"Marquee Moon" - Television (Live in 1978)
Fantastic version of this song. One of the joys of youtube is to search things after a several month hiatus and see what pops up. I had looked for live recordings of Television from this era and they were scant and of poor quality. But this is crystal clear and shows just how dynamic Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd were as a guitar combo and how terrific the rhythm section was. It was very different stuff from that being produced by their fellow New Yorkers at the time.
- Nancy and Linkmeister both noted this post by Digby regarding the outsourcing of spycraft to private firms. I find this sort of thing very troubling -- in the same way that I find private prisons revolting (and I think unconstitional) and the use of private armies in battle even more so. This kind of intelligence work, if it is to be done, should surely be in the hands of people employed directly by the government that authorizes it.
- Josh Marshall has a good and thoughtful piece about Eric Snowden and Bradley Manning and how differently people on the left react to them. Like Marshall, I found the elevation of Manning to martyr for freedom a bit difficult to swallow (although I did not approve of his pre-trial treatment). And I find it really difficult to understand why some people think he shouldn't have been prosecuted. The notion that the hugely indiscriminate dumping of thousands of classified documents into the public realm by a member of the military could be tolerated seems hopelessly naive to me. I think the issues raised by Snowden's revelations are very much worthy of debate and I am inclined to believe that we have unduly elevated security concerns over privacy concerns. But that does not mean that I don't think we need to have some type of security apparatus -- indeed, the American people demand it (and seem rather blase about Snowden's revelations). I'm a bit uncomfortable at the idea of a free-lancing Ron Paul supporter deciding what should be made public in such matters.
- In other news, I was pretty shocked at the size of the pro-immigration reform vote in the Senate. I have been pretty convinced that this bill was going nowhere in the House. The 82-15 vote makes me wonder if I am wrong. It will be interesting to see if Boehner observes the Hastert Rule on this one.
- Media Matters shows in one handy chart why the Sunday news show not on MSNBC are completely useless.
What say you?