Monday, April 28, 2008

Venetian subprime discount (2:33 pm)

In what must rank as the most ineffective solution for the subprime meltdown, a Venice restaurant is now offering a discount to all Americans:

A notice in English now hangs on the door of [owner Arrigo Cipriani’s] restaurant: “Harry’s Bar of Venice in an effort to make the American victims of subprime loans happier has decided to give them a special 20% discount on all the items of the menu during the short term of their recovery”.

A novel idea, but misplaced: In the Italian newspaper story, the owner notes that most of the Americans in the restaurant are “extremely affluent and immune to ‘subprime sickness.’”

Meanwhile, the U.S. economy’s “long hangover” continues.

posted by Jeremy Gantz | start the discussion

Ballin’ We Can (Maybe) Believe In (12:13 pm)

If you can ignore the sycophantic announcing—that dude is worse than Johnny “Red” Kerr going on about the “energy” of Andres Nocioni—this is kind of enjoyable:

I’m impressed by the nifty passing, but a little skeptical about the “highlights-only” editing, though. Forget about an American flag on his lapel: This warm-blooded American wants to know: How many TOs did BO have? What was his shooting percentage? How was his defense? The fact is, this man needs more “vetting” before he earns my endorsement as Baller in Chief.

(Via Chris Hayes, who (uncharacteristically) pleads for his opponents to force Obama right.)

posted by Brian Cook | start the discussion

SCOTUS upholds voter ID law (11:16 am)

Evidence is overrated, isn’t it? From the Times this morning.

In a 6-to-3 ruling in one of the most eagerly awaited election-law cases in years, the court rejected arguments that Indiana’s law, probably the strictest in the country, imposes unjustified burdens on people who are old, poor or members of minority groups and less likely to have driver’s licenses or other acceptable forms of identification.

Sad stuff. For those looking for more background, read Dahlia Lithwick’s primer on the case from earlier this year.

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Two Men. Two Speeches. (5:28 pm)

Preeminent historian and scholar, Gary Wills, writes an extraordinary and lucid essay on why Rev. Wright is to Obama what John Brown was to Lincoln during the latter’s first run for the presidency. It’s an essay on “Two Men. Two Speeches,” about the likeness between Obama’s candidacy and Lincoln’s (both gangly, both Illinoisians with mainly provincial political experience), an essay about two presidential candidates facing down “damaging charges…of an alleged connection with unpatriotic and potentially violent radicals,” and who did so with complex, unprecedented speeches before either had secured his party’s nomination. Wills dissects the central tenets of Lincoln’s speech and follows it up with a dissection of the nuances of Obama’s speech:

Obama denounced the specific statements of Wright that were indefensible. “They expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country.” They were “not only wrong but divisive.” That is, they hurt the cause of joint progress on which Obama based his campaign. As Lincoln said of Brown, Obama made it clear that Wright’s approach just could not work…

But if Obama did not go into the specific outrages of Wright, his criticism of him was profound and instructive. He praised the concern for the community that Wright had shown. That has always been a mark of black religion in America. Unlike the Calvinist stress on individualism, on the private experience of being saved, blacks thought in terms of the whole people being saved—all of them riding on the Ark, all reaching the Promised Land. This journey of the... read more

posted by Jarrett | start the discussion

Thursday, April 24, 2008

Farm Bill Expires Tomorrow (1:35 pm)

The U.S. farm bill is set to expire tomorrow, Friday, April 25, because Bush says the bipartisan congressional bill is too costly.

But among the changes to the bill is raising the minimum food stamp allotment from $10 to $16 per month, which is adjusted for inflation from the original 2002 farm bill, says Diane Doherty, executive director of the Illinois Hunger Coalition, on Chicago Public Radio. (Listen to her interview here.)

That small increase could dramatically benefit low-income families, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and many of the other millions of Americans who rely on food stamps to help make ends meet.

If a deal isn’t reached by Friday, some of the bill’s provisions could revert to 1949 laws, thereby negatively affecting those who are being hit hardest by skyrocketing grocery bills, high gas prices, job losses, stagnant wages, home foreclosures and dwindling savings. In other words, most of America’s working poor.

posted by Sanhita Sinharoy | start the discussion

Visible man (1:21 pm)

Props to Cook on picking out one of this year’s best. I have an equally deserving nomination. From today’s NYT:

People think I have it easy, but it’s surprisingly difficult being The Guy Who Got Where He Is Only Because He’s Black, what with the whole having to be everywhere in the country at once thing. One second I’m nodding enthusiastically in a sales conference in Boise, Idaho, and the next I’m separating conjoined triplets at the Institute For Terribly Complicated Surgery in Buchanan, N.Y., and then I have to rush out to Muncie, Ind., to put my little “Inspector 12” tag in a bag of Fruit of the Loom.

It’s exhausting, all that travel. Decent, hard-working folks out there have their religion and their xenophobia to cling to. All I have is a fistful of upgrades to first class and free headphones. Headphones That Should Have Gone to a More Deserving Passenger.

Guns? I wish I had a gun! Ever run out of truffle oil before a dinner party and have to go to Whole Foods on a weekend? It’ll make you want to spread a little buckshot around, that’s for sure.

Devour the whole thing here.

posted by Adam Doster | start the discussion

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Carbuncles on the Face of Humanity (1:59 pm)

Wow. This essay by Rebecca Solnit is probably the best thing I’ve read this year. A forceful reminder to all those old white male pedantic bores decrying “identity politics” (cough, Hitchens, cough), that they might, just for once: Shut. The. Fuck. Up. If you don’t think Rebecca Solnit can teach you a thing or two thousand, you clearly aren’t paying any attention whatsoever.

posted by Brian Cook | start the discussion

‘The Demon of Anal Fissures’ (12:51 pm)

Matt Taibbi goes on an evangelical retreat at John Hagee’s church. Hilarity ensues (as do some moments of surprising poignancy).