AMIRIGHT

What should I find at the Google main-page, when first I go to it today, in search of imagery for another post in the offing, but Francisco da Silva Velazquez’s magnum opus Las Meninas. It is entirely unexpected, though I assume Google adorned the logo with the iconic infanta of the piece, due to this being Velazquez’s day of birth. (I have not verified this.) Whatever the reason though, it got a little dusty around me, as I thought back to my half-year in Spain — the weekly tutorial thru the works in El Museo del Prado, the meltdowns of Atletico Madrid (typified by the Spanish gibberish of Jimmy Floyd Haisselbank) & Louis van Gaal at FC Barcalona, the callipygian Mormon, the smell of the Metro (particularly, the Puerta del Sol station), my discovery of Lee Hazelwood. Great times, but already, eight years ago. But I remember, & always will.

& I will close with my favourite Velazquez:

(Really, any of the artist’s bufones could serve, but I am particularly drawn to the affection with which Francisco reproduced this court-jester. It has a presentation foreshadowing photographic portraiture, & lends normality to someone who was kept for purposes of amusement in his marginiality.)

(There is no truth to the rumour, though, that Peter Dinklage will be portraying a character based on El Vallecano in an impending film release.)

What to do, what to do, about Hillary Rodham Clinton & her fallopian following? She is clearly not the ideal VP nod, or even stop-gap choice, for the Obama campaign. While Barry Hussein has been notably conciliatory in his response to Hills’s Sirhan Sirhan Fantasies & single-entendre racialisms, to imagine him actually selecting her boggles the mind. Add to the underlying enmity, though, the fact that it is death to run two Senators on the same ticket — as we learned from Kerry-Edwards — & not essential to pick a rival — Clinton-Gore, Bush-Cheney; taking it back, Eisenhower-Nixon — & passing on a political marriage of BHO & HRC seems the most only rational option.

Still, the Clintonistas, particularly the women, must be catered to. How to do it? Two-fold: first, arrange an hand-shake agreement for current Majority Leader, & Obamite, Harry Reid, to relinquish his leadership position to Rodham Clinton at an early point during an Obama administration. (This has the perk of giving the Congress two female leaders, Pelosi & Clinton, one from the West & the other from the East, & each with Middle American roots.) Second, select either Sibelius (as suggested earlier by this writer) or Napolitano as running-mate. A woman would remain on the ticket, but unlike the vanquished rival, would offer more than a papering over of a primary schism. With Sibelius, Obama can highlight his working-class origin thru his mother; with Napolitano, he finds a strong voice on immigration, & one who, while not turning Mc Cain’s home-state to the Dems, would definitely put it “in play” (even if, in this case, it just means an eight point, rather than an eighteen point, loss), as well the rest of the Mormon Country).

What does Hillary get out of this, though — besides another title? Principally, she saves face. Her campaign indiscretions, & her husband’s (the “South Carolina voted for Jesse” remark will have tarnished his legacy more than the “Blue Dress” &/or “Cigar-Dildo” ever could; to think, ‘the first ‘black’ President’ saying those things), will fade into the back pages of her biography, as she establishes herself as first female Senate leader. Further, she does not have to eat her words from Pennsylvania: “I will not be a candidate for Vice President”. Last, she gets a job she’s probably coveted since serving the Watergate committee. A schmoozer & national spokesman Hillary is not. She is not capable of the same smooth-limned glibness of her husband, the (affected) American grit & “sticktoitiveness” of the current President; such is why she opted to be the breadwinner during her marriage’s early & mid period, practicing law, while Bill served as a backwater Governor for a low-salary. Such is why she looked to Moynihan’s vacating Senate position as her post-East Wing career, instead of, say, the Governorship of her native Illinois. Hillary Clinton is a diligent worker, with a studious eye for detail; perfect for crafting legislation & charting its course thru the Senate, but not one to put the imprimatur of the U.S. government behind it. She is, in a phrase, more intelligent than Bill — but not smarter than him.

That is why she should not, could not, be President. Or Vice President.

& she won’t be. She might not end up Majority Leader, as I recommend; nor might Obama tab Sibelius. (With Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg on the vetting committee, I have a stinking suspicion that Obie will either look to CKS’s California residence — VP Feinstein (yuck! (&, oh no, another Senator)), anyone? — or New England roots (Olympia Snowe or Susan Collins (Senators each, but the “national unity” aspect, to which the media loves to jerk, might (might) trump that))? But the course I recommend is not just palatable, but optimal. Unlike most, I see Reid, the slithery Nevadan (pro-life, Mormon, but inextricably linked to gaming & other Silver State idiosyncracies), as the weak link in the Pelosi-Reed relationship; removing him from the equation probably gets the Democratic Senate past the “can’t offend Ol’ Joe Liebermann” squishiness of the last two years. “Old boy” chumminess would not be an issue in a Clinton Senate. & that distinct return to professionalism would be a boon to advancing the agenda of an Obama White House. So, huzzah, to all that.

Pimp C - Free

(Samples Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’)

You have a Drivemocion in your car.

Xbox live in a nutshell:

Honestly, who hasn’t gotten thirsty during a clan match?

Supermanning of the hoe ensued: