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Talking About the DLC

The following is from a discussion on Salon Table Talk of why the DLC has been so bitter in attacking Howard Dean and whether the Dean campaign and reactions to it will irrevocably split the Democratic Party.

I find what Mary has written here quite insightful, but lacking in one dimension, the ideas in play.

On the economic front, the critical battle has to do with the roles of the market and property in a democratic society. On one side, the right, we find market fundamentalism and the sovereignty of property--big words for (1) the notion that the market's invisible hand will, automatically, produce the best of all worlds and (2) the idea that what is mine is mine, to dispose of as I will, and society as a whole has no right to claim a share or tell me what to do with it. On the left, we have confusion, arising out of the fact that we are still struggling to strike the right balance between such classical left ideas as class struggle and the notion that a party of the enlightened should lead the revolution and the brutal lessons of the 20th century--that the great socialist experiments failed, while market economies prospered.

As an intellectual enterprise, the DLC has a good deal going for it. It embraces, instead of attacking, the market and argues for regulating and shaping market forces to achieve progressive ends. To me this basic approach seems the best thing going and, whatever I think of the petulance that Al From and Bill Reed now seem to share with George W. Bush, I still find the DLC's "Idea of the Week" newsletter a treasure trove of concrete ideas for addressing specific issues.

As, however, in too many human enterprises, the human factor intrudes. Missteps (failure to openly oppose Iraq is case in point No. 1) and misjudgments (seeking legislative compromise from uncompromising and willingly deceitful opponents--see the current Congress) have not only embarassed the organization; it has touched its leaders' self-love and sense of entitlement. It has fired a rage enflamed by what Freud so aptly labeled the narcicissm of small differences--the anger that turns into fury when someone feels betrayed by a former ally. From this somewhat perspective it is no more surprising that Howard Dean, former DLC wunderkind, should be condemned by the DLC than it was that Jung was condemned by Freud or Trotsky by Lenin.

We now have two problems as Democrats. The first is how to get beyond all that, to cherish the populism that drives the Dean campaign and also save the treasure trove of valuable ideas that the DLC has accumulated that are now, as it were, gold hidden in a chest covered with pollutants from a nearby toxic spill. The second is how to frame the insights suggested above in a manner that communicates them effectively to the vast majority of Americans for whom schooling was a pain instead of a pleasure.

In thinking about this second problem, I have found myself attracted to three possibilities.

(1) automobiles--The market is a powerful engine, but to get where we want it to go without killing us all in a wreck, it needs brakes and a steering wheel and rules of the road to protect us.

(2) sports--games rigged so that the same team wins all the time are boring as well as unfair. We need government for the same reason that athletes need umpires and leagues empowered to review and amend the rules of their games.

(3) religion--since we've just been discussing this elsewhere, I will only point once again to the power and potential of scriptural imagery and ideas like "do unto others" and "love thy neighbor" as a counter to the right's highjacking of religion.

We can, I believe, by focusing on these three areas construct the stories and imagery that we need to make the points we need to make--and this is an urgent task.

We should not be distracted by the too easy reduction of all politics to personalities, interests, and gamesmanship--to which "pundits" better equipped to be sportscasters than thinkers constantly direct our attention. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:31 AM

Friday, December 26, 2003

Bring It ON!

According to the New York Times,

President Bush's campaign has settled on a plan to run against Howard Dean that would portray him as reckless, angry and pessimistic, while framing the 2004 election as a referendum on the direction of the nation more than on the president himself, Mr. Bush's aides say.

Bring it on, this Dean supporter says.

Who is more reckless? A governor who balances his state's budget while providing health care for all the kids in his state, or a president whose administration has produced the largest deficits in US history and lied to launch a war?

Who has good reason to be angry? A governor who stands up for civil liberties, preserving the natural environment, and in truth, not propaganda, leaving no child behind, or a president whose administration has abused civil liberties, removed restraints on polluters, said pretty words about children while leaving the programs to help them grossly unfunded.

Who is the pessimist here? The most secrecy-obsessed and fear-mongering administration in history or a governor whose campaign is built on "You have the power," trusting the people he hopes to lead? (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 4:25 PM

Bull… it’s what’s for dinner

One grassy knoll, one single bullet, one mad cow...

Let’s see now… the experts don’t know how the West Nile Virus really got into the US. We’ve got a $2 million reward out on the anthrax perp who closed down Congress and scared lawmakers into approving Shrubby’s unilateral war…must’ve crawled down the right spider hole. Hundreds of GI’s have been court martial for refusing to be guinea pigs for the Pentagon’s anthrax vaccine. Public health officials now quietly admit that “this year’s” flu vaccine doesn’t match up very well with the killer bug that’s going round. And the jury is still out on how the big power grid failure came down although somebody who listens to too much Randy Newman puts the blame on an outfit in Cleveland.

Now the cousins over at Weybridge confirm that we’ve got one mad cow. Burger Cow. McMeat. Jack in the Cow. But wait a minute. This downer wasn’t an Angus, or a Hereford or a Brangus… not the beef cattle you’d smell driving by the “feeders to fats” operations around Dalhart in the panhandle of Texas. This vaca loca was a Holstein, a milk cow, sent to the meat shop because it could no longer stand up and deliver milk. And it all happened around Moses Lake, Washington, within a 50 mile radius of the infamous Hanford nuclear site.

So it’s not just “where’s the beef?” It’s “where’s the milk?” This is a dairy industry issue as well and their lobbyists spend big bucks on both sides of the aisle. A lot of our low end burger meat and fast food pattles are made from dairy cattle that no longer can get the job done. Somebody who wants to be the next Upton Sinclair could get a Pulitzer for writing the 21st century nexus of "The Jungle" on that subject.

Funny how it was a Holstein that touched off mad cow mania in Japan back in 1999.

In typical extremist fashion, the first thing the Bush administration did was to lay the blame off on the Democrats. Jonathan Salant’s December 24th piece on the AP wire quoted USDA chief veterinarian Ron DeHaven saying that “it is important to focus on the feed when she (the vaca loca) was born,” which happens to have been in 1999. To translate from the Bushanese, that means “it didn’t happen on our watch, it happened during the Clinton presidency.”

By the way, the kind of feed DeHaven is talking about is a US government approved high protein meat and bone meal made from filthy chicken poop, slaughter-house inedibles, and sheep and cows that died from disabilities or disease. Will that keep me from heading over to Costco and copping a package of three US choice 1 ½ lb New York-cut steaks. I don't think so. I don't want to spend my Confederate money to head down to Buenos Aires for a good steak... not just yet.

There are lots of theories about Mad Cow floating around, with the holistic, right-wing Christian “black helicopter” crowd weighing in with some primo stuff that fits in nicely with their messianic world view.

While the government downplays this single occurrence as not being a threat to the US food supply, the issue of the USDA maintaining a benign neglect policy of enforcing a government ban on using contaminated animal parts in feed is a greater threat to the American public than Karl Rove’s terrorism product line.

posted by Groom 6:53 AM

Thursday, December 25, 2003

Cold Mountain/Warm Heart

Having just returned from my local bijou, I can state with some confidence that Cold Mountain, the movie, is much better than Cold Mountain, the book, which was--itself--pretty darn good. Actually, this is an old-fashioned movie of the kind they don't make anymore which is to say, it is a big story of true love, commitment and passion played by beautiful people who happen to be movie stars in strokes so broad that you feel slightly guilty later for having imagined that real life could be this straightforward. The main villian twirls his mustache and if they still gave awards for best heroine tied to the railroad track, that sweet-talkin' Bondi Beach Dixie pixie Nicole Kidman would win in a single "Woe is me. Whatever shall I do?" Naysayers will complain that the more our heroine suffers and the more difficult her circumstances become, the more she looks like she stepped on the set of a Cover Girl shoot. To which, I say: poo. Did Audrey Hepburn ever have a torn nail on screen? Of course, not. My only caveat is that the whole movie is so chaste that the sight of Kidman's ass in the love scene comes as something of a shock. Whatever became of two birds squawking, cut to the bed, lovers smoking cigarettes?

And, okay, the Southern Appalachians are dumpier and not nearly as tall as the Romanian alps which serve as a stand-in here.

Everything else is terrific. A bit of risky business for Renée Zellweger, who often plays the pretty girl part, but this time goes for the homespun practical gal who becomes the heroine's best friend and salvation. She shows up about 45 minutes into the picture and immediately starts gnawing the scenery to shreds (in a most appealing way) at which point director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) could have sent everyone else home. (Nothing like wringing a chicken's neck in your first scene to get folks' attention.)

Wonderful performances by the supporting cast, especially Philip Seymour Hoffman as a degenerate preacher with a flowery touch and Natalie Portman as a vulnerable young widow. Little Natalie has grown up.

The real revelation though is Jude Law, who manages to do something that Charles Frazier didn't do well in the novel--convey through gestures and looks the complex interior life of Inman, the moral center of the picture. In the book, we knew Inman mainly through his actions and that made his ultimate fate less tragic than it might have been. Law breathes life into a character that remained stubbornly cartoon-like on the page. The result is one of those rare Hollywood movies that is better than the book.

posted by Jerry Bowles 6:34 PM

It’s A Wonderful Life… Pakistan-style

As Americans mull what x-mas gifts to return tomorrow, the Bushies seem content to exchange an ally for a rogue regime in South Asia. The man the White House says is our most important ally in the “war against terror” Pakistan’s president Parviz Musharraf, barely escaped another assassination attempt today. He’s already ceded control of the army in a shakedown by Islamic fundamentalists after last week’s failed hit. Security around Musharraf is breaking down. If he’s our most important ally in the region, you wonder why we’re not helping to protect Parviz the way we’re protecting the other crooks and criminals who are our puppets in Iraq and Afghanistan... for Democratic presidential candidates accused of being weak on foreign policy and national security, this is a good place to get out in front on the issue...

posted by Groom 4:58 PM

Wednesday, December 24, 2003

Happy Holidays for Howard

Fresh off blogforamerica

================

Dean Leads in Oklahoma and Arizona!

The latest polls from American Research Group show Dean pulling ahead in Oklahoma and strengthening his lead in Arizona-- both of which are critical February 3rd primary states. The Oklahoma results:

Howard Dean 24%
Wesley Clark 21%
Joe Lieberman 9%
Dick Gephardt 4%
John Edwards 3%
John Kerry 2%
Carol Moseley Braun 1%
Dennis Kucinich 1%
Al Sharpton 1%

And the Arizona results:

Howard Dean 26%
Wesley Clark 15%
Joe Lieberman 9%
Dick Gephardt 7%
John Kerry 6%
Dennis Kucinich 1%
John Edwards 1%

And a very merry Christmas to all. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 1:12 PM

How Congress Failed the American People

On September 15, 2001—four days after the devastating attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center—a joint resolution of Congress overwhelmingly authorized President Bush “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.”

Lest the point be missed, Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Delaware Democrat who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, was quoted as saying: "No one should think what we have passed here is anything less than a declaration of war."

In the emotion of the moment, Senator Biden might be forgiven for the hyperbole. In fact, the authorization deliberately stopped short of giving the President unlimited war powers because of justifiable concerns from members of both parties.

But, the sad reality is that since that resolution Congress has seriously abdicated its responsibilities to provide either leadership or a balance to unchecked executive power, passively granting the administration the authority to invade and occupy a sovereign nation that was not a direct threat to America, allowing the government to seriously undermine the American people’s individual liberties through the egregious Patriot Act, and displaying little interest in the administration’s constant flaunting of international law.

A little more than two years after the September 15, 2001 authorization of force resolution, as the administration’s strategies and tactics for waging the amorphous “war on terrorism” become clearer, Congress desparately needs to clarify what it meant by “all necessary and appropriate force.”

- Did the lawmakers mean to authorize the President to designate anyone—including American citizens--he determines is a potential danger “enemy combatants” and imprison those persons forever without access to counsel or any form of judicial review?

- Did they mean to authorize the President to take military action against “nations, organizations, or persons” without clear and compelling evidence of their complicity in the 9/11 attacks?

- Most importantly, did they mean to authorize the Pentagon and the CIA to create an alternative global prison system—beyond the purview of Congress and American courts--where suspected “terrorists” can be incarcerated without judicial review forever on the word of paid informants and enemies under conditions that border on torture? Did they authorize the use of assassination squads to “otherwise deal with” terrorists, as the President sometimes likes to brag.

Perhaps, Congress really did mean to authorize the Bush administration to take all these distinctly extrajudicial and totalitarian actions. Perhaps, lawmakers thought a Communist Bulgarian concept of justice was appropriate for these times.

If so, it's time for Congress to say so. Let’s vote on these draconian measures one by one just so we can be sure that the administration is not overstepping its mandate and turning America into just another terrorist state with weapons of mass destruction.

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:57 PM

Dean as Independent?

In his column today, Bill "Holy Mackerel, Dere" Safire raises the intriquing possibility that if Howard Dean doesn't win the Democratic nomination he might just take his Internet-enabled campaign elsewhere. Unless Dean decides to run as a Republican (which is unlikely), the move would further divide the Democratic party and lead to a Shrub rout in November.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:06 AM

Former Marine Four-Star General Calls Iraq "All Screwed Up"

Anthony C. Zinni's opposition to U.S. policy on Iraq began on the monsoon-ridden afternoon of Nov. 3, 1970. He was lying on a Vietnamese mountainside west of Da Nang, three rounds from an AK-47 assault rifle in his side and back. He could feel his lifeblood seeping into the ground as he slipped in and out of consciousness.

He had plenty of time to think in the following months while recuperating in a military hospital in Hawaii. Among other things, he promised himself that, "If I'm ever in a position to say what I think is right, I will. . . . I don't care what happens to my career."

That time has arrived.

Over the past year, the retired Marine Corps general has become one of the most prominent opponents of Bush administration policy on Iraq, which he now fears is drifting toward disaster.

It is one of the more unusual political journeys to come out of the American experience with Iraq. Zinni still talks like an old-school Marine -- a big-shouldered, weight-lifting, working-class Philadelphian whose father emigrated from Italy's Abruzzi region, and who is fond of quoting the wisdom of his fictitious "Uncle Guido, the plumber." Yet he finds himself in the unaccustomed role of rallying the antiwar camp, attacking the policies of the president and commander in chief whom he had endorsed in the 2000 election.

"Iraq is in serious danger of coming apart because of lack of planning, underestimating the task and buying into a flawed strategy," he says. "The longer we stubbornly resist admitting the mistakes and not altering our approach, the harder it will be to pull this chestnut out of the fire."

Three years ago, Zinni completed a tour as chief of the Central Command, the U.S. military headquarters for the Middle East, during which he oversaw enforcement of the two "no-fly" zones in Iraq and also conducted four days of punishing airstrikes against that country in 1998. He even served briefly as a special envoy to the Middle East, mainly as a favor to his old friend and comrade Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.

Zinni long has worried that there are worse outcomes possible in Iraq than having Saddam Hussein in power -- such as eliminating him in such a way that Iraq will become a new haven for terrorism in the Middle East.

"I think a weakened, fragmented, chaotic Iraq, which could happen if this isn't done carefully, is more dangerous in the long run than a contained Saddam is now," he told reporters in 1998. "I don't think these questions have been thought through or answered." It was a warning for which Iraq hawks such as Paul D. Wolfowitz, then an academic and now the No. 2 official at the Pentagon, attacked him in print at the time.

Now, five years later, Zinni fears it is an outcome toward which U.S.-occupied Iraq may be drifting. Nor does he think the capture of Hussein is likely to make much difference, beyond boosting U.S. troop morale and providing closure for his victims. "Since we've failed thus far to capitalize" on opportunities in Iraq, he says, "I don't have confidence we will do it now. I believe the only way it will work now is for the Iraqis themselves to somehow take charge and turn things around. Our policy, strategy, tactics, et cetera, are still screwed up."

Find the rest of the story in the Washington Post. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:22 AM

Democratic claims the Repugs get angry about, and then...

(1) Terrorist warnings ignored prior to September 11--> the Kean commission report
(2) The assertion that the capture of Saddam didn't make America safer --> the administration raises the threat level to orange
(3) And now.....

Bush Gets a 'Can Do Better' From Terror Panel
Federal advisory body complains of lack of strategy guiding domestic security efforts

Saturday, Dec. 13, 2003
President Bush's anti-terrorism policies are about to come under fire from a somewhat unlikely source: A federal advisory panel headed by a former Republican Party chairman is set to rap the President's knuckles this week when it issues a report criticizing the administration for failing to develop a comprehensive, pro-active anti-terror strategy more than two years after the 9/11 attacks.

For the rest of the story see TIME. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:36 AM

God is not a right-wing zealot

The Rev. Albert Pennybacker is a Bible Belt preacher with a drawl who's urging people to support "basic religious values." But he's no Jerry Falwell clone. In the heart of the Bluegrass, a Bible Belt preacher is rallying people to political action around what he calls "basic religious values." Think you can describe his politics? Think again. This man of the cloth wants "regime change" in Washington.

Check out the rest of the story in Salon. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:12 AM

Digital doomsday

When the militant Christian right controls the digital voting machine industry and Diebold CEO Walden O’Dell says he’s “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year” you know there’s trouble ahead. Never mind that O’Dell just happens to be a Bush Ranger.

The January issue of Wired features an excellent piece by Beliefnet’s Paul O’Donnell on why electronic voting could be the O-ring for starship Democracy. Here are O’Donnell’s 5 worst case scenarios.

Scenario 1: A rogue programmer tweaks the code to swap votes from Democrat to Republican or vice versa.

Safeguard: Logic-and-Accuracy testing roots out any such code bombs. And in the actual program that counts votes, ballot positions are scrambled, making a switch hard to mastermind.

Scenario 2: A voter upgrades his/her access with a counterfeit version of the smart card issued to every person as they vote. Result. He/she can vote multiple times.

Safeguard: The voting booths have no curtains; polling place volunteers are trained to watch for suspicious behavior.

Scenario 3: A hacker changes the count on memory cards from individual machines or on the server used to tally the votes.

Safeguard: The number of votes won’t match the totals on hardwired memory in each DRE device- or the number of voters who signed the voter rolls.

Scenario 4: A power outage cuts electricity to the polls.

Safeguard: Internal batteries provide juice in a blackout. Phone company offices still use batteries as backups, why not voting machines. Many polling places- schools, churches, etc- have disaster preparedness kits that include generators. GL comment: we are completely unprepared for this relatively simple “power failure” scenario. Makes you wonder why Max Schmeling/Marshal Pilsudski look-alike Tom Ridge likes to stride to the podium in his black undertaker’s frock coat.

Scenario 5: Someone walks out of a polling booth and announces he/she has gamed the machine and no one will ever figure out how.

Safeguard: Polling place staffers take the DRE offline and call tech support for a diagnostic. Meanwhile they look for obvious discrepancies, like more votes recorded than vote signatures on the rolls.

GL comment: All of the above is just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond youthful hackers void of a serious political agenda, there are plenty of black baggers who got their walking papers from Ft. Meade with six degrees of separation from Karl Rove and are looking for a nice paycheck in today’s phony-growth economy.

Memo to Joe Trippi: it’s never too early to think about how electronic vote fraud could rain on your parade.

posted by Groom 5:55 AM

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Reasons to Hate Shrub Bush, Part 973:
Self-Explanatory

In the weeks immediately following the September 11 attacks, John Ashcroft’s Christian truth squads rounded up and held more than 700 immigrants for routine visa violations, many under a regulation allowing the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to hold individuals for an extended period without charge. In many cases, the government kept detainees incarcerated long after they had determined that the individuals involved were not terrorists.

Perhaps, the most outrageous example to have surfaced (despite government efforts to keep the names of those arrested secret) is the case of Benamar Benatta, an Algerian air force lieutenant with an expired visa who has spent more than 27 months in federal prisons, much of that time in solitary confinement -- even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001—two months after the 9/11 attacks--that he had no connection to terrorism. Federal prosecutors dropped criminal charges against Benatta in October 2003 after U.S. Magistrate Judge H. Kenneth Schroeder issued a blistering decision against the federal government. Schroeder wrote that federal prosecutors and FBI and immigration agents engaged in a "sham" to make it appear that Benatta was being held for immigration violations. Prosecutors trampled on legal deadlines intended to protect his constitutional rights and later offered explanations for their maneuvers that "bordered on ridiculousness," Schroeder wrote. The government compounded its mistakes by failing to act once it was clear that Benatta was not an accomplice to terrorists.

"The defendant in this case undeniably was deprived of his liberty," Schroeder wrote, "and held in custody under harsh conditions which can be said to be oppressive." To keep Benatta imprisoned any longer, the magistrate concluded, "would be to join in the charade that has been perpetrated." Judge Schroeder wrote:

I am also of the opinion that because of the events of September 11, 2001, the FBI would have been derelict in its duty if it did not pursue an investigation of the defendant after the Canadian authorities contacted the U.S. officials on September 12, 2001. However, the events of September 11, 2001, notwithstanding the heinous and despicable nature of those events, do not constitute an acceptable basis for abandoning our Constitutional principles and rule of law by adopting an “end justifies the means” philosophy.

But, all’s well that ends well, right? Well, no. The Feds say they intend to deport Benatta and meanwhile he is still in jail, unable to make the $25,000 bail. You can send him a Christmas card, though:

Benamar Benatta
c/o Buffalo Federal Detention Facility
4250 Federal Drive
Batavia, New York 14020

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:41 PM

Everyone else is tired

That's the way Tom Paine concludes a scathing review of the latest flailing candidate slanders of Democratic frontrunner Howard Dean. Desperation has never been uglier, more futile, more calculated to shatter party unity. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:41 PM

A Republican Does the Right Thing

New York Governor George Pataki today issued the first posthumous pardon in New York state history to Lenny Bruce, the much-tortured comedian who was convicted of obscenity for his foul-mouthed (but right-on) political commentary nearly 40 years ago. Pataki called his decision "a declaration of New York's commitment to upholding the First Amendment."

If Lenny were alive, I'm sure he'd say "About fucking time, asshole."

posted by Jerry Bowles 1:25 PM

Ralph Not Running for Greens

Well, this helps some.

p.s. Nice job in 2000.

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:24 PM

Acts of Cowardice: The Betrayal of the Democratic Party

Josh posted this yesterday and it triggered lots of lively comments but somehow both the post and the comments got bloggered overnight. So, here it is again. JB

At least they should spare us the tears. Last week the fifth tearful Democratic abdicator and deserter, Senator John Breaux, made the Republicans job of securing a filibuster-proof Senate a whole lot easier. All Republicans need is three or four of these seats—all from the South where the word Democrat is sinking faster than mysterious packages tossed off the Tallahatchie Bridge—to steamroll the Conservative Right’s agenda in the next Congress.

My memory may be cloudy but I have not witnessed this level of desertion before and the timing could not be worse. It’s analogous to a star quarterback or receiver deciding to quit just as the playoffs are about to begin. We would not tolerate this in our hometown teams, but we seem indifferent to this perilous abandonment that could sink this country for the next 30 years with Scalia as Chief Justice and some Thomas clones rounding out the Supremes and ruling our bedrooms and boardrooms for the rest of our lifetimes (with all due apology to any young readers in the group.)

There is simply no discipline in the Democratic Party. Remember when the Republicans had to pretend that Strom Thurmond was still sentient just to hold on to the seat? Why can’t fellow South Carolinian Fritz Hollings do the same? No, these humbug senators are all self-centered, selfish, sniffling bastards. Listen to these treasonous words from Bush’s favorite Democrat, John Breaux: “There is something to be said about retiring at the appropriate time, when you’re [italics are my editorial emphasis] at the top of your game.” Look for Breaux to get a cushy thank-you job from the next Bush administration.

What compounds the problem is that Dean has no coattails, maybe not even a coat. Running as a Noreaster and Washington-outsider, Dean will be paralyzed by Republican gridlock and not be able to effectively govern. He desperately needs a foreign policy expert as a running mate but that is not likely to help in the wardrobe departments and it rules out a big-state governor as a running mate. His current public he-said-he-said spat with Clark about whether or not he offered him the #2 spot is symptomatic of Dean’s weakness on this critical matter. Who is the last Democrat to pull fellow team players into Congress. It certainly wasn’t Clinton and it ain’t going to be Dean? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Karl.

Update Commenting on yesterday's version of this post, Morat mentioned that Dean had a plan to target 21 key Congressional districts with funding as a way to win back the House. Where that plan is detailed or posted is beyond my search. I could not find it on Dean's website or in a quick Google search. If there is a plan, why not make it visible, why not talk about it, why not use it to further distinguish himself from the others? If anyone has a reference, kindly share it.

posted by Josh 9:52 AM

Zinger de Jour

"...Howard Dean, the Huey Long of the iPod set." David Brooks, NY Times, December 23, 2003.

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:41 AM

No Wonder Dean Supporters Are Feeling Happy

Check out the trend lines in what Markus Kos calls "the mythical national primary". (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 6:32 AM

Calling all cars

“if we go to red, it basically shuts down the country…” Tom Ridge

If ABC is a “trusted news source” most Americans aren’t taking the latest terror alert very seriously. Could it be that they don’t take homeland security honcho Tom Ridge seriously? Or maybe they don’t take his boss, el presidente, very seriously. If private polling suggests that that might be the case, the administration has a broader, election year motive for upping the alert to orange.

One can understand the notion of giving those on the frontline of “homeland” security a wake-up call now and then. But it really doesn't need to be done in a way that upsets the American people... so why wait for the holidays? Consider the quality of our pre 9/11 and then the jacked WMD intelligence. Consider that the intelligence employed as grounds for the alert has been hanging around for some time. Compound that with the politicization of the intelligence community and the American people have good reason to mistrust the current government and walk away from Tom Ridge’s latest psywar missal with a bad case of “alert fatigue.”

Then too, consider the vulnerability of our electricity power grid. We aren't hearing much about a fix on that. Nor did we hear much about Al Qaeda's side of the story. An outage on Election Day could erase alot of votes in those receiptless electronic voting machines.

Jay Leno said last night that people should report anything suspicious, like seeing John Hinckley, Jr. walking around unsupervised. If Shrubby and Rove and Ridge call a “red alert” right before Election Day our real “patriots” might be reporting citizens trying to get to the voting booth. Welcome to Skinner Box Amerika.

French journalists face 3 years in Pakistan jail

Just get out of the Ernie Pyle School of Journalism at the University of Indiana? Want to do some career building for your resume beyond the internship desk? Try Baluchistan, the buffer area bridging the drug democracies of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In what could be a bad case of Midnight Express redux, Le Monde reports that the government of Parviz "the Pusher" Musharraf has arrested two french journalists, Marc Epstein and Jean-Paul Guilloteau, for visting in and reporting on what's happening in Baluchistan, where drug trafficking and human trafficking still are le plat du jour. Both men had valid visas, but their travel was restricted to Karachi and Lahore which is the equivalent of nadaville when you're looking for a scoop. The pair face up to three years in prison. Bien sur que le Quai d'Orsay is on the case.

posted by Groom 1:49 AM

Monday, December 22, 2003

Hawks Don't Do Bookkeeping

The General Accounting Office said today that sloppy accounting practices by the U.S. Department of Defense led to a $1.6 billion discrepancy between two key IT budget reports for fiscal year 2004. The GAO said in its report that there were "material inconsistencies, inaccuracies or omissions" that tainted the reliability of the Pentagon's IT accounting practices.

And this is just one tiny little piece of the DoD budget.

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:17 PM

For Josh

From blogforamerica

===============

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky Endorses Dean for President WASHINGTON--Illinois Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky today endorsed Governor Dean citing his strong belief in providing health care for all Americans and his ability to motivate grassroots support.

"Howard Dean is making an offer to the American people that we can't refuse: the opportunity to take back our country from the special interests. I look forward to mobilizing that army of true patriots along with Gov. Dean," Congresswoman Schakowsky said.

"Jan Schakowsky is one of the Hill's most respected voices, and she has been an eloquent advocate for quality health care, public education, and the needs of women and children," Governor Dean said. "She is a fantastic addition to the half-million Americans who are uniting together to take their country back in 2004. I look forward to working with her and drawing upon her counsel as the campaign continues."

Since her election in 1998, Schakowsky has represented Illinois' Ninth District, which includes Evanston, Skokie, Niles, Golf, Morton Grove, Glenview, Lincolnwood, as well as several Northwest Chicago neighborhoods. She previously served eight years in the Illinois State Assembly.

Schakowsky is a member of the Energy and Commerce Committee and serves on the House Democratic Leadership team as Chief Deputy Whip. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:04 PM

For Jerry

From blogforamerica

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West Virginia's Democratic Congressional Delegation Endorses Dean WASHINGTON--In a dual endorsement in an important general election state, West Virginia's two Democratic congressmen have endorsed Governor Howard Dean. U.S. Representatives Nick Rahall and Alan Mollohan made the announcement today, citing Governor Dean's strength of character and his commitment to working families and the communities in which they live.

"Howard Dean can be the voice for jobs for West Virginians, and one for assuring comprehensive health care for our families and the retired coal miner. As a physician, healing, not division, is his passion. Our country and our allies could use a good dose of his common-sense approach to making people's lives better and our country stronger and safer," Rahall said.

"Governor Dean understands the investments states and this nation must make in our public infrastructure, good highways, clean water and adequate wastewater treatment. He understands the need for a national energy plan that maximizes our domestic resources and he knows the value of maintaining an environment that raises people's quality of life. I believe he knows full well that a secure America begins with a strong economy," Rahall said.

"Howard Dean has his priorities straight, and he is not afraid to stand up for the best interests of working people. He strongly believes that public investments, fair taxes, balanced budgets and sound Social Security and Medicare programs are vital to the prosperity and health of all our citizens. And he makes an outstanding case against the 'Bush tax' which is the harmful result of President Bush's single-minded push for tax cuts for wealthy Americans. Working families will pay a huge 'Bush tax' in the form of higher deficits, higher state and local taxes, and reduced investments in our communities," Mollohan said. (John McCreery)

posted by Jerry Bowles 7:59 PM

Best of the Bloggers

And the winner of the first-ever Best of the Blogs Blogger of the Year award is…Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo. Well, my selection anyway. Kind of an obvious choice for those of us who occupy the left side of the nobody-asked-me-but-here’s-what-I-think miniverse. Josh does more real reporting than any other blogger and consistently delivers his share of scoops as well as some of the most persuasive analysis to be found on the Web. True, he’s a conservative writer who maintains a “professional” tone which means his stuff is always suitable for family reading but another four years of Shrub ought to fix that. This is the year that Josh (and a few of the rightwingers, like Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds) proved to the mainstream press that blogging matters by keeping the Trent Lott affair alive long after the Washington Post and the New York Times wanted to let it go. Young, articulate, telegenic, talented—I hate him. Congratulations, Josh. The check is in the mail.

p.s. The bloggers I most enjoy reading are Roger Ailes, who is a pisser after my own heart, and our very own Groom Lake, whom I've known for nearly 40 years and still have no idea what's going to come out of his head.

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:22 AM

Sunday, December 21, 2003

Tom De Lie

The new softer image makes him look like a poor man's Huey Long. This little kingfish wannabe can't even put two thoughts together responding to Tim Russert's questions about Osama Bin Laden on "Meet The Press." The stuttering, the long, vocalized pauses and overall fuzzy-headedness make you wonder what this right-wing hate monger ate for breafast. DeLay continues to believe that Saddam has been a bigger threat to US national security interests than Osama Bin Laden. He tells the American people that "we have destroyed Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network." He continues to defend the Bush-Cheney-Blair lie that Saddam's existing WMDs were justification for starting a unilateral war with Iraq. DeLay may have some pit-bull in his blood but he isn't very bright. When you look at the history of the pre-Reagan GOP political operators from Joe Martin to Ray Bliss to Thruston and Rogers Morton and then look at DeLay, you develop a better understanding of what longtime Democrat speaker Sam Rayburn meant when he talked about something not being worth more than a bucket of warm spit.

posted by Groom 10:24 AM

Run for the border

A couple of days ago I drove a friend who is blind to Mexico to get some dental work done. Post and crown: $180. It was cold that morning; 37 degrees. We stopped in a café in downtown Nogales where we warmed up with platters of machaca, a Sonoran specialty of chopped marinated beef, eggs, chopped green chile and onions, and mugs of Mexican chocolate flavored with almond and cinnamon. Over the meal he told me he had one more duda. He needed to stop at a drug store to cop a stash of generic viagra.

Stateside at major drugstores, football shaped 100mg Viagra tablets retail for about $11.50 a pop (with prescription of course). Otro lado, in the border towns of Mexico, generic sildenafil 100mg tablets (round and lake blue in color) are sold in bottles of ten for $45.00. You don’t need to take the Kaplan SAT brush-up to do the math. With prices like that, all those NASCAR dads who thought Shrubby was cool for pushing his “prescription benefit” Medicare bill through Congress like shit through a goose are going to start to think twice. That vast expanse of America that Jim Baker said only cares about “cheap beer and dollar gas” will cross over and vote for the Dem if they can find a cheaper way to ride their pogo stick all the way to Tulsa…

posted by Groom 6:14 AM