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Pupsters

Hipster puppies. E.g.:

  
 

Um, excuse me, Polish newspaper

But something's wrong with one of those Olympic mascots:

  

Can I say again that I love our president?

From the White House Flickr pool:

 

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a Republican member of the Cabinet, feigns being a blocking back for President Barack Obama as he arrives backstage to meet with GOP House leaders before speaking to their issues conference at the Renaissance Baltimore Harbor Place Hotel in Baltimore, Md., Jan. 29, 2010. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza) 

Job losses under Bush and Obama

 

Thank-you e-mail in a thank-you card

Meta kids!

  

See also, this.
 

GOP so loco

Oh, it gets even worse than this:

 

Jesus Didn't Tap

Dot com. As you may have heard me say this a.m. already, "!!!"

Don't forget to call your rep and senators

To tell them to Pass the Damn Bill. I had e-mailed, but only just now called McDermott's office at 553-7170. A very nice person picked up immediately, and I was on an and off the phone in under 30 seconds.

Vern Fonk sells out!

According to the PSBJ, "Vern Fonk insurance agency sold to N.Y. firm":

Vern Fonk Insurance, which has been doing business in the Puget Sound area for 58 years, has been sold to auto insurance company Confie Seguros for an undisclosed sum.

Confie Seguros focuses on insuring Hispanic customers and officials of the New York firm said the Vern Fonk agency will continue using its name, but will attempt to attract more Hispanic customers. Confie Seguros also said it plans to purchase other insurance agencies in Washington and Oregon.

"Stop demanding that you get screwed"

Awesome. (via Sullivan)

Obama's Q&A with the House GOP

This is amazing. It's long, but I can't encourage you enough to watch the whole thing. I watched it in four chunks today, interrupted for naps and work and playing with Silas. But it was much more worthwhile than the SOTU, the most substantive discussion of politics—between the actual opposing sides and actors—I've ever seen.

Here's Marc Ambinder, the Republican columnist for the Atlantic, saying much the same:

During the presidential campaign, it was John McCain who proposed a form of the British Prime Ministers' questions for the president. It was derided as a gimmick. This is no gimmick. I have not seen a better and perhaps more productive political discussion in this country in...a long time. 90 minutes worth!

Please, more of this:

Bird guitar!

On civic ignorance

This is another reason that the Democrats need to move forward and do the right thing on health care, regardless of polling:

The problem, however, is that the filibuster makes it unlikely that the administration will get much done this year. And the White House's disinterest in making an issue out of the filibuster ensures that the public won't really know why they're not getting much done. A Pew poll released today found that only 26% of Americans could correctly identify 60 votes as the numbers needed to break a filibuster. Another 25% thought 51 votes was sufficient, and 37% had no idea.

Similarly, 39% of Americans have no idea how many Republicans voted for health-care reform. Only 32% know that zero Republicans voted for health-care reform, at least in the Senate. For that matter, only 39% of Americans know who Harry Reid is.

It's a depressing poll, and for the White House, it should be a troubling one. Their argument essentially relies on a fairly deep level of procedural knowledge and interest. Enough, at least, to understand that the amount of governing the majority can do is dependent on how much governing the minority lets them do. It's not an easy argument to make, and it's even harder if the White House does not plan to make an issue out of its premises.

At the very least, that poll suggests that there will be little political sympathy for an unsuccessful Democratic majority. Republicans may be responsible if health-care reform fails, but Democrats will bear the blame.

Although at this point, that blame will be deserved. Pass the damn bill, people.

That's what I want to hear

Pelosi, just today: “You go through the gate. If the gate’s closed, you go over the fence. If the fence is too high, we’ll pole-vault in. If that doesn’t work, we’ll parachute in. But we’re going to get health care reform passed for the American people.”

"Keep Calm and Carry On" meme evolution

 

Required reading on passing the Senate bill

A rethinking of Bill Kristol's infamous (and effective) GOP strategy memo from 1993, courtesy of Steve Benen.

(Have I mentioned, hey, please call your reps and senators? Because, OMG, they're starting to listen.)

Snow Segway

Just so you know, the rich people in the rich northernlands (like Vail here) ride on Segways with BIG FAT snow tires:

  

Fake Werner Herzog reads Curious George

I just posted this on Omni and had to share:

Good guys and bad guys

We just picked up a couple of Star Wars "Golden Books" for Silas--A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back--which were random 99 cent finds at Half Price Books today (see Recent Arrivals).

The most entertaining conversation re: the new books so far is his obsession with identifying "good guys" and "bad guys." This is mostly easy with Star Wars (we're sticking with calling Darth Vader "bad" for now), but I wasn't sure when we got to Jabba. Then the bounty hunters. We have settled on calling them "businessmen," who are neither good nor bad.

Health care PSA

I don't think I say this that often, but if you're reading this blog, please do me the personal favor of contacting your reps *and* senators, like *this weekend or Monday at the latest* and telling them to PASS THE DAMN BILL.

This is why you're fat

Dot com. E.g.:

(via Sullivan)
   

Greg Sargent on why the House should pass the damn bill

"The choice for Dems: Either you get a thousand news articles about the new law, or a thousand news articles about how hapless and ineffective you are."

Indiana Jones Coffee Shop!

After hearing the Democrats sound like the "French retreating from Russia" and finding out that corporations now have a constitutional right to skull-fuck America, this made me feel a little better (courtesy of Boom): 

 

It's been a great country while it lasted! See you in hell, House Democrats. And a big welcome to our new 45th President, Scott Brown!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Indecision 2010 - The Re-Changening
www.thedailyshow.com
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Conversation on the ski lift

A guy from Houston made it clear to me that they only elected a lesbian mayor because the choice—after a run-off, in which apparently "all the choices were bad"—was between "a hard-nosed, businesswoman-type lesbian" and "a crook." ("If we could have chosen between a straight businessman, or businesswoman, and a gay one, we would have definitely elected a straight one.") So thanks, Texas, glad to know that "lesbian" is at least one small step up from "crook."

You've come a long way, America

Obama is cutting Tricare!

Um, no.

Tricare is a really good supplementary insurance program for vets and dependents of retirees. (My grandmother, for example, uses Tricare, since my grandfather was an Army officer, and she pays literally $3/month for all her meds thanks to that and Medicare.) 

Anyway: My dad (also on Tricare, a retired Army officer and chaplain) just got an e-mail basically saying "Obama is cutting Tricare! Please forward this e-mail!"

It only took about 30 seconds of Googling for me to find these official (and largely debunking) statements from the Reserve Officers Association and the Military Officers Association of America (MOAA).

I love how, as the MOAA points out, these *same budget options* were in *Bush's* budgets, but you never saw any "Bush is cutting Tricare!" e-mails--because, of course, Bush wasn't a no-good illegal Kenyan who wants our guns. From the MOAA:

First things first: It’s important to understand that this book of options is nothing new. CBO puts out similar lists of options at the start of every Congress, and previous option books have included these or similar proposals. Some of the cuts were, in fact, put in the Bush administration’s annual budgets, but they were rebuffed by Congress every year.

And more importantly, Bush was *more* hostile to vets:

It’s a complete unknown at this point what the new President might put in his first budget proposal to Congress – expected sometime this spring. We’ve seen no indication at this point that the new Administration will share the perspective of the last one that more costs ought to be shifted to DoD and VA beneficiaries.

We have a train!

I still can't quite believe that I rode a *train* from my *city* to the *airport* this morning. It is a wonderful thing, this train of ours. It's almost like we live in a city here and all. 

I flew into Denver (to meet up with my family for skiing) but I didn't get to see Denver's light rail (I still can't believe they beat us to it). Maybe Seattle will actually become forward-thinking now, as opposed to just seeming so, in the Age of McGinn. Although I've got to say a new seawall won't have quite the same visceral appeal.

  

Change Blindness

The brain, it is crazy:

(Thanks, Tom!)

“Filled with money losing advice!”

HA: Barry Ritholtz is asked to blurb Ben Stein's newest book (they happen to share the same publisher). Except the funny thing is, he hates Ben Stein.

Obama: The Musical!

Germany is NUTS:

Dig that singing, stiff-shouldered McCain!