"This creepy Orwellian thing"

Clear your cookies frequently.

AWESOME

This year's recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom:

The 16 honorees named by the White House include Harvey Milk, the San Francisco supervisor who led an early movement for gay rights in public life and was assassinated. Also named were the late Republican congressman Jack Kemp, a onetime pro football standout as well, and ailing Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts.

The president's choices, who will be honored at a White House ceremony Aug. 12, include American civil rights activist Rev. Joseph Lowery and South African archbishop and Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu. They include a pioneer in sports for women, tennis star Billie Jean King; and the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Actor Sidney Poitier and singer Chita Rivera were also named. Among the honorees from the international scene are British cosmologist Stephen Hawking and Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland and a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights.

Well... OK. I wouldn't have named those last three. Or Sandra Day "Bush v. Gore O'Connor.

But you have to hand it to Obama's evenhandedness: two heroic gay trailblazers, and one closet case who fought against the gay rights that, after all, his own party refused to give him.

UPDATE: Other recipients: pretty cool.

Nancy Goodman Brinker, founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, a breast cancer grass-roots organization.

Dr. Pedro Jose Greer Jr., founder of an agency that provides medical care to more than 10,000 homeless patients a year in Miami.

Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief and author of major works in Native American history and culture.

Dr. Janet Davison Rowley, an American human geneticist internationally renowned for her work on leukemia and lymphoma.

Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize winner who has provided loans to help millions of people fight poverty by starting businesses.

LaQuisha and LaQuanda!

Where are those boxes?

Jermaine getting serious

He had an affair with Grace Rwaramba, Michael Jackson's kids' nanny. And Michael didn't know. But Jermaine and Grace knew about the drip... particularly Grace, since she may have administered it. Good Lord.

The only way to get control of the healthcare debate

Demonize the GOP by saying that its senators are owned by Blue Cross. Or whichever the least popular insurer is in a given state. Repeat it, over and over and over again, until it's the only thing people remember about them. The more you repeat it, the more the news media will start trying to find out if it's true. The more the media finds out it's true, the more it will focus on small state Democratic senators like Max Baucus, who are selling out their party and their country for the sake of literally just a few thousand dollars in campaign money.

But nothing good happens in politics when you're playing defense. And right now that's all that Team Obama is doing.

Demonize, demonize, demonize. It's already happened to our side. It's time to fight back.

Bad news for budget Jet Blue travelers

TrueBlue is changing. Points will now be disbursed based on the price of your flight and not its distance. In fairness, that's probably how it ought to be. But it means I'll be avoiding the airline from here on out.

Easy petition

Stop Fox.

A nice summary

James Kwak on why the problem with health care isn't profits but competition. A short piece that everyone ought to read, since it's a good explanation of market failure.

Learn about HBI's

And the best reason for a breakup ever. On Comedy Central's trashy Michael and Michael Show.

Stop Glenn Beck

Write to his advertisers.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: The Megaconcert

Slammed... along with Rolling Stone magazine.

The listings omit both women and blacks with the exception of Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. How sad, and stupid. Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross and the Supremes, Gladys Knight, Lionel Richie–all missing. Al Green, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Sam Moore, Booker T, Mavis Staples, Gene Chandler, Percy Sledge, all the doo-wop groups, Dion and the Belmonts– missing.

What this is: a Rolling Stone magazine celebration cloaked as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Otherwise, Chubby Checker would start the show with “The Twist.” But he’s not even in the Rock Hall. So there!

And where are the chicks, so to speak? Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Carly Simon, Linda Ronstadt, who made Rolling Stone so big in the 70s? Or all the punky rock groups from the Phil Spector era, or Darlene Love? Something tells me there are going to be lots of medleys led by the indefatigable Paul Shaffer, in between the big acts already announced. It will be like one of those hideous PBS singalongs from Pittsburgh.

Wait a minute... Lionel Richie is in the Hall of Fame?! Good for him!

From the Houston Chronicle's Spanish edition

Headline two days ago: Republicans on Senate Committee will vote against Sotomayor."

Lou Dobbs

Obama might be undocumented. Does that mean our share of the (growing) Hispanic vote is about to go from 88 to 95?

Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio)

Yup:

The GOP’s biggest problem? “We got too many Jim DeMints (R-S.C.) and Tom Coburns (R-Ok.). It’s the southerners. They get on TV and go 'errrr, errrrr.' People hear them and say, ‘These people, they’re southerners. The party’s being taken over by southerners. What they hell they got to do with Ohio?’ ”

President Bush blew it by not taking Voinovich’s advice to simplify the U.S. tax code, for which individuals and businesses now spend $240 billion to prepare their returns. And in light of the subsequent mortgage crisis, Bush doesn’t look so good touting the growing ranks of home owners in state of the union addresses.

The best of all worlds

Sonia Sotomayor's nomination passed the Judiciary Committee. And all but one Republican voted against her. Thank you, GOP!

Krugman, for once...

Praises the president. And slams Howard Fineman.

And makes an important point about what the Obama Administration hasn't been, albeit an odd one for a Hillary supporter.

I think this Michael Hirsch piece on Joe Stiglitz somewhat misses the point.

Yes, Joe should be playing a bigger role — he’s an insanely great economist, in ways you can’t really appreciate unless you’re deep into the field. I’d say that he’s more his generation’s Paul Samuelson than its John Maynard Keynes: as with Great Paul, almost every time you dig into some sub-field of economics — finance, imperfect competition, health care — you find that much of the work rests on a seminal Stiglitz paper.

But the larger story is the absence of a progressive-economist wing. A lot of people supported Obama over Clinton in the primaries because they thought Clinton would bring back the Rubin team; and what Obama has done is … bring back the Rubin team. Even the advisory council, which is supposed to bring in skeptical views, does so by bringing in, um, Marty Feldstein.

All it took was an election

And America is popular again. Well... kind of. The damage George W. Bush did to our reputation in Muslim nations is lasting.

Meanwhile, America's favorability rating has gone from 59 to 76 in India. That's higher than anywhere but South Korea, Kenya and Nigeria--and much higher than Europe, where approval of the US has literally doubled in some cases. This despite the fact that foreign policy experts insisted that America had no place to go but down in India because George W. Bush did so much to advance bilateral relations.

Stanley Fish

A commentary by Gates' former chair. A note: Harvard, too, has long been called the plantation by its black denizens.

Roger Ebert on The Return of the King

Funny:

At last the full arc is visible, and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy comes into final focus. I admire it more as a whole than in its parts. The second film was inconclusive, and lost its way in the midst of spectacle. But "Return of the King" dispatches its characters to their destinies with a grand and eloquent confidence. This is the best of the three, redeems the earlier meandering, and certifies the "Ring" trilogy as a work of bold ambition at a time of cinematic timidity.

That it falls a little shy of greatness is perhaps inevitable. The story is just a little too silly to carry the emotional weight of a masterpiece. It is a melancholy fact that while the visionaries of a generation ago, like Coppola with "Apocalypse Now," tried frankly to make films of great consequence, an equally ambitious director like Peter Jackson is aiming more for popular success. The epic fantasy has displaced real contemporary concerns, and audiences are much more interested in Middle Earth than in the world they inhabit.

Berlusconi

Still leads Italy's most popular party... and about half the country still approves of him. Santo subito!

The Irish Independent

On the new law:

Baptists and Presbyterians, Methodists and Catholics, Jews and Buddhists do not call for blasphemy laws these days. Only Muslims do. And no doubt the minister's safety clause is "intent": if you do not intend to cause outrage, then you are not guilty.

Well, frankly, I think I have the right not merely to offend people, but the right to intend to do so. It is up to them, and their personal capacity to control their emotions, as to whether or not they are outraged. [...]

Either way, the courts will sooner or later give the blasphemy law some interpretation which Dermot intended. For we know this happens. It happened with the constitutional ban on abortion, which by the alchemist's stone that lives in the Supreme Court, mysteriously became a divine authoriser of abortion. No. Don't ask.

So, our blasphemy could become a licence for zealots to impose their vision of society upon the rest of us. Who now in the Irish media will comment upon the nature of Islam and its impact on Irish life? If someone does, and the zealots are able to summon the necessary outrage for a successful prosecution, they will for certain seriously damage our basic freedoms of speech: and if they fail, then that is another reason for them to feel marginalised and victimised within this horrible bigoted Christian/secular society of ours, which we should change to suit them, NOW.

The Pope won't meet with Silvio

Which is really unfair.


Pity poor Silvio. He has spent the better part of his life screwing the poor as a capitalist before buying the prime ministership and screwing them as a matter of public policy. He supported Bush's war in Iraq. This despite John Paul II and Benedict's professed opposition to both.

You can't change the rules on Catholic politicians overnight. Silvio has kept to the code: oppose gay rights and abortion, and you're home free. Yes, Silvio has kept his end of his bargain. The Pope should stick to his.

Blasphemy now illegal in Ireland

Which is a good thing. It's way more fun now.

Shoe drops

Meet the sergeant.

"Barack Obama wouldn't say that"

Pretty cool profile of Valerie Jarrett in next Sunday's New York Times magazine.

Yvonne Abraham

The Boston Globe columnist gets an early last word on Gatesgate.

L'affaire Gates

Police report (the Boston Globe, which originally obtained it, has removed it from the website)

Gates' response (via his attorney, Harvard Law's Charles Ogletree)

Walter Cronkite

Roger Simon's eulogy.

Sharpton

Joseph Jackson's buddy is right about Cambridge PD:

"This arrest is indicative of at best police abuse of power or at worst the highest example of racial profiling I have seen," Sharpton said. "I have heard of driving while black and even shopping while black but now even going to your own home while black is a new low in police community affairs."

The Pope was right

One of the hallmarks of Benedict XVI's papacy was "The Instruction." The landmark document stated, for the first time in the Church's history, that a homosexual orientation made one unfit for the priesthood, conduct be damned. Where the Church once said that one's orientation ought to be to God, it now said that it ought to be towards women, and then towards God. Hence the all-important scenes of John Paul II skiing in the the biopic that the Opus Dei created for CBS ("he was so virile... he was obviously straight. oh, the sacrifice he made!" As if celibacy was easier for a gay priest).

Hence, also the importance of showing that John Paul II favorite Marciel Marcial, founder of the Legionaries of Christ, broke his vows merely by fathering a child rather than molesting ten year old boys and seminarians. No, the Church hasn't commented on that yet.

Now comes proof that the Pope was right. Limp wristed priests are not only an intrinsic danger to the Church, every last one of them can cost the Church thousands of dollars in health care costs. Their wrists can break right off!

The 82-year-old Pontiff, who was enjoying a two-week summer break in the Italian Alps, tripped over during the night as he was leaving a bathroom next to his bedroom. He twisting his ankle and fractured his right wrist.

There's no grandfather (Granddaddy?) clause in The Instruction... which, in this case, is rather unfortunate.

"Where are the fatwas?

Moisés Naím on Muslim inaction in Foreign Policy.

Al Qaeda was trained

By the CIA as part of the proxy war against the USSR in Afghanistan.

I wonder whether portions of the movement might end up being relative to long term U.S. strategic interests. And best of all, for free and with no American meddling required. The Chinese are taking care of that themselves, thank you very much.

China has warned its citizens in Algeria of possible attacks after reports that Al Qaeda has vowed to seek revenge for the deaths of Muslim Uighurs during riots in China's Xinjiang Province earlier this month.

The threat by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the group's branch in North Africa, is the first that the global terror network has made against Chinese interests. Beijing has courted the Islamic world heavily as it seeks superpower status, establishing a network of trade deals and economic investments that may start to look like soft targets.

At least 192 people were killed during race riots between Han Chinese and Uighurs in the city of Urumqi July 5, reports Agence France-Presse. Most of the victims were Han, according to the Chinese authorities.

The threat was first uncovered by British risk consultancy Stirling Assynt, which says AQIM has vowed to attack the 50,000 Chinese working in Algeria, as well as Chinese interests in the rest of North Africa, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Stirling Assynt said that although AQIM was the first arm to target China, "others are likely to follow". It said that it had monitored an increase in internet "chatter" among possible jihadists about the need to "avenge the perceived injustices in Xinjiang."

"Some of these individuals have been actively seeking information on China's interests in the Muslim world which they could use for targeting purposes," Stirling Assynt said, adding that locations included North Africa, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen.

The warnings are an unwelcome wakeup call to China, which has expanded its influence throughout the developing world by telling local governments that they are "fellows from a developing nation ... and not colonial masters and foes," says The Times of London, adding that Chinese working overseas "felt little vulnerability to kidnappings or terrorist attacks."

Greetings Arab governments

You're awful macho about Palestine. But still not a word about the Uighurs.

At least the protesters in Iran (and Rafsanjani) are saying what most Muslim political actors won't.

The enmity likely stems partly from Russia and China’s early recognition of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s government-certified victory in the disputed election. Mr. Mousavi maintains that the vote was fradulent, and his supporters are bitter toward the two regimes for backing Ahmadinejad.

The sentiment toward China also may be related to the Chinese government’s forceful clamping down on violent ethnic riots between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang Province on July 5. China says that 46 Uighurs died in the violence, while Uighur exile groups maintain the number is much higher.

Several accounts of Rafsanjani’s speech say the chants against China broke out after the cleric condemned China’s crackdown in Xinjiang. The Guardian, liveblogging the speech, reports: “Rafsanjani criticizes China’s suppression of Uighur unrest. His comments are greeted with rebellious cries of ‘Down with China.’ ”

Saeed Valadbaygi, liveblogging the sermon at Revolutionary Road, has this account: “Rafsanjani condemns China. People chanted ‘Death to China.’ He asks that people stop their chants.” He quotes Rafsanjani as saying “China has a rational government. It must look at how it can benefit from its relations with the Islamic world. We hope that we will no longer be witness to such atrocities towards Muslims in China or anywhere else in the world.” [..]

The Iranian government has been criticized for its tepid response to the Uighur killings. The New York Times reported that three prominent clerics condemned the government for not denouncing China’s treatment of Uighurs, criticism laden with pointed domestic implications as well.

"One of the clerics, Ayatollah Youssef Sanei, a reformist, drew a sardonic parallel, suggesting that Iran, which considers itself the defender of Muslims worldwide, could not criticize China’s repressive tactics while it was doing the same thing. He also said Iran’s silence was related to its commercial, military and political links with China."

"Nice work with the hug dodge."

A story about Bono, W. and Barack.

UPDATE: There's video, since in the end it's Bono (and not W.) who comes off as duplicitous.

Libertarian Republicans

Call Obama a failure. And beg him to act more like their ideal Democrat... who turns out, of course, to be the Clenis.

Sotomayor hearings

Kathleen Parker exposes the sexism, and Frank Rich 'splains her Republican inquisitors.

Would you like a framed picture of Uncle Clarence Thomas?

Now you can get one: Jeane Dixon's belongings are being auctioned. And who is J.P.?

How to keep Democrats in line

Decimation. The Roman kind.

In fact, Specter provides a useful case study in the potency of a primary challenge. The predominant view holds that conservatives utterly blew it by challenging Specter. And, indeed, by running a conservative primary challenger against him, conservatives cost themselves a Senate seat the GOP probably would have held. Yet the threat of a primary challenge (which nearly unseated Specter in 2004) forced him to side with his party on nearly everything for several years. It can also be directly credited with forcing him to abandon--and possibly kill--labor law reform at the beginning of this year.

The GOP's problem is that the challenge to Specter got too strong. The sweet spot is a challenger strong enough to scare your popular centrist incumbent, but not quite strong enough to actually knock him off. Likewise, the Democrats would ideally have some challengers lined up who can frighten the likes of Evan Bayh and Mary Landrieu into taking some small risks for their party's agenda, without actually defeating them.

Granted, you can't calibrate the effectiveness of your challengers, and any challenge runs the risk of working too well. But is that prospect really so damaging that it must be avoided at all costs? The benefits of tighter party discipline may justify the sacrifice of the occasional seat in the Senate or the House. The specter of Specter haunts any Republican who contemplates alienating the base.

Alas, many Democrats view any public pressure on fellow Democrats as counterproductive fratricide. The Washington Post recently described an anonymous party strategist as being "apoplectic" over liberal advertisements targeting wavering moderates. "These are friends of ours," the strategist groused. "I would much rather see a quiet call placed by Rahm Emanuel saying this isn't helpful. Instead, we try to decimate them?"

May I suggest that "decimation" offers a useful metaphor here, though one that cuts against the strategist's point. When Roman soldiers fled in battle, their entire unit would be punished with decimation--every tenth soldier pulled out of line and bludgeoned to death by his colleagues.

Dianne Feinstein would probably call this practice "not productive." But it sure seemed to work for the Romans.

Michael's groupies

He didn't treat them like his brothers did. From a slightly gruesome but strangely moving Vanity Fair piece about Michael and paparazzi.

Have you waited your whole life

To hear Tito, Marlon and Randy Jackson sing? Now is your chance! If only Michael had included the Jackson 3 in his will, Montego Bay might have been spared. Sarcasm aside, I have a great bass line for them to make their entrance to.

Goldman Sachs

They have conquered the economic team. Next target: State.

Card check

Stalking horse. If this labor lawyer is right, labor is in for its biggest victory in over half a century.

Headline at La Opinión

"Campaign of hate against Sotomayor."

Best of all, given Republicans' relative success in using abortion as a wedge issue with Hispanics: the group behind the campaign is Operation Rescue. More, please!

Great news

The leader of Senate Republicans, a Miss Mitch McConnell, has decided to oppose Sonia Sotomayor.

All we need to do is repeat the news. The rebranding of the Republican Party among Hispanics will take care of itself.

Rafsanjani: "Be cool, people"

"Listen to a player."

A correspondent for the Iranian-American Web site Tehran Bureau reports from Iran’s capital today that there was an interesting, apparently unscripted aside from Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani when his Friday Prayer sermon was interrupted by chants from opposition supporters:

'A witness present inside the salon during the sermon said at one point when opposition supporters broke out into chants, Rafsanjani asked them to be quiet by saying, “Man az shoma behtar migam!” (”I am saying it better than you.”)'

Matt Taibbi

One of the few journalists actually covering the big picture for the USA.

Taken altogether, what all of this means is that Goldman’s profit announcement is a giant "fuck you" to the rest of the country. It is a statement of supreme privilege, an announcement that it feels no shame in taking subsidies and funneling them directly into their pockets, and moreover feels no fear of any public response. It knows that it’s untouchable and it’s not going to change its behavior for anyone. And it doesn’t matter who knows it.

"There was a church above one of the dungeons"

33:46

11:48 through the video

The President challenges the NAACP on gay rights... and is applauded. Kind of.

"Because of them, I am here tonight"

"And I am here to say, 'Thank you' to the NAACP."

Mister President!

Obama in New Jersey today.

AMA endorses House health care bill

Huge. Huge.

Here's the funny thing

Congress was such a doormat for Bush and Cheney after 9/11 that it would have approved a program to gun down Al Qaeda operatives anywhere in the world. There was no reason, at least in terms of domestic politics, to keep it secret. Cheney broke the law hundreds of times as vice-president. This one time he probably didn't have to.

Barack at NAACP 100

This was what he said at the 99th, the last two minutes of which I'll never forget.

Prophecy fulfilled.

Would be funnier

If there weren't any truth to it.

Why doesn't anyone buy albums anymore?

Because "And every singer now presumes that you'll just run their voice through the box." Even live performances!

The topselling album in the country

Is by Michael Jackson. For the third week in a row. And he's got three of the top five.

If it's Debbie Rowe vs. Joseph Jackson

You probably won't side with Joseph Jackson. Just saying.

20-30 minute delay in calling 911?

Oh oh. Looks like Dr. Conrad Murray is in for a trip to the hoosegow.

Bad news

Michael's kids are already being indoctrinated. As commenter T. says,

I seriously hoped that Debbie Rowe would be a mediating force in their lives. However, I guess she really just needed the money after all.

Okay, now I'm off to stop feeling sorry for rich kids. There are far worse issues than rich kids having to attend a cult for 5 years. It didn't damage Michael, did it? Oh, whoops.

This actually happened in today's confirmation hearings

Sen. Tom Coburn, best known as the ob-gyn who'll help fellow GOP senators cover their infidelities under patient-doctor confidentiality, actually told Judge Sonia Sotomayor that she "had some 'splaining to do."

Jermaine?

Jermaine?!

Barry White

A master till the end, he sang atop a wall of sound as big as anything Phil Spector imagined. Even on a minor hit from two decades earlier, he commanded the stage. RIP.

Hooray

The evil Sinclair Broadcast Group may be going bankrupt. Where's Ted Turner when you need him? Can the UN return the billion dollars he dumped down their bureaucratic trough so he can once again transform our nation's media and thus change global politics?

The President at the All Star Game

Big ovation, and in a bellwether state. Plus he arrived on Air Force One... with Willie Mays.

For all the glamor, Mr. Dilithium Crystals remains the consummate dork:

Obama, who warmed up with Pujols in the batting cage, threw a pitch that was a lot slower than one of Tim Wakefield’s knuckleballs. While Obama was in Cardinals country, he explained why he wore his White Sox gear.

“Everybody knows I’m a White Sox fan, and my wife thinks I look cute in this jacket,” he said. “Between those two things, why not?”

Headline at Univision.com

"Sotomayor defended her identity." An excerpt:

The certainty of her accession to the Court did not stop Republicans from receiving Sotomayor, who was accompanied by her mother, brother and other family members, with a barrage of criticisms that were transmitted live to the whole country.

So true!

This moment in today's confirmation hearings really was right out of Annie Hall.

The war on empathy

From a party of, by and for white Southerners.

If you think CNN and MSNBC

Are talking about Sonia Sotomayor nonstop, just imagine what Hispanic media is doing. And it's not just New York Puerto Ricans but California based media, as in this article in Los Angeles' La Opinión about the reaction of Mexican American law students. That will have spillover effects in the Southwest, which may prove crucial to Obama's re-election efforts.

1985 would be the last year she mattered

But just four years earlier Nile Rodgers, Ashford and Simpson, a spectacular entrance and an album font on a roof carried Diana Ross to one of her peaks.

The Jackson Six

Amazing bits (start with the first of three all too brief excerpts) from 1977's short-lived Jacksons Show.

Philippé Wynne 1941-1984

As big a loss as any the music world sustained in the last quarter century. This performance, with an appreciative Stevie Wonder in the audience, comes from the 1975 Grammy Awards. It's one of the only live bits available on YouTube by Wynne, who was so unique that other singers could only speak of "that thing in his voice."

The only Spinners song from the Kinshasa concert in Zaire documented in Soul Power is "One of A Kind (Love Affair)."

Today we pray to the great Rubberband Man in the sky for the DVD release of the full concert. Future generations deserve to witness Philippé Wynne's mad vocal genius.

The high tech kowtow

We condemn the suppression of free speech in Iran. But we're awful quiet about China.

Opportunity, opportunity

How the Chinese just don't get Islam. Or the Uighurs.

The biggest story in the world right now

It isn't Iran. It isn't South Korea. It might not be the financial meltdown, although it's not unrelated when it comes to shifts in global power.

No, it's Xinjiang and the Uighur uprising against the Chinese.

Islam isn't the most important threat to American hegemony. First of all it's a religion, not a country. And the countries that subscribe to the religion are themselves greatly divided. Suppose Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran fell and acquired nuclear weapons. The weapons would not be directed at the United States but at their neighbors. And the neighbors most immediately threatened are not necessarily Israel but India and Saudi Arabia.

Though not China.

Why? Because there has, for long, been a tacit agreement between China and the most extreme terrorist groups and Islamic governments. China won't mess with them, and, in turn, they won't mess with China.

The biggest beneficiary of 9/11 was China. Not just because it provided the opportunity to cement and lock the U.S. out of trade and energy relationships in Latin America and elsewhere. Not just because it meant genocide in Tibet could continue completely unchecked by the United States so long as China didn't block our self-defeating actions in Iraq. No, the Bush Administration's actions also focused Islamic extremists' anger on the United States. Which meant China had a decade to strengthen its internal "stability" and "unity."

China in the meantime has played a brilliant game, telling Americans that the Uighurs are Al Qaeda, and telling the rest of the Muslim world that the Uighurs are Westernized Muslims, unworthy of any potential jihad to save them.

Neither Tibet nor Xinjiang are historical parts of China. As recently as the Ming Dynasty, China controlled neither (a better map here).

It is certainly in the United States' interest to see a China shorn of oil rich Xinjiang, even more than the resource consuming buffer state that is Tibet.

Today comes news of large Muslim protests (including the burning of a Chinese flag!) in Turkey, which has ethnic and linguistic ties to the Uighurs. But as Yigal Schleifer of the Christian Science Monitor notes in his blog, it is hard to take on a superpower alone.

For a religion in which fatwas can be issued against Salman Rushdie (or not issued against phone sex), the lack of Muslim outrage outside of Turkey is telling and pathetic. Power trumps Islamic manhood, after all.

The Bush Administration destroyed most of our relationships in the Muslim world for the sake of a war that represented a major setback for our national security. Maybe the best the United States can do is to have a second country (hmm... how about Turkey?) secretly funnel a lot of cash to Muslim groups in Arab nations that are willing to foment outrage about China's oppression of the Uighurs.

Anyone who has read this blog over the last few years knows that China is the biggest long term theat to American hegemony. In terms of global power, best thing for the United States would be to see China involved in a long, costly civil war. In terms of regional power, it would also be the best thing for India, Russia, and Japan.

In short, we have a religious cause, and we have the wealth, power and intelligence of three regional rivals plus Turkey. But do we have the brains and the will? I rather doubt it.

Please, please, please

Release this as a DVD box set. While the Celia Cruz material was previously released as Celia Cruz and the Fania All Stars in Africaa, the rest has not. The Spinners set alone would be worth the price: it may be the only available video from the classic Philippé Wynne years. The movie's setlist, heavy on the James Brown, is here.

California is broke

And that's why Michael Jackson's body just might end up in Neverland. And it's also why, neighbors be damned, Neverland might just become the next Graceland. Jackson neighbors, don't blame it on the boogie. Alan Greenspan would be a better target for your ire.

Jesse Jackson

Some taste after all? He was a no-show at the memorial service, Roger Friedman says, because he hates Joe "My son just died but check out my latest project" Jackson. Amen to that!

2012 Presidential sweepstakes

Iowa: 1st: Palin, 2nd: Huckabee, 3rd: Romney
New Hampshire: Romney, Palin, Huckabee
South Carolina: Huckabee, Palin, Romney

(Ghost) writing a tell-all

JUSIPER favorite Levi Johnston is fixin' to write a book about Bristol, Sarah and the rest of the Palin family. This according to his bodyguard and publicist, whose name is Tank.

UPDATE: Here's an interview.

UPDATE #2: Tank is black! And Bristol's baby daddy is half Mexican! What would the Republican base have thought if that had come out during the campaign?!

UPDATE #3: Apparently Levi is also interested in modeling.

UPDATE #4: Tank Jones Investigations has a My Space page. Appropriately enough, he's an R. Kelly fan. More on Mr. Kelly here. And Dave Chappelle's rather profound reflections here: "How old is fifteen, really?"

UPDATE #5: Tank's real name is Sherman.

Alas

Looks like Brüno is not as good as it looks.

Fox

Showing that good old Nazi-style eugenics still have a home in the GOP.

Finally, some good celebrity news

Betty White is very much alive! So today let us remember a national treasure.

And the #1 album in the country is...

Thriller.

Michael Jackson albums have maintained their sales in the 4 days of the new week of the charts.

According to Nielsen SoundScan 233,000 Jackson albums were purchased over June 29 and 30 and July 1 and 2 from the sample taken from Anderson, iTunes, Best Buy, Borders, Starbucks, Target and Trans World.

Out the 7 outlets surveyed, Jackson album accounted for 70% of sales of their Top 200 albums.

‘Thriller’ was the biggest seller this week, moving 85,000 units. ‘The Essential Michael Jackson’ sold 65,000 units.

"For one long, glorious moment he made the world dance"

Bill Werde in Billboard.

It was a nice service

Not even Louis Farrakhan, Don King and Omarosa's presence soiled it.

Heed thy own advice

Benedict's new encyclical:

In the sweeping document, Benedict denounced the private sector and blamed "badly managed and largely speculative financial dealing" for causing the current economic meltdown. He said that the primary capital to be safeguarded is people, and cautioned that economic systems need to be guided by charity and truth.

Perhaps we could start with the Roman Catholic Church's own economic system. How about full financial transparency?

Meanwhile, the Pope has also called on world leaders not to forget the poor. But not to worry, lip service transient by definition. He'll soon return to the topics his predecessor made paramount: abortion and sex.

Meanwhile, still more lip service:

Benedict lays out his view of the promise and problems of globalization, saying that it needs an ethic that puts people above profits. Systems of protection and welfare are having trouble pursuing social justice and helping people in need, Benedict writes. In the past people turned to states, but today globalization limits state sovereignty and power, social safety nets have been cut, and trade unions also face more obstacles.

Therefore, Benedict said, the world's population must engage in new ways -- through civil society, creative government collaboration and new international institutions.

Benedict also urged more respect for the environment, saying that more advanced countries must lower their domestic energy consumption, either through technology or great ecological sensitivity among citizens. He also advocated more research into alternative energy consumption and pushed for a worldwide distribution of energy resources.

We'll know whether there is any significance to the encyclical when we see American cardinals backing President Obama's health and energy bills the way they backed George W. Bush's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.

A circus till the end

Literally.

Tour t-shirts

Goodness. And they'll sell, even at those prices.

Elizabeth and Michael

Very sweet... and very, very weird (starts at 4:30)

Vultures at the memorial service

Via Showbiz411, the best source of news during this entire saga.

The good news:Appearances by Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross. They are deserving by virtue of friendship and appropriate by level of artistry. And Jennifer Hudson, by virtue of tragedy.

The bad news: the race between Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for the funeral oration seems to have resulted in a draw. Both will be speaking. And Jermaine will close the service:

Sources say that Jermaine will represent the Jackson family, singing Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.” If this comes off as planned and hoped, Jermaine will steal the spotlight from many superstars....

Were you thinking that the only thing worse would be to have Tito perform? Well, you would be wrong. Tito's sons will.

It's only appropriate. The family used him from the beginning, so there's no reason not to use him at the end.

Wimbledon

The Times' Simon Barnes, as always, with the last word.

Tied in the 5th?

Entertaining as it would be to see Roger cry again, it would also be good to see the smile wiped off Sampras' face.

FBI isn't investigating Palin

Which hardly precludes other agencies from doing so.

"What? I don't open this?"

Let us also remember Elizabeth Taylo. Friend of gay people everywhere and the woman responsible for the best drunk appearance ever on a major awards show. God bless her.

And good night you all! Ya all, ya all, ya all!

UPDATE: Given the events of the last week, this video becomes terribly sad.

Jason Hare is absolutely right

Every moment of this video is dated.

Mentors

Michael Jackson and James Brown.

This was Michael on the verge of Thriller, his voice and magnetism such that next to Diana Ross, singing her last huge hit, he utterly, and effortlessly, commanded the stage. And in a ten second vocal, redefined the song.

"The Love You Save"

It was the followup to the followup, but the first fifteen seconds of this video (h/t Jason Hare) embody Michael Jackson's explosion onto national consciousness better than any video I've seen for "I Want You Back." Even a decade later, it would still be their best choreographed early hit.

Meanwhile, very bad news for us peddlers of the "no good music after 1995" meme: the emerging meme is that Invincible (2001) was underrated. Even Dean Robert Christgau thought so--and at the time, no less.

Apologies

The preview link to the Joseph Jackson piece seems to be broken. Here is another one.

Cynthia McKinney is in jail!

In Israel! Moral of the story: you might get away with hitting a Capitol Hill a police officer. But don't mess with the Zohan.

You don't have to like Mickey Kaus

To admit he has a good line on the John Edwards sex tape: "So disappointing. Just him and a mirror again."

But this book is sure to be a doozy.

Wasilla Sports Complex=Sarah's house

Naughty!

J. Randy Taraborrelli

Is the author of two extraordinary biographies: Michael Jackson: The Magic and the Madness and the devastating Call her Miss Ross. Here are excerpts from the second edition of his Jackson book. Start, however, with the first post: his reaction to Michael Jackson's death.

Twisting the knife

Palin nemesis Lisa Murkowski: "I am deeply disappointed the Governor has decided to abandon the State and her constituents before her term has concluded."

"The bull goose looney of the GOP"

Paul Begala on Sarah Palin.

Shannyn Moore

Is a liberal talk radio host from Alaska. Her tweet tonight:

Prediction: Palin corruption story is true. She got a free house in exchange for $13M contract award. she is D-O-N-E.

From Edward Teller, posting at firedoglake:

This just in my inbox, from a source connected sometimes to CNN:

"Here's a quote I got from law enforcement here in Alaska yesterday afternoon regarding Palin "a criminal indictment is pending authorization."

A reader at the site asks a question about the possibility that she might have been involved in her church's arson: "Were they making meth in the church?"

Palin

A pretty good rundown. Note the bizarre rapid speech, the repeated reference to probes and the media, and word that the governor won't run for president in 2012. Put them together, and you have to think that Palin has either a) lost her mind or is b) about to be indicted. My suspicion: b may be causing a.

Sarah Palin

I am watching excerpts from her speech today on CNN. She may need medical help.

Krugman

A master's class.

Slim Jim plant accident

Next time you have one, you really might be eating a bit of him.

Germaine Greer

On Michael Jackson.

Postgate

Forty years ago, the Washington Post was a check on power. Today a lobbyist reveals its corruption.

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

With the newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the solicitation, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said in a staffwide e-mail that the newsroom would not participate in the first of the planned events — a dinner scheduled July 21 at the home of Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Katharine Weymouth.

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — was a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

And it's a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.

Al Franken's victory speech

A moving tribute to Paul Wellstone. And Franni.

Kris and Adam

Awww. And here they talk Michael Jackson.

Wanna know why Joe Jackson was left out of the will

Here's a clue.

40 years after Stonewall

The gay community is still so politically powerless in Dallas that no one will step forward to defend it against police harassment.

Christian Values, Character, Honesty

Mark Sanford for Governor.

His name is André, for God's sakes

Is he, you know, like Lindsey?