Devastating Obama revelation

Finally, the Times has uncovered his shameful secret:

"Examples of [Hillary Clinton and John McCain's] mutual respect typically include a tale of holding a vodka-drinking contest in Estonia. Such a celebration may have been unlikely to happen with Mr. Obama, who on a trip to Russia in 2005 asked that his shot glass be filled with water."

Great moments in closed captioning

Obama's characteristically rousing speech after his wins in the primaries in DC, Maryland and Virginia included this line:

"The dream of the teacher... not just to teach to the test, but teach art, music, science, literature..."

which the MSNBC captions rendered as "art, music, science, litter cher..."

Ad of the Day

A new contract from the Defense Department:

"Professional Celebrity Rock Music Band, group not to exceed seven people for tour of FOB's in Kuwait and Afghanistan for February 4-13 2008. The band should be an active rock band, with a music genre consisting of Southern Rock, Pop Rock, Post-Grunge and Hard Rock. At least one member of the band should be recognizable as a professional celebrity. Protective military equipment, such as kevlar, body armour, eye and ear protection will be provided when the group is travelling on military rotary or fixed wing aircraft."

(via Wired.)

When you know that American democracy is really in trouble

At some point late last night, watching Chuck Todd's manful attempts to break down delegate counts according to congressional districts, some of which were apportioned proportionally while others were calculated on a winner-take-all basis, I commented to a fellow viewer that there's little wonder that many Americans don't follow politics closely, because it can be dauntingly baffling to the casual observer. "It's like cricket," he remarked. "There's a reason that Americans don't follow cricket. It's just so complicated."

Thank you, McClatchy

It took an awfully long time for a news organization to point out something this obvious:

"To hear Hillary Clinton talk, she's spent her entire career putting her Yale Law School degree to work for the common good.

She routinely tells voters that she's "been working to bring positive change to people's lives for 35 years." She told a voter in New Hampshire: "I've spent so much of my life in the nonprofit sector." Speaking in South Carolina, Bill Clinton said his wife "could have taken a job with a firm ... Instead she went to work with Marian Wright Edelman at the Children's Defense Fund."

...The whole story is more complicated — and less flattering.

Clinton worked at the Children's Defense Fund for less than a year, and that's the only full-time job in the nonprofit sector she's ever had. She also worked briefly as a law professor.

Clinton spent the bulk of her career — 15 of those 35 years — at one of Arkansas' most prestigious corporate law firms, where she represented big companies and served on corporate boards."

How can you tell when your gentrifying neighborhood is just plain gentrified?

When you can stop on your way to work in the morning for Botox injections.

Money money money

With the surprising news today that Hillary had to resort to lending her campaign $5 million, I think it's interesting to remind ourselves of the net worth of the remaining candidates in the race (thank you, Salon, for the handy chart). Here they are, from richest to poorest least rich:

Mitt and Ann Romney: $202 million
John and Cindy McCain: $40.4 million
Hillary and Bill Clinton: $34.9 million
Barack and Michelle Obama: $1.3 million