Cogitamus

Monday Open Thread

 

"I'm the Ocean" - Neil Young

- I finally got around to reading Kevin Drum's article in Mother Jones about organized labor's decline and its impact on politics, policy, and the character of the Democratic Party.  It's really a remarkably good piece, laying out in concise fashion the negative consequences that this has had on the middle and working classes both in terms of having a political voice and with respect to the distribution of wealth in the country.  I strongly recommend reading it.  The piece also demonstrates Drum's political evolution in recent times from a pretty moderate guy to someone who has become increasingly to the left in economic matters.  It's a heartening development.  Sadly, the substance of the story is not one which generates a whole lot of optimism.  Like me, Drum is deeply skeptical that labor in its present weakened state can ever achieve a level of density again that will approach those enjoyed in the early 1970s.  How we will create a broad based movement geared to the economic interests of the great bulk of Americans in its absence remains a pretty vexing dilemma.   

- One possible hopeful note for labor is the potential that the overreach by various GOP governors, especially Scott Walker, is going to have a galvanizing effect on union members.  There is a sense that at least three of the members of the Wisconsin Senate are pretty vulnerable to recall efforts -- if the unions and their allies can pull this off it would actually put the Democrats back in charge of the Senate. If they can then take Walker out next year, it will undoubtedly strike fear in the hearts of a lot of Republicans.  One of my law partners was out in Madison this weekend and said it was quite overwhelming -- the crowds, the energy, the focus were all very impressive.  Evidently there is an upcoming election for the Supreme Court in Wisconsin and this too could possibly serve as a proxy battle for the parties.  Certainly the grass roots energy being generated could make states like Wisconisn, Ohio, and Indiana (where there was a demonstration with several thousand building tradesmen last Thursday) much more likely to remain in the Democratic fold in the 2012 presidential election.

- Nicholas Krstof had an interesting column yesterday advocating for far greater pay for teachers.  Obviously, this is not going to happen in the current environment.  (I don't agree with the shots that Kristof takes at teachers unions by the way.)  But this does seem to be an area where the vaunted market forces somehow do not seem to apply in the way that Republicans often argue they should.  I would definitely have considered becoming a teacher (not sure I would have been any good at it) if it was the kind of job that was more greatly esteemed by the public and where a salary in the low six figures would have been attainable.  The idea, however, of basically being villified while being paid less than a legal secretary just didn't hold much appeal to me as a young person.  It is assumed that we need to pay bankers in the seven figures so that they we will attract the top talent to these positions -- but we are somehow thought able to attract top flight talent to teaching by paying people $48,000 a year, plus the psychic income associated with the joys of teaching our magnificent offspring.      

- Share your thoughts on this, Japan, Libya, or anything else that on your minds.     

Earthquake, Tsunami, Volcano - Stay Strong, Japan

My not-so-profound or original take on what's happening in Japan is that it is neither a lesson against or for nuclear power.  It is a lesson for doing it well, whether it turns out that the Japanese reactors were built and maintained as well as they could have been or not.

The main lesson is, of course, that this world is far bigger than any of us, and even far bigger than all of us put together.  It's very easy for me to forget that we live on a world that is, in some sense, alive.  And we human beings are an intimate part of the world instead of separate from or above it.

I also suspect that, while Japan will appreciate assistance, their wealth coupled with their stronger sense of societal solidarity will help to ameliorate at least the financial losses incurred as a result of these disasters.

If you have thoughts or news to share, especially ways that people can help, please feel free to share in comments.

Sunday Open Thread

 

Mozart's Requiem

- Today is really the first day that I've had a chance to view some of the footage from Japan.  It's quite astonishing -- strangely, as horrible as it is, I don't think the video footage from a distance always captures the extraordinary force of these walls of water and how much destructive power they pack.  I'm very curious to get a greater sense of how the various nuclear plants are holding up at this time.  Here is the link to the American Red Cross to help with assistance.  (Thanks to kathy for providing these links.)  The scope of the destruction demonstrates that even the best public planning is sometimes inadequate to the challenges of nature.

 Evidently the rally in Madison yesterday drew 100,000 people.  It's a pretty impressive showing.  But now I think it's about the hard political work involved in these recall attempts and the 2012 election.  Here's a link to donate to the recall effort for those who are interested.  One optimistic note on all this is to remember that after Reagan broke PATCO in 1981, it only took six years for a new air traffic controllers union to emerge.  The issues that prompt employees to unionize remain eternal -- as long as there is a legal/political environment that allows organizing to occur without coercion, employees will seek to unionize.

- Green policies for thee and not for me.  Nimbyism is an insidious force and it is an oddly powerful one in very "blue" parts of the country like DC.  This is one thing that Yglesias gets exactly right about the District of Columbia.

- And a hearty fuck you from me and my fellow Bay Staters to the unspeakably pig ignorant Michelle Bachmann. 

What else is going on?

  

From my mailbox: Alan Grayson reminds us why unions are vital

Five years (whoa) (yes, it has been that long) after starting litbrit, it has sort of established itself as a formula: life intervenes; reality contravenes; blogging retrocedes. Yet here I am, back at my digital stomping grounds once again: receiving this note from ex-congressman Alan Grayson this morning inspired me. (And with all that's going on right now, both globally and locally, little has been able to inspire me very much lately.)

Given that it hails from the Committee to Elect Alan Grayson, I assume he is aiming to be elected to something? Because if so, hooray! Anyway, reprinted in its entirety:

On May 4, 1886, in Haymarket Square in Chicago, the public rallied peacefully in support of 40,000 workers in Chicago who had gone on strike, to win the right to organize. The police attacked, and eight died.

On July 6, 1892, in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 3800 workers went on strike, to win the right to organize. Three hundred hired and armed goons attacked them. Five people died.

On April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado, 1200 coal miners went on strike, to win the right to organize. The Colorado National Guard attacked their shantytown, and burned it to the ground. Nineteen people died. Two women and 11 children were asphyxiated, and they burned to death.

Here and around the world, many people have fought and died, so that you and I would have the right to organize.

Saturday Open Thread and Thoughts on Wisconsin

 

"Blues from a Gun" - Jesus and Mary Chain

Sorry about the absence -- much lawyering and whatnot going on.

As you all know by now, the Wisconsin Senate engaged in a move to pass a bill solely devoted to stripping collective bargaining rights from state employees last night, in a move designed to avoid the quorum rules.  Whether or not this maneuver will pass legal muster remains to be seen.  The question though, in light of the current move, is where to the unions and their supporters go?

The big thing to realize here is how lethal a blow this legislation could be to the unions involved.  Essentially it is designed to both choke off all funds immediately and to sever the connection between union and member.  It's a pretty insidious piece of work.

First, the state will cease to collect dues from members, a function that employers typically perform by agreement in both the public and private sector when a member signs a dues authorization check off form.  This will cut off the flow of cash to local and state affiliates right away.  As a result, payment to officers and staff will soon prove impossible unless parent unions step in and foot the bill (or the unions themselves have unusually large reserves),  Additionally, the PAC check off will also cease, depleting the funds available for campaign activity.  (General funds used for election purposes will be similarly choked off.) 

In addition to money issues, the unions, once they cease to be recognized as collective bargaining representatives, will not be afforded access to employees during working time, will not be allowed to adjust grievances that arise, and will basically be shut out of any day-to-day advocacy on behalf of employees.

In short, this legislation is designed to immediately strip unions of both financial resources and representative links to the people they have represented.  Unless resisted fiercely, this is the sort of thing that could render the unions completely impotent in a relatively short period of time.

So what is to be done?  Well first, the parent unions -- AFSCME, AFT, NEA, IAFF, etc. are going to have to commit to financing these affiliates.  Their interests in keeping this sort of thing from succeeding is so compelling that I doubt there will be any hesitancy to take this on.  Second, the recall attempts need to be pushed as a matter of institutional life and death -- because they are.  I believe that if a few Republican senators are brought down by this, the impact will be electrifying.  Then sights can be trained on Governor Walker himself.  If he can be bounced it will be an extraordinary win for organized labor.  However, if the unions come up short and the 2012 election cycle proves disappointing, the Wisconsin formula will be repeated in most states where Republicans control the machinery of power.  It is, in short, a life and death struggle.

We need to win.

What's troubling you?   

Either Way, She's A Liar

Lana Reed, who during her two-year tenure at Social and Rehabilitative Services in Kansas personally witnessed millions of dollars in fraud committed against the state, waited until March 10, 2011 to bring the allegations to light.

Ms. Reed, who no longer works for the agency but feels qualified to offer testimony regarding its current practices, alleged that official SRS policies specifically forced her and other case workers to fraudulently give taxpayer money to known illegal immigrants in Kansas.

For some odd reason Reed was never asked why, if millions of dollars were at stake, she never came forward with this information until she was able to make a big splash at a legislative hearing regarding a copycat to Arizona's infamous SB1070.  Reed was not taken into custody, nor can I find any evidence that a grand jury has been convened to investigate her role in knowingly assisting illegal immigrants to commit fraud.

Apparently the presumption of innocence in Kansas is so strong that a public confession in front of state legislators isn't enough to even start turning the wheels of justice.  That, or Lana Reed of Overland Park, KS - and I hope to God she's monitoring mentions of her name - is a liar.

A bad liar, since she either committed fraud against the state of Kansas and kept quiet about it or she just lied to a roomful of legislators, reporters and fellow citizens.  Too bad she'll never be held accountable for it.

A Small Correction for Nate Silver (and chiding Matt Yglesias, while I'm at it)

Nate refers to "the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health care bill that Democrats passed by using a budget reconciliation procedure that bypassed the possibility of a filibuster."

Ummm, no.  The PPACA proper passed the Senate with 60 votes in December 2009, and eventually the House was persuaded to pass identical legislation which could then be signed by President Obama.

All that passed under reconciliation rules was a small package of strictly budget-related fixes - getting rid of stuff like the Cornhusker Kickback.  In the absence of reconciliation, the PPACA would still be law, and would be only slightly different than it is right now.

The meme that the Dems shoved the bill through via reconciliation is a GOP talking point.  It isn't what happened.  I'm damned tired of hearing people who ought to know better repeating this meme. I'm not used to Nate being someone who ought to know better, but doesn't; hopefully this was just a rare lapse on his part.

[Update] Meanwhile, Matt Yglesias is back on his "Hispanic immigrants don't take jobs from Americans" bandwagon:

An increased flow of Hispanophone busboys increases demand for Anglophone waiters. Which is to say that the people negatively impacted by high levels of immigration from Latin America are people who are very similar to the immigrants, people with little education or ability to speak English.

See?  We and they have complementary skills.  We're not competing with them for jobs.

Even though I'm all for liberalized immigration from south of the border, this argument makes no sense to me.  Maybe at any given moment in time, that's true.  But I'd bet you that all those Hispanic roofing crews and carpet installers are doing work that was being done by whites and blacks 25 years ago.  And I'd bet there are a fair number of semi-skilled trades where such supplantation has occurred during that stretch of time.  Gutter installers, landscaping crews, who knows what else.  Basically, jobs that demand more skill than Harry Homeowner can pick up in a weekend, but no more skill than can be learned over a period of time on the job, if one is willing to work hard and pay attention to what one is doing.  And it's not important that the crew speak English; all one really needs is one bilingual person supervising several crews working in an area.

It's hard to imagine that this doesn't negatively affect the income prospects of non-immigrant workers who don't have the skills for better jobs than these.  And it's hard to see where a class of equally good jobs for low-skill workers would emerge as a result of the increased overall wealth of our society that would result from more immigration.  Maybe in the long run such jobs emerge, but you know what Keynes said about the long run.

Like I said, I'm all for liberalized immigration; somebody's got to be working while I'm enjoying my well-deserved retirement a dozen years or so down the road, and the more somebodies, the better.  But there are nontrivial numbers of people who wind up being losers in this tradeoff, even while most of us benefit.  Pretending it's otherwise is making up one's own reality.  I'm not sure what we do about this, but to just gloss past it and imply we don't need to do anything to ease the consequences for the losers because there really aren't any is just absurd.

 

What are you feeling grouchy about today?  Consider this an open thread.

The 'Dean' Is Dead

All I can say is, I didn't want Broder to kiss this world goodbye.  I just wanted him to completely and permanently retire from punditry.  I'm sure he was a nice man and all that, and knew a shitload of political trivia.  But he did a lot of harm to our national dialogue with his unfortunately trendsetting worship of bipartisanship and Great Leaders reaching Great Compromises, while being unable to see the political truths that were staring him in the face. 

Apparently he died from complications of diabetes, which can't be a fun way to go (there seem to be very few fun ways to go, actually - the process of dying by and large seems to suck), but if I didn't know that, I'd be tempted to ascribe his death to the consequences of having a clue-by-4 land on his head.

The US Government Needs To Stop Its Illegal Practices NOW

This is sick, disgusting treatment.  It would have surprised me even if George Bush was still president.  That it is happening under a Democratic president - one who clearly made protecting constitutional rights a centerpiece of his campaign - makes it far worse.

I simply do not care what the politics on this are.  I do not care what opposition the GOP might put up or what might come from Democrats.  I don't care what the Villagers would say, or anything other than the fact that an American citizen is being denied basic rights granted by the Constitution of the United States.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) is today releasing letters from the Secretaries of the Defense and the Army that respond to repeated requests to visit with Private First Class (Pfc.) Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of leaking confidential materials to Wikileaks. Kucinich is releasing the letters after new allegations emerged of Manning being stripped naked and left in his cell for seven hours.

“After initial allegations of mistreatment, I requested a visit with Private Manning to see for myself the conditions of his treatment. Despite the fact that Manning has not been found guilty of any crime, his lawyer reports that he is in isolation 23 out 24 hours every day, conditions which may violate his 8th Amendment protection from ‘cruel and unusual’ punishment. This treatment is in stark contrast to a presumption of innocence and raises questions of whether Pfc. Manning can be fit for trial.” said Kucinich.

“My request to visit with Pfc. Manning must not be delayed further. Today we have new reports that Manning was stripped naked and left in his cell for seven hours. While refusing to explain the justification for the treatment, a marine spokesman confirmed the actions but claimed they were ‘not punitive.’

“Is this Quantico or Abu Ghraib? Officials have confirmed the ‘non-punitive’ stripping of an American soldier who has not been found guilty of any crime. This ‘non-punitive’ action would be considered a violation of the Army Field Manual if used in an interrogation overseas. The justification for and purpose of this action certainly raises questions of ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ and could constitute a potential violation of international law,” said Kucinich.

The Army Field Manual, 2-22.3 (FM 34-52): Human Intelligence Collector Operations, Page 5-21, section 5-75 clearly states that: ‘If used in conjunction with intelligence interrogations, prohibited actions include, but are not limited to- Forcing the detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner.’

“Who ordered him stripped?” asked Kucinich.

President Obama, if Bradley Manning broke the law, charge and try him.  If the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay have broken the law, charge and try them.  Set free those against whom there is no sufficient evidence and those who are acquitted.  Then close the damn thing down. 

For Christ's sake, man, do you want your legacy to be a two-term president or possibly a one-termer who did the right thing?

What Digby Said

Go Chuck Schumer!

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) called the Republican Party's bluff on the need for deficit reduction Wednesday, outlining a fiscal framework that involves broader cuts and revenue raisers than the GOP has proposed -- and warning that there will be no agreement on funding the government unless the GOP broadens its approach. . .

Schumer noted that the GOP's plan for spending cuts does almost nothing to reduce the deficit -- a fact that runs at cross-purposes to their insistence that the deficit must be reduced. . .

Schumer endorsed the approaches taken by Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, both of whom reduced or eliminated deficits by cutting discretionary spending and addressing entitlements and tax revenues. He identified achievable savings on all three flanks, including cuts to defense spending, agriculture subsidies, and a surtax on millionaires and billionaires.

Whatever platform you might have, use it to praise Schumer what he's doing here.  As for digby herself:

This is the first time in quite a while that I'm seeing something other than assurances that we have to "trust" somebody to have our best interests in mind behind closed doors. This is out front --- they're going on the record. Good for them.

I would guess that the Republicans will fight that like rabid dogs but at least the Democrats are out there fighting smartly for once. They aren't great at leading but at least they are showing that they're capable of following the people rather than the Tea Party crowd or the beltway conventional wisdom. Baby steps.

Who knows? It might even work.

d

Local Firm Undergoes Reorganization

The Suh Corporation of Johnson County, Kansas, announced today that it will voluntarily enter Chapter 13 bankruptcy reorganization.  President and COO Stephen Suh declared that the move was due to several factors: rising healthcare costs for the corporations four full-time employees, uncertainty over a possible federal government shutdown disrupting primary revenue streams, and a desire on the part of the Board of Directors to reduce costs by not owning the firm's headquarters, choosing to lease facilities instead.

"We have reached the conclusion that it doesn't make sense to pay a financial institution 1.5 times the worth of the building and grounds in interest alone, and once taxes and upkeep are included it's clear that the money spent on these items would be better used in investments," Suh said in a prepared statement.  "Even with the current economic difficulties, a careful investment strategy will reap far greater rewards than the hope that the property will increase in value and could be sold at some future time."

Suh stressed that this is a reorganization, and that creditors will still be repaid most, if not all, of what is owed.  "Really, the only creditor that might take a hit is the mortgage-holder, and they will receive the property in as good shape as it was when we first located our operations there."

The Suh Corporation has already secured new facilities in the same part of Johnson County, and will continue its extensive involvement in local educational programs, athletics and its support of area businesses. 

Declared Suh, "We've been in business for almost 17 years now, and this is the first reorganization we've had to pursue.  Frankly, a lot of small businesses - even large corporations - would give quite a lot to have a record like ours."

Wednesday Open Thread

 

"Apothecary Love" - The Low Anthem

It seems that the James O'Keefe bullshit wagon has struck pay-dirt again and this time it is NPR pitifully apologizing for the opinions voiced by one of its fundraisers at a lunch.  At what point is it going to occur to people that bowing and scraping and apologizing to these people is a horrible idea.  It only encourages them -- and the vast right wing conspiracy in which they are participating.  Indeed, O'Keefe has now claimed another scalp it would seem. 

First, this fellow was not a journalist or an opinion provider for NPR -- he was a fund raiser.  Evidently, no NPR employee is allowed to voice opinions that cause Republicans to get upset.  And second, how outrageous were the opinions expressed, about the racism in conservative ranks, when you are talking about a Republican Party in which Michelle Bachmann gets to go on Meet the Press and decry Obama's "gangster government" -- that would be "gangsta" Michelle -- and Mike Huckabee gets to denounce the President's mythical Kenyan upbringing from his perch at Fox, and Peter King gets to use his congressional chairmanship to harass and denigrate American Muslims, and general anti-Islamic ugliness is part of the daily fabric of right wing rhetoric, and well, to be ecumenical about things, this classic trope in Arkansas (how else to make that matzo?), and so on. 

On another note, DC's new mayor has gotten off to a bit of a bumpy start and I was starting to have my doubts about having voted for him, but just in time Adrian Fenty reminded me why I did so.    Now I am feeling pretty pleased to have helped to send him and the execrable Michelle Rhee packing.

How have you helped to bring about the triumph of sharia law today?   

Tuesday Open Thread and McArdle Smackdown

 

"Starry Eyes" - The Records

A perfect pop confection with the bonus of using the line "the writ has hit the fan."

Alas, early day heading down to Richmond for a 9:00 AM meeting.  Started to write a post on Megan McArdle and what she doesn't know and was afraid I would use all available bandwidth.  It's just embarrassing the way she poses as someone with expertise in anything -- really.  I read her hideous post about 401(k) plans versus defined benefit plans and then followed up with her paean to firing teachers and thought my head would explode. 

Just briefly, from her pension post is this gem:

The problem, Samwick concludes, is not that we used to have fantastic defined benefit plans, and now we don't--DB plans also take big hits when the market falls, and though they do have a government backstop which 401(k)s don't, they also make a mid-career job loss utterly catastrophic. So there's no clear winner on the security side.

Actually, if you lose your job mid-career and you have been there for a while -- that is, you have the requisite five years of vesting service required under ERISA to have a right to receive a nonforfeitable benefit -- it won't be a disaster at all.  There will be a pension waiting for you when you reach retirement age.  It will pay you a monthly benefit for life, and if your spouse survives you it will, by law, pay him or her a survivor's annuity for life.  On the other hand, if you have a 401(k) in this situation, chances are you will withdraw the balance and spend it. 

I happen to be going to a pension fund meeting tomorrow for one of the trades I represent and I looked through the pension applications for the meeting.  I saw one guy who spent his whole life in the union and he will get a monthly benefit of $2,500 -- $30,000 a year -- for the rest of his life.  Good solid income replacement -- probably about 60% of his typical earnings in a year.  With Social Security, I suspect that he will achieve pretty close to 100% income replacement.  But even the guys who left the unionized industry a long time ago benefit from this type of plan.  A guy of similar age who stopped participating in the plan back in 1992 is still going to receive $900 a month for the rest of his life.  Had he been in just a 401(k) plan I can guarantee you that he would likely have taken a severance distribution and spent it -- because that's what people do.

But Megan, who I would bet a large sum of money has no experience with defined benefit plans at all, seems to think that these kind of lifetime benefits, which have no risk to the pensioner, are the same as a 401(k) where the participant bears all of the investment risk as well as the risk of outliving his/her money.  

She brings the same care and knowledge to her discussion of teachers and education reform, arguing for the elimination of seniority and tenure, positing that teacher experience makes no difference after four or five years, and contending that we would be better off opening teaching by

looking for ways to make teaching more open to part-timers and people in second, third, or eighth career cycles, and to make it easier for teachers to move around between schools and districts, and between teaching and other industries.

One is struck by the contempt for experience and expertise, but then you realize that McArdle has neither, so of course she devalues them.  She thinks we all have jobs akin to hers -- where you pull some half-assed theory about something you know fuck all about, write about it badly, and head off to happy hour.  Thank God we're entrusting nothing more important than the Atlantic's audience to her.

Monday Musings and Open Thread

 

"One More Song the Radio Won't Like" - Kathleen Edwards

(Possibly the Canadian Lucinda Williams.)

- The War on Women has many fronts.  Katha Pollitt has a great column laying out the sweep of the GOP war to control the wombs of women everywhere.  In a just world, Pollitt would have a column with the New York Times and Chunky Bobo would be fingering his rosaries in well deserved obscurity.  (h/t to Atrios.)

- The War on Unions is all about power -- the crushing of what little countervailing political power against the corporate world view remains.  The indispensable Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson explain.  I'm not quite sure how this one got into the pages of the Washington Post.  

- The War on Women in Unions also continues unabated. Dana Goldstein discusses the dynamics of exempting police and firefighters unions from anti-collective bargaining legislation.    (h/t Prup.)

What else is happening out there? 

Sunday Open Thread

George Will thinks (yeah, I know: George Will thinks?  Are you sure?  No, not really!) that the fact-free rants of Gingrich and Huckabee discredit the GOP.  I doubt it - George Will's fact-free rants against everything from high-speed rail to global warming still haven't discredited either him or the newspapers and magazines that publish his column, or the talk shows that feature him as a regular commentator.

Fred Hiatt (or whoever's penning today's lead WaPo editorial) says that while the Iraqi government's response to protests there is bad, "imagine Saddam Hussein's response."  It's a nice try at retroactively justifying our 2003 invasion...wait, no.  It's a really, really dumb try at it.

If we hadn't invaded, Iraq would probably be playing out in a manner somewhat like Libya.  And Libya appears to be in a genuine civil war between Qaddafi loyalists (relatively limited in number, but with a lot of firepower) and Qaddafi opponents, that has already resulted in a lot of bloodshed, with more surely coming.  Iraq is likely to avoid most of that.

But mostly because the worst has already happened in Iraq, as a result of the forces our invasion set loose: hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have already died in the past eight years (above and beyond the normal mortality rate) and their economy and infrastructure are still a shambles compared to their pre-invasion state.  Saddam was every bit as bad as advertised, but it would still have been far better for both Iraq and America if we had never invaded.

The Sunday Washington Post these days is barely bigger than its daily paper used to be, 4-5 years ago.  Across the board, the paper has been massively downsized.  With one exception: the opinion pages.  They have as many op-ed columnists as they did before the Great Shrinkage, and they still have two full pages of editorials, op-eds, and the like on a daily basis, with more on Sundays.  It's pretty clear that they see propagation of the Village worldview as their core mission, the one thing that they can't cut back no matter how much money they're losing.

Well, I've got to take some junk to the recycling center before the rains get too heavy here.  What are the rest of you up to?

Saturday Open Thread

"Making Flippy Floppy" - Talking Heads

- For Maryland Delegate Sam Arora. 

- What is "in a pie eating contest" Alex. 

- Indian workers get a bit touchy about layoffs.  Now, in our new era of civility, far be it from me to suggest employer flambe as the new concerted activity, but . . . . Fox News would really have a field day with this sort of thing.  You want to see thuggish . . .

Heading out to eat pit beef and oysters and drink beer with one of my local unions and their retirees up in Charm City. 

How about you? 

Friday Musings and Open Thread

 

"You Can't Stand Me Now" - Libertines

- Good news on the jobs front.  This appears to be the kind of private sector momentum that we have been waiting for for a very long time.  Steve Bennen has a good chart showing the progress here.  The 222,000 new private sector jobs have been offset a bit by a contraction of 30,000 jobs in the public sector.  Unemployment inched under 9% as well, which seems like it could be a psychologoically significant milestone in terms of general political mood.  The concern, of course, is that in order to make a real dent in unemployment there really needs to be even more robust jobs growth and it must be sustained for many months on end.  Weighing against this possibility is the foolish austerity measures being demanded by Republicans at both the federal and stae levels.  There is a real danger that all of the efforts that have gone into stabilizing the economy could come to naught, espeically if the increase in oil prices continues unabated.

- As I've noted before, one would think that many Republicans are acting as agents to stimulate Democratic voter turnout and solidarity in 2012.  The addition of gay bashing provisions to the anti-union legislation narrowly passed in Ohio the other day would seem emblematic of this trend.  I suspect that we may well look back in 2012 after Obama carries Ohio again and we will see this as a pivotal moment.  

- Chris Hayes has a good take on why there is no sense of urgency among the political and media elite in DC about unemployment.    Only in this strangely cloistered environment, can the deficit seem like the moral issue of the day. (Although if some of these folks would just travel a mile or two across the Anacostia River, unemployment and poverty are there in abundant glory for all to see.)

- Legalization of gay marriage in Maryland remains poised on a knife's edge.  It's not quite clear if the Dems can get the bill out of the House Judiciary Committee and through the full House, in large part because of an infuriating about face by one delegate.  [Update:  But possibly a flop flip.]  Governor Martin O'Malley has said that he will sign the bill, so this is the lone remaining hurdle, at least until a voter referendum can be held.  I think a referendum in 2012 would likely result in an affirmation of legalization.

- I've seen some denunciations about Obama traveling to Miami to attend a ceremony celebrating improved educational achievement at a public high school, where Jeb Bush will be among the invited dignitaries.  People have got to understand that the President cannot function solely as a partisan political figure.  Jeb Bush, despite my own views of him, remains a pretty popular figure in Florida, which remains a pivotal battleground in presidential politics (along with Ohio).  A Democrat who can win Florida and Ohio is essentially guaranteed the presidency at this time.  And independent voters, who will hold the balance of power there, tend to like this sort of thing.  So really, let's not overreact, shall we. 

- Speaking of which, I caught a little of Eliot Spitzer denouncing Obama's lack of leadership on Libya and the budget the other night.  Some political figures and journalists simply cannot comprehend the notion that sometimes it is best for the President to keep his mouth shut and let things develop a bit before publicly commiting himself to a course of action.  The idea of quiet contemplation and caution is evidently just unthinkable to Spitzer -- which may be why he is currently sitting where he is.  

Must read horribly boring investment documents for a pension plan.

Talk amongst yourselves.   

Thursday Open Thread

 

"Big Balls" - AC/DC

I couldn't resist after reading this link, from oddjob, about a dialogue between the ludicrous and repulsive duo of Donald Trump and Rush Limbaugh.  Talk about two guys shamelessly compensating for their own manifest inadequacies.  Ugh. 

What's going on?    

Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers

From Forbes magazine:

Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers

Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.

You can read the whole article here.

Why We Need a Progressive Party-Within-A-Party

We don't need purity, we just need a clearly identifiable group that people can support, who'll fight for the stuff in the first paragraph below, and against the stuff in the second, when the Democratic Party itself fails to:

The survey [...] listed 26 different ways to reduce the federal budget deficit. The most popular: placing a surtax on federal income taxes for those who make more than $1 million per year (81 percent said that was acceptable), eliminating spending on earmarks (78 percent), eliminating funding for weapons systems the Defense Department says aren’t necessary (76 percent) and eliminating tax credits for the oil and gas industries (74 percent).

The least popular: cutting funding for Medicaid, the federal government health-care program for the poor (32 percent said that was acceptable); cutting funding for Medicare, the federal government health-care program for seniors (23 percent); cutting funding for K-12 education (22 percent); and cutting funding for Social Security (22 percent).

This isn't rocket science.  Most people are really on our side with respect to a core group of pocketbook issues.  But enough Dems are compromised that the party all too frequently fails to take advantage of this.  There needs to be a group that people can join and support that will fight for basic stuff like this.  It can either be the Democratic Party, or failing that, it should be some caucus within the party actively working to make the Democratic Party fight for the things Democrats have historically existed to fight for. 

A third party is out; we've been there, done that.  Ditto just giving up on the Democrats and saying it doesn't make any difference who runs things.

Via Kevin Drum.

The First Amendment Protects Vicious Speech

The Supreme Court has ruled that Westboro Baptist Church's antics at funerals for US soldiers is protected speech under the First Amendment.  To this non-lawyer, it was the correct decision to make.  The members of Westboro Baptist Church are horrible people, but they have the right to be horrible people; indeed, they have the right to proclaim how awful they are pretty much whenever they want.

Frankly, no one from WBC has ever been connected to violence against any person or property.  In fact, they never advocate violence against anyone.  In this way, the members of Westboro Baptist Church are better citizens, even better people, than Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, even Paul Broun.  If we're not only going to protect the right of people like that to say whatever they want (or laugh at the idea of someone assassinating the President of the United States), but also going to provide them with fame and wealth, then we should be able to handle the attention whores from Topeka.

What I find fascinating about this case is that it actually made it to court at all, let alone all the way to the top court of the nation.  Members of every minority group in this country experience hate speech all the time, from casual comments in offices, to unwanted shouts on the street, to organized protests.  Westboro Baptist Church had been protesting for a very long time, but it wasn't until they started to target soldiers that anything was done about it through the courts, because homosexuals are A) unfortuantely used to this treatment and B) fully aware that taking their tormentors to court only increases the likelihood of violence against them.

Instead of trying to restrict First Amendment rights, we need to work harder at applying the laws we do have fairly and consistently.  If the rest of the country would be willing to leave their irrational prejudicies and fears behind, groups like Westboro Baptist Church would fade away.

Wednesday Open Thread

 

"The Man in the Corner Shop" - The Jam

I got the day of the week right this time, so that's progress. 

Clearly we need to have some new thread.  This item, posted by oddjob on yesterday's thread, would seem like an interesting thing to which to give money.  Have to see what emerges. 

What's going on?   

The War on Solidarity and Community

Good piece in the Nation by Ilyse Hogue tying together the right wing attacks on ACORN, Planned Parenthood, and labor unions and a good discussion by Paul Waldman at TAPPED (who is becoming a favorite of mine) about same.  Hogue points out that these institutions have in common the fact that they act in a broad political and community sphere, making the lives of ordinary people better while also advocating for laws and policies that serve the greater good rather than simply a narrow and selfish interest.

The right wing is attacking these institutions because they have been both politically effective and because they present an alternative vision of society to that posed by the worshippers of Mammon.  None of these institutions is profit driven -- all seek to instill a sense of engagement in their constituencies and each tries to combat feelings of helplessness and atomization in the people they serve. 

The goal of right wing politics is to diminish engagement among and political participation by society's lower tier -- hence voter suppression efforts, burdensome ID requirements, and the constant drumbeat about nonexistent electoral fraud.  They also strive mightily, as Waldman points out, to avoid the development of class consciousness among working class people.  Class consciousness leads to bonds of solidarity forming, of militancy, of a sense of mission among people, none of which is good for conservatives.  Left on their own, poor and working class people are virtually powerless in this society -- they cannot get their concerns heard on Capitol Hill or in various state houses, they cannot present an alternative narrative to the way life might be lived, and they remain invisible, as a class, to elite political and media attention.  (Only in such a world could David Brooks seriously posit the notion that the deficit is the nation's number one moral issue -- as opposed say to the fact that 10% of the nation is unemployed, that 20% of children are living in poverty, or that 50 million people are uninsured in what remains, however diminished, the richest society on earth.)  

A left that is devoid of unions and community organizations is going to be a left that has a very difficult time carrying out politics and policies that actually engage this large segment of the populace.  The online left has its place, but it is not a substitute for grass roots, face-to-face activism, despite what loathsome scumbag Mickey Kaus might suggest.  What will be left of the left, so to speak, will be a loose conglomeration of single issue constituencies and an online community of bloggers and journalists with general broad philosophical agreement regarding liberal politics -- in other words, politics carried on by  bright people with keyboards and good hearts, which is not a bad thing.  But it will be organically quite different from a real community that empowers people in their daily lives to take action to obtain and exercise power for the collective good.  Again, this strikes me as the central dilemma for constructing the next left.  (And is why, in the end, something like gay marriage will happen -- because it fits nicely into our cultural individual rights narrative and it doesn't cost anybody anything -- unlike collective bargaining.)     

Republicans are crazy in policy terms -- irrational, unempirical, driven frequently by a crazy kind of spite.  However, they are actually perfectly rational in terms of political fighting.  They know who threatens them and they will stop at nothing to destroy them.  These are hard lessons that those of us on the liberal-left need to internalize.       

Tuesday* Open Thread

 

"Don't Carry it All" - Decemberists

I don't usually post two songs from the same recording so quickly, but Corvus pointed out the left wing message within this very tuneful song and I was sold -- especially after despairing a bit over the last post.  It really is a non-didactic paean to solidarity: 

Here we come to a turning of the season
Witness to the arc towards the sun
A neighbor's blessed burden within reason
Becomes a burden borne of all and one

And nobody, nobody knows
Let the yoke fall from our shoulders
Don't carry it all, don't carry it all . . .

Let every vessel pitching hard to starboard
Lay its head on summer's freckled knees . . . .

So raise a glass to turnings of the season
And watch it as it arcs towards the sun
And you must bear your neighbor's burden within reason
And your labors will be born when all is done

(I particularly like the "pitching hard to starboard" metaphor -- that's "right" in nautical terms for all you landlubbers.)

Speaking of not in the spirit of solidarity, this piece by Ezra kind of pisses me off.  Both in its continued acceptance that incompetent teachers are a big part of America's educational problems, its buying into the notion that teacher layoffs in the tens of thousands are necessary and acceptable, and its implicit premise (at least to my old eyes) that younger teachers are superior to older.  Ezra also seems to miss the fact that Randi Weingarten, as the President of the AFT, represents the minority of unionized teachers in America.  AFT tends to be the union of choice in big cities, but most teachers in suburban district belong to the National Education Association -- NEA probably represents three to four times the number of teachers.  (I've always liked AFT's more union-like stance better -- Weingarten is an exceptionally smart leader too.)    

So neighbors -- what's going on with you?

*Thanks to bbw for noting my leaning forward approach to open threading -- Tuesday, Wednesday -- it's all the same.  I've got Friday on my mind.