"The other folks are voting"

That's Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss talking to his base. One guess as to who he considers to be his base:

The development is not lost on Mr. Chambliss. "There has always been a rush to the polls by African-Americans early," he said at the square in Covington, a quick stop on a bus tour as the campaign entered its final week. He predicted the crowds of early voters would motivate Republicans to turn out. "It has also got our side energized, they see what is happening," he said.

Damn right we're voting. No one should be outraged by this. No one should repudiate dude. We should be invigorated. That is the past talking--screaming actually--as it chokes on its own bile. Show this to your 18-year nephews, your cousins and daughters. Tell them that this is power. For my part, I have to say that hearing a politician quaking at the site of black people with ballots, puts a smile on my face, wide as 125th.  Do the damn thing, Georgia. End it now.

To speak the dun-language...

My old buddy Irish Pirate writes:

TNC,

can you stop with this "sheeeeeeeeeeeeet".

I just spent ten minutes googling various names you used and I still feel more lost than Barry O'Bama at an Alaskan moose hunt.

Please, remember white folks read this blog. Have pity on us. Include a dictionary with citations. A "blictionary" so to speak.

Now, my black people, I know what you're thinking. We live in their world and no one gives us a whitionary. No one explains to us why Gatsby couldn't kick Daisy to the curb, why cucumber sandwiches taste good, or why keg parties are fun. White folk just look at you like, Figure it out nigger. To be a black professional is to a be a five-year old kid, straight out El Salvador, dropped into a class where no one speaks Spanish. Except that five-year olds are quicker than us.

So I understand the impulse to tell Irish Pirate to step off. But given that he gave us a pretty humorous rebuttal to "Once you go black, you never go back," we shall indulge him. For the uninitiated go here and here. They are your friends. In fact, I'm gonna put em on my blog roll.

True Story. A few years back I did a piece on Erylah Badu for a magazine. They actually published a glossary. Like "White Folks Who've Never Had Overcooked Collard Greens, See Here."

UPDATE: Or you could just rock Big L...

And Because It's Friday...

A favorite around these parts--Carolyn Forche. "The Museum of Stones." I've just started analyzing this, as I read it for the first time while out in Cali last week. Would love to hear what folks think after we digest for a couple hours.

UPDATE: OK, comments open. Like I said, I just read this last week. So I'm not sure what I think. As usual her sense of rhythm is just sick--"stones where the bells had fallen, where the bridges were blown." And then that one beautiful simile--storks crying "like human children"--just sitting in the middle of all this concrete detail is great. Carolyn Forche's poetry is always so muscular--just vivid, precise detail, and then a lovely abstraction right where you least expect it.

The Museum of Stones

This is your museum of stones, assembled in matchbox and tin,

collected from roadside, culvert, and viaduct,

battlefield, threshing floor, basilica, abattoir,

stones loosened by tanks in the streets

of a city whose earliest map was drawn in ink on linen,

schoolyard stones in the hand of a corpse,

pebble from Apollinaire's oui,

stone of the mind within us

carried from one silence to another,

stone of cromlech and cairn, schist and shale, hornblende,

agate, marble, millstones, and ruins of choirs and shipyards,

chalk, marl, and mudstone from temples and tombs,

stone from the silvery grass near the scaffold,

stone from the tunnel lined with bones,

lava of the city's entombment,

chipped from lighthouse, cell wall, scriptorium,

paving stones from the hands of those who rose against the army,

stones where the bells had fallen, where the bridges were blown,

those that had flown through windows and weighted petitions,

feldspar, rose quartz, slate, blueschist, gneiss, and chert,

fragments of an abbey at dusk, sandstone toe

of a Buddha mortared at Bamiyan,

stone from the hill of three crosses and a crypt,

from a chimney where storks cried like human children,

stones newly fallen from stars, a stillness of stones, a heart,

altar and boundary stone, marker and vessel, first cast, lode, and hail,

bridge stones and others to pave and shut up with,

stone apple, stone basil, beech, berry, stone brake,

stone bramble, stone fern, lichen, liverwort, pippin, and root,

concretion of the body, as blind as cold as deaf,

all earth a quarry, all life a labor, stone-faced, stone-drunk

with hope that this assemblage, taken together, would become

a shrine or holy place, an ossuary, immovable and sacred,

like the stone that marked the path of the sun as it entered the human dawn.

 

McCain comeback?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is there a single shred of evidence in this story? A poll? Anything? How is this not a GOP press release? How is it not journalism as stenography?

The Brown Bag Unbound

Haitian sensation, Afronerd, and all around friend of the room Evan Narcisse is the only person who understands the true significance of Barack Obama:

I had a high-yellow friend who always used to say that light-skinned brothers are gonna make a comeback. Just wait, he'd say, the halcyon days of Al B. Sure will return. I never realized how prophetic he was.

That's what the I'm talking about. All you Morris Chestnut chocolate boy wonders. All you Denzel Washington mocha macks. All you Mekhi Phifer/Omar Epps/Michael K. Williams/Derek Luke/Pete Rock mofos, I got two words for you--Time's. Up.

Of course, this only applies to dudes. I'm straight Jungle Brothers 1989, rocking that "Blacker The Berry" isht. Lauryn Hill--pre-crazy--is the master mold. But all ya'll Idriss Elba mofos need to back up. Christopher Williams is in the house. Khalil Kane mercs Pac. Kid beats Play. Grab your Sportin' Waves, and stocking caps. Break yo'self, fool.

UPDATE: Here's what I mean...You didn't play, you just got played out...

Max Cleland on the Bradley Effect

This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder if I'm delusional. I have to admit, who knows more about white people in the South, me or Max Cleland? I know there are GOP pundits who'd disagree, but frankly very few of them are to be trusted on race. That may sound harsh, but I can think on one hand the GOP folks who I've seen think about this with some degree of honesty and seriousness. Back to the point, you also wonder how much age is playing into this. Again, this is why I can't have this debate. I could go back and forth on this all day. Better to focus on what we can control than on whether we're going to have to play in the rain.

Because it's Friday...

Nas, "Memory Lane." Lyrics here. Song here. Discussion later. But I'll say that I played this song over and over while I was writing my book. I just wanted it to read like this sounds.

UPDATE: Comments open. This song always described what 1988 felt like to me. Or rather what it felt like to be a kid, living in a city at the height of the crack era. It's really all there, the violence, the excitement, the drugs the inevitable downfall. The thing about Nas is he could be nostalgic without being sentimental. And so you get lines like:

I reminisce on park jams, my man was shot for a sheep coat
Childhood lessons make me see him drop in my weed smoke.
It's real, grew up in trife life, to times with white lines
to hype bikes, murdereous night-times, to knife-fights invite crime.

And then the imagery of lines like, "Poetry that's a part of me, retardly bop\I drop the ancient manifested hip-hop straight off the block." That first line makes me think of being a kid and trying to imitate my older brother's bop, hoping I could look as cool as him. On this cut, and really on this whole album, Nas was just so good about saying more with less. It really was like rap was his first language. That's how you get classics like:

My intellect prevails from a hanging cross with nails
I reinforce the frail, with lyrics that's real.
Word to Christ, a disciple of streets, trifle on beats
I decipher prophecy through a mic and say peace.

The whole time I was writing my memoir, I just wanted to do something that sounded like that.

Booting reporters off the plane

I agree with John, it's petty. On the other hand, the seats are going to Essence and Jet. Sorry but that's teh awesome.

By the time I get to Arizona Pt. 2

It's really looking close. I can't see Barry doing it. That said, there would be something poetic about Obama beating McCain in Arizona 45 years after the March. I remain skeptical, though.

And Because It's Friday...

A favorite around these parts--Carolyn Forche. "The Museum of Stones." I've just started analyzing this, as I read it for the first time while out in Cali last week. Would love to hear what folks think after we digest for a couple hours. Poem is after the jump.

Continue reading "And Because It's Friday..." »

A term we all should lose

Postracial. Seriously, just stop.

Racism, socialism, Ashley the Todd, Joe Plumber blahblahblah

Thanks to everyone who sent me clips of McCain folks acting a fool at rallies and evidence of McCain campaign race-baiting. I know I haven't talking much about Ashley Tood, and Sammy Davis and welfare lately. I was outraged for awhile and now I'm just kinda "meh" about the whole thing. Part of it is because I think Obama is going to win. But the other part is that something about it just feels petty. There are white racists among the American electorate, and the lionshare of them are supporting McCain. OK, now what?

Anyway,  there's been a pretty lively debate raging between Yglesias, Douthat, Judis and Feeny. It'll probably come as no surprise that I mostly agree with Douthat, if with a significant twist. It's not that I put it past McCain's people to race-bait, it's that I really don't care.  I basically think it's to our disadvantage to ascribe mystical powers to words like "welfare" and "socialism." True, I've done my share of indicting. But, I really believe that the first step in garnering the votes of any group of people, is to see them human beings with all the complexities and myriad emotions weighing on them that actual people have.

This is why I think Barack Obama will ultimately prevail. McCain's whole style is crude--vote for me if you like beefy white guys with bald heads who talk tough. Vote for me if you hate socialists. Vote for me if you think Northern Virginia is a colony of the French. Vote for me if you hate welfare. Perhaps I am giving the voters too much credit, but I just think in these economic times, in this hip-hop era, with these two campaigns, the people are paying attention. Again, that doesn't mean that the McCain's aren't race-baiting. I guess I'm just stuck on "How would I know and why do I care?"

The town deserves a better class of McCarthyite

I mean, seriously. If he meant Wright, why not say it? Lrn2Nixonpls. Either that or go back to playing Tetris. In your basement. With your kid sister.

Open thread

Because Tessa gave us the following:

I miss Atari. Unfortunately, I've somehow filled my mother's shoes--I suck at today's video games. I remember how deflated she looked when my brother and I would refuse to hand over the joystick, and now, I can empathize. Sigh. But I can't blame them. Who the hell wants to sit there and watch me panic and die within the first ten seconds? It's painful and embarassing.

Okay, sorry for getting off-track. Where's today's open thread?

Go for it folks...

Barack on the Daily Show

Love it. White folks didn't get the memo. Awesome.

Awesome-Sauce: Barack Obama revealed to be Barry 13X

So the new rumor is that Barack is actually the son of Malcolm X. No seriously. Dude look at the resemblance! And they actually have a very similar speaking style. Some may be tempted to see this as the event that will lose us the election. But I have a different take--Barack Obama isn't black, he isn't even biracial. Dig it--Malcolm's grandfather was white. Barack's mother was was white. So Barack isn't really half-black--he's about a third, tops. That has to be worth a few points in the polls, no? I think this news will swing Montana and Georgia.

The Indispensible Ambinder

Marc has a great piece up looking at some recent swing-state polling. But amidst all the great numbers and analysis there is this lovely nugget:

In Florida, a total of 46% of voters believe that "violent"  describes black people extremely well, well, or moderately well. But large majorities believe that the words "dependable" and "hard working" also describe black people.

If only they believed that in Washington, D.C. A "violent" but "dependable" and "hard-working" employee sounds like a dude due for big raise. Oh I forgot. I'm not supposed to be making jokes because Obama might lose. Ms. Holloway, get me a line to Al Sharpton, please.

Hold on, I hear somebody coming...

I wrote this:

Are we going to spend the next days trying to concoct exotic scenarios in which the dastardly Republicans steal this one?

All-Star commenter Deborah responds:

Why not? It could be like a fanfic contest, with links to the craziest diatribes by actual Republicans. (Andrew linked to one at RedState earlier today--McCain-Palin blowout, bitches! The press is evil and in the can and the polls are wrong because tightening in the national polls by a fraction means blowouts in all swing states because state polls don't matter. Also, McCain won the poll after Labor Day.) And we could try our hand at 24-esque, or Mission Impossible-esque, or Chuck-esque, scenarios.

For example, this week Chuck had to get a creepy nerd herder Jeff (who once sported a mullet, and won Slim Jims) to play Atari's Missile Command and retrieve secret missile codes from the fabled burn screen; this could easily be adapted to hacking voting machines.

Game on. Let us delve into the high-minds of kvetching liberals everywhere. How will we blow this one fellow lefties?

Is the Voting Rights Act actually a cursed scroll that mandates a century of Republican rule? Will the Arch-Lich, Lee Atwater, rise from the tomb and cast a spell to seal Obama's doom? Is Michael Goldfarb actually Tiamat, in human form? Is Nate Silver the Terminator sent back in time by futuristic Diebold machines? Is Barack Obama Arthas? Is Dick Cheney Ner'Zhul? Oh...my... God...I just remembered. They're cousins!!! Nooooo!!!11ONEELEVEN!!1

Remember that thing your great uncle told you about white people, while his white wife was cooking dinner? Was it really true???? They are a tricky bunch...Will there be bar-codes on our necks? Will it be the Illumanati? The Trilateral commission? Will the 2k virus finally strike?? Are those Sentinels flying overhead?? Are the storm-troopers massing at the gate??? Why are you still reading this?!?!!!! What's that sound outside...Gaaaaahhhhhh!!!!

The L.A. Times tape

I get why the L.A. Times claims they can't release this mystery tape. They say their source gave it to them under the provision that they wouldn't release it to the public. What I don't understand is why you would ever cut a deal like that. Why would you put yourself in a position where you're basically complicit in the suppression of info about a candidate who people already think you're in the tank for?

I don't know, I think if I'm that reporter I don't want that tape in my possession, under those circumstances. I'd rather make a bunch of calls and figure when this took place, who was there, and what was said. Someone will talk. Someone always talks. This business leans too much in favor of anonymous sources and their cowardly demands, and not enough in favor of readers.

UPDATE: A few commenters below correctly note that it actually helps McCain--not Obama--to not have the tape released. It's just another chapter in the "We wuz robbed" narrative. The whole thing empowers the kooks.

Obama commercial--What do we think?

Like John, I forget. Worse I didn't remember until John said he forgot.

UPDATE: Video for those of us who didn't catch it. I'm watching it now.

UPDATE#2: Uhm, I just finished watching. Wow. Seeng this campaign in the closing days is like watching Tom Brady circa 2004. The ruthless efficiency of it all is bracing. Every time there's a big moment, they come through. McCain should call his family. Out in the streets, them call it murder. Welcome to Jamrock, indeed.

Effete Liberals Pt. 2

My man Yglesias knows what I'm talking about:

The credulity of the press regarding John McCain's Pennsylvania gambit is remarkable. Pollster.com has Obama up by 10.7 points in Pennsylvania. McCain's lead is smaller than that in Georgia, West Virginia, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Indiana and Arizona while McCain is currently losing in Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, and Nevada. Think about that.

McCain's only chances of winning are either that the polling is badly wrong for some reason, or else that some kind of shocking external event -- perhaps a huge terrorist attack -- massively scrambles the race. But based on the information available, he's just hopelessly far behind and there's no use pretending otherwise.

Effete Liberals, Bomaye

OK, I'm tired of this. Someone--who shall remain nameless--just asked me if I was "nervous" about Obama. FTDS. I don't believe in black cats. I don't toss salt over my shoulder. I step under ladders whenever the mood strikes me. I break mirrors in my spare time. I've made a hobby out of splitting poles. Thirteen is my favorite number. So fuck it, I'm gonna say it--Barack Obama will be the next president of the United States.

Here is the thing. I believe in competition. John Kerry wasn't swift-boated--he was beaten by a superior campaign. I guess Al Gore lost because of Nader and the Supreme Court. But why was it ever even that close? What is the use of being a Southern senator when you can't carry a single state in the South? I mean no disrespect to any of those guys, I really don't. But this notion that mystical and nefarious forces deprived them from claiming what was rightly theirs is odious and self-serving.

No one has conspired to deprive us of power over the past few decades. The American people aren't stupid. We've sucked at articulating our message. If you have any interest in a more progressive country, we need to be honest. At the presidential level, at least, conservatives have hammered us. Give them their due. Don't blame Rush. Don't blame Kristol. Don't denigrate states you've never visited. Give them their due. Give them their respect. Study them, and then get better.

Denial is bad for two reasons. First, if you can't accept that you lost, you don't have a prayer of getting better. If you think Kerry and Gore lost because they were too "high-minded," then you miss the basic fundamentals at work, and spend your days congratulating yourself for being up on the latest Paul Krugman. This is a war, and you don't lose wars because of abstract principles, but because of hard immovable facts. Is your army bigger than theirs? Are you attracting more recruits? Are you deploying in the right places? Who has more resources? Who has the technology edge? These are the reasons I voted Obama in the primary. I didn't think he was "more principled" than Clinton, nor did I really care. I thought she was tough, but I knew he was tougher. I thought her campaign was smart, but I thought his was smarter. I thought one person was talking about being a fighter, and another was out there actually being a fighter. The general is bearing all of this out, because right now, Barack Hussein Obama is beating John McCain like he stole something--from Toot, no less.

[MORE]

Continue reading "Effete Liberals, Bomaye" »

Lest we think we've reached the Promised Land

Some seriously sobering news.

UPDATE: Here's the piece I wrote on the PG County cops that Stacy referenced. That was some years ago. But they haven't gotten much better. Here, also, are some thoughts on my old friend Prince Jones--a college kid, and father of a baby girl, who the PG County cops killed right outside his girlfriend's apartment. As for this case, they will almost certainly exonerate the officer. I don't think he should be charged. Probably was a mistake. But he should never have a gun anywhere near him. He should be fired and find another line of work. People's lives are too damn precious. It makes me ill to see some union dude trying to protect some guy's salary and benefits after he just killed someone.

UPDATE#2: Forgot to give a H/T to TalkLeft. The worst part is that I knew he was black while reading it over there. I hadn't even seen the picture. I agree with this, in the case of killing an innocent. I think George put it a little better than me:

Typically, Navy captain who loses his ship never commands another ship again. The question of why the ship was lost is always evaluated, but the answer to this question almost never leads to a second sea command. It is his watch. He is responsible. That understanding, that responsibility, is simply part of the job.

Police officers should be subject to the same expectations. Cops involved in accidental shootings like this one should never be allowed on the street with a firearm again.

From the department of False Equivalency

From Howie Kurtz:

On Fox News last week, Sean Hannity said he was tempted to ask Barack Obama: "Where did you buy your cocaine, how much cocaine? How much cocaine did you use? How often did you use it? When did you stop?"

On the same Monday night, Keith Olbermann said on MSNBC that John McCain had a responsibility "to say 'enough' to Republican smears without end" and not be "party to a campaign that devolves into hatred and prejudice and divisiveness."

Are these guys watching the same presidential race, or even living in the same country?

Right. Totally the same thing. No difference at all. From the left and the right

More on Rendell

Lotta good comments below. This one made a lot of sense to me:

Rendell doesn't have an angle, per se - he's simply speaking his mind, as he's famously wont to do. He has never believed that Obama can reach white voters. Every bit of his political experience militates against that conclusion. He was similarly skeptical of the polling in advance of the primary, and his concerns were borne out, to an extent - Clinton closed strong in the final week, widening the margin of her win.

It's very simple. You can count on one hand the number of politicians who managed to change the underlying demographics of the electorate. All the rest won office through a mixture of optimistic projection of their own chances and cynical realism about the nature of the electorate. It's why so few politicians were willing to back Barack early on; they didn't buy his game plan. And to this day, many of them can't believe he can actually change the electorate, can actually win over swing voters. They just don't. Rendell wants him to win, he's just panicked that he might lose.

Sure, Rendell might be bitter, or it might all be a devilishly clever conspiracy to dupe McCain. But I'll take the simplest explanation available, thanks.

The only problem is--even putting Rendell's motives aside--why does it make sense, given the dynamics of this election, to focus on Pennsylvania? It's true I've been hitting him a little too hard, and perhaps unfairly, but I don't see the wisdom of focusing there. Let's say we buy Rendell's logic. Doesn't it stand to reason that the polls could also wrong about Virginia? About Florida? About Ohio? What about Colorado? Obama has a much smaller lead in all of those states. Why isn't his lead overstated there too? If you're not confident Obama will win in Pennsylvania, why should be confident he's going to win at all? I realize the demography is different in many of those, but in three of them, you have that same vast swath of Appalachia that gave Obama problems in the primary.

It seems reactive to pin it all on Pennsylvania--like, since McCain is pitting his hopes there we should be too. But why? McCain can win Pennsylvania and he'd still be in trouble. Moreover, shouldn't we note that both Gore and Kerry won Pennsylvania? How'd they end up?

Devastating

I think it's the lack of sound, but I found this really, really effective. I love ignoring Sarah Palin until the final week, and then turning that "starbursts" wink against them. It really is the essence of unseriousness.

By the time I get to Arizona

If it's a wall in the way just watch me go through it: :

Is it possible that John McCain could lose his home state of Arizona, which has only voted Democratic once in the last 50 years? A new poll from Arizona State University puts McCain ahead, but also suggests that an Obama win is not at all out of the question.

The numbers: McCain 46%, Obama 44%, within the ±3% margin of error. The previous ASU poll from a month ago put McCain up 45%-38%.

Other recent polling has shown a close race, too. Rasmussen has McCain up 51%-46%, down from a 59%-38% lead a month ago.

When I saw this I knew I wanted to post the P.E. joint. But then I rewatched the video and saw how out of touch it is with where we are today. I don't mean that as a dis--P.E. existed in the era of Rodney King, Willie Horton, crack and babies making babies. We were just so angry. Another thing that comes across in the video is the shame many of us younger folks felt, back then, when thinking about the Civil Rights movement.

I know this sounds crazy, but a lot of us weren't proud of folks like John Lewis. We saw them as extending courtesies to utter and complete savages. Sista Souljah captures the feeling when she calls King, "a black man who tried to teach white people the meaning of civilization." Living in Baltimore, watching all that old black and white tape of dogs sicced on women and children, and of Southeners spitting and cursing at black folks marching somberly, I really felt that then. Oh man, how much shit has changed. May it continue to change too.

Rachel Maddow--Made Of Win

Truly awesome. John Madden watch out.

UPDATE: What is Ed Rendell's angle? Obama and co. were literally just in Pennsylvania. The state is important, no doubt, but the idea that Barack should be fighting there, instead of Flordia...I mean, maybe. One of the great things about this year is that the Obama cats have found so many routes to victory. Again, not arguing that Pennsylvania should be taken for granted, but this isn't 2004 or 2000. Is this just about preserving the importance of his state? For instance, is the flipside of the 50 state strategy a diminishing of the Big Three? And does that somehow diminish Rendell?

I get guarding against overconfidence, but that isn't the same as doubt. I hear a lack of confidence in Rendell. I'm not sure why. He shouldn't be arrogant about an Obama win, but he should be confident.

Be a father to your child

A while back I posted about playing D&D with my partner and a son. A frequent commenter sent this in as a response:

In one of your posts a few months back, you mentioned that one thing 
that an absentee father misses is reliving his childhood. Ever since 
then, I've been doing just that with my five year old son. Yes, I'm 
sure I'm doing it to make up for the fact that my Dad wasn't around 
and recently died. But man, it was an absolute blast taking him to the 
comic book store for the first time today. He's in a Batman phase 
right now, which is a good place to start talking about right and 
wrong, as well as how to kick serious ass.

I will say this until I am blue in this face. One of the best things I got from my Dad as an adult was the notion that too many of us think of fatherhood as a responsibility and not an investment. It really gives so much back.

Yesterday, I had an "After School Special" moment with the boy. Football season is over and he really wants to play hockey. But his swimming instructor wants him to try out for the local swim team. Time won't allow him to do both. He also was scared of swimming competitively, I think. Hockey is just more contact--he's gotten past that. Anyway, I basically told him it wasn't up for debate. Swimming isn't just a sport, but it's a life skill. If he does it for a season and hates it he doesn't have to go back.

Anyway, he sulked for like 15 minutes than came over and gave me hug. Then he said he knew that I always did what was best for him, even when he didn't agree. I was thinking, WTF is this Family Ties? Seriously, I never had that level of self-awareness at eight. Anyway, I think I did the right thing. The kid is eight and swims better than me.

And now, the great Ed O.G.

Mad Men fans are effete elitist snobs

I knew it

AMC also said that 49% of the adults 25-54 viewers that tuned in during Season 2 have household incomes above $100,000, giving the show the strongest concentration of upscale viewers in that demo than any other original scripted series on basic cable.

Even if I've never met you, I know you all. You guys are that dude at the country club with the beautiful date, holding a martini and a cigarette, standing against the wall and makes snide comments about all the CSI-viewrs who who pass by. And you're also a Muslim. Can't forget Muslim

Against the machines

I lost my cellphone on Sunday. Last week my hard-drive went up on me. A month ago I left my Kindle in someone else's car--got it back fortunately. Nevertheless, the lesson is clear--me and tech don't mix. I don't have the sort of brain that can keep track of all this shit. On a tangential note, I'm leaving Facebook too. No fucking way I have 250 friends.

UPDATE: If I wasn't clear, I'm not buying another cell-phone. I'm fucking done. Besides my e-mail is right on this page. And I answer it. Anyone can get at me.

The death of the Straight Talk Express

This is a very weird piece of journalism by Maeve Reston. She's the reporter who asked John McCain if birth control should be covered under insurance like Viagra. Reston didn't ask the question for kicks--Carly Fiorina, speaking on behalf of the campaign, had said that she thought that it was unfair that birth control wasn't covered. If you remember, McCain bumbled the question in excruciating fashion. In Reston's telling, this is one of the events that ended McCain's policy of giving reporters unfettered access. The piece is kind of homily to the good old days, when the press and John McCain used to exchange cupcakes, read Tiger Beat, and then strip down to their undies and have a tickle-fight:

I joined McCain during the icy December days in New Hampshire when his confidence about a comeback seemed almost delusional. Inside the steamy windows of his campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express, McCain held court on a gray horseshoe-shaped couch at the rear, where we listened with rapt attention...

He leavened policy discussions with funny stories from his school days when some knew him as "McNasty" or reliving his daredevil exploits as a young naval aviator. He was unguarded and charming, occasionally solicitous about our lives.

One winter afternoon when Cindy McCain joined him and he was stuck with three newly engaged reporters, he gave us a 10-minute treatise on honeymoon spots.

"Where did you guys go on your honeymoon," I asked.

"Uhh," McCain said. "Hawaii," Cindy interjected.

"Canada?" McCain joked, pretending to fumble. "I get my marriages mixed up."

Cindy good-naturedly rolled her eyes. "We had a great time," he said, grinning, before telling us about their honeymoon spot.