Enchanting, beautiful, and somehow sad, because most of us will never see a sky like this in person ever. Too much light pollution.
The musical cue is from The Village, amazingly enough, and it’s not one that’s available on the CD. Darn it. It’s just so beautiful all by itself.
Best seen in full-screen mode.
I love him so.
There are quite a few people upset at the House of Representatives’ Republican behavior with respect to the bill. All that wasted talk and compromise from Obama, seems to be the general thought on the left side of the line.
But I’m not upset, despite liking the bill.
First of all, it’s the House of Representatives. The House is like the LiveJournal community of the U.S. Government. I’d have been deeply impressed if the Stimulus Package vote had gone down without some kind of high school melodrama.
Secondly, the Republicans seem to have forgotten the rules to the blood sport of Washington. Yes, you can indeed ignore the rules of reciprocation and trust when you’re in the clear majority. But when you aren’t the majority, it’s easier to accumulate political debt than political interest.
Put plainly: Obama, by visiting the Hill rather than staying put in the White House, and having all of these successful talks with the Republicans, more or less invested his available political coinage (of which he has quite a bit of, being as popular as he is with the country right now). He gave the opportunity to the Republicans to do the same. But instead of investing, they decided to spend what little coinage they had left in cock-blocking the bill (and especially the way they spun it to the media).
This might have been worth something were they able to actually get something in return, like actually blocking the bill; but they didn’t and indeed they couldn’t. Obama’s investment, on the other hand, paid him dividends. He had little risk, which is not the same as having little to risk, which is what the House Republicans have. And thus Obama played his hand well, much better than most Presidents would have done, I think.
So, House Republicans: they’ve effectively blown their political brokerage account. They didn’t actually incur debt, because Obama came to them; they just cleaned themselves out with little leverage left to actually build up their accounts again. Such accounts do eventually gain interest as the memory of the public fades, but for the near future, Obama has them dead to rights.
And, you know. It wouldn’t be LiveJournal the House of Representatives without a little soap opera floating around.
Embedding this in a post because it’s all just too good. Or bad. Depending on how you look at it.
Daily Kos has both the video and the transcript and, as ever, the comments.
The New York Times reviewed the piece as well, quite accurately.
Link and video link from the Linkmeister (on a Making Light post).
Transcript available from The New York Times (complete with cheering and such).
Turned around and on YouTube within minutes of its ending:
Yes, she does make it too easy. Arguably easier than mocking the current Bush in residence; here is a video montage of Palin’s greatest interview sound bites with the Gotcha Media:
It’s not just Tina Fey and SNL. As you can imagine, YouTubers have taken up the banner of Palin mockery and run rampant with it. Here are some of the results.
The Ballad of Sarah Palin
WarpedCorp
Men for Palin: Summer Surprise
HarvardDemocrats
vlad and friend boris presents ‘Song for Sarah’ for mrs. Palin
Vlad and Boris
YouTube + $100 camera/sound equipment + GarageBand or Movie Maker = Remixing like it’s never been done before. And it’s not just for professionals.
Barack is an Arab – Remixed
Sign543
Yes We Can – Barack Obama Music Video
WeCan08
Unbelievable McCain vs Obama Dance-Off
ThaOgStylez
Amazon’s Kindle Blog
