Truth is so difficult.

And there are so many clueless people in this country. This stands right up there with the truck I drove behind today. It sported a bumper sticker that said "Where is the birth certificate?"

Wow.



(via Wonkette; and for the record, the answer to the bumper sticker is: "In a computer database in Hawaii, along with every other birth certificate in that state." *sigh*)

Simple questions for strange moments

Another case of simple questions with what I imagine are complex answers... Why is Dick Cheney so forcefully and publicly attacking the Obama administration? What is he afraid of?

Just asking...

brief political note...

I've patiently waited to see whether Geithner would prove to be a good choice for Treasury. I worried about the appointment of Larry Summers, however, and now I'm starting to worry about the whole venture. Rather than listening to Nobel Prize-winning economists, the Obama administration seems to be relying on the same wrong-headedness that has got us in this mess in the first place.

I don't pretend to know much about banking and economics, but I do know people who've lost their jobs and others who are struggling to keep going. I also know that my living costs are higher than they were a year ago and that my own (small) retirement investments are worth much less than they were a year ago. Will the plan being put forward really help us?

more rail...

I love it with the NY Times follows up actual reporting with strong op-eds:

In the Senate, Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, spent the day working with Republicans to dangerously strip down the Senate’s version of the economic measure. What noxious programs were they so eager to dump? Money for the Amtrak passenger rail system, the shortchanging of which has been a damaging annual ritual that has put America decades behind most of the world.

Now, if someone would just listen...

What's wrong with rail?!?

From the NYT today:

Anxious over the ballooning size of the proposed economic stimulus package, now at more than $900 billion, lawmakers in both parties are working on a last-minute plan to strip tens of billions of dollars from the bill.

The effort is being led by two centrist senators, Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who say they would like to pare from $50 billion to $200 billion from the package...

This sounds like a reasonable effort to focus the bill, but it's things like this that I don't get:

Among the initiatives that could be cut are $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $14 million for cyber security research by the Homeland Security Department, $1 billion for the National Science Foundation, $400 million for research and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, $850 million for Amtrak and $400 million for climate change research...

I don't understand why our lawmakers are congenitally opposed to supporting transportation (specifically rail) measures. Amtrak provides jobs, transportation, and the potential for reducing congestion on our roads and highways, and yet it always seems to be one of the first on line for the chopping block. Seriously: what the fuck?!?

Madoff, the economy, collateral damage, absurdities, and other odds and ends

I've been remiss about updating things lately, and a little caught up in the juggling act of life. But I've been missing the chance to post, too. Things occur to me, and I make a mental note to conjure up a fully wrought post. Then life gets in the way again—the kid needs to go to school, dishes need to be done, a project crops up at work, sleep happens, the dog needs to go out, dinner needs to get made, and the list goes on.

Regardless, here's a quick addenda to jumpstart my brain at the end of the week:

• Brandeis's decision to close the Rose Art Museum — The news that Brandeis would be closing the Rose arrived in alum's email boxes before it hit the news wires. In the email, President Reinharz explained that it was a difficult but necessary decision for the long-term future of the university, its endowment and its ability to fund student need. More than a few alumni disagreed and a the hue and cry hit newspapers and blogs. I'm still split on the matter. I understand the university's need to secure additional revenue sources, particularly given the damage done to major donors by the Madoff scandal. At the same time, I fear that they will be mortgaging a part of the museum's cultural and intellectual currency for a finite gain.


• Madoff, Thain, and Gordon Gecko — Can we put the Gilded-Age-style greed that came of vogue in the Eighties out of our misery, please? The damage done by hedge funds and Ponzi schemes to our common good (see above) is going to have long-lasting effects on the institutions that keep our culture alive and will do long-term damage to the non-profit organizations that support all ends of our society. The exuberant greed of Thain and countless other CEOs, investment bankers, and their ilk leaves them complaining over smaller bonuses while the rest of us see the value of our investments and employers plummet because they've sucked the money out of the system to line their silk pockets.


• The First Week — Two acts please me more than any other in the Obama administration's first week: their message to Citicorp that taking delivery of a new $50MM corporate jet would not be acceptable, and the message that banks were unethical in doling out billions in bonuses while taking billions in TARP funds.
  
• Waste Management — I've decided to reduce my contribution to the waste stream. This is not to say I am recycling more, because I don't think that would actually be possible. No. I'm taking every opportunity I can to use silverware, plates, bowls and mugs at work. At home, I've begun to use reusable containers in Banana's lunch. A co-worker asked me if I was doing this because I am "Green." (The quotation marks were audible in her voice.) I said yes, but the reality is that I see this as an ethical decision rather than just a green decision. By reducing the amount that must be moved to a landfill or recycled, I've reduced the amount of energy used. By reducing the amount in landfills even by a few items a day, I've contributed a bit to leaving Banana and her children's children a cleaner, nicer earth.


• Global Warming Is Irreversible. — A study was released this week that I can't imagine ever being released during the Bush administration. Basically, it details that global warming can't be reversed once it's begun. What makes this even more frightening is that all evidence collected in recent years points to the fact that warming is happening faster than expected. If all of this is true — and there is no compelling reason to ignore it any longer — our grandchildren's world is going to be a radically different place than the world we live in now. Unless we take stricter actions. Now.


• Mini daffodils make the kitchen a nicer place. — In the midst of last weekend's stomach-flu-addled Trader Joe's run, Banana asked for a pot of mini daffodils. We sorted through until we found one with a couple blooms and several more on the way. It now lives on the breakfast bar, and there is something very calming and pleasant about looking at growing flowers in the morning sunlight.

So there you have it. Stay tuned for a bit of Friday Fun...

Cynicism, Insidious Cynicism

Like millions around the globe, I watched our new president's inauguration on Tuesday, glued to the television from the moment the crowds were streaming in before the festivities began to the last moment I could keep my eyes open during coverage of the inaugural balls. There was a brief window when we turned off the TV for a bit of wine and cheese before I trucked off to a PTA meeting. Even at the PTA meeting, though, conversation veered between how cute the kids were and how much they were growing up to wonderment at the events of the day and the general sense of relief generated by two simple, wonderful events: the end of the Bush era and the arrival of President Obama.

How sweet it is to type those words.

Without question, the past eight years were marked by a torpor and a malaise. Adequate was good enough. The lack of events proved the triumph of ideological policies. The opacity and lack of respect shown by the administration for the populace as a whole and their clear contempt for the idea that the government could be a tool for good left us beaten and complacent. As I listened to a piece on NPR last week about Dick Cheney, it occurred to me that I had become so numbed by the cynicism that I had completely forgotten some of the truly egregious things that had happened during the reign of error.

The fact that President Obama's movement has been able to stand this cynicism and complacency on its head is — to my mind — just as powerful as the historical significance of his election. In fact, I'm tempted to say one could not exist without the other. It was his power to inspire millions of people and to engage the communities around the country that brought the change. And based on my conversations in the past few days, it may be that same power that truly helps to lead our country forward.

I have heard and read commentators who believed that Obama's speech did not soar, that it did not rise to the heights he had reached in past speeches. But I have to reject that. The speech we watched was quiet, determined, and powerful. Those who say it fell should watch it again, or read the following:

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions, who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short, for they have forgotten what this country has already done, what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose and necessity to courage.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them, that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long, no longer apply.

********

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with the sturdy alliances and enduring convictions.

They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use. Our security emanates from the justness of our cause; the force of our example; the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.

*******

We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth.

And because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

*******

And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders, nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages.

*******

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.

It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break; the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours.

It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

*******

...What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility -- a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character than giving our all to a difficult task.

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.

This is the source of our confidence: the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall. And why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.

*******

At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."

America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words; with hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come; let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Clear, determined words with one powerful message: Together, we can do better.

Just a reminder, that this...



is a small, wonderful vignette of what brought us to this moment,



a moment that has refreshed my hope in our country. I cannot think of a single moment in my thirty-eight years on this earth that feels as powerful as the moment yesterday when I watched the culmination of the remarkable movement that brought this remarkable man to this remarkable moment.

And when I watched this



I thought of the journeys made and travails survived by so many to bring our country to this place, and I knew that I could only understand a part of the sea of emotion of this day. But what I feel listening to these again and what I hope for our future and our children's future is unlike anything I have ever felt.

a note to my neighbor on Monument Avenue

You were correct this morning when you told me that political signs are illegal on public thoroughfares and are only allowed on private property. You were not necessarily protected by the law when you removed the signs, however, and the growl in your voice betrayed your politics. When you ignored my question about whether you would pull McCain signs — had there been any out — I got my answer about your motives. What you did not do, however, is change any votes, and I made a point of picking up one of the signs and replacing the one that had been stolen from my yard.

To you, I also say this: it must be hard to watch your well-defended Southern Republican world pushed to the point of a defeat of historic proportions.

what it comes down to tomorrow

Picked up from Daily Kos, this video is extremely well-done and pulls into a nutshell the history of disenfranchisement we confront as we go to the polls tomorrow.

Hard-working Americans

On Friday night, every conversation I got into turned toward politics. Whether I steered the topic or someone else brought it up, the presidential contest as well as a few local races dominated everything.

The conversation that stunned me the most was the final one of the evening. I had stopped in to say hello to my neighbors as the evening wound down, and M quickly enlisted me to help convince their visiting friend why she should vote for Obama rather than McCain. She tossed out a good many of the standard Republican and Fox News talking points and seemed stunned by some of our rebuttals ("we had to go after them" vs. "Iraq didn't attack us" followed by "he was planning to bomb us" vs. "he had no weapons capable of hitting us").

The talking point that struck me the most, however, was her contention that "hard-working Americans" should be able to keep their money. I stopped and asked her, "What makes someone who is making half a million dollars a year a harder worker than me?"

She said, "Well, I just don't think we should penalize anyone for being successful."

But I wouldn't let the taxation point go. "What," I asked her, "makes someone who earns ten times what I earn a harder worker than I am and why should that person pay a lower percentage of their overall income in taxes?" She came back with her comment about hard-working Americans, and that's when I really set in. "I earn a good salary on paper," I told her, "but I work full-time and am a full-time single father with no support. In what way am I not a hard-working American? Why is it fair for me to pay a higher percentage of my income in taxes than our neighbors in the million-dollar houses?"

My attack was harsher than it needed to be, but the point was still dead-on. I earn what should be a fairly comfortable middle-class income and work my ass off to do so both at work and at home. Hard-working people should be able to keep a fair share of their income, and the determination of that fair share should start from the bottom and middle of society rather than the top down.

As Phil and I decided yesterday, the rhetorical and ideological world conservative Republicans live in these days really is a topsy-turvy, carnival mirror take on reality.

I wish them good riddance on Tuesday.

catching up, pt. 1

This was the empty space in my front "yard" after the first Obama sign was stolen.



My answer was to get a second sign and make another donation to the campaign. The second sign hasn't been stolen yet, but it was pulled and thrown on the sidewalk. In addition, several of Kim Gray's signs on the block were vandalized. I don't really get the purpose of such vandalism. If it's out of anger, I can't believe it really makes the perpetrator feel better and the karmic loss isn't really worth such acts. If it's out of politics, you'd have to be stupid to believe that such acts will change my or my neighbors' views. The actual result is quite the opposite.

recycled writing - the old-post edition

While watching Jon Stewart's evisceration of Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann's "pro-America" meme, I remembered this post from the beginning of this blog four years ago. Reading it again now, I think it still holds:

First, there was the North and the South. Then, a few years ago, it was Red America and Blue America. Now, there is John Edwards class-conscious meme of two Americas.

But the bipolar divisions can be so much richer: Democratic and Republican. Minority and majority. Black and white. Pro-choice and Anti-abortion. Vanilla and chocolate. Tortes and apple pies. Starbucks and Maxwell House. Walmart and Target. Organic versus processed. Poor versus rich. West versus East. New York City and Bentonville. LA and Portland. Flatlanders and hill people. Country and city. The New York Times and Fox News. Old and young. Minis and Hummers. Urban renovators and exurban McMansioneers. Greens and liberaterians. Federalists and socialists. Patriots and patriots. The NRA and gun victims. On and on and on.

Really though, there is only one "America" that gives the symbology life: the world of the big box store and pure consumption. Commerce is what creates our society and what drives it, from television to the names of roads built into new developments. The utopian ideal of a society where everyone has the same opportunities is simply the kitsch that our presidential candidates spin in different directions--bootstrappers versus nurturers. And in the classic truth of kitsch, this flag-waving picture simply hides the shit.

The shit is that there are more Americas than any of us know what to do with. It's not just about red and blue, or city and country, or black and white. Rather, the division is much broader, region to region, or even state to state. Cultures and even language change. Signifiers change. Political and social concerns change. All of it to such an extreme that it does not seem inaccurate to say that a Mainer and an Arkansan share nothing more in national identity than the ability to shop in the same stores, eat the same foods, and watch the same television shows. This is not to say that the shibboleth of national identity cannot evolve into a cohesive, nuanced culture, but it's not going to happen as long as our ethos relies on consumerist lemmings doing the bidding of brand managers.

In other news, so many of us are apoplectic over the lies and slander of Fox News, but what of the New York Times's kid glove approach to Bush's lies. Sure, they apologized for their coverage of the lead-up to war--but as a cursory survey of the blogosphere and the AP wire will show, they have let too many follow-up stories pass without notice. Sandy Berger anyone?

more ad fun

Hat-tip to my fellow Richmond blogger Buttermilk & Molasses for this one.



It's funny and to the point. In this case, the message is one that resonates more and more: this election is not about us, and it's not about the past; this election is about our children and their future.

PSAs

I picked this up from Daily Kos.

Apparently, the spot ran just after last night's debate. This means too few people probably saw it, because it is one of the most emotionally powerful ads I have ever seen. It has the visual feel of Errol Morris and the power of a punch in the gut. Watch and pass on, please.

sickening

We truly are entering a scary time in the course of our public discourse. Perhaps this election will give us a renewed chance to have an honest, national dialogue about race, history, and the future. Unfortunately when I watch videos like the one below and pick up articles like this from the Times I wonder whether we can ever find the kind of common ground we need. After all, how do you really reach across to people who hold these kinds of deep convictions.

“I would think of him as I would of another of mixed race,” said Glenn Reynolds, 74, a retired textile worker in Martinsville, Va., and a former supervisor at a Goodyear plant. “God taught the children of Israel not to intermarry. You should be proud of what you are, and not intermarry.”

*********

“He’s going to tear up the rose bushes and plant a watermelon patch,” said James Halsey, chuckling, while standing in the Wal-Mart parking lot with fellow workers in the environmental cleanup business. “I just don’t think we’ll ever have a black president.”

And the money shot:

“I’ve always been against the blacks,” said Mr. Rowell, who is in his 70s, recalling how he was arrested for throwing firecrackers in the black section of town. But now that he has three biracial grandchildren — “it was really rough on me” — he said he had “found out they were human beings, too.”

So, you jump from there to these people in Ohio, and it's hard to imagine a long-enough bridge to cross this divide.



**********

UPDATE: In case we need further proof, here it is:

the sewer we've fallen into...

Picked this up from Brian.

I should have something articulate to say about how this image epitomizes in with the whole sad state of political and social discourse in our society. Unfortunately, all I can say is that things like this make me profoundly sad and more than a little scared that our future will continue to repeat our past.

a quick snapshot

I had an unfortunately contentious argument with some fellow parents today. The four of them were, shall we say, on the conservative end of the spectrum, and I am clearly not. Unfortunately, I was partly responsible for the contentious turn of the conversation since I saw it fit to drop plenty of my own opinions about the election, the mess we're in, and the record of the past several Republican administrations. What bothers me is not so much the substance of our debate—such discussions are important for society, I think. What bothers me is the rhetoric and anger that I let slip.

That said...

I thought about a few of the points I glanced on in the conversation, and it seemed worth putting a small inventory of them together:

• Many of the foreign policy disasters we are still dealing with happened during Republican administrations. These include the removal of Iran's Prime Minister in 1953 under the Eisenhower administration, the support of and development of Saddam Hussein's dictatorship during the Reagan administration, and the support and development of Osama Bin Laden as part of the mujahadin in Afghanistan during the Reagan Administration.
  
  
• Much of Palin's story is built on lies. The funny part here is that I wanted to provide one or two solid non-partisan links, but there were far too many good sources to choose just one. For now, though, here's a good start.
  
  
• McCain's favorite economic adviser and co-chair of his current campaign really should take much of the blame for the current crisis. And that culpability began in the Reagan administration. Man, ain't deregulation great?!?
  
  
• Obama and Ayers have never been close. In fact, they haven't had any direct contact in more than three years, and never "palled around together."
  
  
• It strikes me as very interesting that this campaign almost seems like a contest between Obama and Palin at moments.
  

I'll come up with more points as the days wear on. Regardless, I learned an important lesson today: you don't persuade anyone by criticizing their people. Rather than attacking someone's candidates and listening to their attacks on my candidates, I should have asked a question. To wit, why should someone support McCain?

Had the conversation turned in that direction, I could have offered plenty of reasons I think someone should vote for Obama. And every one of those reasons would have been based in things I like about the man, his ideas, and his advisers.

last night's debate

To put it as simply as possible, the messages I got from last night's debate were:

• Obama: Vote for me because I have plans for how to get the country back on the right track, and I care about the middle and working classes — a message that clearly resonates with me.
  
  
• McCain: Vote for me because I've been doing this for a long time, and I deserve it.
  
  
• One man struck me as patient, but ready to fight back when attacked while the other struck me as someone who simply cannot believe that he is not winning—after all he's done.
  
  
• Though the debate has been declared dull by many pundits and bloggers, I think the subtler psychodrama was fascinating.
  
  
• Tom Brokaw did a wretched job as moderator.
  
  
• McCain mentioned Ronald Reagan and Joe Lieberman more times than he mentioned Palin. Which is to say he didn't say her name a single time.
  
  
• Mostly, I was struck by how much this matchup exemplified a generational break. McCain relied on anachronistic references and jokes and, from an obsession with oil and nuclear power to a Cold War mentality, displayed a frame of reference buried in the last half of the twentieth century. Meanwhile, Obama displayed a desire to look at the world as it is now and find solutions that make sense for future generations.

That said, the most remarkable and telling part of the debate didn't even occur in the debate itself. Instead, the post-debate period illustrated clearly the differences between the candidates and their approaches. Picked up from Wonkette, the video below shows 11 minutes out of more than half an hour filmed by CSPAN after the debate. Sure, you can see the infamous dis when McCain sidesteps shaking Obama's hand. More importantly, you can watch the McCains leave as quickly as possible while the Obamas stayed around to talk to people. There is no audio, so you need to be able to read lips if you want to know what they're saying. It is remarkable, however, to watch them both carry on conversations with many of the people in the hall, and to watch the excitement as these "undecided" voters ask to have their pictures taken with the Obamas.

So I put it out there... who would you rather have as a leader: someone who leaves as quickly as possible or someone who makes an effort to connect with and listen to everyone?

smears

Brian picked this up as a reminder. I have to say that it's the classic embodiment of the glass houses cliché. What is stunning is that it represents yet another blind spot in the McCain campaign to the power of the internet, and another moment of their hubristic belief that they still hold the majority. After all, there are no videos of Obama's distant, tangential associations with mildly controversial figures, but there are videos of McCain contradicting himself... oh yeah, and of Palin being protected from witchcraft and singing as part of a Christian recording group.





If evangelicals viewed Bush's presidency as a validation of their mission, putting Palin in one of the most important offices in the world would set us on a full path to a religious schism in the country.