Already I have a major policy difference with the new President before he’s even sworn in…
Obama Wants Lieberman To Remain In Democratic Caucus: President-elect Barack Obama has informed party officials that he wants Joe Lieberman to continue caucusing with the Democrats in the 111th Congress, Senate aides tell the Huffington Post.
This is such a huge mistake I don’t even know how to describe it in words. Leaving Holy Joe in charge of the committee does two things:
1) It leaves an opening for the “death by a thousand cuts” school of sabotage. Remember Whitewater? A bunch of hearings about something that allegedly went down well before Clinton was President wound up as only the second impeachment+trial of a President in American history. I assure you that Lieberman will go on TV with his trademark grave look and say that something deserves “a full and fair hearing” and then whammo, it’s wingnuts on parade. Rezko, Ayers, hell, they may even dig up that guy who says he had gay sex with Obama while they were both coked up. And that’s not the serious problem:
2) It sends a signal that in politics, you can say anything you like, do anything you like, and when it’s over, none of it matters any more. You can say that the candidate of your own party is dangerously unprepared to be President. You can cast doubt on his patriotism. You can sign on with the lowest of talk-radio sludge – and there are no consequences. This is not going to work out. If you undermine your guy, there has to be a price. There was no price to undermining Clinton, and the results speak for themselves.
I know what Obama is trying to do here – he’s trying to be bipartisan and above the fray and let-us-now-reason-together, and God bless him – but this is one where Rahm needs to impress upon him the importance of not starting out by sending the message that there are no consequences for taking an enormous shit on your own leader. Joe Lieberman needs to be forced clean out of the caucus and made to do a deal with the GOP if he wants anything more than a visitor’s pass.
Of course, this could all be Obama’s way of wiping the fingerprints off the knife before the Dem caucus does the deed for him. In which case he is an even slicker operator than I give him credit for. That IS the Chicago way…with apologies to Eliot Ness.
* So I dunked the end of my MagSafe Power Adapter in my iced tea while watching the Vandy-Florida fiasco. It was plugged in at the time. Obviously I yanked it out right quick and unplugged it from the wall safely, but I think the power adapter itself may be cooked.
* The question is, is it worth buying a replacement adapter when, for just over double the money, I could buy a whole new netbook which will let me do 90% of what I do on my current laptop, and force me to learn Linux besides? Having not bought a computer in just over eight years, I am reluctant to shell out for one now, but my current laptop is showing the signs – despite being only two years old, it has been rode hard and put away wet and no fooling; the hard drive has been replaced twice, there’s a non-trivial crack in the case, the display has a couple of pretty good scratches and the general behavior of the system is inconsistent with confidence in its continued reliability. One thing I am definitely considering is running a full backup, formatting the drive, reinstalling the OS and migrating the data back over so as to hopefully get a clean system without compromising any of my own content…
* The thing is, I’m never going to learn anything if I don’t have to use it. The main reason I can’t program is because I have never had to. The only reason I learned Windows was because we took the Mac off my desk at work back in 1998 and forced me to do everything in NT for over a year, and as a result, I became a pretty serviceable NT software technician. That and $1.75 will get you a large coffee at Clocktower (and it’s much better than Starbucks to boot). I realize that Ubuntu Netbook Remix compares to a real Linux system the way a Peel P50 compared to a Bugatti Veyron (Top Gear FTW!!) but you have to crawl before you can fly.
* I’m a little worried about processor performance. I tried to play back a 720p trailer for the new Bond movie today – on a 1.8 Ghz G5 iMac – and got something on the order of one frame every four or five seconds. Now, plainly I don’t plan on watching a lot of HD trailers on a netbook, but the point is, you never know what’s going to be the next killer app that depends on massive cheap processing power. Then again, in the world of mobility computing, everything has to fit on a smartphone screen now…so maybe we’re headed back to a world of 640×480 computing.
* Installing Ubuntu 810 in VMWare. Just to test, you understand. Capped it at 512 MB RAM and 8 GB storage, just to see what the limitations are like.
* The 2.2 firmware for the iPhone will apparently allow OTA downloading of podcasts. If I had this, I would basically never need to take the laptop with me ever again, even when I’m going to be gone for a week. If I can add and delete podcasts remotely and buy new tracks off the iTMS, the computer basically becomes the master repository rather than the necessary daily connection. At that point, the next issue is finding new ways to max out the charge, and I’ve done just about everything I can do on that front.
* Seriously considering getting an iPod Shuffle solely for the purpose of long-haul flights so I don’t donk off my cellphone charge.
* My Buddy Vince Sez, “Nate Longshore is proof that Cal doesn’t pay its players.”
Joe Lieberman shouldn’t be chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. Joe Lieberman shouldn’t be chairman of anything – hell, Joe Lieberman shouldn’t be allowed to go take a piss without a hall pass. When a Senator spends literally the entire Presidential campaign trashing the nominee of his party and actively campaigning for the candidate of the other party, the proper response is to eject him from the caucus so fast that the sonic boom breaks the windows.
The Democrats have over 50 seats in the Senate, but not close enough to 60 to make it worthwhile to keep him around. This isn’t some sort of wacky liberal vindictive spirit or creeping fascism, this is common fucking sense at its finest. If your backup left tackle spent the entire game on the other team’s bench, cheering them on and talking up your team’s weaknesses, you don’t give him a spot in the rotation – you kick him off the team and give his ass a proper Irish blanket party in the locker room on the way out.
When the new Congress convenes in January, Lieberman should be read out of the Democratic Caucus and his seniority should be dead last behind every single new freshman. In fact, he should have no committee assignments at all, of any kind. And if he wants to bolt to the Republicans, the response of the Dem leadership should be to try to make sure the doorknob sticks in his ass-crack on the way out.
So long, Flavius Josephus*. Buy the ticket, take the fucking ride.
* If you understand why I chose this particular slander, you are a bright cookie indeed and I will buy you a pint.
1) He was the direct inspiration for the character of Josh Lyman in The West Wing.
2) His brother was the direct inspiration for the character of Ari Gold in Entourage.
3) He has lately been the head of the DCCC, responsible for the election and re-election of Democrats to the House of Representatives.
This pick is basically Team Obama telling Congress “The train’s leaving. Be on it or be under it.” Nancy Pelosi is still Speaker, but don’t expect her to be setting the agenda anymore, not by a long shot.
One of my best friends ever posted a very classy concession a day or two ago on behalf of the Republicans, and the son of a bitch short-circuited my planned post to the effect of “SUCK IT.” As a result, I now have to do something thoughtful on where the GOP goes from here, because it’s starting to look like the Party of Lincoln is going to spend a couple years as the Party of Rethinkin’. 1700-word claptrot follows…
OK, I know a lot of people in California are torn up about the results of Proposition 8. I’m not crazy about it myself, and I’m sure that a lot of people in parts East are thinking “how the hell can something like that pass in California?” Well, I’m going to spell it out for you:
1) California is the largest state in the country, with a massive population that is split in exactly the same fashion as the rest of the country in terms of culture, economics, religion and the urban/rural divide. To use the most hack cliche, there is definitely Red California and Blue California, and once you get outside the major urban centers, it turns really red – mostly because the makeup of the population is largely unchanged from the original Dust Bowl migrants who settled agricultural California during the Depression.
2) The final number looks like it’s going to be 52-48. In other words, if another bite at the apple comes round, shifting 2.5% would do the damn thing.
3) Getting to that 52% took a metric shitload of out-of-state cash and resources, mostly from rectangular states other than California.
4) Most importantly, the “No” vote didn’t jump on this early enough. The initial polling shows the proposition failing to pass by a wide margin, and I think a lot of people who didn’t have a personal interest pretty much punted on the issue – and did so largely out of fear that making a big deal out of gay marriage might worsen the prospects for the Democratic Party’s best shot at the White House in years. You can argue from dusk til dawn about whether this was correct or not, and the morality of it is a SHOW, but what’s done is done…for now.
Now, my understanding is that there’s nothing to prevent offering another proposition next year to basically overturn this one, as all you need in California is 8% on a petition and then 50%+1 in the election. I didn’t expect to find an even longer and more complicated state constitution than Alabama’s all the way out here, but there you go. But most importantly, consider the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: “citizens of the United States and the state in which they reside.” Uncle Sam has the hydrogen bomb, and if a federal court were to get involved under the “equal protection” clause…well, let’s just say that from a contract law perspective, it may not be that difficult a case to make, especially in front of the Ninth Circuit.
Don’t forget, too – gay marriage passed in the California legislature twice, only to be vetoed both times by the Governator. Then, when the state court ruling came down, he said he wouldn’t contest it. He even had some words to say against 8, though not nearly enough to actually make a difference, but you have to wonder what he might do now if another constitutional amendment were to pass out of the legislature and go to the ballot next November.
Now, the dry political-legal analysis aside…
I come from a famously benighted state, one that had to have basic ideas about equality before the law enforced at the point of a gun for a very long time. I’ve lived in a cloud of irrational bigotry and seen the effect it has on people. I’ve seen people cut off their nose to spite their face while other people suffer as a result, and I know how discouraging and sickening it is to live with.
But that’s not all there is.
A minority, by the very definition of the word, doesn’t have 50%+1. They can’t do it alone. It takes people with nothing to gain for themselves, people who could go on with their lives unaffected and untroubled, stopping and saying “Hold. Up.”
Ken Burns did a movie about the earliest suffragette movement called “Not For Ourselves Alone.” Or in Latin, non nobis solum. That’s when the important stuff happens – when people start looking beyond themselves. When you get out there and start to push back for your family and friends and loved ones.
November 5 was always going to be the first day of the hard part. The plan is just the same as it ever was. Let’s eat enough Advil to make the throbbing stop, let’s get enough Gatorade down us to get rehydrated, and then let’s ride for our people.
You don’t hear much about candidates in California. Let’s face it – unless the candidate is *from* California, this is a safe Democratic state all the way around. Nobody would pump serious money into California on a national level, any more than they would pour mad cash into New York or Texas. The only stuff that gets any airtime around here are…propositions.
Propositions are not nearly as much fun as they may sound. As a callow undergrad, I would have taken to the notion of “proposition” like an Irishman to a bottle of (INSERT APPROPRIATE SECTARIAN WHISKY HERE). But apparently that’s not what it means here beside the Western Sea. As far as I can tell, it means that all you have to do is round up a bunch of signatures, and you can have damn near anything show up on the ballot, and if 50% plus one will vote for it, pow – you have completely circumvented the normal political process. Woohoo! Break the chains of gridlock! Popular democracy at its finest!
Eh, noooo….
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it. ”
-Tommy Lee Jones, Men In Black
Look, I’m a smart guy. That’s not ego or vanity talking, that’s documented by the State of Alabama with evidence going back 30 years. I have two degrees in political science and take an inordinate interest in the minutiae of the political process, as evidence by my logorrhea over the last year or so in this very space. You know what? I couldn’t tell you what half this year’s propositions are, let alone which way I should be voting, and I’m brilliant.
Now, if Wile E. Coyote, geeeeeeenius, doesn’t know which end is up – exactly what are the odds that the ten million people who are NOT as bright as me have a better grip on the situation or are even paying attention? I’ll give you a hint; they voted this as their governor:
(NB: I’m through taking S off these people about Alabama politics.)
So what you end up with is a bunch of ill-informed people voting on poorly-detailed notions based on opinions they formed by who ran the most ads during Dancing with the Steers or whatever it is. And you wonder how come the Golden State gets this reputation.
The problem is, though, it’s a handy way to completely circumvent the process. My understanding is that the whole thing came about at a time when the government was hopelessly corrupt in the first decade of the 20th Century, and this technique allowed the Progressives to work their way around the roadblocks of the era. What it’s turned into, however, is a way of dodging the entire legislative process by just appealing to people to vote directly. And because of the civic religion of American democracy, this idea that “why don’t you just let the people vote on it themselves?” is very nearly Holy Writ. What could be more right and proper than giving a direct voice to the people?
Problem is, “the people” are dumber than hammered snot. Which is how you end up with a whole slew of strange, absurd, and often mutually-contradictory items on the ballot. The most common coping mechanism around here – and one I find absolutely no fault with – is just to vote “No” on every single one of them. The way I see it, in 2008, putting something to a popular referendum is more or less a concession that you can’t get it done through normal government channels. And if you’re a small-government conservative type (and God knows I have certain minimalist tendencies in the realm of practical politics), what the hell could be worse than allowing people to directly add to the bulk and burden of government?
Look, maybe this is academic and professional bias from the old days, but when my leg hurts, do I go out and take a poll and ask people to vote on what to do with it? No, I go to the doctor and get it scoped. When my car is acting strange, do I start asking people to vote Yes or No on going under the hood and pulling wires? No, I take my happy ass to the dealership and let them outrage the honor of my checking account. When I got a toothache, I spend zippy time at a rally asking the crowd one by one which tooth I should try pulling.
Do I know all the ins and outs of California politics? Hell no. Why should I? I’ve got people to do that FOR me, and they’re getting a chunk of my hide twice monthly plus eight cents on the dollar every time I need another Nalgene bottle. And if I don’t like the people I’ve got, I’ll hire some more people. The miracle of modern civilization, the thing that separates us from Neanderthals and Geico pitchmen scrobbling around hunting and gathering, the thing that lets us have iPods and Guinness and six weeks off work if I’d just stuck with my first job, is specialization. And in the long run, it’s totally worth it.
Now, can I have my bloody TV back, or do I have to wait for Wednesday?
I thought it was unbelievable enough when Ralph Stanley actually cut a radio ad for Obama…but now it appears that the latest endorsement is none other than The Last American Hero.
Yes, it looks like Junior Johnson – THE Junior Johnson – has endorsed Barack Obama. For those of you who just think of Darrell Waltrip as the guy that goes “Boogity boogity boogity” and look funny when somebody talks about Pontiacs and Oldsmobiles in the Winston Cup, let me explain. Junior Johnson started life as a bootlegger, driving his daddy’s moonshine down from the holler in North Carolina in the 50s. He was never caught transporting in his entire career, and mostly laid off it once NASCAR’s Grand National series became a more profitable way to spend his time, but got popped helping his dad stack wood for the still and did some time in the Federal poke.
Afterwards, he became the first true superstar of stock car racing. He discovered drifting AND drafting. He beat everything and everyone else on the track, driving hell bent for leather every single week. He ran the entire 1963 season in a Chevy at a time when Chevrolet had pulled out of stock car racing altogether. He once broke an axle on his car, broke the spare axle, got a third axle from a fan who took it off his own car for Junior and broke that one too. And after retiring, his team went on to win six WInston Cups behind Waltrip and Cale Yarborough. He is, by any legitimate measure of Southern manhood, a stupendous badass.
I am incredulous. If this is legit…wow. Just plain f-ing wow.
