Some­thing I haven’t done late­ly, at least not since about 2003, is talk pol­i­tics here, or at least talk pol­i­tics very seri­ous­ly. Or at all. I can bare­ly remem­ber being the enthu­si­as­tic adjunct who was rac­ing around intern­ing at a labor think tank while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly tend­ing to duties as a research assis­tant. Those were heady, dot calm times, fraught with all the anx­i­eties of liv­ing in NYC on about $150/week and what­ev­er was left from my stu­dent loan disbursement.

That dis­qui­et how­ev­er was fer­tile ground for activism. Then again, so was NYC. Since mov­ing back to Philadel­phia, I’ve had few occa­sions to express my polit­i­cal beliefs any­where oth­er than the Roy­al Tav­ern on elec­tion night. In 2004. Con­sec­u­tive betray­als by a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty that alleged­ly “had our back” [thank John K. for that gem] were real­ly unbear­able and what they’ve done for me in the inter­im is only more embarrassing.

Flash for­ward to the Scoot­er Lib­by affair. Talk­ing about obstruc­tion of jus­tice with an admin­is­tra­tion that sanc­tions tor­ture and secret pris­ons seems quaint at this point. Why don’t you just invite the Pres­i­dent to a tea par­ty to dis­cuss lib­er­a­tion the­ol­o­gy? Draft­ing arti­cles of impeach­ment? Pfft. This Con­gress can’t pass a stem cell research bill. I’m just look­ing for an anti-war can­di­date [who’s name does­n’t rhyme with Kucinich — hey I vot­ed for the guy in the ’04 pri­ma­ry] to step forward.
Dis­cussing the minu­ti­ae of this case is akin to under­stand­ing sabr­met­rics in base­ball. Remem­ber, it was moral issues, not legal ones, that moti­vat­ed the Clin­ton impeach­ment. If it had been on strict­ly legal grounds, Gin­grich would­n’t have resigned and Clin­ton would’ve been impeached. Once Amer­i­ca looked at itself and real­ized that adul­tery, how­ev­er detestable, was com­mon­place, the coun­try had a change of heart and the Clin­ton admin­is­tra­tion con­tin­ued to rub­ber stamp any con­ser­v­a­tive pol­i­cy that crossed its desk.

The ongo­ing right­ward shift of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has done lit­tle more than ensure a con­ser­v­a­tive major­i­ty, how­ev­er ten­u­ous. What fur­ther evi­dence is required to prove that? At the 2006 mid-terms we applaud­ed the elec­tion of…Bob Casey Jr.? Not only do we face a deter­mined Repub­li­can Par­ty swept up in a rebrand­ing exer­cise, but we also must con­front the DNC viral mar­ket­ing blogs like Dai­ly Kos, who brought us such mar­ketable terms as the Fight­ing Dems, which has been an oxy­moron in my life­time. Let’s be seri­ous when we vent our wild imag­in­ings pub­licly, at least until a lep­rechaun rid­ing a uni­corn deliv­ers unto us the democ­ra­cy that is our birthright.

Now that the the hoopla has passed, this is real­ly fun­ny. At 30,000 feet, the iPhone seems as pop­u­lar as the polio vac­cine; at ground lev­el I think I know one guy who bought one.

• My last — and prob­a­bly best — review is up at Paper Thin Walls. Alan is a gra­cious, fun­ny inter­view. I haven’t lis­tened to Drums and Guns in a bit, but I may revis­it it today. I have to put a mid­point ’07 list togeth­er, and “Hatch­et” will prob­a­bly make the sin­gles list.
• Tonight? Rata­touille! [In case you don’t recall, Brad Bird was asked what he could say about this project on a Simp­sons’ com­men­tary track a few years ago. He replied, “2007.” Bravo!]

• Sure I’m late to this, but check out KYW’s video about May­or Street’s iPhone sna­fu and you’ll find me hold­ing a mic. Here’s the footage we got with the May­or as well as the woman who con­front­ed him with a spe­cial guest appear­ance by Lar­ry West!
• I had an amaz­ing talk with Matthew and Eleanor Fried­berg­er at last Thurs­day’s show. I’ll have a full report of what I saw and jot­ted down at my work blog short­ly. The new stuff sound­ed good, very good [“Restora­tive Beer”] and for the fans out there it won’t be the trop­i­calia record that folks expect­ed. Con­fi­den­tial to the world: this may just be the record where they real­ly reach for the brass ring. I for one can’t wait to hear it.
• Oh yeah, work blog. I’ll be sure to link there once it launch­es. Be gen­tle — we’re just now learn­ing that the inter­net can be used in many ways to reach dif­fer­ent audi­ences. I hope to have an eclec­tic mix of stuff once it’s up and running.

Not only does SiCKO expose the HMO prob­lem effec­tive­ly, it also is like a trav­el guide for a bet­ter qual­i­ty of life. In fact, it intro­duced those who wait­ed for the cred­its to this. In all seri­ous­ness, Moore final­ly man­ages to make a film that lives up to the promise of Roger & Me, the sort of mad­cap humor blend­ed with bonecrush­ing sad­ness that makes for the best polit­i­cal com­men­tary, at least here in the States. His man-on-the-street approach in this one works well, though it leaves open­ings for skep­tics — think of them as the ‘well i have a friend who’s a doc­tor in the U.K. and he’s real­ly unhap­py’ types — to quar­rel with his points.

What Moore’s bank­ing on here is that there are plen­ty of Amer­i­cans with health care who’ve found them­selves awash in debt after rou­tine med­ical pro­ce­dures. And they’re out there, or you know some­one, or they know some­one. So this time Moore turns down the mes­sian­ic impuls­es that per­vade his work, real­iz­ing that cur­rent Dem fron­trun­ner HRC has no chance of intro­duc­ing sin­gle-pay­er, much less uni­ver­sal health care and that we’re a peo­ple adrift in a cri­sis that will only grow worse for not just some so-called “aver­age” Amer­i­can, but for all of us, together.