Spouting off

If you know me, something you may not know about me is that I have a favorite shower head. It is a low-flow shower head that has a little push button thingee on the side that allows you to regulate the water flow. You can get a full whopping 2.5 gallons per minute for a luxurious high-pressure shower experience, or you can shut it down to a trickle. A handyman at my old apartment complex was kind enough to install it for me when he was in my apartment a few years ago doing a different plumbing repair.

The existing shower head in my new house was just not satisfactory, as far as I could see. Now that I'm gone, the management company is probably going to completely remodel my apartment, as they're doing with every apartment that goes vacant. So I figured, what's the harm, I'll swap shower heads with them. So I did.

The difficulty with this scheme made itself apparent on Sunday morning when I took a shower to clean up after moving. You know how you pull up the little thingee on the tub spout in order to send the water up to the shower head? When I did this, most of the water kept cascading out of the tub spout, and very little of it came out up top. I was sure I had tested this before and found it satisfactory -- but this was before I swapped shower heads.

What to do? Unlike most of my other recent plumbing adventures, this turned out to be quite simple. To make a long story as short as possible, I soaked the shower head in vinegar -- following the recommendation in a home maintenance book. After that, the amount of water coming out of the shower head was much better--but the tub spout diverter valve still leaked. So I went ahead and replaced the tub spout.

Now, in case you haven't replaced a tub spout lately, be advised that that there are at least three different types of tub spout, each requiring a different replacement. Fortunately, there is such a thing as a universal tub-spout replacement kit. The one I got over at Westlake Ace Hardware on 23rd even included the Teflon tape that you wrap around the pipe threads. Be advised that you also need something called water pump pliers. Back when I was a kid, we just called these Channellocks. Anyway, I forgot to get them Sunday and had to go back for them Monday. Hopefully my personal hygiene did not suffer too much as a consequence.

Once I'd replaced the tub spout, it all worked like a, like a...well, it worked exactly like a shower should. Yay!!! When I looked at the old shower head, it looked as if there was a build-up of corrosion that had kept the valve from closing properly. Next time I face this situation, I'll most likely soak the tub spout in vinegar, too, before I replace it.

It's good that I like fixing things, or I would have the wrong house.

Good news and bad news on Obama economic stimulus package.

The good news is, the economic stimulus package offers real hope for substantial long-term economic change, according to Greg Palast writing on Truthout.

The House bill included $125 billion for schools (TRIPLING federal spending on education), expanding insurance coverage to the unemployed, making the most progressive change in the tax code in four decades by creating a $500 credit against social security payroll deductions, and so on.

It's as if Obama dug up Ronald Reagan's carcass and put a stake through The Gipper's anti-government heart. Aw-RIGHT!

Now, truth be told, this "good news" includes a down side. The only concession Obama made to the Republican right on this bill, Palast notes, was to remove money for contraception. A troubling sign that Obama considers women's needs to be expendable. (And Palast says that he doesn't much care.)

The really bad news is, the package needs substantial revision in order to meet the needs of women and people of color, according to Susan Feiner writing on Women's eNews.

She describes Obama's proposal as "too meager, too male" -- that is, favoring expenditures in areas such as road construction where a vast majority of wage earners are male. Feiner and other progressive economists have formed W.E.A.V.E., Women's Equality Adds Value to the Economy, and gathered over 1200 signatures to promote significant changes to Obama's plan:

We are pushing three basic steps to help tens of millions of women--and their children--weather the stormy economy.

No. 1: Revive and enforce Labor Department regulations requiring affirmative action for all federal contractors.

No. 2: Set aside apprenticeship and training programs in infrastructure projects for women and people of color. Both groups are seriously underrepresented in the construction trades.

No. 3: Spend recovery money on projects in health, child care, education and social services.

You can send a brief comment to the White House here.

You can also contact the White House by calling:

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461

And you can always send a good old-fashioned letter:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

I live here now

It's a little bit messy, still, because I don't have everything arranged yet. I think Spot likes it okay. And now I need to go off to find the parts to make my shower head work properly...

Spot on

This is Spot. See Spot run. See Spot get agitated and claw and bat at things. See Spot go and explore all the drawers and closets that are empty now as I pack stuff up to move. I tell Spot, "Spot, we're going to have a house. I think you'll like it." But those are human words, and I don't have proper cat words, and I don't think she understands.

This morning Spot will have a trip to the vet. She will stay at the vet for the day, and when she comes home, it will be to the new place. Then she can explore new closets and rooms. At least this is how it has happened before. Spot is the best cat in the known universe and loves new adventures.

No place like home

I was searching online for the text of an old speech by Susan B. Anthony called "Homes of Single Women," in which she argued that every woman needed her own home, she just didn't need to have a husband in it. It's a lovely speech. I wish I could share it with you.

I was thinking of this speech because of the way my house is starting to resemble a home, thanks to help from my friends. On Sunday, several of us were remarking that 30 years ago, there were not nearly so many women with power tools and home repair skills.

I did, however, find the Google Books digitized version of Ida Husted Harper's 1898 book, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony. This is a very long book, but fascinating to browse through. And a very good reminder of how hard generations of women have worked so that we could pick up our power tools and work.

Obama backs down on birth control to win GOP support for economic bill

Feminist Peace Network has the details.

Another look at gay marriage

It is perhaps an understatement to say that gay marriage has never been my issue. I'm one of those old-fashioned lesbian feminists who tends to rant on the theme that marriage is a patriarchal institution, and why prop it up by taking part in it?

But over on happening here? janinsanfran has posted this interesting analysis: Marriage: what is it?

Almost magic

This is one of those times when there is so much happening that I would like to write about, but I am too busy living life to write it down. Next week I'll be in my house. The lease is up on my apartment. I think I'm going to make it, thanks to a lot of help from my friends.

It used to be difficult for me to accept help. Now it is a little easier, but I still don't know how to ask. Part of it is reluctance, but part of it is that asking for help is a skill, like running a photo copier, or attaching a compression valve to a copper pipe. It's a skill I need to practice. Fortunately, I seem to have friends with a knack of showing up when I need them. Yesterday my house was filled with women painting, cleaning cabinets, ripping up carpet, helping me diagnose the operation of my floor furnace. It felt like a miracle.

This week Barack Obama was inaugurated as president. My expectations have not been terribly high. He's a nice centrist Democrat who happens to be African American. If we want progressive programs and actions, we will have to develop and push for them. And yet, it's a wonderful thing that the United States has moved forward far enough to elect its first African American president. It doesn't mean the end of racism, but it's an important step.

In less than a week in office, President Obama has moved to shut down the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay and rescinded the global gag rule. Soon he will sign into law the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Renewal of the State Children's Health Insurance Program may be next. After 30 years of right wing backlash, it feels like a miracle.

Song by Oklahoma songwriter in the news

"This Land Is Your Land" Like Woody Wrote It -- thanks to Truthout. The whole post -- especially including the comments -- is interesting and ironic.

The pipes are calling

I am having the time of my life with this house, but anyone who might be reading this blog has noted that I'm not able to post as frequently as usual.

This weekend I'm fixing much of my plumbing. Or trying to. I've got about three different plumbing projects going on, and two of them, the further I went, the more complicated they got. If you've ever tried to do any plumbing, I expect you know what I mean. The good news is, I don't think my pipes froze when we had all that cold weather in the middle of the week. At least, I crawled under my house late Wednesday night after work and spent about 2 1/2 hours insulating the pipes, and I think it worked.

I used to have a private joke that I am not a plumber, but I play one on YouTube. Maybe I jinxed myself.

There is lots going on in the world right now. Here in the US, we're about to have a new president. What else is happening? If you've been paying attention, please let me know what's going on, because I'm just trying to keep my head above water here. Almost literally.

Cheap Gas won't last, and will probably be bad for peace and the environment

Or so says this interesting article by Michael Klare that I found over on AlterNet.

Pipe dreams

Well, it's about to get really cold tomorrow night, and I'm hoping to keep the pipes on my house from freezing. It's going to be tricky, because I have so many leaky valves and faucets that it will be difficult to keep water dripping from the faucets.

So I was wondering, how cold does it have to get before there's likely to be a problem? About 20 degrees Fahrenheit, according to this page provided by the Newton BBS of the Argonne National Laboratory. The page--well worth reading in its entirety--includes this fascinating information:

When water freezes, it increases in volume about 9%. The ice then shrinks as the temperature decreases. The shrinkage is tiny, about 0.4% going from 30F to -50F.

As a side note, liquid water is densest at a temperature of 39.2F. The density differences at higher and lower temperatures are very tiny.
Cooling 39.2F water to 0F expands it only 0.01%.

Another note, there are at least 12 forms of ice. Most can be obtained only in the laboratory under high pressure.

The American Red Cross provides a page with practical information on Preventing and Thawing Frozen Pipes.

I'd better get cracking here, so that my pipes don't...

House passes wage equity bill, tell your senators to vote `yes'

Thanks to Echidne of the Snakes for pointing out this recent post at RH Reality Check.

The House passed both the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the Paycheck Fairness Act, restoring and establishing basic protections for employees who are subject to wage discrimination. The Ledbetter Act repeals the 180 day requirement, while the Paycheck Fairness Act protects employees from retaliation by employers if they bring complaints and allows them to sue for compensatory and punitive damages.

The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act is named in honor of a woman who sued her long-time employer for sex discrimination, only to be told by the US Supreme Court that she had to file a complaint within 180 days of receiving the first discriminatory paycheck. Because of Goodyear Tire's policy forbidding employees to discuss their salaries, Ledbetter only discovered the discrimination many years later.

This week the Senate is expected to consider the legislation passed by the House that will remedy this situation. You can ask your Senators to vote `yes' by following this link.

The Library of Congress has information about the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act here, and information about the Paycheck Fairness Act here.

The Nation on the crisis in Gaza

In this thoughtful editorial, the editors of The Nation call for President-elect Obama to demonstrate strong leadership now to encourage Israel to take the necessary risks to bring lasting peace to the Middle East. They say that encouragement from Washington is necessary to bring about a solution that will offer dignity, and security both to Israel and the Palestinians.

Home Economics

I am having a wonderful time the past week or so as I frantically try to get ready to move out of my apartment by the end of the month when my lease expires, while also trying to get my new house fixed up enough to move into by then.

Sometime soon, I would like to learn how to do patient, painstaking, and beautiful work on my projects. As it is, I am probably too impatient and doing things too fast, and much of what I do is sloppier than I would like it to be. But it's getting done, and it's a thrill to discover that my house is being transformed into a home.

Most recently, I had a complicated adventure involving downloading the manual for my floor furnace from the Internet, crawling under my house, hiring plumbers, having help from a really nice installation guy from Oklahoma Natural Gas, and installing a new thermostat. But the good news is, the floor furnace seems to be working fine. I feel very fortunate and very pleased with myself.

Last night I also had another adventure correcting the installation of my outdoor faucet so it wouldn't freeze. The big difficulty was, I couldn't open up the little jar of plastic cement I needed to use.I had never learned the little trick where you bang all around the edges of a stuck lid to get it to open, so I had to swallow my pride, drive down to the Red Cup, and seek the assistance of a clever and muscular gentleman to open it. After that, the repair was pretty easy. Tomorrow when it warms up a little bit, I'm going to cut on my water and see if my plumbing's okay.

A friend of mine told me yesterday that I'm a brave woman. Which was very sweet of her. And that is how I'm feeling right now, brave and adventurous and clever. But let's face it. I am also very, very lucky. Through what is mostly dumb luck, I am getting house when lots of people are losing theirs due to little or no fault of their own.

In conservative circles, it is popular to blame the people who are losing their houses for their own troubles. But the truth has more to do with structural inequality in the US economy, where the most wealthy one percent of the population controls an increasing share of resources. Also, there has been massive mismanagement by government leaders and economic elites.

You can get the lowdown on how all of this came to pass by reading the Economic Meltdown Funnies, published as a joint venture by Jobs with Justice and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Tell Obama to work for renewed Gaza ceasefire

Feminist Peace Network has a link to a petition to tell President-elect Obama to end his silence on the situation in Gaza. When I followed the link to sign the petition, I found this interesting site dedicated to peace in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, happening-here? also has a good post on the situation in Gaza.

Heterosexual couples wrestle with role reversals after layoffs

Adrienne Gibbs explains why at Women's eNews.

As for myself, despite my long-term commitment to challenging gender stereotypes, I had to realize earlier this evening, that I had never actually used a cordless drill before. It wasn't necessarily pretty, but I got the smoke detectors installed.

May everyone 'neath her vine and fig tree live in peace and unafraid

As best as I can remember, this is the very first time in my life that I've ever replaced a broken window glass. The job I did wasn't pretty, but it worked, and I was thrilled and delighted. I think I'll be able to fix the other three broken windows before I get my gas turned on in my new house next week. Well, it's not at all a new house, but it's new to me.

I wanted to mention that Feminist Peace Network has had three really useful posts on the Israeli attack on Gaza: First, here is a commentary by Starhawk on Gaza. Next, here is a statement by Israeli women's groups. Finally, there's a report on the call by former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (also the recent Green Party candidate for US president) for President-elect Barack Obama to speak out on the situation in Gaza.

And now I'm going to post this before I fall asleep in the middle of my laptop. I've thought about starting a home improvement blog, but I'm not sure I can keep up with this one.

If we want something better than a kinder, gentler globalization, we're going to have to work for it

Sometime when I'm not figuring out how to get my house fixed up enough to move into it, I might come back to this analysis by Walden Bello at Foreign Policy in Focus. Don't wait for me to fix my broken windows and get my gas and water turned on. Read it for yourself:

 The Coming Capitalist Consensus

Bello argues, that neoliberalism is dead, and that a kinder, gentler capitalist consensus is taking its place. After the meaner, rougher capitalism that has held sway over the past 30 years or so, that sounds pretty appealing, doesn't it? Bello thinks we should ask for more:

While progressives were engaged in full-scale war against neoliberalism, reformist thinking was percolating in critical establishment circles. This thinking is now about to become policy, and progressives must work double time to engage it. It is not just a matter of moving from criticism to prescription. The challenge is to overcome the limits to the progressive political imagination imposed by the aggressiveness of the neoliberal challenge in the 1980s combined with the collapse of the bureaucratic socialist regimes in the early 1990s. Progressives should boldly aspire once again to paradigms of social organization that unabashedly aim for equality and participatory democratic control of both the national economy and the global economy as prerequisites for collective and individual liberation.

Like the old post-war Keynesian regime, Global Social Democracy is about social management. In contrast, the progressive perspective is about social liberation.

I originally found this at Common Dreams, where I find so much useful and interesting information.

AARP may be its own evil twin

So it says in this fascinating post that I found over on Common Dreams:

Documentary Doc Says AARP Is Major Impediment to Single Payer

Lucky me

I have a house. Ginger took some very nice digital pictures for me, which I'll post as soon as I figure out how to condense them for faster viewing online.

Meanwhile, I've got lots of work to do. I'm guessing that house renovation will be a fruitful source of metaphors for social reconstruction. I'll try to post as often as I can, but as I've said before, don't be too surprised if you don't see many posts over the next month or two.

What the hell to do about healthcare insurance?

I've always thought of myself as being pretty opinionated, but in my middle age, I think I'm getting wishy-washy. I find myself not knowing what to think about the best health care proposal to support as the Obama Administration takes office and solicits ideas from the public.

On the one hand, it seems clear to me that what we really ought to have is single-payer health insurance. You can find a good explanation of single-payer insurance (sometimes called Medicare for all) at Physicians for a National Health Program. In brief:

Under a single-payer system, all Americans would be covered for all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, long-term care, mental health, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. Patients would regain free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would regain autonomy over patient care.

Physicians would be paid fee-for-service according to a negotiated formulary or receive salary from a hospital or nonprofit HMO / group practice. Hospitals would receive a global budget for operating expenses. Health facilities and expensive equipment purchases would be managed by regional health planning boards.

Clearly, our present system is broken. An PNHP points out on their main page:

The U.S. spends twice as much as other industrialized nations on health care, $7,129 per capita. Yet our system performs poorly in comparison and still leaves 47 million without health coverage and millions more inadequately covered.

This is because private insurance bureaucracy and paperwork consume one-third (31 percent) of every health care dollar. Streamlining payment through a single nonprofit payer would save more than $350 billion per year, enough to provide comprehensive, high-quality coverage for all Americans.

On the other hand, creating single-payer health care might be next to impossible. Private health insurance companies are large, profitable corporations with quite a bit of political clout. You don't expect them to go out of business voluntarily, do you?

Conventional wisdom says that single-payer health care is either undesirable or just not possible. We're told that it's equivalent to "socialism," and once that label has been put on it, we're supposed to accept without question that it's bad.

Even if it's a good thing, we're told that it's not politically feasible. The only Democratic presidential candidate to support single-payer health care, Dennis Kucinich, was alternately ignored and portrayed as a lunatic by the the mainstream press. Third-party candidates who supported single payer, such as Cynthia McKinney of the Greens, were ignored. HR 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act was introduced in a previous session of Congress, and never made it out of committee.

Like most of the other Democratic presidential hopefuls in the recent election, Barack Obama takes a middle of the road approach. There is one feature of his plan that offers some small amount of hope for real change, and that is the proposal to allow people who are currently uninsured to choose between private insurance and a public health care plan.

In recent posts (the first here, the second here), I've supported this kind of health care choice -- preferably for everyone, whether or not currently insured. But the good folks over at PNHP say it won't work. According to the guide PNHP has created for the Obama medical insurance house parties:

Adding the option to purchase a public plan like Medicare will merely replay the disastrous Medicare HMO experience. For the past 20 years Medicare patients have been allowed to opt for the traditional Medicare program or enrollment in a private plan paid for by Medicare. This option was supposed to stimulate competition and lead to improved efficiency. Instead, the private plans have used every trick in the book to undermine real competition and drive up costs – e.g. selectively recruiting healthy, profitable patients while leaving the sick and expensive ones to Medicare; and successfully lobbying Congress to add extra payments to prop up the private plans. The GAO estimates that private plans cost Medicare an extra $8.5 billion in 2008, raising premiums for all Medicare recipients (not just those enrolled in private plans) and depleting the Medicare Trust Fund.

PNHP offers much more information about the shortcomings of the Obama/Biden/Daschle health care proposals and the need for a single-payer plan. In brief, PNHP argues that Obama's proposals are similar to plans enacted in several states over the past 30 years that have failed to contain costs and also failed to establish universal coverage. PNHP argues -- quite persuasively, I think, that only by eliminating wasteful private insurance companies can we make the savings necessary to control health care costs.

On the other hand, Sarah van Gelder notes that insurance companies are doing everything in their power to squelch the option for people to choose between public and private plans. Van Gelder calls Jacob Hacker's plan to allow a choice a perfect compromise between the current system of private insurance and a single-payer plan that would eliminate private insurance:

The nonpartisan Lewin Group estimates that Hacker's plan would save the U.S. economy $1 trillion over 10 years, while covering 99.6 percent of Americans.

The Massachusetts system, enacted in 2006, is a stark example of what happens when there is no public option. Everyone in the state is supposed to be covered, but their choices are limited to private plans. Premiums have been rising 8 to 12 percent per year, which means the system will soon be out of reach of individual families, employers, and the state government.

A public option assures that there is a benchmark against which private companies must compete. Without such a benchmark, private companies have no incentive to contain costs or improve services.

It's hard to argue with giving people a choice.

But the health care industry is arguing. The New York Times says medical associations are encouraging their members to attend the health care discussion groups being organized by the Obama transition team around the U.S. Past efforts to reform the health care system stalled in the face of powerful health industry lobbyists with huge campaign war chests. Will the industry be as adept at dominating the health care policy discussion when it's happening in living rooms and coffee shops around the country?

Is the Hacker plan a workable compromise, as Sarah van Gelder argues, or a dead end, as PNHP says? Would the insurance industry be fighting so hard against it if it didn't have some potential for eventually leading to a single payer system? On the other hand, Obama's healthcare discussions seem to have been set up to avoid any discussion of the single-payer option. Is it better to try to stretch the bounds of the discussion to include single-payer, or is it better to fight for the right to choose between public and private plans?

I just don't know. Does anyone else have a point of view to share?

One year later, Bhutto's Assasination still a mystery

Read the report from Inter Press Service.

White vigilantes murdered African Americans after Katrina

I found this sad and distressing report on Truthout.

Taking a swipe at gender stereotypes

Over at Alas, a blog, Jeff Fecke ponders the supposedly typical behavior of male kittens.

The future of Thailand is certainly uncertain

Over at Foreign Policy in Focus, Johanna Son writes about The Certainty of Uncertainty in Thailand.

Thailand, a deeply hierarchical society, is currently experiencing a “complex form of class warfare, in which the middle class, motivated by anti-corruption sentiments, has mobilized as a barrier against a populist government with heavy support from the rural masses and urban lower classes,” explained political analyst and professor Walden Bello of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South. “What complicates it is that the traditional elites that benefited from the traditional political, economic, and cultural arrangements have encouraged the actions of these mobilized middle classes. These elites' power has been threatened by the Thaksin brand of populist democracy in a way that it was never threatened by the revolving-door type of parliamentary democracy prior to Thaksin.

Now led by its third president in less than a year, the only thing that seems to be sure about the future of Thailand is that instability will probably continue.

Anti-choice federal rules threaten women's health in other countries -- and also in the US

Thanks to Our Bodies Our Blog and Oklahoma Voice of Reason for bringing my attention to this video by Engender Health about the harm done by the Global Gag Rule.

This federal policy, was first enacted by Ronald Reagan, rescinded by Bill Clinton, then re-issued by George W. Bush. It forbids the use of US health care aid to advocate abortion as a means of birth control. In practice, the rule eliminates any discussion of abortion, and undermines efforts to provide contraception, maternal healthcare, and healthcare for children.

Engender Health has a petition calling on President-elect Obama to once again rescind the gag rule.

Meanwhile, over at RH Reality Check, Jessica Aron reports that the Bush Administration has finalized a rule allowing US health care providers to refuse to provide information about abortion to their patients.

More on Obama's Health Care Discussions

Over at CommonDreams.org they've posted a commentary by Sarah van Gelder about the Obama transition team's nationwide healthcare discussions.

Van Gelder supports a plan by Jacob Hacker that would allow people to choose between private health insurance plans and a public plan.

For more information about the health care forum taking place in Oklahoma City on December 29, you can read this post from earlier in the week.

Is this what's behind right-wing Christian opposition to gay marriage?

Over on Talk to Action, Frederick Clarkson discusses a situation that seems terribly troubling to many Christian theocrats -- the right of women to vote. I kid you not. Don't take my word for it, read it for yourself.

And you thought Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Sojourner Truth and all those other campaigners for the vote were timid moderates who weren't asking for very much...

Oklahoma health care forum at Mayflower Church December 29

As the inauguration invitation to right-wing preacher Rick Warren has made obvious, if we want the Obama Administration to bring about real change, we are going to have to give him some incentive to do so.

An opportunity to do this is coming up shortly. The Obama transition team has requested his supporters across the nation to have community health care forums to help shape policy in this area. One of these discussions will be taking place in Oklahoma City on December 29. Get more information and sign up to attend here.

Chicago Tribune health care blogger Judith Graham poses an interesting set of questions that might be asked at a health care forum. Thanks to Christine C. at Our Bodies Our Blog for pointing out this series.

Meanwhile, over at Campaign for America's Future, Jacob Hacker has written a report arguing for the importance of allowing individuals to choose between private insurers and a public health care insurance plan. Hacker argues that "public insurance has a better track record than private insurance when it comes to reining in costs while preserving access." It seems that President-elect Obama supports a public plan only for those folks who don't have access to health insurance through their employers. Hacker seems to argue that everyone ought to have the option of choosing the public plan.

Bush Passes Detroit Bailout Buck to Obama

Truthdig has the details.

Is the South trying to kill the North's auto industry as a continuation of the Civil War?

This is really interesting:

Open Left:: The New Civil War--Could The Attack On The Auto Industry Really Be This Simple?

Read it.

So what did you expect?

Okay. To start out with, I want to say that I'm a bit distracted lately from paying attention to the complicated events of the amazing, frightening, and hopeful times that we are all living through. I am a very lucky woman. I am going to buy a cheap little house. The picture is on the left. Posting may be a bit erratic for the indefinite future while the complicated details of buying and starting to fix take place.

That being said, one of the news items that has floated to my attention is the fact that right-wing pastor and media darling Rick Warren has been invited to give the invocation at Barack Obama's inauguration on January 20. Warren is unusual in his focus on issues such as poverty, global warming, and AIDS. But he's entirely traditional in his support for male domination and his opposition to gay rights and abortion rights. Feminists and gay rights activists are understandably upset that Obama has chosen Warren to open the inauguration by praying to Warren's right-wing version of God.

On the one hand, I find myself feeling almost indifferent to this controversy. Obama, the consumate centrist political wheeler-dealer, is pretty much behaving as I would expect him to behave. Obama is brilliant, competent, and entirely focused on holding the existing order of things together, although in a more humane fashion than the Republicans did. He wants to win over the religious right, and figures he can take the rest of us for granted. Did anyone really expect anything better? With the economy at home and abroad still going down the toilet, maybe there are other places to direct our energy?

On the other hand, janinsanfran at happening here? and Echnide at Echidne of the Snakes each has a brilliant analysis of this issue.

Echidne points out that Obama should not minimize the importance of "social issues" such as gay rights and abortion in his efforts to create national unity:

Here's where I see the task of the future for us dirty fucking hippies and feminazis and such: To teach politicians that 'social issues' is not about what we eat for Thanksgiving or how we arrange flowers. Those issues are about freedom, justice, economics, dignity and respect.

janinsanfran points out that Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, understood the situation very well:

He claimed to have said to Obama:

'If you get elected, November the 5th, I'm coming after you, because you'll be representing a government whose policies grind under people.'

Sounds about right to me. Obama will be as a good a president as aroused people make him be -- not one whit better.

If you'd like to express an opinion to the Obama transition team about his invitation to Rick Warren -- or about other matters -- you can do that here.

William Pfaff says...

Blundering U.S. Should Spare the World Any More Nation Building.

Thanks to TruthDig for posting this.

The real election took place yesterday

In state capitols all across the United States, members of the Electoral College voted on December 15 to make Barack Obama the next president.

That day, National Public Radio ran an interesting piece about a group working to undermine the Electoral College without formally doing away with it.

For more information on the Electoral College, here is the three-part series I wrote about it before the November election.

The real Bettie Page can no longer stand up

I never heard of Bettie Page until after she died. Here are two very different views of Page and her modeling career.

Truthdig describes Page as a provocative "pop culture icon," a sort of precursor to Madonna.

Suzie at Echidne of the Snakes offers a more complex view:

Bettie Page, whose pinup and BDSM photos turned her into a cult icon, died Thursday. She’s a stellar example of someone who became a commodity, whose image profited others.
Her “sex fiend” father molested her and her sisters, Page once said. After an abusive first husband and a gang rape, she left Nashville for New York, where she began posing for sexy photos to make money, and in hopes of becoming an actress.

The rest of Suzie's post is short and well worth reading. It sounds as if Page's career was less of an example of bold sexual self-expression and more of a case of a woman with few economic resources finding a way to make a living.

The best post I've seen on the auto industry bailout...

Detroit's Problem: It's Health Care, not the Union | CommonDreams.org

Canada update: Tories would win election today

According to Reuters, Canada's Conservative Party holds a large lead in a recent voter poll. This despite the replacement of ineffective Liberal party leader Stephane Dion by Michael Ignatieff.

Nevertheless, this Seattle Times editorial points out that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper's suspension of Parliament has turned the nation upside down. Canadians might still be willing to vote for the Conservative Party, but they disapprove of the Conservative prime minister's willingness to undermine their constitution.

Meanwhile, Will Di Novi has a useful analysis of the situation at thenation.com.

Chicago sit-in ends in victory of sorts

A six-day sit-in by laid off workers at Republic Windows and Doors has won severance pay and benefits, according to chicagotribune.com, but not a deal to re-open the plant.

The 240 workers who had occupied the factory since its abrupt closing Dec. 5 voted unanimously Wednesday night to accept a deal to pay them severance, vacation time, and temporary health care benefits. The $1.75 million agreement was negotiated over three days with the workers' union, Republic owners and lender Bank of America.

Union negotiators were unable to obtain a commitment from the parties to reopen the Goose Island plant, said United Electrical Workers organizer Mark Meinster. So the union has decided to forge ahead to find someone new to run the plant, he said, using some of the money donated from around the world during the sit-in.

An interesting analysis of the strike and its results can be found at socialistworker.org.

Updates on the Chicago sit-in

According to thenation.com:

President-elect Barack Obama gave encouragement Sunday to the members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110 members who have occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago to demand fair treatment from a company that shut down operations after the Bank of America denied the firm operating credit.

AlterNet has cross-posted Ian Welsh's Firedoglake analysis on the genesis of the shutdown at Republic Door and Window in Chicago: How Fumbling the Bailout Led to the Chicago Sit In

Angry Black Bitch also has an interesting analysis of the situation.

Who Are the Taliban?

This report from TomDispatch.com and the Nation, via Truthdig, is a bit long, but well worth reading.

When the U.S. and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001, "Afghans celebrated the downfall of a reviled and discredited regime," post author Anand Gopal reports. "...But years of mismanagement, rampant criminality, and mounting civilian casualties have led to a spectacular resurgence of the Taliban and other related groups." Apparently now many Afghans support the Taliban, and similar Islamic militant groups, because they see the militants as their protectors against rampant criminal activity.

Standing up by sitting down

A hat tip to Common Dreams for posting this article from thenation.com about the sitdown strike in Chicago by workers at Republic Windows and Doors Republic shut down on Friday after Bank of America -- which has received $25 billion in bailout assistance from U.S. taxpayers -- refused to extend operating credit to them.

Nation commentator John Nichols points out that Barack Obama can only create a new New Deal if there is grassroots activism to push him in that direction. The Chicago action reminds him of similar actions taken by workers in the 1930s that helped FDR create the original New Deal.

Here's the link I found at thenation.com for updates about the strike from the United Electrical Workers. Here's the link I found at the UE site to send a message to hold Bank of America accountable for their misbehavior.

Canadian constitutional crisis erupts

A constitutional crisis has erupted in Canada after Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper convinced Governor General Michaëlle Jean to suspend (or prorogue) Parliament until January 26. Harper took this action to put off a no-confidence vote that his minority government was almost certain to lose.

The Seattle Times has the one of the best discussions of the situation I've seen so far, including a sidebar with information about Canada's parliamentary form of government. A fuller discussion is provided by Wikipedia. And there is also an excellent analysis by historian Bob Beal at globeandmail.com..


Here's how the crisis developed. Early this week came the news that a coalition of Canadian political parties had moved to topple the recently elected minority government of Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. To the best of my understanding, the way that you get a "minority government" is when one party wins more parliamentary seats than any of the others, but not an absolute majority. This party can form the government if other parties don't form a coalition government that has more total seats than they do.
Several issues are at stake in the current crisis. First, the budget that Harper's finance minister submitted to Parliament failed to include any stimulus program to bolster Canada's weakening economy. According to Wikipedia, the proposal also would have suspended the right of federal employees to strike and right of women to take pay equity issues to court. Furthermore, the proposal would have eliminated public funding for political parties. Because Harper's wealthy Conservative Party has much greater access to private funds, this was seen as a direct attack on the opposition parties.

This inspired the Liberals and the New Democrats, with support from the separatist Bloc Québécois, to call for a no-confidence vote. This step could have allowed the Liberals and New Democrats to force Harper and the Conservatives from power and form a new coalition government without holding a new election.

Now, Canada is a constitutional monarchy, with Queen Elizabeth as the official head of state. The queen's official representative in Canada is the governor-general, a post currently filled by a fascinating woman named Michaëlle Jean. In theory, the governor general has some serious reserve powers -- to summon or dissolve parliament, to withhold assent from laws (something like a veto in the US), to dismiss the prime minister. In practice, the governor general's powers are mostly ceremonial.He or she does summon or dissolve parliament, but at the request of the prime minister.

Michaëlle Jean has played a key role in the current crisis, and I think it's useful and interesting to get to know a little bit more about her. According to Wikipedia, as a child, Michaëlle Jean fled Haiti with her family to get away from the dictator François Duvalier. The family settled in Canada. Ms. Jean has a bachelor's degree in Italian and Hispanic languages and master's degree in comparative literature from the University of Montreal.  She has studied at several Italian universities. While a student, Ms. Jean worked at a women's shelter for many years, and later helped establish a Canadian network of shelters for women and children. She's been involved with organizations that help immigrants come to Canada. Before her selection as governor general, she worked as a journalist, broadcaster, and filmmaker. Among other things, Wikipedia describes her as the first black, the third woman, and the second person in an interracial marriage to serve as governor general.

In short, Michaëlle Jean seems like an unlikely person to help Conservative Stephen Harper retain control of government in the face of organized opposition from Liberals and New Democrats. What's up with that?

As Bob Beal describes it:

A governor-general has never refused a prime minister's request for prorogation [suspension of parliament], or put conditions on it. But prorogations are usually very routine affairs. No prime minister has ever asked for one when he faced an imminent confidence vote. That could be seen as asking the governor-general to interfere to the extent of cancelling or delaying the exercise of the most basic right members of the House have, to express confidence or non-confidence in a government.

Well, I'm no expert on Canadian politics, but I can think of two reasons Her Excellency the governor general may have decided to prorogue parliament in this circumstance.

One is that the situation is controversial and seems to have split the country along political and geographic lines. Might have Michaëlle Jean seen this action as a sort of middle course between dissolving parliament and calling new elections (which would seem to favor the Conservative position) and allowing the Liberal/NDP coalition to form a new government? The governor general is supposed to play a neutral, non-partisan role, and Ms. Jean has emphasized bringing all Canadians together.

My hunch would be that a more likely explanation comes from the history of Michaëlle Jean's appointment to the position of governor general. She comes from a French-speaking country, and is married to a French speaker. When former Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin recommended Mme. Jean for the post, she was accused of favoring independence for French-speaking Quebec, and even of having friends among separatist terrorists. In response, she issued a statement affirming her full support for a united Canada.

In the current crisis, the separatist Bloc Québécois holds the balance of power. While not actually joining the government, the Bloc Québécois has promised to vote to allow the Liberal/NDP coalition to to take power. Without this support, the coalition would not have enough votes to form a government. According to the Wikipedia article on the crisis:

The Conservative Party's reaction to the formation of the coalition was to frame the parliamentary impasse as a national unity crisis.^[41] In the House of Commons, Conservative MPs referred to Dion as a "traitor" for forming a "separatist coalition".^[42] Although the Bloc Québécois had agreed to support the coalition only in matters of confidence, the Conservatives suggested that the Bloc would have considerable influence in creating policy. Harper stated in his address to the nation that "Canada's government cannot enter into a power-sharing coalition with separatists."^[43]

Could Mme. Jean still feel she needs to bend over backwards to avoid even the appearance of favoritism to an arrangement that might favor the Quebec sovereignists?

The short answer is, I don't know. But as Angry Black Bitch points out,  we in the United States are not the only show around, "Canada also has some of the best political theater in North America!" (And thanks to ABB for the post that clued me in that the Canada situation had morphed from a controversy into a crisis.)

Unions and Upward Mobility for Women Workers

The Center for Economic and Policy Research has published a report showing that

unionization raises the wages of the typical woman worker by 11.2 percent compared to their non-union peers. The study goes on to show that unionization also increases the likelihood that a woman worker will have health insurance and a pension. The report also notes that union membership results in health care and pension gains on par with the gains of a college education.

A link to the full report (in PDF format) is here.

Breathing New Life Into Health Care

Truthdig has reposted an excellent column by Marie Cocco of the Washington Post.
Here's a snippet:

These are the immutable truths of the health care conundrum. They haven’t changed much in two decades. Costs are driven inexorably higher by continual advances in care as well as an aging population that needs more of it. Employers can’t cope unless they scale back coverage, shift costs to workers or eliminate benefits altogether. States have become insurers of last resort—but right now they face crippling budget shortfalls that threaten this safety net.

Using this compromised system as the basis for health insurance revision is folly—more so now than it was in the Clinton era, when more employers still were covering their workers. Tightening regulation of the insurance industry and creating a new, government-based plan to make coverage available to those who cannot afford to buy it from private insurers—the essence of Obama’s campaign proposal—would only add another layer of complexity and, eventually, cost. Only a single, government-financed system can eliminate the administrative waste, unfairness and economic burden of our current health insurance scheme.

Timidity is no longer an option.

Are you listening, HCAN?

Rape used to control resources in Congo

Inter Press Service reports that international indifference has allowed an epidemic of rapes to continue in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

More than 5 million Congolese have died in an ongoing civil war since the overthrow of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.

According to IPS, playwright and activist Eve Ensler says that "Rape is being used as a deliberate tool to control people and territory."

Hundreds of women and children were raped yesterday, hundreds more today. This is an economic war that uses terror as its main weapon to ensure warlords and their bands control regions where international companies mine for valuable metals like tin, silver and coltan, or extract lumber and diamonds, Ensler said.

Coltan is a rare and extremely valuable metal used in cell phones, DVD players, computers, digital cameras, video games, vehicle air bags, and more. It has long been implicated as both the source of funding and primary cause of the ongoing conflict and extraordinary violence against women.

"A friend mapped the locations of the mass rapes in the DRC and they correspond to coltan mining regions," she said.

Thailand, not Canada, faces constitutional crisis

Here's a an interesting comparison of the current situation in the two countries from JOTMAN.

Odetta dies at 77

And here is the New York Times obituary of the folksinger they describe as "the voice of the civil rights movement."

Will this cure our healthcare woes?

Over on AlterNet, I found a post headlined Health Care: It's Time for a Major Overhaul.

This is supposed to be an inspiring story about how a grassroots coalition, headed by an impressive number of progressive organizations, is taking on the insurance industry to fight for a plan that guarantees health care to all U.S. citizens.

I would like to be inspired by Health Care for America Now. Post author Alexander Zaitchik describes HCAN as

an umbrella organization launched in July to win a "guarantee of quality, affordable health care for all" by the end of 2009. ACORN is one of 16 groups on the HCAN steering committee, which is a veritable Who's Who of progressive grassroots, netroots, and labor groups, including USAction, MoveOn, SEIU and the AFL-CIO. Four months after launching with a press conference in the National Press Building, HCAN now consists of more than 500 organizations and boasts the backing of the president-elect, his incoming chief of staff and 151 Democratic members of Congress, among them leading progressives and "pro-business" Blue Dogs alike.

Unfortunately, Zaitchik's article provides no specific information about what this plan would actually do.

So I visited healthcareforamericanow.org to find out what they're up to. The main page is devoted to getting us to sign up for HCAN and to electronically contact Congress to support their program. It's the kind of website that makes me irritable. Looks like they want us all to march along with them like good little soldiers without understanding exactly what we're supporting. But clicking the "about us" link brought up this explanation:

We're offering a bold new solution that gives you real choice and a guarantee of quality coverage you can afford: keep your current private insurance plan, pick a new private insurance plan, or join a public health insurance plan.

We're also calling for regulation on health insurance companies. We need to set and enforce rules that quash health insurance companies' greed once and for all. There is a huge divide between our plan and the insurance companies' plan for healthcare reform. We want to make sure you have the quality coverage you need at the price you can afford. They want to leave you alone to fend for yourself in the unregulated, bureaucratic health insurance market.

Our plan is affordable for people and business. Their plan is profitable for them. With no regulation, health insurance companies can and will charge whatever they want, set high deductibles, and continue to drop coverage when you get sick. Now is the time to pick a side. Which side are you on?

If you follow that last link, you will get the impression that there are two and only two positions available, either to support HCAN or the leave the system as it is. Of course, there is at least one more option, that of a single-payer health care system. Common Dreams posted this Los Angeles Times article that points out that in the growing consensus over healthcare reform, single-payer is exactly what's being left out of the discussion.

The good folks at HCAN could argue that their program would be a significant improvement over the existing mess. They might argue that enacting single-payer health care is politically impossible at this point. They might argue that the option of allowing citizens to sign up for a government-sponsored insurance program could eventually lead to single-payer insurance. It's even possible that they would be right about all of those things. But they're not saying any of those things. Instead, HCAN's goal seems to be to ignore or even squelch the discussion. In doing that, they've failed to win my support.

As a healthy alternative, I encourage folks to check out Physicians for a National Health Program.

No kidding, it's really a recession, folks

Thanks to Truthdig for this news item that confirms that No Kidding: U.S. Economy in Recession.

Wow. Really. A recession. Who would have guessed?

Canadian coalition topples Tories

This just in from Open Left:

Canada's three Opposition parties have united to replace the governing Conservative Party with a Liberal/NDP formal coalition just six weeks after voters returned the CPC to power with a near parliamentary majority. This is a stunning turn of events.

AMA: Mammograms Detecting Breast Cancers That Would Regress Without Treatment

Hey. Look at this fascinating post that I found over on the Feminist Peace Network.

There. I did it.

The first draft of the third novel is finished. I needed 50,000 words by the end of the month, and I got 60,686. Or thereabouts. I'm not sure if I like it or not, but however sloppily, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. And thus, I am one of the official winners of National Novel Writing Month.

Some of us from the local NaNo writers group are having our wrap party at Sauced, which is one of OKC's great hangout spots. Most of us have already crossed the line, but Jasmine is laboring along at 41, 696 words. She did start and throw away two previous novels this month. This seems to happen to her every year, but she's a genius and also types really fast, so I have every confidence she will win by midnight.

See y'all with regular posts soon:

What in the world?

When I catch the news on the radio, it seems that while I am trying to finish this novel the world has been going to hell in the proverbial handbasket.

Truthdig offers a link to this analysis of the situation in Mumbai. Over at thenation.com, Robert Dreyfuss discusses where this situation might lead -- and it doesn't sound good.

Also at thenation.com, Barbara Crossette has the best analysis I've seen of the ongoing political crisis in Thailand, which has heated up once again.

Okay. Enough of the troublesome real world for a moment. I'm going back to the imaginary world that I need to bring some direction and conclusion to in the next one day and nine hours (give or take a few minutes).

Hillary Clinton to head State Department

I'm not thrilled -- nor particularly surprised -- to hear that the Obama Administration seems to be filling up with former members of Bill Clinton's administration.

But when I saw on the NPR web site a headline that said "Hillary Clinton To Head State Department", that seemed like good news to me. Along with his appointment of Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to head the Department of Homeland Security, it shows a willingness to appoint serious women to serious posts.

Okay. And now I need to get back to work. I need to write 13,578 more words before the end of the month, plus figure out exactly what I'm doing with this novel.

Three views of a Detroit bailout

Automobile manufacturing has been crucial to the US economy. Yet, auto companies have made gas guzzling cars and other mistakes. As the auto industry struggles, is a bailout justified? And what kind of a bailout, if there is one?

One interesting perspective comes from AngryBlackBitch. She decries the greed and stupidity of automakers, but points out how much damage the failure of the auto industry would do to ordinary folks.

Another intriguing viewpoint comes from Michael Moore, interviewed on The Takeaway. Moore suggests that the conditions for government aid should include a requirement that the companies start making trains and other mass transit vehicles.

Finally, I usually like what Dean Baker says about economic issues, and he has an interesting analysis of this one.

By 2025, U.S. Won't Be Top World Power

This morning NPR had this fascinating story about the Global Trends 2025 report just issued by the National Intelligence Council.

Some see the report, released in time for Barack Obama's inauguration as U.S. president, as "frighteningly bleak." I think it's intriguing, and in some ways hopeful.

Says NPR:

The new study, titled "A Transformed World," projects a "multipolar" global landscape, where the United States is merely "one of a number of actors on the world stage" and where the U.S. dollar will only be "first among equals" in a basket of international currencies.

"We're thinking of it as the rise of the rest, rather than as the decline of the United States," said Thomas Fingar, chairman of the National Intelligence Council, as he introduced the report Thursday.

Some troubling trends predicted by the report include a rise in international conflict over food, energy, and other resources. On the other hand, while conflict over energy is likely to increase, a global shift away from fossil fuels will be taking place.

And words to write before I sleep

Okay. Think I'm closing in on 22,000 words on the rough draft of my novel, and I still don't know where I'm going with it. I thought it was going to be about these women I used to know in another state, but it has turned into an incoherent examination of one or two of my deepest fears. I keep telling myself that the only way to learn how to write novels is to write them. Maybe I'm learning something, but at the moment I'm rather frustrated. I think I can catch up on my word count and make sense of my novel by the end of the month, but I'm not sure of it.

Several times a week the local writers group for NaNoWriMo meets at local cafes in order to work together on our efforts for each of us to write a 50,000 novel by the end of the month. One of our group has finished her first NaNo novel and is starting her second. Another threw out the project she was working on and is 6,203 on the novel she decided to write instead. We are at the Red Cup. We are eating good food and hearing pleasant music.

Sound like fun? It's not too late for you to start your novel.

Oklahoma City Prop 8 demo

Yeah, sure, marriage is a patriarchal institution. But I'm probably going to go to the protest against California's anti-gay-marriage Proposition 8 down at the Oklahoma City city hall today at 12:30 p.m. The address is 200 N. Walker. Here's a link for the sponsoring organization:

Oklahoma City - Join the Impact

This is part of a nationwide protest.

Okay. I'm way behind on my novel and need to get typing. See y'all later.

Update 7:00 p.m.: It was a nice little demonstration. Heck, I guess it was a pretty big demonstration. I would estimate that there were 150-175 people there. Someone I talked to thought it was more like 250-300. I bet it will be in the news, but I don't have a t.v., and I still have that novel to write, so I probably won't find out. Meanwhile, for an interesting commentary on the relationship of California's Ballot Measure 8, see happening here.

Anti-free-speech trade agreement?

The so-called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is being pushed to a quick ratification with almost no public information or discussion.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has information here. This link also brings up a petition you can sign to ask your senators to request more information from the United States Trade Representative and to hold Senate hearings on the treaty.

WikiLeaks has more information about ACTA here.

Colorado preserves affirmative action

This bit of good news from the recent election is thoughtfully reported by janinsanfran at happening here?

As I procrastinate a bit on my new novel tonight, I'll pass this good news along to you.

A novel experience

I mentioned this a while back, but just as a reminder, posting will be slow around here for a while because I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month. I need to finish 50,000 words by the end of November. So far I'm at 14875 words, so I've got a ways to go.

Would you like to write a novel? It's not too late to start. Is it really possible to write an entire novel in a month? You can at least get a good rough draft, which is usually the most difficult part.

"Not the Change I Was Expecting "

The Women's Media Center has this commentary by Veronica Arreola about the possible selection of former Lawrence Summers as Barack Obama's Secretary of the Treasury. Summers is currently an economics professor of Harvard, and previously served as president of Harvard and as treasury secretary for the final year and a half of the Clinton administration.

Arreola writes:

I am the president of the Larry Summers fan club. As the director of the Women in Science and Engineering program at the University of Illinois at Chicago, you might find that odd.

After his infamous statement in 2005 that women and girls had an intrinsic handicap towards math, explaining my job was a moot point. Everyone in my circle of friends and around the country knew the importance of running an academic support program for women majoring in science and engineering at a Research I institution. Despite the fact that women are going to college in record numbers and increasingly majoring in sciences, there are still those out in the world who think women just can’t hack it in the end. It also was an easier sell to donors and funders about the importance of the WISE office and our mission. So thank you, Larry for making my case so eloquently.

After his departure from the Harvard presidency he faded from the limelight. This week his name, along with New York Federal Reserve Chairman Timothy Geithner, has been bandied about as secretary of the treasury in the incoming Obama administration (can I just say how amazing it is to say that? The Obama administration!). Could the man who sold America on change seriously be considering appointing a man who suggested that Malia, Sasha and all of our daughters have a genetic disposition from not being able to math? Sadly yes.

Over at Open Left, Matt Stoller discusses some of Summers' shortcomings:

Summers was one of the key proponents of the banking deregulation of 1999 that led to the current financial crisis. In addition, Larry Summers has argued that women are innately less gifted in science than men, that 'Africa is Underpolluted', that child sweatshop work in Asia is sometimes justified, and that job destroying trade agreements are good for America.

People get stuff wrong all the time. That's not bad. But if you got the big stuff wrong, repeatedly, while being warned against it, you shouldn't be rewarded with a promotion.

Open Left has a petition to urge President-elect Obama not to appoint Summers to this critical post. I just signed it. I hope you will consider doing the same.

Update (11/10/08 10:55 p.m.): For a detailed analysis of Summers' failures as an economist, see this post at thenation.com by Mark Ames.

Good news and bad news

The good news is, after 30 years of right-wing backlash and Republican misrule, Barack Obama and the Democrats have won the presidency and increased majorities in the US House and Senate. (Someone might ask, but what about Bill Clinton? I would agree with those who said that Bill Clinton was the best Republican president we'd had in years.)

And as Jeff Fecke points out, this Democratic victory owes a lot to the tireless work of Hillary Clinton.

In more good news, RH Reality Check reports that anti-choice ballot measures on the ballot in several states all went down to defeat.

Now for the bad news. Autumn Sandeen at Pam's House Blend reports that anti-gay initiatives are passing in Arizona, Arkansas, and Florida. She also reports that the  anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 appears to be narrowly passing in California, though not all of the votes have been counted as of Friday morning. Also at Pam's House blend, Pam Spaulding writes that Ballot initiatives provide a wake up call to the LGBT community about race.

I still remain cautiously optimistic that 30 years of right-wing backlash are drawing to a close in this country. But we do have a lot of work left to do.

Obama speaking

I have even fewer words for this.

I find myself  having a great deal of respect for the calm, composed young man who talks about rebuilding the United States. A man who promises to tell us the truth and listen to us, especially when he disagrees with us.

He says America can change, that this is the genius of America.

Is it okay for me to admit that I still am not sure that America is, or has a genius?

He's talking about a woman in Atlanta who voted today, a woman who is 106, a woman whose name is Ann Nixon Cooper. Who could not vote as a young adult for two reasons, because she is a woman and because she is black.

I tend to resist euphoria.

A woman behind me is saying, "now the work begins."

I can't sort it out now, but this is a very good moment.

I'm writing this while I'm watching McCain concede

Barack Obama will be the 44th president of the United States. It is still not clear how big the margin of victory will be, but it is starting to look like a landslide.

I am sure that I don't have words adequate to the occasion, but here are some.

We can hope that 30 years of right-wing backlash are coming to an end in the United States.

John McCain is giving a gracious concession speech, noting the historic occasion of the election of the country's first African-American president, and urging the country to unite behind him.

Oklahoma is not doing so well. The embarrassing James Inhofe will continue to represent us in the US Senate. McCain carried Oklahoma.

The world is going to be a better place, but we'll have to fight for Oklahoma.

But I'm sitting in the middle of a room of happy lesbians, and nothing can be better than that.

Inheriting the Earth...

Thanks to Pat Reaves for this reminder of the herstoric Katherine Bradley Sparrow Society. (Did I get that right, Pat?)..



Looks like it's time for the meek to get ready again. I am cautiously optimistic about the results of the election. Get out and vote if you haven't already.

Early voting in Oklahoma County

On Saturday I headed down to the Oklahoma County Election Board for early voting. Early voting took place on Friday and Saturday and will continue on Monday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

I didn't know what I was getting in for. I thought I might get in and out in a few minutes. Instead, I found myself in a line that stretched out for at least half a mile. I arrived about ten in the morning, and about four hours later I had voted. The elections worker I asked had no idea how many people came in on Saturday, but said she thought it was more than on Friday, when 5,000 people voted.

The crowd of early voters that assembled on Saturday was predominately African American. There may have been a few McCain voters in the group, but they were probably feeling pretty lonely. Pat Reaves, who kindly provided the photos displayed in this post, said that she felt it was remarkable that people were willing to stand in line for three or four hours to vote when it was almost certain that Oklahoma's electoral votes will all go to McCain.

I found myself thinking of women like Susan B. Anthony, who worked and waited for more than sixty years without ever having the opportunity to cast a legal vote. I thought of civil rights workers in the South who risked their lives securing the right for African Americans to vote. Compared to all that, standing in line for four hours didn't seem like much trouble. There was a great sense of camaraderie among those of us waiting to vote, and I think also a sense of being part of history.
Early voting will continue tomorrow, Monday, across Oklahoma. For more information, contact your county election board or the Oklahoma State Election Board.

The sordid history of the Electoral College (final part of a three-part series)

(You may also want to read Part I and Part II of this series.)

I'm going to tell two competing stories about the history of the US Electoral College. One of these stories was written in 1992 by William C. Kimberling, who was then the deputy director of the Federal Election Commission's Office of Election Administration. The other story was written by brothers Akhil Reed Amar and Vikram David Amar for the FindLaw web site.

In Kimberling's rather quaint version of the story, we have a much smaller nation than today--just 4 million people, spread out along the Atlantic seaboard, residing in "thirteen large and small States jealous of their own rights and suspicious of any central government" They believed that "political parties were mischievous if not downright evil," and "felt that gentlemen should not campaign for public office."

The framers of the Constitution considered having Congress choose the president, but rejected that idea because it would break down the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government. They considered having state legislatures select the president, but feared that this would erode federal authority.

Having a direct popular election of the president was also rejected. Writes Kimberling:

Direct election was rejected not because the Framers of the Constitution doubted public intelligence but rather because they feared that without sufficient information about candidat es from outside their State, people would naturally vote for a "favorite son" from their own State or region. At worst, no president would emerge with a popular majority sufficient to govern the whole country. At best, the choice of president would always be decided by the largest, most populous States with little regard for the smaller ones.

In contrast, the Electoral College would be made up of "the most knowledgeable and informed individuals from each State to select the president based solely on merit and without regard to State of origin or political party."

According to the Amar brothers, the real motivation behind this scheme was much less noble:

The biggest flaw in standard civics accounts of the electoral college is that they never mention the real demon dooming direct national election in 1787 and 1803: slavery.

At the Philadelphia convention, the visionary Pennsylvanian James Wilson proposed direct national election of the President. But in a key speech on July 19, the savvy Virginian James Madison suggested that such a system would prove unacceptable to the South: "The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes."

In other words, in a direct election system, the North would outnumber the South, whose many slaves (more than half a million in all) of course could not vote. But the electoral college-a prototype of which Madison proposed in this same speech-instead let each southern state count its slaves, albeit with a two-fifths discount, in computing its share of the overall electoral college.

The Amars add that the electoral college system also discouraged states from granting women the right to vote. Under a system of direct popular elections, the more voters a state had, the more its citizens would influence national elections. With the electoral college, what mattered was how many people lived in each state, not how many of those people could vote.

Kimberling and the Amar brothers agree that the method of conducting presidential elections outlined in the original constitution was transformed by the Twelfth Amendment . Originally, each elector cast two votes for president. The man with the most votes became president, and the runner-up became vice president. When there were no political parties, this system was workable.

But in the election of 1800, two rudimentary political parties--the Federalists led by John Adams and the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas--squared off against each other. The Democratic-Republicans came out on top. As the Amar brothers note, "without the extra electoral college votes generated by slavery, the mostly southern states that supported Jefferson would not have sufficed to give him a majority...Thomas Jefferson metaphorically rode into the executive mansion on the backs of slaves."

But there was at least one serious glitch in the process. Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, both representing the Democratic-Republicans, came out with the same number of electoral votes. Kimberling points out that "The tie was resolved by the House of Representatives in Jefferson's favor -- but only after 36 tries and some serious political dealings which were considered unseemly at the time."

The Twelfth Amendment was written to keep such a thing from happening again. It left the South's unfair electoral advantage in place. But it accommodated political parties by changing the system so that electors each cast one vote for president and one vote for vice president.

With the establishment of nationwide political parties, presidential candidates began to run nationwide campaigns for direct voter approval. Given this situation, the Amar brothers say,

Americans must ask themselves whether we want to maintain this peculiar institution in the twenty-first century.

After all, most millennial Americans no longer believe in slavery or sexism. We do not believe that voters lack proper information about national candidates. We do not believe that a national figure claiming a national mandate is unacceptably dangerous. What we do believe is that each American is an equal citizen. We celebrate the idea of one person, one vote-an idea undermined by the electoral college.

Well, maybe not quite everyone celebrates the idea of one person, one vote. Republican operatives are prone to using a variety of shady tactics to suppress voter turnout. Over at Truthdig, Bill Boyarsky argues that efforts to intimidate voters, challenge their eligibility, and subject them to long lines might prove decisive if the election is close. It seems to me that such tactics would be less effective if they had to be applied nationwide, in every precinct, rather than in a few swing states.

The Amar brothers provide more reasons for abolishing the Electoral College and a practical plan for making it happen. As someone who would like to promote democracy and resist the rule of manipulative elites, moving toward direct popular election of the president seems like a good step to take.