Iran election results haiku

I kinda feel dumb,
watching the riots in Iran,
that we didn't burn the mutherfucka down,
when they stole the (2000) election here.

But that's the thing right?
No one was gonna lay their life down
for a guy who picks
Joe Lieberman for VP.

The Tradmed Dragon Must Be Fed

The traditional news media needs eyeballs in order to sell advertisements. They are not in the business of reporting the news -- they are in the business of attracting eyeballs to advertisements. So they need drama and drama requires controversy. So if you don't give them controversy by cleverly attacking your opponent every day -- they will manufacture controversy to attack you (to punish you for your failure to feed the media beast).

Exhibit A: witness Chris Matthews (and every other cable network's) relentless stoking of the mythical [nonexistent] Obama/Clinton feud today. IF YOU DO NOT GIVE THE TRADMED BEAST A JUICY CONTROVERSIAL STORY EVERY DAY THAT ATTRACTS EYEBALLS -- THEY WILL EAT YOU TO PUNISH YOU.

Ignore this advice at your peril: I imagine Al Gore and John Kerry are having a nice Heineken together at the Denver Holiday Inn Express right now instead of ruling the free world (I hope Bob Shrum picks up the $8 tab). I don't care who you are -- you cannot rise above it, you cannot stay above the fray, the tradmed beast is bigger than you and will eat you if you do not feed it. Word to your moms.

Sandra Day O'Connor wants more civics education

The NY Times today reports:

"Sandra Day O'Connor, the former Supreme Court justice, feels that civics education in American public school has become less of a priority in the era of standardized testing. So, in conjunction with two universities, she is developing an interactive Web Site with a civics curriculum for students called Our Courts. "Knowledge about our government is not handed down through the gene pool," she said. "Every generation has to learn it, and we have some work to do."

Dear Sandra Day O'Connor:

Just heard about the new civics education website. Congratulations. I'm wondering if your civics curriculum will include any lessons on how the SUPREME COURT SHOULD NOT PICK THE PRESIDENT AND SHOULD ALLOW ALL THE VOTES TO BE COUNTED. Just a thought.

All the best,
RFK Action Front

Al Gore, Part II

Al Gore is getting a lot of love in the media right now. Indeed, Gore deserves enormous credit for drawing the world's attention to the problem of global warming.

But every time I see Joe Lieberman cheerleading for Bush's insane war (as Lieberman did yesterday), I can't help but think to myself, "Al Gore wanted this guy to be his vice president!?"

Now look, I get that Gore is not Lieberman's keeper. And maybe Lieberman developed Stockholm syndrome after the 2000 election so there was no way to really know that Lieberman would turn out to be so crazy.

But we do know this: the choice of a Vice Presidential running mate is perhaps THE most important decision a presidential candidate can make. It tells shows the voters exactly how you will make decisions as President. And the one thing we did know about Lieberman (during the Monica scandal) was that when push came to shove--Lieberman chose to side with the other guys.

And Al Gore wanted this guy to be his Vice President?

If Gore had chosen Bob Graham to be his running mate, he would be President right now (probably no 9/11, certainly no Iraq war, the Katrina disaster never spirals out of control, no Roberts or Alito on the Supreme Court).

It seems to me that Gore did everything he could to just barely lose--he picked Lieberman, hired Bob Shrum, didn't ask Clinton to campaign for him, just shucked and jived the entire campaign rather than taking credit for 8 years of peace and prosperity (and the crazy part is--he still got the most votes). Gore's a good man, I voted for him in 1992 and 1996, but I don't think he should run in 2008.

Election 2000: How Gore should have played it

It seems to me that politics is like wrestling--there's always another move that you can make to counter your opponent.

One of the problems with the recount fiasco in the 2000 elections is that Gore declared that he would abide by the decision of the United States Supreme Court (which by the way, had ABSOLUTELY NO JURISDICTION over Florida election law and so should not have taken the case in the first place). At the time, 7 of the 9 members of the Supreme Court had been appointed by Republican Presidents. Think about it--77% of the court are Republican political appointees and Gore declares that they have the final say. He gave away all his leverage. I believe there was another move he could have made.

In 2000, Democrats held the governorships in 18 states. More importantly, a Democrat was the governor of California (Gray Davis), Oregon (John Kitzhaber), and Washington (Gary Locke)--Democrats controlled the entire west coast and also Washington D.C. itself.

The winning move would have been for Gore to reach out to Democratic governors and get them to agree to pull out of the union if every vote wasn't counted. After all, THAT'S WHAT REPUBLICANS WOULD HAVE DONE if the shoe had been on the other foot. The argument would have been simple--"In this country, we count every vote. If you stop the vote count, this is no longer a democracy, and we are doing to form our own country." The Mayor of Washington D.C. could have declared D.C. part of this newly formed country as well and evicted the former United States government from his country.

The question then would have become--what is the military going to do? At the time, Clinton was still commander in chief of the military and he could have ordered them to stand down. Remember Clinton was still very popular and Gore had just won the popular vote in the election--it would have been extremely difficult for the military to challenge these decisions.

In the end, Al Gore would have become the President of the Democratic States of America, George Bush would have come the President of the Confederate Republican States of America and everyone would have basically gotten what they wanted.

I'm not saying it would have worked. I'm just asking if Gore ever made the phone call to the Governors to propose the idea to them? That's hardball politics--understanding that politics at its core is about power--getting people to follow your leadership.