Danny Doom’s Booze Cabinet

We had to put Sampson to sleep today, unfortunately. Sammy was a great cat and it’s all very sad. I told Isabella and Lily what happened but they don’t seem to really get it.

Above is Sam on Christmas morning, all excited. Below is Sammy in the kitchen a couple of weeks ago; this is how he liked to sleep. We’ll miss him lots. So long, Sampson.

Listening to the Lips today, it’s been a while since I put this one on (“AWWTM“). Is anyone  suffering from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder)? I haven’t been, really, but this is pushing it. This winter won’t end and now we have bad news for our cat, Sammy. It’s not looking good for the old man, and I fear the worst. He’s 16+ years old, which is like an 80 year old human, so it’s not totally unexpected but…still sad. I get too attached to these creatures. We’ll probably know Sammy’s fate sometime today.

Other than Bill Kristol and Fred’s brother, war cheerleader Robert Kagan, nobody has been more wrong about more things with regard to Iraq than supreme war theorist Fred Kagan.

- Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Good column by GG, as usual. If you have 4+ hours to spare, watch that PBS Frontline doc; These people–the war architects and their cheerleaders–are complete idiots. Does anyone realize what is happening over there?

Chicago tap vs. bottled water. I vowed for years that I would never buy water in a bottle, that I would never actually pay money for water. Then I gave in. I even bought vitamin water. Now I’m back to Chicago tap. No more plastic bottles, no more fake cold spring mountain water that costs two bucks or whatever. Chicago water is good. Go anywhere else and it’s obvious. That big old lake is alright with me.

About a (half?) year ago (or whenever this too-long primary season all started) I was expecting Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic nominee, even if I was hoping (audaciously) for Obama to catch fire. I figured that, worst-case scenario, Hillary would win and Obama could be VP. And while I wanted the opposite, I would have been OK with that.

My, how things have changed. Obama is the frontrunner now, and Hillary is, as we know all too well, hanging around and hanging on. It’s obvious now that neither Obama or Clinton would settle for the VP slot, and indeed, neither would likely have the other anyway.

But here’s the thing: I was, and probably still am, prepared to vote for whoever is the Democratic candidate (what, vote for McCain? Please). But Mrs. Clinton is pushing it. I could not disagree more with the way she has run her campaign, and find in her more similarities to Mr. Bush than any Democrat. I have long thought that a woman would be a change for the better, as far as leaders go, but I have serious doubts that Clinton is the one.

And since I brought that up, one other thing should be clear: I have never considered voting for Obama because he is a (half) black man and his presidency would be historic, any more than voting for Clinton because she is a woman. His blackness (and her…female-ness?) are simply not a factor. End of story. I know there are people out there who have, and will, vote for Clinton because she is a woman and Obama because he is black, and I would put them on a par with people who would vote for Bush (or McCain) because they’d like to have a beer with him. Stupid.

Anyway, I don’t understand the way that Clinton has run her campaign. The wreckage that she is leaving in her wake is downright shitty, and in a year where most any Democrat should win, she is making a race appear where there never was one. And while I voted twice for her husband, well, Hillary is not Bill. Not even close. I don’t see her appeal. I was ready to look for it and to accept it, but man, I don’t get it at all. She appears to be as secretive and deceptive as our current president. I have a pretty strong feeling that her presidency would be a disaster. I don’t even think she’s all that liberal, and she seems to be the kind of person who drive people away from the party instead of to.

Which brings me back to Obama. I was with him before this began, hoping he would run before he ran, and happy to see him come as far as he has. I could care less about “the party,” I’m hardly a true Democrat anyway, but this guy is the type that will bring Republicans, Independents, and apathetic voters into the mix. More than that, he’s inspiring. Even more than that, he’s thoughtful, eloquent, unafraid to engage, and smart enough to not surround himself with “yes men.” Who isn’t sick of “yes men” by now?

He couldn’t be any more different than George Bush, or Hillary Clinton, for that matter. And so it appears that the only way he won’t get the nomination is if Hillary does something truly extraordinary and beyond the pale. So I think I can say, with some certainty, that if she did get the nomination, I don’t believe I would vote for her.

I watched part one of Frontline last night and part two is tonight: Bush’s War. Like everything, you can watch it online too. What a great, and devastating, documentary of what has happened since 9/11. Not surprising that the first part was two and a half hours long; there’s a lot of mayhem, missteps, and mistakes to cover. History is most unkind to Bush & Co. even before the end his term; it will only get worse as more of the truth comes out.

An amazing thing has happened: R.E.M. has returned from the dead! I am on my first listen of the new album, “Accelerate,” and the early reaction is that I actually, really, truly like it. I didn’t even bother with the last couple of albums and have been disappointed ever since I had my first listen to “Up.” It’s been a long time. I hope this is real and not just me wanting it to be so. But I think it is. Real, that is.

Five years, 4,000 U.S. deaths, and over 80,000 Iraqi civilian casualties later, I think it is important to read a slew of mea culpas to understand why the Iraq War was, and remains, an ill-conceived, poorly executed, and ultimately failed disaster that never should have happened. Pre-emptive war seems as dumb today as it did five years ago, from this Boozy point of view.

UPDATE:

A great headline in The Daily Mail: “As the American Death Toll in Iraq Tops 4,000, George Bush Cuddles the Easter Bunny.”

I keep hearing certain right-wingers say that Obama is “toast.” Anyone who thinks anyone is “toast” in March of an election year has 7 months to watch the news cycles change back and forth; who knows what silly preacher McCain has been hanging with (oh wait, we do), and Hillary Clinton’s refusal to go away is more than enough evidence of the changing tide. There’s just too much time for more stupid things to happen, and you know they will.

Obama will be fine; the white folks who were scared of black people before all of this are still going to be scared in November, and the rest of us will keep evolving the way humans do.

The Chicago Tribune on Obama’s speech:

It’s not exactly like answering the phone at 3 a.m. to handle a national security crisis, but Sen. Barack Obama’s handling of two incendiary political controversies in the last week has shown he is calm and confident under pressure.

He delivered one of the most profound speeches in memory on a subject that creates peril in American politics and society: how we deal with race.

If you saw it, if you read it, you won’t forget it…These events remind us that Obama is an uncommon politician, an uncommon leader.

Hmmm. Will they finally endorse a Democrat this year? I doubt it. But this is good, fair analysis from the right-wingin’ Trib. That’s a rare thing these days.

The Gutter Twins on Dave, with nice post-song commentary from Dave. Sweet!

Oh, and I missed this: Les Savy Fav on Conan! This. Is. Friggin. Funny!

Oh, and if I were you I’d also watch Liam Finn and Black Mountain when you’re there!