Chris Coons

I’ve been very busy today. Other than the six-month anniversary of the soil spill (yesterday, actually), there is not a lot going on that needs my attention. Plus, Will tells me I should give this whole thing up. And he may be right. But here is an ad worth watching:

Democratic Surge?

Last night I reported on Russ Feingold’s recent surge in the polls, and DailyKos reports this morning that in three of the last four polls, Joe Sestak is ahead of Paul Toomey. This is happening all over in Senate and House races. It doesn’t mean that these Democrats will win (Feingold is still behind, for example), but it is indicative of something. It is probably as simple as the fact that Republicans are more comfortable being closed minded than Democrats are. Before there are any candidates, Republicans know that they will vote Republican. Democrats want to think about about it. Sure, we will almost certainly vote Democratic, but you never know. So as the election gets closer, Democrats moves from “undecided” (defined as, “might over the course of a lifetime vote for a Republican”) to, “Hell yes, I’m voting for Joe Sestak!”

There is another issue. For the last ten months Democrats have been told that there is a crushing defeat looming, that Republicans have a great enthusiasm edge, that the teabaggers are some new political group that is sweeping across the nation (rather that what it actually was: the most conservative Republicans doing and saying what they always do and say). At least among the Democrats I know, there is great gloom, but also great motivation.

Democrats Set to Lose Big Says The Onion

According to American’s Finest News Source, “Democrats Could Lose Up To 8,000 Seats In Upcoming Midterm Election.” In addition, “Experts also predicted the one-sided election results would cause Barack Obama to die on the spot, at which point the nation’s leading conservative talk-radio host would be sworn in as president of the United States forever.”

Realizing We Suck

One of the biggest problems in America is that we don’t realize how much and where we suck. We are used to hearing that we are the “richest country in the world!” Okay. But by per capita GDP, we are about sixth. By median “purchasing power parity” we are about third. After China becomes the “richest county in the world!” I suspect that we won’t be hearing a lot of, “America is the second richest country in the world!” (BTW: China’s per capita GDP is about 100th, even though it is the, “Second richest country in the world!”)

The issue isn’t money, of course. It just seems that people all over the place have better lives than we do here in America. My quality of life, for example, is greatly reduced knowing that I will not have healthcare in the foreseeable future; as I look towards our reform, I suspect I will just take the tax hit and continue on without healthcare. But as with most things, Americans have been sold this idea that healthcare for all will make us less rich. This may well be true, but it would make us happier and healthier. What’s more, if healthcare reform were done correctly, it could have been used to lower the enormous economic inequality in this country.

Conservatives are fond of saying (implausibly) that businesses are not hiring because of uncertainty about the future regulations and taxes. The truth is that I am almost paralyzed by thoughts about my financial future. I am very worried that the Republicans will get in and legislate me out onto the streets or into a job where I have to buy all my food at the company store. I look at a country like Canada and I think, “How do I get in on that?” Not only does Canada have a higher median income than the USA, but their economic inequality is much lower (half by some estimates). How do I get in on that?

At Least the Banks Are Safe!

Reuter’s reports, “U.S. stocks advanced on Monday as a stronger-than-expected profit from Citigroup helped financial shares shake off worries that the foreclosure mess could threaten the stability of the housing market.” And why not? The Administration has made it clear it plans to do nothing about foreclosure mess.

Four Men Convicted in FBI Plot to Bomb Synagogues?

As has been widely reported, the four men who talked about blowing up synagogues last year have been convicted. There is no doubt that these are bad guys, but this is yet another case where the defendants mightn’t have done anything or been able to do anything, if it weren’t for the FBI providing them with the tools to do it. For every Timothy McVeigh, there must have been thousands of people who talked about doing the same thing. I just don’t see that FBI sting operations make us that much safer. Why not just lock these guys up for making terrorist threats and use our resources to protect us against people can actually accomplish their twisted dreams? On good days, I think the government runs these sting operations to make us feel less fearful; on bad days—that is, most days—I think it does it to make us feel more fearful.

On a related note, CNN reports, “Four men were found guilty Monday of planning to bomb a synagogue and Jewish center…” Note how it is usually the Ground Zero mosque and not the Ground Zero mosque and community center.

More Fun With Sharron Angle

Sharron Angle’s racist border security ad was removed from YouTube for copyright infringement. Oh! And she wants to build a border fence to keep Asians from coming in from Canada. (This is one of her more reasonable policy positions.)

Lizz Winstead on The Ed Show

Lizz Winstead—co-creator of The Daily Show—was on The Ed Show. I don’t usually find her that funny, but she had something very funny to say about “Coons v. Crazy Lady.”

Illegal Foreclosure

In Friday’s column, Paul Krugman discusses the foreclosure mess that has seen at least one man’s house foreclosed on when he didn’t even have a mortgage—to anyone. But the problem is much bigger than this. Krugman writes:

This raises the question: does any particular entity own enough of one of these mortgages to make it worth foreclosing? I’m used to being this disorganized, but I always thought bankers were very organized. In fact, I thought that was all they were.

I picked up a copy of Sweet Charity from the library. It was Bob Fosse’s first film, and his most straight forward. The choreography is probably the best I’ve ever seen. And the songs are great, with lyrics by Dorothy “The Way You Look Tonight” Fields. And the whole “A Doll’s House” plot. But most of all, what I like is that Charity sings the end of “If My Friends Could See Me Now” while hiding in Vittorio’s closet. Up to that point, it had been triumphant and then it is—quite suddenly—sad and wise.

All of Fosse’s movies are about destruction—usually of hope or something like it. Since I was on a Fosse roll, I watched All That Jazz via Instant Watch on Netflix. Sweet Charity is about the destruction of Charity’s hope and illusions. All That Jazz is similar. It is given that Joe Gideon is self-destructive; the movie is about his acceptance of the consequences of his life up to that point. It is about the destruction of his hope for a do-over. Right before he dies, he tells the orderlies, “This is just a rough cut you know; I don’t have the titles in yet; and the underscoring’s not in. It’s not really finished; I need more time.” It is the most important and poignant line in the movie, but the first-half is said in a long-shot, facing away from the camera; the second-half is said off camera. At that moment, he has but a sliver of hope.

Bob Fosse only directed five movies—additionally Cabaret, Lenny, and Star 80. Yet, it is remarkable that they are all at least very good. It is also remarkable that even though he was really a theater director-choreographer, his films are easily as cinematic as any film director in the world. It annoys me when he is compared to Federico Fellini—it seems whenever an American film ombudsman has to deal with a film that isn’t a traditional narrative, they start talking about Fellini. In particular, All That Jazz has often been compared to 8½. I think this is due to the autobiographical nature of each of these films more than anything. Also, whereas All That Jazz is Fosse’s best work—probably one of the ten best films I’ve seen, 8½ is not—although I think it is a rather good film. (Just a note: I don’t see how All That Jazz was influenced by 8½ even indirectly.)

Although Fosse lasted nine years after Joe Gideon, it does seem that Fosse’s hope died with him. He certainly worked less after All That Jazz—maybe for health reasons, I don’t know. But Star 80, the only film he made during those nine years, is certainly his darkest. So his film arc took him from the bittersweet in Sweet Charity and Cabaret to the self-destructive and redemptionless world in Lenny and All That Jazz to the utter hopelessness in Star 80. Who knows where he would have gone from there, but I seriously doubt it would have been a remake of Oklahoma!

Two weekends ago, I attended Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. There were many young people at the event. In fact, I sat right in back of a young couple who were very much in love. It is always nice to see youthful optimism. It prompted me to pull out my notebook, but not to write about them. I wrote only a single line—and it was about the arc of my life: “The death of hope.”

Update

In 1958, eleven years before he made Sweet Charity, Fosse choreographed the film Damn Yankees. It is remarkable just how generic the choreography is. Frankly, it looks a lot like Onna White’s choreography for The Music Man. I don’t say this to slam Fosse or White. It is just remarkable that the very next time Fosse is choreographing on film (in Sweet Charity), he had fully developed his craft.

I don’t feel much up to posting today, and it’s the weekend, but you know how it goes: I don’t have many friends.

Tides Foundation CEO Call for Ad Boycott of Faux News

Earlier this week, Media Matters for America reported on the important roll that Glenn Beck played in causing Byron Williams to attempt to assassinate people at the Tides Foundation. Now they report that Tides CEO and founder Drummond Pike has written a letter calling on advertisers to stop supporting Faux News. Of course, Beck himself refuses to admit to any culpability.

Sometimes “Whore” is Just a Metaphor

As I have talked about before, the Whitman campaign wants to make an issue out of a Brown aide saying that they should call her a whore for her deal with the police union. When Brown countered that Pete Wilson (Whitman’s campaign manager) called Congress whores for their protection of employee unions, Whitman said it was a “completely different thing,” Media Matters for America points out that Faux & Friends is making a big deal of the Brown aide’s comment, while ignoring the Wilson comment—even selectively editing debate coverage.

Tea Party Set to Win Enough Races for Wide Influence?

Without the question mark, that was the headline for a New York Times article today. The article does not support this headline. It says at best teabaggers could make up 8% of either house of Congress. A more likely number is 4%. And most of these teabaggers will simply be replacing more establishment Republicans. Given that teabaggers really aren’t much different from establishment Republicans, I don’t see the issue. Because of their highly dogmatic approach to politics, however, it is likely they will be highly ineffective. Wide influence? I don’t think so.

The Fed Finally Willing to do something

Ben Bernanke announced that it is time that the Fed stopped sitting on its hands and actually tried to do something about the bad economy. Where did he announce it? You gotta love this: Revisiting Monetary Policy in a Low-Inflation Environment Conference. I guess it beats, Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Hellbound, Flesh-Eating Subhumanoid Zombified Living Dead, Part 3—one of the greatest movies I’ve never seen. (Actually, I had wanted to use Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 but I couldn’t remember the title. I thought it was something like, “For somebody who will be blah, blah, blah.” Obviously, it was the “who will be” that finally succeeded. But it took a couple of hours! Thinking it started with “for” was a big part of the problem.)

What Bill Clinton Would Ask Carl Rove

I just found this. It is old, but it shows why Bill Clinton is so great.

Condoleezza Rice on The Daily Show

Jon Stewart provided another softball interview for a conservative. No shock there. More interesting perhaps was at the end of the interview when Rice said, “This is the most tolerant country in the world when it comes to other religions.” Two points here. First, by saying “other” religions, she was implying that America has some kind of official religion. (I wonder what it could be?) Second, I am so tired of hearing about how America is the most and the best and the first and the biggest. The night before, Eric Cantor talked about how our economic system made us the richest country in the world (misleading, because several countries are richer per capita) and therefore allowed us to be the most generous (a common conceit of Americans that is totally untrue). It is also interesting that Rice got two segments—instead of the usual one—during which Stewart gazed at her lovingly like a schoolboy. Is Jon Stewart gearing up for a move to the Republican Party?

Snigger and Jigger on The Young Turks

I like listening to The Young Turks from time to time, but I am usually struck by their general level of ignorance about, well, just about everything. The word “jigger” came up as a possible veiled racial slur in the Illinois Senate race. They dismissed this because jigger is a proper word to use in this case. But one of the Turks mentioned that she didn’t know the word and then didn’t believe that “snigger” was a word. (Interestingly, my textbox doesn’t think it’s a word either.) Oh, those young turks! Oh, those browser programmers!

Government Requests Stay of End to DADT

Why? I don’t even know. Gates says it because the military needs time to change the policy. It sounds more like the government trying not to upset anti-gay bigots who already hate the government (except for the Social Security and Medicare benefits they receive).

How Many Ways is This Charmin Ad Offensive?

Are you not enjoying your “go” enough? Then Charmin Ultra is for you!

Wow. This is the first day of the third month of this garbage: I started on 13 August 2010. I still don’t know what the point is.

Byron Williams: Pawn

You may remember Byron Williams as the guy who engaged in a 12-minute shoot-out with the California Highway Patrol in Oakland on 18 July of this year. It turns out, he was on his way to assassinate people at the Tides Foundation. Most people don’t know the foundation, unless they watch a lot of Glenn Beck. They are a good group that gives money to grassroots and environmental causes. Of course, they are something far more nefarious to Beck and his followers—especially Byron Williams. Media Matters for America has an excellent article about Byron Williams, but you will get most of the information you need from this eight-minute video:

The W-Word?!

The San Jose Mercury News has a good overview of last night’s third and final debate between Brown and Whitman. What most struck me in the debate was Tom Brokaw’s assertion that the word “whore” is the same as the n-word to some women. Whitman, of course, pushed this idea—as did her supporters in the audience. This is ridiculous. If there is one word that almost every woman I know hates, it is the c-word. No one says “the w-word” in polite company. In fact, the word “whore” isn’t overwhelmingly associated with women; it is often used in reference to men. The Whitman campaign is just trying to make an issue out of this where none exists.

Another aspect of this will likely strike many as an unimportant detail, but it bugs me. People keep saying that a Brown aide called Whitman a whore. This is not the case. An aide suggested that Brown call Whitman a whore because she was willing to exempt firefighters and police from pension reform in order to get their support. The exact line was, “What about saying she’s a whore?” If we substituted “socialist” for “whore” would anyone be saying the aide called her a socialist? I don’t think so. Obviously, the Brown campaign can’t make such fine distinctions. But can’t the rest of us? Shouldn’t Tom Brokaw be clear on this point?

Eric Cantor on The Daily Show

During the on-air part of the interview of Eric Cantor on The Daily Show, he was given a lot of latitude with the truth. It sounded almost like a commercial for him. It was only during the Internet-only 18-minute interview where Jon Stewart hammered him. Unfortunately, Stewart had to end on a sour note about not being able to have philosophical conversations with Democrats. When was the last time Stewart had someone on the left who is as extreme as Cantor is on the right?

Maybe Ann Can Be Carl’s Second Mistress

Although I think Bill O’Reilly is an offensive guy with some real anger issues, his politics are more varied than you would think—he is pro-choice, for example. Ann Coulter was on his show Monday defending Carl “Gays are disgusting! Check out this video of a woman doing it with a horse!” Paladino. Bill demurred.