Month: November 2008

This site claims to be able to analyze a blog and determine its "type." I plugged the Dish in and it spat back this:

The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.

Take that, Patterico! Out of curiosity, I tried Reynolds:

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

And Yglesias:

The Scientists enjoy theoretical work that allows them to use their strong minds and bold creativity. Since they tend to be so abstract and theoretical in their communication they often have a problem communicating their visions to other people and need to learn patience and use concrete examples. Since they are extremely good at concentrating they often have no trouble working alone.

And Hewitt:

Once they’ve made up their mind on something, it can be quite difficult to convince otherwise. They listen to hard facts and can have a hard time accepting new or innovative ways of doing things. The Guardians are often happy working in highly structured work environments where everyone knows the rules of the job. They respect authority and are loyal team players.

Not too shabby, is it?

Here’s the explanation from the pro-marriage equality groups:

The lawsuits allege that, on its face, Proposition 8 is an improper revision rather than an amendment of the California Constitution because, in its very title, which was "Eliminates the right to marry for same-sex couples," the initiative eliminated an existing right only for a targeted minority.  If permitted to stand, Proposition 8 would be the first time an initiative has successfully been used to change the California Constitution to take way an existing right only for a particular group. Such a change would defeat the very purpose of a constitution and fundamentally alter the role of the courts in protecting minority rights. According to the California Constitution, such a serious revision of our state Constitution cannot be enacted through a simple majority vote, but must first be approved by two-thirds of the Legislature.

As a legal and constitutional matter, I am not qualified to judge this, but it doesn’t sound frivolous to me. As a political matter, I favor re-fighting this at the ballot box, not in the court.

Drum isn’t impressed:

Oh please. I worked for a video-on-demand company back in 2002, and even then "pizza on demand" was a cliche. It turns out that just about the first thing every shiny new broadband offering offers is….pizza delivery via your TV. I think the first time was 1994. It never went anywhere, though, because it turned out that ordering pizza by phone isn’t really much of a hassle.

Spencer Ackerman nails it. It’s the think-tank lunch:

Here I’m going to reveal an open secret in Washington. The best free lunch in town — by far — is at the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute. I remember a panel discussion on Iraq a couple years ago at which AEI wheeled out a massive amount of succulent, just-grilled chicken shwarma. Rice that had been seasoned. With almond slivers! The whole thing displayed a stunningly real Middle East expertise, or at least what a Washington Jew thinks passes for real Middle East expertise. And that is how you succeed in this town…

Are you ready for some straight talk, my friends? Ladies and gentlemen, you need to go back to your parent organizations and tell them to step their cook-game up. The CAP chicken-salad wraps? With mayo? From Corner Bakery or whatever-the-fuck? It’s at least partially responsible for the decline of liberalism in the age of Bush.

I have to disagree. One of the biggest problems the intellectual right has had, in my view, is the cozy camaraderie of its think-tank culture. Those great lunches build friendships and relationships within the context of ideology. And so it becomes socially very hard to break with that ideology when necessary. The conservative intellectuals are too friendly with one another, too civil, too social. One reason why I’ve been able to stay relatively immune to the Bush era’s groupthink is because I have almost no friends in the conservative world (and those I had … well, only a tiny few remain). So I can take issue with people’s public commentary with no social inhibition. The last thing liberals need in power is the same kind of chummy self-reinforcing but very well-fed cocoon that helped lead conservatives over the cliff.

Eat Chipotle at your desk, my ex-friends. And be rude more often.

"Will Obama govern from the left? He doesn’t have to. George W. Bush has done all the heavy lifting for him," – Dick Morris.

Isn’t it staggering how honesty breaks out just after it could make a difference?

Ezra Klein is ecstatic:

You don’t tap the former Senate Majority Leader to run your health care bureaucracy. That’s not his skill set. You tap him to get your health care plan through Congress. You tap him because he understands the parliamentary tricks and has a deep knowledge of the ideologies and incentives of the relevant players. You tap him because you understand that health care reform runs through the Senate. And he accepts because he has been assured that you mean to attempt health care reform.

Jonathan Cohn is also excited. I find the idea of getting excited by Tom Daschle a little esoteric myself. But the liberals won this one. They get to have their thrill in whatever unlikely form it takes.

Freddie DeBoer makes a prediction:

As homosexuality becomes less and less differentiated from conventional life, and there are more and more victories for gay normalcy and gay acceptance, there will likewise be less reason for a gay rights movement. And as gay people become fully integrated into the American experience as equal participants, the need for gay people to ally with any one partisan or ideological apparatus will shrink.

What do you think we’ve been working for for the last couple of decades? I’d love to shut down the gay rights movement. I hope to help do so in my lifteime. Freddie continues:

One of my frustrations with conservative opposition to grievance politics and special interest groups is the fact that some groups of people actually have legitimate grievances (like being denied marriage rights). Sometimes certain groups of people actually have special interests, and as democracy is a system of individuals and groups competing for their own best interests, it’s natural to have affinity groups dedicated to pursuing those interests. So the cure for minority politics is to remove the complaints of the minority groups in the first place.

Orin Kerr fisks NRO’s editorial against Holder.

The Economist puts the boot in:

Another reason is the degeneracy of the conservative intelligentsia itself, a modern-day version of the 1970s liberals it arose to do battle with: trapped in an ideological cocoon, defined by its outer fringes, ruled by dynasties and incapable of adjusting to a changed world. The movement has little to say about today’s pressing problems, such as global warming and the debacle in Iraq, and expends too much of its energy on xenophobia, homophobia and opposing stem-cell research.

Conservative intellectuals are also engaged in their own version of what Julian Benda dubbed la trahison des clercs, the treason of the learned. They have fallen into constructing cartoon images of “real Americans”, with their “volkish” wisdom and charming habit of dropping their “g”s. Mrs Palin was invented as a national political force by Beltway journalists from the Weekly Standard and the National Review who met her when they were on luxury cruises around Alaska, and then noisily championed her cause.

"Ruled by dynasties" is a nice touch.