Greeted with flowers

OK, regardless of your opinion on the war in Iraq, you have to admit that this is cool, heartwarming, and encouraging: Insurgents Attacked, Voters Perservered (WP). Or as the Moonie-owned, ultra-right-wing propagandistic Washington Times puts it: Joy Explodes Across Iraq.

These folks braved bombs and death threats and nearly beat out the U.S. electorate on participation rates. That's awesome any way you cut it.

But now it's time for a new challenge. It's time we tackled a brutal, totalitarian state which actually does have The Bomb. Next stop--North Korea!

Beast starved

See William Raspberry's column on cuts to programs that aid the needy in today's Washington Post. Raspberry makes a good case for a hard look at the relationship between the federal budget and our moral priorities as a nation.

I don't know exactly where that $1.8 trillion tax cut went, but I sure do see a lot more Hummers driving around town recently...

To stop war, create an economic lever

Tom Friedman argues in today's NYT that "if we put all our focus on reducing the price of oil [w]e will force more reform than by any other strategy ... By refusing to rein in U.S. energy consumption, the Bush team is not only depriving itself of the most effective lever for promoting internally driven reform in the Middle East, it is also depriving itself of any military option." Right on!

I now await numbers on exactly how much the U.S., which represents roughly 25% of global oil consumption, would have to reduce its demand to produce the price reductions that Friedman's talking about. Anybody? Council on Foreign Relations? Cato? C'mon, Cato, I know y'all have some intern that could figure it out ... get that guy off of clip-pasting duty and onto a computer.

What is the sound of one hand repeatedly smacking my forehead?

John Kerry was interviewed on Meet the Press this morning. Let the cringing begin. For example, on the Swift Boat Veterans' claim that Kerry lied about being in Cambodia on Christmas 1968:

"We were right on the border, Tim. What I explained to people and I told this any number of times, did I go into Cambodia on a mission? Yes, I did go into Cambodia on a mission. Was it on that night? No, it was not on that night. But we were right on the Cambodian border that night."

It goes on like this for nearly an hour on topics ranging from social security reform to choice. Hem, haw, prevaricate, insert caveats and asides into the middle of 500-word sentences ... listening to Kerry talk about policy is like reading 19th century German philosophy underwater. Unfortunately, Kerry is only one of many Democrats with this difficulty. He just happens to be the one we picked to run against The Man with the Unflinching Message Discipline.

Hot donuts NOW

John F. Kennedy once said that "Washington is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm." Well, at least Washington is finally a city of Southern donuts. This Tennessean's heart leapt with joy today upon noticing the brand new Krispy Kreme franchise in Dupont Circle. Hallelujah!

Now if District restaurants would only start serving sweet tea, we'd really be in business.

Procedural karma

It is necessary for us to save the filibuster* now. . . so that the GOP can use it to kill our bills when the Dems take back the Senate in '06. But seriously, the filibuster is the only thing standing between us and legislative and judicial Armageddon right now, so fire away.

PFAW action alert: Don't Let Republican Leadership "Go Nuclear" on Supreme Court

*A longstanding Senate rule that enables a minority of senators to endlessly extend debate on a bill to delay or block its passage. It takes 60 votes to break a filibuster, so all you need to keep one going is 41 votes. It's a good way to stop a bill you really, really disagree with when you don't have a simple majority to vote against it. It also makes for good theater. Like Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, or Strom Thurmond reading from the phone book as part of his 24-hour-plus filibuster to block the Civil Rights Act of 1957 (see, it cuts both ways).

Another conservative commentator on the take

The Washington Post makes clear its concern about fading standards of journalistic integrity by placing this article on the front page above the fold . . . of the style section. Just above a review of the new Bright Eyes album.

Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract
"In 2002, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher repeatedly defended President Bush's push for a $300 million initiative encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families" after receiving $21,000 to talk up the proposal.

Related post: My first guess is O'Reilly (1/11/05)

Job search, week 3

A sampling of entries from the Craigslist "et cetera" jobs category.

Sr Specialist-Defense Analysis (Washington DC DC, US)
Paid Research for Men with Premature Ejaculation (Washington D.C)
Dancers Needed, $100/hr, no experience necessary (Tysons Corner)
SEMEN DONORS WANTED (Fairfax, VA)

I am qualified for only one of these jobs. :(

Nations' sustainability ranked

NYT: On the World Economic Forum's 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index, Finland, Norway, Uruguay take top spots among the 146 nations studied; U.S. ranks 45th. Lowest-ranking nations include North Korea, Haiti, Taiwan, Iraq and Kuwait.

Of course, the new Iraqi government will have an opportunity to up Iraq's ranking and show up the U.S. by adopting Kyoto standards for its global warming emissions, which would be almost as hilariously ironic as when Ukraine sent over observers for our presidential election last year.

On the plus side

The Village Voice's Anthony Kaufman predicts that the second Bush administration will spark a revival of independent film.

Inaugural: God, ownership, and America's project

Transcript--Clearly addressing the world community as much as his fellow citizens, Bush makes subtle references to America's nation-building past and blatant references to our nation-building future. Echoing JFK*, Bush lays out a huge project for America:

"The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world . . . So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world."

Uh oh, I didn't realize the messiness in Iraq was part of a vision of this magnitude. I thought we were just there protecting our interests. No problem, Bush has this covered quite neatly: "America's vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one."

The speech also includes a more philosophical discussion of the ownership society theme than we've heard so far ("making every citizen an agent of his or her own destiny"; "Self-government relies, in the end, on the governing of the self"). The echoes of FDR** are quite explicit. Expect variations on this theme to be the centerpiece of this year's State of the Union Drinking Game.

Also, as expected, lots of God talk. In a future post I'll compare Bush's religious references to those of previous presidents. I hypothesize that their number and specificity will outpace most.

Finally, please note this masterfully oblique reference to the abortion question: "Americans, at our best, value the life we see in one another, and must always remember that even the unwanted have worth." This is enough to resonate with staunch abortion opponents but not enough even to get a mention in the post-game analysis (at least not that which I saw).

Notes
*Bush, 2005: "From the viewpoint of centuries, the questions that come to us are narrowed and few. Did our generation advance the cause of freedom? And did our character bring credit to that cause?"
JFK, 1961: "In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger . . . Will you join in that historic effort?" JFK was definitely our dreamiest president, by the way. *swooning*

**Bush, 2005: "We will give our fellow Americans greater freedom from want and fear"
FDR, 1941: "The third is freedom from want. . . The fourth is freedom from fear"
Bush also makes explicit reference to the FDR-backed Social Security Act of 1935. What a hypocrite.

More reasons never to leave DC

DC is the town where tractors parked in the Reflecting Pool and vans full of explosives parked downtown, not to mention self-immolation in front of the White House, are all par for the course. But it could be worse. My friend Drew writes from his home in Vermont:

"It's negative 3 degrees outside and the morning paper for the northeastern part of my home state has the following headline. Man do I wish you all were here...
----------------------------
TOP NEWS
----------------------------
Youth Charged In Animal Sodomy Case"

Way too cold out there for terrorism

Silver-blue: our current terror threat level, or the color of the First Lady's inauguration ballgown? Hard to tell these days, now that the DHS is saying that it has greatly overestimated the threat of an al Qaeda attack at this week's presidential inauguration (WP). Seriously, guys, we all know that the whole attempted-assassination- at-heavily-guarded-function thing only ever happens in James Bond movies or on Alias.

However, given the arctic blast that is currently sweeping through DC, there is certainly an elevated risk of visible nipples at inauguration festivities. I advise the Bush women, and indeed all female Washingtonians, to take the necessary precautions before donning sheer gowns.

Think different like everyone else

You thought it was just a brilliant marketing campaign . . . but now everything is in place. One weekday morning in the near future, at 8:17 a.m., the secret microchips hidden in the bodies of each and every iPod will simultaneously emit a hypnotic pulse of sound into the ears of commuters around the country, transforming them into a zombie army. In a nuke-proof underground bunker in Sunnyvale, California, Steve Jobs will cackle and rub his hands together with glee as he directs his forces, clad in Uggs and Pumas, Diesel jeans and Banana Republic "starter" suits, to overrun the Capitol, the White House, and every military base in the country and secure his position as Dictator of the Entire World.

And he'll do it all for only $1 a year.

Village Person kicks irony's twitching corpse

Washington Post: "Felipe Rose, the Indian dude from the singing group the Village People, presented the National Museum of the American Indian with a framed, gold 45-rpm single of the disco group's 1978 megahit 'Y.M.C.A.' on Wednesday afternoon.

"Rose, who is part Lakota Sioux, missed the big opening of the museum last September. He said he really wanted to go, but the Village People were on tour with Cher."

As it happens, Mr. Rose is quite credibly Indian, and when you think about what he achieved as a musician, his gift is generous and appropriate. I'm still laughing, though. Partly at the fact that it is now acceptable in the Washington Post to describe someone as "the Indian dude. . ." I'd like to check their style guidelines to figure out what the equivalent word is for a female. . . is it chick? As in, "Susan Sontag, the chick who wrote 'Notes on Camp', is dead at 71."

New Shatner album kills irony dead

William Shatner has come out with a new album--in collaboration with notables like Ben Folds, Aimee Mann, and Henry Rollins-- in which he performs spoken-word songs including, to my infinite delight, a cover of Pulp's "Common People."

Listen to the All Things Considered review of the album here.

Sample or purchase the album here. (Seriously, you have to hear the "Common People" cover.)

Things that feminists are not supposed to say aloud

WP editorial writer Benjamin Wittes argues in The Atlantic Monthly that liberals and the Democratic Party should let Roe v. Wade fall: "In short, Roe puts liberals in the position of defending a lousy opinion that disenfranchised millions of conservatives on an issue about which they care deeply while freeing those conservatives from any obligation to articulate a responsible policy that might command majority support."

The heart of Wittes' argument is that liberals have taken the abortion question entirely out of the legislative arena, an arena in which public opinion is on their side. This needlessly provokes conservatives who feel, quite rightly, shut out of the decision. In addition, since the issue will never actually face a vote, "conservative politicians are free to cater to pro-lifers by proposing policies that, if actually implemented, would render these politicians quite unpopular."

I both agree and disagree with Wittes. To explain I'll be forced to write some things that would land me in hot water if I mentioned them out loud to my friends at the Hawk 'n' Dove on a Friday night.

First of all, I agree with Wittes that Roe is, legally, a bad decision, a notion that came to me as I studied the decision in my college constitutional interpretation class. Read it and decide for yourself. It is quite embarrassing for smart legal scholars to have to stand behind this. Or even not-so-smart con interp students. I also agree that keeping the question in the judicial arena gives conservative politicians ammunition to rally their troops, argue about "activist judges," and make wild pronouncements that they could never back up on the Senate or House floor.

The place where I disagree with the Wittes argument is in its predictions about what would happen if Roe were overturned and the abortion question were placed in the legislative arena. So, Wittes claims that "public opinion is in [our] favor," citing polls that show that "80 percent of respondents have consistently favored either legal abortion in all circumstances (21 to 34 percent) or legal abortion under some circumstances (48 to 61 percent)." Because of this popular support for legal abortion, conservative politicians would be forced to compromise with liberal politicians and come up with a reasonable abortion policy that could command majority support.

Couple of problems here. First of all, we have this thing called the filibuster, and believe me, if abortion ever comes to a federal level vote the ultra-religious right is going to roll out everthing it has to make that happen. Certainly, pro-choice champions in Congress will fight hard, and we would definitely pick up some moderate conservatives who get pressure from their districts, but it's no sure thing by any stretch.

Second, the type of compromise legislation that might get passed federally--not to mention what certain states might come up with--would probably still be less than what most pro-choicers want to see, especially since it would undoubtedly leave the most vulnerable among us at risk. Legal barriers like parental notification laws, etc. etc. typically do not affect affluent and geographically mobile twenty- or thirty-somethings. They affect underprivileged girls and women. Ultimately, these are the people we are fighting for, more than just ourselves. Pro-life conservatives may imagine urban, underchurched barhoppers like me when they think of they type of person who might get an abortion to end an unwanted pregnancy. They should be imagining their teenage daughters or the women living in low- income housing down the street who simply can't afford to raise another child.

What we need is a Constitutional amendment. Until we're in a place as a nation where that's possible, we may have to hold our noses and defend Roe.

20 years of schoolin' and they put you on the day shift

Students: Do not get a humanities degree. Especially do not get a humanities degree that costs more than $100,000. It won't get you anywhere and you will end up saddled with debt, searching for a job, any job, actually unqualified for retail and food service jobs because of lack of experience in these areas, spending your few free hours reading the latest Don DeLillo novel while you ponder your fate in this cruel world and contemplate cleaning someone's apartment in the nude for money.

This is no longer the America in which somebody with a good work ethic and a modicum of native intelligence can make it.

Of course, this is just bitterness about the job search that certainly will pass soon.

Common ground with the Freepers

Usually I visit Free Republic to get angry at the scary pro-theocracy types and laugh my ass off at the funny libertarians. But we're all human, I guess--even people who somehow find a way to argue both for keeping government out of our private lives and outlawing abortion.

Price of a case of beer
Posted on 12/30/2004 8:06:54 PM PST by BobP
What are we paying for our beer today? The price per-case just keeps rising it seems like everything else. Is there a "price of beer" site like the on for gasoline? Any info on this topic would be great, and save me some money down the road.

My first guess is O'Reilly

Armstrong Williams, the conservative commentator who just got busted for accepting a quarter of a million dollars from the Bush administration to talk up the "Leave No Child Behind" program, tells The Nation's David Corn: "This happens all the time. There are others." (Alternet)

Prepare to be scanned

DC Metro police are now using behavioral profiling techniques (WP), singling out and questioning passengers "who avoid eye contact, loiter or appear to be looking around transit stations more than other passengers."

These techniques are pretty subjective, and the ACLU's Massachusetts chapter has opposed their use in Boston's Logan Airport. But before our buddies in the civil rights community flip out about behavioral profiling, let's consider the alternative:

On politics in science

Accepting Politics In Science: In a WP op-ed piece today, Roger Pielke Jr. argues that we cannot "cleanly separate politics from science." Instead of pursuing the "don't ask, don't tell" approach toward the political leanings of scientists who advise the government, we should come clean and publicly recognize that everyone's political so that the role of politics in such deliberations is not hidden. I applaud and share Dr. Pielke's pragmatism.

Yet I fear that if we lend too much weight to the arguments that "you can't really separate science from politics" or "you can find a study or a statistic to justify any public policy stance" we end up arguing that there is no such thing as objective truth or that it is not possible to discern the truth. We betray the intellectual heritage of the Enlightenment, the movement that helped inspire the founding of this nation and whose echoes ring loud and clear in our founding documents.

If we remove some of the burden on scientists to be professionally (if not personally) politically neutral, we might face public policy that shifts radically in its scientific underpinnings depending on which party controls the governm--oh, wait, already have that. Maybe Pielke's right.

Uh oh--doubleplusungood

Check out this brilliant and effortless fusion of Luntzspeak* and Newspeak:

"'We push for laws that promote a commonsense balance between economic growth and environmental conservation. That is our mantra,' said Jim Sims, the [Western Business Roundtable’s] executive director, who served in the White House in 2001 as the communications director for Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force. 'Any group that opposes that commonsense approach is, by definition, an extremist group . . .'"

Damn. In one fell swoop, this passage demonstrates A) the incredible message discipline of the Bush camp and their devotion to Luntz memo principles* B) their skill at framing the debate ("commonsense" vs. "extremist") C) the revolving door between the government which is supposed to regulate industry and the industry it's supposed to regulate (White House staffer becomes development lobbyist).

What makes this even funnier--or scarier--is that these comments were delivered during a four-day resort junket designed to build access between energy development interests and members of Congress. Read more here--Energy retreat at resort draws fire (AP)

*From Frankie Luntz, the GOP pollster who wrote a 2001 memo on how to put a positive spin on the backwards environmental policies seen by some at the time as the Bush administration's achilles' heel. The National Environmental Trust has set up a hilarious website covering the use of Luntzspeak.

Human rights: not negotiable

We Are All Torturers Now: Excellent, excellent column in today's NYT about attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzalez and the torture question. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me from being ashamed of being an American is the courage and eloquence of American dissent.

In related news, Mr. Gonzalez just told the Senate Judiciary Committee that if confirmed he will support international treaties banning torture, and that he does not consider the Geneva Conventions "obsolete" or "quaint" as he once wrote. (WP)

See also previous post: What's important about Alberto Gonzalez

Craigslist job o' the day

From the gigs:domestic section:

"I am looking for a nude or semi-nude house cleaner for my 2 bdrm / 2 bath apartment in luxury building in Ballston (across from mall). If the service is good, I would like to have it once or twice monthly on-going. Please reply with photo and age as well as quote. Only light cleaning will be required since I recently moved into the apartment."

This has to be some kind of specific fetish, right? Does it have a name? More to the point, how much do you figure it pays?

Tsunami: perspective lacking

From a letter to the editor in today's Delaware News Journal: "In response to the statement, that $35 million was a paltry amount of U.S. aid for disaster victims, I have a few questions. Can anyone tell me when a nation last came to our aid in a natural disaster? I know of few incidences, while we almost always help with food, medical relief and personnel."

Was this guy raised by wolves? Let's have Mark C put this into perspective--U.S. per capita income: $35,000. "Meanwhile, Malaysia's per capita income is $3,550, Thailand's is $2,000, Sri Lanka's is $850, India's is $450. The US poverty level for an individual with no children is just over $9,000. "

How about having Jesus put it into perspective too: "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more." (Luke 12:48)

Hot DC auto owner's tip

DC Public Works sez: Daytime Residential Street Sweeping Will Be Suspended from January 3 to March 18, 2005

That means that if you are accustomed to the hassle of moving your car once or twice a week to avoid a ticket for being in a scheduled street cleaning zone, you are all good. No need to move your car until March 18.

Thanks to my friend Buffy for this tip.

Let the rollbacks begin, vol. II

Part of a continuing series on the Bush administration's rollbacks of our environmental protections coming out of the 2004 election. No lack of material here.

You might have missed this one: White House Overhauls U.S. Forest Rules (NPR).

That's because the Bush administration announced these changes on December 22, 2004, smack dab in the middle of the holiday season. It's part of a proud Bush tradition of unveiling shitty environmental policies exactly when the least number of journalists, activists, and plain ordinary people are likely to notice--say, on a Friday afternoon at 4:45.

It got so predictable a year or two ago that one national environmental group actually sent out a press release to the effect of, "It's Friday at 4 p.m., and you know what that means! Another environmental rollback by the Bush administration."

Grassroots organizer/ snarky blogger for hire

I'm leaving my job this week and looking for another job in DC, ideally either writing/editing or organizing. I did consider a few other options . . .

• Become a kept woman, a la Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Unfortunately milkshake may be too lacking, and self-respect too great, to make this a real possiblity.
  
• Cash out 401(k), stocks, and savings and become a globetrotting trustafarian for a few months before going broke and ending up washing dishes in Bangalore just to get repatriated.
• Join the Jeopardy! Clue Crew (they're hiring!)
  

. . . and am not abandoning them yet. But friends, readers--do a girl a favor. E-mail me if you know of opportunities.

"Christian"* right draws a bead on Byrd

NYT: "James C. Dobson, the nation's most influential evangelical leader**, is threatening to put six potentially vulnerable Democratic senators 'in the 'bull's-eye' ' if they block conservative appointments to the Supreme Court. . . He singled out [among others] Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia."

Uh huh. So they think they can unseat Robert Byrd, who has held public office since 1946, has been in the Senate since Dobson was practically in diapers, is ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and is renowned and celebrated for directing oodles of federal money to his economically struggling home state. America's right-wing whackjobs are either way dumber than I thought, or they have something serious up their sleeves . . . like perhaps millions upon millions of dollars earmarked for a judicial nomination fight? I'm going to assume the latter for right now.

*FYI, I'm going to start using quotation marks when referring to "Christians" like these because the Jesus I know would not be down with what they're up to.
**Mr. Dobson is the founder of Focus on the Family.