I don't believe for one minute that Hillary Clinton is herself racist, at least not any more than the average American.

On Tuesday, Marc Maron was back in fine form in the black hole that is Air Americas afternoon timeslot, taking the race bull by the horns and forcing us to look it right in the eye. He described the kind of casual racism many Americans have as not hate, or even prejudice, but nervousness. He challenged listeners, next time they lose something of value in the house, to see how long it takes them to envision a Black or Hispanic guy in a sweatsuit breaking into their homes before they find the item underneath the couch cushions. Of course this is why Maron belongs back on radio -- because he's able to strip aside all the niceties and the delicacy and get down to that mean, scared place in all of us and make us look at it. But the larger issue is the point he made -- that the "nervousness" which is part of the human condition when dealing with "otherness" is sitting right there on the racism spectrum. It might not be snuggling up cozily with wearing a white hood and burning crosses, but it's racism.

This week ModFab declared this one of the top 20 moments on Broadway right now. This is from London's West End, but whatever -- you don't get a better commentary on racism than this:



Apologists for Hillary Clinton are claiming she's not REALLY a racist to try to blunt the devastating impact of these words:

Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening.

And Clinton spokeswoman Lisa Caputo talked before Tuesday's primaries about "the white middle-class voter...and that's the people who are most impacted by the economy going into the recession":



Does anyone see a pattern here? Just as the states Clinton isn't winning don't REALLY count (unlike, say, West Virginia, which is mostly likely going to go for her and therefore is an Important State™) but states that held primaries in violation of rules TO WHICH SHE AGREED do count because they went for her, so the many voters -- black voters and young voters -- who have been added to the party's base because of Barack Obama's candidacy -- also don't count. Only white middle-class voters count.

Is this what the Democratic Party wants to be? The party of racial divisiveness, where black voters who have voted over 90% Democratic for decades can be thrown on the scrap heap to pander to low-information white voters who have voted against their own interests time after time after time and who are probably going to continue that pattern in November and pull the lever for McCain?

I don't know what the Clintons have on the superdelegates who are still wavering, though with the steamer trunks o'baggage the Clintons bring to the proceedings, it's hard to imagine they have anything worse on anyone else, but if in fact it's "fear of the Clintons" that's driving the reluctance of the superdelegates, then it's all the more reason to strip this duo of their role as party powerbrokers. If it's some other concern, such as of something coming out about Obama to damage him as the nominee, then why the hell don't they just sit down with him and ask?

The longer they remain silent, the more it looks like tacit approval of the kind of race-baiting we haven't seen directly from the mouth of a presidential candidate since George Wallace in 1968.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, racism

Yes, my friends (/McCain), despite the huge profits made by oil companies in the first quarter, the fact that you're paying almost four bucks a gallon for gasoline isn't at all they're fault. No sirree, they are victims just as much as you are:

The American Petroleum Institute, the industry's main lobby, has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign, which includes advertising in the nation's largest newspapers, news conferences in many state capitals and trips for bloggers out to drilling platforms at sea.

The intended audience is elected officials and the public, with an emphasis on the latter. The industry is trying to convince voters -- who, in turn, will make the case to their members of Congress -- that rising energy prices are not the producers' fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse.

"We decided that if we didn't do something to help people understand the basics of our industry, we'd be on the losing end as far as the eye could see," said Red Cavaney, the institute's president.

Despite the efforts, Democratic congressional leaders this week again proposed an energy plan that would strip oil companies of billions of dollars of tax breaks and impose a tax on windfall profits. Also, the Democratic presidential candidates routinely pronounce "big oil" as if it were a one-word epithet, said former Oklahoma senator Don Nickles, an energy lobbyist.

Still, the oil lobby thinks it has made significant progress with consumers and will make even more as it continues to spend heavily on public relations. Allied industry groups such as coal and natural gas are also increasing their efforts to curry favor with the public, hoping to improve citizens' sometimes poor opinion of them.



Oil company profits have soared lately, bolstered by record crude oil prices. This month, Exxon Mobil reported a first-quarter profit of $10.89 billion, up 17 percent from a year ago, which provoked new congressional complaints. Shell and BP also posted sharp quarterly profit increases. Gasoline prices, meanwhile, have risen to a national record of nearly $3.65 a gallon, and crude oil has hit a new peak of nearly $124 a barrel.

Cavaney will not disclose how much his institute is spending on its campaign, except to say that it is less than $100 million a year, which was roughly the size of the "Got Milk?" ad blitz that featured famous people with milk mustaches.

The price tag for issue-oriented campaigns that lobbies routinely sponsor is huge, said Bill Replogle, an advertising executive at Qorvis Communications.

"A typical issues ad-spend in D.C. might be $2 million to $3 million for a significant campaign," he said. "This dwarfs that, and many national ad buys."

The oil and gas industry has long been considered a powerhouse in Washington, thanks to its big spending inside the Beltway and quietly extensive ties to influential lawmakers from the oil patch. The industry is the third-largest campaign contributor among major industry groups and the fourth-largest buyer of lobbying services, according to the nonpartisan CQ MoneyLine.

If in fact the oil lobby has made "significant progress" with consumers, then Americans really are idiots, and it's no wonder we're in this mess. Note that the article doesn't say that oil company REVENUES have soared, it's PROFITS. But no, they are hapless victims of forces beyond their control.

If we're going to do anything about the energy crisis (and despite the fact that we aren't waiting in line for gasoline, we ARE in a crisis) during the very small window that remains, we're going to have to realize that NO ONE is a hapless victim here. Petroleum companies and the speculators who drive up the price even more quickly than supplies would indicate are obvious villains, but everyone who has spent the last ten years driving a gas-guzzler, every developer who built sprawling developments of air-conditioned houses in blisteringly hot sections of the country, a government that has stripped away most incentives for alternative energy (starting with Ronald Reagan), the United States Supreme Court for naming an oil man to the White House instead of the global warming-aware actual winner of the 2000 election -- are all to blame.

And if we as a country are going to fall for the claims the oil companies are making in their advertising, then we deserve the bleak world we're facing when the taps dry up.

Labels: oil

Hillary Clinton and the press may be determined to give John McCain a free ride to the White House, but we aren't.

Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers.

Initially reluctant to support the swap, the Arizona Republican became a key figure in pushing the deal through Congress after the rancher and his partners hired lobbyists that included McCain's 1992 Senate campaign manager, two of his former Senate staff members (one of whom has returned as his chief of staff), and an Arizona insider who was a major McCain donor and is now bundling campaign checks.

When McCain's legislation passed in November 2005, the ranch owner gave the job of building as many as 12,000 homes to SunCor Development, a firm in Tempe, Ariz., run by Steven A. Betts, a longtime McCain supporter who has raised more than $100,000 for the presumptive Republican nominee. Betts said he and McCain never discussed the deal.

The Audubon Society described the exchange as the largest in Arizona history. The swap involved more than 55,000 acres of land in all, including rare expanses of desert woodland and pronghorn antelope habitat. The deal had support from many local officials and the Arizona Republic newspaper for its expansion of the Prescott National Forest. But it brought an outcry from some Arizona environmentalists when it was proposed in 2002, partly because it went through Congress rather than a process that allowed more citizen input.

Although the bill called for the two parcels to be of equal value, a federal forestry official told a congressional committee that he was concerned that "the public would not receive fair value" for its land. A formal appraisal has not yet begun. A town official opposed to the swap said other Yavapai Ranch land sold nine years ago for about $2,000 per acre, while some of the prime commercial land near a parcel that the developers will get has brought as much as $120,000 per acre.

In an interview, Betts said there is "absolutely no" connection between his contributions to McCain's presidential bids and the deal involving rancher Fred Ruskin and the Yavapai Ranch Limited Partnership.

And if my grandmother had had testicles, she'd have been my grandfather. But Senator Straight Talk's entire career has been all about of Show Me The Money. His little adventure with Charles Keating is just the most well-publicized example, but from the day his dollar-dar picked up on his $100 million now-wife, he's had an unfailing noise to who can benefit him and his career financially. He gained the reputation as a straight talker because on occasion -- very rarely -- he has bucked the Republican line on a few pieces of legislation. But he is a rotten piece of a rotten system, and any American who thinks that the government ought not to be for sale to business has no business voting for this guy.

Labels: John McCain

Because Nuns. Kick. Ass.

Surely, our majority-Catholic Supreme Court should have known better than to get on the wrong side of the Sisters. As we wrote earlier, the first victims of the new ruling on Voter ID were elderly nuns in Indiana. This just in, in my emailbox: The nuns of Missouri rap the Supreme Court's knuckles with a great big ruler:

Nun of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary comments on Voter ID disenfranchisement

WHO: Missourians for Fair Elections

WHAT: Press Conference on the impact of legislation to

require government-issued photo ID to vote

WHEN: 1:00 PM, Thursday, May 8, 2008

WHERE: League of Women Voters, 8706 Manchester, Jefferson City, MO 63144

JEFFERSON CITY, MO – On Thursday, May 8, three Missouri voters who lack government-issued photo IDs as well as Secretary of State Robin Carnahan and community leaders will discuss the potential impacts of legislation currently being pushed through the Missouri General Assembly. The proposed legislation would make Missouri one of the toughest states in the country for eligible citizens who want to vote by requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID at the polls. If passed, these changes could be in place by the November general election and could put the voting rights at risk for up to 240,000 registered Missouri voters.

"This may sound like a good idea at first," stated Sister Sandy Schwartz of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary regarding voter ID requirements, "but once you stop to think about who would really be affected, this is going to keep a lot of our loved ones from being able to vote." Yesterday in Indiana twelve nuns in their 80s and 90s
were turned away from the polls because they lacked the needed IDs to vote. Sister Schwartz and others are concerned about the difficulties the policy change would create for elderly Missouri nuns, as well as other senior citizens, the poor, and minorities.

Awesome.

(h/t)

Labels: courage

...and what he has to say does not promote any agenda that I want to be a part of. I can guarantee that if the M$M were covering this that McCain would be out on his ass, because this is representative of the worst fringe, hate-speak there is. Thanks to Brave New Films, we have the piece below about the incredible Pastor Rod Parsley who has been and continues to be an important part of McCain's belief system.
Even if this were a way to approach a belief system, there is no human way that we could somehow "defeat Islam," or bring an end to one of the largest religious groups in the world. Rather, shouldn't we think like intelligent people and perhaps try to sort out who is a radical and who is a normal person? I suppose that if we did that we might have to look at Christian radicals like, um, the Pastor Parsley himself!
How could McCain ever be president with people like this around him. Why doesn't he renounce these crazies? This is what we need to start talking about right away!



David Bender interviews Cliff Schecter, author of The Real McCain here:

Buy this book folks...its a must read!

h/t Sam Seder for the audio!

c/p RIPCoco

Labels: Air America, brave new films, John McCain, Religious Intolerance

You know that the Republicans already have this play on words in mind in a different way, so let's grab it first. Feel free to snag it and use it, just credit me if you'd be so kind.

(Note to Obama campaign: If you want the printable-sized PSD file, e-mail me.)

UPDATE: B@B buddy George, a Real Graphic Designer™, has kindly offered to slick this up a bit. Then I'll make a widget, post everything up, and you'll be able to snag 'em at will. Stay tuned.

Labels: Barack Obama

When Hillary Clinton touts herself as more "electable" because she's "won the big states", she's not taking into account two things: The first is that some of those big states are not going to go Republican just because she isn't in the race. New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts are going to vote Democratic anyway. And the second is that she's conveniently forgetting Rush Limbaugh's Operation Chaos, and its Republicans crossing over in open primary states to vote for her.

In Indiana, a sizable percentage of her vote was from people who are not about to vote for her in the fall:

Perhaps the most disturbing indicator for Clinton was the fact that 15% of those who voted for her on Tuesday said they would not back her in November (7% of Obama voters said they would not support him in the general election). Some conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh have urged Republicans in the remaining primary states to prolong the process by casting votes for Clinton, who they think would be an easier opponent for John McCain. Numbers like this, whch some pundits claimed meant that Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" helped put Clinton over the top in Indiana, are watched closely by superdelegates and do not ease their concerns about Clinton's electability.

In close states like Indiana and Texas, where Operation Chaos flourished, she can't claim to be more viable a candidate than Obama. She has clearly benefitted from Rush Limbaugh's exhortations to his mindless minions, but that doesn't mean she will continue to benefit in the general election.

Hillary Clinton's supporters will regard posts like this as questioning her "right" to stay in this race. Of course she has a "right" to stay in as long as she wants to, the same way I have a "right" to run on the Silly Party ticket if I so choose. She even has a "right" to continue to do the Republicans' work of attacking Barack Obama if she so chooses. What she doesn't have a right to is this nomination. And she doesn't have a right to be rewarded in other ways for trying to make it more difficult for the now virtually unstoppable Obama to win in November. She has all the rights this process has to offer, but she doesn't have rights without consequences. I think if she were to concede now, a grateful party might even reward her with a nice consolation prize; perhaps the majority leadership post in the Senate. If she insists in carrying her ego-fest through to the convention, she goes from being a fallen hero to being Joe Lieberman. And I'm not sure that's where she wants to be.

Unless she's planning to team up with Holy Joe in an "Independent Democrat" third party campaign in the fall, thereby cementing her place as Republican Lackey for all eternity.

Labels: Hillary Clinton

Thank you for giving Barack Obama the big night he needed to move beyond Jeremiah Wright and get back to wrapping up this Democratic nomination. As for Indiana, well, nice try, though I (like Brad Friedman) wonder about the impact of at least 43,000 Indiana voters who were robbed by the state government of Indiana and the United States Supreme Court of their right to vote.

If Obama's opponent were anyone but someone named "Clinton", we could wrap this thing up today and get down to the hard work of beating John McCain, a task that shouldn't be underestimated despite the fact that not only does McCain not know the difference between Shia and Sunni, he also isn't aware that the League of Nations was disbanded in 1946, and has forgotten that Czechoslovakia was split into two countries in January 1993. But said opponent IS named Clinton, and while her speech last night was marginally more conciliatory than she's been in the past, she is insisting on changing the rules midstream and allowing the Florida and Michigan delegations to be seated as they are, with no compromise.

What this party needs to do now is to make sure that even if these delegations are seated, this is over. Joe Sudbay is passing along a report this morning that Wesley Clark is doing his part by urging Hillary Clinton to drop out. The math at this point is clear -- Obama will lead the popular vote, he'll lead in pledged delegates, and the super delegates now have to shit or get off the pot.

Perhaps the most hopeful sign in this whole thing is that I have had Morning Joe on on front of me for the last 40 minutes and and the name "Wright" hasn't been mentioned once. But when you look at the breakdown, Obama has his work cut out for him. In North Carolina, fully 52% of Clinton voters say at this moment that they won't vote for him. I suspect the Indiana numbers are similar. The racial divide is tremendous, with seniors, rural white voters, and white voters without college not being sold. I think that if Obama reaches out to those seniors, many of whom are elderly Jews who still think that he's a Muslim or were frightened by the video images of his pastor, he can win them over once they realize he's neither a terrorist nor a Scary Negro™. The rural and low-information voters are another story, largely because these are the voters most susceptible to the media's mad love affair with John McCain and the degree to which the talking heads of cable news get their information from right-wing blogs that focus on everything EXCEPT policy issues.

But for now, this ludicrous show goes on, despite Tim Russert saying it's over:



The question now is just how long the bigwigs in the party are going to be willing to let Hillary Clinton damage the party's nominee. Clinton can still find redemption if she can somehow put her ego back into its cage. She can drop out and put her formidable strength behind Obama, perhaps with a promise of a high-level Cabinet position or the leadership of the Senate. And in no time at all everyone will forget what she's put us through.

But somehow I think that's not going to happen.

Labels: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton

I really ought to bring a bottle of booze or something, since Hoff is always nice enough to host a chat. Join us over there. And for those of you lucky enough to be able to listen to radio at work, P.J. is keeping the Sedition Chat board open all week, so check in between 3 and 6 PM eastern time every day for the rest of the week..

Labels: bloggers, primaries

Welcome to our very own American Idol-ish...sorta contest...In which we vote for our favorite voice of the left while Howie Mandell holds a phone up and excitedly makes offers from some "banker" dude. Vote early and vote often, kids! Stream it live and leave comments at Air America, (and check out the Sammycam, while you can, here. For a short version of the long story of the Sammer look here.) And there is always the comments accepted by PCollins@airamerica.com which may or may not ever register. Who knows? For someone who earned his chops in interactive media, he is certainly not all that interactive, even in a got your mail, thanks for the comment. auto-mail sort of way.

Such is the pathetic state of one of the very few outlets for the liberal voice left in this country. To watch the unraveling continue is heart wrenching...to see a "contest" where talented, passionate voices are akin to sheep to the slaughter (and Simon Cowell's name is even mentioned in the mailer advertising this little game,) and into the corporate grinder of another possibility that looks to be much like the last possibility was...well, lets just say that hope is not winning out anymore....and if the Whoopie Goldberg Happy Show doesnt sound feasible to soothe the masses, well, think again.

First of all, I should say that the choices are a little uncertain...who is actually in the running here? I don't know for sure. In the wake of the Randi Rhodes debacle, the new suits need to fill the 3-6PM slot, and its not enough for them that they have, under their very noses, the most shuttled around, loyal, and excellent, Sam Seder, but they have felt compelled to try out some celebrity hosts who couldn't possibly want the gig, and who have pretty much sucked so far. Just to recap for the latecomers; we have heard from Roseanne Barr, Joy Behar, Richard Belzer, and still to come is the duo of Ron Kuby and Ron Reagan, which might only be half bad, but, hell, all things equal why not just give Kuby a show late night or very early morning somewhere, not prime drive-time, fer' Christ's sake, and be done with it?

This week, our heroes, Marc Maron and Sam Seder, share the slot on alternating days. This whole thing is seemingly an audition for Maron, but there is no comparison between him and any of the others, except Seder, who is from the same crowd of comedians and comedy circuit. Their long relationship lends itself to a very nice shorthand and knowing grin sort of back and forth that works. Maron used to think that the two of them together might be too "Jewey," but I don't get that as much as I get their long relationship as very different brothers who approach things differently, but have the same jumping off point.

They each have a different approach which has its points, with Maron leaning more towards culture and variety with politics thrown in, while Seder is straight up politics with reflections on the work-a-day life we, most of us, share. Maron does more sketch comedy and is more inside his own head, which either reflects our collective neurosis, or just seems funny to the more balanced of us out there. Both are funny and real, and more importantly, both are Air America originals, and are actually what was that hopeful, new, edgy voice. When either of them appears on the network, the fans come out in droves. This is a no brainer, and why a competition is being set up is either high concept from around a conference table with communications school grads who think they have some creative edge, or some money making priming of the pump. Maybe celebrities impress advertisers? Only so long as listeners tune in.

The idea of audience input in this decision is quaint, to say the least, to those of us who have attempted to communicate with that organization in large numbers only to be ignored. In fact, the newsletter that broached this little experiment didn't even specify how one would vote for one or the other, and since, as far as I can see, the contest is between Maron, Seder, and possibly Kuby, I suppose they could be counting streams, or emails or...it just doesn't seem like they planned it too well. So, in case there was a question over in the home office, yes we want Maron back on the air however we can get him and within his own west coast constraints. Yes we want Seder in a 5 day per week slot. No we don't want any of your celebrities.


In any case, Sam Seder hosted Monday the 5th, and will host again on Wednesday the 7th. Marc Maron will host Tuesday the 6th, Thursday the 8th, and Friday the 9th. We were to hear a tag team of the two of them on Friday, but some glitch prevented it...too bad; these two are excellent together in their weekly VOD-cast, here, on Tuesdays at 11AM,EST.



My favorite Air America Radio sweatshirt says "...because we couldn't make this stuff up..." across the chest. The story of AAR will no doubt be told beyond what we know from the Left of the Dial documentary, which was full of hope at the raw talent and creativity of those early days of the creation of what was to be a strong voice for the left. Late last week on Hardball, the bland Mark Green, third "owner" of AAR, compared a John McCain presidency to Herman's Hermits; "Second Verse, Same as the First," with a stiff chuckle and nod to "pop culture." I was struck by how far removed he is from the current of modern society and what the meaningful touchstones of what remains of our culture might be, outside of the incestuous world of NYC politics, and the level that he just cant seem to get past. When I think of this guy and his ilk, I get a vision of furniture and lamps covered in plastic and slick young guys standing by the ropes of Studio 54, never to get in because of those damned bridge and tunnel shoes and gold chains. Its not something that I find necessarily bad; its a culture all its own, and a Brooklyn upbringing that I understand because I also grew up there. But it is like a time capsule and there is a sort of mentality and taste implied there, born of Tony Manero, rented limos, and power hungry failed politicians, picked last for the team time and again. New York City is a hard place to make your mark, and at some point maybe its best to stop trying so damned hard and look at the reality of whats in front of you.

The news that "new owners" were once again climbing aboard the sinking ss. AAR gave me little hope, especially when I heard that Green was being kept on. Still, I heard from a couple of different people on the inside that the new group seemed pretty smart and that there might yet be hope. I don't know; hope seems so distant these days in light of a paralyzed senate, unable to effect any real change without enough votes or enough balls to even speak up about criminals in the White House... and the infighting in the party which doesn't seem to have any sort of logical basis....the partisanship within the democratic party which was so clearly reflected in AAR management.... So, I didn't expect much, especially when the network seemingly set up and then took down Randi Rhodes. The whole episode was a horrible example of what is wrong with an entity like AAR being run by a bunch of pseudo politicians who are really home shopping moguls, posturing and posing as they try to figure out how to present the "left" side of things in as palatable and soothing a way as possible, so as to make money while appearing PC. Start-up media outlets seldom make money in the first 5 years. Outlets with a controversial message tend to need ongoing financial support; just ask Rupert Murdoch.

Whatever is going on over there resembles the divide in the democratic party in that someone's idea of how to fill a slot left empty by the network's biggest draw who is a concise, on point, broadcaster, that knows her stuff, is with guest "celebrity hosts" who are not only a little old and soft, but not especially up on the issues, while popular originals stand by. The messages from each of these categories of hosts is so completely different as to be almost representative of the differences between candidates.

AAR would be lucky if any of the original Air Americans or the celebrity guests would even consider a job with an outlet with this track record. I guess that performers, commentators, and the like are every bit as masochistic as their fans, and the message has to get out one way or another. I have no doubt that the cream will rise to the top here or elsewhere, and if this is where I part ways with AAR, then so be it. I lost my ability to care a long time ago....but I will stream the show...I will vote equally for Maron and Seder...and I hope that when this thing is over that AAR might be able to give a nod toward mistakes made, and start to rebuild what was once a pretty damned great line-up.

c/p RIPCoco

Labels: Air America, Marc Maron, Mark Green, media, Sam Seder

My workplace is on the campus of what used to be a sprawling psychiatric hospital complex. Most of the buildings are empty now, with climbing plants winding their way around and through the missing windows and around the heavy metal screens that once reinforced them. When deinstitutionalization become the preferred mode of dealing with psychiatric patients after the development of Thorazine, many of the buildings became useless. I'm told that some of the property has been sold and that there have long been plans for mixed-use development including an active adult community, but because of the asbestos issues in many of the buildings, they still stand empty.

The campus is a far cry from the manicured spaces with fountains and strategically-placed fruit trees that you see in suburban office parks, and there is a strange aura surrounding the place, as if the screams of the mad became trapped in these buildings, unable to escape even many decades later. But it provides plenty of space for lunchtime walks on spring days.

One day as I was out for my mid-day walk I was stopped by a woman who works in the same building. She said she was a breast cancer survivor and her doctor told her she should get more exercise, and could she walk with me sometime? So we've been walking together most days since.

She is from Nigeria, and she is fascinating. She's told me of the history of her family and that of her husband, with information about the tribal chiefs and warlords who were their ancestors dating back to the 1600's. I'm trying to convince her to write this all down, because while her very much American kids don't care about that now, they probably will years from now.

Last week she went for her citizenship interview, and now all she has to do is be sworn in and she will be able to vote this fall. I told her I am supporting Barack Obama, which surprised her, and then she announced that she's supporting Hillary Clinton. I asked her to explain what it is about Hillary that she supports, because I am trying to find a way to justify casting a vote for her if, as expected, today's primary is a split, this madness goes on into June, and she manages to wrangle this nomination. So far we have a promise to obliterate Iran, support of John McCain's lamebrained gas tax holiday, and a sense that God Himself has blessed her with $100 million. All of this is making a vote for Hillary Clinton seem more like a vote for George W. Bush than for any kind of progressive values.

My new friend didn't convince me, but it struck me that if there were any sanity to this process, the black immigrant new citizen who's the descendant of tribal leaders supporting the white woman and the middle-aged white woman who's descended from shtetl peasants supporting the black guy would be a microcosm of the strength and diversity of this party.

But alas, there is no sanity once you get outside a springtime walk in the grounds of an old psych hospital.

Labels: Democrats

A devastating cyclone hit Myanmar four days ago, but you'd never know it from the cable news, because to them, the most important issue in the world is the Uppity Negro™ (sic) who has the temerity to call a bad policy what it is.

Now it seems the death toll in Myanmar killed at least fifteen thousand 22,464 people, with 30,000 41,000 more missing. Of course Myanmar isn't a beach resort, and there don't seem to be any leggy fashion models injured, so it's not a cable-newsworthy story.

The U.S. government's response has been to punish the ruling junta by sending a mere $250,000 in aid and taking Laura Bush off the Thorazine long enough to chastise the government for not doing enough to warn of the coming cyclone.

Yes, you read that correctly, and no I am not joking. The wife of the president who took four days to visit the Gulf coast and instead conducted photo-ops with a guitar and a birthday cake for John McCain instead is chastising another government for not doing enough to help its citizenry before what we call a hurricane.

When I donate to charitable and relief organizations, I look for those with the least amount of money put into exorbitant executive salaries, fancy offices and other overhead; and that don't plow a sizable percentage of donations back into additional fundraising. In looking for such groups to help the Myanmar relief effort this morning, I found a few of them:

One relief group with a high fund-raising efficiency (and #2 on Forbes' list with 99% charitable services after expenses) that has already issued a press release outlining its efforts is Direct Relief International, which has already contacted its partners in the area about helping.

International Medical Corps is #7 on the Forbes list, with 94% charitable services after expenses). IMC is already targeting donations to Myanmar cyclone relief.

Brother's Brother Foundation, a nonsectarian foundation whose mission is "to promote international health and education through the efficient and effective distribution and provision of donated medical, educational, agricultural and other resources.
All BBF programs are designed to fulfill its mission by connecting people’s resources with people’s needs." They deal primarily in donated medical and related supplies, but also accept cash donations to help purchase containers and pay shipping costs. Forbes Magazine profiled the foundation last December, calling it "as efficient as they come on our list of the country's 200 largest-by-private-donation nonprofits." I don't know what programs they specifically are doing for Myanmar, but you could contact them and find out.

Usually the American National Red Cross is first out of the gate at times like this, but it is one of the least efficient charities. So I thought it'd be worth the investment of time to come up with some where your money actually has a shot at going to help the people who need it instead of the executives running the foundation.

UPDATE: Richard Blair of All Spin Zone has set up a blog dedicated to cyclone relief efforts.

Labels: Myanmar cyclone

To hear Republicans (and now Hillary Clinton) talk, elitism is a bad thing and should be trounced anywhere we find it:

Hillary Clinton has just started doing an Indiana town-hall meeting being broadcast on ABC, and George Stephanopoulos asked her a direct question:

Could she name a single economist who agrees with her support for the gas tax holiday?

Hillary sidestepped the question, and tried to use the complete dearth of expert support for the idea to her advantage, pointing to it as proof that she's on the side of ordinary folks against "elite opinion" -- a phrase she used twice.

"I think we've been for the last seven years seeing a tremendous amount of government power and elite opinion behind policies that haven't worked well for hard working Americans," she said.

A bit later she added: "It's really odd to me that arguing to give relief to a vast majority of Americans creates this incredible pushback...Elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that don't benefit" the vast majority of the American people.

"Elite opinion"? Does she mean the "elite opinions" she listened to when she voted for the Iraq War? Does she mean the people who were in her husband's Cabinet that she plans to recycle for her own? Who are these "elites", anyway?

If you want to argue that "elites" ought not to be regarded as elite, I'd be happy to include the men Bill Moyers quoted on Bill Moyers' Journal last week:

BILL MOYERS: Every year at this time for five years now, we're reminded of the armistice that never happened. On may first, 2003, the White House staged a spectacular photo opportunity for the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to announce the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

BILL MOYERS: You've been seeing these images all week...our president landing on the USS Lincoln, announcing peace was at hand.

REPORTER: President made history today. It was a historic day.

REPORTER II: This one could be called historic.

REPORTER III: The first sitting president to land on a carrier.

REPORTER IV: Congratulating them on a mission accomplished.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed!

BILL MOYERS: Unfortunately, that was not true. The war had just begun...Once again the official version of reality was false. The experts, remember, had all agreed: there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH ...of uranium from Africa

BILL MOYERS: ....Saddam Hussein had ties to the terrorists...

DONALD RUMSFELD: ...Al Qaeda members.

BILL MOYERS: The war would be a slam dunk...and quickly over.

DONALD RUMSFELD: It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

BILL MOYERS: No one had pushed the war more than vigorously than Vice President Cheney. He said..."I think it'll go relatively quickly...weeks rather than months."

BILL MOYERS: And, said the experts, it won't take many troops or require much sacrifice...Rumsfeld's deputy Paul Wolfowitz...

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: ...we can say with reasonable confidence that the notion of hundreds of thousands of American troops is way off the mark...

BILL MOYERS: And the cost to the taxpayer, the experts assured us -- practically nothing.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ: ...we are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.

BILL MOYERS: Ted Koppel put the question to America's top aid official on Nightline:

TED KOPPEL: ...you're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?

ANDREW NATSIOS: Well, in terms of the American taxpayers' contribution, I do; this is it for the U.S. the rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges...

BILL MOYERS: And now, mission accomplished, experts savored the triumph. The editor of The Weekly Standard William Kristol, "The first two battles of this new era are now over. The battles of Afghanistan and Iraq have been won decisively and honorably."

BILL MOYERS: The neo-conservative warrior Richard Perle told doubters to get over it. The war, he said "...ended quickly with few civilian casualties and with little damage to Iraq's cities, towns or infrastructure...it ended... without the quagmire [the war's critics] predicted...relax and enjoy it."

BILL MOYERS: Said columnist Mona Charen of the Commander in Chief, "the man who slept through many classes at Yale and partied the nights away stands revealed as a profound and great leader who will reshape the world for the better. The United States is lucky once again."

BILL MOYERS: And columnist Charles Krauthammer said, "The only people who think this wasn't a victory are Upper West Side liberals and a few people here in Washington."

BILL MOYERS: The Iraqis, said the experts, were sure to rally 'round...

WILLIAM KRISTOL: "I think there's been a certain amount of frankly, Terry, pop sociology in America...that...the Shia can't get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There's almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq's always been very secular."

BILL MOYERS: You'll find these quotes and many others like them in this new book, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! OR HOW WE WON THE WAR IN IRAQ. It's an in-depth study and analysis of five years of expert commentary on the Iraq war. The authors have somewhat sadly, if not reluctantly, concluded that the most distinguished cast of experts ever before assembled reached a grand consensus on the Iraq war — and that all of them got it wrong. How did it happen? The whole thing is so tragic perhaps only satire can give us the answer.

But that's not what Hillary is doing. Instead, she's playing for the First Beer Buddy vote by claiming that anyone who knows anything about economics is just the kind of smarty-pants who always sat at the front of the class, wore plaid pants, and was always the first to raise his hand when the teacher asked a question -- when everyone knows that the cool kids sat in the back, passed notes, and didn't do their homework.

For eight years, this country has reaped the consequences of electing Eric Stratton, Rush Chairman, damn glad to meet you. You'd think that after eight years of the kind of mind-boggling short-sightedness, ineptititude, and just plain fuckupery that we've endured when we elect a First Beer Buddy instead of a president, that playing fraternity pledge would have worn thin for Americans and that maybe the Debate Club guys aren't so bad after all.

But when you're talking about depriving the Federal government of needed funds to repair and maintain bridges and tunnels in exchange for no guarantee whatsoever that oil companies won't just raise the prices and pocket the incremental bonanza, that has nothing to do with eschewing elitism, and has everything to do with craven political opportunism.

We don't complain when only the "elites" make it to the major league club. We don't complain when the "elites" win the Super Bowl. We don't complain (though we should) when legacies like George W. Bush are able to get into Ivy League colleges despite having a C average. We don't complain when corporate executives rake in huge compensation packages (though again, we should).

Once upon a time, Hillary Clinton said "It takes a village to raise a child." Today she's telling those very same children that they can go fuck themselves, because her need to be elected outweighs their need to live in a world that doesn't resemble Mad Max and in which they don't risk drowning in their car seats because Mommy's car fell into the river when the bridge over which she was driving collapsed.

Labels: Hillary Clinton, pandering

Every time another blogger leaves the fold, I take stock and ask myself why I do this. It's not as if anyone pays me to blog; I rarely even see a few bucks from advertising. Many bloggers of my acquaintance have said that they're experiencing the same decrease in daily traffic that I am, which means that Google is futzing with PageRank again, or politics fatigue is setting in, or real life concerns mean that blogging is just a frivolity at this point, or else perhaps it's just spring.

For me, every time I ask myself why I continue, when I could be doing more to keep my house tidy, reading a book, working on my half-finished novel and the two that are still living inside my head, their characters knocking on my skull daily to be let out, the answer is always the same -- because if I don't write about what's going on in this world, I'll probably go insane.

But when I read a farewell post like that of John Brown of Kansas, I have to wonder if maybe it's blogging that will make me go insane:

Here Comes the Sun almost seems like a throwaway song. The lyrics are simple. Maybe simple-minded. It's nothing more than a big thumbs up to sunshine and bright backed by a catchy melody. A very catchy melody. The Beatles recorded it (sans Lennon) and it sold well in 1969. Maybe that's because a cute tune will sell no matter what. Maybe it's because, even in the most tumultuous of times, people need to remember that sunshine and bright are good things. Here Comes the Sun also offers a certain reassurance we all need to hear, even if it is pat and simple. "It's all right".

I was driving to work a few days after watching The New World. I was pointed eastbound, waiting at a stop light on an overpass. The sun was directly in front of me. It wasn't a nuisance, though, as it was shaded by hundreds of tiny clouds that were racing on wind in front of it. It looked like one of those high-speed stop-frame movie tricks. The sky was moving at a frenetic pace while we waited through stoplights.

I was sick of AM talk radio word-porn. I was so tired of hearing about Jeremiah Wright that I avoided even the socially acceptable liberalism of NPR, just in case. I tapped the "scan" button on the radio a few mintues before I hit the stop light.

The light flipped green, my foot reflexively moved from brake to accellerator and I took one last look at the sun and the white rocket-fast clouds. The radio paused on a "classic rock" station and I recognized the "du dn du du". I stopped it there. Here Comes the Sun.

I was northbound on a boulevard, passing through an established residential neighborhood that, over time, has found itself shoehorned between two pods of commerce. Trees on both sides of the road. No matter how long I typed, no matter how long a Terrance Malick camera lingered on those trees, you couldn't understand spring Kansas trees in the wind without seeing them yourself at that moment. The were new and green and in exactly the right place at the right time.

[snip]

Work is work. Sometimes I like it. Sometimes I feel little more than disdain toward it. When I'm on the treadmill too long, my mood suffers. I doubt I'm unusual in that sense.

Lately, I've filled a few slow work hours and a bit of at-home downtime with this blog. It isn't the centerpiece of my life, but it has been a regular diversion. I watch the news. I listen to the news. I read other blogs. I think. I comment. I write. The more I think, watch listen, read and write the more generally frustrated I become. The blog seems like a good idea. A nice way to vent while advocating for things I hold dear.

At the same time, it makes me angry. Angry at those with power. Angry at those seeking power. Angry at liars, cheaters, hacks, fools and generally silly people who do fantastically stupid things. If tracking the day's events and commenting upon them is a vent, it's merely the vent on a self-constructed mental pressure cooker.

Usually, my bad moods last a day. Maybe two. This time, I was working on day six of a generally lousy disposition. I was about to take another dip from the well of rage. The laptop was in front of me and I was ready to start answering comments on some of the posts here. I wanted a little peace, a little quiet and about ten uninterrupted minutes to set the record straight for a few of the asshats who left snarky remarks and to backslap a few of the geniuses who shared my sentiments. I didn't get it.

Instead, I got a visit from my four year-old daughter who wanted to play outside. Even with a bad mood, I'm a decent father. The weather was nice and a trip outside would spare the Brown family from cartoons. I did what decent fathers do. I went outside.

Go read the rest.

I understand being sick of talk radio and of the relentless hammering of Jeremiah Wright. My addiction to politics is so severe that even though I can't even watch Countdown anymore, my substitute is The Daily Show, the rerun of which we've been watching in that same timeslot instead; and that I found myself being drafted into running for county committee -- something I'm finding impossible to do, given that the insurgent group of reform Democrats on whose line I'm running still hasn't sent me the walk lists so that I can introduce myself to the maybe five or six Democratic households in my district.

I have a job that I enjoy, that pays me well, that's close to home and where I have collegial co-workers, and if the political dynamic sometimes re-creates the conflicts of my childhood, well, I guess that's a small price to pay. I have a great husband whose company I still enjoy after 25 years together. My life is a good one. I wish I could be like the people whose concern is limited to their own sphere of influence. They seem a lot happier. They may be living in a fool's paradise, but look at the world into which we political bloggers put ourselves every morning?

Four-year-olds don't care about politics. Even in these waning days of the nation in which we grew up, the one that children like John Brown of Kansas' daughter will not get to enjoy (and we will have to answer for that), there's still the wonder that a four-year-old finds in a butterfly. If you have a four-year-old, then by all means get the fuck away from the computer and go out and chase butterflies. The computer -- and the piece of strange matter that our country and our planet has become, will be here when you get back.

I'm going to miss John Brown. I hope that he simply needs the kind of break that so many other bloggers have taken, and comes back refreshed and ready to fight the good fight again. But if he doesn't, I'm not going to fault him for preferring the company of the butterflies and his child and a golden field on a sunny day.

Labels: bloggers

Actual headline from the Bergen Record on Saturday(which interestingly does not appear on the paper's web site although the title in the URL remains "Job_loss_slows_to_a_healthy_trickle.html":

Job loss slows to a healthy trickle

The only trickle I see in a monthly job loss as opposed to job creation is that of the Bergen Record pissing down my back and telling me it's raining.

Saturday we held a yard sale in the rain, though the weather moderated in the afternoon. Of course this meant that Sunday would be beautiful, which it was, but we had a surprising number of intrepid shoppers considering the weather. It was even more surprising because I had only put up signs in two supermarkets and two street corners, we live at the dead end end of a dead end street, and we were competing with a town-wide garage sale in Paramus -- the shopping capital of the world. There was the usual assortment of collectors of military memorabilia, watches, and Matchbox cars, along with the ladies who want everything for fifty cents even an hour into the sale. I had priced everything to sell, and except for the clothes, which had been of necessity banished to the garage because of the rain and the rolling rack's annoying tendency to tip over, we got rid of a fair amount of stuff. The rest of the clothes will be donated to various and sundry organizations, and while the house is somewhat decluttered, we still have a ways to go.

What struck me, though, was the number of people who told us, clutching scraps of paper on which they had meticulously mapped out their weekly garage sale shopping, that with the price of gas they were even going to have to curtail their weekly hunts for dollar bargains in the form of other people's cast-offs. When limited income and the price of gasoline hits even the garage sale addicts, you know times are bad.

Everyone seems to be cutting back these days, even those of us who are lucky enough to still be employed. I walk around turning off lights, I combine errands when I'm out, yesterday I forfeited going to see Iron Man with Mr. Brilliant because he went to work in the morning for a couple of hours to set up some PCs and it didn't make any sense for me to take yet another car up to West Nyack to see a movie. Small changes to be sure, and when gas hits $4/gallon we may start talking about carpooling if I can change my hours, but it's the kind of thinking we haven't seen since the 1970's, when you'd have to get up at 4 AM and take the newspaper and a cup of coffee down to the corner gas station, where you'd wait in line till 6 when it opened to fill up your tank.

Meanwhile, retailers are dropping like flies, with Linens 'n' Things declaring bankruptcy last week, and Disney and Home Depot closing stores. This of course means that even the retail industry, the employer of last resort, is no longer able to absorb those whose jobs are being eliminated. And those involved in the business of transporting good to those retail stores and markets are getting clobbered:

When long-haul trucker Rusty Wade pulled his rig into a Missouri truck stop last week, he noticed something strange.

Of the 50 or so 18-wheelers parked in the lot, only five had their engines idling.

"That's only because of the high price of fuel," said Wade, an independent owner-operator from Brundidge, Ala. "A year ago there would only be about five that weren't running."

But with diesel fuel at more than $4.20 per gallon, Wade not only shuts his engine down to save money. He's also cut his average road speed from 60 to 56 mph.

Instead of hotels, he and his trucker wife, Mary, often sleep in their separate vehicles. And if a steady crosswind slows his pace and cuts his gas mileage, Wade will park his rig for five to six hours, if necessary, until it subsides.

"It's the only way I know to get more fuel mileage. Wind is my biggest enemy," he said."

In one form or another, Americans from coast to coast are following Wade's cost-cutting ways. Whether it's fewer restaurant visits, shorter road trips or skipping a haircut here and there, more consumers are looking for ways to stretch their dollars.

And with good reason. The soaring cost of core essentials like gasoline, food and housing now account for 57 cents of each consumer dollar spent. That leaves Americans with a record-low 43 cents out of each dollar for discretionary spending, according to new figures from Wachovia Economics Group.

That helps explains why new vehicle sales in the U.S. are at a 10-year low and why consumers are buying less clothing, shoes and big-ticket items like furniture and computers.

The well of home equity has been tapped dry, and so now we're seeing what happens when stagnant wages meet skyrocketing fuel prices.

Welcome to the 1970's. But if they remake Can't Stop the Music, I'm taking the gas:

Labels: 1970's, recession

Today Frank Rich covers the mind bending Reverend John Hagee and his ongoing endorsement of John McCain. The fact that this man can even find followers is a testament to the level of desperation out there in the search for meaning in the wasteland of American life. How low does one have to go to find oneself adhering to a life plan set forth by the likes of this twisted man preaching hate from a television screen, and getting rich doing it?



Watching this video makes one wonder how its possible that Presidential contender John McCain could not only welcome his endorsement but continue to welcome it, with little notice of whatever inflammatory statements he has made along the way. Jon Stewart weighed in on McCain...and if you really couldn't make this stuff up, why does it take only our Jon Stewart to deliver it thusly?:



Today Chris Matthews chuckled with his panel about the other pastor in the M$M's religious endorsement wars being the crazy uncle in the attic who pops out to say odd things. The panelists discussed Obama's every action and reaction to the mistake that was the handling of the Jeremiah Wright debacle and unbelievably, thats it.... Its all just a little hard to watch, and honestly, Ive been turning it off lately; all of it. This primary is basically over. If its not for some reason, then I don't know what thats going to mean, because the truth is that this country has a huge emotional problem, and it may take some sort of huge disaster to get us back to some semblance of what were were supposed to be about.

Meanwhile, over at the Old Grey Lady, Frank Rich managed to lay out something that is so urgent and damaging to our country as to make Obama's passive pew/fence sitting during Wright's inflammatory,(if largely correct content-wise,) sermons, seem mild. The truth of McCain and Hagee is that McCain pursued the twisted fuck for his endorsement and that, even in light of having the possibility of standing on a stage next to the next possible President, Hagee consistently repeats his insane claims. And no matter how it has been approached on the kid-gloves-Sunday-shows, McCain refuses to acknowledge how insane the guy really is. Included in the morass of ideas by Hagee , are such gems as his belief that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God because of homosexuality in New Orleans, that a war in Iran should be started immediately as a "Holy War," and that the Catholic church is "The Great Whore," that is drinking Jewish blood. This is only part of the venom that this man spews regularly, and McCain is still happy to have his endorsement.

McCain claims that he does not accept "anti-anything" statements by Hagee, and dismisses any implication that there is a problem with Hagee's outrageous statements. Its unclear if McCain even is aware of what Hagee is saying, but he clearly seems to think that he can disassociate himself from some things that Hagee says and embrace the fact that the guy is religious at all. There has been incredibly little media coverage of McCain and his relationship to Hagee, but for some reason the media has seen fit to cover Obama and Wright ad nauseum, until watching political programming has become nearly impossible. As Rich notes:

I wonder if Mr. McCain would have given the same answer had Mr. Stephanopoulos confronted him with the graphic video of the pastor in full “Great Whore” glory. But Mr. McCain didn’t have to fear so rude a transgression. Mr. Hagee’s videos have never had the same circulation on television as Mr. Wright’s. A sonorous white preacher spouting venom just doesn’t have the telegenic zing of a theatrical black man.

And I would go further than that, in that what gets wall to wall coverage is transparently aimed at shaping the dialog in this country, and in fact to shape the race itself. Rich's point is that black transgressions get more air time and press than similar white transgressions. In support of this he notes Falwell and Robertson and their wacky take on the reasons for 9-11, and the Giuliani priest, among others. But is this merely a matter of racist coverage rather than pure favoritism towards a party, a candidate, or the status quo? Could it be just this simple, or maybe should we try to look at the fact that the outlets are all owned by large corporations that stand to benefit from the preservation of the status quo, represented by a Clinton or a McCain Presidency.

The press certainly loves McCain, and regularly accepts barbecue from him, which could be considered to be a bit of a conflict. There is a dearth of real reporting going on anymore, and the specter of Tim Russert or Matthews hosting another McCain lovefest is sickening. When does Rich call his colleagues in reporting on their behavior? Why is this as simple as a racial issue?

Obama sat for years in church and, if you believe his claims, he didn't much pay close attention to what was being said. That is not what anyone would call unusual in churchgoing Americans, though I would expect more of Obama, considering that he is a pretty deep and spiritual guy with a long term plan. John McCain was tickled to have Hagee endorse him over Huckabee, and continued to seek him out and welcome his endorsement even as the incredible sound bytes came out. ...and Obama is the one deserving of scrutiny? Perhaps that is racial, but there is also a programming angle to it that I see as having a much stronger influence on this thing than any white fear of the coming race war.

So, as much as I was happy to see Frank Rich cover this story, I wish he had gone deeper with it. Perhaps one can speculate about the racial thing easier than one can about actual entities making decisions. But this thing being driven by race would indicate that there are ratings being considered, just like when a blond girl goes missing in the Caribbean, and so doesn't that also indicate a decision by management? The question is, who is willing to take responsibility for what is going on? In the long run its easier to blame the ratings, the shareholders, and ultimately capitalism, than to own up to being part of the problem.

So, why is Obama still being questioned about Jeremiah Wright? Oh, its because crazy black preachers are much more Jerry Springer Show than white ones....right? In other words, its our fault.




c/p RIPCoco

Labels: Barack Obama, Frank Rich, John McCain, Religious Intolerance

Thirty-eight years ago today, four students at Kent State University were gunned down by National Guard troops during antiwar protests held a week after President Richard Nixon announced plans to begin bombing Cambodia.

Only two of those killed actually participated in the protest.

Today, much of the National Guard is deployed in Iraq, and many of those fighting George W. Bush's war oppose it as much as many of us stateside do, so it's difficult to imagine a similar response by the U.S. military to a protest against the Iraq occupation. However, George W. Bush has assembled his own Praetorian Guard in the form of Blackwater, which seems to be subject to absolutely no authority under the law. Meanwhile, Rush Limbaugh's dream is for Kent State and Chicago 1968 to become a reality for today's young people as he vocalizes his "dream" of having riots take place at this summer's Democratic National Convention.

From the 1968 election through that in 1972, we were subject to cries of "America: Love it or Leave It" by conservatives who refused to believe that anything an American government could do could possibly wrong. Many of those conservatives, and also people like John McCain, believe to this day that we could have "won" the War in Vietnam just as they believe now that we can somehow "win" the "war" in Iraq.

Nothing ever changes.

Labels: cynicism