Interesting discussion of the challenges of protecting the President Obama. Working from the Southern Poverty Law Center's research it appears that (Shocker!) right-wing extremism presents the most clear and present danger to the President.

A former special agent describes the risks:

"In Obama, we have a president with a very unique personality who likes to be out with the people. Put that together with the political atmosphere of these times that is highly partisan and vitriolic, then include race, and we've got a big challenge. There's no margin for error."

A different kind of freedom.

we're going to miss DFW in ways we're only beginning to understand.

He finishes strong.

But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind that is most precious you will not hear much talk about much in the great outside world of wanting and achieving.... The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day

(The entire piece can be read here)

Hova at the House. If this doesn't make you smile a little bit...

McWhorter attempts to shift our gaze from the tea-baggers to work that Obama is doing in education reform:

Obama is well on his way to becoming an Education President in the true sense. No, all of America’s public schools will not be turning into lushly funded academies churning out bright-eyed, civicly-engaged, readaholic yet well-rounded Übercitizens anytime soon, if ever. But great stuff is happening....

Take, for example, the National Center on Education and the Economy’s plan to have eight states experiment with allowing public school students to graduate after tenth grade upon finishing clearly stated requirements, and to then go on to community college. The states will have pilot schools using this program just two autumns from now.

The Krugman profile is worth a slog.

In his columns, Krugman is belligerently, obsessively political, but this aspect of his personality is actually a recent development. His parents were New Deal liberals, but they weren't especially interested in politics. In his academic work, Krugman focussed mostly on subjects with little political salience. During the eighties, he thought that supply-side economics was stupid, but he didn't think that much about it. Unlike Wells, who was so upset when Reagan was elected that she moved to England, Krugman found Reagan comical rather than evil. "I had very little sense of what was at stake in the tax issues," he says. "I was into career-building at that point and not that concerned." He worked for Reagan on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisers for a year, but even that didn't get him thinking about politics. "I feel now like I was sleepwalking through the twenty years before 2000," he says. "I knew that there was a right-left division, I had a pretty good sense that people like Dick Armey were not good to have rational discussion with, but I didn't really have a sense of how deep the divide went."

know hope

I don't know why, but this feels like progress on the racial front. (albeit tiny)

Amazing photos of the US assault on the Taliban.

How great is this? Jimmy Carter pens a response to Foreign Policy's take down of him.

A fascinating discussion about the new book The Watchers; The Rise of the Surveliance State in America that profiles the people behind the the government's efforts to use technology to fight crime and terrorism. Most notably the belueagued Total Information Awareness creater John Poindexter. It's a fascinating conversation that is actually sympathetic toward Poindexter and casts TIA in a new light.

Also of note is the (somewhat obvious) point that TIA still exists under various names, and how influential the disgraced Poindexter remains in D.C.

As a bit of a technological Utopiast myself I understand Poindexter's impulse to rely on a few line of code to strike the right balance between an all-seeing government surveillance system and individual liberty. But that's the gap between reality and Utopia tends to be wide.

apologies for the light posting, major technical difficulties, will try to slog through.

U.S. Economy Grinds to Halt as Nation Discovers Money is an Illusion-an Onion insta-classic.

Walter Russell Mead attacks the NY Times, and their ilk, for not combating the switf-boating of the global warming debate.

Let me say this again one last time: the story here is that the movement to stop climate change is being swift-boated right before our eyes. And just as Senator Kerry and the journalistic establishment failed to see the importance of the swift boat attacks and develop a counter strategy early, so the Times along with the climate change establishment is, yet again, missing the boat on a major piece of news.

I hate this stuff, I really do. I have no idea why I'm sharing this with you other than its gawd-awful splendour.

Of course, I'm talking about the AC Transit fight video.

But if nothing else I wanted to make sure that the Epic Beard Man entry received its full due.

I have to agree with the director of the video, if you're going to describe the incident in one word, it's just "Oakland".

Check out the crash video of this bus vs. 20 cars in Taiwan. The side cameras are the worst.

Jay Smooth has shuttered his vlog, but horray! he's opened another one.

in honour of the old site's passing, let me post one of my fav's, his defense of the Christopher Street Boys.

it's been making the rounds of the blogsphere but if you haven't read Esquire's piece about Roger Ebert, do yourself a favor and savour these pages.

My main takeaways (Besides Ebert's amazing spirit) is the craven nature of whatever Disney honcho decided to destroy the original At The Movies set rather than give it to the Smithsonian, and this coda cribbed from Roger:

I believe that if, at the end of it all, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.

What caused the healthcare crisis? The Beatles

Richard Thaler about why the Public Option isn't the cure all or end all for American healthcare.

In the massive wasteland that is television, we still stumble across treasure once in a while.

Via the Colbert Report. Playing for Change reminds us all that what unites us far exceeds what divides.

And for folks who like to keep it real, the original (and better) version of Stand by Me.

Come on key-board warriors. Make a diff!