Edgewise

So, that was the mistake.

We really need to go invade a better country!

Washington Post, 11/29/06:

“As Iraq Deteriorates, Iraqis Get More Blame”

Two Headline-Writer Roommates

“Want to garner a DVD tonight? We could nab a good one.”

“I’ll mull it, but don’t get roiled if I don’t. I’m not inking anything.”

Only in the Torah? Abraham challenges God.

And now for something completely different…

In this week’s synagogue Torah reading, Genesis 18:1 - 22:24, God tells Abraham that Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed, and Abraham challenges the morality of this decision. He morally challenges God. And God accepts.

“Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will You then wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?” And the Lord answered, “If I find within the city of Sodom fifty innocent ones, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.”

There follows a marvelous ethical bargaining session in which Abraham gets the number down from 50, first to 45

“Here I venture to speak to my Lord, I who am but dust and ashes: What if the fifty innocent should lack five? Will You destroy the whole city for want of the five?” And He answered, “I will not destroy if I find forty-five there.”

Then 40, then 30, then 20, and finally,

“Let not my Lord be angry if I speak but this last time: What if ten should be found there?” And He answered, “I will not destroy, for the sake of the ten.”

What I have just learned is that there is a curiously awesome Midrash (the parallel oral tradition that was not written down until the Talmud) that provides more detail:

“According to Rabbi Levi, Abraham said to God, ‘If You seek to have a world, strict justice cannot be exercised; and if You seek strict justice, there will be no world. Do You expect to take hold of the well’s rope at both ends? You desire a world and You also desire justice? You can have only one of the two. If You do not relent a little, the world will not endure’ ” (Genesis Rabbah 39:6).

Republicanists

If the Republicans (and, increasingly, the media) get to keep calling us the “Democrat Party” instead of the “Democratic Party,” because they think it subliminally emphasizes the word “rat,” can we start calling them “Republicanists”? As in “What my Republicanist colleague forgets to mention is…”

It would make people think “pianist” every time they thought about the GOP. Ha ha ha! That would be funny! If people thought all Republicanists played piano! “Hey Ahnold, why don’t you go play piano or something?”

Seriously. We should do this.

California "here we come"

The barbarians are at the gates, and Washington, D.C. may never be the same. If American voters thought the war in Iraq was the most pressing issue of the day, Barbara Boxer may soon be disabusing them of that notion. Likely to be the next chair of the Senate Environment committee, Boxer is ecstatically planning her new campaign to save us from ourselves. Count on her to ramp up the volume on eco issues. DiFi, rarely raising her voice but a master of backroom deal making is rumored to be in line for Trent Lott’s seat at the Rules committee, and California rules are sure to look a lot different than Mississippi ruhls. Harry Reid may not be from California but the State of Las Vegas might as well be a territory of Los Angeles. In any case, my sense is that this will turn out to be a historic mid-term election but not for the currently pundited reasons. I think we’re finally seeing the end of the iron grip of The South on national politics and an end to the long reign of Dixiecrats in election politics. It has taken over 150 years for California, the economic powerhouse and cultural cutting edge of the country to get a few places at the table in Washington and it’s a harbinger of the changes in the national political landscape to come. No matter who sits in the Oval Office.

It's Morning in America

for reals.

Bush may find he is a President out of the loop..

While both the President and the Democrats have promised to seek new approaches on Iraq, pundits have noted that new approaches may just not be available. In particular, they say not to expect something new to be discovered by the Baker commission. But, the Baker mandate (report due at the end of the year) may have been greatly underestimated and deeply misunderstood.

The Republicans that Pelosi “finds common ground” with could be a lot less Bush and a lot more Baker—and she may find that most Congressional Republicans have gravitated there too. Baker himself may have been waiting for the election to provide him with new partners.

So, are the Baker Boys really just out there holding seminars, brainstorming Fresh Ideas, and intensely cogitating? More likely they are actively checking out what can be arranged—going over Bush’s head, preparing, almost pre-negotiating, a new foreign policy for the entire Mid-East.

It is hard to solve any one Mid-East problem without solving all of them. The postures of Syria and Iran will change fundamentally on all issues if Baker is ready to normalize relations and renounce subversion and Regime Change. The help we seek in Lebanon and Palestine may only be possible for them if we can bring Israel to deliver a breakthrough on the West Bank. If Hamas and Hezbollah lost their regional leverage (and Syria recovered the Golan Heights), a real two-state peace could follow, and from that many other lines of cleavage in the Mid-East would close up. If the US reigned in the Kurds, that would also make a lot of friends.

Who knows if Baker can pull it off, where so many and so much have failed? But regardless of that, Bush—at least the Bush we know—may find he is a President out of the loop. He made a perverse point before the election of shooting down every then reported Baker initiative in advance. But Baker is acting on behalf of the broad Bush-appalled military, foreign policy, and corporate establishment. He smiled and waited, but the rangy little president is in for a surprise.

the golden grate

Talk about diversity…here in the golden state we’ve managed to reach new heights of mixedness, all-over-the-mapness, and plain ol’ voter confusion as the results of the Caulifornia mid-term and governatorious elections illuminate the collective mind of the Left Coasters. We voted for a Republican Hollywood muscleman who lifted himself out of the political toilet by hiring Democratic advisors and putting a “bread and circuses” bond initiative on the ballot. We voted for the bread, circuses and $50+ billion in bond indebitness while rejecting modest tax increases to pay for schools, health care, and road repair. We almost voted to tax ourselves hugely by demanding that the state pay for any land taken by eminent domain - but wised up at the last minute. We booted a Stetson-wearing environment-bashing Republican Rep, Pombo, and replaced him with an alternative energy geek Democrat, McNerney, but then turned around and rejected an alternative-energy research support bond and an environmental tax on Big Oil. We just barely rejected a requirement for young women to get parental permission for an abortion - while we become the first state to be represented by the first female Speaker of the House in US history. We are the first state to ban smoking in all public places but can’t bring ourselves to slap a health tax on the Tobacco Industry (could we have gotten it mixed up the “The Death Tax”?). Oh, and we rejected the most promising method of campaign reform ever - public campaign financing provided by a 2 cent tax on corporations. I guess we’d rather let the Indian Gaming Industry pay for elections….

we gotta love us.

An appreciation, and some electoral arithmetic.

Thanks and congratulations to our own Christian Crumlish and Cecil Vortex, who epitomized for us the heart and soul of the committed Long Haul.

And thank you to Howard Dean, whose controversial decision to spend on party-building in all 50 states, not just limited battleground states, has been well vindicated by the competitive races and victories that popped up unexpectedly all over the country this year.

Also, here’s some interesting nuts-and-bolts electoral arithmetic: Unlike House elections, Senate elections are cumulative; you don’t start back at square-one each time, because the winners from last time still retain their seats.

Moreover, in this last election, the Democrats faced, and overcame, a statistically very quirky and very disproportionate “risk-burden,” which will have shifted to the Republicans next time around, in 2008.

Of the current 45 Democratic seats, a disproportionate 40% (18) were “at risk,” this year. Of the 55 Republican seats, only 28% (15) were “at risk.” For the Democrats to take the Senate, they had to win 24 of the 33 Senate races, nearly three-fourths of the total.

In 2008, the disproportionate “at-risk” burden shifts to the Republicans. Of the 49 Republican seats, 43% (21) will be “at risk.” Of the 51 Democratic seats, only 24% (12) will be.

If the Democrats win just half the races in 2008 (as compared to this year’s three-fourths), their Senate margin will still rise to 55.5-44.5 (half Senators are not all that unusual!).

Congratulations, Jerry McNerney and staff!

Victory is sweet. While other Democratic politicians in the state of California were making nice to Schwarzenegger, abandoning Angelides and risking the rest of the state ticket, an army of grassroots supporters, many of them veterans of the Dean insurgency, backed McNerney early and worked their hearts out to get him elected, upsetting the complacent Pombo in his gerrymandered safe seat.

The party thought it was too much of a longshot but we persevered. I remember the meetings after Dean went down when we asked each other, “What next?” Nearly all of us said this was just the beginning. We had never expected one campaign to change the country completely. We were in it for the long haul. Dean turned us into activists on a mission: change the party, change Congress, change the country, take back the presidency.

For one of those items at least: Mission Accomplished.

Army recruiters tell students war in Iraq is over

ABC News: Army Recruiters Accused of Misleading Students to Get Them to Enlist:

But if they study hard they won’t get stuck in Iraq.

21st Century Lou

Here’s a swank new version of Walk on the Wild Side, from Lou “Mr.” Reed, with updated lyrics for this modern world. Worth a listen….

Great article on McNerney's race to unseat Pombo in CA-11 from the UK Independent

The coverage in this article makes the McNerney-Pombo race seem like a bellwether.

To me, this is the money quote:

He has put family members on his congressional payroll at salaries so high that two years ago they outstripped the entire campaign budget of his Democratic Party challenger. And now he is pushing to build a freeway which would require the state to purchase land from his family at a premium rate.

The man is corrupt. He thought his seat was safe. He’s phoning it in. Let’s throw him out.

What's wrong with John Kerry?

It wasn’t enough that he lost the 2004 election for us; now he wants to lose the 2006 election, too? Why on Earth would he open his mouth and give the Republicans a piece of red meat like this?

Kerry says sorry for “botched joke”

Johnny: Much respect for all you’ve done for your country. Now go away.