I love the Red Queen

This.

If you want to be That Guy, go work on Wall Street and snort coke of the ass of whatever young coed (male or female) wants to take your “scholarship” money in exchange for naked party time. But stay the fuck out of politics. In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve got 4 wars going on and a huge population of broke, unemployed, hungry and homeless or about to be foreclosed on people who would like pols with a tiny bit of impulse control running our fucking country. For all the jokes they make about a woman deciding to hit the red button because of pms, I would like to flip the switch and say you tacky fuckers probably can’t be trusted near the Oval Office because you might hit the button while whipping out your schlong to take a cell phone pic for HawTGRL23.

Wandering the tubes today…

Some stuff that caught my eye.

Joe Cannon on the the ‘New Democratic Party’

Seth Shostak writes on his experiences as a UFO skeptic.  H/T to Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy. (BTW, Phil has just recently been named the new President of JREF. Congrats!)

…But the evidence for the UFO hypothesis isn’t the point here. Rather, it’s the lack of civilized discourse.

For years, anytime I would write an article on these digital pages about the UFO question, I could be sure of quickly accumulating a dozen or so e-mails from offended readers. What struck me was that these respondents were less interested in trying to provide good evidence for landed aliens than they were in making brutal, ad hominem attacks on me. Somehow, the fact that I didn’t share their convictions must mean that I’m an “evil, terrible person.” This sort of automatic excoriation seemed to come with the territory. Talking about UFOs was like moonlighting as a metal duck in a shooting gallery.

But some recent appearances on CNN’s “Larry King Live” made clear to me that sheet-steel quackers are an abundant breed. Anyone who publicly doubts that alien spacecraft are sailing our skies risks being a target. On the last of these programs, I watched as folks who were there to describe their evidence for extraterrestrial visitation laid into the guests who were skeptical: Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and me. Several of the UFO proponents made puerile jokes about Nye’s TV career, much of which has been devoted to teaching science to kids (it’s hard to think of a more worthwhile endeavor, incidentally). Nye’s responses were impressively dignified, although that didn’t seem to faze those who found endless amusement in berating him.

I, too, was attacked, generally along the lines that, since I don’t investigate UFO reports, I’m not qualified to opine on whether I find them convincing or not. Well, that’s bunk. And it’s certainly not how science works. I don’t need to be an astronomer specializing in black hole research, nor do it myself, to gauge whether someone’s claim that they’ve found one of these collapsed objects in the center of some galaxy or other is credible. I can do that based on the methodology, the reported data, and (to be brutally frank) the reputation of the investigator and their professional affiliation. The burden of proof in science is on the person making the claim. And if the only way the investigator can convince others is by insisting that their audience shift careers and start doing their work, then something’s gravely amiss.

Seth, I feel your pain.

Anglachel is back and with her usual razor sharp reading of the Edwards affair in “Yes, it *is* about the fucking“

What we’re seeing here is an instance of male privilege. This story has been available for any intrepid reporter to investigate since last fall, but no one did. Why? Because some guy fucking around on his wife is simply part of what it is to be a heterosexual male in the US. No man can be blamed for wanting to get more ass, after all, or so the sentiment goes. I mean, a guy shouldn’t and he doesn’t mean to, but hey if the chick is there and isn’t a total dog and she’ll put out, what’s a guy to do? The moment this becomes male privilege is when people who know the facts choose to use those facts instrumentally to structure outcomes that nothing to do with the original sex act itself.

[...]

It is the fucking and not just the hypocrisy. It is about the arrogance of men who think their sex lives are off limits while they tar and trash other men for the same thing and while they brutalize women for daring to challenge their authority. It is about male privilege and social and political double standards that says guys will be guys and all women are whores. It is about a Democratic Party that continues to beat up Bill Clinton, pretending moral outrage while frantically trying to secure their own power, yet gives John Edwards a free pass for behavior no less egregious.

Sugar N Spice links to a video of Barack Obama getting testy with Vegas pundit Jon Ralston. I guess in Barack Obama’s world any member of the press who has the audacity to challenge him is a McCain shill. Take a look.

Oh, and I kind’a already had this figured out:

Barack is very disappointed with me!

I only scored 21 on the Obama Test

NY Times repeats Obama claim of winning NV national delegates

(Sigh) I sent a letter to the New York Times this morning asking them to correct their article regarding Hillary’s win in Nevada yesterday in which they state:

Mrs. Clinton scored a clear victory measured in the number of people attending the caucuses on her behalf. But Mr. Obama’s campaign was successful by another measure — in the allocation of delegates to the national nominating convention, a result of a complex formula that gave more weight to votes in some parts of the state.

I directed them to the Nevada Democratic Caucus web site and party chair Jill Derby’s statement regarding the allocation of national delegates:

“The Nevada Democratic Party and its officials have taken great effort to maintain our neutrality in the presidential campaign and the integrity of our process. Today, two out of three Nevadans who caucused chose a Democrat instead of a Republican for president. That is an overwhelming majority vote for a new direction. Just like in Iowa, what was awarded today were delegates to the County Convention, of which Senator Clinton won the majority. No national convention delegates were awarded. That said, if the delegate preferences remain unchanged between now and April 2008, the calculations of national convention delegates being circulated by the Associated Press are correct. We look forward to our county and state conventions where we will choose the delegates for the nominee that Nevadans support.”

I also pointed them to the Delegate Selection Plan and asked them to READ it (am I asking too much?)

I just don’t get it. The press swoons over Obama, but every victory Hillary chalks up somehow doesn’t really count. They’ve always got something to say to discount or minimize what she is doing across the country. Oh well, we’re used to it. We keep soldiering on.

On edit: John Edwards graciously congratulates Senator Clinton. Barack Obama does not and continues the lie.

Candidates statements on Mukasey

Biden – No statement on Senate web site. No statement on campaign web site.

Clinton – Statement of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on Her Opposition to the Nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey to be Attorney General of the United States Will vote against.

Dodd – No statement at Senate web site. Late breaking banner on campaign web site. Will vote against.

Edwards – No statement on campaign web site.

Kucinich – No statement on House web site. No statement on campaign web site.

Obama – No statement on Senate web site. No statement on campaign web site.

Richardson – No statement on campaign web site.

Also, Harry Reid is voting NO.

How is she doing it?

How is it that Hillary Clinton, long demonized on the right (and the left) is doing so well? How did she win over even ME? This Judith Warner Op-Ed in the NYT helps explain…

Snippet:

The “we” world of Tucker Carlson knew what they knew about Hillary Clinton — right up until about this week, I think — because they spend an awful lot of time talking to, socializing with and interviewing one another.

What they don’t do all that much is venture outside of a certain set of zip codes to get a feel for the way most people are actually living. They don’t sign up for adjustable rate mortgages, visit emergency rooms to get their primary health care, leave their children in unlicensed day care or lose their jobs because they have to drive their mothers home from the hospital after hip replacement surgery.

Hillary Clinton’s supporters, it turns out, do.

[...]

More and more people are being priced out of a middle class existence. Because of housing prices, because of health care costs, because of tax policy, because of the cost of child care, The Good Life – a life of relative comfort and financial security – is now, in many parts of the country, an upper-middle-class luxury.

Given all this, you would think that Clinton’s big policy announcement this week on improving life for working families would have been big news.

[...]

The American middle class, it seems to me, is looking to politicians now to satisfy a pretty basic – and urgent – level of need. Yet people in the upper middle class — with their excellent health benefits, schools, salaries, retirement plans, nannies and private afterschool programs — have journeyed so far from that level of need that, it often seems to me, they literally cannot hear what resonates with the middle class. That creates a problematic blind spot for those who write, edit or produce what comes to be known about our politicians and their policies.

Last night Sheila Jackson Lee was on Real Time with Bill Maher. Sheila Jackson Lee. She of the lone vote against going into Afghanistan. She who has opposed the Iraq War/Occupation from the start. Sheila Jackson Lee is supporting Hillary. As Lee put it last night, as my sweetie sighed and squirmed in his seat and I nodded in recognition and agreement, is that Hillary connects with people, and especially with women. And while part of it is that she is a woman, they get that Hillary gets it. She gets our lives. She sees what we and our families need, and she is coming out with solid proposals for every leg of the middle-class stool. Jobs, health care, retirement, education, energy, etc. And they believe she has the experience and ability to get the job done.

On a related note, John Edwards was a guest on Bill Maher last night as well, and for a presidential candidate, he spent an awful lot of time talking about Hillary instead of himself , but I digress. My biggest bone of contention was how he mischaracterized her health care plan and implied that the only people she had brought to the table when formulating her plan were the private health insurers and corporate lobbyists. And that’s just not true. She brought ALL parties to the table to help craft her health care plan, because, like it or not, this country is not going to convert to single-payer overnight. Even John Edwards’ plan acknowledges that and includes (gasp!) private insurers. So for him to imply that Hillary is solely in the pocket of the private health insurers is disingenuous at best.

Is ‘Lobbyist’ a dirty word?

Gee, to hear John Edwards and Barack Obama talk, all lobbyists should be painted with the same broad brush. (Isn’t this what the right wing does to us?) When Hillary Clinton defended taking lobbyists money, she said that many lobbyists represent people like you and me. And you know what? It’s true. There are lobbyists for autistic children, seniors, the disabled, union workers, women, and on and on. Thomas Edsall over at The Huffington Post in his article “Who Is The Purest of Them All?” sheds a little more light on this controversy and takes a closer look at who Obama and Edwards get their donations from. They may not get them from “Washington lobbyists” but they get plenty of high dollars from industry bigwigs and have their own ties to lobbyists.

Edwards and Obama may not be taking contributions from federally registered lobbyists, but that does not mean that their money is as pure as they’d like us to believe.

Edwards’ 2004 campaign manager, Nick Baldick, who is currently a senior adviser to the 2008 campaign, is a founder of the Washington lobbying firm Avenue Solutions, which includes among its clients Aetna, Northwest Airlines, the Healthcare Leadership Council, Medco, Travelers Cos. Inc., and the Financial Services Roundtable.

Baldick left the firm in 2006 to found Hilltop Public Solutions which, according to its website, has “managed winning campaigns for clients that have included the nation’s largest financial services firm, one of the nation’s largest airlines, a major fast food retailer, the world’s largest healthcare provider, and numerous additional industry leaders.” It generally performs these services at a state level and is not federally registered.

At least three staffers on the Obama campaign were registered as federal lobbyists, although two worked for such pro-Democratic clients as the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the Environmental Defense Fund. The third, Emmett Beliveau, worked at Patton Boggs LLP, which includes among its clients Giner Electrochemical Systems, the Offshore Marine Service Association, ABT Associates, and Preferred Communications Systems.

In addition, the campaign web site Opensecrets.org reports that Edwards has received $6.5 million from lawyers, many of them trial lawyers; $668,590 from employees in the investment banking industry; $254,297 from officials of the health care industry and $218,290 from operators of hedge funds.

Obama has been no slouch in this territory, according to Opensecrets. Employees of investment banking firms gave him $3.2 million; real estate companies $1.3 million; health companies, $701,993; and hedge funds $652,105.

Clinton’s contributions fit much the same pattern.

Oops.

Edsall ends with this:

The reality is that CEOs, managers and officers of companies with large stakes in public policy are major sources of campaign contributions. Except for mega-rich self-funders like Steve Forbes and Ross Perot, every serious contender for the nomination has tapped into the same general universe of donors.

At the Kos debate, a number of the candidates, including Clinton, agreed that the only way to resolve the issue of special interests and campaign contributions is public financing of campaigns.

So Hillary’s challenge to us to look at her record vs her donors is really important . And it’s just as important to do the same with every other candidate.

Mockuses, Movies, Moyers and more

• Just got back from conducting a Mock Caucus in Dayton. I really like doing these things and watching all the fun and understanding that comes out of them.

• Sweetie and I are off to see “SiCKO” this afternoon. (Who saw Michael Moore rip Wolf Blitzer a new one the other night?)

• If you didn’t see last night’s Bill Moyers Journal about impeachment with Bruce Fein and John Nichols, you missed a great show. You can watch it at the link above. Take away from the show: Impeachment is not a Constitutional crisis, it is our method for correcting a Constitutional crisis. Watch the show and see Bruce Fein (who authored the articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton) and John Nichols of The Nation discuss the impeachment process and what it’s for, and why it is needed now. It’s not about Bush. It’s about our Constitution and whether we are going to allow the power grab and utter disdain for the law shown by this Executive branch to continue. Because if we do not stop them, then we have said it is okay for ANY President of the United States to put themselves above the law, and no one will be able to stop them.

• If you were planning on or interested in attending and meeting Elizabeth Edwards at the Grand Opening of the Edwards’ Reno headquarters, the time of the event has CHANGED from noon to 10am. The BBQ has been changed to coffee and donuts. From the campaign:

Please join Elizabeth Edwards in Reno tomorrow, Sunday, July 15th at 10 AM for the grand opening of our Reno headquarters.

Reno Office Opening with Elizabeth Edwards
Sunday, July 15th at10 AM
Please note the time change
Edwards for President Reno Office
700 Smithridge Dr. Suite 101, Reno, NV
RSVP here: http://johnedwards.com/r/22615/405215/

You don’t want to miss this great opportunity to meet Elizabeth and talk with her about our campaign and John Edwards’ bold plans for transformational change.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions: Nevada@JohnEdwards.com or 775-829-2008.

Thanks and see you tomorrow!

-Team Nevada

There’s plenty rattling around in my head, and I hope to get some of it posted tomorrow.

Edwards Press Conference

The press conference is over. Elizabeth Edwards’ cancer has returned. In the bone. Shit. But they say the cancer is treatable, though not curable. She may be in therapy for the rest of her life. The campaign goes on. Elizabeth says: “it’s unbelievably important that we get this election right.”

All I can say is that the Edwards are just an incredibly strong, grounded family. At one point JE looked at EE and all I saw was love, love, love.

Damn this disease.

John Edwards’ Reno Town Hall

Anjeanette Damon is back for a month and covered the John Edwards Town Hall at the Grand Sierra Resort last night. She did a pretty good job of getting the feel of the town hall in this story, though I do disagree with her crowd estimate which security had tagged at around 2500. Don’t forget to check out the comments. Also posted are excerpts from reporters’ Q & A with Edwards following the town hall.

I worked with the Washoe Dems to get rural turnout for the event (attendees came from as far as Elko!) …and we plan on doing this for every presidential candidate to northern Nevada, so no favorites are being played here. The Edwards people were hoping for 500 to show up. So were we. We were nervous about the holiday season timing, the event being held on a Friday night, etc. But by Friday afternoon we knew that there would be much more than the original 500 hoped for, but even we were blown away by the turnout. To all of you who stood in that Disneyland-length line, and then crowded in the back of the ballroom, to those of you who gave your seats to others, thank you! I am so glad that northern Nevadans showed that we are indeed ready to participate fully in the presidential caucus.

I got to handle one of the mikes at the town hall event, and the questions that were raised, from the fairness doctrine, to the deficit, to immigration, civil unions, education, etc, showed an engaged Democratic party whose questions were not about their own personal lot, but about our nation as a whole. Y’all made me real proud.

On Edit: Give Anjeanette some love (or at least some attention) over at Inside Nevada Politics. The place got a bit deserted after the November election.

John Edwards to be in Reno on Friday

John Edwards will be making a stop in northern Nevada (Las Vegas misses out on this one) on Friday, December 29th at the Silver State Pavilion at the Grand Sierra Resort (the Hilton!) at 5:30pm. Admission is free.

You can pick up tickets at the Lyon County Dem office, 15 E Main, Suite 5 in Fernley on Wednesday and Thursday between 1pm and 5pm, or on Friday between 10am and 2pm. Or download a ticket by clicking here. Call (775) 575-1133 for more info.

You can also pick up tickets at the following places:

• Washoe Dem office at 1465 Terminal Way, Suite 1, Reno
• Comma Coffee at 312 S Carson in Carson City
• Shady Grove Coffee Company at 1411 Highway 395 North in Gardnerville