The unforgiving minute

Animal metaphors abound.

After months of watching pundits and insiders argue about the state of the public option like it was a Python's parrot--It's dead! No it isn't! is too! Is not!--I've reached a conclusion:

I've concluded that all of that talk--all of it--is just space-filling blather. If it resembles anything, the public option is now like Schrödinger's cat: it's neither dead nor alive until the moment when Senate Democrats manage (or fail to manage) a successful cloture vote to bring a bill containing the public option to the Senate floor.

If they can break the inevitable Republican/industry filibuster, the public option is still alive, at least until the floor vote. Otherwise, it's dead (along with--if there's a quantum of justice left in the world--a number of high-profile political careers).

Until we finally open the box and check, it's all supposition

Minute's up.

Snapshots from the publishing game

One of sweet pains I've experienced as an author concerned a book two colleagues and I did with St. Martin's Press. I liked everything about that experience: I was proud of the book, we had an acquisition editor and copy editor to die for, St. Martin's was a great operation--and our editor's office was in the Flatiron Building! I mean, seriously--does it get any better than that?

But St. Martin's was also, to my chagrin, the first out of the gate with a biography of Monica Lewinski, authored by Princess Diana biographer Andrew Morton. SMP announced its February 1999 publication date only the month before, while the impeachment hearings were still going on.

I comforted myself with the thought that the money to be made from trashy Lewinski bios from the trade division made it possible for obscure yet high-minded works like ours (jointly published by the scholarly/reference and textbook divisions) to exist. I confess that there's a darker side of my nature, too, and it enjoys the thought that the original edition of our book, which later came out in a revised edition, still commands a decent used price, while stacks of Morton's Lewinski bio sit unread on the under-$10 table. (Yes, it's true: authors can be that nasty.)

Which brings me to a couple of items about the current state of the book biz from this morning's readings:

Item:

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, has finished her memoir just four months after the book deal was announced, and the release date has been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17, her publisher said.

"Governor Palin has been unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage, investing herself deeply and passionately in this project," said Jonathan Burnham, publisher of Harper. "It's her words, her life, and it's all there in full and fascinating detail."

And if you're worried that copies of Palin's book (titled "Going Rogue: An American Life") will be gone before you can buy your copy, you needn't be:

Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, has commissioned a huge first printing of 1.5 million copies. Sen. Ted Kennedy's "True Compass," published by Twelve soon after his Aug. 25 death, also had a 1.5 million first printing.

As with the Kennedy book, the digital edition of Palin's memoir will not be released at the same time as the hardcover. "Going Rogue" will not be available as an e-book until Dec. 26 because "we want to maximize hardcover sales over the holidays," Harper spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Monday.

That's a lot of copies hitting the remainder tables in time for Christmas 2010. But I digress.


Item:

Tina Brown's The Daily Beast is also wrestling with the digital copy/hard copy puzzle, and they've decided to go the opposite direction:

In a joint venture with Perseus Books Group, The Daily Beast is forming a new imprint, Beast Books, that will focus on publishing timely titles by Daily Beast writers — first as e-books, and then as paperbacks on a much shorter schedule than traditional books.

On a typical publishing schedule, a writer may take a year or more to deliver a manuscript, after which the publisher takes another nine months to a year to put finished books in stores. At Beast Books, writers would be expected to spend one to three months writing a book, and the publisher would take another month to produce an e-book edition.

Whichever way book publishers finally go, they're clearly adapting to the digital world much better than the music publishing industry has so far. If the music industry ran the print publishing houses, they'd have teams of lawyers laboring around the clock to repeal the invention of the photocopier.

Goggle Maps locates book bans and challenges in US from 2007-2009

This is very cool.

But it's also a little disturbing. There are a lot of Americans out there whose first impulse when they see an idea they don't like is to try and guarantee that no one else can be exposed to it.

As part of Banned Book Week, the ALA has plotted data from their own case files and those of the Kids' Right to Read Project (a collaboration of the National Coalition Against Censorship and the American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression) onto Google Maps.

Each location has a pop-up providing the basics of the case, and usually links to more information.

View Book Bans and Challenges, 2007-2009 in a larger map

The LO/KPOJ "Lost Limerick Challenge"

This morning's Oregon news limericks, as written by me, read by quizmaster TJ of Loaded Orygun, and answered (usually) by Carl, Christine,and Paul on the KPOJ 620AM Morning Show, are posted at LO.

I strongly recommend that you give it a listen, if only because it contains one of those all-too-rare moments when my name, "limericks," and "Noam Chomsky" are all mentioned in the same conversational breath. (I've already updated my résumé.)

And once again we ended up with an extra limerick that didn't make it on the air, so you can play along at home. Fill in the blank with the word or phrase from this week's Oregon news:

Though no state law strictly forbids,
We suggest: Stay away with the kids,
On the coastline of Florence
They're arriving in torrents
We refer to those big purple ___________ .

(The answer can be found in the Comments below, or in this week's Spanning the State at Loaded Orygun.)

Sunday morning toons: Special "post-racial" edition

President: Everywhere. Afghanistan: Not going anywhere. Recovery: Jobless. Wall Street: Shameless. All this and more, beginning with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up this week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Mike Keefe, Jeff Parker, Steve Sack, Scott Stantis, Jeff Darcy, Scott Schorr, Jim Day, and David Fitzsimmons.

The omnipresent president: Brian Fairrington, Jim Varvel, Bob Englehart, R. J. Matson, John Darkow, and Jeff Stahler explore a strange turn of events: When Bush was president, he set a record for total days off, at his show ranch in Crawford. On the other hand, Obama spent last week on a media blitz to prop up his wobbly health care reform initiative, and the question on every Sunday host's lips was suddenly, "Is the president becoming overexposed?"

But I think the real question isn't whether Obama should have spent so much time on news shows last week; it's how on earth he was able to be in so many places at once. Larry Wright has a theory that goes a long way toward explaining the mystery. In fact, throw in this disturbing bit of video research and it wouldn't surprise me a bit to learn that the Obama animatronic is missing from the Disneyland Hall of Presidents:

Barack Obama's amazingly consistent smile from Eric Spiegelman on Vimeo.

p3 World Toon Review: Cameron Cardow (Canada), Stephane Peray (Thailand), Martyn Turner, (Ireland), and Sergei Tunin (Russia).


It's an Ann Telnaes two-fer this week: Tom Delay isn't the only one shaking his money-maker; and Republicans become the party of personal responsibility.


"And you're not going to like it one bit!" Hollingsworth Hound faces justice in this week's offering from Tom the Dancing Bug. (Coming up next: After sending Donald and his nephews to debtor's prison, Scrooge McDuck has a momentary pang of conscience which turns out to be a slight bit of indigestion.)


I think America has become "post-racial," in much the same sense that the Coyote, hurtling toward the canyon floor below, could be said to be "post-cliff." But perhaps that's just me. In any case, The K Chronicles and This Modern World examine the exciting new world of post-racial America.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman detects a certain lack of movement.


Heh--we do this kind of stuff to him all through the picture! Fred "Tex" Avery was present at the birth (or should I say "boith") of Bugs Bunny at Warner Bros, but he only completed four Bugs shorts before leaving the studio over creative control issues in 1941. This is the second of the Avery Bugs Bunny stories, "Tortoise Beats Hare" from early 1941.

p3 Bonus Toon: Notice: No cephalopods were harmed in the making of this week's Jesse Springer cartoon:




And finally, have you bookmarked Slate's political cartoon for today?

Saturday tunes: "Who's the black private dick who's a hit with all the chicks?"

. . . "A hit"? Seriously?

Ever stop to think about how the world would be different today, almost 40 years later, if the score for the original Richard Roundtree classic had been performed by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain?

(Hat tip to Charles Pierce.)

Irritate a censor: Read a banned book!

The last week in September, the American Library Association (along with several other organizations representing authors, publishers, and book sellers) celebrates challenged and banned books.

You can find a calendar of public readings and other celebrations around Oregon marking the week here.

And you can take a moment to look over the highlights from last year's p3 salute to banned books.

According to the ALA,

Often challenges are motivated by a desire to protect children from “inappropriate” sexual content or “offensive” language. The following were the top three reasons cited for challenging materials as reported to the Office of Intellectual Freedom:

1. the material was considered to be "sexually explicit"
2. the material contained "offensive language"
3. the materials was "unsuited to any age group"

Although this is a commendable motivation, Free Access to Libraries for Minors, an interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights (ALA's basic policy concerning access to information) states that, “Librarians and governing bodies should maintain that parents—and only parents—have the right and the responsibility to restrict the access of their children—and only their children—to library resources.” Censorship by librarians of constitutionally protected speech, whether for protection or for any other reason, violates the First Amendment.

Here's a a full list [PDF] of the books that were challenged in Oregon public libraries, school libraries, and bookstores in 2008-2009. By my quick count, the material in question was retained in 23 challenges, and in two of the remaining three cases some other resolution short of outright banning was reached (including this case, which received some national attention).

The grounds for challenge included the usual suspects, enumerated above, but also some oddities such as the allegedly unflattering depiction of timber workers (that challenge wasn't successful).

The one challenge to a book which led to its removal from an Oregon public library in 2008-2009 was Master Math : Basic Math and Prealgebra, which was successfully challenged on the rather surprising grounds that it was factually inaccurate.

Pop by your local library this week and pick up a free bright yellow button with "I Read Banned Books" in large, friendly letters,

And thank your librarians (but keep your voice down). Even if you aren't in the mood to read a banned book today, you could if you wanted, and they're the reason.

Drinking Liberally tonight at Lucky Lab NW

Portland Drinking Liberally is back at its regular meeting-place, the Lucky Lab Brew Hall at 19th and NW Quimby (map), tonight at 7pm. (DL-PDX meets the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of every month.)

(To find the DL chapter near you--there are over 300 hundred of them--go here.)

And if you appreciate Living Liberally promoting progressive action through social interaction--including keeping the whole Drinking Liberally network up and running--you can always send them a little love via Tipping Liberally.

And remember: DL encourages everyone to drink, and vote, responsibly.

(Cross-posted at Loaded Orygun.)

Post parody provokes police participation

[Updated below.]

Last winter I wrote about the slightly oddball story through which the First Amendment protection for parody became known as "the Mad Magazine exception."

Parody may have its privilege, but it has to continue to reassert its legal right to be, in the face of the powerful, the connected--and the humorless:

The New York Post does not have a sense of humor about itself, it would seem.

Early this morning, some 2,000 activists affiliated with a group called The Yes Men handed out copies of a 32-page parody issue calling attention to climate change. But when volunteers tried to distribute copies outside the Post's offices, they were detained by police and their papers were confiscated, says an eyewitness.

The Post, if it even needs to be mentioned, is owned by Murdoch's News Corp. The parody tabloid (also available online) features the classic Post-style headline "WE'RE SCREWED". The content is real articles with real, factual information about global warming--but with a Post spin: Page 6 features the obligatory cheesecake picture of Pamela Anderson, but with an accompanying blurb about Anderson's recently-launched line of eco- and animal-friendly swimwear and casual clothing.

The parody issue was distributed today to raise awareness in advance of tomorrow's United Nations talks on climate change. Yes Men co-founder Andy Bichlbaum says the group printed about 1 million copies at a cost of $50,000; the expense was underwritten by a private donor who prefers to remain anonymous.

Last fall, The Yes Men produced a fake New York Times edition about the Iraq War. Bichlbaum says the group chose the Post for its global warming stunt in part because of the paper's denialist stance on the issue. "Unfortunately, they never do real reporting on climate change," he says. "We're hoping this gives them the little kick in the ass that they need."

And as for the run-in between the volunteers and the police and building security:

"They seized the papers that those guys were distributing" and took them inside the building, says Nicholas [photographer Jason Nicholas, who witnessed most of the incident], who has photos of the confrontation. "It seemed they were acting in concert with building security because I noticed them talking before and after." Nicholas estimates the volunteers were held for 15 to 20 minutes. He could not say whether they were handing out papers on the sidewalk or on the concrete apron that fronts the News Corp. building.

A New York Post spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.

Come on, News Corp.--at least Irving Berlin was classy enough to simply call his lawyer, not the police.

Update: Why did the NYPD decide to get involved in the peaceful exercise of First Amendment rights?

The LO/KPOJ "Limerick Challenge" is posted

This morning's Oregon news limericks, as written by me, read by quizmaster TJ of Loaded Orygun, and answered (usually) by Carl, Christine,and Paul on the KPOJ 620AM Morning Show, are posted at LO.

A very special Separated at Birth

Last week we noted with sadness the passing of Mary Travers, of the iconic 60's folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Today we take comfort in the thought that the torch may have been passed, in this case to Janice, front singer for Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.

Sunday morning toons: Special "None da woise for his harrowing experience" edition

Afghanistan. Heckling the president. Health care. Let's kick it off with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for this week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Daryl Cagle, Mike Keefe, Bob Englehart, John Trever, John Darkow, Jerry Holbert, Scott Stantis, John Cole, Jeff Stahler, Bill Day, and Ed Stein.

p3 Painful Historical Irony Medal: Steve Sack.

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Swizerland), Stephane Peray (Thailand), Moir, (Australia) and Victor Ndula (Kenya).


Ann Telnaes considers the downside of formally correcting Rep. Joe Wilson for heckling the president,


The Comics Curmudgeon finds Archie . . . disturbing.


Tell me if this happens to you, too: You're watching "The Big Bang Theory," and suddenly find yourself wondering whether you caught every comic book reference from every episode throughout the season. Well, wonder no more.


When dogs move to social networking: I tracked these down for someone else, but hated to let the two links go to waste.


Tom the Dancing Bug exposes Hitler's diabolical back-up plan.


Happy birthday: Last Wednesday, the Roadrunner (Accelleratii Incredibus) and Wile E. Coyote (Carnivorous Vulgaris) turned 60. The first short in their series of--I guess we'd call them "road movies"--was "Fast and Furry-ous." The Village Voice offers this appreciation.


It's a long way from "M," isn't it? Chuck Jones directed "Hair-Raising Hare" in 1948. Peter Lorre's appearance as the evil scientist (you know that's who he is--it's in big neon letters on his castle!) is also voiced by Mel Blanc. (The monster, also voiced by Blanc, is--for unexplained reasons--named Gossamer.) You can tell musical director Carl Stalling is at the top of his game--catch the musical cues featuring "California, Here I Come," and "Shuffle Off to Buffalo."

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer has advice for Oregonians waiting for the employment rate to catch up with the theoretical signs of an economic recovery.





And remember to bookmark Slate's political cartoon for today.

Saturday tunes: Warning--no one will be seated after the terrifying "Father McKenzie walks from the grave" scene!

George Martin, one of the many nominees for the title of "fifth Beatle," produced their albums including the string arrangements for the more lavishly orchestrated studio tracks, including for "Eleanor Rigby," off the Revolver album in 1966. Martin was strongly influenced by film score giant Bernard Herrmann, including his jerky, agitated, strings-only score for Hitchcock's "Psycho" from 1960.

Compare Herrmann's main title theme--

--with the string arrangement in the McCartney standard:

"Eleanor Rigby" was always sort of melancholy, of course, but it wasn't until I made the Herrmann connection that it began to slightly creep me out.

Ah well.

Journalistic even-handedness

The AP offers this bizarre report:

A woman died after being severely burned in a flash fire while undergoing surgery, a rare but vexing dilemma in operating rooms.

Janice McCall, 65, of Energy, Ill., died Sept. 8 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., six days after being burned on the operating table at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, Ill., her family's attorney said.

Attorney Robert Howerton said he had requested medical records from the Marion hospital and that he had few details about what happened.

Hm. It's "a rare but vexing dilemma in operating rooms," is it?

Yes, I'm sure "vexing" was the word everyone involved was reaching for.

Also: "Dilemma?" Meaning there are good arguments either way about this whole burning-up-on-the-operating-table thing, and it's often hard for family and hospital staff to know which way to lean?

I think this might be the reason the AP doesn't want anyone else quoting their reports.

(Hat-tip to Doctor Beyond.)

"Lord, I can't go back home this-a-way."

Mary Travers died yesterday, at 72, of complications from her long-running leukemia treatment. The NYTimes obituary referred to her "powerful voice" and "unfeigned urgency."

The NYTimes also has a slide show of photos of Travers. Funny how some of the most iconic images of pop music from that era are black and white.

The unforgiving minute

Four rules of American politics to which all sides (Republicans, Democrats, and media) apparently agree:

1. Anything that a Democrat says about a Republican that is true is automatic grounds to demand an apology from the Democrat.


2. Anything that a Democrat says or does that a Republican has already said or done is automatic grounds to demand an apology from the Democrat.


3. No Republican is ever required to apologize for or distance him/herself from the inappropriate actions of anyone associated with their party base, however closely, but Democrats must always apologize for or distance themselves from the actions of anyone associated with their party base, however remotely. (This is also referred to as the 'Sister Souldjah Principle' or, as Digby calls it, 'Punch a Hippie.')


4. Any black Democrat is automatically answerable for the behavior of any other black person anywhere in the world at any time.

Minute's up.

Sunday morning toons: Special "Taking it on the nose" edition

This week, we've got disciplinary problems, the flu bug, the Beatles, the eighth anniversary of 9/11, the hundredth birthday of the dream of health care reform, and--last but not least--the place where empires go to die. Let's kick it off with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, R. J. Matson, Mike Keefe, Larry Wright, David Fitzsimmons, Joe Heller, Steve Breen, Bill Day, and Pat Bagley.

p3 Best of Show: Daryl Cagle.

p3 Legion of Honor (with clusters): Jeff Stahler.

p3 Best Adaptation from Another Medium: Eric Allie.

p3 Heroes of the Rebellion Medal: Monte Wolverton,

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappette (Switzerland), LAZ (Cuba),
Frederick Deligne, (France) and Oguz Gurel (Turkey).


Ann Telnaes reminds us: it's back to school time.


Why did Highlights Magazine exist no other place but my eye doctor's waiting room? For those who remember Goofus and Gallant from childhood, Tom Tomorrow has helpfully updated them for our era. Can you say "But . . . but . . . "? I thought you could.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman is looking for a new drug.


Now don't try to deny it--I know a some of you dropped some serious change on Beatles gear this week. So this--call it "the tune that the whole time was really about what they insisted for decades it wasn't about"--goes out to all of you, from the 1968 film "Yellow Submarine," directed by George Dunning (who personally oversaw the rotoscoped animation in this sequence).

p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer considers who really took it on the nose--or beak last week.



And as always, check out Slate's political cartoon for today.

Saturday tunes: Everybody act busy! The Boss is coming!

New York magazine has a meditation on David Letterman's gradual but gratifying transformation: "The bad boy of Ball State, Huck Finn grown and weathered, David Letterman has become the national Daddy."

The bright line was drawn his last night on NBC, back in 1993, when the wry significance of this song was lost on no one.

Even Paul Shafer and The World's Most Dangerous Band (as they were then known) seemed a little stunned to realize that they were doing a valedictory performance with Springsteen. (Watch the guitarist and bassist gradually figure out that they're getting camera time with The Boss.)

Letterman has an insufficiently appreciated record of bringing out some amazing musical performances on his show. For some reason--perhaps not so surprising when you think about it--his forte seems to be in capturing performances with a prickly undertext, like this, this, and this.

Reading: Somerby: Be careful what you wish for

Bob Somerby has spent the last couple of weeks demonstrating that an important reason that those congressional and White House Democrats who actually want meaningful health care reform are getting their asses handed to them, again and again, by one egregious Republican lie after another, is that Democrats have no story, while Republicans have two:

1. Big government can't do anything right.

2. Liberal elites think they're smarter than you.

The first is chiefly Ronald Reagan's gift to America. The second one goes much farther back. They appear in a thousand faces. They're all-purpose, one-size-fits-all. And after decades of prepping American audiences to plug in those premises themselves at the right moment, Republicans no longer need facts to carry the day, or the truth, or thought-out policies, or any of that folderol that liberal Democrats are so fond of. They have only to nudge their audiences in the right direction--and that includes the political media, as well as the grass roots--and the audiences will do the rest.

As a result, Democrats in Congress and in the White House regularly lose rhetorical contests that many liberals (i.e., the liberal elites who think they're smarter than you) thought should have been easy tap-ins.

And although Democrats apparently haven't figured out why this is happening, they've obviously noticed the trend, and it makes them . . . well, let's be generous and call them skittish (Somerby's emphasis):

In this morning’s New York Times, a letter writer imagines sweet justice. But does he understand the broken discourse of the past twenty years?

LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES (9/11/09): It would have been audacious but, nevertheless, a teaching moment had President Obama called Representative Joe Wilson, who heckled him during his address to Congress, to the well, like a teacher calling an errant child to the front of the class, asked him his name, asked him what state he came from, asked him to repeat his remark, asked him to explain why he called him a liar, straightened him out, then told him to sit down.

LETTER TO THE NEW YORK TIMES (9/11/09): It would have been audacious but, nevertheless, a teaching moment had President Obama called Representative Joe Wilson, who heckled him during his address to Congress, to the well, like a teacher calling an errant child to the front of the class, asked him his name, asked him what state he came from, asked him to repeat his remark, asked him to explain why he called him a liar, straightened him out, then told him to sit down.

R— R—
New York, Sept. 10, 2009

Careful, Rosenthal! the analysts cried. Be careful what you wish for! As the Times explains in today’s editorial, “Illegal immigration is an all-purpose policy explosive”—a dangerous place to venture. The people who sold the nation “death panels” are now selling the claim that Joe Wilson was rude, but correct on the merits. Democrats are backing away from the good solid spanking the writer imagines because they know danger lurks there.

More on the no story/two story theme next week (I hope). But for now this Somerby's post (scroll down to "Special Report: Enabling the (un)real McCoys!") is going on the Readings list in the sidebar.

The unforgiving minute

South Carolina has a history of acting out inappropriately.

Minute's up.

Conservative lexicon update: "Public" and "private"

As many p3 readers know, modern Republican English--tracing its roots back through the focus-grouped falsehoods of Frank Luntz all the way to Newt Gingrich's definitive 1990 work Language: A Key Mechanism of Control^*--is a notoriously difficult dialect to master.

In our continuing efforts to promote bipartisan conversation and understanding, p3 is proud to present another of its occasional features on the conservative lexicon.

"Public" - Something that the government, the news media, religious institutions, and the voters should take intense (usually disapproving) interest in, such as the possibility that a same-sex couple somewhere in California would like to get married. For example, this item from the December 2008 newsletter of CA Assemblyman Michael Duvall:

This past election cycle, voters in Florida and Arizona passed their own initiatives similar to Prop 8. And perhaps most important, 30 states across the nation have voted to protect the institution of marriage by defining it as between a man and woman.

With that said, the purpose of an initiative is to allow every eligible voter the opportunity to directly create public policy. In recent weeks, opponents of Proposition 8 have clearly shown that they have no intention of letting this happen.

"Private" - A matter of absolutely no concern to the government, the news media, religious institutions, or the voters, such as a married elected state assemblyman bragging on the floor of the state assembly about multiple instances of S&M-lite sex with married lobbyists, from whom his campaign has accepted donations, that have taken place in his office. For example, this apology from CA Assemblyman Michael Duvall:

I made a mistake and I sincerely apologize. I deeply regret the comments I made in what I believed to be a private conversation. This is a private matter and I ask that everyone respect the privacy of all involved.

[Note: This statement by former Assemblyman Duvall was published on his website; it has since been replaced by this brief announcement of his immediate resignation for the sake of "fair[ness] to my family, my constituents or to my friends on both sides of the aisle."

In a future installment of "Conservative Lexicon Update," p3 will explore the linguistic peculiarities involved when conservatives use the word "fair."]

^*It seems the only online sources for the complete text of "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control' available online (including the one linked to here) date it from 1995 or 1996, when in fact it was reprinted in full in Harper's Magazine (November 1990) 17-18. The little wheels in Newt's head were hard at work long before he became House Majority Leader.

From the p3 morning news feed: Journalists and bloggers

By coincidence, these turned up, one after the other, in my readings this morning:

Mark Bowden of The Atlantic Online examines the behind-the-scenes process by which those two now-famous/now-forgotten video clips of Sonia Sotomayor--about "Wise Latinas" and "policy making"--were already in the hands of Fox News and MSNBC, cued up and ready to go within moments of Obama's announcement of her nomination to the Supreme Court. It's an interesting case study on its own merits, but also interesting because Bowden ends his article with this lament:

Even an eager and ambitious political blogger like [Morgan] Richmond [the blogger who originally uncovered the Sotomayor video clips, and whose name was largely absent from the story going forward], because he is drawn to the work primarily out of political conviction, not curiosity, is less likely to experience the pleasure of finding something new, or of arriving at a completely original, unexpected insight, one that surprises even himself. He is missing out on the great fun of speaking wholly for himself, without fear or favor. This is what gives reporters the power to stir up trouble wherever they go. They can shake preconceptions and poke holes in presumption. They can celebrate the unnoticed and puncture the hyped. They can, as the old saying goes, afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. A reporter who thinks and speaks for himself, whose preeminent goal is providing deeper understanding, aspires even in political argument to persuade, which requires at the very least being seen as fair-minded and trustworthy by those—and this is the key—who are inclined to disagree with him. The honest, disinterested voice of a true journalist carries an authority that no self-branded liberal or conservative can have. “For a country to have a great writer is like having another government,” Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote. Journalism, done right, is enormously powerful precisely because it does not seek power. It seeks truth. Those who forsake it to shill for a product or a candidate or a party or an ideology diminish their own power. They are missing the most joyful part of the job.

Significantly, when it's time for Bowden to mention examples of those true and disinterested journalists in their joyful pursuits, he has to name A. J. Liebling (who died in 1963), and film roles by Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, and Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman.

Still, Bowden's encomium on the days of honest, shoe-leather journalism--done in by the push of the newspaper industry's decline and the pull of celebrity television journalism--is only an add-on at the end. His main purpose is to expose the extent to which journalists have come to count on (invariably partisan) bloggers to do much of the spade work in uncovering stories, research that used to be considered the journalists' job.

This process—political activists supplying material for TV news broadcasts—is not new, of course. It has largely replaced the work of on-the-scene reporters during political campaigns, which have become, in a sense, perpetual. The once-quadrennial clashes between parties over the White House are now simply the way our national business is conducted. In our exhausting 24/7 news cycle, demand for timely information and analysis is greater than ever. With journalists being laid off in droves, savvy political operatives have stepped eagerly into the breach.

Gillian Reagan at The New York Observer asks Are the Days of Matt Drudge Over? and (once you realize her sources are almost all newspaper editors and reporters) the answer (probably yes) won't surprise you as much as the reason why:

The Drudge Report is No. 115 in Quantcast’s list of most popular sites, ranking higher than washingtonpost.com, nypost.com and politico.com. That’s 1.1 million visitors every day, each of whom refresh the page about 15 times in a 24-hour period, according to Quantcast.

But, contrary to what some might think, fewer and fewer of those visitors seem to be the journalists that were once so captivated by Matt Drudge—not to mention his vaguely terror-inducing headlines, taste for the obscure and occasionally spinning siren light.

Matt Drudge may no longer be all that, not specifically because his site still looks as primitive as it did a decade ago (although no one misses a chance to mention that), but simply because reporters (with the evident exception of the Politico's staff) no longer look to Drudge for breaking stories.

Where do they look instead? (If you say they're returning to their own initiative and self-reliance, as in the days of Liebling, you aren't playing attention.) They're going to full-featured blogs like The Huffington Report and Talking Points Memo, "and even Twitter."

Tough to imagine Humphrey Bogart in a film about Twitter.

It's a Drinking Liberally twofer this week (with a special guest!)

Tomorrow (Wednesday):

Portland Metro-West Drinking Liberally meets at Ringo's, 12300 SW Broadway St, (just east of Hall Blvd). map), Wednesday night at 7pm. (DL-PDX M-W meets the 2nd Wednesday every month.)

Join the Portland Metro-West email list.

Thursday:

Author and Daily Kos contributor Jill Richardson will be in town this week to promote her book, Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken, and What We Can Do to Fix It.

(Check out: Book Chat at Crooks and Liars and book review at Daily Kos.)

And Jill will wrap up her Portland visit this Thursday night with Drinking Liberally (and kossaks) at It's a Beautiful Pizza, 3342 SE Belmont, from 6pm - 8pm. (Note: We're starting one hour earlier than usual.) [map]

(Join the Portland email list. )

And here's the September schedule for other DL chapters in Oregon (and Vancouver WA):

Salem:

Third Thursday of each month, 7:00 pm, at Browns Towne Lounge, 189 Liberty St NE # 112 (Old Sportstop next to Read Opera House)

Join the Salem email list.

St. Helens:

Second Wednesday of each month, 6:30 pm, at the Klondike Restaurant PATIO, 71 Cowlitz Street (We'll meet IN the restaurant if too cold outside.)

Join the St. Helens email list.

Corvallis:

Currently on summer hiatus.

Join Corvallis' email list.

Vancouver:

Second and fourth Tuesdays, 7pm, at the Back Alley Bar and Grill
6503 E. Mill Plain Blvd.(West of Andresen, in a strip mall 1/2 block west of Safeway on the south side of Mill Plain. It's deep in the lot.)

Join Vancouver's' email list.

(To find the DL chapter near you--there are over 300 hundred of them--go here.)


One last item of importance:

Brown-Forman (makers of Johnny Walker, Bailey's, and Guinness) is having a pretty good year, but they've still chosen to launch a mostly-under-the-radar online campaign against health care reform. (There's a website for their organization Axe Taxes Not Jobs, but damned if I'm going to throw them any traffic by linking to them.)

With the SEIU, Living Liberally is sending a letter to liquor companies that are organizing against healthcare reform. As a drinking-based organization, who better to argue: "We like drinking. And we like health care."

Please consider joining SEIU and Living Liberally by signing this petition.

And here's the kicker:

For every name that joins this petition, the SEIU helps support Living Liberally with $1. These funds keep the Living Liberally email system sending, the website running, and Josh Bolotsky, our National Program Coordiator, employed!

And if you appreciate Living Liberally promoting progressive action through social interaction--including keeping the whole Drinking Liberally network up and running--consider sending them a little love via Tipping Liberally.

So wherever you are, join the Drinking Liberally gang for drinks and political conversation.

And remember: DL encourages everyone to drink, and vote, responsibly.

(Cross-posted at Loaded Orygun.)

Olbermann goes Peckinpah

(Updated below.)

Yesterday morning at a little before 10am, Pacific time, Keith Olbermann left a post at Daily Kos. The title really says it all: Send Me Everything You Can Find About Glenn Beck.

As of a quarter after nine this morning--twenty-three hours later--it had 1499 comments. (Actually, in the time it took to write that sentence, it jumped to 1501 comments.)

It's an amusing image, and it'll make entertaining television for MSNBC, but I have to say I don't really see the practical point.

First, what could Olbermann's oppo-research irregulars possibly dig up about Beck that is more fringy and incendiary than what he's already proudly on record saying and doing? You can't leverage someone with exposure when he's already cheerfully outed himself for worse.

Second, suppose that--against all odds--some land mine buried among those 1500-and-counting comments actually manages to be worse than what the weeping madman's already done for all to see anyway. So what? Glenn Beck reports to Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch, not Barack Obama. He knows he'd never be hung out to dry. His job would be no more at risk than Bill O'Reilly's was after the murder of Dr. George Tiller.

Update: David Neiwert at C&L provides a thorough itemization of Beck's extremist resume. Toxic as it was before he moved to Fox News last winter, it's become many times worse since then. That's not because Beck has misread the expectations on him at his new job--just the opposite. Neiwwert asks, "When will he finally face the music?" If the point of the rhetorical question is When will he have his "Van Jones moment?", the answer is, he won't.

Coming up next: The Death Bubble

Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.

George Bailey, It's a
Wonderful Life (1946)

Remember when the über-banks--you know, the ones that were "too big to fail?"--made all those sub-prime mortgage loans, bundled them, then divided them back up, and put them out on the market again? Remember how that worked out?

Here's some exciting news: Their next plan is to do the same thing with your life.

After the mortgage business imploded last year, Wall Street investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one.

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die

.
Of course, from the banks' point of view, there's a snag:

The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money.

Talk about "moral hazard." If you like having your health traded on the stock market by the insurance companies, you'll love this.

All those homeowners currently shuffling off their mortgages (the word comes from the Latin root for "death") when the payments got too steep? Next round, they'll be shuffling off their mortal coils.

Anything that can be monetized must be, including the date of your death. That's the American way.

You're worth more dead than alive!

Henry F. Potter, It's a
Wonderful Life (1946)

Sunday morning toons: Special "We're In To Win!" edition

Remember: Oregon was the first state--in 1877--to make Labor Day a state holiday. (You can look it up.) In honor of the day we celebrate the people who make what we drive, wear, eat, sit on, watch, listen to, and sleep on, p3 offers these tributes by Larry Wright, Jeff Parker, John Cole, and Jimmy Margulies.

In addition to Labor Day, the news this week was all about the release of the Flight 103 bomber, defining health care reform down, a jobless recovery, Bush Administration torture policies as a thing of the past, and . . . well, this week's Daryl Cagle toon round-up has it all.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Nate Beeler, R. J. Matson, Mike Keefe, Bob Englehart, John Trevor, John Darkow, David Fitzsimmons, and Monte Wolverton. and R. J. Matson.

p3 World Toon Review: Can you say "cultural hegemony?" Tayo Fatunia (West Africa), Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), and Cameron Cardow (Canada) thought you could.


Ann Telnaes loves the smell of pants on fire in the morning. It smells like . . . victory.


p3 Guest Toon: Those who do not remember the movie versions of the past are doomed to repeat it.


Protecting Our Endangered Toonists:

We actually have some good news! Tom Tomorrow writes:

I am extraordinarily pleased to announce that my cartoon returns to the Village Voice tomorrow after an extended absence. I really didn’t expect this, and I just have to say thank you to the people who went out of their way to make it happen. If you’re a Voice reader, or even just a fan of cartooning, please do me a favor and take a moment to express your appreciation for the decision. Altweekly cartooning overall has kind of been on the ropes for the past year or two, and any editor who takes a stand in support of the art form deserves profound thanks. This is a first step, but it’s a huge one in the right direction — for me personally, of course, but with any luck, for other cartoonists as well. Especially if the Voice gets enough positive feedback on this, so go — show them some love.

(Thanks to John Sherffius for permission to use his "Signature Loss" image. Click to enlarge.)


Wallopin' Web-snappers! Disney now owns Marvel Comics, and all that entails, including the X-Men, the Amazing Spider-Man, and the Incredible Hulk. I suppose it's a good way to keep Marvel on sound business footing, but whenever the conglomerate known to insiders as Mauschwitz gets its hands on something, it's somehow never quite the same again. The good news appears to be that all of those Marvel characters have been brought to the screen by different studios--all non-Disney--and Disney seems more interested in incorporating the Marvel universe into its theme parks than in bending the next Spider-Man or X-Men movie to its corporate taste. And Mary Jane Watson won't be played by an ex-Mousketeer. I hope.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman sees a bad omen.


Deestroy Dot Schrap-Pile! From another universe--actually, 1943--comes "Scrap Happy Daffy," a story based on the now-extinct premise that wars over there meant some organized sacrifice over here. (Note also that Hitler is portrayed as a genuine enemy of the free world, not just as someone that the Republican base doesn't like.) Directed by Frank Tashin, this short is rarely if ever shown--due in part, I suspect, to its partisan history. Daffy sings "We're In to Win," a song that appears frequently in WWII-era Warner Bros cartoons.

Perhaps in the spirit of war-era bipartisanship, this Warner Bros toon also works in two nods to Paramount characters: Popeye and Superman.


p3 Bonus Toon: Jesse Springer has his doubts about a fundamental Oregon value (click to enlarge):




And finally, check out Slate's political cartoon for today.

Bonus Saturday tune: Obama speaks to the children

Lyrics (annotated by Silly Rabbit at DKos) here:

No dark (get it?) sarcasm in the classroom.

New Seasons/BTA benefit cook-out: Don't miss it!

Tomorrow (Sunday) from noon to 4pm is the second and last day of the benefit barbecue (country natural beef or veggie dogs on organic buns, and lemonade) hosted by all seven New Seasons groceries in the Portland area. All proceeds will go to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance.

I'll be volunteering at the Cedar Hills store. Stop by and say hi.

Saturday tunes (Highbrow edition)

Why do conservatives make such great material for operas and oratorios?

First came Nixon in China, the 1987 opera (score by John Adams, libretto by Alice Goodman) portraying Nixon's historic 1972 meeting with Chairman Mao and Premier Zhou Enlai:

Then in 2007 came Makris v. O'Reilly, a baritone oratorio using transcripts from the 2004 sexual harassment case filed by former Fox News producer Andrea Mackris against Bill O'Reilly (score by Igor Keller, libretto--well, libretto by Bill O'Reilly, I suppose you'd have to say):

And now 2009 brings us the premier of The Gonzales Contata, a choral work based on the testimony of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales before the Senate Judiciary Committee (score by Melissa Dunphy, libretto by Alberto Gonzales and the members of the SJC):

And for those of you keeping score:

Nixon: Resigned in disgrace.
O'Reilly: Settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Gonzales: Resigned in disgrace.

Query, re: textbook selection in Texas

Twenty years ago, I directed a master's thesis on the evolving structure, strategies, and tactics of the conservative Christian 'creationist movement' through the lens of the battle to control textbook content. The thesis was quite good, a tribute to the smarts and hard work of the candidate more than to any unusual gifts on my part as advisor.

The big whack of the textbook market controlled by Texas (then as now), and the Lone Star State's receptiveness to culture-war rhetoric of the era, made the Texas public school system's textbook selection process a critical leverage point for conservatives.

The thesis writer uncovered one odd little wrinkle: When the State Board of Education committee charged with textbook selection decisions heard testimony about any particular book, it was their practice only to allow testimony against whatever book was currently in adoption, not in support of it.

This had the predictable effect of creating a cottage industry for disciplined citizens who regularly appeared at the hearings to expose supposed liberal/secular bias in textbooks currently in use (which, at the time, meant approving references to the theory of evolution). No testimony in support of the book in question would be heard--and since the creationist textbooks were not under review, no discussion of their shortcomings was in order. Creationism wasn't, as a result, introduced into most textbooks, but the one-sided process did help push major publishers to begin simply watering down or omitting discussion of anything to do with the origin and differentiation of species.

("Half a loaf," indeed. The parallels to the August health care town halls and their aftermath are pretty hard to ignore. But I digress.)

I've been trying--without success--to find out if that negative-comments-only rule is still part of the textbook selection process in Texas today. Does anyone know?

What can I say? It's that day I'll always remember.

Thought experiment

Paul Krugman made a startling confession yesterday:

[S]urveying current politics, I find myself missing Richard Nixon.

No, I haven't lost my mind. Nixon was surely the worst person other than Dick Cheney ever to control the executive branch.

But the Nixon era was a time in which leading figures in both parties were capable of speaking rationally about policy, and in which policy decisions weren't as warped by corporate cash as they are now. America is a better country in many ways than it was 35 years ago, but our political system's ability to deal with real problems has been degraded to such an extent that I sometimes wonder whether the country is still governable.

Krugman's just making a point, of course: Ted Kennedy's often-discussed "lost chance" for health care reform during the Nixon administration came at a point when government still worked. Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich were still just kids. Dick Cheney was just a Deputy Assistant to the president, with nothing like the unconstitutional power he would grab for thirty years later (although he was already experimenting with ways to use the Justice Department to harass political enemies).

In short, Krugman's point isn't that he misses Nixon ("surely the worst person other than Dick Cheney ever to control the executive branch"); he misses a time when American government wasn't wrecked.

An interesting question would be: What would Nixon do if he were president today, with all the tools he'd have at his disposal today: His own TV network (Fox News), adversarial journalism at the national level a thing of the past, black sites, signing statements, legal domestic surveillance, the Senate broken, the Republican Party in the hands of right-wingers who don't believe in government, and the notion of bipartisanship (as anything other than a cynical joke) completely gone.

In other words, what if Nixon were in power today, when everything that checked his power and led to his undoing in 1974 has been removed?