Saturday, May 3, 2008

03 May 2008 10:56 pm

Dissent Of The Day

A reader writes:

I’m baffled by your glee at Boris Johnson’s victory in London. You say Johnson couldn’t survive US political life as if that were a bad thing, but it wouldn’t take “swift boating”, the seemingly authoritative dissemination of mistruths, to derail his campaign. Johnson’s a thug who used his position as a journalist to help old friends violently settle scores; he’s an anti-Muslim bigot who claims the problem in Britain isn’t Muslim extremists, but Islam itself; he’s a racist who writes of Africans’ “watermelon smiles” and throws around the word “piccaninnies”; he’s a homophobe who says same-sex marriage is indistinguishable from bestiality.

As someone who supports Barack Obama, a candidate whose own biography and positions combat the notion of a clash of civilizations and who attempts to transcend the ugliness of America’s racist past, how can you also support Johnson? Were BoJo an American politician he’d be the very type of right wing blowhard you’d be criticizing for his corrosive bigotry. I get that you knew him in college, but does that really make everything okay?

03 May 2008 09:41 pm

Team Of Rivals?

My Sunday Times column is on a possible Obama-Clinton ticket. I'll write more tomorrow, and fully expect push-back, but it's just up and here's the link.

03 May 2008 09:25 pm

Face Of The Day

Louisana Governor Bobby Jindal addresses the National Press Club May 2, 2008 in Washington, DC. Political observers have been speculating about Jindal, the first Indian-American elected governor of Louisana, being a possible vice presidential running mate for GOP candidate Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Jindal lead McCain on a tour of about a dozen blocks of the Lower Ninth Ward during a campaign stop in New Orleans last week. By Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

03 May 2008 08:38 pm

Two Straws In The Wind

I'm probably reading too much into this but on Friday night, Obama included Clinton in his rationale for his campaign:

"I would not be here were it not for the fact that somebody, somewhere stood up for me. Because one person stood up, a few more stood up. Then a thousand stood up, and then a million stood up. That's why Hillary Clinton can run for President.  That's why I can run for President."

And today, Clinton responded to chants from Obama supporters:

"If Senator Obama is the nominee, you better believe I’ll work my heart out for him."

Hmmm.

03 May 2008 07:29 pm

Frum On Fox, Ctd

A reader writes:

So let's see if I've got this straight. A former White House speechwriter acknowledges what we all knew already....that Fox "news" is functioning as a coordinated appendage of the Republican party? Almost seems as if this might warrant a mention from Howie Kurtz or one of the other self appointed media lapdogs (sorry. "Watchdogs", I meant to say) but I'm not holding my breath.

I will stick up for Fox's First Amendment rights for as long as is needed, but it does make me wonder what kind of evidence would be needed to demonstrate the level of coordination needed to treat Foxnews's reporting as a monetary contribution within the ambit of the campaign finance laws. Not sayin' that that would be a good idea at all.  Still, I feel about 99.9% sure that there is some evidence out there. though probably nothing as strong as an internal memo.

03 May 2008 06:53 pm

Dating While Stoned

Advice and tips from contestants for "Miss High Times."

03 May 2008 06:42 pm

Running For Leader Of Black America

Mark Bowden's 2004 article on Al Sharpton seems appropriate after Wright's showboating this week:

This brings us to Sharpton's broader problem: the death of the Negro Spokesman. I use this antiquated term because the concept itself is so dated. Throughout our history white America has recognized a certain few figures as "leaders" of the black community—a pattern that Michael Eric Dyson, a writer and a humanities professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has called "an old, abiding problem." They alone were considered able to speak for the whole race. This was true on a local level and also nationally, as prominent African-Americans from Frederick Douglass to Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King Jr. stepped up to serve as spokesmen for people otherwise excluded from public life. Sometimes, as with King, these figures had the enthusiastic support of black Americans; sometimes, as with Washington, they did not. In a country that increasingly accepts itself as multiracial, where blacks are no longer even the largest minority, the role of the Negro Spokesman is as outmoded as the Victrola. Most black intellectuals, particularly younger ones, are glad to be rid of it.

And Obama is trying to get beyond it. Hence the internal backlash.

03 May 2008 05:14 pm

Plastic Red Blood Cells

William Saletan's thoughts on research into artificial blood cells:

The idea of having little plastic sacks pumped into your bloodstream sounds pretty freaky. We're talking about filling you with petroleum products in a way that challenges the meaning of "flesh and blood." For all I know, further animal or human testing may find unforeseen health risks from this kind of mixture, particularly at such a small scale and with such pervasion of the body. But if the technology turns out to be safe, it'll go a long way toward loosening our concept of ourselves as biological creatures.

03 May 2008 04:36 pm

Moyers On Wright

From last night - an interesting point about the black pulpit as a safe space for African-American rage. Many of his points are well taken, which makes Wright's culture-warping shenanigans more depressing. Wright is not as bad as many white fundamentalist preachers close to Republicans. But Moyers cannot deny the unique link between Wright and Obama:

03 May 2008 04:32 pm

The Blogosphere Vs. Hillary

Wolcott whines about the internet vendetta against his candidate, attacking yours truly among others. Hey, if he spells my name right and gives our ad department good copy ...

03 May 2008 03:49 pm

This Is What You Really Call Bareback

Astonishing footage of a Frenchman and his horses from the Camargue:

03 May 2008 03:30 pm

The Final Straw

Obama de-friends Wright on Facebook. Ouch.

03 May 2008 03:07 pm

The View From Your Window

Boulder, Colorado, 8.47 am.

03 May 2008 02:54 pm

The Right's Anger Over Obama

There's a kernel of truth in Victor Davis Hanson's latest anti-Obama screed, and Charles Krauthammer's bitter fury at Obama supporters. Obama was, I think, brought up and lived for a long time in an atmosphere in which occasional left-wing excess did not grate on his ears or his temperament as they would on people like, er, me. And his desire to connect to a black experience he never fully had himself also played a part in not distancing himself from some aspect of his pastor's rhetoric or friends' associations. But to go from this to the vicious attempt to portray Obama as a fraud, an actor, and another phony politician is a sign of the hard right's nervousness. When you listen to Sean Hannity, you hear someone who looks at Obama and sees every racial fear he has ever had about black Democrats personified. The difficulty of making distinctions between, say, Sharpton, Jackson and Obama is just too much for him. They're all black Democrats, aren't they? They must all be traitors or far left anti-American hate-mongers. He doesn't even hear the broader Obama message, the full Obama manifesto, the book, the countless speeches, and interviews and debates in which Obama's broader post-racial, post-partisan appeal is exposed. One can only hope that most people will see the full picture. But the right-wing freak show machine will do all it can to prevent it.

VDH is also 80 percent right and 100 percent wrong on this:

[Obama's supporters] despise George Bush, will do anything to prevent another Republican in the White House, are tired of the Clintons, and feel Obama offers them symbolic capital, making them liked abroad and free of guilt at home.

Well, yes. I don't think Obama would be in anything like the position he is now in were it not for George W. Bush.

Continue reading "The Right's Anger Over Obama" »

03 May 2008 02:33 pm

The Shadow Of 1968

Richard North attacks British baby boomers.

03 May 2008 01:49 pm

BoJo!

The London Spectator has all the goods on the Tory triumph in London and across England in local elections. Yes. they're biased: he was their former editor. And yes, I'm biased. I've been a fan since college days - but never thought he'd be taken as seriously as this. And check out his Wiki page. A character with this much baggage would never survive the swift-boating in the US. Is he a harbinger of future Tory government? Peter Hoskin:

The Tories now have the perfect opportunity to be seen as the party of the low-income earner.

Led by an extremely wealthy Etonian. Well: if that isn't the essence of Toryism, what is?

(Photo: William Wintercross/Getty._

03 May 2008 01:24 pm

Short Term, Long Term In Iraq

Steven Simon argues that the surge has stalled top-down solutions:

The surge has changed the situation not by itself but only in conjunction with several other developments: the grim successes of ethnic cleansing, the tactical quiescence of the Shiite militias, and a series of deals between U.S. forces and Sunni tribes that constitute a new bottom-up approach to pacifying Iraq. The problem is that this strategy to reduce violence is not linked to any sustainable plan for building a viable Iraqi state. If anything, it has made such an outcome less likely, by stoking the revanchist fantasies of Sunni Arab tribes and pitting them against the central government and against one another. In other words, the recent short-term gains have come at the expense of the long-term goal of a stable, unitary Iraq.

Despite the current lull in violence, Washington needs to shift from a unilateral bottom-up surge strategy to a policy that promotes, rather than undermines, Iraq's cohesion. That means establishing an effective multilateral process to spur top-down political reconciliation among the major Iraqi factions. And that, in turn, means stating firmly and clearly that most U.S. forces will be withdrawn from Iraq within two or three years. Otherwise, a strategy adopted for near-term advantage by a frustrated administration will only increase the likelihood of long-term debacle.

03 May 2008 12:54 pm

Obama Fighting Back!

"I would not be here were it not for the fact that somebody, somewhere stood up for me. Because one person stood up, a few more stood up. Then a thousand stood up, and then a million stood up. That's why Hillary Clinton can run for President.  That's why I can run for President.

Because somebody stood up.

And the question now is: Will the Democratic Party stand up for the next generation? That's my Patriotism. Those are my values. That's what we're fighting for in this election," - Barack Obama, Friday night.

How can we let this opportunity pass us by?

03 May 2008 12:32 pm

Very Special K

Another illegal club-drug turns out to have some genuine clinical use:

Ketamine, which can also cause feelings of detachment, could pave the way for new treatments for people suffering from depression, the researchers added.

Their study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found ketamine restores to normal the orbifrontal cortex, an area of the brain located above the eyes that is overactive in depressed people.

The area is believed to be responsible for feelings of guilt, dread, apprehension and physical reactions such as a racing heart, said Bill Deakin, who led the study.

"The study results have given us a completely novel way of treating depression and a new avenue of understanding depression," said Deakin, a neuroscientist at the University of Manchester.

Chemistry is chemisty, whatever our laws and pleasure-phobias say.

03 May 2008 12:27 pm

Obama's Strength Among White Voters

Al Giordano explains:

You can see that Clinton is in a staggering free-fall among African-American voters, her favorability is down 36 points while 17 percent view her more negatively than before, while Obama’s favorable and negative ratings among whites have paired at five point increases. You can even see the small dip - about two percentage points - in his popularity among whites that can be attributed to the news cycles about his ex-pastor, and see that it has leveled out and is now on a straight horizontal line (meanwhile, Clinton’s numbers among blacks continue on an extreme downward precipice). The greater context is that even including Obama’s slight dip, he’s more popular today among white voters than he ever was prior to February.

03 May 2008 12:21 pm

The Truth Of Greenspan

John McCain slipped up and strongly implied that the Iraq invasion was at least partly in defense of a secure oil supply for the West:

My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will - that will then prevent us - that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East.

This, of course, is what Alan Greenspan argued not so long ago. The trouble is - while oil does make the region much more important for the West than, say the Congo - that was not the reason given nor the subsequent rationale provided for a pre-emptive war against Saddam. And so people have every reason to suspect some sleight of hand. We're there for oil? We're there for up to 100 years?

McCain's not showing the kind of game a national candidate needs. Another reason the Clintons are hanging in.

03 May 2008 12:18 pm

The Candidate Of The Cultural Right

Tomasky notices Clinton's self-reinvention. This was worth noting: a union leader in North Carolina opined last week

that Hillary was the only thing that stood between the good and God-fearing people of North Carolina and the "Gucci-wearing, latte-drinking, self-centred, egotistical people that have damaged our lifestyle." Clinton, according to the report linked to here, "smiled sheepishly before breaking into a nervous laugh."

Whatever works ... This was the woman who hired Dick Morris, remember?

03 May 2008 11:30 am

Diversifying Punditland

One consequence of Obama's emergence, according to this reader:

There has been a noticeable increase in black commentators on the televisions talk shows. It appears the producers are not comfortable having discussions about Barak Obama without a black person in the room.  Is it too cynical to propose the irony that many are employed as critics and probably will lose their jobs if Obama isn’t elected President?  However, if elected, it would probably lead to the greatest diversification in news media history.

On a side note, one is reminded of the scene in “The Verdict” where the associate to James Mason’s trial lawyer character points out that Paul Newman’s expert witness is black and the Mason cuts him off to say,

“I'm going to tell you how you handle the fact that he's black.  You don't touch it.  You don't mention it.  You treat him like anybody else.  Neither better or worse. And you get a black lawyer to sit at our table.  Okay...?”

03 May 2008 11:10 am

The Funeral Industry's Evolution

A snippet from Cullen Murphy 1998 article:

The choices I was offered by a company called Casket Royale ranged from the understated and inexpensive Canterbury model to the costly but elegant Buckingham; a box on the order form could be checked for "24 Hour Rush Delivery." Though still the destiny of a majority, burial is the option desired by fewer and fewer Americans these days. A company called Relict Memorials, in Mill Valley, California, specializes in turning cremated remains into customized granitelike slabs. Kits are available for swabbing and preserving samples of the departed's DNA, and a company now exists to provide "perpetual care" for one's Web site. A Kentucky bookbinder and printer, Timothy Hawley Books, offers a line of what it calls bibliocadavers -- handsomely bound volumes whose blank or printed pages are created from a pulp containing the ashes of a loved one.

03 May 2008 09:47 am

Don't Blame China

In response to claims that China is number one in CO2 emissions, a reader writes:

The article - and all the other news coverage I've seen - fails to mention the salient point that there are, at last count, 1.323 billion people in China and 304 million people in the US. Per capita, US CO2 emissions remain four times that of China.

Even with the new results, if you ranked countries by their per capita greenhouse gas emissions emissions, China would rank somewhere around 75th, close to the French Guiana and American Samoa. And a substantial fraction of China's emissions are generated while producing stuff for North Americans.

Friday, May 2, 2008

02 May 2008 09:13 pm

Deciphering Kantor

A reader thinks he's got it:

I think it's pretty clear. The guy says:

"It doesn't matter if we win it. Those people are shitting. How would you like to be in the White House right now?"

As in, Bush 41 and staff were probably not pleased. I don't like HRC's camp, but they don't deserve this.

02 May 2008 08:16 pm

Frum On Fox

"The reverend's ravings are good partisan stuff that badly hurt Barack Obama in Pennsylvania and may well inflict damage on him in Indiana and North Carolina too. Fox News in collaboration with Wright's speaking agents and publisher will do its best to sustain the excitement through November. And I'm all for it. Our team needs all the help it can get," - David Frum, NRO.

02 May 2008 07:47 pm

Anatomy In Japan In 1819

They dismembered the bodies of criminals for medical science. More amazing paintings here.

02 May 2008 06:30 pm

The Fierce McCarthyism Of Now

Here are the questions that Hugh Hewitt wants Tim Russert to ask Obama this Sunday. If it sounds like Joe McCarthy, it's because, well, what difference is there in tone or implication? Are you now or have you ever been ... ? I was subjected to the same kind of damned-if-you-do inquisition when I went on his show:

What year did you join Trinity Church?

How often did you attend services there? (This requires follow-up after the inevitable ambiguous answer.  Wwas it quarterly, monthly, weekly?  Did you belong to any of the church's many organizations, like a men's fellowship?  These aren't trick questions.  Any church member knows exactly how often they go to church, and the patterns don't change much after they are set.)

When you attended the Million Man March, did you go with a group of men from Trinity?  Did you see Pastor Wright on that trip?

How often would you see Pastor Wright in a setting away from church?

Did you go out to dinner together?  Socialize together?  Travel together?

Continue reading "The Fierce McCarthyism Of Now" »

02 May 2008 06:03 pm

Lucy In The Sky

A new and riveting blog on illusion science.

02 May 2008 05:41 pm

Face Of The Day

A supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) holds a photograph of her during a campaign event at Harvey L. and Son - John Deere Sales and Service May 2, 2008 in Kinston, North Carolina. Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) are each hoping to win the state's primary on May 6 as the Democrats battle for their parties' presidential nomination. By Joe Raedle/Getty.

02 May 2008 05:21 pm

The Kantor Comment

An interesting sidelight from a reviewer of the documentary in 1993.

02 May 2008 05:19 pm

Politics In Film

Sonny Bunch considers the politics of Iron Man:

This is not a "conservative" movie, per se, but it is the film equivalent of a Rorschach test. If you go into Iron Man seeking right-wing imagery, you'll find it: Tony Stark is a patriot, pro-military, and likes unilateral intervention. If you go into Iron Man looking for left-wing imagery, you'll find that, too: The true villain here is Stane, representing an out-of-control military-industrial complex.

02 May 2008 04:55 pm

Blogger's Block

I guess it was bound to happen eventually:

I've been trying everything to break through my blogger's block – even to the point of going to a writing class in UCLA. (which is great, but doesn't have much bearing on blogging so far) Generally the best way to start blogging again may be to announce that I'm taking a hiatus. Then again, I've been on an unofficial one since about Christmas, so perhaps not.

When you first start blogging, everything in your life becomes fodder for 'ooh, I might blog about that'. After a couple of years, and especially if you're in a job where you can't really write about your area of expertise, the dry spells appear. And life intervenes. For months after I moved to L.A. I could barely think of a thing to blog about. It reminded me of how after my university finals, I literally could not read a page of a book for a couple of months. Eventually that wore off. For the last month or more, there are absolutely all manner of things I think of blogging about. And I just can't seem to write about any of them.

02 May 2008 04:30 pm

Clinton vs Feminism

Kudos to Betsy Reed for calling it like it is:

What is most troubling--and what has the most serious implications for the feminist movement--is that the Clinton campaign has used her rival's race against him. In the name of demonstrating her superior "electability," she and her surrogates have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right--in which swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country--seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security. This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. And the Clinton campaign's use of this strategy has many nonwhite and nonmainstream feminists crying foul.

The Clintons may end up not just losing this race, but their reputation among liberal Democrats as well.

02 May 2008 04:07 pm

Yglesias Award Nominee

"Few voters will be more inclined to vote for Barack Obama because his friend, mentor and pastor is extreme. They will think it makes Mr. Obama less attractive. They will not think Mr. Obama handled the challenge with force, dispatch and the kind of instinct that turns dilemma into gain.

And yet . . . it doesn't get my blood up. It doesn't hurt my heart. It doesn't make me feel I need to defend my country. Because I don't see it as attacked, only criticized in a way that is not persuasive," - Peggy Noonan, in another great, unpredictable and shrewd column on this campaign.

02 May 2008 03:41 pm

"Experts"

"We believe the presidency requires leadership...There are times that a president will take a position that a broad support of quote-unquote experts agree with. And there are times they will take a position that quote-unquote experts do not agree with," -Howard Wolfson.

And there are times when you don't care what you say as long as it might get a few votes. (Hat tip: Ezra).

02 May 2008 03:29 pm

Sanchez On Rumsfeld

A fascinating glimpse, courtesy of Ricardo Sanchez, formerly in charge of combat in Iraq, into Rumsfeld's bureaucratic rear-end protection:

After the meeting ended, I remember walking out of the Pentagon shaking my head and wondering how in the world Rumsfeld could have expected me to believe him [that he had no idea that the plan was to rapidly draw down forces after conquering Baghdad]. Everybody knew that CENTCOM had issued orders to drawdown the forces. The Department of Defense had printed public affairs guidance for how the military should answer press queries about the redeployment. There were victory parades being planned. And in mid-May 2003, Rumsfeld himself had sent out some of his famous "snowflake" memorandums to Gen. Franks asking how the general was going to redeploy all the forces in Kuwait. The Secretary knew. Everybody knew.

So what was Rumsfeld doing?

Continue reading "Sanchez On Rumsfeld" »

02 May 2008 03:13 pm

Shortening The Sound Bite

Michael Schudson and Danielle Haas report on a new study:

Anyone who buys the beltway complaint that television news reporting shrivels both politics and public discourse has two new reasons to worry: sound bites are getting shorter and video reels are getting longer. That means less talk of policy solutions and more rolling shots of diplomatic handshakes, tarmac striding, and presidential cowboys whacking underbrush on Texas ranches.

Oh goody.

02 May 2008 03:06 pm

Ok, This Is Elitist

A $300,000 watch that doesn't tell time. Not that I'm bitter about it or anything.

02 May 2008 02:40 pm

HAL??

Cyberdyne Inc. (also the name of the company that creates Skynet in the Terminator movies) is working on a sleek exoskeleton called HAL (the name of the killer computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey). Bad omens? Or a group of scientists with a sense of humor?

02 May 2008 02:32 pm

Bookdeals From Yo Mama

Postcards From Yo Mama, a blog of real-life e-mails and IM conversations from mothers, is the latest niche blog to snag a book deal. Some recent ones:

I was in the car listening to the radio, and who is this “shorty” they keep talking about in rap songs?

Just wanted to say hi.  I know you’re probably busy getting caught up at work after last week.  I hope you enjoyed the plays.  Did you get the movie I sent you?  Today is our 31st anniversary.  We are eating leftovers for dinner, and I was bit by a dog this morning.  I’m not foaming at the mouth, so far.  The fun never ends.  Love, Mom

I love you. I will pray for you. Be sure and take some kind of i.d. so if your plane crashes and burns they will know who to call. Hope you do that on all your trips anyway. That way if I don't get a dreadful call, I will know you are just fine and happy.

Margaret Cho's voicemails remain the gold standard.

02 May 2008 02:14 pm

Kantor Enhanced Audio

I can't make out a thing.

02 May 2008 02:09 pm

She's Toast

Christopher Beam defends Chait.

02 May 2008 02:02 pm

A Hoax

The Kantor viral video is clearly doctored once you see the original. "Those people are shit" is still there and it's hard to know what the referent is, but you cannot decipher in any way what Kantor says next. His defense holds up. The key point is around the 4.50 mark:

02 May 2008 01:52 pm

Is The Kantor Video Bait?

The latest twist. I don't know. Byron York says he believes Kantor. But Pennebaker could surely clear it up by posting the original and showing how it's been doctored and what the truth is.

02 May 2008 01:51 pm

Republicans vs Burke

Jon Rauch counts the ways. And sees McCain as an answer. Count me a little skeptical on the latter - but he sure is an improvement. And I know that's a low bar - but we could have had Romney or Giuliani.

02 May 2008 01:31 pm

Not Just Rove?

Larison argues that cultural shifts are moving younger generations away from conservatives.

02 May 2008 01:11 pm

"Worthless White Ni**ers"?

Yesterday, I hadn't seen the last part of this clip (see the first version here) and the latest viral video is different and longer.

Kantor is now saying that what you hear on the tape is untrue, and it's been doctored:

"I have listened to [the video] and so have you. You can't tell what it is I'm saying in that second sentence, you can't decipher that."

Yes, he's a lawyer. So the residents of Indiana are just "shit", "worthless", and "white" but not "ni**ers." But as long as he didn't sympathetically call them "bitter," right? Kantor says he was referring to the Bush administration. The film's director says the clip has been doctored, but he doesn't exactly show how. Has the audio been altered? Or have the subtitles been faked? Or is it just that the remark - as muffled as it is - simply didn't register on first viewing - and only has salience now that the Clintons are trying to win Indiana? Stay tuned. Then this:

"If you look at The War Room, this is not the way Carville or George interpreted my statement. This is frankly libelous."

Or maybe they are just used to that kind of language. Someone should ask Stephanopoulos whether he recalls that remark. I should add that this flap is still murky. Kantor seems to refer to the White House in the first clip but not in the second. The best thing would be for Pennebaker to put out what he actually directed and provide sub-titles that counter the viral video's. If Kantor has been unfairly slimed, that should clear it up.

02 May 2008 01:05 pm

Classic Clinton

Spot the politician:

Q. "Do you have a TV guilty pleasure?"

A ."Grey's Anatomy."

Q. "Tina Fey or Amy Poehler?"

A. "Both of them. Absolutely!"

Q. "These are either-or questions."

A. "I can't answer either-or!"

I think they focus-grouped her pick - the only female horse in the race - in the Kentucky Derby too:

"I hope that everybody will go to the derby on Saturday and place just a little money on the filly for me."