Res ipsa loquitur

There's probably more to say about Obama's patriotism speech, not all of it bad, but this day belongs to the Doughy Pantload soiling the pages of McPaper.

Definitions of patriotism proliferate, but in the American context patriotism must involve not only devotion to American texts (something that distinguishes our patriotism from European nationalism) but also an abiding belief in the inherent and enduring goodness of the American nation. We might need to change this or that policy or law, fix this or that problem, but at the end of the day the patriotic American believes that America is fundamentally good as it is.

There you have it, kids. Real live proof from a bona fide Conservative Intellectual that the myopic and dangerous "my country right or wrong" bravado isn't just a figment of my lefty-addled brain.

Passing it along

"It may be said with rough accuracy that there are three stages in the life of a strong people. First, it is a small power, and fights small powers. Then it is a great power, and fights great powers. Then it is a great power, and fights small powers, but pretends that they are great powers, in order to rekindle the ashes of its ancient emotion and vanity. After that, the next step is to become a small power itself."

-G.K. Chesterton

Only in America

It's a testament to the unconditional adulation and reverence offered to the military in this country that these comments by Wesley Clark are being pitched about the media as high blasphemy. Any sane person can see the obvious truth in the statement that McCain's status as a POW doesn't give him any inherent qualification for the presidency. But because it might sound vaguely critical of the military to someone hanging upside down cross-eyed, Clark--who was the former commander of NATO forces in Europe and thus hardly a DFH--is getting raked over the coals.

You shouldn't need to guess by now how Obama responded, by reinforcing the media nonsense that Clark somehow failed to respect McCain's military service, which he went to great lengths not to do.

Necessary Broderism: Fact or fabrication?

I know this is becoming the "link to Greenwald" blog, but seriously, it's like the guy reads my mind and then makes it roughly 100 times smarter. Today Glenn knocks around the received wisdom that Democrats must "move to the center" to win general elections.

He uses the example of a 2006 House race in Connecticut where Democrat Chris Murphy knocked off a 12-term incumbent Republican while standing his ground among a barrage of attacks calling him Soft on Terra. The example that came to my mind, though--when the idea for this post first occurred to me--is Sherrod Brown. Brown won a Senate race in Ohio running as both a social liberal and economic populist, a combination Beltway Dems and mainstream pundits assure us is strictly impossible. Especially not in Ohio, one of those "heartland states" we're told Obama can only win by turning into a meager, malformed Republican.

Greenwald writes;

The Democrats had such a smashing victory in 2006 because -- for the first time in a long time, and really despite themselves -- there was a perception (rightly or wrongly) that they actually stood for something different than the GOP in National Security (an end to the War in Iraq). Drawing a clear distinction with the deeply unpopular GOP is how Democrats look strong. The advice that they should "move to the center" and copy Republicans is guaranteed to make them look weak -- because it is weak. It's the definition of weakness.

The position the Democrats find themselves in this year is clear. The Republican brand has been so thoroughly damaged and discredited that Obama could waltz into the White House playing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" on a tin whistle. The Dems don't have to listen to anyone's advice to win this year's election, yet they're still behaving as if driving hard-right is the only solution. This tells us something important; the Democrats don't cave to the right in general elections because they must, they do it because that's genuinely where the party leadership wants to be. That Obama is making "necessary compromises to win" is just a fiction gullible liberals make to rock themselves to sleep at night.

And why ought we believe that Obama will suddenly change costumes back to Progressive Man after Inauguration Day? A president's first term is merely an extended campaign commercial for his re-election effort, and his second term the same for his ordained successor. If Obama must Broderize to win the general election, he's never going to stop. Admit it, kids, this is all you get.

Rogues gallery

Pepe Escobar looks at the collection of Clintonist cruise-missile liberals making up Obama's Senior Working Group on National Security.

"We're all Hussein now"

The Times today has a story on the internet meme of Obama supporters adopting "Hussein" into their names or handles.

The result is a group of unlikely-sounding Husseins: Jewish and Catholic, Hispanic and Asian and Italian-American, from Jaime Hussein Alvarez of Washington, D.C., to Kelly Hussein Crowley of Norman, Okla., to Sarah Beth Hussein Frumkin of Chicago.

Jeff Strabone of Brooklyn now signs credit card receipts with his newly assumed middle name, while Dan O’Maley of Washington, D.C., jiggered his e-mail account so his name would appear as “D. Hussein O’Maley.” Alex Enderle made the switch online along with several other Obama volunteers from Columbus, Ohio, and now friends greet him that way in person, too.

I love it; smashing prejudice head-on. If only *cough* the campaign itself were as resolute.

All in Goode fun

It's a little bit unfair picking on Greg Goode, the feeble theo-fascist whack-job challenging for the 8th District congressional seat. His fund-raising is lagging well behind right-wing Democratic incumbent Brad Ellsworth, and Ellsworth should have little trouble brushing him aside in the fall. But before that happens, I intend to have as much fun with this fellow as time allows. One of the little pleasures of living here is that, if tweaking wingnuts is your game, you'll never run out of opportunities. We know how to breed 'em, and would-be Congressman Goode is an extra platter of special. And frankly, I'm not going to let the dear old Donkey have all the fun.

But enough introduction, let's allow the man to speak for himself (or at least, his website) by sampling his opinion on national defense.

Washington continues to wander aimlessly in defense policies that are outdated, under-funded, and not relevant to the national security interests of the USA in the 21st Century.

Goode is apparently part of the wingnut species that views all "government spending" as a rapacious bogeyman, unless it's spending on the military, which somehow doesn't count. But, dear heavens, if he's somehow taken the message from the Bush Imperium that the military is still "under-funded," what could he possibly imagine a fully-funded military looking like? Specifically, what color shirts will we be wearing?

Our country is no longer engaged in the challenges of the Cold War.

Indeed, we are no longer staring over the barrel of a nuclear arsenal at another superpower with the combined firepower to destroy the planet. Glad that's over. So the obvious solution is to increase military spending even further.

Instead, we struggle for survival against: (1) illegal aliens who are literally walking into our country unchecked,

Soviet nukes; no match for the Brown Horde! And they're literally walking; run in terror!

(2) radical Islamic terrorists who have demonstrated the ability and willingness to take American lives on American soil,

And we haven't yet killed all the Muslim women and children in return, so it's like my momma says, "never leave a job half done!"

(3) world order movements that will strike at the very sovereignty of our great country.

"And, ladies and gentleman, in this exhibit we have a real, live Bircher in a simulation of his natural habitat." Honestly, this deserves more, but it's far, far beyond my ability to snark.

That's all for today. Tune in next week when we explore Goode's opinions on "liberal efforts of courtship." Is it anything like "optical intercourse," unfortunately another area where I'm poorly endowed?

Punching out the bottom from the barrel

Really, I'm not surprised that Obama would decide to pitch right after the primaries were over, I'm just a little taken aback with the ferocity and volume of his sellouts. I didn't expect him to become John Kerry this quickly.

Perhaps the liberals didn't either, because it's suddenly time for another round of the old reliable saw of Nader-hating. OMG, it's neverending Nader Nader Nader with these people. Of course, if their own assessment of Ralphie is correct, they ought to be thanking him for electing the man most responsible for the current rosy electoral output of the Democratic Party; George W. Bush. Or perhaps you thought Donkeys got elected because of policies or actions, so why is Congress so unpopular when they quickly pulled the plug on the war as they were elected to do in 2006? (They did this, right?)

It makes me a little jealous to watch the developing meltdown of New Labour reaping the benefits of being largely indistinguishable from the right-wing party. Alas, this model of imperial government offers no such political recourse.

Focus on flim-flammery

So wife-beating apologist James Dobson has struck out at Obama, claiming he has a "confused theology" and a "fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution." Ol' Daddy D is not having a very good year, and if this is the best he can do to stop the slow bleed of evangelicals from the Grand Old Pews than his star has fallen rather far indeed.

Pastor Dan seems surprised that the child-beating enthusiast is still shooting wayward bullets in response to Obama's genial approach to religious folk. I'm really not; Dobson is doing what he has to do in order to not invalidate the previous 30 years of his existence, which has been to get the Republican economic agenda enacted. Oh, the subjugation of women and gays is a nice cherry, but the real reason Dobson enforces slavish support for the GOP is to keep your grubby mitts off his ministerial capital. It's the only possible explanation; no one could even pretend to understand the Bible in full and still be completely devoted to right-wing politics. While there are plenty of reasons to criticize the next gen of conservative evangelical leaders like Rick Warren and Richard Cizik, at least they pass this simple test. (And Dobson hits at them, too, when they won't toe the party line.)

That didn't take long, part III

You may have seen this story on The Daily Show last week about the two Muslim women who were ushered out from behind Barack Obama--and thus out of camera range--at a campaign rally in Detroit. Today, the Times dips in with news that many other Muslims are feeling dissed by Obama.

Mr. Ellison believed that Mr. Obama’s message of unity resonated deeply with American Muslims. He volunteered to speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf at a mosque in Cedar Rapids, one of the nation’s oldest Muslim enclaves. But before the rally could take place, aides to Mr. Obama asked Mr. Ellison to cancel the trip because it might stir controversy. Another aide appeared at Mr. Ellison’s Washington office to explain.

“I will never forget the quote,” Mr. Ellison said, leaning forward in his chair as he recalled the aide’s words. “He said, ‘We have a very tightly wrapped message.’ ”

When Mr. Obama began his presidential campaign, Muslim Americans from California to Virginia responded with enthusiasm, seeing him as a long-awaited champion of civil liberties, religious tolerance and diplomacy in foreign affairs. But more than a year later, many say, he has not returned their embrace.

While the senator has visited churches and synagogues, he has yet to appear at a single mosque. Muslim and Arab-American organizations have tried repeatedly to arrange meetings with Mr. Obama, but officials with those groups say their invitations — unlike those of their Jewish and Christian counterparts — have been ignored. Last week, two Muslim women wearing head scarves were barred by campaign volunteers from appearing behind Mr. Obama at a rally in Detroit.

Obama "apologized" to the two women, and I'm sure he's really sorry that he won't be getting any extra bigot-yelpings from wingnuts because he hangs out with scary Moooslims! The gears on the Hope'n'Change Express are oiled with the sweat of the acceptably ostracized.

Nuggets

An interesting sidelight to Obama leading the Dem surrender on the FISA bill last week was his announcement that he will be forgoing the guaranteed public campaign money (not that these two things could be in any way related). While it is high comedy that right-wingers would unironically find fault in this, and true that McCain is more than bending the rules himself, the excuses being made for Obama seem half-hearted and smell of the shoe being on the other foot.

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It's things like this that make me glad I didn't have a television for most of the 1980's.

In other baseball news, what is that monstrosity on Jason LaRue's face?

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Last week's New Yorker has very readable profiles of Keith Olberman and Hugo Chavez.

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Pandagon interviews Daniel Radosh, author of Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture. Radosh wrote a list of 10 actually great Christian rock songs, and has the playlist on his website. His band selection is nearly unassailable, though I would've picked different songs in many cases. I realize this means I'll have to take a pass at such a list myself someday.

George Carlin

It's too bad the old bastard had to toddle off just as I was starting to dig his material. Anyway, here are a couple of old favorites, preserved in Youtube-ish glory.

That didn't take long, pt II

Jon Schwarz, as usual, puts it best: With nomination clinched, Obama now free to be horrifying scumbag.

It seems Obama has parachuted in to a contested House primary in Georgia to back John Barrow, Blue Dog and keen supporter of Bush's domestic spying program, over a credible, more progressive, challenger. Glenn Greenwald, whose tireless work on warrantless wiretapping and telecom amnesty is sometimes so thorough it makes my eyes glaze over, has more details.

For all of Obama's talk about the wicked ways of Washington, these incumbent protection schemes -- whereby Beltway power factions all help each other stay in power no matter their ideology or positions -- are among the most vital instruments for perpetuating how Washington works. Democratic leaders pretend that they are forced continuously to capitulate to the Bush administration due to their "conservative" members, yet continuously work to keep those same members in power, even when it comes to supporting them against far better Democratic primary challengers.

Obama has made himself a central part of that rancid scheme. Recall that in 2006, Obama -- who now touts his commitment to ending the war -- endorsed Joe Lieberman in his Connecticut primary race over war opponent Ned Lamont, appearing with Lieberman to say: "Joe Lieberman's a man with a good heart, with a keen intellect, who cares about the working families of America . . . . I am absolutely certain that Connecticut's going to have the good sense to send Joe Lieberman back to the United States Senate."

I think the meaning of "change you can believe in" is really "change you can believe you're seeing because it's not so different from what has always been."

That didn't take long

A Cartoon by Mr. Fish

Naomi Klein finds Obama's Chicago Boys.

....[Obama] has appointed 37-year-old Jason Furman to head his economic policy team. Furman is one of Wal-Mart's most prominent defenders, anointing the company a "progressive success story." On the campaign trail, Obama blasted Clinton for sitting on the Wal-Mart board and pledged, "I won't shop there." For Furman, however, it's Wal-Mart's critics who are the real threat: the "efforts to get Wal-Mart to raise its wages and benefits" are creating "collateral damage" that is "way too enormous and damaging to working people and the economy more broadly for me to sit by idly and sing 'Kum-Ba-Ya' in the interests of progressive harmony."

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He chose as his chief economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, a University of Chicago economist on the left side of a spectrum that stops at the center-right. Goolsbee, unlike his more Friedmanite colleagues, sees inequality as a problem. His primary solution, however, is more education--a line you can also get from Alan Greenspan. In their hometown, Goolsbee has been eager to link Obama to the Chicago School. "If you look at his platform, at his advisers, at his temperament, the guy's got a healthy respect for markets," he told Chicago magazine. "It's in the ethos of the [University of Chicago], which is something different from saying he is laissez-faire."

John Caruso begs for penitence by approvingly sourcing the Washington Post's Dana Milbank.

A mere 12 hours after claiming the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama appeared before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee yesterday -- and changed himself into an Israel hard-liner.

He promised $30 billion in military assistance for Israel. He declared that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force has "rightly been labeled a terrorist organization." He used terms such as "false prophets of extremism" and "corrupt" while discussing Palestinians. And he promised that "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

Vowing to stop Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon, the newly minted nominee apparent added: "I will always keep the threat of military action on the table to defend our security and our ally, Israel. Do not be confused."

So apparently whatever credit Obama gets for not backing the belligerent Kyl-Lieberman resolution has been duly flushed in the can. Hold on, man, I don't think I can stand all this Change at once!

More crazy Republicans

But do I repeat myself?

The Donkeyman has the goods on Greg Goode, the GOP hopeful trying to retake the 8th District for the Republicans in the fall. Goode looks to be warming up for a popular pitch in the rural Republican arsenal; if you can't beat 'em, tie 'em to Big Scary Liberals, a tactic which worked to, well, virtually no success in 2006 for Goode's ill-favored predecessor John Hostettler, who I reckon has gone back to his previous life as Phil Simms' backup.

But it's gotta work this year, right? I mean, the radically-Christian black Muslim Communist Barack Hussein Obama X has got to have the heartland stock running for cover. Perhaps not, if a special election last month in Louisiana, which the GOP used as a trial balloon, was any indication. The Republicans lost a longstanding seat despite concerted effort to hang Obama's endorsement around the neck of their opponent.

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Also in Louisiana, apparently Gov. Bobby Jindal, a name oft-mentioned as a possible running mate for John McCain, has occasionally had other interests besides politics. He's also been a part-time exorcist.

While Alice and Louise held Susan, her sister continued holding the Bible to her face. Almost taunting the evil spirit that had almost beaten us minutes before, the students dared Susan to read biblical passages. She choked on certain passages and could not finish the sentence "Jesus is Lord." Over and over, she repeated "Jesus is L..L..LL," often ending in profanities. In between her futile attempts, Susan pleaded with us to continue trying and often smiled between the grimaces that accompanied her readings of Scripture. Just as suddenly as she went into the trance, Susan suddenly reappeared and claimed "Jesus is Lord."

With an almost comical smile, Susan then looked up as if awakening from a deep sleep and asked, "Has something happened?" She did not remember any of the past few hours and was startled to find her friends breaking out in cheers and laughter, overwhelmed by sudden joy and relief

Jindal claims to have possibly cured the woman's skin cancer. I can see where McCain could find value in this. (What incantation does it take to make him speak in coherent sentences?)

OMG

I think I just got one of those famous spam emails from the Nigerian embassy (or Cote d'Ivoire, in this case) promising a huge fortune for something or other.

I feel like I've arrived on the internet.

Class dismissed, pt I

OK, I've been pretty idle the past couple of weeks, and it's not been so much of a lack of inspiration, rather that the inspiration seems to be bringing me back to something that's been crawling around in my head for several months but which I can't quite wrap my fingers around. So the following posts may come out in chunks (ew), but I'm going to take a pass at it and see where it goes.

As most people know, the longstanding stereotype about "the left"--whether the Sensible or hippie variety--is that it's not a coherent popular movement but a loose coalition of single-issue interest groups trying to bark loud enough to get the freshest slab of meat tossed to them by the Democratic party. So why can't all progressive people get together and sing campfire songs with each other? And don't say "because then we'd all be socialists," because that's the right answer, and we can't have word getting out. Though it is actually true that we're not all social democrats, and the common notion that we should all get along because we're somehow natural allies is a common source of misunderstanding. But maybe we'll get to that.

Let's see if I can get to an actual point here. You see, liberals are Very, Very Concerned about equality, tolerance, and all that other happy talk, but they're also very, very worried that average folk can't ascend to the same level of enlightenment. Take, for example, this site obviously reassuring us that Barack Obama is not a Muslim, which I've seen touted on several liberal blogs. Why do they care whether the public mistakenly thinks Obama is a Muslim, and would they have the same concern if people thought he were, say, an Episcopalian rather than a member of the UCC? Well, liberals aren't concerned for themselves, of course, but they're worried that the illiterate hoi polloi can't handle too much liberalism at once. So rather than saying "Obama is not a Muslim, as if there were anything wrong with that," they choose to indulge popular Islamophobia.*

(end of chunk #1)

The money trail

Mother Jones has a lengthier version of a graphic that also appeared in the last issue of the print magazine up on their website that wryly compares the distribution of political donations this year by occupation. It's a bit of a gag (apparently whether you call yourself a reverend or a preacher determines your political leanings) and there are some bizarre numbers ("homemakers" donated $30 million!?!?) but I did find one thing of interest, which reinforces something I wrote several months back. The American public views politics largely through the lens of social issues. Why else would truck drivers and CEOs have exactly mirroring party affinity, with the former going for Republicans and the latter for Democrats? That's not a surprise, of course; it's been well-documented how the Democrats are faring better with corporate money while the GOP goes through the ritual purging of the embarrassing social conservatives.

One other item of interest: while the engaging Democratic primary drew more fundraising interest across most demographics, there was one group that gave 72 percent of it's nearly $47 million pie to the GOP: Retirees.

While we slept, while we waited, while we danced

Let's see, what's been in the news while I've been suitably distracted...

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Hillary Clinton gave a key speech on Saturday officially suspending her campaign and endorsing Obama as the nominee. It came as a bit of a surprise to me given her team's seeming insistence on dragging the process out to the very end, but nothing in politics is ever certain until it's sealed and delivered. and no contest is ever personal unless it's personal. Or perhaps she took my advice and realized that, while the Clinton legacy has already been damaged, it will be seriously trashed if Obama loses to McCain in the fall.

With that done, I can't see more than a few internet dead-enders still holding out in the jungle, and the internet, for all it's virtues, is not always a representative sample (see Paul, Ron).

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Also noteworthy was ex-Republican congressman Bob Barr receiving the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party, meaning both sizable third parties will be running major-party evacuees who were representatives from Georgia.

Barr may receive enough $upport to be interesting, but he shouldn't let the over-representation of glibertarians on the internet give him unrealistic expectations for his potential impact (see Paul, Ron).

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Ouch.

That has to be among the most dominant major tournaments any single player has ever had. Nadal on clay is just toying with everyone. Meanwhile, the window for Federer to complete the career Slam is closing quickly; his overall game looks to be entering the decline phase, and Nadal continues his dominance in Paris unabated.

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Robert McChesney's Free Press organization has posted tons of audio from its annual National Conference for Media Reform this past weekend.

Here's a video of Bill Moyers' stirring address at that convention (sadly, the audio and video appear to be out of sync.)

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Database blues

Sorta lacking in inspiration this week; let's see what's news.

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After today's primaries, most "official" outlets have gone ahead and awarded Obama the nomination. Whether Clinton will press on after failing to turn a miracle at last weekend's rules committee meeting hasn't yet been announced. Being someone who's entirely too trusting of human nature, my inclination is that she'll do the modest thing and drop out. Even if she did, for whatever reason, want to drag this out to the convention, I'm sure the Penn/Ickes/McAuliffe squadron of weasels would still like to get their grubby paws on future Democratic candidates.

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I never thought I'd enjoy a "noise" band, but I really like this stuff from UK-based act Fuck Buttons.


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How's this for a first week in the big leagues?

.577 AVG, 1.705 OPS, 3 HRs, 7 RBIs, 12 Runs, 2 SBs

That's Jay Bruce's line through Monday. How did that Corey Patterson thing work out, anyway?

Unlike some other people, I'm not too distraught over the Reds season just yet. Then again, I didn't harbor too many fantasies of being a contending ball club already in 2008. At 28-31, they're actually one game closer to .500 than my pre-season predictions and, with Homer Bailey starting on Thursday, now have all of the Fab Five together in the major leagues and showing well, though it's questionable whether Bailey still belongs in that class given his command issues.

The worst thing about the Reds' current situation is that they are in the dreaded "contender limbo," just good enough to be on the fringe of the wild card race. That means you're not in a favorable position to be a seller at the trade deadline, and your GM may pull a Krivsky 2006 and make a desperate trade for marginal improvements to a longshot team.