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Dean to Washington Dems: Drop Dead!

Sidney Blumenthal writes in Salon that Dean's gaffes may well be helping him:

‘The New Republicans': ‘Drunken sailor' spending?

The NY Times editorializes: "The most striking thing about the new Republicanism is the way it embraces big government. The Bush administration has presided over a $400 billion expansion of Medicare entitlements. The party that once campaigned to abolish the Department of Education has produced an education plan that involves unprecedented federal involvement in local public schools. There is talk from the White House about a grandiose new moon shot. Budgetary watchdogs like the Heritage Foundation echo the Republican Senator John McCain's complaint about 'drunken sailor' spending." ...

Comic David Cross on voting and f*ckin' bumper stickers

Wiretap's Dan Hoyle interviews comic Dave Cross: "It's pretty galling that I know people will wait in line for a weekend to see a f*ckin' movie that's gonna be there for three months, but won't wait in line for 12 minutes to vote. If not for yourself, then for everyone else, it's truly one of the most selfish things you can do. Just the fact that you won't educate yourself on the issues. It's truly one of the most selfish things you can do. Especially because so many people have suffered to obtain that right, or obtain the idea of that right."

The Death of Horatio Alger

Paul Krugman writes aboutreading "a leftist rag that made outrageous claims about America. It said that we are becoming a society in which the poor tend to stay poor, no matter how hard they work; in which sons are much more likely to inherit the socioeconomic status of their father than they were a generation ago." That "rag," he says, is Business Week. "The article summarizes recent research showing that social mobility in the United States (which was never as high as legend had it) has declined considerably over the past few decades. If you put that research together with other research that shows a drastic increase in income and wealth inequality, you reach an uncomfortable conclusion: America looks more and more like a class-ridden society. And guess what? Our political leaders are doing everything they can to fortify class inequality, while denouncing anyone who complains -- or even points out what is happening -- as a practitioner of 'class warfare.'"

God is not a right-wing zealot

A compelling story in Salon: "In the heart of the Bluegrass, a Bible Belt preacher is rallying people to political action around what he calls 'basic religious values.' Think you can describe his politics? Think again. This man of the cloth wants 'regime change' in Washington. The Rev. Albert Pennybacker, a Lexington, Ky.-based pastor, is head of the Clergy Leadership Network, a new, cross-denominational group of liberal and moderate religious leaders seeking to counter the influence of the religious right and to mobilize voters to change leadership in Washington. Pennybacker, affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and a pastor of 35 years, is tired of the conventional wisdom that equates religiosity with conservatism. Nationwide, he says, the religious right often squeezes out the left in public debate. The group is 1,000 members strong -- and growing.

Bennie Thompson to endorse Howard Dean

AP is reporting that Rep. Bennie Thompson plans to endorse Howard Dean for president: "Dean's campaign had said Thompson would have a conference call on Monday with reporters and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke to announce Thompson's endorsement and discuss 'African-American outreach and strategy.' Thompson, a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus, said he's ready to endorse Dean, but not quite yet. 'I will make an endorsement, probably by the first of the year,' Thompson said. "I've looked at all the candidates. And Dean, in my estimation, has the best chance of beating Bush.' Unlike the other Democratic candidates, Dean is 'willing to discuss controversial issues,' Thompson said."

Asleep at the Budget Wheel?

According to an AP poll, President Bush's economic policies are playing better with the country this week—the stock market is up, consumer confidence is rolling along and Bush's economy approval numbers bumped up to 55% approval and 43% disapproval.

Nader Eyes Bid

Will Nader run again? Of course some Republican pollsters would like it, but he doesn't appear to have the same support he had in 2000 -- he may not even run as a Green Party candidate. (He was never a card-carrying Green anyway.) At this point, his persistent desire to run looks like it involves more than a little hubris, especially in the face of this:

Dean's Foreign Policy: I Am No George Bush

An interesting piece about Howard Dean and his foreign-policy ideas by John Tirman of the Social Science Research Council:

‘Is this the neo-con century?'

(Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

Michelle Goldberg reports in Salon: "Neoconservatives are very sensitive people. Even those who've attained stature and power are exquisitely attuned to insults hurled from obscure quarters of the left as well as the barbs of French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin. It's not only bombastic blogger Andrew Sullivan who trolls Web sites like Indymedia.org, hunting for evidence of moral relativism. No less a personage than Richard Perle, the neocon kingpin who sits on the Pentagon's Defense Advisory Board, bristled with irritation when mentioning Talking Points Memo, the blog of liberal Washington journalist Joshua Micah Marshall. To answer the criticism directed against his movement, Perle appeared with Marshall at a panel on Monday in Washington called 'Is the Neoconservative Moment Over?' Perle's answer: Not even close."

Rise of the Third Party?

Here's an interesting Washington Post piece on tech in politics and a little hint as to why the Dean campaign apparatus allows a smaller "third party" organization to organize politically. Could the Internet spells doom for the two-party "duopoly"?

Supreme Court to consider Cheney's secret task force

CBS Marketwatch is reporting: "The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the White House must reveal the energy-industry contacts that helped a task force headed by Vice President Dick Cheney formulate an energy policy blueprint in 2001. The high court on Monday said it would hear a White House appeal of a lower court ruling that ordered the Bush administration to hand over details of the task force meetings to Judicial Watch, a government watchdog group, and the Sierra Club, an environmental group."

Dean Under Attack, Trippi Says

To watch the attack ad in Windows Media Player, click here:

E-mailed to Dean list this a.m. from Trippi: "A faceless group that the Washington Post calls 'despicable' is using hundreds of thousands of dollars to air vicious television ads that use pictures of Osama bin Laden to attack Howard Dean. Don't wait. We're under attack, and we need your help now.

Democratic ‘Shadow' Groups Face Scrutiny

The Washington Post reports: "Leading campaign finance watchdog organizations as well as Republican activists intend to challenge the new 'shadow' Democratic Party -- a network of independent groups gearing up to spend as much as $300 million on voter mobilization and pro-Democratic TV ads. The organizations -- the Center for Responsive Politics, the Campaign Legal Center and Democracy 21 -- contend that the pro-Democratic groups are violating prohibitions on the use of corporate and labor money for partisan voter registration and mobilization drives. Trevor Potter, chairman of the Campaign Legal Center, said the groups have become 'the new soft money loophole. . . . This is the beginning of an important discussion about how these groups are going to operate.'" ... Harold Ickes, who runs the pro-Democratic Media Fund, contended the Republican and watchdog critics are "one, trying to tie us up; two, divert our attention; three, force us to spend money on legal fees rather than electoral activities; and four, to try to chill our contributors."

[Lott] A Generous Giving

To hear some folks talk, you'd think that big places with the most compassionate liberal attitudes and bountiful personal incomes would be teaming with the most generous, nicest, most appreciative people on Earth — thankful for and humbled by their material blessings and, in turn, always helping the poor, the downtrodden and anyone with less for which to be thankful. In fact, it's the opposite. Some of America's biggest, wealthiest and so-called "progressive" places are the stingiest in terms of the percentage of their charitable giving, while America's smallest, most conservative and less affluent states tend to be the most generous. Among these, Mississippi is the most giving.

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