OFF

My movers are coming just as the convention gets into full swing. No new updates likely until early next week, when I'm moved into the Mother of All Swing States, Ohio.

UNITED STATES, MEET BARACK

Obama's one of the big stories at the convention, and the national media is going ga-ga over him. He made the Sunday morning TV rounds yesterday and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer called him a "rock star" and "very, very impressive." His speech Tuesday should be one of the major stories coming out of Boston this week and meanwhile he still doesn't have a Republican opponent in Illinois. The search continues.

LET'S SEE ACTION

A couple of long features over the weekend about financier George Soros (from the Chicago Tribune) and the ways in which he and a few other people have affected the Democratic party and progressive politics on the national level (from the New York Times Magazine). The Times piece compares these changes to the development of conservative institutions over the past 35 years. It also has some good speculation about what these changes might mean for the long-term future of progressive politics, mulling that national party organizations such as the DNC, DSCC and DCCC might become less important. Internet outreach, including fundraising for individual candidates, is one reason for that speculation. Recommended reading for anyone interested in the structural elements of political power.

SNAKEHEAD ALERT

The snakehead (my favorite invasive species) has been spotted in Philadelphia.

OCCUPATIONS AND INTERESTS

The Washington Post has a detailed look at John Kerry's fundraising, including this demographic comparison of Bush donors versus Kerry donors:

According to PoliticalMoneyLine, five times as many corporate CEOs, presidents and chairmen gave to Bush as Kerry: 17,770 to 3,393. Conversely, the number of professors who gave to Kerry is 11 times the number of those who gave to Bush, 3,508 to 322. Actors split 212 for Kerry, 12 for Bush; authors, 110 to 3; librarians, 223 to 1; journalists, 93 to 1; and social workers, 415 to 32.

WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN

A couple of thoughtful essays on musicians and political expression, using Pete Townshend and Ray Charles as examples.

RADIOACTIVE RENEGADES

The director of Los Alamos National Laboratory suspended 19 employees for a variety of problems, attacking the working culture and (quoting the NPR story from a few days ago) calling them arrogant, buttheads, and cowboys. Republicans in Congress assailed Bill Richardson's management of Los Alamos when he was Secretary of Energy; I doubt they will come after Spencer Abraham for this.

I also post this because it's not every day that a government official goes on the record to call people he works with buttheads.

POOLSIDE READING

The 9/11 Commission's report is available free as a giant downloadable pdf.

AND ANOTHER ONE GONE

Kirk Dillard doesn't want to face Obama, and won't.

I'm of half a mind to move back to Illinois and offer myself up to the Republican Party. I doubt they'd like my campaign (as I'd advocate a living wage, national health care, heavy federal taxes on gas-guzzlers, and I'd support Daschle as majority leader), but I'd be happy to give the state its first Senate race between a Hyde Parker and a former Hyde Parker since...well, has there been another one? On second thought, Ohio is a swing state, so I'll make my vote count there.

CHASE THE GUY WITH THE BALL

The New York Times observes the hijinks in the Illinois Senate race and muses that it would be a shame if Obama didn't have a real opponent. Eh, I'd be just fine with Obama running against a hedgehog if it meant that he got into office and the national party could concentrate resources on helping out Joe Hoeffel in Pennsylvania and Eric Fingerhut become my new senator in Ohio.

TECHNOLOGY & POLITICS

One of the interesting aspects of following politics is seeing how the use of information technologies changes. The explosion of blogs over the past couple of years has allowed candidates new, rapid ways to mobilize and fundraise and now outragedmoderates.org has started to use P2P to share government documents on its Download for Democracy site. If you're interested in reading primary source materials from the 9/11 Commission or the Energy Task Force, go here.

DENVER NUGGETS

Democrats have an opportunity to take a Senate seat in Colorado. Right-wing brewer and first-time candidate Pete Coors is trying to win the Republican nomination but is engaged in a nasty primary battle with fellow right-winger Bob Schaffer. Meanwhile, Attorney General Ken Salazar is poised to take the Democratic nomination without getting badly damaged by Mike Miles and is generating enough funding to be competitive with even the self-financed Coors. All four men are running to succeed Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who was elected as a Democrat and then bolted to the Republican party.

Salazar's brother, John, has a good chance of winning a House seat as well. Colorado has lurched to the right over the past decade but the pendulum may be swinging back.

THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT

Quite a number of musicians are also involved in the election cycle. There may be some big shows in Detroit soon.

POLITICAL ACTION

Since the news on Greenwood retiring hit the internet yesterday afternoon, Democratic challenger Ginny Schrader has received over $20,000 in small donations from the net community. Who knows if that fundraising momentum will last, but the enthusiasm for Democratic candidates this year is heartening.

Meanwhile, the Republicans still are having a difficult time finding someone to run against Barack Obama. Ditka declined, the Ted Nugent rumor appears to be someone's pipe dream and now state Senator Kirk Dillard indicates that he's not going to run. Maybe they should draft someone by force.

ANOTHER INCUMBENT LEAVES

Pennsylvania Congressman Jim Greenwood is leaving the House. His district is moderate, meaning Democratic challenger Virginia Schrader has a chance of winning. Every vulnerable Republican seat means the chances of getting Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay out of power and Nancy Pelosi in the Speaker's chair improve. (Recall that the effort to impeach Clinton came from the House Speaker and consider what a Democratic Speaker could be doing to investigate Bush and Cheney right now.) I've added Schrader to the list of House candidates for whom I'm seeking campaign contributions -- every dollar allows challengers to print signs, buy ads and feed workers who can help change things in November. (There's also the Senate list, and with that I will cease hawking Democratic campaigns for the day.)

BLOOD MONEY

The New York Times has a good article today on the changes at the New York Historical Society and the tension between wealthy donors and the interests of historical institutions. Oddly, though the article mentions the Smithsonian, it doesn't talk about Ken Behring's gift or any of the subsequent changes there. Still, worth reading for more on the relationship of the life of the mind and the bottom line.

WE STARTED A FIRE

The "most dangerous building in America" -- identified as such because radiation levels following a 1969 fire there are "off the charts" -- at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons facility (just 16 miles outside of Denver) is being demolished.

WE BREAK WISE GUYS JUST LIKE MATCHSTICKS

The National Labor Relations Board (presently controlled by Bush appointees) ruled 3-2 (split along party lines) that graduate students at private universities are not employees and thus have no right to organize. (See the full ruling as a pdf here.) This overturns a ruling made in 2001 in favor of NYU's graduate students, a decision that -- among other developments -- spurred my old school to finally offer graduate students health insurance after years of us complaining with no recourse to organize. The Bush Administration's war against workers has compromised homeland security, attacked organized firefighters, and attempted to remove overtime pay protections in this country. This is another way to bash workers, and yet another indication that the administration has no use for people seeking higher education.

The ruling no longer concerns me personally, but I am angry that teaching services (which most private research universities rely upon graduate students to do in order to have cheap labor) do not constitute an employment relationship. Making $12,000 a year without health insurance for 4-10 years while teaching 50-150 students (before even accounting for the time spent doing research for the dissertation that ostensibly allows you to get a faculty gig) is exploitation, period. Shame on the universities that propagate it, and shame on the NLRB for certifying it.

GOOD THING HEALTH CARE IS THE DOMINANT INDUSTRY IN TOWN

The living dead are back in Pittsburgh.

GIVE ME COFFEE COFFEE COFFEE

Are there too many Starbucks in the world? Some neighborhoods appear to have too many, though others are grateful to get one. The Chicago Tribune reports on the opening of the first Starbucks south of Hyde Park in Chicago, a factoid I find amazing. I lived about six blocks south of the franchise's location at 71st and Stoney Island back in the 1970s, and it was a good middle-class neighborhood then, but apparently was not seen as a viable place for a $4-per-cup coffee emporium by the time Starbucks germinated from its infancy as Peet's offspring and took over most of America. Perhaps this is an early signal of gentrification? Or simply the start of giving residents consumer choices in line with their neighbors to the north? Does having a Starbucks in the neighborhood indicate hope for the future, or does it just mean another place to spend the price of a meal on a cup of coffee?

REPUBLICAN PARTY SEEKS...ANYONE FOR SENATE RACE

Sadly, my dream of an Obama-Ditka debate shall remain a dream.

I have no idea who Barack Obama's opponent will be, or if he will have an opponent, but my favorite speculation now (from Channel 5 in Chicago) is the Republicans want Ted Nugent. Nugent hasn't lived in the area since high school, is a deep-rooted Michigan resident, and his known political views revolve around a definition of the second amendment that would make most Illinois moderates cringe. An Obama-Nugent debate might be even more hilarious than an Obama-Ditka debate, though I doubt it will happen.

I do hope someone is writing a book about this most amazing senate campaign.

OBAMA IN THE ARENA

In an indication of how much excitement he has generated this year, Barack Obama will give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention. Perhaps he will have a challenger in his Senate race by the time he reaches the podium.

ALI NOW

I love reading articles about Muhammad Ali. This one is from Esquire.

SCREAMING TREES

A century ago, Teddy Roosevelt made the Republican Party the party of conservation, establishing parks and forest services that allowed the federal government to conserve millions of acres of land from development. For more than seventy years, the party continued this policy, even (under Nixon) expanding to include environmental protection from toxins.

Since Reagan reshaped the party in 1980, Republicans have taken a different approach. Historian William Cronon notes that Reagan's goal was to reverse the federal government's authority over environmental matters, and this tendency has marked Republican land management since. The Bush Administration, in a reversal of policy from the Clinton Administration, is putting responsibility for regulating access to federal lands in the hands of the states, who may allow off-road vehicles into the areas at their discretion. Public protest against the change indicates this should be a bigger story than coverage in the media would indicate; this should be one of many issues that defines the differences between the two major parties this year.

BLUE MONDAY

Zogby's polls of swing states released yesterday look encouraging at this early date.

Lots may change between now and November, and most of the results so far are within the margins of error. If you live in a swing state, no doubt you are being bombarded with ads and appeals to vote. If you live elsewhere and would like to help out, you can help out by taking road trips to register voters in swing states.

The groups linked above could use cash as well as time, and bolstering the campaigns of local House and Senate candidates who could help a President Kerry pass more progressive legislation can help the cause.

1979

Twenty-five years ago, disco records prevented the White Sox from playing a game. Disco Demolition combined three combustable elements: Bill Veeck's populist promotional sense, Steve Dahl's satirical bent, and 50,000 inebriated kids bored with what disco had become in the hands of the Bee Gees and KC and the Sunshine band. (Would such a promotion have caught fire in the glory days of the O'Jays or was the vitriol based purely in intolerance? I hope not, for that music was great.) The Sox forfeited the second game of a doubleheader, but that may have been the most memorable night of the season.

I was watching at home, seeing whatever action Channel 44 allowed on the air as Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall alternately described the action, pleaded with people to get back in their seats, and (in Piersall's case) generally went ballistic. The field was ruined, not that it mattered much. The Sox were a fifth-place team, wore pajamas on the field, and were about to see their player-manager quit on them. My most vivid memory the rest of the season was attending one of the Sox many bad games August 1 -- they lost to the Yankees 7-1 and I was just relieved when they scored the one run late in the game to have one highlight. The guy playing first base for the Yankees was Thurman Munson (out of position, giving his 32-year old legs a break from catching). It was his final game. A day later, he died crashing his airplane in Canton, Ohio, the second active player to die in the past year after Lyman Bostock was shot in Gary the autumn before. Several of my memories of baseball that year have to do with death and carnage -- perhaps the period (at least after 1977) was a time of malaise. At least the World Champions that year were disco-fuelled fun.

TEXAS INSTRUMENTS

The Washington Post has a long story over investigations into House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's fundraising for Texas state legislature candidates.

Republicans won their first majority there since the nineteenth century, apparently with over $2 million in corporate money (including substantial donations from Ken Lay and Enron). Capturing the state legislature allowed them to gerrymander the House districts in an effort to push out several Democratic incumbents in this fall's election. Apparently funneling corporate money to state legislature candidates is illegal in Texas, and DeLay's under investigation. The article has more context; no word on the timetable of any charges or conclusions, but the investigation's gone on for twenty months.

RADIATION RANCH

The Yucca Mountain Project -- a depository for the nation's nuclear waste -- is the major political issue in Nevada right now, and the state just won a big victory over the federal government. Local citizens' opposition is obvious and (as the federal government has had a poor history of disclosure on radioactive emissions for over half a century) understandable.

The project was an issue in the 2000 presidential campaign and John Kerry is pledging his opposition this year. He's not disclosed specific alternatives, though there are some possibilities he might choose.

TOO MUCH PORK FOR JUST ONE FORK

The New York Times ran a good article this week on ways in which North Carolina is attempting to reduce the environmental impacts of hog farming (a big issue in that state, especially concerning the quality of groundwater). More needs to be done on the environmental history of agribusiness; interested readers should watch out for the publication of working papers listed here.

ILLINOIS CENTRAL - DA ADDENDUM

If this happens, a movie must be made! (Or at least a resurrection of Da Superfans.)

IRON CITY SCOOP

Fun story on the USAirways mechanic who broke the news of Edwards's selection. I like that Kerry's made Pittsburgh (well, Fox Chapel) his headquarters for the week; nice to see Market Square as the backdrop to national news.

DON'T LOOK BACK, SOMTHING MAY BE GAINING ON YOU

It's no surprise that John Kerry's selection of John Edwards as his running mate produced a bounce in the overnight polls. The Bush campaign has already started to attack Edwards on inexperience, even though Edwards is older than Clinton was when Clinton became president and has six years more experience in national elective office than Bush did when Bush became president. Bush's quote on Edwards? "Dick Cheney can be president. Next?"

That message hasn't sunk in with the American public, as polls suggest more of them would rather have Edwards as Commander in Chief than Cheney (45-38, according to NBC). Considering the usual advantages of incumbency, and the fact that much of the American public does not yet have much of an impression of Edwards, this is a problem for the Bush campaign. "Next?" in the minds of the voters may mean something Bush does not desire.

TEARING DOWN THIS HOUSE

Cabrini-Green, located a short walk from Lincoln Park in Chicago, is as representative of John Edwards's Two Americas concept as any place in the United States. Close to some of the most upscale residences in the city, the public housing project is infamous for violent crime; older readers may remember Mayor Jane Byrne moving in for three weeks in 1981 in an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the violence. Cabrini-Green has a complicated and contested history, as googlism of the name indicates.


Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune is writing a series of articles on the state of Cabrini-Green in 2004. Schmich's articles go beyond the simple "tear them down" perspective to examine the community, what the neighborhood means to the community, and how gentrification of the area may not address racial and economic inequity. (If this subject interests you, I recommend the documentary Voices of Cabrini for more context.)

ILLINOIS CENTRAL

Someday, someone will make a very entertaining movie about the 2004 campaign for the Senate in Illinois. Some of the draw would be the ascendance of Barack Obama, who could well be on his way to a remarkable career in national politics. Others would watch for the circus atmosphere that surrounded both Blair Hull and Jack Ryan, and the chaos that ensued after the state GOP pushed Ryan off the ballot.

One part could already be cast by a marketable name, though the actress may be reluctant to participate.

SECRETLY CANADIAN

The second half of the Onion's interviews with the Kids In The Hall is online now.

MONEY CHANGES EVERYTHING

As Kos discusses today, the Republican Senate Campaign Committee has a 2-1 fundraising lead on the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee. These are the party committees that support individual senate campaigns in strategic places. This year, much of the DSCC money could well go to South Dakota, where Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle is in a tight race. That means Democratic candidates in critical states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, Missouri, and Kentucky (where Democrats can pick up Republican seats), as well as Louisiana, North Carolina, and South Carolina (where Democratic senators are retiring) have fewer resources to fight what promise to be highly-contested races. Since the Republican majority in the Senate is very narrow (51-48, with Jim Jeffords an independent since bolting the Republican party in dismay over Bush's agenda), holding on to every Democratic seat is crucial, while taking any vulnerable Republican seat could propel Democrats into the majority, where they could get legislation passed and have the power to reject extremist judicical appointees. Since William Rehnquist and John Paul Stevens are widely perceived to be stepping down from the Supreme Court before another four years go by, this power is important.

Many of the states mentioned above have the potential to go Democratic in the presidential race; strong, well-funded Senate campaigns may improve Democratic turnout and help the Kerry-Edwards ticket. While the DSCC is at a disadvantage, Democratic candidates have access to internet donations through ActBlue and their own websites. Money and labor are the two things we can do to start fixing the problems caused by the current regime; the other side has deep pockets, but they can be fought. No doubt I will repeat myself in the weeks to come, but as the media focuses on the presidential race, these Congressional races will be ignored despite their importance. (I haven't forgotten the House; click the link to give to candidates who can produce a majority to prevent the deficit-ballooning budgets and tax cuts of Hastert's House.)

ARE FRIENDS ELECTRIC?

What a birthday week for George Bush. First, his opponent picks a running mate tailor-made to attack Bush's appeal to rural voters, now his old friend Ken Lay has been indicted for his role in the Enron scandal. The indictment is sealed, so no news on precise charges. What's next, indictments in the Valerie Plame scandal? I hope the twins at least got him a tie.

TWO AMERICAS

John Kerry has apparently picked John Edwards as his Vice-Presidential candidate. This may help the ticket in North Carolina, but should be a real boost in the rural areas of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Missouri, and I imagine that was a major factor in the decision.

Edwards should help turnout in several areas, assisting Democratic candidates in House and Senate races, including Joe Hoeffel, Eric Fingerhut, Nancy Farmer, Erskine Bowles, Dan Mongiardo, Brad Carson, and the Democrats in Louisiana. Since the Kerry campaign has completed fundraising, the most effective contributions now go to candidates who can help Democrats reclaim the House and Senate.

CANADIAN CONTENT

The Onion is running good, candid interviews with the Kids In The Hall this week and next. Dave Foley and Kevin McDonald are up now, and the rest should be up later this week.

That other wonderful Canadian sketch comedy show, SCTV, is finally available on DVD. (At least, the first season of SCTV Network 90 is available.) I will be placing an order soon, even though this batch won't include the brilliant Sweeps Week episode that pariodied everything from Poltergeist to Battle of the Network Stars.

SOMETHING I LEARNED TODAY

Salon has a long feature on Husker Du's Zen Arcade album. It's subscription only, but if you're not cookie-averse, you can see it for free after watching a commercial. Zen Arcade isn't my favorite Husker Du recording (that would be Warehouse, followed by the Eight Miles High 7"), but the article gives some good context on why this amazing band seemed particularly amazing in the mid-80s.

SPACE IS THE PLACE

It's almost independence day and tonight features fireworks on the water. The most impressive visuals coming from the skies, though, are these of Saturn.

SAD MANUTE BOL NEWS

The former Golden State Warrior was seriously injured in an auto accident. Aside from being a remarkable player, Bol's philanthropy -- the money he made during his career went back to humanitarian aid in the Sudan -- made the spate of ill fortune he's faced over the past few years even sadder. I wish him the best.

NEIGHBORHOOD BULLY

John Kerry's blog has an entry referencing my favorite invasive species. The snakehead is incredibly destructive but it fascinates me.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time this fish has entered the national political discourse.