Every American should sit through (and actually digest) this interview in its entirety [Part 1] | [Part 2].  Whether you watch or listen, please take the time to do so with open ears and an open mind.  It is probably the most powerful and sobering assessment of the American condition I have heard in years.

Bacevich’s 2007 op ed in the Washington Post provides some sad but interesting background.  His new book is here.

I really want to push for everyone to feel that the Obama candidacy might be their best choice – Democrats, Republicans and independents – and that everyone should evaluate him regardless of their affiliation.  But it needs to be said that none have been betrayed by their “leaders” the way Republicans have.  Their party was hijacked by a few dozen neoconservative criminals, and our global reputation and economy are in tatters as a result.  The Republican party under Bush abandoned its ideals, and many Republicans are finding considerably more they like about Obama than they do about McCain.

I know more than a few smart Republicans – young and old school – who are supporting Obama.  But many of them don’t talk about it, or, if they do, not very loudly.  I hope that over the next couple of months they’ll speak a bit more loudly, because this is a candidacy that everyone should seriously consider.

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Leo Strauss, the GrandPa of neoconservatism, spoke of stealth ideology when he talked about “noble myths” that leaders needed to use in order to rally the masses around a common purpose.  Now Len Hart at the Existentialist Cowboy describes how Bush and his men used stealth ideology to turn the Constitution into an ash heap.  Read and weep.

I am very unhappy about this so-called “compromise” and am still fantasizing that Feingold and Leahy succeed in removing the immunity provisions from the bill.  Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, speaking on MSNBC’s Countdown tonight, offered this assessment:

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Guys – are you kidding me?  Now, my grandma used to tell us that we had to “get all our colors” when eating – and bushels of recent science has proven her correct.  But the DNC’s three-color rule for convention food is silly at best – first of all, it feeds into all the stereotypes about the neoliberal nanny state mentality; and second, most people are probably unaware of the health benefits and will see it as some sort of aesthetic ideal.

Carlin was inspirational to me, in some ways, as a teen.  He had a biting wit and was more a social commentator than comedian.  I saw him live a couple of times – once at the University of Maine where he autographed a dollar bill for me.  The fact that it took me several months to spend that money was as much about my respect for him as my flat-broke-ness.

One of my favorite Carlin rants is here – Carlin on Politicians – and I’ll miss that penetrating side of him.  He could make us laugh so hard that our guts hurt, and not always because what he said was funny, exactly – but because it was so sadly true.  In his later years, I was sad to see him move more toward aimless anger and jokes about death and poop, but I suppose that’s how things go.

He died at Saint John’s in Santa Monica – just a mile or two from my place -  at the age of 71.

Christina Martinez, who lives in Whittier and works at retailer Fred Segal in West Hollywood, spends about $80 a week on gasoline.  She told the Los Angeles Times, “It’s frustrating that even during election season I’m only thinking of politics in terms of who will get me lower gas prices.”

It’s frustrating for more reasons than you know, Christina.  First, it’s frustrating that you, like many Americans, don’t have the depth to understand that the President has very little to do with such things, but market forces do instead.  Second, that as you head into an election, you – again, like many Americans – toss more important questions aside (ones over which a President might actually have some influence.)

Dear Friends,

For the last seven months, I’ve been reaching out to all of you to ask you to support Barack Obama.  Many of you have written back with both encouragement and criticisms – I appreciate all of them.  If you don’t have time to read my entire note – the executive summary is: I’m asking you again to step up and contribute to his campaign here.

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Now that the Democratic horse race is over, here’s a great quote from Tim Russert today that really drives home today’s significance:

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Opening caveat: as I type, these conversations are in progress, so anything could transpire over the next several hours.

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