Edgewise

"One Nation, Under Me..."

Among comics/comix fans, Bill Keane’s “Family Circus” is considered so blandly inoffensive as to be beneath ridicule. But I can’t let Sunday’s strip pass without comment.

It begins with the adorable tow-headed kid (Jeffy?) waking up and telling Mom, “Wow! I dreamed that God was saying the Pledge of Allegiance!” Then, in the second and third panels, there is a cloud with thunderbolt saying, “…and to the republic for which it stands…” “…one nation under Me, indivisible…” as Jeffy beams reverently.

Wow! indeed. Has the nexus between reactionary authoritarianism, religiosity, and infantile sentimentalism ever been stated quite so succinctly? Not to mention the implication that God is the God only of these here United States; he don’t like all them foreigners. (And of course, only a mind truly in the gutter would see any double-entendre in the phrase “under me”)

Trickle-up economics

Larry Beinart has a good analysis at the HuffPost of how wrong Republican economics are for the U.S. (Bushenomics 102: Reality.

One point I’d like to reinforce is this: If you want to cut taxes, cut it from the bottom up. The money will get spent, stimulating the economy. and the base of the tax cut will be broader. The wealthy will get benefits from this too.

If there isn’t enough revenue available to cut taxes across the board at the bottom (one way to do this is to raise the standard deduction), then maybe the money isn’t there for tax cuts at all.

If you like words and politics and history

This may blow your mind.

Killing Me Softly

“…based on authority given to me by the Constitution and by statute— I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program…”

Play the SoTU drinking game

Catch presents The State of the Union Drinking (& Other Stuff) Game:

1. Every time Bush says “freedom”: Take one very small sip of Wild Turkey (he said it 21 times during last year’s SOTU)
2. Every time Bush mentions Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Scooter Libby or Tom DeLay: Drink three bottles of Wild Turkey
3. Every time Bush mentions “democracy” and “Hamas” in the same sentence: Drive to the Wild Turkey distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY and consume the contents of three full oak barrels
4. Every time Bush says “culture of life”: Vomit in your mouth
5. Every time Bush says “sanctity of marriage”: Vomit in the lobby of a mega-church
6. Every time Bush mentions Iraq: Even though it’s not true, accuse the bartender of watering down the drinks and, if he doesn’t admit to it, ransack the bar, loot the liquor, and then make all of the patrons stain their right index fingers. When the cops show up to arrest you, just point to the fingers, tell the policemen they hate freedom, and question their patriotism.
7. Every time Bush mentions 9/11: Imagine he’s really saying “the gift that keeps on giving,” because, really, he is.
8. Every time Bush mentions Iran or Syria: Email seven pro-war bloggers the phone number of their local Army recruitment office.
9. Every time Bush promises to cut the deficit in half: Ask the bartender to make you an Absolut Bullshit
10. Every time Bush promises to make his tax cuts permanent: Tell the bartender you have no intention of paying your tab
11. Every time Bush mentions overhauling Social Security: Laugh and laugh and laugh
12. Every time the Republicans give Bush a standing ovation: Yell “United States of Omega House!”
13. Every time the Democrats give Bush a standing ovation: Drink until the pain goes away
14. Every time you see one of Dennis Hastert’s chins jiggles: Guzzle a can of Michelob Ultra
15. Every time they show Dick Cheney smirking: Take a quaalude (your TV will thank you)
16. Every time they show Sam Alito: If you’re a woman, say something soothing to your uterus. If you’re a man, say something soothing to the uterus of the woman closest to you.
17. If they show Alito’s wife crying: Pray for the future of America

Sulu's gay

Although I was almost inappropriately delighted to learn today that Sulu is gay, I have to confess that I'm kind of irritated at the timing.

I mean, yesterday Miers withdraws, then this morning, so-called "Scooter" Libby resigns. And now here comes George Takei, pushing those stories right off the front page.

Appearance of Conflict of Interest

That's a concept we're hearing a a lot about lately:

Over the weekend the Comical ran a WaPo story reporting that the EPA's Inspector General says there is no such thing as quid pro quo:

The inspector general's yearlong review of the EPA's writing of a rule to manage shop towels contaminated with toxic chemicals found "no evidence of direct political influence" by lobbyists for Cintas Corp., whose chairman, Richard Farmer of Cincinnati, is a top Republican donor who raised more than $250,000 for the 2004 Bush-Cheney campaign.

It's also emerging that Bill Frist has money in the family business via an even less blind trust than we already knew about. This one's run by his brother. It's a topic of much discussion on dKos, but nobody seems interested in whether other congresspeople -- including Democrats --might also have "qualified" blind trusts.

And of course, there's Harriet Miers. Googling her name with "conflict of interest" reports 169,000 hits. Wolcott has been calling her Miss Hathaway for her devotion to the boss; and that loyalty to a sitting president is, even more than her crony-capitalist ideology and her acceptability to Dobson, et al, at the heart of her disqualification for the SC.

Appearance of conflict of interest also figures in a couple of ways in Plamegate. That seems to have been the implied accusation in Rove & Libby's campaign against Joe Wilson: if Wilson's wife was involved in selecting him for the Niger trip, then it goes without saying that he must have been unqualified and must lack credibility. Seems a rather fastidious view of nepotism for this White House to be taking.
But Plamegate is also revealing a real conflict of interest, and that's with the MSM figures involved. All of the journalists to whom this "damaging" information was leaked were chosen because they were presumed (quite safely) to be loyal to the administration. Both Novak and then Cooper ran the item at face value, accepting the supposedly obvious inference that Wilson was indeed discredited; and Miller had apparently been looking to dig up dirt on Wilson after learning that he'd been Kristof's anonymous source. All of them seem to have understood their journalistic responsibility as advancing the interests of the administration, not any [snort, guffaw] disinterested pursuit of information.

Remembering what America stands for

I'm reprinting this report from the AP in full:

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour's comments during Wednesday's sentencing hearing for Ahmed Ressam, as provided by court officials.

Ressam, an Algerian national, was sentenced to 22 years for plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport on the eve of the millennium.

---

"Okay. Let me say a few things. First of all, it will come as no surprise to anybody that this sentencing is one that I have struggled with a great deal, more than any other sentencing that I've had in the 24 years I've been on the bench.

"I've done my very best to arrive at a period of confinement that appropriately recognizes the severity of the intended offense, but also recognizes the practicalities of the parties' positions before trial and the cooperation of Mr. Ressam, even though it did terminate prematurely.

"The message I would hope to convey in today's sentencing is twofold:

"First, that we have the resolve in this country to deal with the subject of terrorism and people who engage in it should be prepared to sacrifice a major portion of their life in confinement.

"Secondly, though, I would like to convey the message that our system works. We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, or detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant, or deny him the right to counsel, or invoke any proceedings beyond those guaranteed by or contrary to the United States Constitution.

"I would suggest that the message to the world from today's sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart. We can deal with the threats to our national security without denying the accused fundamental constitutional protections.

"Despite the fact that Mr. Ressam is not an American citizen and despite the fact that he entered this country intent upon killing American citizens, he received an effective, vigorous defense, and the opportunity to have his guilt or innocence determined by a jury of 12 ordinary citizens.

"Most importantly, all of this occurred in the sunlight of a public trial. There were no secret proceedings, no indefinite detention, no denial of counsel.

"The tragedy of September 11th shook our sense of security and made us realize that we, too, are vulnerable to acts of terrorism.

"Unfortunately, some believe that this threat renders our Constitution obsolete. This is a Constitution for which men and women have died and continue to die and which has made us a model among nations. If that view is allowed to prevail, the terrorists will have won.

"It is my sworn duty, and as long as there is breath in my body I'll perform it, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We will be in recess."

Testify.

The president's bike is missing

A White House press briefing quoted at length in Editor & Publisher (via The Smirking Chimp) goes on and on in this vein:

Q: The fact that the president wasn't in danger is one aspect of this. But he's also the commander in chief. There was a military operation underway. Other people were in contact with the White House. Shouldn't the commander in chief have been notified of what was going on?

McCLELLAN: John, the protocols that we put in place after Sept. 11 were being followed. They did not require presidential authority for this situation. I think you have to look at each situation and the circumstances surrounding the situation. And that's what officials here at the White House were doing. ...

Q: Even on a personal level, did nobody here at the White House think that calling the president to say, by the way, your wife has been evacuated from the White House, we just want to let you know everything is OK?

McCLELLAN: Actually, all the protocols were followed and people were -- officials that you point out were taken to secure locations or evacuated, in some cases. I think, again, you have to look at the circumstances surrounding the situation, and it depends on the situation and the circumstance. ...

Q: Nobody thought to say, by the way, this is going on, but it's all under control?

End of story. Nothing to see hear. Keep a-moving. The protocols were followed.

The Mainstreaming of Vice

I've been puzzling for a couple of years now about the pornification of America. Take a step back and, at least to me, it's really quite remarkable and a bit unnerving how casually pop culture 2005 assumes everyone's comfortable with hardcore pornography.

This is especially true in sitcom-land, where porn-related jokes are a dime a dozen, not just at prime time, but throughout the day on Friends reruns and the like.

There's a root assumption here, a significant cultural change, which is that porn is sort of a harmless, victimless, personal sin. Which is one perspective. There's another perspective, however, which is that the porn industry is a gigantic, tragic, victimizing beast of a machine. And that no one really knows what kind of impact routine exposure to hardcore porn is having on the raised-on-the-Net generation.

I guess that (unpopular) perspective isn't all that funny.

Now someone could easily argue that this porn-is-harmless perspective isn't new. That it was mainstream in the '70s as well. But it seems indisputable that there's been a change -- that if you compare a Happy Days script to a Joey script, you'll see an obvious shift.

Meanwhile, at a coffee shop this morning, I overheard an interesting conversation about the mainstreaming of gambling. And there's a lot of truth to that too. Poker, of course, is leading the way. All our favorite TV, film, and sports stars have been lining up to play Celebrity Poker. Hell, I happen to love that show. It's amusing, quick moving, well-edited. And it's got Dave Foley. What's not to like?

Anyways, eavesdropping thusly, it occured to me that there may be a connection here. Perhaps there's something more generally going on in the culture. I mean, maybe there ain't. But the mainstreaming of vice? Loveable poker? Cuddly porn? What's it all mean?

A few fairly obvious insta-observations: 1) porn and gambling are both substantially driven by big industries. 2) porn and gambling are both substantially supported by the Internet, with its illusion of anonymous vice in the comfort of your own home. 3) this mainstreaming of vice is happening at the same time the government is (arguably) getting more repressive about issues of free speech, free religion, etc.

What's it add up to? I'm not entirely sure. The really surprising thing to me is how little has been made of this trend by either the Left or the Right. On the Right, that Ward Churchill -- now he's a real threat. And don't get them started on gay marriage. Or among the true wingnuts, there's the way SpongeBob SquarePants and A Shark's Tale are subtly reprogramming today's toddlers toward an unwholesome tolerance for ocean-dwelling sodomites. But the wholesale mainstreaming of porn and gambling? These topics don't get much more than a peep.

The obvious play for the Right would be to trumpet these examples as the height of moral decay. It's such an obvious play, I find their silence flat-out creepy.

And for the Left I wonder, could there be a real opportunity here? To talk about a cultural trend with (arguably) real impact, vices that actually do wreck lives?

Or do people just not want to hear it? Perhaps there's nothing to be gained from pointing out to Rome the true symptoms of its decline.

What do you think? Am I wildly offbase here? A typical uptight repressed American? Or there a real mud slide in process and not a hell of a lot of noise beyond the occasional glub glub?

RIP Hunter S. Thompson

desiunion has posted what he believes was HST's last Rolling Stone article up on dailykos.

The Sad Death of Spencer Dryden

I'm old enough to remember when the Airplane ruled San Francisco and rocked my adolescent world, but I confess I barely noticed Spencer Dryden's drumming between the trebly distortion of Jorma's guitar and Grace's Icy Bitch Goddess persona.

But this post isn't about my taste in popular music. Reading through the fan tributes in the Guestbook at SpencerDryden.com, I found this comment from Dryden's fellow musician Norton Buffalo:

"What a sad display of how this 'great' nation 'takes care' of it's people."

He's referring, of course, to the miserable material circumstances of Dryden's death at 66: impoverished, uninsured, living alone in a rented or borrowed cabin on a friend's property. No one should end up that way, but more of us will as our nation explicitly abandons any notion of shared responsibility in favor of "ownership."

"Dare to struggle; dare to win," as we used to say. Dare to defend the public sector, and ourselves, against the Republican Revolution.

Here are the talking points you requested

I hope Brad De Long won't mind my reprinting his The Social Security Party Line: Talking Points in full:

I figure I might as well lay down what the party line is on Social Security:

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Social Security Talking Points

Social Security's Troubles Are Smaller than Our Other Fiscal Problems

• The projected long-run Social Security Trust Fund deficit ranks no higher than fourth in urgency and in size on our list of fiscal problems.
  
  
• Bigger fiscal problems include:
  • The current $600 billion a year General Fund deficit.
  • The long-run problems of finding financing for and controlling the growth of rapidly-rising Medicare and Medicaid spending.
  • The need to make sure that the General Fund has the resources to meet its commitments without undue strain after 2020--when it will no longer be able to borrow from the Social Security Trust Fund.
  
  
  
• If our current General Fund deficit is like having an impaired driver who has just crashed us into a tree, and if the Medicare-Medicaid problems are like a melted transmission, and if the post-2020 General Fund is like having no brake pads left, then our long-run Social Security deficit is like a slow tire leak.
  
  
• If our Social Security problems are neither extraordinarily urgent nor extraordinarily large, why is the Bush administration so focused on them?
  • Possibly because of incompetence: George W. Bush and his inner circle simply do not understand the magnitude and importance of the federal government's other fiscal problem.
  • Possibly because of ideology: it is for some reason important to undermine the successes of FDR's New Deal.
  • Possibly because of capture: just as the principal aim of the 2003 Medicare Drug Benefit bill as it was written was to boost pharmaceutical company profits, so when the Bush Social Security proposal emerges we will see that its principal aim is to boost Wall Street profits.
  • Which of these is really the most important reason? I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine. Certainly the public rationales the Bush administration has offered for the "reform" program it has not announced are extremely thin.
  
  
  

What Should Be Done to Fix the Social Security System?

• Minor adjustments--the kinds of things that you do to fix a slow leak in a tire:
  • Pump in more air--raise Social Security taxes a bit (perhaps by applying the FICA tax to all earned income, rather than exempting income over $90,000 a year from the tax).
  • Patch the leak--raise the retirement age as life expectancy increases.
  
  
  
• Make these minor adjustments automatic and ongoing:
  • We will have good and bad news in the future, and will be making further adjustments--both up and down.
  • This Congress and George W. Bush have demonstrated an inability to make economic policy in the national interest--whether it's the train wreck of their budget deficits, the sinkhole of their corporate tax bill, the car crash of their steel tariff, or the current vastly exaggerated cries of "crisis, crisis."
  • It's time do with Social Security policy what Congress long ago did with monetary policy: adopt the Federal Reserve model.
  • Seven Governors of the Social Security Trust Board appointed for fourteen-year terms with the advice and consent of the Senate.
  • They then elect a Chair.
  • Their responsibility is to adjust the retirement age (and, within narrow limits, the payroll tax rate) in order to keep the Social Security System solvent in expectation.
  
  
  

What About Private Accounts?

• Private accounts are a good idea--most Americans save too little, and, remember, Social Security is supposed to be a solid, secure base of retirement income which people can rely on no matter what.
  
  
• Social Security was never intended to be all of anyone's retirement income: everyone was supposed to have private pensions and personal savings as well.
  
  
• But private accounts funded by cutting Social Security contributions are a bad idea:
  • Robbing Peter to pay Paul is in general not a good idea.
  • Reducing the guaranteed Social Security income floor will turn out to be extremely painful for those who are on the downside of the risks inevitably borne by private accounts.
  • The government-funded part of the retirement-income system as a whole needs more resources, not a shell game.
  
  
  
• A good system of private accounts would be very different than the game of three-card-monte the Bush administration wants us to play.
  
  
• Here is a good system of private accounts:
  • Automatically--without your having to opt in--half of your tax refund up to $2,000 a year is invested in your private account in the federal government's low-overhead Thrift Savings Plan.
  • If half your refund is less than $2,000, you can top off your investment in the TSP.
  • If you wish, you can file a form and withdraw your this-year's contribution from the TSP and get it in cash now.
  • Investments in the TSP accumulate tax-free.
  • You can't get your TSP investments out until retirement--but your creditors can't get at it either.
  • For low-income and medium-income taxpayers, your contributions to the TSP are supplemented by the federal government, which levies a surtax on incomes above $200,000 a year to finance the supplements.
  
  
  
• A good system of private Social Security accounts is automatic; administratively simple; administratively low-cost; well-diversified; and substantial.

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"What party?" you ask. Ah, that *is* an interesting question...

Join the resistance

Cool idea here. I signed up for the list. Perhaps you'd like to as well?

half tank full

ok. I confess that since 10 pm pst 11-02-04 I have been under the covers since I began to realize with a giant stomach aching nausea that exit polls ain't what they're cracked up to be and I was living in a dream world. Albeit the dream world of what used to be known as the Republic of Berkeley (which now includes Oakland). Thus ensued the self-imposed news and media blackout under which I remain, somewhat less than blissfully, beneath.

One should spend a solid week listening to The Meters and Brian Wilson. And nothing else. However, a bit of bloggage has made it through the blackout and that is really the message of this moment. My, we are angry. We are outraged. We have lost our sense of reason. The United States of the Stupid we are. I mean They are. The red ones. The Other.

I've seen the maps and read the rant on The South (I did that rant myself two volumes into Robert Caro's Johnson biography). But what sobered me up was an accidental espying of a NYTimes special "election" section with a full-page set of election maps going back to the Roosevelt era. Instructive. Like a two-party system fuel gauge, it showed the country running from Full-of-Democrat to less full, half-full and, finally, Full-of-Republican. That was Reagan. Reagan, Reagon, Raygun. Reagan. Eight years of Reagan, governor. Eight years of Reagan, president. And an eternity of Reagan, god. Then we slowly drifted Democrat-ward, toward nirvana, to Full-of-Clinton.

And now we are half-and-half.

As a nation we are at the moment in opposition to ourselves. Looking out from my mirror is some ex-hippie from Poughkeepsie who has a nephew shipping out to Baghdad soon. Voted red. The jerk in the cherry red Humvee parked in a handicap space in downtown Oakland got the special license from his brother-in-law at the DMV. Voted red. On the other side of the mirror: an ex-peacenik from Palo Alto who got a college deferment from the Viet Nam draft and runs an architectural firm. Voted blue. The twenty-something trust fund baby working for an environmental organization and planning a year-long kayaking trip around the world. Voted blue.

I'm not sure which way this analogy is going but if the tank is half full we've got miles to go before we weep.

Quote of the Day

From Molly Ivins:

"Sometimes, I get the feeling the whole country is being run by Paris Hilton."