Thursday, November 27, 2008
Happy Thanksgiving to Those at Home
I hope you guys all enjoy your day off. I got the unmitigated joy of dealing with my twelfth graders. It's almost as good as mashed potatoes and gravy with the family. It was kind of surprising the number of people who knew about Thanksgiving, even over here in Eastern Europe. And I got to draw hand-turkeys with my students: always a hit.
Bullying 2.0
A jury in Los Angeles has convicted a woman for accessing information on a website in violation of its terms of service. She was convicted of three misdemeanor charges, reduced by the jury from felonies. The woman convicted, Lori Drew, was charged because she created a MySpace account and used it to convince her daughter’s nemesis, Megan Meier, that a made up boy liked her. When Drew sent Megan a message that said, “The world would be a better place without you,” Megan hung herself.
Other than the substantial “ick” factor of the whole sordid affair, the prosecution claims Drew “violated federal laws that prohibit gaining access to a computer without authorization.” I’m not convinced that this actually is applicable to what happened here. The whole thing underlines the fact that technologies have been moving faster than the laws that should govern them. What Drew did is certainly wrong, in a moral sense, but I don’t know that it violates any specific law, let alone the one she was charged with:
Other than the substantial “ick” factor of the whole sordid affair, the prosecution claims Drew “violated federal laws that prohibit gaining access to a computer without authorization.” I’m not convinced that this actually is applicable to what happened here. The whole thing underlines the fact that technologies have been moving faster than the laws that should govern them. What Drew did is certainly wrong, in a moral sense, but I don’t know that it violates any specific law, let alone the one she was charged with:
Legal and computer fraud experts said the application of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, passed in 1986 and amended several times, appeared to be expanding with technology and the growth of social networking on the Internet. More typically, prosecutions under the act have involved people who hack into computer systems.I’m not a lawyer, and Drew’s defense would seem to rest on a kind of backseat, “I’m not touching you,” finger a centimeter away kind of argument. Instead of trying to shoehorn people into violating laws that don’t really apply, we need to work on sensible laws for crimes as they arise. Besides, I can’t imagine that the Drew family’s trips to the supermarket are a whole lot of fun just at the moment. The whole thing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, both of prosecutorial overreach and grandstanding, and of … well, I don’t know exactly what you’d call what Lori Drew did. “Shameful” and “disturbing” don’t quite do it justice.
Carnage in Mumbai
So I've been following the carnage in Mumbai since the early confused reports last night, was still on the BBC for the 0500GMT transition from the skeleton night-shift to the morning pros, and the whole thing sounds like a nightmare. As this remains a "fluid and dynamic" situation, I'm just giving you a link to CNN, as their team coverage with IBN has in fact been pretty decent.
For anyone about to dismiss Mumbai as one of the several cities made less relevant by its lack of American flags, let's put this in perspective. Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the world's 5th largest city with some 19 million residents, it is the financial capital of the world's largest democracy, and it is among the most international cities in a subcontinent filled with international cities. In other words, it's kind of a big deal.
So the idea that groups of gunmen could invade the place, rolling up as many as ten targets with rifle fire and grenades, and then move to subsequent targets (in some cases?) by car (or according to one report, by boat?), and then have the discipline to create three hostage situations, suggests a degree of sophistication no previous terrorist attack I am familiar with has approached. It doesn't sound impressive at first, but think about it a little more- you have to have multiple strike teams, each with multiple, prioritized targets, and multiple transport elements capable of getting between those targets, all moving at the same time. In the world of organized violence, so much complexity should be a recipe for failure.
Further, the targets were mostly Western in nature- the hotels targeted were from the days of the Raj and favorite foreign hangouts, the train station a duplicate of St. Pancras in London, and the gunmen apparently sought out British and American passport holders when they were taking their hostages.
Certainly, it's possible to read this as bearing many of the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda operation- sophisticated, cheap, targeting westerners and finance. If so, we can expect to learn that it was perpetrated by a combination of locals and foreign operators- certainly, the emergence of a previously unknown organization hardly seems to offer much context or explanation. India is also about to hold the first elections in Kashmir, and this could be aimed as much at a domestic audience as the rest of the world- considering the complexity of this operation, the notion that these guys either are or were military types can't be ruled out- but if they were, I'd expect more sophisticated equipment, and besides, you'd have to be insane to do this as a foreign state. The cost-benefit just doesn't work out.
Finally, following the publication of a paper by the 304th military intelligence battalion that the Twitter service has already been used by socially disruptive groups as a real-time intelligence gathering service (here), I thought I would check out a service I've previously assumed appealed mostly to the Tiger Beat crowd. I was totally unprepared for the result- seconds-old posts by more or less regular people who are actually on the spot, watching the Taj burn from their own hotels, or who narrowly escaped the day's bullets themselves, then a cascade of information, links to real-time news feeds, someone posted a link to every emergency service and hospital in the city- it was far, far more powerful and impressive than I would have imagined, like a high-speed emergency wiki. Brace yourself, and have a look. It's a small world, after all.
For anyone about to dismiss Mumbai as one of the several cities made less relevant by its lack of American flags, let's put this in perspective. Mumbai, formerly Bombay, is the world's 5th largest city with some 19 million residents, it is the financial capital of the world's largest democracy, and it is among the most international cities in a subcontinent filled with international cities. In other words, it's kind of a big deal.
So the idea that groups of gunmen could invade the place, rolling up as many as ten targets with rifle fire and grenades, and then move to subsequent targets (in some cases?) by car (or according to one report, by boat?), and then have the discipline to create three hostage situations, suggests a degree of sophistication no previous terrorist attack I am familiar with has approached. It doesn't sound impressive at first, but think about it a little more- you have to have multiple strike teams, each with multiple, prioritized targets, and multiple transport elements capable of getting between those targets, all moving at the same time. In the world of organized violence, so much complexity should be a recipe for failure.
Further, the targets were mostly Western in nature- the hotels targeted were from the days of the Raj and favorite foreign hangouts, the train station a duplicate of St. Pancras in London, and the gunmen apparently sought out British and American passport holders when they were taking their hostages.
Certainly, it's possible to read this as bearing many of the hallmarks of an Al Qaeda operation- sophisticated, cheap, targeting westerners and finance. If so, we can expect to learn that it was perpetrated by a combination of locals and foreign operators- certainly, the emergence of a previously unknown organization hardly seems to offer much context or explanation. India is also about to hold the first elections in Kashmir, and this could be aimed as much at a domestic audience as the rest of the world- considering the complexity of this operation, the notion that these guys either are or were military types can't be ruled out- but if they were, I'd expect more sophisticated equipment, and besides, you'd have to be insane to do this as a foreign state. The cost-benefit just doesn't work out.
Finally, following the publication of a paper by the 304th military intelligence battalion that the Twitter service has already been used by socially disruptive groups as a real-time intelligence gathering service (here), I thought I would check out a service I've previously assumed appealed mostly to the Tiger Beat crowd. I was totally unprepared for the result- seconds-old posts by more or less regular people who are actually on the spot, watching the Taj burn from their own hotels, or who narrowly escaped the day's bullets themselves, then a cascade of information, links to real-time news feeds, someone posted a link to every emergency service and hospital in the city- it was far, far more powerful and impressive than I would have imagined, like a high-speed emergency wiki. Brace yourself, and have a look. It's a small world, after all.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
The Grownups
Generally, when American politics gets reflected in the British press, the picture that results is slightly, subtly, wrong. You the reader are left to puzzle over how different national perspectives can be.
However, this article from the Guardian actually reflects the picture rather well, giving the perspective one hopes to gain from distance.
Why are the British waiting for Obama to take office?
"After John McCain threatened the world with a putative vice-president who seemed to regard her own ignorance as a credential for high office, and after he granted Joe the Plumber the status of chief adviser on taxation policy, it's a relief that the US will soon be run by people with qualifications to do the job."
OK, you already knew why they were excited- I just wanted to put that quote in the post. It encapsulates a primary dynamic of the election for me in a single sentence.
Also, a note to all you people in MOVEON and others whining that the President Elect isn't "changing" enough: stop being upset that Obama is hiring experienced people to work in his administration. Stop being upset that he is charting centrist policies. Why should you stop? Because he told you, repeatedly, during the election that he was going to govern this way. We hired this guy to be competent and sane- with his press conferences over the last three days, he has looked both, and is cutting a remarkable contrast to W, who seems to have finally been crushed by the weight of circumstance. Let's get through the next month and a half, let the President try to save us from a depression, acknowledge that industrial societies are destroying the planet, and release our untried prisoners from military prisons. Then we can start arguing about the finer nuances.
However, this article from the Guardian actually reflects the picture rather well, giving the perspective one hopes to gain from distance.
Why are the British waiting for Obama to take office?
"After John McCain threatened the world with a putative vice-president who seemed to regard her own ignorance as a credential for high office, and after he granted Joe the Plumber the status of chief adviser on taxation policy, it's a relief that the US will soon be run by people with qualifications to do the job."
OK, you already knew why they were excited- I just wanted to put that quote in the post. It encapsulates a primary dynamic of the election for me in a single sentence.
Also, a note to all you people in MOVEON and others whining that the President Elect isn't "changing" enough: stop being upset that Obama is hiring experienced people to work in his administration. Stop being upset that he is charting centrist policies. Why should you stop? Because he told you, repeatedly, during the election that he was going to govern this way. We hired this guy to be competent and sane- with his press conferences over the last three days, he has looked both, and is cutting a remarkable contrast to W, who seems to have finally been crushed by the weight of circumstance. Let's get through the next month and a half, let the President try to save us from a depression, acknowledge that industrial societies are destroying the planet, and release our untried prisoners from military prisons. Then we can start arguing about the finer nuances.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Minnesota- What's Going On Up There?
Apparently Minnesota Public Radio is posting some of the disputed ballots from the Franken-Coleman recount.
The recent election had just about renewed my general faith in the operation of democracy, and then I saw entry number 3, with the caption, "...poll workers blamed themselves for not better explaining the voting procedure, and noted that it would be difficult for someone to fill out a ballot more incorrectly."
For the most part, these are hilarious. But you have to wonder- why bother waiting in line to do this to a ballot...and why didn't I hear more about the Lizard People during the campaign?
The recent election had just about renewed my general faith in the operation of democracy, and then I saw entry number 3, with the caption, "...poll workers blamed themselves for not better explaining the voting procedure, and noted that it would be difficult for someone to fill out a ballot more incorrectly."
For the most part, these are hilarious. But you have to wonder- why bother waiting in line to do this to a ballot...and why didn't I hear more about the Lizard People during the campaign?
Picking the Team
So Hillary Rodham Clinton will join the line of women to hold the office of Secretary of State- at least, we are left to assume this. The NYT broke that story like 2 days ago, and we've yet to hear a tornado of denials. It therefore must be so.
With this news, we are greeted with another round of Doris Kearns Goodwin-inspired stories, like this one in the NYT, extolling the virtues of a "team of rivals" in the White House.
Goodwin has sold a bunch of copies of her book about the Lincoln cabinet, and rather given some of the commentariat the vapors with regard to this style of government. At the risk of going far, far outside my area of competence here, wasn't the Lincoln model seen as a sign of weakness when he did it? A desperate move by an executive whose administrative unit was literally tearing itself apart?
And obviously, in a broader sense, putting Clinton at State (leaving aside for a moment questions about why_on_Earth she'd leave a senate seat for life to take the job) nods toward the idea that Obama is also a fan of this model. John Kennedy also appears to have used a modified version of this, thus ensuring that the concept appears historically with an aura of hallowed tradition.
However, probably far more presidents have attempted to use this model and failed than have managed to use it successfully. Think of examples of cabinet officers installed to inform policy debates with their "opposition" perspectives, who have subsequently been marginalized by presidents who might or might not appreciate hearing their perspective at moments of crisis but didn't actually want to make policy with them, and who as a result might have been better served by someone who could make policy suggestions that actually reflected the president's views. Think of George Ball, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and most recently, Colin Powell. The "team of rivals" is appealing for its elegance and what it says about the person capable of using it well, but many fine presidents have found it unworkable, if they ever attempted to use it at all. The "team of rivals" is the governing equivalent of a racing yacht- magnificent if handled skillfully, but delicate even then, and ruinous in the hands of those temperamentally unsuited to it. Remember what happened to LBJ with JFK's advisers?
And anyway, considering Hillary has her own national following and the marital equivalent of a loose cannon smashing around below deck, aren't ya just asking for unnecessary headaches with this? Is there any reason to believe she can play well with others? Hillary might turn out to be a fantastic part of an Obama governing team. But she might just as easily turn out to be a constant reminder of the tragi-drama of the '90's.
With this news, we are greeted with another round of Doris Kearns Goodwin-inspired stories, like this one in the NYT, extolling the virtues of a "team of rivals" in the White House.
Goodwin has sold a bunch of copies of her book about the Lincoln cabinet, and rather given some of the commentariat the vapors with regard to this style of government. At the risk of going far, far outside my area of competence here, wasn't the Lincoln model seen as a sign of weakness when he did it? A desperate move by an executive whose administrative unit was literally tearing itself apart?
And obviously, in a broader sense, putting Clinton at State (leaving aside for a moment questions about why_on_Earth she'd leave a senate seat for life to take the job) nods toward the idea that Obama is also a fan of this model. John Kennedy also appears to have used a modified version of this, thus ensuring that the concept appears historically with an aura of hallowed tradition.
However, probably far more presidents have attempted to use this model and failed than have managed to use it successfully. Think of examples of cabinet officers installed to inform policy debates with their "opposition" perspectives, who have subsequently been marginalized by presidents who might or might not appreciate hearing their perspective at moments of crisis but didn't actually want to make policy with them, and who as a result might have been better served by someone who could make policy suggestions that actually reflected the president's views. Think of George Ball, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and most recently, Colin Powell. The "team of rivals" is appealing for its elegance and what it says about the person capable of using it well, but many fine presidents have found it unworkable, if they ever attempted to use it at all. The "team of rivals" is the governing equivalent of a racing yacht- magnificent if handled skillfully, but delicate even then, and ruinous in the hands of those temperamentally unsuited to it. Remember what happened to LBJ with JFK's advisers?
And anyway, considering Hillary has her own national following and the marital equivalent of a loose cannon smashing around below deck, aren't ya just asking for unnecessary headaches with this? Is there any reason to believe she can play well with others? Hillary might turn out to be a fantastic part of an Obama governing team. But she might just as easily turn out to be a constant reminder of the tragi-drama of the '90's.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Gen. Eagle T. “Flag” American
Via Slashdot, it appears that the AP has suspended using Department of Defense photos after they were given an altered photograph of General Ann Dunwoody. You can see a before and after comparison of the photograph here.
This is just bizarre on a number of levels. First off, and from a purely aesthetic level, it’s just a hideous photo. Are generals so busy they can’t head down to Sears to have a couple of headshots taken for this kinda thing without having to send out doctored photos? It looks like a photo somebody bashed out using Microsoft Paint for the family Christmas letter.
Secondly, we’re in a pretty poor state of affairs when the freakin’ Army has to start adding flags to their photos. Are we not able to assume that a general in the Army is a patriot? Do we have to be beaten over the head with it? Like the flag pins, discourse in our country has really sunk to a lowest common denominator level of patriotism. People can’t honestly believe that if we don’t drape ourselves in flags and eagles and meaningless signifiers at all times we’re not really Americans – but because conservatives have made such an issue of this, it has become a part of the political boilerplate. Every statement now has to begin with “I just want to make clear that I love America more than my mother, my wife and my children, and am in no way anti-American.”
And finally, won’t it be nice to have a government that can avoid shooting itself in the foot every other day?
This is just bizarre on a number of levels. First off, and from a purely aesthetic level, it’s just a hideous photo. Are generals so busy they can’t head down to Sears to have a couple of headshots taken for this kinda thing without having to send out doctored photos? It looks like a photo somebody bashed out using Microsoft Paint for the family Christmas letter.
Secondly, we’re in a pretty poor state of affairs when the freakin’ Army has to start adding flags to their photos. Are we not able to assume that a general in the Army is a patriot? Do we have to be beaten over the head with it? Like the flag pins, discourse in our country has really sunk to a lowest common denominator level of patriotism. People can’t honestly believe that if we don’t drape ourselves in flags and eagles and meaningless signifiers at all times we’re not really Americans – but because conservatives have made such an issue of this, it has become a part of the political boilerplate. Every statement now has to begin with “I just want to make clear that I love America more than my mother, my wife and my children, and am in no way anti-American.”
And finally, won’t it be nice to have a government that can avoid shooting itself in the foot every other day?
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Lou Gehrig 2.0
Ted Stevens gives his last address to the Senate here and we can honestly allow our eyes to well at the passing of a true monument: a Senator who could operate with impunity because he gave so much money back to his tiny, tiny state that their oil revenues would fund everything else, including his corruption, and a system of government that would allow a person, no matter how corrupt and how compromised, no matter the party in charge, to remain in power and to continue to direct funds back to their power base. We are, in fact, the luckiest people on the face of the earth.
Profiles in Class
Yesterday, Nate Silver had a rather nasty interview with conservative tool John Ziegler, which Andrew Sullivan commented on and reminded me that Ziegler had been profiled by David Foster Wallace a couple of years ago. The profile is a fascinating piece, delving into the attitudes and assumptions that drive right wing talk radio in, to my mind, a fair and even handed manner. Rereading it online (it’s also available in expanded form in Wallace’s Consider the Lobster), I suddenly wondered what Ziegler had thought of the piece – it wasn’t exactly a flattering portrait of the man. Well, ask and the internet shall provide.
The whole “editorial” is an exercise in extraordinary bad taste and ignorance, from Ziegler admitting that he didn’t know who Wallace was to talking about the children that Wallace didn’t have and finally beginning a sentence with the always problematic phrase, “I know that it is considered bad form, or worse, to speak ill of the newly dead, but …” It goes a long way towards proving that Wallace’s insightful, considered profile and Silver’s interview with Ziegler, in all it’s ignorant, profane glory, is far from an exception to this man’s personality: he’s an unadulterated asshole, through and through.
The only good that this did, as far as I know, is bringing me to finally read Rolling Stone’s masterful (I want to say “wonderful,” but it’s too achingly sad and human for such an adjective) profile of Wallace’s last days and his heretofore little known problems with depression. It was something I had kind of been avoiding, but I’m glad I read it. It’s a very well done profile of one great artist’s struggle with an illness that weighs on too many people.
Go read the Wallace profile of Ziegler from the Atlantic. Read Ziegler’s reaction to Wallace’s suicide. Read the Rolling Stone profile of Wallace. And then you let me know who you believe is telling the truth.
The whole “editorial” is an exercise in extraordinary bad taste and ignorance, from Ziegler admitting that he didn’t know who Wallace was to talking about the children that Wallace didn’t have and finally beginning a sentence with the always problematic phrase, “I know that it is considered bad form, or worse, to speak ill of the newly dead, but …” It goes a long way towards proving that Wallace’s insightful, considered profile and Silver’s interview with Ziegler, in all it’s ignorant, profane glory, is far from an exception to this man’s personality: he’s an unadulterated asshole, through and through.
The only good that this did, as far as I know, is bringing me to finally read Rolling Stone’s masterful (I want to say “wonderful,” but it’s too achingly sad and human for such an adjective) profile of Wallace’s last days and his heretofore little known problems with depression. It was something I had kind of been avoiding, but I’m glad I read it. It’s a very well done profile of one great artist’s struggle with an illness that weighs on too many people.
Go read the Wallace profile of Ziegler from the Atlantic. Read Ziegler’s reaction to Wallace’s suicide. Read the Rolling Stone profile of Wallace. And then you let me know who you believe is telling the truth.
WAXMAN BEATS DINGLE!!!
Fantastic.
See the early details here.
** ninja edit **
That's an unnecessarily loud headline. It was supposed to be sort of ironic, but fails in this regard. Sorry about that.
See the early details here.
** ninja edit **
That's an unnecessarily loud headline. It was supposed to be sort of ironic, but fails in this regard. Sorry about that.
Recession Comes to China
I've been waiting for these stories to start, and am a little surprised they took so long.
The recession hitting Europe and the United States is a terrible phenomenon, but it stands to have disproportionate political consequences for China. The political ramifications of economic downturn, undermining the government's central claim to legitimacy, are beginning to create security concerns in Beijing according to the BBC.
Economic growth has apparently slowed, and the government is projecting that although it will hold its 4.5% unemployment target for this year, it may not be able to do so next year.
These numbers seem optimistic - reports of manufacturing firms imploding overnight are all over the Chinese press, and considering the government's interest in looking good, I have to believe the official numbers run a little bit behind reality. Or ahead, as is expedient.
The no longer functioning video link to protesters in Gansu province is interesting- that western province holds large numbers of the ethnic minorities most likely to have alternative political agendas.
More, no doubt, to come.
The recession hitting Europe and the United States is a terrible phenomenon, but it stands to have disproportionate political consequences for China. The political ramifications of economic downturn, undermining the government's central claim to legitimacy, are beginning to create security concerns in Beijing according to the BBC.
Economic growth has apparently slowed, and the government is projecting that although it will hold its 4.5% unemployment target for this year, it may not be able to do so next year.
These numbers seem optimistic - reports of manufacturing firms imploding overnight are all over the Chinese press, and considering the government's interest in looking good, I have to believe the official numbers run a little bit behind reality. Or ahead, as is expedient.
The no longer functioning video link to protesters in Gansu province is interesting- that western province holds large numbers of the ethnic minorities most likely to have alternative political agendas.
More, no doubt, to come.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Detroit
So the debate over saving Detroit seems to be nearing a middle.
Both Mitt Romney and I grew up around Detroit, so can claim great authority when we opine on the state of American car manufacturing. The difference is that Mitt gets his opinions published in the NYT. Which doesn't really seem fair...but I digress.
His editorial pretty much says it all. The standard narrative runs something like: the Big Three have been running an unsustainable business model for decades now, hamstrung by their unions and seemingly hapless in the face of superior foreign designs. Of course they're failing, reduced to begging us to "buy American," in that we should prefer saving their jobs to purchasing the best available product.
The rub is that even though I find that narrative hard to disagree with, the implosion of the American auto industry would (will) plunge Michigan, already far from the shining economic center of the nation, into a financial wasteland of such remoteness it is hard to imagine how it will ever emerge. Think back to the portrait of the city of Flint in "Roger & Me." Flint is still like that, only more so. I shudder to imagine that malaise spreading across the entire state.
Bailing them out, again, won't save the companies for long. It will, however, stave off the day when Michigan plunges into financial collapse.
**UPDATE**
The AP reports that the bailout deal is on the verge of death, as "negotiations" are reduced to acrimonious finger pointing.
Here, another AP report does a better job of making my point from yesterday- if you think Michigan is in bad financial shape now, wait till the car companies fail and local municipalities lose 30% of their tax base. Numbers do so much to bolster an argument...
Both Mitt Romney and I grew up around Detroit, so can claim great authority when we opine on the state of American car manufacturing. The difference is that Mitt gets his opinions published in the NYT. Which doesn't really seem fair...but I digress.
His editorial pretty much says it all. The standard narrative runs something like: the Big Three have been running an unsustainable business model for decades now, hamstrung by their unions and seemingly hapless in the face of superior foreign designs. Of course they're failing, reduced to begging us to "buy American," in that we should prefer saving their jobs to purchasing the best available product.
The rub is that even though I find that narrative hard to disagree with, the implosion of the American auto industry would (will) plunge Michigan, already far from the shining economic center of the nation, into a financial wasteland of such remoteness it is hard to imagine how it will ever emerge. Think back to the portrait of the city of Flint in "Roger & Me." Flint is still like that, only more so. I shudder to imagine that malaise spreading across the entire state.
Bailing them out, again, won't save the companies for long. It will, however, stave off the day when Michigan plunges into financial collapse.
**UPDATE**
The AP reports that the bailout deal is on the verge of death, as "negotiations" are reduced to acrimonious finger pointing.
Here, another AP report does a better job of making my point from yesterday- if you think Michigan is in bad financial shape now, wait till the car companies fail and local municipalities lose 30% of their tax base. Numbers do so much to bolster an argument...
Gaze Into the Future with Aaron
Bringing the curtain down on the Alaskan Senate race puts the attention back on the Minnesota recount and the Georgia run-off. Martin is unlikely to triumph in the run-off, I think, but you never know, and Franken is going into the recount officially behind by two hundred or so votes. Anything could happen there, but I’m not getting my expectations up. Still, two things worth watching for the next couple of weeks. Realistically, though, I think we can expect the senate to have fifty-six Democrats, fifty-eight with Bernie Saunders and Joe Lieberman. So what about 2010?
It’s impossible to predict what will happen, obviously – too much depends upon President Obama’s performance and how the economy is doing in the lead up to the election. That being said, there are a number of Senators running for reelection who are already over seventy years old: McCain, obviously, but Mikulski, Shelby, Grassley, Bunning, Specter, Bennett and Voinovich are all older than dirt, too, and the election is still two years away.
Since I’m an Ohioan, I’m especially curious about what Voinovich is going to do. Mike DeWine was defeated in 2006 by Sherrod Brown, and Voinovich has long been one of the Republican caucus’s few remaining moderates. If the economy does turn around, he’ll be stuck between a rock and a hard place: going against the Republican party line will invite a primary challenge from the right, while not working with Democrats could endanger his chances if Ohio continues it’s progressive turn. Does Voinovich want to be vote number sixty that puts Obama’s Supreme Court picks on the bench? Or does he want to go back to Cleveland with his hat in his hand, explaining why he’s been preventing a popular president from enacting his agenda?
All of that, of course, supposes that Obama still is a popular president in 2010. If I had to guess, I’d say Republican gains are likely. The idea of a sixty plus Democratic majority in the Senate strikes me as tremendously unlikely. We’ll see.
It’s impossible to predict what will happen, obviously – too much depends upon President Obama’s performance and how the economy is doing in the lead up to the election. That being said, there are a number of Senators running for reelection who are already over seventy years old: McCain, obviously, but Mikulski, Shelby, Grassley, Bunning, Specter, Bennett and Voinovich are all older than dirt, too, and the election is still two years away.
Since I’m an Ohioan, I’m especially curious about what Voinovich is going to do. Mike DeWine was defeated in 2006 by Sherrod Brown, and Voinovich has long been one of the Republican caucus’s few remaining moderates. If the economy does turn around, he’ll be stuck between a rock and a hard place: going against the Republican party line will invite a primary challenge from the right, while not working with Democrats could endanger his chances if Ohio continues it’s progressive turn. Does Voinovich want to be vote number sixty that puts Obama’s Supreme Court picks on the bench? Or does he want to go back to Cleveland with his hat in his hand, explaining why he’s been preventing a popular president from enacting his agenda?
All of that, of course, supposes that Obama still is a popular president in 2010. If I had to guess, I’d say Republican gains are likely. The idea of a sixty plus Democratic majority in the Senate strikes me as tremendously unlikely. We’ll see.
All Good Things ...
Various sources are reporting that convicted felon Ted Stevens has lost his bid for reelection to the US Senate to Democratic challenger Mark Begich. I would like to congratulate the soon-to-be-former Senator for all the services he’s rendered to the country, both in giving us an example in what a Senator should not be like, and his efforts on behalf of American comedy. It’s strange to see him finally going – for a while there, it felt like he was more of a natural resource of schadenfreude than a politician. He will be missed.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
C'mon, Baby, Joe Didn't Mean It
Well, the Democrats are going to let Lieberman keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. I can’t say this comes as much of a surprise, although I find it disappointing. I’ve never much cared for Joe Lieberman, and his actions in the campaign this year should have resulted in some sort of substantial punishment from his erstwhile compatriots. Would he really have started voting and caucusing with the Republicans on issues that he had heretofore voted liberally on simply out of spite? That’s hard for me to believe, which makes the Democrats unwillingness to punish him all the more frustrating. See Steve Benen on the case for stripping Lieberman of his chair.
All that being said, I also understand why the Democrats have done it (see Ezra Klein for the case). Having (possibly) sixty caucusing votes is a whole lot different than fifty-nine, especially as conservative Democrats like Max Baucus and moderate conservatives like … uh, the Maine Senate delegation and Arlen Specter are going to be under intense pressure to not be the 60th vote to break a filibuster.
All of that may be true, but it’s unsatisfying and leaves the door open for Lieberman to pull this kind of nonsense whenever he wants. Perhaps, if that’s the case, the Democrats can take action down the road. Let’s just hope that Reid has Lieberman on double super secret probation.
All that being said, I also understand why the Democrats have done it (see Ezra Klein for the case). Having (possibly) sixty caucusing votes is a whole lot different than fifty-nine, especially as conservative Democrats like Max Baucus and moderate conservatives like … uh, the Maine Senate delegation and Arlen Specter are going to be under intense pressure to not be the 60th vote to break a filibuster.
All of that may be true, but it’s unsatisfying and leaves the door open for Lieberman to pull this kind of nonsense whenever he wants. Perhaps, if that’s the case, the Democrats can take action down the road. Let’s just hope that Reid has Lieberman on double super secret probation.
Monday, November 17, 2008
Walking Carpet
So here's Star Wars in 4.5 minutes.
At least, the choral version.
I'd bet $20us that this guy ends up in the British cabinet.
And please, Indiana Jones is a totally different soundtrack...isn't it?
At least, the choral version.
I'd bet $20us that this guy ends up in the British cabinet.
And please, Indiana Jones is a totally different soundtrack...isn't it?
Pirates, Ahoy! (Again)
More pirate shenanigans off the coast of Somalia, as an oil supertanker has been hijacked – two million barrels of crude oil, according to CNN International. Pirates, of course, have been cutting quite a swath of terror through the Indian Ocean of late. It seems bizarre to imagine pirates still operating on the high seas, but here we are. They’re still holding the Ukrainian arms ship that they captured in September, along with ten other vessels in their control.
Rather Litigious
Dan Rather is suing CBS, according to the New York Times. The basics of his case is that, in the fall out of his 2004 National Guard story about George W. Bush, CBS News deliberately put together a panel of GOP and conservative ringers to investigate Rather’s story, hoping to get conservative detractors off their backs.
The constant cries of “liberal bias” that surround anything conservatives don’t care for has always confused me. As we’ve seen in recent days, conservatives continue to dominate our Sunday talk shows, there is an explicitly conservative cable news network, conservative papers abound and talk radio is dominated by conservative voices. In short, it is not difficult to find someone advocating for conservative policy positions and the conservative worldview.
All of this is not to argue that there is, in fact, a conservative bias in the media. In fact, if anything, there is an establishment bias to most of our major news organizations. The cult of centerism has a long and storied history in our political culture, and I doubt that it’s going to go away anytime soon. I do believe that there is a gravitational pull to a lot of our media that favors conservative ideas – someone like Glen Beck or Sean Hannity regularly espouse lunatic ideas on their programs while wholly lacking in a liberal counterpoint. No one has offered Ward Churchill a TV show that I’ve noticed. The most successful thing that conservatives have done in domestic politics in this century is to convince people that the media has a liberal bias.
Rather’s story and the network’s reaction to it represented the high water mark for the mainstream media’s conservative pandering. September 11th kind of deranged a lot of US media organizations into being even more establishmentarian than usual, which is saying something. The government, of course, being run by conservatives at that moment in time. It also happened to coincide with the bitter fight over the Iraq War, when a lot of progressive voices argued that the anti-war position couldn’t get much of a hearing in the US media.
Social conservatives came of age in the shadow of a largely Democratic establishment, and a lot of their attitudes reflect that legacy. Unfortunately, we’re quite a ways from the Roosevelt coalition in American politics. Conservatism has perfected a form of victimhood and a persecution complex that seemed somewhat at odds when they were in power during the Bush era. Remember Rush Limbaugh’s “America Held Hostage” tag? Now that they have been (pretty resoundingly) kicked to the curb, at least for a few years, conservatives will be able to go back to doing what they do best: working the refs, implying that the United States is a center-right nation and complaining about how progressives are traitors and terrorist-coddlers. It’s nice to have them back.
The constant cries of “liberal bias” that surround anything conservatives don’t care for has always confused me. As we’ve seen in recent days, conservatives continue to dominate our Sunday talk shows, there is an explicitly conservative cable news network, conservative papers abound and talk radio is dominated by conservative voices. In short, it is not difficult to find someone advocating for conservative policy positions and the conservative worldview.
All of this is not to argue that there is, in fact, a conservative bias in the media. In fact, if anything, there is an establishment bias to most of our major news organizations. The cult of centerism has a long and storied history in our political culture, and I doubt that it’s going to go away anytime soon. I do believe that there is a gravitational pull to a lot of our media that favors conservative ideas – someone like Glen Beck or Sean Hannity regularly espouse lunatic ideas on their programs while wholly lacking in a liberal counterpoint. No one has offered Ward Churchill a TV show that I’ve noticed. The most successful thing that conservatives have done in domestic politics in this century is to convince people that the media has a liberal bias.
Rather’s story and the network’s reaction to it represented the high water mark for the mainstream media’s conservative pandering. September 11th kind of deranged a lot of US media organizations into being even more establishmentarian than usual, which is saying something. The government, of course, being run by conservatives at that moment in time. It also happened to coincide with the bitter fight over the Iraq War, when a lot of progressive voices argued that the anti-war position couldn’t get much of a hearing in the US media.
Social conservatives came of age in the shadow of a largely Democratic establishment, and a lot of their attitudes reflect that legacy. Unfortunately, we’re quite a ways from the Roosevelt coalition in American politics. Conservatism has perfected a form of victimhood and a persecution complex that seemed somewhat at odds when they were in power during the Bush era. Remember Rush Limbaugh’s “America Held Hostage” tag? Now that they have been (pretty resoundingly) kicked to the curb, at least for a few years, conservatives will be able to go back to doing what they do best: working the refs, implying that the United States is a center-right nation and complaining about how progressives are traitors and terrorist-coddlers. It’s nice to have them back.
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Prop 8 Marches
Don't forget the national day of Proposition 8 protest marches. Find one near you here. I'll be going to one gathering outside the Capitol building here in DC today. I'm not always the biggest fan of political protests, but I've been very vested in LGBT rights for years, and was truly saddened by the passage of Prop 8. But, more than anything, I feel like the LGBT community is finally pissed off! Good for them. I'll report back tonight on what I witnessed.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Senate Seats Still Up For Grabs
More bad news for convicted felon and TPBP favorite Ted Stevens. According to Talking Points Memo, it’s looking more and more likely that Stevens will sadly lose his reelection bid to Mark Begich, saving the Senate the trouble of having to kick him out and the nation the nightmare of having Sarah Palin appoint herself to the Senate. Could she do that? It would be mavericky, so who knows.
In other one-vote-can’t-make-a-difference news, the Minnesota Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman is still going into extra innings, despite Coleman’s attempts to get Franken to concede because, well, I’m not sure what Coleman was thinking with that.
In other one-vote-can’t-make-a-difference news, the Minnesota Senate race between Al Franken and Norm Coleman is still going into extra innings, despite Coleman’s attempts to get Franken to concede because, well, I’m not sure what Coleman was thinking with that.
Stars and Planets
NY Times article discussing the discovery of a handful of new planets orbiting two stars. We’ve been discovering planets fairly regularly in the last few years, but what makes these interesting (at least, more interesting than the run-of-the-mill extra-solar planet, which is already pretty interesting) is these are the first ones we’ve discovered using visual means. Up until now, the planets we’ve discovered have been detected due to gravitational wobbles the planets induce in their stars, or by the decrease in the star’s luminance as the planets pass between the star and us.
The planets were discovered around two different stars, using two different methods – one using adaptive optics, where the mirror of the telescope is flexed rapidly to compensate for the distortions caused by the atmosphere and one with the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s fascinating that two different sets of scientists can use such different means towards the same end.
The planets were discovered around two different stars, using two different methods – one using adaptive optics, where the mirror of the telescope is flexed rapidly to compensate for the distortions caused by the atmosphere and one with the Hubble Space Telescope. It’s fascinating that two different sets of scientists can use such different means towards the same end.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
For Reals
So I was shopping for some recycled hemp eco-friendly organic solar-powered reusable shopping bags as a minimal nod toward making a dent in the size of my otherwise yawning carbon footprint when I came across this hot little number:
No! Shopping Bag Bra
You know, for those times when you want to carry groceries around in...I should say with...your undergarments?
The holidays are coming, everyone!
No! Shopping Bag Bra
You know, for those times when you want to carry groceries around in...I should say with...your undergarments?
The holidays are coming, everyone!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Hello In There
Someone let Governor Palin know- quietly, if at all possible- the election is over. She hasn't seemed to notice. If this NYT article is any indication, she isn't so much jockeying for position in 2012 as starting a very poorly timed bid for president in 2008.
Almost beyond belief, she doesn't seem to have noticed that the tone she continues to adopt was instrumental in the Republican failure in the recently ended campaign. Worse, without RNC money she doesn't seem to be able to afford the barely effective staff saving her from the worst of herself over the last couple of months.
There is a certain touch to losing gracefully, denoting character and maturity. McCain has hardly been seen since the concession speech that so pointedly, and sadly, marked the high point of his campaign. Palin doesn't seem to have spent so much as 15 minutes worrying about her image, preparation for office, or any ways she could improve herself as a candidate or her image with the American people. One has to wonder if the Republican party has had the sense to see this as an evolutionary dead end, or if they are planning to spend another campaign cycle on this foolishness.
Either way, someone with the temperament of a saint should be found to act as her chief of staff. At the very least, to liven up those pedestrian sound bites.
Almost beyond belief, she doesn't seem to have noticed that the tone she continues to adopt was instrumental in the Republican failure in the recently ended campaign. Worse, without RNC money she doesn't seem to be able to afford the barely effective staff saving her from the worst of herself over the last couple of months.
There is a certain touch to losing gracefully, denoting character and maturity. McCain has hardly been seen since the concession speech that so pointedly, and sadly, marked the high point of his campaign. Palin doesn't seem to have spent so much as 15 minutes worrying about her image, preparation for office, or any ways she could improve herself as a candidate or her image with the American people. One has to wonder if the Republican party has had the sense to see this as an evolutionary dead end, or if they are planning to spend another campaign cycle on this foolishness.
Either way, someone with the temperament of a saint should be found to act as her chief of staff. At the very least, to liven up those pedestrian sound bites.
Approval Rating Nonsense
So, according to Gallup, President-Elect Obama has a 70% approval rating. To preface: I'm a huge stats dork. I currently have a man crush on Nate Silver (update: and apparently I'm not the only one). That said, what the hell does a 70% approval rating even mean? I hate to emphasize the bleeding obvious but, he's not president yet. What performance do these people approve of (or put a different way, what do the 30% disapprove of)? It reminds me of the stupidity of preseason rankings in college sports. Wait until the man gets into the game to judge how he's doing.
Different Takes, Different Problems
The New York Times has an interesting article discussing European reaction to Barack Obama’s election. The article dwells on the different problems the major EU nations face with their ethnic and religious minorities. The reaction of my community to Obama’s election was diverse, but largely positive: the older the person was, the more likely they were to view the whole thing with disbelief. Younger people, my high school students especially, were enthusiastic and not at all surprised. I was kind of surprised by the degree to which they accepted Obama’s election as a matter of course, but these students view African-American culture (especially hip hop and Rhianna) as more their birthright than mine, so they have an interesting take on ethnic identity in the US. I passed by a newsstand today that was selling a magazine with a large cover photo of Obama, whose title translated as “A History of Obama.” This country was never as anti-Bush as the rest of Europe, but everyone here is excited about Obama in one way or another
It’s different, however, when we talk about ethnic problems inside the country. The idea of one of the several ethnic and religious minorities in this country rising to a position of real leadership is outside what people see as possible. In the parliament, there’s a large, ethnically Turkish party that usually makes up about nine percent of the vote. While that party wields a lot of power in its ability to make or break various governments, it is emphatically a junior partner. Ethnic tensions are largely peaceful here although there is still a great deal of institutional and systemic racism at play.
On thing the article does not discuss and I think is worth mentioning is the degree to which European nations define citizenship and being part of a community in ethnic terms. It simply is not enough to speak German to become a German. One advantage that the United States has over Europe is, whether or not the founding fathers intended it this way (they didn’t), the framework they created allows us to embrace a constantly widening conception of “Americanness.” It doesn’t matter where your ancestors happen to be from, but if you are participating in American life you are essentially American. While that originally was based upon the differences of the major (mostly British) groups making up the thirteen colonies, it’s only a small step from that to everyone else. The racial problems that have long plagued the US do not, at their base, presuppose that those of different races are some how not American. The US is certainly not without problems, but the problems we have exist on a wholly different footing than the problems of Europe. Anyone can move to the US and become an American in relatively short order. If I move to Italy, speak Italian, marry an Italian, become a citizen of Italy and live the rest of my life there, no matter what I do, I will never be an Italian. Maybe my kids, but by virtue of the fact that Italian itself is an ethnic as well as a cultural category, I cannot access it, because I am not ethnically Italian. In the United States, we define ourselves culturally (speaking English, a (somewhat) shared vision of what the US means) and not ethnically. Hence, a mixed race child of a Kansan and a Kenyan with a Muslim name can grow up to be as American as the decedents of John Winthrop.
It’s different, however, when we talk about ethnic problems inside the country. The idea of one of the several ethnic and religious minorities in this country rising to a position of real leadership is outside what people see as possible. In the parliament, there’s a large, ethnically Turkish party that usually makes up about nine percent of the vote. While that party wields a lot of power in its ability to make or break various governments, it is emphatically a junior partner. Ethnic tensions are largely peaceful here although there is still a great deal of institutional and systemic racism at play.
On thing the article does not discuss and I think is worth mentioning is the degree to which European nations define citizenship and being part of a community in ethnic terms. It simply is not enough to speak German to become a German. One advantage that the United States has over Europe is, whether or not the founding fathers intended it this way (they didn’t), the framework they created allows us to embrace a constantly widening conception of “Americanness.” It doesn’t matter where your ancestors happen to be from, but if you are participating in American life you are essentially American. While that originally was based upon the differences of the major (mostly British) groups making up the thirteen colonies, it’s only a small step from that to everyone else. The racial problems that have long plagued the US do not, at their base, presuppose that those of different races are some how not American. The US is certainly not without problems, but the problems we have exist on a wholly different footing than the problems of Europe. Anyone can move to the US and become an American in relatively short order. If I move to Italy, speak Italian, marry an Italian, become a citizen of Italy and live the rest of my life there, no matter what I do, I will never be an Italian. Maybe my kids, but by virtue of the fact that Italian itself is an ethnic as well as a cultural category, I cannot access it, because I am not ethnically Italian. In the United States, we define ourselves culturally (speaking English, a (somewhat) shared vision of what the US means) and not ethnically. Hence, a mixed race child of a Kansan and a Kenyan with a Muslim name can grow up to be as American as the decedents of John Winthrop.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The President Has Added You as a Friend
The soon-to-be Obama administration has a plan to use its ten million strong email list once it takes up residence at the White House, according to the Washington Post. The Post suggests that we could see weekly addresses via streaming video or other vague and largely unspecified “new media” ideas. I can’t see this evolving into a kind of White House-sanctioned Daily Kos, but it is an interesting development. I could easily see Obama using their lists of emails to solicit political pressure on Congress. It’s going to be an interesting development to watch, and with the massive success of Obama’s fundraising, I doubt that anyone is going to let this drop off the map.
It also mentions that the Obama campaign used their email list as collateral for a loan that they didn’t end up taking out. That just seems insane. It’s unbelievable how much further out ahead of the game the Obama team was compared with everybody else.
It also mentions that the Obama campaign used their email list as collateral for a loan that they didn’t end up taking out. That just seems insane. It’s unbelievable how much further out ahead of the game the Obama team was compared with everybody else.
Extinct Blog of the Day
Today's cashed blog belongs to "Robert Marley" who, in an apparent effort to reinforce stoner stereotypes, only made 13 posts before his "Legalization of Marijuana" blog was put to bed. My favorite part is the Legalization Survey on the right sidebar. Three in favor and none opposed. A landslide. In light of the recent Massachusetts decriminalization vote, you'd think he'd come out of retirement in order to fire up the troops (I'm sorry, I can't help it).
The Cleanup Crew
One of the most pressing issues that the newly minted President Obama will face is what to do about the giant clusterfuck called Guantánamo Bay. Bush is going to leave quite a mess behind, even if he doesn’t do anything to make it worse in the next seventy or so days. The Obama camp has already said that the detention camp will be closed, but the question is, what do you do with the people who are already there? Some of the people there undoubtedly have done things that deserve punishment, and a lot of them are innocent of any crime save bad luck. And then there’s the great middle ground of people there, where it’s just hard to say. Thanks to Bush’s torture and treatment policies, it might be impossible to obtain convictions of most of the people there.
I don’t think you can overstate the moral component of why torture and unlawful detention are wrong, but from a practical level it simply doesn’t work. We are holding people we can’t try because of how we’ve treated them, we’ve made their families and countries distrust everything we say and now we have to decide what to do with people who have been in a prison for going on eight years. It isn’t just a moral disaster for the Union, it’s also a practical one: if you wanted to try and fight terrorism, this is about as far as you can get from a way to do it.
The New York Times had an interesting article this weekend dealing with rehabilitating jihadists in Saudi Arabia. Something like this is in order for the men we’ve kept hostage at Guantánamo Bay and our other extralegal detention facilities, known and unknown. As with crime, exercise and diet, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
I don’t think you can overstate the moral component of why torture and unlawful detention are wrong, but from a practical level it simply doesn’t work. We are holding people we can’t try because of how we’ve treated them, we’ve made their families and countries distrust everything we say and now we have to decide what to do with people who have been in a prison for going on eight years. It isn’t just a moral disaster for the Union, it’s also a practical one: if you wanted to try and fight terrorism, this is about as far as you can get from a way to do it.
The New York Times had an interesting article this weekend dealing with rehabilitating jihadists in Saudi Arabia. Something like this is in order for the men we’ve kept hostage at Guantánamo Bay and our other extralegal detention facilities, known and unknown. As with crime, exercise and diet, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
If an Axe Falls in a Small Town Does it Make a Noise?
So, what became apparent months ago today becomes a reality. I saw the live reports from my hometown on CNN today at work, and then this story featured on their front page. Look ma, we're famous.
People had been worried about the air park closing since I was a little kid. Guess they don't need to worry anymore. Not about that anyway.
Any chance we could apply for some of that wallstreet bailout money that all the K street lobbying firms are being hired to jockey for? Wilmington doesn't have a lobbyist you say? How about some of that big-auto money? No, I mean the new big-auto money. Still no? Maybe there's none left over after you give so much cash to GM's Bob Lutz, who ran the biggest auto maker in the world directly into the ground before calling global warming a "total crock of shit". But, hey, forgiveness is divine.
Really though, hear me out. If big auto could spare just one half of one percent of that $75 billion you're going to give them (with no actual equity stake in the auto industry), it would make all the difference in the world. We're not an "integral American industry" you say? Shit, we're not even a swing county?
That's cool. Don't sweat it. Mount Saint Helens and Flint probably kick ass by now anyway, so at least there's a blueprint. Everybody goes through the occasional period of 30% unemployment, right? I'm sure it's good for the soul.
People had been worried about the air park closing since I was a little kid. Guess they don't need to worry anymore. Not about that anyway.
Any chance we could apply for some of that wallstreet bailout money that all the K street lobbying firms are being hired to jockey for? Wilmington doesn't have a lobbyist you say? How about some of that big-auto money? No, I mean the new big-auto money. Still no? Maybe there's none left over after you give so much cash to GM's Bob Lutz, who ran the biggest auto maker in the world directly into the ground before calling global warming a "total crock of shit". But, hey, forgiveness is divine.
Really though, hear me out. If big auto could spare just one half of one percent of that $75 billion you're going to give them (with no actual equity stake in the auto industry), it would make all the difference in the world. We're not an "integral American industry" you say? Shit, we're not even a swing county?
That's cool. Don't sweat it. Mount Saint Helens and Flint probably kick ass by now anyway, so at least there's a blueprint. Everybody goes through the occasional period of 30% unemployment, right? I'm sure it's good for the soul.
11-11-11
Today is Armistice Day in Britain, which commemorates the end of World War I.
There is something unnerving about seeing London grind to a complete halt- cars stopping in their lanes, foot traffic freezing on sidewalks and steps, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the moment the cease-fire took effect in 1918, for 2 minutes of silence.
No one knows how many people died between the signing of the agreement around 7am, and the late morning. Word definitely got out, however, and gunners faced with the prospect of having to carry ammunition back with them made a concerted effort to fire off as much of it as possible. Presumably, they hit something.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the continued commemoration of this event is that there are still people alive who actually fought in World War I. In Britain, the count is down to 4. The BBC does the annual writeup here.
There were 11 of them when I left in 2004.
There is something unnerving about seeing London grind to a complete halt- cars stopping in their lanes, foot traffic freezing on sidewalks and steps, at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, the moment the cease-fire took effect in 1918, for 2 minutes of silence.
No one knows how many people died between the signing of the agreement around 7am, and the late morning. Word definitely got out, however, and gunners faced with the prospect of having to carry ammunition back with them made a concerted effort to fire off as much of it as possible. Presumably, they hit something.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the continued commemoration of this event is that there are still people alive who actually fought in World War I. In Britain, the count is down to 4. The BBC does the annual writeup here.
There were 11 of them when I left in 2004.
Renegade
So this is not exactly substantial, and I really should be getting back to writing about the still collapsing economy, but here we go...
The Daily Telegraph has listed here 50 things you might not know about the President Elect...including that he's won a Grammy, and as the title suggests, the secret service has worked out his security code name.
It's fluff, and worse, fluff feeding my rapidly growing annoyance with the pop-culturization of the new president, but it's still an interesting read.
The Daily Telegraph has listed here 50 things you might not know about the President Elect...including that he's won a Grammy, and as the title suggests, the secret service has worked out his security code name.
It's fluff, and worse, fluff feeding my rapidly growing annoyance with the pop-culturization of the new president, but it's still an interesting read.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
At Least Give Him a Chance to Fail
So John Boehner had this to say about Obama's pick of Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff:
Secondly, since when does the Republican leadership think that bipartisan appeal is important? Does anybody remember Tom Delay? Or the kinder and gentler Mitch McConnell era in the Senate?
Barack Obama is a newly elected president whose electoral success was predicated upon people's interest in his largely progressive agenda. Call me crazy, but when you're trying to advance said agenda I think you'd need someone who's primary qualification extends beyond hooking up with the first daughter (and yes, I realize he's deputy COS, but still...).
Maybe he will turn out to be a hyper-partisan hatchet man of the first order, who's inability to reach across the isle will become an obstacle. But until then, I have less faith in John Boehner's ability to predict that eventuality than I would a magic eight ball.
This is an ironic choice for a President-elect who has promised to change Washington, make politics more civil, and govern from the center.There's only one salient reply to this so far as I can tell: Rahm Emanuel hasn't actually done anything yet. The only criticism you could make of such a pick, given this fact is whether or not the individual is qualified to serve in the position (which Emanuel indisputably is). Now if Obama would've staffed this position Palin-style, with a high school buddy with no relevant qualifications, then I think criticism would be warranted on that ground. Otherwise I think anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, regardless of their party affiliation.
Secondly, since when does the Republican leadership think that bipartisan appeal is important? Does anybody remember Tom Delay? Or the kinder and gentler Mitch McConnell era in the Senate?
Barack Obama is a newly elected president whose electoral success was predicated upon people's interest in his largely progressive agenda. Call me crazy, but when you're trying to advance said agenda I think you'd need someone who's primary qualification extends beyond hooking up with the first daughter (and yes, I realize he's deputy COS, but still...).
Maybe he will turn out to be a hyper-partisan hatchet man of the first order, who's inability to reach across the isle will become an obstacle. But until then, I have less faith in John Boehner's ability to predict that eventuality than I would a magic eight ball.
Not What We'd Had In Mind
They've done it again!
Those goofballs at Los Alamos Laboratories, the same cut-ups who brought you the atomic bomb, have just found a new way to bring fissionable nuclear material into your life!
It's the private reactor! That's right, for just a nominal fee, you too can light your town with its very own micro-reactor! The Bush administration being a paradigm of efficiency when it comes to corporate profit, has moved quickly and the publicly produced research has already been licensed to privately owned Hyperion, which is taking orders right now!
They claim that it's totally safe, contains no weapons grade materials*, and can't be stolen- because it's encased in concrete and buried underground! As one researcher put it, it would be like trying to steal, "...a hot barbecue grill..." I can relate to barbecue grills! There's one on my porch right now, and it's pretty safe! Of course, mine runs on the 18th century's uranium equivalent, charcoal...
What could be better! This will show all those Left wing nutjobs ranting about "using less electricity" or trying to develop "green" or "renewable" power sources! Thank you, Bush administration, for pressing ahead with this valuable program rather than those other ones. Finally, my suburban standard of living is secure! Thank you, Los Alamos, for putting nuclear reactors closer to me, and those I care about.
*Reactor, which must be refilled every decade, may contain lots of other nasty stuff though. Please do not ask about storage/disposal of these products. LALALALALA we can't hear you. Please go away.
Those goofballs at Los Alamos Laboratories, the same cut-ups who brought you the atomic bomb, have just found a new way to bring fissionable nuclear material into your life!
It's the private reactor! That's right, for just a nominal fee, you too can light your town with its very own micro-reactor! The Bush administration being a paradigm of efficiency when it comes to corporate profit, has moved quickly and the publicly produced research has already been licensed to privately owned Hyperion, which is taking orders right now!
They claim that it's totally safe, contains no weapons grade materials*, and can't be stolen- because it's encased in concrete and buried underground! As one researcher put it, it would be like trying to steal, "...a hot barbecue grill..." I can relate to barbecue grills! There's one on my porch right now, and it's pretty safe! Of course, mine runs on the 18th century's uranium equivalent, charcoal...
What could be better! This will show all those Left wing nutjobs ranting about "using less electricity" or trying to develop "green" or "renewable" power sources! Thank you, Bush administration, for pressing ahead with this valuable program rather than those other ones. Finally, my suburban standard of living is secure! Thank you, Los Alamos, for putting nuclear reactors closer to me, and those I care about.
*Reactor, which must be refilled every decade, may contain lots of other nasty stuff though. Please do not ask about storage/disposal of these products. LALALALALA we can't hear you. Please go away.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
More on the Republican Quagmire
The New Republic offers this thorough exploration of the multiple, mutually exclusive, critiques of the Bush administration and efforts to extrapolate lessons for the future of the Republican party.
Probably the best line is the entirety of the third page:
"What part of "overwhelming electoral defeat" does the GOP not understand?"
Then in the NYT, we have a story in which a group of Republicans decide that, “The moderate wing of the Republican Party is dead.”
I am not a member of any political party, but any regular reader of this blog has probably divined my not particularly concealed sympathies for the Left. That said, conservatism does have valuable contributions to make to American political discourse: fiscal restraint, self-reliance, local solutions to local problems, and personal freedom are all the traditional foundations of the conservative movement, at least as I understand it.
People calling for a party grounded on the model of the last 10 years, which so far as I can tell include: tax policies that enrich billionaires, rejection of science and a related unwillingness to acknowledge, let alone confront, a number of global crisis, a desire to cater to a coded "values" agenda, and a rejection of education and nuance at the expense of flag-waving mindless patriotism, may have strong partisans, but cannot command a majority- in short, the vision of the party espoused in the NYT article, seem determined to craft a party that cannot hope to command national office. The article today in which card-holding Republicans overwhelmingly support Palin in 2012 have a lot of ground to cover before we get around to another election, so should be taken with a good sized rock of salt.
While Palin et al lead the Republicans further and further away from electability, the nation suffers from a lack of people espousing the best traditions of conservatism, and producing the tension in policy-making that maintains moderate outcomes. Conservatives of the United States: there is still a place in the public forum for you. In fact, we need you. Let the moose hunters go their own way. They're going to anyway.
Probably the best line is the entirety of the third page:
"What part of "overwhelming electoral defeat" does the GOP not understand?"
Then in the NYT, we have a story in which a group of Republicans decide that, “The moderate wing of the Republican Party is dead.”
I am not a member of any political party, but any regular reader of this blog has probably divined my not particularly concealed sympathies for the Left. That said, conservatism does have valuable contributions to make to American political discourse: fiscal restraint, self-reliance, local solutions to local problems, and personal freedom are all the traditional foundations of the conservative movement, at least as I understand it.
People calling for a party grounded on the model of the last 10 years, which so far as I can tell include: tax policies that enrich billionaires, rejection of science and a related unwillingness to acknowledge, let alone confront, a number of global crisis, a desire to cater to a coded "values" agenda, and a rejection of education and nuance at the expense of flag-waving mindless patriotism, may have strong partisans, but cannot command a majority- in short, the vision of the party espoused in the NYT article, seem determined to craft a party that cannot hope to command national office. The article today in which card-holding Republicans overwhelmingly support Palin in 2012 have a lot of ground to cover before we get around to another election, so should be taken with a good sized rock of salt.
While Palin et al lead the Republicans further and further away from electability, the nation suffers from a lack of people espousing the best traditions of conservatism, and producing the tension in policy-making that maintains moderate outcomes. Conservatives of the United States: there is still a place in the public forum for you. In fact, we need you. Let the moose hunters go their own way. They're going to anyway.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Bush League
As the McCain campaign's operators are finally free to turn on one another fully, the complete scope of Sarah Palin's...I struggle for the right word...unfitness to serve in high national office is emerging more fully.
This video from Fox, linked through TPM, runs the gamut. It suggests the Palin couldn't name the three countries involved in NAFTA. Believed Africa to be a nation, rather than a continent. And of course, couldn't explain the Bush doctrine to Charlie Gibson. Incredibly, Fox goes on to suggest that the McCain campaign can't really be faulted for this, because this level of ignorance in a state governor is inconceivable.
This longer clip from the same interview also discusses how, during the last two weeks, she would fly into what aides describe as "tantrums" upon seeing her morning press clippings, with items being thrown about the room and reducing at least one staffer to tears. It got so bad that McCain wouldn't allow her to do interviews on her own, actually curtailing her air time when he couldn't be there.
John McCain, RNC,right wing pundrity, et al: you nearly put this woman in the White House, behind a 72 year old man. Really, think about that for a moment.
Palin apparently returned to Alaska today, and was greeted by "dozens" of supporters chanting "2012." Watch that underwhelming video here. According to the NYT, she has been deluged with interview requests, but has so far been hiding from the media, not even appearing at work today.
Adding insult to injury, an RNC lawyer has been dispatched to Alaska to retrieve some of the 150k worth of clothing that apparently somehow found its way back to the frozen North with the governor. Read about this embarrassment here.
Palin's personal troubles aside, the Republican party seems to be on the edge of a vast wilderness if this, this, this, or this, story are at all correct.
The leadership struggles and infighting over who lost what for whom are all very nice, but the problem seems to run much deeper. Palin was far more popular on the campaign trail than McCain was. We all saw her campaign. Where, exactly, would Colin Powell fit in her worldview? Or Edmund Burke, ideological founder of conservatism, for that matter. I'm hardly the first to suggest it, but Palin isn't capable of even pretending to appeal to intellectual conservatives. Unless they happen to be moose hunters.
She is, truly, a fitting addition to the Bush league.
** Update **
On CNN, Palin claims these stories are products of rumor being spread by upset former staffers.
Having slept on this post, I'm not half inclined to wonder if she might actually be right on this one. Fox may have had a point- could she really have believed Africa to be a nation? Could anyone be that out of it?
This video from Fox, linked through TPM, runs the gamut. It suggests the Palin couldn't name the three countries involved in NAFTA. Believed Africa to be a nation, rather than a continent. And of course, couldn't explain the Bush doctrine to Charlie Gibson. Incredibly, Fox goes on to suggest that the McCain campaign can't really be faulted for this, because this level of ignorance in a state governor is inconceivable.
This longer clip from the same interview also discusses how, during the last two weeks, she would fly into what aides describe as "tantrums" upon seeing her morning press clippings, with items being thrown about the room and reducing at least one staffer to tears. It got so bad that McCain wouldn't allow her to do interviews on her own, actually curtailing her air time when he couldn't be there.
John McCain, RNC,right wing pundrity, et al: you nearly put this woman in the White House, behind a 72 year old man. Really, think about that for a moment.
Palin apparently returned to Alaska today, and was greeted by "dozens" of supporters chanting "2012." Watch that underwhelming video here. According to the NYT, she has been deluged with interview requests, but has so far been hiding from the media, not even appearing at work today.
Adding insult to injury, an RNC lawyer has been dispatched to Alaska to retrieve some of the 150k worth of clothing that apparently somehow found its way back to the frozen North with the governor. Read about this embarrassment here.
Palin's personal troubles aside, the Republican party seems to be on the edge of a vast wilderness if this, this, this, or this, story are at all correct.
The leadership struggles and infighting over who lost what for whom are all very nice, but the problem seems to run much deeper. Palin was far more popular on the campaign trail than McCain was. We all saw her campaign. Where, exactly, would Colin Powell fit in her worldview? Or Edmund Burke, ideological founder of conservatism, for that matter. I'm hardly the first to suggest it, but Palin isn't capable of even pretending to appeal to intellectual conservatives. Unless they happen to be moose hunters.
She is, truly, a fitting addition to the Bush league.
** Update **
On CNN, Palin claims these stories are products of rumor being spread by upset former staffers.
Having slept on this post, I'm not half inclined to wonder if she might actually be right on this one. Fox may have had a point- could she really have believed Africa to be a nation? Could anyone be that out of it?
Dog Bites Man
The New York Times brings us the startling news that Obama is putting together a transition team that’s made up of people who were closely associated with the Clinton White House, people who were tangentially associated with it and people who were not involved in it. Good to know.
Obama won a very close and very contentious primary this spring. It’s good that he’s pulling in some Clinton people to help set up his government, but I doubt we’ll be seeing too many that were closely associated with the Clintons in major posts, Rahm Emanuel excepted. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect. Obama is bridging from the old new Democratic Party to the new new Democratic Party. I’ll be curious to see who he picks, although I don’t know enough about the people to really have an opinion on most appointments. I’ll be learning something new, I guess.
Obama won a very close and very contentious primary this spring. It’s good that he’s pulling in some Clinton people to help set up his government, but I doubt we’ll be seeing too many that were closely associated with the Clintons in major posts, Rahm Emanuel excepted. It’s pretty much exactly what you’d expect. Obama is bridging from the old new Democratic Party to the new new Democratic Party. I’ll be curious to see who he picks, although I don’t know enough about the people to really have an opinion on most appointments. I’ll be learning something new, I guess.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show That Never Ends
A Democrat wins a presidential election, and the media begins the usual chorus for governing from the center. How many times do we have to sit through this same old song and dance? Obama doesn’t need to work with Republicans to win the public’s trust if “working with Republicans” means “giving up on a progressive agenda.” He just needs to make sure that the progressive policies he implements work. After the last eight years, it’ll be such a nice change of pace to see government that can walk and chew gum at the same time, I don’t think people will much mind if Republican backbenchers are complaining.
Sadly, Bush is Still President
I think for the next two months, every time something like Russians moving missles into the Baltic comes up, it’s going to be hard not to get a little worried about what’s going to happen.
Regardless, this is a great example of why we shouldn’t be trying to expand NATO simply to antagonize the Russians. This is the kind of move that, were it done by the US the media would have no problem with. But of course, as it’s the Russians, it will be viewed as an unconscionable act of aggression, further justifying our expansion of NATO. If I have one worry about President-Elect Obama, it’s that I feel he’s too hawkish. Part of that, of course, is the fact that Democrats have to appear “tough” or the media will tear them apart. Sadly, it seems far too often that “tough” should be read “stupid.” Let’s hope that he avoids that trap.
Regardless, this is a great example of why we shouldn’t be trying to expand NATO simply to antagonize the Russians. This is the kind of move that, were it done by the US the media would have no problem with. But of course, as it’s the Russians, it will be viewed as an unconscionable act of aggression, further justifying our expansion of NATO. If I have one worry about President-Elect Obama, it’s that I feel he’s too hawkish. Part of that, of course, is the fact that Democrats have to appear “tough” or the media will tear them apart. Sadly, it seems far too often that “tough” should be read “stupid.” Let’s hope that he avoids that trap.
Here We Go
Watching the election on the internet at five o’clock this morning with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer was a pretty moving experience. It’s hard not to wish I was in Grant Park for Obama’s acceptance, but sitting and watching it with a friend was definitely a moving experience. Obama’s a big job ahead of him. He’s got to fix Bush’s mistakes – mistakes that are, unfortunately, ongoing – and he has to fight against the media’s inexorable pull towards the right – excuse me, center. But that can’t distract from all the other things this election means.
The thing that stands out for me most – beyond even Obama’s cultural heritage and race – is the competence, the skill and the class with which he ran his election. Several times over the course of this cycle, I noted to myself the way that McCain seemed to run against Obama, while Obama barely mentioned McCain. Part of that, of course, was the fact that Obama was running against Bush’s legacy. But more of it is the fact that McCain didn’t have a positive agenda. He just had Sarah Palin, a boxful of Karl Rove’s shopworn tricks he picked up at a Bush family yard sale and a quickly-fading reputation. Obama, unapologetically, ran on a platform – a progressive platform. More than anything, after two razor thin elections, it feels refreshing to see a candidate win.
The thing that stands out for me most – beyond even Obama’s cultural heritage and race – is the competence, the skill and the class with which he ran his election. Several times over the course of this cycle, I noted to myself the way that McCain seemed to run against Obama, while Obama barely mentioned McCain. Part of that, of course, was the fact that Obama was running against Bush’s legacy. But more of it is the fact that McCain didn’t have a positive agenda. He just had Sarah Palin, a boxful of Karl Rove’s shopworn tricks he picked up at a Bush family yard sale and a quickly-fading reputation. Obama, unapologetically, ran on a platform – a progressive platform. More than anything, after two razor thin elections, it feels refreshing to see a candidate win.
California :(
After a night on which almost everything went well:
California voters approve gay-marriage ban
Et tu, Cali?
I guess we can start putting the agenda together for 2012.
California voters approve gay-marriage ban
Et tu, Cali?
I guess we can start putting the agenda together for 2012.
Yes We Can.
The sun came up this morning, and it is a new day.
One of the regular questions historians grapple with is the "great man theory," an endless argument about whether great historical figures such as Napoleon, Lincoln, or Churchill are individuals of such ability that they reach out and mold the events of their time with the force of their personalities, or whether from time to time the course of historical events reaches a confluence, and creates an opportunity that would elevate any reasonably competent person to extraordinary significance. Are these people creators of their own destinies, or does destiny invent them at need?
It is too early to tell if we are now embarked on one of the periods that will be ranked among these moments in future, but it is not too early to understand that the President-Elect could handle such a burden. I offer this further response: faced with the greatest challenges of a generation- two interminable wars, the greatest financial crisis of a generation, and perhaps most seriously of all, and systematic erosion both domestically and internationally of the American idea- US voters reached for a man of ability and vaulted him ahead of the entrenched interests that would otherwise have dominated this election cycle. Faced with a less systematic assault on the checks and balances of the government, would a fresh-faced minority candidate have been able to outmaneuver Hillary Clinton and her inherited death grip on the party? Obama ran an amazing campaign, but voters would not have responded as energetically without such a poisoned climate for him to operate in.
I argued earlier in this blog that the weekend after the first bailout package failed to correct the financial crisis the McCain campaign was doomed- yes, in part because it further dented the Bush legacy, but more, because it made the election that much more serious. The more clearly we perceived the damage of Republican government, the less prepared voters were to, "...make a big election about small things."
George Bush, Karl Rove...Richard Nixon- your failure is, for the moment, complete. Voters under the age of 30 voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Voters making less than 50k voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Voters making over 200k- the voters Obama explicitly told were going to pay more taxes- voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Obama won in states that Democrats have not won in decades (what up, Virginia?). Markets around the world (what's wrong with you, Japan?) surged at the news of his victory. An Irish friend of mine, sitting stunned before the images from grant park, half-jokingly welcomed us back to the community of nations. Around the world, people who couldn't even vote celebrated. And he did it by trying to see the best in us, not as part of what my polysci classes taught me was the inevitable demographic chiseling that has marked recent American politics. What remains of the Republican party is increasingly old, white, isolated, and most seriously, morally bankrupt. I'm not one who believes in so-called "permanent majorities," but all those younger voters trending Democratic can only be ominous for conservatives.
Do men shape their own destinies? Yes, but to lift this rather out of context, they do not do so just as they choose. Obama is a product of this time as much as of his own will. It remains for him to master it.
And one final thought. To what extent does electing Obama constitute a final overcoming of the original institutional sin of the Republic? We obviously haven't swept away the many problems race still holds for US society, but surely this morning would have been almost as unthinkable in 1976 as it was in 1776.
The idea is the thing. The idea that this is the place you can come and make it, with ability, rather than any other measure of fitness. Today, that idea is greatly strengthened. What an amazing place this country is.
One of the regular questions historians grapple with is the "great man theory," an endless argument about whether great historical figures such as Napoleon, Lincoln, or Churchill are individuals of such ability that they reach out and mold the events of their time with the force of their personalities, or whether from time to time the course of historical events reaches a confluence, and creates an opportunity that would elevate any reasonably competent person to extraordinary significance. Are these people creators of their own destinies, or does destiny invent them at need?
It is too early to tell if we are now embarked on one of the periods that will be ranked among these moments in future, but it is not too early to understand that the President-Elect could handle such a burden. I offer this further response: faced with the greatest challenges of a generation- two interminable wars, the greatest financial crisis of a generation, and perhaps most seriously of all, and systematic erosion both domestically and internationally of the American idea- US voters reached for a man of ability and vaulted him ahead of the entrenched interests that would otherwise have dominated this election cycle. Faced with a less systematic assault on the checks and balances of the government, would a fresh-faced minority candidate have been able to outmaneuver Hillary Clinton and her inherited death grip on the party? Obama ran an amazing campaign, but voters would not have responded as energetically without such a poisoned climate for him to operate in.
I argued earlier in this blog that the weekend after the first bailout package failed to correct the financial crisis the McCain campaign was doomed- yes, in part because it further dented the Bush legacy, but more, because it made the election that much more serious. The more clearly we perceived the damage of Republican government, the less prepared voters were to, "...make a big election about small things."
George Bush, Karl Rove...Richard Nixon- your failure is, for the moment, complete. Voters under the age of 30 voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Voters making less than 50k voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Voters making over 200k- the voters Obama explicitly told were going to pay more taxes- voted overwhelmingly for Obama. Obama won in states that Democrats have not won in decades (what up, Virginia?). Markets around the world (what's wrong with you, Japan?) surged at the news of his victory. An Irish friend of mine, sitting stunned before the images from grant park, half-jokingly welcomed us back to the community of nations. Around the world, people who couldn't even vote celebrated. And he did it by trying to see the best in us, not as part of what my polysci classes taught me was the inevitable demographic chiseling that has marked recent American politics. What remains of the Republican party is increasingly old, white, isolated, and most seriously, morally bankrupt. I'm not one who believes in so-called "permanent majorities," but all those younger voters trending Democratic can only be ominous for conservatives.
Do men shape their own destinies? Yes, but to lift this rather out of context, they do not do so just as they choose. Obama is a product of this time as much as of his own will. It remains for him to master it.
And one final thought. To what extent does electing Obama constitute a final overcoming of the original institutional sin of the Republic? We obviously haven't swept away the many problems race still holds for US society, but surely this morning would have been almost as unthinkable in 1976 as it was in 1776.
The idea is the thing. The idea that this is the place you can come and make it, with ability, rather than any other measure of fitness. Today, that idea is greatly strengthened. What an amazing place this country is.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Almost Ohio...
Fox just called Ohio. Then uncalled it.
Someone is now standing outside Fox studios holding the contents of their desk in a box.
** UPDATE **
Fox has recalled Ohio. IF THIS HOLDS IT IS OVER!!
Someone is now standing outside Fox studios holding the contents of their desk in a box.
** UPDATE **
Fox has recalled Ohio. IF THIS HOLDS IT IS OVER!!
Pennsylvania...
Pennsylvania goes Obama...
Lots of people seem to be calling things with no numbers reported...
Foxy.
Lots of people seem to be calling things with no numbers reported...
Foxy.
Durr
Not liking how McCain seems to be out to early leads everywhere, even if it is with .2% of precincts reporting.
Anytime you're ready, Virginia...
Anytime you're ready, Virginia...
GAME ON!!
So Matt Drudge is covering his site with voting irregularities, including the first lawsuit, as McCain sues in North Carolina to allow military voters an additional two weeks to have their military ballots arrive. So far, I don't care.
The morning was, again, spent in GOTV activities here in my corner of the Republic, and let me say this- to the Obama volunteer who brought in the homemade oatmeal-walnut-chocolate chip cookies: You were the reason I was sleepy all afternoon, and I worship the mixing bowl you bake with. Seriously. Mmmmmmmm...
The first polls are about to close. My new dual-monitor setup is streaming more information than I can possibly process at once. The fridge is full. Seat belts are fastened and tray tables have been set to their upright positions.
One more hour to wait until the blackout lifts.
Are you ready for some complex statistical analysis?
The morning was, again, spent in GOTV activities here in my corner of the Republic, and let me say this- to the Obama volunteer who brought in the homemade oatmeal-walnut-chocolate chip cookies: You were the reason I was sleepy all afternoon, and I worship the mixing bowl you bake with. Seriously. Mmmmmmmm...
The first polls are about to close. My new dual-monitor setup is streaming more information than I can possibly process at once. The fridge is full. Seat belts are fastened and tray tables have been set to their upright positions.
One more hour to wait until the blackout lifts.
Are you ready for some complex statistical analysis?
Buzzkill
The Old Gray Lady is here to remind us that, while you’re out and voting, Bush is still in office destroying the country. Most people would be content with the level of destruction Bush has been able to engender. But not our man Georgie. It’s good to know that the old guy still has it in him.
The Election from Over Here
It goes without saying that if you haven’t voted yet, you should stop reading this and go make sure that that gets done. Take the afternoon off work, if you’re still at work. Democracy is too important to be left to other people.
If you haven’t read PW’s great post about going door to door for Obama this week, you should check it out. I used to live in the same area, and it’s a pretty amazing story to hear. Can the Bush years really almost be over?
I live abroad at the moment and I wasn’t able to do any volunteering for the Obama campaign, although I would have liked to. It’s fascinating to read PW’s take on the sentiment in the US right now. Living in a small town in Eastern Europe, I don’t feel much of a connection with US news. People don’t know a whole lot about it, and they usually care even less. One of the most interesting things about this election, though, is the fact that my high school students know about Barack Obama. Some of these kids are in the eighth grade they were born in 1994 and 1995 – even Bill Clinton is ancient history to them, above and beyond being the president of a foreign (albeit hugely important) country. George W. Bush is the only US president they’ve ever really known. And over and over, they’ve told me that they think Obama is cool. They don’t even know who John McCain is. (I asked them how old they thought Obama was – they thought twenty-seven sounded like a reasonable age, the bastards) These are not kids who have any interest in politics.
Barack Obama is not going to solve all or even most of the US’s problems. If he wins, he’s got a lot of work ahead of him just getting us back to where we were before Bush. But, talking to people about the election it’s really convinced me that Barack Obama is exactly the president that we need right now. Plus, my students think he’s really cool.
If you haven’t read PW’s great post about going door to door for Obama this week, you should check it out. I used to live in the same area, and it’s a pretty amazing story to hear. Can the Bush years really almost be over?
I live abroad at the moment and I wasn’t able to do any volunteering for the Obama campaign, although I would have liked to. It’s fascinating to read PW’s take on the sentiment in the US right now. Living in a small town in Eastern Europe, I don’t feel much of a connection with US news. People don’t know a whole lot about it, and they usually care even less. One of the most interesting things about this election, though, is the fact that my high school students know about Barack Obama. Some of these kids are in the eighth grade they were born in 1994 and 1995 – even Bill Clinton is ancient history to them, above and beyond being the president of a foreign (albeit hugely important) country. George W. Bush is the only US president they’ve ever really known. And over and over, they’ve told me that they think Obama is cool. They don’t even know who John McCain is. (I asked them how old they thought Obama was – they thought twenty-seven sounded like a reasonable age, the bastards) These are not kids who have any interest in politics.
Barack Obama is not going to solve all or even most of the US’s problems. If he wins, he’s got a lot of work ahead of him just getting us back to where we were before Bush. But, talking to people about the election it’s really convinced me that Barack Obama is exactly the president that we need right now. Plus, my students think he’s really cool.
The Beginning of the End
Well, Election ’08 has officially gotten underway: a tiny town in New Hampshire has opened the polls. I live in Eastern Europe at the moment, so I voted absentee this year, about three weeks ago. It’s somewhat anticlimactic to mail off an absentee ballot. You don’t even get that voting sticker. At any rate, it’s interesting that the final voting is actually really here. At some points, back during the primary, it seemed like it would never get here. Now that we can look forward to a truly monumental moment in American history: the first time I have ever voted for a winning presidential candidate.
This will be the first time I haven’t stayed up to watch the poll results, too – I have to be at work early tomorrow morning. It should be exciting. We’re likely to know fairly soon whether or not Obama has it wrapped up, though. According to Five Thirty Eight, if McCain loses in Virginia, Georgia, Florida or Ohio it’d be very, very tough for him to pull it off. It just looks like McCain is really stuck with some long odds here. Ah, well. Such is the way of the world.
This will be the first time I haven’t stayed up to watch the poll results, too – I have to be at work early tomorrow morning. It should be exciting. We’re likely to know fairly soon whether or not Obama has it wrapped up, though. According to Five Thirty Eight, if McCain loses in Virginia, Georgia, Florida or Ohio it’d be very, very tough for him to pull it off. It just looks like McCain is really stuck with some long odds here. Ah, well. Such is the way of the world.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Alaska Death Trip
Just got back from a long trip and it seems like not a whole lot changed over the long weekend I was away. The presidential race is still remarkably stable, which bodes well for Obama. One piece of news that I found when I got back was that one of Ted Stevens’ jurors apparently lied about her father dying so she could get out of the trial to go to a horse race in Kentucky.
I’ve only ever been called for jury duty once. I went in, bright and early, and waited with the other potential jurors. I was actually interested and wanted to do it, unlike most of the people you hear about. Well, I was only there for half an hour – they took twenty or so people, not including me, and then dismissed the rest of us. Ah, well. I didn’t even have a horse race to get to.
I’ve only ever been called for jury duty once. I went in, bright and early, and waited with the other potential jurors. I was actually interested and wanted to do it, unlike most of the people you hear about. Well, I was only there for half an hour – they took twenty or so people, not including me, and then dismissed the rest of us. Ah, well. I didn’t even have a horse race to get to.
Frozen Foods
So Japanese scientists have apparently figured out how to clone frozen mice, and this story speculates that mammoths could be next.
Mammoths. Extinct for like 20k years. See: Jurassic Park.
WTFPWNDBBQ.
Mammoths. Extinct for like 20k years. See: Jurassic Park.
WTFPWNDBBQ.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
A Few Steps On the Campaign Trail
I spent the first half of today "getting out the vote" for Barack Obama.
I realize that this has been something of a popular topic in thinky media sources recently, so I thought I'd go one up on them and publish my first-hand account. I will also admit, in the nature of full disclosure, that I am writing at this time on a wave of what our Victorian forebears would dismiss as "enthusiasm."
I would contend that my enthusiasm is not unreasonable. I canvassed today in the swinginest swing district of the swing state of Ohio, in the county with the highest poverty rate in the state, and I did it over the same ground that I covered for the same candidate during the primary election.
Canvassing, for those who prefer to sleep in, involves getting a regional media pack containing fliers for distribution, a script or talking points, a list of names and addresses for registered voters, and maps, then knocking on every door on the list and engaging whomever opens it. The mass use of this practice, for those who prefer not to follow politics, has been a hallmark of the Obama style of campaigning.
During the primary, it was a difficult business. People, obviously home, refused to answer their doors. Many who did answer their doors, dismissed us with relative indifference, if not mild hostility. This, after all, is Real America, where churches still win votes for candidates railing against the evils of alcohol and gambling. Needless to say, there is a strong tradition of conservative voting. A few people shooed us off their porch last March with choice words about voting for racial minorities. Certainly, there were Obama supporters, but I would say they amounted to, at best and including some very liberal neighborhoods, half the doors we knocked on.
All of which made today a revelation. Maybe all the door-knocking practice has refined our style. Maybe it was the absurdly pleasant 60 degree sunshine. Certainly, my small canvassing "team" was well past needing the talking points provided by the campaign, and that no doubt helps. In any event, at least 3 out of every 4 people we spoke to eventually expressed their support for Obama. Those who didn't, weren't even rude about it. They answered the door, took the fliers, chatted for a minute, sheepishly admitted they were for McCain, and sort of backed away. Even the folks for whom 11am was Miller time, and who pointed out that they didn't vote because everyone in Washington was a lying bastard who would burn in hell, seemed happy to discuss that interesting perspective with us.
The best part of today was the ten minutes I spent engaging a man in conversation who was still so angry over Hillary's defeat that he was going to vote for McCain.
I still can't quite believe that he existed. It was like seeing bigfoot- you know what you saw, you've seen the sketchy photos, but damn, seriously? I pointed out that if he supported Hillary's policies, Omaba was much closer to them than McPalin ever would be. I pointed out that in a state Bush won in 04 by an average of 9 votes per precinct, swing state voters could ill afford protest votes. We wondered aloud, together, how someone who'd voted for Democrats his whole life could possibly support 4 more years like the eight we'd just been through. In the end he shook my hand, said I reminded him of his son-in-law, and promised to think it all over again. Who knows how he'll actually vote. I have mostly convinced myself that if I had that conversation back, I could have been a little bit more aggressive, and I could have flipped him.
Either way, today was fantastic. I couldn't have had a better experience if I'd been running for something myself. I guess this is the merest taste of how it feels to ride on presidential coattails? It is also, no doubt, the fruit of people winnowing down the canvassing lists to people who were mostly either favorable, or at least undecided, with regard to Obama. Still, today was qualitatively different from the experience of doing this job 8 months ago. I guess that's my slice of political America, on 1 November 2008, with 3 days to go.
I realize that this has been something of a popular topic in thinky media sources recently, so I thought I'd go one up on them and publish my first-hand account. I will also admit, in the nature of full disclosure, that I am writing at this time on a wave of what our Victorian forebears would dismiss as "enthusiasm."
I would contend that my enthusiasm is not unreasonable. I canvassed today in the swinginest swing district of the swing state of Ohio, in the county with the highest poverty rate in the state, and I did it over the same ground that I covered for the same candidate during the primary election.
Canvassing, for those who prefer to sleep in, involves getting a regional media pack containing fliers for distribution, a script or talking points, a list of names and addresses for registered voters, and maps, then knocking on every door on the list and engaging whomever opens it. The mass use of this practice, for those who prefer not to follow politics, has been a hallmark of the Obama style of campaigning.
During the primary, it was a difficult business. People, obviously home, refused to answer their doors. Many who did answer their doors, dismissed us with relative indifference, if not mild hostility. This, after all, is Real America, where churches still win votes for candidates railing against the evils of alcohol and gambling. Needless to say, there is a strong tradition of conservative voting. A few people shooed us off their porch last March with choice words about voting for racial minorities. Certainly, there were Obama supporters, but I would say they amounted to, at best and including some very liberal neighborhoods, half the doors we knocked on.
All of which made today a revelation. Maybe all the door-knocking practice has refined our style. Maybe it was the absurdly pleasant 60 degree sunshine. Certainly, my small canvassing "team" was well past needing the talking points provided by the campaign, and that no doubt helps. In any event, at least 3 out of every 4 people we spoke to eventually expressed their support for Obama. Those who didn't, weren't even rude about it. They answered the door, took the fliers, chatted for a minute, sheepishly admitted they were for McCain, and sort of backed away. Even the folks for whom 11am was Miller time, and who pointed out that they didn't vote because everyone in Washington was a lying bastard who would burn in hell, seemed happy to discuss that interesting perspective with us.
The best part of today was the ten minutes I spent engaging a man in conversation who was still so angry over Hillary's defeat that he was going to vote for McCain.
I still can't quite believe that he existed. It was like seeing bigfoot- you know what you saw, you've seen the sketchy photos, but damn, seriously? I pointed out that if he supported Hillary's policies, Omaba was much closer to them than McPalin ever would be. I pointed out that in a state Bush won in 04 by an average of 9 votes per precinct, swing state voters could ill afford protest votes. We wondered aloud, together, how someone who'd voted for Democrats his whole life could possibly support 4 more years like the eight we'd just been through. In the end he shook my hand, said I reminded him of his son-in-law, and promised to think it all over again. Who knows how he'll actually vote. I have mostly convinced myself that if I had that conversation back, I could have been a little bit more aggressive, and I could have flipped him.
Either way, today was fantastic. I couldn't have had a better experience if I'd been running for something myself. I guess this is the merest taste of how it feels to ride on presidential coattails? It is also, no doubt, the fruit of people winnowing down the canvassing lists to people who were mostly either favorable, or at least undecided, with regard to Obama. Still, today was qualitatively different from the experience of doing this job 8 months ago. I guess that's my slice of political America, on 1 November 2008, with 3 days to go.
Case in Point
So, right on cue, here is the story alleging that Obama's aunt is an illegal alien on Politico.
Here is the excellent piece on TPM detailing how Rupert Murdoch's Times of London newspaper broke that story, just in time to have AP pick it up and make it sound all respectable.
It certainly could be that the Times might have just acquired this story in time for publication today. There are other, less savory possibilities. No proof either way. Convenient timing for a scoop though, isn't it? Murdoch has an unpleasant habit of weighing in on political campaigns, and this does fit his penchant for drama.
Now that we've started, more no doubt to follow.
Obama, rather lamely, responds that he was unaware of his aunt's status on Huffpo. Even if that's true, it comes off awfully weak.
Here is the excellent piece on TPM detailing how Rupert Murdoch's Times of London newspaper broke that story, just in time to have AP pick it up and make it sound all respectable.
It certainly could be that the Times might have just acquired this story in time for publication today. There are other, less savory possibilities. No proof either way. Convenient timing for a scoop though, isn't it? Murdoch has an unpleasant habit of weighing in on political campaigns, and this does fit his penchant for drama.
Now that we've started, more no doubt to follow.
Obama, rather lamely, responds that he was unaware of his aunt's status on Huffpo. Even if that's true, it comes off awfully weak.
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