Broke In The Age Of Bushco

We will soon be observing the three-year anniversary of the Congress- ional passing and signage by George W. Milhous Bush of the so-called Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, more commonly referred to as the Bankruptcy Bill. It passed on April 14, 2005 and became law on April 20th.

Aside from the so-called “K” Street project, the energy industry giveaways, cuts in the estate tax and cover-up of Mark Foley (as well as failing to craft 9 of 11 appropriations bills after they lost Capitol Hill in November 2006), this to me represents the single most scandalous act of the 109th Congress (lots of company in that category, I realize).

James Surowiecki of The New Yorker provides more background and tells us what has happened since (from here)…

In recent months, a lot of people have been handed financial get-out-of-jail-free cards. C.E.O.s who presided over billions in losses have walked away with tens of millions in compensation. The Federal Reserve has showered cheap money on banks and brokerages. Even Bear Stearns caught a break when, last week, J.P. Morgan agreed to quintuple the price it will pay to take over the firm. But there’s one group for whom forgiveness has not been forthcoming: ordinary consumers struggling with piles of credit-card debt. For them, escaping the burden of their bad decisions and their bad luck has become much harder.

That’s because of a law that Congress passed (the Bankruptcy Bill), which has made it more difficult for people to write off their debts. Filing for bankruptcy has become much more expensive. More important, while lower income people can still declare Chapter 7, which takes away your assets but then discharges your debts, most middle- and higher-income people now have to declare Chapter 13. That means they have to pay their creditors monthly for five years before they’re free.

And as we know, Dubya promised, not unlike the carney hustler at the circus, that this scheme would “make credit more affordable” …

So are we (better off)? That depends on your perspective. The law did slash the number of bankruptcies – they fell by sixty-two percent between 2004 and 2006. And the credit-card companies should be happy – their profits rose thirty percent between 2005 and 2007. But the law hasn’t done much for anyone else. Interest rates and credit-card fees have not fallen as promised. And for debtors life has become significantly harder: many can’t afford bankruptcy – strangely enough, it’s possible to be too poor to pay the filing fees – and many others can’t qualify. These people will either spend the next five years having their paychecks garnished or simply muddle along, avoiding debt collectors and accumulating huge interest and late fees on their credit cards.

And this Democracy Now! post, including an interview with Dem U.S. House Rep Jim McDermott, tells us…

The core of the bill was written in 1997. The House passed versions of it eight times but it usually stalled in the Senate. When the bill did pass the Senate, then-President Bill Clinton refused to sign it.

This time around (in ’05), House Republican leaders refused to consider amendments on the floor and voted down a Democratic attempt to return the bill to committee. The amendments would have forced lenders to keep fees in check, expand disclosure, and would have given extra protection to victims of identity theft.

And speaking of amendments to the Bankruptcy Bill, this incredibly detailed Daily Kos post from March 2005 by Maryscott O’Connor give us a breakdown on how they were defeated in the Senate so the bill in its entirety could be “ramroded” through Congress (as the Washington Post noted at that time – apparently, a moribund journalistic impulse from its editorial board sprung to life - the bill’s “staunchest proponents should be embarrassed that it was muscled through the House in this kind of Potemkin-democracy way. This process-or, more precisely, lack of process-is becoming routine”).

In the O’Connor post, three names appear over and over again as the amendments are defeated, and those are Tom Carper, Ben Nelson, and Orrin Hatch (and as much as I praised Sen. Charles Grassley on SCHIP over the last few months, he deserves equal parts scorn for bringing this vile garbage of a bill to hideous fruition). Hatch opposed a so-called “homestead” exemption to protect senior citizens from being forced into bankruptcy due to health-care costs because it could have also allowed our government to go after the estates of wealthy robber-baron CEOs should we try to hold them liable for their mismanagement and fraud.

Also, for anyone who wonders why Joe “Boogaloo” Biden can never seem to get it going with that presidential candidacy of his every four years, consider that, despite his numerous accomplishments in public life, he has cast some genuinely stinky votes every so often, and he did so here, opposing an amendment “…To protect service members and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy, to disallow certain claims by lenders charging usurious interest rates to servicemembers, and to allow servicemembers to exempt property based on the law of the State of their premilitary residence.”

Another note…though he is still not a well man I’m sure, Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota nonetheless needs to be held to account for his cowardice here also.

And going back to the Surowiecki column, he makes the following point also…

Making it harder for people to discharge their credit-card debts has other drawbacks as well. Homeowners would once do almost anything to keep up their payments on their homes, even if it meant falling behind on other debts. In the past year, though, economists have reported an increase in the number of people who are just walking away from their homes, because it’s now often easier to abandon a mortgage than a credit-card bill. (The practice has even been given a name – “jingle mail,” because people simply send their keys back in an envelope.) So the new law may very well have exacerbated the housing crisis.

I know Atrios among others has made that point before now, but it bears repeating - back to Surowiecki...

(During the ‘90s)…a tougher law would have made sense if the U.S. really had been dealing with a crisis. But it wasn’t. While the number of bankruptcies soared, the economy as a whole showed no great signs of strain; it grew briskly, creating millions of new businesses and new jobs. The credit-card companies themselves were doing fine too: between 1995 and 2004, as bankruptcies nearly doubled, their profits nearly tripled. In responding to an imaginary threat, we ended up making the economy less dynamic and less flexible. Now that hard times are here, we may find ourselves with a genuine bankruptcy crisis. But it will be one that Congress created.

And how exactly did the three individuals running for president vote on the Bankruptcy Bill? Glad you asked…

To say that this was an inopportune vote for the New York senator to miss is an understatement.

Finally, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt brings us a summary today on the economic effects of the non-prosperity brought to us by our ruling cabal, including the destruction caused by the Bankruptcy Bill (a well-written but depressing read). Lest I leave you with nothing but gloom and doom (living up to my “handle,” I know), please allow me to note that Leonhardt – with the type of reporting typically forsaken for so long by our corporate media during the reign of Bushco – tells us that the eventual way out of our mess will come with the investment in the people and infrastructure of this country that has been neglected for very nearly 30 years, primarily under Republican governance.

If that isn’t a message written in great big 20-foot-high neon letters to keep in mind this November 4th when we all do our civic duty, I don’t know what is.

Update 4/22/08: More horror stories...

Sects And Violence In Iraq

(You knew I was overdue for a really bad pun, didn't you?)...

White House flak Tony Fratto in the Monday press briefing (from here)…

Q Also, how does this latest violence in Iraq and the latest uncertainty about what's going on color the Petraeus-Crocker testimony this time around? It obviously has changed the equation. I mean, weeks ago it looked like the surge was -- you know, had this pretty rosy cast, and now with all this renewed violence, I think it has changed the dynamics. So how has this changed the equation?

MR. FRATTO: Well, I think we've thrown out all of the rose-colored glasses in how we look at Iraq, and try to look at it through clear lenses as to what is actually going on in the country. And what is happening there, I think what we are all seeing is that the Iraqi political leadership is trying to take hold of the security for their country. They took a very bold, aggressive action in Basra. It wasn't a overall success, but it -- but we learned a lot about what the capabilities of the Iraqi army are, and we learned a lot -- and maybe this is even the most important thing -- of what the capabilities and intentions of the Iraqi leadership are to go after criminal elements and illegal militias in their country, and to evenly enforce the rule of law across the country.

And that is critically important, and it's something that other political leaders in Iraq have rallied around. Remember what was -- something that was overlooked in here -- I saw a lot of coverage last week about a number of Iraqi soldiers who refused to take part in the Basra action. What didn't get a lot of coverage, but was really significant, was that these were integrated Shia and Sunni Iraqi army units, fighting mainly Shia criminal elements and Shia militia in the Basra region. We also see these same integrated Shia and Sunni units fighting Sunni elements in the north, in Mosul, and in northern Iraq.

And that's important. This is what the -- what the critics have said that the Iraqi leadership didn't have the capability of doing, which was to fight Shia; that they were sectarian -- and I think we're seeing evidence to the contrary of that; that they are willing to fight illegal militia and criminal elements wherever they find them; that if you are carrying a gun in opposition to the government, they were going to oppose you. And that is -- that's very important.

Meanwhile, Cenk Uygur provides the following dose of reality here...

Who is the Iraqi Army? That seems like a strange question. What do I mean?

The Bush administration claims the Iraqi Army is a unified force of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds who fight together for the centralized government of Iraq. That's complete nonsense.

In fact, the different divisions of the army are segregated by sect. The so-called Iraqi Army fighting in the south right now is mainly the Badr Corps. This is a rival Shiite militia to Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.

The Badr Corps is connected to the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council. Don't get freaked out, they're theoretically the good guys. Well, at least they are the largest political party in Iraq and the ones we are supporting. Here's the problem -- they're not the good guys at all. They ran death squads and torture chambers out of the Interior Ministry throughout the period of ethnic cleansing in Iraq.

And get this, out of all the parties in Iraq, the one most closely linked to Iran is -- the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and their militia partners in the Badr Corps.

…

…I'm not frustrated by the fact that the public isn't up on all this. I'm frustrated that our media hasn't even bothered to try to figure it out…The press has bought into this fiction that we are fighting against Iranian proxies.

Confused? I sure as hell am (and somehow, I’m sure Fratto and his playmates are also).

285 days and counting, people…

Jim's And Pat's Have Better Steaks Anyway

(A local Philly thing coming up, just to let you know…).

I don’t know about you, but I’ve just about had it with Joey Vento, owner of Geno’s, a steak sandwich shop in South Philadelphia.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports here that Vento won his case against the city of Philadelphia in which he was asked to take down the sign outside of his establishment that said “This is America. When ordering, please speak English.”

(Of course, there’s the issue of whether or not “English” is a proprietary language of this country or Great Britain since there are subtle differences between the two, so Vento really couldn’t claim English as a wholly American language anyway, or at least imply that…but I digress.)

Apparently, though, merely emerging victorious is not good enough for Vento, who…

…yesterday demanded a revision of the Commission on Human Relations' practices. If nothing is done, he said, he will sue. Also, he wants an apology from Mayor (Michael) Nutter.

Vento said yesterday he was insulted by Nutter's returning a $1,000 donation he had made to his election campaign, and by the mayor's statement that the commission's pursuit of the case "was good for the city."

"At this point, I can't have respect for the mayor," Vento told reporters gathered at his shop at Ninth Street and Passyunk Avenue.

Mayoral spokesman Doug Oliver said Nutter had no comment on Vento's case.

"We recognize that the Human Relations Commission plays an important role in investigating complaints of discrimination and bias-related issues," Oliver said.

And of course, Vento has a second lawyer involved in addition to Albert Weiss who represented him in the original action (his right, I know)…

Shannon Goessling, executive director of the Southeastern Legal Foundation, a public-interest law firm in Atlanta that championed the case as a "First Amendment question," said Vento wanted a change in the way the city handles such cases.

"What the commission did to Mr. Vento in dragging his name through the mud for 21 months was unconscionable and unconstitutional," she said.

"A decision could have been made two days after the complaint was filed," Goessling said. "That's not what happened. But for the resources of Joey Vento and his attitude about standing up for the small-business owner, he might not have been in the position you see now. He is a victor because he had resources."

OK, so now Vento is prepared to wage another legal battle to try to make Philadelphia’s Human Rights Commission respond more proactively (as he sees it), costing more taxpayer dollars that could be used more effectively for city services and other related costs, a particularly important issue during this recession.

Over a sign. Over a stupid, fracking sign!

I realize that neither I nor anyone else has the right to tell Vento how to run his business. But as City Councilman James F. Kenney noted, the sign sends a particularly bad message when the city is trying to attract international tourists.

But hey, if Vento wants to be a troglodyte, that’s his choice. However, suing the city because it didn’t act the way he wanted is venturing beyond mere egomania into xenophobic stupidity…cubed.

Monday Tuesday Stuff

Annie Lennox should sue over this - "is it McCaining with you?" Well, IS IT??...



...getting serious, here is Obama more or less trying to provide context about Iraq "on the record" today as opposed to asking Petraeus an actual question, important as it is for the Senator to do that; Hillary Clinton also "speechified" in a statesman ("statesperson"?)-like way as well, and aside from confusing the Sunnis and the Shiites again, McCain acted like you'd expect...



Update 4/9/08: Yep, sometimes this blogging thing gets to be a bit of a chore; my bad for brainlessly screwing up the day.

The Latest From The McCain PR Agency

Time’s Jay Newton-Small tells us here that the Repugs are doing their best to tell us what “Straight Talk” McCain really meant to say at that New Hampshire town hall meeting pertaining to that “100 years” quote of his.

See, McCain meant “100 years” of something approximating our presence in South Korea (which has not always been joyful at times, though nothing like Iraq) and not, like, y’know, actual war for that whole period (though, as Newton-Small notes, I’m sure it would be news to Seoul to discover that we were, in fact, an occupying power).

The point of noting this, ultimately, isn’t to play word games. It is to note the fact that neither McCain nor anyone else has a clue as to how we may find ourselves in a situation in Iraq where, absent actual fighting, we are little more than a ceremonial presence, as we are in South Korea. And leave it to Newton-Small and her brethren to make sure we all understand what McCain’s wording meant, even though trying to “connect the dots” as to how we may achieve a circumstance described by the wording is apparently too much trouble.

And as if that wasn’t enough…

The GOP has been quick to accuse (Barack) Obama of crossing the politics-of-hope line in the sand with his continued use of this line. Perhaps they have a point. It is because of the Bush campaign's daily flip-flop attacks that no one actually remembers what (John) Kerry meant when he made that infamous statement (in 2004): that he’d voted for the $87 billion war supplemental when it was offset by getting rid of Bush’s tax cuts to the very wealthy.

Oh, so NOW you report that! How decent of you!

To be fair, though, it’s the fault of the Kerry campaign that that message wasn’t communicated in response when it mattered, though of course the media landscape for a Dem, while still tough now, was much worse back then we our dear cousins with those initials for names saw that their game of fluffing Dubya was still working well into the election.

But NOW, when the Repugs allege that the Dems are engaging in a variation of the same “voted-for-the-Iraq-war-before-he-voted-against-it” smear on McCain over the “100 years” quote (again, highly debatable)…NOW is when they tell us that “well, y’know, Kerry really didn’t quite say that.”

Nice job continuing to prop up the failed Bushco regime. As Stephen Colbert said at the press club dinner in 2006 here, pretty much articulating the M.O. for our corpocracy's stenographers…

But, listen, let's review the rules. Here's how it works: the president makes decisions. He's the Decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know - fiction!

And as you can see here, McCain is STILL having trouble with that little “Sunni vs. Shiite” thing.

Update 4/10/08: And as Media Matters notes, Newton-Small was fundamentally wrong anyway, not noting that McCain didn't even mean a "South Korea-like" presence based on this.

Night Of The Living Democrats

Yes, Harry Fawkes, it’s true; at long last, we’ve delivered enough of our minions from that baad City of Philadelphia to conquer Bucks County, and we’re now poised to “cannibalize” our way into state, federal, and county government forever…BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

(OK, snark mode off – for now; based on this post that contains Fawkes’ excuse about the re-election of both Jim Cawley and Charley Martin as Bucks County Commissioners by a thinner margin than Fawkes would have liked; Martin should at the very least send a Christmas card to Jay Russell for each year he remains in office.)

All of this pertains to this Bucks County Courier Times story from today, telling us the following…

Don’t be surprised if Bucks and Montgomery County Democrats show up to work a bit foggy-headed this morning.

They had reason to celebrate Monday when word spread that registered Democrats overtook Republicans by a combined 11,000 voters in the two counties — 7,533 in Montgomery and 3,472 in Bucks.

That’s big news for former Republican strongholds where the GOP retains the majority of county commissioners and has held the registration advantage for decades in Bucks and for as long as anyone can remember in Montgomery.

This is what happens when you remain tethered to a political party utterly hijacked by clueless ideologues who believe that they will remain in power forever (and we’re going to keep “banging at the door” of the Commissioners’ HQ in Doylestown with our candidates until we get our majority, Harry; it’s not too early to start planning for ’09).

And by the way, this notes a guy who would have been ideal for you to replace Jim Greenwood in the U.S. House had you not passed him over for Mike Fitzpatrick in ’04 (his brand of common-sense moderation would play pretty well with registered Repugs about now, I think).

Update 4/9/08: Oh, and just to let you know, that “virus” from those “bad Philadelphians” seems to be spreading; the Inquirer reports here that…

For the first time in the history of Chester and Delaware Counties, the Republican Party cannot claim the majority of registered voters, having been supplanted by a combination of Democrats, independents, and other party affiliations.

And what do the Repugs think of that?

Jay Johnston, chairman of the Norwood Republican Party in Delaware County, said he was not worried. Philadelphians moving into the lower part of the county tend to hang on to their Democratic registration, he said, but they would vote for the Republicans in local races, such as borough council.

"They see them do the job and do it well," he said. "Most people don't take their party seriously."

We’ll find out on November 4th, won’t we, Jay?

Update 4/10/08: Daily Kos blogger smintheus has more.

The “Central Front” In His Imagination

Thus sayeth Dubya here (timed for today’s latest war cheerleading by Ambassador Crocker and The Almighty Petraeus)…

"Al Qaeda in Iraq is run by foreign leaders loyal to Osama bin Laden," Bush said. "Like bin Laden, they are cold-blooded killers who murder the innocent to achieve al Qaeda's political objectives.

"Yet, despite all of the evidence, some will tell you that al Qaeda in Iraq is not really al Qaeda and not really a threat to America."

Now, for the reality-based community (here, concerning John W. McBush among others)…

"McCain is certainly lying when he says that Iraq will become an al Qaeda state if the U.S. leaves," said Nir Rosen, a journalist who has spent extensive time in Iraq. Rosen told IPS that insofar as the "global war on terror" has any coherent meaning, it is certainly not taking place in Iraq.

…

With regards to Iraq, University of Michigan professor and blogger Juan Cole said that no U.S. advantage is to be gained through the war in Iraq and that it could serve to bolster the weakened global Jihadi groups.

"The real al Qaeda is using Iraq as a recruiting tool," he said. "[The U.S. is] playing into the hands of bin Laden. To the extent that the U.S. is involved in the military occupation of an Arab-Muslim country, they're playing by bin Laden's script."

Cole sees no connection between foreign al Qaeda fighters and the struggle in Iraq.

"We have 24,000 prisoners in Iraq. Just about 150 of them are foreigners," said Cole. "So what that tells me is that we're fighting Iraqis. If the foreign fighters -- the al Qaeda types -- are a significant group, we should have more of them in prison. What, do they run faster? It's not possible given that statistic that Iraq is the central front in any war on terror."

And this would seem to be borne out by this story in the New York Times today, which tells us…

…as members of (a terrorist cell suspected of sending insurgents to Iraq early in 2005) are awaiting a verdict in their case (in Paris), French and other European intelligence and law enforcement officials are saying (fears of terrorists returning to France from Iraq to carry out attacks) appear to be overblown. The logistical challenges and expense of reaching Iraq has been one deterrent, they said, particularly with Syria’s making episodic efforts to halt the use of its territory as a transit route. Compared with the thousands of European Muslims who joined the fight in Afghanistan in the 1990s through organized networks in Britain, the number of fighters going to Iraq has been extremely small, according to senior French intelligence officials.

Another factor, the officials say, is that Iraqi insurgents currently neither need nor welcome European Muslims who lack military training and good Arabic-language skills — except if they are willing to conduct suicide missions.

The nature of the battle has also changed, making Iraq an alien destination for many would-be insurgents. The fight in Iraq is no longer just a jihad against foreign occupiers, but also a confusing civil war pitting Muslim against Muslim. Many young people have family and ethnic ties to Pakistan or North Africa, making those places more attractive destinations, and further advancing those regions’ potential for recruiting and radicalizing young Muslims.

“At the moment, the major threat to Europe is coming from elsewhere — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,” a terrorist organization based in North Africa, said Judge (Jean-Louis) Bruguière, (France’s senior counterterrorism magistrate) who now works for the European Union investigating terrorist financing.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled corporate media propaganda.

Update 4/9/08: Kudos to Biden for this (h/t Atrios).

The Old Gray Lady And The Tuesday "Stupids"

Yes, it’s Tuesday, and David Brooks appears once more. However, I didn’t get to him yet (though I may later).

No, the subject of this post is Times columnist Bob Herbert, a man of great talent and insight who absolutely should know better than to concoct the dreck that was published today under his name.

Herbert’s column has to do with the upcoming PA Democratic primary, and he speaks with voters in Tremont, Scranton, and some other PA towns and cities who communicated their opinions about all three of the candidates currently running for president (as well as a certain occupant of An Oval Office who is universally despised)…

The issue of race seemed always in the air. But competing with race as an issue, and perhaps trumping it, was economics. This is an area that’s hurting. Tony Walck, the mayor of the village of Nesquehoning and a big Clinton supporter, talked about the exodus of jobs from the region.

“Bethlehem Steel shut down,” he said. “Mack Motors is downsizing drastically. Even the Republicans in this district are disenchanted.”

Senator Clinton’s supporters are hoping for a miracle, hoping she can win big in Pennsylvania, run the table after that, and somehow seize a nomination that looks more and more like it is going to Mr. Obama. If that doesn’t happen, an awful lot of white working-class voters across the country will be faced with a stark choice: voting for a Democrat who happens to be black, or voting to continue policies that most no longer believe are in their best economic interests.

All sounds fine so far (though there is another cautionary note about The Rev. Wright, of course, with no mention of Hagee or Parsley on the McCain side, as you might expect).

However, Herbert sums up as follows…

What the Democrats have to worry about are fractures within. The big question is whether the losers in the fight for the nomination will wholeheartedly support the winners. The party was unable to get its act together in 1968 and unite behind Hubert Humphrey, thus opening the door for Richard Nixon. The ramifications of that bitter election are still being felt.

This year, whether the nominee is Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton, the candidate will have to shoulder some pretty heavy negatives in the general election. If the Clinton camp is unwilling to go to the mat for an Obama candidacy, or vice versa, it will be the Republicans who, despite the long odds, will be kicking back in the White House yet again next January.

How many ways can one dissect the idiocy?

For starters, comparing this election to the one forty years ago is nonsense to a degree that I can barely comprehend. The election that highly turbulent year saw two assassinations of much-loved public figures, the third-party candidacy of a bona fide racist (George C. Wallace), the entry into the campaign of the vice president (Hubert Humphrey) due to the resignation of the incumbent war-time president from office (Lyndon Johnson, who was a Democrat of course, as opposed to Incurious George) with Humphrey winning the nomination despite a thrown-together, last-minute campaign, and battles between police and demonstrators outside the Democratic convention in Chicago. Also, both sides jockeyed for an end to the Vietnam War in terms favorable to them shortly before the election, with Humphrey calling for a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam and distancing himself from LBJ in October, and Repug nominee and eventual winner Richard Nixon using an intermediary to delay peace talks around that time until he was sworn into office.

Now, do you read any parallels between what I just described and the 2008 election? I didn’t think so; also, Herbert again raises the straw man of Clinton deciding not to support Obama or the other way around depending on who wins the nomination, when in reality the only intra-party opposition I hear is coming from the Repugs.

As Atrios has said, among others, the Times, for the most part (barring Paul Krugman at least) is more of a paper that “endorses the status quo” in its editorial writing, whatever it perceives that to be, than a source for news that actually advocates anything approximating a liberal or progressive agenda. And Herbert’s column today is still more proof.

(By the way, kudos to Google: just out of curiosity, I did a search on “1968, Democrat, presidential, election” when doing my research, and it asked me, “Do you mean Democratic?”).

Never forget the “ic,” people (here).

A Dem Dustup In The Garden State

Blue Jersey has been all over the story of Dem congressional Rep. Rob Andrews running in the primary for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Frank Lautenberg (here and here), with Andrews’ wife Camille currently serving as a “placeholder” of sorts while her husband tries to knock off Lautenberg in the primary (she has not yet declared whether or not she would run for her husband’s House seat in the general election).

If Andrews loses to Lautenberg, might he decide to defend his Congressional seat after all, even though the Newark Star-Ledger thinks this is it for Andrews in the House regardless? And how could he do that after the filing deadline for the Congressional election had passed?

Hey, we’re talking about New Jersey, OK? Anything can happen.

My concern about Andrews in the Senate would be that he could turn into that state’s version of Tom Carper in Delaware, who is the closest thing our party has to Joe Lieberman this side of Ben Nelson (kind of circuitous I know, but apt I think). Meaning that Andrews was maddeningly centrist during the run of the happily-now-departed 109th Congress, though he has sided with his party more often than not in the 110th (here, voting for the Military Commissions Act and the Secure Fence Act in 2006 in the 109th, as well as a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration; it’s ridiculous and stupid free speech, but free speech all the same).

Worst of all, though, Andrews was a high-profile Dem cheerleader for Dubya’s Iraq war (here).

And Lautenberg has been a “good soldier” on a variety of issues, from gun control to choice and also the bill he sponsored which became the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban (here), prohibiting anyone convicted of that charge from owning a weapon or ammunition.

(Also, I seem to recall Lautenberg saying, when he stepped into the 2002 campaign against Doug Forrester, that he would only serve one term, but I cannot verify that anywhere online, so that may not be correct after all.)

Even though all of this does indeed “smell bad,” as the Lautenberg campaign has noted (particularly with Andrews’ wife not knowing if she’ll actually run for her husband’s seat), I cannot in good conscience find a reason to oppose it. At 84, I believe Lautenberg is a better man than Andrews could be at any age. However, Andrews sees the advancement opportunities closing up – if these people weren’t ambitious, they wouldn’t be politicians – with Bob Menendez not going anywhere in the Senate until 2012, and Jon Corzine likely to run for another term as governor.

This is particularly true in a year when the Repugs don’t seem to be able to get it together (as noted here with their most recent candidate).

Update 4/10/08: What Stoller sez...

Monday Stuff

So what exactly does the world think of us (and I know I got into this already a bit here)? Glad you asked; think, "you-know-who is on the way out" as the main reason why...



...and it looks like "Big Shitpile," as Atrios calls it (hey, it's a direct quote, so it's OK) is doing the "Teutonic Twist" here...



...Paul Krugman discussed the food crisis a bit in his column today; here's more in this Reuters video...



...and though we continue to mourn the passing of Charlton Heston and reflect on his life and accomplishments (two fine tributes appeared in the New York Times appeared here and here today - and I already got into his political contradictions earlier, so I'll let that rest for now), I also noted earlier that Saturday was the birthday of Gregory Peck, who would have been 92, and here is the summation to the jury in his Oscar-winning portrayal of lawyer Atticus Finch in "To Kill A Mockingbird" (have to turn the volume up a bit; I read that a lot of this was filmed in one take).

A Quick Patrick Murphy Update

Don’t blink or you’ll miss it (trying not to type too fast before I lose my network connection) – the Bucks County Courier Times noted the following last Saturday…

Thumbs Up: To Bucks County Congressman (Murphy) for introducing legislation aimed at getting more financial aid for the children of police officers, firefighters and other emergency personnel killed in the line of duty.

The Daniel Faulkner Children of Fallen Heroes Scholarship Act of 2008 would waive income eligibility requirements and make the child of a slain emergency responder automatically eligible for a $5,400 per year Pell Grant, the maximum level available.

“Making a college education more accessible to their children is a small gesture of thanks, but one we feel is important,” Murphy said.

We agree and appreciate Murphy’s commitment to looking out for the families of those who make the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf.

To help Patrick, click here.

Monday Campaign Funnies

This AP story about “St. McCain” tells us…

McCain, who still has not won over many conservatives, made clear he planned a broader campaign than those waged by President George W. Bush when he faces either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton as the Democratic candidate in the November election.

The Arizona senator said he would go after votes of blacks and Hispanics, two traditionally strong Democratic blocs, as well as independents and young voters who have been attracted to the Democratic campaigns this year.

(I know that’s a link to a freeper site, but I’m having a little trouble finding the original news story again, so…)

I will admit that McCain has proven to be somewhat intelligent on immigration policy, thus helping him slightly with Hispanics, but I believe that support will erode in the general election against Barack Obama (and by the way, this poses some interesting information about McCain’s “Hispanic outreach director”…I don’t know if I’m linking to another freeper site or not here, but that’s OK – I’ll get the story here anyway I can).

And as far as African Americans are concerned, it can’t be good when you’re repeatedly booed and interrupted as McCain was last Friday when he frequently apologized for once opposing the recognition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a federal holiday (truth be told, though, I think this snub by McCain and the other former GOP nominees in the presidential campaign, except for Tom Tancredo – Tom Tancredo! – of the NAACP candidates forum last year speaks louder than McCain’s words commemorating Dr. King).

And if I were McCain, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for those independent voters based on this, and this doesn’t bode particularly well for McCain and the youth vote as well.

Oh well, if all else fails, at least McCain can Clap Louder! on the war (and it sounds like he needs help raising money too).

So Mark Penn is now out (??) of the Hillary Clinton campaign because he negotiated with Colombia on a trade pact that she opposed, as we know. Well, did you also know that, according to this story of President George W. Milhous Bush having yet another hissy fit with Congress over the bill in question…

Penn is also CEO of Burson-Marsteller, a public-relations giant which was working for the government of Colombia. Colombia fired the firm after Penn said his meeting with the (that country’s) ambassador (to the U.S.) had been a mistake.

So Penn basically ruins the Hillary Clinton for President campaign through some fundamental mismanagement (campaign themes, expenses, keeping underlings “on message” including self – then again, maybe he was right except that the “message” was so awful…you call it), and after all of that, his firm STILL loses the Colombia contract.

What an asshat (and by the way, Prof. Marcus picked up on the "Mark Penn not really being out" thing earlier here).

Speaking of morons (tying back to Penn, of course), I probably wouldn’t give Philadelphia Daily News columnist Gar Joseph the time of day, except for the fact that he has stirred yet another supposed controversy around Barack Obama (full disclosure; part of me wants to either blog about music or sports or just bag this altogether for awhile when I read “stories” that are this stupid – and Joke Line gets a big raspberry also)…

…does the campaign poster (pictured)…remind you of a totalitarian cult?

Wait, don't answer that.

The Soviet-style heroic Obama, the use of a single word "Hope," do make the SEPTA bus shelter posters a bit reminiscent of George Orwell's "1984."

Its more direct antecedent is John Carpenter's 1988 paranoid totalitarian fantasy flick, "They Live." Replace the word "Hope" with "Obey" on that Obama poster and tell us what you think.

…

"There is something just a wee bit creepy about the mass messianism," Joe Klein of Time magazine has observed.

I don’t know – I think there’s something to be said for simple, direct messages concerning presidents and candidates, don’t you?

End This Mess

I say that the inquisition trial of Allegheny County, PA coroner Dr. Cyril Wecht (pictured) has gone on long enough.

According to The Morning Call in this report from last Friday…

The jury in the fraud trial of celebrity pathologist Cyril Wecht declared an impasse Thursday, but the judge instructed jurors to return Monday for more deliberations.

Jurors sent U.S. District Judge Arthur Schwab a note Thursday, their ninth day of deliberations after the seven-week trial on the 41-count indictment. Wecht is charged with wire fraud, mail fraud and theft for allegedly using his former Allegheny County coroner's staff and resources to benefit himself and his multimillion-dollar private practice.

''After considering all counts in a variety of ways and in reconsideration of all individual opinions according to the court's instructions, we have unanimously agreed we have reached an impasse and respectfully request direction from the court,'' the jurors said. ''We agree additional deliberation would not be helpful.''

Schwab rejected the prosecutors' request to send a note to the jury asking whether they have a unanimous verdict on any of the charges. Under case law, judges have to be careful in responding to jury questions to avoid the appearance of suggesting a particular verdict.

And this tells us that it took an appeals court seven months to rule on whether or not Judge Schwab should continue to even preside over the trial, with Wecht’s attorneys asking for Schwab’s disqualification, as follows…

Wecht's lawyers asked the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to remove U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab from the case, claiming the judge showed bias, in part, by issuing a series of one-way rulings after secret communication with prosecutors and for keeping the defense attorneys from questioning the lead FBI agent in the case about his disciplinary file.

A three-judge panel from the 3rd Circuit voted, 2-1, to keep Schwab on the case. Judges D. Michael Fisher and Julio M. Fuentes ruled that Wecht's lawyers failed to demonstrate a "deep-seated" or "high-degree" of favoritism. Senior U.S. Circuit Judge Myron H. Bright dissented.

And this is a reminder that the case against Wecht was originally brought to trial by U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, whose last waste of our taxpayer dollars took place in pursuit of that hardened offender and threat to society Tommy Chong (the worst Chong is liable to do is blow a puff of marijuana smoke in your face).

So, it looks like we have a judge who leaked evidence to the prosecution in a case brought by a self-aggrandizing Bushco operative resulting in jury deliberations that began on March 18 and apparently have no end in sight (hell, this case stinks so bad that even a fellow Repug, one Dick Thornburgh by name, told Buchanan to drop it here).

End this mess.

Update 4/9/08: To even consider retrying this case is pathetic (here).

Update 4/11/08: And the farce continues (h/t Atrios)...

Bad Luck, Inky

Oh well, maybe next year...

A Tale Of Two Icons

I mourn the passing of Charlton Heston, the man who campaigned for Adlai Stevenson in 1956 and John F. Kennedy in 1960, the man who supported the 1968 Gun Control Act after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the man who marched with Dr. King in 1963 and contributed financially to the cause of civil rights.

But for the man who railed against the so-called “culture war” in 1997 by saying that this country would still be a colony of England if “political correctness” had prevailed during revolutionary times, the man who summoned up the infamous boogeyman of Bill Clinton supposedly taking away his Second Amendment rights in 2000 and thus prompting his remark about removing his gun “from my cold, dead hands,” and the man who heartlessly ensured that the NRA would hold its yearly meeting in 1999 in Denver, Colorado despite the approximation of that city to Columbine where the infamous high school massacre had recently occurred, I feel absolutely nothing.

(I have two caveats to that, I should note: one, though I’ve never seen “Bowling For Columbine,” I object to what apparently was a case of Michael Moore taking advantage of Heston’s Alzheimer’s affliction at that time, and I object even more to George Clooney’s idiotic attempt at a joke in the same vein – Heston showed a lot of class in his response, and Clooney usually has more brains than that episode would indicate.)

I don’t know why Heston flipped politically around the time that The Sainted Ronnie R ascended to power and thus ushered in the ruinous conservative ascendancy. Heston’s official excuse of “the excessive influence of liberal media commentators to the detriment of the common man” as noted by Wikipedia rings typically hollow for him and other ideological fellow travelers; for all of the imperfections of the occasion fits of bias he noted, to help make way for the judicial, legislative, and in particular, executive manifestations of policy and law so near and dear to the neocons by using his liberal “cred” of an earlier day to help indoctrinate supporters is just about unforgivable.

As an actor, I think Heston’s presence was eclipsed by Brando, Clark Gable, James Dean, De Niro, and not too many others (I’ll get to another one in a minute). Physically, he was perfectly suited for the big screen productions in the 1950s, of course, and his acting conveyed such emotion that it thoroughly complemented the characters he portrayed (Vargas in "A Touch of Evil," with Heston conveying not a hint of Mexican lineage as a detective from south of the border; circus manager Brad Braden in “The Greatest Show On Earth,” some of which was filmed in Philadelphia, including the tent-raising sequence; astronaut George Taylor in “Planet Of The Apes,” as well as “Soylent Green” and the previously noted Biblical epics). Also, Heston played Marc Anthony in two adaptations of “Julius Caesar” and had a commanding cameo role as the lead actor of the troupe putting on a play for the King in Kenneth Branagh’s “Hamlet.”

Of Heston’s big-screen roles, I think my favorite (close call, I’ll admit) would be that of Judah Ben-Hur, for which he won the Best Actor Academy Award in 1959 in “Ben-Hur.” His character ran through a whole gamut of conflicts, from being cast from his life as a prosperous Jew into imprisonment by the Romans, then to be elevated within their ranks, then to return to his lineage out of vengeance against the Romans (and Stephen Boyd's Messala, with hints of a desired gay relationship with Heston's character that were about as provocative as the '50s would allow) for mistreatment of his family, and finally, to find redemption during the dawn of Christianity. Heston’s performance was completely involving and sympathetic.

But it is an odd quirk of fate to me that Heston passed on April 5th, since that is the birthday of one of Heston’s peers who left us five years ago, and that would be Gregory Peck, who was a titan on behalf of liberal/progressive causes; LBJ confided that he would have offered him the post of ambassador to Ireland had he remained in office when Johnson awarded Peck the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969 (Peck’s ancestry was part Irish…Heston received it from you-know-who in July 2003).

I believe that the only time the two worked together professional was during the filming of “The Big Country” in 1958 in which they were directed by William Wyler (Wyler and Heston would team again the next year in "Ben-Hur"). The manhood of Peck’s character is questioned by Heston and some others over a land dispute, though Peck is ultimately vindicated (Heston’s characters often sought resolution to conflict with their fists immediately and tended not to show the patience and moral ambiguity of those played by Peck, though there were exceptions, such as Peck’s reading of Ahab in "Moby Dick," who was pretty clear about what he wanted and didn’t much care about the cost).

Both Peck and Heston were physically tall, strong men; Heston served as a staff sergeant in the Air Force during World War II, but Peck was exempt from military service due to a back injury. Also (strangely enough), both played the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele; Heston in 2003’s “My Father, Rua Alguem 5555” (his last role) and Peck in “The Boys From Brazil” in 1978.

As was the case with Heston I think, Peck’s Best Actor Oscar in 1963, for small-town Southern lawyer Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” was emblematic of the types of characters for which he was most associated by his audiences; in the case of Heston, a man of action overcoming all odds, and in the case of Peck, a man of quiet courage accomplishing his goals in the face of hostility, misunderstanding and fear through determination and resolve (and only resorting to physical violence when no other choice was necessary).

Though the date of April 5th is quite rightly an occasion to mourn the passing of Heston, I think it is also an occasion to celebrate the accomplishments of Peck, who would have been 92 this year. Though each “marched to his own drummer,” Peck’s life is an example of steadfast dedication to causes on behalf of people in need of someone to advocate for them.

Heston’s life, for a time, could be described as such also. But unlike Judah Ben-Hur, to me he did not achieve reconciliation and healing in the end, offering up what I believe to be his misguided self-interest in the name of something greater than himself; in the case of Heston the man, I’m referring to advocating for and supporting again those in this society (once called “underprivileged” in an earlier era) with whom he once walked arm in arm.

That is a tragedy and a loss not just for him, but for all of us as well (and a CNN tribute follows).

Saturday Stuff

The name of this skit is "Mrs. C" - no names, people, OK?...



...and yesterday marked another anniversary, just to let you know, though it was much less somber (K.O. explains on "Countdown" - h/t The Daily Kos).

Friday Stuff

"The Pap Attack" takes on the EPA and its latest nonsense in exacerbating the climate crisis (think Dubya and Dick Cheney and their energy industry buds holding sway over our planet once again; as always, take a bow, you "values voters" who perpetrated the obscenity of their re-installment in 2004)...



...and returning to Dr. King for a final time today, here's "Abraham, Martin and John," written by Dick Holler and performed by Dion DiMucci, recorded in 1968 of course - this was a multimedia project done at Milford High School, NH (break out the hankies and the Kleenex, everybody, 'cos you'll need them...something tells me I'll be embedding this again on or about June 6th).

Boehner’s Friday Flight Of Fancy

Sounds to me like the House Minority Leader is grasping at straws big time (or maybe his chain smoking habit marked by that "every-ready pack of Camels" has created a little too much “fog in his noggin” – here)...

By the reckoning of the Ohio Republican, the hard-fought Democratic presidential contest is going to leave one group of supporters or another sorely disappointed.

He figures some of those folks might then choose to back Republican John McCain or stay home altogether in November, either of which is potentially good news for House Republicans, who find themselves in a deep hole and still digging with the general election fast approaching.

“When you start to look at the fallout from the Democratic nomination process – the Democrats not showing up to vote – you are starting to create a scenario where we are in better shape than people think,” said Mr. Boehner. “You are going to have people voting for McCain or not voting at all. The picture is not as bleak as people want to paint it.”

That’s way too funny.

Since Boehner doesn’t have any numbers to provide for comparison purposes, I won’t do the research he should have done himself before making that charge. But I have news for him; the complaints about the real, actual, five-day work week from the 110th Congress (an implied reason for the Dems supposedly blowing off votes) weren’t coming from Democrats. The most notable whiner was one-man-idiot-quote-machine Jack Kingston, U.S. House Rep of Georgia, who defended a “three-day work week” and said House members “can keep in touch with their BlackBerrys” here.

Everyone from the Peach State who voted for this yutz, please raise your left hand – no, your “other” left…

And as far as people “not showing up” goes (or, more precisely, leaving work undone, from here)…

The (Republican) 109th Congress left office in the early hours of Saturday morning, December 9, having logged fewer days of legislative activity than even the infamous “Do-Nothing Congress” of 1948. Notably absent from the following list of last minute “accomplishments” is comprehensive immigration reform, a minimum wage increase, and nine out of 11 appropriations bills needed to fully fund federal activity for the 2007 fiscal year.

The failure to pass a working budget for the federal government—the fundamental constitutional task of Congress—highlights the failures of the conservative leadership of the departing Congress. Indeed, the incoming chairmen of the House and Senate appropriations committees, Rep. David Obey (D-WI) and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), took a look at the mess left to them and yesterday announced they will hold all spending at 2006 levels after ejecting all special earmarks and begin a more deliberative and open budgeting process next year for the next fiscal year beginning in October 2007.

And speaking of hard-fought campaigns, the Repug “shock troops” are sooo united behind St. McCain, aren’t they, as noted here…

James Dobson, founder of the hugely influential evangelical group Focus on the Family, said last month: "I cannot and I will not vote for Senator John McCain as a matter of conscience."

But as the Times story notes, it’s all “good news for Republicans”…somehow.

A Glimpse Into The Neocon Lap Of Luxury

This month’s issue of Philadelphia Magazine (a publication about those area “trend setters” and “go-getters,” the “beautiful people” about whose every moment we’re supposed to obsess, for the uninitiated) gives us a revealing look into the home of one Edward Snider, the chairman of Comcast-Spectacor and deep-pocketed contributor to Freedom’s Watch.

The magazine did not publish an online version of their pictorial into the home of Snider which he shares with wife Christine, so I scanned the six-page article and published it to a site which can be accessed from here. As you can see, I’ve numbered each page and I’ll do my best to reference the writeups to each appropriate page number and photo (the writeups will also appear with the photo, but it would probably be easier if they appeared here so you could read them and then look at the photos – and by the way, the article refers to the Snider abode as “the White House”…in our nightmares, people).

Got all that? Good. Let’s begin, shall we?

In the first photo, the comely Christine poses comfortably, and the writeup (referencing pics 1 and 2) tells us…

When eco-savvy Rydal, PA architect Paul Macht dreamed up the Sniders’ Gladwyne, PA dwelling, “The idea was simple, elegant – modern, but not showy – very minimal and Zen,” he says. The front-facing sitting room, conceptualized as a nighttime space, overlooks a reflecting pond whose surface makes the ceiling shimmer in evening. Seated on a pristine Minotti loveseat, Christine Snider faces a white lacquer coffee table, also by Minotti.

(By the way, I should note that I definitely am not a home design expert, which impacts my ability to snark on the furnishings. However, I’ll try to compensate in other ways.)

And speaking of Zen, I’m sure Ed believes fully in Little Tommy Friedman and his “Suck. On. This.” profundity here concerning dark-skinned people we’re not supposed to like.

Update: Why did I know the video from the Eschaton link wouldn't work (no bad on Duncan, though; how about the "bubble" between your ears, you numbskull)...



The article also provides the following background on Christine, by the way…

Christine Snider could have her pick of interior designers. As a former pop star and lyricist for Michael Jackson, as the entrepreneur behind Realwomenjewelry.com, and, as of 2004, as the jet-setting wife of (affluent Ed) Snider, she doesn’t have to do her own decorating. But the Belgian-born beauty is DIY at heart. “When I was starting out as a singer in Paris, I did my apartment piece by piece,” she says. Now that she’s Mrs. Snider, she applies the same method to the couple’s 7,000-square-foot gated home overlooking the Philadelphia Country Club. Christine sources antiques in L.A. She stocks up on Fendi Casa in Miami. She keeps an eye out for accessories in Paris, Turks and Caicos – and believe it or not, King of Prussia. The result: a gently contemporary, covetably outfitted bastion of whitewashed SoCal chic – right in the middle of the Main Line.

(Note to the editors at Philadelphia Magazine: I don’t think “covetably” is an actual word.)

Otherwise, too dreamy!!!

Back to the Snider manse…

3

(Above) The home’s largest, most ornate La Murrina Venetian chandelier – one of about a half-dozen throughout the residence – adorns the sunken family room. “Modern white furniture can be so cold, so plastic-feeing,” says Christine. “I mix white pieces with darker natural finishes, like this espresso-stained bamboo table and armchairs from Belgium.”

Personally, when I think of Ed and his war cheerleading, these are the “white pieces” that come to mind (before they’re covered with American flags, that is).

4

(Right) For the sunroom, Macht used Massangis Jaune limestone for the floors, and laid out rift-swan red oak ceilings in reverse board and batten. The dining chairs and sectional are by Fendi Casa. The glass-topped dining table is Christine’s own design.

Yep, I can almost picture Ed seated at the table writing a personal check to Carl Forti, Ari Fleischer, and the rest of Ed’s playmates.

5

(Above) Overlooking the family room, a sunlit dining room leads to the entry hall and kitchen. Here, Christine combined a tactile, casual sisal rug, a glossy chocolate-tone bamboo table, and an 18th-century Japanese screen from L.A. Asian antiques dealer Charles Jacobsen. A simple, natural bouquet of white tulips provides a serene and effortless centerpiece.

No doubt this is the room where Ed, in a particularly spiteful move, decided that the Sixers should not produce a video tribute to former star Allen Iverson when he returned to Philadelphia with his new team, the Denver Nuggets, on Wednesday March 19th (here…and white lilies might be more appropriate than tulips given all of those in our military who have sacrificed in the name of Ed’s fantasies of establishing something like a Zionist dominion).

6

(Opposite top, from left to right) An inky turn-of-the-century landscape by Hippolyte Camille Delpy plays against a Fendi console outfitted with Spy Bag pulls. The entryway’s moat-like reflecting pool has clever grass-and-concrete checkerboard edging. Christine transformed the powder room from stark white to spa-like by adding a curved honey-blond wood vanity and small and square frosted-glass windows. (Opposite, bottom) In the entryway living room are a white leather couch from Roche-Bobois, an antique Japanese carp screen from Charles Jacobsen, red-theme jars from Turks and Caicos, a rare terra-cotta sculpture from Sotheby’s, and a wispy faux-coral cutout (at far left) from…Pottery Barn, that cost $24.

Yeah, I think she got taken on the faux-coral cutout (as if I would know). Kind of makes me wonder why she and Ed wouldn’t instead just pay someone during a holiday romp to the Caribbean to go diving and get a REAL-coral cutout instead (too “nouveau riche” I guess).

So there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, a look into a Lifestyle Of The Rich And Famous War Mongerer.

I have not one negative word to say about Christine Snider, I want to emphasize. But as far as Ed is concerned, as the song goes, “all the money you make will never buy back your soul.”

A Bit Unpopular, Maybe?

This photo from Kevin Lamarque of Reuters accompanied the story in the New York Times today about Dubya “winning NATO backing for missile defense in Europe” (and again, I see only the Czechs signing off on that). And I think the photo tells you at least as much as any words could about how Dubya is viewed by his peers (everyone was sort of milling around a bit before posing for a group photo).

Incurious George truly has that “deer in the headlights” look in the version of this photo that appears in the Times print edition today – it floored me when I saw it.

More Joy In Bad Labor News For The Robertses

The latest free trade fairy tales from Cokie and Steve Roberts here come at a particularly bad time, with the most recent employment numbers taking another negative turn for March (80,000 down, to be exact, as well as a revision of the first two months of unemployment to almost double the original number).

Oh, but rest assured that that will never stop the Robertses from labeling those who want to end the practice of providing tax breaks to multinationals who offshore our jobs (particularly outrageous when they share so little of the tax burden versus the middle class) as “fools”; the Robertses don’t claim that in so many words, I’ll admit, but that’s the motivation behind the goal of raising the number of H1-B workers entering this country, and that is something they clearly DO advocate.

The Robertses communicate the same numbers and arguments for importing skilled workers that people of their ideology do every chance they get (including Tom Friedman who they cite here, for calling our policy of “kicking out…the next generation of innovators” something that is “pure idiocy”) so I won’t rehash all of it again.

However, I do want to take note of the following…

According to a recent study by the National Foundation for American Policy, the average high-tech company has 470 jobs open. Microsoft alone has 4,000 unfilled slots. The 500 largest companies combined are looking for 140,000 highly skilled workers.

As noted here, the National Foundation for American Policy is a conservative think tank, in case you were wondering about that.

Also, here is an article I linked to previously written by Linda Musthaler of Network World from 2006 which debunks the whole argument that there is this supposed shortage of skilled workers.

Here’s something the Robertses will never tell you (from the article)…

There is a shortage of corporations that see their employees as long-term assets and not as overhead that can be ditched at the first hint of a bad quarter. There is a shortage of organizations willing to implement formal mentoring and internship programs that will help the next generation of employees grow into the labor force for the long haul.

Too many employers have set their sights on the ideal candidates - the ones who come with the right degrees in hand, the right credentials on the résumé and the right project experience under their belt. Heaven help the candidate who lacks a certification, or who has extensive experience with one application and not another.

He'll never get noticed, because the résumé screening software has already chucked him into the waste bin. The software doesn't know, of course, that someone with good Windows administration skills can learn Linux skills to become the new Linux administrator who's desperately needed.

And this comment to Musthaler’s article is infuriating, but I don’t aim my wrath at the commenter, who is refreshing actually in his or her honesty (this person must be a recruiter of some type)…

I see the same silly ignorance (re: not being knowledgeable about the way employers screen out Americans living in this country for their Asian employment peers) in such books as ‘My Job Went to India and All I Got Was This Stupid Book’. The author, claiming to be an ‘insider’, is anything but, and hasn’t a clue what he’s writing about. He puts forth that American IT workers must practice and become resounding experts in their field, and become unquestionably better than their Indian or Chinese counterparts.

This is very poor advice, I am sorry to say. And I am ashamed to say why, so I will remain anonymous. The truth is, there is no way any resume of any American citizen applicant passing over my desk at Microsoft has any chance of finding a job. I will explain: my orders were to collect the resumes of American citizen applicants who applied to positions that we were required to advertise per Federal law.

My job then was to nit pick the details of those resumes against those of existing H1-B visa holders or those whom we were trying to secure H1-B visas for, usually from India. Lastly, I was to exaggerate any differences using elaborate technical fibs, in writing, as to why the American citizen candidates were inferior to the ones from India. My report (and similar reports from my peers) went to HR who then sent them to the Feds (INS, I suppose). My question to the author of the ‘India’ book would be “exactly how is all that studying & practice going to help any American citizen get by me, or others like me, doing their job to disqualify American citizens?”

One way to try and level the playing field is to change the tax code not just in this country but internationally also, as noted here, to provide a system of partial tax exemption that would “tax foreign income only if a foreign government failed to tax it under a comparable tax system. As a result, all corporate income would be taxed at a reasonable rate once and only once.”

The goal is to remove the tax benefit of employers offshoring labor to countries or regions where a tax rate is more favorable and labor costs are cheaper (author James Kvaal’s argument is sufficiently detailed to the point where I cannot easily summarize it here, so I would suggest reading his entire article to learn more….and yes, I know, good luck trying to make it through the buzz saw of eliminating tax havens for multinationals, but at least someone has figured out a plan of attack).

And by ensuring that workers in this country receive a fairer shake in the whole “globalization” struggle, we would be less likely to read the following demonizing rhetoric from self-congratulatory Beltway know-it-alls like the Robertses…

This hunger for "foreign talent" certainly reflects a series of American failures. School systems don't prepare homegrown scholars for rigorous college courses in math and science. Families don't instill the work ethic needed to flourish in these competitive environments.

Assuming you believe these claims to be legitimate (and I certainly don’t), I would add the utter moral bankruptcy of propagandists shilling for their corporate betters (step right up, Robertses) as one of the biggest “American failures” of all.

A Death, Then A Realization

I’m not going to tell you that of all the cataclysmic events of the 1960s, the murder of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the one that hit me the hardest.

To a 10-year-old way of thinking back then, there was something horrifically cyclical about his death. What I mean is that so many others had died in the struggle of African Americans to achieve economic equality and social justice – Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Goodman, Chaney and Schwerner and others – that it didn’t register with me the same way as, say, the death of President Kennedy five years earlier, which I was just beginning to understand back then.

But I knew it was inherently awful, of course, even though it was something that I could not relate to on a personal level because I’m white (again, a 10-year-old worldview speaking from back then). And it helped that, while much of the country raged over his death, Philadelphia “avoided the worst of the violence,” as noted here.

Over time, though, I “filled in the blanks” as much as I could, as did we all – the “how” (King had been asked to intervene in the strike of the Memphis sanitation workers), the “why” (theories that seeking economic opportunity posed a whole different set of problems for individuals of power and wealth who had only grudgingly come to accept voting rights for blacks, to the point where someone decided enough was enough), and the “who” (I don’t know if James Earl Ray was really the shooter or not, but as far as I’m concerned, J. Edgar Hoover might as well have pulled the trigger himself).

It has taken years for me to truly understand the importance of his life, and his immense accomplishments and the abundance of his legacy of self-determination, tolerance, courage and – above all else – love is something that I suspect I will spend many more years trying to comprehend and appreciate to the best of my ability. And my hope is that this is an exercise we continue to perform as a country each and every day.

And in so doing, I hope that those who work to achieve Dr. King’s dream (which is a dream ultimately for the whole world, let’s not forget) realize that, while we need to live and work as Americans in harmony with all races, ethnicities, and religious and gender preferences, we need to police ourselves also and act with a sense of personal self-worth and dignity that would make Dr. King proud and realize that the dream for which he ultimately died still lives among us.

And here are some tribute videos; say what you want about Hillary Clinton, but I think she means every word of what she says here...



...and here is a King/Obama mashup for the occasion also...



...this was the conclusion of King's final speech...



...and though I don't mean to trivialize this occasion in any way with a music video, I have to include this.



Finally, here is a prior post with a link to King's speech at the Barratt School in South Philadelphia in the mid-'60s; the link is still good, and his words are wonderful as always.

Update: Meanwhile, we have the following from "Straight Talk" McCain (here and here).

Update 4/7/08: I absolutely dare our corporate media to give Dr. King the "Reverend Wright" treatment based on this (h/t The Daily Kos).

Thursday Stuff

To be fair, this video doesn't claim that John McCain has not supported a new G.I. bill, but it requests that he co-sponsor it (truly a no-brainer)...



Update 4/4/08: What Kagro X sez...

...and K.O. talks with lawyer Jonathan Turley on "Countdown" about the second "Torture Yoo" memo (and I wasn't kidding last week about "Judgment At Nuremberg," was I?).

Today's "Silly Season '08" Lowlights

First up, Hillary Clinton tells us the following concerning the economy (from here)…

“I have continued to sound the alarm,” she said at an airport press conference in Burbank, Calif. “Sometimes I feel like Paulette Revere: the recession is coming, the recession is coming. I hope someone will do something about this besides wring their hands which is not in the best interest of our country.”

I take her at her word, but the problem is her continued wish to rely on the “Delphic oracle” who helped get us into this mess to begin with, as noted by Will Bunch here (and somehow I don’t think future generations of school children will be reading a poem called, “The Midnight Ride Of Alan Greenspan” – just sayin’).

Update 4/4/08: Glub, glub, Hillary...I hope you can tread water.

Next up, we have Joke Line of Time weighing in as follows on Barack Obama…

Patriotism is, sadly, a crucial challenge for Obama now. His aides believe that the Wright controversy was more about anti-Americanism than it was about race. Michelle Obama's unfortunate comment that the success of the campaign had made her proud of America "for the first time" in her adult life and the Senator's own decision to stow his American-flag lapel pin — plus his Islamic-sounding name — have fed a scurrilous undercurrent of doubt about whether he is "American" enough.

God, no wonder my “A” list “betters” hate this guy so much (and he gets paid for this too)!

OK, so…patriotism is a “problem” for Obama even though he gave that rousing speech about race and has distanced himself every way possible from The Rev. Jeremiah Wright (and I’m STILL waiting for a fraction of the coverage of Obama/Wright for McCain/Hagee/Parsley, by the way), and there is also an “issue” about what Michelle Obama said that Michelle Malkin so pungently attacked (witness the cycle of “news” from freeper agit-prop avatars to “legitimate” corporate media outlets), and also Obama’s flag-lapel pin remains an issue somehow even though a Repug criticizing him over it wasn’t wearing one either, and finally, we must hear AGAIN about Obama’s middle name.

Wow, Joe, I’m sooo glad you didn’t feed “the scurrilous undercurrent of doubt,” or else we really would have had a problem…

I have to admit, though, that when it comes to attacking Obama, Klein has nothing on Jack Kelly, who even used Obama to prop up his own preferred Republican (African American, of course), former Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, currently running for Congress representing Florida’s 22nd district…

"The West family is an example of the triumph of the civil rights movement, as well as Ronald Reagan's challenge to the black community," he said. "My parents were middle class, inner city Atlanta people. They were raised in the segregated South, but had a vision for their three boys...They did not sit back and wait for anyone to give them a handout, and that sentiment permeated throughout our extended family."

There are many blacks who share the sentiments of Allen West, more, I suspect, than who share those of Jeremiah Wright. But they tend to be ignored by the news media, who tend to view as "authentic" only the voices of anti-American radicals.

Um…yeah, OK (that’s about as much of Kelly as I can tolerate).

(By the way, I don't know if you could call it an "advantage" to be cued into the latest right-wing noise by reading the Bucks County Courier Times Op-Ed page on a somewhat regular basis, but that's what happens, and Kelly of course is a chronic offender.)

There’s a problem with West, though (Kelly thinks that, “if (West) wins, he'll do more for racial healing than any speech by Barack Obama“), as noted here by Wikipedia…

While serving in Taji, Iraq on August 20, 2003 as commander of the 2d Battalion 20th Field Artillery, Fourth Infantry Division, Lieutenant Colonel West was in charge of the interrogation of an Iraqi police officer who was suspected of having information about planned attacks on American forces. During the interrogation, soldiers under West's supervision assaulted the detainee attempting to get him to talk.

The police officer insisted that he did not know anything about planned attacks and was loyal to the United States Army. When the detainee didn't talk, Lieutenant Colonel West fired his 9mm pistol close to the man's head. At this point, the man gave information about an allegedly planned ambush, resulting in its being thwarted. According to West, there were no further ambushes on U.S. forces in Taji until he was relieved of command on October 4, 2003.

In an interview with the New York Times the Iraqi police officer, Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi, said he felt he must have been falsely implicated by another alleged informant as being a plotting assassin. Then, when Hamoodi next went on an assigned patrol with the 4th Division, Hamoodi was bound and beaten by the Division troops and told that their leader was coming to kill him. Hamoodi said that when he heard of West's coming, he felt relief, due to West's reputation with local officials and tribal leaders as a rational man of even demeanor.

When West arrived, West held a gun to Hamoodi's head and threatened to kill Hamoodi unless Hamoodi divulged names of would-be conspirators.[1][2] West discharged his weapon near Hamoodi's head. Thereafter, according to Hamoodi, although in actuality he knew absolutely nothing about any planned attacks, Hamoodi offered "meaningless information induced by fear and pain".[3][4]

The Wikipedia article also notes that…

West was processed through an Article 32 hearing in November 2003, but was never Court-martialed. Instead in a deal with the prosecution, he admitted wrongdoing, was fined $5,000 over two months for misconduct and assault. He then submitted his resignation, and was allowed to retire with full benefits in the summer of 2004.

So yeah, if you want “racial healing” under the threat of gunpoint, West is your man.

And we should take Kelly at his word on this. After all, he’s been so right in the past, hasn’t he?