JUSIPER
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Sini and Pat's excellent hiatus
We will be scoping out Canada, to which, with any luck, we won't need to return come November.
For now, we leave JUSIPER in Peter's able hands, at least through the second week of August.
9:25 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Thursday, July 29, 2004
The Inigo Montoya Democrats
There’s a lot of talk, backed up by some superficial polling, about how the Democrats are far more anti-Bush than pro-Kerry, and how such negativity can only go so far in a campaign. Despite the polarization of the country, the primary season and a lot of advertising, most Americans still don’t know Kerry all that well, and most Democrats don’t love him all that much.
I happen to think both those facts will change, but more on that later. First it’s important to note that even as things are, the Democrats could win, and indeed are probably likely to win. Most analysts quickly dismiss the idea that anger has staying power in American politics – from George Wallace to Howard Dean, you can point to any number of candidates in the TV era who flamed up only to go supernova. But negativity can be extremely productive -- if it’s a propulsive force, rather than anarchic or just depressive. It’s not easy to channel anger, distill it and keep it focused, but it’s not impossible.
My favorite example is the 1976 campaign of Ronald Reagan, to whom people actually credit the "11th Commandment" – "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Almost from the moment Richard Nixon resigned, Reagan bashed Gerald Ford relentlessly, charging over and over again that Ford and Henry Kissinger were weakening the country and essentially selling out U.S. interests by pursuing arms control and détente with the Soviet Union. Reagan’s message was intensely angry, and so were his followers, and he came within a hair of unseating Ford for the Republican nomination.
Today, it's Democrats across the board who sound like Mandy Patinkin's character from The Princess Bride. Remember him? He started every conversation by saying, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." And this week, from what I have seen at the convention, I’m thinking this anger, or, more accurately, vengeance is in fact a positive force for the party.
First, though many writers have treated the triumph of Kerry over Dean as a victory for maturity over infantilism, the fury here is broad and deep. At his veterans’ rally on Monday, James Carville said Max Cleland "will be avenged" this fall. At the EMILY’s List luncheon on Tuesday, Ann Richards attacked the Republican agenda as one of "silence, obedience and abstinence." Sure, these are partisans, and they were talking to core voters. But Democratic leaders, interest group members and delegates are using words and displaying emotions that are an order of magnitude more intense than what I saw at the 1988, 1992 or 2000 conventions.
Second, with the exception of the Naderites, who become less important with every passing day, the left’s anger is remarkably focused. In the back rooms of the convention, Kerry’s people let Kucinich supporters introduce amendments to the Democratic platform earlier this week. And then once the Kucinich people made their statements, they withdrew their proposals, so that no delegates were forced into embarrassing votes against left-wing ideas. Outside the Fleet Center, there has been exactly one arrest related to the convention all week. These days, if you’re picking up a sign, you basically want one thing: to get George W. Bush out of office.
Finally, the fact that Democrats are so unified in their anger gives Kerry tremendous room to maneuver in his policy proposals. Democrats here are just not arguing about crime, or welfare, or trade. Kerry can basically advocate whatever he wants (or needs) to. The first and most important example of this came last night, with what Edwards said about Iraq – we’re in to stay, and with more support from allies, to win.
You might expect Democratic pols to say things like "I’ve never seen such energy!" and "People are more fired up than at any time in my entire career!" at every national convention. Well, they don’t. When Mike Dukakis proclaimed, "This election isn’t about ideology, it’s about competence," absolutely nobody lifted a beer to toast competence. And insiders at the very top of the party were bad-mouthing Al Gore up to the minute he gave his acceptance speech in 2000. The people who attend conventions are professionals. And this time around, they are revved up.
Mostly because they're angry.
5:05 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Conventioneer
"Conventioneer" was blogging before there were blogs: At the 2000 conventions, a cabal of fine young reporters commandeered George Magazine’s extraordinarily ill-fated website, and posted semi-regular observations about the proceedings.
Now Conventioneer is back, writing for Boston Magazine, and "he" is good. Amidst yesterday’s mix of name-dropping and descriptions of finger foods, for example, came a biting analysis of Howard Dean’s Tuesday night speech as symptomatic of his Internet-stock campaign:
Dean's stubbornness remains befuddling. The big line in his speech last night -- "I'm Howard Dean, and I'm voting for John Kerry" -- was supposed to suggest that general-election Dean had a new mission, that something had changed. But Dean never talked much about why he was voting for Kerry, and Conventioneer found in the rest of Dean's listless speech the same narcissism that crippled him in the primaries. Beginning last summer, as his feisty anti-war speeches began to resonate with voters, Dean developed an almost tragic obsession with the movement he had galvanized, overshadowing the basis for the movement itself. Dean spent more time talking about changing the Democratic party than actually changing it. It was an exceedingly adolescent message goaded along by campaign manager Joe Trippi, who reveled in the trendiness of the Dean phenomenon more than its ideas or values, creating a pitch to voters that suggested the only reason they should join him was that others had already done so enthusiastically. Crowds eagerly embraced the validation and created a disastrous positive feedback loop: By the time the Iowa Caucuses came, Dean's campaign was about nothing other than itself, and its vast support cratered.
DISCLOSURE: I contributed to Conventioneer in 2000. Unfortunately, the best piece I wrote, about sending Cindy McCain dessert at a Philadelphia restaurant, was killed for being both too salacious and devoid of meaningful content.
4:59 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Anecdotal Evidence on Teresa
Andrew Sullivan says Teresa Heinz Kerry is "now officially a liability," and calls her Tuesday-night speech "self-congratulatory pablum." Sullvan writes:
It is hard not to second the notion that intelligent women with views should not be patronized with the word "opinionated" … It is equally preposterous to say that all women in American public life are viewed this way. When has Condi Rice been called "opinionated"? Or Barbara Mikulski?
Well, actually, I heard Barbara Mikulski talk on Tuesday, and she made a point of mentioning how so many people said she was crazy to run for the Senate in 1986 – after all, no Democratic woman had ever served in the Senate, except by inheriting a dead husband’s seat. I think a far greater percentage of successful women than Sullivan believes have had to contend with comments of the kind Teresa mentioned.
Milkulski told a group of feminists to "gussy yourselves up, pump up your shoulder pads and start your engines," which is to say she and Teresa Heinz Kerry have very different ways of dealing with the world. But I would be very careful about dismissing Teresa’s appeal to working women, including independents. The professional women I have spoken with since her speech liked her performance a lot. Anecdotal, to be sure, but no more subjective than Sullivan’s dislike of her prose.
4:56 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Jennifer Granholm
Three parts Jane Lynch and one part Peggy Noonan, she’s capable of earthy humor as well as strange, New-Agey flights of lyricism. Is this what it means to be a postmodern Democrat from an industrial state? I’m not sure, and I can’t take fully seriously anyone who cites Marianne Williamson as a great writer. But after hearing her speak at the EMILY’s List luncheon on Tuesday, where she mesmerized the crowd with a long riff about how the flapping wings of a single butterfly can change the world, and then again last night, I plan to find video from 2000 and take another look at Granholm’s gubernatorial campaign in Michigan. It must have been amazing.
4:52 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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On that "One America" thing ...
With anti-divisiveness as the unofficial theme of the convention, can we expect to hear U2's One piped in between speeches? Better yet, is Bono still here? Is he gonna sing it for us live?
1:00 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Wednesday, July 28, 2004
The Corporate Convention
Thanks to one of our moles, we've been working off a full list of quasi-public convention events, the kind that the media cover only if they somehow find out about them and that the public doesn’t get into at all. Three things jump off these pages:
> Conventions truly are one of the last great ways parties have left to let corporations and unions to grease their members with food and booze and cash – to launder contributions, in other words, now that soft money is illegal. For some fun, see if you can match the following events to their sponsors. (Hint: Utilities love the Black Caucus.)
1. "Fannie Lou Hamer Opening Night Reception"
2. Cradle of Freedom Hospitality suite
3. Congressional Black Caucus’ "Leaders Past, Leaders Present, Leaders Future"
4. "Celebration and Appreciation of Ethnic Democrats"
5. "Road to Glory: A Celebration of Black Achievement"
6. "Boston Tea Party for Women who Rock the Boat"
7. Reception Honoring the California Democratic Congressional Delegation
8. Congressional Black Caucus Institute’s ecumenical prayer service
a. Lockheed Martin
b. Novartis Pharmaceuticals
c. Fleishman Hillard and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
d. Constellation Energy
e. Lerach, Coughlin, Stoia & Robbins, LLP
f. Prudential Financial
g. American Gaming Association
h. Edison Electric
> Corporate America is hedging its bets, spreading its largesse in ways that show large businesses are now taking seriously the idea that Kerry and/or congressional Democrats might win. Example: As governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson has worked hard to unite environmentalists and ranchers against natural gas producers, but on Monday night, the American Gas Association co-sponsored (with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute) a huge party where Richardson was a VIP guest. "Hey, you take it where you can get it," a press aide told JUSIPER (we were VIP guests too; so were Los Lobos, who were great), and that’s right: the point is, "it" is now coming from unusual sources.
Another example: Rep. Jane Harman held a brunch today that was sponsored by Boeing, General Dynamic, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and, stepping out of the shadows, SAIC. We can’t tell you what they talked about – no media were allowed because Harman’s media rep didn’t make the trip, and the congresswoman didn’t want to field questions on her own while she was in a room full of defense contractors. But the lineup speaks for itself: the companies are thinking that the Democrats just might pick up the 11 seats they need to make Harman the next chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
> The most dangerous place to be a piece of beef this week had to be the Sunday night dinner honoring Richardson that was sponsored by Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway. Can you imagine the frenzy of fork-stabbing over the last piece of prime rib when Big Bill and a bunch of railroad lobbyists got together for dinner?
Obviously, the convention isn’t all about corporate interests. But Coca-Cola and Verizon sponsorships are everywhere.
(Answers: 1-a, 2-g, 3-h, 4-e, 5-b, 6-f, 7-c, 8-d.)
5:30 PM | Post or Read Comments (3)
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Expectation
John Edwards' expectations are sky high; he will give a great speech that will introduce himself to voters, and he will make a convincing case for Senator Kerry. Democratic delegates already love him. In some meetings we have been to, delegates have broken out in applause the moment his name is mentioned, even in speeches that aren't primarily about him.
John Kerry's great advantage going into tomorrow is that no one has any expectations of his speech. Most Americans, including many who will vote for him, find him indecisive, boring, and remote. Most of the press corps, never interested in policy anyway, feels the same way. If Kerry does anything at all to counteract those images, his speech will have been a tremendous success.
3:50 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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A moment of optimism from a pessimist
Zogby has released results of its latest battleground poll; all it really shows is the tenuousness of Kerry's lead at this stage of the game.
But it's worth remembering this: Kerry was not supposed to be ahead by the time of this convention; in fact, he was supposed to be ten points behind after a barrage of negative and unanswered Bush ads between April and July.
So when Zogby announces that Kerry is actually ahead by two points in Tennessee, maybe the believability of interactive polling shouldn't be our first concern. It should, rather, be amazement. None of us everdreamed that the closest states before the Democrats got through with their convention would be Florida, Missouri and Nevada, or that undecideds would be down to a tiny sliver of the electorate, or, even more, that fully three quarters of them think the nation is on the wrong track.
Rasmussen reports that it is mostly Democrats who are watching this convention. Its primary success, therefore, will lie in solidifying the base and strengthening organizing. We have already begun to see this process in meeting after meeting of individual constituencies at this convention, from yesterday's Emily's List and Revolutionary Women activities, to Sunday's pan-labor event, to the HRC's several events, including a remarkable appearance by Senator Kennedy (all of which we will blog on in more detail later).
But for now, let's be happy. Challengers should never be ahead before their conventions even start. And John Kerry is.
3:39 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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It's the unity, stupid
"Stronger at home, respected in the world" may be the official slogan of the Democratic Convention, but the real mantra is shaping up to be all about unity. The media has accepted the DNC's talking point of a unified party, and the biggest speakers at the convention - Bill Clinton, with his mighty distinctions, and Barrack Obama, with his high cadences - shook the hall with their calls for a unified America.
Given the remarkable consistency of message so far - and I found out yesterday that the DNC has not only issued lists of recommended themes for speakers to include in their speeches as it usually does, but also dispatched their own speechwriters either to do all the work or to assist them - I think we can expect tonight and tomorrow to continue that theme. It's easy to imagine how Edwards is going to do this, following on previous speakers' subtle invocations of 9/11 and using biblical language like Clinton and Obama's in a modified version of his "Two Americas" stump.
I think we can expect that Kerry's going to find his own way to emphasize the same theme, and we can only hope that he'll even improve on it. But how he's going to do it, your guess is as good as mine.
9:32 AM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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WE IN THE BLUE STATES BELIEVE IN A MIGHTY GOD
Tonight, Barack Obama surpassed what seemed to be impossibly high expectations for his keynote speech. The delegates' reaction tonight to his closing words, quoted below, was thunderous:
E pluribus unum.
Out of many, one.
Yet even as we speak, there are those who are preparing to divide us, the spin masters and negative ad peddlers who embrace the politics of anything goes.
Well, I say to them tonight, there's not a liberal America and a conservative America – there's the United States of America.
There's not a Black America and White America and Latino America and Asian America– there's the United States of America.
The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats.
But I've got news for them, too.
We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States.
We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States.
There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it.
We are one people, all of us pledging allegiance to the stars and stripes, all of us defending the United States of America.
In the end, that's what this election is about.
Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?
John Kerry calls on us to hope.
John Edwards calls on us to hope.
I'm not talking about blind optimism here – the almost willful ignorance that thinks unemployment will go away if we just don't talk about it, or the health care crisis will solve itself if we just ignore it.
No, I'm talking about something more substantial.
It's the hope of slaves sitting around a fire singing freedom songs.
The hope of immigrants setting out for distant shores.
The hope of a young naval lieutenant bravely patrolling the Mekong Delta.
The hope of a millworker's son who dares to defy the odds.
The hope of a skinny kid with a funny name who believes that America has a place for him, too.
The audacity of hope! In the end, that is God's greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation.
The belief in things not seen.
The belief that there are better days ahead.
[...]Tonight, if you feel the same energy I do, the same urgency I do, the same passion I do, the same hopefulness I do – if we do what we must do, then I have no doubt that all across the country, from Florida to Oregon, from Washington to Maine, the people will rise up in November, and John Kerry will be sworn in as President, and John Edwards will be sworn in as Vice President, and this country will reclaim its promise, and out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.
Half the delegates came to this convention ready to see Barack Obama on the ticket in 2012. After tonight, I suspect it's unanimous.
12:07 AM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Wifi-ful and more
Thanks to some extremely generous and enterprising readers who have offered to lend the hardware, JUSIPER may have wifi access to blog from inside the convention tomorrow! If all goes well, we'll be up and ready tomorrow afternoon or evening.
We may also have photos from the floor! Be sure to check back.
8:37 PM | Post or Read Comments (2)
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Wi-filess
Being wi-filess among bloggers at the convention has made our ability to post in real time rather complicated, so I suspect our thoughts about the affair will end up dribbling out over time. Very quickly, however, the highlight of yesterday for me was neither Bill Clinton (excellent), nor Jimmy Carter (he had me at "My name is Jimmy Carter"), nor Al Gore (who could have been introduced with more fanfare and respect).
No, the highlight for me was James Carville's veteran's event at noon yesterday at the Sheraton. The featured speakers were Wesley Clark, the members of John Kerry's Navy crew, and Max Cleland. Carville was clearly using this presentation to telegraph a winning strategy for the party in Southern Ohio, West Virginia, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, Florida and Louisiana. I suspect he is right, too. I don't know whether C-SPAN carried it, but the presentation carried enormous emotional heft. A slew of one minute ads from this event in lower cost media markets in those states could yield tremendous electoral benefit.
10:09 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Monday, July 26, 2004
At the Convention
Here in Boston, Sini and I went to the Congressional Black Caucus's opening event late last night, which honored a group of black delegates - led by Fannie Lou Hamer - who tried to get seats at the 1964 Democratic convention. (They went under the banner of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, organized by Robert Moses and others, at a time when the party had already seated white segregationists from the state. )
A number of the original delegates were actually there last night. Meanwhile, outside the reception, armored police lined the front of the floodlit Massachusetts State House. In the shadows off the otherwise deserted Boston Commons, the scene was more than a little creepy. Also creepy was the identity of the event's corporate sponsor: Lockheed Martin. I suspect that Sini's going to have more to say on that, and on the general subject of corporate sponsorship at the convention.
I'm familiar with only a few faces of black members of Congress, but one that I'll know now is Elijah Cummings, chair of the CBC, on whom many of the cameras were trained. (And there were a lot of cameras. As you've no doubt heard, the press contingent in Boston this week is huge, perhaps rivaling or exceeding the corporate presence!)
One face that would have been hard for anyone to miss was Al Sharpton's. A small crowd surrounded Sharpton at first, but for much of the time we were there (and it wasn't more than an hour and a half I think), he was alone, talking with maybe a couple of people. Knowing what I know about Sharpton, I have to say it was a surreal image. Crowds and audiences are Sharpton's thing, but I wonder if the mixed results of his presidential campaign are getting him used to having more down time than usual. And I'm guessing you won't hear much about him the rest of this week.
This morning, we attended the DNC-hosted Bloggers' Breakfast, and heard Barrack Obama, fellow Kerry veteran Del Sandusky, veteran AP reporter Walter Mears (whom several bloggers targeted with questions critical of the mainstream press, and the neworks' virtual abandonment of the convention), and DNC reps regale us with our importance (i.e. bloggers are responsible for American democracy ...) and showcase their cluelessness about blogs (which, hey, is okay). Howard Dean showed up, but only after I had to leave.
I think there were more photographers and reporters at the breakfast than bloggers. This is my first convention, but what was evident to me from both the reception last night and the breakfast this morning is that, even if the major TV networks have reduced their coverage of the convention, the rest of the press is here in force and have no intention of ignoring it.
3:36 PM | Post or Read Comments (3)
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Saturday, July 24, 2004
Things I Should Have Blogged About, Part 3
Here's the last of my look back at items from the first half of 2004 that I wish I had given attention to when they actually happened. And now it's off to Boston!
10. General Curtis LeMay, whom I served under in World War II, said, "If we'd lost the war, we'd all have been prosecuted as war criminals." And I think he's right. He, and I'd say I, were behaving as war criminals. LeMay recognized that what he was doing would be thought immoral if his side had lost." – former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara in the film Fog of War, as reported in Esquire, January
It's almost touching for McNamara to retrospectively include someone like LeMay in his reexamination of his own career, but it's impossible to believe LeMay intended any such admission. He almost certainly meant the Japanese were animals who would string up as many American leaders as they could if they won, so the U.S. ought to make damn well sure it won instead.
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, LeMay, then the general commanding the entire Air Force, barked at President Kennedy: "We lost! We ought to just go in there today and knock 'em off!" Kennedy was a cool customer, but he just couldn't stand listening to LeMay and his endless bombing plans. "Every time he had to see LeMay he ended up in a sort of fit," Roswell Gilpatric, McNamara's deputy at the Pentagon, said in a Kennedy Library oral history. "He would just be frantic. LeMay couldn't listen … outrageous proposals, proposals that bore no relation to the state of affairs in the 1960s. The President never saw him unless … he felt he had to make a record of having listened to LeMay. He had to sit there. He was just beside himself."
Of course, LeMay gained his greatest fame as George Wallace's running mate in 1968, when he told the press that if anti-war protestors laid in front of his car, he'd step on the gas. I think he can safely be left beyond the orbit of McNamara's mournful relativism.
11. Without the Jacksons, father and son, Dean would not have dared invade Sharpton's turf. But embracing them changes the dance. Dean can afford to step all over Sharpton – and even be rewarded for it by the Confederate flag-wavers Dean covets – as long as he has someone else on his arm.
Gore had his own reasons for coming up to Harlem … But ultimately, Gore's endorsement won't matter, because Gore no longer matters. Dean brought him uptown to make an unspoken announcement of real significance: In his Democratic Party, the black political headquarters stays in Chicago.
As for the Rev. Al, he can have Harlem back now. Dean is finished with it. – Zev Chafets, New York Daly News, December 10, 2003
This right-wing columnist was the first in the mainstream media to recognize Al Gore's and Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s endorsements of Howard Dean as death knells for Al Sharpton and as symbolic of a deeper New York-Chicago split in black politics. This turned out to be a minor plot point in the story line of the fight for the nomination, because both Dean and Sharpton self-destructed after Iowa. But it bears watching. Sharpton can be taken on, and there are black Democrats willing to help, and as long as he's around, New York blacks will be marginalized within the party.
12. At first, it was just a funny photo.
Then a minor scandal erupted when Sam Walls, a Republican candidate for the Texas state legislature, turned out to have a history of cross-dressing.
Then supporters stepped forward. "He's a nice guy," said Brenda Thomas, a Houston transgender activist who knew the 64-year-old Walls as Samantha. "A gentlemen in a dress."
"I don't have a problem with cross-dressing," said the local Republican party treasurer. "There are lots of them. People think J. Edgar Hoover was one of the greatest Americans that ever lived. He was a cross-dresser."
Then Walls lost the Republican primary on April 15.
"Some people have said they feel sorry for me, but let me tell you how wonderful it has been for me," he said. "If you have not had the opportunity to find out that all your friends are true friends, then I feel sorry for you."
8:23 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Thursday, July 22, 2004
Things I Should Have Blogged About, Part 2
More catching up with the best of 2004:
5. Inspired by the runaway success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," CBS will bring its hit miniseries "Jesus" back to life later this month. But rather than replay the entire four-hour production over two nights, as originally broadcast, the network will cut right to the chase by airing only Part Two as a stand-alone TV movie." – New York Daily News, March 11
6. Do you realize that by the time you wake up in the morning 20,000 men may have been killed? – Winston Churchill to his wife Clementine, on June 5, 1944, as reported by Jon Meacham, "D-Day's Real Lessons," Newsweek, May 31.
The actual death toll from the first day of the invasion that, no matter how tired you might get of the hype, really did reverse the course of western history, was about 3,000.
7. "I think there is a fraternity-slash-sorority to this," [Dean] said. "I admire John Kerry for what he did. I certainly admire him for" – he went on to use an expletive for his defeat in Iowa. The two men immediately exchanged high-fives after the comment. – New York Times, May 19
8. General Motors reported a decline in first-quarter profit on Tuesday, but the results were better than expected, driven by a record performance in its financing business, surging Asian auto sales and a shrinking tax bill in the United States. – New York Times, April 21
There's your business school curriculum in one sentence – a big manufacturer can make declining earnings look "better than expected" by expanding into the credit business and fiddling with its tax accounting. GM stock rose 3.5% on the news.
9. Material Given to Congress in 2002 Now Classified
House Bill Expands Child Tax Credit: Measure Includes New Benefits for Higher-Income Families
– side-by-side headlines, New York Times, May 20, p. A18
There's your Bush Administration primer in two sentences.
10:37 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Light blogging
Until the convention, when, hopefully, the DNC will help us find internet access somewhere near the Fleet Center and Patrick, Peter and I can regale you with stories of events on the ground. Email us your requests!
11:11 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Things I Should Have Blogged About, Part 1
Congratulations to Sini, whose efforts have led to JUSIPER getting credentials for the Democratic National Convention. His extraordinary range of source material, originality of insight and dedication to writing on a daily basis have rightfully caught the Establishment's attention, and have inspired me to boost my own output.
To catch up a bit, I went through the huge pile of stories I meant to write about in the first half of 2004 but never got around to, took the top dozen and boiled them down to their key lines. Here's the first batch:
1. About six in 10, 61 percent, chose balancing the budget while 36 percent chose tax cuts when they were asked which was more important, according to a poll conducted for the AP by Ipsos Public Affairs.
Half in the poll, 49 percent, said their overall tax burden – including federal, state and local taxes – had gone up over the past three years. – Associated Press, April 14
2. Reagan is not one that wears well … On a personal basis, Rockefeller is a pretty nice guy. Reagan, on a personal basis is terrible. He just isn't pleasant to be around. – Richard Nixon in 1972, according to tapes released from the National Archives, December 11, 2003
3. [James Ridgeway:] People say you're going to be duped by Bush, that the Republicans will secretly finance you with a slush fund to split the Democrats.
[Ralph Nader:] Well, first of all, if we ever see something like that, we'll reject it. – "The Nader Interview," Village Voice, March 3-9
4. President Bush warned voters in Ohio yesterday that electing John Kerry would cost even more jobs than the 265,000 that have disappeared from the must-win state during Bush's reign. – New York Daily News, March 11
5:52 PM | Post or Read Comments (3)
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Monday, July 19, 2004
EU: No Irish spoken here. And no Maltese either.
And it's Spain's fault:
THE Government's demand for Irish to be recognised as an official European language has caused bitter divisions within the EU.
Gaeltacht Minister Eamon O Cuiv has called on Brussels to offer full translation and interpretation services for into Irish.
With the expanded EU now dealing with 20 official languages and facing an annual bill of €1.5bn a year for translators and interpreters, the move has heightened fears of linguistic gridlock.
But it is also expected to provoke a fierce reaction in Spain's regions, which were angered by the Government's resistance to plans to give wider EU recognition to Catalan, Basque and Galician.
Any new concession to Ireland is likely to be resisted by the Madrid government - led by the new socialist premier Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero - unless it can secure greater rights for Spain's minority languages.
Since Ireland joined the EU in 1973, Irish has enjoyed a special intermediary status - short of being a full working language. All treaties have been translated into Irish and citizens can correspond with the European institutions in the language.
But the Government now wants it to be made the EU's 21st official language, which would mean that thousands of documents would have to be translated into Irish and interpretation offered in the European Parliament and in other meetings.
[...]However, Ireland gave little support to plans for the recognition of minority languages while it held the EU's presidency and chaired negotiations over a draft constitution for Europe. A proposal from the Spanish government to give Basque, Catalan and Galician the same status as Irish was watered down.
The Government argued that such rights should only be granted if languages are officially recognised by their own parliaments. There was also a fear that concessions would open the door for the recognition of a host of other languages spoken by minorities in the EU, from Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish, to Russian.
In the end, the right to correspond with the European institutions in Catalan and other languages was not written into the EU constitution, although the treaty itself may be translated into their tongues. That gesture failed to satisfy many Catalans, who point out that seven million people speak their language - several times the number of Irish speakers - even though it does not have official status throughout Spain.
Here's the best part:
Many diplomats believe the EU opened a Pandora's Box by agreeing to allow Maltese as one of its official languages. Although it is the recognised language of the tiny Mediterranean island, its usage is very restricted and the EU has been unable to recruit enough translators.
8:04 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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Think back to six months ago
And here's a headline I can guarantee you weren't expecting to read with a New Englander at the top of the ticket: "Bush still has edge in N.C."
7:54 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Question
Why is it that only the Moonies are interested in the Allawi murder story?
2:02 AM | Post or Read Comments (2)
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Expats
I expect new voters in this group to break for Kerry by at least two to one. And the numbers look promising:
Officials at the Federal Voting Assistance Program, the government agency that handles overseas voting, said that in 2000 they had 250,000 requests for voter registration applications from U.S. citizens living abroad. This year, as of earlier this month, they had sent out 340,000, and they expect to mail many more before the November election.
1:26 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Score one for experience and regional specialization
Sorely lacking indeed among members of the Bush administration's no-brains trust.
1:14 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Sunday, July 18, 2004
So you couldn't make it to the 9/11 Commission hearings?
You can download them free at Apple's iTunes music store.
2:11 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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Sir Elton: McCarthyism is back
From BBC:
'There's an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly. Everyone is too career-conscious,' he told New York magazine, Interview.
Sir Elton said performers could be 'frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics',
The singer likened the current 'fear factor' to McCarthyism in the 1950s.
'There was a moment about a year ago when you couldn't say a word about anything in this country for fear of your career being shot down by people saying you are un-American,' he told the magazine.
The singer said things were different in the 1960s.
'People like Bob Dylan, Nina Simone, The Beatles and Pete Seeger were constantly writing and talking about what was going on.
'That's not happening now. As of this spring, there have been virtually no anti-war concerts - or anti-war songs that catch on, for that matter,' he said.
He voiced concern that it appeared acceptable to speak out if you were pro-Bush, using the example of country singer Toby Keith, but not if you were critical of the President, as in the case of country rock band, the Dixie Chicks.
'On the one hand, you have someone like Toby Keith, who has come out and been very supportive of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq - which is OK because America is a democracy and Toby Keith is entitled to say what he thinks and feels.
'But, on the other hand, the Dixie Chicks got shot down in flames last year for criticising the president. They were treated like they were being un-American, when in fact they have every right to say whatever they want about him because he's freely elected, and therefore accountable.'
12:42 AM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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Saturday, July 17, 2004
No uptake
A search of Google News suggests that few newspapers outside of Australia (and Al Jazeerah) have printed Paul McGeough's story in the Sydney Morning Herald. The few American newspapers that are reporting do not cover it as fact but as allegations from an Australian newspaper.
I am guessing this means that neither the AP nor Reuters has been able to confirm the details independently and are therefore unwilling to go with it.
Most Americans and Europeans, therefore, are largely unaware of this developing story. If it breaks, the international outcry may force our own media to pay attention.
Via Kos, here are bits of the transcript of an interview with the author, from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
MAXINE MCKEW: Let's go straight to the allegations that Iyad Allawi executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station at the end of June.
The explosive claims in tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers allege that the prisoners were handcuffed and blindfolded, lined up against a courtyard wall and shot by the Iraqi Prime Minister.
Dr Allawi is alleged to have told those around him that he wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents.
Two people allege they witnessed the killings and there are also claims the Iraqi Interior Minister was present as well as four American security men in civilian dress.
Well, the journalist reporting the story is Paul McGeough, awarded a Walkley Award for his coverage of the Iraq war last year.
He's also a former editor of the Herald and is now the paper's chief correspondent.
He's joined me on the line from a location in the Middle East.
MAXINE McKEW: Paul McGeough, thanks for joining us.
Paul, as you've also made clear in your article, Prime Minister Allawi has flatly denied this story.
Why then is the Herald so confident about publishing it?
PAUL McGEOUGH, 'SYDNEY MORNING HERALD' AND 'AGE' FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's a very contentious issue.
What you have is two very solid eyewitness accounts of what happened at a police security complex in a south-west Baghdad suburb.
They are very detailed.
They were done separately.
Each witness is not aware that the other spoke.
They were contacted through personal channels rather than through the many political, religious or military organisations working in Baghdad that might be trying to spin a tale.
And they've laid it out very carefully and very clearly as to what they saw.
MAXINE McKEW: You haven't identified these witnesses but why have they felt free to talk about such an extraordinary story?
PAUL McGEOUGH: Well, they were approached through personal connections and as a result of that, they accepted assurances.
They were guaranteed anonymity, they were told that no identifying material would be published on them and they told what they saw.
9:46 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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"Why"
Charges aside, the popularity of this song reflects, more than anything, a sense (understood in the black community, of course, from the moment the Supreme Court made their disenfranchisement constitutional) that this crowd is capable of anything in the pursuit of power.
Anyone who thought Michael Moore went too far with charges against President Bush in his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11" is advised to avoid the new hit single "Why?" by New York rapper Jadakiss.
Among a litany of questions raised in the song, one has drawn particular attention: Against a thudding, almost hypnotizing beat, the 29-year-old artist growls, "Why did Bush knock down the towers?"
It is a sucker punch of a line, one that -- even in a song that catalogues societal ills -- feels like it comes out of nowhere. From a fringe conspiracy-theorist blogger, it could be easily dismissed or ignored. But Jadakiss, aka Jason Phillips, enjoys vast popularity. His album "Kiss of Death" debuted three weeks ago at No. 1 on the Billboard charts, and "Why?" is a Top 20 single on the hip-hop charts.
[...]But blaming the president for the destruction of the World Trade Center represents a quantum escalation of the rhetoric. "Obviously it's only a metaphor," Jadakiss says in a telephone interview Thursday from his tour bus outside of Toledo.
"But on the same note," he adds, "I think that before 9/11 the intelligence agencies weren't communicating a lot of the important information. And ultimately, at the end of the day, he's the boss. The buck stops with him."
The rapper known to his fans as Kiss sounds like he's undergone a bit of media coaching since July 9, when he told Billboard.com: "I just felt [Bush] had something to do with it. That's why I put it in there like that. A lot of my people felt he had something to do with it."
[...]Jadakiss says he never thought the song would cause a furor or be picked up by mainstream media outlets. "My songs never really reach the ears of white America," he says. But now that this song has, he says he's ready for whatever results.
"Let 'em come at me," he says of critics. "I ain't done nothing that Michael Moore ain't done. Everybody ain't gonna like it, but as long as they hear it, my job is done. I want them to hear it and think about it."
Jadakiss has plenty of supporters, who say the song voices the doubts of many young people, particularly young African Americans. "A lot of folks are really skeptical about the president and the whole gangsta manner in which this administration has rolled," says Bakari Kitwana, author of "The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and the Crisis in African-American Culture." "It's not the first time that people are hearing of government involvement, or at least complicity, with 9/11. These theories have been floating around for a while."
Kitwana argues that young people are suspicious of the administration because of "a wide belief that Bush stole the [2000] election."
[...]The BET channel is playing the video in heavy rotation -- the version that includes the Bush reference. "There was never any question that we would leave that line in," says Stephen Hill, BET's senior vice president of music, talent and entertainment programming. "Our viewers are people who believe in the First Amendment, and they recognize that this is the artist's point of view. We've had no negative feedback about the song."
At the Baltimore rap and hip-hop station WERQ-FM (92.3), the song is a top-five most requested staple. Music director and midday personality Neke says the station plays the edited version of the song because that's what the label sent. But she emphasizes that the station's listeners "are well aware of what the cut-out lyrics are." Neke adds that listeners aren't surprised by the lyric because many think there's some truth to it.
"It's like going over to your aunt's house and everyone is thinking that her potato salad is the worst," she says. "Finally someone says it's awful and everyone gets mad at him for saying it, but you know he's right. People think things all the time, they just don't come out and say it."
Available, in case you're curious, in the Apple Music store. Both versions, too, but the part you want to hear isn't on the thirty second free snippet.
1:45 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Friday, July 16, 2004
Catholics split, but undecideds tip slightly for Kerry
From a poll done for Catholics for a Free Choice, as reported by National Journal:
Asked which candidate they preferred, 40 percent favored Bush, 40 percent favored Kerry, and 2 percent volunteered that they liked independent candidate Ralph Nader. The 18 percent who were undecided were asked whether they leaned toward Bush or Kerry. Kerry led that group by a 48 percent to 41 percent margin.
The survey also covers Catholics' attitudes toward social issues and the church hierarchy:
Sixty-one percent agreed that abortion should be legal, 71 percent supported the death penalty, and 34 percent supported gay marriage. Those positions go against Catholic teaching. Regarding voting behavior, 70 percent said the views of Catholic bishops were either "not very important" or "not at all important" in determining their vote. Seventy-four percent disagreed with the idea that "voters who are Catholic have a religious obligation to vote against candidates who support legal abortion." And 78 percent said "politicians who are Catholic and who support legal abortion" should not be denied Communion.
A reminder that, even if George Bush's plea to the Pope to pump up the volume on social issues finds friendly ears in Rome, the strategy will fall flat back home.
More poll data here.
10:01 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Flogging the Allawi story
Holden at Atrios' good deed of the day.
7:50 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Yeah, we're sorry too
"we regret now that we didn't do more to challenge the president's assumptions."
It's about time.
7:04 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Reverse Midas
Yes indeed, anything George W. Bush touches in democracies abroad continues to turn to dust. The latest victims? Labour candidates running in by-elections in the U.K.:
Tony Blair's Labour party lost one key parliamentary by-election and narrowly avoided defeat in another Friday in the wake of a damning report on Iraq.
The results may stir further speculation about the British prime minister's grip on power with a general election expected in less than a year.
The minority Liberal Democrats won the central England seat of Leicester South by more than 1,600 votes from the ruling party, which held it with a 13,000-plus majority at the 2001 general election.
In the city of Birmingham, Labour just won the Hodge Hill seat by 460 seats from the Liberal Democrats, its 2001 majority of 11,000 all but wiped out.
``The justification which Tony Blair gave for backing George Bush was wrong,'' the Liberal Democrats' Parmjit Singh Gill said in his victory speech in Leicester.
``The people of Leicester South have spoken for the people of Britain. Their message is the prime minister has abused and lost their trust. He should apologize and he should apologize now.''
3:15 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Thursday, July 15, 2004
Bush-Romney
Mitt Romney told a Washington audience yesterday that John Kerry is "'too conflicted to be president of the United States" and that "Senator Kerry has been my senator for 20 years; I do not know what he stands for".
No doubt he was thinking of statements of Kerry's like what the senator said last week about abortion: he doesn't like it, but when it comes to policy making, he doesn't let his conscience get in the way.
It's a funny criticism to make, coming from someone who seems highly conflicted himself. Here's what Romney said two years ago:
"On a personal basis, I don't favor abortion," he said. "However, as governor of the commonwealth, I will protect a woman's right to choose under the laws of the country and the commonwealth. That's the same position I've had for many years."
The question is, is that stance vague enough to get Romney onto the GOP ticket if Bush dumps Cheney? Probably not. But Romney would add fresh blood, he's got an image as a reformer (just what the Bush ticket needs these days, but also to revive Bush's own claims of being a reformer from the 2000 election), and the addition of such a vicious attack dog in Kerry's own backyard would be heralded as singularly bold. And indeed it would be.
Maybe Romney's not auditioning for 2008, but for 2004.
7:34 PM | Post or Read Comments (2)
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"Who Is This Man?"
What Sini and Donna have been waiting for.
7:01 PM | Post or Read Comments (2)
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Ohio focus groups
Promising, if disturbing.
Several voters question whether Kerry is strong enough to fight the war on terrorism. They have no idea what he would do about health care or education. They see him as stiff, formal and aloof, especially in contrast to the personable Bush.
If Bush lived next door, he'd be a ''good friend,'' muses Daniel Goddard, 43, an aerospace engineer who is inclined to support Bush.
If Kerry lived next door, Cheryl Maggard, 48, a retired school-bus driver, says he would be someone ''I'd wave at but never get to know.'' Jody Blair, 33, a homemaker and former teacher, says she could see herself outside Kerry's house, ''watching the party through the window.''
But they agree that Kerry ''looks presidential.'' They can envision him in the Oval Office, though they want to know more about what he would do before they'll put him there. Two of the voters say they support Kerry now; three more are leaning his way.
If the problem with Kerry is that they don't know him well enough, they seem to feel they know Bush too well.
The president has no fervent defenders in this group. His finest moment, they say, was his strong response after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Several also mention the tax cuts that Bush sought and won. ''It was nice to get some of my money back,'' Blair says.
But when it comes to the economy, no one cites brightening corporate profits or the rising stock market. They scoff at the idea that the nation has turned the corner when it comes to creating jobs. The service jobs they see available now pay less and don't provide the health benefits offered by the manufacturing jobs that built the middle class in Rust Belt states such as this one.
Asked who sees the past year as a good one for the United States, no one raises a hand.
4:35 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Oops
Bush has extinguished all the alternative narratives that attracted some in his party in the 1990s ... Religious conservatives' vision of a Republican Party that would actively promote traditionally Christian values was not actually vanquished, but shoved aside. Bush's avowal of religious faith, his steadfast opposition to abortion, his promotion of faith-based social services, his opposition to gay marriage were all out in the open; but he has also refused to demonize those with different views and to spend large amounts of political capital on these issues. -- Michael Barone, "Tell Me a Story," the American Spectator, February 2004
Bush's instinct on gay-rights issues was clear and emphatic: Do not touch them. During the campaign he had refused to comment on Vermont's civil unions. They were, he said, a local issue for local officeholders. He refused to accept the support of the Log Cabin Republicans, an organization of gay Republicans -- and then met with a dozen prominent homosexuals in Austin after he had clinched the nomination ... Bush tried to strike a formula of "morally traditional and socially inclusive." Gay issues demanded a choice between those two imperatives, and for that very reason Bush wished to have nothing to do with them. -- David Frum, The Right Man, pp.103-4
Congratulations to the genuises in the Bush Administration for demonstrating in a way their political opponents never could have that Barone's "narrative" and Frum's "formula" would last only as long as they were expedient. And for being so clueless as not to realize that John McCain would stick it to them on the FMA.
4:23 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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The love that dare not speak its name
| I never knew what the affection between two grown men could be like, nor did I know the eloquence birthday greetings could rise to, until I had the chance to experience the Bush-Lay letters at The Smoking Gun. Each of the eight reveals a different facet of their intimacy. Letter #4, in which Ken Lay congratulates Bush on his re-election as governor and then proposes an energy bill, is particularly moving. How could anyone possibly want to amend the constitution to ban this? |  Bush's Birthday Letter to Ken Lay Originally uploaded by sini. |
12:55 PM | Post or Read Comments (1)
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We have a winner
Plus, Dick Cheney makes a discovery and Katherine Harris makes her future plans, on DTrip TV.
12:47 PM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Should Democrats want Cheney off the ticket?
No way, not with his decreasing popularity, not to mention the ongoing Plame investigation (not that Bush could appoint any electorally threatening Republicans like Tom Ridge, Rudy Giuliani or Colin Powell anyway--they're pro-choice).
Maybe that's why the only ones engaged in those wishful thoughts are Republicans.
1:32 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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"It's was a business decision, Whoopi"
I don't know whether her routine at the recent Kerry event was funny or not; I don't want to speculate, since the last Whoopi vehicle I remember seeing on cable was The Associate, and that quite a while ago.
But anyone who saw these maps would have seen those Slim-Fast executives' move coming.
12:57 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Mason-Dixon: Kerry only 3 points behind in North Carolina
No, I'm not ready to buy those poll results either. But I am rather intrigued that 1) independent voters in the poll are breaking for Kerry 49-38, with an additional 11% undecided, 2) 44% disapprove of Bush's handling of Iraq and 3) men support Bush 53-43, while women back Kerry 51-39. That's not a gender gap. It's a chasm.
12:48 AM | Post or Read Comments (0)
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Huh?
| So your party runs the House and Senate. The Supreme Court then installs as president the man you were willing to anoint as Republican nominee after he quashed that hate crimes bill as governor of Texas. Once he's president, he pushes your Old Dominion Christian agenda on stem cells, your hate amendment. He does as much as he can against family planning in the developing world and allows you to pick the senior members of the nation's judicial system. What should your politically motivated bumperstickers for the following election say? Well, I'd say, anything, anything, except... "Let's take America back." |  ccbumpersticker Originally uploaded by sini. |