“I’m just deeply disappointed that once again we may have to settle for the lesser of two evils. “

With Former Sen. Tom Daschle out of the running for Health and Human Services Department because of painfully obvious tax issues the ball seems to be dropping towards Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius for the post. A senior administration official leaked that information and of course the press has been covering it.
We know that Obama hasn’t had an easy first month. The confirmations haven’t gone as particularly smooth in many instances and the ‘loyal’ opposition is anything but. I must completely disagree with the administrations interest in pursuing Gov. Sebelius for this position. In the instance of Tom Daschle, he was a consultant for the healthcare industry after he left the senate. Though he would have brought a world of knowledge to HHS and health policy, I feel he was just too close to the industry and am relieved he was withdrew his nomination. With regards to Gov. Sebelius she was an insurance commissioner before becoming Gov. Is this change we can believe in? I find it to be settling for the lesser of two evils. I am in no way attacking Gov. Sebelius ability as a Governor. In fact she is amazing and has been steering conservative Kansas through this budget crisis. Her place is not in executing and formulating healthcare policy.
What I find reprehensible is the complete shut out of Gov. Howard Dean, MD (yes he has a Medical Degree!). For all I know he may have some legitimate reasons for not wanting and has been vetted, but from the sources I’ve talked with have said, he has been absent from consideration. This could be because of the friction between Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Gov. Dean.

“Medicine is and should always be science based – not driven by ideology.” – Gov. Dean

Lordy, lordy, lordy…

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TOLD

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Continuing from here.

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Terror and hope…

Here is Paul Krugman on Hardball both scaring the shit out of me and giving me some hope about our economic situtation:

Krugman does a good job of correcting Matthews when he goes off on his tangents and gets the facts wrong about the Great Depression.

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Hot lesbian make-outs!

Thank you Newsweek for a great profile of Rachel Maddow. Not only does it contain this wonderful little bit from David Frum:

When [David Frum] went on air he slammed the show as part of the problem, with its “heavy sarcasm and sneering disregard for a lot of substantive issues that are really important.” She fought back, challenging the idea that making jokes on a news show could be morally equivalent to calling out “terrorist” at a rally. He told NEWSWEEK that while he considered Maddow to be an “unusually thoughtful and intelligent person,” her show was one of many on cable TV that turned politics into a circus.

Because David Frum – and those like him – with his wonderful obfuscating about the Bush administration for the last 8 years has not turned politics into “a circus”. No, it was the snarky liberals! OF COURSE!

This from the man who termed “Axis of Evil”…

Back to the point. Newsweek also gave us this bit about Maddow’s partner: (italics are mine)

Today, the most important thing in Maddow’s life is Mikula, 50, her partner for the past 10 years. They met when Mikula—who is warm, friendly and curvaceous, with vivid green eyes and blond hair

Oh yes, Maddow’s gay partner is curvaceous! HAWT.

Do you think that if Maddow’s name was “Rob” instead of “Rachel” Newsweek would be describing “his” partner /girlfriend/wife as curvaceous? What Rachel was a gay man? Would “his” partner be discribed as having great abs or some such? I think fucking not.

So, thanks Newsweek. Thanks a fucking a lot.

[Also: I am well aware of the idiot traffic the post title will bring.]

The Next Movement

Seriously, what the fuck is this? I heard this story on the radio this morning, and I hoped it was just rumor. While it apparently hasn’t been officially announced, it seems to be at the very least a rumor that’s fairly well-backed up. If you don’t want to click on the link, I’ll save you the trouble. The story is that the Roots are going to retire from non-stop touring and going to become Jimmy fucking Fallon’s house band once he takes over for Conan.

In the link above, drummer ?uestlove attributes the shift to the need to have a more regular gig now that most of the band members are married with kids. I guess I can sympathize with that, but good Lord, Jimmy Fallon? He doesn’t deserve you. Hell, the Roots deserve much better than 20 second song snippets at the beginning and end of commercial breaks. How much money is NBC offering them?

A friend of mine once went to a My Chemical Romance show just because Muse was opening for them. When he told me this, I was appalled at the thought of a band as good as Muse being forced to open for a group of hacks like MCR. That’s pretty much how I feel now, except with the added knowledge that a generation is going to grow up knowing Black Thought, ?uestlove, et al. as those guys Jimmy Fallon attempts to banter with while giggling to himself.

Which is funnier?

….the stupid argument Scarborough is making about Rahm Emmanuel or the utter shock of everyone when he accidentally says “Fuck you”?

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“That’s she’s very attractive. That’s she’s very competent. And that she’s very happy.”

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Critical mass…

I have repeatedly started, deleted, and then restarted a post a bunch of political posts recently. Posts on how much I like Rachel Maddow’s new show, about the whole NBC dust up, and whats going on in the campaign…

But every post was just filled with me vomiting out so much frustration and anger that I just couldn’t bring myself to hit “publish”.

I think I’ve reached a “critical mass” of information and emotional investment in this election cycle and if I keep up with this level of interest I am going to explode.

Compare this to the 2004 cycle: I was completely invested by physically (I was involved on organizing for Kerry on my campus) and emotionally (I was following the horse race on all three cable networks, reading all of the national newspapers, blogs, etc…). I felt change coming (seriously, how could people vote for Bush after all he’d done?) and I could not get a fill of whatever election bits and pieces I could.

Of course, I was living in a electoral house of cards and it all collapsed at roughly midnight of election night (I’m not sure if it was the election results that did it or the handle of whiskey I drank after I heard the results).

I’m not nearly as invested as I was in 2004. Some nights I can’t even bring myself to watch Keith Olbermann. I tend tend to ping pong back and forth between reading/watching everything I can and sticking my head in the sand.

What exactly is the point of this post? I’m not sure. Maybe its for me to say that I really need to pull back before I drive myself crazy?

Blogging as therapy?

It keeps going & going…

This is so sad it is almost not funny.

Almost.