Tedeschi Trucks Band – Midnight in Harlem

I am using tonight’s Late Night post for a point of personal privilege, because I have been so patient and so quiet for so long. Some months ago, I pointed Jane Hamsher to a post Pam Spaulding published about issues with her blog (Pam’s House Blend) and asked if she, Jane, thought there was a place for Pam in our bloghouse. Luckily, Jane agreed that this would be a swell fit and deputized me to find out if Pam would be interested in making her home here with us.

News junkiedom can be a demanding (and demeaning) addiction at times, but I doubt I’ll ever be so desperately in need of a fix that I’ll do anything like pore over the 24,000-plus pages of Sarah Palin’s emails released by the state of Alaska last weekend as official documents from her legendary half-term as governor.

I wonder if it was the oversize, two-screen depiction of Anthony Weiner’s tweet that was the last straw. Or, if it was the “jokes” that bothered the GOP leadership gathered in New Orleans, exactly which joke it was that pushed the conference management to pull this ‘comedian’ off the stage.

On how my father affected my food choices, cooking, and my relationship with eating. I think dads are largely ignored when it comes to the role that they have in terms of food. — And cheesecake.

Over a lifetime of watching the political dances and games, there are a few things that can always be counted upon. The deficit hawks invariably claim that they are really, really, really only interested in “cutting out the fat honest.” Except that public sector budgets have been slashed so many times over these last few years, the politicians are not only slicing meat and bone, they are carving up the gourmet cuts, all in the name of some nebulous “greater good” and “sacrifices must be made by the courageous.”

Marjorie Cohn, Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past president of the National Lawyers Guild, has put together this collection of 14 essays to explore facets of our country’s recent experiences with torture while placing those experiences in broader contexts – historical, legal, and moral.

If people cannot see the change in their lives, you’re not going to convince them it’s there. The simple fact that enthusiasm is so low is prima facie evidence that the President and other federal Democrats are complete failures at pursuing the agenda of their base.

You’d think that, to become the Communications Director of the White House, you’d have to be pretty good at communication. But based on Dan Pfeiffer’s performance at Netroots Nation, the president must have filled the post using some other criteria.

Our system is crumbling, but no one notices, at least, no one who could do something about it.