He's amazing. Best I've ever seen him. He starts with Tenth Avenue Freezeout. Tune in, don't miss this.

Update: I'm speechless. He's always good, but this just rocked. It also was the happiest halftime show I've ever seen. The adlibs were great. I'm about to watch it again. [More...]

I love all sports. But college football is my first love. Then college basketball. Then the NBA. But I enjoy NFL football and am a NY Giants fan.

I'll be watching the game, set to kick off in an hour and 25 minutes. But it will be as a casual fan. No particular rooting interest (though Anquan Boldin is from the small Florida town I grew up in and went to the same high school I did.) I understand watching the commercials is a big deal, And Bruce Springsteen will be hawking his new album at halftime.

Perhaps some of these things will be of interest to you and here is a thread for discussing all things Super Bowl related.

Speaking for me only

Tom Maguire makes a good point:

I am not sure how much of "the truth" needs to be classified and how much can safely be told but this approach is consistent with the stand taken by Jack Bauer. Presumably, Bush's supporters should not be afraid of the truth (if it can be told). Let the public learn and decide.

Jack Bauer was unafraid to tell what he did and why he did it and face the consequences, if any. Why then are some so afraid of following the example of Jack Bauer? (Yes, I know Jack Bauer is a fictional character.)

Speaking for me only

I was listening to the Foo Fighters sing "Times Like These" on the radio driving to the jail today, and when the line came, "It's time to love again" in my head it came out "It's time to work again."

I think the economy has everybody fearful, even those without pressing problems. I've worked non-stop all week, days and nights, and I think next week will be the same. Kind of like a "get it while you can" philosophy because we don't know how really bad it's going to get.

[More...]

Over at the New Yorker's Think Tank blog, former Washington Post managing editor and now New Yorker staff writer Steve Coll outlines a business model for "nonprofit newspapers" and proposes the establishment of a $2 billion endowment for the Washington Post.

The WaPo, Coll writes, is a "fountainhead of Watergate and so much other skeptical and investigative reporting critical to the republic’s health."

Really? Is the work of Iraq war bullies Charles Krauthammer and Jim Hoagland "critical to the republic's health"? Have these opinion writers ever expressed skepticism about power of any kind? What about David "Bush Regains His Footing" Broder? Or Richard "Cap, my Safeway buddy" Cohen? [More...]

Steve Benen is nonplussed that Mark Halperin thinks President Obama failed in his quest for post partisan unity. Benen writes:

Halperin believes, for reasons that are unclear, that the paramount goal was to win the support of lawmakers who were wrong and who were advocating bad ideas. It's not about what works, or what would actually improve the economy in the midst of a serious recession. What really matters is "bipartisan solutions." Why? Because Mark Halperin says so. Merit be damned -- if Democrats liked the legislation and Republicans didn't, it's necessarily flawed.

(Emphasis supplied.) Come on. President Obama said and signalled so. For crissakes, that was the essence of the post partisan unity schtick. Let's not act like naifs. This is, in part, Obama's own doing. It is silly to pretend otherwise. Of course what Halperin says is absurd. But it was absurd when President Obama said it too.

Speaking for me only

"Life on Mars" is back tonight, one of the few cop shows I like, probably because it involves time travel back to 1973, the music is good and Michael Imperioli from the Sopranos and Harvey Keitl are in it. Watching New York in 1973 is fun. Throughout tonight's episode they are playing the Guess Who's "No Time." (ABC needs to turn their default audio to "off" or people will stop clicking on their site. Little is worse than assaulting us with unasked for audio just because we click on a site.)

"No Time" is perfect for this week since I've been in court all week and have had no time to blog.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

When Obama does it apparently. My friend Booman writes:

But if the bill is already as good as passed, then why are Democrats stripping elements of the bill out? The short answer is that it is politics. The Obama administration would like to get a big vote in favor of the stimulus for three reasons. They want to demonstrate the efficacy of their post-partisan rhetoric, they want to get some cover for the Democrats in case the stimulus doesn't work, and they want to splinter the GOP caucus on the first big vote of their administration. For all these reasons (tone, politics, demonstration of power), they are willing to make some generous and unnecessary concessions. We may not like or agree with these concessions, but we should try to understand the game that is being played.

Sounds pretty Bill Clinton Third Wayish to me. Of course, what is missing from that analysis is what Bill Clinton did in his first economic plan and the fact that the Third Way Bill Clinton emerged after Republicans captured the Congress. More . . .

Eugene Robinson would be in jail today after writing this ignorant and unintelligent column:

[I]t is unclear to me what else Blagojevich has done that a duly constituted jury would find illegal. Even in the matter of his menacing mop, at worst he's a co-conspirator in a dastardly act committed by his barber.

Try reading the Illinois House's impeachment report (PDF) or the US Attorney's criminal complaint (PDF) next time Gene. It will save you from the stupid.

Speaking for me only

Via Attaturk, happy trails to Bill Kristol:

This is William Kristol’s last column.

After failed stints at Time and the NYTimes, it is now time for Kristol to make room for some new GOP hacks.

Let's make this an Open Thread.

Speaking for me only.

The Screen Actors Guilds Awards are about to start. The red carpet action is at E. What makes these awards different? It's all about the performers, and it's movies and TV.

Between the Golden Globes and the Inauguration, I'm pretty "gowned out" so I won't be detailing the dresses. Here are the nominees in the biggest movie categories:

• Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
  RICHARD JENKINS / Walter Vale - "THE VISITOR"
  FRANK LANGELLA / Richard Nixon - "FROST/NIXON"
  SEAN PENN / Harvey Milk - "MILK"
  BRAD PITT / Benjamin Button - "THE CURIOUS )
  MICKEY ROURKE / Randy - "THE WRESTLER"

[More...]

You make the call. First up is Maureen Dowd:

I love the hurly-burly way the Illinois governor rammed through his choice for the Senate, compared with the namby-pamby way the New York governor strangled his best choice for the Senate. So now we have an N.R.A. handmaiden in Bobby Kennedy’s old seat? Paterson could have acted a month ago, or even a week ago. . . . Then the Democrats would have had another Kennedy in the Senate representing New York — Bobby’s niece and a smart, policy-oriented, civic-minded woman to whom the president feels deeply indebted in an era when every state has its hand out.

(Emphasis supplied.) That one is going to be hard to beat I know (and I did not even get into the paranoid CDS conspiracy theory.) But read what Lawrence O'Donnell had to say: