A recent dip into conservative drive-time talk radio raised Michael Shermer’s question: Why do smart people believe weird things?

It’s not as if the conservative talk audience is all Mensa members. (Sean Hannity, at least, need not apply.) And it’s not as if the left doesn’t believe its share of nonsense. It’s that conservative “experts” with educational pedigrees and elite-sounding, non-elitist titles spout ideas they expect listeners to accept without question.

Like how replacing employer-based health insurance with health savings accounts means a $10,000 raise for the average family.

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MoveOn is sponsoring a “virtual march on Washington” today in support of health care reform. They’re aiming for a million contacts – you can call, fax, or e-mail – and as of 9 am they were up to more than 100,000.

If you’re a public option supporter, this is probably the best time yet to call Kay Hagan and let her know that you want her to sign the Bennett letter to indicate her support for passing a public option through reconciliation. (Use MoveOn’s portal, though – they’re keeping track of the number of contacts.) When I called this morning, the staffer who answered told me that Senator Hagan is considering signing, and reminded me that she’s supported he public option before.

And as for Heath Shuler? Well, you know, talking to him about health care reform is like talking to a brick wall. Read More→

from the Cornell University Collection of Political Americana, Cornell University Library

Every year, registered Democrats in almost all of North Carolina’s roughly 3000 precincts meet to discuss policy, elect officers (in off years), and, sometimes, figure out how to organize themselves. The county Democratic Party has set next Monday, March 1st as the date most Buncombe precincts will have their meetings, though there are a few exceptions (see here for a full list.)

After seven years of organizing precincts and precinct meetings, I have learned by experience (and sometimes painful experience) a lot about what precinct-level organizing can’t accomplish.

Want to make a difference in an election? It’s probably more effective to volunteer for individual campaigns. Even if you’re not the biggest fan of particular candidate, if they’re running a well-organized campaign, they will often help other worthy candidates on the ballot. Want to stay involved in meaningful action between elections? Groups like MoveOn and Organizing for America manage their volunteers better than the party as a whole, and certainly better than a precinct committee full of amateurs.

And yet there’s still something about precinct meetings that make them unique. Join a campaign, and it’s all about the candidate, and they and their staff call the shots. Even if you join grassroots groups like Organizing for America, your approach to an issue – the strategy you follow, and even sometimes the tactics you’re allowed to employ in your community – are largely determined by people a long way away who are unaccountable to you or your fellow members (except insofar as they’re sensitive to the feedback provided by rising or declining membership and donations).

Go to a precinct meeting, on the other hand, and it really is all about you. Read More→

…at least according to Republican Congressional candidate Greg Newman. The charge came at a recent meeting of the Buncombe County Republican Women’s Club:

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It might seem a little strange for a lawyer — who I don’t believe has ever served in the military himself — to question the integrity and military judgement of the highest ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces. And before he became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mullen was the Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations, Commander of the U.S. Naval Forces in Europe, Commander of the Allied Joint Force Command, and Vice-Chief of Naval Operations.

Strange, that is, until you realize that it’s that time again — time for the GOP candidates to throw out a steady diet of red meat to the salivating Republican throngs, and a little gratuitous Gay-Bashing always does the trick. “Those Goddamn Mexicans Taking Our Jobs” and “Obama is an a) Socialist, b) Muslim, c) Friend of Terrorists” works pretty well too, but that’s for another day.

What is it that Greg Newman is getting his panties in a wad all about? Well, it would seem that Admiral Mullen believes that repealing the military’s Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy is the right thing to do. Admiral Mullen:

“We have in place a policy that forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens…For me, personally, it comes down to integrity: Theirs as an individual, ours as an institution.”

And he’s not alone. Former Vice-President Dick Cheney has this to say:

“Twenty years ago, the military were strong advocates of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell when I was Secretary of Defense. I think things have changed significantly since then…I’m reluctant to second-guess the military in this regard…When the chiefs come forward and say, ‘We think we can do it,’ then it strikes me that it’s — it’s time to reconsider the policy…I think the society has moved on…I think it’s partly a generational question.”

Generational question, indeed. Newman was speaking before the ladies of the Buncombe County Republican Women’s Club, many of whom are still probably smarting over President Truman’s dangerous social engineering experiment of integrating blacks into the military back in ‘48.

Even Colin Powell, who helped formulate the policy, thinks it’s time for it to go:

“In the almost 17 years since the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell legislation was passed, attitudes and circumstances have changed…I fully support the new approach presented to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week by Secretary of Defense Gates and Admiral Mullen.”

Not to mention that most Americans now believe that gay people should be able to openly serve in the U.S. military (57%-36%) and that the current policy of not allowing openly gay men and women to serve is discrimination (66% to 31%) according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released the other day.

It’s funny how Republicans here in Western North Carolina are all rah-rah about the military when it’s politically convenient, but don’t want to defer to its authority when it conflicts with their own outdated fears and prejudices. And frankly, I expected a little better from Greg Newman, who I like and otherwise respect. You’re on the wrong side of history here Greg, and shame on you for cynically playing to voter’s baser natures.

Avant Gardener and Asheville Citizen-Times Letters to the Editor wrangler, Dave Russell, does his swan song in today’s paper. (Did I Quisinart those metaphors enough for ya?)

While working this job, I have been told — on the same day — that I was a “homophobe,” and one of my neighbors told me I was “in bed with the gays.” In the same week, I’ve been told I was anti-Semitic and so pro-Israel that “it’s not possible for (me) to be fair about the current situation in Palestine.” I’ve been called “anti-God” and “just another born-again (Christian).” And so on.

Could it be that I was just a guy working hard to get as many diverse opinions in the paper as possible? Naaaah ….

Dave is headed to RiverLink, work more closely tied to rocks and water — easier to reason with than LTE writers.

"Meditations on Thominator" from Dave Russell's "The Avant Gardener"

Dave, the AC-T’s loss is RiverLink’s gain.

There will be no overriding theme to this post, amigos, except that Here Are Some Things I Like.

The Beast bills itself as The World’s Only Website. This is what logicians refer to as “self-evident truth.” Since 2002 (but skipping 2003) the Beast has published its list of the 50 Most Loathsome Americans. The 2009 List includes one jerk in particular who seems to make every year’s Loathsome List:
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