You might ask yourself why you drank something like 10 beers and took several doses of whiskey, or you might just go looking for succor in ibupophen and coffee. Me, I'm thinking about going back to bed.

Something in the drumming inside my head makes me thirsty for northeast cold weather, historical lovesick echos from Northhampton and Vermont, dreams of sex like religion amid the autumn leaves. The coffeeshop full of happy couples; children; beautiful people.

I've written a rather lengthy summary of what's gone on with Iraq over on Music for America. Hoping to lend some context to everything we've got going on now:

Neo-Con Bukakke (An Unfortunate Episode In History)

Fixed link. shortened title. This is how you hone a meme.

In case you forgot we are in the midst of a frightening and dangrous drift away from our national core principles, here's a reminder. Found this in Tampabay.com Online Forums

I turned my back on the mewling Stevens during the Salman Rushdie episode. Although, to be sure, I'd have a bit more sympathy for him if his songs did not immediately cause me to retch uncontrollably. I seriously doubt he's a "terrorist threat"; that being said, I could care less whether the ****ing twit is barred from entering the country.

So does anyone else see how fucked up and fundimentally unamerican this is? I'm using "unamerican" seriously here.

Oh man.

I've realized what makes the Pandagonians so unique in their presence on the net. It's not their age -- there are a lot of 21-year-olds out there writing -- it's their amazing implementation of Parody.

That and this: I understand that I'm risking conservative blogger charges of treason (which rank up there with teenagers' charges of gayness in the realm of things that matter).

I have come back from the dead to -- wha'? oh! holy crap! mouse-over "characters".

Dear Jon Stewart: If you like the Daily Show, go sign this thing.

Pass it on.

Does anyone else remember this shit? I don't have a flatbed sanner so I had to take a digital photo of the cover I've got (excuse the quality), but seriously can you believe this shit?

If you fucked up this badly in the private sector, you'd be so fucking fired you wouldn't belive it, or so the story goes. One of the dirty little secrets about late-stage corporate crony capitalism is that there's very very little in the way of entrepreneurialism or accountability within the executive regions of most companies.

No One Cares If You Don't Vote.com

In case anyone else has idiot friends who aren't registered/aren't voting. It's a work in progress. Suggestions welcome.

No One Cares If You Don't Vote.com

In case anyone else has idiot friends who aren't registered/aren't voting. It's a work in progress. Suggestions welcome.

I recently scored tickets to see Paul in mid october in Berkeley, which should be fun. His column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. Today is good, as usual. Read it if you haven't, and contemplate what it means that this is the voice of a the wonky little Princeton professor who the Times hired to be a bookish voice on economic issues.

You can look at it two ways. One: here's this wonky little bookworm and he's pissed off at what the Bush administration is doing. Where there's smoke there's fire. Two: why the fuck is the econ guy the leading voice of criticism against the Bush administration in all the world of syndicated columnism?

One of the big reasons Iraq is al-FUBAR is that so many choices were made with political considerations outweighting operational imperatives. Kevin Drumm is no Flaming Leftie:

[The upcoming] election, and the political considerations that go along with it, have been driving our military strategy for the past two years. Before the war, we passed up a chance to take out terrorist mastermind Abu Musab Zarqawi -- for political reasons. We invaded with too few troops -- for political reasons. We lowballed the cost of the war -- for political reasons. We ignored the UN and then turned around and pleaded for their help -- for political reasons. Then we installed Iyad Allawi as president behind the UN's back -- for political reasons.

He's got links for all those things too. The most devistating part is the closer though:

Thursday's press conference was just scary. It's no longer clear if George Bush is merely a cynical, calculating politician — which would be bad enough — or if he actually believes all the happy talk about Iraq that his speechwriters produce for him. Increasingly, though, it seems like the latter: he genuinely doesn't have a clue about what's going on. What's more, his staff is keeping him in a sort of Nixonian bubble, afraid to tell him the truth and afraid to take any positive action for fear that it might affect the election.

As I said before (and I'll say again, it's my new "message"), working to unseat this administration is possibly the most noble effort anyone of you can undertake in the next five weeks. There are lots of ways to participate. Find one that lets you be who you are and use your skills and do it.