Former Green Party leader Jim Harris says meeting first Green MP will be “like being in Berlin the day the Berlin Wall fell” and “like being in South Africa when Nelson Mandela was liberated from jail… .”
by matttbastard
Former Green Party leader Jim Harris can barely contain himself:
Today is a day of days. It’s the first day of a new era. It’s a day that you don’t want to miss. Come to Guelph today. There are tectonic forces at work in Canadian politics.
I imagine it’s like being in Berlin the day the Berlin Wall fell. It’s like being in South Africa when Nelson Mandela was liberated from jail — or the day he was inaugurated as President. Imagine being in Berlin or South Africa while history was shifting . . .
We are in such a moment. Funny thing is not everyone sees or feels the moment in terms of how profound it is until later — when history books are written. Carpe Diem! Seize the day — today is the day we all get to be part of history. It’s the day we’ll tell our grandchildren about — I was there when . . .
Meet Canada’s first Green MP in Guelph today (Sunday, August 31)! Blair Wilson, the former independent MP who is now the Green Party’s first MP in Parliament, comes to Guelph with Elizabeth May to support Mike Nagy’s campaign.
To quote Johnny Rotten, “ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” After a rousing buildup like that, I was expecting a bigger pay off than “meet Blair Wilson!” If the superfluity of parody was ever in doubt…
Seizing The Narrative
More On Blair Wilson, Elizabeth May, and The Green Party of Canada
by matttbastard
Self-described “card-carrying Green” Stuart Hertzog is none too pleased that Blair Wilson is now Canada’s first Green MP:
Why don’t I see this as good news? Because in accepting Blair Wilson into its ranks, Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May has shown that she’s prepared to throw out fundamental Green political principles just so she can be included in the nationally-televised leadership debate. Put simply, that sucks.
[...]
[W]hat effect will this appointment from ‘on high’ of a fallen Liberal star as Canada’s history-making first ‘Green’ MP have on local Green Party members? Were they consulted about this, or did they learn about it from the media?
I’m not living in that riding, but as a card-carrying Green I’m disgusted with this display of old-style, back-room political thinking that believes that secret negotiations to persuade star candidates to run under the Green Party banner is the way to open, democratic politics and ecological security.
Such shenanigans may create a brief flurry in the media — but at what cost? Blair Wilson MP has done well in the past by toeing the Liberal Party line, but the Liberal party’s environmental record is not good. Canadians saw little genuine progress in environmental enforcement during the decades it was in power.
Has Blair Wllson suddenly discovered a new ecological consciousness as a newly-minted Green? Or is his greening as pale as the current attempt to paint the Liberal Party green after its decades of environmental neglect? What are his Green credentials? He may call himself a Green MP — but is he really one?
[...]
Green politics was supposed to be different, an alternative to the moral and financial corruption of old-style politics. But Canada’s Green parties seem to have drifted away from these Green ideals. As the Green ‘brand’ grows in popularity, a new wave of political opportunists are hopping aboard the Green Party wagon as it trundles slowly but seemingly inevitably towards Ottawa.
Make sure to read the whole thing. I think pogge nails it when he says (in comments; scroll down) “[t]he way to fix a broken electoral system isn’t to game it even more by exploiting whatever loopholes you can find. That’s a recipe for making voters [and, apparently, ideological partisans--mb] even more cynical than they already are.”
Quote of the Day: Too Clever By Half
by matttbastard
I can’t help but be, oh, a little bit skeptical of Republicans’ sudden interest in the glass ceiling. After all, this is the party that threw women like Lilly Ledbetter under the bus, in favor of businesses that practice wage discrimination. The party that stymied the Equal Rights Amendment. The party that not only wants to force women here and abroad to carry unwanted pregnancies to term, but also wants to deny them access to a range of contraception options.
[...]
It’s clear that Republicans believe that what made Hillary Clinton such a good candidate was her gender, not her political experience or positions on the issues. And McCain’s decision to pick Palin shows he took this message to heart and chose to add her to the ticket primarily because of her gender. In so doing, McCain has turned the idea of the first woman in the White House from a true moment of change to an empty pander.
Why is this a pander? Because Palin is not a woman who has a record of representing women’s interests. She is beloved by extremely right-wing conservatives for her anti-choice record (fittingly, she’s a member of the faux-feminist anti-choice group Feminists for Life). Palin supports federal anti-gay marriage legislation. She believes schools should teach creationism. Alaska is currently considering spending more on abstinence-only sex education. And when it comes to a slew of other issues of importance to women, such as equal pay, she’s not on the record.
Of course, I’m of the belief that more women in politics — across the ideological spectrum — is always a good thing. On a superficial level, nominating a woman to the Republican presidential ticket is indeed a milestone. But the real reason many women were excited about Hillary Clinton’s candidacy is that she was the whole package — a politician with a solid record on issues like choice and fair pay, and with a lot of experience, who was also a woman. Even feminists I disagreed with during the primary made the compelling point that it wasn’t just about Hillary’s gender. It was about her record, too.
- Ann Friedman, McCain’s Sexist VP Choice
Ends and Means
by matttbastard
The day that Mr. Emerson “crossed the floor” to the Conservative party was a dark day for Canadian democracy… He has betrayed his supporters and the entire electorate in Vancouver Kingsway. He has put his personal goals ahead of those of the electorate.
I’ll enjoy having Elizabeth May explain why her party did a total…180° on that one at the debates.
Oh, snap! Welcome to prime time, Liz.
Blair Wilson, Canada’s First Green MP: Yes, We Can (Be Underwhelmed)
by matttbastard
Bruce Campion-Smith, writing for The Toronto Star:
The Green Party has wooed Independent MP Blair Wilson to its ranks, giving the party its first politician in the House of Commons and as a result, a spot in the televised election debates.
Because the party now has a MP, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May will be entitled to participate in the televised leaders’ debates in the election that is expected to be called within days.
[...]
“Democracy is threatened when legitimate national leaders are barred from what is arguably the single most important political event in an election – the televised debates,” Wilson said in the release issued by the Green Party.
“It is shocking that the Green Party was excluded from the debates in the past, but by joining the Green Party, I can help guarantee that this travesty will not be repeated in the next election,” he said.
Campion-Smith calls the suprise maneuver “a stunning strategic victory for May” prior to an election widely expected to take place October 14th. However, it’s hard to muster much enthusiasm for yet another round of vote-free Parliamentary seat-rearrangement. As noted by Campion-Smith, Wilson campaigned and was elected as a Liberal, and only left the Grits last fall as a result of a financial scandal (although an Elections Canada investigation recently found “minimal evidence of financial wrongdoing.”, according to North Shore Outlook, which led Wilson’s attorney to declare that Wilson had “been exonerated of everything serious.”)
pogge, who notes that “as recently as two weeks ago [Wilson] was still trying very hard to be reinstated as a Liberal and wanted the Liberal nomination in West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast—Sea to Sky Country”, is (imo rightly) skeptical about what this means for Wilson, May and the Greens:
This sudden elevation of the Green Party and of Elizabeth May’s status isn’t the result of a choice by voters. It’s the result of one guy who was, rightly or wrongly, kicked out of the party he originally chose and couldn’t get back in. On a rational basis I don’t believe that qualifies Elizabeth May to participate in a debate where she’ll be the only leader arguing that some other party’s leader ought to be Prime Minister.
When I think of the current state of Canadian Federal politics, the word that almost immediately springs to mind is cynicism. Maneuvers like this–to say nothing of Harper’s opportunistic jettisoning of his own fixed election reforms–do little to increase voter confidence in the health of our Parliamentary system. No wonder, as noted in today’s Halifax Chronicle Herald, some eligible voters (including yours truly) may have felt a little “campaign envy” this week as history unfolded before our eyes south of the border:
Americans are being dared to dream; Canadians hardly dare to eat luncheon meat.
If an election does come, there are no gripping issues, merely the end of the game of who triggers it and when.
The likely outcome is another minority government requiring the same sort of bipartisan compromises that supposedly can’t be made now. Not exactly the stuff of mile-high enthusiasm.
There are practical reasons electoral energy cycles are out of sync across the 49th parallel.
Canadians have nothing like the historic choice of electing the first black president, or the first woman vice-president now that John McCain has boldly picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Well, I wouldn’t quite go that far. Since this editorial was published, Canada has boldly made a small-town cheap contribution to the annals of political history. Yep–watching a tainted ex-Liberal hitch his political fortunes to a party dedicated to, um, electing Liberals certainly gives me hope for this fall’s homegrown electoral festivities; finally, a little bit of change that we as Canadians can, if not outright believe in, at least feign indifference towards.
Obey DNC: Denver Riot Cop Viciously Assaults, Arrests Code Pink Protester
by matttbastard
To paraphrase The Strokes, “Mile High city cops/they ain’t too smaaart”:
A police officer was videotaped Tuesday shoving a CodePink protester hard to the ground without any apparent sign of provocation.
Footage of the incident prompted the city’s independent monitor to call for a review and the police department’s Internal Affairs Bureau to request a copy of the tape.
Police arrested Alicia Forrest, 24, a Los Angeles resident whom CodePink representatives identified as the woman involved in the altercation, shortly afterward as she was addressing reporters just outside Civic Center.
The arrest – in which Forrest was grabbed and hauled away from reporters – also was caught on camera, and CodePink legal liaison Sally Newman said Forrest was doing “nothing violent at all” to incur either the shove or the arrest.
“Horror, shock and total support of Alicia,” said CodePink spokeswoman Jean Stevens, describing the reaction when she and other members of the antiwar group viewed the video for the first time. “We wish we could help. We wish we could be with her.”
Three guesses what the police spin is:
Lt. Ron Saunier, a Denver police spokesman, said the 30-second clip was “kind of jumpy” on his computer and that it doesn’t provide enough context.
“Just shown in that context, you don’t get what the whole dynamics or the full situation is,” he said.
Yeah, who are you gonna believe — a sniveling PR flack, or your lyin’ eyes?
More from the RMN on Alicia Forrest:
[Forrest]…is tired from the ordeal, but “she’s optimistic for further CodePink action and progress for the week,” her organization said in a statement.
“I was standing up for my free speech rights, showing support for a fellow activist,” Forrest said in the statement. “If anything, this has showed me how powerful standing up for your beliefs can be, and how necessary it is for the truth to get out even in the face of resistance.”
Powerful and, therefore, as far as those who are empowered to demand obedience at all costs are concerned, a threat (to their authority, their ego, their apparently fragile manhood).
Pausing for History
by matttbastard
Photo: Barack Obama, Flickr, used under a Creative Commons licence.
“It’s times like these we learn to live again.”
- Foo Fighters
(Sorry for the recent lack of updates — have been furiously livetweeting the DNC on Twitter. Follow me: http://twitter.com/matttbastard. Also, big ups to my #dnc08 snark-buddies Sylvia, Elle, Donna and Carmen D. You guys rock.)
DNC ’08 Tweet Watch: Bipartisan Sleep Aids
by matttbastard
Republican Jim Leach’s speech gave us a view into how Obama would break partisan gridlock in D.C: by creating a mass wave of narcolepsy.
Post-partisan FAIzzzzzzz.
Kyle Payne Sentenced
by matttbastard
Lynda Waddington reports that Kyle Payne was sentenced today to 6 months in county jail:
Payne received 360 days, with 180 days suspended on each of two counts of invasion of privacy, a serious misdemeanor charge. He was also given one year of probation on each count. On the charge of 2nd degree attempted burglary, a felony, Payne received an indeterminate term of prison not to exceed five years, with incarceration suspended. He will placed on probation for three years.
In addition, under a new portion of Iowa law that involves sexually-related crimes, Payne was given a 10 year period of parole. That sentence begins at the end of his regular term of probation. Because of the nature of his crime, he will not be required to register as a sex offender in the state of Iowa.
[...]
“This is the type of thing that happens, but not to you,” said the victim as she read a pre-prepared impact statement in court today. “… You might be given jail time, but for me this is like a life sentence.”
She added that since she was unconscious, Payne is the only person who truly knows what happened that night and left the implication hanging that there might have been more to the event than him partially undressing her, touching her inappropriately and shooting photographs and video.
The victim’s mother, who also provided an impact statement in court, said that the incident had “crushed the spirit of her daughter” and has fractured her ability to trust others.
“You are a sick young man,” the mother said. “I think you’ve done this before and will do it again. Our family does not accept your apology. We do not care about your self-inflicted suffering. You reap what you sow.”
So that’s it. Justice is served. Cold comfort for the most important person in all this: the woman Payne victimized.
h/t Lauredhel
DNC ’08 Tweet Watch: Baiting Bill Donohue Edition
by matttbastard
Trojan, the condom manufacturer, has set up shop near the press mags. They’re handing out condoms.
Quote of the Day: Literalizing a Metaphor
by matttbastard
To me, one of the problems of the paradigm of global war is that it has not signified war in the metaphorical sense, like war on AIDS, war on drugs, and war on poverty. It has signified war in a literal sense that the employment of military power, on a large scale, in pursuit of very large ambitions—like the liberation or dominance or transformation of Iraq—ought to really be the principle instrument in order to achieve our purposes. I think that takes us down the wrong road. I think, and others have argued, that a new version of containment actually provides the basis to begin thinking about how to prevent another 9/11. Not a new war, not a global war, not a protracted war. The answer to the problem is not to invade and occupy countries, which we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, but relying on other instruments of power to try to prevent Islamic radicalism from increasing its reach and its influence in the world.
I’ve reviewed [Robert] Kagan’s new book [The Return of History and the End of Dreams] in the most recent issue [of Foreign Affairs], and I was very critical of the book. I really didn’t like it, but the one thing that really bowled me over, and that I emphatically agree with, is that what the Islamists have on offer cannot win. The plan that they have, the concept for how people should live, is simply not responsive to what ordinary folk want for their lives. I mean, they are fighting against modernity, and as Robert Kagan says, that is a fight that they cannot win.
Almost everything on this struggle is on our side, and therefore we should approach it with the confidence and patience, and shouldn’t run pell-mell into these military adventures that the Bush administration has approached. Our adversaries are contemptible. Our adversaries are criminals. Our adversaries are murderers. We ought not to dignify their cause as if it were the equivalent of Marxism or Leninism or National Socialism or something of the last century, because they don’t deserve that type of status.
- Andrew Bacevich, from a recent interview with Greg Bruno of the Council on Foreign Relations
From the Desk of John Sidney McCain, R-POW
by matttbastard
NBC Correspondent Kelly O’Donnell transcribes reports from the Straight Talk Express:
Advisors say if Obama gets “nastier” on [the 'how many houses'] issue that opens the door for them. Advisors say the “Rezko deal stinks to the high heavens.” They will be prepared to show McCain’s “home” in Hanoi by using images of his cell. They claim they have not overused the POW element and insist they have “underused it.”
Since O’Donnell is apparently angling for a lucrative new position as McCain campaign stenographer, I’ll happily do her current job for her and challenge the notion that McCain has ever been reluctant to play the POW card:
- McCain aired a December 2007 television ad in which Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling said: “McCain has been tested like no other politician in America. As a prisoner of war, he turned down an offer for early release because he refused preferential treatment.”
- In a January 1 Washington Post article, reporter Alec MacGillis wrote that “[a]t many of his [McCain's] events, his campaign sets up a screen and plays for the crowd a three-minute film called ‘Service With Honor,’ telling the story of McCain’s more than five years of captivity in a North Vietnamese prison after his Navy plane was shot down in 1967. ‘He was offered early release, and he told ‘em to shove it,’ says one fellow prisoner of war, Paul Galanti.”
- At a June 26 campaign event in Cincinnati, McCain said: “When I was allowed the opportunity, given the opportunity to return home early from prison camp. I decided against that because I knew the effect that it would have on my fellow prisoners.”
- In a June 28 speech to the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, a July 8 speech to the League of United Latin American Citizens, and a July 14 speech to National Council of La Raza Convention, McCain repeated this statement: “When I was in prison in Vietnam, I like other of my fellow POWs, was offered early release by my captors. Most of us refused because we were bound to our code of conduct, which said those who had been captured the earliest had to be released the soonest.”
- In a July 8 McCain campaign television ad, an announcer states of McCain: “John McCain: Shot down. Bayoneted. Tortured. Offered early release, he said, ‘No.’ He’d sworn an oath.”
- At a July 17 campaign event in Kansas City, Missouri, McCain said: “[T]he Vietnamese came to me and said, we’ll allow you to go home early because my father happened to be a high ranking admiral. Our code of conduct said that only those go home early in order of capture. It was a brave young Mexican-American by the name of Everett Alvarez who had been in prison a couple years longer than I had. So I knew I had to refuse.” Similarly, at a July 18 campaign event in Warren, Michigan, McCain said (retrieved from Nexis): “One time when I was in prison in North Vietnam and the North Vietnamese came and said, ‘You can go home early,’ because my father was a high-ranking admiral, I chose not to do that.”
A noun, a verb and POW. That really is all they’ve got. And–surprise, surprise–instead of calling out the McCain campaign’s rank bullshit, his base is once again eagerly swallowing it without even bothering to ask for ketchup.
What Sully Said
by matttbastard
"Oh yes, with sprinkles!"
New Political Animal head honcho Steve Benen has penned the ultimate smackdown of Ron “keep up the fight” Fournier’s bullshit op-ed-masquerading-as-analysis re: the newly announced Obama/Biden ticket (sample dingleberry of wisdom: Biden “talks too much”–yep, that’s why they pay Ron the big bucks, folks), both of which y’all should check out (assuming you haven’t yet done so). But I want to highlight something that Andrew Sullivan also noticed regarding Fournier and his blatant (if inconsistent) use of “aggressive Republican spin”:
Last spring…Fournier was lambasting Obama for arrogance [link added--mb]. Now, apparently, it’s a lack of confidence. Whatever works, I guess. But please, get a blog.
From “ooz[ing] entitlement” to lacking confidence–apparently even the DC bureau chief of the Associated Press has trouble keeping GOP talking points straight. Forget blogging — methinks Fournier should just get out of the beltway entirely, maybe score himself a nice quiet job behind the counter of Dunkin’ Donuts.
Whatever works, natch.
Related: Jack and Jill Politics rounds up a cross-section of responses to the veep announcement from POC commentators; Jimmy Orr Peter Grier provides a more, um, traditional (read: analytical) analysis; Cara is underwhelmed, skdadl is optimistic, publius is “psyched” and Hilzoy is thankful Obama didn’t pick Bayh (aren’t we all); Delaware native Shawn Mullen paints an informative (if at times fawning) portrait of Biden; various reactions from NARAL, Hillary Clinton, and Howard Wolfson, who notes that Obama’s pragmatic, traditional veep choice “gives an opening to the McCain campaign to pick a woman or make an out-of-the-box selection.”
Update: This is interesting:
The Washington Bureau Chief of the Associated Press, Ron Fournier, may command speaker’s fees of up to $10,000 per appearance.
As of this writing, Fournier appears to be available for booking through the All American Talent & Celebrity Network‘s website. I called to confirm that he was still listed with the agency, but I haven’t heard back yet.
According to his speaker bio, Fournier co-wrote a book called Applebee’s America with Bush’s former chief strategist Matthew Dowd and former high-level Clinton adviser, Doug Sosnik. Appropriately enough, the 2006 book is a treatise on political marketing for politicians, captains of industry, and mega-church pastors.
AP’s ethics policy on outside appearances:
OUTSIDE APPEARANCES:
Employees frequently appear on radio and TV news programs as panelists asking questions of newsmakers; such appearances are encouraged.However, there is potential for conflict if staffers are asked to give their opinions on issues or personalities of the day. Advance discussion and clearance from a staffer’s supervisor are required.
Employees must inform a news manager before accepting honoraria and/or reimbursement of expenses for giving speeches or participating in seminars at colleges and universities or at other educational events if such appearance makes use of AP’s name or the employee represents himself or herself as an AP employee. No fees should be accepted from governmental bodies; trade, lobbying or special interest groups; businesses, or labor groups; or any group that would pose a conflict of interest. All appearances must receive prior approval from a staffer’s supervisor.
h/t Steve Clemons
CMA Opposes Bill C-484
by matttbastard
The Canadian Medical Association voted Wednesday (“by a wide margin”, according to the Edmonton Sun) to come out against C-484, The Unborn Victims of Crime Act:
Dr. Robert Ouellet, who assumed the CMA presidency yesterday, said the physician group opposes the bill.
“It’s not about abortion, being for or against abortion,” Ouellet said. “It’s being against making doctors criminals.”
Ouellet said the CMA has a legal paper suggesting the bill, if passed, could make a doctor who performs an abortion vulnerable to charges.
h/t Fern Hill
The McCain Residences: A Google Earth Tour
by matttbastard
h/t cleek
The Politico (h/t Liss):
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said in an interview Wednesday that he was uncertain how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own.
“I think — I’ll have my staff get to you,” McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. “It’s condominiums where — I’ll have them get to you.”
John McCain: man of the people.
Also, from the ‘ruthlessly flogging parody’s lifeless carcass’ file, John Hinderaker (h/t Jeff Fecke):
The latest campaign kerfuffle is Obama’s effort to make hay out of John McCain’s inability to tell a reporter how many houses he owns. McCain mumbled something about condos and said the reporter should talk to his wife. Predictably, Obama is trying to spin this exchange as showing that McCain is “out of touch.”
I can relate, though. For example, if a reporter asked me how many ties I own, there’s no way I could answer. Just like McCain, I’d tell him he has to ask my wife. Likewise if someone wants to know how many Wii games my kids have.
[...]
Touche, I guess. The truth is that McCain isn’t out of touch with “ordinary people” because he’s rich, he’s out of touch with his own domestic arrangements because he cares little about material things, and for many years has devoted his extraordinary energies not to enjoying his wife’s money, but to serving the American people. Given the number of nights he’s spent in hotels or on military bases over the last few years, it’s no wonder he hasn’t seen much of his wife’s condos.
Apparently the wingnuts are now hell-bent on adding ‘logic’ and ‘argumentation’ to the post-9/11 rhetorical body count. (What, y’all thought they’d stop with slaying parody, irony and reality?) Alas, it seems Hindrocket didn’t get the official McCain campaign memo re: generic response to criticism before posting–noun, verb, POW:
“This is a guy who lived in one house for five and a half years—in prison,” referring to the prisoner of war camp that McCain was in during the Vietnam War.
I’m amazed someone hasn’t yet come up with a drinking game for superfluous McCain POW references.
Related: publius on why the McCain housing gaffe transcends ‘gotcha’ politics.
Quote of the Day: The Rhetoric of Confrontation and Confusion
by matttbastard
There’s a moral problem with all the pro-Georgia cheerleading, which has gotten lost in the op-ed blasts against Putin’s neo-imperialism. A recurring phenomenon of the early Cold War was that America encouraged oppressed peoples to rise up and fight for freedom — and then, when things got rough, abandoned them to their fate. The CIA did that egregiously in the early 1950s, broadcasting to the Soviet republics and the nations of Eastern Europe that America would back their liberation from Soviet tyranny. After the brutal suppression of the Hungarian revolution in 1956, responsible U.S. leaders learned to be more cautious, and more honest about the limits of American power.
Now, after the Georgia war, McCain should learn that lesson: American leaders shouldn’t make threats the country can’t deliver or promises it isn’t prepared to keep. The rhetoric of confrontation may make us feel good, but other people end up getting killed.
- David Ignatius, The Risk of the Zinger
h/t Clive Crook
Related: Ivan Krastev on the ‘great power trap’:
The politics of mixed – and confused – signals emanating from Washington continued throughout the five days of the Russia-Georgia conflict. The outcome is doubly revealing: of the fact that the US does not have leverage over Moscow, and that Bush’s rhetorical commitment to guarantee the territorial integrity of Georgia is indeed just rhetoric. In short, the Bush administration’s crisis-management was the worst of both worlds: it had no sense of direction, and it lost credibility.
Moscow too made a grave strategic miscalculation. The decision to follow the crushing of the Georgian assault on Tskhinvali by invasion of Georgia proper – though with no political plan, no local political allies to help remove Saakashvili, and no principle on which to build a Caucasus settlement after the war – meant that Russia’s actions were guaranteed to invite stinging international criticism. Russia has not offered anything, articulated any larger and inclusive project to make sense of its military campaign or enable it to reach out to neighbouring states and international partners. Russia has, in narrow terms, won; but it could yet turn out to be the biggest loser of the Georgian war.
Pete Doherty: Menace to Society (Not a Pisstake)
by matttbastard
The most dangerous band in Wiltshire is…Babyshambles?!
Singer Pete Doherty has been blocked from performing at a music festival amid fears his band would “gee up” the crowd into a dangerous frenzy.
The decision came after police asked an intelligence officer to research Doherty’s band, Babyshambles, who were booked to headline Moonfest festival in Westbury, Wiltshire, next week. They concluded that the band’s tendency to “speed up and then slow down the music” could create a “whirlpool effect” and spark disorder.
[...]
…Superintendent Paul Williams said the ban was designed to preserve public safety. “Experts are telling us that the profile of fans that follow Pete Doherty and Babyshambles is volatile and they can easily be whipped up into a frenzy, whereas the profile of someone that would follow around Cliff Richard or Bucks Fizz, for example, is completely different.”
Indeed–the list of boroughs that have suffered in the wake of the “whirlpool effect” (buh?!) are innumerable. Shifting dynamics are, without a doubt, a frenzy-inducing scourge on par with reefer, Elvis’ pelvis and running with scissors (paging the ghost of Sid Davis). Seriously, the only ‘threat’ posed by Pete Doherty is to any foliage within pissing-range of the backstage area (Cliff Richard, however, is, contra Superintendent Williams and his so-called “experts”, one bad-ass motherfucker).
Kyle Payne Update: Keep those letters coming!
by matttbastard
Sick fuck “feminist activist” and confessed sexual violator Kyle Payne will be sentenced on August 25th.
I’m letting you know this simply because letters in support of the victim are still needed.
Buena Vista County Courthouse, 215 East Fifth Street
P.O. Box 276
Storm Lake, IA 50588
Fax: 712-732-3397I have been emailed by Darren, who said that on August 15th, he was told by the court that they had only received two letters in support of the victim. If this is true, it’s certainly disturbing and must be corrected. I know that I mailed mine last week [as did I - mb]. I’m also concerned because while I was searching to verify the fax number (yes, it’s correct), I also found the address above in numerous places, and it’s the first time I’ve seen a P.O. Box along with the address [ditto - mb]. So, for that reason I think I’m going to re-fax my letter today to make sure that they’ve received it. I don’t see how it could hurt.
Please write and fax a letter of support for the victim ASAP.
Cara also posts a sample form letter that she encourages folks to use as a creative jump-off, but please make sure to put it in your own words — this isn’t an astroturf campaign.
Kick Ass Blogger in the Hizzouse
by matttbastard
Yeah, that’s right — Kev has declared it to be so, and, thus, it is so.
Here’s how it works:
Choose 5 bloggers that you feel are “Kick Ass Bloggers”
Let ‘em know in your post or via email, twitter or blog comments that they’ve received an award
Share the love and link back to both the person who awarded you and back to MammaDawg
Hop on back to the Kick Ass Blogger Club HQ to sign Mr. Linky then pass it on!
Anyway, as per the rules, here’s my list (by no means exclusive) of 5 bloggers who kick my ass:
- Daisy – my favourite radical feminist revolutionary, Daisy is a self-described ‘old lady’ who used to party like a rock star (she still does, for all I know) and perfectly embodies the spirit of ass-kicking.
- April Reign – the Fearless Leader of the Bread and Roses media empire, April is both a tireless ass-kicking activist and a notorious WordPress theme fetishist.
- Purtek – eloquent, thought provoking and occasionally profane, Purtek makes Christianity cool.
- The baby-eaters of Birth Pangs – yes, I realize the rules seem to indicate that individual bloggers are to be recognized for their booty-booting prowess. Well, rules were made to be broken, especially for tireless abortionist-enablers @ BP like fern hill, dBO and Co. who make such a powerful collective impact on so many posteriors
- The ACR crew – and, since I’ve already bent the rules once, I would be remiss not to recognize the ass-kickers @ A Creative Revolution. Whether taking on the Canadian neocon establishment, founding and administrating the Canadian F-Word Blog Awards, or drinking their way through the best YouTube has to offer, Dr. Pale, Dr. Prole and Dr. Frank are, without qualification, kick ass bloggers.
So there you have it — 5 (ahem) bloggers who kick ass. For more ass-kicking awesomeness please feel free to check out the RSS feeds at the side and the world famous bastard.logic blogroll.
PSA: Accountability for Musharraf and a Restoration of the November 2nd Judiciary
by matttbastard
Via Teeth Maestro:
People’s Resistance
Press Release – 18 August 2008
People’s Resistance attributes the resignation of retired General Pervez Musharraf as President of Pakistan to the long and untiring struggle of the Lawyers, students, civil society organizations and political groups. The civil society and media’s struggle against the arbitrary rule of General Musharraf forced the ruling democratic coalition to start the process of impeachment that eventually led to his resignation.
Though we celebrate his resignation, we call for the fair trial of General Musharraf for the long list of crimes against the people of Pakistan including removal of judiciary, abrogating the constitution, forced disappearances, torture and deaths in custody of citizens especially from Baluchistan, and for killing people in Tribal Areas of Pakistan.
In this vein the People’s Resistance demands the immediate restoration of the judiciary to its November 02 composition, as it was before the promulgation of the PCOs suspending the constitution.
Musharraf Resigns
by matttbastard
Was never a matter of ‘if’, but, rather, when:
Speaking on television from his presidential office here at 1 p.m., Mr. Musharraf, dressed in a gray suit and tie, said that after consulting with his aides, “I have decided to resign today.” He said he was putting national interest above “personal bravado.”
“Whether I win or lose the impeachment, the nation will lose,” he said, adding that he was not prepared to put the office of the presidency through the impeachment process.
Mr. Musharraf said the governing coalition, which has pushed for impeachment, had tried to “turn lies into truths.”
“They don’t realize they can succeed against me but the country will undergo irreparable damage.”
In an emotional ending to a speech lasting more than an hour, Mr. Musharraf raised his clenched fists to chest height, and said, “Long live Pakistan!”
Good riddance.
So what happens next? As Kamran Rehmat notes, the resignation likely signals the end of the uneasy ruling coaltion between Asif Zardari’s PPP and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N:
The dominant view is that the desire to remove the former president was the glue – and part of an understanding – that held them together following a spectacular showing at the February 18 national elections, which saw Musharraf allies drubbed.
For starters, the PPP will be under tremendous pressure to restore the judges Musharraf deposed.
Pakistanis are not likely to quickly forget that the PPP has twice failed to restore them despite public assurances.
The PPP fears the deposed judiciary will revoke the indemnity granted to Asif Zardari, its leader, under a so-called National Reconciliation Ordinance.
Musharraf had decreed the ordinance last year, removing decade-old corruption cases against Zardari and his wife Benazir Bhutto, the slain former premier.
However, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif, who pushed Zardari into making a pitch for Musharraf’s ouster early this month, will unlikely settle for anything less than the reinstatement of judges and a consensus president.
In that, the end of Musharraf’s rule may signal the beginning of real political drama.
Stay tuned, true believers.
Related: Arif Rafiq of Pakistan Policy Blog provides a minute-by-minute breakdown of Musharraf’s rambling resignation speech (h/t Abu Muqawama); BBC News has extensive coverage, including ‘key excerpts’ from the speech, a look back at Musharraf’s ‘mixed legacy’ and the impact his resignation will have on the ‘war on terror’; Pakinstani blogger Teeth Maestro calls for Pakistanis to “hold strong” and “rebuild Pakistan” and expresses concerns about the likelihood of a Zardari presidency (“Run for the hills!”)
2008 Black Weblog Awards Final Ballot Voting
by matttbastard
Final ballot voting for the 2008 Black Weblog Awards is now underway. And–holy shit–bastard.logic is up for Best International Blog. Thanks once again to Liss @ Shakesville and everyone else who nominated us–I am truly chuffed by the honour.
Voting continues until August 31st, with winners to be announced on September 4th. Go on–VOTE!
Trying Not To Freak Out
by matttbastard
Is this what they call ‘baffling them with bullshit?’ Cos, brother, consider me baffled:
In a recent paper I [Steven D. Levitt] co-authored with Roland Fryer, Lisa Kahn, and Jorg Spenkuch, we look at data to try to answer that question. Here is what we find:
1) Mixed-race kids grow up in households that are similar along many dimensions to those in which black children grow up: similar incomes, the father is much less likely to be around than in white households, etc.
2) In terms of academic performance, mixed-race kids fall in between blacks and whites.
3) Mixed-race kids do have one advantage over white and black kids: the mixed-race kids are much more attractive on average.
The really interesting result, though, is the next one.
4) There are some bad adolescent behaviors that whites do more than blacks (like drinking and smoking), and there are other bad adolescent behaviors that blacks do more than whites (watching TV, fighting, getting sexually transmitted diseases). Mixed-race kids manage to be as bad as whites on the white behaviors and as bad as blacks on the black behaviors. Mixed-race kids act out in almost every way measured in the data set.
So how does Levitt manage to apply economic theory in explaining the shockingly stereotypical results produced by his oh-so-rigourous study of teh mulatto “plight”?
We try to use economic theory to explain this set of facts. I can’t say we are entirely successful. If we had to pick an explanation that best fits the facts, it would be the old sociology model of mixed-race individuals as the “marginal man”: not part of either racial group and therefore torn by inner conflict.
“I can’t say we are entirely successful”–Steve, buddy, when did you of all people become so proficient in the fine art of understatement? Look, thanks for the, um, concern, pal– though my experience is, of course, purely anecdotal, I must confess that the only “inner conflict” this (undeniably attractive) mixed-race individual currently faces is the eternal struggle between waffles and crepes (What? Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, especially after an evening of alcoholic indulgence *cough*). However, in moments like these it seems all-too-apparent that there comes a time when every buzz theorist reaches the limits of what can be pulled out of his or her ass before the ‘hu-whut?! effect becomes just too overwhelming.
And trust me on this: you ain’t got no more pseudo-intellectual dingleberries left to pluck.
h/t Latoya Peterson
More on Obama, Celebrity and Miscengenation
by matttbastard
Re: the recent McCain campaign ad labelling Barack Obama a celebrity (and not-so-subtly juxtaposing the junior senator from Illinois with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears), Adam Serwer (aka dnA of Too Sense and Jack and Jill Politics) believes that, contra yours truly and other commentators, the racial subtext of the advertisement isn’t actually miscegenation. Rather, he contends that the McCain campaign has constructed a Nixonian paean to white resentment provoked by the undeserved success of an uppity person of colour:
The Britney ad is a result of the ongoing meme in this election that Obama’s success, like that of “overpaid black athletes,” is an affront to hardworking white people everywhere. The ad never mentions Obama’s race as the source of his celebrity, but it doesn’t have to — it’s been part of the campaign long enough for the point to be implicit. In short, this ad is Geraldine Ferraro’s attack done “right,” in the sense that it does not directly implicate the McCain campaign as exploiting racial tensions.
The McCain campaign’s apparently race-neutral approach, and its subsequent accusation that the Obama campaign is playing the race card, is a well-thought-out strategy — it is pure Nixon. In his recent chronicle of conservative political history in The New Yorker, George Packer describes Pat Buchanan’s plan for exploiting political divisions, particularly ones of a racial nature. Buchanan’s assessment was that they could “cut the Democratic Party and country in half; my view is that we would have far the larger half.”
In a dispute about race, the McCain campaign knows it will end up with the larger half. For the most part, most white people’s experience with race isn’t one of racial discrimination. They can only relate to racial discrimination in the abstract. What white people can relate to is the fear of being unjustly accused of racism. This is the larger half. This is why allegations of racism often provoke more outrage than actual racism, because most of the country can relate to one (the accusation of racism) easier than the other (actual racism). For this reason, in a political conflict over race, the McCain campaign has the advantage, because saying the race card has been played is actually the ultimate race card.
Because of this advantage, dnA (it just don’t feel right to call the brother by his real name) further argues that, instead of tackling these racist attacks head on, “[i]t’s in the Obama campaign’s interest to keep the conversation on matters of policy, where it has an advantage not yet reflected in the polls”:
[Democrats] need to resist the temptation to engage in protracted battles with the McCain campaign about racism directed at their candidate, because the nation’s demographics and the circumstances of Obama’s rise make it difficult if not impossible to win the argument. Instead, they should attempt to focus the conversation back to policy questions. Democrats have a candidate who is sophisticated in his understanding of policy, and Republicans have a candidate who is still largely running on his biography as a war hero, whose only coherent and consistent remaining policy position is support for offshore drilling. Driving home that point will become increasingly difficult if McCain is re-energized by the presence of white voters who are themselves anxious about being seen as racist. From their point of view, Obama’s presence on the national stage is proof that any charge of racism on their behalf is frivolous. This is nonsense, but there’s nothing really that can be done about it.
As always, dnA’s points are compelling and well-thought out. He certainly has me thinking about how I’ve reacted to the calculated racism that has been–and continues to be–employed against Obama throughout the campaign. In other words, read the whole damn thing.
(photo: Barack Obama, Flickr, used under a Creative Commons License)
PSA: Protest against transphobia and sex worker oppression
by matttbastard
Via Shameless:
The Maitland Homewood Safety Association [of Toronto] is waging a campaign to rid their neighbourhood of trans sex workers. Every Friday and Saturday starting at 11pm the Association goes out armed with flashlights to [harass] the women working in the neighbourhood. There have been some reports that the members of the Association have physically assaulted transwomen.
If you care about the rights of trans and sex working women to be free of harassment and nimbyism (which you should) and are free this Friday, then join us Friday August 15th at 11pm at Homewood and Maitland to show our support to the women in the neighbourhood, as well as to send a clear message to the Homewood-Maitland Safety Association that violence and harassment against trans women will not be tolerated.
PLEASE NOTE: Organizers of this event are being targeted by this group, we need as many people there as possible to ensure our safety. For more info on the [Association's] transphobia please check out http://splinterjete.livejournal.com/78658.html
and
http://spocgirl.braveblog.com/entry/27765
Double Standards Masquerading as Mitigating Circumstances
by matttbastard
I ain’t got nuthin but yet another highball of WTF on the rocks for this one:
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority was under pressure today to give full payouts to at least 14 rape victims who had their awards cut because they had been drinking when they were attacked.
Justice minister Bridget Prentice called on the body to automatically review cases where women had been told their alcohol consumption had contributed to their fate, insisting it was not government policy to blame victims and the guidelines had been wrong applied.
Vera Baird, the solicitor general, also issued a rebuke to the authority. “It is vital CICA understand that women are not responsible for men’s criminality because they have a drink or for any other reason,” she said.
“Nobody would suggest that if someone’s wallet was stolen after having a drink then their compensation should be reduced.”
h/t Debra @ BnR
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