RIP, Rosella Hightower



One of the five sensational, glorious mid-20th-Century American Indian ballerinas from Oklahoma, a student of the incredibly-demanding Nijinska, and a truly luminous dancer:

Rosella Hightower, a prominent American Indian ballet dancer who rose to an illustrious career in the 1940s and 1950s and later started one of the premier dance schools in Europe, died overnight Nov. 3 at her home in Cannes, in the south of France. She was 88 and had had several strokes.

Hightower was one of five Oklahoma-born American Indians to emerge as world-class ballerinas. The others were Yvonne Chouteau, Moscelyne Larkin and the sisters Maria and Marjorie Tallchief. Their remarkable accomplishments showcased American dance and talent to the world when Russian stars still dominated that scene.

Hightower was often praised for her virtuosity, versatility and mastery of a varied repertoire. By the mid-1940s, she had delivered with brio such major classical roles as Odette in "Swan Lake" and "Gaite Parisienne." New York Times dance critic John Martin raved about her debut at the Met as Myrtha in "Giselle," a role she had to learn in five hours after prima ballerina Alicia Markova fell ill in 1947.

Hightower performed with ballet's most celebrated partners, including Eric Bruhn and Andre Eglevsky, and had partnered with Rudolf Nureyev in a "Swan Lake" pas de deux in 1961, marking one of his first stage appearances after defecting to the West.

The next year, she founded her Centre de Danse Classique in Cannes and attracted recruiters for the world's top ballet companies. It was later named L'Ecole Superieure de Danse, and its curriculum incorporated classical ballet, jazz and the modern Martha Graham technique. She ran the school while guiding major ballet companies in Europe.

Hightower was born Jan. 10, 1920, in Durwood, Okla. Her father, a railway employee, was of the Choctaw tribe, and her mother was of Irish descent. As a girl, Hightower went with her family to Kansas City, Mo., and was introduced to a broad cultural life that included stage productions, museums and the Charleston dance craze.

She began serious ballet study, which later continued as a teenager in New York under ballet master Michel Fokine. In 1937, Ballet Russe choreographer Leonide Massine brought his company to Kansas City and invited Hightower to sail to Monte Carlo to join a company he was forming there.

Upon her arrival, Hightower was horrified to discover during those Depression years that she was one of 200 auditioning for 60 openings. The arrival of more Russian dancers made what she thought was a contract opportunity seem even more remote. She stayed after classes in the arduous pursuit of perfecting her form and learning the troupe's repertoire on her own time.

Massine noticed her in the back of the studio one evening as he was choreographing and asked her to try out certain steps. He kept calling on her to show others arrangements he was developing, and she was hired into the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

During World War II, the company settled in New York and Hightower joined what is now the American Ballet Theatre. About this time, she met her greatest mentor, Bronislava Nijinska, the sister of ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky. Reviewers always noted Hightower's lyrical movement and dramatic intensity, and the dancer credited Nijinska with having the most influence on her stage presence and musicality.

"She would always touch me on the shoulder with a little rhythmic tapping of the fingers or the flick of a wrist, and I could figure out what she was getting at," Hightower told Lili Cockerille Livingston for the book "American Indian Ballerinas."

When the Marquis George de Cuevas, a Chilean-born arts patron, invited Hightower to be part of his Grand Ballet du Marquis de Cuevas in 1947, so began the most glittering and triumphant 15-year stretch of her career. Her versatility and skill peaked in exotic and modern roles such as in "Piege de Lumiere" (Trap of Light), in which she was a giant blue tropical butterfly leading escaped prisoners astray.

After De Cuevas died in 1961, his company folded and Hightower started her teaching school and took active interest in the youngest to the oldest students.

"She could size up dancers in just a couple of seconds to tell them if they actually had any future as professionals," said Sylvia Fawlofski, one of her former students. "Once in a blue moon, she would appear and give us a fun class with high kicks, jazzy arrangements and spirited footwork. At the end she would tell us: 'Now you are ready to go dance on Broadway.' "

Hightower got her greatest recognition as a dance leader when she became a director of the Paris Opera Ballet from 1980 to 1983. The rich tradition and history of that company, its extremely polished dancers and its entrenched bureaucracy gave High- tower a challenge and opportunity to seal her unquestioned adoration in France and Europe.

The French government bestowed some of its highest honors on Hightower, and she was the subject of experimental choreographer Francois Verret's documentary film "Rosella Hightower" in 1991.

Barney Bites Reporter

Film at 11.

Things I Might Do In Retirement

Beats watching TV:

A confused Greek traveller managed to get lost in a tiny local airport in Germany - for a whole week.

Christianos Kaklamanis, 38, who was reported missing in his home country, wandered around Hanover airport in Germany for seven days before a travel agent noticed him and called police.

...Travel agent Sabine Berger who spotted the man said: "I saw him a few times and at first just thought he was flying in and out of the airport a lot.

"But I soon realised that something was wrong and thought I better alert the authorities in case. I couldn't believe it when I found out what had happened to him. I'm just glad he finally got home."

Can't Get Very Far

In Super Obama World

All Hail The Stick!

Left: Chief curator Chris Bensch of the Strong National Museum of Play holds the stick that was inducted into the toy hall of fame.


Quick, grab something! We can't find the Slinky!:

The lowly stick, a universal plaything powered by a child's imagination, has landed in the National Toy Hall of Fame along with Baby Doll and the skateboard.

...Curators at the Rochester museum say the stick is a special addition. They praised its all-purpose, all-natural, no-cost qualities and its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed by imaginations into something else.

Blog O' The Day

Cats In Sinks. It's about cats. In sinks.

On Proposition 8

I tend to look at the progress of acceptance of gay marriage as a 'glass half full': so much has been accomplished over the last generation! Nevertheless, the passage of Proposition 8 causes some real problems, right now, and some heartaches as well. In general, the regulation of whom may, and may not, marry is a state responsibility, and should be resolved here, not by the U.S. Supreme Court:

According to CNN's Kiran Chetry, it seems as though no matter what the outcome of the challenges, the 18,000 existing same-sex marriages will remain intact, because "California's attorney general says that the constitutional amendment is not retroactive."

However, CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin told Chetry, "The law is really unclear here. ... Everyone is all over the place. Some [lawyers] said, 'When you look at the language of Proposition 8, it is very clear that it was meant to be retroactive.' ... Another law professor that I spoke to said, 'That is absolutely, fundamentally ridiculous. The bottom line is this is a fundamental right that was given to couples, and this is a right that is not going to be given away.'"

"I think that we're going to see a lot of litigation here," Hostin concluded. "Everyone is in a legal limbo." She suggested that the California Supreme Court, which "allowed these marriages in the first place," will weigh in but that the constitutionality of Proposition 8 may ultimately have to be decided by the US Supreme Court.

Not Much Blogging Today



This is why.

Adelson In Trouble

Sheldon Adelson, conservative bankroller, and owner of Las Vegas' Venetian Casino and Resort, is heading towards tough sledding:

Las Vegas Sands Corp., billionaire Sheldon Adelson's casino company, fell the most in New York trading since going public after saying it may default on debt and face bankruptcy.

The casino owner, which had $8.8 billion in long-term debt at the end of June, said in a regulatory filing today that it probably won't meet the requirements of loans arranged by Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. unless it cuts spending on developments, boosts earnings at its Las Vegas Strip casinos and raises more capital.

The reversal of fortune is a black eye for the 75-year-old Adelson, who was once America's third-richest man on the strength of his Las Vegas Sands holdings. The Las Vegas-based company's dwindling cash flow is threatening $16 billion worth of developments in Macau, China, and Singapore, where Las Vegas Sands is building resorts to cater to wealthy Asian gamblers.

``They need to raise money,'' said Keith Foley, a New York- based analyst at Moody's Investors Service Inc. ``It's getting to the point where they need to do something now.''

The shares dropped $3.81, or 33 percent, to $7.85 at 4:04 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading, the biggest decline since its initial share sale in December 2004. Las Vegas Sands had tumbled 91 percent before today this year as investors dumped the stock, worried that falling casino winnings and the global financial meltdown would leave the company without enough cash.

Plan In Ruins

"I'm not a member of an organized political party; I'm a Democrat!":

Just minutes after their party's longstanding losing tradition lay in tatters on the ground, millions of shell-shocked Democrats stared at their television screens in disbelief, asking themselves what went right.

For Democrats, who have become accustomed to their party blowing an election even when it seemed like a sure thing, Tuesday night's results were a bitter pill to swallow.

The head-shaking and finger-pointing over the demise of the Democrats' losing streak, which many of the party faithful had worn like a badge of honor, reached all the way to the upper echelons of the Democratic National Committee.

"Believe me, I'm as shocked by these results as anybody," said DNC chief Howard Dean, who indicated he has received hundreds of calls from incredulous party members. "We did everything in our power to screw this thing up."

Dean pointed to several key elements the Democrats put in place to ensure defeat, ranging from "a rancorous primary campaign" to "the appointment of me."

"Somehow, despite our best efforts to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, we won," he said. "I came in here with a mandate to blow this thing and I didn't get it done."

Fox News on Obama's Historic Win

Turnout Was High

Best since 1908, or 1960, depending on who is counting:

It looks like 136.6 million Americans will have voted for president this election, based on 88 percent of the country's precincts tallied and projections for absentee ballots, said Michael McDonald of George Mason University. Using his methods, that would give 2008 a 64.1 percent turnout rate.

"That would be the highest turnout rate that we've seen since 1908," which was 65.7 percent, McDonald said early Wednesday. It also would beat the old post World War II high of 63.8 percent in the famed 1960 John F. Kennedy-Richard Nixon squeaker. The 1908 race elected William Howard Taft over William Jennings Bryan.

The total voting in 2008 easily outdistanced 2004's 122.3 million, which had been the highest grand total of voters before.

But another expert disagrees with McDonald's calculations and only puts 2008 as the best in 40 years. Different experts calculate turnout rates in different ways based on whom they consider eligible voters.

Curtis Gans, director of the nonpartisan Committee for the Study of the American Electorate at American University and dean of turnout experts, said his early numbers show 2008 to be about equal to or better than 1964, but not higher than 1960. He said it looks like total votes, once absentees are tallied (which could take a day or so), will be "somewhere between 134 and 135 million."

What's most interesting about early results is not just how many people voted but the shifting demographic of American voters, said Stephen Ansolabehere, a political science professor at Harvard and MIT.

Using exit polling data, Ansolabehere determined that whites made up 74 percent of the 2008 electorate. That's down considerably from 81 percent in 2000 because of increase in black and Hispanic voting, he said.

"That's a big shift in terms of demographic composition of the electorate," Ansolabehere said early Wednesday.

Breakdown by party voting also shows that Republican turnout rates are down quite a bit, while Democratic turnout rates are up, Gans said.

Republican states, such as Wyoming and South Dakota, saw turnout drop. "I think they were discouraged," Gans said.

Experts pointed to a weak economy and a lively campaign that promised a history-making result for the high turnout.

North Carolina set a record for its highest turnout rate of eligible voters, because of close presidential, Senate and gubernatorial races, Gans said. Other states where turnout increased were Indiana, Delaware, Virginia and Alabama. The District of Columbia also set a record, he said.

OK Watch

Left: Interesting graphic, also from the New York Times.


So, how are things in the Sooner State?

I watched the returns come in with great satisfaction and relief. There is yet hope for the country. As for Oklahoma, we have sunk further into the mud of extremism and irrelevance with strong Republican victories statewide. Not a single county went for Obama and the overall percentage for McCain was the highest of any state (no kidding, we even topped UTAH!!!). Pretty pathetic....

A county-by county bubble map at the New York Times starkly illustrates America's political polarization over the election cycles, starting in 1992.

Left: A stark geographical divide is clear.

Good Job, Pollsters!

Eerily close - almost prescient! In other words, they nailed it:

The final Pollster.com report on the national popular vote showed Obama leading with 52% support. Based on the results that are currently available, Obama won with 52% support.

Indeed, looking over that interactive map that some of us have been obsessing over for quite a while, the polling averages really didn't get any states wrong at all. Arguably, the only state where the numbers were really off base was North Dakota, which turned out to be less competitive than expected, but that's a pretty inconsequential demerit in an otherwise impressive showing.

I'd add, by the way, that the final DailyKos/Research 2000 poll showed Obama leading McCain nationally 51% to 46%, while the final Rasmussen poll showed Obama up 52% to 46%. Both can take a bow not only for having nailed the final result, but also for beating their rivals.

And speaking of polls and impressive showings, how did Nate Silver and fivethirtyeight do? Nate's final projections showed Obama winning with 348 electoral votes and 52.3% of the popular vote. As of this morning's count, Obama has 349 electoral votes and 52% of the popular vote.

Toby Wants A Raven

Yesterday was very much like a holiday - it was impossible to concentrate on anything.

In the streets, and at the supermarket, the mood was absolutely daft.

Towards evening, I walked into Safeway wearing my lime-green Obama 'Believe' T-Shirt over my button-down collared suede plum long-sleeved shirt - something of a fashion faux pas on legs, but perfectly in keeping with the moment. A 5-year-old African-American girl saw me, turned to her father and said, "Daddy, look, he's wearing an Obama shirt!"

An anxious man in the wine section asked "Do you know anything about wine? I have to get something that goes with chicken, but I don't know what that might be." I suggested White Zinfandel, but he scurried off for a professional opinion.

In the checkout line, there were two men, one also wearing an Obama T-Shirt, and his friend. The friend said, "I've been looking for McCain T-Shirts but I can't find them anywhere!"

And on the street, I met a fellow named Toby, with whom I shared a madcap conversation about this and that. Looking upwards, he said "See those crows? They live in West Sacramento, and they come into Midtown every day, before heading back to West Sac for the night. See? There they go now!"

I promoted the many blessings of owning parrots, and scrub jays, but Toby had his own idea. "I want a crow. No, not just a crow; I want a raven!"

And why not? If the 'Knights Who Say Ni' can get a shrubbery, why can't Toby get a raven? "Yes we can!"

Realignment?

For all of Karl Rove's hyperventilating over the last eight years about a Republican realignment, this election may be the real realignment. Demographic developments have been favoring Democrats for sometime now (this blog focuses on the Democratic trend) and they are finally expressing themselves in the nation's politics.

Having played to immigration fears and outright xenophobia, national Republicans may fall to the same kind of fate that California Republicans did after Governor Pete Wilson's decision to use anti-immigration fervor to help win re-election in 1994 - despite the fact that Hispanics were becoming a larger and larger portion of the electorate. California Republicans have yet to recover from that self-inflicted wound, and may not do so for decades to come. The same dynamic may be at work nationwide!

Since Bush took power in 2000, we have been living a kind of hallucinatory, fast-forward version of the 1920's. Certainly the fundamentalist preachers sound much the same. The scapegoats are superficially different, but Prohibition, with its schizophrenic law-breaking codes, lives on in modern gay-baiting, with its closeted homosexual subtext. Palmer raids live on in the bowels of the Department of Homeland Security. The 1927 Mississippi flood lives on in Hurricane Katrina's 2005 New Orleans' devastation. Much as the 2004 election reminded me of the 1928 election (with urban Catholic Al Smith and urbane Catholic John Kerry as losing Democratic candidates), the 2008 election, with its financial chaos, reminds me of 1932 - a kinder, gentler version of 1932, of course - but 1932 nevertheless.

2012 = 1936? Obama = FDR? Is an enduring Blue America at hand?

Intrepid European Reporter, In Phoenix

Trying to interpret the scene:

John McCain's defeat to Senator Obama was greeted with a mixture of shock, anger and deep fear for the future by Republican die-hards gathered at Phoenix's Arizona Biltmore Hotel for an election night party.

The discontent was evident almost as soon as Senator McCain started addressing supporters on an outdoor lawn in front of a giant Stars and Stripes to give his concession speech.

At least one member of the audience shouted out "bulls***"' while others interrupted McCain with scattered boos.

For many, it was just too much to take: at least two female McCain supporters were seen weeping inconsolably as the desolation of defeat set in.

"It's terrible, just terrible," said Lindsay Diamond from Phoenix. "When the economy's bad, Republicans lose."

The 28-year-old dancer could take some consolation from Senator Obama's victory though. "I don't think we'll have to worry about another African-American president in four years time," she said.

"Because after what's going to happen in the next four years under Senator Obama, we'll never elect an African-American again."

Duncan's friend, 30-year-old Sarah Duncan, was more generous.

"There's no question that Senator Obama's an absolutely phenomenal, knock-your-socks-off speaker," she said.

"Senator McCain is old and not very dynamic, and that's what people see. But people don't look past the image and the fancy words when they look at Senator Obama.

"I just don't think America is quite ready for an African-American to be president. There's already people out there saying they'll try to assassinate him. He'll make us a socialist country but Americans won't accept that."

Several supporters meanwhile blamed the media for Senator Obama's success, saying the press and television had given the Democrat an easy ride.

"I'm very disappointed because I don't believe Senator Obama is telling the truth when he speaks to the crowds," said Jeanette Woodward. "And the press has been very biased. We don't get the truth."

"I'm frightened because we are in the tax bracket that he's been talking about punishing. So we are going to have to let go some of our employees and cut back on our business now.

"My husband says that if he knew that he was gonna work that hard for 30 years for somebody else, he wouldn't have worked so hard."

Mazie Hoffmann, meanwhile, lamented the effect that father-of-two Obama's election would have on family values.

"I don't feel that he has good values, you know, wholesome values that represent America," she said.

"He believes in abortion, about all the abortion rights that are extreme. Maybe in Europe you have that but in America, most of mainstream America is more conservative. And I feel that as far as gay marriage we are going to get that here ... America is gonna turn a lot more liberal."

Marian, a long-time Republican, also blamed the media for McCain's loss.

"I can't believe it. We lost, it's the media," she said. "The media robbed John McCain of the presidency.

"But we'll wake up tomorrow morning and life will continue. But it's got a bitter taste."

Here Comes The Post-Election Analysis!

I rather like this article:

One thing we've clearly learned from the Cringe Decade's nightmare of unmitigated regressive rule is just how incompetent these clowns truly are. It was clear to most folks ... that the right was, of course, lying absurdly about Iraq, about taxes, about Social Security, about prescription drug benefits, and about much, much more. And some people have even caught on to the deeper lie of the entire regressive movement - that it is not simply a misguided ideology whose policy prescriptions were disastrous, but rather that it is actually a deeply pernicious kleptocratic treason conspiracy hiding behind a rag-tag improvisation of ideological hodge-podge (such as, for example, the exquisitely appropriately named Laffer Curve), designed for the sole purpose of pretending to link whatever present conditions might exist to whatever predetermined policy outcome was long ago decided upon.

Clearly, for example, the administration made the decision to invade Iraq first, then went looking for justifications that could be used to market the war later. Paul Wolfowitz even admitted this in his "bureaucratic reasons" explanation for how they all agreed on WMD as the fear factor they'd use to sell the war. Another classic example came from Bush's advocacy, as a candidate during flush times in 2000, of massive tax cuts. By the time he got to the White House, however, the economy was headed in a recessionary direction, and yet he was still advocating the same remedy for the polar opposite economic condition. It was as if the guy had read the first three chapters of John Maynard Keynes in his college macro class, but never bothered to get to the rest. Much more likely, of course, was that he had been too drunk to read any of it, and wouldn't have been so inclined, anyhow, had he somehow miraculously sobered up for a day or two.

...But even Americans who thought regressives clearly to be liars or thieves might still have believed that they were highly competent, especially if you'd had your brain Luntz-framed long enough to believe that MBA CEO types are tough, skilled, administrative whiz-bangs (you know, like the guys at Lehman Brothers, AIG, General Motors, etc.). It was easy to mistake that sometimes, because normally they're very good at marketing and at winning elections. But this year, the right can't even begin to get that right. The McCain-Palin campaign is a pathetic thing to see these days. ... There hardly seems to be a single campaign anymore, as a candidate so stiff he makes Bob Dole (even the 1996 version) look like James Dean by comparison lurches from embarrassing attack to awkward teleprompter-read, even-more-embarrassing, attack. ... Any movement that builds its core ideology around the worship of an infantilist, developmentally-stunted, self-aggrandizement will inevitably wind up eating its young. It's not a matter of if, but when. And it's no longer even a matter of when, but now.

...But McCain wanted - more than anything and for the entirety of his life - to be president, and he made a calculation that his best strategy for getting there was to make nice to the radical right, support Bush for eight years, and then run again as the heir apparent in 2008. What he evidently didn't consider in this sell-off of his principles to the lowest bidder was the possibility that he was hitching himself to a wagon that was headed over a cliff. Into a bottomless pit. Located on an imploding black hole star. George W. Bush is a human wrecking machine of historical proportions, second only to the likes of Hitler, Stalin or Mao (yet another way in which Bush is a two-bit hack - he couldn't even do genocide right).

...Among the great ironies of this election is that had McCain adopted another strategy, he might have had a pretty good shot at the presidency. ... Instead, he tied himself to Bush, while Bush tied himself to the cement shoes of regressive politics and jumped off the bridge, taking down his own party and his party's presidential nominee with him (not to mention a million Iraqis, 4,200 Americans, Tony Blair, Colin Powell, Bar, Poppy and Jeb, along with many, many more folks foolish enough to allow themselves within his orbit). It's truly astonishing if you think about it. This little twirp's need to redeem himself after a lifetime of failure and insecurity has produced destruction of galactic proportions. In any case, McCain made the wrong choice, put ambition first, above all else (including, with the Palin pick, above country), and gambled that Bush wouldn't wreck the GOP brand before November 2008. Oops. By going to bed with the likes of George Bush, McCain definitely owns his own fate. And there's more than a little delight in watching a practitioner of these debauched politics destroy himself. He's stuck with a base that loves Bush and Bushism, all while trying to attract independents who are ready to hurl at the prospect of either. ... The Palin selection epitomizes this dynamic. Whatever else he thought she might bring to the table (corruption charges, perhaps? shocking idiocy? disloyalty to the guy who made her?), part of the rationale for her selection was to do something John McCain was unable to do himself - namely, to get Republicans interested in the 2008 Republican presidential ticket. And so it did, but it has cost him dearly with just about every other voter, who look upon Palin with dropped-jaw astonishment, and McCain with deeply flawed judgement.

Meanwhile, nowadays George Bush is almost nowhere to be found. ... When right-wing commentator - and former press secretary for Newt Gingrich - Tony Blankley describes a Republican leader by noting that "The existing American president is a failed thing", you know it's all very, very far gone down the tubes. But notice how they all adored Bush when he was flying high. The current state of the Republican Party isn't just the product of a one-man demolition derby. This has been a carcinogenic genetic mutation masquerading as a mass ideology, and it's had a lot of adherents.

The great farce of the GOP, which soon became the tragedy of the nation and the world, was to actually govern. They would have been so much better off to retain their natural role as carping cranks, spreading disinformation at every turn, making up scandals for the other guys, proliferating and hiding their own, occasionally impeaching presidents. But they made the mistake of actually seizing power, after which an entire world could see what they're really about, the destructiveness of their policies, their breathtaking arrogance, as well as their astonishing incompetence at providing for the basic functions of governance. I suppose we can't entirely blame them for their own self-destruction. I mean, who knew that imploding economies, drowning cities, oceans of debt, disastrous wars based on lies, alienation of centuries-old allies, dismantling of Social Security, falling worker salaries, rising costs, diminishing healthcare, a massive terrorist attack while the president was on vacation, the national shame of torture, or catastrophic environmental disaster - who knew these would be unpopular policies?

The regressive movement - so deluded that they still like to think of themselves as conservatives - is on death watch now, and yet it doesn't know it, nor does it remotely begin to understand why. But the reasons - both proximate and distant - are plain enough to see. The immediate problem is that they ran a pathetic candidate against a great candidate. More importantly, they ran a slimy, Rovian campaign against a guy who knew how to fight back, and also had the guts to do so, and they presented it all to a national electorate that is frightened enough to no longer be willing to indulge foolery anymore. ... And, to top it all off, voters don't even particularly like Democrats, and they sure don't like the current Congress, which is controlled by Democrats. It's rare for an American political party to get stomped two elections in a row, let alone by a generally disliked alternative party. You have to be screwing up really badly to do that, in a collective effort sort of way.

Which, of course, is exactly what we're talking about. Only regressives don't know it. They think their policies and attitudes are popular in America. They think George W. Bush's problem was that he wasn't regressive enough. If only he had invaded Iran as well as Iraq! If only he had deregulated Wall Street even more. If only he had encouraged more oil consumption and more carbon emissions. If only he had eliminated abortion rights. If only he had cut wealthy Americans' tax liabilities down to zero, shifting those burdens to the middle class. If only he had done to all of us what he did to Terri Schiavo's family. If only he had eliminated all government spending on popular programs. If only he had privatized Social Security and let Wall Street handle it....

...Fortunately, in this there is great hope for this country's recovery. For as regressives meet to lick their wounds - and I know of three such immediate post-election major summonings to the Council of Darkness already scheduled - they will be as oblivious to the cause of their demise as were their ancestors, the dinosaurs.

No On Proposition 8

This is the coolest flag......

Clairvoyance

An amusing blogpost called "Why McCain Will Win".

What Happens If The Other Side Wins

I tried to embed this funny video, but it crashed Internet Explorer.

Massive Maine Waves

Large waves can and do occur in the oceans. Some places, like the southern tip of Africa, are renowned for them:

"It was bizarre," said Ingall, a lifelong resident of the area. "Everybody was like, 'Oh my God, is this the end?' " It was not the apocalypse, but it was a rare phenomenon, one that has baffled researchers. The National Weather Service said ocean levels rapidly rose in Boothbay, Southport, and Bristol in a matter of minutes around 3 p.m. on Oct. 28 to the surprise of ocean watchers. Exactly what caused the rogue waves remains unknown.

"The cause of it is a mystery," said National Weather Service meteorologist John Jensenius, who first reported the waves from a field office in Gray, Maine. "But it's not mysterious that it happened."

Specialists have posed a variety of possible explanations, saying the waves could have been caused by a powerful storm squall or the slumping of mountains of sediment from a steep canyon in the ocean - a sort of mini tsunami. The last time such rogue waves appeared in Maine was at Bass Harbor in 1926.

Jensenius said the occurrence is so unusual, that specialists don't have a name for the phenomenon.

"That's part of our problem," he said.

The Electoral College Trend

Shrimp On A Treadmill



Science is a demanding mistress....

Polling Place Kvetching

While voting at the Sierra II polling place, someone was complaining that the boisterous "No On 8" forces were violating ordinances and politicking within 100 feet of the polling place. So, someone went out with a tape measure to reconfirm exactly where the line was. Myself, I noticed no intrusions of the sacred space.

Election Fever

E.: MMMMAAAARRRCCC! They're telling me here at work I should vote!
M.: Well, you have to be registered first.
E.: They're telling me I can vote a 'provisional ballot'.
M.: Only if you are registered by the deadline (which has already passed). Go down to the polling place, by the 24th Street Theater, before 8 p.m., and they can get you registered for the next election.
E.: Oh, OK!

Meteorology And Autism

Interesting:

Children in California, Oregon and Washington are more likely to develop autism if they lived in counties with higher levels of annual rainfall when they were 3 or younger, suggesting that something about wet weather may trigger the disorder, according to a study released Monday.

Among possible explanations: Bad weather could lead to more TV and video viewing, which in very young children have been linked to language-development problems. Or staying indoors could cause a deficit of vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin," increasingly found to play a role in health.

Momentum

Left: Flares in the left lane ahead announce a massive fender bender. The location is Highway 99 northbound, in Elk Grove. They even announced this particular crash on the radio!


This rainy afternoon, I was driving north on Stockton Boulevard, where it is a Highway 99 frontage road south of Elk Grove, when a surprise stop sign hove into view. I stomped on the brake and - nothing happened! Wheels locked, I sailed right through the stop sign, barely slowing at all. Fortunately, there was no cross-traffic.

A small coefficient of kinetic friction, plus lots of forward momentum, means - WHEEE!

No Candy For Kids Who Support Obama



No exceptions.

Your California GOP At Work

Always on the alert for corruption:

[T]he California Republican Party filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, in part because of a visit Sen. Barack Obama made to his dying grandmother.

"Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama's personal use," the release stated. "Senator Obama recently traveled to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother. This was the right thing for any grandson to do -- at his own expense -- but it was not travel that his campaign may fund."

At issue was whether the trip should have been paid for with campaign funds, based on the law that forbids candidates from using such funds to pay for personal travel. The Obama campaign said the trip had been vetted with lawyers beforehand and was allowable. The Republicans argued that, because Obama did not campaign during the quick journey to Hawaii, it should not have been a campaign expense.

He's Been Tested

Aliens have their own probes:

ROSWELL, N.M. — Behind in the polls and pressing his case, Sen. John McCain made a mad dash across the nation Monday, imploring voters to consider his experience against Sen. Barack Obama.

"I've been tested and I passed that test. Sen. Obama hasn't," McCain said over and over again at stops from Tampa to Blountville, Tenn., on the Virginia and North Carolina borders, and from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis and Roswell to Henderson, Nev.

Fueled by coffee, egg tacos, fried chicken and throat lozenges, McCain was to spend nearly 24 hours straight spreading his message of lower taxes, less spending, and national security know-how over seven states.

...In Roswell, famous for its extraterrestrial sightings, McCain joked that "I'm pleased to announce that I have received the alien endorsement."

Last Call For Polls

RIP, Madelyn Dunham

Barack Obama's Grandmother passes on.

Babies Eating Lemons

Circuit City Becoming More Like Circuit Village

Painful:

Richmond, Va.-based Circuit City (NYSE:CC) said Monday it does not have plans to close any of the five Sacramento-area stores. However, several other stores in Northern California will be closed, including those in Concord, Dublin, Fairfield, Merced, Morgan Hill, Palo Alto, Pittsburg, Richmond and San Rafael.

But Ready for Spell-Checking?

Why Vote?



One of my relatives, who likes neither Obama or McCain, has decided not to vote.

A surprising number of people, who are either discouraged or ambivalent, may do the same thing.

It's still a good idea to vote, though. Politicians are very adept at divining just who didn't vote, and therefore whose opinions do not need to be considered.

I want the politicians to quail at my sight. So do you.

Vote!

Fred Barnes Doesn't Like Early Voting



I don't like Early Voting all that much either: Election Day should be something of a national holiday. Nevertheless, there is no question that, where it is available, Early Voting is a wildly-popular innovation. People with busy schedules can keep their schedules and still vote. Elderly people can vote without feeling rushed. Some long lines can be avoided through Early Voting, which is particularly important in urban areas that may be underserved with polling places. And longer hours means people far from polling places can still vote, which is particularly important in rural areas.

The argument that Early Voting deprives people of pertinent, late-revealed information would be more-important if we had snap elections like the Europeans typically do, where the entire electoral campaign can be compressed into a month. That's not what we do, though. This presidential cycle has been going on for two years. Depriving people of a week's worth of hullaballoo shouldn't change things that much.

So, go ahead Fred Barnes, and bitch about the poor old people doddering around your polling place in Alexandria, Virginia. We know these rocking-chair Americans just gum up the wheels of democracy anyway. Place yourself squarely against the tide of comfort and convenience, the emblematic hallmarks of modern American life. I'm behind you all the way.

It Will Be All Right

Everything is going OK - it's not Florida 2000 time. There is no need to get unduly worried:

Yet beneath the energy and party atmosphere – with a crowd of 60,000 it was the biggest political rally in the history of Columbus – and the heady excitement that after this marathon campaign they had at last reached the cusp of history, many of these Ohioans were suffering a new mental condition on the eve of Election Day. It could be called “Victory Will Still Be Snatched From Us Compulsive Disorder”.

“I am so afraid some ghastly trick will be played again and we’ll wake up on Wednesday morning and we’ll be where we were in the last two elections,” said Stephanie Harper, 32, as she walked towards the rally with thousands of others. “My doctor says she is treating lots of Democrats for anxiety and depression, because of their obsession with this election and their fears that Obama will lose.”

Like Florida Democrats, who will never be dissuaded that the 2000 race was not stolen from them, their counterparts in Ohio still believe, without compelling evidence, that John Kerry was robbed of the presidency in 2004 because of Republican dirty tricks on voting day here. If the Democratic nominee had won 60,000 more votes in the Buckeye State four years ago he would be in the White House today.

Alec Clairmont, 23, described himself as extremely nervous, and was muttering darkly about a documentary he had seen the night before alleging that “people can programme voting machines so that they can send votes to the other side”. He added: “The polls look good, but I don’t know what will happen on election day.”

...Mr Obama and his aides are taking a somewhat less holistic approach in these last hours. They realise that the road to the White House runs through Ohio and its 20 electoral college votes, and have put in place an 11th-hour get-out-the-vote operation that is brutal in its scale and intensity.

Poll Comparison - 2000, 2004, & 2008

Saving Daisies

Daisies? Daisies.

Andrea is among those closely watching the fate of this TV show and encouraging everyone to join her to help keep it among the living:

I've created a new blog in order to join the fight to save one of television's most innovative and creative shows: Pushing Daisies. There's quite an online presence of supporters and the letter writing campaign (called "Daisy Mail") is starting this week. Fans from all over the country will be sending ABC letters (with "Daisy Mail" written on the front, in case they are thrown away they'll know what it's for), pies, daisies, daisy seeds - pretty much anything that relates to our lovable pie-man and the eternal optimism of the show (and the daisy, of course!)

Here's an interesting article (I've copied and credited it on my page) from E! Online.

I don't often get in the battle to save tv shows, but since this show is one of the FEW that I DO watch (partially because of it's quick-witted dialogue, the creative story lines, and of course, the talented cast) I felt compelled to join in. ... The more hits we can drum up, the better we can at least have ABC consider ordering the full 22 episode season.

Save those daisies!

Tough To Be Intelligent And Unappreciated

Otto the Octopus is bored:

Staff believe that the octopus called Otto had been annoyed by the bright light shining into his aquarium and had discovered he could extinguish it by climbing onto the rim of his tank and squirting a jet of water in its direction.

The short-circuit had baffled electricians as well as staff at the Sea Star Aquarium in Coburg, Germany, who decided to take shifts sleeping on the floor to find out what caused the mysterious blackouts.

A spokesman said: "It was a serious matter because it shorted the electricity supply to the whole aquarium that threatened the lives of the other animals when water pumps ceased to work.

"It was on the third night that we found out that the octopus Otto was responsible for the chaos.

"We knew that he was bored as the aquarium is closed for winter, and at two feet, seven inches Otto had discovered he was big enough to swing onto the edge of his tank and shoot out a the 2000 Watt spot light above him with a carefully directed jet of water."

Director Elfriede Kummer who witnessed the act said: "We've put the light a bit higher now so he shouldn't be able to reach it. But Otto is constantly craving for attention and always comes up with new stunts so we have realised we will have to keep more careful eye on him - and also perhaps give him a few more toys to play with.

"Once we saw him juggling the hermit crabs in his tank, another time he threw stones against the glass damaging it. And from time to time he completely re-arranges his tank to make it suit his own taste better - much to the distress of his fellow tank inhabitants."

Stephen Sondheim's "Assassins" - Artistic Differences

Went to see Artistic Difference's "Assassins" at the Old Eagle Theater in Old Sacramento.

Fine performances throughout, particularly the duos:

• Leon Czolgosz (Joshua James) and Emma Goldman (Joelle Wirth) - very strong, affecting performances;


• "Squeaky" Lynette Fromme (Tygar Hicks) and Sara Jane Moore (Martha Omiyo Kight) - loopy fun!.

Plus extended monologues by:

• Sam Byck (Michael McElroy) - rage, personified,


• John Wilkes Booth (Craig Howard) - a cracked visionary,


• Charles Guiteau (Chuck Cooner) - ambition, personified.

This is one excellent show!

The biggest flaw of the show "Assassins", as it is written by Sondheim and Weidman, is that Lee Harvey Oswald is treated as something of a malleable pawn. Reading the book "Case Closed" by Gerald Posner, the last word on why Oswald was the single shooter, it's clear that Oswald was the most misunderestimated of assassins. He had spent the fall of 1963 trying to kill right-wing Air Force General Walker, even getting a shot off, and changed his target to Kennedy only that fateful morning, when he read the newspaper and realized Kennedy would pass right by his workplace. Oswald was very determined and resourceful and astonishingly stingy, but not malleable.

This show, as good as it is, could do with a rewrite - keep some stuff and toss out the rest. After all, let's reintroduce long-forgotten presidential assassin wannabes, Richard Lawrence and John Schrank! They tried - they failed! And what about the Puerto Rican nationalists? Surely they can't be consigned to history's wastebin so easily? Maybe we need Assassins II.....

The production's timing seemed a bit crass - just before the 2008 election - but the timing apparently wasn't a promotional gambit but just due to rehearsal schedules and efforts to get rights. Everyone loves the music to this show anyway and would love to do it anytime, election or not.

American assassins, diverse in many ways, seem united by a common trait - delusional thinking.

I come from a generation particularly scarred by assassinations. I remember returning from lunchtime recess to Mrs. James' class in second grade as she tearfully announced JFK's death. When I went home, I thought to inform my mother - but she already knew. Wow, this was bigger than I thought! The story became far too complicated for a 7-year-old to follow when Lee Harvey Oswald was shot - who was this Jack Ruby? - but by now I was hooked. I watched every second of the funeral of JFK on TV, and it took hours - at least three hours from start to end.

My parents watched me watch the TV and they were - concerned.

1968 was an epic, history-making year, in part, because of MLK's and RFK's assassination.

In June 1968, as an 11-year-old, I noted how RFK's wound wasn't as dire as JFK's - with luck, potentially survivable. I spent many hours in June and July assembling models of skulls using dominoes, and laying out nerve pathways in the brain using string. Then, I fired marbles into the domino stockades, and used an electric train transformer as a diagnostic device to try and judge whether simple paralysis resulted from the wounds, or debilitating speech defects, or whether the damage was deeper than that, and perhaps not survivable at all.

Man, 1968 was a sick year.

In high school, of course, my friends and I spent much time learning and reciting assassination trivia.

In 1976, I went to a dollar cinema at the Gothic Theater in Denver, CO, and saw a double-bill: ("Shampoo" with Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn - not very memorable) and the electrifying assassination classic, "Taxi Driver", with Robert De Niro as the unforgettable Travis Bickle, and Jodie Foster as his femme fatale, Iris.

I was stunned in 1981, watching the coverage of Reagan's assassination attempt while sitting in the basement of the Student Union at University of Arizona in Tucson, to learn how John Hinckley became Travis Bickle. With Stephen Sondheim's musical "Assassins", it's art imitating life imitating art imitating life - this is more confusing than Jack Ruby's emotional state!

And speaking of Jack Ruby, in 1993, I attended a lecture at the Unitarian Church here in Sacramento, where Dr. Walter Bromberg, then in his 90's (his daughter was in my ballet class), and Jack Ruby's court-appointed psychologist, discussed Ruby's state-of-mind. Apparently Ruby was very emotional - he didn't plan things out. He carried a gun into the Dallas Police HQ that fateful day because he carried a pistol wherever he went, not from any pre-meditated intention to kill Oswald. Jack Ruby was just that kind of guy.

On the way home tonight, I will detour down L Street and pass by Sacramento's Capitol Park, where Squeaky Lynette Fromme, who had spent the summer of 1975 stalking the alleys of Sacramento and dumpster diving for food, decided to meet Gerald Ford, and discuss saving the redwoods.

Deborah's Cat At All Hallow's Eve

The Duchess

Left: Keira Knightley and Hayley Atwell.


Went to see "The Duchess" starring Keira Knightley.

An excellent vehicle for Keira's acting talents. A costume extravaganza as well.

The story is a bit more prosaic - how the Duchess of Devonshire copes with the hazards of life by forming an awkward love triangle with co-stars Hayley Atwell and Ralph Fiennes.

Sadly, pretty much a chick flick. No explosions, or horse chases, or even attacks by the French. Just a lot of furtive whispering in the great halls of great houses....

But well done!

He Shoots - He Misses

Strange call from the McCain campaign:

Friday night (which happens to be the start of our Sabbath) my wife answered the phone to hear a man stating he was from the McCain-Palin campaign. He asked who she was supporting. She replied that we will vote for Obama. He replied with "but he's a f-----g n---er!". Before I get to my wife's response I'll first have to say that I understand desperation and I also understand that this pitch may actually work for a few people. I also understand that there are people who are whack-jobs phone-banking for both sides. But here are some facts:

My wife and I are Black. Citing the fact that Obama is a f----g n---er as a way to sway our vote may not be a great idea. My wife and I live in Maryland... Baltimore, MD.... One of the most African American areas of Baltimore Maryland. How on earth did our phone numbers get on to a McCain volunteers phone bank list of potential voters to be calling at this stage in the game?

Prankin' Governor Palin



Can't make this stuff up!

Empty Chairs

Over the last two months, 538 checked out McCain offices nationwide (with photos) and found little happening:

Offices in Troy, Ohio were closed on Saturday October 11. With perfect coincidental timing, two elderly women dropped by to volunteer but found the office shut. At Republican state headquarters in Columbus later the same day, one lonely dialer sat in a sea of unoccupied chairs. In Des Moines on September 25, another empty office. In Santa Fe on September 17, one dialer made calls while six chatted amongst themselves about how they didn't like Obama. In Raleigh this past Saturday, ten days before the election with early voting already open, two women dialed and a male staffer watched the Georgia-LSU game. In Durango, Colorado on September 20, the Republican office was locked and closed. Indiana didn't have McCain Victory offices when we were there in early October.

...These ground campaigns do not bear any relationship to one another. One side has something in the neighborhood of five million volunteers all assigned to very clear and specific pieces of the operation, and the other seems to have something like a thousand volunteers scattered throughout the country. Jon Tester's 2006 Senate race in Montana had more volunteers -- by a mile -- than John McCain's 2006 presidential campaign.

RIP, Studs Terkel

Remarkable guy:

Author-radio host-actor-activist and Chicago symbol Louis "Studs" Terkel died Friday afternoon in his home on the North Side. At his bedside was a copy of his latest book, "P.S. Further Thoughts From a Lifetime of Listening," scheduled for release this month. He was 96 years old.

"Studs Terkel was part of a great Chicago literary tradition that stretched from Theodore Dreiser to Richard Wright to Nelson Algren to Mike Royko," Mayor Richard M. Daley said Friday. "In his many books, Studs captured the eloquence of the common men and women whose hard work and strong values built the America we enjoy today. He was also an excellent interviewer, and his WFMT radio show was an important part of Chicago's cultural landscape for more than 40 years."

Those Silly Neurons

Going giddy over celebrities:

It is a discovery that could explain the enduring appeal of Friends. Scientists have found brain cells devoted to Jennifer Aniston.

...Other brain cells are similarly encoded to store memories of individual celebrities, from actress Halle Berry to former US presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan.

Even Star Wars character Luke Skywalker has a cell of his own.

The Leicester University research, contradicts the popular theory that a large network of cells are involved in processing images of people.

Instead, it appears, our brains streamline the process by devoting individual cells to store memories of specific people or places.

...Another woman had a brain cell for pictures of Halle Berry, responding to drawings of her face and an image of just the words in her name.

Even a picture in which the Catwoman actress's face was almost covered by her costume made the cell fire.

Other celebrities exciting individual brain cells included Pamela Anderson, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Cruise. Famous landmarks also had their own cells.

The study also showed that the same person can have a number of cells devoted to different celebrities or landmarks.

Professor Quian Quiroga said: 'The patient with the Jennifer Aniston neuron had 19 other cells firing to different things.

'There was one firing to Pamela Anderson, another one was firing to the Tower of Pisa, another to Sydney Opera House and so on.'

Although the researchers only found one Jennifer Aniston or Halle Berry cell per person, they only sampled a fraction of the available brain cells.

This means each person's brain is likely to have a number cells devoted to their favourite celebrities.

Michael Jackson's "Thriller"


Lip Dub IUT SRC Rouen 2008
by arcanes-prod

As rendered by French college students.

Just Racism Against Arabs



Look, if they can't even get Martin Peretz to jump on the Khalidi bandwagon, then all they got is that Khalidi has an Arab name, and McCain's attacks on Obama have nothing to do with anti-Semitism at all - it's just pure, distilled anti-Arabism, nothing more.

Your GOP at work.

What's New On The Nerd Frontier?

Left: Image from Jamnog at b3ta.


As one might have expected: 2-D Marriage:

A JAPANESE man has enlisted hundreds of people in a campaign to allow marriages between humans and cartoon characters, saying he feels more at ease in the "two-dimensional world".
Comic books are immensely popular in Japan, with some fictional characters becoming celebrities or even sex symbols.

Marriage is meanwhile on the decline as many young Japanese find it difficult to find life partners.

Taichi Takashita launched an online petition aiming for one million signatures to present to the government to establish a law on marriages with cartoon characters.

Within a week he has gathered more than 1000 signatures through.

"I am no longer interested in three dimensions. I would even like to become a resident of the two-dimensional world," he wrote.

...But some people signing the petition are true believers.

"For a long time I have only been able to fall in love with two-dimensional people and currently I have someone I really love," one person wrote.

...Japan only permits marriage between human men and women and gives no legal recognition to same-sex relationships.

Japan's fans of comic books, or "manga," sometimes go to extremes.

Earlier this month, a woman addicted to manga put out an online message seeking to kill her parents for asking her to throw away comic books that filled up three rooms.

GOTV Impacted

Hard decisions for McCain:

The decision to finance a final advertising push is forcing McCain to curtail spending on Election Day ground forces to help usher his supporters to the polls, according to Republican consultants familiar with McCain's strategy.

The vaunted, 72-hour plan that President Bush used to mobilize voters in 2000 and 2004 has been scaled back for McCain. He has spent half as much as Obama on staffing and has opened far fewer field offices. This week, a number of veteran GOP operatives who orchestrate door-to-door efforts to get voters to the polls were told they should not expect to receive plane tickets, rental cars or hotel rooms from the campaign.

"The desire for parity on television comes at the expense of investment in paid boots on the ground," said one top Republican strategist who has been privy to McCain's plans. "The folks who will oversee the volunteer operation have been told to get out into the field on their own nickel."

Obama has maintained a substantial financial advantage during the general election campaign, forcing McCain to make tough decisions when locking down a final spending plan about two weeks ago.

Organized Model Rocketry In Rio Rancho, NM

Wonderful stuff!

Going After Utah's Wilderness Areas

Time running short, the Bush Administration goes for broke:

The federal Bureau of Land Management is reviving plans to sell oil and gas leases in pristine wilderness areas in eastern Utah that have long been protected from development, according to a notice posted this week on the agency's Web site.

The proposed sale, which includes famous areas in the Nine Mile Canyon region, would take place Dec. 19, a month before President Bush leaves office. The targeted areas include parts of Desolation Canyon, White River, Diamond Mountain and Bourdette Draw.

The bureau has sought to open these public lands to energy exploration since 2003, though it had earlier classified them as having "wilderness character." But the agency has been repeatedly blocked by federal court and administrative rulings.

...The agency will publish the list of lease sites Tuesday. In a notice being published today in the Federal Register, the bureau says it is finalizing five resource management plans applying to about 9.5 million acres, a required step for parts of the sale to go forward.

One of the areas set to be auctioned off is Upper Desolation Canyon, which was named by explorer John Wesley Powell in 1869 while he traveled down the Green River, which traverses the canyon, to the Grand Canyon.

In a 1999 assessment, bureau officials wrote that Desolation Canyon "is a place where a visitor can experience true solitude -- where the forces of nature continue to shape the colorful, rugged landscape," and heralded the area's "cultural, scenic, geologic, botanical, and wildlife values."

"What makes this action by the Interior Department so deplorable is that BLM itself determined these areas to be wilderness-quality lands," said Stephen Bloch, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, an advocacy group, in a statement. "Nonetheless, BLM is condemning these lands to a future of oil rigs and gas pipelines and almost certain disqualification from future wilderness designation."

The bureau first proposed opening up energy exploration in part of the area in the fall of 2003, after former interior secretary Gayle Norton reached an agreement with then-Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt not to declare any new wilderness areas in the state. Environmental advocates fought the leasing proposal in federal court, which ruled in 2006 that the plan violated the National Environmental Policy Act. Interior's own Board of Land Appeals also issued an administrative ruling backing the leasing prohibition.

In recent weeks, GOP presidential nominee John McCain (Ariz.) and running mate Sarah Palin (Alaska), along with other politicians, have repeatedly called for greater domestic energy exploration -- leading chants of "Drill, baby, drill" on a daily basis. In a speech on energy policy Wednesday, Palin said the United States needs to pursue oil and gas at home rather than relying on imports.

...But environmentalists questioned why the administration is pushing for the lease of ecologically sensitive areas when Utah has more acres leased for oil and gas development than are being drilled. At the end of fiscal year 2006, there were about 4.6 million acres of BLM-managed lands in Utah under lease, with just over 1 million acres in production.

Foliage-Covered Fence

Yesterday afternoon, I was walking through downtown, when I noticed a big rubber ball in the gutter. Just then, on the other side of a foliage-covered fence, I heard a woman say "Look, the ball rolled into the street!" I couldn't see anyone: just a sign indicating a school was located nearby, and the blank face of the foliage-covered fence. Concluding that this was the woman's ball, I retrieved the ball and tossed it back over the fence.

Not only did I hear the woman say "thank you", I heard a whole chorus of little voices saying "thank you" from behind the expressionless, foliage-covered fence.

Crying Wolf

Trivializing anti-Semitism:

In Khalidi's case, the charges of "anti-semitism" are even more disgusting than the normal neocon exploitation, since it's occurring in the last week of a presidential campaign and, as Scott Horton pointed out, is so plainly grounded primarily in the politically useful fact that Khalidi is a Palestinian-American. The anti-semitism accusation is not just manipulative; it itself is bigotry of the highest order.

But this episode illustrates what neocons have been doing for years and, more significantly, signals that the efficacy of this tactic is finally coming to an end. Open debates about U.S. policy towards Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are vital, and people should be able to engage in those debates and be able to take legitimate positions, as Professor Khalidi has plainly done, without hordes of right-wing manipulators swarming on them with anti-semitism accusations.

Scott McConnell, editor of The American Conservative, this week wrote that he was voting for Barack Obama, principally because "John McCain wants to bring [neoconservatives] back, in triumph, on horseback." That's exactly right. The McCain campaign's repulsive McCarthyite tactics of the last several weeks are the hallmark of neoconservatives. That is who will be empowered in a McCain administration.

Our Media Elite

Bashing our media elite, as always:

Appearing once again on The Daily Show, Bill Kristol, Jon Stewart's favorite whipping boy ("Bill Kristol, aren't you ever right?"), tonight defended the McCain-Palin ticket, at one point informing the show's host that he was getting his news from suspect sources. "You're reading The New York Times too much," he declared.

"Bill, you work for The New York Times," Stewart pointed out.

Happy Birthday, Everyone!

Everyone had a birthday today:

• Nancy Agee;
• Rich Kulmann;
• Rodger McDonald;
• Bethany Pedersen;
• Gil Sebastian;
• Marc Valdez (Numero 52).

Happy birthday, everyone!

(P.S. Andy S.: Your Dick Cheney E-card was the best!)

Looking For Scapegoats

The choice of Palin as VP was inspired, but problematic. Scapegoating is a natural human instinct, but may not be appropriate here.

In 1920, when the Cox/FDR Democratic ticket fell short, the general consensus was that no Democrat could win under the circumstances, and neither candidate went about scapegoating the other. That's a better approach than casting blame:

John McCain's campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain “adviser” told Dana Bash of CNN: “She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone.”

Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking?

Also, a “top McCain adviser” told Mike Allen of Politico that Palin is “a whack job.”

Maybe she is. But who chose to put this “whack job” on the ticket? Wasn’t it John McCain? And wasn’t it his first presidential-level decision?

The Money Advantage

This is where Obama's fund-raising advantage pays off: when he can come close to monopolizing the air waves just prior to the election and all but shut John McCain out.

In many ways, it's the old-fashioned approach. It's exactly how LBJ got his landslide in 1964, Nixon in 1972, and Reagan in 1984. It's how Hillary wanted to do it this year, and it's how Obama is doing it today:

On Wednesday night, no matter what you were watching, you almost couldn't avoid seeing Barack Obama's face on your TV screen. First there was the coverage of his latest campaign stops in North Carolina and Florida on the local news, then an interview with Charles Gibson on ABC's "World News," then Obama's carefully produced 30-minute ad, which ran on CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Fox, BET, TV One and Univision at 8 p.m., followed by a taped appearance on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," and finally, a rally with former President Bill Clinton, timed to coincide with the 11 p.m. news on the East Coast. On top of it all, Obama launched a brand-new ad questioning the wisdom of John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate.

Obama has already hit all of his talking points in every debate, and his face has appeared on our TV screens with clocklike regularity each night for weeks -- even in California, a blue state that's solidly in Obama's column. You would have to be hiding out in a cave somewhere not to be familiar with Obama's position on most issues. Even my 2-year-old has taken to shouting "Obama!" when she sees his face on our TV screen. (Last night, after we watched the news together, she added, "I want more Obama.")

...After half-expecting to see Obama on a couch with Jessica Simpson and a bevy of skin-care products, the ad turned out to be a thoughtful, polished bit of television magic, a well-timed appeal to Americans desperate for some new direction during tough times.

...Once again, it doesn't pay to underestimate this man. Instead of boring us to tears, Obama has managed to bring us to tears with a combination of heartstring-plucking stories, presidential poise and a good old-fashioned pep rally. And he doesn't even have to mention McCain or Palin, or even Bush, let alone attack them. The tone here is inspirational, after all: Americans are hurting, yes, but they're coming together to decide that the time for change has come.

...Meanwhile, McCain has already taken to mocking the "gauzy, feel-good" ad to crowds in Palm Beach, Fla., saying that it was "paid for by broken promises."

...But will this enormous media blitzkrieg leave a bad taste in some Americans' mouths? After watching Democrats sitting on their hands for years now, carefully selecting their words, resisting the temptation to speak out, straining to sound polite, even in the closing moments of lost elections, Obama's huge last-minute push felt impressive and formidable. Not remotely content to rest on his laurels and watch the White House slip away again, the man is going into the homestretch with a huge, smart, polished political engine behind him. He's reaching out in every way he possibly can, and leaving no stone unturned.

Good Help Is Hard To Find

Daily Show Clip

To The Hapless Bicyclist

Time: 6:30 p.m., just after dusk.

Me: Turning left into the DMV parking lot from 21st Street.

You: Riding against traffic, wearing dark clothing, and having just emerged from a dark tree-covered stretch of sidewalk.

Ambient lighting: Poor.

Message: Don't blame me for nearly killing you - you are invisible!

What Does "Idiot" Mean?

I found this article rather exasperating:

If a male candidate calls a female candidate "an idiot," does that make him a sexist? What if a woman calls another woman "an idiot"?

Frankly, I'm guessing a lot of candidates think their opponents are idiots, especially this close to the election. They just refrain from saying it publicly.

Larry Brown was not so discreet.

The Las Vegas city councilman, after a joint appearance with Assemblywoman Valerie Weber, his opponent in the race for a County Commission seat, answered a question from a Las Vegas Sun reporter, and now Weber is assailing him as a sexist.

Let's put it in context.

The two appeared on KLVX-TV, Channel 10, on Oct. 16 and were given the chance to ask one question of the other.

Brown said he didn't have a question for her.

Watching from home, I took it as a put-down, an implication she wasn't worthy of questioning. He now says it was a strategy. He didn't want to use a question to beat up on her, plus she has a tendency not to answer the question, so he didn't want to give her an opportunity to go off on a tangent. He wasn't being disrespectful, he insists.

The question she asked of him was convoluted but boiled down to: How do you explain your failure to bring a major sports team to Las Vegas?

After saying her premise was "fraught with mistakes," he basically said it's too early for a major sports team because the local population isn't large enough.

I thought it wasn't fair to blame Brown especially because the biggest cheerleader for a sports team and an arena has been Mayor Oscar Goodman. Brown has cautioned against using tax dollars to build an arena.

But here's the kicker. When the Las Vegas Sun asked Brown about Weber's question, he called it "a goofball question" and then added, "I felt like saying: You're an idiot."

He didn't say that directly to Weber, a GOP assemblywoman for six years. He didn't say it on air. He said it to a reporter with a tape recorder.

When Weber read the quote in Tuesday's newspaper, she was stunned.

"I've been in public office for six years. Being called an idiot is hurtful, dismissive and disrespectful," she said. "I felt it was a tone of hatefulness toward women and he was being misogynistic."

Brown insisted he was referring to the question she asked, not calling her an idiot.

"Name calling is not part of my politics," he said.

I think Valerie Weber is too much the wilting flower here. Sexism, however unattractive, is not a crime. Not only does Larry Brown have the right to call her an idiot if he chooses to, but as a political candidate, maybe even an affirmative duty to call her an idiot, once again, should he choose to do so. Political debate doesn't always have to be civil. Civility can mask the failure to speak the truth and better that civility be sacrificed than the truth.

And heck, Brown didn't even say Weber was an idiot, only that he thought about calling her an idiot. Thought crime is not a crime in America. Flinging inflammatory insults is often not the best way to wage a campaign, but there are exceptions. It's the candidate's call - no one else's.

OK, This Is What Real Elitism Looks Like

In defense of Alaska's Senator Ted Stevens:

Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), who is also under investigation by federal officials, offered a whole-hearted, but odd endorsement of Stevens, equating his pursuit of justice with that of disgraced former President Richard Nixon.

“I can remember Richard Nixon, you know, his years of service, what he’s done, and everybody [was] ridiculing him, and he ended up being the greatest president in the history of our century. ... The Senator will be re-elected. He will appeal it. When he does go, he will win it because there’s no way this is a jury of his peers,” Young told the Anchorage Daily News.

The Maverick And The Maiden

My friends, here is a bodice-ripper that involves the purchase of lots and lots of fashionable new clothes.

Are The Media Biased In Favor Of Obama?

W. has been flagging articles purporting to show the media are biased in favor of Obama, like this one:

Asked to rate the three major cable news channels in the latest survey, sizable percentages say the coverage on both CNN and MSNBC is biased in favor of Obama. Where Republicans overwhelmingly see bias, Democrats see no bias. Even Democratic voters, however, do not say either of these networks favors McCain.

I reply with articles like this one:

So was the reason for the media's negative treatment of McCain that notorious "left-wing bias"? Not according to the study's findings. Pew attributes the press's blistering coverage of McCain in part to the candidate's poor response to the economic crisis and his attacks on Obama's character. The report also concludes that the findings "offer a strong suggestion that winning in politics begets winning coverage, thanks in part to the relentless tendency of the press to frame its coverage of national elections as running narratives about the relative position of the candidates in the polls and internal tactical maneuvering to alter those positions. Obama's coverage was negative in tone when he was dropping in the polls, and became positive when he began to rise, and it was just so for McCain as well."

Here is one new conspiracy-type theory - it's The Aging Editors. Michael Malone at ABC writes:

Malone, it turns out, has the usual litany of complaints: Why isn't the press interviewing Obama's drug dealer? Why aren't they staking out Bill Ayers' home? What's up with Joe the Plumber? Etc. Kinda tedious. But if you make it to the end, there's comedy gold when he finally explains why the media is so in the tank for Obama. The reason, it turns out, is because the press is run by a bunch of fifty-somethings working in a dying industry:

In other words, you are facing career catastrophe — and desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if you have to risk everything on a single Hail Mary play. Even if you have to compromise the principles that got you here. After all, newspapers and network news are doomed anyway — all that counts is keeping them on life support until you can retire.

And then the opportunity presents itself — an attractive young candidate whose politics likely matches yours, but more important, he offers the prospect of a transformed Washington with the power to fix everything that has gone wrong in your career.

With luck, this monolithic, single-party government will crush the alternative media via a revived fairness doctrine, re-invigorate unions by getting rid of secret votes, and just maybe be beholden to people like you in the traditional media for getting it there.