Those Are Some Nice New Spots You’re Wearing, Dr. Frist

That’s funny, I don’t remember Bill Frist caring about poverty and AIDs patients back when he was Senate Majority Leader:

In what is the largest issue ad campaign of the cycle so far, ONE Vote 08, an arm of Bono’s ONE Campaign, will go up with a $1.8 million political ad buy starting Thursday in Iowa, New Hampshire and on cable nationally.

The ads name each of the candidates, but doesn't target anyone specifically. The bipartisan ONE Vote 08, co-chaired by former Sens. Tom Daschle (D) and Bill Frist (R) seeks to influence the agenda of the next president.

Gee, as I remember it, Bill "you-can-catch-AIDs-from-tears-and-sweat” Frist had an opportunity to influence the agenda of the current president. And while President Bush made lots of bold promises for African AIDs relief in his 2003 SOTU, as with so many things President Bush does, the reality fell far short of the hype:

First he handed the top job of his Global AIDS Initiative to a Big Pharma boss, then he broke his $3 billion promise of AIDS relief and now there are concerns that he may sabotage a plan to send cheap drugs to countries ravaged by AIDS.

This past August, the World Trade Organization announced a new deal on drug patents that was supposed to give poor countries facing health problems the right to import generic drugs. But the deal seemed unworkable: The United States, at the behest of the pharmaceutical lobby, had successfully pushed for so many conditions that the agreement exploded from a straightforward forty-nine words to a sprawling 3,200-word maze.

Countries wanting to import cheap generics must jump through multiple hoops to prove they are truly in need, unable to afford patented drugs and incapable of producing the medicines domestically. Meanwhile, there is no guarantee that there will be a sufficient supply of drugs for them to buy, since the deal also puts up hurdles for countries wanting to export. "A 'gift' tightly bound in red tape," declared a coalition of NGOs, including Médecins Sans Frontières and Third World Network.

And don’t get me started on the Bush Administration’s ridiculous “anti-condom policy” :

(London, March 30, 2005)—U.S.-funded “abstinence-only” programs are jeopardizing Uganda’s successful fight against HIV/AIDS, Human Rights Watch said in a new report today. Abstinence-only programs deny young people information about any method of HIV prevention other than sexual abstinence until marriage.

The 80-page report, “The Less They Know, the Better: Abstinence-Only HIV/AIDS Programs in Uganda,”documents the recent removal of critical HIV/AIDS information from primary school curricula, including information about condoms, safer sex and the risks of HIV in marriage. Draft secondary-school materials state falsely that latex condoms have microscopic pores that can be permeated by HIV, and that pre-marital sex is a form of “deviance.” HIV/AIDS rallies sponsored by the U.S. government spread similar falsehoods.

The arrogance of trying to impose a fundamentalist, right-wing ideology on people who are dying! You’d think the Senate majority leader at that time would have stepped in, since he cares so much about people with AIDs. Oh, wait, I forgot, back then Frist was Bush’s water carrier; when Bush said “jump,” Frist asked “how high?” Frist and Big Pharma also go way back, so doing the pharmaceutical lobby’s bidding where global AIDs is concerned was a given.

And as for poverty, well, I’m sure we all remember how Sen. Frist sat on the sidelines while hundreds of thousands of low- and middle-income Tennesseans lost their healthcare coverage (and I'd hazard a guess that a lot of those folks had AIDs!) Or what about how in the days after Hurricane Katrina, he scheduled a vote to repeal the Estate Tax, which would have been “a major blow to the nation’s charities” which rely on contributions and bequests from wealthy donors.

Yeah, those sure are some nice new spots you’re wearing, Dr. Frist. I wonder if this sudden lip service to compassion has anything to do with your desire to resurrect your political career? Maybe run for POTUS in 2012?

Attention Walmart Shoppers

What cheapens the meaning of Christmas more: someone greeting you with “Happy Holidays!” or this:

Talking Jesus Action Figure Sells Out At Walmart

If you were planning on getting a Talking Jesus Action Figure this Christmas (or whatever) you're almost out of luck. Walmart has completely sold out of the toy and Target.com has "very limited supply," according to the manufacturer's spokesperson, Joshua Livingston.

According to the Dallas Morning News, “almost 20 percent of the Wal-Mart stores that sell Talking Jesus are in Texas.” Why does that not surprise me?

Note to conservative Christians: if you’re worried about a perceived “war on Christianity,” and you’re selling a talking Jesus action figure, you’ve already lost!

Lord protect us from these fools who insist on making money from the Christian faith. Religion is not a money-maker--at least, it shouldn’t be, not if you’re doing the “religion” part right.

Atlas Lugged

Hey, conservative Christians: there’s another Creation myth trying to gain traction in Washington D.C. and academia. This one comes from Islam, and blames the 9/11 attacks on Darwin.

The Atlas of Creation is a 12-pound, 800-page tome explaining the Islamic version of Creation, along with a dose of social commentary. What’s strange is that copies of the gigantic book were mysteriously sent to hundreds of high schools and universities in France this year; similarly, thousands of unsolicited copies were also sent to U.S. government offices, museums, and American universities. I’d hate to see the publisher’s postage budget.

Most folks oohed and ahhed over the atlas’s beautiful artwork, then recoiled in horror at “what a load of crap it is.” Some, however, like U.S. Secretary of the Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, decided to prominently display the Atlas in his office waiting room (a Commerce Dept. spokesman now says that was “a mistake.”)

Anyway, I know the nuttier fundamentalist Christian fringe believes Islam is a "vicious enemy." But reading about The Atlas of Creation I can’t help but feel like I’m looking at two sides of the same coin.

See if this sounds familiar:

A caption from the book, below a photograph of one of the planes striking the World Trade Center, reports: “No matter what ideology they may espouse, those who perpetrate terror over the world are, in reality, Darwinists. Darwinism is the only philosophy that places a value on–and thus encourages–conflict.”

Darwinism is also to blame for fascism and communism. As the Atlas explains, it “is the root of various ideologies of violence that have spelled disaster to mankind in the 20th century."

Wow, where have I heard that idea before? Oh, yeah:

We have had 150 years of the theory of Darwinian evolution, and what has it brought us? Whether Darwin intended it or not, millions of deaths, the destruction of those deemed inferior, the devaluing of human life, increasing hopelessness; Darwin’s theory has been deadly, indeed. … The time has come to recognize that evolution is a bad idea and should be, frankly, discarded into the dustbin of history.

That’s the late D. James Kennedy, in a 2006 fundraising pitch for his anti-evolution “documentary.” Kennedy passed earlier this year, but his comments are no different from what we’ve heard from Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer, James Dobson and the rest.

Maybe instead of hating Islam, fundamentalist Christians should embrace the religion and its followers as fellow soldiers in the war on evolution. It could be a real “coming together” point, you know?

F@&%#@g Liberal Media Part Duh

Look, gals! It’s a medley of Robin Givhan’s greatest hit!:

The mind, so easily distracted by things mauve and lemon yellow, strays from more pressing concerns to ponder the sartorial: How many pantsuits does Hillary Clinton have in her closet? And does she ever wear them in the same combination more than once?

The pantsuit is Clinton's uniform. Hers is a mix-and-match world, a grown-up land of Garanimals: black pants with gray jacket, tan jacket with black pants, tan jacket with tan pants. There are a host of reasons to explain Clinton's attachment to pantsuits. They are comfortable. They can be flattering, although not when the jacket hem aligns with the widest part of the hips (hypothetically speaking, of course). Does she even have hips?

This is just a more acid version of the same story Givhan did on Nancy Pelosi last year, headlined “Muted Tones Of Quiet Authority: A Look Suited To the Speaker.”

We get it. Women in politics wear pantsuits. Stop the fucking presses. Hey, Robin, with any luck we’ll get more women elected to political office and then you can just phone it in.

Of course, the 2006 Pelosi story did have this gem:

(The appearance of the current speaker, Rep. Dennis Hastert, will go unmentioned here except to say that there is nothing chic or particularly polished about it.)

Thank you for explaining why you never did a story on Hastert’s schlubby, wrinkled appearance. We all know, men’s appeareance is not news. Women are still judged by their external qualities: their clothes, their mannerisms, the size of their hips and the way they laugh and even their accessories. No wonder we still don’t have a woman president. Hastert’s slept-on-a-park-bench look wasn’t even noteworthy, but imagine if a woman had shown up for work looking like that.

Honestly, aren’t we way overdue for an end to this sexist nonsense? This is a presidential election. I don’t care what people are wearing, I want to know what they will DO if the American people hand them the reins of power.

I know my endless harangues against the media get tiresome but honestly: "Clinton-the-human-color-wheel”? How can you not read that and just think the WaPo doesn’t get it?

(h/t, Hecate)

Deck The Halls

Or in this case, deck the pets. Yes, it’s that time of year, the season our family pets dread. When elf costumes and Santa hats make their appearance for the obligatory annual photo. As you can see, Cleo (left) and Zelda are not amused.

No Christmas in the Beale household is complete without the appearance of Animal Cruelty Santa. AC Santa was a wedding gift, one of those things we got from someone who doesn’t know us very well (and clearly didn’t know we had requested donations to charity in lieu of wedding gifts anyway).

I’m sure it was a very expensive gift, and it was certainly thoughtful. But we aren’t doll people, definitely not Santa doll people, and certainly not the kind of folks who can appreciate a Santa carrying animal pelts (hence the moniker Animal Cruelty Santa).

But we bring AC Santa out to remind the cats they’d better be good, for goodness sake, or they’re going to end up in Santa’s collection of animal skins. Here, Jolene checks to see if there are any birds in the birdhouse.

Our newest addition to the family is Moses, who finds the premiere spot under the tree. Since he’s an indoor kitty he’s mighty grateful that we brought the outdoors to him. He promises to be good and not try to slip outside any longer.

And with that I wish everyone a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays, from our home to yours.

F@&%#@g! Liberal Media!

Someone needs to stop the liberal media before it strikes again. Yes, Ex-Bush staffer Matthew Dowd has landed at ABC, the latest in a revolving door of White House staffers who have joined the bobblehead crowd:

Skeptics see a certain irony in an administration that has always been at odds with the Fourth Estate turning into a farm team for the nation's punditocracy. Karl Rove, who wasn't shy about criticizing the press, recently became a Newsweek columnist. Nicolle Wallace was hired as a CBS News commentator shortly after stepping down as Bush's communications director. Michael Gerson signed on as a Washington Post columnist shortly after resigning as Bush's chief speechwriter, while a fellow speechwriter, Matthew Scully, published a long Atlantic Monthly article accusing Gerson of taking credit for others' work.

Irony? Is that what you kids call it today? Some of us call it “controlling the message.”

I know, this influx of Bushies into the MSM is supposed to make up for all the liberals already in the media. People like Lou Dobbs, Joe Klein, and David Broder.

Oh, wait.

This whole thing is just so wrong. As the fabulous Madamab pointed out in yesterday's blogpost, news coverage of something as vitally important as who will be our next president has deteriorated into lame “color commentary.” I don’t know if I’m watching a football game, or trying to get informed so I can pick the next President.

Why is this? Because our lazy-ass media hires people like Matthew Dowd, Karl Rove, Michael Gerson and yes, even Markos Moulitsas to do its work. Why would you hire partisans? Whatever happened to, you know, reporters?

This is priceless:

Dowd, 46, was generally accessible to reporters and logged plenty of camera time as a Bush strategist in 2000 and 2004. He was often armed with the latest polling data, a specialty Dowd says will come in handy.

"I have a pretty good handle on the public's needs, wants, desires and dreams," he says.

No, you don’t. If you did, you wouldn’t be on freaking ABC News trying to spin the current events of the day. We don’t want spin. We want facts. And we know we won’t get that from you.

I’m sick of polling data, trends, horse race coverage of the election, and strategy talk. Does anyone on the TV talk about what any of the candidates actually believe? Their policy positions? No, they don’t. Because, like Matthew Dowd, they’re armed with “the latest polling data”--and little else.

Pffft. I’m finished with all of them.

The Smell Of Desperation

You know things are bad for the TN GOP when they have to turn this ridiculous “bunker” at the governor’s mansion thing into a statewide, GOP fundraising campaign.

Seriously, you guys don’t have any more important issues to worry about? Things that actually affect real Tennesseans? You know, like healthcare? Jobs? Education? Pollution? Veterans affairs?

No?

Oh well, then. Dig your own grave. The Nashville Scene reports:

Neighbors opposed to the planned underground entertainment complex that first lady Andrea Conte envisions for the Executive Residence are raising their screeching protests an octave by creating a group called Tennesseans for Accountability in Government (TAG), which local businessman Lee Beaman is bankrolling, confirms Steve Brumfield, a public relations executive whom TAG has retained.

The jokes just write themselves. Lee Beaman, the uber-partisan who never saw a smear campaign he didn’t like (that Swift Boat Veterans donation really paid off for you, didn’t it?). Lee Beaman, whose wife Kelly formed an "ethics in government" group that strangely was only interested in one politician from one (rival) political party. Heh.

This is so obviously a partisan attack on Tennessee's Democratic Governor. Seriously, turning neighborhood NIMBYism into a statewide issue? Are they serious? Does anyone in Memphis or Knoxville give a crap about the wealthy residents of Curtiswood Lane being put out by some construction noise? And just look at the folks involved in TAG: Lee Beaman, Mr. GOP moneybags himself; Crom Carmichael, prominent TN GOPer; conservative anti-tax activist Susan Kaestner and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research--the same clowns who revealed that Al Gore --GASP!--uses electricity. In other words, the usual Republican Party suspects.

Trying to parlay a local issue affecting a handful of wealthy Nashville suburbanites into a statewide witch hunt against a Democratic Governor is either an act of tremendous chutzpah or a sign of desperation. I’m voting for the latter; I think the TN GOP is so desperate to take back the governor’s seat that they are pulling out all the stops.

Consider this bit of nonsense:

“This is an issue that will have significant impact on all taxpayers,” according to a talking-point document that Brumfield authored. “They’re projecting $3.84 million in taxpayer money to pay for this. Of course, that’s the starting point—government projects always seem to go up from there, don’t they?”

Yeah, that pesky government, can’t trust it to stay within a budget! Just ask George W. Bush how his Iraq project is going, budget-wise.

No, Mr. Brumfield, $3.84 million in taxpayer money is NOT going to have a significant impact on Tennesseans. It’s about 66 cents per person. You know what does have a significant impact on Tennesseans? The cost of healthcare. Jobs. The need for housing for a variety of income brackets. Methamphetimine in our rural counties. Education.

Oh yeah, and wealthy GOP donors who keep bleating “taxes! taxes!” in an attempt to whip up partisan furor.

Get a life, Mr. & Mrs. Beaman. The people of Tennessee have more important issues to worry about than your pet neighborhood issue.

Trash Talking

Yesterday’s article on Nashville’s “Curby” program came at an interesting time, since I have been meaning to call Metro Public Works to get another green cart out at our place. Mr. Beale and I recycle, and since pick up is just once a month, our two 64-gallon large bins are always filled to overflowing.

I have a little challenge with myself to see how little actual garbage I can generate. One week I actually got it down to one large garbage bag, but I suspect that’s because we ate out a lot that week. The truth is, we generate plenty of garbage at our house.

I grew up recycling, it’s just what you did. It’s habit, like brushing your teeth at night and paying the electric bill on time. But I understand for a lot of people around here, recycling is some strange new thing they fear is sucking taxpayer dollars away from ... I dunno, whatever they think is more important.

It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that a lot folks share the views of this guy:

[Nate] Crawford, who terms himself a "country boy from Lawrenceburg," never used it, and his questions about the program have only grown.

"I did not want my tax dollars spent for that. I feel the same way now when it's only being used by 37 percent of the people.

"This is an awful lot of money when a lot of people don't participate," he said.

Actually, it’s not a lot of money. In fact, I was surprised to learn that the program only costs $878,399. Compared to the entire Metro budget, that’s peanuts.

I don’t mean to put words in Mr. Crawford’s mouth, but I get the feeling a lot of folks resent city recycling programs largely because it sounds like a “liberal” thing to do. Whatever the reason, I don’t blame people for having a negative attitude toward Curby -- Metro put zero effort into educating and promoting the program. If you don’t explain why the city wants you to recycle, of course people are going to be left to come up with their own reasons, or think it’s some politically correct exercise foisted on taxpayers by all the Democrats in the city council.

OK here’s the thing. Cities and counties recycle because they have to (federal and state laws about landfills) and because it makes economic sense. It’s a free-hand-of-the-market thing. Used paper, glass, plastic and metals are raw materials that have a dollar value on the open market. A while back people thought it made financial sense for municipalities to sell these items instead of throwing them away.

The more you recycle, the more money you save on tipping fees (what it costs to take a load to the landfill) and the more money you get selling metals, glass, plastic and paper. The more people who participate, the more cost effective it becomes.

Ideally, if everyone were to recycle, these programs would pay for themselves. That hasn’t happened in Nashville, for a lot of reasons. A big one is, no one has ever explained the economic value to the city of recycling, so our participation is low.

Nate Crawford may be a country boy, and I don’t know how they do things in Lawrenceburg, but I do know a lot of country folks in rural Kentucky who recycle. They don’t do it because they are tree-hugging liberals, but because of economics. When you live in the boondocks and don’t have the luxury of city services like weekly trash pickup, you have to pay a private trash hauler. The more pick-ups, the more you pay. People recycle because it’s cheaper for them.

Free hand of the market. My libertarian friends must be swooning.

That's the idea behind the solid waste program in Austin, Texas, where residents pay based on the size of their trash bin. The more they recycle, the less trash they have, and the smaller the bin, so the less they pay. I’ve always intuitively been opposed to doing that in Nashville, but I don’t really know why. It’s actually a really good idea that deserves some serious thought.

The Curby program is not as efficient as it could be. It costs more to not separate the cans from the paper and plastic, and those bins fill up real quick when pick-up is just once a month, which means recyclables inevitably end up in the trash. Metro’s curbside program originally had households separate their recyclables, and I don’t know why we stopped doing that. We’ve also stopped recycling glass, and I’m not sure why that is.

Some cities recycle compost--food scraps, yard waste and grass clippings; we don't, and we should. The compost generated could be used in city parks or sold at a nominal cost to county residents. It's a waste of landfill space to throw that stuff away.

Monthly Curby pickups don’t really put the incentive on recycling. In Tallahassee, Florida, they’ve cut back on trash pickup and increased recycling pickups. It worked:

But under the new system, residents receive only once-a-week service and have to roll their 96-gallon containers to the street for emptying. The city also changed the twice-monthly curbside recycling pickup to weekly pickup.

The idea was to save money and manpower and increase recycling. All that has come to pass.

Recycling of paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and aluminum cans has increased 30 percent. Through attrition and reassignment to other jobs, the city has trimmed its residential-garbage force from 41 employees to 23. And the department is spending less on gas and vehicle maintenance.

The bottom line for customers: The monthly charge for garbage pickup is still $15.30, as it's been since 1992. What else are you buying these days that costs the same as 15 years ago?

I don’t think people should be forced to recycle. But I do think people should be educated as to why it’s important. Maybe if everyone recycled, the program wouldn’t cost $878,399 a year but actually make money that could be spent on things like parks or environmental education in our high schools.

If Nate Caldwell knew that by recycling he was saving the city/county government money, not spending it, would he still choose not to participate? If the answer is yes, then we're talking about a whole different problem than how tax dollars are spent.

The Mainstream Media Sucks

Example number 1,173:

CBS Seeks Enviro-Reporter, Knowledge of Environment Not Required

In a job posting that's curious at best and a bad PR gaffe at worst, CBS News has a job posting on JournalismJobs for an eco-reporter position, but the job description states, 'Knowledge of the enviro beat is a big plus, but not a requirement.' They do, however, want you to be 'funny, irreverent and hip, oozing enthusiasm and creative energy.'

Agh.

CBS, which thought “perky, celebrity, and nice legs” were necessary qualifications to anchor the CBS Evening News, apparently thinks the enviro-beat needs “funny, irreverent and hip.” Which is hilarious, since if it were me, I’d think scientific knowledge, an environmental policy background, and an ability to make what is often dry and technical information interesting and accessible would be important. Go figure.

My father, a dyed-in-the-wool newspaperman, always said a good reporter can cover any topic. This is true. What’s sad is that the corporate media doesn’t want good reporters. They want “funny, irreverent and hip.”

Edward R. Murrow need not apply.

Stuff I Don't Get

Chief among them is this::

Black Confederate says he is marching for heritage

By Ray Chandler
OCONEE COUNTY — It’s a sight that elicits a second glance, maybe a third. A black man marching along the S.C. 28 toward Walhalla dressed in Confederate butternut, carrying a Confederate battle flag.

To H.K. Edgerton, however, it’s a march for truth in history as critical as any march for civil rights. Mr. Edgerton’s march Thursday carried him to Oconee County.

When it comes to the role of blacks in the Confederacy, Mr. Edgerton is less than happy about the story.

“This flag has nothing to do with hate,” Mr. Edgerton said of the starred red, white and blue St. Andrew’s Cross battle flag he carried. “It’s the flag of Southern heritage, black and white.”

Edgerton is reprising his 2002 “March Through Dixie,” which took him from his home in Asheville, N.C., to Austin Texas. He also appears in full Confederate uniform, carrying the stars and bars, at parades and protests all across the South, which is odd since he is not descended from a black Confederate soldier.

This “black Neo-Confederate” thing looks too much like a Jewish Nazi to me, but what do I know? Perhaps its best to hear from the man himself, as interviewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center:

• Before the slaves were freed, “Black folks and white folks were family,” he said. “We did all kinds of things together here. White people and slaves saw each other on the streets and they tipped their hats to each other … and asked each other about their families.”

• “I don’t see [the Ku Klux Klan] as terrorists. I see them as — I hate to use the word ‘vigilante,’ but vigilante sometimes ain’t as bad as you think. When your government fails you and fails to protect you, you have to turn somewhere.”

• “It wasn’t so much about [then-Alabama Gov.] George Wallace going to the schoolhouse doors, saying, ‘No, you can’t integrate.’ The thought in his mind was, ‘No, you can’t tell me to integrate. Let us deal with this, and we’re gonna deal with it.’”

• The KKK was “just protecting the people — all of the people, black and white. Blacks wanted to be a part of that.”

Okay, maybe that didn’t explain things any better.

Earlier this year it looked like Edgerton might be on the outs with the neo-Confederates, after he was accused of stealing by the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Edgerton had folded his flag and said he was finished with "the movement." But now, he says there was " “never” was any dissension." Okie dokie.

This is all very strange to me. For the record, despite articulating his point pretty clumsily, I think Fred Thompson has it right on the whole Confederate flag thing:

“I know that everybody who hangs the flag up in their room like that is not racist. I also know that for a great many Americans, it’s a symbol of racism.

“ ... As far as a public place is concerned, I am glad that people have made the decision not to display it as a prominent flag, symbolic of something, at a state capitol.

“As a part of a group of flags or something of that nature, you know, honoring various service people at different times in different parts of the country, I think that’s different.

“But, as a nation, we don’t need to go out of our way to be bringing up things that to certain people in our country that’s bad for them.”

This position, that we shouldn’t go out of our way to offend and alienate a huge chunk of the population, got Thompson labeled a "scalawag and carpetbagger" by Don Gordon of, you guessed it, the Sons of Confederate Veterans. And they've got their very own black man to make the argument that the Confederate flag is not racist and Fred Thompson and the rest of the country are just plain wrong.

Neat how that works.