Yep. I'm bored. Here's why. As I wander the tables in this fine TPM establishment, coyotes in tow, I see & hear some wonderful things. Witty (even Des got in a good one the other night.) Insightful & Historical (See: y'all on FISA.) I get to be surprised by people's (oft well-cloaked) humanity (that's you, Vlad, you ole Draco you.) I get offered drinks & music & riddles (you know who you are.) Plus, I get to watch some great scraps - TV got nothin' that can compete with our own Itchy & Scratchy.

And with all that, how could I be bored? Well. Boredom's a funny thing - it's relative. Y'see, it's often them waggly li'l lines of conversation, the ones that tangent over toward that border on the right (damn that border) & the ones plunked down at the bottom, late at night, that I like best. Now, some of you will say, "Oh. But quinn esq, that's life." Well, shut up, you lot. You're scum, and disruptive.

It NEEDN'T be that way, life on the margins. (And yes, I go all CAPS when I lean on a word, 'cos damned if I know how to work this incredibly complex, nuanced software.) Anyway... What I'd most like is if some of the comments raised off on that right-hand edge were followed up. Direct-like. In posts that started where it was important. That way, we could start with something that made our brains work, and our wits tingle. At their ends. (Wits. End. Ahhh screw it.) And then, as we worked at it, we'd find new tangents. Which became even more interesting & more fun. And yes, your marriage would suffer & your income plummet. Get over it.  

And love 'im or loathe 'im, that's why Billy G plays here. Cos he's got a big bad brain. Multiple brains (and perhaps, voices.) Cool, says I. The day I'm outgunned in a battle of wits is the day I.... ummmm... yeah. (Piss off, I'm thinking. Witty riposte to follow.) What I was saying is that I suspect Billy - like a batch of you (no, not you Genghis) - are bloody brilliant people. Or thoughtful. Or deep. Or good for free drinks. What are we afraid of?

We all agree already, that we're part of a culture that's dumbed us down. But JC-On-A-Spoon, why not imagine Colbert & Stewart as our starting point? Let's create something THEY'D enjoy.

I'll start with my fellow Obama-backers. We won, so we can most afford a kick in the 'nauts, right? Hello? WTF is it with us anyway? Here's Barack, out there for months, saying, "Ummmm.... This isn't about me. It's about ALL of us." Makin' speeches about having DIFFERENT kinds of conversations, he is. About how the old lines & divisions have to be ERASED. Well (quiet for a minute Des, no cheap shots), how about we PAY A LI'L BLOODY ATTENTION to the dude? Cos when he says, "It's about ALL of us," this does not mean, "Shut up, I'm the only one that gets to talk/think/breathe til November." You wanna BE the change? Well then, ACT it. Neither is it a "different" conversation to say, "Rove is a berry berry bad mans." Nor will old lines get erased with ever-so-winning remarks like "Get over it."

We need to raise our game. We know it, Obama says it. And the world, the times & our children demand it. (Hey... I like that! Except for that "children" bit. Friggin' kids, they demand too much as it is. Li'l bastards. Let 'em screw up their OWN world, then they can talk.) 

We need to raise our game. I said it before, and I was mad. But tonight, I'm sayin' it again. Because I mean it. Now. I'm gonna go out on a limb, knowing damn well Billy (and/or rabbit-dude) is snickering back there with his saw - and offer up some suggested topics. Mock on, mock on, but here's what interests ME. What I do not find boring. How I think we can raise our game. My starting 5. Add your own. Or else.

1. How to BREAK OPEN a culture of fear, division, selfishness, hyper-nationalism. No, I did not say shout at it. Imagine that the next 4 months saw a cultural opening, a blossoming, with a political edge. What would that look like? Because a politician, no matter how good, cannot do much more than signal that things might be different. So what's it to be... A simultaneous, nation-wide set of concerts, where everyone ends up singing "One?" A million dada'ist moments, pasted on the supermarket walls? Handmade billboards on a million lawns, each with their own message of what change looks like to you? If the culture does not change, neither BO nor HRC is gonna be able to do more than hold our worst fears at bay.

2. Obama and the Democrats are gonna be BROKE come next January. Take my word for it. I'm a shit-hot economist in real-life.  And they won't be just a little broke either. Oh. And so will the American economy. And you and me. Now. How's that gonna be dealt with? Start by imagining that yes, we have no money. None of us. Not the guvmint, not you and me. Be creative. We've got trillions tied up in wasted real estate and floorspace, horsepower that we can't feed. Fix it. GIT GOIN'!

3. Assume the Republicans do not gently go down to this 40 years a'comin' defeat. Imagine an October Surprise. Look past the smears of the campaign unfolding. Now, INOCULATE the population against that. Some of you think this is far fetched. I think we can set up a play area somewhere in here to keep you amused while the demented few (with a goddamn clue) ponder this.

4. A generational story. Only this time, a story that doesn't start with totally bogus "labels" like Boomer and X etc. Let's start somewhere sensible. With a myth (which means "big story," not a "bald lie" for those of you not paying attention in Theology class.) Billy likes the Greek story. Obamanauts. But I'm gonna float another, cos I was raised Baptist - The Exodus. (And no, please don't bring Israel post-'48 issues into this. I'm talking MYTH, ok?) The children of Egypt, enslaved, rebel & make a run for it. Face 40 years in the wilderness. There were sacrifices & whole new dreams back there in '68. But these wilderness years.... well, they've thrown up a lotta grumbling. A lot of people turned back to the fleshpots, or over to the Golden Calf. Too damned AFRAID to enter into anywhere new. And so a whole new generation of children had to be born, and raised up under new conditions, to get rid of the fear that blocked us from "entering in." But as a people, they learned to reject the old idols, old models of "Kings." They made up new agreements, new understandings. A dozen "tribes" formed, movements, engaging with other slaves, exiles, wanderers... even women! Tis a grand story (and let's not bother with Leviticus fights, ok?) Argue.

5. Tell me why choosing Hillary as VP, overcoming all bitterness, would do more to PROVE to America that BO means what he says about overcoming old divisions, show what "Change We Can Believe In" looks like and prove himself worthy of trust, than anything else he can tangibly DO in 4 months. (And yes, I have heard some of you don't like her. Me neither. I don't "like" her. But bugger off. Hating is boring. "Big Change" may not look like you think.)

That's yer assignment. And I WILL throw your ass outta here if you revert. And if you don't like it & wanna go postal on me, I'll send you my address & you can come threaten me. (Disclosure: I grew up on a  farm with 16 boys. I look forward to opening some Yes We Can on yer sorry ass. I'm frightening. And that's just the hair.)

So come on. Bring it, TPM'ers. Thrill me, damn you. Mess with my head. And bring music, willya? 

You're the brand-new, broom-wielding President. But your country got troubles: Iraq. Health. Energy. Housing. Poverty. CO2. Deficits. China. Immigration. Jobs. Banks. New Orleans. I'll stop at 12. There's work to be done. A forward agenda.

Oh yeah.... and Justice. Seems more than a few things got bent. Crooks & liars, tramps & thieves, tire tracks on corpses. A Constitution. An Economy. A Planet. It's ugly. And what's with that stench? Bloody hell, it's coming from everywhere.

So, you set the Cabinet to work on these day-to-day things. But you're left with the washing up. Scores to settle, playing fields to re-level, stuff to be returned to rightful owners. Problem? A whole lotta people seem to want Justice. They want their Constitution back. Their money back. Their sons and daughters back. Their old way of life back. Feelings are running high. Principles are high. High feeling - distress, grief, outrage, snark. Worse, much of it is... justified. And all this has to be done out in the open, transparently. Which means, cameras in yer grill. Mobs baying, widows weeping. Media overbite. Overkill.

Better get some lawyers, good ones - Huey, Dewey & Louis. Prestigious firm. They come back & tell you everything's fine, except they need more staff. Seems there's enough work to tie up your average Republic for a century or two.

Some cases have to go. Triage Justice.

Gotta do something on that War On Terror file though. 9/11. Abu Ghraib. Guantanamo. Wire-taps. Lies. Damned Lies. Damned Big Lies. Who knew what, who bought who, who made shit up. Blackwater & the mercs. Battlefield incidents. Where's Osama? Baghdad looted. Oil all over everything. Military equipment & the lack thereof. The Constitution.

You've got constitutional experts, grieving parents, deep throats - on this file, the howling is nation-wide. Hell, global.

Which create tension. Because you have to keep moving forward on that New Agenda, keep our confidence up, keep money from fleeing. Be transparent, provide justice, but keep your feet moving forward - extricate from Iraq, protect the nation, stay informed about the enemies & loons, pay & treat the Vets, rebuild alliances, all of that.

Rivets start popping in your head. Think, man, think. How wide to cast the net, how deep to trawl? Because God knows, it wasn't just Cheney. Pick any thread, any, follow it, & you find... more & more were involved. Maybe millions.

On to the "Domestic" Corruption files. Simpler stuff. Fraud. Deceit. Dereliction. "Lobbyists & special interests" your catch-phrase. But a damned polite one. Nobody gets arrested just for lobbying, for being special. But this was always code. For crooked. Now you got 20 of these files, overflowing, and each, ugly as sin.

New Orleans. Why wasn't it protected? How was the disaster handled? Where'd all the people go? What got rebuilt? What didn't? Who knew? Ask Vitter? Ha! Still rotten in the Big Easy.

Banks. Bear Stearns. Hundreds of billions handed out the backdoor to banks & financiers. Sure you wanna look? Even long-lived Ole Ben couldn't count that many Franklins. And they all seem sticky somehow nowadays. Greasy.

Housing. Subprime. Lies & damned lies here. Millions lost their homes. And after the initial scramble for a roof, they're kinda bitter. The banks again. But this time, it runs all the way down to Main Street USA. Bankers & realtors. Who gt themselves some nice pools now. Washin' it off.

Next? Those science & CO2 advisors that were shut up, censored. You know why. Everyone knows why. Cheney & his big friends put the fix in. Coal companies, agribusiness, cement, car companies. The cases are already in court. If you knew your product was gonna fire, flood & famine the entire Earth, and still didn't give a rat's, you'd smell worse'n cheap tobacco.

Speaking of gas and oil. How 'bout them prices? Deals deals deals with countries nobody can find on a map. Big money deals. Nasty deals. Wars, tyrants, payoffs. The stench runs so thick it's liquid here. Gushes right up outta these holes.

Taxes. Tax cuts. Tax avoidance. Offshore banks. How'd they happen? Who was there? Why were they pursued? Follow the money. A few trillion handed to out to the Big Boys. You just gonna let 'em sit on that forever? Distort the economy, democracy, for the next century? 1000 Rockefellers, yeah, every one an entrepreneur. Shysters, in cheap cologne.

Big Pharma. China. Darfur. NAFTA. Even the food doesn't smell right. Not safe.

Immigration. Racism. Sexism. The Poor. Yeah, they picked a bad time to be poor.

And those elections. 2000 for sure. 2004 likely. Rotten.

Everywhere you dig, your head snaps back when the stench hits. As you feared, it's coming from everywhere. Coast to coast. And this... only to be whispered, late at night... "everyone knew." They'll say it was because they were lied to. Misinformed. But... some figured it out, right? They researched. Talked. Spoke out. Stood in the streets even. So... if they could do it... what excuse for those who didn't?

The 50% who voted in 2004. The 80% who told the pollsters, "Hell yeah. I'm up for that." The 99% who went along or turned away or got tired or had other shit to do.

Dammit. That stench. It's... all of us. Some are shit right to their shriveled black hearts. Some are coated in it, from standing up close. But we all got splattered.

Other countries faced this problem before. After WW II. Apartheid. Dirty Wars. Coups.

Other countries face the same thing today. But they weren't the Last & Onliest Superpower Standing. A unipolar world means unipolar problems.

*

And now, Mr President-To-Be, let's rewind from January 2009. Here we are in June '08. With a long list of "Have To's" before you even get there. But baby oh baby, how you act, how you decide, NOW, is gonna shape that task up ahead.

First, you have to get elected. Which makes it a tricky time to bring out that speech that goes, "My Fellow Americans. You done it."

You have to build a winning coalition. Just to tackle those 12 little issues on the Forward Agenda. Health care. Iraq. But the Democrats in Congress, well... it seems they were more than a little complicit. They don't just smell bad. They stink.

You have to keep some Money happy. It's not like there's any clean money left in the country. And if you threaten the big money, the dirty money, too hard, too fast, it'll flee. And if it flees, jobs get lost. Dollar falls. Inflation up. The working world gets a whole lot tougher for 200 million Americans.

You have to keep some Media happy. You can work outside 'em for a while. But sooner or later, if you threaten their heart - their pride, their reputation & their money - they're gonna burn you down. Foxes with fire tied to their tails.

So. Rebuild Justice & repair the Constitution, have it seen to be done, soothe the widows, answer the anguished. Know that you won't have the tools to do these jobs right. Not a one of them. And yet, you have to start. Now. Today. On the trail. June decisions you'd prefer to make next January. Or next never.

There's only one way out. One way ahead. You gotta balance. Compromise. Cut deals. And some of the complicit, who coulda/woulda/shoulda done more, are gonna walk. There's no way around this. You're gonna get asked, now, to provide immunity. Forego justice. Renouncing vengeance was easier. But watching the complicit walk? Not so nice.

And you know you're gonna blistered for that. By the watchful, the compassionate, the afflicted... they'll all know what's happened. They'll point their fingers, and be precisely right. They'll name the injustice, know their Amendments. They won't be wrong. And they'll know what you've done.

Because every single one you let walk, was - as sure as the shit on their shoes - complicit. This is an ugly thing.

This is what goes through my mind when I listen to those more knowledgeable than I about FISA. Reinvigorating the Constitution, protecting the nation from allowing this to happen again, I understand. And also, that none of that can happen, unless we get elected, get a coalition elected, and engage the wider citizenry. And yea, cynics, this means providing a message of hope.

When I come to draw my lines, this is what I ponder. Some conspired. Many were complicit. Most were cowed. A few rebelled.

Draw carefully.