Progressive Viewpoints

Re: A 'no' vote on Fox News snub

To the editors -

When Scott Collins equated politicians “snubbing” Fox News to President Nixon's political “enemies list”, he totally missed the point of what Nixon's enemies list represented: Nixon used the power of the government to attack those perceived enemies and cover up the crimes committed.  That is an abuse of the public trust, illegal and the remedy was impeachment.

But when a candidate for office choses not to appear in certain forums, even if they keep a list of which ones they do and don't favor and even if a group of  them agreed, there is still nothing illegal about it, and it most certainly does not involve the abuse of “enemies” by using the apparatus of government from the power of their elected office.

Every figure chooses their forums all the time and snubs others.  Examples:

The White House has snubbed and condescended to Helen Thomas of the White House press corps for years, but Collins hasn't equated that to Nixon's impeachable offenses.

Bush and Cheney interview with right-wing talk show hosts, but when have they ever been on with a progressive talk radio show host like Ed Shultz?  Never!  There may be a “no appearances” list or not, but that still doesn't make it illegal or equivalent to Nixon's enemies list unless they use the apparatus of government to actually go after them.

What Collins displayed is a common conservative distort-and-distract technique: take a general similarity between two things and use that to conflate them by ignoring the salient differences between them in order to destroy the person they don't agree with: if Nixon had a list and person A has a list and if Nixon committed crimes and was impeached because of his list then [distortion] person B must be a criminal too! and [distraction] we should talk about their “criminality”.

In this case, the purpose of the distortion is to distract from the real issue raised by the “snub”: that some Democrats think there is no point being on Fox because Fox's political bias will simply be used to insult and demean them as people and be used to distort their messages in order to further Fox's own opposing political agenda.

So, the actual controversial issue isn't, as Collins would have it, that “snubbing is happening!”, the issue is what the snub what pointing out: Fox News is a political wolf in news clothing.

SHORT FORM:

When Scott Collins equated politicians “snubbing” Fox News to President Nixon's political “enemies list”, he totally missed the point of what Nixon's enemies list represented: Nixon used the power of the government to attack those perceived enemies and cover up the crimes committed.  That is an abuse of the public trust, illegal and the remedy was impeachment.

But when a candidate for office choses not to appear in certain forums, even if they keep a list of which ones they do and don't favor and even if a group of  them agreed, there is still nothing illegal about it, and it most certainly does not involve the abuse of “enemies” by using the apparatus of government from the power of their elected office.

Every figure chooses their forums and snubs others, just as Republicans appear only on right-wing talk radio but never on progressive talk radio like Ed Shultz.

The actual controversial issue isn't, as Collins would have it, that “snubbing is happening!”, the issue is what the snub what pointing out: Fox News is a political wolf in news clothing.

Technorati Tags: George_Bush, impeachment, Richard_M_Nixon

Fix Measure 37

[Letter to the News-Register, submitted 5/7/2007]

I was disappointed that HD24 Representative Donna Nelson voted against fixing Measure 37, and wants to leave the legal mess in place and the threats of industrialization and  subdivisions everywhere in our county and state.

Recent polling (http://friends.org/issues/M37/documents/040307_OregonStatewideVoterSurvey.pdf) shows that only 19% of Oregonians support Nelson’s position to leave Measure 37 as is.  The  testimony at county commission hearings, and at the state legislature (including the Yamhill County Farm Bureau), and letters to the editors, all show that many of HD 24 voters and residents belong to the 69% who believe that Measure 37 should be fixed or removed but in any case not retained as is.

Furthermore, what she claims she wants to see in a revision of Measure 37 (http://www.leg.state.or.us/nelsond/pr_050407.pdf), transferability and quick approval on small claims, are actually part of the bill she voted against!

She may be representing someone or something, but it doesn’t appear to be the broad constitutency of today’s HD 24, which wants to see Measure 37 fixed to keep Measure 37's stronger property rights while also supporting farmers and neighbors and constraining sprawl and industrialization.

Technorati Tags: land_use, Measure_37, property_rights

Re: The American Way of Equality

[Submitted to the New York Times re: Re: The American Way of Equality 1/14/2007]

David Brooks complains in his column, The American Way of Equality (1/14/2007), that all the Democrats have done in the first few hours of congressional majority is to “push through a series of small proposals.”  He is disingenuous: even these “small pebbles” he decries have been blocked for years by Republicans and 70 - 80% of Americans want them, which only shows how awfully Republicans have governed and how appropriately the Democrats are starting out; (2) these are only the first few backlogged things out of the gate -- good governance means a longer period to develop comprehensive legislation, and (3) these are in fact positions the Democrats campaigned on.

Technorati Tags: Letters_&_Op-Ed

Re: Watershed

[Submitted re: Watershed, 11/20/2006 in the Nation]

In “Watershed”, William Greider gives a great breakdown of the situation, opportunities and challenges ahead for Democrats, who were given a major political opening in the mid-terms.  But he reinforced that famous false choice of Democrats which cripples them when he wrote, “'message' should take a back seat to 'substance'.”

It isn't an either-or choice; Democrats must do both.  There's no point to winning if there isn't substance, but Democrats have not articulated their case well for years and years and it has hampered them badly.

Democrats need not only to have substantive policies that address the central concerns of American lives, but also must make their case for those better.  Democrats need to express a more shared, simple language that expresses our values and principles and draws contrasts with Republicanism ... taxes are civic investments, fair-market capitalism not free-market fundamentalism, responsible government not bigger or smaller government, open democracy not one-party rule, etc.

I would have expected more appreciation of the value of words from an author who uses them so well himself.  After all, the ringing words that open both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution still echo loudly exactly because they made their case so eloquently, and were not just, respectively, a litany of complaints and a set of organizing principles.

Technorati Tags: Democracy_&_Elections, Framing, political strategy, political_strategy, Progressive_Viewpoints, Restoring_a_Progressive_America, Values and principles, Values_and_principles

Saxton lied

[Submitted to the Oregonian 10/6/2006]

To the Editors -

Card-carrying Republican Ron Saxton lied about large numbers of illegal immigrants voting in Oregon elections, whereas the truth is that in reviewing 15 years of investigations, the Secretary of State found just two cases out of over 10 million votes.  If Saxton is willing to lie to get into office, what will he do to keep power if he gets in office?

Saxton’s strategy of doing anything to get in office is part of the corrupt national Republican Party machine, which is financing him, along with a few big-money special-interest donors giving $250,000 or more.  But Oregonians already know how deeply corrupt and inept Republicans are when in office -- from taking Abramoff's bribes, to covering for Foley, to Iraq and Katrina and to unreported beer & wine junkets to Hawaii.  Let’s not let this spread in Oregon.

Don’t let Saxton lie his way into office because he won’t be representing the good values and people of Oregon if he gets there.

Technorati Tags: Oregon, Progressive_Viewpoints

Re: Big Ideas and No Boundaries

[To Tom Freidman re: Re: Big Ideas and No Boundaries, published in the NYT on 10/5/2006; also posted as a comment on Huffington Post re: David Sirota's Another Open Letter to Thomas Friedman]

Tom, I think you set up an exagerrated and false dichotomy.  If you listen to the voices out there, I don’t think you hear protectionism.  You hear concern, certainly, but the view isn’t “shut our borders” it is “fair trade” vs “free” trade.  You like to pretend it is just Joe software engineer versus Prashant software engineer, but it goes much deeper.

Fair trade ideas are about, as you must know, not out-sourcing pollution with the jobs, not trying to compete in a rush to the bottom by competing against economies that don’t have worker protections to allow collective bargaining, to be treated fairly, to be actually paid for the work they do, etc.

By saying that anyone who thinks that there are real, serious issues with the current world trading system must be only the most extreme opposite is to miss the point and frankly, knowing how well informed you generally are, seems intellectually dishonest.

Technorati Tags: Freedom_of_Opportunity_&_Economy, Freedom_of_Opportunity_&_Economy, Progressive_Viewpoints, Thomas_Friedman

Re: Fighting the Flat-Earthers

[Re: Fighting the Flat-Earthers in TomPaine.com, published as So, What Are We Supposed To Do About It? ]

While I agree with the diagnosis, I find the “box” metaphor problematic. The “sunny flat world” is not about the problem, it is about the solution. The “box” may help us label the problem and talk about it, but it doesn't seem to help label and structure a solution.

Technorati Tags: Freedom of opportunity, Freedom_of_Opportunity_&_Economy, Freedom_of_Opportunity_&_Economy, Letters_&_Op-Ed, Progressive_Viewpoints, Restoring_a_Progressive_America

Re: The Populist Myths on Income Inequality

[Submitted to The New York Times 9/6/2006 Re: The Populist Myths on Income Inequality]

To the Editors -

David Brooks has mounted a vigorous but misleading defense of the conservative neo-Feudalism by gliding right past its sins: cut taxes on the rich while sending the poor to war, tax working people's income but not rich people's wealth (capital gains), eliminate the dynasty tax on the rich so they can build eternal family baronies of inherited wealth, use corporate coffers to finance politicians to get subsidies from the government.

The common good for We the People? Hah!  Conservatives like Brooks see the common goodies for the most manipulative, not the most deserving.

Technorati Tags: corruption, Freedom of opportunity, Freedom_of_Opportunity_&_Economy, Freedom_of_Opportunity_&_Economy, Letters_&_Op-Ed, poverty, Progressive_Viewpoints, Rot_at_the_Top

Re: Who died and left you president of the United States

[Submitted to The Oregonian re: Who died and left you president of the United States? on 6/29/2006]

Letter to the Editor -

Pity poor David Reinhard, living in his bubble of Republican talking points with no connection to the fresh air of the world, asserting the New York Times committed treason for their article about datamining of banking records.

Back in 2000, Al Gore identified terrorism as the number one security threat, saying “Whether terrorism is ... inspired by a single fanatic individual, such as Osama bin Laden ... We must ... target terrorist finances, break up support cells, and disrupt training....”

And after 9-11 there were many stories about breaking up terrorist financing,  suspect charities, freezing bank accounts, money laundering, etc.

Bush ignored outgoing administration officials, his own counter-terrorism chief and a CIA briefing “Bin Laden determined to attack US”.  Republicans ignored the evidence against Iraq’s WMD and invented a tie to terrorism.

Six times as many American’s have died or been grievously wounded in Iraq than on 9-11.  Hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted in the sands of Iraq.

Let us not let the tragic deaths of the horrific events of 9-11 continue to be misplaced fodder for Republican political calculation to avoid accountability for their tragic errors.

Shame on you, David Reinhard.

Technorati Tags: Character_&_Leadership, George Bush, George_Bush, incompetence, Letters_&_Op-Ed, National security, National_security, Osama bin Laden, Progressive_Viewpoints, Right wing myths, Rot at the Top, Rot_at_the_Top, Terrorism, Tyranny

My Vote for Cassie Sollars

[Published in the News-Register as Fierce on issues on 5/13/2006]

To Reader's Forum:

I had the chance to sit down with Cassie Sollars over pizza at Zippy’s in Yamhill recently, and what a refreshing breath of fresh air she would make as a Yamhill County Commissioner!

She’s open, eager to do what’s best for the whole county and ready to tackle the issues we face in managing growth, getting a handle on meth and other issues all while managing our taxes appropriately.

She strikes me as someone who will be a true representative of all the county once elected, not just her base.  She is not idealogically rigid, but instead ready to craft compromises that can form a broad county consensus beyond those who vote for her.  She understands that even well-intentioned laws can be badly written and I would expect her to seek input from everyone affected so that she can represent Yamhill County not only in County Commission meetings, but to state officials to help craft improvements that work better for Yamhill County as a whole and not just for her supporters.

Open, generous, and dedicated to our community, yet fierce to tackle the festering problems in the county the current commission has left us, Cassie Sollars has my vote!

Technorati Tags: Letters_&_Op-Ed, Yamhill_County