Most people think that this strike will last six months, and that, as before, the writers will not win. People are wondering if, during those months, the loss of biodiversity will bring about the total, irreversible dominance of the nutrient-choking algae of reality TV.
I just spoke to my friend. He and about a hundred other writers were attempting to disrupt the shooting of "Desperate Housewives" by shouting "Shut it down!" and "We write the storia / For Eva Longoria!" Then Longoria had pizza delivered for the strikers.
With such a big lead in public opinion over the Republican party in general, why are the Democratic candidates not performing better in the polls against a nutcase like Giuliani? With the Democratic front-runner, it’s a question of trust:
By 50% to 35%, the poll shows, Americans prefer that a Democrat gets elected to succeed Mr. Bush next November. In a direct matchup of leading candidates, however, that margin shrinks to 46% for Mrs. Clinton and 45% for Mr. Giuliani because of defections from voters like Linda Dunbar.
"I just don’t totally trust her," said the 57-year-old homemaker from the Cleveland suburb of Seven Hills.
"I’ll tell you what I like about Obama, which is connected with the book. He really doesn’t like to surround himself only with like-minded others. He really is someone who has never lived and wouldn’t live in an echo chamber. His great skepticism about the red state, blue state divide is just the thought that no particular party has a monopoly on wisdom. He has an amazing line in the "Audacity of Hope" where he says, roughly, there are feminists in the United States who mourn their own abortions, and there are conservative women who have paid for their friends’ daughters’ abortions. And the reason I think this is so great is that it breaks down a sense that Americans come in two types," – Cass Sunstein, Salon.
Cal Thomas joins the throng. What I find astonishing is that serious commentators are only now asking the question of the definition of torture. Some don’t even seem aware that the definition is in the US legal code and always has been and is extremely clear. Thomas’ own reasoning here is shockingly crude and uninformed. it is almost as if many Republicans have not actually wanted to think about this at all.
"This historic day marks tremendous progress in efforts to provide basic fairness for gay and lesbian Americans. This long overdue bill makes it very clear that what matters in the workplace is competence and fairness—not sexual orientation," – Patrick Sammon, president Log Cabin Republicans.
But this is Barney’s moment. The Republicans – exempting 35 of them – did their best to link employment non-discrimination to marriage rights, expressing their usual spite toward those gay couples who have dared to commit to one another in law and love, by a legislative distraction. But they failed in the end. And most of us are used to the abuse by now. We do not need their affirmation to love one another. But some do still need some framework of protection in order to work without fear – especially in those states where gay couples have been targeted as public threats to the family.
I haven’t always supported this legislation, and my libertarian heart is not thrilled by it. But every other minority is federally protected from discrimination in employment; it is increasingly a form of prejudice to say that gay people can be fired at will from their jobs just for being who they are. HRC deserves congratulations as well. This was their goal for so long, and now it has finally passed the House. As for Barney, he has such a sharp mind but an even bigger heart. This is his moment. His speech – full of parliamentary procedure and deep, deep pain, catches the throat at the 5 minute mark:
"I think there’s no doubt that we represent the kind of change that Senator Clinton can’t deliver on and part of it is generational. Senator Clinton and others, they’ve been fighting some of the same fights since the ’60’s and it makes it very difficult for them to bring the country together to get things done."
A Giuliani-Clinton matchup, favored by the media elite, is a classic intragenerational struggle—with two deeply divisive and ruthless personalities ready to go to the brink. Giuliani represents that Nixonian disgust with anyone asking questions about, let alone actively protesting, a war. Clinton will always be, in the minds of so many, the young woman who gave the commencement address at Wellesley, who sat in on the Nixon implosion and who once disdained baking cookies. For some, her husband will always be the draft dodger who smoked pot and wouldn’t admit it. And however hard she tries, there is nothing Hillary Clinton can do about it. She and Giuliani are conscripts in their generation’s war. To their respective sides, they are war heroes…
The war today matters enormously. The war of the last generation? Not so much. If you are an American who yearns to finally get beyond the symbolic battles of the Boomer generation and face today’s actual problems, Obama may be your man.
