Clinton Administration Infighting Impacts IA Caucuses: Richardson Knifes Hillary (Field Report Four)

According to another campaign colleague, during the Iowa Caucuses, Richardson decided to ask his supporters to back Obama if he wasn’t “viable” in their precinct. In the Democratic Caucuses, a candidate must receive 15% of the vote on the first round in order to be eligible to win delegates. Supporters of candidates deemed “unviable” are cajoled, sweet talked, persuaded and threatened by their neighbors into supporting their 2nd preference. Richardson was always the only viable candidate among the 2nd tier under these rules and this actually explains why he didn’t come in with more than 2% of the vote.

Going into the Caucuses, Edwards was the 2nd choice of a majority of caucus goers. In fact, many political observers thought that he would win on that basis alone. By asking (and getting) his supporters to back Obama on the 2nd round instead of Edwards, Richardson essentially threw the election to Obama, kneecapping Hillary in the process. She would have been able to withstand an Edwards victory (after all, he has no money) but as we’ve seen an Obama victory is something else – a victory for the forces of real change and an inspiration our nation hasn’t felt since the days of RFK (apparently – I wasn’t here yet). Ironically Hillary really is not perceived as “a change agent” since she has been on the national scene at least since failing to get Congress to enact her misbegotten health care plan. Obama on the other hand, really is a new fresh face who does represent change and a new direction for the Democratic Party (i.e. away from the Clinton’s).

Now the question arises as to why Richardson, whom many perceived as angling for Hillary’s VP or Secretary of State slots, would do this. It’s quite simple really and it goes back to the Clinton Administration: Terry McAuliffe. Apparently there was some dust up between the Governor and the former Democratic Party Chairman/fundraiser extraordinaire in which it was strongly intimated that not backing Hillary would result in some type of retribution. Given McAuliffe’s position it could either be a threat to cut off Richardson’s funding for the NM Senate Primary (assuming he gets in during the short deadline after Feb. 5) or the promise of being excluded from a future Hillary Clinton Administration.

Ironically, whatever threat McAuliffe made obviously backfired and put Clinton in the position she’s now in – on the verge of losing a 2nd straight primary/caucus by double digits (assuming the David Duke Statistical Lie problem isn’t affecting the polling outcome, which based on my previous posts I believe it is though I still think Obama MAY be able to squeak through a victory). Should Hillary be unable to regain her footing before Feb.5, she will tarnish the Clinton legacy and effectively end the Clinton Machine’s hold on the Democratic Party. It would be morning in the Democratic Party.

To paraphrase Nixon, “Richardson knows a little about politics too.”

Oh, and just for the record, Hillary saying she knows how to beat Republicans is bunk. A Republican Minority, lead by Senator Phil Gramm of Texas beat her health care plan to smithereens in 1993. In both 1992 and 1996 more people voted against Bill Clinton than voted for him. He only received 43% of the vote in 1992 and 49% in 1996. The Clinton’s only know how to beat Republicans in a three-man race (Perot ’92, Buchanan ’96) in which the 3rd guy appeals to core Republican values. Put her head to head with anyone but Huckabee and she’ll have a hard time of it – Romney’s actually achieved universal health care in his state, McCain is definitely more trustworthy and likeable despite the establishment’s attitude towards him and can play the military b ackground card in a way she can’t, and Giuliani can counter the change argument easily (“I changed the country by bringing down the mob,” “I changed Wall Street culture, at least temporarily, by bringing down Ivan Boesky,” “I changed New York City, the untamable city, and made it livable for families again” – how does she counter that?).

Romney Tried to Suppress Giuliani IA Support (IA Field Report Three)

According to another colleague of mine who was monitoring Iowa Caucus 0precincts for his candidate in parts of Eastern Iowa, Romney County Chairs were demanding that Giuliani representatives not be allowed to speak since some of them were from out of state. This is a blatant abuse that should have been dealt with by the Iowa GOP County Chair or the state party.

As a veteran of Iowa caucuses, I can tell you that anyone can be authorized to speak on behalf of a candidate, regardless of state of voter registration. This is completely acceptable under party rules as long as the "outsider" doesn't attempt t vote. I'm a native Iowan, but not registered to vote there, and I've given multiple nominating speeches for different candidates.

In fact, last week both Governor Dave Heineman (Nebraska) and Governor Matt Blunt (Missouri) were allowed to speak on behalf of their respective candidates (can't remember who campaigned for whom). Either they shouldn't have been allowed to speak, or everyone should have been, regardless of where they were from as long as they didn't attempt to vote.

Putting on my analyst/pundit hat my observation is this: Despite Giuliani's lack of a strong presence in Iowa (And I do admire his attempt to run an entirely new strategy), Romney felt the need to keep Giuliani support down in Iowa in order to damage the viability of the person most likely to threaten Romney's ascension to the nomination. Huckabee is a joke - like Pat Robertson he'll get crushed in New Hampshire, where McCain will will. I already wrote about Thompson's dubious Iowa victory, though he has a strong chance of winning South Carolina if he plays it right. After two defeats for Romney and a mixed bag of other winners, Giuliani's strategy may prove wise, in which case he and Romney stand the best chance of being the last men standing and forcing a Feb. 5 showdown (Where, if all goes to their plan, Giuliani is likely to win California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois and a few other big delegate states). Romney obviously wanted to damage Giuliani as early as possible to undercut this possible scenario.




This is likely the last Iowa field report. I should be posting some from other states later this month. If you have anything to report, please let me know, and I'll do my best to verify it and put it up.

Thompson IA "Momentum" fueled by Ron Paul Database Crash (Field Report Two)

One of my well connected political contacts learned yesterday at a Midwestern airport that Ron Paul's 10% Iowa showing was due to a database crash that severely hampered their Get Out The Vote (GOTV) efforts. I feel badly for the unknown staffer/volunteer who accidentally caused this and debated posting this item due to the potential pain it might cause the anonymous person in question. The anonymous Paul staffer/volunteer went into seclusion after this debacle. I wish him the best of luck in the future and empathize with his embarassment / personal pain.

In any event, Fred Thompson lived in Iowa for the 18 days prior to the Iowa Caucuses, while Ron Paul did not make nearly as many appearances. The fact that Thompson only beat Paul by 3000 votes illustrates that his momentum is mostly an illusion. Had the Paul GOTV operation been operating properly, it is quite likely he would have been able to garner at least another 3500-5000 votes either by turning out additional voters or taking some away from Thompson (Paul actually has more appeal to the conservatives that voted for Thompson than Thompson does due to his "purity" on their issues).

Thus, the late "Thompson surge" is more a product of accidental, technological failing by a competitive rival with unparralleled grass-roots support among non-evangelicals than any indication of real support for Thompson. This is true despite anything Rich Galen has to say on the matter.

Edwards Alienates Hundreds of Potential Volunteers, Endangers Country and Party

About a week before the Iowa Caucuses John Edwards stated that if he became President, he would not hire anyone who had been a federal lobbyist. Now, I understand that he doesn't think trial lawyers are a special interest or that his actions as a trial laywer are actually what has caused the health care crisis (health insurance companies raise rates due to jackpot jury awards, thus making healthcare unaffordable and causing companies (especially small firms)to drop their health care coverage for employees.

However, there are literally thousands of people who have been lobbyists and frankly, most of the top lobbyists are the pre-eminent experts in their fields. Why would you want to forgo the expertise of someone simply because of a job they may have held? This is especially concerning considering that some of our nation's top foreign policy people have worked as lobbyists for one firm or another, and sacrificing their knowledge due to some populist BS concern that they're tainted could put our nation in real jeopardy.

Additionally, if he is serious about this, his administration would basically have to depopulate the ranks of senior political/policy experts on Capitol Hill. The effect of this would be to essentially disarm unilaterally against the Republicans on the Hill by taking away all the top Dems with institutional memory and knowledge of how to get things done, while leaving their Republican counterparts in place and able to outmaneuver his own party. In the wake of this past disastrous year for Congressional Democrats, why would you want to make them even weaker?

Finally, lobbyists and former lobbyists are the people who are willing to fly in from out of state on their own dime and help you get out the vote, ID supporters, etc. Telling them they'll have no place in his administration pretty much guarantees they'll drop their plans to help out. After all, why help an ingrate? No one, even "evil lobbyists," volunteers on campaigns simply for future jobs, but a telling them that you're not grateful and won't even consider them for a job in the future pretty much guarantees the loss of a lot of money (from their personal accounts) and help from people who otherwise share his values.

New Hampshire Racism Imperils Obama Momentum (Field Report One)

I've been doing some volunteer campaign work recently for one of campaigns. Doesn't matter which one or where (but it's not Obama - I'm a Libterarian and am VERY pleased with Ron Paul's 10% result in Iowa).

One of my colleagues on another campaign told me that they have a South Asian volunteer who has been harassed, threatened and called the N word more times than anyone can count. While I am EXTREMELY pleased with what Obama's Iowa victory says about our nation slowly transcending race as an issue, the treatment of this volunteer by New Hampshire residents is discourgaging in the utmost. Not being representative of the country in terms of diversity is ok if you're openminded (witness Iowa last night), BUT BEING LILLY WHITE AND RACIST is just one more example of why New Hampshire should lose its first in the nation primary status. I don't support Obama due to policy disagreements, but the way New Hampshire is treating this volunteer indicates that he has a hard row to hoe there.

Putting on my analyst/pundit hat, this does not bode well for the Obama campaign and New Hampshire racism could halt his momementum and pitch the race towards Hillary or Edwards. I have no doubt that Hillary Clinton and John Edwards are good Americans who hate racism and don't want to win this way. It's just unfortunate that this racist little state will get to kneecap Obama before he can really take full advantage of what President George H. W. Bush referred to as "The Big Mo." I mean, it's not like this is happening in the South where such things are to be expected.

I wish our country would finally embrace MLK's dream of judging us by the content of our character and not the color of our skin. New Hampshire residents obviously don't share this dream.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised - after all New Hampshire is populated by former Boston residents, and it's no secret that Boston is one of the most racist cities in the country.

Thompson Advisor Insults Iowans' Intelligence

During a rant about how badly he was treated during the Des Moines Register/Iowa Public Television GOP Presidential debate, Senior Thompson Advisor Rich Galen earlier this month wrote in his Mullings Cyber Column:

"It is also possible that there is a law in Iowa forbidding the use of any form of the word 'abysmal.'"

Now, I am from Iowa and find this offensive. This statement implies that Iowans are uneducated and don't know the meaning of "abysmal." In fact, Iowans read more books per capita than the residents of ANY other state in the Union. Iowa high school students also score number one or number two in both the SAT and ACT EVERY YEAR. Hardly the hallmarks of an uneducated populous. Taking potshots at the residents of an entire state (Iowa) simply out of pique directed at one person does not seem smart politics for a senior advisor to a campaign (Thompson) which desperately needs to come in third just to keep alive.

And he wrote this just after a soliloquy of getting into fights with people who buy ink by the barrel.

The Lastest Stupid Conspiracy from Late Night Shots

A member of Late Night Shots, that exclusive networking site, recently posted the most inane political conspiracy theory I have come across in a long time:

Whisper on the street... Hillary strategists consider independent candidacy

Posted By: Karl Drove on 12-14-2007 1:06 pm
Report as shockingly offensive

Heard some amazing speculation today from a credible source that Hillary’s brain-trust is considering a worst case scenario should she drop early primaries in IA, NH, SC. Hillary would declare as an independent. Such a move would clearly fracture the Democratic party, but would major advantages. Hillary is polling 10% higher nationally than in early primaries, but with early loses, she would be forced to campaign all the way through, burning up time, money, and energy. Stepping out early would allow her to save her cash horde for a costly general campaign.

Also, the electoral process would support such a bold move. No candidate in a three way race Hillary/Obama/Republican race would be able to get required 270 votes. So the race would be settled in the house…

“If no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives elects the President from the 3 Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes. Each State delegation has one vote. The Senate would elect the Vice President from the 2 Vice Presidential candidates with the most electoral votes. Each Senator would cast one vote for Vice President. If the House of Representatives fails to elect a President by Inauguration Day, the Vice-President Elect serves as acting President until the deadlock is resolved in the House.”

My measured response to this absurd notion:

This is a really flawed analysis and if people in Hillaryland really believe this, you have to wonder if they're literally smoking crack. If she did this and lost she'd destroy her political career, damage her husband's legacy and harm the Democratic party for years to come. The only upside for the Dems on this is that it would bring a lot more of them to the polls and likely increase their down ballot victories substantially.

This scenario is much less plausible than a brokered GOP convention. It could happen, but it's more of a secret desire for something interesting/cool to happen in politics than it is a likely scenario. Of course I could be wrong and it could be a smart move politically for Hillary, but I doubt the analysis above. And the statement below is absolute crap:

"No candidate in a three way race Hillary/Obama/Republican race would be able to get [the] required 270 votes." Let's look at the last two signficant three candidate races:

20% of voters chose Ross Perot in 1992's 3-man race and he didn't receive a single electoral vote. Instead Clinton won the Presidency with 43% of the vote, which is what would happen to the GOP nominee, though the percentage would vary. George Wallace's electoral votes didn't hurl the election to the House either.

If Hillary did run as an independent, it would come down to Hillary vs. the Republican with Obama the odd man out due to money. Obama likely wouldn't win ANY electoral votes, and if he did they would be in heavily Democratic states that would hurt Hillary; not in states the GOP would win. This scenario also would essentially erase the money gap between Hillary and the GOP nominee since she'd have to fight on two fronts.

As someone who likes divided government, this scenario would almost guarantee a Republican electoral vote landslide for the GOP because the Dem fracturing would be so pronounced and would motivate their base WAY more than anything else could. Winning the Presidency would be the only way for the GOP to have a hold on power.

Also, even though the House has and likely will have a Democratic majority, as it states below the way it works is that EACH STATE DELEGATION gets one vote. It's not even clear that the GOP doesn't/won't control enough state delegations to impose a GOP President despite being in the minority - especially because some Democrat-controlled delegations (i.e., Illinois) would still vote for Obama instead of Hillary since he'd be the official Dem nominee. Also, we basically control all the small state delegations (Alaska, Montana, etc), and those votes count just as much as the one vote each for California and New York.

Plus, the Blue Dogs could throw in with the GOPers in their delegation to get their state to vote for the more conservative, i.e., Republican candidate. It might be hard for the Speaker to retaliate against them for it too because if she did, they could just cut deals with the Republicans to switch parties, and keep their committee slots and seniority when their mass defections make the GOP the Majority.

Also, if Huckabee is the GOP VP nominee, in this scenario he'd likely still end up as VP since too many of the Dem Senators are/would be from states with strong pro-life constituencies which would punish them in the next election. Dems likely to vote for Huckabee:

Nelson (NE) - up in 2012 and sold his soul to Nebraskans United for Life to get their endorsement.
McCaskill (MO) - up in 2010 in a state that is among the most pro-life in the country - most of the significant right to die and abortion cases the Supreme Court has ruled on came from Missouri.
Baucus (MT) - up in 2012 - a pretty pro-life state.
Bayh (IN) if he's not the VP nominee - up in 2010 and won't want to alienate the pro-life voters in his state - he even votes pro-life on some issues. He'll still win re-election though.
Johnson, Tim (SD) -- not up again til 2014, but in a VERY pro-life state.
Lincoln (AR) - it would be hard for her not to go with her home state Governor who has always won more votes than she.
Pryor (AR) -- same reasons, plus he's about as pro-life as Bayh if not more so.

So that's 7 potential Democrat votes for Huckabee as VP and the Dems are really only likely to pick up about 3-5 seats this cycle, giving them 54-56 Senators. By no means are any of these Senators guaranteed to vote for Huckabee, but to varying degrees each would face pressure to vote for him. Their votes, when combined with their Republican colleagues would install Hucabee in the White House VP.

My scenario is equally inane by itself, but it illustrates the abusurd possibilities that could be spawned by a Hillary Clinton independent Presidential Run.

The Stupidest Thing Ever Said on TV , , ,

When asked which was closer, the sun or the moon, one of the applicants to be on the show Beauty and the Geek actually said "aren't they the same thing?" Now, I realize that not everyone's parents are middle class or interested in science or understand the basic nature of the solar system by age 5, but you shouldn't be allowed to graduate from grammar school without knowing that the Sun (Sol) is enormous; Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun; the Moon revolves around the earth; Jupiter is the largest planet; Saturn's Great Red Spot is actually a storm that has been raging for over 300 years and its moon's are the most likely place for extraterrestrial life in the solar system; Neptune is the only planet which has rings that orbit perpendicular to the equator instead of a parallel manner; and Pluto is the 9th planet. Ok, that last one will no longer be true, but this lets me work in that I think it's interesting that they decided to downgrade it from a planet instead of promoting a few more Oort Cloud objects to planet status.

It's things like that answer which make me think No Child Left Behind is a good idea and that WE SHOULD HAVE A NATIONAL CURRICULUM. I get that lots of teachers (including the two generations of teachers in my family) oppose NCLB because it fosters "teaching to the test," but teaching to the test is not necessarily a bad thing. If the test is properly constructed around questions central to understanding the subject (e.g., the transitive property in math, or the proper use of semi-colons - please note irony) then teaching to the test can be an incredibly valuable tool for improving general education levels. And of course recent immigrant children should not be included in the measurement of a school's performance.

Competition is a good thing and in most cases brings out the best in people. It's also the fundamental basis of our society - we are primates and mammals after all and exhibit the same range of programmed behaviors - and would force schools to focus on education as an output, teaching as an input and administration to act like good managers - paying teachers by their merit instead of seniority and firing teachers who don't care or are poor performers.

End of Rant.

The Problem With Thompson

isn't that he's lazy; it's that he most definitely is not the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan. The comparisons with Reagan are facile at best as simply being actors and politicians does not make them the same, or even very similar.

Reagan had been active in politics and had honed his ideology and principles since his days at the Screen Actors Guild. He also was was a sucessful two-term Governor of California who almost denied a sitting the President the nomination of his party before obtaining the nomination. Thompson is a former Republican Senate Committee Counsel who engaged in a bit of political theatre that helped bring down a President. He later served as a Senator with an undistinguished record, and I would argue that his actions as a Senate staffer were as or more important than his actions as a U.S. Senator. They could not be more different in terms of the experience and commitment to firm principles.

Reagan was a strident anti-Communist and forger of a great political realignment based on the conservative ideology he developed from Goldwater's campaign. Every knew were Regan stood on any given issue because he was committed to his ideals. Thompson however is presumably a strong anti-terrorist, but we don't really know what he believes - after all he was willing to lobby to liberalize abortion laws but then claims to be 100% pro-life. He was also willing to lobby for a deposed Haitian dictator trying to get the U.S. to launch and invasion to reinstall him as the nation's leader. This rasing issues about his commitment to human rights, which has other implications in the wake of scandals like Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.

As I said Thompson is Reagan. He's simply an echo of what the right yearns for - clarity of purpose derived from a coherent ideology (which we now lack) and a strong leader who doesn't betray our faith in some way.

Hell No! No Immunity for Telecoms That Helped Bush Spy on You

The Bush Administration's own Justice Department had to browbeat an incredibly sick man into approving procedures and wiretaps that he rightly believed to be unconstitutional (as so declared by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals). And now they want to help protect the people who helped them break the law instead of refusing on the grounds that Bush Administration's requests were illegal. Those corporate CEOs had a responsibility to their shareholders to do the right, legal thing - they have no responsibility to help the government break its own laws. For this reason alone the companies should be subject to, and hopefully lose, class action lawsuits from their customers.

Who is the WH Official Most Deserving of Blame for the Katrina Debacle?

The Bush Administration continues its self-flagellations over the Katrina Debacle,but the press has never really pushed for a full accounting of who really was responsible for the government-wide failure to prepare for and address the catastrophe. If it wasn't Brownie (and it wasn't), who was responsible for this failure?

That answer is easy: Andy Card. Not only because he was Chief of Staff at the time, but because (a) he was on vacation when this happened; and (b) he had the most experience with hurricane disaster clean up. In fact, during the Bush 41 Administration, he was President George H.W. Bush's point person coordinating the recovery from Hurricane Andrew, another devastating hurricane to hit the U.S. - it's even on his official WH bio. In fact, he did such a good job in this role, that it became a model of how to handle these types of situations.

If anyone in the Bush 43 White House should have been able to manage this disaster, it was him. And what's more, he was the WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF at the time. He should have been on the ground helping organizing the recovery. Afterall, he had the most experience dealing with this of anyone close to the President.

It wasn't Brownie's fault; it was Andy Card's, but the MSM hasn't really picked that up at all.

Of Course Hillary Won't Pick Obama - She'll Pick Harold Ford, Jr. Instead

Robert Novak wrote last Saturday (8.18.07):

Against Clinton-Obama

Anticipating that Sen. Hillary Clinton will clinch the Democratic presidential nomination, some supporters are beginning to argue against her principal rival -- Sen. Barack Obama -- for vice president.

They maintain that Obama provides no general election help for Clinton. As an African-American from Illinois, Obama represents an ethnic group and a state already solidly in the Democratic column.

This school of thought advocates a Southerner as Clinton's running mate. The last time Democrats won a national election without a Southerner on the ticket was 1944. Prominent Democrats from the South are in short supply today. The leading prospect: former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.

Novak is right that Obama brings nothing to the table, and it is debatable wheteher he really does share much of the African-American experience in the United States. (It doesn't matter what I think about this, but it does matter with African-American grassroots and grasstops members think). However, Novak is wrong in predicting Mark Warner as the leading Veep candidate.

The leading dark horse candidate should be, and I believe is, Harold Ford, Jr. Unlike Obama he hails from a red state in the South, has actually had to run competitively statewide (does anyone really think Obama gained a lot of solid campaign experience beating Alan Keyes?) and many Democrats believe (incorrectly or not) that he was robbed of the Senate seat due to blatant race-baiting which should increase Democratic turnout in Tennessee if he is on the ticket. This could be especially important if Fred Thompson upsets Giuliani to become the GOP 2008 Nominee.

Ford also is the current Chairman of the Democratic Leadership Council, formerly chaired by Bill Clinton during his days as Governor of Arkansas. Additionally, the Obama phenomenon and the decent results achieved by Bill Richardson have acculturated Democratic activists to the idea of a minority on the ticket (beyond a privileged white woman of course). However, picking Richardson or any hispanic politician would enrage the nation's black community who beleive their time for a more prominent place on the national stage/in the national debate, and who likely would view an hispanic pick as "skipping over" one of their own.

Additionally, while it's crass to say this, Harold does not look especially black, thus blunting nationally any latent racism. In fact, the emergence of narrowcasting means that his ethnicity would be more promoted in some regions of the nation and less in others, and the liberal media would do much to protect him this time around from a nationwide repeat of 2006. Additionally, while his family is from Tennessee political aristocracy, it is much harder to argue that he doesn't understand or hasn't shared in the African-American experience, or "isn't black enough."

Clinton-Ford '08. The ticket even sounds like the name of a reliable friend who'll help you out. It also subtley evokes fond memories of former President Ford, making him an even better choice and a familiar name in Michigan (a potential battleground state) even if he's not from there.

Hillary-Harold or H2 would be good campaign bumper stickers too.

Morrissey Still Not Over it: Turns down Smith Reunion with Johnny Marr

Rolling Stone : Morrissey Turned Down Mega-Bucks Smiths Reunion Offer Over Johnny Marr

From RS Online:

Morrissey has once again broken the hearts of millions of already-damaged Smiths fans by refusing to reunite the band. The Mozzer’s publicist has confirmed that the crooner declined a $75 million offer to tour as the Smiths in 2008 and/or 2009 even though the only requirement was that Johnny Marr also be a part of the reunion. What does this new information tell us? That the theory surmising that Morrissey’s legal battles with former Smith Mike Joyce were behind his resistance to reuniting the band is flawed. Apparently Morrissey isn’t up for any kind of Smiths reunion … yet. In the meantime, Marr is still an integral part of Modest Mouse, and Joyce is counting the Smiths back pay and royalties he collected in 1996 and releasing an album with his latest band, Vinny Peculiar, in October.

For background on the Smith's break up click here.

Traveler: A Retread of the Da Vinci Code & National Treasure?

Traveler has been one of the real joys of the summer season for a conspiracy fan like me. Like the X-Files, the show revolves around a conspiracy composed of high-level government officials involved in a shadowy project. They claim to be derived from the "Fourth Branch," of which the only clue we have regarding them is a painting which seemingly depicts the Continental Congress at work.

And of course the primary conspirator of which we are aware is a high level official at the Department of Homeland Security, since DHS has replaced FEMA in conspiracy/public consciouness. Under the aegis of the Fourth Branch, the conspirators start to implement a plan of domestic terrorism in order to gain more power at the expense of public freedom.

Where I'm going with this is that the painting implies that the Fourth Branch was created at the beginning of the Republic and is a secret branch of the government dedicated to protecting it from internal enemies (remember the Alien & Sedition Acts?). This bears some similarity to the conspriracies in both National Treasure and the Da Vinci Code.

I would argue that the conspiracy in Traveler is more engaging and franklyT simply more interesting than that of the above mentioned movies. Most of the episodes share Prison Break's break-neck pace and cliff-hanger endings combined, with great effect, with an equally intriguing story line. The most interesting contrast between the two shows is that with Prison Break, the audience witnesses the inside of the conspiracy, while in Traveler we witness the quest for knowlege of the consipiracy.

To answer my own question: No. It is not.

Jericho: An Illustration of our Deepest Fears

Jericho is the story about an American Nuclear Holocaust, told in an idyllic setting, leaves many questions unanswered at the end, much like Surface and Invasion did a few years ago.

(They too were conspiracy shows with season long arcs to maintain interest and slowly reveal the full conspiracy as well as its purpose. The mid-run format change of both Alias and Veronica Mars from season-arc to several mini-arcs throughout the season also demonstrates that we collectively are too impatient to apply to Jericho too watch a conspiracy unfold over that long a time period. This seemed to applies to Jericho as well.)

The Show
Jericho itself seems a relatively good representation of what could happen after a mulitple nuclear strike attack on the United States. Commications systems would break down due to the EMP pulses from the detonations, some towns and cities would remain relatively peaceful due to strong leadership, some would become dictatorial compounds, and the nation itself wold divide along regional lines as competing centers of power vied for supremacy. Learning why it happened would be of secondary importance for the first few months after the attack. The show implies that the man pulling the strings in Jericho, like the man pulling the strings in Traveler is deeply embedded in the Federal Government as, of course, an official at the Department of Homeland Security and is attempting to use the respective attacks to cause choas and fear out of which a New Order would arrive.

Thankfully the Jericho writing campaign resulted in seven more episodes being made for the fall. Hopefully the full conspiracy will be revealed in these episodes and we'll have an interesting resolution to the series.

The Cultural Implications of Its Cancellation
One of the questions regarding its cancellation is whether we collectively are we getting tired of season long story arcs that gradually unfold with a series of twists and turns? You could argue that the third season of Veronica Mars changed from the above mentioned format to one with several multiple-episode story arcs instead of just one. I do believe however, that Veronica Mars was one of the recent catalysts for the emergence of several season-long story arc programs such as Prison Break and Burn Notice.

My answer to the question posed above is no. The two shows mentioned above mentioned programs are the reason why. They are both well written and have compelling story lines within each episode along with an overarching goal towards which each episode moves the characters at a relatively fast clip.

Huckabee Victory Not A Surprise

Ok, so the post is a little late, but Senator Huckabee's 2nd place showing in the Iowa Straw Poll on the 11th, seems to have shocked members of the political cognoscenti who thought he would be eclipsed by Brownback or Tancredo. However, had you seen Huckabee at CPAC in March, you would understand why: Huckabee already has a coherent theme that encompasses his entire agenda: he's a "Freedom Conservative," a name almost calculated to bring the "leave me alone coalition" back into the party fold after their collective disgust with Republican venality, corruption, and betrayal of core principles. His speech was very well received by those of use who attended it. Romney by comparison was a surprisingly flat speaker and eclipsed by his eloquent wife.

Governor Huckabee is also a former minister and has a knack for connecting with audiences that other candidates don't have, which was definitely an advantage. Having that in his background allows him to focus on other issues that can expand the party base, since his previous occupation and positions pretty well cover the issues important to the largest segment of the Republican Coalition.

The Straw Poll's importance was obviously diminished this year compared to 1999 due to the decisions of the McCain and Giuliani campaigns to skip the party fundraising event. However, it is still important enough that Huckabee likely will get a bounce and needed fundraising assistance out of his Second Place showing. This should be enought to elbow himself past McCain (the fork's been stuck in him a while yet - now he's just holding on to get FEC matching funds to pay his debts) into the top three position depending on how Fred Thompson performs over the next few weeks. Huckabee is even set to challenge both Romney and Thompson on pure accomplishments. He's simply done more as Governor than Romney did, and does anyone remember anything substantive that Fred Thompson did while in the Senate?

Huckabee is currently doing everything he can ((and doing, and doing it) and doing it well). With a little luck, he could become the conservative alternative to Giuliani, and much more comforting to the base in general than a Mormon. Plus, the fact that he lost all that weight is a testament to his will power, and demonstrates commitment to follow through on necessary issues.

This could be the start of something interesting . . .he'll just have to maximize his earned media and try to keep the MSM more focused on him than on their favorite: Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson.

You Know You're Campaign's Going South When You're a Game Show Joke

Responding to Power of 10's Drew Cary, a contestant replied that her haircuts cost $200. Mr. Cary went on to make a joke about the price of Senator Edwards's haircut. Once a campaign blunder becomes a cultural meme, it's clear the campaign is going South, and that it needs to recover quickly. The Edwards campaign has not. $400 haircuts and a woman fighting your fights (Elizabeth and her feeble attacks on Edwards' opponents) does raise questsions as to whether the whispers about him, publicly aired by Ann Coulter to howls of liberal outrage, are true.

What's worse is that as the haircut meme spreads throughout our popular culture, self-replicating as a it moves along, it continually undermines the Senator's poverty/Two Americas/class-warfare agenda. This is a huge problem for him, and because it wasn't dealt with properly fast enough, has likely already sent his campaign into a death spiral.

A Victory in the Battle to Retain Our Constitutional Rights

In the wake of the Democratic Congress granting the Presidency almost totalitarian powers of citizen suveillance, the ACLU has won and important court case

ACLU Press release regarding recent court victory below:

In Unprecedented Order, FISA Court Requires Bush Administration to Respond to ACLU's Request That Secret Court Orders Be Released to the Public (8/17/2007)

Government Must Respond by August 31

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: media@aclu.org

WASHINGTON - In an unprecedented order, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has required the U.S. government to respond to a request it received last week by the American Civil Liberties Union for orders and legal papers discussing the scope of the government's authority to engage in the secret wiretapping of Americans. According to the FISC's order, the ACLU's request "warrants further briefing," and the government must respond to it by August 31. The court has said that any reply by the ACLU must be filed by September 14.

"Disclosure of these court orders and legal papers is essential to the ongoing debate about government surveillance," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "We desperately need greater transparency and public scrutiny.We're extremely encouraged by today's development because it means that, at long last, the government will be required to defend its contention that the orders should not be released."

The ACLU filed the request with the FISC following Congress' recent passage of the so-called "Protect America Act," a law that vastly expands the Bush administration's authority to conduct warrantless wiretapping of Americans' international phone calls and e-mails. In their aggressive push to justify passing this ill-advised legislation, the administration and members of Congress made repeated and veiled references to orders issued by the FISC earlier this year. The legislation is set to expire in six months unless it is renewed.

"These court orders relate to the circumstances in which the government should be permitted to use its profoundly intrusive surveillance powers to intercept the communications of U.S. citizens and residents," said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU's National Security Project. "The debate about this issue should not take place in a vacuum.It's imperative that the public have access to basic information about what the administration has proposed and what the intelligence court has authorized."

FISC orders have played a critical role in the evolution of the government's surveillance activities over the past six years. After September 11, President Bush authorized the National Security Agency (NSA) to inaugurate a program of warrantless wiretapping inside the United States. In January 2007, however, just days before an appeals court was to hear the government's appeal from a judicial ruling that had found the NSA program to be illegal in a case brought by the ACLU, Attorney General Gonzales announced that the NSA program would be discontinued. Gonzales explained that the change was made possible by FISC orders issued on January 10, 2007, which he characterized as "complex" and "innovative." Those orders are among the documents requested by the ACLU.

Since January 2007, government officials have spoken publicly about the January 10 orders in congressional testimony, to the media and in legal papers - the orders remaining secret all the while. They have also indicated that the FISC issued other orders in the spring that restricted the administration's surveillance activities. House Minority Leader John Boehner stated that the FISC had issued a ruling prohibiting intelligence agents from intercepting foreign-to-foreign calls passing through the United States. To a large extent, it was the perception that the FISC had issued an order limiting the administration's surveillance authority that led Congress to pass the new legislation expanding the government's surveillance powers. Yet the order itself, like the January 2007 order, has remained secret.

The ACLU's request to the FISC acknowledges that the FISC's docket includes a significant amount of material that is properly classified. The ACLU argues, however, that the release of court orders and opinions would not raise any security concern to the extent that these records address purely legal issues about the scope of the government's wiretap authority, and points out that the FISC has released such orders and opinions before. The ACLU is seeking release of all information in those judicial orders and legal papers the court determines, after independent review, to be unclassified or improperly classified.

A copy of the FISA court order, the ACLU's motion to the FISC, as well as information about the ACLU's lawsuit against the NSA and other related materials are available online at: www.aclu.org/spying

In addition to Jaffer, lawyers on the case are Steven R. Shapiro, Melissa Goodman, and Alexa Kolbi-Molinas of the ACLU and Art Spitzer of the ACLU of the National Capital Area.

Pop Culture Gets the NSA Wrong Again

The latest episode of Burn Notice repeats a government-conspiracy meme about the NSA that seems to have emerged in Enemy of the State and become embedded in Hollywood's conception of government covert operations (not that Hollywood has a real grasp on anything internationally-related beyond the superficial, Syriana included).

The NSA officially has supplanted the CIA as the official spooky agency in American pop culture, much like the Department of Homeland Security has supplanted FEMA as the source of traitorous governmental conspiracies against the U.S. government.

The meme I'm speaking of is the conception of the NSA as a spy agency like the CIA, but on steroids. The NSA is a an intelligence gathering organization. They monitor electronic signals around the world from emails to cell-phone calls to landline calls. They do not run assassination squads, train covert agents or anything of the sort. That is what the CIA and possibly parts of the military/Department of Defense do.

This meme seems to have emerged in the early 1990s because it was then that the U.S. government officially acknowledged the agency's existence. Until that time, its entire existence was classified.

By repeating this meme, Burn Notice is contributing to the misinformation/miseducation of the American people regarding what our government really does. It also perpetuates the meme, making it even more likely to survive, and contributing to the general public's misunderstanding of which parts of the government do what.

The Redeeming Qualities of Greeks

By far, the most surprising pleasure of the evolving summer season is Greeks on the ABC Family Network. The show revolves around Rusty the Freshmen negotiating his way through the ins and outs of rushing a fraternity. Rusty's adventures are impacted by his geekiness and the role his sister plays in one of the school's premier sororities.

Dale, Rusty's abstinent, evangelical electronic engineering major of a roommate is by far one of the most innovative side characters in a long time. My favorite line of his to a fraternity boy he was evangelizing to: "No, David smote the Philistine with a stone, he didn't smoke with the Philistine and get stoned!"

However, the most intriguing thing about Greeks is the subtle exploration of the issue of meritocracy vs. aristocracy and their uneasy co-existence. Meritocracy in Greeks is embodied in the character of Rusty's sister Cassie who plays by the rules and does what it takes to achieve her goals. Aristocracy by Cassie's sorority little sister, and daughter of one of the states Senaors, who posesses a lesser sense of ethics which is driven by a sense of entitlement.

Cassie's boyfriend cheats on her at the beginning of the show with the Senator's daughter, thus setting up the series of subtle conflicts between the two that presumably go on all semester. The conflict culminates in Evan, Cassie's boyfriend, having to ditch Cassie in favor of the Senator's daughter as his date for a benefit with his parents. He does it without hesitation, because of the connections he will help forge for his family. Meanwhile, Cassie the Meritocrat is left on the sidelines because of her ethic of earning everything she has/needs.

Rusty also earns his way to what he wants. He rushes all the fraternities and ends up in the one most laid back, and coincidentally run by his sister, which rewards him with cheers of admiration when he exhibits various skills which benefit the fraternity. He isn't required to conform to any standard, unlike the implied members of the rival fraternity lead by Cassie's new boyfriend.

Pop Culture really hasn't explored issues of class like this since the heydays of the John Waters film.

Smashing Pumpkins Is Still a Heavy Metal Machine

I hope Virgin decides to keep its Festival in Pimilico for the next several years. It will be a welcome replacement for the HFStival and a good place to hear new bands. And this year's show was replete with excellent performances by some of the best bands around. It was a hard choice at first when deciding between this and Lollapalooza in Chicago. I love Chicago, and I love My Morning Jacket. But the Pumpkins weren't playing there this year, and all the other Lollapalooza bands I wanted to see were at Virgin Festival. (oh, and I liked the jokey riding guitar pick logo - very cool post-modern allusion to Preakness.

The atmosphere was free and fun, and as the Washington Post alluded to, there was plently of pot to go around if you're into that. I have always adhered to the South Park philosophy: "There's a time and a place for everyting, and it's called college."

One not-so-new-band that continued to Rock the House was Smashing Pumpkins with a tour de force performance of their new material interspersed with classics from their past CDs. They even hit "Heavy Metal Machine" from their ill-fated Machina/Machines of God concept double albumn. Of the six performances I've seen beginning with the inaugural date on the Siamese Dream tour (more out of luck, than rock knowledge), this was by far the best. The performances were outstanding, and the giant screens focused a lot on Billy's chord-play and Jimmy's stick banging. The fact that it dien't really focus on the bassist or other guitarist reminded me of rumors that D'Arcy and James Iha have not rejoined the band. However, Jimmy is back in despite almost dying of a heroin overdose.

While I got a teasing taste of The Police at Live Earth, their full-on concert rocked from beginning to end, demonstrating why theirs has been one of the most anticipated reunion tours in years. Evey song was played perfectly, and they thrived off the crowd's energy with one of the best performances I've ever scene. And Sting was gracious enough to reintroduce Stuart Copeland and Andy Sommers after their 20 year eclipse by Sting's solo act.

The Beasties of course rocked the house as well, setting up the crowd for the afore mentioned performance. Like the Pumpkins, they performed a variety of classics from each albumn. Unfortunately, they did not perform the always crowd pleasing"Paul Revere". Either that or I was overserved at that time.

Panic At the Disco won thousands of new fans with their performance. Reports of their eleclectic sound are not to be dismissed, and a major reason why you should see them at the next opportunity.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs put on a solid performance, that slowly built the crowd into a frenzy as Karen O crooned all our favorites.

Interpol was good. They may be a good studio band, but they need more festival experience. Not that they didn't rock, but they just didn't seem to connect with the crowd as much as they could have.

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals put on another first rate show and converted me to full on fan. Their music is complex, mellow, funky, and radically fun. Anyone who hasn't checked them out, should definitely do so.

Incubus put on the first great performance I witnessed at the show. Though I got there late due to working on Saturday.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. Vindicated

According to Congress Daily/AM, it turns out that it was Congressman Anthony Weiner who caused the ruckus which Congressman Terry went over to discuss with Rep. Jackson. Jackson, being completely in the right and not understanding why Rep. Terry was confronting him, reacted in a very natural way. Mr. Rothman of New Jersey made sure nothing untoward happened that night, and Lee Terry later apologized to Jesse Jackson, Jr.

As a native Chicago Southsider, I'm proud of him for standing up for himself in the manner in which he did.

Though I still like the Cat in the Hat pic vs. the Karate pic.

Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting (in Congress)

Congressmen Lee Terry vs Congressmen Jesse Jackson Jr.!!!

Nebraska's Second District Rep. Lee Terry went toe-to-toe with Rep. Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. (D-IL). I guess you can take the boy out of the South Side of Chicago . . .



Terry and Jackson

Hat tip to Leavenworth Street for the below post which I blatantly stole (but at least I admit it).

And by toe-to-toe, we don’t mean they argued their positions – we mean they nearly came to fisticuffs off the House floor.

Apparently House Republicans have been using delaying tactics on some bills that have come through lately and the Democrat House Leader decided to take action against it. The Dems say they had a deal, the GOP said they’re being railroaded. (Lawmakers Shout Across House Floor Over Kids Health Spending Bill - FOXNews - 8/1/07.)

So, according to Congressional Quarterly, it went like this:

The dustup nearly touched off a fight between two members. Profanity flew after Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill., yelled out that Republicans "can’t be trusted." "Shut up," Lee Terry, R-Neb., shot back. The two squared off later, and Terry said Jackson used the F-word repeatedly and invited him to "step outside" the chamber. They didn’t, thanks in part to a third lawmaker who separated them.
Now we’re not saying that Lee would have gotten his butt kicked – ok maybe we are. I mean, check out these pics on Jackson Jr.’s freaking campaign website! He’s apparently some kind of Kung-Fu grand-master, and he has pics of him breaking this little guy’s jaw!



But I’ll tell you this: Lee Terry may only be 5’7” (5’10” with the hair) and 190 lbs dripping wet, but he’s scrappy. He’d be in there biting ankles and gouging eyes. He wouldn’t go down without a fight.

So there’s your new campaign slogan: “Lee Terry: Fighting (literally) for Nebraska”.

(Come back to Leavenworth Street as we update.)

[Update: Congressman "Fightin'" Lee Terry's office responded to Leavenworth Street that Terry decided not to "go outside" with Congressman Jackson (good choice), and that today they shook hands and decided to put it behind them. (No word on whether it was one of those handshakes where each of them grips really hard and tries to crush the other guy's hand.)

Apparently some other Members suggested they have a Smack Down for Charity. Lee (again, wisely) declined.]

[Update 10:00 PM 8/1/07: Well, how about the OWH and Washington Post reporting on this story and BOTH referring to the Jesse Jackson Jr. karate pics. And the Post even using the Kung Fu term, just like Leavenworth Street. And the OWH using the exact same photo as Leavenworth Street. How about that? And not a single hat-tip to Leavenworth Street. It's all flattery, right? Right?]

Will Traveler's Painting That Reveals All

I found a copy of the painting that Will Traveler stole from the Drexler Museum. The copy I found is a giant mural on the landing between the 2nd and 3rd floors of the U.S. Capitol, and it depicts the Continental Congress at work.

The central figure (by which I mean the one in the center) in the painting is holding up 4 fingers, which must relate to the 4th Branch which seems to be the central conspiracy/mystery of the Traveller series. There likely is some historical reason for the 4 fingers,e.g. casting proxy votes for other colonial/patriot delegates to the Constitutional Convention, but that's not relevant for our purposes.

Oh, and Robert E. Lee's war horse was named Traveller. Since he was a leader of the Rebellion Against the Union, maybe this means that the 4th Branch is in rebellion against the current government.

I'm So Tired of The Hillary/Obama Discussion

Of course Hillary will beat Obama. She has the institution behind her, the political savvy gained from being one of the top 100 lawyers in the nation (so designated before Bill became President), serving on corporate boards and being First Counsel to a United States President. The Clinton's also have a knack for destroying their enemies. As their close friend and campaign manager James Carville puts it "When you're enemy is drowning, you don't just let him, you throw the sum bitch an anchor."

And there is no way in Hell the ticket will be Hillary-Obama. She will not pick her political rival and reward him for her attacks while she looks over her story. She will pick a minority though, and it won't be Bill Richardson either. That would just alienate the black vote completely and demonstrate to African-Americans that the Democrats take their votes for granted.

No, it will be Harold Ford, Jr. He is currently the head of the DLC, which will give Hillary cover after she runs far enough left to get the nomination. Harold Ford also has run a statewide campaign and knows its rigors. He also likely feels cheated by the race-baiting ad and therefore likely to work harder for the ticket since he has no other political office to fall back upon, unlike both Hillary and Obama.

Mr. Ford has the charm, savvy, political background and past positions to make him an ideal VP Nominee. And I predict he will be.

USA: Master of the Summer Season

USA Network has moved aggrerssively over the past few years to capitalize on the "summer season" for television, during which the major networks priarily run ru-runs of thei existising programming.

Check out all of these programs which are all well written and well acted:

Burn Notice (Thursday)
Psyche ( (Friday)
Monk (Friday)
The 4000(Sunday)
The Dead Zone (Sunday)

These are all exceptional shows, some of which have won emmy's Obviously Burn Notice and the 4400 are my favorites of those above, since they involved conspiracies, etc. Burn Notice expertly handles the tedium of what a spy really does duing inner monologueo ver the dos and don'ts of spycraft in teh form of a lecture. This show obvisously caters to our collective yearning to learn what our spy agencies are up to while the rest us of live in sweet bliss

The 4400
The 4400 is interesteting because it's gone all meta on us this season. First The 4400 were sent collected along the timeline, given powers through genetic engineering (or some type of synaptic manipulation) and sent back to prevent and unspecified disaster for the human race. However, last season primarily was about Isabel Tyler who was a special arrival on earth with special powers and the , and who made the number of returnees officially 4401. Isabel fell under the sway of one of the "the marked" and became convinced her purpose was to eliminate the 4400. To this end she cooperated with the former head of NTAC (basically DHS under another name) leaving under a shroud of disgrace for his plan to kill the 4400, only to emerge working for Defense Department Contractors manufactring promycin, the miracle drug that allows anybody to acquire 4400 abiliites. His plan was thwarted when the promycin was acquired by a radical 4400 splinter group called Nova (a reference to the sun as a star) that it begarn being distributed to anyone who asked.

This season began with the implied resurrection of Jason Collier (J.C - Jesus Christ - the messiah's reappearance - only reinforced when we see him emerging from a lake covered in water - evoking the image of Christ's baptism) season is about a group of 10 indviduals from the future who are part of a movement to stop the timeline changes the 4400 were sent back to change. Their faction is satisfied with their existing status quo and don't want any changes because it will wipe out their existence and accomplishments. This is the same faction (presumably) who sent Isabel and are referred to as "The Marked" - as revealed in a 4400's film that claimed to expose the conspiracy before he was "gotten too."

The conspiracy within conspiracy within conspiracy leads one to wonder which is true, which is lie, and which is somewhere in between Gotta love it. Tonight we get to find out whether JC truly is good or whether he is still manipulative and desiring only to accomplish his own ends.

Burn Notice
Burn Notice is about a spy who gets black listed or "burned" and dropped in his homw town with few resources and only two reliable contacts, one of whom is playing double agent for Michael and the FBI. It's a fun romp, with Michael and his motley crew echoing the A-Team, but less formulaic and more interesting because of the ongoing, overreaching story arc ( a la Veronica Mars's first season). I highly Nip/Tuckrecommend it.


Fox and F/X virtually invented the summer season. The first with the summer seasons of Beverly Hills 90210Melsose Place
and latter with the first few seasons of Nip Tuck and Rescue Me, as well as It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

TBS has been trying to break into the summer season market with their programs
My Boys

And let's not forget SciFi Network with their summer series' Flash Gordon and Eureka.

Dingell vs. Pelosi

New York Times Story


This week’s National Journal article on the conflict between Chairman Dingell and Speaker Pelosi over the shape of future energy legislation illustrates a point I have long maintained: leadership of small majorities is inherently different than the leadership of large majorities.

Speaker Pelosi has demonstrated that she inherently grasps this concept by adopting the Republican model of using the Committees as an extension of the House Leadership, and bypassing committees entirely when they likely wouldn’t obey leadership’s desires as Republicans did with abortion-related issues and the Energy & Commerce Committee or alternatively creating new Committees to bypass those found troubling a la the new Global Climate panel. Like Speakers Gingrich and Hastert before her, Speaker Pelosi rewards those who fall in line, or need fundraising help, with seats on so-called “A Committees” or “Super A Committees” depending on the party by using the Democratic version of the Republican Steering Committee to dole these seats out. These Committees happen to be: Ways & Means, Energy & Commerce, and Appropriations.

Large majorities, such as those the Democrats enjoyed for approximately 70 years before Gingrich Revolution (give or take a few Congresses), and those enjoyed by Republicans for the 70 years prior than that have a different dynamic. The House Leadership needs to adopt a Laissez-faire attitude towards Committees because the larger the majority, the larger and more numerous the competing party factions it contains, and Leadership needs to spend more time negotiating and finessing the fissures among these factions. This leaves far less time for involvement in policy development per se.

Chairman Dingell hails from “Old Bull” era of large majorities when House Committee Chairmen were all Barons with their Committees as their individual fiefdoms. The new arrangement must be somewhat of a shock to the Committee Chairmen like Dingell who have been around for a while and remember the days of their former glory.

For personal reasons I wish him well in the conflict over the shape of energy legislation.

Snap Review: The Ms. DC Pageant – Few Contestants Knew Anything About DC

Q: How come in a “chocolate city” like DC (apologies to George Clinton), African-American contestants were outnumbered 3:1?
A: Most of them likely came here to try for the Ms. DC crown because they thought it would be easier to win than their own state pageant.

Note: How do I know pageant contestants do this? Ms. America 1990, Debbye Turner, told me in an interview that year that she moved to Missouri to participate in Missouri’s pageant after being runner up in her native state. It was her victory there that qualified her for the Ms. American Pageant, which she won.

Another reason I believe that most of the DC contestants aren’t really from here is that most of them could not answer any questions about DC that were related to their “platforms.” One contestant was asked about a DC institution, musical group, performance group etc which inspired her. Her answer: The Kennedy Center. How completely trite, and it doesn’t even require any knowledge of DC to say that. There are a million things she could have said including HR 57 – the Center for the Preservation of Jazz and Blues – after all, she claimed to be influenced by Jazz and blues in her interview and her talent was vocals.

I’m very pleased that the girl who won, Shayna Rudd, obviously was was familiar with DC and beat the others.

The pro-life contestant, Ashley Ahlquist, came across as borderline racist. Her platform “Providing Positive Solutions for Crisis Pregnancies” basically boils down to tricking poor women who want an abortion into entering a center where she will be lectured to and threatened with eternal damnation. Regardless, her question was along the lines of “How would you make DC safer for women?” Her answer: “I would increase police presence in certain areas” and used the phrase “certain areas” two other times in relation to how more police in “certain areas” would reduce crime. I wonder to which areas this Catholic University student was referring? Hmm. Anyone else care to hazard a guess?

On to the review:
The audience was composed primarily of contestant's family members and supporters, and had a surprisingly low number of drag queens in attendance Though one did seem to have more than a passing acquaintance with the outgoing Miss DC. (Oh for the good old days of Zigfield’s).

I have only this to say about the rest of the interviews: those girls need to learn better grammar, and it would be nice if they bothered to learn a thing or two about our fair city beyond the typical crap any tourist could tell you. (I know, it’s ironic because I sometimes use bad grammar, but my excuse is drunken blogging, not that I don’t know better).

The talent portion was surprisingly trite (including a Mariah Carey song and “All that Jazz” from Chicago) until one of the contestants sang a Porgy & Bess song.

In the Miss Teen DC Pageant, the dramatic readings were powerful. And all of the girls had great poise and posture throughout the show, and the little Princesses (girls 4-12) were of course adorable.

Live Earth Post-Mortem: We Were Only In It For the Music

I forgot to mention in my last post that the scientists playing in Antarctica were surprisingly good, and of course we all love penguins, so their images crossing the screen during the performance produced serotonin unloading among the rocking masses.

Anyway, the most discouraging thing about the concert was that immediaty outside the show, as we walked back to the shuttle buses back to Port Authority, there were no trash cans and loads of litter stacked along barriers or simply on the ground. This was the result of concert goers being given free Sunchips and Dannon Yogurt drinks as they left the show. The willingness of everyone to just blatantly litter after spending the whole day being lectured on the importance of being environmentally correct shows just how serious the concert goers were about the political message.

The products demonstrated by the concerts' sponsors showed how unserious they were about the global climate change message as well. Philips wanted everyone to switch to their new highly efficient, helix-like light bulbs which happen to contain mercury and therefore will only result in worse landfill problems, albeit gradually since the lightbulbs really do last significantly longer. And Democrats in Congress want to mandate that all schools and nursing homes have these mercury filled lightbulbs. If you don't believe me, read the official outline of the bill here.

And Smart, a Mercedes subsidiary showed off their 3-cylinder death bubble. This car, about the same size as the Mini with a bubble top, doesn't look like it could make it over a steep hill, let alone get you anywhere you needed to be in rural America. And you'd likely die in any accident, given the design of the car and the use of light materials to build it. However, my bigger point is that the majority of cars in the U.S. are 6 or 8 cylinders. Even most European cars are at least 4 cylinders. This car can't get you anywhere.

When I asked the company representatives if the car was either flex-fuel or a hybrid, the almost literal response I got was "No. We just want people to change the way they approach driving and then we'll work on those things." They would rather get you to change your behaviour than actually manufacture a car that produces less exhaust through better catlytic converters or other advances in technology.

I was not impressed, and little disgusted. A car that won't be able to do a damn thing on a farm and will kill you in a wreck. What's Mercedes trying to do - kill us and wreck our ag economy?

Live Earth: Snap Reviews

The concert yesterday rocked! Of course it would - the lineup was amazing, but the performances uneven (like me). The only real problem was that the artists only played 4-6 songs each.


The Police - Started off with a strong performance of Roxanne, and then seemed to play the order of their set list from the their 1980s best of albumn. Their solid performance definitely earns them a strong recommendation that you see them at Pimlico for the Virgin Festival on August 4th.

Roger Waters - First time I've seen him perform, and it was excellent. His superb performance of Us and Them seemed to be especially attuned to the current zeitgeist. For the less intelligent in the crowd, he beat them over the head by mixing the final juxtaposiiton of the song and war images with that of President Bush in a flight suit and the Mission Accomplished banner in the background.

Smashing Pumpkins - Gave a strong performance out of the gate with a lot of guitar gnashing before going into a new song from their next albumn (Zeigeist, out on Tuesday). Great performances of crowd pleasers Bullet with Butterfly Wings and Today. Based on this performance, I highly recommend you buy tix to their Tuesday show at the 930 Club, and see their August 5th performance at Pimlico during The Virgin Festival, on August 5th.

Bon Jovi - Obviously, the hometown favorite, after all the Meadowlands is actually in New Jersey. Added thousands of new faces that he's rocked at the concert. Ok, he spent his alotted time mostly playing from Slippery When Wet, and seriously rocked the stadium with Dead or Alive , which was one of the highlights of the night. The rumors of a surprise Bruce Springsteen appearance to paly with Bon Jovi proved unfounded. Unfortunately.

Kelly Clarkson - Put on a solid perfomance and really moved the crowd with Since You've Been Gone. Her newer music didn't sound as good.

Akon - Definitely won new fans with his great performance.

Dave Mattews Band - Not as strong as other performances I've seen. Mostly focused on early favorites that seemed to especially please the folks who came up from Virginiga. a surprisingly high number of the much younger fans could sing along to the early favorites too.

Missed John Mayer and Alicia Keys, both to my chagrin. Also missed Melissa Ethridge - a good artist, i just felt like eating instead.

The Problem With Romney

Isn't that he is a born-again converst to social conservativism. The problem isne't even that he is a Mormon. The problem is that he is an inhumane subhuman who intentionally made his Irish setter ride for 12 hours in a carrier on top of the car. He didn't stop to walk the dog for exercise or bathroom purposes and instead let it soil its cage. That is an inhumane act in terms of interaction with dogs. This by itself is a fatal character flaw which should disqualify him from ever occupying the White House.

And not only is what he did inhumane, it is against the law in Massachusetts, where he lived at the time.

For more on this disturbing story, please visit:

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1638065,00.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_06/011591.php

Why Illegals Should Not Be Allowed to Become Citizens

Unfortunately, the comprehensive immigration bill died this week - likely for the rest of the Bush Administration. Establishing a path to legalized status is a good idea, but allowing illegal immigrants to become citizens is not. Here's Why:

The right to vote is the only true right anyone possesses in our society. And it is a powerful possession we exercise periodically in order to elect individuals in whom we vest the power to establish the laws (or rules) by which we all agree to live.

People who have shown a willingness to break our laws should not be given the privilege of participating in the process of their creation. For this reason, anyone who entered this country illegally or illegally over stayed their visas in order to remain in America should not be allowed to become citizens. They should be allowed a path to legalized status, but it should be a status below that of current legal permanent residents. Because they were unwilling to obey our laws, they should not be given the privilege of inviting any of their family members to benefit from their illegal behavior with the exception of MINOR children and one spouse.

I also believe that US fellons, except for those convicted of non-violent drug offenses, should be permanently stripped of the franchise for the same basic reason: an unwillingness to obey the laws that exist disqualifies one from participating in the creation of new laws.

The Best Thing Ever!

The upside of bio-genetics - Scientists jave bred cows that give skimmed milk. This is an incredibly efficient way to get skimmed milk, which most people like, and will reduce the amount of operating expenses dairies have to pay. Looks win-win right now. Now all we have to do is eliminate the outdated milk pricing system.


Scientists breed cows that give skimmed milk-News-UK-Science-TimesOnline

WTF? Giant Wild Pigs in the South?

Since this is the second giant boar (both about 1000 pounds) caught and killed in the South, does that meant there is a whole species wandering around down there in wild forests? It also gives credence to the idea that there are stil large, undiscovered mammals even in North American. If these animals can go so long undetected, is it possible that Bigfoot and the Chupacabra actually do exist?

Perhaps wer're only encountering these creatures only now has to do wtih the growth of the human population and destruction of wild habitat. Perhaps.

And the kid that killed it was 11! Dude, what an adventure. I bet there will be few things in his life to top killing this monster. And I especially like the fact the kid is going to get 700-800 pounds of sausage from this, AND have the head mounted.

How they Screwed the Subway Hero

The subway hero is a guy in New York who risked his life to save somebody else. They way I understand it is he jumped down onto the subway tracks to save person having a seizure by pulling them both into a crawl space on the other side of the tracks. A truly selfless act committed in a very selfish city. He is a hero.

Now for the disturbing part which proves that no good deed goes unpunished - This guy has been completely fucked over by everyone who's gotten near him. He lost his job, his time is not his own because he is expected to make so many public appearances, someone screwed him out of the rights to his own life story, he had to pay his own expenses for his trip to Washington. He can barely afford his own legal fees, much less the taxes on the "free" jeeps he got from Chrysler and Deal or No Deal. I feel for him.

Poor Jimmy Carter . . .

The only President worse than him in recent memory is George W. Bush and he's so obsessed with erasing the disaster that was his administration, that he'll attack Bush on anythimg.

Carter's administration has now done the nearly impossible - moved up from worst Presidecny of the post-World War II period to the 2nd worst Presidential Administration since World War II. His administration was an utter disaster from start to finish (anyone else remember singing "Cause Jimmy Carter has a way of screwing up teh USA to the tune of the Oscar Mayer weiner song?)

Had Carter the courage in 1979 to have the Marines protect the US Embassy in Iran from the student rioters, there would have been no hostage crisis and it is likely that we would have avoided the series of events that eventually lead to the current War in Iraq because Middle Easterners would have known we meant business The events I refert to specifically are the US support for and arming of Iraq in its 1980-1988 war with Iran, which emboldened Iraq to invade Kuwait in 1990 in order to recoup its financial expenses from that war. However, President H.W. Bush's US Ambassador to Iraq, April Gillespie, played a "small" part in letting Iraq think that the US wouldn't oppose its Iraq invasion.

That of course led to one well conducted war and over ten years of no-fly zones before the 2nd Iraq War.

Getting back to the main point, had Carter any real courage during his Presidency, these later events would not have happened in the way they did and the Global position of the U.S. would be much enhanced.

All the good works in his post-Presidency can't make upfor his disastrous administration. All he can hope for is to be rated better than W. Bush. I doubt that'll be hard at this point, but he'll never get higher than W.

Is Battlestar Galactica Racist?

The mini-marathon last night got me thinking about this. And I'm not talking about the complex human-cylon relationship - I'm talking about in real American terms. The original series had a much better integrated cast and black characters that were greater parts of the show. Does adding central hispanic and asian characters really make up for the lack of black actors on the show?

Out of the entire human population in the civilian and military fleets, there have only been two black characters. One completely minor, and the other the subject of an entire episode (which exposed Admiral Adama's abandonment of him in Cylon territory previously.

How do we even attempt to measure racism in a science fiction show? Is it just that there weren't that many blacks that escaped Caprica, the colonies and New Caprica? Earth presumably represents the Atlantis-like 13th Colony, and those settlers came from the same places as the other members of the fleet. We know empirically that earth has a diverse racial/ethnic mix (which are meaningless terms outside of politics - biology and genetics have demonstrated that there is more variation within racial groups, than there is between them).

At least the show makes up for the extreme lack of diversity by beginning to address class issues that exist on the fleet and its original (now destroyed) civilzation.

The Downside of Commodifying Your Body

Black-Market Scandal Shakes India's Ban on Organ Sales -

I, and Western Culture illicitly support the commodification of the body in multiple ways. We pay for superior egg and ova, we pay to enhance our physical attributes through such means as breast and calf implants, and we pay to abort unwanted fetuses. (The entire idea that it is an unwated fetus actually comes from the commodification of the body. But we have to support it illicitly to fool ourselves that we don't really commodify the body). We ban the sales of organs, though most of the middle and upper classes oppose this ban and will purchase the organs they need in China or elsewhere.

I also support unfettered capitalism. I support the right to sell any part of my body and patent any gene sequence or protein, prion, bacteria, etc. that is unique to me.

But the intersection of unfettered capitalism and growing commodification of the body, are likely to produce a very ugly period in World History. The poor, often from the poorest nations, will increasingly sell their organs. In a moderate-sized population this could result in the need for many new caretakers for all of the new post-operative complications that will pop up. The poor won't be able to pay for these health care procedures, and the rich, safe continents away won't care.

It's going to get ugly before it gets better,

The Slope Gets a Bit More Slippery

A British clinc recently obtained permission to screen embryos for a COSMETIC defect. Screening features to date have focused on congenital defects. Now this specific cosmetic defect can be screened for, and there likely soon will be other cosmetic defect screening tests.

Once we start doing this, there really is no bright line between cosmetic and athletic/eugenic screening tests. If you have have enough money, you'll be able to create the perfect embryo from the egg and sperm of you and your partner. Even if such procedures are banned here, China and other nations don't share "our" values a and will proceed with such research. Western doctors will look the other way when pregnant women begin showing up for pre-natal care they weren't aware of needing to perform in advance, much the way western doctors treat the side effects of liver transplants on Westerners who receive their new kidneys from Chinese prisoners etc.

It just seems like the the slope is getting steeper. While I may like where it's going, not everyone will. And our society really does not debate the cultural impact of these technologies in a sober, reflective manner.

And as I've mentioned before, once technology like this becomes widely available, those with the money and foresight to jump on it first, my succeed in permanently embedding a social strata alien to America's national DNA.

The Beginnings of Brain Implants & Artificial Intelligence. . .

BBC NEWS | Technology | Mouse brain simulated on computer

This is the first necessary, but not sufficient step towards the creation both of artificial intelligence, but also brain tissue-computer chip interfacing. This last presents the possibility of being able to "download" entire sections of world history, quantum mechanics, or learn a new language relatively effortlessly.

Of course Terminator predicted that AI would spontaneously generate and become a threat to humanity on August 29, 1997. We've made it 10 years past that deadline, and I'm not sure how to feel about the advent of AIs with complex reasoning skills. Its possible that their emergence will cement the current social strata and hinder vertical income movement.

From the BBC article:

US researchers have simulated half a virtual mouse brain on a supercomputer.
The scientists ran a "cortical simulator" that was as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain on the BlueGene L supercomputer.
In other smaller simulations the researchers say they have seen characteristics of thought patterns observed in real mouse brains.
Now the team is tuning the simulation to make it run faster and to make it more like a real mouse brain.

Potentially scary stuff. How do our politics catch up with such potential social change? How will the current faux left-right structure be replace by a dominant, shared national ideology that could be effortlessly transmitted to anyone by virtue of a brain-computer automatic "update." How do such advances interact with advances in biotechnology and is there some type of possible synergy.

Looks like 20th Century Science Fiction may eventually become 21st Century science and consumer goods.

Support the Innocence Project

The 200th person innocently sent to death prison was freed this week due to the work of the Innocence Project.

Jerry Miller was cleared because DNA testing proved he couldn’t have committed the crime for which he was accused. An Illinois judge this week exonerated 48, of all charges relating to a brutal 1981 rape after Chicago police tested Miller's DNA against DNA found at the crime scene. The test cleared Miller, who was paroled in 2006 after serving 25 years. As a result of this week’s order, Miller will no longer be required to register as a sex offender.

The work the Innocence Project does is essential in preserving public support for the Death Penalty. The more people freed BEFORE DNA exonerration, the fewer "martyr cases" to rally around by the left.

I am a staunch supporter of the Death Penatly, but it must be applied fairly and appropriately in each case. And I believe that positive DNA evidence should be mandatory in all Death Penalty convictions.

I also believe the Death Penatly should apply to all pre-meditated murders, all violent rapes, and all sexual crimes against children.

Why Republicans Should Like Obama (but not necessarily vote for him)

Barack Obama did well in the debates tonight. That's not why GOPers should like him. Republicans should like him because as a person he represents the type of world in which Republicans want to live (minus the patriarchal oppression of women). He is a true product of the meritocracy. He used his natural abilities to become part of what Thomas Jefferson referred to as the "Natural Aristocracy." He was elected the first African-American head of the Law Review through a competitive process and has been excelling ever since.

He also has spent a significant portion of his life working to improve local communities. While he may persue policy goals Republicans find anathema, he does so honorably and to achieve goals that republicans often share.

In short, he may not be a member of the GOP or support its platform, but his life story is exactly the story Republicans want for everyone. Onward and upward for everyone through competition and commitment to community.

Happy Hour Boycott is on

DHS is officially the new FEMA . . .

. . . in the conspiracy community. Of course this may seem obvious 5 years after 9/11 and the resulting creation of DHS which, of course then became the new FEMA. It only took mainstream media culture (MMC) 5 years to officially catch up. (FEMA had played prominently in conspiracy culture for about 15 years prior to this).

I am of course referring to Jericho's revelation that the Department of Homeland Security is the party culpable for setting off the nukes and creating a new "emergency government."

I guess Rayelan and Theresa (and their associated communities) get it right sometimes.

Alien Abduction is All in Your Head

Belief in reincarnation tied to memory errors - LiveScience - MSNBC.com:

Here's the money quote:

"Past life memories are not the only type of implausible memories that have been studied in this manner. Richard McNally, a clinical psychologist at Harvard University, has found that self-proclaimed alien abductees are also twice as likely to commit source monitoring errors. "

Of course, couldn't the memory loss be caused by the repeated abductions. In statistics that would be called the alternative hypothesis and I doubt anyone tested it here.

CVS Responds to A Mo(u)rning Portrait

As mentioned in a follow-up item to the guy who criticized me for not helping the old man at CVS (which I actually did do), I mentioned that Ms. Uneven called CVS to share her thoughts on the matter.

CVS responded very positively in writing and promised to send someone to the store to make sure that the store was following all CVS customer service guidelines. Someone from their corporate office is going to take this up with all 3 pharmacy techs and the manager.

Even though the individual employees did not display the level of customer service one would hope for, the corporate response is excellent and CVS gets mad kudos from US.

Another U.S. Governor Has UFO Sighting

The first was Jimmy Carter when he was governor of Georgia. Former Arizona Governor Fife Symington says UFOs flew over Phoenix in '97. The money quote:

"I'm a pilot and I know just about every machine that flies. It was bigger than anything that I've ever seen. It remains a great mystery. Other people saw it, responsible people," Symington said Thursday. "I don't know why people would ridicule it."

Symington, who was in his second term as governor of Arizona during the Phoenix Lights incident, recently told a UFO investigator making a documentary that he had kept quiet about his personal close encounter because he didn't want to panic the populace.

The two notable things about this are: (1) Symington is a very credible witness as both a trained pilot and high ranking government official; and (2) fear of panicking the public as a reason to cover up alien contact has become a cultural meme.

In fact, there would have been good cause to believe (2) 60 years ago. The pandemonium caused by the Orson Welles's radio broadcast of War of the Worlds had occured fewer than 10 years before the Roswell crash. Any Eisenhower Administration official involved in the Roswell event would have had this in the forefront of his mind when handling the issue.

Assuming you believe the Roswell events occurred, then there are some very interesting questions. Have we been gradualy accurated to the idea of extraterrestrial biological entities through our popular culture for the past 60 years? If so, how would we react now if the government actually revealed "the truth" about Roswell? Would we behave as our grandparents had in the 1930s, or would we just shrug it off and silently think "I knew it!" Would the government reveal such information to the public before developing weapons to defend ourselves from the new "invasive" species?

The cultural impact of such a governmental revelation, if mishandled, (and is there a correct way to handle it?) COULD be severe. The political consequences range from impeachment of the President and Vice-President whose administration revealed the info (because they hadn't come clean sooner and had covered it up) to a sprawling decades long Congressional investigation. And then there's the potential religious upheavel which is impossible to estimate.

The massive potential chaos caused by such a revelation could reverberate around the globe and result in a global temporary autonomous zone. What an event to live through. It would be almost like living through the Biblical endtimes. Maybe that's why the meme keeps spreading - it simply updates an underlying fear.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Roswell event.