Because Bad Ideas Never Die: Gangster Polticians Edition

Oh, hey! TABOR is back!

The Dems at the statehouse want to do something about this budget crisis we're having in Oregon. Well, not so much the current crisis, but future ones. To do this, they want to end the "kicker" and direct those dollars to a Rainy Day Fund, which is eminently sensible. There's a certain logic to saying "Maybe when we have billions in deficits, we shouldn't be sending tax rebates to people because three guys missed their guess on how much revenue we'd have."

This being Oregon, nothing sensible is allowed to happen. Not only do we have plenty of Republicans who still can't give up the "it's the people's money!They know best what to do with it" bullshit that drives so much of the debate, but we've also managed to pass a law that requires 2/3 of the Legislature to change tax law.

So, in order to enact sensible tax reform, the Dems have to give the Republicans something. What could that something be? Oh, how 'bout that little Measure that we all worked our asses off to kill a few years back?

But in an attempt to build political consensus, the proposed constitutional revision, which would have to go before voters, would offer more.

GOP lawmakers and business interests showed a liking for [the idea] because it proposes to place a threshold on government spending by tying spending increases to population growth and inflation, thereby seeking to prevent state government spending from mushrooming in times of economic boom.

Steve Buckstein of the libertarian Cascade Policy Institute said the spending cap intrigued him because “taxpayers have very few ways of regulating the growth of government.”

Now, I seem to recall being assured that if Measure 48 passed, that would be the end of Oregon as we know it. I guess not. Or maybe so.

Somebody Bet on the Bay

Stupid with an S

Anyone else watch Fox News' Trillion with a T? I tuned in for the promised Andy Stern action, but there was very little of it. He got in two sound bites, one supporting the S-CHIP expansion and one about the funding of NCLB. The program was the expected propaganda job, with little pretext to fairness or balance, but I'm not bitchin', I knew what I was in for.

I did like this guy though. I mean, not as a human being or anything, but as a Republican who is young, can speak to a microphone without looking like a jackass, and is a sweet piece of meat, if that's your thing. He's extremely conservative and from Arizona so I guessed he was Mormon (not that there's anything wrong with that) and, of course, I was right. Does this hurt him for president or will Mitt's failed bids pave the way?

The answer is yes.

Grammar and punctuation are ever evolving rubrics, as well

A lot of the legislative agenda is driven by assumptions that have reached the level of given facts. Science is an ever changing rubric and even such core principles as gravity have been modified over the years as more information has become available. As we enter into a debate on our various courses of action, I think it is important to examine the base line to see if there is enough “real” science to warrant the direction we are taking. To that end my next few newsletters will deal with Oregon’s environmental agenda.

If you ask any climatologist (who has not bought into a political agenda) if the planet is getting warmer the answer will be; “we don’t know”.

Way Beyond Academic Emo: 2009 Self-Inventory

There's nothing like hanging in your childhood home to lead you into deep, obscene feats of regression and recapitulation. Perhaps that's how I've pulled off such adolescent horseshit as mumbling "I don't care what happens to me" recently, and how I came to spend 20-35 seconds of actual, lived life on lamenting how my parents just don't "get" me. (These last episodes are a few days old, btw, and I've since hit the sea-floor and headed surface-way. Is that Ben Gardner's boat?)

Jeepers Creepers, Lex: I know. But circumstances are such that it'd be even stupider to go about mumbling to myself about just how asshole-ish I'd be to continue indulging these sophomoric courses of action and inquiry. Instead, I'll focus on some things that are keeping me on the sunny side, even if I mean to evoke "sunny" in the hollow, haunted sense of stark winter light.

(These're in no specific order, btw. No matter what the format seems to suggest at first glance, you are reading a now-slightly-better-off-than-totally-insane man's blog, not listening to sports-talk radio.)

1. John Hodgman’s Areas of My Expertise and More Information Than You Require. These astonishing works have played a crucial role in helping me maintain the "keep larfing or you will die" dogma that has pretty much defined my internal and external goings-on since mid-12/08. The laughing's running a little thin, actually, but the wannabe Joycean attention to comedy-not-tragedy is both the upside of irish-catholic-ness, and my anti-spiritual skeleton key. What Hodgman knows, and what Lex believes, is that lies beat fiction: 'specially when it comes to larfs! Like the names of twitterers/life-heroes Tompkins, Scharpling and Barry, Hodgman's nom'll be muttered on my death bed when I ponder the 100s of saints who can claim to've at some point saved my life.
2. The District of Columbia. What is this place? Train, train, bomb threat, restaurant, train. When I say, "this is New York City to me," I mean it houses the better-than-sports, better-than-most-making-out politickery that I'm apt for ambling after, autumn after autumn. Now, to find a 'not crap' job therein!
3. Twitter. Listen, maybe this blog-form's imperfect for the rest of you...god knows I don't use Twitter "as directed," which is to say, via my cellphone. My firm commitment to the tweet-form is mostly forged of a formal affinity for the character limit, and a readerly attachment to a cultivated copse of friends'/celebs' banalities and abbreviated asides. If you don't get it, you're not me. (And if you're not me, congrats! That means your face probably isn't twitching.)
4. Cookie Monster.
5. NJ. Let's see, we've got the "lunar landscape" of the turnpike. We've got WFMU, non-crap pizza, and pizzerias whose delivery folks are all over 50. We've got penne vodka on the cheap. And et's not forget the assholes who drive like shit and a ubiquitous affinity for "semi-formal" men's leather jackets. Everybody's gotta be "from" somewhere, I suppose. Is this my "from" place, still?
6. Rules for Turning 30. More on this later. I talk about turning 30 as if I'm very apprehensive about it, but veteran readers'll recognize that I'm actually just arbitrary and vain. I'm taking the approaching birthday as an opportunity to outline an array of advisable/unadvisable life decisions, as well as the usual bombastic pronouncements. Really I'd just like to have my own apartment sometime before this or that equinox. That's my bleeping goal.
7. Le Foosbook. During the trying times of Holiday '08, I hit the Facebook like a bloody-mouthed, hungry lion. Mission Accompished, though! I think I found what I'd needed to find, and am happy to see myself pivoting back towards the blog-realm, be it long-form or be it micro. Now I'm just good pour the occasional status update while awaiting more insane archival Sewanee snaps. (If only I had a scanner, it'd be curtains for you kids.)
8. The Lite-ness of singlehood: have you ever taken LSD-25? I haven’t: not ever, ever, ever. BUT, I’m told that an alternate-universe version of me has done so. Allow me to imagine I'm him for a moment....When I used to dose on LSD (alt. universe 1997-2000) and the shite got thick, I'd contstantly have to put out my hands, slap the floor, and remind myself where my body ended and the rest of the material world began. This fetishistic work of boundary drawing reminded me how small and physical I was, and helped my occasionally heroic conscience semi-soothe me to the tune of "hold it down, hold it down." So, too, do I find myself seeking reassurance these days from things in the world, and from my own frail physique, as I go about demarcating me and everything else. I am small, I am light, I am unassuming, I am passionless. I am not positioned to hurt anybody or myself. But better, I'm on the way to learning how to just maybe "take it lite" with the enemy of my enemy, Lurks Durkinster.
9. My Grandfather. My grandfather's the kinda guy who, when you tell him you gotta go to the can, he says, he says, he says, “mention my name and they’ll give you a good seat.”
10. Prindle 73. Obviously.
11. Wlkmn. I understand how this fascination/affinity might seem weird to some, especially because on the surface these guys just seem like another iteration of the Brooklyn, 2001 rubric that even Pitchfork's starting to get snarky about. My history with this band: includes the legendary Jonathan Fire*Eater; gleefully acknowledges their way longer-running DC roots; but culminates with the non-context-y realization that I like every single sound coming out of their songs. My new Son Volt, le wlkmn? That's not the right comparison yet, not least because they haven't demanded my rabid attention for a decade yet. But there's something happening with me and they. (And by the way, this particular performance of "In the New Year" will forever connote Barack Obama being president for me. Hamilton's vocal performance is fucking commanding, his leather jacket hardly semi-formal.) I really don't care who else "gets it," and I'm perfectly cool with this being just a 'me' thing. There have to be 'me' things, these days, or I'd go the way of a beached whale.
12. Realizations re: Patrick, writer and Patrick, rocker. Okay, look: I can't sing. Even when the bands I've fronted have no-doubt rocked, it's never been cuz I approached my beloved Chiltons, Parsons, Farrars in the throaty pipes dept. I get this now, having made a solo alb where something like "singing" would've helped. You know what else? I can't even not-sing a la my guys Kinsella, Dylan, etc. Front-guy wise, I think I've done best sounding like, well, Lex Dexter, with all his unconsciously embodied Mark E. Smith, Lydon, Chris Leo-isms. Really, I'm fine with that. Especially now that I've decided not to waste my words on my own voice. Because, you see, I like what I write a lot, and I am pleasantly unconcerned about it winning an audience beyond you seven readers, so there's no need to dress it up all suitable-like for the bars. I'm right now happier doing writing-about-music than I am saddling my writings with music. Try to stop me, eh? And when I do sing again it's gonna be Lex Dexter-y rasp time, not falling-short-of-Chilton follies time.
13. MySpace qua Radio. The only reason to've a muhspuss pazh is cuz it allows one to cruise rock bands' mushpuss radio stations. Why didn't I think of this four years ago? I did, but had to cut bait when 225 students wanted up in my back catalogue. No such problems these days.
14. Relative Libidolessness. Can't help cataloging all of my less-ness-es right now, even if it means (non-)sex-nonsense-blogging now. I am seated between a Straw Man and a Blow-Up doll, and it's cold enough to see my breath. There's the sound of children's laughter pumped in from somewhere. I am my own niece. I shall not not not want for anything saltier than a paperback.

15. The State of Michigan (home of l'UAW, Joe Louis Arena, le Bellman,)

Even the Apostles stopped Always Pressing After the Pentecost.

Maybe my imaginary Reuther's better to Virgil me All throughout Anti-Purgatory. Every other year after every other year, there's Always Pickets.

Anti-Popes, After-Parties: Vinnie Johnson, Ron Gettelfinger, Elmore Leonard, Chet Lemon. All Pink wine And Pantlegs.

Fuck bread and roses! We want fixed prices on A lot full of Packards, and we want Awesome Pastels for our nephew and our niece.

Union Security for Dummies: Sure, dues checkoff = AutoPay.

It's gonna take A lotta Patience, Michigan. It's gonna take A lotta Poise.

16. Sam Adams/Two-Beer Patrick. Two-Beer Patrick is an important, prophesied deliberor, coming soon to yawn at you, be yawned at by you, and to go home early... ( Where's the vaign?) Sam Adams has been on my mind for months before I came home to Jersey and started slurping 1.25 of 'em every other evening. It's my new idea of "plain" flavored beer, and darned if it's not delightful having no more than 1.25 of 'em. Out of curiousity, what're you all's submissions to the Plain Beer Survey?
17. Big Black Boook of lists/dreams qua Open-Ended ‘What is to be Done?’ conversation with self. Thank god. 'I've sporadically maintained a big sketchbook (sans sketches) since my second night in Eugene, 2002. Lately I've returned to reading/adding to the retrospective catalog of rock shows, crushes, insane ambitions, dreams, French Trotskyists' speeches and list of girls kissed btw. 1996-2000. Don't you judge! I'm just trying to take it lite, and these days that's hard work, Regis.

players in their own right: Stern, Biden, Reuther, Christie

1) Andy Stern on the New Moment
here's the Nation editor KVH swooning a little bit over Andy. it's an interesting opportunity to hear Andy spew forth, and you can always count on Big Purple for some interesting frames:

It's a different world – the free market ideology has been discredited," Stern said. This was "a clear election not on small things." And he argues, "We've redefined the center. Universal health care is now centrist."

2) BIDENLAND! amidst all the appointments, my question is, how do we ensure that my man Joe Biden always has the ear of the pres.?
3)Harold Meyerson puts forth a superior reading of the Big 3 Bailout that doesn't fail to evoke the era or Reuther:

The United Auto Workers’ pamphlet is nothing if not explicit in criticizing the direction of the American automobile industry. New cars cost too much relative to the buying power of the American public, it says. They are oversized. Their fuel efficiency is appallingly low.

This indictment of the Big Three appears in "A Small Car Named Desire," published by the UAW in 1949 (when the Tennessee Williams play which its title invokes was new). It was written by the social democratic labor intellectuals with whom the UAW's new president, Walter Reuther, staffed what was then the world's largest and most vibrant union. During World War II, the union, along with the Steelworkers, had won the first contracts that committed its employers to paying for its members' health care. In the first years of Reuther's presidency, it won the first contracts ensuring that productivity gains would be shared with the workers and devised the first annual cost-of-living adjustments so that paychecks would keep up with inflation. The union also won decent pensions for retirees and coverage of those retirees' medical expenses.

In other words, the UAW did more to build the era of postwar American prosperity, when workers' paychecks kept up with productivity gains, than any single institution save the federal government itself. That's one reason why it's such a target for conservative attacks as the Big Three beg the government to bail them out: In an era when no productivity gains are shared with workers, when workers’ incomes have been stagnating for decades, the UAW still preserves some of the gains that were broadly shared among American workers three and four decades ago.

read on!

4) and then there's NJ US Attorney and soon-to-be GOP candidate for Governor of NJ, Chris Christie, whose made hay through taking a creative, expansive approach to making political corruption cases. in addition to Christie's ingenuity, the Garden State's long-infamous culture of party patronage, etc., echoes neoliberal political culture's common-sense skepticism not just towards government, but towards politicians, and by extension, towards politics itself:

"After 35 years as a defense lawyer, I find it has become far more difficult to defend public officials," says Joseph Hayden, a prominent Democrat who also has been mentioned as a possible successor to Christie. "People simply don't trust them -- and those people become jurors."

Jurors, says Hayden, "don't care about legalities. They care about the smell test. If it smells like corruption, they'll convict."

Tea leaves

So fine - I get that Obama campaigned on ending the divisiveness and distractions that have characterized the politics of the last fifteen years in order to solve the urgent problems that face us as a nation. And that somehow justifies letting bygones be bygones after a certain senator from Connecticut repeatedly fucked over his nominal allies.

Ok. Whatever.

So we can expect the Senate Dems to be super friendly to avoid enraging their GOP colleagues "for the good of the country" (the House will still, theoretically, be a den of poo-flinging monkeys).

I'm going to go ahead and go out on a limb to declare EFCA DOA.

You've Gotta Be Bleeping Me

Oh jeepers! Colorado's M54, the anti-union-security initiative we narrowly defeated under the name of M64 here in Oregon, has passed! Note how the authors over at UnionNews seem to've conflated collective bargaining with "no-bid contracts."

Baby Bear's Porridge

How desperate is Gordon Smith? He is trying to defeat Merkely by running as a Democrat, which has opened the door to an attack from his right. He must be feeling the heat, because he is running attack ads against Merkely and Constitution party candidate Dave Brownlow. Apparently, Brownlow is "too liberal" for Oregon. That's right, the man who says this on his website is "too liberal":

Our Constitution authorizes the federal government to perform a very specific - and very limited - set of functions; provide for the common defense of the states, secure our borders, coin (real) money, regulate inter-state and international commerce, protect our inalienable rights - and very little else!

Sounds like a commie to me, Gordo. Thank God your delightful blend of voting with Bush 90% of the time, but coming out against the war five years in when, it is widely upopoular, but then still voting for funding and against withdrawal is just right.

And you didn't mention this why?

Smaller media markets, like, say, Eugene, OR, tend to have... let's call it quirkier on-air personalities for their local shows. Like the newscasts. Eugene has some memorable weathermen; John Fischer, Tim Chuey, and the bald guy on the NBC affiliate - you tend to remember the face of the guy telling you the forecast for the next 200 days is some variation of "rain." I still encounter Joe Giansante if I happen to catch a Ducks game on some bar's satellite feed. And who can forget the woman who looked like Ally McBeal when the FOX station tried to put together a local newscast (didn't she end up reporting at some other local channel?)(is it wrong to admit that I had a crush on her?)?

The anchors, on the other hand, are a little less memorable for me. I can see faces, but couldn't give you names. Except for one, who was exceptional in that he offensively and unapologetically embraced his role as "the anchor," whose faux gravitas dripped with cheese, whose bright human interest stories were gaggingly cloying... for some completely irrational reason, I could not stand the sight nor sound of this person. It was the one network whose local newscast I would actively avoid.

And now Rick Dancer is running for statewide office? As a Republican? And no one bothered to mention this? Had I known this I would've been donating to Kate Brown a long time ago, just to spite him.

Meet a Candidate

Exactly as it appears in the Oregon Voters Guide:

State Treasurer

Michael
Marsh

Constitution

Occupation: Maintenance

Occupational Background: a variety of jobs

Educational Background: some college

Prior Governmental Experience: none

America is in danger and Oregon on the verge of collapse. Leaders of the Democrat and Republican parties with their Ivy League educations are either incredibly stupid or are deliberately destroying us. It is time to return to Constitutional Government and become once again a land of opportunity for Americans. We have entered, voluntarily, into a slave relationship, with our government masters.

Government licenses our activity from travel to marriage, they tax us to drain us of our sustenance, and then use our money to hire police and bureaucrats to come into our homes with warrants to kidnap our children, steal our property and deprive us of our liberty with no remedy-at-law.

In 2007 the legislature, including Ben Westlund, voted to put a toll on every road, bridge and bike path in Oregon with photo tracking devices. Once the Federal Real I.D. Act, which puts everyone into Biometric data base, is completed the Democrat/Republican leadership plan to merge the banks with the States and Federal treasury into one entity with all financial transactions being done by computer. Anyone who objects to any government policy will have their identification suspended and be unable to buy groceries and pay rent.

As State Treasurer, I will uphold and defend the Oregon Constitution.

(This information furnished by Michael Marsh.)

Carolina on my mind

While we're at it, let me toss in a "Me three!" in response to Dave and Wobs.

As most of you know, I recently returned to my home state of North Carolina after more than a decade away. I have a funny relationship with this place. I grew up ashamed to live here and to have been born a Southerner. I remained here as an undergraduate, partly due to a (deeply flawed) assumption/self-delusion that Chapel Hill, being "more liberal" than the surrounding areas, was progressive enough to be tolerable. But I found that experience frustrating and couldn't get out and escape to the left coast for graduate school fast enough. Being in the west was transformative on many levels, including a shift in the way I viewed my "home": Eugene quickly made me realize that Chapel Hill was wishy-washy liberal at best. My Southern shame intensified exponentially in response to assumptions made about me based on my origins and the slight hint of an accent that I still carried--that I was ignorant or a racist, that my education was sub-standard. At times it was a shame mixed with defensiveness, given that Oregon (and later, California and New York) didn't seem to be doing that much better with race relations. Why should those of us born in the South carry the stigma of a problem that seemed to permeate the entire country? But eventually I was able to gain some perspective and distance and see my birthplace for what it was--neither solely responsible for historic or ongoing racism nor innocent enough to merit a defensive from its natives. I was glad to be out and put NC on my mental list of "couldn't force me to live there" states.

But fate is a funny thing...and despite that vow, here I am again. Only, this is not the place I grew up or the place I left. The demographics of the state have shifted profoundly in the last decade. NC has experienced incredible growth, and the new population is considerably less white and more liberal. Changing demographics and the tanking economy (hitting this state is some particularly harsh ways) are just two factors that are changing the political landscape here.

So imagine my surprise to see that my home state is now a pleasing shade of Carolina blue. Obama's chances are looking better by the day and Elizabeth Dole will almost certainly be ousted by her Democratic challenger. It is, in a word, unbelievable.


As if I needed more proof that something profound is happening around me, I found this is my mailbox this morning. Dean Smith might as well be God around these parts (minus the plantation in Durham).

These are amazing times, my friends. I am glad we are all here in this space to witness it and sort it all out together.

Kabuki

Sarah Palin. I've heard something about her being "a maverick":

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday that she disagrees with the John McCain campaign’s decision to pull staff and resources out of Michigan.

“I want to get back to Michigan, and I want to try,” Palin said in an interview on Fox News. “Todd and I, we'd be happy to get to Michigan. We'd be so happy to speak to the people there in Michigan who are hurting.”

[...]

The Alaska governor first heard the news this morning and fired off a quick e-mail to campaign officials expressing her displeasure with the move.

“Oh c’mon, do we have to?” Palin said she wrote.

Which then triggered this heartfelt plea from a "Main Streeter":

From: CHUCK YOB
Date: Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 5:34 PM
Subject: Dear Governor Palin from Chuck Yob
To: Governor Palin

Governor Palin,

I saw your comments on Fox News today and described in the Detroit Free Press article below. I wholeheartedly agree with you that the decision by the McCain campaign to pull out of Michigan was the wrong decision.

[...]

I talked to Michigan Republicans and McCain supporters on a conference call last night and they vowed to redouble their efforts. Indeed, there will still be a campaign for John McCain in Michigan whether it is sanctioned by the professionals in Washington DC or not.

Nuh-uh. I don't buy this for a second. This reeks of another campaign stunt, like they want to show that Palin's mavericky, that she's standing up for the little guy - like former Republican National Committee member Chuck Yob. I'm willing to bet money that a "grassroots campaign" spearheaded by Sarah Palin gets the McCain campaign to un-shutter their storefronts on Main Street, MI.

This just smells like so much bullshit. I really can't take these people seriously.

Who You Got?

I vaguely remember Al Swearengen saying something to the effect of "Declare your intentions or go fuck yourself." The sentiment vaguely applies here. Pick a team and live or die by their fortunes.

Boston: Winner of several World Series in the last few years. Former perennially loser to the Yankess, largely because curses are real and result from trading players that would go on to be the best of all time (further side note, in parentheses form, I have to mention that the Babe was born in Baltimore). Devotees of the "sabermetrics," the use of complicated statistical models to determine whihc players are best and which strategies to employ. Won't steal or bunt. Hated by most of baseball world because of it. Their success is seen as more proof that sabermetrics just doesn't work, largely because every pennant they win is another one Billy Bean didn't.

Los Angeles: Angels version. Formerly the "Los Angeles at Anahiem" Angels. Before that just the "Anahiem" Angels. They are more properly known as the "California" Angels. Spawned a series of godawful movies. Never, ever watch "Angels in the End Zone" no matter much your kids want to watch it. It makes you dumber. Big lumber in the 'Hiem, as the locals call it.

Chicago: White Sox version. Allegedly the working-class team from Chicago. Known mostly for throwing the 1918 World Series for, get this, money. Had a great baseball movie made about it. John Cusak. That John Cusak, quite the actor, no? The "ChiSox" snuck into the playoffs by winning a one-game tie-breaker against the Twins. They are from the worst division in baseball and don't deserve to be here. That said, they will probably go on to win it all. Worse, the sabrematricains predicted disaster for the White Sox, and they tried, but being from a shitty division helps, so they are in and we will never here the end of it.

Tampa Bay: The real darlings of this season. Not given a chance, they have plucked their way into America's heart with their plucky brand of pluck. They have a lot of really good players you have never heard of and their star didn't do well, then managed to finish the season on the DL. If you give them a chance, they will pluck the pluck out of your heart strings. Of course, you'd have to overlook the fact they are from Florida, which consistantly wins the title for most odious of all 50 states. (Sorry, Texas).

Milwaukee: The Brew Crew. When a Milwaukeeite hits a homer, a mule is shoved down a 50-foot slide into a mug of beer. If the mule can drink it's way out, beer-soaked sausages are a dollar off for the next two innings. If the mule drowns, burgers are fifty cents off the rest of the game. Either way, everyone wins. The Brewers are from Wisconsin, so they are obvious underdogs. But they are a team you can love. They will love you back.

Philadelphia: (Everyone, now) E - A - G - L -E - S, EAGLES, EAGLES, EAGLES!!! E - A - G - L -E - S, EAGLES, EAGLES, EAGLES!!! E - A - G - L -E - S, EAGLES, EAGLES, EAGLES!!!
Go Eagles! Come on, you Eagles! Fuck yeah, EAGLES!!!!!!

Los Angeles: Dodgers version. The "Trolley Dodgers" that is. From Brooklyn. Oh I could tell you about how my heart was ripped out when the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to LA. It was 1958 and I was a young Jewish lad of 12. Oh the games with the Giants! Oh the Polo Grounds Ebbets Field! Serously though, the Dodgers are most famous for destroying a working class neighborhood to build their stadium which was a subplot in a book I read but now can't remember. LA Confidential? And they had a manger who loved pasta and a pitcher who looked to heaven before each pitch and a gimpy guy who hit a homer.

Chicago: Cubs version. The lovable losers. The little team that can't. Traded Babe Ruth for a goat and haven't won the championship since the Indians killed Custer. Formerly owned by a gum magnate, now, I understand, absolutely no one wants to own them. Snuck into the playoffs on the basis of excellent pitching, good hitting, and fielding. Probably be everyone's darling pick, except that everyone on the planet is sick of hearing about the goddam Cubs and how they haven't won since 19-dickity-2.

There you have it. Declare in the comments.

Hold the condescension please

I don't think Thomas Schaller's sneeringly delivered and thinly-veiled derision of Deaniacs, Obamabots, and other progressive grassroots activists is quite warranted by the facts of this particular situation:

I hate to be the wet blanket, but the electoral map continues to consolidate and contract around the same eight to 12 states that decided the last two elections. After reducing its presence in the South a few weeks ago, now comes news that Team Obama is closing its offices in North Dakota and moving troops there to Minnesota and Wisconsin.

[...]

As for all those "50-state strategy" advocates: They seem to be deafeningly silent now, don't they? It was stupid to believe in such fantasies in the first place.

I'm not sure what Schaller thinks all of us "50-state strategy advocates" mean by that phrase, but I'm fairly certain it's not "Obama will be competitive in all 50 states this year." My understanding of that phrase led me to believe that the DNC was attempting to invest in local and state level party infrastructure in order to build the Democratic Party from the bottom up. The benefits would be seen in local Democrats being elected to office and then progressing on, presumably to higher responsibilities. While this might one day manifest itself in a state shifting on the red-blue presidential spectrum, I don't think anyone expects it any time soon.

That as we approach the election the electoral focus narrows and campaigns marshal resources to compete in those pivotal areas is more a comment on the idiosyncracies of the electoral process than anything else. At any rate, the Obama campaign's electoral strategy and the DNC's 50-state strategy are two distinct operations operating in multiple electoral landscapes - they're certainly complementary, but not one and the same.

Each campaign is working on different (but again, complementary) goals and to date seem to be producing good results. Yes, the lofty rhetoric of a "governing majority" might have been a little overambitious. But the point here is to first and foremost win. If we have to win with 276 evs instead of 330, so be it. It won't be pleasant, but we'll take it - and right now the sky is not falling. The situation could potentially be even better with expanded majorities in the legislature and a raft of new Democrats coming up through the local parties.

So why the hate?

I Won't Have My Voice Silenced!

Here in Oregon, we loves us some citizen initiative process for the expression of the "peoples" voices. Got an issue? Gather some signatures on a petition, get that issue on the ballot, and let the people have a say! No more tyranny from the fat cats in Salem! Democracy!!!

Of course, this is not how it works. Rich men with a political ax to grind pay young people to gather signatures on initiatives that everybody agrees to -- "Sign my petition to save kittens, sir?" -- and then they copy names and addresses on to completely unrelated petitions. Then millions are spent convincing the Oregon voter to vote in the interest of a very few rich men and/or corporations. Or for God. The Oregon voter loves having God's back when it comes to abortion, gays, or (Heaven forbid) marriage between gay abortionists.

This year the Oregon voter faces a bevy of ballot choices. The one most near and dear is Measure 64, which would cripple Oregon's unions. The initiative would prevent public employers from using payroll deduction for collecting union dues that could be used for political purposes.

As it works now, a public employee union member signs a dues deduction card, the employer deducts the union dues from the employee's paycheck and sends that money to the union. The union uses the money in any way it legally sees fit. If this measure were to pass, then a member would still sign a dues deduction card, the employer would deduct dues and send it to the union, but the union could not use that money for political purposes. If the union wanted to be involved in politics, then they would have to collect all that money on their own.

The measure basically seeks to fuck with Oregon's public employee unions.

As the days approach, I imagine that I will be writing frequently about this campaign. We have been getting better about forming coalitions to fend off these attacks from the right. Unfortunately, these coalitions tend to run to the center and at times advance tropes that are troubling for those of us on the left. (Perhaps Lips could favor us with a few remarks about "progressive nativism"). I imagine that I will find places to critique my own coalition as well as alerting you and all to the scurrilous propaganda of our enemies.

For instance, the powers that be have decided on the slogan "Don't Silence Our Voice." Not much different than the "Oregon Families Need a Voice" that Lips and I came up with, which is kind of scary given the state we were in when we thought up that slogan (hint: It wasn't Idaho). I'm not in love with the fact that they have chosen to make the main web address for this campaign http://dontsilenceourvoice.com which is hardly intuitive. http://noon64.com seems available, so I am not sure why they went with the more-complicated-to-remember address. (Although http://noonmeansure64.com redirects to dontsileceourvoice.com). And I know that Google magic will eventually happen, but right now searching for "no on 64" or "no on measure 64" on Google doesn't get you anywhere near this website, even if you add the word Oregon.

Anyway, first of many, I suppose. Since one of our authors is a ballot initiative expert, one is a local politics expert, and one of us deals with state legislatures for a living, we should be able to have a nice little discussion, no?

Vacationing in Hawaii Is Fascist

Cokie should have taken Bob Roberts' advice and stayed off of the crack.

These are the things you think up while high. Going on vacation to visit your grandmother is not something real Americans do. Just because Hawaii is a state, doesn't mean it's not foreign. Myrtle Beach, SC is real America where real Americans go on vacation.

Please, someone, tell me more about the liberal media.

Not as Gay as I Had Hoped

Have you all read about this?

An advertising campaign launched on the London Underground during gay pride week earlier this month has caused a political storm in South Carolina.

Posters, displayed at Leicester Square and Covent Garden tube stations in the two-week period surrounding the festival, were designed to promote a gay tour operator and to increase tourism to various US destinations noted for being gay-friendly.

News of the campaign and a poster with the tagline "South Carolina is so gay" reached the state late last week where it was condemned by Senator David Thomas. The state employee who approved the campaign has since resigned and Senator Thomas is calling for an audit of the tourism department's advertising budget, which this year runs in excess of $10m. The tourism department has also refused to pay the $5,000 fee for appearing in the campaign and has asked that the advertising be removed.

Goin' to...

Happy Canada Day, eh!

Guess what, everyone - it’s Canada Day!

It’s the day on which Canadians celebrate… well, we’re not exactly sure what. It’s probably the day we told them they didn’t have to be the fifty-first state (which we can revoke at any time!) or something like that. In fact, most of my fellow countryfolk are only aware of Canadians' distinct language, their cheap medications, and the horribly long lines to see a doctor, even if their lungs are falling out. It’s true. Look it up.

But we should endeavor to learn more about our neighbors up north, the Dennises and Brians of the world. For example, did you know that many Famous Americans were actually born in Canadia? The Guy from Jeopardy, for example, who not only has the brains, he’s got the ggggrrrrrrrr…

Or what about that lovable Alex P. Keaton, who was able to break away from the Canadian hippie liberalism of his parents and show the world the sunny face of Reaganism?

And of course, Pamela Anderson’s dedication to her acting craft and to her family inspires my patriot…

And lastly, who can argue that the heights of Canadian culture don’t rival our own?


Had The X-Files been filmed in Canada, or if the New Pornographers were Canadian, maybe they could have produced something as fantastic as those clips.

So there you have it, fellow Americans. Now pop open a Molson’s and salute our hockey-playin’ friends in the Great White North, confident in your better cultural understanding. And on Friday, we’ll show ‘em what a real kickass national holiday looks like!