Yesterday, five Alaska lawmakers–all Republicans–sued to stop the legislatures official, bipartisan Troopergate investigation. Their lawyer, Anchorage attorney Kevin Clarkson, sent out an email overnight, accusing Democrats inovolved in the investigation of… being Democrats:
“The Partisan actions of Sen. French, Sen. Elton and the Legislative Council have tainted the investigation beyond the appearance of impartiality required under the Alaska Constitution,” said Kevin Clarkson, Esq., of the firm Brena, Bell & Clarkson, P.C., and counsel in the suit.
The investigation, which began after Monegan’s dismissal in July 2008, is being led by outspoken supporters of Barack Obama and members of the Democratic Party. Sen. Elton, the Chair of the Legislative Council donated $2,000 to the Obama campaign but has failed to disclose this to the Legislative Council and he continues to preside over the Council with respect to the investigation, refusing to convene meetings of the Council at the request of a majority of the Council’s membership.
In fact, the GOP-majority Senate Legislative Coucil met last Friday, and issued 13 subpeonas, with a Wasilla Republican casting the deciding vote in defiance of mounting party pressure to fall into line. Palin herself has been silenced, with GOP operatives talking to the press in place of her, and, apparently, the entire Alaska executive branch. Meanwhile, AP reports the involvement of the Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute, which TPM explains is connected to James Dobson. Alaska blogger/radio host and former GOP legislator Andrew Halcro has a list of 13 times–from July 18 to September 2–that Palin pledged full cooperation with “any investigation.” (full list on flip).
There’s More…
:: (4
Comments, 1008 words in story)
digg it
The latest line of defense for John McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, on the Troopergate Scandal, simply doesn’t hold up one millisecond for those who know the story so far. As noted by mcc in a quick hit, the AP is reporting that Palin’s administration has released a batch of emails supporting a claim that Public Safety Commissioner Walter Monegan was fired over budget disagreements, not because he refused to fire Palin’s ex-brother-in-law, Mike Wooten.
There’s just one thing wrong with this: it’s a Rovian coverup involving more lies and deception than you can throw a stick at. Indeed, if it were true, there would have been no “Troopergate” in the first place. The whole scandal began when Palin had a subordinate fire Monegan, without giving any reason. If this were truly why he was fired, then why didn’t she just say so? Particularly since the failure to explain her actions caused an immediate stir in Alaska at the time.
On July 20, the Anchorage Daily Newswrote:
THE HONEYMOON IS OVER … So, will our Sarah change her claim of “transparency” to merely “translucence” given her refusal to say why she fired Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan?
“Opaque?”
There’s More…
:: (0
Comments, 1694 words in story)
digg it
Generally, when I do a diary, I want to have something to say. Something to make you think. I want it to be worthwhile even if you disagree with me-or even, especially if you disagree with me. But lately things have been going so fast, it’s genuinely hard to digest things fast enogh to post about them before something else even more timely and thought-provoking comes along. And so the backlog grows.
Well, it stops here! Err… would you believe it slows down briefly to gawk at a roadside attraction? Well, never mind. Here’s an emergency catch-up potpouri, designed, if nothing more, to relieve some feelings of guilt I’m dealing with none too successfully. First up, John Dean’s observations on Sarah Palin’s lack of qualifications from a Constitutional perspective. Oh, she’s not forbidden to be President, Dean says, but…
There’s More…
:: (5
Comments, 2265 words in story)
digg it
(A) Democrats are reality-based when it comes to policies, and totally out to lunch when it comes to winning elections, and politicking in general.
(B) But Republicans are totally out to lunch when it comes to policies, and as reality-based as it gets when it comes to winning elections, and politicking in general.
The series grew rather long, so I want to concentrate on its basic premise, why it is so, and why it matters to us right now. The bottom line of all this simple: there is no silver bullet. No matter how brilliant you think your idea is, even if you’re absolutely right, it won’t be enough to win the election. It’s not silver bulletts, but systemic approaches that win elections, and beyond, build political power over time.
There’s More…
:: (11
Comments, 1785 words in story)
digg it
Basically, in Anchorage, if you can get 25 people to show up at an event, it’s a success….
Never, have I seen anything like it in my 17 and a half years living in Anchorage. The organizers had someone walk the rally with a counter, and they clicked off well over 1400 people (not including the 90 counter-demonstrators). This was the biggest political rally ever, in the history of the state. I was absolutely stunned.
There were two rallies in Anchorage on Saturday. An indoor one for Palin drew maybe 1000, according to AKMuckraker, who infilrated it, an outdoor one against Palin drew upwards of 1400 at its peak. The national GOP got out-organized by a group of women having coffee together just last Wednesday.
Philip Munger who blogs at Progressive Alaska has a Facebook gallery of rally photos here.
There’s More…
:: (5
Comments, 1212 words in story)
digg it
The Alaskan blog, Mudflats had a fun post last night, Palin Friday Frivolity! which was devoted to the question, “What would your name be if you were born to Todd and Sarah Palin?”
My name, as it turns out, would have been Mustache Warthog Palin–information provided by the Sarah Palin Baby Name Generator.
As Mudflats notes, the Palins have employed some rather odd naming conventions–more on that on the flip–and this site gives you the chance to enter their world, while still keeping your physical distance.
Now here’s a game for you before jumping to the flip: Match the Open Left founder with their Palin family name:
GIBSON: Didn’t George Bush come to Washington eight years ago talking about reforming Washington in the same kind of language? Ran as something of a maverick actually; came to Washington. Eight years, hasn’t changed the ethos in Washington particularly. Why are you any different?
PALIN: Well, we’re promising the reform. And we are mavericks. There’s no doubt in anybody’s mind now across America, who’s paying attention to the presidential race here, that I am a Washington outsider. I mean, look at where you are. I’m a Washington outsider. I do not have those allegiances to the power brokers, to the lobbyists. We need someone like that in Washington, someone committed to the American people and implementing their will, not the power brokers’ will.
Shorter:
GIBSON: How are your lies different from George Bush’s?
PALIN: To be honest, they’re not. But who’s honest?
Last night, the first segment on Bill Moyers Journal dealt with rightwing hate radio, using the late July shootings at the Knoxville Unitarian Church as the entry point. It was an unusually raw and unvarnished look at what hate radio does–examining specific examples: Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh–and yet, there were some significant critical avenues that were left unexplored. Still, the media has been so neglectful of this for so long, it was heartening to see this virulent cultivation of mass hatred finally get a spotlight thrown on it. Rick Karr was the correspondent reporting the story. He began reporting like this:
RICK KARR: On a steamy Sunday morning in July a man armed with a twelve-gauge shotgun burst into this church in Knoxville, Tennessee and opened fire. Seconds later, one person lay dead, another mortally wounded, and six injured.
REVEREND CHRIS BUICE: The man who walked into this sanctuary on July 27th was armed with a gun but he was also armed with hatred, he was armed with bitterness, he was armed with resentments, he was armed with indiscriminate anger. He was armed in body and spirit.
RICK KARR: Members of the congregation wrestled a fifty-eight-year-old, unemployed truck driver named Jim David Adkisson to the floor and held him until police came. At first it seemed like just another inexplicable outburst of violence until a police news conference the next day.
POLICE CHIEF STERLING OWEN: It appears that what brought him to this horrible event was his lack of being able to obtain a job, his frustration over that, and his stated hatred for the liberal movement.
There’s More…
:: (14
Comments, 3004 words in story)
digg it
An important new collection of essays, Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America, will be published on October 1. I’m planning on hosting some discussions with contributors once it comes out, but it always helps to prepare the gound a little, and generate advane sales. So this is a chance for a preview with editor Frederick Clarkson. On his own website, he gives us an introduction to his own contribution:
The main reason why the Religious Right became powerful is not what most people may think. Some would undoubtedly point to the powerful communications media.
Others might identify charismatic leaders, the development of”wedge issues,” or even changes in evangelical theology in the latter part of the twentieth century that supported, and even demanded, political action. All of these and more, especially taken together, were important factors. But the main reason for the Religious Right’s rise to power has been its capacity for political action, particularly electoral politics.
Given my own repeated writing about the one-sided Gramscian “culture war”/”war of position” it’s no wonder that I have a lot in common with him. But it’s my hunch that I’m not the only one who does. His own welcoming diary begins on the flip.
There’s More…
:: (29
Comments, 1168 words in story)
digg it
As a third straight major hurricane in less than two weeks strikes land in Texas, I decided to pull this story from the archives of Random Lengths News, my second one written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (animated loop below). I offer this as an example of how to write about the obvious connections that are already out there, rather than getting sucked into distracting political narrative wars. Full story on the flip.
There’s More…
:: (11
Comments, 1601 words in story)
digg it
Remember back in June, when Barack Obama “clarified” his positions on a whole raft of issues-including warrantless wiretapping-all in a rightward direction?
At the time, I felt there were three things worth noting:
(1) Some shifts away from majority positions to rightwing minority positions were presented as shifts “to the center”. Most notably, even most Republican voters now see “free trade” as more bad than good.
(2) We were told that this was a “political necessity.”
(3) We were told that this “always happens.”
(1) and (2) were particularly dubious when Obama backed away from his criticism of NAFTA, given how crucial Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan are to winning the White House, and how hated NAFTA is among the very blue collar voters that Obama needs in order to beat McCain there. But #3, at least, seemed plausible to those who don’t recall the elections of 1968 and 1980. Even those who do recall those elections are likely to insist that they, too, followed the standard pattern of running away from the center in the primaries, and towards it in the general election. And now, at least, I’m not inclined to argue with them, because now we clearly have a counter-example on our hands: John McCain ran center in the primaries, and now is running right.
There’s More…
:: (16
Comments, 1044 words in story)
digg it
As ABC is set to run a puff-piece celebrity interview with Sarah Palin, I would hit her hard ahead of time, if I were running Obama’s campaign. The hard hit would go directly at the GOP’s illusion of change, and serve to underscore how totally bogus the ABC interview will be.
How would I go about it? Simple: I’d link her to Richard Nixon, via Dick Cheney and GW Bush. The script I’d use is on the flip.
There’s More…
:: (28
Comments, 647 words in story)
digg it
A DKos diary by DaveV shows that McCain’s bounce from the week of Aug 25-Aug 31 (DNC) to the week of Sept 1-7 (RNC) was driven by an 11% jump in the South:
And over the two-week period, from Aug 18-24 to Sept 1-7, McCain actually lost ground in the two most contested regions: down 2% in the West and down a whopping 7% in the Midwest:
Of course, this doesn’t tell us what’s happening this week on a regional basis. But it does tell us that the media’s narrative (and their own internal perception) of a national shift toward the GOP over this time period was without foundation, and–if Gallup is right–actually false. And this perceived shift has clearly helped the GOP, as their heightened level of lying is not seen for what it is–or at least began as: a sign of desperation.
UPDATED: Raw Numbers On Flip
There’s More…
:: (18
Comments, 10 words in story)
digg it
The best presentation I’ve seen so far of just how wired into the lobbyist world John McCain really is. Click on one of the lobbyists, and what you see is…
There’s More…
:: (2
Comments, 441 words in story)
digg it
I, as much as anyone, have been deeply distressed over the reactive nature of the Obama campaign, particularly of late. Yes, he’s much better at punching back than Kerry was, but that’s still being reactive. I was, therefore, chagrined to read the following front-paged comment from reader JA at TPM, and realize that it was right:
Josh, in dismissing the Gallup poll this morning, you describe the Obama campaign as reactive and “unwilling or unable to take the initiative.” Huh? We just watched a GOP convention in which the nominee for the incumbent party agreed the election was about change. In the major speeches given by Republicans, speakers used the word “change” 30 times–more than any other theme, including “reform.”
The McCain campaign wanted to frame this election on experience, but had to abandon that when the polls didn’t move. The surge issue has likewise attracted no great interest. Although McCain continues to discuss it, as a theme, he has ditched it in favor of this murky “change/reform” theme. (By selecting Sarah Palin, the campaign has officially ceded the point.) This all works to Obama’s advantage because if the discussion becomes one of change, it must necessarily shift to policy–the last place McCain wants to go. But he’s backed himself into a corner.
Actually, I think both things are true. Obama has forced McCain to fight on his own territory at the macro level of strategy, but he has yet to sieze the advantage at the micro-strategic (story/meme-pushing) and tactical (news-cycle) levels. This may well change, but…
There’s More…
:: (49
Comments, 1015 words in story)
digg it
Two of the themes that John McCain hit on in his acceptance speech were his willingness–nay eagerness to “fight” for the American people, and to work across the aisles. He used the word “fight” 25 times in his speech.
In one section he sought to personalize his speech:
There’s More…
:: (9
Comments, 874 words in story)
digg it
Democrats Post Big Gains In Voter Registration JULIE PACE and STEPHEN OHLEMACHER | September 6, 2008 03:19 PM EST |
CLAIRTON, Pa. – Five days a week, Linda Graham trolls tattered neighborhoods of this once thriving steel city outside Pittsburgh for unregistered voters she can sign up as Democrats _ one of thousands of unknown volunteers whose work outside the limelight has already altered the basic arithmetic of the November election….
To counter this effort, the Republicans are counting on a formidable, high-tech get-out-the-vote operation that has helped them win the past two presidential elections.
Since the last federal election in 2006, volunteers like Graham combined with the enthusiasm generated by the Obama-Clinton struggle to add more than 2 million Democrats to voter rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation. The Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states….
At the Edfge of the American West, there’s a post with voter registration figures for this year, for 16 states that register people by party, which accounts for about 2/3 of that registration gain. Although it’s obviously incomplete, I thought it could help give us a quick-and-dirty peak at what’s happening at ground level, especially when combined with what happened in 2004.
There’s More…
:: (11
Comments, 531 words in story)
digg it
When a strategy article hits the top of DKos’s rec list AND the front page of TalkLeft, you know you’ve hit gold.
“http://www.fivethirtyeight.com…”
The story linked to, “Sarah Palin Is Not a Hockey Mom”, by Sean at 538, makes a good point. But is it really the whole story? Or just a really good, solid starting point? As my title suggests, I think it’s really just an excellent way of stating the obvious.
Of course, the Dems have such a long history of missing the obvious that one should never construe my characterization as a put-down. Quite the opposite: Think of it as a pick-up–as in pick up the ball and run with it, to mix sports metaphors.
Sean’s point is simple. Palin isn’t a hockey mom:
She’s a hockey player. She’s a fourth-line hockey agitator, beloved by the home crowd, loathed by the opponents, injecting passion into both fan bases, the kind of home-team hero that no Stanley Cup winner goes without.
Her role is to throw the other team off, to get them to react to her, lose their focus and composure, and set things up for her team’s top scorer. Sean praises Biden for not taking her bait:
Democrats would be smart to understand her as such, and I see a lot of reaction that doesn’t seem to grasp what Palin is doing and the value she’s providing. I see a lot of Democrats taking a lot of bait.
This applies more to Democratic surrogates than it does to the top-ticket duo. Joe Biden had the smart response yesterday – naming the behavior – expecting it, and then riding through without taking the bait:
“It was about how well placed — and boy she is good — how a left jab can be stuck pretty nice. It’s about how Barack Obama is such a bad guy.”
And that’s all he says of Palin’s antics. Name the behavior, even praising the skill with which the agitation was attempted, and then back to focus. It’s “the economy, stupid.”
He’s right at the core, and right to praise Biden, but he needs someone else to pick up the ball and move it down the field, extending the metaphor all the way to the goal. I humbly volunteer for the task.
There’s More…
:: (52
Comments, 718 words in story)
digg it
If you spend 18 months building a campaign around the theme of “Change,” it’s just “empty rhetoric.” If one week before your party’s national convention you SUDDENLY make your candidacy about “Change,” that’s “red meat.”
A variation on that might be:
If you spend 18 months building a campaign around the theme of “Change,” attracting unpredented crowds to hear you speak, you’re not a leader, just an elite “celebrity.” If you’re an obscure first-term small-state governor almost no one’s ever heard of, and you’re nominated as VP, you’re “a natural.”
Behind this glaring double-standard lies a core feature of conservative politics–the central role of in-groups vs. out-groups, “us” vs. “them”. Of course, this is a feature of virtually all social groups, but it plays a uniquely intense and vital role for hard-core conservatives.
This is reflected in the fact that 4 years after first bursting on the national scene, and 18 months after beginning his presidential campaign, there are still tens of millions of people who don’t seem to feel they “really know” who Barack Obama is, while Sarah Palin, on the scene for just over a week, is being embraced as a “salt of the earth” sort whose many problems are readily blamed on “the media”.
But it’s also reflected in cold, hard data.
There’s More…
:: (4
Comments, 581 words in story)
digg it
Author (Three Kings!), journalist, and social commentator John Ridley has a couple of must-read diaries up at Huffington Post, “Your Pocket Guide to Speaking Palin-guage”–(Vol. 1) and Vol.2 — the People’s Edition. Here’s a sample:
Up in the Twin Cities area folks are speaking a new language. Or, should I say Palinguage. It sounds sorta familiar because it’s Latin based. But different from the plain English we’re used to speaking, in Palinguage recognizable words take on new meanings. Won’t you take a moment to learn some Plainguage so you can talk like a hypocritical conservative?
REPEAT THE FOLLOWING:
If you’re a minority and you’re selected for a job over more qualified candidates you’re a “token hire.” If you’re a conservative and you’re selected for a job over more qualified candidates you’re a “game changer.”
….
Black teen pregnancies? A “crisis” in black America. White teen pregnancies? A “blessed event.”
If you grow up in Hawaii you’re “exotic.” Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you’re the quintessential “American story.”
….
If you get 18 million people to vote for you in a national presidential primary, you’re a “phoney.” Get 100,000+ people to vote you governor of the 47th most populous state in the Union, you’re “well loved.”
SoyAA says: If you are biracial and born in a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs darn near 2 years and 3 major speeches to “get to know you.” If you’re white and from a state not connected to the lower 48, America needs 36 minutes and 38 seconds worth of an acceptance speech to know you’re “one of us.”
….
If you spend 18 months building a campaign around the theme of “Change,” it’s just “empty rhetoric.” If one week before your party’s national convention you SUDDENLY make your candidacy about “Change,” that’s “red meat.”
Demonstrating Kerry’s unwillingness to defend himself (if Bush can do that) is a far more tangible sign of what he’s made of than wartime experiences of thirty years ago.
The main reason this works so well is two-fold–as I’ll elaborate on jump. But the essence is simple: Conservatives are confronational, while liberals are cooperative, which gives conservatives an edge. The prize is culturally working-class swing voters whose political interests align more with liberals, while their political instincts align more with conservatives.
The full background and complexities of how this works are simply beyond most liberals, which is why the Democrats keep losing. Many old-style New Deal and Civil Rights-era liberals had a “fighting faith” that was fundamentally moral, not military, and they could cut through the miasma that todays more tepid liberals seem perpetually encompassed by. But they are in very short supply these days.
While some have possibly learned some of the lessons of 2004, the relative lack of such fighting liberals means we lack a critical mass that truly understands the conservative mentality and how it evolves from one battle to another, one presidential campaign to another. Someone who does understand is award-winning novelist Jane Smiley, and, she’s just written a short, but must-read diary at Huffington Post, titled “Gaslight”, after the Charles Boyer-Ingrid Bergman movie. In a very few short few sentences, she captures the essence of how the quantitative increase in the intensity of lying actually reflects a qualitative shift in the nature of the game being played. Yes, “bitch-slapping” is still part of the mix, but it’s now only part of a more sophisticated game.
There’s More…
:: (69
Comments, 1628 words in story)
digg it
The latest “bold move” by the McCain campaign is to tout their unkown, untested VP as actually being “more experienced” than Barack Obama–in a desperate attempt to salvage their long-time theme of questioning Obama’s experience. And they’ve found a wonderful way to do it—with the qualifier of “executive experience”, which, of course, Palin also got as mayor of Wassalia.
There are only two or three dozen things wrong with this argument. But I’d like to present just one. If you accept this argument, just look who else Palin is better qualified than:
2 years in US House; no other elective office
6 year in US; 8 years in US Senate
12 yeass in US House; 12 years in US Senate
4 years in US House; 22 years in US Senate
A patently absurd argument, no? So just watch the Republicans run with it for all their worth.
There’s More…
:: (19
Comments, 427 words in story)
digg it
That’s what leading progressive economist Dean Baker calls it, noting:
Senator McCain is filling the airwaves with commercials telling the public that Obama’s tax increases will slow growth and cost the economy jobs. It’s pretty scary stuff to anyone who takes it seriously.
This chart alone is enough to show what a load of hooey it is:
That steep ascent from 1993 to 2001 is the Clinton Adminstration, adding over 22.7 non-farm jobs to the American economy–an increase of over 20%. And after that? That uneven landscape atop the sharp Clinton rise? That’s GW “Taxcut” Bush territory, with a measely 5.53 million jobs added throuhg January of this year–an increase of just over 4%.
“But wait!” you might say, “That’s only seven years. Clinton had eight.” And you’d be right. But since the beginning of the year, the Bush “taxcut” economy has lost over 1/2 million jobs. And this is what we’re supposed to be scared to death of losing???
There’s More…
:: (10
Comments, 613 words in story)
digg it
If the real thing don’t do the trick
No, you better make up something quick
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick
Ooooooohhhh, barra barracuda.
–Heart, “Barracuda,” 1977
Nancy Wilson, now:
“Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.”
But the irony’s even deeper than that….
There’s More…
:: (22
Comments, 118 words in story)
digg it
In the immediate aftermath of the GOP convention, the Troopergate scandal has clearly emerged as VP candidate Sarah Palin’s Achilles heel, with a ferocious, Nixonian combination of lies, stonewalling, and, of course, attacks on her “enemies” in the media.
The sheer intensity of Palin’s turn from promised cooperation to Nixon/Bush total resistence only seems to makes sense if she’s got something very serious to hide. So now, subtley, belatedly, but most definitely, the Republican state legislators are coming to her assistance, agreeing to subpoena the whole lot of Palin cronies she’s convinced not to testify, but not Palin herself. The announcement comes along with an earlier completion date for the investigation–October 10–which could make it even easier for Palin to run out the clock.
This move will clearly allow Palin’s stonewall to continue, without consequence, unless political heat is brought to bear. This will prove particularly challenging, as the Nancy Pelosi “See No Evil Policy” is having a deeply corrosive trickle-down affect on our political culture, as stonewalling legislative oversight has now become accepted public practice. Details on the flip.
There’s More…
:: (17
Comments, 825 words in story)
digg it
It’s important to them [the American people] to know if Palin can handle herself in an environment that isn’t controlled and sanitized by campaign image makers and message mavens. Maybe she can, maybe she can’t. As far as Wallace is concerned, it’s none of their — or your — business.
Remember back in the Dark Ages of mid-August when being able to give a good speech was grounds for being dismissed as unqualified?
Looks like McCain was right: we do have to catch up with history!
There’s More…
:: (20
Comments, 1037 words in story)
digg it
12 yeass in US House;
4 years in US House;
