In the New York Times today, Ishmael Reed writes:

I’ve listened in the last week to progressives criticize President Obama for keeping his cool. Progressives have been urging the president to “man up” in the face of the Republicans. Some want him to be like John Wayne. On horseback. Slapping people left and right. [. . .] If President Obama behaved that way, he’d be dismissed as an angry black militant with a deep hatred of white people.

[. . .] When these progressives refer to themselves as Mr. Obama’s base, all they see is themselves. [. . .] Unlike white progressives, blacks and Latinos are not used to getting it all. They know how it feels to be unemployed and unable to buy your children Christmas presents. They know when not to shout. The president, the coolest man in the room, who worked among the unemployed in Chicago, knows too.

What a bizarre piece. The issue is not about shouting. It is about policy. Some folks don't like the policies the President is espousing. They really don't care if he is the "coolest man in the room." If being the coolest man in the room produced policies and results they agreed with, they would be cheering him. If yelling produced policies and results they disagreed with, they would be upset. If Mr. Reed has something to say in defense of the President's POLICY choices, I would be interested in reading them. Nonsensical pop psychology is not interesting to me.

CNBC is airing Cannibis Gold Rush, concentrating on Colorado's medical marijuana industry.

CNBC's "Marijuana USA" goes inside a flourishing medical pot industry. In Colorado, the demon weed is rebranded as a natural herbal remedy with healing powers that even respectable citizens can enjoy. We meet two restaurant owners who are about to launch a new line of cannabis-infused edibles. And, we’ll go inside a clinic where marijuana is almost always the doctor's order.

In this bold new era of greater marijuana acceptance, the business still remains in violation of federal laws. But, the entrepreneurs have asked to be regulated, licensed and taxed – just like any other trade. After more than seventy years as an illegal drug, is it possible that marijuana’s moment has arrived?

The program then moves on to Appalachia where the war on drugs is continuing, especially in Kentucky. Finally, it goes to Portugal, and looks at Lisbon's relaxed drug laws and its subsequent drop in youth drug use.

Medical marijuana is earning a lot of revenue in sales tax. Here are the numbers for Colorado Springs. [More...]

I don't know a lot about Oprah Winfrey. I don't watch her talk show or follow her life. I'm trying to watch her on Barbara Walters' special and I can't get past the distracting scar/indent/shadow on the side of her left eye. Does ABC just have the worst lighting/camera people or is it Oprah? With her vast fortune, it's hard to believe she couldn't have it fixed. Her lips are chapped, the sides of her nose are shiny, it looks like she has white powder inside her nose (and I highly doubt she took a bump before the show), so what gives?

She seemed really uncomfortable talking about her parents. [More..]

This is the 8th year I am blogging on December 8 about the death of John Lennon, and how for me, it's a day of both sadness and celebration. (2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009.) Probably everyone over 40 remembers that night and where they were when they heard the shocking news. [More...]

If you didn't watch VH-1 Divas, catch it on the re-run. All of the performances, sets and costumes are awesome. This is a huge undertaking, there were 27,000 troops in attendance at Miramar in San Diego.

Kathy Griffin, who I don't usually like, is a terrific host. Her ammunition-topped bikini is a must-see.

The troops even laughed at her account of giving their commanding officer a topless lapdance backstage. [More...]

Roman Polanksi's "The Ghostwriter" has won the award for Best Picture and Best Director at the European Film Awards, held in Estonia. It won in six of its seven nominated categories.

Nominated in seven categories, the movie won the best director prize, best actor for Ewan McGregor, and best screenwriter went jointly to Robert Harris and Polanski.

Polanski gave an acceptance speech -- "through a Skype connection from an unknown location." Why?

[H]e still faces an Interpol warrant in 188 countries. Most European nations, including Estonia, have an extradition treaty with the United States.

[More...]

Wikileaks says the more people try to shut them down, the stronger they become. After Paypal shut them down, they mobilized their supporters on Twitter to create mirror sites and archive their published documents. For updated sites, use #imwikileaks. Here's Wikileaks' twitter page.

Here's a list of mirror sites. This one and this one are working as of now, and have a contribution page handled by someone other than Paypal.

The LA Times reports the Government's clampdown may be a blow to intelligence-sharing among agencies. I think that's a good thing. "The Wall" provided important safeguards and restricted end-runs around the Fourth Amendment. 9/11, Ashcroft and the Patriot Act changed that, and it should be restored, at least between intelligence-gathering agencies and crime-fighting agencies.

Restaurateur Elaine Kaufman, owner of the famous Elaine's on the Upper East side, passed away today at age 81. Here are some
photos of her with a number of her famous clientele.

Until she was hospitalized last month, Kaufman worked every day of the week, greeting patrons at the door and leaving at closing time in the wee hours of the morning. "I live at the restaurant, I entertain at the restaurant," Kaufman told The Post in a 2009 interview.

I always liked eating and drinking at Elaine's. She was a great hostess and very nice to me. I haven't been there in almost a decade, but I remember her vividly. R.I.P. Elaine, and thank you.

Elaine's will remain open with the staff "fully intact."

In my earlier discussion of Wikileaks (stating my disagreement with Ezra Klein), I neglected to discuss "why Wikileaks?" When I say why, I mean why would leakers choose Wikileaks as their publisher rather than a mainstream press organ. The reason is the lack of trust the Media has earned by its performance of the last 20 years.

Via mistermix of Balloon Juice, Jay Rosen hits this point very well. mistermix summarizes:

In a strange post (strangely seconded by Matt Yglesias), Ezra Klein writes:

[Julian] Assange isn't whistleblowing or leaking. Both of those are targeted acts focused on an identified wrongdoing or event. He's simply taking the private and making it public, with relatively little in the way of discrimination.

Since Assange isn't an American, isn't in the government and has no direct knowledge of the activities of the American government, how could he possibly be "whistleblowing or leaking?" What Assange did was publish documents provided to him by actual leakers (Bradley Manning being the principal one apparently.) Ezra gets "leaks" all the time. (I call it access.) Ezra continues:

Public Enemy Num. 1 (snark), Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, with an assist from Time Editor Citizen Rick Stengel, plays the Clinton Card:

Hillary Clinton, Julian Assange said, "should resign." [. . . T]he WikiLeaks founder was replying to a question by TIME managing editor Richard Stengel [. . .] Stengel had said the U.S. Secretary of State was looking like "the fall guy" in the ensuing controversy, and had asked whether her firing or resignation was an outcome that Assange wanted. "I don't think it would make much of a difference either way," Assange said. "But she should resign if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up. Yes, she should resign over that."

I'm not too sure about the "espionage in the UN" issue. But the argument I've seen is not very convincing:

Here we go again:

[A]t the end of the day, most trolls wouldn’t have the gall to say to another person’s face half the things they anonymously post on the Internet. Instead of waiting around for human nature to change, let’s start to rein in bad behavior by promoting accountability. Content providers, stop allowing anonymous comments.

Ironically, those words were written by Julie Zhuo, a product design manager at Facebook. Correct me if I am wrong, but my impression was that some of the nastiest online comments can be found at . . . Facebook. In any event, I tackled this nonsensical stuff back in 2007. For people who care about such things, I have a suggestion - don't read comments sections of blogs. Or only read them at blogs that take up one of Zhuo's suggestions. It's easy enough to avoid nastiness on the internet - don't get involved.

Speaking for me only