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Party Time… the Popular Democratic Party (PDP)

As Howard Dean and Tom Vilsack duke it out for the chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, ask yourself what have the Dems done for you lately? Free DemWear? Visa or Mastercard with a Donkey logo and an annual cash back bonus? How about a cheapie state or national party card that can get you a few discounts and remind you’re part of the club? Like the late jazz giant Charlie Mingus used to say “Sigmund Freud’s wife yo’ mamma think all the things you’d be by now.” But mamma got an abortion.

The Democratic Party is on a cruise to nowhere. Only Howard Dean reminded us that more Americans voted against George Bush- not for John Kerry- than any other sitting president in the history of the nation.

All the chest beating, inclusionfesting, churching and fundraising can’t gloss over the fact that the potty is an historically decentralized, structurally weak organization. The DNC has little effective power; the real power is in the hands of the Democratic Party conferences in the US Congress. They elect their own leaders, who run agendas that have little do with party platforms or the letters and emails and protests that average Americans think connect them to the democratic process. And those leaders are all in the pockets of the K Street lobbyists… See Sen. Harry Reid for details. To further disenfranchise the rank-and-file, each of those conferences creates committees to raise and disburse funds for House and Senate races… gubmint of the oil, by the oil, for the oil.

For all their talk about decentralizing and eliminating government and bureaucracy, the GOP has a much more centralized party command and control structure. They’ve compounded their success by hooking up with religious organizations. Instead of politicking at a Cuban barrio defense committee meeting, or at a Peronist unidad basica, or a Commie cell meeting, grass roots action happens at your Wednesday night bible study.

It’s too late for the Dems to bring in McKinsey and monkey with the nuts and bolts. They can only look at the structure and success of the AARP and weep. AARP, after buying the lie on the Bush “prescription drug benefit” is miles out in front of the Dems on the jacking of Social Security. The Teamsters dumped the Dems for the GOP three decades ago. It’s time for Howard Dean and Andy Stern and their backers to think about joining forces to create a new political party, the Popular Democratic Party (PDP), and help all Americans take back America.

posted by Groom 4:56 PM

The Cheney Dilemma

What happens if Shrub actually has to be president?

posted by Jerry Bowles 4:13 PM

Strange Bedfellows

I know of at least two couples where she's liberal and he's conservative, and who presumably split their tickets on Election Day. But they're married with children and substantial histories together, and as a result, they're more-or-less stuck with one another. However, anyone merely dating a Bush voter should probably read Liz Langley's "Bedroom Politics: Ten reasons why that Bush voter you're dating is wrong, all wrong." Just as a sample, here's reason number 3: "Look at the War on Iraq. Following that logic, a Bush voter will potentially get you in bed a) without preparation, b) under false pretenses and c) you weren't really even the one he wanted, but he couldn't find her."

posted by jabartlett 11:24 AM

Coincidence?

Could it be a matter of chance that on the very day the Washington Post reports that Porter Goss and his brown shirts are driving valuable people out of the CIA with their partisan antics, David Brooks weighs in with an article about how Bush needs to kick some ass over at Langley? Are the rightwing attack gerbils really so tightly controlled that they can do instant blowback? Big Brother is not only watching, he's taking names.

posted by Jerry Bowles 11:10 AM

What happens when a veternarian runs the FDA?

The doctor who linked a certain pain inhibitor with heart problems and outed its manufacturer for covering up the facts has been kicked off the committee to review the safety of all the COX-2 pain inhibitors. Since the flu vaccine botch wasn't enough of a reminder about how the Kompassionate Kristian Korporatists have abandoned the social contract let's give another big tip of the hat to Les Crawford, the Bushco pet vet who is in charge of securing the public health of the nation.

posted by Groom 4:34 AM

Magister Belli Laughs

Seems a high school group in Boulder decided to perform, in public mind you, Bob Dylan's "Masters of War," and local wingnut busybodies panicked and called the Secret Service, who bestirred themselves enough to come harass the kids on bogus claims that they had "threatened the President."

A warning to the Secret Service: There's a 41-year-old folk-rock song out there, with some pretty harsh and cutting lyrics, about wishing for the death of bloodthirsty warmongers. If somebody sings it, and somebody else hearing it is reminded of Bush -- well, as Someone Who Looks Remarkably Like McNamara said recently: Democracy is messy.

And high school students aren't the only ones reminiscing about those lyrics lately. It's just that some of us are older and wiser now, and know that we can "hide" that sort of thing from you -- by publishing it online.

posted by Michael 3:50 AM

Well, That Didn't Take Long

From the Washington Post:

CIA Said to Be in Turmoil Under New Director Goss

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:03 AM

Friday, November 12, 2004

What He Said

Please read this very smart column from James Wolcott. It's one of those "wish I'd written that" blogs.

What Wolcott talks about - how Bushco is effing things up for corporate America - in conjunction with what Leftcoast and I have talked about today - how the (Ir)religious Right is going to be making demands on Moneyed Right - is going to make the Corporate Ringmasters increasingly uneasy. The Civil War of American politics may happen, just not on the side everyone thought.

Oh, and for fun - Mary Cheney's being attacked by the right. Can't you just hear Lynne Cheney's outrage?

...A Virginia pro-family advocate says the people who helped re-elect President Bush don't support homosexual relationships -- the administration apparently does. Joe Glover, president of the Family Policy Network, has worked tirelessly for family values, including the fight against legalized homosexual "marriage." He says it was conservative Christians who put the president back in office and who held to the belief that the president shared their views. But Glover says the day after the election, that all seemed to go out the window. "The day after George Bush was elected president again, because of this morals revolution taking place in our country, he allows his vice president to not only put his lesbian daughter on the platform, but to bring her lesbian 'partner' up on the stage with him," Glover says. "It almost seems to be a slap in the face from the get-go against the very conservatives that re-elected the president at a time when he ought to paying them some homage and respect." Glover says the Cheney daughter's open flaunting of her homosexuality is the antithesis of what the administration claims to stand for -- and that the post-election display sends a mixed message to Bush supporters.

posted by Blackdogred 3:54 PM

Payback is Hell

As this article - which Leftcoast has referenced also - in today's LA Times illustrates, it's entirely possible that Bushco had forgotten the adage "be careful what you wish for" when they humped its Kill a Fag for Jesus constituency.

Bob Jones III, president of the Christian conservative Bob Jones University in South Carolina, recently urged Bush to purge moderates from the White House

"If you have weaklings around you who do not share your biblical values, shed yourself of them," Jones said in a letter to Bush after the election. "Put your agenda on the front burner and let it boil. You owe the liberals nothing. They despise you because they despise your Christ."

I'm of the camp that believes in the basic truth of Thomas Frank's thesis that the powers of the GOP have been running a morality bait and switch with this country's Evangelical and Pentacostal zealots: vote against fags, get a tax cut for the rich. The GOP has always felt secure that whatever debts the whackjobs felt they were owed wouldn't be called in, much less need to be paid.

Bushco obviously thought this election was far too close for reasonable and thoughtful people to decide and called upon the religiously psychopathic whose imaginary friend, GOP Spokeman Jesus, calls upon them to hate liberal homohood and vote Republican. And vote they did.

I don't know that they swung the election - in fact, I suspect they didn't as much as the current narratives of how and why this election turned out as it did suggest. But let me say this: I hope the narrative continues its currency. Continues, that is, as long as it this asshole and this asshole and this asshole become the public face of the GOP.

Obviously, the Democrats need to make people of thoughtful religiosity welcome within the party, but all this nonsense of changing our morals so that people with Pat Robertson's morals are welcome is seriously - metaphysically - bullshit. They are going to become even wackier in what they perceive to be the success of their divine wackiness and more demanding of the GOP to govern on their agenda. Please, please let them. They'll send the majority of sensible people our way.

UPDATE: Here is a link to Bob Jones' letter to w.

posted by Blackdogred 3:27 PM

Messages In An E-Bottle Received; Apologies Accepted

This site has sprung up, evidently, in response to Sorry, Everybody, which I mentioned earlier this week. Hey, maybe we should talk directly to the rest of the world more often, and bypass the Bush administration entirely; they pretty much suck at diplomacy, anyway.

posted by Michael 2:50 PM

Bet They Sold Out Their Mothers, Too

For all the hew and cry of an impending Christian takeover (I'm guilty as charged), there seems to be an emerging opinion that despite evidence to the contrary, Bush will not directly pander to the Christian Right. Here's the logic: As far as Dr. Rovenstein is concerned the Rabid Righteous have done their job. They showed up, now they're useless pains in the ass.

My short answer as to why is this is, is simple: Like everything else these wackjobs do, it's all about transferring your wealth into their pockets. It's the biggest non-denominational sleight of hand scam in history. Talk values, take your money. The True Believers think Bush is watching out for their culture and values, when his eyes are fixed solely on their wallets. Part of the manifold failures of the Kerry campaign was not reacquainting the electorate with the only absolute truth in American politics: You want to find out what's really going on, follow the money.

Or to paraphrase Thomas Frank, the Christian Right complains about the erosion of family values from Hollywood. The Blessed Few plead for someone to deliver them from the evil of Blue State sleaze and pornography -- Bush hears it and sings Hosanna. So how does he fix the problem? He makes a perfunctory example of Howard Stern, then turns right around and gives Stern and the rest of the alleged pornographers a tax cut. Priceless.

Leftcoast

posted by Leftcoast 1:11 PM

Friday's Open Thread

Where do we draw the line in the sand? Gonzales' confirmation? Social Security privatization? Rehnquist's replacement? Forthcoming big Iraq budget? Name your stand and fight moment. (Or, do we just roll over and play dead and hope they self-destruct?)

posted by Jerry Bowles 12:19 PM

The Church Thing
What Democrats Are Missing—And Need

I’m not a joiner and I O.D.ed on religion at a young age since my old man was a preacher and a right-winger before the term had been coined. Back then, most churches had a formal Sunday morning service, an informal Sunday evening service and a mid-week prayer meeting to keep the god-mo going week long. And churches stuck to their non-secular knitting.

Not so any more, as all of us well know. Now most conservative Protestant churches have an informal early morning Sunday service, lead by lay ministers, peppered with kumbaya Jesus songs that have a Mr. Tambourine Man quality to them, all wrapped up in communal pep-rally atmosphere with testimonials about contemporary Biblical obligations to witness by writing to the FCC about Janet Jackson and only an occasional reference to the traditional mission of the church—attending to the poor and shut-ins.

The serious business of these early services is religious politics—rendering unto Caesar “the will of the Lord” on everything from national school prayer to local zoning laws. Unlike Democrats who tend not to go to church, at least not so frequently, most early morning church goers are Republican, and my point, finally, is they meet weekly and recharge their political batteries. Democrats have no such structure, discipline or meeting obligation. I’d wager that most MeetUp groups, which worked so well this time around for Democrats, have disbanded until the next local election, if contested, but they not likely to come together again until the Summer or Fall of 2007. If they are meeting, their numbers are dwindling.

Democrats are not on a mission from God. We have no moral obligation to meet in person, virtual meetings are just fine. There is little we worship, our faith is in whatever doesn’t need group reassurance. There is no scriptural impetus to our behavior, and prayer is something we save for life-threatening infirmities as a back-up to the failings of modern medicine and science.

Until we sort out the face-to-face meeting thing (the internet is not a viable substitute) and find a sustainable way to stay energized and engaged, we will continue to wonder “how do they do that”?! and continue to watch our flock get fleeced.

posted by Josh 9:47 AM

Ambassador Nut Job

Turns out that Robert Blackwill, Bush's mysteriously just resigned top Iraq aide, is a woman abuser who exposes himself to small children. Moral value that.

posted by Jerry Bowles 9:34 AM

Wake Up and Smell the Chardonnay

Despair not, Blue Staters, says Frank Rich. We're winning the culture wars by a mile.

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:36 AM

New gut course for Big Ten football jocks... bomb building 101

That’s the way it is when you’ve got a football ride in Michigan State University’s football program. You’d think 19-year-old freshmen wideouts Terry Love and Irving Campbell would be catching bombs from their star quarterback instead of using dangerous chemicals to build them and detonate them outside a student housing complex. If you or I pulled this caper we’d be held incognito at some undisclosed location without legal counsel, getting grilled by a clusterfuck of FBI, Homeland Security, ATF and local law enforcement. In today’s bread and circuses world athletes can get away with anything, including murder. When Condi Rice gets named commissioner of the National Football League I wonder if she will uphold the current conventional wisdom that football players who build and detonate bombs are just engaging in “a prank”…

posted by Groom 5:09 AM

Come To Think Of It, Maybe A Trial Separation Would Be A Good Idea

posted by Michael 1:15 AM

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Ditching Private Ryan

Those upstanding citizens at Sinclair Broadcast Group (you remember them, the ones who were planning the totally unnecessary Kerry hatchet job) have struck another blow for truth, justice and the American way. They’ve announced that they are not carrying tonight’s Veteran’s Day broadcast of “Saving Private Ryan” on any of their ABC affliates because the network is showing the film in its original theatrical form without any editing for television, and it contains—oh, my gosh--“numerous unedited uses of the ‘F-word.’”

Sinclair says it can’t show the film because it isn’t clear whether those uses of the “F-word” would violate the FCC's rules prohibiting the broadcast of indecent material between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m and the FCC has been unwilling to provide any guidance about whether or not it would consider the unedited version of this movie to be indecent in light of recent rule changes on this subject. Sinclair also says it offered to show the film after 10:00 p.m. but ABC rejected the offer.

Clearly, the nice folks at Sinclair are angry at the FCC and this is more about payback over the Kerry flap than about the word “fuck.”

...although we do not personally believe that this movie is indecent in any manner, we believe the FCC guidelines and ABC's refusal to delay the broadcast require us to preempt the movie. It is unfortunate that we felt compelled to take this action, particularly in light of the need to honor the memory of this country's fallen heroes on Veterans Day. It is similarly unfortunate, however, that the actions by a small but vocal group of individuals in the past have influenced the FCC to the extent that broadcasters are fearful of exercising their First Amendment rights, lest they result in fines by the FCC or action being taken against their licenses. We ask that our viewers join with us in letting the FCC and our elected officials know that censorship is dangerous and that the current rules have gone too far.

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:50 PM

"You're Fired."

None of these guys should ever work in this town again. Ever.

Leftcoast

posted by Leftcoast 6:47 PM

A Modest Proposal of Our Own

Since the Rabid Righteous want so badly to expel the 12 blue states from the People’s Republic of Christ, I say unequivocally that we should stop criticizing and wringing our hands and make every effort to go with the flow. Let’s do what we, as a society, do best. Let’s market the living daylights out of Christianity. Let’s hold it close to our media-addled, consumerist bosoms. After all, we market good things to death all the time. Look what we’ve done to the noble carbohydrate in the past three years. What about disco, David Cassidy, mullets, AOL, and cigars? They are all so…over.

Think what we could do with franchising the Pentecostal experience. You know, the new Pentecostal fast food, the Meat your Maker Burger. How about the new airline, Celestial Air, with the tag line, Get to Your Final Destination. Speaking of the Rapture, how about setting up a Pentecostal Pari-mutuel business—make book on the End Times. The merchandising will be fabulous and think of the potential franchise rattlesnake breeding business. Books you ask? How about Pentecostal Chic: “How to Live Like Trailer Trash on $500,000 a Year.” We can even add new university classes in Tongues. It’s endless and infinite…just like the Lord.

Four years of this and no one, I mean no one will want to associate themselves with Christianity, Born Again or otherwise. It will be so…over.

Leftcoast

posted by Leftcoast 3:35 PM

Don Alberto…guardia de espaldas

That’s what they call the guy who watches your back in Latin American political jargon, Jerry. But Mexico isn’t part of Latin America any more. It's part of North America. Gonzales will be top cop and run the Mexico account out of La Plaza de Justicia. With State losing favor and relevance, NAFTA, the Mexican-Colombian drug cartels, recycling of narcodollars and immigration will all be on his plate. Justice and FBI are already meddling in Mexico’s internal affairs, leaking illegally obtained oppo to the listing PANistas to derail the presidential candidacy of popular Mexico City mayor Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is ahead in the polls. Effectively, this makes Don Alberto “kingmaker” in Mexico’s 2006 election… with maybe some help from Likudnik Abrams at NSC... you know it’s true when the Associated Press reports that Pappy Powell says Washington would support a “leftist” regime down in the backyard. Me dijieron que su “fixer Gringo” es un gente de raza osea.

posted by Groom 3:25 PM

Red Staters for Brown People

Since we are being sold a narrative that says the Red State (Ir)religious Right, spurred by hatred of fags and love of killing brown people, carried the day for w, let's all remember what GOP Spokesman Jesus looked like.

This is, no doubt, exactly the image followers of this cheerleader for Jesus cherish, eh?

posted by Blackdogred 12:35 PM

Spit-Take Alert! Sit Down, Swallow, Take A Deep Breath, And Move All Breakables Out Of Reach

Three guesses who National Review Online is recommending that Bush name as the next Secretary of State.

. . . none other than Zell Miller.

What? We're not involved in enough wars now? Or maybe, their thinking goes, we can avoid more wars, if The Personality Disorder Who Calls Himself A Democrat would just challenge our adversaries (and erstwhile allies) to duels! Hey, it's gotta work better than the house-to-house "canvassing" we're currently engaged in, in Fallujah . . .

posted by Michael 11:57 AM

Whose Network is the Most Morally Sleezy?

Frank Rich's latest column makes the necessary, if perhaps stated before, point: who owns the media that social conservatives bemoan as promoting immoral values.

And today's rhetorical question: when Lib and Dem politicos are bitching about Fox News why aren't they also making the connection between the morals of a company that brings you both Bill O'Reilly and Paris Hilton?

posted by Blackdogred 10:36 AM

Thursday's Open Thread

Who should be the next head of the DNC? Bill Clinton? John Edwards? Howard Dean? Somebody else?

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:20 AM

Senor Tortura

Before we go all soft and squishy over Alberto Gonzales' up-from-poverty and minority-makes-good story it's important to remember that this guy has a record that would make General Pinochet proud. Gonzales has frequently been mentioned as a possible Supreme Court nominee but clearly Shrub believes that it's more important right now to have a trusted, unindicted co-conspirator as the gatekeeper at the Justice Department. How do you say "I got your back" in Spanish.

posted by Jerry Bowles 10:05 AM

The Emerging Schism in the Republican Party

So let's say you are Pataki, Giuliani or any other pro-choice moderate in the Republican (Christian) Party and you are thinking of running for president in 2008. How do you get the nomination with the Christian Right controlling the party? Is there a third party in the making here? What would its political strategy be?

I’m glad it’s their problem and not ours.

PS. Ken Salazar is the first Democratic Hispanic Senator--and a pro-lifer. He might emerge as an interesting VP candidate in 2008 to tackle the emerging stranglehold of the Right on presidential politics.

posted by Josh 9:53 AM

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

He's Baaaaack!

Bring the wooden stake, I said, but nobody listened.

posted by Jerry Bowles 8:12 PM