Category: Politics Page 67 of 73

Salon’s Person of the Year: S.R. Sidarth

By MB

On December 15, 2006

Not quite sure if it merits Man of the Year, but Salon makes a solid case for Virginia’s own:

It must be said that the young man, Shekar Ramanuja Sidarth, is not much of a cameraman. In the macaca footage, his hand shakes, though he manages to hold Allen in the frame as the senator points him out, an Indian-American in a crowd of whites. But in the weeks that follow, Sidarth does not shy from the spotlight that surrounds him. He undergoes a transformation of sorts, appearing on CNN and the network news, giving long interviews to the pen-and-paper press. He becomes a symbol of politics in the 21st century, a brave new world in which any video clip can be broadcast instantly everywhere and any 20-year-old with a camera can change the world. He builds a legacy out of happenstance.

Read the rest.

In Praise of Jimmy Carter

By MB

On December 13, 2006

In Politics, Society

Over at dKos, in the process of discussing Carter’s recent book, the all-too-common dismissals of Jimmy Carter were popping up. In an excellent essay outlining Carter’s achievements, the author makes a point worth repeating:

But I do worry about us as Democrats. I worry what it means that we should constantly allow a man who has given his life over to the ideals of honesty, decency, and hard work to be constantly derided. The Republicans took on the elevation of Ronald Reagan as a kind of public works project, laboring decades to erase the real man and build the myth that’s worshiped today in the public square. Why are we so reticent in pushing forward a man who is everything Reagan claimed to be. And intelligent. And thoughtful. And who, yes, turned his post-presidential career into a continuation of his own good work rather than taking it as an opportunity to line his pocket with lucrative speaking engagements.

I don’t ever want to engage in anything (for any man) that approaches the GOP deification of Reagan, but I do think that it’s a goddamn shame that many Democrats, nevermind the nation at large, fail to give Carter his due.

Party Discipline

By MB

On December 11, 2006

In Politics

As one who doesn’t shy away from calling a liar a liar, the GOP has managed to keep me busy in the past few years. Among the many reasons for drawing a bead on their deceit was the fact that, as the party in power, they set the tone and the agenda. In light of such influence, the public should make a special point of holding them to high standards in their conduct. (What with the press giving up on that role, and all . . .)

Well, the Democrats are ascendant now, and it’s time for us (the public in general, but especially active Democrats such as myself) to take a clear stand with them, too. Now, I draw no equivalence between the parties – no party (including the Republican Party that used to exist) can even begin to compare with the craven lying, deliberate indifference, and active maliciousness of the modern GOP. But things haven’t always been that way – they should stand as a lesson in what happens when accountability disappears.

What brought this to mind, today, were a couple of recent events involving a Democrat and clear dishonesty. The first is the revelation that Rahm Emanuel did, in fact, know of the Mark Foley IMs in late 2005. Despite this, he lied – on national television – about that fact. Glen Greenwald details it out here (do read it – he also imagines the technical defense that Rahm might offer, and points out that the Democratic staffers that did see the IMs at the time took action), but that’s the quick summary of it. And that pisses me off to no end. Democrats don’t need to lie (or scare, or steal) to win elections. Yet there he was, dissembling on tape. Yes, it’s insignificant when compared with the Republican lies that we’ve endured over the years, but that’s not the standard we should be using. We’re Democrats, and we’re better than that. Emanuel did a good job as head of the DCCC, but if this is how he thinks he can conduct himself, he has no business there. He keeps doing it, and I can guarantee that you’ll see a lot of us working to push him out the door.

The second event was Rep. William Jefferson’s winning reelection. This is, at once, both a harder and easier issue. It’s easier in that all signs point to him being indicted and eventually sent to jail on federal charges of bribery and wire fraud, at a minimum. He’s already been stripped of his seat on the Ways & Means Committee (a good call by Nancy Pelosi). You may (and should) be presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, but I don’t need a full trial to tell me that this is someone I think has no business being an elected Democrat. The harder part of this? Well, it seems the voters of his district strongly disagree (to the tune of a 61-39 win, in fact). So, what can be done about this? On one hand, I’d like House Democrats to shun him, neither seeking nor accepting his support on bills. On the other, that seems enormously unfair to the people of his district. So it strikes me that very little can be done, beyond waiting for the wheels of justice to grind him out of office.

I’m sure that these will not be the only ethics issues facing Democrats in the coming Congress. I hope that we will put as much effort into holding them accountable as we did the Republicans. If we do, we won’t only get a better Democratic party, but a better country.

Arlington Sun Gazette: Profile in Ignorance

By MB

On December 8, 2006

In Politics, Society, Virginia

Once again, I open up the Arlington Sun Gazette – only to regret it moments later. The Sun Gazette is a local paper, mailed free of charge to households across Arlington. And while the easy line is that it is worth exactly what I paid for it, I am wondering if it has come time to start charging them for the privilege of sending it to me. Almost every time I read the editorials, I am brought to wonder – what in the hell did Arlington ever do to deserve this tripe? The latest, regarding the recently passed Marshall-Newman Amendment (prohibiting the benefits of marriage as against all unmarried couples):

For one thing, we wouldn’t expect the Virginia Supreme Court to do anything but uphold the constitutional amendment. And, by challenging it, gay-rights activists would come off looking as poor losers. They also would do exactly what proponents of this amendment predicted: Turn to the courts when public opinion has swung the other way.

Our rather sensible suggestion: Forget about the amendment, and either wait for public opinion to shift (it will), or, if that’s too much of a long-term commitment to handle, move someplace else.

That’s right. Ignorant bigotry has just been enshrined in the state constitution, but hey, if you want to actually do something about it, you’re just a sore loser. Suck it up or move.

What sort of troglodyte is in charge of this page? Does American Community Newspapers, owner of the Sun Gazette, confiscate the moral compasses of its editorial writers on their first day of work? And what in the world makes them think that this editorial voice is of any interest to Arlington – which, by their own reporting, was surpassed only by Charlottesville in voting against that abomination of an amendment? To have read their editorial page over the past year was a journey through the looking glass, replete with red is blue and up is down editorials. The Sun Gazette editorial page, at times, is not only out of step with Arlington, but reality.

To be fair, the failures of the Sun Gazette are generally limited to the editorial and Political Notes page – it appears to do a decent job of covering the usual community paper beats – school activities, local sports, and zoning disputes. See that, Sun Gazette? Deceny and fairness – something your editorial page has been lacking for years. Arlington deserves better.

Democrats Hate Families, Obviously.

By MB

On December 6, 2006

In DC, Politics

Oh, this is rich. Recall that, under the Republicans, Congress had a three day workweek. Under Democrats, they’ll be working for *five whole days* a week. What does this mean?:

“Keeping us up here eats away at families,” said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. “Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”

Oh, Jack. That’s just precious.

Defeat a Democrat. Please.

By MB

On December 5, 2006

In Politics

This Friday, Rep. William “Dollar Bill/Cold Hard Cash/Etc.” Jefferson (D-LA) will face Karen Carter in a run-off for the House seat representing Louisiana’s 2nd Congressional District. Now, I know LA has its own special tradition of crooks in office, but even this guy is too much to take. He’s a horrible embarrassment, to his state, community, and (hopefully) even himself.

Administration All Stars

By MB

On December 5, 2006

In Policy, Politics

TPM Muckraker is putting together a list of Bush Administration officials who have managed to distinguish themselves in the last six years. Thus far, the list includes:

those who were indicted for crimes (9), those who resigned amidst ethics/corruption investigations (13), and those who were too crooked or ethically compromised to get confirmed by the Republican senate (3).

Adding to their distinction is that they managed to accomplish this in an environment with almost no Congressional oversight. Just imagine the next Congress’ All Star team . . .

Someone please shut Joe Biden (D-MBNA) up, please.

By MB

On December 3, 2006

In Politics

Sen. Biden is at it again. He just doesn’t know when to stop talking, and I wish someone would help him with that problem. It would be doing all of us a service.

Democratic Sellout

By MB

On December 2, 2006

In Politics

Almost literally.

Appalling. There’s no settlement value for the democratic process.

(For background, there’s none better than these guys.)

The N-word

By MB

On November 29, 2006

In Personal, Politics, Society

Read this.

(Personally, I’ve shied away from using it, thinking it mostly unhelpful. Ms. McWhorter gives me good reason to reconsider.)

Update: Lest you be tempted to skip it, take note of this paragraph:

We have become such “good Americans” that we no longer have the moral imagination to picture what it might be like to be in a bureaucratic category that voids our human rights, be it “enemy combatant” or “illegal immigrant.” Thus, in the week before the election, hardly a ripple answered the latest decree from the Bush administration: Detainees held in CIA prisons were forbidden from telling their lawyers what methods of interrogation were used on them, presumably so they wouldn’t give away any of the top-secret torture methods that we don’t use. Cautiously, I look back on that as the crystallizing moment of Bushworld: tautological as a Gilbert and Sullivan libretto, absurd as a Marx Brothers movie, and scary as a Kafka novel.

I well and truly hope she is wrong on that – if America “no longer ha[s] the moral imagination to picture what it might be like to be in a bureaucratic category that voids our human rights”, then my America is no more. And while I admit that, at various points in the past few years, I have been near sure that that is true, I am not yet ready to accept it.