If Bruce says Auburn Hills is in Ohio, it's in Ohio, and that's all there is to it.

Google Maps says it's 90 minutes, tops.

An increasingly desperate Chris Christie turns to shameless pandering in the New Jersey governor's race.

The MetaFilter thread for Bruce's birthday has some pretty great stuff.

Old enough to move down the shore: Chris Hayes's Twitter reminds me that it's Bruce Springsteen's 60th birthday today. Here's my all-time favorite rarity, the "Wings for Wheels" "Thunder Road" variant.

Bruce's 60th birthday earns him a spot on the cover of AARP Magazine.

Edge of the American West catches Bruce fever (and there's only one cure).

Bruce pops onstage for a song with The Gaslight Anthem. (Via Ben, who rightly calls it "nostalgia rock overload.")

Late night Friday.

* As expected, Waxman-Markey passed the House earlier tonight, despite the usual deranged opposition. (Voting breakdown from FiveThirtyEight.) Ezra and Matt pour over a chart that demonstrates just how little this will cost, despite what Republicans are claiming, while Grist considers whether cap and trade has ever actually achieved its stated goals. I'm disappointed with the bill and terrified about what the Senate will pass.

* MoveOn will target Kay Hagan for her opposition to the public option. Good.

* Froomkin's last column at the Washington Post takes the media to task for completely failing us over the last few decade.

And while this wasn't as readily apparent until President Obama took office, it's now very clear that the Bush years were all about kicking the can down the road – either ignoring problems or, even worse, creating them and not solving them. This was true of a huge range of issues including the economy, energy, health care, global warming – and of course Iraq and Afghanistan.

How did the media cover it all? Not well. Reading pretty much everything that was written about Bush on a daily basis, as I did, one could certainly see the major themes emerging. But by and large, mainstream-media journalism missed the real Bush story for way too long. The handful of people who did exceptional investigative reporting during this era really deserve our gratitude: People such as Ron Suskind, Seymour Hersh, Jane Mayer, Murray Waas, Michael Massing, Mark Danner, Barton Gellman and Jo Becker, James Risen and Eric Lichtblau (better late than never), Dana Priest, Walter Pincus, Charlie Savage and Philippe Sands; there was also some fine investigative blogging over at Talking Points Memo and by Marcy Wheeler. Notably not on this list: The likes of Bob Woodward and Tim Russert. Hopefully, the next time the nation faces a grave national security crisis, we will listen to the people who were right, not the people who were wrong, and heed those who reported the truth, not those who served as stenographers to liars.

* But I think Ezra Klein makes the point more strongly:

I think that analytically honest political commentators right now should be struggling with a pretty hard choice: Do you try to maximize the possibility of good, if still insufficient, outcomes? Or do you admit what many people already know and say that our political process has gone into total system failure and the overriding priority is building the long-term case for structural reform of America's lawmaking process? Put another way, can you really solve any of our policy problems until you solve our fundamental political problem? And don't think about it in terms of when your team is in power. Think of it in terms of the next 30 years, and the challenges we face.

* Posthumously cleared after twenty-five years. Via MeFi.

* We had to lie about Sotomayor because we're still mad about Robert Bork. Right. Of course.

* More on how Obama forced Mark Sanford to shirk his responsibilities and flee the country. This is politics at its worst.

* I'm with Joe Strummer: If you don't like Springsteen you're a pretentious Martian from Venus. Via Shankar D.

* And of course we're still coming to terms with Michael Jackson:
Web grinds to a halt after Michael Jackson dies. Secret library of 100 songs could be released. Google mistakes the explosion of searches for an attack. Spike in SMS traffic outpaces 9/11. Will Bruno face a last-minute edit? (Some of these via @negaratduke.)

Sometimes even heroes have feet of clay.

New Jersey: epicenter of American poetry?

Last month, Mr. Merwin won a second Pulitzer prize for poetry — the fourth New Jersey poet to win in the last 10 years, a streak that is unmatched of late by any other state, and one that raises the question of whether it is more than just a happy coincidence.

The truth is the poets up there don't write nothing at all; they just sit back and let it all be.

Bill O'Reilly has finally gone too far.

Bill O'Reilly has a plan for the Republican Party to get its mojo back: Go after Bruce Springsteen!

...O'Reilly last night, in his Talking Points Memo segment, cites a remark Springsteen made at the Pete Seeger tribute concert the other night:

At 90, he [Seeger] remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself. ... He sings all the verses, all the time. Especially the ones that we'd like to leave out of our history as a people.

This incensed O'Reilly -- who nonetheless spotted an opportunity therein:

Now, Bruce Springsteen is not a PhD in political science, obviously. But his snide reference to America defines how the far left sees this country. And you know what? Most liberal and conservative Americans disagree with him.

So let me spell this out to that even the Republican leadership can understand it. Get solutions to problems. Explain your Culture War positions clearly and without spite. And most important, stick up for America! Because the Democrats are certainly not doing that. Use that strategy, GOP, and you'll get back in the game.

Video at the link. Here's "American Land" from the Greensboro show last week.



The McNicholas, the Posalski's, the Smiths, Zerillis, too
The Blacks, the Irish, Italians, the Germans and the Jews
Come across the water a thousand miles from home
With nothin in their bellies but the fire down below

They died building the railroads worked to bones and skin
They died in the fields and factories names scattered in the wind
They died to get here a hundred years ago they're still dyin now
The hands that built the country were always trying to keep down...

Needless to say I don't think "snide" is quite the word. All the verses, without illusions.

YouTube user ekimp252 already has clips from last night's Springsteen show. So does blueboyb.

Amazing concert, best of the three Springsteen shows I've been to. The whole band was in a good mood and for whatever reason they've decided that Greensboro is a great venue for them (probably has something to do with all the transplanted Jerseyans). Everything rocked.

We were close, too; deep in the Pit, just a row or two back from the stage. Enjoy a few pictures at Flickr from my very bad camera phone.

Here's the setlist, courtesy of Backstreets.com:

Badlands
Radio Nowhere
Outlaw Pete
No Surrender
Working on a Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Raise Your Hand
Seventh Son
Hang on Sloopy
Growin' Up
I'm on Fire
Waitin' on a Sunny Day
The Promised Land
Human Touch
Kingdom of Days
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born to Run
Cadillac Ranch

ENCORE
Hard Times
Thunder Road
Tenth Avenue Freeze-out
Land of Hope and Dreams
American Land
Glory Days

Then, at the end, Dave Michaels caught Bruce's sponge.

Off to see Springsteen at the Greensboro Coliseum. Everyone'll be there.

Just a few links.

* I'm only going to say this once, media bloodsuckers: Leave Bruce alone.

* Pink Tentacle has your vintage alien landscapes from Kazuaki Saito.

* The Dollhouse situation and what Joss Whedon should do next.

I would like to see what kind of wonderfully dense, risk-taking project Whedon would come up with when he is not hampered by the current conservative climate at the networks, which these days want most story lines to wrap up by the end of the hour. Can you imagine what a Whedon show on HBO, Showtime, FX or AMC would look like?

...

My point is this: Whedon needs to make his next show on cable. End of story.

Ironically, this is also what Joss should have done this time, and the time before this one.

* Florida Power & Light and a real estate developer have announced that they will build the first solar-powered city in the U.S., a community of 19,500 homes, offices, retail shops, and light industry whose electricity will come from the world’s largest solar photovoltaic plant. The new city will be called Utopia Prime Future One Alpha City Babcock Ranch.

Sunday night.

* Patton Oswalt says if you didn't like The Watchmen you should just shut up. Fair enough, but you know, that's not really the title... (via Bill, who promises via Twitter both a blog post and a Poli-Sci-Fi Radio podcast on this soon)

* We all want to flee to the Cleve: a new Bruce Springsteen exhibit opens at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on April 1. (Thanks, Brent!)

* Science fiction set in 2009. The Postman and Dark Angel are legit picks—but when your list needs three movies from the last two years, Family Matters, and an episode of Charmed to work, it's time to rethink.

* Is the global economy a Ponzi scheme, are we all Bernie Madoffs, and what comes next?

Glory Days: A Bruce Springsteen symposium. Don't miss the CFP.

Ticketmaster learns you don't F with the Boss.

I want you to step back from the guacamole dip, put the chicken fingers down, and turn your television all the way up. And what I want to know is: is there anybody alive out there?

It's hard to find a YouTube clip of the Springsteen halftime performance that doesn't disappear immediately due to NFL takedown nastygrams, but here are two that are working as of right now.

Still more.

* Is Brandeis broke?

* Nobody kills themselves in New Jersey. Stat via the MetaFilter thread on secularity and the social good.

* Springsteen says Wal-Mart deal a mistake. Also: How to come to terms with Bruce playing the Super Bowl.

* The child stars of Slumdog Millionaire still live in 'grinding poverty.' That is absurd.

* And Fox and Warner Bros. have agreed there's enough Watchmen money for everyone.