Policy and Politics
tfk | February 12, 2008
199 years ago, in a log cabin in Kentucky, a boy was born to a pair of farmers on the American frontier. His parents named him Abraham, after the father prepared to sacrifice his own divinely promised son when called to do so by his God, and who, the Apostle Paul said, "against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations."
Abraham's first son, Isaac, is said to be the direct ancestor of all Jewish peoples, while his son Ishmael claimed as the scion of the Arabs, including Muhammad the founder of Islam. These lines of descent are woven through centuries of…
tfk | February 11, 2008Hillary::
So when I hear Senator Obama talk about that, I wonder which fights he wouldn't fight. Would he have not fought to get to a balanced budget and a surplus and help create 22 million new jobs? Would he have not fought to get assault weapons off the street and get them out of the hands of, you know, criminals and gang members? You never hear the specifics. It's all this kind of abstract, general talk about how we all need to get along. I want to get along, and I have gotten along in the Senate. I will work with Republicans to find common cause whenever I can, but I will also stand my…
tfk | February 11, 2008Disco. Inst. frontman Rob Crowther wonders: Why isn't anyone talking about the 2/3 of teachers who aren't hassled for teaching basic science?
You doubt that anyone could be so silly? Gaze in wonder:
the results are cleverly communicated with misplaced emphasis to imply that teachers are under overwhelming pressure to not teach evolution. It just isn't so. Here they report that, according to the poll, 31% feel pressured to avoid teaching evolution or to include other theories. What they don’t report is that the vast majority, more than 2-to-1, 69% don't feel pressured to teach other theories…
tfk | February 10, 2008Obama won the Maine caucuses in a fairly dramatic way. The Hillary campaign had expected to take the state, thus upsetting the momentum from Obama's sweep of the Virgin Islands, Washington, Nebraska and Louisiana yesterday. Obama leads in the polls in the next block of states: Maryland, D.C. and Virginia, which polling may or may not mean anything.
Hillary's firewalls at this point were supposed to be Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, but a convincing win in Maine changes the dynamic of the race. Party leaders (including the vaunted superdelegates whose endorsements are currently buoying the…
tfk | February 10, 2008Disguised as a middle-manager with the American Milk Solids Council, Sadly, No!'s intrepid correspondent suffered through the horror that results when American conservatives gather. Along hte way, there was a screening of Expelled: No Intelligence…, and it sucks:
At some point I sneak into a screening of Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, a Michael Mooreian abortion by Watergate apologist/novelty actor Ben Stein. An exciting tour through a number of major logical fallacies, Expelled features the wooden-souled Stein attempting to illustrate how the Stalinist mandarins of academia have…
tfk | February 9, 2008On Super-Typhoon Tuesday, Kansans overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama for President. This was gratifying, but a muted victory given the overwhelming number of Kansans who aren't Democrats (yet).
But today, in the Republican caucuses, the people spoke again. They rejected nutbar militarist John McCain, and overwhelmingly casting a protest vote for flab-busting Arkansan Mike Huckabee. In short, the state has now rejected the Republican nominee and voted for the (knock wood) Democratic nominee.
Meanwhile, Washingtonians, Louisianans and Nebraskans all backed Barack Obama today. Hopefully…
tfk | February 7, 2008Monday’s public forum on science standards:
A press release from the Department of Education gives a few more details about the hearing being held Monday in Orlando about the state science standards.
Monday, February 11, 2008
10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Orlando Hyatt
Orlando International Airport
9000 Airport Boulevard
Orlando
Of special note is that there will be a live feed of the meeting over the Internet, and that the Board of Education members are supposed to be watching.
Any individuals wishing to address the State Board of Education regarding the proposed science standards are invited to…
tfk | February 7, 2008Laura's friend Kara preserves my bon mot for the benefit of the intertubes:
"It just amazes me," said Laura's friend Josh, "how much of a divide there is between northern and southern California."
"Yeah, we never had that in Maryland," I said.
"Well, it's not really big enough to have a northern and southern division," he pointed out.
"True. Mostly we've got They Who Produce Crabs versus They Who Do Not Produce Crabs."
"Oh, I'm sure everybody's producing crabs in one way or another," he said.
"You're right," I realized. Laura's friend Josh: the great political unifier.
Only 49 states to…
tfk | February 7, 2008To announce suspension of campaign at wingnut festival. Will he endorse someone or other? Does this give Huckabee the opening he's been waiting for? Can McCain ride to the Republican Convention as the first horseman of the apocalypse?
tfk | February 5, 2008So that stuff I said about Obama winning? Not so much. Ditto for the parts were I predicted an Obama sweep of CT, MA, NJ. Of those, he took only CT, making my predictions pretty crappy.
But even setting aside the fact that a majority of California Democrats picked the wrong candidate, I still have a low opinion of the electorate.
The official guide sent to every registered voter in the state contained the following text in the argument submitted by the proponents of Prop. 91:
VOTE NO ON PROPOSITION 91. IT'S NO LONGER NEEDED.
As the official proponents of this measure, we are encouraging…
tfk | February 5, 2008Originally written last night, but I forgot to post it. Honest:
On the Republican side, I'd like to see Romney do well, but he won't. McCain will win a bunch of big states, and because Republican primaries tend to be winner-take-all, he'll sew up the nomination.
On the Democratic side, no one will clinch anything. The Democratic primaries and caucuses tend to allocate delegates at small geographical units, so the split will be close to 50-50.
Brian Schaffner breaks down the delegates according to results from recent polls, and bears that prediction out, with Obama just 80 delegates behind…
tfk | February 5, 2008Poll workers this morning said turnout was high. At 8:30, I was the 74th voter of the day.
Great weather, which I suspect will help Hillary, but there's no way to know until this evening. If my sense that Hillary voters tend not to feel strongly, then good weather helps her. If my sense is right that undecideds will break for Obama, but may not decide until standing in the voting booth, good weather could help Obama. Maybe it's a push.
Zogby's last polling sample puts Obama way up in California, but SUSA's last poll has Hillary way up. SUSA's polls have tended to favor Hillary, and…
tfk | February 5, 2008Seven score and three years ago, Abraham Lincoln stood and repeated his oath of office. His election four years earlier was plenty contentious, "all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it." As he took the oath the first time, "One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war."
His victory drove South Carolina and then the…
tfk | February 4, 2008Chris Mooney, one of the originators of ScienceDebate2008 quotes the press release:
The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine are joining the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Carnegie Institution, the Council on Competitiveness, and several other organizations and universities in an effort to co-sponsor a presidential candidate debate on science, technology, health, and the economy. "This would provide a nonpartisan setting to educate voters on the candidates' positions on key science, technology, and health challenges…
tfk | February 1, 2008A few days ago I wrote a long post about the importance of ideas, which included this observation:
Let us pause, as slacktivist does, to marvel that "Here is a man who speaks off the cuff in complete sentences and complete paragraphs. The contrast with our current president couldn't be more stark." Indeed, the contrast with much of the field of candidates couldn't be more stark. Obama is someone you could have a conversation with, and that discussion would be grounded not only in his experience living around the world and around the country, editing the Harvard Law Review and organizing…
tfk | February 1, 200870% of voters in MoveOn.org's membership poll backed Barack Obama. This clears the 2/3 threshold needed in order for the group to issue its first primary campaign endorsement ever. "A few weeks ago," MoveOn writes, "MoveOn members we surveyed were split. But with John Edwards bowing out, progressives are coming together. Obama won over 70% of the vote yesterday, and he's moving up in polls nationwide."
MoveOn was founded in the Clinton years as an effort to find a middle ground in the impeachment imbroglio. They called on Congress to drop the impeachment, to censure the President, and then…
tfk | January 31, 2008It's pretty hard to see how McCain could fail to romp through Feb. 5, especially if Romney isn't running any ads in the 22 states holding primaries or caucuses.
As Steve Benen notes, this creates an opportunity for the Democratic candidates to break the circular firing squad and start showing who can better beat McCain. Benen explains:
As far as I can tell, the basic pitch from Obama's perspective will be: He appeals to more independents and frustrated Republicans than Clinton; he represents a better contrast (old vs. young, new vs. stale); and he unites the left and divides the right,…
tfk | January 30, 2008Guest blogging at Balkinization, Jeffrey Tulis considers Obama’s Beef, concluding:
Senator Obama has the beef, Senator Clinton the hamburger.
Leaving the Republicans with ...
tfk | January 30, 2008One of the things that impressed me about Obama when I met him in 2006 was his nearly palpable intellect. In a situation like that interview, a five-minute session with a little blogger in Kansas, wedged between a private chat with Governor Sebelius and an address to the state's Democratic powerbrokers, it'd be easy for him to have gone on autopilot, giving canned answers with his mind elsewhere. Nonetheless, I got the genuine feeling of the gears whizzing, working through my questions, turning them around in his head and genuinely engaging me and them as he answered.
It's possible that…
tfk | January 29, 2008As Florida gears up to revise state science standards, they seem insistent on topping the anti-science nonsense which earned Kansas such mockery. The St. Petersburg Times education blog reports:
Another key lawmaker says it's likely the Legislature will weigh in on the evolution controversy. And in this case, the lawmaker, Rep. Joe Pickens, R-Palatka, says he has concerns about the proposed state standards himself.
"If it becomes a matter for legislative discussion, then I would have opinions that if it's going to be presented, it's presented … in a manner that is not potentially exclusive…