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Progressives and the Ron Paul fallacies: Ron Paul's candidacy is a mirror held up in front of the face of America's Democratic Party and its progressive wing, and the image that is reflected is an ugly one; more to the point, it's one they do not want to see because it so violently conflicts with their desired self-perception.

Continued from the article:

"Whatever else one wants to say, it is indisputably true that Ron Paul is the only political figure with any sort of a national platform — certainly the only major presidential candidate in either party — who advocates policy views on issues that liberals and progressives have long flamboyantly claimed are both compelling and crucial. The converse is equally true: the candidate supported by liberals and progressives and for whom most will vote — Barack Obama — advocates views on these issues (indeed, has taken action on these issues) that liberals and progressives have long claimed to find repellent, even evil.

[...]

The parallel reality — the undeniable fact — is that all of these listed heinous views and actions from Barack Obama have been vehemently opposed and condemned by Ron Paul: and among the major GOP candidates, only by Ron Paul. For that reason, Paul's candidacy forces progressives to face the hideous positions and actions of their candidate, of the person they want to empower for another four years. If Paul were not in the race or were not receiving attention, none of these issues would receive any attention because all the other major GOP candidates either agree with Obama on these matters or hold even worse views."

I am looking for images/renderings of a particular kind of office 'layout' - where the design involves lots of: wood, greenery, light, 'interesting' spaces, and perhaps even multi-levels.

We are in the early (very!) stages of planning a new working environment. About twenty years ago I visited the offices/warehouse of a mail-order art supply outfit in the Seattle area (kind of a hippy-influenced place), and had the chance to see their offices (normally not seen by customers). It was an astonishingly beautiful design: everything was done in light wood, there were plants everywhere, and desks/work-spaces were on different levels, a few steps up or down, with the arrangement such that there was quiet/privacy for those who needed it, and openness/communication where appropriate. Your jaw dropped when you entered the space, and as I was taken through it - up, down, around this way and that - to reach the desk of the person I needed to talk to, my single over-riding feeling was "I want to work in a place like this!"

In trying to get a handle on just how they did it, I wrote to them recently asking if it was perhaps possible to see some snapshots, but they did not reply. Googling for generic images of similarly interesting office spaces has not turned up much at all. My immediate problem is to find a way to communicate this 'vision' to the other people working with me here, who know only standard Japanese office design, and who are looking at me like I have been smoking something ...

Can you help me find images of this kind of place?

As a Christmas present, my awesome mom paid for me to get glorious purple highlights done at an excellent salon in my hometown. How do I take care of them and keep them vivid for as long as possible?

This is the first time I've ever had my hair dyed, so I really have no idea what I'm doing. Do I just buy the shampoo and conditioner that say "for color treated hair" on them? I assume I should try not to wash too often (my hair is long enough that I usually only wash it every other day in any case.) Should I wear a hat to protect it from UV radiation? Use special conditioners to keep the bleached/dyed hair from frizzing and tangling? Re-dye it at home every now and again (and if so, with what, and how?)

Worth noting: my natural hair color is very dark brown, so it had to be pretty severely bleached in order for the color to take. Stylists have always told me my hair is very healthy, so presumably the 2/3 of my hair that is non-bleached and non-colored is still fine.

Corey Robin’s new book The Reactionary Mind has attracted plenty of attention both favorable and otherwise. I don’t want to offer a full-scale review, but to respond to the central thesis. As I read Robin, his central claim is that the current situation in which people who call themselves “conservative” are in fact radical reactionaries is not an aberration, but the norm, and that this has been the case ever since the first self-conscioulsy conservative thinker, Edmund Burke.

I’d put this more broadly – conservatism (and, it’s opposites, progressivism radicalism) are, in essence ideas about process, but the most people active in politics are more concerned about pursuing particular goals than about the way they get there.

To illustrate the point consider the standard claim about conservatism put forward by Michael Oakeshott in 1956  (also cited by Robin)

“To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.”

Now consider how someone who actually held these views in the Britain of 1956 ought to have regarded trade unions. Of all British institutions, they were surely amongst the most familiar and factual, embodying the preference for actual present benefits over utopian projects. Yet that was not, as far as I can tell Oakeshott’s position at all (though his refusal of an honour from the Thatcher government may suggest some reconsideration later in life).

Robin’s thesis is that claims like Oakeshott’s about conservatism (and also, those of Hayek about classical liberalism) are nothing more than a mask for attempts to resist, and where possible, roll back the claims of the working class against their rulers.

I think this is broadly correct. Although there are people with the conservative disposition described above (and also, people who are attracted by radicalism as such), there is no inherent correlation between conservatism as a disposition and support for the political views commonly associated with conservatism. 

There is an accidental association reflecting the fact that, taking the last two or three centuries as a whole, the ruling class has mostly been losing ground. First, the aristocracy was forced to share power with the bourgeoisie, and, then for most of the 20th century, the working class gained ground against the power of capital. Under such circumstances, people of conservative disposition will generally be found in opposition to the progressive demands being put forward by workers and their supporters.

The crucial test comes in periods such as the Bourbon restoration, or the neoliberal resurgence of the last thirty years or so, when the direction of change is reversed. Genuine conservatives in these circumstances seek to preserve those advances that have been embedded in the way society works (such as the New Deal in the US).  Conservative politics on the other hand, is dominated by reactionaries seeking to restore (an idealised version) of the status quo ante, and gains the support of those with a radical disposition (Newt Gingrich is an ideal example).  It’s certainly possible to find examples of the first kind (the “Wets” who resisted Thatcher for example) but they are clearly in the minority.

Long ago, I planned a book based on Raymond Williams Keywords, and blogged entries on topics including conservative, progressive and reform, which made some of these points. Corey Robin has done a much better job, and his book is well worth reading.

 

 

Mark Blumenthal sets up this Iowa poll perfectly:

On New Year's Eve exactly four years ago, the Des Moines Register released its final poll of Iowa caucus-goers and turned the political world upside down.

While the newspaper's final Iowa Caucus poll of 2011, set to be published Saturday night at 7 p.m. Central Time (8 p.m. Eastern Time), may not confound the conventional wisdom this time, it is among the most eagerly anticipated political polls of the season for good reason. The Register has a hard-earned reputation for accuracy grounded in the fundamentals of survey research: Assume as little as possible about the likely caucus-goers, and let the voters speak for themselves.

So here's the topline (MoE  plus/minus 4 for full four day poll , plus/minus 5.6 for last 2 days):

Mitt Romney tops the latest Des Moines Register Iowa Poll in the closing days before the Iowa caucuses, but Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are poised within striking distance.

The poll, conducted Tuesday through Friday, shows support at 24 percent for Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts; 22 percent for Paul, a Texas congressman; and 15 percent for the surging Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.

But the four-day results don’t reflect just how quickly momentum is shifting in a race that has remained highly fluid for months. If the final two days of polling are considered separately, Santorum rises to second place, with 21 percent, pushing Paul to third, at 18 percent. Romney remains the same, at 24 percent.

“Momentum’s name is Rick Santorum,” said the Register’s pollster, J. Ann Selzer.

And you know what? It's still really close (unless your name is Perry or Gingrich.) Romney's the favorite, but Santorum could win. Why?

Another sign of the race’s volatility: 41 percent of likely caucusgoers say they could still be persuaded to change their minds. That's because they are not sold on Romney, and the 75% non-Romney vote is still looking for a home.

There are three things that make a caucus survey hard to do:

1. getting the voter choices right (basic)
2. figuring out second choices (less relevant for this R caucus, but key for the 2008 D caucus)
3. guesstimating and gaming out who is likely to show - and why

That last one is huge, and with tomorrow's scheduled release of detailed analysis, we might know more.

An AP story earlier today notes this:

This year, polls have consistently shown two dominant themes in the GOP race:

—A tepid response to the GOP field among Republican voters.

Earlier this month, an AP-GfK poll found that amid Gingrich’s rise, Republican dissatisfaction with the lineup of candidates also rose. The wild swings among the anyone-but-Romney crowd have lifted nearly all of the candidates at some point this year, but none has fit the bill exactly.

Republicans don’t actively dislike Romney, with 73 percent saying he’s a strong leader and 81 percent calling him likable. But his best showing in any poll this year remains around 30 percent, and no other candidate has pulled a strong showing among the remaining 70 percent of the party.

—A deep anger among Republicans toward Obama.

Why the deep anger?

Maybe this:

If Romney wins, or if someone else does, it won't change the driving force among Republicans, who are against Obama and not for the nominee.  But ask President Kerry if that's enough to win with.

I want to set up a mailing list of sorts, but with text messages instead of emails. What's a system like this called, and how do I do it?

I'm organizing an event and want to send occasional text messages to a (potentially large, maybe in the hundreds) group of volunteers and supporters. Of course, I don't want to send messages to this many folks manually, and I want them to be able to subscribe and unsubscribe at will, without my assistance.

If this were email-based, you'd type your email address into a form or send a message that says "subscribe myemail@address.com" to a robot and you'd start getting emails . To unsubscribe, you'd send a message that says "unsubscribe myemail@address.com" to the robot and you'd stop getting messages. Easy peasy.

Can this sort of thing be done with text messages? What's it called (i.e. what keywords do I search to learn more)? Can it be done inexpensively? How hard is it to set up? Have you done something similar - what were your experiences?

Thanks!

As we discussed a few months ago, some polls matter more than others. In Iowa, the Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll is widely considered the gold standard for Hawkeye State polling, and therefore gets considerably more attention than other surveys in the state.

And with that in mind, and the caucuses just a few days, here's what the race for the Republican presidential nomination looks like in Iowa:

1. Mitt Romney: 24% (up seven points since early December)
2. Ron Paul: 22% (up four points)
3. Rick Santorum: 15% (up nine points)
4. Newt Gingrich: 12% (down 13 points)
5. Rick Perry: 11% (up five points)
6. Michele Bachmann: 7% (down one point)

Jon Huntsman, who was at 2% a month ago, was not mentioned in the Register's report this evening.

The results, however, come with a very important caveat: the Iowa Poll was conducted Tuesday through Friday, and the results from the first two days were quite different from the last two days.

[T]he four-day results don't reflect just how quickly momentum is shifting in a race that has remained highly fluid for months. If the final two days of polling are considered separately, Santorum rises to second place, with 21 percent, pushing Paul to third, at 18 percent. Romney remains the same, at 24 percent.

"Momentum's name is Rick Santorum," said the Register's pollster, J. Ann Selzer.

A couple of other tidbits jump out from the results. Perry, who insists he has a great ground game in Iowa, appears to have recovered from his free fall and has seen his support nearly double over the last month. Paul's 22%, meanwhile, is the best he's done in an Iowa poll so far this year, as is Romney's 24%.

But the real story here appears to be the sharp increase in Santorum's support in the contest's closing days. Note: the best the former senator has done in a DMR poll this year is 6%. Now, at least over the last couple of days, Santorum is at 21%.

Best of all, there are still two days of campaigning to go, and 41% of likely caucusgoers "say they could still be persuaded to change their minds."

My friend is about to get get some very serious news regarding her health which carries with it a very, very poor prognosis and I am looking for advice on how to help her when she gets this news.

This friend, while in the hospital, was recently diagnosed with a particularly bad type of cancer. Other than the initial visit with the oncologist who gave her the diagnosis in the hospital she has yet to go in for another consult (due to the holidays and the oncologist being out of office). However I work with her primary care doctor and, with my friend's permission, I have spoken to her about the results of the tests they ran in the hospital. Things look very grim. Her primary care doctor told her this news as well but I don't think my friend understands, at least not that she is expressing to me when we have discussed it, what a poor prognosis this type of cancer carries.

Important to note here is that my friend is not looking to me for medical advice, although I do work in a context which makes me more knowledgable about medical issues than the average person. She has not asked me to explain these diagnostic tests and their results to her, although she asked me to accompany her to her oncologist appointment next week because she wants someone there who knows what questions to ask and speaks the language, so to speak.

I am nearly certain she is going to hear from her oncologist, at best, that her cancer is at an advanced stage or, at worse, that it is terminal. I fear it is the latter and not the former. I would be lying if I said that I wasn't experiencing some anxiety over being there with her when she receives this news as I have never before been in a situation like this. Other than going with her, helping her to navigate the medical-ease and holding her hand what can I do for her during this time? I'm just so very sad for her and want to do what I can to be of some comfort to her.

The highly respected and eagerly awaited Des Moines Register/Selzer poll just came out. It has the top three Romney 24%, Paul 22% and Santorum 15%. That's more or less in line with recent polls. The current TPM Poll Average (pre-DMR...

Josh Marshall http://talkingpointsmemo.com/joshmarshall.php

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Two related videos tied for spot number 13 in the countdown. Both relate to the OWS protests, and both involve excessive force and aggression on the part of the NYPD. In the first video, a Fox NY News crew is hit with mace and batons while simply standing with a crowd of peaceful protesters.

Luckily for our intrepid Fox News NY reporters, Iraq veteran Shamar Thomas was also among the OWS protesters, and he spoke forcefully straight to the NYPD for the right of the protesters to peacefully gather and demand redress under the Constitution.

Here he is discussing why he was so angry and why he was inspired to speak out after witnessing the police brutality earlier in October.

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I am looking for a playlist with songs that are best of 2011. I'm thinking along the lines of this Metafilter post but with all the songs in one playlist. Does such a thing exist somewhere?

So far, I can only find one on Spotify. I'd love any other options you could provide.

Thanks and Happy New Year!

Funeral held for man fatally shot by Spring Valley police
The Journal News | LoHud.com
Herve Gilles' mother, Madeleine Clermont of Haiti, far right, grieves at her son's funeral at the French Speaking Baptist Church in Spring Valley on Dec. 31, 2011. Gilles' step-sister Marie Romain-Elias of Mount Vernon, center, and her husband ...

and more »

It's New Years Eve (or already the first day of the new year, depending on where you are), and you may be looking for something other than the radio to play for a countdown. Head backwards, then, to cruise into the 80s with the Grateful Dead for the closing of Winterland. Or join the Janglers to say goodby to 1993 and hello to 1994 at Peabody's Downunder. You can check out twelve hours of Essential Mixing and relive the transition from 2000 to 2001. Get closer to the present day with some big band and swing into 2010 in style. Say hello to 2011 with B.A.G.S. (Bullman, Ashworth, Guggino, Sipe), spend an hour and a half with Blu Mar Ten or six and a half hours with Mr Scruff. And if you're looking for something new for tonight, try some mixes from Redondo, Montreal Funk Monkeys, and a countdown minimix from DJ Raymix.

I lucked into a half of a side of some beautiful pasture raised, grass fed, organic beef from a local farmer for cheap! The good news is that we ended up getting this killer beef for less than $2 a pound and that it all fits in our chest freezer. The bad news is ... well... I've realized we don't really actually eat all that much beef. What are some interesting things to do with ground beef and potroast?

In my defense, I asked probably a half dozen times how much beef we were looking at (although more out of concern for my freezer space). They told me the hanging weight, but could never really tell me how much of that was bones and guts. The consensus was that a quarter would easily fit in my small chest freezer, so that's what I got. After processing, however, it turns out there was about 30% more beef than even they had anticipated. We are talking about a boatload of beef here. And yes, also I am a child whose mental picture of beef consisted of piles of steaks. Whoops.

When I do buy meat it's generally pork or lamb, and it's usually only once a week. I make an occasional bolognese or meatballs, but don't really know what to do with the (60 pounds!) of ground beef in my freezer. I grew up in the midwest and have had enough hot dish to last the rest of my life. What else is there outside of burgers, taco meat, meatballs, chili, meat sauce?

I also have 5 or 6 of these things called a "7-bone roast". They weigh about 6 pounds apiece. We made a pot roast with one and it was great... but that's a whoooole lotta roast we're staring down over the next several months. What else can I do with it?

And as an aside - how long will this stuff last in my chest freezer?

Additional details: Cooking for 2 adults, one picky 10 year old and a baby; portions are pretty small. I'd consider myself an adventurous scratch cook. I don't love Thai flavors, peppers, or super spicy stuff. We love Japanese and Indian food, but... yeah. I got a half of a lamb last spring and it was fantastic: gyros, pastichio, lamb burgers... I was super sad when the ground lamb was all gone. Help me feel the same way about this beef!

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One of Mitt Romney's sons did his best on Thursday to promote the rumor that the nation's first black president may not be a U.S. citizen.

Stumping for his dad in Concord New Hampshire, Matt Romney told a group of senior citizens that the multimillionaire candidate might not release his tax returns until President Barack Obama releases his birth certificate, a document that was made public long ago.

"He has not said that he will not do it," the younger Romney said of the tax returns, sounding like the son of a politician. "He has also not said that he will. I think it's just a matter of time until that issue comes up. So, I don't know the answer to that. I'm not sure he knows the answer to that."

While it wasn't a particularly insightful answer, things probably would have been fine if Matt Romney had just stopped there -- but he didn't.

"I heard someone suggest the other day that as soon as President Obama releases his grades and birth certificate and sort of a long list of things then maybe he'd do it," he added.

Sensing that Matt had gone to far, the slightly-older Tagg Romney, one of the candidate's other sons, volunteered that his dad had not personally made that remark.

"No, no," Matt Romney agreed. "That's just a guess from someone else."

The president's Twitter account wasted no time in responding: "Mitt Romney's son thinks President Obama should release his birth certificate. Guess he doesn't have one of our mugs?"

Earlier this year, Public Policy Polling found that the former Massachusetts governor was in fourth place among so-called birther Republican voters who believed that Obama was born in another country.

In April, the candidate declared that "the citizenship test has been passed."

"I believe the president was born in the United States," Mitt Romney told CNBC's Larry Kudlow. "The man needs to be taken out of office but his citizenship isn't the reason why."

The tax return issue may have become a sore point for the Romney family after the Democratic National Committee (DNC) suggested the candidate had something to hide.

"It would show that on the millions of dollars in income he enjoys each year, Mitt Romney pays a lower tax rate than teachers, fire fighters, police officers or other middle class wage earners," DNC National Press Secretary Melanie Roussell predicted in a media advisory.

"Mitt Romney will tell you that it's not required by the law that he release his returns but when he's advocating for policies that benefit the wealthy and the well-heeled, voters have a right to know what conflicts he might have with his own finances."

(H/T: Concord Patch)

Happy New Year! It's that time (as of now!) for the UK, and since the Slashdot backend operates in Greenwich Mean Time, that seems as good a reason as any to welcome 2012 now instead of local midnight for any of the various U.S. time zones. Everyone has a different take on how to rank the events of the last year; read on below for a few notes on some of the goings on of the past 31,536,000 seconds (give or take). The list is pretty arbitrary, drawn from the thousand-ish stories that hit the Slashdot page in that time; please say in the comments what news hit you the hardest this year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sinead O'Connor plays a concert in a church in Reykjavík at Iceland Airwaves last October. Icelandic state broadcaster, RÚV, recorded the concert and you can listen to it in full. There is some talking in Icelandic in the beginning, but the concert starts up at around three and a half minutes in. This concert was not long after her online jokes about her lack of companionship making her resort to bananas. She cracks many jokes about that and the fact that she's playing in a church. And she's in brilliant form as a performer and plays for almost two hours. As a bonus, here's not-very-high-quality video of that night's rendition of Nothing Compares to You, which includes a bit about bananas.

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The one thing that makes me sad about Sarah Palin not running in 2012 is that Tina Fey will not be called upon to do her Palin impression. But you can catch her in this sketch from May, before the Republicans decided to hold 150 bazillion debates and make us all long for the days when they were all Fox News commentators instead of candidates for the GOP nomination.

Excellent impressions done by all, but it's Fey's Palin impression that grabs the 14th spot in the countdown.

What's coming up on Sunday Kos ...

• DemFromCT will look thought the details of the Des Moines Register final Iowa poll for clues as to who is likely to actually show up.
• Dante Atkins will speculate about how the third-party group known as Americans Elect could affect the 2012 race.
• In "Arizona Bigotry" Denise Oliver-Velez will discuss the ruling by administrative law judge Lewis Kowal that ethnic studies are illegal.
• Scott Wooledge explains how skyrocketing health care costs became a very personal battle over the holidays.
• After a litany of anti-Romneys have now come and gone, Mitt Romney may well be poised to be the last man standing. Steve Singiser explores the inevitability of Mitt Romney as the Republican nominee, and why the only certainty in the GOP presidential sweepstakes is continued uncertainty.
• Hunter says he's just going to phone something in.
• They all sound the same! Georgia Logothetis will explore the most common political soundbites. Let's hope for some originality from candidates in 2012....
• Mark Sumner begins work on a new novel, and invites you to join in with your own writing project as we spend six months getting to "THE END."

Many Kindle reviews noted the sluggish performance of the Silk browser, but you can quickly increase the speed by changing a few settings. In addition to turning off Flash and changing the browser from desktop to mobile view, turning of Silk's touted acceleration feature will all make Silk faster. More »