Happy Hallowe'en

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Pontiac -- 1926-2010

Today is a milestone in American automotive history. At midnight, the Pontiac brand will officially cease to exist.

The G.M. brand that was advertised for “driving excitement,” Pontiac brought Americans the Bonneville, GTO, Firebird and other venerable nameplates. Sportier than a Chevrolet but less uppity than an Oldsmobile or Buick, the best Pontiacs, recognizable by their split grille and red arrowhead emblem in the middle, were stylish yet affordable cars with big, macho engines.

Its biggest triumph was the GTO, developed by Mr. DeLorean, the brand’s rebellious chief engineer, in violation of a G.M. policy dictating the maximum size of a car’s engine. The GTO was a hit, and the age of the muscle car had begun.

Before Pontiac grew its bulging muscles, though, it had a reputation as a rather dowdy car; one that your grandparents -- including mine -- kept in the garage and drove to work or church. It wasn't until Bunky Knudsen gave it the "wide-track" ride, the GTO option, and the Firebird in the 1960's that it became the car of surf songs and Smokey and the Bandit movies. It was the car that put power in the sedan with the big engines and named a model, the Bonneville, after the track where land-speed records were set.

I remember Pontiac, though, as the first car I remember our family owning: a 1954 station wagon, light green with dark green trim, a three-speed column shift, and a big round radio speaker that I tried to steer like a steering wheel. And I think that's when I fell in love with cars. My parents can tell you, much to their chagrin, that I was able to name the brands of cars long before I could master the multiplication tables. And though we switched to Fords when the green wagon was traded in, I harbored a secret desire to have a Pontiac station wagon again. Even after my love for the Mustang went from crush to reality, I still felt drawn to the brand that reminded me of the well-dressed and well-built teenager who was polite to the grown-ups at the country club at the cotillion but also liked to smoke behind the tennis court and drag-race down Louisiana Avenue when the cops weren't looking.

So when the chance came in 1988 to get a nearly-brand new Pontiac 6000 Safari wagon with all the trimmings and the big V-6 fuel-injected engine, I bought it sight unseen from Hertz Car Sales in Traverse City, Michigan. I decided to keep it as long as it lasted. That was nearly twenty-two years and over 250,000 miles ago, and it's still in the garage, keeping company with my other love, my Mustang, and still capable of giving off that distinctive exhaust growl. In fact, I drove it last night to my car club's annual progressive dinner, and we rose and raised a round of applause for the name of the car that many of my fellow club members have owned, still own, and will now join that gallery of brands that have left us.

There's a lot of speculation as to why G.M. decided to end the run of the Pontiac: the recession, the over-extension of the company's reach to all markets, the lack of focus as to what Pontiac should be in an age when sporty and muscular were replaced by safe and frugal. Ironically, it might have been that what rescued the name fifty years ago was what killed it in the end, and if it had stayed as the dowdy maiden aunt, it would have survived. Personally, I think that if G.M. hadn't spent the billions of dollars creating a brand -- Saturn -- out of nothing to try to build a better Honda or tried to go for the hip and trendy with the acquisition of Saab or the butch overcompensation of Hummer (which also expires tonight), they could have redefined both Pontiac and its pre-deceaser, Oldsmobile, and filled the needs of the automotive markets and given brands that have been through many evolutionary changes a chance to survive. Whatever the reason, it's too bad that a brand that brought a lot of innovation and fun to driving had to fade away because someone forgot that they were there.

The last Pontiac rolled off the assembly line last November; tonight marks the end of the franchises with the Pontiac dealers. But for a lot of people, including those of us who have owned one of the 40 million cars with the name, it's a passage from life to legend and fond memories, which is a pretty good way to go.

(In recognition that the car was built in Oshawa, Ontario, I added the CDN badge.)
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Sunday Reading

We Can't Hear You -- Carl Hiaasen hits the Mute button.

At this point, the public should be fairly numb to all droning charges and countercharges. People just want the election to be over. From one side of the country to the other, this campaign has been so base – and so barren of honesty – that voters can be forgiven for their rock-bottom expectations.

The most intriguing thing to know about the political ads – which would almost make them worth watching – is who’s putting up the mountains of money. Good luck finding out.

Deep-pocket donors hide behind “political action committees” with patriotic-sounding names and the most venal, self-serving intentions. Thanks to the comedians at the U.S. Supreme Court, major corporations and unions are now free to finance attack ads with no spending limits, and a virtual guarantee of anonymity.

Bankrolled by free-spending special interests, elections can only get uglier and more exhausting. Civility will be scarce; the truth, even scarcer.

So in front of our televisions we sit, mulling over a stalled economy, a precipitous deficit and a war that’s costing more than $2 billion a week, even more in American blood. Our reward is to be swamped with gangrenous political ads that appeal chiefly to suckers, xenophobes and undermedicated paranoids.

Still, it’s impossible to go forward as citizens without believing there are some smart and decent people – Democrats, Republicans and independents – who are serious about working together to turn things around at home and in Washington.

You wouldn’t know it from watching their campaign commercials. In fact, you wouldn’t know jack.

Mute button, please.

More below the fold.

Frank Rich -- The Tea Party folks are about to find out that they've been used and will be tossed aside like an old, um, teabag.

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and Wall Street Journal have been arduous in promoting and inflating Tea Party events and celebrities to this propagandistic end. The more the Tea Party looks as if it’s calling the shots in the G.O.P., the easier it is to distract attention from those who are actually calling them — namely, those who’ve cashed in and cashed out as ordinary Americans lost their jobs, homes and 401(k)’s. Typical of this smokescreen is a new book titled “Mad as Hell,” published this fall by a Murdoch imprint. In it, the pollsters Scott Rasmussen and Douglas Schoen make the case, as they recently put it in Politico, that the Tea Party is “the most powerful and potent force in America.”

They are expert at producing poll numbers to bear that out. By counting those with friends and family in the movement, Rasmussen has calculated that 29 percent of Americans are “tied to” the Tea Party. (If you factor in six degrees of Kevin Bacon, the number would surely double.) But cooler empirical data reveal the truth known by the G.O.P. establishment: An August CNN poll found that 2 percent of Americans consider themselves active members of the Tea Party.

That result was confirmed last weekend by The Washington Post, which published the fruits of its months-long effort to contact every Tea Party group in the country. To this end, it enlisted the help of Tea Party Patriots, the only Tea Party umbrella group that actually can claim to be a spontaneous, bottom-up, grass roots organization rather than a front for the same old fat cats of the Republican right, from the Koch brothers to Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks. Tea Party Patriots has claimed anywhere from 2,300 to nearly 3,000 local affiliates, but even with its assistance, The Post could verify a total of only 647 Tea Party groups nationwide. Most had fewer than 50 members. The median amount of money each group had raised in 2010 was $800, nowhere near the entry fee for the country club.

But those Americans, like all the others on the short end of the 2008 crash, have reason to be mad as hell. And their numbers will surely grow once the Republican establishment’s panacea of tax cuts proves as ineffectual at creating jobs, saving homes and cutting deficits as the half-measures of the Obama White House and the Democratic Congress. The tempest, however, will not be contained within the tiny Tea Party but will instead overrun the Republican Party itself, where Palin, with Murdoch and Beck at her back, waits in the wings to “take back America” not just from Obama but from the G.O.P. country club elites now mocking her. By then — after another two years of political gridlock and economic sclerosis — the equally disillusioned right and left may have a showdown that makes this election year look as benign as Woodstock.

Pee-wee Herman Returns

The red bow tie is back. The white chunky loafers are, too. So is that too-tight gray suit.

The Secret Word today is: Comeback. Pee-wee has returned from exile.

Paul Reubens, who virtually abandoned the cult character he created nearly two decades ago following scandal, is making his Broadway debut with a reworking of the same theatrical show that started Pee-wee's career in the late 1980s.

"I think it's full circle. I view it even a little fuller, I guess. I feel that it's full circle in that I can come back around to a really good place where I was. As opposed to having my career end on this really sour note," says Reubens during an interview before a recent rehearsal. "I absolutely feel like I want to redeem myself to a degree and this seemed like a really pure way to do it."

Reubens, now 58, has been soaking up the attention this time around. He has donned his Pee-wee suit and popped up all over New York to drum up attention for "The Pee-wee Herman Show," which officially opens Nov. 11. Everywhere he goes, people say: "Welcome back!" and "Glad you're back."

"I really just never got any of this the first time around," he says, getting a little teary. "I feel really lucky and really blessed right now. I just feel like it's my time right now. The stars are aligning for me."

Reubens, who is as quiet and thoughtful in real life as Pee-wee is zany and high-pitched, is still slim and boyish. He's dressed for California on this chilly New York day — jacket-less in jeans, a plaid shirt and a clunky digital watch. He's pressed for time — so much of it has been lost.

"I wasn't feeling it for a long time. And then all of a sudden it became a long time. All of a sudden I was like, 'Wow. How do you come back now out of this?' And you know what the answer was? You just do it," he says. "I didn't feel like I needed anyone's permission to come back. And what do I have to lose? Nothing really."

Much of Pee-wee's exile has been self-imposed since Reubens' July 1991 arrest for indecent exposure in an adult-movie house in Sarasota, Fla. He was handed a small fine but the damage to the character was incalculable.

"When I was arrested in 1991, offers poured in," he says. "All kinds. I mean, some of those offers weren't things that I wanted to do and were taking advantage of the luridness of my situation, but I haven't really had trouble working or existing or having a career. It just changed. Everything changed."

Doonesbury -- The road to recovery.
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Short Takes

There were thousands of people on the Mall yesterday for the Stewart/Colbert rally. (Click here for a gallery of some of the more creative signs seen at the rally.)

Suicide bombing hits Istanbul.

A woman from Yemen has been arrested in connection with the suspicious packages sent to the U.S.

More eruptions from the volcano in Indonesia.

World Series Game 3: The Rangers win 4-2 in Texas.

Tropical Update: Hurricane Tomas tromps through the Caribbean.
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"I'm Coercin' It!"

Employees at McDonald's restaurants in Canton, Ohio, got a little something extra in their paychecks this week, but it wasn't a raise.

When workers in a McDonald's restaurant in Canton, Ohio, opened their paychecks this month, they found a pamphlet urging them to vote for the Republican candidates for governor, Senate and Congress, or possibly face financial repercussions.

The pamphlet appeared calculated to intimidate workers into voting for Republican candidates by making a direct reference to their wages and benefits, said Allen Schulman, a Democrat who is president of the Canton City Council and said he obtained a copy of the pamphlet on Wednesday.

The pamphlet said: "If the right people are elected, we will be able to continue with raises and benefits at or above the current levels. If others are elected, we will not."

It then named three Republican candidates after stating, "The following candidates are the ones we believe will help our business move forward."

It's against the law in Ohio to "print or authorize to be printed upon any pay envelopes any statements intended or calculated to influence the political action of his or its employees."

The owner of the stores, Paul Siegfried, at first had no comment, but later released a statement apologizing for his "error in judgment."

Ironic, isn't it, that it's always the Republicans who are on the lookout for voter intimidation? Here they are delivering it at the drive-through.
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My Life On A Plate

Florida used to swap out their plates every five years; the Pontiac is on its second "State of the Arts" plate, but this is the style of the one and only license plate that I had on the 1995 Mustang. It was due to be replaced by the new style, but in March 2008 I had a run-in -- literally -- with an elderly gentleman in downtown Coral Gables. The car was totaled, and the next day the Pontiac came out of retirement.

As I noted previously, Florida has over 100 specialty license plates. The joke is that the reason there are so many is because the standard plate is so unattractive. Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I suppose, and compared to the history of Florida's plates, putting a picture of an orange and the state outline is an improvement.

My one gripe about this plate, and most of the previous Florida plates, is the slogan "Sunshine State." I get the Chamber of Commerce connection; it's a snappy phrase that reminds us that we depend on tourism for our livelihood. But when it comes to sunshine, I've lived in states where they get a lot more sunshine on average -- New Mexico, for example -- and the skin cancer rate here in Florida is not exactly something you want to tout.

Be that as it may, license plate slogans nowadays run the table from song lyrics (Alabama) to patriotism (Massachusetts) to political protest (Washington, D.C.). The one thing that they rely on, though, is getting people from other places to see the plate; after all, if you live in a state, you're probably aware of its assets or history. I think it would probably be better if the state would come up with a slogan that was actually useful to other drivers. Ohio had the right idea back in 1973 with their "SEAT BELTS FASTENED?" Today it might be more along the lines of "HANG UP AND DRIVE" or "YOU PAID FOR THE TURN SIGNAL - USE IT." The problem is that a lot of drivers cover over the slogan with a plate frame with their own message promoting everything from the dealer who sold the car, the supernatural being that is the driver's co-pilot, the sports team they love, their other car, or a well-known blog (ahem), so a lot of drivers never see the slogan.

Florida, like most states, has vanity plates. Maybe they could also add vanity slogans, too, under the same guidelines -- no obscenity, etc. It could raise a lot of money for the state, and it would be more interesting to see something other than SUNSHINE STATE when you're stuck on US 1 in a tropical downpour.

Photo by David Nicholson.
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Short Takes

Two suspicious packages got the attention of air security yesterday; turns out Al-qaeda in Yemen is using UPS and FedEx.

Today is the Day: the rally to make fun of the people who don't read the papers and take themselves far too seriously is today in Washington.

Scary ride -- An American Airlines jet lost cabin pressure after a hole opened up in the fuselage. The plane made an emergency landing at MIA. No one was seriously hurt.

Florida may get more money for the high-speed train.

Who said what? Bill Clinton and Kendrick Meek both deny that the former president told him to drop out of the race.

Tropical Update: A couple of things going on out there -- Hurricane Shary missed Bermuda, and Tropical Storm Tomas will cross the lower Windwards before becoming a hurricane heading west.
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I Remember

Good stuff.



HT to LWM.
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Making It Easy

I love it how all the Very Serious People in Washington are getting a bit twitterpated about Jon Stewart's rally this coming weekend; "How dare he make a mockery of our punditry!" Obviously he's touched a nerve.

In simplest terms, the rally will be a publicity stunt meant to promote two TV shows while harnessing the voices of disenchanted and ultra-bright moderates out there. If I read it right (and that's a big "if") Stewart and company merely wish to lampoon the bitter political divides and noxious mediasphere gases that prevent America from . . . from doing better?

To quote one of my own characters in one of my own bits of writing, "If you take yourself too seriously, no one else will."
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Immigration Law Economics

If you didn't catch NPR's story yesterday on the route the Arizona immigration law took, then check it out here.

Last year, two men showed up in Benson, Ariz., a small desert town 60 miles from the Mexico border, offering a deal.

Glenn Nichols, the Benson city manager, remembers the pitch.

"The gentleman that's the main thrust of this thing has a huge turquoise ring on his finger," Nichols said. "He's a great big huge guy and I equated him to a car salesman."

What he was selling was a prison for women and children who were illegal immigrants.

"They talk [about] how positive this was going to be for the community," Nichols said, "the amount of money that we would realize from each prisoner on a daily rate."

But Nichols wasn't buying. He asked them how would they possibly keep a prison full for years — decades even — with illegal immigrants?

"They talked like they didn't have any doubt they could fill it," Nichols said.

That's because prison companies like this one had a plan — a new business model to lock up illegal immigrants. And the plan became Arizona's immigration law.

The law is being challenged by the federal government on the basis that it is not the job of the states to write and enforce immigration laws. Whether or not that challenge succeeds has yet to be determined, but somehow, some way, the law ought to be tossed on the basis that there's just something stinko about about a company that comes in and writes a law that is specifically designed for their own fun and profit. It may be perfectly legal, but that doesn't make it right, and it sure makes the legislature and the governor of the state look like they've been bought and paid for.
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"What A Day, What A Day for An Auto da Fe"

When last we heard from Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, she was drunk-dialing Anita Hill and nicely asking her to apologize for being the victim of her husband's sexual predations. Now she and her band of tea-party merry-makers are hanging out with a group that thinks the Spanish Inquisition was loads of fun.

... Mrs. Thomas' Tea Party think tank, Liberty Central, promotes the causes of groups that take pride in intolerance, including one right-wing Catholic group, Tradition, Family and Property, whose founder declared the Spanish Inquisition "the most beautiful page in the history of the Church."

... Thomas has added to the "Friends of Liberty Central" page on her think tank's Web site a plug for Tradition, Family and Property, a virulently anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-democratic Catholic group founded in 1960 in opposition to Brazilian land reform.

TFP has long enjoyed ties to the far right in American politics, including the International Freedom Foundation, which existed primarily as an American front group for the apartheid regime in South Africa during the Reagan years, according to researcher Richard Bartholomew, and was once led by convicted felon and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff....

If TFP's activities on behalf of torturers and anti-democratic forces weren't enough to give one pause, there's its status as a cult. TFP is an all-male organization that finds its recruits among adolescent boys, whom it trains in the use of the combat regalia of the Middle Ages -- maces, crossbows, and the like...

Sounds like a real fun bunch. And not to read anything into it, but don't you think that an all-male group that "finds its recruits among adolescent boys, whom it trains in the use of the combat regalia of the Middle Ages -- maces, crossbows, and the like..." is skating just a tad too close to recent history for a church that is still dealing with members who have been doing a little too much with adolescent boys? (Funny how they can accuse Teh Gayz of recruiting just by being school teachers, but when they do it, it's all just fun and games. Project much?)

Hey, Ms. Thomas can pal around with anyone she wants; they haven't yet repealed that part of the Constitution that allows freedom of assembly and such, but it makes you wonder when it's a group that thinks the wholesale torture and slaughter of people was "the most beautiful page in the history of the Church."

(Two points if you know where I got the title for the post.)
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And The Beat Goes On

Yet another case of someone taking umbrage with someone peaceably assembling.

A 72-year-old man was arrested for allegedly assaulting a 23-year-old activist protesting Dino Rossi's Republican campaign for Senate in Washington state yesterday, according to local reports.

The incident occured outside GOP headquarters in Walla Walla County where the demonstrator, Christie Stordeur, was "one of five protesters standing about 40 feet from the entrance of the office," according to the Tri-City Herald.

Stordeur and the other protesters "were wearing bags over their heads and holding a sign that looked like a check." That's when Victor Phillips, according to a Sheriff's deputy on scene, walked over to Stordeur to "lift her bag off her head." When Stordeur "lifted her arm in defense," Phillips hit it "with 'force.'"

Mr. Phillips is now demanding an apology from Ms. Stordeur for getting him arrested for assault.

HT to Bob Cesca.
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Preserve, Protect, and Defend

The Tea Party folks like to say that they're all about defending the Constitution... except the parts of it that they don't like and would like to change or delete, like the First, Fourteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Twenty-first Amendments.

Apparently they have a problem with freedom of religion for Muslims, birthright citizenship and equal protection, the tax code (of course), direct election of senators, and the repeal of the 18th Amendment, which put Prohibition in place.

The last one makes no sense whatsoever, because if the Tea Party takes over, we're going to need a lot of booze to get through those times.
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Election Guide

Digby offers sources of information on how to find where your polling place is no matter where you live.

Also included are partisan and non-partisan guides and resources.
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Anti-Gay School Board Member is Un-Friended

Not that this jerk needs any more attention, but there's a lesson in here.

A member of a northern Arkansas school board says he is resigning his seat after coming under fire for posting anti-gay remarks on his Facebook page, CNN reported late Thursday.

"I'm sorry I've hurt people with my comments," Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School District, told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "I'm sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum."

Commenting on a campaign to get people to wear purple to show support for bullied gay and lesbian youth, McCance posted on the social networking site that the only way he would wear purple is "if they all commit suicide."

The Arkansas Department of Education on Wednesday condemned the alleged posting by Midland School Board member Clint McCance and the Arkansas Times reported that about three dozen protesters rallied Thursday outside Midland High School calling for McCance's ouster.

The Advocate, a magazine that reports about gay issues, first reported about the posting on its website. The Facebook page has been disabled, but The Advocate posted a screen grab of the alleged postings that it says someone forwarded to it.

McCance's alleged posting was in response to a Facebook campaign that asked supporters to wear purple last Wednesday to show solidarity after several gay and lesbian youths killed themselves, reportedly because of bullying.

And that lesson is that when Facebook prompts you to tell us "What's on your mind?", you don't really have to reveal that you're a flaming homophobe with a lot of issues and no Spell Check.
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Friday Blogaround

The last blogaround before the midterms.

- A Blog Around The Clock reviews Social Network.
- archy: this week in irony.
- Bark Bark Woof Woof: marching orders.
- Bloggg on California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of a mental health bill.
- Dohiyi Mir: kids and kibble - what a combination!
- Echidne Of The Snakes: selling sexuality.
- Florida Progressive Coalition Blog: if you're anti-incumbent in Florida, that's not good for the GOP.
- The Invisible Library: happy Hallowe'en.
- Left Is Right: the story behind the stomper.
- Pen-Elayne on the Web: save the future!
- Rook's Rant does the elite thing.
- rubber hose looks at the election from afar.
- Scrutiny Hooligans: speaking of back to the future.
- Stupid Enough Unexplanation: Michael Medved says character doesn't really count after all.
- The Yellow Something Something: the world turned upside down.

Happy Hallowe'en.
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Short Takes

Halliburton admits to skipping tests on the cement that was to seal the well in the Gulf.

Vietnam is arresting bloggers in anticipation of a visit by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Nine policemen were killed in an ambush in western Mexico.

It was a fellow Muslim who tipped off the FBI about the suspect in the subway-bombing plot.

Kendrick Meek denies rumors that Bill Clinton told him to quit the Senate race.

R.I.P. James MacArthur, 72, actor and the original "Danno" on the original Hawaii Five-O.

World Series Game 2: The Giants win again, lead 2-0.

Tropical Update: Tropical Storm Shary is no threat to land.
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Friday Catblogging

Skitz puts in an appearance.

"Okay, you fed me. Now get out."
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Marching Orders

Keith Olbermann's special comment last night about the perils of letting the Tea Party get into office was a bit over the top for me, even though the candidates that he highlighted are, to be generous, an interesting bunch of people with some unorthodox views. But he redeemed himself by using a clip from one of my favorite films, Inherit the Wind, starring Spencer Tracy, Fredric March, Dick York, and Harry Morgan.


Mr. Olbermann is right in one respect: the one person who has a say in whether or not the Tea Party candidates win is you, the voter. All of the ads, all of the Very Serious pundits, all of us bloggers don't mean anything when it comes down to what really counts, and that's you in the voting booth.

One thing I've never done is tell you, dear reader, who to vote for. I've made my views very clear as to who I would vote for. But the choice is up to you, and whether or not you pay attention to what the chattering classes or the passionate bloggers say is your choice. All I ask is that you remember that the idea is to vote for someone, not against them, and that ultimately you're not just voting for a candidate or a referendum or a charter amendment; you're voting for your community, your state, and your country. Use it wisely.
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Jon Stewart and President Obama

President Obama on The Daily Show last night.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Barack Obama Pt. 3
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

(Did he really say Larry Summers did "a heckuva job"?)

Jon Stewart is the best interviewer out there.
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No Joke

When the news broke that a Rand Paul supporter had stomped on the head of a MoveOn.org volunteer at the debate in Kentucky on Monday night, the immediate reaction in some circles -- including here -- was that Tim Profitt, the man caught doing the stomping, would demand an apology from Lauren Valle. Ha ha, how funny.

Guess what.

Tim Profitt -- the former Rand Paul volunteer who stomped on the head of a MoveOn activist -- told told local CBS station WKYT that he wants an apology from the woman he stomped and that she started the whole thing.

"I don't think it's that big of a deal," Profitt said. "I would like for her to apologize to me to be honest with you."

"She's a professional at what she does," Profitt added, "and I think when all the facts come out, I think people will see that she was the one that initiated the whole thing."

No, that's not from The Onion.

Isn't life in the culture of Victimhood just so awesome?
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He's All Reich With Me

I wonder whose idea this was:

I'd thought Richard Iott had been put out to pasture after news broke that his main hobby was Nazi reenacting. After that Rep. Eric Cantor (R) denounced him. And then everything pretty much went down hill from there when he started saying that he didn't think we were in a position to judge the SS soldiers who did all the cool stuff on the Eastern Front.

But apparently Iott is out of the dog House. And back in John Boehner's House.

This Saturday John Boehner is going to appear at a special pre-election rally with Iott in Toledo.

Since it's the day before Hallowe'en, perhaps Mr. Boehner can come dressed as Field Marshall Goring.
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Short Takes

The Sting -- The FBI arrested a fellow who was planning to bomb the DC subway system.

Indonesia is reeling from an earthquake, a tsunami, and a volcano.

President Obama visited The Daily Show.

Wells Fargo admits it made errors in thousands of foreclosures.

The New York Philharmonic wants to play in Cuba.

Russia cracks down on Viagra spammers.

R.I.P Lamont Johnson, noted film and TV director.

World Series Game 1: The Giants beat the Rangers 11-7.

Tropical Update: There's a little disturbance way down off the coast of South America.
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Where The Elite Meet

Charles Murray of the American Enterprise Institute wrote in the Washington Post that the Tea Party is right to warn America about the New Elite.

With geographical clustering goes cultural clustering. Get into a conversation about television with members of the New Elite, and they can probably talk about a few trendy shows -- "Mad Men" now, "The Sopranos" a few years ago. But they haven't any idea who replaced Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right." They know who Oprah is, but they've never watched one of her shows from beginning to end.

Talk to them about sports, and you may get an animated discussion of yoga, pilates, skiing or mountain biking, but they are unlikely to know who Jimmie Johnson is (the really famous Jimmie Johnson, not the former Dallas Cowboys coach), and the acronym MMA means nothing to them.

They can talk about books endlessly, but they've never read a "Left Behind" novel (65 million copies sold) or a Harlequin romance (part of a genre with a core readership of 29 million Americans).

They take interesting vacations and can tell you all about a great backpacking spot in the Sierra Nevada or an exquisite B&B overlooking Boothbay Harbor, but they wouldn't be caught dead in an RV or on a cruise ship (unless it was a small one going to the Galapagos). They have never heard of Branson, Mo.

There so many quintessentially American things that few members of the New Elite have experienced. They probably haven't ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club or Rotary Club, or lived for at least a year in a small town (college doesn't count) or in an urban neighborhood in which most of their neighbors did not have college degrees (gentrifying neighborhoods don't count). They are unlikely to have spent at least a year with a family income less than twice the poverty line (graduate school doesn't count) or to have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian. They are unlikely to have even visited a factory floor, let alone worked on one.

I think anyone who spins out a bunch of stereotypes about people or a community and labels superficial things such as vacation habits or reading material as a talisman of elitism is an elitist himself. "Elitism" is in the eye of the beholder; the Tea Party by its very definition comes across as elitist in their own fashion.

But who can resist a challenge like that, and Claire Berlinski at Richochet put up the inevitable internet meme:

How Plebe Are You?

1. Can you talk about "Mad Men?"

2. Can you talk about the "The Sopranos?"

3. Do you know who replaced Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right?"

4. Have you watched an Oprah show from beginning to end?

5. Can you hold forth animatedly about yoga?

5. How about pilates?

5. How about skiing?

6. Mountain biking?

7. Do you know who Jimmie Johnson is?

8. Does the acronym MMA mean nothing to you?

9. Can you talk about books endlessly?

10. Have you ever read a "Left Behind" novel?

11. How about a Harlequin romance?

12. Do you take interesting vacations?

13. Do you know a great backpacking spot in the Sierra Nevada?

14. What about an exquisite B&B overlooking Boothbay Harbor?

15. Would you be caught dead in an RV?

16. Would you be caught dead on a cruise ship?

17. Have you ever heard of of Branson, Mo?

18. Have you ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club?

19. How about the Rotary Club?

20. Have you lived for at least a year in a small town?

21. Have you lived for a year in an urban neighborhood in which most of your neighbors did not have college degrees?

22. Have you spent at least a year with a family income less than twice the poverty line?

23. Do you have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian?

24. Have you ever visited a factory floor?

25. Have you worked on one?

My answers are below the fold. Put yours in the comments.

1. Can you talk about "Mad Men?" No.

2. Can you talk about the "The Sopranos?" Yes.

3. Do you know who replaced Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right?" Yes.

4. Have you watched an Oprah show from beginning to end? Yes, but I was at Tire Kingdom waiting for my car.

5. Can you hold forth animatedly about yoga? No.

6. How about pilates? No.

7. How about skiing? Yes, including how to run a chairlift and ski for free in Santa Fe.

8. Mountain biking? I didn't know mountains could ride bikes.

9. Do you know who Jimmie Johnson is? Yes.

10. Does the acronym MMA mean anything to you? Yes, but I'm a pacifist so I don't watch it.

11. Can you talk about books endlessly? Yes.

12. Have you ever read a "Left Behind" novel? No.

13. How about a Harlequin romance? No, but I wrote a play where the main character writes them.

14. Do you take interesting vacations? I live an hour from Key Largo, so yes.

15. Do you know a great backpacking spot in the Sierra Nevada? No, but if you're talking about Rocky Mountain National Park, yes.

16. What about an exquisite B&B overlooking Boothbay Harbor? Feh.

17. Would you be caught dead in an RV? If I was dead, how would I know? (Yes, I have no problem with RV's.)

18. Would you be caught dead on a cruise ship? Depends on what you mean by "cruise."

19. Have you ever heard of Branson, Mo? Yes.

20. Have you ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club? No.

21. How about the Rotary Club? Yes.

22. Have you lived for at least a year in a small town? I grew up in one.

23. Have you lived for a year in an urban neighborhood in which most of your neighbors did not have college degrees? Yes.

24. Have you spent at least a year with a family income less than twice the poverty line? Yes.

25. Do you have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian? Yes, and he's as gay as pink shoes.

26. Have you ever visited a factory floor? Yes.

27. Have you worked on one? Yes.

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Question of the Day

Have you voted yet?

A lot of states, including Florida, have early voting, and if you've already made up your mind, it's a great way to kill an hour; take a book if there's a line. I'll probably do it on Saturday.
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Don't Think About That

John Scalzi has a thoughtful post about things that he doesn't have to think about.

Today I don’t have to think about those who hear “terrorist” when I speak my faith.
Today I don’t have to think about men who don’t believe no means no.
Today I don’t have to think about how the world is made for people who move differently than I do.
Today I don’t have to think about whether I’m married, depending on what state I’m in.
Today I don’t have to think about how I’m going to hail a cab past midnight.

Read the whole thing and then think about the things you don't have to think about.

HT to Athena.
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Prepare for Your Inquisiton

The Republicans are already planning to staff their new offices for the incoming Congress. But first the new applicants have to prove their purity.

"Once we receive your resume, it will be passed along in a binder to each new Member (and to any existing RSC Member requesting to see resumes) for consideration," reads an e-mail Tuesday from RSC staff, obtained by Roll Call. "We also strongly encourage you to submit your resume and complete the ideological questionnaires at the following two websites, as we will be checking these questionnaires as well."

The links to questionnaires on the websites of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and Leadership Institute's conservativejobs.com site, are pasted into the RSC e-mail. The RSC claims more than 115 House Republicans as its membership.

Steve Benen checked out the Purity Quiz.

The "correct" answers seemed pretty obvious. Agree or disagree: "The U.N. should not have authority over the citizens or public policies of sovereign nations." Agree or disagree: "The U.S. has the right to use force to protect its national interests." Agree or disagree: "Judges should not make decisions based on their policy preferences."

I especially liked the next section in which applicants were presented a list of people and organizations, and asked to express general agreement or disagreement. The list includes Al Gore, the NRA, CATO, the National Organization of Women*, George W. Bush, Clarence Thomas, James Dobson, Bill Bennett, and for some reason, Dianne Feinstein.

The Leadership Institute's questionnaire, meanwhile, wants to know, among other things, if you think "homosexual activity should be incompatible with service in the U.S. military forces," and whether "minimum wage laws contribute to unemployment."

In light of recent events, they also ask for your shirt size so they know how many brown ones to order.
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Work In Progress

It's perhaps a sign of the times -- a good one, too -- that this kind of news isn't getting a lot of attention.

Less than halfway through his first term, President Barack Obama has appointed more openly gay officials than any other president in history.

Gay activists say the estimate of more than 150 appointments so far -- from agency heads and commission members to policy officials and senior staffers -- surpasses the previous high of about 140 reached during two full terms under President Bill Clinton.

"From everything we hear from inside the administration, they wanted this to be part of their efforts at diversity," said Denis Dison, spokesman for the Presidential Appointments Project of the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.

The pace of appointments has helped to ease broader disappointment among gay rights groups that Obama has not acted more quickly on other fronts, such as ending the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bans gays from serving openly in the military.

In a sign of how times have changed, few of the appointees -- about two dozen required Senate confirmation -- have stirred much controversy. It's a far cry from the 1993 furor surrounding Clinton's nomination of then-San Francisco Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg as assistant secretary for Housing and Urban Development.

Achtenberg was the first openly gay official to serve at such a senior level, and she won confirmation despite contentious hearings and Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., who denounced her as a "militant extremist."

"It's both significant and rather ordinary," said Michael Cole, a spokesman for the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign. "It's a simple affirmation of the American ideal that what matters is how you do your job and not who you are."

I get it that a lot of people are not happy with the speed -- or lack thereof -- of the repeal of DADT, including the seemingly contradictory way the Obama administration has handled the court cases that have come up recently. But I also think that by this record number of appointments, it's going to make a difference where it really matters: in the average workplace in Washington and elsewhere. Sometimes the most effective way of changing the culture is just by people showing up to do their job with little or no notice of what they are -- black, white, brown, gay, straight -- but that they're just people.

I'm pretty sure the obsessed and tormented folks at Focus on the Family and the rest of the homophobic lobby are convinced that this record number of appointments by the Obama administration is a plot to inculcate the Radical Homosexual Agenda into the mainstream of America and thereby undermine our white straight picket fence America and all of its Yankee Doodle dandyness. Actually, I'm pretty sure that it's just been the natural progression of the hiring process. People in the LGBT community need jobs, too, and they're just not hiding the fact that they are members of the community because it just doesn't matter any more. It would be really great if the same could be said for all branches of the government, but for now, this is pretty damn good.
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Curbing Their Enthusiasm

Here's what is known so far about the curbside incident outside the Rand Paul/Jack Conway debate the other night: the man who is seen on the video putting his foot rather forcefully on the head and neck area of Lauren Valle, a volunteer with MoveOn.org, is Tim Profitt. He is not just some bystander; he is -- or was -- a campaign volunteer for Rand Paul. Mr. Profitt has apologized -- sort of -- for the incident but explains "that the camera angle made the scuffle Monday night appear worse that it was." And that Ms. Valle should never have put her head under his boot in the first place. Meanwhile, at least one right-winger is blaming Ms. Valle for "provoking" the incident and that MoveOn.org owes an apology to the poor beset Tea Party.

Ms. Valle was treated at a local hospital for her injuries and recovered enough to be able to appear on Keith Olbermann's show on MSNBC last night. She plans to press charges, as the the local sheriff.

Meanwhile, the object of all this turmoil and violence, Rand Paul, was remarkably circumspect about expressing much more than mild admonitions in the passive voice about the whole thing. At one point he said that "both sides" need to calm down but failed to illustrate his theme with any examples of where a group of liberals assaulted a volunteer for a conservative organization and stepped on their head. I'm sure that if it's happened, we would have heard about it, Barack Obama would have been blamed for it, Glenn Beck would have wept about it, Rush Limbaugh would have made a crude but sly racist comment, and Michele Bachmann would have declared that she will open a House investigation as to why liberals are allowed to demonstrate at campaign events.

As Ms. Valle noted last night, it's ironic that the people who have been carrying on about standing up for the Constitution and the rights guaranteed therein seem to have a problem when other people exercise their rights of freedom of speech and assembly.
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NPR Gets Mail

From the Washington Post:

NPR received a bomb threat Monday, five days after its decision to fire news analyst Juan Williams sparked a hugely negative reaction.

Sources at the news organization said the threat was received via U.S. mail and was immediately turned over to local police and the FBI. The organization did not publicly disclose the threat or release details, on the advice of law enforcement officials.

The letter didn’t reference the Williams firing specifically, but people at NPR, who spoke about it on the condition of anonymity, said the timing and tone suggested it was sent after Williams’s widely publicized termination.

I'm sure Mr. Williams's firing had nothing to do with it; it was probably from a disgruntled listener who got bad advice from the guys on Car Talk.
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Short Takes

Iran starts loading fuel into their nuclear reactor.

The death toll mounts from yesterday's volcanic eruption in Indonesia.

Lots of things went flying in the big windstorm in the Midwest yesterday.

Tariq Aziz, formerly the mouthpiece for Saddam Hussein, is sentenced to death.

More than 300 are dead in Haiti from cholera.

Ford Motor Company has been doing very well.

After all the hype about Miami's dream team, the Heat lost their home opener to the Celtics.
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Question of the Day

Hallowe'en is Sunday, which means there's a ton of candy on sale.

What's your favorite candy?

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It's Out There

The Tea Party Nation doesn't hold back.

This weekend, Tea Party Nation (TPN) sent an email in support of Lynne Torgerson, who is running against Rep. Keith Ellison in Minnesota. In the email, TPN lists the reasons Ellison should be "retired." Among them: "He is the only Muslim member of congress."

I suppose you can look at this in a way that it's refreshing to have such blatant bigotry right out there in the open. No more wink, wink, nudge, nudge, huh? And my guess is that the Tea Party Nation has every confidence that this kind of thing will work.

Oh, by the way, Mr. Ellison isn't the only Muslim in Congress. Meet Rep. André Carson, Democrat from Indiana's 7th District.
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Shorter David Brooks

I just love being smug so much that I can't help it if people want to slap that goofy grin right off my face.

Let's see how long that lasts when he finds out that they'll come after him, too.
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Peaceable Assembly

No, apparently we can't all get along.

The Rand Paul-Jack Conway debate may have been staid, but things were not so outside the debate. A Kentucky reader sends word that according to the local Fox affiliate, a young woman affiliated with MoveOn.org was brutally attacked--stomped in the head--outside the debate by a Rand Paul supporter. The story led the local newscast.

The nerve of some people showing up at a public place to voice their opinion.

According to TPM, Paul supporters are claiming the woman "fell or tripped." Amazing how someone can do that when someone else has you in a headlock.
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There They Are

It turns out the Bush administration was right all along; there really were WMD's in Iraq. Oh, wait...

Right-wing media figures have seized on a Wired article about the classified Iraq war documents recently released by WikiLeaks.com to desperately claim ‘Bush was right’ that Saddam Hussein had a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). In fact, the Wired article reported the documents did not ‘reveal evidence of some massive WMD program by the Saddam Hussein regime,’ but rather remnants of the stockpiles largely destroyed during the Gulf War.

Never mind.

HT to Oliver Willis.
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Blooming Possibilities

John Heilemann at New York magazine speculates on what could happen should New York mayor Michael Bloomberg decide to run for president in 2012 as an independent.

One scenario, most likely if the economy suffers a double-dip recession, is that the nation would be so desperate for capable economic management that Bloomberg would be able to overcome his vulnerabilities -- his short-Jewish-unmarried-plutocratness -- and find himself deposited in the Oval Office.

Another scenario, the likeliest, is that Bloomberg's entry would secure the reelection of Obama. "There's enough solid Republicans that even Palin gets between 26 and 30 percent of the vote," forecasts [GOP strategist Matthew] Dowd. "And there's enough solid Democrats that, depending on the economy, Obama gets 40 to 42 percent. That leaves Bloomberg with between 28 and 34 percent, which just isn’t enough."

But there is a third scenario, one that involves a more granular kind of analysis-cum-speculation. By the accounts of strategists in both parties, Bloomberg -- especially with the help of his billions -- would stand a reasonable chance of carrying New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, and California. Combine that with a strong-enough showing in a few other places in the industrial Northeast to deny Obama those states, and with Palin holding the fire-engine-red states of the South, and the president might find himself short of the 270 electoral votes necessary to win.

Assuming you still remember the basics from American Government 101, you know what would happen next: The election would be thrown to the House of Representatives -- which, after November 2, is likely to be controlled by the Republicans. The result: Hello, President Palin!

I don't buy the first scenario; Mr. Bloomberg epitomizes every negative stereotype that the GOP and the hate-mongers can muster, and in many ways he's more liberal than Barack Obama.

As for the third scenario, that requires the convergence of a number of things, the main one being that when/if the GOP actually assumes control of a part of the government, i.e. the Congress, they actually do something besides scream "Hell no" and make an attempt to actually do the job they're elected to do. But if we've had two years of Rand Paul, Ken Buck, and Sharron Angle holding forth on the floor of the Senate and any number of certifiable blithering idiots in the House such as Rep. Darrell Issa subpoenaing Malia Obama for scratching her nose during the playing of the national anthem, the American people will be so disgusted at the gridlock that Sarah Palin's election loss to President Obama will make Barry Goldwater's to LBJ in 1964 look like a squeaker.

And if, like some parallel universe episode of Star Trek, scenario #3 happens, it will be Mexico and Canada who will be securing their borders to stanch the flow of people fleeing to get out.
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Crowning Achievement

According to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the goal of the Republicans in the new Congress will not be to restore the economy, end the wars, repair the infrastructure, or reduce the deficit. The most important thing to him and the GOP leadership is this:

The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.... Our single biggest political goal is to give our nominee for president the maximum opportunity to be successful.

After all, nothing can be done until the legitimate ruler can be restored to the throne, and of course we all know that no one is a legitimate ruler in America unless he is a white straight Christian Republican.
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Short Takes

Indonesia braces itself for a volcanic eruption.

They're trying to stop the spread of cholera in Haiti.

Home sales are looking better, but the foreclosure mess might hurt them.

Biting the bullet -- Florida is this close to getting high speed rail.

Sink and Scott trade barbs in their last Florida governor's debate.

R.I.P. Joseph Stein, 98, author of the book for Fiddler on the Roof and other musicals.

Tropical Update: What's left of Richard is depressing.
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Eight Myths

Send this to your crazy right-wing uncle who keeps hammering you with bullshit e-mails.

There are a number things the public "knows" as we head into the election that are just false. If people elect leaders based on false information, the things those leaders do in office will not be what the public expects or needs.

Here are eight of the biggest myths that are out there:

1) President Obama tripled the deficit.
Reality: Bush's last budget had a $1.416 trillion deficit. Obama's first budget reduced that to $1.29 trillion.

2) President Obama raised taxes, which hurt the economy.
Reality: Obama cut taxes. 40% of the "stimulus" was wasted on tax cuts which only create debt, which is why it was so much less effective than it could have been.

3) President Obama bailed out the banks.
Reality: While many people conflate the "stimulus" with the bank bailouts, the bank bailouts were requested by President Bush and his Treasury Secretary, former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson. (Paulson also wanted the bailouts to be "non-reviewable by any court or any agency.") The bailouts passed and began before the 2008 election of President Obama.

4) The stimulus didn't work.
Reality: The stimulus worked, but was not enough. In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, the stimulus raised employment by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.

5) Businesses will hire if they get tax cuts.
Reality: A business hires the right number of employees to meet demand. Having extra cash does not cause a business to hire, but a business that has a demand for what it does will find the money to hire. Businesses want customers, not tax cuts.

6) Health care reform costs $1 trillion.
Reality: The health care reform reduces government deficits by $138 billion.

7) Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, is "going broke," people live longer, fewer workers per retiree, etc.
Reality: Social Security has run a surplus since it began, has a trust fund in the trillions, is completely sound for at least 25 more years and cannot legally borrow so cannot contribute to the deficit (compare that to the military budget!) Life expectancy is only longer because fewer babies die; people who reach 65 live about the same number of years as they used to.

8) Government spending takes money out of the economy.
Reality: Government is We, the People and the money it spends is on We, the People. Many people do not know that it is government that builds the roads, airports, ports, courts, schools and other things that are the soil in which business thrives. Many people think that all government spending is on "welfare" and "foreign aid" when that is only a small part of the government's budget.

This stuff really matters.

HT to my crazy uncle's sister.
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Question of the Day

My TV -- when it works -- is flooded with political ads. My mailbox overflows with candidate fliers, as does my e-mail in-box, especially the one tied to the blog. I invariably hit the Mute button, the fliers go straight to recycling, and the Delete key gets a workout. But if they didn't work, why would the candidates, the parties, and Karl Rove be spending all that money?

Have you ever changed your vote based solely on a political ad?

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Take A Walk, Man

Via TPM:

This is a little like hearing someone died but you'd already figured they'd been dead for a while. Sony has announced it's ceasing production of the Sony Walkman, the once revolutionary cassette music player that debuted in 1979. There will still be MP3 'Walkman' and the CD version. But for the original, real thing, the cassette player, that's it, though a Chinese company has licensed the name to sell a similar product in Asia and the Middle East. Sony says they've sold over 200 million of the things over 31 years.

See, I told you cassettes were a fad.
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Badge of Honor

George F. Will is going after Alan Grayson.

There are hundreds of plausible nominees for the title of America’s Second-Smarmiest Politician, but surely the top spot is un-contested. Americans of all political persuasions can come together in affirming one proposition: Public life would be improved by scrubbing Rep. Alan Grayson from it. This act of civic hygiene probably will be performed Nov. 2 by voters of Florida’s Eighth Congressional District. Polls indicate that a majority of them plan to deny Grayson, 52, a second term by electing his resonantly named opponent, Daniel Webster.

I think Mr. Grayson should come up with a campaign ad based on this screed. After all, if you can get the Number 1 uptight schoolmaster fetishist like Mr. Will -- who also thinks Michele Bachmann is wonderful -- to attack you, you have to be doing something right.
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Put On Your P.J.'s

P.J. O'Rourke pops up every so often on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and Bill Maher and he's usually amusing, so I suppose the intent of his most recent piece in the Weekly Standard entitled They Hate Our Guts wherein he basically repeats all the old GOP talking points about the evil Democrats and how they all hate good honest decent white straight America is funny.

Nice try.

I'd go through it point by point, but that would mean that I take him seriously, and besides, Steve M does it already and does a better job at it.
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Last One In Is A Rotten Egg

For a bunch of people who hate government, there certainly seem to be those who want to get a job in it. Take for example a GOP congressional candidate named Jesse Kelly running in Arizona who seems to think that it's better to let private enterprise do whatever it wants and that if they do something wrong -- like poison people -- the government should have no role in stepping in to stop them.

During a question-and-answer period, a voter asked Kelly about the recent salmonella outbreak, which led to recall of more than half a billion eggs.

The voter asked if Kelly, if elected, would he help pass a law that would allow the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other government agencies to shut down companies that have too many safety violations, such as the companies that allowed millions of eggs that sickened people to be sold to the public. Kelly responded that he doesn't "believe what we're lacking right now is more regulations on companies," complaining that "you could probably spit on the grass and get arrested by the federal government by now." When the voter followed up by asking, "Who's protecting us?" Kelly responded, "It's our job to protect ourselves." The exasperated voter asked once more, "Am I supposed to go to a chicken farmer and say I'd like you to close down because all of your birds are half dead?" Kelly once more answered, "There's a new thing that comes along every day. But I know this: Every part of our economy that is regulated by the government doesn't have fewer disasters, it has more."

This is as good an example of both breathtaking stupidity and a fundamental lack of understanding of the basics of how how our country works as I've seen in this or any election cycle. The stupidity of letting an egg farmer put out half a billion rotten eggs and blaming government regulation for it is obvious. But the second part, where Mr. Kelly says, "It's our job to protect ourselves," proves that he doesn't get it: we do have a way to protect ourselves. It's a rather simple idea, really. You get a group of people together with knowledge and insight about things -- like food safety, just to pick an example out of the air -- and they come up with some basic rules and expectations for those people in the business of raising and selling food products to the public. After all, not everyone can tell a rotten egg just by looking at it, and there might just be some unscrupulous people out there who don't really care if someone gets sick or dies from eating their eggs as long as they get paid for it.

I realize this might be a radical concept for someone like Mr. Kelly, but the idea of We The People getting together and forming some kind of "government," for lack of a better term, to look out for the rest of the people and to assure them that they can buy and sell stuff without endangering lives sounds like a pretty good idea.
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Perspective

Brit Hume on Fox News Sunday about Juan Williams:

And I think it is simply this, that in the culture of NPR, appearing on Fox is a sin. And in the culture of NPR, for an African American man like Juan, regardless of his extraordinary stature, to be there and be kind of a Bill Cosby liberal, not a down-the-line liberal, is a sin as well.

E.J. Dionne on Meet the Press on the same issue:

"NPR is quite simply one of the best news organizations in the world... Fox News, on the other hand, is a Republican propaganda network.

I get a kick out of how the Very Serious People seem to think that NPR somehow bungled the termination of Mr. Williams's contract, especially coming from those people on the conservative side who either sat silently while members of their own team said things that were far more outrageous than what Mr. Williams said and kept their job.
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Comcast Chronicles - The Mini Series

The nice people* from Comcast came by again on Saturday. This time they ran a large orange cable from the main drop and into the cable connection outside my living room, bypassing the cables that are on the house to see if there's a fault in the lines. And they also knew that my neighbor was getting a weak signal as well. I told them that they had already been tested by several previous crews, but they were just making sure.

Well, I've been keeping track. I still had tiling, sound drop-outs, and even "Channel Not Available" on Saturday after they left and in the middle of the Dolphin game yesterday. So I think we've figured out that the problem isn't in the cables here in my house. Which was exactly what the first crew determined when they came out here three weeks ago. But if they want to be extra careful before they do anything radical, then go for it.

Oh, by the way, I had one of those classic moments where circumstances converge. I had TiVo'd a murder mystery the other night and when I got around to watching it, at the crucial moment when the detective said, "I think we know who did it, it was ..." the sound went out. True story. (Good thing I could rewind and turn on the closed captions.)

So, I've got this big thick orange cable snaking through my back yard and onto the patio. And I still have lousy service. Onward.

*I mean it when I say "nice people." Comcast may have their faults, but I have never gotten anything but polite and friendly responses from their people in the field, including the guy who apologized profusely for not calling back. Being in a car accident kind of changed his priorities for a day or two.
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Short Takes

Pakistan resists U.S. efforts to expand the terror fight.

Cholera deaths reach 250 in Haiti.

The wife of an American held in Cuba reaches out to Castro.

The Inquisition moves to blogging.

The World Series may not be televised if you're on Cablevision.

The Florida Senate candidates debated again.

Tropical Update: Hurricane Richard crosses Central America.
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Sunday Reading

Confounding Fathers -- Sean Wilentz of The New Yorker traces the history of right-wing nutsery and conspiracy theories in America from the time of the Revolution through the Red Scare and Glenn Beck.

For the fractious Tea Party movement, Beck—a former drive-time radio jockey, a recovering alcoholic, and a Mormon convert—has emerged as both a unifying figure and an intellectual guide. One opinion poll, released in July by Democracy Corps, showed that he is “the most highly regarded individual among Tea Party supporters,” seen not merely as an entertainer, like Rush Limbaugh, but as an “educator.” And in the past few months Beck has established his own institute of learning: the online, for-profit Beck University. Enrollees can take courses like Faith 102, which contends with “revisionists and secular progressives” about the separation of church and state; Hope 102, an attack on the activist federal government; and the combined Charity 101/102/103, a highly restrictive interpretation of rights, federalism, and the division of powers.

During the “Restoring History” episode, Beck twice encouraged viewers to join his Web seminars, where they can hear “lessons from the best and brightest historians and scholars that we could find.” The B.U. faculty consists of three members, including one bona-fide academic, James R. Stoner, Jr., the chair of the political-science department at Louisiana State University; the other two are the head of a management consulting firm and the founder of WallBuilders, which the Web site calls “a national pro-family organization.” Beck himself often acts as a professor, a slightly jocular one, on his Fox News program. Surrounded by charts and figures, he offers explanations of current politics and history lessons about the country’s long march to Obama-era totalitarianism. The decline, he says, began with the Progressive era of the early twentieth century, in particular with the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson, when both the Federal Reserve System and the graduated federal income tax came into existence. “Wilson,” Beck told his radio audience in August, “just despised what America was.”

At a Tax Day rally this past spring, the veteran conservative organizer Richard Viguerie described the Tea Party as “an unfettered new force of the middle class.” And, indeed, calling Obama a socialist in the tradition of Woodrow Wilson is audacious enough to seem like the marker of a new movement—or, at least, a new twist in the nation’s long history of conspiracy-mongering. In fact, it marks a revival of ideas that circulated on the extremist right half a century ago, especially in the John Birch Society and among its admirers.

Beck’s version of American history relies on lessons from his own acknowledged inspiration, the late right-wing writer W. Cleon Skousen, and also restates charges made by the Birch Society’s founder, Robert Welch. The political universe is, of course, very different today from what it was during the Cold War. Yet the Birchers’ politics and their view of American history—which focussed more on totalitarian threats at home than on those posed by the Soviet Union and Communist China—has proved remarkably persistent. The pressing historical question is how extremist ideas held at bay for decades inside the Republican Party have exploded anew—and why, this time, Party leaders have done virtually nothing to challenge those ideas, and a great deal to abet them.

For all of that, though, there may be a lot less to the Tea Party than what you see on TV.

Continued below the fold.

Weak Tea -- Amy Gardner at The Washington Post has done an exhaustive investigation into the Tea Party "movement." Despite all the publicity and promotion by the media and their own attention-grabbing, there's not much there there.

In an unruly, unpredictable and chaotic election year, no group has asserted its presence and demanded to be heard more forcefully than the tea party. The grass-roots movement that was spawned with a rant has gone on to upend the existing political order, reshaping the debate in Washington, defeating a number of prominent lawmakers and elevating a fresh cast of conservative stars.

But a new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a different sort of organization, one that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process.

The results come from a months-long effort by The Post to contact every tea party group in the nation, an unprecedented attempt to understand the network of individuals and organizations at the heart of the nascent movement.

Seventy percent of the grass-roots groups said they have not participated in any political campaigning this year. As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind any particular national leader, have little money on hand, and remain ambivalent about their goals and the political process in general.

"We're not wanting to be a third party," said Matt Ney, 55, the owner of a Pilates studio and a founder of the Pearland Tea Party Patriots in Pearland, Tex. "We're not wanting to endorse individual candidates ever. What we're trying to do is be activists by pushing a conservative idea."

The group, with 25 active members, meets to discuss policies and listen to speakers, Ney said. "We provide opportunities for like-minded people to get together," he said.

The local groups stand in contrast to - and, in their minds, apart from - a handful of large national groups that claim the tea party label. Most of those outfits, including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Express, are headed by longtime political players who have used their resources and know-how to help elect a number of candidates.

The findings suggest that the breadth of the tea party may be inflated. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots, for example, says it has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups, but The Post was unable to identify anywhere near that many, despite help from the organization and independent research.

In all, The Post identified more than 1,400 possible groups and was able to verify and reach 647 of them. Each answered a lengthy questionnaire about their beliefs, members and goals. The Post tried calling the others as many as six times. It is unclear whether they are just hard to reach or don't exist.

Mark Meckler, a founding member of the Tea Party Patriots, said: "When a group lists themselves on our Web site, that's a group. That group could be one person, it could be 10 people, it could come in and out of existence - we don't know. We have groups that I know are 15,000 people, and I have groups that I know are five people."

First-Hand Knowledge -- How much do you know about the Constitution of the United States?

How much do we need to know? Clearly, many of us are lacking even the basics. The First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University has looked at Americans’ familiarity with its eponymous portion of the Bill of Rights, and the results would make Thomas Jefferson weep. While 61 percent of those surveyed this year knew that the First Amendment protects freedom of speech, just 23 percent volunteered that it also supports freedom of religion, and 18 percent cited freedom of the press. Freedom of association? Fourteen percent. Only 6 percent of those polled could cite the right to petition the government for grievances, the fifth major freedom guaranteed under the First Amendment.

The Delaware candidates are not alone: Sarah Palin and others also seem a bit in the dark about the First Amendment. Ms. Palin has seen violations of the Constitution in the hubbub over remarks about Muslims by the commentator Juan Williams, whose contract was terminated by NPR. But the First Amendment restricts the ability only of government to censor, not of private employers.

Still, the Delaware controversy, at least, does not mean that each of us must become a scholar who memorizes every jot and tittle, argued the libertarian conservative Eugene Volokh, a constitutional scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles, school of law.

“I would care if people didn’t realize that the Constitution protects freedom of the press, or that the Constitution protects against unreasonable searches and seizures,” he said. “But I don’t care whether they know if it’s in the First and Fourth Amendment as opposed to, say, the Sixth and Eighth Amendments. What’s still important is to know what they are, rather than where they happen to be in the particular numbering system of the Constitution.”

As for Ms. O’Donnell, he said, “I don’t think she acquitted herself terribly well there,” since whatever she might actually know, she did not leave the impression that she was conversant in basic constitutional concepts.

Jack Balkin, a liberal constitutional expert at Yale Law School, said he was pleased to see Ms. O’Donnell and Mr. Coons actually discuss the nation’s founding texts. “I’m on Christine O’Donnell’s side in terms of constitutional literacy,” he said, wryly. “If her remarks in the debate cause Americans to pull out a copy of the Constitution and read it, that’s all for the good.”

Though they lived two centuries before the Internet, the founders knew that they were creating the first information-based nation, a new kind of republic powered by ideas and argument. To give the people who would vote for their leaders the tools to vote wisely, ideas and debate, conscience and faith had to be protected. And it all happens in the First Amendment.

Doonesbury -- Cut to the Boehner.
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