I thought it quite good. I especially liked this part:

Sergeant Crowley and I, through an accident of time and place, have been cast together, inextricably, as characters – as metaphors, really – in a thousand narratives about race over which he and I have absolutely no control. Narratives about race are as old as the founding of this great Republic itself, but these new ones have unfolded precisely when Americans signaled to the world our country’s great progress by overcoming centuries of habit and fear, and electing an African American as President. It is incumbent upon Sergeant Crowley and me to utilize the great opportunity that fate has given us to foster greater sympathy among the American public for the daily perils of policing on the one hand, and for the genuine fears of racial profiling on the other hand.

Speaking for me only

Rick Hertzberg wants Obama to put the Big Dog to work on health care reform:

Over at her Daily Beast, our former editor Tina Brown has a very good suggestion for President Obama: unleash Bill Clinton to sweet-talk and arm-wrestle the Blue Dogs into dropping their obstruction of health-care reform. Now that Tina mentions it, why hasn’t Obama done this already? . . . Given the horrific structural hurdles health care has to surmount . . ., this President needs all the help he can get. And it’s hard to think of anyone whose help would help more—especially since, as Tina notes, nobody has thought more about how to avoid the mistakes that were made last time than Mr. Clinton. Except maybe Mrs. Clinton.

I have the greatest respect for the former President but he can't help President Obama here. The Big Dog does not have political bite anymore. Former Presidents generally do not. Clinton has an extraordinary intellect, grasp of the issues and political acumen, but he does not have the political muscle. President Obama has to handle this one.

Speaking for me only

Pew:

Obama’s job rating among independents and Republicans is now significantly lower than at any other point in his presidency. While Democrats are less supportive of Obama on a number of specific issues, overall job approval among Democrats is little changed from earlier in the year.

Republican assessments of Obama’s job performance – already negative since February – have taken a sharp turn for the worse over the past month. Just 19% of Republicans say they approve of his overall job performance, a 12-point drop since June. At the same time, independent opinion also has become less positive. While a plurality of independents approves of the job Obama is doing (48% approve, 37% disapprove), this is an eight-point decline in approval since June. By contrast, Democrats continue to approve of Obama’s job performance at levels similar to those seen over the course of the last six months.

In the end, if Obama and Democrats do some good governing, they'll continue to win. If they do some bad governing, they could lose (the GOP is so inept, that Dem ineptness might not be enough for them.) The only poll that matters is on election day.

Speaking for me only

Look what that terrible man, Harvard Professor Henry Louis (Skip to his friends) Gates, made a nice Boston police officer do:

An officer in the Boston Police Department has been suspended after allegedly writing a racially charged e-mail about Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to colleagues at the National Guard, a law enforcement official said.

The law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Officer Justin Barrett referred to the black scholar as a “jungle monkey’’ in the letter, written in reaction to news coverage of Gates’s arrest July 16. Barrett was suspended Tuesday, pending a termination hearing.

I blame Gates. Here are the words Gates forced upon this police officer - "If I was the officer (Gates) verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC (pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent noncompliance." Indeed. h/t Dkos diarist Dirk McQuigley.

Speaking for me only

Via TPM, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) lashed out at Democrats for supporting Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court. AP reports:

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the head of his party's Senate campaign committee and a Sotomayor opponent, shot back that Reid and other Democrats were trying to exploit the nomination and "giving cover to groups and individuals to nurture racial grievances for political advantage." "I don't think it influences people's votes, but what it does encourage is a very poisonous — indeed a very toxic — tone of destructive politics," Cornyn told The Associated Press. "They ought to be ashamed of themselves."

(Emphasis supplied.) I think he is talking about "giving cover" to people like me, Latinos. Let me inform Senator Cornyn that, speaking for me only, I do not need Harry Reid to "give me cover" to understand that the Republican Party is hostile to me and people like me. Look in the mirror. You are the problem with regard to how Latinos feel about the GOP. Not Harry Reid.

Speaking for me only

Heeding Pat Buchanan's advice, the Republican Party is just saying No to Latinos, be they Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina nominee for the Supreme Court, or La Raza:

The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, has been holding its annual conference over the past few days in Chicago. Speakers have included Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, CNN’s Soledad O’Brien, Rep. Luis Guitierrez (D-IL), and others.

Republicans are conspicuously absent from the line-up. Greg Sargent spoke with NCLR spokesperson Marie Watteau, who said that it wasn’t for lack of trying. In fact, the group invited RNC chairman Michael Steele, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and Puerto Rico Gov. Luis Fortuno, but they all “declined the invitations through the RNC.”

Excellent.

Speaking for me only

I'm really surprised to hear my local news say they will bring us Sarah Palin's exit speech live. Why? Who cares? What does it have to do with Colorado?

She's leaving office with no announced plans to continue in politics. Why does this deserve live coverage?

Bye-bye Sarah. I won't be watching your speech.

The Washington Post and Associated Press report they have received an independent investigator's report into whether Sarah Palin violated ethics laws by seeking money from the Alaska Trust Fund to pay her legal bills:

The report obtained by The Associated Press says Palin is securing unwarranted benefits and receiving improper gifts through the Alaska Fund Trust, set up by supporters.

An investigator for the state Personnel Board says in his July 14 report that there is probable cause to believe Palin used or attempted to use her official position for personal gain because she authorized the creation of the trust as the ''official'' legal defense fund.

Palin responds "''There is no final report. The Investigator is still confidentially reviewing this matter. " The investigator responds, "[H]is report was final. [More...]

The Obama administration has asked Congress to create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency that would increase access to financial services markets while protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive practices. It would also consolidate consumer protection responsibilities that are presently scattered among different financial industry regulators. Barney Frank introduced the legislation yesterday "with 12 Democratic co-sponsors but no Republicans."

Republicans who oppose the bill adhere to the conservative philosophy that government is the problem and that regulation is the root cause of all evil. At a hearing before a congressional committee yesterday: [more ...]

Julianne Moore was scheduled to play Hillary Clinton in the HBO film "The Special Relationship" which "chronicles the unique and sometimes turbulent political relationship between newly installed British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s." A scheduling conflict forced her to drop out. She's being replaced by Hope Davis, who (to my eye at least) more closely resembles Hillary.

Bill Clinton will be played by Dennis Quaid, while Michael Sheen will take on (for the third time) the role of Tony Blair.

Earlier I wrote about Palin's Hypocrisy. Via Digby, Palin repeats her hypocrisy and falsehoods:

[Q:]At one point during the campaign you said Hillary Clinton whines a little bit too much about being in the public eye. Do you now sort of sympathize with her?

[PALIN]: What I said was, it doesn't do her or anybody else any good to whine about the criticism. And that's why I'm trying to make it clear that the criticism, I invite that. But freedom of speech and that invitation to constructively criticize a public servant is a lot different than the allowance to lie, to continually falsely accuse a public servant when they have proven over and over again that they have not done what the accuser is saying they did. It doesn't cost them a dime to continue to accuse. That's a whole different situation. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) Palin is full of it here. For anyone who has slept through the last 2 decades and the last political campaign, Digby has the details.

Speaking for me only

I have very much disagreed with my co-bloggers on the coverage of Sarah Palin generally, and specifically since her announced resignation. But I think Open Left has the goods on Palin's hypocrisy on media criticism:

A fair question for Governor Palin would be - do you admit you were wrong in your prior comments about media criticism of Hillary Clinton? Cuz she was.

Speaking for me only