Sisyphus Shrugged

top five hints for your midtown christmas experience

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:45:22 GMT

So it's the holidays, and you've decided voluntarily to spend them in Manhattan for some obscure reason that reason knows not of, and maybe it's started to filter through the misty fogs that surround you that people are kind of looking at you funny.

Naturally this is because we New Yorkers all suck immoderately and just don't have that holiday spirit you brought with you (the elves set up the decorations while we're skipping the Thanksgiving parade). Still, we have our little folkways, and it makes us as close to cheerful as we get, miserable bastards that we are, if you observe them.

It has become clear to me this past week that nobody is providing you guys with the list.

5. We keep to the right when we're walking. It's just like driving, but with feet. This makes it far less likely that someone is going to collide with you when you stop dead in the middle of the flow of traffic to look at the shiny electronic equipment, which, I agree, is much more exciting than the identical electronic equipment in the branch of the same store in your local mall.

4. It's touching, it really is, how much you guys want to be together, and better people than we would just smile and enjoy the sight of you walking four across with your arms linked and taking up the entire sidewalk. Unfortunately, they don't live here.

3. Aw, you finally got to Century 21, and there was a sale on inflatable toolsheds in the basement, and now you have to get them back to your hotel. Amongst the places on public transportation you might want to consider not resting them: the seat next to you, and between the door a carful of people are trying to use to get on and off the train for work-related reasons and that big empty middle part where most of the space is.

2. Look up, and then to your left and right. Can the space you're standing in be described as a portal of some kind? Perhaps there are stairs leading to it, or a turnstile, or some form of delineation between the space you started in and the space you're heading toward? This often serves as a source of inspiration for our visiting brethren from elsewhere. Maybe it's the heady sense of endless possibility. All the same, we'd really, really appreciate it if you could summon up the continence to take a few steps out of the direct portal area before you come to a screeching halt and share your shining epiphany with the group.

and in first place, it's a tie between

1a. I swear to you with all my heart, still in the original wrapping, it's truly not the last elevator out of Saigon.

and

1b. Point B is a fixed point, and the shortest distance to it is not a sine wave.

Happy holidays. Enjoy the tree.

things to do in New York today that you're already paying for

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:34:23 GMT

the number of people who are expected to vote in today's runoff elections in New York, for Public Advocate and Comptroller, is expected to be spectacularly low. Like, between 5 and 10% of eligible Democratic voters low.

If you pay taxes here, you're paying a really lot of money for this, so you might want to carve out a few minutes from your day and do the whole exercising your franchise in a participatory democracy thing. It's not as if you're going to face lines at the polls. Trust me on that.

FWIW, the Working Families Party are supporting Liu and de Blasio, and Mr. Green is against lack of fastidiousness in campaigning. Thought you'd like to know.

fyi

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 12:35:46 GMT

Paterson/Obama: do what now?

edit: oh, this just keeps getting better. Now Michael Steele doesn't quite say at some length on Face the Nation that Obama's going after Paterson because Paterson's, you know, not quite in the market for the same level of SPF in his sun block as the other governors

edit again: Paterson's not out. Lazio is in. Giuliani hasn't made up his mind yet.

But who was your mother? Who are your uncles and aunts?

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:50:43 GMT

Do not imagine me ignorant of their condition.

George W Bush on Sarah Palin:

"This woman is being put into a position she is not even remotely prepared for," he said. "She hasn't spent one day on the national level. Neither has her family. Let's wait and see how she looks five days out."

Neither has her family.

So she's got exactly the same record he had, except for the family name and the family political connections and the family money and the legacy admission into a Good School and the mean drunk thing and the millions of dollars of other peoples' money poured into the dry hole of keeping his parents from having to support him.

The only thing that could make this a more perfect picture of the devolution of Republican politics into a sinecure for the least lively plutocrat sperm and the people who sucked up to them in college would be if the guy telling the story referred to that remarkable speech as "a rare dose of reality"

Oh, wait.

9/12 speaker evolves

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:31:46 GMT

from 2006, when she was very much against nazi comparisons, calling the President a liar, and playing the race card

things to do in New York on Sunday for mostly free

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:19:47 GMT

in a slightly unusual place

the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our czars

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:54:58 GMT

so in the wake of the Van Jones resignation, I did a bit of searching on the hot new viral wingnut "czar" meme (how new? The wikipedia entry was started in late July) and found the viral ur-czar list. Czars, you may recall, are presidential appointees by fiat who are "unaccountable" to our representatives in congress assembled, and Obama's bypassed Congress to create a huge number of them.

There are, as you can imagine, some issues with with the list.

edit: I am incredibly amused to see how many of these names appear on Politico's list of Obama Czars.

Completely imaginary Czars

I think we should probably start with the czars who don't actually exist, because they're such fun. My favorite is this one

5. Behavioral Science Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: Director of Social and Behavioral Research
Energy Secretary Appointment Established: 2009

...This person will be charged with getting you to agree with government programs, to see why we do what we do and what motivates us….and get us to be motivated to follow government directives. These duties would be set up to identify and understand social and behavioral factors that influence energy consumption to promote the utilization of the results of social and behavioral research to improve the design, development, demonstration and application of energy technologies’ policies and programs

Now, just on its face that is awesome, but it's even awesomer when you follow the source link, which goes to this

Obama Has a Job for Joe Goebbels...Behavioral Science Czar

Obama has a new czar in mind, and Congress is seeking to help him out. There is a bill that was debated on last night. It has to do with the creation of a behavioral science czar to get you to think certain ways. Behavioral science, people. This is a minister of propaganda and marketing!

and the source link there leads to this bill, which had one cosponsor in the House and never made it out of committee

That's not by far my favorite thing wacky blogger snatched from the hairy grasp of the monkeys flying out of her butt, though. That would be these:

Potential Czars not yet vetted

1. Income Redistribution Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: No information currently.
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009

4. Radio-Internet Fairness Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: No information currently.
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009

6. Voter List Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: No information currently.
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009

are (loosely) sourced to a Newsmax article by a guy who thinks Obama is secretly signalling muslims with his tie (deliciously, he also thinks Mark "Matt Drudge rules my world" Halperin is a communist).

2. Consumer Financial Protection Czar, aka Mortgage Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: No information currently.
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009

links to a Yahoo article about a proposed consumer protection agency Congress has yet to consider establishing

5. Student Loan Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: No information currently.
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009

is a somewhat fanciful extrapolation from this statement by Glenn Beck: "This is something that Barack Obama said on the campaign trail that now if you see the way they are taking over education as far as controlling who gets a student loan, who doesn't, erasing those student loans if you decide to become a government bureaucrat for ten years, the way they are going after the idea of mandatory service"

But best of all are

3. Land-Use Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: No information currently.
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009

7. Zoning Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: No information currently.
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009

because they link to an blog post wacky blogger apparently failed to read. Obama's super-seekrit plans to create land use and zoning czars are linked to a reposting of an article about "czar mania" written in 2000, as the author points out in the first sentence.

--

Now about the "Czars" who actually exist.

Brutal autocrats who went hat in hand to Congress to ask for their jobs

First, there's the thing about bypassing Congress. The blogger who made up the list acknowledges that the confirmation process exists, and that presidential appointees who have been confirmed by Congress were not appointed without congressional input. Mr. Beck says what makes a czar a czar is that they don't undergo confirmation

Nevertheless, these names appear on wacky blogger's list (any comments in bold are mine), along with [blogger]'s suggestions for their Imaginary Czar Titles

"Czars" who wacky blogger acknowledges were confirmed by Congress

6. Bailout Czar: Herbert Allison Jr.
Actual Title: Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability

7. Border Czar: Alan Bersin (Former US attorney)
Actual Title: Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, US Department of Homeland Security

21. Government Performance Czar: Jeffrey Zients
Actual Title: Chief Performance Officer
[Did you know that was a cabinet-level office? Mr. Zients is actually Deputy Director for Management of the Office of Management and Budget, and as such he was confirmed unanimously by the Senate]

27. Intelligence Czar: Admiral Dennis Blair
Actual Title: Director of National Intelligence

28. Latin-American Czar: Arturo Valenzuela
Actual Title: U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs

32. Regulatory Czar: Cass Sunstein
Actual Title: Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs

35. Science Czar: John Holdren
Actual Title: Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy

36. Stimulus Oversight Czar: Earl Devaney
Actual Title: Inspector General, US Department of the Interior

38. TARP Czar: Elizabeth Warren [yes, the TARP Czar has the same title as the Bailout Czar]
Actual Title: Assistant Secretary for Financial Stability, US Department of the Treasury

43. Water Czar: David J. Hayes
Actual Title: Deputy Secretary of the Interior

Then there are a few wacky blogger left off her list of czars-who-aren't-czars because of the whole advise and consent thing

15. Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske
Actual Title: Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy
[confirmed by the Senate. So was his deputy director, unanimously]

40. Trade Czar: Ron Kirk
Actual Title: United States Trade Representative
[confirmed 92-5]

42. War Czar: Douglas Lute
Actual Title: Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan
[confirmed 94-4. Oh, wait, no, that was the vote when Bush gave him the job in 2007, when four Senators voted against him because he refused to appear before Congress for advising and consenting purposes]

44. Weapons Czar: Ashton Carter
Actual Title: Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
[confirmed by voice vote]

So right up front, we have 14 of the 45 "Czars" who were approved by Congress and aren't, by Mr. Beck's definition, "Czars," one who rules a dystopian steamroller which may exist at some point in the future with the unstoppable force of 2/435 of the House behind it, and seven more somebody made up (in three cases, wacky blogger)

--

Somewhat inaccurate Czar chronology

Wacky blogger has helpfully appended the year the Czar position was established. In a number of cases, that date is not terribly accurate. F'rinstance:

10. Copyright Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009 [post created by a bill signed by Bush last October]

16. Economic Czar: Larry Summers
Actual Title: Director of the National Economic Council
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009 [established 1993 by Clinton, seven predecessors]

29. Mideast Peace Czar: George Mitchell
Actual Title: Special Envoy to the Middle East
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009 [actually, Bush had a few of those. The last one wasn't actually american, and we shared him with Russia and the UN]

31. Pay Czar: Kenneth Feinberg
Actual Title: Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation
Treasury Appointment Established: 2009 [administers rules mandated by 2008 Bush TARP bill]

34. ‘Safe Schools’ Czar: Kevin Jennings
Actual Title: Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009 [Nope. Bush had one]

37. Sudan Czar: J. Scott Gration
Actual Title: Special Envoy to Sudan
Presidential Appointment Established: 2009 [Nope. Bush had one]

Other "Czars" whose positions already existed

1. Afghanistan-Pakistan (Af-Pak) Czar: Richard Holbrooke
Actual Title: US Envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan [this one is fun. See, there was a US Envoy to Pakistan under Bush. There was also a US Envoy to Afghanistan under Bush, and our new envoy will maybe meet him. He worked for Unocal before he went into envoying (you may remember his pro-Taliban article in the Washington Post)]

2. AIDS Czar: Jeffrey Crowley
Actual Title: Director of the Office of National AIDS Policy

7. Border Czar: Alan Bersin (Former US attorney)
Actual Title: Assistant Secretary for International Affairs and Special Representative for Border Affairs, US Department of Homeland Security

11. Counterterrorism Czar: John Brennan
Actual Title: Deputy National Security Advisor for Homeland Security

15. Drug Czar: Gil Kerlikowske
Actual Title: Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy

33. Religion Czar: Joshua Dubois
Actual Title: Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

note: a number of the Senate-confirmed positions have the wrong date on them too.

Czar who bagged his Czardom because he didn't have enough autonomy and moved on

30. Mideast Policy Czar: Dennis Ross
Actual Title: Special Advisor for Iran, the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia [Worked for Reagan, Bush 1, and Clinton. Founded AIPAC. Played with PNAC. Actually special advisor to Hillary at State, but wasn't happy. Now at NSC. Not hiring yet.

--

which leaves

Czars who do stuff that Bush didn't give a rat's ass about

specifically

3. Autism Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: Federal ASD Coordinator

4. Auto Recovery Czar: Ed Montgomery
Actual Title: Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers Presidential Appointment

8. Car Czar: Ron Bloom
Actual Title: Head of the Obama Administration’s Auto Task Force Presidential Appointment

9. Climate Change Czar: Todd Stern
Actual Title: Special Envoy for Climate Change Presidential Appointment

12. Cybersecurity Czar: Not appointed yet.
Actual Title: Director of the White House Office of Cybersecurity Presidential Appointment

13. Disinformation Czar: Linda Douglass
Actual Title: Communications Director, Office of Health Reform Presidential Appointment

14. Domestic Violence Czar: Lynn Rosenthal
Actual Title: White House Advisor On Violence Against Women Presidential Appointment

19. Energy Czar: Carol M. Browner
Actual Title: Assistant to the President, White House Office of Energy and Climate Change

20. Food Safety Czar: Michael Taylor
Actual Title: Special Assistant to the FDA Commissioner for Food Safety Presidential Appointment

22. Great Lakes Czar: Cameron Davis
Actual Title: Great Lakes Czar Presidential Appointment

23. Green Jobs Czar: Van Jones
Actual Title: Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation in the White House Presidential Appointment

24. Guantanomo Closure Czar: Daniel Fried
Actual Title: US Department of State Special Envoy for Guantanomo Closure Secretary of State Appointment

25. Health Czar: Nancy-Ann DeParle
Actual Title: Director of the White House Office of Health Reform Presidential Appointment

26. Infotech Czar: Vivek Kundra
Actual Title: Chief Information Officer of the United States Presidential Appointment

39. Technology Czar: Aneesh Chopra
Actual Title: Federal Chief Technology Officer of the United States Presidential Appointment

41. Urban Affairs/Housing Czar: Adolfo Carrion
Actual Title: Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs Policy Presidential Appointment

45. Weapons of Mass Destruction Czar: Gary Samore
Actual Title: National Security Council Staff Presidential Appointment

which, I'll admit, is some scary shit. Whatevs.

Edward M. Kennedy, 1932-2009

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:55:05 GMT

"Are you happy?" asked Mr. Nancy, suddenly. He had been staring at Shadow for several hours. Whenever Shadow glanced over to his right, Mr. Nancy was looking at him with his earth-brown eyes.

"Not really," said Shadow. "But I'm not dead yet."

"Huh?"

"'Call no man happy until he is dead.' Herodotus."

...

"The Herodotus thing. It doesn't mean that the dead are happy," said Shadow. "It means that you can't judge the shape of someone's life until it's over and done."

—Neil Gaiman, American Gods

The youngest Kennedy gave the people who loved him and the people who, to put it mildly, didn't, a great deal of material to work with. I suspect the good he did will last longer.

Rest in peace, Teddy.

and the Claude Rains Memorial Gambling Awareness Award goes to

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 00:20:05 GMT

Howard Kurtz, of the Washington Post

Our boy Howie is shocked to discover that there are people who might not have been completely truthful about leaving the Bush administration to spend more time with their families

When Tom Ridge left his Homeland Security post nearly five years ago, he said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

But in a forthcoming book, Ridge says he decided to quit after two of President George W. Bush's top lieutenants pressed Ridge to raise the terror-alert level to a scarier color for what he suspected were political reasons.

Now he tells us?

Well, no. Then he told us.

Posted 5/10/2005 11:21 PM

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration periodically put the USA on high alert for terrorist attacks even though then-Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge argued there was only flimsy evidence to justify raising the threat level, Ridge now says.

Ridge, who resigned Feb. 1, said Tuesday that he often disagreed with administration officials who wanted to elevate the threat level to orange, or "high" risk of terrorist attack, but was overruled.

His comments at a Washington forum describe spirited debates over terrorist intelligence and provide rare insight into the inner workings of the nation's homeland security apparatus.

Ridge said he wanted to "debunk the myth" that his agency was responsible for repeatedly raising the alert under a color-coded system he unveiled in 2002.

"More often than not we were the least inclined to raise it," Ridge told reporters. "Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we thought even if the intelligence was good, you don't necessarily put the country on (alert). ... There were times when some people were really aggressive about raising it, and we said, 'For that?' "..

but cut Howie some slack, kids. He's got serious moral issues with not telling the truth to the american people about politicians for anything but the very best reasons

By Howard Kurtz

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 9, 2007

We all sort of knew that Gingrich was having an affair back in the late '90s--and not just with anyone, but with a woman on the House payroll. After all, he ended up marrying the woman after breaking up with his second wife, Marianne.

Since he was leading the impeachment charge against Bill over Monica at the time, this might be seen as an example of . . . how shall I put it? . . . a flexible morality? But Newt kind of got a pass because he was out of office when this came out and yesterday's news. Unlike today, when he is contemplating a run for president. (Possible slogans: I'll return fun to the Oval Office? My mistress was better looking than Clinton's?)

Of course, Howie's memory serves him ill here. Vanity Fair actually outed the relationship between Newt and the current Mrs. Gingrich as common knowledge three years before the impeachment and four years before he announced the end of his time in Congress and his divorce.

On the other hand, getting back to Howie's current analysis, exposing Republican politicians is kind of icky

By charging that fellow Cabinet members Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft pushed the move, without specific evidence of a threat, the weekend before the 2004 election, Ridge is joining a growing list of former insiders who spill sensitive secrets once they are in a position to cash in.

"It's smarmy," says Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "Most people view individuals like that as traitors. I think they have a price to pay. Who's going to trust them in the future?"

Presumably no-one, unless they realize Ridge actually said all this when he resigned and then waited over four years to "cash in"

Which, I'll admit, isn't quite as long as Howie waited.

strange bedfellows

Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:37:19 GMT

if you haven't yet, watch the long version of Jon Stewart's interview with Betsy McCaughey, the woman who injected Sarah Palin's famous imaginary "death panel" into the health care debate (part one here, part two here).

Most of you probably know that we, as a nation, were gifted Ms. McCaughey by Martin Peretz of the New Republic when they published a piece she wrote on the Clinton healthcare reform package which was mined for talking points by the press and the Republicans (the New Republic has since both debunked and apologized for the shoddiness and dishonesty of her work). She was then asked to join George Pataki as his Lieutenant Governor in his successful campaign against Mario Cuomo.

What you may not know about Ms. McCaughey: when she was replaced on the ballot in the next election by another candidate for Lite Gov,* she left the Republican party to run for Governor on the Democratic and Liberal lines. That wasn't the reason she gave, though. The reason she gave was much more interesting (emphasis mine)

She complained that she was forced to turn to Democrats in the Legislature when Republicans rebuffed her efforts to expand pre-kindergarten programs in the state and to restrict the ability of health maintenance organizations to refuse to pay for experimental cancer treatments.

'''It showed me which party puts patients ahead of politics and campaign contributions,'' she said. ''It's the Democratic Party.''

so it wasn't really that the Republicans kicked her to the curb. She just couldn't live with their unprincipled opposition to government healthcare mandates.

As a not-Republican in the Democratic primaries, the then-Betsy Ross (yeah, I know, I always enjoyed that myself) had a number of positions which might surprise you. She was a crusader for unrestricted late-term abortion, a fan of gay rights and increased welfare spending, and someone who said she'd grown up and changed her mind about her opposition to the Clinton plan

Whether she ever was an ideological conservative or just made quite a career of seeming that way, she is now selling herself as a liberal's liberal-sorry, make that "the most socially progressive of the Democratic candidates." Ms. McCaughey Ross is not pro-choice, she is "unequivocally pro-choice." She registers horror at recent calls by both Mr. Pataki and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to cut welfare benefits to the children of workfare no-shows ("I don't think children should suffer for the failures or oversights of their parents"). Last St. Patrick's Day, when Mr. Pataki would have been thrilled for her to stay home, Ms. McCaughey Ross marched in the parade, anyway. This year she abstained, as the "champion of gay and lesbian rights" that her literature now advertises her to be. Not, of course, that everybody's buying. "There's a series of questions that I think she has to answer," said Richard Kahan, the gubernatorial hopeful responsible for the recent spate of anti-Betsy ads. "Why did she support Clarence Thomas for the Supreme Court? Why did she write Op-Eds supporting big tobacco? Why did she pull apart Clinton's health care bill?" Ms. McCaughey Ross answers such charges in one of two ways: They are not true (She contends, for instance, that she never supported Mr. Thomas, but simply wrote a piece in The New York Times defending his method of judicial review) or not true anymore. "If you don't eat vegetables as a kid, you should never eat them?" she asked. "Where is the sense of human progress?"

...

Asked about Mr. Vallone's view that late-term abortion should be banned except when necessary to save the life of the mother, Ms. McCaughey Ross gave a preview of how she plans to wow the women. "The decision about an abortion should be made by a woman and her doctor, certainly not by those dark-suited senators strutting on the Senate floor," she said, denouncing the State Legislature's "very uninformed debate" on the subject, during which "several of the male members of the Republican majority were unable to even pronounce the various parts of a woman's body, but nevertheless felt fully equipped to make a decision about when a woman should or should not have an abortion."

a fan of blocking protests outside abortion clinics whose opposition to parental notification laws also evolved

Lieut. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross made her harshest attack to date yesterday on her chief rival in the Democratic gubernatorial primary, Peter F. Vallone, calling his position on abortion rights ''a farce'' and questioning why he had not pressured New York City to enforce its law protecting women from harassment outside abortion clinics...

Abortion has not been a central issue in the race, since all four Democratic gubernatorial candidates support a woman's right to have the procedure. But in the final weeks of the campaign, Ms. McCaughey Ross has worked hard to emphasize that she is the only woman in the race. Her attack on Mr. Vallone yesterday seemed to be part of a broader strategy to prove that among the four candidates, she was the strongest champion of women's rights.

... [Vallone's press secretary] Ms. Rubey pointed out that Ms. McCaughey Ross wrote an article in 1992 praising a Supreme Court decision that allowed states to restrict access to abortions, a ruling that Ms. Ireland and other abortion rights advocates vehemently protested. ''The Supreme Court has provided the nation with common sense and common ground,'' Ms. McCaughey Ross wrote in the article, which was published in USA Today. ''Most Americans support a woman's right to an abortion but also believe that, except in unusual circumstances, a young girl's mother or father should be consulted.''

Ms. McCaughey Ross said yesterday that her article had only analyzed the court's decision, not sided with it. She said that she has always supported abortion rights, and that she never favored provisions that require parental consent for girls under 18 who seek abortions. ''I have always opposed those restrictions on a woman's right to choose,'' she said. ''I am unequivocally pro-choice.''

and, as the Liberal Party candidate in the general (she lost the primary 4 to one), a candidate whose "single issue" was her pro-choice stance on abortion.

If you've been holding your nose and trying to give her the benefit of the doubt that she actually believes what she's saying about the proposed healthcare legislation, let me relieve you. You really don't have to.

*Ms. McCaughey-as-politician was a gift to us from Al D'Amato (the then-"Senator Pothole" and the fixer who invented both Rudy Giuliani - although I wouldn't bring it up with either of them - and George Pataki) who thought the barbielike Clinton-killer would make a decorative, and female, addition to Mr. Pataki on a Republican gubernatorial ticket (decorative and female have always been at a bit of a premium in NYS Republican politics — see Pirro, Jeanine). Once she was in office, though, she disobliged both Pataki and D'Amato by numerous means.

The straw that broke the camel's back appeared to be when she confirmed to the press that D'Amato suggested at a private dinner that she bring Giuliani, with whom D'Amato was feuding, back to the fold by offering him sex. Pataki was forced to demand an apology, and D'Amato was forced to issue one, and McCaughey was (melba) toast, at least on the elephant side of the aisle, where she declined to stay. It wasn't until her marriage to an affluent Democratic businessman who financed her political endeavors ended that Ms. McCaughey came back to the right-wing fold by taking a job with a conservative think tank which opposes healthcare reform.

Go figure.

nil nisi bonum

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 03:17:29 GMT

Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post

He was an opinionated op-ed man, a combative conservative on television, but through it all, Robert Novak prided himself on being a shoe-leather reporter.

That was true, in the sense that Novak regularly vacuumed up scraps and scoops from deep within the Republican Party. But his half-century career was also a monument to Washington insiderdom, to carrying coded messages for the sources he so assiduously courted.

Novak, who died yesterday at 78, was always well-wired on the right, and it was one such relationship, with George W. Bush's confidant Karl Rove, that drew him into a career-defining crisis.

"Karl and I had grown close since he began plotting Bush's path to the presidency as early as 1995," Novak wrote in "The Prince of Darkness," the memoir titled with the unflattering nickname he embraced. "I had never enjoyed such a good source inside the White House. Rove obviously thought I was useful for his purposes, too. Such symbiotic relationships, built on self-interest, are the rule in high-level Washington journalism."

Time

Syndicated columnist Robert Novak died this week at 78, and I already miss him. I first talked to him 25 years ago, when I was a newly hired regional political director at the Republican National Committee. Guys like me weren't even supposed to talk with reporters, let alone bigfeet like Novak. Someone told me he was calling, and so, palms sweating, I picked up the telephone and sheepishly said hello. "I hear they hired some young whippersnapper over there," he said, "and wanted to introduce myself." Then, ending the small talk, he handed down Novak Rule No. 1. "In my world, you have a choice ... you can either be a source or a target ..." I gulped for air and wisely chose the "source" category, after which he growled, "Good," and hung up.

Sucks to be shoe leather.

one more at Thers and Molly's

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:10:04 GMT

here.

and this is the much better thing they spent the week doing.

perspectives

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:57:24 GMT

from the Times, about recovering addicts working on an organic farm in Westchester

On that sunlit July morning, a man from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, was leaning over rows of red kale, looking bewildered. He had been, he said, “addicted to everything, a garbage-head.” He was also new to the farm, and did not want to talk much about his past, or reveal his name. Instead, he kept his eyes pinned on another program participant, Bernard Cole, who was cutting off wilting leaves from kale.

“Those leaves aren’t good?” the man asked, perplexed.

“No,” Mr. Cole replied gently. “But see this one, see how it’s good?”

“No, I don’t know nothing,” the man replied dolefully. “I’m a newcomer.”

Several feet away, Mr. Crafton was cleaning lettuce, and eyeing it suspiciously. He is not fond of vegetables, and as a rule, he said, doesn’t trust any food that “doesn’t already come in a bag.”

“If it ain’t on a McDonald’s menu, I ain’t eating it,” Mr. Crafton declared proudly, peering out from beneath his straw brim, a wet, dripping head of lettuce in his hand. “I always been a picky eater.”

...

Mr. Long was shaking water off some lettuce, and the droplets were catching the sun and spraying a few men standing nearby. He laid the heads in a box bound for the farm stand.

As often happens during the slow hours in the field, the talk drifted back to the men’s former lives.

Mr. Crafton was speaking about the old Project Renewal farm truck, which was crushed on Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. DeArmas had driven it to the city that day to deliver produce to a farmers’ market near the World Trade Center, and fled on foot when the first tower fell.

“That truck was de-stroyed,” Mr. Crafton said to the others.

The group fell silent for a moment. Then: “I bet the drug dealers were having a field day that day,” Mr. Long said.

“No cops,” Mr. Crafton said.

Then another man had a thought.

“No cellphones,” he said.

“Oh yeah,” Mr. Long said.

from the Washington Post, on trying to survive on $300k/yr a few miles away

Steins grew up in the idyllic Queens suburb of Douglaston, specifically Douglas Manor, where mothers played bridge on a dock in Little Neck Bay. Her father was a savings-and-loan president who owned a summer house in the Hamptons, but Steins was grounded in the middle class in many ways, attending public school and working at McDonald's. She has lived in London and Johannesburg and has a closet full of fabulous clothes from jobs with Ralph Lauren and Anne Klein. Steins is still a black diamond skier, and she barrels down the mountain of life in much the same manner, tenacious and determined to stay upright. She is rarely wistful except for the topic of her marriage ending. "Because I grew up in divorce, I swore I would never put my kids through it," she says.

Now she sits at the head of the dining room table. Dinner is served at 6 by the nanny, but the same pandemonium and fatigue of any other house exists.

...

Whatever fantasies the underclass may have of the good life -- of small dogs in purses and Dolce and Gabbana -- are not on display here. The rugs are worn. Milk is spilled. A Marmaduke of a beast named Tyson hovers at the table ready to snuffle up pork tenderloin from the plate of a distracted child. "Tyson!" says Steins.

The funny part of this is that we've by this point in the story gotten a fair amount of information about how much Ms. Steins' community spends on non-essential overpriced consumer goods for their children, who think they can't live without them.

I suspect "the underclass" would probably settle for having to worry about the pork tenderloin the nanny cooked going to the dog.

Is this that irony thing people talk about? Is it more like rain on your wedding day, do you think, or a free ride when you've already paid?

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:00:13 GMT

where the line you mustn't cross is ground exceeding fine

To accuse a Virginian politician of turning his back on Martinsville, the beleagured Southside mill town whose unemployment rate hit 21.6 percent in June, is almost like a slur.

So, so close. Presumably an actual slur would be accusing a Virginian politician of turning his back on a capital gains tax cut.

See, back in '99, the Republican then-Governor, Mr. Gilmore, vetoed popular Democratic legislation with significant GOP support to extend health and unemployment benefits for folks in Virginia who lived in areas with over 10% unemployment (which is to say Martinsville, where a plant had just closed and left a lot of folks unemployed). He wanted to stimulate the economy by giving the money to businesses instead and letting it trickle down to Martinsville.

The Post feels that it's not fair to look at current Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert F. McDonnell's vote supporting his then-Governor's plan to deny those benefits without context. To be fair to McDonnell (who's in a GOP spotlight battle this year), you need to know that when he voted to support Gilmore's stance against assistance for Martinsville, it was because he agreed that it would be expensive to cover all the unemployed people who would be covered if any place other than Martinsville was affected.

Duly noted.

best conspiracy theory _ever_

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:58:34 GMT

that creepy guy from WorldNetDaily* takes birthering to a whole new level

*yes, I know that doesn't narrow it down much.

noted without comment

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 01:16:42 GMT

Retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor received the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, just hours after Obama paid tribute to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic woman to sit on the high court.

“When a young Sandra Day graduated from Stanford Law School near the top of her class — in two years instead of the usual three — she was offered just one job in the private sector. Her prospective employer asked her how well she typed and told her there might be work for her as a legal secretary,” Obama said before hanging the medal around O’Connor’s neck. “Now, I cannot know how she would have fared as a legal secretary, but she made a mighty fine justice of the United States Supreme Court”

fyi

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 23:35:04 GMT

another post up at Thers and Molly's

fyi

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 21:39:03 GMT

Thers tossed me a set of keys, so I posted about Governor Sanford's latest troubles over at Whiskey Fire

Frank McCourt, RIP

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:16:12 GMT

There are teachers who stay with you your whole life. Mr. McCourt was one of mine.

I was one of those neurotic high school kids he talked about in Angela's Ashes whose dramatic little miseries confounded him in the face of his own great one. It's a measure of the man that I never knew that. All I knew was that he was smart and honest and sharp and funny and kind. He occasionally came to first period exuding a faint air of last night's Guinness (which at the time I thought was terribly glamorous) but always on time and prepared and treating his job with respect and ready to pay attention to us.

He was the first person to tell me I was a writer, and I was starstruck enough that I believed it.

I bought his book the first day it came out. To me, it was a celebrity biography. Her Majesty was just born, and I was still figuring out being a parent, and the whole redemption thing really helped. I got a later edition signed. That first one was all mine.

I got a few of his books signed. He seemed at peace, and I was really glad.

I am glad. I'm glad that he had those last years of people listening to his stories, and I'm glad that his last marriage was a happy one, and I'm glad that he got to know the children of his much-beloved daughter.

And I'm really glad the rest of you got to meet him.

Rest in peace, Mr. McCourt.

scofflaws of unintended consequences

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 15:09:04 GMT

They were careless people, Tom and Daisy-they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money and vast carelessness

— F Scott Fitzgerald

Bush laughs when he hears that Joe the Plumber briefed House Republicans on Gaza. He doesn't seem to really believe it. Brother and son of recent Republican presidents, he doesn't seem to fully understand what's going on in the party his family has dominated for more than two decades. "Joe the Plumber? Really?" he says. "Well, that... Really?" In response, he mounts a defense of erudition and expertise.

— Tucker Carlson

I think it's okay to have a deeper understanding of things. I think it's okay to talk in three-syllable words. The world we're living in is incredibly complex. And simplifying things to the point where you're misunderstanding where we are as a nation isn't going to help people overcome their fears or give them hope that they can achieve great things. I don't get inspired by shameless populism.

— Jeb! Bush

bonus specialtude: the complex Bush brother apparently has his own issues with long words. That's not actually how "collectivism" works, but since Jeb! supports his brother's bailout, I'm kind of charmed to hear that he thinks so.

annals of oy.

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:48:38 GMT

so via Thers I see that some random edgy scenester wrote a bathroom wall-level list of pensées (erm, "vile little épater") about conservative women he'd like to chasten with the mighty power of his luggage, and for some reason Playboy published it online* (I'm guessing Blanche is putting on lipstick because she has a gentleman caller coming).

Random edgy scenester, you witty beast! You sure do know your humans! Because, you know, sometimes we think people we don't like or agree politically with are physically attractive, and we, some of us, like to have sex with physically attractive people! Particularly, you know, boy-humans, who in your world apparently follow their nads around like sweaty little sonar units to the enormous dismay of the discerning but not terribly powerful brain above! And some of them think putting their penis in someone is a hostile act! This shit is gold!

And along those lines, random edgy scenester? Fuck you. I would be seriously hard-pressed to find anything positive to say about any of the women on your list, but (and here's the bit you missed with the reducing the women I don't like to random spoogebuckets strategy) what I find offensive about them resides in their minds, not their underwear (or Michelle Malkin's racial background, and fuck you for that too).

Because, see, one of the things that separates the 'us' you appear to think you belong to from the 'them' you appear to think you're too good for is that us don't reserve the right to decide who gets treated like a human being based on their politics and their plumbing. And fuck you.

In related news, Hot Air, Ms. Malkin's group site, has a response posted entitled Top 10 Liberal Women I’d Like to ‘Hate F***’ (precious, is it not? that's at teh Google too) all about how liberals would object to this if it weren't about conservative women, but they're totally siding with Playboy here so let's use their women as receptacles too! Only they're ugly, so not.

In what I don't think the author realizes is a bit of an irony, one of the liberal fellow travellers he suggests considering for a 'Hate F***' to punish Playboy for their poor taste is Andrea Dworkin.

So fuck him too. But, you know, he never insulted me by pretending we had anything in common, so mostly fuck you, random edgy dude. In the future, I'd very much appreciate it if you'd self-identify at every possible opportunity as a libertarian. Thanks.

*Note: It's down now. There are screenshots of it posted, and if you want to see it badly enough you can find it with teh Google (above right). Politico, which has a content hole to fill, posted a link while it was still live with a list of the women involved here, although I'm having trouble tracing the thinking process which got them to "Top 10 Conservative Women We Hate to Love"-in-quotes from "So Right, It's Wrong." Srsly, that's totally not what "hate fuck" means.

ah yes - I remember it well

Fri, 29 May 2009 05:56:04 GMT

Ask your local etiquette expert what this gesture signifies

The Times has taken up the burning question of Sonia Sotomayor's temperament

Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s Supreme Court choice, has a blunt and even testy side, and it was on display in December during an argument before the federal appeals court in New York. The case concerned a Canadian man who said American officials had sent him to Syria to be tortured, and Judge Sotomayor peppered a government lawyer with skeptical questions.

“So the minute the executive raises the specter of foreign policy, national security,” Judge Sotomayor asked the lawyer, Jonathan F. Cohn, “it is the government’s position that that is a license to torture anyone?”

Mr. Cohn managed to get out two and a half words: “No, your hon—— .”

Judge Sotomayor cut him off, then hit him with two more questions and a flat declaration of what she said was his position. The lawyer managed to say she was wrong, but could not clarify the point until the chief judge, Dennis G. Jacobs, stepped in, asking, “Why don’t we just get the position?”

To supporters, Judge Sotomayor’s vigorous questioning of the Bush administration’s position in the case of the Canadian, Maher Arar, showcases some of her strengths. She is known as a formidably intelligent judge with a prodigious memory who meticulously prepares for oral arguments and is not shy about grilling the lawyers who appear before her to ensure that she fully understands their arguments.

But to detractors, Judge Sotomayor’s sharp-tongued and occasionally combative manner — some lawyers have described her as “difficult” and “nasty” — raises questions about her judicial temperament and willingness to listen.

and right down as far below the fold as they could get and still be in the same article, they give you Mr. Cohn's reaction (which, unlike most of the negative responses in the article, was not anonymous)

Mr. Cohn, the government lawyer in the Arar case, said he had not been taken aback by Judge Sotomayor’s volley of inquiries. “I thought her questions and demeanor were reasonable and fine,” he said.

McClatchy, who I usually like, was equally silly with the lede on their article

Judge Sonia Sotomayor can be blunt, aggressive and impatient. So get ready for another public debate, and probably some insinuations, about her judicial temperament.

Twenty-two years ago, Robert Bork's Supreme Court nomination foundered in part over similar questions.

Um, yeah. That's what I remember Bork foundering over. The way he was bitchy to Archibald Cox when he had his period.

From what I can see, Judge Sotomayor (although I'm an unabashed fan of her life story) is not a clear win for the DFHs of the left. Considering that she got her current job from a Republican president, there's a case to be made that she's not a clear loss for the right.

In either case, it would be far easier to weigh the merits of the claims on both sides if people stopped talking nonsense.

I vote reporters first.

gin and juice and golf pants with whales on them

Sun, 17 May 2009 18:16:38 GMT

they say Michael Steele is a bad female parent (close your mouth) but I'm making reference to Michael Steele (then we are essentially in agreeance)

Michael Steele says he takes no offense to [sic] President Obama's teasing at last week's White House press corps dinner.

"That was just good love between two brothers," the chairman of the Republican National Committee explained Sunday.

Obama ribbed Steele, who is also black, at the correspondents' dinner for his frequent use of slang and attempts to bring a hipper approach to the Republican Party.

"Michael Steele is in the house tonight, or as he would say, 'in the heezy.' What's up?" Obama said at the dinner, to uproarious laughter. "Michael, for the last time, the Republican Party does not qualify for a bailout. Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset, I'm sorry."

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if he felt he was being mocked, Steele said no.

"I really appreciate the president throwing me a shout-out," Steele said. "It took me totally by surprise, and so this morning I just wanna say 'what's up' right back at ya'."

WADR to whoever Chairman Steele has working on his outreach to the young and diverse, if US News and World Report (which is, to put it mildly, not precisely Vibe) is "hipper" than you are, you might want to consider saving this particular rhetorical trope for dinner parties. Fox, on their end, might want to consider sending someone other than Maynard G. Krebs to cover those dinner parties (ribbed? a hipper approach? srsly?)

'What's up' indeed. Right back at, er, ya'.

revolutionary values

Fri, 15 May 2009 04:57:51 GMT

Michael Savage is upset. He's so upset that he's asking Hillary Clinton for help

Right-wing radio host Michael Savage makes Hillary Rodham Clinton a frequent target of his verbal barbs. Now he's asking the secretary of state for help.

Savage, recently banned from the United Kingdom for allegedly fostering extremism, asked Clinton in a letter to take up his cause.

"She's the secretary of state and I'm an American citizen," he said in a letter sent Wednesday by his lawyer. "Her new position requires her to represent the citizens of the U.S. and their interests."

On his show, he has referred to Clinton as a fraudulent huckster, a dangerous yokel and a race baiter.

A list released May 5 named Savage among 22 people banned from Britain, putting the radio host in the company of Russian gang members and some others accused of criminal offenses.

...

Savage, who broadcasts are carried by nearly 400 stations, has repeatedly made the news by offending immigrants and minorities.

But that's no reason to be barred from entering a country and to be lumped in with terrorists, said Savage.

"Speech that is shocking, or whatever, is actually protected," he said.

Aw, Mikey. Bless your heart. While you don't appear to realize that the first amendment applies in America

On the October 9 edition of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage declared that former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is a "traitor" who "should be tried for treason, and when she's found guilty, she should be hung." Savage called Albright a "traitor" because he said she "went to North Korea" and "came back like [former British Prime Minister Neville] Chamberlain came back and said, 'Chancellor [Adolf] Hitler has told me he simply wants to take a little piece of territory.' " Savage, who also branded former Clinton national security adviser Samuel "Sandy" Berger a "traitor" and referred to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (CA) as "Nancy Paleolosi, because ... [she] is living in the Paleolithic," added of Albright: "[W]hen she is hung, maybe the other quislings in our government will get the message that we're going to crack down on them."

you also don't seem to realize that it doesn't apply anywhere else.

See, England? Not the same country as this one is. We had a revolution. Also a tea party. I was sure you'd heard.

Anyway, the first amendment only (and only because you didn't have anything to say about it) protects speech here.

You may want to look for a new rationale. I'm guessing "because I totally said so" will work with anyone who was willing to take you seriously to begin with.

easy hiring decision

Wed, 13 May 2009 15:50:02 GMT

Marcy Wheeler, this year's winner of a Hillman Foundation award for "journalists, writers and public figures whose work promotes social and economic justice."

Marcy Wheeler, Emptywheel.Firedoglake.com

Just last month, Marcy Wheeler made the front page of the New York Times after she became the first person to notice that a newly-released Justice Department memo revealed that Khalid Sheik Mohammed had been waterboarded 183 times in one month. Last year, Wheeler’s groundbreaking investigative work on the CIA leak case also made the front page of the Times. Her early and powerful reporting about malfeasance by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales helped to propel him out of the Bush administrations. And her live blogging from the Scooter Libby trial in 2007 is widely regarded as one of the seminal moments in online journalism. Wheeler also produced outstanding coverage of the American auto industry crisis. Combining her background in the industry with a deep commitment to American workers, her depth of analysis was unrivaled.

Now just imagine what she could accomplish if she were doing this for a living.

Jane's raising money to allow Marcy to work full time on her journalism and hire a researcher. I think that's a very good investment.

The donor page is here. Reward good behavior.

edit: neat. The New Organizing Institute is matching today's donations up to $5k. It's always nice to let folks know we appreciate institutional support when we get it...