The Next Hurrah

My Annual Post: The PTA vs. P&G

by Trapper John

Hi, it's Trapper.  I figure I need to get a post in here once a year or so to justify my name on the masthead.  And this isn't much of a post -- in fact, it's a bleg, of sorts. But it's a bleg for a worthy cause that I have absolutely no personal interest in, and it won't cost anyone other than American Express a dime.

You may have seen American Express's ads for its Members Project, which will award $5 million to a worthy non-profit voted on by Amex cardholders. The two leading vote-getters right now are A) a "children's safe drinking water" project funded by Proctor and Gamble to the point where its budget is over $380 million/year, and B) DonorsChoose, a fantastic little non-profit that funds small proposals (generally less than $1000) made by public school teachers in big-city systems, including NYC and DC. Essentially, DonorsChoose works like a micro-NSF/NEH, dispensing tiny grants to educators who can turn a $300 investment into a world of discovery for their pupils. Here's a representative proposal, from a pre-K teacher at Butler Bilingual in DC. She's looking for $547 to buy paints and art supplies for her kids -- because arts funding has become "an afterthought in most school curricula." Imagine how important a basic art program is to the developing mind of a four year-old. Imagine what $5 million would mean to an organization that funds such modest, yet critical, projects.

So if you have an Amex card, I urge you to take 2 minutes and vote for DonorsChoose at the Members Project. Someone's going to win that $5 million -- and while clean drinking water is critical, P&G has their back. Let's get the back of the hard-working teachers of DC and NYC. God knows, they won't let a dime of that $5 million go to waste.

The Establishment Man

by Trapper John

Kant's diary over at dKos on How Tim Russert Became Rove's Bitch is fascinating.  I'm as interested as anyone in how a guy who worked for Mario Cuomo just 25 years ago could end up parroting GOP talking points with seemingly no compunctions about his complicity in the royal scam.  But I think Kant's diary is slightly off.  Russert isn't a shill for Bush.  Russert is a slave to power and the Establishment.  His only real god is respectibility. 

Thank You For a Great First Year

By DHinMI

We just passed a milestone at The Next Hurrah, and we almost missed it. Yesterday I noticed it had been exactly one year since Kagro X posted “David Corn Stands the First Amendment on its Head,” our first substantive post.  In the year since, we've had plenty of good pieces, some even audacious in their ambition and desired effect. For instance, Meteor Blades garnered tremendous attention for his proposal to rebuild an Eco New Orleans. DemFromCT has pushed Bird Flu into the consciousness of so many people that he's become a recognized expert and a founder of the Flu Wiki, where experts from the WHO and other entities exchange news and ideas to track this potentially pandemic-generating virus.  And Plutonium Page has repeatedly demonstrated the evidence for and implications of global warming. 

But we've also had our eyes on American politics.  RonK broke the story that Dick Gephardt now regrets his support of Bush's Iraq policy, a mea culpa that was quickly echoed by several other Democrats, including John Kerry and John Edwards. Before just about anyone in the MSM was writing about it, Trapper John was describing the deep rifts in organized labor that resulted in several major unions splitting from the AFL-CIO.  Mimikatz has examined the effects of tax and budgetary policy and ruminated on political ethics and responsibility. 

Two of our contributors so dominated blog reportage and analysis of major stories that we had to create new categories for them.  Kagro X showed that process could be both fun and deadly serious in his pieces on the Nuclear Option, and now he's examining the justifications for and procedures to generate impeachment proceedings against the Bush administration.  And with an assist by the Bush administration (for providing her so much raw material), emptywheel's pieces required us to add a new category for Bush/Administration Scandals. 

And finally, we have what I believe is the best piece written at The Next Hurrah, James' post on the death and legacy of Ismail Merchant, and how the media still doesn't know how to talk about couples who've shared a life of love and devotion with partners of the same sex. 

Now, on the year anniversary of our founding, we're adding a new contributor, emptypockets, who among other subjects will be tracking the days of our president in his series BushWatch. 

But without our readers, none of us would have continued posting here.  So, thank you all for reading our stuffr, thank you for commenting and sharing your thoughts and impressions, and thank you for becoming our friends. 

bermanfacts.com

Matt Stoller over at MyDD does a nice job of tying the hacktacular "Union Facts" website back to astroturf warrior Rick Berman.  Berman is the guy behind "consumer-supported efforts" like the campaign to convince pregnant moms to eat tuna (on behalf of the tuna industry), the push to keep Pepsi machines and pork rind dispensers in school cafeterias (on behalf of the junk food producers), and the fight against Mothers Against Drunk Driving (on behalf of the booze lobby).  In short, he creates allegedly consumer-driven front groups for some of the most unpopular lobbies in America.  Which got me thinking -- what astroturf groups would Berman have created had he only been lucky enough to live in various eras in history?

Some ideas below the fold:

The Guy Handed Out Checks From Big Tobacco on the House Floor

by Trapper John

Other people, like DHinMI below, will write wide-ranging and cogent analyses of why Boehner is no champion of reform.  For me, though, Boehner's supreme venality can be reduced to one simple visual -- the image of a sitting Congressman handing out checks from the tobacco lobby on the House floor.  In a game of Can You Top This played by kept kongressmen, that's a "Domino, motherfucker!!" moment.

I mean, not only was he handing out checks (good . . . ) from a lobbyist (nice . . .) in the heart of the People's House (well played!) -- they were checks from the ample wallet of Big Tobacco!  It's that kind of attention to the little details that won the job for Boehner.  Roy Blunt would have just handed out checks from Pharma or the Realtors.

When Your Political "Capital" Is Crumbling Like Carthage

by Trapper John

Man, things are tough all over for the Bushies.  Indictments, an unending river of blood from Iraq, indictments, SEC investigations, indictments, complete failure of Social Security privatization, indictments, a Supreme Court nominee with a long face not unlike that of Caligula's horse, indictments -- and now, party discipline is falling apart to the degree that Bush can't even achieve the undisputed Republican Prime Objective -- exploiting American workers:

Bowing to pressure from a united Democratic front, a small group of members of his own party, the religious community, and the labor movement, President Bush announced today he would reverse the decision he made in September to remove wage protections for construction workers in the areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. 

After Katrina, the President suspended the 1931 Davis-Bacon Act, which requires federal contractors to pay at least the prevailing wage to construction workers in a local area.  The president’s action, which was widely denounced, followed requests from right-wing activists and Republican members of Congress who exploited Katrina to achieve a long-sought ideological agenda item. 

Representative George Miller (D-CA), the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, led the effort in the House to force Bush to rescind his Gulf Coast wage cut.   

“President Bush finally realized that his Gulf Coast wage cut was a bad idea that hurt the workers and their families affected by Katrina,” said Miller. “But let me be clear – the President is backing down today only because he had no other choice.

“The President’s wage cut was just another example of his incompetence as a leader in a time of crisis and of his constant need reward the private agenda’s of his special special-interest friends rather than attend to the needs of all the people affected by this storm.”

The President’s wage cut was facing a congressional showdown as early as next week because of a Joint Resolution Miller recently introduced that would have forced the House to vote by early November on whether or not to allow the wage cut to stand. Miller said that Democratic action – coupled with pressure from some members of the President’s own party – left the President no option but to reverse his own mistake.

Louisiana 2005

What has happened down here is the wind has changed
Clouds roll in from the north and it start to rain
Rained real hard and rained for a real long time
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

The river rose all day
The river rose all night
Some people got lost in the flood

Some people got away alright
The river has busted through clear down to Plaquemines
Six feet of water in the streets of Evangeline

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

President Coolidge come down in a railroad train
With a little fat man with a note-pad in his hand
President Coolidge say, "Little fat man inn't it a shame, what the river has done to this poor cracker's land."

Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away
Louisiana, Louisiana
They're tryin' to wash us away
They're tryin' to wash us away

--Randy Newman, "Louisiana 1927"

Gonzo

It's not Clement, per ABC News.  I say he picks Gonzales. George W. Bush has never let anyone tell him what he can and can't do, and if he thinks Gonzo is the one, he'll name him and expect the GOP to get in line.  That's their Bush.  The sad thing is, they'll get right behind him.  Every last Republican Senator, even Brownback and Santorum.  You watch.

Short Takes: Your TNH Open Thread

Let's see . . . what's fun today?

Well, Grover Norquist calling John McCain "the nutjob from Arizona" -- and then apologizing, saying "I meant to say gun-grabbing, tax-increasing Bolshevik" -- is pretty funny.  Say what you will about Norquist (I'd say that he's in the running for the title of "single most reprehensible person in American public life"), but he's always good for a quote.  But he's not really a comic figure -- he's massively influential.  And statements like this illustrate why McCain has a steep hill to climb if he wants the poisoned chalice of a GOP nomination in '08.

The Carpenters Union has joined the "Change to Win" faction of labor unions displeased with the current AFL-CIO leadership.  Like its companions in the dissident group, the Carpenters claim that they're somehow more committed to organizing than other unions, calling the Change to Win group "the most dynamic unions in the country."  But as an astute commenter on the Tasini post linked above notes, most of CTW unions -- including the Carpenters -- have lost members over the past 4 years.  "The [UFCW] lost 42,000, the hotel workers 7,402, UNITE 23,400, and the Teamsters 74,000. These aren’t disastrous losses, but neither do they recommend any of the unions involved as organizing geniuses. Even the Carpenters union, which condemned the AFL-CIO for lack of organizing before abandoning the federation four years ago, lost 10,752 members."    The Laborers, another CTW union, are down roughly 125,000 members since 2000, according to LM-2 forms on record with the DoL.  By contrast -- of the Carpenters' and Laborers' siblings in the "basic trades" who are not part of the CTW: the Ironworkers have lost 3,000 members in the past 4 years and the Roofers have lost 500, while the OPCMIA and the Bricklayers have grown by small numbers, and the Painters have gained 26,000 members.

TNH needs a better name for this feature than "Short Takes."  "Short Takes" is as generic an open thread title as "Open Thread."  Your suggestions, and your other thoughts, below.

Son of the Return of the Nuclear Option -- The Novakening

by TNH Staff

From a busy late-Friday email thread:

From: Trapper John
To: TNH
Subject: Novak -- nuclear?

Just caught the end of a Novak piece on Inside Politics in which it appeared he was reporting that Frist is going to bring back the nuclear option (he said "nuclear," and not "constitutional!") next week.  Que?????

From: Emptywheel

I've been saying for a while there is no way BushCO will use nukes for Bolton--it'd give too many people reason to balk, it'd deprive people like Sam Brownback of the ability to filibuster things like stem cells, and it'd make it a lot harder for them to try again with SCOTUS. But I could be wrong...

Not only that, but if they threw nukes for Bolton, I've got to imagine it'd make it harder for him to get 51 votes in favor of nomination.

From: Kagro X

He could be thinking of testing the deal -- or more accurately, just going through motions for the base -- on another judicial nomination.

If it's Bolton, the party's on!

From: DHinMI

This morning on Diane Rehm's news roundup, Kristol said the scuttlebut is that Rhenquist may not retire, but that O'Connor will announce retirement next week.  She's sold her house in DC, her husband's health is failing, and she hired 3 clerks but then never hired the fourth clerk she's alloted. That makes a showdown over a swing vote, especially on abortion, and a very different kettle of fish than replacing Rehnquist.

More below the fold!