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In just under a month, we’ll be closing the deal on our house and ship off from Massachusetts to New Mexico. A lot of people ask when they hear about the imminent relocation how I feel about the move. And the honest answer is that I’m very excited. Reasons for this excitement include (but are not limited to):

1. Better weather
2. Fewer allergies
3. Great food
4. Lower cost of living
5. Cheap health insurance
6. Working from home
7. Listening to music while I work from home
8. Great sunsets
9. Martha feeling like her life is moving forward
10. It’s a purple state, so my presence might actually make a difference for Barack

I realize some of those sound redundant or are subsets of others, but they bear mentioning. Like the health insurance one. As a freelancer, I’ll be in charge of securing my own coverage. Here in Massachusetts, the group plan at work costs Free Press nearly $300 a month. In New Mexico, my individual plan will run something like $160. Which is insanely cheap. Anyway, we’re still planning our cross-country route at the end of June, but there’s a 50% chance we’ll wind up heading across Iowa on I-80. Anyone care to offer housing?  

you want to talk about hamas and appeasement, do you mr. 28% approval? great. let’s talk about hamas and appeasement:

“If George Bush and John McCain want to have a debate about protecting the United States of America, that is a debate that I’m happy to have any time, any place, and that is a debate that I will win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for,” Obama said in a campaign speech in South Dakota.

“They’ve got to answer for the fact that Iran is the greatest strategic beneficiary of our invasion of Iraq. It made Iran stronger, George Bush’s policies,” he said. “They’re going to have to explain why Hamas now controls Gaza, Hamas that was strengthened because the United States insisted that we should have democratic elections in the Palestinian Authority.”

“That’s the Bush-McCain record on protecting this country,” he added. “Those are the failed policies that John McCain wants to double down on.”

barack obama was raised in a briar patch, bitches!

in case it isn’t obvious, this is more good cop/bad cop bullshit on behalf of john mccain. from here on out, look for this pattern: outrageous and incendiary attacks made by irrelevant right-wing figures with low mainstream credibility, followed up by heartfelt statements from candidate mccain in which he clucks his tongue and loudly bemoans our divisive politics, conveniently neglecting to contradict or directly address the outrageous claims of the attacks.

credit where it’s due: clinton didn’t fuck around on this one, calling bush’s comparison “offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy.” is this newfound emphasis on party loyalty a sign she’s beginning to accept the idea that obama has won? is it merely confirmation that she’s not, in fact, extraordinarily stupid and/or evil? or is it just more schizophrenic dithering? who knows, but hillary was a team player on this one, and it’s an encouraging sign. in fact, most of the big party leaders — pelosi, reid, emmanuel — have been impressively on-message and well synchronized lately in their efforts to shift the discussion toward john mccain and the clobbering he’s about to receive. is this what an organized and disciplined democratic party looks like? i’m not sure i’ve ever seen it before, but i could definitely get used to it.

From the C-SPAN homepage:

Pres. Bush’s request for Iraq war supplemental funds was defeated 141-149, with 132 Republican members voting “Present.” 

Those special-election losses that keep adding up for the GOP must have them really scared if they don’t even have the balls to endorse their President’s budget. But voting against it would just be too strong a statement, apparently.