Busy busy busy. Co-bloggers should feel free to take over for awhile.

Just Foreign Policy has produced an excellent new video about the history of U.S.-Iranian relations, featuring (among others) Stephen Kinzer. They’ve also organized a nationwide tour during February and March on U.S. policy, titled “The Folly of Attacking Iran.” Unlike most U.S. discussion of Iran, it features people who actually know what they’re talking about (again, including Stephen Kinzer).

Arthur Silber-heads will be pleased to see he has returned, with an appreciation of pianist Leon Fleisher that also wisely examines how politics and art intersect.

On CNN yesterday, Colin Powell clearly hinted he may endorse Obama:

I am watching this race with the greatest of interest, and I know all of the leading candidates…

And I will ultimately vote for the person I believe brings to the American people the kind of vision the American people want to see for the next four years. A vision that reaches out to the rest of the world, that starts to restore confidence in America, that starts to restore favorable ratings to America.

Frankly, we’ve lost a lot in recent years. I am going to be looking for the candidate that seems to me to be leading a party that is fully in sync with the candidate, and a party that will also reflect America’s goodness and America’s vision…

I am a Republican, but I am keeping my options open at the moment.

Recall that Obama has met with Powell twice before to benefit from his advice.

(via Weldon Berger)

Imagine how you’d feel if Joe Lieberman had just captured the Democratic nomination.

That’s how the far right sees McCain.

Romney out.

WASHINGTON - John McCain effectively sealed the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday as chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his faltering presidential campaign. “I must now stand aside, for our party and our country,” Romney prepared to tell conservatives.
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“If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign, be a part of aiding a surrender to terror,” Romney will say at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

By the time I was in seventh grade, I had read pretty much everything by Phillip K. Dick that I could get my hands on, which might explain something about my outlook on the world. At any rate, the idea of Dick writing a book specifically aimed at the “young adult” market just makes me happy somehow.

From the opening paragraphs of “Nick and the Glimmung” (a sequel of sorts to Dick’s 1969 novel “Galactic Pot Healer”), you can tell we’re in a vaguely sinister future dystopia:

Nick knew exactly why his family intended to leave Earth and go to another planet, a colony world, and settle there. It had to do with him and his cat, Horace. Owning animals of any kind had, since the year 1992, become illegal. Horace, in fact, was illegal, whether anyone owned him or not.

For two months now, Nick had owned Horace, but he had managed to keep Horace inside the apartment, out of sight. One morning, however, Horace climbed through an open window; he scampered and played out in the back yard which all the apartment-owners in the building shared. Someone, a neighbor perhaps, noticed Horace and called the anti-pet man.

“I told you what would happen if Horace ever got out,” Nick’s dad said…

A few pages later, Dick touches on another of his favorite themes: the idea of an authority figure - in this case, a schoolteacher - who propagates their power through the magic of television:

“Good morning, Class,” Miss Juth said - or rather her image on the big television screen at the front of the classroom said. Miss Juth, like all teachers, had too many classes to teach. She could not appear in person in any of them. Instead, she spoke to all her students, in all her classes, by means of a TV screen. In Nick’s class there were sixty-five pupils, and Mis Juth (as she had told them) taught nine other classes, too. So in all, Miss Juth had about six hundred pupils. Nevertheless, she seemed to recognize each pupil. At least, Nick had that impression. When she spoke to him from the big TV screen she seemed to look directly at him, to see him as well as hear him. He usually felt as if Miss Juth were actually in the classroom.

And here’s an introductory lesson in ontology, made palatable for the kiddies, when the protagonist discovers a book that seems to have the ability to predict the future:

Yes, there it was. Right in the book. A short but accurate account of Mr. Frankis’ death. Had this passage been here yesterday? Nick wondered. Suppose he had looked this up, on the car trip to the house? Suppose Mr. Frankis had looked for his own name in the index? Would he have found this - and known what was going to happen to him? …

What is there in the book about me? Nick wondered. The text which we read before, on the way here, after Glimmung accidentally gave the book to me? Or by now has it changed?

The link.

Gail Collins:

Meanwhile, the Republican far right has fallen into a remarkable snit over John McCain’s march to the nomination. Rush Limbaugh is virtually gnawing his own ankle in rage. By co-authoring legislation with Democrats, Limbaugh ranted, McCain was working with “threats to the American way of life as we’ve always known it.” James Dobson says he won’t vote if McCain is the nominee because of infractions ranging from failure to back a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to “foul and obscene language.” Ann Coulter claims she’d support Clinton “because she’s more conservative than he is.”

Once again, the reason for everything terrible about American politics for the last 20 years becomes clear. These people are nuts.

Shutting out Fox News was one of the smarter things the Democrats have done this season. But you can always count on a Clinton to toss progressives overboard at the first opportunity:

Risking the ire of progressive activists, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign announced that it has accepted a debate to air on Fox News on February 11, according to her chief strategist Mark Penn.

“There is an enormous interest in these debates an clamoring on the part of the Democratic Party for them,” said Clinton’s spokesperson Howard Wolfson. “We have not had a large number in which two people have participated. We’ve had multi-candidate debates… the fact is Senator Clinton has enjoyed the opportunity to debate and get her message out. Certainly as we move to the next exciting day of this nomination calendar, voters want the opportunity to see these two candidates compete against each other.”

Related cartoon here.

… by the way, if you value these bliggity-blog things, go throw Atrios some coin. When I stumbled into blogging, a little early and quite by accident, the only “hub” available was the Instant Pundit, which was kind of like having Fox as the only news channel. Our side desperately needed our own aggregator, and Atrios rose to the challenge. The problem is, in our brave new internet economy, the tradition of “paying” for services rendered is becoming rapidly obsolete — who needs “money” when you have page views? Unfortunately it is my understanding that Atrios still maintains a physical body in meat space and has “rent” which needs to be “paid.” Go figure.

I don’t know if Dennis Kucinich’s presidential runs were the best use of his energy. (I worked on the one in 2004.) But he’s unquestionably one of the strongest progressive voices in Congress. Just for instance, he’s the only person there who was willing to introduce articles of impeachment for Cheney.

And with the Ohio primaries coming up one month from today on March 4th, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the right wing of the Democratic party are trying to beat him. In a highly unusual situation for an incumbent, he’s being outspent 5-1 by opponents.

So if you agree we need him in Congress, and have some extra money lying around, I encourage you to send it to his campaign. Now I’ll turn the microphone over to him: