Liam ODonoghue's Open Salon Blog

Salon Week in Review

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 20:07:38 -0400

I’m sorry, but I just can’t include any stories about Mitt Romney in this week’s round-up. Yes, between Bain and Swiss bank accounts and getting booed by the NAACP he had a terrible week worth gloating about, but this spectacularly pathetic downward spiral is almost making me feel sorry for him. He’s probably starting to wish that he had stashed himself away in one of those secret offshore accounts along with his money – and a suprising number of increasingly frantic conservative pundits seem to feeling the same.

Anyway, I’m sure there’ll be plenty more opportunities to bash Mitt between now and November 2, so here’s a mercifully Romney-free selection of news nuggets:

Right-wing media picks on high school kid: When he was 13, Jonathan Krohn gave a speech that inspired the high lords of Conservatism to anoint him as the second coming of William F. Buckley. Four years later, he committed the blasphemy of renouncing his National Review-approved ideology and admitting that he’s now center left. “Since then, I have been treated by the political right with all the maturity of schoolyard bullies,” he wrote. “No wonder I fit in so well when I was 13.” There you have it: A kid who’s not even old enough to vote is more mature than the entire staff of The Daily Caller put together.

One man death panel: Alex Seitz-Wald reported the truly shocking news that Florida Governor Rick Scott closed down a TB hospital in the middle of a tuberculosis outbreak – and then tried to cover up news of the outbreak. If that wasn’t bad enough, Gov. Scott has thrown salt into the wounds of millions of uninsured Floridians by vowing to turn down federal funding to expand Medicaid. No wonder why Scott’s trying so hard to keep people from voting.

Religion is confusing: You would think that groups opposed to abortion would want people to use birth control, right? Well, a “hip, stylish” new anti-choice group is now pushing anti-birth control propaganda (“Condoms don’t work! The pill is dangerous!”), because.... they think that babies are magical or something. I’m not really sure. But it seems to be working: A shocking 40% of young people believe that using birth control doesn’t do much to prevent pregnancy, according to a recent survey.

Quote of the week: "The U.S. doesn't need more troops; it needs fewer wars." Common sense from Michael Lind. I just wish this sentiment was more prevalent among our lawmakers who continue to pass bloated, gargantuan “defense” budgets year after year.

Now who’s smirking? Glenn Greenwald unleashed another one of his blistering, double-barrelled, no holds barred take-downs this week. The intro alone is enough to leave a nasty mark: “Harold Ford, Jr. is the walking, breathing embodiment of virtually everything rotted and corrupt about the American political class.” Somebody in Tennesee must have liked Glenn’s assessment of the drone apologist, because one of the local TV stations reported the story with this headline: “Harold Ford, Jr. Called Smirking Sociopath.”

Whole “Lota” Love: Wajajat Ali reveals the “secrets of the Muslim bathroom” in this hilarious and informative ode to the lota. The lota, he explains, is “a magical chalice for our peoples – it’s a traditional hand-held vessel that contains water to assist in our bathroom ‘activities.’” He also says it’s not only hygienic, it’s also addictive: “Once you wash that crack, you never go back.” After reading this, I only have one question: Where can I get one?

What the hell? One of our most controversial features this week was a list of the 10 bands that Satan will use to torture you in the afterlife. We got a lot of outraged responses from fans of Billy Joel, Weezer and The Beach Boys, but – unsurprisingly – no complaints about the inclusion of Creed.

Master of the over-statement: I just love how when Mary Elizabeth Williams wants to make a point, she really knows how to drive it home. For example, in response to a supermodel who claimed that “natural childbirth” is better than using pain-killers, Williams responded: “I have had two epidurals. I luuuuuuuuuved my epidurals. Epidurals are THE COOLEST. I would have named my firstborn Epidural had not cooler heads prevailed in the delivery room.”

Scandal fatigue: With a seemingly endless string of white-collar crimes parading across the headlines over the last five years or so, it’s tempting just to ignore them. The fact that multi-billion dollar frauds now elicit merely humdrum reactions is perhaps the Big Banks’ greatest victory yet. As long as nobody makes too much of a fuss, they’re content to pay slap-on-the-wrist fines and occasionally even dismiss a few figureheads (with golden parachutes firmly attached, of course) and continue with business/crime as usual. As Bill Moyers and Michael Winship wrote, “"The banksters roam free, like gunslingers in a Wild West town without a sheriff." Hopefully, however, as news continues to spread that "your home mortgage, your college debt, your credit card fees; all of these could have been affected by Libor" the “cosmic magnitude” and personal impact of this corruption will spark the kind of populist fury demanding real reform that we haven’t seen since riot police cleared out the last of the Occupy camps months ago.

Real tax talk: Despite what Fox News would have you believe, the average American household is paying a lower federal tax rate than any time in the last 30 years, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. Meanwhile, polarization of wealth continues to increase, economic mobility continues to decrease and the bottom line is simply that the richer are getting richer while the poor are getting poorer. According to David Brooks and Rush Limbaugh, however, this is nothing to fret about: it just means poor people need to work harder.

I’m sold: Looking for a fun summer read? How can you not be intrigued by this pitch for “Agent Garbo”: “True spy story: How a Barcelona chicken farmer fooled the Nazis, saved D-Day and became the greatest agent ever”? This sounds crazier than the plot of an Archer episode!

Final tidbits: Michelle Bachmann is fantasizing about “deep penetration by the Muslim Brotherhood”; this is the oldest tombstone in Manhattan; here’s a story about what it’s like to work at a company that “lost” $200 million; and if this doesn’t make you weepy, you are probably either a monster or the governor of Florida.

See you next week!

Salon Week in Review

Sun, 24 Jun 2012 15:06:32 -0400

Keeping up with everything that’s going on the world is impossible. As torrents of tweets and Facebook updates race across our monitors, magazines pile up on the coffee table and endless RSS feeds go ignored, it’s easy to feel like we’re missing so much — because we are. Sure, this is a dilemma that deserves the #FirstWorldProblems hashtag, but it’s still a bummer to know that insightful, witty and significant stories are slipping past us every second.

There’s already an overload of articles about information overload. That’s not what this column is about. This is simply a new column compiling some choice news nuggets culled from the previous week of Salon.

Without further ado...

“I don’t think the Bush administration would want to see these released”: In terms of historical significance, our biggest bombshell of the week was Jordan Michael Smith’s stunning analysis of CIA documents contradicting the Bush Administration’s official narrative of 9/11. These newly declassified memos reveal that the CIA had Bin Laden in its crosshairs and knew he was planning an attack on the U.S., but wasn’t able to capture or continue monitoring him because the Bush Administration refused to approve additional funding. The level of negligence Smith revealed is truly shocking — as is the dearth of mainstream coverage this story has gotten.

Faulty Reason-ing: Any time a libertarian pretends to care about poor people, you know something is fishy. Indeed, Reason TV tried to cloak its opposition to Washington DC’s successful bikesharing program behind a smokescreen of concern for low-income people of color, but our urban policy expert Will Doig deftly dismantled Reason’s arguments like a skilled mechanic stripping down an old 10-speed.

They deserved it: Both Joan Walsh and Alex Pareene also journalistically spanked right-wing media figures this week. Joan called out former bow-tie enthusiast and current Daily Caller editor Tucker Carlson for his chronic crybabyism while Alex dedicated his latest Hack List profile to the National Review’s Kathryn Lopez. Like Ned Stark, Alex’s justice was brutal, but fair: “She’s basically a hack liberal’s savage parody of a miserable, prematurely old religious conservative woman — a Jean Teasdale of the right.”

Great In-Seitz: Our newest staff reporter also seems to be our busiest. Since moving from Think Progress to Salon, Alex Seitz-Wald has been serving up scoops like an ice cream man. His morning news round-up columns are quickly becoming a must-read for national politics junkies. He’s also doing a great job exposing GOP efforts to keep the identities of “dark money” donors secret and loopholes being used to circumvent campaign finance laws.

The Radical Right: Andrew Koppelman reminded us of the ideological vision driving the Republicans’ efforts to have the Supreme Court strike down the Affordable Healthcare Act. Randy Barnett, the legal architect of anti-Obamacare strategy, "wants to privatize schools, prisons, courts, streets, parks & the police." Whatever happened to “compassionate conservatism”?

What’s the matter with privatization? Alternet’s Bruce Wilson summed it up nicely with this example: “Thanks to a bill pushed through by governor Bobby Jindal, thousands of students in Louisiana will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools, some of which teach from a Christian curriculum that suggests the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution... the curriculum also claims that a Japanese fishing boat caught a dinosaur.” I rest my case.

Double, double oil and trouble: I know this is hard to believe, but you can’t trust Big Energy companies. David Sirota aptly destroyed two particularly harmful pillars of propaganda this week. First, he demonstrated the fallacies of a new smear campaign trying to blame home solar panels for higher energy rates. Then, he called out oil and natural gas companies on their bluff to move operations if states raise taxes with a simple bit of logic: You can’t outsource subterranean fossil fuel reserves. Unfortunately, many states have already caved to the pressure of keeping taxes low and subsidies high and it’s cost them billions.

O’Hehirlarious: Even if you’re not a movie buff, Andrew O’Hehir’s reviews are always a treat. What other critic would compare “Brave,” the new kiddie movie from Pixar, to a Quentin Tarantino bloodbath? “This is like the ‘Inglourious Basterds’ of feminism; all it took to bring down patriarchy in Scotland was one spunky redhead standing up to say no!”

Mary Elizabeth Williams quotes of the week: I can’t decide between "The ladies aren’t just there to give you boners." (In response to Bleacher Report’s sexist slideshow ranking female Olympians by “hotness.”) Or: “But was [Hilary] Duff cooking meth at a Klan rally? Was she driving around town with her baby strapped to the hood of her car?” (In response to the Internet freaking out about Hilary Duff smoking a cigarette). What’s your favorite MBW quote?

Don’t ask, don’t tell: About half the women on Twitter (and some men, too) gave Rebecca Traister the digital equivalent of a standing ovation for her response to The Atlantic cover story “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All.” Rebecca proved beyond a doubt that she deserved the Mirror Award she won last week with a balanced, elegant commentary on why the question is flawed and counter-productive: “The notion that female achievement should be measured by women’s ability to “have it all” recasts a righteous struggle for greater political, economic, social, sexual and political parity as a piggy and acquisitive project.”

Congratulations: Starting Monday, our senior political writer Steve Kornacki will be co-hosting a new show on MSNBC with Touré, Krystal Ball and SE Cupp. I couldn’t put it any better than our editor-in-chief Kerrry Lauerman: “We’re thrilled for him — there’s no nicer guy in the business.”

Finally: If you made it this far, you may also be interested to know that:

Noam Chomsky has a big heart; Willa Paskin used the terms “Sorkin-esque,” “Sorkinisms,” “Sorkinese,” and “Sorkinites” in her review of the new HBO drama “Newsroom;” and the for-profit college industry is really, really messed up (i.e. one job placement counselor compared to 1,700 recruiters).

One last thing: After seeing what happened to Bradley Manning, can you really blame Julian Assange for seeking asylum in Ecuador? I agree with Glenn Greenwald: Nope.

Palin's Flip-Flop on Regulation Means #Occupy is Winning

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:11:20 -0500

In David Sirota’s latest Salon article “Palin Embraces OWS?” he explained how Sarah Palin’s op-ed in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal “exemplifies how the perception of political self-interest and opportunity is now shifting so fast toward the Occupy Wall Street sentiment, that even some icons of the right are seeing a bigger opportunity in championing that sentiment than in remaining rhetorically loyal to the corporate establishment.”

Sirota is correct, but contrasting Palin’s “How Congress Occupied Wall Street” op-ed with her last major speech reveals just how radically the tectonic plates of American political culture have shifted over the past two months.

Ever since the dawn of the Reagan era, blind allegiance to the principle of deregulation has been required among Republicans. If you veered from the party line, the echo chamber of conservative pundits, think tanks and fellow politicians would tar-and-feather you as a RINO – “Republican in Name Only.” This “shrink the government” strategy has gotten so extreme that most of the current GOP presidential candidates are going beyond calling for further deregulation to actually demand the abolition of agencies that enforce regulations, like the EPA.

Palin’s op-ed in what Sirota called “the biggest altar of corporate worship in the entire capitalist cathedral” symbolizes that this brand of Conservative populism which has increasingly dominated American politics for the past three decades crescendoed with the Tea Party, realized it hit a dead end, and is now doing a U-turn. Why? Because Palin, the queen of the Tea Party and one of the most influential political bellwethers of past three years did the previously unthinkable: She demanded more regulation.

A major pillar of modern Conservatism is beginning to crumble.

Before reviewing Palin’s latest policy recommendation, let’s rewind to the speech she gave in Iowa over Labor Day weekend, shortly before the launch of Occupy Wall Street, when she was still considered a leading contender for the GOP nomination. “It’s the collusion of big government and big business and big finance to the detriment of all the rest – to the little guys,” she explained to the large crowd of supporters, correctly diagnosing some of the core problems of our political system. She railed against “crony capitalists” for “bailing out their friends on Wall Street” and said we must “break the back of crony capitalism because it feeds off corporate welfare, which is just socialism for the very rich.”

This fiery language raised some eyebrows, but why weren’t the villains in Palin’s narrative – corporate “power brokers” and “the permanent political class” in DC – the slightest bit worried about this influential leader’s threats to dismantle their lucrative relationships? Because Palin’s solution was to give “big business” everything they want. Her recipe for “real reform” sounded like Wall Street’s letter to Santa Claus.

Like all “real Conservatives,” her one-size-fits-all solution was more deregulation. Palin told the Iowa crowd “rein[ing] in burdensome regulations that are a boot on our neck” will “let the private sector breathe and grow.” In practice, of course, “deregulation” usually means letting whoever has the most money make the rules. Palin failed to explain how giving even more power and wealth to the private sector though deregulation would decrease their influence inside the Beltway.

This blatant contradiction between Palin’s diagnosis (corporate influence is corrupting our political system) and her remedy (transfer more power and wealth to corporations through deregulation) signaled that the leaders of American Conservatism had reached a dead end. Their “solutions” would only make the problems worse – and the dwindling polularity of the Tea Party and the lackluster support for the GOP's presidential candidates signalled that the public was well aware of this failure.

Two weeks after Palin’s Iowa speech, Occupy Wall Street burst on the scene to fill the void in the hearts of millions of Americans looking for a real movement to respond to “crony capitalism.” One of the biggest complaints that the media had against Occupy Wall Street was the Movement’s “lack of demands.”

Well, apparently that strategy worked out pretty well, because now the queen of the Tea Party is using the Wall Street Journal to issue a laundry list of demands for more financial disclosure and campaign finance regulations as well as beefed-up “whistleblower, conflict-of-interest and insider-trading laws.” In other words, Sarah Palin – perhaps the most high-profile barometer of American populism for the past three years – is calling for more regulation in what Sirota called a “scathing manifesto that could be Xeroxed and handed out at any Occupy demonstration across the country.”

Instead of the familiar right wing refrain of ceding power to the free market as the inevitable policy recommendation, Palin has reversed course and is now demanding the kinds of policies that Conservative pundits and politicians have traditionally described as “bureaucratic red tape.” Whether or not Palin actually believes what she is saying is insignificant. The fact that she and the other conservatives who will inevitably follow her lead in demanding real policy solutions (i.e. strong regulation of the financial sector, especially where it overlaps with Congress) if they are trying to remain politically relevant, means that Occupy Wall Street is winning and the Age of Reagan is finally at dusk.