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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Killing The Goose That Laid The Post-Partisanship Egg 

...on the surface, House Minority Leader John Boehner's sudden strong objection immediately after the Inauguration to President Obama's stimulus package would have seemed odd, given his previous embrace of this supposed new post-partisan era. Turns out the reason was simple: the new President's Inaugural speech pissed him off, along with a whole bunch of other Republicans...

There has been a lot of chatter about the efforts to find a suitable, appropriately secure Blackberry-like smartphone for Barack Obama so he doesn't feel like he is trapped in the numbing insular blanket of the D.C. 'bubble'. Maybe John Boehner should consider the same sort of outlet so he can understand the trends and tides of American opinion outside the beltway and come to grips with all the reasons that there is NO talk whatsoever on the American street or in the American media outside the Beltway about the repudiation that laced Obama's speech...

Did the new President throw his predecessor out in the street? Yup; even the most casual observer would be a fool to deny that. Did Obama make a point of drawing a starkly distinctive line between the way things were and the way they will be, taking pains to disparage the immediate past? Oh, hell yes, but the obvious question is why not, given the simple fact that this defining bright line was the whole basis of the 2008 election from the top of the ballot to the bottom all across the country. Did the speech have a bit of a hard edge that visibly annoyed former First Lady Laura Bush? Who cares? No sane person voted for Gee Dub because of her and she isn't much more than a caricature of the Kay Adams role in a twisted imperfect "Godfather" parody that left a trail of bodies the likes of which Mario Puzo couldn't even create, much less imagine...

What Boehner and that short bus full of Bushco minions don't seem to understand are the raw facts: George W. Bush left office with approval ratings that, depending on the poll, hovered around or below those Richard M. Nixon enjoyed on August 9, 1974, as he fled the White House in Marine One to avoid impeachment and assured Senate conviction on those charges. Aside from that, the Republican Congressional delegation, as its reward for blindly supporting Gee Dub, lost its majorities in both houses in 2006 and became even smaller in 2008. When it came time to call bets and put the chips down, all Boehner and the rest of the Republicans had to push into the pot was Evil Brown People, tax cuts, and opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion, and embryonic stem cell research at a time when real live people were losing their jobs and their homes and any sort of faint glimmering hope for a better future for themselves or their children...

President Obama said what he said on that frozen artificial podium last Tuesday afternoon because it was exactly what had to be said. Whatever the hell experiment in governance the Republican party was engaging in over the last decade and a half, it has been an abysmal failure and stood to be repudiated so that people both at home and abroad could understand that we wouldn't be making those sorts of mistakes again. Boehner and the gang don't seem to understand that those embarrassingly low Congressional approval ratings are the fault of Congressional Republicans or that their brand is a worse seller than even products from the Chrysler Corporation...

The time probably isn't ripe for the minority Republican leadership to come storming out of whatever caves they've been hiding in to weather their most recent brutal shelling and throw all this happy post-partisanship talk away by declaring rock-ribbed, stern opposition to Obama's stimulus proposal. That appears to be the plan, though, apparently for no better reason than the fact that he trash-talked their man Gee Dub. You just can't help but wish 'em good luck with all that and encourage them to keep it up...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:13 PM 0 comments

Friday, January 23, 2009

How The Terrorists Won - 'Deportland', Oregon, Edition 

...I had been thinking over the last few weeks that I might be able to take a break from being grumpy, but it turns out that stupid runs swift and deep like a powerful river through the steep-walled canyons of American life, so I suspect that a reprieve from well over a decade of bone-deep grumpiness just isn't in the cards. This week's example of breath-taking bureaucratic stupidity that played out on a far corner of the tarmac at Portland (Oregon) International Airport offers distressing proof that the overwhelming desire of George W. Bush's administration to make us Be Afraid all the time didn't crawl onto that gleaming green Marine helicopter with him last Tuesday afternoon and that Bushco hasn't actually departed but has rather just joined the lurking shadowy ranks of the undead...

The core facts of the story are simple. Aeromexico Flight 670 departed Mexico City on Tuesday, Jan. 20, for a direct flight to Seattle. Several hours into the flight, fog at SeaTac forced operations to cease, leading to this episode. AeroMexico's official response can be found here. There are many remarkable aspects to this story, aside from the apparent reemergence of the sort of official behavior that earned Portland its "Deportland" moniker several years ago. Amongst the questions that come immediately to mind:

How is it that passengers cleared for a flight into the continental United States can't be allowed to disembark into some secure area rather than having to sit in the plane for four hours?

Why is it that over the course of four full frikkin' hours it was impossible to dig up any one of the 17 available Customs officials to perform whatever magic that is necessary to allow roughly three dozen passengers to get off the plane for a few minutes? I realize that Customs inspection doesn't impose those sorts of understood personal demands that occupations like federal resource management where you are generally expected to be able to respond on short notice to things like missing hunters or lost Christmas tree cutters or newly started forest fires, but don't they even have people's home numbers just in case?

How is it that local paramedics are the ones who ran over to the nearest Golden Arches to rack up over three dozen Big Mac meals on their own debit cards to feed people who were essentially being held hostage? Why the hell couldn't even the most half-witted Port of Portland personnel figure out that passengers on a commercial flight that spent six hours in the air before it touched down on PDX's runway just might need some relief during some portion of the extra four hours that the aircraft was forced to sit at a noncommercial gate? Does the Port of Portland not understand the plight of the stranded traveler, or does it just simply not care?

A corollary question: How is it that airport police can board the aircraft to threaten passengers, but neither they or any other Port of Portland employees can board the aircraft to provide any assistance, food, or comforting words to the passengers?

The Rose City's international airport has accrued a well-deserved reputation for being a bad place to fly into from a foreign land (Comment #18 recounts some of the more famous particulars). It has now added to all that previous baggage a reputation for being a bad place for American citizens trying to return home to end up flying into on an unscheduled flight on an unsupported carrier, because they will be treated as suspected terrorists owning to the failure of local officials to scrounge up a Customs official to say it's OK for them to get off of their aircraft, even for a moment. You have now been officially warned: there is no such thing as honoring any sort of aviation version of the Law of The Sea regarding stranded passengers as far as the airport managed by the regional Port of Portland bureaucracy is concerned. Even if you are an American citizen, if your flight has to make an unscheduled stop at PDX you will be treated as a hostage and - if you complain about your treatment - you will be treated as a potential criminal...

Back in the late 60's, iconic Oregon Governor Tom McCall said, in effect, "Please come visit, but please don't stay". Apparently the Port of Portland employees responsible for running Portland International Airport only heard - or only imperfectly remember - the second half of that particular line. Or maybe they don't, and only know the twisted fake reality of Bushco's nearly decade-long fear campaign. In any case, the actions of official personnel at Orygun's largest airport start to make Amtrak look pretty attractive...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:10 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

So Does This Make Obama '45' 

...my man Joe Biden had an opportunity that he and nobody else other than a few strict constructionist Constitutional scholars and a whole host of wingnuts could claim to understand: for a precious day or less he was - in the eyes of some - the actual real-live 44th President of the United States, all on account of the spectacle of Chief Justice John Roberts crashing and burning under the pressure of that moment in the brightest spotlight imaginable...

The problem is fixed now, probably because somebody in the Obama administration thought that there was enough question about whether the Constitutionally-defined oath had to be said in proper word order that there wasn't any reason to take a chance (we are saddled, after all, with a more conservative SCOTUS than the one that decided Bush v. Gore back in 2000). But just think for a minute about all the things Biden could have done, had he realized the power sitting in his hands during those hours between yesterday afternoon and this morning. I have often pined for the opportunity to be in charge for a day, but I would settle for less than 24 hours in order to get done those things really needing getting done, and Joe Biden had that chance. Sadly he didn't realize it, just like about 99 (and some odd decimal) percent of us apparently didn't realize it and if a few "scholars" and a host of dead-ender wingers are to be believed...

The pressing question, though, is whether Biden gets to claim to his grandchildren that he was the 44th President and held that post until he was usurped by some young extremely popular slick-talkin' whippersnapper. Even with the "abundance of caution" displayed by Obama's people, is Joe Biden really president number 44? Is Obama actually '45'? Has the National Capital Memorial Advisory Commission been notified to carve out some space for the massive stone edifice that will be known as the Biden Memorial?
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:15 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

At Last 

...it appears that a recurring theme of the First Dance at some of the Inaugural Balls is one instrumental arrangement or another of the classic Etta James song "At Last". This is how Etta would do it (just close your eyes if you would like to ignore the "Wild at Heart" clips):

Posted by: Jack K. / 8:14 PM 0 comments

What Today Means 

...aside from all the talk about "promise" and "change" and whether Obama's speech was suitably uplifting or whether the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of The United States should, you know, kind of have the Oath of Office down pat, today means one thing: this one guy crawled onto a highly modified Boeing VC-25 at Andrews Air Force Base to take off into the uncertain skies above the mid-Atlantic seaboard, and for the first time in eight long years the Air Traffic Control call sign for that aircraft wasn't "Air Force One". That means as much - if not more - to me than anything else that happened today...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:16 PM 0 comments

Monday, January 19, 2009

Exploring The Strange Escherian Wrold Of John Cornyn 

(note: I actually wrote this last night, but the realities of internet connections and wide-area network failures struck down my best intentions.)

...John Cornyn, junior United States Senator from the state of Texas, is a truly conflicted piece of art. With the unlamented departure of Ted Stevens, he has - by threating to put a 'hold' on the vote to confirm Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State - become the leading Republican example of what a piece of M. C. Escher art looks like when expressed in human political form...

Cornyn has made what can presumed to be a serious threat to lock down the Hilary confirmation vote over what he chooses to express as concerns over foreign donations to Bill's William J. Clinton Foundation. The reason, of course, is concern of a potential conflict of interest in Hilary Clinton's advice to President Obama during some unspecified future international situation. No amount of insistence by Sec. of State designate Clinton herself about the kind of firewalls she plans to erect to avoid such risk of conflict of interest seems to satisfy the junior Senator of Texas...

There is – as is usually the case when unreflective self-aggrandizing conservatives are concerned – a profound bit of what a casual observer would call “irony” reflected in Cornyn's stout-hearted concerns about the risks that foreign contributions might bring to this rather unusual connection between the SoS and a former POTUS. Cornyn is what would be called “mobbed up” if the Mafia were involved in the extractive oil industry. He would undoubtedly stridently object to any suggestion that his by-and-large pro-Big Oil votes over the last several years have any relationship whatsoever with the tens of thousands of dollars he has received in campaign contributions from the same Big Oil concerns that have benefitted from those votes of his. Unfortunately for “Big John”, there isn't any middle ground...

What we actually have here is part of the two-pronged conservative attack plan: go after Hilary because she is the Hilary Clinton that – just by existing – serves as a rally point for the Republican base while trying to knock that disturbing Obamessiah down a notch or three by turning one of his cabinet appointments into a big ol' public fight. Eric Holder turned out to be a loser for the tattered remnants of the Republican gang looking to score coup against Obama once a host of presumably stalwart Law-And-Order Republicans came out in his support. Tim Giethner seems likely to break a relatively recently-crafted mold by surviving his tax-payment problems – not to mention the oft-mentioned but rather irrelevant house-keeper green card issues – and be confirmed as Secretary of the Treasury because of the dire nature of the times and his purported skills...

Cornyn's objection looks like it is little less than one last dying hypocritical expression of Clinton Derangement Syndrome. How he failed to bring up Vince Foster is an unanswerable question, because Big John, being clever enough to make it to the United States Senate, isn't going to tip his hand that way. The inference is clear, though, coming from a guy who has never hesitated to vote against the larger interests of American citizens and for the narrow, profit-motivated interests of the specific special interest groups and industries that have worked to fill his own campaign coffers...

Big John Cornyn led all comers in the 110th Congress in terms of contributions from Big Oil. His domination in that regard is astounding, if not downright embarrassing (click around to burrow into the reality) and is instructive in light of his 100% voting record in defense of oil interests. At the same time, he offers the audacious suggestion that Hilary Clinton should not be confirmed as Secretary of State until or unless her husband forswears any foreign contributions to the foundation that bears his name...

There is a powerful incentive for Cornyn in these particular circumstances: the opportunity for a powerfully self aggrandizing "Three-fer" is almost too good to pass up. First, he gets to take a stab at the Hated Bill Clinton - but subtly, through Hilary's SoS nomination. Second, he gets to take a stab at the equally Hated Hilary Clinton, thereby increasing the value of his political stock amongst "the base" at a time when lonely minds are calling out for a new leader that can step up to the presidential plate in 2012. Third, this moment offers a chance to strike a debilitating blow against the sort of otherwise independent private organizations that want to combat the very personal, individual nature of international poverty (as well as ignorance of the dangers of global climate change) that otherwise nurtures - if not institutionalizes to the corporate benefit - the opportunities for profitability on the part of the corporations that donated over half a million dollars to Cornyn over just the last two years...

Cornyn's arguments against confirming Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State are both on their face and after careful review nothing more that the last desperate Senate rules gambit of a party that got its butt kicked last November and isn't even close to figuring out to find its way back to actual real-world relevance. The tragic irony is that he is probably the least possible likely candidate to raise questions of conflict of interest; it's like one of those strange twisting Escher staircases that folds back upon itself...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:41 PM 0 comments

Now IS The Time 

...the speech was 45 and a half years ago. His birthday was last Thursday. Yesterday a raucous sort of homage was paid to that famous speech at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. Today is the day we honor his birthday, his dream, and his life.



King's dream hasn't yet been fully realized thoughtout American society, but tomorrow a remarkable chunk of it will come to fruition as the entire world watches Barack Obama take the oath of office for the Presidency of the United States. In a just world, Dr. Martin Luther King would be the revered 80-year-old patriarch of the Civil Rights movement watching with the rest of us as this part of his dream unfolded. The world isn't just (as if you didn't know that) and he won't be amongst us - physically, at least, so we'll watch for him and reflect on this one remarkable symbol of how the arc of the moral universe, as he said it would just days before his assassination, has bent toward justice...
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:32 AM 0 comments

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