JonahKeri.com

Rapid-fire format, so I can get in as many links as possible.

–The New Yorker has a cartoon on the cover of its latest edition that’s causing a media firestorm as we speak. Here’s Politico’s Ben Smith’s take on the cover, which includes an image of the cover itself: Barack Obama wearing a turban, fist-bumping with a heavily-armed, Afro’d Michelle Obama, with images of a Osama Bin Laden and a burning American flag in the background. The New Yorker argues that it’s satirically lampooning some of the harshest (and most blatantly false) criticisms from far-right critics. Others, including the Obama campaign, have panned the cartoon as being in bad taste. Check it out, then feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section. I’ll reserve my opinion until later.

–It’s a shame in a way that the cartoon is garnering so much attention, because Ryan Lizza wrote a mammoth, 15,000-word feature on Obama that looks at his Chicago background coming up as a politician to get a sense for what kind of political animal he is today. Reading this article will literally take up half your day, but it’s pretty darn interesting. Despite all the hope and change rhetoric, it’s tough to see Obama as anything other than a clever politician who knows how to game the system. Which to me is fine, as long as his gaming involves, say, sensible plans for the economy, health care and Iraq, not wasting time and money pushing abstinence-only education and Intelligent Design and following some of the other horrific paths the current administration has taken.

–John McLaughlin calls Obama an “Oreo”. In related news, John McLaughlin needs to stop speaking on TV.

–Posed a very legitimate question in this YouTube clip about why health care subsidizes Viagra but not birth control, John McCain completely froze up and once again showed he’s incapable of independent thought.

–In related news, no current news item makes me angrier than the White House’s current block of a massive AIDS funding plan to Africa, pending an agreement being struck to earmark a huge chunk of the cash toward abstinence-only education. Never mind that the Bushies have been pushing this garbage for years, causing catastrophic damage by ostensibly denying condoms to AIDS-stricken nations. Favoring religious dogma over a moral imperative to save lives is as disgusting an act as any I can imagine by any government, let alone the richest, most powerful one in the world.

–Kos has an excellent take on the FISA mess.

–Digby has an even better take on the “lurching” of Obama’s politics toward the right (not in a good way).

–The vetting process for Obama’s VP choice has begun in earnest. Interesting to see candidates like Jim Webb (and possibly Hillary Clinton, if you believe the rumor mill) publicly or privately opting out of consideraton, whether due to their own skeletons in the closet, or their spouse’s. For the record, I’d like to see Kathleen Sebelius get the nod. Or Wesley Clark. Seriously.

–Now here’s political satire DONE RIGHT. I’m making this my Link of the Day, even amidst all of today’s tough competition.

–This one’s a bit older, but enjoyed the Freakonomics’ blog take on why we lie so much. Freakonomics is one of the most consistently interesting sites out there by the way. Highly recommend adding its feed to your Google reader or whatever other method you use to bookmark blogs.

–Awesome headline. Pretty interesting story too.

–In sports news, the Nationals are a disaster of a franchise. My buddy Daniel takes great delight in pointing out the shortcomings of the team that’s nominally the successor of the Expos. First there’s the Nats’ TV ratings, the worst in baseball by a gigantic margin. Then there’s the team breaking its promise to have the new stadium show a great view of the Capitol building–you get to see parking garages and a big, fat, red tent instead. The most shocking is a brewing scandal in which Nats officials are accused of skimming signing bonuses from young Dominican players, some of them still kids. Nats GM Jim Bowden refutes the story. Still, bad mojo for a team with so many strikes against it (and the worst record in baseball to boot).

–Continuing our theme of bad teams, and of my critique of them from Friday’s NL review–the Astros are screwed, and it’s only going to get worse under hapless GM Ed Wade.

–Don’t know the name Michel Inoa yet? Here’s an introduction. I’d be really excited if I was an A’s fan right now, TINSTAAP or not.

–Bye-bye Billy Packer. No one is sorry to see you go.

–My buddy Jon S. (that’s Jon S., Boston chapter, not Jon S., Montreal chapter) passes along a link to one of the weirdest Web sites I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, I love it.

–Finally, time for a very rare JonahKeri.com music recommendation (maybe the first one ever?). Five months ago, I went on a great spring training trip to Arizona with four buddies. Good times, all that. One memorable aspect of the trip, though, was being introduced to this really cool band. Seems the two band members went to Wesleyan University with my buddy Seth, where the three of them were good friends. So the band went along playing catchy music, but not making much headway at first. By the time Seth and the other guys introduced me to this band in Arizona, they were just about to strike it huge.

Today, MGMT is huge, having played Letterman and Conan, sold a jillion albums, opened for Radiohead in Manchester (I’m going to see Radiohead for the 3rd time next month, in Montreal, but I’d have killed to see an MGMT-Radiohead combo) and will be headlining a UK tour starting in November. While on the plane back from Budapest yesterday, I watched a bunch of in-flight movies, including the take-off of the great book “Bringing Down the House” called 21. So-so flick. But the opening scene, where the main character cycles through Cambridge with MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” playing in the background, was supersweet. I’m partial to “Kids”, a song that hasn’t achieved the same status on the pop charts but seems better liked by big-time MGMT fans.

I’m not a music aficionado by any means, and I’m sure the cooler kids among you were probably listening to MGMT when they were in middle school. But for those of you like me who only periodically consume new music, then latch on to 2-3 of the best new bands at a time, I think you’ll love MGMT. Buy the “Time to Pretend” EP on iTunes (it’s less than $6) and let me know what you think.