7 posts tagged “politics”

I refuse to become as emotionally invested in the presidential race this time around, largely because none of the candidates speak to me as strongly as Kucinich did back in 2004 when he represented an admittedly longshot at legitimate change.  Between him and Sharpton, there were issues put on the table that couldn't easily be swept away by the "leading" candidates, and if not for the distraction of the opportunistic Howard Dean, the Democrats might have nominated someone with an actual chance to beat Bush instead of a clueless John Kerry.

I have been keeping one eye on both parties candidates, though, akin to having the playoffs on in the background even though your team isn't playing, just in case something interesting happens, and have some initial thoughts about some of the front-runners, each of whom I'm only now starting to explore further.

DEMOCRATS

Hilary Clinton: No thanks. She's too polarizing, too calculating and way too political, and if the Republicans find a decent candidate to rally around, she'll lose another close general election. If nominated, I think her candidacy would be actually end up being a major setback for both the Democratic Party and for the chances of a woman ever being President in my lifetime.

Barack Obama: In some uncomfortable ways, he's Howard Dean redux, though I'm starting to think he's a bit more sincere than Dean ever was and actually has a pretty good shot at both derailing Clinton and fracturing the Democratic Party, in a good way. I like the idea of him, but I'm still not clear on the reality. If he gets the nomination, his VP pick will be more crucial than usual, especially in the post-Cheney age of the position.

John Edwards: Of the three front-runners, I like Edwards the most by a slim margin over Obama, and still remember Kucinich throwing his weight behind him in Iowa back in 2004. Kerry picking him for VP last time is a bit of a double-edged sword, though, as without it I think he'd be even more in the background than he is right now, but their loss comes with its own baggage that voters worried about "electability" will surely factor in.

Bill Richardson: Is he even still running? I haven't seen his name mentioned much at all recently and have always felt like his candidacy was more of a "raising my national profile" effort than a legitimate run. Unlike Kucinich, I'm not even aware of him having a signature issue.

REPUBLICANS

Rudy Giuliani: Way more than I despised Bush in 2004, I despise Giuliani to his rotten core. As the national media starts to pay more attention to him and the dirty laundry from his tenure as Mayor of New York City is aired out, I don't think he has a prayer of coming close to getting the nomination. If he does pull it off, though, and the Democrats go with Clinton, it's going to be an ugly battle of the lesser of two evils and the best opportunity a strong third-party candidate will have ever had. If he wins, I'll be moving far away from New York because the ever-present bullseye that rests over our fair city will only get larger and redder.

John McCain: This train left the station years ago and simply isn't coming back. His best bet would have been to team up with Kerry back in 2004, standing behind his principles instead of his party.

Mitt Romney: Who? I don't care that he's a Mormon (that is him, right?) anymore than I care that everyone else is a Christian, so I don't see why it should be an issue at all. Other than that, I don't really know anything about the guy.

Mike Huckabee: He's been getting some positive press lately and seems to be surging at the right moment, but I don't know much about him other than he's apparently a pretty traditional conservative which, of course, means I'd never vote for him.

Fred Thompson: Ha hahahahaa!  Seriously, dude? I'm thinking he saw the writer's strike coming and decided he needed something to keep him busy when it hit.

INDEPENDENT

Michael Bloomberg: He's not running, yet, but depending on the two major nominees, I can see him jumping into the fray in March or April and turning the race completely on its head. More than Giuliani, he can point to his track record as Mayor here, imperfect as it may be, noting that he took over for a polarizing predecessor in the wake of a major crisis and did some great work, and not come off as an opportunistic liar. With his personal fortune funding an unprecedented media blitz and a savvy VP pick of a respected female and/or minority with a national presence, he could most certainly win the general election as both parties core faithful are greatly outnumbered by their combined fringes and those who have no allegiances and rarely bother to vote. He'd definitely be the front-runner for my vote.

The November 3rd Club Reading
Saturday, November 3rd
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
6 to 8 p.m.; Admission: $7

Victor D. Infante hosts a night of readers from the The November 3rd Club, including Tony Brown, Jane Cassady, Brian Dauth, Lea Deschenes, Guy LeCharles Gonzalez, Gary Hoare, Lynne Procope, Skip Shea, Jackie Sheeler, Rachel McKibbens, Michael Cirelli and Patricia Smith.

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I'm still getting comfortable with reading my own work on stage again -- that whole "like riding a bike" thing is crap! -- and the lineup for this reading isn't exactly a no-pressure, lightweight kind of gig, but I know almost all of them and it should be a pretty friendly room, so I'm looking forward to it. If you're in the NYC area, come on through! Drinks next door at Slainte will likely follow.

I'm terrible at submitting work for publication, so the fact that I've ever had anything published has always amazed me. It's been a long time since I've submitted anything anywhere but in this recent wave of writing I've been doing, I've kept it in the back of my mind as a goal.

The November 3rd Club is a unique online literary journal for a few reasons -- not the least of which is their overt political bias; a more intelligent Air America perhaps? -- but from a personal perspective, I remember the moment (vaguely) from which it sprang, as a group of left-leaning writers fed up by the state of politics leading up to Dubya's re-election sought to find ways to more effectively inject their political beliefs into the national consciousness via their own writings. Editor-in-Chief Victor Infante and his editors have featured a great mix of interesting work over the past few years, and I participated in one of their "Conversations" a couple of years back, a panel discussion on the politics of V for Vendetta, from which I cobbled together a review of the graphic novel and movie which still stands as my favorite review I've ever written.

Their latest issue includes my poem "Bittersweet Reunion", the first poem I wrote earlier this year after getting back on the horse, and while I've already spotted a couple of edits I want to make -- a poem is rarely ever finished, IMO, but you have to cut the cord at some point and let it live its own life -- I'm excited to be included in such a solid mix of work. I've only gotten through the poetry section so far, but specific standouts I highly recommend are Michael Cirelli's "Congo" and Jackson Wheeler's "Acts of Terror". Save Patricia Smith's "What to Tweak" for last because it's as good as you'd expect it to be and will dominate your mindshare for a couple of hours afterwards.

Keith Olbermann on Bush, Cheney: "Which is the ventriloquist and which is the dummy is now irrelevant."

As cable news talking heads go, Olbermann's always been one of the more interesting ones, but in a time where the Daily Show typically offers the most incisive news coverage on TV, his "Special Comment" here is a refreshingly impassioned but level-headed statement that is as much a call for Bush and Cheney to resign as it is a "wake the fuck up, people" call to Americans of all political persuasions, including the apolitical.

Objective journalism is easy, something the right-wing figured out a long time ago, and these days it's the coward's path. Most politicians walk a similarly safe cowardly path, so it will be interesting to see if Clinton, Obama or whomever step up to the plate and drive Olbermann's point home.

Frankly, my money's on Bloomberg if/when he decides to jump in the race.

Many to take part in honoring Robinson

LOS ANGELES -- For the first time in Major League Baseball history, Commissioner Bud Selig has decreed that any uniformed personnel -- player, coach or manager -- can wear Jackie Robinson's famous No. 42 as the sport celebrates on Sunday the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the color barrier.

Robinson will be honored in each of the 15 ballparks where games will be played, with the core ceremony at Dodger Stadium beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Robinson played his first regular-season game for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947, at Brooklyn's Ebbets Field.

It's somewhat fitting that the Don Imus fiasco blew up this week, but if the heightened awareness of the pervasive sexism and racism in this country is allowed to fade simply because MSNBC and CBS caved to the pressure and fired him -- not because it was the right thing to do, but because it was the fiscally prudent thing to do -- then it'd be akin to Jackie Robinson being the only black baseball player.  Imus is a symptom, not the ill, and being satisfied with his ouster would be a big mistake.

What about Rush Limbaugh and his ilk? Snoop Dogg and company? The radio stations and television networks that broadcast their crap?

If Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, NOW, et al, aren't full-of-shit opportunists, then the war has only just begun, and Imus will be remembered for stepping on the landmine that kicked things off; martyred by some, scorned by others, but ultimately judged by history to be a single twisted tree in a dense, dark forest.

It's way too soon to pick a side in the Democratic Primaries, and though he still doesn't have a shot in hell, I'm not yet ready to abandon Dennis Kucinich in favor of this go-round's version of Howard Dean, Barack Obama.  To his credit, Obama doesn't rub me the wrong way like Dean did, coming off as more sincere and a tad less opportunistic.

While he denies any connection to the brilliant "Vote Different" clip that's set the political world abuzz -- a claim which the clip's admitted producer, Philip de Vellis, a strategist with Blue State Digital, the firm that designed Sen. Obama's spiffy Web site, has confirmed -- I don't think there will be any significant fallout to come from it.

 

 

deVellis was either fired or resigned, depending on whom you ask, but as he noted, writing for The Huffington Post:

There are thousands of other people who could have made this ad, and I guarantee that more ads like it — by people of all political persuasions — will follow. This shows that the future of American politics rests in the hands of ordinary citizens. This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.

Yes, indeed, the game has changed dramatically since Howard Dean's revolutionary 2004 campaign, and I think someone like Obama, seemingly without the scandalous past and tons of baggage the likes of Clinton and Giuliani have, is better positioned to take full advantage of it, either directly, or indirectly, through organic guerilla efforts like de Vellis' "Vote Different".

It may make for one of the uglier campaigns yet, but I think the long term benefit will be for the good.

Side note: If he wins the nomination, who does Obama tap as his Vice President?  Bill Richardson? Barbara Boxer? Michael Bloomberg?

As its back cover states, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx Is Burning is literally "a kaleidoscopic portrait of New York City in 1977," as Jonathan Mahler ambitiously weaves together New York City's major stories of that surprisingly pivotal year -- the Yankees turmoil-filled championship season; the divisive mayoral race; the illuminating blackout; and the "Son of Sam" killer; among several other low-profile but similarly influential events -- into a dizzying collage that is ever-so-slightly less than the sum of its parts. The flaw is not in his writing, which is crisp and insightful, but in the discordant structuring of his story's numerous threads, and the often awkward or completely non-existent segues between them.

Mahler acknowledges in the introduction that the City simply refused to remain in the background of what was intended to be a tale of the Yankees incredible, raucous run to the Championship, and as a result, his fractured account of the year ends on a bit of an anti-climactic note. Nevertheless, the joy is in the journey and he takes the scenic route, offering an impressive overview of a landmark year in the life of the City that never sleeps that came precariously close putting it down for the count.

Being the same age as Mahler, and having lived ten blocks northeast of Yankee Stadium during the period covered, his tale is an enthralling mix of nostalgic flashbacks, unlocked memories and revelatory clarifications from my own childhood. Highly recommended!