Neil's Journal

Yes we can, we really can

2010-03-27T09:46:00.003-04:00

Still feeling very good about health care reform... For some liberals, it was not enough -- no public option, and of course, no single payer. For some liberals, it was enough that we defeated the creepy, reptilian forces of the dark side -- any victory in that sense is worth celebrating for the hope it brings. For my part, the realization that the previously disenfranchised 32 million will now have access to health care services is a source of deep satisfaction. Obama promised change, and this is big change -- very big indeed.

I stand in awe of Nancy Pelosi -- what an incredibly effective Speaker she has proved to be! Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, on the other hand, have never been so loathsome. This video makes the point so clearly; the Republicans stand against the noblest aspirations of people of goodwill in this country. How anyone can still be a Republican today is beyond my limited powers of comprehension.

There is more work to be done, but it is good to know that we really can do it, after all.

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More Total Praise

2010-03-09T21:20:00.003-05:00

Hang in there -- let the guys goof off for about 50 seconds, then give their performance a listen.

This is really deep down good.

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Total Praise

2010-03-05T08:26:00.005-05:00

I went to a Black History month celebration at New Brunswick High School last night and was moved by one young woman's performance, singing Richard Smallwood's "Total Praise." Her singing was not flawless, but she sang with power and confidence and with such sincere and profound feeling - so much emotion that my dark little atheist heart was overwhelmed. The power of music, the purity of spirit with which it was offered, and the intimacy and warmth of a human voice fully engaged -- it all made for a memorable experience.

And so this morning, I am remembering and it caused me to look for other performances of this beautiful hymn. I posted one on Facebook and here is another. This video is a performance by the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. I hope you will enjoy it.

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Yoo Who -- The Drink of Forgiving and Forgetting

2010-02-20T13:19:00.006-05:00

Reported today, in the New York Times:

After five years of often bitter internal debate, the Justice Department concluded in a report released Friday that the lawyers who gave legal justification to the Bush administration’s brutal interrogation tactics for terrorism suspects used flawed legal reasoning but were not guilty of professional misconduct.

John Yoo, who in a decent country would have been considered a war criminal, escaped even the lesser charges of professional misconduct for harnessing his talents to the waterboarding and "enhanced interrogations" that shocked the consciences of good people around the world, if not here at home in the land of the free and the home of the indifferent. Where war crimes are simply shoved under the rug in the interests of some faux bipartisan amity, of binding up the untreated wounds of the nation, and where such behavior can be expected to occur again. The moral hazard of our exceptionalism.

Shame. Shame.

Massachusetts

2010-01-18T18:06:00.002-05:00

Connecticut has inflicted Joe Lieberman on the nation; no doubt many in the Nutmeg State regret that choice. Now Massachusetts appears likely to send Scott Brown to Washington. One wonders how Barack Obama can deliver on the promise of change when states like these stand in the way of progress. Can the good people of Massachusetts not know of the burden that is now on their shoulders?

Remembering Dr. King today -- we miss his wisdom and character today, and his practical commitment to the work of making real progress happen. If good men and women do nothing, the liberal agenda of social justice will go down to defeat. I hope that the voters in Massachusetts will be mindful of their responsibility to the nation.

Hope abides

2009-12-31T11:00:00.000-05:00

At the end of an awful decade, one so marred by the dismal, disgraceful, and destructive Bush presidency that its stain will not be removed in our lifetime, we entered into 2009 with a spirit of hope. Americans had just elected an African American to the Presidency -- a bold departure from our past that was broader even than the gulf between the previous President's incoherent faux-cowboy belligerence and the soaring rhetoric and highmindedness of Barack Obama. Though we entered upon this last year of the decade of naught with two failed wars still in progress, with a rapidly collapsing economic system, and with the mountain of debt left by the GOP Congress and Mr Bush, nonetheless some of us also felt a deep and reassuring hopefulness -- a sense that we were finally heading in the right direction, that our highest aspirations might finally begin to be met. With such hope and such aspirations came expectations that have not been met.

This last year has been disappointing. We are more deeply engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan than I had hoped. The health care reform bills have fallen short of my expectations. The economic program has been too timid -- too much of a trickle-down Republican model, and too little has been done to help the unemployed and those in real difficulty in these hard times. Watching the Democrats in Congress take their lead from blue dogs, "moderate" Republicans, and Joe Lieberman, has been profoundly disheartening.

Yet, even on the darkest days, hope abides. It is a hope that I cannot explain or defend, but at its center is the belief that a nation that could elect Barack Obama is a nation that can come to understand the righteousness and wisdom of the progressive agenda, and to support that agenda so that Congress and this President can bring its benefits to our children and the generations of Americans who will inherit the America we leave behind when we go.

Wishing you all a happy new year. May all your highest aspirations be realized in the year to come.

Neil

Progress: The Best Gift

2009-12-24T13:38:00.000-05:00

Progress is slow, and has many enemies. They fear the cost; they see only the sacrifice and worry that something important is being overlooked. And so they wait and suffer for the waiting: the poor, the uninsured, the unemployed, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The dream that is America - a dream of equality and human dignity expressed in the words of our Declaration of Independence but has taken two centuries and more to even approach realization. How far we still are from realizing that dream for all of us, for the least of us.

And yet, there are days when you can feel the progress, and sense the dream in motion, like a moving river or the shifting plates of the Earth herself. It may be naive, but I believe in progress. I believe in that dream. This is the Christmas spirit flickering brightly in the heart of a nation born to be a light unto the world.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

KMSR RIP

2009-12-22T16:52:00.002-05:00

A good friend sends sad news. The Boy Scout Council that received a generous gift of land in the 60's for the purpose of camping and outdoor activities, has decided to close the camp and sell the land. More about this later; I have no time now to do more than provide the link to this appalling and deeply shameful act.

Conservation is a fundamental value in Scouting, and what this news amounts to is a gross failure of stewardship -- a disgraceful failure to conserve the benefits of a generous gift so that it might be enjoyed for the ages. In just 40 years, the incompetents in charge of the Council have managed to screw it up so badly that the lands we loved are now on the auction block. They can claim to be doing this as a service to the boys, and in making such a claim they confess their own culpable dishonesty and reckless destructiveness.

When the camp is no more, and the lands have been put to other uses, who will know the true cost? Those of us who slept soundly on summer nights under canvas tents beneath familiar Hemlock trees, and who tread the trails from one end of the camp to the other a thousand times, will have our memories. Little did we know how lucky we were, nor appreciate how vulnerable such things are in a world where even Scouters fail to conserve.

Moderates, Centrists, BlueDogs, and Other Useless Creatures

2009-09-11T11:16:00.004-04:00

Health care reform may finally move forward, if the President's excellent speech is any indication of the likely course of future events. The bottleneck is in the Senate Finance Committee, where Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley have supposedly been struggling to forge a measure that would draw 60 votes. Baucus is no liberal champion, and Grassley's public statements show that he is actually out to block any reform at all, and it is no surprise that progress has been stalled in their shop.

The President has tried to move this legislation forward with bi-partisan support, but the Republicans see no advantage politically in helping him achieve what would be a stunning reversal of the sorry history of health care reform in this country. He is right to try to change the tone of public discourse and to seek to bring together people of goodwill to bring changes we can mostly agree on -- surely we do not need more of the kind of ugly and divisive behavior that was evident at McCain-Palin rallies and more recently at Town Hall meetings. But the idea that compromise is always the best course, and that mollifying the so-called centrists is the right thing to do, is just plain wrong.

Tying our policy, and our nation's future, to the meandering and mindless middle is what produced the war in Iraq, the Bush tax cuts, the torture of detainees, and the meltdown of our financial markets. Where were these moderates when these things were happening? They were happy to go along with Bush and his radical economic and foreign policies. They raised no objection to the suppression of regulatory oversight of our financial services industry. They endorsed and tolerated and compromised their way through eight years that ruined us financially, empowered our enemies, punished our military and our military families, and exposed us to dishonor and shame.

It is clear that we need to avoid rancor and insulting speech, the personal attacks, and the appeals to fear and bigotry that have reinforced and magnified the fringe elements and rowdies who have emerged from the bars, and other places that feature FOX news and similar degraded forms of entertainment, to take their place as political spokesmen and women of middle America and to claim the loyalties of the likes of Chuck Grassley and Mike Enzi. Is it any wonder at all that Chuck Grassley stood before such people and told them they were right to worry that the government intended to pull the plug on Grandma?

Much of what passes for moderation is nothing more than mindless passivity and amoral abdication of a citizen's responsibility to be informed and to give serious thought to the public policy issues of the day; a natural consequence of such complacent neglect is uncertainty and self-centered inertia. It is very common to fear change and to hold onto the status quo even as it becomes ever clearer that the status quo cannot be sustained -- it is also common to prefer to be called a moderate than to admit you are simply complacent, uninformed, and afraid.

The time for all that passed a long time ago. Change, at long last, is inevitable. This may be our last chance to reform our health care system before we all go broke. The President has put forward a sensible and decent plan. It is not the single-payer plan that many of us wanted, but it deserves our endorsement and full support. It is time the blue dogs and moderates got on board or out of the way.

Neil

You Lie!

2009-09-10T22:15:00.003-04:00

My President gave a wonderful speech last night. So wonderful that it could not be marred even by the ugliness that we have come to associate with the Republicans since the fall presidential campaign and this summer's absurd town hall circuses.

A Congressman from South Carolina shouted an insult to the President, charging Mr Obama with lying. It would of course be no less offensive had the charge been made by a member of a party that had not already sold us the war in Iraq on the most dishonest and discredited terms, challenged the President's eligibility to serve in his office, and charged that he intended to pull the plug on America's elderly. But in this case, the charge is plainly ridiculous.

We have endured the dishonesty and belligerence of the Republicans for eight long, difficult and dishonorable years. It is time to move on. With or without these people, and we may well be better off without them, let us bring the change that America needs. Elections have consequences, I was told when we invaded Iraq. It is time that the last two elections began to make a difference in the lives of Americans.

I am proud of my President tonight.

Neil

Town Hall Republicans

2009-09-03T21:29:00.002-04:00

The past few years have been a challenge for progressives and liberals. Going back to the failure of our political system in the presidential election of 2000, and moving forward from that flawed beginning, we have seen a series of plagues: the repeat of the Vietnam experience (ie, a war without justification and without an ending, and with American war crimes and dishonor), the disabling of government agencies like FEMA and the SEC, ruinous tax breaks for the wealthy, the attack on science and the promotion of religion as its substitute, an ugly pandering to homophobes and nativists, and the depressing degradation of debate of public policy issues.

It's this last bit that I am thinking of tonight.

In the 70's, the GOP included talented and serious people who were pragmatic and moderate in their approach to public policy. Even the hated Richard Nixon was capable of supporting Food Stamps.

The change in the GOP began with the rise of Newt Gingrich, but really blossomed under the presidency of George W Bush. These were the years when the party moved sharply from competence, pragmatism, good government and moderation, to become the party of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Chuck Grassley, and the townhall rowdies who shouted down a woman in a wheelchair in Red Bank today.

The career of John McCain from 2000 to 2008 tells the story: in 2000, Americans on both sides of the aisle supported his presidential campaign. I liked Bill Bradley and John McCain more than I did Al Gore. By 2008, he had completely rebranded himself -- even to the absurd extent that he was able to choose Sarah Palin as his running mate. A more convincing repudiation of competence and moderation would be hard to imagine.

What has happened to the GOP is really a shame. It is also a tragedy for America and for the world that looks to America for leadership. Perhaps the worst thing is that the phony populism of the GOP affirms the misbehavior and encourages the belligerence of people who have suffered the most from Republican policies of the past eight years. The GOP draws its political clout from the resentments and bigotry of the least well-educated members of the lower fringe of a threatened middle class.

It seems likely tonight that the public option will be dropped from health care reform. This is also tragic, because it is a clear indication that the large companies that have been the beneficiaries of the current system -- who have benefited from the system that has so disenfranchised tens of millions of Americans -- have succeeded in protecting themselves and their profit margins from serious competition. For now.

With or without the public option, we need to extend coverage to all Americans now. It will be much more expensive without a public option, but so be it. First, let's get people covered, even those idiots doing all the shouting in the town halls. In time, when reform proves to have been a good thing for them and their families, we can come back and finish the job.

It's a big country with a lot of stupid people; progress is going to be slow and difficult.

Neil

Disillusionment

2009-08-17T21:11:00.002-04:00

First, it turned out that a Democratic Congress could not, or would not, bring an end to the Vietnam, I mean the Iraq War.

Then it turned out that John Edwards was a liar - not just a man who was having an affair but a man whose ego would allow him to jeopardize the hopes of all the people who supported his candidacy for an affair, and who lacked the integrity to quit the race when it became apparent that his affair was the biggest threat to the otherwise inevitable Democratic victory.

Now Barack Superstar Obama is backing away from the public option. That's right. Not only don't we get single payer, we don't even get a public option.

Why? Because it would be so freakin' radical? A touch of communism? No, unless you consider the Veterans Administration to be a Commie institution. No, unless your Aunt Sadie's Medicare seems like a pinko conspiracy. What is it exactly that worries people about a public option?

And how could Barack Obama, the coolest, smartest, most popular man in the world so totally fuck this up?

How does a moron like Chuck Grassley get his way, and how can Obama sell us all out so easily?

Why are Democrats so useless?

Why?

Ghost in You

2009-04-04T11:53:00.003-04:00

The Psychedelic Furs - The Ghost In You

Music from the mid-80's by the Psychedelic Furs, vocals by Richard Butler. The video is ridiculous, but I like this tune, and need to check out more of Butler's work.

Women of Ireland

2009-03-17T10:39:00.000-04:00

With love to all.

Redemption Song

2009-03-17T01:33:00.000-04:00

Odd what you can find on You Tube, isn't it?

There is something authentically Irish about the theme of this song. How many songs do the Irish sing about the struggle for freedom? Too many to count, I suppose.

And for those of us whose families made the journey to America in the 19th century, have not our ancestors hopes and dreams been redeemed? To celebrate St Patrick's Day in America is to celebrate those hopes, their dreams, and that redemption.

In a year of economic hardship for so many, it is good to recall that others with fewer resources and far greater troubles persevered and found redemption. It is also a good time to look upon our neighbors in this world and see our own refugee ancestors in their eyes, and hear our own songs in their music.

It is a great day to be Irish and American and to feel connected through that unique identity to all those who struggle in this world.

Have a wonderful and happy St Patrick's Day!

Neil

Remembering Derek Bell

2009-03-16T23:20:00.000-04:00

The late Derek Bell is featured on this performance by The Chieftains of O'Carolan's Fanny Power

Irish A Capella

2009-03-16T12:13:00.000-04:00

AIG Bonuses

2009-03-15T21:21:00.002-04:00

Can anything be more damning than this - that AIG executives in the business unit that has absorbed more than $100 billion of taxpayer dollars, due in large part to their mindless negligence, are now being paid millions in bonuses?

In Pakistan, thousands have taken to the streets to demand an independent judiciary. Here in America, we are placid. Complacent. Resigned, perhaps. But utterly passive.

We do not deserve the freedoms we enjoy, and we may not keep them. We think they are God-given, inalienable, but that does not guarantee them in perpetuity.

In the comfort of our lives, we have granted powers to the managerial class - the highly compensated stewards of our major corporations and capital markets - and their political allies and servants. Why have we been so willing to abdicate in the exercise of our citizenship? Because we have vastly undervalued that franchise.

I watched Oliver Stone's "W" recently and wondered once again, as I did in 2004, how Americans could vote for such a mean-spirited punk, such a second-class mind, such an undeserving pretender. It says much about us, and we have not learned a thing from the experience of the past 8 years. We think George W Bush is to blame, but the blame is ours, and we must understand that if there is to be any hope at all of fixing what is so greatly in need of fixing.

I do not believe we have it in us, as a nation. I live among silly, self-centered, under-educated, incurious, and unreflective fools. A nation of such people cannot long remain great.

America is a great nation, and Lincoln was right to see her as the last, best hope of man. Were he here today, I wonder how hopeful he would be.

Reel Fiddling

2009-03-15T21:13:00.000-04:00

Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, of the group Altan.

The Bush Stain on American Honor

2009-03-15T20:35:00.001-04:00

Read all about it.

Now what? Where do we go to get our good name back?

Que lastima.

Lover's Waltz

2009-03-15T12:10:00.001-04:00

Lovely music.

Dreaming of the one I love

2009-03-11T23:30:00.002-04:00

I think we could dance to this - eh?

Pretty Music

2009-02-27T22:18:00.002-05:00

Heard this tonight on WFUV. Just lovely.

St Francis, in Song

2009-01-25T20:40:00.001-05:00

There's a story to this one - to tell another day.

Come back soon.

Peace to all.

Neil

More Sweet Music For Sunday Night

2009-01-25T20:36:00.000-05:00

Air and Simple Gifts

2009-01-25T19:57:00.000-05:00

Music from Tuesday's historic and hopeful celebration. Enjoy!

What you see...

2009-01-10T10:44:00.000-05:00

Just for fun. Have a great weekend...

A Year to Remember

2008-12-31T13:34:00.002-05:00

A year to remember, but I am looking ahead to the new year, and the good work we need to do in this country.

Happy New Year!

Nine Lessons

2008-12-24T11:08:00.004-05:00

Working from home today, and listening as I do each year to the broadcast from King's College (Cambridge) of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. This lovely holiday tradition dates back to 1918. In the midst of a terrible World War and the Spanish Flu to boot, Eric Milner-White expressed his hope and his faith - and not a little bit of pluck - by creating this program of Scripture readings and hymns celebrating the mystery of God's presence in the world, even in its darkest hour.

As an atheist, I don't buy the basic story line at all, but the human spirit that gave birth to this tradition, and the joy and beauty of its performance, surpasses any criticism. It is a good-hearted program, full of man's desire for peace and fellowship, a reminder to be compassionate, and a reminder of the dignity of all men - the savior of the world, born in the humblest of circumstances.

The broadcast of the Nine Lessons always puts me in the right frame of mind and mood for Christmas. It pulls back from the crummy commercialism that pervades and pollutes - that sucks the life and meaning out of everything it touches. Bill O'Reilly likes to accuse us atheists of making war on Christmas - but the war was fought and won among believers - without a shot being fired, the 80% of Americans that call themselves followers of Christ have turned this great day into a me-first, glitz-and-garland, credit-card-stretching, drop-dead-shopping nightmare.

I am in a great mood - don't be misled by that last bit of commentary - and I am looking forward to hosting my family tomorrow for what I am sure will be a lovely day.

Here's wishing all of you a Merry Christmas!

Neil

People's Parties

2008-12-09T14:02:00.002-05:00

Jim Atkinson writes in the NY Times about the problem with holiday parties for those of us who are dealing with an addiction to alcohol, and he offers all of us a unique perspective on the holidays - insights that inspired me to think about more than just aiming for moderation in my own holiday alcohol use.

A few excerpts follow:

It’s not that I’m driven to drink; just to a certain uncomfortable distraction that doesn’t leave until the holiday season thankfully does. And it’s not just that the holidays seem to have been invented for the express purpose of promoting — no, necessitating — irresponsible alcoholic consumption.

There’s something in the alone-in-the-crowdness of the holiday party circuit, the forced pleasantries and laughter, the charge to be friendly and engaging — but only in a trivial and superficial way — that is very much like the existential condition of the alcoholic psyche. So the holidays not only remind me of drink; they remind me of how it felt to be a drunk.

Atkinson talks about the experience and mental state of the alcoholic:

...we all tend to be afflicted by a low-grade dysphoria, a sort of constant melancholy that causes feelings of unease, isolation and dissatisfaction with life — an “inexplicable ache,” I once heard it called.

As he looks with understandable dread to the imminent holidays, Atkinson says:

I rather like the view of radio talk show host Don Imus, himself a recovering alcoholic who has been sober 20 years. When the subject of parties came up on his radio show a few years back, Imus noted that he was invited to many but went to very few, for one simple reason: “I don’t drink.”

This seemed to me to be one of the more sensible things ever said about parties or alcoholism. So as the holiday season gets underway, I try to look at it this way. No one really wants to go to all those parties. I’m one of the lucky ones who has an excuse to beg off.

I like the holidays, but I prefer the intimacy of small get-togethers to crowded parties that tend to degrade into trivial superficiality, even when the crowd is mostly close family.

For many of us - those for whom addiction is not the primary concern - the holidays are most disappointing for the sense of lost opportunity, the absence of meaningful interaction. Sometimes a couple of drinks get in the way, but often it is simply designed out of the event by the size of the invite list, the energy expended on the menu, decorations and gifts, and countless other distractions.

This year, I hope to strike a better balance - to invest enough in the hospitality and preparations to make the holiday festive while seeking to make the most of the opportunities for intimacy - to be fully present for those I love.

McCain's Big Lies

2008-12-07T13:31:00.002-05:00

John McCain will never live down the dishonor of his campaign tactics, and of those used by his ill-chosen, half-witted, hockey-mom sidekick. The failure of his attempts to smear Obama in no way diminishes the stain on McCain's character. In the midst of McCain's mudslinging, Bill Ayers made no attempt to defend himself.

It must have been difficult to stand back and let the McCainiac's attack him every day and not say anything to deflect the worst of the misrepresentations and exaggerations. He realized it would only help McCain, and hurt Obama, and so he kept silent.

For all of John McCain's bragging about his own character, the campaign he ran stands as a sharp and compelling counter-argument to that claim. Bill Ayers, whom McCain and Palin sought to destroy in their attempts to swing a few low-information voters in swing states, showed more integrity in his silence than they will ever again be able to claim, no matter how loudly they proclaim it.

Despite all his ghost-written books proclaiming his personal courage and integrity, John McCain offered a convincing refutation in the way he campaigned against Barack Obama. Today, Bill Ayers puts the exclamation point on that refutation in this op-ed piece in the NY Times. A man has a right to defend himself against creeps and bullies like McCain and Palin - I am glad that Ayers has finally had his chance to be heard. Accordingly, I have not abridged the text which follows:

The Real Bill Ayers
By WILLIAM AYERS

Chicago

IN the recently concluded presidential race, I was unwillingly thrust upon the stage and asked to play a role in a profoundly dishonest drama. I refused, and here’s why.

Unable to challenge the content of Barack Obama’s campaign, his opponents invented a narrative about a young politician who emerged from nowhere, a man of charm, intelligence and skill, but with an exotic background and a strange name. The refrain was a question: “What do we really know about this man?”

Secondary characters in the narrative included an African-American preacher with a fiery style, a Palestinian scholar and an “unrepentant domestic terrorist.” Linking the candidate with these supposedly shadowy characters, and ferreting out every imagined secret tie and dark affiliation, became big news.

I was cast in the “unrepentant terrorist” role; I felt at times like the enemy projected onto a large screen in the “Two Minutes Hate” scene from George Orwell’s “1984,” when the faithful gathered in a frenzy of fear and loathing.

With the mainstream news media and the blogosphere caught in the pre-election excitement, I saw no viable path to a rational discussion. Rather than step clumsily into the sound-bite culture, I turned away whenever the microphones were thrust into my face. I sat it out.

Now that the election is over, I want to say as plainly as I can that the character invented to serve this drama wasn’t me, not even close. Here are the facts:

I never killed or injured anyone. I did join the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s, and later resisted the draft and was arrested in nonviolent demonstrations. I became a full-time antiwar organizer for Students for a Democratic Society. In 1970, I co-founded the Weather Underground, an organization that was created after an accidental explosion that claimed the lives of three of our comrades in Greenwich Village. The Weather Underground went on to take responsibility for placing several small bombs in empty offices — the ones at the Pentagon and the United States Capitol were the most notorious — as an illegal and unpopular war consumed the nation.

The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety and perhaps even of common sense. Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.

Peaceful protests had failed to stop the war. So we issued a screaming response. But it was not terrorism; we were not engaged in a campaign to kill and injure people indiscriminately, spreading fear and suffering for political ends.

I cannot imagine engaging in actions of that kind today. And for the past 40 years, I’ve been teaching and writing about the unique value and potential of every human life, and the need to realize that potential through education.

I have regrets, of course — including mistakes of excess and failures of imagination, posturing and posing, inflated and heated rhetoric, blind sectarianism and a lot else. No one can reach my age with their eyes even partly open and not have hundreds of regrets. The responsibility for the risks we posed to others in some of our most extreme actions in those underground years never leaves my thoughts for long.

The antiwar movement in all its commitment, all its sacrifice and determination, could not stop the violence unleashed against Vietnam. And therein lies cause for real regret.

We — the broad “we” — wrote letters, marched, talked to young men at induction centers, surrounded the Pentagon and lay down in front of troop trains. Yet we were inadequate to end the killing of three million Vietnamese and almost 60,000 Americans during a 10-year war.

The dishonesty of the narrative about Mr. Obama during the campaign went a step further with its assumption that if you can place two people in the same room at the same time, or if you can show that they held a conversation, shared a cup of coffee, took the bus downtown together or had any of a thousand other associations, then you have demonstrated that they share ideas, policies, outlook, influences and, especially, responsibility for each other’s behavior. There is a long and sad history of guilt by association in our political culture, and at crucial times we’ve been unable to rise above it.

President-elect Obama and I sat on a board together; we lived in the same diverse and yet close-knit community; we sometimes passed in the bookstore. We didn’t pal around, and I had nothing to do with his positions. I knew him as well as thousands of others did, and like millions of others, I wish I knew him better.

Demonization, guilt by association, and the politics of fear did not triumph, not this time. Let’s hope they never will again. And let’s hope we might now assert that in our wildly diverse society, talking and listening to the widest range of people is not a sin, but a virtue.

Secret of Life?

2008-11-21T14:18:00.003-05:00

From an interesting article in the Times:

“We looked at 8 to 10 activities that happy people engage in, and for each one, the people who did the activities more — visiting others, going to church, all those things — were more happy,” Dr. Robinson said. “TV was the one activity that showed a negative relationship. Unhappy people did it more, and happy people did it less.”

But the researchers could not tell whether unhappy people watch more television or whether being glued to the set is what makes people unhappy. “I don’t know that turning off the TV will make you more happy,” Dr. Robinson said.

Is this really such a mystery?

I hosted a party recently and was slightly disappointed that half the guests sat in front of the tube for hours, watching one football game after another, switching between games to fill the emptiness associated with half-times. Another group collected in my dining room and entertained one another with conversation - the kind that produces frequent laughter.

What is the connection between the tv and happiness? Well, when my party ended, and all the guests went home, I know I was very happy that the tv was finally off.

Happiness, it turns out, is not such a mystery after all.

Happy Friday!

2008-11-07T18:16:00.000-05:00

CFO Magazine

2008-11-06T09:17:00.003-05:00

Walter Isaac, Ronald Reagan's appointed head of the FDIC (and now a consultant to the banking industry) blames fair value accounting (FAS 157) for the financial crisis. In short, because the SEC requires banks to show their investments at fair value, rather than cost, the banks have had to report their weakened condition in their published financial statements, and this reduced their ability to make loans. If only we had had the wisdom to allow the banks to show their holdings at cost instead, all would be well, insists Isaac, in this CFO magazine piece.

Isaac rhetorically asked the participants how the financial system could have come upon such hard times in under two years. "I gotta tell you that I can't come up with any other answer than that the accounting system is destroying too much capital, and therefore diminishing bank lending capacity by some $5 trillion," he asserted. "It's due to the accounting system, and I can't come up with any other explanation."

So the answer to the financial crisis is to let banks pretend that these loans/investments are worth what they paid for them? What Isaac doesn't understand is that financial markets depend on trust and trust depends on honest accounting - any argument that we could have avoided this crisis by letting the banks post misleading financial statements is moronic.

Of course, Isaac is a Republican, so who can be surprised that he thinks regulations are to blame for the market meltdown, the bailout, and who knows what else? (Assuming Isaac were correct, then FAS 157 is also partly responsible for the election of Barack Obama!)

How does CFO justify publishing such nonsense? What should we expect next week - Nancy Reagan's astrological interpretation of the market decline?

The detachment from reason and reality that pervades Republican thinking is not new. It has been evident since the election of Ronald Reagan and came to full flower under the ignoramus from Crawford. It was evident in the selection of Sarah Palin, who thinks men walked with dinosaurs. But CFO magazine? I thought that we could depend on accountants to be rational.

Colin Powell gets it

2008-11-05T10:22:00.002-05:00

This is a wonderful and very different kind of election. It is good to hear Colin Powell expressing what so many of us feel.

What a marvelous day this is in America.

Good Night

2008-11-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

It has been a good night - the best in a long time.

And the best part: Better days are ahead.

Peace,

Neil

Happy! Happy! Happy!

2008-11-04T23:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Days are here again!

2008-11-04T20:15:00.001-05:00

President-Elect Barack Obama

2008-11-04T19:59:00.003-05:00

Good Times

2008-11-04T17:00:00.000-05:00

Feel like dancing!

2008-11-04T16:06:00.000-05:00

Rockin' in the free world

2008-11-04T15:00:00.000-05:00

Our eight years of darkness are at an end.

At long last.

Let the Good Times Roll

2008-11-04T14:02:00.000-05:00

Littlest terrorist/socialist/whateverist

2008-11-04T13:30:00.000-05:00

Found this picture at The New Republic and just had to post it here.

I just love this photo of our very scary Marxist-Muslim president-elect and his young accomplice in the conspiracy to redistribute white wealth to black people.

Their secret fist bump - notice how Obama crouches behind the car door to avoid the prying eyes of right-minded god-fearing white people - reveals their true identity as godless proponents of cloning, infanticide, sex education for kindergartners, an end to the moral crusade in Iraq, and - even worse - tax increases for the richest 5% of all Americans.

Recoil in horror if you must, but let this horrible image remind you of how much we lose as a nation when men of peace and goodwill like Bush and Cheney are not permitted to rule without regard to the Constitution or common notions of decency and human rights.

Yes, right-wing Americans and low-information voters everywhere, you are losing this election. Despite your maverick-and-mooseburger ticket, despite Joe the lipsticked plumber and Sarah the Neiman Marcus hockey mom, despite the brilliant economic policies of Bush and the marvelous war in Iraq - despite all the many wonders of the Christian Right's very own political party in power - you are going down, hard.

I am finding it SO hard to be sympathetic.

Celebrating Freedom

2008-11-04T13:00:00.000-05:00

Voting feels so good this year. I felt such a big feeling in my heart this morning. I wanted to sing like Richie Havens:

FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM!

America

2008-11-04T11:59:00.000-05:00

After eight years of feeling that America was lost, of being embarrassed by my government - ashamed of the pushy fundamentalism; the incompetence and dishonesty; the cruelty, arrogance, corruption and bigotry, that comprised the governing model of the Bush White House, the K-Street Congressional machine, and their Evangelical political base - it is good to feel proud again of America.

Michelle Obama could have said it better, but I think I know what she meant. It hasn't felt this good to be an American in a long time.

Get Happy!

2008-11-04T11:35:00.000-05:00

Let 'em roll

2008-11-04T08:07:00.001-05:00

Good times are coming. Let the good times roll!

Celebrating the Election!

2008-11-04T07:49:00.001-05:00

I voted about 5 minutes after the polls opened - the 8th voter in my district.

Now, it's time to celebrate.

My Tracking Sheet for Tuesday

2008-10-31T22:52:00.002-04:00

I think we get 364 - maybe even 375 electoral votes.

I think we win by 7-9% of the popular vote.

And we end up with 59 Senate seats.

That is my prediction.

Haunted

2008-10-30T23:31:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!

Sympathy for John McCain

2008-10-30T08:45:00.002-04:00

I am saddened to see John McCain suffer such a personal repudiation, and having rescued his reputation from the dishonor of his role in the Keating Five scandal, it is tragic, really tragic, that he has now thrown it away again. Nothing appears to mean more to him than winning the presidency, but he will have the rest of his life to weigh the cost, and I am sympathetic.

It must be very hard to wake up one day and realize you are no longer a respected hero, but how much worse to have to be regarded instead as a doddering old hack, race-baiter, liar, and overall mean-spirited punk.

Having such sympathy as I do, I will nonetheless cheer lustily, loud and long when Obama tops 270 on Tuesday. I am hoping for 370.

Obama's Infomercial

2008-10-29T23:22:00.003-04:00

Jason Zengerle posted this Obama ad at TNR - he says it is more affecting than the infomercial. I couldn't agree with him more. Powerful stuff.

I watched the infomercial, and although it was very slick and very effective, I really don't much enjoy this sort of thing - the packaging of a candidate like soap flakes. It is demeaning to us as citizens - not a whole lot better than the Joe the Plumber shtick - and I feel like I am being played.

Even so, I am completely sold on Obama. I agree with him on the issues, and I admire his temperament, intellect and persuasive powers. If anyone can do it, he can.

I'll have more to say on the subject later on this week - maybe not till Saturday.

One thing I would like to put out there tonight - anyone else notice that the infomercial announced a change in Obama's tax cut? It has a ceiling of $200,000 now, not $250,000. Why isn't anyone talking about that?

Wassup!!!

2008-10-29T11:51:00.001-04:00

You DO remember the old Budweiser ads - don't you?

Counting Down to the election...

2008-10-28T10:10:00.002-04:00

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

...a good time to reflect on the past eight years.

Tony Hillerman

2008-10-27T08:46:00.004-04:00

I just read in today's NY Times that Tony Hillerman passed away this weekend. Hilerman, author of a series of detective novels set in Navajo country, was 83 years old. I loved his books for their descriptions of Navajo culture and traditions, and for the natural beauty of the west that he so carefully and painstakingly captured in his writing.

An excerpt from Marilyn Stasio's NY Times obit:

Mr. Hillerman’s evocative novels, which describe people struggling to maintain ancient traditions in the modern world, touched millions of readers, who made them best sellers. But although the themes of his books were not overtly political, he wrote with a purpose, he often said, and that purpose was to instill in his readers a respect for Indian culture. The plots of his stories, while steeped in contemporary crime and its consequences, were invariably instructive about ancient tribal beliefs and customs, from purification rituals for a soldier returned from a foreign war to incest taboos for a proper clan marriage.

“It’s always troubled me that the American people are so ignorant of these rich Indian cultures,” Mr. Hillerman once told Publishers Weekly. “I think it’s important to show that aspects of ancient Indian ways are still very much alive and are highly germane even to our ways.”

Ms Stasio's obituary is well worth a few moments, and will almost surely send you off to the library for one of Hillerman's award-winning novels. I will include one more excerpt from her excellent remembrance:

The recognition that gladdened him most, however, was the status of Special Friend of the Dineh conferred on him in 1987 by the Navajo Nation for his honest, accurate portrayal of Navajo people and their culture. It was also a special source of pride to him that his books are taught on reservation high schools and colleges.

“Good reviews delight me when I get them,” he once said. “But I am far more delighted by being voted the most popular author by the students of St. Catherine Indian school, and even more by middle-aged Navajos who tell me that reading my mysteries revived their children’s interest in the Navajo Way.”

Hillerman's books were not great literature. They were fun to read, and even Hillerman called them "entertainments" -- but he told stories that celebrated the people and country that he loved, and that created an appreciation among many readers for the culture and traditions of the Navajo and other Native Americans living in the Southwestern United States.

All of us have authors whose work becomes personal to us - we feel connected to the author, as if he is writing just for us. We await his next book like a kid anticipating the next Harry Potter adventure. So it was for me with Hillerman.

I am sorry to hear of his passing. I will do what readers do in such circumstances - I will go find my old copy of "The Blessing Way" and I will read it again. I think he'd probably like that.

Technorati Tags: Tony Hillerman

How was your weekend?

2008-10-26T21:21:00.000-04:00

U2 To You Too

2008-10-25T16:45:00.000-04:00

Yeah!

A Re-Post

2008-10-25T16:42:00.001-04:00

-- Mavis Staples singing "99 1/2 Won't Do"

Cuz it's the mood I'm in today.

One more from Fogelberg

2008-10-25T16:25:00.002-04:00

-- Dan Fogelberg "Song for Half Mountain"

Music for the end of October

2008-10-25T16:20:00.001-04:00

-- Dan Fogelberg "Old Tennesee"

Muslims for McCain

2008-10-25T12:24:00.002-04:00

I wish John McCain could denounce the bigots as clearly as some of his supporters did in this video. American Muslims have had a hard time of it since 9/11, and whatever your religious beliefs, as an American you ought to be disgusted by the way in which some on the right have played on such bigotry in this campaign.

Our enemy is not Islam. Our enemies are those who take their religious beliefs and turn them into justification for war and political upheaval - the forces of fundamentalist intolerance that seek to destroy liberal society and to establish a social order in which individual liberty is constrained by clerical authority.

The enemy of our freedom is not a religious minority that seeks only what any American asks of his neighbors - tolerance, goodwill and respect. The enemy is a large segment our own christian majority who fall in three camps:

-- those who seek to harness political power to a frankly religious agenda;

-- those who see no problem with that agenda but are not part of the movement; and

-- those who are somewhat concerned or even repelled by the politics of the religious right, but do not recognize that movement as a threat to our liberty.

My enemy is not Christianity, and it is not Islam. My enemy is the politicization of religion. My enemy is the use of the power of the state to impose the beliefs of a religious majority on the minority. My enemy is extremism, regardless of the particular set of beliefs and rituals of its adherents.

Before this election is over, I would like to hear John McCain and Barack Obama condemn the insults to American Muslims that have been hurled about during this campaign, but we all know that won't happen. Maybe a few words of consolation will have been spoken by November 4th, but nothing that will be much noticed or remembered.

It says something shameful about America that neither candidate dares to stand up for a religious minority under attack.

Give the kid a break

2008-10-25T11:04:00.002-04:00

So they have arrested Ashley Todd and charged her with making a false police report, supported by her own admission that she made up the whole awful story - a story that stroked the deep racial animosities of her neighbors and fellow McCain supporters. Todd, 20 years old and apparently a troubled young woman, needs help. I hope she gets it, and that she is able to live this down without any more harm.

But what of all those on the right who saw political potential in this disgraceful sham of a story? And what of John McCain, whose campaign has whipped up the resentments, fears, and prejudices of the intolerant and under-educated ranks of rednecks, racists and religious extremists?

There is a stain that attaches to people who play the race card, and it is now stapled to John McCain's forehead. If he wants to remove it, he is going to have to speak out, at length and in clear language, condemning those who have attempted to divide America on racial and religious terms.

He won't do that, of course. Just like Hillary, he has painted himself into a corner - just as her campaign in its final thrust boiled down to a naked appeal to racial resentment, his campaign is now all about fear - the fear of being beaten up at an ATM by a big black man, the fear of having a black man in the Oval Office, and the fear that their tenuous hold on lower middle class status may slip away if the lives of black Americans improve in the least.

John Moody, EVP at FOX News, said this: "If the incident turns out to be a hoax, Senator McCain’s quest for the presidency is over, forever linked to race-baiting."

Where are you John McCain?

Let's all hope that McCain's defeat leads to a reappraisal of the value of race-baiting in American politics. Let's hope that our future is one in which a story like Ashley Todd's is dismissed as irrelevant, that the racism that lends such a story its power is finally and forever discredited and abandoned.

Until that day. let us condemn those who insult our intelligence and our character by playing on our fears and prejudices. Shame on you, John McCain!

The God Vote

2008-10-25T09:31:00.002-04:00

It isn't pretty, and it's really hard to believe that God approves this message.

I'm sooooo sorry

2008-10-24T21:47:00.000-04:00

Carolina on my mind

2008-10-24T20:22:00.001-04:00

-- James Taylor

Happy Friday!

2008-10-24T20:15:00.001-04:00

-- Brewer & Shipley "I don't want to die in Georgia"

He's got the whole world

2008-10-22T21:45:00.002-04:00

Sarah Palin says the election is "in God's Hands" and I am quite certain she means it. Like the preacher in the video, Palin is one of those who expects God to fix the election for the GOP. Why is blasphemy so attractive to the devout?

Palin was interviewed by James Dobson, who asked whether Palin was discouraged by the polls. Says Sarah:

"To me, it motivates us, makes us work that much harder," Palin said. "And it also strengthens my faith, because I'm going to know, at the end of the day, putting this in God's hands, that the right thing for America will be done at the end of the day on Nov. 4. So I'm not discouraged at all."

Now, I know that most people who say they believe in God don't really mean it - that is obvious by the way they live their lives. At least it is clear that - no matter what they say - deep down they know God isn't paying attention to what they do, and is extremely unlikely to intercede in their lives.

But Palin is one of those scary folks who seem to think God is on the job, like some supernatural precinct captain - like a divine Boss Tweed. So the polls don't matter, and it doesn't matter that the voters may prefer Barack Obama, because if God wants McCain to win, then John will win. Maybe McCain should suspend his campaign and hold a big prayer meeting. Why worry about Acorn, when you have the Almighty on your side?

For myself, as an atheist with enough sense to doubt my own conclusions, I find it easy to accept the proposition of some transcendent, remote and impersonal deity - but impossible to imagine a Supreme Being worthy of the name who stoops to meddle in elections (for either side).

It is absurd, even obscene, to suggest that a politically active God would fix this election to stop Barack Obama or John McCain, but did not prevent the rise of Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin. But this is the kind of crap that one expects from Sarah Palin and today's GOP. It is appalling.

Can you read the durned sign?

2008-10-22T19:17:00.000-04:00

Sheriff Steve Bizzell in Johnson County, North Carolina, has been working hard to find and accelerate the deportation of illegal aliens. Is he just carrying out his sworn duty to uphold the law, or is something less noble at work?

Bizzell, in an interview for a newspaper report on immigration reform published last month, complained that ''Mexicans are trashy.''

He pointed to several children playing in one community as if they proved his next generalization about Latinos: ''All they do is work and make love.''

He said Latinos spread a culture of drunkenness and violence through his mostly rural county, a short drive from Raleigh.

Bizzell quickly apologized for his remarks to The News & Observer, but his contrition wasn't enough to ward off critics who call his comments evidence that the nation's increasingly popular efforts to enforce immigration statutes locally have nothing to do with law and order.

''The chief law enforcement officer is demonstrating his racism in public, and he's allowing his officers to do the same,'' said Tony Asion, the executive director of nonprofit advocacy group El Pueblo and a retired Delaware state trooper. ''It gives them the green light to treat Latinos any way.''

Is that what Sarah Palin is talking about when she salutes the "pro-American" parts of the country? Or do you think Bizzell is voting for Obama?

Here's another tidbit from the Times story:

''Look at that,'' he said, pointing at a storefront during his tour of the area with the newspaper reporter. ''You can't even read the durned sign. Everywhere you look, it's like little Mexico around here.''

Lovely. I bet those durned Mexicans are too trashy to even speak good American. You betcha.

Slimy Republican Tactics

2008-10-22T15:18:00.002-04:00

Jon Chait at TNR links to a WSJ piece by Steven Waldman. Waldman is President of Beliefnet.com and previously the national editor of US News & World Report. In his article, Waldman makes the case that Republicans are behind the disinformation campaign against Obama - that fewer than half of McCain's supporters believe Obama to be a Christian, and that 16% believe that the Democrat is actually a Muslim.

Here, a lengthy excerpt from the article:

There are some instances of Republican Party officials stoking the idea. The Tennessee Republican Party issued a press release about “Barack Hussein Obama” that included a picture of Sen. Obama in “Muslim garb.” The Clark County, Washington, Republican Party declared on its Web site that “Barack Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay his Muslim background. It is reported that Obama swore his oath of office using the Koran….This is chilling information about a candidate for the highest office in the Country especially given the radical Muslim claims that they will destroy American from the inside.”

The Web site of the National Black Republican Association featured an article analyzing “Obama’s Muslim Connections,” which declared, “It’s important to scrutinize Obama’s Muslim background to determine if his Islamic past influences his decisions and actions toward America, including his decision to select an anti-American pastor as his spiritual adviser.”

Marcia Stirman, chairman of Otero County Republican Women in New Mexico, said of Obama in a letter to the local newspaper: “He’s a Muslim socialist.”

Mainstream Conservative Media

Most important, the idea has been spread by mainstream conservative media – not just a few lonely conservative bloggers in their basement but major conservative publications or figures with large followings:
A popular conservative Web site, Newsmax.com, ran a story this week called, “Was Obama a Muslim?” and another one, “Obama ‘Lying’ About Muslim Past, Expert Says.”

Another popular conservative Web site, wnd.com, ran a piece called “’Muslim’ photo raises Obama connection questions.”

Human Events, a conservative publication that John McCain just granted an interview , also published an essay entitled, “Our First Muslim President?”

Conservative talk show host and bestselling author Michael Savage repeated a common myth that Sen. Obama attended a “Madrassa,” a radical Muslim school.

Floyd Brown, a conservative activist who created the Willie Horton ad against Michael Dukakis in 1988, issued a new ad, asking “Was Barack Obama ever a Muslim?”

Conservative talk shows – and some cable TV shows, it should be said – gave air time to Jerome Corsi, whose book “The Obama Nation” argued that Sen. Obama has “extensive connections to Islam.” He appeared on Hannity & Colmes to publicize his book and on Sean Hannity’s radio show to argue that Sen. Obama has a close connection to a radical Muslim politician in Kenya. Hannity also gave substantial TV time to Andy Martin, a free-lance activist, who helped originate one of the Internet emails arguing that Obama was Muslim.

Rush Limbaugh more recently added a new wrinkle by arguing that Sen. Obama is not African American but rather “an Arab.” Limbaugh did not say Sen. Obama is Muslim but many Americans believe that all Arabs are Muslim.

Finally, there’s the matter of the middle name. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin have made a point of never referring to their opponent as Barack Hussein Obama, apparently viewing that as an unfair attempt to imply Sen. Obama is Muslim or shady in some way. “I absolutely repudiate such comments,” Sen. McCain said, after someone introducing him used Sen. Obama’s full name. “It will never happen again.”

Using Obama’s Middle Name

But many prominent Republicans and conservatives have, including Mr. Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson, Ann Coulter (she has called him “B. Hussein Obama” and “President Hussein”), Mike Gallagher, and Bill Cunningham. And on two different occasions, Sen. McCain or Gov. Palin were introduced at rallies by men who used the formulation.

With schoolboy innocence, many conservative commentators say they were merely raising questions or stating facts. And you know what? That’s largely true.

Many stuck to the points about Sen. Obama that were accurate: His middle name is, after all, Hussein. He was listed as a Muslim as a boy when he attended school Indonesia. His stepfather was Muslim.

One could merely repeat those facts and it would lead many to believe Sen. Obama was Muslim – especially if one didn’t mention that Sen. Obama has been a practicing Christian for 17 years and was in Indonesia only until age 10 or 11.

Calling Imelda Marcos

2008-10-22T11:47:00.002-04:00

Marc Ambinder at The Atlantic reports on Sarah Palin's $150k wardrobe, and its apparent illegality.

As a former John Edwards supporter, I remember the outrage over a $400 haircut. Let's see if Sarah Palin is criticized for spending $150,000 at Saks and Neiman Marcus on clothing.

Ambinder provides the relevant legal text:

(b) Prohibited use

(1) In general
A contribution or donation described in subsection (a) of this section shall not be converted by any person to personal use.

(2) Conversion
For the purposes of paragraph (1), a contribution or donation shall be considered to be converted to personal use if the contribution or amount is used to fulfill any commitment, obligation, or expense of a person that would exist irrespective of the candidate's election campaign or individual's duties as a holder of Federal office, including--

(A) a home mortgage, rent, or utility payment;
(B) a clothing purchase;

That seems clear enough. She broke the law, and so did the RNC for buying the clothes. What surprises me is that it is so excessive and unjustifiable, even if it weren't also illegal.

Did the Governor of Alaska have nothing to wear except moose hides and mukluks? As a woman who reads everything, you know, a very large part of her personal spending goes for books, newspapers, and magazines, of course. So naturally she needed to buy some clothes.

But can you imagine spending $150,000 on clothing? Evidently, the difference between a pitbull and a hockey mom has been jacked up.

When Sarah Palin complains about Obama's plan to spread the wealth, you just know she means to spend it all on herself instead. Spread it around, and she'll have to dress like the Governor of Alaska, doggone it.

The Republican Spirit

2008-10-22T05:23:00.003-04:00

I was reminded of this low moment in Republican attack rhetoric (Nov 2005 if you're wondering) by the recent examples from Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachman. Republicans celebrate such ugliness - they cheer when Ann Coulter offers her crudest and most insulting sarcasm.

Lately I have attributed the anger and bitterness of Republicans to the shock they must be feeling as their era of rule comes to an ignominious end. But then I remember how profoundly miserable and angry these people were from the very start, and in the moments of their greatest power. They love the culture war, and now that they are losing, they cling to it. It is their safety blanket. It is their consistent theme, going back to Reagan and Buchanan, Gingrich and DeLay, Schmidt and Coulter, and now Palin and even John McCain.

In the final days of this campaign, we see the Republicans working overtime, striving mightily to close Obama's lead. They are pulling out all the stops - calling northern Virginia "communist country" while protesting that Obama's health care and tax policies amount to socialism; playing the race card wherever voters appear to be open to such tactics; and painting Obama as a foreigner, a Muslim, and a terrorist.

Mean-spirited and dishonest attacks seem to offer some relief to men and women for whom religious and political duty are tied together with Republican bumper stickers - people for whom tribalism trumps tolerance, evolution is a dirty word, Democrats are terrorists, immigrants are a threat, and global warming is just a liberal invention.

Sarah Palin is one of these people - clearly part of that sub-culture of ignorant, jingoistic, creationist, pro-life, nativist, corporate supply-side tax-cut populism, but John McCain seems to be riding the wave. Occasionally, he registers an objection, but mainly he surfs the sea of anger, ignorance, and racial resentment - hoping that he will manage somehow to land safely on the beach.

After the 2000 election, McCain expressed sincere regret that, in the pursuit of a few votes, he had expressed support for the display of the Confederate flag in South Carolina. What will he say when this race is done, and who will be inclined to listen?

More importantly, when we have won, and the government is in our hands, can we do right by these people - through tax relief, improvements in education and health care, and through growth in real wages and jobs - so that they never again can be played by the cynical Republican hate machine?

We face many challenges in the next few years, but in order to succeed we need to change some hearts. We need to move past the debilitating culture wars, and the limits imposed by the polarized politics of the past thirty years.

I believe Barack Obama understands this. He says it all the time, and he has run a campaign that has reflected this insight and commitment from the very beginning, through the primaries, and right up to this moment. That consistency speaks more loudly and clearly than any of his speeches or advertisments.

They strongly object to my vote

2008-10-21T23:15:00.005-04:00

McCain supporters heckling voters at a polling place in North Carolina, whish was opened for early voting. I have been a voter for 35 years and have never been harrassed at a polling place. Of course, race has nothing to do with it, right?

John McCain - these are your supporters, and these are the rancid recollections that will stick to you when your campaign for the presidency is long past, the memories that will define you more clearly than any tale of heroism.

Is this how you want to go out?

Pennsylvania

2008-10-21T22:47:00.002-04:00

I think McCain has to take some blame for the ugliness his campaign has stirred up in the past few desperate weeks of his campaign, but who is really surprised that some Americans are reacting so poorly to Barack?

Many of us aspire to be better and bigger than the sum of our prejudices and the boundaries of our experience, but for some of us, those prejudices are intertwined with values, identity and tradition. We who aspire to something nobler need to remember that we launch these aspirations from our earthly plane, while swirling around us are the fetid waters of ignorance.

Pennsylvania. One wonders how she keeps her head above those waters.

They are for McCain

2008-10-21T22:44:00.002-04:00

When this election is over, John McCain will go back to the Senate. Sarah Palin will return to Alaska. And these people will still live in your neighborhood.

These are your fellow Americans.

Deer in the headlights

2008-10-21T22:24:00.002-04:00

For almost thirty years now, since the low-brow, greedy, self-righteous and mean-spirited Christian Right began its political ascendancy on the coattails of Ronald Reagan, people like Michelle Bachman have enjoyed the illusion of being right about everything. God was on their side, Washington had bent to their will, and the money was flowing in from every fatcat corporate client and lobbying firm that wished to suck at the teat of our dwindling Treasury. There was nothing they could not do, and the idea that their reign might not last was beyond the capacity of their narrow and ever narrowing minds.

Michelle Bachman is a perfect example of the infirmity caused by three decades of such undeserved prominence. With all the charm of Tom DeLay, the civility of Ann Coulter and the expressive power of George W Bush, Ms Bachman launched her fruitcake attack. Guess what - she thinks Democrats are anti-American. Watch her performance in this interview with Chris Matthews, and see if she doesn't remind you of that girl in high school who can't accept that her team isn't going to make up a deficit of fifty points in the last 30 seconds of the football game.

I felt sorry for that girl, but Ms Bachman is in the Congress - not high school. It is time the Republicans graduated, don't you think?

The Agony of Defeat

2008-10-21T16:18:00.003-04:00

Christopher Orr, at The New Republic, recounts the latest pathetic story of rancorous Republicans spewing bilious clouds of nastiness as they sink into the muck and the despair that is Rove-McCain politics in this age of open-eyed citizenship.

Robin Hayes, a four-term Republican Congressman from North Carolina, told a crowd at a campaign event that "liberals hate real Americans that work and accomplish and achieve and believe in God." Afterwards, Hayes had his spokeswoman deny that he said anything of the sort.

Orr writes:

Astonishingly, an audio recording of the event was found. Still more astonishingly, Hayes said just what he was accused of saying. He's since responded, "I genuinely did not recall making the statement and, after reading it, there is no doubt that it came out completely the wrong way. I actually was trying to work to keep the crowd as respectful as possible, so this is definitely not what I intended."

It must be hard to accept defeat when you're convinced God is on your side.

For Dan

2008-10-20T05:24:00.000-04:00

A lament for a loved one who has gone away - and a very pretty song indeed.

Translation:

It seems that you have faded away and abandoned the love of life
The snow is spread about at the mouth of the sea
Your yellow flowing hair and little gentle mouth
We give you Mary Chinidh to swim forever in the Erne

‘My dear mother,’ said blonde Mary
By the edge of the shore and the mouth of the sea
‘A mermaid is my noble mother’
We give you Mary Chinidh to swim forever in the Erne

I am tired and will be forever
My fair Mary and my blond Patrick
On top of the waves and by the mouth of the sea
We give you Mary Chinidh to swim forever in the Erne

The night is dark and the wind is high
The Plough can be seen high in the sky
But on top of the waves and by the mouth of the sea
We give you Mary Chinidh to swim forever in the Erne

From Clár Áine Cook's website

More of Kate Rusby

2008-10-19T17:18:00.000-04:00

Another Lovely Tune

2008-10-18T23:14:00.000-04:00

Kate Rusby - "The Wild Goose"

Just a Lovely Tune

2008-10-18T17:10:00.000-04:00

Neil Young - "Bandit"

Early Voting in Ohio

2008-10-18T15:41:00.001-04:00

Joel Stein, at Time, checked out Ohio's early in-person voting to see what these early birds are like - the results were quite amusing. Here an excerpt:

I was interested less in which candidate Hamilton County will vote for than in finding out what kind of person votes a month before the election. To my shock, none of them told me they were voting early "to avoid old people." Equally surprising, no one found that question to be strange. The voters were, however, dubious about my professionalism when I asked whether "people sometimes call them anal"--though 36% said yes.

Al Smith Dinner

2008-10-17T08:28:00.001-04:00

Anyone else see McCain last night speaking cordially of Barack Obama? It was eye-opening, to say the least. Maybe McCain isn't a nasty little shit, after all? I was amazed.

Watch the video - it's pretty funny. McCain's praise of Obama starts at about the 10 minute mark. It is hard to reconcile this classy performance with the crude and dishonest personal attacks of his campaign - maybe it is a sign that McCain intends to take his campaign, and his honor, back from Steve Schmidt and Karl Rove.

One can only hope.

Bushed

2008-10-16T14:50:00.002-04:00

This is a pretty good comeback.

Found at The Stump.

Weird Moments

2008-10-16T11:58:00.004-04:00

John McCain's screwy weirdness is all-too reminiscent of the man he hopes to succeed in office, the great miscommunicator himself. Last night, McCain talked about Sarah Palin's knowledge of autism, leaving many of us to wonder if he did not know her well enough to understand that autism is not the same as Down Syndrome.

I wonder what Sarah Palin thought when she heard that - assuming she wasn't too busy reading her many news sources to watch the debate.

Of course, Sarah is as screwy as McCain. She probably didn't give it a second thought, assuming she ever has such a thing.

I lifted the photo above from The New Republic. It seems the perfect visual for the McCain campaign -- moronic; unpresidential; hopelessly weird.

Maverick No More

2008-10-16T07:53:00.003-04:00

Last night, when Bob Schieffer asked John McCain about the nasty nature of his campaign's personal attacks on Obama, McCain responded by complaining about John Lewis (ignoring that he and his running mate have stood by while their supporters yell out death threats).

Then Schieffer asked McCain to comment on Sarah Palin's accusation that Obama pals around with terrorists. McCain responded by defending her audience.

OBAMA: But when people suggest that I pal around with terrorists, then we're not talking about issues. What we're talking about...

MCCAIN: Well, let me just say I would...

SCHIEFFER: (inaudible)

MCCAIN: Let me just say categorically I'm proud of the people that come to our rallies. Whenever you get a large rally of 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 people, you're going to have some fringe peoples. You know that. And I've -- and we've always said that that's not appropriate.

Senator McCain appears to be incapable of following the questions, and despite his reputation as a man who prizes honor above all else, his dissembling and self-interested rationalizations are especially jarring and deeply disappointing.

His campaign is shameful. When he defends the people who shout "Kill him" at his rallies, he insults the intelligence and character of the American people, and extends the Rove/Bush legacy of polarizing politics and cynicism. We have had enough of this, Mr McCain. We will be as glad to see you leave the stage on November 4 as we expect to be on January 20, when Bush and Rove slink off to whatever stinkhole will have them.

The crudescence of Republican politics has reached its nadir. One can only hope that the few remaining decent men and women of the GOP will take their party back over the next four years. McCain had a chance to start them in the right direction, but he chose instead to go with the flow. What a pity he did not live up to his now laughably discredited nickname.

What do I know?

2008-10-15T13:17:00.002-04:00

From an article in the NY Times on the latest CBS News / New York Times poll:

Voters who said their opinions of Mr. Obama had changed recently were twice as likely to say they had grown more favorable as to say they had worsened. And voters who said that their views of Mr. McCain had changed were three times more likely to say that they had worsened than to say they had improved.

The top reasons cited by those who said they thought less of Mr. McCain were his recent attacks and his choice of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate.

I don't get it. I would have thought voters would pay little attention to the mudslinging, and even less to Palin, and that the main reason for the shift towards Obama would be the financial meltdown and McCain's erratic response to that crisis. I am glad that the crude dishonesty and mean-spirited personal attacks are costing McCain, but I am also surprised.

Shows how little I know.

Noam Scheiber at TNR points out that Obama is doing very well among white voters, for a Democrat of any color. He's pulling 45% of whites in the poll, tied with McCain in that category. Apparently, that's a higher percentage than our side usually gets, and again one is left to wonder. I thought these were the voters we needed Hillary to get for us.

Each poll that comes out reinforces a growing sense of victory, and an emerging confidence that real change may be within reach. I want to celebrate, but I am increasingly confused by the numbers. I will be looking forward to the exit polls and final vote tallies on election night, and to the analysis that follows.

Something strange and wonderful is happening, but it feels like a dream.

Partying with Putin

2008-10-14T12:56:00.002-04:00

This is something I found a week or so ago at TNR. In the anticipation of tonight's final debate, I thought I would put it up here for laughs.

Can we afford progress?

2008-10-14T09:29:00.002-04:00

Volunteers for Obama, Hackensack, NJ

I was canvassing for Obama this past weekend, and one conversation with a man named Ira whose home I visited stands out in my mind this morning. He was older than me - maybe 65 or so - and he talked about the inequities of the past 8 years, and how the system was rigged to benefit the rich guy. He talked about the bailout - he called it the $7 billion bailout and I wonder if he could even conceive of $700 billion. He complained about the cost of the Iraq war - $10 billion a month (he had that figure right) - and he wondered how we could pay for any of it.

It is quite reasonable to be worried - even amazed at the scale of our recent financial debacle.

I also worry that the many important things we need to do may be held hostage to the debt we have accumulated through the Bush years - that this recent debacle will make us hesitant about important undertakings. I worry that reasonable people will support the kind of small-minded compromises that became the legacy of the Clinton presidency - prioritizing deficit-reduction over progressive policy priorities, cleaning up the economic mess of a past Republican administration rather than building a platform for future growth, and delaying once again a serious effort to gain energy independence and limit the impact of global climate change.

Having endured 8 years of winter, I fear that we will not take full advantage of this marvelous springtime opportunity for renewal and growth. We must not miss this opportunity.

Jonathan Cohn, writing in The New Republic, argues on good economic grounds that President Obama should ignore the bailout and move forward with his program. Cohn writes:

...the perception that Obama must radically pare back his ambitious spending proposals--a perception widely shared in Washington--makes several fundamental errors. For one thing, it misunderstands the nature of a Wall Street "bailout"--which, properly constructed, shouldn't seriously deplete federal funds. More important, the conventional analysis ignores the fact that we face deep economic problems besides the financial crisis--problems that only government can fix. The case for Obama's spending agenda hasn't suddenly become weaker. If anything, it's actually grown a bit stronger.

Cohn's article is worth a read, if like me you are concerned that our progressive agenda has been hocked by the outgoing lame-duck President and his ongoing lame-ass legacy.

Swing Voters?

2008-10-13T10:40:00.004-04:00

George Packer, writing in The New Yorker, about voters in southeastern Ohio, who may be facing their "hardest vote" - a vote that would cross a racial line that looms larger than the issues and their economic self-interest. An excerpt:

A maintenance man at the nearby high school, who declined to give his name, said that he had been undecided until McCain selected Palin to be his running mate, which swung his support to Obama.

“So you’re a sexist more than a racist,” Herbert joked.

“I just think the guy Obama picked would do better if he got assassinated than McCain’s if he died of frickin’ old age in office,” the maintenance man said.

Four women of retirement age were sitting at the next table. All of them spoke warmly of Palin. “She’d fit right in with us,” Greta Jennice said. “We should invite her over.” None had a good word to say about Obama. “I think he’s a radical,” a white-haired woman who wouldn’t give her name said. “The church he went to, the people he associated with. You don’t see the media digging into that.”

“I don’t know anyone who’s for Obama,” said Jennice, a Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton and who won’t vote in November.

“If they are, they don’t say it, because it would be unpopular,” an elderly former teacher named Marcella said. That had not been true of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, or John Kerry, she added.

“I think the party-line Democrats are having a hard time with Obama,” Bobbie Dunham, a retired fourth-grade teacher, told me. When I asked if Obama’s health-care plan wouldn’t be a good thing for people in Glouster, she said, “I’ll believe it when I see it. If it’s actually happening, I’d say that’s good.” But she and the others had far more complaints about locals freeloading off public assistance than about the health-insurance industry and corporations. Dunham declared her intention to write in a vote for either Snoopy or T. Boone Pickens. “I’m not going to vote for a Republican—they’ve had their chance for the last eight years and they’ve screwed it up,” she said. “But I really just don’t trust Obama. He only says half-truths. He calls himself a Christian, but he only became one to run for office. He calls himself a black, but he’s two-thirds Arab.”

One wonders how it could be that so many Americans could be so poorly informed, so culturally backward, so crudely prejudiced. How can any nation face the 21st century challenges of the global economy, and deal with climate change, the war on terror, nuclear proliferation, energy independence, health reform, and the financial market meltdown, with such limited brainpower? The world looks to us for leadership (yes, even after the disappointments of the past 8 years) - how can we possibly lead while we carry the dead weight of such abysmal ignorance on our backs?

Packer's point of course is not to mock these folks. Nor is it mine. We ought to figure out how to help these people, for our own sake if not for theirs.

More of the Same Hero Worship?

2008-10-11T13:34:00.002-04:00

Initially, I was an Obama doubter. I was backing John Edwards - now of course it is clear where my doubts should have rested, but even as I have come to appreciate the manifold talents, temperament, and decency of Mr Obama - indeed, even as I have thrown myself into campaigning on his behalf, I retain a sense of reservation. I am subtly but increasingly wary and even resistant to the pull of hero-worship that seems to infect everyone around me.

Deep down a voice inside me whispers with urgency "We do not need a savior, a hero on a white horse, a great man - this is a path away from democracy and the end of our great republic." After eight years of the Cheney administration's "Unitary Executive", I want to avoid a counter-reaction from the left, a swing in direction but a continuation of a governing power that resides not in the Congress but in the White House, a continuation of the emasculation of checks and balances and the withering of the applicability of laws to those residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

When the President does it, it isn't illegal - these words of Richard Nixon's have been the credo of Mr Cheney and his ilk. The underlying mindset that permitted the return of this pirate ethos to the Presidency is a willingness among a broad swath of Americans to place their trust in one man, believed to be in touch with God Almighty, rather than in the laws, traditions, and institutions of o ur government.

The government is not the solution to our problems - it is the problem, argued the great man-leader of Republicans. This attitude produced the tragic ineptitude and neglect that was so evident in the aftermath of Katrina, in the administration of the ruinous war in Iraq, and in the meltdown of our financial markets and institutions.

We do not need more of the same. I support Barack Obama, and I hope with all my heart he has the wisdom of Lincoln, the genius and perserverance of FDR, the energy and political mastery of LBJ, and the goodness, idealism, generosity of spirit, and humane decency that is needed in such a time of crisis and hardship. But my deepest hope is that my elected representatives in Congress will assert the power of their institution and regain my trust and the trust of the nation. My deepest hope is that that my President and my Congress will work together to meet our great national challenges - and to heal the injuries to our constitutional, republican and democratic government.

I fear that in placing the halo on Obama's head, we are repeating the mistake made by those who placed that same halo on the head of George W Bush. I am uneasy, even as I tingle with anticipation of the coming Democratic victory.

10 Habits of Ineffective Government

2008-10-11T13:33:00.000-04:00

Glenn Greenwald has posted 10 normal principles our government follows in general, and has followed in the recent crisis. Here they are, somewhat abridged:

(1) Incredibly complex and consequential new laws are negotiated in secret and then enacted immediately, with no hearings, no real debate, no transparency.

(2) Those who created the crisis, were wrong about everything, drive the process. Experts who dissent from the prevailing Washington orthodoxy, particularly ones who were presciently warning about what was happening, are simply ignored -- systematically excluded from the process.

(3) Public opinion is largely ignored, as always, and public anger is placated through illusory, symbolic and largely meaningless concessions.

(4) The Government begins with demands for absolute power so brazen and absurd that anything, by comparison, seems reasonable...

(5) Wall Street, large corporations and their lobbyists own the Federal Government and both parties, and (therefore) they always win.

(6) The people who run the Washington Establishment are drowning in conflicts of interest.

(7) For all the anger over what Wall St. has done, the Government -- as it bails them out -- isn't doing anything to rein in their practices.

(8) When the Government wants greater and greater power and wants to engage in pure corruption, it need only put the population in extreme fear and it gets its way in every case.

(9) On the most consequential and fundamental questions that define the country, the establishment/leadership of both political parties are in full agreement, and insulate themselves from any political ramifications by acting jointly.

(10) Whenever you think that the Government has done things so extreme that it can't top itself -- torture, theories of presidential lawbreaking, a six-year war justified by blatantly false pretenses -- it always tops itself.

Technorati Tags: Bailout Bill

AOL Journals

2008-10-02T08:21:00.003-04:00

I met people and made friends through my AOL Journal, and was amazed at the community that inhabited the AOL Journals space. I made some friends there that I will always hold in my heart, even though I never met some of them.

Blogging gave me an opportunity and inspiration to sit down and work my thoughts and feelings into words. When I am in my most authentic voice, writing about something that really matters, I find it to be among the subtlest and most unexpected pleasures of my life, as well as good exercise for a often muddled brain.

The folks at AOL pretty much killed the AOL Journals community when they forced advertising banners onto the pages of the members. I don't know why that pissed everyone off so much, but within a few weeks many of the people I knew had picked up and moved to new locations. Although I kept in touch with some folks, things haven't been the same since.

Today, AOL announced they are shutting down AOL Journals, and asking everyone to pick up their stuff and go elsewhere.

The party of course, is long over.

In my mind, I imagine a lonely chap with a broom and bucket, cleaning up in some darkened hall after a grand affair has ended and wondering what magic might have happened there.

To all my fellow former AOL Journalers, I offer my best wishes.

Neil

Are you sure this is a good idea?

2008-09-29T10:57:00.002-04:00

If like me you are feeling a bit rushed by the bailout bandwagon, check this out:

Another doubter of the Great Depression theme is Kenneth Rogoff, a Harvard University economics professor, who thinks the intervention may prevent or delay the necessary failure of weak financial institutions.

"It is time to take stock of the crisis and recognize that the financial industry is undergoing fundamental shifts, and is not simply the victim of speculative panic against housing loans," he wrote in a syndicated column. "Certainly better regulation is part of the answer over the longer run, but it is no panacea. Today's financial firm equity and bond holders must bear the main cost, or there is little hope they will behave more responsibly in the future."

Some analysts think the most important steps to avoid another depression may have already occurred without the $700 billion bailout.

"Last week we came real close to a financial economic meltdown because of the run on money market funds, resulting from the bankruptcy of (investment bank) Lehman Brothers, and I think insuring the money-market funds was enough," said Ed Yardeni, a veteran Wall Street analyst.

[snip]

"There are quite a few of us who think that could have stabilized the situation quite effectively," he said, adding, "I think it (the bailout) was rushed, and certainly we didn't give other reasonable, cheaper alternatives a chance. But at this point it is what it is, and we all have to pray that it works."

9/11 at Sampson State Park

2008-09-12T20:29:00.004-04:00

I've been on vacation this past week, taking a trip through time with my Dad. In the late spring of 1945, Dad did his Navy boot camp training at Sampson NTS in Romulus, New York - today the site of Sampson State Park. Dad, who was certainly never an officer in the Navy itself, has been an officer in a veterans organization whose members were trained by the Navy during WWII at Sampson.

At one time, there were 6,000 Navy veterans in the organization (out of the 411,000 young sailors who passed through that camp in the early 40's). Their numbers are rapidly declining, and the organization is making arrangements to dissolve. Over the past 20 years, the organization raised money and worked to establish a museum at the park that will continue to tell their story after the last of them has passed on.

On September 11 this year, a group of 253, including members, their wives, and a few of their sons and daughters gathered at Sampson State Park for a picnic luncheon, followed by a memorial service.

It was a poignant ceremony, a moment for those men to remember their boot-mates, family members, and friends who died in the war, and to recall their own experiences in the earliest moments of their adult lives during a time of total war. It was also a time for all of us to reflect on the so-called "events of 9/11" - the tragedy and heroism, the grief and loss, the courage and sacrifice.

Of course, our thoughts included our men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those of us who pray asked God for their safe return home - a wish we all shared.

I am proud of my Dad, and of all these men. Straight arrows, every one. They were called to fight in a terrible war and they did what they were asked to do. Now they stand side by side as friends, preserving the memory of those who did not return home from that war, and honoring the sacrifice of those who wear the uniform today.

For me, the anniversary of 9/11 has always been an intensely sad day. But I am wiser now, and going forward it will also be a day to celebrate the many brave men and women who volunteer to serve in our military. I wish them peace, and thank them for their service.

Technorati Tags: Sampson NTS, Sampson WWII Navy Veterans

One More Night of Clinton Drama

2008-08-27T09:47:00.007-04:00

I watched the convention last night - mainly to hear Hillary. Halfway through her lackluster effort and typically self-congratulatory rhetoric about glass ceilings and her connection to a litany of historic steps forward for human rights and the liberation of women, I left the room to check my e-mail and attend to a project I was interested in.

Later, when I returned to the tv, I was pleased to hear Keith Olbermann on MSNBC praising her speech. However, Michael Beschloss was on PBS arguing that the speech fell short, so I decided to read the speech and see how it ended. My take on the speech as a document is that she seems to have made a good argument against McCain but failed to say anything nice about Barack Obama.

Add to that the problems with her delivery and the combined effect is disappointing. This, after all, is a woman who was only narrowly defeated in the nominating process -- I have to believe she could have done better. Hell, Michelle Obama was better.

I think Hillary had an opportunity last night to impress everyone - to make some of us wonder if we had chosen the wrong person to head the ticket. Instead we saw a bland and uninspiring video, followed by a weak and ridiculously brief introduction by Chelsea, followed by a prolonged but unimpressive standing ovation and the lackluster but dutiful speech.

In many ways her speech was like her campaign - not quite good enough. In view of the ads McCain has crafted from Hillary's negative primary campaign tactics, the speech last night was a whisper in the wind.

Tonight we will hear from the other Clinton. I wish I could be excited about that.

Edwards Lied

2008-08-08T15:43:00.004-04:00

He did have an affair with Ms Hunter, in 2006, as alleged in reporting by The National Enquirer.

He claims the affair ended in 2006, after his wife became aware of the affair. He says the baby isn't his. He admits he did ~~visit Hunter and her baby~~visit the hotel where Hunter was staying, and that Elizabeth did not know about this visit.

His denial of his paternity is hard to believe; indeed, it is hard to believe anything he says about his personal life.

What a shame.

McCain outwitted by Paris Hilton

2008-08-08T13:25:00.002-04:00

Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Adfunny videosFunnyOrDie.com

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

John McCain. Outwitted by Paris Hilton. But somehow, ready to lead.

Hard to believe there are people who will vote for this guy.

Remembering Randy Pausch

2008-07-25T16:50:00.002-04:00

I just read of his passing, and felt compelled to post the You Tube video of his lecture. Others will of course do the same, but originality is over-rated.

Obama and Reagan?

2008-07-20T21:15:00.005-04:00

Eli Lake, who writes on national security for the New York Sun, has written an interesting piece in the current issue of The New Republic. in which he argues that Obama is not the reincarnation of Jimmy Carter but rather that of Ronald Reagan (counter to the claims of Republicans like John McCain). What is that about, I wondered?

Well, one criticism of Carter was that he made human rights the dominant theme of his foreign policy, allowing friendly dictators like Somoza and the Shah fall in anti-American revolutions. Reagan, on the other hand, is celebrated for forging alliances with proxies to fight Communists around the globe, from Afghanistan to El Salvador; death squads and human rights were a concern, but secondary to the main objective.

Lake argues that - in the war on terror - Obama is much more likely to follow in Reagan's footsteps than Carter's. Lake points to the eminence of Randall Beers and Richard Clarke among Obama's senior counter-terrorism advisors.

Lake writes:

Both Clarke and Beers are lifelong national security bureaucrats who left the Bush administration in protest of the Iraq war. Both have offered private advice to Obama and might well hold top posts in his war cabinet. Clarke helped draft the campaign's counterterrorism strategy, and Beers contributed ideas for his August 1, 2007 counterterrorism speech. Both also have the trust of the party's antiwar base and have, in many ways, articulated the Democratic Party's most substantive critique of Bush's war on terrorism.

And what kind of advice do these guys give Obama?

Clarke and Beers in effect were drawing on a time-honored tradition of foreign policy...finding proxies to fight an enemy. [snip] It was a policy that manifested itself in U.S. support for the Nicaraguan Contras, Jonas Savimbi's insurgency in Angola, and the Afghan mujahedin. In a sense, the Reagan doctrine was a full-throated rejection of the Carter era. [snip]

So here we arrive at the central irony of the charge that Obama will revive Carterism: The two most important architects of his counterterrorism policy came of age at the height of the Reagan Doctrine, and that thinking continues to inform their strategy.

What does Obama have to say for himself, you ask?

Last November at a foreign policy forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Obama said there may be "40,000 hard-core jihadists with whom we can't negotiate." He went on. "Our job is to incapacitate them, to kill them."