What About Paris?

April 06, 2024

O’Hara’s “Deconstructed:” Evergreen Dan Hull podcast on J6

Posted by JD Hull at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2024

The Slackoisie

Urban Dictionary: Slackoisie

Slackoisie.

Prounounced "Slack-wah-zee".

This term was coined by J. Daniel Hull, Esq., author of the "What About Clients?" blawg, and popularized by Scott H. Greenfield, Esq., author of the "Simple Justice" blawg. It refers to:

(1) a class of narcissistic young professionals, particularly attorneys (usually Gen Y/millenials), who believe that having a job is an entitlement, rather than a privilege. They often complain about the work they have (if working), opine the lack of "real lawyer" jobs available in the market, and are critical of the long hours and inadequate pay found at most small firms. They believe they are entitled to work/life balance, that their opinions on any subject are inherently important and that whatever benefits they enjoy are inadequate. The Slackoisie are more interested in having a place to go in the morning and some spending money than committing themselves to their clients and the profession; or

(2) a slacker with an exaggerated sense of self-importance and entitlement.
Examples:

(a) Attorney 1, "OMG, like I got a job at (insert name of any law firm) and they expect me to work like a hundred hours a week. I did not go to (insert name of law school) to work all the time."
Attorney 2, "Stop being such a slackoisie, and appreciate the opportunity you have! There are tons of people graduating law school who would love to have a job doing (insert type of law practiced at Attorney 1's law firm)."

(b) Anyone who claims to be a social media expert/guru;

(c) Anyone who posts on "JDJive" and "JD Underground"; or

(d) Anyone with a graduate degree who lives in their parents basement and is unemployed because they cannot find an employer who "appreciates their uniqueness" or demands that they actually produce quality work before being given a raise, the corner office and a convertible sports car.

by SI_Counsel February 28, 2010

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2024

Congressman Daniel Sickles: Original Gangster, Radical Dude.

In 1859, in Lafayette Park, U.S. Representative Daniel Sickles shot and killed fellow lawyer Philip Barton Key II, son of Francis Scott Key. Sickles was a talented, ambitious, somewhat shady and philandering Manhattan politician who counted President Lincoln among his many friends. He discovered that Key was having an affair with Sickles's young yet long-neglected wife, Teresa. During his life, Sickles made American foreign policy, helped create New York's Central Park, had a hand in the development of the modern insanity defense, and was a celebrated if controversial Union Army field general. The best book on Sickle's amazing, checkered and long public life is Thomas Keneally's American Scoundrel: The Life of the Notorious Civil War General Dan Sickles.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:15 AM | Comments (1)

February 22, 2024

Anglos, Saxons, Franks, Frisii: Good at Government?

The most civilized nations of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany; in the rude institutions of those Barbarians we [received] the original principles of our present laws and manners.

--Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter IX (1782)

Posted by JD Hull at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2024

Kundera on Political Obsessives

Immortality, the 1990 novel by the late Czech writer Milan Kundera (1929-2023), is the one book everyone should read to understand ultra-political ‘single-issue’ humans. It’s also been said that “reading it might make you a better lover.” For real.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

Stepping away from mediocrity.

This is a 2020 book by an angry, misguided, talented black woman. Some good points here on white male mainstream mediocrity. Assuming she’s right—white dudes are flukes and unwitting scumbags—why not a repatriation or segregation movement by 14% of America? Who needs whites around?

Posted by JD Hull at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2024

Drink Colonial Predator

Don’t forget. My new Colonial Predator Unfair Trade Coffee product launches March 1. All the Oppression,Twice the Caffeine.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:23 AM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2023

Mr. Speaker

Speaker Mike Johnson’s a character out of a novel and all people can do is argue about which box he fits in.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2023

Parties, Ideologies and Faiths Do Not Solve Problems. People Do.

Since the summer of 2005, this blog has showcased a number of pet issues and themes. We’ll keep doing that.

One topic has been the importance of thinking independently about law, government, politicians and political ideologies. Or about The Upanishads. The Sun Also Rises, Huck Finn. About my friend Ernie from Glen Burnie, who is a seer. The Art of Seduction. The Old Testament. Parker Posey.

Or thinking independently about Anything.

There are these days lots of good, and arguably "bad" notions and ideas--nationally and internationally--all along the political and cultural spectrums, and there is no reason to pick one party, camp or pol to follow on all ideas.

After all, people, not ideologies, solve public problems. People who mix and match do.

You don't need a label. You need not be a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Anarchist or Nihilist. You can "mix and match" both pols and ideas. Me? I've changed, if subtly, and in ways that trouble a friend here and there. But my thinking is pretty much the same as it was when I was in my 20s. As a "liberal", I never really trusted Big Labor. I've never liked the "politically correct" speech regimen many traditional liberals unfortunately embraced. To the contrary, I've always admired free speech--and I revel in it. But the main change is that in 2017 I registered Republican for the first time. Not much else is different.

Most of us do have a Political-Civil Rights-Human Rights-Social Justice resume, CV or profile (hereinafter "Political CV"). I use "political" broadly here to describe anything related to participation in public affairs where some social purpose was fully served beyond my own self-aggrandizement, ego or pleasure. More than one purpose is okay; few of us do anything out a pure heart to "will one thing." So below I've fashioned my Political CV. Forget about Dem or GOP or Libertarian scripts. I've listed things that I did in large part "for the public good." For example, things I'm not including are Senior Class President (mix of duties and agendas), Eagle Scout (the same), working in a union-shop factory (Keebler's, in my case), membership in student or church groups with some but not primary political or social welfare slant, merely being asked to run for Congress (and saying no), merely voting, serving on an elected but non-partisan Zoning Board for a community of 40,000 or going to see Jerry Rubin, Timothy Leary or Milo speak at the Cow Palace. Or throwing a huge pickle at an on-stage Iggy Stooge (and hitting him).

But passing out leaflets for a political candidate, demonstrating against POTUS candidate and Alabama Governor George Wallace or working regularly with the urban homeless? Oh yeah. Those are "political". They reflected my idea of furthering "the public good" at the time I did I them. You get the idea. There's got to be a cause, some heat, some passion in an activity that helps others. Doesn't matter if it's a national issue or not. Doesn't matter if there's rhetoric involved.

Anyway, I've been an activist in everything I've ever done--and particularly with respect to groups I've joined or with which I've identified. So, and since I was 16, here is my political resume in chronological order. All of this is part of me now. All of it I’m proud of and still believe in. I'll update it as I remember things things.

1. Campaigned twice for Jerry Springer (Ohio-D), for runs for Congress and City Council in Cincinnati.

2. Campaigned more briefly but earnestly for Howard Metzenbaum, U.S. Senator (Ohio-D)

3. Worked with Armstrong United Methodist Church in Indian Hill, Ohio on several long-term projects for inner-city kids in Cincinnati, Ohio. Some with my mother (Head Start). Some in connection with working toward God & Country Award for BSA. (I was an Eagle Scout.)

4. Worked twice at as counselor at a camp for handicapped kids at summer camp in Cincinnati.

5. My party's candidate for 1970 Governor of Ohio Boys State. I was "liberal" party candidate and lost to a black kid from Sandusky. Ohio named Tony Harris. The race made news on television and in newspapers all Ohio Midwest. I lost.

6. Student Reporter, Duke University Daily Chronicle. Civil Rights Beat, Durham. (1972-73)

7. Demonstrator, anti-Vietnam war movement. Several marches, demonstrations, including Moratorium in D.C. Demonstrated against POTUS candidate George C. Wallace in Michigan in runup to Michigan primary.

8. Wrote "Soul City: A Dream--Will it come true?" feature for Duke daily Chronicle. March 1974. Interviewed among others Floyd McKissick, one of founders of Soul City, the first model black city in America. Paper won acclaim and 2 awards for this reporting.

9. Aide, Sen. Gaylord Nelson (Wis.-D) (1974-1975, parts of 1976) Spearheaded demonstration project passed in Congress in preventative health care for Menominee Indian tribes in Wisconsin.

10. Worked for Lawyers Committee Under CIvil Rights suing VA furniture makers under Title VII. Class action suit. Covington & Burling.

11. Worked off and on but actively for 2 years helping probe possible violations of Voting Rights Act by large Ohio city. Department of Justice/Legal Aid Society.

12. Awarded 1-year poverty law fellowship in Toledo, Ohio. Turned down to move back to DC.

13. Test "husband" for "the white couple" for mortgage and leasing redlining discrimination investigation conducted by HUD

14. Two of three law review articles on racial discrimination under Constitution. Zoning and Voting. Two awards.

15. Two feature articles appearing in major paper Sunday magazine. First on zoning in a small Ohio River town, New Richmond, Ohio. Second about a 1st Amendment and zoning crusader named John Coyne in rural Clermont County, Ohio.

16. Aide, Representative Bill Gradison (R-Ohio) 1978-1981. Health. Energy. Natural Resources,

17. Treasurer 2003 State Assembly Campaign for CA Democrat, Karen Heumann.

18. Wesley Clark for President (2003-2004). Chief San Diego Fundraiser and (briefly) CA Convention Delegate.

19. Board of Directors, North San Diego County Democrats (2002-2012)

20. Hillary Clinton for President, 2008, 2016.

21. Co-Founded (with Peter B. Friedman) One Night/One Person Winter Homeless Program in Northern America & Europe 2015. Now in year 6.

22. Defense counsel for two mainstay leaders of the Proud Boys, before both courts and Congress, re: January 6, 2021 events.

Original: April 3, 2019
Updated: June 13, 2023

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2023

Germans

The most civilized nations of modern Europe issued from the woods of Germany; in the rude institutions of those Barbarians we [received] the original principles of our present laws and manners.

--Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter IX (1782)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 12, 2023

REDUX: Hermann the German: Merkelphonegate.

My friend Hermann, still braving Berlin after all these years, notes that "Germans Push To Introduce Espionage Etiquette Manual". Excerpt:

Folks in Germany are always very anxious about social etiquette and behaving correctly in public. The "Knigge," for instance, is a famous book about social rules and how one should behave in practically all situations. When it comes to seating arrangements at table, for instance:

1. Couples that aren’t married always sit together.
2. Married couples normally don’t sit abreast.
3. Not until the homemaker wants to sit on the table the guests are allowed to sit, too.
4. The dish rests on the table until the last guest has eaten his meal.

Now, in the wake of all this undue excitement going on about the Obama administration’s benevolent “Merkelphone” eavesdropping program, Germany has decided to take the initiative when it comes to etiquette in certain private (or private eye) matters, too. During a two-day summit in Brussels, the Germans have suggested the introduction of an internationally recognized Espionage Etiquette Manual to be followed geflissentlich (studiously) by all superpowers on earth.

The "other" Herman, or Arminius, was a leader of Roman Auxiliary Cavalry. In 9 AD, in the three-day battle known as the Varus Schlact, which took place in a dense forest, he switched sides, led the destruction of three Roman Legions (about 10,000 in number) and stopped Roman expansion into what is now Germany.

Source: WAC/P? post of October 29, 2013

Posted by JD Hull at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)

July 04, 2023

Americans: Born Outlaws

Make no mistake. Americans are born outlaws. 2023? Year 234 of our current form of business. Still a very new nation. With work to do. Happy 4th, Campers.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:54 PM | Comments (0)

June 17, 2023

Merrick Garland

Merrick Garland is a very fine lawyer, fine jurist, fine human and yet a very poor excuse for a human male. He should never have been America’s top lawyer. Culturally, for America and the West, he’s been a disaster and a deeply unsettling embarrassment to both man and God. He’s more polarizing than Trump and twice as dangerous. He sees Evil that does not exist and sees it Everywhere. Not unlike our establishment media, AG Garland is one of America’s major true believer villains and much of the blame for any coming second American civil war will be logically laid at his feet. If he ever woke up to the truth about himself, he’d jump off a building. Anyway, how can I put this?

Posted by JD Hull at 06:04 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2023

The American Morality Olympics

The giddy drive to make all American civic strife a team sport or a cartoon — complete with stock heroes and stock villains — is both the funniest and most dangerous thing happening in year 2023. Don’t miss it.

— Holden M. Oliver, April 6, 2023

Posted by JD Hull at 12:04 PM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2023

Hesse on Good Friday

If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us.

— Hermann Hesse, Demian, 1919

Posted by JD Hull at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

March 31, 2023

TJ O’Hara gets January 6 right.

“John Daniel Hull, IV, founder and partner of the D.C. law firm of Hull McQuire PC, joins T.J. O’Hara, host of Deconstructed, to share his political experiences and observations from inside the Beltway. Mr. Hull is a distinguished attorney who, as a Democrat, served as a Legislative Assistant to a congressional Republican before beginning his career as a litigating attorney.

In recent years, his political affiliation has shifted to a more conservative point of view, and he explains what drove his change of heart. He cites the tenor of the media in Washington, D.C. and how it has impacted the way with which events and individuals are often portrayed.

Mr. Hull describes the similarities and differences he personally observed in the Black Lives Matter protests he attended as well as the January 6th rally that served as a precursor to the insurrection at the Capitol later that day. His observations of the attendees and some of the groups that drove the behavior of the crowds are quite interesting in each case. As a former journalist, his “takeaways” are quite compelling.

Then, Mr. Hull does a “deep dive” into “free speech” differentiating the actual element of that phrase and its misplaced use. T.J. quizzes him on “freedom of the press” as well, and he dissects that issue as well.

From Antifa to the Proud Boys, Mr. Hull has had an opportunity to directly observe the behaviors of both and the aftermaths of their actions. He describes what the media reported relative to the facts versus the impact of any partisan spin on national perspectives. Learn how an actual observer evaluates the actions he saw, the people he met, and the way each was presented to the public. Some may be in complete alignment with what you might suspect. Others may stun you with what the genuine details reveal… particularly with respect to the law.

Leave your political biases at the door and enter the world of someone who lives in D.C. and regularly experiences history as it occurs. Then, ask why this isn’t what you may have read or seen from either side of the aisle.”

Posted by JD Hull at 06:25 PM | Comments (0)

March 26, 2023

Encore: Dude, where's my Congress?

Ideology is a uniquely unhelpful way to get anything done.

When years ago I worked on Capitol Hill, no one seemed to hate you because you thought differently. No one got emotional because you were an R or a D. That has changed. I'm frequently in House or Senate Committee meetings and hearings these days for clients on IP, environmental, infrastructure and judiciary issues. Mostly Rayburn HOB. Some days Dirksen SOB. About half of these events are showcases--GOP showcases, these days--for strutting the majority's stuff, ideological posturing and poorly concealed anti-Obama rhetoric or overtures, both express and implied. Frankly, I can see Ds doing the same thing in one or two possible future Congresses; give them some time to catch up. I don't always love my President but I don't think he's Satan, either. Sometimes I'm in Russell SOB, where years ago I had my first job involving a chair, desk and telephone. I followed Sen. Kennedy's Health subcommittee around. I was amazed how people tried to get along in bill mark-ups and hearings. I was proud to be there in the same room. Around 1980, things became personal with many. Ideology is a uniquely unhelpful way to get anything done. Refusal to compromise sounds good but it's better reserved for ancient epic yarns.

Mending Wall (1915)

By Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors'.
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows?
But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was likely to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me~
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Dirksen Senate Office Building (SOB) Committee Room 226.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2023

Forógra na Poblachta.

("Proclamation of the Republic", April 24, 1916)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2023

Encore: T.J. O’Hara - Dan Hull interview, November 17, 2021

Written intro by T. J. O’Hara

“John Daniel Hull, IV, founder and partner of the D.C. law firm of Hull McGuire PC, joins T.J. O’Hara, host of Deconstructed, to share his political experiences and observations from inside the Beltway. Mr. Hull is a distinguished attorney who, as a Democrat, served as a Legislative Assistant to a congressional Republican before beginning his career as a litigating attorney.”

“In recent years, his political affiliation has shifted to a more conservative point of view, and he explains what drove his change of heart. He cites the tenor of the media in Washington, D.C. and how it has impacted the way with which events and individuals are often portrayed.”

“Mr. Hull describes the similarities and differences he personally observed in the Black Lives Matter protests he attended as well as the January 6th rally that served as a precursor to the insurrection at the Capitol later that day. His observations of the attendees and some of the groups that drove the behavior of the crowds are quite interesting in each case. As a former journalist, his “takeaways” are quite compelling.”

“Then, Mr. Hull does a “deep dive” into “free speech” differentiating the actual element of that phrase and its misplaced use. T.J. quizzes him on “freedom of the press” as well, and he dissects that issue as well.”

“From Antifa to the Proud Boys, Mr. Hull has had an opportunity to directly observe the behaviors of both and the aftermaths of their actions. He describes what the media reported relative to the facts versus the impact of any partisan spin on national perspectives. Learn how an actual observer evaluates the actions he saw, the people he met, and the way each was presented to the public. Some may be in complete alignment with what you might suspect. Others may stun you with what the genuine details reveal… particularly with respect to the law.”

“Leave your political biases at the door and enter the world of someone who lives in D.C. and regularly experiences history as it occurs. Then, ask why this isn’t what you may have read or seen from either side of the aisle.”

Broadcast November 17, 2021

Posted by JD Hull at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2022

Hull and O’Hara do American hate speech.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2022

The New New Left

My Once Beloved Left. Group photo yesterday morning. October 3, 2022. 333 Constitution Avenue, Northwest. E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse. Washington, D.C. USA

Posted by JD Hull at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 23, 2022

Coleman and Hull solve January 6.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:46 PM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2022

Charles Clapp's "The Congressman."

What do members of Congress really do, anyway?

What have they done traditionally? True, staffs are bigger now--but much of life on The Last Plantation is the same as 50 years ago. What values, if any, are shared by those on work in Capitol Hill?

The Brookings Institution first published "The Congressman: His Work as He Sees It" by Charles L. Clapp in 1963 (507 pages, Anchor). Congressional fellow, policy wonk and former Capitol Hill aide, Clapp was one of the first Washington "old hands" to study and write about the way a legislator actually thinks and works--as opposed to "how Congress works" generally--in the American Congress.

It's based on a study of 36 non-senior House members (i.e., relatively new to the job) who varied in philosophy, districts represented, personalities, and even perceived abilities.

Sure, 50 years ago, Congress enjoyed much smaller personal and committee staffs, and arguably considered less complex issues than they do today. America and the world have changed.

But in his book a Clapp pinned down and explained a few important things that have not changed, and not likely to change: the primacy of becoming an "expert" in one or two areas of national concern (usually reflected by committee assignments), the albatross of reelection every two years, sensitivity (even over-sensitivity) by members to discrete constituent communications and requests, and the fact that all of these men and women, regardless of overall intelligence, work ethic and personality, work hard (yes, no question, they all work hard, despite public's understandable animosity toward and need to demonize them) at a gig that would be daunting to anyone and is impossible to master in all respects.

As a friend notes, Congressional membership is "a lot of job." "The Congressman" is worth reading or at least skimming, whether you're a politics junkie or an average voter who wants to learn a bit more about American decision-making. It can still purchased through a number of online outlets and may be even downloadable, if you look around a bit.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (1)

April 01, 2022

Apologies to Judge Jackson

4/1/2022 I apologize to everyone for labeling Judge Jackson high-end free-pass affirmative action Ivy League kitchen help. That was wrong. We should continue to honor, promote and celebrate minority mediocrities when far more talented, far more harder working, and far more accomplished people of all colors without effeminate male partners are far more deserving to serve on SCOTUS. I hope my apology is accepted.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:03 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2021

Today

Please stay away from DC and Capitol Hill today,

Ok?

Or I’ll come to your house.

And soon.

I mean it.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2021

6 months on.

January 6, 2021. Rot in Hell, vile insurrectionists. Never again.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:53 AM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2021

It’s Basque Separatist Summer.

It over yet? Pride Month? Can July henceforth be Basque Separatist Month? Got it! Basque Separatist Summer! Every summer! Yes!

Posted by JD Hull at 05:21 PM | Comments (0)

June 26, 2021

Shorten Pride Month

Can Pride Month end a few days early this year? Its insufferable length and signature obnoxiousness need to end. It’s not anti-gay to point out that this has become a no-class time of the year. Can we please celebrate someone or something else? The LGBTQ community is not special. It is losing straight supporters. It is turning people off. Enough. Move on. Move over.

Put another way? We need not be “all in” “all the time” in our support of anyone or anything historically marginalized. I support most things about the LGBTQ community but won’t be a mindless participant-slave in what has become a nuance-free team sport. No movement deserves everyone’s blind full-time support on penalty of being called a bigot. Or a homophobe. A racist. A misogynist. A name. There are shades of grey. LGBTQ World, please get some class. You’re blowing it with most Americans.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2021

Debate and Destroy Antifa-BLM.

It’s ironic, but true, and no exaggeration—and frankly a brilliant ruse—that BLM-Antifa are Fascist at their core and the biggest threat to America and the West since Germany’s Third Reich. Debate BLM-Antifa—but destroy them, too. BLM-Antifa is the real enemy. They believe in “Good Tyranny” and controlling via a central government nearly every aspect of human life. Learn. Wake up. Shed your silly middle class guilt that BLM-Antifa relies on to control you. Right now? They have half of America in the palm of their hand.

Posted by JD Hull at 05:44 AM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2021

The fledgling new Mom ‘n’ Pop Right. It’s coming, Campers.

I’m not a lifelong GOP person or right winger. I’m still an old-style liberal. I love Speech. I still talk to everyone. But I’m 100% convinced that the American “Mom and Pop Right” is growing in leaps and bounds. Educated. Articulate. Willing to speak out. This is a relatively new thing. The seeds were planted around mid-2015. A massive population that will not hide anymore. They no longer take cues from the media or our usual authorities. And they are permanently pissed off and vigilant. They no longer care what names you call them. Get ready. They are legion. Dang.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

April 10, 2021

Heads up, Campers.

Some media says far-right domestic terrorists will be at it again this weekend.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:03 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2021

Cooties.

Welcome to Grade School America. “Systematic Racism” is our New National Cooties. No one can tell you what it is. But Media, Academics and Progressives think everyone has it. I’ve met lots of Americans. Two or three racists. And thousands who are just royally pissed off.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2020

Trump

Until about 4 years ago I was a loyal, active and effective moderate Democrat. I raised money for Dem POTUS candidates. Tolerated Dems when they demanded speech orthodoxy and abandoned free thought. Voted for HRC. Even worked for her. Sat on Dem boards in California when I lived there. Organized Dems in part of SoCal where there were few who’d even admit it. But watching the transition in 2016 and 2017 changed all that for me. President-elect Trump was treated in November 2016 through early January 2017 like human garbage. Cruelly trashed and pilloried on the way in. It was shameful. Progressives talked impeachment starting mid-November. Let Don Trump treat the Media, SJW Muppets, the Academic Community and Goofy Dems like the anti-liberty robot creeps they are on the way out. Trump’s a Huntin’ Dog. They hate that. Oh God do they hate it. He made his predecessor Barack Obama look like a do-nothing, wimpy shadow. All hat. No cattle. Trump was imperfect but worked his ass off for us.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2020

Where Americans are....

My take on last week?

1. Looks like DJT took one for the team.

2. Trump down; Trumpism still standing—and maybe stronger than ever.

3. And we Americans no longer know one another. Let’s fix that.

AP: “Referendum on Trump shatters turnout records...”

Posted by JD Hull at 06:08 AM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2020

“What if Trump does a Grover Cleveland?” Grover Cleveland checks back in.

Speaking of come-back kids, Grover Cleveland was president 1885-1889, was out of office for four years, and then president again 1893-1897. In November 1888, he and former Ohio senator Allen Thurman lost to Civil War general and lawyer Benjamin Harrison and future New York governor Levi Morton. In January 1889, the defeated Cleveland went back to New York to practice law. But his new wife Frances told a White House staff member: "Take good care of all the furniture and ornaments in the house...we are coming back four years from today."

Frances was right. He won again in 1892.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:07 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2020

We’re Back!

Thank you one Kevin Driscoll, tech wizard, in Pittsburgh and the World.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:32 AM | Comments (0)

August 01, 2020

American Folkway.

Confederate flags aren’t hate symbols or swastikas. Learn American history, culture, folkways and geography. Get culturally literate. Most Americans aren’t small-minded, easily offended or whiny victims. Let’s get back to that.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2020

Attack of the Muppets, Part XXIX

Posted by JD Hull at 05:51 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2020

Secret Police.

Folks, if you have trouble with federal secret police manhandling protestors, demonstrators and dissidents, maybe Socialism just isn’t for you. Stick to the old bourgeois system.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:18 PM | Comments (0)

July 21, 2020

The New “Liberals.”

Not one of my political views, cultural values or causes have changed since 1974. But I’m now called a Racist at least weekly. I’ve not met a single liberal Dem in DC since I got back here in 2015. Not one. The new Left and its new “liberalism” is intolerant, poorly-educated, small-minded, prissy and illiberal. They are not liberals. They are not even close.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2020

#PortlandBeaversMatter

Posted by JD Hull at 05:18 AM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2020

Stop BLM

Don’t be fooled. The organization #BlackLivesMatter is collectivist group-think garbage. Stop this mixed band of GenY muppets, Antifa, losers, ingrates and frauds with all your heart and soul.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:17 PM | Comments (0)

July 08, 2020

The New White Liberals

Every day ‘white liberals’ destroy more ideas, words, history and good people than Pol Pot. Get off your knees. Stand up to them.

#ResistWhiteTrashLiberals

Posted by JD Hull at 03:33 PM | Comments (0)

May 13, 2020

General Voting by Mail: No Bueno.

General voting by mail is a HORRIBLE idea—and there is nothing racist or classist about making our citizens show up in person to vote. Voters are pretty dumb. Think of cattle or livestock. If they show up at the polls in 3-D at least we know they are more likely to be aware of what in fact they are actually doing.

Posted by JD Hull at 05:55 AM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2020

Corona Huh?

So we’re shutting down the World to save immune system mutants, 95 year olds, active drug addicts, people who’ve never given a husky fuck about their health and life-long Fatties? “Adults” all over DC where I live—with to-die for formal educations—have become depressed, frightened peasants and slaves. Wtf.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2020

Go. Outside.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2020

Too much “Democracy”?

Has too much “democracy” been killing my beloved 230-year-old experiment called America? When everyone is “someone” mediocrity is the new normal and goal. Have we stretched the idea of “equality” too far? Are we punishing merit and rewarding marginal performance so we can feel good about ourselves? And why can’t we ever talk about it? It’s killing us. We are still stifling expression of unpopular ideas and different speech. Sure. Everyone has value. But some humans have far, far more value and utility than others.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2020

Happy 184th, Republic of Texas

Texas Declaration of Independence, March 2, 1836

Posted by JD Hull at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2020

Trump.

People are a bit on edge in day-to-day liberal DC. Last 6 months especially. I was born in the city. I live in the city. Spent 25 years working in it. I’ve never seen anything like it. People have Trump on the brain. Some outrage. But they only talk to each other. People “like” them. No one knows or even talks to very many “others.” No one gets out much. I’m vocal—but selectively. People who think like me are mainly quiet.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:12 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2020

Free Speech and Expression Friday: Get Off Your Knees.

It’s #FreeSpeechFriday.

Get off your knees.

Stop talking about Speech and Expression.

Start living Speech and Expression.

Stop being Cultural Peasants and Slaves.

Go to your sterile workplaces and talk how you want.

About what you want to talk about.

#FreeSpeechFriday

Posted by JD Hull at 06:37 AM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2019

Desperately seeking diversity.

Happy New Year. My neighborhood in DC has turned into some kind of non-diverse Orwellian-H.G. Wells Mother of all BetaFests where most guys talk and act like Mr. Rogers. I’m starting to sashay here. How about your ‘hood? What’s happening in the Midwest and South?

Posted by JD Hull at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2019

HR Departments

Why are most HR Departments based on “snitch culture” of women, gays and effeminate men?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2019

White Boy Action Wear

Twenty-one years ago I started a company called Black Dog to sell tees, sweatshirts, jackets and the like under the name of "White Boy Action Wear". The WBAW logo and "White Boy" (see T-shirt image above) would have appeared on every product.

We shelved the company and the clothing line when we realized something while selling a few items initially to obtain trade and service marks: very few people outside of the largest U.S. cities and some fun (but insular) snowboarding, skateboarding and extreme sports communities (a) "got it"--the name, that is--and (b) felt comfortable with it and the "concept", such as it is. Lots of people said they felt uncomfortable with White Boy Action Wear--the words, the concept, the tee shirt--and in ways they could not always explain to us. Me? I think it's funny (read: hysterical) and always have.

It makes fun of white people, by the way.

And although I’m a white guy, I think anyone can make fun of white people. I don’t believe in “cultural appropriation.”

Help me out:

1. Does, for example, the T-shirt product above offend you?

2. Would you buy it?

3. Would you keep or wear it if it were a present?

4. Would you let your kids wear it?

5. Would you wear it at your country club? An Irish bar?

6. Would you wear it into the "Soul Lounge" in Madisonville, Ohio, a Cincinnati suburb of mainly black (or Afro-American) residents? Or at a mainly white working class bar in nearby the suburb of Norwood?

7. Even if you have no problems with it, and think it's wonderful and funny, what problems do you see other people having with it?

8. Have things (and sensibilities) changed or loosened up enough for people to understand the mild fun and satire connected the "White Boy Action Wear" idea and the goofy White Boy who would appear on every product?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2019

2nd Tuesday MAGA

DCMAGA Meetup: Happy Hour at The Trump Hotel

Tonight November 12
6:00 pm to 9:30 pm

1100 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20004
United States

Now more diverse than ever...😀

Posted by JD Hull at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2019

The Woke Section of My Local Bookshop

MenBad WomenGood section of my local bookstore. This section of the store is much larger and is even more handwringing, self-righteous and morally smug-superior than this.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2019

Tune Inn

Only serious degenerates get kicked out of Capitol Hill bars like the Tune Inn. Ninja grade. HST whipped out a handgun here one night and showed a bunch of customers. Including some off-duty Secret Service agents. “Just in case there’s a firefight. Nothing serious.” They let him stay.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:58 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2019

John Irving on Editing.

Half my life is an act of revision.

--John Irving (1942-)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:47 AM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2019

2020

Elections for POTUS are when Americans air stuff out.

We bat around every idea.

Much of what’s said would get you jailed or killed in other countries.

We discuss it all: from energy tax credits to dark demonic energy.

During these cycles I’m the most proud of being American.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:11 AM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2019

FDR--Patrician, Activist, Charmer, Bad-Ass--on Voting.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

-- FDR (1882-1945) Patrician, Activist, Charmer, Leader, Bad-Ass.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:59 AM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2019

#FreeSpeechFriday

Get off your knees. Your ideas/words your way.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 25, 2019

Just in time for Cherry Blossoms

Posted by JD Hull at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2019

Machine Gun Roger Stone Finally Brought to Justice.

Sure, Roger Stone is a major piece of work who’s been scaring the horses his whole life but was it really necessary to arrest him early this morning in Florida like he was Machine Gun Kelly just to be predictably released hours later and why was goofy CNN there? Dogged shoe leather journalism?

Posted by JD Hull at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

January 08, 2019

Trump in 100 years.

The Left—which until recent years I admired—hates Donald Trump far more for his personality than for his politics. It’s Cultural. Almost 100%.

I’ve been working for or working with national pols steadily since I was 21. There is nothing “political” about Trump the man. Zero. Zilch. Nada. He’s a pragmatist.

The Left dislikes Donald Trump so much because he’s an out-of-the-blue (if inadvertent) alpha male bid to reverse 30 years of emasculating and effeminizing The West. They never saw him coming; they’re losing it.

In 100 years Trump, if nothing else, will be seen as a foil to “moral evolutionists,” most feminists and some Beta-males who politically and culturally were used to getting what they wanted.

Generationally, Millennials were taken by surprise. They still don’t know what to think about Donald Trump. They were brought up to think school/workplace would always be PC: chilled and sterile environments where human interaction, play, flirtation and free expression existed mainly as intriguing ideas once fully embraced by their Boomer parents. Millennials thought free speech and expression meant a certain quality and content of speech/expression—it doesn’t and never did.

No one saw Trump or anyone like him coming.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2018

Charleston, New Year’s Day, 2009

Free Expression/Speech is even more important than Tolerance, Sensitivity, Equality, Human Rights or Civil Rights. There is Nothing without Free Expression/Speech.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:21 PM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2018

GAB

As an alternative to Twitter, which keeps kicking me off, I just tried out GAB. Started today.

GAB is appallingly vile. Drunks. Low lifes. White trash social media. Makes Hustler look like the Yale Daily News.

I really like it.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:55 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2018

Cultural Appropriation, much?

“A living language....needs above all else constant transactions of new blood from other tongues. The day the gates go up, that is the day it begins to die.”

—H.L. Mencken, The American Language, 1919

Posted by JD Hull at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2018

Last Night’s Midterm Election Results.

So what did you think?

I expected Dems to do better in the 2018 midterms.

The House shift to DEM I expected—and is consistent with midterm elections down through history.

But I expected Ted Cruz to lose in Texas and did NOT expect GOP to get stronger in Senate.

.....

Trump, in any event, is one far-out mother, Watched his presser this afternoon, You either like guys like Trump or you don’t. I do. I didn’t vote for him two years ago. But I liked him and still do. Guess I grew up with lots of Greatest Generation men with a dash of Trump.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2018

Vote anyway, Campers.

If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal.

--Emma Goldman (1869–1940) Anarchist, Activist, Writer, Leader, Bad-Ass.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 31, 2018

Pittsburgh’s Democratic Elite Screwed Up. Big Time.

“Being right is expensive,” a brilliant friend always says. May be my favorite expression after “Go Braves/Blue Devils.”

And here’s a great example: demanding that the President of United States not to come to Pittsburgh in the aftermath of Saturday’s horrific synagogue kiliings. Okay, I get it. But Jesus. That gesture will make those leaning right hate Dems and progressives even more.

Pittsburgh pols and the local leadership, which have been largely Democratic over the years, blew this one. Most folks of ANY political ilk in the Midwest, South and non-coastal West just DO NOT GET asking your president to stay away from your town when he has offered to come after a tragedy.

No bueno, Pittsburgh. You screwed up. And it just does not matter, my old Steeltown friends, that you are “right.” It’s not enough. Not ever.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:57 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2018

How about this, survivors?

How about this?

1. No one deserves to be believed.

2. America cherishes evidence, reason & due process.

3. Let’s not use bare allegations to destroy high-achieving people we don’t like.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2018

Free Speech Friday

It’s #FreeSpeechFriday

Forget about “elevating” Speech.

That turned into Tyranny.

Expand Speech first. Elevate Speech later.

Get off your knees. Please.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:19 AM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2018

Impeachment.

Americans, like juries, are not dumb; they will always surprise you.

Impeachment attempts by those who wanted to impeach the POTUS even before Inauguration Day will continue to make the Left look as petty, prissy & small as it really is.

An impeachment bid? It helps the Right.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2018

Famous Long Ago.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 AM | Comments (0)

Speech, Women, Beauty and Truth.

It’s #FreeSpeechFriday.

Find a great-looking well-dressed woman at work, on the way to work, in an elevator, on the streets.

Tell her she’s beautiful. Tell her she could make a blind man see.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2018

More on Speech Peasants/Slaves.

Every American is still a Speech Peasant. Me. You. SJWs. Conservatives. Left. Right. Center. Everyone.

We all bought into PC.

Speech, Expression & Creativity come first. Human and Civil Rights second.

There is nothing nada zilch without Speech. Everything good flows from it.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2018

My Facebook Page Yesterday

“Unfortunately, and this is on me totally, that “stealth Trump supporter” post here with 160+ comments needs to be closed out. My fault. Not good at it or I just don’t have the time to moderate these chats about politics and (mainly) culture as I should. I am doing what I love harder than ever these days and billed hours from 9 to 3 today, Saturday. But since the discussion started 2 or 3 days ago I’ve deleted about 6 comments from 4 people and “banned” 2 people. You can attack ideas and even public figures here but you can’t attack each other or my family or threaten my relationships with friends I’ve had for 50 years or clients I have had for 30. You CAN attack me—I’m used to that—but do that by “being a man” and call me on the phone. Don’t do it here. Please. And if anyone again attacks my family or friends or in my view interferes with my livelihood here in print I will go out of my way to make them suffer. I promise. That’s something I’m good at. Ok? :) “

Posted by JD Hull at 10:03 AM | Comments (0)

August 03, 2018

Stealth Elite Trump Base?

‪Many of the most forthright and best-educated people I know—from all over US and Europe and all parts of the cultural and traditional political spectrum—basically approve of Donald Trump as a needed change. But they still don’t talk openly about it for a variety of reasons. ‬They are not hillbillies, either. ‬

Posted by JD Hull at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)

July 10, 2018

Brett Kavanaugh

A tweet of last night:

“Only in Clown Years 2017-2018 could anyone suggest Brett Kavanaugh is “controversial.” He’s a mild Irish Catholic Yalie who loves rules & law. To defeat his nomination just 2 years ago? You’d need photos of him and wife shagging the family beagle at high noon in the back yard.”

Posted by JD Hull at 02:15 AM | Comments (0)

June 03, 2018

Democrats, you ever coming home?

I was a Democrat for a very long time—until the Democratic Party abandoned me. If I decided to go back, what’s left to go back to? Anger? Small-mindedness? Moral superiority?

Posted by JD Hull at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2018

More on Trumpism?

“The idea was never to elect/not elect/approve/disapprove of Donald Trump as POTUS in the short-term (4 to 8 years). The idea is what Trumpism and any movement like it can do to restore the West to cultural sanity in the next 50 years or more.”

—Some Boomer WASP

Posted by JD Hull at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

March 08, 2018

America Morning Tweet.

America may very well be the last hope for survival of The West. There is still some Speech here. If our culture wars—pitting the Merit-Centric against the Equality-Centric—get worse, how many of you fire-breathing partisans are willing to take the fight to our streets & fields?

Posted by JD Hull at 07:54 PM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2018

#FreeSpeechFriday

‪My Twitter post this morning and most Friday morinings for the last year:

Good morning American-European comrade workers. ‬

‪It’s #FreeSpeechFriday. ‬

‪Today? ‬

‪Today you won’t be needing (a) an approved Cultural Script or (b) a Politically-Correct Word List for any of your Speech & Ideas. ‬

‪Have fun with the King’s English.‬

Posted by JD Hull at 11:15 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2018

My Post-Parkland Advice on Gun Regulation.

Whenever I have a business or personal problem I can’t solve? I run it by emotional high school students who hate the President.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2018

Ides of February: Trump Year 2.

It’s 2-15-18.

America has been in business for 229 years. Since 1789.

Which Free Speech & Expression are we allowed to use today?

Who has The List?

Posted by JD Hull at 04:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 31, 2018

What has DJT wrought?

Below is a 24-hour Poll I pinned up today on Twitter. So far “Traditional Masculinity” is the top choice. But I’d disagree.

“Culturally-speaking, what part of American Life has the Trump Presidency so far helped the most?

Free Speech/Expression?

Traditional Family?

Traditional Masculinity?

Conservatism Generally?”

Posted by JD Hull at 09:58 PM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2017

What happened to discourse?

From a Facebook post this morning by me:

I’m a long-time (now-ex) moderate Dem who did not vote for Trump but recently registered GOP for reasons—I’ve never liked unions or our unthinking PC ‘parrot’ culture & love free speech—unrelated to Trump. But I’ve applauded Trump’s entry onto the world stage since he announced for POTUS in June 2015 because I think that—long term—he is a refreshing, productive & badly-needed influence, especially on free speech. I’m amazed at the cost of this subtle shift. Before entering private practice, I worked on Capitol Hill for 4 years for both GOP & Dem MOCs (liberal D Senator & conservative R Congressman); folks well know this. My politics really haven’t changed much. But my publicly-open willingness to at least listen to Trump is apparently costing me countless friendships or prevents the continuance of developing relationships. I’m stunned. Am fortunate to be well-educated, well-read & well-traveled. I engage & talk to Everyone. Board rooms & the grittiest city streets. I’ve always had friends all over the cultural political landscape & spectrum. It makes life fuller. I do hope some of them come back or begin to mend.

https://www.facebook.com/dan.hull.37/posts/1524498210960750

Posted by JD Hull at 10:27 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2017

Yes, I’m still a liberal but.....

1. Women, gays, minorities & poors are no longer special.

2. Time for the West to stop treating them like retards, gimps & ne’er do wells.

3. Women, minorities & poors can do well without special help.

4. Stop “normalizing” & enabling mediocrity.

5. Stop punishing people who work hard. Rich, poor, middle-class.

6. Stop demonizing the families of Europeans who built America & always fix things when they break. For 400 years.

7. Finally, stop pretending everyone is substantively “equal.” They’re not equal. Not even close. Get used to it. Or at least get out of the way.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2017

Has Europe Abandoned Free Speech?

Or does it just seem that way?

Speaker's Corner, Hyde Park, London

Posted by JD Hull at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

September 30, 2017

The Verdict?

The jury's still out. But Trump isn't that bad a guy. We've had more presidents like him in the past 230 years than we've had like Obama. And I think Trump has a much better work ethic than Obama. I didn't vote for Trump. But he does seem to be the right guy to push the pendulum back. Unbridled political and cultural "liberalism" for the past few decades has arguably done America a great disservice. America can't keep telling people how to think, be, talk and act. Enough is enough.

Posted by JD Hull at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2017

Profs. Politically.

I come from a family of business people--but also teachers and several profs. I like professors. Mainly. A very good friend teaches at a great law school. Two other close friends teach law at good schools. And I teach lawyers--many of whom are full-time profs--how to keep their licenses. Profs? Politically? Most? Profs are about as sequestered and small-minded as people can get. Liberal. Group-Think. Predictable. And most are not very brave people. They're observers. They watch.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2017

America's Trump Era Street Fight: What happens long-term? Does anyone have a clue?

So what's the future for America and the West? What happens? Long-term, I mean. The divisiveness in this country is at an all-time high in my Boomer lifetime. No, I don't think it will result in armed civil war. Or in attempted secession of a state or two. Those worst two things won't happen. But something has to give eventually. A year. Two years. Maybe longer. But, unlike others, I like--yes, like--the way things are progressing because I'm in this for the long haul.

First, let me explain something. I didn't vote for Donald John Trump to be President of the United States. No. Not because he's a Bad Person--Trump is not; a political scientist named David Barber wrote years ago the POTUS job brings out the best and worst in its holders, and we may be seeing that now. No, I thought HRC was a better candidate. But I've thought for 2 years and still think that Trump's bid to become POTUS has been an enormously healthy and positive thing for America in the long term.

Yes, Trump has been and is a good thing, mostly inadvertent.

Why? Three separate things. Trump (a) highlighted and (b) turned up the volume on a bitter, divisive and important ongoing conversation about The Future of America (and generally the West). That conversation is beyond politics. It's a conversation about Culture. One that no other candidate/president could have illuminated and made even better. Moreover, in my view, due to his own unrestrained personality, Trump made it possible to (c) to talk about the future of America more openly (if often vulgarly) than before.

Now? Now we can talk, folks. It's a street fight--but at least there's a dialogue.

In the dialogue, there are far more than two factions in the Trump Age culture conversation. In fact, "liberal", "conservative", "Democrat", "Republican" and "Libertarian" have all but lost their meanings. (Best example? The Left once fancied free speech in a religious if not absolutist way. That's no longer as true. Conservatives and Libertarians now own that ground under their freedom-and-liberty rubric.)

But maybe this generalization is useful. One the one hand, you have traditional Democrats and The Left lamenting that the march of progress--in human, civil, gay, women's and minority rights--is being halted and reversed. You are ruining our social justice working masterpiece, they say. That's understandable. I get that. On the other hand, on the right and with moderate conservatives, the mantra in the ongoing conversation of the famously "left-behind" Midwestern, Southern and GOP base that elected Trump is:"Wait. Not so fast. We weren't ready for a lot of this in the first place." In short, they are saying, Liberals, please don't make us evolve morally or in terms of values on your schedule. We'd like to think about this. We're not bigots. We simple don't want to be told how to think, feel, talk and behave.

My take? I think it's always tricky to pass any laws in a democracy which go directly to anyone's notion of right or wrong. Nothing harder. This is not Cuba. Not North Korea. Not Iran. You can't legislate morality or values. But even the American system permits the chief executive, the Congress and the courts to give people a "push"--but the timing on the push has to be good to justify the statism. Maybe close to perfect.

President Johnson's 1964 Civil Rights Act had brilliant timing. The passage of time, some ugly events, much peaceful civil rights protest, and Congress-made and judge-made law for 100 years paved the way for the 1964 Act. Few or the right or left would now dismantle it. Brilliant. A bit lucky. But same-sex marriage and trans-gender bathroom rights, for examples? Sounds good. Why not? Legislative that? Make that law now? No. Not brilliant. Good idea probably. Bad timing. Slow down. That was a mistake. A large segment if not most Americans were NOT ready for those--and we should never expected it to be.

Anyway, go back to the beginning of this post. Re: Divisiveness in America and The West generally. 3 questions. But Item 2 is the most important.

1. Where is it leading us?

2. Exactly why happens long term?

3. And, if you're feeling brave and prescient, what happens next? Short term?

And from a favorite movie:

MICHAEL: How bad do you think it's going to be?

CLEMENZA: Pretty goddamn bad. These things gotta happen every five years or so, ten years. Helps to get rid of the bad blood...

Posted by JD Hull at 08:06 PM | Comments (0)

July 29, 2017

Trump

Earlier today.

MOM: So what do you think of Trump?

ME: Most authentic and energetic President in my lifetime. Only a matter of time until we turn on him.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

July 06, 2017

The 'Conservative' Revolution in the West. What happened?

In a nutshell? Liberal overreaching for decades toward "mandatory moral evolution" in the US and Europe woke up millions tired of being called Racist, Sexist and Homophobic.

It got Don Trump elected. And it's just taking hold.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

June 30, 2017

Will there be an ABA Commission on Men in the Profession?

Don't mean to beat a dead horse. But I've a serious question. Anytime soon will there be an American Bar Association (ABA) Commission on Men in the Profession?

Posted by JD Hull at 12:34 AM | Comments (0)

June 16, 2017

Think I'm peaking GOP...

I really think so. One of my tweets on Twitter yesterday. I wonder what this one will look like to me in a week, a month, a year:

"Monarchy and aristocracy make more sense to me every day. Our schools & "universities" continue to produce beer hippies, cretins & serfs."

Posted by JD Hull at 03:32 AM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2017

Jeff Sessions

Me on Facebook livestream today while watching Sessions hearing. About 3:20 pm EST:

"Going back to work. But Sessions is really stepping up to this. Doing well. Masterful. This is backfiring. The Vice-Chairman today? Strictly Weenie Patrol. Chairman Burr? Almost as bad. Grandstanding. Campaigning like a rat in heat..."

Posted by JD Hull at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2017

London Bridge

Seven people died last night in 3 London attacks. Islam. Radical Islam. Action Islam. Whatever. Time for a candlelight vigil? That's always worthless.

Me? Time for my Brit cousins to start by arming all their cops. All their cops & security people. Maybe more. Do something more than they've been doing. UK & especially London belong to the West. Our city. Your city. My city. Our civilization. Cities like London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Florence, Berlin & Vienna belong to all Westerners.

And let's stop the semantics charade. Islam. Radical Islam. Radical Islam is--at a minimum--a big & effective part of mainstream Islam. That much is clear.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2017

Now what? In the Matter of Donald John Trump.

And because everyone asks me..

1. No one sane & savvy I know thinks DJT will be impeached.

2. The upshot? Far more people in all camps think he's an asshole. That's it.

3. Also: No one sane & savvy thinks he's dumb. Everyone thinks he's a scrapper. He won't step down unless he's bored. That won't happen.

4. The only long-term narrative against Trump I can see is that he's nuts. Bonkers. Not enough--we've had a few Wild Man presidents. E.g. Teddy R was way crazy. "He's crazy" won't remove him from office but will hurt him if it sticks. Like in 2020.

5. Mueller is a class act and honest--much better human than Ken Starr (or Comey)--and in any event will drive this away from impeachment because it's bad for the country.

6. The country will more than ever continue to divide into 2 overall camps. Hair on fire Dems vs. fed-up hold their noses GOP folks. People will even talk more about civil war. Which also won't happen.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:28 PM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2017

'Stuck in the Swamp'

That is the title of the cover article for this week's print edition of the right-leaning, increasingly respected Washington Examiner. A feature on slow hiring for key jobs in the Trump administration.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:01 PM | Comments (0)

May 02, 2017

Why Donald John Trump Freaks Out Half the Nation.

This morning I should be working solely on a project--interesting only to me and 5 other people on the legal earth--subtitled "Promissory Estoppel against the Government" but it may also have finally dawned on me why, in large part, so many people dislike Donald Trump and so many love him. And why that schism will continue. And why few issues will be argued on the merits or dispassionately for the next 4 years.

Donald Trump is the archetype of the roguish, reckless & in-your-face American Alpha Male who many of us--especially America's vast and varied population of moderate white liberals on the coasts and in big cities--thought we had killed off over the last 40 years. That archetype, or "those guys," were always with us in corporations, in an assortment of working class cultures, in rural areas and well virtually hiding just about everywhere but were quieter, drowned out or at least out of style for years. But they were always part of the larger and long-term culture of planet Earth. We heard their voices in the braggadocio masculinity of Beowulf, Homer, Mike Fink, Casey Jones and Davy Crockett. "This is who I am. This is who I conquered. What I did. You should know about me. There have been few men like me." These guys--and their instincts to dominate and strut around--have been around a long time.

About half of us were happy about the recent change in role models; about half missed the old school male.

Many of us raised our children to NOT be a Donald Trump; as new age parents, we raised kids to not only to respect women and all minorities but to affect an attitude at all times of inclusiveness, sensitivity and collaboration even with that conflicted with our own instincts about how selfish, warlike and unreasonable humans really are and have been for thousands of years. We Boomers asked ourselves and other generations to morally "evolve"--and evolve too quickly. You want an example? Here's one. "Empathy" in recent years has a desirable trait. The problem with that is that empathy has never been a "male trait" and we shouldn't act as if men and boys come by it that naturally. Because we don't. We are not as empathetic as women by nature. (Feel free to report me to NPR, Oberlin College and the Junior League.)

Donald Trump is in many respects merely, well (gulp), Male. No. He's no dinosaur. He's not a throwback. People who hate him and need to minimize or revile anything he does are missing something. Donald John Trump is merely an outsized and perhaps exaggerated example of what men and especially American men have been like for generations. We don't have to like it. But we do need to realize we never killed these Alpha Men off. There are lots more men like him than many thought. In recent years, they haven't been trendy; they've held back a lot.

These men--and of course many women as well--do have obvious strengths that many thought were outdated, e.g. combativeness, independence, decisiveness. Arguably, we could use those kinds of traits right now.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2017

Trump in Florida on Saturday.

Donald John Tump certainly has some rough edges. A proven salesman, he still exaggerates too much for even a POTUS. He gets things wrong. He name-calls almost daily. Sure, some days I wish he were classier. But on Saturday President Trump in Melbourne, Florida gave one of best speeches you'll ever see or hear a pol give. And, technically, of course, he's a political novice. One month in office and already back into campaign style. But--for him--it worked. He hit every policy and cultural issue of his controversial 4-week presidency. Hostile news coverage. Fake news. Jobs. Replacing Obamacare. Defeating ISIS. Sanctuary cities. Trump is just learning how to develop his gift for for politics. Like him or not, the guy's a natural. And smart. If you can't court the press, go back to your base. And I think he knows at this point that disgruntled Democrats, the Left and Main Stream Media are pushing people over to him. Folks--including me--used to worship NBC, CBS, CNN and ABC. No more. Or not as much. Right now, as much as I hate to admit it, right-leaning Fox News seems "fair and balanced" compared to the spastically partisan coverage by the other big news outlets. I'm watching Fox most evenings now for the first time--because the other media outlets are openly losing it. Everyone, from coastal elites to average American families, are beginning to have second thoughts about news institutions we watched, followed and wanted to trust since the 1950s. Trump can be flaky, loopy, mean and ugly. But we're starting to see some ugly colors and cries for help in the Fourth Estate, too.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2017

Philip Klein: The New "Opposition to Wussiness" in American Politics.

In the new weekly magazine edition of the Washington Examiner, managing editor Philip Klein notes--correctly, I think--that Opposition to wussiness is the driving force in US politics. And both liberals and conservatives are leading the charge. Klein begins:

In the increasingly polarized climate of U.S. politics, liberals and conservatives are united on one thing: They hate wussiness, and they think their side is always dominated by a bunch of wusses who aren't willing to be as ruthless as their political opponents. The abhorrence of wussiness has become the driving force in U.S. politics.

During the Obama era, ideologues on both sides who were angry about perceived weakness, transformed politics. An early liberal critique of Obama was that he was too eager to win over bipartisan support for his agenda and to appear to be within the acceptable mainstream, so he watered down policies. In a popular narrative at the time among liberals, the roughly $800 billion economic stimulus package was too small and was weighted too heavily toward tax cuts, and Obama didn't fight hard enough for a public option during the healthcare fight. If only he used the type of strong-armed tactics associated with Lyndon Johnson, many on the left argued, he could have enacted a bolder liberal agenda.

Of course, from the conservative perspective, Obama and Democrats had steamrolled through deeply unpopular policies that grossly expanded the size and scope of government. Fed up with the type of Republicans who they saw as too willing to cut deals with Democrats, the Tea Party was born, and thrusted a wave of new Republicans into office in 2010, who took over the House of Representatives with a promise of fighting Obama's agenda.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:16 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2017

Best Monday Startup Song Ever.

1995 Buenos Aires

Posted by JD Hull at 12:47 AM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2017

Confused about my "politics"? It's not important--but....

Not that it's important. But this blog has been active for 12 years. We all change a bit. Anyway, this may make the confusion worse. Comment I made on Facebook on Sunday:

"I'm pretty liberal even though I grew up mainly in IH [GOP Cincinnati suburb], am a serious capitalist, had moderate GOP parents and worked for one GOP member of Congress. I refuse to think off any partisan script. I'm an R who has twice raised $ for and voted for Hillary Clinton--who I see as a moderate & very similar to Trump as a pol. I also worked for a very liberal Kennedy style senator. Ideologies don't solve problems. People do."

Posted by JD Hull at 03:43 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2017

Unpopularity.

For five years, I've been active on Facebook.* My Facebook "friends" is a chronological collection people I knew and still know: growing up in Chicago, Detroit and Cincinnati, in college and law school, as a lawyer in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and California, and working or developing business in Europe, Canada, Central and South America. Finally, there are those I've met recently in real life or sometimes digitally (for now) who I want to know more about.

My Facebook friends inhabit a kind of upscale but eclectic zoo of generally well-educated humans. In fact, what I really like about Facebook is the fact that my friends are a mixed group politically, culturally and geographically. People think differently. Sometimes they clash. Which is a very good thing. The very last thing I want in my life is for everyone to think, feel, talk and act alike.

Anyway, I still see myself as a traditional and hopefully classic liberal--culturally and politically--even though I registered Republican in June 2017 as a sort of symbolic note to myself on how much I have changed. Sure, I then went ahead in November and as planned voted for Hillary Clinton--who I've never seen as lefty but a moderate liberal in the same mold of our new POTUS Donald Trump. Like Trump, HRC to me is a pragmatic non-ideologue manager who likes and is comfortable with power. Two days after Trump was inaugurated, I commented in a short status post on the Facebook the following:

Quick and dirty:

1. I'm not a Conservative or Libertarian. At least I don't think I am or know very much about The Right.

2. But my respect for those of you who really are rises daily.

3. For years you've been patient, strong, often bit your tongues and endured self-righteous abuse.

4. A hat tip and kudos. Wow.

I hope it speaks for itself. I wish I had more time to expand on the above idea. There is so much more to say. Apparently, I now either: (a) think more like people on the Right, or (b) at least understand people on the Right well enough to sense how genuinely isolated, disliked and even lonely it was for many Conservatives and even moderate country club Republicans during some of the Clinton years, and certainly in the last eight Obama years. The Right--who in my view all down the line and spectrum seem by far to have the best grasp of the Constitution (and particularly the First Amendment--in many quarters were of necessity and presumptively shoddy, immoral, brutish, unenlightened humans.

It's the same with "liberals", of course. They are outnumbered and alienated in countless venues across the country. Often pariahs in small towns or rural areas in the Midwest and South. I get that. But an overall liberal precept and status quo during the Obama years on a level not experienced seen before in America must have frustrated and at times even discouraged or angered cultural or political conservatives. Liberalism got loud and cocky. Conservatives, Libertarian and even Centrists were in effect told their ideas were a form of Wrong-Think. That they were bad people. It got so bad that very often they must have been afraid to even speak.

*Which, incidentally, after much kicking and screaming in the beginning, I now view as a not only fun but productive and "transformative" social media platform for every lawyer in private practice.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:36 AM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2017

I'm an HRC voter. I wish our new POTUS Donald J. Trump well.

I wish our new POTUS well. A few things:

1. I've worked as an employee for Congress twice--a Democratic Senator and GOP Representative, both from large northern diverse states.

2. National politics and particularly civil rights activism have been a big part of my life as a doer and writer since I was quite young and continued into my grad student and lawyering years.

3. I've voted for a GOP candidate only once: 2008.

4. Until recently, I was a registered Democrat.

5. After I registered GOP for first time in 2016, I still voted for HRC. I helped raise money for her.

6. I'm excited about the next 4 years--but also a little sad.

7. Several of my friends on The Left and even longtime Dem colleagues either have become temporarily unhinged or--and this is more likely--were never Liberals to begin with.

8. It's hard to watch. I'm still a liberal. And I'm optimistic--as I am about everything--that liberals will find their way and voice again.

9. Right now? Many liberals dislike free speech and expression, new and different ideas, open discourse and honest news reporting. Many have them have no clue about who their fellow Americans are. They have not traveled. They haven't met people who are different from them or who live in different parts of America. And they don't even talk to them.

10. We can do better.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2017

The Goal of the Women's March?

Is there a reason for the Women's March in Washington, D.C. on Saturday, January 21? Has a reason even been given yet? If someone will lend me a camera with an attached audio-video professional, I'd be happy to interview Saturday's marchers on why they march. I promise you the funniest video footage since my 6th grade girlfriend farted like a deckhand at Indian Hill Dancing School during a Righteous Brothers song.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:34 AM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2016

Tidal Basin photo taken December 10, 1941: "Oriental cherry trees."

Below in an Associated Press photo taken on December 10, 1941, a woman named Joy Cummings poses on saddle horse with one of four Japanese cherry trees vandalized at Washington, D.C.'s Tidal Basin near Jefferson Memorial. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor of course occurred three days earlier, and the United States had just entered World War II. For the next six years, until 1947, America's Japanese cherry trees--first received from Japan and planted in 1912--were referred to as Oriental cherry trees.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2016

Trump.

I didn't vote for Trump. However, even if unwittingly--which I frankly doubt was the case--Trump has done tons of good things for elections, election coverage & free speech. Let's give him 6 months or so before asking the House of Representatives to impeach him. Maybe he'll do some more good things. On purpose. Unwittingly. He's showed tons of class and restraint lately. Let's give him a chance.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2016

Give Stephen Bannon a shot.

He's a talented guy. Enough is enough. Let's see what he can do. Like most White House operatives, Trump's senior strategist may turn out to be more pragmatic and less of an ideologue than we think. If he turns out to be an oppressive neo-con firebrand, there are lots of checks and balances. He's part of a democratic government, not a dictatorship, bund or junta. Give this Boomer a shot.

Posted by JD Hull at 02:45 PM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2016

American Mainstream Media: Time for a Check-Up, Guys.

After the 2016 Election cycle comes to a close, major news outlets--the establishment press and cable news networks--need to engage in some some private and public soul-searching about why the news media exists and its best role. And I expect it will.

It's no secret that journalists are often old-stye liberals and vote that way. But the moral panicking against Trump has been a shameful moment for our free press. Yes, objective journalism is hard and ultimately impossible. And H.L. Mencken was right: the press should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. But in reporting facts the media should try to "get it right." Report an event? Feature pieces? Write them. Endeavor to let readers decide. Save opinion as much as possible for your opinion pages.

I'm still voting for HRC. She is the best POTUS candidate in my lifetime. And she is, frankly, very much like Trump in all the best ways. But no candidate deserves the piling on against an adversary she's benefitted from we've seen in this election. HRC didn't need overtly-biased journalism to win.

Take a long walk, American free press. Think about what the press should be and should not be. You can do better than this.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:30 AM | Comments (0)

October 15, 2016

What to expect in 2017 America.

No matter who is elected POTUS on November 8, expect in 2017:

1. Increased American culture wars.

2. Increased Congressional deadlock.

3. A war between POTUS and Congress over the SCOTUS nominee to replace Justice Scalia that will rival the nomination wars surrounding either Robert Bork or Clarence Thomas.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2016

The Atlantic: On the GOP's SCOTUS Focus.

See in today's The Atlantic Why the Supreme Court Matters More to Republicans than Trump. Two exceprts:

Conservatives have prized the Supreme Court as much if not more than Congress and the presidency for decades. But the degree to which it is driving activists and party leaders this year is without precedent. In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has kept the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat open for an astonishing eight months and counting just so that a Republican president—any Republican—might have the opportunity to fill it. And it’s not just Scalia. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg (age 83), Anthony Kennedy (80), and Stephen Breyer (78) could all retire during the next president’s term.

*******

And for 25 years before Scalia’s death in February, the justices have, on balance, been friendly to the GOP. Republicans haven’t had the presidency or Congress for much of that time, but the Court has tilted conservative. And as they face an uncertain future in which demographic trends will make the nation younger, more diverse, and thus more favorable to Democrats, conservatives view the Supreme Court as a final bulwark they must defend at almost any cost.

“We are only one justice away from losing our most basic rights, and the next president will appoint as many as four new justices,” Cruz wrote in the Facebook post announcing his belated endorsement of Trump. The “basic rights” he was referencing include the right to bear arms, religious liberty, and free speech—as conservatives see them. And of course, the conservative dream of overturning Roe v. Wade would die for another decade or more if the court shifts left.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1930s.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

HIllary Rodham Clinton: “Ready for a Fight,” by Barry Blitt.

Original: June 17, 2016

Posted by JD Hull at 06:40 PM | Comments (0)

October 12, 2016

POTUS 2016: Running out the Clock.

With 27 days to go, all Hillary Rodham Clinton needs to do is run out the clock. Stick to real issues. Talk like a President.

Trump, for all his contributions in the last 15 months to election coverage, speech and what issues we are allowed to talk about (I think those contributions are long term productive and good), cannot win the 2016 POTUS Election.

Two huge Caveats to a HRC win:

1. Nothing Too Weird can happen to her campaign.

2. There can be no major terrorist attacks on American soil.

Big Ben clock tower, north end of Palace of Westminster.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2016

Debate No. 2: HRC 1, Trump 1.

Credit where it's due. As expected, both candidates were much better last night overall than they were in the first debate. But it was Trump's evening. However, after Friday's Trump Uber-Alpha Male video tape--which I'm still not sure what to think about---all Trump could do was get level again. He accomplished that. He bounced back. HRC? She was strong, seemed healthy (at least to me) and had moments where she was presidential. With 29 days to go, it's not over.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:20 AM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2016

Pence 1, Kaine 0.

I am still voting for Hillary Clinton. But Pence stepped up in the Vice-Presidential debates last night. He was gathered, genuine and at times even presidential. Both candidates were prepared. Neither said anything dumb. Kaine does have that neutered-male weenie patrol new age lackey quality. But both Pence and Kaine are decent if somewhat lackluster pols who could be POTUS if they had to be.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:58 AM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2016

HRC 1, DJT 0

Credit where it's due re: last night's historic first 2016 POTUS debate in New York City. The evening belonged to HRC. She often played Trump like a piano. But neither were at his or her best. Expect better performances in October. He will be more charming. She will be less scripted. See this morning's ATLS discussion Who Won the First Debate?

Hillary Rodham, Wellesley College, 1969. Life Magazine.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:07 PM | Comments (0)

July 27, 2016

Congratulations Chicago's Hillary Rodham, Wellesley '69

Nicely done. Even though you've been in the national spotlight since age 21, you are thank God no natural pol. That's why the accomplishment means so much to so many of us. You are very much what Greek thinkers had in mind. Well-fought. Congratuations. Now? It's your election for the taking.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2016

Don't get hysterical about POTUS elections: November 2016 will be our 58th time.

ATTENTION Family, Friends, Clients, Coworkers, Fellow Duke Alums, Ex-Girlfriends, Squash Partners:

1. Every 4 years for the last 227 years, America's gone through the exact same POTUS election hysterics as you are now seeing on television & social media.

2. No remaining candidate for America's presidency in the 2016 elections will destroy the USA or the World.

3. That is all.

FDR in his 30s

Posted by JD Hull at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

June 24, 2016

Brexit!

Old Blighty voted yesterday to leave the EU. About 52 to 48% spread with 72% of population voting. Scotland and London voted to stay. Wales and northern England voted to leave. My take? Britain is unforgivably selfish for rejecting (1) Collectivism, (2) Mediocrity and (3) Extreme Militant Gene Pool Dilution.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:33 AM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2016

Anyone want to share a foxhole with Speaker Ryan?

Anyone want to share a foxhole with Speaker Ryan? I just read that Paul Ryan will not raise money for Donald Trump.

I'm not voting for Trump. Even though I like him a lot. But can you believe the Smallness and Non-Leadership on Rep. Paul Ryan? I worked for the Congress twice. Once for a Senate D. Once for a House R. I get Ryan needs to keep the GOP majority in tact. Part of his job. 434 other House members are up for reelection. But this is unusual. A tardy and lukewarm endorsement? Not aiding the presumptive GOP POTUS candidate & standard-bearer to raise $?

Is it unprecedented? I really don't know. Just wow.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

June 19, 2016

Quit Apologizing, Don Trump. Right Now? Profiling is Very OK.

My Facebook post morning accompanying the "breaking" Washington Examiner piece Trump:'I hate the concept of profiling,' but we 'have to do it'.

Happy Father's Day. Hate to intrude on it. But this is important no matter what day it is. No one should be apologizing right now for racial profiling. In my view, we are at war. Now. Time for difficult short-term (hopefully) policies and measures. Racial Profiling is Way-OK. It's not right wing; it's not left wing. It's basic survival. We should be aggressive about doing it. Rights suffer in wartime. We at war. Trump should not be apologizing for racial profiling. HRC either. Time to wake up. What more evidence do you need, Campers?

Posted by JD Hull at 02:10 PM | Comments (0)

May 11, 2016

Congressional Internships in Washington, D.C.?

Congressional Internships in DC? Jobs for undergraduates in the Senate and House Office buildings? Where are they? How do you get them? Someone asked this question yesterday and here's a paraphrasing of my answer. I haven't researched Capitol Hill internships in a long while--I'm too busy hurting poors and the planet today to do that--but I'm around interns of all manner a lot, was once a Congressional intern myself, lived much of my life in DC, worked on the Hill twice and still go there to work for clients. Here's a good place to start. Use Google and a phone. Lots of resources out there. Lots of positions. Lots of variances in quality. In fact, huge. Some are paid--and some of those positions are paid more than you'd think. Again, Google--but call, too. Even go to offices unannounced. (If you don't pick up the phone, and storm a few offices, you're making a mistake and not what they want anyway. Be aggressive.) Call your Congressman, too. He/she/it has internships. The oldest program I'm aware of is "LBJ Internships." 40+ year old program. Finally, check your undergraduate school. My college had/has several in DC through the school's public policy institute. They were paid, mixed in with credit and spanned both summers and school year. One year long. Led to jobs, parties and first-rate sport philandering.

Below: The Intern Years, J. Daniel Hull, Highland Park, Chicago, 1976 (Andrew Johnston)

Posted by JD Hull at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)

May 04, 2016

Hoosier Daddy?

Yesterday Donald Trump took the Indiana POTUS primary and he's the GOP guy. Frankly, America could do a lot worse. And flip a coin. HRC and Trump would be very similar presidents. Each will be a wartime, managerial and non-ideological Commander-in-Chief. We had great candidates this cycle. Rubio and Cruz could both be POTUS and will be in play for next 3 of 4 elections. We have depth now, especially in Republican ranks.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)

April 16, 2016

POTUS Elections Past. A genuinely savage person: We need more Peter Sheridans.

From Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72:

What happened, according to Chitty, was that "the Boohoo reached up from the track and got hold of Muskie's pants-leg waving an empty martini glass through the bars around the caboose platform with his other hand and screaming: 'Get your lying ass back inside and make me another drink, you worthless old fart!"

"It was really embarrassing," Chitty told me later on the phone. "The Boohoo kept reaching up and grabbing Muskie's legs, yelling for more gin...Muskie tried to ignore him, but the Boohoo kept after him and after a while it got so bad that even Rubin backed off."

"The Boohoo," of course, was the same vicious drunkard who had terrorized the Muskie train all the way from Palm Beach, and he was still wearing a press badge that said "Hunter S. Thompson - Rolling Stone."

Posted by JD Hull at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)

April 11, 2016

Waterboarding is torture again?

CIA Director John Brennan is wrong. Whether or not waterboarding is "torture," it and other harsh interrogation techniques have their time and place during wartime. See "Director Brennan: CIA Won't Waterboard Again--Even if Ordered by Future President."

Posted by JD Hull at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

April 06, 2016

On Wisconsin: POTUS primaries, healthy defeats & real life.

While Trump and Clinton are my favorite GOP and Democratic Party candidates, I think it's good that both suffered defeats in Wisconsin yesterday. Hey, this is America, campers. Each POTUS election every four years should be a horserace. If possible there should be no early-on pre-convention shoe-in in either major party. Healthier.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

March 24, 2016

The T Word: Fear & Loathing on a Southern Campus.

Coca Cola-built Emory University was once a great notion. See Susan Svrluga's piece in the Washington Post this morning: "Someone wrote ‘Trump 2016’ on Emory’s campus in chalk. Some students said they no longer feel safe".

Photo: Amelia Sims

Posted by JD Hull at 10:25 AM | Comments (0)

March 16, 2016

Credit where credit is due: Hillary Rodham Clinton, you are one tough Baby Boomer.

See Quartz this morning: "On a Roll: Hillary Clinton looks unstoppable after winning Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina." Credit where credit is due. No one on planet Earth works harder than one uber-overachiever Chicago girl from a traditionally GOP family named Hillary Rodham Clinton who was the subject of a full feature in Life Magazine when she was 21 years old. Like Wild Bill, and for her entire life, HRC comes prepared, heavy and ready to play. Razor-sharp. And no wimp. I've always seen her as a wartime POTUS. Nicely done. You are one tough Baby Boomer.

W and HRC in California at Nancy Reagan funeral on March 11, 2016

Posted by JD Hull at 05:11 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2016

Washington Examiner: "What If Clinton's Indicted?"

The cover story for this week's Washington Examiner print edition is here. It's a weird idea. And as WE does it, it's a bit overreaching. But 12 months ago so was Trump or Carson as 2016 POTUS election players.

AP photo

Posted by JD Hull at 07:21 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2016

Question: Should Americans ever just stay home and not vote?

Answer: Absolutely not. Not ever. Always vote. It's one of the few absolutes. Flip a coin maybe. Lots of voting's substance consists in the mere act of doing it.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2016

My Friday Night at SCOTUS

Am not a fan of most key AGS decisions; I'm a switch hitter as a voter but generally vote Dem for POTUS. Scalia was a very great man, lawyer and judge. His SCOTUS career began my first year of practice. On Friday night I spent 2.5 hours near, at or in SCOTUS building at 1st and E. Capitol streets NE to view his casket. All manner of people demographically, sexually, racially and age-wise but mainly DC locals stood in the cold in a line that stretched south down 1st Street and then east down E. Capitol and even past 4th Steet in residential Capitol Hill. Viewing was originally supposed to close at 8 pm but was expanded at least twice to accommodate the lines. I got there at 7:30 pm and left the building a little after 10:00 pm with the lines still building. Amazing. Moving. GIad I attended. Honored to be there.

Scalia Law Clerks at 1 First Street, N.E. Friday, February 19, 2016

Posted by JD Hull at 02:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2016

Note to President Obama re: SCOTUS Slot

Signing the Mayflower Compact 1620, 1899, Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

Dear Mr. President:

I'm glad you are getting on with the selection of Justice Scalia's replacement as the Constitution requires.

But maybe add "Protestant-raised" to complete your list? A WASP? White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Like those old English guys who started settling here in the early 1600s? Right now not one of the nine justices is a Protestant or WASP. We used to have lots and, I admit, maybe even too many WASPs. It would be so rad if we could have just one member of SCOTUS out of nine people from the same general colonial tribe who (1) thought up, (2) planned and (3) commenced building America.

Man or woman. Doesn't matter to me. Duke grads are fine this cycle, too

Thank you.

Sincerely yours,

John Daniel Hull, IV

Posted by JD Hull at 12:21 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2016

JDH and WJC, New Year's Day, Charleston, South Carolina. No. 2

1/1/09 Noon

Posted by JD Hull at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2016

JDH and WJC, New Year's Day, Charleston, South Carolina. No. 1

Posted by JD Hull at 11:52 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2016

Full Dan Hull Interview by Mirriam Seddiq and Assorted Sidekicks at new NGNW Podcast Show.

Think Howard Stern for lawyers, politics junkies and free expression warriors. It's right here--or on the embedded graphic below. Last week I was honored to be the first guest of immigration and criminal defense lawyer Mirriam Seddiq on her Not Guilty, Now Way podcast show at its studios in Upper Marlboro, Alabama. We covered lots, including Donald Trump, free expression, immigration, 2nd amendment, Jewish doctors, Finnish women, neutered men, correct receptionists, Duke writers and Irish drunks. She was assisted by three smart people: Justin the Lawyer, Steven the Law Clerk and Katie the Hot Receptionist. Show founder and producer Seddiq does quite nicely--in addition to being a trial lawyer, she's a natural journalist, and will get even better; this was her first show--as an interviewer. More importantly, she's good-looking and doesn't talk all the time.

NOTE: Seriously, if you want to hear why I think all Americans owe Donald Trump a huge debt of gratitude for what he has done--purposely or inadvertently--for American elections, their media coverage, free expression and advancing our national dialogue on both 2nd Amendment and immigration policy, listen to this podcast. My interview starts at about 27:00 minutes.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:39 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2016

What About Clients/Paris? endorses Hillary Rodham Clinton for Dem ticket.

Love her or hate her, Hillary Rodham Clinton is the most qualified U.S. presidential candidate in decades. And she clearly deserves the Democratic Party nomination. This country is fortunate to have quite a few people who can serve well as POTUS. Most (no, not all) of the GOP folks are presidential timber. But HRC, whose career I have followed for years, is the strongest of any candidate in 2016 hands-down. As much I admire Donald Trump recently--I think Trump has already greatly advanced and improved the election process, election media coverage, free expression generally and debates on issues like immigration and the 2nd Amendment, possibly on a long-term basis--HRC is not only the most qualified candidate but also the most accomplished public leader in my generation. A born manager, she's smart and tough. And she's a natural wartime president. (Yes, I believe we are at war here, now and on American soil.) Elitist? Sure. But she's an elitist who cares about the folks. Think FDR, but much, much meaner. And wonkier. Adlai Stevenson with balls, my friends. See Sunday's piece by the Boston Globe's Editorial Board, Hillary Clinton deserves Democratic nomination. Fair call, Boston Globe, which turns 144-years-old this year and is (we should mention) owned by The New York Times Company. The Globe's Sunday piece begins:

America looks different in 2016 than it did the last time Hillary Clinton ran for president: The economy has come out of free fall, the military has left the quagmire of the Iraq war, barriers to equality have toppled, and universal access to health care has become a reality. Tumultuous as they’ve been, the Barack Obama years have proved transformative — and the priority for Democratic voters should be to protect, consolidate, and extend those gains.

Today, the nation has new challenges, which require a different kind of leader — someone who can keep what Obama got right, while also fixing his failures, especially on gun control and immigration reform. That will require a focus and toughness that Obama sometimes lacked. This is Clinton’s time, and the Globe enthusiastically endorses her in the Feb. 9 Democratic primary in New Hampshire. She is more seasoned, more grounded, and more forward-looking than in 2008, and has added four years as secretary of state to her already formidable resume. Democrats in the Granite State should not hesitate to choose her.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2016

Donald Trump is no cartoon. His demonization by weenie media is out of hand.

The demonization of one Donald J. Trump by the Media--both mainstream weenie media and special weenie media--has gotten out of hand.* See, e.g., at CNN, Silently protesting Muslim woman ejected from Trump rally and, at Patheos, Trump Takes Bully Act to a Whole New Level.

Google The Donald. Read about him. Cover his past. He's been around a long time. I've followed his career since I was in law school. He's a flesh and blood American businessman with good points, bad points, successes and failures. He's no cartoon. I'm not sure if given the chance I would vote for him. But I might.

Trump's obviously talented. He has lots of things going for him. He's worked his ass off--yes, he's worked a lot harder than you, Jack--and he's a very accomplished human. It's a mistake to think he would be a bad or evil president. He may seem out of central casting to play hard-asses on the screen but he's been a New York City Democrat most of his life. He's family oriented. He's seen tough times personally and financially. He's not a racist. And to me he's funny as hell.

His management style as POTUS would be much like that of Hillary Clinton. Like HRC, he's a pragmatist--not an ideologue. He obviously loves pissing people off. Right now, he's loved for his attitude above anything else, and not for the substance of his statements or positions. I think what he really gets off on (like HRC) is getting things done. I have far more confidence to in him to do that than any candidate other than HRC. Neither Trump nor HRC are wimps.

Bullying? Trump is a bully, you say? Bullying is different to different people. If you mean by that "mean streak" you are probably right. Most doers have mean streaks. Most achievers can be bullies. I would worry more about "nicer" non-bully candidates. We need a warrior right now. Cruz, Rubio, Kasich, Bush, Santorum, Sanders, et al. Most of these are very fine candidates. We are lucky to have them. But either HRC or Trump--who I see as very similar to each other politically and as managers--best fit the bill right now.

*Been meaning to finish and publish two longer pieces on Trump but the above will do for now.

Recent photo of Trump and one of my Ibogaine dealers from the 1970s.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2015

Don't stroke out but do read the fine Vox piece on why plenty of sane people support Donald Trump.

See yesterday's article at Vox by David Roberts, The real reason the media is rising up against Donald Trump. Especially second half where Roberts explains why people like (a) Trump so much, (b) why they like him right now and (c) what that says about us. Don't froth or stroke out. Just read. Excerpts:

...Trump does not back down, retract, or apologize, ever, not even for the most trivial thing. He refuses to allow journalists and pundits to validate their watchdog role. He recognizes that capitulating to the mainstream media is far worse for any conservative than clinging to a lie.... They have no power over him at all, and now everyone knows it.

Trump is revealing that the referees are irrelevant. All this rule breaking has the same effect: It disrupts the game as the media is used to playing it. It steps all over the unspoken agreements among various sectors of the political class in DC. It threatens the gatekeeper media, the VSPs, with something far worse than being wrong or biased. It threatens them with being irrelevant. Trump doesn't need or respect them, and they can't touch him. They can only point and gawk.

There is a faction of the US electorate that is positively wroth: angry that they are losing their country, angry at immigrants and minorities who want "free stuff," angry at terrorists for making them feel afraid, angry at liberals for rejecting good Christian values, angry at the economy for screwing them and denying them the better life they were promised, angry about Solyndra and Benghazi and Obamaphones and Sharia law and ACORN and Planned Parenthood and black-on-black crime and a government takeover of health care and Agenda 21 and Syrian immigrants on the loose and UN climate hoaxes.

They are angry at all institutions, including the Republican Party and the media, that have failed to halt America's decline.

They are mostly white, mostly older, and entirely pissed off. And Trump speaks for them, less in what he says than in his total contempt for those same institutions.

Trump appeals to many Americans for good reasons. Image: Universal Pictures.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2015

Examiner: U.S. House members huddle on their Obama ISIS-Syria problem.

In this morning's edition of the Washington Examiner, one of the few sane and evenhanded American conservative publications out there, reporter Charles Hoskinson writes House pushes Obama to get tough on ISIS. It begins:

House leaders are working to see what they can do to prod President Obama to take tougher action against the Islamic State in the wake of deadly terrorist attacks in Paris blamed on the extremist group.

Lawmakers may insert provisions into a fiscal 2016 omnibus spending bill being drafted calling for a comprehensive strategy backed by a more aggressive U.S. posture, and also are considering whether to add money to a war funding account, House Armed Services Chairman Mac Thornberry said Tuesday.

The Texas Republican is one of several committee chairmen on a task force created by House leaders to look at a number of concerns that have come up since the Paris attacks, which killed 129 and injured more than 350, and recommend new approaches.

The urgent matter on the agenda is an effort to seek a pause in the administration's plan to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees next year until a vetting process can be designed to ensure terrorists don't slip into the country with them. But Thornberry also noted that concerns have been raised about the Islamic State's continuing success in recruiting foreign fighters to join its forces in Syria and the group's ability to spread its ideas via social media, sometimes even inspiring "lone wolf" attacks.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2015

November 1993

The Internet now even reaches back and records things like "no comment" I dutifully said to Los Angeles Times reporters 22 years ago covering a U.S. Department of Justice Public Integrity Section investigation of a client the same age as my own father. See "Grand Jury Targets Wife of Former Congressman; Lee M. Anderson is named in court documents revealed during a hearing for an aide to her husband, Glenn M. Anderson".

We represented the congressman's Washington, D.C. Administrative Assistant, Lynn, Massachusetts native Jeremiah Bresnahan. For reasons I never quite understood, Bresnahan, a much-admired, much-loved educator and former Long Beach schools superintendant, agreed to work for Rep. Glenn Anderson in Washington, D.C. for a few years. At the time of the investigation, Rep. Anderson was suffering from dementia and was not of any help to me, the FBI and DOJ lawyers.

Bresnahan died in Martha's Vineyard in October of 2002. An ex-Marine who fought in the Inchon and Chosen Reservoir campaigns of the Korean War, Jeremiah was one of most courageous, unselfish, charismatic, funny, poised and witty humans I've known. While this was a 'good result' for him, I and others hated watching him go through it. I was very fond of him and still miss him. See the LA Times article and read between the lines. A (Yankee) fish out of water. Wrong DC job at the wrong time for the wrong family of California pols.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:01 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2015

GOP/Dem nightmare as SNL humanizes Donald Trump and Dr. Carson unmasked as ditzed-out old lying turd.

The 2016 presidential election game has changed. Trump might win this thing. With an assist from Larry David mockingly calling Trump a racist on SNL last night, Donald Trump just humanized himself. Nicely done. Not that funny? Not the point, Campers. Plus Dr. Ben Carson's West Point and "growing up angry" revelations paint Carson at best as a kindly, talented and lying ditzed-out old turd. Watch for a huge Trump bump. Is this a great election cycle or what?

Posted by JD Hull at 09:18 AM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2015

Fair, balanced, pissed off: Fox News says Hillary owned stage in first debate.

Like a big dog again, Hillary. Where you been? And where oh where were you, Senator Jim Webb? I expected my fellow Gaelic poet-warrior to whup some serious weenie ass of the non-Hillary participants. Try that again please, sir. Anyway, a Fox News piece by contributor and RedState.com editor Erick Erickson this morning says Hillary Clinton won the first Dem U.S. presidential candidate debate in Las Vegas last night. Excerpt:

The Democrats’ plan for a Hillary coronation is going to go ahead as scheduled. Mrs. Clinton made no terrible missteps. The other candidates rallied to her on the email situation. She had the best command of the stage and played up being a woman.

Clinton’s dismissiveness of the email situation probably draws Joe Biden into the race. Her public trust numbers will not benefit from her answers. The latest Fox News poll already shows that Hillary Clinton is performing worse against Republicans than Joe Biden.

But Hillary won the debate. She did not make any missteps, was not thrown off her game, and allowed no other candidate to outshine her.

Posted by JD Hull at 05:40 AM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2015

The Mother of All Funny Economist Covers: It's the September 4-11 issue bemoaning The Trump Uprising and it's unexpected staying power.

This one (see below) could be collector's item on cover alone so head down to the news stands now if you don't subscribe. The short article accompanying it is similarly remarkable for its tone of genuine terror and disbelief that America could let Donald Trump set the tone of our new pseudo-populism this election cycle. The Economist staff apparently finds Trump more objectionable as a pol and a person than any GOP candidate ever. If you dislike Brits--or like me you just like to goof on or wind up your British friends a few times a year--this is one of your best moments. Donald Trump has gotten to them and good.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:23 PM | Comments (1)

August 27, 2015

Washington Examiner: Ohio GOP Gov. Kasich Rising?

To three older but well-regarded GOP Hill pols, at least, John Kasich is an attractive candidate for president. He's smart, energetic, proven and the governor of a key state for Rs. Has both federal and state chops and very low "jerkness" scores. See "Kasich earning high praise from current and former senators" in yesterday's Washington Examiner, a right-leaning but sane newcomer in Washington, D.C. political journalism. Excerpts:

If elderly current and former senators could pick the Grand Old Party's next presidential nominee, Ohio Gov. John Kasich might have already walked away victorious. For the second time in as many days, the governor has gained the endorsement of a prominent septuagenarian, another Republican politician turned lobbyist.

Former New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato, 78, endorsed Kasich on Wednesday, following the endorsement his Republican colleague, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi, 73, made on Tuesday. In a statement released by Kasich's presidential campaign, D'Amato indicated his support hinged on the idea that Kasich remains best capable of winning back the White House.

Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, 80, has not bet the house on Kasich just yet, but he came considerably close on Wednesday. "I'm not going to pick one, but the sleeper in the race in my opinion is John Kasich," Inhofe told Fox 25 in Oklahoma City. "While we have several candidates who are governors, and I like them all, but in terms of what he has done in Ohio, I think, has surpassed them all."

The Buckeye State's governor has performed exceedingly well in recent polling. Kasich's job approval rating matched an "all-time high" in a Quinnipiac University poll released on Tuesday. And a survey released by Public Policy Polling, a left-leaning firm, showed Kasich was the only candidate to defeat the Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton of the 15 Republican candidates tested against her in New Hampshire. Kasich remains tied for seventh place with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in RealClearPolitics average of national polls.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:27 PM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2015

I think I'm turning GOP. I really think so.

Sorry. But I thought Ronald Reagan was a type of rare alcohol-fed Irish houseplant that was somehow taught to smile, speak and sign its own name.

Help me figure this out. The first time I could vote, I held my nose a little and voted for George McGovern. Soon after that I worked for Gaylord Nelson (D-Wis) for a spell. Two cycles ago I raised money for Hillary Clinton, who I like and see as a competent and uber-practical if not exceptional manager with a fine mind. In 2003 and 2004, and on a dumb whim, I bypassed John Kerry and raised money for moderate Democrat General Wesley Clark.

(In the summer of 2005 I ran into a blue-blazered Kerry, who was hanging with Joe Biden--cooling it seated a few feet away in blue jeans and shades--in the ACK airport. While Kerry and talked about a rash of US Airways delays, I felt so guilty I almost blurted my disloyalty out.)

I have never voted for a Bush. And never would--they give me the creeps--except for maybe Jeb. And although I never voted for Obama either time either, and once worked for an honest fiscally brilliant moderate Republican congressman from Ohio, I thought Ronald Reagan was a type of rare Irish houseplant that was somehow taught to smile, speak and sign its own name. I still can't get over the fact that genius bluesman Ray Charles, who died the same week as Reagan, didn't merit a bigger funeral.

I do miss Wild Bill Clinton and would be very jazzed if he could live in the White House another 8 years (I bore easily and he never bores me) but at this point I don't see Hillary Clinton's campaign getting past the Benghazi attack, emails and the apparent paralysis of her campaign. Save GOP Ohio Governor John Kasich, who still lacks cred with conservatives and Republicans who watched him use Obamacare's increased federal funding to strengthen Medicaid in his state, at this point I don't see any candidate--R or D--who can go through the American presidential election process without falling apart, seize the nomination and win. But I am open to suggestions. But I think it needs to be a sane R. Or possibly Joe Biden. The pickings are slim.

In the meantime, and for reasons only partially touched on here, I think I'm turning GOP.

Republican. I really think so.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:20 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2015

Greenfield on Ferguson.

Two days ago was the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a black suburb of St. Louis. The usual wide if dumb-downed and undiscerning media coverage yesterday and Sunday of protests, looting, one shooting, the beating of a local journalist and arrests gave us all a sense of déjà vu. Featured again were the citizens of Ferguson, local police, the media and the U.S. Justice Department, that new and relatively passive chorus character for race-laced events in America. Whether or not you think that events in Ferguson over the last year have one, two or even several evenhanded explanations for what actually is happening there, do read Simple Justice today. In one of his posts this morning, its founder, New York City trial lawyer Scott Greenfield, writes We've Learned Nothing (A Rant). Besides some things to think hard about, we get a glimpse of Greenfield at his honest and inspired best. Excerpt:

Sweet words were uttered by the Department of Justice, condemning flagrant racism in Ferguson, and then everyone walked away, proud of their fine work, leaving the black people of Ferguson to live the same shitty lives as they had before. Even those sympathetic to the cause of Ferguson prefer official solutions, trusting the peaceful and systemic trick of making the noise of change without actually doing anything. Usually, they give themselves an award afterward for being such good white people to the poor black people. The black people never get invited to the party.

So what have we learned? Not a fucking thing. The cops responded with the same excessive display of force, and use of force, as always, because force is so much easier than thought. And the adoration of calm, peaceful and law-abiding, without regard to the circumstances and motivations giving rise to the protest, plays well to the white public. We hate it when blacks get all angry and disagreeable. Jeez, just because cops keep killing unarmed black people? That’s no reason to upset our happy, peaceful lives. It’s not like they’re doing it to us.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

August 10, 2015

One of us: Bless you, Mr. Trump.

Trump is what happens when we Yanks look in the mirror: good, bad and occasionally a bit ugly.

According to NBC/Survey Monkey polling as of last night, since last week's debates Donald Trump--and even after saying 'inappropriate' things before, during and after the debates--is up one point to a remarkable 23% out of 16 candidates. Amazing. Donald Trump has been around since I was a kid in Cincinnati. As a young man, in fact when he was still a college student, he redeveloped a insolvent project in The Queen City, the Swifton Village apartment complex, which his father had purchased in the early 1960s. After that my timeline for him is simple, and probably like everyone else's: real estate, gambling, bankruptcies, wife troubles, Rosie O'Donnell feud, financial recoveries, part-time pundit and now political candidate pushing 70. I have never liked his real estate, either hotels or office buildings. I don't like him as a television personality. But I have always liked his feistiness. I have liked him as a personality because he is clearly "one of us"--as "American" as you get. Whether we admit it or not, Donald Trump is a living caricature of the American Dream Achieved--loud, proud, out front, in your face, feisty, unapologetic--and exactly how we actually are and how we have been viewed for two centuries going back Alexis de Tocqueville. Trump is what happens when we Yanks look in the mirror: good, bad and occasionally a bit ugly. Love or hate him, you don't get any more authentic in America than this guy.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:12 PM | Comments (0)

Journée du 10 août.

Louis XVI:
My God, it's a revolt!

Duke de la Rochefoucauld:
No, sir, it's a revolution.

--2 years earlier.

Two hundred and twenty-three years ago today, during the French Revolution, an insurrection at the Tuileries Palace marked the end of the French monarchy until the Bourbon restoration in 1814. An August 10, 1792, a mob supported by the Paris Commune stormed the palace, where Louis XVI and the royal family had been taken two years earlier and put under watch. The family fled to to take shelter at the Legislative Assembly. Three days later, the king was officially arrested and imprisoned. Six weeks later, on September 21, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and established the French Republic. King Louis XVI was executed on January 21, 1793.

The Taking of the Tuileries ("Prise du palais des Tuileries") 1793, Jean Duplessis-Bertaux (1747-1819) National Museum of the Chateau de Versailles.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:18 AM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2015

Washington Examiner this week: "Who Can Beat Hillary?"

Right-leaning political journalism magazine Washington Examiner, a DC-based weekly with daily online reporting, is relatively new, having begun life as a newspaper in 2005. I am now reading at least the weekly magazine--it appears free on stands all over the city--regularly and from front to cover. Aside from having longtime conservative standouts like Michael Barone contribute, it refreshingly (a) prizes reason and even-handedness in both reporting and opinion pieces, (b) rarely if ever contains the kind of emotional partisan outbursts my most brilliant Facebook friends across the ideological spectrum indulge in every week on political issues when you pitch a few to them, and (c) refuses to demonize and make unlikely cartoon characters of the opposition. This week's cover article, by Politics Editor Jim Ante, is particularly good and is entitled Who Can Beat Hillary?

Above art/images by Washington Examiner

Posted by JD Hull at 01:38 AM | Comments (0)

August 05, 2015

And they're off: Trump plus 9.

Washington Post: Fox News announces its final lineup for August 6 debate. Do watch Ohio's John Kasich. On a good night, Kasich can pick off every one of these guys. But even if he does, he will still be just the most beautiful maiden in a leper colony. With all these players, and some even waiting in the wings, this is the least exciting group (granted, purposely meandering Trump is great fun) of GOP hopefuls in my lifetime:

1. Businessman Donald Trump. Five-poll average: 23.4
2. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush: 12
3. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: 10.2
4. Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee: 6.6
5. Dr. Ben Carson: 5.8
6. Sen. Ted Cruz: 5.4
7. Sen. Marco Rubio: 5.4
8. Sen. Rand Paul: 4.8
9. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie: 3.4
10. Ohio Gov. John Kasich: 3.2

Posted by JD Hull at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)

July 20, 2015

Politico's European Edition: The West's never-ending political correctness wankfest now aims to make America's lamest generation ever even weaker.

Personally, I wish I had more time to blog about certain issues but work keeps interfering. "Political correctness" is one. PC culture has turned some of my smarter liberal friends into precisely what they claim to despise: intolerant and extreme right wingers with a seemingly religious zeal to control language. They apparently believe that dictating what is safe to say and write--and not safe to say and write--will speed our progress towards a more equal and less hurtful society. And now this madness is getting woven into our 50 or 60 truly great American colleges at the level of the great books read by 18 to 22 year olds. It threatens to turn what is, charitably put, our hands down most sheltered, most thin-skinned and most anti-intellectual generation ever into even bigger half-bright wimps. With great restraint, Michael Moynihan at Politico's European edition offers us Western Lit, shot to death by ‘trigger warnings’. Subtitled: "American universities discourage reading of Ovid, Lolita and The Great Gatsby." What he's reporting here is embarrassing--but it's exactly what we can keep expecting from the West's Never-Ending Political Correctness WankFest. Moynihan begins:

Boring bien pensant opinion in Europe has long maintained that low-brow American culture--all the greasy fast food, oafish Hollywood shoot ‘em up films (often starring a muscle-bound Austrian, Belgian, or Swede), and schlock television--has done incalculable damage to highbrow European culture. And it has happened with the assent of the average European, who happily scarfs down a McRib sandwich, feet swaddled in Air Jordans, while queuing for the latest “Transformers” film.

But there is a more pernicious American cultural invasion, as irritatingly destructive as the North American gray squirrel and, unlike the Hollywood blockbuster, wholly immune from free market pressures. It was noticed in 1994 by a reporter for Reuters, who gravely reported that the scourge of political correctness, “an American import regarded by many Britons with the same distaste as an unpleasant virus, finally seems to be infecting British society.” First it poisons the local universities, then within a generation wends its way into the broader culture, wreaking havoc on the native intellectual ecosystem. It’s the most odious, implacable, and least remarked upon manifestation of American cultural imperialism.

Politically correct

And so here we are a generation after that Reuters report, with sensible Europeans now fretting over a mutated strain of that old virus. Writing in the left-leaning magazine The New Statesman, British academic Pam Lowe worried that a new fad in American academia called the “trigger warning” would soon touch down in the UK, requiring the sensible professoriate to valiantly resist the boneheaded ideas of activist students. In his new book, appropriately titled “Trigger Warning,” British writer Mick Hume warns that trigger culture has already “spread across the Atlantic,” and supine European college administrators have given in faster than Marshal Pétain.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:48 AM | Comments (0)

April 04, 2015

HRC

Hillary really running? At this point, I hope it's true.

1. It's her "turn". And yes that means something in the US. Not too many American leaders are ready for the both (1) the street fight of presidential election and (2) then leading.

Case in point: Dem candidate I was a delegate for in 2002: charming and tough Rhodes scholar NATO military leader General Wesley Clark. A friend of mine said, "Wesley and [his wife] Gert were the perfect dog food--but the dogs didn't like it." Great candidate and warrior's warrior who couldn't survive primaries.

2. Hillary is The Uber-Manager. No one would manage USA better.

3. No folks, HRC not that liberal--certainly not as liberal as husband Bill or President Obama. Not even close. Check out her real roots. She grew up in a comfortable and moderate GOP-voting family in a Midwestern city.

4. Don't think of her as too political. She is no ideologue. She's at heart a pragmatist: the ultimate Boomer achiever who likes things that work as much as she likes recognition and power.

5. She is smarter (i.e., proficiency at Western logic) than any of our last 5 presidents.

What's not to like here, sports fans? Or, put another way, you got something better?

Posted by JD Hull at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2015

Did the House Appropriations Committee just go hippie on us?

The congressional staff of a respected seven-term Ohio Republican routinely filed all office documents relating to "Indians" under "Environmental Matters", the staffers apparently having decided that Native Americans were primarily part of the nation's natural resources and outdoor life.

Note that on its agenda--it is copied in part below right after the picture of the late Mr. Rogers--that the now GOP-run House Appropriations Committee yesterday morning heard budget testimony in the Rayburn House Office Building on "Quality of Life in the Military".

A good thing? A Birkenstock creepy thing? Did the Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives last month for the first time in almost a decade somehow create a magnanimous, kinder, gentler and more caring-sharing GOP-controlled House we can all enjoy? Or did a rogue very young sweet, male Gen-Y committee staffer or intern totally lose it a couple of weeks ago in styling hearings of the House Appropriations Committee--and no one has noticed yet?

And can we get a transcript?

We're not sure what happened here. We do know that, not that long ago, the congressional staff of a respected seven-term member (R-Ohio) routinely filed all office documents relating to "Indians" under "Environmental Matters", the staff having decided that Native Americans were primarily part of the nation's natural resources and outdoor life. So a hearing entitled "Quality of Life in the Military"? Get the net.

From the website of the House Appropriations Committee yesterday:

Budget Hearing - Quality of Life in the Military
Wednesday, February 25, 2015 9:30 AM in 2362-B Rayburn
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies

Witnesses
Command Sergeant Major Daniel A. Dailey
United States Army

Master Chief Petty Officer Michael D. Stevens
United States Navy

Sergeant Major Ronald Green
United States Marine Corps

Chief Master Sergeant James A. Cody
United States Air Force

Posted by JD Hull at 09:38 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2015

Dang. Someone get this Boehner fella' a cup of black coffee.

As readers of this blog over the past 10 years know, I'm a swing voter, not a heavy Democrat, worked on the Hill a total of 4 years for two fine and mega-bright men, a Wisconsin senator (D) and later on an Ohio congressman (R). I do have some strong GOP leanings on some issues. And I've had such leanings on a few select fundamental issues ever since a shop foreman at a Cincinnati Keebler-owned cookie factory the summer before my freshman year at Duke told me not "to work so damn hard" on my 8 hour shift building tall stacks of cookies on skids for shipments all over the Midwest lest I make my fellow entry level young union workers doing the same job "look bad." The foreman asked that I complete 38 full skids a day--and not 42. And, no, no, Keebler for the record didn't make line workers dress up as elves; however, a lot of the younger male Caucasian workers were definitely funny-looking, funny as hell and full of beans. They got married around 19 and always seemed to have wives or girlfriends named Opal or Taffy. Anyway, pardon me for sounding catty here. But did our old Cincinnati buddy House Speaker John Boehner--who after Joe Biden is second in the presidential succession line--inhale more Schnapps Tuesday night than usual before the State of the Union address? I swear there are times when I see him on television the guy is ripped straight to the tits. The out-of-synch facial expressions. That walking wounded look. And then again the fuzzy portrait alternates on equal time with the media images in which he appears as the focused and likable guy that he likely is. There are many, many things to admire about the current Speaker if you take the time to learn about him and the obstacles he's overcome--even if you don't like his personality, his politics or his leadership style in the House. But what is going on here?

Posted by JD Hull at 02:15 AM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2015

Sand, passion, talent: Rory Kennedy's Viet Nam documentary nominated for Academy Award.

Renaissance woman Rory Kennedy's documentary I saw and wrote about in September was nominated for an Oscar last week. Rory is the youngest child of slain New York senator Robert Kennedy--easily the most interesting and unique Kennedy male so far (his father Joe included) and the existential hero of millions of baby boomers--who was killed in LA in 1968. She was born a few months after Bobby Kennedy's assassination. At age 46, she is now 4 years older than her dad was at his death. He was 42. Like her Dad, Rory's got sand, passion, sensitivity and talent. Nicely done.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:02 PM | Comments (0)

December 12, 2014

113th Congress, 2nd Session: A Passion for Excellence

Attaboy, Congress. The peoples' chamber of the most elite legislative body the world has known squeaked one by to save us all. Last night the House of Representatives, at the last minute and by a narrow margin, passed a $1.1 Trillion funding bill. New York Times: House Narrowly Passes Bill to Avoid Shutdown; $1.1 Trillion in Spending.

The Last Plantation steps up.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:29 PM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2014

William Jefferson Clinton: Lame Duck This, Everyone.

Danny Johnston/AP

William Jefferson Clinton. Love him or hate him, he always comes ready to play. MSNBC: Bill Clinton’s advice to Obama: Have fun during final two years. The piece is by Alex Seitz-Wald and it begins:

LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas – Former President Bill Clinton on Saturday urged President Obama to have fun and cut deals with Republicans now that the GOP controls both chambers of Congress. Clinton also said Obama’s decision to delay executive action on immigration until after the election likely depressed Latino turnout.

“I never bought this whole lame duck deal. I just didn’t,” the former president told Politico’s Mike Allen at an event here. “That’s my only real advice. It needs to be fun. It’s a great honor to go to work in the White House. It’s crazy to say you’re a lame duck and waste a single day of that precious time.”

Still, the former president – who himself faced a Republican-controlled Congress in his final two years in office – had more substantive suggestions as well. “I think that he should minimize the chances of being a lame duck, which he can do by continuing to have an agenda, and using the budget process to make deals with the Republicans, because now that they have both houses, they have a much more vested interest in actually governing,”

Clinton noted that his administration was working “right up until noon” on the day of his successor’s inauguration, and suggested that Obama needs to try harder to advance his agenda. There are still “five or six” big things he thinks Obama can get done, including immigration reform.

“There’s nothing sadder than seeing anybody whose term-limited, like a great athlete, get out of playing whatever you play and then you can’t do what you really love to do any more, so you just sort of let go,” Clinton said.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2014

The mid-terms are over. Let the winners gloat and do their dance.

Dems humiliated. GOP has both houses. Not to worry, sports fans. It swings back in 2016. And then back again in 2018. In meantime, the poor, the new poor and climate policy take one huge step back. Those are way-important short-term concerns. And if you're comfortable, rich or super-rich? Chances are--and more than ever before in U.S. history--that your good fortunes had nothing to do with (1) hard work or (2) brains. Luck and accident of birth are the new "skills". Get over yourselves. Welcome to the new lower England.


from Peasant Wedding Dance, 1607, Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564–1638)

Posted by JD Hull at 04:34 AM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2014

Congratulations, Senator-elect Shelley Moore.

Last night a college classmate we all knew as Shelley Moore--smart, pretty, well-liked, elegant and the daughter of then-West Virginia governor Arch Moore--won the West Virginia U.S. Senate race. Shelley Moore Capito is currently a seven-term member of the House. When she is sworn in in January, she will not be Duke's first female United States senator. But she will be West Virginia's first--and the first West Virginia GOP senator in over fifty years. Nicely done, Ms. Moore. See today's Washington Post and Talking Points.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:11 PM | Comments (0)

OMG. In the next issue of Tiger Beat...

Getting Weird and Wired with Kim Jong-un, Asian Heartthrob Jefe.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:24 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2014

Photoshop This: Say it ain't so, Tom Corbett.

Since 2011, a former law partner of mine, Tom Corbett, a first-rate trial lawyer and past U.S. Attorney, has been the Republican governor of Pennsylvania. Not bad, considering that Pennsylvania, like its neighbor New Jersey, has been steadily morphing from GOP to Democratic in the last 25 years. In the November 2010 election, Corbett was able to take control back from Democrats, who had enjoyed 8 years under the popular Ed Rendell. Now running for his second term in a close race, Corbett is again hardworking and people-savvy as a campaigner. He generally picks topflight staff for everything. So he is way too smart to let this happen, via the Philadelphia Daily News: "Smiling black woman next to Corbett on his website was Photo-shopped." According the Corbett campaign, others in the offending image were photoshopped, too. Not the best damage control, either, guys. Finally, not too good picture of you, Governor. Bad week, I'd say.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:37 AM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2014

UPDATE: Decision day in Scotland.

Update as of 10 pm Scottish time/5 pm EST: Most UK and American news sources have it that 5 hours after the Scottish polls closed, the vote is too close to call. Our prediction: the "No" vote (rejecting independence) will narrowly prevail.

Today, in an official referendum of the United Kingdom, 4 million residents of Scotland will decide whether or not to end Scotland's 307-year union with the United Kingdom. Scottish independence is the only item on the ballot. Only Scottish residents--and even most non-Scottish residents--can vote. The voting age in Scotland is 16. Polls close at 5 pm (12:00 noon EST in the U.S.). A true and correct copy of the ballot is below.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 11, 2014

Three Yale law students in Slate: American sex offender laws are unfair, draconian and based on bad science.

In Slate today, the article "Sex Offender Laws Have Gone Too Far" argues that both state and federal sex offender registry laws are draconian and wrongly based on "the terrible exceptions" rather than the norm. We agree. Bravo to the three Yale law students--Matt Mellema, Chanakya Sethi and Jane Shim--who wrote it. Part II of this story on what to do about it ("making registries smarter and better") will appear in Slate on August 15. Excerpt from today's piece:

In seeking answers to those questions, over the last several months, we were surprised to find that one of the sharpest—and loudest—critics of the ballooning use of registries is Patty Wetterling [mother of an abducted child missing since 1989].“These registries were a well-intentioned tool to help law enforcement find children more quickly,” she told us. “But the world has changed since then.” What’s changed, Wetterling says, is what science can tell us about the nature of sex offenders.

The logic behind the past push for registries rested on what seem like common sense assumptions. Among the most prominent were, first, sex offenders were believed to be at a high risk for reoffending—once a sex offender, always a sex offender. Second, it was thought that sex offenses against children were commonly committed by strangers. Taken together, the point was that if the police had a list, and the public could access it, children would be safer.

The problem, however, is that a mass of empirical research conducted since the passage of Jacob’s Law has cast increasing doubt on all of those premises. For starters, “the assumption that sex offenders are at high risk of recidivism has always been false and continues to be false,” said Melissa Hamilton, an expert at the University of Houston Law Center, pointing to multiple studies over the years. “It’s a myth.”

Posted by JD Hull at 07:00 PM | Comments (0)

July 31, 2014

A Question of Standing: Does the GOP House have any class? Does it have a good lawyer?

I used to like the GOP more. Whether or not I voted its way on a candidate or an issue, I liked what Republicans brought to the table in the national discourse. We need a two-party system in America. And until House Republicans decided to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998, I had the utmost respect for any articulate bearer of the GOP line. I needed to hear those ideas. But now my enthusiasms are dampened even more. Yesterday, the House 225-201 House voted to authorize a suit against President Obama for failure to implement statue as passed by Congress. See, e.g., today's Politico. Specifically, GOP members of Congress claim they are harmed by the White House's series of reprieves via executive orders on enforcement of a requirement under the Affordable Care Act that employers offer health coverage or pay a penalty--a requirement that most Republicans oppose anyway. At best, the vote gives both Rs and Ds something to spin during the upcoming mid-term Congressional elections. But apart from that, the ideologically-driven vote is embarrassing and petty given the expanded use of executive orders by all modern presidents to tweak statutes. This is a political squabble. Purely political. In addition, it will be difficult for the House to allege in its complaint that the House itself has been injured by any of the president's action. As such, under well-settled constitutional law, no federal court is likely to grant standing to the GOP plaintiffs.

Above: George Thorogood. "And one day in 1998 the GOP members broke real bad and stayed that way."

Posted by JD Hull at 11:54 AM | Comments (0)

April 21, 2014

England's most famous Etonian suffers a lapse in class.

Did the British PM blow a few "dog-whistles" at cranky devout Christian voters last week? Though almost a week old, this story has legs--in and beyond Old Blighty--because it's so, well, appalling. It is also cringe-worthy for any American, with or without an understanding of English constitutional law, who stayed awake during high school civics back in Indiana. David Cameron, Britain's Prime Minister and Leader of the Conservative Party, apparently decided to tap the ever-dwindling Church of England "cultural" vote. The Guardian was one of the first to report it in "Prime Minister David Cameron: I am evangelical about Christian faith". To make matters worse, Cameron also said that England was a "Christian" country. A day later, the Guardian's Polly Toynbee wrote her own piece, "David Cameron won't win votes by calling Britain a Christian country", and asked

So why God now?

His core message, "This is a Christian country", dog-whistles to key voters. Ostensibly, it soothes the noisy but electorally few affronted folk in the pews angry about gay marriage, whose fury he had underestimated. For them Cameron ladled out syrupy retro-visions of the C of E [Church of England] of his Oxfordshire upbringing, its liturgy and heritage, his love of early morning eucharist at his children's school's church. But his "Christian country" message is really whistling to the errant flock fled to Ukip. They may never attend, but the C of E is a cultural identity marker for those sharing Nigel Farage's distaste for foreign tongues on his commuter train.

Naturally, Cameron is careful to say "this is not somehow doing down other faiths". But those who feel threatened on account of their non-Christian faith won't find Christian branding reassuring. This week, an article on this site described how the far right is using pork to persecute Jews and Muslims, as Marine Le Pen stops schools serving non-pork options in the French towns she now controls. More horrible still, members of the Flemish Vlaams Belang party reportedly stormed into a school and forced pork sausages into children's mouths.

Can I get an amen?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

April 07, 2014

Think you can prepare and skillfully interview anyone? Then try Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel sometime.

Think you can skillfully interview anyone? I do. I take pride in dragging out facts, doing cross and direct, taking depositions, putting people at ease and, in general, making contact with people and getting them to open up. I'm good at it, others tell me. And then this morning I read The New Republic's recent interview with Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, former Chicago congressman and Obama's colorful ex-chief of staff. This was that rare you-cannot-prepare-for-everything interview. TNR reporter Issac Chotiner was a very good sport--few journalists or lawyers could have done better. Me? Well, I like Mayor Emanuel. But I would have likely lost my temper at a couple of junctures. Strike that. Not likely. For sure. It's an interesting if contentious conversation.

Washington Post

Posted by JD Hull at 02:18 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2014

France's New First Girlfriend?

See "French President Francois Hollande Announces Breakup with First Lady Valerie Trierweiler" in The Daily Beast.

French Actress Julie Gayet, 41.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:11 PM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2013

William Jefferson Clinton: The First Bubba in 2017?

Dang. In 2017 we might see Hillary Rodham Clinton, who will have turned 69 just before election day in 2016, sworn in as the nation's first female POTUS. Her White Housemate? One William Jefferson Clinton, who will then be 70. No matter what your politics, it does sound like fun. What, if anything, do you think about this? Can we hear from commentariat-pundit-pollsters like Mike O'Neil?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2013

The Economist: Time for Britain to Turn Outward.

In the next five years, will Britain take a proactive role in the European community? Or will it turn inward? Will it lead, or merely observe the Continent from its reliable safe distance across the English Channel? Will the UK even stay in the European Union? Do see in this week's The Economist Little England or Great Britain? Excerpt:

Britain once ran the world. Since the collapse of its empire, it has occasionally wanted to curl up and hide. It can now do neither of those things. Its brightest future is as an open, liberal, trading nation, engaged with the world. Politicians know that and sometimes say it: now they must fight for it, too.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:39 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2012

Dem Businessman Erskine Bowles: "This Magic Moment".

Business Insider notes that Bowles, North Carolina businessman, educator, former White House Chief of Staff and Democratic co-chair of President Obama's 2010 National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, said in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett yesterday that "now" is the time for a debt deal on Capitol Hill. Bowles and former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, the commission's Republican co-chair, wrote the Simpson-Bowles deficit-reduction plan, a bipartisan proposal which President Obama would not approve after its release in December 2010.

"I think this is truly the magic moment," Bowles said.

"We've got a second-term Democratic president who is willing to put entitlements on the table. We've got a Republican speaker who really gets it, who understands the dangers we face and is willing to put revenue on the table."

"We've probably got as many as 50 members in the Senate, equal number of Republicans and Democrats who are for a balanced plan," Bowles added.

"But most importantly, what we have, we have this fiscal cliff, this crisis, which really will create chaos if we go over the fiscal cliff and we don't immediately get a deal thereafter."

Posted by JD Hull at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

November 11, 2012

Neoconservative Bill Kristol on Congressional Deadlock: "Let People Float New Ideas".

Me? Generally, I like free markets. I don't like progressive taxes. I want everyone to know achievements will not be (1) discouraged as dreams or (2) penalized once accomplished. I also dislike (read: hate) partisan-line or cookie-cutter thinking--on the Right, the Left or the Middle. When I can't see the logic or merit of the other side's case, I will, on occasion, tolerate compromise "just because". And I know how stubbornly "being right" is always expensive and unproductive.

In mid-February last year I spotted Bill Kristol, founder of The Daily Standard, former Daniel Moynihan aide and the closest thing to living royalty in American conservatism--his dad, Irving, was Managing Editor of Commentary and a Rock Star of the Right--in the sumptuous lobby of a west coast Ritz-Carlton and wondered two things. First, had this precocious (and by all accounts) brilliant neocon preppie with a Harvard Ph.D ever stayed in even a Cambridge Holiday Inn? Secondly, how flexible, really, was he ideologically?

I just got my answer on the second one, and I think Bill Kristol has big ones. Well done, sir. See Fox News clip below.

And in The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON -- Conservative commentator and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol said Sunday the Republican Party should accept new ideas, including the much-criticized suggestion by Democrats that taxes be allowed to go up on the wealthy.

"It won't kill the country if we raise taxes a little bit on millionaires," he said on "Fox News Sunday." "It really won't, I don't think. I don't really understand why Republicans don't take Obama's offer."

"Really? The Republican Party is going to fall on its sword to defend a bunch of millionaires, half of whom voted Democratic and half of whom live in Hollywood and are hostile?" he asked.

One of the biggest fights as Congress returns will be over taxes, as cuts put in place by former President George W. Bush are set to expire at the end of the year. Republicans want to extend those tax cuts for all income brackets, while Democrats want to raise revenue by allowing them to expire for wealthy Americans.

Exit polls last week found that six in ten voters supported ending the tax cuts on the wealthy, but House Republicans have remained adamantly opposed to allowing any of the rates to expire, instead supporting other changes to the tax code. House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) indicated on Friday that was unlikely to change.

"By lowering rates and cleaning up the tax code, we know that we're going to get more economic growth," he said at a press conference. "It'll bring jobs back to America. It'll bring more revenue. We also know that if we clean up the code and make it simpler, the tax code will be more efficient. The current code only collects about 85 percent of what's due the government. And it's clear that if you have a simpler, cleaner, fairer tax code, that efficiency -- the effectiveness and efficiency of the tax code increases exponentially."

Posted by JD Hull at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2012

Congratulations, Mr. President. So, what now, sir?

I got to DC last night late. Obama won. And the Senate withstood a GOP challenge. Around 12:15 am, after I started to hear the celebratory honking from folks on U Street, Q Street and streets in east Georgetown, it occurred to me. With this close and this grueling a race, even with it over, America is the most politically and culturally divided it has been in my lifetime. We are still at an iffy place of definitions. What next, folks? And let's start with those SCOTUS nominations. Jobs. The deficit. Privacy issues. Energy security. Mideast policy. Health care. And the fact that we have split into several Americas.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2012

Vote, ok? Just vote.

Like prayer, meditation or horseshoes, voting need not be perfect. It need not be fully informed. It doesn't have to be correct. But do vote today. Use or lose it, big guy.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

October 23, 2012

Man, were we wrong: Obama the Aggressor owns Night 3.

It wasn't that the talented Mitt Romney performed poorly last night; he didn't. It was just that Obama was so uncannily good. And he was all over Romney without seeming like a bully. Well done. Night 3 was no "draw" and came close, in my view, to being a rout. My last three serious live tweets (from earliest to latest) sum it up:

Obama dumbing it down: Surrender Mitt. You don't know the world. You screwed up small biz in Massachusetts. It's curtains for ya', kid.

Obama seems to fairly glow tonight. On his game even more than #2. Telegenic. Confident. He's enjoying Battle. Warrior in Zone.

I was wrong to predict draw tonight. Am calling this for Obama to same degree Mitt triumphed in #1. Obama in Zone at times. He's the Man.

At the Gannett House: Who's the Man now?

Posted by JD Hull at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2012

Prediction for Obama-Romney Night 3: A Street Fight with Mitt as Aggressor--and a Draw.

Tonight at 9:00 EST President Obama and Governor Romney debate foreign policy--expect lots on China, Libya and Iran--in Boca Raton, Florida with Washington CBS Bob Schieffer mainstay as moderator. As Round 3 is foreign policy, you would expect it to be Obama's night. But you can also expect Romney, once again, to be over-prepared. And Romney will try to launch several attacks that the President is "soft" on China and Iran. He will be planting seeds with voters across the board who are uncomfortable with Obama's internationalist view of the world. Romney, of course, doesn't have any foreign policy experience to attack. So he will be the aggressor. His attacks will neither succeed nor fail; he will just be lobbing them in there. Obama, in turn, will not miss a trick in any of his responses. However, Romney's secret weapon in the debates has been Rob Portman, the junior U.S. Senator from Ohio who's done a great job of getting Romney ready. For the first time ever, Romney will sound like he knows his stuff on world affairs--and he will startle us. Both candidates will hold their own tonight. Our prediction: a street fight and a draw.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:19 PM | Comments (0)

Senator George S. McGovern (1922–2012)

He is the most decent man in the Senate.

--Robert F. Kennedy, 1968

Growing up, professionals born in the 1960s were often likely to have political heroes on the GOP side of things. Ronald Reagan is a good example, and he seemed to excite college kids in a way other Republicans had not since Ike. But if you were born earlier, say in the 1950s, your heroes came in a veritable pantheon that included certain "lefty" U.S. senators: Robert Kennedy, Birch Bayh, Gaylord Nelson, Eugene McCarthy, Tom Eagleton, Ed Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Abe Ribicoff, Dick Clark. And George McGovern from South Dakota. McGovern, who by his own missteps was beaten by Nixon in 1972, was really heir to Robert Kennedy's ideas and following after Kennedy was shot and killed in 1968.

A lot of people thought this bookish WWII war-hero was a little too liberal, and personally a bit too peaceful and gentle, to be the President of the United States. But those around him--like Gary Hart, Frank Mankiewicz, Warren Beatty and Hunter Thompson--knew better. Senator McGovern was a tough and feisty guy. He just wasn't flashy about it. But once in the fall of 1972, McGovern was mercilessly heckled at a rally by someone very close to the stage. When the rally was over, McGovern stepped down from the stage and gestured for the man to come over to him. The man came. In the middle of a throng of Secret Service agents and admirers, McGovern cupped his hand over his mouth, got real close to the man and whispered in his ear: "I have a secret for you. Kiss my ass."

Posted by JD Hull at 08:39 PM | Comments (0)

October 18, 2012

Voice of America interviews Patrick Ukata on Ibrahim Prize for African leadership.

Yesterday on Voice of America's Straight Talk Africa, VOA mainstay Shaka Ssali interviewed our friend Patrick Ukata, Professor of International Relations at American University's School of International Service in Washington, D.C. The entire show, which was broadcast live simultaneously on radio, television and the Internet, is here.

By way of background, earlier this week, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation released its 2012 edition of Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which annually assesses governance in every African country. Interestingly, the Foundation also announced that this year no one deserved the annual Ibrahim Prize for achievement in African leadership this year. Only three leaders have been awarded the prize in the last six years. In yesterday's hour-long Straight Talk program, Patrick was asked: who do you think deserved to win this year’s Mo Ibrahim Prize for governance and why? Also on the show was Eric Chinje, Communications Director for the Ibrahim Foundation, via a London studio. Listen to Shaka Ssali, Patrick and Eric discuss the quality of new leaders and new regional governments in the daily-changing political and economic canvas of the new Africa.

At American University, Patrick, who also a lawyer, specializes in the political economy and international relations of Africa, legal reforms and governance. He is widely known in American and Africa for building and directing the American University of Nigeria (AUN), a privately funded American-style university in Nigeria. It began in 2004, and is the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr. Patrick Ukata on Gwen Ifill's "Washington Week" in July. (PBS photo)

Posted by JD Hull at 03:57 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2012

Obama Blows Off His "No Angry" Rule to Seize the Night. And, Fellow Yanks: Do You Feel Lucky, Yet?

Candy Crowley just before last night's thriller. (ABC News)

The problem with people in 2005 having talked me into having "a blog" is that actual non-wanker work--yes, they still have that--interferes with blogging and other digital New Age life. Blogging in my case does beat some alternatives. Like explaining to a Capitol Hill cop at 1:30 AM you thought it was perfectly okay to drive on the sidewalk in front of the Tune Inn and that, growing up back in Ohio, you did that all the time.

Anyway, I thought one of my always-sober "live tweets" last night during Obama-Biden Night 2 in Hempstead, New York--a town hall format led by CNN's Candy Crowley on both domestic and foreign policies--summed it up. Very nice to see the president get his Mojo back:

Dan Hull ‏@Whataboutparis 7:27 pm ET
Am calling it. Obama "won" handily tonight--but not on scale Romney won Oct. 3. New game. A feistier than ever prez rehabilitates himself.

I also liked another live tweet by my talented friend and political commentator Mike O'Neil:

Mike O'Neil ‏@michaeljoneil
Most awesome moment of the debate: Candy Crowley remembering exactly what the Pres said on the day after the Libya attack. Incredible!

Speaking of the moderator Crowley, did she show a disposition toward favoring Barack Obama last night? Yes, I thought she did, but that it was slight. One possible explanation? When things heated up, Governor Romney on a few occasions adopted a barely perceptible but weird patrician tone of voice with the both Obama and Crowley. Which in a way was funny (is that the real silver-spoon Mitt?). However, in Candy Crowley's case, and when things were not going his way, he talked to her cavalierly and crisply, like she was hopelessly bad extra kitchen help on Parents' Night at the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills.

My overwhelming take-away if pedestrian feeling after seeing President Obama and former Governor Romney go at it? That I am, frankly, lucky to live in a country (a) that attracts national candidates of this caliber, (b) that attracts and encourages such diverging viewpoints and (c) that lets us talk about those viewpoints openly and without fear. Every four years, I am amazed by this. I am proud of it. You don't get this everywhere else on the planet, Jack.

But we have a big problem now in the quality of the discourse from the voters--not from politicians running for office. From the looks of the both traditional and digital media I see in this election cycle, our culture wars in America at the "higher-information" voter levels alone are getting meaner, uglier, more polarized and more intensely personal than they have ever been. Check out Twitter last night and the blogs this morning. Some Romney supporters believe that Obama has an agenda to destroy the American way of life. Obama supporters often believe Mitt Romney is an anti-middle class elitist who is comfortable with sick or old people dying in our streets.

Neither of these portraits, of course, are accurate. Yet more and more people act as if one of these two sketches are true--and an alarming number of people have decided to hate or fear one of these two candidates. The blackest of agendas are imagined. The candidates are assumed to not even be acting in good faith.

How did we ever get this dumb?

We have two jihads going on. More than any time in my memory, educated people are buying into stark portrayals of the two contenders in either black or white. The candidates have become grotesque cartoon characters. Let's get something straight. Neither Obama nor Romney is evil. Each can competently run the United States--and even arrive at the same outcomes under different policies and philosophies. Both will lie to us a bit to keep or get power. That happens in politics. Get used to that, please.

Sure, the stakes are high right now. A down-economy has Americans, and people all over the world, in unexpected and new kinds of pain. Vigorous debate between citizens is important and to be expected now. In the meantime, let's not dumb down our conversation so much that the personalities or ideas of Barack Obama, Mitt Romney and anyone else on the national stage are painted in gross distortions and absurdities.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

October 11, 2012

Debate Prediction: Joe Biden Over Paul Ryan By Two Touchdowns; Ryan Way More Annoying.

In tonight's vice-presidential debate in Kentucky between two talky Irish Catholic guys, Joe Biden, about to turn 70, will triumph over but not trounce Paul Ryan, 42.

Unfortunately, Ryan is more annoying than any pol alive (including Biden) when he gets going. Further, the young Wisconsin congressman has trouble "seeming smart" or seasoned when he talks his highly-touted economic plans, policies and especially underlying numbers. Like the late Jack Kemp, my old buddy at the Longworth Building, and who Ryan used to work for, when Ryan talks economics he sounds like he's parroting something Dan Moynihan or Milton Friedman said or wrote but really doesn't get that well yet. Even low-information voters pick up on this stuff.

Joe Biden? He is way smarter than people think. He is more likable (and, yes, smarter) than Ryan. And he is one of the best natural politicians the country had ever produced. He will be very well-prepared. Biden will be feisty--but not talk as much as Ryan. Watch also for Biden to strip away on national television his GOP-painted cartoonish "buffoon" image in much the same way Mitt Romney last week blew away the "uber-robot" caricature. People will be reminded, too, that on foreign policy he's more knowledgeable and experienced than the president, Romney and Ryan put together.

Finally, this is Ryan's first national debate; he will be a little nervous. The Vice-President has done a few; he is never nervous.

2008: Senator Obama confers with Biden during a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Biden chaired. (Washington Post)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2012

Horse Race: Debate Night 1 Belongs to Mitt Romney.

Whether I like it or or not, Mitt Romney did well last night and, for the time being at least, completely destroyed his "robot" image. He connected with the audience--something I and others thought he simply could not do. In this first debate of three, on domestic policy only, both candidates were less than perfect and credible on the substance and validity of their economic and taxation plans, but Romney was energetic, feisty and human. The president seemed tired and anxious. Round One to the formerly moderate silver spoon Republican pol and ex-governor of Massachusetts. Mitt Romney was very, very well-prepared.

Domestic Policy Night: Mitt Romney's Night. (AP photo)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2012

Prediction: Mitt Romney "Wins" First Debate.

No, it's not wishful thinking. It just makes sense. As I type, Mitt Romney, who is often dull but hard-working and mega-bright, is preparing for what is obviously the three most important nights of his political life: the televised debates of October 3, 16 and 22. Respectively, the debates will cover the topics of domestic policy, domestic policy/foreign policy in a town hall format, and foreign policy. If Romney can shine, it will be tomorrow tonight--again, the topic is domestic policy and not in a town hall format--and I expect he will shine and out-perform President Obama in this first one. To all my cookie-cutter and doctrinaire fellow Democrats out there who think Mitt's a "robot": maybe so--but he's a talented robot. Romney has everything on the line and, to be fair, he is no choke-artist. He is preparing for the debates with the equally hard-working and smart Ohio GOP Senator Rob Portman. Expect him tomorrow night to be the most prepared candidate for a presidential debate ever. He will surprise everyone. And he must "win" tomorrow night. The second and third debates? Obama already has the upper hand. The president is better than Romney in town hall settings (October 16) and at least sounds more articulate than Romney on foreign policy (October 22). The second and third debates are the president's to lose.

Tomorrow night's debate host Jim Lehrer, of PBS's NewsHour.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:07 PM | Comments (0)

August 09, 2012

Gutsy, Superfluous--or just Awkward? Obama weighs in on BSA rearticulation of policy banning gays.

We'll call it all three--but it's certainly leadership. Well done, sir. As my fellow Eagle Scouts debate whether to give up their awards, President Obama, via spokesman Shin Inouye, appears to condemn BSA's stance banning gay members and leaders (both NBC stories by Miranda Leitsinger), the policy BSA clarified and, in effect, re-announced three weeks ago. Kudos to once-outlier and now-player The Washington Blade, which broke the story. And there is some awkwardness here. The Blade also notes that in a "follow-up email, Inouye said Obama won’t resign or relinquish his position as honorary president of the Boy Scouts as result of this position."

Posted by JD Hull at 07:26 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2012

Pippa Middleton Puts the Big Hurt on Chanel Designer Karl Lagerfeld's Vision.

According to the New York Daily News, and several other sources, the head designer at Chanel doesn't like Pippa Middleton's face. See Karl Lagerfeld blasts Pippa Middleton: 'She should only show her back'. That's not the point here, Karl. We don't care about Pippa Middleton's face. She has other attributes which make us very happy to be alive.

A star is born.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:35 AM | Comments (0)

July 17, 2012

In the Huffington Post: Back from Berlin, Tan, Ready & Rested, Bennet Kelley is All Over Mitt Romney.

Internet lawyer, Georgetown fan, radio host, network television guest, political commentator, Hull McGuire of counsel, writer, columnist and Renaissance man Bennet Kelley has returned from his tour of Germany to hit the ground, as usual, running. At his regular column in the Huffington Post, see Mitt Romney: The "Us the People" Candidate. He begins with the can-do energies and positive direction he sensed last week in Berlin which do seem to contrast with the current American angst:

While the ghosts of fascism and communism are never far away, Berlin today is booming and Germans are confident and proud. In contrast, a recent Rasmussen poll showed that a plurality of Americans believe that our best days are behind us -- something that would seem unthinkable to what we have called our "Greatest Generation."

These are different times and it seems that the notion of "We the People" is over. Unlike World War II, where citizen and soldier each were vital to the war effort, in the last decade we have fought our two longest wars yet no sacrifice was ever asked of the citizens. Far from it in fact, as we cut taxes during wartime for the first time in our history.

And about Mitt Romney. Me? While I do think that Mitt Romney is one of the better presidential candidates the GOP has ever produced from the standpoint of sheer talent and managerial ability, Romney is perhaps uniquely unsuited to govern the U.S. now: a time when more Americans are suffering economically than they have at any time since the 1930s. Romney is, by personality, education and upbringing, one of the most sequestered and insulated major political figures we have seen in some time. He is not a bad man. But he makes even the entire Bush family seem almost working-class and possessed of a common touch in his obvious in inability to connect with anyone outside of his family and a small circle. Mitt Romney will never feel your pain, folks. He's simply not wired that way.

Bennet has other problems with Mitt Romney--which are less important to me but far more important (and less metaphysical than my sense of Romney, the human being) in the scheme of this year's election. They are the very issues the Democrats will drive home in the next few months:

the perfect candidate for "Us the People" as he hides his money in overseas tax shelters and Swiss bank accounts since "only the little people" pay taxes after all. That such a person could be elevated as nominee of a party reflects the fact that today sacrifice is a dirty word.

Consider for a moment the fact that, during World War II, Ford and General Motors converted their factories to military production to help with the war effort. This would be anathema to Romney and his fellow vulture capitalists at Bain who purchased American businesses, sold off their assets and then shipped jobs overseas.

Romney survived a GOP nomination process that clearly defined who was not included in the Republican definition of "Us" -- African and Hispanic Americans, Muslims, gays, women and the poor. Romney's economic proposal contemplates more tax cuts and other benefits for "Us" with the cost and burden to be borne by the poor and others not fortunate enough to be "Us."

Posted by JD Hull at 04:01 PM | Comments (0)

July 14, 2012

223 years ago, was the Marquis de Sade really a player in the storming of The Bastille?

"And the moral of the story is never lean on the weird. Or they will chop your head off. Take my word for it, Bubba." For the report of an old friend, see our 2008 post How the Marquis de Sade was finally forced into politics.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

France's Tweetgate: New French President Hollande, man of the people, stud, does his first Bastille Day.

French President Francois Hollande today.
Photo: Antoine Antoniol.

AP: "Hollande oversees 1st Bastille Day as French president; clouded by family feud". It begins:

PARIS - A feud involving the French president's live-in girlfriend, his former partner and his eldest son may have tarnished the new leader's carefully cultivated image as “Mr. Normal” — credited with helping him win the spring election among a populace weary of his flashy predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Francois Hollande agreed to take a question about the family feud that has riveted the media during a television interview Saturday — a sign that in the Twitter era, even French leaders can't keep their private lives private.

But he sure did try.

Mid-way through the nationally televised interview on tradition-steeped Bastille Day, the reporters asked for his reaction to “tweetgate” as the feud is known. It began with a tweet sent out by his companion Valerie Trierweiler during last month's legislative elections. The tweet expressed support for the political opponent of his ex-partner Segolene Royal, the mother of the president's four children, who was defeated in her bid for a parliamentary seat.

Hollande may have agreed to take the question, but he quickly shut it down, saying that he intended to keep his public and private lives separate — and that he had asked those close to him to do the same.

But it may be too late to put the genie back in the bottle, since the tweet has set the French political establishment aflame, and turned the president's image on its head.

Widely criticized as a vindictive move, the tweet went viral and dominated news shows.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

July 09, 2012

Oh Mexico. Sounds so simple. Never is.

See MSNBC on protests of the July 1 election results: "Tens of thousands protest in Mexico against president-elect, alleging vote fraud". Excerpt:

Pena Nieto won the July 1 election by almost 7 percentage points, according to the official count, returning the PRI to presidential power after 12 years in the wilderness. He is due to take power in December, replacing Felipe Calderon of the conservative National Action Party, or PAN.

The constitution barred Calderon from running for a second term. The PAN candidate, Josefina Vazquez Mota, finished third, with many voters dissatisfied over relentless drug violence and sluggish growth.

Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador finished in second place, but has refused to concede, accusing Pena Nieto of stealing the presidency.

Marco Ugarte /AP

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

June 29, 2012

Radical Replevin: Secret Diaries, a Vampire-Hunting A. Lincoln and the Lawyer-Pol as The Anti-Wimp.

Preposterous but fun. A beloved leader and lawyer as the Anti-Wimp. But Confederate soldiers at Gettysburg as the Undead?

Benjamin Walker plays a Radical Dude.

Posted by JD Hull at 02:18 AM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2012

No matter what your politics are, National Review's Dan Foster hands-down wins prize for best media quip on today's SCOTUS ACA ruling.

The News Editor of the conservative National Review Online this morning on Twitter:*

Daniel Foster ‏@DanFosterNRO "Kennedy is a pimp. He never could have outfought Santino. But I never knew until this day that it was Roberts all along."

*Via the always-excellent Colin Samuels, Godfather to IP Wonks.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 04:11 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2012

Mike O'Neil: Tomorrow's Arizona race for Rep. Gaby Giffords's seat. "The Only Other 2012 Bellwether Election."

See by Mike O'Neil in today's Huffington Post "The Only Other 2012 Bellwether Election." Excerpts:

Prior to the November presidential election, there are only two instances this year where actual voters will cast ballots in elections that could provide a clue about the mood of the electorate. The first of these was the Wisconsin recall election, in which Republican Governor Scott Walker successfully withstood an attempt to oust him from office. The second is the race for the remainder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords term which will be held on June 12.

In any individual race there are always factors other than the national mood that are relevant. Walker, for example, may have benefited by a reluctance of voters to oust an elected official for anything short of criminal offenses. Much about the Arizona Congressional race, however, suggests that it could be an excellent barometer of public sentiment on national issues. The district itself is regarded highly competitive.

It was represented for over two decades by Jim Kolbe, a moderate Republican. When Kolbe retired, the seat was won by centrist Democrat Gabrielle Giffords. If this district were a state, it would be classified as a presidential tossup.

This race pits her former aide, Ron Barber against the Tea Party candidate, Jesse Kelly, who narrowly missed beating Giffords in 2010.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:45 PM | Comments (0)

May 17, 2012

Eastern Market: The Best 30 Minutes of My Day on Capitol Hill.

In my old 'hood: A corner of the Hill to eat, drink, buy oddities and watch humans. A small funky Roman forum. And the last of the many public markets that once served Washington, D.C. over a century ago.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:22 PM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2012

Liberia: Reaction to Charles Taylor's conviction at The Hague is mixed.

The Charles Taylor verdict is the "first of its kind" against a world leader at The Hague. See this NPR report. Lead-in to the interview:

In an historic judgment, the UN-backed court at The Hague found Liberia's former president, Charles Taylor, guilty of war crimes. He was convicted of abetting murder, rape, and the forced enlistment of child soldiers during Sierra Leone's civil war.

Taylor had been on trial at The Hague for almost five years. He was accused of backing rebels in neighboring Sierra Leone during that country's civil war by selling them weapons in exchange for diamonds.

It was a dramatic trial. There was graphic testimony about gruesome atrocities, mass rapes, amputations, cannibalism and information about the tens of thousands of people killed during the decade-long war.

Taylor in court 3 days ago.

Posted by JD Hull at 02:16 PM | Comments (0)

April 26, 2012

Politico: Sen. Rob Portman as Mitt Romney's Number Two.

Southern Ohio's Taft Country has a long tradition of smart, hard-working, solid, uber-credentialed and refreshingly un-flashy Republicans who run for office, get elected and stay awhile on the national stage. Cincinnati's Rob Portman is in that mold. He would help Mitt Romney govern. If you vote GOP in November, Portman is, hands down, the most talented number two you could hope for. See in yesterday's Politico "Rob Portman: Vice President Vanilla?".

Posted by JD Hull at 08:50 AM | Comments (0)

April 17, 2012

Tripoli or The Hague: Can Muammar Gaddafi’s son get a fair trial in Libya?

Our take: The International Criminal Court in The Hague makes more sense. At South Africa-based IOL News, see "Al-Islam Faces Justice on Libyan Soil". It begins:

Muammar Gaddafi’s son and former heir Saif al-Islam will be put on trial inside Libya and there will be a verdict before the middle of June, a Libyan official said on Monday.

The decision comes despite appeals by rights groups to Libyan authorities to hand him over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for trial, amid fears that he may not get a fair trial in Libya.

A trial in the capital Tripoli would, however, mark a small step forward for the central government, which has been struggling to unify the country under its authority since Muammar Gaddafi’s capture and killing last year.

Reuters: Saif al-Islam.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:27 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2012

In The American Prospect: Ohio's Rob Portman as Mitt's Running Mate.

Ohio's first-term U.S. senator, and Cincinnati golden boy, does make sense for a Romney GOP ticket. And, while staid, Portman (in our view) is still way more exciting than Mitt Romney. See "Romney's Veep Calculations" by Patrick Caldwell, who otherwise nails it in his piece of two days ago. Talented Portman would help Romney govern.

March cover

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

April 03, 2012

High Speed Rail in America: Some things our European cousins do quite well.

And so we should take that hint. Why can't we take a more earnest stab at high-speed rail? Three of our builder clients (and a 4th targeted one) are at once encouraged, skeptical and curious about this Reuters story of yesterday: New California High-Speed Rail Plan Cuts Cost. Kudos for Governor Moonbeam, also in office when I was in college. The article begins:

(Reuters) - California officials on Monday unveiled a major overhaul of a controversial plan to build a high-speed rail system in the state, slashing the cost by some $30 billion, to $68.4 billion, and addressing other criticisms of the massive project.

The new plan must now receive a final blessing from the California High Speed Rail Authority before going to the state legislature, which has to approve the release of the first chunk of the nearly $10 billion in rail bond funds voters approved in 2008.

The state must greenlight the spending and sell the first of the bonds to obtain $3.3 billion in federal matching funds and start construction in the fall as planned.

White House press conference Rah-Rah Exhibit "A" in early April 2009, 3 years ago. C'mon, guys.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2012

Atlantic Review: "Best Music Videos for the US Elections".

Need perspective? Whenever you can, please visit our Berlin-based friends at the enduring Atlantic Review, a press digest and online magazine founded by American and German Fulbright Alumni in 2003. Like me, AR mainstay and co-founder Joerg Wolf grows weary of watching the GOP candidates this election cycle ensure a second term for our transformational if often-floundering young U.S. president--but Joerg does like the rock 'n roll part, as it were. Everywhere you go, pols wanna rock. And is Santorum's staff far out, or what? Dang.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:45 AM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2012

Mitt Romney's Never-Ending Rick Santorum Nightmare.

No matter what you think of Rick Santorum's conservative and often 18th century social, religious and political views, let's give him some credit. Like him or not, Santorum has tapped into a huge "at-large" constituency of voters in the American South, West and Midwest. These voters have always been there--and been there for the taking. The mainstream media and just about anyone else who comments on politics couldn't pick up on the Santorum Sleeping Giant factor that quickly. The reason? We live, breathe, dance and listen to the rhythms of the coasts.

Don't worry. Rick Santorum won't be your next president. But it's been nice to have a guy in the race who keeps pandering to a minimum. You know what he believes. He talks about it. And, man, does this guy have followers all over America. You want to change America? Then work on Santorum's far-flung voters--the vast majority of them are wonderful humans who just think and feel differently than you on many issues, often for good reasons. But not on Santorum. He's not "the problem". See, e.g., The Guardian today: Rick Santorum Wins Mississippi and Alabama Primaries--Live Reaction.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:01 PM | Comments (0)

March 07, 2012

The American Prospect: On Newt Gingrich's Super-Bad Super Tuesday.

"Newt Gingrich had a terrible Super Tuesday." Even if they are waning, let's give Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul (and especially Paul) some credit for adding to the conversation America has every four years. I can't and won't vote for any of the GOP candidates we've been forced-fed so far. But each, especially Paul and Santorum, warts and all, is more authentic--i.e., like me, you may not "like" them or buy into them, but at least they actually believe what they are saying--than Romney, who America is about to meet on a much larger scale. While he is talented, smart and accomplished, Mitt is one very insular and uber-eccentric man, folks. My prediction: he will give most of us, at least us Yanks with intuition and horse sense, the King-Hell Creeps. See at Jay Harris's greatly new-and-improved The American Prospect this piece: Newt's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Super Bad Tuesday. It begins:

Newt Gingrich had a terrible Super Tuesday.

Yes, yes, he won Georgia, his home state, going away. But he not only failed to win any of the other nine states that held elections, he failed to place second in any of them as well.

He came in third in the other two Southern states that held contests—Tennessee and Oklahoma. In five states—Alaska, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, and Vermont—he ran fourth, behind Ron Paul.

Newt Gingrich in early 1995

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2012

Right on schedule, Mom-and-Pop Russia claw again at Putin.

CBS News at Pushkin Square today: Russian cops violently break up Putin protest.

RIA Novosti/Ramil Sitdikov

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

King Putin: "I promised you we would win. We have won. Glory to Russia".

But Mother Russia? She'll still take Gandhi-like to the streets today. She still doesn't like the dog food. Her Mom-and-Pop middle class and younger professionals finally got an outrageous mojo working last December and they are hungry and poised for more protests. See at Reuters "Russia's Putin Faces Protests After Poll Triumph". Vladimir Putin won yesterday, even if you accept as true allegations of violations and fishy votes, but he's:

on collision course with the mainly middle-class protesters who have staged rallies in the capital and other big cities since a disputed parliamentary poll on December 4.

The protest organizers, who see Putin as an autocratic leader whose return to power will stymie hope of economic and political reforms, said their demonstrations would now grow.

Despite the opposition, mainly among well-educated and relatively well-off young professionals, Putin's support remains high in the provinces and his victory had not been in doubt.

But the mood has shifted in the country of 143 million and the urban protest movement portrays him as an obstacle to change and the guardian of a corrupt system of power.

Reuters: The triumphant but spooked Putin yesterday.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:42 AM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2012

Mike O'Neil and Rep. Jeff Flake on GOP Arizona Shoot-Out.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2012

The Best News from Mexico in Months: Josefina Vazquez Mota.

See at MSNBC "'I will be the first woman president of Mexico in history',". Mexican Congresswoman Vazquez Mota, 51, shakes up the old boy political culture of Mexico, by winning--and winning easily--the National Action Party's primary last night:

The personable, cheerful Vazquez Mota invited party members to help her beat the telegenic and handsome Pena Nieto, who is married to a glamorous telenovela star.

"We begin a new road," said Vazquez Mota. "A road to defeat the real adversary of Mexico, who embodies authoritarianism and the worst antidemocratic practices; who represents the way back to corruption and offers impunity as a conviction. The adversary is Pena Nieto and his party."

Vazquez Mota is considered the PRI's strongest challenger, though Mexican voters seem weary of the ruling National Action Party which has governed for 11 years. Delegates are betting that a woman candidate could boost party appeal.

"It injects a certain new note of uncertainty. There's never been a strong female presidential candidate for any other major party before," said Eric Olson, a senior associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center's Mexico Institute. "It adds that historical element and maybe some excitement."

Posted by JD Hull at 09:31 AM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2012

"Frozen Fury": Mom-and-Pop Motherland Go After Putin Again.

Today in Russia, in a number of cities, the presumably-rigged presidential elections next month (March 4) brought out more middle-class crowds to protest the Putin regime. Despite Arctic temperatures, the number of protesters are said by observers to exceed the crowds of December 2011. See at NYT "Protesters Throng Frozen Moscow in Anti-Putin Protest".

AP Photo

Posted by JD Hull at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2012

WAP Guest Writer Mike O'Neil: "National Spotlight to Turn on Arizona: Four Reasons Why."

Political consultant and on-air commentator Mike O'Neil has written and talked about national politics for three decades. In this WAP guest post, he writes on why his adopted state of Arizona has become thrust into the national limelight.

National Spotlight to Turn on Arizona: Here Are Four Reasons Why.

By Mike O'Neil

1. The Special Election for Gabrielle Giffords' seat may be a very early indicator for the mood of the entire country in 2012: The primary for the special election will be in April and the general special election will be in June. A vote in a tossup district with no incumbent in the middle of a Presidential election year? You don't get a better early indicator of the national mood than that.

2. The February 28 Arizona Presidential primary looks like it will matter--and there will be an extended period in the national limelight. In the week after the Florida primary, there are four caucuses. Then there are three weeks (February 8-27) with no primary or caucus. For those three weeks, Arizona and Michigan (that also has a primary on the 28th) should be a major focus of national attention.

3. President Obama is coming to Arizona tomorrow, Wednesday, January 25--the day after his State of the Union address. His trip also includes Iowa, Nevada, Colorado and Michigan, all battleground states. Why Arizona? Except for Missouri (which was a virtual tie in 2008), Arizona is probably the only state Obama did not carry in 2008 that he has a prayer of carrying in 2012. And the state has had more than its share of national newsworthy events (probably why the New York Times assigned a full time reporter to the state last year). While Arizona might be a stretch for him to carry, even making the attempt may be important. Otherwise the political narrative is exclusively about him playing defense, trying to hold on to enough of his 2008 states to get re-elected. Arizona represents almost his only opportunity to play offense-and change the narrative.

4. Competitive Districts without Incumbents. Perhaps 10% of the congressional districts in the country are truly competitive --and most of these have incumbents. Giffords district is competitive. (It was held by a moderate Republican, Jim Kolbe, for many years). Interestingly Arizona now will now likely have three of these rarities (truly competitive and without an incumbent): Giffords' District (CD2), the newly created central CD9, and (if Paul Gosar moves to the Western CD4 as he has indicated), the Northeast/Flagstaff CD1 will also be vacant. Three very competitive districts, each without an incumbent. A rarity.

Stay tuned. Should be fun.

--Michael J. O'Neil, PhD

(Copyright MJO. All Rights Reserved.)

Posted by JD Hull at 01:22 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2012

London's Mayoral Race: Is Boris Johnson going to keep his job?

That is one of the questions--and a good one--posed by The Economist this past weekend in "London's Mayoral Race: Back into the Fray". In May, London's incumbent mayor Boris Johnson, a flamboyant and often very funny Conservative, former MP, journalist and author (hatched from the Conservative Party's usual lower England Etonian-Oxford tribe) will run against the same opponent he faced in 2008: "Red" Ken Livingstone, the Labour Party candidate, and a serious lefty, who was Johnson's predecessor. Both Johnson and Livingstone are capable pols and managers. While Johnson's eccentricities and manic kind of charisma have made him a popular mayor, Livingstone, who is two decades older than Johnson, may have the advantage of pitching to his more natural constituency in the traditionally liberal urban electorate of London. Johnson is eccentric as hell, fun to watch and connected very well with voters in 2008. Whether or not he is re-elected five months from now, he is expected by many to become Prime Minister some day. But he may not be a shoe-in May. Excerpt from The Economist January 7 article:

London leans left—-as big, diverse cities tend to. Mr Livingstone, knowing that voters often punish governments between general elections, aims to paint his rival as just another Tory. And although the polls suggest that Londoners prefer Mr Johnson on policing, the economy and the Olympics, he trails on the vital issue of transport. A spate of strikes on the Tube has encouraged the view that Mr Livingstone, a machine politician and a man of the left, is better at dealing with London’s ornery unions.

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, Mayor of London.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:09 AM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2012

Iowa: You got me where you want me.

Results for Iowa Republican Caucus (U.S. Presidential Primary)

Mitt Romney 30,015 24.6%
Rick Santorum 30,007 24.5%
Ron Paul 26,219 21.4%
Newt Gingrich 16,251 13.3%
Rick Perry 12,604 10.3%
Michele Bachmann 6,073 5%
Jon Huntsman 7,450. 6%
Herman Cain 58 0%
Buddy Roemer 31 0%
No Preference 1,350. 1%
Other 1,170 .1%

Source: AP

Posted by JD Hull at 11:42 PM | Comments (0)

December 05, 2011

"A First-Rate Madness": A Book that Expands Your Take on Leadership Styles.

If you think your boss might be a whack job some days, bet on him anyway. While its writing and organization could have been even better, and the research perhaps deeper, the ideas in A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness by Nassir Ghaemi, who runs the Mood Disorders Program at Tufts Medical Center, will likely change the way you think about leadership. At the same time it gives you an empathy for both internal personal pain and exterior quirk in decision-makers you almost certainly never had. It's also a brave book. "Mental Illness" is given a broad definition here but most of Ghaemi's subjects--he includes among others Churchill, Lincoln, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Kennedy, General W.T. Sherman and Ted Turner--are explained according to biologically-inherited and/or drug or chemical-induced traits (usually a combination of the two) that will stand the genre of biographical "psycho-history" on its already tormented head. The thesis: In times of crisis, leaders with abnormal or even "bad" mental health are much more effective than sane ones. And, of course, they are a lot more interesting to consider.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 02, 2011

The Mitt Romney Syndrome: "But the dogs don't like him..." Bring back Dick Gephardt for Dems?

Mitt Romney can't "connect" with y'all. See at today's MSNBC "Voters remain cool toward Romney".

You see The Mitt Syndrome a lot in U.S. presidential politics. The guy is exemplary in nearly all respects: mega-smart and mega-talented (he is--don't kid yourself), well-spoken, energetic, good-looking, celebrated for past successes, did well at the best schools on earth, has family values up the wazoo and a squeaky clean past. He has, in short, a golden résumé. He's a little too perfect maybe?

And for whatever reason, Romney is hopelessly incapable of making a connection with other humans (i.e., voters) outside his admiring circle of family, friends and allies. He's detached and remote--qualities which even John F. Kennedy often displayed but somehow made work for him.

In that respect, Romney reminds you a little bit of Al Gore--but much more of Dick Gephardt, the respected Democratic former Missouri Representative, House Majority Leader, lawyer's lawyer and Eagle Scout. Gephardt impressed me both on paper and visually from the first time I saw him on a close-circuit C-SPAN system in the Longworth Building in 1980. But he couldn't and didn't turn anyone on, either. Of Gephardt, when he last ran for president in 2004, a Midwestern political consultant finally said:

Gephardt is like the Perfect Dog Food. Made with the best ingredients. Tested. Meets all quality standards. Attracts the right investors. Perfectly packaged. And the dog food industry? Competitors are envious and in awe of the product.

Problem is the dogs--the dogs just don't like it.

Dick Gephardt, now just 70, in 1988.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:10 PM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2011

Rep. Barney Frank Retires: One Far-Out Mother Who Everyone Will Miss.

Political persuasion, party affiliation and sexual preference rarely define anyone. Heart, soul and moxie do. We will all miss Barney Frank, who is leaving the U.S. House of Representatives after 32 years. See yesterday's Politico at page one and Frank Legacy: ‘One of a Kind’. Frank, now 71, was a partisan Democrat. But in the tradition of Henry Clay, Jacob Javits, Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy, he could cut non-partisan deals. Excerpt:

Frank rose to prominence during the early years of C-SPAN coverage of House floor action, perfecting the art of drawing sharp contrasts in public debate while negotiating compromises behind closed doors.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2011

Mitt Romney is like his dad Michigan governor George in any respect?

I don't see it--but the Washington Post does. See "George and Mitt Romney: Like father, like son, until a political parting point".

Posted by JD Hull at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2011

Everyone's Mitt Romney Problem.

Although I've voted for a Republican for president only once, watching two major GOP presidential candidates self-destruct these past few weeks has been painful. We need at least two strong political parties in America--and we need credible candidates in both parties. Election cycles are a great way, of course, of taking the pulse of a nation. Every four years, we bat a few issues around. We learn what's important to us. We get our bearings.

Now, and for the first time since I could vote, we have Republican issues without viable Republican leaders. As matters stand, I'd have to bet on and vote for President Obama, who will likely be facing Mitt Romney. Barring a further substantial weakening of the economy, Romney will lose--and lose, in my view, big time, both in popular and electoral college votes.

There was a time somewhere between Teddy White's book The Making of the President, 1960 and now--and clearly by 1980--when Republicans finally learned the gritty and often ugly black arts of how to run national campaigns: House, Senate and Presidency. And, once they got the hang of it, GOP operatives often ran those campaigns like well-oiled businesses. Southern states started it off. Young political strategists like the late Lee Atwater--smart, super-intuitive, passionate and mean as a snake--led the way.

Right now, however, the best Atwater clones on earth can't put anything together for the GOP. To belabor the obvious:

1. Herman Cain. Loved this guy. Our hero until the "let Herman be Herman" tact failed two PR rules: a. Be first with bad news, especially when you can see it coming. b. Don't lie about that which the electorate will forgive you for anyway. Forget about the polls. Forget about the Libya flub. We all question his judgment on how he handled the questions on sexual harassment more than any actions which may have led to them.

2. Rick Perry. Personally, I loved this guy even more than Herman. On my dad's side, we're probably somehow tribally-related--but Perry can't be my President. Ever. But I'd jump at the chance to have dinner with him, listen to some blues, drink Ripple and split a tab of Vicodin.

3. And the winner is Mitt Romney--who Obama will soundly trounce, whether I like it or not (and I probably would). Why oh why can't the mega-talented Mitt be more like his dad, George, the late crowd-pleasing ex-governor of Michigan? When I see Romney on TV, I still get that creepy feeling that "something or someone else is driving". So, apparently, do many other folks. He can't connect--or even appear to connect--with other humans no matter how hard he tries. A tragedy. This is one smart guy. Romney will be the candidate--and he will lose.

Anything Barack Obama can really do to ensure a second term? I doubt anyone connected with the Obama 2012 campaign is as optimistic as I have been above. Or as glib. I've been wrong a lot, on U.S. presidential campaigns. Very wrong. Let me give you two examples.

During most of 2003, I was raising money for Wes Clark--I was a Clark convention delegate until he withdrew from the race--because I was sure that, as much as I like him as a legislator, John Kerry could never even be nominated (I confidently told his campaign chief this on a fine spring morning in 2003 at Kerry's Stanton Park campaign office).

In 2007 and 2008, I worked for and supported Hillary Clinton--and was as surprised as she was when she did not win the Democratic nomination.

Things change quickly and unpredictably. In late 2003 and 2004, John Kerry finally found the traction I predicted he didn't deserve and would never earn. In 2008, Barack Obama overcame Clinton on a slowly-building but steady and unstoppable wave that left pols and most Americans breathless.

Hillary as Obama's running mate? To give the President the best possible shot at relection, some journalists and political strategists would whisper two words in his ear: Hillary Clinton. Clinton denies interest in the Vice-Presidency. However, some experts, like my friend Mike O'Neil of O'Neil Consulting, a long-time pollster, political consultant and thinking-man's talking head, believes that Hillary Clinton as Obama's running mate in 2012 is highly likely and something to watch for.

I spoke with Mike O'Neil Sunday night. An Obama-Clinton ticket, he said, "would instantly energize the party and infuse life into the Obama campaign." For Clinton's part, O'Neil noted, she would be hard pressed to turn it down "because it would guarantee her the 2016 nomination (win or lose)." O'Neil pointed out that in 2016, Clinton will be 69 years old. Many believe she seems unlikely to retire from public life four years from now. And, O'Neil continued, "barring a health incident, Hillary Clinton would still come across as younger than, say, McCain, presented himself, in 2008."

"Obama would be a fool not to offer it to her," O'Neil concluded. "And Clinton would be foolish to turn him down."

Posted by JD Hull at 03:47 PM | Comments (1)

November 11, 2011

France's Sarkozy: How about a 2-Tiered Europe?

We think not--but let's hear out a European leader who has wanted all along for Europe to start working again. The Economist's enduring columunist Charlemagne asks "Two-speed Europe, or two Europes?" It begins:

Nicolas Sarkozy is causing a big stir after calling on November 8th for a two-speed Europe: a “federal” core of the 17 members of the euro zone, with a looser “confederal” outer band of the ten non-euro members. He made the comments during a debate with students at the University of Strasbourg.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2011

Washington Post: Earthquakes, U.S. Monetary Policy & the Terrible Wrath of Fiscal Gods.

Last week in Phoenix I met with Mike O'Neil, friend, prof, TV news pundit, doer, fellow politics junkie and Renaissance Man. We both worship at The Washington Post. See Matt Miller's "Earthquake: A Divine Downgrade?"

Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

July 25, 2011

Mr. Franken of Minnesota: All Couples Good Enough, Smart Enough, Equitable Enough.

So far he's been a good Senator for Minnesota, the Dispossessed and the Left. We don't have to agree with him on everything. We like the cut of his jib. He's become important to the national conversation. Our friend and Renaissance man Al Franken did an e-mail blast Sunday morning:

There’s no good argument against marriage equality. There’s no good argument for the Defense of Marriage Act, one of the most unfair laws passed in my lifetime. And there’s no good argument for leaving it on the books.

By Waghorn

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

June 17, 2011

Say Cheese, Guys: Rep. Weiner, Close Friend Say Goodbye.

Good call, finally. See in yesterday's The Economist "So Ends A Cocky Tale". Excerpt:

As his congressional colleagues distanced themselves and others called for his resignation, some liberals pushed for him to stay. They have not been defending his despicable behaviour, but his political reputation.

He was, to be fair, a tireless advocate for liberal causes. He defended Obamacare when few others did, and went to bat for NPR when its funding was challenged. He enjoyed verbally jousting with Republicans, and he was good at it. His impressive oratory was the initial draw for at least a few of his online pen pals.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:43 PM | Comments (2)

May 02, 2011

Can-Do Catharsis in America: Bin Laden Killed on Obama Order.

Lafayette Park Flash Mob May 2, 2011. Photo: AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Posted by JD Hull at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

March 10, 2011

The UK: Scotland upgrades view of America.

From our Senior Brit Cultural Advisor ("Things Celtic") Duncan Campbell King--whom quite remarkably recently-separated WAC/P writer Holden Oliver hasn't slept with yet--at Mr. Campbell's Wrath of a Sumo King:

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

February 23, 2011

Wild Thing: Mayor Emanuel.

We need to get used to it. He's The Man now. See in the Chicago Tribune Bob Secter's article "A Raft of Promises, a Boatload of Problems". Excerpt:

When he succeeds Richard M. Daley in May, Emanuel will immediately inherit a city with a stark divide between haves and have-nots, a chronically underachieving school system, a crumbling transportation infrastructure and a police department that is seriously understaffed.

What's more, the business and job-generating engine was sputtering even before the recession took hold, new census data shows Chicago is losing residents, costly parking meters and high property taxes remain flashpoints, and long-term neglect of public-worker pension funds has backed the city into a financial corner.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2011

The Economist: After Mubarak.

For the long view of "what Egypt means", do see this one: The Autumn of the Patriarchs. Excerpts:

Since the fall of Mr Mubarak, numerous mini-revolutions have taken place across Egypt. Journalists have overthrown their editors, workers their union leaders, professors their university deans. Even the police have returned to the streets, striking to demand the removal of the senior officers they blame for their disgrace.

For the rest of the region, the attraction of these revolutions goes beyond the satisfaction of seeing despised dictators hounded from office. During Egypt’s long period of stagnation under Mr Mubarak, Cairo, once the undisputed centre of the Arab world, was increasingly eclipsed by such upstarts as Dubai and Beirut.

Now, suddenly, the heroic imagery and rousing lyrics of Egypt’s revolution permeate Arab airwaves.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2011

Maryam in Marrakesh: The Art of Being Here Now.

Unfortunately, she had to cancel one of her many trips to Cairo this week. So, as usual, she improvises, improves, does what's possible today. And then some. Visit Maryam. Seer, Doer, Worker, Polymath.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)

January 20, 2011

GOP-led U.S. House repeals year-old health care reform law.

Sometimes a Smug Notion. Noted. And it probably won't matter. Now it's the Senate's turn. And then there's a veto cooking up over at the Big House just down the street. Know any Magic? NBC: House Votes to Repeal Health Care Law. It begins:

WASHINGTON—The Republican-controlled House has voted to repeal the nation's year-old health care law, clearing the way for the second phase of the "repeal and replace" promise that victorious Republicans made to the voters last fall.

The repeal, which was passed by a vote of 245 to 189, has little or no chance of passing the Senate, where Democratic supporters of the law have the majority. And Obama has vowed to veto it if it reaches his desk.

Republicans said repeal was necessary because the law provides for a government takeover of the health care system, raises taxes and would destroy jobs.

Democrats denied that, and said repeal would strip Americans of new protections against insurance industry abuses that deny them coverage they have paid for.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2011

Hermann the German: Tucson, Guns and Sarah Palin.

The New Congressional Redistricting in the Wild West. Probably not. So we always listen to the Berlin-based Hermann the German at Observing Hermann for one possible German reality check on America. He even speaks English. Writes it. Seems to likes tall blondes named Greta, Rolanda and Sigfreda. And Hermann's right a lot, friends. See his "Sarah Palin?"

Above: "Hermann's Triumph at Teutoburg Forest", Johann Janssen (1870-73). Another Hermann the German, or Arminius, in September of 9 AD, trouncing Roman legions. What? You're a proud Western professional, businessperson or leader? You don't know about Arminius? Then finish your education. Or at least start one.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2011

Bennet Kelley on Tucson: A New Year of Living Dangerously?

See Bennet Kelley's column yesterday in the Huffington Post, "Responding to Tucson's Day of Terror". Excerpts:

Gabby and her husband Mark thanked me for the prior column [in March 2010, denouncing violence against Democrats like Giffords following the passage of health care reform] and I responded by telling them that I just wanted them to know that people out there "got their back". That is something all of us can do now in response to Tucson's day of Terror.

Just as midnight gives way to dawn, so must we fight darkness with light. We can shine a light on hate speech and incitements to violence by promptly exposing and denouncing it wherever we see it and calling it for what it really is. This is because the offense of hate speech is not just its content but the assumption that the listener must share these views.

This is especially true when hate is wrapped in the flag, since there is nothing patriotic about hate, bigotry or violence against public servants chosen by the people.

Kelley

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2011

A Freshman Senator to Watch: Ohio's Rob Portman.

Pretend for a moment that all Republicans and Democrats cannot be reduced to cartoon characters and cultural stereotypes, or relegated to someone's gallery of demonhood. Learn about Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) (Washington Post), sworn in just this week. He's smart, honest, well-spoken, young (55) and has done everything right so far. Well, perfectly. He's an "R"--but not a shrill dweeb. My sense is that the reading of the U.S. Constitution yesterday across the Hill would have embarrassed him. (But he would never tell me.) The most talented and sane end of the GOP establishment loves the guy. Importantly, we think he'd even get along well with our bud Al Franken. As a fellow Midwesterner, Franken would admire the new junior Ohio senator, too.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 05, 2011

The 112th Congress: Bring It. But Bring Jobs.

I'm so nervous I just sit and smile. I worked "up there" twice but I never saw this: (a) 15% real unemployment, (b) a split-as-hell Congress, (c) a new but able Speaker with the personality of a lead weight, and (d) a black U.S. President with a 50% approval rating and the luck and fortune of a grown-up Ferris Bueller. See for starters today's The Hill. And Sarah Palin's still a Total Betty. (I do like her smile.) By the way, if you are a lawyer or other professional of any age or specialty and think all this Congress stuff above doesn't concern you, you're wrong. Please think more about that nice job at Sears.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

November 09, 2010

Mother Jones: Fear and Weirdness in the 2010 U.S. Elections.

Kevin Drum's November 5 article in Mother Jones--the enduring hell-raiser and serial winner of National Magazine Awards--is called "Weird Findings From 2010's Exit Poll Data". Excerpts, based on the new numbers:

The most intriguing result here is the top one: People who didn't vote in the previous presidential election shifted into the Republican camp at a fantastic clip. I have no idea why.

The most important categories are probably white voters and older voters, both of whom shifted Republican far more than the general population. Beyond the raw size of the shift, however, whites are important because their absolute numbers are so big and older voters are important because their big Republican shift was accompanied by higher turnout.

Conversely, although rural voters also shifted Republican in big numbers, their importance was diluted because their turnout was down.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2010

One college daily on the elections: "A changing of the guard".

From today's Duke Chronicle:

G.O.P. takes House while Democrats retain slim Senate majority

By CIARAN OCONNOR

In a sharp rebuke of President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party, citizens across the country voted Tuesday to shift the balance of power in Washington, handing Republicans control of the House of Representatives and whittling down the Democrats’ Senate majority.

While the Grand Old Party made significant inroads in the Senate, knocking out well-established incumbents like Arkansas’ Blanche Lincoln and Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold, Democrats won crucial races in California and Nevada that ensured they would retain control of the body.

In the House, Republicans took advantage of widespread voter discontent to beat a range of Democratic incumbents, many of whom fell victim to their unshakable association with a sagging economy and an unpopular president. As The Chronicle went to press, the GOP had picked up 59 seats, more than enough to guarantee it will control the chamber for the next two years. Sixteen seats remained undecided, according to The New York Times. [more]

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 05, 2010

George W. Bush, Revisited, Sort Of.

From the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Sunday, February 3, 2008, "One of us".

Posted by JD Hull at 01:00 AM | Comments (0)

October 03, 2010

Consider a run for President, too, Rahm.

Why not? I do like Rahm--and always have. This is not merely because Rahm Emanuel might well have been my Congressman, and maybe even Mayor, if my family and I years ago had not left the feisty suburbs of lakeshore Chicago years ago for Cincinnati, Ohio, an ironic result, arguably, of my dad's corporate successes. While I may be alone at my firm in reacting this way, I, for one, was doubly moved Friday by his remarks during his final moments as White House Chief of Staff. It was political (and politics done well)--but human and real. For a mix of takes, see blogs at the Chicago-Sun Times, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal.

Above: Rahm Emanuel, only 50 and not a lawyer, is solutions-oriented, driven, tough, smart, openly rude to Slackoisie, and wonderfully un-PC. Government plus business experience. Mega-talented, unafraid, energetic. And a leader. Oh, good dancer, too. Questions?

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2010

Brit Politics: Revenge of More Liberal, More Pro-Union, More Controversial Baby Brother.

MP David Miliband v. MP Edward Miliband. LA Times: "Britain's Labor Party Chooses New Leader". This happened in intra-party elections held Saturday in Manchester. The Miliband family--three generations of it--is storied, talented, and inspiring. The winning brother, Ed Milband, is 40. Ed's win makes things more turbulent, if more interesting, in the UK government, now lead by the Conservative Party. Its leader is Prime Minister David Cameron, 43, who took office in May. Ah, dear Old Blighty. She's about to put on a show.

Critics, often preferring big brother David, called Ed Milband "Red Ed".

Posted by JD Hull at 05:59 AM | Comments (0)

September 10, 2010

Mother Jones, you really know how to make a guy sore.

The definition of marriage has never included "man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be." But we forgot (totally) why homosexuality is like bestiality and pedophilia. So time to check in with ex-U.S. senator Rick "Man on [pick animal/child]" Santorum. At Mother Jones, do see "Rick Santorum's Anal Sex Problem".

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)

August 26, 2010

Ted Kennedy

Ted Kennedy died on August 25th last year; the following is our post on the day after:

Nearly everyone I am close to lives in a time zone ahead of mine. Except my friend Ellen who called me about 11:15 PT last night and told me. Even with a fifteen months' "heads up" about Ted Kennedy having brain cancer, I was stunned that Kennedy--the only one of Joe Kennedy Sr.'s four boys to not die violently and young--had died. So this did hit me. My first vote for a Republican presidential candidate ever last November--John McCain--was not the sea change in my ideas, instincts or emotions I had thought. I don't expect anyone under 45 or so to understand. Below is exactly what we wrote last year, on May 22, 2008, in this post, the day after it was disclosed that Kennedy was ill:

To be Irish is to know that, in the end, the world will break your heart.

--Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Call me a cultural stereotype. A boomer. A limousine liberal. I don't care. Ted Kennedy being diagnosed with malignant cancer of the brain floored me. I don't even know why. Long ago, Duke University, which changed my life in a number of ways, awarded me my first paid desk job to work for Wisconsin's Senator Gaylord Nelson. With some help from my father, I rented an overpriced and horrible little apartment across the street from the hospital on Washington Circle where I had been born 21 years earlier, and excitedly entered the world I'd been seeing on television since I was in my early teens growing up in the Midwest. That first sunny Monday morning in May, I walked all the way to work, zig-zagging down Pennsylvania Avenue, and then up Constitution Avenue, well over two miles total, just to take it all in.

But I walked in a hurry.

Edward Moore Kennedy (1932-2009)

The Hill job was in health policy, and I was asked to follow and report on the work of the busy U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Health, chaired by then 42-year-old Ted Kennedy. I saw Kennedy up close a lot during committee sessions and mark-ups during the next 3 months. (A few years later, I worked again on Capitol Hill, and lived there for many years. I'd see him around. Today, if I were lucky, he might recognize my persistent face if he saw me--but I certainly wasn't important those first 3 months.) But way before that, as the "last Kennedy", he was always part of the soundtrack of my life and my friends' lives since we were in our early teens. But he was more than a name, mystique and the booming populist oratory and Gaelic cadences of speech which come naturally to him.

For me, Ted Kennedy has never been about ideas, legislative agendas or even the Kennedy schmaltz: the hope, the dream that never dies, the struggle, all that. He left that music to others, like to his uber-aggressive brother-in-law, Steven Smith, and to his staff. I just never saw Kennedy as an ideologue, even when he ran for the American presidency--which I bet he never really wanted. A character out of a novel, he's simply as Irish as they come: brooding, playful and contradictory. Quietly but definitely war-like. He's smarter than people think, and remarkably adept at sifting through and making sense of too much information thrown at him.

In the main, though, he's passionate, human, even poetic--and vulnerable in all the best ways.

Like lots of senators, he's also distracted as hell, even endearingly spacey--but warm and charming, a natural politician, easily the best in his family. He can turn that on and off. Like Bill Clinton, and for whatever the reason, Kennedy genuinely likes people; it's not for show. Watch the guy in a crowd. He's at ease once he's there. He physically resembles most, and is most like, his mother Rose, the family saint and caregiver. And that soulfulness, I think, helped him to be very good at his job. Family friend and economist John Kenneth Galbraith once said that Ted Kennedy was the best U.S. senator he'd seen in his lifetime.

Finally, the last Kennedy is as wounded as they come, too. Try, if you can, not to cry when you watch a clip of his eulogy of his brother Robert in 1968, when he was 36. Kennedy's voice cracked badly, and I can't forget the sound of him as he struggled to finish the speech for his older brother. It wasn't about politics, ideas, or even about anyone's family. The sound was pure grief and loss, unashamed.

See in New York Times "Edward Kennedy, Senate Stalwart, Dies".

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2010

The Economist on Rod Blagojevich: "Can I get a witness?"

See "The Never-Ending Swansong". Excerpt:

The verdict was the latest anticlimax in what has been a disappointing summer for rubberneckers. After declaring his eagerness to testify, Mr Blagojevich did not take the stand. His lawyers subpoenaed several leading Democrats, including Rahm Emanuel and Valerie Jarrett.

In the end, though, the defence produced a grand total of no witnesses. Conspiracy theories abound, but the most realistic explanation is that the lawyers concluded that further testimony would only help the prosecutors.

Not exactly Jefferson, Stevenson, Lugar. It's Chicago, Jake.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:51 PM | Comments (0)

July 16, 2010

New O'Goldman Sachs logo.

Yesterday's $550 million settlement (in 3 months since fraud lawsuit was filed!) is more than a "nice result". It is Magic. And we are impressed. SEC looks ultra-wimpy on this one.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:59 AM | Comments (0)

July 12, 2010

Return of Newt: Give him credit for timing.

No comment--but if Gingrich, 67, wanted to wait for a way-low American moment to "declare", today's probably that day: Monday, July 12, 2010, and True Winter in America. AP: "Gingrich says he's considering presidential run".

16 years ago

Posted by JD Hull at 05:12 PM | Comments (0)

July 07, 2010

Senator Franken: And they said nothing really all that weird would happen before late 2012.

Good enough, smart enough, Senatorial enough. Alan Stuart Franken, love him or not, is smart, a player, still funny and still the junior U.S. senator from Minnesota. He was sworn into the Senate one year ago today.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2010

Tan, rested, back in the saddle: Will Bob Bork ride Elena Kagan?

Call it a reckoning. See yesterday's Washington Post and this Salon piece: "The Borking of Elena Kagan". Both report that Robert Bork will publicly oppose Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. While Bork, now 83, may or may not have been a morally pretentious weenie, he is mega-talented, a fine legal thinker, and likely would have made a fine Supreme Court justice. In any event, Bork would have been a marked improvement over Clarence Thomas as a touchstone for the right on the most elite court in Western history. Most lawyers of any political persuasion now admit that. "Borking" Bork in 1987 was not one of our finest moments--and yet we continue to insist on over-playing partisan politics with fine judges and solid lawyers in the nomination process. Not one of the better modern traditions of Congress. So let's Not Be Borking anymore--starting with Elena Kagan. Finally, another issue, and it's cultural, at least for this blog. With John Paul Stevens gone, who will wear bow ties?

1987: Bork gets a plug from a former president and the undersigned's ex-Congressman in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:56 PM | Comments (2)

May 20, 2010

Main Street's May Day Times Square Wake-up Call: Did America listen this time?

Counterterrorism expert and D.C. lawyer Eric O'Neill, The Georgetown Group, on what the Times Square bombing attempt means.

We Yanks get the big hint? We note that this week's Newsweek and cover article about the May 1 Times Square bombing attempt hit the stands with a date of May 17. That's a long time. Did the first news of the Times Square misfire or fall flat with much of the establishment media and most Americans?

Just starting to sink in, maybe?

True, no one was hurt. Mainly because the bomber--Faisal Shahzad, a Westernized Pakistani--is a very young 30 and a world-class screw-up. Your average troubled, normally mild, and lackluster young American male who can't chew gum and do loyalty oaths at the same time. Moreover, the press may have unevenly or half-heartedly covered it simply because we have all been consumed with so much happening at once: the residuals of health policy wars, the Goldman Sachs hearings, mid-recession finger pointing, the BP spill off our southern shores.

Maybe Islamic terrorism is decentralized, domestic, and in your backyard? But Shahzad is also a U.S. citizen--and very unlikely to have been under the command-and-control protocols of any branch or level of mainstream Al Qaeda. He's obtained degrees in and lived in the U.S. Father and husband. Devout. And before things went bad for him personally, he even had a house in what would pass for Connecticut suburbs. There are certainly others like him we haven't met yet.

What does that mean for day to day life in America? Do we see malls, parking lots, and subway stops differently in the last three weeks? Probably not--but maybe we should. Are we suddenly in "mass denial" about what was precisely everyone's fears after 9-11?

A new kind of "homegrown" threat? In a short but compelling interview with Reuters last week, Eric O'Neill, both general counsel and chairman of D.C.-based The Georgetown Group, and often still in the news for his role (and subject of the movie "Breach") in taking down spy and FBI agent Robert Phillip Hanssen in February of 2001, came closer than anyone to both defining the problem and what's needed.

Listen to the above segment and O'Neill's comments, which begin at about 1:25.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 10, 2010

Nominee Kagan

The hearings start in about 6 weeks. The better coverage is at The Washington Post. Kagan, 50, and in most respects the perfect candidate, will win--but with a huge fight, featuring her strident 2004 "moral high road" (our term) dissing of military recruiters at HLS. See, e.g., The Dailey Caller.

Elena Kagan

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2010

UK wakes up to hung Parliament.

See AP for what happened and The Guardian for what it means.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)

April 28, 2010

Goldman on Jenkins Hill.

Tuesday's hearing was an attack not only on Goldman but on short selling itself.

--Washington Post

See "Goldman Sachs: What to Make of the Circus?" Securities and corporate governance hand Broc Romanek, a veteran of the SEC's Office of Chief Counsel, and former in-house, has collected some of best coverage of Tuesday's marathon hearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, plus some of the better earlier coverage, at his TheCorporateCounsel.net.

Posted by Rob Bodine at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2010

What goes around: Greg Craig and President Obama

An epic battle starring limousine liberals? Greg Craig, the former top lawyer in Obama's White House, will represent Goldman Sachs Group in the surprise SEC fraud action concerning complex mortgage-backed securities that were structured and marketed by Goldman Sachs for one of its hedge fund clients. The SEC complaint alleges that Goldman Sachs failed to disclose that the program of securities it devised "bet against" mortgage securities Goldman was also promoting.

Craig, who recently moved from Williams & Connolly to Skadden, is widely seen as being pushed out of Camp Obama last Fall by pragmatists who didn't like the strict timeline he proposed for closing down Guantanamo Bay's detention facility. And this week the President, although carefully choosing his words, morphed into an anti-Wall Street (and therefore anti-Goldman) mode as he pushed for legislation to more tightly regulate Wall Street firms. Showdown with the old Boss?

It's interesting news. The SEC, an independent Article II agency and quasi-court created by the Article I Congress, it is argued, technically does not work for the Article II White House. So there is apparently no revolving door problem for the steady and mega-charming uber-WASP Greg Craig. Really? True, Craig is a lawyer, not a lobbyist, and the White House is not seen to control much of what the SEC does.

Well, we hope he's not caught in the ethics net because we like watching Craig, a Boomer's Boomer, work.

Craig is a youthful guy in his sixties who won't whine about working past 7:30 PM. We currently have to work with people who will be "stressed" into early retirement by 38. But Craig is one of us. For the first time in decades, WAP? feels like going to church. Or something. Maybe just the Old Ebbitt. See at Politico "Goldman Sachs Taps Ex-White House Counsel". Excerpts:

On Friday, the SEC charged the firm with securities fraud in a convoluted subprime mortgage deal that took place before the collapse of the housing market.

Next week Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein will face questions from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is looking into the causes of the housing meltdown, the source said.

In Craig, Goldman Sachs will have help from a lawyer with deep connections in Democratic circles.

And:

"A former White House employee cannot appear before any unit of the Executive Office of the President on behalf of any client for 2 years—one year under federal law and another year under the pledge pursuant to the January 2009 ethics E0," said a White House official.

The official also said that the White House had no contact with the SEC on the Goldman Sachs case. "The SEC by law is an independent agency that does not coordinate with the White House any part of their enforcement actions."

Posted by JD Hull at 11:38 PM | Comments (0)

April 13, 2010

"So what are you doing after the 21-gun salute, Stud?"

They call me The E-Man. Buy you a drink? Not one thing about the never-ending Congressman Eric Massa story as reported so far is new or different in sexual misadventures on Capitol Hill over the past 30 years. Even the February 2nd bartender-at-the-wake episode, which occurred in Hornel, New York, is a bit tame, and old hat.

Weirder things have happened in Congressional offices, in the storied Longworth HOB, and of course at DC wakes, especially the seriously-Irish ones. And have happened to ex-military people like Eric Massa. Or to their DC bartenders, a feisty form of royalty in the Beltway. A word about DC bartenders: no one should take liberties with them, or try. They are much tougher than New York (City or State) barkeeps. Never offend a 1988 graduate of Georgetown or GW who's tenured at Clyde's or Bullfeathers, and still plotting his next move.

A new bad Massa at The Last Plantation? Certainly, "first complaint" internal investigations have been way more botched. Still, past tawdriness levels may have been exceeded here. See The Washington Post and Carol Leonnig's reporting in "Staffers' Accounts Paint More Detailed, Troubling Picture of Massa's Office". Do give retired Naval commander and ex-Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) a point or two for resigning back on March 8--that is different--and let's wait for the results of the full and tardy investigation.

Okay, sailors?

Longworth HOB

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

March 22, 2010

The Atlantic: Health care reform passage as "a tainted victory".

Sunday's vote was "landmark", sure. So is each Hell's Angels' Labor Day Picnic. But it's not over, even procedurally, and so far it hasn't been pretty: the way the bill got passed says more about us as a divided, enraged and mean-spirited people than it does about how far we've come on health care in America. Maybe the best single take right now is Clive Crook's piece this morning for The Atlantic entitled "A Tainted Victory". Excerpts:

It is absurd that getting the Senate bill through the House should have been such a struggle.

[Scott] Brown won in Massachusetts for a reason. The Democrats had failed to make their case for this reform to the American public. They pressed the case for some sort of reform, but that was easy: the country was already there.

What the country dislikes is this particular bill, and the Democrats, intent on arguing among themselves, barely even tried to change its mind.

People struggle to understand how extending health insurance to 32 million Americans, at a cost of a trillion dollars over ten years, can be a deficit-reducing measure.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2010

The Religion of Hell's Kitchen.

Jacob Riis photo of Bandits' Roost (1890)

Above: Hell's Kitchen, NYC, before it got cute. The work, images and outcry of Riis were all famous at the time. So was this photograph. Next door to Times Square, Hell's Kitchen always seems worlds away. It keeps changing but stays famous: from Irish and German immigrant sub-city to gangland neighborhood to actors' quarter to, these days, more of a yuppie heaven.

But it's still authentic. Real estate brokers years ago came up with the new labels of Clinton and Midtown West--but it did not work. Those handles will never replace the real name. Older neighborhoods, like older people, have personalities--they are feisty as Hell. And they have spirit. If you are in Manhattan some weekend, stroll around there on a Sunday morning early.

The whole 'hood is a Religion, just like the rest of New York City.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2010

Washington Post: 'Justice Obama' may make more sense.

At this blog, we regard Mr. Obama with the kind of respect and reverence often reserved for a Jimmy Carter, Adlai Stevenson or Robert Taft: great, brilliant, inspiring, transformational, a beacon to their party's rank-and-file. And wholly "deserving" but fatally unsuited by personality to be President of the United States.

While we greatly admire President Obama, we agree with the sentiment in the title of our post. Lawyer's lawyers and reflective academics should not lead a Superpower. We tried to tell you this in late 2008. We were heartened when Mr. Obama had the sense to select Rahm Emanuel, enemy of the Slackoisie, as his chief of staff. But it's not enough, even as we recognize many U.S. presidents (i.e., Bill Clinton) get off to awkward and even tragic starts, and flounder in the first two years.

In November of 2008, I broke a life-long pattern by voting for John McCain, a Republican, for president. My own family, in southern Ohio and Florida, moderate Republicans all, also broke ranks and voted for Obama, a Democrat. My aberrant vote? Sour grapes, in part. I was, and still am, more comfortable with a centrist manager like Hillary Clinton as my national CEO. She's simply not a doctrinaire or big government Democrat. Hillary's a Boss--a strong and decisive one.

But there was more to my vote for John McCain (as the above 2008 links to past posts suggest) than revenge, or a business owner's jones for the machine that is Hillary Clinton. At this blog, we do regard Obama with the kind of respect and reverence often reserved for a Jimmy Carter, an Adlai Stevenson or a Robert A. Taft: brilliant, great, forthright, inspiring, transformational, a beacon to their party's rank-and-file. And wholly "deserving" but fatally unsuited by personality to be President of the United States.

Caution, risk aversion, a drive to over-analyze, "reasonableness", and a strong "deliberative" nature are fine qualities in everyone but leaders of powerful nations. Jimmy Carter, an engineer by training, and maybe at heart, had those qualities--and so does our current commander-in-chief. Do see Jeffrey Rosen's coming op-ed piece in the Washington Post this Sunday, "Supreme Court Justice Barack Obama?", which the Post was kind enough to send to us and presumably to others us last night. Three Rosen excerpts say it all:

He's too detached and cerebral. Too deferential to Congress. Too willing to compromise. And he's too much of a law professor and not enough of a commander in chief...

Obama's academic credentials for the [Supreme] court -- including serving as president of the Harvard Law Review and as a constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago -- are obvious. But it's his even temperament and low boiling point that seem tailor-made for the court at this polarized moment.

David Gergen, the CNN commentator who served as an adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton, recently reflected on Obama's State of the Union speech in an appearance on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report." Although he praised Obama's intellectual abilities and terrific presidential campaign, he lamented his "detached" and "professorial" attitude once in office.

Note: We could see Mr. Obama as a fellow worthy wearer of
bow ties. And Justice Stevens could use a bud these days.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:11 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2010

Charles Nesbitt Wilson (1933 - 2010)

"Come on up and meet my girls". In the 1980s I saw him in person just once, chatting up people near a bank of pay phones on the first floor of the Longworth Building, where I worked. That's the only thing I remember that he said.

You simply watched him. You weren't hanging on every word. He was tall, jovial and charming, and leaned back and to one side when he talked. That day, he was having a good time--but to me he seemed smarter, more formidable and even more fun than the way Tom Hanks would play him twenty years later. You would have noticed him no matter what he had done for a living. He really didn't seem like a U.S. Representative (or that he cared whether he did).

Anyway, we had all heard that he had a good-looking staff of women in his office next door at the Rayburn Building. Some of us may have checked.

Eventually, though, people took Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson very seriously. See yesterday's AP piece in the Houston Chronicle. Two excerpts:

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Wilson helped secure money for weapons and worked with then-CIA agents Gust L. Avrakotos and Mike Vickers to get them to the mujahedeen. The Soviets spent a decade battling the rebels before pulling the Red Army from Afghanistan in 1989.

Wilson left politics in 1996, after he no longer found it any fun.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2010

Muse

Dina Vierny (1919-2009) was Aristide Maillol's model and real life muse. She died January 20, 2009.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)

August 06, 2009

Nicely done, WJC.

Bill Clinton always did come to play. He and movie pals have excellent airplane adventure, do critical reconnaissance on the Dear Leader, secure release of Ling and Lee, and set stage for future talks on North Korea’s nuclear programs. Not bad, sir. See "Bill Clinton has quite a story to tell", a Reuters piece by Steve Holland, and "Let the Big Dog Run", a New York Times op-ed by Maureen Dowd.

It's not just Kim Jong-il. Even President Obama gets a little weird and excited around Wild Bill.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)

July 05, 2009

Palin: Still a Robo-Babe.

Way cute when she's mad.

And still a great political property. Don't write her off. Now you've all done it. She's really mad. And outside the cabin. See Joan Walsh's "Sarah Palin Resigning as Alaska Governor" at Salon.com. This is a fine-looking, energetic and feisty American woman. And in the Yank outlaw mold. We need a Sarah. Especially since--as Holden Oliver noted back in February--the French started getting all the good Anchorettes. Palin still married to that former First Dude guy?

Posted by Rob Bodine at 06:41 AM | Comments (2)

July 01, 2009

Senator Franken: Good enough, smart enough, tough enough.

The Minnesota Supreme Court unanimously gives Franken the nod over Norm Coleman. Al Franken got out there and worked his wazoo off for that Senate seat. Congrats, Renaissance man--and welcome to arguably the world's most elite club. Los Angeles Times: "Goshdarnit Al Franken's a Senator". But is putting him on the Senate Judiciary Committee a good thing?

Posted by JD Hull at 06:41 AM | Comments (1)

P.L. 111-22: A Hurdle for Purchasers of Foreclosed Homes.

A bona fide tenant renting a home will be entitled to a 90-day notice before being evicted by the new owner upon foreclosure of the home. On May 19, Congress passed a Senate version of the Protecting Tenants at Foreclosure Act of 2009 (also known as the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009). It was signed by President Obama and took effect the following day, May 20.

The 90-day notice is a minimum requirement; a tenant with additional protections already in place (e.g., "Section 8" tenants) won't lose those existing protections. The Act defines bona fide in such a way as to prevent the prior owner from abusing the requirement by mischaracterizing himself as a tenant.

The notice is relatively simple to execute. And as the Washington Post suggested last week, it may not be slowing down the resale process. Still, it is a hard and fast required step. The Obama administration's summary of the legislation as passed is here. It includes a sunset provision that terminates its requirements on December 31, 2012.

Posted by Rob Bodine at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2009

The National Journal: Team Obama

The "people who run things" in the new administration are carefully collected for you in this interesting and useful article cataloguing what looks like a talented, credentialed and hard-working Team Obama. See by James Barnes and the National Journal staff "Obama's Team: The Face Of Diversity". It's marred only by a trumpeted and somewhat lame observation that less than half of the senior posts are filled by white men. Can we get past that, please?

Posted by JD Hull at 12:11 AM | Comments (0)

April 20, 2009

Is Obama making some Americans go nuts?

Brit wits want to know. Whatever the ailment, it must be dicier than jetlag, and more contagious. We've noticed it, too. On television, at least one conservative talking head per day has blown a tube on the air; it started two weeks ago, right around the time Obama started getting on planes. What gives? WAC? voted for John McCain--but he (WAC?, or McCain for that matter) is not crazy from the loss. The Economist, too, wonders about "The Obama Derangement Syndrome":

Mr Obama may be widely admired both at home and abroad. But there are millions of Americans who do not like the cut of his jib—and a few whose dislike boils over into white-hot hatred.... The internet crackles with comparisons between Mr Obama and various dictators (Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini) or assorted psychotics (Charles Manson and David Koresh).

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

April 15, 2009

Good enough, smart enough, tough enough.

Stuart saves Minnesota? And patient enough. "Senator Franken" still sounds, well, funny--but we'll take him even though there have been far less able legislators in the U.S. Senate than D-turned-R Norm Coleman. Too bad that Minnesota--historically a liberal state that has more than once played a major role in defining U.S. populism--can't have them both this term. AP two days ago: "Minnesota court declares Franken leading vote-getter". Problem: we can expect more legal "wrangling". So see Bonnie Erbe's modest proposal yesterday at USNWR.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

April 06, 2009

Obama in Europe: More than Kennedy-lite.

WAC? is wrong about many things--and was wrong to suggest five months ago that Barack Obama was not ready for prime time on terrain outside the U.S. Maybe Obama can't save the world, or your 401(k)--but our phlegmy Brit friends give Obama high marks for making friends in Europe. They do so, of course, without gushing. See The Economist: "The G20 Summit: The Obama Effect". It was published April 2 but still captures the Obama "atmospherics" in the days since then. Obama has even charmed dour Prague, where (despite its arresting beauty) being in a really bad mood has long been a popular sport. And as expected, France and Germany may emerge as the nations least likely to support aggressive stimulus measures:

President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel said Europe had done a lot already to provide economic stimulus. What was needed was far tougher regulation, whose targets would include hedge funds, traders’ pay, rating agencies and tax havens. Both of them seemed keener on trying to prevent financial crises in future than on dealing with the one that is raging now.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

February 25, 2009

"Nobody messes with Joe."

Here in Washington, we've all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into broken promises and wasteful spending. And with a plan of this scale comes enormous responsibility to get it right.

That is why I have asked Vice President Biden to lead a tough, unprecedented oversight effort - because nobody messes with Joe.

--The President, February 24, 2009

Vercingetorix Memorial in Alesia, France

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2009

Arizona's Budget Cutbacks: Speed cameras backfire, kill work ethic.

Subduing the driven, rewarding the Slackoiesie. According to our friend Dr. Michael O'Neil, political consultant and pollster with Tempe, Arizona-based O'Neil Associates Inc., and frequent television news commentator, that's exactly what speed cameras--part of Arizona's solution to its current budget crisis--are doing to the state's citizenry. Along with other states, Arizona is grappling with its largest state budget shortfall ever. New governor Jan Brewer is doing all she can. We are all moved by Arizona's grit and resolve.

But speed cameras?

It's a hidden and "pernicious" tax, O'Neil argued one Sunday morning on an NBC affiliate with the buzz-saw precision of Clarence Darrow on his best roll. Speed cameras were slowing busy Arizonans down. Stifling achievement in Type As. And lulling the laid-back and lazy into deeper sloth-like comas. We agree. And of all states, this artifice comes from the one that gave us the late Sen. Barry Goldwater, Moses of the American Right, an inspired no-nonsense candidate for President in 1964 who urged Americans to get off their sofas, stand up, and get out there and inherit a chain of department stores, like he did? Say it ain't so, Arizona.

Mike O'Neil explains the unintended consequences of the Arizona speed camera tax in his NBC commentary here.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2009

Stimulus bill: $789 billion

Yesterday, and 'ahead of schedule', House and Senate conferees approved a bill that could be voted on this week. Details of the bill are not widely known yet. For now, see The Washington Post: "Congress Reaches Stimulus Accord". Four very general parts: tax breaks, investment in health care and alternative energy, funding for infrastructure, aid to state and local government.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:31 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2009

This is Elkhart.

And this is Elkhart high on Obama. Like my beloved alma mater hundreds of miles away, Elkhart, Indiana is a small but serious socially conservative community of reasonable men and very smart women that works hard to produce young adults who may some day take their places as high-functioning members of the ultra-bourgeoisie. Just kidding, mainly. WAC? has northern Indiana blood, twice lived near Elkhart as a child, and is practically a homey. Speaks fluent Hoosier.

This is the real Midwest, though. Obama didn't do well in Elkhart in November. So right now, it's the perfect town to pitch your $800 billion idea. See Bloomberg: "Obama Adopts Elkhart as Everytown in Pitch for Stimulus Plan". Excerpt:

He mobilized an army of people in the American heartland who cheered at scripted applause lines with the ways of Washington as an all-purpose villain.

Then he used his first primetime news conference last night not so much to present new arguments or numbers as to invoke the plight of Elkhart, Indiana, a recession-ravaged town of 52,000 people with an unemployment rate that has more than tripled in a year to 15.3 percent. He visited there yesterday morning and adopted it as a symbol for his appeal. [more]

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

February 04, 2009

Tom Daschle goes paws up.

Obama's well-liked HHS nominee withdraws re: $146,000 in back taxes. See yesterday's Washington Post.

Posted by JD Hull at 04:48 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2009

The Economy: Mr. Obama goes to Capitol Hill.

In The Hill, see "Praise for Obama, Not Votes".

In the Senate, the new president was peppered with questions about the proposal [economic stimulus package], with GOP senators pressing him to reconsider the package’s $825 billion price tag and to keep the stimulus focused on the housing and financial markets. Obama was also asked to consider helping the housing market with the second half of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2009

Hillary's new trial

Only a senator as forthright and as respected as Dick Lugar (R-Indiana) could raise the question the right way. Hillary is one of the great managers of our time, and her husband gives good phone and great parties. She works hard. She's well-traveled. She's even been to Arkansas and Utah, both foreign countries. We know that Bill can hold his own in a conversation with the wife of the Sultan of Kelantan. Confirm her. Washington Post: "Clinton Challenged on Foreign Library Contributions".

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the nominee of President-elect Barack Obama to become the new secretary of state, appeared before a confirmation hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today and ran into a challenge over foreign donations to her husband's presidential library. [more]

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2009

Update: Sweet Caroline

According to a blog yesterday at The Economist, new polling shows that Caroline Kennedy's quest for Hillary Clinton's New York U.S. Senate seat is in trouble. This is strange and somewhat sad news. Here's a smart and decent if private woman who, ironically, didn't correctly ramp up for and manipulate the political press coverage her own family first turned into an art fifty years ago. Excerpt:

It's about the lousy image that Mrs Kennedy has presented, and her inability to deal with a suddenly skeptical press corps that had only ever treated citizen Caroline as a princess.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2009

Franken: Good enough, smart enough--but not there yet.

Stuart saves Minnesota by 225 votes. Writer-actor-funnyman Harvard grad Al Franken (color him a big bold D) is certified as winner and declares victory. But now ex-Dem incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman (R) has a week to challenge the Minnesota election board's decision. We think Coleman will meet that deadline before this post is done. See NYT, Minneapolis Star Tribune, Boston Herald. Watch for the Senate to delay seating Franken.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:49 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2008

Al Franken: Good enough, smart enough, and lawyered-up.

Today's Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Franken Posts Lead Over Coleman". Last night, two votes ahead. Today, 250.

The intense scrutiny of "voter intent" resumed today by the five-member board charged with directing Minnesota's recount in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and Democratic rival Al Franken, and the day's rulings turned the challenger's slight deficit into a triple-digit lead.

Stuart Saves Minnesota?

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2008

Good enough, smart enough, late enough.

And doggone it, it's a bit annoying. Fun wonky Al (who WAC? prefers) v. competent ex-Democrat Norm continues in Minnesota U.S. Senate race recount. We like everyone's pluck, and appreciate the oddity of the stats here (just hundreds of votes separating the candidates with 2.9 million cast on November 4), but it's getting to be time for Repose. Swearing-in time soon, guys. Yesterday's Minneapolis Star Tribune "Franken, Coleman campaigns reduce challenges".

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and I still have a shot at Norm Coleman's Senate seat."

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 11, 2008

Advice of the week.

"The only way for a reporter to look on a politician is down."

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Salon: "Rod Blagojevich's bad hair day"

Here, by Salon's Edward McClelland. It begins: "For every Barack Obama or Abraham Lincoln, this state produces a dozen Rod Blagojeviches." See DOJ's December 7, 2008 criminal complaint, and 75 page affidavit.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2008

The fourth Senator Kennedy?

And why not, if you like a mix of ideas and personalities in the U.S. Senate? See New York Times: "Kennedy Is Said to Cast Her Eye on Senate Seat" (is NYT's headline deliberate, or an eerie Yeats slip?). Next month, New York Governor David Paterson may appoint lawyer-writer Caroline Kennedy to fill Hillary Clinton's vacant Senate seat once Clinton's nomination to be Secretary of State is confirmed.

If Kennedy becomes New York's next U.S. Senator, watch for her to be more moderate and centrist than either of her uncles, Ted and Robert (who also held that seat in New York, 1965-68). She will be "practical" and more like her dad, John Kennedy, who was no fire-breathing liberal, or even a tad doctrinaire, as a U.S. Senator or President.

Caroline Bouvier Kennedy, December 1960.

Photographer: Lynn Pelham

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:51 PM | Comments (0)

November 14, 2008

Princess Hillary of Foggy Bottom?

So Hillary Clinton, who I have always liked, and I might soon be neighbors, sort of.

The State Department in Washington, D.C sits on its haunches on 22nd and C, Northwest, a few blocks south of the the official WAC? birthplace on 23rd and H. There, just off Washington Circle, at the edge of the West End, and every single Friday evening about 5:45, my astral twin lurks, and hunts for cabs to go east to Kelly's Irish Times near Georgetown Law. Or scouts out interesting women walking west (those woman are never headed to Kelly's). Every single day, the other twin misses D.C. like the perfect friend and lover who got away.

But Hillary Clinton is interesting enough, even if not our long lost love. And she's smart, even though she greatly annoys, to put it mildly, many of our firm's client reps--who are not likely to read this blog, especially on Friday evenings. We (the twins) will accept her into our Foggy Bottom 'hood. The Huffington Post, which is wonderful even when it's wrong, says that "Officials: Obama Offered Clinton Secretary Of State".

Foggy Bottom: People buy homes near WAC? birthplace.

New Haven: People plot careers at State.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2008

Franken-Coleman update: Just lawyering up for the Holidays.

Yesterday's Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

Getting All Lawyered Up for Senate Recount

By Kevin Duchschere

The U.S. Senate recount will ensure a hectic holiday season for lawyers, scores of whom are expected to be deployed across Minnesota by the Coleman and Franken campaigns in the weeks ahead to monitor the counting and to prepare for a possible post-recount challenge. [more]

Posted by JD Hull at 12:31 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2008

Return of the Alpha Ds: Howard Dean, MD.

The 50-state strategy. DNC Chairman Howard Dean, the 2004 presidential candidate and ex-governor of Vermont, can take a lot of credit for Obama's big win last week--if people will only let him. See "Obama's Debt to Howard Dean" by Mike Madden at Salon.com.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2008

Our vote for White House Chief of Staff.

It's Chicago North Side Congressman, boy wonder and pit bull Rahm Emanuel, former White House staffer, and from the most amazing and increasingly-celebrated batch of Chicago kids in one family you could dream up. See Washingtonion.com. Emanuel has the added advantage of not being a lawyer. He swears wonderfully, we hear--maybe better than the famously irreverent Ben Bradlee, former Washington Post editor. He has never even heard of Work-Life Balance, or thinks it's a foo-foo drink you can order in Lincoln Park. Openly rude to slackers. And wonderfully un-PC. Democrats badly need a guy like that. We hear Obama has offered and he will accept. This is fun. Pinch us.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:02 PM | Comments (1)

Minnesota U.S. Senate race: Recount over 725 votes.

I'm good enough, smart enough, close enough. Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Recount: The Coleman-Franken brawl drags on".

Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

November 04, 2008

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and I may soon be a U.S. Senator."

From pizza to field staff, from lawn signs to phone lines, a campaign costs a lot of money. We could try asking the pharmaceutical companies and Big Oil for big checks, but somehow we don't think they're going to help.

From Al Franken for U.S. Senate, Minnesota, via yesterday's e-mail from his campaign re: "The last (and best) fundraising email of the campaign".

Franken, a liberal Democrat, is an ex-SNL writer-player, Harvard graduate, actor, funnyman, author and broadcaster, with a talented daughter and Renaissance woman WAC? has big crush on. Both Franken and Minnesota first-term Senator Norm Coleman (Franken's polar opposite in all respects) are spending serious fortunes on the race. Franken may win today, too.

"I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and I have a shot at Norm Coleman's Senate seat."

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2008

Got any money left?

Election 2008: Summary of Federal Campaign Contribution Limits. State of California, too.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2008

The Election 2008: Going Rogue in America.

Is America a fun country or what? Consumer spending down for 3rd straight month, the government buys a few banks, WAC? retreats to mud baths in the California desert, Obama keeps up the Kennedy-lite, McCain gets angry, Palin goes rogue. E.g., The Australian.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2008

Trading Places: Christopher Buckley, WAC?

These arresting days of late 2008 may be some of America's best.

Unless we learn, in the next 18 days, that in fact John McCain spearheaded a white slavery operation in Southeast Asia during the six years he was supposed to have been a prisoner of the North Vietnamese, I will vote for McCain to be my next president. My vote will be cast with many reservations and--for the first time in my life--for a Republican presidential candidate.

Try not to demonize me--or any one else who is trying hard to get it right this election year. Barack Obama, as talented as he is, struck me again and again as the new Jimmy Carter: smart, good and yes a great man--and likely an ineffective leader once in office. Carter, at least, was not untested. In Obama's case, I listened but couldn't buy the Kennedy-lite "change now" noises from a gifted young guy who has never managed anything except for his brilliant and historical

Chris Buckley: Vote pairing with Dan Hull?

campaign. Sure, other nations, particularly EU countries, will like Obama. His U.S. Supreme Court appointments would be more to my liking. But I'd prefer Obama's tough but soulful wife, Michelle, as my next president. I seek leaders who are a bit more engaged, and can get angry. Obama is currently not one of them. In six years, Obama will be well shy of 60, and he can start running for president again then.

By then, Obama can get his mojo working, if he has one. Or his wife can run.

Sarah Palin is a Ditz, you say? How can I do this? Answer: we've had at least 3 ditz presidents in my lifetime. Ronald Reagan was the first, and on intellect he makes Palin seem like Harvard's Alan Dershowitz, just in a really cute dress. Look, Palin's not my cup of tea, but she's one of the most talented politicians you'll ever see anywhere. Don't oversimplify or underestimate her. She's going to be around a long time. Make room for her, don't demonize her. Palin's no cartoon. Besides, if you really think she's not "smart enough", she's lots of fun to just watch.

More interestingly and importantly, however, a major conservative has crossed over to the "dark side", albeit a different one than I just did. Christopher Buckley is William F. Buckley's son, a small government conservative and fine, established novelist and journalist in his own right. Two days ago he announced his support for Barack Obama. He offered his resignation from his position on his dad's The National Review--which accepted it. See WSJ. Buckley the Younger's offending piece and reasons for supporting Obama are found in The Daily Beast, in "Sorry, Dad, I'm Voting for Obama".

If you are a Republican, or a libertarian, please don't demonize Buckley, either. Buckley is refusing to be defined by personal ties, traditional conservative doctrine, and life-long identification with The Right. He sees Obama as a fresh and superior thinker, and a temperate problem-solver: a kind of a new age Philosopher-King. I think Buckley is wrong--but it just doesn't matter. I'd love to have dinner with Chris Buckley. If that happens, we promise in advance not to demonize or oversimplify anyone, except perhaps in jest.

Which brings me to the point, a happy one.

Get used to it: Palin's going places.

The mean-spirited and, I think, often mindless Reagan Revolution, which arrived in DC like an angry sandstorm in January 1981, is officially over. During those 28 years, no one helped the national dialogue along that much. True, Republicans made things personal, moral and cast in absolutes. But my mostly Democrat and limousine liberal friends were also busy making sure that the First Amendment became a joke and a nightmare; you couldn't safely use words like chairman, stewardess, girl, secretary, "Chinese wall" or Indian, or tell the receptionist she looked great, without having Geraldo, Nancy Grace and National Public Radio live in your front yard for a few days. Some of us wanted to evolve at our own unenlightened pace.

You also had to be nice to, accommodate and otherwise be careful with mediocre and arguably lazy people in the workplace. No energy, drive, gospel or values about work itself became the norm. "Adequate": that was the new "excellent".

But I think these political and economic events of these arresting days--late 2008--will do some very good things: (1) dismantle cookie-cutter definitions of what Rs and Ds stand for, and (2) modify notions of what government (thanks for buying all my banks, guys)--and markets--can and can't do. Americans may finally talk and solve problems without freeze-dried ideologies, party "identification", routine character assassination, and pop mantras being the main events and passions in their conversations--and the very source of their "ideas". Our politicians, "idea" tanks, mass media and U.S. television news--e.g., Fox and MSNBC--in particular have been doing just that.

Special note: Television news is supposed to give you information, not tell you what to think, or how to vote.

If you need a template to worship (i.e., organized religion), okay, fine. Faith is the hardest--not to mention often the most dangerous--activity for humans. But religion, and spirituality, is something we can do alone. We engage in politics, however, with one another; you can't do it fully in private, and you participate on the basis of reliable information presented fairly. When we start taking cues from the best-sounding available scripts by media-on-a-mission on how to vote, and how to govern ourselves, we are in really trouble.

A suggestion. American media would do well to get back in its box and, to the extent humanly possible, report facts and stop giving cues. U.S. journalists, including broadcast people, are some of the best educated, most traveled and admirably pedigreed citizens in the world. Hey, you folks know better. You do have some responsibilities to your less-polished viewers and readers.

It's going to happen anyway. People will start to think for themselves--and stop relying on the media, forced-PC cultures in all camps, party lines and platforms to instruct them on how they must think and feel. We need a New Conversation, free of certitude, either moral or intellectual, and worthy of the subtleties and complexities of the world we face.

Dinner, anyone?

Posted by JD Hull at 05:33 AM | Comments (1)

October 03, 2008

Government by Gaels?

Dance there upon the shore;
What need have you to care
For wind or water's roar?

The charm. The love of words. War-like energies. Child-like joy and optimism mixed with bouts of sadness. And, of course, the burning, even tortuous, God-given right to serve as General-Manager-of-the-Universe, at least while on earth. By now, surrounded as I am by lawyers with big Irish genes, I know it when it when I hear it. For example, Joe Biden is as Irish as Irish-American pols come. But according to Newsweek writer Carl Sullivan, John McCain, Sarah Palin and Barack O'Bama each have strong ancestries in Ireland. Well, all four sure can talk. But WAC? sees nothing "Irish" in the talented but deliberate, mild, unconfrontational Senator Obama. It will be up to Joe.

Daniel O'Connell, Irish lawyer-politician, fighter, charmer, Muse.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2008

Lawyers, Voting and Voters' Rights

Politics are always important. If you are a lawyer and don't believe that, please (a) sue your law school, (b) find another blog to read, and (c) consider new employment selling home improvements, shoes, PEZ dispensers or insurance. Re: the 2008 elections and the Fifteenth Amendment, which turned 138-years-old this year, see at GlobalTort this fine collection of resources.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2008

Is Obama too wimpy to be President of the United States?

For over two decades, I've worked for and raised money for both national Republican and Democratic officeholders and candidates. And I've always voted "D" for president. But after watching the first 2008 debate Friday night, I am not so sure. Right now, I'd feel far more comfortable in the years 2009-2013 with Michelle Obama, Jimmy Carter, Mr. Rogers or maybe the late Tom Mix as my Decider in war, foreign affairs, the economy or even human rights than I would with Obama. Is Obama just another All-Resume, No-Action post-boomer talker? No, I don't love John McCain. But can Obama even utter the word "horseshit" under his breath without choking to death? See Salon. Can he get angry without seeming embarrassed about it? BO is a bright guy--and so what? Can he think and decide? And get things done?

All hat, no cattle? Can Obama Please Mix It Up More?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2008

America, world markets, and presidential politics.

The president's address last night of 9:00 PM ET is here. An embarrassed Congress is expected to finalize its $700 billion attempted "rescue" of the American economy this week. And even Friday's presidential candidate debate in Mississippi may be postponed (hopefully for the right reasons). At a time when the image of the U.S. has been declining abroad steadily in nearly every respect, WAC? hopes that the two presidential candidates quickly step up--senators McCain and Obama are now both their parties' newly annointed leaders, and new world leaders--and put not just America, but the world's economic markets, ahead of their historic election contest in 40 days. This week, and more than ever, the governments and businesses of Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa watch us. True, they all gloat a little--but they worry a lot more. They are our colleagues and business partners.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2008

Camelot in France: The First Odd Couple.

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, First Lady of France, photographed by Annie Leibovitz. Vanity Fair's September 2008 cover story is "Paris Match". At the Élysée Palace, writer Maureen Orth "encounters a pair of romantic predators who appear to have met their matches."

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:20 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2008

"I believe in Wasilla."

You think America is getting even more dumbed down? Well, decide for yourself. Meet Todd, the First Dude, or Sarah Palin's "package", in Salon. Excerpt:

According to local politicos and observers, he lurks around the capitol if he doesn't have anything better to do, which, since he works seasonal jobs in oil and fishing, is fairly often.

And then see this:

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2008

The GOP's other Storm: Sarah Palin

Sin in Alaska. John McCain has got Big Ones picking her. And she's a robo-babe. Bravo. But often-conservative WAC? thinks her 17-year-old kid Bristol's pregnancy underscores the danger of (1) not checking closely enough your VP choice (always difficult, we realize: "So, Sarah, any serious mescaline users at the Palin house? Juicers? Flings with Druid-worship?") and, (2) more importantly, the dangerous certitudes of the often-jackass American Christian right. See Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:35 PM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2008

A couple of Irish guys.

WAC? has more R than D writers--but we miss Irish pols, who tend to be Democrats because they can't help it. And we love this picture.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

August 25, 2008

Denver: Gavel Time

The only way for a reporter to look on a politician is down. --HLM

Both major party conventions affect You--and they showcase new U.S. leaders and party "comers" in both camps. Wednesday night is worth watching: our friend Wild Bill, and Delaware's Joe Biden, the VP choice, who started his job as freshman Senator the year before a wide-eyed WAC? worked in his first paid "desk job" on Capitol Hill for Gaylord Nelson. Plus some smart if less interesting politicians. If you are an American, be grateful you live in a country where we have 1000 Tony Blairs--all willing to endure the brutality of U.S. national politics.

Other than that, be skeptical and acerbic, like the Baltimore master.

H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Posted by JD Hull at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

August 24, 2008

Hey Joe, where you going?

AP: "Official: Obama Picks Biden For Veep". Super-Smart move by Obama but not likely to change the 2008 race. Wild Bill and Hillary will call many shots at convention and play with minds through November.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:16 AM | Comments (0)

August 22, 2008

"Veep Watch Drags On"; Obama's dreary schmaltz-fest.

See today's Boston Globe. Three days after our Biden prediction, sober TV heads keep saying Biden Biden Biden. WAC? was right about something? Another gratuitous prediction: in November, Hillary Clinton supporters vote for John McCain in nightmarish droves, often voting "R" for first and last time in their lives. Finally, Obama bores WAC? silly with the wimpified Kennedy-lite stuff. Real boomers are appalled: the hope, the dream, change, good crops, motherhood, justice for all, Sunday drives do not equal a platform. Months of nothing. Dude, we love your resume and work ethic, but just what are you saying?

AP file photo: Sen. Obama with Chairman Biden in 2007

Posted by JD Hull at 11:09 PM | Comments (0)

August 19, 2008

Our Obama VP pick: Joe Biden

We don't love Obama--but we have some advice for him: Joe Biden.

At 65, Biden seems younger than his years--and at times more youthful than the candidate. Biden has been in the U.S. Senate more than half of his life (since he was 30), and knows his way around D.C. But he's still a stone natural campaigner and a skillful "people" guy--and good with the blue collar folks all over the U.S. Obama has trouble with now and will, in our view, continue to alienate. He's Roman Catholic, Irish, and, well, way more fun than Obama. Biden's a pol and lawyer--but never a Weenie. He's a survivor of great personal tragedy at a relatively early age and stage in his career, which we admire. In the past few years Biden has picked up big foreign policy credentials, which elude Obama. Cons: he's got some personal baggage, and sometimes he just talks too much.

Biden's only serious competition for the VP job is either unknown or lackluster. Note: We do like Hoosier Senator Evan Bayh, too--but we liked Evan's charismatic and inspirational dad, Birch, a lot better. We would love to see Evan "get more like Birch" as he matures. Evan Bayh is still young. Biden has Birch Bayh's gift for connecting with people now. Like 80-year-old Birch, Joe Biden can still whip up a crowd over 40 that didn't attend Harvard, Williams or Duke, or doesn't know which fork to use at the Cosmos Club.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

July 27, 2008

Obama in Berlin, Paris.

Photo: Matthew Rose

WAC? thinks America is still uncomfortable about the idea of a young charismatic black man with an insider's golden resume being president. We are embarrassed about that inner conflict. Unfortunately, we haven't come that far. As with public figures from Jerry Lewis to Bill Clinton, Europe may like Obama more than we do. From The Paris Blog in a post by Matthew Rose, the UK's The Independent, and the New York Times.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:51 AM | Comments (1)

July 26, 2008

The Senate works on Saturday; NBC gets all excited.

The U.S. Senate is still the most elite and effective legislative body the world has ever seen. And most members of Congress--even the dumber, wimpier and more clueless legislators--work very hard. Weekend sessions aren't all that unusual, but it apparently makes good copy ("rare weekend session") to slip that in there. MSNBC: "Senate approves sweeping housing-rescue bill". The House passed the bill on Wednesday, and the Senate acted today. The president still needs to sign it.

WASHINGTON (MSNBC) - The U.S. Congress approved a massive housing market rescue bill Saturday, offering emergency financing to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, creating a new regulator for the mortgage titans and setting up a $300 billion fund to help troubled homeowners.

With the U.S. housing market in its deepest slump since the Great Depression, Congress acted with unusual speed in recent days to move the election-year bill to the White House.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

So John Edwards is a big dog, too?

Fox News, and the National Enquirer, say the ex-Senator's been breaking bad, maybe with a staffer's mistress, and maybe not. It's confusing to us, but at least someone is having some nasty-immoral adult fun:

A Beverly Hills hotel security guard told FOXNews.com he intervened this week between a man he identified as former Sen. John Edwards and tabloid reporters who chased down the former presidential hopeful after what they're calling a rendezvous with his mistress and love child. [more]

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:39 PM | Comments (0)

July 11, 2008

The French president gets the chair.

The presidency of the European Union's Council, the EU's main decision-making body, rotates every six months. EU countries take turns chairing and overseeing the Council's agenda. The second half of 2008 is France's turn. And so "Charlemagne", the Europe affairs columnist at The Economist--which is evolving into a kind of Time or Newsweek for the entire West--tries to explain why Europe is "nervous" about Nicolas Sarkozy’s stint in the chair.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2008

The Economist: America getting there.

The London-based weekly magazine The Economist does not always love the United States. But it has undertaken a useful and entertaining role in the West: wonky Motherland commissioner to monitor and scold the world's busiest overachievers and self-appointed police force since imperial Rome. So I was happy to see this week's cover and cover story, "America at its best". I could not agree more, and had to pinch myself a lot in the last 18 months when thinking about the quality of presidential candidates produced in the 2008 contest. And we may have made longer-term gains, beyond candidate choice. Without question, America--the insular "ruffian" nation that could never quite square its domestic life with its democratic ideals--crossed thresholds, surprised people, and probably made race and gender history. For us, it was progress. The article's concluding paragraph:

Both candidates have their flaws and their admirable points; the doughty but sometimes cranky old warrior makes a fine contrast with the inspirational but sometimes vaporous young visionary. Voters now have those five months to study them before making up their minds (and The Economist will be doing the same). But, on the face of it, this is the most impressive choice America has had for a very long time.

Photo: The Economist

Posted by JD Hull at 12:03 PM | Comments (1)

June 03, 2008

MSNBC: WJC really ticked off at Vanity Fair reporter.

"Scumbag" alert. Sorry. More politics. We can't help it. MSNBC "First Read" excerpt:

The same Huffington Post reporter who broke the Obama “bitter” story got a new scoop yesterday of Bill Clinton lashing out at Vanity Fair’s Todd Purdum and calling him “sleazy,” “dishonest” and “slimy” for his critical magazine article on Clinton. It’s worth noting that the HuffPo reporter didn’t identify herself as a reporter and said she disliked the article when asking for his reaction.

From the piece: “Tightly gripping this reporter's hand and refusing to let go, Clinton heatedly denounced the writer, who is currently married to his former White House Press Secretary, Dee Dee Myers. ‘[He's] sleazy,’ he said referring to Purdum. ‘He's a really dishonest reporter. And one of our guys talked to him… And I haven't read [the article]. There's just five or six blatant lies in there. But he's a real slimy guy,’ the former President said. When I reminded him that Purdum was married to his former press spokesperson Myers, Clinton was undeterred. ’That's all right-- he's still a scumbag,’ Clinton said. ‘Let me tell ya--he's one of the guys -- he's one of the guys that brought out all those lies about Whitewater to Kenneth Starr. He's just a dishonest guy--can't help it.’” [more]

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 31, 2008

Saturday's Charon: The PM feels your pain.

Charon QC gets a cold call from Britain's Prime Minister in "Gordon cold calls British public…Hello…is that Charon?…".

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 28, 2008

Fun new game: MSNBC's GOP Veepstakes.

Click above to play new VP game with MSNBC's Chuck Todd and David Gregory. Our pick and prediction is lawyer Rob Portman, 53, not nationally known, but a talented Bushie and conservative who goes down well with the "real" GOP rank and file, which has been grooming him for years. With roots in southern Ohio's Republican "Taft country", Portman's been a Cincinnati congressman, and both U.S. Trade Representative and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush. That's an exemplary resume for a relatively young guy. Long-term weak point: he has hardly any enemies, which makes you wonder about him.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (1)

May 16, 2008

Mike Huckabee: He's back!

And we're seeing Mike on and in the national news a lot lately. We kind of missed him, even when he was acting weird, and even though we generally have good taste. Ah, memories...

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 09, 2008

EU trade commissioner: "Lose the protectionist jive"

One of the best points made in the 2008 U.S. presidential election has come from a British politician. A reporter with the Financial Times in London writes that EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, a former member of Parliament and Labour Party mainstay, has had it with candidates, presumably Obama and Clinton, hunting American Democratic votes with protectionist rhetoric that they themselves don't likely believe. And he thinks the campaign noise may be setting the world trading system back by "decades". According to the FT, in a BBC interview on Hardtalk soon to be aired, Mandelson said:

It is irresponsible to be pretending to people you can erect new protection, new tariff barriers around your economy in this 21st century global age and still succeed in sustaining living standards and jobs. It is a mirage and they know it...

It is going to lead us into a vicious spiral of beggar-thy-neighbour policies which will take us decades back in terms of trade growth.

Mandelson refused to name the culprits.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 07, 2008

Mr. Obama: Got platform?

After the Indiana and North Carolina primaries yesterday, NBC's Tim Russert may be right, and you may be the Man. Most Americans love hope, motherhood and good crops. We are optimists if nothing else. But specifics, if you please. The U.S. economy? Foreign policy? Trade?

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:31 PM | Comments (1)

May 06, 2008

2008 U.S. primaries: just about done

Today: Indiana and North Carolina
May 13: West Virginia Democratic, West Virginia GOP (1/3 selected)
May 20: Kentucky, Oregon
May 27: Idaho GOP
June 1: Puerto Rico Democratic
June 3: Montana Democratic, New Mexico GOP, South Dakota

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

May 03, 2008

London has a new--and different--mayor.

Yesterday in UK local elections, Conservative Party candidate Boris Johnson defeated the Labour Party's incumbent two-term mayor, Ken Livingstone. Labour lost hundreds of council seats in London, northern England and Wales in the party's biggest defeat in 40 years. See Daily Telegraph. Even by Brit standards, which prize oddity, the new London Mayor Johnson, a 43-year-old writer and TV commentator, is a unique fellow. AP: "Eccentric and offensive, London's new mayor boasts a devastating wit but reckless streak".

Posted by JD Hull at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

April 29, 2008

Elections in America

The election...was not fought over great issues. Few elections are. Questions important to the nation, it is true, were before the public eye--the tariff, land policy, internal improvements--but on these questions there were no clear-cut party stands. It was, rather, chicanery, slippery tactics, and downright falsehoods upon which the politicians relied to win the contest.

--Glyndon Van Deusen, in The Jacksonian Era, 1828-1848, Ch. 2 (Harper & Row, 1963 ed.), discussing the 1828 U.S. presidential election.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:56 AM | Comments (0)

April 24, 2008

Chelsea does Duke; disses Dad.

In yesterday's The Chronicle, Duke's daily: "My mother would be a better president than my father," she said. "She is more progressive and more prepared."

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

April 22, 2008

Predicting Pennsylvania--and the rest of the primaries.

Pollster and consultant Mike O'Neil of O'Neil Associates is a friend of ours. We liked the following article by Mike--he prepared it especially for the Pennsylvania primary today--enough to print it entirely and word-for-word:

The Rest of the Story: Predicting the Outcome of All of the Remaining Democratic Primaries.

Michael J. O'Neil, Ph.D

"It is difficult to predict, especially the future."

--Yogi Berra

Last month, I sent out a missive "The Myth of Momentum in the Democratic Primaries" in which I argued that the pattern of Obama and Clinton victories could be explained primarily by the demographics of the various states, rather than by any of the "momentum" that has been widely discussed in the press.

The beauty of any such argument is that of ex post facto logic: if you explain after the fact, you will always be "right" in your "prediction" since you can alter the theory to fit the known facts precisely.

If the theory is right, however, it should predict the future. Of course, as the philosopher Yogi noted above, this is harder to do with accuracy.

Those of us who conduct opinion research, however, are often (incorrectly) presumed to be in the prediction business. We are not, but (with appropriate caveats), it can be fun.

So, for fun only, here it is: if the demographics relationships observed throughout the election so far hold (that is the "catch", to cover my posterior if I am "wrong"), it would mean the following:

Clinton wins Pennsylvania tomorrow.

But the following Tuesday, Obama wins North Carolina by an even bigger margin (completely erasing Clinton's delegate gains in PA).

Indiana is closer, but probably Clinton territory (like PA and Ohio, but a chunk is in the Chicago media market, and that gives Obama a boost, but probably not enough to win (this is the closest of the remaining states).

Back to tomorrow: Should Clinton win by less than 5%, the confetti will drop and she will declare a big victory. But every politico (and super-delegate) will know that her campaign is toast. The only question will be how long it will take her to get the message. A 10% win will be real, but still not enough to get her many delegates. (5% to 10% will be ambiguous; well within expectations-and spin-meisters on both sides will make arguments, all of them fallacious). A 20% blowout, on the other hand, would be a real loss for Obama.

Poll numbers: these average a 6% Clinton win, down from 20% a couple of weeks ago. Will this momentum continue? I doubt it, for two reasons. First, historical patterns: Obama has typically gained until the weekend before the election when Clinton gets back a few points. Second, most of the "undecideds" look (demographically) like Clinton people. If they vote, she wins-and maybe big. If they stay home, it gets close.

Expectations will be reversed in North Carolina, though Obama currently is winning there by more than Clinton in PA.

And the Rest of the Primaries?

Following demographic and geographical patterns we would predict Clinton wins in West Virginia (5/13), then Obama wins in Oregon while losing Kentucky (both 5/20), Obama ends primary season by winning both Montana and South Dakota (6/03).

In between, we have votes in two non-states, Guam (4 delegates) and Puerto Rico (55 delegates, more than many states!). All of the prognosticators have said that Puerto Rico should be Clinton territory, since she has won Hispanics to date. I don't buy this argument, since I see no reason to assume that native Puerto Ricans necessarily resemble Mexican Americans or Cuban Americans. They are different. But, I am NOT saying that Obama will PR. I just reject the logic behind the assumption that Clinton will win there. And there have been no reported polls in PR. Bottom line, like Sgt. ("I know NOTHING!") Shultz, we really know nothing about PR. The demography of PR does not resemble that of any state.

There you have it. A scorecard against which to measure the results of the rest of the primaries.

What does it mean?

The Obama lead is almost certainly intact on June 3. If so, he continues to trickle in super-delegates (he has been gaining about one a day for the last six weeks). Then the only question will be whether enough super-delegates declare early enough to forestall a convention fight. (Watch to see if a major Clinton insider, someone like PA Governor Ed Rendell, bolts. Nothing less may be required to get her to realize it is over). The speed of super-delegate decisions may depend on whether they enjoy being courted more than they hate being threatened/cajoled. (Is a 3am call from Bill a good thing or a bad thing?)

What could change this story?

A major Obama disaster-something much bigger than the stuff we have seen thus far. Don't hold your breath: it's not likely.
A Clinton loss in any of the states I have indicated she will win. This would signal a collapse of her campaign. Up until now, her campaign has looked viable, even if it is now a long-shot. A loss in a "must win" state would make the campaign look futile, and would likely signal the end.

Michael J. O'Neil PhD
www.oneilresearch.com

Posted by JD Hull at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

April 19, 2008

Newsweek poll: Hillary drops back more.

At WAC?, politics is always important. Who governs and how informs culture, business, law, religion and even art. So our writers watch, chose sides, get involved when inspired, vote and argue amongst ourselves. We have serious Rs, Ds and "Others". A Newsweek poll says Hillary Clinton is losing ground: "Despite her campaign's relentless attacks on Barack Obama's qualifications and electability, Hillary Clinton has lost a lot of ground with Democratic voters nationwide going into Tuesday's critical primary in Pennsylvania..." [more]

Posted by JD Hull at 09:05 AM | Comments (2)

April 07, 2008

AP: HRC's Mark Penn screws up, moves on.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

March 14, 2008

Simple Justice on Spitzer Exit

At WAC?, we think that politics--the art of controlling your environment--is important every day, and especially important if you're a business person or a lawyer. Do see Scott Greenfield's article "Spitzer Aftermath; What to Expect" at Simple Justice. We like New Yorker Greenfield for his brain, his pluck and his ideas.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:59 AM | Comments (1)

March 12, 2008

Governor Spitzer resigns.

Effective St. Patrick's Day. Classy and smart speech, at least--and we think you'll be seeing him again. Bloomberg. Hello, Governor Paterson.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (3)

Obama wins Mississippi

Bloomberg: Obama's Mississippi Win Blunts Clinton's Recent Delegate Gains. In a very short time, the Clintons have lost their famous mojo in American black community.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)

March 06, 2008

Got $2,300?

So HRC is "back"--and quite a few more contentious primaries to go. If you're not maxed out, still inspired and/or rich, see our famous FEC Contributions Guide, a summary (with citations) of what you can give to HRC, Obama or McCain. Campaign contribution limits for California are also thrown in for laughs. Seriously, don't try some of this stuff at home, especially if you're in a group or organization; ask for help.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2008

Tomorrow the streetfight: Obama v. HRC, Texas, and Back to Ohio.

AP: Texas and Ohio battleground. Two big states with rich and colorful political histories; anything could happen. Yes, this affects you--and all your clients. Right now: Obama has 1,385 delegates, HRC has 1,276. Total of 2,025 needed to win. John McCain looks like the GOP winner.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

February 27, 2008

The politics of being a righteous dude.

Or Guy-ness in America in the 2008 election. Male bonding. John and Obama being guys to have a beer with. Hillary-bashing. And "I'll show you something primary, wench..." From the liberal but way-manly Salon: "The Dude Vote".

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

U.S. Election: The Return of Ralph Nader.

And bad news for U.S. Democrats--he will siphon off votes from Obama and HRC. See Telegraph.co.uk in London: "Ralph Nader Joins Presidential Race". Also: The Hill. Chicago Sun-Times. Washington Post. More coverage.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:39 AM | Comments (0)

February 20, 2008

A truly American election: 2,025 or 1,191 "to win".

NBC: Delegate Count. Dems: HRC down by 50; Obama's got the 'mo. GOP: McCain has 884. It's all historic no matter who you bet on. Who the hell are we Yanks, anyway? And re: our egalitarian ideals, can we walk the walk?

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2008

U.S. Democrats: Horserace!

Pardon my dripping schoolboy excitement. But even the most dreamy, idealistic American kid growing up in the 1960s--was there any better and more interesting time to grow up?--could not have imagined a "run-off" between two candidates like HRC and Obama. You need to stand back and look at this one, the 2008 election: the most spirited, surprising and genuinely defining (just who are Americans anyway?) U.S. election in WAC?'s lifetime. Still 8 months away from November. After Saturday's primaries and caucuses--in which Obama wins big in Nebraska, Louisiana, Washington state--HRC has 1,084 delegates to 1,057 for Obama. 2,025 delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination. See The Washington Post.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2008

George W. Bush: "Most American" U.S. President Ever?

Dan Hull, who has never voted for anyone named Bush, thinks the answer is a big Texas hell-yes. And he's convinced that 19th-century French thinker Alexis de Tocqueville, author of the prescient Democracy in America (1840), would agree with him in a heartbeat. See Dan's op-ed piece, "One of us", featured this past Sunday in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, owned and published by Richard Mellon Scaife who--along with the famous 2004 Teresa Heinz battler Editor Colin McNickle--was kind enough to put up with Dan and his take.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (2)

February 07, 2008

Romney out.

Mike Huckabee has done Mitt in. The Washington Post.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

February 06, 2008

UPDATE: McCain Rules Super Tuesday; Dems in a horse-race; yesterday's primary results...

...are here on this NBC interactive map. John McCain was the big dog of the day. HRC wins NY and California. Illinois to Obama. Obama (who does well in Midwest and South), Romney and The Huckster each win and excel in surprising states.

Updated 4:00 PM ET: Obama--838 delegates; HRC--834. Dang!

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

U.S. expatriates a factor in 2008.

I know from my travels abroad since 1992 that Europeans in the major powers there--e.g., France, Germany, the UK--always have focused on our national elections more than we have focused on theirs. It's sad but true, likely due to our geographic isolation, and cultural insularity from non-U.S. themes. And the 2008 U.S. presidential election is being followed more closely abroad than any other election cycle ever--especially in western Europe, where business people and regulators really like to "watch" us. But just as interesting: American expats all over the world have developed into a voting block.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2008

Super Tuesday is today and this is history....

....and in play are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado (caucuses), Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Idaho (D), Illinois, Kansas (D), Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico (D), New York, North Dakota (caucuses), Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah. NBC put together a primer for you. Fellow Yanks: This is your America. Don't screw around. Vote today if you are able to vote.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2008

Edwards Out.

DENVER (AP)--Democrat John Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters' sympathies but never diverted his campaign, according to The Associated Press and NBC News. [more]

We expect you'll see the boy again. He's 54 and, whether you like him or not, he's a natural with ambition, game and grit. Query: These days how do you keep a populist message from sounding like class warfare?

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Florida votes: McCain defeats Romney; Giuliani likely out.

McCain, Clinton Win Florida Primaries

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch/DowJones)--John McCain of Arizona won a closely fought battle with Mitt Romney to win Florida's Republican primary Tuesday night, propelling his candidacy mightily forward to the 24-state Super Tuesday contest on Feb. 5.

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani placed a disappointing third in Florida's Republican race after staking much of his run for the nomination on the Sunshine State. Late Tuesday, Giuliani was reportedly set to drop out of the race and endorse McCain on Wednesday.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Hillary Clinton handily defeated rival Sen. Barack Obama in an expected win. [more]

Baltimore Sun: Giuliani's Concession: A Bad Day in Florida
AP: McCain Beats Romney in Florida GOP Race.
Sydney Morning Herald: Giuliani Who? McCain Claims Florida.
London Times: McCain Takes Florida as Giuliani Campaign in Tatters.
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia: Hillary Clinton Wins Easy Florida Vote.

Rudy, we hardly knew ye. You go John.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:15 PM | Comments (0)

January 29, 2008

You gotta vote for somebody.

Visit our Federal Election Commission Campaign Contribution Summary, first created in 2002, and regularly checked and updated. If you don't cough up $2300 to a national candidate, that's fine with us--but at least vote in your primaries and vote in November. These are interesting times in the still new American experiment. Let's not screw it all up by merely watching them go by. Get in the game. Like the famous Bob Dylan song, "you gotta vote for somebody". Well, you guys know what we mean.

Posted by Tom Welshonce at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Street Fight: "Oh, now you've Kennedy-ed me....I'm shrinking".

Or, "Senator Obama, we knew Jack Kennedy, and you, Senator, are--well, dude, you were two-years-old...."

But that really does hurt, HRC, and we feel your pain. But Uncle Ted, Joe Jr., Caroline--that's dirty touch football, sports! With certain voter groups--including many in the "50+ over-educated guilty white liberal people" block--Kennedy endorsements cannot be trumped. Ouch! But misty-eyed we-shall-overcome Leary-lovin' Mailer-readin' baby-boomer old white liberal that WAC? is, the Truth is that Hillary Clinton is 10 times more prepared and qualified to become president than Obama is. Hands down. Still, ouch. This is a street thing now, my fresh-faced friend. An Irish thing. Whiskey! Hit us again! Another. Another. Turn your glasses over. We got the sand now--and we be most game for ya'. Begin the new age, new frontier epic battle: Boston Lace-Curtain Irish v. Chicago Little Rock-Bubba Protestants.

Anyway, Irish up by one...

WASHINGTON (AP) Two generations of Kennedys - the Democratic Party's best known political family - endorsed Barack Obama for president on Monday, with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy calling him a "man with extraordinary gifts of leadership and character," a worthy heir to his assassinated brother.

"I feel change in the air," Kennedy said in remarks salted with scarcely veiled criticism of Obama's chief rival for the nomination, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, as well as her husband, the former president.

"I have marveled at his grit and grace," he said of the man a full generation younger than he is.

[more]

Query: Can the nearly 60-year-old Kennedy machine still write, or what?

Photo: ABC News.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:42 PM | Comments (6)

January 27, 2008

SC: Clinton punts, Obama makes big U.S. history.

Is this an interesting--and let's face it, great--nation or what? AP. WAC? has followed national elections since 1968--and there has never been a year like this one.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:54 AM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2008

And NYT endorses McCain.

"...the best choice for the [Republican] party’s presidential nomination". [more]

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:00 AM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2008

Chicago girl makes good.

NYT edit board endorses HRC. Well, if you're her, it's almost the ultimate--and you'd be celebrating, duck-walking, and doing the antler dance. The New York Times is the Democratic Party, and it just endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2008

Loathing on the campaign trail: "All life is junior high".

Presidential elections--beauty contests--dweeb wars. NYT: Romney Tops In Ill Will Among GOP Rivals. "Within the small circle of contenders, Mr. Romney has become the most disliked . Actually, we like Mitt, and think he's immensely talented; we just think he's way creepy. And how about those mini-me staffers he's got?

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2008

Election 2008: "Say it ain't so, Fred..."

AP: Thompson drops out of race.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2008

2008 election: Can Wild Bill dance?

Last night's Myrtle Beach, SC Dem debate: personal, feisty and a bit childish. No one looked too good to us. A John Edwards night--but an Obama crowd and an HRC set-back. See Chicago Tribune. Highlight of evening was question: How "black" a president was Bill Clinton? Obama, using dancing as the criteria, hits it out of park. Note that WAC? dances way better than Bill, Obama--and especially Clarence Thomas. And we do the Philly Dog New Breed, picked up from spectacularly drunk lawyer-friends who are partners at the Philadelphia firm of ______ after a 3rd Circuit argument last year. Those Penn Law boys got Rhythm.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

January 21, 2008

Mr. Huckabee's Bible-based America: "Have a magnificent Christmas".

Does Huckabee still believe that his narrow version of Christianity must dominate every detail of human existence in this country? He doesn't like to answer hard questions about the intersection of his faith and his politics, but it is long past time that somebody demanded a straight answer.

Joe Conason in "Holy Constitution", Salon

Granted, Salon's writers are generally "liberal"--but that doesn't mean that they are always wrong, or trying to get your kids to try out Satan-worship instead of Pep Club after school. And here at WAC?, by the way, there are no known athiests, some of us attend conventional services, and we all like the holiday season, including Christmas. But Mike Huckabee's now famous charming, pandering, anti-secular, First Amendment-rattling "Christmas message" made WAC? question both his smarts and his character. Just as bad, hardly anyone except Ron Paul called him on it for more than a day. Bad, bad form--by Mike, and by all of us. Moreover, you'd have to be blind or an LSD/glue/nitrous oxide casualty not to believe that the intersecting white bookcase edges behind him in that spot were not deliberately intended to represent The Cross. So what's Happy Mike thinking? Our take: If you don't get the Establishment Clause, Mike, that's not good, of course. (Remedial high school U.S. history and government classes might help.) If it's an election ploy, hey, you old fox, that's wickedly clever, but it's sad and cynical to pander to those who would not or could not comprehend the primacy of the church-state division in American history, law and tradition. That, folks, is sacred.

Un-American, Mike. Bad dog.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 07:59 AM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2008

My little town: OpenCongress

When I worked and/or lived on Capitol Hill (15 years all told), new "local" newspapers and weekly magazines about Congress and our national yet surprisingly insular little town and community within The District would come and go. Only a few of them survived and prospered. But here's a new and interesting one, at least to me, via Ed. at Blawg Review and the Susan Crawford Blog: OpenCongress. It's an on-line magazine apparently mixing the traditions of The Hill and the Library of Congress' Thomas with the added trumpeted goal of reporting the "real story behind the story". We'll assume that means facts and not gossip.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:48 PM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2008

Michigan primary: It's 8 PM EST, and the hay's in the barn now.

We don't think the Michigan primary means much. But we like to watch Michigan--a beautiful place with a bit of everything--as our principal blogger lived there twice, in Detroit and Grand Rapids. And he spent his childhood summers at Pointe Aux Barques, near Port Austin, where he started his first business and developed a life-long respect for old houses, the smallmouth bass and the beauty and raw power of the Great Lakes. AP: "McCain, Romney in tight race as Mich. votes ".

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:54 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2008

NBC report: Europe watching 2008 contest.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2008

Guessing about Wes Clark.

Obviously, he wants to be a player in the hoped-for HRC 2009 administration. But which job does he want? Four years ago, some of our lawyers raised money for him. We even organized fund-raisers we were too busy ourselves to attend. And I was one of his California delegates to the Democratic convention before he dropped out of the race in early 2004. In 2003 and 2004, Clark just wasn't ready for prime time in a gruelling 24/7 modern U.S. presidential race. He was too new to national politics. But he's got "talent". Like anyone worth a damn, he has detractors and enemies out the wazoo. However, so far none of them have kept him out of the fray with real or made-up stuff about his personal life or military career. He's still a crowd-pleaser. So what is he and/or HRC thinking?

Posted by JD Hull at 10:23 PM | Comments (1)

January 09, 2008

Two jolts in New Hampshire: It's McCain and Clinton.

MANCHESTER, N.H. (Boston Globe, Jan. 8)--Senator John McCain of Arizona delivered an electric jolt to the Republican presidential contest tonight by decisively capturing New Hampshire’s presidential primary, and Democrat Hillary Clinton apparently revived her White House hopes with a narrow win.

The Associated Press and NBC projected Clinton the winner over Barack Obama of Illinois in a contest that polls suggested Obama would win by a healthy margin. Former senator John Edwards of North Carolina was projected a distant third. [more]

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

John McCain: The new Comeback Kid?

"McCain had been both smart and lucky...." A friend of ours, Michael O'Neil--a political consultant, pollster and TV commentator--posted this on his blog on January 7, the day before yesterday's New Hampshire primary: "McCain’s Rise from the Political Graveyard is Not His First". Not bad. His firm is O'Neil Associates, Inc.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2008

Heartbreak ahead for Hillary Clinton?

See Walter Shapiro's article today in Salon.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:00 AM | Comments (0)

January 04, 2008

Iowa: Obama, Huckabee win.

Edwards (30%) and HRC (29%) behind Obama (38%). Romney (25%) and Thompson (13%) behind Huck (34%). And Biden and Dodd bow out. Can Obama overcome the too-young-for-president charge, and do it without mentioning JFK? Can Mike Huckabee raise some magnificent money in the long haul, and figure out where Europe is? Tune in next week folks, after New Hampshire primary. AP: "Obama turns back Clinton to win Iowa caucuses". See The Plank, The New Republic's blog, for some of the saner non-emotional blog coverage.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:37 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2008

The tapes, the tapes--in America it's always missing tapes.

The U.S. Department of Justice will investigate the CIA's 2005 destruction of videotapes of the questioning of two al-Qaeda operatives. See Reuters.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

December 31, 2007

"But, dudes, no mothers, okay?"

The dozens in Iowa. Rumble. God-fearing candidates get down. LA Times: "Huckabee Casts Romney Campaign as 'Dishonest'". And now, according to the NYT, there's a new warrior--a formidable one--waiting in the wings: Mike Bloomberg.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2007

U.S. House committee issues subpoena in tape investigation.

Congress has shut down for the year but the House Intelligence Committee is still busy. Yesterday it issued a subpoena to Jose Rodriguez, the ex-CIA official who headed the agency's National Clandestine Service and allegedly directed that interrogation videotapes of two suspected terrorists be destroyed. Bloomberg: "House Panel Subpoenas Ex-CIA Official in Tape Probe". The NYT mentions that former Bill Clinton lawyer Bob Bennett will represent Rodriguez.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2007

Lawyer-blogger in hot water over criticism of elected judge

BROWARD COUNTY (Dec. 13) - A defense attorney's law license is at risk because he posted an angry description on the Internet of embattled Broward Circuit Judge Cheryl Alemán, calling her an "evil, unfair witch." Last week, as Alemán was on trial for alleged misconduct before the Judicial Qualifications Commission, The Florida Bar signed off on its finding that Sean Conway may have violated five bar rules, including impugning the judge's qualifications or integrity.

In the Halloween 2006 posting on a blog, Conway denounced Alemán for what he said was an "ugly, condescending attitude" and questioned her mental stability after, he says, she unlawfully forced attorneys to choose between unreasonable trial dates or waiving their clients' rights to a speedy trial. [more, South Florida Sun Sentinel]

And see Kevin O'Keefe's post "Lawyer Faces Discipline For Criticizing Judge In Blog" and Carolyn Elefant's Legal Blog Watch piece "Are Florida Judges Too Hotheaded?".

Posted by JD Hull at 10:52 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2007

House spending bill: $516 billion, 1,482 pages, $7 billion in pork.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Monday approved a $516 billion measure funding 14 Cabinet agencies and funding for troops in Afghanistan, setting the stage for a year-end budget deal with the White House.

President Bush has signaled he'll ultimately sign the measure--assuming up to $40 billion more is provided by the Senate for the Iraq war--despite opposition from GOP conservatives. [more]

The Senate debates the bill today.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:17 PM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2007

Don't Bogart that story, Hillary.

Politics of Bong Hits, Part II...

MSNBC: "The Audacity of Dope". Boston Globe: Shaheen resigns. Good. NYT: Ex-Howard Dean wonk and Edwards top aide Joe Trippi catches HRC chief Mark Penn in a complicating televised act of utter classlessness. Bad--but good for Trippi. Now WAC? may want its HRC DC summit money back. And we'll gladly give back all the business cards and ashtrays we horded.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2007

2008 Campaign: The Politics of Bong Hits.

Booze, pot, the antler dance and breakin' bad. Welcome to the invisible ink in the resumes of not a few talented people born between 1946 and 1963. The Associated Press reports that Bill Shaheen, a key Hillary Clinton aide, hinted to The Washington Post that HRC may try to do in Sen. Barack Obama with his admissions of drug use in his youth. See "Clinton Adviser: Obama's Drug Past A Liability". Shaheen later said he regretted the remarks; the Clinton campaign said they were not authorized. But that's like trying to un-drop recreational acid.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:03 AM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2007

DOJ won't investigate Nifong in Duke case.

Which makes sense. See today's Duke Chronicle.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2007

Subprime mortgage rate freeze

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of strapped homeowners could get some relief from a plan negotiated by the Bush administration to freeze interest rates on subprime mortgages that are scheduled to rise in the coming months.

"There is no perfect solution," President Bush said Thursday as he announced an agreement hammered out with the mortgage industry. "The homeowners deserve our help. The steps I've outlined today are a sensible response to a serious challenge."

Read the full article here.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2007

Karl Rove speaks at Duke tonight.

Together at last. Get ready. Duke has a history of odd-but-fun theater at public figure speaking events; when Hunter Thompson appeared at Page auditorium in the 1970s, serious bikers got word of it and attended. HST, drunk and feisty, was pulled off the stage by a faculty member, and first amendment noises followed. For Rove's talk, which if we're lucky will be equally as demented, expect an angry-but-funny Halloween with students in orange jump suits. What really makes this interesting: Peter Feaver, an ex-National Security Council staffer and conservative Duke political science professor, will moderate. See "Protesters Prepare for Rove" in Duke's daily, The Chronicle, and The Independent Weekly (Durham-Chapel Hill-Raleigh).

Posted by JD Hull at 12:27 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2007

You're smart when you're angry.

Give her credit when it's due. In last night's Gang War in Las Vegas, HRC does well fending attack from Dem candidates. AP: "In Feisty Debate, Clinton Fires Back". And see Salon coverage. Watch for some conservatives to start commenting favorably on her toughness, preparation and work ethic. Is she a CEO or what?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2007

"Warren, you old hippie, that's easy for you to say."

Warren Buffett backs the estate tax in testimony before U.S. Senate Finance Committee. See coverage of yesterday's hearings at WSJ and TaxProf Blog. Unlike many others, Buffett would reform rather than repeal the estate tax. None of this was a surprise, as Buffett has been a supporter of the estate tax generally to check momentum "toward plutocracy". However, Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway's chairman, and with a net worth of approximately $52 billion, did say he would give all

you American mini-millionaires out there a break. He opposes reinstatement of the scheme in place before 2001 which gave decedents' estates a $1 million exemption from the tax and then taxed at a maximum rate of 55%. Instead, Buffett wants an exemption of around $4 million--twice the current $2 million--with lower but gradually increasing rates. The exemption would be adjusted for inflation. Under current law, the estate tax exemption will be gradually increased, and the maximum tax rate gradually decreased, until 2010, when the estate tax is repealed. However, unless Congress changes the law, in 2011 the estate tax will automatically return with a $1 million exemption and maximum tax rate of 55%.

Posted by JD Hull at 06:00 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2007

New American era: The Exotic First Partner

Kurtz--he got off the boat. He split from the whole goddamn program.

Captain Willard, in Apocalypse Now (1979)

We're barely even talking here about WAC?'s bud Wild Bill, who faces some serious competition in the "off-the-boat" (i.e., campaign bus) category. In today's Salon, see by Rebecca Traister America's Next Top Spouse. It's a guide to "the brassy, opinionated, loud, difficult and plum-crazy partners on the arms of their president-running partners".

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2007

"Mukasey Wins Vote in Senate, Despite Democrats’ Doubts"

WAC? was wrong about this one. From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — The Senate confirmed Michael B. Mukasey as attorney general Thursday night, approving him despite Democratic criticism that he had failed to take an unequivocal stance against the torture of terrorism detainees. [read more]

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 05:22 AM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2007

Hillary Clinton keeps surprising us.

Hillary Clinton--who WAC? predicts will start picking up increasing support from moderate Republican women (and some men) in two key states--is doing well these days. NBC/WSJ poll: "Clinton Holds 20-Point Lead Over Rival Dems". Still very, very early. Like a friend once said: "This is America--no one wins the nomination without a couple of near-death experiences."

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 01, 2007

Perils of Waterboarding

AP: Bush Backs Mukasey on Waterboarding "Stance" [quotation marks ours]. The U.S. attorney general nominee Mukasey is a fine lawyer and jurist. But WAC? thinks he's toast. Next up?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2007

Blogs of War, Day 5: Michelle Malkin

We continue with our showcasing of a few of the better political blogs in honor of the 2008 election--alternating the right and the left persuasions. Next up, and on the right, is Michelle Malkin, hands down one of the most popular blogs in the world. Malkin is also a mother, wife, conservative syndicated columnist, author, and Fox News Channel contributor. My boss Dan Hull could care less about any of the foregoing and wants to have dinner with her immediately; Malkin's a total Betty. She lives in DC. Interestingly, she's a graduate of traditionally liberal, elite and way-PC Oberlin College in Ohio, of all places. Today she finds Hillary Clinton masks and costumes frightening but certainly appropriate for Halloween. See "The Frightful Specter of Hillary Clinton".

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2007

Argentina's first lady wins presidency.

Bravo. And does this mean WAC? can exchange the pesos we got stuck with in Buenos Aires in 2001? See at Reuters, Argentina's First Lady Wins Top Job:

BUENOS AIRES--First lady Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner will become Argentina's first elected woman leader after easily winning a presidential vote that was largely a referendum on her husband's economic successes.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 16, 2007

Hillary Clinton's Big Week for Women

All week long. And a very fine week indeed for D.C. cads with a weakness for wonky women. See Real Clear Politics, The Atlantic and The Washington Times. Clinton strategist Mark Penn's rally-the-troops memo is here. More importantly, is the Capital Hilton on 16th and K a great place to meet girls this week, or what? Name's WAC?, sweetie, Vassar '85, and a friend of Hill's, could you dig a wine spritzer?

Posted by JD Hull at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

October 10, 2007

Fred Dalton Thompson is now a 2008 GOP Player.

Like other public figures who won fame on television--Jerry Springer, Howard Cosell, Charlie Rose, Tim Russert and Geraldo Rivera, to name a few--actor-ex-US Senator Fred Thompson started out life as a lawyer.

Last night in the "R" presidential debates, he sounded like a pretty good one, holding his own and handling himself well enough to give candidates Rudy Giuliani and the spectacularly annoying Mitt Romney some future worries. Fred needs work but he's a player. But it still seems to us that Rudy will be the GOP candidate. MSNBC.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:36 PM | Comments (0)

October 09, 2007

The Blogs of War, Day 3: Right Wing Nuthouse

And back on the right, we have Rick Moran's Right Wing Nuthouse. He's from the northwest Chicago suburbs (way west of WAC?'s old neighborhood on the lake in Highland Park and his mother's childhood Evanston), conservative, of course, and he likes to write longer pieces but posts frequently. Not a hip-shooter. Thinks for himself. Looks "down" on all politicians, not just Ds. He loves the Cubs and Da' Bears in a way that is most poignant. He swears wonderfully when he's in the right mood. And he worries about America's space program in "The Enormous Damage Done to Our Space Program by 'the Space Race'".

Posted by JD Hull at 11:53 PM | Comments (0)

Sold Out: HRC women's summit next week in DC

Hillary Clinton's all-day women's summit (i.e., mega-fundraiser) next week on the 17th in DC is being billed as attended by women from all 50 states. It's sold out. Sensitive new-age guy WAC? and another Hull McGuire person will attend. Hey, it beats giving money to state judge candidates in the jurisdictions where HMPC is licensed to practice law. Besides, we need the party. And I need a quick trip home.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:33 PM | Comments (0)

October 04, 2007

Idaho U.S. Sen. Craig not permitted to withdraw guilty plea.

In the wild wide world of wide stances, see WSJ Law Blog. Tough break for criminal defense lawyer Billy Martin, a WAC? favorite.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

October 02, 2007

Hillary's new $22 million

Contrary to what WAC? thought a year ago about her chances--we are wrong a lot ("best qualified but worst Dem candidate who can't and shouldn't get the nomination", we said)--HRC is kicking butt generally and now plays out pre-primary clock. AP: Clinton Tops Obama in 3rd Quarter Fund-Raising. Not over yet. But we are impressed. Dang.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

The Blogs of War, Day 2: The Brad Blog

The punishment of wise men who refuse to take part in the government is to live under the government of worse men. --Plato, The Republic, 360 B.C.

Over on the Left, today we have The Brad Blog, by journalist-broadcaster Brad Friedman. Last week a guest blogger posted "McCain Hurriedly Backtracks After Bigoted Anti-Muslim Comments". Hey, we told you these political bloggers (both Ds and Rs) were partisan and

serious--wait until you get a load of some of the other "Blogs of War" we'll show you. But we like The Brad Blog because there is way more writing-thinking and less yelling-knee-jerking than some of the other political sites. As Holden just mentioned to me on the phone: "Dude, just because you're off-the-charts partisan doesn't mean you're dumb or crazy." TBB has substance to match the moxie.

Posted by JD Hull at 07:38 PM | Comments (0)

October 01, 2007

Duke's apology: enough to stop a civil suit by players?

The Chronicle reports on the apology (given at the law school) over the weekend by Duke president Richard Brodhead to the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team and their families.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2007

Hanover hangover: Hillary by hair of the hound

Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire started out as a mission "to tame and civilize the wild and savage American Indians", or something like that. It's a great place, and one of the finest colleges in the world. In fact, WAC?, growing up in Cincinnati, applied to and was admitted to Dartmouth in the 1970s--but did not attend, citing as reasons his inferior drinking skills* and "are you crazy?...no girls". So he

headed for warmer Durham, North Carolina, where there were women, really interesting and smart ones, and no one started drinking until at least 10 AM. At last night's presidential Dem candidate debate in Hanover, WAC? and I, watching sporadically from San Luis Obispo, were impressed that now co-ed, always mega-smart but still hard-drinking Dartmouth student body apparently stayed passably sober for some of the evening program.

Our quick and dirty report: Hard to pin down Queen Hillary wins, as she runs out the clock. Strong showing by feisty John Edwards on Iraq war (he'll somehow just end it with no residual ops). Joe Biden--watch for him to end up as HRC's Secretary of State--is a traditional WAC? favorite but we can still see clearly enough to give him barely third place. Obama was really out to lunch--bad night for him--and WAC? still thinks he can kiss this all goodbye. He's not "ready"; he's never been ready. Maybe 2012. But, hey, this campaign is not over for anyone. We could be wrong. --HHO and JDH

*WAC? would have needed remedial drinking courses at Dartmouth. During a WAC? visit at age 17 to Dartmouth, an older ex-athlete from WAC?'s high school in Cincinnati, and WAC?'s former doubles tennis partner, got drunk in a dorm room where WAC? was hanging out one night and "blew lunch" on both WAC?'s new winter coat and on his Joni Mitchell "Blue" album.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2007

The Blogs of War, Day 1: Viking Pundit

Man is by nature a political animal. --Aristotle, Politics

Beginning today, and as our time permits, we'll start showcasing a few of the stronger U.S. political blogs: left, middle, right, and even off-spectrum. We start with Eric Lindholm's Viking Pundit.

What do American politics and the 2008 U.S. presidential election have to do with law, this blog, clients, customers, business, international law, litigation, IP, corporate tax, natural resources and the global economy, anyway?

Well, to us, everything. While each of us here who write or suggest

posts can be opinionated, the What About Clients? blog is non-partisan, with writers of several persuasions and strains: GOP, Democrat, independent (and one Druid, but she could be kidding). We are about ideas and standards, but we seek to mix and match the best--and then use it in real work and real life. Politics, and who stays in power or comes to power, affects all of that.

But we have no traditional or cookie-cutter party agenda. No "moral" imperative. Among ourselves, knee-jerk anything or convention for its own sake are frowned upon, and even laughed at lovingly. But if you consistently and steadfastly buy into this party line, or that cultural agenda, or anyone else's "outline" (other than your own), we might secretly think you're a chump. But we're here to help.

Similarly, Hull McGuire employees over the years, on their own, have worked for, raised money for, thrown and attend fundraisers for, and contributed to both Republican and Democratic candidates for national office. We encourage it. Each of us look beyond party. We cross-vote. But we think that politics--the art of controlling one's environment--is important no matter what your views are. Participation rounds out and secures your status as a true world citizen. And this is America, folks: use it or lose it.

On the Right, see Viking Pundit, by Eric Lindholm, "the only conservative in Western Massachusetts". His site is of particular interest to us as research indicates that WAC?'s mom, and therefore WAC? himself, has some serious Norse blood: reddish hair, love of life, attitude, and an overt marauding instinct (i.e., desire to rove and raid in search of plunder). On the Iran president's controversial visit to Columbia University--Columbia has this way cool First Amendment thing going some lawyers have heard of--Lindholm of course gets it right: "Ahmadinejad's a nutter. Let's be the adults in the room and send the message that we're made of stronger stuff." Lindholm writes like he probably talks, gets to the point, respects others, and he's funny. Visit him on line. NOTE: I know Massachusetts, and Lindholm's gotta be lonely as a conservative in pretty much any part of the state--the reverse of our JDH, an alleged "D", living for some reason in San Diego, with all those Orange County-esque Rs.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)

September 07, 2007

Duke LaX news: Rich kids have rights, too--and maybe they can get damages.

AP: "Former Duke Lacrosse D.A. Reports to Jail". Meanwhile, the City of Durham negotiates civil damages with some fancy Yankee lawyers representing the 3 Duke students. Even Williams & Connolly's Brendan Sullivan--as Oliver North's wonderfully aggressive lawyer in the Iran-Contra hearings 20 years ago, he said to Sen. Daniel Inouye: "I am not a potted plant"--is involved.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2007

The Blogs of War: 2008 U.S. Elections

"If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much space."

--Ernie of Glen Burnie, lawyer, philosopher, New Age pundit

Well, you could at least vote. It's the day after Labor Day: time to rev up for 2008 elections. Whether you're red, blue, green, independent or just another American man, woman, business person, manager, drone, government worker, accountant, lawyer, associate, partner, dynamo or human just barely mananging things these days, slouching toward your future, drooling at your desk, this 2008 election stuff concerns you, dudes. See Salon.com's "guide to the political blogosphere" in The Blog Report, where there's someone for everyone.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2007

U.S. 2008 election line-up and result?

Our prediction, and without comment: it will be Clinton-Obama v. Giuliani-Romney, unless one of the four is discovered to have done something "bad" in past or future. And unless there is a new 9/11 style attack on American soil, Democrats will win, but barely. Fred Thompson will be flavor of the week for several months but not be in play by end of February 2008. And for a while Thompson will be discussed as the perfect GOP VP candidate for Rudy.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)

August 31, 2007

Former Durham DA Mike Nifong back in court

See here, from The Chronicle, Duke's daily newspaper.

UPDATE 9/1/07: "Ex-Durham DA sentenced to one day in jail"

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 09:32 AM | Comments (0)

August 28, 2007

"Name's Larry--I work over near Union Station--just hate the echo in this one, don't you?"

Sen. Craig breaks bad. Here from AP, and here from the Washington Post. And Roll Call, dang!

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 12:55 AM | Comments (0)

August 27, 2007

Update: Gonzales is out; Clement is acting AG

From MSNBC.com.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 02:22 PM | Comments (0)

August 02, 2007

"And as the Greek philosopher Plotinus, who I also heard about at the Deke House at State, said many centuries later..."

The AP reports re: ongoing hearings on the U.S. Attorney firings that today "Bush aide offers little in testimony to Congress". And before an unamused Senate Judiciary Committee, this young guy cites, sort of, the poet Homer, apparently a favorite at the Bush White House:

“I hope that you can appreciate the difficulty of my situation,” [J. Scott] Jennings said. “It makes Odysseus’ voyage between Scylla and Charybdis seem like a pleasure cruise.”

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

Hillary and Rudy each pull ahead

NBC reports that here, based on a Peter Hart/Neil Newhouse bi-partisan poll. "Only" fifteen months to go until November 2008. Nonetheless, ex-political junkie and burned-out fundraiser WAC? just called from an undisclosed hotel in Puebla, Mexico and confidently predicted: new character attacks on Giuliani very soon, that the attacks don't work, and that you now have your two candidates. "And forget about Mitt Romney"--he is sincere and talented, but painfully annoying, and "way too weird for Peoria".

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 11:14 PM | Comments (0)

July 26, 2007

Most of U.S. media misses another award to 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Americans shallow? C'mon. Lindsay Lohan got trashed again, the shopping malls are all open, Wales is probably in Europe somewhere, and a college degree will still get you a job at an insurance company or the local utility for the next 35 years. What the hell else do we need to know? Well, maybe this: see an article by Newsweek's Jonathan

Alter on the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner who helped expand the world's food supply, "He Only Saved a Billion People". President Bush and Congress just held the ceremony to award American agronomist Norman Borlaug, 93, the Congressional Gold Medal. That award itself was announced 8 months ago. The WSJ noticed--but no one but Alter did this justice:

Only five people in history have ever won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal: Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel ... and Norman Borlaug.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:45 PM | Comments (0)

July 18, 2007

Congress: New Slack City

The AP reports that "Senate Pulls All-Nighter On Iraq". It sounds sillier than anyone expected. And what pansies. In olden days (circa 96th and 97th Cong.), when WAC? worked for Congress during those pointless posturing all-nighters, we (a) stayed up for 4 or 5 nights in a row with no cots, (b) ate nothing but the cheapest pharmaceutical "Crank", and (c) drank only coffee, whiskey, beer from the Tune Inn and Jolt cola, all out of dirty Mason jars. Spartan. Tireless. And just as lame.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:52 AM | Comments (0)

April 12, 2007

13 months at Duke: lawyers, pols and money.

I was gambling in Havana/I took a little risk.
Send lawyers, guns and money/Dad get me out of this. (W.Zevon)

Here, from the Associated Press. It's over - and it's not. As a Duke person, one who covered the Civil Rights beat in Durham off and on for a year working on The Chronicle, Duke's student daily (back when student newspapers wrote about such things regularly), I've stayed out of this. But the most astute thing that can be said was already said by someone else anyway--reportedly said yesterday by one of the wrongly accused lacrosse players--to this disturbing effect:

"If the State can do this to you [i.e., us Duke players] even if you have the resources to fight, think of what the State can do to you if you don't."

Posted by JD Hull at 04:34 PM | Comments (0)

April 05, 2007

Come 2009, will WAC? have an old friend in the White House?

WAC?, a recovering Democrat still surrounded by Rs on all fronts, is not sure whether Hillary Clinton can be elected. However, out of everyone in the current field of candidates, this lawyer, leader, manager, innovator and Renaissance woman, who has at least sounded more and more like a Republican in the past 2 years, would make the best chief executive, hands down, love her or hate her, no contest--and that's just a fact, Jack. And she certainly married well... If Hillary wins, WAC? and Hull McGuire may very well have an old and fun friend in the White House.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 09:33 AM | Comments (0)

April 02, 2007

The War in Washington, D.C.

“We tried a monarchy once,” Chuck Hagel (Nebraska-R) said recently. “It's not suited to America.” See in London's The Economist the article The War Comes To Washington. If you are not familiar with The Economist, do visit it. WAC? considers it to be a world-wide version of Time and Newsweek combined. It's as fair as print journalism gets, often funny and always well thought-out and well-written. If you are a business lawyer, The Economist is a must.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:40 PM | Comments (0)

March 05, 2007

Tom Eagleton (Sept. 4, 1929 – March 4, 2007)

The guy was mega-talented, never boring, and tragically unsung. I was lucky enough to be around Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton (D), a lot one summer long ago when I was attached (through Sen. Gaylord Nelson) to Kennedy's Health Subcommittee. No matter what you thought of his politics, Tom Eagleton (in Senate 1969-1987) was brighter, more driven, more creative, funnier, more polished, and way more interesting than most US politicians on the national stage....

He grew up privileged, but never acted like it. He seemed like a guy who might enjoy a beer. He was accomplished but fun. Openly irreverent, and with a strong Bohemian streak, he loved Pall Mall non-filters. Two or three puffs, and put it out. Over and over. If someone used in normal conversation the word "crazy", he's say "hey, let's watch that word around here, okay?" (making fun years later of his treatment for depression being all over the news in 1972). I can't do him justice--suffice to say Eagleton was something out of a great novel with richly-drawn, complex and beloved heros. I just really liked him.

Posted by JD Hull at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

I'm sorry--and gulp--but Ann Coulter is wonderfully feisty and funny, too...she's right sometimes--so stop all this PC stuff or I'll turn into a Republican.

It's here (in case you missed it), people are up in arms, and yeah, I like her--and I like John Edwards, too. But Edwards is running for national office. Let's not get too excited about the word "faggot". Unfortunately, in her context, it just means lame and ineffectual; people know what I mean/you mean/Ann Coulter means in that context when you say it the way she said it. Besides, it was funny--and her main point was not about Edwards, being gay or Edwards being gay (which no one believes for a second); rather Coulter lamented that all forms of human eccentricity and even small-mindedness which we liberals do not like this week have become illnesses society much treat.

Despite being surrounded all day long by Republicans, WAC? is not homophobic, likes gays, likes non-gays, likes people, likes words and even prefers the alternatives of "poof" or "fudgepacker" from time to time ("packer", for short, and for ease of reference, is good, too...). I also like the words "weenie", "twit" and "harpy", and the expressions "wretched harridan" (for an unpleasant woman) and "big-enough-to-have-their-own-zip-code" (for extremely portly people). But none of these are suspect classifications under the law either--nor should they be. They are not "hate" speech. So WAC? probably needs lots of rehabs--including one for swearing (hey, is there a "one-stop" facility I can go to?).

Posted by JD Hull at 12:13 AM | Comments (0)

March 04, 2007

3-party system: accept, evolve--or just smoke a Marlboro?

No child ever wrote to Santa, "Bring me, and a bunch of kids I've never met, a pony, and we'll share."

Politics, the art of controlling one's environment, is still important to me. For years I worked and/or raised money for candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties, and now I've grown very weary of the whole thing. But I still love author and humorist P.J. O'Rourke--for years Rolling Stone magazine's "Republican" counterweight to Hunter S. Thompson--who wrote the above in "Why I Am a Conservative in the First Place", RS (July 13-27, 1995). P.J.'s got a point--and it's a good place to start all political conversations. Human selfishness and willfulness is an old, old verity.

Posted by JD Hull at 05:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 05, 2007

Luntz's Words That Work: Orwellian, Machiavellian or just a tool?

It's likely all three and I am going to buy it. It appears to be a book for anyone who pitches and persuades. Republican consultant and pollster Frank Luntz has written Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear, which is already controversial (see here, here , here, and here) on the power of words. But it's not a "Republican" book. Luntz advises politicians on the language they should use to win elections and promote their policies. Luntz is all over the media--and there's no stopping him. So far the book sounds worthwhile--even when the detractors sound off.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2007

Father Drinan (1920-2008)

Robert F. Drinan - Lawyer, Congressman, Irishman, Priest. He served as a Representative from Massachusetts 1971-1981.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:41 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2007

Weenies in the News: Former DA in Duke rape case charged with ethics violations; WAC? monkey shocked again, goes nuts, flies to Durham, NC, holds mindless, pointless, gratuitous and demented press conferences in copycat mode.

From the Associated Press, and an excerpt:

“If these allegations are true and if they don’t justify disbarment, then I’m not sure what does,” said Joseph Kennedy, a law professor at the University of North Carolina. “It’s hard for me to imagine a more serious set of allegations against a prosecutor.”

Posted by JD Hull at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

Club Ned (...with apologies to the great Ned Beatty)

WASHINGTON, DC - H.R. YMCA: U.S. House Passes Groundbreaking Emergency Fudgepacker Legislation Protecting Defenseless Pages. Can my new Democratic U.S. House trumpet something more substantive soon? When WAC? worked in Longworth HOB and Russell SOB, Page School kids were precocious young sharks and rich-kid bohemians who needed no protection whatsoever from anyone or anything in the Capitol Hill community. They needed $20 to buy beer, dope and smack, the number of the nearest brothel, or maybe a new bong from an Adams-Morgan headshop. Wake me up when the Dems are done.

Posted by JD Hull at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2006

Michigan, Football, Yale and Genuine Class

Gerald Ford (1913-2006)

Ford was Everyman's U.S. president, a straight shooter and Dan Hull's Representative when he was a kid in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Posted by Holden Oliver (Kitzbühel Desk) at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

Serious Suggestions for 2007

1. Republicans: Bring back Don Rumsfeld. He's enormously talented, a national treasure, maybe indispensable. He's not evil, or a knee-jerk partisan; he correctly gets that civil rights are different in a war, and just needs to clean up his act a bit. He is a different breed than Cheney, Rice or Wolfowitz and has loads more real character and strength than Colin Powell. (Take a good look, too. Rummy "is us"--like him or not.) Forget about his age. He's too smart to waste, not ready for retirement.

2. Democrats: Consider a Joe Biden-Hillary Clinton ticket in 2008. It might work, if Senator Biden can get past certain old baggage with the voters. Hillary Rodham Clinton can't win--maybe not ever, but certainly not in 2008--and Biden has that Bill Clinton/President Bush-esque gift of connection with voters that HRC lacks and will continue to lack. A natural politician, Joe Biden actually likes other people, and it shows.

3. Consider a system of nationwide reciprocity in lawyer licensing. Let NY counsel freely invade CA if they need to to work there for longstanding clients as long as they agree to CA bar discipline.

4. Take a stand. Discourage "required" gender-neutral speech. Enough is enough. Let nature take its course. Words come into the arsenal of real English when they are ready. Quit forcing the issue. Resist "chairperson".

5. In the alternative, set aside a "required" day where everyone must smoke, smoke heavily, and smoke Camel non-filters.

6. In the alternative, set aside a day in the workplace on which everyone must talk to one another like Elvis ("thankyouvirymutch, for that e-mail, little honeys..."). And on that day, flirt in the workplace--and openly. Refuse to be a Dweeb.

7. Work very hard at anything you care about. Plan. Pray. And...swear and curse more--but only at work, and only on the record. More Howard, less Conan, less Rosie. More Parker Posey, less anyone named Brittany, Justin or other Gen X names. More Annabeth Gish. More Ellen Bry. Everyone in U.S. must acknowledge in writing that the simplest woman is 10 times more complex than any man.

8. Joking about any client is now a firing offense.

9. Stop Political and Cultural Stereotyping--and other Drive-By Cartoon-ings.

If you are a Democrat, please talk--really talk--to a Republican. And vice versa. Humans are complex and have all manner of reasons for voting or thinking the way they do. Resist the temptation to reduce people to political stereotypes in order to feel warm, fuzzy and self-righteous about your own ferverently-held beliefs, choices and situation. Be fairer. We all fall short here--even international and ecumenical WAC?, on his best day, harbors unfair prejudices and misapprehensions. Its smartest, best-read and best-travelled GOP and Dem friends do, too.

And the most gifted Americans also screw this one up royally, by conveniently reducing people with whom they disagree to cartoons and stock characters from bad morality plays. This past year one of my client reps, Julie McGuire (of Hull McGuire) and I had dinner with a wonderful and engaging poet and Pulitzer Prize winner. As he admitted, and movingly confessed, he was insular and isolated with other writers, academics and friends at Princeton and at his other home in Paris to a degree that my law partner Julie McGuire, was "the first Republican" he had talked with in many, many years. He seemed genuinely shocked (1) that he liked Julie, (2) that she was first in her class at Carnegie-Mellon in Mathematics and Business before entering law school (in which she was also first in her class), (3) that she had ever read James Joyce and (4) that she is both religious and spiritual, and very kind. Republicans, he had always felt, must be shallow, insensitive, patriotic in a goofy way, way dumb and just plain mean.

That, ladies and gentleman, is cultural insanity. And we are all doing it this decade in some degree. Americans are smarter than that. The culture war in America has become a drug too many of us need to feel Moral, Part of The Correct Sub-Tribe, and Right. Being Right is expensive, and will stunt your growth. Avoid contempt prior to investigation. Stop turning one another into silly Sci-Fi monsters-that-never-were. If you are a "D", start with George Bush, one of our most "American"--the good stuff/the bad stuff, warts and all--presidents ever (like Rumsfeld, Bush is us.) If you are an "R", re-evaluate Wild Bill Clinton, a visionary, inspirational and at heart a genuinely pro-people guy who, like Rummy, was damn funny and fun with reporters. Talent is talent--and none of these guys are Vlad the Impaler, Dr. Evil or Bugs Bunny. They trim Christmas trees, have dinner with family, play saxophones and drink beer in the Boom-Boom Room at the Westin like the rest of us.

10. Finally, and more importantly, Do Grow. Have a difficult but worthwhile relationshp. Read Hunter Thompson, and Francois Villon. Travel. Talk to people who aren't like you at all. Leave a legacy. Be original in some productive way. And at least play your old Yardbirds, John Mayall, Byrds and Kinks albums. Loud.

But get out of your cars and dance. Have a great 2007.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2006

Weenies in the News: Bill Frist

Staying in both loops, WAC? has dirtied his hands for both Ds and Rs, on Capitol Hill and in campaigns--intern, government employee, legislative assistant, lobbyist and fundraiser. True, it's a mixed, weird crowd that gets off on this stuff. But people from all persuasions are heartened by this anticlimactic news. WKRN.com: Frist Steps Down From Senate Majority Leader. Chattanoogan.com: Bill Frist Will Not Run For President In 2008. The second story is an old political one. Except when he opened his mouth, Frist was the Rs' perfectly engineered dog food; in the test markets, however, none of us dogs ever liked it.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2006

Borat: Aggressively un-PC, Disturbing, Wonderful.

Speaking of not-PC, ten days ago I saw Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, a spoof about a goofy anti-Semitic eastern European journalist created and played by a Jewish comedian and actor. It's not for everyone, but Borat is marvelously demented, inventive and painfully on-the-mark satire. A Vanity Fair reviewer called the movie a mirror Americans could hold up to themselves. I saw Borat in a theater of the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of conservative Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a Jewish enclave of that city, and one of very few locations in western Pennsylvania where Borat was shown. The audience, one of all adult ages, howled.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

Fertile new 4th Amendment/international law: Mini-Sub Stops.

Where will it end? One Sunday you and some buds are just tooling around in your sub off Costa Rica and the U.S. Coast Guard stops you, for no reason at all.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2006

CQ on 2008 U.S. Presidential Election

From the Congressional Quarterly Weekly, here's "The '08 Race for the White House Begins", by Craig Crawford. Twenty-six candidates.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 13, 2006

Election Law Special at Blawg Review #83

See this week's Blawg Review hosted by Rick Hasen of Loyola Law School at Election Law. BR No. 83 features an especially good mix of articles and posts on last week's mid-term elections.

Posted by JD Hull at 03:09 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2006

German Views on U.S. Mid-Term Elections

From the Atlantic Review, a news digest edited by three German Fulbright alumni now in Berlin, Hamburg and Shanghai, here is "German Reactions to the Midterm Elections". AR also recently published "US Election Results, German Prejudices and Direct Democracy".

Posted by JD Hull at 11:59 PM | Comments (0)

November 03, 2006

Part II: Tennessee Senate Race: 'How would Jesus vote?'

From NBC News, by Brian Williams, here's "It’s Mud Over Issues in the Volunteer State" in Harold Ford Jr. v. Bob Corker. A Williams quote: "Hand-to-hand combat for votes."

Posted by JD Hull at 05:35 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2006

The Senate Race in Tennessee: "How would Jesus vote?"

Before getting knee-deep into private practice, WAC? worked twice--on both Senate and House sides for, respectively, a 'D' and then an 'R'--at the U.S. Congress, and this consumed 3.5 years. Despite this, I still like national politics, and have been in and out of it on some level, usually fundraising, usually for 'D's, ever since. (Wes Clark was my last gig). Like other baby boomers, I came of age as Republicans learned how to run and win elections, which really just happened a little more than 25 years ago. I even sat in, as a young associate lawyer on the clock for a firm client, on a string of "strategy" meetings conducted by the late Lee Atwater, the infamous GOP consultant, after I had left Capitol Hill. I remember feeling like a spy.

Today, I am still amazed that over the past 25 years Karl Rove and other real, hard-core infrastructure Republicans out of the Reagan era before Rove, a talented but flat-out mean and extremely exclusive lot who most Americans never meet, could dupe millions of the now "new" rank-and-file middle-class Republicans in the South, West, Midwest, and even working-class parts of the Northeast--voters they don't personally like, care about or would ever have coffee with--into voting Republican in the first place. Yes, it amazes me.

I don't hate Republicans. I grew up in serious 'R' country, and I vote 'R' a lot. And I am a lawyer, one who writes about meeting higher standards; competence, even when evil, thrills us all. The Lee Atwaters and Karl Roves have been very effective--and Democrats have spent years wondering what hit them in a mix of alarm and envy. 'R's learned how to recruit big-time business and legal talent. 'D's, with their "big tent", have seemed repeatedly like world-class screw-ups, even during the Clinton years. The last time "competence" was closely associated with a Democratic presidential campaign was in Teddy White's book The Making of a President, on the 1960 Kennedy victory.

But I am even more amazed that many middle-class Southerners who are "religious" (of any race) ever vote Republican, or that they even exist in great numbers. Reagan Republicanism is at heart a Yankee-Northeast/Orange County, California invention for (1) the wealthy (let's not define that--but I am thinking $2 million minimum net worth) who vote their pocket books (that's perfectly rational) or for (2) the limited number of true believers who really do believe in non-activist government (that constituency makes sense, too). There are people of true faith in any religion, and other spiritual beings; they quietly inspire, and we seem intuitively to know them when they're around us a while. But you don't meet that many. I know and like lots of genuine Republicans in several states, Southerners included, and hardly any of them, except for a zealot or morally pretentious jackass here and there, claim to be particularly devout, observant or religious. Some of my best friends, and nearly all of our firm's clients (i.e., the client GCs and reps), are sane 'R's.

You can't tell anyone how to vote. But naturally-occurring religious Republican Southerners? Who are these guys? I travel, and I'm not running into them. But maybe I am dead wrong about their very existence. See Salon's article "How Would Jesus Vote?", focusing on the "church-vote" component of the campaign of Democrat Harold Ford Jr., who is black, in the Tennessee Senate race, and how Ford may pick up a few of those coveted 'R' church votes. This grabbed me. Maybe white 'R's are in those pews--and Democrat Ford, with a Bush-Republican Congress backlash going for him, has a shot at those voters.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:56 PM | Comments (0)

October 14, 2006

WAC? Gratuitous Political Prediction: Bobby Shriver

Bobby Shriver, 52, Sargent Shriver's son and lawyer elected to the Santa Monica (California) City Council in 2004, will run for national office in the next 4 years.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:50 PM | Comments (0)

July 24, 2006

Sane American Employer Sought By 157 Mega-Productive Lawyers.

WAC? does not, generally speaking, love either American lawyers or the U.S. federal estate (or "death") tax. Neither institution encourages productivity, is efficient, has high standards or is "customer-service" oriented. However, as to lawyers, there are always exceptions. And everyone loves productive lawyering. According to a New York Times article by David Cay Johnston, in what may be the Bush Administration's "back-door" play to emasculate enforcement and collection of the death tax in lieu of an outright repeal, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service is cutting 157 out of its 345 estate tax lawyers in the next 2 months.

Forget for a moment about how you feel about the death tax and consider this amazing fact. The NYT article says that "for each hour they [IRS estate tax lawyers] work, they find an average of $2,200 of taxes owed to the government" (emphasis ours). WAC?'s advice is (1) show the article to associate lawyers to inspire new efficiency techniques and (2) if you do tax work at your shop, find out who these 157 people are--and hire them.

Posted by JD Hull at 10:14 AM | Comments (0)

May 19, 2006

"Stress, Fear and Deception"

Expect to see a few lawyers missing their flights.

According to the Reuters news item "U.S. Expanding Behavior Profiling At Airports", agents of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration will now monitor passengers at high-risk airports for signs of "stress, fear and deception". Other signs of "abnormal behavior" are "wearing coats when it's warm" or "acting fidgety or nervous"... Constitutional issues aside, this can't be good news for lawyers. Most lawyers I know travel, are high strung to begin with, and can look menacing, paranoid or even slightly unbalanced just deciding what to order for lunch. Not a relaxed or "normal" lot. So let's hope the TSA people receive the right training.

Posted by JD Hull at 11:13 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2006

Huh?--Hardly Any of the AUSA's We Know Are Eagle Scouts.

Since this post could make me seem biased about the federal prosecutor "personality", and to be unfairly generalizing, I'll make some preliminary comments. First, I'm an Eagle Scout. I know a real Eagle Scout when I see one. Second, I've defended in lots of federal environmental cases and in a few white-collar criminal and public integrity matters with U.S. Justice Department attorneys--generally an extremely talented bunch--on the other side. Third, DOJ is hands down the best place in the country to learn how to try a case. Finally, any U.S. Attorney's office is also a really good place for us all to get in touch with our inner Machiavelli. Some of my best friends have worked as AUSA's--almost overnight he or she develops the combined sensibilities and morals of a rock, a plant and a hammerhead shark.

Hardly any male AUSA I know is an Eagle Scout. I strongly suspect that an AUSA who is an Eagle Scout and at some point is outed as one is asked to formally repudiate the award in a secret and hopelessly demented "remedial" DOJ hooded ceremony, a Black Mass of sorts, followed by an hour or so of mead drinking and maybe doing the antler dance. So I was surprised but intrigued that the WSJ Law Blog this morning reported that the the president has nominated to the federal trial bench in North Carolina an obviously successful (by DOJ gun notch standards), forthright and talented 45-year-old U.S. Attorney with serious Republican credentials who was/is an Eagle Scout. He is a "tall and stout" one at that, according to The Raleigh News & Observer. And presumably trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and free of creative government witnesses, vindictiveness and Brady violations. Hey, let's hope so. This guy's probably going to be a federal judge.

Posted by JD Hull at 08:42 AM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2006

The Article II, Section 2, Maybe-It's-Just-Me Department.

So Samuel Alito "wins" 58 to 42 with only 5 party "defections" total. Regardless of your politics, and notwithstanding how elastic the Constitution really is or isn't, does anyone out there really believe that the framers anticipated that the president's power to appoint "Judges of the Supreme Court" with "the Advice and Consent of the Senate" would yield the kind of process we've structured 219 years later?

Posted by JD Hull at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2006

"Who's Greener--Democrats or Republicans?"

Mainly for fun, I tried to answer the above question in an informal article with a surprising conclusion I wrote for the January-February Water & Wastewater Products Magazine as part of a bi-monthly column I write called "Waterlawged." One of my firm's practice areas is environmental law--especially Clean Water Act compliance and NPDES (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, if you really want to know) permitting. Even if you or your clients are not directly involved with environmental or natural resources law compliance--and especially if you have an interest in American politics or what goes on in Congress--you might find "Who's Greener--Democrats or Republicans?" interesting. Or at least funny.

WWP Magazine, as dull as it sounds, has great writing and useful (if sometimes technical) content. Put out by Stevens Publishing in Dallas, it is the best clean water industry publication I have seen. And WWP is fast becoming the Vanity Fair or Women's Wear Daily of the environmental trade pub circuit. It seems to be in search of sober latter-day Hunter Thompsons and good writers with environmental credentials; the writing, of course, must be dead-on accurate. And funny is not required.

Posted by JD Hull at 09:16 PM | Comments (0)