Author: Charles Céleste Hutchins

Is center-right the best the party has to offer?

Plenty of Democrats are liberals. And when I say “Democrats,” I mean folks registered Democrat. I mean the people in front of the Grand Lake Theatre with the voting registration table. I mean people running for city counsils and school boards and small local offices. I mean the people lining up to vote at my local polling place. I mean bloggers. I mean you and I might mean me.

Third Parties

A while back, there were independant ideologically driven parties on the right. They were fed up with the Republicans looking identical to the Deomcrats on all the issues they cared about. George Bush Sr. was giving money to Planned Parenthood. Nobody cared about prayer in schools. Reagan appointed a woman to the Supreme Court. None of their issues were addressed by this absolutely corrupt, beholden ot corporate profits party. the right felt their party had abandonded them, and so they abandoned their party.
They started magazines and organizations to spread their views. They got commentators. They got on the radio. they got their message out. And then, the dfeining issue of the Republican party, anti-communism, wasn’t so compelling anymore. People in the party started to take notice. Here was this huge, angry, untapped base on the right. They grabbed the right populists and got them on board. They changed their platform. the party became a vehicle for the kind of social change that the right once dispaired of ever seeing the Republicans address.
Organized, vocal right wingers motivated people and got control of the Republican party and pulled it in the direction that they wanted it to go.

Liberals

We are fed up with the right-wingness of Democratic leadership. Our party has abandoned us. We’ve got our commentators and bloggers. We’ve got our organizations, like MoveOn. We can and must pull the Democrats in the direction we want to go. We are populists. the majority of Americans want single-payer health insurance. The majority of americans want nuclear disarmnament. The majority of Americans want us out of Iraq. Informed Americans do not support the war on terror. Informed Americans do not support the Patriot Act. Informed Americans are not in favor of extra-constitution detentions or torture or no bid contracts or any of the vile misdeeds of the Bush administration. Do I say “informed” to be elitist? No, I say “informed” because news organizations are not doing their job. And they are not because we are not. Right wing people write letters when they don’t like what they see on the news. They write letters to the broadcasters. They write letters to the advertisers. They write letters to the FCC.
We must learn from the tactics of the right. Not the dirty tricks or the smear campaigns, but the grass root mobilization. We won’t need to lie or to smear because progressiveism means people voting for their own best interests, where right-ism means voting for corporate interests. Right wing lies require a media machine to prop up mythology and to spread disinformation. All of this is disarmed with truth.
The way to change the Democratic party is to stand up and demand the change. No, Kerry will not pull out of Iraq unless we demand it. If we are in the streets. If we are writing letters. If we are blogging it, the troops will come home. The Democrats are the party of Joe Lieberman, but they are also the party of Dennis Kucinich and Barack Obama and Barbara Lee. If we want tehir to be a progressive voice in the Democratic Party, we have to be that progressive voice. We have to support our progressive leaders already in the party. We have to organize and demand that our ideas find their way into the platform. We have to take action on a local level. Run for office, organize protests, volunteer for organizations trying to enact political change. We must rebuild the insitutions whihc make the Democratic party strong. We don’t just need strongs PACs, we need strong unions.
We need to be a “big tent.” There needs to be room in the democratic party for the left-wing version of Ann Coulter. We need to broaden our ideas of what it means to be a Democrat. We need to reach out to leftists by giving them something worth grabbing on to. Any poltical party is made up of people. We need to be the party we want.
I’m switching my registration.

Biography in the New Yorker

Remeber Afghanistan? things are going badly. How badly? Doctors Without Borders is leaving. They’ve been there for 24 years. They were there during the war with the USSR. they were there under the Taliban. They go to all sorts of dangerous, hostile, war-torn places. But Afghanistan has gotten too unsafe.

[Doctors Without Borders] accused US-led forces in Afghanistan of using humanitarian aid for “military and political motives”. The US military rejected the claims.

And it’s our fault. We put them in harms way. We politicized helping the sick and dying. We used humanitarian aid as a weapon.
Hey, what about our Afghan exit strategy? When are we going to let the UN take over and get the hell out and let them rebuild their country with the help of NGOs and aid groups? What about that other dirty Bush war? How many people in Afghanistan have to die so we can get rid of a “brutal regeime” that we used to back and gave money and arms to? It seems like an auful lot of thugs are our current or former allies. and there’s a reason for that. Human rights violations are directly linked to US Foreign aid. The more you abuse, the more money you’re likely to get.
There’s a lot that’s similar betwen Afghanistan and Iraq. And Afghanistan has the largest number of refugees living outside it’s borders. More pople have fled Afghanistan than any other country. And that trend is nto stopping. Maybe, after a few years of our presence in Iraq, Iraqis can give them a run for their money. How much devestation is enough? When will we leave?

Fafnir‘s identity revealed!!! (Or, at least caught on film)

Obama

I turned on CSPAN last night (not the major broadacast networks), just to look at what was going on and tuned in just in time to see Barack Obama‘s keynote address. I’d seen this guy’s name on the net recently, but didn’t really know anything about him. He is definitely going places. He speech said almost all the right things. It’s hard to give a powerful speech on a weak platform. He talked for a while about how war should be a last resort and not a first resort and said a lot of sensible things about war and peace. But the Democrats want it both ways. They want to be tough and annhiliate our “enemies,” so then he talked for a while about how we need a strong military and should not hesitate to defeat our enemies and need to make sure to send in enough troops to actually win. Yes, clearly the problem in Iraq is that we don’t have enough troops. If only there were more troops and mercenaries and more Iraqis in jail and more people killed on both sides and more bombs and more tanks and more violence and more death and more guns and more bullets and more troops and more convoys and more terrified 19 year old boys with guns running into houses in the middle of the night, rousting and arresting the occupants, only then, might we have peace in Iraq. More troops = more weapons = more violence = . . . peace?
Nevertheless, Obama’s speech was excellent, especially on domestic issues, race issues, poverty, etc. Many people have commented that a major theme of the convetion is unity and true to the theme he criticized talking head for dividing the country into red and blue states. “we worship an awesome god in the blue states” and “people in red states don’t want federal agents in their library records.” Indeed. In many ways, he and many of the other bits I caught, primarily reached out to the urban base of the party. When he talked about poverty, he talked about urban, inner-city poverty and not rural poverty. CSPAN showed a DNC video about giving poor kids options and it was all about New York City. This video featured a Representative from NYC talking about growing up as a poor teenager of color and how he felt like he didn’t have options. then it showed african american young men talking about dropping out of shool and having a lack of direction. The music under the track was urban contemporary. Then, after setting up the problem, the video turned to the solution: John Kerry. It also switched sound tracks at that point. The beat driven music switched (through a quite nice audio edit) to Enya. John Kerry brought beatless, white music to the inner city and turned black kids’ lives around.
I went to a lecture last semester as music as a signifier of race and racial stereotypes. I certainly hope whoever did the audio for the video was only unconsciously tapping into that auditory shorthand. somebody at the DNC should have caught that. In that video, as in so much in society, “black” music = uneployment, thuggishness, crime, etc and “white” music = direction, uprightness, prospertity, hope. On the one hand, then Enya did fit in really well. It was that song whith the backwards synth pads. It sounded appropriately uplifting. On the other hand, it does send a deeper message. If the kids in the first half hadn’t all been people of color, I never would have picked up on it. But suddenly, there’s the picture of the white guy and the music changes.

That video was the lead-in for Obama’s speech. And Obama’s speech was quite good. I think I saw tears in the eyes of Hillary Clinton, but I’m not certain. He is clearly going to win his senate seat. He was already troucing his opponent, when it was revealed that his opponent forced his wife to go to sex clubs with him and tried to get her to perform sex acts with strangers. The dirty secrets of Republicans are soooo dirty. This was in divorce papers, which reports sucessfully sued to get released to the public. If you’re going to run for office, maybe you shouldn’t do things like that and maybe, if you do, you should be willing to give up enough money in the divorce settlement so that it doesn’t go on your permanent record.
Obama kept mentioning his “funny name.” You may recall that Bill Cosby recently criticised african americans for giving “funny” (read: African) names to their children. Obama’s father was a Kenyan immigrant, so it’s quite logical that he would have an African name, however, I can’t help but wonder if his name references were a criticism of Cosby. Let’s hope so, as I think Cosby was way out of line for making an issue of names and fashions. It’s the kind of complaints that a bitter old man would have about the young people.

Ron Reagan

after Obama, Ron Reagan, son of our late ex president, gave a talk about stem cell research. It would have been compelling to have a scientist get up and talk about the politicization of science under the Bush administration, where scientists have been fired for reaching conclusions that did not match administration ideology and stem cell research has been halted, etc. Instead, Ron Reagan gave a creppy future scenario, science fiction like, where your cells would be implanted into a donor egg to create your own stem cell culture, which you would mine for cells whenever you had any medical problem. He was promising immortality. However, there is only so much healthcare to go around in the US. anyone who has health insurance can be immortal. And there are onyl so many donor eggs. Harvesting eggs is non trivial and allowing your eggs to be harvested has been linked to cancer. It seems to shorten the lives of egg donors. So rich people can be immortal with the eggs of the poor? Not a complelling vision of the future. Not one I’d support. Apparently what Democrats want. I know that they just picked Ron Reagan because of his name. I know that they probably care about the politicization of the NIH and the NIS and the WHO, etc. Nevertheless, I’m crepped out. I think folks not having health insurance, might, perhaps, be a wee bit more immeditaly compelling than the possibility of future research maybe finding a cure for currently incurable diseases. This is not a zero sum game. But how many people who can’t take their kids to the doctor for strep throat until it’s time for the emergency room are going to care about stem cell research. Obama talked about health care, but he talked about “buying” health insurance. Polls indicate that ther majority of Americans want nationalized healthcare. But insurance companies own the electoral process.

Kids for Kerry

I had it muted when a little orphan Annie, the founder of Kids for Kerry, (website) got up to speak. Cola insisted, eventually, that I turn the sound on. I could tell from the way she earnestly shook her head and the wide way she opened her mouth, that it would be bad, but Cola wanted to hear. We turned on the sound in time to hear her call for a “no-name calling day,” where candidates would have one day of not runnign mean ads and then she said, “The vice president said a really bad word!” Coal shuddered. “Oh god! turn it off! turn it off!” If you say that phrase to Cola now, she curls up in horror, “No! Stop! Stop!” heh heh heh. muahahahaha.

in conclusion

I always kind of want to drink to kool aid. I want to beleive. I want to look at the democrats and see hope. But, you know, it’s the insurance companies that see hope, not me. Obama, however, is a guy to watch. Running mate for Hillary? hmmmm.

Monday was Mitch‘s mother’s birthday. Mitch’s mom is cool.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/today/news_14508dab1592c0bf0015.html“Moulitsas was talking with Duncan Black, 32, an economics teacher from Philadelphia, whose atrios.blogspot.com has made him one of the nation’s most well-read political commentators.”

1. We now know who Atrios is
2. The most well-read political commentator was, until this week, completely anonymous. Does that mean something?
3. Who is behind fafblog?

There’s an urban legend going around right now that political wife Heinz Kerry donated money to extremely radical leftist groups like “Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights Action League, and the Abortion Action Project.” It’s not true. But first, let’s note that George Bush the elder donated a lot of money to pro-choice organizations before he fell in with Regan. Second, I’m highly concerned about the idea of Planned Parenthood as a radical organization. Abortion is a constitutional right. Planned Parenthood does not just provide women with (constiutionally protected) abortion services, it also provides them with other healthcare as well.

There is a compelling argument that the anti-abortion movement has a lot more to do with limitting women than with protecting fetuses. For example, conservatives are wont to grant exceptions in the case of rape or incest. Women can get abortions as long as it’s not thier “fault” for getting pregnant. Otherwise, it’s a just punishment for their actions. Furthermore, miscarriages are not treated like deaths. Fetus don’t have funerals, they don’t have names, they aren’t counted in the census and they aren’t dependants on your tax forms. You legal age starts from zero at birth, not conception. In no way is a fetus legally a person. The argument about where life begins is a religious argument, but most religions, similarly, are inconsistent. Fetsus are still unnamed, unbaptised and unmourned should they miscarry. No religion that I can think of has a system in place that recognizes fetuses. Also, many religions support exception for when the women is “innocently” impregnanted. Pregnancy is a punishment for illicit sex and a natural consequence of non-ellicit sex. Women should not have agency to control reproduction. And this is why Planned Parenthood is under attack, as much for their non-abortion activities as their abortion ones. Religious right wing reactionaries have increasing taken stands against birth control. Thi is true of some protestants as well as the long standing anti-birth control position of the Catholic church. It seems like birth control is a sensible way to limit the number of abortions performed. If people can prevent accidental pregnancies, then they are much less likely to terminate pregnancies. But birth control gives women agency. Women’s health clinics give women agency. A healthy, informed woman is problematic to reactionaries. These same men who will willingly take thier girlfriends to get abortions want to prevent their wives, daughter, girlfriends and the unwashed masses from making thier own choices. Agency belongs to men, not women.

Privacy

However, there is an attached concern to overturning Roe vs Wade. The supreme court ruled in that descision that Americans have a right to privacy. Abortion cannot be outlawed because it would be government intrustion in a private matter. A right to privacy is a protection against all kinds of government spying. roe vs Wade not only represents female empowerment, it’s a roadblock against having a full police state. Total Information Awereness, TIPS, and Homeland Security projects are impeeded by this constitutional right. If Roe vs Wade says that prosecutors can’t look at your medical records to see why your fetus disappeared, then they can’t snoop around them at random.

Lanuage

Through excessive reptition, reactionaries somehow turned “liberal” into a dirty word. It is imparative that they not be allowed to also do this to abortion. Right now, a vast majority of Americans, especially young Americans, are in favor of the legallity of abortion. If the right wing successfully demonizes the term, well, opions will change and you can kiss your rights and your privacy goodbye.
The best way, I think, to fight their over the top rhetoric is to mock it whenever possible. “Abortion on demand!” why, yes, that would be terrible! Imagine if we could get other medical services on demand like wisdom tooth removal or apendectomies! Conservatives are in favor of liposuction on demand! have they no shame??

Reccomended read The power is out. US troops are shooting people. The new government is looking increasingly like the old government in actions, but is directly controlled by the US. “No one knows how many Iraqis have died or are dying. British reporter Robert Fisk estimates nearly a 1,000 people a week are dying from crime, American errors, the settling of feuds, and other reasons.” Nobody can travel. Snipers shoot everybody that moves. Up to 90% of prisoners (according to US estimates) are innocent, yet still we torture them.

some people say we need an “exit strategy” a way to get out without causing chaos. It’s way too late for that. Maybe we could get the UN in and remove every single member of the “coalition of the willing,” but how likely is that? Probably, we’ll continue to use contractors (read: mercenaries) to pacify (read: muder until submission) the populace and keep our 4 or more permanent military bases. The cradle of civilization. An American shooting gallery.
Why do we do it? Why do we have the Phillipines for so long? Why did we slaughter Native Americans? Why did we feed Chinese children poisoned candy? In pursuit of power. Let’s all go read 1984. Then let’s go read some anarchists. Power is violence. The power of the state is the power of the sword: to kill or allow to live. International relations are eerily similar to the school yard bully. The US is big and bad and has some synchophants along who will beat Iraq for it’s lunch money and savagely for that time it said, “no.”
Will Kerry fix this? no. being in the street will fix it. revolution will fix it. we need to get out of Iraq now. The much-feared power vacuum has come to pass. We don’t care about anything but killing communists and destroying the economy.

US criminal numbers hit new high

The US has nearly 6.9 million people – roughly 3.2% of the adult population – in prison or on probation or parole, a Justice Department report reveals

That’s more than double the number of people in the military. The US Census Bureau reports that there are 15.9 million college students. 2.3 Million college students are black. So 14% of college kids are black.

The report also revealed 41% of people on parole last year were black, while 40% were white.

The Bureau of Justice reports, “At midyear 2003 there were 4,834 black male prisoners per 100,000 black males in the United States in prison or jail, compared to 1,778 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 681 white male inmates per 100,000 white males.”

The rise in the number of people in prison or on probation or parole has happened despite nationwide crime rates remaining relatively stable and despite efforts by some states to introduce softer sentencing laws in an attempt to cut prison costs, the New York Times newspaper says.

Maybe this is because the Bush adminstration has decided that “Pot . . . may pose a greater threat than cocaine or even heroin,” which I beleive is also in the introduction to the movie Reefer Madness.
So lets’ get this straight: prison populations are up despite non-rising (some say falling) crime rates and African Americans are overwhelmingly over-represented. We have, by a huge margin, the higest incarceration rates in the first world and are running much higher than several third world countries. Are we a free society or are we a police state where people are criminalized on the basis of race and victimless, common behaviors? Discuss.