Howard Zinn being optimistic–I hope he was correct:
So what I'm saying is there is a hard core of Americans whose nationalism, whose loyalty to the establishment is so engraved, who find a way of rationalizing whatever they see. They find a way of rationalizing Abu Ghraib, they find a way of rationalizing the bombing of civilians in Iraq or Afghanistan, they find a way of rationalizing the curtailment of civil liberties. But as I say, that's a minority.
The crucial question is: what about those people who are not hard and fast in their opinions, who start off believing in the American dream and believing the United States is basically right, but who can be moved by what they see, by what they hear, by new information. Those people who during the Vietnam War who were moved by the photos they saw, the My Lai massacre, or the use of napalm, or the destruction of villages. And there are Americans I believe who are moved by the pictures at Abu Ghraib. … There's a considerable number of Americans who, however they may start to go along with the tendency to go along with whatever the establishment says, or whatever the press says, there's an important segment—there's a crucial segment of the American population which is capable of learning, of seeing, of having these facts that they see sort of coalesce into a new understanding of what's going on in the world.
SPEAKING OF PIMPS: One of the founders of the Houston Tea Party group, a man named Dale Robertson who was spotting bearing a sign with the "n" word early in his tea-bagging career, is sending around an email featuring an image of Obama as a pimp. I guess he's just going ahead with the racism thing, then. Very nice. I'm not all that interested in looking at the image all day so I'm not posting it, but if you want to see it, go here.
AND: I remain unconvinced that the Democrats will do anything other than emulate the Keystone Cops, but there were some very nice moments in Obama's speech last night. My favorite was something that seems absent from the national debate that I was relieved to finally here from a president, the notion that pursuing cleaner energy is simply good for the economy. And if the science ends up wrong, we still gain tremendously from pursuing alternatives. Oil can't last forever, global warming or no. About bloody time:
…I know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. But even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our future–because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation.
Hear, hear. And it's about time the elephant in the room was acknowledged, too. I heartily support lowering the deficit, but Republican grumbling about it too often leaves out their own part:
So let me start the discussion of government spending by setting the record straight. At the beginning of the last decade, America had a budget surplus of over $200 billion. By the time I took office, we had a one year deficit of over $1 trillion and projected deficits of $8 trillion over the next decade. Most of this was the result of not paying for two wars, two tax cuts, and an expensive prescription drug program. On top of that, the effects of the recession put a $3 trillion hole in our budget. That was before I walked in the door.
Doesn't absolve Democrats of their own role, but the context is important. Especially when existence in the eternal now, never acknowledging past or present, seems to be the modus operandi of most media.
LASTLY:
Now and then when I miss the Seventh Street Cafe in Fort Worth, Texas, a place where people don't remove their spurs to have breakfast, I have to cue up some music. In my studio at home, I have just two groups of musicians on the wall–The Pogues, and these guys, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys:
