NYCweboy

Shameless Self-Promotion: Redstar Election Edition

While Weboy prepares for tonight's movie extravaganza (he likes to arrive early, get settled, there's a post in here somewhere in which he lays it all out) - I thought you all might want to take a look at the brilliance I've been leaving behind at The Hillary 1000.  I'm not sure how many of you are partisan enough to pop over there regularly.

Check out this post about that Boston Globe article criticizing public-private affordable housing developments done on Obama's watch in Chicago and how it relates to Obama's donors failing to live up to his pledge to help retire Clinton's primary debt.  I found the Globe piece "salacious" and overreaching, but also think it, along with this donor problem, points to a problematic lack of follow through by the Senator.  (There's also a worthwhile link in there re: Obama's urban policy proposals.)

Check out these two pieces breaking down Obama's campaign donors, by gender, organization and industry. 

And my H1K co-blogger Red Queen and I were interviewed by The Black Snob about our preferences for Obama as former Clinton supporters.  The Black Snob just won The Best New Political Blog and The Best Political Blog Overall by Black Politics on the Web, so you might want to leave her a shout-out while you're over there. I LOVE TBS, though clearly she wasn't up against our man Weboy in that race!

- Redstar

...And A Diamond's Worth

Last week, a little lost amidst the political roilings, I noted the passing of Sydney Pollack over at NewCritics. Pollack was one of preferred directors, classy and tasteful, the very notion of Hollywood Establishment, at least to me.

As I mentioned there, I think Tootsie remains one of the great screen comedies; and one reason for that, besides his assured direction, is Pollack's sharp performance as Michael Dorsey's agent.

There's a lot of great moments in there, but the one that I still think of first is the moment, at the height of the craziness, when Michael, having been groped by one man and proposed marriage by another (as Dorothy), goes to his agent and explains all of it to him. As he says in passing that he got a marriage proposal and oh yeah, even got a ring, the two of them stop and check out the ring. And Pollack compliments the ring and asks how he plans to handle it, and for a moment, they both fall into discussing Dorothy's life as if it's real.

In the comments there, Steve Barnes reminded me that Pollack's acting was, in many ways, as key to him as his direction:

There’s a good reason why Mr. Pollack was known as and actor’s (or star’s as the case may be) director. He was a very good actor himself. From appearances in several of his own films, to roles in Woody Allen’s “Husbands and Wives,” Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” to the final season of “The Sopranos,” he put a pretty solid string of performances on screen. He deserve to be remembered for those, too.

I agree with Steve, and it's very true that Pollack was a wonderful, underrated and subtle performer, often the best thing in the works he's in. And I think his sensitivity as an actor does explain volumes about the trust he got (and deserved) from his actors, especially stars - like Redford - who were not necessarily famous for talent first (don't get me wrong, I love Redford as an actor... but let's not pretend the blonde and the baby blues aren't key).

In any case, this is a good time to recommend Steve's equally informative and thoughtful post over at his own blog, which I think merits regular visits. And to remind anyone in a position to schedule film festivals (like, say Film Forum) that a retrospective of Pollack, as an actor, would I think be a revelatory thing - like another facet on a diamond.

Late At Night I Toss And I Turn And I Dream Of What I Need...

A few late night notes:

• Via Jeralynn at TalkLeft, I was just overwhelmed by Clinton's speech today in Boca Raton, perhaps the best speech this election season on the need for Democrats to stand up as the party in favor of the most free and fair elections possible. Though I know there's a political calculation to all of this, I too push, strongly, for including Florida and Michigan simply because it is the right thing to do. Some things really should be beyond the Clinton/Obama debate, and this is one of them.
• Via Hillary 1000, the names of the 55 state bloggers who will be seated with the delegates at the convention has come through... and guess what, it's overwhelmingly white and upper middle class. Um, kind of like the blogosphere, when it comes to politics, most of the time. Suspecting just such a result, I applied to the DNC to be a credentialed blogger at the convention, along with Redstar. Cross your fingers... but it looks like things are looking good for us to write to you from Denver. That said, it's disheartening to see less than the appropriate amount of work put into making sure that a diverse set of voices blogs about convention events. Come on guys, try harder. And pick me (and Red). :)
• UPDATE: Matt Stoller has more. Apparently this DNCC thing is a big deal, and people are pissed.
• And finally, J in Baltimore is sad because I took this song for the title of my last post. I hope the song I used for this post meets with his approval. It's sad when I let J down. You complete me, man. :)
• UPDATE: And Red completes me, by adding more links, directly below. :)

-- weboy

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For... In The Netroots

You have to understand, I'm largely agnostic on the subject of Daily Kos, at least on a personal level. I've said all along that I find the whole Daily Kos/Netroots thing to be less than the sum of its hype and its energy; I've long thought it's a movement in search of figuring out just who it wants to move.

When the "writer's strike" of Clinton supporters started, I was most impressed by this statement Kos himself made in response:

"First, these people should read up on the definition of 'strike.' What they're doing is a 'boycott.' But whatever they call it, I think it's great. It's a big Internet, so I hope they find what they're looking for."

Sure, it was a little rough, but still - classy, graceful, not arguing the point, just saying "let's go on, separately."

But of course, that wasn't the end of it.

Like I said, this isn't my fight: Riverdaughter and Alegre are much more up on the ins and outs of it. To the extent that I have any opinion at all, it's about the notion of Netroots, the usefulness and dilemmas of DailyKos, and the tension over this Democratic race.

All of which you can read more about, should you care to, below the fold.

Green Eyed Monster

So the news is finally true - Ezra Klein shifts tomorrow from his own blog to a presence at The American Prospect.  Ezra's announcement has turned into congratulatory paean to the young fellow, on that I, oddly, can't really get into the spirit of.

Please, don't get me wrong - I think Ezra is a brilliant, talented writer, clearly devoted to his subjects and determined to find answers. I will certainly continue to read him, and to comment, because his blog attracts an interesting group of people who are great to debate ideas with.

But look - not much, really, has changed. And while I like what Ezra does - so much, I started to do it myself - I'm not sure that what is gained here replaces what is lost.

Black + White + Red...

Equals more Grey's Anatomy thoughts from my red-headed pal.  Go take a look, my thoughts are in the comments.

I actually have to give a good sized shout out to her as well - Red's been showing me far more love than I reasonably deserve, all while bearing up under the strain of her big test, and the loss of me moving back to New York. Thank goodness we both have Justin Chambers to dream about.

And you can, too. :)

Blah, Blah, Blah...

Thankfully, it looks as though the Graeme Frost story has run out of gas... almost.  While Ezra gets a few more miles out of teasing the wingnuts, Michelle Malkin essentially repackages her original post on the Frosts to argue... essentially the same thing she's said all along.  Aside from being, as always, wildly defensive in a charmingly high schoolish way ("the left is mean to kids too!" and "They started it!" being generally her favorite mode of comment), Malkin continues to be the Tough Love Advocate who thinks problems can be solved with elbow grease and a little (or a lot of) suffering. She does, finally, manage to supply a link for the "low cost insurance" argument that she says proves that a policy wouldn't cost the Frosts $1200 a month... what she neglects to mention is that the quote engine delivers this disclaimer:

Plans are subject to health underwriting. 

Do not cancel any in-force health coverage until we inform you in writing that your application has been processed, and coverage has been issued.

Estimated Monthly Premium shown is based on the information you provided, and is subject to change based on the plan you select, optional benefits you select (if any), and other factors. We shall exclusively determine the premium actually required, and the effective date of any coverage issued.

Emphasis mine. They also add:

These plans are available only to members of the Federation of American Consumers and Travelers (FACT), an independent consumer organization.  If you are not already a member of FACT, you must join in order to be eligible for these plans.  Through a special agreement between FACT and Golden Rule, you can enroll in the association through Golden Rule.  You will fill out the FACT enrollment form on this website prior to making application to Golden Rule for health insurance.  For more information on the benefits of FACT membership, visit www.usafact.org/ (no need to enroll directly - Golden Rule will submit your dues to FACT).   Estimated Premium does not include the mandatory $3 per month dues for FACT membership.    FACT membership is not required in every state.  Please see the product brochure for details.

Basically, the nut is that Malkin's claim that this "proves" that a more affordable policy exists is at least... debatable.  It's likely that armed with these numbers, a call to Golden Rule (love the name!) would likely lead, after discussing previous conditions (like, say, major trauma after a car accident in two of your kids), to finding out that the actual premium would be much higher; Malkin, clearly, hasn't done that homework, so she's got, essentially, nothing to prove her alternative to the $1200 a month claim, even now (and still, her own experience says she's not even close).  Moreover, this FACT membership adds a layer of complexity, since I think it's designed to create a risk pool and obviate the ability to change insurers easily. That's a guess - Googling it isn't very helpful.  I need to consult Dr. T to be sure (or maybe, he'll chime in).

But Malkin also gets that it's by no means easy to find affordable insurance, closing with:

Once again, they will ignore the fundamental
concept of how insurance is supposed to work. I repeat again:

If you don’t buy it before you need it, you shouldn’t be shocked if it’s difficult to impossible to get after you need it.

It’s elementary.

In which she makes herself all too plain - after a car accident, you should be punished with hard to find, impossible to afford insurance rates. It's elementary.

And that Michelle, is why people prefer S-CHIP to Potterville. Also, elementary.

Oh and PS Red - Is the passion meter rising? :)

Codes and Misdemeanors

One story I'd been meaning to get to sooner was a follow up to the blogger-threat story: the "proposed code of conduct for Bloggers." In fact, the reason I didn't was that I wasn't sure what to say, because while I think something needs to be done, this isn't it.

Those hoots of derision coming from right and left were part of it.  The Times deigning to cover - finally - Sierra's threats somehow managed to eliminate a key piece: that as a woman the threats were different and the fear more immediate.  I think that's a key piece of this, and it's instructive that this "solution," such as it is, comes from a group of guys and focuses on things like anonymous postings and not repeating unsourced gossip.  Nice stuff, but a bit beside the point; and with it's "ignore the trolls" it misses the point that some of the threats coming from "trolls" are the ones causing the trouble.

I don't necessarily blame Michelle Malkin for being cynical, but her repeated fallback on "they're meaner to us than to you" isn't really getting anyone anywhere; threats are threats and wrong is wrong.  She's right that a Code should include obvious things like "call the authorities" when dealing with threats, and I appreciate her call to bravery.  But there's more to this than that. On the left, it's even more discouraging to see Markos at Daily Kos so utterly miss the point (a point which multitudes of commenters seem to get).  Kos finally responded yesterday to the feedback... but that doesn't seem likely to help.

The net result is that I think this well-intentioned try will turn out not be the right solution; until people can talk about this across the divides, nothing's really going to get solved.  And until people make some forthright, up-front statements that death threats and rape threats and harassing behavior - particularly towards women - are not just beyond decency but call for demonstrable action, the problem is not being understood fully or addressed properly.  And my own dark cynicism says if we have to have a million man comittee meeting in the blogosphere to get there, we're just doomed.

Tryin To Please Everyone, Sacrifice Your Own Needs

I really was planning to say something about this sooner, but the story is now changing practically by the minute, so it may be hard to keep up with developments...

It all started when the Edwards campaign decided, as everyone is, these days, to have a blog as part of their web presence.  And, like many political campaigns, they went shopping, checkbook in hand, to some of the major bloggers, and wound up hiring among others) Amanda Marcotte of Pandagon, and Melissa McEwan, a/k/a Shakespeare's Sister.

And I went, "uh-oh."

Apparently, I was right to be concerned. The hires - Marcotte's in particular - have unleashed a firestorm of controversy, especially among right-wing bloggers, and some Catholic groups.  This mostly has to do with the fact that both women, like most liberal women, are very much pro-choice and are extremely critical of pro-lifers.  But it's also more than that: Marcotte - McEwan, less so - has said some pretty strongly worded things on her blog, and it's the quotations from previous posts that have become the subject of the controversy.

You Can't Blame Nobody But You

Let's just agree up front that the Time "Person of the Year" thing is really very silly, a cheap gimmick to seem relevant at year's end and a fast way to get out the door and see the kids (like that's going to solve your problems with them, since you probably are never home, editing a news weekly and all) at Christmastime.

That said, I agree that at first I greeted the selection of "You" with the same hoots of derision that others did - it's lazy, it's easy... what, was Ahmadinejad asking for too much cash?... :)

But I think this may be the one where, darn their trendspotting geranium-sized brains, they may be right.  It's the protestations of people who should really know better - none more hilarious than  George Will's dismissive take on blogs on Stephanopolous yesterday (apparently, when you or I write our thoughts, it's self absorption... when George does it, it's brilliant) - that kind of prove their point.  I know I get more information these days cruising the web than anything else - and I get it from black lady conservatives, cool rocking grrls, hip gay guys... and almost anything in-between.

Let's not overstate this - blogs remain the province of a mainly well-off, educated, somewhat insulated crowd; but nevertheless, blogs have changed the way news is gathered, how it's presented, and how we react to it.  If the media is still a mess - if they get the story wrong, if they don't ask all the necessary questions, or fill in all the important blanks - we are getting awfully close to a point where we will have no one to blame but ourselves.  So speak up - what do you want to hear?  what do you need to know?