the slacker's guide to san francisco

Current Obsession: GRAAAAH WHY WON'T THIS ELECTION END

2008/03/22
Politics: case in point

Here's a great example of where using moral language in a political context not only unhelpfully muddies the debate, but makes James Carville look like a pompous assclown at the same time. I remember when I admired Carville. It's embarrassing to have to admit that I did.

2008/03/22
Politics: Politicians: plz stop using "evil" kthxbai

While I'm on the subject of John McCain: the use of "evil" in a political context is rarely edifying, and everybody needs to knock it off. "Evil" is a moral, not political or ideological, term, and to introduce it into political discourse is to cast the discussion in stark, Manichean terms. True, it is an antonym to "good", but since "good" is a heavily overloaded term, it has many antonyms. By definition, evil is "profoundly immoral and malevolent", and when we, for example, brand Iran's president as such, all we do is preclude the possibility of diplomacy. You can't negotiate with evil, you can't contain evil, you can only annihilate it.

Bush's speechwriters famously inserted "evil" into the mass political consciousness of America through the introduction of those infamous supervillains the Axis of Evil. By dint of sheer repetition we've all forgotten how impossibly stupid it sounds, and how it makes the US look like it's governed by a bunch of 8-year-olds. In effect, it's become another phrase on the Godwin's Law blacklist, because any mention of evil in a foreign policy discussion is sure to be followed by a heated and completely useless argument over how much people who are against eradicating the evil must have loved Hitler.

The United States has many real, dangerous enemies, and the geopolitical environment is fraught. The discussion of the whos and hows and whys of this enmity, and the danger it entails, is a proper debate for politicians and presidential candidates to be having. Tossing around stark and (by definition) immutable moral judgment stifles that discussion and drains it of nuance. The US needs to have a debate about our duties and responsibilities in the rest of the world. That's not going to happen if we're viewing the world outside our borders in terms of angels and devils.

2008/03/22
Politics: Remember McCain?

John McCain had a bad week, although you'd never know it from reading the New York Times. His position on the Iraq War is ignorant and wrong, and every time he opens his mouth to talk about foreign policy, he reveals a new, startling and dangerous facet to his oddball and pitifully incomplete understanding of geopolitics.

Hillary Clinton's use of McCain as a comparative pillar of strength in foreign policy allows the Republicans to control the parameters of the Democratic nomination fight, which makes this strategy on her part even more contemptible. McCain's a dangerously ungrounded hawk with anger management issues, and he's no more qualified by his experience to be Commander in Chief than either Clinton or Obama.

I don't think McCain is a bad man. For a career politician he's taken a lot of risks in the service of noble ends, he's a sincere patriot who eschews blind jingoism, and he has given more for his country than almost any other public figure in America. But Clinton or Obama supporters who oppose the war but still claim they're going to vote for McCain if their candidate doesn't get the nomination are doing themselves, and the nation, no favors. Bush and Cheney have done serious damage to the rest of the world, and the world's perception of our place in it. Electing another Republican will cement that damage, and make it nearly impossible to get accountability from any of the people responsible. Keep that in mind the next time an Obama or Clinton supporter says something infuriating and stupid.

2008/03/16
Politics: OK, this is dumb.

My music blog is going swimmingly (although I could use some commenters – come on over, everbody!), but I have a whole bunch of rantin' to do about the Jello-wrestling match we have masquerading as an election year. I recently created a LiveJournal account so I could keep track of all of my nerd friends, and have been using that as sort of a scratchpad for my half-formed political bloviation, but the mockery of some of my friends ("what, another blog?") has caused me to reconsider that idea. So from now on, I'll post all that stuff here, and crosspost it to LiveJournal. Perhaps it will entertain you, perhaps it will not! My hope is that others will be amused by my pain, because this election season is proving to be very painful for me indeed. The last few posts will be familiar to some of you, because they were posted over there first. Oh well!

2008/03/16
Politics: WAYS TO SETTLE THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION FIGHT

Winner-takes-all Uno match.
Bake-off.
Best show goat at the Clackamas County Fair.
Hot-dog eating contest.
Tag-team ladders, tables and chairs match with each candidate paired with one of the Brothers of Destruction (ed. note: potentially profitable after pay-per-view receipts).
Trivial Pursuit – All Star Sports Edition.
Skeet shooting competition in John McCain's back yard.
Marathon Monopoly game, original rules with no exceptions (ed. note: no claiming Free Parking money).
Beer pong.
"Through the Fire and Flames" on Expert in Guitar Hero III. If neither contestant makes it to 2 minutes, nomination is awarded to current highest scorer on YouTube who can prove they're not a dirty cheater.

2008/03/13
Politics: it's funny cuz it's true

The Democratic generational divide, in full effect, can be seen over on NPR's news blog. Point and counterpoint from the Clinton and Obama campaign spinners!

In the last few weeks, questions have arisen about Obama's readiness to be president. In Virginia, 56% of Democratic primary voters said Obama was most qualified to be commander-in-chief. That number fell to 37% in Ohio, 35% in Rhode Island and 39% in Texas.

Only the Clinton campaign could cherry pick states like this. But in contrast to their logic, in the most recent contest of Mississippi, voters said that Obama was more qualified to be commander in chief than Clinton by a margin of 55-42.

So the late deciders -- those making up their minds in the last days before the election -- have been shifting to Hillary Clinton. Among those who made their decision in the last three days, Obama won 55% in Virginia and 53% in Wisconsin, but only 43% in Mississippi, 40% in Ohio, 39% in Texas and 37% in Rhode Island.

If only there were enough late deciders for the Clinton campaign to actually be ahead, they would really be on to something.

If Barack Obama cannot reverse his downward spiral with a big win in Pennsylvania, he cannot possibly be competitive against John McCain in November.

If they are defining downward spiral as a series of events in which the Clinton campaign has lost more votes, lost more contests and lost more delegates to us ... I guess we will have to suffer this horribly painful slide all the way to the nomination and then on to the White House.

Read the whole thing. It's funny!

2008/03/12
Politics: Obama as black man, not Obama as candidate

Obama has undoubtedly gotten some extra attention because he's black, but his race wouldn't have helped him were it not for the many other ways in which he's a distinctive candidate. His race is inextricable from the larger story of his public character: his optimism; his recognition that America is still not the nation it ought to be without being bitter, reactionary, or beholden to traditional identity politics; his personal history and how it amplifies the message of his campaign. He's a unique candidate, a cynosure of a large spectrum of the American populace who want to believe in a certain idea of America that he represents.

Ferraro is still wrong, though. Whether Obama would have had the same kind of political style and persona if he'd grown up white is moot; what's important is that he's here now and his message is resonant with a large number of people for whom his race is a secondary concern (I think it's impossible to seriously claim that there's any natural-born American for whom his race is not at all a concern. Race is always a concern). Make him white, make him a little less populist and give him a single-payer health care plan and he's John Edwards – I'm certain that more Edwards supporters are now supporting Obama than Clinton.

Ferraro is self-aware enough to have turned the lens on herself. She's said she wouldn't have been a candidate for veep if she hadn't been a woman. I can't read her mind, so I don't know if she thinks this lets her off the hook for saying similar things about Obama, but if so, she's completely wrong. The selection of vice-presidential candidates is purely a function of electoral and political calculation, and not subject to the popular will. Even if she's right (and, for the record, I think she is. Her political career has not been particularly distinguished, even if she does represent New York), there's no equating the two situations – she was chosen by Mondale and the DNC, Obama has to be chosen by the Democratic party en masse.

Finally, it should be self-evident that both racism and sexism are alive and well this campaign season, and that whomever of the two wins the Democratic nomination is going to be getting splattered with all manner of bigoted mud as soon as the convention ends. Any advantage gained in the nomination race will just make it harder for the Democrats in the general campaign. I can't think of a clearer example of the Prisoner's Dilemma in politics, at least recently. Both Obama and Clinton need to be vigilant about this kind of pernicious bullshit, whether it's coming from a soi-disant "outsider" to their campaign or as official campaign strategy. It could just be me, but I'm suddenly hearing a lot more people saying they're just going to stay home if Clinton gets the nomination. If McCain wins because the Democrats have disgusted and alienated too many of their potential voters, that will be a real tragedy.

2008/03/12
Politics: your national press corps

This story is pretty good supporting evidence that the political press have started losing their marbles unusually early in the campaign season:

We are now in the strange season of Democratic pretense -- pretend that everything will work out smoothly even though you suspect that everything won't. "The Democratic Party is going to have gum on its shoes that it can't get off," says Edgell, a former veteran congressional staffer. "There are going to be bruises that will last through November."

Clearly, it is also the season of rampant, mixed-use metaphor. If ever there was a moment to summon the analogies of struggle, dilemma, tactical warfare and careful negotiation, that moment is now. So it might be prudent to step back from politics and look for clues to a Democratic resolution elsewhere: in chess, magic, poker, mathematics, gang intervention, sports handicapping, Middle East peace negotiation, marriage. The list is endless.

As realms go, it's hard to beat boxing. Obama had the champ on the ropes after the first round in Iowa but couldn't finish her off in New Hampshire. Bloodied, Clinton fought back gamely and gained some momentum heading into Super Tuesday. Both candidates landed solid blows there. But then Obama pummeled the champ for 11 straight rounds, and it looked like she was just hanging on, ripe for a knockout. But just as the scribes were filing their stories of the champ's demise, she waged another comeback, winning three of four rounds on March 4. (Needless to say, this is a loooong fight). All of a sudden, the questions were: Does the challenger have a glass jaw? Does the champ have enough time to overcome the challenger's lead on points?

What.

Can you even imagine what kind of tortured nonsense they're going to be barfing up by October?

2008/03/11
Politics: Geraldine Ferraro is a racist assclown

I'm going to let Representative Ferraro do most of the speaking here, because she's already so eloquently made her case:

If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.

followed by

Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let’s address reality and the problems we’re facing in this world, you’re accused of being racist, so you have to shut up. Racism works in two different directions. I really think they’re attacking me because I’m white. How’s that?

followed, incredibly, by

“Every time that campaign is upset about something, they call it racist,” she said. “I will not be discriminated against because I’m white. If they think they’re going to shut up Geraldine Ferraro with that kind of stuff, they don’t know me.”

(And lest you think this is an isolated case of her getting her dander up in the heat of the moment, let me present to you this gem from 1988:

Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don’t ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his “radical” views, “if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn’t be in the race.”

Asked about this at a campaign stop in Buffalo, Jackson at first seemed ready to pounce fiercely on his critics. But then he stopped, took a breath, and said quietly, “Millions of Americans have a point of view different from” Ferraro’s.

Discussing the same point in Washington, Jackson said, “We campaigned across the South … without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got North to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan and then Mrs. Ferraro … . Some people are making hysteria while I’m making history.”)

Geraldine Ferraro was the first female candidate for vice president in American history. I can remember how excited I was, as a kid in 1984, over the idea that she might win, and how disappointed I was when Mondale and Ferraro went down in flames. And it could be argued that Ferraro isn't speaking for the Clinton campaign, although any such argument would have to be at least partially disingenuous, given that Ferraro sits on Clinton's financial committee.

But I'm sorry, that is some racist bullshit right there, and it is a loathsome evocation of Nixon's – and then Reagan's – Southern strategy, replete with lame-ass dog whistle language and with a heaping side order of smugly entitled white privilege. Samantha Power lost her position with the Obama campaign for saying what this comment so amply demonstrates -- the Clinton campaign absolutely does not care what damage they do to the rest of America, as long as they get Hillary Rodham Clinton elected. They are doing their level best to ensure that I feel no enthusiasm about helping to boot the Republicans out of the White House, which is quite an achievement.

At least this way we can be sure that Obama will never, ever agree to be on a ticket with Clinton.

2008/01/30
Administrivia: E_BLOG_NOT_FOUND

I may or may not revive the Slacker's Guide later on this election season as a way of blowing off steam (I keep debating it, but then I keep asking myself if the internet needs yet another left-libertarian nerd's opinions), but for now, I have moved all my talkin'-bout-stuff action over to A Year of Music, a new blog I set up to document the process of listening to my now-completely-ripped-to-MP3 CD collection. I post there waaaay more often than I ever posted here, and, as an added bonus in this time of internet-mediated ADD, the entries are often very short. Please come read it and talk back to me! Please?