Screw the Rich

You know, there was a time when Democrats like Harry Truman were not afraid of saying "The Republicans are the Rich Man's Party, while the Democrats are the Party of The Common Man."

Here's the thing: screw the rich. They've been doing just fine for the last 35 years, getting richer and richer and richer, while no one else has gotten a raise.

The top marginal tax rate during the administration of that notorious Leninist, Ike, was 91.5 percent. That is not a typo. It resulted in it not being worthwhile to make 300 times as much as your lower paid workers, because taxes would eat up the portion of your income that could be described as obscene. The fifties were not exactly a time of breadlines and hardship. There was a broad and solid middle class.

Obama's Holiday Address to Nation

Unaffordable Homes were supposed to make everyone rich, or something

Anyway, as I've said many times... all you had to do was look at home prices, look at incomes, and realize that not enough people actually made enough money to afford those mortgages. If you wanted some confirmation you could look at rent-to-own ratios, as someone did in the Bush White House (and was ignored), and look at what was happening to Option ARM mortgages (negative amortization). Those things were up front and obvious, even if not everything was.

From the Police Blotter

LAPD detectives were hunting Friday for a thief who made off with an estimated $2 million worth of jewelry after ransacking the Mulholland Estates mansion of socialite Paris Hilton in a brazen overnight burglary.

In what may be one of the city's highest-dollar home break-ins this year, a security guard called police shortly after 5 a.m. Friday to report a burglary at Hilton's house in a gated community nestled in the hills of Sherman Oaks.

A man Identified only as "Lazarus," who lives outside the gates of her community, was unhurt in the incident.

Republicans Alienating Their Remaining Working-Class Base

By standing against The UAW in their recent torpedoing of the auto company bailout, Republicans will only continue to alienate their remaining working class voters. Which is fine by me. The Republican Party is, at its core, the rich peoples’ party, and the sooner the working classes wake up to that fact, the sooner the Republican Party will be further marginalized.

Passage of The Employee Free Choice Act is part of the solution; another part is repealing portions of Taft-Hartley, specifically section 14(b) which lets states decide whether or not to allow union-shop agreements, would overturn “right to work” laws, and make it even easier to organize in those states, further eroding Republican support in their southern strongholds.

If southern workers want to work in a union shop, they can’t, due to the provisions of Taft-Hartley I mentioned. The owners in the south are very anti-union and have managed to convince some of their workers that they should oppose unions too…but it is in their workers’ interests to organize, and repealing “right to work” would allow southern workers to discover this. Once they are organized and represented by a union, there will be no going back.

The southern elites know this of course, which is why I expect this will be a battle of monumental proportions. I look forward to it.

More Republican Support for their [Real] Base

More evidence of who the real Republican base is (and it ain't socially conservative bible-belters):

But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use the money.

Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.

Boy, is conservatism expensive...

Lithiumcola, at Dailykos, talking about the staggering cost in treasure and human misery of the Bush presidency:

Bilmes and Stiglitz further state, "the total bill for Bush-era excess -- the total new debt combined with the total new accrued obligations -- amounts to $10.35 trillion."

In that time -- that is to say, in the time that Washington was racking up that excess, using that money for something-or-other; the time from when President Bush took office to now -- the cost of a family health insurance premium has gone up 87%; the number of uninsured people has gone up 19%; the number of families living in poverty has gone up 19%; real median household income has dropped 1%; and corporate profits have gone up 68%.

Note that last: everyone is worse off, except the people whom the Republicans really serve: the rich.

Suprise Decision

If Only.

Quick Thought

I went to confession today, and was quite moved by the experience. If you're a Catholic and haven't been for awhile, I recommend it highly.

Mumbai Attacks Now Over

The NY Times is reporting that the terrorist attackers in Mumbai, India appear to have been routed. Prayers for the dead and those they leave behind.

Dday, on the Referendum on the Status of Forces Agreement in Iraq

It is, however, interesting that the Shiites, Sunnis, Kurds, politicians throughout the Parliament, and now every individual Iraqi will have a chance to weigh in on this security agreement with the United States, yet basically one "decider" in this country is allowed to do so.

We are, however, a shining city on a hill, so that balances things out.

Commenter at Digby's Joint Nails It

Now that much of the so-called "patriotism" that sprang up after 9/11 has worn off, perhaps we can get down to the business of doing exceptional stuff rather than pretending that everything we do is exceptional. This attitude is one of the reasons why China and India will probably rival the U.S. as world powers in the next 20 to 30 years. They certainly aren't wasting any time thinking the world owes them something.

Prayers for Mumbai

My God be with those suffering and killed in Mumbai, and may He heal our broken world. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Prayer Request

I have been prone to anxiety since I was young, and it has become very bothersome for me lately. Please remember me in your prayers.

Putting Away Childish Things

Yesterday at work, the break room was getting to be pretty barren (deliveries are on Mondays) so, I grabbed more or less the only thing left: one of those little mini-boxes of cereal, a variety called Trix.

I remember liking Trix when I was, oh, maybe 8 or 9 years old; now, at 46, it was just...yeesh, it was like eating a bowl of candy. Candy that contains no real, actual food, but is instead refined out of petroleum or something. The milk turned an interesting shade of radioactive-looking pink. Hideous stuff.

Obama's Weekly Youtube Address

He definitely gives me the sense of someone who knows where he wants to take the country, is prepared to ask for sacrifice and personal responsibility from every citizen, and has the people around him to bring Congress along.

He's not yet served a day of his first term, but all the signs are promising. We've seen what happens when a president has greatness thrust upon him (9/11) and declines the offer. Obama is a second chance. Godspeed, Barack.

The Rich Stick Together

Yep:

One of the enduring mysteries... well, maybe not so mysterious... is the fact that more big companies haven't pushed hard for a national health care system. It's really quite impossible to see their failure to do so as acting in the interests of their shareholders in any way, unless they're health insurance companies, of course. Obviously it's just ideological and part of the rich [expletive deleted - Matt] culture. I doubt Rahm's plea to them will be heard.

Open Letter to Barack Obama

A Letter put together by Henry Karlson at Vox Nova

President-elect Barack Obama,

As American Catholics, we, the undersigned, would like to reiterate the congratulations given to you by Pope Benedict XVI. We will be praying for you as you undertake the office of President of the United States.

Wishing you much good will, we hope we will be able to work with you, your administration, and our fellow citizens to move beyond the gridlock which has often harmed our great nation in recent years. Too often, partisan politics has hampered our response to disaster and misfortune. As a result of this, many Americans have become resentful, blaming others for what happens instead of realizing our own responsibilities. We face serious problems as a people, and if we hope to overcome the crises we face in today’s world, we should make a serious effort to set aside the bitterness in our hearts, to listen to one another, and to work with one another

One of the praiseworthy elements of your campaign has been the call to end such partisanship. You have stated a desire to engage others in dialogue. With you, we believe that real achievement comes not through the defamation of one’s opponents, nor by amassing power and using it merely as a tool for one’s own individual will. We also believe dialogue is essential. We too wish to appeal to the better nature of the nation. We want to encourage people to work together for the common good. Such action can and will engender trust. It may change the hearts of many, and it might alter the path of our nation, shifting to a road leading to a better America. We hope this theme of your campaign is realized in the years ahead.

One of the critical issues which currently divides our nation is abortion. As you have said, no one is for abortion, and you would agree to limit late-term abortions as long as any bill which comes your way allows for exceptions to those limits, such as when the health of the mother is in jeopardy. You have also said you would like to work on those social issues which cause women to feel as if they have a need for an abortion, so as to reduce the actual number of abortions being performed in the United States.

Indeed, you said in your third presidential debate, “But there surely is some common ground when both those who believe in choice and those who are opposed to abortion can come together and say, ‘We should try to prevent unintended pregnancies by providing appropriate education to our youth, communicating that sexuality is sacred and that they should not be engaged in cavalier activity, and providing options for adoption, and helping single mothers if they want to choose to keep the baby.’”

As men and women who oppose abortion and embrace a pro-life ethic, we want to commend your willingness to engage us in dialogue, and we ask that you live up to your promise, and engage us on this issue.

There is much we can do together. There is much that we can do to help women who find themselves in difficult situations so they will not see abortion as their only option. There is much which we can do to help eliminate those unwanted pregnancies which lead to abortion.

One of your campaign promises is of grave concern to many pro-life citizens. On January 22, 2008, the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, when speaking of the current right of women in America to have abortions, you said, “And I will continue to defend this right by passing the Freedom of Choice Act as president.”

The Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) might well undermine your engagement of pro-life Americans on the question of abortion. It might hamper any effort on your part to work with us to limit late-term abortions. We believe FOCA does more than allow for choice. It may force the choice of a woman upon others, and make them morally complicit in such choice. One concern is that it would force doctors and hospitals which would otherwise choose not to perform abortions to do so, even if it went against their sacred beliefs. Such a law would undermine choice, and might begin the process by which abortion is enforced as a preferred option, instead of being one possible choice for a doctor to practice.

It is because of such concern we write. We urge you to engage us, and to dialogue with us, and to do so before you consider signing this legislation. Let us reason together and search out the implications of FOCA. Let us carefully review it and search for contradictions of those positions which we hold in common.
If FOCA can be postponed for the present, and serious dialogue begun with us, as well as with those who disagree with us, you will demonstrate that your administration will indeed be one that rises above partisanship, and will be one of change. This might well be the first step toward resolving an issue which tears at the fabric of our churches, our political process, our families, our very society, and that causes so much hardship and heartache in pregnant women.

Likewise, you have also recently stated you might over-ride some of President G.W. Bush’s executive orders. This is also a concern to us. We believe doing so without having a dialogue with the American people would undermine the political environment you would like to establish. Among those issues which concern us are those which would use taxpayer money to support actions we find to be morally questionable, such as embryonic stem cell research, or to fund international organizations that would counsel women to have an abortion (this would make abortion to be more than a mere choice, but an encouraged activity).

Consider, sir, your general promise to the American people and set aside particular promises to a part of your constituency. This would indicate that you plan to reject politics as usual. This would indeed be a change we need.

Sincerely,

Deal W. Hudson
Christopher Blosser
Marjorie Campbell
Mark J. Coughlan
Rev. James A. Nowack
Craig D. Baker
Susan DeBoisblanc
Megan Stout
Joshua D. Brumfield
Ashley M. Brumfield
Michael J. Iafrate
Natalie Navarro
Matthew Talbot
Paul Mitchell
Todd Flowerday
Henry C Karlson III
Darren Belajac
Adam P Verslype
Josiah Neeley
Michael J. Deem
Katerina M. Deem
Natalie Mixa
Henry Newman
Anthony M. Annett
Mickey Jackson
Veronica Greenwell
Thomas Greenwell PhD
Robert C. Koerpel
Nate Wildermuth

New, Online Signatures:
William Simon
Deacon Keith Fournier
Mary Ruebelmann-Benavides
Jesus Benavides
Steve Dillard
Toby Danna
William Eunice
Mark Shea
Fr. Phil Bloom
Christopher Gant
Robert King, OP.
Peter Halabu
Kelly Clark
Eric Giunta
Mark Gordon
Linda Schuldt
Michael Mlekoday
Bryan McLaughlin
Victoria Hoffman
Jonathan Jones
Jim Janknegt
Marcel LeJeune
Fr. John Zuhlsdorf
Ken Hallenius III
Zach Gietl
Megan Bless
Kathy Myers
Timothy M. Mason
Kevin Koster
John Anthony D’Arpino
Brian Desmarais
Mary C. Borneman

Cross-posted at:
DealWHudson (Theocon)
Inside Catholic
Catholic Anarchy
American Catholic
Gift of Self
Adam V’s Blog
Thoughts of a Regular Guy
Against the Grain
Defending My Bean Field
Bound and Free
Suicide of the West
Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate
Southern Appeal
Full Circle
One Nation Under God
Dyspeptic Mutterings
The Cranky Conservative
Astonished, Yet at Home!
Laughter and Humility
Catholic and Enjoying It
The Catholic Liberal
Ad Saeculum
The Lady in the Pew
Pansy and Peony
Confessions of a Liberal Traditionalist
James B. Janknegt’s Weblog
Aggie Catholics
What Does the Prayer Really Say
100% of Your RDA of Ken
Yellow Blog Journalism

A-hunting we will go...

My brother Luke and I went hunting this weekend. This is us, looking sheepish at the end of the day. Score: Animals 1, Hunters 0. Two weeks earlier there were Turkeys all over the road - we had to steer around them, honk the horn, etc. Sunday - nada. Figures.

There But For A Border

Years ago when I was in the Army, I was stationed in El Paso, Texas. El Paso is a border town; it a Juarez, Mexico are more or less one contiguous urban area, for quite a distance along both sides of the Rio Grande river.

One Saturday morning, I got up early and hiked from Fort Bliss all the way down to the border. Standing on the American side, I looked through someone's side yard, over their swimming pool, and on the opposite slope, from the Rio Grand all the way to the top, there was arrayed heartbreaking poverty: kids running around without shoes, shacks made of cinder block and tar paper, sewage running in open culverts.

All this within clear sight of the back windows of the opulence of American suburbia.

19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell,[a] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

27"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

29"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

30" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

31"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

Luke 16:19-31

Felons and Voting

Why can't people who were convicted of felonies vote? I mean, not ones who are still in prison, of course...

But take a guy who was convicted of, say, car theft 25 years ago, did six months in County Jail and then turned his life around. He's generous with his time doing volunteer work, tutors kids at the library, speaks up at school board meetings, etc. Does "felon" really describe in any meaningful way who he is or what he does today?

The fact that he can't vote because of a decades-ago act of stupidity seems very unjust, to me.

I suspect that part of this is to prevent blacks and hispanics from voting in greater numbers. It seems like white teenagers caught with drugs are given probation and treated like confused, troubled kids with a problem who need help, and black teenagers are treated like dangerous criminals who need the harshest possible punishment because they are such a "menace."

Magnitude

One thing that struck me most about Obama's landslide victory on Tuesday was the celebrations not only in American cities (Berkeley, where I live, was a mob-scene, sailors-kissing-nurses celebration from 9pm when the networks called it for Obama until very late into the night) but even more strikingly around the world - great crowds of people in Berlin, Paris, Nairobi, Tokyo, London and elsewhere were cheering, crying, popping champaign, and chanting "yes we can."

"We." The world. America and the world are now on the path to reconciliation and renewal.

Paging Steve McGarrett...

Among my quirks is a fondness for American cars in their heyday - massive, twenty-two-foot-long behemoths that, if you added catapults to the hood, could be mistaken for aircraft carriers. 460 cubic inches (almost 8 liters) under the hood, mush-bucket suspensions, chrome galore; you can't help but be seduced by the sheer, heedless exuberance of these relics of 25-cent-a-gallon gasoline. The heavyweights of this era tipped the scales at over 5500 pounds, and had enough power to burn rubber.

A New Day

Greg Sargent, on his seven year old's first political memory:

His earliest memory of politics will be the sight of a black man getting elected president and running the country along with a cast of sober, responsible, even formidable Democratic leaders in Congress.

That's a humbling thought. It's a reminder how high the stakes were in the election and of just how big a victory it really was. And it's a reminder that all the work is just getting started, lest we take these gains for granted and they somehow slip away.

"One Day We Will Win Our Freedom"

Martin Luther King is looking down and smiling. In a sense, tonight's victory is his. He saw that non-violence could bring, not crushing of your enemies, but reconciliation; not dominance, but ultimately loving understanding. I heard a white woman on NPR last weekend expressing fears that "blacks would get revenge for they way they've been mistreated." One of the best things about tonight is that she is going to be proven wrong.

MLK:

More and more I see this. I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate myself; hate is too great a burden to bear. I’ve seen it on the faces of too many sheriffs of the South. I’ve seen hate. In the faces and even the walk of too many Klansmen of the South, I’ve seen hate. Hate distorts the personality. Hate does something to the soul that causes one to lose his objectivity.

[T]he Greek language comes out with the word, "agape." Agape is more than romantic or aesthetic love. Agape is more than friendship. Agape is creative, understanding, redemptive good will for all men. It is an overflowing love that seeks nothing in return. Theologians would say that this is the love of God operating in the human heart. When one rises to love on this level, he loves every man. He rises to the point of loving the person who does the evil deed while hating the deed that the person does. I believe that this is the kind of love that can carry us through this period of transition. This is what we’ve tried to teach through this nonviolent discipline.

So in many instances, we have been able to stand before the most violent opponents and say in substance, we will meet your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because non-cooperation with evil is just as much moral obligation as is cooperation with good, and so throw us in jail and we will still love you. Threaten our children and bomb our homes and our churches and as difficult as it is, we will still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our communities at the midnight hours and drag us out on some wayside road and beat us and leave us half-dead, and as difficult as that is, we will still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves, we will so appeal to your heart and your conscience that we will win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory."

Obama Wins It!

On television, I see black women hugging each other and weeping. Young, old, middle-aged, they are weeping, scarcely wanting to believe.

What are we about to do?

Andrew Sullivan, on what America is poised to do in 48 hours:

Let us keep our heads. But let us not numb our hearts. Somewhere in a Burkean idyll, countless Americans who lived before us, the souls of so many black folk and white folk across the centuries, are watching. What would Washington have said? How could Lincoln believe it? How amazed would Martin Luther King be?

We are indeed on the verge of something that seems even more incredible the closer it gets, something more than a mere election. This is America, after all. It is a place that has seen great cruelty and hardship in its time. But it is also a place that yearns to believe naively in mornings rather than evenings, that cherishes dawns over dusks, that is not embarrassed by its own sense of destiny. In this unlikely mixed-race figure of Barack Obama, we will for a brief moment perhaps see a nation reimagined and a world of possibilities open up. For a brief moment at least.

As they have learnt to say in some of the most blighted parts of the world at some of the most desperate times: know hope.

Rain

Northern California has a "mediterranean" climate - summer drought, winter rainy season.

During the dry season, the air is very dry, grasses turn golden (hence California's nickname "The Golden State") and native trees adapted to the climate send taproots deep to chase the previous wet season's receding moisture. Away from the ocean, the air begins heating in May, and by July, the temperatures in the Central Valley are over 100 degrees on a regular basis, with occasional heatwaves sending the mercury north of 110 degrees. The only redeeming feature of those days is the humidity is very low; however, a temperature of 115 degrees is hot enough that coming out of Safeway is a bit of a shock - the superheated air actually hurts your skin.

Fall is a time of increasing humidity, as Pacific storms begin their annual assault on the summer high pressure system over the west coast. The first shower usually tantalizes the parched flora some time in mid-October, and the dry season finally releases its hold in early November, and first soaking rains fall.

And indeed, last night the first pouring rains fell on parched earth and doused the last remnants of the summer fires. Yes, the rains have returned like a friend too long away; today the native Live Oaks are drinking deeply, joyously of the waters of renewal, the grasses are preparing the first green shoots, and the Manzanita and Toyon bushes are releasing aromatic oils and perfuming the air.

The air is humid, the clouds dark, but the air is filled with promise.

Change is in the air.

Great New Blog

Two of the coolest little old ladies ever to walk the earth have a new blog called Margaret and Helen. They are more full of life than I am, at twice my age. A sample:

But it really all comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of the poor.  When you hear Palin screaming “socialism” or John McCain spouting off about “redistribution of wealth” that’s really code for “those damn poor people”.  What they are really saying to those people who live in pro-American parts of the country is that Obama is going to take your hard earned money and give it to some poor person who is sitting at home in  anti-America with too many kids just living high on the hog off the government.  And most likely that poor person doesn’t look like you (wink wink).  I doubt Palin even knows the definition of socialism.  After all it has three more letters in it than Muslim.  By the way, the average welfare recipient has less than three children.  Sarah and Todd Palin?  That would be five.  John and Cindy McCain?  Seven

A TPM Reader calls it:

...it's almost getting painful, like watching a punch drunk fighter get mauled and the ref won't call it.

How to Rebuild the Republican Party

Markos at Daily Kos offers his observations about the task before the Republicans in the wake of their coming defeat. It is not a typical "concern troll" kind of post where he's arguing the Republicans should become more like Democrats or whatever.

While I'm not keen to offer the GOP advice, here's who I think (in a genuine, non-concern-troll way) would be their best candidate: Mike Huckabee. He is exactly the GOP's version of Howard Dean -- a popular governor of a small state, with a huge, energized following who briefly led his party's nomination contest before being kneecapped by his party's establishment. Like Dean, Huckabee isn't an insider, isn't one of them, and as such, isn't bound by their outdated and obsolete conventions. Like Dean, Huckabee offers a different direction from his party. Dean wanted muscular, unapologetic progressivism. Huckabee wants a more compassionate version of conservatism -- not fake "compassion" like Bush's, but the real stuff. "Big government conservatism", as his fiercest detractors charge.

...you see Huckabee speak, and you don't think "he's f*cking crazy". You ever see him on the Daily Show? The guy is good. Real good. (I've worried about this guy for years for those very reasons.)

His entire post is worth a read.

Slip Sliding Away

Hunter: Republicans still fighting those '60 radicals

I am impressed that the Republican Party really does seem to be going out of their way to be as dislikable and as marginalized as possible. They continue to retreat to the farthest, meanest edges of their base, levels of paranoid, 60's-era conservatism that comfort their most diehard fans but scare the bejeebers out of most of the rest of the nation. We're really going back there? Back to the racial fear-mongering, and the McCarthyite ravings about traitors and terrorists in our midst? It's been forty years, and that's what conservatism has left to offer?

Can one be both an atheist and a messiah?

Josh Marshall, on the Obama portrayed on Fox news and other Republican propaganda outlets:

Barack Obama is noted for his powerful intellect, but I don't think he gets nearly enough credit for the mental dexterity it takes to be simultaneously an Islamic theocrat, atheistic communist and national socialist while posing as a center left candidate. Those must be the compartmentalization skills they taught him at that Manchurian madrasah in Indonesia.

Right-Wing Nutcase Schooled by Joe Biden

Orlando, Florida TV Anchor Barbara West appears, from this video, to be a far-right, John Birch Society-style loony. Joe Biden defends Obama, and basically laughs at her loaded questions ("Is Obama a Marxist?"). Reason #3,985 why conservatism is destined for crushing defeat on November 4th.

The Change They (and we) Need

Get thee to a Union

That is all

Billmon's Right, as Usual

Billmon hits the nail on the head, Knocks it out of the park, connects with a long bomb deep in the other team's territory, sinks a three pointer from... If I hear one more pundit use a sports metaphor to describe the presidential race (oops, now I'm invoking NASCAR...) my head is going to explode. Anyway, Billmon names the unspoken boogie-man of the Republican Right.

But I think by now it's also very clear that the GOP high commmand -- as far back as the Twin Cities white power rally, if not before -- deliberately adopted the demonization of ACORN/community organizers/the poor as a proxy for the hatred that no longer dares to speak its real name (except at the occasional Sarah Palin rally).

I think this strategy serves two purposes. One is obvious: to play upon traditional racial and class resentments to try to win back middle-class and working-class voters who might otherwise be waivering as they watch their jobs, their homes and their already inadequate retirement savings go spinning around the hole in the bottom of the economic toilet bowl.

We can take a page from John Lewis and call this the George Wallace gambit -- not the Wallace of the stand in the schoolhouse door or the bridge at Selma, but rather the Wallace who ran for president in 1968, '72 and '76 and managed to attract quite a few Northern Democratic votes with his attacks on school busing, affirmative action, fair housing laws and other examples of "social engineering" foisted upon Regular Joe (Joe Sixpack's dad and Joe the Plumber's granddad) by Ivy League professors and pointy-headed government bureaucrats.

Exactly who was supposed to benefit from all that social engineerin' was left unsaid, just as it is today.

Students of American politics know that Wallace's populist rabble rousing was quickly expropriated by the GOP and -- watered down for respectable middle-class consumption -- became one of the weapons used by Richard Nixon and his pit bull of a running mate, Spiro Agnew (Sarah Palin with jowls) to crack open the New Deal coalition.

The ACORN monster, in other words, is a stock character out of a play the Republicans have been performing with mind-numbing efficiency for the past 40 years -- making it the political equivalent of what The Fantasticks is for suburban dinner theater.

Given that the same attacks have been used, in some form or another, against a long line of lily white Democratic candidates, it would be unfair to characterize them as coded attempts to make an issue of Obama's race per se. That's a line the GOP high command apparently is still not willing to cross, even as coded attacks on Obama's alleged "foreignness" (i.e. his middle name) have become the order of the day. It is, however, an obvious coded attack (and very lightly coded at that) on the inner-city poor. And in American political slang, "inner-city poor" is simply a five-syllable substitute for "black".

Republicans Inciting Thuggery in Anticipation of Crushing Defeat

It is starting to look like a Democratic tsunami on November 4th. Certain folks are getting desperate to avoid that. The ugly atmosphere at McCain (and especially Palin) rallies is spilling out into actual violence.

An ACORN community organizer received a death threat and the liberal activist group's Boston and Seattle offices were vandalized Thursday, reflecting mounting tensions over its role in registering 1.3 million mostly poor and minority Americans to vote next month.

Attorneys for the Association of Community Organizers for Reform Now were notifying the FBI and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division of the incidents, said Brian Kettenring, a Florida-based spokesman for the group.

Republicans, including presidential candidate John McCain, have verbally attacked the group repeatedly in recent days, alleging a widespread vote-fraud scheme, although they've provided little proof. It was disclosed Thursday that the FBI is examining whether thousands of fraudulent voter-registration applications submitted by some ACORN workers were part of a systematic effort or isolated incidents.

[Update]

I like Josh Marshall's take:

Vandalized ACORN offices in Boston and Seattle and threats of death or violence in Providence and Cleveland follow in the wake of McCain's bogus "vote fraud" scam.

Denied

The latest attempt by the GOP to suppress and intimidate Democratic voters goes down in flames, thanks to the Supreme Court.

Andrew Sullivan On the Republican Party

They deserve obliteration. For the sake of the country and the sake of conservatism.

That "obliteration" is currently being arranged.

Appaloosa

I just caught the afternoon matinee of Appaloosa, the new western from Ed Harris and the author of the novel, Robert Parker.

I'd give the movie an "A-". Ed Harris did a creditable job with his character, itinerant lawman named Virgil Cole, who (to borrow a phrase from Bill Bryson) uses words as if he believes he will someday be billed for them. His partner in crime-fighting is Everett Hitch, played with a certain taciturn, rough-sawn poetry by Viggo Mortensen.

Anyone looking for John Ford-style western panoramas will be disappointed; there is some beautiful scenery (the film was shot on location near Santa Fe, New Mexico) but it rightly serves merely as backdrop for the really interesting subject of the movie; the hearts and minds of two men who kill in the name of the law for a living.

Jeremy Irons plays the heavy, a local rancher named Randall Bragg, who is powerful enough to live above the law - at least until the lesser powers-that-be in the town have had enough, and hire Cole and Hitch to put an end to Bragg's reign of lawlessness.

Renée Zellweger plays Allie French, a widowed woman who comes to town with a single dollar, and enough guile to make Virgil Cole fall hard for her in spite of his stoicism, to the quiet consternation of his partner Hitch.

There are showdowns, ultimatums, betrayal and gun play galore (it's a western, after all...) but there is a soul to this movie that lingers in your mind long after the lights go up. Virgil and Hitch are two men you are sorry to leave the company of, and you will leave the theater with regret that your time with them was so short.

ACORN and Supposed "Vote Fraud"

Has it been substantiated that ACORN is committing voter fraud as an organization?
The clear answer: No. From Josh Marshall:

But here’s the key. This is fraud against ACORN. They end up paying people for registering more people than they actually signed up. If you register me three times to vote, the registrar will see two new registrations of an already registered person and the ones won’t count. If I successfully register Mickey Mouse to vote, on election day, Mickey Mouse will still be a cartoon character who cannot go to the local voting station and vote. Logically speaking there’s very little way a few phony names on the voting rolls could be used to commit actual vote fraud. And much more importantly, numerous studies and investigations have shown no evidence of anything more than a handful of isolated cases of actual instances of vote fraud.

Oh, sh*t

Dow down another 678 points today, and 2000 points the last 5 days. This keeps up, and we'll soon all be using stock certificates as the world's cheapest wallpaper.

And Another Thing

Below is a performance of "All I Could Do Was Cry" by the great Etta James. Her performance of this song is just harrowingly intimate and raw.

I wish the ballad-belters of today (Whitney, Mariah...) would use melisma and other vocal techniques with the restraint Etta used in this performance. Etta's performance was not about, "Watch me use my voice to demonstrate what a spectacular singer I am." No, it was all about singing her pain in a way that makes you feel it with her. Mariah Carey, Celine Dion and the rest of the pop "divas" are about narcissism and empty virtuosity. Good singing is an act of communication. Great singing makes you one with the song, NOT the singer. It is an act of service.

Etta said she wept as soon as the recording ended. *That's* how it's done.

Speaking of Music

The below video is of Gayle Garnett singing her 1964 hit, "We'll Sing in the Sunshine".

The song has an infectious, lilting swing that is as timeless as it is irresistible; the lyrics, however, are a monument of emotional desolation and despair:

I can never love you;
The cost of love's too dear;
But though I'll never love you,
I'll stay with you one year.

My Daddy he once told me,
"Hey, don't you love you any man.
Just take what they may give you,
And give but what you can."

I think about someone actually saying those words to someone, and I think about a person that would find the described arrangement attractive, and then I imagine that I am staring right into the heart of Hell itself.

P.S. Worth pondering: Why would "Daddy" tell her "don't you love you any man"?

Sing it

Republican Self-Parody Commences

Over at NRO's The Corner, a couple of guys are "debating" what brand of extremist radical Obama is:

Obama's radicalism, beginning with his Alinski/ACORN/community organizer period, is a bottom-up socialism. This, I'd suggest, is why he fits comfortably with Ayers, who (especially now) is more Maoist than Stalinist.

Just...wow.

[h/t Andrew Sullivan]

Trains

Courtesy of kdoug, a commenter at Daily Kos:

One of Sully's Readers just says it...

When you think about it, it's astounding. A first term African-American Senator with an Arabic name who is descended from and still related to Muslims in the post-9/11 era is on the verge of being elected President of the United States. If you submitted this script to Hollywood, they'd laugh you off the lot.

Hunter on the Bailout Plan

[I]f the Republicans really are against any bailout based on their (cough) conservative principles, that would seem a non-starter. And any substantive concession to them seems impossible, or at least deeply stupid: proposals like "suspend the capital gains tax" paint the conservatives as more interested in privateering for the rich than actually helping solve the situation. We're not seeing class riots yet, but if the primary result of this Wall Street meltdown was that Wall Street got out of paying their taxes, I think the pitchfork and torch industries would see a banner Christmas.

Awhile ago I asked...

...who was the patron saint of hunters. Just found this - Hubert is his name.

For My Dear Brother Mark

My older brother, Mark, died on September 11th, 2008, of complications from a bladder infection that turned into sepsis. He was 47, and would have been a first-time Democratic voter so that he could vote for Barack Obama. I presented the following as a eulogy at his funeral.

If I had to impose a unifying theme or narrative on the life of my dear brother Mark, I would pick a passage from the Gospel according to John:

A Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.


Mark was born in Kaiser hospital in Walnut Creek on April 23rd in the hours before dawn, and in that moment a light came into the lives of my parents, the first of six.

My earliest memories of Mark are sharing a room with him in our house in Richmond, California. We would lie in our beds and talk, two kids in their PJs, sometimes late into the night, and share our fears and hopes with one another.

There was one night when we were talking, and I noticed his voice sounded kind of strange. Mark had a talent for throwing his voice, and he was creeping towards my bed, while making it sound as if he were still across the room in his bed. He reached up and grabbed me and went, "RRAAAARRRR" and I went streaking out of the room, screaming at the top of my lungs. I still laugh thinking about that.

Mark’s adolescence was troubled and stormy, and matched the wider tumult and upheaval that marked the decade of the seventies in the United States. Things had reached the point that he and my dad were barely on speaking terms, when Mark had the auto accident that left him permanently paralyzed and changed his life forever.

That was a dark time in the life of the family, but I want to say again –

A Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.


Or, from JRR Tolkien, whose tales Mark loved: Among the tales of sorrow and of ruin that come down to us from the darkness of those days there are yet some in which amid weeping there is joy and under the shadow of death light that endures.

The wake of his accident was an occasion of Grace for the family, a time when we were immersed in Love – people from the church came together, and my parents didn’t have to cook dinner for the four months Mark was in the hospital, because someone from the Church would bring food every single night. Mark himself never went a moment without prayer during the difficult days after his accident, and during physical therapy in Kaiser: people from the church were praying literally around the clock for him.

One of the nurses in the Kaiser Rehab program was a woman named Marilyn; Mark and my family came to enjoy her very much - she grew up in a rough area of Boston, and was both plain spoken and very devout, in an earthy way (she was the first person I ever heard use the term, "lower than whaleshit," which still makes me giggle). She went to our Catholic parish in Benicia.

She eventually revealed that her husband, Bobby, was the drunk driver who had paralyzed Mark.

Bobby was an alcoholic, and in the wake of what he'd done was swimming in shame - he could not bear to face my parents or the rest of my family. My parents were obviously livid when Mark was first hurt, but came to a place before too long where they could forgive Bobby, and not carry around the burden of a poisonous grudge. They had Marilyn relay this to her husband, but he still could not bear to face them.

One day, my family came out of the church, and saw Marilyn, and greeted her - "Hi, Marilyn!" - and she greeted my parents by name. Bobby happened to be with her - and suddenly everyone realized who everyone else was - Bobby realized he was facing my parents, and my parents realized that this man with Marilyn was the man who had paralyzed their son.

Bobby turned to my father, his face dark with shame, and said, "I don't know what to say."

My father went to him, and hugged him, and said, "It's ok, Bobby. In a way, you gave me back a son." Bobby wept in my father's arms.

A Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Indeed, something miraculous happened: In the wake of his accident, the troubles of his adolescence faded away, and in their place was the beginning of the phase of Mark’s life in which God took the raw materials of Mark's life and circumstances, and from those made of him something of a saint.

The crosses Mark bore were heavy indeed, but he bore them with great love. Of all the children of the Family, my father’s final illness and death 12 years ago were hardest on Mark. Dad was sick with cancer for a long time before he died, and all of us kids pitched in to help, staying with him and looking after him. We, however, could leave, get some air, take a break and re-charge; Mark was there the entire time, and bore the burden with immense strength and patience. He was never bitter, always attentive to the rest of the family; never angry but always available to talk to and comfort us as we comforted him.

You know, one of Mark’s regrets is that he didn’t get a chance to tell our Dad he loved him before he died; I think there is, as I speak, a joyous reunion happening in Heaven where my Dad is letting him know that he knew Mark loved him, and that they can express their love now without reserve or hindrance.

Mark spent the last few years of his life in increasing physical pain. Pain can blind you to others, and keep your focus on yourself: with Mark, though, he reached out and became more giving, both of his time, his prayers, and sending us things unasked for and unannounced; things he bought online and just arrived out of the blue on our doorsteps; things we might have mentioned in long-forgotten conversations that we might need or want, and he remembered and got it for us. I expect that in some way he will continue this tradition, sending us things that we didn’t know we needed from where he is now.

Mark had a curious, seeking, intellectually hungry mind, and he never stopped learning until the day he died. His latest project was teaching himself calculus. He was very, very widely read – on an astonishing variety of subjects, from cryptography and codes to history and mathematics. He had pretty extensive knowledge of history, especially military history. I remember when I was in the Army, when I came home on leave he would grill me on what military life was like, and enjoyed the stories I told of the places I’d seen and the people I’d met.

You know, I never got Mark back for scaring me all those years ago when we were kids. And even today, I half expect him to come bursting up beside me, just for the joy of watching me dash out of the Church in terror. He was that kind of guy. I am praying for you today, Mark. Pray for us, too, Mark. Pray for us.

A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

Digby's On Fire

Digby's asking pertinent questions - when are Democratic Politicians going to stand up to reprobate Republicans and just say, "enough!"

The Republicans started a war for no good reason. They literally killed a whole lot of people for their own political and ideological agenda. Why in the world would anyone doubt for a moment that they'd play politics with an economic crisis?

At what point to progressives put away the kumbaaya and recognize that we are not dealing with people who act in the nation's best interest?

Christianism

Interesting post at Hullabaloo by Tristero, defining "Christianism" as distinct and separate from Christianity per se:

There is a huge difference between Christians, the followers of a large number of separate, often mutually antagonistic, religions, and christianists, political radicals who use the symbols of Christianity in order to gain secular power. Christianists deliberately confuse the two.

Worth a read.

I'm no finance wizard...

I’m by no means an expert in economics, but isn’t the larger story of the financial crisis, the underlying story, something like:

1. The median wage hasn’t kept up with the median home price, or anything else, for 30 years, because the benefits of economic growth have pretty much (aside from a brief two or three years in the late 90s) all gone to the top of the income scale;
2. Rather than address the median wage problem by, you know, raising it, the Powers-That-Be instead;
3. Came up with ever-more-exotic ways to saddle the median worker with ever-more-crushing amount of debt until;
4. The Median-wage-earner-who-hasn’t-had-a-raise-in-years is finally, in fact and predictably, crushed by his ruinous debt?

And now we need to bail out Wall-Street, enablers and cheerleaders of the ones who haven’t given their workers a real raise in years, because otherwise they’ll ruin the economy? Am I missing something or is that about the size of it??

Hunter on the Bailout Plan

The Bush administration hasn't done much in the last eight years to inspire confidence in their ability to handle this -- the concern is that it will function as a corporate giveaway of historic proportions, but in the end do nothing for the economy except propping it up a little while longer. Likewise, there's little stomach for bailing out what essentially turned into a Ponzi scheme backed by the largest players in the financial industry. Yes, they say they need a massive, trillion-dollar influx of cash to patch the crisis they themselves caused via irrational pricings of mortgage-related derivatives. But when someone has proven to be utterly financially incompetent, giving them a trillion dollars in the hopes that they merely don't blow it all too quickly is not confidence-inspiring.

Props to Archbishop John C. Favalora of Miami

Archbishop Favalora has made it clear he is not going to be playing along with the religious right and endorsing candidates: good for him. There is a whiff of desperation coming from the righthand side of the political divide these days. Favalora:

A group called the Alliance Defense Fund is urging pastors across the country to join their Pulpit Freedom Initiative by preaching a sermon "that addresses the candidates for government office in light of the truth of Scripture."

The group's goal is to challenge the Internal Revenue Service's restriction on tax-exempt organizations "by specifically opposing candidates for office that do not align themselves and their positions with the scriptural truth."

Needless to say, none of our Catholic churches or priests will be participating in this initiative. For one thing, we can do a lot for our communities with the money we save by being tax-exempt. That is why we accept that status and agree to abide by IRS rules that ban religious organizations from becoming involved in partisan politics.

Sully Nails It

What amazing success Osama bin Laden has had in destroying the integrity, freedom and morality of the West. It is his greatest victory - and he could not have done it without Cheney.

Thank you for your prayers

My dear brother Mark's Mass of Christian Burial was yesterday; a friend of the family who is a Deacon gave the homily, and after communion invited me up to share some thoughts about Mark. I'll post that later, but I wanted to use my first post since I've been back to thank everyone who has been praying for us. I and my family have truly been floating on prayers since last Thursday.

Glory be to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. AMEN!

Prayer Request

I just learned that my older brother, Mark, died tonight from complications of a bladder infection. He was quadriplegic, from an accident almost exactly 30 years ago.

I will probably write an appreciation or elegy later on my blog: right now the following people need your prayers:

Mark
My Mom (his primary caregiver)
Me
The rest of my family.

I've known for a couple years that his days were numbered: in a way, that helped my family and me prepare for the inevitable. That is a blessing. He lasted about twice as long as quads usually do; this too is a blessing.

May God be merciful to him...and to me for the ways I failed him.

Sudden Thought

If America's "Jesus" met the actual Jesus of Nazareth, would they recognize one another?

Morning's Minion's response...

To Dr. Stockpole's reaction to my abortion post, can be found here, and is worth reading. An excerpt:

The fundamental problem with Stackpole's analysis is the following statement: "[to support Obama] you would have to show that McCain supports equivalent intrinsic evils, at least the moral equivalent of Obama's support for abortion."

This would only be the case if voting for a person who supported intrinsically evil acts. To vote for a person who supports an intrinsically evil act while supporting that position oneself is always formal cooperation in evil. But if you do not intend that evil, then you can apply the principle of double effect and vote for that person for proportionate reasons. This is spelled out quiote clearly in the Faithful Citizenship document.

Republican Morality

So this is what they meant by "Drill, baby, drill!" -

The reports portray a dysfunctional organization that has been riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch.

[...]

The investigation also concluded that several of the officials “frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”

The investigation separately found that the program’s manager mixed official and personal business, and took money from a technical services firm in exchange for urging oil companies to hire the firm. In sometimes lurid detail, the report accuses him of having intimate relations with two subordinates, one of whom regularly sold him cocaine.

[h/t Atrios]

Speaking of "Hunters"...

Hunter at Daily Kos is amusing as always - today's subject is the tendency of Republicans to lie, and the tendency of the Traditional media to ignore the fact that they lie:

There is absolutely no penalty for lying, in politics. None. Zip. Nada. Sarah Palin could stand atop a stage and declare herself moon-goddess of Endor, and it wouldn't make a bit of difference. Yes, the papers would correct her. There would be a few cable stories on how there was no prior record of her being declared a moon-goddess. In the end, however, it would not matter, and it would not matter because Republicans have decided that it does not.

Bob Herbert on Liberals' Shell Shock

Ignorance must really be bliss. How else, over so many years, could the G.O.P. get away with ridiculing all things liberal?

Troglodytes on the right are no respecters of reality. They say the most absurd things and hardly anyone calls them on it. Evolution? Don’t you believe it. Global warming? A figment of the liberal imagination.

Liberals have been so cowed by the pummeling they’ve taken from the right that they’ve tried to shed their own identity, calling themselves everything but liberal and hoping to pass conservative muster by presenting themselves as hyper-religious and lifelong lovers of rifles, handguns, whatever.

[...]

Anyway, the Republicans were back at it last week at their convention. Mitt Romney wasn’t content to insist that he personally knows that “liberals don’t have a clue.” He complained loudly that the federal government right now is too liberal.

“We need change, all right,” he said. “Change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington.”

Why liberals don’t stand up to this garbage, I don’t know. Without the extraordinary contribution of liberals — from the mightiest presidents to the most unheralded protesters and organizers — the United States would be a much, much worse place than it is today.

There would be absolutely no chance that a Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or Sarah Palin could make a credible run for the highest offices in the land. Conservatives would never have allowed it.

Civil rights? Women’s rights? Liberals went to the mat for them time and again against ugly, vicious and sometimes murderous opposition. They should be forever proud.

The liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Social Security and unemployment insurance, both of which were contained in the original Social Security Act. Most conservatives despised the very idea of this assistance to struggling Americans. Republicans hated Social Security, but most were afraid to give full throat to their opposition in public at the height of the Depression.

“In the procedural motions that preceded final passage,” wrote historian Jean Edward Smith in his biography, “FDR,” “House Republicans voted almost unanimously against Social Security. But when the final up-or-down vote came on April 19 [1935], fewer than half were prepared to go on record against.”

Liberals who didn’t have a clue gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as we speak. The idea that Republicans are proud of Ronald Reagan, who saw Medicare as “the advance wave of socialism,” while Democrats are ashamed of Lyndon Johnson, whose legislative genius made this wonderful, life-saving concept real, is insane.

When Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law in the presence of Harry Truman in 1965, he said: “No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine.”

Reagan, on the other hand, according to Johnson biographer Robert Dallek, “predicted that Medicare would compel Americans to spend their ‘sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was like in America when men were free.’ ”

Scary.

Without the many great and noble deeds of liberals over the past six or seven decades, America would hardly be recognizable to today’s young people. Liberals (including liberal Republicans, who have since been mostly drummed out of the party) ended legalized racial segregation and gender discrimination.

Humiliation imposed by custom and enforced by government had been the order of the day for blacks and women before men and women of good will and liberal persuasion stepped up their long (and not yet ended) campaign to change things. Liberals gave this country Head Start and legal services and the food stamp program. They fought for cleaner air (there was a time when you could barely see Los Angeles) and cleaner water (there were rivers in America that actually caught fire).

Liberals. Your food is safer because of them, and so are your children’s clothing and toys. Your workplace is safer. Your ability (or that of your children or grandchildren) to go to college is manifestly easier.

It would take volumes to adequately cover the enhancements to the quality of American lives and the greatness of American society that have been wrought by people whose politics were unabashedly liberal. It is a track record that deserves to be celebrated, not ridiculed or scorned.

Self-hatred is a terrible thing. Just ask that arch-conservative Clarence Thomas.

Liberals need to get over it.

"Oopsie" Contest: All-Time Grand Champion and Hall-of-Famer

This hunting season's Federal "Duck Stamps" have a phone number printed on them. The number is supposed to connect you to a place where you can order more stamps. Due to a mis-print, it actually connects to a phone sex line.

Abortion, the Election, and the Republicans

Via Angela in the comments, Dr. Robert Stackpole posted a series of essays...

http://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3248& PLID=75
http://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3265& PLID=75
http://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3258& PLID=75

...which contain his thoughts on how Catholics ought to vote, given Obama's unreserved support for abortion rights and McCain's problematic positions on other issues.

I come to a different conclusion than Dr.Stackpole, but I respect his decision and don't question the sincerity of his arguments.

As one of the commenters to part 3 said - there is plenty of reason to be skeptical of Republican's true commitment to opposition to abortion, leaving aside the notion that opposing abortion does not, in and of itself, make one "pro-life." They've had 8 years: remember the big push to pass a constitutional amendment protecting all life from conception until natural death? Neither do I.

For that matter, after Roberts and Alito took their seats on the Supreme Court, why didn't the Republican-controlled Congress itself pass a law outlawing abortion, so that the "Pro-Life" Bush administration could then send the Solicitor General to argue for it in front of the Supreme Court? Republican Congress, Republican Administration: why no real action?

I'm convinced it's because they don't want to actually settle the abortion question - firstly because there is (unfortunately) a clear majority of public opinion that abortion should be legal in at least some circumstances, and thus actually outlawing it would present huge problems for them in terms of a backlash ( I have read some of the contingency planning the pro-choice movement has done for the event that Roe is overturned; the backlash would be absolutely massive, trust me); and secondly because that would deprive them of an issue they can use to get elected. "Just give us the chance to nominate one more justice, and then - then! - we'll finally be able to outlaw abortion. I know you Pro-Life liberals hate our other policies, but you're morally obligated to vote for us because of this one over-riding issue."

Disingenuous in the extreme, in my view.

Ponder this: It occurs to me that real and substantial progress might be made on the abortion issue if pro-lifers did more outreach to Liberals (beyond just telling them to vote for Republicans - an obvious non-starter.)

Pro-lifers don't have a lot of growth potential with Republicans and conservatives: the ones who can be convinced, have been. So, why doesn't the Pro-Life movement reach out to liberals? You know, have a fellow liberal explain opposition to abortion in a way that makes sense to the world-view of your typical Democrat, using progressive world-views and framing. I do this myself: there is lots of growth potential here, believe me. (Note the link to the right to Democrats For Life.) Support for abortion is pretty soft among lots of the rank and file Democrats I'm acquainted with.

Yup

Conservatism unleashed has proven skilled in exactly two things, in government: coming up with creative rationales for ignoring existing law or gutting its intent or enforcement, and at staffing every nook and cranny of government with more conservative cronies. It is superb at the machinery of destruction; it has never built a single thing, and mocks the very premise.

I just finished Thomas Frank's new book, The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule, and Frank says that this is the very heart of the matter.

The premise of contemporary conservatism is that government doesn't work; the response to Katrina was, from this perspective, "good" because it "proved" that government is ineffective.

Peel away the cynicism and Christianist pandering, and you discover that contemporary Republicanism has become the enactment of the belief that governments only purpose is to help rich people make money, and protect the interests of the powerful; anything that interferes with that agenda must be defunded and destroyed.

I highly recommend Frank's book.

Seems Like Common Sense

[T]he housing bust has long way to go before the median price of a house is equivalent with the budget of the median income.

McCain's Heroism

MJ Rosenberg, in an essay at TPM Cafe, describes something that's been eating at the edge of my consciousness:

You would never know it from the media coverage but John McCain is not one of America's greatest war heroes. He is a former POW who survived, heroically. He deserves to be honored for that heroism.

But one thing distinguishes McCain from other war heroes, the kind whose heroism changes history rather than their life stories.

America's two greatest war heroes were Ulysses Grant and Dwight Eisenhower. Grant saved the union. And Ike saved civilization.

And neither one ever bragged about their experience. (Can you imagine Ike smacking down Adlai Stevenson by saying that while Adlai ran a nice medium-sized state, he was the Supreme Allied Commander who ran D-Day, defeated Hitler, and liberated Europe?).

Impossible. Like Grant, Eisenhower did not brag.

That "Elitist" Obama

Obama was raised by a single mother who was occasionally on food stamps, is black, and went to college on scholarships. Cindy McCain wore an outfit and accessories that literally cost more than the average American home…but Obama’s the elitist. Got it.

Obama on Labor, Unions,and What Binds Us Together

"Elitist Liberals"

Republicans define “elitism” with cultural signifiers: If you like latte, live on the coasts, eat organic food, drive a car made in northern Europe (Saab, Volvo, VW…) hunt birds rather than deer…etc.

Democrats, back in the days of Harry Truman and FDR, defined elitism in economic terms - “Malefactors of great wealth,” “economic royalists,” “the rich, lolling obscenely in opera boxes…” (actually, that was Mencken).

A reporter asked Sherrod Brown a couple years ago why so many rural and poor whites were voting for Republicans. His response: “Because Democrats stopped talking to them.”

A big piece of that has to do with the Civil and Voting Rights Acts, and their political aftermath. LBJ said that “we’ve lost the South for a generation” due to those Acts, but he lost more than the south: Racist whites everywhere were alienated from the Democratic Party. Part (at this point, only a small part, I hope) of the “elitist” charge is lingering resentment against urban northeastern Democrats for overturning the structures and privileges of Southern Post-Reconstruction society. The “outsiders” who tore down a system that had worked (for whites, anyway) for a hundred years were the original targets of the charge of elitism.

I am far to the left of most democrats these days because I’m an old-fashioned economic liberal - I’d love to see a far more progressive income tax, tilting the playing field in favor of union organizing, government regulation of public goods, single-payer health care, and so on.

Tucker On Palin's National Security "Experience"

Something tells me it's going to be a very, very long campaign for Tucker Bounds.

From the Great Woody Guthrie

I just sang this with my guitar, and I couldn't sing the final verse without tears interrupting.

As I was walkin' - I saw a sign there
And that sign said - "no tress passin'"
But on the other side .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Good For Him

Obama has told his campaign that anyone who discusses Palin's family is going to be immediately canned.

Part of his statement:

"I have said before and I will repeat again: People's families are off limits. And people's children are especially off-limits. This shouldn't be part of politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin's performance as a governor and/or her potential performance as a vice president. So I would strongly urge people to back off these kinds of stories. You know my mother had me when she was 18 and how a family deals with issues and teenage children, that shouldn’t be a topic of our politics."

Can you imagine a Rove-advised candidate issuing a similar statement? Neither can I.

Gustav Now A Monster

Time to pray for everyone along the Northern Gulf Coast, particularly New Orleans. From the latest NHC Advisory:

DATA FROM AN AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE AIRCRAFT INDICATE THAT MAXIMUM
SUSTAINED WINDS HAVE INCREASED TO NEAR 150 MPH...240 KM/HR...WITH
HIGHER GUSTS. GUSTAV IS AN EXTREMELY DANGEROUS CATEGORY FOUR
HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS
WITH AN OVERALL SLIGHT STRENGTHENING IS FORECAST DURING THE NEXT 24
HOURS...AND GUSTAV COULD REACH CATEGORY FIVE INTENSITY DURING THIS
PERIOD. GUSTAV IS FORECAST TO REMAIN A MAJOR HURRICANE THROUGH
LANDFALL ALONG THE NORTHERN GULF COAST.

My Comment on Obama's Speech:

Wow.

Hunter's On Fire

Hunter at Daily Kos slays the stupid like no one else on the left...

Gawd. So they're really going with this, eh? Their attack is going to be that the elitist Barack Obama is using... ETHNIC ARCHITECTURE?

What the h... I mean, how does... with the... and half of D.C... the White House... aaaargh.

[...] I can't even find words for the stupid. Nobody can be this stupid. Nobody. Not even in politics. Not even among Republicans. I don't care if they're paying you to be this stupid, I don't care if you're having daily meetings to decide how to best be stupid, I don't care if you're a ten-time gold medalist in synchronized stupidity, it's not possible. You could drill a hole in your skull and fill it with mayonnaise and olives, and you still wouldn't be this stupid. You could convince yourself you were a tropical fish, and dunk your head in an aquarium to breathe the cool, refreshing water, and your decomposing body would still be smarter than this two weeks later.

Gulp. Blink.

From the great Billmon at Daily Kos:

This evening, though, I watched something happen that I was solid sure would never happen in my lifetime, or probably my children's lifetimes: A major American political party just nominated an African American as its candidate for the presidency of the United States -- the big job, the Leader of the Free World, the whole enchilada.

Watching it on C-SPAN, I saw a closeup shot of an African American delegate after Nancy Pelosi banged the gavel down. She was hugging the delegate next to her (a white woman) And the tears were pouring down her cheeks.

Hurricane Gustav Update

Things are beginning to look ominous indeed along the northern Gulf coast, given the updated track of Gustav. Notice the city that is right in the middle of the currently forecasted track: New Orleans.

The track will almost certainly be adjusted to the east or west in the next few days. That is the best hope for long-suffering New Orleans residents; given the atmospheric and water temperature environments in the Northern Gulf, it is virtually certain that Gustav will be a major hurricane at landfall.

Tropical Storm Gustav

As I write this, Gustav has been downgraded to a tropical storm, but will be back up to hurricane strength once it clears Haiti and gets back out over the warm waters of the Caribbean.

One of my hobbies is meteorology, and the ingredients for Gustav becoming a monster may come together in the next few days: low shear, high water temperatures, and a track that will be almost entirely over water - notice too that the middle of the track gets pretty close to some areas devastated by Katrina. My prayers go out to my Gulf Coast readers.

Via The Swamp Blog at Time...

...comes this indication that McCain is less than a true believer in the pro-life cause:

The McCain campaign welcomed delegates to Denver with a new ad Monday, showing Debra Bartoshevich, a self-described "proud Hillary Clinton Democrat," announcing that she opposes Barack Obama and will vote for John McCain. To back up the message, Republicans arranged a press-conference in Denver Monday morning with Bartoshevich and other Clinton supporters, who are all now backing McCain.

Midway through the event, Bartoschevich was asked if she was concerned about McCain's pro-life voting record. At a podium paid for by the Republican National Committee, with McCain aide Carly Fiorina standing nearby, Bartoschevich said this:

Going back to 1999, John McCain did an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle saying that overturning Roe v. Wade would not make any sense, because then women would have to have illegal abortions.

Assassination Plot

The CBS affiliate in Denver is reporting four men were arrested who were plotting to assassinate Barack Obama. At least one of the men had tattoos and other signifiers of membership in white supremacist organizations.

The expectations game

McCain's handlers have decided that Obama needs a 15-point "bounce" coming out of the convention, thereby setting up, say, a 5 or 10-point bounce (which would still mean an Obama landslide) as "failure."

Jeff Lieber at Daily Kos is a good deal more demanding than conservatives:

Barack Obama must get a six-hundred and thirty-eight point bounce.

Barack Obama must be inspiring, but not TOO INSPIRING SO AS TO SEEM A PROPHET, and present his ideas clearly, but not TOO CLEARLY SO AS TO SEEM SIMPLISTIC, and with specifics, but not TOO MANY SPECIFICS SO AS TO SEEM WONKY, and be tough, but not TOO TOUGH SO AS TO SEEM TO HAVE GONE NEGATIVE.

Barack Obama must walk on water (but not in such a way that suggests that either he or his supporters see him as a deity) and give a speech in front of 70,000 people (but not in a way that suggests that he's a celebrity) and completely unify the party (but not in such a way that suggests that said party is "liberal") and speak to the base (but not so much that suggests he's "out of the mainstream of America" ) and embrace Democratic ideals (but not so much as to suggest he's "going back to the days of Jimmy Carter") and remind America about all the good that happened under the last Democratic administration (without using the words "Bill" or "Clinton" or "Hope" or "Cigar" or "Blue Dress").

Barack Obama must be able to quote all the lyrics from American Pie and solve the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle in less that seven minutes and win American Idol and juggle a half dozen flaming chain-saws and name the capitols of all forty-nine states (Hawaii being recently deemed Unamerican and sold to the Chinese for a bag of gumballs) and eat poorly prepared Fugu without dying.

Barack Obama must be black, but not too black, and not black while trying to seem white, and certainly not black while trying to be white without trying to LOOK LIKE he's greyish-blue.

Krugman on Character Attacks

[I]n the world we actually live in, pro-corporate, inequality-increasing Republicans argue that you should vote for them because they’re regular guys you’d like to have a beer with, while Democrats who want to raise taxes on top earners, expand health care and raise the minimum wage are snooty elitists.

And in that world, stripping away the regular-guy facade — pointing out that everything Rush Limbaugh said about Mr. Kerry applies equally to Mr. McCain, that Mr. McCain lives in a material world few Americans can imagine — is only fair. Yes, Mr. Obama vacations in Hawaii — and Cindy McCain says that “In Arizona, the only way to get around the state is by small private plane.”

The squealing from the usual suspects demonstrates how much the Obama counterattack has the G.O.P. worried. Back in 2004 Fox News described John Kerry as “one of the haves” with a “billionaire wife”; now it asks whether raising the issue of Mr. McCain’s houses is “bashing the American dream.”

Well, exactly. Republicans can't win on the issues, so they accuse their opponents of the things they themselves are guilty of.

Good on Obama to respond to lies with the truth.

Hunter at Daily Kos...

Dismisses the customary hackery of Bill Kristol:

This is hilarious. I love it, because Kristol's not even trying to mask his concern trollery, and the end result is just a lumpy mess of Suck. The Democrats have a problem with a "Glass Ceiling", because Obama didn't pick Clinton? Excuse me, but were you watching the Republican debates?

Whose side are you on?

Everything Walmart does is guided by one consideration: anything that competes with maximum profits for the owners is something they oppose.

Workers want a raise?

That's competition.

Struggling main-street sporting goods store that has sponsored the local little league team since the current coach's grandfather was a player?

Competition.

Government investigating you locking workers in the store and other abuse of your workers?

Competition.

Liberals, get this straight: Walmart is the anti-Christ. It's better to buy ersatz affection at a whorehouse than a genuine hairdryer at Walmart.

"Free Trade" is "There'll be a pay cut before we fire you and 'offshore' your job."

"The nation can't afford single-payer healthcare" is "We rich people don't want to pay for single-payer healthcare."

Got that?

A Woman Called Hope

I side, reflexively and all the time, with the little guy. Unions. Blue Collar people generally. The Poor. Minorities. The desperate. The doomed. The outcast. That little old lady you see pushing a shopping cart full of garbage outside Starbucks? She's your sister. What can you do to help her? The fact that she's talking to people who aren't there means she needs help. How can we make America a place where she is overwhelmed with gratitude at the help that follows her around, ready to catch her if she stumbles?

The soldier returning from war, unable to escape the terrible knowledge that what he has seen has shown him the damnable lies that our country tells itself in order to enable men to do things that will haunt them forever? The one who wakes up downstairs, halfway out the front door, because he heard an explosion in his dream and is now warning buddies who aren't there that they are about to die and his wife doesn't understand but tries to be there for him any way she can, but at the same time she's worried for the children? What can you do to help them? They are your brother and sister. How can we make America a place where they are overwhelmed with gratitude at the help that follows them around, ready to catch them if they stumble?

The man, now 45, who suffers from nightmares and flashbacks from growing up in a neighborhood where he went to sleep many nights to the sound of gunfire; where he lost precious, priceless, irreplaceable friends to random murders, and is not sure he can handle one more fucking senseless death? How can we make America a place where he is overwhelmed with gratitude at the help that follows him around, ready to catch him if he stumbles?

The woman whose actual first name is Hope. The one who wakes up every morning and, if she's lucky, has a few moments of peace before she remembers that both of her precious grandchildren were murdered; before she remembers that losing the first one was hard, but staring into another grandson's coffin almost exactly a year later -- that that was the beginning of the desolation and crushing grief that robs her daily of the rightful, well-earned joy of being a grandparent. She spends her free time ministering to the kids in the neighborhood, doing what she can to reach them before the gangs or police do. The ones she loses to murder she prays for; the ones in prison she visits and writes to. She is a saint. She needs your help.

How can we make America a place where she is overwhelmed with gratitude at the help that follows her around, ready to catch her if she stumbles?

America has become a scary place in the last 30 years. How can we make America a place filled with people who are overwhelmed with gratitude at the help that follows them around, ready to catch us if we stumble?

It's Biden

I would have picked probably Bayh (though that would mean losing a Senate seat), but Biden should be a solid campaigner.

Things That Piss Me Off

I question whether the libertarian "left" is really "left" - you don't get to call yourself a liberal just because you're pro-choice and drive a Prius.

The most harm done to workers has been by Democrats (yes, I'm looking at you, Bill Clinton) who pivoted away from the notion that the power of government ought to be a counter-balance to the power of business, and sold out the New Deal to a bunch of greedy, corrupt boodlers.

I'm reading Thomas Frank's new book, and getting angrier by the minute. (I'll post a full review if I can keep from making the entire thing one long blue streak of angry swear-words.)

Revolution may be our only hope.

Interesting Factoid

The McCains pay $270,000 per year for butlers and maids--that's $50,000 more than the median value of an American home.

Saw this on a Daily Kos Diary...

and had to quote it, as it is extremely similar to my own journey from Rebublican to Democrat:

I began to see that all the talk of "small government" and "fiscal responsibility" and "everyone is equal so no one needs help" from the Republican Party was just, well, rhetoric. Empty spin. Republicans never seemed to follow their own rules, morality, or principles. And, shockingly, even though it was so-called "Republican" ideals that attracted me to their party, it seemed like Democrats were actually the ones whose votes and policies achieved the results the Republicans kept promising.

Digby on McCain Choosing Lieberman

It would spell the end of Obama's ineffectual paeans to "post-partisanship" and force him to make a strong case for progressive policies -- which I have long believed the country was finally willing to hear for the first time in decades. He's got a gift for speaking and that's what he needs to be speaking about.

Preach it, girl!

A Democrat Like This Would Be Nice

I'm (obviously) supporting Obama in this cycle, from the beginning of the primaries til now; but thought I'd post this just for fun; I actually composed (and then deleted) a version of this diary a couple years ago. For what it's worth, my post-Obama candidate for 8 years from now...

[Beginning of make believe]

My dream candidate is a state governor who grew up working class and made himself prosperous by his own efforts. He knows his way around a union hall; while he's been both a union member and management, one of the things that made him want to start a business is he didn't have the stomach for the kind of screwing over of workers that is part and parcel of being a middle manager in many large companies.

There's a story circulated about him that he once missed an important vote in the state assembly because it was opening day of deer season, and he was nowhere to be found.

He is passionate about doing what he can to make sure that workers get a fair deal in America. Reliable rumor has it he once threw a Democratic Party official out of his office, with instructions never to return, because that Democrat had dared to make a crack about "the damned union chiselers."

He's known for intervening personally to try to save jobs (especially union jobs) when some mill owner makes noise about "off-shoring" production. He once loudly and publicly questioned a plant-owners patriotism for sending jobs overseas. He drives a pickup truck; not because he's making some kind of "positioning" statement, but because he actually needs one for driving around his working farm. He overturned his state's "right-to-work" laws, and passed card-check legislation, as one of his first acts as governor.

He got elected governor by putting together a coalition of blue-collar workers (who, in reciprocation for his manifest passion for their welfare, would gladly walk through the fires of hell for him); hunters and environmentalists (the hunters love telling the story of that missed vote, the environmentalists respect him for the genuine passion with which he talks about conservation) and family farmers (who trust him implicitly to look out for their interests.)

He insisted that his son and daughter attend a state college, even though their grades could easily have gotten them into a top-tier private college. Anything that smacks of elitism is something he has little patience for.

There are a few things that really piss him off...

Anyone, especially a self-described "progressive," who has the temerity to say a word against unions and people whose collars are likely to be blue is going to be the object of a withering dressing down, and be called a "damned Judas."

Hypocrites: A pastor who has a mega-church in his state once got a meeting with the governor. No one is quite sure what transpired in that meeting, but his secretary remembers hearing the governor bellow, "No God-Damned Pharisee swindler in a thousand-dollar suit is going to tell ME what to do!!" followed by the Pastor retreating from the governor's office with an ashen face.

Polluters: He'd rather personally swim in nuclear waste than have some company dump a teaspoon of pollution on his state. He appointed a pitbull to go after polluters in his state.

He's more of an egalitarian than a libertarian; he knows instinctively that one of the primary functions of Government is to help balance society by keeping things (relatively, anyway) equal, thus providing stability.

[End of Make Believe]

A guy like this would make deep, deep inroads into the Republican working-class base. He would also be familiar to (and typical of) generations of Democrats from the late 1920s to 1970s.

Sherrod Brown was once asked why so many blue collar people in southeastern Ohio voted for Republicans. His perfect response: "Because Democrats stopped talking to them."

Worth pondering...