Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Eternal Vigilance

Two different threats exist to our liberties as a result of the so-called Patriot Act. One is by smart government types zealously and effectively blocking bad guys, but occasionally stepping on the wrong toes.

The other, more insidious threat, is stupid bureaucrats behaving like utter assholes. Of the two, I most fear the latter.

Garrison Keillor Speaks his Piece

Garrison Keillor is one of my great pleasures. His "Prairie Home Companion" is a delight, and occasionally rises to a lyricism and humanity that nearly reaches the awe-inspiring level of Middlemarch. I had never listened to him until I happened to stumble into one of his "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues, where I was hooked by his incredible voice telling a tale of being a teenager, and driving to Clear Lake, Iowa to see the site of the plane crash that took so many talented musicians. His achingly well-told tale left me breathless in the car, dabbing at tears in my eyes brought by the loss of innocense and the pain of mortality he delivered in that short monologue. (I never heard the monologue repeated, nor have I found it in any of his compilations. I wish I could find it.)

In this article, Garrison Keillor ponders how the decent Republican party, "the party of pragmatic Main Street businessmen in steel-rimmed spectacles who decried profligacy and waste, were devoted to their communities and supported the sort of prosperity that raises all ships" has transformed itself into today's lot of Republicans.
The party of Lincoln and Liberty was transmogrified into the party of hairy-backed swamp developers and corporate shills, faith-based economists, fundamentalist bullies with Bibles, Christians of convenience, freelance racists, misanthropic frat boys, shrieking midgets of AM radio, tax cheats, nihilists in golf pants, brownshirts in pinstripes, sweatshop tycoons, hacks, fakirs, aggressive dorks, Lamborghini libertarians, people who believe Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk was filmed in Roswell, New Mexico, little honkers out to diminish the rest of us, Newt’s evil spawn and their Etch-A-Sketch president, a dull and rigid man suspicious of the free flow of information and of secular institutions, whose philosophy is a jumble of badly sutured body parts trying to walk. Republicans: The No.1 reason the rest of the world thinks we’re deaf, dumb and dangerous.

Rich ironies abound! Lies pop up like toadstools in the forest! Wild swine crowd round the public trough! Outrageous gerrymandering! Pocket lining on a massive scale! Paid lobbyists sit in committee rooms and write legislation to alleviate the suffering of billionaires! Hypocrisies shine like cat turds in the moonlight! O Mark Twain, where art thou at this hour? Arise and behold the Gilded Age reincarnated gaudier than ever, upholding great wealth as the sure sign of Divine Grace.

While I have excerpted the above choice morsel, the entire piece is well worth reading and pondering. And he wraps it up with a thought that those of us who get passionate about politics need to keep in mind: "Dante said that the hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who in time of crisis remain neutral, so I have spoken my piece, and thank you, dear reader. It’s a beautiful world, rain or shine, and there is more to life than winning."

(Thanks to Comments from Left Field for bringing this article to my attention.)

Monday, August 30, 2004

Doth He Protest Too Much?

Pat Robertson's Congressman, one of the sponsors of the Federal Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment, has resigned over unspecified allegations. This comes after a blogger has published allegations that Congressman Schrock has cruised for gay lovers.

While I have a twinge of compassion for the guy (can you imagine the self-loathing and guilt of living a life so totally divorced from your public image), I also admit to a healthy dose of enjoyment at the irony and the evidence that some of the most vocal anti-gay activists have more issues than meet the eye.

It's similar to that other Republican hypocrite, Rush Limbaugh, ranting about sending non-violent drug-dealers to jail while whacked out of his mind on oxycontin.

It looks like the Republicans are going to fit right into New York City.

Report on New York Protests

It's frightening to send your child to NYC, especially when you know the city is crawling with Republicans. Sam has a good head on his shoulders, though, and, I am sure, will avoid the temptation to associate with people he knows have bad values.

That said, here's his view of some protests he saw yesterday: "the protest was interesting. you would not believe the noise that a few hundred thousand people on a manhattan street can make when they put their minds to it. my favorites would have to be the communists (who all wore castro/mao suits - not really a good publicity move?), who chanted 'fuck bush! fuck kerry! revolution is necessary!' and carried signs that read 'fight weak liberalism with strong communism'." Sounds fun . . .

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Bye, Sam

At the unholy hour of 5 a.m. yesterday, Robin and I hugged Sam goodbye and left him to the security guards and flight attendants. Last night, he slept in Manhattan. A whole new stage of life has begun, for him, for us, for his sister.

What advice do you give in a situation like this? I fear I fumbled the ball, since the wisest thing I could come up with was something I passed on from my father - "Women are like street cars; if you miss one, there'll be another along soon, and after midnight, they're a lot faster."

What advice should I have given him, if any?

Regarding studies, he knows he needs to maintain a 3.7 GPA to stay in the University Scholars program, which will send him abroad and give him other outstanding opportunities. He's always been self-motivated and moderately competitive. I told him to make sure he makes it to class, but I'm not very worried about him playing for a semester, the way his father did.

Regarding women, I think he's pretty well-grounded, as well. He has always respected women and been a good friend to many of his female high school classmates. His best relationship in high school was a platonic one with a bright, strong young woman who will also be studying in NYC.

Regarding drugs and alcohol, I believe he is fairly well-grounded there, too. I don't expect him to be angelic, and I know he wasn't totally angelic in high school. I don't want him to be stupid or unlucky, either, and he was neither in high school. I am confident he has refused opportunities to drugs like ecstasy and cocaine, though this is not an area where we communicate as well as we should. I hope and believe he is too smart and motivated to allow himself to be self-destructive.

What advice should I have given him? What advice do you wish you had when you were 18?

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Bush and the Olympics

Bush just can't help but alienate people. For someone who everybody agreed would be a more affable person to have a beer with than Gore, Bush simply has a knack for pissing everyone off.

Rather than watching and enjoying the Olympics like normal Americans, the Bush campaign has decided to violate the law and try to divert the goodwill of the games to their own soulless mission. An act of Congress, last revised in 1999, grants the USOC exclusive rights to such terms as "Olympic," derivatives such as "Olympiad" and the five interlocking rings. It also specifically says the organization "shall be nonpolitical and may not promote the candidacy of an individual seeking public office." The U.S. Olympic Committee has asked the campaign nicely to stop violating the law, but Bush has stiff-armed them.

Perhaps even more outrageously, the Bush campaign has used the Iraqi soccer team in their advertisements, apparently on the theory that Bush is the conqueror, and will use his unwilling subjects as slaves to his ambition.

One of Bush's soccer-playing subjects asks a question: "How will he meet his god having slaughtered so many men and women? He has committed so many crimes." The coach points out that his problems are not with the American people - instead, "They are with what America has done in Iraq: destroy everything. The American army has killed so many people in Iraq. What is freedom when I go to the [national] stadium and there are shootings on the road?"

If the Olympics are making you feel proud and jingoistic, go read the article in that leftist rag, Sports Illustrated:
"I want the violence and the war to go away from the city," says Sadir, 21. "We don't wish for the presence of Americans in our country. We want them to go away."

Manajid, 22, who nearly scored his own goal with a driven header on Wednesday, hails from the city of Fallujah. He says coalition forces killed Manajid's cousin, Omar Jabbar al-Aziz, who was fighting as an insurgent, and several of his friends. In fact, Manajid says, if he were not playing soccer he would "for sure" be fighting as part of the resistance.

"I want to defend my home. If a stranger invades America and the people resist, does that mean they are terrorists?" Manajid says. "Everyone [in Fallujah] has been labeled a terrorist. These are all lies. Fallujah people are some of the best people in Iraq."

Everyone agrees that Iraq's soccer team is one of the Olympics' most remarkable stories. If the Iraqis beat Australia on Saturday -- which is entirely possible, given their performance so far -- they would reach the semifinals. Three of the four semifinalists will earn medals, a prospect that seemed unthinkable for Iraq before this tournament.

When the Games are over, though, Coach Hamad says, they will have to return home to a place where they fear walking the streets. "The war is not secure," says Hamad, 43. "Many people hate America now. The Americans have lost many people around the world--and that is what is happening in America also."


Mission accomplished, George?

Can't We Just Burn Gays at the Stake?

Having taken an inch by enshrining discrimination against gays in the Missouri Constitution, the rabid right-wing gay-haters are trying to make it a mile. Ray and Judy Buckner, represented by a lawyer named Kevin Theriot, are suing the City of Kansas City because it maintains a domestic partner registry and benefits program. These hateful bigots object "to their taxes being used to create a new marital status for people unwilling or ineligible to marry under Missouri law." They claim that the domestic partner registry creates an "imitation marriage" that conflicts with Missouri law.

I know that I should edit out some of the harsh language and try to present this matter cooly and calmly, but this just makes me crazy. These people are filing frivolous lawsuits based on silly arguments rooted in fringe interpretations of their religion. Instead of being content that they succeeded in making sure their marriage is "safe" from gay couples getting married (a logic I never understood in the first place), they are clogging up the courts with malicious attempts to further harrass people who are simply trying to live their lives as normally as possible.

My bet is that the good Judge Atwell will be dismissing this case soon.

Swift and Biased

This will be my only post on the Swift Boat nonsense. Only the most blindly partisan and reflexive commentators can be taking this matter seriously.

What happened back in the Viet Nam days is a silly argument for who should be president. Bush had his daddy help him dodge the draft. Fine. That doesn't mean he isn't the best choice to lead our nation today. Kerry went to Viet Nam and all but the most blindly Kerry-hating readers accept he did an at least adequate job. Fine. That doesn't mean he is the best choice to lead our nation today.

Kerry did not, despite the rabid right-wing radio charges, make his service the center-piece of his campaign, though one can scarcely blame the average Joe for thinking so, given the media idiotic fascination with this whole topic. While he has, justifiably, mentioned it with pride, the centerpiece of his campaign is his positions, though talk radio finds positions less worthy of attention than gossip.

Some crazy liberals are all in a twist about the possibility that Bush was photographed with medals he didn't earn. I truly don't care. And you shouldn't either. If you think he's doing a good job, and you could be dissuaded even by absolute, incontrovertible proof that 30 years ago he pinned the wrong medal to his shirt, you are stupid, and, while you are allowed to vote, you really shouldn't.

Ultimately, this is just an onanistic frenzy for people who care more about scoring points against the other side of the political debate than it is about discussing which candidate is a better leader for our nation. This "debate" is a great example of "point issues" as opposed to honest, legitimate political debate.

All that said, go read Ben Wasserstein's "You Can Report, but We Will Decide" for a fine analysis of how the right-wing corrupt media has stooped to new lows to fan the flames and give life to this bogus non-issue.

A short history lesson on the privilege of voting...

A friend passed this on to me in the form of an email, and I thought it interesting on a few points. First, and most obviously, it is a plea for people - especially women - to appreciate and use the right to vote. Second, it is a new history lesson, at least for me. Third, it shows the difficulty often faced by people forcing change - "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

The women were innocent and defenseless. And by the end of the night, they were barely alive. Forty prison guards wielding clubs and their warden's blessing went on a rampage against the 33 women wrongly convicted of "obstructing sidewalk traffic."

They beat Lucy Burn, chained her hands to the cell bars above her head and left her hanging for the night, bleeding and gasping for air. They hurled Dora Lewis into a dark cell, smashed her head against an iron bed and knocked her out cold. Her cellmate, Alice Cosu, thought Lewis was dead and suffered a heart attack. Additional affidavits describe the guards grabbing, dragging, beating, choking, slamming, pinching, twisting and kicking the women. Thus unfolded the "Night of Terror" on Nov. 15, 1917, when the warden at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia ordered his guards to teach a lesson to the suffragists imprisoned there because they dared to picket Woodrow Wilson's White House for the right to vote.

For weeks, the women's only water came from an open pail. Their food--all of it colorless slop--was infested with worms. When one of the leaders, Alice Paul, embarked on a hunger strike, they tied her to a chair, forced a tube down her throat and poured liquid into her until she vomited. She was tortured like this for weeks until word was smuggled out to the press.

So, refresh my memory. Some women won't vote this year because--why, exactly? We have carpool duties? We have to get to work? Our vote doesn't matter? It's raining?

Last week, I went to a sparsely attended screening of HBO's new movie "Iron Jawed Angels." It is a graphic depiction of the battle these women waged so that I could pull the curtain at the polling booth and have my say. I am ashamed to say I needed the reminder.

All these years later, voter registration is still my passion. But the actual act of voting had become less personal for me, more rote. Frankly, voting often felt more like an obligation than a privilege. Sometimes it was inconvenient.

My friend Wendy, who is my age and studied women's history, saw the HBO movie, too. When she stopped by my desk to talk about it, she looked angry. She was--with herself. "One thought kept coming back to me as I watched that movie," she said. "What would those women think of the way I use--or don't use--my right to vote? All of us take it for granted now, not just younger women, but those of us who did seek to learn." The right to vote, she said, had become valuable to her "all over again."

HBO will run the movie periodically before releasing it on video and DVD.

I wish all history, social studies and government teachers would include the movie in their curriculum. I want it shown on Bunko night, too, and anywhere else women gather. I realize this isn't our usual idea of socializing, but we are not voting in the numbers that we should be, and I think a little shock therapy is in order.

It is jarring to watch Woodrow Wilson and his cronies try to persuade a psychiatrist to declare Alice Paul insane so that she could be permanently institutionalized. And it is inspiring to watch the doctor refuse. Alice Paul was strong, he said, and brave. That didn't make her crazy. The doctor admonished the men: "Courage in women is often mistaken for insanity."

Please pass this on to all the women you know. We need to get out and vote and use this right that was fought so hard for by these very courageous women.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Good Bush Move

Bush announced yesterday that he would begin a dacade-long process of redeployment of US troops, reducing our expensive and unnecessary presence in Germany and other Western European countries. While I am no military expert, the plan sounds prudent and well-reasoned.

When I first heard the news, my thought process was kind of funny. I was truly surprised to find a decision of the Bush Administration that I had no argument with. Then it struck me how sad and polarized he has made this country. In a world where the Bush adminisration has set out to dismantle our international standing, civil rights and environmental protections, a common-sense decision like yesterday's stands out as a shining beacon of good judgment.

It shouldn't be this way. Bush has shown one instance of good government in three and a half years of running the country. Let's not pat him on his head too vigorously.

Sunday, August 15, 2004

Good Article on Edwards and Tort Reform

The most popular "reform" is to impose a cap on pain and suffering awards. But that forces the worst-off to subsidize everybody else's medical insurance.

Consider a 7-year-old child, terribly injured by medical malpractice, who will live in constant, severe pain for the rest of his life. A jury might award the child millions for "pain and suffering." But in a state with a cap, that award could be reduced to only $250,000.

Certainly, some victims' pain and suffering over a lifetime must exceed that amount. Judges and juries seem to think so when they award sums greater than $250,000 in various torts cases, regardless of whether they involve malpractice, car accidents, or sexual abuse. The argument for caps must simply be that we, as a society, can't afford to fully compensate victims of medical malpractice -- so we accept as matter of practical necessity that that their suffering will remain uncompensated and unaddressed.

But how can this be the right answer? Why should the most unfortunate -- the disabled, the suffering, the severely ill -- forego compensation? It seems mean-spirited to ask those who have lost the most to bear the brunt.

Bush Campaign Achieves New Levels of Bizarreness

I saw the latest Bush television advertisement - the one where Laura winces in pain as Bush blunders through his committee-written lines - "I can't imagine the great agony of a mom or a dad having to make the decision about which child to pick up first on September 11th . . ."

Would someonw please tell me what in the hell he is talking about? Is he really saying that he is too emotionally and intellectually stupid to imagine having to help more than one child deal with a trauma? Or is he hypothesizing some parents having to recover multiple bodies from the coroner's office after 9/11? Or were there parents faced with the choice of only being able to carry one child down the steps of the WTC? What in the world is he talking about??

Of course, he isn't really talking about anything. He is simply delivering images - images devoid of meaning, context, or content. Bush wants to make us think of terrorism, moms and children in the same sentence, so that our inner buttons will be pushed to scare the American public.

Next ad, I'm betting he talks about "American values" while Dick Cheney rolls around on the White House lawn, frolicking with golden retriever puppies.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

Light Blogging for the Coming Week

Travelling the northern Midwest, visiting Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin, and Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota. Who knows, if one of the kids lends me a laptop someplace with a connection, I may be able to post some thoughts on the issues of the day.

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

Voter Fraud in Kansas City

I received this email through a totally credible source. I'm editing out identifying information, because I have not yet received permission to post it:

Dear friends,

I want to warn you about a new kind of voter fraud we just learned about the hard way yesterday. Most of you know my son X. When my family went to the polls to vote, (my hausband) and I were able to, but X, who had been on the rolls and voted in the last election, was unable to because his name did not appear on the voter registration rolls for our precinct. At the time this happened, only about 5 or 6 people came and went in the polling place (midday), but one other man, a regular all the poll workeres recognized, also found he was off the rolls. He left before we finished trying to clear it up and before we could offer him a ride downtown to the Election Commission, where we went next (and spent much of the hottest afternoon this year). We never saw him down there and figure he probably didn't go because of work or transportation. Or maybe just the hassle.

We assumed it was just some computer glitch. At 18th & Walnut, they were swamped, but we waited. It turned out that X had been reregistered by someone who had his birthdate and the last four digits of his SS# at a new address in another precinct. __________, to be exact. (We live at _____________) X was concerned about identity theft, naturally, but the director of elections, who had had to take his case, assured him that it was simple voter fraud. She was seeing a lot of it. She said an organization had paid someone to reregister him. When he asked how they could have his personal information, she said it was because organizations could and did buy the rolls and that info was on them. (Incidentally, this is no criticism of the Election Commission. They handled it as well as they could under the circumstances.)

This is a nearly flawless scheme of voter fraud. No one is thrown off the rolls, so no red flags in the system go up. But when you're moved to another precinct on the rolls without your knowledge, the only way you can vote is to go down to the central office and wait to have it taken care of individually. People move and reregister every day, and legitimate organizations like Rock the Vote often send in bundles of registrations from events. You can't even learn the true extent of it since many voters can't take the time from work or haven't the transportation to go downtown and spend hours straightening out so they can vote. And without them doing that, it looks just like a legitimate change-of-address.

We don't think it's any coincidence that we live in a predominantly African American, overwhelmingly Democratic precinct. Last night at an event at the Kerry headquarters in town, I spoke with an African American woman who had three friends at work all suddenly gone from the rolls of their normal polling place. All live in different mostly black, strongly Democratic precincts. None of them went downtown. All had to go on to work. Look at November and see what we're facing.

X has given the state Kerry campaign a written statement about this. After he posted it on his live journal to encourage his friends to check their registration before November or vote absentee, a reporter from the Pitch interviewed him by phone and a representative of the Western Missouri ACLU asked him to send a statement to them, which he's doing. I think we need to get the word out about this as widely as possible and encourage people to check their voter registration address before the elections or vote ahead of time by absentee ballot (where the discrepancy will show up before the election and can be fixed).

You all know how critical this election is. Please pass this information on to everyone you can, and take any opportunity you have to publicize it so people will know about it and protect their right to vote.

If anyone wants to talk to X or e-mail him personally about this, our home number is ______________ (we screen so leave a message) and his phone at work is ____________. His e-mail is ______________. (I"ve deleted this info - if you want it, contact me.)

Let's get the word out and try to keep a slicker version of what happened in Florida in 2000 from happening here in 2004.

Missouri - Home of the Sexually Insecure

The results are in, and it looks like 70% of Missourians fear homosexuals enough to enshrine discimination against them in their Constitution. This is all the more depressing because 100,000+ more Democrats showed up to the polls than Republicans.

Back in June, in response to the inquisitive ThatColoredFella, I posted my prediction, and it was that the amendment would pass 60-40. I thought I was being realistic - I didn't know how bad it would be.

Tuesday, August 03, 2004

Let the Counting Begin

It is now a little after 7:00 in Missouri, and the polls have closed, and the counting has begun. Tipped off by News-Head-O-Rama, I will be watching the results online at the Secretary of State's site.

Will Missouri enshrine anti-gay fear and prejudice in its Constitution? I fear it will. Will we allow a casino to exist in Rockaway Beach, in the heart of the Bible belt? I hope so, and believe it will happen.

Tomorrow morning, we'll deal with the aftermath. I'll be happy to see the Holden-McCaskill contest finished - the winner will, I have heard, have a $6 million warchest waiting to help him or her take on the half-witted spawn of an incompetent congressman, Matt Blunt. Godspeed to Bob or Claire!

I'm hoping that Cleaver wins over Metzl, but I hope it is close enough to avoid discouraging the young, the enthusiastic and the wealthy who jumped in on Metzl's campaign. He activated a fine demographic, and I'd love to see them around for the longterm.

Sunday, August 01, 2004

Not Getting Any? More Bad News

The Vatican announced yesterday that men and women retain their gender in the after-life, but don't get to have sex. In a report issued to Bishops around the world, the Vatican attacked feminism, In stressing that men and women are different, the document said "From the first moment of their creation, man and woman are different and will remain so for eternity." But it said the "temporal and earthly expression of sexuality is transient," and cited Scripture suggesting that a married couple's existence in heaven would be celibate. I guess this means my plan for hooking up with Elle MacPherson are going to need some rethinking.

Feminism gets blamed for making "homosexuality and heterosexuality virtually equivalent, in a new model of polymorphous sexuality." I guess if you want to talk about that kind of thing, the best place to do it is with a bunch of priests in the Vatican. They should know the subject.

Who I'll Be Voting For

Our primary elections here in Missouri will be taking place on Tuesday. Here's a listing of who I'll be voting for, and one that is too close to call right now. These last few days are where a negative ad can change my vote against the one who goes negative.

U.S. Senator:
Nancy Farmer

Governor:
Claire McCaskill

Lieutenant Governor:
Bekki Cook

Secretary of State:
Robin Carnahan

State Treasurer (finally a Y chromosome - I look like freaking Emily's List so far!)
Jason Klumb

Attorney General:
Jay Nixon

U.S. Representative, 5th District:
Emanuel Cleaver II

State Representative:
Jenee Lowe

Constitutional Amendment 1:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended to authorize floating gambling facilities on or adjacent to the White River in Rockaway Beach, Missouri, to be licensed and regulated consistent with all other floating facilities in the State of Missouri, with fifty percent of the state revenues generated in the current year to be used for uniform salary supplement grants to all high quality teachers employed in priority schools, and the remaining state revenues generated in the current year to be distributed to all priority school districts on a per pupil basis for capital improvements to education facilities? This constitutional amendment will generate annual direct gaming revenue ranging from $39.9 to $49.0 million for the state and $10.2 to $12.4 million for the local government, subject to local voter approval and licensing by the State Gaming Commission. The amount of indirect revenue or expense, if any, is unknown.

Yes.

Constitutional Amendment 2:
Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended so that to be valid and recognized in this state, a marriage shall exist only between a man and a woman? The estimated fiscal impact of this proposed measure to state and local government is $0.

No.

Kansas City Question 1:
For the purpose of providing funds for the acquisition, development, construction, operation and maintenance of a Downtown Arena and appurtenant facilities, including costs of land, infrastructure, design, engineering, finance and furnishing and equipping the same, shall the City of Kansas City be authorized to impose the following license fees, all as defined by Chapter 40 of the Code of Ordinances of Kansas City, Missouri: up to $1.50 per occupied sleeping room per day on all hotels, motels and tourist courts, in place of the existing fee authorized by Section 40-111 of the Code of Ordinances, and up to $4.00 per rental of a passenger vehicle per rental day on all rental car agencies, in addition to existing fees currently authorized by Section 40-165 of the Code of Ordinances, provided that $0.50 of the passenger vehicle rental fee shall be paid to a general notfor-profit organization, with whom the City has contracted, and which is incorporated in the state and located within the city limits, established for the purpose of promoting the city as a convention, visitors and tourist center and which shall use the funds for such purpose? The City is authorized to impose the license fee on hotels, motels and tourist courts and the portion of the license fee on rental car agencies not reserved for promotion of the city as a convention, visitors and tourist center until all project financing for the Downtown Arena is fully paid.

Yes.

Jackson County Prosecutor:
Kathy Finell, or
Mike Sanders

Jackson County Sheriff:
Tom Phillips

Committeeman, 8th Ward:
Stephen Bough

Committeewoman, 8th Ward:
Andrea Bough