Just kidding, this looks like rock bottom.
Aimai
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Embarcadero and Clay Street
John Langley Howard, 1935, at the De Young Museum. Howard's most famous works were [edit: some of] the murals in a well-known shrine to Liberal Fascism.
The intersection shown here no longer exists. When the Embarcadero Center was built (ca. 1970), it cut off Clay just past Drumm. In the '60s, they built the Embarcadero Freeway, with an off on-ramp ending beginning right about here; after the Loma Prieta quake it was torn down, thanks to the vision of Mayor Agnos. The only element of continuity with the present day is the building in the background, One Market, seen here from the opposite angle:
Update: post revised upon clearer recollection of the geography. Also, I think it was the freeway rather than Embarcadero Center that originally cut off Clay from Embarcadero; Clay fed directly onto the freeway rather than going through. When they took down the freeway, they left Clay as a dead end.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Don't You Miss It...Don't You Miss It...Some of You People Just About Missed It
No Brenda Spencers, we--we actually like Mondays. Or at least we like to post on Mondays. To save you the trouble of scrolling down, here's a roundup:
- Deborah reviews The Tin Star
- I snark on Ted Olson's speculative fiction
- Aimai wonders if 'RAMs' are really 'nice guys(tm)'
- Shiltone pwns the random Flickr-blogging
- Kathy notes yet another Republican rat jumping ship
- I marvel at McCains sad performance in Washington
Now This Is Just Embarrassing
Okay, we all know by now that the Washington GOP caucus is a catastrophic clusterfuck in which (it turns out) we have no reliable way of figuring out who supports whom. We also know about the guy who stopped the counting that his political patron is McCain's Washington state chairman, and that he has previously extolled the virtues of voter suppression.
But set aside the controversy for a moment and look at the numbers (such as they are): McCain 'wins' with just under 26%. (For the arithmetically challenged, that means just over 74% voted against him.) McCain is the presumptive nominee. He beat Huckabee by under 2%, and Ron Paul by less than 5%. Romney, who's out of the race, got a respectable 16%. Any two named candidates, or any named candidate plus 'uncommitted' (12.3%, just under half McCain's total), wipe the floor with McCain's total.
On the same day that he lost two other primaries.
The GOP race is over. The nominee is McCain. This is the point in a primary race at which a presumptive nominee racks up 60, 70, 80% of the vote. McCain won just under 26%.
I try not to feel irrational exuberance about the state of the race. I view with skepticism reports of a Republican crackup. And yet...when I see something like this, it brings home just how much how many Republicans really don't like McCain.
If I were advising McCain, I would tell him that the only thing that can help him now is more sleazy shenanigans to make sure Huckabee doesn't win any more states. In fact, I would recommend doing everything possible to piss off Huckabee's voters. They wouldn't dare stay home in November.
Yeah, that's the ticket.
Can We Make It an Even 30?
Arizona Congressman John Shadegg announced today that he won't run for re-election this year. He's the 29th Republican in the past thirteen months to step aside or announce retirement from the House of Representatives. Rats, ship, sinking. Shadegg, who came into Congress in the 1994 Gingrich revolution, didn't even bother to make a speech. He sent his notice out by email.
Random Flickr-Blogging: img_2414
Please also see these fine contributions by Generik , seamus, Anthony Cartouche, George, and Ben Varkentine.
Based on recent trends within the party, the site committee for the 2012 Republican National Convention decided to consider all options.
Their rapid transit system was not the most efficient, but it was everybody's favorite.
In addition to warning labels about consumption of alcohol by pregnant women, these other warning labels are being considered:
Labels warning against consumption of alcohol by women who are about to become pregnant, even inadvertently...
...or accidentally ingesting Rogaine® while pregnant...
...and labels urging pregnant women to use moderation regarding chlorophyll supplements.
"When he stops laughing, ask him if he has any specific reservations about my proposal to repeal the 22nd Amendment."
Are RAMS really Nice Guys (tm)?
While avoiding my job today--yesterday's job was sewing the skin back on my youngest daughter's doll after she degloved her in an attempt to fix the condition known as "wobbly neck"--I have been bouncing around the internet looking at stuff and I came across two different items that need to be read together. The first, and I want to do this right because I don't really grasp the netiquette of quoting quotes of quotes--is from this fascinating post by Thers at Whiskey Fire, and he seems to have picked up on it from Unqualified Offerings . So Hat Tip to both of you (that makes it legal, doesn't it?) Second is a short but intruiging diary over at Kos that, for once, isn't a my candidate rewls and your's drewels piece of bloviation. They are both about who voters really are--or rather who the undecideds really are, and apparently they are pretty solipsistic bastards.
First, here's the quote from the original article from some dead tree newspaper: its about a hypothetical desirable voter out there. Now that the "soccer moms" and the "security moms" are gone to Hillary, every one, and the "angry white guy" is simply slightly pissed and bewildered I guess we were suffering from a lack of new stupid voter categories (LONSVC) so some boob came up with this new name (so Irony free that piles of irony were left on the shore when they harvested it).
"So who are these angry voters? I call them "restless and anxious moderates," or RAMs. Most come from the third of the electorate that identifies itself as independent, but some Democrats and Republicans have also joined this new bloc. These voters tend to be practical, non-ideological and unabashedly results-oriented -- people such as Gary Butler, 60, who lives in Show Low, Ariz. Both parties, he says, "are way too far apart, and nobody is looking out for the good of the people."
"Address my life and the problems I face in my terms," another RAM told me. "Cut political rhetoric, cut political fighting, cut the game-playing, stop the five-point programs; just address my issues in a real-world, straightforward way."
Meanwhile, over at DailyKos at the kind of diary that used to keep people reading, Drooghie 6655 and a bunch of other numbers explores what a more typical, actual voter thinks in his diary "How to Sell my Conservative Leaning Brother on a Democratic Candidate." Drooghie describes his brother as saying this to him
"I'm just sick of watching all of the primary coverage without having anyone to root for. I am really not excited about any of the candidates. All that I want is someone of any gender, race, or religion who can safely and responsibly get us out of Iraq, shrink the size of government rather than expand it, keep spending down, get tax cuts for people of all economic classes, seal up the border in the interest of national security (while making it easier to become a citizen), and make health care more affordable without socializing it."
What's the difference between Drooghie's brother and the RAMS? I'm not sure I can tell. Both of them seem to believe that voting for a candidate should be a personal pleasure and to the extent it isn't, its the candidates fault and not the voters. Both seem to think that their issues are the only ones that should matter, and that their interests are the only ones that should be addressed. And that's true despite history, economy, logic, law and hell, for all I can see, gravity.
AT this point in my meanderings I'm starting to get a funny feeling, like I've seen this pattern before. And then I realize what it is. The media's ideal voter, that mid range, mid price, middle brow, middle of the country guy in some bizarre cross between a wife beater and a hair shirt is the voting equivalent of the infamous "Nice Guy (tm) so thoroughly gutted and pickled over at Amanda' s Pandagon. He's a guy (or he could be a girl but I can't get into the problem of sexing the voter right now) who thinks that he's the sum and substance of normality and niceness. If the other voters or candidates only knew they'd totally appreciate him. The election is a chance for the candidate (and the party) to validate the voter and his ideals, dreams, wants, and identity. The candidate is his ultimate *date* and when the candidate doesn't use his or her time to romance the RAM, to find out what he really wants, and to supply it...well...the RAM just can't see voting for that candidate. Also, the RAM thinks that candidates are always going out with hotter babes, or babes who treat him badly, while the RAM would so totally support the candidate of his dreams if given half a chance.
Anything we can do to either get this voter to vote the way we want or to utterly discredit and defenestrate him?
When Your Own Side Is Too Painful to Watch, Point and Laugh at the Other Side
In the Wall Street Journal, Republican hyper-hack Ted Olson has a Schadenfreude-fueled commentary speculating about lawsuits that might be filed on the Democratic side, if the circumstances line up just so.
Curiously, he does not mention the lawsuit that has actually been threatened on the Republican side.
Go figure.
Monday Movie Review: The Tin Star
The Tin Star (1957) 9/10
Bounty hunter Morg Hickman (Henry Fonda) agrees to teach inexperienced young sheriff Ben Owens (Anthony Perkins) what he knows about being a sheriff. Directed by Anthony Mann.
A man rides into town with a dead body on a pack mule. He is watched nervously by the townspeople. He finds the sheriff's office and explains he is a bounty hunter and there is a reward on the deceased. The sheriff arranges to have someone who knew the wanted man confirm his identity, and writes to the railroad company who offered the reward to let them know it is being claimed. The bounty hunter has the sheriff write up an agreement of the claim before turning over the body.
If you haven't seen The Tin Star, you've never seen a scene like this before. Perhaps you've seen a Western where the hero marched the criminal to town to collect a reward, or perhaps you've seen a body picked up and carried back for a reward, but even that is rare. The crux of a reward on someone's head in a Western is that someone is hunted, and someone is hunting; the point is the hunt, the adventure, the shootout, not what happens afterwards.
The Tin Star cares about what happens afterwards. It cares about the rule of law and the letter of the law, and it asks if the law can truly protect us, can truly replace violent lawlessness, and then it asks how.
There's exciting adventure here, a posse, a fire, murder, prejudice, and romance, but it all continues to loop around to the question of law. A posse is lawful, but it can be an excuse for a mob scene, and the town elders who want the law enforced aren't willing to ride out with their guns to do so, leaving the dangerous and criminal to take the lead.
Fonda is despised for being a bounty hunter, and for killing a criminal who was cousin to Bart Bogardus (Neville Brand) the leader of the town low-lifes. Turned away from the hotel, he befriends a young boy and ends up guest to the boy's mother, Nona (Betsy Palmer). Nona's husband was an Indian, the boy is a half-breed, and Fonda must confront his own prejudice against them both. But again, we loop around to the law—does the law protect the despised half-breeds as well? Fonda can overcome his hatred because he believes in the law, and because he likes this woman, but local law enforcement is reluctant to do the same.
Anthony Mann made dark Westerns about people with haunted pasts and embittered presents. The Tin Star is dark, and Fonda is haunted, but for Mann, this is lighter fare. Here the characters have hope of changing, and reason is more important than psychology.
Fonda was once a sheriff, but he holds a bitter secret. He can teach Perkins what he knows, and most of what he knows is when not to shoot, when not to confront, and how to confront without ending in killing. When he helps Perkins hunt down a murderer, he is able to recall the values he once cherished; values that made him a sheriff in the first place.
Fonda is excellent, of course, and this is Tony Perkins before Psycho, when he was cast as innocent hearthtrobs, not crazed killers. The mostly unknowns who populate the town are solid; even Mary Webster as Perkins's girlfriend isn't too annoying.
(The Tin Cross-post)
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Not To Be Missed: Real Reporting on CPAC
Run, do not walk, over to Sadly, No! to read the brilliant insights of the Milk Solids Board on CPAC. Its like you are there yourself, but you don't have to actually wade through the parade of mini hitlers, losers, racists and general hysterics he describes.
Here's a taste of Part something or other (Its all just that good. Read it and weep, or gag.)
Getaway day, that’s what they call it, and I need to get away more than I need to keep breathing air. For once, Dan Riehl was right: “forget waterboarding, just strap a liberal in a chair and make them sit through it all.” Spoken like someone who’s never been waterboarded, but if this hasn’t been torture with a capital T like that advocated by the vice-president (“Dick Cheney is an authoritarian bully and a personal coward”, says Charles Pierce; his res ipse loquitor moment is seen in the fact that his approval rating is at 100% at CPAC and 19% everywhere else in the country), it has at least been little-t torture to have to hear the endless tributes to an underhanded cadaver and his sham ideology, the slyly delivered racial slurs in the elevators and hallway (“Hissing you’re good at, you slimy snakes”, says Sgt. Groper to the madmen). Ann Coulter’s slander du jour has multiplied like cancer cells among the puerile youth strutting the outer boroughs of the Omni Shoreham: I’ve heard “Barack HUSSEIN Obama” more times today than I’ve heard the name of John McCain, and I keep thinking of a friend back in the greater world who says whenever he hears it said that way, he thinks of the upper-crust pseudo-fascists and pro-Nazi pornographers back in the ‘30s who talked about “Franklin Delano Rosenfeld”.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
Mortgage Crisis Collateral Damage: Renters Beware
The Chronicle had a horrifying story the other day, about renters getting screwed by the mortgage crisis:
As the mortgage crisis claims more homes - more than 11,000 Bay Area residences were repossessed by lenders last year - an increasing number of tenants are facing rapid evictions by banks eager to partially recoup their losses by selling the properties. In November, a Chronicle analysis of Bay Area foreclosures showed that about one-fifth had nonresident owners. Presumably many of those investor-owners rented out their properties to produce income.State law requires 30 days, but (some? all?) lenders either don't know that, or count on the tenants not knowing that (probably some combination of the two). So in this case, the tenants found out about the foreclosure from an auction notice on the front door, and when they called the lender they were told they had to be out in a couple of weeks. Fortunately, the family in the article knew better; unfortunately, a lot of renters don't, and the lenders take every advantage they can.
Foreclosure-related evictions of renters show how fallout from the mortgage meltdown can spread even to people who don't own houses.
"We pay our rent on time every month; we figured everything would be all right," said Jesse Vasquez, Diharce's husband.
Tenants' rights in such situations are minimal. If they live in a city with rent control, they are covered by its eviction regulations. Hayward, where Diharce and Vasquez live, does not have rent control for single-family residences.
Otherwise, renters are subject to state law, which generally requires 30 days notice. A foreclosure usually invalidates an existing lease, legal experts said.
This is seriously sleazy at avery level except the tenant's. The lenders sucker people into loans they can't afford, or else greedy real estate mogul wannabes bite off more than they can chew--take your pick. When it all goes bad, the tenants get no notice. Some owners wind up cashing rent checks long after they no longer own the place. Lenders use deceptive tactics to get rid of the tenants (for example, telling tenants in one property that they didn't have to pay rent as long as it was in foreclosure--then serving an eviction notice for non-payment). The only people who are innocent here are the ones who are, as usual in a position to be screwed by everybody: the renters.
This problem is not entirely unknown. State legislators actually tried to deal with it. State Senator Don Perata submitted a bill
that would have required banks to give 60 days notice to tenants in foreclosed properties. It also would have required lenders to provide homeowners with four months notice before mortgage payments increase by 10 percent or more.Perata's bill lost by one vote, dying on the last day it could legally be passed on a procedural motion that required a 2/3 majority. There were 26 votes in favor and 14 votes against; the nay votes were from 14 of the 15 Republicans in the state Senate.
Update: In comments, Aimai points me to a horrifying article in the Boston Globe, about the practice of routinely evicting everyone from multi-tenant buildings in foreclosure--and refusing to sell to potential buyers who want to keep the tenants in place. The owner of the building in this story is Deutsche Bank, one of the big losers in the mortgage crisis. Their response to the story:
A spokesman for Deutsche told the Globe, "We're going to decline to comment for the piece. We just don't see an upside in explaining this stuff."
Is Our Conservatives Learning?
One thing I would like to know is what it says about Matthew Dowd (a perfectly likable fellow) that he eagerly signed up to work for Bush but now thinks the man's a moron. Makes you wonder about the guy's judgment, to say the least.Heh. Indeed. To say the very least.
(Fixed title. Fixed heh. Open to further suggestions.)
Dubya at the National Prayer Breakfast: A Response
The following is excerpted from George W. Bush's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday:
In prayer, we grow in meekness and humility. By approaching our Maker on bended knee, we acknowledge our complete dependence on Him. We recognize that we have nothing to offer God that He does not already have -- except our love.
[…]
The more time we spend with God, the more we see that He is not a distant king, but a loving Father. Inspired by this confidence, we approach Him with bold requests: We ask Him to heal the sick, and comfort the dying, and sustain those who care for them. We ask Him to bring solace to the victims of tragedy, and help to those suffering from addiction and adversity. We ask him to strengthen our families, and to protect the innocent and vulnerable in our country.
[…]
In prayer, we grow in mercy and compassion. We are reminded in prayer that we are all fallen creatures in need of mercy. And in seeking God's mercy, we grow in mercy ourselves. Experiencing the presence of God transforms our hearts -- and the more we seek His presence, the more we feel the tug at our souls to reach out to the poor, and the hungry, the elderly, and the infirm. When we answer God's call to love a neighbor as ourselves, we enter into a deeper friendship with our fellow man -- and a deeper relationship with our eternal Father.
And now, here, with a response to the President's words, is Jesus of Nazareth:
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, even while for a pretence ye make long prayers: therefore ye shall receive greater condemnation.Red-letter quotes, all.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he is become so, ye make him twofold more a son of hell than yourselves.
Woe unto you, ye blind guides, that say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor.
Ye fools and blind: for which is greater, the gold, or the temple that hath sanctified the gold?
[…]
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, and mercy, and faith: but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone.
Ye blind guides, that strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel!
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full from extortion and excess.
Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first the inside of the cup and of the platter, that the outside thereof may become clean also.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.
Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
—Matthew 23:14-17, 23-28.
When Someone Gets Pussy Whipped--the Pussy Does the Whipping, OK?
Over at LGM and all around the bloggosphere where I've been bumming metaphorical drinks like Walter Brennan in To Have and Have Not we are having the interminable discussion over whether something is, or is not, sexist and whether HRC is, or is not, a whiny bitch who plays the victim card like whiny bitches always do. The recent hysteria over whether MSNBC accusing Hillary of "pimping out" her daughter was sexist has rolled lots and lots of these issues into one hard, almost gum like ball. We find that young men, especially, don't realize that it is at all odd to accuse the children of important people of being whored out by their parents. Another thing we find out is that (some) men (I think they are young) don't realize that "pimp" doesn't mean "really shiny and applying primarily to cars" or that it can't "only be applied to black people." Just like the amazing discussion over whether "The claws out" refers to a metaphorically female gendered creature (why yes, hundreds of years of conventional usage is not thrown out by JonH's recent viewing of the X-men!) the amazing discussion of whether it is impermissible to accuse a mother of whoring out her daughter has now almost vanished in a yet more bizarre discussion of how the Clinton Campaign is losing by forcing MSNBC to apologize.
This is not new. In fact its so old its practically page one of the identity politics/GOP attack manual. But it seems to be a novel thought for many of our left wing blog commenters so let me break it down for you. When you are trying to do anything politically significant your enemies always try to trivialize what you are doing, smear you, and make you unpopular with the voters you are trying to appeal to. When you don't fight back--your enemies win. When you do fight back your enemies are to scroll down and pick their second choice fallback accusation which is that you are "playing the victim card" or that you are "whiny" or that you are resorting to "identity politics" because you "appealed for sympathy" or because you "used emotions" to get "voters to like you" because you pretended you were "being attacked" and "are an underdog." Groups that are particularly likely to be accused of impermissibly "playing on the voters sympathy" and "pretending to be victims?" Hm. Who could that be, I wonder? Could it be Native Americans, Gays, African Americans, Hispanics and that mysterious alien community that lives among us almost as though they were part of us: DA BITCHEZ? Why, yes. [by the way I know all this because I subscribe to the super secret GOP argumentation data base decoder called (shh) Mallard Fillmore]
So when HRC called out MSNBC the usual bunch of whiny ass titty babies who want Obama so bad they think they are running against Hillary instead of against an entrenched Republican media machine immiediatly got all up in our noses and began shouting "ohfergodsakes it wasn't sexist of Schuster to say Hillary was turning her daughter into a whore. Because "pimps" are always black men, at least in movies." Or they began complaining that complaining about shit makes you look weak, just like a woman. But there's no sexism involved in saying women are always weak crybabies because for gosh sakes anyone can see that Hillary is a woman and she's also a crybaby so its merely factual. And then they began muttering that for some reason that no one with two braincells can figure out that its a bad thing that Hillary forced MSNBC to apologize, finally, to a Democrat for their abysmal coverage of all Democrats when they libeled her and her daughter because...oh, I can't even figure out what model of politics this is.
So here it is, guys. In words of very few syllables. When someone gets pussy whipped, by a pussy, the pussy does the whipping, and gets the "whip hand" which (despite what Jon H may think about somethign that happened once in a comic book) is the *top hand.* So when Hillary Clinton's campaign got MSNBC to stop attacking her even for one moment that was a good thing for Brand Hillary. And I'll go a step further since people seem unable to grasp this very important point--what is good for brand hillary is good for brand democrat because we are identified, as a brand, with everything that happens to anyone with a (d) after their name.
aimai
Friday, February 08, 2008
Don't You Miss It...Don't You Miss It...Some of You People Just About Missed It (Arbitrary Milestone Edition)
At 7:03 pm Pacific time, someone from Naperville Illinois gave us our 100,000th hit. I can remember celebrating at 1,000. Thanks to all of you who visit here, and if Naperville person can ever identify yourself, I owe you a drink.
What keeps people coming here? All the posts, obviously:
- Ahab snarks on Broder on McCain
- I have fun with Jonah's people seeing liberal fascism everywhere
- Aimai considers the bizarre illogic of Republican voters
- Kathy says goodbye to Romney
- Aimai gives Earl Butz an appropriate sendoff
- Ahab gives us some shorter Peggy Noonan
- We've got the Friday Random 10, as usual
- I whack Jonah's correspondents upside the head over 'identity politics'
- Aimai laments another failure to uphold the rule of law
- Kathy notes Huckabee's big endorsement
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