Congrats to Freeheld

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Congratulations to Freeheld, the documentary about NJ Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester’s attempts to transfer her pension to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, as she was dying of cancer, which won the Oscar last night for best Documentary Short Subject. I have yet to see this, but I intend to.

The names of the nominees in this category were read to the Oscar audience by a group of soldiers in Iraq. A different member of the military announced the name of each film, and, ironically, the guy who announced Freeheld was a cute little gayboy Navy officer. (He sounded that way, at least.) Here’s the video.

The soliders didn’t announce the nominees for Best Documentary Feature, though. Two of those were about Iraq, a third was about extraordinary rendition, and a fourth was a Michael Moore movie. I guess that would have been a bit too much.

A Woman Named Jackie

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I was looking up an old TV miniseries I remember that dramatized the life of Jacqueline Kennedy. It was called A Woman Named Jackie. It aired in 1991; I remember watching it alone in my dorm during the fall break of my first year of college. Everyone else in my suite had gone away for the holiday, and it was so nice to have the entire place to myself.

Well, it turns out that Sarah Michelle Gellar played young Jackie!

Catholics Can Eat Meat At Kennedy Lunch Today

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I was digging into the New York Times archives the other day to read stories about JFK’s assassination. I’m reading a book that takes place during the Kennedy years, and the other day the Dallas district attorney released some long-stored documents related to the assassination, so I got interested.

While digging, I came across a short article that ran on the morning of November 22, 1963.

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Catholics Can Eat Meat At Kennedy Lunch Today

DALLAS, Nov. 21 (UPI) – Roman Catholics who attend tomorrow’s luncheon for President Kennedy have been given a special dispensation and may eat meat, a church spokesman confirmed today.

Sirloin steak will be served. Catholics are generally forbidden to eat meat on Fridays.

“Since most of the people at the luncheon will be non-Catholics we felt it would be easier to give a dispensation,” said the Rev. J. A. Schumacher of the Dallas-Fort Worth diocese.

He said President Kennedy would not have needed a dispensation.

“Since he is commander in chief of the military, he is a soldier,” Father Schumacher said. “The law says soliders don’t have to abstain.”

Kennedy never made it to the luncheon.

Pam on HRC

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Pam is dead-on about why Hillary Clinton has been tanking. Some choice quotes:

Our country’s issues with gender bias places everything Clinton does under a microscope…. However, I would argue that gender may play less of a role in this race because of the broad demographic voting patterns we are seeing here. I think the problem is that the woman is Hillary Clinton — it’s quite possible that a woman could have faired better in this race, just not this one.

The problem isn’t the policy positions, I think the main dismay among the Clintonistas is that the voters are responding to something Obama has — charisma and a message that connects — that she cannot match, and that they don’t know how to successfully counter that.

Unfortunately it’s pretty hard to wag your finger at the American public and tell them not to be fooled, or that they are stupid for thinking with their hearts, not their heads. That doesn’t garner more votes, in fact it can cause blowback.

Hillary is now trying to win the nomination by brute force, with the help of idiots like Mark Penn. While Obama’s campaign entices and inspires, her campaign tries to tell people how stupid they are for wanting to vote for him. It makes her seem tone-deaf when it comes to people skills. Is this how she’d run her presidency?

If she manages to bounce back and become the nominee (it’s possible; there’s a debate tomorrow night and another one next week, and debates have a way of turning things around, and Obama has been diffident during debates), I’ll fully support her. She’s a Democrat with Democratic policy ideas and she’d be lots better than McCain. And I still want to like her. I don’t like not liking her.

But she’s not making it easy.

Voting history

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Here’s my voting history, as much as I can remember, since I turned 18 in 1991. I’ve included federal races as well as some notable state races.

From 1992 to 1995 I was an absentee New Jersey voter going to college in Virginia. In 1995 I became a Virginia resident; in 1999 I moved back to New Jersey; in 2005 I became a New York resident.

1992 (NJ)
President: Bill Clinton/Al Gore
U.S. House: Herb Klein

1993 (NJ)
I don’t remember voting in the governor’s race (Republican Christie Whitman vs. the beleaguered incumbent Democrat Jim U.S. Florio).

1994 (NJ)
U.S. Senate: Frank Lautenberg (beat Chuck Haytaian)
U.S. House: Herb Klein (lost to Bill Martini in the 1994 Republican Revolution; two years later, Martini was beat in turn, one of only 8 of 54 Republican House freshmen to be ousted)

1995 (VA)
State senate: Emily Couric (didn’t she look like her sister?)

1996 (VA)
President: Bill Clinton/Al Gore
U.S. Senate: Mark Warner (lost to John Warner; went on to serve as governor; running for Senate again this year)
U.S. House: probably Virgil Goode (who later switched parties and became a nut)

1997 (VA)
I don’t remember voting in the governor’s race (Republican Jim Gilmore vs. Democrat Don Beyer).

1998 (VA)
I can’t remember if I voted in the U.S. House election.

2000 (NJ)
President: Al Gore/Joe Lieberman
U.S. Senate: Jon Corzine
U.S. House: Bob Menendez

2001 (NJ)
Governor: Jim McGreevey

2002 (NJ)
U.S. Senate: Frank Lautenberg (this is when Robert Torricelli dropped out and Lautenberg quickly replaced him on the ballot)
U.S. House: Bob Menendez

2004 (NJ)
President: John Kerry/John Edwards
U.S. House: Bob Menendez

2005 (NY)
Mayor: Mike Bloomberg

2006 (NY)
Governor: Eliot Spitzer
U.S. Senator: Hillary Clinton
U.S. House: Jerrold Nadler

2007 (NY)
Presidential primary: Barack Obama

The only Republican I’ve ever voted for is Mike Bloomberg. And that hardly counts. I don’t know why it took me so long to register as a Democrat.

Michael Gerson on Hillary

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Conservative Michael Gerson writes:

Though it is increasingly unlikely, Clinton may still have a path to the nomination — and what a path it is. She merely has to puncture the balloon of Democratic idealism; sully the character of a good man; feed racial tensions within her party; then eke out a win with the support of unelected superdelegates, thwarting the hopes of millions of new voters who would see an inspiring young man defeated by backroom arm-twisting and arcane party rules.

Or she could win Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. Still, ouch.

100 Senators

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Warning. Nerd alert.

For the last three nights, I’ve played a little game in bed while trying to fall asleep. I’ve tried to see how many current U.S. senators I can name.

(Shut up. Matt conks out the instant his head hits the pillow, sometimes even before.)

On Tuesday night I went state by state. I managed to name about 64 senators before giving up. I was surprised I could name that many. Some of the names I pulled straight out of my ass.

The next morning I looked at a list of current senators to see which ones I’d missed.

On Wednesday night I racked my brain and managed to increase my number to about 90.

I looked at the list again the following morning.

Last night I did it! I’ve managed to memorize the names of all 100 senators.

You know, there are some obscure senators out there. I dare you to name the two senators from Wyoming off the top of your head.

Here’s the sortable list I used.

Valentine?

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The other day I went searching for a Valentine’s Day card for Matt. I hunted through the cards and found one that both made me chuckle and seemed appropriate.

Yesterday I took the card out to sign it. And that’s when I realized there was something wrong.

It didn’t say “Happy Valentine’s Day.” It said “Happy Anniversary.”

I should realized something was amiss when I had to take a red envelope from behind another stack of cards because the envelopes behind this particular card were cream-colored. But hey, there are so many similar letters there — V, A, E, N, N, I, A, Y — and it was among the Valentine’s Day cards.

I signed it anyway, crossing out “Anniversary” and writing in “Valentine’s Day.” And when I gave him the card I apologized in advance.

Maybe I’ll give him an Arbor Day card on his next birthday.

Obama on the Issues

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There’s been a meme going around for a while that Obama is all hope and sunshine and no substance. Clinton and McCain have both used this argument in the last few days. And witness this political cartoon today:

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The thing is, it’s not true. Obama has plenty of substance. Just look at the Issues section of his website, which is filled with links to specific proposals on various subjects. He doesn’t talk about it much, but there is in fact a there there.

Carpetbagger does a good job of unpacking the meme.

(By the way, I love the word “meme.” Such a part of the Internet age. Remember when “memes” were just called “ideas”?)

Colbert Talks to Kerry

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Ever wonder how Stephen Colbert makes sure he doesn’t actually piss his guests off when he interviews them in character? I stumbled upon this 10-month-old video while looking for something else: Stephen Colbert explains his character to Sen. John Kerry before the show begins taping.

The oddest part is hearing John Kerry refer to the blogosphere.

Obama Sings

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Obama can sing!

Mr. Obama’s advisers said although they have not determined how to deal with Mr. McCain, they intend to keep their criticism focused on differences over issues.

And no, they said, do not expect Mr. Obama to dust off the lyrics to a song he performed on March 11, 2006, when he appeared as a keynote speaker at the Gridiron Dinner in Washington. His words were written to the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain.”

“When a wide-eyed young idealist, confronts a seasoned realist, there’s bound to be some strain,” Mr. Obama sang perfectly on pitch. “With the game barely started, I’d be feeling less downhearted, if I only had McCain.”

Texas Primary

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Interesting tidbit from tomorrow’s New York Times. Barack Obama may have an edge over Hillary Clinton in the Texas primary next month for the following reason:

In Texas, Mr. Penn said Mrs. Clinton would be helped by the Latino vote — which he said could ultimately be as much as 40 percent of the electorate.

But Mrs. Clinton faces another problem there in the form of that state’s unusual delegation allocation rules. Delegates are allocated to state senatorial districts based on Democratic voter turn-out in the last election. Bruce Buchanan, a professor of political science at the University of Texas at Austin, noted that in the last election, turnout was low in predominantly Hispanic districts and unusually high in urban African-American districts.

That means more delegates will be available in districts that, based on the results so far, could be expected to go heavily for Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton, Dr. Buchanan said, “has got her work cut out for her.”

To be honest, this doesn’t seem fair.

At any rate, I don’t think Hillary can be counted out yet at all. There are two more debates coming up. Hillary’s good at debates; Obama’s not usually at his best during them.

As the primary season has shown so far, anything can happen.

Parting the Waters

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I’m about a third of the way through Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963, by Taylor Branch. Parting the Waters is the first book of Branch’s massive trilogy interweaving the history of the black civil rights movement with the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. The first book alone is 922 pages; together the three books are about 2,300 pages. (I’m not counting acknowledgements, endnotes, index, etc.)

Parting the Waters is absorbing. It really brings the chaos of the era to life: bus boycotts, marches, bombings, jailings, political machinations, internal dissension within the civil rights movement. It seems like half the movement involved creating plans and the other half involved scrambling to respond to unforeseen events.

I’m not really setting out to finish the book — it’s just that I keep reading it and it keeps being interesting. I started the book because I wanted to read something meaty, and for a long time it had been on my mental list of things I eventually wanted to read in my life. (It’s long been acclaimed and it won the Pulitzer for History in 1989.)

Partly because February is Black History Month and partly because Barack Obama has broken so many racial barriers lately, the book seems particularly appropriate right now. Unfortunately, since it’s a biography of Martin Luther King, we know how the story ends.

Martin Luther King, Jr. would have turned 79 last month. He wouldn’t even be 80 years old today. That brings home with great clarity how young he was when he was assassinated, and how much life that assassination deprived him. It’s jarring to take him out of the myths of history and imagine him living on into the present — which, under normal circumstances, he would have.

I wonder what he would think of Barack Obama?

Rove at Choate

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Karl Rove spoke to students on Monday at Choate Rosemary Hall, the well-known Connecticut prep school. One student challenged him on gay marriage. He couldn’t seem to give a good reason for banning it. Go figure.

[Marla] Spivak, a senior from Hamden, was one of the students invited to have lunch earlier with Rove. That left her somewhat emboldened as she stood before the crowd and asked Rove to explain how giving gay people the right to marry would endanger other people.

Rove took issue with the way the first gay marriages came about, through the Massachusetts Supreme Court. An issue as important as the definition of marriage should be resolved by a legislature or a referendum, not a court, he said.

Gay couples could gain the legal rights of married couples through legislation without actually getting married, he said.

But wouldn’t creating a separate body of legislation for gay people be creating a separate but equal system, a step back?, Spivak asked.

Rove replied with an answer about Mormons changing their views on marriage to conform with the nation’s laws.

Spivak kept pressing. “You never actually answered, how does it threaten anyone?” she asked.

Rove asked, what’s the compelling reason to throw out 5,000 years of understanding the institution of marriage as between a man and a woman?

What, Spivak countered, was the compelling reason for society to allow interracial relationships when they had once been outlawed.

Then Rove invoked the Declaration of Independence before Spivak interjected that its reference to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” seemed to support her claims.

Their verbal pingpong match tapered off after Rove brought up polygamy and Spivak acknowledged that she did not know enough about polygamy to answer. Rove later asked when she planned to run for political office.

Karl Rove, of all people, couldn’t come up with a good reason for banning gay marriage.

I love this Marla Spivak. I’ve sometimes fantasized about debating some of these people face to face. She was able to do it and didn’t let him off the hook (at least until it came to the lame argument about polygamy).

You go, girl!

Journalistic Query

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Do you lack health insurance or are you underinsured? A journalist friend of mine wants to talk to you.

I’m writing a feature about the differences between the presidential candidates’ health plans, and am looking for New Yorkers who either lack insurance or are underinsured. Do you know of anyone in this situation who’d be willing to be interviewed and photographed? Basically I’d like to find someone who works, either for themselves or a small employer that can’t afford policies for their staff, and has either taken the gamble to go without coverage or has bought a policy on their own – maybe a policy they still own, or one they have since let go of because it cost too much. They should know up front that I’d be asking them somewhat personal questions – what their health care needs are, how affordable care is based on their salary and other basic expenses, and what they would like to see change in access to coverage following the election.

I prefer five-borough residents, but Long Island, Westchester and North Jersey are also OK. I’m hoping to get the interviews and photo shoots wrapped up in the next couple days.

Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll pass your information on.

Scalia and 24

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Once again, Justice Antonin Scalia confuses television with the real world.

“I suppose it’s the same thing about so-called torture. Is it really so easy to determine that smacking someone in the face to determine where he has hidden the bomb that is about to blow up Los Angeles is prohibited in the Constitution?”

Yes, that kind of thing happens all the time.

As Andrew Sullivan once pointed out,

Earth to Justice Scalia: Jack Bauer does not exist.

If you have some time to kill, here’s an article from the New Yorker last year about the influence of “24.”

[Howard] Gordon [“24’s” show runner], who is a “moderate Democrat,” said that it worries him when “critics say that we’ve enabled and reflected the public’s appetite for torture. Nobody wants to be the handmaid to a relaxed policy that accepts torture as a legitimate means of interrogation.” He went on, “But the premise of ‘24’ is the ticking time bomb. It takes an unusual situation and turns it into the meat and potatoes of the show.” He paused. “I think people can differentiate between a television show and reality.”

Not so much.