Mid-First-Week

I-540, Raleigh, NC, one day in 2010

It's been a relief to write "2011", and I have a feeling that my metaphorical ears have popped just a bit (although like Mr. Edroso we're struggling under a nasty sinus and lung gunk attack that makes me actually wonder if the thousands of dead blackbirds out in the midwest isn't some as yet unrecognized symptom of a Change).  What I noticed yesterday, at any rate, was that the morning NPR "analysis" of the new lay-o-the-land politically speaking is just the same old "balanced" meme, so neutral that you'd imagine a memo had gone out to "keep yr heads down fer gawds sake, Issa's on the prowl."  Could be.  Even the dead birds story they covered without real curiosity.  An "expert" just said, "yeah, it happens some times; may they got skeered by a noise."  The Inquiring Mind said "uh-huh."  Next, in Katmandu, ...

I'm not trying to start a rumor about the birds (or the big fish kill either).  Who knows.  It does happen.  We'll possibly find out, if there's any funding left in the till for a bit of scientific investigation.  I'm just saying that the incredible short-memory problem that the main stream media has developed has become so obvious, at least to me, that I just can't take anything these media analysts say any more seriously.  And that includes the so-called "liberal" Chris Matthews.  Maddow and Olbermann I'll still give an ear too, but I won't say "uncritically" there either.  Today the new Congress starts up.  We'll see if the "Revolutionaries" really have something beyond more of the same in a flat key.  I'm curious as to whether the Democrats will actually try to kill the filibuster as we know it.  The Republican threat that "if you do that, the Tea Party might pass some weird stuff," is pretty amazing in its utter insanity, yet another example of the Clevon Little Hostage Situation in action.  Perhaps that one image from Mel Brooks is symptomatic of the whole scam that's been successfully run on America by one of our Great Parties since 1980, one acid drip at a time.  And this just isn't news, dear friends.  Ten years back we all saw the picture of Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam.  That picture was worth a million unspoken words, and still is. 

So Happy New Year.  At least it's not 2010.  Get over the flu.  The nice thing about winter down here is, there ain't no ticks.  And already the days are getting longer.  Also, copper, the metal that runs the modern world, is at its highest value ever.

A Link:  If the Rummy-Saddam hugfest photo didn't shine a light, there was this, way back in March, '10:

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/a/m/americandad/2010/03/an-open-letter-to-conservative.php?ref=recdc/Superb