Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
Electoral Math
Reality-BasedTM Political Numbers from Nicholas Beaudrot
| Home |
| Dec 31 | What'd I Miss? |
| Dec 23 | The Lighter Side |
| Dec 23 | |
| Dec 21 | Saved (For Now) |
| Dec 20 | The Curse of Amateurism |
| Dec 19 | At Last! |
| Dec 16 | Koufax Award Nominations |
| Dec 15 | Headline Writing |
| Dec 14 | City Council President Richard Conlin |
| Dec 11 | Brilliance |
| Dec 10 | Aeon Flux |
| Dec 8 | Ouch. Just. Ouch. |
| Dec 7 | Something is Amiss in the State of Connecticut |
| Dec 7 | Drinking Liberally |
| Dec 5 | More BAR content |
| Dec 1 | Hirschman Redux |
I'm with Afsheen and August J. Pollack, "Lazy Sunday" is epic. Find it on iTunes or the rest of the internets. Also for your amusment, George W. Bush does John Lennon.
Meanwhile, it's a weekend-long "Wonks: Useful or Entertaining?" debate over at Ezra's. Enjoy watching the talking points fly.
The left-of-center portions of the 'sphere haven't spent much energy on the news that the US will reduce troop levels in Iraq from 138,000 to perhaps as low as 131,000. From the outside, this looks awfully cosmetic; Rumsfeld won't commit to a specific number of troops, so should "conditions on the ground" change, troop reductions may be fewer than 7,000.
Also, we've decided that capturing Osama bin Laden is a job we can outsource to NATO and the Afghani military. Awesome.
The professional lawyer, political operative, or historian has enough experience and perspective not to fret too much. Each knows that the Republic has been resilient to gross incompetence and out-of-control executives before, and that eventually, this, too, shall pass, so there is no point in getting too worked up over the day-to-day stories in the news.
Those who have the good sense to simply not care about politics recognize that what a bunch of (largely) old white men in Washington do has little direct impact on their day-to-day lives, and that there's no sense in letting the news dictate how you feel when you wake up in the morning.
The overly informed amateur (or, less politely, "C-Span junkie") is doomed to know too many of the details without being able to forsee the likely outcome. It isn't a pleasant feeling. Has anyone come up with any good coping techniques? Fishing? Zen meditation? Over-the-counter sedatives? I'll try anything.
Drinking Liberally, which is sounding more and more like a good idea, this Thursday Tuesday and every Thursday Tuesday, at the Montlake Ale House.
I finally said something that got me accused of cowardice, appeasement, and worrying too much about appearances. Which is funny, when you consider I take a pretty brass-knuckle view of politics.
What is the purpose of bringing voting articles of impeachment that all parties know will fail? Discuss, using historical examples if necessary.
I think this NYT article could have a much more provocative headline. Something along the lines of
Over One Hundred Republicans Vote to Preserve Torture
That, and not that the House stuck it to the President, is the real story.
Meanwhile, I tend to be a fan of Blue Dogs Democrats, but can someone explain to me what Jim Marshall (D-GA) is doing voting for this thing?
I'm surprised The Belltowner hasn't brought this up, but I thought I'd point out that Councilman Richard Conlin, who has a tendency to oppose density increases, is now the Council President. He's already been quoted once in the Key Arena story in the P-I.
The Stranger points out that Conlin wants the council to be "more engaged and assertive", which I'm all for; government in the U.S. is almost always a bit adversarial, and the Council's behavior until Jan Drago came along was close to unilateral disarmament. I'm a tepid supporter of the Nickels agenda, so getting the Council to act as a check on his development plans seems like a good idea.
While the rest of the world is poring over the religio-political implications of the first installment in the mega-franchise Chronicles of Narnia, I would like to point out that the the highly underrated Aeon Flux is still in theaters.
Folks who are old enough to remember when MTV showed music videos will recall one of their first forays into non-music content, Liquid Television, a set of short cartoons that spawned the miniseries Aeon Flux. It's a modestly good dystopian future, with interesting ethical questions left for the audience, some quality action visuals, and, well, Charlize Theron is very attractive. I didn't quite have as much of an emotional stake in the movie as I wanted, but other than that the movie did its job.
Flux is worth seeing in theaters, though maybe for a matinee showing rather than paying for full-price evening tickets.
Shakes is certainly right that Gwen Stefani doesn't belong within driving distance of the Album of the Year nominations, but it's not even the worst nomination out there. For that, Urs takes us to Best Rap Performance By a Duo or Group, and the Ying-Yang Twins "Wait (the Whisper Song)", which is almost certainly the most blatantly chauvinistic song ever to be nominated for anything. The whisper gimmick rubs off about halfway through the first time one hears it, at which point your just left with a lot of domestic violence.
As an Atlanta native, I'm proud to share a home town with Outkast, can appreciate Usher's work ethic and impressive dance moves, and even appreciate the outlandishness of Ludcaris. Goodie Mob is outstanding and underrated and T.I.'s over-the-top mannerisms have their place. But I must profusely apologize for the freakin' Ying Yang Twins..
Setting aside The Moose's strawman-laced paean to the man, I find myself in the somewhat odd position of defending the moralizing, needlessly "independent" Joe Lieberman. Lieberman has an undeserved reputation for being too moderate, when he is in fact more or a center-center-left member of the party -- that is, he is just to the right of the dead center of the party, along with people like Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden. He has an outstanding record on the environment, a strong rating from labor organizations, and a vision of taxation which, while not necessarily supporting big government, is certainly progressive. His reputation stems from (1) his descent into brazen hawkishness, (2) his constant efforts to disassociate himself from prominent Democrats, (3) his self-aggrandizing moralization on how video games are rotting our brains (between Lieberman and Tipper Gore, it's not that surprising that 50% of all young people voted for Bush), and (4) the fact that he represents a blue state with lots of employees in the financial services industry. That said, point (1) is an important one, point (2) make lots of people angry, (3) looks plainly obnoxioius in the face of a decline in social ills among teenagers (except casual marajuana usage) in the last fifteen years. Point (4) is trickier, and bothers some people more than other.
So, now that Lieberman is calling for a more bipartisan war effort, he's suddenly got lots of folks breathing down his neck. When, of course, Lieberman's is entirely correct. If the President were serious about running the war/occupation in Iraq properly, he would commit to giving the entire country and both political parties a stake in its success. Of course, doing so would require making large concessions in policy-making grounds to people he might disagree with, but that's the price you pay for greater support.
Of course, the fact that the Iraq war was a used as partisan political tool demonstrates how just how unserious the President is about reaching success in Iraq.
Expand your horizons: African-American political bloggers:
The American Prospect's piece on women in the workplace continues to make the rounds. Try Professor B., as well as Laura at 11D.
Update: via Garance Franke-Ruta (who is a woman; and yes, I didn't know that for a while either), "Are Women Opting Out? Debunking the Myth".
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updated by Nicholas Beaudrot on 06:45 02 December 2005
