Lil' Russ

Over lunch today I watched some of last night's Democratic debate. I have no opinion on either candidate's performance because the entire event was overshadowed by the evident-to-the-point-of-being-agressive banality of Tim Russert. From the Farrakhan repartee to the bizarre hypotheticals, it was like watching the know-it-all from the Model UN Club moderate the Student Council debate. This was a rare case where the candidates actually raised the level of debate while Russert, anchor like, tried to keep things at the level of a tabloid.

Lil

W.F.B. R.I.P.

William F. Buckley has died. Like so many in my generation I read WFB's syndicated column and watched his television show on PBS. While I grew to disagree with him on so many issues, he was one of the first people to show me the possibilities of seriously engaging moral and intellectual issues. In a time when irony was laying its roots around the cornerstone of culture, WFB demonstrated the merit of being morally serious and the thrill of turning over a few rocks to see what lay underneath.

Godspeed.

The Moral Hazard Argument

In the wake of the ever expanding mortgage mess, many states are offering programs to help buyers avoid foreclosure. Supporters of the efforts say they are necessary to revive the whole residential building industry, a critical part of the economy in terms of creating jobs, profits and personal wealth. Opponents say that the aid measures bail out a large group of people who made a very poor business decision, be it buyers who bought more home than the they can handle, lenders who wrote too big a loan on too weak a credit application, or the securities gurus who packaged mortgages in to pledgeable collateral.

Liberal types like myself have always taken the position that the collective interest of shoring up our broader economy outweigh the moral hazard of bailing out some folks who made stupid decisions. We are comfortable with that moral hazard -- the fact that individuals are saved from the consequences of their misdeeds. However, the latest crisis offers a challenge to that point of view. The country's relentless consumerism -- our true civil religion -- as well as the profit motive of people who enable it are a constant threat to economic stability. Do we owe it to ourslves to let some people bottom out on the shore of their bad decisions? Will the mortgage industry ever start to write legitimate loans unless they a loss hits their books? Will consumers ever start living within their means without the threat of financial ruin? is it legitimate to draw a distinction between how we treat consumers and how we treat business?

More later.

Talk Amongst Yourselves

From Salons Carol Young:

In a culture where we're supposed to have it all -- tight butt, retirement accounts, oodles of consumer goods and even more freedom -- marriage seems like an increasingly odd social norm.

Some Year End Accounting

With the close of 2007, we are hearing some numbers on lobbying. Some of the most notable

The telecomm industry spent about $80 million buying retroactive immunity for eavesdropping in the latest beef about the Protect America Act.

The auto industry spent about $60 million lobbying against increased fuel economy standards.

Here in Michigan, over $32 million was spent on lobbying in Lansing.

These numbers provide a pretty bleak look into the influence of big money. One also has to wonder what would happen if industry actually used this money to expand or improve their operations.

This Week In The News

This week, the President visited Africa and received the warm greeting he usually receives in countries with low literacy rates. But behind the scenes, the President is busy working on his legacy. In College Station, TX, a group of Bush supporters is interviewing candidates for the Director's position at the Bush Presidential Library. While the proceedings are kept confidential, TWN learned tha each candidate had to write an essay in defense of the President's historic standing or explaining their strenths as a spokesperson for the soon to be be ex President. By posing as a slightly overweight desk clerk at the College Station Travel Lodge, TWN was able to procure snippets from the essays. We reprint them below:
"

I can say 'Humanitarian Legacy' over and over without laughing.
"The term 'worst' is pretty subjective..."
"The Department of Interior was not for sale. It is more like a rent to own policy. "
'History will show that more countries with nuclear weapons is a good thing...."
"It is possible that preemptive war is completely consistent with the President's alleged Christianity."
"The response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the President's compassion..."
"As long as the Vice President believes it, it is not a lie."

This week, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continued their quest for the democratic nomination. While polls show either candidate defeating a Republican in November, the WSJ reports that some Democratic strategists are concerned that blue collar white males may defect to Sen. John McCain. According to one strategist, the sensitive egos of this group make them a volatile demographic. Ever curious, TWN went to Rusty's Inn in Saginaw Michigan, a once proud blue collar watering hole in a once proud manufacturing center. We asked Sam Brewster, 62 about the Democrats' concerns. His response: "Demographic?? demo - fucking-graphic.?!!! We didn't use to be a demographic. We were it. The whole thing. The whole pie. Didn't matter if you wanted to win an election or sell televisions, you had to go through white guys like me. Everywhere you looked -- we ran the show. We decided what was funny, acceptable, good and bad. We walked around like we had bowling balls between our legs. Now my wife makes more money than me. Some black guy might be president, my kids treat me like I'm in a history museum, and you say I am just another demo-goddamn-graphic. " Brewster then took a pull from his beer and began to sing,"Boy the way Glen Miller played...."

This week, Sen. John McCain defended himself against reports that he had an adulterous affair with a taut-faced lobbyist whose clients McCain later helped. While the news story was initially percieved as hurtful to the Senator's chances, Americans slowly began doing the math. At the time of the alleged affair, McCain was 64 and his brassy paramour was 38. This fact immediatley endeared McCain to an entirely new constituency and the McCain campaign was quick to react. Immediately, McCain's campaign bus was renamed the "Straight Stalk Express" and Republicans introducing McCain at campaign events began addressing him as the future "Superfreak in Chief." McCain now takes the stage to jazzy saxophone riffs instead of his usual theme music. Even Rush Limbaugh was quick to note that "it appears McCain has been screwing special interest lobbyists -- or at least one of them -- since at least 1999."

With Jay Rockefeller as Agent Jack Bauer....

I just saw the new GOP ad about the Protect America Act. Message: give the government completely unchecked power and telecomm industry complete immunity or the terrorists will come and eat the fetus from your womb.

Seriously, it even has a ticking stopwatch and and the progessive typing motif. Can these guys be more obvious?

Lest We Forget

On August 26, 2002, in an address to the national convention of the Veteran of Foreign Wars, Cheney flatly declared: "Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

The Center for Public Integrity has amassed a list of 935 false statements made by the Bush Administration in the two years following 9/11 reagrding weapons of mass destruction or ties to Al Queda. Yeah, yeah, I know. They were just really mistaken over 900 times in two years. Oops.

Score One for Big John

This morning's WSJ noted that both Sen. Clinton and Sen Obama. now "sound like John Edwards," when they talk about the economy. Months ago, the Times' Paul Krugman said that Mr. Edwards was "driving the Democratic agenda," and some folks made fun of him because Edwards was soon to be out of the race. Now it appears that Edwards raised the expecations of a large constituency that neither remaining candidate can ignore.

Republicans have always told us that the interests of big business and America generally are in perfect alignment. They were wrong. Centrists Democrats like Bill Clinton and his DLC cohort tried very hard to make those interests align. They failed. Now Democrats must face the fact that progress will be confrontational and that there are those who like the distribution of wealth and the geometry of power just the way it is thank you. This realization is, in itself, a bit of progress for which Mr. Edwards deserves credit.

Mark This Page

Words of Wisdom from the Czech Foreign Minister:

"Russia is not so strong to be a real enemy for us. But we can make it an enemy. It is our decision."

Let's see if Russia becomes the new boogeyman.

Obama Lama Dama Ding Dong

Jimmy Carter ruined politics for my wife. He was, she will tell you with a wistful gaze, the first candidate she cared about. The first candidate who she thought could actually make the world a better place. The first candidate who just seemed wired differently than the rest. We all know the rest of the story. Iran. OPEC. Malaise. In the end, my wife became another person who snorted cynically at all politicians. Who thought the "The System" was rigged to destroy good men and maintain the status quo. The Man from Plains let her down big time. It has, ironically I think, taken a truly horrendous President to trigger a cautious re entry into terra politicus.

I fear that the same fate will be in store for some Obama supporters. Although the Senator from Illinois has my support, I worry that legions of his fans ("supporters" seems like an understatement, mere "supporters" don't faint at the sight of him) are going to be let down when they find out he is human.

The Senator's fan base seems to have a way of talking about him as though he is a combination rock star, artist, or writer. He alone has some transformative power, some deep wisdom about our country and the human condition. His journey is talismanic, a metaphor for just about anything you want a metaphor to describe. Many don't really seem to care about his politics. They are in this for "the Man."

Trouble is, "the Man" will inevitably disappoint them. He will show himself to be human. He will make some compromise, wander into some grey area, dodge some issue, victimize himself with some indiscretion, or worse, run into a wall like the Man from Plains. (Right now he is sending checks totalling over $600,000 to the campaigns of various super delegates, a move some might call buying votes.) When that happens... and it will... his supporters will undoubtedly suffer spasms of biblical proportions. They will pluck out their eyes and rent their garments. They will wail that they were let down again. Their faith that one man could transform a nation is betrayed. Oh why, why, could he not be as transcendent as we had hoped? Why, why must he have human flaws? Why, why did he play the game to win?

They will become cynics because their unrealistic hopes were dashed. In time they will fancy themselves worldly wise and jaded. Some will just go back to voting Republican and rolling their eyes at all those idealists who think they have an option other than rolling over. They will probably trot out that damn Churchill quote about young men and old men and think it is really insightful. (To be fair, my wife has never fallen to this depth.)

The sad thing here is that the Obama Hangover, like all hangovers, is a product of the mixer, not the booze. By investing themselves so much in the man's personality, and by making him a slate or their personal hopes and dreams, many Obama supporters privilege the Man over the Ideas. They get caught up in the Coke and not the rum. They forget that tonic is useless without som gin. They forget that progressive politics is more important than any one progressive. They forget that universal healthcare, living wages, fair trade, peace, civil rights and liberty are worthwhile goals whether furthered by the Senator from Illinois or the Senator from New York. The candidates are just afterthoughts.

I hope that some Obamanites start drinking their politics straight and discard the sweet mixer, 'cause its the sugar, not the booze, that will kill you.

At least when the Obama Nation's moment of disillusionment comes .. and it will... my wife will feel your pain. Then she will tell you to get over yourself and maybe tell you tales of what happened when Americans stopped watching the henhouse because those horrible Clintons turned out to be human and not transcendent and they made us all cynical and.... well you know that story.

Call Me An Elitist....

Susan Jacoby has a worthwhile piece in the Post this morning. Here is the link:

Jacoby has just written a book call the The Age of American Unreason, inwhich she argues that we have become a nation of dunces, perilously without a grasp of the most basic scientific and political facts of the world around us. Yeah... yeah.. she is an elitist who just wants to criticize the common folks... yada.. yada. But I witness this phenomena everyday. I work with people who are highly educated, highly motivated, and make a living solving complex problems in a contentious atmosphere. Yet, at times it is difficult to get an conversation going about even the most basic front page news. What is more troubling is that anyone who has even the mildest interest in the world is seen as some type of elitist freak. As though current events are like foreign stamps ... any interest in them is highly suspect and of marginal utility

Perhaps the most troubling is that this sort of willful ignorance seems to be a hallmark of our elected leaders as well. Remember when Al Gore and John Kerry were derided as some type of effete snobs because they just plain knew more about the world than George W. Bush? Gore in particular was catigated for snorting when W offered a seventh grade answer to a question in a debate. But I guess in the New World Order, the guy who is resolute and wrong is more electable than the guy who is right.

The Spirit of 1956

Today, Kosovo declared its independence. Russia was quick to warn the Kosovarians that they were on a dangerous course. Washington "recognized" Kosovo's independence but failed to say whether we would actually support the new nation.

If you breath real deep you can catch a whiff of the Prague Spring here. Prague Spring with light notes of Hungarian as well.

Prozac Nation

There has been a fat lot of buzz lately over a simple fact: Americans take a mega load of perscription antidepressants and anti anxiety medications each year. Critics point out -- somewhat rightly -- that these medications separate us from our emotions and prevent us from really dealing with what ails us. Others see this as a canard of the pharmaceutical industry, bent on expanding its margins through psychtropic drugs or "legal dope." Still others assert that our pharmaceutical predilictions are a sign that we are a weaker species than previously existed, that we expect to be coddled and are unable to deal with life's travails. This is a familair declinsionist narrative. So familiar, it could even start with "When I was your age..."

For my own bit, I would suggest that, over a period of generations, we have constructed a world which is profoundly uncomfortable for us. While it offers all sorts of material comforts and all sorts of entertainments, it does little to feed our souls or are hearts. It does not give us what we really need --- community, purpose, solidarity -- but focuses much of our energy on the pursuit of things we do not need. When confronted with the anxiety, alienation, and despair that accompanies this world, it no doubt we ask the doctor for some mothers little helper.

Not an original thought I know, but when millions of Americans find themselves in need of medication, we might want to ask why.

Like an Opposition Party Only Different

Today the Senate passed a bill that would 1) allow the President to eavesdrop on private phone calls and e-mails without a warrant and 2) retroactively protect anyone involved in that type of snooping when it was illegal. The bill had the support of some 19 Democrats and numerous lobbysist for the telecommunications industry.


I think this puts to bed any fear that the Democrats are any less craven, unprincipaled, or money grubbing than the Republicans. Sen Obama voted against the measure. Sen. Clinton was absent.

This Week in the News

This week, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell told Congress that Al Queda had greatly improved it ability to launch a strike in the US. According to McConnell, from its shelter in Pakistan the group had recruited a new generation leaders and trained a new set of terrorists recruited from the West. Asked if the Administration's War on Terror, detention camps, renditions, wiretaps or invasion of Iraq had any deterrant effect at all, McConnell would only answer, "It appears to have kept various Senior Officials very busy coming up for code names for things, color coding stuff, calling Blackwater, visiting secure locations and strutting. You can't discount that. I mean with this crew, idle hands...."

This week, President Bush delivered his budget to Congress. The budget increases military spending, cuts funding for numerous social programs by $474 billion, and adds $547 billion to the country's current budget defecit over five years. Asked why he presented such a ham handed attempt as his last presidential budget, the President responded, "Its the legacy thing. See, when the historicizers try to come up with your legacy, they compare you to other Presidents. This is just my way of making sure no one gets a running start on me. A little hard to get out of the blocks with an occupation to fight, a deficit to level, and a recession in full bloom. Yeah. Try to get Barak's face on Mount Rushmore with that ... see if Hillary can be a 'change agent' when you can't pay for postage stamps let alone food stamps... Uh huh. Welcome to Shitsville... Mayor ... You."

This week the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) convened in Washington. Upon news that the Suit Known as Romney was dropping his presidential bid, Sen. John McCain prepared a charm offensive in an attempt to win back conservative voters. Eschewing a typical speech, McCain and his staff presented a video reflecting each of the candidates conservative attributes. The video was complete with musical highlights and the audience cheered as McCain was seen leading a one man invasion of Iran to the beat of the Village People's "Macho Man." McCain was shown handing out tax cut after tax cut while wearing a sidewise baseball cap to the tune of Madonna's "Material World". The Senator slahed social spending as he lipped synched Bush's "He a Loser Baby [So Why Don't You Kill Him]" and tearing up Roe v Wade as he sang along with "Bess.... Youse My Woman Now." In another frame, McCain gutted the Environmental Protection Agency and the Securities and Exchange Commission with a submachine gun accompnaied by Coolio's "Gangtsa Paradise." McCain ended the video by strutting across the frame to AC/DC's "Big Balls." Said one CPAC delegate, 'I loved it [the video]. But I was a little worried until that last part. I mean, with all the music and stuff I thought for a minute that he might be a little light in the loafer "

Ideas Have Consequences... Candidates Not So Much

Americans, we are often told, vote for candidates not parties. It is commonly held a credit to our particular national genius that we see through the gossamer of our class, gender, racial and ideological interests (such European stuff) and vote for men of integrity, good character and so on. Proof of this axiom can be found almost anytime you here an "average voter" interviewed. They all want to elect someone who "is sincere," "is like their neighbors" who "will do what they think is right," who vaguely "stands for the right things" or who will "unite the country," if not be pleasent to "have a beer with." You would like to think that our systematic and rigorous focus on character - - and not politics -- would lead us away from temptation, away from the charlatans and into the palace of wisdom.

It hasn't. Instead, it has led to at least two perverse consequences, one annoying and one devastating.

First, all this blather about character and getting to know the candidate just leads down a blind alley. In short, we know the candidates in precisely the way they want us to know them. Small armies of highly paid, intelligent folks spend a great many hours making sure that a certain candidate is identified in a certain way, associated with certain attributes, distanced from certain stances. Their autobiographies are clipped, sculpted and molded to fit whatever portion of American mythology a given voter demographic adopts. (Rags to riches, maverick, hero, etc...) You will not see the candidate unguarded or candid until such time a a consultant decides that candid and unguarded are the themes of the day.

In short, if you think you can discern anything about the candidates character, you probably were disappointed that those ginsu knives really don't cut through tin cans. When we elect our presidents using the same criteria we use for prom king, we get what we deserve.

Second, and perhaps most deadly to our political culture, our superstar approach to politics allows us to forget that ideas -- even more than the men who execute them --are important. I use the last six years as an example. Right now, George W. Bush has an approval rating slightly higher than syphillis. Many Americans now blame America's ills on the the President's callow, incurious, and unprincipled character. That may be partially true, hwoever, the state of America today is not the result of one very bad President. George Bush has but authored only the latest chapetr in an ongoing storyline. The disasters of this Presidency are not just due to a poor leader -- they are the results of poor ideas. More precisely, our predicament is the consequence of a certain set of ideas that have dominated American politics for the last thirty years. Some can be characterized as attempts to roll back the New Deal reforms of the 1930s, others as products of the conservative movement spawned by Barry Goldwater, still other the results of dilligent lobbying by those the ideas benefit. While a complete list is impossible, a few of the highlights include:

a belief in the primacy of private markets and that has led to a darwinian winner take all capitalism that defines justice in terms of economic efficiency;

a concomitant belief that "government is the problem not the answer" that has led to a stream of tax cuts and deregulation which has shifted wealth upward,and left our government crippled and in some cases unable to even maintain our basic infrastructure;

a belief that government assistance or protection of the most vulnerable citizens, or our natural resouces is counter productive and inefficient because it places a burden on business;

government enforcement of so called traditional values and a hostility to protecting the civil rights of racial minorities, homosexuals or women;

a belief that if we only grease the skids for business, increased corporate profits will benefit us all;

a belief in a Pax Americana, that is a world aligned with US interests and values, that may be achieved by force of arms or a "muscular foreign policy.".

These ideas percolated in the pot until they achieved a national voice in the presidency of Ronald Reagan. They then became the lingua franca , the unspoken assumptions of of our political culture until this very day. It is these ideas, and not the character of any specific president, that has informed our current situation. It is these ideas which led us into Iraq, created a two tiered economy, lit the fuse on our culture wars, and destroyed the modern welfare state.

It is ideas like these that should be at the center of political campaigns, but then again Barak is so earnest and Hillary is so bitchy and McCain can be such a grouch and Huckabee really hates Romney, and....

Security .. Maybe Not So Much

In November, President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki stated they would negotiate a treaty that would contain, ""security assurances and commitments . . . to deter foreign aggression against Iraq that violates its sovereignty and integrity of its territories, waters, or airspace."

Yesterday, Defense Secretary Gates told Congress that the treaty would not contain any security provisions. That was good news to some who are leery of having to defend Iraq militarily for years to come. It was bad news to Iraqis who see Iran looking longingly over their borders. No real easy answer to this one. A security commitment could commit us to another shooting war in the Mid East, perhaps with an enemy more formidable than the Republican Guard. On the other hand, leaving Iraq to defend itself seems to sidestep our responsibility for this mess and also leaves us vulnerable to an enehanced Iran.

We Are All Scotsman Now

Newsflash. Frugality is cool again. Its true. I read it in the paper.

Its Obama Time

As readers of this blog know, I supported John Edwards in his bid for the Democratic nomination. Edwards has now withdrawn from the race. It is now Obama time.

Like many Americans, even on the left, I was leery of Obama's candidacy for any number of reasons having more to do with his youth, inexeperience and optimism than his politics. Looking hard at my reasoning, it just does not pass the categorical imperative. If I were to apply the same reasoning I applied to Obama to every candidate, I would never vote for anyone who was broad minded, optmistic, generous of spirit, or young. I would fall into the spiraling loop of only voting for people I thought were saavy (in a Jack Palance type of way), people who had internalized the strange cants of our polical culture, and people who were bland enough to be electable. That is a miserable, hopeless place. That essentially cedes the battle to the Lee Atwaters, Roger Ailes and Karl Rove's of our times -- all men who told us that anything outside a narrowly proscribed "mainstream" and anything beyond the most brutal, Hobbesian society was a pipe dream. All men who told us that it was hopeless to try to replace the market with justice.

This democracy is not through dreaming yet. Run, Barak, run.

This Week In The News

This week, Rupert Murdoch announced that The Wall Street Journal, which he recently acquired, will begin publishing a magazine chronicling the lifestyles of the wealthy in America. The magazine, to be edited by a former fashion editor, will begin accompanying the paper in September 2008. According to a News Corp. spokesperson, "For generations the Journal has been the bible for those interested in understanding how money may be made. And one way you never lose money -- playing on the self satisfaction and insecurities of our readers. People have a lot of questions. What architecture says 'I am a certified member of the upper middle class.' What fabrics tell people that 'I am rich enough not to work too hard?' Am I too subtle in letting people know how proud I am of myself? Which place settings reflect the fact that I deserve the best? Where can I vacation so that people will instantly overestimate my income? We'll get at all that and more. "

This week, Mike Huckabee continued his quest for the presidency. After taking second in South Carolina, Huckabee placed fourth in Florida. Sympathetic pundits are dismayed that Huckabee -- the most openly religious man in the race -- has not garnered more support among his fellow Christians. Ever curious we hit the campaign trail. According to John Ledbetter in Colombia, SC, "Don't get me wrong, I go for the Christian candidate. But Mike was all about 'being each others keeper' and caring for 'common inheritance.' I kind of like it when we get to get all mad about other people doing stuff we don't like. I mean what good is it if you cannot call other people evil. At least he supports the war though.... that's something " Sharon Lawrence of Tampa, FL also noted, "I go to church every Sunday and I like the fact that Huckabee does not like homosexuals or abortion, and his willingness to continue an endless war is courageous. But really it sounds like some of things he is for might mean higher taxes or benefits for people besides me. I mean...all that little guy populism... where is that in the Bible?"

This week, Republican candidates for President had their last debate before Super Tuesday at the Reagan Library. Frontrunner John McCain and the Suit Known as Romney crossed swords in a battle to see who was the most conservative. At one point, John McCain criticized the Suit for allegedly supporting a date for withdrawal in Iraq. The Suit bravely fought back at one point saying that he would rather stick a pen in his eye than withdraw from Iraq. McCain responded that he would rather return to the Hanoi Hilton than withdraw from Iraq. Romney countered that he loves the occupation so much that he and his wife sometimes play a game called "a Randy Sunni Terrorist at a US Checkpoint.' Debate moderators sat in awe as the candidates sparred over how many illegal immigrant homosexuals they could deport in a day and how small they could shrink the government. On this issue McCain boasted of a government: "So small we could not get you duct tape in a hurricane." Romney countered with a government:"So small that the Securities and Exchange Commision will be two guys with a Fidelity account and a subscription to Barrons."