Yesterday I had my wisdom teeth removed; no huge pain yet; they say the swelling starts 36-78 hours after surgery, so perhaps tonight I will be visited by the evil Spectre of Anguish. My mouth does feel weird without the supporting cast, but I suppose I'll get used to it.

Pic swiped from Gryphon Dreams.

The DLC and Its Discontents

Let's start with the illustrious Democratic Leadership Council, that gang of "centrists" who insist that the democratic party has to abandon all of its progressive beliefs if it is to gain political power. Democracy Now! recently hosted an interesting discussion with Al Gore's 2000 campaign manager, Donna Brazile, and Columbia University professor Manning Marable.

Marable: I think that the media's done a disservice . . . by making the case that the right wing somehow has a magical mandate in 2004. It just isn't so. If you had a switch of 150,000 votes in Ohio, you would have President Kerry right now.

Thank you. I seem to recall making a similar point in this space not long ago.

Brazile: [O]ften when democrats lose, I saw this in 2000 and 2002 and some other years, [people in the DLC] constantly blame it on the -- you know, the party focused too much time on the base. That's ludicrous. Look at the money. I have run a presidential campaign, so I can speak from experience. 85% of the resources in a presidential campaign is spent on persuadables, on swing voters which is -- they're important, don't get me wrong, but I often believe we need a parallel strategy. We also have to mobilize in a large debate, and although we spent considerable resources, you know, based on what I have heard and learned from the 527's on base mobilization, we didn't spend enough money to really do the job that had to be done in order to defeat and offset what Karl Rove was doing in the ex-urbs and other parts of the country.

And be sure to check out The Nation's David J. Sirota on AlterNet.

From's group is funded by huge contributions from multinationals like Philip Morris, Texaco, Enron and Merck, which have all, at one point or another, slathered the DLC with cash. Those resources have been used to push a nakedly corporate agenda under the guise of "centrism" while allowing the DLC to parrot GOP criticism of populist Democrats as far-left extremists.

So .. as usual -- power to the people, no doubt. (Hey, speaking of which -- we saw Capital D in concert last weekend. He's the best political rap artist since Boots, hands down. He's what dead prez was supposed to be. Go buy his album Insomnia right now.)

HalliBush Wars, Inc.

Aljazeera posted an interesting commentary recently from Mohammed al-Obaidi of the standard-third-world-movement-who-knows-what-they-stand-for-sounding People's Struggle Movement (Al-Kifah al-Shabi) entitled "Why Iraqis Should Boycott Elections". While I'm not sure about his claim that the elections are a violation of international law, it's hard to argue with his main point:

The coming election will give power to every politician who has assisted the invaders and collaborated with them to consolidate the occupation. Therefore, we believe that even after the election, the decision-making process will be taken in the US embassy in Baghdad and the elected government will be no more than a vehicle to carry out Washington's decisions.

And speaking of Iraq, Scott Ritter's latest is worth a look.

For months now, the Bush administration had been building up the image of a massive network of foreign terrorists using Falluja. . . . One name appeared in western media accounts, over and over again: Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a wanted Jordanian turned alleged "terror" mastermind. . . .

The problem is, there is simply no substance to this legend, as US marines are now finding out. Rather than extremist foreign fighters battling to the death, the marines are mostly finding local men from Falluja who are fighting to defend their city from what they view as an illegitimate occupier. The motivations of these fighters may well be anti-American, but they are Iraqi, not foreign, in origin.

He goes on to cite contacts of his who insist that the chaos and anarchy has been proagated by the Mukhabarat, Iraq's intelligence forces under Saddam Hussein. This rather strikes me as a wish for oversimplified reality -- swapping Mukhabarat for al-Zarqawi -- but it's an interesting perspective in any case.

Speaking of which, Cuba recently fired back after the US diplomatic mission in that country erected a Christmas display supporting jailed Cuban dissidents. Cuba's response was a billboard featuring pictures of torture in Abu Grhaib, and a swastika. While we can all agree that the Nazi link is just silly, the interesting thing is that at least one US diplomat likes the billboard.

Wayne Smith, who headed the U.S. mission here during the Carter and Reagan administrations and has long advocated restoring normal diplomatic relations with Cuba, said he thought the images of prisoner abuse in Iraq were an appropriate response.

"If I were in their shoes, this is what I would do -- call attention to the fact that the United States is now guilty of torture, of massive violations of human rights," Smith said.

But what would a "War Against Terrorism" be without a little homeland repression? As I'm sure you've heard, nearly half of Americans approve of restricting the rights of Muslim Americans.

The survey conducted by Cornell University also found that Republicans and people who described themselves as highly religious were more apt to support curtailing Muslims' civil liberties than Democrats or people who are less religious.

As ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero pointed out last night on NOW with Bill Moyers (Moyers' last show, sniffle), Americans believe strongly in protecting their civil rights -- but we seem pretty keen on allowing the civil rights of other groups of "lesser" Americans to be taken away, so long as it makes us feel safer. (Of course, the ACLU is currently embroiled in its own privacy brouhaha.)

Elsewhere

Yet another reason why free speech is a gift which must not be taken for granted: Gambian editor shot three times in the head.

Thank the gods for Get Your War On! I think this one is my most recent fave. Wu-Tang, baby!

Another step closer to artificial life. Where's Manuel de Landa's response, already? Oh, it's in that book I lent Jon and never got back.

And from FOXNews: Washington parents are furious over a new law that "makes it illegal to protect their children."

The state supreme court last week overturned the robbery conviction of a 17-year-old because it was based partly on testimony from an eavesdropping parent. The ruling reinforced Washington's strict privacy act, which says that consent from both parties is required to listen in on telephone conversations — even if you suspect your child is involved in a crime or is in danger.

"That is just the most ridiculous, outrageous thing I've ever heard," says Kim Loewen, a Washington parent.

Yeah! If I want to spy on my kids as a way of avoiding the time-consuming task of actually talking to them in a logical fashion, that's my right as a parent!

Hey, thanks to Kilgore for the cookies! What a nice guy.

Whatever you do, don't miss Tyson, the skateboarding bulldog.

Candy Bar Watch

And with the standard foreword about how we shouldn't buy chocolate from companies like Hershey's and M&M/Mars for a host of reasons, we present the latest installment in our series on candy bar news.

Hershey's' latest, Take5, is a "unique taste experience by combining five favorite ingredients [pretzels, caramel, peanuts, peanut butter, milk chocolate] in one candy bar". I thought it would be silly and gross, but it actually works in the same way that trail mix with M&M's in it works -- the sweet and the salty complement each other nicely, and the chocolate provides a satisfying layer of aftertaste. I can see myself buying this one again.

TimeWaster™

Vectorpark has some interesting stuff. I don't know if there's a way to win at Levers -- but if there is, I'm not doing very well. (I can't get past the birdhouse.) The doo-dads in Thomas are cute, if pointless.

Today I'm listening to: DI Chillout!