[Cross-posted at vastleft.com]

Eric,

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer some questions about your new book, Bloggers on the Bus.

As one of those "eclectic outcasts" you referred to in your book — those who had concerns about Barack Obama's candidacy and/or positive things to say about Hillary Clinton's — Chapters 8 and 9 on the "Blog War of 2008" were, of course, of special interest to me.

That thought-provoking material, and the vivid portraits of several different bloggers throughout the book, made for what I consider a must-read for progressive bloggers and their readers. Congratulations on a terrific follow-up to Lapdogs! Read more…

I've resumed posting at my old site, accessed via either "http://vastleft.blogspot.com" or "http://www.vastleft.com."

I hope to see you over there. Please add me to your RSS feeds, blogrolls, etc., if you're into such things.

I have one more post planned for Correntewire in the near future. Stay tuned....

P.S., Suggestions for a new tagline are welcome. "Something to read until Bush gets us all killed" probably needs a little updating... to reflect our new, hopeful, transcendently transcendent age.

Mike Lux:

Bong traders have a huge amount to say about whether interest rates are lowered and raised.

UPDATE: Dang, someone fixed a great typo... or an inadvertently revealed truth!

A screen shot for posterity: Read more…

As a prelude to a future post about Eric Boehlert's Bloggers on the Bus, here's a summary of what I view as the major sins of The Blog War of 2008:

a) Truthiness. The truth-telling alternatives to the lying media lost their compasses, as even sophisticated observers heralded resolutely post-partisan Obama as "deeply progressive" and, seriously, a modern-day Messiah.
 Read more…

Naturally, he wasn't talking directly to us "liberal bleeding hearts." Instead, he delivered the message to the AMA:

"What are not legitimate concerns are those being put forward claiming a public option is somehow a Trojan horse for a single-payer system," he said. I'll be honest. There are countries where a single-payer system may be working. But I believe -- and I've even taken some flak from members of my own party for this belief -- that it is important for us to build on our traditions here in the United States.

Claim we're getting too much of it, especially the old and disabled people.

That must be why our health outcomes are lagging behind most other industrialized nations. Too much of a good thing!

[Cross-posted in comments at Open Left, where Paul Rosenberg wishes the Dems would take the counsel of the one-time authority on political framing.]

For the sake of argument, let's accept the Creative-Class consensus that Hillary Clinton is an egocentric, party-destroying, racist she-monster that needed to be stopped at all costs.

Still, Lakoff's fawning assessment of Obama and his nouveau-triangulation remains one of the most idiotic posts written in the course of the campaign.

I'm surprised he stopped short of pointing out that there are two "I's" in "Hillary Clinton," and none in "Barack Obama." Read more…

Hell, no!

President Obama yesterday outlined measures to trim spending on federal health programs for the elderly and the poor by an additional $313 billion over the next decade, bringing his total proposed savings close to the amount necessary to cover the cost of his signature health-care plan, a top adviser said.... The cuts Obama proposed yesterday would bring the total savings he has identified to pay for health-care reform to $950 billion, an amount that may still not be enough to cover the full cost of reform. Some outside analysts have said that Congress may have to spend $1.5 trillion or more over the next decade to extend coverage to all Americans.

An interesting-enough post. But WTF, dude? Seriously, WTF?

John Rawls was a great thinker, and Barack Obama is a great man.

To quote John Cleese:

Explain the logic underlying that conclusion, please.

Don't believe what she said. How's that for a novel soution!

Chris Bowers: Read more…

Mike Lux:

Will the Democrats in the House and Senate that are closely allied with big corporate interests back their corporate friends or Obama?

A phrase you won't hear me say often: a must-read at AMERICAblog:

It's pretty despicable, and gratuitously homophobic. It reads as if it were written by one of George Bush's top political appointees. I cannot state strongly enough how damaging this brief is to us. Obama didn't just argue a technicality about the case, he argued that DOMA is reasonable. That DOMA is constitutional. That DOMA wasn't motivated by any anti-gay animus. He argued why our Supreme Court victories in Roemer and Lawrence shouldn't be interpreted to give us rights in any other area (which hurts us in countless other cases and battles).

Enjoy!

Arthur continues his series on tribalism:

In the Age of Obama, the breathtakingly rapid abandonment of ideas that liberals (and assorted others) had once proclaimed to be central to their existence is as odious as it was predictable. It also replicates almost perfectly the similar abandonment of principles by many conservatives and alleged libertarians during the late, unlamented Age of Bush the Younger.

Should he really be saying such things with the mid-terms just 17-months away?

Once you accept the "public option" frame, it's "goodnight, nurse!" for real health-insurance reform.

It's only happening about everywhere in the liberal blogosphere.

OTOH, maybe a compromise with the Blue Dogs, Republicans, and death-by-spreadsheet crowd will work out just fine. It would be irresponsible not to equivocate.

If you can figure out what to say about this, let me know.

That is a very nice song. Brings a tear to my eyes when i think about what crap my son will go thru when people who lie try to trick him and he falls for it. I will be singing this to him to night.

Eric Boehlert at FDL Book Salon:

the interesting thing about digby’s role in 2008 was that just a few year previous to that most everbyody online thought she was a he, and when she came out as a middle-aged woman (the worse of both worlds, was how she jokingly put it), she noticed a marked change in the way people deal with her.

It's getting wacky out there, as in wackos.

Yesterday, someone put a flier under my windshield-wiper calling Obama a Socialist who must be impeached. Actually, it called Obama a "$ociali$t," cleverly interpolating the dollar sign — the universal symbol of Marxism.

Today, we see Jon "Coming Home" Voight going three sheets to the wind, urging us to "bring an end to this false prophet, Obama."

This is getting as fucked up as it is dangerous, and increasingly it's a lot of both. Read more…

Yes, it's from Politico. But, yes, it's true — Obama is out-Jesusing Bush. In fact, he promised as much.

...religious leaders meet with White House policymakers on a regular basis - and help to shape decisions on matters large and small. A White House speechwriter working on Obama’s Egypt speech called several faith leaders to get their thoughts. After the White House unveiled its budget in April, oficials convened a two-hour conference call with religious leaders to discuss how the spending plan would help the poor.

(h/t Basement Angel via e-mail)

Natasha:

The extremity of our prospective director of Health and Human Services' faith-based initiatives is shocking.

Do you mean in the Claude Rains sense?

If you have preconceived notions about the Obama administration and its transformative qualities, I strongly suggest you read this to the end. (h/t Arthur)

Tony Blair is preaching a gospel of religious understanding, oxymoron though that may be.

What a crock. We all know what the One True Religion is, and it's yours. Anyone who doesn't believe in your God and your Holy Book is misguided. You don't have to kill them, hate them, or even proselytize them, but you know they're at best ill-informed. Facts is facts. Why not tell 'em straight up? Read more…

“The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself.” -- Rita Mae Brown