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Random commentary and senseless acts of blogging.
The first Republican president once said, "While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years." If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. Blog critics Gryffindor House Slytherin House Ravenclaw House House Elves Beth Jacob Prisoners of Azkaban Muggles
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Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Jeff Birnbaum's article yesterday on corruption came in for some justified criticism, but found an unlikely defender in Kevin Drum. The article pretty clearly deserves the attack. For instance, look at the statement that "No fewer than seven lawmakers, including a Democrat, have been indicted, have pleaded guilty or are under investigation for improper conduct such as conspiracy, securities fraud and improper campaign donations." Sounds so much nicer than "Six Republicans and one Democrat", doesn't it. Birnbaum necessarily mentions the Abramoff/Scanlon investigation, but they are referred to as a "public relations executive" and a "lobbyist"; the considerable history each has of Republican activism is ignored, as is the fact that Scanlon once worked for Delay, who is, of course, mentioned. This isn't "pathologically balanced" as Kevin would have it, it's just an RNC press release. And that should hardly be surprising from Birnbaum, who has been an RNC hack disguised as a reporter for years. In 2000, Birnbaum was also writing about money and politics but, since he was writing about Al Gore, he took no similar precautions to emphasize the bipartisan nature of the problem. The theme of the article, patently absurd but good enough to pass muster in 2000, was that since Gore had in the past written thank you notes to Maria Shia, who illegally solicited donations after his speech in 1996, he must have known about and approved her illegal activities. That barely even qualifies as an argument, and it's weaker still if you bring up the contrary evidence, which Birnbaum of course ignored. This article seems to be no longer available on a free page, but it was taken apart at the time by (of course) Bob Somerby. The fact that clowns like Brinbaum are still getting their RNC talking points published as news is a problem that Josh Marshall is right to emphasize and Kevin is wrong to dismiss. But then Kevin, like the New York Times, is hardly "the current state of the art in human perfectibility". (I'm starting to suspect, however, that Josh Marshall just might be.) Tuesday, November 08, 2005
I spent most of today as well as much of the past few days in my persona as a grass roots activist instead of one of the internet's quieter shouters. Working on the No on 74 - 77 campaign, the news that was coming in during the day was mostly not good. In heavily blue Alameda, the turnout was lighter than expected. But we stayed at it and, at this point, it looks like our work paid off. The current summary: 76 - 80 have all been defeated. 73 (parental notification), 74 (teacher tenure), and 75 (union busting) are too close to call but all trailing currently with 60% counted. Most of the vote still to come in will come from the blue counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, and LA. But since there are also significant portions of Orange and San Diego unreported, a loss is still possible. It looks so close that we won't know for sure on 73 and 75 until pretty much the whole state reports. 74 is doing worse and is extremely likely to lose. You can get the word first here. With the good guys winning in VA and NJ, and Arnold hovering between partial and complete defeat, it's been a good day overall. We've also had a victory for gay rights in Maine and defeat of a 'Democratic' turncoat in Minnesota. Dark spots include defeat of reform initiatives in Ohio and the loss of Donna Frye for Mayor of San Diego. Update: Now at 84% counted and looking better and better. I think we can now officially write off 74 as a loser. 73 & 75 are trending in the right direction. There are no remaining votes to come in from Orange; not many from San Diego. Alameda and LA will furnish most of the remaining votes. I'd be pretty seriously surprised at this point if anything passes. |
