Upside Down

What a week. Up is down, down is up. I do not like green eggs and ham. Going to the moon and Mars? Sure, but only if we spend twice as much money immediately on research and development efforts for sustainable energy—wind, solar, biomass, etc. If we don't get serious about developing and using sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels, we won't have a planet to live on. Energy and environmental policies have become matters of national security. Just ask Al Gore, who said yesterday in a major speech on the environment:

Instead of spending enormous sums of money on an unimaginative and retread effort to make a tiny portion of the Moon habitable for a handful of people, we should focus instead on a massive effort to ensure that the Earth is habitable for future generations.

If we make that choice, the U.S. can strengthen our economy with a new generation of advanced technologies, create millions of good new jobs, and inspire the world with a bold and moral vision of humankind’s future.

Links to streaming video of Gore's speech are here. Gore used the subject of the environment to illustrate how the Bush administration is the willing puppet of corporate America:

The Bush White House represents a new departure in the history of the Presidency. He is so eager to accommodate his supporters and contributors that there seems to be very little that he is not willing to do for them at the expense of the public interest. To mention only one example, we’ve seen him work tirelessly to allow his friends to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Indeed, it seems at times as if the Bush-Cheney Administration is wholly owned by the coal, oil, utility and mining companies.

While President Bush likes to project an image of strength and courage, the truth is that in the presence of his large financial contributors he is a moral coward – so weak that he seldom if ever says “No” to them on anything – no matter what the public interest might mandate.

Ah, but Bush is strong and courageous. I mean, he's defending (heterosexual) marriage, isn't he? What absolute crap. You can talk all you want about "strengthening families" or whatever, but if you'd like to reduce the rate of divorce, reduce domestic violence, reduce youth (and overall) crime rates and give children more secure and stable platforms from which to become happy, healthy, productive citizens, then put $1.5 billion into the war on poverty.

And what's this? Kerry and Edwards are now "surging" in Iowa?

A Research 2000 poll released Thursday showed Dean at 22 percent, Kerry at 21 percent, Gephardt at 18 percent and Edwards at 18 percent. The undecided vote was at 13 percent and other candidates were in single digits.

Here's an even more astonishing poll. Gee, I wonder if the media's demonstrable bias against Dean could have anything to do with this.

Howard Dean received significantly more criticism on network newscasts than the other Democratic presidential contenders, who were the subjects of more favorable coverage, according to a study released Thursday.

More than three-quarters of the coverage of Dean's foes by the nightly news programs was favorable, while a majority of attention to Dean was negative, the Center for Media and Public Affairs found.

It's certainly something to consider the next time you hear a constant drumbeat of news against Dean.

Related: What the hell is Michael Moore doing promoting Wesley Clark? Apologies to Musclehead, who's also supporting Clark, but Clark gives me the heebie jeebies. The guy's a cipher, an opportunist, he whines, he "consulted" with the media on the war while at the same time lobbying for the defense industry in congress. He's proven himself to be an establishment compromiser in the same league with Kerry and Gephardt. But what really gets me about Clark is not the guy himself, but what I fear animates too many of his supporters, namely the same fear that keeps so many in Bush's thrall. "He's a General," they say, "so he can protect us." Whatever. We're not going to make the world a better place if we start from fear. As cliche as it sounds, we have to start from hope. And yeah, ok, I understand there may be a thin line between fear and hope, and that his supporters may believe that Clark offers hope for a better future. However, I just don't see what he's done to support such a belief. But hey, he's got the support of Madonna, and now Michael Moore. Yay. The real question is: Does he have a car like this?

And speaking of endorsements: Thank you, Carol Moseley-Braun. I, too, hope the "Men Only" sign on the White House comes down soon, but first we need to get the "President Bush" sign off of the Oval Office door. In addition to the fact that she made a valiant effort against immense odds, I'll remember Moseley-Braun's campaign for the great story she told in a couple of debates about a time when she was young and the toilet was overflowing. Her mom sent her dad to the hardware store to get something to fix the toilet, and her dad brought back a lawn mower. The story illustrated what Bush does with every problem. If terrorism's the toilet, Iraq is the lawn mower. Get it?

Posted 06:01 AM | Comments (2) | election 2004 general politics

Welcome Back

Lots of people started law school again last Monday, and it doesn't sound like there's a heckuva lot of excitement about that. Welcome back to DG, Mixtape Marathon, and Cicero's Ghost. Bekah was greeted with locked doors and spilled coffee, while the Ghost's Socratic dialogue with himself about the experience of returning to law school sounds like the loop my head's been playing for the past week and a half. And we'll have fun fun fun 'til the law school takes our free time away...

Posted 07:04 AM | law school

Dean wins D.C.

The results are in from D.C.'s first-in-the-nation, nonbinding, protest primary designed mostly to bring national attention to the problem of lack of congressional representation for District voters. With 16% of registered Democrats voting, the totals were:

1. Dean: 43%
2. Sharpton: 34%
3. Mosely-Braun: 12%
4. Kucinich: 8%

The other major candidates did not participate in deference to the whines of the DNC, which was miffed because D.C. was usurping its role as the supreme authority in the Democratic party by holding the D.C. primary before New Hampshire's. Whatever. It's still a good thing for Dean:

Dean thanked his campaign workers in a speaker-phone call from Vermont that was amplified to about 150 supporters in a Connecticut Avenue bar. He reiterated his support for giving the city voting rights in Congress and called it wrong that five of his rivals opted out of the contest.

He also said he won the vote among an electorate with a majority of African American voters -- defying critics and some political analysts who questioned his appeal to this historically crucial voting bloc for Democrats. Vermont has few minorities and little representation of blacks in its state government, as Sharpton has pointed out in recent days.

"We're going to build a rainbow coalition to take over this country for the people who own it," Dean told his supporters.

In Iowa, where the votes will count next Tuesday, the campaigns are trotting out new ads against each other and trying to solidify whatever support they've got. A lot of Iowans probably won't be too sad this time next week when all the hullaballoo is over. Neither will I.

Dean may get another little boost when he gets some words of praise (but no actual endorsement) from Jimmy Carter on Sunday. Will this help or hurt in New Hampshire, where Dean's been slipping and Clark's been gaining?

On the other side, Bush still trusts his teflon—no matter what happens, Bush can count on the love, affection, worship, and positive spin he's gotten from the media since, well, forever. Still, almost everyone seems to be pointing out the sharp contrast between the administration's response to recent criticisms from former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and its response to an earlier scandal:

The administration responded with alacrity [to O'Neill's allegations]. Only a day [after the allegations went public] it called for a probe into how government documents labeled "secret" could be aired on the O'Neill interview on national network TV in prime time.

But this response contrasted strikingly with the far slower response the White House had in approving a probe on who leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame to columnist Robert Novak last July. The issue flared again last week when Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York claimed the White House had so far only "partially cooperated" with a Justice Department probe into the affair.

Perhaps Wes Clark had the best spin on it:

"They're not concerned about national security, but they're real concerned about political security," Clark said.

Thank goodness for teflon, huh?

Posted 05:09 AM | Comments (2) | election 2004 general politics

The Nation's First Primary: DC

D.C.'s "nonbinding" Presidential Primary is today. I encourage you to vote if you're registered in the district. The First Primary Blog offers arguments about why you should vote for Kucinich, Sharpton, or Dean, and DC First offers a Voter Guide where you can compare the candidates with respect to DC issues.

The DC primary is intended to bring national attention to the fact that DC residents have only a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives, and no representation in the Senate. Before I moved here I knew nothing about this, and when I first heard about it I thought perhaps people were making a mountain out of a molehill. However, if we believe that we should make our representative democracy as much "one person, one vote" as possible, then there's really no way to justify the current situation in D.C. What should I do if I want to affect federal policy? Who is my representative? To whom do I petition my grievances? If you're pretty cynical, you may believe that personal calls, letters, and emails to elected Reps. and Senators is not really effective, however, at least if you live anywhere but D.C., you have the option. It's sort of the principle of the thing. Why should D.C. residents be treated differently from any other U.S. citizen?

Finally, although it's true that the D.C. Primary is, technically, nonbinding, it could give a small boost to its winner in Iowa and Newhampshire. So vote if you can, will you? The D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics can tell you where to vote, and here's a sample ballot.

Your humble blogger stupidly missed the deadline to register and won't be voting, so will someone please cast a vote for Dean or Kucinich for me? Thanks! D.C. will also have a caucus on February 14th to choose its delegates for the National Democratic Convention. I've now registered, and I should be all set for that.

In other campaign news, Dean is supposedly going on the offensive in Iowa:

"I'm tired of being a pincushion here."

Dean may or may not be doing the right thing—he may convince supporters that his opponents are being unfair or inaccurate, but he may also just increase the material the press will then use to caricature him. Salon describes that process in a detailed report of how the media has been a mouthpiece for Republican talking points against Dean:

The former Vermont governor remains the front-runner among Democratic voters, but he's gotten increasingly caustic treatment from the media, which has dwelled on three big themes -- that Dean's angry, gaffe-prone and probably not electable -- while giving comparatively far less ink to the doctor's policy and political prescriptions that have catapulted him ahead of the Democratic field. Newsweek's critical Jan. 12 cover story, "All the Rage: Dean's Shoot-From-the-Hip Style and Shifting Views Might Doom Him in November," achieved a nifty trifecta that covered anger, gaffes and electability, all three of the main media raps against Dean.

The story goes on to argue that Dean is nowhere near as angry, gaffe-prone, or unelectable as the media suggests, just as Al Gore was nowhere near as untrustworthy, stiff and unlikable as the coverage of him in 2000 suggested. As a Dean supporter I'm obviously biased, but why must the media hammer the Democratic frontrunner so hard?

Speaking of caricatures, Dean supporters are fighting back against the attack ad that says they're all freak shows. (People, just own your freak showness! Freak Shows for Dean!) You gotta love this one and this one.

There were probably a few Dean supporters in the audience last night when MoveOn.org announced the winners of its Bush In 30 Seconds ad contest. Child's Play was the big winner overall; a great choice, in my opinion. Look for it on your tv sometime in the next year.

Meanwhile, the NY Times reports on the dark art of caucusing [link via Political Wire]. MSNBC also tries to explain how caucuses work:

Caucuses begin with supporters of candidates clustered in corners of middle-school libraries, courthouse hallways or kitchens and living rooms. Space is designated for uncommitted voters.

Democrats have a complex system, one that uses a mathematical formula to calculate support — and ultimately award delegates to county, state and national conventions — based on percentages.

For a candidate to be considered viable, he or she must have the support of at least 15 percent of the meeting’s participants, party rules state. Those lacking often are lobbied to join with neighbors supporting more popular candidates.

“That’s when it gets kind of crazy,” said Mark Daley, spokesman for the Iowa Democratic Party. “There will be people screaming back and forth ... and senior citizens with calculators trying to do the math.”

Reassuring, isn't it?

Posted 06:37 AM | election 2004

El Embajada de El Salvador

Twice since moving to D.C. proper I've been stopped on the street by people who speak little to no English trying to get directions to the Embassy of El Salvador. Twice I've just had to say, "No se." But here it is, not far at all (map). But look at those streets! Giving directions in Spanish should be fun. But at least I'll be helping out next time if I can say, "El calle California y veintetres." Yeah, I need to remember that.

Posted 05:07 AM | Comments (2) | life generally

Book Revolution?

NPR's Morning Edition is running a story on the Fastback Book Binder from Powis Parker, Inc.. The story's teaser is that, with this new, simple, low-cost book binder, there's no reason for any book to ever go out of print again. Why? How?

This booklover's utopia would happen like this: Publishers would put their book catalogs online (probably within a subscription-only database). Bookstores would own Fastback book binders. When you want a book that's not in your library, you'd go to the bookstore. If they don't have the book on the shelf, they could go to the online catalog of books, download the one you want, and print and bind a copy for you in a matter of minutes and at a cost of a few dollars. How awesome would that be?

But even if we don't reach that point right away, how cool would it be to replace all your three-ring binders and plastic-spiral bound photo-copied packets of paper with real bound books? It could happen:

Though Parker is still interested in expanding his firm's geographic reach, these days he's also using technological breakthroughs to enter new areas—most notably the rapidly growing on-demand publishing market. Later this year, he plans to unveil a new digital machine, called Model 8, that can be used to create documents and books from a desktop environment.

The digital version of Fastback will be able to bind documents up to 350 pages in the time it takes to walk to the water cooler.

"Right now, 98 percent of these kinds of documents created in offices or homes are bound with punch holes and rings," Parker said. "That gives you a pretty good idea of the size of the market we can go after."

I believe the NPR story pegged the price of these new digital machines at only $1300/ea. Cool.

Posted 05:57 AM | ai books life generally

You Deserve a Break Today

Today's Quote: "People are getting smarter nowadays. They are letting lawyers, instead of their consciences, be their guides." —Will Rogers

That would be funny if it weren't true. Somehow I've developed this idea that there has been a shift in the U.S. from a culture in which people tended to refrain from doing Act X because they thought Act X was wrong, to a culture where people only refrain from doing Act X if there's a law against it (and they think they'll get caught). In hugely general terms, it seems plausible to argue that such is shift is visible in the switch from some idea of "natural law" (say, in the 18th and perhaps early 19th centuries) to the more secular view we have today of the law as a social creation. But I think there's more to it than that, something having to do with a late 20th century shift in society and its laws from some sense of community responsibility to a near obsession with individual rights and liberties at the expense of all other values. Maybe. It's Monday, I'm just thinking out loud here.

And really what I'm thinking about is how great it would have been to have an extra week of holiday break, pace Three Years of Hell (which has undergone a nice redesign over the break), DG, and Musclehead (which has also been redesigned, but which may not be back to regularly scheduled programming yet). I suppose the bright side of starting earlier is that GW should also finish up a little earlier in the spring, something for which I'm sure I'll be grateful when the time comes. Next year the effect could be even more pronounced: GW is currently considering switching 2Ls and 3Ls from a 14-week semester to a 13-week semester. I haven't been following the issue too closely, but it sounds like the change would require us to switch from 50-minute classes to hour-long classes or something. Sounds fine with me.

If my holiday break had been longer, the main thing I would have done with the extra time would have been applying for summer work. I spent the bulk of yesterday sharpening the resume and crafting 15 cover letters for the upcoming Georgetown/GW Public Interest/Government Interview Program. I also investigated the Peggy Browning Fund Fellowships, applications for which are due (meaning must be received by) Jan. 15th. Looks like I'll be sending some overnight mailings in the next day or two.

What is that they say about rest for the wicked? Oops! My cauldron's smoking—gotta run.

Posted 05:38 AM | Comments (1) | law general law school

Freak Shows for Dean

The Club for Growth has been airing a second ad in Iowa attacking Dean. According to the Washington Times:

In the ad, a farmer says he thinks that "Howard Dean should take his tax-hiking, government-expanding, latte-drinking, sushi-eating, Volvo-driving, New York Times-reading ..." before the farmer's wife then finishes the sentence: "... Hollywood-loving, left-wing freak show back to Vermont, where it belongs."

So what is that ad saying? Is it trying to imply that people who do these things aren't welcome in Iowa? Is this directed at Dean or his supporters, or both? And since when are balancing budgets and getting perfect ratings from the NRA "left-wing"?

Whatever the ad's trying to say, it's brilliant. I mean, they got me. Ok, they didn't get it perfect, but close enough for horseshoes or hand grenades. I don't want to hike taxes, but I do want to redistrbute the tax burden. I don't want to expand government, but would like it to work better (more efficiently, to use the language neocons can understand), and for the benefit of citizens rather than for the benefit of corporations. I drink lattes occasionally, but mostly I'm just a coffee w/a bit of milk kind of person. Sushi's great, but I eat it rarely. I've never driven a Volvo, but I do think the new Cross Country is an awesome vehicle. Volvos are also infamous for being among the safest cars on the road, so is the Club for Growth trying to say that wanting to be safe is some kind of freak-show thing? I used to read the New York Times online fairly regularly, but have tried to avoid it since it started charging for access to articles older than a few days. I don't love Hollywood—but I do enjoy watching movies (who doesn't)? And left-wing? Yeah, sure. Freak show? You got me.

Freak Shows for Dean!

Now, will someone please make a t-shirt of this? (The URL is available, too!)

You could probably also sell a few of these shirts to the folks at Wyoming for Dean, too. Not a lot of sushi in Wyoming, they're not much into tax hikes or big government, nor do many people I know there read the New York Times. But one thing Wyoming-ites love to do is to give the "Eastern establishment" the finger, and what better way to do that than to support the candidate the establishment seems intent on discrediting?

In other election news, the first "primary" in the nation is this Tuesday, right here in DC. No, it's not binding, but it's still worth the effort to vote for your candidate just to give him/her that extra little boost to take into Iowa and New Hampshire. Besides, a bigger turnout will help D.C.'s cause, and all D.C. wants is equality. Meanwhile, thousands of volunteers are descending on Iowa in preparation for the Jan. 19th caucus, and Clark is supposedly surging in New Hampshire.

It should all be very interesting, but you know, I'm ready for a decision. Time's a-wasting kids. It's time to get a Democratic nominee chosen so the Democrats can start fighting the real battle—against the Bush Republicans.

Posted 09:24 AM | Comments (1) | election 2004