Under Great White Northern Lights

Wow. Halfway through The White Stripes new album--a live set of songs played during their July-August 2007 tour of Canada. I've always said Jack White is insane--and musically gifted. The first eight cuts make me think the next step for him is to have the Melvins as his backup band. A run-through of his peculiar genius--and it is peculiar--is the album Icky Thump. But this new one magnifies his sound to a nice deafening level. Probably you shouldn't tell Glenn Beck about Jack White. Let him take another ten years to catch up.

Eric Holder is fighting back against his critics. Finally, someone in officialdom said," We aren't going to capture Bin Laden." He going to be killed or killed by his colleagues to avoid capture."We'll be reading Miranda rights to a corpse." Since the Clinton Administration, there has been this very strange conceit we want to or will capture Bin Laden. Clinton spent millions on a design for an ergonomic chair that would encase Bin Laden for a flight back to the United States. The CIA used to house it. Holder further lectured the House subcommittee just how the Administration is fighting terrorism and that law enforcement is secondary to killing them. I thought he got the better of the Republicans who sounded confused by hearing about the real policy , not the one their staff imagined for them.

J Street, the organization of moderate and liberal Jews for the defense of Israel, is offering a petition to be signed and sent to Congress supporting the Obama Administration and its calls on Israel to enter into a peace process. AIPAC has virtually declared war on J Street and sought to prevent a meeting between them and the Israeli ambassador. Fights have already broken out in Jerusalem over the Levittown idea. J Street's simple point is that the security of Israel can not be secured by the endless building of settlements and ignoring the need for entering into peace negotiations with the Palestinians. As I wrote before, Bibi has lit an exploding cigar and his actions since the rebuff of Joe Biden have not soothed things.

I received a strange e-mail from Organizing for America. It asked me to contact "wavering Republicans on healthcare." Like whom? The House with the exception of Cao is a unanimous block against the bill and in the Senate, we will have to wait to see if anyone believes they are missing an historic moment. The Medicare vote in the 1960s saw a few stragglers at the end.

The White House released a powerful video from yesterday's trip to Ohio by Barack Obama urging for passage of the bill. Watching it, I realized this really is about his mother and the impact of his mother's cancer on him. Throughout the campaign, he would talk about her on the phone to the insurance company while dying of cancer. And he frequently said that his mistake was writing a book about his father and not his mother. If that is the experience that motivates him, go for it. That's why I never understand the criticism of Barack Obama that he doesn't understand the experiences of real America. On the contrary, he has lived them much more than Peggy Noonan, who is the one talking head who keeps raising this.

The Republicans held a press conference denouncing Obama for "nationalizing student loans". This is reference to the Administration's plan to give student loans through the government and not through private banks. All he is doing is cutting out the banks, who got the money from the government in the first place. The idea is to lower the interest rates and eliminate the overhead costs. I still don't get how you can make hay out of this one.

The great state of Oklahoma has decided unilaterally to ignore the new Hate Crimes Law ,which covers gays and lesbians. This is the same state who took the President's picture down from the legislature. It's also the same state which sends Jim Imhofe to the Senate so he can declare climate change a hoax.

As Bob Dylan sang, The Night is falling from the Sky and the teabaggers have wrapped it up. Just to make them feel good, two million came out in force today. Actually, it was 300ish, according to the DNC. Of that over half were staffers from the Republican congressmen, who spoke to the throng, about another half from nearby conservative think-tanks and the remaining, actual people who drove into Washington. But they did get media coverage. I never saw the coverage of Howard Dean's first rally of over 10,000 for healthcare or Dean's rally/protest last week, which had about 2,000 marching against the insurance companies.

Again we had the Death Panel lies. All the media nonsense on the procedural process and the Democrats not wanting to vote on the bill was all lies, concocted by the Republicans, who actually did this over eight years. When the dust settles and the ceiling doesn't cave in,will the people who lied about this bill be held accountable? Will people who lean Republican just shrug their shoulders and claim the GOP had to do these things to stop the bill and to get the media's attention or will some voters understand you can't trust these people with any real authority?

President Obama made it clear today that any Democrat who opposes healthcare reform will not get funding from the party and he won't campaign for them. The last time a President did this was Ronald Reagan on his tax cuts. He told Republicans the same thing. Hopefully, this time it works again.

Bart Stupak is camping out at Fox News. He's complaining that the House leadership no longer consults with him. Fox, which enables Stupak's lies about the 12 votes he controls, asked him why. He says they are waiting to the end of the process. He did admit they are getting his colleagues separately.

Besides Lawrence O'Donnell, who continues his one-man bummer campaign, I also nominate "fake progressive" Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake, who writes such nonsense about the bill. Today, she said she was doing whip counts with--tea party people. Both sides, luckily, concluded the house had the votes. But she is shameless. First her alliance with Grover Nordquist to kill the bill. Then her piece in Huffington Post about Obama's attacks on women who are defending "choice". Puh-Lease!

Michael Moore championed Dennis Kucinich as the only politician with courage to stand up for the right kind of health care. Terrific, that and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee. Tonight, Howard Fineman claims that Dennis the Menace will vote for the bill. Dennis actually sent out a press release late this afternoon announcing he would declare his decision around 9am.

I am waiting word from Iraq about how far the fraud has gone in this election and whether the results will be honored. But Mookie Sadr is inching into third place. In some ways, that country deserves him.

General Petraeus ruined his Republican presidential prospects by testifying why it's time for openly gay people to be allowed to serve in the military.

This week there was a pretty disgusting episode where a woman Jene Newsome was thrown out of the National Guard because some cops saw her Iowa marriage license naming her female spouse through a window and contacted her base. Previously, she had been obeying the DADT policy. The ACLU is taking up her case.

NOM, the organization who campaigns against same-sex marriage, is now back in California. Their target now is the very staid, conservative Republican Tom Campbell, who is running for the GOP Senate nomination. You see Campbell is socially a libertarian and he wrote an article against Prop 8 in Reason magazine. So now he is the moral equivalent of Barbara Boxer. I always liked Campbell, even though he is ineffective and his economic philosophy is not suited to these dire times.

Yes, the Cleveland Clinic, who is treating Natoma Canfield, the heroine of Obama's speech, says she will not lose her house. So I think Tan Man Boehner should address the House that this fact alone means healthcare reform isn't necessary.

Chicken Little Thursday

OMG! The first couple have sex in the White House. And they're black! Sound the Drudge Sirens! Think about it--The Obamas are the first presidential couple who have had sex with each other since Gerald and Betty Ford. Then you have to go back to JFK and Jackie O. LBJ had a mistress in Middleburg, Virginia who used to pleasure him. Remember Jackie O had a miscarriage, which is a capital offense in Utah. Isn't this what all the nonsense is really about? Sex! Race! And , of course, moohla!, which I'll get to.

No sooner did I leave the office last evening than the Democrats were discouraged and in despair. This morning USA Today says Obama's base is disengaged. Of course, we shouldn't count the 1 million e-mails OFA members sent Congress to pass healthcare reform. Bernie Sanders says Obama has lost the youth. Well, that should come back when my son finishes his college papers. Chris Matthews says Obama is a one-term President. Now Karl Rove says Obama can be defeated in 2012.

If you listen to Lawrence O'Donnell as the substitute host of Countdown, you would think that the Democrats were doomed and that healthcare reform can not pass because of the trickery that will be played by the Senate. Remember Nancy Pelosi yesterday said she had the votes. Nancy Pelosi has not lost a vote since becoming Speaker. But Lawrence was crying about whether the anti-abortion people can stop it. Then he says that Republicans will attack Democrats in 2010 because of the deals to buy Landrieu and Nelson's votes in the Senate. If you listen to him enough,it's best not to pass any bill about anything.

Then Michael Moore asks Rachel Maddow how she can wake up in the morning because of the letdown since the Democrats won in 2008. Actually, Rachel Maddow may be the most sane person standing at this time. She demonstrated that the vaunted Bart Stupak dozen or so is really four other guys and that the anti-abortion Democrats are just full of it. But Drudge this morning dutifully reports that anti-abortion Dems say health bill dead on arrival. Turn on the Siren!

Jim Hightower wrote this morning that Obama has blown it. Almost everyday Arianna Huffington, who is as rich as Midas, reports some monstrous failing of Obama and the Democrats. I agree with her it's best to get alot of sleep. Deepak Chopra, perhaps the greatest threat to American security, writes that the only way we can get through this is having a religious perspective--which he will sell to you at the right price.

I am astonished at how Democrats can psyche themselves out. They have been so traumatized by decades of right-wing attacks that they fall for psyops by the right-wing, which has nothing. I mean nothing. They could even fight terrorism.

I was reviewing polls last night and I concluded the Democrats could minimize losses in the Senate to just 2 or 3, and losses in the House to 12. The Democrats have and, I believe, will have the money advantage in 2010. But they need to learn Republican tricks about packaging the message. Republicans claim they are going to run against the stimulus package, for repeal of health care reform and for the GOP Roadmap to the Future. Great! Pundits say the election will be about the Democrats' performance. And here The Democrats have already started to sound like losers. They have to point out the alternatives.

Here are a few tips. If you are running against a sitting Republican, then here are some themes:
This tax-cutting candidate voted against the largest middle class tax cut in history;
This law and order candidate voted against keeping policemen on the job;
This "Don't Leave Any Children Behind" candidate votes against paying the salaries of your children's teachers;
This guy didn't even want firemen on the job;
This candidate voted against the auto industry and wanted 16% of America to go out of busines
This new Deficit buster voted against creating a Deficit Commission;
This Candidate against out of control government spending voted against the PayGo rules, where we have to have the fund programs.
This Candidate who is against healthcare reform, voted to make you bankrupt and make you pay higher and higher premiums if you still get health insurance.

Now if you get too defensive about not doing enough, not getting unemployment down enough, then Attack the House Republicans for their embrace of Pat Ryan's "Roadmap". Here you charge at the last Republican bastion--the over 60 voter, who has already gotten theirs. If you elect Republicans to the House, they are on record for saying they will privatize social security, medicare and medicaid. They are on record for saying they will raise taxes on all those earning less than $175,000. The Lowest brackets actually pay a substantial increase. They are on record cutting taxes for the upper 2% of our society. After $170,000, you might get $10K but if you are wealthy you will gain $250K in tax refunds. That is 5 years of the average family's earnings. That is the plan for a House run by Republicans during a Great Recession.

Democrats were thinking about running against Bush but running against Pat Ryan is better. Even after a little Depression and the fiscal meltdown of the country, the Republican plan remains an accelerated version of the past. Whatever failings the Democrats have, they must spell out the dramatic choice. Republicans can not take a direct hit. You run right at them and they hide like Dick Cheney. A Republican candidate could say,"Oh No, I'm going to protect social security,etc. I don't agree with that" but force him to respond to his own party's printed plan. Doubt will be raised in the minds of the voter and the seniors will smell what's happening.

The Republicans honestly believe Pat Ryan is the new wunderkind. He did sound smart at the White House Healthreform Summit, but dig deeper into his proposals and it is madness. And all the Republicans in Washington are flocking to his ideas and he is getting great write-ups in the conservative publications. The Democrats should use him as the poster child for The Looting of the Country. His proposals are a recipe for turning America into a Third World country. In fact, Democrats should play the real "race card"--Do you want America to become a Third World Country? I am not exaggerating about what the GOP "Roadmap" would mean if ever implemented.

Democrats forget President Obama controls the language, even if the rightwing controls the airwaves. Do you really believe that an argument for more de-regulation is going to fly? Did anyone buy the Republican argument that if we cut regulations on health insurance industry the rates will go down? The evidence is right there in the open. Before the last few years, it was a debate of ideas. Frankly, people really didn't know what would happen. Now the results are dramatically in and the average American knows it. Please, don't psyche yourselves out. Take some prozac.

Get a sense of humor. Suggest parole for Khalid Sheik Muhammed and that Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol be his parole officers. Or at least get Alan Grayson to say it.

Just think about it--A majority of New Yorkers still want Gov. Patterson to serve out his term. It can't be all bad for the Democrats. Remember the approval ratings for former Democrat Ronald Reagan hit 35% in the midst of the recession in the early 1980s and he went on to win a landslide election only a short time after. You can also use the fact when Republicans invoke Reagan for these times that during similar times in America he voted four times for FDR and even said while in the White House he was proud of it.

Also stop responding to the so-called "socialism" attacks. Colin Powell quietly dissed this on Meet The Press saying,"Does anyone really think that one man can turn America into a socialist country?" Or you can argument with 75% of the country's wealth in the hands of 10% of the population it would be pretty hard to say we're going socialist.