I am thrilled to announce to you that iPad will start at $499

Steve Jobs.
Going to sell a few of those after all, even with a largely non-functional (but also non-contract) AT&T 3G data network.

We’ve been able to achieve 10 hours of battery life. I can take a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo and watch video the whole time.

Steve Jobs.
Methinks that we are “able to achieve” and “I can take a flight … to Tokyo” are utterly unrelated statements here.

Free to vote

Democratic leaders in the Senate are asking colleagues who are reluctant to support Bernanke’s nomination for a second term as Federal Reserve chairman to nevertheless vote with them to end a filibuster and allow a vote on the actual nomination. The reluctant members would then be free to vote no to express their displeasure.

Of course, for everything else, a vote for/against cloture is somehow magically indistinguishable from a vote for/against final passage. Un-fucking-believable. And you can bet that every last motherfucker on the yes-cloture no-confirmation list is somebody who’s come out all “there’s no difference between cloture and final passage” before. And will expect (and experience) no blow-back from this sort of utter hypocrisy.

And we wonder why these fucktards fail. As Krugman notes: “I can hardly think of anything more calculated to solidify the view that Wall Street doesn’t have to play by the rules that apply to everyone else.” Yep.

The Democrat as currently constituted is utterly and completely unfit to govern. At least they won’t have to worry about it anymore come 2010/2012. Then they can go back to going along with whatever the GOP says to do, all in the name of comity.

I say again: any Democrat, or fucking execrable fucktard that is allowed to caucus with them, that votes against cloture on a key issue or critical Democratic initiative should promptly find themselves so far down the seniority tree that they are often unable to purchase bean salad at the Senate cafeteria. Period. Until that happens, you’ll end up with the shit-sandwich we’ve been eating since they took over in record fashion.

In the same vein: You want to start over on insurance reform, GOP? Fine, as a first step towards that exciting new future, let’s pass a revocation of all health care provisions, including Medicare, for all serving members of Congress and their families, effective immediately; furthermore, we will tie any and all future health plans for same to the costliest option offered under any new legislation. Put your fucking market money where your fucking market mouth is, motherfuckers.

Is this all so very complicated?

A Very Simple Question

There is no proof that Scott Brown is a light skinned Cuban national that underwent cosmetic surgery and years of voice training to “pass” as an American?  Yet. As of this writing, there is no proof that he is a deep cover Russian agent sent to infiltrate the US Senate from the inside? Is Scott Brown actually Canadian? We don’t know. We have not seen his long form birth certificate.

A Very Simple Question

A Celebration of David Foster Wallace

peterwknox says (and I agree):

Nine peers pay tribute with a talk or essay. Strong suggestion.

Amy Wallace-Havens is David’s sister. She is a deputy public defender in southern Arizona.
Bonnie Nadell is vice president of Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Agency in Los Angeles.
Gerry Howard is an executive editor at large for Doubleday.
Colin Harrison is a novelist, and a vice president and senior editor at Scribner.
Michael Pietsch is executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown and Company.
Don DeLillo has written fourteen novels, including White Noise and Underworld.
Zadie Smith has written three novels and the essay collection Changing My Mind.
George Saunders is the author of several books, including Pastoralia.
Jonathan Franzen is the author of several books, including The Corrections.

A Celebration of David Foster Wallace

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) said Monday that he would oppose any health care reform bill with a national insurance exchange, which he described as a dealbreaker.

“The national exchange is unnecessary and I wouldn’t support something that would start us down the road of federal regulation of insurance and a single-payer plan,” Nelson told reporters Monday.

If Senate Democrats still had 60 votes, this would matter a lot.

Carrie Budoff Brown
Just for the record, it didn’t matter then, either. Just a lot of people convincing themselves it mattered. 59=clarity.