All Reagan, all the time

At least for a little while.

I will not belabor the clichéed Gen-X Reagan-was-the-first-president-I-remember stuff. (Stacie did that well enough here.) I have something a little different.

When things go wrong, no matter how big or small, I often say, "You know who I blame?" The answer, of course, is "Reagan, just on principle."

Now, I know not everything is his fault. In fact, there were some things that he did well. But if you take a look at the mess we're in now--the mess we've been in for the better part of two decades--a lot of the blame lies at Reagan's feet.

I refuse to launch into any kind of anti-Reagan screed; I don't think he deserves vitriol as much as some of my blogeagues seem to. I will only casually reference Atrios and Kos in case anyone here may be laboring under the (mis)understanding that Reagan was the most popular president ever.

Instead, let me just calmly explain what I mean.

Ronald Reagan -- The Man, The Myth, The Eulogy

As usual, Fafblog gets it right, Quoth the Medium Lobster:

Was Ronald Reagan the best president? No, nor was he the worst. But the important thing is that now, long after his passing, he can be idealized, transformed and transfigured by time and ideology into a symbol of everything we desire or loathe in America, so that Ronald Reagan the man is utterly erased and replaced with Ronald Reagan the Icon, a convenient projection of our most feverish motivations in animatronic Hall-of-Presidents form.

Around the OSP Blogs

[Insert welcome message of you choice here. I've run out of ideas.]

Fred Washington discusses various issues, including liberals and political discourse, and George Tenet's resignation (post from 6/4).

Steve at the Modulator talks about incarceration rate in the USA.

Jeff Alworth on Bush's smaller legacies.

Professor Kim writes about Ronald Reagan and his election.

Blunted on Reality answers 21 questions.

Adam Morris destroys some myths concerning Tianamen Square (read the entire comment thread, not just Adam's main post).

Stentor Danielson attacks some gender relations on the blogosphere.

N. Todd Pritsky has his own take on Ronald Reagan.

Dru Blood attacks the latest round of misogyny on the blogosphere.

Richard Silverstein attacks a conservative archbishop.

The Poison Kitchen on Chalabi.

Barbara O'Brien on women bloggers.

You should read this

I had A Bitter Thought yesterday. I wrote about it, and you should read the whole post.

Breaking News: Reagan Dies

Former president and god of the modern right-wing pantheon, Ronald Reagan, passed away. Be prepared for several weeks of the liberal media providing loving and gooey tributes.

Story.

Please forward us any media stories that are excessively gooey or exaggerate the Reagan record, as I'm sure they are coming. Let's use this instance to examine the "liberal media" claim.

Electoral Projection

In my latest electoral projection based on state-by-state polls, John Kerry's lead has shrunk and now rests below the magical 270 number, with a lead of 263-231 The largest change comes from a series of polls from Rasmussen that give Bush some small leads in big states. These leads are within the margin of error, so these numbers could change significantly. Besides, I'm not sure how valid these latest Rasmussen numbers are because the polls have some strange methodology. They plan on releasing their first electoral projection later in the week.

Fiction Time

The second part of the first chapter of Freedom is Slavery is up, as are a few changes to the last 2-3 paragraphs of the first part.

Next Chess Move

I've been assured by NTodd that he is working on the next move of The World's First Blogger's Chess Match.

Just one thing.........

What's a Blogger's Chess Match? It's been so long, and my memory is not what it use to be, and it was bad to begin with............

Breaking News: Tenet Resigns

As reported here. He cited the old standby "personal reasons." He probably wants to spend more time with his family. Maybe he wants to travel. Or maybe he'll write a book.

(Note: Our very own NTodd over at Dohiyi Mir was the first to spot this story).

Clear Proof...

...that we are the good guys and they are the bad guys:

Don King, the wild-haired boxing promoter, is touring the country with Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie to tout President Bush's re-election.

The Day After Tomorrow

I watched the movie The Day After Tomorrow yesterday... Vanessa Gatsch wrote a review of the movie a few days ago, and I'm not going to write another one. In this post, I'm going to concentrate on the movie's science, which ranges from pseudo-scientific crap to made up fantasies. In order to avoid being an asshole, I'm posting the actual points in the read-more part of this article.

What I am going to say here is that the movie is bad publicity for environmental science. This is for two reasons: one, people will think that this is the actual argument for anthropogenic climate change; and two, people will look for signs such as the Statue of Liberty freezing rather than things more in tune with reality such as a slow but steady rise of sea level. Add to that conservative/libertarian lies such as that the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than today (it was warmer by around -0.5 degrees Celsius) and scary costs of bringing the situation under control, and you get an unhealthy stew contributing to denials of the fact that the planet is warming because of human activity.

In the Culture section, Kim Pearson has a review of the book Killing the Buddha: A Heretic's Bible.

An anology you won't see on the SAT

	IS TO
AS
	IS TO

Dead Pool?

Should we start a pool to see how long Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi will go without being assassinated? Do we really think a peson with connections to the CIA and Chalabi has much chance of being accepted by the Iraqi people? I'm sure Ghazi al-Yawar, the ceremonial president, will be fine, since he is critical of the U.S. and has no power, but I don't think Allawi is likely to live to see Iraqi elections.

(Yes, I know that a dead pool would be an insensitive thing to actually do, I'm just kidding. What, do you think I work for John Poindexter or something?)

Reading Assignment

Nothing new here yet today, so go read the A-Z of Iraq war lies. Good stuff. For more laughs, go to the Hamster and check out comedy Tuesday.

Also, check out the chart on the prescription drug benefit over at the Hoeffel campaign site. Good stuff (it's at the bottom of the page).

Sunday News and Links

Trish Wilson links up a series of posts about Emergency Contraception: Plan B from The Well-Timed Period.
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Reading articles like this one about our public school system and policies and this one about censorship in the schools makes it easy to understand why so many people are choosing to homeschool. Meanwhile, Paul Street reports for The Black Commentator on why some are "in no mood for a Brown v. Board Birthday Bash."
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The man, who identified himself as Frank, told police he was a 53-year-old Marine Corps veteran and college graduate who served in Vietnam.

He came to Oregon with his daughter, Ruth, from Tacoma with no job and virtually no money. Frank told police that the girl's mother was institutionalized in New Hampshire, and the two now lived on a $400-a-month disability check.

Rather than live on the streets and expose Ruth to alcohol and drugs, Frank said, they hiked deep into Forest Park and built a lean-to.

Hesiod links up this article about looting in Iraq
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OSP's own Jay Bullock (aka folkbum) won the Iron Blogger challenge on the subject of Gay Marriage. Way to go, Jay.
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June is Gay Pride Month, in spite of George Bush's refusal to recognize it, and those of you in New York City can celebrate by dropping in on the June version of the WYSIWYG talent show hosted by the lovely Uff.
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Have you read LiP magazine online? I can't choose just one article to link to.
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Christopher Allbritton explains his absence and describes the challenges reporters face in Iraq.
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asfo_del at Living On Less writes about squatting, "slums," and Brazilian favelas.
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Have you seen the new Diebold ad campaign? [link courtesy of shameless agitator]
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Trish scores again with this link to a scathing criticism of a so-called "father's rights" book.
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wow.

A Stronger America

What's the point of having a stronger USA? The RNC ads on Blogspot are entitled "Build a Stronger America" or "Building a Stronger America" - I'm not sure which. Progressives talk of energy independence. I ask, what's the point?

It's not exactly a big secret that the USA does what it wants. Bush spat on everyone in the world when he invaded Iraq, ostensibly "doing the right thing." If India tried to "do the right thing" and occupy Pakistan, or if Indonesia tried to "do the right thing" and invade Malaysia, this would not be tolerated. Clinton was different from Bush in that he convinced the world that bombing countries for no good reason was a good idea, but that, too, was part of the too-strong-a-country syndrome.

A weaker USA means less unilateralism and more cooperation. Neo-conservatives object to everything that weakens their ability to do whatever they like, but that doesn't mean that they're right, at least until they show that murdering tens of thousands of innocent civilians and destabilizing an already-explosive region of the world (pun intended) is good for the world. This brings me to another point: what's good for the USA is not necessarily what's good for the world. In fact, I believe that in international relations, what's good for the USA is bad for the world and vice versa, with the fight against international terrorism being a big exception. But even with Al Qaida, what's needed is not a strong USA or a militarily strong West - what's needed is intelligence in the short run and humanitarian aid in the medium and long runs.

Environmentalism and Science

Natasha Celine has an excellent point about environmentalism. She says:

[I have to say here that the death of environmentalism might not be an entirely bad thing. Put a nail in the coffin already. Bollocks to people who want to spread a message of brotherhood with the animals, and double bollocks to those who like to talk about the sacredness of untouched nature. Kill environmentalism, and bring on the environmental science.

We don't need to protect the animals because they're cute, or unique, or interesting. We need to protect them because they keep us alive. We don't need to protect the trees because they're sacred and old, but because they filter our water, maintain our atmosphere, and keep our topsoil in place. Coral reefs shouldn't be protected because they're fun to visit, but because populations will starve and the reefs will cease to protect coasts from the full force of storms. The earth doesn't need us, we need it.]

Around the OSP Blogs

Nobody expects the Around the OSP Blogs column! Well, I guess you did... damn.

All Facts and Opinions shares the reassuring news that journalists are worried about the future of journalism, too. I'll wait to feel too relieved until the owners of the giant media conglomerates who employ them feel that way, but it's a start.

The Appalachia Alumni Association is reminded of why it's nice to have People For the American Way around.

Art Machine vents about folk musicians who don't remember the tradition of protest, and how elitism has killed classical music.

Brainysmurf on the frustrations of teaching in China and political pragmatism.

Debitage breaks down an environmental opinion poll and what it says about the presidential candidates.

Democratic Veteran on honor among Republicans - turns out they still have a loyal opposition contingent, which is good news.

Dohiyi Mir shares a lovely sunset.

Dru Blood posts a Kenneth Patchen poem.

Fantastic Planet on Jesus' view of power, and reminds us that draft legislation is slated for 2005.

Folkbum's Rambles and Rants talks about crime and punishment in Wisconsin.

Half the Sins of Mankind discusses chivalry and sacrifice.

In a Dark Time shares a couple pictures from the Rhododendron Garden.

Jeff Alworth on Iraq and what the USA should do in it (second post on 5/24).

Natasha Celine covers the WA-8 Congressional race.

Professor Kim writes about the Bhopal disaster and seeking justice.

Suburban Guerilla has some ideas on reducing urban-suburban inequality in education.

C. Bryan Lavigne on the draft and how to resist it.

Richard Silverstein at Tikun Olam, on Kerry's campaign and its weaknesses.

Vanessa Gatsch is back providing reviews of the latest movies, this time it's The Day After Tomorrow.

Today, the latest in my series of essays refuting Ann Coulter.

In World View, N. Todd Pritsky takes a look at America's Chechnya

How Convenient

It's amazing that after months of bad news in Iraq, poll after poll showing that Bush's approval numbers are the lowest of his presidency and a recent CBS poll giving Kerry a 49-41 lead over Bush, that all of a sudden, credible information arises that al-Qaeda plans on making a major attack in the U.S. (But we aren't raising the terror alert level yet, they'll probably wait to do that until the end of October). The timing is very convenient for the president. Now, I'm not saying that the administration would exaggerate such information for political purposes... No, wait. I am saying that.

Update: It seems like the mainstream media has jumped on OSP bandwagon on this issue.

New Today on OSP...

We look at both the Left and Right.

In United States, we offer a really alternative view on progressive presidential politics. With the 2004 selection looming, many lefties have doubts about John Kerry's fitness for office. Natalie Davis offers a reminder: "Liberal" is not synonymous with "lemming." You do have choices.

And over in LegalWrites, the wayback machine takes us back to 1860. Natalie reports that some conservative Christians, ticked off by the US move toward marriage equality, plan to secede from the Union.

Electoral Map Projection

In the my latest calculation of the electoral map based on state polling data, John Kerry for the first time has passed the necessary 270 to get elected and now leads George W. Bush 310-156. There are still 10 states and the District of Columbia that have no polling data, but their combined total, if Bush won all of them, still wouldn't even out the score. And this is despite the shocking news out of Texas. Okay, it's not really shocking, Bush is going to win Texas by a landslide. But this calculation is the first to include data for Texas and Bush still lost ground overall (last time he had 159 total). Note also that if you shift Florida to Bush, Kerry still has enough votes to win. Finally, note that this total also doesn't include votes from Delaware, D.C. and Hawaii all likely Kerry wins, for a total of 10 more electoral votes (the other unpolled states are likely Bush wins). As always, these numbers are preliminary and a lot could change before November, but the numbers are clearly a good sign, as is the latest CBS national poll, which gives Kerry a 49-41 edge.