The First Hundred Days...Who Cares?

Citizen K. will not participate in the ludicrous efforts to grade President Obama's first 100 days in office because he thinks such stuff is pointlessly arbitrary. The lone observation he will make is that the president has been effective in communicating to the public that our problems run too deep to be resolved during an arbitrary period of time...

Dan Balz of the Washington Post wonders whether Arlen Specter's defection will motivate Republican's to the honest introspection necessary to revive the party:

Specter's decision provides further evidence that the party is continuing to contract, especially outside the South. Northeastern Republicans have gone from an endangered species to nearly extinct. Obama's victory in Pennsylvania in November was due in part to a sizeable shift in party registration toward the Democrats. Republicans have lost ground in the Rocky Mountains and the Midwest in the past two elections. That is no way to build a national party.

Balz' observation is correct, if beside the point. His analysis casts the dying breed of big tent Republicans against those who see themselves as true conservatives and view Specter's departure as good riddance to bad rubbish. But the real issue is the dynamic underlying this looming civil war: The Republican party is in the grip of a coterie of whiny anti-intellectuals who blame their predicament on the lies of unscrupulous liberals as amplified by a compliant and biased mainstream media. This precludes introspection of any kind...

Just A Song: The Heptones' great reggae hit, "Book of Rules"...

Abita, I just drank a beer named Abita...I have it on trusted authority that the products of Abita, a new New Orleans microbrewery, are outstanding...

I recently discovered an excellent blog called Just my little piece of the world. It's author writes passionately and persuasively about torture and has an eagle eye for conservative hypocrisy. Check it out...

An Officer's Obligation: Say No To Torture. (Thanks to Just my little piece of the world for this link.)...

Jacoby Ellsbury's daring steal of home Sunday night prompted this look back on the practice by USA Today...

Tony Fitzpatrick and a Stew Called New Orleans

"Marigny Girl," by collagist and printmaker extraordinaire Tony Fitzpatrick, graces the cover of Stew Called New Orleans, the fine new CD from Paul Sanchez and John Boutte. The pair knocked out the CD in a single session. Stew glows with a relaxed confidence, starting from the very beginning with Boutte's sterling reading of Paul Simon's "American Tune." Boutte and Sanchez trade vocals throughout, augmented greatly by Leroy Jones prowling trumpet and an occasional solo from guitarist Todd Duke. But what really makes this CD shine is not so much the material -- excellent though it may be -- as the obvious friendship and affection between the two men bulwarked by arrangements built around Sanchez' rhythm guitar. Individual CDs from both made my end-of-year Best Of list, and I can't imagine that Stew will be any different...

You can listen to tracks from Stew Called New Orleans at the Lousiana Music Factory here...

"Marigny Girl" is part of a exhibition called Chapel Of Moths: A New Orleans Project, assembled by Fitzpatrick for last years biennial Prospect.1 New Orleans. You can view the exhibit here...

Fitzpatrick has been designing Steve Earle's CD covers for nearly fifteen years:

Townes (2009)

Washington Square Serenade (2007)

The Revolution Starts...Now (2004)

Just An American Boy (2003)

Jerusalem (2002)

Sidetracks (2002)

Transcendental Blues (2000)

The Mountain (1999)

El Corazon (1997)

I Feel All Right (1996)

So Arlen Specter is now a Democrat. I've always been lukewarm toward party switchers because the act usually has more to do with self-preservation than principle. Specter is no different: The 79-year old faced a stiff primary challenge from his right. More than anything -- and way ahead of principle and party loyalty -- these guys want to be United States senators. Specter has already said that he will continue to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), I hope he doesn't get a free ride in the Democratic primary of heavily unionized Pennsylvania...