This is William Kristol’s last column.

No sentence with Kristol’s name has ever made me more joyous. I’d link to the piece directly but then I’d be linking to Bill Kristol op-ed. Here’s the Daily Beast piece by Scott Horton on why Kristol has been dropped.

Via lot’s of fucking places:

John Cole on his conversion from GOP to Democrat. He gives it to you raw:

What has changed, however, is that I have seen a lot of the arguments that come from the Republicans for what they are- just bullshit. I have watched over the past few years and seen how nonsense bubbles up into the mainstream, and how distorted versions of events designed to distract and queer the debate turn an upside down version of events into the “conventional wisdom.”

This basically what it comes down to me. I have general overall disagreements with the GOP but one of the biggest problems I have with them, and the thing that makes it hard for me to take them seriously, is their seeming complete lack of intellectual honesty.

I’m been trying to get my exact thoughts together on the madness over there. I’ve been reading a lot, trying to really understand what’s going on. I’ve come to a couple of conclusions:

1. I think Israeli conduct in this “war” is reprehensible, completely unnecessary & bound to backfire
2. I don’t think anyone really knows what’s going on, most disturbingly Israeli leaders.
3. Other people have said what I would say a lot better than I would say it.

On that last count I’ve assembled some links: first I’ve got Glenn Greenwald doing what he does best, making sense. Number two, Greenwald again. This time ripping Tom Friedman a new one over this op-ed. Next up, Daniel Larison makes me unsure that he’s a conservative with his use of actual logic. Last & certainly not least we have the great Bill Moyers. Via:

One more thing. This makes me really angry. Once again I’ll let someone else do the talking, John Cole over @ Balloon Juice:

I am not sure what Israel has on us that they can extract billions of American taxpayer dollars every year and dictate our foreign policy, but it must be something pretty good. The craziest thing about this is the silence of the jingosphere. Had this been any other nation bossing around Bush’s Secretary of State, or, god forbid, France, can you imagine the wingnut Voltron that would have been formed in outrage? As it is, crickets.

When it comes to Israel it’s like we’re living in Bizarro World.

Edited for grammar.

Finally! Took ‘em too long but from what I saw this is the right move. We’ll see what happens next.

Via T-NC

Added:

Exactly.

There’s a thin line between Good Negro & Uppity Negro.

The AZ Cardinals are putting a whooping on Carolina right now. I don’t have a dog in this fight so meh. The end of 2008 bad mojo continues to walk with me, and us. I just wanted to drop a couple of links both from the Jelani Cobb’s American Exception blog. First is the laugh of the weekend, then we have his words on the recent shootings of young Black males around the country.

I hope I’m not beating a dead horse with my focus on this, but you have to understand how disturbing it is to me. It really seems like cops are allowed to & have no problem killing young Black males. This kind of stuff is the crux of basically all issues minority communities have with the police.

UPDATE:

We have co-laughs of the weekend this week. This is just too funny not to share.

Shout out to LGM

I co-sign this :

Corollary #1: Any negative social phenomenon that can be construed to originate in Black culture will be construed to originate in Black culture, no matter how irrelevant Black culture is to the cause of the phenomenon.
…
Corollary #2: All social phenomena said to originate in Black culture are almost invariably negative, or consistently portrayed to be negative.

Malik makes a point that I make a lot in my daily life nowadays. There are a lot of issues that are American or human problems that are frequently portrayed in the media (news, film & tee vee) as Black only problems. Check out the full post including one commenter’s willful missing of Malik’s point.

From T-NC via commenter & fellow blogger SGWHITEINFLA comes a new clearer version from Raw Story:

I disagree with Coates’ conclusion that it’s not murder, but beyond that I’ve said my piece.

A new year, and 2 new police shootings of unarmed Black men:

What is there to say? I guess I’m mildly surprised at these specific instances. If only because they are particularly egregious. The first man, Oscar Grant III, was on his stomach with another officer’s knee on him when he was shot dead. The second, Robbie Tolan, was on the ground in his driveway.

Grant was a 22 y.o. butcher’s apprentice & father. Some are speculating that the officer may have been reaching for his taser & accidentally pulled his gun instead. That idea though seems to be debunked in the same comment. Even if that was the case this officer seems to be guilty of at least manslaughter. Watching that video I see no reason why he would be going for his taser either. As I said Grant was face down on the ground with another officer’s knee in his back. Protests turned into riots after his memorial service yesterday. Another in a long line of stupid, pointless reactions to police violence. Hopefully things will get back to normal quickly for those affected.

Robbie Tolan was just coming back from Jack In The Box with his cousin when cops rolled up on them with guns drawn. They suspected the car they were driving was stolen because Tolan was DWB in a mostly white neighborhood. It wasn’t of course, it belonged to his parents. One of whom is former MLB player Bobby Tolan. Robbie’s parents heard the commotion & came outside. There was some sort of altercation in which Robbie’s mom was thrown against the garage door. Tolan who was on his back on the ground began to sit up & ask what was happening to his mother. That’s when he was shot. Lucky for him he’s still alive. The thing that angers me most about this case (beyond the actual shooting) is Byron Holloway, Assistant Chief of the Bellaire Police Department saying “…any allegation of racial profiling, I don’t think that’s going to float.” OH REALLY ASSHOLE? Then why the fuck are your cops stopping two Black males @ 2 am in a mostly white area? They still haven’t given a reason as to why they thought the car was stolen, so until further notice that’s my reason. It might continue to be even after their “reason” comes out.

The only way this stuff is going to stop is when cops start getting prosecuted for these crimes & going to jail. People routinely get locked immediately after shootings, accidental or not. I have no idea why these two cops aren’t in jail right now, any other citizen would probably be locked up (except maybe Dick Cheney).

Shout out Balloon Juice & Raw Story