So, Where Do You Go For Your Fix?

There's so much political information out there, along with unbelievable doses of spin, equivocating, and bias, that there isn't one perfect spot to go to satisfy my desire for more and more political news. The key for me has been to go to a rotating list of about 15 sites that give me a good general impression of what the candidates are doing or saying and how things are being perceived. Here are my favorites, but be warned: once you go down the rabbit hole of political blogs and punditry you'll find it very, very difficult to climb back out (cue spooky laughter)...

Marc Ambinder-He keep a regularly updated blog on the Atlantic Monthly site that is both intelligent and unbiased. For whatever reason I've come to trust his opinion on the issues more than any of the others, and his site has thus become the first place I seem to go when a big story starts to break.

The Caucus-The Gray Lady's blog, offering a more substantive take on the major political issues of the day than a lot of other political blogs. What is lacks in a personal touch it makes up for with the quality of the writing.

Trailhead-The Slate take. Generally the funniest of the political blog. It was on this site that I first heard about Sinbad's distinct take on his trip to Bosnia with Hillary Clinton. Speaking of Slate, check out this article to get Jack Schafer's way-more-comprehensive-than-mine take on the world of political news.

The Page-Compiled by Mark Halperin and other Time Magazine staffers. Definitely the most Wham! Bam! Pow! of the blog, which makes the site a little hard to read at times. Still, it's probably the best place to go to find out what the absolute freshest political news is (thanks to John, my friend in the Michigan Democratic Party, for the heads-up).

First Read-MSNBC's take. I have absolutely nothing interesting to say about this site, except that I like it's perspective quite a bit and I find myself trusting everything the goateed, earnest Chuck Todd says.

The Huffington Post-A good place to go if you need an "I Love Obama" fix (which I often do) or if you randomly decide to care what Alec Baldwin thinks about the issues of the day. Still, definitely worth going to for the perspective of smart outsiders like Barbara Ehrenreich.

Political Junkie-I talk about Ken Rudin and the NPR team more than I should, but his light and fun weekly column is always a good place to stop by for a little midweek entertainment.

Those are just of few of the many, many, good ones out there. Anyone else have one they love that I'm missing?

A Dip Into the Vault

Oh me, oh my: Thanks to a tip from the hilarious (if erratically updated) Mickey Tettleton Memorial Overpass, it turns out that you can now read every back issue of Sports Illustrated in their new section called "The Vault."

I'm going to assume that everyone out there is exactly as enthused about this as I am. We all made our dad's save up their back issues of Sports Illustrated (going back years and years) so that we could read them when we came to visit, right? We all can recall with perfect clarity the exact images and texts of certain covers dating back twenty years, right? And, finally, we all know that the following cover is the greatest in the history of the magazine, yes?

Is This Racist?

Personally, I don't see it, but head over to the Huffington Post to read more about the apparent controversy regarding the cover of this month's Vanity Fair.

Although I don't think the argument against the cover is wholly without merit, I find it a little absurd that someone could actually be personally offended by an image that is so obviously intended to be playful, or, at worst, mildly provocative.

Oh, Kwame! What Were You Thinking?

Well, he's probably still better than Marion Berry, but Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick (inexplicably awarded a second term in 2006) has been indicted on charges of perjury.

You can read more about this bizarre, idiotic, and, I'll admit, occasionally hilarious story here and here. This New York Times piece about it from a while back has one of the greatest newspaper quotes I've ever seen: “This technosexual tragedy has engulfed the city in a way I haven’t seen in 30 years of doing political consulting.”

Man oh man, didn't he think people could trace text messages, or what?

Slimming Down With Steve: Dancing!

I'm a bit distracted with the NCAA tournament just starting up and that whole presidential race you might have heard about (yes, "race." As in: somehow everyone started talking about Obama's race and race in general all at once-the 67th most pressing issue in this country and something that threatened to ruin Obama's campaign for a moment thanks to a combination of bad press, idiocy and hearty dose of white racism. Thankfully, it appears he's weathered the storm).

Anyway, that being the case, the least I could do to make up for the bitterness on this website of late is to post my all-time favorite piece from The Daily Show: The "dancing" segment from Steve Carell's "Slimming Down With Steve" series. I just rewatched it for perhaps the 5th time and the breakdancing part at the end I'm happy to report that the sketch has aged perfectly over the last 5 years.

The Lovers that Never Were

I was digging through some old cd's last night (you can almost track, to the month, the day that I got an ipod and made an almost complete shift to digital music) and came across a cd that a friend made for me of the Elvis Costello/Paul McCartney demos that were recorded in the late 80's, around the time that Costello released his Warner records debut,"Spike." Although a lot of the songs from these sessions aren't especially memorable, there are a few highlights such as the demo (and superior) version of "Veronica" and "You Want Her, Too." The real highlight, however, is a song called "The Lovers that Never Were."

This was the time in Costello's career where his voice was starting to crack on the higher and more plaintive lines in his songs (which peaked for me with the line "well it's his story you flatter" on "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" where his voice seems to whack into the ceiling). I can't explain why, but every time this happened with his voice it struck a strong, personal note with me. He seemed wiser and more rueful than before, and, for whatever reason, the music from that era fit perfectly with where I was at that time in my life.

Anyway, for about three months in college "The Lovers that Never Were" was was my absolute, without question, favorite song. It was never that far from my thoughts and seemed to pop back in every time there was a gap. I can't even give a good reason for this-though the lyrics are good the rhymes are terrible, there's almost no backing music to speak of, and the only thing that holds it together are the strained voices of Paul McCartney and Costello. Still, it works, if only because when it comes to impassioned vocals, you really can't best either of those guys.

So, here's the song. It gets my vote for the best "lost Costello song" and it really is kind of amazing that with all the (generally superfluous) Costello reissues of the last few years, the tracks from these sessions have still not really made it into the public sphere.

Obama's Speech on Race in America

Here is the text of Obama's speech in Philadelphia this morning. I'll try to get a YouTube clip up once this becomes available.

First thought: It seems like a perfect speech, able to incorporate Rev. Wright into the Obama narrative while both denouncing and explaining the more unusual rhetorical elements in some of Rev. Wright's sermons.

Second thought: How did this all of a sudden become a big deal again? Oh yeah: nothing going on right now, 4 more weeks until the Pennsylvania primary, 24 hour news shows, let's rehash old issues and hold Obama responsible for things his pastor said years ago!

Third thought: I'm pretty sure that bringing the "race issue" into the fore (already the elephant in the room) won't really hurt Obama, at least in the primary, because most of the points he makes about change, resolution, the need to understand the wounds of the past, etc. are simply inarguable. Thus, making a speech like this allows him to take the reins and once again put himself forth as the candidate full of positive, idealistic notions about America. This is the kind of thing that I think America's want more of, enough so that he should be able to weather the brutality that has been put forth by the Clinton campaign the last few weeks.


UPDATE: Here's the video...