Saturday Coffee-The Remains of the Week

While the administration deals with Haiti, we forgot to mention that Joe Biden travelled down to New Orleans to announce that the government is forgiving all the reconstruction loans from Hurricane Katrina. That's a big deal.

Fox News didn't think much of Haiti, instead they showcased their new addition--Sarah Palin, who appeared very pale and hesitant on O'Reilly, Hannity and then the amazing one hour love-in with Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck is always eerie but this show was creepy. Filmed somewhere in New Jersey so he had a view of the Statue of Liberty, Beck read to a stunned Sarah Palin his diary entries about how nervous he was in meeting her and how he didn't know whether she was tough enough or whether she knew not to trust anyone. With such a guest, Beck always looks puffed up like some bloated frog. Neither one of them talked about anything relevant to the country's problems but said they acted for "eternity" not just today. But what came across was that everything was about how they felt, their emotions about this or that and their status--very lucrative--of being victims. The conservative as victim refrain is heard here in Washington almost on a daily basis. I haven't seen anyone closed down the Heritage Foundation, AEI or confiscate Human Events recently. And no one seems to be turning Rush Limbaugh's mike off either. Cheech and Chong struck the right note--they want to get stoned with Sarah Palin because, in their mind, it's clear she has the best hash. Maybe they could be in Wasilla when the Rapture comes as Palin's minister promised.

Yesterday, Doug Brooks wrote a provocative column in the New York Times about the Haiti crisis demonstrating the limits of all the international programs meant to alleviate poverty. He points out that trillions have been spent on development but the targets of this money have not become more self-sustaining. He quotes conservatives favorite anti-aid writer Lawrence Harrison about the limits of such efforts. It is a topic worthy of discussion--after we dig all the bodies out. The USAID refrain about sustainable development has always struck me as false not only because of the various limitations in the situations of targeted countries but also the constant changing focus of America's attention.

Hillary Clinton only about a week ago promised to elevate USAID to the world's premier assistance organization. I think this is laudable and way overdue. But given the range of global crises,it should do a few things extraordinarily well. Despite the media attention on the "slowness" of food and water getting to the Haitian people, the degree of national and international coordination on Haiti has been incredible. Here we have a situation of 3 million people who were displaced in only a few hours, deprived of shelter, food and water and suffering catastrophic losses in life. The challenge is to create a Rapid Deployment Refugee type camp for them all and to provide a stable environment to provide the basic necessities on a daily basis over a prolonged period of time. Anyone who has been involved in this type of thing knows that this is no small challenge.

Over at our Prop 8 trial, Judge Vaughn ended his day on the upswing. He seems to have taken an active interest in actually discovering the issues in the case. He often interrupted Dr. Lamb, for instance, on a whole host of issues, some out of personal curiosity and others relevant to the issues of the case. Lamb had stated that sexual abuse of children by gays was about the same percentage as in the heterosexual community. Vaughn said, "What about all the Catholic priests molesting children?", which drew a laugh. Lamb didn't bat an eye and responded,"The studies of the Irish priests concluded they were all heterosexuals." When the lawyers for San Francisco wanted the testimony of a lesbian who had been prevented from marrying and the anti-gay lawyers objected, Judge Vaughn admonished them," The great thing about a bench trial (one where the judge decides the verdict) is the judge can ascertain the weight and relevance of the evidence himself." Then he allowed the testimony.

President Obama is supposed to fly to Massachusetts to campaign for Coakley in the Senate race. The Republican Brown disowned the tea baggers but I received an e-mail yesterday from the Tea Bag Express asking to donate to his campaign. He is against stem cell research but claims to be pro-choice. He is on the record for "torture", not enhanced interrogation, of terrorist suspects, and against them being tried in civil courts. He is against all taxes, even the one suggested by President Obama on the banks. He promises he is against health care reform. I understand the Democrats' concern about losing Ted Kennedy's seat and the delight Republicans are finding in the prospect of picking it up.

But is this the apocalypse if Democrats don't have 60 seats in the Senate. Does this really mean that all legislation will be hung up because of the "threat" of a Republican filibuster? If the Democrats should lose the seat and I have no feelings one way or another, Democrats should insist that Republicans literally filibuster legislation--put the burden on them. This idiocy of wheeling a dying Bob Byrd out onto the floor of the Senate in the middle of the night to cast a vote is obscene. Republicans have called for more cloture votes in the past year alone than have occured in a decade combined. But the public image is that it is the Democrats who can't get anything done. Make them read the phone book for days on end. Shutting down the Government really helped Newt Gingrich against Clinton. Put the burden on the Republican back. Try to force them to be less obstructionist.

The great Rush Limbaugh ends the week by insisting people not contribute to the Haiti crisis. This time he suggested that President Obama will steal any donations put through White House. gov and that everyone will receive e-mails from Obama asking for campaign contributions. This is a great conspiracy theory but it's actually common. Conservatives have expressed concern when I mentioned the President and the First lady sent me a personal holiday card. "You must be on some list. How did you get on it?" Actually the President is welcomed to send me anything anytime. Ann and I would love to see him at the house. I mean we are talking about the really democratically elected President of the United States. You can't even allow yourself to fathom the strange unconscious meanderings of such thinking. It's actually scary.

Well, speaking of scary, the tea baggers claim that if the ballot boxes doesn't bring them to power, then they have no alternative but the "bullet box". It almost makes one nostalgic for the violence from the Left--at least they might select good targets like bankers and wall street executives.