From the Dept. of Unintended Consequences

Why is crime rising in so many American cities? The answer implicates one of the most celebrated antipoverty programs of recent decades.

New Frontier

New Frontier, by Donald Fagan.

Get your war on...

Get your War On is now animated. Go now.

The silly stupid season...

Is Obama Too Fit to be President, the WSJ asks:

But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

I don't know about you, but I don't watch movies, TV shows, or look at fashion magazines unless they portray god-honest normal, obese Americans. You have to draw a line in the sand people...

and watch that line get blown away...

Remember Anthrax?

Bruce E. Ivins, a scientist who helped the FBI investigate the 2001 mail attacks, was about to face charges.

A top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last 18 years worked at the government's elite biodefense research laboratories at Ft. Detrick, Md., had been informed of his impending prosecution, said people familiar with Ivins, his suspicious death and the FBI investigation.

What I'd like to see is evidence of motive. That's something I don't understand.

Penetrate

Penetrate, by DJ Micro.

This will start your weekend off bumpin'.

Billmon is back!!!

Billmon writes about McCain's current strategy and what it means:

But he and his new Rovian advisors now realize they won't have a prayer in November unless they can motivate the conservative base and (to use Lee Atwater's charming phrase) "strip the bark" off Obama. And they have to do it NOW, so McCain can pivot back to a softer, more upbeat message in September.

So that's exactly what McCain is doing – instantly, unapologetically, without shame or embarrassment. His enormous cynicism about the political process and his contempt for the voters – not to mention his vast sense of self-entitlement -- have led McCain to take the same low road as the Bush family and its various henchmen (Atwater, Rove): Whatever works; whatever it takes.

And so it’s finally dawning, even on his media "base" (ever the hapless clowns in our political theater of the absurd ) that McCain isn’t quite the straight-talking, straight-shooting military man of honor they thought he was. The White Knight has morphed into the Great White Hope – the GOP machine’s last, desperate chance to avoid the mortal humiliation of being defeated not just by a Democrat, not just by a liberal, but by a liberal Democratic black man.

Billmon was one of the greatest voices of sanity in the 2000-2004 period, spanning the election debacle, 9/11, and the invasion of Iraq. A great analyst and a great writer.

Notable comment

South Side says this, in response to a Matthew Yglesias post:

Actually, I think the day after the election, if Obama wins, the media will suddenly realize/care that we have a massive budget deficit, two wars, gas prices through the roof, and an expansion of the executive branch's powers never contemplated by the Founders, and will preemptively declare President-elect Obama's administration a failure unless all those issues can be fixed within 10 months.

Secrets

Secrets, by Mutiny UK.

Middleman

I've been enjoying the first six episodes of Middleman (ABC family, monday nights). You can download episodes on iTunes. Smart, interesting, and damn funny.

Flashback

Flashback, by Laurent Garnier. This has to be one of the funniest music videos ever made.

Holy Cow

Someone in the MSM finally admits the Israel-Iraq connection, and that person is Joe Klein:

I have now been called antisemitic and intellectually unstable and a whole bunch of other silly things by the folks over at the Commentary blog. They want Time Magazine to fire or silence me. This is happening because I said something that is palpably true, but unspoken in polite society: There is a small group of Jewish neoconservatives who unsuccessfully tried to get Benjamin Netanyahu to attack Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, and then successfully helped provide the intellectual rationale for George Bush to do it in 2003. Their motivations involve a confused conflation of what they think are Israel's best interests with those of the United States. They are now leading the charge for war with Iran.

Honestly, having Iraq occupied by a close ally was never truly in Israel's best interests.

Update: More here.

Update 2: For a better overview of the hubbub, check out this.

Poor Leno

Poor Leno by Royksopp.

SPM

TPM seems especially snarky today. Maybe its just me.

I appreciate the attitude though.

Cuil

Cuil is a new Google wanna-be.

However it fails the Literateria test: search for Literateria and this blog does not show up.

On Google, Literateria is the first result.

Cuil equals fail, imo. There you go.

Wordiness

Kevin Drum observes that traditional media is often too wordy in the wrong places:

And yet.....having said that, spending a lot of time on the internet, as I have since 2002, has rubbed my nose in something that hadn't really bothered me before then: namely just how overwritten so many books and magazine articles are. Seymour Hersh? He's great. You could also cut every one of his pieces by at least 50% and lose exactly nothing. And I'm not picking on Hersh. At a guess, I'd say that two-thirds of the magazine pieces I read could be sliced by nearly a third or more without losing much. That's true of a lot of books too.

Balmes

Balmes (a better life), by Ian Pooley, featuring Esthero. Exquisite animation.

The Process

Dropp

A fan-made video for Dropp, by Autechre. Hypnotic but well done.