Harmful Books
Brad Delong points to this ridiculous Human Events Online list of the 10 most harmful books of the 19th and 20th Centuries, plus honorable mentions, as chosen by complete nut-case conservatives. Included are the predictable (Marx, Nietzsche, Darwin) and those that are just plain inconvenient to the right because of their truthful power (Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, The Kinsey Report!). Former philosophy professors who made me read Mill's "On Liberty," and Dewey's "Democracy and Education," and Foucault's "Madness and Civilization" will be thrilled to know that they also made the list.
At least now we know some good classic books to put on our Christmas lists.
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
W. Mark Felt is Deep Throat [Updated]
Or so he and his family say. He was the #2 FBI man. He's also 91 years old and may have just been asked if he was the anonymous source for so long that now he believes it. Woodward and Bernstein are keeping their mouths shut. The Vanity Fair piece breaking it is a pdf file.
[Update: Josh Marshall notes that the Washington Post has confirmed the story with Woodward, Bernstein and Bradley.]
Or so he and his family say. He was the #2 FBI man. He's also 91 years old and may have just been asked if he was the anonymous source for so long that now he believes it. Woodward and Bernstein are keeping their mouths shut. The Vanity Fair piece breaking it is a pdf file.
[Update: Josh Marshall notes that the Washington Post has confirmed the story with Woodward, Bernstein and Bradley.]
Institution of Marriage
A reader sent in this Molly Ivins column, which quotes African-American Texas State Legislator Senfronia Thompson, from a recent debate about a constitutional amendment offered by Representative Chisum. It ultimately passed the House.
A reader sent in this Molly Ivins column, which quotes African-American Texas State Legislator Senfronia Thompson, from a recent debate about a constitutional amendment offered by Representative Chisum. It ultimately passed the House.
When I was a small girl, white folks used to talk about ‘protecting the institution of marriage’ as well. What they meant was if people of my color tried to marry people of Mr. Chisum’s color, you’d often find the people of my color hanging from a tree. ... Fifty years ago, white folks thought interracial marriages were ‘a threat to the institution of marriage.’From what, indeed.
Members, I’m a Christian and a proud Christian. I read the good book and do my best to live by it. I have never read the verse where it says, ‘Gay people can’t marry.’ I have never read the verse where it says, ‘Thou shalt discriminate against those not like me.’ I have never read the verse where it says, ‘Let’s base our public policy on hate and fear and discrimination.’ Christianity to me is love and hope and faith and forgiveness — not hate and discrimination.
I have served in this body a lot of years, and I have seen a lot of promises broken. ... So ... now that blacks and women have equal rights, you turn your hatred to homosexuals, and you still use your misguided reading of the Bible to justify your hatred. You want to pass this ridiculous amendment so you can go home and brag — brag about what? Declare that you saved the people of Texas from what?
Monday, May 30, 2005
MEDIA MONDAY (Postponed)
What have you been reading, listening to, watching?
Finally
HBO has kept us waiting forever for the final seasons of both The Sopranos and the best show on television, Six Feet Under. We still have to wait until 2006 sometime for Tony's last dance, but Six Feet Under gets underway in one week, premiering on Monday, June 6 at 9 pm ET. Being a final season for a show so overtly about death, I don't expect a feel-good wrap-up, but I still can't wait to see it. Season 3 was not so good, but the first, second and last season (the 4th) make up some of the best TV I've ever seen. Hopefully the final, Season Five, will live up to last season's final episode.
Wanna catch up really fast? Watch the entire last season this week on HBO2:
Tuesday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 40,41,42
Wednesday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 43,44,45
Thursday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 46,47,48
Friday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 49,50,51 (the amazingly good season finale)
Fast-Food Nation: The Movie
Richard Linklater is signed to make a "fictionalized thriller" of this non-fiction book. Whatever that means. (via Blog Riley)
Martha Wainwright
Kenny B strongly recommends, and I concur, the music of Rufus' sister, Martha. I was concerned that she was picking up music as a fall-back strategy (she previously tried acting) to capitalize on her name. But she has a commanding, confident voice, and is a fabulous guitar player. I'm looking forward to finding her debut album to see if the honest energy translates from a very small venue to a studio album.
Kenny and I both caught her live at The Basement, a fun new tiny club underneath our town's best record shop, Grimey's. An intimate setting, The Basement is also smoke-free, which had alot to do with how pleasant the experience was. Are you able to catch live music in smoke-free bars where you live? How can we get more of these?
Undisclosed
Robert Greenwald, maker of the documentary films Outfoxed, Unprecedented, Unconstitutional, and Uncovered, will soon reveal details of his next "mystery film".
The Beast
Somebody's been thinking ahead. You think fundamentalist Christians are a pain in the ass now? Wait until next summer, when a film will come out about uncovering "Christianity's best-kept secret": that Jesus never existed. The Beast purports to be "diving into factual territory well-explored by scholars but largely hidden from the view of the public." Why next summer? June 06 (06-06-06). Just in time to get them all riled up heading into the mid-term elections. Thanks alot, Hollywood.
Whale Song Decline
I haven't been listening to whale singing, but Dr. Roger Payne has. And he says that "the whale songs of the 60's were much more beautiful than the whale songs these days." Kinda like the Rolling Stones.
(via BoingBoing)
Weekend Box Office
1. Star Wars: Episode 3
2. Madagascar
3. The Longest Yard
4. Monster-in-Law
5. Kicking and Screaming
I'll chime in with my own Media Monday thoughts sometime tonight [<---Done; see above] (in the meantime, at Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk Myself to Death, Doug reminds us of the reason for the season)--please post your own raves and rants in the comments. In addition to it being a holiday, I also am dealing with a flooded apartment, thanks to a hose on my clothes washer that decided to bust during the hour and a half I was out yesterday afternoon. You haven't lived until you've come home to water gushing out of your ceiling light fixtures into a lake where the carpet used to be.
Going away for a holiday this summer? Think about turning off the water. Lucky for me (and the neighbors) I was only gone for 90 minutes.
What have you been reading, listening to, watching?
Finally
HBO has kept us waiting forever for the final seasons of both The Sopranos and the best show on television, Six Feet Under. We still have to wait until 2006 sometime for Tony's last dance, but Six Feet Under gets underway in one week, premiering on Monday, June 6 at 9 pm ET. Being a final season for a show so overtly about death, I don't expect a feel-good wrap-up, but I still can't wait to see it. Season 3 was not so good, but the first, second and last season (the 4th) make up some of the best TV I've ever seen. Hopefully the final, Season Five, will live up to last season's final episode.
Wanna catch up really fast? Watch the entire last season this week on HBO2:
Tuesday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 40,41,42
Wednesday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 43,44,45
Thursday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 46,47,48
Friday: 8,9,10 pm ET--Episodes 49,50,51 (the amazingly good season finale)
Fast-Food Nation: The Movie
Richard Linklater is signed to make a "fictionalized thriller" of this non-fiction book. Whatever that means. (via Blog Riley)
Martha Wainwright
Kenny B strongly recommends, and I concur, the music of Rufus' sister, Martha. I was concerned that she was picking up music as a fall-back strategy (she previously tried acting) to capitalize on her name. But she has a commanding, confident voice, and is a fabulous guitar player. I'm looking forward to finding her debut album to see if the honest energy translates from a very small venue to a studio album.
Kenny and I both caught her live at The Basement, a fun new tiny club underneath our town's best record shop, Grimey's. An intimate setting, The Basement is also smoke-free, which had alot to do with how pleasant the experience was. Are you able to catch live music in smoke-free bars where you live? How can we get more of these?
Undisclosed
Robert Greenwald, maker of the documentary films Outfoxed, Unprecedented, Unconstitutional, and Uncovered, will soon reveal details of his next "mystery film".
The Beast
Somebody's been thinking ahead. You think fundamentalist Christians are a pain in the ass now? Wait until next summer, when a film will come out about uncovering "Christianity's best-kept secret": that Jesus never existed. The Beast purports to be "diving into factual territory well-explored by scholars but largely hidden from the view of the public." Why next summer? June 06 (06-06-06). Just in time to get them all riled up heading into the mid-term elections. Thanks alot, Hollywood.
Whale Song Decline
I haven't been listening to whale singing, but Dr. Roger Payne has. And he says that "the whale songs of the 60's were much more beautiful than the whale songs these days." Kinda like the Rolling Stones.
(via BoingBoing)
Weekend Box Office
1. Star Wars: Episode 3
2. Madagascar
3. The Longest Yard
4. Monster-in-Law
5. Kicking and Screaming
Going away for a holiday this summer? Think about turning off the water. Lucky for me (and the neighbors) I was only gone for 90 minutes.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Specter Kicking Butt
AMERICAblog has the PA Senator smacking down the conservative Brownback from Kansas over stem cell research on this morning's ABC talk show.
AMERICAblog has the PA Senator smacking down the conservative Brownback from Kansas over stem cell research on this morning's ABC talk show.
(Not so) Secret Meetings of Urgency
Interested parties on the left and the right have been conducting secret meetings to try and agree on proposals that would expand health coverage to as many uninsured as quickly as possible.
Since the group includes reps from the insurance and the pharmaceutical industries, there's a decent chance that any resulting legislation will actually have a chance to pass; for the same reason, there's also a good chance it will be crap.
Things will have to get a good bit worse before they get alot better with a reasonable universal coverage system. According to David Broder, after reading the National Coalition on Health Care report, that time may be now:
Interested parties on the left and the right have been conducting secret meetings to try and agree on proposals that would expand health coverage to as many uninsured as quickly as possible.
Since the group includes reps from the insurance and the pharmaceutical industries, there's a decent chance that any resulting legislation will actually have a chance to pass; for the same reason, there's also a good chance it will be crap.
The group is considering these options:I like the one where workers will be able to have money taken right out of their checks to pay for their insurance directly. Woohoo--thanks!! Sounds like many new ways for people to be able to, or required to, send money to insurance companies.
--The federal government could require parents to arrange health insurance for their children up to a certain age, say 21. If the children were not eligible for public programs like Medicaid, the parents could obtain tax credits to help meet the cost.
--If an employer does not offer health benefits to employees, the workers could designate amounts to be withheld from their paychecks, along with taxes. These amounts would eventually be forwarded to insurers to pay premiums.
--The federal government could provide tax credits to low-income individuals and families or small businesses to help them pay for insurance. The full amount of the credit would be sent directly to the insurer.
--Medicaid could be expanded to cover any adult with income below the official poverty level (about $9,600 for an individual). Each state would decide for itself whether to do this, and the federal government would provide financial incentives for states to take the option.
--The federal government would offer small grants to states to help them establish insurance purchasing pools. Individuals and small businesses could buy coverage through these pools.
Things will have to get a good bit worse before they get alot better with a reasonable universal coverage system. According to David Broder, after reading the National Coalition on Health Care report, that time may be now:
(T)he potential savings to business, individuals and government from comprehensive reform of the beleaguered medical-insurance-hospital system....are startling -- a projected saving of anywhere from $320 billion to $1.1 trillion in the first 10 years, even while insurance coverage is extended to every American and stronger quality measures are put in place.The National Coalition's website is here.
[SNIP]
Underlining the advantage of systemic reform are [Chairman of the Emory University Department of Health Policy Kenneth] Thorpe's calculations of the likely consequences of doing nothing to change the current system. Without fundamental change, by 2015, the United States is likely to have 54 million uninsured -- 20 percent more than today -- and be spending 19 percent of its gross domestic product on health care, compared with 15.6 percent today.
Friday, May 27, 2005
The Speech Every Graduate (and no adult) Should Be Hearing This Month
Given by Howard Zinn, at Spelman College
enough really an act of any kind.
He's right (still, a paragraph later). Only peaceful, determined, principled, organized confrontation will keep us--eventually--from terrorizing the world, from terrorizing gay people, from leaving the vast majority of citizens (of the US and the World), not to mention governments, impoverished in one way or another. Confrontation annoys, irritates, rouses attention. I don't lack the will, or the nerve, to act--even if I did, those things can be increased with time and circumstance. I'm worse. I lack the constitution for it. Just a loose knitting of decent manners masquerading as a human being. (That kind of (non)existence really impresses the ladies too!)
Amid a brief excursion into mainstream political activism, my impression is that it is essentially endless, directionless, pointless meetings, one after another, plus giving what money you can to the same old ineffective machines. Something's got to change. I've got to act (up) more, or else care less. Horrible things are being done in our name, under our noses, and sold as righteous, patriotic, freedom-loving Christian values; and what am I doing?
A good graduation speech should make the graduates feel empowered and the adults feel like failures. It worked. Thanks, Howard.
Given by Howard Zinn, at Spelman College
My first hope is that you will not be too discouraged by the way the world looks at this moment. It is easy to be discouraged, because our nation is at war - still another war, war after war - and our government seems determined to expand its empire even if it costs the lives of tens of thousands of human beings. There is poverty in this country, and homelessness, and people without health care, and crowded classrooms, but our government, which has trillions of dollars to spend, is spending its wealth on war. There are a billion people in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East who need clean water and medicine to deal with malaria and tuberculosis and AIDS, but our government, which has thousands of nuclear weapons, is experimenting with even more deadly nuclear weapons. Yes, it is easy to be discouraged by all that.Then he reminded that the Civil Rights Movement did eventually break the entrenched, institutionalized discrimination of the White South, and that an anti-war movement among soldiers, citizens, and draftees did eventually end the seemingly never-ending Vietnam War. And concluded:
The lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change. The government may try to deceive the people, and the newspapers and television may do the same, but the truth has a way of coming out. The truth has a power greater than a hundred lies. I know you have practical things to do - to get jobs and get married and have children. You may become prosperous and be considered a success in the way our society defines success, by wealth and standing and prestige. But that is not enough for a good life.He's right. At times, it feels like there are so many fronts of injustice, greed, and just plain bullying, that I have a hard time knowing just where to mount a resistance; harder still is knowing how to resist with any efficacy. That concern then becomes my complaint ("It won't work!") in response to every idea, and I end up doing the easiest thing of all, nothing. Voting isn't enough. Being right--even when I am--doesn't help. Blogging isn't
He's right (still, a paragraph later). Only peaceful, determined, principled, organized confrontation will keep us--eventually--from terrorizing the world, from terrorizing gay people, from leaving the vast majority of citizens (of the US and the World), not to mention governments, impoverished in one way or another. Confrontation annoys, irritates, rouses attention. I don't lack the will, or the nerve, to act--even if I did, those things can be increased with time and circumstance. I'm worse. I lack the constitution for it. Just a loose knitting of decent manners masquerading as a human being. (That kind of (non)existence really impresses the ladies too!)
Amid a brief excursion into mainstream political activism, my impression is that it is essentially endless, directionless, pointless meetings, one after another, plus giving what money you can to the same old ineffective machines. Something's got to change. I've got to act (up) more, or else care less. Horrible things are being done in our name, under our noses, and sold as righteous, patriotic, freedom-loving Christian values; and what am I doing?
A good graduation speech should make the graduates feel empowered and the adults feel like failures. It worked. Thanks, Howard.
LATimes says Frist should resign
Link
Link
The best thing a Senate majority leader with presidential aspirations can do is quit. That was Bob Dole's strategy in 1996, when he resigned to run against President Clinton. And it may be part of Bill Frist's decision not to seek reelection in 2006. If so, Frist could hardly make a smarter move.It's too far away from '08 to be saying such things, but Frist's Presidential hopes are sure looking silly aren't they? I have never been one that gives him much of a chance though. Meanwhile, Hillary's prospects are looking up. Sadly, there are 3 years for the other side to tear her down; I'm sure they will try to do just that.
[SNIP]
Frist may be bringing trouble on himself by trying to satisfy the exorbitant demands of his party's far-right wing, which, like the old Soviet Union, views one concession simply as an occasion to ask for another. Before Frist truckles any further to the conservative base, he would do well to remember that the Hippocratic oath should apply to the Senate as well: First do no harm.
Step Away From the Soft Drink
Via BoingBoing
Via BoingBoing
Among respondents to the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), more than two thirds reported drinking enough soda and/or sweet drinks to provide them with a greater proportion of daily calories than any other food. In addition, obesity rates were higher among these sweet drink consumers.
Thursday, May 26, 2005
The Party Against Desecration
John at Americablog (which has become such essential reading that I've added it to the blogroll) has a fabulous idea for Democrats:
John at Americablog (which has become such essential reading that I've added it to the blogroll) has a fabulous idea for Democrats:
Congress ought to pass a law banning the military from desecrating the Bible, the Quran, or the Torah. Come on, Democrats. The Republicans would crap their pants if you offered this legislation. If they opposed it, they'd be responsible for sending a terrible message to the world - not to mention, I'd love to see them explain to the voters why they refused to vote for the Bible Protection Act.I agree. Hillary Clinton, are you listening?
Hilarious
Swiped this link from Kos. "Store Wars" is no "Battleship Pumpkin," but it's damned funny and brilliant.
Swiped this link from Kos. "Store Wars" is no "Battleship Pumpkin," but it's damned funny and brilliant.
Bad Timing
From the local news. On Wednesday, Harold Ford, Jr. files as a candidate for US Senate. On Thursday, his uncle, John Ford, is arrested on charges of being a corrupt State Senator.
From the local news. On Wednesday, Harold Ford, Jr. files as a candidate for US Senate. On Thursday, his uncle, John Ford, is arrested on charges of being a corrupt State Senator.
Numbers
500 detainees held for 4 years (so far) without being charged
50,000 detainees in 42 detention facilities during military operations
300 recorded cases of alleged abuse
100 detainees hidden from the Red Cross
40+ deaths by police taser
59 state-sponsored executions
5 released from death row for innocence
70 child offenders on death row
And that's just in 2004. Read Amnesty International's report on your United States.
500 detainees held for 4 years (so far) without being charged
50,000 detainees in 42 detention facilities during military operations
300 recorded cases of alleged abuse
100 detainees hidden from the Red Cross
40+ deaths by police taser
59 state-sponsored executions
5 released from death row for innocence
70 child offenders on death row
And that's just in 2004. Read Amnesty International's report on your United States.
Faking It
Tina Brown thinks we're just not falling for it anymore. Lied to by the President and his buddies, lied to by a Congress that claims to care about "life" and the "traditions of the Senate", lied to by the military, lied to by celebrities ("I didn't touch that boy", "You will love my new movie", "I'm rehabilitated!"), and now, worst of all, lied to by--*gasp*--Tom Cruise.
TV cameras are the new truth serum. The harder they try, the clearer we see right through them. Famous people need a new schtick. We're so done with them. Lying about love is the last straw.
Tina Brown thinks we're just not falling for it anymore. Lied to by the President and his buddies, lied to by a Congress that claims to care about "life" and the "traditions of the Senate", lied to by the military, lied to by celebrities ("I didn't touch that boy", "You will love my new movie", "I'm rehabilitated!"), and now, worst of all, lied to by--*gasp*--Tom Cruise.
Maybe there's been some alarming secret studio poll that proves scientifically (or Scientologically?) that Cruise's weirdness/asexuality rating is at an all-time high. But with a new movie to promote (the impending Steven Spielberg monster "War of the Worlds"), a People magazine poll showing 62 percent of readers dismissing the Tom/Katie liaison as a publicity stunt, and showy PDA ploys falling flat, Cruise resorted to desperate measures:I think she's right. We're on to them. We know Paris Hilton isn't really that stupid; that Flavor Flav isn't really in love with Brigitte Nielsen; that Madonna isn't really Jewish now; that Bill Frist didn't really learn to love Jesus in Washington; that George W. isn't really like one of us.
[SNIP]
"Sure They're in Love -- With Publicity" ran the Boston Globe headline. What Cruise doesn't seem to get is that everybody's an insider now, from the Us Magazine generation on up to the AARP cohort. Tom is just not hip to the public's new hipness. We know the poor guy has to go on "Oprah" and pretend to be in love with Holmes, and we don't mind -- he has a movie coming out. But can't he, like, fake it with more conviction?
TV cameras are the new truth serum. The harder they try, the clearer we see right through them. Famous people need a new schtick. We're so done with them. Lying about love is the last straw.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Emergencies
TalkLeft reports on the "stupid arrest of the week"
TalkLeft reports on the "stupid arrest of the week"
Police in Charlotte, North Carolina arrested an 86 year old woman for calling 911 to complain that a pizza restaurant refused to deliver pizza to her apartment.Silly woman. Everybody knows that when you don't get your pizza, you call the Governor. In Tennessee, that's Phil Bredesen: 615-741-2001. The police are busy tracking down and prosecuting real criminals.
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Courage, Justice, and the Fortunate Seat in the Car [UPDATED]
For a few years, I have been a fan of the arguments of Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford. He is a brilliant, forward-thinking, legal pioneer in intellectual property. His blog is one of the first I ever read, notable for its passion, its overt search for positions of integrity, its ambition to change the way we think about copyright in the digital age, and its occasional especially honest moments of self-deprecation and doubt.
Witness this recent post, in which he laments the pressures he puts on himself in public speaking, the extent of his travels away from home, and his decision to agree to less engagements to see more of his wife and his very young son in person. All this from a man that may turn out to be the most significant legal scholar of the turn of this century. Done right, weblogs allow this kind of get-to-know-you-even-though-I-don't-know-you (non)intimacy. So it was especially heartening and touching to learn that he is also a strong and courageous person, as he awaits the New Jersey State Supreme Court's decision in Hardwicke v. American Boychoir School, an appeal he himself argued, against a school he himself attended as a young teenager.
[UPDATE 1: On his blog, Prof. Lessig posts briefly on the article]
[UPDATE 2: Plaintiff John Hardwicke posts a comment here at Article 19, so be sure to read those, but the article first.]
For a few years, I have been a fan of the arguments of Professor Lawrence Lessig of Stanford. He is a brilliant, forward-thinking, legal pioneer in intellectual property. His blog is one of the first I ever read, notable for its passion, its overt search for positions of integrity, its ambition to change the way we think about copyright in the digital age, and its occasional especially honest moments of self-deprecation and doubt.
Witness this recent post, in which he laments the pressures he puts on himself in public speaking, the extent of his travels away from home, and his decision to agree to less engagements to see more of his wife and his very young son in person. All this from a man that may turn out to be the most significant legal scholar of the turn of this century. Done right, weblogs allow this kind of get-to-know-you-even-though-I-don't-know-you (non)intimacy. So it was especially heartening and touching to learn that he is also a strong and courageous person, as he awaits the New Jersey State Supreme Court's decision in Hardwicke v. American Boychoir School, an appeal he himself argued, against a school he himself attended as a young teenager.
During his work on the case, Lessig has been asked more than once by the press if he had experiences at the school similar to Hardwicke’s. And Lessig has replied, “My experiences aren’t what’s at issue here. What’s at issue is what happened to John Hardwicke.”The entire story, in the New York Metro, is a must-read, both for those who, upon enduring life's collisions, have felt the brunt of the painful seats in the car, and those who manage to emerge, unharmed, from a fortunate seat.
The answer is appropriate, politic—but it’s not entirely true. For Lessig has told me that he too was abused at the Boychoir School, and by the same music director that Hardwicke claims was one of his abusers. Lessig is by nature a shy, intensely private person. The fact of his abuse is known to almost no one: not the reporters covering the case, not the supreme-court justices. The fact of his abuse isn’t even known to Larry Lessig’s parents.
In taking this case, however, Lessig has cast aside his caution about a secret that haunts him still. And while his passion about his client’s cause is real and visceral, Hardwicke isn’t the only plaintiff here. Lessig is also litigating on behalf of the child he once was.
[UPDATE 1: On his blog, Prof. Lessig posts briefly on the article]
[UPDATE 2: Plaintiff John Hardwicke posts a comment here at Article 19, so be sure to read those, but the article first.]
Impending Calamity in 2036?
We'll see if Bush cares as much about addressing this disaster down the road as he does social security. Which would be worse, raising the cap on payroll taxes or getting pounded by a meteor 320 meters in diameter, as a scientist warned at a recent meeting of the National Space Society International Space Development Conference? I'm betting Bush and the Republicans are willing to roll the dice on that one.
We'll see if Bush cares as much about addressing this disaster down the road as he does social security. Which would be worse, raising the cap on payroll taxes or getting pounded by a meteor 320 meters in diameter, as a scientist warned at a recent meeting of the National Space Society International Space Development Conference? I'm betting Bush and the Republicans are willing to roll the dice on that one.
Compromise
The worst part about the filibuster compromise (pdf) is that Janice Rogers Brown gets confirmed to the DC Circuit. That's especially bad for a couple reasons: 1) The DC Circuit is a reasonably moderate one, with some progressive hints. Now, it's going to be significantly more conservative. Priscilla Owen may be just as bad on many issues, but the 5th Circuit was already a lost cause. 2) Brown seriously raises the bar as to what can be counted as "extreme" or "extraordinary" cases, those which would allow those signatories to break their pledge not to support a filibuster. If Brown doesn't count as extreme, who does?
I still think Bush will pick a Dobson-loving Supreme Court nominee for a vacancy (maybe not the first), and dare Democrats in this group to break ranks. If he doesn't, then this deal really is a good one.
Other than that, my instinct is that the deal is craptacular, that we were close to having the votes to defeat Frist today, and that even if they won it would have caused them great political damage that may have overcome whatever judicial appointments they were able to make. But there's no way to know.
To read other perspectives:
Bad deal
Russ Feingold
Jeralyn at TalkLeft (part 1; part 2)
Matt Yglesias (with caveats)
Good Deal
Kos (part 1, part 2)
Josh Marshall (with caveats)
Josh also points out that we can at least enjoy the steam coming out of the ears of both Gary Bauer and James Dobson. But the last laugh has not yet been had.
The worst part about the filibuster compromise (pdf) is that Janice Rogers Brown gets confirmed to the DC Circuit. That's especially bad for a couple reasons: 1) The DC Circuit is a reasonably moderate one, with some progressive hints. Now, it's going to be significantly more conservative. Priscilla Owen may be just as bad on many issues, but the 5th Circuit was already a lost cause. 2) Brown seriously raises the bar as to what can be counted as "extreme" or "extraordinary" cases, those which would allow those signatories to break their pledge not to support a filibuster. If Brown doesn't count as extreme, who does?
I still think Bush will pick a Dobson-loving Supreme Court nominee for a vacancy (maybe not the first), and dare Democrats in this group to break ranks. If he doesn't, then this deal really is a good one.
Other than that, my instinct is that the deal is craptacular, that we were close to having the votes to defeat Frist today, and that even if they won it would have caused them great political damage that may have overcome whatever judicial appointments they were able to make. But there's no way to know.
To read other perspectives:
Bad deal
Russ Feingold
Jeralyn at TalkLeft (part 1; part 2)
Matt Yglesias (with caveats)
Good Deal
Kos (part 1, part 2)
Josh Marshall (with caveats)
Josh also points out that we can at least enjoy the steam coming out of the ears of both Gary Bauer and James Dobson. But the last laugh has not yet been had.
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