Copyright © 2009 Frank Lynch.
Copyright © 2009 Frank Lynch.
Me: Frank Lynch Home These are my mundane daily ramblings.
Email: |
No, you don't need to be a racist to disagree with Obama. But I don't think it hurts: does anyone think racists are less likely to disagree with him? And you have to wonder: how much of the opposition to health care reform would go away, if statistics on race and lack of insurance were different? I mean, whites are more likely to have health insurance, according to the Census Bureau:
About 19% for African Americans, about 11% for whites. If that were flipped, we'd have a public option by tomorrow morning. 
Where was the network coverage? Today was the 300th anniversary of Samuel Johnson's birth (don't get me started), and 2.2 million people marched down Fifth Avenue in a celebration of drinking tea and carrying signs using this quote or that on limited government (they were usually a variation of "How small, of all that human hearts endure,/ That part which laws or kings can cause or cure!", or "A country governed by a despot is an inverted cone.") The weird thing was that the throngs took little notice of other Johnson comments, such as "The danger of the abuse of power is nothing to a private man." I confess I saw no signs of that ilk. It was great to see the diverse crowd — well, it was diverse because some people were dressed as Frank Barber, his servant he elevated and set free from bondage — but nonetheless, I couldn't escape the feeling that the 5.8 million people who outnumbered all of NYC and had gathered here on this day weren't so exactly focused on Samuel Johnson's birthday, but perhaps might have had some other objective, such as celebrating Samuel L. Johnson, a known tea drinker. And if the weather is nice, and the tea is just the right sort... No, I washed these thoughts away, because there was no question but that the 35.6 million who had gathered at Wall Street really did know why they were there. And we shouldn't disregard this, because I've already discounted my crowd estimate by excluding the additional 2.6 million from the crowd who seemed mere hangers on: these were easy to spot, they were usually wearing buttons like "Dr. Johnson Would Have Shared A Beer With Sen. De Mint." (It makes for a pretty funky button, I wish I'd had my point-and-shoot at hand to capture this.) But to go back to the lede: where was the network coverage? how could they have missed this? where is Glenn Beck when we need him, to show how much the MSM misses? WHERE?
Oh, the irony... It seems some of the Tea Baggers, in Washington DC last weekend to protest against government spending, are dissatisfied with the subway service they received.
To an extent, Brady has a point: in a better world, Metro would have had it in their budget to better serve the Teapers and provide more cars and service. But... that... means more government spending, or higher fares (paid by the year-round users). (Disclosure: my clients are in mass transit and transportation planning.)
Try and budget this... A study shows that health insurance premiums in Washington State doubled over the last ten years, rising five times as fast as salaries. At least Senator Landrieu (D-LA) has her priorities straight. (Waiting for Judy...) Birther Orly Taitz isn't going away yet. Yup. I suppose it's a great example of believing what you want to that she'd be taken in by a fake Kenyan birth certificate and not believe a genuine Hawaiian one.
Our fringe is less threatening than the Right's. OK, so a significant number of people gathered in DC over the weekend to vent their anger over, uh, Big Government, they said. Or missing their old government or something. And like any large gathering of people, it had its fair share of people who were a good five standard deviations from the norm on a skewed distribution. The Left is correct to point out the crazies in the Right's gatherings, and the Right is correct to point out the crazies in the Left's gatherings. But once you get past the notice of quantities, and proportions, the argument should be over. For while the crazies at the Left's gatherings compared Bush to Hitler and accused him and his cronies of war crimes (for which there is actually a good argument), the crazies among the Right actually advocate violence and make implicit threats. When world economic leaders gather, there may be rioting in the streets. And Greenpeace may take over some property in order to make a point. But when was the last time they threatened anyone with out and out harm? When was the last time a crazy from the Left did anything like shoot up a Holocaust Museum, or killed 168 people (19 of whom were children) when blowing up a government building? For all the whining the Right engages in about "truthers" and Ted Rall and Michael Moore... they have a loong way to go in purging their own before they can start pointing fingers at the left's extremists. Oh, and here's a little gem for you, courtesy of the Southern Poverty Law Center:
Governor Pawlenty is presidential timber? Sure is, because the GOP loves it when people make crap up. Seriously, if they really wanted to reform health care, they'd stop with the lies.
Some people are really protective about their September 11. Don't be too surprised that Rush is incensed that Obama wanted a day of service. I wonder if Obama relishes the annual Day of Mourning which the Right seems to prefer? how best to show our resilience?
The prisms of 9/11. Too many people died in my city, and in Washington DC, and in a field in Pennsylvania, to fail to take notice of today's anniversary. Too many of those who died were dedicated public servants, trying to help others escape. Too many civilians have died in Afghanistan in a war which has still not captured Osama Bin Laden or Mullah Omar; too many innocent people in Iraq have died as a result of a seized opportunity, for us to ignore today's date and all it led to. There is no way I will ever be able to view 9/11 through the prism of Bush-worshippers who see strong leadership and chant that he kept us safe afterwards. As a New Yorker who basically lost his job that day, I've felt compelled to read a number of books on the attacks, the events leading up to them, and what's come since, and this much is clear to me:
It's also difficult for me to look at the history of the last eight years without imagining how they would have been different under a Gore administration. 9/11 might still have occurred; there might not have been enough time between the August 6 CIA briefing and September 11 for the Bush Administration to accomplish anything concrete, but we know that they didn't try. You might remember Bob Kerrey's pointed question to Condoleezza Rice when she defended inaction by citing dissatisfaction with swatting flies? Kerrey asked what flies, even, were swatted. Crickets. Gore's speech prior to the Bush invasion of Iraq warned against spreading ourselves too thinly before the job was done in Afghanistan, and more than six years later OBL still hasn't been captured. Not dead, Mr. Bush. Not alive, either. So forgive me if I think about butterfly ballots and how our country might be different today. We would still be polarized (think back to how much the Right loved Clinton, after all), but we wouldn't have had an administration so hostile to reason and dissent. There would not have been a crossed-arm approach to investigating what went wrong, and we really probably wouldn't have invaded Iraq. (We know, after all, that invading Iraq was a priority for the Bushies in February of 2001.) For me to ignore my prism just because it's "my" prism and I'm "biased" would be akin to forgetting important lessons of 9/11. Not going to do it. Ever.
|
|
