Month: October 2005

Feet of Clay?

“The blend of businessmen’s aversion to government regulation, down-home cultural populism and Christian moralism that sustains today’s Republican Party is a venerable if loosely knit philosophy of government dating back to long before the right-wing upsurge that prepared the way for Reagan’s presidency…Insofar as perennial themes shape our politics, it is remarkable how so many of contemporary conservatism’s central ideas and slogans renovate old Whig appeals.“

By way of Cliopatria, historian Sean Wilentz compares today’s GOP to the Whig Party of the 1830’s and ’40s. Food for thought, but, as Wilentz himself admits, the general lack of state power back then — and, more importantly, the absence of corporate consolidation in the antebellum era — significantly changes the rules of the game. While laissez-faire policies more likely meant increased competition and economic growth in the 19th century, it means something else entirely in today’s world, when long-standing, fully-formed corporate behemoths are ready and willing to fill any power vacuum left by less government regulation. (That’s why the Gilded Age analogy, I think, still makes more sense — It’s business cronyism, and not economic competition, that drives Dubya republicanism.) Update: Via The Late Adopter, Eric Foner, the centerpiece of a weekend conference around these parts, reviews Wilentz’s new tome in The Nation.

Stone’s Last Stand.

After the atrocious Alexander, Oliver Stone returns to American history for inspiration with Son of the Morning Star, based on the 1997 book by Evan S. Connell about George A. Custer and Little Bighorn. Ok, but I still want to see Stone’s take on LBJ some day, just to complete the trifecta.

Ralph, Grover, & the Jack of Hearts.

Kickbacks, bribes, forgery, money-laundering…it’s all in a day’s work for Casino Jack and his band of conservative cronies. In a must-read piece of reporting, the Washington Post tells the sordid tale of Jack Abramoff’s shilling for eLottery Inc in full. Along with paying off both Boss DeLay and a senior aide on his payroll to spike an anti-gambling bill, “Abramoff quietly arranged for eLottery to pay conservative, anti-gambling activists to help in the firm’s $2 million pro-gambling campaign, including Ralph Reed, former head of the Christian Coalition, and the Rev. Louis P. Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. Both kept in close contact with Abramoff about the arrangement, e-mails show. Abramoff also turned to prominent anti-tax conservative Grover Norquist, arranging to route some of eLottery’s money for Reed through Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform.”

On the Backs of the Struggling.

Has Operation Offset been enacted? “Beginning this week, the House GOP lawmakers will take steps to cut as much as $50 billion from the fiscal 2006 budget for health care for the poor, food stamps and farm supports, as well as considering across-the-board cuts in other programs.” There’s today’s GOP in a nutshell for you. When the going gets tough, their first instinct is to keep the Dubya tax breaks for millionaires and crack down instead on food stamps and Medicaid. Really, who put these assholes in charge of the public purse? You couldn’t find a more detestable gang of bandits and thugs if you tried.

MillerTimes.

“Greg Mitchell, who edits Editor & Publisher, writes, ‘Miller did far more damage to her newspaper than did Jayson Blair, and that’s not even counting her WMD reporting, which hurt and embarrassed the paper in other ways.’ Jay Rosen concurs. ‘There’s no question,’ he says, ‘this is bigger than Jayson Blair.'” Salon‘s Farhad Manjoo deconstructs the NY Times coverage of Judy Miller’s involvement in Plamegate (available here), and explains why Cheney chief Lewis Libby, in particular, may now be facing an obstruction of justice charge. If it’s any consolation, Scooter, Rove’s in hot water, too.

Googlarians unite.

“What’s going on? Google has become the new ground zero for the ‘other’ culture war. Not the one between Ralph Reed and Timothy Leary, but the war between Silicon Valley and Hollywood; California’s cultural civil war. At stake are two different visions of what might best promote authorship in this country. One side trumpets the culture of authorial exposure, the other urges the culture of authorial control.” University of Virginia Law professor Tim Wu surveys the controversy over Google Print, and makes a cautious plea for writers and academics to get behind the project.

Two Sides to Every Story.

Here’s some interesting news: Clint Eastwood is coming out with two films about the Battle of Iwo Jima simultaneously next year, Flags of our Fathers (the US perspective) and Lamps Before the Wind (from the Japanese viewpoint.) “Typically, Eastwood is not able to articulate fully his rationale for this ambitious enterprise: ‘I don’t know — sometimes you get a feeling about something. You have a premonition that you can get something decent out of it,’ he says. ‘You just have to trust your gut.’” Well, that and your sources.

Taking the Rocky Road.

“‘Rocky Balboa’ is about everybody who feels they want to participate in the race of life, rather than be a bystander…You’re never too old to climb a mountain, if that’s your desire.” Sylvester Stallone returns for Rocky Balboa, a.k.a. Rocky VI. I guess what he’s trying to say is, if he can come back, and you can come back, everybody can come back! (Cue Gorby-lookalike clapping.)

Shore Shipped?

In a strange turn of events this late in the game (particularly given this production diary), Howard Shore is off King Kong, to be replaced by James Newton Howard, late of the Batman Begins score. Says PJ: “During the last few weeks, Howard and I came to realize that we had differing creative aspirations…Rather than waste time arguing with a friend and trying to unify our points of view, we decided amicably to let another composer score the film.” Well, he was right about Stu Townsend, I suppose.

Pick your Poison.

“‘The one that people are most worried about is Abramoff because it seems to have such long tentacles…This seems to be something that could spread almost anywhere…and that has a lot of people worried.'” As Rove testifies for a fourth time before Patrick Fitzgerald’s inquiry into Plamegate and Boss DeLay’s phone records are subpoenaed by Texas DA Ronnie Earle, the WP surveys the political fallout from the many GOP corruption scandals currently in play.