WTF: Ralph Nader Edition

(Updated, see below)

The surest way to get attention is to do something bat-shit crazy. But does pondering what it would mean to do such a crazy thing affect the outcome and make you crazy? The case of Ralph Nader seems to comply with the Copenhagen interpretation: he tries to measure his own insanity, and collapses the waveform to the state of "gibbering." He opened the box, and forced the cat to be dead...



Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.

Update: Jim in the comments suggests that I have perhaps failed to see the humor in this. Not so! This video is fucking hilarious (pardon my French), though to me perhaps not in the lighthearted manner in which Nader intended it. I put this in the same category as P. Diddy's recent treatise on Sarah Palin, which is not for those offended by swearing or by incredulity at Palin's selection.

Clive Clemons' Inappropriate Response Channel

I'm glad there's only a couple months left before the election, because this is getting old. To repurpose a line from Reagan, "there you go again," McCain.

McCain's new ad, supposedly running in blue-collar swing states, claims that Obama wanted "comprehensive sex ed" for kindergartners. "Learning about sex before learning how to read?" the narrator scoffs. The word "icky" has become an adjective of choice for me lately, and I think it's useful here. The claim of the ad is a lie. Not a distortion, but a lie.

The bill Obama supported, which did not pass, for what it's worth, called not for comprehensive but "age-appropriate" sex ed for kindergartners. What dos this mean for kindergartners? Teaching them about physical boundaries and what constitutes a "bad touch," and how to talk to a safe adult if they're touched inappropriately. Period. Keeping them safe. Not the birds and the bees. Not "when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much..." To suggest otherwise, as the McCain campaign has done, is a lie. Stay classy, San Diego.*

Some commentators have unfavorably compared this ad to the infamous Willie Horton ad, since at least it was true that Dukakis supported a forlough program that Horton was out on when he committed robbery and rape, even if that ad was (also icky) race-baiting. I certainly hope that this ad does not gain the traction that the Horton ad did, since it is truthfully-challenged, and the media, uncharacteristically, seems to have been calling the McCain campaign on their bs lately.

So if someone brings up this claim, it's not true. Spread the word.

Now, as for the photo above, it comes from an old Conan O'Brien bit Nels told me about years ago but I hadn't seen until recently. It's very funny.

* Speaking of accusations of classlessness, I do not buy for a second that Obama's comment yesterday about "lipstick on a pig" was (a) in any a reference, veiled or otherwise, to Sarah Palin or (b) otherwise inappropriate because of her presence in the race. Obama has used the phrase, along with a variety of other corny (probably Kansan) verbiage, many times in recent, including before Palin's selection, in reference to McCain's and Bush's policies. Hell, McCain used the phrase last year in reference to Hillary Clinton's policies. Nobody got vocally upset about the phrase then. The fauxtrage now is the same as ignorant liberals claiming racism when someone uses the phrase "call a spade a spade" or the word "niggardly." Grow the hell up, people. (Oh, also, as a fan of words and metaphor, I enjoyed Christopher Orr's take on this.)

Understudious!

If any post earns the shameless self-promotion tag, it will be this one:

1. So you've always wanted to see a Brave New Workshop election show, but you hate Joe Bozic? Well, you're in luck. He and Theresa are busy multiplying (Go Theresa Go!), so for this weekend and next, I will be stepping in for Joe in "The Lion, The Witch & The War Hero, or, Is McCain Able?" So, Fridays at 8, Saturdays at 7 & 10. 2605 Hennepin. 612-332-6620. And come to the BNW After Party tonight. I'm playing Martin Van Buren in it, I guess.

2. So you've always want to see me pretend to act, but you wish I was younger, thinner and combed my hair? Well, you're in luck as well. I finally put my bronze-winning film from the 2001 Grinnell College Titular Head* student film festival on YouTube. As of this writing, you could very well end up being the first person ever to view it in this fashion. How forward-thinking!

* Despite my being a rabid practicioner of Grinnellian chauvinism and having been the Titular Head of Titular Head, I somehow doubt that the festival passes the notabilty threshold for Wikipedia consideration. Also, despite what the article implies, there was a 5-minute time limit before 2003 as well. We instituted it in 1999 after having a long, horrible festival to sit through in 1998. Apparently some of my efforts at institutional memory have faded.

If they could see me now

Working in downtown St. Paul during the RNC has been interesting, to be sure, but it hasn't quite been what I'd hoped. I was looking forward to shooting steely glances at Rick Davis from behind a Snoopy statue, examining climate model displays with James Inhofe at the Science Museum, or throwing dice with Rachel Maddow and Pat Buchanan behind the Dorothy Day Center. Sadly, none of these things have come to pass. I haven't even seen any political or journalistic celebrities. One of my coworkers saw the extremely jowly RFK-California-campaign-manager-turned-PBS-pundit Mark Shields (whoops, fixed link) in the food court downstairs, but I'm not even that lucky. No, the most nationally known individual I've come across, sadly, is this a-hole:
This is Larry Sinclair. He's the serial fabulist who claims he snorted coke and had sex with Barack Obama in a limo in 1999. The best overview about him that I've found is in (or linked from) this post. Apologies for the image quality: I don't have good resizing software at work.

Anyway, he was wandering with his sign (the back of it features Donald Young (no not that one), who Sinclair claims was Obama's lover before being murdered last winter) around Rice Park, where MSNBC has their outdoor stage. He got a call, and told his interlocuter of his intention to walk up and around the State Capital. I was curious to see what the DVD was under his right arm, but I didn't get the opportunity.

I took a long walk at lunch today and snapped pictures of the security, media, decorations, some scattered protesters, and so on. Thanks to Troy for the loan of his camera. I'll get some more pics up here sometime, including, if I can, some I took with my phone en route to my car last night. Yesterday I was thinking I wouldn't take any time off to avoid the RNC this week, but walking across downtown through a 700-person protest surrounded by riot cops, bike cops and horse cops waiting for The Shit to Go Down changed my mind. It was a weird, tense, creepy vibe, and I don't want to be anywhere near downtown St. Paul tomorrow at quitting time.

Update: Coworker Troy nabbed one of the DVDs they were handing out in the park, the one Sinclair was toting. It's this.

So What (Part One)

I've noticed that two of the phrases most used today by conservative commenters online today in reaction to McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate are "executive experience" and "Washington insider," the first in reference to Palin, the second to Joe Biden. I posit that these terms are neutral and meaningless in and of themselves, especially in their current context.

"Executive Experience"

This is the first time since 1960 that a member of Congress will be elected to the presidency. All the other presidents in recent history have been governor of a state or the vice president. And part of the argument has been that governorship is the most relevant training for the presidency. I agree that it can be relevant, but believe that this depends very greatly on the state and the circumstances.

You could say that someone like Schwartzenegger (CA), Romney and Deval Patrick (MA), Ed Rendell (PA), Tim Kaine (VA), Jennifer Granholm (MI) or even Tim Pawlenty (MN)* have relevant executive experience. Managing a populous state with disparate needs within its borders (and in the case of a state like California, an economy on the order of the world's wealthiest nations and a semi-regular need for the state national guard in disaster response) is a complex and challenging managerial task. Some governors (including, possibly, some that I've listed) may be more staff-dependent to keep up this task, but I think that the kinds of choices you have to make in states like these are very relevant to the decision-making process as POTUS.

BUT: Republicans are touting the fact that she has "more executive experience" than the rest of both tickets combined. In a strictly literal sense, this is true. None of the other three have held managerial positions. But the experience they have is far more relevant to the presidency than serving the first 1.67 years of a gubernatorial term in a fairly homogenous (I may be ignorant of Alaska on that point), sparsely populated state drowning in Federal support and oil money (she signed a windfall profits tax on oil companies in the state, and supports giving them more places to drill there). In terms of difficult decision-making, give-and-take, and exposure to national and international issues, her experience PALES in comparison to Obama's four years in the Senate and on the Foreign Relations Committee, and running a massive, 50-state presidential campaign that upset Hillary Clinton. Strategists are saying that Obama's smart move will be to point out how baldly disingenuous this selection renders McCain's criticism of Obama's experience. That's true, but I think that she also loses the experience comparison on the merits.

Dang. Wrote more than I intended. Will talk Washington insider later.

* For those keeping score, that's CAMAPAVAMIMN**. Ask your doctor if Camapavamimn is right for you.

** Oddly, spellcheck didn't underline this word.

*** This footnote has no antecedant, since I didn't feel like putting asterixes in the post title. I just wanted to put it on the public record that the opening chords of "So What," the first track of Miles Davis' seminal album "Kind of Blue," are perfect. That is all.

Politicking

I don't generally want this blog to be about politics, but it's been occupying a good deal of my thought process lately, so you, reader, cannot escape. Unless, uh, you don't read this.

Political stuff:

McCain's recent ads on Obama have stretched the truth about the Illinois Senator and his positions so far as to be meaningless. For instance the bit about Obama voting to raise taxes on everyone making over $42,000 a year. Oddly enough, it takes Fox News, of all organizations, to push back on this. In being questioned, McCain campaign... dude... Rick Davis claims that Obama voted to raise taxes 90 times in his four years in the Senate. Many of these votes I suspect were for non-binding budget resolutions (as is the $42k thing), omnibus bills, and so on. And given that likelihood, I suspect McCain voted for some of them as well. This last bit is speculation, though.

What I can say is that there are pretty good numbers out there, from non-partisan groups like the Tax Policy Center, breaking down the proposed tax plans of the candidates. And some enterprising Obama supporter has coded the numbers into a handy-dandy little tool to estimate your own tax cut under the Obama plan, also giving the comparitive number for McCain's plan, if the McCain cut is less. You have to be making $200,000 or more a year (if married with one income) to have the McCain plan benefit you more (Following this thread, McCain's plan also taxes health benefits, which is something I just noticed the other day, and am creeped out by).

There are plenty of other issues, economic and otherwise, in this election. And I will certainly not claim that Obama's perfect. But I thought the web tool does a nice job of dispeling Candidate McCain's deceptive ads. And of course, I'm essentially repeating talking points here. That's because I want to spread the word and I want Obama to win.

P.S. A McCain campaign advisor who helped craft his health plan says the uninsured have insurance. It's called going to the emergency room. Because that's totally not already part of the problem in spiralling medical costs for everybody. Jerk. (See also Butch Roy for why the emergency room isn't acceptable health insurance.)

A tragedy for Minnesota

Less than 24 hours after my post on Friday, it seems callous and tone-deaf.

I grew up going to Bachman's with my parents for pretty much anything plant-related. One of my best friends in high school lived around the corner from - and worked at - their hq and store #1. Bachman's centerpieces were present for every Christmas & Easter. Suffice to say, they're a major part of, to put it a goofy way, the Minneapolis and Minnesota "family." The murder Saturday morning in Beijing of Todd Bachman, CEO of the company, is a senseless tragedy, and is indeed a story that is deeply felt in the Twin Cities. My thoughts go out to the Bachman family.