It’s all over, except for some (mostly) insignificant recounts. More revolting than revolutionary, the 2010 Campaign was the rank capstone on the pustular lunacy of the past two years of American panic-politics. Once the new Congress is sworn in, we can look forward to major change – specifically, we can look forward to things not getting done because everything fails to get a majority vote in the Senate instead of everything dying because of Republican filibusters. Truly, they shall do the People’s work!

Anywho, during the 2 1/2 months between now and the 2012 Campaign Season beginning, we’ll be left to reflect on What It All Means. My thoughts:

Democrats – It could’ve been worse, I suppose.

• Hanging onto the Senate means the President can be spared from constantly vetoing insane Tea Party legislation and the Democrats in general can keep things in check without resorting to constant filibustering.
• Harry Reid winning soundly is a big deal and strips the TPGOP of what would have been a very impressive trophy.
• The Blue Dogs have been nearly wiped out with over half of its coalition going down last night. This will make presenting a unified front much easier. This isn’t the 1950s and 60s. The current American political climate punishes “Big Tent” parties – sad, but undeniably true.

Republicans - It’s hard not to tip your hat to the sheer audacity and focus with which they’ve conducted the last two years of business.

• Last night’s sweep of the House presents a victory for their rhetoric and strategy, if not for their ideas (vague, at best) and agenda (likely going nowhere for at least 2 years).
• It’s hard to say whether or not getting in bed with the Tea Party was really beneficial. While it helped them develop a strong narrative to campaign around and that certainly helped with some races, it also cost them the Senate by replacing more moderate Republicans with wingnuts like Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle who tanked dramatically in the general contest. Personally, I think the GOP would have found an equally effective voice without the Tea Party.
• Time will tell if the Tea Party will be good for them moving forward. The actual overlap between Tea Party “ideals” and anyone with real authority is pretty slim, but they may be able to keep the TPers riled up and in their pocket through 2012 by blaming gridlock on the Democrats.
• Wiping out the Blue Dogs basically kills any chance of Democratic defections on most issues, meaning that it will be nearly impossible to ever build a filibuster-proof coalition on any significant TPGOP legislation.

The Tea Party - Life in the Echo Chamber probably feels pretty sweet today. They managed to knock “Washington Insider” Nancy Pelosi out of leadership in the House and have replaced her with the fresh-face of John Boehner – a man who JUST arrived in Washington a scant quarter of a century ago. Enjoy it while it lasts, because now that the election is over, the GOP very much needs you to be quiet (at least until it’s closer to 2012 and they need you again).

• They had some wins – most notably Rand Paul – but they also lost races that a better, moderate candidate almost certainly WOULD have won. Because of the Tea Party, the GOP doesn’t get to crow about taking seats held by the Vice President and the Majority Leader.
• The overall “performance” of the Tea Party seems to mirror what happened with Ross Perot and his “Reform Party” in 1992. They’ve captured the support of an angry, disaffected 20% of the population and have managed to achieve a kind of “insurgent influence” as a result.
• As Perot’s supporters can attest, this is not an easy kind of movement to maintain once the initial cycle of energy and “revolution” passes. The novelty wears off, the cracks and foibles of your leaders become more apparent, things change and people just… wander off. The chances of Tea Party “rage” still resonating broadly in two years are slim and there won’t be nearly as many easy targets next time around because the majority of Blue Dogs have been purged from the Democratic Party.
• The actual Tea Party “agenda” is unlikely to see much movement over the next two years. Repealing health care reform, seriously rolling back stimulus funding, dramatic cuts of government spending or federal programs, etc. are ALL dead on arrival. And not just because of the Democrats. It’s politically toxic for the GOP to get too close to any of those issues because – while you CAN rail against them in general and survive – you can’t actually make any real proposals aimed at tackling them without committing political suicide. The best they can hope for are occasional, hilarious swipes at things like the NEA (which will fail) and occasional lip-service regarding “earmark reform” (which will pass easily, but be toothless and unenforceable).

President Obama - Let’s be honest – the next two years can scarcely be MORE frustrating than the last two have been. I’d love to believe that this will snap him out of his phlegmatic diplomacy and send him after the throats of the TPGOP, but that seems unlikely. He’ll wander further to the center and “pull a Clinton”, probably solidifying his chances of at least avoiding the embarrassment of a primary challenge in 2012.

The Next Two Years – Potentially a hilarious gridlocked disaster. If Boehner sticks to his “no compromising” rule, then nothing of substance will take place. If, on the other hand, he decides to actually lead and serve, there are decent chances of some compromise legislation making it to the President.

• The GOP’s easiest “win” would probably be tort reform. It’s a mostly useless bit of fluff that the Democrats don’t mind but that the Right Wing Radio World has been yammering for for years now.
• Taxes are tough, but not impossible, to work out. The Democrats would probably be willing to up the income ceiling on rolling back the Bush Tax Cuts to $1 million if the GOP is willing to concede that no billionaires are actually “small businessmen”.
• Health Care repeal won’t happen. The GOP will make some obnoxious, Quixotic runs at it, but nothing will change.
• The GOP will not make a serious effort to curtail or revoke TARP or the Stimulus because 1) they voted for it and 2) it serves their REAL constituency (big business).
• The GOP will continue to pretend it cares about the Tea Party – at least until it starts to fizzle and ceases to be politically useful to them.
• The TPGOP won last night largely because a HUGE percentage of progressives stayed home. Much of the frustration with health care reform came from liberal voters who wanted to see a Democratic Supermajority ACTUALLY use their mandate to push through a paradigm-shifting, single-payer, universal health care system. And when it comes to the economy, the bloodless, toothless “regulation” of the financial industry was an embarrassment.
• Democrats have a chance to circle the wagons and remember that they’re ACTUALLY a progressive party (at least in theory). With the Blue Dogs mostly dead, it’s time to take a few pages out of the GOP handbook and start seriously demanding loyalty and good behavior from its membership. I’m not suggesting a “DINO” hunt along the lines of the GOP’s targeting of moderate “RINO” members, but at least wielding sufficient influence over your own damn party to say that it expects buy-in from everyone on certain, key issues.
• Voters don’t ACTUALLY want weak, compromise legislation. The GOP knows this and uses it as a weapon. The Democrats ignore it and get punched in the face over and over again as a result. You’re the progressive party. BE PROGRESSIVE.

  Remember:

  Left side of the road – safe. Right side of the road – safe. Middle of the road – SMOOSH.

UPDATE – 11:43 PM: I know I mentioned the wipe-out in the Blue Dog caucus a few times, but how did the other side of the Democratic Party fare? Of the 80 members of the Progressive Caucus that faced challenges yesterday a total of 4 lost their seats. FOUR.

Tomorrow (well, technically later today since it’s just past midnight) is the “Rally to Restore Sanity” in my old home town, an event hoping to cool the boiling blood of the American body politic by drawing attention to the fact that – despite our differences of opinion – we’re all in this together and should maybe be a little nicer from time to time.

While I can’t attend in person, I can attend in spirit. With that in mind, here’s a tribute to the folks on the Right – the list of my Top 10 favorite Republicans:

Do you kick ass? Specifically, do you kick ass as a level designer/world builder? Even MORE specifically, do you kick ass as an MMO/RPG level designer? Then we’re looking for you!

Folks I know/who know me: Feel free to ping me with questions directly. Everyone else, leave comments here and I’ll answer what I can.

A few moments from two years ago, today:

From WAR-Launch

Angie declares “Cake time” while the last pre-WAR moments tick away.

From WAR-Launch

09/18/08 – 12:01 AM: Watching the first players log in.

From WAR-Launch

A few hours later, on the roof of the office, hanging a giant banner (and annoying the bankers in the building). Amazingly, no one died.

From WAR-Launch

Police arrived shortly after this picture was taken to tranquilize James, who had been awake for seven days straight and had gone quite completely insane.

So… yeah. Happy birthday, WAR! Long may you WAAAGH!

“Ghostopolis“

Art and story by Doug TenNapel

I’ve been a fan of Doug TenNapel’s work for many years. Books like “Gear” and “Iron West” are among my favorite graphic novels and my copies bear fuzzed corners and worn covers earned by countless loans to friends and family. The mix of funky (sometimes vaguely naughty) humor, dynamic action and underlying (and usually spiritual) moral lessons make for a potent, readable mix in most of his books.

In the interest of fairness, I must admit that I have, on occasion, been put off by some of the more blunt and humorless manifestations of political or religious messaging in some of his work. Most notably, “Earthboy Jacobus” – an otherwise rollicking and bombastic adventure – was ruined for me by the overt and mean-spirited political commentary that is shoehorned into the beginning of the book. It’s the only one of Mr. TenNapel’s books that I won’t loan out. Thankfully, such lapses are rare.

Don’t let the fact that Hugh Jackman signed to make a film version of it a year before it ever saw print dissuade you – “Ghostopolis” is a great read.

It’s filled with the kind of humor and heart and action that Mr. TenNapel is so adept at delivering. The story is a lot of fun and is certainly safe for young adult readers without pandering to them either. The initial set-up and establishment of the Ghostopolis as a setting are wonderful. The cast of characters is diverse and distinct and the reader will be hard-pressed not to feel invested in their adventures. That being said, after the rather luxurious trip through the first 3/4 of the book, the VERY end of the story winds up feeling a little rushed by comparison. A lot of loose ends get tied up in the final pages and it sometimes feels like things are being glossed over.

When the story gets “spiritual”, it does so with an obviously Christian tone, but in a way that’s quite moving – even for a reader like myself who doesn’t share the author’s beliefs. Mr. TenNapel delivers a Christ analog that only makes a couple of brief appearances, but in the process presents a clear and powerful portrait of what (I assume) the author finds attractive and compelling about his own faith. It’s not a wishy-washy “Jesus-as-hippy” presentation, either. It has a macho kindness that really stood out and impressed me. If I HAD to believe in a God, I think I’d probably want it to be Mr. TenNapel’s.

Artistically, it is (as expected) gorgeous. My only complaint is that the coloring detracts from Mr. TenNapel’s fantastic illustration. It’s a minor complaint, to be sure, but I strongly prefer to absorb great line-work directly – without having it muddled by post-production coloring and effects.

The following is a transmission from a parallel Earth within the Multiverse where DC Universe Online has already been released:

DC Universe Online is a courageous breath of fresh air!  They have admirably risen to the challenge of building a game around iconic characters that players will NOT be allowed to control.  Yes, dear readers, they have done the seemingly impossible – they’ve built a game involving Batman where *I* don’t mind that I can’t BE Batman!

Read More

Spoiler-free review:

Inception is a very good film. If you’re one of the handful of people who haven’t seen it yet, you should make time to do so. It’s well-acted, tightly-directed and provides a story that unfolds in a generally satisfying way. Its most successful moments are almost entirely visual and those portions of the film are truly unique and compelling and make it a worthy effort entirely on their own.

That being said, I found its core philosophical and narrative challenges to be rather uninspired and some of the story’s choices (particularly near the end) were disappointingly shallow. Inception is a movie defined by new vistas, but not new ideas.

In my view, it exists on the film spectrum occupied on one end by The Matrix and on the other by Dark City. In fact, it felt very much like a movie that has been written and re-written numerous times in the shadow of those earlier films. The result is a partial success – it is better than The Matrix and not as good as Dark City.

Spoilers follow from this point forward: