Laying down his markers.
Archive for February, 2009
Obama seems determined
Saturday, February 28th, 2009Friday Night Music-Percy Sledge
Friday, February 27th, 2009Number One on the Big-D for an ungodly number of weeks in a row. When a Man Loves a Woman.
The non-Apology Apology
Friday, February 27th, 2009Last week the New York Post ran a scurrilous and racist cartoon. In the face of overwhelming public revulsion-it apologized. It was a classic blame the victim apology, implying as it did that anyone who said they were offended was not truly offended, and that in any event, the problem was with millions who saw the cartoon as racist, not with the isolated individuals who did not:
It was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else – as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
However, there are some in the media and in public life who have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback.
To them, no apology is due.
I.e, this apology is only operative for those who did not complain.
This sort of apology has risen to a high art form recently. I wrote a while back about a Catholic Bishop whose excommunication the pope recently lifted. The man has denied the holocaust, although he’s admitted that several hundred thousand Jews were killed, but not six million. The pope, who unconvincingly claimed he didn’t know about the man’s views, demanded that he “unequivocally and publicly renounce his claims that there were no gas chambers and that fewer than 300,000 Jews died in the Nazi death camps”.
It will be interesting to see if the Pope is satisfied with his apology. The man is not a Jesuit, but his apology is definitely Jesuitical:
In a statement published by the Zenit news agency on Thursday, Bishop Williamson said, “I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them.”
He added, “To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said, before God I apologize.”
He’s sorry if you were honestly offended by his remarks. He’s sorry people felt hurt. He’s sorry for the harm it caused the church and Holocaust survivors and relatives. If he had only known the harm he’d cause, he never would have said it. But he’s not backing down one inch from the substance of what he said. And as an extra little twist to the victims of the Holocaust, he’s more sorry for any harm he did to the pope than to them. So much for an unequivocal and public renunciation of his views. So much for an acknowledgment that he did anything wrong.
This is becoming a high art form. One can imagine Hitler’s apology: I’m sorry if you were offended by the fact that I killed six million Jews, along with causing a war that caused untold misery for countless others. If I had known how it would all turn out, I probably would have done things differently.
UPDATE: As a commenter notes, the Church has so far refused to accepted Williamson’s statement as adequate. Maybe some good will come out of all of this.
On a more bizarre note, guess who Williamson consulted to check the historical record:
Bishop Williamson has said in recent weeks that he needs more time to study Holocaust documentation. David Irving, a historian who served 13 months in prison in Austria for Holocaust denial, said in a telephone interview on Friday that Bishop Williamson had contacted him asking for assistance in assessing the Holocaust. Mr. Irving said the bishop had written him through an intermediary, saying: “At the heart of this whole uproar is the objective truth about what happened in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. I must conform my mind to the truth.”
…
Mr. Irving said he believed the outrage with the Vatican for trying to rehabilitate Bishop Williamson was orchestrated by Israel to distract the international community from the recent war in Gaza.
Mr. Irving said he responded to Bishop Williamson’s request for assistance by sending him a two-page memorandum advising the bishop “to accept that there were organized mass killings from the spring of 1942 to October 1943” in three sites run by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler: Treblinka, Sobibor and Belzec.
Going to David Irving, a notorious Holocaust denier, for advice about the Holocaust is a little like going to Pat Robertson for an unbiased critique of evolution. Anyone interested might want to read the judgment handed down against Irving by a British court, which you can read here.
At least he didn’t kiss him
Thursday, February 26th, 2009Check this out at My Left Nutmeg. I’m with one of the commenters. This looks more like supplication than a mutual embrace. God, Lieberman is a toad.
Jim Amann visits
Thursday, February 26th, 2009Well, if Groton is any indication, Amann is not much of a draw. Granted, our Town Committee attendance is often dreadful, but we pretty much hit rock bottom tonight. I believe we had about 11 people in attendance, not counting Amann and his retainers. Even I sort of felt sorry for the guy wasting his time to come speak to a handful of people.
I did “ask” him about the Lieberman issue. I use the quote marks because this particular issue gets me somewhat hot under the collar. I had to struggle to contain myself, and I’m sure there are some who would say that I failed. Anyway, his justification is that Lieberman had done him a lot of favors, so he owed him his support out of personal loyalty. On the other hand, he assures us that he would never do it again, nor would he have done it if he could ever possibly have imagined that the future would play out the way it did. No one could possibly have imagined that Lieberman would betray the Democratic party and back the Republican presidential candidate, excepting for us stupid bloggers, of course, and who listens to us? What about the fact that back in 2006 Lieberman was neutral about whether it would be a good idea for the Democrats to become the majority party? He “must have missed that”.
One thing I didn’t ask him about, because, quite frankly, I wanted to go home, was his backing for another Joe-Joe Gentile. He was the scam artist to whom the town of Preston almost gave the rights to develop the old Norwich Hospital grounds. Even after the town saw the error of its ways, Amann was pushing to try to keep Gentile in play. On that issue, there are two possibilities, neither of which is very flattering for Amann. First, he may actually have believed in Gentile, in which case he’s such a shockingly bad judge of people that he has no business being a governor. The other is that he was fully aware that Amann was a con artist, but he backed him in order to curry favor with the unions, to whom Gentile had promised the world (as he had to everyone else). In that case, the guy is both incredibly cynical and incredibly short sighted, because had Gentile ever gotten control of that property the unions would have been just as much victims of the con as everyone else.
One last observation. He apparently really does believe that Rell is not going to run, and that he will win a cakewalk election against the current lieutenant governor, whose name I of course cannot recall and refuse to take the time to Google. I suppose a lieutenant governor has gotten the nomination to succeed the sitting governor at some point in Connecticut’s storied history, though I can’t think of any examples. I.e, it’s not impossible, but it hardly seems like it makes sense to count on it.
David Sirota wants a new job
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Apparently David Sirota is a possibility for the 10:00 just after Rachel Maddow slot on MSNBC. Currently that slot is occupied by a repeat of the 8:00 Countdown show. He sent out a mass email about it, and I reproduce the bulk of it below. It certainly can’t hurt to have another progressive voice on the idiot box. It is worrisome that these news networks are becoming something akin to party organs, though MSNBC does have some heretics. The fact that “they started it” doesn’t make the development any more welcome. That being said, it’s the way the battle is being fought, and there’s no principle involved big enough to justify staying aloof from the fray.
David’s email:
Last month, the New York Times ran a story about MSNBC looking for a
host to fill its open 10pm time-slot and many of you encouraged me to
apply for the job after seeing me on programs like The Rachel Maddow
Show, Bill Moyers Journal and The Colbert Report. Of course, I didn’t
really know what that meant – after all, how the heck do you “apply”
for a TV show? Well, today, my friend and fellow OpenLeft.com writer
Chris Bowers launched a formal campaign to ask MSNBC to consider me
for the slot, and now I’m asking for your help – and the good news
is, I’m not asking you for money, I’m just asking you to take 1
minute of your time to send an email, join a Facebook group and tell
all your friends to do the same.MSNBC president Phil Griffin told the New York Times he wants the
process of selecting a host to be “organic.” That means I need as
many of you as possible to send an email to MSNBC at
letters@msnbc.com with a simple message: Tell them you’d like them to
bring me on for the 10pm job. It also means you forwarding on this
email to as many people as you know asking them to do the same. It
means blogging about this, Twittering this message to friends, and
joining the Facebook group about this campaign at:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=53711796165
Griffin has told reporters he’s not sure MSNBC is going to fill the
slot with a progressive, but that he is watching to see viewer
response for feedback. That’s why your help in this campaign is so
important – and I wouldn’t ask for your help unless I was sure it
could make a significant impact.As many of you know, I’ve appeared on MSNBC many times as a guest
with my friend Rachel Maddow, and appear regularly on other networks.
I also have a syndicated newspaper column, two bestselling books and a
blog, thanks in no small part to all of your support over the years.
So, after a lot of scratching and clawing (and help from you), my
work is starting to get out there. And in all of those forums, I try
to focus on the economic and political issues important to regular
folks – the issues that get short shrift by so much of the media.
Over the years, I’ve worked with so many of you – you’ve given me
ideas, provided leads for stories and critiqued me. It’s improved my
work so much, and now we have a chance to take it to the next level -
and if we do, our work together will only intensify.At this moment of economic crisis, we need as many populist
progressive voices in the media as possible. If we make this happen -
if you help me in this campaign – we can bring all of those issues we
care so much about to the forefront of the national media
conversation.Let me close by saying that while I’ve never been bashful about
promoting a campaign, a cause, a candidate or a book, campaigning for
myself is new to me. It feels a bit uncomfortable, because I’ve tried
to make all of my work about the issues, not about me personally. But
MSNBC has made clear that it wants viewer input in this process of
selecting a host for 10pm, so I decided to swallow my pride, get over
my unease, and do whatever I could to make a real go at this, because
this opportunity to amplify all of our work is real and achievable if
we make our voices heard.Chances like this come around so rarely-so I hope you’ll take a moment and email letters@msnbc.com and ask them to bring me aboard, and then forward this email to all of your friends, join the Facebook group and blog/twitter about it where you can.
As I said before, I wouldn’t ask you to do this if it wasn’t
important, and if I wasn’t sure it would make a huge difference. With
your help, we have a real shot at making this opportunity a reality -
one that can boost all the causes we’ve been pushing for so long.
I’m twitter and Facebook-phobic, but I do have a blog and I’ve sent an email. MSNBC could do far worse than David, so if you’re so inclined, send an email or twitter, etc.
Obama 1, Jindal 0
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009Wasn’t it refreshing to hear a politician advocate for the progressive philosophy in an assertive and unapologetic fashion? The Democrats have been in a defensive crouch for 29 years, and have essentially ceded the terms of the national debate to the right. For a time there it became terribly un-hip to advocate for a governmental role in anything. Obama has changed all that, with help from an economic crisis that has focused a lot of minds on what’s important. Social issue distractions don’t work so well when everyone is worried about their jobs.
I only regret that I opted not to watch Jindal. I’ll have to settle for the anticipated roast on Countdown. It’s a bit hard to believe that the Republicans believe they can get public support by telling a panicked public that there’s nothing to worry about, and in any event there’s nothing that can be done.
Speaking of Jindal, Krugman makes the point that his speech was emblematic of the party of one idea-that government has no role, even in those areas where only government can be effective:
But both sides, I thought, agreed that the government should provide public goods — goods that are nonrival (they benefit everyone) and nonexcludable (there’s no way to restrict the benefits to people who pay.) The classic examples are things like lighthouses and national defense, but there are many others. For example, knowing when a volcano is likely to erupt can save many lives; but there’s no private incentive to spend money on monitoring, since even people who didn’t contribute to maintaining the monitoring system can still benefit from the warning. So that’s the sort of activity that should be undertaken by government.
So what did Bobby Jindal choose to ridicule in this response to Obama last night? Volcano monitoring, of course.
And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.
The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.
It would be refreshing to see one of our TV journalists ask a guy like Jindal whether he has actually taken the time to find out anything about the programs he chooses to heap scorn upon.
Very Sad
Wednesday, February 25th, 2009My wife and I baled on the Courant about six months ago, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the nation’s oldest newspaper. It’s unfortunate, but that title will probably soon be passed on to some other paper. Today, the Courant announced another 150 layoffs, including 30 in the newsroom.
It’s hard not to see this as part of the death spiral.
Had the Courant stayed locally owned, might things have been different? Had the LA Times Company not been acquired by Sam Zell, might things have been different. I have little good to say about Rupert Murdoch, but at least he’s a newspaperman, who cares about his newspapers. It’s not at all clear what Zell was looking to do, but besides himself he’s managed to destroy a fair number of newspapers.
Coming Events
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Gubernatorial politics are heating up. This Thursday the Groton Democratic Town Committee holds is monthly meeting at the Town Hall Annex. The meeting starts at 7:00, and at 7:30 Jim Amann will be there to try to get us to sign on to his delusional quest for the governorship. It’s at times like this that I wish I paid more attention to statewide politics. I’m really not sure what substantive questions I’d like to ask him. I do intend to take the opportunity to remind him that there are many among us who will neither forgive or forget his sins of 2006. Of course, on the merits he’d be a terrible governor. A hack of the highest order.
More importantly, our local State Central Committee member, Scott Bates, is organizing a gubernatorial candidates forum to be held at the Groton Municipal Building on March 14th, at 10:00 AM. Amann, Malloy and Wyman have agreed to attend. Scott is still waiting to hear from Bysiewicz. Hopefully, Susan will come, so we’ll have the opportunity to hear from three serious candidates. I’ll post again on this as the day approaches, because we do want to have a good turnout.
Corporate America at its best
Monday, February 23rd, 2009Via Americablog:
I don’t practice in the worker’s comp area, but what little I know leads me to believe this would not be even a close call in Connecticut. I doubt that it will be a close call even in Arkansas.
Why do they do this? They have nothing to lose. Their potential losses are capped by a statutory formula, and they don’t have to worry about the ire of a jury or a judge, unless Arkansas law happens to allow for some sort of enhanced damages for bad faith, which I doubt. Any settlement at less that the statutory maximum is a win for them.
This is the paradise that awaits us when the right wing achieves its goal of outlawing personal injury and products liability cases.