After the show we'll be heading back to Miami, so this is it for blogging today.
Fetch more...
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Greetings from Lakeland
I'm in Lakeland, Florida, today for the Antique Automobile Club of America Southeastern Winter Meet. I made the trip with several other members of our regional club, and this morning the show gets underway. The weather forecast is perfect, and this is a beautiful part of the state. Lakeland has a lively downtown area with a central square like many of the small cities in the Midwest. We had a great dinner last night in a rib joint called Good Buddies, and today we'll be enjoying the sun and fun of antique and classic cars.
After the show we'll be heading back to Miami, so this is it for blogging today.
Fetch more...
After the show we'll be heading back to Miami, so this is it for blogging today.
Fetch more...
Stop That Noise!
Short Takes
"We Will Bring Our Troops Home" -- Hilzoy looks at the speech the president gave at Camp Lejeune announcing plans to end our combat role in Iraq.
Worse Than We Thought -- Lousy economic news may mess with the budget plans.
CPAC follies continue with a "tea party" protest in front of the White House and a lecture on conservatism from a 13-year-old boy. So where were these protesters when Bush was spending like a drunken frat boy, and why do they need a talking-to from a kid who isn't going to be old enough to vote in 2012?
Gregg's Friends -- "President Barack Obama's former nominee to become commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, steered taxpayer money to his home state's redevelopment of a former Air Force base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals there, an Associated Press investigation found." Good thing he turned down the Commerce job.
Playing Ball -- Miami commissioner wants $500 billion for her district in exchange for her vote for the new Marlins stadium.
Tigers Update -- Toronto 6, Tigers 4 in spring training play.
Saturday TV -- This is the kind of volcano monitoring that Bobby Jindal wasn't talking about.
Fetch more...
Worse Than We Thought -- Lousy economic news may mess with the budget plans.
CPAC follies continue with a "tea party" protest in front of the White House and a lecture on conservatism from a 13-year-old boy. So where were these protesters when Bush was spending like a drunken frat boy, and why do they need a talking-to from a kid who isn't going to be old enough to vote in 2012?
Gregg's Friends -- "President Barack Obama's former nominee to become commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, steered taxpayer money to his home state's redevelopment of a former Air Force base even as he and his brother engaged in real estate deals there, an Associated Press investigation found." Good thing he turned down the Commerce job.
Playing Ball -- Miami commissioner wants $500 billion for her district in exchange for her vote for the new Marlins stadium.
Tigers Update -- Toronto 6, Tigers 4 in spring training play.
Saturday TV -- This is the kind of volcano monitoring that Bobby Jindal wasn't talking about.
Fetch more...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Suck It Up, Jonah
Jonah Goldberg objects to the stimulus package -- big surprise.
But the 1040 form doesn't come with check boxes. And besides, one of the responsibilities we have as citizens is to pay for what we have whether we like it or not. If you don't like it, you vote someone else into office. And listening to you whine like an ill-mannered six year old doesn't make your case for putting your kind of people back into power.
HT to Steve and Boatboy.
Fetch more...
I just don't want to pay for it. It's not that I don't want government to do nice things for deserving people in certain circumstances. It's not necessarily that I'm hostile to this group of beneficiaries or that (though I am in fact hostile to some). It's that I think most of Obama's ideas will not work, will be a waste of money and will hurt the economy. And, flatly, I don't want to pay for it. I don't want to break the law. I don't want pull a Geithner or a Daschle or anything like that. But I don't want to pay for it. I will look for every means within the boundaries of the law to minimize what I pay in taxes and I make no apologies for that whatsoever.Well, you know what, Jonah; life's rough. As a Quaker, I didn't want to pay taxes to support the war in Iraq, and as a gay man, I resent supporting the policy of Don't Ask/Don't Tell in the military with my queer dollars. As a supporter of a woman's right to choose, I didn't want my tax dollars to go to the Bush administration's gag orders about reproductive choice as a qualification for providing health care to women in Africa, nor did I enjoy paying my taxes for any of the other stuff you so heartily endorsed during the Bush years.
But the 1040 form doesn't come with check boxes. And besides, one of the responsibilities we have as citizens is to pay for what we have whether we like it or not. If you don't like it, you vote someone else into office. And listening to you whine like an ill-mannered six year old doesn't make your case for putting your kind of people back into power.
HT to Steve and Boatboy.
Fetch more...
Busted
Gov. Bobby Jindal gets caught in a lie.
Putting it altogether, Mr. Jindal's audition for the national stage sucked on so many levels: bad production values, lousy acting, and an unbelievable story line. And you know he's in trouble when he makes Sarah Palin's debut look good by comparison.
Fetch more...
Remember that story Bobby Jindal told in his big speech Tuesday night -- about how during Katrina, he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with a local sheriff who was battling government red tape to try to rescue stranded victims?So not only is the story at best enhanced for dramatic purposes, even if it's true, all the story does is point out how ineptly the Bush administration responded to Hurricane Katrina. That's not exactly a talking point for someone who wants to become the next Republican president.
Turns out it wasn't actually, you know, true.
In the last few days, first Daily Kos, and then TPMmuckraker, raised serious questions about the story, based in part on the fact that no news reports we could find place Jindal in the affected area at the specific time at issue.
Jindal had described being in the office of Sheriff Harry Lee "during Katrina," and hearing him yelling into the phone at a government bureaucrat who was refusing to let him send volunteer boats out to rescue stranded storm victims, because they didn't have the necessary permits. Jindal said he told Lee, "that's ridiculous," prompting Lee to tell the bureaucrat that the rescue effort would go ahead and he or she could arrest both Lee and Jindal.
But now, a Jindal spokeswoman has admitted to Politico that in reality, Jindal overheard Lee talking about the episode to someone else by phone "days later." The spokeswoman said she thought Lee, who died in 2007, was being interviewed about the incident at the time.
Putting it altogether, Mr. Jindal's audition for the national stage sucked on so many levels: bad production values, lousy acting, and an unbelievable story line. And you know he's in trouble when he makes Sarah Palin's debut look good by comparison.
Fetch more...
The Edsel Dealers Convention
The conservatives rally in Washington.
As with any gathering like this, there were the usual groupies and exhibitors peddling their wares. Most of them were the usual bumpersticker tchotchkes, but this time, with the first African-American and Democrat in the White House, there is a racial tinge to them, like "Obama Waffles" cereal and other such juvenile humor. Then, of course, there are the speakers who are there to rally the troops with speeches about how the president really isn't a citizen, and former U.N. ambassador John Bolton warning that Iran will attack us with nuclear missiles sometime next week, hopefully landing one on Chicago.
I suppose the only worthwhile response to these pathetic souls is to laugh at them and their clownish antics because to take them too seriously would only give them legitimacy. Besides, mockery and derisive laughter makes them more outraged -- "you're not taking me seriously!" -- and that's just more fun. But ignoring them would be a mistake, too, because that would give them the mistaken impression that somehow, some way, we don't think they are as crazy as a boxful of birds. Perhaps the best thing to do is to watch them carry on their merry way, like a convention of Edsel dealers in 1959. But for most of the people attending this convention, who would be more than happy to go back to the old way of doing things like during the heyday of the Goldwater-Reagan-Thurmond conservatism, it still is 1959.
Fetch more...
Far be it from me to piddle on their Wheaties; I'm enjoying hearing about what great shape the conservative movement is in and how, according to David Keane, head of the American Conservative Union, one of the groups at the fantasy fest, it was "liberating" to be out of power because it meant that they could finally be true to their core values. By that logic, he should be positively giddy with delight if the rest of the Republicans lost their seats in the next election.Capping off a day of conservative soul-searching, strategizing and navel-gazing at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Republican National Committee chairman Michael Steele announced Thursday that the Grand Old Party is “alive and well.”
Steele, addressing CPAC’s Presidential Banquet, told the audience that “the conservative movement must become a revolution,” and the goal “must be nothing less than the transformation of America.”
“Tonight, we tell America that Republican values, conservative values, are right for America,” he said, admitting that the party has made some mistakes. “Tonight, we tell America: we know the past, we know we did wrong. My bad. But we go forward in appreciation of the values that brought us to this point.”
To much applause, Steele attacked the Obama administration’s recently-passed stimulus package, calling it “nothing short of frightening.” He said conservatives must use the political moment to re-assert their belief in a set of basic principles: limited government, freedom, opportunity and the ability of the free market to “create, innovate and prosper.”
November’s losses, he contended, should not be a discouragement.
“I am here tonight to reject the idea that defeats of the past are a repudiation of core conservative values and principles,” he said. “Nor do I believe that those defeats are a sign of things to come.”
As with any gathering like this, there were the usual groupies and exhibitors peddling their wares. Most of them were the usual bumpersticker tchotchkes, but this time, with the first African-American and Democrat in the White House, there is a racial tinge to them, like "Obama Waffles" cereal and other such juvenile humor. Then, of course, there are the speakers who are there to rally the troops with speeches about how the president really isn't a citizen, and former U.N. ambassador John Bolton warning that Iran will attack us with nuclear missiles sometime next week, hopefully landing one on Chicago.
I suppose the only worthwhile response to these pathetic souls is to laugh at them and their clownish antics because to take them too seriously would only give them legitimacy. Besides, mockery and derisive laughter makes them more outraged -- "you're not taking me seriously!" -- and that's just more fun. But ignoring them would be a mistake, too, because that would give them the mistaken impression that somehow, some way, we don't think they are as crazy as a boxful of birds. Perhaps the best thing to do is to watch them carry on their merry way, like a convention of Edsel dealers in 1959. But for most of the people attending this convention, who would be more than happy to go back to the old way of doing things like during the heyday of the Goldwater-Reagan-Thurmond conservatism, it still is 1959.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
Those Crazy Clowns of CPAC -- the wingnuts gather in Washington to peddle their fish.
Stealing Their Thunder -- Reid and Pelosi oppose assault weapons ban, thus depriving the NRA of their biggest fund-raising tool.
Big Bucks -- President Obama sends his budget to Congress.
August 31, 2010 is the date by which President Obama says we'll have most of our troops out of Iraq. Of course, it all depends on what the definition of "most" is.
Minnesota Senate -- Now Norm Coleman wants a Mulligan.
"Suffer the Little Children..." -- "Christian" boot camp outrages.
Fetch more...
Stealing Their Thunder -- Reid and Pelosi oppose assault weapons ban, thus depriving the NRA of their biggest fund-raising tool.
Big Bucks -- President Obama sends his budget to Congress.
August 31, 2010 is the date by which President Obama says we'll have most of our troops out of Iraq. Of course, it all depends on what the definition of "most" is.
Minnesota Senate -- Now Norm Coleman wants a Mulligan.
"Suffer the Little Children..." -- "Christian" boot camp outrages.
Fetch more...
Friday Blogaround
Here's the LC take on the news and esoterica of the week.
Fetch more...
- A Blog Around The Clock: doing homework today.Here comes March like a lion...
- archy: show us Bobby Jindal's birth certificate.
- Bark Bark Woof Woof: finally an adult addresses Congress.
- Bloggg: Community? Ha.
- Dohiyi Mir: NTodd remembers a friend; remembers Whitman.
- Echidne Of The Snakes: women are different than men.
- Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: inundation.
- Left Is Right: bits and pieces of the week.
- Musing's musings: so resign already.
- Pen-Elayne on the Web loves her job.
- Rook's Rant: new day, same ideological divide.
- rubber hose: residual force.
- Scrutiny Hooligans: tea, no sugar.
- Speedkill: affirmative action.
- Steve Bates, The Yellow Doggerel Democrat: of chimps and watermelons.
- Stupid Enough Unexplanation: representation for D.C.
- The Invisible Library: kindling a fight.
- WTF Is It Now?? show me the salt-marsh mouse.
Fetch more...
Day Off
I have the day off in preparation for a trip to Lakeland. No, I'm not going to see the Tigers in Spring Training -- more's the pity -- but for another car show, Southeastern National Winter Meet of the Antique Automobile Club of America. The trip is for research since our region will be hosting a national meet a year from now and a bunch of us want to see how it's done.
That's why I will be posting late today. The blogaround will be up mid-morning if not sooner, then it's on the road.
Fetch more...
That's why I will be posting late today. The blogaround will be up mid-morning if not sooner, then it's on the road.
Fetch more...
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Rocky Mountain News -- 1859-2009
So long, Rocky.
It was a tabloid; not in the news-sense, but in the way it was printed, like a book. (That's where the word "tabloid" comes from, like a tablet.) That made it easy to read in bed or sitting at the counter in the Gateway Cafe in Lyons.
In the journalistic tradition meaning the end of the story, I'll end this post with...
Fetch more...
The Rocky Mountain News publishes its last paper tomorrow.I read the RMN every day when I lived in Colorado. Although it had a conservative editorial board, it was known for good reporting and avoiding sensationalism. I enjoyed the media coverage of Dusty Saunders and the outlook of the late Gene Amole.
Rich Boehne, chief executive officer of Rocky-owner Scripps, broke the news to the staff at noon today, ending nearly three months of speculation over the paper's future.
"People are in grief," Editor John Temple said at a news conference later.
Boehne told staffers that the Rocky was the victim of a terrible economy and an upheaval in the newspaper industry.
"Denver can't support two newspapers any longer," Boehne told staffers, some of whom cried at the news. "It's certainly not good news for you, and it's certainly not good news for Denver."
On Dec. 4, Boehne announced that Scripps was looking for a buyer for the Rocky and its 50 percent interest in the Denver Newspaper Agency, the company that handles business matters for the papers. The move came because of financial losses in Denver, including $16 million in 2008.
"This moment is nothing like any experience any of us have had," Boehne said. "The industry is in serious, serious trouble."
It was a tabloid; not in the news-sense, but in the way it was printed, like a book. (That's where the word "tabloid" comes from, like a tablet.) That made it easy to read in bed or sitting at the counter in the Gateway Cafe in Lyons.
In the journalistic tradition meaning the end of the story, I'll end this post with...
-30 -
Fetch more...
The Oracle Has Spoken
Despite being universally panned for his cringe-inducing performance, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) has one advocate -- Rush Limbaugh.
Now that's leadership.
Update:South Carolina Mark Sanford wasn't paying attention: "I don't want [Obama] to fail. Anybody who wants him to fail is an idiot, because it means we're all in trouble."
Oh, now he's done it.
Fetch more...
[T]he people on our side are really making a mistake if they go after Bobby Jindal on the basis of style. Because if you think — people on our side I’m talking to you — those of you who think Jindal was horrible, you think — in fact, I don’t ever want to hear from you ever again. … I’ve spoken to him numerous times, he’s brilliant. He’s the real deal.Well, that settles that. The party of Lincoln is now taking orders from a guy sitting in a glass booth and shouting into a microphone. By the end of the day the critics had been silenced. To quote the immortal Bard, "I am Sir Oracle, and when I ope my lips, let no dog bark." (The Merchant of Venice, I,1)
Now that's leadership.
Update:South Carolina Mark Sanford wasn't paying attention: "I don't want [Obama] to fail. Anybody who wants him to fail is an idiot, because it means we're all in trouble."
Oh, now he's done it.
Fetch more...
After-effects
Boatboy has an in-depth examination of some of the consequences of holding people at Gitmo and what they do when they're finally acquitted or released because the U.S. couldn't make the case against them. The problem is that they come out worse than they were than when they went in.
Fetch more...
The US in particular needs to address the problem of reintegrating the detainees acquitted (either by the US or by their home nations) so that they can return to society without waging war on the West. Whether they were terrorists on their capture, the likelihood that they will be afterward is substantially higher thanks to their treatment, and the US must shoulder much responsibility for that and correct that as much as possible. Without such an effort, all the US will have done with those captured will be to have created even more "ticking time bombs."Go read the rest of his post, but what you'll come away with -- at least I did -- is that one of the biggest problems we've created in fighting this Global War on Terror is that all we did was create a new supply of terrorists.
Fetch more...
Mile-High Stupidity
Having spent a number of years in Colorado, I know that it's a state that provides a rich mixture of political and social points of view. You have tofu/granola progressives in Boulder, whacky fundie right-wingers in Colorado Springs, and pragmatic small-town independents out on the Western Slope and the eastern plains. It has had its share of national political figures like Gary Hart on the left and Tom Tancredo on the right. Each side is capable of being embarrassing, but lately it's been the right-wingers that have taken the stage. Notably, two state senators have made pronouncements that make you wonder what they've been slipping into that Rocky Mountain spring water.
And then there's state Sen. Dave Schultheis, a Republican who cast the sole vote against a measure in the legislature to require testing of pregnant women -- with their consent -- for HIV. His explanation? It would lead to promiscuity.
HT to Alex Koppelman.
Fetch more...
It all started with Republican Scott Renfroe of Greeley, who got some attention for comments he made Monday about a bill that extends health benefits to same-sex partners of state employees. It's "an abomination according to Scripture," Renfroe said, according to the Colorado Independent, to "[take] sins and [make] them to be legally OK.”No, but people like him get elected to office, and that's an even bigger abomination.
Renfroe -- apparently a magnanimous kind of guy -- was willing to admit that homosexuality isn't the only sin listed in the Bible. "I’m not saying this is the only sin that is out there. Obviously we have sin -- we have murder, we have, we have all sorts of sin, we have adultery, and we don’t make laws making those legal, and we would never think to make murder legal," he said.
And then there's state Sen. Dave Schultheis, a Republican who cast the sole vote against a measure in the legislature to require testing of pregnant women -- with their consent -- for HIV. His explanation? It would lead to promiscuity.
Sexual promiscuity, we know, causes a lot of problems in our state, one of which, obviously, is the contraction of HIV. And we have other programs that deal with the negative consequences -- we put up part of our high schools where we allow students maybe 13 years old who put their child in a small daycare center there.The one saving grace about this gob-smacking revelation on the part of Mr. Shultheis is that he was the only one to vote against the bill, assuring us -- somewhat -- that he's the only such idiot in elected office in the state who acts out on his breathtaking and misogynistic ignorance.
We do things continually to remove the negative consequences that take place from poor behavior and unacceptable behavior, quite frankly, and I don’t think that’s the role of this body.
As a result of that I finally came to the conclusion I would have to be a no vote on this because this stems from sexual promiscuity for the most part.
HT to Alex Koppelman.
Fetch more...
Obstruct and Delay
William Kristol realizes that Barack Obama is in charge and that the Republicans are in deep trouble.
It's revealing that Mr. Kristol makes his case by using combative terms -- "pick other fights" -- and non-responsive tactics -- "obstruct and delay." This is based in the conservative philosophy that the only way to do anything is to do nothing other than hold your ground and resist anything that you didn't think of. And for all his touting of "compelling" arguments, so far neither Mr. Kristol nor his fellow conservatives have offered counter-proposals that haven't already been tried and shown to be several light years beyond the concept of Epic Fail.
To his credit, he seems to grudgingly grasp that.
Fetch more...
Conservatives can't win politically right now. But they can raise doubts, they can point out other issues that we can't ignore (especially in national security and foreign policy), they can pick other fights -- and they can try in any way possible to break Obama's momentum. Only if this happens will conservatives be able to get a hearing for their (compelling, in my view) arguments against big-government, liberal-nanny-state social engineering -- and for their preferred alternatives.It's like the conservatives haven't had a chance to be in power for the last twelve years or so, and every time they do get in power, there's some evil invisible force out there that makes the Republicans expand the power and the reach of the government and bring about their own version of nanny-state social engineering like faith-based science and dictating to women at home and abroad just what they can do with their bodies. But, he proclaims, just give us one more chance and we can get it right this time. We promise. Really.
It's revealing that Mr. Kristol makes his case by using combative terms -- "pick other fights" -- and non-responsive tactics -- "obstruct and delay." This is based in the conservative philosophy that the only way to do anything is to do nothing other than hold your ground and resist anything that you didn't think of. And for all his touting of "compelling" arguments, so far neither Mr. Kristol nor his fellow conservatives have offered counter-proposals that haven't already been tried and shown to be several light years beyond the concept of Epic Fail.
To his credit, he seems to grudgingly grasp that.
Still, conservatives and Republicans shouldn't minimize their tasks. Long term, they need fresh thinking in a host of areas of domestic policy, thinking that builds on previous conservative achievements but that deals with the new economic and social realities. In the short term, Republicans need to show a tactical agility and political toughness far greater than their predecessors did in the 1960s and the 1930s. "Else they will fall," to quote the great conservative Edmund Burke, "an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle," reduced to the unpleasant role of bystanders or the unattractive status of complainers, as Barack Obama makes history.Welcome to the Reality-Based Community, Bill.
Fetch more...
Under the Volcano
Gov. Bobby Jindal mocked funding for monitoring volcanoes in the stimulus bill.
The GOP may think it's a waste of money, but there are currently 150 volcanoes in the U.S. under observation from Hawaii to Wyoming, including Mt. Redoubt in Alaska (which might be of interest to Gov. Sarah Palin), and about half of those are active. There may not be a lot of volcanoes within striking distance of a lot of major American cities, but it only takes one eruption to make the point that it's worth doing.
But if Gov. Jindal insists on saving money, we could always cut back on funds for monitoring hurricanes, too. Who needs that?
Fetch more...
The governor, a rising Republican star, questioned why "something called 'volcano monitoring' " was included in the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus bill Obama signed earlier this month.That may sound exotic to someone from Louisiana, but tell that to the folks in Portland, Oregon, or Seattle, who live in the shadow of Mount St. Helens, which was in the news in 1980, or Mount Rainier, which is an active volcano. Those little earthquakes they get every so often in Seattle are the things scientists are monitoring.
"Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington," Jindal said.
The GOP may think it's a waste of money, but there are currently 150 volcanoes in the U.S. under observation from Hawaii to Wyoming, including Mt. Redoubt in Alaska (which might be of interest to Gov. Sarah Palin), and about half of those are active. There may not be a lot of volcanoes within striking distance of a lot of major American cities, but it only takes one eruption to make the point that it's worth doing.
But if Gov. Jindal insists on saving money, we could always cut back on funds for monitoring hurricanes, too. Who needs that?
Fetch more...
Short Takes
Budget Beginnings -- The president starts the dance of the dollars.
Banning Primates as Pets -- The House passes the Captive Primate Safety Act.
Out of Work -- massive layoffs hit South Florida.
More trouble for Norm Coleman after a key witness is excluded from testifying.
The Real Kenneth responds to Bobby Jindal.
Winter is over: Spring training baseball games start and the Tigers win their opener.
Fetch more...
Banning Primates as Pets -- The House passes the Captive Primate Safety Act.
Out of Work -- massive layoffs hit South Florida.
More trouble for Norm Coleman after a key witness is excluded from testifying.
The Real Kenneth responds to Bobby Jindal.
Winter is over: Spring training baseball games start and the Tigers win their opener.
Fetch more...
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
It's a Car; It's a Boat...
It's an Amphicar.
1966 Amphicar
Another entry from the Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance last weekend, this unique combination car/boat was sold for five years (1961-1966) and over 3,700 were built. Many of them are still on the road... or on the lake.
Once described as "not a good car and it's not a good boat, but it does just fine," it is more a novelty than a daily driver. Owners are very loyal and they all keep in touch; I remember back in the 1960's seeing a bright red Amphicar in Northport, Michigan, plowing through the waters of Grand Traverse Bay and then tootling down Highway M-22. When I told the owner of the blue one at Boca that story, he nodded and said, "Yeah, that belongs to _________. He's still got it."
For you movie buffs, you might remember that the Amphicar made a cameo appearance in the 1967 James Coburn film The President's Analyst, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Fetch more...
Another entry from the Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance last weekend, this unique combination car/boat was sold for five years (1961-1966) and over 3,700 were built. Many of them are still on the road... or on the lake.
Once described as "not a good car and it's not a good boat, but it does just fine," it is more a novelty than a daily driver. Owners are very loyal and they all keep in touch; I remember back in the 1960's seeing a bright red Amphicar in Northport, Michigan, plowing through the waters of Grand Traverse Bay and then tootling down Highway M-22. When I told the owner of the blue one at Boca that story, he nodded and said, "Yeah, that belongs to _________. He's still got it."
For you movie buffs, you might remember that the Amphicar made a cameo appearance in the 1967 James Coburn film The President's Analyst, one of my favorite movies of all time.
Fetch more...
Quote of the Day
Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight on the GOP response to President Obama:
HT to Andrew Sullivan.
Fetch more...
If it sounds like Jindal is targeting his speech to a room full of fourth graders, that's because he is. They might be the next people to actually vote for Republicans again.Snap.
HT to Andrew Sullivan.
Fetch more...
War Pathology
William Kristol, writing from his new digs at the Washington Post, complains that President Obama didn't talk about the wars he so energetically neo-conned for the last administration.
Fetch more...
This was not the speech of a man who even contemplates the possibility of using force within the next year to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. This was not the speech of a man who thinks America needs to be reminded about the dangers out there in the world, because Americans might have to be summoned to deal with them. This was not the speech of a man who thinks of himself as a war president.Somebody needs to explain to Mr. Kristol that not everyone is as obsessed with his passion for war and destruction. Perhaps that somebody should be his therapist, because anyone with that big a hard-on for death and destruction is in desperate need of one.
But he is.
Fetch more...
Old Whine in a New Bottle
If Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) is the new face of the Republican party, then based on his response to President Obama's speech last night, they have a lot of work to do.
First, it's probably not a good idea for a Republican to hold up the response to Hurricane Katrina as an example of how we can't rely on government to solve our problems. That's like saying, "Hey, if you think the Democrats are going to bury you in red tape and government meddling, they've got nothing on President Bush and Brownie."
Second, while Mr. Jindal is a nice enough gentleman, he came across like a mash-up between Newt Gingrich and Mister Rogers, and not in a good way. (Even the GOP cheerleaders at Fox News thought he blew it.) It was almost creepy to hear him talk down to us with a wheedling tone that recycled the old GOP talking points about taxing and spending, and it was as if he had not watched a moment of the speech that immediately preceded him. Mr. Jindal may be a good speaker and full of new ideas about how the Republicans can restore the nation's trust in their ideas, but handing him boilerplate texts from 1993 and pallid snark that are aimed only at feeding the fundraisers doesn't herald the dawn of new era for them. It's the same old whining and sniping without solutions -- tell me how lower taxes and traditional families are going to get homeowners back on their feet or fix the crumbling ceilings in high schools in Liberty City -- and it's those reasons why the Republicans got their heads handed to them in two consecutive elections.
Just a reminder: the last time the Republicans trotted out a fresh new face to revitalize the party and bring in new ideas, it was 1999 and it was George W. Bush.
Fetch more...
First, it's probably not a good idea for a Republican to hold up the response to Hurricane Katrina as an example of how we can't rely on government to solve our problems. That's like saying, "Hey, if you think the Democrats are going to bury you in red tape and government meddling, they've got nothing on President Bush and Brownie."
Second, while Mr. Jindal is a nice enough gentleman, he came across like a mash-up between Newt Gingrich and Mister Rogers, and not in a good way. (Even the GOP cheerleaders at Fox News thought he blew it.) It was almost creepy to hear him talk down to us with a wheedling tone that recycled the old GOP talking points about taxing and spending, and it was as if he had not watched a moment of the speech that immediately preceded him. Mr. Jindal may be a good speaker and full of new ideas about how the Republicans can restore the nation's trust in their ideas, but handing him boilerplate texts from 1993 and pallid snark that are aimed only at feeding the fundraisers doesn't herald the dawn of new era for them. It's the same old whining and sniping without solutions -- tell me how lower taxes and traditional families are going to get homeowners back on their feet or fix the crumbling ceilings in high schools in Liberty City -- and it's those reasons why the Republicans got their heads handed to them in two consecutive elections.
Just a reminder: the last time the Republicans trotted out a fresh new face to revitalize the party and bring in new ideas, it was 1999 and it was George W. Bush.
Fetch more...
Like We're Grownups
President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress -- basically a State of the Union speech that wasn't billed as such -- did everything his Inauguration speech did not: lay out a more specific agenda for economic recovery, and go beyond the ceremonial in terms of making it clear how he plans to govern now that he's had a chance to actually sit in the Oval Office and see what is really going on.
After the last eight years of being talked to by a president who seemed to think we were either idiots or children incapable of dealing with the challenges, it was refreshing to be told that we're in deep trouble and it's going to take a lot of work to get out of it, yet with the confidence that we are up to the task. If the skeptics and the Republicans were expecting the president to say that the government is the only solution to our problems and that he could make it all go away with tons of money and bureaucracy, they must have been disappointed: there goes their prime opposition talking points. The president made it clear that the government -- federal, state, and local -- has a major role as the starting point, but the rest of it is up to us, and he expects results that are above and beyond the reach of what a grant application and a check can do. And he made it clear that anyone who sits back and expects someone else to do the work for them is in for a rude shock; there's too much to do.
For those who have been knocking the president for not being hopeful enough in his campaigning for the stimulus bill and the rest of his agenda, I think this speech put an end to that. For those who said he had a tough balancing act between happy-talk and gloom-and-doom in laying out what's gone on and what has to be done, he made it across the wire with confidence and grace.
Some pundits compared Mr. Obama's delivery to that of Ronald Reagan with its upbeat tone and celebrities in the gallery, but where Mr. Reagan handed out nostalgic nostrums and relied on his charm to get things done without bothering with the policy details, Mr. Obama was more specific than Mr. Reagan and didn't hold back in telling us that the only way things are going to get better is if we all pitch in. Whereas Mr. Reagan relied on a belief in the passive and inherent goodness of America -- something the Republicans talk about but don't really trust -- Mr. Obama made it clear that we have a lot of work to do and that he had every confidence that we can do it. That wasn't Ronald Reagan; that was Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Those are big footsteps to follow, but this president gave every indication that he -- and we -- are up to the task.
Fetch more...
After the last eight years of being talked to by a president who seemed to think we were either idiots or children incapable of dealing with the challenges, it was refreshing to be told that we're in deep trouble and it's going to take a lot of work to get out of it, yet with the confidence that we are up to the task. If the skeptics and the Republicans were expecting the president to say that the government is the only solution to our problems and that he could make it all go away with tons of money and bureaucracy, they must have been disappointed: there goes their prime opposition talking points. The president made it clear that the government -- federal, state, and local -- has a major role as the starting point, but the rest of it is up to us, and he expects results that are above and beyond the reach of what a grant application and a check can do. And he made it clear that anyone who sits back and expects someone else to do the work for them is in for a rude shock; there's too much to do.
For those who have been knocking the president for not being hopeful enough in his campaigning for the stimulus bill and the rest of his agenda, I think this speech put an end to that. For those who said he had a tough balancing act between happy-talk and gloom-and-doom in laying out what's gone on and what has to be done, he made it across the wire with confidence and grace.
Some pundits compared Mr. Obama's delivery to that of Ronald Reagan with its upbeat tone and celebrities in the gallery, but where Mr. Reagan handed out nostalgic nostrums and relied on his charm to get things done without bothering with the policy details, Mr. Obama was more specific than Mr. Reagan and didn't hold back in telling us that the only way things are going to get better is if we all pitch in. Whereas Mr. Reagan relied on a belief in the passive and inherent goodness of America -- something the Republicans talk about but don't really trust -- Mr. Obama made it clear that we have a lot of work to do and that he had every confidence that we can do it. That wasn't Ronald Reagan; that was Franklin Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy. Those are big footsteps to follow, but this president gave every indication that he -- and we -- are up to the task.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
The Speech -- TPM has a variety of reactions to President Obama's speech last night.
Shifting Sands -- Obama may change the exit timeline from Iraq.
Giveaway -- A profile of Leonard Abess, Jr., the millionaire who gave away $60 million and received a standing ovation from Congress last night.
Plaque of Apology -- The Dade County Bar Association apologized for past racism, unveiling a plaque above two formerly segregated courthouse water fountains.
One paragraph in the huge spending bill being debated in Congress could lift part of the embargo against Cuba.
Fetch more...
Shifting Sands -- Obama may change the exit timeline from Iraq.
Giveaway -- A profile of Leonard Abess, Jr., the millionaire who gave away $60 million and received a standing ovation from Congress last night.
Plaque of Apology -- The Dade County Bar Association apologized for past racism, unveiling a plaque above two formerly segregated courthouse water fountains.
One paragraph in the huge spending bill being debated in Congress could lift part of the embargo against Cuba.
Fetch more...
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
That's Better
Rupert Murdoch has personally apologized for the dead-chimp New York Post cartoon.
I don't often find much to praise Rupert Murdoch for, but in this case, I give him unqualified kudos for being the grown-up in the room.
And I suspect that cartoonist Sean Delonas will soon be looking for work.
Fetch more...
As the Chairman of the New York Post, I am ultimately responsible for what is printed in its pages. The buck stops with me.That's better than this sneering attempt last week by the editors. Mr. Murdoch does not qualify it with "if's," and he takes responsibility for it.
Last week, we made a mistake. We ran a cartoon that offended many people. Today I want to personally apologize to any reader who felt offended, and even insulted.
Over the past couple of days, I have spoken to a number of people and I now better understand the hurt this cartoon has caused. At the same time, I have had conversations with Post editors about the situation and I can assure you - without a doubt - that the only intent of that cartoon was to mock a badly written piece of legislation. It was not meant to be racist, but unfortunately, it was interpreted by many as such.
We all hold the readers of the New York Post in high regard and I promise you that we will seek to be more attuned to the sensitivities of our community.
I don't often find much to praise Rupert Murdoch for, but in this case, I give him unqualified kudos for being the grown-up in the room.
And I suspect that cartoonist Sean Delonas will soon be looking for work.
Fetch more...
Question of the Day
Please, Mr. Postman...
My answer below the fold.
Other than the obligatory Thank-You notes from Christmas, I think it was in November to an old friend from Michigan... because I didn't have his e-mail address. (Never heard back from him.)
Fetch more...
When was the last time you wrote a letter?I don't mean a form letter to a Congress or a business letter at the office; I mean a real letter to a friend or relative using stationery, a postage stamp, and you put it in the mailbox.
My answer below the fold.
Other than the obligatory Thank-You notes from Christmas, I think it was in November to an old friend from Michigan... because I didn't have his e-mail address. (Never heard back from him.)
Fetch more...
Big Woodie
I spent last Sunday at the third annual Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance where I served as one of the judges of some really fine classic automobiles; everything from Dusenbergs to Ferraris. One of the vehicles stood head and shoulders -- literally -- above the rest.
1954 International Harvester 4x4 Station Wagon
This is one of only three built for the US Army Corps of Engineers to supply the construction of Minuteman missile sites out west during the Cold War.
For all its size and weight, it has a small engine: a 240 CID, 107 horsepower 6-cylinder. And it's built for hauling, not speed.
To give you an idea of how tall it is, look at this picture of the interior:
I took this standing up, and I'm 6-feet tall, so the camera level is roughly at 5'8" above the ground. You need a stepladder just to get in.
I have no idea what the gas mileage is like on it, but in 1954 when they were paying $0.30 a gallon and battling the Red Menace, it didn't matter.
Fetch more...
This is one of only three built for the US Army Corps of Engineers to supply the construction of Minuteman missile sites out west during the Cold War.
For all its size and weight, it has a small engine: a 240 CID, 107 horsepower 6-cylinder. And it's built for hauling, not speed.
To give you an idea of how tall it is, look at this picture of the interior:
I took this standing up, and I'm 6-feet tall, so the camera level is roughly at 5'8" above the ground. You need a stepladder just to get in.I have no idea what the gas mileage is like on it, but in 1954 when they were paying $0.30 a gallon and battling the Red Menace, it didn't matter.
Fetch more...
Survival of the Twittest
I guess I'm just hopelessly behind, but I don't get the Twitter phenomenon. But I see I'm not alone.
That tells me everything I need to know.
HT to John Cole.
Fetch more...
When you talk about Twitter, you might as well be talking about the Snuggie: People around you swear that it’s actually useful, but you can’t help thinking it silly and declaring, “I just don’t get what all the buzz is about.”The #1 most influential twitterer in DC? Karl Rove.
But in Washington, the social networking and microblogging service is quickly becoming part of the daily media diet — and a powerful tool in the hands of those who are adept at making their points in 140 characters or fewer.
Here are the new maestros of the tweet — Washington’s 10 Most Influential Twitterers.
That tells me everything I need to know.
HT to John Cole.
Fetch more...
Inching Closer
Minnesota may be getting close to actually having a second senator.
But then, we're talking about a Minnesota Republican, and they as a group don't have a reputation for being reasonable (see Bachmann, Michele).
Fetch more...
The Minnesota election court handed down two rulings tonight, one of which should be regarded as an unambiguous defeat for Norm Coleman -- and the other should probably leave Al Franken cautiously optimistic.In some small way, you have to feel a little sorry for Mr. Coleman; he's tried everything to make the case that he won the election, but he has yet to make any significant headway against the 200+ votes he's behind, and the courts have handed him a series of rulings that to any reasonable person would tell them to accept the fact that they lost.
First, the court completely denied Coleman's motion to launch a class-action suit on behalf of all 11,000-plus voters whose absentee ballots have still not been counted. The court found that the state's election laws make clear that individuals may apply to have their ballots counted, but that groups cannot be created and represented for this purpose.
The court also handed down a summary judgment on Franken's efforts to get some of his own votes counted, and they've given him a go-ahead on 12 individuals to be accepted and counted at a later time. And to give you an idea of how strict a standard they're using here, there are 38 others on Franken's list they're refusing to count at this time.
That kind of stringency isn't very good news for Coleman, as he's trying to get a lot of his own votes in that the court hasn't ruled on yet. And considering he's the one who's actually behind right now, this question has a lot more urgency for him.
In a very interesting turn, the court denied Franken's motion to dismiss Coleman's challenge of the state canvassing board's decision to count the Election Night totals in a Minneapolis precinct that lost an envelope full of ballots, a move that saved Al from a net loss of 46 votes. On the other hand, the court appeared to drop some hints about where they could be going.
But then, we're talking about a Minnesota Republican, and they as a group don't have a reputation for being reasonable (see Bachmann, Michele).
Fetch more...
Charlie and the Stimulus Bucks
Gov. Charlie Crist (R-FL) is getting in trouble with his own party for gladly accepting the inflow of cash from the stimulus package.
He does have a point, though; at some point there will be no more stimulus money. But that is how it's supposed to work: this money gets the economy back on track (hence the word "stimulus," as in "stimulate"); then it's up to the states and localities to come up with plans to keep it going.
The irony is blazingly apparent; the Republicans are all for local government control until it comes time to actually do the heavy lifting. Let's see what plans Mr. Bennett and the rest of the geniuses in Tallahassee can come up with to do their part to fix the economy that they help screw up in the first place.
By the way, five bucks says that Charlie Crist gets a primary challenge for re-election next year from some right-winger who claims that the governor isn't a "real" Republican because he had the nerve to welcome President Obama to Fort Myers and support the idea of putting people to work.
Fetch more...
''We're grateful for it,'' Crist said Monday in Washington after joining other governors at a White House meeting with President Barack Obama. ''We want to spend those dollars wisely.''Actually, the only cost Mr. Bennett is really worried about is how much it will cost the Republicans in political capital for going against a program that will pump new jobs into the economy. Trust me, if a Republican president had somehow come up with this plan, Mr. Bennett would be on it like nobody's business.
But back home, some Republicans doubt the stimulus package will work. State Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton, said the state might feel a temporary boost, but it is risky to prop up the budget with one-time money that will soon run dry.
''These Obama bucks might be worse than Monopoly money because Monopoly money is real, and the Obama bucks cost you in the end,'' Bennett said.
He does have a point, though; at some point there will be no more stimulus money. But that is how it's supposed to work: this money gets the economy back on track (hence the word "stimulus," as in "stimulate"); then it's up to the states and localities to come up with plans to keep it going.
The irony is blazingly apparent; the Republicans are all for local government control until it comes time to actually do the heavy lifting. Let's see what plans Mr. Bennett and the rest of the geniuses in Tallahassee can come up with to do their part to fix the economy that they help screw up in the first place.
By the way, five bucks says that Charlie Crist gets a primary challenge for re-election next year from some right-winger who claims that the governor isn't a "real" Republican because he had the nerve to welcome President Obama to Fort Myers and support the idea of putting people to work.
Fetch more...
Despicable
Following up on yesterday's gob-smacking bit of right-wing nutsery in which Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) speculated on the prognosis of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg after her cancer surgery (I guess in between being a middling pitcher in the majors he went to med school), he made a half-assed attempt at an apology.
Apparently this latest bit of ass-hattery is too much even for his own party; the Kentucky GOP is beginning to look for someone else to run for the seat.
Fetch more...
"I apologize if my comments offended Justice Ginsberg," Bunning said. "That certainly was not my intent. It is great to see her back at the Supreme Court today and I hope she recovers quickly. My thoughts and prayers are with her and her family.""If" his comments offended? How could they not?
Apparently this latest bit of ass-hattery is too much even for his own party; the Kentucky GOP is beginning to look for someone else to run for the seat.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
Third Time's the Charm -- It looks like former Gov. Gary Locke of Washington is the choice for Commerce.
No Show -- Karl Rove stiffed Congress again.
We'll Take It -- If Gov. Jindal doesn't want stimulus money, other states are willing to take it off his hands.
Once You're There... The White House sides with the Bush administration on e-mails.
We Like Him -- Obama's popularity is broad and strong.
Island banking isn't what it used to be after the Stanford scandal.
Fetch more...
No Show -- Karl Rove stiffed Congress again.
We'll Take It -- If Gov. Jindal doesn't want stimulus money, other states are willing to take it off his hands.
Once You're There... The White House sides with the Bush administration on e-mails.
We Like Him -- Obama's popularity is broad and strong.
Island banking isn't what it used to be after the Stanford scandal.
Fetch more...
Monday, February 23, 2009
Question of the Day
May I have the envelope please...
#3. As I noted before, this was the first year in my life that I didn't go to a movie at all. Shame on me; I'll wait until they're out on cable. It's cheaper and the popcorn is better at my house.
Fetch more...
The Oscars: Did you --My answer below the fold.
1. Watch and keep score,
2. Jump to the Cold Case rerun on CBS during commercials,
3. Nod off while doing the New York Times crossword puzzle until the Best Original Screenplay was announced then went to bed,
4. Didn't watch, didn't care?
#3. As I noted before, this was the first year in my life that I didn't go to a movie at all. Shame on me; I'll wait until they're out on cable. It's cheaper and the popcorn is better at my house.
Fetch more...
Lugar Wants to End Cuban Embargo
Chalk up another effigy to burn on Calle Ocho:
Fetch more...
The U.S. policy of shunning communist Cuba by imposing a strict trade embargo has failed to prod the island nation toward democracy and should be re-evaluated, according to the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.Those Republicans from states that could sell a lot of agricultural products to Cuba are really just commie-pinkos at heart. Or so they'll tell you in some circles here in Miami.
"We must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests," wrote Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., in a report dated Monday.
The report lends new weight to a bipartisan view in Congress that Raul Castro's rise to power has opened a window for U.S.-Cuban relations.
President Barack Obama has promised a fresh look at the U.S. policy. He says he would be open to meeting with Castro, who took over as Cuba's president for his ailing brother, Fidel. Obama also supports easing limitations on the number of visits and the amount of money sent to Cuba by family members in the U.S.
Fetch more...
Nothing Less
An op-ed in the New York Times written by David Blankenhorn and Jonathan Rauch advocates a reconciliation of sorts between people in favor of same-sex marriage and those against it.
So I have a better idea. How about we give every citizen in the country equal protection under the law, and not grant religious organizations the privilege of being able to dictate the laws of the land according to their precepts? Oh, wait; we already have those. They're called, respectively, the Fourteenth and First Amendments to the Constitution. See how easy that was?
Seriously, while I appreciate the attempt at arriving at a reconciliation, in order for it to work you have to have both parties working from reasonable positions. The people in favor of same-sex marriage have the concept of equal rights on their side, while the opponents have little more than religious fundamentalism on theirs. That makes it difficult to arrive at a middle ground: it's tough to argue with people who cite the scriptures of mythology as their source authority. And if you strip off the mask of religious dogma, you often find that you are dealing with the mindset of people who just don't like gays and lesbians for reasons ranging from a fear of the unknown, an obsession with the sex lives of strangers, or an unhealthy oppression of their own natural instincts that have been forced by society or religion to conform to some expectation of what someone else has told them what "normal" and "traditional" is. That is not a foundation on which to write laws that have an impact on an entire community.
The authors make the case for religious conscience clauses that would allow churches to opt out of performing same-sex weddings or providing benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. They cite the case of Catholic hospitals being allowed to not perform abortions without legal entanglements. To compare abortion to same-sex marriage is a stretch at best and a straw man at worst. An abortion is an urgent medical procedure that should be done under strict medical supervision and as a last resort. Two people making a commitment to each other to share legal rights and responsibilities isn't the same thing, and to offer them as equally taxing on the religious conscience is superficial and insulting to those in favor of reproductive choice and those who oppose it. Besides, no one is advocating that churches, synagogues, or temples be forced to perform ceremonies that go against their religious tenets. There are quite a few denominations that welcome and perform same-sex marriages, and chances are the happy couples that want a church wedding know or even belong to one of those congregations.
State and federal governments have the obligation to provide for equal rights for all the citizens of the state. They also have the authority to dictate the terms of a contract by limiting the number of people who may enter into certain contracts -- thus outlawing polygamy -- and by setting age limits of the people who may sign the contract -- thus preventing underage marriage -- or by requiring that both parties who enter into the contract be capable of understanding the terms and conditions of the contract and be able to affix their signature to it -- thus putting an end to the fears that people could end up marrying a barnyard creature. But the government has no business dictating the terms of a contract based on the innate qualities of the parties -- race, color, creed, national origin, sex, or sexual orientation. Nor should they allow the terms of a contract be dictated by religious or social custom solely because it might offend some people who otherwise have no standing in the matter. In other words, if it's not your name on the dotted line, keep your nose out of someone else's life.
Mr. Blankenhorn and Mr. Rauch are nobly offering a short-term solution while the nation comes to terms with the idea of same-sex marriage. The problem, however, with stop-gap measures is that they often become permanent and never resolve the question to its fair and logical conclusion. The truth is that despite setbacks in Florida and California and repeated attempts by the Religious Right to demonize, marginalize, and terrorize the LBGT community, equality for all citizens is only a matter of time. There will always be those who fight against it, but that makes it all the more worth it.
Fetch more...
IN politics, as in marriage, moments come along when sensitive compromise can avert a major conflict down the road. The two of us believe that the issue of same-sex marriage has reached such a point now.With all due respect to both Mr. Blankenhorn and Mr. Rauch, this idea has "separate but equal" written all over it, and I think we have a pretty good idea in this country how well that theory of social engineering has worked in the past.
We take very different positions on gay marriage. We have had heated debates on the subject. Nonetheless, we agree that the time is ripe for a deal that could give each side what it most needs in the short run, while moving the debate onto a healthier, calmer track in the years ahead.
It would work like this: Congress would bestow the status of federal civil unions on same-sex marriages and civil unions granted at the state level, thereby conferring upon them most or all of the federal benefits and rights of marriage. But there would be a condition: Washington would recognize only those unions licensed in states with robust religious-conscience exceptions, which provide that religious organizations need not recognize same-sex unions against their will. The federal government would also enact religious-conscience protections of its own. All of these changes would be enacted in the same bill.
[...]
Yes, most gays are opposed to the idea that religious organizations could openly treat same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples differently, without fear of being penalized by the government. But we believe that gays can live with such exemptions without much difficulty. Why? Because most state laws that protect gays from discrimination already include some religious exemptions, and those provisions are for the most part uncontroversial, even among gays.
And while most Americans who favor keeping marriage as it has customarily been would prefer no legal recognition of same-sex unions at either the federal or the state level, we believe that they can live with federal civil unions — provided that no religious groups are forced to accept them as marriages. Many of these people may come to see civil unions as a compassionate compromise. For example, a PBS poll last fall found that 58 percent of white evangelicals under age 30 favor some form of legal same-sex union.
[...]
In all sharp moral disagreements, maximalism is the constant temptation. People dig in, positions harden and we tend to convince ourselves that our opponents are not only wrong-headed but also malicious and acting in bad faith. In such conflicts, it can seem not only difficult, but also wrong, to compromise on a core belief.
So I have a better idea. How about we give every citizen in the country equal protection under the law, and not grant religious organizations the privilege of being able to dictate the laws of the land according to their precepts? Oh, wait; we already have those. They're called, respectively, the Fourteenth and First Amendments to the Constitution. See how easy that was?
Seriously, while I appreciate the attempt at arriving at a reconciliation, in order for it to work you have to have both parties working from reasonable positions. The people in favor of same-sex marriage have the concept of equal rights on their side, while the opponents have little more than religious fundamentalism on theirs. That makes it difficult to arrive at a middle ground: it's tough to argue with people who cite the scriptures of mythology as their source authority. And if you strip off the mask of religious dogma, you often find that you are dealing with the mindset of people who just don't like gays and lesbians for reasons ranging from a fear of the unknown, an obsession with the sex lives of strangers, or an unhealthy oppression of their own natural instincts that have been forced by society or religion to conform to some expectation of what someone else has told them what "normal" and "traditional" is. That is not a foundation on which to write laws that have an impact on an entire community.
The authors make the case for religious conscience clauses that would allow churches to opt out of performing same-sex weddings or providing benefits to the same-sex partners of employees. They cite the case of Catholic hospitals being allowed to not perform abortions without legal entanglements. To compare abortion to same-sex marriage is a stretch at best and a straw man at worst. An abortion is an urgent medical procedure that should be done under strict medical supervision and as a last resort. Two people making a commitment to each other to share legal rights and responsibilities isn't the same thing, and to offer them as equally taxing on the religious conscience is superficial and insulting to those in favor of reproductive choice and those who oppose it. Besides, no one is advocating that churches, synagogues, or temples be forced to perform ceremonies that go against their religious tenets. There are quite a few denominations that welcome and perform same-sex marriages, and chances are the happy couples that want a church wedding know or even belong to one of those congregations.
State and federal governments have the obligation to provide for equal rights for all the citizens of the state. They also have the authority to dictate the terms of a contract by limiting the number of people who may enter into certain contracts -- thus outlawing polygamy -- and by setting age limits of the people who may sign the contract -- thus preventing underage marriage -- or by requiring that both parties who enter into the contract be capable of understanding the terms and conditions of the contract and be able to affix their signature to it -- thus putting an end to the fears that people could end up marrying a barnyard creature. But the government has no business dictating the terms of a contract based on the innate qualities of the parties -- race, color, creed, national origin, sex, or sexual orientation. Nor should they allow the terms of a contract be dictated by religious or social custom solely because it might offend some people who otherwise have no standing in the matter. In other words, if it's not your name on the dotted line, keep your nose out of someone else's life.
Mr. Blankenhorn and Mr. Rauch are nobly offering a short-term solution while the nation comes to terms with the idea of same-sex marriage. The problem, however, with stop-gap measures is that they often become permanent and never resolve the question to its fair and logical conclusion. The truth is that despite setbacks in Florida and California and repeated attempts by the Religious Right to demonize, marginalize, and terrorize the LBGT community, equality for all citizens is only a matter of time. There will always be those who fight against it, but that makes it all the more worth it.
In the case of gay marriage, a scorched-earth debate, pitting what some regard as nonnegotiable religious freedom against what others regard as a nonnegotiable human right, would do great harm to our civil society. When a reasonable accommodation on a tough issue seems possible, both sides should have the courage to explore it.All anyone is asking for is equality. We expect nothing more, and we will accept nothing less. That seems pretty reasonable to me.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
When Republicans Eat Their Own -- it's fun to watch. Does anyone want to place odds on a cage match between Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bobby Jindal?
The Soul of Tact -- Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) predicts the future for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Tinfoil Hat Brigade Update -- Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) compounds his already-vast reputation for stupidity by signing on to the Obama birth certificate crap-fest.
Don't Call It That -- The way to really fix education in America is to re-name the law?
And the Oscar went to...
Fetch more...
The Soul of Tact -- Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) predicts the future for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
Tinfoil Hat Brigade Update -- Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) compounds his already-vast reputation for stupidity by signing on to the Obama birth certificate crap-fest.
Don't Call It That -- The way to really fix education in America is to re-name the law?
And the Oscar went to...
Fetch more...
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday Reading
More Than a Moment -- Leonard Pitts, Jr, writes that it will take more than just one event, such as the election of the first African-American president, to move us beyond our struggle with racism.
Fetch more...
The Gatekeeper -- Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker profiles White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.On the day after the day we never thought we'd live to see, in the first dawn of what some regarded as post-racial America, historian Lerone Bennett Jr. awoke and turned on the television. There, he says, he saw ``this great and beautiful sister, one of the great products of our tradition who has lived through all these disappointments and she saw triumph and she was crying and she was saying, 'America has changed. We won, we won.'
''I cried in that moment for the sister and with the sister, because I looked out my window and I looked to the east and I saw huge condominiums marching down the lakefront, far as I could see. White people are the primary occupants of those condominiums. I looked to the west and I could see evidence of the terrible housing, the terrible facilities prepared for black people in this country in 2008 and 2009. And I looked downtown and I saw these great cathedrals and skyscrapers. All that money, as far as I could see on the day after the election, controlled by white people.''
You may, if you wish, call this a reality check. You know how, when there's a close play at the plate, the sportscasters will go to the instant replay to dissect what really happened? That's what this is.
In commemoration of Black History Month, I have engaged a group of African-American historians to tell us all, even as time closes over it like waters, what happened that night in November 2008 in Chicago's Grant Park.
We know what we saw, of course. We saw the photogenic African-American family come to the stage, waving to the many vibrant colors of us, saw Oprah Winfrey leaning on a stranger, her makeup running, saw memories of Selma and Birmingham glisten in Jesse Jackson's eyes, saw TV talking heads coughing into fists, voices snagging on the rough shoals of sudden feeling.
What is less obvious than what we saw is what it meant. All those people crying and sighing and saying over and over again, ''I never thought I would live to see this day.'' All those learned people jousting over whether we had now entered a new, ''post-racial America.''
Occasionally, one is privileged to live through a moment when history doesn't just open wide like a door on a hinge, but you know it for what it is even then, even as it it is happening, so you can fix the details in your mind, rehearse the stories you will tell your grandchildren someday. The night Barack Obama was elected president was one of those moments.
But what did that tell us about who we are, what we are, where we are on the road to racial reconciliation? What, indeed, will we tell the grandchildren about that moment we saw?
Not Gone Yet -- There's still some fight left in Ted Kennedy.Rahm Emanuel’s office, which is no more than a three-second walk from the Oval Office, is as neat as a Marine barracks. On his desk, the files and documents, including leatherbound folders from the National Security Council, are precisely arranged, each one parallel with the desk’s edge. During a visit hours before Congress passed President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, on Friday, February 13th, I absently jostled one of Emanuel’s heavy wooden letter trays a few degrees off kilter. He glared at me disapprovingly. Next to his computer monitor is a smaller screen that looks like a handheld G.P.S. device and tells Emanuel where the President and senior White House officials are at all times. Over all, the office suggests the workspace of someone who, in a more psychologized realm than the West Wing of the White House and with a less exacting job than that of the President’s chief of staff, might be cited for “control issues.”
Because the atmosphere of crisis is now so thick at the White House, any moment of triumph has a fleeting half-life, but the impending passage of the seven-hundred-and-eighty-seven-billion-dollar stimulus bill provided, at least for an afternoon, a sense of satisfaction. As Emanuel spoke about the complications of the legislation, he was quick to credit colleagues for shepherding the bill to victory—Peter Orszag, the budget director; Phil Schiliro, the legislative-affairs director; Jason Furman, the deputy director of the National Economic Council––but, in fact, nearly everyone in official Washington acknowledges that, besides Obama himself, Emanuel had done the most to coax and bully the bill out of Congress and onto the President’s desk for signing.
Frank Rich -- What we don't know will hurt us.Since the diagnosis of his brain cancer last May, Mr. Kennedy has been given all manner of tributes and testimonials, lifetime achievement awards, medals of honor and standing ovations. But even as those accolades have provided sweet solace — and even some dark humor — as he endures grueling treatments, Mr. Kennedy, who turns 77 on Sunday, has been intent on racing time rather than looking back on it.
He considers unnecessary what his son Representative Patrick J. Kennedy of Rhode Island calls “the premature eulogizing,” or what Mr. Biden terms “a bordering on an obituary,” that has accompanied his life in recent months.
“Obviously I’ve been touched and grateful,” Mr. Kennedy said in a phone interview Friday from the rented home in Miami where he has spent most of the winter. “Beyond that, I don’t really plan to go away soon.”
Friends who have seen Mr. Kennedy describe him as driven and focused on work. He sometimes gets angry watching C-Span, pores over memorandums and speed-dials staff members and colleagues (sometimes from his sailboat, the Mya). He speaks frequently — and often on his trademark issue, overhauling the nation’s health care system — to President Obama; Mr. Biden; the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel; and checks up on the Senate “chatter” with lawmakers.
Between chemotherapy treatments, physical therapy sessions and naps, Mr. Kennedy has been lobbying the White House on possible nominees for secretary of health and human services. (He has heard good things about the leading candidate, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, though he does not know her well and has been pressing for other candidates.)
While his office said he planned to return to Washington in a few weeks, Mr. Kennedy has been orchestrating efforts from afar, setting the foundation for legislation on what he calls “the cause of my life.”
“What has been essential to his recovery and motivation has been setting goals,” said Dr. Lawrence C. Horowitz, a former Kennedy staff member who has been overseeing his care. The first goal the senator set after cancer surgery in June was to speak at the Democratic National Convention (he did, despite kidney stones); then he resolved to attend Mr. Obama’s inauguration (he did, though he had a seizure afterward).
“Now, his goal is to play a central role in health care reform,” Dr. Horowitz said. “That’s what keeps him going.”
Doonesbury -- Shovel-ready.AND so on the 29th day of his presidency, Barack Obama signed the stimulus bill. But the earth did not move. The Dow Jones fell almost 300 points. G.M. and Chrysler together asked taxpayers for another $21.6 billion and announced another 50,000 layoffs. The latest alleged mini-Madoff, R. Allen Stanford, was accused of an $8 billion fraud with 50,000 victims.
“I don’t want to pretend that today marks the end of our economic problems,” the president said on Tuesday at the signing ceremony in Denver. He added, hopefully: “But today does mark the beginning of the end.”
Does it?
No one knows, of course, but a bigger question may be whether we really want to know. One of the most persistent cultural tics of the early 21st century is Americans’ reluctance to absorb, let alone prepare for, bad news. We are plugged into more information sources than anyone could have imagined even 15 years ago. The cruel ambush of 9/11 supposedly “changed everything,” slapping us back to reality. Yet we are constantly shocked, shocked by the foreseeable. Obama’s toughest political problem may not be coping with the increasingly marginalized G.O.P. but with an America-in-denial that must hear warning signs repeatedly, for months and sometimes years, before believing the wolf is actually at the door.
Fetch more...
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Downtown Miami Classic Cars
Today was our eighth annual Downtown Miami Classic Car Show, held in conjunction with the Bike Miami Festival and Flagler Fest. Our club brought in about 45 classics, including some I'd never seen before as well as some old friends. Click the pics to embiggen.
1978 Pontiac Trans Am - as in "Smokey and the Bandit."
1977 MG Midget - talk about a compact car...
1968 Chevrolet Camaro
More below the fold.
1965 Mustang GT
1934 Plymouth
1966 Ford Thunderbird
1955 Ford Fire Truck - the City of Miami's contribution.
Some classic Harley-Davidson motorcycles, courtesy of Peterson's Harley-Davidson.
1930 Ford "Woodie" - the original station wagon...
...as compared to my 1988 Pontiac 6000 LE Safari.
All in all it was a great show with lots of people and perfect weather. Tomorrow there's the Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance, where I will be judging, and then there's our annual show on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables on March 15.
Fetch more...
More below the fold.
All in all it was a great show with lots of people and perfect weather. Tomorrow there's the Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance, where I will be judging, and then there's our annual show on Miracle Mile in Coral Gables on March 15.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
As pressure mounts on Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) to resign, his acting chief of staff gets the hint.
Spend it wisely is the message the president has for mayors and the stimulus money.
Richard Perle is not a neo-con, and other myths.
Gov. Bobby Jindal's political ambitions are more important than 25,000 unemployed people in Louisiana.
Graffiti can be dangerous.
R.I.P. -- Socks, the Clinton's White House cat, dies.
Oscar winners... or hoax...? We'll find out Sunday night.
In honor of the Downtown Miami Classic Car Show, part of the Bike Miami Days, today on Flagler Street...
Fetch more...
Spend it wisely is the message the president has for mayors and the stimulus money.
Richard Perle is not a neo-con, and other myths.
Gov. Bobby Jindal's political ambitions are more important than 25,000 unemployed people in Louisiana.
Graffiti can be dangerous.
R.I.P. -- Socks, the Clinton's White House cat, dies.
Oscar winners... or hoax...? We'll find out Sunday night.
In honor of the Downtown Miami Classic Car Show, part of the Bike Miami Days, today on Flagler Street...
Fetch more...
Friday, February 20, 2009
Question of the Day
Shamelessly stolen from Shakesville.
I have a bunch. In the back window of my station wagon, from left to right: Interlochen Public Radio from my years in Michigan; MaxMuscle.com because I used to buy my clothes there and got a discount for showing the sticker; American Station Wagon Owner's Association; and Antique Automobile Club of America.
On the tailgate I have a CDN decal (for Canada) since the car was built at the GM Canada plant in Oshawa, Ontario, and surrounding the license plate is a Bark Bark Woof Woof license plate frame from Cafe Press.
I have a Regis College (Denver) parking sticker in one of the back side windows from my one year of teaching there in 1988, and on the corner of the windshield I have a parking sticker from the apartment complex where I lived when I first moved back to Miami.
Fetch more...
If you own a vehicle, do you have any stickers or decorations on it?My answer is below the fold.
I have a bunch. In the back window of my station wagon, from left to right: Interlochen Public Radio from my years in Michigan; MaxMuscle.com because I used to buy my clothes there and got a discount for showing the sticker; American Station Wagon Owner's Association; and Antique Automobile Club of America.
On the tailgate I have a CDN decal (for Canada) since the car was built at the GM Canada plant in Oshawa, Ontario, and surrounding the license plate is a Bark Bark Woof Woof license plate frame from Cafe Press.
I have a Regis College (Denver) parking sticker in one of the back side windows from my one year of teaching there in 1988, and on the corner of the windshield I have a parking sticker from the apartment complex where I lived when I first moved back to Miami.
Fetch more...
Map the Hypocrites
TPM has some interactive fun.
Here's a couple of examples, including Florida's own Rep. John Mica.
Fetch more...
It's one thing to accept money from a piece of legislation you campaigned strenuously against. But we're seeing more and more stories about Republicans who just got done trashing the stimulus bill in Washington and are now back in their districts taking credit for the spending programs contained in it. A lot of the stories have already been written up. But I think there are many, many more out there. So keep an eye on your local media for examples.Josh and the gang are asking you to send in links and other citations; they're constructing the Hypocrimap.
Here's a couple of examples, including Florida's own Rep. John Mica.
"Funding for transit projects in the stimulus package could accelerate the Central Florida Commuter Rail project,'' Florida Republican Rep. John Mica reports in a press release from his office.Except you voted against it. Sheesh.
"The total appropriation for transit systems includes $750 million for the New Starts program," Mica said. "Nationally, the Central Florida Commuter Rail project is next in line for final approval and federal funding from the Federal Transit Administration. ...The timing couldn't be better.''
Fetch more...
Yo, My Good Dawg
RNC Chair Michael Steele says the Republicans will reach out to minorities.
Fetch more...
"We want to convey that the modern-day GOP looks like the conservative party that stands on principles," Steele told the Washington Times. "But we want to apply them to urban-suburban hip-hop settings."Well, bless my buttons. I for one will be both bemused and mirthful to see the august members of the Republican National Committee endeavour with great astuteness to get down with their bad selves.
"It will be avant garde, technically," he said of the new public relations team he's signing on. "It will come to the table with things that will surprise everyone - off the hook." He also added: "I don't do 'cutting-edge.' That's what Democrats are doing. We're going beyond cutting-edge."
Fetch more...
Enable Now, Punish Later
David Brooks on the housing rescue plan: rewarding bad behavior is a bad idea, but what are you going to do?
Mr. Brooks gets it right; we're all in this together. But I think that once we get this all straightened out, the government and the people have a duty to go after the people and the practices that got us here in the first place.
Fetch more...
Right now, the economic landscape looks like that movie of the swaying Tacoma Narrows Bridge you might have seen in a high school science class. It started swinging in small ways and then the oscillations built on one another until the whole thing was freakishly alive and the pavement looked like liquid.Mr. Brooks comes to the sad conclusion that there's more at stake than just the moral hazards of enabling the idiots, because the housing crisis touches more than just the people who borrowed more money than they could possibly afford: such as people like me who rented homes from landlords who had no way of paying the mortgage. Usually it's the landlord who does the credit check on the tenant, not the other way around.
A few years ago, the global economic culture began swaying. The government enabled people to buy homes they couldn’t afford. The Fed provided easy money. The Chinese sloshed in oceans of capital. The giddy upward sway produced a crushing ride down.
These oscillations are the real moral hazard. Individual responsibility doesn’t mean much in an economy like this one. We all know people who have been laid off through no fault of their own. The responsible have been punished along with the profligate.
It makes sense for the government to intervene to try to reduce the oscillation. It makes sense for government to try to restore some communal order. And the sad reality is that in these circumstances government has to spend money on precisely those sectors that have been swinging most wildly — housing, finance, etc. It has to help stabilize people who have been idiots.
Mr. Brooks gets it right; we're all in this together. But I think that once we get this all straightened out, the government and the people have a duty to go after the people and the practices that got us here in the first place.
Fetch more...
Forced Apology
The New York Post offers a half-assed apology for "that cartoon."
First, if you don't mean it, don't bother. Clearly this is brought forth only because of the public outrage on the street and from internal objections by staff members of the paper. An apology under duress is useless.
Second, taking swipes at "opportunists" pretty much nullifies the intent of the apology in the first place.
Third, if you have to explain the humor in a cartoon, then you need a new cartoonist.
Fetch more...
Wednesday's Page Six cartoon - caricaturing Monday's police shooting of a chimpanzee in Connecticut - has created considerable controversy.This is like the bully being forced by his mom to apologize, while she has him by the ear lobe.
It shows two police officers standing over the chimp's body: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill," one officer says.
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else - as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past - and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.
To them, no apology is due.
Sometimes a cartoon is just a cartoon - even as the opportunists seek to make it something else.
First, if you don't mean it, don't bother. Clearly this is brought forth only because of the public outrage on the street and from internal objections by staff members of the paper. An apology under duress is useless.
Second, taking swipes at "opportunists" pretty much nullifies the intent of the apology in the first place.
Third, if you have to explain the humor in a cartoon, then you need a new cartoonist.
Fetch more...
Short Takes
California staves off budget crash.
Allen Stanford, the next Bernie Madoff, is found in Virginia.
Helping the Hedge Funds -- the Obama administration wants to get lending going by subsidizing profits.
Settled -- The New York Times and Vicki Iseman, the lobbyist linked to John McCain, make nice.
Shovel-Ready in Miami -- what to do with the stimulus money.
Do Tell -- the IRS is suing Swiss bank UBS to reveal the names of account holders.
Cheap Oil -- how dropping oil prices effect the economy.
Just the Facts? -- Hilzoy takes down the Washington Post's fact-checking mechanism.
Fetch more...
Allen Stanford, the next Bernie Madoff, is found in Virginia.
Helping the Hedge Funds -- the Obama administration wants to get lending going by subsidizing profits.
Settled -- The New York Times and Vicki Iseman, the lobbyist linked to John McCain, make nice.
Shovel-Ready in Miami -- what to do with the stimulus money.
Do Tell -- the IRS is suing Swiss bank UBS to reveal the names of account holders.
Cheap Oil -- how dropping oil prices effect the economy.
Just the Facts? -- Hilzoy takes down the Washington Post's fact-checking mechanism.
Fetch more...
Friday Blogaround
What a stimulating week. Let's see what the LC had to say about all of the fun.
Fetch more...
- A Blog Around The Clock: Coturnix in the Big Apple.Two big car shows this weekend; one in downtown Miami on Saturday, and the Boca Raton Concours d'Elegance on Sunday. I'll be there.
- All Facts and Opinions: contemptuous dude.
- archy: outrages.
- Bark Bark Woof Woof: the other "F" word.
- Bloggg: Moi has an idea.
- Dohiyi Mir: get your prosecution on.
- Echidne Of The Snakes: the way of all flesh.
- Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: how to end gerrymandering.
- Iddybud Journal: One-Man Village.
- Left Is Right: papal hypocrisy.
- Musing's musings: sorry, Roland.
- Pen-Elayne on the Web: Elayne's prepping for a trip to England; want to guest-blog for her while she's gone?
- Rook's Rant on Eric Holder's speech about race.
- rubber hose: test threat.
- Scrutiny Hooligans: Heath Shuler gets scrutinized.
- Speedkill: religion and morality.
- Steve Bates, The Yellow Doggerel Democrat: Cut!!!
- Stupid Enough Unexplanation: 2010 might be tough for Democrats.
- The Invisible Library: Publishing on demand -- the cutting edge of respectability.
- WTF Is It Now?? isolating the Christian gene.
- ...You Are A Tree is game-blogging again.
Fetch more...
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Not Getting It
By now most people have seen the cartoon in the New York Post that depicted police shooting a chimpanzee and making a statement about the stimulus package. The AP took the rather vague neutral position that "some" feel that the cartoon might be racist.
The reaction from the defenders of the Post and cartoonist Sean Delonas have ranged from mystified -- what's racist about it? -- to dismissive -- oh, come on, can't you take a joke? -- to infantile evasions -- you liberals called George W. Bush "the smirking chimp" and no one called that racist.*
Leaving aside the obvious -- of course the cartoon is, at the very least, racially insensitive and not particularly funny -- it really makes you wonder what kind of world Mr. Delonas and the editors of the Post live in where they wouldn't get the point that depicting the first African-American president as a monkey would be seen as racist by anyone who is marginally aware of civil rights history in America. Anyone who doesn't know that has no business making a living doing social commentary purely based on the evidence that they have no clue as to the culture they're commenting on.
Of course Mr. Delonas knew what he was saying in the cartoon and he knew full well the implications and conclusions his readers and the larger world would draw from them. In fact, he's counting on it to get him the attention he's after, and he and his defenders will revel in the outrage that they've provoked. There will always be a market for this kind of stuff; in fact, you can count on seeing more of it over the next four years regardless of whether or not President Obama and his policies succeed. If he does well, the wingnuts will intensify the noise to distract from the fact that he's doing what he promised, and if he stumbles, they will all say, "See, we told you he" -- and by implication all African-Americans -- "isn't up to the job." So they have an out either way.
That's to be expected. But what I think they're not getting is that if they're going to take this approach, they have to drop the pretense. Mr. Delonas and his defenders are insulting their own intelligence with their "Racist? Moi?" act. It doesn't work -- no one believes they're that ignorant -- and it points out the obvious fact that they have no intelligent response to the president's agenda, so all they can do is come up with childish name-calling and mockery. That tells you all you really need to know; there's no need to draw us a picture.
*For the record, I never resorted to the name-calling of President Bush by any of the epithets that were popular with some of my liberal colleagues. He did a bad enough job that his deeds alone brought on the scorn he deserved, so adding a nickname seemed to be redundant.
Fetch more...
The reaction from the defenders of the Post and cartoonist Sean Delonas have ranged from mystified -- what's racist about it? -- to dismissive -- oh, come on, can't you take a joke? -- to infantile evasions -- you liberals called George W. Bush "the smirking chimp" and no one called that racist.*
Leaving aside the obvious -- of course the cartoon is, at the very least, racially insensitive and not particularly funny -- it really makes you wonder what kind of world Mr. Delonas and the editors of the Post live in where they wouldn't get the point that depicting the first African-American president as a monkey would be seen as racist by anyone who is marginally aware of civil rights history in America. Anyone who doesn't know that has no business making a living doing social commentary purely based on the evidence that they have no clue as to the culture they're commenting on.
Of course Mr. Delonas knew what he was saying in the cartoon and he knew full well the implications and conclusions his readers and the larger world would draw from them. In fact, he's counting on it to get him the attention he's after, and he and his defenders will revel in the outrage that they've provoked. There will always be a market for this kind of stuff; in fact, you can count on seeing more of it over the next four years regardless of whether or not President Obama and his policies succeed. If he does well, the wingnuts will intensify the noise to distract from the fact that he's doing what he promised, and if he stumbles, they will all say, "See, we told you he" -- and by implication all African-Americans -- "isn't up to the job." So they have an out either way.
That's to be expected. But what I think they're not getting is that if they're going to take this approach, they have to drop the pretense. Mr. Delonas and his defenders are insulting their own intelligence with their "Racist? Moi?" act. It doesn't work -- no one believes they're that ignorant -- and it points out the obvious fact that they have no intelligent response to the president's agenda, so all they can do is come up with childish name-calling and mockery. That tells you all you really need to know; there's no need to draw us a picture.
*For the record, I never resorted to the name-calling of President Bush by any of the epithets that were popular with some of my liberal colleagues. He did a bad enough job that his deeds alone brought on the scorn he deserved, so adding a nickname seemed to be redundant.
Fetch more...
It's Alive
The North Dakota House of Representatives has passed a bill that grants a fertilized egg all the rights of any person.
That's just one of many practical questions that would have to be addressed if this law actually passes legal muster. A lot of state and federal laws would have to be re-written to accommodate this law, and the United States Constitution would have to be amended, since it states that citizenship is obtained when someone is born or naturalized, not conceived. And since the egg obtains full rights in the uterus, that means that its rights supersede those of the woman who is carrying it, since she would no longer have the right of self-determination about her own body. Further, if the egg grows and is born and we find out later on that the person is gay, he or she will lose rights, such as that of the right to get married or visit their loved one in the hospital. In other words, a fertilized egg in North Dakota has more rights than many other citizens who happen to be unfortunate enough to be born there.
Of course, the point of this law is not to resolve a legal question, it's meant to challenge one; in this case Roe v. Wade. This isn't an uncommon legal tactic; advocates on both sides of the political spectrum have used it before to either call a standing law into question in the courts or just point out the extremism of a law. But the paradox here is that this law is being put forth by an advocate for a group that lives by the philosophy that all of our questions can be answered with a simple bumper-sticker solution: Abortion Is Murder. That's not meant to provoke a debate, it's meant to end it. It's the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and chanting, "Neener, neener, I can't hear you!"
So they pass this law knowing that it will attract a lawsuit -- they're counting on it -- so that they can go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States chanting their mantra and assuming that they will prevail. They will spend a great deal of the North Dakota's citizens' taxes on this quixotic quest with the high probability that it will be knocked down, and they'll come back from another direction and keep trying and trying. As CLW notes in the comments, this is a strange paradox for a political party that on everything else -- guns, taxes, property rights, health care, education, and the airwaves -- advocates for smaller and limited government. That is, apparently, until it comes to a woman's uterus. Then all bets are off.
There may be a medical debate as to when an egg is alive, but there is little doubt that the folks who think that the only lives worth saving or ensuring the rights for are the ones that are in utero are still out there stalking the streets.
Fetch more...
That means a fetus could not be legally aborted without the procedure being considered murder.I suppose you could marvel at the determination of people like Mr. Ruby who are so dedicated to their cause, but you also have to notice that he clearly didn't think this through. There are a lot of questions that a sweeping declaration like this leave unanswered. For instance, if life begins at conception -- which is debatable, since viability doesn't become possible until the egg attaches to the uterus, which occurs some time after fertilization -- how do we know the exact time when that happens? Does a bell go off or something so a doctor or the mother knows when the microscopic speck suddenly becomes a person? (Misty at Shakesville has several other questions.)
Minot Republican Dan Ruby has sponsored other bills banning abortion in previous legislative sessions - all of which failed.
He also sponsored today's bill and says it is compatable [sic] with Roe versus Wade - the Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion.
(Rep. Dan Ruby, -R- Minot) "This is the exact language that's required by Roe vs. Wade. It stipulated that before a challenge can be made, we have to identify when life begins, and that's what this does."
That's just one of many practical questions that would have to be addressed if this law actually passes legal muster. A lot of state and federal laws would have to be re-written to accommodate this law, and the United States Constitution would have to be amended, since it states that citizenship is obtained when someone is born or naturalized, not conceived. And since the egg obtains full rights in the uterus, that means that its rights supersede those of the woman who is carrying it, since she would no longer have the right of self-determination about her own body. Further, if the egg grows and is born and we find out later on that the person is gay, he or she will lose rights, such as that of the right to get married or visit their loved one in the hospital. In other words, a fertilized egg in North Dakota has more rights than many other citizens who happen to be unfortunate enough to be born there.
Of course, the point of this law is not to resolve a legal question, it's meant to challenge one; in this case Roe v. Wade. This isn't an uncommon legal tactic; advocates on both sides of the political spectrum have used it before to either call a standing law into question in the courts or just point out the extremism of a law. But the paradox here is that this law is being put forth by an advocate for a group that lives by the philosophy that all of our questions can be answered with a simple bumper-sticker solution: Abortion Is Murder. That's not meant to provoke a debate, it's meant to end it. It's the equivalent of sticking their fingers in their ears and chanting, "Neener, neener, I can't hear you!"
So they pass this law knowing that it will attract a lawsuit -- they're counting on it -- so that they can go all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States chanting their mantra and assuming that they will prevail. They will spend a great deal of the North Dakota's citizens' taxes on this quixotic quest with the high probability that it will be knocked down, and they'll come back from another direction and keep trying and trying. As CLW notes in the comments, this is a strange paradox for a political party that on everything else -- guns, taxes, property rights, health care, education, and the airwaves -- advocates for smaller and limited government. That is, apparently, until it comes to a woman's uterus. Then all bets are off.
There may be a medical debate as to when an egg is alive, but there is little doubt that the folks who think that the only lives worth saving or ensuring the rights for are the ones that are in utero are still out there stalking the streets.
Fetch more...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
