The Pseudo Body Politic

So Obvious...

2010-05-05T02:16:00.001-04:00

Why didn't we think of this earlier???

Yummers!

2010-05-02T22:53:00.003-04:00

Yeah, yeah.

This is probably the last blog posting on the entire interwebs to reference the culinary abomination that is KFC's new "Double Down."

For those of you who have been risking your lives on foreign shores to protect our way of life and have only recently returned, thank you for your service, and let me put your sacrifice into perspective. This variation on the bacon and fat-sauce sandwich replaces the areas ordinarily occupied by a bun with chicken breasts. As a food item, this has to rank just above cigarettes, in that the only people eating it are engaging in some sort of rebellious activity to demonstrate that the rules of demographics don't apply to them. I figure it hasn't been on the market long enough to have actually addicted anyone yet.

So then I come across this little number, video of a couple of guys racing to see who can down one of these beasts faster. Their best time was 57.97 seconds. I shudder at the thought.

But don't let that stop you! These guys are apparently computer programmers, and your superiority is obvious! Show them who's boss when it comes to stuffing fat and salt into your body, and make sure youtube knows about it! Rwar!

More Fountain Than Leak

2010-05-02T00:54:00.003-04:00

So, after numerous difficulties both medical and professional, my somewhat heralded return is accomplished. Sorry to have been gone so long. I was actually planning to put this off for another week, but then an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico blew up and created a disaster that seems, at this point, likely to become the American version of the Chernobyl tragedy.

It is difficult to believe that you don't already know what I'm talking about, but if that is somehow possible, please go here, here, and then here.

Now, this sort of thing isn't exactly unprecedented, but I have to admit I'd long thought of oil drilling platforms as relatively safe. In large part, this was due to the fact that for some unbelievable reason, I assumed that if you were going to start drilling into oil reserves over a mile underwater, you would also have, you know, a Plan B for turning them off in case the primary (apparently, read: only) mechanism for controlling them fails. As that last link suggests, this isn't really an oil leak so much as an unreachable hole punched into an oil field that is acting at this point more like a fountain than a leak. So far, BP's efforts to shut down the control valve which is supposed to prevent this sort of disaster have failed, and the next best option at this point seems to be drilling yet another well, a process with will take months and as I understand it only slow down the original leak.

I remember when I was in grade school, reading this GI Joe comic about the time Cobra blew up the Joe's secret subterranean headquarters, The Pit. Most of the comic was about how the people trapped underground either made for the escape hatches, or for the drill machine which they'd buried on the assumption that anything capable of collapsing their base would also collapse the primary backup exits. It seems to me like a similar logic applies here- I have literally never taken an engineering course in my life, but a comic book I read in Fourth Grade designed to sell me toys(which I suspect had a minimal engineering consulting staff)pointed out that the catastrophic failure of a primary structure suspended over other important structures might break them if it collapsed on to them. You have any idea what an oil platform engineer earns? They couldn't have seen this coming?

As usual, The Economist's take on this is a refreshing departure from the rest of the coverage, pointing out that the location of oil leaks matters far more than their size. But the leak in question is set to hit the entire US gulf coast, and as the above links suggest, it's likely to make the turn around Florida and move up the Eastern seaboard. The potential scale of this disaster is breathtaking.

I'm not even going to start down the road of who knew what when, who bears the most responsibility, who is likely to win the firestorm of lawsuits that will inevitably ensue. The coming days will present us with a tragedy of currently unknowable, but probably vast, proportions, that will take years to repair, if repair is even possible. The loss of animal life will probably never be known. The economic dislocation will be dramatic. The full repercussions of this slow-motion train wreck are not yet discernible.

If only there was some alternative.

Future

2009-05-29T14:28:00.003-04:00

I have it on good authority (pw's mouth) that pw will be posting again this summer as his studies conclude. Despite spending most of my blogging time these days over at EFCA Blog I'll try to pitch in as well. Not sure what Aaron's plans are, but let's all keep our fingers crossed for a revival of sorts.

My New Gig

2009-05-17T22:01:00.009-04:00

I wanted to alert TPBP community that my new project 'EFCA Blog' is launching today. I've been working hard on getting this set up the last couple of weeks and have tried to build on my experience setting up TPBP. I've set up a corresponding Facebook fan page as well for the especially dedicated.

As the name would suggest, the new blog will be dedicated almost exclusively to the latest news, discussion, and commentary on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). If you're interested in the issue, would like to learn more about it, or don't have the first damned idea what it is but want to, I encourage you to stop over and check it out.

Fear not my dedicated reader(s), as I plan on continuing to post here at TPBP on any non-EFCA related thoughts I might have.

Until then...

Required Reading

2009-05-13T13:17:00.002-04:00

I've given him some serious grief on several occasions, but this post by Andrew Sullivan is a home run. Sums up my feelings almost exactly.

So Stupid It Kills

2009-05-07T20:32:00.008-04:00

Today, Obama fired his first Arabic linguist from the Army for being gay. People are dying because of this insane policy, and still we plod forward with our palms pressed against our eyes. That point is so obscene it bears repeating: This policy of discrimination for discrimination's sake has unequivocally led to the death of U.S. service men and women. As of two years ago more than 58 Arabic linguists had been dismissed because of this policy. Since 1994 more than 13,000 service members have been dismissed, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars in training and recruitment. The public doesn't even support it.

The President that I voted for, went door to door for, and who campaigned on ending this policy (and who could follow through on that promise by signing a piece of paper) allows it to continue. How many more people have to die before that changes?

Write the White House and tell them it's unacceptable. We should all be outraged by this.

Why Should the Democratic Party Support Specter's Switch?

2009-04-28T15:18:00.014-04:00

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania became a Democrat today (statement here) after seeing some brutal recent poll numbers between himself and former Club For Growth president and Republican primary challenger Pat Toomey.

Details are still emerging, but several things deserve highlighting:
1) Harry Reid had been pushing Specter along this path for some time.
2) Specter's statement makes clear that he's still voting no on the Employee Free Choice Act, and might even vote against cloture.
3) But, fear not. The SEIU (and presumably the rest of labor) is on board Specter's primary campaign.
4) So's the DSCC and PDP.
5) It's unclear at this moment what kind of promises, in terms of committee assignments and seniority, were afforded Specter by the Senate leadership in order for him to switch, but I think it's safe to assume that he won't go to the back of the line (see: Joe Lieberman I-CT).

Left-leaning media are falling all over themselves this afternoon, describing what a coup this is for the Democratic Party. And as much as I'd love to play along, I can't this time. I want off the train.

I can't think of a single incident over the course of the last eight years that better illustrates my frustration with the Democratic Party. Let's take a step back and see what the world looked like yesterday, because I think yesterday the future of Progressive causes in the United States looked a bit brighter. Impossible, you say? Let's review.

Yesterday, these were the possibilities for this Senate seat, from most to least likely:
1) Tommey wins the Republican primary and loses the general election to a random Democrat.
2) Specter wins the Republican primary and wins the general election.
3) Specter wins the Republican primary and loses the general election to a random Democrat.
4) Tommey wins the Republican primary and wins the general election.

Today, here are the possibilities:
1) Specter wins the Democratic nomination and wins the general election (overwhelmingly likely).
2a) Specter wins the Democratic nomination and loses the general, presumably to Pat Toomey.
2b) Specter loses the Democratic nomination and another Democrat wins the general.
4) Specter loses the Democratic nomination and some Republican wins the general.

My question for Harry Reid, the SEIU, and DSCC, the PDP, and everyone else that wanted Specter to flop and issued proclamations of support for him today, is this: What in the hell is better about that second list? Put differently, if Specter's going to flop, why shouldn't the Democratic establishment have done everything possible to defeat him in a primary match-up, against a Democrat that will, you know, support a Progressive Democratic agenda? If Specter wins the Democratic primary you can always hop on board at that point, and back his candidacy as the prohibitive favorite.

Some of you might be thinking, "That's all well and good, but what if Specter wouldn't have flopped without first attaining Democratic establishment, labor, and committee/seniority support?" My ineloquent answer to that would be, "Fine. Who gives a shit? Stay a Republican. Good luck in the primary." At which point the Democratic establishment should do everything possible to help Toomey hammer Specter during the primary match-up. Because after all, the best possible outcome is for any feasible Democrat to be matched up with Toomey in the general election.

The thought that scares the hell out of me is that Specter's Democratic establishment support stemmed from the fact that Specter's chances against Toomey as the Democratic nominee would be better than another generic Democrat's. This is undoubtedly true, but how spineless do you have to be to mortgage the house against that slightly increased risk? It's like Harry Reid woke up today and decided he'd rather have a quarter for sure than a 50% chance at $1 million.

This would make more sense if Specter hadn't been among the most moderate voters in the Republican caucus, or if there was any indication he wouldn't correspondingly be among the most conservative voices as a Democrat, but there's no reason to think that at all (as his EFCA stance illustrates). It might also be different if he were 40 years old, with an evolving ideology. However, he's 79 years old. It's very likely that this will be his last term. It's also quite likely that instead of a Democratic incumbent in 2016, you'll have an open seat, and that your Republican opponent will be a lot less crazy than Pat Toomey.

Again, if Arlen Specter wants to run as a Democrat, it's a free country and he should file the paperwork. But I cannot for the life of me understand why, under the circumstances, anyone interested in Progressive change should offer him any additional incentive whatsoever to make the switch.

Didn't See It Coming, But Not Really Surprised

2009-04-28T13:24:00.002-04:00

Jeez, you go to lunch and Arlen Specter changes freakin’ parties. With Toomey polling above fifty percent in a potential Republican primary, this really isn’t that big a surprise. Specter obviously makes much more sense in the Democratic caucus than he did in the Republican one – the most conservative Democrat is way more conservative than the most liberal Republican is.

One of the strangest things about the modern story of the Republican Party is the degree of party loyalty they have been able to engender, and the degree to which its outer fringes hold sway inside the party. The same is just not true for Democrats – look at the degree to which blue dogs like Bayh feel free to go against large, popular legislation with impunity, and the degree that even moderate Republicans like Voinovich, Snowe, Collins and even Specter are forced to toe the line.

Interesting times. At any rate, this should impact EFCA in some interesting ways, so perhaps we'll hear from DP later about that.

Where Things Stand

2009-04-27T15:56:00.004-04:00

For some reason, I just got an email alert from Adam at Net Right Nation. I know there are people out there who like to get emails from groups that they hate just to have something to mock and point at. My friend Tyler is fond of reading the letters to the editor of the Newark Advocate, which makes me want to bash my brains out with a claw hammer. At any rate, I don’t know how I ended up on the NRN mailing list, but here we are, so let’s see what they have to say!

Here is a must watch video of Missouri Senator Kit Bond discussing the November election results. Not only is his answer stunning, it is very telling of where the conservative movement is today.

Senator Bond was responding to a question about Obama's support for Global Warming when he said, "that's why I campaigned for Sarah Palin and her running mate."

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Today in Advertising

2009-04-27T14:56:00.004-04:00

I just saw a Maryland Lottery commercial that closed with the tagline, "People Win".

It's quite a thing when your brand image is so bad that your marketing campaign revolves around convincing people that you're not engaged in fraud.

Friday

2009-04-24T12:01:00.002-04:00

Doesn’t seem to be much going on requiring my wholly unique perspective. Torture, the Minnesota election continues to drag on interminably, the Republicans are doing what they do best: obstructing the appointments of people with wholly mainstream views aided and abetted by their fellow traveler’s among the Democrats. I do not understand how a minority, after losing two consecutive election cycles, including a pretty stinging presidential defeat, continues to think that burrowing deeper into the conservative catechism is the way back on top.

But hey, it’s Friday, and you can even speed on the highway.

Coolest Headline I've Ever Seen

2009-04-23T10:47:00.001-04:00

Here.

Commenter Greg Bringing the Weak Sauce

2009-04-23T08:24:00.003-04:00

You may remember commenter Greg and his cut-and-paste shilling for Sarah Palin from this post. His comments were barely relevant to the post, and he didn't formulate any argument at all, except that she remains popular to some minority of the American people, which no one had disagreed with.

Nevertheless, I tried to engage the weak sauce, partly because we don't get a lot of Sarah Palin fans on the site, but also because (and perhaps this is evidence of a lack of ideological diversity in my everyday life) I don't regularly talk to anyone who sees her as a capable leader. You'd think he'd take the time to reply, as that would further his aims of mindless promotion. Hell, maybe he'd even convert a reader or two with his brilliant rhetoric, lining the pockets of SarahPac in the process.

Alas, it turns out he's just like her, fleeting and vacuous.

My Future Blogging Plans

2009-04-23T08:11:00.003-04:00

Wanted to let my loyal reader(s) know that I'll be launching a new blog. It'll kick off Monday, if I can get everything together by then, or the following Monday if I need a bit more time. It will be devoted solely to EFCA (the Employee Free Choice Act). The layout will be a little different, though not radically. I've been putting together press releases, press lists, and trying to work on some layout issues...basically all the things I didn't do when I started TPBP. I've thought about cross posting to TPBP, but I think I'll use this space to post non-EFCA related commentary, should I have any.

I'll be sure to post here when the new blog's up and running.

You Don't (or Maybe You Do) Know Dick

2009-04-22T14:41:00.001-04:00

I’ve followed with interest the exchange on TPM over the last few days about Dick Cheney’s change in personality. One of the fascinating stories of the last decade or so is Cheney’s transformation from boring, hardworking, rightwing technocrat to a secretive, really rightwing extralegal cipher. I think this explanation makes the most sense – this side of Cheney was always there, but it took a weakwilled manchild above him to allow him the space to really put it into effect. That said, I don’t think you can discount the idea of some sort of physiological transformation, either. I’ve known a few people who have had serious brain injuries that resulted in dramatic shifts in personality.

But, perhaps now is a good time to revisit this profile of Cheney from July, 2000 in the USA Today (Motto: “Almost like a newspaper!”).

Strip Search Supreme

2009-04-22T13:57:00.002-04:00

The Supreme Court was considering a case today dealing with when it is appropriate to allow school officials to strip search students in the search for contraband. The ACLU lawyer discussed the school’s actions in terms of an “ick” factor, and certainly thinking about Clarence "Bill of Responsibilities" Thomas and Antonin Scalia discussing searching a girl’s underwear was enough to make me gag. As John Cole pointed out when talking about the same case, our priorities are seriously out of whack when there is even an argument about the appropriateness of this.

When dealing with childhood and children, there’s a remarkable and unfortunate tendency for people to completely forget what it was like to be a child and to attend a school. Schools already possess, for better or worse, an unbelievable amount of control over kids. This is for the most part a good thing – kids are incredibly stupid, and tend to get themselves into all sorts of problems. I’m certainly not saying schools shouldn’t have a reasonable amount of leeway to act in the best interests of children. However, forcing little girls to strip in the search for ibuprofen (!) is so far beyond that line that they should really call home, the line might be worried. People so wrap themselves up in this idea of “I’m protecting the children/country/sanctity of marriage” that they are unwilling to allow criticism of their actions, even once they have blown any sort of reasonable cost/benefit scale.

The Movement That Dare Not Speak Its Name

2009-04-21T19:10:00.004-04:00

It's unclear whether Aaron should be treated as the proverbial marooned Japanese soldier, unaware of WWII's conclusion, or whether this should all be seen in a more spiritual light, a la the Resurrection. I'll combine the metaphors, pick up a rifle, and join Aaron's island coup. Because after all, one person's raving insanity is two people's grassroots movement..

Aaron tackled this to some extent in the comments section of his last post, but I think the Life and Times of Sarah Palin is relevant enough to warrant continued discussion. Aaron wrote:

As for Palin, I think it's a mistake to simply say, "She lost, forget about her." Palin was hugely popular with the conservative rump in this country.

Though Aaron didn't indicate otherwise, the issue in question is to what degree Palin remains popular with a significant minority of the GOP.

For those not up to speed, Palin's star in Alaska has fallen quite a bit in the wake of her November electoral defeat. She nominated a hard right candidate for attorney general who was subsequently denied confirmation by the Alaska legislature. She has had a series of avoidable problems filling an open legislative seat, the continued and public beef with Levi Johnson and family is increasingly petty and embarrassing, and she pissed off her legislature yet again after ditching the last day of an important session to headline a pro-life group's dinner in Indiana.

Despite all this, it's unclear what effect this will have on her statewide electoral prospects in Alaska, be they in a gubernatorial reelection bid or running for Murkowski's U.S. Senate seat (which appears unlikely).

I'm interested in how (or if) this will effect her popularity in the lower 48. Larison had a fairly interesting post recently on the schism between what he calls "mainstream conservatives" vs "dissidents" and why there was increasingly little conversation between the two groups. As "David Cameron's Tiny Wanker" alluded to in comments, the degree to which Palin has a legitimate national presence in 2012 is the degree to which the GOP is increasingly far afield from the body politic.

Combine this with the increasingly incendiary and bizarre comments coming from very mainstream Republican sources (John Boehner's truly sad interview with Stephanopolous last weekend, Texas' governor talking of secession, or nearly any Michelle Bachman comment). Throw in the fact that there is an established and powerful media presence actively promoting a lot of this rhetoric, and you have a situation that at the very least merits continued comment and observation.

Who is the leader of the opposition party? Seriously. Michael Steele? Ostensibly. John Boehner? Legislatively. Mitch McConnell? Ha. Rush Limbaugh? Rick Sanford? Bobby Jindal? I honestly don't know the answer, but there was a moment in time when Sarah Palin could have perhaps drawn a plurality of Republicans to her banner. It's unclear whether or not that time has passed. I think I would argue that it hasn't. It doesn't matter that that's a sad state of affairs. Sadly, no one knows who David Frum or David Brooks are. They know Palin, and literally tens of millions of people see her as their political leader.

Apple Goes to War

2009-04-21T10:35:00.004-04:00

Via Slashdot, Newsweek reports that the US Army is issuing iPod Touches and iPhones to troops in the field as standard equipment. The uses are diverse and fascinating, from pulling down live video feeds from drones to calculating ballistics trajectories and looking up etiquette for cultural encounters. This is real science fiction stuff. Live video from above you? That's pretty out there.

What's also interesting, of course, is that living in New York City, the damn iPhone is completely ubiquitous. It's shocking how many people have those things. Their attraction is their versatility. An iPhone is really just a small computer with a great interface, and it's amazing that they are proving useful for everyone from yuppies to teenagers to soldiers in Afghanistan.

Pay No Attention to That Woman Behind the Curtain ...

2009-04-18T12:59:00.005-04:00

Reihan Salam convinces himself that Sarah Palin has, sadly, lamentably, unaccountably, turned out to be a grasping, power-mad political hack in a post for the Daily Beast. This seems like the same story from the run up to the Iraq War played again, in the farce section of the program. Once again, everyone eventually comes around to the position that it was a mistake, but no one wants to admit that it was a lementable, hilariously predictable mistake from the very beginning. Read Salam's post for the sad and funny sight of a man trying to square a circle and failing:

What I’m wondering is: Has Sarah Palin undergone some kind of secret lobotomy?

Southern Hospitality

2009-04-17T23:40:00.003-04:00

The flurry of blog-posting continues unabated as I find two articles that I wish to share in the course of a week! Hold on to your hats, folks!

Anyways, in a move that can only be described as "awesome," the Texas House took away the vast majority of Gov. Rick Perry's office budget to try and fund various projects, mostly mental health services and veteran's services. The article says that this is likely to be undone down the road, but hey, it's still funny.

But seriously, secession? Really? I can't add any more to what's already been said about the absurdity of the tea party nonsense, but it's just unbelievable that we have people carrying racist signs, complaining about the tax rate returning to Clinton era levels and refusing to take stimulus money to help out people in their states. And to top it all off, we have people out there who, apparently, seem to think that the solution is to secede. Fair enough.

In the (Depressing) Spotlight

2009-04-16T09:51:00.004-04:00

Well, it's been a while since I've had anything to say to you guys, but I figure the New York Times doesn't bother to write articles about your hometown everyday. It includes a fairly decent video to accompany the article, with plenty of shots that make Newark look a lot nicer than it actually is.

The thing about Newark is, it really is in a bad way. It's right at the forefront of the collapse of the manufacturing economy and the rise of the service industry. Right now, it's running around an 11% unemployment rate. I think one of the things that gets lost in discussions of rural and suburban unemployment is the inability of people to go elsewhere. A lot of people say, "Well, why can't they just move to where there are jobs?" Moving costs money. You need a car to have a job in a place like Newark, and of course you need a job to have a car. There's only a hilarious parody of public transportation. And once you're wrapped up in debt, what else is there for you to do? It's a crushing feeling, and you can feel it hovering over the city. In the same way success builds on success, failure is a hard thing to escape.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2009-02-17T18:00:00.005-05:00

Today's hospiced blog is...The Pseudo Body Politic. For the past two weeks I'm sure our loyal reader(s) has wondered what has befallen TPBP. Rest assured, pw, Aaron, manfish, and myself are all alive and well. Put simply, after a discussion with those folks, I've decided that TPBP has run its course.

On a more positive note, and one of the reasons I'm taking a hiatus from TPBP, is because it's looking likely that I'll soon be a contributing member to Beyond Bread, a blog run by Bread for the City, a large DC nonprofit that engages in all kinds of support services for DC residents in need of help. I'm not sure exactly when I'll be up and running with those folks, but it should be soon. I'll let you all know.

This blog started with a $1 bet (that has yet to be paid) with my friend Dome about whether TPBP would endure for a week. It did. It's been seven months, nearly 500 posts, four total contributors, and 200,000 words of original content. During it's tenure, over 1,000 separate people from 30 countries checked it out at one time or another.

In terms of content, some of it's been shit, and some of it (mostly from pw, Aaron, and manfish) has been quality. Sorry for anybody that had to wade through the former to get to the latter.

This blog came along when I desperately needed something to focus my time on, and a way to sharpen my writing skills. TPBP gave me both.

A blog is, above all, a community. To anybody that stopped by, commented, or contributed in any way, thanks. Commenters db, nick, and anonymous deserve a special shoutout, as does any cleveresque pseudonym my brother invented. Special thanks to Aaron, pw, and manfish, who are all great people and talented writers, and were willing to let me share this space with them.

I won't be "turning the blog off" so to speak. It will remain up and one never knows when one of us will show our Pseudo faces, so feel free to check back at your leisure.

Until then...

Learning From Past Mistakes

2009-02-01T14:54:00.006-05:00

New RNC Chair Michael Steele did the talk show circuit this morning, and has presented the nation with his new vision for the Republican Party...except that it's the same as the current vision of the Republican Party.

I can't say this astonishes me. But does anyone out there feel like the reason the Republicans were just handed their electoral heads has a lot to do with their "failure to lead," Steele's stated reason?

It seems to me like they did rather too much leading, and most of it in direction I would categorize as "very wrong." No need to learn anything from that NYT map showing you with 5 states still in the Republican column, or the voices even from within the party suggesting you're in danger of becoming a regional rather than a national organization. Haven't you noticed how much your delegation has appreciated being included in governing decisions by President Obama this past week?

Enjoy your time in the wilderness. You might want to start getting comfortable.

No Better in Europe

2009-01-31T13:40:00.004-05:00

Der Spiegel this week gives us a piece on Europe's financial prospects for weathering the deepening financial crisis.

If the authors are correct, they are grim in the extreme.

Perhaps most dire is the possibility that Britain could become "a second Iceland," its economy overwhelmed by an even more severe housing crisis than the one that exists in the US. I can recall televisions shows running through a number of modest four bedroom houses (if you are picturing a British home in your head, that's probably what I'm talking about) in the 200k pound range, and then as a teaser cut to the 12 bedroom swimming pooled mansion that could be yours if only you moved to Spain or the US.

As interesting is the dilemma faced by the Eurozone, in which some of the weaker members face bankruptcy. Should the stronger members offer them bridge loans to prop up a fellow member and maintain the value of their shared currency, or does such a policy take away all incentive for governments to make the hard choices that might stave off insolvency in the first place?

Perhaps most striking, the concluding pages of the article range over European economic history going back to the 16th century, pointing out the relative frequency with which national governments had run out of money over the last half millennium. Setting aside the objection that this scope of time runs us all the way back into the declining days of mercantilism, national insolvencies have generally been associated with attempts to pay for wars using economic policies that lacked the sophistication to manage the resulting debt. Considering that we enjoy far more robust mechanisms for debt management today, the apocalyptic sweep of the piece is breathtaking. As is the idea that Europe stands on the brink of some sort of continental prisoner's dilemma with regard to the Euro.

"It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."

Because I Know How Deeply You Care

2009-01-30T12:53:00.002-05:00

Wanted to let my reader(s) know that I'm working on the Sharon Bulova campaign for a special election in Fairfax County on Tuesday February 3rd. It's hard to describe how fun GOTV campaigns are for special elections, for Chairman of the Board of Supervisors, in February, at 8:00PM. Did in mention it's in NoVa? Really, I missed the suburbs, so it's all for the best.

Keynes is Our Co-Pilot

2009-01-29T16:44:00.004-05:00

I've written in this blog about John Maynard Keynes before, indeed, TPBP was some months ahead of the general revival of Keynes in popular journalism.

This American Life has done a piece in which they interview prominent economists, some of whom are specifically applying Keynesian theory to Obama's bailout plan. As TAL often does, they compress into 7 minutes what I had to read some 1200 pages to get. The audio won't actually be available until 7pm Eastern.

Five Red States. That's right. Five.

2009-01-29T15:40:00.003-05:00

Gallup released a poll yesterday looking to determine American's political affiliations. Apparently the first in a multi-part series, I encourage you to follow the link and marvel at the sea of blue states reporting Democratic majorities.

Here is a link to the NYT page where people are attempting to interpret this data.

While the meaning of this is obviously the source of much dispute, considering that this poll comes at the heels of Obama's inauguration it's less surprising than it would be had McCain won. I've weighed in against the "permanent majority" stuff before, but it's still a trend worth watching. We'll see where we are at the midterms.

Blago's Last Stand?

2009-01-29T15:12:00.004-05:00

So Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich (hereafter, Blago) just put in an appearance at his own impeachment trial. Opting not to testify, as that would require him to, uh, answer questions related to his conduct, Blago instead opted to submit the Illinois legislature to a lengthy diatribe about how unfairly he's been treated. It hardly seems like the sort of thing that will make his impeachment less likely. Apparently they are preparing to vote, and you can watch for live updates here.

Blago's really quite successful effort to transform a slam-dunk federal wiretapping case into a public referendum having as little to do with the overwhelming evidence as possible has been a wonder to behold. Really, I can't think of a better executed example of this sort of thing.

I concede that the whole affair does point to the sometimes awkward relationship between the distribution of patronage and the receipt of campaign contributions- President Obama recently admitted that he'd be awarding at least some ambassadorships to BFD campaign contributors, an announcement which is only even notable in that Obama has worked so hard to bring unusual standards of integrity to his campaign and administration. If the line is a gray and fuzzy one, from what I've heard from the tapes there is little doubt that Blago wandered some distance past it. He probably deserves to get impeached. For that matter, he probably should have resigned some time ago. But that would require a sense of shame, the ability to tell right from wrong, and a belief that holding office is about more than just winning. It's about winning in a way that justifies the trust the public has shown in delegating the authority to address issues too big for them to address themselves. It's about giving them a public reflection of the values we are all meant to hold in common, in this case respect for the rule of law. My sense is that Blago doesn't have these things.

He does have amazing hair. Which I will miss, after he has been drubbed from public life. I bet he makes a great personal injury lawyer.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2009-01-28T16:15:00.002-05:00

Today's (un)dead blog is focused on WoW (World or Warcraft). For those of you unfamiliar, WoW is the most popular of a class of on-line games that has ultimately ruined more lives than crack. I was reading something on Ta-Nehisi's blog about how a lot of companies intentionally screen out WoW players because they have haphazard sleeping paterns, tend to be less socially motivated, etc. I had a (relatively) normal friend of mine who WoWed an average of 50 hours a week over the course of a year, and subsequently sold his character (yes, you can do that) for an amount that literally turned out to be like 2 cents/hour.

Anyway...in this blog, whose author remains anonymous, you can find out these useful tips for beginning players, of which my favorite by far is number five which states:

5. Have an escape plan in mind when you get jumped

Words to live by.

The Folly of Obama

2009-01-27T17:21:00.003-05:00

I should have turned my attention toward this long before, but I'd like to offer up my thoughts on Obama's strategy as it relates to passing a stimulus bill. I'd been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on some level, until I saw this presser today.

Here's the problem: when he says we need to "put politics aside", I fear he actually means that was part of his approach to passing this bill. He says there are some "philosophical differences" between he and the Republicans, and that he wishes they had a better idea of what was in the bill. Watch the video. Am I the only one that feels like there's a glimmer of deer in the headlights about him, or at least the beginning of a realization that things aren't going the way he planned?

He thought in a time of national crisis he could assemble a broad coalition and that that coalition could subsequently create an agenda. And that, respectfully, is a fool's errand. You need to set an agenda and find a way - any way - to accomplish it. You never alter exactly what you want, never make a compromise from what you believe is best, unless not doing so threatens the agenda itself. Thus good governing boils down to the quality of the agenda itself and nothing else. Bush understood that. His failure was that his agenda was reckless and foolish; a failure of ideas, not accomplishment. When Obama says he wants to leave politics aside he's making a devastating miscalculation: it's all politics. Once you set it aside, there's nothing left. Josh Marshall hits the nail on the head in this post when he writes:

I hear a lot of talk about whether Obama's governing approach can be 'bipartisan' if a good number of Republicans don't vote for his Stimulus Bill. But that dubious point seems to be obscuring a more obvious and telling reality: the Republican leadership in both houses has decided that it's in their political interest to oppose the Stimulus Bill no matter what.
In the most cynical of evaluations, it's not clear to me that they're incorrect. If the stimulus is judged a success, their political gain from adding more votes to what will be seen as Obama's bill will not be that great. So they're figuring that only failure will work for them politically; and they judge that they want Obama to own it entirely.

What Obama inappropriately labels philosophical differences are actually political differences. And before Democrats get on their high horses about how cynical it is to play politics with policies that effect people's lives (and it is), remember that it was the Democrats that had a chance to halt funding in Iraq two years ago, but made the political decision to go ahead and fund it because they knew Republicans owned the misadventure and that it would probably continue to weigh them down come '08 (which it arguably did).

All that aside, it's almost incomprehensible that Obama believed that men the likes of John Boehner and Mitch McConnell would meet him halfway on anything that wasn't 100% in their political interests. Obama can bring science (back) to Washington. He can bring expertise, multilateralism, deliberation, transparency, accountability, and even the rule of law if he wants to. But he cannot bring decency. He can't bring personal or political sacrifice either. Not from his ruling party, and most certainly not from the opposition.

As I said in an earlier post, politics is the art of winning and nothing more. You make the tough choices about what to put on your flag, about who and what to fight for -- not by calling time out and trying to change the rules.

Hometown Update

2009-01-27T08:44:00.006-05:00

The 60 Minutes piece about my hometown of Wilmington aired two days ago. Video's here. It was certainly emotional for me to watch, though I suppose I'm an easy target. You can see my mother playing bells in the sequence at the church, and if you're fast enough you can catch my girlfriend and I in the back corner of the small audience.

I'd love to label myself a prophet for having predicted the nature of the piece, but there's nothing prophetic about identifying the pain that emanates from certain and impending loss.

That loss, having mostly taken place, will be consummated in three days, when DHL operations in Wilmington cease. Watching the piece viscerally brought home the fact that my reason for coming to Washington has thus far been an abject failure. I've mentioned it before, and I've never said it as bluntly, perhaps even to myself, but I came here because of my hometown. I came here to help in the best way that I knew how. And because I knew what was happening in Wilmington wasn't an isolated incident. 70,000 jobs were lost yesterday. Yesterday. Almost ten times the number that were lost in Wilmington.

I was never so naive as to think that I'd come here and get a job that directly related to helping my hometown. I knew it would take years of hard work, compromise, and smart decision-making before I'd be in a position to do anything substantive.

Politics is an end unto itself, and is only loosely related to governing when it is at all. Politics is the art of winning. I came to Washington because I thought I knew how to win. Nothing in my life has ever made sense to me the way politics does. Like 60 Minutes, I thought I knew what sold, and how to sell it. I thought I'd come here, bust my ass, work twice as hard and learn twice as much as everyone else, and make myself an asset to a Congressional or Executive office. I thought somebody here had read Horatio Alger. I thought my time struggling to decide what I wanted to do with my life, living outside the U.S., traveling the world and accumulating friendships and experiences would be an asset and not a detriment. I thought...

Instead, I'm awash in a sea of Ivy league grads that have planned on working on the Hill since they were in utero. I'm 29 and feel like a dinosaur in an environment that's dominated by people fresh out of college getting the jobs that I'd donate a kidney for. I'm someone with almost no meaningful connections in an environment where who you know is more important than what you know, and what you can do never even comes up. I certainly know some people, but connections aren't really useful unless someone is willing to pull a string for you, and like Wilmington, even if you have heard of me, you sure as hell don't owe me any favors.

I've applied to 41 jobs on the Hill since my internship ended in December, and haven't even received a polite 'no thanks' from a single one. I've gone through 19 different cover letters, searching for the magic words that might land me an interview or chance, wondering all the time if they get read or not, if I should keep applying, keep setting up informational interviews, keep writing emails that rarely get answered.

Like everyone else, dreams or not, I've got to pay the rent, and that necessity has to be measured against why I came here in the first place. The reality is that I'll have to quit focusing on Hill positions soon.

I know my story's not special. There are lots of people in the same boat or worse. You can't be from Wilmington and not know that.

I've got to go now. I'm heading down to a Hill office. I heard the new Senator from Oregon is still staffing up and thought I'd drop off my resume. I could email it, but it's more likely to get looked at if I drop it off in person. It's snowing in Washington for the first time this winter, and being from Ohio I've missed the snow, so the walk should be nice.

Update: Ok, so upon reflection this was a ridiculously self indulgent post. If I didn't have a policy of never pulling posts (whether or not I subsequently regret them) I'd certainly axe it. Blah, blah, looking for jobs sucks. I officially apologize for taking up even a small part of your day with this sad sack shit.

Where Did That Naval Observatory Come From?

2009-01-26T13:47:00.004-05:00

So amid the whirlwind of policies that have cascaded out of the Oval Office over the last week, I would like to draw attention to one of the little markers along the path back to sanity.

Without particular fanfare, the official residence of the Vice President, the Naval Observatory, which had been pixelated out of the satellite photos on Google Maps under Bush, has magically appeared. See the story in TPM.

It raises questions about how one goes about requesting something like this in the first place. It raises even bigger questions about why Google didn't tell whoever made the original request to take a hike. Either way, yet another indication that the country is once again in the hands of rational adults.

Financial Balance

2009-01-26T11:33:00.002-05:00

Here is an excellent article from Foreign Policy, arguing that China's reliance on US dollars for the vast majority of its foreign currency holdings does not constitute the threat to domestic security that many suggest.

Bottom line: As with so very many things, China remains constrained by its own governing system.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2009-01-23T19:49:00.005-05:00

Today's feckless blog belongs to the Ohio University Undergraduate Student Senate, with their "yOUr Undergraduate Student Senate Blog". It's unclear what purpose the blog was supposed to serve, though whatever it was it hasn't served it since May of '08. It was apparently designed to be, "Your source for Student Senate information". Alas, these days there seems to be no information to convey.

I checked the homepage of the organization to try to ascertain the fate of the blog (and with it the purpose of the organization). My favorite part was under the "About Undergraduate Student Senate" tab on the left. I implore you to click on the "What We Do" button, which brings you here. Good times. I hope they're one of those organizations that people join in order to put on a resume and get recommendations, and not advocacy based, or else those poor kids are screwed.

Text Message of the Day

2009-01-23T19:43:00.000-05:00

"So my inaugural invitation arrived today"

Question of the Day

2009-01-23T19:37:00.006-05:00

Would a bolt of lightening have still struck the clock tower given Marty's presence in 1945?

Update: Commenter db is correct when saying that it's actually 1955. I knew that. Don't know why I put '45. My apologies.

Overturned

2009-01-22T15:33:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, by executive order, President Obama ended years of legal debate between a variety of historians and the White House by sweeping away President Bush's regulations that obstructed the release of a variety of documents from all branches of government, but most particularly the Oval Office.

What a difference a day makes.

NYT story on the accomplishments of the first 24 hours.

Episode IV

2009-01-21T09:26:00.004-05:00

I am reasonably certain that among American historians, 20 January 2009 is going to compete with 11 September, 2001 as the real beginning of the 21st century.

Some have suggested that the long national nightmare is over. With Obama already moving to dismantle Gitmo by suspending military hearings, and freezing Bush's executive orders with an eye toward reversing them, I am prepared to entertain that idea. On the other hand, Justice John Roberts managed to flub the oath of office, which was still administered with the inclusion of the (possibly illegal) line "...so help me god" not actually found in the Constitution, and the Dow fell 4% yesterday, for those paying attention to such things.

Still, yesterday rings in my head. The speech was simply masterful- a certain justice that Bush et al had to sit feet away and listen to millions of Americans cheer the repudiation of their ideological foundations. The comparisons to JFK are becoming cliche, and are in my opinion also becoming obsolete. Obama is already beginning to stand in the light of his own reputation. In the space of less than a day.

I won't join the ranks of those who call this a new beginning- that redundancy doesn't really apply to the business of government. What we have this morning is rather a new hope. I will, happily and proudly, join the ranks of those who see this as yet another step toward a more perfect realization of the American idea. I look forward with eager anticipation to watching the next few hours, days, weeks, unfold.

Nature intervenes.

2009-01-18T18:51:00.005-05:00

Well, I had planned on starting this post with some sort of story relating music and sanity, perhaps a metaphor illustrating the restorative powers of listening to a favorite album in troubled times. This would, of course, lead into reviews of a few records that hold that magical ability to make the world alright again for me.

Then a bat flew into my room. In the ensuing insanity of Scottie (guitarist for TPBP house band Skeletonwitch) and me fleeing the room, arms over our heads, screaming like babies, we failed to see exactly where said bat went.

So, I'll still talk about a few of my tried and true favorite records. I'll just do it 50% terrified, 30% repulsed and 20% ashamed, back to the corner cowering in fear. I mean, really, a bat...gross.

Grant Lee Buffalo - Mighty Joe Moon (1994 Slash/Reprise)

Grant Lee Buffalo were doomed from the outset. They were too slick and LA. for the alt-country crown and were too alt-country for the guitar driven alternative scene of the '90's. This album sounds as fresh today as it did 14 years ago. Sweepingly cinematic songs reflect on our place in and our personal relationship with the mythologies of American history, from the bombastic Lone Star Song to the nostalgic Sing Along. Alt-country with distortion, pop rock with banjos and an edge (tell me Mockingbirds isn't a pop song under all those shimmering guitars...), call them all of that. And more.

Hum- Downward is heavenward (1997 RCA)

Another record doomed to fail. Downward is Heavenward didn't sell at all, and they were subsequently dropped from there label and broke up shortly after. Way to ahead of there time. Hum wrote the book on densely layered space rock, and this album has since, very rightfully, become regarded as an underrated masterpiece of the '90's. It's difficult to describe Hum. A heavy guitar-driven rock band with pop hooks? A pop band that shreds? Majestic wall-of-sound riffrock? It's a soothing heavy, all thick guitars and propulsive drums. I can't even consider a world without this album. A tragic world that would be...

Six Organs Of Admittance - Dark Noontide (2002 Holy Mountain)

Six Organs is the name of one Ben Chasney's solo output. This album, Chasney's third, changed my way of thinking about music, both in the listening to and the performing of music. Chasney has a way of playing the Takoma styled, Fahey inspired vein of fingerpicked folk and not sounding like it. His melodies are his own, guitar lines turning in on themselves only to dissolve into a moaning drone of noise, then return agian. I know it sounds hokey to say, but Chasney achieves all of this while still sounding almost spiritual in the depth of his playing, without ever sounding like some new age hack peddling schmaltzy folk guitar. Dark Noontide is an incredible record, one that expands the possibilities of how affecting music can be while never straying to the obvious.

All three of these albums have been on heavy rotation for me lately. They've all transcended the moments in my life that they come from to mean something more to me. I hope you check them out and, moreso, that you enjoy them.

Me? I've got to find a bat. Not cool.

There's Something Happenin Here...

2009-01-17T14:40:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama began his train ride to Washington today in a 1939 Pullman rail car. Read the story here. Spectators line the tracks to see him pass. People flood into Washington days in advance for the inauguration, not in hopes of seeing the event, but of standing out in the freezing cold watching it on giant televisions with other liked minded people.

I struggle for perspective on this weekend. It's been so long since there was anything ennobling about presidential politics, I'm not certain how much of what we are seeing is elation at the end of the Bush years, how much is just the hoopla that surrounds any coronation, and how much is the energy that flows through a moment of obvious historical significance.

For those interested in attempting to capture the zeitgeist, check out: Gail Collins, Bloomberg, Boy George, Reuters, and the man himself.

Did or Didn't, Doesn't Really Matter

2009-01-14T13:18:00.002-05:00

In an update to something I blogged about in the fall, the Supreme Court has decided the case of an Alabama man arrested under a false warrant. As a recap, the issue at hand was not whether or not the search was legal or not – it wasn’t – but whether it’s reasonable to expect the government to keep up-to-date records and if convictions predicated on out-of-date or incorrect information can be upheld by the courts. According to a five-to-four decision by the Roberts Court, it can.

This man went to get his truck out of the impound lot. An investigator at the sheriff’s office knew of his criminal past and looked up his warrants in the county they were in: nothing. So, he had them looked up in the next county over, which did bring up a warrant. The problem is, that warrant had been withdrawn five months earlier. They went and arrested him for that (bogus) warrant and discovered meth amphetamines and a hand gun in his car. He was later convicted of drug charges and possessing a firearm. The Roberts Court decided that this was an inbounds use of federal power, even though the man was arrested initially for something that wasn’t real.

This case was once again decided with the conservative bloc pitted against the (somewhat) liberal bloc, with Anthony M. Kennedy casting the spoiler vote. While the next couple of justices to retire are likely to be from that liberal bloc, it reminds me once again of how pleased I am that we’re not going to face the prospect of a McCain Administration ramming a ramming another movement conservative onto the courts while screaming “No litmus tests, no litmus tests!” We will, of course, have to watch a solidly Democrat Congress and Administration slowly bow to conservative caterwauling, but hopefully we won’t end up with another Roberts or Alito.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2009-01-14T10:03:00.003-05:00

Today's blog is hosted by Oakley C. Merideth (I insist you to follow that link and check out his bio), winner of the "2004 NM Culture Net Poetry WebSlam". Oakley has "always wanted to ride a horse while holding the severed head of a mythical behemoth while my father shouts “Callooh! Callay!” (and really, who hasn't)"

He hosted a poetry blog for "Santa Fe Arts and Culture" (I further insist that PW follow this link, for a reason that should become obvious). Though he has managed only one post in the last 2+ years, I think it's safe to say that his legend will never die. I actually tried to get someone to do a weekly or bi-weekly poetry post a while back, though they politely declined (I should try again, as they recently quit their job to move abroad).

Regardless, I would like to appoint Oakley C. Merideth the official Poet Laureate of TPBP, and I insist (my third insistence this post for those of you keeping track at home) that this honor feature prominently in Oakley C. Merideth's CV.

Selling the President

2009-01-14T05:43:00.005-05:00

One product of Barack Obama's unprecedented internet campaign was that I found myself inundated with opportunities to buy overpriced t-shirts and stickers from him. I thought little of this at the time. After all, the man had a national campaign to win, and you don't do that without money by the trainload.

For some naive reason, I assumed that the opportunities to buy stuff from the Obama campaign would end, well, with the election. Instead, the Obama for America campaign site remains up and running. It continues to bill itself as somehow associated with the 2008 campaign, and most curiously, continues to offer to sell me $30 t-shirts. I got an email from it last night detailing my opportunity to purchase a modified Obama campaign poster, not really improved by the addition of what appear to be palm branches framing an announcement of the inauguration.

The most obvious question for me: where the heck is this money going? Is Obama literally planning to continue campaigning non-stop through 2012? And on a related note, does anyone over there at Obama for America believe that someone in my income bracket, who donated the amounts I did to their campaign, is unaware of the inauguration date and would need yet another garish campaign poster cluttering up my apartment to remind me?

I turn also to this story in HuffPo, detailing the degree to which Obama has inherited the mantle of Babe Ruth as a marketing opportunity for everything from commemorative plates to Ikea furniture. I realize that this sort of shameless marketing fits comfortably within the American tradition of working to transform our most fundamental hopes and aspirations into lucre. I do get that. But I remember attending a rally in Cincinnati last year at which I was assailed, for hours, by local vendors hawking bootleg t-shirts, buttons, stuffed animals, postors- pretty much anything. In fact, despite specific effort, I was unable to locate a vendor among the dozens selling legitimate Obama gear. I finally broke down, and bought my shirt off the website.

What are we to make of all this? It's almost cliche at this point to observe that Obama takes office more as a social movement than as a candidate, which I guess goes some way toward explaining the universal market appeal. But I can't help feeling that this cheapens the brand, in the larger sense. Clintonian wit to the contrary, Obama is not going to wave and bid the heavens open for him. As real-world decisions plant him ever more firmly to the face of the Earth, I have to believe that all the iconography is going to seem...misplaced. I don't have television and therefore cannot track these things, but if the late-night comics haven't turned to this yet, they soon will. I've suggested before that Obama, for all his obvious talent and preternatural self-assurance, is due for an unpleasant collision with the fiasco bequeathed to him by the Bush administration. All the...junk...is just going to make it harder to come to grips with reality.

Bush's Last Conference

2009-01-12T17:10:00.004-05:00

George Bush gave his final press conference today, and you can watch all 47 minutes of misunderestimated glory on CSPAN.

Bush has famously hated press conferences, and it's been months since his last one. Hating the press really isn't a good trait for a national leader, but it's funny watching Bush come to terms with his impending departure- strangely, he's really never looked more presidential than he did today. With nothing left to prove, and with his policy opinions on the verge of becoming irrelevant, he has finally relaxed. You can see it in his shoulders. He actually knew everyone's name in the press room, and some of his off the cuff remarks were actually humorous.

On the other hand, he still can't speak English very well, and his insights seem a little underwhelming. "We haven't we got peace in the Middle East? Well, it's been a long time since we had peace in the Middle East." Hmm.

Of similar interest, Dana Perino was on The Daily Show a couple of days ago. She holds the company line, and gives some sense of what it's like in the bunker in these closing days of the administration.

Is it January 20th yet?

Endangered Species, Republican Moderate Edition

2009-01-12T14:46:00.002-05:00

Interesting but not surprising development from George Voinovich. As the article states, Voinovich will be 74 in 2010, and that is pretty old for someone seeking another six year term. It’s far too early to use this as any sort of indicator of Republican fortunes in the next round of congressional elections, of course. The eight hundred pound bear in the room hasn’t decided exactly what’s going to happen, so it’ll be good to know if we have a wall to hang curtains on before we head down to Penney’s to look at fabric swatches.

Voinovich has long been one of the Senate’s main moderate Republicans. It seems likely from the early maneuverings that the Republican Party is reacting to its electoral drubbings in 2006 and 2008 not by tempering their tone, but by going out of their way to embrace a new Christian, Southern, anti-immigrant, pro-war, pro-torture orthodoxy. A seat like Voinovich’s, in a swing state that wanders all over electorally, could be a real test for the soul of the Republican Party. Who the various factions back, and who comes out the winner will be very telling for what we can expect from the future.

Which begs the question, who will run for Voinovich’s seat? The current Democratic Governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, will be up for reelection in 2010. Perhaps he could be enticed to run, although he showed a real reticence to be dragged into national politics during the Democratic primary race. On the Republican side, I can’t think of anyone of a similar stature. Any suggestions?

Since I've Been Gone

2009-01-12T14:44:00.000-05:00

It’s been a long time since I’ve checked in at TPBP, and for that I apologize. My schedule for the last month has been pretty crazy: being medically separated from the Peace Corps (nothing too serious, thankfully, but serious enough to end my service early, unfortunately), visiting friends and family and making a big move: to Jersey City, New Jersey and a new apartment with my special ladyfriend. Right now I’m on the hunt for a new job, and hopefully I’ll have time to drop some more science on you in the form of insightful commentary on the day’s events. But if you want to shut me up by giving me a job in the New York area and taking up my time, feel free to drop me a line.

It’s good to be back, though. I’ve missed things, and it’s good to see that we’ve still got a number of intelligent and thoughtful commentators lurking around. See you soon.

Justice, In This Instance

2009-01-11T13:49:00.007-05:00

This morning, the President-Elect told George Stephanopolos that he was "leaving the door open" on the possibility of investigating the Bush administration for "potential crimes." Here's the full story.

The implications stemming from such an investigation deserve careful, public consideration.

On the one hand, we have the obvious list of potentially criminal things the Bush administration did, repeated so frequently even in this blog that I will not subject you to a printed retelling of it, allowing you to stop the list in your head when it has reached sufficient size to make the point.

On the other hand, in jobs where almost any mistake you make probably violates a law, this sort of after-the-fact prosecution is precisely why Dick Cheney is trying to withhold his records. That and he's a sneaky git, but this is a credible reason. The term "corrupt politician" can sometimes seem like a redundancy, and in general individuals who break the law while holding office should be held accountable for their actions. But the last eight years have seen a systematic, methodical effort to undermine the structure of the US government carried on not just at the highest levels, but across large areas of entire departments. Prosecuting the handful of individuals who might eventually be held to account for this seems inadequate to the scale of what has occurred.

In a nation ruled by laws, no person or office should be allowed to rise above them, but shouldn't our effort be focused on mapping out the degree to which Bush et al have violated the public trust, and then trying to ensure that their legion transgressions can't be repeated? I for one would take no solace in seeing an Alberto Gonzalez behind bars. I would be greatly heartened to learn that an oversight mechanism that would actually do its job had been created to keep someone else in his position from filling the justice department with lawyers who had passed an ideological litmus test. The President Elect is probably correct when he says, "We must avoid any temptation simply to move on." But we must equally avoid any temptation simply to punish for the sake of vengeance. I believe that justice, in this instance, is better served by the pursuit of improved government in the future than by an exact accounting for past crimes.

I'd Like to See It Before It Explodes

2009-01-10T13:16:00.006-05:00

I saw a headline earlier in the week mentioning the thousands of little earthquakes that have occurred in Yellowstone Park since Monday, and immediately thought of the passage in one of Bill Bryson's fine books mentioning that Yellowstone's remarkable geology is a product of North America's largest volcano. Bryson is one of my favorite airplane authors, but I occasionally find myself wondering if he's just making stuff up.

In this case, he's not. The story here goes into some factual detail, but the general argument, that people who think THE END IS NEAR are idiots we should all point at and mock, seems dangerously childish. A volcanic eruption of that size, in that location, would be a disaster of near biblical proportions for those of us living in North America. It isn't keeping me up nights or anything, but it seems wrong to mock people who are pointing to an actual threat.

Gaza

2009-01-08T16:30:00.007-05:00

While trolling around facebook the other day, I saw that a friend of mine had joined a group called "Let's collect 500000 signatures to support the Palestinians in Gaza".

I texted the friend: "Support the people of Palestine how?"

His reply: "By trying to spread awareness of what is actually going on in Gaza. You obviously know how biased our media is on this issue."

My response (via text) was: "I disagree on some level. Dissemination of what's going on in Gaza isn't the issue, though the combination of an Israeli media blockade and Hamas propaganda makes it hard. The real issue is the completely unsophisticated conversation we have here about the nature and strategy of the conflict and our role in it."

I'd like to expound on what I meant by that.

President's Bush's first public comments on the conflict contained the following statement:

"The situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas," Bush told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and is deemed by Washington to be a terrorist group.
"Instead of caring about the people of Gaza, Hamas decided to use Gaza to launch rockets to kill innocent Israelis," Bush said. "Israel's obviously decided to protect herself and her people."

I don't want to quibble with the factual accuracy of Bush's statement, I'd only like to illustrate the degree to which it is part of an unending pattern, particularly the laying of sole blame at the feet of Hamas. There have been literally hundreds of separate incidents of violence between Israel and Palestine, and more than a few full-fledged conflicts, and our government (and in too many cases our media) have taken a nearly identical view of each one.

Statements like these require our focus for two reasons. We are not bystanders in this conflict. We supply Israel with billions in annual military aid, including recently purchased munitions currently being employed in this conflict. Secondly, these statements are concrete and binding policy guidelines. Official public statements like these don't always (or nearly always) equate to follow-through policies. We talk about carbon reduction and detail how "clean coal" is compatible with that goal. We talk about how important it is for Georgia to join NATO and stand up to Russian aggression in former Soviet states with no real intention of following through on either front. Harry Reid tells us that a Blago appointee will never be allowed to serve in the Senate.

But, in referencing this conflict we continually make the most dichotomous and simplistic statements imaginable, and then enact policy as though they were unequivocally true. Put simply, the statement, "The situation now taking place in Gaza was caused by Hamas" is a bad basis for policy over the short term, and exponentially worse as time goes on, as it allows us to intellectually disengage from a conflict over which we should have a large degree of agency.

I think the mistake many on the far left (and more increasingly in emerging Progressive circles) make is in trying to be some sort of a counterbalance to this destabilizing rhetoric by pointing out the asymmetric nature of the conflict -- such as the completely disproportionate casualty numbers and overall level of destruction. They try to attack the validity of Bush's first sentence, when in fact it's the nature of the conversation itself that's crippling us. It's worth noting that substituting the word "Israel" for "Hamas", probably leads us to an even less true, even more stupid and destabilizing policy perspective. What we need to do is find a way to expand the conversation. It's the only way we'll ever find the political and rhetorical space to maneuver outside the tiny, impotent box we've barricaded ourselves in.

Text Message Conversation of the Day

2009-01-08T15:34:00.005-05:00

Friend: Did u know cats are more nutricious(sic) than dogs?

Me: To eat?

F: Yes

Me: Right...good to know.

F: I mean its not close

Me: Searching for a proper response...

F: Dog supposedly tastes better

Me: Dude, you're freaking me out a tiny bit.

F: I saw it on tv

Me: The pet eating channel again?

F: Nah spikes manswers

Thoughts on Offering Thoughts on Gaza

2009-01-08T13:55:00.005-05:00

I've put a bit in a bit of thought recently concerning where this blog has gone (and is headed) and to what degree I should consider a somewhat tighter focus. In particular, when I read about and consider events as they unfold in Gaza I'm of two minds about how to approach them. One we will call the Ta-Nehisi corollary of "only blog(ging) about things I'm prepared to argue about". I'm not really prepared to argue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict outside of the very broad outlines of what you might hear on NBC nightly news. Would I argue with Yglesias or Klein (among many, many others)? Probably not. Even on this blog, my foreign policy knowledge and synthesis lag behind posters PW and Aaron. There's also the consideration of whether anyone actually uses this blog as an outlet to catch up and discuss news events (somewhat doubtful).

But, what I've also learned from doing this over the past half year is that putting my opinions out into a public forum (even if they're not really critiqued or read by a large number of people) is valuable. Regardless of the prior paragraph, I desperately want to have something valuable to contribute on issues like these since, to employ a cliche, you gotta crawl before you can walk. So, to the entire TPBP community, thanks for reading as I try to take a few careening steps.

Translation: Expect a post on Gaza in a little bit.

Just Read This

2009-01-07T16:15:00.002-05:00

Seriously.

Writing like this often makes me sad. Not for the obvious reason -- the subject matter, but because I can't write like this guy. Anybody else ever feel similarly? There's almost nothing I enjoy more than writing, but nearly everything I put to page sucks. Not that I need to tell any of you.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2009-01-07T12:12:00.002-05:00

Today's sad blog belonged to "the dealio", and followed the Seattle Supersonics, who ripped the heart out of a great fan base and moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder this year. It's both funny and sad seeing dealio's final posts as the Sonics finally departed Seattle. Bill Simmons, a formerly great sportswriter, who's now just intermittently good and well on his way to being the next Rick Reilly, pretty much hit all the nails on the head detailing the Sonics demise. Despite the above swipe his stuff's actually worth checking out.

On a side note, after a lifetime of being a Cincinnati Bengals fan, I'm really giving some thought to following the Redskins now that I'm in DC. Anyone have any thoughts on this? It's a little on the pathetic side, as I'm not sure it'd be considering it minus the Bengals being so unlikable, but here I find myself...

Perhaps we could formulate some pros and cons.

Don't Worry, Be Happy

2009-01-07T11:37:00.004-05:00

Hat tip to the pseudo girlfriend for pointing this out, but has anyone else noticed how amazingly normal people in anti-depressant medication commercials look? Oh, they're doing contemplative things like looking out windows and taking off their glasses to see things on the desk, i.e. things normal people do all the time. The only way in which they look depressed is by comparison; if you juxtapose them with the ridiculous, inordinate degree of smiles, joy, and good-lookingness that comprise all other commercials.

I generally avoid shit like this, but it's hard not to see the implicit message: depressed people look normal, which while it might be true on some level, still gives me the willies.

Update: I just received a text from my partner, dissatisfied at the "pseudo" moniker. Suffice to say that she is, in all things (amongst them displeasure it would seem) the real McCoy.

The Series of Tubes is Letting Me Down

2009-01-05T17:38:00.002-05:00

Having some internet issues here at the Pseudo Mansion. Think they're mostly resolved, and will be giving you stuff on Blago, Gaza, and The Employee Free Choice Act as soon as things are back to normal. Hope all is well.

Still No Records

2009-01-04T19:56:00.003-05:00

Some time ago, I posted about a lawsuit filed against the Bush administration to prevent it making off with vast amounts of records from the most sensitive periods in its administration. As Mr. Bush's final days in office tick past, he remains determined to restrict access to his records. Apparently, entire days of email are missing. Vice President Cheney continues to argue that he has no responsibility to hand over records at all.

As the NYT points out in this editorial, little has changed from the filing of the original lawsuits, and the ease of producing digital records will mean that even following its own dubious reporting standards, the Bush administration will hand over 50 times more documents than Bill Clinton did. That means it will be years before the archive can make sense of it all, and further years before historians can determine what is there, and what is not.

Any administration needs a certain amount of latitude with information in order to govern effectively, but as I've said before, the idea that no one will ever know what our leaders did is fundamentally undemocratic. But then, who knows how much more these guys have to lose.

On The Media in China

2009-01-03T15:56:00.004-05:00

In the general blitz of China reporting earlier in the year, I completely missed this series of stories rebroadcast this afternoon by On The Media. I hate to think how many other stories of this quality I overlooked in the wider flood of material- this stuff is NPR at its finest. As the show title implies, the broadcast focuses on various aspects of the media, so these three pieces on the internal PR machine, investigative journalism, and publicity leave this listener wishing they'd been given wider scope.

Download to your ipod and enjoy!

That's No Moon...

2009-01-03T14:02:00.003-05:00

Here is an interesting article detailing a conversation the Obama transition team is apparently having with NASA. In essence, they are considering integrating NASA and the Pentagon's space arm to save time in replacing the shuttle and accelerating the ability of the US to put people on the moon.

In part, dissolving the traditional firewall between the civilian space agency and the military would be a time- and cost- saving exercise. However, as the story details, it would also be a response to China's accelerating militarization of space. The Chinese have been working on technologies to disable the satellite network the US relies on to communicate, which the military would obviously prefer to avoid.

I don't have any first hand experience with NASA, or with the Pentagon for that matter, but it's difficult to believe that either entity would be entirely happy working with the other. It also suggests an interesting new dimension for the arms race between these two nations in the coming decades.

A Party of Whiners?

2009-01-02T17:06:00.003-05:00

So Paul Krugman asserted this morning that the Republicans have become, "a party of whiners." He did that in his traditional venue, the NYT, hardly a podium likely to endear his message to its intended audience.

At least, I assume that the individuals he singles out in the article are in fact the intended audience. Otherwise, the column amounts to little more than throwing stones at people who continue to be utterly bewildered by their isolation. I don't disagree with a word of what Dr. Krugman writes, but whatever the audience, he should not have published this piece. If anyone was going to publish it, it should have been said by someone far, far further to the right. Atop the cresting tide Obama will ride into office in a few weeks, this sort of thing flirts with gloating, hubris, or both. Worse, it gives the Right something to focus on other than themselves, and that's the last thing anyone wants. The Right needs to come to grips with the idea that they cannot stand in opposition to science, balance of power, and arguably rule of law, and come up with some way to live with the results of ceding those points. We would all benefit from that. We've seen the disorder within the party in recent weeks as it tries to reconcile itself to the message of the last election. The last thing anyone should allow the debate to do is disintegrate back into name calling. That would be too easy, and these are not complacent times. Krugman himself concedes that eventually, the Republicans will set their house in order and return to political relevance. What do we want them to look like when they do that?

Extinct Blog of the Day

2009-01-02T15:51:00.002-05:00

Today's blog belongs to "padutch" who founded the Amish Blog. Founded might be too strong a word, as the blog only contained one post -- about the killing of 10 children at an Amish school that occurred in 2006. This blog was apparently a resource for those curious about the Amish, though it's origins and purpose are a bit clouded, as you'll see if you check it out.

In what can now safely be called a pattern, despite the blog's singular post, there were 36 comments, and multiple front page ads, which would indicate a fair amount of traffic. It would seem that I continue to pick Extinct Blogs that had far more notoriety, sometimes even in death, than TPBP has in life. But fear not TPBP community, as our fame is quietly biding its time.

Just a Note

2009-01-02T08:49:00.002-05:00

Just letting everyone know a couple of things. 1) I've had the opportunity to hang out with posters manfish and pw in the last two weeks, and can safely report that they are (what passes for) fine. I've also spoken with Aaron, who is back in the states, and promises to start posting again soon. 3) I'll be back on my normal, scratch that, new and improved blogging schedule starting today. My Hill internship is up, so I'm looking for a new, full-time staffing position. This should give me significantly more time to assail you with the warm glow of knowledge and witicism that emmanates from my posts. Keep your fingers crossed for me on the job front. Think that's it.

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T14:56:00.002-05:00

So, it is officially a new year, and there is still a TPBP to post on. DP may have fueled his project through its early weeks with the infamous Bet That Shall Not Be Paid, and I have to admit, when I first heard about this blog, I didn't expect it to last very long either. Well, that isn't how things have worked out. My crystal ball has duly been returned to the shop.

I am not generally entertained by the "year in review" article in most of its many forms, so wont' subject you to one now, but it's fair to say that on a little reflection, 2009 has plenty of room for improvement. I'm certainly looking forward to January 20th.

From all of us here at TPBP, may you have a happy and productive 2009!

How Not To Be Good

2008-12-29T13:01:00.004-05:00

There was history in the air in Detroit yesterday as the Lions met the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, where they were defeated 31-21 to complete the NFL's first winless season since the extension to 16 games. Hampered by completely avoidable penalties, the Lions certainly gave the game their all, but in some way that just made the spectacle worse. It was obvious that they were overmatched out there. Indeed, the season has made clear that there are more than a few players in Lions uniforms who wouldn't make the cut on any other team in the NFL.

I watched the game in one of Detroit's best sports bars, Coach's Corner on 7 Mile, which deserves the free publicity. It was packed with local fans, faithfully decked in Honolulu Blue, most of it showing obvious years of wear. You could feel the resignation mingling with the cigarette smoke- even when the Lions made decent plays, few seemed to believe that they could possibly add up to victory.

Truly, the Lions have earned their place as the worst football team ever to take the field. Yes, they have gone 0-16 this year, but they have only won 10 games in the last three years, and it has been 372 days sine their last tally in the W column. The only silver lining to this cumulonimbus cloud is the schadenfreude merchandising: see rebuilding since '57 (yes, that's 1957, but only because there was no football in the 19th century), or Detroit Lions: Pre-Season Champs. Also see the Detroit News' retrospective, "A Season To Forget."

Incredibly, there was serious debate yesterday as to whether or not Coach Rod Marinelli would keep his job after three years of consistent failure. In point of fact they did fire Marinelli this morning, but team owner William Clay Ford (yes, that Ford) comports himself like a hermit, and the Detroit faithful have no idea who he will hire, when, why, for how long, or according to what logic.

I want to end this piece on an upbeat note. There is only one way to go from here, or they can't get any worse. But truly, there is little to suggest that optimism is warranted. I had a serious debate with a fan a few days before the game, regarding the ambivalence of the Lions actually losing em all. In a way, it would be more Detroit-esque to win that last game, to snatch notoriety from the jaws of just another horrible season. While no team has ever managed to concentrate their failure into a single year so effectively, the Lions have been stumbling through professional sports for as long as I've been alive. Well, enjoy this one, Detroit. No such thing as bad press, right? Right? Hello?

Oh, and seriously, Mr. Ford, you need to think this over. Your ticket buying public isn't kidding anymore.

Price of Oil Drops 74% From July Peak

2008-12-24T10:58:00.006-05:00

Amid the general wreckage of what we are pleased to call the economy, one of the most welcome trends of recent weeks continues in this Associated Press story announcing that light sweet crude fell below 37usd per barrel this morning.

I know I'm not the only one who's been enjoying filling up the gas tank for half of what I'm now used to paying, but I'm also not the only one who bought into the general trend of arguments from two or three years ago, suggesting that the increasing consumption of oil by emerging Asian economies combined with price speculation in deregulated markets were producing a sort of market synergy and generating an unprecedented, permanent new price floor for oil.

Clearly, reality has proven more complicated than such sweeping models allow, and I've lost a long-running argument with my adviser. I guess the questions that need to be answered to better understand this phenomenon are:

1. Was Asian oil consumption actually responsible for driving up market prices, or were increased prices a function of regular market fluctuations?
2. Are we actually consuming less oil now than we were a year ago? Because suddenly OPEC is talking about reducing output, rather than claiming they don't have any additional production capacity to meet our endless demand. Knowing the answer to this would go a long way toward answering question one.
3. What should we see as the fundamental price driver for oil costs at this point?

We'll be watching over upcoming weeks to provide new answers to these old questions. In the meantime, enjoy driving like it's 2001.

The music grew a little quieter this year.

2008-12-21T21:28:00.004-05:00

I love Pretty Mighty Mighty.

For those of you who don't know, and I assume that that is everyone that will initially read this, Pretty Mighty Mighty were an indie-flavored band formed in the early 1990's in Athens, Ohio, eventually moving to Columbus after everyone graduated from Ohio University. They have steadfastly remained one of my favorite bands for the last 15 years. As the current "music guy" on this blog, I would be remiss not to mention the passing of Noel Sayre, PMM's (and more recently, the Black Swans) violinist.

I would be lying to you if I told you Noel and I were friends. More the type to nod at each other the two or three times a year our paths crossed. Not because Noel was unfriendly or unapproachable. No, Noel was about as nice as they come. Unbeknownst to him, some of my very first memories of live music, the truly visceral power of instruments and amplifiers right there in front of you, are tied directly to Pretty Mighty Mighty. We weren't friends or acquaintances because he was Noel fucking Sayre!!!! Yep, a bit starstruck. Pretty Mighty Might shows were some of the first live shows in Athens to absolutely melt my face and show me that dissonance and beauty can be one and the same. Their songs are the soundtrack to me growing into my twenties, to first loves and tragic losses, to discovering myself as a person and to the repeated times I've lost myself as a person. I have listened to them for comfort in 4 different countries. I repeat, I love Pretty Mighty Mighty.

Oh, I know that Noel (and Jon, Neal and John-the rest of PMM) wouldn't have liked me thinking this way, as he was a very down to earth guy. I also realize how silly it is of me to put Noel on such a pedestal. But the truth of the matter is, he is a fundamental part of my growing up, and will undeniably remain intertwined with my life from here on out. My heart goes out to anyone who was ever blessed by Noel's friendship or touched by his music.

I wish I could find a current link for the band (this is the best I could do), and I recommend this for a much better explanation of who Noel was and how he passed away. I highly recommend Ugly, their debut. Hell, I highly recommend all of their music. Check out the Black Swans, as well (not everybody's pint of ale, but very cool, nonetheless). If for some reason you can't seem to find anything, and I'm looking at you Nick, drop me a line here, I'll see what I can do.

Rest in peace, Noel. You will be missed.

More Like This Please

2008-12-20T16:49:00.005-05:00

So the President-Elect has made the first selections for his science team, leaders in their fields with absurdly sterling academic credentials, and charged them with addressing global warming in the course of attacking years of Bush administration "inactivity."

Link to story here.

I heard someone the other day describe the climate crisis as the human population of the planet driving a car with faulty brakes toward a cliff in a dense fog with the vague idea that they'll be able to stop before something unpleasant happens. Indeed. The policy shift these picks suggest is long, long overdue.

O-ba-ma.

(Rhetorical) Question of the Day

2008-12-18T20:53:00.001-05:00

Is there anything funnier than the type of guys that drive late model Porches?

The Human Rights Campaign is a Feckless Organization

2008-12-17T20:22:00.012-05:00

Leave it to the Human Rights Campaign to focus on what's important. This is what they had to say about Obama's decision to have bigot Rick Warren perform the invocation at Obama's inauguration:

“Your invitation to Reverend Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at your inauguration is a genuine blow to LGBT Americans,” the president of Human Rights Campaign, Joe Solomonese, wrote Obama Wednesday. “[W]e feel a deep level of disrespect when one of architects and promoters of an anti-gay agenda is given the prominence and the pulpit of your historic nomination.”

A "genuine blow" you say? What a "deep level of disrespect" indeed. While we're at it, let's make a list of other genuine blows and deep levels of disrespect facing the LGBT community in the United States:

1) Don't ask don't tell.
2) An inability to get married in 48 states.
3) Presence of DOMA.
4) An inability to adopt children in Florida and Arkansas.
5) No employment protection in multiple states.

Rick Warren still seem like a big deal? Maybe the HRC, for decades the biggest and wealthiest LGBT lobbying organization in the US, should get an honest to god policy success under their belt before getting hot under the collar over which pastor reads a biblical verse or two at a ceremonial event. If they want to direct anger at Obama over something consequential, maybe they should hold his feat to the fire over his reported shelving of repealing DADT (a stance he's long advocated and campaigned on...in the primaries of course, not the general).

Note number 1: I think Rick Warren is a terrible pick as well, for all the reasons everyone else has put forward. I simply think the HRC has much bigger fish to fry.

Note number 2: I've given him an extremely rough time of it recently (witness here and here), but Andrew Sullivan has done by far the best job of anyone I've read in trying to hold the HRC accountable for being such an ineffective organization. I really urge anyone interested in LGBT issues to do a search for HRC on his blog for tons of great perspective and analysis on the organization.

(Rhetorical) Question of the Day

2008-12-17T18:25:00.002-05:00

When was the last time you saw a national media frenzy about a murdered black child?

UN Moves Against Pirates

2008-12-16T22:46:00.003-05:00

So, firstly, I'd like to point out the most recent development with our African pirate friends. The UN has finally approved air and land operations in Somalia to suppress them with military force. Read the disappointingly brief story here.

In an earlier post, I received some criticism for the suggestion that the appropriate response to Somali piracy was to mount machine guns on gunwales of freighters as they moved through the threatened sea lanes, on the grounds that the idea was impractical. Here is an AP photograph of a member of the Dutch special forces, manning his gun on the freighter De Ruyter as it moves through the Gulf of Aden. I have no idea what the scale of this program is, but I would bet the pictured ship made it through ok.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this resolution. Presumably, current deterrent operations will be dwarfed.

Anyone considering the purchase of an eyepatch and parrot may want to pick up a different line of work. Or get them via overnight mail. We may be nearing the end of our series on African pirates.

Question of the Day

2008-12-16T18:24:00.004-05:00

Is it really necessary that we go out of our way to provide a leg up to a member of the Kennedy family?

Sullivan Descends Into Mindless Drivel

2008-12-16T14:22:00.011-05:00

Today Andrew Sullivan posted the 2nd part of his series entitled, “Why Libertarianism Taken to its Logical Extreme is Awful” (see my response to Part One here).

For someone that’s usually so willing to intellectually engage with ideas, his dogmatic adherence to the perfection of market capitalism is almost childlike. In his latest salvo he writes:

The point of capitalism is that actions have consequences. Once that market discipline is removed for a few of the worst, ill-managed, union-crippled companies in America, the stage is set for endless mediocrity, government-run industry (i.e. even more endless mediocrity), and a free-for-all at the government trough. A clear majority of Americans agree, in the new WaPo poll. If this intensifies the recession, so be it. Recessions are sometimes necessary for long-term economic health. And the bigger and sharper it is now the more time Obama has to recover from it. Let them die.

Again, I’ll highlight only the most ridiculous points, as going sentence by sentence would require too large a chunk of my workday. As an aside, if you don’t get a chuckle out of that 2nd sentence then you just don’t have a soul. Limbaugh should sue for copyright infringement.

Let’s start with our “clear majority of Americans” argument. A clear majority of Americans think all kinds of crazy things. I realize they’re picking up the tab, and that is important, but it’s the inconsistency of his argument that feels disingenuous. Neither in his last post on the subject nor this one, has he given any indication whatsoever that he’s inclined to put stock in public opinion. Remember, the public was far more overwhelmingly against a bailout of financial institutions, but Sullivan never mustered anywhere close to this level of opposition.

“If this intensifies the recession, so be it.” Yeah, so be it. Right on. Omelets and eggs, right? The callousness of this statement is really staggering. If you’re not going to attempt to explain why letting the auto industry fail is going to result in a net lowering of economic and personal misery (and again, I think a case could be made), then saying that just makes you sound like an insensitive asshole.

Next comes the whopper, “Recessions are sometimes necessary for long-term economic health”. Why? Because you say so? Are you even going to bother citing anyone? That may well be true, but it sure sounds counterintuitive (replace the word recessions with 'influenza' and eliminate the word 'economic'…still make sense?).

Now we get to: “And the bigger and sharper it is now the more time Obama has to recover from it.” Huh? I have no idea what this even means. Anybody want to hazard a guess? Is he saying that if it’s a really deep recession than it will take longer to recover from it? Well, right…but…

Then, finally, it’s “let them die”. Classy. Does he have some pent up anger against the auto-industry? It’s hard for me not to go back to the Chuck Todd corollary here. I won’t throw out the insinuation without asking the question: Andrew: Do you personally know a single blue-collar worker whose job would be threatened by the failure of the Big Three? Any families? Correspondingly, how many people do you know that work for financial institutions?

I wouldn’t have asked if he’d been 1/10th this hard on the rescuing of financial institutions, at the cost of 40X as much money, but the zeal with which he’s making this argument makes me wonder.

Update: One of you pointed out that after saying I wasn't going to analyze Sullivan's post sentence by sentence, I proceeded to do just that. They have a point. I guess I couldn't help myself.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2008-12-15T22:35:00.007-05:00

Today's blog, Meet Vernon, belongs to Vernon Lee Evans (via Virginia Simmons). Vernon was a death row inmate in Maryland. He received a stay of execution in 2006, but I was unable to find out how long that had been for and if he was still alive. Given that the blog was last updated nearly 30 months ago, I am assuming that he was eventually executed.

There aren't tons of posts, but the ones that exist, combined with comments and questions from people that wrote him, make for interesting reading.

Update: Commenter Chuck D stated that Vernon was still alive and on Maryland's death row. I'll post a link if I can find one.

Later Update: In the comments Chuck D said:
The organization "Maryland Citizens Against State Executions" has a good, regularly updated website. Check the details of Vernon's captivity here.

Thanks for the info Chuck. I wonder why he stopped posting?

The Dumbest Post I've Ever Read from Andrew Sullivan

2008-12-15T17:46:00.014-05:00

I've read him for years. I don't agree with him on much, but he's intermittently interesting, and it's good to get a variety of ideological perspectives.

But then I come across this post today. He writes:

Every time the government protects someone or some company from the consequences of their own economic profligacy, the chances of future profligacy increase. It's vital that the government let the Big Three automakers go down, and vital that only minimal help be given for those so greedy or so stupid that they took on loans they had no way to pay off.

We're in the middle of the greatest economic downturn in 75 years and Sullivan's version of keeping his eye on the ball is to point out a moral hazard? This is dogmatic allegiance to principle at its most reckless and stupid. It's hard to even know where to start.

The first sentence is nonsense. You could use this rationale to attack the merits of TANF funds, unemployment, or bankruptcy for that matter. Why not bring back debtors prison? That'll teach those damned bankrupt individuals and companies "the consequences of their own economic profligacy".

Secondly, it's "vital" that we let the Big Three fail? Why? Presumably (and we must presume because Sullivan provides zero rationale or analysis) so that we can teach companies what happens when they're run poorly. A fine lesson in the abstract to be sure. But this is no abstract situation. There are millions of jobs at stake. Millions of families and foreclosed homes.

His argument boils down to this: We need to increase unemployment and foreclosure rates by 50%, further depress housing prices, and drastically decrease domestic spending (we'll ignore the increased crime and host of other peripheral externalities) so that future companies and individuals can learn from all this misery and be less inclined to do it in the future. What noble adherence to principle.

Every time new medical advances are made to treat STI's (such as anti-retrovirals or HPV vaccine) I hear religious fundamentalists make a similar argument. If we treat the consequences of risky sex, oh how shall I put it....the chances of future profligacy increase. High risk sex is something to be discouraged right (just like risky borrowing)? So, if no effective treatments for HIV exist then people will be less likely to engage in behavior that makes contracting it possible. So, why doesn't Sullivan's argument hold here? Cause it's all about principle, right?.

Well, no actually. That would be silly, shortsighted, and cruel. If Sullivan wants to object to the auto-bailout, by all means make a case. Hell, I'm not totally sure I'm sold on the idea. But don't offer up some bullshit quote from an Economics 101 textbook and make it a substitute for an educated opinion, particularly when it concerns a complex issue that viscerally effects tens of millions of people.

Electoral College: Boo

2008-12-15T17:03:00.004-05:00

The AP reports that Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States by the people actually empowered to select the president- the College of Electors.

I remember trying to explain the elegance of the American electoral system to confused Britons back in 2004, and the existence of the CoE was often central to their confusion. At the time, I would go out of my way to point out the perceived dangers of handing political power to regular people in the late 18th century, argue that the existence of this odd institution was just part of the colorful pageant of American politics, and anyway, before you go criticizing us, what's up with your "monarchy?"

Well...here it comes...flip! The whole system of voting to elect people who can then vote on your behalf is an absurd affront to democratic principles when used like this, and distorts the conduct of national campaigns in ways detrimental to public discourse. We saw a "50 State Strategy" this year, and it was a controversial and bizarre departure from the normal fighting over just a few states deemed "in play." More importantly, it undermines the main remaining reason to preserve the current system, which is that it tends to limit campaign costs. Direct election would mean that every vote really did count, and would ensure that presidential politics wasn't so easily hijacked by minorities in swing states. I'm looking at you, Florida. We've had years of argument about campaign reform in recent years generally focused on how we pay for them. We should spend some time looking at what we say about ourselves when we organize them.

The Shoe Heard 'Round The World

2008-12-15T13:34:00.003-05:00

I almost couldn't believe my eyes when the story of an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at our president hit the wires yesterday.

Perhaps inevitably, TPM reports that Muntadhar al-Zeidi is now so popular in Iraq that crowds are demonstrating for his release from custody, as presumably they too would like to throw things at George Bush. While I struggle to think of a context in which throwing your shoe at someone isn't rude, it is a mark of particular disrespect in Arab societies. Presumably, also, this raises questions about Presidential security, and musing on the potential convergence between the experience of boarding an airplane and interviewing the President is diverting.

There is a certain irony to the fact that, in his final weeks in office, President Bush has finally managed to find a way to unite much of the Middle East around a common cause.

*UPDATE* 17 December 2008
The NYT Opinion Page has stolen my headline! Durr!

More music...

2008-12-15T10:22:00.010-05:00

Hello again. I apologize for the one day delay. Christmas parties have a way of derailing even the best of intentions. The Tony's party could derail the U.N. (whether the U.N. have good intentions or not is debatable). I shall try to work through the Monday haze to help you, dear reader(s), make sense of this music thing. So, what's going to happen with music this coming year? Can we continue to survive on sugar fixes? Do we really need any more anemic mediocrity from this guy (oh, how the mighty have fallen!!!!)? Can I stand any more tepid aping of David Crosby's back catalog? No, on all accounts, but I do enjoy the following...

Russian Circles- Station (Suicide Sqeeze)
Russian Circles are a three piece from Chicago that deal in sweeping, majestic post-rock instrumentals. I know, the term post-rock means nothing these days but it fits these guys. I was a bit dissappointed with this album when it was initially released. I felt it lacked the immediate crunch and effectiveness of their first cd, but man, is this one a creeper. The hooks are buried much deeper, making for far greater appreciation when they finally sink in. Mike Sullivan's notey guitar falls in the math-rock category. However, this does him a great injustice as he never gives in to the notes-for-notes-sake trap that so often accompanies this style. The crunch of their debut is still present, but it's the epic sweep and emotional range of highlight Verses that really resonate. A very rewarding listen for those willing to stick with it.

Love Is All- A Hundred Things Keep Me Up All Night (What's your Rupture)
Speaking of sugar fixes...While not as strong as their debut, I still can't stop myself from listening to this. Imagine insanely catchy pop songs filtered through a steady diet of late 70's British punk rock smothered in layers of reverb and your mostly there. Sure, Josephine Olausson doesn't always sing in key. Hell, sometimes she doesn't even sing near a key. Spunky exuberance, spikey guitars and wailing saxophone make singing in key irrelevant. Olausson and her band somehow manage to make urban disillusionment and lonliness sound like one hell of a good time.

Torche- Meanderthal (hydra head)
So, I know this might be a stretch, trying to pimp out what would appear to be a cross between a metal record and a third grader's art project, but hear me out. I won't go so far as to say Torche are reinventing the wheel. I will say that this release will be felt for years to come as a very bright signpost of what can be done to make pop music (that's right, I said pop music!!!)...well...sweeter!!! Much, much sweeter. These guys manage to make a marriage of Melvins-like heavy sludge and impossible to deny pop hooks work like a dream. Listen to Healer or Across the Shields and try, just try, to stop humming them!!! Metal has never sounded this damn catchy. The future is now, and if this is any indication of what can be done to spruce up a stale genre, count me in.

Whew. Font disaster averted!!! Thanks DP. So, that's about all I have for highlights this year, unless I dive headlong into telling everyone that will listen about the many joys to be had in the remastered Creedence Clearwater Revival catalog or discussing the merits of a few extreme metal releases that no one wants to hear about. We'll see what happens next week. Thanks to TPBP for letting me do this. Hopefully I won't soil their sterling reputation. Support your local record store. Oh, and (maybe) welcome back to the states, Aaron!!!

It's Official

2008-12-14T15:58:00.005-05:00

The New York Times has obtained a draft copy of a portion of the official history of the Iraq War. As it is 508 pages long, you may prefer to read their highlights here.

I will admit, I have only skimmed the original document thus far, although those immobilized by back injuries may enjoy a more thorough exploration :). Compiled from over 500 interviews and 600 other documents and reports, the history is a sweeping indictment of government planning from the moment the invasion ended and the reconstruction began. It further concludes that the White House was essentially fabricating numbers such as the size of the Iraqi force which had been trained. If you want to read more about the train wreck everyone outside the official mind has largely been aware of for the last few years, you have the links above.

This document should also serve as another nail in the coffin for the Bush legacy. As much as historians enjoy slaughtering sacred cows in the name of revisionism, it speaks volumes (pardon the pun)that Bush-appointed writers can find nothing but fiasco. As I've suggested previously, it's quite possible that President Bush's only hope for historical spin rides on the shoulders of his successor.

TPBP Week in Review

2008-12-14T14:03:00.005-05:00

It's been far too long. Whether it was the job, my peerless status as a DC socialite, or just my disposition, I have neglected to provide my faithful reader(s) with an update on the community that is TPBP.

Fitting we should resurrect this weekly posting with a combination of hellos and a good-bye. First off, a hearty hello to our newest addition to TPBP, poster 'manfish'. Hopefully you caught his first post, and if not you should keep your eye out for subsequent ones, which I believe will always be on Sunday, and will explore all things musical.

Also in the hello category, Aaron reportedly re-entered U.S. airspace yesterday, and should begin posting again soon.

As far as good-byes, I'd like to wish my friend Dave a hearty one. Dave's own (and much more professional looking) blog resides here, and can be visited anytime through a link on the right side bar of this blog. I met Dave while in grad school, and got to hang out with him in DC quite a bit the last few months, while we were both working in DC. Alas, it's back to school for Dave now that his internship's over. He'll be missed, as I don't yet have enough friends in DC not to observe the departure of a good one. On a strictly professional note, you should keep your eye on this kid. He's ridiculously young, but he's got the magic touch.

The numbers are these: Traffic is down folks. I won't lie to you. But, posting's down too, so we won't be casting blame. Only 16 posts this week which isn't awful, but far from great. The bright side is that this coming week will be my last week at my current job. After that I'll have a couple of weeks off during which I'm hoping to write 10K words/week, and be posting far more frequently. I'll be doing a longer piece on my hometown as well. All this, with the return of Aaron, and I think we're in good shape moving forward.

Onto the reader awards:
Comment of the week: Mine, from this post. You don't like it? It's self serving you say? Tough. Make a kick ass comment and maybe I won't have to give this award (and the glorious prizes that accompany it) to myself.
Commenter of the week: The dreaded 'anonymous', I guess. We only had 12 total comments, 6 of which were on 'manfish's music post, and most of them were anonymous. Don't be scared! Insults, thoughtful additions, commentary, they all work.

On behalf of myself, Aaron, and PW, thanks to all of you that stopped by to make TPBP part of your lives this past week. Hope you stop by in the week to come.

Meet the Press Review

2008-12-14T13:49:00.003-05:00

David Gregory is an uninformed goof-ball. Why didn't they pick Chuck Todd? That's all I got. Join us next week for our new weekly Sunday post, "This Week with George Stephanopoulos Review".

My Injured Back and the Domestic Policy Agenda

2008-12-14T08:26:00.013-05:00

So, I injured my back. Just one of those things where I woke up yesterday morning in a bit of pain. It's happened to everyone. I was hoping it would marginally improve during the day, and just slowly mend itself. Unfortunately, it started spasming, got a lot worse, and has left me in a borderline unbearable amount of pain. Couldn't really sleep, can't really lay down without being in pain (which I know doesn't make a ton of sense, but there you have it), etc. The pain's pretty localized, so I've probably just done a number on one of my back muscles. But, it's really painful, and increasingly incapacitating.

All "my injured back" and no "domestic policy agenda", huh? All right, let me see if I can square the circle and fulfill the promise of the post's title.

You see, regardless of my street-corner medical diagnosis, the wider issue here is that it also happens to be a bit scary. I've thought about scheduling an appointment with my doctor, but I don't have one. I could go to the emergency room, but that's likely an even more expensive option, not to mention a fairly inefficient use of emergency resources, as I probably don't fit the bill of having a truly emergent health situation.

Like nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States I don't have medical insurance. I'm not highlighting my situation as an impetus for anyone to feel bad for me. Really. I'd just like to raise my hand in voting for how stupidly inefficient this situation is, and how many undesirable social consequences exist because my situation is not in any way unusual.

The point I'd like to highlight here is the cost-benefit analysis the uninsured engage in when deciding whether or not to seek medical treatment. The idiocy of trying to decide if your injury/medical condition, etc. is serious enough to seek medical treatment that you can't afford, when you have no actual medical expertise should be apparent to everyone, and yet (to quote Chuck Klosterman) this shit happens all the time.

Quick note: For those of you thinking, "This is stupid. Your health is too important to ever engage in some dumbass 'cost-benefit analysis'. Just go to the damned hospital/doctor." I admire your inability to empathize and the fact that you've never been uninsured. I really do. But, this post has nothing to offer you. Go read PW's post linking to that article about China. It's really good.

Sorry about that. Anyway...where was I? Oh, this shit happens all the time. Right. See, this shit happens all the time. And, I'm not highlighting it out of some, kum-ba-ya, we should all feel sorry for the great uninsured masses. I'm only illustrating that the social costs of such a stupid health care policy are legion. Continuing on with my own example. Assuming it is no big deal, and things get better, we're probably all better off. I didn't waste a doctor or emergency room's time, I didn't waste the pharmacist's time filling a script, or use any gas to get said prescription. But, if it really was a non-serious injury these costs were pretty small, the doctor wasn't going to spend more than his 15 scheduled minutes with me, nor was a hospital going to admit me. If I went during non-peak hours, the only ancillary detriment was me interrupting the on-call nurse's viewing of Letterman or Days of Our Lives.

Now, what if the injury's really serious? In this case my delaying or deciding against treatment could create a significantly larger social expenditure. I'd be out of work longer, I'd waste more taxpayer dollars (somebody's got to pay for it), I'd require more medical resources and medicine. I don't have kids, which is lucky, but I wouldn't be doing my girlfriend or her employer any favors as I peripherally sucked up their time and resources. Remember that small cost from the above paragraph? How many of those do you need to offset the negative social consequences from this one?

Perhaps I'm whining, but I have an enormously difficult time seeing who benefits from me sitting here in pain, hoping that my injury's not a serious one...from the standpoint of the wider domestic policy agenda of the United States, of course.

Update: I believe this was our 400th post. Yay for us. For those of you that have been around from the beginning, you may remember a wager I made with my friend Dome about whether the blog would survive for more than a single week. Well, it has. And that bastard still hasn't settled the bet.

You Sorta Have To See It Yourself

2008-12-13T17:30:00.003-05:00

I quite like this article on China by Tom Grimmer, it's a decent summary and a better tone than is common in US press coverage.

My only issue is with his characterization of the China Investment Corporation, the government owned strategic investment fund, as, "This is a passive equity investor just looking for a place to park cash; it's not Dr. Evil. (So far, CIC has taken a bath on the likes of Morgan Stanley and Blackstone stock; they are not seers.)"

Well, sort of. It's a government directed investment company that strategically selects targets...er, companies...based on their ability to provide useful things to China. That's why people are so touchy about it acquiring significant holdings in computer companies or airlines, industries with strategic military applications. In fact, it's hard to think of any commodity that a state government could invest in using the amounts of capital China has available that wouldn't tend to raise questions about alternative agendas.

Still, on the whole, a good read.

Dead for Now

2008-12-12T07:19:00.002-05:00

Down goes the bailout. My guess is that the White House comes through with cash, probably at the direct urging of Obama. Though my opinion on the auto-bailout is complicated (I was probably a bit more skeptical than the average progressive Dem), one has to wonder what things look like in the event of a GM collapse.

A Post-Cold War Military

2008-12-10T22:40:00.004-05:00

So the NYT has the latest story in a debate stretching back to the Clinton administration about the desirability of continuing to fund the F-22. In brief, the argument goes something like this: the US armed forces are tasked with being able to fight anyone, anytime, anywhere, and they need constantly improving weapons systems to do that. No one disputes the that the F-22 is an engineering marvel, easily the most capable combat aircraft on the planet. It's also the most expensive, which segues nicely into the counterargument: the Soviet Union, the entity this aircraft was designed to defeat, no longer exists, and no force worthy of this sort of performance has emerged to take its place. In fact, setting aside the possibilities of future wars, the two existing ones we have require low-cost people skills and redevelopment work more than they require supersonic, radar-invisible fighter aircraft.

The Bush administration inherited this debate, and through a combination of deficit spending and policy neglect, never bothered to resolve it. The Bush Doctrine was entirely about foreign policy, not how we expect the military to implement it. While our troops in Iraq called out for armored vehicles and more personnel, we continued to spend billions on air superiority fighters, missile defense systems, and a new generation of nuclear weapons. I don't mean to suggest that these programs have no use. Our existing aircraft are three decades old and in need of replacement. New nuclear weapons tend to be smaller, which is at least something. But they do little to address the immediate needs of the troops actually fighting right now. Even if we do decide that, somehow, we can afford to build a military machine simultaneously geared toward to anti-insurgency work, and fighting a major land war in Europe, let's hope the Obama administration at least has the ability to articulate that vision. Or some other vision- anything. It is well past time to address the sense, creeping since 1991, that we are getting a military geared as much toward keeping production contracts in all the right congressional districts as it is toward implementing national security policy.

The Stupidest Story No One Will Quit Talking About

2008-12-10T22:11:00.003-05:00

I'm tired of everyone freaking out over whether Rod Blagojevich will appoint someone to the U.S. Senate while he's out on bail. Sorry to ruin it for you, but he won't. There are so many reasons this won't happen that I won't waste the time it would take to go through all of them, but the most important one is:
1) No one he would appoint would serve if they were even semi-legitimate, they'd quickly decline the appointment. Anyone that accepted the seat would have no future in electoral politics (which is kind of a deterrent).

If this guy understands anything, it's how to act in his own best interest (ignoring the stupidity of doing it in such a blatantly illegal manner of course). He's got to be acutely aware that there is no possible benefit he could accrue by flippantly appointing someone. This guy might be an idiot, but he's pretty likely looking a lengthy prison term in the face, and something tells me he's not in a hurry to do the one thing most likely to make people think he's even more of a despicable criminal.

Not just some pretty lines

2008-12-10T12:27:00.007-05:00

Considering the heavy lifting this blog has been undertaking in recent days, it almost seems out of place to post something so irreverent. Obviously, not enough to stop me.

The renowned Max Planck institute just released the latest edition of its academic journal, and focusing on China, wanted to adorn the cover with some dramatic, three-kingdoms type poetry. Instead, they printed an advertisement for a Macau brothel.

Could you make this up? Original story on Huffpo.

Apologies and International Flights

2008-12-09T10:14:00.000-05:00

I’ve been rather infrequently checking TPBP this week, as I’ve had some entirely exciting and annoying problems develop in my real world life. I’ve been slowly (very, very slowly) working with the Peace Corps on a medical condition: I’ve got a nerve in my foot that’s under pressure and is causing my foot to hurt all the time. It makes walking and standing up all day difficult, which is awkward, since I do a lot of both. The upshot of that is, Thursday, the Peace Corps Medical Office in Washington, DC, has decided I will receive better treatment in the United States (and, apparently, taking care of it myself). Thursday they told me I was being medically separated. This being the Peace Corps, decisions like that proceed with a great rapidity (unlike, say, the treatment of my foot problem, which took over six months of slow useless and pointless treatments and four and a half hour bus rides). I’ll be flying home to Ohio on Saturday, my Bulgarian adventure finally at an end. I’ve always wanted to visit Washington, and I finally will: for about three hours, as I have a layover there. Not quite what I wanted, but what can you do?

It’s unbelievable how much stuff you can accumulate in a year and a half. I have mixed emotions about the whole situation. I wanted to finish my full service. My students were all upset that I was leaving (and you would be too, if you were losing the only teacher in town who let them play games). However, I know that I have completed my service (a medical separation is still a closing), and the more I think about getting back to my family, my friends and my special lady friend, I can’t help but be excited. You should see the teddy bear my eight graders got me as a going-away present.

What I’m not so excited back is moving to the US in the current economy. I’m sure I’ll have plenty of opportunity to see what it’s like when I get home, and perhaps it will provide some fodder for the blog – which I notice is going well, with strong posts from everybody but me, and even a brand new poster, although he sounds pretty suspicious. Posting will continue to be light since I still have to move. In the meantime, enjoy your holidays and I hope your foot feels better than mine.

Too Small to Save: Update

2008-12-08T22:37:00.005-05:00

After getting some extremely positive feedback on this post (most of it private, save for an anonymous comment) I've decided to spend what's turned out to be a totally inordinate amount of time reworking it, and will probably be submitting it as an Op-Ed piece. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2008-12-08T22:14:00.002-05:00

Today's blog belongs to Farah Anwarullah, who writes The Muslim Housewife blog, and likes "...working out, trying out new recipes, reading and of course Apple computers!". She started her blog to be a "place where limiting beliefs are lifted and the true definition of a Muslim housewife is brought to life and crowned!".

Though she used to be a semi-frequent poster, she appears to have trailed off a bit in the last couple of months. Her posts are interspersed with all kinds of Arabic sayings that make following it annoying and cool at the same time.

Though an infrequent poster, she's got at least a moderate following, as damn near every post has quite a few comments. This seems to be an emerging theme here with the Extinct Blog of the Day. I highlight all these abandoned blogs that still manage to have more traffic than mine. I'm sure it doesn't mean anything.

Being an agnostic, Farah and I probably don't have much in common (though we both apparently enjoy cooking...and reading, so perhaps I shouldn't be so quick to judge). Regardless, I salute you Farah -- owner of our Extinct Blog of the Day.

A Lengthening Chain

2008-12-08T16:17:00.005-05:00

The recent attacks in Mumbai are already fading into the collective memory here in the United States, joining the list of organized terror attacks in places like Madrid and Bali. Much has become clear in the days since my first post on this matter: the attackers effected a seaborne insertion, seized locally available vehicles, and proceeded to conduct themselves with a professionalism approximating a special operations force. Maintaining radio silence, they split in to teams and executed a series of diversionary attacks to confuse first responders, and then moved into their target hotels and office buildings. They carried secure communications gear, were familiar with the floor plans, directed their movements with hand signals.

As Newsweek points out, at this point it is a fairly open secret that the Pakistani military had something to do with training these individuals. The article also does an excellent job of detailing the limitations of Pakistan's civilian government's efforts to confront a military establishment which has traditionally kept its own council with regard to suppressing Islamic extremists. Oh, and efforts to protest innocence by Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the Pakistani "charity" which seems to have been somehow involved, are undermined by this Times article, written by a reporter who interviewed one of their members the week before the attacks. I don't personally know anything about the organization, but the guy in this interview appears to have an agenda rather beyond clothing the poor and helping the needy.

None of this will strike any student of contemporary Southeast Asia as particularly surprising. India has shown admirable restraint with regard to Pakistan after the attacks, which is reassuring considering the weapons technology available to both parties. The solution, which would be for Pakistan to actually work to suppress violent extremist groups, may well prove beyond the reach of many of those in Pakistan who would like to see it happen. Which is truly unfortunate, in part because it means that Mumbai really is just another link in what will prove to be a lengthening chain of tragedies perpetrated by extremists, and in part because India is a democracy, and it's only a matter of time before people there start to demand a more aggressive foreign policy with regard to Pakistan. If they do, it will be hard to blame them. No doubt, this was in part precisely what those gunmen wanted when they came ashore in Mumbai, and I hate to see brutality rewarded.

How about that 2008?

2008-12-07T12:47:00.006-05:00

Hi everybody. I've been asked to contribute some music reviews here and would very much like to thank DP for the invitation. 2008 may have been one of the most disappointing years in music I can remember. Hopefully, I can point out the handful of bright spots I managed to find this year among the rubble.

the Everybodyfields-Nothing is Okay (Ramseur 2007)
Okay, okay, so it came out in 2007. Since discovering this gem in early 2008, it hasn't left my cd player for more than a week at a time. You could lump this in the alt-country pile but it is so much more than that. A loosely based concept record chronicling singers Jill Andrews and Sam Quinn's breakup, this is all melancholy emotions and gorgeous harmonies. Quinn has an attentive eye and a deft hand at description, particularly in highlights Be Miner and opener Aeroplane. Definitely my album of the year.

Deerhunter-Microcastles/Weird Era Continued (Kranky 2008)
Deerhunter's previous album, Cryptograms, had such promise on paper- damaged, noise soaked art rock- and honestly, I tried repeatedly. It sounded like two separate bands playing at the same time without listening to each other. Microcastles rectifies this mistake, joining 60's Motown pop songs as played by punks raised on a diet of Sonic Youth with delicious squalls of noise to deliver another contender for album of the year. There is a undercurrent of warmth in these hazy, narcotic lullabies that is missing from virtually all of their peer's music. Pop music for a new generation, this album exceeded my expectations regardless of the massive hype leading up to its release. Highlights for me include Agoraphobia, Never Stops and Nothing Ever Happens.

James Blackshaw-Celeste/Sunshrine reissues (Tompkins Square 2008)
Blackshaw is hands down the winner amongst the current crop of Fahey disciples, winning me over long ago with his debut, O True Believers. Unlike his peers, Blackshaw is not content to merely ape the Fahey style. Blackshaw creates his own 12 string worlds, creating contemplative, spiraling ragas that turn inward on themselves and transcend the label of folk guitar. These reissues show his mastery of form and technique were present very early on, stunning in their scope and beauty. However, you can't go wrong with anything he's done so far.

Okay. I've probably exceeded my Word allowance. Hopefully this was helpful and you'll all go out and buy these from a real record store. Support independant music!!!

A New Addition

2008-12-06T21:50:00.002-05:00

The Pseudo Body Politic is happy to announce the newest contributor to our proud community. Starting tomorrow, 'manfish' will be providing our loyal reader(s) with a music review column. A degenerate in most ways, manfish nevertheless manages to be as knowledgeable about music as anyone I've ever met and an intermittently clever chap to boot. A longtime musician and recent music store owner, I have no doubt he'll give our reader(s) an excellent idea of what to check out and what to avoid in the world of music. On behalf of PW and Aaron I'd like to welcome manfish aboard TPBP.

Too Small to Save

2008-12-06T21:34:00.020-05:00

I've written about what's happening in my hometown in previous posts here and here. Long story short, after losing 9K jobs in a town that has 14K people, my town has become the milk-carton metaphor for the greatest economic downtown in generations.

Spirit lifting rhetoric has been plentiful, substantive action has not. A while back, governor Ted Strickland drummed up some blatantly ridiculous anti-trust talk. Then, Senator Sherrod Brown boldly "took up the DHL job fight" -- asking the company to "re-think" their proposal to pull out operations. This effort was met with exactly the amount of success you'd have guessed. Of course, the officials rode into town for all the nationally televised press conferences and scored the press hit. I'm not saying they don't care. I'm sure they do.

But, at the end of the day they sit around with their senior staffs and access the situation in a politically candid manner. And the situation is this: Boy, that sucks for them...but, really there's nothing we can do. We can't make DHL keep a business unit that's hemorrhaging money. The majority of laid off workers aren't unionized, and so don't have a national lobby, (due to a long and storied history of anti-unionization tactics), they're not in a swing voting district, and if you're a Democrat, you know you're not getting those votes no matter what happens. If you're a Republican, you are, and you're probably not predisposed toward any kind of government intervention to begin with. It's really important that Strickland/Brown Inc. do something though. Maybe try to secure a couple of million in aid, and work on an earmark or two. Get somebody to start beating the aforementioned anti-trust drum, which is a pipe dream at best, but will get them in all the papers and provide them with the appearance of being proactive.

Sherrod Brown even "devoted" a full-time staffer to the issue, though a review of his web site would suggest that perhaps that's no longer the case. I don't know what this person was supposed to do (working in a Senate office, and being familiar with the office structure, I'd wonder what kind of a staffer they were, and to what extent they were concentrating strictly on this issue). Full disclosure: when I was looking for an internship I wrote an email to Brown's office offering to assist this person in any capacity I could, whether or not the position was paid...an offer that still stands. As is often the case on the Hill, I never heard back. That's the tragedy of the Hill really. Getting a chance to do anything worthwhile is so difficult. There isn't a person in the world that would work harder and be a more effective advocate for Wilmington than I would. I really believe that. But, when no one in your family is a BFD (a Hill abbreviation for "Big F&*#ing Deal"), and you didn't go to Georgetown, getting that chance can be depressingly difficult. Staffs often consist of 25 people with 25 separate agendas, with political and office inertia sometimes precluding aggressive constituent advocacy instead of enabling it. Like a golfer with a lead going into the back nine, the beating pulse of politics far, far too often consists of a two word mantra: avoid mistakes -- not really a recipe for substantive change and bold action.

500 words into this post, and it's turned into a cartoon fire hose; just flinging me around as I futilely try to direct the flow. I'll try to meander into something resembling a point.

I went home for Thanksgiving. It was right after the job cuts were formally announced (they'd been all but certain for months). It would all be over on January 31. During the holiday weekend I spoke to quite a few DHL employees. Some at the bar over drinks, one or two at an annual day-after-Thanksgiving touch football game, one was a friend's parent. There wasn't a lot of complaining, just a bitter acknowledgment of an even more bitter reality. No severance packages to fall back on. Not much talk of where they'd find work when things closed up.

My girlfriend, in Wilmington for the first time, kept asking, "so what will they do", or "what happens after they (DHL) close"? What, indeed.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we both went to see my mother play in a multi-denominational bell choir, at the Quaker church -- my family's church. 60 Minutes had a camera crew at the church for a feature they were doing on Wilmington. They said they were there to cover the "day's biggest community event" which they thought, "captured the essence of the town". I guess. Though, as my girlfriend and I left the church we saw that part of an adjacent street had been blocked off for what must have been a better attended event (only a couple of dozen people, many of them family members, sat in the mostly empty pews of the Quaker church).

You can kind of see the story, right? Soon-to-be-economically-devastated small town, where the "town-folk" sparsely fill the pews on a Saturday, listening to a local bell choir, politely and quietly clapping after each song. Get some footage of the grim-but-determined laid off workers. Find another worker or family member that's so upset about their future prospects that they cry. The former being men, and the latter a woman. Not on purpose of course, that's just the footage they got. After all, small towns reinforce gender roles, they don't defy them. Nobody will be talking about bringing in new green-collar technology jobs. Nobody mentions approaching the federal government for bailout money. Hell, with any luck the weather will be overcast while the camera crew's in town. The last shot of the segment could be a series of late-model sedans and pick-ups pulling out of the DHL lot in the morning after third shift ends. No music or narration, just the sound of car engines and the thick exhaust, rolling out of tailpipes on a cold morning. All very rural and blue collar. Again, not on purpose, it just worked out that way. Can you see the story now? Two full segments I bet. Don't miss next week's exclusive interview with Katie Holmes.

After briefly speaking with the 60 Minutes crew and watching them interact with community members at the church, I couldn't get those pictures out of my mind. I felt pissed off, a feeling that hasn't abated in the intervening week.

I'm the consummate realist. I get it. I get why we don't get bailed out and Wall Street does. I get why we don't get bailed out but Detroit does. I get why 60 Minutes wants to do a feature on Wilmington. I get why we'll have 25% unemployment and become the face of the most difficult economic environment in generations. I get that it has to be somebody.

But, for the last week I just haven't been able to shake just how goddamn unfair it all is.

The citizens of Wilmington didn't make knowingly high risk gambles with other people's money, become obscenely rich in the bargain, and then demand trillions of dollars because they were "too big to fail". They didn't fight tooth and nail against regulations that might have made their products economically feasible or disingenuously and systematically deny mounds of scientific evidence because it was economically lucrative. They didn't send politicians whose job it is to advocate for them to demand 10's of billions of dollars to ensure the continued production of products that no one wants.

They just went to work everyday, with marginal benefits and almost no job protection. They busted their asses, sorting freight, loading planes, and working third shift for 20 years, and watched as that company was sold to a bigger German company. They watched as company executives made fortunes due to the acquisition, and were told that this move would ensure the company's long term survival and prosperity.

Now they've lost everything, they're informed that they get to bail out bankers who are still, unbelievably, unconscionably, receiving their year end bonuses and going on elaborate corporate junkets. They get to bail out Detroit executives that don't believe in global warming. They get to spend $1 trillion on Obama's stimulus program and the 2.5 million jobs he'd like to create (crossing their fingers and hoping that a couple of them make their way back to Clinton County). Flint bails out Malibu. The Spartans bail out the Persians. The hen bails out the fox.

Chuck Todd said the other day, "...And maybe it's because we also don't know anybody that works at GM...We don't know those families. But, we do know somebody at JPMorgan Chase." He's said that, or variations of that, on several occasions as the fools on MSNBC tried to figure out why GM's panhandling effort was less successful than Wall Street's.

The unfortunate truth is that Wilmington isn't even Detroit. Not by a long shot. If Chuck Todd and the gang don't know anybody that works for GM, Wilmington doesn't have a prayer. No bailout money for us. We wouldn't have even known who to shake our cup at. The verdict: Too small to save.

I'm a realist. If I pull back and take a deep breath I might understand why it has to be this way. But, cold rationalization is no substitute for rent or a heating bill. It's no substitute for help either, and even though I want to more than anything, I have no idea how.

Public Works

2008-12-06T14:02:00.005-05:00

President-Elect Obama has announced that at least the opening phase of his economic recovery plan will entail a massive public works program, including renovations to government buildings, rebuilding schools, rebuilding road and bridge infrastructure, upgrading broadband internet connections, and digitizing the transmission of medical records. Overall, he hopes to create 2.2 million jobs. See the story at Politico.

This is presumably the first of many announcements on this subject from Obama, as he attempts to integrate his campaign priorities with job creation, this first one feels distinctly like a 21st century reference to the programs FDR tried to fight the great depression with. Taken with the existing bailout package, and the possibility of additional packages to come, Obama is certainly working to energetically address the financial crisis. While these are certainly worthy goals for job creation programs, Obama has the opportunity to take his powerful new cabinet and address far more controversial issues in his first hundred days. With the speed and resolution Obama has demonstrated in recent weeks, it feels like the honeymoon period should be reduced from one hundred to ten days, or extended to his whole first term.

I will insert this one reservation about the announcements today, at the risk of seeming a Luddite: I do not like these programs to digitize medical records and transmit them over the internet. Firstly, at this point there is no standard format for digitized records, meaning that doctors and hospitals can send materials to one another, but not necessarily read them when they get there. Secondly, I am just bracing myself for the leaks. No network can be made entirely secure- a national network with thousands of access points and tens of thousands of users is a security nightmare. Medical records might not have the same sort of profit motive as banking info, but unlike your credit information, they really can't be repaired once leaked. Hospitals stand to save tremendous sums using digital storage, but we are asking for trouble if they start networking that information. It is quite possible that Obama will attempt to address these problems. It is probably likely that I am attempting to turn back the tide on this one.

Epic Fail

2008-12-05T08:06:00.008-05:00

I don't know if any of you are football fans, but even if you are not, I feel attention should be paid to a team on the edge of infamy this year.

The Detroit Lions are well on their way toward becoming the first team to lose every single regular season game this year. There are some stories on the current state of the team, here describing how the quarterback is desperate for a single win, here about how local fans have failed to sell out 4 of the last 5 games in a relatively new stadium specifically built to enable sellouts after the absurdity of asking the Lions to regularly fill the Pontiac Silverdome's 83,000 seats.

It has been a bad year for the Lions- at 0-12, they've already fired their quarterback and replaced him, in mid-season, with 31-year old glass-boned Dante Culpepper, who started for the team like 72 hours after being hired and, judging by the size of the play cards on both his wrists, unsurprisingly still doesn't know the offense. He remains, nevertheless, a high point for the team this year. Revel here in the numerical explicitness of the Lion's failure, lingering over their bottom of the league placings in on both offense and defense, and the still shocking .000 win percentage.

The thing is, the Lions aren't just having a bad year- they have actually become an institution for the generation of mediocrity, ruining the careers of the highly talented draft picks their poor showings entitle them to each year. Think about it- who was the last great Lion since Barry Sanders, for whom Detroit can't take developmental credit anyway? He showed up the best running back in the league, and retired the best running back in the league, a year away from the rushing record, his years with the Lions having destroyed his enjoyment of the game. Yes, they've produced a couple of decent receivers over the years, but have not been able to translate them into wins. Or even playoff appearances.

So, Ahab like, I'll be watching the game this Sunday with a friend from Minnesota, who apparently wants someone to laugh at over his buffalo wings. The sports-talk radio station in Detroit, 97.1, hosted a conversation last week focused on who might buy the team for next year, what city they might move it to, and whom they should fire in what order. I'm right there with you, Detroit- this organization has been mediocre for as long as I've been alive, and downright horrible far too many years. Detroit Lions: what is wrong with you? This isn't baseball, where century-long losing streaks are possible- the salary cap and drafting system have tended to ensure a high degree of volatility. At least this year the Lions have managed to excel at something- even if that thing is the opposite of the reason this extremely expensive organization exists.

Lions, enjoy the bitter fruit of 2008. And then please: fire people, shake things up, move to Montana, start taking better steroids, start doing voodoo rituals before games, replace yourselves with cyborgs, disband the freaking team, but don't make me watch you do this again.

A TPBP Milestone

2008-12-03T21:26:00.005-05:00

In the comments section of today's Overheard Line of the Day post was a nonsensical remark posted by one "Thankful Paul". Now, the comment being totally unrelated to the post made it in no way impossible that some irreverent friend of TPBP was using the comments section as a graffiti artist uses an alley. But, further investigation revealed that Thankful Paul just started this blog last month.

You really owe it to yourself to check this thing out, and if you do you'll note rather quickly that "Paul" is a two bit scam artist! The first we've had here at TPBP! He's got the hilariously false story along with the donation link so that he can "commit random and not so random acts of love in the name of Jesus".

I can't speak for PW and Aaron, but in my estimation it's a proud moment for the entire TPBP community. Thanks Paul, and good luck!

Update: Don't miss the comments section (of Paul's blog that is). He erased the negative comments right? I can't possibly be the only one that called shenanigans.

Extinct Blog of the Day

2008-12-03T18:27:00.003-05:00

Today's foreclosed blog belongs to Bill McCready, whose futures blog we were assured would be filled with:

...articles, trading tips and charts which show how to day trade futures, including futures trading strategies, systems and resources, as well as money management and trading psychology for successful traders.

Alas, Bill's blog, though not quite extinct, seems to only ring in at about one post every other month. Though lacking in posts, Bill's a big fan of labels, which he uses liberally. It's worth checking out, if only to see Bill's kick ass head shot in the upper left-hand part of the page.

Update: I googled Bill's name, and it seems as though he wrote at least one of those silly 10 step "guide-to-making (X) wildly-successful" books, X in this case being running a small business. It's difficult to figure out whether he's semi-legit or a snake oil salesman. Either way, I'd wager his blog receives significantly more traffic than mine.

Hats off to you Bill, our Extinct Blog of the Day.

Overheard Line of the Day

2008-12-03T17:40:00.004-05:00

On Capitol Hill at around 10:30AM:
Random Woman: What do you want?
Random Guy: A V8 if they have that.
Random Woman: What if they don't?
Random Guy: A Red Bull...Actually just get me a Red Bull.
Feel the magic.

PW's Pirate Redux

2008-12-02T17:34:00.003-05:00

Well, if we’re going to seriously engage in this pirate business, then 1) I have some thoughts, and 2) it’s time to administer a good old-fashioned TPBP smackdown to PW, who while possessing a generally superior intellect, is off the mark on this one.

He starts out on the right track by attempting to point out the economic contexts of the situation. I remember reading recently (I can’t find the source, so take it with the requisite grain of salt) that piracy generated Somalia’s largest influx of hard currency, ringing in at over $100 million in the last year (a shockingly small amount for the largest sector of a 7 million person economy).

But then we get to this:

Certainly, there is something to the observation that much of Africa should be better integrated into the global economy on terms that actually generate wealth for more people who live there. But that doesn't really fly in Somalia.

I think that it would fly. It would take a large investment, but not impossibly large. Move in 10K troops for peacekeeping purposes, and dump $1 billion a month for infrastructure spending. I should point out that I have no idea what I’m talking about in terms of aid expenditure, distribution, etc. -- which is an admittedly poor start, but I have a hard time believing that some small fraction of our Iraqi expenditure, used even semi-productively, wouldn't make a real difference in economic terms.

Minus some kind of real government/economic security improvement you can count on these attacks continuing, if not escalating. But, when PW posits --

What kind of weapon systems could you fit to a tanker for half the cost of the 20mil USD you'd have to pay for a ransom?

--he's sidestepping a problem of scale.

Arming any one ship would be quite expensive, arming an entire fleet even more so, and arming all cumulative fleets that travel in Somali territorial waters would be impossibly expensive. There’s a reason this option hasn’t really been discussed, and all of these companies are instead clamoring for government military escorts. It’s deceptively intuitive to see a scenario that morphs into an acquadic version of the last half hour of Fast and the Furious (a la truckers with shotguns), but it’s not going to happen. PW is making an economic argument: raise the cost of piracy to the point that the pirates will no longer wish to engage in it. Though it’s not inconceivable that the costs of piracy become high enough to prevent it, that evolution is somewhat at odds with Somalia’s overall economic and political reality.

I’m not advocating the following tactic so much as opening the floor for discussion, but perhaps these pirate groups (or at least the most powerful among them) should be engaged in negotiations to open Somalia’s costal shipping lanes. This would neutralize the threat, prevent PW’s (ultimately inefficient and expensive) armed conflict and allow us to open up lines of communication with a group (the pirates) with whom we probably have more in common than the Islamic Courts Union folks that are ostensibly in charge of the country.

This piracy business is a pain in everyone’s ass, but more importantly it’s an increasingly costly pain in everyone’s ass. The only way PW’s solution works for any meaningful length of time is the permanent and significant arming of all commercial shipping operations (lest they get lax and the piracy resumes). If you could just pay the pirates some percentage less than the total cost of said arming (hopefully a tiny fraction of the total cost) everyone would be better off. It’s probably not the solution, but worth thinking about at any rate.