About that hiatus ~ Just one more before I bolt ...

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A hiatus for this Highlander and perhaps even ...

I've been slacking on postings as of late and have grown frustrated with not putting up regular content. My traffic has never been substantial yet I had some regular readers. I'm taking yet another pause from the cause, at least that part which involves posting. I enjoy the process of writing and sharing, finding that it helps me refine my thinking plus forces me to dig for greater understandings. Given that The Reign of Error is drawing to an end, and seeing movement conservatism struggling so much, perhaps now is as good a time as any to walk away.

So far "change" looks rather familiar yet I remain relatively optimistic. Eric Holder's choice as AG might have not been wise given his role in the Marc Rich pardon from The Clenis or even decent for his role in defending Chiquita's actions in South America. I've defended scum and understand yet I'm troubled to think how this might hinder his efforts at prosecuting those that have tortured in our name. Upgrading with Henry Waxman to chair the House's Energy and Commerce effort is significant for instance. Jerry McNerney retaining his CA-11 seat is good on a political and personal level. I'm surely hoping I'll get one more chance to work on one of his campaigns.

Also, I'm working twelve hour days routinely, having to even bring work "home" on the weekends. We'll be traveling down to Southern California this March for some training and then likely deploying some time over the summer so I expect the pace of work will become even more demanding. I am a Keyboard Commando as well so typing is certainly less than ideal at the end of a long day. I find myself drawn to reading more as of late even though I'm so tired I often nod off.

Additionally, I have some accounting from my old law practice that I need to straighten out in case I want to get back in the mix once I get off the trail in 2012 or perhaps even earlier. If I can glean any data from an old hard drive then it will be easier but either way I need to spend my time pouring over old files and numbers rather than ranting and raving over right wing nutjobs, ill informed leaders, injustices, and the like.

I'll also being flying home in less than a month for some time with the bride, the boy, and ... I have several projects I need to knock out there since I'm not sure how much time in Auburn I'll have before heading overseas.

My plan is to post little if any until at least the first of the year. Sporadic posts might pop up plus I might drop a few Letters to the Editor. I'll continue to read the local papers back home, Left in Alabama, and the top tier national blogs. I'm reading the latest books from Gladwell, Friedman, and Zacharia even now.

Drop me a note at CaptainPlaid at Gmail if you see anything you want to share. Merry and Happy! I miss the Bride and the boy and ... and I'm surely earning my pay but I'm at least feeling useful as I serve my country. John Gunn

The Mobile Press-Register is still on offense

I've referenced Reagan's Chesterfield ads previously so the image to the left might be recognizable to frequent readers. And I've surely written of the Mobile P-R's tendency to rely on offense as any movement conservative tends toward. Their Blaming it on Alabama takes a whack at unions with a creative interpretation of remarks of United Auto Workers union President Ron Gettelfinger. I'm surely thinking automobile manufacturing subsidies in Alabama and what UAW workers actually earn compared to non-union workers in Alabama are relevant. However, the Mobile P-R continues to be more interested in rhetoric. I'm guessing "The Party of Fakes" appreciates the P-R's efforts but I frankly figure Alabama, the nation, and our world beyond need much more given the present mess we find ourselves in. John Gunn

Mobile Press-Register ~ Tying oneself into a knot

The Mobile Press-Register couldn't resist taking on the ACLU and defending the hometown team could they? However, they might have chosen another theme. Their ACLU doesn't know what's best for kids after all comes after they recently told economic policy heavyweights to call Joe the Plumber for advice.

As an aside, I actually taught under Dr. Roy Nichols, mentioned in the Editorial in that he's now down in Mobile cashing his checks, when I labored in Troup County. A decent enough super from what I observed and understood yet I know he'll bend over backwards to avoid controversy or litigation.

The Mobile P-R writes in part the following:

Mobile County school officials learned last week that lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union are doing double duty as experts on education and would-be policy-makers for local schools.

Notification of the ACLU's new role as an education think tank came in the form of a letter from its attorneys to the administrators who run the Mobile County Public School System. ...

... a staff attorney for the ACLU in Alabama went well beyond legal and constitutional matters in declaring that gender-based school programs don't work and take "time and money from things that we know do work."

Evidently, the ACLU and its Alabama affiliate have decided they know what's best for the children, not the education professionals in our local schools. ...

Mobile County schools Superintendent Roy Nichols sees no downside to letting schools experiment with single-sex classes. "I've encouraged principals to try and find the very best way for (the) children to learn," he said.

Chances are, Dr. Nichols and other school officials know more about what does and doesn't work in the schools than the ideologues at the ACLU. At any rate, school administrators are paid to make these judgment calls based on research and practical experience.

If necessary, the schools can make accommodations for students who don't want to participate in single-sex programs. But Hankins and other area schools with single-sex classes should ignore the threat of ACLU lawsuits and stick with what works for the children.

Didn't they also once opine "Reactionaries Ruling Education In Alabama"? They fuss at the "education establishment" it seems rather often. Now, they rush to their defense?

They write, "Education research hasn't provided a definitive answer to the question of whether single-sex classes provide academic benefits. But many education officials believe the single-sex approach is worth trying, especially at the middle school level." Indeed that's so. Then again, I continue to argue the many facets involved in learning are truly difficult to measure.

Although once the Mobile P-R even dared to admit poverty was the primary problem in education they still reliably argue that competition is the solution to every trouble. Those magic markets are hard to give up even now I bet for this outfit. Also, since they've bought fully into the measurement of achievement how can they now argue to just let the professionals go with their gut?

I've taught middle schoolers. They are a tough lot. I'm thinking small classes, quality teachers, parents that give a damn, a rich curriculum, resources for teaching, solid leadership ... matter more than a gimmick like same sex classrooms. The ACLU thinks similarly. Yet the main issue remains legal of course.

You'd think the Mobile P-R would appreciate an effort to resolve this mess short of filing a lawsuit. But they, like pretty much everyone associated with movement conservatism, are more interested in advancing their cause. John Gunn

Dick Cavett's "The Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla"

Among Dick Cavett's gems from today's NYTs are "the serial syntax-killer". Than again, there's "It’s admittedly a rare gift to produce a paragraph in which whole clumps of words could be removed without noticeably affecting the sense, if any." And indeed "What will ambitious politicos learn from this? That frayed syntax, bungled grammar and run-on sentences that ramble on long after thought has given out completely are a candidate’s valuable traits?" ranks high. And this Scot isn't all that bothered about "offending ... her hollering fans" given the mess we must clean up after Bu$hCo. A tip of the tam is surely due Mr. Cavett. John Gunn

Flying pigs, pork, and "Conservatism"

This Proud Progressive can still appreciate a Libertarian perspective on many issues. Brian's Flashpoint shares A Tale of Two Shelby's as relates to Senator Shelby slapping down talks of a bailout for Detroit. Reckon how Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III stacks up on bringing home the bacon? John Gunn

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins latest column

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins gets his regular ink in the Opelika-Auburn News to tell us Marriage, family win on Election Day. He writes that "marriage and family were the big winners" given California, Arizona, and Florida's votes on same sex marriage plus also Arkansas telling unmarried couples of any orientation that they simply aren't part of the solution for children needing adopting in that fine state.

Personally, my marriage isn't threatened or bolstered by another, of any variety. Dr. Cutchins claims the US Constitution prohibits forms of early voting yet apparently he's not that willing to strictly interpret the 14th Amendment. That he praises Bible Thumping Arkansans' vote to prohibit unmarried couples fostering or adopting children says much. Dumb crackers!

He then proceeds to blaming President-elect Obama and the "mainstream media" for our current economic troubles. To cure our ailments, Dr. Cutchins prescribes reforms to "our unfair tax structure forces huge amounts of U.S. capital to go overseas." I'd listen to what reforms he suggests yet he leaves us guessing.

He claims we need to drill, drill, drill ... and even use highly polluting and inefficient oil shales.

He suggests we "diminish give-away foreign aid" and expressly cites the work of Fred Reed in The American Conservative. Lamentations on "wasting money on backwards cultures" sounds backwards frankly Doc.

Dr. Cutchins goes after "ACORN’s willingness to participate in open voting corruption" as well. The Alabama Policy Intitute's Gary Palmer would be proud. They would both be wrong however.

Dr. Cutchins closes with, " Since poor congressional oversight of the sub-prime markets contributed greatly to the loss of several trillion dollars by U.S. stockholder ..." Contributed yes but "greatly" is a stretch, or more accurately a spin, actually. John Gunn

03 November 2009 - I made some slight changes to the above at Dr. Cutchins' request. He's no longer writing his column and I regret if my snarky style offended him. He was 100% classy in asking me to make these changes and I'm pleased to do so. I wish him all the best in whatever he does. John Gunn

Reflecting on one certain legacy of Bu$hCo

Team Obama ~ "In Transition, Ties to Lobbying"

But Glenn Beck and Mark Steyn said Obama would bring socialism to America. The NYT's David Kirkpatrick is obviously misinformed. Assuming the actual journalist, rather than the above two clowns that amazingly get to appear on the boob tube, is right then I remind y'all I often wrote that Obama-Biden weren't all that Progressive. We're headed in a better direction of course yet beware the Centrist Weenies. John Gunn

Yet another Alabama connection to Team Obama

This is the best image I can presently supply of Macon Phillips. The Huntsville Times' Steve Campbell reports he was recently named Director of New Media for Obama's transition team. A tip of the tam is due. His sister Susanna Phillips' work in opera is also noted. Perhaps the tip of the tam is really due their parent(s) or others, like The Randolph School I suppose, which helped get them to this place where their futures look so promising. I can't however resist a lament that the swells have such a school when so many children in Alabama don't. John Gunn

A "blatant, pathetic attempt to stifle" what?

Phillip Rawls of AP reports in The Montgomery Advertiser State Bar president demands inquiry from Alabama Attorny General Prince Troy King's office as to the actions of right wing groups behind Greg Shaw's narrow win over Judge Paseur. An inquiry is requested, in fact demanded, especially as to "Americans in Contact PAC (who) incorrectly told voters that Paseur had received an "F" rating from the State Bar." Since the Alabama Bar doesn't hand out such ratings that would seem to be worthy of a look. It's not that push polls are tacky but rather that this one was over the top.

Also, the Center for Individual Freedom is referenced. Who can forget their "Judge Greg Shaw has the balls to be Judge" effort. Still, the main thrust of this post is against Skip Tucker, Executive Director of Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse, who said,

AVALA and I would be astounded should Attorney General King join this blatant, pathetic attempt to stifle freedom of speech.

Huh? The language is a bit over the top Skip, even if after you once described the pro-Exxon verdict as "righteous". Then again, AVALA's Lewis Fuller likes it that way. The Alabama State bar's asking the AG if any laws were broken is an attempt to stifle freedom of speech?

Maybe his reaction is merely right wing faux outrage, working the refs, or ... but then again maybe Skip has something to hide. What's the harm in letting Prince Troy look under y'alls skirt? I know he's not likely to want to yet perhaps he'll make the help take a peek. John Gunn

Reason rather than rhetoric please!

The Mobile Press-Register suggests "the Treasury Department's financial wizards call Joe the Plumber" on the bailout blunders. They write, "The government must protect the taxpayers' interests and provide a substitute for the discipline and accountability of the free market." I agree there is plenty to fret over about the "rescue", especially given that Bu$hCo is involved for these next few weeks, yet rhetoric such as the P-R slings is foolishness. What might The Anniston Star offer us? John Gunn

Thank God for South Carolina?

Father Jay Scott Newman of St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina publishes Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome on his church's website where, as his parish members shepherd, he warns his flock as follows:

Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exits constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil, and those Catholics who do so place themselves outside of the full communion of Christ’s Church and under the judgment of divine law. Persons in this condition should not receive Holy Communion until and unless they are reconciled to God in the Sacrament of Penance, lest they eat and drink their own condemnation.

Southern Baptist roots? I'm shocked, shocked! Although his flock is reminded they are "obliged by Scriptural precept to pray for him and to cooperate with him whenever conscience does not bind us otherwise" I'm thinking they'll do this with their fingers crossed. John Gunn

Heading home for Veteran's Day

I learned just today that Auburn, Alabama is the hometown of Robert Gibbs, likely soon to be named as President Obama's Press Secretary. Congrats and small world. I'll be home over the long weekend so expect little if any posting. Then again, I've been slacking off some due to my dreadful work load and certainly also the election. John Gunn

Goodbye Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney ...

Paul Krugman writes The monster years where he begins with, "Last night wasn’t just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years." He ends with, "And in our national discourse, we pretended that these monsters were reasonable, respectable people. To point out that the monsters were, in fact, monsters, was 'shrill.'" Amen! John Gunn

Shepard Smith and Faux News tries "outrage"

When Faux News' Shepard Smith gets all fussy with an admittedly edgy yet I think fair question from Ralph Nader I can't help but wonder where that outrage was with right wingers repeatedly trying various smears against the Obama-Biden ticket. It's OK to call him a terrorist sympathizer yet if someone of Nader's stature asks if he'll be an "Uncle Tom" for the corporate powers then that crosses the line? Ralph Nader's question stands and I think it a perfectly proper one. This lefty hopes the Centrist Weenie, DLC types don't hijack the Obama administration yet only time will tell. John Gunn

I'm 43 years old, male, white ... and proud as hell!

CNN exit polls suggest only 11% of white males in Alabama voted for Senator Obama. That I'm one of those happy few surely makes me proud, perhaps especially so reflecting on this image snapped over in West Alabama the very same year I was born. As I've written before, the Obama-Biden ticket is too centrist to suit me and yet this is a fine, fine day. The Reign of Error is soon to end. I'm ready to get my country back. John Gunn

Phyllis Schlafly ~ Cutting my teeth on nutjobs

Living with a sister and her husband down in LA (lower Alabama) as a mere teen I was first exposed to right wing Christianist talk radio. Even then I knew Phyllis Schlafly was crazy as a run over dog. I found her Big Media Pull Out All Stops to Elect Obama full of standard wingnut lamentations of how the corporate media is in the tank for Leftists. It couldn't be that there's just nothing to report outside of Nutterville could it? I'll admit I was dreadfully offended by her claim that this "some sort of intellectual" became the Harvard Law Review's "affirmative-action president". That's pure bullshit you ignorant and racist bitch! John Gunn

These times they are a changing ...

Jackson, Mississippi's Clarion-Ledger joins their Gannett owned sister publication, The Montgomery Advertiser, in endorsing Senator Obama over John McCain. Their Obama choice for future reminded us of the undeniable fact that the 2000 version of John McCain might very well have won this race easily. They also tell us,

"Obama, 47, offers the character and achievement of someone his age that is exemplary, including election to his state's legislature, election to the U.S. Senate, editor of the Harvard Law Review and professor of law at the University of Chicago. Few candidates for president have ever had his intellect and academic achievements."

Finally, comments to the west are actually less reactionary than at The Advertiser. Then again, the Opelika-Auburn News has Letters to the Editor that are running which are scary as all hell. John Gunn

If he'd have just left off the FDR misinterpretation

I can't help but think of my old Daddy when I reflect on FDR. Then again, I also look back on buying David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945 about eight years ago when I could hardly afford such a pricey purchase. I read it twice! So to read an attack, and there are legitimately some criticisms that can be made, of FDR from Bob McLaughlin in today's Birmingham News ran my stinger out a little.

Then again, a title of Don't punish honest makers of wealth admittedly had me looking for trouble. And using ExxonMobil, especially in Alabama even if the Republicans on the Alabama Supreme Court cut the punitives and dialed the damages back to merely breach of contract, might not have been Bob's best illustration of an "honest maker of wealth". Bob wrote,

In 2007, Exxon paid more than $32 billion in taxes with less than $12 billion in net profits.

How can they pay more than they earn? And his figures aren't even right.

According to Dennis Cauchon of USA TODAY they "earned after-tax profits of $41 billion and paid $14.5 billion in worldwide income taxes in 2007". That's worldwide! Marianne Lavelle of U.S. News and World Reports likewise used "$40.6 billion earnings for 2007" in her reporting.

And aren't those "80,000 good-paying jobs" including employees outside the US?

The 35% corporate tax rate that we supposedly have here in the US is laden with loopholes of course yet Bob failed to bark that dog and thus may likely receive poor performance reviews if in fact he's in the tank for the right wing noise machine. And for the record I doubt he is. I expect he's been exposed however. Given his line of work, perhaps he just wants to get some marketing done. Everybody has to make a living and I bet these days are dark for he and his.

I expect Mr. McLaughlin is aware of an undeniably regressive tax system where the poor pay a disproportionate percentage of their income in sales and excise taxes. Accepting the Federal Tax Code is somewhat Progressive, even more so before Bu$hCo's irresponsible tax cuts, then state and local realities take away or at least balance out that condition. This is especially so in Alabama.

I wonder if poor Bob got hold of figures from Dr. Mark J. Perry of the Macinac Center, what Gary Palmer's Alabama Policy Institute perhaps hopes to be when it grows up. That George Mason education is really paying off for the Funding Fathers. That ExxonMobil is tied to Macinac, and others of the sort (indeed "There's a tiger in your tank!") is just too rich.

Are taxes "stealing" or "robbing"? Do they "punish"? I doubt one can even discuss what might make a fair and reasonable tax policy from a person prepared to use such language.

And is all wealth earned by working hard? I'll let Chuck Collins do the heavy lifting via this American Prospect piece titled Tax Wealth to Broaden Wealth: Reframing the debate and mobilizing a constituency and this Nation piece titled A Fair Plan to Pay for Economic Recovery. Mr. McLaughlin even used "accumulated" and I'll submit that description applies more than "earned". There's a decent argument to be made that being born on third base counts more that one's effort and talent when it gets "to the day of the sale" (my old Daddy's way of talking about dying).

What got me most however was when Mr. McLaughlin uses a total misrepresentation of historical fact when he writes,

To make matters worse, in 1933 Franklin Roosevelt's National Recovery Act implemented a floor on corporate salaries. Companies were not allowed to reduce salaries even though their sales were plummeting and their tax bills more than doubled. This resulted in massive unemployment because companies simply could not afford the high salaries, declining revenue and high taxes. We killed the goose that laid the golden egg.

Truly unemployment remained high, and a good argument could be made that only WWII ended the Great Depression, yet after FDR took over the situation drastically improved. Pretty much any respectable historian gives FDR snaps for saving capitalism while also avoiding the fascism and militarism of Germany, Japan, and Italy.

And Bob, the big boys in business often helped write the NRA codes. It might not have been perfect but it was hardly as you've suggested. The idea was to create a level playing field and not let the race be about who got to the bottom first. Some ventures into unfettered globalism is attractive here yet that is another post for another day. I also think there are some nice comparisons to be made about how Hoover ran and Bu$hCo is running around with their hair on fire in response to their respective troubles but that's too another post for another day.

I'm certainly in favor of Mr. McLaughlin's urging that we "Punish the crooks." I appreciate that he's writing, "Put reasonable regulations in place that will keep the questionable activities from being repeated." Too bad he's wrapped up in false understandings of current conditions and past history. But for those failings, and they are deal breakers, I bet we could agree on some policies for broad prosperity and a better future. John Gunn