Cogitamus

Thursday Optimism

Melissa McEwan is fond of writing, "this shit doesn't happen in a vacuum."  And it's always true, whether discussing violence against women, racism, and certainly when a man with Bill O'Reilly's and Ann Coulter's books on his shelf walks into a church with the sole purpose of killing liberals.

Dave Niewart continues his incredibly valuable work by providing a list of conservatives, some very prominent, calling for the murder of their fellow Americans.  I won't reprint them here; you need to click through and read them all if you haven't already.

This isn't the first terrorist attack against "liberal" Americans, of course.  Clinics and Planned Parenthood offices have been set on fire and bombed, doctors have been shot, members of Congress and the media have been targeted with weaponized anthrax.  Black churches have been bombed, and homes owned by blacks have long been, and still can be, terrorized by white supremacists.

But I promise you that what is coming down the road will be far worse.  Mainstream American attitudes are slowly changing.  People are becoming more accepting of gays and other races, less likely to believe not only in the god of Pat Robertson and James Dobson, but any god at all.  Battles are won and lost by both sides, but as people have pointed out before, the progressive vision is the one winning the war.

As radical conservatism declines, its adherents will turn to violence in ever increasing numbers and instances.  Terrorism is the result of True Believers - it really doesn't matter what they believe - perceiving themselves as alienated from society and whatever other methods exist to exert their will over it.  It's becoming harder for the richest 1% of our society to maintain an illusion of their rising tide lifting all boats - instead of capsizing them - which will put many currently comfortable conservatives in dire economic straits.  But the genius of the class warfare which has been waged by the upper class against the rest of us is that the groundwork for blame has already been laid.   The scapegoats for all this world's ills are the "liberals," - and not pointy-headed professors or America-hating Congresspersons.  No, it's those liberals down the street.  The blame for all of America's and their own personal problems lie with their coworkers, their family members, with you and with me.

Take a good look at the streets of Baghdad and Tel Aviv.  The day is coming when we'll wish we lived there.

In Pretense of Inurement

Beware the spew of Chlamydosaurus kingii, aka The Frilled Dragon

As a self-described word-wonk, I'm always up for the bite of nice, chewy neologisms, but when it comes to using them in writing, I regard them the same way I do a platter of chocolate-chip cookies: indulge in more than one or two and you're risking that sick-to-the-stomach feeling. When doled out or consumed in ill-considered bulk, that which is fresh and tasty becomes cloying, then stomach-turning. Witty turns to clever-assed, the kissing-cousin of shtick.

And so it is with the neologism-choked "writing" of Michelle Malkin.

Apparently, the rising star of Barack Obama--and more specifically, the appearance of his family's smiling faces in the racks of our grocery store checkout lines--is giving Malkin a bad case of agita:

People brings you the scoop on what really matters in this critical presidential campaign: Michelle hula-hoops with her daughters. They’re just like you and me! The kids have slumber parties. They’re just like you and me! Barack does laundry, but he doesn’t fold it. They’re just like you and me! The kids get small allowances. They’re just like you and me! The Obamas wear normal clothes while doing normal things.

THEY’RE JUST LIKE YOU AND ME!

Er, we are talking about People magazine, right? Last time I checked (yeah, I'll cop to it, it was the Oscars fashion double issue with photographs of all the gowns and jewelry), People wasn't exactly the go-to source for candidates' economic or national security policy outlines.  It's a gossip lifestyle magazine--a fluffy-light marshmallow of a publication, the cover photos of which have brightened many an otherwise-gloomy morning for this accidental grocery shopper (see Owen, Clive; Pitt, Brad; Clooney, George).

Lifestyle as in, pictures of celebrities (actors, musicians, politicians) living their lives just like you and me. Photos of picnics, snapshots of little ones in strollers, informal family-gathering portraits with everyone in the frame smiling and trying to affect a thrilled-to-be-here mood despite the fact that Uncle Remus is lying face-down in the marigolds--again--having consumed three pitchers of rum punch all by his lonesome and then thrown up on the trampoline.

In other words, just like you and me.  Only richer and possessed of newer, pricier outfits and top-shelf legal representation.

For Malkin, though, the tableaux vivants on display at her local supermarket this weekend reveal something false.  Something false about Obama, that poseur, that presumptuous, that...that...actual husband, actual father, actual attorney-and-law-professor-turned-successful-politician. But really, everyone, how dare he try to be JUST LIKE YOU AND ME when you just know he darned well isn't? I mean, I mean...oh, what DO I mean?  I need some new words to describe what I'm feeling.  Let's see...

Brangelina-fication
Hollyweird
Obamedia
Obamessiah
Chicago corruptocrats
fauxtographs
Snobama
JustLikeYou&Me Michelle

Which one to deploy today, though? Which will be most likely to irritate the Defeatocrats? Decisions, decisions. Ah, fudge, I'll just use them all--they make the piece so much punchier and more attention-getting .

Kind of like pom-poms and pleated minskirts, only you don't have to wax first.

(H/T Sadly, No!)

Also at litbrit.

The Third Through Nth Parties

It's hard to find a polling result less meaningful than the finding that 56% of Americans want a third major political party. That number lumps together Nader supporters, right-wing extremists who want a new party to the right of the contemporary GOP, Unity '08 Bloomberg types, Pat Buchanan supporters who want to run out all the immigrants, and people who think that both Democrats and Republicans are failing to respond to the imminent threat of UFO invasion. Any third party you can imagine will be unacceptable to the majority of that 56%.

I, of course, am among that 56% of Americans. I want a vocal and powerful third party run by James Dobson and Jerry Falwell, which will fragment the Republican coalition and ensure Democratic dominance as long as it exists.

Finally, a Story to Gladden Sir C's Heart

This is our distant -- though not so distant, as it turns out -- relative, the pen-tailed tree shrew.  The little tyke likes to drink.  And has evolved through the millenia to have a near-constant low level of alcohol in its blood.  Obviously, say scientists, this adaptation confers on it some evolutionary advantage.

But it is not the only animal species to enjoy the bibulous life.  Nay, seven species of small mammals drink fermented palm nectar on a regular basis.  They do not, however, get loaded.  Once again, it seems, we have something to learn from our furred and feathered friends. 

Obama Doesn't Sweat. He should. by Greg Palast

According to independent journalist Greg Palast, voters are being summarily purged from voting rolls all across the country.  And guess who stands to lose and who to win?  You guessed it.  Read Palast's assessment here.  He's trying to raise money to get this story out there.

Potomac Area Media Bias

As you can see, Tim Kaine has received substantially more veepstakes panting than either Evan Bayh or Kathleen Sebelius. I chalk this up to the bubble that is the DC press corps. Washington reporters cover politics and government in Virginia and Maryland, so they're much more familiar with his record than they are with most Senators or the Governor of Kansas.

Mittens!

Dear Jesus,

Please tell John McCain that he needs to pick Mitt Romney as his running mate.  You might need to tell him again after you restart his heart; it's not like you guys talk a lot or anything.

Hoping your hands and feet feel better soon,

Stephen

The Fix Is In

Here's how it will go.  We have already won the Iraq War, which is why Maliki wants us to leave.  That's Krauthammer's latest RNC-assigned column.  McCain will really push the idea that instead of him following Obama, Obama is actually following him because it's only by recognizing our victory in Iraq that Obama is willing to suggest removing our troops.

Since we have an official declaration of victory before Bush leaves office, any improvement in stability in Iraq from now until the end of America will be attributed to him alone, unless of course Diebold McCain wins in November.  Then he and Bush get to share the credit.

All acts of violence, any decline in Iraq's stability after January 20, 2009 will be placed squarely upon Obama.  After all, we won the war back in the summer of 2008.  Bush took care of all the hard work, but those Democrats just don't know anything about foreign policy, do they?

Everything is scarificed on the altar of consumption

On the scale of conservative outrages, there are worse crimes than Rush Limbaugh's latest oral flatulence.  Still, it's striking:

Folks, I don’t know what the price of gasoline is in China and I don’t know to what extent, if any, it is subsidized — okay, it is subsidized. See, the ChiComs need their economy growing. They need people driving around, moving around. They need people to be able to afford fuel, so they’re subsidizing fuel. They’re not bailing people out of stupid home mortgage messes. They’re buying their gasoline for them, because they need an economy. Know what energy means to this, the whole subject of economic growth. So meanwhile, the ChiComs, a country certainly growing, certainly on the rise, but it ain’t the United States of America. How does it make you feel that Zhang Linsen has a big Hummer with nine speakers blaring as he pulls out into a four-lane road with so much smog he basically can’t see the car in front of him, and you are trading in all of your cars and trying to go out and find basically a lawn mower.

So you've got a man who is, by any measure, American conservatism's leading light, not only praising the authoritarian, anti-American government of Beijing and indeed saying that Americans ought to envy residents of China. Why? Because of gasoline prices. China subsidizes them and doesn't do a lot to effectively control pollution (except, ironically enough, from cars -- where China's standards are actually higher than America's.)

But there you go -- America can trade in the bill of rights, because China's got lower gas prices. Not even that much lower, mind you -- the Chinese still pay above $3 a gallon. So when Thomas Paine, in The American Crisis wrote -- in the depths of winter of 1776, his not-yet-a-country's darkest hour:

Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated.

He clearly had no idea what he was talking about. Heaven has put a price on freedom, an apparently it's somewhere south of $4 a gallon for regular unleaded. I mean, we expect the decadent leftists to be all pro-Communist China, but when even El Rushbo is singing the praises of our masters from the Mainland, then clearly it's just time for all of us to give up and learn the lines to "The East is Red."

The Coming Re-Becoming

Quoting here in its entirety James Kunstler's most recent column (he writes one every Monday) -- bolded emphases mine:

      Everywhere you turn in this nation, you see a society primed for implosion. We seem unaware how extraordinary the American experience has been, especially in the last hundred years. By this, I don't mean that we are a better people than any other society -- these days, ordinary people in the USA make an effort to appear thuggish and act surly, as though we were a nation of convicts -- but for decade-upon-decade, we were very fortunate. Even the Great Depression of the 1930s may seem like a relatively peaceful and gentle "time out" from a frantic era of hypertrophic growth, compared to the storm we're sailing into now.
       We were fortunate to inhabit a New World filled with productive land, lots of minerals, and plenty of coal, oil, and gas; and the land itself was insulated physically from the great theaters of 20th century conflict, though we fought in wars "over there." That experience itself, especially our victory over manifest evil in the Second World War, left us with a dangerous mentality of triumphal exceptionalism.  Even now, we think we are immune to the epochal hazards of history.  The notion that nothing really bad can happen to us is reflected in the blind cluelessness of our current news media and their simple failure to report what is now happening.

Confession Is Good For The Soul

I've been pretty disgusted with PZ Myers during the whole "religious symbol desecration" piece of performance art.  It should go without saying that I've been disgusted with the so-called Christian zealots on the other side, since I'm disgusted with them 24/7.

But I've changed my opinion about PZ and what he did.  What follows is going to be pretty long and very theological, so I'll put it after the jump.

Kathleen Sebelius Supports the SUPeRTRAIN

From the Lawrence Journal-World [emphasis mine]:

As far as Kansas goes, Sebelius said the state’s next transportation program is likely to look different than the previous two.

She said the next program would be a “more diversified transportation strategy” that increases focus on rail and air transportation issues.

Rail transportation! In Kansas! Of course, she probably means long-haul freight rail, but still, a transpo budget that recognizes that there are ways to move goods and people other than on roads is progress. In Kansas!

Quel Scandale! Quelle Horreur! (with apologies to Lewis Carroll)

Oh, dear!  Oh, dear!  Oh, my ears and whiskers!  Oh, my fur!  There is -- gasp -- gambling going on in the NBA!  And one of its nefarious practitioners has at last been brought to justice!  He's going to jail.

Thank god we will now be safe from the horrors of betting on sports.  What next, pray tell?  What other social depravity lurks 'round yonder corner?  Poisoning, perhaps, apple pie?

O, America!  How it gladdens my heart to see ye taking on this scourge, especially since you can't be bothered to get upset at the number of assaults, rapes, and other violent crimes routinely committed by our beloved athletes, in numbers disproportionate to their population.  But I'm weary of writing about this, even in the watered-down version that, after much fighting of the old boys' network, eventually appeared (Hold Athletes Accountable, Baltimore Sun 2003).  And I'm weary of pointing to evidence in reputable books like this one, and this one, and this one, and this one.  After all, what difference does it make?  Much easier to get worked up about gambling than about -- ho-hum -- crimes against women.  Yawn.

Never Repeat The Lie

TPM election central makes an important point: the new AFL-CIO flyer doesn't ever say "Barack Obama is not a Muslim"; it simply says "Obama is a committed Christian". This goes for the latest lies from the McCain campaign on Obama's visit to Germany. Barack Obama did visit military installations in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan, he did make calls to recuperating soldiers, and he did not want to make a "political apperance" with wounded troops.

Evan Bayh

As you can see from this chart, Evan Bayh was once one of the most conservative Democratic Senators, but since 2004 has moved much closer to the center of the Democratic party, though he is still slightly right-of-center within the party. Why the shift? It's hard to tell. Perhaps it was because he started thinking about running for President, and needed to move towards the center of the party; perhaps it was because he started to perceive Bush's weakness; perhaps it was because in 2004 he had to run for reelection in blood-red Indiana; perhaps it's just luck. Regardless, it is a welcome shift. Electorally, giving Dems a boost in Indiana would add an additional "out card"; Obama could win the Presidency by carrying the Kerry states plus Iowa, then add (1) New Mexico and Colorado, (2) Virginia, (3) Ohio, (4) Florida, which is now competitive, or (5) Indiana.

Now, the downsides:

• Bayh voted for the Iraq war.
• He's also a squish on choice, having voted for the pointless Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act. These two alone are good reasons not to pick him.
• I'm not sure what the law is on appointments in Indiana. But the current governor is a Republican. If there is the slightest chance that Bayh's replacement in the Senate would be of a different party, it doesn't make sense to pick him as VP; the Senate is clearly going to be the bottleneck for getting things done in the 111th Congress, and Democrats need every seat they can get.

All of this means I would vastly prefer Kathleen Sebelius, who has a much stronger record despite representing an even redder state.

McCain Finds (the Right) God: Forget the Baptism Pond--Where Do We Land Cindy's Plane?

Alternet brings us the brilliant Matt Taibbi riffing on John McCain, who's now in the spotlight, finding his--or, at least, someone's--religion:

But here's how fucked that seemingly unstoppable coalition is this time around, now that the ticket is headed by an aging Goldwaterite named John McCain: The candidate has only recently come around to the idea that the Republican nominee in the age of Bush and the evangelical ayatollahs has to go to church regularly. When asked recently if he is an evangelical Christian, McCain answered, "I attend church." When asked how often, he said, "Not as often as I should."

So in recent weeks, to prove his piety, McCain has taken to dragging himself out of bed on Sunday mornings to attend services at North Phoenix Baptist, not-so-subtly announcing his devotions to his traveling press. ("Yeah, they started telling us he was going to church about a month ago," one McCain-beat reporter chuckled to me on the Straight Talk Express. "Like, Oh, by the way, he's going to church again. At this address, if you want to check. . . .") Originally baptized an Episcopalian, McCain claims that he's been attending this Southern Baptist church for some 15 years, despite the fact that his 2007 congressional biography lists his faith as Episcopalian. But in a touching display of his apparent unwillingness to do absolutely anything to get elected, McCain still hasn't been baptized in his new church -- he's not born-again, in other words. Dude is holding out for some reason. Like he's afraid to lie to God. A politician, afraid to lie!

The marriage of fundamentalist Christianity and the conservative movement has been a powerful force in world affairs. It has been the best smoke screen the archpriests of supply-side economics could possibly have had, giving Wall Street a populist in with the very people victimized the most by their union-busting, deregulatory policies. It turned out, for decades, that Bible-thumping Americans didn't mind having their jobs shipped to China, so long as someone was worrying about the air supply to Terri Schiavo's brain lump. As political cons go, this was the ultimate gift that kept on giving.

Richard Cohen - I've Run out of Wankerifics

Richard Cohen, best described by Atrios as "America's Concern Troll," has outdone himself again today. Yes, today he once again revisits the theme of the awesome maverickiness of John McCain, while asking what has Obama ever done that is admirable?  [Obviously Obama's impressive academic and electoral achievements mean nothing -- he wasn't tortured by the Vietnamese.] And don't tell him about no stinkin' speeches.

Well, the obvious answer is that in the Glorious Summer of War, Obama stood his ground against the foolish invasion of Iraq.  And did so for all the right reasons.  Cohen, grudgingly acknowledges this, but, of course, immediately dismisses it as a no risk gambit for a state senator from Hyde Park.  Obama's decision may look risk free from the post-clusterfuck perspective we can bring to bear in 2008; however, prior to the war this decision appeared fraught with risk for any politician with national ambitions.  Ask John Edwards or Hillary Clinton.  To be against the war was to be a dirty fucking hippy, inviting the scorn of wise men like Cohen, Tom Friedman, Joe Klein, and our other sages of the Op-Ed world.  It was simply not a popular position, despite Cohen's attempt at revisionism.  (Being for the surge, on the other hand is teh awesomest profile in courage yet.)

Once again, Cohen dismisses the fact that McCain has turned his back on virtually all of his previous high profile deviations from Republican orthodoxy.  Once again, no mention of the actual positions of Obama or McCain on issues, because we all know that the next president will have to raise taxes and cut benefits, and in the end, issues don't matter, character does.  Cohen's continued craven sucking up to McCain and his utterly sophomoric world view give new credence to a suggestion by a friend that the Post improve its quality and save money by simply running two blank pages at the end of the "A" Section in lieu of the Op-Ed pages.

A Post writer recently claimed in an online chat that the left blogoshpere's critiques of the mainstream media all essentially boiled down to journalists being either stupid or venal.  I think she left out the all important "stupid and venal'' category.            

Kangaroo Court

Apologies to this noble animal, but since its name has long since been adopted to describe sham legal proceedings, it's only appropriate here.  The so-called trial now taking place at Guantánamo of Salim Hamdan, a low-level driver of Osama bin Laden, is a kangaroo court.  As the U.S. military preens and poses, going through the motions of due process, bragging (not to mention preaching) to the rest of the world about its high-falutin' legal system, a few members of the press are sort of allowed in, sort of allowed to cover the trial, and sort of allowed to report on it.

In today's New York Times account, the dispassionate narration of the proceedings never once mentions the word "torture."  The usual euphemisms that have become so beloved of the press, however, are in abundance:  "coercive interrogation," "highly coercive environment."  But no matter.  Few Americans care that our government is torturing people in our name, anyway.  So I suppose we can just look at the proceedings with an appreciation for farce.

Meaningiless Veepstakes Speculation Thread

Looking at The List, I think we're down to a very small number of truly viable VP candidates. Rendell, Richardson, Hart, Napolitano, and probably Schweitzer aren't really going to get it. Chris Dodd has been asked to submit papers, so we'll put him on there. The James Jones rumors don't appear to have gone anywhere, though the fact that Jones doesn't have aides who can leak to the press would help keep those quiet. We'll keep him and drop Zinni into "The Field". That leaves Kaine and Sebelius as picks that have gotten a lot of speculation, with Bayh, Edwards, Clinton,  and Dodd as longshots.

Speculate in a meaningless fashion in the comments.

"Aides Say"

Content that should not be written (brackets mine): "Aides to the [McCain] campaign believe the event will shape voter perceptions of Obama as a self-interested politician who is willing to do anything to get elected. They say they believe Obama wanted to turn the visit into a campaign event and canceled when that became impossible."

There's no reason to let aides inject their spin like this. It even appears outside of quotes, as though it were fact rather than a disputed quote. The New York Times has forced anonymous sources to come up with a reason—however thin— why they can't put their name to the quote, and recently began using the construction "the source, whom the Times granted immunity because". The Post ought to do the same. This really ought to be the default posture; papers should not be in the business of letting campaign or government operatives exploit anonymity in this way.

If Steve Schmidt or Tucker Bounds or whoever is too chickenshit to come out and say that they keep lying about the cancelled Ramstein visit because they're trying to falsely smear Barack Obama, then the Washington Post shouldn't print it.

It Is A Lie

The McCain campaign is continuing to push the notion that Barack Obama wasn't really interested in visiting recuperating soldiers in Germany.

Now is not the time to mince words. This is a lie.

The McCain campaign is lying to the American public and the press and hoping that journalists will be too stupid to notice, and report the controversy in he-said, she-said, we're-clueless terms. MSNBC, thankfully, does its job. The Obama campaign planned to visit with his military aide (that's an "advisor on military policy" not "current member of the armed services who accompanies Obama on Senate trips") but never planned to take the press. The Pentagon ruled this a political visit since the aide is on the campaign staff as well, forcing Obama to cancel the visit. I believe Obama made calls to the bases in question, but can't find a news article on the subject.

The American people are not idiots and should be able to see through this, especially since McCain's ad uses footage of Obama visiting troops in Kuwait. But now is note the time for "objective" reporting that refuses to assess the truth value of TV ads and campaign statements. This is bullshit, pure and simple.

Monday Miscellany

- It's possible that John McCain is trying to throw the election.  Maybe the GOP is just seeing what they can get away with.  "In 2000 we'll run a guy with cocaine-related brain damage who's never been successful at anything in his life, and if that works, in 2008 we'll run a senile rage-addict and let him say and do whatever he wants!  Wheee!"

-Cake wrecks.  As in, horrible examples of professionally made cakes.  "Professionally made" in this case meaning "someone had to pay for these things."  It's awesome, in a disturbing way.  Or maybe disturbing in an awesome way.

-Here's a blog devoted to Korean cuisine.  The author is obviously an expert chef, and gives classic Korean recipes tweaks and twists from a variety of other food traditions.  Beautifully done, and a good place for recipes if you want to expand your horizons a bit.  I don't cook Korean food very well, but this should change that a little bit.

-You need to know three things about this image.  It's real, he's doing exactly what you think he is, and it wasn't intended as a mockery.

As you can see at the link, there's a whole range of these. 

Happy Monday, folks!

You Can Never Be Too Rich, Too Thin, or Too Popular

When I went to candidate/operative training a few years ago, someone in the audience asked if they should be worried about frustrating voters by making too many phone calls and door-to-door appearances. Our speaker said no, that the gains you make by speaking to voters directly, most of whom are thirsty for some information about down-ballot candidates, will more than offset the losses due to turned off voters. After all, most of them will get over it and vote for the candidate they think is best; voting is not something that people usually do in a fit of pique. The lesson hear is that first order effects (talking to voters) always vastly outweigh second order effects (pissing off a few of them).

This is a way of introducing the Wall Street Journal's latest addition to the concern troll file for Obama's overseas trip. Three of the five "lasting moments" are negatives, including his cancelled visit to troops in Germany (due to Pentagon regulations), speculation that his trip will be seen as a snub of "Main Street USA", and further speculation that he won't be able to "close the sale in Poughkeepsie rather than Paris". No evidence is given that these moments will last or that the public is so isolationist as to not care about this stuff. Obama's trip,has been the most covered political event since Obama won the nomination. The idea that the trip was a net minus is silly; the coverage would have to be unfailingly negative for that to be the case. I'm not one to take tracking polls as gospel, but the evidence we have shows that Obama received a boost from the trip. Facts, it would seem, have a liberal bias.

And by the way, rarely was the question asked, was Reagan ever too popular for his own good?

Shameonomics (or should that be, Shamonomics)

John McCain comes out in favor of the Green Lantern Theory of Domestic Policy:

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they all say that . . . the oil companies, the gas companies are going to absorb … any reduction.

MCCAIN: … they say that. But one, it didn’t happen before, and two, we wouldn’t let it happen. We wouldn’t let it — Americans wouldn’t let them absorb that.

STEPHANOPOULOS: How would you prevent that?

MCCAIN: We would make them shamed into it. We, of course, know how to — American public opinion. And we would penalize them, if necessary. But they wouldn’t. They would pass it on.

I suppose McCain might have had in mind JFK's attack on the steel industry's 3.5% price increase in 1962. But of course, Kennedy had actually done the steel industry a favor, convincing the steelworkers to pull back their demands for a wage increase, so he had already built up substantial good will with steel executives. In the present day, should we suspend the gas tax, the amount the federal government will have done to aid oil companies' bottom line is ... nothing. The two situations are not comparable.

Sunday Night Musical Interlude

"The Heinrich Maneuver" -- Interpol

Was in the mood to hear this (although the video is a liitle bit creepy).