In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.
"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."
The gossamer bailout will solve Wall Street's problems by flooding the financial industry with spun sugar.
...banks have been foreclosing on homes at a rate not seen since the Great Depression.Six days earlier, an economic analyst took on this oft-repeated but unproven claim in the pages of the Post's Outlook section. Donald Luskin actually checked out the facts, however, and wrote:
One sentence there stands out for me, and bears repeating (italics added, below):Patient zero in this epidemic is the Democratic candidate for president. As it would be for any challenger, it's in his interest to portray the incumbent party's economic performance in the grimmest possible terms. Barack Obama has frequently used the Depression exaggeration, including during a campaign speech in June, when he said that the "percentage of homes in foreclosure and late mortgage payments is the highest since the Great Depression." At best, this statement is a good guess. To be really true, it would have to be heavily qualified with words such as "maybe" or "probably." According to economist David C. Wheelock of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, who has studied the history of mortgage markets for the Fed, "there are no consistent data on foreclosure or delinquency going all the way back to the Depression."
The Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) database, which allows rigorous apples-to-apples comparisons, only goes back to 1979. It shows that today's delinquency rate is only a little higher than the level seen in 1985. As to the foreclosure rate, it was setting records for the day -- the highest since the Great Depression, one supposes -- in 1999, at the peak of the Clinton-era prosperity that Obama celebrated in his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention late last month. I don't recall hearing any Democratic politicians complaining back then.
Even if Obama is right that the foreclosure rate is the worst since the Great Depression, it's spurious to evoke memories of that great national calamity when talking about today -- it's akin to equating a sore throat with stomach cancer. According to the MBA, 6.4 percent of mortgages are delinquent to some extent, and 2.75 percent are in foreclosure. During the Great Depression, according to Wheelock's research, more than 50 percent of home loans were in default.
Moreover, MBA data show that today's foreclosures are concentrated in that small fraction of U.S. homes financed by subprime mortgages. Such homes make up only 12 percent of all mortgages, yet account for 52 percent of foreclosures. This suggests that today's mortgage difficulties are probably a side effect of the otherwise happy fact that, over the past several years, millions of Americans of modest means have come to own their own homes for the first time.
According to the MBA, 6.4 percent of mortgages are delinquent to some extent, and 2.75 percent are in foreclosure.Luskin's article discusses several other aspects of the economy, as well, and would be a useful tonic to those chicken littles who insist the sky is falling.
Earlier on tonight, President Bush addressed the nation. He said, Congress must agree to the bailout of the Wall Street banks, and if we don't, then we'll invade somebody...Here's the part where Ferguson shows his deep, if inchoate, understanding of how the free enterprise system works, and how it interacts with liberal democracy:
This is because the banks are asking the federal government for $700 billion. You know what that works out to? We all pay -- every taxpayer in America -- $3,600 each to the banks. Really.
That's right. Every man, every woman, every she-male in America, everybody has to pay. That's right, she-males, it's time you did your fair share for this country -- in addition for all the fine things you do for me.
You know, I don't know how I feel about this, the taxpayers bailing out the people on Wall Street. Let me think about it for a second. I HATE THIS!
This is the biggest robbery in American history! Or, at least, since the cute David lost American Idol and they gave it to the ratty one. I liked the cute one.
But I won't editorialize here. I'll stay neutral. Here are the facts; I'll remain objective about the financial crisis.
Basically what happened is that Wall Street are evil, they got really stupid, and they got drunk on greed. What happened is, they crashed their Ferrari, now they're crying like little bitches, and they want their Uncle Sam to buy them a new one.
No. No. No. That's not how it works here. Uncle Sam would be better off using his money to build them a nice prison. (chuckles)
I'm always suspicious of people, these traders, they don't make anything except money. You know, they just make more money. I mean, it's like, "What do you make? Do you make a car, do you paint pictures, do you make houses, do you make people laugh?" (All right, bad example, but you know what I mean.)
Or if you invest in a company that makes things, that's great, too.
I know taking a stand against Wall Street fat cats is a bold move. You know, people are not going to agree with me at all on this. It's like saying, "I hate crime" or "I hate poverty" or "I hate Trump." People are already with you, you don't even really have to say it.
What I mean is that these guys, what they do though, is that they shift money around to make more money. That's just gambling. I mean they use fancy terms to make it sound legitimate: short selling, profit chasing, bottom fishing.
I don't know what bottom fishing is. I think it's what Elton John does on vacation or something.
(To audience:) Don't "ahh" me, I didn't steal your damn money!
See, what happens is, the banks want us to lend them money. Irony, my old friend, we meet at last.Even the last little bit of tirade, which suggests a sort of leftish sentimentality to Ferguson's way of thinking, expresses well the concept of opportunity costs.
I say we do to the banks what they've been doing to us for years. I've been poor. I've had to go to the bank for money. They are never pleasant or particularly helpful...
Should we bail these people out? Here's what I think: No, let them go bankrupt.
That's what the free market does. That's the free market in effect. Some win, some lose. Right now, you lose, you hedge-fund bastards.
They're saying that if they go bankrupt, we will lose our freedom. That's crap!
Capitalism and democracy are not the same thing. Democracy creates equality. Capitalism creates inequality. They need each other to survive. They kind of complement each other, but they kind of hate each as well. They're like the Olsen twins, if you imagine.
That's what they are. They balance each other out. Evil/good, evil/good, and then somehow, it works.
I don't understand this government bailout. Where's the government bailout of the 10 million uninsured children? Where's the government bailout of the people who are losing their homes? Where's the government bailout of the people who are losing all of their money betting on Dancing With the Stars and gone horribly wrong?
After years of dodging questions, former "American Idol" singer Clay Aiken will acknowledge he is a gay man in an interview with People magazine set to run on its Web site Wednesday, according to media reports.An unscientific poll on Popeater.com (which seems to be affiliated with AOL) finds that 96 percent of nearly 186,000 people surveyed are not surprised by the news Clay Aiken is gay; 4 percent (probably people who live in an abandoned coal mine in Alberta) expressed surprise.
Celebrity site Perezhilton.com on Tuesday published a photo of the cover of People magazine's upcoming issue on which Aiken cradles his new son, Parker Foster Aiken, in his arms.
The caption reads "Yes, I'm Gay," and underneath is a quote from Aiken on his decision to come out of the closet that says: "I cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things."
Lion Appointed To Detroit Zoological Society's Board
At the annual meeting of the Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) held September 16, 2008, at the Detroit Zoo, the membership approved the following slate of candidates for a three-year term of board service: Tom Lewand, Albert L. Lorenzo and Victor Martin.Whew! For a minute, I thought the inmates were running the asylum.
Lewand is in his 14th season with the Detroit Lions organization, currently serving as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He is the immediate past chairman of the Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau and serves on the boards of the Downtown Detroit Partnership, Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and Parade Company. Lewand has been recognized twice by Sports Business Journal as one of the top “40 Under 40” sports executives in the United States, and was also named to the Crain’s Detroit Business list of “40 Under 40” top business people in the Detroit area.
This past Wednesday was Constitution Day. On September 17, 1787, members of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia gave their final approval to the document they had toiled over for the previous summer, sending it to the states for ratification.Each year since 2004, on Sept. 17, we commemorate the 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution by 39 American statesmen. The legislation creating Constitution Day was fathered by Sen. Robert Byrd and requires federal agencies and federally funded schools, including universities, to have some kind of educational program on the Constitution.There is, indeed, something dubious about the federal government mandating that schools -- not just government schools, but also private schools that accept federal funds -- teach anything at all, much less specifying lesson plans for a particular day, since the U.S. Constitution grants the federal government no authority whatsoever regarding education.
I cannot think of a piece of legislation that makes greater mockery of the Constitution, or a more constitutionally odious person to father it — Sen. Byrd, a person who is known as, and proudly wears the label, "King of Pork." The only reason that Constitution Day hasn't become a laughingstock is because most Americans are totally ignorant of, or have contempt for, the letter and spirit of our Constitution.
Since the 1860s, however, and accelerating through the 20th century down to the present, Congress and the Executive Branch have been usurping powers that, constitutionally speaking, are the province of state and local governments. Little things like Article II and the Tenth Amendment have not stood in their way.
Cantor, as you will see below, was also one of the featured speakers at the festivities, along with Virginia Governor Tim Kaine and Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, among others.
The keynote speaker of the day -- and the only one to be greeted with a standing ovation -- was Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., whose thoughts on the Constitution are more salient than those of any other current public official. He gave no clues about his views on issues now before the Supreme Court, however. (Roberts' colleague on the Court, Justice Samuel Alito, was also a guest at the ceremony.)
The final portion of the ceremony was the official ribbon-cutting to open the "new" Montpelier, which has been reduced in size from the 55 rooms it had while it was owned (and expanded) by the DuPont family to the 29 rooms that preservation experts believe it had while the Madison family lived there. Even at 29 rooms, the house is still large, with more then 12,000 square feet of living and working space. Governor Kaine wielded the scissors (one hopes the practice might apply to future budgets) while Chief Justice Roberts and other VIPs -- including relatives of the Madisons and the DuPonts -- held the ribbon.
Regardless of who wins the presidential election on November 4 -- whether Bob Barr, John McCain, or Barack Obama -- when the new president takes office in January 2009, he could do much worse than to name magazine publisher Steve Forbes as his Secretary of the Treasury.
Quoting extensively from Forbes' speech at the Ad Club, correspondent Kara Rowland reports:Publishing tycoon and former Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes on Wednesday urged people to put the crisis on Wall Street in perspective, saying it "will quickly pass" so long as the Bush administration and financial regulators strengthen the dollar and enforce rules on the short-selling of securities.
"Put things in perspective: We will get over it," Mr. Forbes said in a speech hosted by the Ad Club of Metropolitan Washington on Wednesday morning. "But if we continue doing dumb things like make monetary mistakes, raise taxes, do crazy things on the regulatory side, you can get a real disaster on your hands."
Far from panicking -- which, unfortunately, is the attitude of both major-party presidential candidates, including the normally hands-off McCain as well as the central-planner Obama -- Forbes suggests we should look at the current situation more calmly and intelligently. Writes Rowland:"Long story short, in 2004 the Federal Reserve, then headed by Alan Greenspan, made a fatal miscalculation," he said. "They underestimated the U.S. economy. They printed a lot of money because they thought the economy needed it, and the engine flooded."
As a result, Mr. Forbes said, commodity prices shot up and the domestic economy became distorted. Housing prices were already going up, and the influx of money led people to build and buy more houses, lending standards eroded and a subprime-mortgage crisis erupted, he said.
"It just went berserk; a classic bubble, and thanks to high technology, global economy, securitization, it took on proportions it had never done before in history," he said. "So how did the Fed respond? Having gone on one drinking binge, it went on another: It cranked up the money press again."
The Treasury Department should have told regulators to "back off" at that time, but instead praised the move, said Mr. Forbes, who called the country's "weak-dollar policy" the "biggest mistake of the Bush administration."
"If cheapening your money was the way to wealth, then Zimbabwe and Argentina would own the world," he said.
I wrote my first article about Steve Forbes for the Metro Herald back in September 1995, shortly after he announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. This is what it said:Moreover, recent losses may seem big, but people should put them in perspective, Mr. Forbes stressed.
"If you look at median net worth in the United States in the last 10 years, it's gone up over 30 percent," he said. "What's happened in recent years is unprecedented in human history; never before in so many parts of the world have so many people advanced economically as happened in recent years. Each year, 50 [million] to 70 million people around the world join the middle class."
The U.S. has weathered economic storms in the past and will make its way through the current crisis, he predicted, if the Fed redefines its mission as "focusing on a stable currency and dealing with panics." It should start to soak up some of the excess money it created and the Treasury Department should announce a strong-dollar policy, he said, adding that financial regulators should try to standardize "these exotic instruments" that have been created by Wall Street.
"Make the dollar stable. It's not that hard to do. Maybe I should write a book, 'Central Banking for Dummies,'" he joked.
In the meantime, Mr. Forbes said, investors should stay calm.
"This is precisely the time [you] don't give into your emotions. Your emotions are your enemy."
Does Steve Forbes Have the Right Stuff?
Richard E. Sincere, Jr.
The Republican presidential horse race just got a thoroughbred entry -- a 25-to-1 shot with a $25 million purse. But can millionaire magazine owner Malcolm S. "Steve" Forbes, Jr., break away from the pack to win the race? Pundits are skeptical.
Forbes is the son of the late publisher Malcolm S. Forbes, a former correspondent and now the editor-in-chief of the magazine that bears his father's name. There are reports he plans to spend $25 million of his own money to win the Republican nomination and to go on to defeat President Bill Clinton in November 1996.
Announcing his candidacy formally at the National Press Club in Washington on September 22, Forbes described himself as fundamentally different from the rest of the GOP candidates. He said "their vision of what we can do is narrow, cramped, and constricted." He noted that all of them "have been in Washington, or in politics, or both, all of their adult lives. They haven't been at the center of the entrepreneurial economy. I have, both as a reporter traveling the world and as a businessman, running a company. That," he said, "has been my life."
Indeed, if vision is what elects candidates, Forbes stands head and shoulders above the rest. He has a consistent vision lacking in Bob Dole, for instance, who after 35 years in Washington is known best as a "compromiser" with no overarching political or economic philosophy. Forbes has a focus absent from Bob Dornan, whose public speeches ramble and roam with no coherent direction, except to attack gay and lesbian taxpayers. He has a certainty superior to Phil Gramm, who has lurched to the right in recent weeks to appease religious conservatives, who make him fidget nervously. Forbes has a coherence unseen in the campaign of Pat Buchanan, who calls for freedom except for immigrants, and international trade, and minorities, and political dissenters, and (pick a favorite category here).
Of course, vision alone does not elect candidates. Forbes may have a lot of money, and a clear message, but he doesn't have a lot of political operatives around the country. Like it or not, politics is still largely a game of machine-based politicians. Without the ability to call in his chits, Forbes is unlikely to build the support he needs among local activists who select delegates to the big show -- the Presidential Nominating Convention.
That aside, Forbes' message is compelling. He demands scrapping the current income tax code. "Don't fiddle with it. Junk it. Throw it out. Bury it." In its place, he calls for a "pro-growth, pro-family tax cut that lowers tax rates to 17 percent across the board." This flat tax would have exemptions that ensure that a family of four earning $36,000 or less will pay no taxes.
He really parts company with the Republicans in his firm, unmitigated support for term limits. In an article he wrote for the September 25, 1995, edition of Forbes (the magazine), the new presidential candidate noted correctly: "Public support for term limits remains unwaveringly strong, regardless of race, party, income, or gender. People agree with Thomas Jefferson, who said that the Constitution should have mandated the rotation of elected officeholders."
At his campaign kick-off, Forbes said:
"I want to change the culture of Washington by changing the rules of the game. And to change the rules of the game, you have to do two things: You have to take away the politicians' power to manipulate the tax code. . . . And you have to limit their terms."
In addressing "values," Forbes acknowledged a truth that the so-called Christian Right is unwilling to admit. The real reason for the breakdown of family values, and of families themselves, is the breakdown of the economy caused by the growing intrusiveness of government. By deregulating the economy, by cutting taxes, by offering parents the right to choose any school for their children, by focusing the energies of police and prosecutors in violent crimes, we can restore values to their proper place in our communities. Forbes is on the right track -- though his announcement speech lacks specifics. (That, of course, might be its attraction: By letting the other Republicans fight over the title of "most righteous," Forbes might win "most likely to succeed.")
Some say Steve Forbes is a stand-in for Jack Kemp in the 1996 presidential stakes. Some call him "Kemp Lite." Indeed, his campaign staff is made up of many former Kemp associates. Forbes, however, does not seem to be as squishy on welfare and regulatory issues as Kemp is. Kemp is a big-government Republican. Forbes, if his actions match his words, genuinely believes in shrinking the size and scope of government. We'll see.
Steve Forbes brings new interest and new experience into the Republican presidential race. Can he go the distance?* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Richard Sincere is author of The Politics of Sentiment: Churches and Foreign Investment in South Africa, and other works.
Charlottesville will spend $48,000 to get additional voting machines in advance of the November 4th election. The City Council authorized the purchase Monday night. Registrar Sheri Iachetta says voters in each precinct should have an opportunity to use the new devices. That includes smaller Charlottesville precincts, such as Clark (pictured) (Listen to Sheri Iachetta) As of the start of this week, Charlottesville had 26,085 adults on its voter rolls. Iachetta says her staff has been registering 400 new people each week, and she expects to see that continue through October 6th. That's the deadline for people who are not registered to sign up.The new machines, known as the Hart eScan, use digital scanning technology to read paper ballots. Virginia law prohibits Charlottesville (or any other locality in the Commonwealth) from acquiring DRE (direct recording electronic) devices, even if currently-owned machines are damaged or destroyed. While we previously would have been able to borrow, rent, or purchase new eSlate units to meet the needs of voters, the General Assembly and Governor Kaine decided we should not have that option.
Thanks to a steady stream of summer registrations, Charlottesville has roughly 26,000 adults on its voter rolls. The deadline to register for the fall election will be October 6th, and the chairman of the Charlottesville Electoral Board anticipates a flurry of activity before that date. Rick Sincere (pictured) says that could have a special impact on the Recreation precinct, which is the city's largest. (Listen to Rick Sincere) He also notes Charlottesville voters will be given a choice of voting machines for the November 4th election. (Listen to Rick Sincere) Sincere was a recent guest on the Schilling Show, which airs at 1 p.m. Monday through Friday on Newsradio 1070 WINA.For those who want more than a summary and a couple of soundbites, here is the complete interview on video (in three segments).
‘Dr. Cook’s Garden’ Blooms in Arlington
Rick Sincere
Metro Herald Entertainment Editor
Now uncovered by the American Century Theater, for four decades Dr. Cook’s Garden was a hidden gem that weaves together elements of a psychological thriller, small-town melodrama, philosophical dialogue, and debate about moral values.
Written by Ira Levin (better known for novels like Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives, as well as for the long-running play, Deathtrap), Dr. Cook’s Garden had an unfortunate fate in its original Broadway run, which lasted only about a week.
Perhaps 1967 audiences were not ready for the heady questions raised in the play – or for the answers raised in reply.
The challenge for a reviewer of a play like Dr. Cook’s Garden is to say enough to tantalize audience members and persuade them to see it, but not reveal too much of its tautly-constructed plot or the internal twists that take it from opening curtain to curtain calls.
It can’t be done – not adequately, at least.
Suffice it to say that the action of Dr. Cook’s Garden takes place in a small Vermont town on the day that a former resident, Jim Tennyson, returns for a visit after years away at college and medical school. The plot unreels in the office of the eponymous Dr. Cook, who has been the sole physician in tiny Greenfield Center (think of Grover’s Corners) for three decades, and who was Jim’s employer, mentor, and inspiration before Jim left for school. In the course of his visit, Jim deduces a secret about Dr. Cook that he never could have imagined – a secret that has consequences for the two of them, for their friends, and for the whole town.Levin’s script is tightly crafted. There is no extraneous dialogue or action in this play. Every sentence in Act I has a payoff or parallel in Act II or Act III. What seems like small-talk or filler turns out to be consequential. Even props that seem merely decorative have substantive uses as the play reaches its climax.
What makes Dr. Cook’s Garden work best are the relaxed and authentic performances of its cast, under the direction of Ellen Dempsey. Under less able hands, the play could turn out to be a macabre yet flaccid melodrama. The second act, which is largely a debate on ethical topics (in the style of an 18th-century philosophical dialogue, but with greater punch and vim), could become plodding. Dempsey makes it swing and energizes it.
To be sure, Dempsey owes much to her cast, none of whose members have previously appeared in an American Century production. David Schmidt, as “Doc” Cook, steers a middle ground between what we might imagine Burl Ives’ turn at the role in the original Broadway production and Bing Crosby’s re-creation of it in a made-for-TV movie a few years later. Schmidt conveys a mild-mannered “country doc” who could have fit in nicely on a 1930s radio soap opera, but one whose surface hides the secret that cannot be revealed here.As his young counterpart, Jim Tennyson, the actor JB Bissex recreates the role originated by Keir Dullea and offers a physically nuanced performance in which the muscles of his face reveal more information, at times, than the words he speaks.
Supporting these two central characters are Robert Lavery as Elias Hart, a gardener and town constable whose simple bearing makes one menacing moment both unexpected and logical; Kathryn Cocroft as Doc’s nurse, Bea, who may (or may not – we never know) be aware of Doc’s secret; and Carol McCaffrey as housekeeper Dora, whose gift of gab unwittingly turns on Jim’s curiosity and, hence, his discovery.
Much of Levin’s work is infused with a fear of totalitarian control that threatens individual autonomy, often represented by Nazis or Satanists. Neither is present here, but the underlying concern can be felt. And Levin’s social conscience often expresses itself aphoristically. Here are two examples:
Referring to a dysfunctional family, Doc says: “Beatings are handed down like land and money.”
Drawing a distinction between two key concepts, Jim remarks: “Gardens go to seed; towns muddle along.”
Dr. Cook’s Garden was not originally scheduled to be part of TACT’s 2008-09 season; it was a last-minute replacement when rights to another Levin play became unavailable. Artistic director Jack Marshall and his colleagues, however, made a brilliant decision in finding this play and choosing to produce it. As obscure as it once was, it should be so no more. If you are going to see only one play between today and October 4, see Dr. Cook’s Garden.
Forty years after Dr. Cook’s Garden opened in New York, this seldom-produced play may finally be ready for an audience – or audiences may finally be ready for it. Despite a few 1960s references that anchor it in that decade, the central theme of Dr. Cook’s Garden is perennially relevant. Perhaps it is relevant now more than ever.
Dr. Cook’s Garden continues through Saturday, October 4, 2008, at Theatre II, Gunston Arts Center, 2700 S. Lang Street, Arlington, Virginia 22206. Ticket prices range from $25 to $32, with discounts available for students and seniors. A performance schedule and ticket information is available at www.americancentury.org. Further ticket information is available by calling 703-998-4555 or sending an email to info@americancentury.org.
South Africa Thursday said it has given its 2008 humanitarian award to former Cuban president Fidel Castro for his contributions to "humankind beyond boundaries."In related news, the National Culinary Council of South Africa has given a posthumous "lifetime achievement" award to Jeffrey Dahmer for his outstanding contributions to diet and cuisine.Castro, who turned 82 Wednesday, becomes the first non-African and the third ex-head of state to win the "Ubuntu" award, the National Heritage Council of South Africa said in a statement.
"The Ubuntu award is honouring persons who have consistently lived the humanitarian values of the African philosophy of Ubuntu," which defines the individual in terms of their relationships with others.
Castro won the award "for the role he played in the Cuban revolution and worldwide contribution to the struggle for an alternative, just and humane society," the statement said.
This comes not long after news that photography hobbyists have been harassed and discouraged by British police.Park wardens have been ordered to stop and interrogate anyone who is not accompanied by children.
The visitors who are quizzed have to explain their presence and risk being thrown out or reported to police if their answers are not satisfactory.
The policy has been introduced at Telford Town Park in Shropshire. The council which manages the 420-acre area says it is a 'commonsense approach' aimed at safeguarding children.
There is no law in this country that prevents people from taking photographs in public. None the less, Amateur Photographer magazine receives dozens of reports per month from readers who have been stopped and searched by police officers who seem to think otherwise. 'Sadly, many amateurs are not aware of their rights and are resigned to their fate,' says the magazine's news editor Chris Cheesman. 'Once they are stopped, and their name taken, the police have a record. And we only hear about those who are prepared to kick up a stink about it - there are sure to be many others that go unreported.'The article, written by Sam Delaney and entitled "Has our increasingly paranoid society declared war on the humble 'weekend snapper'?" continues:
'The growing concern about paedophiles coupled with concerns about terrorism is a heady cocktail that makes police officers edgy,' says Labour MP Austin Mitchell - a keen photographer who was once stopped from taking pictures on a beach on the grounds that there were children present. 'I didn't see any children and none were in my pictures,' he says. 'In any case, they are the responsibility of their parents, not me.'The Telegraph's report reminded me of an experience in my own life.
Mitchell has tabled an Early Day Motion condemning police actions against lawful photography in public places, and this summer he will lead a delegation of photographers and fellow MPs to the Home Office to demand greater clarification of the laws. 'We are watched by the state on CCTV more than ever and yet they are simultaneously stopping us from taking happy snaps on the street. It's a bit daft when they're trying to attract tourists to the country,' he says. 'I think it's part of a culture where people aren't allowed to do things unless they're specifically authorised to do so. I think it should be the other way round.'
The Interior Department's Inspector General, who has been investigating the U.S. Minerals Management Service's Royalty-In-Kind program, said government employees who were supposed to be regulating the oil companies were engaging in drug use and having sex with industry contacts.Here comes the best line in the report, however (italics added):
"Several staff admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual encounters," Inspector General Earl Devaney wrote in a Sept. 9 memo to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne released today....
Devaney said that between 2002 and 2006, a third of the Royalty-In-Kind staff socialized with, and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from companies with which the government was doing business.
"While the dollar amounts of gifts and gratuities was not enormous, these employees accepted [gifts] and gratuities on at least 135 occasions from four major oil and gas companies with whom they were doing business — a textbook example of improperly receiving gifts from prohibited sources," Devaney said. "When confronted by our investigators, none of the employees involved displayed remorse."
Two program marketers became so intoxicated on one occasion that they had to accept lodging from industry officials, according to the memo.Are we experiencing a cultural moment that calls for the return of Dallas
"These same ... marketers also engaged in brief sexual relations with industry contacts," Devaney wrote. "Sexual relations with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length."
and Dynasty to TV's prime time?Until fairly recently, the Democrats thought they were caught between the anti-gay feelings of the general public and the pro-gay activism within the Democratic party. Now the Republicans feel torn. People don't like gay-bashing....Fast forward to 2008, and Frank's remarks of 2001 are echoed, after a fashion, in an opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal by Jamie Kirchick, headlined "The GOP Should Kiss Gay-Bashing Goodbye." (Full disclosure: Kirchick, who is an acquaintance of mine, interviewed me for and quoted me in a recent article in The New Republic.)
When I say the Republicans are no better than they were 20 years ago, that's based on the roll call. You're right, though. The Republicans got much worse, then they got better again. I agree with that. That's fair. They're better than they were 10 years ago, not so much in the number of votes we get, but in the diminution of gay-bashing.
They learned from Pat Buchanan in 1992. And from the fact that the passage of DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] did not bring them any political benefits. ... People don't want to hear Jesse Helms calling their gay kids names, so the Republicans have got it on gay-bashing. Ten years ago they were actively trying to roll back pro-gay things when they happened; now they don't want to do that.
When I first came to Congress, gay rights was for a lot of Democrats a "no way" issue. After AIDS, gay rights went from a "no way" issue to an "oh, shit" issue. "Oh, shit, I've got to vote on this." Now, for the Democrats, it's an easy vote and for the Republicans it's become an "oh, shit" issue. But they still vote wrong. ... They're in this transition phase where they can't do anything right but they don't want to do anything wrong.
Political conventions are memorable not only for what the party grandees say, but for what they leave out. What was noticeably absent from last week's Republican gabfest? Gay-bashing."Topic gAy" of the 2004 Republican convention was what was then called the Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have written social policy into the Constitution for the first time since the failed Prohibition Amendment and its repeal. President Bush had beat the drums for support for the marriage amendment, which has never received a sufficient number of votes in the U.S. Senate to pass it along to the states for ratification.
This is not an insignificant development for Republicans. In 2004, gays featured prominently at the Republicans' convention and in their rhetoric.
In contrast to the explicitly anti-gay rhetoric of 1992 and the softened, but still direct, attacks on gay families in 2004, gay issues in St. Paul were notable by their omission from speeches on the podium. (They were not, however, ignored completely; at least not by the Virginia delegation.)As disappointing as the GOP's 2004 campaign was in this regard, it didn't hold a candle to the party's 1992 convention. The most famous speech to occur in Houston that year was the prime-time address delivered by Patrick Buchanan on opening night. "Pitchfork Pat" had challenged George H.W. Bush for the Republican nomination and did surprisingly well for a candidate confronting a sitting president, winning the New Hampshire primary. His address that year is best remembered for his observation that "there is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America . . . a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself."
Mr. Buchanan made it clear that primary soldiers on the other, dark side of this "cultural war" were gay people. Telling the audience that while the "three million Americans who voted for me" disagreed with Mr. Bush on some issues, he declared that "we stand with him against the amoral idea that gay and lesbian couples should have the same standing in law as married men and women."
In his concluding sentences, Kirchick suggests that McCain's attitude toward gay issues will, with his help, rub off on the rest of the GOP, and that the party might return to its "self-declared principles of individual liberty and smaller government." At the same time, he expresses some disappointment that McCain has not exhibited more leadership in this regard, by not going after some Republicans' "cynical stigmatization of an entire class of citizens."The absence of antigay rhetoric has much to do with Mr. McCain; he is comfortable around gay people, and his old-fashioned sense of honor proscribes against making them pariahs for political gain. He also has a better record on gay issues than most of his Republican colleagues, having courageously stood up against his party by opposing the FMA.
Partly for that stand, he won the endorsement last week of the Log Cabin Republicans, a gay GOP group that declined to endorse Mr. Bush in 2004 over his demagoguing gay marriage. Steve Schmidt, Mr. McCain's senior strategist, spoke to Log Cabin on the last day of the convention, informing them that "my sister and her partner are an important part of my life and our children's life," and that "I admire your group and your organization and I encourage you to keep fighting for what you believe in because the day is going to come."
Republicans might also have noticed the opinions of their own party members and realized that attacking the "gay agenda" would prove unpopular. On the eve of the convention, a New York Times/CBS News poll reported 49% of Republican delegates were in support of either civil unions (43%) or marriage (6%) for gay couples. While 90% of Democratic delegates support either marriage (55%) or civil unions (35%), Republican delegates -- the party's conservative base -- are actually more liberal on this issue than Republican voters, only 39% of whom support either option. With 58% of the American public in favor of some form of legal recognition, Republicans are actually closer to the national mood, and are hopefully beginning to understand that Buchananite "cultural war" rhetoric is fast becoming a thing of the past.
Last Monday, I drove down to the small city of Buena Vista, Virginia, for the traditional kick-off to the political season in the Commonwealth: the Buena Vista Labor Day Parade.
The design is available in t-shirts of various colors, including the ever-popular, always-slimming, basic black.
The delegation of Virginia Republicans at the convention in St. Paul has been getting both good and bad coverage from media outside of the Old Dominion.The campaign for Virginia's Lt. Governor Bill Bolling ordered 150 of the guides to give to Virginia delegates as gifts when they arrived in the Twin Cities.And it's not just speculation on the part of the publisher that the gay-oriented section was the reason for the canceled order. There was this email from Bolling's political director, Tom Bartel:
But after reviewing the guide and finding it had a six-page section for gays and lesbians, they canceled their order, said AJ Kiefer, The Rake's advertising director.
I am so terribly sorry to do this, especially when the both of you have been so "out of your way" helpful, generous and easy to work with. But, we need to cancel the order for 150 of the "Secrets of the City" guidebooks.What's next? Will Virginia Republicans begin to send back their annual Yellow Pages deliveries because there are listings for gay and lesbian businesses and social-service agencies?
Thanks for sending a copy to me so expediently, Tom. Upon looking at it, though, having a section dedicated solely to GLBT will be a BIG problem for many of our folks. We simply can't hand them out.
Please still bill us for the copy sent along with shipping, though.
Again, I'm so sorry.
Log Cabin Republicans President Patrick Sammon. "Sen. McCain is an inclusive Republican who is focusing the GOP on unifying core principles that appeal to independent voters."It might be just a coincidence that Bolling endorsed Mitt Romney during the primaries. Maybe he's disappointed at Sarah Palin's all-but-certain nomination as the GOP vice presidential candidate, and this boneheaded move is his way of acting out.
It takes a special talent to be a voiceover artist. Don LaFontaine was among the best.Don LaFontaine, the man who provided the sonorous voice for more than 5,000 movie trailers, died Monday at age 68.
LaFontaine died at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from a collapsed lung. He had been taken to the hospital Aug. 22 with a blood clot in the lung.
LaFontaine was known as the "king of the movie trailers," having done the trailer voiceovers for films such as Terminator, Fatal Attraction, Cheaper by the Dozen, Batman Returns and his personal favourite, The Elephant Man.
His baritone voice and melodramatic delivery are famously associated with the oft-repeated movie trailer phrase, "In a world…"
