At tonight’s Clinton/Obama debate in Texas, the question of plagarism came up. Hillary argued her point using words that someone else came up with, no doubt.

And on her closing words.

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Tito Gobbi - “Credo in un Dio crudel” from Verdi’s Otello

Sorry, another multiple video entry. I only really got into opera after college, but Verdi’s Otello is one of my favorites, and I’m seeing it again tonight. This is one of my favorite arias, as Iago explains his “belief in a cruel God.” The video’s a bit out of synch here, but Tito Gobbi really sells the juicy deviltry of the piece. A translation is here. Opera buffs might enjoy comparing it to Mephistofele’s “Son lo spirito che nega” (”I am the spirit who says no”) from Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele, since Boito wrote the librettos for both operas. (Alas, I could not find an English translation of the Mefistofele piece online. I actually worked on the Verdi aria a bit in college, but was far too shy at the time to commit to the unabashed melodrama of the piece.)
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Cenk Uygur on why the New York Times sat on the Mcain/Iseman story:

The John McCain-Vicki Iseman story is not the first article the New York Times has held back for political reasons. They have now done this on at least three occasions:

1. The original FISA story on how the Bush administration was not getting warrants for wiretaps inside the United States.
2. The original story in 2004 that showed Osama bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan, not Afghanistan.
3. The McCain-Iseman story.

We had James Risen, the writer of the first two stories on our show back in 2005 and he admitted that they held the Bin Laden story until after the 2004 election because the New York Times didn’t want to “get caught up in the politics of it.”

Another way of stating that is that they were afraid of being called the liberal media by Republicans. After decades of being chastised for being liberal, they have become gun’shy. In this McCain story, they also held off until they were about to outed by other news agencies as sitting on the story.

Full story at the Huffington Post

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WEB LEGAL SCHOLAR CONSIDERS RUN FOR HOUSE

BUCK…..WHAT IN THE WORLD WERE YOU DOING IN TIMES SQUARE????

SUPREME COURT GIVES MEDICAL DEVICE MAKERS IMMUNITY

2 F-15 JETS CRASH, ONE PILOT DIES

BUSH’S ILLOGICAL SYRIA POLICY

MORE THAN 120 KENTUCKY NATIONAL GUARD LEAVE FOR IRAQ

GUARDIAN REVEALS ISRAELI NUKES KEPT OUT OF IRAQ DOSSIER

GATES, NEGROPONTE TO MEET WITH AUSTRALIAN COUNTERPARTS THIS WEEK

6.3 QUAKE HITS NEVADA (they’re being punished for all the sin in Sin City)

U.K. USED FOR EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION FLIGHTS

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(Another Obama-Clinton thread gone terribly wrong.)

Bob Somerby delivered a fantastic line today: “We got the phrase “kill the pig” from Lord of the Flies, by William Golding. We-ve often been told it’s a novel.” I feel the same way about Animal Farm and The Crucible, actually (although The Crucible is at least based more directly on history). For that matter, Paddy Chayefsky stated that Network was not a satire, and I’d say Dr. Strangelove is barely one anymore. Regardless, there are times I feel as if I’ve been asked to grab my pitchfork, light a torch and join in a hearty chorus of “Die, heretic!” only to realize it’s not a rally for impeachment or investigations after all.

It’s been interesting to read candidate advocacy in the liberal blogosphere, especially since John Edwards dropped out. I’ve read plenty of posts by former supporters of Edwards (or other candidates) weighing Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama, as well as posts by people who were backing one of those two already. I’ve seen a wide range of emotion, from dismay to pragmatism to tepid approval to enthusiasm to furious dislike. The folks for and against Clinton and Obama really run the gambit, too, from the rational to the passionate to the rational and passionate to the pretty irrational. To be clear, there are meaningful differences between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and also completely legitimate reasons for supporting or opposing each. (There are quite a few good posts out there on all that, and I hope to link some within the week.) However, those differences pale when one views McCain, Bush and the GOP.
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