Last evening I rented and watched Bowling for Columbine. Having just seen Fahrenheit 9/11 I decided it would be interesting to view the other film.

There are many bits of contested data in both films. But one overarching theme runs through both movies: fear. I think on this particular issue Moore is dead on target.

In Bowling Moore spends a lot of time toward the end of the film asking why so many Americans kill one another with guns. The US is the nation with one of the highest, if not the highest, gun violence in the world. All other things being equal (access to guns, movies, video games, books, television,ethnic makeup,violent histories, etc) other nations simply don't have the same gun violence as does the USA.

In F9/11 and Bowling, Moore demonstrates how unlike other countries, Americans are constantly steeped in violence by the government and by extension the news media. Rarely if ever at the top of the news both locally and nationally does one see nonviolent or positive stories. If it bleeds, it leads..." as a newsman says to Moore in Bowling. These stories are given huge emphasis in the US on a daily basis.

The government constantly reminds us to be on alert for terrorists or suspicious activity. The local law enforcement plasters photos of bad guys on the local news telecasts. Stories involving rape or murder or theft constantly ring in as the stories given highest priority and the longest air time. Stories that get indepth investigations by the news media are almost exclusively of a negative nature as well.

This is an important cultural question to ask ourselves..."What are we really so afraid of and is it really necessary for us to be so scared?"

The blogosphere has been rife with the news about the report on jobs from this week. Apparently we're not growing jobs so quickly after all.

The "recovery" is very uneven and geographically inconsistent.

The economy is certainly creating new jobs. The President tells us roughly 1.5 million new jobs have been created in the last nine months. The problem is that you'd have to work at least two of them full time to make ends meet. And forget about health insurance.

The bottom line..we're in a million and a half net job loss for the past few years and the jobs that are being created are overwhelmingly low wage, non benefit jobs.

It's the economy, Stupid.

Well I won't back down
No I won't back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down

--Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has his finger on the pulse of one of the main problems with US foreign policy in the Middle East. The Bush Administration (and Clinton too) has failed to take the time to really study the Arab mindset. They approach fundamentally Arab oriented issues from a western perspective.

Case in point...the invasion of Iraq. Across the board the Bush people told us that our soldiers would be greeted with flowers and sweets. They obviously didn't do their homework...or as Kristof contends..perhaps they were too busy listening to Chalabi or reading The Weekly Standard.

It would seem that learning the fundamental cultural issues/beliefs of the country you're choosing to invade and occupy might be standard operating procedure. Especially when you're occupying with minimal troops and having to rely on the locals for assistance.

This appears to me to be another example of the hubris of the neoconservatives. They seemed to believe that they could march in and things would be hunky dory. But if they'd bothered to even put themselves in the shoes of the Iraqis for just a few minutes it's a no brainer. Even the most indigent American citizen wouldn't be for Spain (for example) invading and occupying us. Why should we expect citizens of another sovereign nation to be happy about it?

My favorite band...RIP Freddie

No WMD here. Back to the ol drawing board.

In a sign of the country swinging back toward the good guys, the Washington Post has a piece on K Street hiring Democrats.

Despite the threats and pressure by guys like Grover Norquist and other GOPers, K Street is prognosticating that the Dems are back in vogue. Several major firms have hired Democrats for big time positions for lobbying.

This is incredibly relevant given the hammer push by conservatives in the last decade to force the hand of K Street to hire only Republicans or suffer the consequences. Grover Norquist ( head of Americans for Tax Reform) is especially pissed off at the hiring of Dan Glickman for the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences job. According to Kevin Drum, Norquist's response was,

K Street Project spokesman Grover G. Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, fumed that the Glickman hiring was "a mistake. It's goofy. It's a studied insult." The Motion Picture Association's "ability to work with the House and Senate is greatly reduced because they've decided to hire a guy whose claim to fame is that he is a retired Clinton hire," Norquist said.

Drum also recommends reading this for anyone who wants to see how the GOP has played ruthless hardball on this.

I'd heard before about the GOP pushing hard to have only their guys hired by K Street. I'm heartened to see companies pushing back.

AFP is reporting that 9 members of Congress have requested that the U.N. send observers to monitor the Presidential elections on November 2. Given the embarassing debacle in Florida last time around and the seeming indifference of Florida officials to continuing flaws in their election system, I think perhaps we do need outside observers.

The Bush admin is defending a memo sent out to churches seeking to mobilize church members on behalf of the Republican candidate for President - one George W. Bush. Using a gross logical fallacy, Bush campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel defended the memo saying that, "people of faith have a right to take part in the political process." Yes they do. Much as members of corporations have a right to take part in the political process. That doesn't mean that Churches or Corporations can endorse candidates, though. Of course the Bush campaign understands this perfectly well. They're banking on YOU not being smart enought to see thru the smokescreen.

UPDATE Even The Southern Baptists are mad about this latest attempted breech of Church/State relations by Bush Inc. Chuck Currie makes a monumental understatement when he observes that "when the Southern Baptists tell a Republican they’ve crossed the line you know they are in real trouble." LOL

Apparently Lawyer-Client Talks Were Taped by officials at a federal prison in Brooklyn NY. The subjects were Arabs and Muslim immigrants detained after 9/11.

US economy generating fewer jobs than hoped. Only 112,000 jobs were created in June. Economists had expected about twice that many to be created. Approximately 150,000 new jobs must be created each and every month simply to keep up with population growth. To recover from job loss means that MORE than 150,000 jobs must be created each month. To date the Bush administration has presided over an economy that is still over 3 million jobs in the hole compared to when he was sworn in as President. About 4 million new jobs will have to be created in the next 4 months in order for Bush to break even.

Coast Guard Commandant Tom Collins said Thursday that the single biggest threat to the Coast Guard is the age of it's ships. More than 20 of 55 110-foot patrol boats have had their hulls breached over the past 2-1/2 years. One wonders just how seriously the Bush admin takes domestic security when the unproven "Star Wars" missle defense system remains a high priority while the organization tasked with protecting our borders from terrorists are having a hard time keeping aging equipment afloat.

Kevin and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 last evening.

My first reaction to the film was that it's very intense. The images portrayed on screen are incredibly powerful and they stir up a lot of emotion. Moore uses a mixture of outrage, humor and sometimes folksy charm to deliver his message.

Some of the things in the film I was unaware of...and I pay pretty close attention. For example on Inauguration Day 2002, I didn't know that there was a considerdable protest in Washington DC during Bush's motorcade. The car he was riding in was pelted with eggs and the decision was made for Bush to skip the traditional walk to the swearing in area. Nowhere had I seen this on the regular network or cable news.

Some of the movie was rather esoteric. The connections Moore attempted to draw between some of the players seemed a bit lost to me... a great deal of minutia was required to make the point. Other parts were so incredibly powerful that they brought me to tears.

One of the most amazing parts of the film was the remembrance of September 11. The wrenching fear and horror of that day is brilliantly rendered. The tie in to Bush sitting at the school in Florida and reading the book with the school children even after knowing we were under attack is a very stinging examination of Bush.

Also I haven't seen other bloggers or reviewers talk much about the portrayal of former Secretary of State James Baker. His name is weaved throughout the film in connection with the Florida elections and as part of the law firm who the Saudis hired to defend them from the 9/11 Families lawsuit, as well as his close ties to the Bush family. He comes across as a very, very bad guy in this film.

The pictures of the Iraqi civilian dead and wounded are wrenching..as well as the pictures of the wounded and dead American soldiers. It made my heart ache. What was much worse for me was the mother, Lila Lipscomb, who had lost her son in Karbala. Her attempts at reconciling her previous beliefs about her support for the President and war...and dealing with burying her son were incredibly powerful. A scene of her in front of the White House confronting a passerby who claimed what she was doing was "staged" was the zenith of the film.

I also felt that the film pays incredible tribute to the soldiers in Iraq. There's one place where the film portrays some things that came across to me as very negative about the soldiers. But the rest was really a tribute to their caring about the work they do with the people of Iraq...and their very real thoughts and feelings about their job and their efforts. It made me proud to see them.

The film's closing effort is a bit of a dissapointment, in my opinion. Moore's walking up to Congressmen and asking them to sign their children up for Iraq is ridiculous. It's a "when was the last time you beat your wife" -type moment. He could have easily made the same point by just noting that only one Congressperson has a son serving in Iraq. Instead Moore comes across as a bit of a bully.

All in all...it's a very moving film. I would like to see it again and hopefully better digest it's elements.

Kev and I talked for awhile afterward about the film. Kev mentioned to me that the film made him feel "really angry". Interestingly my reaction was a bit different. I just felt incredibly sad.

I ran across this announcement during my evening blog surfage.

If I'd already given my $2k to Kerry's campaign, would it be illegal for me to pay to attend this this event?

Hues Corporation. Yes, I'm old. Shut up.

Heavily Republican Alaska just might be sending a Democrat to the Senate.

Lying in bed...just like Brian Wilson did...

I've been putting off going outside to weed my garden by surfing the blogs this morning. For some reason...there seems to be a whole lot of stuff going on....or maybe it's just me trying to make excuses for not digging weeds.

Washington Monthly is a treasure trove today. According to Kevin Drum, the media is giving a significantly uneven treatment to the Bush and Kerry advertising reviews. Also here is a piece on a dyed in the wool conservative apparently having a change of heart about Clintonomics..having watched the current President doing his best to Cheney up the economy. And finally there's this ditty about the disparity with jobs and healthcare. All of these are very good reads.

I'm not an Atrios fan...I think he's way too nasty and strident. That said...he does seem to know everything that's going on. For instance I linked from his site to this. Apparently Focus on the Family(socially conservative Christian group headed by Dr James Dobson) has sent out a newsletter to their readership divulging the home address of filmaker Michael Moore. Apparently several of their readers have verifyed this did occur with the FOTF folks themselves.

Hullabaloo has a story about the US military already violating the rules on Iraqi sovereignty.

Pandagon posts today about what "Democratic elite" is (or isn't). Interesting stuff.

And finally Matthew Yglesias looks for honesty amongst the bedfellows...to apparently no avail.

Waxing fondly for the past...

A former aide to President Reagan complains that the neocons have put a spotlight on American weaknesses rather than highlight its strengths.

Stefan Halper a policy aide for President Reagan who also served Nixon and Ford, has written a new book "America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order". The book was written with Jonathan Clarke of the Cato Institute. The book advances the notion that the US should return to working with another nations on a multilateral basis.

Halper is the latest in the Reagan circle to assert that Bush and the neconservatives are far from the "Reaganesque" nuanced policy approach that they claim to mirror.

The Bush Administration's attempts to wrap itself in the aura of Reagan appear to be backfiring. It's brought out of the woodwork folks from Reagan's family and friends...and they clearly don't like the comparison the Bush Campaign/Administration is trying to draw.

Rhodes Cook wrote a compelling piece in last Sunday's Washington Post called Moving On, about the growing percentage of voters who are registered Independents.

"In this starkly partisan era of Red and Blue America, we may need a third color to describe those who formally call themselves neither Republican nor Democrat. When it comes to registering voters, the two major parties can only look in envy -- and dismay -- at the swelling ranks of unaffiliated voters."

What's compelling about this is when it comes to candidate's energizing their base. In the past that has meant throwing a few meaty bones to the base to ensure their backing while the candidate when hunting for a few swing voters to put him/her over the top.

"Since the waning years of the Reagan administration, or basically since the last periodical cicada mating cycle, the number of "other" voters has proliferated. In the 27 states (plus the District of Columbia) that have been registering voters by party since 1987, the Democratic share has plummeted 8 percentage points, declining from an aggregate total of 51 percent to 43 percent. The Republican share has stayed steady at 33 percent. But the proportion of voters who have not identified themselves with either of the major parties has jumped 8 percentage points, from 16 to 24 percent."

"What's so significant about the rise of the unaffiliated? Well, it's one thing to tell a pollster that you consider yourself "independent." No particular consequence arises from that self-identification. But to register as unaffiliated is a stronger statement of preference (or lack of one). Political parties talk about the "base," and how to energize it. These numbers suggest that the base is eroding, or at least is harder to identify and rely on."

The implications for both Kerry and Bush are monumental.

"... the trend line is unmistakable, with the registration figures since the last presidential election being particularly telling. Over the last four years, as election officials have purged their rolls of inactive voters, the Democratic total in the party-registration states has fallen by 1.3 million. The Republicans are down far less, only 170,000 in those states. But the "other" category remains a growth stock, adding more than 600,000 voters since George W. Bush and Al Gore did battle."

Another interesting observation is that despite the efforts of Ralph Nader, and The Committee for a Unified Independent Party on his behalf, clearly the large majority of registered Independents don't see themselves as the "base" for whomever claims to represent them. His polling numbers don't come even remotely close to the numbers of registered Independents.

Fox News and Air America News are reporting that Howard Dean and Ralph Nader have agreed to a 90 minute debate on NPR's Justice Talking program. The debate will be on July 9, will be moderated by NPR correspondant Margot Adler and will be before a studio audience.

"I am anxious to debate Ralph Nader in order to speak about why he wants to run for president," Dean said in a statement. "This is the most important election in my lifetime and a third party candidate could make a difference — this November and for years to come." - Fox News

This should be entertaining!

The GAO says Iraqis justifiably can give a resounding "NO" to that question.

In several major areas: electricity, the judicial system and security handed over to Iraqis by the US are worse than they were before the war began according to GAO calculations.

Highlights:

• In 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces, electricity was available fewer hours per day on average last month than before the war. Nearly 20 million of Iraq's 26 million people live in those provinces.

• Only $13.7 billion of the $58 billion pledged and allocated worldwide to rebuild Iraq has been spent, with $10 billion more about to be spent. The biggest chunk of that money has been used to run Iraq's ministry operations.

• The country's court system is more clogged than before the war, and judges are frequent targets of assassination attempts.

• The new Iraqi civil-defense, police and overall security units are suffering from mass desertions, are poorly trained and ill-equipped.

• The number of what the now-disbanded Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) called significant insurgent attacks skyrocketed from 411 in February to 1,169 in May.


Interestingly...Americans can ask themselves this same question in regard to Bush...and give the same answer.

Life is a Cabaret

The blogosphere is raising some big bucks for candidates.

Atrios has raised $309k for the DNC, $225k for Kerry and $11k for the DCCC. He's also fundraising for Joe Hoefell of Pennsylvania's 13th..raising $23k.

dKos is at it too. Kos has the DKos8. These 8 folks were voted on and chosen by the Kos community to support.
They've raised for:
Richard Morrison(TX-22)$25,678, Stan Matsunaka (CO-4):$20,833, Jim Stork(FL-22)$19,507,Tony Knowles (AK-Sen):$14,053, Nancy Farmer (MO-SSen):$19,507, Jeff Seemann (OH-16):$10,182, Lois Murphy (PA-6):$6,767, Jim Newberry (MO-7)$5,325. Kos has also raised significant funds for the DNC, DSCC and for Kerry.

These guys are big players...a force to be reckoned with. And they're not the only ones. The blogosphere appears to have the ability to connect enough with it's readership to get them to open their wallets.

There's been some grousing about the fact that these people are being invited to attend the Conventions and other political events. However they don't appear to be doing the fundraising as a part of a quid pro quo...yet. So far it's been what appears to be a very sincere effort to get candidates heard and in office.

Bare Naked Ladies on top....

...tryanny on the bottom.

The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.

Here we go, folks. It begins.

I've had some people tell me that they thought this would come down the pipe...but it seemed way too conspiratorial for me. It seems like tin foil hat stuff. And there it is on AP, big as life.

Doctor Noah Drake (aka Rick Springfield) is the lyrical inspiration.

The Washington Post has this tacked on to the bottom of their story on the convention lineups:

"I would not have voted for [President Bush's] tax cut, based on what I know. . . . There is no doubt that the people at the top who need a tax break the least will get the most benefit. . . . Too often presidents do things that don't end up helping the people they should be helping, and their staffs won't tell them their actions stink on ice."

-- Former senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), in a recent interview with Business North Carolina magazine.

If you lose Jesse...you lose.....?

With all of the frothing and spinning by the right about Farenheit911, Kevin Drum of Washington Monthly offers his review of the film.

Kevin appears to like the film but considers it a rather weak polemic.

What I enjoyed the most from Kevin was this particular insight:

So is Fahrenheit 9/11 unfair, full of innuendo and cheap shots, and guilty of specious arguments? Sure. But that just makes it the perfect complement to the arguments of many in the pro-war crowd itself. Perhaps the reason they're so mad is that they see more than a little of themselves in it.

Okay...it's a Billy day, I guess.

Ruy Teixeira at Emerging Democratic Majority has a piece today on the Catholic vote. It seems John Kerry is leading with white Catholics by about one point. Given that Gore lost the white Catholic vote by 7 points (and won the overall by 3), this could be significant.

This does appear that the attempts to go after Kerry by some conservative Catholic bishops isn't working...at least it isn't working the way they hoped.

Radio talkshow host Ed Schultz just finished interviewing Move American Forward Chairman Howard Kaloogian about his organization's opposition to the Michael Moore' new movie/documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Kaloogian's group has been pushing for people to contact theater owners and pressure them to not show Fahrenheit 9/11.

Kaloogian just admitted that he's never actually seen the film.

LOL

Thanks Billy for the title inspiration.

This piece by Alan Elsner in Reuters diagrams how Democrats are tapping into the anger within the electorate against Bush.

Elsner parallels this with the anger the electorate felt toward the left in the early nineties. Rush Limbaugh and other conservative media folks tapped into this anger and it set their careers. I also recently read a piece about how FreeRepublic is beginning to wane...while sites like Daily Kos are on the uptick.

Michael Moore and Air America Radio are the new rising stars...tapping into this anger at the right. I've never seen Democrats and the left as a whole so united.

There's a saying about the Arab culture that goes something like, brother against brother, brother and brother against neighbor, brother and neighbor against city, brother and city against country, brother and country against other countries.

It's striking how US citizens have a very similar mentality in a way. We definitely come together as a group against things much more often that we come together for things.

One of Kev's favorite sayings is "Democrats form their firing squads in circles." I've always chuckled when he mentions it because it's so true. This time tho they seem to have finally managed to form a straight line...directed at George W Bush.

And this isn't the Diana Ross smack, either.

In a series of decisions, the US Supreme Court has soundly rejected the Bush Administration argument that they have carte blanche with detainees and that they can ignore due process.

Specifically the Justices smacked down the Bush assertion that the Executive could potentially hold detainees indefinitely during a time of war.

The only Justice to agree completely with the Bush argument was Thomas. Even Scalia went with the majority opinion on this one.

There's still some wiggle room for the Executive on how far they can actually go....but they clearly believe that currently the Executive has gone too far.

I've just returned from my vacation (I'll blog about the last leg of the trip later) and it seems whacky to be getting ready to leave on vacation...but I am.

In three weeks I'm off to Europe for a short hitch.

I've been in the process of clothes planning for the trip and I may need to pick up this shirt to wear whilst traipsing around England and France.

Kind of a throwback to the post from a few days ago.

I have two fundamental problems with the whole Nader issue.

First is Nader himself. He keeps saying that his candidacy will siphon more votes from Bush than it will from Kerry. Yet every single bit of objective data contradicts this assertion of his. Every poll that I've seen shows him siphoning more support from Kerry than Bush by at least a roughly two to one margin. Likewise all the data I've seen from his 2000 run shows roughly the same two to one margin. I don't believe for an instant that Nader is too stupid to understand that the facts simply aren't there to back him up. Surely he must know that he's promulgating a lie. To what end? And why would anyone knowingly vote for someone who repeats such an obvious and absurd lie? I'm not talking about protest voters here. They could care less because they're not voting *for* him as much as they are voting *against* the others. I'm talking about his core supporters. Why do they blithly ignore a bald-faced lie?

And then there's the issue of openly conservative groups trying to help Nader qualify for the state ballots in Oregon and Arizona. Nader says he's not bothered by this. Yet isn't it patently obvious that these same groups have no intention of actually voting for Nader? Haven't their spokespersons said as much?

The other problem I have is with the Dems. We've heard over and over how Nader cost Gore the 2000 election. But, the fact of the matter is that Nader can only vote for himself once. The real object of their ire is the voters. Yet even this is misplaced anger in my view. Why are the voters to blame for Dem candidates failing to win their voluntary support via the ballot box? Here are some interesting stats on the 2000 vote: 2000 Results. Note the huge percentage of Nader voters who said they'd have not voted at all if Nader wasn't on the ballot.

Personally, I think Kerry is playing the whole Nader thing very smartly. Publically at least he has been very clear about respecting Nader's right to run and has focused on swaying voters rather than attacking Nader. I don't think he could play it any better. With Nader failing to win the Green nomination it's looking like he'll be much less of a factor this year anyway. Plus, many of the post-2000 predictions by Greens simply haven't panned out as they expected: AlterNet: Why Nader is NOT to Blame

Your thoughts?