Can Santorum Win This Thing?

 

Emphatically, no.

 

But that emphasis is a little bit less than last week.

 

Scenario: Gingrich drops out in exchange for two things-- a spot on the ticket and a podium at the convention. Combining Santorum and Gingrich into one superticket ahead of the convention now gives a legitimate contender for the NotMitt voters. Mitt falls slightly short of the magic 1,144. It goes to a floor fight, and by the third vote, delegates are now uncommitted.

 

This is the (unlikely) scenario that Mitt Romney dreads. He would have to either dip into his general campaign funds or his personal fortune and start literally buying votes.

Wabbit Season

Herman Cain can't understand why people find this ad offensive.

Caught Speaking Plainly

It's somewhat interesting that campaign rivals are making hay about this "gaffe"

 

Obama was caught on an open mic assuring Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that after this November's election, he would have more room to manuever, more flexibility to negotiate on the European missile shield.

 

This is simply realpolitik writ small: Obama has a pretty clear path to re-election, and a fairly strong chance of garnering majorities in both houses of Congress.

 

That's a plain truth, and no amount of whining by the losers is going to change all that.

 

Too, even if he were to lose, any deal he cuts now would have to be reviewed by the incoming President, as the Senate would undoubtedly hold up a treaty in filibuster.

 

It would be a signature accomplishment for Obama's second term if he was able to bring home a bilateral disarmament treaty, seeing as how the previous administration reneged on the long-standing SALT agreements (with not much protest from then-Russian president Vladimir Putin). The European missile defense platform has been a long-standing thorn in Russia's side and it's about time we faced that reality.

 

For his part, Medvedev gets the joke.

For Nudes, He Charges Double

 

Poor Newt. Literally.

False Equivalence

Unwittingly, George Zimmerman's lawyer may have done his client more harm than good here:

It has come out that the unarmed teenager was suspended from school, and is accused of beating up the man who then shot him dead.

Martin's parents claim authorities are now trying to sully their son's reputation, after his tragic shooting.

There were several protests Monday in Sanford, where Martin, 17, was shot by George Zimmerman.

State and federal investigators were to be back at it Tuesday, reviewing the original controversial police investigation that's sparked a firestorm.

The central questions remains: Was the decision not to arrest Zimmerman the right one, and should he be arrested now?

First, by linking his apparent suspension from school-- Martin's parents don't seem to deny it, correctly pointing out that it's irrelevant to his murder-- Zimmerman has decided to try to paint an innocent child as some sort of wild-eyed hoodlum.

With a marijuana bust? Really? Not even the most stoned meth-head in Clearwater is going to buy that one, Zim!

Second, the claim that Martin turned around and beat upon Zimmerman-- keep in mind that Martin weighed only 140 pounds, while Zimmerman is a beast of 250-- is only going to feed the impression that Trayvon felt his own life was in danger and rather than running, he turned and decided to "Stand Your Ground," which is precisely what that law allows for: the use of force, even deadly force, if one feels one is in harm's way or in mortal danger. After all, who picks a fight with someone twice as big as he is unless he feels its the only way to safety?

And that is the only conclusion that can legally be drawn from Zimmerman's own words and the 911 call tapes.

See, the "Stand Your Ground" law is very specific: it doesn't matter what the intent of the apparent attacker is, what matters is the intent perceived by the defendant. In fact, the law is so loosely drawn that the authorities are not permitted to even question that perception the moment the defendant claims he acted out of fear for his safety.

Zimmerman had followed Martin for quite a while if the 911 tapes are accurate, long enough that the dispatcher asked him to stop following Martin.

If someone twice my size started following me down a street, I know I would feel threatened, and while my first instinct would be to run away, under Florida law, Martin was not required to: he merely had to turn and use deadly force against Zimmerman.

So under Florida law, it is Zimmerman who is guilty of assault, and it is Zimmerman who rightly should be lying dead from the use of deadly force under "Stand Your Ground." Martin was not armed, however, so Zimmerman should thank his lucky stars he'll live to see trial.

By Zimmerman's own testimony, he should be arrested for the murder of Trayvon Martin.

 

Welcome Signs

 

It is possible, now that Kim Jong Il is dead, China may finally start to shed the North Korean monkey from her back.

King Of The Underworld!

 

Tip your hat to James Cameron, who completed a dive to the deepest part of the ocean over the weekend.

 

Most of us would flip out diving a few metres down in a submarine. He dove seven miles down in what amounts to a steel bottle.

 

Alone.

 

I've done solo dives (shhhhhhhhhh, don't tell anyone!) and I've done them in the darkest of night, and let me tell you, it's creepy. Really creepy. I have never felt this alone as on a moonless night in the depths of the ocean, and I dove without any light, except the lights of my video rig which I kept shut off most of the time in order to keep curious fish away. It's really close and eerie.

 

But those were to a depth that I could reach the surface easily and quickly if an emergency happened. It took hours to get this ship back up.

A Clear Case of Jealousy

 

Micro$oft is angry these guys did it first and better.

When Will The Mainstream Media Quit Babying Rick Santorum?

 

He said it. You ought to publish the precise words, and make him back them up.

Trayvon Martin Update

1) Trayvon is still dead, despite whatever piss-poor regrets his murderer has.

 

2) Glenn Beck proves he's still a low-rent shit-stirrer.

 

3) The anger is welling, and not just in the "black community". I put that in quotations, because it's clear that the victim's race played a huge part in whether Zimmerman would have shot or not. Had it been a white boy, I'm sure Zimmerman would have followed him, but would have avoided confrontation. Zimmerman shot out of fear, that much is clear, but he weighs 250 lbs. Martin weighed 140 lbs. You do the math. This would never have happened if it had been a scrawny little white high school kid.

 

4) I don't agree with Spike Lee that publishing Zimmerman's address was doing the right thing. We're not Michelle Malkin, and I don't care what his kitchen countertops are made of.

Healthcare Spotlight

Today will be an interesting day in the battle over President Obama's healthcare reform bill. Oral arguments are scheduled to be made in front of the Supreme Court of the United States today, with a final decision on the bill not due for about three months.

 

The administration's argument is grounded in the Commerce Clause-- that the Federal government has the right to regulate interstate commerce, with some expansions that have occured over time:

The inception of contemporary Commerce Clause doctrine dates to the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887, regulating railroad monopolies, and the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, designed to curb monopolies and trusts. The Court upheld the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1905 -- in Swift and Company v. United States, 196 U.S. 375. However, the justices based that decision on the finding that the effect of price-fixing by Chicago meat-packers on interstate commerce was not "accidental, secondary, remote or merely probable" but immediate. The opinion reinforced the traditional literal view of Congress's Commerce power.

The Supreme Court case that established the constitutionality of the expanded interpretation of Congress's commerce power was National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corporation, 301 U.S. 1, in 1937. The case originated in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, where Jones & Laughlin was penalizing and discriminating against workers attempting to unionize. NLRB ordered Jones & Laughlin to end its coercive union-busting tactics; the firm refused to obey. After the circuit court refused to enforce the NLRB's order against Jones & Laughlin, the NLRB appealed to the Supreme Court.

Jones & Laughlin argued that Congress could not regulate its labor practices because manufacturing is an intrastate activity, not interstate commerce. The firm based its argument on then-standard reasoning stemming from a 1918 Supreme Court case, Hammer v. Dagenhart, 241 U.S. 251. In Hammer, the Court allowed a father to commit his son to child labor in a North Carolina textile mill despite the Keating Owen Child Labor Act of 1916, reasoning that mill work was part of intrastate manufacturing, not commerce between or among states.

Rejecting the firm's argument and ruling in favor of the NLRB, the Court stated for the first time that Congress could regulate activities with "a close and substantial relation to interstate commerce." The NLRB decision marked the replacement of the strict criterion that regulated activities must be part of the "stream of commerce" with the "substantial effects" doctrine still in use in Commerce Clause cases.

Based on other SCOTUS decisions, notably United States v. Darby, it seems pretty clear that a firm can be forced to purchase health insurance for its employees if it's engaged in anything close to interstate commerce.

The real question is, can an employee be forced to buy it? There is some precedent for mandating individual action-- or rather inaction-- when it comes to farm subsidies and paying farmers to not grow crops, since the aggregating effect of the individual mandate could affect interstate commerce.

This is a pretty strong argument, to be sure.

There's also a side issue to the case, involving the recusal of some of the Justices. For example, Clarence Thomas probably should recuse himself, based on his wife's activities working against the bill in the first place. Antonin Scalia attended a public dinner held by the Federalist Society, a group who is arguing against the mandate, altho I'm not sure that rises to the level of recusal.

And the most ridiculous recusal argument, that Elena Kagan should recuse herself based on her possible involvement in drafting the defense of the bill will likely be ignored.

Should Thomas recuse himself, the bill could conceivably end up deadlocking the court.

And then what?

In case you needed reminding as to why this healthcare reform legislation, as paltry as it is, is so important, here you go.

 

Nobody Asked Me, But...

1) I know I've said this before, but in the words of the immortal Bullwinkle J. Moose, "This time for sure!": Rick Santorum will abandon his campaign over the weekend, after Louisiana polls badly for him. He's at an interesting crossroads: he has set up the bones of a campaign structure for 2016, but he will have no public venue from which to self-promote (unless FOX News comes calling, something I doubt.)

 

Louisiana's convulted rules are only awarding 20 of 46 possible delegates tomorrow, and those will be divvied up only amongst those who poll better than 25% of the vote. Should Santorum (who is the only candidate above that number right now) slip out of the delegate grab or if Romney outpolls him, I think it's ballgame over.

 

2) Example 1 of the 1% behaving badly.

 

3) And lest you think income inequality and vulture capitalists only exist in the commercial world, example 2 of the 1% behaving badly.

 

4) You remember a couple of weeks ago how Muslim groups across the New York metropolitan area were up in arms about New York City police infiltration and espionage? Well, sit down, white Americans. They targeted us too. I thought that dog hanging around my garden looked suspicious.

 

5) Tim Tebow, the evangelical football quarterback, is coming to play for the NY Jets. This will likely go down as the least-likely fit since, well, Kim Kardashian's marriage. My prediction: by the end of the season, Tebow will be caught in the back of a cab with a naked hooker and a bag of blow.

 

6) Speaking of unlikely travelers, the Pope is headed to Mexico and Cuba this weekend. Poor Rick Santorum must be running around in circles trying to catch his tail.

 

7) Poor Mickey Mou-- I mean, Bachmann. She owes ONE. MILLION. DOLLARS. in campaign debt. I guess she could auction off some of her kids. I mean, she has like two dozen. No one would miss the blond girls.

 

8) Ironically, it's ideas like this that have me running out to get my gun permit. It ends up becoming one huge game of chicken, don't you think?

 

9) Say what you will about the political implications of Romney campaign's biggest gaffe of the week, it's nice to see the Etch-a-Sketch get some prime time lovin'.

 

10) It melts in your mouth, and not in your lungs!

Side Effects Include Possible Baldness

 

Science may have cured male pattern baldness.

 

This is good news for...well, me, basically.

Seriously. What Part of "Insubordination" Is Unclear To This Douchebag?

 

I mean, come on...it's right in the fucking policy manual!

Marine Sergeant Gary Stein is facing dismissal after starting the Facebook page called “Armed Forces Tea Party” in violation of Pentagon policy barring troops from political activities.

The Marine Corps released a statement saying that “Stein’s commanding officer ordered a preliminary inquiry on March 8 after receiving allegations that Stein posted the political statements violating the Pentagon’s directives.”

“After reviewing the findings of the preliminary inquiry, the commander decided to address the allegations through administrative action,” the Corps said.

“I’m completely shocked that this is happening,” Stein fumed. “I’ve done nothing wrong. I’ve only stated what our oath states that I will defend the constitution and that I will not follow unlawful orders. If that’s a crime, what is America coming to?”

Really? The orders of your Commander In Chief are illegal? Well, I know I can't wait to hear this asshat out...

He said he determined he was not in violation and relaunched the page. Last week, he said his superiors told him he could not use social media sites on government computers after he posted the message stating he would not follow unlawful orders of the president.

Stein said his statement was part of an online debate about NATO allowing U.S. troops to be tried for the Quran burnings in Afghanistan.

In that context, he said, he was stating that he would not follow orders from the president if those orders included detaining U.S. citizens, disarming them or doing anything else that he believes would violate their constitutional rights.

In. That. Context? You mean you're like the cop who, say, won't arrest a vigilante who murders an innocent American, because it might hurt his fee-fees? A CRIME WAS COMMITTED, YOU DICK! A war crime, and if there's a first principle for ANY soldier, it's to prevent war crimes from occuring and if they've already occured, to correct the problem as best as that soldier can.

Including narcing on his buddies. Sheesh!

Indeed, to follow up on your statement,"Sergeant," there's a long established legal principle that says if you aid and abet in the commission of a crime after the fact, you are deemed an accessory to that crime and subject to criminal prosecution. In other words, America is coming to a criminal state because of goose-stepping morons like you who can't stand the fact that Obama is President.

 

 

Champagne Supernova

 

How do they work?

Friend! Did Your Civilization Collapse?

 

No problem!

Why I Like My Gym

 

The women there are hot.

 

And I don't mean they look sexy.

Cue The Violins

 

Mitt Romney, to no one's great surprise, beat Rick Santorum in Illinois like a rented mule.

 

Keep in mind, tho, that voter turnout in the primary was the worst Illinois has seen since the 1940s.

 

I wondered about Obama's vote totals as compared to Romney's, without checking whether in fact there was a Democratic primary.

 

There was not. Delegates will be chosen at the party convention later this Spring.

Having Solved All The World's Other Problems...

 

The LA Times editorial staff turns its attention to the most pressing issue of the day: Do test tube babies need to be naturalized?

Sugar Sues Corn

 

No. I mean it.

Justice For Trayvon

There are mornings I wake up, look at the calendar and wonder if it's on some weird galatic Daylight Savings Time. This shouldn't happen in the 21st century:

It's been 25 days since [Trayvon] Martin was shot and killed inside a gated community. The admitted gunman is still free. And despite two ongoing investigations by the Justice Department and state attorney, outrage within this community continues to grow daily.

So many people wanted to attend a gathering inside a church in Sanford that hundreds were forced to express their frustration outside, on the street. One shouted, "That was murder." In the church, repeated chants of "Arrest Zimmerman" could be heard.

It's all part of the continuing controversy over Martin's death - and on Tuesday it reached Capitol Hill.

"I am tired of burying young black boys," declared Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, who represents the district where Martin lived. "No more racial profiling," she continued. "I'm tired of fighting when the evidence is so clear."

That evidence wasn't enough for local police to arrest Zimmerman, who cited self-defense.

There are a lot of questions I have before I assess whether Zimmerman is guilty of murder or not, but the facts indicate he has some very serious tribulations confronting him.

For instance, if the claim is self-defense, as I understand it under Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, then how does it apply to a case where the "victim" stalks his "attacker" onto someone else's private property? I can understand if Zimmerman stood his original ground, and Martin turns, where Zimmerman might have a case to make that he was in danger. But that's not what happened.

Why was Zimmerman carrying a concealed weapon on a neighborhood watch, when the first and foremost duty of the watch patrol is to notify the police, who will handle the matter from there? I know he had abused that privilege some 46 times over the last year or so, and it was unlikely the cops were going to rush to the scene, but isn't that Zimmerman's fault for being such a pantywaisted Chicken Little?

And on that note, how many of his previous calls resulted in actual arrests for attempted crimes, even misdemeanors? Of those, how many were dark-skinned males?

We know here in NYC, for example, that a black or Latino is nine times more likely to be stopped and frisked than a white person: part of that is because blacks and Latinos tend to live in poorer neighborhoods with higher crime rates, but in reality, there's racial profiling going on as well. And we also know that an even higher percentage of those stopped and frisked are exonerated, either at the scene or by the courts later.

I would like to know if, in a more conservative, gated community, the percentages range closer to 100%, particularly with respect to the neighborhood patrol activities.

The 911 phone calls have been released and they don't really add much to the story, a case of "he said, he said," except that one of the hes is now dead. However, Martin was speaking to his girlfriend at the moment Zimmerman and he encountered each other, and her story-- admittedly hearsay evidence-- would refute Zimmerman's defense that he was headed back to his car when Martin attacked. 

Why did Zimmerman continue to pursue Martin when the police dispatcher pointedly told him not to? I think that question is answered in Zimmerman's background: a failed attempt at becoming a police officer and his pretty clear fixation with being a LEO (he proposed and was the first volunteer for the neighborhood watch.)

There's an irony here, too: Zimmerman was arrested for fighting with an undercover cop, but his record was expunged before the case went to trial when he agreed to attend what appear to be anger management classes. Had his case gone to trial, had justice been served, Zimmerman would have been ineligible for a carry permit.

And Trayvon Martin would have finished his Skittles.  

 

Analysis Of A Flop

(For the record, I've not seen the movie yet)

 

OK, so Disney is desperately searching for a film genre to mine for a blockbuster. They've beaten their own folio to death, probably killing it for good with the abominable "Sorcerer's Apprentice".

 

Groping about, someone comes up with the bright idea of taking the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series and putting it on film. Hey, the books are only a hundred years old!

 

A series of books so bad, it wasn't even Burroughs' primary money maker. A series of books so bad that, the previous film made from them went straight to DVD just three years ago AND starred a porn actress. A book written about a 19th Century Southerner. A series of books that haven't been popular since, I don't know...my dad read them forty years ago?

 

Yes, clearly the teens will eat this one up!

 

Now, does Disney do much advance marketing? Perhaps pushing the books ahead of production (a cheap and easy way to gauge whether its worth making the film)? Nope.

 

Do they go out and hire a stellar cast of character actors to surround a relatively unknown actor in support of his performance and to take some of the burden off the special effects ported pretty much directly from "Star Wars II"? Nope.

 

Do they even hire an experienced director, someone who's made just one successful live-action film, like Michael Bay or, well, anyone? Nope. They hire an animation director.

 

So they make a crappy film (remember, I'm basing it on the 51% rating at Rotten Tomatoes, not personal experience) about an antiquated series of books based on a anachronistic character by using a subprime director and cast...and what happens?

 

They probably drive Disney into bankruptcy.

Sabre Rattling For The Week of March 19, 2012

Nobody in their right mind would believe this twaddle, except maybe Bloomberg's Jeffrey Goldberg, the same asshat who wrote in 2002 that Saddam Hussein "will have [nukes] soon."

 

The sky is high and bright and clear over my head, Jeff. Sounds like it might be falling in over yours.

The Shouting Is Almost Over, Too

So how bad is it for the eventual Republican nominee?

 

Well, first, on Super Tuesday, receiving more votes than any Republican that day was President Obama, who ran unopposed.

 

You read that right.

 

It seems likely, particularly given his favorite son status in Illinois, that Obama will outpoll the Republicans on a combined basis today.

 

Worse news for the putative nominee, Mitt Romney, Obama now outpolls him by 8 percent in the erstwhile battleground state of Virginia. Romney won Virginia an overwhelming majority, with 60% of the vote, against a field that did not include either Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich, both of whom blundered in filing for the primary.

 

And once more, Romney finds himself in a "must-win" situation, although if you think about it, he already has won and it's pretty silly to entertain notions beyond that: his closest rival, Santorum, filed late enough and sloppily enough that he's been penalized ten delegates that he cannot win.

 

Still, much of the elective process is a matter of perception and if Romney can't pull off a big win today-- he has a 14% lead in this very convuluted primary process, which is a two-stage vote: one for the candidate in a "beauty pageant," the other directly for the delegates who represent the candidates. Nothing like confusing the old white folks if you want suspense-- it will only add to the perception that Romney lacks the instincts to deliver the killer blow, something that is evident in his flip-flopping on issues.

 

No, really, think about it: a man who wants to be all things to all people, a necessary concern for a candidate from a party as fractured and contentitious as the GOP, won't have the stones to do what he thinks is right. And while it may be unfair to characterize this as Romney's problem when in truth it's a problem the party faces, Romney is the presumptive face of the party, and when nominated, he becomes the head of that party until he gets mashed into the ground in November.

 

It's weird to think of the Republican party as the messy one, but there it is. Usually, it's Democrats who are fractious and contentious and all over each other like ants in a war with other ants, and the GOP the party of jack-booted unity, but that dynamic seems to be reversed this cycle. Republicans have at least three identifiable factions, none of which agrees completely with the other two, and all three are scrambling to get a piece of the party.

 

Meanwhile, Democrats are the party with the luxury of not only having an orderly process, but have time and resources to spare to muck up the other guys' fun.

 

It literally took the Democrats twelve years to overcome their self-imposed foot-shooting (from the 1980 primaries of Carter and Kennedy to the eked win of Bill Clinton in 1992), and the Republicans haven't even gotten to the starting gate of theirs.

 

Again proving my theory that the GOP runs about 30 years behind the Democrats in evolution.

 

UPDATE

 

It really does look more and more like Democrats laid a trap for Republicans this year.

Nobody Asked Me, But...

Special War On Women Edition

 

 

We on the left often chide Democrats for not being more aggressive in counterpunching the right-wing attempts to drag the country kicking and screaming back to the 19th Century. It is pretty annoying to watch President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and, to a lesser degree, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi placate and wheedle Republicans, all to no great benefits.

 

Part of that, of course, is the intransigence of the far-right Teabaggers, and part of that is partisan politics designed to either win back power or burn the fields and sow salt in the furrows of the nation. Combined, there's no momentum for compromise from the right, and yet the Democrats seem slow to recognize this.

 

Or are they?

 

I've looked on with a soupçon of rage, confusion, and hilarity at the way Republicans have tried to make an issue of women's rights: reproductive rights, of course, but also to try to paint women as some sort of helpmeet designed to make a man's life easier, and to be seen and not heard.

 

I speak, of course, about the current battle over the Violence Against Women Act forming in the Senate, but also the state-level battles in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, among others.

 

From a strategic standpoint, this war on women makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Let's look at a little recent history for some perspective.

 

In recent elections, there was a deliberate electoral strategy on the parts of Republicans nationwide to boost turnout of the base by incorporating issues that the base finds repugnant into a broader, more national campaign.

 

Karl Rove was a master at this, encouraging states to place initiatives on abortion, gay marriage and other sundry social issues that inflame passions on both sides, and then smear such a nasty campaign over the course of the election season that those who would be in favor of, say, gay marriage were actually DIScouraged from voting, thus sealing a smaller electorate of which the Republican base would be a larger proportion.

 

From a strategic standpoint, it was brilliant. From a political dialogue standpoint, it was a desperate, last-ditch effort to salvage power.

 

The breadth of this current dust-up, though, brings me pause: could Republican leadership be that stupid, that dense, that they'd be willing to take on the majority gender in this country?

 

I mean, you take on gays, you take on maybe 10% of the population, tops. You take on abortion, you take on a nominal plurality and that includes people who are wishy-washy on the matter of choice (i.e. who believe in limited choices for women seekign abortions.)

 

Most people in the heartland don't know many openly gay people, and possibly may have blinkers on when it comes to women in their family circles who have needed an abortion. That makes these abstract figures, easily caricatured and mocked.

 

But everyone knows at least one woman. And even a Neanderthal knows that women are smaller than men and probably need some protection from a minority of us. He may be in denial that it's he that should be kept away, true.

 

So why is this the election year strategy of the Republicans? Could it be as simple as the far right hijacking the party agenda and the leadership just shrugging their shoulders and deciding which island nation is best for exile?

 

Cui bono?

 

And then it hit me...what if, and I admit this is pure speculation but it sure wouldn't surprise me, the Democrats decided to pull a ninja double-back strategy on the Republican party: turn the tables on them and force an issue front and center that they cannot possibly win on and could only possibly prevent a hemmorage with complete capitulation to the Democratic platform?

 

And what more appropriate group to focus on than women?

 

After all, women have decided elections in the past: soccer moms and then security moms. Working moms would be the ideal demographic to sculpt the Obama re-election strategy around because it would provide an huge base to launch campaigns in all 50 states that would secure votes, and possibly recapture the House and Senate.

 

For example, by including domestic partnerships and same-sex couples under the banner of domestic abuse-- and make no mistake, that's not a political pandering manuever: domestic violence happens in any family-type arrangement, even among roommates-- it turns an old issue the Republican love to throw against the wall, same-sex marriage, into a cudgel to brandish in the interparty battles. It forces Republicans to either acknowledge that same-sex couples are legitimate vehicles (thus paving the way for marriage) or to decide that violence is OK against anyone in any relationship.

 

Meaning those women you see on Cops hanging out the trailer door in tube tops, screaming at the police to "put that [bleeep] away for the rest of his [bleeeeep]ing life!" will be terrified at the prospect that, indeed, Earl will be getting out a little earlier now.

 

Not that domestic violence is a problem for the poor only, but that's a very different story.

 

Note too the inclusion of undocumented immigrants in the bill, too. If Republicans decline to approve this measure, any hope of winning the Latino vote goes pretty much right out the window. You can tell voters things said in the heat of a primary are different than what you'd do, but a vote is forever.

 

Especially coming on the heels of the Blunt amendment, the attempt to exempt employers who, as a matter of conscience refuse to provide health insurance coverage for birth control, you're talking about a very large number of very angry people.

 

Put it this way: the current bill for re-authorization as composed and passed in committee has 59 co-signers, which means at least 6 Republican senators have co-signed the bill.

 

You know what that means? Any opposition to the bill will either have to be quick and polite or the Republicans in general stand to face a very dismal prospect in November, since the bill will flat-out pass.

 

In truth, this is not the issue the Republicans want to run on, but if the Democrats have decided this is the issue, women's rights, they'll raise over and over again this summer and fall, the Republicans will lose the women's vote and lose miserably. They'll throw it out there and hey, if the Republicans pick it up and play with it, they had it coming, right?

 

 

It Might Even Help Us Communicate With Republicans

 

Talk through rocks.

Fallout Boy

I suspect that's Greg Smith's new nickname in some circles.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) saw $2.15 billion of its market value wiped out after an employee assailed Chief Executive Officer Lloyd C. Blankfein’s management and the firm’s treatment of clients, sparking debate across Wall Street.

The shares dropped 3.4 percent in New York trading yesterday, the third-biggest decline in the 81-company Standard & Poor’s 500 Financials Index, after London-based Greg Smith made the accusations in a New York Times op-ed piece.

Not that it couldn't happen to a nicer firm, mind you.

 

Flipping Burghers

 

So what to make of this latest Mitt Romney doublespeak?

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney told the Chicago Sun-Times on Wednesday he does not want to close Planned Parenthood, just strip it of federal money. Romney’s comments were the subject of Democratic attacks after he said he wanted to “get rid” of the organization.

“Planned Parenthood is a private organization. What I want to get rid of is the federal funding of Planned Parenthood,” Romney said in an interview.

[...] Discussing reducing the debt in a St. Louis TV interview {Tuesday}, Romney said, “Is the program so critical, it’s worth borrowing money from China to pay for it? And on that basis of course you get rid of Obamacare, that’s the easy one. Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that. The subsidy for Amtrak, I’d eliminate that. The National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities.”

You know, that's a fair criterion for judging whether a program is worth it or not: can we afford it? Is it worth borrowing from China (and owing them indefinitely) to fund a program?

It's not the criterion I would choose to judge programs that don't necessarily fall into line in a cost-benefit analysis matrix, like any social program like the NEA or Constitutional mandate like voter rights or interstate trade, but it's a platform that has some logic to it and at least allows us to have a debate that goes beyond "Well, what are you basing this judgement on?"

But that's a digression and a different column, allowing another nation to dictate domestic policy. I want to look more closely at this Planned Parenthood flip-flop.

His initial comment in the Tuesday interview, where he says he'll "get rid of" Planned Parenthood, some have said, was a dog-whistle to the evangelical right, which of course views Planned Parenthood as an abortion vehicle only.

I don't agree with this assessment. I think ol' Mitt just got caught up in his elocution lessons and tried to come up with a trifecta of get-rid-ofs in the time honored tradition of reinforcing the message with repetition. His mouth got ahead of his mind (admittedly, not a hard thing to do.)

His walk-back yesterday will have genuine repercussions in that same evanglical community, of course, those who misinterpreted the gaffe as a sign Mitt was moving closer to their views.

If Mitt was capable of such subtlety, we would have seen signs of it long ago. His walk-back comments suggest to me he either genuinely made a gaffe in the first place, or realized he had pandered to the wrong audience. Since evangelicals are not, have not been and never will be his base, this seems to be an unlikely situation. He clearly intended this for the general electorate.

Of course, the logic of de-funding Planned Parenthood has its own complications, if you're looking to stop borrowing money from the Chinese who have their own rather liberal birth control & abortion policies as they try to limit their burgeoning population with their "One Child Policy."

If you can call forced sterlizations and forced abortions "liberal."

Indeed, it strikes me that China would be less likely to loan us a lot money for healthcare for babies born out of wedlock than a few bucks to prevent those pregnancies in the first place.

Mitt made a gaffe, and in trying to fix it, nuanced himself into a corner. If I was Mitt's campaign manager, I'd be figuring out ways to keep him away from microphones. Let the prepared commercials do the talking, because right now, they're spending money to win back lost ground.

Atlantis Is About To Blow Up. Again.

 

The island of Santorini in Greece is under serious threat from a volcanic eruption

 

If you have ever studied Santorini or are interested in the Atlantis fable, Santorini is ground zero of interest because it is the site of a city called Akrotiri, blown up in 1650 BCE. Akrotiri was part of the Minoan civilization of Crete (Minoa is more famously known for the myth of the minotaur.)

 

What is Santorini? Well, if you've ever seen an advertisement for tourism in the Aegean or a model standing in front of the deepest blue water with white houses on a cliffside draped behind her, that's Santorini, most likely.

Boy! That New York Times....

 

Always on the cutting edge of a story.

The Medium Is The Massage

 

It really is a medical treatment.

 

Watch Congressmen fall all over themselves to get this into healthcare reform because it means they can write off their visits to hookers as "therapeutic."

Possible Future Headline

Truth-Teller Found Dead In Puddle Of Own Vomit

A departing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) employee mounted an unprecedented public attack on its “toxic and destructive” culture in a New York Times opinion piece, becoming the first serving insider to openly criticize the firm.

Greg Smith, identified by the newspaper as an executive director and head of the firm’s U.S. equity derivatives business in Europe, will leave the firm after 12 years, blaming Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn for losing hold over the firm’s culture. Executive directors are junior to managing directors and partners, the most senior rank.

His op-ed piece can be found here (surprisingly, not behind the paywall), and let me pull some quotes for you.

To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money. Goldman Sachs is one of the world’s largest and most important investment banks and it is too integral to global finance to continue to act this way. The firm has veered so far from the place I joined right out of college that I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for.

[...] For more than a decade I recruited and mentored candidates through our grueling interview process. I was selected as one of 10 people (out of a firm of more than 30,000) to appear on our recruiting video, which is played on every college campus we visit around the world. In 2006 I managed the summer intern program in sales and trading in New York for the 80 college students who made the cut, out of the thousands who applied.

[...] What are three quick ways to become a leader? a) Execute on the firm’s “axes,” which is Goldman-speak for persuading your clients to invest in the stocks or other products that we are trying to get rid of because they are not seen as having a lot of potential profit. b) “Hunt Elephants.” In English: get your clients — some of whom are sophisticated, and some of whom aren’t — to trade whatever will bring the biggest profit to Goldman. Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t like selling my clients a product that is wrong for them. c) Find yourself sitting in a seat where your job is to trade any illiquid, opaque product with a three-letter acronym.

Smith would be about 35 at this point (assuming he joined out of his MBA program: he's younger if it was straight out of college), so he's not wet behind the ears and has seen first hand the toxic nature of money. Lots and lots of money.

I suppose it was inevitable that the housing bubble would make more money for Wall Street than nearly every other bubble combined. And that it would turn Wall Street sharks into megalodons, supersharks with no remorse and no thought about anything besides the eyes on the prize.

After all, these same folks grew up in an America that valued money above all else, that put television programs like Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous front and center during their formative years. We minimized the collective aspect of what made America great, the clasped hands, the men and women working side by side on the factory floor to make affordable quality products, not necessarily the cheapest, but the best value, the best your money could buy.

We lost sight of that in the rush to profits, egged on by an investor class more and more out of touch with America. Indeed, it's no surprise to me that trading is done by software now, not human beings.

After all, it's a war, and in war it's much easier to kill someone by pressing a button miles away than walking up to them, knife in hand.

I don't envy Smith the backlash he'll receive here, and I offer my services to defend him as best as I can in any way I can, because telling the truth in finance is a rare commodity, and one that there ought to be a trading floor opened for.

 

 

The Political Nature Of Television

On the face of it, this seems like a particularly silly story, unless you're the parent or friend of one of the dead girls:

Time travel TV series have come under fire since two schoolgirls in East China's Fujian province killed themselves on Thursday after leaving notes saying the suicides could help them travel back to ancient times.

The two girls, Xiao Mei and Xiao Hua (not their real names), were fifth-grade classmates at a primary school in Zhangpu county, Zhangzhou. 

On Thursday afternoon, Xiao Hua realized she lost the remote control for a rolling door at her house. She was worried and told her friend Xiao Mei.

At 4 pm, the girls each wrote suicide notes and hid them in a closet at Xiao Hua's home. Then they jumped into a pool and drowned themselves.

Here's the tell that there's something not right with this story:

According to a media report in February, a 19-year-old Liaoning province woman, Xiao Dan (not her real name), told police she had paid 1,800 yuan ($285) to a Net friend who claimed she could help her travel to the ancient past but disappeared after receiving the money.

Because of several stories along these lines emerging, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television banned prime time - 7 to 9 pm - broadcasts of this kind of TV series at the beginning of this year.

Shades of Tipper Gore and the PMRC!

 

Let me point out that the link goes to the People's Daily, the official house organ of the Chinese Communist party (and therefore, the government).

 

Cui bono? Who benefits if this kind of programming is banned in China?

 

Obviously, the government, if only under the guise of preventing teen suicides, which seems an unlikely connection. However, the story itself contains a clue to the real political agenda. Think about where and more important, when the girls wanted to travel to.

 

The claim is they wanted to travel back to Imperial China, an ancient time of fantasy and glamour, opulence and a clearly rewritten history of wealth and freedom.

 

Now, these are clearly not poor children, since their parents could afford a house with an electronic door opener. This is not a sign of poverty, of a kid who is desperately trying to escape the crushing burden of being poor with little opportunity to advance her lot.

 

Or maybe it was. Maybe it's a signal to us that the Chinese economic tiger has fewer teeth than we realize. China will be the largest economy in the world before the end of the century, if not this decade. It's growing at a rate that exceeds an American boom economy, but it has two advantages that America never had, and thus may not see a true bust for decades.

 

It has a population not very far removed from the government-sponsored slavery of the mid-20th Century and it has such a vast population with so many dialects that communication between regions is difficult.

 

Think about it: imagine the US (similar size and contours) with four times the population, and instead of regional accents, imagine entirely different forms of English such that many words have different meanings in the South and North, East and West. If I said "mother" in Florida in this scenario, for example, I may understand it as the woman who gave birth to me, but Floridians might take it to mean any woman involved in my upbringing, including sisters, aunts, grandmothers, and perhaps even teachers and nannies.

 

Those problems will sort themselves out in due time, to be sure, but here's the thing. With a population still working for bottom-dollar wages, the Chinese economy benefits from keeping its people segregated and not sharing information and being unable to communicate as easily as any other nation on the planet can.

 

As in America, there are income and wealth strata in China (until the 1990s, nearly unheard of) and as in America, the gaps are growing.

 

And as in America, there is undoubtedly a movement growing in China for income equalization.

 

Imagine that! A Socialist nation with income inequality!

 

Television, however, is a great leveller. Like it or not, information and education is passed over the airwaves. That means people without a fact gain a fact.

 

For China to succeed economically, it simply must control this information. It must control the thought processes in the heads of Chinese. It must discourage thinking of a better life in leaps and bounds and force people to be content with a carefully planned balance between incrementally advancing their opportunities while staying in thrall to the economy.

 

In other words, the Chinese government is acting the part in China that banks act here. Sure, you can have that second car, but it will cost you four years of emotional investment in paying your loan back and woe betide he who misses a payment! And your kids can have a better life if they get an education (we're still talking about America here, to be clear) but they'll owe us for the following 25 years and they won't be able to discharge this debt even if they can't earn enough in salary to pay us back.

 

All while putting commercials on the ubiquitous infotainment medium, television, advertising that better job for your kids or better sex through Audi.

 

Control the dialogue, control the people.

 

This wasn't about a suicide. This was about recognizing that suicide as a danger to the status quo, one that would make people think about their lives and their children's lives.

 

 

Update

 

Three weeks ago, I mentioned that I had to undergo a particularly brutish routine medical procedure.

 

On a scale of one to ten, one being the annual checkup at your doctor with the stethoscope and the blood pressure cuff and scale, ten being a cystoscope for an inflamed prostate (in which we learn the Indian fakir secrets of levitation), this particular procedure rates about an eight, maybe an eight-and-a-half.

 

Mostly for the prep.

 

I've been sitting on pins and needles these past weeks, literally. Two adenomae were discovered, one of which was big enough that the doctor felt it necessary to do a double biopsy, to get a second opinion right away.

 

It came back benign.

 

Given the patterns of my life, I'm skating a thin edge. I've come close to having serious cancers before, only to skate away relatively unscathed. I mean, really, a deformed nose is something to sneeze at compared to what might have been.

 

But given the fractal nature of reality, I know there's some event lurking in the future that will not be so easy to deal with. There's not much I can do to prevent it, apart from being as scrupulous in my lifestyle choices as I can, and that's no guarantee.

 

Anyway, I can breathe this week. Just wanted to let you know.

Freedom

We all have factotums, signs and signals that mark events or the passage of time. For me, spring truly arrives not with the first push of a daffodil shoot from under the mulch or the first open window on a sunny afternoon, but the day I bring my bike to the shop.

 

There's a ritual involved. Barring some consequential damage, either to the bike or myself, I carefully twist the retaining bolts on my indoor trainer loose and slowly lift my bike, Saphira, out of the niches that her rear axle has sat in for months.

 

She's everything I'd want in a woman. She's mellow but not submissive, letting me know when she's uncomfortable with what I'm doing, even reminding me from time to time of my own limitations. She's supportive but never lets me forget that she's there.

 

I place her gently on the floor, because by now, the air in her tires had leeched out a little and I need to inflate them without pinching a tube. I'm not light, and pinched tubes have provided large surprises, like the unusual view of my handlebars while handstanding on them.

 

I hook her up to the floor pump, and inflate her to the recommended 100 psi and then a little extra. She has Kevlar tires because, you know, city streets are not bike friendly, and the extra psi helps the Kevlar stay in a structured matrix.

 

I don't do up the whole kit. I don't put the spandex and wicking nylon, cleated shoes, gloves and helmet. I ride naked, essentially. It's only a quarter mile and while I'm aware of the dangers of city riding (and live in a particularly well-traveled neighborhood,) this ride is for Saphira. I trust her to carry me safely the quarter mile uphill-- seven and a half percent grade-- to the shop. No bike computer necessary. I've made this ride so many times that I can by feel tell you the grade.

 

I push myself harder on this first ride than usual, because I know I don't have to leave anything in the tank: the ride back is downhill, and even if I leave her overnight, it's a downhill walk. Saphira loves the shop. She knows when she's there she'll be treated well by good mechanics and maybe she'll get a treat, like a new bottle cage or a light.

 

There will come a day when Saphira becomes my back-up bike. I've already logged something like 7500 miles on her and I've only had her for three seasons (this will be four.) I'll put a kickstand and some panniers on her, and she'll become my town bike. I'll still wash her weekly, and lube her chain and give her a twice-yearly polishing with car wax, and she'll still be my first love, but she'll be the workhorse. A younger, faster, sleeker model will come along, one that's better for my ego.

 

Typical guy, right?

 

The first day of Spring 2012? That was yesterday. I kicked up the hill, no glasses on, no contacts in, in gym shorts and a T shirt. On March 12. That's about a month earlier than I ever have before. Spring came early this year.

 

This is important, because my bike means freedom to me. It means getting away from the office from the four walls of my domicile, the packed fish can of the subway, the tin of the car.

 

I can clear my mind and think.

 

See, I'm basically an introvert and this world, and this city in particular, is not designed for folks like me. I prefer my own company if I need to think, if I need to work something out. My bike gives me that, along with the other thing most modern urban dwellers desire: variety. A change of pace. A new vista. Next.

 

You extroverts can have the bar scene and the gallery openings and the desperate attempts to get out of your head by getting out of your own way, or your TV shows with Kim Kardashian where the best way to ignore yourself is to laugh at some other shlub.

 

I prefer to get out of my head by going through my head to my heart. My bike provides a challenge to me: each pedal stroke brings a new opportunity or new obstacle into view. Turn a corner, you never know what you'll encounter no matter how many times you've turned that same corner. You have to stay alert because you're at speed, even if that speed is barely faster than a miler running in the Millrose Games.

 

And in that distraction and focus, I find my thinking is clearer. It's funny how that works, that by making my consciousness direct itself to safe riding, my subconscious is suddenly unburdened and uncensored. I've had some of my best thoughts on my bike.

 

Hell, I've had times where I've stopped riding, pulled out my iPhone and dictated stories or blog posts to myself so I wouldn't lose the thread if I had to swerve around a truck later. But usually, it's just a stream of consciousness that starts to wriggle its way out, and I find myself talking out loud to myself, trying to corral something intelligible from it. 

 

The first day of Spring becomes more than just a happy occasion, it becomes my first close encounter with myself. 

Scared Straight

 

No. Really.

Gas Prices Go Up, Subway Ridership Goes Up...

 

You can't explain it!

Neighbors Talking Over The Fence

 

Oh jeez...Obama is giving Mitt campaign lessons?