Hasta la vista, baby.

Just back from a quick trip to Seattle. The Blue Angels were practicing for Seafair and we had the surreal experience of sitting in the 40th floor of a building and having to stop talking at several points because they were literally flying just by the window. I don't want to sound like a kid but it was really, really cool.

It's hard not to be in a good mood today. Weather's great. It's Friday. And this is the last weekend that Droopy Dog Joe Lieberman will be able to consider himself a Senator. Tuesday is a day I'm looking to savor.

Not to start the post-mortem prematurely, but the duality of the concept of "leadership" that's manifested itself in Lieberman's looming primary defeat is fascinating. There's a school of thought that defines leadership as taking a strong stand then bringing the people around to that principle. Lieberman clearly sees himself in this mold. Yet Lieberman is about to lose his seat precisely because he stuck so closely to this top-down leadership model and didn't listen to those that were supposed to be his "followers."

I've been trying to wrap my head around what this means. It could be because Lieberman really wasn't a leader but a follower himself, in this case of the President's horrible Iraq policy, that he lost support. Nobody wants to be a toady to a toady. It could mean that people are looking for principled leaders to follow but that doesn't make them lemmings. Push to bring about a fare living wage for all workers and you'll get some people to follow. Try and have cabbage declared a sentient being and you'll probably spend your time all alone on a street corner yelling like a lunatic.

One thing that can't be denied is the calcified leadership of the Democratic party understands what a Lieberman loss means and they're scared shitless.

A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti.

I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on, and I use to fly myself, and I said, "There's one terrible pilot."

On the eve of the 2nd Gulf War and thousands of dead Iraqis and Americans. "Now watch this drive."

Clowning around pretending to play guitar while hundreds drowned in New Orleans.

Today in Florida where he dismissed a cease fire in Lebanon as "stopping for the sake of stopping"

Antisocial personality disorder (APD or ASPD) is a psychiatric diagnosis that interprets antisocial and impulsive behaviors as symptoms of a personality disorder. Psychiatry defines only pathological antisocial behavior; it does not address potential benefits of positive antisocial behavior or define the meaning of 'social' in contrast to 'antisocial'.

...

Central to understanding individuals diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder is that they appear to experience a limited range of human emotions; however this should be regarded critically due to current lack of exploring emotional response in detail even in animals. This can explain the lack of empathy for the suffering of others, since they cannot experience emotion associated with either empathy or suffering. Risk-seeking behavior and substance abuse may be attempts to escape feeling empty or emotionally void. The rage exhibited by psychopaths and the anxiety associated with certain types of antisocial personality disorder may represent the limit of emotion experienced, or there may be physiological responses without analogy to emotion experienced by others. - (Wikipedia, emphasis mine.)

In layman's terms- he's a sociopath.

Woodward. Bernstein. You're both on the story. Now don't fuck it up.

It's one thing for the administration to toss random threats at the Fourth Estate regarding the publishing of leaks but it's quite another to actually act on those threats.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria is investigating unauthorized leaks of classified information and has issued a subpoena to a fired National Security Agency officer who has acknowledged talking with journalists about the agency's warrantless surveillance program, according to documents released yesterday.

The 23-member grand jury is "conducting an investigation of possible violations of federal criminal laws involving unauthorized disclosure of classified information" under the Espionage Act and other statutes, according to a document accompanying the subpoena.

I haven't read Glenn Greenwald's page today but dollars to donuts he tears into this Justice Department stupidity.

Viva la First Amendment!

Look, any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic.

Arrested Gibson Rants Against Jews.