Archive for Obama
Where Change Takes Place
Posted by: | CommentsWe’re friends with a few of the country’s name-brand bloggers. There’s no magic to it. We just keep seeing them at conventions. We know lots of local and state-level politicians too. There’s really no magic to it, either. It isn’t just about donations or family connections. It’s about showing up.
The first time you show up to volunteer nobody knows you. Maybe they catch your name. The second time you show up maybe they remember seeing you before. (What was your name again?) The third or fourth time, now you’re somebody they think they might need to take seriously.
I got into this business working on Patsy Keever’s 2004 congressional race. I didn’t know Patsy from Adam, but I was angry and frustrated and that was where the fight was. I walked in off the street to stuff envelopes or something — I didn’t know anything about electioneering. (I was out of work.) A couple of weeks later I had my own computer and a desk. I entered data, cut call lists. By the time it was over, I had done about everything except fundraising, including location scouting for commercials and playing craft services for the film crew.
It amazed me to watch activists walk in off the street, offer to write “white papers” and expect to be dubbed the campaign’s chief advisor on [your pet issue here]. Can you make some phone calls? No?
America The Lost
Posted by: | Comments
(Crossposted from the Huffington Post)
After last year’s summer of discontent, I looked back on America’s response to September 11:
A flood of post-September 11 articles asked how the attacks happened, what we would do next, and why terrorists hate us. One savvy pundit asked, Would America keep its head?
We invaded Iraq on trumped-up intelligence. We conducted illegal surveillance on our own citizens. We imprisoned people without charge, here and abroad. We rendered prisoners for torture and tortured others ourselves in violation of international law. All the while, millions of staunch, law-and-order conservatives supported and defended it, and still do. Vigorously.
Did America keep its head? Uh, no.
After an earlier national tragedy, the 1986 Challenger disaster, the broadcast networks filled air time by bringing on psychologists. How absurd it seemed to have TV psychologists telling us how we should feel about it and explain it to the kids. Today, of course, absurd is the new normal. Today we have the conservative Mighty Wurlitzer going all E. Power Biggs on America, telling us 24/7 not how we should feel but whom we should fear. And week by week it is becoming increasingly hard to keep up with whom the home of the brave is supposed to fear.
Elizabeth Warren Rap Song “Weirdly Awesome”
Posted by: | CommentsBusiness Insider calls this video “weirdly awesome.” The EconomicPolicyJournal dot com reports the WSJ calling it “too bizarre to believe.” (Who could have seen that coming?) EPJ wrings its hands over what “heavy duty players” must be behind it — unions. (Who could have seen that coming?)
Enjoy.
Professor TARP and the Manufacturers
Posted by: | Comments
Prof. Elizabeth Warren and Sarah in her Elaine Marshall for U.S. Senate tee shirt at Netroots Nation 2010
So okay, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were at Netroots. (Harry Reid got the less warm reception.) Sen. Al Franken closed out the conference. But the real rock star treatment went to TARP Congressional Oversight Panel chair, Prof. Elizabeth Warren, who perhaps got more applause and support than anyone.
A close colleague was so pleased to meet Warren that she asked if I would post the picture.
Manufacturing was a hot topic at the conference. We met these guys from the Alliance for American Manufacturing at the conference in Las Vegas. Executive Director Scott Paul mentioned the possibility of holding a forum on manufacturing in Western North Carolina. Rep. Heath Shuler, he noted, is a strong supporter.
I recognize the venue for the America’s Future Now! conference in some shots in the AAM video, so I’d say those segments aren’t exactly man-on-the-street interviews. Their data and presentation nonetheless raised eyebrows.
Nancy Pelosi addressed American manufacturing on Saturday after delivering a special taped message from President Obama:
Pelosi spoke about “Making It in America,” the Democrats’ manufacturing agenda that she said would roll out in coming weeks to help restore and create industrial jobs. “Jobs, jobs, jobs is very important, but we have to get it done,” Pelosi said. “People have to see the difference between what the Republicans want to do about this — nothing — and what we are advocating.”
No, Madame Speaker, people will have to see what we are *doing* about it if jobs, jobs, jobs is to be anything more than a slogan.
One Vote Wonders?
Posted by: | Comments
The WaPo this morning looks at the Democrats’ $50 million effort to lure the Obama “one vote wonders” back to the polls in a mid-term election where he is not on the ballot. With the Obama brand besmirched with BP oil, it is a gamble to see whether or not 2008 was a fluke, and some are skeptical.
Matt Bai wrote about Obama “surge” voters in last Sunday’s New York Times Magazine:
“Let’s be clear — these are not Democratic voters,” Cornell Belcher, the Obama campaign pollster, cautioned me. “They’re Obama voters.” The lesson that Plouffe and his operation took away from the dismal 2009 elections is that Obama can act like a matchmaker of sorts, introducing the party’s candidates to new voters and vouching for their intentions, but it’s only going to matter if the candidates themselves embrace the so-called new politics. What that means, practically speaking, is that the White House is urging candidates to divert a fair amount of their time and money — traditionally used for buying TV ads and rallying core constituencies — to courting volunteers and voters who haven’t generally been reliable Democrats.
Obama’s Organizing for America will drive the effort, Bai wrote, having “virtually supplanted the party structure.” In my follow-up at HuffPost on Monday, I pointed out that in 2008 some local party officials remained skeptical of the Obama effort in Western North Carolina until late in the game, wondering
Read More→
The Nettlesome, Non-Financially Powerful
Posted by: | CommentsA few years ago I wrote about the case of Maher Arar and asked whether our last administration was fighting terrorists, breeding them or becoming them. Now I’m wondering why our current administration is covering for the last one. Glenn Greenwald was wondering yesterday:Â
The Supreme Court today denied a petition of review from Maher Arar, the Canadian and Syrian citizen who was abducted by the U.S. Government at a stopover at JFK Airport when returning to Canada in 2002, held incommunicado for two weeks, and then rendered to Syria, where he spent the next 10 months being tortured, even though — as everyone acknowledges — he was guilty of absolutely nothing.  Arar sued the U.S. Government for what was done to him, and last November, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of his lawsuit on the ground that courts have no right to interfere in these decisions of the Executive Branch. That was the decision which the U.S. Supreme Court let stand today, ending Arar’s attempt to be compensated for what was done to him.
Even the Times, enabler of the Iraq invasion, is not pleased: Read More→
Well That’s Better!
Posted by: | CommentsWhile it’s still only a small fraction of the national transportation budget, this is a very big deal. There are efforts underway to try to include Asheville when this pie gets sliced:
The Obama administration more than doubled spending on cycling and walking initiatives to $1.2 billion (£810 million) last year as it seeks to coax Americans out of their cars.
Spending on biking and walking projects rose from less than $600 million (£407 million) in 2008, according to the Federal Highway Administraion. Twenty years ago, the federal government was spending only $6 million a year on such projects.
The spending on biking and walking projects was scheduled to rise last year anyway, but the administration boosted it with $400 million in funds set aside under the economic recovery program.
:I’ve been sticking with my multimodal habits. From my home near the French Broad River I rode my rickety bike up to Waking Life Cafe for a meeting. Then I rode to downtown to the gym followed by a tasty lunch at Jackson Underground Cafe. Now I’m at my office ready for work. I understand that not everyone can get out of their cars all of the time. But if all of us drive a little less, we can begin moving our city and our nation in a new direction. Federal initiatives to build multimodal infrastructure are a vital part of that.
An Independent Movement Separate from the DNC
Posted by: | CommentsThe Monday sessions at the AFN conference emphasized the need for progressives to maintain pressure on Washington, especially after election wins. For all the things Obama has accomplished in his first year, why were many in the room so discouraged?
Darcy Burner and Deepak Bhargava agreed that the left is insufficiently active in promoting its policy agenda. It is not enough to expect to win and go home.
Neither is it enough to expect that electing “progressive” seeming candidates is enough to advance a vision of America that works for everyone. What’s needed is a vigorous movement independent of the DNC to keep pushing elected officials from outside the Beltway.
Markos Moulitsas followed up by insisting that activists get out of their single-issue “silos” and speak to voters hearts first if they expect to persuade their heads, something with which Drew Westen would agree.
Missed his panel, but I got to meet Drew Westen at the margarita party. He is the Emory professor behind this “Huffington Post from Hell.” That post still has a bite.
People have asked in the past where to go for a quick roundup of the day’s news. I used to suggest Today’s Papers at Slate until it disappeared last year. Now I suggest Bill Scher’s Progressive Breakfast at the Campaign for America’s Future website. Bill has been a regular on Errington Thompson‘s radio show. He works hard at the news wrap-up and was pleased to know he has readers.
Funniest moment of the day: A blogger at our table opened his laptop during one speech only to have it start playing music. He jumped up, snapped it shut — still playing — and ran out like he had a crying baby in church.
President Peeking at Peak Oil
Posted by: | Comments
Yesterday, President Obama gave a press conference at the White House on the BP Oil disaster in the Gulf. After weeks of building criticism over the administration’s handling of the crisis, the President was able to give a more robust explanation the administration’s efforts, capabilities, and vision for the future. I will leave the debate about the handling of this crisis to you, the readers, should you wish to engage in it. Please feel free to make your thoughts known in the comments. What struck me was this little gem:
“Now, let me make one broader point, though, about energy. The fact that oil companies now have to go a mile underwater and then drill another three miles below that in order to hit oil tells us something about the direction of the oil industry. Extraction is more expensive and it is going to be inherently more risky.
And so that’s part of the reason you never heard me say, ‘Drill, baby, drill’ — because we can’t drill our way out of the problem. It may be part of the mix as a bridge to a transition to new technologies and new energy sources, but we should be pretty modest in understanding that the easily accessible oil has already been sucked up out of the ground.
And as we are moving forward, the technology gets more complicated, the oil sources are more remote, and that means that there’s probably going to end up being more risk. And we as a society are going to have to make some very serious determinations in terms of what risks are we willing to accept. And that’s part of what the commission I think is going to have to look at.”
And the day before, the President at a Fremont, California facility that manufactures solar panels:
“And the spill in the Gulf, which is just heartbreaking, only underscores the necessity of seeking alternative fuel sources. We’re not going to transition out of oil next year or 10 years from now. But think about it, part of what’s happening in the Gulf is that oil companies are drilling a mile underwater before they hit ground, and then a mile below that before they hit oil.
With the increased risks, the increased costs, it gives you a sense of where we’re going. We’re not going to be able to sustain this kind of fossil fuel use. This planet can’t sustain it. Think about when China and India — where consumers there are starting to buy cars and use energy the way we are. So we’ve known that we’ve had to shift in a fundamental way, and that’s true for all of us.”
From these remarks, it is clear that the administration is starting to at least take a peek at Peak Oil. Over at the Energy Information Agency, which just put out their annual forecast a couple weeks ago, world supply of liquid fuels will increase through 2035. Though the report hints at Peak Oil through higher real price forecasts and a larger proportions of biofuels or adding other “unconventional sources” to the mix while keeping “conventional” liquids flat. The administration is not yet connecting the peak oil dots, publicly anyway.
And perhaps they shouldn’t. The most important thing to do is to change the mindset of the American people about energy. We have a long way to go on that. The last President to wear a sweater in the White House to conserve energy was the last President to wear a sweater in the White House to conserve energy. That was thirty years and five Presidents ago. The blackened Gulf should become a symbol far more powerful than a presidential sweater to be used in moving us off oil. If tarred beaches don’t get our attention then the next stop is drowned beaches — drowned by the rising sea level caused by anthropogenic global warming caused by indiscriminate burning of fossil fuels.
Full Press Conference transcript.
Full transcript of Solar Plant speech.
Full 2010 Energy Information Agency Annual Energy Outlook Report.
No one could have foreseen
Posted by: | Comments… another instance of misfeasance left over from the Bush administration to be swept under the rug.
Brian Beutler of Talking Points Memo is reporting that the Bush administration “may have worsened the crisis and resulting economic fallout by delaying the call for congressional action.”
As the financial crisis unfolded last September, Bush officials had a contingency plan they had prepared months earlier — knowing it would soon be needed — but had failed to brief Congress. It was Nancy Pelosi who called them first, Beutler writes:
… some two weeks, she reminded me, after Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Presidential nomination in Denver. Lehman Brothers had just filed for bankruptcy four days earlier and the Federal Reserve had authorized the New York Fed to lend up to $85 billion to insurance giant AIG. That afternoon, she called Paulson to ask for a full briefing the next morning.
“They said, ‘That will be too late. That will be too late. Tomorrow morning, 9 o’clock will be too late,’” Pelosi recalled.
In a meeting that evening with Congressional leaders and staff, Paulson, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, and others offered a dire assessment, and made an appeal for intervention that ultimately resulted in TARP. Bernanke and Paulson beseeched the legislators to act quickly, warning that, the entire U.S. economy might collapse in days without rapid intervention. But Pelosi had a question. “I asked them, and said, ‘Why am I calling you – why didn’t you call me?,” Pelosi said.
In our initial conversation, that’s where Pelosi stopped: “You go ask them what their response was to that question.”
After TPM failed to get a comment on that question from Paulson — a spokesperson stated no one felt “constrained” from communicating with Congress — Pelosi answered the question for them:
“Here’s what they said. They said, ‘We were not allowed to tell Congress, but since you called, we’re going to answer your questions.’”
Some time after the TPM story posted, former Bush Deputy Press Secretary, Tony Fratto, responded:
As soon as the fallout was clear — and, in fact, in ways no one anticipated (like the money markets breaking the buck), they went first to the President, and then directly to congressional leaders.” [Emphasis mine.]
It’s primary election day. Nominate leaders better that these guys.
