Don Barack Hussein Obama gazed out his Oval Office window. Into the mid-range. Towards the Washington Monument. Thinking only lofty, post-partisan thoughts, of course.
Meanwhile, one of our Irish capos (Senator Pat Leahy, Vermont) slipped in unnoticed and duct-taped a loaded nine to the underside of The Don's top desk drawer.
We're being Br'er Rabbit-ed by The Other Side: "Y'all bes' not go they'uh. Nuh-uh. We day'uh's y'all ta go they'uh. They's hay-ul to pay if y'all goes they'uh..."
Yeah. Right. So go there.
I can only imagine this conversation:
The Don: I've stated my views on the criminalizing of policy differences between the two administrations.
AG (underboss) Holder: And I've heard them, sir.
The Don: But you have sworn Constituional duties to uphold, and I have sworn Constitutional duties not to interfere with yours.
Message sent.
Leahy Announces Bush Investigations to Start Next Week:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/...
Senator Leahy's petition:
http://www.bushtruthcommission.com/forward
Funny how Bobby Jindal's been labeled a conservative Republican intellectual and then laid that big egg which heavy hitters in the conservative punditocracy scorn as intellectually bankrupt.
Namely David Brooks. (Yep, best use of "nihilism" since De Beauvoir launched it at Arthur Koestler in the Deaux Magots that night back in '51 when...)
Channeling Brooks, what the GOP's Mahatma of the Bayou should have done was erect at least a respectable edifice for neo-Reaganism.
In other words, point out that while Reagan had tamed the bureaucratic beast in the 1980s, responsible conservatism--as a living, breathing body of thought--acknowledges a role for government intervention in the economy, especially when that means either saving capitalism itself or outfitting the free market with crutches when it stumbles and breaks a leg...or two. And also point out that, in times of trouble, Mother Mary's governmental safety net is needed for cushioning the truly needy's fall, which is something vouchsafed by none other than Reagan himself even in the early '80s (he endured a nasty recession, too) when his preaching from the "government's the problem not the solution" gospel was at its most influential.
So, having made a case for smart government in dire times, Jindal then should have attacked the stim as disfiguringly flawed even by the standards of liberal economic (Keynesian) orthodoxy--not enough emphasis on private sector job creation (infrastructure, including maybe even something visionary like rebuilding the nation's energy grid) with too much emphasis on creating government jobs...yada yada yada. (Well, he tried to do that with his weak little volcano monitoring jab, but it connected with nothing but air.)
Had he begun to articulate what the right's intellectual chattering class instantly would have rose-petaled as neo-Reaganism, Jindal today would be the intellectual doyenne of an American conservatism which is desperately seeking Susan the mom w/kids and bills to pay, as well as philosophical rejuvenation and day-to-day tactical guidance.
Instead, he's the GOP's formerly Great non-Caucasian Hope, one who succeeded at nothing other than parodying the high Reagan style
Yes, he told people-are-good/government-is-bad homilies, but with none of The Gipper's flair or finesse, and although, in an apparent homage to the Gipper and some of his more colorful "anecdotes" about Cadillac-driving welfare queens, Jindal did manage to just make shit up, the Mahatma of the Bayou is paying a heavy price for getting caught in a web of homespun lies.
Sorry, Booby. The Gip was Teflon. You ain't.
So, is it really so impossible today to make a case for limited government economic intervention as a general American conservative rule? To depart from free-market orthodoxy just enough to assert potentially massive short-term government intervention in unusual or emergency circumstances even when that intervention would invoke private-sector rehabilitation as a first principle and guiding doctrine?
Looking at Jindall's dilemma from another angle, the answer appears to be, "Yes," because, had Tiny Bubbles done a Brooksian/neo-Reagan song and dance, he'd have risked expulsion from the current Cantor/Boehner High Church for straying way too far from the tax-breaks-as-universal-panacea fold.
And that would have exposed the GOP, which increasingly these days appears to be wandering in some Robert Taftian Twilight Zone wilderness, and shown the extent to which President Obama has decisively shifted the center of debate in this country to the left.
Oct 18, 2008: My beloved Penn State Nittany Lions finally beating the Michigan Wolverines after 9 frustrating years... deeply satisfyingOctober 25, 2008: Penn State beating Ohio State at the "Horseshoe", Ohio Stadium; first time since 1978 ... fantasticOctober 28, 2008: Barack Obama leading in polls in VA, the Staunton News Leader endorses Obama, the Obama/Biden team's relentless ground game in Old Dominion rolls on, and Barack is scheduled to speak nearby in Harrisonburg, at the Convo at James Madison University ... PRICELESS!
GOTV ! EVERY DAY, EVERY WAY! FIRED UP... READY TO GO! YES WE CAN!
8 days to go! Here's the latest word from yesterday at Barack's Harrisonburg, VA, HQ:
We need a crowd of at least 10,000 to combat Palin in Roanoke the same day. Word is, the GOP wants that event to overshadow Barack's visit to The Valley.
With everyone yesterday busily canvassing, phone-banking, painting signs and preparing for Barack's first visit this fall to a crucial, make-deep-inroads-into- a-traditional-GOP-stronghold, the Shenandoah Valley, at command central at 124 S. Main St. in Harrisonburg...
I was asked to spread the word: Palin is speaking in the capital city of the state's western, Appalachian tier, Roanoke, on Tuesday, the same day Barack will be at James Madison University's (JMU) Convocation Center. Barack wowed'em at Roanoke's Civic Center on a recent (Oct. 17), rainy Friday. Word filtering into our Harrisonburg HQ was that the GOP wants to make Palin's visit a stadium event. Fine, we all know the wingnuts will turn out en masse for her, but...let's not fail to have a teeming, passionate, on-the-cusp-of-a-victory-for-the-ages crowd for our guy.
We need a crowd of at least 10,000 to combat Palin in Roanoke the same day. Word is, the GOP wants that event to overshadow Barack's visit to The Valley. With everyone yesterday busily canvassing, phone-banking, painting signs and preparing for Barack's first visit this fall to a crucial, make-deep-inroads-into- a-traditional-GOP-stronghold, the Shenandoah Valley, at command central at 124 S. Main St. in Harrisonburg... I was asked to spread the word: <strong>Palin is speaking in the capital city of the state's western, Appalachian tier, Roanoke, on Tuesday, the same day Barack will be at James Madison University's (JMU) Convocation Center</strong>. Barack wowed'em at Roanoke's Civic Center on a recent (Oct. 17), rainy Friday. Word filtering into our Harrisonburg HQ was that the GOP wants to make Palin's visit a stadium event. Fine, we all know the wingnuts will turn out en masse for her, but...<strong>let's not fail to have a teeming, passionate, on-the-cusp-of-a-victory-for-the-ages crowd for our guy</strong>.
Harrisonburg is in Rockingham County, where Bush rolled up his biggest victory margin in the state four years ago. The camaraderie and chemistry between Barack's national staffers and the wonderful local folks who are expanding the progressive base in The Valley's conservative heart has been remarkable since July, when the Obama campaign set up the first presidential campaign office in the little city's history. Add to that the energizing influx of incredibly dedicated and talented GOTV volunteers from across the Middle Atlantic, the Eastern Seaboard and even the Midwest and we can get this job done. We know we're going to eclipse the Democrat vote totals from four years, but the agressive Obama campaign said, "Go for it all, and go relentlessly." And so, in a spirit of jubilant collaboration (I carpetbag in from WV), we have.
Now we want to be sure that Barack's visit to The Valley is not in any way overshadowed by Palin in Roanoke.
So...please attend Barack's speech Tuesday at JMU's Convocation Center and help spread the word. Doors open at 3:15 w/the program starting at 5:15. As usual, arrive early maybe as early as noon. It's seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Convocation Center (895 Univ. Blvd.) will be able to accommodate (I'm told) 9,000 to 10,000 for this event. event
I've been driving two hours a day, three days a week, to canvass in Harrisonburg, VA, and Rockingham County. The first mountain I drive over is part of the Allegheny Range, which means I'm crossing the Continental Divide. The next one is tortuous North Mt., which leads me to Franklin, the bucolic county seat in WV's Pendleton County, where the history-laden indigenous folks are Democrats because their ancestors were Confederates, which today gives many a profoundly conservative tradition. Next it's into the George Washington National Forest and over Shenandoah Mountain into...The Valley, the biggest GOP stronghold in the state four years ago.
It's the home of the old Harry Byrd Machine, which means those who work there are supporting the Campaign for Change in the literal and spiritual home of Massive Resistance to Desegregation in response to Brown v. Board of Education in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
I knew our chances for success in The Valley--as Stonewall Jackson said, "If The Valley is lost, Virginia is lost"--were good over a month ago, when an older but still prominent Republican lady told me her entire family was voting and working for Barack. She would only concede at that time that she was an Obama lean but that she was offended by the presence of Sarah Palin on the GOP's national ticket.
"I have standards, you know," she chuckled.
"By chance," I asked, "are you a Lynwood Holton Republican?"
Chuckling delightedly again, she said, "Well, yes I am. You see, some of us never wanted Virginia to be known for racial intolerance."
And there it was. In crytalline form. The migration of Byrd Machine Democrats into the GOP in the 1970s had turned Virginia and that state's GOP into a reactionary Southern redoubt.
Now, one of Holton's daughters is married to Gov. Tim Kaine, and The Valley is turning blue.
Barack's visit to Harrisonburg will seal the deal.
We will win Virginia.
Barack will be at the James Madison University Convocation Center on Tuesday. The event starts at 5:15 pm. The doors open at 3:15.
The event is free and open to the public. Tickets are not required. Space is available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Lynwood Holton
Byrd Machine
The Harrisonburg paper (staunchly conservative and still owned by the Harry "Massive Resistance" Byrd family) is the daily newspaper in some parts of the state where the liberal Charleston, WV, Gazette does not circulate. The Gazette, strong in its editorial support of Obama since before the May 13 WV primary, only gets as far as northern Pocahontas County and Elkins in WV, but is not available unless by individual subscription in eastern WV panhandle counties like Hardy, Pendleton and others. Also, Channel 3 Harrisonburg is the local TV news station for many West Virginians in that part of the state.
One of the reasons I concentrated heavily (though not exclusively) this fall on volunteer work in the Harrisonburg area was that "turning the Shenandoah Valley blue," as they say, could have a needed bleed-over effect in parts of WV where there are Democratic registration majorities which have turned deep red in recent years. Deep red.
Barack will be at the James Madison University (JMU) Convocation Center on Tuesday, Oct. 28. Doors open at 3:15. Program begins at 5:15.
I haven't written in a while simply because I don't think anyone is reading my posts. However, I thought I would catch up with a few shorts posts all at once.
1. I attended the Obama rally in Roanoke last week. Very rainy and wet, but worth the wait. I was thrilled to be around so many who thought like I do. The shocker is that I am a lifelong Republican. Did I change or did the party shift to include me? I think a little of both.
2. While this campaign feels like it is taking forever to end, now is the time to become more active than ever. I have found several people who were voting McCain simply because they liked Palin. However, a serious discussion on the issues has changed every one of them (at least to my face) to support Obama. Talk to your friends about politics. It does work.
3. In two weeks, Sarah Palin will still be stupid and John McCain will still be eratic. I say this because there are lots of people out there who are afraid the GOP is going to make a comeback. They will try, but the reality is that they are down now because they are on the wrong side of the issues. They are on the wrong side of the issues because that is who they are. They cannot change their nature in the final two weeks.
4. Finally, if you really believe Obama is the best person for the job at this time, then you must vote. I know we are way ahead, but getting out to vote is so important right now. The GOP is going to push hard at churches, neighborhoods and book burnings to get their people to the polls. You need to do the same.
This pitch-perfect ad by Jim Webb for Obama/Biden hits hard on the lies and distortions being advanced about Barack's position on gun control for law-abiding hunters in rural America.
It should be airing not just in Virginia but in West Virginia (now rated a toss-up state!), western Pennsylvania, North Carolina and southern Ohio--in other words, Appalachia where the race is in play.
And who better than Jim Webb, one of the most intriguing figures in American political life today, to make the case for Barack and Joe? He, after all, is the author of Fighting Back: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, one of the finest books ever written about Appalachia and the Appalachians.
I recently wrote this elsewhere about Senator Webb: He and his book about Appalachia and its people have given him a kind of cult-like stature in some surprising quarters in rural West Virginia and, I’d guess, elsewhere in rural America.
He, of course, was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Reagan, and he went on to express reservations in the Wall Street Journal early on about Bush’s Iraqi misadventure. In 2004, he criticized Kerry and Bush and call Iraq a stunning strategic blunder.
He’s a man of great social perception. He’s said the most radical political realignment in America he can imagine would be a coaltion forged between white working-class Appalachians and African Americans and seems to favor moving affirmative action from race- to class-based standards as a step towards forging that coalition.
Wikipedia has this to say about the Wall Street Journal column he wrote shortly after George Allen “macaca-ed” himself out of the US Senate (and a few days before Webb almost “slugged” W) in November 2006: That same day, an op ed authored by Webb appeared in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Titled “Class Struggle,” the piece addressed what Webb feels is a growing economic inequality in the United States, touching on what he feels are overly permissive immigration policies, extravagant executive compensation, the detrimental effects of free trade and globalization, iniquitous tax cuts, and speedily rising health care costs, and attacking the “elites” who he says perpetuate the aforementioned woes for their personal economic gain.[29]
It’s not fashionable in our political discourse these days for mainstream elected officials to use the words “class struggle,” but Webb does.
As for Harrisonburg, for major stretches of eastern WV it’s the nearest “big town.” I’ve been canvassing there 3 days a week (and in Rockingham County, out in the “boonies”) and I can tell you this: Obama is making notably large gains in the Shenadoah Valley. He may not carry The Valley, but his totals there (and in Appalachian western VA, too, I hope) could well deliver the Old Dominion to a Democrat for the first time since 1964.
Yesterday (Thursday, Oct. 9) I was canvassing and spoke memorably to a thoughtful man, a Republican, who is sincerely and deeply distressed by conditions in our nation. He would be an angry voter but for his temperament, which is probing and, unlike McCain's, not given to impetuosity. He's soured by the political behavior in Washington, DC, and is experiencing the casting of his presidential ballot as a wrenching decision, to say the least. He does not dislke John McCain, but he finds McCain's age & health troubling because he does not want Sarah Palin at our country's helm. Indeed, he finds McCain's decision to name her in the way he did--an impulsive conniption fit when the GOP nixed Liebermann & Ridge--a troubling proof that McCain's judgement and recklessness when he loses his temper are issues for any thoughtful voter.
He's most certainly not at this point a convinced Obama voter, but he's considering it. I told him I'd read Obama's books and that the man truly possesses an intellect rare in American politics for one who, at the age of only 47 and having come from extremely modest cirumstances, is on the brink of the presidency.
The gentleman and I agreed, however, that having a first-rate intellect by itself provide no guarantee that a President Obama will have the leadership and political skills that our next president must have given the perilous times our country finds itself in.
I believe the gentleman I spoke to would find the comments David Brooks made on Monday helpful. They can be found here.
Our undecided voter may find it helpful to know that Brooks is probably the most influential conservative thinker in America today after George Will, and that he remains even today a principled intellectual Reaganite.
After remarking on Obama's "dazzling intellect," Brooks had this to say about his political skills: "And the other thing that does separate Obama from just a pure intellectual: he has tremendous powers of social perception. And this is why he's a politician, not an academic. A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, 'David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you're only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.' And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception."
Of course, Brooks goes on to call Barack a "very mediocre Senator." But we all know that Mr. Brooks said that to make himself feel better about what nearly amounts to a full-throated endorsement of the man he believes to be one of the most impressive candidates our Democratic Party has nominated in many years. Brooks knows everyone is a "mediocre" Senator after only three years on the job, and he knows very well that JFK was a relatively undistinguished Senator in 1960 after seven years on the job.
And then, just a few days ago, Brooks wrote this:
But other candidates are propelled by what some psychologists call self-efficacy, the placid assumption that they can handle whatever the future throws at them. Candidates in this mold, most heroically F.D.R. and Ronald Reagan, are driven upward by a desire to realize some capacity in their nature. They rise with an unshakable serenity that is inexplicable to their critics and infuriating to their foes...
... He doesn't have F.D.R.'s joyful nature or Reagan's happy outlook, but he is analytical. That's why this William Ayers business doesn't stick. He may be liberal, but he is never wild. His family is bourgeois. His instinct is to flee the revolutionary gesture in favor of the six-point plan.
This was not evident back in the "fierce urgency of now" days, but it is now. And it is easy to sketch out a scenario in which he could be a great president. He would be untroubled by self-destructive demons or indiscipline. With that cool manner, he would see reality unfiltered. He could gather — already has gathered — some of the smartest minds in public policy, and, untroubled by intellectual insecurity, he could give them free rein. Though he is young, it is easy to imagine him at the cabinet table, leading a subtle discussion of some long-term problem.
So--as Elaine from Elkton said at the Harrisonburg Obama HQ, our friend and conflicted voter might find it helpful to speak with some fellow Republicans who have made the watershed decision to support Barack. Mr. Brooks might be one of those fellow, principled Republicans.
Now that the Federal Government has stepped in to purchase bad mortgages or "dirty paper" from ailing banks, it is time to cut the problem off at it's cause.
The reason big investment banks are failing is that nobody is sure how many of the sub-prime mortgages held are going to fail. When they need to write off more and more of the value of these mortgage back securities the investors call in their cash and the banks are forced into a liquidity crisis on how to provide that cash.
The Feds buying up these bad loans and providing the cash to the banks will save the banks. However, the problem still exists. The difference is who is going to take the hits. If those mortgages continue to go into default, the value of the underlying paper will continue to diminish.
So how to fix it? Now that the feds (with the approval of Congress, which has not yet happened) will be the holders of the mortgages, it is time to make a change to preserve the value of the mortgages. Obama should call for all the adjustable mortgages that are purchased by the federal government to be reverted back to the rates of their first year.
For instance, if the note called for a ARM of 5% in the first year, then the homeowner would be reverted back to the 5% rate and not the 9 or 10% rate that the note adjusted to. This would allow the homeowner to stay in the house and avoid foreclosure. We all know that the house would hold it's value and everyone would be better off it they can stay in the houses.
Once that is in place, the home owner would have time to either sell or refinance the house. The Feds might have to hold the note for a number of years in order to give the housing market time to absorb the refi or resale of the homes, but it would be much better than foreclosure.
This is exactly the time of out of the box thinking and for trying to fix the fundamental cause of this crisis. The cause is that the ARMs are adjusting up and people cannot afford the payments. If you fix that cause, then you fix the crisis at its root.
Prior to the conventions, you saw Bob Barr included in the polling numbers. In some states, he was carrying 5-8% of the poll for the Libertarian Party. But in recent polls, you don't even see Barr mentioned.
I only asked this because my wife got an automated poll call this weekend. It asked who she was likely to vote for Barack Obama, John McCain or undecided. If you were a Bob Barr supporter, you would likely answer John McCain (The stated goals of smaller, less intrusive govt works toward the Libertarian view). Of course, when the election day comes, Bob Barr will be listed on some 40 state ballots for President.
If my theory is correct, then those poll that do not list Bob Barr are giving anywhere from 5-8% of the poll to McCain. That would explain his jump in some polls.
This is just a theory. If anyone can address my logic, I would appreciate it.
Hi everyone,
We are hosting a phonebank at my house in Fishersville on Saturday, Sept 27th at 6PM. You can find the details here:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gs558p
This will be our first phonebank and dinner party. It is pot luck. Just bring a side dish or something you like. We will provide hot dogs and hamburgers. Be sure to bring your cell phones and chargers (just in case). We will have a list of undecideds and unregistered to call. If you haven't done calls before, it is alot of fun when done in a group. Lots of support and a nice way to get involved.
Pass the word. We set the limit to 15, but will happily increase the number if we need do. Just be sure to register or give me a call at 540 476-3529.
Thanks!
Brett
Obama's Field General in Virginia, Mitch Stewart, is seeing solid statistical success from the aggressive surge of his blue troopers across the state. The count of Forward Operating Bases (local Virginia Obama HQ's) has recently topped 41.
From WashPo "State election officials told the [Obama] campaign Friday [9/5/08] that 49,000 new voters signed up in August, a sharp increase from the 36,500 who signed up in July and the 28,000 who registered in June."
"...the August gain puts the Obama campaign very much on track toward its goal of signing up 150,000 new voters by the early October voter registration deadline, on top of the 142,000 new voters who registered during primary season.""... [new voters]could add up to about 1.75 percent of the anticipated state vote... ""Nationally, more than 2 million Democrats have been added to the rolls in the 28 states that register voters according to party affiliation, according to the Associated Press. Republicans have lost nearly 344,000 thousand voters in the same states during the same period."
SAW for Obama Team:
If you can make it to the Augusta County Fair, this week, in Fishersville -- please wear your Obama gear! Show support for Mark Warner and Sam Rasoul, too!!!
Please visit the joint SAW Democratic booth and say HI! Come by our booth and buy more Demo team gear!
Meet our new national Obama support team staff -- they'll be working the crowd each day -- registering voters!
STAND and BE COUNTED! SHOW AUGUSTA COUNTY -THIS IS OUR YEAR!
YES WE CAN!
From the Huffington Post - Off-the-Bus
Coming soon to SAW land!
See story and photos from last weekend!
FIRED UP & READY TO GO!
Harrisonburg Obama HQ Grand Opening
