Let’s Dress Up as an Ambassador October 31, 2006March 5, 2017 Halloween, Schmalloween. Sorry, but that’s how I feel. I don’t mind the little kids candyhandling – hey, a kid’s gotta eat. I just don’t want to have to dress up myself. (The one time I actually felt comfortable in my costume, the last time I did this decades ago, I wore a tuxedo with a pig mask and a dollar-sign on the snout. Capitalist pig. Very nice.) The following is either six years late or two years early, but I’m up in Maine, in serious risk of frost bite, and, frankly, it’s all I got. Plus, at least this is a week most people are thinking about politics, so here goes: JOHN McCAIN – FYI Few who know the Senator fail to admire him. We share an editor who tells me he is a great guy and I don’t doubt it. I once tried to see for myself by bidding $10,000 on ‘lunch in the Senate dining room with John McCain’ at a charity event. I was outbid, so I have to just take my editor’s word for it. That said, the Senator is – to his credit or detriment – a conservative. From Time, during the 2000 primary: Bush went after McCain’s reform credentials last week, pointing out that as Commerce chairman, McCain has been willing to milk the system he rails against. “The portrait McCain likes is the one of the plain-talking crusader who’s bucking the system,” writes Charles Lewis of the Center for Public Integrity in his book The Buying of the President 2000. “The one many others see is that of a politician who rarely breaks ranks with the special interests that finance his campaign.” Many of McCain’s top fund raisers and advisers – Kenneth Duberstein, Vin Weber – are lobbyists who do business with his committee. And as the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, McCain is more apt to rail against corporate malfeasance than to sponsor legislation to rein it in. It’s the reverse of Teddy Roosevelt’s dictum – McCain speaks loudly and carries no stick. . . . McCain’s record makes the Bush strategy of calling him a Clinton clone seem foolish. In the Senate, McCain has been a rock-solid vote on just about every core G.O.P. issue, winning high ratings from the Christian Coalition and other conservative groups. He supported every item in Newt Gingrich’s Contract with America and voted to convict Bill Clinton on every article of impeachment. And his environmental record would make Teddy Roosevelt cringe. McCain has voted many times to cut funding for toxic-waste cleanups, he has supported subsidies for mining on public lands, and he favors reopening national forest lands to logging. (In 1998 the League of Conservation Voters gave him a zero rating.) He is a longtime friend of the National Rifle Association’s, voting against the Brady Bill in 1993 and the assault-weapons ban in 1994. He’s against the licensing and registration of handguns. He has repeatedly voted against minimum-wage increases and equal pay for women, and labor considers him a reliable anti-union vote. Bush allies in South Carolina have been running TV spots questioning McCain’s commitment to the pro-life cause. Yet he took the pro-life position 82 times out of 86 votes cast in the Senate. This is all either good or bad, depending on your point of view. Likewise, his standing against most things that GLBT Americans wish he would support. His Human Rights Campaign ratings over the past three Congresses have ranged from 14 to 33 out of a possible 100. (By way of comparison, conservative Democrat Joe Lieberman – who surely knows the Old Testament labels homosexuality and the eating of shellfish ‘abominations’ – ranged from 88 to 100 over those same six years.) My own hope is that a Democrat will win in 2008, and have the good sense to offer Senator McCain, who will then be 72 and out of a job if he resigns to run for the Presidency, an important ambassadorship. Lord knows, he deserves it and would represent our country with honor. All hail our ambassador to the Court of St. James. Happy Halloween.
Half a Brain October 30, 2006March 5, 2017 FMD Up from $38 in March to $71 Thursday, it dropped five dollars Friday. My suggestion: hang on. YOU DON’T LIKE US! YOU REALLY DON’T LIKE US! From the New York Times: A consortium of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas. Such a ”sentiment analysis” is intended to identify potential threats to the nation, security officials said. Researchers at institutions including Cornell, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Utah intend to test the system on hundreds of articles published in 2001 and 2002 on topics like President Bush’s use of the term ”axis of evil,” the handling of detainees at Guantánamo Bay, the debate over global warming and the coup attempt against President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela. A $2.4 million grant will finance the research over three years. American officials have long relied on newspapers and other news sources to track events and opinions here and abroad, a goal that has included the routine translation of articles from many foreign publications and news services. The new software would allow much more rapid and comprehensive monitoring . . . We’re going to automate the process of determining which countries don’t like us? And might attack us? I have an idea: how about sending ambassadors to every country on the planet and have them read the local newspaper? James Musters: “Just think: Once you develop the software for this, all you have to do is change the target, to something like blogs, and Uncle Sam becomes Big Brother.” CANADIANS BATTLING MARIJUANA This is just a short text item. (“One soldier told him later: “Sir, three years ago before I joined the army, I never thought I’d say ‘That damn marijuana’.”) IF YOU HAVE HALF A BRAIN This new free “channel” could help you reactivate the other half. (Full disclosure: I own a sliver.) Not sure where your polling place is? Other questions? Call 888-DEM-VOTE Observe problems on Election Day?
Short Films October 27, 2006March 5, 2017 WHY I LOVE BARNEY FRANK Click here and watch the three-minute clip. AND IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER MINUTE Here‘s a new Democratic web ad. It doesn’t even mention the 100,000 (or is it 665,000?) Iraqi dead. It doesn’t mention the maimed and wounded and orphaned, or the money, or the torture, or our loss of goodwill around the world. And of course nothing this complex can really be done justice in 60 seconds. But it still makes a pretty sharp point. WE, THE PEOPLE This film is more of a time commitment. You give us 22 minutes; we’ll give you the assault on our Constitution. It flies by. Have a great weekend. Not sure where your polling place is? Other questions? Call 888-DEM-VOTE Observe problems on Election Day?
The First 100 Hours Plus: Stoops, Troops, and Oops October 26, 2006March 5, 2017 WHAT DEMOCRATS WILL DO I thought this snippet from a blog called ‘DCCC-consultants-are-overpaid-monkeys.com’ (no less) made sense: Few people know about the Democrats’ “First 100 Hour Plan.” Here’s some details: Put new rules in place to “break the link between lobbyists and legislation.” Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients. All the days after that: “Pay as you go,” meaning no increasing the deficit The problem is, this information can only be found in news articles and on a few blogs. No where is this on any websites for the DCCC, the DNC, or any of the national congressional leaders’ websites. They should be yelling and screaming this at the tops of their lungs. Yesterday I had a few of our “gloomy Democrats” come through the headquarters. These are people who don’t think Democrats will win, but they come to get their yard signs because they are loyal Democrats. I asked each of them if they had heard of the “First 100 Hours Plan,” and they all said “no.” When I told them of it, their eyes all of a sudden got bright, and they all said “Wow. Now that’s good stuff.” And then of course they asked why haven’t we heard of it. Why indeed. ☞ Pass it on. WHAT REPUBLICANS MAY NOT HAVE DONE Support our troops. Surprisingly that’s what they may not have done. Here’s the story. (“As you’ll note, based on the over 300 votes the IAVA used in its calculation, all Senate Democrats have been more supportive of the troops – when it comes to their actual votes, over the past five years – than any of the Senate Republicans.”) WHAT DEMOCRATS WILL STOOP TO Sue H: “Here’s an idea. Between now and the election, put your cell phone up to your ear when you’re in Wal-Mart, at the doctor’s office, at a ball game, anywhere where people can eavesdrop on your phone conversation. Start talking about how great your candidate is. For example: ‘Jon Tester? He’s terrific! Finally, a really great Senator to vote for.’ Move around to as many eavesdroppers as possible. Do this every day between now and the election.” ☞ See how crazy the Republicans have made us? To toy with such devious schemes? Pretty soon we’ll be bugging the other party’s headquarters or jamming their phone New Hampshire lines on election day or purging tens of thousands of eligible Florida voters from the voter roles. WHAT REPUBLICANS MAY NOT HAVE STOOPED TO Jeff Bauer: “You quote William Fisher: ‘This has to be the non-surprise of the week: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, the Navy lawyer who led the recent successful Supreme Court challenge of the Bush administration’s military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees, has been passed over for promotion to full commander and will have to leave the military.’ I don’t think this is fair to the Navy or the military in general. Even Lt. Cmdr. Swift doesn’t think that it’s any form of retribution for his work on the Hamdan case. From his interview on NPR: ‘In taking the Hamdan case, I took myself out of the normal progression path.’ This isn’t to say that it may be a short-sighted policy, but there is a plethora of other shenanigans to worry about from this administration without getting sidetracked by irrelevant issues. Full disclosure: I was a military brat. My father retired from the Navy after 20 years of service.” VIDEOTHEVOTE.COM I was only the 578th person to view this three-minute call to action. Spread it around. If only to see just how brazen in his untruthfulness Tom DeLay could be. Not sure where your polling place is? Other questions? Call 888-DEM-VOTE
The Well-Exercised Brain Does Not Misdial For Boobies October 25, 2006March 5, 2017 THAT $1.25 SEX CALL Dan C.: ‘My phone number in Northern Virginia USED to be 266-2437, which spells ‘Boobies’ on the telephone. More times than I care to count people called my number looking for a sex line, so I can understand how mistakes could be made. After a while, it got to be almost amusing. We would refer them to the right phone number and tell them to have fun.’ ☞ No, this is not particularly relevant, but it made me smile. GET SMART There is nothing like the thrill of getting an 11-point word in Web Boggle, but it doesn’t seem to have made me any smarter. For that (he says cravenly, riddled with conflicts of interest because he owns a sliver), you need the Brain Fitness Program from Posit Science. From the latest investor newsletter: October has been a busy month. It started with an article in Business Week drawing a sharp distinction between our proven exercises and games designed to entertain. Then the AARP Bulletin ran a moving piece on a son in his 40s doing our program with his dad in his 80s. The phone sure has been ringing. We just got back from the Society for Neuroscience, an annual gathering of 30,000 brain scientists. We made four presentations there: showing that 85-year-olds can gain the auditory brain speed of 30-year-olds; that people in their 60s can match the visual speed and accuracy of people in their 20s; that brain fitness training can significantly improve skills used in daily living and that there are high correlations among speed, accuracy and memory. You can read about these studies here, here, here and here. MONEY AND POLITICS Not only does the stock market do better under Democratic administrations – according to this, the stocks of Democratic-leaning companies may do better than those of Republican leading companies. VENGEANCE AND POLITICS ‘This has to be the non-surprise of the week: Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, the Navy lawyer who led the recent successful Supreme Court challenge of the Bush administration’s military tribunals for Guantanamo detainees, has been passed over for promotion to full commander and will have to leave the military,’ writes William Fisher. Not sure where your polling place is? Other questions? Call 888-DEM-VOTE
If There’s More Than One Of You, Can You Vote Twice? October 24, 2006March 5, 2017 YOUR DOPPLEGANGER Alan Light: ‘Here’s where you can find how many people have your same name in the United States. There are 21 of me.’ ☞ And – gad – 38 of me. Not sure how accurate this is. My pal Steve Sapka may be interested to know there is no one in the U.S. with the last name ‘Sapka.’ The estimable Alan Rogowsky (and his brother Marty) may be interested to know there are no Rogowskys. I was just with Heather Mizeur a couple of hours ago and now she does not exist – yet will soon be sitting in the Maryland House of Delegates. Turns out, the 1990 census data on which this site is based does not include relatively uncommon names (no one in the U.S. has the first name Humphrey?), and arrives at its answers by a process of estimation. THAT $1.25 SEX CALL Michael A.: ‘It’s my understanding (not from experience, alas) that if you make at 800 call to a phone sex number you would have to give a credit card to get billed. (If you use a 900 number it’s automatically billed to the telephone account.) I guess the bill would go to the hotel who would charge the patron. In any case, you don’t run up a bill by just misdialing three digits. What I do know from experience is the feds are very sensitive about things like that. Having traveled under GSA rules, I can tell you it doesn’t matter how small the amount is. And anything that has to do with sex is really sensitive. Federally funded travel is a big deal these days, and the contractors and agencies are subject to multiple audits. For example, Los Alamos got its travel accounts audited by GSA, IG, DOE, NNSA, University of California, and at least two others. The auditors do want accounts to balance to the penny. They will spend thousands of dollars auditing for hundred dollar discrepancies.’ ☞ Ah. But many hotels charge you to make an 800-call, which is presumably what happened here. (Is it your view that it was just coincidence that, after spending a few seconds on a sex line, his next call would be to exactly the same 7-digit number with a different area code? Isn’t the almost certain explanation that he simply misdialed the first time?) In any event, can you possibly be saying that – to a Party that has added several trillion dollars to our national debt – one dollar and twenty five cents of taxpayer money merits a TV ad campaign impugning a candidate’s fitness for office? Craig Wiener: ‘One detail which the story you link to fails to mention is that Arcuri’s Republican opponent also criticized the NRCC for the ad and wants it pulled.’ ☞ Unless there’s some winking and nodding going on, this makes the shamelessness of the Republican leadership even more callous. VOTE BY MAIL Jon Kaake: ‘You write: ‘Won’t you be glad when this is over 16 days from now? I can hardly wait.’ Here in Oregon, it’s already over, at least for me. Dropped my ballot in the box yesterday. Of course other Oregonians can wait, if they want to, until November 2. But vote-by-mail here has caused long lines at polling places to disappear. No more standing in the rain. You can fill out your ballot at home over a cup of coffee and reference your voter’s pamphlet for guidance. And no electronic voting machines to get hacked, no unexplained lack of ballots at the polls, no mixup of polling places, a paper trail available for recounts, and best of all, you can say ‘I’ve already voted’ to those annoying political phone calls from now until the polls close. And voter participation is up.’ ☞ And if we lose, Oregon law allows physician-assisted suicide. Not sure where your polling place is? Other questions? Call 888-DEM-VOTE
How Much Sex Can You HAVE for $1.25? October 23, 2006March 5, 2017 DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH The number of lobbyists in Washington has more than doubled in five years, even as the number of Senators and Congresspersons has held steady: 535. Business has learned that in an all-rightwing government, lobbyists are a great return on investment. As Bill Moyers recently wrote, ‘Once upon a time the House of Representatives was known as ‘the people’s house.’ No more. It belongs to K Street now. That’s the address of the lobbyists who swarm all over Capitol Hill. There are 65 lobbyists for every member of Congress. They spend $200 million per month wining, dining and seducing federal officials. Per month!’ THIS – FROM THE REPUBLICAN *LEADERSHIP* According to Editor & Publisher Saturday: Democrat Michael Arcuri is vying with Republican, Ray Meier, to replace longtime GOP Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, who is retiring. The race is very close and may help decide if the Democrats take the House. The national GOP campaign office started airing an ad Friday that showed Arcuri leering at the silhouette of a dancing woman who says, ”Hi, sexy. You’ve reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line.” He supposedly dialed the service two years ago from a New York City hotel room and billed taxpayers – for all of $1.25 for a one-minute call. He is the district attorney in Oneida County. Now the Utica Observer-Dispatch today notes that Arcuri’s campaign has released records to the paper showing the call to the 800 sex line was followed the very next minute by a call to the state Department of Criminal Justice Services – and the last seven digits of the two numbers are the same. Arcuri now says the ad was ”clearly libelous” and threatens to file a lawsuit. At least seven television stations in Syracuse, Utica and Binghamton refused to run the ad. The ad’s sponsor, the National Republican Congressional Committee, stands by the 30-second message. ☞ Think about this. This isn’t some nutty Swift Boat group they can pretend to disavow. This is the National Republican Congressional Committee. And when called on it, they are sticking to it. Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater must be rolling over in their graves. POLITCAL SITES Don’t bet on tradesports.com, but it’s an interesting take on the odds in various political races, and has proven quite accurate in predicting outcomes. Right now, electoral-vote.com has the Senate exactly tied, so if you have any dollars to send to Claire McCaskill in Missouri, Harold Ford, Jr. in Tennessee, or Jim Webb in Virginia, it could be money well contributed. You can see your political zip code here. And you can get to one of the sites a lot of us have recently discovered, realclearpolitics, here. Or, if you’re a real political junkie, you’ve doubtless signed up to have ABC’s The Note delivered to you every day. Won’t you be glad when this is over 16 days from now? I can hardly wait. Not sure where your polling place is? Other questions? Call 888-DEM-VOTE
The Market, the Meanness, and the Magic October 20, 2006January 9, 2017 EXPLORER 7.0 Hey – so I downloaded and installed it – easy, even for me – and it’s better and worth doing. (But don’t blame me if something awful happens.) THE MARKET The Dow broke 12,000 and (as noted in more detail a few days ago) – it is now just 15% shy of its level six years ago, adjusted for inflation. (The S&P is down about 25% from where it was, adjusted for inflation; the NASDAQ is down about 65% against the Canadian dollar or the Euro.) If you own stocks, it’s certainly good news the market has climbed. A little less good is the nightly newscasters’ suggestion that – now that it’s risen – the market may be a little safer. Call me old-fashioned, but I feel safer owning stocks when they’re cheap. Then again, if you don’t own stocks, but were thinking of buying, it’s nice to know that you’re not really buying at all-time highs after all. I don’t know where the market will go from here, obviously, but I’m cheered to think that – expecting Democratic gains on November 7 – the market apparently is buoyed. (Or is it your view that the market would be doing much better still if it could be assured of two more years on the current course?) THE CORRUPTION Facing Fed Probe, House GOP Spending Chief Axes Investigative Staff – 60 investigators, fired. Amazing. THE MEANNESS For the first time in history, the surviving spouse of a member of Congress is being denied death benefits. The 12-term Congressman paid into the pension fund for 24 years like all his colleagues, but equal treatment under the law has its limits. Click here. GINGRICH V. PELOSI From Glenn Greenwald’s blog Tuesday: Newt Gingrich argued yesterday that Republicans should remind the electorate that “Republicans are right to favor traditional American conservative social values, and the left is completely wrong to put San Francisco left-wing values third in line to be President by electing Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) to speaker of the House.” Nancy Pelosi’s “San Francisco left-wing values”: “Upon graduation in 1962, she married Georgetown University graduate Paul Pelosi.” “Pelosi and her husband, Paul Pelosi, a native of San Francisco, have five children: Nancy Corinne, Christine, Jacqueline, Paul and Alexandra, and five grandchildren.” Newt Gingrich’s “traditional American conservative social values”: In 1981, Newt dumped his first wife, Jackie Battley, for Marianne, wife number 2, while Jackie was in the hospital undergoing cancer treatment. Marianne and Newt divorced in December, 1999 after Marianne found out about Newt’s long-running affair with Callista Bisek, his one-time congressional aide. Gingrich asked Marianne for the divorce by phoning her on Mother’s Day, 1999. [Source: New York Post, July 18, 2000, Newt’s Ex Wife Aiming to Pen Book by Bill Sanderson, available on lexis. Newt (57) and Callista (34) were married in a private ceremony in a hotel courtyard in Alexandria, Va. in August, 2000. . . . “He famously visited Jackie in the hospital where she was recovering from surgery for uterine cancer to discuss details of the divorce. He later resisted paying alimony and child support for his two daughters, causing a church to take up a collection. For all of his talk of religious faith and the importance of God, Gingrich left his congregation over the pastor’s criticism of his divorce.” The consistency in reasoning is at least impressive. Those who evaded military service during wars they cheered on are brave, courageous, resolute warriors. Those who fought for their country in combat are cowards and appeasers. Those who repeatedly dump their wives for new and better versions, and run around engaging in the sleaziest and most unrestrained sexual behavior, are stalwart defenders of traditional American and Christian values. Those who stay married to their original spouse for their entire lives and raise a family together are godless, radical heathens who represent “San Francisco values” and seek to undermine the country’s moral fiber and Christian traditions. THE MAGIC John Kasley: ‘The black guy is in the microwave behind a paper wall – look at the depth of the box as the white guy climbs in. When the black guy comes out, the microwave screen never clears of mist. When the black guy climbs in and the white guy jumps out, the walls fall outward hiding the space in which the black guy is hiding lying on his side.’ ☞ But as one of you explained, the part at the end, where the black guy disappears? That’s MAGIC. Have a great weekend.
Magic in a Microwave (Thanks, Peter) October 19, 2006March 5, 2017 Amazing video follows – your jaw will surely unhinge – but you have to suffer some partisan stuff first. And I quote: The current Congress has shown no inclination to investigate the Bush administration. Last year The Boston Globe offered an illuminating comparison: when Bill Clinton was president, the House took 140 hours of sworn testimony into whether Mr. Clinton had used the White House Christmas list to identify possible Democratic donors. But in 2004 and 2005, a House committee took only 12 hours of testimony on the abuses at Abu Ghraib. – Paul Krugman, The New York Times ☞ Striking, no? Yet even so, stuff comes out. Mark Lefler: ‘With Republicans implying the Mark Foley scandal was a Democratic ‘October Surprise,’ maybe you should just list each month for the last few years stating the Republican scandal ‘de jour.’ With so many happening practically every month, how could there not be at least one in October! Abramoff, Ney, Hastings, ‘Duke’ Cunningham, DeLay . . . try searching ‘Republican scandal’ on the web. It is amazing.’ ☞ If you wanted a list, you could start here. But the real bombshell this week, I thought, was the David Kuo book and attendant publicity. Here was an evangelical Bush appointee noting that of the billions to faith-based programs the President had promised to help the poor, less than 1% was delivered in his first two years in office. And noting that, behind their backs, White House staffers would roll their eyes at evangelicals, calling them ‘nuts.’ Karl Rove wasn’t respecting these folks, he was using them – and to get very unchristian things, like huge tax breaks for the mega-rich and favorable treatment for Big Oil. Here’s Tucker Carlson on the Chris Matthews Show: The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they’re beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don’t share their values…It’s pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out. ☞ I don’t expect most evangelicals to rush out to elect Democrats – even though on so many issues, it is the Democrats who fit more naturally with their calling. (We need to do a much better job of getting that across.) But I do think some are realizing they’ve been disrespected and used, and that they may stay home. VOLUNTEER Click here to get in touch with your state party and help get our country back on track. DOUBLE YOUR MONEY Click here to see your contribution doubled. It’s the ultimate grassroots match. DOUBLE MY FUN Mark Gorman: ‘After voting for Reagan, Bush I (twice) and Dole, I am proud to say that I voted Democratic in the last two presidential elections. To paraphrase Reagan, I didn’t leave the Republican Party, it left me.’ ☞ Exactly. And now, as a small reward for suffering this rant, here is pure magic and a microwave oven. How does he DO this? (Really: if you can figure it out, please let me know. Far more amazing than building Stonehenge.)
Leverage and Loverage October 18, 2006March 5, 2017 So CSPLF, suggested here year after year at prices ranging from $6.50 down to as low as $2.65, was bought out at $13.10 this month. That may be a lot less than it was worth – I assume that’s what the acquirer believes – but as bad news goes, it could have been worse. Carl Icahn, meanwhile, is buying $200 million of LEA in a private transaction and taking a seat on the board, which sent the stock up $3.75 yesterday to a hair above its level last November. This one may yet work out, so I feel less bad having suggested it. (My goal, as you know, is to lure fair-minded Republicans into reading this page with hopes of riches . . . then to gradually persuade them that the whole political landscape has shifted dramatically to the right, so that for now, at least – being moderates who believe in things like science – they should vote Democrat. It won’t work if I lose them money.) And speaking of money, I spent the day taking more credit card contributions for the DNC and so ran out of time to write anything. Instead, I offer you two four-minute films: The first reveals how Stonehenge may have been built – by a single ingenious retired guy. The second is an uplifting song by a charismatic boy about his two loving dads. Leverage and loverage. Enjoy.