Miss Piggy Lunchbox

You probably saw this all over Facebook et al. when it happened last month, but since love of Al Franken has been a big theme of this blog, I don’t hesitate to give it its late time in the spotlight here.  What you’ve got is Al Franken calling out John Thune’s lies on the floor of the Senate.  I find the “you’re not entitled to your own facts” line staid and naive, but I do love Franken’s witty ferocity.  During a stretch where I’ve felt so disappointed in our system and in many individual Democrats, it’s nice to have some optimism left that Franken really will be a strong progressive voice for Minnesotans in the Senate.

Here’s the vid, via TPM LiveWire.

2009.  Seriously.  two thousand f’ing nine. How the hell did that happen?

Not only that, we’re damn near a third of the way through 2009.  It’s almost May.

Also, Wednesday?  How the hell is it already Wednesday?

Via Daily Kos comes this imperative statement from McCain this last summer.

“We should be able to deliver bottled hot water to dehydrated babies.”

You know, parsing that statement, I can’t really find anything I disagree with.  So…yay McCain, you nailed that one.  Not so sure you want to make it a major part of your campaign, though.

(I swear I’m working on the SP20 recap.  Really.  It’s just taking forever.)

This is Jawbox’s last studio effort, and it seems they could never make up their mind about who they wanted to be. Or maybe they made up their mind that they wanted to be a bit of everything. Either way, as the band frequently vacillates between powerful melodies supported by mildly abrasive guitar, completely atonal talk-singing over nearly atonal, rapidly shifting songs, and slow attempts at setting a mood of darkness, the mixed bag that is Jawbox serves as a pretty good summary of the mixed bag that was Jawbox.

So was it intentional or accidental that so little of their catalog approaches “Spoiler” either in terms of style or quality? Did they want to write a bunch of disparate songs that weren’t as good as their hooky, powerful stuff? Or could they just not put it together all that frequently? I’m not even sure the band could answer that question truthfully, but given how great Jawbox members J. Robbins and Bill Barbot did when they went on to Burning Airlines three years after this album, I have to think it was just plain stubbornness. Who knows, though…”Iodine” is fairly low key, sounds pretty, and is easily the best song here, while “Chinese Fork Tie” is one of their least conventional, fitting into the atonal/off-kilter-rhythms category above, and I love it.

This is a borderline three-and-a-half lunchboxes CD. Even though they rarely get greatness from beginning to end on a song, overall the interesting moments outweigh the also significant portion of unnecessary sound. You also have to give it props for having five mix CD candidates, a very good number. It’s not the first time I’ve said this, and it certainly won’t be the last, but this might have even been four-lunchboxes good if they’d just cut four or five songs off, mostly toward the end. As it is, it’s still less than 45 minutes, so I guess I can’t accuse them of being motivated just by all the empty space on a CD, as they’ve left plenty.

Clearly, as the last two paragraphs reveal, I have some mixed and conflicting feelings about this album and the band that made it. In the end, Jawbox is one of the most frustrating band I’ve encountered. When they’re good, they’re so very good and ripe with potential, but when they’re bad they’re as meh as it gets.

Rating:

Mixers: “Mirrorful,” “Iodine,” “His Only Trade,” “Chinese Fork Tie,” “Spoiler”
Keepers: “Livid,” “Chinese Fork Tie,” “Won’t Come Off,” “Desert Sea,” “Capillary Life”
Filed Between: For Your Own Special Sweetheart and Jayhawks (Hollywood Town Hall)

“Well this sure is a crappy pity party.”

Bo Diddley: 1928-2008

(Photo CBC)

I’m not the only one who thinks the number of Puerto Rico’s delegates is crazy. Thankfully, other people even dig a bit deeper in their research. I’ll borrow some here from kos.

That’s 27 states that have fewer delegates than Puerto Rico does, even though Puerto Rico is not a state. Even if apportioned by population, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Alabama are larger than Puerto Rico.

As Cliff Clavin would say, “Seriously, folks. What’s up with that?”

And it wasn’t the first time, either. Via BarbinMD at Daily Kos, there is this craziness from the March 6 Time:

Q: One group that probably ultimately wouldn’t want it to go on too long is the Democratic Party itself. Can you envision a point at which — if the race stays this close — and with the difficulties that everyone has analyzed in accumulating enough delegates to get any distance ahead where party elders would step in and say “Senators Clinton and Obama, this is now hurting the party and whoever will be the nominee in the fall. We need to figure this out.”
A: No I really can’t. I think people have short memories. Primary contests used to last a lot longer. We all remember the great tragedy of Bobby Kennedy being assassinated in June in L.A. My husband didn’t wrap up the nomination in 1992 until June, also in California. Having a primary contest go through June is nothing particularly unusual.

And could it have been an accident it happened on the Friday before a holiday weekend, where it was enough to plant the seed, knowing the controversy would be old news by the time people got back to paying attention on Tuesday?

I just can’t give her the benefit of the doubt on this one. She’s too smart and politically savvy to make such a fortunately-timed mistake twice.

And besides, if what you’re saying is, “I’m staying in the race because, hey, you never know, somebody might assassinate Obama,” then really haven’t you made your own case for how ridiculous it is that you’re still in the race?

On a related note, I really like it when the media points out lies.

In the same editorial board meeting, Clinton said “it is unprecedented in history” for political activists to urge a candidate to withdraw when his or her chances of winning the nomination appear remote. In fact, such events have happened several times.

OMG.

Sen. Hillary Clinton referred Friday to the assassination of Robert Kennedy in 1968 Democratic campaign as a reason she should continue to campaign despite increasingly long odds.