The World's President

From WorldPublicOpinion.org, reporting on their survey involving "19,224 respondents in nations that comprise 62 percent of the world's population:"

Obama Rockets to Top of Poll on Global Leaders

US President Barack Obama has the confidence of many publics around the world - inspiring far more confidence than any other world political leader according to a new poll of 20 nations by WorldPublicOpinion.org. A year ago, President Bush was one of the least trusted leaders in the world.

[...]

An average of 61 percent express a lot or some confidence in Obama to do the right thing in world affairs, across the nineteen nations polled (excluding the US). Thirty-one percent say they have not too much or no confidence at all. In 13 nations, a majority or plurality has confidence in Obama; in five nations they do not; one nation is divided. A majority of the American public (70%) also expresses confidence in Obama in world affairs.

No other leader has the confidence of more than an average of 40 percent across the publics polled. For most leaders, more express a lack of confidence than express confidence.

[...]

Obama's ratings are far higher than the 2008 ratings of President Bush: France (+77 percentage points), Britain (+ 75 points), South Korea (+ 58 points), Mexico (+45 points), Turkey (+38 points), India (+35 points), Egypt (+31 points), and the Palestinian territories (+30 points). The publics in every nation polled in both 2008 and 2009 showed an increase in confidence in Obama compared to Bush--on average 37 points.

The dramatic increase in confidence occurs both among the publics of traditional allies who had been alienated by the policies and manner of the Bush administration such as Britain, France, and South Korea as well as nations where the standing of the US remains quite low such as those in the Middle East. Even in nations where a majority of the public does not express confidence in Obama, there has nonetheless been an increase in confidence with the new President, such as Turkey (rising from 7% to 45%) and Russia (rising from 14% to 23%).

(h/t: Roy Edroso, covering people at the NRO who are nonetheless convinced that everyone in Britain hates Obama)

While You Were Letting The State-Run Media Fill Your Brain With Noise ...

... about dead celebrities and Republican governors gone wild, I've learned about two new dangers that are could destroy America forever. These are EVEN WORSE than chemtrails.

First: Have you heard about the NAFTA Superhighway conspiracy? Ask Jerome Corsi! You know you can trust him, plus he is the top link on Google! IT MUST BE TRUE. Pay no attention to this leftist liberal who is clearly being paid by the NWO to cover it up.

And even scarier, by which I mean certain death for almost everybody: What about the looming threat of the EMP?   E.  M.  P.  Heard about that?

No???

WAKE UP, SHEEPLE.

__________

[Update] Follow-up.

Another Good Question

Jed Lewison tweets:

So Sarah Palin resigns to protect her family...and then invites every national media outlet to join her family vacation? #2012fail

(previously)

A Simple Non-Desultory Philippic

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." —Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)

And so begins Joseph L. Galloway's reflections on the death of Robert S. McNamara. Understated, yet brilliantly harsh.

(h/t: John Cole | title: cf.)

Good Question, Good Answer

Andrew Sullivan:

A reader writes:

If Palin is still Governor through the end of the month, what is she doing spending a few days fishing? Shouldn't she be working for the people of Alaska?

She's Palin. Do you think it was a work day when she did all those Runners World photo-shoots? She doesn't work. And she revealingly explained why she doesn't. She doesn't think she even has an office, she has a "title". Like a Beauty Queen whose duties require only publicity. And boy, she knows how to get that.

Also, he has done some us a service to save us some Googling: "The Odd Lies Of Sarah Palin: A Round-Up."

Music Video Better Than American TV News

Sully's emailer says:

My wife, who is a Middle Eastern scholar, told me about this group, Abjeez - two Iranian sisters based in London who do world pop. This piece DemoKracy, is brilliant, in the way it used the media metaphor to comment on the "democracy" that America has brought to the Middle East and Iraq in particular. It used images that are seldom, if ever seen on US TV, but are frequently seen in the rest of the world. And best of all, their music is great!

Truly, this is a work of art:

(alt. video link)

Abjeez's YouTube channel.

Starbursts No More

Wow. He used to sit up straighter, but now Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review, has fully detumesced:

In all the speculation about why Sarah Palin quit the Alaska governorship, no one — right or left, supportive or critical, rational or conspiratorial — has credited her stated reason that she had to do it for the sake of Alaska.

It’s just too absurd. Palin mentioned Alaska or Alaskans 34 times in a 17-minute statement that must be a new record in the history of protesting too much. Palin says she hates politics as usual, and true to her word, on July 3 she staged a spectacle in politics as unusual. But she still proved adept at the traditional political art of extreme disingenuousness.

[...]

Sarah Palin’s words served only to throw a tissue of rationalization over a calculated choice made in her personal self-interest. [...]

[...]

[...] Conservatives loved her for the same reason. She had a true magnetism. The more she repelled one side, the more she attracted the other.

This push-pull dynamic will hold Palin up for a long time, but it can’t propel her into the presidency. For that she needs substance, not the hackneyed sound bites she clings to for dear life. For that she needs a positive program, not just the hatred of conservatism’s favorite enemies. On this score, her premature exit from the governorship makes her task all the more arduous. As the soon-to-be-former half-term governor of a small state, she makes that other prominent populist social conservative, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, look formidably credentialed in comparison.

(h/t: Sara K. Smith/Wonkette | x-posted)

Fairly Unbalanced

And speaking of Paul Slansky, here's just one of the items he passes along.

(alt. video link)

Do these people on Fox ever listen to their panting hysteria over Senator Franken and say to themselves, "Hmmm. I wonder how many of these claims of unfitness for office might have applied to Sarah Palin? Oh, and speaking of close elections, what about that other thing?"

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Been Off The Grid For A Week?

Somehow or another, I gotta remember to check Paul Slansky's News Index on a regular basis. Good round-up, great snark.

(h/t: Ken Layne/Wonkette) ← bonus: click that link for a cool pic and a funny headline

P.S. When will big news sites realize that they'd do better to offer narrower RSS feeds? They'd get more clicks from me if I could just (for now) subscribe to Slansky's feed, instead of trying to jam a whole "news" feed down my throat, because there is no way I am subscribing to that.

Oh, Yeah. The Teabaggers.

Even for political junkies, the latest round of supposed nationwide rallies to protest all things Obama, imaginary or not, appears to have passed without much notice. Amazing what happens to a "grassroots movement" when Fox News doesn't hype it, wall-to-wall, for weeks beforehand.

Anyway, if you'd like a quick round-up, Crooks and Liars (via Wonkette) and David Weigel (via C&L) are good places to start. It looks like the fringe elements, even more so than on April 15th, swarmed to many of these gatherings like moths to flame. No, wait. Better metaphor: Like flies to carrion.

Froomkin Joins Up With The HuffPo

Don't know any details about his getting paid yet, but this is interesting nonetheless and potentially a Good Thing.

(h/t: Ken Layne/Wonkette)

(previously)

A Great Moment in U.S. History

Been a long time coming ...

(alt. video link)

(h/t: Jim Newell/Wonkette)

The Long View

Pretty good column on Obama by Andrew Sullivan.

Blogging About People Blogging About People Blogging About The Politico

Yeah, I kind of hated myself for following the links, but it was worth it to end up at Gabriel Sherman's TNR post, for this nugget (emph. added):

Last month, Politico’s chief foreign policy writer David Cloud resigned after only six months on the job. “It wasn't a good fit for me,” Cloud told me by phone this afternoon. Cloud joined Politico in January. In making the announcement, Politico’s top editors John Harris and Jim VandeHei stressed that Cloud’s hiring represented Politico’s commitment to broadening its coverage outside the horse race of Beltway politics. “David's hiring is part of our ongoing effort to expand coverage of Washington governance, the new administration and national defense,” they wrote in a staff memo on January 14.

But Cloud didn’t take to Politico’s model of obsessive, politics-only reporting, and its freewheeling newsroom where staffers are expected to file news, often on multiple beats simultaneously. “Partly what I found, having come from the New York Times, there weren't [enough] resources,” Cloud explained. “They needed someone to cover the waterfront: foreign policy, defense, Obama's position in the world, which are all important things. I didn't want to be the sole person opining or reporting on these matters. It was too much of a burden at that point in my career.”

“One of my frustrations about the place,” Cloud continued, “I’m used to covering those things straight, by straight I didn’t mean they were pressuring me to inject some point of view into a story. It’s all done through the lens, ‘what does this mean for Obama?’ It’s an important lens to view things through, but it’s not the only lens I wanted to view those events through.”

I'd say a more honest way to put the part that I bolded is, "How can this be spun as a problem for Obama?" But I'll take this bit of confirmation nonetheless.

(h/t: Andrew Sullivan)

Another Good Step

From the NYT:

The United States and Russia, seeking to move forward on one of the most significant arms control treaties since the end of the cold war, announced Monday that they had reached a preliminary agreement on cutting each country’s stockpiles of strategic nuclear weapons by as much as one-third.

Boz

Back when he was at the height of his popularity, I did not care much for Boz Scaggs, to the extent that I knew him from the radio. It wasn't until I discovered "Loan Me A Dime" on The Duane Allman Anthology that I realized that there was a lot of soul there, and what had put me off earlier had more to do with the cheesy production of his hits.

So thanks, John Cole, for the reminder. Here is "Breakdown Dead Ahead."

(alt. video link)

Here is "Look What You've Done to Me." Don't miss the awesome ending.

(alt. video link)

Here is "Lido Shuffle," the song of his that used to bug me most, but which I like much better now, especially hearing it stripped down, with guitars and drums turned up in the mix. (And yes, I say "stripped down" while aware that there are two keyboard players, background singers, and a horn section. Tells you something about how the original version came across to me.)

(alt. video link)

And here is a recent performance of "Loan Me A Dime," where Boz joined an incarnation of The Allman Brothers Band, featuring a guitar player whom I don't know,* but who seems to have spent some time listening to Duane's records. Low volume, and in two parts, but worth it. Turn it up.

(alt. video link)

(alt. video link)

Okay, don't forget to turn your volume back down, lest you get new mail, and a heart attack.

---

* [Added] That's Derek Trucks, as it turns out, and yes, he's related. Butch is his uncle.

Welcome, PK!

Did you notice that Paul Krugman has now officially become a full-fledged member of the libtard DFH pajama-wearing basement-dwelling America-haters? Yes, that's right! He's cat-blogging!

He's been snarking for a while now, of course:

Whom the gods would destroy …

… they first make Republican governors.

That is all.

And of course, he realizes that blog-fame has its limits.

Happy 4th

Does it get any more American than this? "The Star Spangled Banner" played on an electric violin made out of a baseball bat, with obvious props to Jimi Hendrix:

(alt. video link | h/t: Scalzi)

(Bat story here.)

And now, in a more traditional vein, a live version of one of my all-time favorites:

(alt. video link)

Initial Reactions to Palin's Announced Resignation

(I may keep updating this post for a while.)

From the WaPo:

"We've seen a lot of nutty behavior from governors and Republican leaders in the last three months, but this one is at the top of that," said John Weaver, a longtime friend and confidant of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the party's presidential nominee in 2008 whose of selection of Palin catapulted the first-term Alaska governor to national prominence.

[2009-07-03 16:28:09] "Sarah Palin" is already at the top of Twitter's "Trending Topics." (Second: #moonfruit. Nope. No clue about that one.)

[2009-07-03 16:30:46] Just to be clear, her term as Governor wasn't supposed to end until 2010.

[2009-07-03 16:32:56] Edroso tweets:

Palin to Resign Governorship of Alaska, Expected to Focus on Complaining -- http://bit.ly/MiwWv

You must click that bit.ly link.

[2009-07-03 16:55:20] Dumping more stuff on this into a Bh.tv thread, if you care.

Just in case ...

... this blog is your only news source (!), Sarah Palin has announced that she will be resigning as governor of Alaska at the end of this month, on 26 July. (Google News results, for your convenience.)

Shannyn Moore says, "Rumors of an 'iceberg scandal' have been circulating." I am inclined to think something is up, for sure, and the thought that it might be a scandal about to break came first to my mind, even before reading SM's post.

As has never before been said anywhere on the Internets …

Developing …

Voices From The Left

A couple of medium-short interviews worth watching:

First, via Kevin K., Bernie Sanders talks to MSNBC about getting a real health care reform bill passed.

(alt. video link)

Hurrah for the Senate's only socialist!

Next, via gill mann, Cenk Uygar's interview of Rep. Joe Sestak, who is considering running against Sen. Arlen Specter in the 2010 Democratic primaries. Here, in addition to mostly liking what I heard from Sestak, I was really impressed by Uygar's solid interviewing skills -- good questions, good listening, good follow-ups, and no hesitation about stating how he sees things.

(alt. video link)

See Uygar's related post for a link to the transcript. And damn, I keep meaning to pay more attention to the Cenk and the rest of The Young Turks.

Another Day ...

... another Sarah Palin lie exposed.

Put Down The Bachmann ...

... and back away slowly. Michele is too crazy even for the crazies.

PZ on the Radio, With British People

PZ Myers just recorded a discussion on the topic "Is Christian faith at odds with science?" Also appearing: Denis Alexander, who among other things is a professional biologist himself, the Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion (sounds like the Templeton Foundation, doesn't it?), and the author of the book Creation and Evolution: Do We Have to Choose?  The discussion had a moderator of sorts -- the host of the radio show Unbelievable, a British Christian talk show.

PZ's posts about it are here and here; direct link to the MP3 file is here. (Right-click the link and choose "Save Link As" if you want to download it, rather than stream it.)

You could see Alexander as an "accomodationist," which is a not-kind word among certain of us militant atheist/scientist types. It's also worth noting that he dances around the idea of evolution having a purposeful direction, which from a biologist is more than a bit of an eyebrow-raiser.

I'm a little more than halfway through it now (it's 80 minutes long) and I have to say, I wouldn't care to have this discussion with Alexander. He's maddening in his habit of answering orthogonally and PZ frequently has to bring the discussion back into focus. Still, it's not bad overall, and it's always worth hearing PZ and admiring how he keeps his cool in these discussions.

(x-posted, in slightly modified form)

Wow. Palin Even Lied About This?

If you care, Sarah Palin did an interview and photo shoot with Runner's World which besides causing Matthew Continetti to experience a few Lowry-type starbursts also included her telling some dumb story about falling while jogging and making a big deal out of keeping it a secret.

This is not the truth.

Pathological.

This keeps up, Andrew Sullivan is gonna run out of Roman numerals. Also.

(h/t: Wonkette)

Matthew Continetti Provokes Nausea

I know he's being paid to write fluff about her, but still. Trying to pretend that Sarah Palin knows the difference between Plato and Playdoh almost makes Karl Rove's nonsense about his big boy book reading contest with Dubya seem credible by comparison.

Hurl:

The Philosopher Queen

Sarah Palin mentions a (perhaps apocryphal) quote from Plato in her fascinating interview with Runner's World.

Curse you, Julian Sanchez.

P.S. Never mind the RW article, either. (Unless you want to see her new non-flight-attendant look and yet another shot of her holding Trig (does she jog while holding him?)) The Palin article you want is here.

(x-posted)

One More Franken Moment (for now)

From yesterday afternoon:

(alt. video link)

(h/t: Dennis DiClaudio/Indecision Forever)

Rock of Age

I'm pretty sure that my looming geezerhood explains why I first read the penultimate word in this front page teaser as a noun:

ArtsBeat: Jackson’s Death Prompts Record Sales

Well, duh, I thought. But no. It was an adjective.

In total, Mr. Jackson sold 415,000 albums in the United States last week, according to the preliminary numbers; final numbers are expected on Wednesday. The week before, he sold only 10,000, and last week’s total is 40 percent more than Mr. Jackson’s entire catalog had sold for the year up to June 21, Billboard reported Tuesday night.

[...]

[...] A total of 58 percent of the sales last week were downloads, and Mr. Jackson has become the first artist to sell more than a million song downloads in a single week.

Cat Fight!

Fallout from the new Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin that I mentioned yesterday includes a massive bickerfest between Steve Schmidt and Bill Kristol, among others.

Which, depending on your tastes, is either eye-rolling or delicious.

(h/t: DougJ/Balloon Juice)

[Added] Greg Sargent (via OW) has more bickering -- Muzzlegate!

New Major Version of Firefox Now Available

Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5, a major upgrade. As far as I can tell, if you're running one of the previous version (3.0.x, say), you won't be prompted to download it, even if you have automatic notification turned on. However, you can get it by doing Help → Check for Updates. That's how I did it.

The new version downloaded (about 10 MB) and installed without drama. Except for the longer download time, it was the same as doing a patch update; i.e., once the download completed, installation began automatically, and at the conclusion of that, I was invited to restart the browser. No reboot needed. As far as I can tell, bookmarks and all other settings are preserved.

The two primary reasons to upgrade, it appears, are faster rendering and JavaScript engines (which makes bloated pages load faster) and the addition of what Mozilla calls Private Browsing Mode, which everyone else on the planet calls porn mode. Details for these and numerous other new features are in the "What's New" section of the Release Notes. The Private Browsing page and the general FAQs page may also be of interest. Some of my notes from trying out the beta version in early May could possibly be of use as well, although I expect some of the glitches have since been fixed.

If you don't already have Firefox installed, or if for some reason the Help → Check for Updates route doesn't work for you, you can download the new version at mozilla.com. As I understand it, going this route and blasting the new version on top of the old one, if you have one, will not destroy your old settings.

There does not appear to be an immediate reason to upgrade for security reasons, so if you're one of those people who likes to let new versions of software get tested by everyone else before you take the plunge, there's probably no reason not to hold off for a bit.