TheNewRepublic.com
November 7, 2008
Tuesday's election was a watershed for a lot of people--Democrats, African Americans--but it was also an historic day for animals. Two major referenda passed, bringing unprecedented progress for animal welfare--and new influence for the animal welfare groups behind them.
In California, Proposition 2 mandates that confined animals must have enough space to "lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely." This effectively bans veal crates, chicken "battery cages," and pig "gestation crates," all common in livestock farms. The referendum, which passed with 63% of the vote, will affect an estimated twenty million farm animals, according to the Humane Society.
Massachusetts' Question 3, which passed by a slimmer 56%, will ban dog racing in the state. The state's two betting tracks, which race thousands of Greyhounds annually, must close by the end of 2009.
I spoke with Michael Markarian, Executive Vice President of the Humane Society of the United States, who said that such ballot measures, introduced in states where they are likely to pass, do much more than reform a single states' animal treatment laws. They are a message to American industry as a whole that considering animal welfare is increasingly within their economic self-interest. California agribusinesses, fearing a rise in operating costs, spent heavily to combat Proposition 2 and have nothing to show for it. Markarian is hoping that all animal-related businesses will draw the lesson that it is simply cheaper to improve animal treatment of their own accord, rather than risk a costly political fight they will probably lose.
It is a surprising strategy for groups like the Humane Society and People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals, which have traditionally made ethics, not economics, the centerpiece of their campaigns--but one that may yield substantial results for animals.
Link
"The Party At Florida's Five-Hour Voting Lines"
TheNewRepublic.com
November 3, 2008
Reader Kathryn Sheps of St. Petersburg, FL, writes:
Email viewfromthepolls@gmail.com to share your own story. And send photos!
Link
November 3, 2008
Reader Kathryn Sheps of St. Petersburg, FL, writes:
I voted early on Sunday Nov. 2nd, the last day of early voting here in St
Petersburg, FL. We arrived to the polling place at 11:30 am, about a half-hour
before the office opened for the day. We expected that we would be there early,
and that Sunday Football might keep people away from the polls until later in
the afternoon. Well, we were wrong, a line had been forming since 7 in the
morning (again, the polling place didn't open until noon)!
It was an incredibly festive environment - people were laughing and chatting,
Obama volunteers were passing out bottled water, local candidates (mostly
Democratic candidates, I noticed), were shaking hands, thanking people for being
there to vote, talking about their platforms. Kids of all colors were playing
together on the courthouse lawn. A violinist with a small amplifier had staked
out a position, and was playing for the crowd. A couple, who had nearly left the
early voting lines the day before came back and brought a couple of hundred
pizzas down to the lines, to keep people from leaving the line up due to hunger.
The mood was light-hearted, fun and festive, despite the occasional rain
showers. I was wishing I had brought my camera. We finally got in to vote
at around 4pm. It was 4:30 by the time we had left the polling place. It was a
4.5-5 hour wait, and I'll remember it for the rest of my life.
Email viewfromthepolls@gmail.com to share your own story. And send photos!
Link
"The View From Your Polling Place"
TheNewRepublic.com
November 3, 2008
A lot of you are voting early this year--as many as 9.8 million ballots have already been cast in the 31 states that allow early voting in person. With the massive numbers of newly-registered voters, your local polling place could be quite a scene as early voting continues, and there's no telling what election day will bring.
We'd like to know what it looks like out there. Are people camping out for Georgia's four-hour lines? Did Florida's newly extended voting hours ameliorate voters, or is it getting unruly? We've set up a new feature we're calling "The View From Your Polling Place" as a way for you to share photos and stories from your local ballot stations.
When you head out to the polls, snap a photo and send it to us at viewfromthepolls@gmail.com. We'll post the most interesting, most unusual, and funniest right here on The Plank. Include any backstory, explanation, or anecdotes along with the photo for us to post as well.
Link
November 3, 2008
A lot of you are voting early this year--as many as 9.8 million ballots have already been cast in the 31 states that allow early voting in person. With the massive numbers of newly-registered voters, your local polling place could be quite a scene as early voting continues, and there's no telling what election day will bring.
We'd like to know what it looks like out there. Are people camping out for Georgia's four-hour lines? Did Florida's newly extended voting hours ameliorate voters, or is it getting unruly? We've set up a new feature we're calling "The View From Your Polling Place" as a way for you to share photos and stories from your local ballot stations.
When you head out to the polls, snap a photo and send it to us at viewfromthepolls@gmail.com. We'll post the most interesting, most unusual, and funniest right here on The Plank. Include any backstory, explanation, or anecdotes along with the photo for us to post as well.
Link
"TNR's Week In Review (Oct. 26 - Nov. 1)"
TheNewRepublic.com
October 31, 2008
October 31, 2008
- It's a little tense here with the election so close, and there've been a few in-house debates. Is divided government a good thing, or is it a total disaster? Does Bobby Jindal have a bright future as Republicans' 2012 nominee, or are his chances "basically nil"? Is an Obama victory inevitable, or still up in the air? On second thought, maybe it's just like 95% inevitable, unless that apparent inevitably risks a serious backlash that drives up Republican turnout. Now you see why we're stressing!
- One thing we can all agree on: Jon Chait's puppet show explaining the McCain-Palin feud is awesome.
- Beyond the presidential campaign: The bizarre anti-gay marriage campaign in California has put a friendly face on ugly ideas. And the Bush administration escalated the war on terror by invading Syria, with serious implications for the next administration.
- Another not-so-good week for Republicans. McCain's sloppy, ticket-dragging campaign infuriated local party leaders across the country. One of the last Northeastern Republicans in Congress told us how he was terrified of Rahm Emanuel, who maybe told him, "From one friend to another, we're going to spend a fucking three million dollars to defeat you." Some desperate Republicans are even pretending to be Democrats, to mixed effect. American Jews, long targeted by both parties, have finally (and decisively) thrown their support behind Obama.
- Not to be outdone by the Republicans, a few Democrats imploded, too. Like Pennsylvania Congressman Paul Kanjorski, notable for his impending defeat by Lou "Republican Obama" Barletta (also know as "America's Mayor" and "illegal-is-illegal"). Congressional veteran John Murtha got totally swift-boated, not that Democrats should bother missing him anyway.
- Here's hoping that things will be calmer a week from now, when Obama will have to start thinking about whether to say his middle name on Inauguration Day. At least the campaign reporters, who after two years on the trail have all but lost contact with the outside world, will finally get to come home.
"The End Of Conservatism"
TheNewRepublic.com
October 27, 2008
October 27, 2008
This piece from the 1992 presidential campaign, by TNR senior editor John B. Judis, holds up remarkably well:
When conservatives repeatedly declare that George Bush's failures as president are the result of his having spurned their ideas and movement, they are harboring illusions born of their fleeting success under Ronald Reagan. In fact, the conservative movement that carried Reagan to victory barely exists any longer; it has dissipated into various cantankerous and confused factions; and the ideas associated with it have become obsolete, discredited, or heavily in dispute among conservatives themselves.
Judis explains that the very idea of a conservative movement is a sort of misnomer--that, in fact, Bush Sr. (and, we now know, Bush Jr.) never could have enjoyed the success that Reagan did.
Until the mid-1950s there was no common body of "conservative" political ideas or any movement that was called "conservative." Instead, conservatives and the right consisted of disconnected and often feuding factions that could claim few common causes.What has happened over the last five years is that American conservatives -- who created a coherent movement about thirty-five years ago and won national power in 1980 -- have slipped back into the chaos and impotence that prevailed before the mid-'50s. ...
What conservatives were discovering was that they had aligned themselves with a movement that was genuinely reactionary and that by its nature would dwindle rather than grow. ... As Bush enters his last political campaign, he has suffered as much from the conservatives' decline as they have from his.
Read the entire piece (and try to remember you're reading about George H.W. Bush and not his son) here.
TNR.com’s Week In Review (Oct. 18-25)
TheNewRepublic.com
Oct. 24, 2008
Oct. 24, 2008
- Not a good week for Republicans, beginning with Colin Powell's moving endorsement of Obama (although Powell doctrine experts saw it coming). North Carolina's senate race turned south for Republican Elizabeth Dole, whose opponent is a real Cinderella story. Republicans are nominating such total wingnuts in Congressional races that even dedicated conservatives are turned off. John McCain is losing in his own backyard. In fact, he's losing pretty much everywhere: Nate Silver gives him a 3.7% chance of winning.
- We debated Sarah Palin's future in the Republican Party: Is she already on her way to certain nomination in 2012, or has her disastrous performance made the Republican primary fundamentally unwinnable for her? She's certainly lost the Leon Wieseltier primary.
- More fallout from the recession: It might be kinda good for the environment, Bush handled the economy worse than Herbert Hoover, and "secret socialist" is the new "secret Muslim." Speaking of socialists, Brian Moore, presidential nominee for the Socialist Party USA, sits down for an interview and says things like, "We were stung temporarily by the Cold War and Stalinism."
- David Axelrod, self-described "keeper of the message," may have just learned how to conquer race in politics. In case there was any doubt, TNR officially endorsed Barack Obama for president, while Jeffrey Rosen warned us of a judicial apocalypse if McCain wins.
- Michael Crowley detailed the sloppy proliferation of polls, and Tim Marchman talked about baseball fans' sloppy distaste for LOOGIES.
"World's Most Popular Evangelist"
TheNewRepublic.com
October 23, 2008
K.A. Paul, whom The New Republic dubbed "the world's most popular evangelist," endorsed Barack Obama for president yesterday.The Indian-born US resident, who worked as spirital advisor to Saddam Hussein, Charles Taylor, and Slobodan Milosevic, among others, explained his endorsement:
Link
October 23, 2008
K.A. Paul, whom The New Republic dubbed "the world's most popular evangelist," endorsed Barack Obama for president yesterday.The Indian-born US resident, who worked as spirital advisor to Saddam Hussein, Charles Taylor, and Slobodan Milosevic, among others, explained his endorsement:
Speaking from an evangelical perspective, the current administration, I believe, has delayed the second coming of Jesus. Since the Iraq war, missionaries have been forced out of many countries, their work unfinished. As it says in Matthew 24:14, 'the gospel will be preached in the whole world.' The Bush administration's Iraq war policy has been in direct contradiction to Matthew.TNR Senior Editor Michelle Cottle's 2004 profile of Paul explains how a man with such incredible influence--Paul recounts his experience convincing the notoriously brutal Haitian revolutionary Guy Philippe to lay down his arms--can be so unknown in the United States. Paul's Houston-based Global Peace Initiative has gained him stature among evangelical leaders, who speak in awe of his popularity abroad:
By all accounts, Dr. Paul's overseas peace rallies are sights to behold. Most take place in Africa or India, where villagers stream in from around the countryside to see, as one Indian paper put it, "the mesmerizing evangelist," who has become a minor celebrity across much of both continents. A "small" rally is defined as an audience of 10,000 or 20,000. Large rallies stretch upward of a million. (GPI claims its largest was three million attendees at a 2001 event in Lagos, Nigeria.) Surrounding the speakers' podium, on which Paul is joined by local politicos and traveling dignitaries, bodies crowd together in a sea of humanity. "I hesitate to tell people how big these crowds are, because they can't comprehend it," says Texas oil billionaire Nelson Bunker Hunt, who served as co-chair of GPI until recently. Until you see the crowds yourself, you assume the numbers are inflated, agrees Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who traveled to India with Paul in January 2002. "But there were maybe seventy-five thousand, a hundred thousand," Huckabee says of the rally he attended. "I'm not sure I ever saw that many people except at a major football game."Read more on what makes KA Paul such a fascinating--and controversial--global religious leader, and why he is so unknown in the US, here.
Link
"Silencing The Students: How 134 stubborn registrars in Virginia could swing the vote against Obama."
The New Republic
October 9, 2008
October 9, 2008
For the first time since 1964, Democrats actually have a chance of winning Virginia's 13 electoral votes. Barack Obama is up 4.8% according to the Real Clear Politics average, and according to Nate Silver, Virginia could be one of this election's decisive swing states. And, in a state with 161 colleges and 483,159 students, the predominantly Democratic youth vote could play a huge role in tipping the election Obama's way.
But there's a hold-up: Virginia's local laws make it exceedingly difficult for students to register in their college towns. Indeed, though other states like Idaho and Tennessee also make student registration so difficult as to border on disenfranchisement, the barriers to student voter registration in Virginia are, some experts say, some of the most problematic in the country.
At Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, for instance, students who visited their local registration office last month were met with dire warnings from the Montgomery County registrar, Randall Wertz. Wertz issued official releases telling students that, by registering, "you have declared your independence from your parents and can no longer be claimed as a dependent on their income tax filings. ... If you have a scholarship attached to your former residence, you could lose this funding." Juanita Pitchford, the registrar for Fredericksburg, where the University of Mary Washington is located, requires that all students interview with her before registering so she can decide on a case-by-case basis whether they can vote. "The student must prove that it is their intent to be considered living in Fredericksburg," said Pitchford (who, in 2004, denied applications from all on-campus students), speaking to The Free Lance-Star. Recently, Pitchford said, "I speak to every student ... and I explain the full ramifications" of registering, including telling students that registering in Fredericksburg can jeopardize scholarships and tax dependency on their parents.
Other problems abound as well. In Williamsburg, home of the College of William and Mary, a now-fired registrar changed standards for voting ten times between 2004 and 2007. One time, for instance, he required a local driver's license of students; another time he required a local cell phone number. In Norfolk, until a push by the Obama campaign helped change practices, students wishing to register were sent misleading "questionnaires" implying they were ineligible, thus discouraging them from following through.
Such efforts have been called unethical, and they may not jibe with Supreme Court rulings on voting rights. A recent article in The New York Times exposing what Wertz had done in Blacksburg referenced a 1979 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that "students have the right to register at their college address." But registration standards are set out at the state level, and while Virginia's legislation doesn't explicitly restrict student voting, its vague language allows registrars to turn away students. State law requires that all voters prove "domicile" where they wish to register, but it defines the term loosely. Registrars may decide on their own whether dormitories can be considered "domicile," or if a voter must pay local taxes to register, for example. Student registration is, therefore, left almost entirely up to the whim of Virginia's 134 registrars, who may interpret the clause about domicile however they choose, while staying technically within the bounds of state law.
Activists from the ACLU and the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, along with Obama state officials, are working frantically to reform Virginia's byzantine standards on a local level, stubborn registrar by stubborn registrar. Pitchford, the Fredericksburg registrar, says she's been contacted "many times" by the Obama campaign's lawyers. Kevin Griffis, a local campaign spokesman who says that the campaign has not encountered these kinds of barriers anywhere else in the country, has made statements to nearly every college-town newspaper in the state, defending dormitories as "a perfectly acceptable residence to register to vote" and decrying registration barriers as "completely ridiculous."
Campaign staffers tout Norfolk, for example, with Old Dominion's 20,000 students, as one spot where their efforts have succeeded. Obama campaign representatives spoke with the registrar, the election board, and even the mayor, finally convincing the registrar to allow registration for all students. But the big state-wide changes needed in Virginia--the kind that would refine the language of the registration laws to exclude any ambiguities--may take a bit longer. Virginia state congressmen have a vested interest in keeping the law vague, since the majority of them are Republicans. William J. Howell, for example, the speaker of the state House and one of Virginia's most powerful politicians, is a Republican from Fredericksburg. Should large numbers of the 22 percent of Fredericksburg's population that attends the University of Mary Washington ever decide to support his opponent, he could lose his seat. Civil rights groups as well as state and local officials have been asking the state legislature to clarify registration standards for years, but it has long refused--likely because any such legislation would have to be in line with the Supreme Court's 1979 decision, thus making student registration far easier--and, in any case, it is on recess until January 2009.
In the absence of state-level movement, federal legislators are finally getting involved, though it's unclear what effect, if any, a few Congressional Democrats will have on Virginia's Republican legislators. House members attending the recent hearing on student voting repeatedly expressed outrage over the problems in Virginia; one committee member waved a copy of the recent Times article over his head as he opined against the state's standards. U.S. Representative Janice Schakowsky of Illinois, also in attendance, used the opportunity to push the Student Voter Act of 2008. The bill would allow colleges to act as voter registration agencies, thus allowing students to bypass county or city registrars, but it has been in committee since July and has only one co-sponsor. With this bill not yet on the table, and only a month left until the election, there is little the Obama campaign can do except work with local registrars and officials, one by one, to secure nearby students' right to vote. With the polls so close, every college town--and the block of potential student-voters it represents--could be the one to make the difference.
Link" The Real Reason American Authors Don't Win Nobels"
TheNewRepublic.com
October 2, 2008
The Nobel Prize committee's top member and permanent secretary, Horace Engdahl, told the Associated Press Tuesday that American literature can't compete with the rest of the world: "The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. ... That ignorance is restraining."
The reaction in the U.S. has been to accuse the Nobel committee of either an anti-American bias, which the A.P. report suggests, or of simple ignorance.
"Such a comment makes me think that Mr. Engdahl has read little of American literature outside the mainstream and has a very narrow view of what constitutes literature in this age," said Harold Augenbraum, who heads the National Book Awards. "I'll send him a reading list."
But there's another explanation for the paucity of American Nobel winners. The committee doesn't oppose Americans--they oppose postmodernism, which has dominated American literature since the 1960s. This would explain the exclusion of not just Americans, but of prominent non-American postmodernists like Salman Rushdie and Umberto Eco. It would also partly explain Engdahl's statement: Anyone can see that the U.S. participates in a "big dialogue of literature"--the issue is that it isn't a dialogue he thinks is worthwhile.
After all, the American authors who have been denied the prize have something far more significant than their nationality in common: Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and William Burroughs are all leading figures in the postmodern tradition. Postmodernism has been central to American literature for decades. David Foster Wallace, whose death last month at age 46 rocked the literary world, could not have been more postmodern.
The only exception to the Nobel committee's apparent embargo on postmodernism has been the Turkish writer Orham Pamuk, who won in 2006. However, Pamuk, who writes politically-charged novels about his country's history of government and social oppression, may have won despite his postmodern style rather than because of it. Most of the recent laureates have written politically-oriented fiction protesting their oppressive, non-Western societies: Doris Lessing from Zimbabwe, Gao Xingjian from China and V.S. Naipaul from Trinidad, for example.
Why does the Nobel committee reject postmodern literature? Is it because postmodernism is somehow intrinsically, almost uniquely American, and simply does not resonant with readers in Europe? Or is the answer political. Postmodernist works are rarely political, owing to their treatment of objectivity and truth as a falsehood. Postmodernists typically don't attack or defend any political or social ideologies--they reject the entire premise. Whatever its virtues, the Nobel committee's clear preoccupation with politically-oriented literature stands in the way of recognizing postmodernist authors.
Link
October 2, 2008
The Nobel Prize committee's top member and permanent secretary, Horace Engdahl, told the Associated Press Tuesday that American literature can't compete with the rest of the world: "The U.S. is too isolated, too insular. They don't translate enough and don't really participate in the big dialogue of literature. ... That ignorance is restraining."
The reaction in the U.S. has been to accuse the Nobel committee of either an anti-American bias, which the A.P. report suggests, or of simple ignorance.
"Such a comment makes me think that Mr. Engdahl has read little of American literature outside the mainstream and has a very narrow view of what constitutes literature in this age," said Harold Augenbraum, who heads the National Book Awards. "I'll send him a reading list."
But there's another explanation for the paucity of American Nobel winners. The committee doesn't oppose Americans--they oppose postmodernism, which has dominated American literature since the 1960s. This would explain the exclusion of not just Americans, but of prominent non-American postmodernists like Salman Rushdie and Umberto Eco. It would also partly explain Engdahl's statement: Anyone can see that the U.S. participates in a "big dialogue of literature"--the issue is that it isn't a dialogue he thinks is worthwhile.
After all, the American authors who have been denied the prize have something far more significant than their nationality in common: Thomas Pynchon, Philip Roth, Don DeLillo, and William Burroughs are all leading figures in the postmodern tradition. Postmodernism has been central to American literature for decades. David Foster Wallace, whose death last month at age 46 rocked the literary world, could not have been more postmodern.
The only exception to the Nobel committee's apparent embargo on postmodernism has been the Turkish writer Orham Pamuk, who won in 2006. However, Pamuk, who writes politically-charged novels about his country's history of government and social oppression, may have won despite his postmodern style rather than because of it. Most of the recent laureates have written politically-oriented fiction protesting their oppressive, non-Western societies: Doris Lessing from Zimbabwe, Gao Xingjian from China and V.S. Naipaul from Trinidad, for example.
Why does the Nobel committee reject postmodern literature? Is it because postmodernism is somehow intrinsically, almost uniquely American, and simply does not resonant with readers in Europe? Or is the answer political. Postmodernist works are rarely political, owing to their treatment of objectivity and truth as a falsehood. Postmodernists typically don't attack or defend any political or social ideologies--they reject the entire premise. Whatever its virtues, the Nobel committee's clear preoccupation with politically-oriented literature stands in the way of recognizing postmodernist authors.
Link
Video: "Obama and McCain's Best Debate Moments"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 26, 2008
September 26, 2008
Alright, game's on tonight. And to get you prepped, we've collected a video of Obama and McCain's best moments from past debates. In the videos below, the candidates take on everyone from Hillary Clinton to George W. Bush; and Alan Keyes succumbs to both. Enjoy.
Graphic: "What Washington Doesn't Understand About the Financial Crisis"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 23, 2008
Created for front page to accompany article "The Wrong Emergency: What Washington Doesn't Understand About the Financial Crisis."
Link
September 23, 2008
Created for front page to accompany article "The Wrong Emergency: What Washington Doesn't Understand About the Financial Crisis."
Link
Graphic: "The Surrender of Free-Market Capitalism"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 22, 2008
Created for front page to accompany article "Put Your Invisible Hands Up: The Surrender of Free-Market Capitalism."
Link
September 22, 2008
Created for front page to accompany article "Put Your Invisible Hands Up: The Surrender of Free-Market Capitalism."
Link
Graphic: "Sarah Quaylin"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 19, 2008
Created for front page to accompany "Sarah Quaylin: We've put our faith in a quick study before."
Link
September 19, 2008
Created for front page to accompany "Sarah Quaylin: We've put our faith in a quick study before."
Link
Graphic: The political fight over economic regulation
TheNewRepublic.com
September 18, 2008
September 18, 2008
For the article "Stopping The Next Crisis: The U.S. needs to update its regulations. Obama gets it. McCain doesn't."
Link
Graphic: "Joe Biden, Feminist"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 17, 2008
Created for front page to accompany "Ladies' Man: The backslapping, bloviating hero of women's rights."
September 17, 2008
Created for front page to accompany "Ladies' Man: The backslapping, bloviating hero of women's rights."
"Your Dada Political Advice For The Day"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 16, 2008
Last week, we asked a number of people for advice on what Obama should do in the face of sagging polls, waning enthusiasm, and a new foe. Though things don't look as dire this week, Obama still has a lot of work to do. Here is Alec Baldwin's advice for how Obama should proceed:
I hate these kind of handy phrases like "tipping point," but I do believe that we have reached this tipping point where you don't know how much you should attack and how much you should try to rise above and be more ideas-centered and policies-centered. Now, the American public itself almost demands there be a kind of gladiatorial element. They want Obama to go in there and gut McCain. ... They want to believe that their president is someone who, as a preview of what he can do in world affairs, they want to see him smite his opponent in the election with a real muscularity. They don't want this kind of Ivy League debate society. They want him to crush McCain. If he's not capable of crushing McCain rhetorically, they're not going to vote for him. I think a little less soaring 60s civil rights-era rhetoric, a little more of Ronald Reagan, who is the granddaddy of this in the modern world, with phrases like "there you go again." You've got to trip the other guy, and you can trip him in plain sight. ... I think you'll see with this election that the public expects it now, they expect you to get tough. They don't want Obama to win by a decision, they want Obama to knock out McCain. Or vice versa....
Well I think one thing that you could do is start to make a dent in this idea of McCain's wartime heroics. Bump everything else. ... If time in a military prison camp is everything, then there's something terribly wrong with this country. I don't take anything away from McCain about what he went through, but that alone, does that make him a better candidate than Obama? Is that right?
Link
September 16, 2008
Last week, we asked a number of people for advice on what Obama should do in the face of sagging polls, waning enthusiasm, and a new foe. Though things don't look as dire this week, Obama still has a lot of work to do. Here is Alec Baldwin's advice for how Obama should proceed:
I hate these kind of handy phrases like "tipping point," but I do believe that we have reached this tipping point where you don't know how much you should attack and how much you should try to rise above and be more ideas-centered and policies-centered. Now, the American public itself almost demands there be a kind of gladiatorial element. They want Obama to go in there and gut McCain. ... They want to believe that their president is someone who, as a preview of what he can do in world affairs, they want to see him smite his opponent in the election with a real muscularity. They don't want this kind of Ivy League debate society. They want him to crush McCain. If he's not capable of crushing McCain rhetorically, they're not going to vote for him. I think a little less soaring 60s civil rights-era rhetoric, a little more of Ronald Reagan, who is the granddaddy of this in the modern world, with phrases like "there you go again." You've got to trip the other guy, and you can trip him in plain sight. ... I think you'll see with this election that the public expects it now, they expect you to get tough. They don't want Obama to win by a decision, they want Obama to knock out McCain. Or vice versa....
Well I think one thing that you could do is start to make a dent in this idea of McCain's wartime heroics. Bump everything else. ... If time in a military prison camp is everything, then there's something terribly wrong with this country. I don't take anything away from McCain about what he went through, but that alone, does that make him a better candidate than Obama? Is that right?
Link
"Reading David Foster Wallace"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 15, 2008
Following the news of the tragic, untimely death of writer David Foster Wallace on Friday, I reacted in the best way I knew how: I read him. Not all of his work is on the Internet of course, but here are the links I was able to find. They include some of his finest pieces and offer a glimpse into what made him such a distinctive and powerful voice, one that will be sorely missed:
(Update: Harper's has opened its archives of Wallace's writings. Links added below.)
Reportage:
"Host" The Atlantic Monthly, April, 2005
"Consider The Lobster" Gourmet, August, 2004
"The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys, And The Shrub: Seven Days In The Life Of The Late, Great John McCain" Rolling Stone, April 13, 2000*
Video of Wallace reading from the article "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All" (1994, originally printed as "Ticket To The Fair") and "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," (1996, originally printed as "Shipping Out") both from Harper's.
"David Lynch Keeps His Head" Premiere, September, 1996
Essays:
"Laughing With Kafka" Harper's, July, 1998
"Federer as Religious Experience" New York Times Play Magazine, August 20, 2006
Transcript of commencement address for Kenyon College, Spring, 2005
"'Borges': Writer On The Couch" New York Times Book Review, November 7, 2004
"Tense Present: Democracy, Usage And The War Over Usage" Harper's, April, 2001
"John Updike, Champion Literary Phallocrat, Drops One; Is This Finally The End For Magnificent Narcissists?" New York Observer, October 13, 1997
"Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood" Harper's, December, 1991
Fiction:
"The Compliance Branch" Harper's, February, 2008 (excerpt "from a work in progress")
"Good People" The New Yorker, February 5, 2007
"Incarnations Of Burned Children" Esquire, November 1, 2000
"Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" Harper's, October, 1998
"The Depressed Person" Harper's, January, 1998
"Nothing Happened" Open City, No. 5, 1997
"The Awakening Of My Interest In Annular Systems" Harper's, September, 1993
"Rabbit Resurrected" Harper's, August, 1992
"Everything Is Green" Harper's, September, 1989
See also this video of Wallace's Charlie Rose interview from 1997.
*- Wallace was never satisfied with Rolling Stone's heavy editing of his article. The full version can be read in Consider The Lobster or the standalone McCain's Promise.
Link
September 15, 2008
Following the news of the tragic, untimely death of writer David Foster Wallace on Friday, I reacted in the best way I knew how: I read him. Not all of his work is on the Internet of course, but here are the links I was able to find. They include some of his finest pieces and offer a glimpse into what made him such a distinctive and powerful voice, one that will be sorely missed:
(Update: Harper's has opened its archives of Wallace's writings. Links added below.)
Reportage:
"Host" The Atlantic Monthly, April, 2005
"Consider The Lobster" Gourmet, August, 2004
"The Weasel, Twelve Monkeys, And The Shrub: Seven Days In The Life Of The Late, Great John McCain" Rolling Stone, April 13, 2000*
Video of Wallace reading from the article "Getting Away from Already Being Pretty Much Away from It All" (1994, originally printed as "Ticket To The Fair") and "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," (1996, originally printed as "Shipping Out") both from Harper's.
"David Lynch Keeps His Head" Premiere, September, 1996
Essays:
"Laughing With Kafka" Harper's, July, 1998
"Federer as Religious Experience" New York Times Play Magazine, August 20, 2006
Transcript of commencement address for Kenyon College, Spring, 2005
"'Borges': Writer On The Couch" New York Times Book Review, November 7, 2004
"Tense Present: Democracy, Usage And The War Over Usage" Harper's, April, 2001
"John Updike, Champion Literary Phallocrat, Drops One; Is This Finally The End For Magnificent Narcissists?" New York Observer, October 13, 1997
"Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes: A Midwestern Boyhood" Harper's, December, 1991
Fiction:
"The Compliance Branch" Harper's, February, 2008 (excerpt "from a work in progress")
"Good People" The New Yorker, February 5, 2007
"Incarnations Of Burned Children" Esquire, November 1, 2000
"Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" Harper's, October, 1998
"The Depressed Person" Harper's, January, 1998
"Nothing Happened" Open City, No. 5, 1997
"The Awakening Of My Interest In Annular Systems" Harper's, September, 1993
"Rabbit Resurrected" Harper's, August, 1992
"Everything Is Green" Harper's, September, 1989
See also this video of Wallace's Charlie Rose interview from 1997.
*- Wallace was never satisfied with Rolling Stone's heavy editing of his article. The full version can be read in Consider The Lobster or the standalone McCain's Promise.
Link
"Dee Dee Myers: What Obama Should Do Next"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 12, 2008
September 12, 2008
Barack Obama is slumping. Poll numbers are down. Enthusiasm is down. Democrats, once again, are freaking. So, we asked a few folks, from different walks of life, to offer their opinion on what Obama should do to improve his standing. Here's what former Bill Clinton press secretary Dee Dee Myers had to say:
The first thing you have to do is stop running against Sarah Palin and start running against John McCain. She's sort of bullet-proof, so the best thing to do in my opinion is to use her enormous popularity to contrast with John McCain. I mean, I think of them as Sonny and Cher. You know, what was Sonny without Cher? He was nothing, right? And once she left him, she went on to stardom and he disappeared. He was a successful entrepreneur, he's not an idiot, but he has no star-power. She's the talent, she's the excitement, she's the draw.
What Sarah Palin has done, and this is something I like about her, is that she's a women who has succeeded very much on her own terms. She talks about motherhood as a training ground for leadership; she manages and balances her family and her work in her own way. It's very hard to see where her family ends and her work begins. I think a lot of women see their lives that way. Not everyone's going to go out and shoot a moose and put their hair up in a bun and put on their sexy open-toe shoes and go to dinner. ... But does everybody have to be lock-step on every issue? Or can somebody who's outside--in Sarah Palin's case, very much outside--the traditional feminist agenda still move the ball forward for women? I think the answer is yes. When I hear Pat Buchanan on TV, decrying sexism in the media, you know? This is not all bad. ... I don't know where abortion rights are going to end up in all this, and honestly that concerns me, but I think we need to find a different language to talk about it. I think that there are more women who identify with Sarah Palin than Gloria Steinem right now. Even if they don't agree with 100 percent of her agenda, her life looks more like their lives.
Some people--it wasn't the Obama campaign, but they're suffering the consequences--came out against her so hard on such a broad range of topics, including her family, that I think the public reacted viscerally. So now everything negative that's said about her--whether it's true, as in charges about the bridge to nowhere, or not true, as in rumors about her baby--people discount it. And so, on some level, we could argue all day whether it matters or not what her qualifications are, the public has decided that that's not how they're judging this. They know she doesn't know anything about foreign policy and they don't really care.
The main thing about Sarah Palin is what she says about John McCain. He couldn't have possibly won this campaign by talking about his ideas--you know, his plans for the future, his record in Washington. That was about as attractive as day-old bread. If she's the future of the party, he's the past. ... You have to get back to Sarah Palin, what a phenom, isn't she a remarkable person, what a great story to tell, and doesn't she make John McCain the most boringest, most yesterday guy in the world? And let's remember, he is, because his policies really stink. I mean, let's use her to point out his weaknesses instead of shielding him from his weaknesses. Let's remind people why she's there, because he can't get three people into a hotel ballroom without her. No one's hearing a word he says. No one wants to hear about his policies. You've got to be a little careful because I don't remember the last time when a national campaign was decided purely on the basis of policy. But who's going to be running the show? Who's the real agent of change here? Who's the person who's talking about tomorrow?
My dad is 74 my mom is 69, they use their computer every day and so do all their friends. It's not a demographic issue; it's a state-of-mind issue. My mom's on there emailing Congress, emailing John McCain. She's like, "You stop it!" It's not that most people his age don't use computers; it's that he's not in touch with the world as it works now. If you can't send an email, if you don't even know how to Google, I mean how do you know anything? I think that's not an argument about age, it's an argument about state-of-mind. John McCain is a guy whose ideas are stuck firmly in the past.
Link"Michael Dukakis: What Obama Should Do Next"
TheNewRepublic.com
September 11, 2008
Barack Obama is slumping. Poll numbers are down. Enthusiasm is down. Democrats, once again, are freaking. So, we asked a few folks, from different walks of life, to offer their opinion on what Obama should do to improve his standing. Here's what former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis had to say:
On campaigning:
"I think this thing is going to be won in the field, with basic grassroots organizing ... and I don't think McCain has anything out there. Obama is attempting to do that more thoroughly and better, in more states, than I think anybody I can remember, including the guy you're talking to."
On experience:
"I think this experience thing is phony as a three-dollar bill. This guy's been in elected office for twelve consecutive years. That's more than Reagan was, more the Carter was, more than George Bush was, in fact double the amount of time Bush was in elected office, the same as Clinton and Bush One, and a couple of years less than John Kennedy. Some of that was in Illinois which is hardly the minor leagues of American politics, and he represented more people in his state senate district than live in the entire state of Alaska. He was an extremely effective state legislator. He's been an extremely effective United States senator. And frankly I don't know exactly what John McCain's executive experience is, to tell you the truth."
On fighting back:
"Obama should continue to do what he has been doing for the past few days, which is to address major issues in ways that obviously make the difference for people between him and McCain. And at the same time, he has to make sure that they don't do what I did, which was to not respond to what has been a very tough attack campaign that's been going on for weeks."
On the issues:
"I think it's important that he emphasizes that McCain has never voted for the working guy in his life. It's not just minimum wage votes; it's everything: Privatizing Social Security and Medicare, he's anti-union, he hasn't lifted a finger for public education, his health plan is a joke. I mean, this guy--he doesn't really believe that working people and their families in this country ought to be guaranteed basic health insurance. So, I think you want to draw those contrasts, and I think he will do so and has already begun to do so."
Link
September 11, 2008
Barack Obama is slumping. Poll numbers are down. Enthusiasm is down. Democrats, once again, are freaking. So, we asked a few folks, from different walks of life, to offer their opinion on what Obama should do to improve his standing. Here's what former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis had to say:
On campaigning:
"I think this thing is going to be won in the field, with basic grassroots organizing ... and I don't think McCain has anything out there. Obama is attempting to do that more thoroughly and better, in more states, than I think anybody I can remember, including the guy you're talking to."
On experience:
"I think this experience thing is phony as a three-dollar bill. This guy's been in elected office for twelve consecutive years. That's more than Reagan was, more the Carter was, more than George Bush was, in fact double the amount of time Bush was in elected office, the same as Clinton and Bush One, and a couple of years less than John Kennedy. Some of that was in Illinois which is hardly the minor leagues of American politics, and he represented more people in his state senate district than live in the entire state of Alaska. He was an extremely effective state legislator. He's been an extremely effective United States senator. And frankly I don't know exactly what John McCain's executive experience is, to tell you the truth."
On fighting back:
"Obama should continue to do what he has been doing for the past few days, which is to address major issues in ways that obviously make the difference for people between him and McCain. And at the same time, he has to make sure that they don't do what I did, which was to not respond to what has been a very tough attack campaign that's been going on for weeks."
On the issues:
"I think it's important that he emphasizes that McCain has never voted for the working guy in his life. It's not just minimum wage votes; it's everything: Privatizing Social Security and Medicare, he's anti-union, he hasn't lifted a finger for public education, his health plan is a joke. I mean, this guy--he doesn't really believe that working people and their families in this country ought to be guaranteed basic health insurance. So, I think you want to draw those contrasts, and I think he will do so and has already begun to do so."
Link
"Dems Hitting McCain Hard on Lobbyist Ties"
MotherJones.com
August 6, 2008
Democrats began today what is sure to become a long-term campaign of attacking McCain for his ties to lobbyists. Democrats seek to target McCain's reliance on lobbyists for fund raising and, frequently, upper-level staffing.
The Democratic National Committee launched a strategy today of using images—always tinged deep Republican red—to disseminate the idea that McCain is owned by big oil. One such image, a fake check for $2 million from "Exxon and friends" comes on the heels of some suspicious donations from Hess employees.
The campaign finance watchdog group, Public Campaign Action Fund, also piled on today, launching a website dedicated to cataloging McCain's lobbyist ties.
Of course, Public Campaign Action Fund may not be as totally nonpartisan as they claim. Major donors include billionaire Democratic activist George Soros and the group Campaign to Defend America, which is run by MoveOn.org co-founder Wes Boyd and Tom Matzzie. Matzzie is—wait for it—a lobbyist, having worked for MoveOn.org as well America Coming Together and Media Fund. The Washington Post described the latter two as "outside-the-party" Democratic groups.
There's also McCain's record. He may still rely on the lobbyists Obama goes without, and the implications of his lobbyist ties remain severe and real, but he did co-sponsor the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Better know as McCain-Feingold, the law was an historic blow to lobbyist tactics like soft money and buying political ads. The law is also the reason why political candidates must state "I'm so-and-so, and I approve this message" in every ad. McCain may not be Obama when it comes to independence from lobbyists, but he's not George W. Bush, either.
Link
August 6, 2008
Democrats began today what is sure to become a long-term campaign of attacking McCain for his ties to lobbyists. Democrats seek to target McCain's reliance on lobbyists for fund raising and, frequently, upper-level staffing.
The Democratic National Committee launched a strategy today of using images—always tinged deep Republican red—to disseminate the idea that McCain is owned by big oil. One such image, a fake check for $2 million from "Exxon and friends" comes on the heels of some suspicious donations from Hess employees.
The campaign finance watchdog group, Public Campaign Action Fund, also piled on today, launching a website dedicated to cataloging McCain's lobbyist ties.
Of course, Public Campaign Action Fund may not be as totally nonpartisan as they claim. Major donors include billionaire Democratic activist George Soros and the group Campaign to Defend America, which is run by MoveOn.org co-founder Wes Boyd and Tom Matzzie. Matzzie is—wait for it—a lobbyist, having worked for MoveOn.org as well America Coming Together and Media Fund. The Washington Post described the latter two as "outside-the-party" Democratic groups.
There's also McCain's record. He may still rely on the lobbyists Obama goes without, and the implications of his lobbyist ties remain severe and real, but he did co-sponsor the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002. Better know as McCain-Feingold, the law was an historic blow to lobbyist tactics like soft money and buying political ads. The law is also the reason why political candidates must state "I'm so-and-so, and I approve this message" in every ad. McCain may not be Obama when it comes to independence from lobbyists, but he's not George W. Bush, either.
Link
"Future President Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad"
MotherJones.com
August 6, 2008
Paris Hilton, never one to pass up an opportunity to waste money or pander for attention, has produced a video response to Sen. McCain's attack ad comparing Sen. Obama with Hilton.
The helpful wonks over at The New Republic actually fact-checked Hilton's energy spiel (slow news week, guys?), so check that out if you want. Ok, so maybe she won't be our next Secretary of Energy, and come to think of it she's not that funny, either. (McCain is old? Uh, great.)
But, unlike the two Senators actually running for the most important job in the free world, she demonstrates a working knowledge of satire and the ability to make a simple joke without offending the entire English-speaking world. With both candidates gaffing their way through the summer, Republicans protesting in dark, empty rooms, and Democrats plotting secret back-room strategies that get immediately leaked, Paris Hilton may actually be the political MVP of these first few days of August.
And that is the state of American politics today. How long until Rasmussen starts tracking her in the polls?
Link
August 6, 2008
Paris Hilton, never one to pass up an opportunity to waste money or pander for attention, has produced a video response to Sen. McCain's attack ad comparing Sen. Obama with Hilton.
See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die
The helpful wonks over at The New Republic actually fact-checked Hilton's energy spiel (slow news week, guys?), so check that out if you want. Ok, so maybe she won't be our next Secretary of Energy, and come to think of it she's not that funny, either. (McCain is old? Uh, great.)
But, unlike the two Senators actually running for the most important job in the free world, she demonstrates a working knowledge of satire and the ability to make a simple joke without offending the entire English-speaking world. With both candidates gaffing their way through the summer, Republicans protesting in dark, empty rooms, and Democrats plotting secret back-room strategies that get immediately leaked, Paris Hilton may actually be the political MVP of these first few days of August.
And that is the state of American politics today. How long until Rasmussen starts tracking her in the polls?
Link
"In Election's Racial Divide, Battered Clintons Side with McCain"
MotherJones.com
August 5, 2008
It certainly didn't take long. With weeks to go before either party's political convention, and neither candidate having selected a running mate, the issue of race has already become a theme of the just-begun general election. Sens. Obama and McCain are now accusing one another of using race as a political tool. Obama, apparently unprovoked on the issue, suggested McCain would use Obama's "funny name" and appearance to scare voters. McCain's campaign accused Obama of playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck."
Some Democrats may expect the Clintons, who enjoyed tremendous support from African Americans for many years but have lost some due to insensitive remarks about race during the primary, to step in and defend Obama, but no such luck. The Clintons have remained silent and some suggest that members of Sen. Clinton's presidential campaign, after bearing similar accusations from Obama during the Democratic primary, may be quietly celebrating Obama's difficulty with the issue.
Politico reports anonymous Clinton aides declaring "I feel slightly vindicated" and that "the chickens have come home to roost." One stated, “We were being considered a racist campaign ... so there aren’t a lot of people rushing to inoculate [Obama] on that account.” In an interview yesterday, a visibly angry Bill Clinton chastised a reporter for asking about race, stating "I am not a racist." Video of the interview—and why Democratic infighting still defines this election—after the jump.
The irony is that McCain, perhaps having learned from the hateful, race-based attacks President Bush launched against him during the 2000 campaign, has not really brought up race as an issue. (McCain's campaign did issue an ad with Obama's face mockingly projected on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill, but it appears to be about hubris and not race.) So why go after McCain for a race-based attack he never made? Because not everyone has been as civil as McCain on Obama's race. The Clintons had considerable success using race to rack up big victories in Appalachian states.
The primary battle may be over, but the race-based issues that the Clintons brought up—and the damage they do Obama in certain key states—never went away. Obama has to confront the issue of race. By attacking McCain on the issue, he can address his otherness while also getting in an attack on his opponent. Obama's statements, however, clearly allude to the treatment he got during the primary, reopening wounds from which the Clintons were still recovering. They may not be attacking Obama anymore, but they also aren't defending him, and their absence speaks as loudly as any RNC attack ad ever could.
Link
August 5, 2008
It certainly didn't take long. With weeks to go before either party's political convention, and neither candidate having selected a running mate, the issue of race has already become a theme of the just-begun general election. Sens. Obama and McCain are now accusing one another of using race as a political tool. Obama, apparently unprovoked on the issue, suggested McCain would use Obama's "funny name" and appearance to scare voters. McCain's campaign accused Obama of playing the race card "from the bottom of the deck."
Some Democrats may expect the Clintons, who enjoyed tremendous support from African Americans for many years but have lost some due to insensitive remarks about race during the primary, to step in and defend Obama, but no such luck. The Clintons have remained silent and some suggest that members of Sen. Clinton's presidential campaign, after bearing similar accusations from Obama during the Democratic primary, may be quietly celebrating Obama's difficulty with the issue.
Politico reports anonymous Clinton aides declaring "I feel slightly vindicated" and that "the chickens have come home to roost." One stated, “We were being considered a racist campaign ... so there aren’t a lot of people rushing to inoculate [Obama] on that account.” In an interview yesterday, a visibly angry Bill Clinton chastised a reporter for asking about race, stating "I am not a racist." Video of the interview—and why Democratic infighting still defines this election—after the jump.
The irony is that McCain, perhaps having learned from the hateful, race-based attacks President Bush launched against him during the 2000 campaign, has not really brought up race as an issue. (McCain's campaign did issue an ad with Obama's face mockingly projected on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill, but it appears to be about hubris and not race.) So why go after McCain for a race-based attack he never made? Because not everyone has been as civil as McCain on Obama's race. The Clintons had considerable success using race to rack up big victories in Appalachian states.
The primary battle may be over, but the race-based issues that the Clintons brought up—and the damage they do Obama in certain key states—never went away. Obama has to confront the issue of race. By attacking McCain on the issue, he can address his otherness while also getting in an attack on his opponent. Obama's statements, however, clearly allude to the treatment he got during the primary, reopening wounds from which the Clintons were still recovering. They may not be attacking Obama anymore, but they also aren't defending him, and their absence speaks as loudly as any RNC attack ad ever could.
Link
"Pelosi Urges Dems To Hedge on Off-Shore Drilling"
MotherJones.com
August 5, 2008
Last week, Sen. Obama raised eyebrows by suggesting he would back off-shore drilling, despite House Speaker Pelosi's long-held opposition to opening the coastline. Some feared the policy difference would lead to a split and tension within the party.
It turns out, however, that Pelosi has been quietly urging fellow Democrats to publicly split with her on the issue and support off-shore drilling in order to gain political points for the coming elections. It may be a somewhat duplicitous strategy, but more Democratic seats in Congress would mean greater ability to pass comprehensive energy legislation, even if it does come at the cost of coastal drilling.
Pelosi's plan, it seems, is to publicly present a Democratic Congress divided over allowing off-shore drilling, enticing Republicans to offer more compromises on energy legislation than they otherwise would to woo hard-line Democrats. The strategy also allows Democrats up for reelection to appear independently minded on energy.
Link
August 5, 2008
Last week, Sen. Obama raised eyebrows by suggesting he would back off-shore drilling, despite House Speaker Pelosi's long-held opposition to opening the coastline. Some feared the policy difference would lead to a split and tension within the party.
It turns out, however, that Pelosi has been quietly urging fellow Democrats to publicly split with her on the issue and support off-shore drilling in order to gain political points for the coming elections. It may be a somewhat duplicitous strategy, but more Democratic seats in Congress would mean greater ability to pass comprehensive energy legislation, even if it does come at the cost of coastal drilling.
Pelosi's plan, it seems, is to publicly present a Democratic Congress divided over allowing off-shore drilling, enticing Republicans to offer more compromises on energy legislation than they otherwise would to woo hard-line Democrats. The strategy also allows Democrats up for reelection to appear independently minded on energy.
Link
"Hess Corp., Where Low-Level Oil Workers Donate Thousands to McCain"
MotherJones.com
August 4, 2008
Alice and Pasquale Rocchio are not the kinds of people you typically see donating $57,000, the maximum combined amount, to a single political campaign. Alice is an office manager; Pasquale, a foreman. They rent their home in Flushing, Queens, a modest, blue-collar suburb of New York City. They drive a 2003 Buick and a 1993 Chevrolet. Yet they both maxed out in donations to Sen. McCain's campaign fund, McCain Victory 2008. Surprised?
Don't be. Alice Rocchio works for the Hess Corporation, a mammoth American oil company, according to Talking Points Memo. At Hess, she joins a slew of employees who have also given the maximum allowable amounts to McCain's fund.
Alice Rocchio told The New York Times that she made the decision on her own and wasn't reimbursed by Hess as a way of circumventing campaign finance restrictions.
Link
August 4, 2008
Alice and Pasquale Rocchio are not the kinds of people you typically see donating $57,000, the maximum combined amount, to a single political campaign. Alice is an office manager; Pasquale, a foreman. They rent their home in Flushing, Queens, a modest, blue-collar suburb of New York City. They drive a 2003 Buick and a 1993 Chevrolet. Yet they both maxed out in donations to Sen. McCain's campaign fund, McCain Victory 2008. Surprised?
Don't be. Alice Rocchio works for the Hess Corporation, a mammoth American oil company, according to Talking Points Memo. At Hess, she joins a slew of employees who have also given the maximum allowable amounts to McCain's fund.
Alice Rocchio told The New York Times that she made the decision on her own and wasn't reimbursed by Hess as a way of circumventing campaign finance restrictions.
Link
"In Congress, A Role Reversal On Energy"
MotherJones.com
August 4, 2008
Several members of the House of Representatives returned to the House floor today, despite the Congressional recess that began on Friday, to protest Congress' failure to pass legislation combating high gas prices before beginning the month-long vacation. But they're not from the party you might think.
The protesters, who took to the empty House floor this morning despite dimmed lights and switched-off microphones, are Republicans. They're pushing for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to open a vote on allowing off-shore drilling, even though the Department of Energy has stated that opening the shoreline would have no effect on gas prices until 2030. Democrats show no sign of budging.
Republicans have been quick to pounce. Rep. Eric Cantor, who the McCain campaign is considering as a running mate, called on Obama to pressure Pelosi and other Dems to reconvene Congress to pass off-shore drilling legislation. Obama, caught between Democrats long opposed to off-shore drilling and Republicans eager to paint Obama as weak on energy, will have to act carefully.
McCain repeated Cantor's call, even offering to come off the campaign trail. Obama responded quickly, offering to join in requesting Congress' return if McCain would pledge "a $1,000 energy rebate and ... a serious investment in renewable energy."
But any such compromise between the candidates would likely be meaningless. Pelosi, whose involvement is necessary to bring the House to a vote, has vehemently opposed opening California's coast for her entire career.
Even President Bush, strangely, reacted to a request by Republicans to force Congress to reconvene with a denial, though he has long pushed for off-shore drilling. Perhaps the political points his party might stand to gain against Obama are just worth more to him than battling fuel prices.
Link
August 4, 2008
Several members of the House of Representatives returned to the House floor today, despite the Congressional recess that began on Friday, to protest Congress' failure to pass legislation combating high gas prices before beginning the month-long vacation. But they're not from the party you might think.
The protesters, who took to the empty House floor this morning despite dimmed lights and switched-off microphones, are Republicans. They're pushing for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to open a vote on allowing off-shore drilling, even though the Department of Energy has stated that opening the shoreline would have no effect on gas prices until 2030. Democrats show no sign of budging.
Normally, Congressional infighting would have ended there. But this is campaign season, so of course the president and the two senators seeking his office got pulled in.
Sen. Obama, perhaps concerned that McCain's attack ad blaming high gas prices on the off-shore ban might stick, recently hedged on the issue, saying he would be open to lifting the ban as a compromise to get other energy initiatives passed. (This morning, he suggested tapping into U.S. oil reserves, an idea that has met opposition from Bush in the past.)Republicans have been quick to pounce. Rep. Eric Cantor, who the McCain campaign is considering as a running mate, called on Obama to pressure Pelosi and other Dems to reconvene Congress to pass off-shore drilling legislation. Obama, caught between Democrats long opposed to off-shore drilling and Republicans eager to paint Obama as weak on energy, will have to act carefully.
McCain repeated Cantor's call, even offering to come off the campaign trail. Obama responded quickly, offering to join in requesting Congress' return if McCain would pledge "a $1,000 energy rebate and ... a serious investment in renewable energy."
But any such compromise between the candidates would likely be meaningless. Pelosi, whose involvement is necessary to bring the House to a vote, has vehemently opposed opening California's coast for her entire career.
Even President Bush, strangely, reacted to a request by Republicans to force Congress to reconvene with a denial, though he has long pushed for off-shore drilling. Perhaps the political points his party might stand to gain against Obama are just worth more to him than battling fuel prices.
Link
Speech for English Dept, William & Mary 2008 graduation
May 11, 2008
Video of speech given for the English Department's ceremony at the College of William & Mary's 2008 commencement. Audience of 200 students plus 600 family members.
Link
Video of speech given for the English Department's ceremony at the College of William & Mary's 2008 commencement. Audience of 200 students plus 600 family members.
Link
"Strange Tongues"
"Beato, Granger best candidates for students and city"
The Flat Hat
April 22, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. An endorsement of two of the six candidates for Williamsburg, Virginia city council, one of whom is a 20 year-old undergraduate at William and Mary. Discusses the increasingly troublesome tensions between the city council and the college and why mending their relationship had become the defining issue of the election.
Link
April 22, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. An endorsement of two of the six candidates for Williamsburg, Virginia city council, one of whom is a 20 year-old undergraduate at William and Mary. Discusses the increasingly troublesome tensions between the city council and the college and why mending their relationship had become the defining issue of the election.
Link
"Confronting the super-ego: narcissist vs. postmodernist"
The Flat Hat
April 15, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Self-conscious reflection on writing in a violently turbulent year for William and Mary.
Link
April 15, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Self-conscious reflection on writing in a violently turbulent year for William and Mary.
Link
"Registering voters only first step for change in Williamsburg"
The Flat Hat
April 8, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Discusses the upcoming Williamsburg, Virginia city council election, which had become the focal point of the increasingly strained relationship between the city and William and Mary. Argues that the drive to elect reform candidates (a drive led by students and progressive-minded local residents) needed to retool its approach if it was going to succeed.
Link
April 8, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Discusses the upcoming Williamsburg, Virginia city council election, which had become the focal point of the increasingly strained relationship between the city and William and Mary. Argues that the drive to elect reform candidates (a drive led by students and progressive-minded local residents) needed to retool its approach if it was going to succeed.
Link
"Underfunded departments unable to handle GERs 6 and 7"
The Flat Hat
April 1, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Argues that two of William and Mary's core requirements are seriously flawed, putting impossible-to-meet pressure on two of the college's smallest academic departments. This column led directly to policy change in both requirements.
Link
April 1, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Argues that two of William and Mary's core requirements are seriously flawed, putting impossible-to-meet pressure on two of the college's smallest academic departments. This column led directly to policy change in both requirements.
Link
"Beato needed as voice for students on city council"
The Flat Hat
March 25, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Profiles a William and Mary student running for the local city council, endorsing him based on his goal of improving long-deteriorating town-gown relations.
Link
March 25, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Profiles a William and Mary student running for the local city council, endorsing him based on his goal of improving long-deteriorating town-gown relations.
Link
"Challenge and opportunity ahead for new Flat Hat staff"
The Flat Hat
March 18, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Evaluates the recent history of The Flat Hat, its changing role in the William and Mary community, and why the well-being of the college rests on The Flat Hat's continued independence and success.
Link
March 18, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Evaluates the recent history of The Flat Hat, its changing role in the William and Mary community, and why the well-being of the college rests on The Flat Hat's continued independence and success.
Link
"BOV, Nichol caugh in crossfire of culture war"
The Flat Hat
February 26, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Analyzes the culture war, and the handful of people leading it, that led to the firing of William and Mary President Gene Nichol and that divided the college's governing body, the Board of Visitors. Reports, for the first time, that a prominent Washington Republican and former member of the Board of Visitors, working secretly against Nichol, had asked a William and Mary student to pass off her anti-Nichol essays as his own.
Link
February 26, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Analyzes the culture war, and the handful of people leading it, that led to the firing of William and Mary President Gene Nichol and that divided the college's governing body, the Board of Visitors. Reports, for the first time, that a prominent Washington Republican and former member of the Board of Visitors, working secretly against Nichol, had asked a William and Mary student to pass off her anti-Nichol essays as his own.
Link
"After being ignored for too long, we will be heard"
The Flat Hat
February 15, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Following the firing of College President Gene Nichol, analyzes the political pressures that led to his dismissal, addresses the other states goals of those same conservative operatives (one of whom was instrumental to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smears of 2004), and discusses what the vastly pro-Nichol student body and faculty can do going forward.
Link
February 15, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Following the firing of College President Gene Nichol, analyzes the political pressures that led to his dismissal, addresses the other states goals of those same conservative operatives (one of whom was instrumental to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smears of 2004), and discusses what the vastly pro-Nichol student body and faculty can do going forward.
Link
"Censorship, corruption of College bends to outside pressure"
The Flat Hat
February 8, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Discusses the culture war being waged against William and Mary and how it has resulted in censorship, ideological tests imposed on administrators, and a campus culture so unwelcoming that Annie Oakley, the founder and director of the nationally-acclaimed performance art show on sex workers, called her visit to William and Mary "a more degrading experience than anything in the sex industry."
Link
February 8, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Discusses the culture war being waged against William and Mary and how it has resulted in censorship, ideological tests imposed on administrators, and a campus culture so unwelcoming that Annie Oakley, the founder and director of the nationally-acclaimed performance art show on sex workers, called her visit to William and Mary "a more degrading experience than anything in the sex industry."
Link
"Fraternity reputations stained by stereotypes"
The Flat Hat
January 29, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Argues that William and Mary's network of fraternities faces an increasing image crisis, having produced a string of embarrassing high-profile news stories, most recently that the vice president of a prominent fraternity had embezzled thousands of dollars from a student charity. Discusses how the fraternities might improve their relationship with the non-Greek student majority.
Link
January 29, 2008
From my weekly opinions column. Argues that William and Mary's network of fraternities faces an increasing image crisis, having produced a string of embarrassing high-profile news stories, most recently that the vice president of a prominent fraternity had embezzled thousands of dollars from a student charity. Discusses how the fraternities might improve their relationship with the non-Greek student majority.
Link
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