It's the First Anniversary of The Zaftig Redhead!

Take a look at this verbal pictorial of the past year, using the most commonly used words in my blog, courtesy of Wordle. For folks like me, who can't read the find print, here's a link to the larger version of this word art. I also have to thank my friend Genghis for giving me the idea in the first place.

A sincere thank you to everyone for the adventure of the past year -- for the guest bloggers, the supportive e-mails, the many comments, the compliments and constructive criticism, and most of all -- for reading this humble blog whenever it fits into your busy lives. Cheers!

Copyright 2008. The Zaftig Redhead. All Rights Reserved.

Sheryl Crow's "God Bless This Mess:" An Eloquent Statement for Change

Folks, I have always been a Sheryl Crow fan. One of the highlights of the Democratic National Convention was seeing her perform -- and of course show her political stripes. In fact, if you go to Crow's blog, you can read about why the grammy-winning singer-songwriter supports Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) for president. Now, she's come out with a new song that gets right to the heart of the matter: "God Bless This Mess." The song is included on Detours, Sheryl Crow’s sixth studio album. Take a look at this live version below, or watch the official video.



Copyright 2008 (text only). The Zaftig Redhead. All Rights Reserved.

Arte y Pico Award for The Zaftig Redhead

At the end of September, The Zaftig Redhead was honored, flattered, and thrilled to receive the Arte y Pico Award for my humble blogging efforts. The award was bestowed by my blogging mentor, Gunfighter -- he'll be surprised to hear me call him that, but it's true. GF, as he is affectionately referred to, is the brains behind the blog Gunfighter: A Modern Warrior's Life. He has been wonderfully encouraging to me in this blogging adventure, and I can't thank him enough -- not only for the personal support but also for his efforts to help me spread the word about The Zaftig Redhead. This award is just one example of that support.

What is the award about? It's perhaps best explained by looking at the meaning of the expression Arte y Pico. According to the Arte y Pico website, which started all the mutual blogger love through this award, "basically, ironically, it translates into a wonderful phrase in Mexico, 'lo maximo.' It will never find its counterpart in English, but if it HAD to, it would be something like, 'Wow. The Best Art. Over the top.'"

In passing the award along to me, which GF himself has received, Gunfighter wrote: "The Zaftig Redhead is a resident of our nation’s Capital and writes about politics and public policy. Although her blog is fairly new, ZR (as I call her) has jumped right into the fray with both barrels blazing. She is super busy because of the political campaigns, but she has promised that she will continue our interview when it is all said and done." Thanks, GF, and we will do that interview -- I promise!

The rules of the Arte y Pico Award are as follows:

1. You have to pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award in terms of creativity, design, interesting material, and general contributions to the blogger community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

3. Each winner has to show the award and give the name and link to the blog that has given him or her the award itself.

4. Each winner and each giver of the prize has to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. To show these rules.

Now, by the power vested in me, it is my turn to share the blog love. I hereby happily designate the following 5 blogs (in no particular order) as Arte y pico winners:

The Political Voices of Women, a great community of more than 500 women's political bloggers, organized by Catherine Morgan. According to Morgan, "This is a blog answering the question, 'Where are all the women political bloggers?' The answer is ... They are here. It began simply as my response to a New York Times article on the lack of women political bloggers. What started as a list of 100 women bloggers grew to 200 (and now over 500), and then I decided to take a leap of faith and start a blog as a spin-off to the list. Now the blog and the list have taken on a life of their own, and each day they are growing and changing, mostly due to contributions of other women bloggers." I'm proud to have my blog on this list.

Contrarienne, the blog by fellow Washingtonian and former reporter JulieMac, is always a fun read, with straight news and quirky tidbits too. The blog is a "diary of random thoughts about found, shiny objects from the intertubes." The Contrarienne herself is "A woman 'of a certain age' with a certain attitude [who] writes for others of similar persuasion. Men allowed."

The Feminist Law Professors blog is a great resource on legal issues affecting women and families. While the goal of the blog is to build a stronger feminist law professor community across scholarly subject areas, it's a great resource for anyone with a progressive bent -- lawyer or not. It's written by a professors from across the country, too, which means you never know what topic will be next. The blog also proves something I have know all along: feminists DO have a sense of humor, dammit!

The HeartFeldt Politics blog, written by noted feminist Gloria Feldt, is a great read and a great resource. An author, and also the former president of Planned Parenthood, Feldt is connected to the inner circles but makes the world accessible. She has a great love for grassroots, community organizing, and that in and of itself makes her worthy of the award.

And the fifth blog upon which I'm bestowing the Arte y Pico Award is... up to you, my readers. What blog do you love? Share them with me, either by email or by commenting below, and help me complete my list... I simply could not settle on my final entry. And thanks again, Gunfighter. You're the best.


Copyright 2008. The Zaftig Redhead. All Rights Reserved.

The Palin-Biden Debate, SNL Style, w/ Queen Latifah as Gwen Ifill

Yep, folks, you knew I would post it -- last night's Saturday Night Live skit about the Great Debate. Truthfully, I've practically been forced to post the Oct. 4th video -- it was clear from the site traffic people were dropping by The Zaftig Redhead to see if I'd given some blog real estate the latest SNL ditty -- how could I disappoint? The long and short of it is this: Tina Fey continues to amaze, and Sarah Palin continues to suffer for it. And the SNL crew got some good zingers in on moderator Gwen Ifill -- played winningly by Queen Latifah -- as well as Biden's bombastic style. If you really want to have some fun, check out this great flow chart detailing Palin's debate strategy before you watch the SNL video -- it makes it all come together. Enjoy!


"I want to be done playing this lady Nov. 5," Tina Fey said in September 2008 at teh Emmys. "So if anybody can help me be done playing this lady Nov. 5, that would be good for me."


Copyright 2008 (text only). The Zaftig Redhead. All Rights Reserved.

"Insanely Useful Websites for Government Transparancy"

Ever heard of The Sunlight Foundation? It's a great organization, essentially a group to empower watchdogs — uh, that would be us, folks, the voters! The foundation is using the power of the Internet to "shine a light on the interplay of money, lobbying, influence and government in Washington in ways never before possible." They have compiled a great list of helpful sites for those of us wanting the insider's scoop on all things government and politics.

As their website says: “The following sites and resources are 'insanely useful Web sites' for government transparency. They provide a broad range of information available to track government and legislative information, campaign contributions and the role of money in politics. Many of these resources apply the Web 2.0 ethos to sift, share and combine this information in innovative ways — often times by mashing data together from disparate sources to maximize the usability of that information.”

Just a few of the sites that the Sunlight Foundation features — and in some cases, funds — include:

Congresspedia.org — The “online wiki-based citizens’ encyclopedia on Congress” from the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Media & Democracy.

Contractor Misconduct Database — The government awards contracts to companies with histories of misconduct such as contract fraud and environmental, ethics, and labor violations. The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is providing such data about the top 50 contractors.

EarmarkWatch.org — Ever wanted to be an investigative reporter? Want to follow the money? This site is a user-friendly, online investigative tool that lets citizens determine "if earmarks address pressing needs, favor political contributors or are simply pure pork." The unique site guides users step by step through the process that an investigative reporter would follow — associating different kinds of political information with each earmark, and also guides users about how to use online resources on campaign finance, lobbying and federal spending for their research — tying the pork to the source. Users can also comment on and fact-check one each other's work, or send messages — including tips and suggestions — to others.

Fedspending.org — OMB Watch’s combination of data from the Federal Procurement Data System and the Federal Assistance Award Data System has created a free, searchable database of federal government contracting and spending. The database allows you to search contracts and grants by state, congressional district, contracting agency or type of award, and shows where the money is being spent and — very important — whether it was competitively bid or just given to Haliburton.

GovTrack.us — This site uses THOMAS data and others to provide Congressional profiles and searchable legislative data. Users can sign up for email alerts to track Members, legislation and votes.

LOUIS — Sunlight Foundation’s Library of Unified Information Sources – “a search engine that combs through seven different sets of government documents. The seven sets of documents are Congressional Reports, the Congressional Record, Congressional Hearings, the Federal Register, Presidential Documents, GAO Reports, and Congressional Bills and Resolutions.”

OpenSecrets.org — This site is the premiere source of data on money in national politics. The user is able to search by member of Congress, by donor, or by industry sector. The site also contains four separate databases: lobbying, personal financial disclosures, congressional travel and revolving door.

VoterWatch — “...combines C-SPAN video of Congress with the accompanying text from the Congressional Record to allow viewers to search the video for comments made by a member of Congress.”

WashingtonWatch — This site determines the average cost, or savings, per individual of each bill introduced in Congress by performing calculations on government estimates compared to the US population. The Web site provides users with pro and con arguments for each bill, allows comments on each bill, allows users to vote “yes” or “no” on the bills and provides a “write your rep” function.

Watchdog.net — "...is a hub for data about politics. The site brings together census data, voting records, lobbying forms, campaign finance reports, and much more in one easy-to-understand place. And then it gives you the tools to actually do something about it."



To this list, The Information Knot — where I found some of the sites on this list — also added this resource:

Washington Post’s U.S. Congress Votes Database
From the Washington Post; provides House and Senate roll call votes from the 102nd Congress (1991) to the present. Also groups vote results by state, gender or zodiac sign of the Members. A convenient way for constituents to compile a Member’s entire floor voting record for recent Congresses or track missed votes or voting with one’s party.


Use these sites in good health, my friends. And please, use them to speak your minds, or better yet, speak truth to power.

An Open Letter from Someone Who Knows Gov. Sarah Palin

This letter from Wasilla, AK resident Anne Kilkenny is making the rounds, and I thought I would post it here as well for your reading pleasure. I found it on the blog Mudflats: Tiptoeing through the Muck of Alaskan Politics, but its also been posted on The Nation and other sites. The validity of the Kilkenny letter was also confirmed by the blog Fairly Conservative, which had at first claimed it was a fake. The letter is a compelling read, for anyone who wants to know about the woman who could be president.


I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because she is a “babe”.

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months.

She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans.

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

She’s smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents.

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a
regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once.

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the
Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the
structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a
gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant
she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah. They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiative that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s
lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President.

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she.

However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT
•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconstitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS
I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are
swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

Anne Kilkenny

Democrats, Keep Your Eyes on the Prize

If you think the air around Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has gotten more than a little frosty of late, the climate in cyberspace has gotten downright frigid -- and openly hostile. I am talking about the alarming number of Democrats squarely taking aim at each other, not at the Grand Old Party or the Flip Flop Express. The vitriol is breathtaking, deeply disappointing, and -- if we aren't careful -- has the potential to create emotionally-laden, divisive wounds amongst Democrats that could be tough to heal by November. The media's rabid coverage of the dog fight is also infecting the wound.

Come on, people. Democrats have nothing to complain about. We had an excellent field, and its been narrowed down to two worthy candidates. Unfortunately, the last two standing are now engaging in vigorous, damaging mud slinging -- so first off, both Clinton and Obama need to start leading by example and kick up the civility a notch or two. Their bad behavior is breeding more bad behavior, throwing red meat to impassioned followers who are taking up verbal arms against fellow Democrats -- with a vengeance. And it's getting personal on all sides. The level of discourse in political chat rooms and the blogosphere has sunk to new lows, with cyber pundits taking personal potshots at the candidates and each other, leveling charges of racism and mysogyny, vote fixing and who-knows-what else.

Bascically, it seems the fervent supporters of Clinton and Obama are doing the Republicans' work for them, for free and seemingly with great joy, by tearing the Democratic nominees to shreds before the general election has even gotten started. (By the way, Mr. McCain appreciates your efforts. He would send a personal note of gratitude -- but, truly, there are simply way too many of you engaging in the circular firing squad for him to express his personal thanks to each and every person. Just know you're in his thoughts and prayers.)

Please. We have got to keep our eyes on the prize. Say it with me: It's the White House, people. Write it 100 times. Make it your screen saver. Put a post-it note on your bathroom mirror. Whatever it takes to keep the preeminent goal in mind. Imagine four years of John McCain -- four years of Republican judicial nominations, four years of damaging Republican executive branch regulations and political appointees, four more years of the war in Iraq -- to spend regretting the nastiness perpetrated against Clinton and Obama within our own ranks. That would be bitter-tasting fruit indeed, and the results for the country would be devastating.

This campaign has been exhilirating, truly one for the ages. It has generated unprecedented interest in not only the candidates but the electoral process itself. This is fantastic news no matter how you look at it. Let's not spoil it by shooting ourselves in the foot. Democrats need to get out of our own damn way. We need to channel all that positive energy for change into our mutual goal -- and it is our shared goal -- and that is getting rid of George W. Bush and ensuring a Democrat takes his place on January 20, 2009. Cheer for your favorite now, argue the merits of various proposals, be enthusiastic about the prospects for a new day, but remember that overzealousness today might well come back to haunt us tomorrow. Democrats must be able to wholeheartedly unite as one party around the eventual nominee if we hope to prevail in the end. I believe we demagogue our primary candidates at our own peril, and risk the general election in the process.

Times Endorsement: A Yawn for Young Voters

The 24-hour TV news outlets were all over the New York Times' announcement of their presidential primary endorsements yesterday, and the narrative was a helluva lot more fascinating than the latest Britney Spears crash and burn -- and perhaps even the endorsements themselves. Strangely enough, I still kinda got the feeling of a crash and burn -- or at the very least the ending of an era -- when it came to the Times endorsement. I can't tell you how many times the venerable paper was referred to as the "voice of the Liberal Establishment." Calling it a "Liberal bastion" was also popular. Even The Zaftig Redhead lists the Times under "Old Reliables" as a source on this very blog. Kinda makes the Times -- also famous for its Square, ironically enough -- sound a bit creaky, stuffy, ivory-towerish, maybe even a little bit behind the, um, times. Nonetheless, the New York Times' endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary and John McCain in the Republican primary was discussed as BIG news.

It was big news because, well, it was the New York Times -- and simple muscle memory and tradition dictates that what that paper says shall be taken with all due seriousness and like the medicine it is. It was big news because the Florida primary is on the horizon, and approximately half of Mickey Mouse's new disciples migrated there from one of the five boroughs. It was big news because McCain squirmed like a kid in Sunday pew when he heard about the endorsement -- trying to be good but really really really not wanting to be there. It was news because of the delightfully insulting way in which the Times dissed Giuliani as "a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man..." whose "arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking." (Damn, wish I'd written that.) And it was news because the Times dissed hometown Mayor Rudy yet endorsed transplant Senator Hillary -- but of course, who is more Democratic Establishment than Hillary?

And that, my friends, is where it gets truly interesting. Because the talk about the Times' endorsements was about why they were interesting, not why they were important. And I would largely agree, but for one caveat -- I think the Democratic endorsement still carries weight in Florida, where you can't walk three feet without tripping over Hillary's prime demographic -- women over 65. And hey, if they hail from the Empire State originally, mores the better.

Otherwise, though, the Times endorsement -- while interesting, is not all that necessary, to any candidate, anymore. Not in this era of CHANGE. Not in this era of young voters finally sowing their electoral oats and turning out in droves. Not in this era of voters -- young and old -- who turn suddenly deaf when phrases like "that's how we've always done it" are uttered. Indeed, the Times, while saying largely good things about Obama, calling him "the incandescent if still undefined senator from Illinois," seemed also to be saying that he was not quite ready for the Big Show. It is a sentiment many voters feel -- but not younger voters, who themselves are tired of hearing from their own bosses that they need to wait their turn. Bosses who can't use an Excel spreadsheet, have no idea how to send a text message, or even program their damn DVRs. So, for these voters, the Times endorsement may be news, it may be interesting, but it's not important. Not in the era of the blogosphere and RSS feeds and The Daily Show. These voters want to know who Jon Stewart is going to endorse -- now that would be important.


By the way, signs point to a record voter turnout today in South Carolina. Regardless of the outcome, Democrats generally have got to be jazzed about the energy amongst the base -- folks who have had it with four years of imperial idiocy are letting their feet -- and their votes -- do the talking. Here's hoping the outrage holds through November.