Category: Politics

I’m not going to spend a whole lot of time getting to deep into Ted Kennedy nostalgia, because that would be a little disingenuous. The guy has been a figure in political life since the 1960s, and I’ve only really been paying attention to such things for the past five years. If I had a favorite Kennedy though, it would probably have been Edward. It’s pretty easy for people in my parents generation to relate to Robert or John, and particularly our grandparents for John, but who did we have?

Camelot was more or less over well before I was even born. Ted Kennedy is as close to that as a lot of us ever got, and now that he has passed away, I think it’s really over. Sure, Kennedy Kids are scattered throughout the American political system, but he was that last, final, clinging thread to that earlier age that has now snapped and is closed forever.

Certainly, his life was not without controversy: the scandal involving his automobile accident at Chappaquiddick, his bitter primary struggle with Carter in 1980, and a multitude of substance-abuse related incidents; in spite of that, he persevered through it all and remained relevant to the legislative stage. No small feat to combat so much negative press and still emerge from it all with the dominating image being that of a dedicated public servant.

It was the funniest thing, last night, turning on the TV. Allison had wanted to finish watching an episode of Countdown that had started at 12 AM CST. She left her house at 12:15, and we turned the TV on at around 12:30. On the screen was an image of Ted Kennedy. I remember walking into the kitchen, commenting that I hated it when they would show B-Roll of him, because it always scared me for a second because…

“-because you think he’s died,” Allison finished for me. I sat down, and saw they were showing footage of young Ted Kennedy too. We both realized in that moment what we were watching, and it was an eerie moment I’ll not soon forget.

Certainly Kennedy leaves a huge legacy behind for his surviving family, and a huge void in the United States Senate. I hope that his dedication to his causes will galvanize Congress to make meaningful, well-reasoned reforms to healthcare, in the fashion that Kennedy would have were he well enough to do it himself. I’ll sign off with his most famous quotation:

“For all those whose cares have been our concern,
the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives,
and the dream shall never die.”

Man. Sometimes it just seems like this world is going to pieces.

If you’ve watched the news at all, you know it’s a jungle out there. The debate on health care reform has reached fever pitch, with angry protesters decrying “death panels,” “socialism,” and finally, my favorite, “I want my America back.” Oh geez. In the waning months of my time here at the BC REU program, mostly as a result of my relocation to sleeping on the living room couch, but also because it’s important: I’ve started tuning in almost nightly to MSNBC’s battery of cable news shows. Beginning with Hardball, on to Countdown, and finally sometimes The Rachel Maddow Show, I sit there and soak in thew news.

Sure: MSNBC has its slant; I’ll give you that. Chris Matthews gets a little absurd at times, but I think he means well enough. Olbermann and Maddow, however, I really admire. They’re as close as you can get on cable news to actual ‘reporting’ with regular fact-checks, debunking, and sources. The added bonus is that they call out insanity and absurdity when they see it. Sure, it carries a liberal flavor, but I know that going into it (I also maintain that such a ‘bias’ is more correct). In spite of that, I’ve found it fascinating to watch this slugfest over health care evolve. Morbid, perhaps, to watch the political dialog degraded into shouting matches, but informative nonetheless.

A few main points I want to throw out here:

Conservatives Have Finally Jumped the Shark
I am really surprised that it’s gone this bad. Sarah Palin’s rhetoric of “death panels” is the ultimate low so far. Right or wrong, that woman has a responsibility to the people she speaks to, and using words like that only scares them. She half-assed some retraction after the fact, but the damaged has already been done.

Next: Glen Beck calling the president a “racist with a deep-seated hatred of white people”… Yes: white people like his mother, grandparents, and all those millions of white people that voted for him. To continue to argue that this man has even a shred of credibility is beyond the bounds of the possible. Olbermann mentioned tonight that many large companies (Proctor and Gamble, Geico, and Men’s Warehouse to name a few) have removed their advertising from slots during Beck’s program. Good for corporate America: they may be profit-driven, but way to wake up and smell the crazy.

Finally: Health Care Extremists take it too far. Swastikas slapped up on a Georgia congressman’s office sign, Senator’s hung in effigy, death threats, guns being brought to town halls. Geez. Kinda makes you miss the Birthers, no? They were insane in an adorable-old-senile-grandparent kindof way; this is less cute and more oh-geez-somebody-is-going-to-get-their-ass-shot type of situation. Now, I know that this is a tiny, tiny group of people doing these incredibly inappropriate things. By no means is this a reasonable litmus for the rest of the health care opposition.

But if the opposition wants to be taken seriously, they need to speak up. And when I say “speak up” I don’t mean “shout.” Certainly I can respect an impassioned individual standing up for what they believe in, but I can’t respect some idiot (YES, they are idiots) who simply screams to be heard. If you’re so upset you could blow a gasket, do it in the privacy of your own home. Once you’ve got that taken care of, read for heaven’s sake. If, instead, we were watching clips of people citing portions of the bills in livid sparring with representatives wherein the congresspeople were left dumbfounded by their accusers, wouldn’t that be a hell of a lot more impressive?

You don’t just get to yell “socialism” and have that count as a legitimate critique. (Me? I don’t really even think that’s a dirty or offensive word, and so it would be effectively useless if I were the one being shouted at. We know this blog post essentially renders such a point moot, but still…) I’d also like to hear such critics propose alternatives. If the current ideas are so bad, then the opposition movements, the organizations behind them, as well as the senators they have holding up the process need to put forth a better idea. As crazy and imposing as they seem, these people have put zero real offense on the board.

Democrats Have Dropped the Ball; Seem Unaware of Their Position
First, you’ve got to admit the Democrats have a pretty rough spot: Four committees in the United States Congress have now passed health care legislation:

-House Education and Labor Committee
-House Energy and Commerce Committee
-Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee
-Senate Finance Committee

They aren’t the same; eventually they’ll be cut down, hacked up, and synthesized into a single uber-bill that will represent an amalgamation of the four. But for the moment, they’re just all kindof floating around. Thus, it makes it hard to defend a plan, bill, or system of care that hasn’t even been enumerated yet. The president is being pretty lenient in letting the Democrats do whatever they need to in order to get their bills out of committee. This flexibility comes at a price though, because it makes him look like he has no idea what he wants out of this damn mess.

We should have known this would happen though. The legislative process is no great mystery. All of these steps are normal, and are progressing as they should… The notion that this was going to get done before the recess was overly optimistic, especially in light of the desired amount of “bi-partisan-ness” that the Dems seem to want on this thing. News Flash: You can’t have your cake and eat it too. The terms “bipartisan support” and “quick passage” might as well be mutually exclusive, and somebody in the White House should know this.

‘Bipartisan’ Should Have Worked
Seriously, it should have. Health Care: people should have it. DONE! Not so much. And at the first sign of resistance on this one, the Democrats should have pulled the ripcord and thrown the Republicans out of the airplane. Game over. Obama won, with a mandate no less. I saw a man yelling at poor Arlen Specter, bless his double-crossing-hide (all love, Al!), complaining that this was all moving ‘so gosh darn quickly! What in the sam hill is all the rush about?!’ I paraphrase slightly, but his argument was a temporal one. While, on the one hand, the before-recess goal might have been a little lofty, this argument is stupid.

One of the things we frequently hear the government railed for is that they “don’t really do anything but bureaucracy.” Now that the controlling party is DOING THINGS though, they’re getting in trouble. Sorry, kids, but that’s just the way it goes. When you win, and the voters of this nation hand you the reigns, you do what they elected you to do: Stuff. In this case, that Stuff is Democrat-flavored. Complain all you want, but that’s the way this is going to work.

So Democrats: You Have to Do Stuff.
You just gotta. Were I you, make it clear that the Republican’s have certain select points at which to provide requests, demand compromises, and hear their voices heard. Once that’s happened, it’s Go Time. Don’t look back. You do what you can to include everyone, but at the point that they’re slapping you across the face, that’s it. They lost. You won. Do what you have to do.

And For God’s Sake, Include the Public Option
Otherwise there will end up being no point to all this madness. That’s the litmus by which I’ll judge the success or failure of Democrats on this is if they have the brains and the stones to push through the public option in the face of widespread opposition. If Americans are all really that upset, they’ll pick new people at the midterms, and that’s the way it goes. If they’re really hacked, they’ll even repeal the damn thing. FINE. That’s the way this contraption is supposed to work. [Even in the face of taking a hit on this, Dems shouldn't fear: GOP fails to capitalize; fails to calm their radicals; fails to provide alternatives; etc.]

Olbermann is the Man
I really love this guy. Countdown has been my recent addiction, and it reminded me of easily one of the funniest things I ever had the benefit to see on SNL. I’ll close with this to lighten the mood, lest I go crazy from Health Care Reform Stress…

Flipping through the news earlier today, I snagged a story about the botched holy endorsement that occurred in Iran on Monday. The way Iran’s constitution shakes down, being an Islamic Republic and all that, it requires that the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei officially endorse the President-Elect before he is sworn in (scheduled for the 5th, I believe).

The funny part about this is that there was an elephant in the room, and he had a fondness for beige jackets and may or may not be named something that rhymes with- oh wait: Frickin’ nothing rhymes with “Ahmadinejad”. The source of discomfort hearkens back to the civil unrest throughout Iran at the moment. As a direct result of that rift, a hefty chunk of key politicians and clerics boycotted the blessing, granting an icy air to the event, which resulted in, among other things, a hilarious little double-step on Ahmadinejad’s part.

Last time they went though this whole song and dance, the President-elect was allowed to kiss the hand of the Ayatollah. Reportedly, there was also mad hugging. Not so much, this time around, but Ahmadinejad didn’t get the memo, and went for the kiss anyways. Erm…. ssssss- yeahhhhhhh. About that. The Supreme Leader dodged it, and the smackeroo landed on his shoulder, of all places. I don’t know guys. In spite of the fact that, you know, he maybe rigged the election, has called for the annihilation of Israel, and is generally combative and aggressive towards the West… I feel bad for him.

Rather, I guess it suffices to say: “How Embarrassing.”

Also in the news about Iran is that Americans are Basically Incompetent. What the hell? I can’t stand this at all. The Journalists in North Korea, who we’ll talk about in a second, at least had good reasons or excuses. Either they were being crafty and wanted to get some video of North Korea for their scoop, or they were on a disputed border. Either way, I can sortof understand how such a thing would happen. Not this Berkely-educated Iran crowd, however.

All three of them graduated from Berkeley with the Most Pretentious Set of Majors I’ve Seen In a Long Time:

• Peace and Conflict Studies
• English
• Environmental Economics and Policy

“Hang on, guys! You left your Magnetic Fields records and your Sigg Water Bottles!” But it was too late… three Berkeley educations between them and they still got their asses lost in the middle east, AT THE BORDER BETWEEN IRAQ AND IRAN. Seriously? Nobody had… I don’t know, GPS, or even a trendily-outdated MAP?! I have zero sympathy. You went to Iraq, knowing that there’s a war on in that nation, to hike. OK, fine. The spot you happened to pick is near the border with Iran, a nation we’re constantly toeing the line between war and peace with. FINE. But knowing all that, the fact that little to no care was taken to avoid the border is just stupid.

So passionately do I feel about this, that I’d go so far as to say that I actively hope President Clinton does NOT come save their dumb asses.

Which is what it seems like Clinton did for the reporters. He showed up there today to negotiate their release, and had a meeting with Kim-Jong Il, as well as the reporter women. Next thing I know, their butts are getting on a plane with Bill Clinton and heading back to the States. Which is fantastic. I don’t want to get into this too much, but Bill Clinton is an amazing human being. Do you think that if George W. Bush got on an airplane and went there and asked for their release that anything would happen?! I think not. Neither for Bush Sr. Carter would at least go, but he might not have the luck. Regan, were he alive, could probably swing that.

Bill Clinton: still has it.
(It’s nice to have people you can depend on.)

Not a whole lot to say about this, except it’s awesome, and you should watch it.

I feel like this is a good note upon which to end the most prolific month in blogging Schrödinger’s Blog has ever seen! Thanks for reading. I will do my utmost to keep it up!

[NOTE: I did check NBC's website for the official upload of this clip, but couldn't track it down! EDIT: After NBC sniped the YouTube video, I was able to track down the official one. Which does look better, to their credit.]

[DOUBLE NOTE: (9.10.10) I keep losing this video because NBC is kinda fickle on what videos can stay up, below is a clip of the Tonight Show on MSNBC, introed by Howard Dean, which I think makes up for the slight degradation in video quality!]

I watched this live when it first aired on CNN on Sunday, and have been camping out on the website to snag the video. The entire thing is fantastic, because Fareed Zakaria is probably the most intelligent man on cable news, hands down. His show is a faint glimmer of what the media (and, I guess by proxy, the medium) is capable of, and what I hope it will tend towards.

The show, GPS (Global Political Square) with Fareed Zakaria, focuses on foreign affairs and takes a really analytical look at them, getting at details and nuances that are skimmed over for the sake of crappy graphics (FOX), liberal-slanted punchlines (MSNBC), and attractive male anchors (CNN). I’ll also throw Andrea Mitchel’s daytime program in with GPS because I get about ten times as much information from her show as I do CNN or FOX’s daytime crap.

Below is the video of his interview. Watch the whole thing; I promise it is worth your time. (If you’re gonna skim like a jerk anyways, the beginning and ending are the best parts)