Cao Has The Right Idea

I don’t think there was anything hypocritical about Congressman Joseph Cao’s vote for first the Stupak Amendment and then also the actual healthcare reform bill. I said it before and I’ll say it again, to get in the majority the scope of what can be allowed for party members who control districts and states that lean the other way has to widen. That’s what had to happen for Cao. He’s in a very Democratic district in Louisiana. Voting against the healthcare reform bill there probably would have hurt him severely. But voting for it gave him some wiggle room with Democrats and eclipses the fact that he voted for the Stupak Amendment. His votes last night don’t indicate that we’ve got a Arlen Specter situation on our hands here at all, it just shows that Cao isn’t blind to what needs to be done to survive. He knows that he’s in control and if Michael Steele wants to punish Cao, then Steele will also be giving up control of the LA-2. Ostracizing Cao will only hurt the GOP —which is something they’re yet to realize.

The problem with this, though, was also clearly illustrated last night as well with the many conservative Congressman voting for the Stupak Amendment alongside Conservatives. The New York Times has a great graphic here. Many have good reason to worry about their wellbeing with this vote, in a deep red district voting for the bill could come back to hurt them but thinking this way allows for Congressmen whose seats aren’t in jeopardy to have some cover. And really now, if this isn’t an important enough bill to ignore the possible repercussions, what is?

The Bill Still Is A Victory

I haven’t stopped raving about how awful the Stupak Amendment is. I mean, to explain it clearly, the bill stops universal healthcare coverage in this country from providing for abortions. In other words, you get raped and pregnant and even though healthcare reform had been passed, you still have to get the money to pay for your abortion. The government will not help you. It really is disgusting.

At the same time, I agree with Ned and my other friend Rachel, whose liberalism is rooted in her feminism, in saying that overall last night was a victory. The amendment could be repealed and there’s a lot in the bill that’s much needed reform. It was a win, albeit an imperfect one.

V Is Bad In Oh So Many Ways

So I watched the series premiere of the V remake and was badly dissapointed. Maybe my hopes were too high. Since the success of the remastered Battlestar Galactica I’d been hoping that they would use the same basic formula and turn V into some kind of thinly veiled vessel for exploring current cultural and philosophical issues, just like Battlestar Galactica. V could’ve been that series. Alas, it isn’t. The problem wasn’t the premise. BSG had a horrible premise and original t.v. run but that didn’t stop the remake from being kickass. What the remastered series did different was strip all the unnecessary scifi from the series and integrate a bit of actual military decorum and characteristics where the silly military scifi was. It worked. It also really wasn’t a scifi show, that was just the cover. It was more about contemporary questions and matters like terrorism or torture.

Unlike BSG, there is reason to believe that what undertone the show does have is meant to be extremely conservative. Via NewMajority FrumForum, Asylum.com has a few observations:

Check out the parallels between the new “V” series and a right-wing fever dream, and see an extended preview of the first episode.

1. The aliens come to Earth using Obama-campaign watchwords hope and change, and offer the most literal form of universal health care. Aided by a complicit news media, they assuage rabid protesters through a sweet-talking figurehead. Skeptics try to warn everyone of the impending danger, but nobody listens.

2. Of course, the most striking comparison is that, while many Obama opponents are sure he’s concealing an alien birth certificate, the seemingly benevolent V’s are pretending to be just like us, but (spoiler alert) are hiding lizardy evidence that they just aren’t.

3. The whole thing could have been lifted from the minds of Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs.

There’s also the fact that the two level headed protagonists are a priest (representing the goodness and levelheadedness of religiosity) and an FBI agent (representing law enforcement and order. Note that her colleagues in their government organization have been compromised but she hasn’t). Both are white. Meanwhile, the one black goodguy, played by Morris Chestnut, happens to be a “traitor” for the ‘V’s.

Perhaps this is all just a coincidence. To be honest, I think it’s too soon to tell what kind of show V is going to be (beyond a bad one that is) but there is evidence that the idea was to make it a conservative counter to BSG —which is not to say that BSG was liberal, just that this show could be far more conservative.

CORRECTION: It’s wrong of me to say that BSG really isn’t a scifi show because it is. The difference between it and, say, Earth Final Conflict, is that the show isn’t shallow. It’s deep and thoughtful.

Ad Highlight: Droid Teaser

I’m not sure what the tone of coverage today of the Droid premiere is but its teaser commercial is pretty damn cool and memorable:

Department Of Bad Ideas: Residential Permit Parking

My boss at Gaper’s Block, Ramsin Canon highlights another bad idea floating around Chicago, residential parking permits:

The creation of residential permit parking districts ends up exacerbating parking problems because the more of them you have, the more competition you get for the fewer and fewer free parking spots–making convenient targets for the city to squeeze more money out of people. While permit parking makes sense immediately around certain institutions–particularly big schools and hospitals–just creating permit parking because developers are over-building on density is silly and counter-productive. If your street parking can’t handle, there’s no gun to your head saying you have to up-zone a piece of property to allow those extra five condo units.

It should also be noted that depending on the area, residential parking permits could hinder tourism. Take my native Hyde Park for example. A lot more tourists go there these days because President Obama’s actual house is there. Many of them probably go by car and park in the area. Still, Hyde Parkers would probably take advantage of residential parking permits in the neighborhood more often so if you introduced them to me and the people who live near me, we’d all be happy, but the surge in tourism would likely take a hit meaning the new revenues that come from being in President Obama’s neighborhood would probably partially or fully disappear.

What’s more, residential permit parking is a damn good way of stratifying a community by making it that the rich could only afford to either a) stay in the community or b) not need a parking permit. All and all this is a really bad idea.

Photo by icotns used under a Creative Commons license.

Owens Will Vote For Healthcare. Get Over It.

Okay, I know I need to get off the Owens beat and I will soon but before I do: I’m not that surprised that newly minted NY-23rd Congressman Bill Owens is getting pushback from the National Republican Campaign Committee over voting for the upcoming healthcare reform bill but, personally, I doubt he’s going to budge. The bill is too high priority for him and his fellow Democrats and it’s far too early in his term (even as a Congressman) for it to be a risk for his political career. This is a waste for the right.

Goodbye Jermaine

Looks like it’s true, the White Sox are saying goodbye to Jermaine Dye. It was a good run that’s for sure.

What If The World Series Included The Rest Of The World?

Speaking of baseball, the Associated Press has a good story about the excitement in Japan that Hideki Matsui’s team won the world series. I think this wouldn’t be such a remarkable event if the American and Japanese baseball leagues were more closely linked. It would also make more sense to call the world series winner the champions of all the teams if baseball if they, you know, beat other teams.

The question of why the MLB and Nippon Professional Baseball aren’t more closely linked (or the Chinese or the Taiwanese equivalents for that matter) came up during the world series liveblogging. Rachel brought up the fact that the time difference made it impossible to really integrate the leagues into one larger entity. Well okay, but I still think the asian league champions should be involved in the world series. There are time differences in Europe and that doesn’t stop soccer teams from playing in the Champions League which is what the World Series could be and that could be even more fun.

There is the World Baseball Classic yes but it’s nowhere nearly as big a deal as the World Series is or could be.

Jermaine Dye To Be Replaced By Teahen?

I’m hoping this isn’t true:

The Chicago White Sox have agreed to trade second baseman Chris Getz and third baseman Josh Fields to the Kansas City Royals for Mark Teahen, according to the New York Daily News.

Getz told ESPNChicago.com’s Bruce Levine at 9 a.m. CT that he had not been notified of a trade.

“I talked to some people with the team this morning,” Getz told Levine. “At this point, it’s been characterized as a rumor.”

The White Sox refused to respond to the story when questioned by Levine.

Teahen was interviewed on a Kansas City radio station and said he had not been notified of a trade.

Teahen, 28, hit .271 with 12 home runs and 50 RBIs in 2009. He may replace outfielder Jermaine Dye if the Sox choose to exercise the $1 million buyout of Dye’s contract. But the versatile Teahen also could play second or third.

Getz, 26, hit .261 with two home runs and 31 RBIs in 107 games for the White Sox last season.

Fields hit .222 with seven home runs and 30 RBIs in 79 games for the White Sox. He was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte on July 29 and recalled on Sept. 1.

(I added the bold) I’m almost positive that part or all of this is a rumor. Teahen just isn’t nearly as good a player as Dye and honestly, even though Dye had a rather long slump near the end of the season I doubt the Sox are going to give up on him, especially for Teahen. The Peavy acquisition shows the Sox coaches aren’t stupid, they’re willing to go for big name players and try and gain more than they lost. Teahen showed promise early on but since then he really hasn’t been a noteworthy player at all and there’s been no indication that that will change. He may have been a worthwhile trade for Fields and Getz (although I think Getz still holds some promise) but I seriously doubt anyone would expect him to do as well as Dye.

UPDATE: U-God at South Side Sox is a bit more optimistic about this trade than I am but there’s no mention in his post of replacing Dye with Teahen.

Local Issue Ignorance Plus Big Names Probably Didn’t Help Hoffman

Daniel Larison notes that in the two successful gubernatorial races this week both candidates’ fame came, proportionately, more evenly from local and national republicans than in the NY-23. In other words, most of Hoffman’s notoriety didn’t come from local, hard earned support, it came from national endorsements of Palin and Limbaugh while both McDonnell and Christie had a more evenly distributed amount of support between the national and local level.

I think this argument deserves some consideration. Hoffman’s unfamiliarity with local issues was disturbing and I’m not just saying that. If Owens had no idea what was going on I’d be equally perturbed. But both Christie and McDonnell knew more about the states they were running in which probably attracted voters to them than, say, Daggett or either GOP candidates’ Democratic rival.

So perhaps a serious knowledge of local policy was what drew the 5% or so that voted for Scozzafava in the end to do it as well as brought Owens some votes. That doesn’t mean that Hoffman’s local issue ignorance is what did him in but it certainly didn’t help, especially when combined with a handy endorsement from Sarah Palin which surely made thinking conservatives pause for a moment.

Mark Kirk Wants To Be The Next Doug Hoffman

The fallout of the NY-23 election is apparent in Illinois. Today Senate hopeful Republican Mark Kirk said the following about Sarah Palin’s visit to Chicago to appear on Oprah:

“the Chicago media will focus on one key issue: Does Gov[ernor] Palin oppose Congressman Mark Kirk’s bid to take the Obama Senate seat for the Republicans?”

Ummm no, I’m pretty sure nobody was thinking that until now. Still, I can see why Kirk would want the attention. Palin is a publicity addict. And I can also see why Kirk wants Palin’s support. Just look at how much national spotlight Doug Hoffman got (along with a great deal more money than he otherwise would’ve won) by collecting irrelevant but big name endorsements from national Republican stars. And besides, Kirk doesn’t want to end up being the next Dede Scozzafava. I can’t argue with his strategy, with the GOP moving farther to the right, don’t get labeled a moderate (which he is).

UPDATE: I notice Adam Doster at Progress Illinois points out that in the past Kirk had been much more cool toward Palin and John McCain’s selection of her. Again, this speaks from the lesson the GOP is taking away from the NY-23: Don’t step out of line.

SECOND UPDATE: Rich Miller confirms that Kirk’s Palin seeking announcement is directly related to the NY-23 race and Scozzafava’s loss of GOP support.

Chicagoans Shed Stereotypes And Stress

Be aware that this post is mostly speculative. Chicagoist notes that Chicagoans are really stressed but their stress level is decreasing through exercise and walking. I’m betting a minor contributor to Chicagoan stress is, frankly, the weather. It’s cloudy in the Chi! And clouds definitely bring cheerfulness, trust this proud twenty-year resident of the city.