THIS MODERN WORLD

From a New Yorker profile of Obama in 2007:

A potential crisis in the Social Security system is a long way off. Why, then, would a new President spend political capital on yet another tax hike when he will almost certainly seek to undo the Bush tax cuts for more immediate demands, like universal health care? When I asked Obama about this, he smiled and leaned forward, as if eager to explain that my premise was precisely the politically calibrated approach that he wanted to challenge. “What I think you’re asserting is that it makes sense for us to continue hiding the ball,” Obama said, “and not tell the American people the truth—”

I interrupted: “Politically it makes sense—”

He finished the sentence: “—to not tell people what we really think?”

And this is Ali Abunimah, also writing in 2007:

Over the years since I first saw Obama speak I met him about half a dozen times, often at Palestinian and Arab-American community events in Chicago including a May 1998 community fundraiser at which Edward Said was the keynote speaker….

The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing.

As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, “Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.” He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy, “Keep up the good work!”

How completely predictable that Obama is eager to say what he “really thinks” when (1) what he “really thinks” is inaccurate and (2) it serves political power, but is not eager to do so when (3) what he “really thinks” is accurate and (4) it requires confronting political power. (Of course, god only knows what Obama truly believes about Israel/Palestine at this point.)

PREVIOUSLY: “Power was taking her son.”

Watching Olbermann’s rundown of the past year, all I can think is: thank god that’s over with.

Which is what a lot of people told me they felt reading my Year in Review cartoons (here and here). (And as incomplete as they are, note that I managed to squeeze in sixteen panels apiece, rather than the twelve-panel format I’ve used in previous years. It was that kind of year.)

In related news, it looks like Joe the Plumber has found his intellectual equals at last …

Not that I’ve had a whole lot of time for the blog this past month, but you can expect even less over the next week or so. In the meantime, don’t forget that beloved holiday classic, A Very Sparky Christmas.

And despite all the problems of the day, remember: the Bush administration will soon be history. And that alone is cause to rejoice.

From Salon:

Finally, experts suggest that publishers missed crucial opportunities to cope with digital books, Internet innovations and economic pressures. “The big houses proved incapable of looking at the future. I’ve always been struck at how relatively un-nimble the big houses are,” says Tom Engelhardt, a consulting editor at Metropolitan books and the author of the prophetic novel “The Last Days of Publishing.” He recently wrote an essay about the crisis at his Web site, TomDispatch.com, and says he predicted the crash for years — but no one would listen.

This is in line with my own anecdotal experience in publishing. For the most part, the publishers I’ve dealt with seem only to have recently become aware of the demise of the quill pen, let alone the advent of the internet. Personally, I’ve had enough of it — I was already considering leaving the burning house before I even realized it was on fire. I’m not going to stop publishing books, but I am going to pursue a less traditional model. More on that some other time.

Here’s the thing about the publishing industry: the job of any given person at a publishing house is not actually to try to sell books. It is to appear as though they are trying to sell books. It is a small distinction, but a crucial one.

Carol Chomsky, wife of Noam and herself a noted linguist, has died at their home in Massachusetts at 78. According to a New Yorker profile of Chomsky, they first met when she was three and he was five; they had been married for 59 years.