Still cracks me up.
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Sunday, January 31, 2010
Stop That Noise!
Sunday Reading
The Powerless Poor -- Leonard Pitts, Jr., on why no one really noticed when the lieutenant governor of South Carolina compared the poor of his state to stray animals.
Frank Rich -- Asleep at the switch.
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And though it drew some newspaper notice, a riposte from The Daily Show and rebukes from Bauer's opponents, it never quite rose to the level of national controversy, as it would've had Bauer compared, say, women or Jews to the dogs one feeds at one's back door. The relative silence stands as eloquent testimony to the powerlessness and invisibility of the American poor.More after the fold.
One is reminded how earnestly shocked news media were at the poverty they saw five years ago when New Orleans drowned. ''Why didn't they get out?'' observers kept asking -- as if everyone has a car in the driveway and a wallet full of plastic.
The poor fare little better on television. The Evanses of Good Times and the Conners from Roseanne aside, television has been heavily weighted toward fresh-scrubbed middle- and upper-class families for 60 years.
Politicians? They'll elbow one another aside to pledge allegiance to the middle class; they are conspicuously less eager to align with those still trying to reach that level.
Who, then, speaks for the poor? Who raises a voice when they are scapegoated and marginalized? Who cries out when they are abused by police and failed by schools? Who takes a stand when they are exploited by employers and turned away by hospitals?
As near as I can tell, no one does.
Frank Rich -- Asleep at the switch.
In Obama’s speech, he kept circling back to a Senate where both parties are dysfunctional. The obstructionist Republicans, he observed, will say no to every single bill “just because they can.” But no less culpable are the Democrats, who maintain “the largest majority in decades” even after losing Teddy Kennedy’s seat — and yet would rather “run for the hills” than accomplish anything.A Night at the Movies -- John Seabrook recounts a visit with J.D. Salinger for The New Yorker.
What does strong Senate leadership look like? That would be L.B.J. in the pre-Kennedy era. Operating with the narrowest of majorities and under an opposition president, he was able to transform a sleepy, seniority-hobbled, regionally polarized debating society into an often-progressive legislative factory. As Robert Caro tells the story in his book “Master of the Senate,” this Senate leader had determination, “a gift for grand strategy,” and a sixth sense for grabbing opportunities for action before they vanished for good. He could recognize “the key that might suddenly unlock votes that had seemed locked forever away” and turn it quickly. The horse trading with recalcitrant senators was often crude and cynical, but the job got done. L.B.J. knew how to reward — and how to punish.
We keep hearing that they just don’t make legislative giants like that anymore. In truth, the long drought has led us to forget what they look like and to define senatorial leadership down. L.B.J.’s current successor, Harry Reid, could be found yawning on camera Wednesday night. He might as well have just taken the whole nap. Here was this leader’s pronouncement last week on the future of the president and his party’s No. 1 priority: “We’re not on health care now. We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.” Yes, a lot of talk — a year’s worth, in fact — with nothing to show for it.
[...]
A year in, we have learned that all the conciliatory rhetoric won’t cut it. But a president with a big megaphone and large legislative majorities has more powerful strings to pull, no matter what happened in one special election in Massachusetts. If he can’t get a working government, at least he can shake things up in November.
Just look at how a sharp public slap provoked Justice Alito, threw a spotlight on the court’s dubious jurisprudence and sparked an embarrassing over-the-top hissy fit on the right. A do-nothing Congress, at a time when ever more Americans are losing their jobs and homes, is an even riper target than the Supreme Court — and far more politically vulnerable. Without strong medicine from Obama, we can be certain of the same result: a heedless Congress will keep doing nothing. If he steps it up, there’s at least a shot that his presidency, and maybe even the country, will be pulled back from the brink.
Twenty-four years ago this summer, my girlfriend and I were visiting my parents in Vermont, and my mother, who was conservative in such matters, didn’t want us to stay together in my room. My girlfriend thought that that was silly and that I was being a wimp for going along with the maternal regime, considering that we lived together in New York. My father was keeping out of it. It was not a happy household.Doonesbury -- A shot at the Olympics.
So when my college friend Matt invited us to his dad’s house, in Cornish, New Hampshire, about half an hour away, to watch an old movie, all parties were relieved. However, as we wound our way along the dirt roads leading up from the Connecticut River, my girlfriend and I became tense all over again, for a different reason. We were both young writers, and we were about to meet J. D. Salinger.
The house was built into the hillside, and we entered through what seemed like the basement, walking through a concrete-and-cinder-block passageway with a rocky dirt floor. In the kitchen, a tall, slender man with a full head of graying hair, wearing a white shirt and a dark vest, was pouring popcorn into a Hamilton Beach popcorn popper. He had a long, ascetic face, large ears, shy but curious eyes, and a wide-lipped mouth, “a mouth with a lot of Capricorn in it,” as he later said of my mouth, by which he meant, I think, that it had an openness but also a resolve in the way the lips pressed together at the corners. We could see that he was just as nervous as we were, and that made us feel more at ease.
Later, when we knew each other better, and Jerry felt comfortable enough to be himself around us, I got to see what a sweet, swell guy he was. We played golf on the nine-hole course in Windsor, Vermont, and he wouldn’t let us keep score. He played with bamboo clubs and cursed like a sailor when he hit a bad shot, which was often, though not as often as we did (we were secretly keeping score, so we knew). A few years later, I spent a wonderful afternoon with him going around San Francisco’s Chinatown, looking at exotic mushrooms, roots, and herbs. Jerry had an encyclopedic knowledge of mushrooms, and often travelled under the alias Mr. Boletus, which was one of his favorite varieties.
But, on the occasion of our first meeting, everyone was wary; we quickly left him in the kitchen and hustled into the main part of the house, while Jerry (as we awkwardly called him) saw to the popcorn. The living room had a dorm-room air about it. We sat down on the uncomfortable, worn furniture and tried to think of something to say to each other. I listened to the popcorn—the first heraldic explosions of the kernels, followed by the dramatic crescendo, and then the dying fall—thinking, J. D. Salinger is in the kitchen making popcorn. After a while, Jerry came out and went to the back of the room, where he kept, on shelves, a collection of old 16-mm. films, the kind where you have to change the reel three or four times in the course of the movie. An old-fashioned projector had been set up behind the sofa. He ran through some titles; we settled on “Sergeant York.” Jerry threaded the film through the projector, and then he turned the lights off and remained behind us, his face illuminated by the flickering projector. The movie was captioned, perhaps because he was going a little deaf. Toward the end, he seemed to get choked up.
After the film ended, we talked for a while, and for some reason my girlfriend and I told Jerry about the war over sleeping arrangements in my parents’ house. What did he think we should do? He had been on our side, hadn’t he, ever since “The Catcher in the Rye”? Salinger was probably weary of people wanting to claim him, which may be one reason that he stopped publishing. Nevertheless, he listened closely, smiling, his head cocked back a little, his old Yankee white eyebrows raised. When we had explained it all, he said, to my girlfriend, “Nervy girl! Nervy girl!” That was all he would say.
That night, she slept in the guest bedroom.
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Short Takes
China retaliates against the U.S. selling arms to Taiwan.
Meanwhile, we're also selling arms to allies in the Persian Gulf.
The president's proposed budget freezes much domestic spending.
The U.S. is exploring options on where to airlift patients from Haiti.
Gov. Crist wants to make sure Florida isn't stuck with the bill for treating the Haitians.
Toyota will be sending the fix for gas pedals to dealers this week.
Miami faces a budget crunch.
Jay Bybee and John Yoo have been cleared of any wrongdoing for writing the torture memos.
What if they threw a tea party and no one showed up?
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Meanwhile, we're also selling arms to allies in the Persian Gulf.
The president's proposed budget freezes much domestic spending.
The U.S. is exploring options on where to airlift patients from Haiti.
Gov. Crist wants to make sure Florida isn't stuck with the bill for treating the Haitians.
Toyota will be sending the fix for gas pedals to dealers this week.
Miami faces a budget crunch.
Jay Bybee and John Yoo have been cleared of any wrongdoing for writing the torture memos.
What if they threw a tea party and no one showed up?
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Saturday, January 30, 2010
Saturday Video
From Schoolhouse Rock:
If only it were that easy.
So pass the damn healthcare bill already.
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If only it were that easy.
So pass the damn healthcare bill already.
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Short Takes
Where To? -- The KSM trial will not be in New York.
The airlift of earthquake victims to Florida and other places is on hold until someone figures out who's paying for it.
Guilty -- Scott Roeder is convicted of the murder of Dr. George Tiller.
Former British PM Tony Blair defends his actions in the run-up to the Iraq war.
U.S. sells arms to Taiwan and China isn't happy.
Tourists are evacuated from Machu Picchu.
Campaign budget -- Gov. Crist releases a budget for the state of Florida that looks more like he's running for office.
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The airlift of earthquake victims to Florida and other places is on hold until someone figures out who's paying for it.
Guilty -- Scott Roeder is convicted of the murder of Dr. George Tiller.
Former British PM Tony Blair defends his actions in the run-up to the Iraq war.
U.S. sells arms to Taiwan and China isn't happy.
Tourists are evacuated from Machu Picchu.
Campaign budget -- Gov. Crist releases a budget for the state of Florida that looks more like he's running for office.
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Friday, January 29, 2010
The Republicans Retreat
Here's the video of President Obama at the Republican House retreat today. Get the popcorn; watch and learn.
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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Question of the Day
The death of J.D. Salinger, who was known for being reclusive, prompted me to wonder...
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Who is the one author -- living or dead -- you would like most to talk to?
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Keeping His Distance
Gov. Charlie Crist faced a delicate situation yesterday.
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TAMPA -- Put yourself in Charlie's shoes.Whew. So I guess the thing Gov. Crist was really worried about was whether or not his political opponents would keep up the whispering campaign that he was really an in-the-closet moderate. Horrors.
You're standing there on the big MacDill Air Force Base tarmac, first in line next to Vice President Joe Biden as the door to Air Force One slowly opens. The sun's beating down. The plane's engines are roaring. The crowd is all eyes.
Do they remember the man-hug?
There he is, the president -- smiling ear-to-ear and waving as dozens of cameras go click, click, click. He walks down the stairs. Here comes the hand.
This is where things get tricky for Florida Republican Gov. Charlie Crist. The last time President Barack Obama reached out for him, at a Fort Myers event almost a year ago, the two ended up in an embarrassingly public display of affection.
Photos of the encounter splashed across the blogosphere, garnering criticism from fellow Republicans who frowned on Crist's support of Obama's $787 billion stimulus package. For Crist, in a tight U.S. Senate primary race with former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, the criticism has never waned.
So now, with Obama in Tampa announcing funds for the high-speed rail project Crist worked so hard to secure, how does Crist react?
What if Obama goes in for the kill? Should Crist pull away? Does he dare hug back?
The answer comes a few seconds later, when Obama steps off Air Force One with his hand outstretched. Click, click, click go the cameras.
Crist manages to get away with a firm handshake. But it's a close call.
Obama's other hand lingers on Crist's elbow as Crist leans in with furrowed brows. In 27 seconds, it's all over.
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Failure to Plan
Here's an interesting little revelation:
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The White House had no contingency plan for health care reform if Democrat Martha Coakley lost the special election in Massachusetts, and officials did not discuss the possibility a Democratic loss would dramatically imperil their legislative efforts, a top adviser said today.Wow, that was really dumb. In politics, as in everything, you just assume that you can't assume anything, even in the case where it looks like a lead-pipe cinch. I sure as hell hope they get their act together and learn the basic lesson of just about everything: you have a back-up plan for your back-up plan.
President Obama's senior advisor David Axelrod said there "wasn't much discussion" about an alternative path to passing health care with just 59 Democrats in the Senate because there was "widespread assumption was that that seat was safe."
"The truth is the flares went up about 10 days before that election," Axelrod said during a briefing today with reporters and opinion-makers.
"There wasn't much discussion about the implications if the thing went the other way," he said.
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Grounded
James O'Keefe, the 25-year-old mastermind behind the bungled attempt to tamper with the phones of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), is out on bond, but has been ordered to live with his parents while he awaits trial.
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Magistrate Judge Louis Moore made the order Tuesday as part of the conditions of release for O'Keefe, 25. (Read them here.)He has also been forced to turn in his Gameboy and X-Box. Presumably he will be spending most of his time in his room where he will be watching re-runs of Psych so he can see how real undercover agents do it.
The young conservative filmmaker is free on $10,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for February 13.
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Short Takes
Israel gets tough on West Bank protesters.
The Senate barely reconfirmed Ben Bernanke to another term as Fed chairman.
The Senate voted along party lines to raise the debt limit.
Healthcare goes on the back burner.
Change of venue -- The Justice Department is considering other places to hold the KSM trial after New York City Mayor Bloomberg raises concerns.
Ford posted a profit in 2009 as Toyota hits the brakes.
Florida gets a down payment -- $1.25 billion -- for high-speed rail.
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The Senate barely reconfirmed Ben Bernanke to another term as Fed chairman.
The Senate voted along party lines to raise the debt limit.
Healthcare goes on the back burner.
Change of venue -- The Justice Department is considering other places to hold the KSM trial after New York City Mayor Bloomberg raises concerns.
Ford posted a profit in 2009 as Toyota hits the brakes.
Florida gets a down payment -- $1.25 billion -- for high-speed rail.
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Friday Blogaround
How's your state of the union this week? Let's see how the LC's was.
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- A Blog Around The Clock: want to buy an organ?Don't forget to turn over your ground hog next week.
- All Facts and Opinions: you know you're a winger when....
- archy: come high water....
- Bark Bark Woof Woof: old whine/new bottles.
- Bloggg: where to go?
- Dohiyi Mir: the reform killer.
- Echidne Of The Snakes and Tim Tebow's Super Bowl ad.
- Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: fair voting districts make the November ballot.
- Left Is Right translates the SOTU (NSFW).
- Musing's musings: not impressed.
- Pen-Elayne on the Web and the original iPad.
- Rook's Rant: hey, Rudy, we have videotape now.
- rubber hose: finds that no one can read this blog in Kazakhstan.
- Scrutiny Hooligans remembers J.D. Salinger.
- Stupid Enough Unexplanation: how many ways can the right wing call President Obama "uppity" without actually using the word?
- The Yellow Something Something: a hit list?
- WTF Is It Now?? -- we liked it.
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Thursday, January 28, 2010
J.D. Salinger -- 1919-2010
J.D. Salinger has died.
If the only American novel you read in high school was The Catcher in the Rye, then that's okay. A lot of writers try to capture the voice of youth as it struggles with the major events of their life examined in seemingly trivial detail, but Mr. Salinger's Holden Caulfield spoke the truth and achingly so.
I read the book in the summer of 1968, after my disastrous freshman year at a New England boarding school. Perhaps that's why it resonated with me so much. I was never as cynical as Holden, but I knew exactly why he was.
Mr. Salinger lived most of his life as a recluse in Cornish, New Hampshire. He last published an original work in 1965, and he gave his last interview in 1980. I suspect he believed that he had shared with us all he wanted to say in his books and only wanted to be left in peace. So be it.
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If the only American novel you read in high school was The Catcher in the Rye, then that's okay. A lot of writers try to capture the voice of youth as it struggles with the major events of their life examined in seemingly trivial detail, but Mr. Salinger's Holden Caulfield spoke the truth and achingly so.
I read the book in the summer of 1968, after my disastrous freshman year at a New England boarding school. Perhaps that's why it resonated with me so much. I was never as cynical as Holden, but I knew exactly why he was.
Mr. Salinger lived most of his life as a recluse in Cornish, New Hampshire. He last published an original work in 1965, and he gave his last interview in 1980. I suspect he believed that he had shared with us all he wanted to say in his books and only wanted to be left in peace. So be it.
Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
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Blame Game
The two senators from Arizona -- Jon Kyl and John McCain -- both think President Obama shouldn't be blaming the previous administration for the problems we have today. Mr. Kyl told NPR that the president was a "whiner" for blaming the budget deficit on the Bush administration, and Mr. McCain has coined a new acronym -- BIOB, as in Blame It On Bush -- for the process. So I'm sure they'd agree that this passage would fall into that category:
Via Think Progress.
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To understand the State of the Union, we must look not only at where we are and where we’re going but where we’ve been. The situation at this time last year was truly ominous. [...]Blaming the previous administration? Check. Whiney? Check. Barack Obama? No, Ronald Reagan in 1982.
First, we must understand what’s happening at the moment to the economy. Our current problems are not the product of the recovery program that’s only just now getting under way, as some would have you believe...
Via Think Progress.
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Question of the Day
Order in the court...
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What's your favorite courtroom movie?Mine is Inherit the Wind, the original one with Spencer Tracy and Fredric March. I used to be able to recite the "Progress has never been a bargain" speech even though I've never done the play.
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The Bones
President Obama, as in the tradition of all presidents giving the State of the Union speech, tossed out some bones for the audience and the pundits. Here are a couple that I thought were interesting. Let's see what happens with them.
- Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. The GOP sees that as a sop to "the liberal base." Aside from the fact that it is wrong to assume that all of the LGBT community is progressive or liberal, it's something that a lot of Republicans and conservatives who are not freaked out by Teh Gayz are in favor of, as are a number of senior officers in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon.
- The Big Freeze. President Obama didn't elaborate much more on the proposed spending freeze of non-military and non-entitlement items in the budget. So far it's gone over like a turd in punch bowl among liberal economists like Paul Krugman and historians who reminded us of what happened when FDR did the same thing in 1937. I'm still not sure how this fits in with his push to get people back to work by giving incentives to banks to lend money to small businesses.
- Energy politics. The president said he wants to explore safe nuclear energy, off-shore drilling, and "clean coal" technology. That was clearly a nod to our new corporate masters at Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, and he squashed any GOP applause by bringing up cap and trade. And I understand there's been as much progress on creating clean coal as there has been on getting warp drive up and running on the next generation of space shuttles.
- Campaign Finance. The president told the Supreme Court that he didn't like their ruling last week that overturned campaign finance reform, and at least one member of the court, Justice Samuel Alito, apparently mouthed "not true." Well, four of his colleagues also disagreed with the ruling as did a whole host of senators and congresspeople who are trying to write laws that can keep corporations, even if they're owned by foreign countries, from taking over the electoral process. (Reader SR at TPM thinks it was a historic moment for the president to tell the Court to their face and in public that he didn't like the ruling.)
- Healthcare. Basically he told the House and Senate that it's in their court to pass the bill by whatever means possible; he's done his bit and now it's up to them. A lot of people in the blogosphere have been wondering where the president's leadership is on this; why isn't he pushing Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid to get Plan B done? Simple; it's always been their bill, not his. He learned the lesson from the Clinton debacle in 1993; the White House wrote the bill and dumped it in the lap of a resentful Congress who clearly thought that it was their job to write it. Well, now they have, and now it's their problem; the president is moving on. He doesn't have to stand for election until 2012. (That still doesn't mean they shouldn't Pass The Damn Bill.)
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- Repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell. The GOP sees that as a sop to "the liberal base." Aside from the fact that it is wrong to assume that all of the LGBT community is progressive or liberal, it's something that a lot of Republicans and conservatives who are not freaked out by Teh Gayz are in favor of, as are a number of senior officers in the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon.
- The Big Freeze. President Obama didn't elaborate much more on the proposed spending freeze of non-military and non-entitlement items in the budget. So far it's gone over like a turd in punch bowl among liberal economists like Paul Krugman and historians who reminded us of what happened when FDR did the same thing in 1937. I'm still not sure how this fits in with his push to get people back to work by giving incentives to banks to lend money to small businesses.
- Energy politics. The president said he wants to explore safe nuclear energy, off-shore drilling, and "clean coal" technology. That was clearly a nod to our new corporate masters at Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell, and he squashed any GOP applause by bringing up cap and trade. And I understand there's been as much progress on creating clean coal as there has been on getting warp drive up and running on the next generation of space shuttles.
- Campaign Finance. The president told the Supreme Court that he didn't like their ruling last week that overturned campaign finance reform, and at least one member of the court, Justice Samuel Alito, apparently mouthed "not true." Well, four of his colleagues also disagreed with the ruling as did a whole host of senators and congresspeople who are trying to write laws that can keep corporations, even if they're owned by foreign countries, from taking over the electoral process. (Reader SR at TPM thinks it was a historic moment for the president to tell the Court to their face and in public that he didn't like the ruling.)
- Healthcare. Basically he told the House and Senate that it's in their court to pass the bill by whatever means possible; he's done his bit and now it's up to them. A lot of people in the blogosphere have been wondering where the president's leadership is on this; why isn't he pushing Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid to get Plan B done? Simple; it's always been their bill, not his. He learned the lesson from the Clinton debacle in 1993; the White House wrote the bill and dumped it in the lap of a resentful Congress who clearly thought that it was their job to write it. Well, now they have, and now it's their problem; the president is moving on. He doesn't have to stand for election until 2012. (That still doesn't mean they shouldn't Pass The Damn Bill.)
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State Of the Union -- "I Don't Quit"
Everybody else is putting in their two cents on last night's State of the Union speech, so here's mine: it was pretty good, and it accomplished what the purpose of the speech is supposed to do: tell us what's happened in the country and what the president is planning to do about it.
Every president puts forth an ambitious agenda in the SOTU speech, and every president has been held to some kind of artificial standard of this being a "make-or-break" moment in the eyes of the punditry (Mara Liason said as much yesterday on NPR, saying that no president has ever been under such pressure. Hmmm. Bill Clinton delivered a SOTU ten days after the news about Monica Lewinsky broke. Talk about pressure). Remember, though, that the pundits have to come up with lines like that or they can't justify their mileage. But I do think that President Obama, a year after being swept into office on a giddy euphoria of rose petals, rainbows, and unicorns dancing while the GOP and Rush Limbaugh were hiding behind the arras sharpening their knives, knew what he was up against. His review of the past year and his reporting the news that the citizens of the country were angry and frightened was not really news, especially since fully half of the people sitting in the room have been egging on the anger and the fear. He very well knew that he was going to get some digs in, too, and I was amused to hear some after-show pundits say that the president sounded surprised when the GOP did not applaud at his points about the tax cuts. No, he was being droll. (I don't think enough people give President Obama enough credit for having a very dry sense of humor. And what is up with Chris Matthews?)
He was also right for saying that the facts were stubborn things: he got handed a really big pile of shit by his predecessor. The right wingers like Pat Buchanan are tired of hearing about it all being Bush's fault, but this stuff didn't happen in a vacuum, and just because he and John McCain don't like it doesn't make it any less true. This morning Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) whined to NPR that he was shocked, shocked to hear the president use campaign rhetoric in the speech -- fetch the smelling salts -- and he himself said the president was a whiner for reminded us who was the president before he was. Mr. Kyl's disingenuousness was pretty ripe and factually flawed, but then, he was a huge enabler of the Bush administration and so you have to at least give him his due for being consistent in his IOKIYAR-ness about the speech being "too political." Since when has the SOTU not been the launching pad of the agenda for an election year?
I turned off the TV before the Republican response from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, but reading the transcript it sounds like he and whoever wrote it paid no attention to what the president actually said. They trotted out the old talking points about slowing down and not being able to afford whatever it is the president wants to do. And am I the only one who thought it took a measure of a tin ear to have him speak from the House Chamber in Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy?
I'll let the wonks dissect the specific proposals of the jobs plans and the ideas about getting the economy humming along just in time for the first real polls of the mid-term elections. What I came away from the speech with was the president's determination to plow right ahead with his agenda, taking his lumps and promising not to quit. Yes, every president makes that promise. Duh. But it was nice to hear nonetheless: it gives nervous people some kind of reassurance to hear that even though it's exactly what you expect to hear during the most ritualistic and theatrical traditions we have in our country. As much as we collectively deride Washington and the Beltway magic, we Americans are like teenagers; bucking against the people in charge yet still needing them to reassure us that they're taking care of us.
Okay, your turn: what did you think?
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Every president puts forth an ambitious agenda in the SOTU speech, and every president has been held to some kind of artificial standard of this being a "make-or-break" moment in the eyes of the punditry (Mara Liason said as much yesterday on NPR, saying that no president has ever been under such pressure. Hmmm. Bill Clinton delivered a SOTU ten days after the news about Monica Lewinsky broke. Talk about pressure). Remember, though, that the pundits have to come up with lines like that or they can't justify their mileage. But I do think that President Obama, a year after being swept into office on a giddy euphoria of rose petals, rainbows, and unicorns dancing while the GOP and Rush Limbaugh were hiding behind the arras sharpening their knives, knew what he was up against. His review of the past year and his reporting the news that the citizens of the country were angry and frightened was not really news, especially since fully half of the people sitting in the room have been egging on the anger and the fear. He very well knew that he was going to get some digs in, too, and I was amused to hear some after-show pundits say that the president sounded surprised when the GOP did not applaud at his points about the tax cuts. No, he was being droll. (I don't think enough people give President Obama enough credit for having a very dry sense of humor. And what is up with Chris Matthews?)
He was also right for saying that the facts were stubborn things: he got handed a really big pile of shit by his predecessor. The right wingers like Pat Buchanan are tired of hearing about it all being Bush's fault, but this stuff didn't happen in a vacuum, and just because he and John McCain don't like it doesn't make it any less true. This morning Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) whined to NPR that he was shocked, shocked to hear the president use campaign rhetoric in the speech -- fetch the smelling salts -- and he himself said the president was a whiner for reminded us who was the president before he was. Mr. Kyl's disingenuousness was pretty ripe and factually flawed, but then, he was a huge enabler of the Bush administration and so you have to at least give him his due for being consistent in his IOKIYAR-ness about the speech being "too political." Since when has the SOTU not been the launching pad of the agenda for an election year?
I turned off the TV before the Republican response from Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, but reading the transcript it sounds like he and whoever wrote it paid no attention to what the president actually said. They trotted out the old talking points about slowing down and not being able to afford whatever it is the president wants to do. And am I the only one who thought it took a measure of a tin ear to have him speak from the House Chamber in Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy?
I'll let the wonks dissect the specific proposals of the jobs plans and the ideas about getting the economy humming along just in time for the first real polls of the mid-term elections. What I came away from the speech with was the president's determination to plow right ahead with his agenda, taking his lumps and promising not to quit. Yes, every president makes that promise. Duh. But it was nice to hear nonetheless: it gives nervous people some kind of reassurance to hear that even though it's exactly what you expect to hear during the most ritualistic and theatrical traditions we have in our country. As much as we collectively deride Washington and the Beltway magic, we Americans are like teenagers; bucking against the people in charge yet still needing them to reassure us that they're taking care of us.
Okay, your turn: what did you think?
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Short Takes
Will fight for pay -- An Afghan tribe agrees to battle the Taliban if we send them money.
There are reports that Iran executed two people over the post-election protests.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stood his ground on the AIG bailout.
North Korea has caught another one.
There are signs of life returning to normal in Haiti.
Full up -- Hospital patients from Haiti are being sent elsewhere than Miami to leave room for emergencies during the Super Bowl.
Apple unveils the iPad; more than a phone, less than a laptop.
R.I.P. Howard Zinn, historian.
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There are reports that Iran executed two people over the post-election protests.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stood his ground on the AIG bailout.
North Korea has caught another one.
There are signs of life returning to normal in Haiti.
Full up -- Hospital patients from Haiti are being sent elsewhere than Miami to leave room for emergencies during the Super Bowl.
Apple unveils the iPad; more than a phone, less than a laptop.
R.I.P. Howard Zinn, historian.
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Wednesday, January 27, 2010
State Of the Union
A lot of other bloggers will be live-blogging the State of the Union speech tonight, so I'll take a pass on trying to write and watch at the same time; that adept at multi-tasking I am not. I suggest you check out Michael's work at The Reaction as he live-blogs from the True North, and I'll catch up with it later.
I can make a couple of predictions, though: before the speech the pundits will agree that this is The Most Important Speech President Obama Will Ever Deliver and that his presidency, his legacy, and his whole reason for being Hangs In the Balance. After it's over, the Republicans will shake their head sadly and wonder why the president isn't being bipartisan enough, which, according to House Minority Leader John Boehner, means that he's not caving in to the demands of the Republicans. And I am sure that someone will point out that only Time Will Tell how well the speech went... at least until Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer and the rest of the Villagers can get back to tweeting.
Enjoy the speech.
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I can make a couple of predictions, though: before the speech the pundits will agree that this is The Most Important Speech President Obama Will Ever Deliver and that his presidency, his legacy, and his whole reason for being Hangs In the Balance. After it's over, the Republicans will shake their head sadly and wonder why the president isn't being bipartisan enough, which, according to House Minority Leader John Boehner, means that he's not caving in to the demands of the Republicans. And I am sure that someone will point out that only Time Will Tell how well the speech went... at least until Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, Charles Krauthammer and the rest of the Villagers can get back to tweeting.
Enjoy the speech.
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Question of the Day
I've asked this before, but if The Big Bang Theory can do re-runs in January...
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Who is the most famous person you've ever met on a one-to-one basis (i.e. shook hands with and actually spoke to)?Jimmy Carter when he was president. After that comes the playwrights at the Inge Festival such as Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, and Stephen Sondheim.
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Plan B: We Will If They Will
From TPM, it appears that the House will go forward with passing the Senate's healthcare bill if the Senate will use reconciliation.
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"I thought we could get the votes in the House to pass the [Senate] bill if fixes to the Senate bill can be done," House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) told reporters today.Hope springs eternal... not just that they pass the damn bill but that the House and the Senate Democrats can actually get their act together.
"That would be a good option as far as I'm concerned," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), leader of the House progressives' health care task force. "I could support it. Reconciliation. Majority rule."
House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA)--one of the key architect's of the House health care bill--gives it the high sign. "I think reconciliation's an appropriate way to proceed on reconciling the budget requirements," he said. "It's available to us. That was very specifically handled that way when we passed the budget."
The hang up, they now say, is not on their end, but that they first need a high sign from the Senate that the two chambers can work in lockstep.
"We have to wait to see what they think they can pass," said Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY). "The sense they give us is that Reid doesn't know from issue to issue what they can get votes for."
But, he adds, it's the only path forward that makes any real sense. "It's the only practical way. Everyone's in the same place--we want to get as much as we can get.
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Worth Paying For
Oregon voters passed a pair of tax increases yesterday.
*"I Got Mine, Fuck You"
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The tax increases, which would raise about $727 million largely for public education and social services, were approved last year by the Legislature, but later put to a public referendum after opponents gathered signatures in a petition campaign.I hope the folks in Tallahassee are paying attention; it is possible to raise taxes to keep the lights on and the ceilings from caving in at the schools and do it with public approval. Not everyone's a money-grubbing tight-fisted IGMFY* knee-jerk "cut my taxes!" shrieker.
The Legislature, controlled by Democrats, has already put the $727 million into the current budget. So if the ballot items, known as Measures 66 and 67, had been rejected, lawmakers would have been forced to hold a special session to find other ways to reduce spending or raise revenue.
Tax measures have frequently failed at the polls in Oregon, one of only five states without a state sales tax. The state depends largely on income and property taxes to raise revenue.
Experts noted that, given the broader recession and Oregon’s 11 percent unemployment rate, Measures 66 and 67 had been carefully drawn to focus on wealthier residents and businesses.
*"I Got Mine, Fuck You"
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A Common Sense Republican
J.D. Hayworth, a former Congressman who labels himself as a "common-sense Republican," is running against John McCain in the Arizona senate primary because he thinks Mr. McCain is too moderate, too mavericky. And then there's the matter of Barack Obama's birth certificate.
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MATTHEWS: Are you as far right as the birthers? Are you one of those who believes that the President should have to prove that he’s a citizen of the United States and not an illegal immigrant? Are you that far right?So this is what passes for "common sense" in the Arizona G.O.P., huh? Good to know.
HAYWORTH: Well, gosh, we all had to bring our birth certificates to show we were who we said we were and we were the age we said we were to play football and youth sports. Shouldn’t we know exactly that anyone who wants to run for public office is a natural born citizen of the United States and is who they say they are?
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Calm Down
Oliver Willis offers some advice to liberals hyperventilating over the spending freeze proposal.
The one thing that I will give the Republicans kudos for is that they have the lock-step routine down cold. When one of their guys goes and does something that is both unexpected and out of the groove that they put him in, they manage to gulp and swallow it and come up with -- to them -- pitch-perfect talking points to feed to the Villagers like Chris Matthews and David Gregory. Behind the scenes they may be seething, but they dare not show it in public lest they be seen as less than loyal and excluded from the next clam bake at Burning Tree Country Club.
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I’m not saying liberals should keep themselves quiet and rubber stamp the president – people who make this argument are simply making a down payment on the straw to run their farms. But what I am saying is that liberals to often treat Democratic presidents like Maury Povich just told them that he has in fact failed the lie detector test.Exactly.
We saw that on Monday with the leaked story that the Obama administration planned some spending freezes. What we know about the proposal:
* It exists
* Defense spending is exempt
* If/when there’s a second stimulus or jobs bill it is exempt
* Health care reform would be exempt
* It is targeting redundancies, waste, excess, etc.
* The details of what will be targeted have not been released yet
That halfway story seemed to be all liberals needed in order to issue their own Fox News Alerts about the betrayal and then began the parade of frankly embarrassing hysteria.
[...]
How does one correct someone who is on your side but has bouts of straying like President Obama? Offer constructive criticism, rather than throwing his clothes on the lawn, for one. You’ve got a perfectly good right to bitch as well as moan about things, but the equivalent of crying “fire” in a crowded theater just makes for a crappy moviegoing experience.
Barack Obama is the center-left, charismatic politician he has been for most of his life in the public. There are numerous issues on which he should be much more progressive, not just for the overall fortunes of the progressive movement, but for the future strength of the country. But we won’t get there if every perceived misstep (especially one based on a less than clear story that is slowly being filled in) is greeted as if he kicked a puppy in the teeth. We shouldn’t help a media environment that already favors Democratic politicians wagging their finger at the base, nor should we allow Democratic pols to get away with conservative nonsense.
Measure pols like Obama on their words and hold them to high standards, but don’t profess anger at them for not holding up to a caricature you dreamily doodled in your Trapper Keeper.
The one thing that I will give the Republicans kudos for is that they have the lock-step routine down cold. When one of their guys goes and does something that is both unexpected and out of the groove that they put him in, they manage to gulp and swallow it and come up with -- to them -- pitch-perfect talking points to feed to the Villagers like Chris Matthews and David Gregory. Behind the scenes they may be seething, but they dare not show it in public lest they be seen as less than loyal and excluded from the next clam bake at Burning Tree Country Club.
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Tapped Out
Yet another sign that the universe seeks a balance in all things:
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Alleging a plot to tamper with phones in Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in the Hale Boggs Federal Building in downtown New Orleans, the FBI arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.The folks at Fox News are devastated.
Also arrested were Joseph Basel, Stan Dai and Robert Flanagan, all 24. Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, who is the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana. All four men were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
An official close to the investigation said one of the four was arrested with a listening device in a car blocks from the senator's offices. He spoke on condition of anonymity because that information was not included in official arresting documents.
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The Threat to Marriage
A witness at the Prop 8 trial testified that gay marriage threatens straight marriage because straight people have already screwed it up.
Or it could just be another logical step forward in the progress of human and social interaction.
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David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values, a private think tank in New York, took the stand as the second and final expert witness for the defense in the federal trial challenging California's ban on same-sex marriage. Lawyers for Proposition 8's sponsors are trying to prove the voter-approved measure serves a legitimate public purpose.Hmm. So because heterosexuals can't keep their own marriages intact, gays shouldn't be allowed to get married? How does Mr. Blankenhorn know this? He read it somewhere.
"If we move toward a widespread adoption of same-sex marriage, I believe the effect will be to significantly further and in some respects culminate the process of the deinstitutionalization of marriage," Blankenhorn said.
Blankenhorn acknowledged that heterosexuals were responsible for rising divorce and out-of-wedlock birth rates, but said allowing gays to marry could accelerate the process and possibly lead to the legalization of polygamy.
"The man-woman customary basis for marriage in turn reinforces limiting marriage to two," he said. "If you knock out one of those pillars, the other becomes less comprehensible and therefore less defensible."
David Boies, one of the lead lawyers for the two same-sex couples who sued to overturn Proposition 8, tried to discredit Blankenhorn by getting him to acknowledge that he has conducted no independent research on same-sex marriage and his only advanced degree is in comparative labor history.In spite of that "expert" testimony, who's to say that gay marriages can't be a stabilizing force for marriage? After all the stigma and prejudice they already face, a gay couple could be a role model for straight couples by showing that they can keep a commitment in spite of adversity. Gay marriage could be the best thing that could happen to marriage for everyone, including men and women who marry each other.
"I have not engaged in a scientific study were I find data and write up an article that would be published of that nature," Blankenhorn said. "I have read articles and had conversations with people and tried to be an informed person about it, and that really has been the extent of it."
Or it could just be another logical step forward in the progress of human and social interaction.
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Short Takes
Previewing the SOTU -- The big speech is tonight.
U.S. and Yemeni troops have been going after Al-Qaeda.
Toyota stops sales of eight recalled cars.
Saab is saved -- and now it's in Dutch.
Marco Rubio is ahead of Gov. Charlie Crist in a recent poll for the Republican Senate primary. (Maybe the governor should run as a Democrat.)
They're here -- E.T.'s in the form of microbes could already be on Earth.
And baby makes three -- A judge in Miami has finalized Florida's third adoption by a gay person in defiance of the law.
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U.S. and Yemeni troops have been going after Al-Qaeda.
Toyota stops sales of eight recalled cars.
Saab is saved -- and now it's in Dutch.
Marco Rubio is ahead of Gov. Charlie Crist in a recent poll for the Republican Senate primary. (Maybe the governor should run as a Democrat.)
They're here -- E.T.'s in the form of microbes could already be on Earth.
And baby makes three -- A judge in Miami has finalized Florida's third adoption by a gay person in defiance of the law.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Question of the Day
We are all creatures of habit. For instance, I always put my socks on left foot then right foot, and I open programs on my computer at work in a particular order (E-mail, database, radio feed) so that if I get them out of order, it disrupts my routine.
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What routine or ritual do you have that rarely changes?(This came to mind after watching The Big Bang Theory last night.)
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Just Stop Talking
South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer tried to extricate himself from his unfortunate comparison of people on public assistance to stray animals by saying "maybe the stray animals wasn't the best metaphor."
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In an interview with CNN, Bauer apologized, sort of.Okay, so now he's going to get PETA and the SPCA on his case for talking about abandoning cats. Some people don't know when to just stop talking.
"I never intended to tie people to animals," he said, before...tying people to animals: "If you have a cat, if you take it in your house and feed it and love it, what happens when you go out of town?"
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Old Whine In New Bottles
Digby reflects on the tea-baggers and their "revolutionary" movement.
When I was home last summer visiting my parents, we sat at a table next to some people at dinner who carried on in loud voices about how the country was going to hell in a handbasket, that minorities were taking over the country, and "that man in the White House" was going to destroy America. I think they were talking about FDR, but I couldn't be sure.
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Katie Couric sits down with a couple of teabaggers to find out what they really believe. And it turns out that they believe in individual liberty, fiscal responsibility, free markets, limited government, low taxes, a strong national defense and protecting our borders against the immigrant invasion. They think the government has usurped the constitution and see themselves as uber-patriots fulfilling the founders' intent. They believe fervently in American exceptionalism and that the nation is under mortal threat from foreign enemies without and traitors within. They are divided on social issues but insist that they are irrelevant to their movement --- they repeat Republican talking points verbatim but insist they are not Republicans. In other words they are standard issue conservative movement wingnuts without the cross.As J. Patrick Coolican points out, this isn't anything new. It's the same old paranoia that pops up every twenty years or so.
[...]
This is the right wing I grew up with --- before the God Squad was recruited and turned the movement into the panty sniffing morals police. I know them very well. They are racists and conspiracy mongers and they have absolutely no business being anywhere near real power. The Big Money boyz know they have nothing to fear from them --- indeed, they sponsor them. They are good Republicans even if they don't know it.
Every few years, usually though not always during a Democratic administration, the movement reappears, with a similar set of grievances: The expansion of government is moving us toward socialism; there’s been a dangerous weakening of the national security apparatus but also, paradoxically, the threat of police state provisions at home; an alien subversive of nefarious intentions, composed of cosmopolitan elites and corrupt “one worlders” has infected the government.I remember when I was in high school in the late 1960's we had some family friends who were way over on the right wing -- Barry Goldwater was a moderate to them -- and there were a couple who kept guns in their house after the riots in 1967 because they were sure the blacks would come after them, all snug in their beds in the lily-white suburbs of Northwestern Ohio. I used to call the "Let Freedom Ring" recording of the local John Birch Society to giggle to their rants about the Commies and the Black Panthers who were corrupting all the "good Negroes." I remember reading furious letters to the editor of The Blade because the University of Toledo was putting on a production of "Hair," and it had nothing to do with the fact that it's not really that good a show: it was about sex, drugs, rock and roll, naked people and homosexuals! They talked about voting for George Wallace but ended up going with Nixon and said the kids at Kent State got what they deserved. (They also had kids my age, and some of them ended up in rehab or running off to join a commune. Coincidence? Perhaps.)
In the 1950s, conservatives were angered when their champion, Ohio Sen. Robert Taft, was shoved aside by Republican elites in favor of the moderate Dwight Eisenhower.
[...]
The most fitting parallel, however, may be the early 1960s, when right-wing activists believed the civil rights movement was the work of the Soviets and, as Ronald Reagan alleged, Medicare a push for socialized medicine.
“The tropes, the rhetoric, the cultural profile — there are profound similarities,” says Rick Perlstein, who has completed two books of a trilogy on the history of the conservative movement and is widely viewed by conservatives and liberals alike as its key chronicler.
Like President Barack Obama, John F. Kennedy was a “first” — the first Catholic president in a nation with a long history of anti-Catholic bigotry and conspiracy theories about powerful papists. Like Obama, Kennedy’s administration was staffed with Eastern elites from the best schools and largest corporations, all viewed warily by Sun Belt and rural Americans.
Another parallel, Olmsted says, the Tea Party movement is not unlike a right-wing activist group of the time, The John Birch Society. “The John Birch Society was extreme, but also connected to the Republican Party, and Republican politicians had to make a decision about whether they were with the movement,” she says.
Then there’s the paranoia: Before it was communist plots, now it is “death panels” and the belief that the administration is eager to seize guns.
Gun sales have skyrocketed since Obama’s election. In November 2008, FBI background checks for prospective gun buyers rose 41.6 percent compared with a year earlier, even though Democratic politicians have shown no interest in meaningful gun control in years and have blamed the issue for electoral losses in 1994 and 2000.
Even reasonable Tea Party activists, such as some from the recent Las Vegas event interviewed by the Sun, take it as given that Obama is a socialist. It hardly seems to matter that a significant chunk of the stimulus was a tax cut, or that his chief economist is centrist Larry Summers, or that the bailouts of the auto and banking industries began under President George W. Bush, or that Reagan favored the bailout of Chrysler in 1980, or that Reagan raised taxes to save Social Security.
Obama is a socialist, if he’s not a fascist, a Nazi, or a totalitarian.
When I was home last summer visiting my parents, we sat at a table next to some people at dinner who carried on in loud voices about how the country was going to hell in a handbasket, that minorities were taking over the country, and "that man in the White House" was going to destroy America. I think they were talking about FDR, but I couldn't be sure.
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Your Slip Is Showing
New Hampshire State Rep. Alfred Baldasaro (R) has some issues with marriage equality, insisting that it's not normal.
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So because I disagree on something that's pushed down my throat, I'm supposed to roll over because, representative, you think it's normal? I'm sorry you got the wrong person.Dr. Freud is calling on Line 1.
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The Calls Are Getting Through
The push by folks like Steve Benen and others (including this humble blog) to call our representatives in the House to "pass the damn bill" (PTDB) seem to be getting through. Mark Kleiman called his Senator:
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Today I called the Washington office of Sen. Diane Feinstein. (I’m reliably told that, for those without the time to make a personal visit either to Washington or to the local office of a legislator, faxes are best, calls second-best, and emails nowhere. Snailmail is effective – more effective if handwritten – but now very slow due to screening. There’s a logic to this: the more effort a communication takes, the more impressive it is.)But it seems to be having some effect.
The polite young man who answered the phone said that he could take a comment about a legislative matter, listened politely to about three polite sentences of Pass the Damned Bill and an expression of displeasure about DiFi’s “slow down” comment, assured me that the Senator had voted for the bill and was eager to see it pass – and then gave me the first ray of sunshine I’ve seen since the catastrophe in Massachusetts. He said that they’d been getting a lot of Pass the Damned Bill phone calls and wanted to know whether my call was part of an organized effort.
I told him that it wasn’t, since I don’t know anything less organized than Blue Blogistan.
Democratic congressional leaders are coalescing around their last, best hope for salvaging President Barack Obama's sweeping health care overhaul.Let's put it this way: if they get this close and chicken out now, it won't be the votes in the Democratic caucus that matter. It will be the votes in November that will.
Their plan is to pass the Senate bill with some changes to accommodate House Democrats, senior Democratic aides said Monday. Leaders will present the idea to the rank and file this week, but it's unclear whether they have enough votes to carry it out.
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Freeze
I'm not an economist, so I think I need someone to explain to me why freezing spending when you're trying to expand the economy is a good idea.
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Facing voter anger over mounting budget deficits, President Barack Obama will ask Congress to freeze spending for some domestic programs for three years beginning in 2011, administration officials said Monday.So I'm trying to figure this out. It's not enough to really make a huge difference in the budget and special interest groups will lobby against it. The Republicans will reflexively hate it because that's what they do, and so I wonder why the president is even bothering to throw them a bone. It will also piss off the liberals (it already has Rachel Maddow and Bob Herbert unhappy), and I'm not really sure how this fits in with the president's attempts to stimulate the economy. Like I said, I need someone to explain it to me.
Separately, Obama unveiled plans to help a middle class "under assault" pay its bills, save for retirement and care for kids and aging parents.
The spending freeze would apply to a relatively small portion of the federal budget, affecting a $477 billion pot of money available for domestic agencies whose budgets are approved by Congress each year. Some of those agencies could get increases, others would have to face cuts; such programs got an almost 10 percent increase this year. The federal budget total was $3.5 trillion.
The three-year plan will be part of the budget Obama will submit Feb. 1, senior administration officials said, commenting on condition of anonymity to reveal private details.
The Pentagon, veterans programs, foreign aid and the Homeland Security Department would be exempt from the freeze.
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It Is a Big Deal
Someone needs to explain to Bill Gates that the proposed Ugandan law that would execute people for being gay is, in fact, a "big deal."
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates has done tremendous work on global health issues through his foundation — including donating hundreds of millions of dollars to fight HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. But in a recent interview with the Seattle Times, Gates passed on an opportunity to denounce the potential law, suggesting that it’s not very important:Getting the message out and finding new tools to fight a disease doesn't really matter that much if there is a government effort out to jail and execute people who are gay, regardless of their HIV status; AIDS is being spread by heterosexuals in Africa, too. And so is ignorance.
Q: Looking at health efforts in Africa, such as HIV prevention and treatment, are you concerned about the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill, and have you spoken to anyone there about it?
A: The spread of AIDS is a huge problem and obviously we’re very involved. I talk in my letter about the great success with this male circumcision effort, and preventative drug trials. There’s a tendency to think in the U.S. just because a law says something that it’s a big deal. In Africa if you want to talk about how to save lives, it’s not just laws that count. There’s a stigma no matter what that law says, for sex workers, men having sex with men, that’s always been a problem for AIDS. It relates to groups that aren’t that visible. AIDS itself is subject to incredible stigma. Open involvement is a helpful thing. I wouldn’t overly focus on that. In terms of how many people are dying in Africa, it’s not about the law on the books; it’s about getting the message out and the new tools.
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Defending Prop 8
The plaintiffs in the Prop 8 federal trial in San Francisco rested their case yesterday.
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The lawyers for the plaintiffs rested their case after spending more than nine days presenting evidence on the meaning of marriage, the nature of sexual orientation, and the role of religion in shaping attitudes about both.The judge has indicated his ruling will be issued several weeks after testimony is finished.
Prominent litigators Theodore Olson and David Boies asserted that Proposition 8 was a product of anti-gay bias without justification.
Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors called their first witness, a Claremont College political scientist.
Nicole Moss, another lawyer for those sponsors, said the defendants might call campaign manager Frank Schubert to the witness stand to dispute the inflammatory messages on the videotape came from the campaign.
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"Proud Racist"
Bob Kellar, a councilman in Santa Clarita, California, celebrated National Brotherhood Week in his own way at an anti-immigration rally organized by the local Tea Party:
Thank you for clearing that up.
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We have got to wake up America. I know you guys are engaged and you understand. But I’m telling you this is serious. And if I sound like a radical, thank you. I consider that a compliment…The only thing I heard back from a couple people was “Bob you sound like a racist.” I said, “That’s good. If that’s what you think I am because I happen to believe in America. I’m a proud racist. You’re darn right I am.”He insists "his remarks weren’t intended to 'express animosity towards non-whites.'"
Thank you for clearing that up.
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Rush: "I'm a Miserable Pig"
Rush Limbaugh finally comes clean.
HT to the FC.
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I know there are a lot of people out there who are upset about some of the things I've been saying on my radio program lately. My comments about the situation in Haiti have hurt and angered many Americans who genuinely care about the plight of the Haitian people, and that hurt and anger will likely never go away. Many of you are probably wondering, "What would compel a human being to say things like that?" Well, here's your answer: I am a very bad person.Before you get your hopes up, it's from The Onion.
HT to the FC.
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Short Takes
Suicide bombings in Baghdad: "Three bombs exploded outside major hotels in Baghdad, including one used by Western journalists, stirring fears of escalating violence as Iraq heads toward elections."
International leaders agree to a plan to help rebuild Haiti's capital.
The Supreme Court will not block the extradition of Manuel Noriega to France.
Ben Bernanke will probably be confirmed.
Beau Biden, son of the vice president, will not run for the Senate from Delaware.
Home sales were off again in December.
A piece of the action: Some Florida lawmakers want to open full casinos.
R.I.P. Pernell Roberts, TV star from Bonanza and Trapper John, M.D.; Charles "Mac" Mathias, former Senator from Maryland.
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International leaders agree to a plan to help rebuild Haiti's capital.
The Supreme Court will not block the extradition of Manuel Noriega to France.
Ben Bernanke will probably be confirmed.
Beau Biden, son of the vice president, will not run for the Senate from Delaware.
Home sales were off again in December.
A piece of the action: Some Florida lawmakers want to open full casinos.
R.I.P. Pernell Roberts, TV star from Bonanza and Trapper John, M.D.; Charles "Mac" Mathias, former Senator from Maryland.
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Monday, January 25, 2010
Question of the Day
Ann Weber of The Blade collected some of the old family sayings that we all grew up with: "Life isn't fair, so get used to it;" "Wipe that smirk off your face;" "Two wrongs don't make a right;" "You're not leaving the table until you've cleaned your plate;" and the perennial favorite: "Just wait 'til your dad comes home." So...
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What were some of your family's favorite sayings or words of wisdom?
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He's The One?
Remember when the meme was that Barack Obama was "The One," the messiah, the savior of American political thought, the transcendent messenger? As Kevin Drum noted,
I'm not saying Mr. Brown is buying it, but still, I thought the Republicans were the folks who sneered at "celebrity" politicians. (Sarah? Sarah Who?)
HT to Steve M.
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I don't personally know of a single person who felt that way, and the fact that he got huge crowds for his speeches means only that he was a charismatic guy, lots of people liked what he had to say, and liberals were stoked at the prospect of dumping Bush and Cheney. Sure, maybe a few thought he was the salvation of American politics, but there's really not much evidence that this was a very widespread belief -- and no evidence at all that Obama himself ever believed it.The reason the question comes up is because now it's Scott Brown, the Senator-elect from Massachusetts, who is being hailed by the conservatives as The One.
In fact, this is mostly the triumph of a conservative narrative. It was conservatives who spent months during the 2008 campaign taunting Obama for his alleged messiah status and it was conservatives who were constantly misquoting him about being "The One" or griping about how he thought his silver tongue could save the world and induce vicious dictators to swoon.
I'm not saying Mr. Brown is buying it, but still, I thought the Republicans were the folks who sneered at "celebrity" politicians. (Sarah? Sarah Who?)
HT to Steve M.
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Stray Animals
According to Georgia's South Carolina's lieutenant governor, there's no point in helping poor people because all it does is encourage them.
(Thanks to FM for the correction.)
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Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is defending his comment which compared government assistance programs to "feeding stray animals."This is what they mean by "compassionate conservatives," huh?
Bauer made the comparison during a town hall meeting Friday in Fountain Inn. He was saying poor parents of students who eat free or reduced-price meals in school cafeterias should be required to attend parent-teacher conferences, or the students should go without.
"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed," Bauer said, according to the Greenville News. "You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better."
(Thanks to FM for the correction.)
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Olbermann Takes It
Say what you will about Keith Olbermann -- pompous, loudmouthed, over the top -- but one of his saving graces is that when someone else makes fun of him and does it well, he doesn't mind putting it out there for everyone else to see. Case in point, last week Jon Stewart gave it to him good for his attacks on Scott Brown. Mr. Olbermann responded by taking it all with good humor and -- for him -- a degree of self-awareness.
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
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Grayson's Proposals
Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) is no shrinking violet when it comes to hitting back at the Supreme Court's ruling last week about campaign finance.
HT to Balloon Juice.
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Here are the bills that Congressman Grayson has introduced, and what they aim to accomplish:The titles need some work -- it sounds like they're doing nothing but baiting the GOP -- but it's the thought that counts.
1) The Business Should Mind Its Own Business Act (H.R. 4431): Implements a 500% excise tax on corporate contributions to political committees, and on corporate expenditures on political advocacy campaigns.
2) The Public Company Responsibility Act (H.R. 4435): Prevents companies making political contributions and expenditures from trading their stock on national exchanges.
3) The End Political Kickbacks Act (H.R. 4434): Prevents for-profit corporations that receive money from the government from making political contributions, and limits the amount that employees of those companies can contribute.
4) The Corporate Propaganda Sunshine Act (H.R. 4432): Requires publicly-traded companies to disclose in SEC filings money used for the purpose of influencing public opinion, rather than to promoting their products and services.
5) The Ending Corporate Collusion Act (H.R. 4433): Applies antitrust law to industry PACs.
HT to Balloon Juice.
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Perspective
More people voted for Martha Coakley for Senator from Massachusetts than all the people who attended the Washington, D.C. tea party rallies in April and September combined.
So remember that when someone tells you that the tea-baggers "speak for America."
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So remember that when someone tells you that the tea-baggers "speak for America."
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Obama's Rove
David Plouffe, the manager of the Obama campaign in 2008, had an op-ed in the Washington Post on Sunday that reads like a Knute Rockne-style half-time locker room pep talk for Democrats.
Mr. Plouffe follows up with an ambitious political agenda for the Obama administration and Democrats -- job creation, further implementation of the stimulus package, ethics reform, and getting "great campaigns" going for Democrats. You can bet that this is what we're going to be seeing coming out of the White House since Mr. Plouffe has just been named as a senior adviser to the President, following in the footsteps of previous campaign wizards ... like Karl Rove. Let's hope that Mr. Plouffe has a bit more integrity than that role model; he seems to be aware of the comparison when he issues a stern warning to his fellow Democrats.
There's obviously some good advice in here for the Democrats at a time when it seems like they've run aground. It's helpful for them in that this is coming from the White House, which indicates that they get it: they're in trouble and they need to do something about it from a political standpoint as well as actually making policy. And yes, it is possible for the White House to run a political operation at the same time it runs the country's business and not commit a felony or a violation of the secrecy acts in the process.
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In 2006 and 2008, voters sent an unmistakable message: We want decisive change. This was not just a change of political parties. Instead of a government that works for the entitled and special interests, a government that looks out for Wall Street, they wanted a government that works better for them, a government that plays the role it should to help foster the security of the middle class.First on the list is to pass a "meaningful health insurance reform package right away." He doesn't say to pass the one that is hanging by a thread in Congress, but I assume he's leaning towards that.
Many of last year's accomplishments are down payments on those principles.
We still have much to do before November, and time is running short. Every race has unique characteristics, but there are a few general things that Democrats can do to strengthen our hand.
Mr. Plouffe follows up with an ambitious political agenda for the Obama administration and Democrats -- job creation, further implementation of the stimulus package, ethics reform, and getting "great campaigns" going for Democrats. You can bet that this is what we're going to be seeing coming out of the White House since Mr. Plouffe has just been named as a senior adviser to the President, following in the footsteps of previous campaign wizards ... like Karl Rove. Let's hope that Mr. Plouffe has a bit more integrity than that role model; he seems to be aware of the comparison when he issues a stern warning to his fellow Democrats.
-- No bed-wetting. This will be a tough election for our party and for many Republican incumbents as well. Instead of fearing what may happen, let's prove that we have more than just the brains to govern -- that we have the guts to govern. Let's fight like hell, not because we want to preserve our status, but because we sincerely believe too many everyday Americans will continue to lose if Republicans and special interests win.At least he didn't say "win one for the Gipper." (That's the other guys.)
This country is at a crossroads. We are trying to boost the economy in the short term while also doing the long-term work on health care, energy, education and financial reform that will lay a strong foundation for decades to come. Let's remember why we won in 2008 and deliver on what we promised. If Democrats will show the country we can lead when it's hard, we may not have perfect election results, but November will be nothing like the nightmare that talking heads have forecast.
There's obviously some good advice in here for the Democrats at a time when it seems like they've run aground. It's helpful for them in that this is coming from the White House, which indicates that they get it: they're in trouble and they need to do something about it from a political standpoint as well as actually making policy. And yes, it is possible for the White House to run a political operation at the same time it runs the country's business and not commit a felony or a violation of the secrecy acts in the process.
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Short Takes
A passenger jet crashed after taking off from Beirut, Lebanon.
Haitians need shelters; and few buildings there had insurance.
President Obama will offer aid to struggling families in the State of the Union.
Wal-Mart's Sam's Club is facing a lot of layoffs.
China says internet controls are here to stay.
There's another primary in Florida this year besides the one for the Senate.
It will be the Saints versus the Colts in the Super Bowl, which is taking place here in South Florida. Yip yah.
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Haitians need shelters; and few buildings there had insurance.
President Obama will offer aid to struggling families in the State of the Union.
Wal-Mart's Sam's Club is facing a lot of layoffs.
China says internet controls are here to stay.
There's another primary in Florida this year besides the one for the Senate.
It will be the Saints versus the Colts in the Super Bowl, which is taking place here in South Florida. Yip yah.
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Sunday, January 24, 2010
Sunday Reading
Our Man in Tehran -- The Toronto Globe and Mail has an exclusive story about Canada's role in helping the United States deal with the Iranian revolution in 1979.
Frank Rich -- Getting the mojo back after Massachusetts.
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Ken Taylor, the Canadian diplomat celebrated 30 years ago for hiding U.S. embassy personnel during the Iranian revolution, actively spied for the Americans and helped them plan an armed incursion into the country.More below the fold.
Mr. Taylor, ambassador in Iran from 1977 to 1980, became “the de facto CIA station chief” in Tehran after the U.S. embassy was seized by students on Nov. 4, 1979, and 63 Americans, including the four-member Central Intelligence Agency contingent, were taken hostage.
Had his espionage been discovered, Mr. Taylor told The Globe and Mail in an interview this week, “the Iranians wouldn't have tolerated it. And the consequences may have been severe.”
His intelligence-gathering activities were kept secret by agreement between the Canadian and the U.S. governments, although his role in sheltering six Americans and helping to spirit them out of Iran was later made public, winning him and the Canadian government widespread U.S. gratitude.
Trent University historian Robert Wright, author of Our Man in Tehran , a new account of the incident released today, strongly implies that then-prime-minister Joe Clark insisted Mr. Taylor's spying be kept quiet, fearing a negative political fallout if the Canadian public learned that one of its envoys was a U.S. spook.
Mr. Taylor himself said he never expected the story to come out. “It had been under wraps for 30 years, and my assumption was that it would be for another 30 years. I didn't expect to be here to talk about it.”
The phrase “de facto CIA station chief” appears in Prof. Wright's book, the manuscript of which Mr. Taylor saw and approved in advance of publication.
The request that he provide “aggressive intelligence” for the Americans was made personally by U.S. president Jimmy Carter to Mr. Clark, likely in a telephone conversation on Nov. 30, 1979, according to Prof. Wright.
Mr. Clark gave his approval, and informed his foreign minister, Flora MacDonald, who passed the request on to Mr. Taylor. He instantly agreed.
“I saw this [the hostage-taking] as something that wasn't right,” Mr. Taylor said. “Anything in a modest way that I could contribute … looking for some sort of solution to this, I was quite prepared to do. I felt strongly about it. And I felt we could get away with it. They weren't going to catch us.”
Frank Rich -- Getting the mojo back after Massachusetts.
It’s too late to rewrite that history, but it may not be too late for White House decisiveness. Whatever happens now — good, bad or ugly — must happen fast. Each day Washington spends dickering over health care is another day lost while the election-year economy, stupid, remains intractable for Americans who are suffering.The Real Frank Serpico -- The man behind the movie is still telling his story.
[...]
Last year the president pointedly studied J.F.K.’s decision-making process on Vietnam while seeking the way forward in Afghanistan. In the end, he didn’t emulate his predecessor and escalated the war. We’ll see how that turns out. Meanwhile, Obama might look at another pivotal moment in the Kennedy presidency — and this time heed the example.
The incident unfolded in April 1962 — some 15 months into the new president’s term — when J.F.K. was infuriated by the U.S. Steel chairman’s decision to break a White House-brokered labor-management contract agreement and raise the price of steel (but not wages). Kennedy was no radical. He hailed from the American elite — like Obama, a product of Harvard, but, unlike Obama, the patrician scion of a wealthy family. And yet he, like that other Harvard patrician, F.D.R., had no hang-ups about battling his own class.
Kennedy didn’t settle for the generic populist rhetoric of Obama’s latest threats to “fight” unspecified bankers some indeterminate day. He instead took the strong action of dressing down U.S. Steel by name. As Richard Reeves writes in his book “President Kennedy,” reporters were left “literally gasping.” The young president called out big steel for threatening “economic recovery and stability” while Americans risked their lives in Southeast Asia. J.F.K. threatened to sic his brother’s Justice Department on corporate records and then held firm as his opponents likened his flex of muscle to the power grabs of Hitler and Mussolini. (Sound familiar?) U.S. Steel capitulated in two days. The Times soon reported on its front page that Kennedy was at “a high point in popular support.”
Can anyone picture Obama exerting such take-no-prisoners leadership to challenge those who threaten our own economic recovery and stability at a time of deep recession and war? That we can’t is a powerful indicator of why what happened in Massachusetts will not stay in Massachusetts if this White House fails to reboot.
Four decades later, Frank Serpico is still bearded, handsome and a flamboyant dresser. At 73, he seems spry enough to chase down and collar a perp; on that wintry walk through the woods, he interrogated a man carrying a sled, and followed a trail of blood drops in the snow until it disappeared. Not long before, he had sniffed out a dumper of garbage on his property and reported him to the police.Doonesbury -- Hey, what's your chemical signature?
Mr. Serpico still carries the detective shield he was awarded as he left the department on a disability pension and, often, his licensed revolver, with which he takes target practice on his 50-acre property not far from this Columbia County hamlet. He also still carries bullet fragments lodged just below his brain from the drug shooting; he is deaf in his left ear, and has nerve damage in his left leg.
For many, “Serpico” conjures the face of Al Pacino, who won his first Golden Globe award for his star turn in the film. The movie — along with news reports and the best-selling biography of the same name — seared the public memory with painful images: of the honest cop bleeding in a squad car rushing to the hospital, where, over months of rehabilitation, he received cards telling him to rot in hell. Instead, Mr. Serpico took his fluffy sheepdog, Alfie, and boarded a ship to Europe; the film’s closing credits describe him as “now living somewhere in Switzerland.”
Which was true at the time. After years traveling abroad, Mr. Serpico returned to the United States around 1980 and lived as a nomad, out of a camper. He finally settled about two hours north of New York City, where he lives a monastic life in a one-room cabin he built in the woods near the Hudson River. In 1997, he spoke out after the brutal beatings of Abner Louima in a Brooklyn station house, but mostly he stays far from his old nemesis.
Now, all these years later, Mr. Serpico is working on his own version of the harrowing adventures chronicled by Peter Maas’s biography, which sold more than three million copies (royalties from the book and the movie have helped him live comfortably without working). The memoir begins with the same awful scene as the film: Serpico shot in the face during a heroin bust on Driggs Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Feb. 3, 1971. Working title: “Before I Go.”
“It’s the rest of the story,” he said recently over lunch in the self-service cafe of a health-food store here in Harlemville. “It’s more personal. I used to think, ‘How can I write my life story? I’m still living it.’ ” Though he is healthy, he added, “I’m getting close to the line, so I figure I better get busy.”
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Short Takes
Bringing back the team that got him elected, the president moves to consolidate his message for the midterms.
Vice President Biden says the Blackwater case dismissal will be appealed.
Afghanistan postpones elections.
More than 150,000 bodies have been buried in Haiti.
Miami hotels hope that the Jets are in the Super Bowl.
R.I.P. Earl Wild, renown pianist and composer.
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Vice President Biden says the Blackwater case dismissal will be appealed.
Afghanistan postpones elections.
More than 150,000 bodies have been buried in Haiti.
Miami hotels hope that the Jets are in the Super Bowl.
R.I.P. Earl Wild, renown pianist and composer.
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Saturday, January 23, 2010
It's Still Official
Two years ago tonight...January 23, 2008:
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For the record, it hasn't.It's official. I am now a New York-produced playwright.
The opening of Can't Live Without You at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre was well-attended, and the production, done on a shoestring budget in a small space with limited resources, had the heart and drive of a full-tilt Broadway production. (By the way, a lot of great theatre companies, including the legendary Circle Rep, got started in spaces just like Manhattan Rep.) And when Will Poston strode out on stage as Bobby to open the play, I said to myself (and to my father sitting next to me), "That's him. That's Bobby."
When the lights came up at the end of the play and I met with the cast and Adam Natale, the director, I told them that they got it; it was what I meant. Even with the occasional opening night jitters and expected bumps, the play came through and so did the characters. Yes, I was taking little notes in my head about how I can tighten things up here and there -- plays are always being re-written -- but now that I have actually seen and heard it, I know now what the characters are like in their full dimensions, and with their guidance, I can make it better.
As I noted in the earlier post, I was numb to all the excitement and the anticipation that this event was generating. That is, until about 5:30 tonight as I was walking to dinner with my parents and we walked through Times Square with all the lights, the signs, the theatre marquees for Mary Poppins and Young Frankenstein and all the other theatres up and down Broadway and 42nd Street and beyond. It suddenly hit me: they are doing a play of mine here. In New York. Right over there in that building off 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, in the center of the theatre world that has been the goal and the dream of playwrights for generations. My play. Absolute strangers are going to see and hear something I wrote, meet the characters, hear their voices, hear my thoughts. I know the word "awesome" gets overused to the point of meaninglessness, but right now, it's about the only word that I can think of that describes what I felt when it hit me. And I hope the feeling never goes away.
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Saturday Night at the Movies
Guys and Dolls (1955) in memory of Jean Simmons, who played Sister Sarah.
Brando sings!
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Brando sings!
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Make Them Stop
An interesting side effect of the Supreme Court ruling this week about campaign finance: a lot of corporations are pleading with Congress to pass public financing so that Congress won't be hitting them up for money.
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Roughly 40 executives from companies including Playboy Enterprises, ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s, the Seagram’s liquor company, toymaker Hasbro, Delta Airlines and Men’s Wearhouse sent a letter to congressional leaders Friday urging them to approve public financing for House and Senate campaigns. They say they are tired of getting fundraising calls from lawmakers — and fear it will only get worse after Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling.It sounds like a case of the corporations wanting to be the ones to decide who they're going to buy.
[...]
“Members of Congress already spend too much time raising money from large contributors,” the business executives’ letter says. “And often, many of us individually are on the receiving end of solicitation phone calls from members of Congress. With additional money flowing into the system due to the court’s decision, the fundraising pressure on members of Congress will only increase.”
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Short Takes
Fed Chair Ben Bernanke might not keep his job.
Feisty -- President Obama goes to Ohio and goes on the offensive for jobs and healthcare.
It was not about them -- Celebrities checked their egos at the door last night for the Hope For Haiti Now telethon.
The U.S. Marines are leaving Iraq.
The rest of the story -- Paul Harvey and J. Edgar Hoover were pen pals.
R.I.P. Jean Simmons.
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Feisty -- President Obama goes to Ohio and goes on the offensive for jobs and healthcare.
It was not about them -- Celebrities checked their egos at the door last night for the Hope For Haiti Now telethon.
The U.S. Marines are leaving Iraq.
The rest of the story -- Paul Harvey and J. Edgar Hoover were pen pals.
R.I.P. Jean Simmons.
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Friday, January 22, 2010
Hope For Haiti Now
If you're trying to watch TV tonight, just about every channel -- including The Weather Channel -- is carrying the Hope for Haiti Now telethon. If you're so inclined, go to the site or call 1-877-99-HAITI (994-8484).
Notably, Fox News is not carrying it. Gee, I wonder why.
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Notably, Fox News is not carrying it. Gee, I wonder why.
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And Now, As Promised, A Special Comment
Jon Stewart nails Keith Olbermann.
He and Ben Affleck could tag-team K.O.
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| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Special Comment - Keith Olbermann's Name-Calling | ||||
| ||||
He and Ben Affleck could tag-team K.O.
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Blow Chunks
The latest trial balloon from the House Democrats is to pass healthcare piecemeal:
To quote Steve Benen: Pass. The. Damn. Bill.
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Freaked out and angry House Democrats don't know how to move forward on health care reform. But a significant contingent say it's time to radically rethink the approach: Instead of passing comprehensive reform, these Democrats say they should break the House's health care bill into chunks, pass their favorite ones, and send them over to the Senate to see if they can pass.Paul Krugman has a ready reply.
The gambit is political: get Republicans on the record opposing changes to unpopular insurance industry practices. But it comes with hidden dangers, both politically and substantively. And leading health care experts and advocates say these Democrats need to get real.
A message to House Democrats: This is your moment of truth. You can do the right thing and pass the Senate health care bill. Or you can look for an easy way out, make excuses and fail the test of history.We're way beyond worrying about the political aspects of this sad situation. The Democrats are worried about being perceived as weak and feckless? Are you kidding? See that smudge of smoke on the horizon? Yeah, that's the ship that's already sailed on that. So the best they can do to salvage what's left of their dignity is to butch it up, suck it up, know that some of their most vulnerable members are going to lose in November, and do what's right for the millions of people who don't have any kind of health insurance or those who stand to lose it between now and the time they actually come up with something in 2025.
To quote Steve Benen: Pass. The. Damn. Bill.
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Question of the Day
What was the first book you remember reading?It's hard to go back through the mists of time and remember when the little markings on a pages turned into letters and words, but try as I might, I cannot remember a time when I could not read. I'm sure my parents will remember when I picked up the habit.
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