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Saturday, September 29, 2007
Ron Paul's Straw Poll Results
29 Sep 2007 09:17 pm
Check them all out. If enthusiasm counts for anything, Paul's message - a deep rebuke to his party's abandonment of Goldwater conservatism - is making an impact.
What Smoker's Breath Smells Like
29 Sep 2007 08:09 pm
More literal street art in Sao Paolo here.
The Race On Facebook
29 Sep 2007 07:07 pm
Finally, a campaign web-page on Facebook is outstripping Obama's. One Million Strong For Barack has now been bested by One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary. MoJo reports:
The group "Stop Hillary Clinton (One Million Strong AGAINST Hillary)" has more than 418,000 members, which beats Obama's 355,000 members. And it crushes any pro-Clinton groups, the two biggest of which combine for just under 10,000 members.
Belmont wonders:
If Hillary buries Barack in the coming contests, where will the discontent go?
If there's that much discontent, she won't.
"Environmentalism's Existential Moment"
29 Sep 2007 06:03 pm
Can green groups transform themselves into institutions motivated by a vision of prosperity and possibility? Or will they remain grounded in the politics of pollution and limits?
Face of the Day
29 Sep 2007 05:53 pm
Staff at the Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyrood House, view paintings in the collection 'Bruegel to Rubens' on September 27, 2007 in Edinburgh, Scotland. This is the first exhibition ever mounted of Flemish paintings in the Royal Collection and brings together 51 works from the 15th and 17th centuries. By Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.
How The Rich Got Rich
29 Sep 2007 05:01 pm
Greg Mankiw analyzes the Forbes 400.
Obama at Howard
29 Sep 2007 01:42 pm
A strikingly expansive speech, a reminder of what Obama can deliver when he wants to. My sense is that he is holding back, or rather has been holding back. He is very, very careful not to get too angry as a black candidate. Perhaps too careful for his core message: real change. What he needs to do is find a way to explain how serious he is about change while explaining that he alone can overcome the boomer polarization that has prevented it. And that's true on the race issue as well. Yesterday, the message got sharper. Money quote:
I commend those of you at Howard that have spoken out on Jena Six or traveled to the rally in Louisiana. I commend those of you who have spoken out on the Genarlow Wilson case. I know it can be lonely protesting this kind of injustice. I know there's not a lot of glamour in it. Because when I was a state senator in Illinois we have a death penalty system that had sent 13 innocent people to their death--13 innocent men that we know. I wanted to reform the system, and I was told by almost everyone that it was not possible, that I wouldn't be able to get police officers and civil rights activists to work together, Democrats and Republicans to agree that we should videotape confessions to make sure they weren't coerced. Folks told me that there was too much political risk involved, and it would come to haunt me later, when I ran for higher office. But I believed that it was too risky not to act. And after a while people with opposing views came together and started listening. And we ended up reforming that death penalty system, and we did the same when I passed the law to expose racial profiling.
So don't let anyone tell you that change is not possible. Don't let them tell you that standing out and speaking up about injustice is too risky. What's too risky is keeping quiet. What's too risky is looking the other way. I don't want to be here standing and talking about another Jena four years from now because we didn't have the courage to act today. I don't want this to be another issue that ends up being ignored when the cameras are turned off and the headlines disappear. It's time to seek a new dawn of justice in America.
From the day I take office as President of the United States--has a ring to it, doesn't it? From the day I take office as President America will have a Justice Department that is truly dedicated to justice, the work it began in the days after Little Rock. I will rid the department of idealogues and political cronies, and for the first time in eight years the civil rights division will actually be staffed with civil rights lawyers who prosecute civil rights violations, and employment discrimination and hate crimes.
For the record, I'm posting the whole thing after the jump.
"To all of the honored and distinguished guests faculty staff and students, it is a privilege to be a part of today's convocation, and an honor to receive this degree from Howard.
Now there are few other universities that have played so central a role in breaking down yesterday's barriers, and inching this country closer to the ideals we see inscribed on the monuments throughout the city.
Continue reading "Obama at Howard" »
Beyond Rangoon
29 Sep 2007 01:14 pm
Alas, Netflix doesn't have the movie recommended here.
The Clintons Get Cocky
29 Sep 2007 12:50 pm
When you're ahead, don't stomp on the guy in second place. We've seen a few hints of the old Clinton mojo lately. We have the spiking of Josh Green's piece on Hillary for GQ. We have the flash of the old, angry Bill with Anderson. And we now have Bill's attempt to instruct Obama to wait his turn. But Gail Collins captured it best this morning, I think. She reported something I hadn't heard, but it sums up the Clintons' classic boomer narcissism and self-righteousness:
Earlier this year at a campaign rally, Bill Clinton said that when he was at Yale, he told Hillary: "I have met all the most gifted people in our generation and you're the best."
Gag me, dude. Everyone under 40 these days is voting for Obama.
I Guess That's Why He's A Blogger
29 Sep 2007 12:03 pm
"I know the smell of editorial cowardice," - Mickey Kaus.
The View From Your Window
29 Sep 2007 10:57 am
Kassel, Germany, 7.23 am.
Reihan!
29 Sep 2007 09:44 am
The inimitable Reihan Salam - a one-man brine tank of knowledge - is blogging for Ross while yet another Atlantic blogger goes and gets married. Check out his post on Brian De Palma.
Genocide In Burma
29 Sep 2007 09:12 am
One aspect of the vile junta in Burma that has not been covered enough is the campaign of ethnic cleansing and harassment of the ethnic minorities who live near the borders of Burma. The Karen people mainly in the East of Burma are persecuted brutally, murdered, hounded and hunted, day and night. Here's a helpful YouTube outlining some of the horrors.
McCain and the Christianists
29 Sep 2007 08:29 am
The pandering continues. Beliefnet just interviewed the senator:
Beliefnet: A recent poll found that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. What do you think?
McCain: I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation. But I say that in the broadest sense. The lady that holds her lamp beside the golden door doesn't say, “I only welcome Christians.” We welcome the poor, the tired, the huddled masses. But when they come here they know that they are in a nation founded on Christian principles.
The Constitution established America as a Christian nation?
Politicizing The Military
29 Sep 2007 07:24 am
A black eye for the McCain campaign:
Seven on-duty Army personnel participated in a campaign event for Senator John McCain earlier this month in Londonderry, N.H., in an apparent violation of a Pentagon directive against partisan political activity, two military officials confirmed this week.
The Sept. 14 rally at an American Legion hall was part of McCain's "No Surrender" tour of early-primary states, a martial pageant designed to draw attention to the Arizona Republican's continued support for the war in Iraq …
A Department of Defense directive signed in August 2004 by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz prohibits on-duty members of the armed forces from "speak[ing] before a partisan political gathering, including any gathering that promotes a partisan political party, candidate, or cause." …
A Pentagon official did not dispute that the 2004 directive would apply in this instance.
Friday, September 28, 2007
ENDA In The Senate
28 Sep 2007 08:21 pm
The transgendered are excluded.
For Your Netflix Queue
28 Sep 2007 07:19 pm
A reader recommends "Beyond Rangoon," a John Boorman movie about the original 1962 coup failed 1988 uprising in Burma.
Two Emails On Obama
28 Sep 2007 07:05 pm
And two perspectives. The first:
I have been a "Good Republican" all of my voting life. The party no longer means anything to me. It was about keeping the governments hands out of my pocket and out of my life. Hopefully maintaining some sort of moral authority.. More and more I find myself, thinking of myself as a Libertarian, with a bit of a social concience.
I was once asked if I would ever vote for a Democrat. My response was "only if I had a gun pointed at my head". This time I might pull the trigger for Obama, not necessarily for his potential policies, but rather that at least he appears to be a man of principle. It's kind of sad that is the only reason to vote for someone. It used to be for someone who reflected my own beliefs and principles as closely as I could ascertain. Now I just want someone of character, any character at all.
The second:
You ask: Who Else Does This? Ah, the vaunted youth vote... The much-touted vote that somehow never materializes.
This is the political equivalent of a rock concert or a really fun "happening." There isn't a shred of evidence that any of this is translating into significant support for Barack, at least in the polls.
The people who will decide the Democratic primary were not at Washington Square Park yesterday evening because (a) they do not live in NYC; (b) are well beyond college age and well beyond attending "happenings"; (c) are home with their kids; (d) are holding down two jobs with little time left over for a feel-good speech in a crowded park.
Right now, (a) - (d) are firmly and unequivocally in Hillary's camp.
Until there is some significant movement in Barack's poll #s --- and he has been static ALL YEAR --- it is hard to see this as anything but ephemeral.
Crowley sees hope sinking. I think it's too early to know.
The Days Of Living Posthumously
28 Sep 2007 05:56 pm
A moving and funny account of long-term HIV survival. The benefits of living long past your former die-by date: gout and a crooked penis. Ah, what I have to look forward to.
Huckabee's South Carolina Strategy
28 Sep 2007 04:40 pm
It has something to do with Christmas. Ambers explains.
Mutiny?
28 Sep 2007 04:34 pm
Caution: all these reports are as iffy as their English is somewhat garbled. But hope springs:
Military sources in Rangoon are claiming that the regime's number two, General Maung Aye (right), has staged a coup against Than Shwe, and that his troops are now guarding Aung San Suu Kyi's home. A meeting between him and Suu Kyi is expected. Maung Aye is army commander-in-chief and a renowned pragmatist. 29 Sep 07, 01:43
URGENT : From internal source: It is heard that the junta has set a plot to assassinate the most senior venerable monks (Sanga Maha Naryaka) tonight as if it is done by the monks involved in the protest.
More here:
Reports from Rangoon suggest soldiers are mutinying. It is unclear the numbers involved. Reports cite heavy shooting in the former Burmese capital.
The organisation Helfen ohne Grenzen (Help without Frontiers) is reporting that "Soldiers from the 66th LID (Light Infantry Divison) have turned their weapons against other government troops and possibly police in North Okkalappa township in Rangoon and are defending the protesters. At present unsure how many soldiers involved."
Chris Dillow explores the chances of a military revolt here. The brutality of the troops in such a peaceful country may be backfiring:
This picture on the top right is part of the human brain of a young boy attacked by Burmese SPDC soldiers at Tarmwe Township, Yangon yesterday. Riot police were not using rubber-coated rods. They were using heavy iron rods instead, which broke the skull, putting the young man to the end on the spot. This photo was taken after the dead body was taken away by the notorious Burmese soldiers.
Obviously, I can't verify this. But, given the record of SLORC and its thugs, it's believable.
Red for Burma
28 Sep 2007 04:02 pm
Some leads for Burma blogging: Yan Aung's site is here; Lun Swe's is here. An online suggestion for how to help. It's gratifying to see so many pitching in. McConnell and Feinstein have even come together in the Senate. Radio Free Asia is doubling its broadcasts to the country; so is Voice of America. Even Facebook is helping:
In response to the Buddhist monk-led protest in Burma, a Facebook group, "Support the Monks' protest in Burma" is using the Internet to organize and promote gatherings and other initiatives. One of these is a Facebook event called Red Shirt for Burma, encouraging people to wear a red t-shirt on the 28th of September as a show of support.
At present, more than 4,000 people have pledged their support for Red Shirt for Burma with an impressive near-35,000 people joining the Facebook group that is helping to promote the event.
Check out the Flickr red shirt pics here. I know it seems pious, but if any of these images reach Burma, they can help give the beleaguered Burmese - and ethnic minorities in Burma's hinterlands - help. In Asia, South Korea's citizen-journalists are demanding that their own government do more.
9/11 Made Him Do It
28 Sep 2007 03:42 pm
Rudy explains why he took that call-phone call from Judith during his NRA speech. 9/11 apparently makes it vital to talk to your spouses at all times. No, I'm not making that up.
Who Else Does This?
28 Sep 2007 03:28 pm
It's worth reminding ourselves:
Mr. Obama’s aides said more than 20,000 people registered for the event through the campaign’s Web site. While it was impossible to determine even a reliable attendance estimate, view from the vantage point of an elevated lift seemed to reveal the gathering as one of the largest campaign events of the year.
Which other candidate can even begin to get 20,000 people for a rally in September the year before any actual votes are taken? Washington may have already decided Clinton has won; but the country hasn't. You're seeing an enormous demand for real change, for a different kind of politics, for a way out of the polarized boomer world. I don't know if Obama can channel this effectively. I do know it's real, and the most powerful force in these coming elections.
(Photo: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty.)
Burmese Haze
28 Sep 2007 02:44 pm
Heaven knows what the casualties are, and as the country gets cut off from the outside world, it's hard not to fear the worst:
Bob Davis, Australia's ambassador to Burma, said he had heard unconfirmed reports that the death toll following two days of violence was "several multiples of the 10 acknowledged by the authorities."
The AP suspects, but has not confirmed, that deaths could be in the hundreds at this point. Japan is pressing for an investigation into the killing of a Japanese journalist. There are some reports that the resistance is becoming more violent, more disorganized and more explicitly anti-junta:
Chants from the protestors have taken on a different tone from earlier messages of goodwill, with protestors calling for lightning to strike and kill those who had attacked monks.
“Before they were chanting metta, but now they are cursing the soldiers,” said a local resident.
More confirmation of the trend here:
Crowds of people taunted soldiers in the centre of Rangoon today, swearing at them and then running into side alleys of Burma's biggest city when the troops feigned a charge, a witness said.
Men were shouting at the soldiers in English: "Fuck you. Go fuck yourself".
Protesting government censorship, Rangoon's journalists have chosen to shut down their presses rather than print more lies. The junta is now hunting down people in offices who have been taking photographs and posting them on the web:
I got a news from my friends that last night some military guys searched office computers from Traders and Sakura Tower building. Most of the downtown movement photos were took from office rooms of those high buildings. GSM phone lines and some land lines were also cut out and very difficult to contact even in local. GSM short message sending service is not working also. Burma is blacked out now!
Maybe technology can help keep the world's eye focused. Satellite images of riots and massacres might be available soon:
"We should get the first images back in the next day or so," says Lars Bromley, a senior researcher with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington DC.
Keeping the world's attention through the blogosphere is now essential. The revolution is not only going to be blogged; in some respects, the blogosphere is now critical to the survival of the revolution. Know hope.
(Photo: A Burmese monk holds a placard during a protest outside the Burmese embassy on September 28, 2007 in Bangkok, Thailand. Dozens of Buddhist monks and hundreds of people gathered to demonstrate against the Burmese government, urging the junta to stop violence and its crackdown against protestors and Buddhist monks. By Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images.)
McCain and Burma
28 Sep 2007 02:32 pm
He gets it, and rightly worries that the UN is too compromised by China's influence.
A Military Split In Burma?
28 Sep 2007 02:31 pm
Some mixed reports here. The situation is obviously as opaque as it is complex. Money quote:
Soldiers from LID #66 have turned their weapons against other SPDC soldiers and possibly police in North Okkalappa township in Rangoon and are defending the protesters. At present unsure how many soldiers involved. Some reports cite "heavy shooting" in the area.
Other unconfirmed reports have stated that soldiers from LID #33 in Mandalay have refused orders to act against protesters. Some reports claim that many soldiers remained in their barracks. More recent reports now maintain that soldiers from LID #99 now being sent there to confront them.
Reports of approx. 10,000+ protesters gathering around the Traders Hotel in Rangoon. Other reports of 10,000+ protesters gathering at San Pya Market in Rangoon. Further reports of approx. 50,000 protestors gathering at the Thein Gyi Market in Rangoon.
The View From Your Window
28 Sep 2007 01:21 pm
Sydney, Australia, 3.50 pm.
McCain, Ron Paul, and Torture
28 Sep 2007 12:31 pm
A reader dissents:
It's misleading (seriously so) to say that McCain opposes Bush's use of torture. McCain has supported nominal bans on torture, and speaks out against torture in public, but he has also supported legislation (most notoriously the Military Commissions Act) that allows Bush to continue using torture in practice. The MCA specifically says that foreign detainees designated as terrorist suspects cannot challenge the conditions of their confinement in a US court. That is to say, the MCA blocks courts from enforcing the legal prohibition on torture. It leaves detainees to the tender mercies of George Bush and Dick Cheney. Thanks to the MCA, if Bush and friends say that water boarding isn't "torture," courts are powerless to stop them.
You know and I know that Bush and friends are taking full advantage of the elimination of habeas corpus in order to continue using torture. That's one reason why they pushed so hard for the elimination of habeas corpus in the MCA and the earlier Detainee Treatment Act of 2005.
McCain not only voted for the MCA. He also voted against an amendment to the MCA that would have preserved habeas corpus. He voted against the recent bill to restore habeas corpus.
Continue reading "McCain, Ron Paul, and Torture" »
SCOTUS and Limbaugh
28 Sep 2007 11:57 am
A depressing fact: a sitting Supreme Court Justice is to go on Rush Limbaugh's show on Monday.
The Onion And Life
28 Sep 2007 11:48 am
This headline was just on KTNV ABC Channel 13 in Las Vegas:
Local Man Says Marijuana Is Important To His Religion
He says "he is looking for a youthful, energetic, spirited attorney to step up and defend the cause."
Still Early
28 Sep 2007 11:44 am
More than half of New Hampshire voters have yet to make up their minds.
Burma and the GOP
28 Sep 2007 11:39 am
The junta hired a lobbying outfit, of course.
Thatcher's Heir?
28 Sep 2007 11:02 am
Cheery couple, aren't they? But the surprising turn of events in Britain has led the gruff, boring, earnest Gordon Brown seem quite conservative in temperament and affect, especially compared with the Blairite, hipster style of the young Tory leader, David Cameron. Maybe Thatcher's surprise visit to Number 10 earlier this month was a sly rebuke to Cameron who has pitched himself as Blair's heir. Old warhorse and Thatcher ally, Norman Tebbit, a man who makes John Derbyshire look like Graham Norton, has made the point explicitly, just to piss off the current Tories:
"I'm quite sure that Margaret Thatcher knew exactly what she was doing. She is first too well mannered to rebuff the Prime Minister and second of course the present Conservative leadership has been at great pains to distance himself from her and she is after all a woman."
Lord Tebbit also criticised the Conservatives for being out of touch with half of Britain's population.
He said: "What a lot of people will suggest is that they don't know how the other half lives.
"David and his colleagues - the very clever young men they have in Central Office these days - are intellectually very clever but they have no experience of the world whatsoever.
"He has spent much of his time in the Conservative Party and as a public relations guy. Well it's not the experience of most people in the streets. That's the real attack and its damaging to him."
So the neocons are warming to Hillary and the old guard Tories are warming to Brown. Interesting ...
(Photo: Alessandro Abbonizio/AFP/Getty.)
The Experience of Music
28 Sep 2007 10:28 am
A reader writes:
I've been reading your blog for some time now, and thoroughly enjoy it, even when I don't agree with you. Tonight I've read the quotation from Oliver Sacks about music, and I'm writing because I find it fascinating to read non-musicians writing about music. While I can tentatively agree on some of the things he says (well, despite being a church musician amongst other things myself, I don't buy the notion of composers as taking dictation from above), one of the things he totally misses is that, at least for people who make music, music at least in part represents the actions taken to make music!
When I hear a great voice singing, I thrill at the thought of what it must feel like to open one's mouth and make a sound like that, knowing what it feels like to sing. And it's not hard to extend the ideas to various sorts of instrumental playing. A big shift has occurred over the past 100 or so years with the advent of electronic distribution and reproduction of music in that most listeners now are physically divorced from the making of music, and in fact have never taken any serious efforts in making music themselves. This leads to the sense of separation of music from the physical world that Sacks is talking about. I'm not judging whether or not this is a good thing, but it certainly represents a marked change in the experience of music since the 19th century.
Clinton In New Hampshire
28 Sep 2007 09:42 am
A reader writes:
Just in case you might have missed it, there was a pretty telling little piece of the debate Wednesday night, tone-wise, and it related to the debate over torture.
This bit is being commented on as revealing Clinton's independence from Bill, but more importantly, it showed that she brawls. This was the only really noteworthy exchange in an evening of boilerplate, and made Obama's dull performance even weaker in comparison. Everyone I was watching with - mostly Obama leaners like me - started laughing at Tim Russert's punctured pomposity. The two comebacks in a row were spot-on in tone, and really evidence a rhetorical fluidity and willingness and ability to attack with a grin on her face.
This is exactly the kind of thing that I'm looking for in a candidate for the general, and no one else really showed it. The whole bit was so far from the clearly practiced and woodenly inserted humor note we're all so sick of. She was really a cut above, and I almost hate that I'm starting to like her.
One move like this in the general with a big audience and the whole narrative of Hillary as a shrew or a pill will be revealed as silly. Just like Russert's stupid schtick.
Yep, it was all over the cable shows last night. Even I had to smile.
Newspapers and Blogs
28 Sep 2007 09:17 am
They still don't have much of a clue, do they? Did you know that the New York Times now has 40 active blogs. Me neither. I guess it's a step forward that they're not charging you to read them.
A New Catholic Low
28 Sep 2007 09:06 am
Here's the archbishop of Mozambique claiming that some people have infected condoms with HIV to kill Africans:
"I know of two countries in Europe who are making condoms with (the) virus on purpose, they want to finish with African people as part of their program to colonize the continent," Archbishop Francisco Chimoio told Reuters.
Will The Senate Vote Again?
28 Sep 2007 08:12 am
The American Conservative is now attacking Petraeus as a "sycophant." I presume the Congress must rise to condemn them, no? Money quote from Andy Bacevich:
David Petraeus is a political general. Yet in presenting his recent assessment of the Iraq War and in describing the "way forward," Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes.
Burmese Daze
28 Sep 2007 08:01 am
A reader writes:
What people may not realize is that the brutality of the Burmese military regime extends back not merely to 1988, but to 1962. That was the year General Ne Win seized power, after which troops stormed the Rangoon University Student Union--a center of anti-colonial struggles in the 1930s and 1940s and a center for protests against the military coup--dynamited the building, and massacred between 100 and 150 students.
I should mention that I am taking all this quite personally. My great-grandfather emigrated to Burma (from India) around 1910, and his descendants lived in Rangoon for 50 years--even during the Japanese occupation. My father and all of his siblings were born there. Being "foreigners," however, they were all kicked out when Ne Win took power. So we have been nursing a decades-long grudge. I suppose I should thank the Burmese military--I would not have been born in the US without them.
Although I despise Bush, I have to confess admiration for his unequivocal statements against the junta and in support of the protesters. It's more than can be said for Russia, China, and India. One should expect this kind of thing from Russia and China I suppose, but India, the nation which invented modern civil disobedience, should know better.
Here's a useful primer on Burmese history. The Dish's most recent coverage of the Saffron Revolution can be found here and here. Check this Burmese blogger for the latest.
The Problem With Bio-Fuels
28 Sep 2007 07:36 am
Thirsty autos. The more I write about biofuels the more I am convinced that there is an elephant in the room that no one is acknowledging. The elephant is automotive fuel economy.
There is no point using expensive grain to make a gasoline extender if its just going to poured into inefficient autos and burnt. Robert Rapier said at the end of last year fuel ethanol is boondoggle.
That doesn't apply to all biofuels, but when you look at the potential gains in green house gas reduction, compared to the savings that could be made by making cars a little more efficient, you have to wonder where people's priorities are.
A Civil Rights Slide-Show
28 Sep 2007 06:26 am
Vanity Fair and David Margolick present a historical, photographic web-essay on the integration of Little Rock.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Why Did He Do It?
27 Sep 2007 10:44 pm
Marc Ambinder parses John Edwards' decision to accept public financing.
Face of the Day
27 Sep 2007 09:27 pm
A protesting Buddhist monk sheds tears for other monks arrested by police in downtown Rangoon, 26 September 2007. Police in junta-ruled Burma fired tear gas on about 1,000 protesters led by Buddhist monks as they started a march from a landmark Rangoon pagoda 26 September, witnesses said. AFP/Getty. The latest from Burma here, here and here.
Advice For Obama
27 Sep 2007 09:25 pm
A reader writes:
I just saw Barack Obama speak in Washington Square - and I was underwhelmed.
Obama spouted cliches at the crowd: Hope, Optimism, A Better America. You could tell that people wanted to like him, but he wasn't giving people a reason to connect with him.
What Obama is missing is what Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton knew -- or actually, what they were: they saw issues not as abstract ideas or slogans, but as people. The high point of Obama's speech was an anecdote about a day he spent shadowing an SEIU health care worker. He talked about her pride and her pain, her fears and her dreams. He made "hope" concrete - not an idea, but a person.
Obama can only win if he makes this connection with people, empathizing with their hopes, and telling the stories that show what kind of a person he is. His biggest strength is his personality. Nobody actually likes Hillary -- they may think she's strong or effective, but she isn't winning on empathy. The media has succeeded in killing off Edwards's chances, too: whenever he tries to empathize, they call him a hypocrite. Obama's the only one who can embody ordinary America like Reagan did, like Clinton did, like FDR did...and someone needs to tell him, quick.
Memory Before Language
27 Sep 2007 08:50 pm
Pinker-bait: are memories formed in early childhood "lost," or is it that we don’t have the words to express them?
The Gs and the Ts
27 Sep 2007 08:40 pm
The Employment Non-Discrimination Act may be unraveling in the Congress because of the inclusion of transgendered people in its protections.
"They Don’t Even Get Your Hands Dry!"
27 Sep 2007 07:49 pm
A screed against restroom hand-dryers. My feelings entirely. Larry Craig may feel differently. They're great white noise.
Clinton On Torture
27 Sep 2007 07:03 pm
She reassures. All the Democrats and McCain now oppose Bush's use of torture.
Wealth and Sex
27 Sep 2007 06:54 pm
The richer you are in the world, the likelier you are to have sex with more people and to avoid condoms. A study of repressed Indians and horny, bare-backing Norwegians.
Wealth and Fat
27 Sep 2007 06:42 pm
If we were all a lot richer, would we all be a little skinnier? Some thoughts on Cuba's new anti-obesity campaign.
Romney's Investments In Iran
27 Sep 2007 06:34 pm
The Dems go on the offensive.
Graffiti That Moves
27 Sep 2007 06:07 pm
Cool stop-motion animation:
The Atheist and the Mystical
27 Sep 2007 05:24 pm
Oliver Sacks channels Sam Harris:
Music doesn't represent any tangible, earthly reality. It represents things of the heart, feelings which are beyond description, beyond any experience one has had. The non-representational but indescribably vivid emotional quality is such as to make one think of an immaterial or spiritual world. I dislike both of those words, because for me, the so-called immaterial and spiritual is always vested in the fleshly — in "the holy and glorious flesh," as Dante said.
So if music is not directly representative of the world around us, then what's inspiring it? One has the feeling of the muse, and the muses are heavenly beings. This feeling is very, very strong with Cicoria, the surgeon in my book who was hit by a bolt of lightning. He felt that he was actually tuning in to the music of heaven — that he had God's phone number. I can't avoid that feeling myself when I listen to Mozart. I feel differently about Beethoven. I think of Beethoven as a sweating Prometheus, a terrestrial figure.
I intensely dislike any reference to supernaturalism, but I think there can be profound mystical feelings which do not have to call on fictitious agencies like angels and demons and deities. The whole natural world is bathed in wonder and beauty and mystery. The feeling of the holy, the sacred, the wonderful, the mystical, can be divorced from anything theological, and is conveyed very powerfully in music.
The Revolution Will be Blogged
27 Sep 2007 04:59 pm
Ko Htike is posting round the clock. So is Niknayman. And this smells like Burmese spirit to me. Write them. Tell them we give a damn. A reader writes:
What I find amazing, is the stark contrast between real democracy in action (Burma) and the staged theater in Iraq. For those of us who witnessed Tiananmen and the fall of the Wall…not to mention Ukraine, etc., the lesson is that true democracy is an organic event that arises from the people. It can not be bestowed, bequeathed or imposed.
As you say, know hope.
Burma Update
27 Sep 2007 04:45 pm
These amazing sights and sounds are what the birth of freedom sounds like:
The junta will accept the UN envoy. Perino reads Bush's statement. The Internet ban is not succeeding too well. The guy in the photo I posted earlier today is the Japanese journalist shot dead by the military. At least one other journalist has been killed. Kerry Howley explains how the Internet is vital to keep freedom alive in the country:
Seven people out of 1,000 own televisions, and they’re not getting BBC. They’re watching MRTV-3: all government propaganda, all the time.
I remember in my hippie-back-packing days, finding an entire village in the Burmese hinterland gathered around one sole television. A Burmese activist, Aung Naing Oo, tells al-Jazeera:
"It's very clear that the Burmese people are no longer afraid of the Burmese military. The violence and killing of buddhist monks have taken away their fear of confrontation ... and we will continue to see more demonstrations in the days ahead."
Bono is stirring, which may help get more international attention. Havel adds his voice. BBC video is available here. Some gripping YouTubes (including the one above) can be found here. There are some reports that the crowds are growing, despite reports of over 700 arrests last night and attacks on three more monasteries:
The soldiers eventually crashed through the gate with one of the trucks and used bamboo sticks to beat everyone in the monastery, including monks, laymen, women and children, some of whom were related to or were under the care of the head abbot, or sayadaw.
One witness said the soldiers shouted "harsh, abusive words" at the monks while they were beating them. One monk who had tried to warn the monastery of the soldiers' approach was beaten unconscious as he lay on the ground.
Another witness said the soldiers were led by a two-star general who beat some of the soldiers who were reluctant to harm the monks. The attack lasted about 90 minutes, ending when about 60 monks and 40 laypeople were tossed into waiting trucks and driven to an unknown destination.
Pray for them all.
(Thanks to my remarkable research assistant, Jessie Roberts.)
Bears On Letterman
27 Sep 2007 04:35 pm
Kevin Smith gets "sexualized."
Quote For The Day
27 Sep 2007 04:05 pm
"Other than the flippant criticisms of our "failure" to take Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War, one sees little discussion of an occupation of Iraq, but it is the key element of the current debate. The issue before us is not simply whether the United States should end the regime of [Saddam Hussein], but whether we as a nation are prepared to physically occupy territory in the Middle East for the next 30 to 50 years. Those who are pushing for a unilateral war in Iraq know full well that there is no exit strategy if we invade and stay," - now-senator, Jim Webb, Heading for Trouble, Washington Post Op/Ed, September 4, 2002.
Credit or Influence
27 Sep 2007 04:01 pm
An eternal question for bloggers and opiners:
The lessons to draw here depends on whether you want credit or influence. If you want credit as an innovator then you should actually be pretty conservative. Become prestigious in a conservative way, until late in your career. Reject non-standard views but not explicitly; just ignore them so your quotes won't bite you later. When the time is right, look around for ripe once-contrarian ideas and take one. Change the name and vary the methods and topics, grab the first few high profile resources, and trash the original contrarians as weirdos.
Or "excitable". Think Bruce Bartlett and Alan Greenspan.
Alienating The Turks
27 Sep 2007 03:57 pm
The new euro coin adds insult to injury. 9 percent of Turks have a favorable view of the US. The West really needs some help dealing with one of the few secular Muslim countries on the planet.
Bloodshed in Burma
27 Sep 2007 03:26 pm
The generals are trying to shut down the Internet:
"We had been getting information through mobile phones but these have been cut off. Then our reporters used cybercafes but the traffic has really slowed down in the last few hours. Some of the landlines we used have also been closed, so we cannot get in touch with our people."
Meanwhile, reports of several deaths are coming in. Nothing too awful yet. Remember that thousands died in 1988. There are reports of a potential crack in the military from a group calling itself the Public Patriot Army Association. Some first-person accounts:
"We, students came from Hledan and when we reached Strand road there were about 2000 to 3000 of us. The soldiers surrounded us from Hledan side and also from Bakara Road side. So, the students fled and scattered into residential areas. And the soldiers fired thrice and started beating people with batons. They chased the students up to Salin ground in Kyihmyindine. Two persons from the locality were hurt," a student protester told Mizzima.
"As I am talking to you, about 15 military trucks, one fire brigade truck, and about 20 police vehicles are all heading towards Hledan," added the student.
And here:
Now there are shootings in front of the Innwa tailoring shop. Soldiers are shooting and arresting too. It is at the junction of Anawrattha and Pansodan streets. It happened just now, but I did not see anybody getting hurt. The soldiers fired quite a lot of rounds. Now the protesters are heading towards Pazuntaung Township. The people are not scared. A lot of stones that the protesters threw at the soldiers could be seen scattered in front of the Innwa tailoring and on Pansodan traffic point. From the Pansoda flyover ten military trucks came down. The trucks were filled with arrested people.
Another grim photo posted on Burma Digest:
The Unending War, The Broken Budget
27 Sep 2007 03:18 pm
With the Dems caving again in the debate last night, Wall Street's defense stocks soar. Here's a glimpse into what Bush has wrought: in the Aznar chat, he spoke of the cost of the Iraq war as being $50 billion. So far, the man has spent close to a trillion dollars on two wars in six years. Next year alone, Bush is asking for $180 billion - more than three times what he believed five years ago Iraq would cost in total.
In Two Sentences
27 Sep 2007 02:58 pm
The problem with the president:
"The only thing that worries me is your optimism," Aznar said.
"I'm optimistic because I believe I'm right," Bush replied.
Notice that Bush has no concept that even if he's right, bad things could ensue. There is no cost-benefit analysis here, no weighing of options, no thinking through of unintended consequences, no understanding of the inherent tragedy of human affairs. Bush might be the least temperamentally conservative president in the White House since Wilson.
Bush and the T-Word
27 Sep 2007 02:52 pm
He does, apparently, know what the meaning of torture is, at least in private. El Pais has the president complaining about pre-war diplomacy to former prime minister Aznar:
This is like Chinese water torture. We have to put an end to it.
Er, that's Chinese enhanced interrogation techniques, Mr President. Keep your Orwellianisms straight.
Race And Foot-Size
27 Sep 2007 02:38 pm
Dont' tell Blank Slaters, but there's a correlation.
Jewish Republicans Ban Ron Paul
27 Sep 2007 02:37 pm
He's uninvited from their debate - because of his opposition to foreign aid for Israel. But he's against almost all foreign aid, guys! Including for the Saudis. Still: it's interesting that almost all the GOP candidates found time to debate with this tiny minority. But not blacks or Hispanics or gays. Hmmm.
Folsom's Last Supper
27 Sep 2007 02:23 pm
I slammed the leather/dildo version of Leonardo here. Dan Savage throws me a punch. Rod Dreher has a cow.
About Last Night
27 Sep 2007 02:09 pm
The final tally:
Can She Be Stopped?
27 Sep 2007 01:47 pm
Most conservatives think not, Ross included. For these reasons:
The anti-Hillary share of the primary vote is shaping up to be right around forty percent, which in a divided field simply isn't anywhere near enough to derail a candidate with Hillary's institutional advantages and deep reserves of support.
Deep? How about "shallow"? Those most interested in the Dem race, as shown in donations and volunteers, are evenly split, with Obama retaining an edge. My suspicion is that a lot of Hillary support in the polls is mainly core Democrats, many of whom are picking her as a place-holder. Many have not examined Obama closely; and haven't focused yet. Tom Bevan reminds us of the fact that in 2004, the entire race shifted in the last two weeks before Iowa. It easily can again. Matt is biding his time. Noam reaches into his lower colon for this analysis:
If you pressed me, I'd say she has something like a 55-60 percent chance of winning, to Obama's 20-25 percent and Edwards's 15-20. A 40-45 percent chance of someone other than Hillary is, by definition, hardly a lock.
And what about the Biden "surge"? About as effective in the long run as Petraeus', I'd suggest. My own rash prediction (which I reserve the right to withdraw at any moment) is that 2008 will be for the Republicans what 2004 was for the Democrats. At the last minute, as the primary voting approaches, Republicans may rush back to McCain, after realizing their front-runner, Rudy, is just plain nuts.
Where The Bad Bridges Are
27 Sep 2007 01:15 pm
One of the arguments for pork-barrel politics is that local pols know what their districts need. And infrastructure does matter, as we've found out after the collapse of the Minneapolis bridge. Do the big porkers succeed in fixing their own districts better than other congressmen or senators? This graphic can help you cross-tab the amount of a pork in a district with the number of functionally obsolete bridges. There seems to be a negative correlation:
The five states with the highest pork to functionally obsolete bridges ratio are:
* Hawaii: $2,283,244.19 per bridge
* Nevada: $2,767,920.10 per bridge
* West Virginia: $3,219,261.98 per bridge
* North Dakota: $4,575,615.67 per bridge
* Alaska: $9,184,510.00 per bridge.