And pro-reform supporters start to outnumber critics at townhall meetings. Huzzah!

www.afghanidan.blogspot.com – Major Dan was blogging back in 2006 from Afghanistan. Some killer pics of training exercises and a light-hearted tone throughout.  The fact that this blog is 3 years old just reminds me of how long this war has been going on – count ‘em! – 8 years.

www.effectscell.com – Spc Adam Bryant was blogging in 2008 about his unit in Kabul, which focused on civil society building and humanitarian aid. Some great pics from Bryant (one shown here) and good articles, too. The one video – looks like he had intended for there to be more, which there aren’t, sadly – is pretty good.

It’s a sunny day so I’m not going to be on the interweb long, but wanted to share two interesting bits from the NYTmes

James Fallows, the political writer with the Atlantic Magazine who has been living in China for almost 2 years now, made a quick observation about tea preferences among his Atlantic colleagues here.  And following the links, you eventually come to Corby Krummer’s bit that’s actually about tea, but opens with a well-deserved swipe at the stage-managed or “astroturf” (as in, fake grassroots) protest tea parties across the country on Tax Day.

I’ve already sent a gift box of teas – including my favorites, Vanilla Citrus Oolong and Shiso Sencha, but also a superb premium-grade Dragon’s Well and Gongfu Black (the leaves are picked and bruised by hand!) – from Arogya Teas in Westport, CT to a friend working in the White House and my friends at Digital Democracy.  I may just end up making a habit out of it since tea is so hot these days.

NYT on Astroturf Tea Parties

Oh, and I watched this YouTube video today, which almost made me cry!

This month, Spitzer has appeared on WNYC, New York City’s NPR station, talking about the bank bailouts and the scandal around AIG, as well as penned pieces in Newsweek’s aptly-titled series, “The Thinking Man’s Guide to Populist Rage,” and about college loans on Slate.com (note, maybe relevant: Slate.com is owned by Newsweek).

In the Newsweek article, Spitzer describes risk as the most important externality to private transactions that we must now confront:

We have socialized risk through massive bailouts and privatized gain for by leaving the upside exclusively to the insiders.  That system will fail over and over again if we do not shift the burden of risk back to those who expect the gain.

Spitzer’s economic prescriptions are a bit over my head to grasp fully or comment on, but my interest has been piqued to see this former white knight of NY riding the rising populist current here in the US back to political relevance.

Note: is it a mark of a successful comeback or a sign that the prostitution scandal has not yet left him that Spitzer is mentioned in the MySpace article I discussed in this post?

Now, I’ve been living in a cave in Connecticut recently, but news of this did manage to penetrate my cave walls and I think the New York Post owes the American public a real apology and some real action to show regret for an irresponsible – if not racist and quite mal-intentioned – editorial decision.

ColorOfChange.org makes an important point in highlighting rising hate crime rates and assassination threats against Obama in their new campaign against the cartoon and NewsCorp’s ever-growing history of discrimination.   But the Stimulus Bill was already becoming a racially charged issue after House Majority Whip James Clyburn’s (D-SC) reference on Tuesdsay to GOP governors refusing stimulus money as a “slap in the face” to African Americans living in these governors’ states (eg, Louisiana).  It sort of feels like the whole political field is getting more racially dividied, or the ground is being set for the furtherance of negative stereotypes and hatred, especially by the GOP’s new leadership, Michael Steele.

By the way, what cave do you think the NY Post editorial staff were living in during and after the 2003 global uproar over Danish cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammed?  Uh, sorry fellas.  Not only is it asinine for a major and controversial media outlet to suggest that “sometimes, a cartoon is just a cartoon,” it’s intentionally deceitful.  Unless their cave didn’t have wi-fi like mine does.