Values

Hecate over at Eschaton has an angry post in reference to an excellent Frank Rich column decrying the press' acceptance of the "moral values" crowd as the incarnation of today's popular will.

Of note in Rich's piece is mention of Jeff Jarvis's FOIA request, which showed that the FCC fined Fox $1.2 million in response to letters written by only 3 people. Yikes.

Ukraine

Lots of nastiness about to go down in Kiev, it seems. Rather bothering that we hear nothing of these apparently bitter rivalries in the US press until late in the game (registration required). More on this when I've had the time to figure it out.

And for all those Rs out there complaining about liberals not behaving civilly in 2000, I offer this as an alternative.

Omnibus

We're getting screwed (registration required) tonight in the Senate. Where is the outrage? Not even on Atrios.

... well, the man finally got to it.

More feeling up

Nice article in our local rag (reg required) about the young vote, with some of the numbers I spouted out before. The reporter even found some GW students to interview. Friends have said we shouldn't pay too much attention to these numbers as successful, since we've got so much to do in expanding our base geographically and countering right-wing populism, but I still think we deserve to celebrate. And fuck you, Hunter S. Thompson.

Morning C-SPAN

Washington Journal had an interesting spot with ACT's Harold Ickes and Simon Rosenberg of the NDN.

While I concur with most of their thoughts on the weakness of Democrats this election being due to a number of failures rather than some sole blunder, and that the superiority of the right-wing political machine, rather than some sort of manifestation of majority will, gave the GOP their electoral power, I think they still fail to see a way out of the hole they and their ilk have dug for the party. Their obsession with messaging and the traditional media -- Ickes laments the power of Fox News and Rush, and Rosenberg is equally uninspired -- ignores what real advantages we showed this time. Dean gathered hundreds of grassroots organizers with the internet, and Kerry raised $81 million through it, versus only $11 million by Bush. Blogs reached thousands of Americans; Atrios alone collected something like $275 thousand for Kerry. That fundraising reveals real grassroots dedication to progressive values, and an information infrastructure that Democrats would do well to embrace.

Then they go and laugh at some crazy woman who blames Democrats for immoral movies. Now, the caller was a nutball, but laughing at her and smiling with such obvious condescension just exacerbates the right-wing spin that the Dems are elitists who hate Americans. Correct the lady, but please respect her. We'd best try to find out where people get such inane ideas and then counter those sources, rather than just make fun of the ignorant.

Also, Rosenberg articulates the crazy untenable position Democrats had on Gay Marriage this season:

... Democrats are against Gay Marriage but also against the Constitutional Ammendment, and I think that's where the majority of Americans are.

I'm not questioning the complexity of the issue for the party and the subsequent complex solution which it may demand. But dammit, we need to show some spine. Leadership in civil rights is not bowing to where the majority of Americans might be in respect to their tyranny over an oppressed minority. We've got to take a stand against ignorance, and be for what is right rather than what is popular. Maybe party can't do that, and it'll be up to activists as always. But at some point before this is won the party will have to come around and provide the institutional support the movement will need.

(Thanks to svefn_g_englar_ for the heads up.)

More maps

Worth checking these out. What mandate?

Atrios!

Mr. Black is back.

Should have given them more air

Interesting. seems like voting republican has a lot to do with living in areas with higher elevations - see the correlation of red counties with the Appalachians, and blue counties with the Mississippi?

Reasons to feel up

There's a lot being said right now about young people's failure to get out and vote in this election, and that this led to Bush's reelection. While I agree somewhat with the basic premise that it's our duty to clean up the mistakes of our elders and stay their hands from doing some stupid shit, the claim leveled lacks support.

First, the number bandied about to back up the charge: the proportion of this year's voters who were of the youngest age group (18-24) didn't change from 2000 (18 percent). But in the context of the highest turnout in history, this translates into a wild improvement. Please take some math classes, media.

And then there's the hard numbers, which are almost unbelievable: 20 million young people voted last tuesday, 4 million more than in 2000. And young people's voting rate in 10 battleground states was 64 percent. That's insane.

Sure, I know people my age who voted for third party wackjobs (no offense to legitimate third party enthusiasts out there, but you just don't figure into my definition of pragmatically working to produce change this year). But the majority of us voted, and voted for Kerry by ten points over Bush. Pretty good effort on our parts.

So where were you, Baby Boom? where were you, Greatest Generation? And Gen X, you just disappeared out there. We needed your help to set our future right again.

Thanks to MoveOn for the inspiring letter, to which I'll provide a crapy mirror.

We're all gonna die.

At least we can have some fun with the Bush mandate (thanks to corrente).

More later.