.

Girl effect:

Motrin ad:

This house has been under for construction for it seems like forever. It’s on one of the busier corners in Arlington (with retail on one side), and it’s been very clear from the beginning that its footprint is a very, very odd size — something like 40 x 11.

I thought this might wind up to be a business listing, but as I drove by today, I finally saw the for sale sign and so looked the property up. According to Realtor.com, this 11-foot wide house is listing — in this economy — for the price of $1,125,000!

I guess it is over 2K square feet, but when that’s four studio apts stacked on top of each other, I just never imagined they’d ask that much.

Wow.

What Rachel says:

It’s funny what people care about. Not that the White House dog or the girls’ school isn’t important, but I figure that the girls didn’t run for President, so they shouldn’t need to be poster children for every progressive policy we might care about.

But then there’s Lieberman. Like Rachel Maddow (who is so much more articulate than I), I get the whole “but we might get to 60 votes” thing. But as she points out, his vote is not necessarily a guarantee for preventing filibuster anyways.

Really, Joe must go. But I’d settle for every Senator in the democratic caucus watching Rachel’s argument before they vote. Maybe they figure that they’ll strip him of his chairmanship if and when he strays from the party line.

But the question I hope they ask is: which important piece of legislation will he scuttle before he gets his (long overdue) reprimand from his colleagues?

IMO, just let Joe decide whether he wants a chance to be re-elected … cause I’m not sure how this isn’t his last term as a Senator from Connecticut.

Update. How timely. Daily Kos is reporting that Joe is approaching Bush levels in terms of approval rating among CT voters:

Do you approve or disapprove of the job Joe Lieberman is doing as U.S. senator?

Approve 36 (45)
Disapprove 61 (43)

If the 2012 election for U.S. Senate were held today would you to reelect Joe Lieberman would you consider voting for another candidate or would you vote to replace Lieberman?

Reelect 35
Consider Someone Else 18
Replace 48

Made me laugh … but then, I’m a geek with a major in math and minor in physics!

I want to write a post that talks about the election and the Internet one of these days, but in the meantime, am settling for some fluff!

More here:

Inspired by a letter that has become an internet phenomenon, on October 22nd, 2008, performers from all walks of life (both unknown and celebrity) will lend their voice and human presence to thousands upon thousands of women across America (Democrats, Republicans and Independents) by reading, live on the internet, diverse and emotional written responses from these women to the nomination and potential Vice Presidency of Sarah Palin and her policies.

Rainy AM commute, originally uploaded by idblog.

A little fall color on the Mall.

Sunrise, 10/27, originally uploaded by idblog.

Wanted to see if the BB could capture the crescent moon this AM.

I first saw the expression the “McCain Mutiny” over at Crooks and Liars, and thought, well duh. Hadn’t thought of it before I saw it, but once I did, it was kinda like of course.

I next did a Twitter search, and found that it’s already taking root, largely because Republican strategist Mark McKinnon wrote a piece with this title for Tina Brown’s Daily Beast (the new competition for Huffington Post).

McKinnon is pretty kind to McCain, summing it up this way:

I know and have worked with Obama’s lead adviser David Axelrod, and he’s as smart as anyone I’ve worked with in politics and deserves a lot of credit for a well-run campaign. But I know he’d be the first to admit that he just had the good judgment to saddle up on Secretariat.

I also know and have worked with McCain’s guru Steve Schmidt, who is also one of the most talented players in the game. He just saddled up on Seabiscuit. But he’s running against Secretariat. And only one great horse gets to win.

Me? I watched Seabiscuit, and don’t exactly see the parallels. But if we keep seeing articles like this on tensions within the McCain/Palin campaign, think we’re going to see a lot more about the McCain Mutiny.

Update: Well, that was fast. Can’t be good when Neil Cavuto and Don Imus talk about the campaign this way:

First, a little LOLcats:

Now a little of my cats:

Decades ago (yes, I’m that old), I wasted what was in hindsight an amazing opportunity and coasted thru a political history class at BU with Howard Zinn (if memory serves, he frankly didn’t do much serious grading of his students … in fact, you may have gotten to choose your own grade. And crap, I think it was at like 8AM on a MWF. Yeesh).

You probably have never heard of Howard Zinn, unless you saw Good Will Hunting. In the flick, Matt Damon tells Robin Williams:

If you want to read a real history book, read Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States. That book will knock you on your ass.

Zinn’s bio is amazing, which is why at this point, it’s probably my one regret about not being more studious during my undergrad years.

Anyways, I’m reading HuffPo today, and I had to check out a post titled Howard Zinn Will Vote For Obama But Says Direct Action is Needed, where Zinn talks about the election and aftewards:

We have gone through an insufferable 8 years with the Bush administration, probably the worst administration in history. In this situation we are desperate for a change. So even though Obama doesn’t represent any fundamental change he creates an opening for the possibility of change. That is why I am voting for Obama. That is why I suggest to people that they vote for him. But I also suggest that Obama will not fulfill that potential for change unless he is enveloped by a social movement, which is angry enough, powerful enough, insistent enough, that he fills his abstract phrases about change with some real content.

I think this is spot on. Congress’ approval is actually lower than George Bush’s. And regardless of how inspiring Obama is, he’s going to have to deal with 538 people with their own agendas.

This is why I think that Joe Trippi and Lawrence Lessig should be getting more visibility for Change Congress. As Zinn says, people need to hold both Obama and the new Congress to the fire.

I have to say that I’ve thought of Michael Douglas’ speech at the end of The American President more than once during this election (the Richard Dreyfuss role seems to be very reminiscent of John McCain wrt fear). But re Zinn, the relevant part is where he says:

America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You’ve gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight.

All of this basically points to the fact that we’re not done on November 5th. The work is only just begun.

Wow. Ben Smith of Politico shares an early voting story from Indiana:

For me the most moving moment came when the family in front of me, comprising probably 4 generations of voters (including an 18 year old girl voting for her first time and a 90-something hunched-over grandmother), got their turn to vote. When the old woman left the voting booth she made it about halfway to the door before collapsing in a nearby chair, where she began weeping uncontrollably. When we rushed over to help we realized that she wasn’t in trouble at all but she had not truly believed, until she left the booth, that she would ever live long enough to cast a vote for an African-American for president. Anyone who doesn’t think that African-American turnout will absolutely SHATTER every existing record is in for a very rude surprise.

Seriously, this makes me tear up. Really. I can’t wait to vote.

Enter your name to see who can bring real change to Washington. First Name: Last Name:

Go ahead, enter your real name. You know you want to!

Lots of folks, not just bleeding heart lefties like me, are commenting that John McCain 2008 is not the same man as the one who ran in 2000 or even in 2007. Look at the list of conservative pundits or media who aren’t happy with McCain or Palin here and here.

The man who used to be about honor and integrity seems to have gone MIA — most recently to the point where his campaign has apparently hired the robo-call group that outraged McCain in 2000, when he was the target. What a difference eight years makes.

So what will the next two weeks be like? Over at TPM, they are afraid that it will be Bush 2000 all over again:

The McCain plan will be to give up on the national popular vote and re-run the Bush campaign of 2000. By voter intimidation and robo-calls and litigation and outrageous allegations it will aim for victory in the states that can provide an Electoral College victory. In this case, that means McCain will focus his diminished but vigorous efforts on Florida, Ohio, Colorado, and Virginia. In each state we need hardly ask what images, stereotypes, and fears the McCain campaign will hope to evoke.

After his endorsement, Colin Powell spoke to how much this negativity troubled him:

Today on Meet the Press, Jon Meacham of Newsweek mentioned the glimmers of the old McCain on Letterman and at the Alfred E Smith dinner and then followed up:

And I think a very interesting question for the next 16 days is going to be which John McCain finishes this race? Will it be the John McCain who wants to–who has long fought for causes larger than himself, as he puts it? I was talking to our friend historian Michael Beschloss, who pointed out that at the point Vice President Mondale realized there was absolutely no way of winning in 1984, he was advised campaign the last couple of weeks as you want your grandchildren to see you. And I wonder whether that’ll happen with Senator McCain.

I can only hope it will.

I found this article by Simon Rosenberg on HuffPo to be a reassuring read:

As we head into the home stretch, it is going to be important for those analyzing the election not to confuse McCain gaining a few points with him once again having the opportunity to win the election.

The Pollster.com national polling average this morning is 50 Obama, 43 McCain. Where will the movement be in these final three weeks? If the election ends up 4-6 points for Obama, this means we end up 52-48, 53-47, or something like that. My sense now is that McCain is likely to gain 4-5 points in this these final few weeks and return to a respectable level for a credible GOP candidate. Part of what may drive this movement in the next few weeks is McCain bouncing back up from his current below-the-floor position. I mean 43 percent for a major GOP candidate in a two-way race? No way we are going to end up there.

Rosenberg also says that:

Getting back up to 46, 47, 48 is not the same as winning. My guess is there will be a lot of confusion about this in the chattering classes in the next few weeks. … The real trend line to watch now is Obama’s — if he holds at 49,50,51 — he will win. If he starts dropping below that, we may have a race on our hands.

Read the entire article for more.

And if you haven’t yet, you might want to add FiveThirtyEight.com to your reader and/or bookmark list to get really useful analysis about what all these numbers really mean.

The former Monty Python star on Sarah Palin:

It’s like a nice-looking parrot, because the parrot speaks beautifully and kinda says ‘aw shucks’ every now and again, but doesn’t really have any understanding of the meaning of the words it’s producing, even though it’s producing them very accurately.

Cleese also apologizes to fellow Python star Michael Palin who he says is “not the funniest Palin any more.”

Hat tip AMERICAblog.

FromPunditKitchen

From my home town!

Yeah, it doesn’t take much, but this one pushes a button or two in that Field of Dreams kinda way.

My dogs greeting me after returning from 14 months in Iraq

Hat tip Daily Dish.

Okay, in the “how does that voice come out of that person” category, here’s
Connie Talbot. She’s seven. Yikes!!! I love her cover of this Dolly Parton tune:

But this video of her first appearance on Britain’s Got Talent is more of a tear-jerker:

Connie lost out to Paul Potts (who I also thought was awesome: here) in the finale of the show, but I think she has a future!