Saturday, November 16, 2002

Democrats Seek New Messenger and a Message. The absence of major figures atop the Democratic ladder has contributed to a flurry of activity by some lesser-known presidential contenders. By Adam Nagourney. [New York Times: Politics] Continued proof of how irrelevant the Democratic Leadership Council has become, with this quote from Al From, executive director: "But to me, it's not rocket science. If we want to expand our base, expand our ability to win elections, we're going to have to continue to move forward to where the voters are." This dingbat seriously believes the way to win elections is to become Republicans. It's been said before, it'll be said again - the Republicans are far better at being Republicans than the Democrats. If Al From and the DLC want to be conservatives, they can go join the Republican party.

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My idea of an intriguing and interesting way to spend a Saturday night: watching All The President's Men while bouncing over to the Washington Post's Watergate Chronology and reading the Woodward + Bernstein articles I see Redford and Hoffman researching and writing, as they're researching/writing it. This is *fun*. I am a dork, true, but this is fun.
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Strength in numbers. A conversation with Bill James, the famed statistical baseball analyst just hired by the Red Sox. [Salon.com] I just love-love-love that Bill James is working for my Red Sox now. This interview reminds me why - James is not only a statistical wiz, but, first and foremost, a huge fan of baseball. The Sox owner, John Henry, pushed to hire James - he got James' number from ESPN.com's Rob Neyer after an interview, and then proceeded to cold-call him and recruit him for the Red Sox brain trust. James has already handed in a 70 page report on both major league and minor league free agents, with reccomendations on who to go after. This kind of thinking - not an attempt to find the next Alex Rodriguez but role players to fill the holes in the Sox lineup cheaply - is exactly what the Red Sox need.

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Alan Moore's alternate history of the DC universe [bOing bOing] If you are a comics geek, you need to read this proposal - Cory links to a Google newsgroup search for "Twilight Of The Superheroes," Alan Moore's follow-up to Watchmen. It never happened - for very obvious reasons, once you read the proposal and hear about the problems Moore was having with DC at the time. But the proposal has circulated around the comics community ever since, and has had a greater impact on how superhero comics have evolved over the last ten years than almost anything else. I've got a copy lying around, and I'd post it up here as a story, but I don't feel like getting nasty legal letters from DC lawyers... =) EDIT: Oh, bugger it. Here's the proposal.

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No 'Left' Left In American Politics. Plastic::Politics::Politics:Democrats: Sit in as Joe Klein and Robert Reich kick around the future of the Democratic Party. [Plastic: Most Recent] This story links to the definitely-worth-reading series of exchanges between Joe Klein and Robert Reich at Slate last week. The big question, as the writer at Plastic words perfectly, "[I]s the proper direction for the party 'Republican-Lite', 'FDR', a combination of the two, or something entirely new?" We can all guess where I emphatically DON'T stand on that. I say it's a combination of FDR/LBJ/RFK and something entirely new. That seems to be where Klein and Reich are getting. Klein bemoans the dominant role special interests play in the party - most notably trial lawyers, the AARP, and the unions. I can definitely see his point on all three, though I believe that unions, like the Democratic party, need to realign and reinvent themselves, moving the leadership away from the old-line manufacturing unions and towards groups like the SEIU (Service industry - janitors, cafeteria workers, the like), the great farm worker unions of California, and white-collar wage-slaves (telemarketers, call center staff, administrative assistants, legal assistants, etc..). After all, the traditional union jobs are leaving the country AND auto workers, for example, make a whole lot more than even I do - these are groups that are dedicated to keeping things as they are, not changing them. The union movement needs to be an agent of change on behalf of all American workers. That, and it's time they start really organizing in Mexico. Reich really nails it all, though - screw the middle. Approximately 40% of the electorate votes Democrat every time out, and another 40% votes Republican. Conventional wisdom in the Democratic party has been that the way to win is to appeal to the 20% of active voters who go back and forth. Hey, it worked for Clinton, right? But remember a few details: this 100% total we've got from Repubs, Dems, and undecideds only represents maybe 60% of registered voters. And while I think that a majority of those eligible to be registered are, it's not an overwhelming majority. Far, far more people don't vote than vote consistently for either party. What's more, the demographics show that the non-voters are likely to tend Democratic than Republican - most of the non-voters are working-class or poor, which are the groups Democrats, in theory, do the most to help. The way to win elections is to appeal to those groups of people who are marginalized from the American system now - politically and economically. Find policies that can help them, and push hard for them. Reich has the big one already lined up: payroll tax cut. Immediate help, focused almost entirely on those who make less than $65,000 a year.

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Bush Is Said to Pick Ridge for New Post. President Bush has decided to nominate Tom Ridge, his domestic security adviser, to be the first secretary of homeland security. By Neil A. Lewis. [New York Times: National] ...because those color schemes he came up with for terror alerts were really amazing? Or just because he's already got the office, so they might as well not make him move? Has Ridge really done anything that merits giving him this post? Are we really more secure now than when he was appointed? Nah.

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From the 'well-that's-obvious' department: Dating is fun. No, seriously! Last night proved it to me, even if the Chinese/Polynesian place was truly frightening - by the time we got there, all its business was in the "cocktail lounge" where suburbanites were doing bad karoke. And then a leather-faced bottle-blonde walked by and was convinced she recognized my date, which my date assured her was very unlikely. Turned out she ran the karoke and seemed very proud of the fact that her name was on a display. We ran away at this point, but had a good time the rest of the evening. As I said, dating is fun. Whoddathunkit?

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