Thought of the day

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A Future President

Barack Obama appears on Monday Night Football. America will fall in love with this man!

Sick

Yeah, it happened to us. Reality hit. Human mortality. Tim Johnson is a young guy. He could have changed the fate of the world, or god or something.

I cried tonight. I didn't cry for Tim Johnson. I don't know Tim Johnson. I know who he is now. I cried because I found it difficult to believe that one man's mortality could change the fate of the world, a man whom the world did not even know. How could one man's health change everything? How could some people on one side of the political spectrum rejoice because of rumors that a guy had a stroke?

This country is sick. If this is what it means to be an American, I want no part of it.

God bless you, Tim Johnson, and I hope the reports of your well-being are accurate. And God bless you, Craig Thomas, R from Wyoming who has leukemia. I would never in an eternity wish you bad health because you have an R after your name. I only wish your party would condemn those who were disgusting enough to rejoice at the news of Johnson's ill health.

If it ain't broke...

There is this myth out there that if you work hard in America, you can make something of yourself. Sadly, that age is rapidly coming to an end. As we move more towards the establishment of an aristocracy in this country, we see less and less room for hard work - it is all about who you know these days. Add the foreign service to that list.

For generations, the United States has selected its diplomats through a two-stage test seen as a model of merit-based rigor. Pass hundreds of questions in a dozen subject areas and a day-long oral grilling by Foreign Service officers, and join the ranks. Fail, and find a different line of work.

No more. In a proposed overhaul of its hiring process slated for next year and to be announced to employees in coming days, the State Department would weigh resumes, references and intangibles such as "team-building skills" in choosing who represents the United States abroad, according to three people involved in the process. The written test would survive, but in a shortened form that would not be treated as the key first hurdle it has been for more than 70 years.

As the lack of respect for knowledge continues to worsen, this nation gets dumber and dumber, and now, it appears we will be dumbing down our diplomatic corps as well, politicizing it, which always rewards the rich kids.

A way to end the abortion debate

From Wapo:

Growing evidence that chemicals in the environment can interfere with animals' hormone systems -- including the discovery that male Potomac River fish are growing eggs -- has focused the attention of environmentalists and scientists on a new question: Are humans also at risk?

If men had babies, abortion would not even be an issue.

Kidding aside (am I?), this is pretty frightening. But - Americans have the "it can't happen to me" mentality that will prevent any change in the nation's daily chemical intake. I mean, who can be bothered to cook fresh vegetables and other foods when you can just take it from a box and radiate it? And make sure you pour enough chemicals on your floor to make them spic and span! Keep taking those pills you don't actually need because some doctor needs to pay his mortgage!

Snicker...the thought of a man having a child...how many heads would it have?

Sieg Heil, Michigan

Bob and Jane live together and, like many young couples, they sometimes argue. There never seems to be enough money, and while they both want to go to college, neither has yet been able to do so. Jane recently discovered that she is pregnant.

Jane is ambivalent about the pregnancy, and her friends think she should terminate it -- she's too young, and Bob isn't very stable. Bob would like to be a father someday, but not now -- he can't pay their bills and wants a better career.

One day Bob and Jane argue over some things Jane bought with their credit card, and Bob tells Jane he doesn't want to pay their bills anymore. He says he's tired of arguing with her, doesn't want her to have the baby, and wants to move out for a while and think things over.

Under a bill recently passed by the Michigan House of Representatives, Bob could go to jail.

Yes, it's true. But it isn't constitutional.

Suck it, fundies.

Win Ben Stein's money...but only if you're already rich

An Op-ed piece today by conservative Ben Stein...

Put simply, the rich pay a lot of taxes as a total percentage of taxes collected, but they don’t pay a lot of taxes as a percentage of what they can afford to pay, or as a percentage of what the government needs to close the deficit gap.

Mr. Buffett compiled a data sheet of the men and women who work in his office. He had each of them make a fraction; the numerator was how much they paid in federal income tax and in payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and the denominator was their taxable income. The people in his office were mostly secretaries and clerks, though not all.

It turned out that Mr. Buffett, with immense income from dividends and capital gains, paid far, far less as a fraction of his income than the secretaries or the clerks or anyone else in his office. Further, in conversation it came up that Mr. Buffett doesn’t use any tax planning at all. He just pays as the Internal Revenue Code requires. “How can this be fair?” he asked of how little he pays relative to his employees. “How can this be right?”

More proof that the tax burden rests on the middle class of this country.

Oh, and that myth about how cutting taxes increases revenue?

...the federal government collected roughly $1.004 trillion in income taxes from individuals in fiscal 2000, the last full year of President Bill Clinton’s merry rule. It fell to a low of $794 billion in 2003 after Mr. Bush’s tax cuts (but not, you understand, because of them, his supporters like to say). Only by the end of fiscal 2006 did income tax revenue surpass the $1 trillion level again.

The graph is separate from the article. It just shows how the wage gap has exploded since the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994. It ends at the beginning of the Bush administration, so those red and blue lines go much, much higher, while the bottom two lines remain unchanged.

Because the US economy rox

Dim outlook for dollar pushes euro to 18-month high

Like an earthquake, a small tremor reminding us of what could happen...

Oh, but protectionist measures that would help with the excessive trade imbalance with China are soooooooo bad!

Thought of the day

1% of Americans own 16% of the country's wealth and rising.

The not 12 step program for GOPs

I opened this page to write a post on how conservatives were in denial about the fact that they are too far to the right for most of America, that conservatives like George Will, who wrote that conservatives "were punished not for pursuing but for forgetting conservatism," are wrong. I was going to attempt and probably fail to be witty by writing a 12 step program for conservative GOPs to get over it, so I looked up Alcoholics Anonymous' 12 step program for reference. What I had not known was that the criticism of this 12 step program is that it is religious, like some guy on a cloud is suddenly going to reach down and take away all of the things that drive a person to drink, all of the stress and heartache and despair. Instead of helping a person change the situation that is causing the drinking, magic will make it all better, like taking a pill (I'm sure Pfeizer is well on its way to developing the alcoholic pill if it hasn't already.)

That being said, I don't want to put the conservative GOPs through a 12 step program. I don't believe in mind control. I want to help them change the situation that put them into their minority status. I want to help them overcome their denial that America is simply not as far right as they envision it to be. Sure, it may lean to the right, and yeah, we all acknowledge that Democrats were not elected because they were Democrats but were elected because they were not Republicans, but this country is not as far right as the losers deluded. I mean, South Dakota voted against the anti-choice law, and if a state who voted 60+% for Bush turns down a chance to make abortion illegal, that should tell the cons something.

So, conservative GOPs, listen up. The people of this great nation are not full of the hatred you preach. We liked Will and Grace and we like skin on television. We aren't afraid of nude statues, and we believe that without science, our nation will fall into decline. We believe that life matters in between birth and death, that war must be fought as a last resort, that we must do all in our power to cure people of horrible diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, and that includes doing research on embryonic stem cells. We believe that the middle class is the backbone of this country and don't want to be indentured servants of the wealthy, who will do whatever it takes for profits, regardless of the cost to the quality of life. We believe that all people deserve equal opportunity and that students shouldn't enter the workforce with the chains of a lifetime of debt around their ankles. We believe in globalization, yes, we do, but we believe that unbridled corporatism is ruining our country and leaving us with an unskilled workforce left with jobs at Walmart because the skilled jobs went elsewhere.

GOPs, welcome to the real America. You pushed your moderates out instead of embracing the center, where most of America resides, and you lost. So quit denying that conservatives lost for not being conservative enough. You lost for being too conservative, if anything. Your tent was too small, and you've paid the price.

Oh, and there was the twin killing of Iraq and corruption, but that's a whole other fish...

Now, THIS is how you govern a nation

From WaPo:

Pelosi said that Democratic leaders want to demonstrate their effectiveness, and build up some trust with the White House, by tackling legislation that will have bipartisan support. Bush's "innovation agenda," laid out last year in his State of the Union address, has largely lain dormant. Democrats would like to take up Bush's proposals to expand funding for basic research and alternative energy sources such as ethanol, she said.

Democrats would also work with Bush to resurrect his proposed overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, which would pair tough border security measures with new paths to legal work and citizenship for the country's 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants, Pelosi said. And she is convinced Bush will back a higher minimum wage.

Compromise. It's how this country has lasted as long as it has, how we've kept the same system of government, the same Constitution, for longer than any government in modern history. There are 300 million people in this country - you can't make everyone happy. You can't forget about one half of the country, ignore them like the gops did to us for six years. There is no such thing as utopia, so we can't get everything we want. And compromise - bipartisanship - is what can give us a majority for years to come and the White House in 2008.

Dear Dems, please don't screw this up.

Virginia is for Democrats?

It was a dark and stormy night. No, it really was - it isn't a cliche this time. I could hardly see on the drive to Tysons Corner, where Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, and their staff set up shop in a hotel room, anxiously awaiting election returns as if the fate of the world depended on them. And it did, didn't it?

I had MSNBC on the radio while driving, and I had not yet left the confines of the District when they called it for Bob Menendez. Whew, that one had been worrisome not long ago. In the rain and fog, I had trouble finding the hotel until I got behind a car with a Webb for Senate bumper sticker. While I followed it, MSNBC called it for Sherrod Brown. One down, five to go.

I parked in a car lot next to the hotel and headed out into the warm November rain. Democrats could have taken the weather as an ominous sign, but it turns out the rain was actually for Republicans. HA HA HA! You get what you give! Inside, the air swirled with nervous excitement, and an occasional cheer arose from the large crowd as results came in. Three seats in Indiana? I was sure the people in those little pink houses were preparing for the apocalypse. At that point in the night, Webb and Allen were tied with about half the votes counted, which gave reason to cheer, especially considering that Northern Virginia and most of Richmond had yet to be counted.

The hotel erupted into ecstatic applause when it was called Bob Casey, Jr. Man-on-dog Santorum had gone down to an expected but thrilling defeat, as if the bad guy in a horror film had been hacked to pieces. Next, Whitehouse was called. Three down. And then we were stuck.

Webb came down from the hotel room with Mark Warner and Tim Kaine to give us a little pick me up speech, a welcome relief from our anxiety and panic. He'd been down 50% - 49% for quite some time, and with no new Senate races called in awhile, people had begun to lose hope. Many left the hotel, deciding to sleep through what they anticipated would be depression. After all, it was approaching midnight, and it was only a Tuesday.

The House numbers kept looking better, and when CNN called the House for us, the chandeliers began to shake from the thunder below them. It was a high that began to dissipate in the worry that followed. We were there for Webb, and Allen had been up for quite awhile - at one point by about 20K votes with 90% of the votes counted. And then it was 96%, 97%, 98%...The energy had evaporated from the room. Depression was worn by every face, some near the point of tears. Political campaigns are emotional storms. When you've devoted a few weeks or months of your life to a candidate, it is a heavy emotional investment, and a loss can be devastating. We smelled defeat. People left in droves. This loss would be far worse than usual, for the whole Senate was riding on this campaign, and not only would our candidate lose, but we'd have to put up with at least two more years of this disrespectable Republican led Senate. Somewhere in there, Maryland was called for Cardin, but we still needed Missouri, Montana, and Virginia.

And then, a miracle happened. Suddenly, with 99% of the votes counted, we were up by 3000 votes with one Democratic precinct left to count. It felt like we had won a war. The cheering continued for a solid five minutes as people hugged, jumped up and down, and pumped their fists with joy. What a glorious feeling, like we had just hit a home run in the top of the ninth in Game 7 of the World Series to take the lead and only needed three outs to win the thing. Just like that, everything was different. There was hope again.

McCaskill was called for Missouri. That left just Montana and Virginia. Tester was barely up, so everything was looking good for us. It must have been about 1:30 when Webb and crew came down again to give a short victory speech. We won.

I left the place after 2am in ecstasy, rain still pouring down, streets deserted. I rolled down the window at one point just to scream "We won!" There was an element of disbelief, of surrealism, surrounding the whole night. When I woke around noon the next day, I checked the news to make sure it was true, to make sure something hadn't happened in the night. Well, something had happened. Rumsfeld resigned, giving a very good end to a very good time.

America is for Democrats.

Counting Chickens

I can hardly contain my excitement for tomorrow - it really is all I can think about at the moment.

Webb rally tonight with President Bill Clinton and Governors Tim Kaine and Mark Warner - Alexandria, Market Square, 5pm. I'm leaving work early today to attend.

Should I buy some champaign?

A fairytale

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there existed a place called Babylon. Well, it hadn't been called Babylon in many, many years, but it was Babylon all the same. And it was falling.

Conquerers had come from afar to expand the global market under the guise of "freedom." Yeah, freedom for companies. The people of the conquering nation were clueless peasants who were given somewhat of a say in what their country did, although some of them weren't given a say, and others said things but those things were interpreted differently than what they had said, so a man much stupider than Napolean was crowned Emperor by the Supreme Court. The Emperor was on course to not be Emperor for long, but then a curious thing happened - men from another faraway land attacked the country. But instead of attacking the faraway country, the Emperor decided he would attack Babylon. The other faraway country had no markets and no oil.

Under the Emperors rule, hundreds of thousands of people died. This number included the genocide in a very dark poor country that was ignored by the Emperor, again because there were no markets to go after. So his claim of "spreading freedom and human rights" was an obvious lie.

One day, the god of war had enough, so he descended from Olympus intent on putting a stop to it. He did this by getting out a paintbrush and painting the conquering nation blue. There was hope across the world that things would change and OH MY GOD, HELP ME! THE TERRORISTS ARE EATING ME BECAUSE THE DEMOCRATS ARE IN POWER!1! I HAVE TO HIDE MY WALLET!! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!1

The End.

r prezident is dum

WARREN, Mich. (AP) - President Bush headlined a fund-raiser in Warren tonight that raised $700,000 for Republican U-S Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.

He told the crowd that the Democrats are (quote) "dancing in the end zone" when they're only on the 15 yard line.

Before arriving at the fund-raiser, Bush and Bouchard stopped by the Morley Candy Makers factory.

Before coming to Michigan, Bush was in Des Moines, Iowa, at lunchtime. He helped raise $400,000 for the state Republican Party and congressional candidate Jeff Lamberti. The president mistakenly referred to Lamberti as "Dave" throughout his speech.

In his speeches, Bush hammered the same themes he has been using against the Democrats all fall that they want to raise taxes and are soft on terrorism. Democrats say the rhetoric is just an attempt to distract voters from Bush's failures in Iraq.

I'm very busy, but I wanted to post this as an intersting thought for the day:

From Electoral Vote.com:

A Democratic takeover of the House has a couple of consequences I have not seen discussed anywhere. First, Nancy Pelosi will become Speaker, which will make her the highest ranking Democrat in the country--even if the Democrats capture the Senate. The Speaker is second in line for the presidency, after the Veep. The majority leader of the Senate is not even on the list. After the Speaker comes the President pro tem of the Senate, currently Ted Stevens (R-AK) but will shift to Robert Byrd (D-WV) if the Democrats win the Senate. Pelosi is from San Francisco and is far more liberal than Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), a moderate Mormon. Also, Republicans will be hesitant to attack a nice Italian grandmother; people won't like it. Second, after a year of Pelosi running the House, the question of "Can a woman wield great political power well?" will have a more concrete answer. This may have consequences for 2008, when other women may be running for high office.

Oh, and Rush Limbaugh can go to hell.

Independent Voters - Clueless?

I offer the question both seriously and with much opining. People complain about the two party system in this country, and to them I say the two party system is the greatest system in the world. Quel horreur! you say as you clench your green/libertarian/christian democratic fist and inch closer to clicking your mouse away from this page. How can I discount the beliefs of 20% of the population?

I'm not. No, you see, in the good old US of A, we have a system called the primaries, when everyone can run, any ideology, any values/beliefs system - you just need to pick one of two party primaries to run in. If those values/beliefs/ideas are truly the will of the people, the person will be voted to be the candidate in the general election. It's protection from fringe ideologies, a brilliant system. So how does a person of a "third party" persuasion fit into one of the two parties, you ask? This is where you weed out those who claim to be of a "third party" but don't really know what they believe. Change the words "Democrat" and "Republican" to "Community" and "Individual" and there's your answer.

Wait! I know that nothing is black and white. Let me explain what I mean by those two terms.

Community

It takes a village. It really does - humans don't exist in their own personal vacuums. Everything around them affects them in some way, even when butterflies flap their wings in the South Pacific. If one factory pollutes, someone can breathe it in, weakening his immune system. He gets sick, goes to Charmucks to order a hot tea, and gets his germs all over the money, which is passed back in change to someone, who uses it at the local hardware store. You walk into the hardware store to buy some nails to hang a painting you bought and get that germ-infested money back as change. You get sick, so sick you have to cancel a meeting with some important people and end up not getting a contract because of it. The contract ends up going to another company whose executives are corrupt. They take shortcuts on safety, resulting in an accident that causes the death of a man. His two year old daughter grows up without a father, which results in her having difficulties with relationships when she is older. She ends up divorcing her husband before they have a child, and the way the genes were arranged in the sperm and the egg that would have conceived a child is such that a genius was never born, one who would have discovered a cure for a certain type of cancer. A future president dies from that type of cancer during the middle of a war that was going well, and his successor makes poor choices and the war goes south. I could go on and on and on, but you get the point by now.

What it all boils down to is Democrats believe in strengthening the community of Americans to make this the best possible America for everyone. There are various means to achieve this - minimum wage, financial aid to college students, social welfare programs, education, ensuring everyone has health care, etc. The bottomline is that we believe that all humans are created equal with certain inalienable rights - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those rights are not reserved for only the elites, but for everyone.

Individual

Basically, this means "who gives a damn about anyone else?" Also known as selfishness, this idea is characterized by all types of mongering in the name of power and profit - fearmongering, warmongering, powermongering, greedmongering...That being said, here's why libertarians fit into the community category rather than the individual, despite their emphasis on individual rights. The basis of libertarianism is that smaller government benefits the common good, that lower taxes generate wealth and create jobs that benefit people, and that, friends and enemies, is why libertarians - CATO libertarians, not those who claim to be libertarians because they want to use their tax money to buy more junk for themselves - should vote Democrat. People make up the planet! Besides, more libertarians in the Democratic Party would serve as a moderating force within the party to control the taxation they don't like.

As for those other "independents" aka swing voters, today's WaPo says they prefer Dems 2-1. It's nice that they've FINALLY seen the light, but it took them long enough. These "swing voters" are the ones who vote for people based on whether or not a guy is likeable rather than capable. This type of whimsical, uninformed voting is a threat to our country, regardless of which way the pendulum swings. It is what gave us George W. Bush in the first place and got us into this mess we're in.

We need to reframe the debate for these people. They need to understand that what they are voting for isn't a "D" or an "R", but community or selfishness. Yeah, it's not black and white, but it is a good frame of reference, much better than the taxation or size of government measurements. The size of the Bush government proves this point.

Just thinking outloud...

When baseball, music, and politics mix

That's my cup o'tea - I have a blog on each of the topics (Church of Baseball and Rox Politix). John Mellencamp's performance of the anti-Bush song "Our Country" before Game 2 of the World Series on Sunday was a pleasant surprise and a welcome change from the corporate censorship that we've seen over the past six years on television.

It's too bad the song is used for Chevy ads (and is played every commercial break!) It's a good song. Verses:

I can stand beside
Things I think are right (Remember, Mellencamp was harshly criticized by middle America for taking a stance against Bush, especially after he put out his protest song To Washington.)
And I can stand beside
The idea to stand and fight (When it is necessary. He is against the Iraq War.)
And I do believe
There’s a dream for everyone (Not just for elites. He's always believed this - just listen to his songs like Little Pink Houses.)
This is our country

There's room enough here
For science to live (Obvious slap at the religious right.)
And there's room enough here
For religion to forgive (Another slap.)
And try to understand
The other people of this world (This one's blatant, too.)
This is our country

That poverty could be
Just another ugly thing
And bigotry could be
Seen only as obscene
And the ones that run this land
Will help the poor and common man (Amen!)
This is our country

The dream will never leave
And some day it will come true
And it’s up to me and you
To do the best that we can do
And let the voice of freedom
Sing out through this land (Free at last, free at last, God Almighty, we are free at last!)
This is our country

Update: Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks this ad is something to talk about. WaPo has an article today (Oct 25) about reactions to the ad.

“I can blow off someone’s head at close range and splatter blood, but I can’t light a good Cuban.”

The producers of the new Bond movie (which comes out November 17) banned new Bond Daniel Craig from smoking in the film "in order not to send a bad message to young fans."

While I personally believe that what we see on television affects us more than we know or understand (why do people have nightmares about things they see on TV if it doesn't?), this is ridiculous. So they acknowledge that kids might be influenced to smoke but not to be violent? Today the first of a group of high school football players who decided to rob a convenience - upper middle class white kids, mind you, so you don't form a stereotypical impression - was tried for his role in the robbery. What made these kids decide that it would be fun to rob the store? Just asking...

I wish they had kept Pierce and hope that Craig is able to hold his own in this film. I'll be in the theater November 17 - can't wait! From what I've seen of the trailer, there is a lot blowing up in Casino Royale, so I hope there's some substance to it.

Hear the new Bond song here, performed by Chris Cornell. It isn't the final mix, and in my opinion, there needs to be less Chris and more strings.

New Bond film, new U2 CD/DVD, new Congress...man, November is going to be a killer month!

Ahh, such beauty

That good old solid blue color, so many states, so much hope...

This is today's Senate projection map, showing the Dems up 50 - 49 with a tie in Tennessee. Goodbye, Rick Santorum. Goodbye, Mike DeWine. Goodbye, Lincoln Chafee. If y'all had some spine, maybe things wouldn't be so bad for you. Especially you, Linc, who'd be a Democrat if it weren't for your daddy.

Go Webb, defeat Allen!

Oh yeah, and look:

Projected New House*: 229 Democrats 202 Republicans 4 Ties

All terrorists are Muslims

From NY Times via International Herald Tribune:

On Monday, 94 people died and 150 were injured when a truck loaded with explosives rammed into a military convoy in Sri Lanka. The government blames the Tamil Tiger guerrillas - the pioneers of suicide bombing - for the attack. The rebels have not said anything.

For more than 20 years, the Tamil rebels have waged a brutal war of independence against the Sri Lankan government, which is dominated by ethnic Sinhalese. Their opponents in Colombo are no innocents, and have made little effort to protect Tamil civilians as they wage a brutal counterinsurgency. In April, government security forces stood by for two hours as mobs burned Tamil homes and shops, killing 14 people.

A Buddhist-led government battling a Hindu separatist group in a land with no oil draws little international interest - and no pressure on either side to end such horrors. Hoping to change that, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, called last month for international human rights monitors to be sent to Sri Lanka. All countries with influence, starting with the United States and Japan, should push the Sri Lankan government to agree.

Colombo is eager for international aid and support in its fight against the Tamil Tigers. With UN rights monitors bearing witness, the government may feel pressure to rein in army and police abuses. Monitors could also bolster Sri Lanka's weak judicial system, which barely investigates crimes against Tamil civilians.

The guerrillas, who count the forced recruitment of child soldiers among their crimes, are less vulnerable to international shame. But shining a spotlight might help persuade overseas Tamils to choke off funding.

Before I was rescued by my current job (from which I now need rescued), I cleaned swimming pools around the DC Metro area. It was a job I took because I had turned down jobs at the NSA and at defense contractors due to having a conscience and not being able to work for this administration, and I was having trouble finding a job at a non-profit. The job was great for several reasons - I was outside all summer, I got to know the roads of DC to which I had just moved, and I visited the houses of wealthy, famous, and/or important people. One of these was the Sri Lankan Ambassador from whom I learned about Sri Lanka's political situation. Had I not met him, I would probably know nothing of the conflict there like the rest of America.

It's a shame when such atrocities that the United States proclaims to be against are ignored. Why have we done nothing about Dafur? Why have we not offered to help broker peace in Sri Lanka? Why did we go into Iraq while ignoring these other countries? Three letters: O, I, and L.

Rumor is

Bushie said "it ain't gonna happen" when someone asked him about what he thought about Nancy Pelosi as Speaker. Given that even the gops have acknowledged that the Dems are going to take back the House, I'm wondering what makes him so certain. Is his ignorance a result of his bubble, or does he have some Diebold up his sleeve?

I'm soooooooo busy!

Just remember: He who laughs last obviously didn't get the joke.

Senkaku sounds like an Allen word

Baseball is my religion. Night after summer night I watch my Cincinnati Reds, donning my cap just to watch them play on my computer screen while drinking a beer in my Reds jersey coolie. I have a big Reds pillow and a Reds fleece blanket on my bed, a Reds wall hanging, and several baseballs lying around the room.

Last night it was not baseball I watched with this kind of enthusiasm, but the debate between Jim Webb and George “Macaca” Allen. I put on my Jim Webb shirt under my Webb yard sign hanging on the wall and geared up for the event like it was game two or three of the World Series. Ah, yes, it was a sporting event to watch the two candidates spar, to see Mr. Macaca utter the names Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, and Ted Kennedy as if they were tantamount to Hitler, not once, but a couple of times. This obvious attempt to label Webb with the L word (the other L word) looked pretty ridiculous, especially considering the fact that Webb is a former Republican who was part of the Reagan administration, hardly the characteristics of that naughty, naughty word Liberal.

GMA looked oddly nervous at the start of the debate, rocking back and forth as uhs and pauses spilled from his mouth during the opening remarks. I thought it strange that a United States senator would be nervous in front of a crowd, but then again after all this one’s said and done in the past few weeks to blow a double digit lead, it is understandable that he would fear another blunder.

The best part of the night came when Webb blindsided GMA with a question about the Senkaku Islands. GA sure looked like what he calls macaca in his stuttering response “I’ll have to study the issue.” Paybacks for that port question to Webb the last time around.

I wish I could vote for Jim Webb, but I live in the undemocratic territory of DC, which Steven Colbert insists is not part of the United States since it is not a state. (Hilarious interview with Elanor Norton Holmes.) What Virginia does sometimes affects DC, however, given that Northern Virginia is a part of the DC Metro area, so I do feel at least marginally interested in this race as a neighbor, but my hyper enthusiasm stems from the fact that it will give the Dems the Senate if it goes to Webb.

Go Webb, beat Allen! Rah, rah, rah...

Happy Mistaken Explorers Weekend!

Make all the mistakes y'all want - I'm just happy to have a three-day weekend (and they're also letting us go at 3pm today!)

Remember the new term for colonialism: foreign direct investment. They even abbreviate it to FDI to make it easier for the non-English speaking subjects to pronounce.

I'll have a little post up on Monday about our fearless Italian/Spanish/French hero. And when the heck are we going to get Leif Erikson day?

This Morning's Java Tastes Good!

If you aren't checking Electoral Vote.com every day, you should be. It's interesting to see the trends in the country. I check it first thing every morning, and, well, today's results are a beautiful sight to see. For the first time, we have the right side ahead:

Projected New House*: 218 Democrats 216 Republicans 1 Tie.

The Senate has been flipping back and forth for the last several weeks, so it's too close to tell on that, though Republicans have maintained a slight edge. Missouri, Tennessee, and New Jersey are the flipping states. Webb is also gaining ground on George Macaca Allen.

A new approach to Democratic foreign policy?

Democracy has become a dirty word in the Middle East thanks to the debacle the Bush administration has made of it. However, the idea of democracy - opportunity for all - is still an idea cherished by everyone but the dictators who control the destinies of citizens of most Middle Eastern countries.

Part of the reason for the distaste is the administration's reaction to the election of Hamas, which I wrote about here. How can someone actively promote democracy and then condemn it when the results are not to their liking? It's called dictating, folks, as in dictatorship. Sure, y'all can vote, but your vote is only valid if we like who you voted for!

Of course, Iraq's accomplished mission has done the most damage to democracy's image in the Muslim world. This administration needs to take Political Theory 101 to learn why taking down the country that was maintaining the balance of power in a region is a bad idea. It's a shame, a tragedy really, that a whole generation across the globe will spend its life on Earth trying to clean up the mess and make up the time we lost in moving backwards from a more harmonious planet where human rights reign supreme. Ooh, that sounds so hippy, doesn't it? Well, that was the admini$tration'$ line of rea$oning behind democracy promotion.

Putting the mistakes of this administration aside (I know it's hard, but do it for a second), there are still critics of democracy promotion, including those who say we are imposing our values on other societies, those who claim Islam is incompatible with democracy, and those to whom democracy is a threat to their absolutism. To these people I say how dare you! How can you oppose the basic human right to have control over your own destiny?

WE ARE IMPOSING OUR VALUES

In some respects, this camp has a point. The way democracy promotion has been executed by this administration lends some truth to the statement. However, democracy is not synonymous with Western liberalism. This is the fundamental flaw in Bush's strategy (and I use the term "strategy" loosely.) These people refuse to listen to anyone who fogs their green, I mean rose colored glasses, and the absolute view of democracy these people take has soured the true meaning of the word.

ISLAM IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY

People who say this understand neither Islam nor democracy. Much has been written on this topic, so I won't say any more here.

THREAT TO ABSOLUTISM

Anyone who advocates absolutism should be sent to live in one of these countries with no way out. People say, “the people want a king!” Yeah, well, some people wanted Bush, too, but a lot of us didn’t, and fortunately we don’t have to put up with him for a lifetime. Those who love their kings may truly love them and want them to rule over them, but what about those who don’t? When you aren’t allowed to say anything against your king, how do you know how many people don’t want the king? And if he is so loved, let him be elected to power!

I went to a roundtable today entitled "Democracy That Delivers: Practical Approaches to Building Political Institutions and Addressing Social Needs" at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI). A lot of it was the same development rhetoric I am used to hearing on account of my three-year employment in the democracy field. However, there were a few things that I found interesting or irritating.

The idea that Islamist groups are becoming popular because of the social services they provide was discussed in detail. Until now, democracy promoters have failed to grasp the idea that social aspects of democracy need to be included in any democratic development. A state revolves around three spheres – political, economic, and social – all of which are interrelated and inseparable from one another. The reason so many theories and ideologies are flawed is that one of these is often missing. Take libertarianism, for example. There is no social aspect to it; indeed, it is the opposite, as the individual reigns supreme. It relies on the goodness of private citizens to keep a society together, and well, one needs only to open his eyes to see what human nature is really like.

Democracy promotion has long been dominated by the political sphere, which focuses on elections. Elections do not a democracy make, people. If the rule of law has not been established, there is no rhyme or reason giving those elections any meaning. There was a period of time when a group of people, I do believe they were called modernists, believed that by establishing a market economy first would subsequently lead to the democratization of governments. That, too, has been proved wrong. Rather recently, groups like NDI have realized that all three realms need to improve simultaneously. You can’t have democracy without a market economy, and you can’t have a true market economy without democracy, but you also can’t have either without the participation of all of society. (Some will argue socialism, but all true socialist governments have failed. Scandinavia, as much as socialists don’t want to admit, is a market economy. The socialism comes in the social realm of it all.)

Islamist groups have also realized that you can’t ignore the social needs of the people and are doing well in the political and economic realms these days because of it. What is interesting to note is that Christian parties had a great hand in the rise of Western democracy in Europe. We’d call them fundies now just like we call the Islamic parties fundy parties, but the truth of the matter is that Christian parties like the CDU in Germany got their starts in providing social services to the people. Strange how things evolve, huh? Reconsider your thoughts on involving Islamist parties in governments – just because they have an Islamic agenda doesn’t mean they are going to blow things up. (However, Senator Frist, there is no way in hell we should be including the Taliban in the Afghan government. Republican Frist, these people are Al-Qaeda and are at war against us, you idiot.)

Another thing that was discussed – or rather dictated – was a five minute speech given by a member of the State Department after the presenters were done and were answering questions. He started off with “First of all, as a member of the Bush administration…” Now, I’ve had to work with this guy in the past, but his speech made sense of all the difficulties I’ve had in dealing with him, whether directly or indirectly. He proceeded to distort truths, saying this administration thinks about more than just elections (then explain to me why y’all don’t think building economic institutions or civil society institutions are important enough to fund?) and finally ended with something to the effect of “this is really hard.” Actually, those were his exact words.

The Democrats should grab hold of democracy promotion as a foreign policy and make it right again, make it a word that brings joy and gratefulness to the hearts of the world. This should NOT be done with bombs, but with encouragement through funding civil society organizations of political, economic, and social natures in the Middle East to help them build the institutions necessary to a stable, healthy democracy. We believe that all people are created equal with certain inalienable rights – life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Democracy permits these rights to exist, and whatever form a democracy may take, it is a basic human right that we should help everyone obtain.

I have no morals

Light slinks through my windows each morning, reminding me that it is time to leave the comfort of my bed and face another day in the real world. I go through the daily routine of getting ready for work and head to the bus stop still groggy from my noctural state of peace. I say good morning to the bus driver, sit down, and try to give as much space to anyone who sits next to me, for I am considerate. When I arrive at work, I look behind me to see if anyone is coming towards the elevators so I can hold the door for them, even if they are across the lobby. In my office, I work on projects to bring democratic, economic reform to the Middle East North Africa region in an attempt to make the world a better place. I live by the golden rule "Do unto others as you would have done unto you." I smile at strangers as I pass them on the sidewalks, and I walk on the right side to let others pass. I don't cheat people, I tell the truth, and I tip well. I generally don't break laws unless it's a speed limit or a parking issue, but hey, nobody's perfect.

I believe that all humans are created equal, that they are endowed by whatever created them with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I don't try to deny them these rights. I believe torturing a human being is immoral. I believe that fighting poverty, disease, and addiction are imperative to a healthy society and that helping the poor get on their feet is a humane thing to do. I believe the death and destruction caused by war is a human tragedy and that nations working together to end war is the right thing to do. I don't believe that revenge in the form of capital punishment is justice. All of these beliefs make me an immoral person.

Over the past few days I have seen rightwingers trying to defend that scum ex-Congressman Foley for his sexual exploits with the 16 year old page. I've seen them say "what's the big deal?" I've seen them try to trivialize the whole escapade (nevermind that they spent 2-3 years and $90 million impeaching a man who engaged in sexual relations with a consenting adult woman.) That they refuse to acknowledge the hypocrisy in this is disgusting. Let's run through why this is so wrong:

1. The boy was a minor.

2. Foley was chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus and pushed for legislation to protect children from exploitation by adults over the internet and further restrictions of online child pornography.

3. The Republican Party is always spouting off about how the Democrats have no morals, yet this is just another of the many gops who are in trouble with the law.

4. Perhaps the most disturbing part of all of it was the fact that Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert knew about it ten months ago and did absolutely nothing.

If having morals is being a 50 year old Congressman and an online sexual predator while serving as chair of the committee that is supposed to protect children from online sexual predators, then no, I have no morals. If swindling taxpayers out of their money and lying about where campaign finance funding comes from is having morals, then no, I have no morals. If cheating through insider trading is having morals, then no, I have no morals. If bombing the hell out of a country and inciting civil war is having morals, then no, I have no morals. The only thing moral about today's Republican Party is the "moral" in the word "immoral." When is America going to wake up and realize this? The polls indicate they are still sleeping.

A conversation with a stranger

Summer in Washington, DC has retired to the confines of our memories, and though the air is still warm and comfortable, the fading evening light reminds us that autumn has claimed its place on this year’s stage. As the wind rustles thirsty leaves sucking down their last sips of green, the American landscape is dotted with the reds and blues of another kind of season – campaign time – when political yard signs celebrate that most hallowed of democratic occasions. What is more fundamental to democracy than participation in the political process, when citizens gather together to rally around those whom they wish to represent them in a government for the people, by the people?

As I stood among the red brick buildings of an old colonial town, where fading sunlight streamed from the heavens and illuminated the myriad of stars and stripes hanging from buildings and lampposts, I contemplated the democratic process and the empowerment of someone like me, a common citizen. I soon found myself engaged in conversation about it with a middle-aged man donning the candidate’s name on his shirt and a round sticker on his chest to match. This is the essence of being, I thought, to be in control of one’s own destiny, to have a voice in policymaking. Attention eventually turned to the merits of democracy promotion over the course of our discussion, especially the successes and failures of it in the Middle East, and I brought up the subject of economic reform.

“Economic reform?” he repeated as he looked at me like I had said the sky was green. “What does economic reform have to do with democracy?” Now, I have been at CIPE for nearly three years, enough time to have learned a thing or two about the relationship between political and economic reform, but it always surprises me when someone does not understand the link.

“The two have to happen simultaneously if true reform is to take root,” I began. “He who controls the purse strings controls everything, right? If elected leaders take office and it’s economics as usual, nothing is going to change. Who cares if a country goes to vote if the officials ignore the people once in office?”

“But people have to be able to vote to elect leaders to make economic policy that benefits them.”

“You know as well as I do that those who run for office in what are termed ‘emerging democracies’ are all too often elites who are only in it for themselves. It all comes down to corruption. The Middle East is plagued by it – it’s their number one problem, in my opinion. Forget fundamentalism or poverty – those are mere symptoms of the disease. See, the relationship between those who control the economy – business leaders – and those who control the state – policymakers – is so incestuous that you often can’t find any line separating the public sector from the private sector. And in many countries, especially in the Gulf, state-owned enterprises dominate economies, so there really is no line at all.”

“So what does that have to do with democracy?”

“It’s all about governance. The adoption of good governance practices leads to transparency and accountability, culminating in the separation of the state and leading business interests. Without this separation, genuine democratic governance cannot occur, as the corporatist nature of countries’ political and economic systems effectively bar market reform. Government involvement just causes distortions in the market system. You have to make business leaders understand that they are only hurting themselves by not modernizing their governance practices, that people don’t want to invest in countries where corruption reigns supreme. By reforming the economic sector of a country, you can also reform the political sector.”

“Well, that’s interesting. I never thought of it that way. It’s like it makes the government more transparent, too. We should tell our candidate to talk more about it when he’s talking about democracy. Why isn’t there more emphasis on economic reform in development?”

“That’s a whole other issue. You want to grab a pint and I’ll try to explain it to you?”

Everything is so pretty

I was reading an article in the Post today about how gop scandals are hurting Ohio candidates, when an odd thought struck me. See, Laura Bush is stumping for Ohio candidates because none of the crooked men in power are held in a positive light and Femme Bush has approval ratings in the sixties. Why?

Laura Bush has been a wife throughout this administration. "A wife? Of course she's a wife!" you say. Yes, but that is all she is. She had a Christmas special where she decorated the White House. She reads books to children. She does not have an air of intellectual quality about her.

Wait! I am not criticizing Femme Bush. I am not saying that she is an idiot by any means. Frankly, I don't have a negative opinion about her. Truth is, I don't really think about her at all unless she is in the news, and well, today she is in the news, and so I am thinking about her. And I am disheartened a bit. See, Femme Bush has a positive approval rating because she is simply a wife. She doesn't try to make policy. She doesn't use big words when she speaks. She decorates. She dresses well (usually). She has wife hair. In short, she plays a more traditional woman's role: the subservient housewife.

I know many people did not like Hillary because she didn't act like an elegant princess. People want Jackie O. They got an ambitious woman with a highly successful career, and many people hated her for it. They would tune her out when she opened her mouth regardless of anything she said. They used her health care reform failure as an indication that she was a failure in life. They created a caracature of her so far removed from who she really is that a whole movement developed dedicated towards hating her. I suspect that these rabid rightwingers hold the view, whether they are conscious of it or not, that women should be subservient to men.

Laura Bush makes me wonder when we are going to get with the times and elect a female head of state. Britain had Maggot Thatcher. Pakistan, a Muslim country, had Benazir Bhutto. Nicaragua, Bangladesh, India, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka have had women prime ministers. If Condi weren't hanging out in the tenth circle of Hell with the rest of this administration, I probably wouldn't loathe the idea of her as president. (No, I wouldn't vote for her regardless.) I'm tired of hearing "this country isn't ready for a woman present," especially when it spills from the mouths of Democrats. It isn't time? Well then, when? When is the time? With this attitude, the time is never, and I'm not going to settle for never.

The Saints Are Coming

Wow. That performance was intense. I actually watched Monday Night Football last night, and I'm pretty indifferent about football. This wasn't about football though, it was about symbols. We as humans are dependent on symbols as tangible reminders of intangible concepts like memory, emotion, ideology, and god. It's why we build memorials and monuments and statues.

The Superdome had come to symbolize the tragedy of the storm that swallowed an American city. Last night, that stadium came to symbolize the resilience of the human spirit, hope, and rebirth.

I cried to my daddy on the telephone, How long now, Until the clouds unroll and you come home the line went, But the shadows still remain since your descent. The song I tuned into watch, a cover of The Skids' The Saints Are Coming performed by U2 and Green Day, could not have been more fitting. Not only did the title work for the football team and the lyrics fit the flood, but the underlying darkness and anger that was driven by The Edge's guitar and Tres Cool's drums spoke of loss, human suffering, and the mess that was made by those we've elected to protect the general welfare. The darkness behind the music was countered by Bono's ever-present message of hope and redemption.

A drowning sorrow floods the deepest grief, How long now, Until a weather change condemns belief, The stone says this paternal guide once had his day. The two bands performed together to benefit Music Rising, a charity to help New Orleans musicians acquire new instruments and reestablish the musical tradition of the birthplace of jazz. The Edge and producer Bob Erzin wanted to bring the music back to New Orelans, so they and Gibson Guitars formed the organization.

From the few criticisms I've seen of the show, the comment seems to be "what does U2 have to do with New Orleans?" The haters never cease to find something to bitch about, do they? Musicians and other artists share a common bond; I pity the soulless creatures who don't understand music, who cannot be moved by the mathematics of sound, who find nothing but contempt in their hearts.

See Gentilly and Lakeview
Crescent City right in front of you
Birds sing in broken trees
They're coming home to New Orleans
Lower 9th will rise again
Above the waters of Lake Pontchartrain
See the bird with the leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out.

How is it that more than a year later, New Orleans is still a disaster? Why are we spending billions of dollars a year on a war in a foreign land when mother nature has fought a war with us on our own soil? Why can't we spend money on problems in our own country? The saints are coming, the saints are coming, I say no matter how I try, I realise there's no reply.

It's too bad it was a mere football game, for those who felt something last night probably forgot it this morning (Never Forget!™ echo, echo, echo...) Still, being able to play a football game in that wreck of the stadium was a giant step forward in rebuilding the great American city of New Orleans. Oh yeah, the Saints have come back, come hell and high water. Here's to hoping the rest of the city comes back, too. How long now?

You can download the song here - proceeds go to Music Rising. The video of the entire performance of Wake Me Up When September Ends/The Saints Are Coming/Beautiful Day can also be found there for a limited time.

Nostalgia (part 2)

Part one here

Upon graduating from high school, I attended Miami University, a school located in he heart of gopland and whose 4% minority population is a good indication of the homogeneity of its student body. Miami's political claim to fame is its aluminus president, Benjamin Harrison, a man who's grandfather gave us an important life lesson: never stand in the January rain to give a lengthy speech. The political science building, just another of the red brick buildings on campus, is named after grandson, who in his quest for Governor of Indiana was "unfairly" stigmatized as "Kid Gloves" Harrison, according to the White House website. (I was not aware that biographies of presidents were rewritten at the change of an administration - the propensity for spin and disinformation of the gops never ceases to amaze me.)

There was an active campus political culture while I was there, though it was pretty one-sided the first year. I attended a meeting of the College Democrats that year, a meeting consisting of no more than ten people, though numbers were down for the GOP Youth, too. The next year, the College Dems were a force to be reckoned with, so much so that our president, Chad, who has since had a very successful career, was recognized by the Party for his efforts.

At one point during that glorious autumn, we drove up to Dayton from Oxford for a rally, getting there too late to get close enough to really see President Clinton. Southwest Ohio - gopland - turned out in droves to see the leader of the world. Oh, disappointment was great, for I could only see a tiny, gray-haired man in the distance, but I could hear his voice, and it called out to the heavens for justice in this cruel world. Yes, I believed in the hope behind his voice, never once considering the conscienceless force that loomed over the halls of our legislature.

When the air was pumpkin crisp and the trees raged about the loss of their green, we traveled through the Appalachian inferno to Washington, DC. We had been invited to the Clinton campaign headquarters as a result of President Chad's efforts in SW Ohio gopland - it was the thrill of a lifetime. If you've never been in a presidential campaign headquarters a few weeks before an election, go sometime. They have the energy of a billion thunderstorms, a mass of hope and tension and excitement swirling amidst the din of phonebank chatter and yardsign wallpaper. I stopped by the Kerry HQ a few days before the election - has it really been two years? - and I grew drunk on the feeling of possibility. It was quite a hangover, too. I still have it.

I've lived in DC for 3.5 years - has it really been 3.5 years? - but my memories of that first trip are of a foreign place, a place void of violent crackheads, disfunctional transit, horrendous traffic, overpriced housing, rampant racism, and Republicans in the White House. The memory of the first time I laid eyes on the pillared mansion has taken on a mythical quality, when the gift of reverence had bestowed on me the sense that I was looking at a castle in a fairytale rather than a house owned by me, an American taxpayer. The man inside that house had the power of God, but I, a voter, was his boss. Some of the outrage we "Bush haters" have is a result of Bush's refusal to accept the fact that he is accountable to we the people. FDR once said "I never forget I live in a house owned by all the American people and that I have been given their trust." The quote has been immortalized at the FDR memorial. Bush should visit sometime; he could learn something, if indeed he is capable of learning, for judging by what we've seen in the past six years, the guy is an anti-sponge, a racquetball wall.

While staring up at the elegant house before me, I strained my eyes to look through the windows hoping I could catch a glimpse of the man, harboring an unrealistic hope that he would come out to meet us. When we went inside to tour, goosebumps rose to the surface of my skin, for the thrill of being in the same building as my hero was overwhelming.

I wish I could recapture some of that enthusiasm I had for DC back then, but that is what happens when you become familiar with something. I can agree with much of what is written on why.i.hate.dc, though I wouldn't say I hate DC; I just need a break from it. If I get that break, I will return when progressive-minded folk roam the city's streets instead of the cardboard cutout silver-spooned GOP brats and arrogant policymaking bastards who drink from its watering holes these days. (Sorry, I'm just a bit tired of DC these days.)

To be continued after I see Clinton on Faux News...

Schizophrenic Freedom

Economic freedom - a term used by such greedmongering tanks as the Fraser Institute and the Heritage Foundation, good old bastions for the GOP, as insulated from the real world as the crackheads on the streets of DC - is not freedom. The idea of economic freedom is not a bad one, mind you, but it is the force behind the phrase that has warped its definition to something far more sinister.

The annual indices these organizations put out consider size of government; expenditures, taxes, and enterprises; property rights; access to sound money; trade policy; informal market activity; and the regulation of credit, labor, and business, among other indicators. Sounds benign, right? The indices themselves are benign - it's how they are used that is the problem. See, the indices are used by foreign investors to determine whether or not a country has a safe investment climate. Foreign Direct Investment is the new colonialism.

Of course, if you say something like this, it's all "moonbattery," isn't it? Is it? What is colonialism? Colonizers dominated the resources, labor, and markets of the colonial territories and also imposed socio-cultural and linguistic structures on the conquered populations. How is that different than Western multinational corporations moving into developing countries, setting up shop, and dominating a country's economy? Who gets the profits from FDI? Who is in the most powerful positions in the world today?

Those at the top are the ones whose lives revolve around the billions of dollars they make a year, the ones who rule the world without a conscience, the Carlysle Group, Club for Growth types. While wealthy people like Bill Gates are using their billions to make the world a better place, the Growth worshippers exist to control governments so that they themselves will benefit, so they will become richer than they already are. These are the people who preach the "power of the individual," who demonize government regulation so they are free to stomp on whomever they can to suck down more profits.

What do they want? The freedom to return to man's state of nature, where it is every man for himself, where we live in a constant state of war? Excessive individualism has repeatedly led to the downfall of civilizations. Plato attributed this individualism to the decline of Athenian democracy. He didn't predict the downfall of Athens - he opened his eyes and witnessed his country declining in front of him. By no means are Plato's ideas perfect, but there are lessons learned in his writings.

The freedom to pursue material things is not freedom at all. Indeed, it is quite the opposite. It is slavery. This is why the Club for Growth types who propel the global economy are so Orwellian. They are slaves to their own desires, and we all must suffer because of it. Let me use the real estate industry as an example. Housing should be a fundamental right, as it is one of the basic necessities of living. However, in DC, for example, a twenty something person like myself has to spend at least half a month's pay on rent to live in a place that is safe enough to walk through. It's wrong, but I don't have a choice. Personal choice advocates are those who have the means to make a choice, but those of us on the bottom of the totem pole don't have that choice.

This Growth Monster has become a leviathan that is difficult to combat. We all saw what the Swift Boat Assholes (they don't deserve to be called veterans) did during the 2004 election cycle. Well, they're back, under a different name: the Economic Freedom Fund, a 527 group formed by the infamous Robert J. Perry, the swiftboat asshole. (He is the little man on the front of the swiftboat travelling through Hell in the picture. Photoshop rox.) He and the assholes he surrounds himself with, including Cincinnati tycoon and former Cincinnati Reds majority owner Carl Lindner, will be out in full force this election. They've been busy suing Indiana, but no doubt they'll have plenty of time to spread their lies in the next month.

Economic freedom is a code word for aristocracy. It has nothing to do with real freedom. Islamic fundies in Al-Qaeda follow the philosophy of Sayed Qutb, a man who described Western obsession with material things as "hideous schizophrenia." With assholes like Robert J. Perry and Carl Lindner, it's no wonder we are engaged in a war with Islamic extremists.

Nostalgia (part 1)

Autumn has the distinction of being the season of nostalgia, a sensual time when memories carry us to winter's dark embrace. We're moving into a strange, exciting, and terrifying election season to determine the fate of the world, and the cooler air is reminding me of campaigns past, more luminous times when I had hope that the world wanted peace and was prepared to do anything to achieve it.

When I was in sixth grade, our school held a mock presidential election, complete with voting booths and poll workers. Of course, the purpose was to teach students about voting (I wonder if today's schools would be allowed to conduct a similar election or if that would be deemed "too political.") I remember dressing in red, white, and blue that morning, as if I were going to cheer on my favorite sports team. I laugh when I think of how I "voted" for George H. W. Bush, though a part of me still harbors a secret horror at the thought. How was I to know? I was 12, and I was a member of the myriad of American families of Reagan worshippers.

Everything was different in 1992, however, when I was a sophomore in high school and wore my Clinton/Gore button proudly. I recall debates with other students in the halls among the clamor of lockers and idle chatter. I scoured the newspapers for articles on the campaign in those pre-internet days and watched every television program that came on, including the debates, where Clinton wiped the floor with his opponents. I was 15, my mind already forming independent thoughts, however ignorant. I laugh at that ignorance, but a part of me is horrified that at age 15 I was more informed than many of today's voters.

He stood tall and proud, eyes glistening with the light of hope, the tinge of gray in his hair distinguished and demanding respect even from his older opponents. He made the old man with the Texas twang and the business mogel who talked like a cartoon look like fools. His voice cracked in all the right places, his words were educated and inspiring, and that thing he did with his hand, well, it was a half open fist, passive yet threatening.

I fell in love with this man for many reasons, above all his background. He was the antithesis of the elitism we see in today's network of powermongering bastards who flaunt their silver spoons and spit venom at anyone who dares to hold the American Dream. Even as a naive 15 year old I understood what this man represented. He told me I could be anything I wanted. He told me there was a reason to hope, that there was nothing to fear in the world. He was the son of an alcoholic, abusive father and a mother whose name was different than his own, a poor kid who wanted to be the leader of the world and to fix the problems of the nation so others would not have to suffer through a childhood like his. I will always love him because of this, despite his flaws, for he is the epitome of the promise of our forefathers - that all men are created equal.

My senior year of high school is most characterized by my government class, and specifically, the teacher, Steve Weadock. It wasn't until much later that I realized many of my teachers were not only Democrats, but active members of the party. One of Clinton's electors was a government teacher at my school, though I never had him as a teacher. Did my teachers influence my political persuasion? No. Did they help me understand why I felt an inclination towards the left side of the political spectrum? Most definitely yes.

To be continued...

On the disunity of our country

I spent most of the summer out of the political realm. I had to, for the bickering, the fighting, and my resident troll was getting to me. Sure, I posted a news link on washingtonrox every now and then, but my real blogging this summer was at my baseball blog, Church of Baseball. It was great to write about something I love without namecalling or arguments. I know some of those who read Church of Baseball are on the right side of the political spectrum, but it didn't matter, because we were unified in our love for the game.

But now I am contemplating putting up political banners in the Church. I am afraid that by putting them up, I will alienate some readers who hadn't known my political persuasion. I know everyone is well aware that the guy who runs the most popular Reds blog, Red Reporter, is on SB Nation, a sports network that has something to do with Kos, so I'm not too worried about what most of them will have to say. It's the other blogs I'm worried about. In the blogosphere, automated vitriol is spewed at those who stand on the poles of the spectrum, and I certainly don't want people to stop reading Church of Baseball because I stand on the opposite pole.

Yesterday, I made a comment on a Republican's blog, Land of the Free, Home of the Brave. It was a simple "it's going to be an interesting election" type of comment, and she responded in a similar manner. This civil exchange was refreshingly wonderful and I wish there was more of it. It's funny, but it took baseball and the fun I've had with Reds fans this summer to make me step back and see how insane the division in our country is and how much I crave civility in American political discourse.

So you may think, why bother putting the banners up? Well, what about those undecideds? What if I can help Sherrod Brown and Jim Webb and thereby our country, by persuading a person or two that the two are worthy of investigation?

Why has it come to this?

This one's flailing

Incumbent New Jersey Senator Robert Menedez is behind in recent polls, 48% - 45%. The Dems can't afford to lose a Senate seat they have, so we need to focus on this race in particular, among others like Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Menendez may have fallen out of favor with some folks, but right now, the goal is to take back the Senate. Once that is achieved, we can pressure these less-than-ideal candidates into reforming.

I admit I don't know much about Menendez except that some people are unhappy with him. I'm just looking at the bigger picture at this point.

Get on over there and donate!

Like a Prayer

"I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.'' ~ Voltaire (the real quote, not the misquote.)

Great. I haven't even been to work a half hour and I've already been upset by a rather un-American email message, one about Madonna, nonetheless. No stranger to controversy, Madonna has challenged her Catholic upbringing time and time again. Everyone knows by now about her "crucifixion" on the current Confessions Tour, as everyone from the Pope to the Russian Orthodox Church has condemned it. The ironic part about it is that people are calling it anti-Christian and a mockery of Christ when the purpose is

"to bring attention to the millions of children in Africa who are dying every day (or) are living without care, without medicine and without hope. I am asking people to open their hearts and minds to get involved in whatever way they can."

That isn't anti-Christian, it's the definition of Christianity!

Yes, it's called a "mock" crucifixion because it is not real. That is what mock means; it is not "mocking" the crucifixion, and it sure as hell isn't mocking Christ! Every Easter, Catholics across the world perform "mock" crucifixions when they go through the stations of the cross. It's a simple imitation. Are you making fun of turtlenecks when you wear a "mock" turtleneck? This is a lack of understanding of the English language!

Since the summer, Clear Channel Communications, the company responsible for ruining radio and the owner of a majority of radio stations in this country, has not regularly played songs from her latest album Confessions on a Dance Floor, despite a demand for them, including an online petition that was delivered to the company. They claimed the music wasn't right for top 40, but Madonna had no problems getting her songs on the radio in the rest of the world.

Now, NBC is pondering pulling the broadcast of her concert special Live to Tell, recorded during the latest leg of her hugely popular and equally controversial Confessions tour, because some people WHO HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN IT are "offended." How do you know it's offensive if you haven't seen it? This isn't judging a book by it's cover; it's judging a book by hearing the title spoken!

Remember when people screamed "freedom of speech!" when Muslims were upset over the cartoon of Mohammed with a bomb on his head? (According to their religion, it is a grave sin to depict the Prophet at all.) Madonna may have no taste, but she is no bigot, and she is entitled to express herself. See, the great thing about America is that we have this thing called "freedom of speech."

To those who may sign the petition to NBC to get the show pulled: If you're offended, please don't watch it. It really is that simple. Don't take something from other people just because you don't like it. If you are worried about your children seeing it, maybe you need to have more control over them - don't let them watch so much television, or let them watch it and explain to them that she is pleading for help for African children who don't have enough to eat. Once you start taking away one person's right to speak, others will follow, and then one day, you may find yourself in a position where you no longer have a voice. Don't give your freedom to the corporations.

Please show your support for free speech - tell NBC not to cave into pressure from religious extremists and people who disrespect the United States Constitution. Sign my petition to NBC in support of broadcasting the show (even if you don't plan to watch it.)


cross-posted on Rox Politix

Integrity now!

This is no surprise.

Graduate business students in the United States and Canada are more likely to cheat on their work than their counterparts in other academic fields, the author of a research paper said on Wednesday.

The study of 5,300 graduate students in the United States and Canada found that 56 percent of graduate business students admitted to cheating in the past year, with many saying they cheated because they believed it was an accepted practice in business...business school students described cheating as a necessary measure and the sort of practice they'd likely need to succeed in the professional world.

Is there no right and wrong in the business world? (Yes, it's profit and no profit.)

Seriously, when did integrity disappear from American (and Canadian) existence? When did truth and honesty and respect become mere words in a dictionary? Is there no such thing as honor anymore? How can 56% of graduate business students be so lazy and dishonest that they resort to unethical practices, that indeed they believe unethical practices to be acceptable?

I have so many questions, but I have no answers. These students are the future of corporte America, the next generation of those who will try to take the internet from us, who make up or over-diagnose disorders and diseases, who want to employ spies in newsrooms. And the right wonders why people have a problem with corporate America?

Enough!

The setting could not have been more appropriate – a red brick city hall building in one of the oldest cities in the country – Market Square, Alexandria, Virginia. A political rally unfolded on the square at a trying time in our nation’s history for a race that most likely determines the direction our country, and by default the world, will take.

The light fell from the September sky on this, the second to last day of summer, illuminating the stars and stripes that surrounded the square with divine light. A massive flag hung from the side of the colonial-style building, the sacred colors in their proper place for what should be a coveted event. Political rallies – there isn’t much that is more fundamental to Americana than waving a sign for the guy who you’ll pick to represent you in affairs of the world. Democracy can be beautiful with its red, white, and blue signs, ripples of arms clapping and pumping, and waves of self-determination flowing over a courtyard.

What of that self-determination? There is a sense of loss under the current administration. Discontent rumbles in the belly of the nation, a stirring amidst a sea of apathy. A populace who concerns itself with television and sports is finally getting wind of the chaos its elected officials have inflicted upon the world – all of the destruction and mayhem and senseless slaughter of its sons is awakening the slumbering masses. If only I could find faith in the American people that they will rise up and vote for a change. See, it’s the apathy that bothers me, the disconnect between the perception of what America is and what actually happens. The fact is that a lot of us who claim to be on the left side of the political spectrum are bothered by this. Apathy is a sign of a nation in decline, and goddamnit, I don’t want this country to decline!

A few hundred devoted Americans gathered at the square to kick off the final days before the election, Americans who finally see hope where it had not before existed. Children covered themselves with Webb stickers and waved Webb signs; I wanted to salute their parents for involving them in the American political process. Oh, it was exciting to participate, to listen to men who adore this country, who want to correct the wrongs that have been inflicted upon us!

Senator Barak Obama spoke, a man who represents hope to me. You can see the love for this country burning in his eyes, hear it flooding from his strangely blue lips, feel it as he transforms the air into energy, kinetic and alive and gleaming with optimism. Enough! Senator Obama, quoting Newt Gingrich, of all people, agreed with the pesky lizard that the Democrats need only two words in campaigning this autumn: had enough. Oh, he was a sweet speaker, his words ringing out over the square, over the crowd of people thirsty for their country, over the red hills of Georgia, ringing out like victory in Heaven. I love this man and look forward to working on his presidential campaign, whenever that may be. Pride swells within me and a hint of a tear comes to my eye when I think of the victory celebration, when my country finally lives up to its promise that all men are created equal, when we can scream from the mount “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

Ach, it wasn’t an Obama presidential rally, no, it was for candidate James Webb, decorated veteran, published writer of fiction, father of a Marine. I admit I went to see Senator Obama, our “rock star” as Representative Jim Moran called him. I wanted Webb to win to give us the Senate, of course, but I had been leery of that D after his name. He was, after all, a former Republican, Reagan’s Assistant Secretary of Defense and Navy Secretary, and he is using images of Reagan praising him in his television ads. I came away from the rally convinced that he was the right candidate, however. I came away inspired, full of hope, tasting optimism. I came away believing he can defeat George “Macaca” Allen.

He ended his speech with a statement that sealed the deal. “When we win, you can believe, and those of you who know me won’t be surprised, there will be beer!”

Some tibits about Jim Webb:

• He wrote the story for the movie Rules of Engagement.
• He is a big baseball fan and counts Ted Williams as one of his heroes.
• A member of his family has served in every American conflict.

Cross-posted at Raising Kaine. Thanks, guys and gals!

Don't pull another macaca!

Why does it matter if George "Macaca" Allen has Jewish roots?

It is sad that Allen's mother had to hide the fact that she was a Jew when she came to the States, but this is 2006 - isn't anti-Semitism a part of the history books? I mean, look who's in charge of the country! It's the neocons!

Get a grip, people. Don't vote for Jim Webb because Allen's a Jew, vote for Jim Webb because Allen's a warmongering racist!

Tracking Senate races

Electoral Vote is up and running again, and I must say, it is a pretty picture, though a little more blue could be added.

This was the first site I checked every morning in 2004, and I'll be checking once a day from here until November.

Jim Webb rally in Alexandria today

There is a rally today for Jim Webb, where Senator and future President Barak Obama will be speaking. The rally is at 5:30 at Market Square, 301 King Street, Alexandria, Virginia. If you're in the area, stop by and show your support for Jim Webb against Senator George "Macaca" Allen, and help the Dems take back the Senate!

Ohio River controls the fate of the world

WaPo has begun the Ohio River Ramble:

The area is ground zero in the battle for control of Congress and the larger battle between America's two major parties. The region is also emblematic of a closely divided nation -- neither the Republicans nor Democrats have a lock on its electorate.

Rothenberg said "this swath of prime campaign territory" roughly follows the Ohio River and could all be seen in a few days and 500 miles. Well readers, buy some beef jerky and grab your iPod, because we're making the trip.

Just a few days ago I was lamenting my lack of enthusiasm for this election. Suddenly, though, my interest has been piqued. Something called hope is starting to come back to me...

Maybe it's my head injury...

but I think I've just seen the latest Rasmussen report showing Sherrod Brown with a 47%-41% lead over Mike Dewine! (Of course, that doesn't take into consideration the Diebold Factor.)

In other good news, Rasmussen has shifted both Rhode Island and Montana from "toss up" to "leans Democrat."

HT: Dayton Politics via Lefty Blogs