Supreme Trick

In a bid to really scare Americans on Halloween, W nominated Antonin Scalia to a second seat on the Supreme Court. Scalia, wearing a mask and calling himself "Samuel Alito", was delighted at having a second vote to condemn the evils of society: homosexuals, liberals, moderates, females, workers, privacy and, of course, abortion.

Former black man, Clarence Thomas, was also thrilled to see Scalia's vote count twice. Along with new Chief Justice Roberts, they now can count four consistent votes against progress in America.

Pope Ratzinger, upon receiving the news during his daily phone call from Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA), was thrilled that America would now have a theocratic court which would follow his prolife agenda of banning gays, abortion and supporting the death penalty and torture. "Now that the Church has lost control of Spain, Ireland and Italy, we need to take over control of America's government to force the world into our belief system."

Having been stung by the defeat of his household pet, Harriet Meirs, Bush decided to clone the man he called "his favorite justice". He determined that as a weak president who has divided the country into warring faction, his best route was to choose a man who would rally his troops and further alienate the vast majority of Americans who do not consider the Bible an integral part of the US Constitution.

Conservatives, even those fundies who condemn Halloween as "devil worshipping", where thrilled at what they viewed as a popcorn ball of a nomination. The only question remaining is whether Democrats, whose poll numbers are depressed by their inability to stand up for themselves, will roll over and let the Theocrats take over the Supreme Court or if they will actually show themselves as a party worth supporting.

39

Today's blog is sponsored by the number "39" and by the letter "W". Why 39? That is W's approval rating in the latest ABC/Washington Post Poll. His negative rating, by people like me, is 58%. I guess us "Extreme Leftist, America Hating" Bushophobes now make up nearly 3/5 of the country. These numbers are fairly consistent with other polls, and I believe 39 is about average for these polls. I only wish the pollsters had an option below "Poor", like "God-awful".

Just to highlight how dreadful these numbers are for America, 39 is also the number of months until January 2009, when W finally moves out of the White House and Karl Rove is no longer president. Maybe St. Fitzpatrick can save us, but otherwise we have well over 3 years left in this nightmare of an administration.

Happy Halloween!

Diebold

Did Diebold help Bush steal the 2004 election? Of course, no right-thinking person would entertain a notion that our democracy can be so easily side-tracked.

The official Federal fraud watchdog, the Government Accounting Office (GAO), isn't so sure. While not accusing anyone, they believe that electronic voting machines like the ones made by Diebold were easy to tamper with and could be manipulated to erase or add votes at will by unethical partisans. Ironically, Diebold makes ATMs that give paper results. According to Diebold, your ATM withdrawal should be more secure than your stake in democracy.

While there is no smoking gun, the circumstantial evidence is there: CEO of Diebold promises to deliver Ohio for Bush. Diebold supplies electronic voting machines that are highly vulnerable to tampering (per GAO Report) in key states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Iowa, Alaska, New Mexico, etc. Exit Polls give Kerry Ohio, Nevada, Florida, New Mexico and Iowa. Bush somehow wins ALL those states, defying reasonable probability. Dumbfounded Election Night News Anchors watch as they see an early night win for Kerry turn into a long, drawn out, incredulously improbable win for Bush. Mainstream media blames faulty polling, not faulty voting machines. Bush re-elected, and now sits as an amazingly unpopular president.

So, you decided: Who really won in 2004?

History According to Rupert Murdoch

Here are some examples of "Fair and Balanced" history:

Faux News

Breathe Easier

The Health Committee of the DC Council has finally passed a comprehensive smoking ban for workplaces. This means by January 2007, nearly every bar and restaurants will be smokefree. With 10 of the 13 Council members, plus Mayor Williams, having declared support for this bill, it looks like it will become law shortly.

Congratulations to the District for passing this important measure.

I'd love a Smoke Free DC!

No One Tricked Your Treats

Contrary to popular myth, no one has ever died of a poisoned popcorn ball, a razor-blade apple or needled candy bars. The tradition of giving out homemade treats died out because of this myth that is perpetuated every year. Hospitals waste thousands of dollars X-Raying bags of candy worth less than $5 retail to assuage parental fears over a nonexistent threat.

The only child murdered on Halloween was poisoned by his own father. Other than social workers taking him away, none of the ridiculous measures taken today would have saved him. Nefarious neighbors don't kill children; crazy parents do.

The biggest threats to your kids on Halloween are: cars, dogs, paranoia and you!

The Truth About Trick-or-treating

You Want MORE Gruel??

Today, the House voted to cut $50 billion from spending to pay for Katrina. Notice what was not on the table: $75 billion in an additional round of tax cuts targeted to the wealthiest people on the planet. Who is going to pay for these cuts: poor college students, single mothers and foster kids.

This sounds like a bill straight from a Dickens novel. Was this bill submitted by Congressman Chokemchilde and Senator Parsimony? Next on the agenda, cuts to Medicaid, which will force states to dump poor people from receiving healthcare. In an ultimate irony worthy of Dickens sardonic pen, many Katrina victims will be the victims of the Hurricane offset bill. We'll rebuild your shanty, but your health care has to go.

It seems the GOP leaders are trying out for the part of Mr. and Mrs. Squeers from Nicholas Nickelby.

No more gruel!

The Rivals

Speaking of women athletes, I just finished a terrific book, The Rivals,* about Chris Everett and Martina Navratilova. While I thought it would be a good read for a tennis fan, the book was more far reaching than I anticipated. It discusses the challenges faced by Billy Jean King and other women tennis players in setting up the WTA, just as Chris and Martina were teenagers beginning their careers.

The book addresses the sexism of the era, where female athletes were told to get married and have kids instead of playing sports. The Cold War dynamics that post-Prague Spring Czech athletes faced threatened to derail the career of their amazing young tennis star. The tension between Martina and the Czechoslovakian government finally lead to her defection to the US and her expulsion from public discourse in her native land.

Soon after defecting, Martina voluntarily and innocently announced her homosexuality through a series of public relationships with feminist author Rita Mae Brown, NCAA Basketball champion Nancy Lieberman, and Texas beauty queen Judy Nelson. Martina naively assumed that America's relative freedom meant acceptance of her sexuality. She even hired Renee Richards as her coach. Richards had previously become famous as the transexual who sued the WTA to play in the US Open as a female, and then went on to win the Over-35 Singles trophy.

Meanwhile, Chris went through her own personal struggles, almost marrying tennis legend Jimmy Connors, and then marrying and divorcing British tennis star John Lloyd.

Martina and Chris's epic 85 matches became symbolic to their fans of what we would call the red-blue divide. Ironically, Chrissy was never the shy, conservative princess of her image, and Martina was a soft-kitten who felt so bad for Chris losing to her that she cried. Through it all, they remain friends who had great mutual respect for one another and who supported each other through the ups and downs of their long rivalry.

I highly recommend this book. Tennis fans will find it a must read, but it is also a great glimpse into the zeitgeist of America in the 1970s and 1980s.


*Please note that I'm not necessarily endorsing buying from Amazon.com, but they have a great section for reader reviews.

Swoops comes out

What?? There are lesbians in the WNBA?? Shocking!!

Now that their greatest star is out of the closet, maybe the WNBA will start to acknowledge and appreciate all its lesbian fans.

Will the soccer moms still bring their daughters out to see Sheryl Swoops? I certainly hope so!

Swoops in Her Own Words

The Boys of Summer

Baseball was meant to be played outdoors. The game was started to play during the summer. While most modern kids do spend their summers indoors with their Playstations and cable TV under the air conditioning, baseball games are when you hang out in the open air on a summer's evening.

I can understand why Houston wanted a retractable roof. Houston is God-awful in the summer. Mix 100 degrees F with 100% humidity, along with the smog caused by Texas' lax air quality standards--thanks to former Governor Him-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named--and watching baseball outdoors is the last thing you want to do.

When Houston finally gets a livable, they want to close the roof. You should enjoy a mild temperature, hurricane-free fall day outdoors. If the Astros blame blowing a 4-run lead on the night air of SE Texas, then they really have no business playing in the World Series.

Pining for the Great Indoors

Revisionist History

Remind me never to take a history course from Condi Rice.

Professor Rice Explains All

Game Theory

This has to be the most fascinating field in economics. It's a cross between probability, logic and human psychology. Kudos to the Nobel laureate who expanded on John Nash's great discovery

Game Theory

Where Have All the Fiscal Conservatives Gone?

Here's an interview with Connie Mack, former GOP Senator from Florida and W's lead advisor on tax reform.

He seems completely out of touch with economic reality. His idea of revenue is borrowing from Saudi Arabia and China. That's great: put America's economic security in the hands of fanatical Muslims and nominal Communists.

He thinks tax relief should be for heiresses, but he wants to raise taxes on the middle class by severely reducing the home mortgage deduction. I guess you'd rather pay taxes when you are trying to raise your family than after you die.

My favorite gem: he thinks that $500,000 is a lot of money for a house. He probably bought his DC home long before the current bubble. My tiny one-bedroom condo is approaching that amount, and probably above his proposed tax limit. That kind of money won't even get you a second bedroom around here. I've never considered a 2-bedroom condo to be a luxurious home for a family of four.

If this guy were some whacko from the Heritage Foundation, it would be one thing. This guy spent 12 years in the Senate from a large state and is a major force behind Bush's tax policy.

Listening to him, it's no wonder we have record deficits while poverty grows in America.

Connie Mack Interview

Hammer, Meet the Anvil of Justice

Since he pushed out Newt Gingrich, Tom DeLay has been the power dominating the Hill. Although he is working with historically small majorities, he has managed to force GOP congressmen into line by controlling the purse strings of GOP campaign financing. He has even threatened to recruit and fund candidates in the primaries to oust Republicans who defy him. He famously said that he'd rather lose a seat to the Democrats than have a moderate Republican who doesn't toe the line.

In order to maintain power, he has resorted to some pretty ruthless tactics, and often skirted the law. It looks like he may have crossed that line and he is taking his frustrations out on veteran DA Ronnie Earle.

His contempt for Texas law is apparent. He feels that Texas is his demesne, and he can use it and exploit it as a power base from which to expand his power in DC. His mug shot was just smarmy. He appears as remorseful and respectful of the legal process as Jim Trafficant was. Maybe this prison will let DeLay keep his toupée.

History of DeLay's corruption

Personal Responsibility

This is the latest GOP mantra: "Americans, it's your own damn fault." They seem to want to remove all responsibility from corporations and from their own governance and place it squarely on the average Amerian's shoulders.

It's not the governments fault that most poor people can read. It's poor people's fault that they are too lazy to read. Never mind that their schools lack books, facilities and have class sizes too large for any teacher to manage.

This time, it's Americans' fault that 2/3 of us are overweight. It has nothing to do with the food that corporations concoct and market like mad. According to the GOP: the fast food industry bears no responsibility for the adverse effects of the products they sell.

They do have a valid point. Everyone knows that McDonald's is bad for you. I rarely eat fast food--never McDonald's. No one forces you to eat there. You have other food options out there, although they are pretty limited in many people's neighborhoods.

McDonald's tries to tell you that its food is "part of a well-balanced diet". Only if the rest of your diet is broccoli, carrots and grapefruit juice could they possibly be correct. McDonald's food has a negligible amount of fiber, lean protein and vitamins, but plenty of saturated fat, simple sugars and chemical additives. You know when you eat at Mickey D's that you are having junk food for lunch.

Beyond the obvious junk food aspects of fast food, for years McDonald's et al. have been putting additives into their product which are worsening America's waistlines. You are not just getting fat from the calories in ground beef, potatoes and ice cream. You are getting fat from beef tallow added to fries, from corn syrup added to nearly everything, and from shakes that are more of a chemistry experiment than your cholesterol medicine. This is little better than tobacco companies adding nicotine to their cigarettes to make them more addictive. The government rightfully sued them. In this case, the GOP is trying to protect fast food for putting their bottom line ahead of America's bottom lines.

This bill shouldn't be entitled "Personal Responsibility". It should be titled "GOP Corporate Protection from Responsibe Business Practices Act #5559". The GOP has rapidly corrupted "pro-business" ideology into a corporate crony relationship. They are not interested in helping America's economic growth through sound economic principles. They are interested in getting large campaign donations from rich corporations, who then expect large subsidies and wreckless deregulation in exchange. Laissez-faire has devolved into quid pro quo, where big corporations get big subsidies, protection from consumers and barriers to entry in their established markets to prevent competition from young upstarts.

If they truly want people to be responsible for their food decisions, they need restaurants to offer full disclosure. Perfect information is a basic requirement for a competitive market. Anything less is a market distortion in favor of the producer, but in George W. Bush's America, it's corporations above everyone else.

Corporate Responsibility

Hurricane Anything

Anything's possible with the right excuse!

Marc Fiore

Taking the Plame

Bush knew all along. His feigning of outrage and mystery and who destroyed Plame's career and undermined her CIA mission were all a farce. He even chastized Turd Blossom while publicly pretending ignorance. This is Bush's Watergate moment.

The only problem is that it is unlikely he will be punished for his deceitful and vindictive abuse of office.

What did the President know and when did he know it?

When You Don't Go Anywhere

No child can be left behind.

Test scores stagnate

Come Out, Come Out, Where ever You Are

I think Patrick Guerriero is dead on here. I'm not sure how you can be gay and support Bush after he backed the "Federal Marriage Amendment", which would block our civil rights for at least 40 years. However, I have met gays who work on the Hill for fire-breathing homophobes, and even some that work for the Heritage Foundation.

Hopefully, they are doing some good in their jobs. I doubt that one staffer could turn off Bill Frist or Rick Santorum's homophobia, but at least it puts a face on the comments that they make. When Cornyn compares our relationships to screwing turtles, or Coburn wants the death penalty for gays, then I don't see how any gay man or woman could reasonably stay silent and write presses releases condemning their own lives. I certainly could never work for a governor who vetoes a gay marriage bill, or begs Congress to pass a Constitutional amendment to overturn the work of his own legislature on gay marriage.

I understand all too well being discriminated against at work. I was outed to my Mormon employers, who told me that I should seek help in becoming straight. I don't have a rainbow flag at work, but most people who I work with regularly know that I'm gay.

Those who choose to stay in the closet and work with people who hate us are damaging their own souls and making life more difficult for the rest of us. If people like Martina Navratilova and Ellen DeGeneres hadn't come out, most Americans would only have demonic images of gays as inspired by the Pope and Sam Nunn. When you see Rosie O'Donnell get married to her girlfriend along with their children, gay marriage moves from theory into real life. That's why the sponsor of the Massachusetts anti-gay marriage amendment reversed his vote in 2005 to help vote it down. Once you realize someone you like is gay, you start to realize that gay people aren't nearly as bad as you've been told.


Gay Conservatives

Bush's Lobotomy

Has Bush's Brain been cut off?

Andrew Sullivan explains

The Final Solution

Perhaps a bit over the top, but the analogies are pretty clear:

Religious Reich

So, what does this say about all the gay Jews I know??

Cost Push Inflation

This is the worst form of inflation. Traditionally, demand pull inflation is caused by consumers buying products quicker than manufacturers produce them. This drives up prices, eventually cooling demand, which lowers prices and consumers start buying again. Economists affectionately refer to this as the business cycle.

In the 1970s, we encountered the ugly cost-induced inflation. This results when a key component of production, say, oil, becomes more expensive. This means that producers have to charge more. Consumers, in turn, buy less, which causes producers to reduce production and leads to layoffs. This leads to lower incomes, and further reduced demand. However, if the price of, say, oil, continues to rise, prices will not fall and may even rise. This creates an environment of both high inflation and high unemployment.

Keynsian economics works well with the business cycle. You can use monetary and fiscal policy to ease the business cycle. The Fed raises and lowers interest rates to cool inflation or stimulate spending via cheap credit. The govt inputs money through unemployment insurance to make sure out of work consumers still spend money. Tax cuts can increase disposable income and encourage consumption to restart the economy.

Cost push inflation has few simple answers. Attempts to heighten employment exasperate the inflation problem. The Ford and Carter administrations, while nominally trying to end inflation, cared more about unemployment. They allowed inflation to remain high to prevent a deep recession. Ford's "WIN" buttons were a silly mask to cover up his pro-employment policies that allowed inflation to soar.

Attempts to lower inflation causes higher unemployment and deepens a recession. This is what Volcker opted to do in the early 1980s to end double-digit inflation from the 1970s. It resulted in the deep and difficult "Volcker Recession" of 1982-1983, but resulted in a long and prosperous recovering from 1984 (lucky for Ronnie) until 1990 (not so lucky for Pappi Bush).

While much of the higher inflation is caused by Katrina, a temporary issue, the steady rise in oil will continue. This will drive up the cost of everything related to petroleum: transportation, farming, paint, carpeting, pharmaceuticals, etc. All these costs will be pushed along by producers to other producers and ultimately to consumers. Since oil is a global commodity, the ensuing recession will be global.

The only real solution will be to wean ourselves from fossil fuels. This in itself would be worthwhile, since fossil fuels are highly damaging to the environment and our addiction warps our foreign policy. Why do you think we have sent troops to the Middle East so often over the last half century? There are plenty of nasty dictators in Africa to tackle.

With an oil president and an oil vice president, I doubt this administration will do much. At the very least, they could stop spending like there was no tomorrow. With a $500 billion deficit, the government won't be much help in the coming economic difficulties.

Katrina Sparks Inflation

Smoke Free DC

Why can't the City Council put out a decent smoking ban?? DC, which prides itself on being sooo progressive, is falling way behind on this. It's not that DC voters or bar patrons don't want it.

Talk about beholden to special interests! A few well-heeled smokers, the tobacco industry and the NRA (Natl Restaurant Assoc.) are scaring bar owners that they will go out of business if this passes. New York, California, Delaware, Illinois, Montgomery County, MD, etc. can all attest to how false these fears are.

I, for one, would be much more likely to go out to bars if I weren't afraid of how crappy I know I will feel the next day. After going out to bars in SF, I know it's not the alcohol that gives me the hangovers!

Come on, Carol Schwartz! I've supported you for years. It's time to give up this fight and listen to the voters.

DC Poll

A great organization to support this fight:
Smoke Free DC

2005 Warmest on Record

This year has been one of the warmest on record. Years 2002, 2003, and 2004 were also extremely warm. The warm air in the Atlantic lead to a dramatic increase in hurricanes hitting the US, climaxing this year with Rita and her big sister--Katrina.

There seems to be little doubt that not only is the Earth warming, it is warming at an accelerating rate. The polar caps are shrinking, which means that the oceans are rising.

What good will it do us to pour $300 billion into New Orleans if it may become part of the Gulf of Mexico soon? If you ever planned to see Venice in your lifetime--and I highly recommend it--I'd go now!

The only debate is whether human activity is causing this. Since we are running out of oil and fossil fuels ruin our air quality, this seems like a no brainer. Americans consume four times as much fossil fuels per person as the rest of the world, so it falls on W's shoulders to save us for our own folly....

We're doomed!

2005 Warmest on Record

Marc Fiore

Somehow, W's old tricks have just lost their charm.

Reuse, Recycle, Repeat

Theocracy

So, now Bush is telling us that one of Miers' major qualification is her religion. Isn't that grand? First we allow the Iraqis to write the Koran into their constitution, thus ensuring an Islamic state in place of the nominally secular one we threw out. Now, Bush seems to think that being an Evangelical Christian is an important criteria for sitting as a judge in America.

Besides being another crony and a Born Again woman, is there any other reason W thinks she should sit on the bench? While I do enjoy watching the theocons squirm, the more Bush talks up the nominee, the more afraid I am for the future of our country.

Forget Roe V. Wade. Will the Lawrence v. Texas (2003), which finally made gay relationships not punishable by prison terms, be upheld by a court where you not only have to swear on the Bible, but thump it as well? How will Jews, Muslims, Atheists and feel having the Reverend Miers protecting their First Amendment Rights?


I thought that Bush swore twice to defend and uphold the Constitution, not to subvert it with his theocratic tendencies. The best we can hope for is that he is lying to his base. He convinced millions of poor and lower class, mostly white, Americans to vote for him to fight abortion and gay marriage. How long will they continue to vote against their own families' economic interests to support Bush's hollow Gospel?


Theocrat

Virginia Governor

Looks like the Virginia GOP has nominated a Bush clone for governor. Kilgore seems as fiscally irresponsible as the current president. Cut taxes for the rich, but promise spending to keep the middle class voting for you. He even wants to tie the hands of the state legislature to keep them from raising revenues.

You would think that someone who spent time in state government in the worst fiscal era since the Depression would understand this.

Kilgore sounds like a disaster for the Old Dominion, but he may just win based on party label.

Washington Post Endorsement

Internet Gold

This has got to be the strangest way of making money yet!

Slave Gaming

Thought for the Day

If, as some say, God spanked the town

For being over frisky,

Why did He burn the churches down

And save Hotaling's whiskey

Thanks to George Will.

Dégonflée (By popular demand)

I don't approve of the methods, but I appreciate the sentiment:



Dégonflée

Overheated Oysters

Like second-hand smoke, the evidence seems to be mounting that the Earth is getting warmer. New Delhi Indian summer that DC is experiencing, with its accompanying 2 month drought, may be an anomaly but it makes you wonder. I had my A/C on last night and it's mid-October!

Bush keeps saying--during the few times he mentions environmental issues--that we need "more studies". This article seems to show not only are places like Alaska getting hotter, but global warming may affect us in ways that we never imagined.


Cruise Ship illness linked to global warming

Utah Liberals??

If progressives can win in Utah, they can win anywhere

In the most unlikely places in middle America opposition to bigotry and the war in Iraq are commonplace

Gary Younge, Salt Lake City
Monday October 3, 2005

Guardian--Following a concert at the Salt Lake City international jazz festival in July the city's mayor, Rocky Anderson, took some musicians and visiting mayors out for dinner. Some of them had beer; Anderson paid some of the bill.

In a week when John Roberts was confirmed as supreme court justice and Tom DeLay, House of Representatives leader, was indicted, this passes for front-page news in Utah. Here, in the home of Mormonism, no city employee is allowed to pay for alcohol with public funds when entertaining. "I truly feel like we're in the middle of a Kafka novel sometimes," says Anderson, who was unaware of the no-alcohol policy, and rescinded it on Thursday. "With a little bit of Taliban thrown in."

And then, as if on Kafka's cue, a yellow-naped Amazonian parrot, perched in the corner of his room, let out a squawk. "That's Cardoso," says Anderson, as though introducing one of his most trusted aides. "Don't worry. He won't repeat a word we say in here." The strangest thing about Anderson is not that he has a parrot in his office, but that he is in office at all. In the state that gave the highest proportion of its votes (72%) to George Bush last year, the mayor of the only major city in Utah is more liberal than most you will find in New York or California.

Anderson, who was re-elected for his second term in 2003, supports gay marriage, opposes the war in Iraq and is a strong environmentalist. He is converting his city's fleet to alternative-fuel vehicles in order to honour his commitment to meet Kyoto's standards on greenhouse emissions by 2012. Two weeks ago he extended benefits to non-married domestic partners of city employees, effectively giving health insurance coverage to gay and cohabiting couples on his payroll. In August, when Bush came to town to bolster support for the Iraq war, Anderson emailed activists calling for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen". Two thousand people showed up, making national headlines.

But if Anderson's vision for Salt Lake City is an anomaly in conservative Utah it fits right into the political geography of America. For the mental picture we have of a nation where liberals hug the coasts and northern borders, while Republicans dominate the interior heartlands, is defective. The split of blue states for Democrats and red states for Republicans accurately reflects the votes cast by the electoral college. But the lived reality is more of a blended, purple nation where the division exists not between different states but primarily between the cities and rural areas within them. All of the 32 cities in the US with populations over 500,000 voted Democrat in 2004, even though more than half are in Republican states. On the night when anti-gay amendments were passed all over the country, Dallas in Texas elected an openly lesbian, Hispanic, Democrat as sheriff.

Indeed the Democrats are essentially an urban party. Without thumping majorities in Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Portland in 2004 they would have lost the states of Illinois, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon - almost a third of the electoral college.

It is no mystery why cities lean liberal. Most urban areas are home to the Democrats' most reliable base - African-Americans and unionised blue-collar workers. Gays and lesbians tend to flock there to escape isolation and find a critical mass of like minds, while those who move in from out of town are more likely to settle in cities, offering a counterweight to conservative local mores. Salt Lake City (population 181,743) is the only part of Utah where Mormons comprise fewer than half the inhabitants.

Navigating this diversity on a daily basis makes bigotry a harder sell - in Europe fascist parties usually perform best in suburbs and smaller satellite towns where people fear diversity but do not live it. Cities also demand the kind of public investment for transport, culture and the environment that sits uneasily with the case for small government.

But if Anderson's vision for Salt Lake City is an anomaly in conservative Utah it fits right into the political geography of America. For the mental picture we have of a nation where liberals hug the coasts and northern borders, while Republicans dominate the interior heartlands, is defective. The split of blue states for Democrats and red states for Republicans accurately reflects the votes cast by the electoral college.

But the lived reality is more of a blended, purple nation where the division exists not between different states but primarily between the cities and rural areas within them. All of the 32 cities in the US with populations over 500,000 voted Democrat in 2004, even though more than half are in Republican states. On the night when anti-gay amendments were passed all over the country, Dallas in Texas elected an openly lesbian, Hispanic, Democrat as sheriff.

Indeed the Democrats are essentially an urban party. Without thumping majorities in Chicago, Detroit, Seattle, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Portland in 2004 they would have lost the states of Illinois, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon - almost a third of the electoral college. It is no mystery why cities lean liberal. Most urban areas are home to the Democrats' most reliable base - African-Americans and unionised blue-collar workers. Gays and lesbians tend to flock there to escape isolation and find a critical mass of like minds, while those who move in from out of town are more likely to settle in cities, offering a counterweight to conservative local mores. Salt Lake City (population 181,743) is the only part of Utah where Mormons comprise fewer than half the inhabitants.

Navigating this diversity on a daily basis makes bigotry a harder sell - in Europe fascist parties usually perform best in suburbs and smaller satellite towns where people fear diversity but do not live it. Cities also demand the kind of public investment for transport, culture and the environment that sits uneasily with the case for small government.

But cities like Salt Lake offer a few lessons beyond political demography. First, they show that the tendency for coastal liberals to write off as rednecks those who live in "fly-over states" is not just patronising and counterproductive - it is flawed in fact.

Second, they suggest the understanding of the US as a nation riven by a binary divide between Democrats and Republicans is in desperate need of nuance. Not that there isn\'t some truth to it. But because that truth is limited to the very narrow field of party allegiance rather than the broader sense of how people understand their lives and their politics. Gena Edvalson, a lesbian whose partner Jana is pregnant, says her neighbours in Salt Lake City couldn't be nicer. "They're going to have a baby shower for us," she says. "But that won't stop them from legislating the hell out of us."
That is depressing (two-thirds of Utahns voted for a gay marriage ban in November). But it also suggests potential.

Which brings us to the third, and most important, lesson. If those coastal liberals decided to drop in rather than fly over once in a while they might actually learn something. Rather than duck tough issues because of the hostile political environment, progressives here have tried to reframe them in a way that resonates with potential allies. "We don't talk about gay liberation in Utah," says Anderson. "We talk about healthy families and strong communities and say that in the most intimate aspects of our lives the government ought to butt out. You have to stand up even at the risk of losing races - some things are more important than winning a race."

They've lost many battles, but by moulding their message to their principles rather than the other way around, there is still a chance that they might win a war worth fighting. The success of conservatives over the past 10 years has not just been a product of big money and a compliant media - they helped but they have always been there. It was fuelled by the very forces that the left most covets - a bottom-up, workingclass, grassroots insurgency with a heartfelt belief that they were doing the right thing.

Standing opposite the main federal building Tom King holds a sign saying: "Make levees not war", along with four others on their weekly Thursday antiwar vigil. "At the beginning people threw open bottles of soda, half-eaten hamburgers and raw eggs at us," he says. But in the 15 minutes I stood with him only one man shouted: "Get a clue, you bunch of morons", while far more people beeped their horns in support and waved. Last week thousands turned out for an anti-war rally in town.

"We're here in the trenches," says Lorna Vogt, director of Utah Progressive Network. "They should learn from us because the rest of America is becoming more like Utah, not the other way around."

With liberals elsewhere concerned about a theocratic putsch in Washington, Troy Williams, a producer on the local, liberal radio station, points out the short distance between the Mormon headquarters and Utah\'s state capital. "The separation between church and state here," he says, "is only two blocks."

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005

It's the resume, stupid

I'm not normally a George Will fan, but he makes some salient points about public office. The most important is that a nominee for Supreme Court, or any office of public import, should be first judged by qualifications, and second by political persuasion.

The main public arguments about whether she will vote this way or that way on a particular issue are frivolous compared to whether or not she has the background, intellect and skills to handle her job responsibly. She will be hearing literally hundreds of cases in her career that will span at least a decade, maybe two. The cases will affect everything from the right to protect our homes from government donation to developer to whether we can be arrested for private, consensual sex between adults.

As we have seen, partisan politics should not be allowed to trump basic competence for any job, public or private. After all, once she is confirmed, she will be rewriting US Constitutional law until the day she dies or voluntarily steps down, no matter what anyone else thinks of her in the future.

This is the last chance we have to hold her to any accountability before elevating her from private lawyer to becoming the key vote on the most powerful court in the country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/04/AR2005100400954.html

Bush's new nominee

America greets Bush's new nominee with a great big "WHO?"

Just like Roberts, most people have never heard of Miers. By most people, I'm not just refering to average Americans who don't know who Bill Frist is, or who are more likely to recognize Martha Stewart than Dick Cheney. I mean people who live inside the Beltway, read the Washington Post every day, and actually care whether Tom DeLay goes to jail or not.

It seems like Bush's nomination strategy is a big duck and cover. Nominate someone completely unknown, expect the GOP to push him/her through, and don't reveal too many details. It worked with Roberts, and half the Democrats voted for him even though he was a shot in the dark. (Google the word "backbone" and I doubt you will see many elected Democrats listed, except with "lack of" at the start.) Does Bush really fear a Clarence Thomas-scale fight in a Senate which is 55% Republican and 22% jellyfish Democrats?

Is Roberts the 'roll-back the New Deal" lawyer he was under Reagan? Or was his pro bono work for the Romer case a sign that he actually believes that gays have civil rights? By the time we know the answer to this, he will be well on his way to rewriting American Constitutional law.

I doubt we will come up with much for Miers. So far, her most prominent public position has been on the Dallas City Council. I grew up in the DFW area and I've never heard of her. Meirs move to the Supreme Court makes Brownie's leap from the International Arabian Horse Association to head of FEMA look like a small steeplechase jump.

Meirs legal resume may look good if you want her as a partner in your firm, but Judge Harry Stone has more courtroom experience than she does. How can she be expected to rule on Miranda Rights if she's never seen a criminal case from the bench's point of view? I'm surprised Bush didn't pick Judge Reinhold. At least he has business cards with "judge" printed on them.

This is another shot in the dark for Bush. Maybe he had a good interview with both of them and liked what he heard. Then again, did his dad know what he was getting in Souter, or did Nixon know he was appointing one of the most liberal benches in history? Only time will tell, and then it will be too late for us to do much about it.

First Post

Greetings. This is my first attempt at blogging. This is a cross between my own personal vanity that anyone wants to hear my opinion, and my own frustrations at the world.

Please feel free to give me feedback, but try to be nice. Remember that there is a real person on the other side of this keyboard.