Go ahead, gang up on Wal-Mart
(...hat tips: L.A. Times, Lee Scott)

The Los Angeles Times may not use the word "Hezbocrats", but they seem to share many of hired mudslinger Herman Cain's basic premises in a Wednesday op-ed titled "Democrats' Shameful Wal-Mart Demonization." Shameful? Shameful!? Talk about Rovian "accuse them of what you deserve yourself" tactics!

In part, the Times reaches for the old "I'm warning you for your own good" ploy, in which the editorial board holds forth on the supposed primary vs. general election appeal of getting after Wal-Mart:

The gusto with which even moderate Democrats are bashing Wal-Mart is bound to backfire. Not only does it take the party back to the pre-Clinton era, when Democrats were perceived as reflexively anti-business, it manages to make Democrats seem like out-of-touch elitists to the millions of Americans who work and shop at Wal-Mart.

As Avedon Carol ("The Sideshow") responds:

Right, because all businesses are exactly like Wal-Mart, objecting to Wal-Mart's practices is 'anti-business'. You could just as easily say the same about the Mafia - they are, after all, a business. But not all businesses are quite the same, and being against the Mafia, or loan sharks, or Wal-Mart, is not the same thing as being anti-business.

Moreover, if you're actually a Democrat worried where Wal-Mart voters are trending, a Zogby poll recently found that 51% of frequent Wal-Mart shoppers agreed that it was "time for the Democrats to take over and run" Congress versus 31% percent who think "Republicans deserve to retain control" -- after 85% support for Bush in the 2004 election.*

As Ms. Carol also noted, the editorial made another interesting assertion: "Most Americans do not want their politicians ganging up on one company."

Hmm.

You know what? That's actually not a bad idea -- just do it through the Justice Department or its equivalents at the state level. In a Harper's article "Breaking the Chain" (July, 2006), the New America Foundation's Barry Lynn lays out "The antitrust case against Wal-Mart" -- and it's pretty compelling.

Summarizing, it turns out that what are essentially anti-trust cases aren't confined either conceptually or by statute to attacking producer monopolies on behalf of the consumer. Seller "monopsonies" -- a market form with one buyer -- can be and have been taken to court as well. The grocery chain Atlantic & Pacific, for example, was taken to court from the 1940's on, with one case concluding in 1979. Thus, statutes like the Sherman Act and the Robinson-Patman Act are also intended to protect suppliers from monopsonistic pressures to cut prices to levels demanded by 800 pound gorilla retailers like Wal-Mart.

As Lynn puts it, "Monopsony arises when a firm captures the ability to dictate price to its suppliers, because the suppliers have no real choice other than to deal with that buyer." The classic treatment of monopsony considers labor markets,** but in this case Lynn is talking about Wal-Mart's well known impact on its suppliers:

Kraft, meanwhile, is a producer that only four years ago was celebrated by Forbes for “leading the charge” in a “brutal industry.” Yet since 2004, Kraft has announced plans to shut thirty-nine plants, to let go 13,500 workers, and to eliminate a quarter of its products. Most reports blame soaring prices of energy and raw materials, but in a truly free market Kraft could have pushed at least some of these higher costs on to the consumer. This, however, is no longer possible. Even as costs rise, Wal-Mart and other discounters continue to demand that Kraft lower its prices further. Kraft has found itself with no other choice than to swallow the costs, and hence to tear itself to pieces.

Wal-Mart's "Category Management" practices, whereby Wal-Mart allocates shares of its market -- effectively the market -- to the most compliant suppliers is an even more blatant example of the excessive market power Wal-Mart has. Effectively, Bentonville is midwifing captive monopolies:

These days, Wal-Mart and a growing number of other retailers ask a single supplier to serve as its “Category Captain” and to manage the shelving and marketing decisions for an entire family of products, say, dental care. Wal-Mart then requires all other producers of this class of products to cooperate with the new “Captain.” One obvious result is that a producer like Colgate-Palmolive will end up working intensely with firms it formerly competed with, such as Crest manufacturer P&G, to find the mix of products that will allow Wal-Mart to earn the most it can from its shelf space. If Wal-Mart discovers that a supplier promotes its own product at the expense of Wal-Mart's revenue, the retailer may name a new captain in its stead.

An unwary consumer may applaud this in the short term, but in the long run the suppliers stocking the soft-drinks, dental care, shaving products, and other shelves and aisles controlled this way become essentially oligopoly-going-on-monopoly playthings of Wal-Mart; it can then dial those prices up or down more or less at will, yet dictate ever more onerous prices to its own suppliers.

As Lynn tells it, the seeds of Wal-Mart's success were planted in the Reagan years as anti-trust activity was drastically curtailed (and, of course, as anti-union policies came into vogue). Far from being "elitist" or even anti-free market, then, taking on Wal-Mart would be a step in the right direction to a market that is more free, more fair, and better for more people than the current aberrant market system is. As Lynn concludes:

...We must restore antitrust law to its central role in protecting the economic rights, properties, and liberties of the American citizen, and first of all use that power to break Wal-Mart into pieces.

Lynn also finds a somewhat surprising voice of support (emphasis added):

As we make our case, we should be sure to call one expert witness in particular. Last year, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott called on the British government to take antitrust action against the U.K. grocery chain Tesco. Whenever a firm nears a 30 percent share of any market, Scott said, “there is a point where government is compelled to intervene.” Now, Wal-Mart has never been shy about using antitrust for its own purposes. In addition to the Toys R Us case, the firm was also the instigator of a Sherman Act suit against Visa and MasterCard. And so such a statement, by the CEO of a firm that already controls upward of 30 percent of many markets and has announced plans to more than double its sales, sets a new standard for hubris. It also sets a simple goal for us—elect representatives who will take Citizen Scott at his word.

I actually laughed when I read that. Who says economics has to be the dismal science?


=====
* The link is to "Wal-Mart economics -- and Wal-Mart Voters" in this blog; Zogby data via Ryan Sager ("RealClearPolitics") are cited there.
** Wal-Mart also effectively undermines free-market wage levels, in my opinion, via the combination of its size crowding out competing retailers, anti-union tactics, and time shaving. This may amount to a labor monopsony as well, but since Lynn isn't arguing that point, I won't either. posted by Thomas Nephew at 6:53:00 PM -- |    

 
Beyond belief: black kids sent to back of bus
Are the bad old days down South coming back? In Louisiana, the Shreveport Times' Vickie Welborn reports:

COUSHATTA -- Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children. [...]

After Richmond and Williams filed complaints with the School Board, Transportation Supervisor Jerry Carlisle asked Davis to make seat assignments for her passengers, Sessoms said.

"But she still assigned the black children to the back of the bus," she added.

And the nine children had to share only two seats, meaning the older children had to hold the younger ones in their laps.

I don't want to make more out of an incident than it deserves, but it's a hell of an incident. Via Progressive States Network.

UPDATE, 8/26 -- I missed the next "problem solved" part:

A new solution reached Monday by School Board officials has a black bus driver driving across town to pick up the nine black children.

And if that doesn't work out, maybe they'll skip the "building separate but equal schools" stage and regress directly to cross burnings or slavery. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:55:00 PM -- |    

 
Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch: "One Year after Katrina"
From the announcement:

Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch has published "One Year after Katrina" (pdf), a 96-page report that reveals the state of Gulf Coast rebuilding on the anniversary of the storm. Through statistics, status reports, in-depth investigations, and profiles of community leaders, "One Year After Katrina highlights the challenges ahead for a just and sustainable renewal.

The report analyzes over 250 indicators and reports on 13 major issue areas, including Demographics, Housing, Economy, Schools, Healthcare, Arts and Hurricane Readiness. The report also lists an index of some of the organizations working on Gulf Coast issues.

From the introduction to the report (.pdf file):

A year after Katrina, how much progress has New Orleans and the Gulf Coast made?

To answer this question, the Institute analyzed over 200 indicators in 13 categories. We have also conducted status reports on key Gulf issues, launched in-depth investigations into the region’s economic power brokers and interviewed leading community activists in the Gulf region.

The conclusion is unavoidable and devastating: One year later, New Orleans and the Gulf region still face basic, fundamental barriers to renewal. Further, lack of federal leadership and misplaced priorities are preventing the region from achieving a vibrant future. For example:

Lack of HOUSING still keeps tens of thousands of Gulf residents from coming back home. Aid for homeowners in Louisiana and Mississippi was approved 10 months after the storms, and none has been disbursed. Little money has been earmarked for rebuilding rental units—none in Mississippi— and rents are skyrocketing. Eighty percent of public housing in New Orleans is still closed, despite minimal storm damage, and Mississippi residents learned that three coastal facilities will be shut down soon.

Problems continue to plague SCHOOLS in the region, making it difficult for many families to return. Only 57 of the 117 public schools in New Orleans before Katrina are scheduled to open in the 2006-2007 school year.

CONTRACTING SCANDALS and other special-interest dealings continue to plague the recovery. Institute analysis has found $136.7 million in corporate fraud in Katrina-related contracts, and government investigators have highlighted contracts worth $428.7 million that are troubling due to lack of oversight or misappropriation. Altogether, the Institute finds that corporate contracting abuse has cost taxpayers 50 times more than widely-publicized scandals involving individuals wrongfully collecting assistance.

Threats to the ENVIRONMENT are exposing residents to a wide range of toxins and making many think twice about returning to the region. Federal officials also have yet to commit the resources to restore coastal wetlands—the region’s best defense against future storms.

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CROSSPOSTED from Recording Katrina. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:30:00 PM -- |    

 
Wal-Mart opponents "Hezbocrats"
"Working Families for Wal-Mart" board member and Townhall.com columnist Herman Cain is labeling Democrats speaking out against Wal-Mart's business practices "Hezbocrats." It's no throwaway line, either. Cain thinks he's hit a rhetorical home run, using it in the column's title, and leading paragraph after paragraph with the term -- and naming names you might not expect. From "Hezbocrats Attack Wal-Mart":

Leading Hezbocrats, including Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE), Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN) and Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM), attended rallies in Des Moines to slam Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer. Wal-Mart’s crime? According to the Hezbocrats, Wal-Mart has abandoned the middle class by not paying what they consider a "living wage" or providing its employees free healthcare coverage.

At one rally, Sen. Biden stated, "My problem with Wal-Mart is that I don’t see any indication that they care about the fate of middle-class people." Sen. Bayh added, "Wal-Mart has become emblematic of the anxiety around the country, and the middle-class squeeze."

The rallies were organized by Wake Up Wal-Mart.com and Wal-Mart Watch; I hope readers will support Wake Up Wal-Mart's demand for an apology.

Meanwhile, it's gratifying to see skepticism about Wal-Mart hit the mainstream to this extent; the signature moment was when Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont showed up at the same WakeUpWalMart rally in Connecticut early this month. But pace Bayh, there's nothing merely "emblematic" about Wal-Mart. The company is exerting a gigantic, Jupiter-like gravitational pull downwards on American wages and health benefits, and resisting that is what Democratic politics should be all about. It's telling that should be met with puerile name-calling. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:30:00 PM -- |    

 
Virginia sleepers
Young Virginian Kenton Ngo ("750 Volts") has identified a great opportunity in the August 17 SurveyUSA Virginia poll results. As one graph he produced shows, Virginians between 18 and 34 years of age are substantially more likely to consider Senator Allen's "macaca/macaque" remark racist than other age groups.

The opportunity is in connection with the other graph, which you should click through to see. Unbelievably, fully 48% of the same age group hasn't even heard of the issue yet.

If 18 to 34 year old racist-or-not evaluations aren't correlated with whether they've heard of the story, Democratic Senate candidate Jim Webb might do well to target some hard-hitting ads to this demographic, on MTV or American Idol or whatever all you kids are watching these days.

Meanwhile, myDD's Matt Stoller forwards a memo by Allen's campaign manager Dick Wadhams that kept the focus on Allen's remarks. Wadhams blasted the media for "refusing to accept" Allen's apology and claimed, bizarrely:

The fact that they have attempted to make race an issue so early in the campaign is evidence of just how desperate they are.

posted by Thomas Nephew at 2:07:00 AM -- |    

 
"Their voice. Amplified." or Why I'm banning 151.200.70.* comments
I got curious the other day about a comment left some time ago at this blog. I won't identify it, so that I can discuss the the IP address it traced to without revealing an identity that perhaps shouldn't be revealed -- and without leveling a precise charge that can't yet be supported. Suffice it to say a political opinion was involved, as is of course the case for most comments here.

Haloscan -- the comment service for this blog -- permanently records IP addresses of published comments, and site owners can examine them with the "Manage Comments" utility. In addition, I've built the SiteMeter script into the comment code. Together, this gives me a chance to quickly learn about commenters and, when necessary, report spammers or ban unwanted commenters. In this case, the IP address -- 151.200.70.X (I know but won't say the final block number) -- turned out to be registered to

DEMOCRACY DATA & COMMUNICATIONS, LLC
1029 North Royal Street, Suite 200
Alexandria, VA 22314-1542
US

Interesting name -- so I tried to learn more about it. And lo and behold, Democracy, Data & Communications (henceforth DDC) is in the astroturfing business -- or, as the Wikipedia entry on the subject puts it:

...formal public relations projects which deliberately seek to engineer the impression of spontaneous, grassroots behavior.

Serving Democracy...
A defunct "Rational Grounds" post preserved by Teresa Nielsen Hayden once noted DDC's involvement in sotto voce Bush administration P.R. campaigns for its Medicare and "No Child Left Behind" education initiatives -- the latter famously blowing up on the front pages with the Armstrong Williams "paid shill" story:

An internet campaign was also mounted through Democracy, Data & Communications, a company with a breathtaking record in the astroturf world. A quick WHOIS/nslookup investigation turned up oodles of DDC fronts. [detailed list to follow] Their client list is also pretty impressive.

Yes, it is: Edelman Public Affairs Worldwide, (which has Wal-Mart as a client), BellSouth, Verizon, ClearChannel, Merck, Monsanto, Microsoft... the list goes on and on. Motto: "Your Voice. Amplified."

More interesting yet was a DailyKos article by "leveymg" sharing what he learned investigating a Craig's List Help Wanted ad for "OnPoint Advocacy," which turns out to be a DDC affiliate. Kudos to the Washington Post's Jeffrey Birnbaum for much of the information in this post; his September 15, 2005 "For Online Advocates, Click Here" article provides a lot of excellent background:

It's hard to imagine two issues of less interest to most voters than free trade with Central America and a cut in the tax on dividends paid to the owners of stock

Yet the latest in lobbyists' wiles -- a grand elaboration on Internet advertising -- managed to rope hundreds of thousands of average Americans into the congressional debate on both matters and was instrumental in passing the measures into law

The until-now unheralded trick-of-trade was bankrolled by the Business Roundtable -- an organization of chief executives from 160 large companies -- and was executed by Alexandria-based Democracy Data & Communications LLC and its OnPoint Advocacy affiliate. It worked so well that the Roundtable is experimenting with it as a way to revive President Bush's foundering effort to make private accounts part of Social Security

"It's the future of lobbying," said John J. Castellani, president of the Roundtable.

I can't know at this point whether my commenter was (1) a regular citizen somehow tagged with the DDC IP address as he/she was forwarded to my site, (2) a DDC employee who just happened to surf to my site that day, or (3) a DDC employee involved in cruising targeted web sites and leaving comments* -- perhaps (4) a so-called "Advocacy Coordinator," the position "leveymg" found an ad for:

Advocacy Coordinators
Exciting start-up, grassroots firm currently has openings for Advocacy Coordinators working in house or from home. In this position you will be working with a team of dedicated professionals doing issue-based advocacy work; educating, organizing and mobilizing grassroots advocates by phone and e-mail. Ideal candidates will be highly motivated, politically minded individuals with outstanding communication skills, both written and verbal, who thrive in a campaign style work environment. A strong interest in and working knowledge of politics and public affairs are essential. Campaign experience strongly preferred.

The latter two possibilities -- call it the "paid shill" theory -- are more disturbing to me, but even the first one -- call it the "astroturf grass blade" theory -- would illustrate that Margaret Mead was more right than she knew when she said "Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world when they've got millions of dollars worth of IT services to play with." (Or something like that.) As the idealists at OnPoint -- IP address 151.200.70.61 -- put it:

OnPoint Advocacy understands how difficult it can be to generate the amount and quality of support you need, especially within tight timeframes or on specialized issues. That's why we often turn to the Web to help our clients quickly build high-volume support for a campaign.

....the Astroturf way
In his DailyKos post, "leveymg" also saved some of the key parts of a second "Rational Grounds" post about DDC (emphases added):

Democracy Data & Communcations is a big player in the astroturf community. They host the website for the Grass Roots Roundtable, and they co-chair it with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The board of directors is a regular Who's Who of American industry. They're a big player at the Public Affairs Council, and they've earned a reputation as the place to go for astroturf campaigns.

I came across DDC in October of last year, when they were putting pop-up ads against John Edwards in AOL Instant Messenger. This was for their The Truth About Trial Lawyers site for the November Fund (warning: slow to load). The November Fund was a tort-reform astroturf campaign bought and paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. ... A quick google on their name brought up their site, and a May 2004 post by Mark Kleiman on a very similar campaign on behalf of No Child Left Behind.

However, it wasn't until I started noodling around their DNS that things really got interesting. Punching in the domain name at DNSStuff.com gave me the IP address 151.200.70.81 for http://supportnclb.com (defunct now, try the Way Back Machine). A WHOIS lookup on this showed me it was indeed owned by DDC, and that they owned the whole 151.200.70.* netblock. Hmm. Finally, I did a reverse-DNS lookup on the IP...

and hit paydirt. Sadly, only some of it is preserved in the DailyKos post, but it gives you the idea:

151.200.70.81 voteforcontracting.com
151.200.70.81 voteforcontracting.org
151.200.70.81 voteforflorida.com
151.200.70.81 voteforflorida.org
151.200.70.81 voteforfranchising.com
151.200.70.81 voteforgeorgewbush.com
151.200.70.81 voteforphilanthropy.com
151.200.70.81 voteforsmallbusiness.com
151.200.70.81 voteforsmallbusiness.net
151.200.70.81 voteforsmallbusiness.org ...

(Emphasis in original.) The current list for that particular block appears to be smaller now, and appears to change periodically -- or maybe the "dnsstuff.com" utility for looking at that block only gets a random dozen or so at a time, I'm no expert on this kind of thing.

At any rate, as of the other evening 151.200.70.81 is the IP address for votefornuclear.com, voteforthemeritshop.com (builders association twist on "open shop"), ustvotes.com (UST tobacco corporation voting site) and other organizations that generally funnel interested parties towards a voteforbusiness.com Chamber of Commerce mothership.** One that doesn't is is the Social Security "reform" group compasscoalition.com (Coalition for the Modernization and Protection of America's Social Security), which asserts

The only viable solution is to modernize Social Security. Modernization would not affect people who are currently in or near retirement. Instead, it would offer younger workers a chance to invest a portion of their payroll taxes in personal savings accounts (PSA). Modernization would be a victory for all Americans and offers many benefits, such as higher retirement payments and personal ownership of PSAs that can be passed on to heirs.

Sure, if you ... and Big Tobacco ... and all the rest of the wonderful folks inhabiting this IP address say so. And that's just what I saw under 151.200.70.81 the other evening; although I'm not a confident Internet sleuth, DDC still appears to own the whole 151.200.70.* IP address range. That leaves a bunch of other 4 number codes to sift through, but there's clearly a bit of a political pattern already.


So what
Now just because I don't share the politics, implied or otherwise, of the constellation of organizations sharing the 151.200.70.* IP range, that doesn't make what's happening here some kind of illegal conspiracy. Online voter organizing is arguably fair game on both sides -- maybe it's no more than people self-selecting themselves into the political data cattleyards of their choice. If a number of seemingly unrelated cattleyards turn out to be on the same servers in Alexandria somewhere, what of it?

Well, perhaps that we're looking at a kind of industrial scale metaspam here, cookie cutter organizations that create the illusion of huge support with relatively little real human activity at the heart of it. And the prospect of a paid, IT-weaponized army of shills skewing the public discourse on political issues of the day is at least a wee bit more disturbing yet.

It's not unthinkable and it's not implausible. As Teresa Nielsen Hayden once wrote:

Deceiving us has become an industrial process.

But at least uncovering that can be a community process. So: is anyone else getting political comments tracing from the 151.200.70.* IP address group? Maybe it's not happening -- but I've got a way to make sure on my site, and that's to ban future comments tracing to that address group and to the astroturfing P.R. company that owns it.


=====
* This has happened to me before with CENTCOM, the DoD Central Command operations site in Tampa, Florida.
** A couple of sites I saw appeared to be planned but nonexistent at the time I looked: curediabetesnow.info and protectpatientsfirst.org.

UPDATE, 8/23: Welcome, "Making Light" readers! I hope those of you with blogs will check your own visits for this IP address block.
UPDATE, 8/27: Ann Bartow ("Feminist Law Professors") has collected a number of other examples of "chaff" -- opinions paid for or instigated by astroturf operations, and in a comment here, "Pony" points out an account of a Monsanto-orchestrated smear campaign.
UPDATES, 8/31:
1) Teresa Nielsen Hayden ("Making Light") rounds up astroturf comment orchestrator sightings, and identifies Netvocates and The Rendon Group (IP 12.40.165.147) as two leading practitioners; Netvocates claims to "never engage in anonymous commenting on blogs,", but a reverse lookup of its IP address (66.113.130.183) seems unusually inconclusive. In other words, it might be hard to tell whether Netvocates is keeping its promise or not. (But I'm also inexperienced at this.)
2) In a second comment, "Pony" points out that PR Watch follows astroturf stories and has a special tag for them.
3) Bill Humphries, "More Like This WebLog" has a nice line: "Barlow didn’t realize that moneyed interests would treat open society as damage and route around it." posted by Thomas Nephew at 7:43:00 PM -- |    

 
District 20 primary update

Important reminder: 9PM tomorrow is the deadline to register for the September 12 primary. Maryland and Montgomery County both provide forms and instructions.

I attended Aaron Klein's "D20:100" event (District 20: 100 activists) at the beginning of August at The Gallery on East-West Highway (by Mr. Klein's kind invitation). It was impressive, with lots of Takoma Park, Silver Spring, and Montgomery County movers and shakers in attendance. Jamie Raskin, Dan Fox (State's attorney), Valerie Ervin (District 5 County Council), and Mark Elrich (at large County Council) were some of the candidates I saw there.

The main speaker was retiring Maryland Senator Paul Sarbanes. What a nice man! Soft-spoken, funny, but also to the point of the campaign event: 6 weeks to go to the primary election... nothing warms a candidate's heart so much as a bumper sticker on someone else's car. And of course a warm endorsement of his staffer.

Lucinda Lessley has received the endorsement of Blair Ewing (joining Mr. Klein in that), the Montgomery County Green Democrats (joining Jamie Raskin in that), as well as the Montgomery County Medical Society -- hence the "Doctor Approved" stickers on many of her lawn signs. I attended a fundraiser for Ms. Lessley yesterday, where she said she'd knocked on over 5,100 doors so far -- so the new proprietor of MoCoPolitics may be right in claiming that "nobody has knocked on more doors than she has." I also had the chance to learn more about her goals for improving the way Maryland manages growth -- something I think is critical to addressing global warming. Afterwards, she sent me links to a couple of papers on Maryland development policy, including Maryland's "Smart Growth": Using Incentives to Combat Sprawl by James Cohen, which is both a primer about "smart growth" and about Maryland regional planning in general.

Heather Mizeur lawn signs are sprouting fast now that they're printed. In fact, they're rapidly approaching Raskin-like levels in my neck of the District 20 woods, although I'd estimate Tom Hucker is still the overall leader in that campaign measure. I'm still hopeful Ms. Mizeur will share her views on "Fair Share" legislation after the recent court ruling that it conflicted with federal law, but her (justly praised) web site provides detailed positions on other issues from health care -- she drafted John Kerry's health care plan in the 2004 election -- to education to verifiable voting.

Delegate candidates Diane Nixon, Delegate Gareth Murray, and Tom Hucker all have active web sites now, and Sheila Hixson has had one all along. As chair of the Assembly Ways and Means committee, I would think Hixson is a favorite to win the most votes of any Assembly candidate. But her campaign on the ground is missing in action so far as I can tell, and neither her fundraising nor her cash on hand are strong compared to many of the other candidates.*

I finally got a look at Tom Hucker's web site, which confirmed that he's chosen to run as an experienced, progressive Annapolis insider with lots of endorsements. He hails from the Progressive Maryland organization, and I guess their goals and his will largely overlap. He and Progressive Maryland take a lot of credit for the Fair Share Health Care bill -- fairly so, as far as I know -- while keeping their "eyes on the prize: universal single-payer health care," to quote his kickoff speech.

Jamie Raskin got the Montgomery County National Organization for Women (NOW) endorsement. That's especially noteworthy because of his opponent's Ruben's recent mailing charging he wasn't a "real Democrat," in part for his view that racketeering charges were an improper way to control pro-life demonstrators at abortion clinics. The mailing has backfired badly for Ms. Ruben as far as I can tell; Congressman Chris Van Hollen called it "Karl Rove politics." Meanwhile, in the "MoCoPolitics" post on campaign finance filings, I learned that Raskin has raised more than three times as much money as Ruben -- and without any corporate contributions! On the other hand, Ruben has about twice as much on hand, presumably from funds raised before the primary season began.

Finally, I guess I should say that I'm supporting Lucinda Lessley, Heather Mizeur, and Aaron Klein in the District 20 Democratic primary for the Assembly. All of these candidates combine energy, experience, and expertise on the issues I'm most concerned about. While I don't deny that their rivals are worthy candidates as well, these three are the ones who have personally impressed me the most.


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DISTRICT 20 ELECTION POSTS

• June Maryland Assembly District 20 candidate forum
• District 20 candidates on Fair Share Health Care
• Jamie Raskin for Maryland Senate
• The July 20 Raskin-Ruben debate
• Raskin, Ruben, and "real Democrats"
• Maryland election dates -- minus early voting, for now

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* Although this leaves out a "2006 annual account" I don't know whether to count or not. posted by Thomas Nephew at 5:40:00 PM -- |    

 
Good for a grin
Battling the butterfly effect - Physics Today August 2006 --- Scientists the world over are aware of the butterfly effect: A butterfly flaps its wings in some part of the world and starts a chain of nonlinear effects that can result in a hurricane striking anywhere on the planet.

That butterfly must be found and stopped!

Send Joe to a Tennessee community college (Andy Axel, at "KnoxViews") --- Once our governor works out the details and curriculum of the Wal-Training Partnership Act, you're back in the public eye.

Guaranteed.

Getting serious on terror (The Editors, "The Poor Man") --- "To stop chewing this glass bottle would show weakness to the terrorists!" I sometimes think The Editors and Fafblog! are all that stands between us and the abyss. They must not fail!

My Summer Reading Journal --- George W. Bush reads Camus (as told to Julian Sanchez).

...August 12: I begin to suspect that God is merely a way of coping with our fundamentally absurd condition, an act of bad faith, a desperate attempt to deny our own responsibility for creating meaning in a disenchanted world by locating it outside ourselves, in a fabricated transcendent will we then refuse to recognize as our own creation -- bastard offspring we confusedly call "father". I relate my epiphany to Karl with the excitement of a man beginning life anew. He says the message is unlikely to resonate with the base.

iFrist -- toys and prizes for everyone! Call it the inFantilization of politics.

And finally, the "Mel Gibson's next movie" joke and faux entertainment news genre keeps growing and growing and growing.


=====
NOTES: Butterfly effect via Notes from the Basement; Lieberman photoshop by Andy Axel; "Getting serious" via Jim Henley; Bush reading Camus via Whiskey Bar; first two Gibson joke links to "Reality Based Community" and "Amygdala." posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:15:00 PM -- |