Nation-Building

hat tip to Barb for this interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about Dean's continued activity as an "almost candidate". The article says that Dean has studied the lessons of the right in order to formulate tactics for the left:

The feisty former Vermont governor, determined not to be a fringe player, is boning up on the political right for guidance on how to better organize the left -- not just for November's elections but beyond. He is studying the tactics used by Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, and Ralph Reed, who helped make the Christian Coalition a political power. A decade after Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Reed, now a private consultant and adviser to President George W. Bush's campaign, helped usher in an era of Republican power, Mr. Dean hopes to begin to shift the balance back toward his progressive agenda.

"Those people were very organized, they were very methodical about what they did," he says. If history is amused by the ironies, Mr. Dean believes it soon will have to sit up and take notice.

The focus on the Progressive agenda is fine, but not exactly what I had anticipated. Basically Dean is focusing on making the Progressive base more active, especially by drawing in youth (for example through the Music for America side-project). The idea is to match the energy on the right by getting out the liberal vote.

To be honest, I think that the left is already motivated by the excesses of the Bush Administration. Turnout among the base is not as key a concern IMHO as focusing on two goals - the short term, focusing on swing state undecided voters, and the long term, healing the polarized political divide.

In essence, Dean isn't going for the vision of a True American Majority, he is going for a numbers game advantage in the same old Us Vs Them game that politics in America has devolved to. To some extent that is critical, because it's the only way we can boot Bush - but I want to see some hint of a more visionary solution than just out-muscling the extremists.

Still, I can't discount the neccessity of what Dean is doing right now - especially in light of two other threats - Nader appeal and Kerry fatigue:

Certainly, Mr. Dean's free-spirited independence makes him an asset as Mr. Kerry tries to fend off defections to third party candidate Ralph Nader. As a trained doctor, Mr. Dean is working with old labor allies to promote health-care proposals at the heart of Mr. Kerry's domestic agenda.

Like no one else, perhaps, Mr. Dean is crucial if Mr. Kerry is to achieve his goal of greatly expanding the turnout among younger voters, who have swung against the Iraq war and remain worried by the lack of economic opportunity at home.

It won't be easy. "My constituency is divided on John Kerry," Mr. Dean acknowledges in an interview. Among young people, he says, the task is harder now that he no longer is a candidate, and the challenge is to keep alive that sense of community and civic involvement his campaign bred among otherwise disaffected voters.

Perhaps I just have to curb my idealism until after November 2004. Right now, there's only one goal: ABB.

I should also note that Dean's determination to court such tainted figures as Jim Moran might help the short term goal, but will surely damage the long term one. That choice is real cause for disappointment in Howard.

Continue reading/discuss a look under the hood of DFA ...

Rest in peace. He deserves kudos for his role in bringing about the fall of Communism and for being a leader that actually did unite our nation rather than the division that GOP candidates have sown since. His foreign and fiscal policies would be welcome by liberals today, in comparison to the extremism of the present Administration. But if his greatest legacy is that his example furthers the cause of research into Alzheimer's disease, with stem-cell technology, against the policy of the present Administration and the right-wing zealots who have dominated the GOP, then that will be a far greater acclaim than any other judgement history may provide.

UPDATE: If you read one speech by Reagan, make it two. The speech after the Challenger, and the speech where he dared Gorbachev to "tear down this wall."

beware the GOP attempts at revisionist history. Much of Reagan's success as President owed to some of his decidely non-conservative policies:

Reagan is, to be sure, one of the most conservative presidents in U.S. history and will certainly be remembered as such. His record on the environment, defense, and economic policy is very much in line with its portrayal. But he entered office as an ideologue who promised a conservative revolution, vowing to slash the size of government, radically scale back entitlements, and deploy the powers of the presidency in pursuit of socially and culturally conservative goals. That he essentially failed in this mission hasn't stopped partisan biographers from pretending otherwise. (Noonan writes of his 1980 campaign pledges: "Done, done, done, done, done, done, and done. Every bit of it.")

A sober review of Reagan's presidency doesn't yield the seamlessly conservative record being peddled today. Federal government expanded on his watch. The conservative desire to outlaw abortion was never seriously pursued. Reagan broke with the hardliners in his administration and compromised with the Soviets on arms control. His assault on entitlements never materialized; instead he saved Social Security in 1983. And he repeatedly ignored the fundamental conservative dogma that taxes should never be raised.
All of this has been airbrushed from the new literature of Reagan.

UPDATE: an excellent point which is also in danger of being papered over by modern GOP revisionists as an inconvenient fact, even though it is actually critical and profound:

So tonight, as we live in a world where the danger of nuclear war is much lower than it was in 1985, when Reagan and Gorbachev first met, let us praise Reagan for ignoring the advice of those who said bargaining with Gorbachev would endanger the safety of the free world, especially then-Defense Department official Richard Perle and then-Wyoming Congressman Dick Cheney.

UPDATE: Kerry's statement on the death of Ronald Reagan. It's a noble gesture of respect which all Democrats would be wise to heed.

Continue reading/discuss President Reagan dies at age 93 ...

I've discussed the problems with Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) before, but here's a nice article on the subject. Key graf:

This is the fundamental problem with IRV. The only preference that is sure to be counted is my first choice. The problem gets worse as the number of candidates increases. The outcome of the election can depend in a very quirky way on the order in which candidates are eliminated for having the fewest top-choice votes. The only way a voter can be assured of not wasting his or her vote is to rank one of the two major parties as their first choice, which is precisely what happens now under plurality voting.

Read the whole article for the rigorous mechanics of why this is so.

I also have a fundamental philosophical problem with IRV, in that it would encourage too many small political parties. I do want to see at least one or two healthy alternates to the GOP and the Democrats available to put pressure on the main parties and also serve as an outlet for the fringe, but overall the hyper-fragmentation effect of numerous political parties has been a big drain on countries that suffer it - notably Israel and the UK, where fringe parties exert undue influence on mainstream policy. A good example is the settler movement in Israel - they suck billions away from the public sector and are a net drain on Israel's economy (not to mention the security nightmare). Our current plurality system helps modulate the effect of teh fringe in a way that I think is wise.

UPDATE: Steven den Beste had a good essay on the latter rationale against IRV, which is worth reading:

The idea is that fringe or extreme political viewpoints cannot significantly influence the system through local dominance in a small area or by having a small number of followers spread around everywhere. It's structural, and what it means is that we are relatively less vulnerable to extreme political opinions. Which means we can tolerate them. We can tolerate wide expression of extremely strange, even vile, political positions because they won't make much difference until they are supported by a significant proportion of the electorate nationwide, and generally the weirdest ones will have no chance of ever doing that.

Continue reading/discuss the problem with IRV ...

By request from Joe on the Zonkboard, here's a link to my entry on UNMEDIA discussing why I do not hate George W. Bush. I do, however, think that Bush has been possibly teh worst president since McKinney and easily the most damaging to the national security of this nation, and that he is grossly unqualified to hold office. The legacy of the Bush Administration will be a millstone borne around the neck of future generations and administrations, Republican and Democrat alike. George W. Bush is a poor leader, a weak leader, and a failed leader, whose single most compelling argument for being elected - being a uniter, not a divider - has been grotesquely Bizzarro-esque. And while I do not hate George W. Bush, I am deeply angry with him for failing to live up to the promise and my expectations of him during that short period of time after 9-11 when he really was a rallying figure for all of us, and we the People granted him enormous political capital hoping that he would use it wisely. INstead he has trown sop after sop to eth extremists domestically and surrendered all control of foreign policy to an untested group of ideolouges. I don't even disagree with some of the larger aims of the foreign policy as stated, but in their implementation has been revealed an incompetence that in the post-9-11 world is utterly unforgivable.

I do not hate George W. Bush, who I think is a fine human being and a decent man. But he is the worst leader this country could have had at the critical moment of history when we needed a great one. His place in history is indeed secure.

Continue reading/discuss Why I cannot hate George W. Bush ...

Over at Daily Kos, there's some discussion about whether Obama Barack needs help to win. Kos is trying to choose two of the "dKos 8" to officially endorse and many of the commentors think that Obama doesn't need any extra push since he has the election "in the bag".

I think that's wrong, and I want to make a special plea to all of us Deaniacs to contribute money to Obama's campaign.

Barack Obama is the son of a Kenyan economist, a principled lawyer who rejected a cushy partnership in order to work the underpaid civil rights beat, and a dedicated public servant. It may shock you to realize this, but if he becomes the Senator from Illinois he will be the sole black Senator. This isn't about a quota but rather a case of a supremely qualified man who deserves to win, far more than his super-funded Republican businessman opponent, because Obama will work for the betterment of the State of Illinois and a truly progressive national agenda.

Read Obama's personal statement at Daily Kos, and this biography at his campaign website, and learn more about him.

And then, please donate money to his campaign, because of all seats at stake, this one is one of the most important for real change and also the most symbolic. Like Senator Paul Simon before him, a beloved figure of Illinois politics by Democrats and Republicans alike, Obama has the potential to be a true reach-across-the-aisle builder of unity, in the true Dean Nation tradition of being for America as a whole, not just blue or red state divisions.

Illinois is my home state, where I was born. It is a noble land with a history of great statesmen leading the nation - both in the Senate and the Oval Office. Obama is the heir to that tradition and deserves our support.

Continue reading/discuss Support Barack Obama ...

I spent last night fretting over the South Dakota House race, while in the next room my teen-age daughter got educated in movie history by watching "North by Northwest" (another South Dakota cliffhanger).

Herseth-Diedrich was also a cliff-hanger, but we won. Because the story wasn't covered extensively by the national press (and even the official Democratic blog went to bed before the counting started) I got a lot of my insight from Daily Kos.

Here is some of what I learned:

• Republican Diedrich's claim he would be lucky to get within 5% of Herseth, made over the last weekend, was a ploy aimed at holding down the Indian reservation vote, and it almost worked. Those counties went heavily for Herseth, but turnout was down.
  
• Contrary to what you might think, Republicans are heavily-motivated to beat us. Some GOP counties in South Dakota turned out 65-75% of their vote yesterday. The total vote exceeded 50% of registrations, which is awesome for a special election.
  
• Maybe there's something to this Kerry rope-a-dope strategy. Herseth won narrowly, but she won. Meanwhile Dean-ites like Mike Nelson failed to even get through their primaries.
  
• It was a fair fight. Despite paper ballots, the votes were counted within about five hours of the polls closing.
  
• No one will ever replace Cary Grant.
  

What did you learn?

Continue reading/discuss North by Northwest ...

Matthew Yglesias was unfairly harassed by The Man on Memorial Day. Read all about it - and don't miss the funniest comment thread since Bush was selected. Damn these big-government conservatives! (if only the Libertarian party wasn't so lame...)

Continue reading/discuss save Yglesias ...

If DFA is going to ever achieve its goals of promoting small-d democracy, it needs to be absolutely free of any taint. That means that candidates that Dean campaigns for also need to pass a rigorous standard, because any controversy will undermine not just DFA by association but will also apill over to other candidates like the Dean Dozens. The support of DFA on your resume needs to be a strong asset, not a talking point liability.

That's why Dean's campaigning activities for Jim Moran need to end. Dean will be a guest at a fund-raising breakfast for Moran on June 4th.

Why is Jim Moran a problem? Ben Domenech has a wealth of links - all stories from the Washington Post - about Moran's various foolish statements of persecution by Jews:

In comments likely to prolong controversy over Moran's views toward Israel and U.S. Jewish groups and constituents, the seven-term incumbent said the American Israel Public Action Committee (AIPAC) has begun organizing against him and will "direct a campaign against me and take over the campaign of a Democratic opponent," according to notes taken by a person in attendance and corroborated by three others.

AIPAC spokeswoman Rebecca Dinar called Moran's comments "ridiculous" and said the organization "had no idea" what the congressman was talking about. AIPAC, an influential and prominent Washington-based lobby, is not a political action committee, by law cannot raise money for candidates and by policy does not endorse candidates, Dinar said.

Look, if a conservative politician were to say that "the NAACP has begun organizing against me and will direct a campaign against me" they would be at equal risk of being called a racist as Moran is now being called an anti-semite. Moran did NOT say "The Jews are pulling the strings" (though I haven't dug far enough into Domenech's links yet...) but in terms of strategic campaigning, blaming any Jews for your campaign travails is pretty boneheaded. I'm not going to go as far as Domenech or Tacitus in self-righteous denunciation of Moran as a anti-semite, but I am going to recognize that he's damaged goods. There seems to be all sorts of zaniness of the unwanted kind following him around.

Moran is no Trent Lott, but for moral high ground against future Trent Lotts we need to absolutely unforgiving here on the non-GOP side of the fence. And speaking from a strictly strategic standpoint, there are plenty of good candidates that Dean can find time to support. Like it or not, Dean's public draw is inextricable with the DFA movement, so any choice he now makes will reflect on the organization as a whole. Even if he owes Jim Moran big time for something (and I personally doubt this), there's a larger goal of restoring our small-d democracy at stake. Moran is not worth it.

Continue reading/discuss Drop Moran ...

Dean's first column is up, and his topic of choice is the danger of electronic vote hijinks:

Only since 2000 have touch screen voting machines become widely used and yet they have already caused widespread controversy due to their unreliability. For instance, in Wake County, N.C. in 2002, 436 votes were lost as a result of bad software. Hinds County, Miss. had to re-run an election because the machines had so many problems that the will of the voters could not be determined. According to local election officials in Fairfax County, Va., a recent election resulted in one in 100 votes being lost. Many states, such as New Hampshire and most recently Maine, have banned paperless touch screen voting and many more are considering doing so.

Without any accountability or transparency, even if these machines work, we cannot check whether they are in fact working reliably. The American public should not tolerate the use of paperless e-voting machines until at least the 2006 election, allowing time to prevent ongoing errors and failures with the technology. One way or another, every voter should be able to check that an accurate paper record has been made of their vote before it is recorded.

Note that DFA has also been pushing the Diebold issue - I think that we can expect more synchronization between Dean's columns and the o-blog for future installments.

Continue reading/discuss Dean column: Electronic voting ...

The campaign definitely did NOT authorize the use of the data on Deanlink by any third party. I was personally contacted by three former staffers who gave me their word.

So how did the data get to Plink? As several commentators pointed out, the DeanLink data was stored in public FOAF (RDF / XML) files on the web. As a result, a well-designed spider could crawl through DeanLink and extract the information. I had thought that these feeds were locked behind a registration barrier, but apparently the feeds were designed to be read publicly. The feeds are still active - check out this example.

Some people expressed concern that other data might also have been sold, such as one who starte getting Kerry solicitations without asking for it. Rest assured that the Kerry campaign is using mailing lists also compiled from public sources, and this isn't an issue. I myself have received Nader and even Bush mailings, which is kind of funny. However, it's entirely possible that email adresses were not protected, which would be typical beaior but not alarming.

Overall I am satisfied and relieved that the campaign did not actively sell private data. However I had assumed that Deanlink data was indeed private, and when I registered there was no indication in their privacy statement that I was putting myself on an open database accessible by unprotected feeds. At the very least, DFA had a duty to share the details of how Deanlink operated with more transparency so this kind of rude surprise would not have occurred (and there would have been no need for me to question their practices, either).

Hat tip to BenT for most of the links and being patient :)

Continue reading/discuss Deanlink data update ...

Bob Faust is running for Congress in CO-4. Here are some of his issues:

"Faust Health Care Plan" is a basic foundation for a National Preventive Health Care Program that will ensure ALL Americans have health care coverage

the Equal Rights Amendment should be "given new life" and expanded from addressing only gender - to include race, ethnicity, age, nationality, religion, heritage, and sexual orientation.

Our government must not only be fiscally responsible in its taxing and spending, it must also assure all people are called upon to contribute in a manner that is consistent with the principles of equality and impartiality.

Faust is a Republican. I've long argued that a progressive agenda is completely consistent with conservative values - for example, nationalized health care (if done properly) can be a huge relief to small businesses and provide for job growth, by removing the burden of benefits from their shoulders. Faust is doing hard work in trying to stake a position on these issues within the bounds of conservatism and it's a thanksless task for which he no doubt is labeled a RINO by his party peers.

The challenge to us who believed in Howard Dean's vision of a single, united America is to look past the (R) after Faust's name and recognize a kindred spirit. You can't build a bridge without an opposite side to reach towards.

Continue reading/discuss Bob Faust for Congress ...

Won't be released until June 22nd, but already ranked #5 on Amazon and #8 on the New York Times.

Continue reading/discuss My Life by Bill Clinton ...

I had registered for Deanlink during the campaign. My registration data, and friends' lists through the Dean Commons, did not stay there. . It seems that Deanlink's data has found it's way into this new site, plink.org, intact. If you registered for Deanlink, you are probably in plink's database as well.

This is really somewhat disturbing. What did the Dean campaign do with the contact information of people who donated through our site? What else did the campaign sell? How many privacy concerns does this raise?

UPDATE: the campaign did not sell the data, thankflly. But there are still some proivacy issues here - check out this subsequent post for more details.

Continue reading/discuss did the Dean campaign sell their user data? ...

Ted Barlow speaks truth. President Bush's daughters are off-limits in the bounds of civil discourse. Not for electoric strategy reasons but for simple human decency. Until they strike out on their own and become public figures in their own right, they should be granted a measure of privacy from scrutiny.

Continue reading/discuss Lay off the Bush twins ...

This seems legitimate:

Former Vermont governor, and presidential candidate Howard Dean has a new job as a newspaper columnist.

Dean has signed a deal with a California firm that will distribute his column to about 700 newspapers across the country.

Laura Gross, a spokeswoman for Dean's Democracy for America organization, says the column will give Dean a chance to talk about political issues.

Dean's first column will run next week.

Also, don't miss this decent column on AlterNet that sums up Dean's DFA goals pretty well. I think that a column will give Dean a chance to maintain his public spotlight.

Continue reading/discuss Columnist Dean? ...

On June 3rd, all three will be addressing the "Take Back America" conference. Check out this newswire report for more details:

Campaign for America's Future co-directors Robert Borosage and Roger Hickey today announced that philanthropist George Soros, Senator John Edwards, D-N.C. and Governor Howard Dean, D-Vt. will address the organization's 2004 "Take Back America" conference on Thursday, June 3, 2004.

Thousands of progressive leaders, experts and activists will gather in Washington to "Take Back America" at the Campaign for America's Future's conference Wednesday, June 2nd through Friday, June 4th. The conference will bring together all of the groups working hard this year, independent of the Democratic Party, to change the national debate, to challenge the Right and to promote a positive agenda for change.

The full conference Agenda is available on-line at ourfuture.org, and there are a lot of other speakers and plenary sessions. Anyone in the Washington area who might be able to attend?

Continue reading/discuss Dean, Edwards, and Soros ...

The second edition of the "Dean Dozen" has arrived, and a pattern is starting to emerge.

The new Howard Dean is without ego. He said during the campaign this wasn't about him, and he's as good as his word. He's becoming as useful an ex-candidate as Jimmy Carter is an ex-President.

What the "Dean Dozen" is about is highlighting people who were inspired to run by Dean, and who have a commitment to Dean's principles, no matter what they're running for, no matter whether they're incumbents, no matter (even) whether their race is "strategic."

How else do you explain Don McDaniel, a candidate for the Georgia General Assembly from heavily-Republican Gwinnett County. Don works in the tax law department of Cingular Wireless, and first got involved with politics last year through Georgia for Dean. (Of course he has a blog.)

Does Don stand a chance? Maybe, maybe not -- I don't know. Would he make a decent and thoughtful representative? I have little doubt of that.

And it's that, along with his support of Howard Dean, that put Don on the second Dean Dozen.

You see, it's not about Howard any more. It's about us. It's about getting us off our duffs, getting us involved, getting us into the rough-and-tumble of political effort, so we can make this country into something we can be proud of again.

I've criticized Howard Dean many times. I will again. But I am proud of him. He's a good man, and would have been a Great President.

Continue reading/discuss Politics Without Ego ...

From Charles Kuffner's new site devoted to Texas congressional races:

this week's Texas Tuesdays effort is on Max
Sandlin, who has a brand-new campaign website and an opponent who just fed
at the Cheney fundraising trough. Intro post is here, more to come in a
little while:

http://www.texastuesdays.com/archives/000016.html
As always, thanks very much for helping us get the word out.

Charles

I've been remiss in advertising Texas Tuesdays before due to my preparations for my Kyoto trip, but we will feature it every week henceforth. Kudos to Charles for his efforts (and everyone else over at TT).

Continue reading/discuss Texas Tuesdays: Max Sandlin ...

sorry for the obligatory jab at Kerry, but Matthew Yglesias' piece revisiting Dean's then-infamous and now-prophetic statement that "capturing Saddam Hussein has not made America any safer" really brought up some serious feelings of loss here. Go read the piece in full, it deserves full attention rather than selective quotation.

However, in another way, the article does highlight just how disastrous in the political sense it was for Dean's most attractive quality, his plain-spoken bluntness, was as a liability. Dean would have been chewed to pieces by the Bush campaign by now in a way that Kerry has weathered remarkabbly well, and I grudgingly concede that Kerry's war record gravitas has been far more of an asset given teh instability in Iraq than I had previously thought.

All this leaves me wishing more for Dean to be active as Kerry's proxy, saying what can't be said by teh candidate proper, but still making the blunt statements of fact that get noticed. Dean probably hasn't been tapped by the Kerry campaign for fear of sclipsing the candidate, and that's a shame because Dean is raw ammunition just waiting to be used. I misshis presence on teh stage and I think his value as an asset is likely underestimated by Kerry. Especially now that they are allies rather than opponents.

Continue reading/discuss Nominating Kerry has not made us safer ...

reprinted from the Times without comment. Make of it what you wil:

Apparently Mr. Bush is not the only American capable of bringing Democrats together. Ralph Nader is doing his part, too.

A group of former Democratic enemies announced Wednesday that they had formed a group called the National Progress Fund to woo Mr. Nader's supporters into the party with a television and an Internet campaign warning that a vote for Mr. Nader could help elect Mr. Bush.

The group's president is Tricia Enright, who was the communications director for Howard Dean's campaign. Among her colleagues are John Hlinko and Chris Kofinis, who were credited with pushing Gen. Wesley K. Clark into the race.

The idea for the group came from David W. Jones, a Democratic fundraiser who was behind Americans for Jobs, Health Care and Progressive Values, which ran scathing attack advertisements against Dr. Dean. One showed Osama bin Laden's face as an announcer questioned Dr. Dean's defense credentials.

In December, when Mr. Jones refused to divulge his group's funding sources, Ms. Enright called the advertisement "hateful" and said of him and his group, "Whoever is behind this should crawl out from underneath their rock and have the courage to say who they are." What is it like working with Mr. Jones now? "Democrats have to come together from all walks of life," Ms. Enright said, "and even from under their rocks."

Continue reading/discuss Strange bedfellows, indeed ...

Temporary was George W. Bush's nickname in the Skull and Bones Society at Yale. Why? Because he was too lazy to think of one for himself:

[Bush], never fond of Eastern elitism, seriously considered joining a different secret society at Yale less known for ancient rituals than for its parties. Although he acceded to his father's wishes, he became a relatively unenthusiastic member who did not even bother thinking up the requisite Bones name for himself. He ended up being called Temporary.

Given the latest polls, I think it still fits. In fact, given Bush's governing style, it really fits. I think a Google-bomb is in order.

Continue reading/discuss President Temporary ...

The only Senator to vote against the Patriot Act looks secure, even in a swing state like Wisconsin. This, my friends, is proof that standing up for the values of the Democratic party is not a ticket to defeat. We can't be complacent, though - given how few Americans follow politics closely, there's always a huge reserve of people who don't have clear opinions of officeholders other than the President. Unless we keep pushing our message, the GOP will be all they have to listen to.

Continue reading/discuss Russ Feingold ...

Early tomorrow morning I fly to Morocco for two months, so don't expect much posting from me. (as if that will be a change) In the meantime, though, what do we think of the Dean Dozen?

Continue reading/discuss Dean Dozen ...

Hey everyone - I apologise for the lack of blogging recently, I've been preparing for my trip to Kyoto to attend the ISMRM conference. I leave tomorrow morning, and plan to blog my trip at UNMEDIA, so do stop by if you're interested (or have any travel advice :).

When I get back the following week, things will pick up - I am considering a new look for Dean Nation as a combination weblog and discussion forum. What I really need is feedback from all of you however, on what you want to see and what you think we should be focusing on. So chime in and let's talk about the future of our community.

Continue reading/discuss Off to Kyoto ...

Since David Brooks launched his Media Matters Web site, aimed at documenting the right-wing media conspiracy's excesses, one big story has emerged.

That is a new, violent anti-Arab bigotry that reminds me (as a Southerner) of nothing so much as another rising of the KKK. It started with Limbaugh -- Brooks documents both the statements and the condemnation -- but it has now extended throughout the right, to Savage, Oliver North, and Dick Morris.

Lee Harris at TechCentral Station has documented the view and found it widespread. He is plainly worried:

Many Americans simply wish the Arabs would go away; others wish to blow them away -- and wish to blow them away not because they see this step as inevitable and tragic, but because they rejoice at the prospect of getting them back for what they have done to us. Most normal Americans today just don't care any more about the Arabs and their welfare, or about their humiliation, or about their historical grievances, simply because all the images that come to us from their world horrify and appall us, including the disturbing images of Americans doing things that no normal American would ever dream of doing to other people back at home, if only because they would never be given the opportunity.

This is how most normal Americans now feel, but they dare not express it in public. But make no mistake, this feeling will be expressed -- somehow, somewhere: a fact of which our leaders and the world must be made aware before it occurs.

Matthew Yglesias says we should be, too:

I'm foreseeing an ugly future. Kerry wins the election and begins the slow, painful process of rebuilding the American military, American alliances, and American global credibility. Meanwhile, on the right a new "stab in the back" theory has already emerged and the forces of resentment are growing. "We came to help them and they turned on us -- now they must pay!"

The question for Dean Nation is, are we worried? Should we be worried? In the short run, this "hate all Arabs" view can be manipulated to our benefit, as a reason to get out of Iraq. In the longer run, the same people can then turn on us as traitors for doing just what they wanted us to do in getting out. "Who Lost Iraq" would become the new McCarthyism's cry, as "Who Lost China" was two generations ago.

We are in the process of dehumanizing 1 billion people, based on the images of this war, and unleashing a hatred on the right that, lacking Arabs to kill, could easily consume all of us.

So how do we respond?

Continue reading/discuss The New Bigotry ...

You know, it's hard for me to sign onto the movement to force Rumsfeld tor resign. The single biggest reason is because I don't think the buck stops at the Secretary of Defense - I hold the President accountable for failures of leadership. Bush didn't know of the Abu Ghraib torture until seeing the pictures on television. By calling for Rumsfeld's resignation, we are giving Bush yet another avenue of escape from his responsibility. And should we succeed, then the Case will be Closed as far as the public is concerned - especially after the barbaric beheading of Peter Berg. Already the White House is refusing to release the additional torture photos - firing Rumsfeld would ensure they never see the light of day.

I'm willing to wait until November for Rumsfeld - and the entire Administration - to be fired. Our country will be better for it. And by keeping Rumsfeld on-board, the current (and assuredly temporary) diligence of the media in keeping a focus on the Administration's failures of command will continue.

Every day that Bush-Cheney-04 spends defending Rumsfeld is one day they can't smear Kerry. Rumsfeld's time will come. As will Bush's himself.

Continue reading/discuss Keep Rumsfeld ...

Sen. Inhofe (R-OK): First of all, I regret I wasn't here on Friday. I was unable to be here. But maybe it's better that I wasn't because as I watch this outrage that everyone seems to have about the treatment of these prisoners I have to say and I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment.

The idea that these prisoners, they're not there for traffic violations. If they're in cell block 1A or 1B, these prisoners, they're murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents, and many of them probably have American blood probably on their hands and here we're so concerned about the treatment of those individuals.

During today's hearing on Abu Ghraib Inhofe went on in this vein for some time, pronouncing himself "outraged by the outrage."

Senator McCain walked out. Other Republicans are being asked which side they're on, Inhofe's or McCain's?

I think we at Dean Nation have an opportunity here. Is there any way to get a dignified demonstration at Inhofe's Oklahoma office against these remarks?

Even a flash mob would be worthwhile...

Continue reading/discuss Inhofe ...

Some of you may remember that we are currently fighting a war in Afghanistan against people who attacked us on September 11. Here's a news clip related to that:

"The US-led coalition in Afghanistan has distributed leaflets calling on people to provide information on al-Qaida and the Taliban or face losing humanitarian aid. The move has outraged aid organisations who said their work is independent of the military and it was despicable to pretend otherwise.

"Medécins Sans Frontières, the international medical charity which passed the leaflets to the Guardian, said the threat endangered aid workers. Fourteen aid workers were killed in Afghanistan last year and 11 so far this year.

"After examining the leaflets yesterday Britain and the US said they had been a mistake and it was not their policy to link aid with military operations in that way. The decision to distribute the leaflets had been made at a local level, they said.

"Last night the Pentagon said it would instruct forces in the field and those on future training courses not to repeat the mistake. Joseph Collins, deputy assistant secretary at the Pentagon, said: "I have seen the leaflets in question. While they were no doubt well-intentioned, they do not reflect US policy. The United States does not condition humanitarian assistance on the provision of intelligence.

"The leaflets were distributed by US forces in Zabul province, which borders Pakistan and where the Taliban have regained control of several districts.

"One of the leaflets, showing an Afghan carrying a bag of provisions, reads: 'In order to continue the humanitarian aid, pass over any information related to Taliban, al-Qaida or Gulbuddin organisations to the coalition forces.' The latter reference is to the renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is believed to have allied himself with the Taliban."

There's more at the link.

Labels: Al Gore

Continue reading/discuss Humanitarian Aid in Afghanistan ...

Let it be known that I am furious with the way George W. Bush and his administration have run this country. I've felt that way for at least a couple of months now, but it's taken this long to calm down enough to post it. It is difficult for a President not to do some good things, and the raw power of the United States is such that there will always be some successes. However, this only serves to make catastrophic mistakes more glaring. The cost to this country of the Bush administration - in terms of national security, global moral authority, and on a number of domestic fronts - has been high even discounting partisan issues like abortion or the nature of the tax burden. And some of those costs we are going to be living with for years to come.

The above is cross-posted from my blog, and I know there's not much substance. I may find something interesting later in the day. Until then, let this be an open thread.

Continue reading/discuss Fury ...