Marc Ambinder has the (few) details.  It seems such a small thing, but I think it’s remarkably important. A backchannel with the world, if you will.
Related: Keep the Blackberry
Category: Politics Page 23 of 73
Waldo Jaquith notes that Del. Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) is taking up the cause of criminalizing miscarriages in Virginia. Waldo also mentions that Del. Cosgrove tried this stunt in 2005. This was Cosgrove’s excuse that he put in an email to me:
“This bill, which was requested by the Chesapeake Police Department, is an attempt to reduce the number of “trashcan” babies that are born and then abandoned in trashcans, toilets, or elsewhere to die from exposure or worse. There are numerous examples of these tragic deaths in Virginia, many in Northern Virginia and also in Hampton Roads. Once the body of a child is found, if the death of that child is undetermined by a coroner, the person abandoning that child can only be charged with “the improper disposal of a human body”.
This was, of course, utter bullshit. Any bets on Obenshain trotting out the same line?
Chris Bowers on the fate of the 50 State Strategy:
In short, the DNC will be moving away from the long-term, decentralized, fifty-state strategy of Howard Dean’s tenure, and toward serving as a short-term, centralized re-election effort for President Obama in 2012.
I would have been surprised by any other result, but this is still disappointing to hear. Just as businesses ultimately do themselves a disservice by focusing on quarterly results, so do political parties, too.
This is a photograph of the the crowds at the We Are One concert this past Sunday:
All that space around either side and the end of the Reflecting Pool? Space that “security” excluded the public from. You know, the public – that giant blob of people at the bottom of the picture (who managed to get along just fine without the heel of the Secret Service and MPD bearing on them). Worth contemplating, the mindset that makes it okay to exclude the public from what is perhaps the most public space in the country.
Photo Copyright Win Mcnamee / Getty Images
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Ma.) has been the Dems’ pointman on the bailout since last Sept. While I was entirely unsurprised that he was carrying water for the financial industry, I didn’t think he’d say something as ridiculous as he did in this TPM interview. In this piece, he essentially says that “if ‘elites’ want the public to pony up their money in cases like this, they, the aforementioned ‘elites’ need to get serious about repairing and expanding the social safety net in the country …”, and then he goes on to suggest that the Federal gov’t should first pony up the money and then declare their expectations that the recipients will chip in to society.
Are you kidding me?
No, wait.
Are you fucking kidding me?
How many times can we get suckered like this? Didn’t anyone else take the lessons from Lucy and Charlie and the football in Peanuts?  Thea Skocpol gets it right:
The idea that “elites” will “get serious about repairing the safety net” if they are FIRST given billions of dollars of payoffs to shareholders who made bad decisions is the height of naivete. There are no corporatist institutions in U.S. politics that can enforce this kind of bargain, that can corral all the interests and get them to carry through on mutual promises. That is why Obama and the Democrats will get for the people in general exactly what they push through right now and will squander opportunities if they give money and leverage to “elites” first!
And she notes that there are no “who could have known?!” excuses here:
This is what Ira Magaziner imagined with health care back in 1992 — that he could get up front understandings with powerful interests by giving them concessions in the Health Security proposals, and they would let it get through Congress later. (I remember sitting in his office as I took notes for BOOMERANG and having him complain to me that he could not understand why the business roundtable types “lied” to him about what they would do!) Of course, they turned on him the moment Congress got ahold of things. Same thing will happen here.
No excuses, Rep. Frank. Treat us like we’re stupid, and you’ll get treated in kind.
Or do you think we’ll have to wait until Bush is safely back in Texas to find out about them?
(Update: high res slideshow of my photos here.)
I made it down to the Mall today, along with thousands and thousands and thousands of others who have high hopes for Barack Obama.
I’ve already posted about the highlight – Pete Seeger’s leading us all in This Land Is Your Land – but I thought I’d share a few of my favorite songs and some of my photographs. Wasn’t even half way through the line to get into the secured areas when they shut it down, so my perspective is from waaaay back. But you know what? I think I lucked out – we had a blast in the back.
I’m listening to and enjoying the replay of it on HBO as I write this, and discovering some of the great – but quiet – tracks that I missed out there in the cheap seats.  This is what got us moving when we were there, though:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=malnd19Ttyk[/youtube]
So we danced some more,
to Stevie:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wZ3ZG_Wams[/youtube]
And for once, this seemed appropriate:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56mjwycKuXA[/youtube]
Keep reaching.
Bigger versions – and a few more – of these pictures here, if you’re interested.
Just back from the We Are One concert on the Mall. More about that soon, but I wanted to get this up. There were many wonderful moments, but the one that would have made all of the effort worth it – on its own – was Pete Seeger leading the entire Mall’s worth of people in singing This Land is Your Land. And not just the first verses, but the whole thing. This is what it looked like:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-PCpRWqXv8[/youtube]
As sung today:
This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
I’ve roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
As I went walking they tried to stop me
And on the sign it said “Private Property.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
TARP, by all accounts but Henry Paulson’s, has been a complete clusterfuck. And yet we just had a Democratic Congress agree to shovel the other half of it out the door, with nary a question or bit of oversight.
What changed? Nothing. Same duplicitous bunch of people who ought not be trusted.
Update: Kos gives it a little more context.