My New Hero

And he is only 10 years old.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Finish up that bowl of Froot Loops -- it's cartoon time!

OK Go: This Too Shall Pass

Very, very cool. From the same cats who brought us "Here It Goes Again".

Head nod: my friend Emily

The Handsome Men's Club

In case you missed the Academy Awards... this bit was better.

Saturday Morning Cartoon

Finish up that Pop-Tart -- it's cartoon time!

R.I.P. Jon Swift

I've been so out of the loop that I just stumbled across this sad news this morning:

The great Jon Swift has died. That's the "blogging" angle to a personal tragedy. In reality, the voice of Jon Swift - the hilarious faux conservative blogger whose talent and passion were evident in every post - belonged to Al Weisel, a sweet and good-natured journalist who happened to be the college roommate of my once-and-future collaborator Jason Chervokas.

I didn't know him well, but Al graciously agreed to be part of my little newcritics experiment of a couple of years back and his presence at some of our New York gatherings was generous, friendly, and low key - though the humor could sometimes be appropriately biting.

Al was on the way to his father's funeral in Virginia when he suffered a sudden aortic aneurysm and underwent several surgeries in an attempt to save his life. Sadly, they did not succeed.

For those few who are unfamiliar, Jon Swift is a blogger that I have been reading since I first started out several years ago. Swift was a great guy who reached out to me personally to join the ranks of Blogroll Amnesty Day (as he was a founding blogger of that occasion). In the short time that I communicated with him, he offered tid-bits and advice about blogging, and was always quick with a joke.

Swift's blog had been noticeably absent of content for some time, and I assumed that he was busy with more pressing real-life-issues like work and family. It saddens me to hear that he has passed, as I greatly enjoyed his satirical work (yes, he wasn't a real conservative as many thought -- in fact, many folks are now saying that he was doing Colbert before Colbert).

My heart goes out to his family and all of his friends. R.I.P. Al Weisel. Modest Jon Swift will be missed...

Rick Perry's Risky Business

Unless you're living under a rock -- or relying on this site for news -- you are likely well aware that today is gubernatorial primary election day in Texas.

Incumbent Rick Perry has had a tough time dealing with his chief primary challenger, Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. So much so that Perry has wholeheartedly embraced the Tea Party movement. Politico's Jonathan Martin has an interesting piece up today:

Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry has embraced the cause of state sovereignty, suggested his famously independent state could secede from the union, deemed the president a socialist and, last month in Houston, happily stood by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s side to receive her endorsement.

As Texas Republicans go to the polls for the state’s gubernatorial primary, Perry’s approach seems to be paying dividends. He enjoys a wide lead in polls over his chief primary opponent, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, and the only real question that remains is whether he can crest the 50 percent needed to avoid a run-off in his quest for a third full term.

Unlike the trio of recently successful statewide Republicans [Bob McConnell in Virginia, Chris Christie in New Jersey and Scott Brown in Massachusetts], Perry’s positioning has, notably, taken place within a GOP primary in a deep-red state where conservatives make up much of the electorate.

But if McDonnell, Christie and Brown harnessed tea party energy while mostly sticking to safe scripts, Perry has become the first prominent Republican to make the movement’s fears about a Washington leviathan central to his candidacy.

...and therein we see the risk that Perry is taking. By embracing the Tea Partyers and the supreme anti-government movement, will Perry be alienating the more moderate Republicans in the Lone Star State (are there moderate Republicans in Texas?)? If he wins the primary, will we see him tack back to the middle after leaning so far to the right?

I suppose we'll get some answers tomorrow...

Quote Of The Day

"Sen. Arlen Specter seems to be having a good winter politically. He is back ahead of Republican Pat Toomey after having been essentially tied with him since last summer, and there remains no evidence that his primary challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak, has made much progress as we get within three months of the May primary." -Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Your Tuesday Music Lesson

Waltz Op.64 No.1 (commonly referred to as "The Minute Waltz") by Frédéric François Chopin, who would have turned 200 years old yesterday.

Harold Ford Not Running

Harold Ford, Jr. is not going to challenge Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). This, from The Times:

[Ford] has told friends that while he is convinced he could prevail against Ms. Gillibrand, he feared the winner of the primary would have little money and remain highly vulnerable to a well-financed Republican challenger at a time when the Democratic Party controls the Senate by a slim majority.

“I’ve examined this race in every possible way, and I keep returning to the same fundamental conclusion: If I run, the likely result would be a brutal and highly negative Democratic primary — a primary where the winner emerges weakened and the Republican strengthened,” Mr. Ford wrote in an opinion article to be published in The New York Times on Tuesday.

“I refuse to do anything,” he wrote, “that would help Republicans win a Senate seat in New York, and give the Senate majority to the Republicans.”

Good move Mr. Ford. Good move. There was no indication that you would have beaten Ms. Gillibrand -- and even if you had, you could have then faced a brutal general election in the fall. I think that stepping aside is the smartest play that you could have made.

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Photo: Tim Roske/AP

Quote Of The Day

“Rosa Parks did not move to the front of the bus to support sodomy.” -Barb Davis White, Republican candidate for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District.

Her other gems from the same hearing include...

“Studies also show that the average homosexual has hundreds of sexual partners in his lifetime… and I repeat hundreds.”

“I’m here today to tell you that homosexuality and lesbian behavior is unhealthy.”

You can find all of these and more on White's new spoken-word album, "Gay People Are Evil And If You Talk To A Gay You Will Get An STD".

Okay, that last one was a joke.

Head nod: Dish

Auto-Tune The Turtle Fence

Yes. Turtle fences. Scott Brown. Drew Brees. Nepotism.

Democracy. In Iraq?

Mission impossible, accomplished? Newsweek runs a very interesting cover story this week:

Bush's rhetoric about democracy came to sound as bitterly ironic as his pumped-up appearance on an aircraft carrier a few months earlier, in front of an enormous banner that declared MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. And yet it has to be said and it should be understood—now, almost seven hellish years later—that something that looks mighty like democracy is emerging in Iraq. And while it may not be a beacon of inspiration to the region, it most certainly is a watershed event that could come to represent a whole new era in the history of the massively undemocratic Middle East.

The elections to be held in Iraq on March 7 feature 6,100 parliamentary candidates from all of the country's major sects and many different parties. They have wildly conflicting interests and ambitions. Yet in the past couple of years, these politicians have come to see themselves as part of the same club, where hardball political debate has supplanted civil war and legislation is hammered out, however slowly and painfully, through compromises—not dictatorial decrees or, for that matter, the executive fiats of U.S. occupiers. Although protected, encouraged, and sometimes tutored by Washington, Iraq's political class is now shaping its own system—what Gen. David Petraeus calls "Iraqracy." With luck, the politics will bolster the institutions through which true democracy thrives.

If this "democratic experiment" works, how will the future of Iraq effect the writing of President George W. Bush's legacy? Quite favorably, I would imagine.

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Photo: Khalid al Mousuly/Reuters

70 Percent Of Americans Think Their Job Is Ideal

I must say that, given our current economic outlook, these statistics from Gallup surprised me:

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup Daily tracking reveals that 7 in 10 employed Americans say their jobs are ideal, leaving nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce who feel their jobs aren't exactly right for them.

These results are based on interviews with more than 18,000 employed U.S. adults, aged 18 and older, conducted during January 2010. While majorities of respondents at all income levels report that their jobs are ideal, the percentage saying so increases with income. Americans with annual household incomes of at least $120,000 per year are the most likely to say their jobs are ideal (77%), while those making less than $12,000 per year are the least likely (57%).

Not surprising: the correlation between income level and job satisfaction...

Checking In

So, I am starting my fourth week at my new job and, as predicted, I haven't been able to blog nearly as much as I would like to. Hopefully, that will change in coming weeks.

But, until then, you will have to deal with my occasional post with supplements from Vast, Fury and Diddy (if they want to as well).

The good news is that I have really been enjoying work. Whether or not that will change when the 'honeymoon' period is over is yet to be seen. For now, I am still trying to learn the ways of my new-found professionalism -- while maintaining some kind of domestic harmony at home. TPW and the kids have been really great throughout this transition, and for that I offer my profound thanks.

So there you have it. I want to be blogging, but my work schedule does not permit it (for now). Things are going well, and with any luck I'll be able to start sneaking in some posts on a somewhat regular basis in the very near future.

Thanks to you for your patience.