I guess there are some rumors that I was in someway advising or coordinating with the candidates opposing Ernest Duran Jr. in the recent UFCW's Local 7 presidential elections.
For the record, I don't even know the name of the woman who defeated Duran. I don't know anyone who presently works for or is a member of UFCW, UFCW Local 7 or any associated staff union.
Carry on...
Saturday, November 7, 2009
The slippery slope of torture
Andrew Sullivan notices how quickly we've gone from the ticking WMD scenario to advocating torture of suspects in the Ft. Hood shooting.
A bunch of authoritarian thugs have spent the better part of this decade arguing for the government's right to torture anyone, even American citizens, under the guise of national security. It's hardly surprising that these socio-paths are less concerned with national security than their own sadistic blood lust.
A bunch of authoritarian thugs have spent the better part of this decade arguing for the government's right to torture anyone, even American citizens, under the guise of national security. It's hardly surprising that these socio-paths are less concerned with national security than their own sadistic blood lust.
What's the next move on Ritter's K-12 cuts?
Have the liberal education groups agreed not to file suit challenging the K-12 cuts?
And even though conservatives hate Amendment 23 and at least one Republican JBC member was modestly supportive of the cuts* will some right-wing group file suit anyway, just to be a fly in the ointment?
*Kent Lambert on 9News last night
And even though conservatives hate Amendment 23 and at least one Republican JBC member was modestly supportive of the cuts* will some right-wing group file suit anyway, just to be a fly in the ointment?
*Kent Lambert on 9News last night
DeGette to blow up health care reform?
Woah.
I criticize my Congresswoman a lot for not being more of a leader on progressive issues. This strikes me as completely out of character for her but if it is true good for Dianna DeGette. I doubt the entire reform package will be jeopardized by DeGette but from a policy standpoint walking this disgrace of an amendment back at least a bit is a must.
From a strategic standpoint it's refreshing to see liberals not allowing themselves to be rolled by assholes like Bart Stupak.
I criticize my Congresswoman a lot for not being more of a leader on progressive issues. This strikes me as completely out of character for her but if it is true good for Dianna DeGette. I doubt the entire reform package will be jeopardized by DeGette but from a policy standpoint walking this disgrace of an amendment back at least a bit is a must.
From a strategic standpoint it's refreshing to see liberals not allowing themselves to be rolled by assholes like Bart Stupak.
Abortion and the public option
Atrios writes,
It's actually worse than that. The amendment, which appears set to pass, will mean that some women won't have access to appropriate medical care. Namely poor and minority women.
Ezra calls this a very bad deal to pass a very good bill. I'm not sure how a bill which includes an amendment like this can be described as "very good."
I do not know why some people think women shouldn't have access to appropriate medical care. Something is wrong with them.
It's actually worse than that. The amendment, which appears set to pass, will mean that some women won't have access to appropriate medical care. Namely poor and minority women.
Ezra calls this a very bad deal to pass a very good bill. I'm not sure how a bill which includes an amendment like this can be described as "very good."
Friday, November 6, 2009
WPA, CCC and public sector unions
Yglesias stumbles onto an interesting intellectual exercise. Could we have a CCC or WPA in 21st Century America where nearly 37% of all public employees are union members and a much larger percentage of public employees are part of a collective bargaining unit?
My off the cuff answer is that certainly it could be done but it would be difficult. I know, very helpful - right?
I have no idea what the public sector union density rate was in 1933 when the CCC was founded. The legal right to join a private sector union was codified in 1935. Prior to the Wagner Act private sector union density was less than 7%. I think it would be fair to say that public sector union density was certainly no higher than that and likely much lower.
My off the cuff answer is that certainly it could be done but it would be difficult. I know, very helpful - right?
I have no idea what the public sector union density rate was in 1933 when the CCC was founded. The legal right to join a private sector union was codified in 1935. Prior to the Wagner Act private sector union density was less than 7%. I think it would be fair to say that public sector union density was certainly no higher than that and likely much lower.
I know better.. Peggy Noonan content ahead
Perusing the sports blog The Big Lead this morning I came upon a link that read,
Normally I don't click political links on sports blogs. I read TBL for snarky sports coverage and amusing pop culture links, no more. But I clicked it anyway and the link took me to.... the Wall Street Journal op-ed page and I certainly don't ever read the WSJ oped page.
My eyes moved to the by-line and I see... Peggy Noonan. That's the trifecta folks. Why in god's name would I read an article written by Peggy Noonan on the oped pages of the WSJ linked from a sports blog? Why!? But alas, I did.
I can understand why a professional writer, especially one who doesn't cover politics for a living, would find it to be a "really strong" piece. It's typical Noonan, lots of flowing poetic touches, assorted rhetorical mush and absolutely zero substance. Peggy Noonan has to be the most shallow major oped writer in America and if she isn't she's close enough to make David Broder sweat. If you opened a dead tree copy of the WSJ, turned to Noonan's column and extended a gentle breath I have to believe that Noonan's column would simply flitter off the page like pedals off of a dandelion.
Let's see what Noonan has to say,
Oh boy, so her thesis is that our business leaders are becoming disheartened and this is our greatest challenge. Never mind the 10+% unemployment I suppose? This is such supercilious nonsense one hardly knows what to say. We are facing grave challenges not seen in generations and Peggy Noonan is worried that the titans of business aren't feeling quite as smug as they were in 2004. Fuck me running.
Noonan continues and introduces us to the hero of her passion play,
really strong, potentially polarizing piece about the lack of leadership in our country at every level …
Normally I don't click political links on sports blogs. I read TBL for snarky sports coverage and amusing pop culture links, no more. But I clicked it anyway and the link took me to.... the Wall Street Journal op-ed page and I certainly don't ever read the WSJ oped page.
My eyes moved to the by-line and I see... Peggy Noonan. That's the trifecta folks. Why in god's name would I read an article written by Peggy Noonan on the oped pages of the WSJ linked from a sports blog? Why!? But alas, I did.
I can understand why a professional writer, especially one who doesn't cover politics for a living, would find it to be a "really strong" piece. It's typical Noonan, lots of flowing poetic touches, assorted rhetorical mush and absolutely zero substance. Peggy Noonan has to be the most shallow major oped writer in America and if she isn't she's close enough to make David Broder sweat. If you opened a dead tree copy of the WSJ, turned to Noonan's column and extended a gentle breath I have to believe that Noonan's column would simply flitter off the page like pedals off of a dandelion.
Let's see what Noonan has to say,
The biggest threat to America right now is not government spending, huge deficits, foreign ownership of our debt, world terrorism, two wars, potential epidemics or nuts with nukes. The biggest long-term threat is that people are becoming and have become disheartened, that this condition is reaching critical mass, and that it afflicts most broadly and deeply those members of the American leadership class who are not in Washington, most especially those in business.
Oh boy, so her thesis is that our business leaders are becoming disheartened and this is our greatest challenge. Never mind the 10+% unemployment I suppose? This is such supercilious nonsense one hardly knows what to say. We are facing grave challenges not seen in generations and Peggy Noonan is worried that the titans of business aren't feeling quite as smug as they were in 2004. Fuck me running.
Noonan continues and introduces us to the hero of her passion play,
I talked this week with a guy from Big Pharma, which we used to call "the drug companies" until we decided that didn't sound menacing enough. He is middle-aged, works in a significant position, and our conversation turned to the last great recession, in the late mid- to late 1970s and early '80s. We talked about how, in terms of numbers, that recession was in some ways worse than the one we're experiencing now. Interest rates were over 20%, and inflation and unemployment hit double digits. America was in what might be called a functional depression, yet there was still a prevalent feeling of hope.
Gosh-golly they had hope! And why did they have hope Peggy?
Here's why. Everyone thought they could figure a way through. We knew we could find a path through the mess. In 1982 there were people saying, "If only we get rid of this guy Reagan, we can make it better!" Others said, "If we follow Reagan, he'll squeeze out inflation and lower taxes and we'll be America again, we'll be acting like Americans again." Everyone had a path through.
Now they don't. The most sophisticated Americans, experienced in how the country works on the ground, can't figure a way out. Have you heard, "If only we follow Obama and the Democrats, it will all get better"? Or, "If only we follow the Republicans, they'll make it all work again"? I bet you haven't, or not much.
On what planet has this woman been living on? Isn't our entire national discourse now and forever comprised of - "if we do X then everything will be great!" Countered by "if we do Y then everything will be great! And X will only lead to fasc/social/communism." This is just delusional nonsense.
Moving on Peggy gets to the crux of things. The real concern right now is a sudden onset of Galt-ism,
I talked with an executive this week with what we still call "the insurance companies" and will no doubt soon be calling Big Insura. (Take it away, Democratic National Committee.) He was thoughtful, reflective about the big picture. He talked about all the new proposed regulations on the industry. Rep. Barney Frank had just said on some cable show that the Democrats of the White House and Congress "are trying on every front to increase the role of government in the regulatory area." The executive said of Washington: "They don't understand that people can just stop, get out. I have friends and colleagues who've said to me 'I'm done.'" He spoke of his own increasing tax burden and said, "They don't understand that if they start to tax me so that I'm paying 60%, 55%, I'll stop."
This is daft. No one is talking about a 60% marginal rate. There was some talk months ago about moving the top marginal rate to Clinton era levels of around 39%. Remember those times? When the economy wasn't in the shitter?
Peggy Noonan wants us to feel sorry for insurance and pharmaceutical executives who's average salary is well into six figures and probably is actually into the millions. While average workers see their wages stagnate and their jobs becoming increasingly fragile Peggy Noonan is here to make sure that no millionaire is left behind and she'll fabricate threats to those millionaires in order to win our sympathy.
Let me just state this very clearly, no one feels sorry for you rich assholes. No one.
I guess I shouldn't expect anything else from the WSJ oped pages or from Peggy Noonan but really this is beyond the pale. That this sham would run just a few days before our country eclipsed 10% unemployment just makes it all the more infuriating.
Noonan then concludes her Tour De Farce with this,
We are governed at all levels by America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance, and they call themselves optimists but they're not optimists—they're unimaginative. They don't have faith, they've just never been foreclosed on. They are stupid and they are callous, and they don't mind it when people become disheartened. They don't even notice.
Talk about someone with a complete and total lack of self-awareness. She just wrote an entire column appealing to our sympathies for the wealthiest 0.5% of the population and yet she has the nerve to refer to other people as "America's luckiest children, sons and daughters of the abundance"? I actually don't think she's all that far off the mark in her description of many politicians, certainly in Washington. But you can't get there from where she started unless you are completely self-involved and unaware or an utter shill for our oligarchy. Or, as in Noonan's case, you're both of those things.
This is utterly shameless and despicable.
flu induced insomnia ramblings
- And right on cue Brian Williams shows up in the middle of a perfectly good episode of "30 Rock" tonight.
- The Denver Post ed board informs us that "Voters aren't in mood for taxes." They make this proclamation despite the fact that a majority of the tax issues on the ballot on Tuesday actually passed. Voters surely are not out in the streets clamoring for new taxes but the Post's editorial is pretty clearly not based at all on an actual examination of the results from Tuesday.
- Speaking of the Denver Post ed board, a colleague (who is in a reasonably informed position to comment on such matters) believes that the Post's reflexively anti-union editorial board position is actually grounded in the huge financial interest that the publisher has in pleasing Jake Jabs. In other words Dean Singleton desperately needs the advertising revenues from Jabs' American Furniture Warehouse so Singleton throws him red meat by attacking unions and taxes from the editorial pages. Singleton himself isn't an ideologue. As a business man he's not big on unions or taxes obviously but those issues are hardly the cause célèbres for Singleton that they are for Jabs.
- Big cuts to education coming from Ritter. A couple of thoughts. One, how has this played out within the administration considering that the Lt. Governor was selected specifically to work on K-12 issues? Not to mention that O'Brien was a driving force behind Amendment 23. Which brings me to my second point, will someone from the education community bring suit against the governor for violating Amendment 23 with these cuts?
- In good news today, the Tattered Cover is now going to start selling used books. Relatedly my favorite used book store is West Side Books in the Highlands. Support your local book dealer.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
flu makes me grouchy....
Is Brian Williams the smarmiest network news anchor ever?
I rag on Charlie Gibson because he's a lightweight as a "journalist" but he's at least sober, somber and competent when he anchors the evening news.
I rag on Charlie Gibson because he's a lightweight as a "journalist" but he's at least sober, somber and competent when he anchors the evening news.
More on the "doing jack shit" political strategy
Kevin Drum,
...if there's any broad lesson to be taken from Tuesday's election (about which I remain agnostic for the moment), it's this: independent voters are getting a little weary of endless political battles with no results. The problem is not that Congress is trying to tackle too much, but that Congress isn't getting anything done. That's the wake-up call.The answer to that is to get something done. Pass healthcare reform, for example. That would be (no pun intended) a huge shot in the arm for Dems of all stripes, demonstrating to skeptical voters that they can indeed govern effectively. Ditto for financial regulation, which is a golden opportunity to harness some populist anger against the financial industry. All Congress has to do is stand up to the finance lobby1 and put some serious constaints on Wall Street's ability to screw people. Think that won't be popular?
Democrats in Colorado have controlled the legislature since 2004 and the governor's office since 2006 and in broad terms (and that's how independent voters think) they haven't accomlished shit. Not a damn thing on education, on healthcare, on transportation, on our perpetual fiscal crisis. We're building some windmills here and that's great, I really mean that, but that's not enough.
If you sit on your hands afraid to offend anyone because you might be voted out then you will please no one and you will still be voted out. Eventually the party in power will go out of power, that's the cyclical nature of politics folks. You can't stop the cycle in any meaningful way. You might postpone it for a couple of years but what's the point of holding on for an extra two or four years when you won't actually use that extra time to achieve your policy goals? The trick is to actually achieve portions of your agenda when you have the opportunity.
It's not rocket science - win an election, pass as much of your agenda as you can, run on that agenda. If you win re-election, great try and pass more of your agenda. If you lose your election, at least you got some good legislation passed! Entrench yourself, beat back what you can and try to win back power.
There doesn't seem to be any willingness to embrace the cyclical nature of politics. Instead every pundit, prognosticator, pollster, consultant and candidate is entirely focused on their ability to end the cycle and to build something resembling a permanent majority. It's never going to happen. Stop trying to game the system and embrace the system. Use it to your advantage instead of trying to penny ante your way to an extra term or two.
Maybe if we don't do anything the voters will just forget we're even here!
Atrios today,
Ritter seems to be concerned about what a GOP mailer on taxes and revenues will do to his chances. I'm saying that a GOP mailer on taxes and revenue is coming anyway and the way to beat back the growing swell is to actually do something pro-active for a change.
Democratic members of Congress have an irrational fear of the imagined "attack ad" which makes them frightened of actually supporting legislation for fear Republicans will make it sound bad. Who knows, maybe in normal times that fear is rational. But if unemployment is this high a year from now - and I think it likely will be (happy to be wrong!) absent additional help - all incumbents in swing districts will have a lot to fear.It's not just Democrats in Congress that this affects. This gets right to the heart of my criticism of Governor Ritter's re-election strategy as well. My concern is that national economic news will still be grim next year and that the governor will be caught up in a wave of anti-incumbent sentiment. The governor's team seems to have decided that their best strategy is to play things safe and conservative and hope they can sneak by next year. I'd prefer a more aggressive posture as I think that more accurately reflects the dire straits that incumbents across the nation will be in next year.
Ritter seems to be concerned about what a GOP mailer on taxes and revenues will do to his chances. I'm saying that a GOP mailer on taxes and revenue is coming anyway and the way to beat back the growing swell is to actually do something pro-active for a change.
Denver and DougCo school board elections set the stage for an interesting comparison
Looking through the election results on Tuesday it is interesting to compare and contrast the school board elections in Denver and Douglas County. In Douglas a slate of four free-market reformers were elected in a district that, while generally viewed favorably, has stagnated in its CSAP gains in recent years. In Denver, a district which has raised it's CSAP performance considerably in recent years, voters elected a pro-union, anti-charter majority.
Denver has made great leaps and bounds in recent years in CSAP scores but the district still has terrible graduation issues. It's a very typical urban district - huge numbers of kids on free and reduced lunches (meaning huge numbers of kids living in poverty) and subsequently poor graduation rates. Douglas County is the polar opposite, it's a very wealthy district which graduates it's kids. Denver has actually made larger CSAP gains that Douglas in recent years though. To be fair, Denver was starting from a far lower base.
In Douglas Country voters decided to bring on board a slate of reformers, apparently believing that the district needs major reforms in order to increase their already high achievement. In Denver voters demonstrated that they want to back away from the sweeping reforms (read, Charter Schools) that are pushed by education reform elites - including the governor's office. As the Denver Post noted,
The Lt. Governor has been charged with spearheading the "Race to the Top" here in Colorado. The candidates who were defeated on Tuesday have ties to various education foundations that the Lite Gov has worked closely with over her many years working on childrens' issues in the state. I doubt that the governor's office will make any sort of statement on the Denver school board elections but the results do leave one to wonder what impact the election will have on the governor's bold education reform agenda. It appears that Denver voters have sent a clear message - keep your hands off of our neighborhood schools. Can charter advocates look past their blinders and begin to see school reform as part of the broader set of socio-economic challenges facing our working poor?
We'll have to keep an eye on Douglas County as well. Are bold reforms coming? What impact will those reforms have on an already highly achieving district?
Denver has made great leaps and bounds in recent years in CSAP scores but the district still has terrible graduation issues. It's a very typical urban district - huge numbers of kids on free and reduced lunches (meaning huge numbers of kids living in poverty) and subsequently poor graduation rates. Douglas County is the polar opposite, it's a very wealthy district which graduates it's kids. Denver has actually made larger CSAP gains that Douglas in recent years though. To be fair, Denver was starting from a far lower base.
In Douglas Country voters decided to bring on board a slate of reformers, apparently believing that the district needs major reforms in order to increase their already high achievement. In Denver voters demonstrated that they want to back away from the sweeping reforms (read, Charter Schools) that are pushed by education reform elites - including the governor's office. As the Denver Post noted,
Charter-school advocates had framed this election in stark terms: If union-backed candidates were elected, the district's momentum toward improvement would suffer and that could ruin Colorado's shot at a share of the U.S. Department of Education's competitive $4.35 billion "Race to the Top" fund.
The Lt. Governor has been charged with spearheading the "Race to the Top" here in Colorado. The candidates who were defeated on Tuesday have ties to various education foundations that the Lite Gov has worked closely with over her many years working on childrens' issues in the state. I doubt that the governor's office will make any sort of statement on the Denver school board elections but the results do leave one to wonder what impact the election will have on the governor's bold education reform agenda. It appears that Denver voters have sent a clear message - keep your hands off of our neighborhood schools. Can charter advocates look past their blinders and begin to see school reform as part of the broader set of socio-economic challenges facing our working poor?
We'll have to keep an eye on Douglas County as well. Are bold reforms coming? What impact will those reforms have on an already highly achieving district?
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Quote of the day...
SadlyNo! commenting on the purge of Newt Gingrich by teabaggers,
It’d be like hippies booting Wavy Gravy out of Woodstock for being insufficiently gr000oo0vy.
My Halloween
Well it was as epic as I had hoped and then some. Here is how Rolling Stone described it,
Under pristine conditions at the Empire Polo Field and in front of a devoted Phish crowd of 40,000 fans, the Vermont foursome rollicked in Exile’s swamp blues and roadhouse country, extending several songs with their own jams, highlighted by a spacey interlude between “Ventilator Blues” into the gospel-esque “I Just Want to See His Face.” Special guests Sharon Jones and three horn players (one, trumpeter David Guy is a Dap King) added their own flourishes (horns to “Sweet Black Angel”), and each band member took lead vocal turns. Incredibly, four of the double album’s songs made their big-stage live debut —”Soul Survivor,” a scorching “Casino Boogie,” “Turd On the Run” and the flickering ballad “Let It Loose” — having never been performed by the Stones themselves. The set clocked in at nearly a 100 minutes, 33 more than the actual album.
The band played eight sets over three days, each better than the next. The weather was stunningly beautiful all weekend highs in the upper 80s everyday and a nice desert cool down in the evenings. The Phish crowd has grown up and matured since 2004 when the band broke up. No spun dread-locked hippies passed out in the road this weekend... okay maybe one or two. People are clearly partying and enjoying themselves but it's not a neo-hippie traveling Cancun Spring Break scene anymore.
Musically the band will never be what they were in 1997, 1994, 1993 or whatever year it is that fans believe was the epitome of Phish. That's ok though, so long as they are clearly rehearsing, creating interesting new music and (perhaps most importantly) having fun together on stage it will still be a worthwhile musical experience. They are creating very good and very worthwhile music every single night. The baseline is back up a respectable level - when they have an off night, and they have always had off nights, it will still be a good and mostly well-played show. Based on what I saw this weekend when they are on they can play as well as they ever have.
I won't do a blow by blow of every night but the highlights for me included,
- "Stash" from set I on 10/30
- "Wolfman's Brother"->"Piper" from Set II on 10/30
- "Runaway Jim"->"Possum", "Run Like an Antelope" from Set I on 10/31
- All of the Stones set on 10/31
- All of Set III on 10/31, even the slow "When the Circus Comes to Town" was well placed
- All of the acoustic first set on 11/1
- "Rift", "Guelah Papyrus" and "Split Open and Melt" from set II on 11/1
- "Tweezer"->"Maze", "Mike's Song"->"2001"->"Light"->"Slave To the Traffic Light" from set III on 11/1
Here's some video from the weekend. Even if you reflexively think you don't like Phish I encourage you to watch these - you might just change your mind,
Stones covers...
Halloween encore with the special guests from the Stones set joining the band...
Some from the acoustic set from noon on 11/1
Ditching the JJ dinners...
Yglesias touches on something that I've long advocated - renaming the Jefferson-Jackson Democratic Party dinners,
Let's not forget that if he were alive today Thomas Jefferson would be donating to Ron Paul.
Wouldn’t it make sense to change the name of these annual dinners on a permanent basis? The policies of Andrew Jackson’s administration—opposition to central banking, Indian removal, slavery, etc.—have very little to do with the modern-day Democratic Party. Something like a Roosevelt-Kennedy dinner would invoke historical figures while also invoking a recognizable predecessor of the contemporary policy agenda.
Let's not forget that if he were alive today Thomas Jefferson would be donating to Ron Paul.
The flu season has landed at Case Del Balboni
Flew home from a great vacation in Southern California on Monday evening and have been in bed ever since. Ugh.
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