Jason Brzoska

Why????

2009-06-06T18:05:00.003-04:00

(Pops head out of Hole of Non-Bloggerness)

Why is Liz Cheney on cable news for about the zillionth time in the last month?

(Disappears)

Tea Party a Washout

2009-04-18T10:57:00.000-04:00

I haven't taken the time yet to post anything I saw at the tea party at City Hall Park yet; heck, I haven't even looked at my photos and videos yet. The whole "protest" turned out to be so boring, uneventful, and unfocused, that I left after about half an hour. There was really nothing to see there!

Perhaps 2000 people showed up, many of whom just appeared to be curious onlookers. The loudest contingent were the "Audit the Fed" people who were handing out leaflets. I heard one talk radio host speak to the crowd in vague terms for about five minutes.

I may post a few photos later, but here's the best taste of the teabagging I've seen (h/t D-Day):

We're Having a Tea Party Across This Land

2009-04-15T11:19:00.001-04:00

A bunch of what's left of the Republican Party is going to be gathering in places around the country to protest, well, something. I'm going to see 2012 Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich speak at City Hall Park tonight. I'll post video later. For now, the Tea Party theme song:

It's the right's idea of a "grassroots" movement. Of course, it's being paid for by right-wing lobbying organizations and being pushed by right-wing media such as Fox News and the Wall Street Journal.

And for a little more crazy:

The guy who's making $10 million a year from his radio show alone is so concerned for the "common man?" Yeah.

Can you believe that the rhetoric has fallen so far this fast?

Miami, FL -- Heckuva Job, Timmy

2009-03-18T12:47:00.001-04:00

I rarely watch TV news in real time, but I happened to catch a bit of Obama's impromptu AIG press conference. He was doing excellently, but then when he praised Geithner, he practically compared the bankster moron to Alexander Hamilton.

Get Geithner out of there.

Tallahassee -- Lunchin' with the Legislators

2009-03-16T13:48:00.000-04:00

Got caught in one of Florida's famous 15 minute downpours, so I headed into Andrew's, which appears to be the bar where all of the people from the state house hang out.

Neat menu:

Governor Crist's Sandwich Board

Lots going on in my mind that I want to write about, but I'm off to check out the Capitol. I'll be writing more from St. Petersburg later.

Sumter, SC -- Who's Surrounding Who?

2009-03-13T12:47:00.000-04:00

As I pass through the area where Fort Sumter is, it's just worth a mention that Glenn Beck and Chuck Norris's (!) new secessionist movement, We Surround Them, is holding a public live web conference at 5 PM today. Should be awesome.

If they want to leave, they're free to go...

Lynchburg, SC -- One Hell of a State you Got There, Sanford

2009-03-13T12:42:00.000-04:00

I'm driving down through South Carolina now and noting just how terrible the roads are in the backwards state run by new conservative "up and comer" Mark Sanford, whose state has the second-highest unemployment rate but turned down Obama's offer of help in the stimulus plan with not-so-veiled racist language:

"What you're doing is buying into the notion that if we just print some more money that we don't have and send it to different states, we'll create jobs," he said. "If that's the case, why isn't Zimbabwe a rich place?"

I've been hearing conservatives compare Obama to Robert Mugabe a lot lately, despite the fact that Obama has been calling for strong action against the man. Unbelieveable.

And I hope that Sanford runs for President in 2012.

Florence, SC -- Stewart Pwns Cramer

2009-03-13T12:39:00.000-04:00

If you haven't seen Jon Stewart's epic takedown of CNBC's Jim Cramer, I highly encourage you to visit Atrios, who has the YouTube clips. Must-see TV, indeed.

Fayetteville, NC -- On the Road Again

2009-03-13T02:53:00.002-04:00

Heading down to Florida for a bit over a week. I'll probably post a bit while on the road, and let everyone who still checks out this site know what I've been up to. Maybe some photos, too!

An Atomic Wedgie Waiting to Happen

2009-02-28T06:59:00.002-05:00

Yikes...

Good thing for this kid he's homeschooled...

UPDATE:

A little more from Wonkette:

Principle, power, politics, socialism, Ronald Reagan, absolutely nothing to say.

The future of conservatism is even more vacuous than the past...

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T00:10:00.002-05:00

I resolve to get my hair cut this year. That is all.

Hugging the Panda

2008-11-14T19:35:00.001-05:00

From D-Day.

I'm going to keep that one in mind...

From the Mouths of Conservatives -- Paul Broun (R-Off the Deep End)

2008-11-11T11:32:00.003-05:00

From the AP:

"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may - may not, I hope not - but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

.
.
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"That's exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it's exactly what the Soviet Union did," Broun said. "When he's proposing to have a national security force that's answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he's showing me signs of being Marxist."

My lord...

New Rules -- Not the '90s

2008-11-11T08:37:00.000-05:00

A Near Miss

2008-11-07T23:50:00.000-05:00

I was supposed to be on this train today, but missed it by about 30 seconds. Instead, I was stuck behind it for several hours:

Ouch.

Core Reading (or, The Wheat)

2008-11-06T19:55:00.000-05:00

Now that the election is more or less over (save for a couple of House and Senate seats), I'm going to slow down a bit on my normal online reading habits. For the next few months, I'm going to stick with the following really great blogs:

Daily Kos

Digby's Hullabaloo

D-Day

Silicon Investor

Talking Points Memo

The Phil Nugent Experience

Down With Tyranny!

All supremely informative and entertaining. I'll miss some of the rest, but a guy's gotta sorta kinda have a life, or at least work more :)

I'm also going to take January off from everything political, as I do after each election. Looking forward to that.

The Next Generation -- More Tolerant?

2008-11-06T00:26:00.004-05:00

From Ari at The Edge of the West:

As you might imagine, I'm deliriously happy today. As I was putting my older son to sleep last night, I had just heard about Ohio. I explained to the boy that Obama was going to win the election and become the first African-American President of the United States. The boy looked up at me, eyes filled with wonder, as one's kids will on occasion, and said, "Really? The first? How can that be?" My son will grow up in a different country than I did, a country where more things seem possible, where more things are possible.

The boy woke up today, left his bed, and stepped into his world of new possibilities. He marched into my bedroom and inquired about the election. I told him that Obama had won. He then asked about Proposition 8. I told him that it passed, that a majority of Californians chose to annul the marriages of several of his cousins and the parents of two of his good friends. He didn't say, "Really? How can that be?" But he was upset - even after I explained that the arc of the moral universe is long, but that it bends toward justice.

He's off to school now, and I'm left feeling like I should have worked harder against Proposition 8, like I should have spent more time phonebanking, should have raised more money. I'm ashamed that I was so overconfident, so sure that the day of justice was finally at hand. My son takes immeasurable comfort in his parents' marriage. His little cousins, his friends from school, the people he knows who will be most directly affected by Prop 8, awoke today into a world without that comfort. The arc of the moral universe feels unbearably long right now, even as a I celebrate President-elect Obama.

I can't believe I'm talking about a next generation...

The Upshot

2008-11-05T23:15:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm a little disappointed, actually. Just like me to be a downer, right?

After the election was called last night, I spent time talking to the crowd at the bar at the hotel where I'm staying in suburban Boston. About half were sorta rednecky Republicans and half were Dems. All said they supported Obama, though all of the Republicans repeatedly stated that McCain was a "true American" and a "true patriot" because he was a POW. When I asked them why they'd support Obama over McCain, the Republicans, to a man, replied, "because we need change." At the same time, they challenged me on my support for Obama and wouldn't listen to any reasoning that had anything to do with any issues. Change is all well and good, but I'd love to see some sort of acknowledgment from Obama voters, other than staunch, involved Democrats, that there's at least one not-so-abstract reason for it. Maybe I'm asking too much.

But one of the narratives I heard last night at the bar as well as in the newspapers and on the interweb today was that African-Americans "have no excuse anymore" when it comes to their success, and some have gone as far as to say that it proves that racism is dead and buried. Now, while I've been one of the first to say that racism has diminished enough that Obama's campaign could overcome it, it's far from gone.

It took an incredible, unbelievable black man running the best campaign in anyone's memory versus an underwhelming, doddering old man in the shadow of the worst President in the history of this country to put a black man in office. The Onion put it best in two headlines today:

Nation Finally Shitty Enough To Make Social Progress

Black Man Given Nation's Worst Job

Bernard Avishai thinks there's more to it:

I confess a certain impatience, on this poignant day, with all the earnest talk about how America achieved something remarkable yesterday by electing our first African-American president, as if the choice has been about race all along. I do not mean to diminish an historic first, like electing a Catholic in 1960; I, too, choked-up when John Lewis spoke. But relief today is not about Americans choosing an obviously black man over a white man, which proves we can come to terms with our past. It is about our choosing an obviously brilliant, reciprocal man over a thick, cynical one--a man who articulates a coherent vision of global commonwealth over someone advancing vague, military patriotism--which proves we can come to terms with our future.

Racism, it is true, did not confound the choice, as some predicted it would. But racism has not confounded mainstream admiration for The Cosby Show or Orprah or Tiger Woods--and hasn't for some time. Most of the 46% who voted for John McCain feel deeply anxious about a world in transition, where erudition, open-mindedness and intellectual discipline matter more and more, and their own sheer willingness to labor hard matters less and less. I bet they are more skittish about Obama's supremely elegant mind, his worldliness, than his dark skin; more drawn to the repudiation of "elitism" than to the rejection of "welfare."

So our choices are: 1. A significant portion of the country is still racist, 2. A significant portion of the country deliberately doesn't want to see an intelligent person in office, or 3. A bit of both.

Doesn't reflect terribly well, but I guess #3 isn't all that surprising to too many of us.

A nice segue from Digby into something else that doesn't reflect all that well on us, Yes on California's Proposition 8, which takes the right to marry away from gays in California:

It's terrific that we are seeing a decline in racism to the extent that we are able to elect a black president. We've come a long way and there's no taking anything away from those who waged the struggle over all these centuries. But our society is not truly changed if it's still writing discrimination into law.

It's as if we just can't be America unless we are taking active steps to marginalize somebody.

So true. We always need at least one enemy and at least like half a dozen underclasses.

We just didn't get as many House or Senate seats as I'd hoped, though 60 Senate seats is still a vague possibility.

It looks like Alaska managed to reelect a convicted felon, Senator Ted Stevens, and his supercorrupt sidekick, Don Young. I think that Stevens' conviction may have in fact helped the two of them, because Alaskan voters often see issues as the "Lower 48" against them and they may have felt that the "Washington elite," as their Governor likes to say, railroaded him.

Also, the abhorrent McCarthyite Michele Bachmann was reelected to her seat in Minnesota. What are they thinking in that state, particularly if Coleman pulls out reelection in his still-undecided Senate race.

I am happy, however, that Sasha and Malia Obama are getting a puppy!

Also, the elections of Walt Minnick in Idaho, Alan Grayson in Florida, Jeff Merkley in Oregon, Dan Maffei in New York, and Larry Kissell in North Carolina, among others, are welcome news.

And of course, YES WE DID! YES WE DID!

And make sure you catch the replay of tonight's South Park, which apparently was partially recorded after the election last night. Those guys are still in form after 12 years on the air.

UPDATE: A great post from Phil Nugent on "know-nothingness."

The End of An Historic Night

2008-11-05T01:43:00.000-05:00

So, it's over and Barack Obama is President-Elect.

Well, it's not quite over. Still some important Senate and House seats left, like in Minnesota and Alaska.

So how did I do? Not that well. I predicted Obama would get 330 electoral votes, that the Dems would get 8 net seats in Senate, and 39 net in the House. Looks like 370, 6, and 20ish.

But, a good night overall and we should enjoy this for a few days.

OBAMA IS PRESIDENT!!!!

2008-11-04T22:59:00.000-05:00

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Let Me Eat Cake!

2008-11-04T22:34:00.001-05:00

I'm celebrating by expanding my gut with some chocolate cake. How are you celebrating?

Last Man Standing Goes Down

2008-11-04T22:26:00.001-05:00

CNN calls CT-05 for Jim Himes. Chris Shays, the last Republican Congressman in New England, is being retired.

Mississippi Goes to Obama

2008-11-04T22:24:00.001-05:00

207-135 on CNN.

Texas for McCain

2008-11-04T22:21:00.001-05:00

Still no surprises. Let's see how TX-07 and TX-10 come in...

Jersey Not Looking Good

2008-11-04T22:12:00.001-05:00

Zeitz, Stender, Adler, and Shulman all down. A friend at Shulman headquarters says he's about to concede. Very unexpected.

Obama's coattails are nonexistent there. At least Lautenberg won.