remember when everyone at salon hated lamott for being a hippy christian who routinely wrote about (read: exploited) her poor schmuck of a kid? now all of a sudden she's FUCKIN RAD because she wrote a strongly-worded letter to the prez? yawn. but hey, maybe she and SuperLiberal Glennwald can combine forces and take out obama w/ the power of their Righteous Liberalness.

"Obama realizes that he has to get any bill THROUGH CONGRESS. This means, in the Senate, with 40 Republicans, plus Lieberman, Lincoln, and Nelson, the Progressives in Congress MUST compromise to get anything at all accomplished. It's hard for me to believe that progressives are STILL so childish, after nearly three decades in the political wilderness, as to not understand this. The only way we'll get ANYTHING is to play ball with people who we may not see eye-to-eye with (but who are at least better than the knuckledragging right wing of the GOP)."

dude. just. don't. don't bother. there's no point in bringing up the complicated nature, not only of congress, but of politics in general--that just gets in the way of blaming. i learned this a few years ago when it began to get on my nerves how much people blamed bush for everything. i mean, EVERYTHING. now, i totally think bush is a douche and would never in a million years vote for him, but to say that everything was his fault is just pathetic. right. as if democrats didn't totally support the war when it suited them. (oh, wait. didn't SHEIK obama speak out against it? hmm, must've forgotten about that.) as if democrats aren't a pathetic assortment of fumbling pansies who never fail to fail at just about everything. but let's just blame bush, shall we? and since we can't do that anymore, let's blame obama. everything is obama's fault; in fact, he's even WORSE than bush because he FOOLED US ALL into thinking he was "the smartest guy on the planet." um, no. he may have fooled jerseygirl7 into thinking that, but anyone w/ a modicum of critical thinking resources could see, even from the beginning, that obama was the best of bunch, but would most likely not live up to his promises. why? because it's impossible to do so. why? because of the complexity of the socio-political machine we live in. a president cannot waltz into office and do whatever the fuck he wants, not unless he has a party of Yes Men (republicans) and an opposing party of failbots, aka, the democrats. *everything* obama does will be met w/ vitriolic resistance from the right; again, when bush declared a bullshit war on a sovereign country, who rolled over and spread their asscheeks? the democrats. so, please Glennwaldians, spare me.

also:

"Wrong. Maybe half, at most in my opinion, voted for him to do that. The others were just on a fad kick, like buying a Cabbage Patch doll for their kids; jumping on a bandwagon having no idea where it was headed; thinking they'd feel good about themselves voting for a (half) Black man regardless they couldn't even name his running mate . . . "

why is it that when rush limbaugh says crap like this, it's OMGRACIST, but when salonista onthebeat says it, no one calls him out on it?

my biggest problem w/ obama is that he IS trying to be different and get everyone to work together. doesn't he see it's a fool's game? you're never going to unite people. deep down, people are tribal animals who prefer be suspicious and paranoid about The Other, whatever Other that is (racial, ideological, religious, etc). bitter liberals keep chastising themselves for being "naive" about obama, and they most certainly were, but obama was naive to think that he could reach across the aisle and extend his hand without being bitten. and it isn't just the right who hates him for it, the left hates him for it, too. people only come together when it's about mutually assured destruction.

i'm flummoxed as to why sons of anarchy keeps getting ignored by the majority of tv critics. the show is on its second season, is getting very solid ratings, and, IMO, has what it takes to be "the next sopranos." katey sagal, ron perlman, and kim coates are absolutely stellar in this show (especially sagal who, considering the range of her work from married . . . w/ children to futurama to SOA, is really one of the most tragically underrated actresses in tv) and deserve praise for the complexity and nuance each bring to their characters.

oh, well. i totally recommend the show to anyone even remotely interested in crime dramas; it beats anything else currently out there and could possibly go down in the annals along w/ the wire, the shield, the sopranos, etc. as one of the great tv dramas. it airs on FX, but you can watch it on hulu. oh, and this season? henry rollins plays a skinhead psychopath. can't beat that, can you?

and i'm w/ heather re: community. shit is all kinds of awesome. making chevy chase not only tolerable but *funny* is some sort of dark alchemy i daren't try to wrap my mere mortal mind around, but the writers of community somehow pulled it off. kudos to them. and i love me some alison brie.