The Democratic parties

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According to The New Republic, it’s looking more and more like we practically have two feuding Democratic parties now: Clinton’s version and Dean’s version.

The division in the party over Dean is less about ideology than about power. Three years after Bill Clinton left office, he and Hillary still control what remains of a Democratic establishment. Terry McAuliffe, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), was installed by Clinton. Most of the powerful new fund-raising groups, known as 527s, and the new think tanks, such as the Center for American Progress, are run by the best and brightest of the Clinton administration. As National Journal noted in a detailed look at what it called “Hillary Inc.,” the senator’s network of fund-raising organizations “has begun to assume a quasi-party status.” And some of the best Clinton talent is heavily invested in non-Dean campaigns, especially Joe Lieberman’s (Mandy Grunwald and Mark Penn), John Edwards’s (Bruce Reed), and Wesley Clark’s (Bruce Lindsey, Eli Segal, and Mickey Kantor).

Dean, by contrast, has come to represent the party’s anti-establishment forces. While the other candidates, especially former self-styled front-runner John Kerry, started the campaign by wooing party leaders, Dean built a grassroots army first–in part by bashing D.C. Democrats and their disastrous 2002 election strategy–and is only now leveraging his fund-raising power to win over establishment types. No Democrats closely associated with the Clintons are working for the Dean campaign. In fact, it’s hard to find a Clintonite who speaks favorably of the former Vermont governor. This evident schism is not just about Dean’s opposition to the war–or even his prospects in the general election. It’s a turf war to decide who will control the future of the party.

It’s an interesting look at where the Democratic party is headed, and there’s some more good analysis at the Daily Kos. It’s my hope that the “old-school” Clinton faction will recognize the strength of what Dean and his campaign are building by getting people — “real” people, not just big-money people — interested, excited and involved. Otherwise, continued rivalry could end up costing us 2004, and four more years of Bush is the last thing this country needs.

Because I suck at remembering names

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Vogue regulars I met tonight that I should remember the names of:

Ron: spoke with him up in the DJ booth for a while, on everything from the Vogue to Seattle weather.

Rhonda: friends with and works with Trish.

Sylvie: had the cute purple knit hat with fur trim to match her coat (because they both had fur trim, not because the colors matched). Has a boyfriend whose name I didn’t catch.

Christina: great 40’s (?) style hat. I complimented her on her hat, then Sylvie introduced us. Sylvie then proceeded to embarrass Christina by remarking that she had “great tits” (I certainly wasn’t about to argue, but rather than agree and make an ass out of myself, I merely kept my mouth shut), encouraging me to talk to Christina, and then declaring that I should be taken home by Christina and Josh, who was also talking to Christina.

Josh: the aforementioned person also talking to Christina, who wearing a top hat. Apparently this was a good night for good hats.

None of this will mean anything to anyone else. It’s mostly here for my own reference, in a (probably futile) effort to drill the names into my head for more than a few hours.

iPod Rocks!

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I promise not to pierce myself.

Looks like Apple’s gearing up for the holiday season with a new teen-focused website at ipodrocks.

It’s rather cleverly done, if a little uneven. Lots of short little flash-style animations (apparently it’s Flash wrapped inside Quicktime — odd), some short demos of the iPod and how it works, and various “hints and tips” on how to convince your parents to get you an iPod. Some of the iCards that can be sent through the site gave me a laugh — the one I’ve got pictured here was my favorite of the bunch. There are also “help around the home” coupons, a points-for-grades suggestion, and even a small screensaver featuring the dancing silhouettes from the recent iPod ads listed as “subliminal advertising”.

I’ve already noticed iPod ads on quite a few of the buses around the Seattle area. Looks like we’re going to be seeing a lot of those bright iPod ads over the coming months.

(via MacRumors)

Justice isn't always black and white

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Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.

Local weekly newspaper The Stranger has an excellent summary of Gary Ridgeway’s day in court confessing to 48 counts of murder as the Green River Killer — and plea bargaining to avoid the death sentence in the process — in the form of a 24-panel black and white comic strip. Very nicely done.

I’m really torn as to the matter of his plea bargain. Firstly, I’ve never been a huge fan of the death penalty (yes, I’m afraid I’m one of those flaming liberals). At the same time, if there were ever a case extreme enough to justify the death penalty, this could be it — 48 women dead over 20-some years, merely because Ridgeway didn’t like prostitutes. Obviously, rehabilitation isn’t an option in some cases, and while Ridgeway’s death certainly wouldn’t bring any of his victims back, or ease the pain for their families, it could provide a sense of closure and finality for many people that merely locking him away for the rest of his life wouldn’t do. But what got the judge to accept the plea bargain and to allow Ridgeway to live was Ridgeway’s promise to reveal the location of even more remains so that they can be exhumed, identified, and hopefully returned to their families, which I can only see as a good thing, allowing more people to get a certain amount of closure in the death of their loved ones.

It’s certainly not an easy situation. I don’t envy the judge, nor any of the other people involved in this case. No matter what, not everyone is going to be satisfied with the final outcome.

(via pops)

Random encounters

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I’ve had my first week of training at a branch of the business on Broadway, the main thoroughfare of Capitol Hill. That’s not where I’ll be once training is over with, but it’s been an entertaining week, and in some ways, I’m going to miss being able to wander up and down Broadway on my breaks. Some of the random encounters that go on can be fun.

Walking along the street during lunch, I’m approached by one of the many street denizens. He opens his spiel for money with, “Hey there, sir — you look like a fellow American.” “Yes, I am,” I reply, and walk past him and across the intersection.

A ten minute conversation with another person about my leather trenchcoat. His was cooler, of course, up until it got stolen out of his closet at a party. But mine was still pretty cool.

Passing one guy as I walked along, he asked if I could spare some change. “Sorry, man.” The next guy along, just a few feet over, heard the exchange. As I passed him — “Spare an apology?”

Watching a woman walk up to a pay phone and make call. “Hey, Jen? Yeah, it’s Kerry. I just got out of jail!”

Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex

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Brodie: Lois could never have Superman’s baby. Do you think her fallopian tubes could handle the sperm? I guarantee he blows a load like a shotgun right through her back. What about her womb? Do you think it’s strong enough to carry his child?

T.S.: Sure, why not?

Brodie Bruce: He’s an alien for Christ sake! His Kryptonian biological makeup is enhanced by Earth’s yellow sun. If Lois gets a tan, the kid could kick right through her stomach. Only someone like Wonder Woman has a strong enough uterus to carry his kid. The only way he could bang regular chicks is with a kryptonite condom. That would kill him.

— Brodie Bruce and T.S. Quint in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats

Covering the same basic field as the above quote, but in a more scientific, if not serious manner, Larry Niven’s classic speculative 1971 piece Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.

Either Superman has gone completely schizo and believes himself to be Clark Kent; or he knows what he’s doing, but no longer gives a damn. Thirty-one years is a long time. For Superman it has been even longer. He has X-ray vision; he knows just what he’s missing. (*One should not think of Superman as a Peeping Tom. A biological ability must be used. As a child Superman may never have known that things had surfaces, until he learned to suppress his X-ray vision. If millions of people tend shamelessly to wear clothing with no lead in the weave, that is hardly Superman’s fault.*)

The problem is this. Electroencephalograms taken of men and women during sexual intercourse show that orgasm resembles “a kind of pleasurable epileptic attack.” One loses control over one’s muscles.

Superman has been known to leave his fingerprints in steel and in hardened concrete, accidentally. What would he do to the woman in his arms during what amounts to an epileptic fit?

(via Boing Boing)

Top 10 scientific hoaxes

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From The Guardian: the top 10 scientific hoaxes of all time. A very interesting list, some of which I’d heard of, some of which I hadn’t, and one that I’d never heard was a hoax.

2. The amazing Tasaday tribe

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In 1971 Manuel Elizalde, a Philippine government minister, discovered a small stone age tribe living in utter isolation on the island of Mindanao. These people, the Tasaday, spoke a strange language, gathered wild food, used stone tools, lived in caves, wore leaves for clothes, and settled matters by gentle persuasion. They made love, not war, and became icons of innocence; reminders of a vanished Eden.

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They also made the television news headlines, the cover of National Geographic, were the subject of a bestselling book, and were visited by Charles A Lindbergh and Gina Lollobrigida. Anthropologists tried to get a more sustained look, but President Marcos declared a 45,000-acre Tasaday reserve and closed it to all visitors.

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After Marcos was deposed in 1986, two journalists got in and found that the Tasaday lived in houses, traded smoked meat with local farmers, wore Levi’s T-shirts and spoke a recognisable local dialect. The Tasadays explained that they had only moved into caves, donned leaves and performed for cameras under pressure from Elizalde – who had fled the country in 1983 along with millions from a foundation set up to protect the Tasaday. Elizalde died in 1997.

I remember reading about the Tasaday tribe in National Geographic (though as the issue was printed in 1972, the year before my birth, it must have been much later when I found it) and being absolutely fascinated that they’d been able to survive unchanged for so long. A bit of a bummer that it was a hoax, but not terribly surprising.

(via MeFi)

Gore Vidal interview

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I’ve been something of a low-level fan of Gore Vidal for quite a while now. I say “low-level” simply because every time I’ve seen him in something (such as Bob Roberts, where most of his political ruminations were unscripted and entirely his) or read interviews with him, I’ve liked what he has to say, and yet I’ve not read any of his books (something which I’d really like to correct sometime soon).

The LA Weekly currently has an interview with Gore Vidal which is well worth reading, touching on everything from what our founding fathers might think of Bush and his cronies to electronic voting. Some very good stuff in there.

But Gore, you have lived through a number of inglorious administrations in your lifetime, from Truman’s founding of the national-security state, to LBJ’s debacle in Vietnam, to Nixon and Watergate, and yet here you are to tell the tale. So when it comes to this Bush administration, are you really talking about despots per se? Or is this really just one more rather corrupt and foolish Republican administration?

No. We are talking about despotism. I have read not only the first PATRIOT Act but also the second one, which has not yet been totally made public nor approved by Congress and to which there is already great resistance. An American citizen can be fingered as a terrorist, and with what proof? No proof. All you need is the word of the attorney general or maybe the president himself. You can then be locked up without access to a lawyer, and then tried by military tribunal and even executed. Or, in a brand-new wrinkle, you can be exiled, stripped of your citizenship and packed off to another place not even organized as a country — like Tierra del Fuego or some rock in the Pacific. All of this is in the USA PATRIOT Act. The Founding Fathers would have found this to be despotism in spades. And they would have hanged anybody who tried to get this through the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Hanged.

(via /.)