Homeboy is looking positively sprightly in the first clip, but when his voice cracks he sounds 122 years old:

Also, I LOVE the headline at :25. . . LOL, what are they talking about, a new early-bird buffet at Epcot Center?

Mandatory (for me) YouTube video description: Stirring celebration of a political attitude that’s just biding its time until it can totally destroy us.

I’m not a huge fan of Matt Bai, but I agree with what he’s saying here:

But you know, I’m 39, and I also think a lot of people in my generation are ready to turn the page on this failed era of baby boomer government. Is there anything in American politics and government that the boomers have left better off than when they inherited it? So I think (Obama) speaks to that, too. And that’s a powerful idea. It’s not a theory of economics or some new way to combat radical Islam, but it is a theory of change — this notion that politics can’t improve until we leave the culture wars of another era behind. That matters.

I’m really gonna miss hearing our leaders argue over who did what during the Vietnam War. . . LOL. . .

Would someone please write a book called Baby Boomers Suck: In Fact, They Sucked the Whole Time? I would start a book club just to be able to talk about that book.

“Umm. . . Mr. Rees, we love your book club. . . but we’ve been discussing the same book for three years now!”

An article in yesterday’s Financial Times brought me joy: MORE SILVIO BERLUSCONI ACTION!

How are you not going to get happy when you read about “The Berl” teaming up with the National Alliance party?

Although the National Alliance traces its roots to Italy’s fascist past, (Gianfranco) Fini has developed close ties with Israel, in particular since denouncing fascism in a 2003 visit to Jerusalem. Last week he was a guest at celebrations in Rome of Israel’s 60th anniversary, along with Richard Perle, a prominent US neo-conservative.

It’s all good!

Mr Fini also told the Financial Times that if his centre-right alliance with Silvio Berlusconi returned to power in elections in 10 days’ time – as opinion polls indicate — Italian policy would be to expel large numbers of gypsies and other European Union citizens.

Only in Italy, kids, only in Italy!

Ah, the “Marlboro Marine!”

I remember the Post that morning. I took one look at the cover and thought, We’re gonna win this thing. We just kicked butt in Fallujah.

Remember the good ol’ days? When all it took was a photograph of a handsome, war-weary American kid to remind us why we were over there. . . what we fought for. . . what we believed. . . the valor, the glory, the hardscrabble “get it done” spirit that makes us who we are. . .

At a time of doubt, this image saw us through. . . convinced us to double down on destiny. . . roll up our sleeves one last time. . . take another swing, hopin’ for the home run called FREEDOM.

The “Marlboro Marine” is named Blake Miller.

Among many veterans, the image remains a matter of debate. “There’s almost too much in that picture to talk about,” says Paul Rieckhoff, an Iraq vet and the executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “He’s the gritty patriot who is willing to sacrifice everything, the poster child for the tough Iraq War hero. It’s one of those pictures that is vague enough so you can manipulate it into whatever you want it to be.”

The best way to understand the photo, Rieckhoff suggests, is to put it next to a picture of Miller now. “That’s a fair way of understanding that war is not what just happens over there — that when we come home, there is a whole other fight we have to deal with. That’s the part of the fight when nobody takes pictures, and it’s hard to get people’s attention, and it’s hard to get resources.”

Read more about Blake Miller.

Campaign manager. . . pollster. . . lobbyist. . . life-support system for the most rakish haircut this campaign season. . .

Everything Mark Penn does. . . makes me excited!

In what could become Hillary Clinton’s own version of the NAFTA-Gate controversy that caused Barack Obama so much trouble a month ago, top Clinton strategist Mark Penn reportedly met on Monday with the Colombian ambassador to discuss a bilateral free-trade deal — something his candidate has publicly opposed.

Hmm. On the one hand, it’s fun to link to something everyone else is linking to. . . it makes me feel connected to the great big wide world of blogs.

On the other hand, it’s a little lazy.

Maybe I should only link to things nobody else is linking to. Then I can build a reputation as a blogospheric bushwhacker and I can swing a metaphorical machete.

But that would mean reading something on the internet other than talkingpointsmemo, and I’m not sure I’m ready for that.

Alive and well! LOL!

From a letter a bunch of rich people sent to Nancy Pelosi:

We have been strong supporters of the DCCC. We therefore urge you to clarify your position on super-delegates and reflect in your comments a more open view to the optional independent actions of each of the delegates at the National Convention in August (i.e., where they all totally vote for Hillary Clinton. —ed.). We appreciate your activities in support of the Democratic Party and your leadership role in the Party and hope you will be responsive to some of your major enthusiastic supporters.

(My emphasis.)

LOL, how “Major” and “Enthusiastic” can these people be? There’s not a single exclamation point in the whole letter!!!

What, you can’t afford exclamation points? No, that can’t be true; after all, you’re totally rich. . . isn’t that the whole point of the letter, to remind Pelosi of that fact? LOL.

Was the letter printed on special gold stationery made out of real gold, LOL? Are you so rich that you only use diamond-encrusted LOL’s?

(I’m still not sure I’ve got the hang of “LOL.”)

CLEAR, HOLD, AND BUILD!

In between basketball games, I watched some of that big two-part FRONTLINE special called “Bush’s Thing He Did.”

I had forgotten all about “Clear, Hold, and Build,” our strategy to pacify Iraq:

First, we CLEAR an area of living people. Then, we HOLD our heads high and say, “We are Americans!” Then, we BUILD a bridge to a brighter future!

BEST STRATEGY EVER!

Totally better than the “Inkspot Strategy,” or whatever that strategy was that I read about in Foreign Affairs a few years ago, where we were going to soak up the insurgency like oil slicks, moving from town to town(?) Remember that one?

Or was that just “Clear, Hold, and Build” by a different name?

Anyway, great documentary. . . really made me feel calm and happy. . . LOL. . . Guess what, tonight I think I’ll go see Taxi to the Dark Side, then I can enter a “Who’s in the Best Mood?” contest, I’ll probably win, LOL. . .