Definitive Story for This Blog

If ever there were a story published on the internet that perfectly embodied the name of this blog, this one is a very good candidate.

Republicans in the House and Senate have decided that the best way to combat the federal government's "tyranny" over the economy and other areas is to pass a constitutional amendment giving states the ability to repeal any federal law or regulation they decide is "abhorrent or misguided."

UH, YEAH RIGHT!

Of course, there isn't a single Republican in either house of Congress who seriously believes that a constitutional amendment like this can pass. Remember, to pass an amendment to the Constitution, two-thirds of each House of Congress must pass the amendment, or two-thirds of the state legislatures can apply to Congress for a Constitutional convention, or the Congress can require ratification by special convention (only used once in 1933). Then, three-fourths of the states (38 states) must ratify the amendment. This is so rare an occurrence that there have been only 17 amendments in the past 216 years. The last amendment was 19 years ago, and had to do with limiting congressional pay raises. An amendment like this, which pits the rights of states against the rights of the federal government to enact laws it deems necessary to govern the country, has literally zero chance of passing. It's just another political ploy in an election cycle to fire up the base and rally voters around their candidates. Not a tactic reserved exclusively for the GOP, of course (see Healthcare Reform), but the GOP is certainly the only party brazen/stupid/cynical/nihilistic enough to toss outrageous ideas like this into the ring. It is a sure sign that the party has sunk into the intellctual morass that is the Tea Party.

Bravo, Thomas Frank

Fantastic piece in today's Wall Street Journal Online by Thomas Frank (no, not the ballplayer recently cut from the Toronto Blue Jays because he was old and tired out). Thomas Frank is the author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?" and other books. In that book, Frank points out how the Republican Party went from being the party of aristocrats who were in the minority, to being the most dominant political party of the modern era by transforming themselves into the party of the people, the buddy of the working man. George W. Bush was the candidate you most wanted to drink a beer with. Huh? Ivy-League educated W? Sober George?

But think about how this was done. The rise of angry white men in the media: Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Savage, Drudge, Dobbs. None of these guys would be sitting down in a local bar yucking it up with the hard-hats of the world. No, they prefer sipping scotch and smoking cigars in the tony clubs of the Beltway and Manhattan, rubbing elbows with industrialists, lobbyists, hedge fund managers, and the other rich folks with whom they now identify themselves.

And, Frank writes, look where it's gotten those beer drinkers and hard hats: massive government deregulation, attempts to privatize Social Security, the Clear Channel and News Corp monopolies of mass media, Welfare Reform, "free trade" that sent their jobs to Asia and Mexico, the Wal-Martization of middle America whereby being represented by a labor union meant that you were un-American. As most intelligent pundits said after the 2004 election -- the GOP got the middle class to vote en masse against their own self-interest and security. They created a bogey-man in the Muslim, scaring them into giving up their civil liberties as being a patriotic act when it was in fact just the opposite. Created the fallacy that "either you're with us or you're with the terrorists."

And now this machine, this fantastically organized machine, has gotten a Democrat to try to eat one of its own! Barack Obama's comments that have led to "Bittergate" were certainly clumsy, embarrassing, simplistic, and overly generalized, but what they were not was elitist. As if Obama, rather than the Crown Royal-drinking, squirrel hunting, $100 million-earning townie named Hillary Clinton, were now the aristocrat.

Beautiful quote from the Frank op-ed:

If Barack Obama or anyone else really cares to know what I think, I will simplify it all down to this. The landmark political fact of our time is the replacement of our middle-class republic by a plutocracy. If some candidate has a scheme to reverse this trend, they've got my vote, whether they prefer Courvoisier or beer bongs spiked with cough syrup. I don't care whether they enjoy my books, or would rather have every scrap of paper bearing my writing loaded into a C-47 and dumped into Lake Michigan. If it will help restore the land of relative equality I was born in, I'll fly the plane myself.

But has Frank shown us his idealistic knickers? Is this country really that "land of relative equality?" Maybe when I was a kid and hadn't experienced the world and all it has to offer. But now I tend to be a little cynical about this myself. Perhaps the Republicans managed to reveal what this country truly is: a boiling cauldron of provincial, culturally ignorant, violent, hateful swine. We are people who couldn't care less about America's standing in the world. Who would just as soon shoot a Muslim as engage him in meaningful dialogue. Who lack the patience to understand anything beyond the headlines that pass through our vacuous heads every 22 minutes. Bill Maher makes jokes about how stupid Americans really are, but we all know that in every joke is a kernel of truth, the size of which varies on how biting the joke is. To have ceded responsibility for our national intelligence to a bunch of superstitious Christianists who believe the universe is only 20,000 years old, we have to be pretty fucking stupid.

I've worked for nearly seven years at the same company, and I have met and talked with hundreds of its employees in that time. I can literally count on one hand how many of them have actually read the Constitution and can tell me what the Fifth Amendment says. That doesn't necessarily mean that they other several thousand I haven't met are troglodytes, but for the most part, it painfully obvious what most people are interested in. They are most interested in what they're going to do the next weekend, or what's on their DVRs (a-ha, but read my iPod post below, I'm such a hypocrite!), or how their local sports teams are doing in the standings. Their deepest contact with world affairs occurs weekly at the gas station, as they drive up and see how many more cents per gallon they'll pay for gas, and they weigh the option of downgrading to a lower octane even though they know their mileage deteriorates. It then ends once they re-start their cars after filling up, and their endless musical soundtrack blares once again from their car speakers.

Biden holds forth on McCain, the election, and National Security

A Biden adviser released an excerpt from a speech he's giving today at Georgetown University. He says, "When people say, 'This is the most important election in my lifetime,' they're right."

"When it comes to Iraq, there is no daylight between John McCain and George W. Bush. They are joined at the hip. When it comes to Iraq, there will be no change with a McCain administration… and so there is a real and profound choice for Americans in November.
"Fifteen months into the surge that President Bush ordered and Senator McCain embraced, we’ve gone from drowning to treading water. We are no closer to the President’s stated goal of an Iraq that can defend itself, govern itself and sustain itself in peace. And we’re still spending $3 billion every week and losing 30 to 40 American lives every month.
"We can’t keep treading water without exhausting ourselves. That’s what both the President and Senator McCain are asking us to do. They can’t tell us when, or even if, Iraqis will come together politically, which was the purpose of the surge in the first place. They can’t tell us when, or
even if, we will draw down below pre-surge levels. They can’t tell us when, or even if, Iraq will be able to stand on its own two feet. They can’t tell us when, or even if, this war will end.
"Most Americans want this war to end. They want us to come together around a plan to leave Iraq without leaving chaos behind.
"They’re not defeatists. They’re patriots who understand the national interest – and the great things Americans can achieve if we responsibly end a war that we should not have started.
"I believe it is fully within our power to do that. Then, with our credibility restored, our alliances repaired and our freedom to act renewed, we will once again lead the world. We will once
again address the hopes, not play to the fears, of our fellow Americans. That is my hope for next November."

Much as I like Joe Biden as a venerated elder in the Senate, I just can't get 100% behind what is excerpted here. Neither Obama nor Clinton would get us completely out of Iraq, and McCain will actually make things worse. We need to face the reality that our presence in Iraq is now required to prevent further damage to the region. I think the war is wrong, our reasons for starting it were wrong, and Bush needs to be prosecuted for his failure to defend our Constitution (from himself!).

However, if we leave before the Iraqis can defend themselves without our support, we will create a power vacuum. Maliki is worthless and Sadr too powerful. Also the Shiite majority are too allied with Iran. Iran wants to go nuclear and dominate the region, and getting deep into Iraq will give them way too much real estate. In fact, last week it announced an expansion of its uranium enrichment program, prompting concerns in both Israel and Saudi Arabia. We need to face the reality that Bush's mistake, endorsed by Congress, is now America's mistake. We all need to see it through and leave the region better off for our having been there in the first place. I certainly don't like it, and I don't think anyone does. But I also don't like the idea of just cutting it off and pulling out immediately, because I think that things will get worse over there if we do. I don't think that the enemy will follow us home, but I do think that it will plunge the world economy into chaos over the supply of oil. Much as I hate to admit it, we will still need the black stuff to fuel our engines for years to come.


Ugh... excuse me while I go throw up now.

BHO and HRC Court Christians; McCain has no time

Obama and Clinton will be on hand Sunday night at a nationally-televised forum taking place at Messiah University near Harrisburg, PA. The forum's goal is to bring to light how their faith informs their views on global warming, poverty, AIDS, and abortion. McCain, however, claims he has too much on his plate and cannot attend: "I could show you a stack of requests to go to different forums around the country and I just simply can't meet all of those."

Nowhere but in America does religion play such a large role in electing the leader of a democratic country. Romney had to go on TV and explain his Mormon faith, and it likely caused his downfall to some degree. If it weren't for the fact that McCain has courted the extreme right-wing religious wing of the party (I like to borrow Andrew Sullivan's term Christianists), I'd say he was the only candidate who hasn't fallen into the faith trap. His depth of faith is murky and never seems to be something he talks about. Instead , it seems that he worships at the altar of anger and verbal abuse, as this Raw Story report attests.

As the Bush administration inexorably winds its way down to January 19, 2009 ("The End of an Error" best bumper sticker ever), I hope the current hysteria about faith as an essential part of political legitimacy winds down with him. I would like to see a candidate stand up and say, "Those who know me well know I am a man of faith, and that faith informs my personal decisions. However, I reserve that faith for my private life. How I govern as your president will above all else be informed by our Constitution, the laws that guide our country and all of its citizens and inhabitants."