Loser think.

Really, if making promises and predicting American doom n' gloom were all it took to procure positions as a National Spokesperson for Democratic healthcare reform, you think some other enterprising journalist would have hopped on that pony years ago...

The education of young Mr. Klein continues, in such a public fashion in the Washington Post:

{A}t some point, we have to bet that Congress will be able to stick to cost controls. Otherwise, we're bankrupt one way or the other, and we may as well give people health-care coverage as the country rides out its final years of solvency.

Don't go waving the white flag just yet. There's still fight in the healthy Americans, I predict. And not everybody's bought into the system as it stands.

Freedom of choice. Individualized decision-making to avoid one-size-fits-all solutions. Nobody said independence would be easy...

You looking at me?

Boys of Winter.

------------------

To me the most beautiful thing about America, is how all the beautiful lights blend together on our Christmas trees.

Freedom of opinion. Freedom of opinion. Freedom of opinion.

“A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.”

~ Orson Welles



( Hat tip: Scott Eyman. )

GOD ENJOYS A GOOD LAUGH!
There were 3 good arguments that Jesus was Black:

1. He called everyone brother

2. He liked Gospel

3. He didn't get a fair trial

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Jewish:

1. He went into His Father's business

2. He lived at home until he was 33

3. He was sure his Mother was a virgin and his Mother was sure He was God

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Italian:

1. He talked with His hands

2. He had wine with His meals

3. He used olive oil

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was a Californian:

1. He never cut His hair

2. He walked around barefoot all the time

3. He started a new religion

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was an American Indian:

1. He was at peace with nature

2. He ate a lot of fish

3. He talked about the Great Spirit

But then there were 3 equally good arguments that Jesus was Irish:

1. He never got married

2. He was always telling stories

3. He loved green pastures

But the most compelling evidence of all - 3 proofs that Jesus was a woman:

1. He fed a crowd at a moment's notice when there was virtually no food

2. He kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn't get it

3. And even when He was dead, He had to get up because there was still work to do

Can I get an AMEN!!

Forgive us our trespasses...

I like the next line too.

Now excuse me, but I have a Valentine's Eve stir fry to attend to.

Expect light blogging over the next few weeks. Swim season has ended at our pool, but other duties are stacked up awaiting action.

Remember that one? A call to action*. Powerful stuff when it's not just words, or rather: when it's words plus, inspiring actions that advance endeavors.

“If one advances confidently in the direction of one's dreams, and endeavors to live the life which one has imagined, one will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

~Henry David Thoreau

-------------------------

*Speaking of, this is what I had in mind when I jotted the blog post that morning upon hearing the Nobel news. Fwiw.

Bless the Athletes...

They make it look so easy, but one slip shows how fragile some of the unpadded sports are:

A luge athlete from the Republic of Georgia, Nodar Kumaritashvili, was killed in a crash in training on the Olympic track at the Whistler Sliding Center on Friday.

When he lost control, he was going 88 mph.

How 'bout that Modern Family show?

Consistently funny*...

(And David Brenner** looks great!)

ADDED: *Hat tip Greg Stoda, 11/11.

**Wiki:
On February 3, 2009, on The Howard Stern show, Brenner admitted that he would turn 73 on February 4, 2009, after a career during which he had lied about his age since the 1960s.

Btw: If inquiring, do you say, "What age are you?", or the more Americanized "How old are you?"

Ah, the salad days!

Here's a funny, funny thread, speaking of the storms...

If I were President...

an all-day ice cream cone would cost a cent...
if I was President!

*It was a children's song... stuck in my head all these years, but with no record on YouTube or Google even. Sesame Street perhaps. Electric Company. or those School House Rock Saturday morning commercials.

Speaking of, who remembers this delightful one from 1972, they say? (A loaf of bread ... a container of milk ... and a stick of butter.) Stuck in my head all those years.

And they remade it with Muppets, even!

---------------

ADDED: Kind of a scary one here: "It's the plumber! I've come to fix the sink!!"

What can I say? Those were trippy times to be a child, indeed.

Oh goodness.

It's one thing for an anonymous blogger to make baseball comparisons (I'm writing for the masses here and all...):

Back to the sports world again:
If a player came up through the farm leagues and could pitch regularly and reliably, would you value that player more than one who was awarded scholarships for his promise, was signed to write books about his experience before he even got onto a playing field, heck was named series MVP even before any games were played?

Superstars are fine and all, but in the sports world, you don't see too many superstars kept around for many seasons without producing. Despite the hype, at some point, you have to bring your game.

But a president really should stick to his own game, dontcha think?

THE PRESIDENT: Listen, $17 million is an extraordinary amount of money. Of course, there are some baseball players who are making more than that who don’t get to the World Series either. So I’m shocked by that as well. I guess the main principle we want to promote is a simple principle of “say on pay,” that shareholders have a chance to actually scrutinize what CEOs are getting paid. And I think that serves as a restraint and helps align performance with pay.

The other thing we do think is the more that pay comes in the form of stock that requires proven performance over a certain period of time as opposed to quarterly earnings is a fairer way of measuring CEOs’ success and ultimately will make the performance of American businesses better.
...
“I know both those guys (JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein); they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday.

“I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”

Obama sought to combat perceptions that his administration is anti-business and trumpeted the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies. He plans to reiterate that message when he speaks to the Business Roundtable, which represents the heads of many of the biggest U.S. companies, on Feb. 24 in Washington

Krugman writes:

Oh. My. God.

First of all, to my knowledge, irresponsible behavior by baseball players hasn’t brought the world economy to the brink of collapse and cost millions of innocent Americans their jobs and/or houses.

And more specifically, not only has the financial industry has been bailed out with taxpayer commitments; it continues to rely on a taxpayer backstop for its stability.

The point is that these bank executives are not free agents who are earning big bucks in fair competition; they run companies that are essentially wards of the state. There’s good reason to feel outraged at the growing appearance that we’re running a system of lemon socialism, in which losses are public but gains are private. And at the very least, you would think that Obama would understand the importance of acknowledging public anger over what’s happening.

But no. If the Bloomberg story is to be believed, Obama thinks his key to electoral success is to trumpet “the influence corporate leaders have had on his economic policies.”
...
I mean, how hard is it for the White House to understand that it’s a really, really bad idea to be saying nice things about bailed-out bankers, Goldman Sachs in particular? Even if you think it’s a bad idea to come across too populist — and why, exactly? — be evasive and judicious, say something neutral. Do NOT praise Lloyd Blankfein’s savvy, OK?

Maybe it was a bit strong for me to say that we’re doomed, but this really is shocking and dispiriting.

Just to be clear: what freaks me out about this isn’t what it says about Obama’s policies, it’s what it says about failure to read the mood of the country. The president seems solely concerned that someone might think that he’s anti-business, without — in this interview, at least — appearing to consider it necessary to say a thing about the pervasive sense of unfair Wall Street privilege. He doesn’t have to bash bankers every step of the way, but to respond to a question about bonuses solely by praising free markets and comparing bankers to baseball stars is … clueless.

I think this mentality took root in the 80s: you are, according to what you earn. And what you outwardly show what you earn. It's false, of course.

Sometimes, the man in work clothes browsing in the car lot -- well, as a salesman, you underestimate his wealth (who knows? He might just buy, not lease, and pay it off in full, even a "lesser" model) at your own detriment. Wealth, like knowledge, need not be showy. The bubble pop kind of shows that -- true value lasts. And property titles matter much more in the long run it seems, than job titles that come and go, and are often changed or "improved" more to fit egos than job responsibilities.

Btw, what's the real difference between a leader and a follower? Look behind you. Are people following? Or is it just a title, a salary, and an ego boost to convince a person to get out ahead of the pack and figure out the lay of the land so you can guide the others coming along behind?

But that's an explorer's role really, a scout sent out on behalf of the leader to report advance conditions. (Think Jefferson, and Lewis and Clark.) The leader part -- figuring out what to do with the facts reported, the honest criticisms of past assumptions, that comes later after the facts are assembled, and for better or worse, a path is chosen. (Think Lincoln deciding where to locate the transcontinental railroad).

But a leader ... playing scout? Know your role. Imagine if Jefferson had chucked it all to journey along with Lewis and Clark, rather than trusting their judgment to guide him in what they'd seen and heard and experienced. No good.

The explorers did their bit. The leaders did theirs. The followers were happy, as some want only to be safe and warm and don't really need all that, as tradeoff for adventure or leadership roles.

------------------


FWIW, in other news:
For our East Coast friends, hopefully settled in and well stocked and waiting for the storms to pass...
You might think it's cold and harsh out now, even as it's beautiful and fun to see so much snow, if you can enjoy it and play it flexibly schedulewise.

But remember. The truly worst part of Big Snows, especially in the cities -- where do you put it? And remember too, it will keep the air cooler and you might have a more lengthy eventual meltdown. The more snow, the longer the winter and the more troublesome the Springs. So it goes in the colder regions, at least.

So if I'm trying to offer up some honest advice here: do remember to keep something in reserve. In two weeks, those big snow piles causing visibility problems will be darker and gloomier from the exhaust, and your schedules will be back to full-time busy, and East Coast full-time busy, at that. So just take care not to think this is the tough time, and you should put it all out there emotionally/spiritually/innerstrength-wise. Imho: the toughest days are still to come weatherwise, so somewhere inside, best be prepared.

Whether the weather is cold,
or Whether the weather is hot
We'll weather the weather
Whatever the weather
Whether we like it
Or not.

77 ...

Speaking of John Murtha's death, when I was home at Christmas and Mom and I were talking about my Dad and how good he's doing, she mentioned how much they were noticing people's death ages last year.

77, same as him for another month.

A lot of those who died lived faster and harder lives than my Dad (we think it was the benzene exposure at work, not lifestyle, that contributed to his leukemia. His shop in the building was down the hall from the loading docks on lower Wacker, where the trucks idled). Plus, he's got a good temperament which helps you tolerate aging, and illness, I think.

I'll just be glad when he turns 78.*

_________________

* and that makes sense enough to me, even if it doesn't to you. This type, hoping it's mild enough that he pushes into the 80s, this year being their first not being snowbirds and all.

"My momma loves me. She loves me..."

The First Lady stands by her man:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- First lady Michelle Obama says President Barack Obama ''has done a phenomenal job,'' but that people have a right to criticize him.

The first lady added that he understands people are still suffering amid high unemployment. She also said, "Every day our president wakes up serious and focused and committed to pushing this stuff through. We had hoped that more progress would have been made."

Try the prunes, Mr. President?

Two NYT columnists today -- Brooks and Herbert -- come at the President's performance from different angles: Brooks from above, with his eyeglasses, soft clean hands, and educated gentility; and Herbert, who consistently writes free of sentiment and with a clear-eyed focus that doesn't play victims, who understands how economics and ethics trump liberal big-government reforms that can kill families.

Brooks is white, Herbert black but it's not so easy as picking sides like that.

Herbert writes about people, real Americans dealing with reality across the economic plains, who have no hope of being plucked out of the masses and elevated in some social program engineered to right the wrongs of the past by picking winners out of the sociology stew -- the "second mouse" who benefits from his predecessors' struggles and sufferings. ("The early bird gets the worm. The second mouse gets the cheese.")

Brooks ... well, it still looks pretty and all from his vantage-point. Liberals of all colors and ethnicities, banking on the dreams of their childrens' success. Education as the great uplifter, even for working-class whites competing harder with less against the affirmative action subsidies and redistribution plans that call for feeding children lunch and breakfast, and insuring unplanned children and families on the public dime. (taken from the paycheck of the man still working, whose wife stays home to cook and feed her family, because it makes sense economically.)

The problem with elite educations isn't what you learn; it's what you don't. What assumptions are never challenged, what you miss out on isolated from the workings of the Real World. The School of Hard Knocks doesn't give you a fancy parchment at the end, and there's no grand ceremoney, but it is what it is. The inherent value of an education should be what you take with you to get the job done, what keen eyes observe and process about human nature learned in years of study.

Back to the sports world again:
If a player came up through the farm leagues and could pitch regularly and reliably, would you value that player more than one who was awarded scholarships for his promise, was signed to write books about his experience before he even got onto a playing field, heck was named series MVP even before any games were played?

Superstars are fine and all, but in the sports world, you don't see too many superstars kept around for many seasons without producing. Despite the hype, at some point, you have to bring your game.

Brooks:

This is a fraught political climate. Liberals are furious. Moderates are running for their lives. Republicans believe, with much evidence, that an unprecedented wave of public rage is breaking across the land, directed at Washington. The uninformed float rumors that Rahm Emanuel is on the outs.

Yet the atmosphere in the White House appears surprisingly tranquil. Emanuel is serving as a lighting rod for the president but remains crisply confident in his role as chief of staff. It’s true that several top administration officials did not want to attempt comprehensive health care reform this year. But they are not opening recrimination campaigns. It’s no secret that many think the president needs to be more assertive with Congress, yet administration officials still talk about Obama in awestruck tones, even in private.

Some would say the administration is underreacting to the incredible shift in the public mood. Some would say they need more voices from the great unwashed. But no one could accuse them of panicking, or of scrambling about incoherently. In their first winter of discontent, they are offering continuity and comity. Whatever their relations with the country might be, inside they seem unruffled. The bonds of association, from the top down, seem healthy — especially for a bunch of Democrats.

Herbert:

What you’re not hearing from the politicians and the talking heads is that the joblessness and underemployment in America’s low-income households rival their heights in the Great Depression of the 1930s — and in some instances are worse. The same holds true for some categories of blue-collar workers. Anyone who thinks this devastating problem is going away soon, or that the economy can be put back on track without addressing it, is deluded.
...
The point here is that those in the lower-income groups are in a much, much deeper hole than the general commentary on the recession would lead people to believe. And none of the policy prescriptions being offered by the administration or the leaders of either party in Congress would in any way substantially alleviate the plight of those groups.

We talk about the recession as if all of its victims were suffering equally, and all will be helped by some bland, class-and-category-neutral solution.

That is so wrong. As the Center for Labor Market Studies explained in its report: “A true labor market depression faced those in the bottom two deciles of the income distribution; a deep labor market recession prevailed among those in the middle of the distribution, and close to a full employment environment prevailed at the top.”

Those who believe this grievous economic situation will right itself of its own accord or can be corrected without bold, targeted (and, yes, expensive) government action are still reading from the Ronald Reagan (someday it will trickle down) hymnal.

I bet at the NYT Brooks makes more than Herbert, but honestly whose words today are more on the money and have greater worth? (Check back in time, if you're like the President's First Lady and still have hope for a wonderful victory despite what's continually being written on the scorecard.)

---------------------
ADDED: Political science professor Gerard Alexander, of the University of Virginia, wrote in Sunday's Washington Post:

Starting in the 1960s, the original neoconservative critics such as Daniel Patrick Moynihan expressed distress about the breakdown of inner-city families, only to be maligned as racist and ignored for decades -- until appalling statistics forced critics to recognize their views as relevant. Long-standing conservative concerns over the perils of long-term welfare dependency were similarly villainized as insincere and mean-spirited -- until public opinion insisted they be addressed by a Democratic president and a Republican Congress in the 1996 welfare reform law. But in the meantime, welfare policies that discouraged work, marriage and the development of skills remained in place, with devastating effects.

Ignoring conservative cautions and insights is no less costly today. Some observers have decried an anti-intellectual strain in contemporary conservatism, detected in George W. Bush's aw-shucks style, Sarah Palin's college-hopping and the occasional conservative campaigns against egghead intellectuals. But alongside that, the fact is that conservative-leaning scholars, economists, jurists and legal theorists have never produced as much detailed analysis and commentary on American life and policy as they do today.

Perhaps the most important conservative insight being depreciated is the durable warning from free-marketeers that government programs often fail to yield what their architects intend. Democrats have been busy expanding, enacting or proposing major state interventions in financial markets, energy and health care. Supporters of such efforts want to ensure that key decisions will be made in the public interest and be informed, for example, by sound science, the best new medical research or prudent standards of private-sector competition. But public-choice economists have long warned that when decisions are made in large, centralized government programs, political priorities almost always trump other goals.

Even liberals should think twice about the prospect of decisions on innovative surgeries, light bulbs and carbon quotas being directed by legislators grandstanding for the cameras. Of course, thinking twice would be easier if more of them were listening to conservatives at all.

Monday, Alexander delivered the American Enterprise Institute's Bradley Lecture, "Do Liberals Know Best? Intellectual Self-Confidence and the Claim to a Monopoly on Knowledge."

R.I.P. John P. Murtha Jr.

From Wiki:

Murtha was a Democrat with a relatively populist economic outlook, and was generally much more socially conservative than most other House Democrats.[citation needed] He was pro-life, and voted against abortion, consistently receiving a 0% rating from NARAL and 70% rating from National Right to Life Committee[2]; however, he supported federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. He generally opposed gun control, earning an A from the National Rifle Association.[51] Murtha was also one of the few Democrats in Congress to vote against the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 and also one of the few Democrats to vote in favor of medical malpractice tort reform.

However, he was strongly pro-labor, and opposed both the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). He opposed President George W. Bush's tax plan and Social Security privatization, and also opposed the Federal Marriage Amendment. In 2004, he was one of only two congressmen to vote for a measure proposing reinstating the draft.[52] He was also considered more "hawkish" than most other Democrats holding office at the time of his.

In 2001, Murtha and Duke Cunningham (R-CA) co-sponsored the Flag Desecration Amendment, which passed the House of Representatives, but not the Senate.

In late 2005, he led the effort of House Democrats to offer a motion to endorse language in a military spending bill, written by Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and a fellow Vietnam veteran, that would forbid abusive treatment of terror suspects.

Murtha voted for the Affordable Healthcare for America Act (HR 3692), which passed in the House 220-215 on November 7, 2009. [53] He said of the bill, "For nearly a century, both Democrats and Republicans have failed to enact comprehensive health care reform. Today's historic vote moves us closer to solving America's health care crisis." [54] However, Murtha did not support allowing abortions as part of health care reform. He voted for the Stupak-Pitts Amendment to the health care bill that prohibits elective abortions for people covered by the public healthcare plan and to prohibit people receiving federal assistance from purchasing a private healthcare plan that includes abortions, except when the woman’s life is in danger. [55] He also voted for a bill to prohibit pregnant minors from crossing state borders to obtain abortions. [56]

Might as well ...

JUMP !

The Russians are waiting on the Winter Olympics too...

Some bored residents in Magadan in the far east have come up with a rather novel way to entertain themselves. They're seen here jumping five stories off the top of an apartment block, just for fun. The snow outside was so deep it cushioned their fall. The men were filmed by a neighbor, able to observe this cheaper version of skydiving. But their high jumps were not rated as sport by the police.

Calling the "average working mom" during dinner.

Mr. Glib -- cross-legged, tieless and still talking about his two books, his "best education in the world", his "ascending to the highest office in the land" ... sits down while Miss Katie tosses some softballs ("Who he is, and What he stands for.")

The president seems particularly clueless when discussing his poor poll numbers, what "Michelle pointed out" -- his opinion of Americans' assessment of his job performance to date:

"And suddenly somebody calls ya on the phone in the middle of the dinner and says: "So, how's the President doing?" *heh heh presidential laughter* "I think their ... *laughing* their answer's going to be pretty self apparent. They're not gonna be happy. And they shouldn't be. So..."

"If we work hard, and stay focused on what matters to people in their day-to-day lives, and makes some -- occasionally -- tough decisions and the economy improves, and people's lives improve, then I think we'll do just fine and everybody will be saying,'what a connection President Obama has with the American people' which is what they were saying ... a year ago.

So is it me? Did you sniff out any type of credible plan in there, or does such happytalk just confirm your suspicions that the guy has no clue the job he was elected to do? Hello? Dow under 10,000 and no happy signs ahead. Still, it's good Michelle downplays the polls -- just a bunch of working women fielding calls during dinner. Once this economy thing picks up, you'll like me -- really, really like me -- once again.

Yesterday ... all my troubles seemed so far away...

I want to be in that number...

"C'mon folks. Everybody sing!"

Well played.
Heart beats head.
Underdog triumph.

What's not to like?

And how was your week?

By Frederick Melo

Emergency crews from across the metro spent almost nine hours Thursday trying to delicately extricate a worker trapped up past his chest in corn in a Farmington grain silo.

The man fell in while attempting to empty it shortly before 11:30 a.m. He was freed 8 1/2 hours later.

"We got him out," said Farmington Police Chief Brian Lindquist. "We dug and we dug and we dug."

Lindquist said the man, whose name was not been released to the public Thursday, appeared to be doing well throughout his ordeal, considering the circumstances. He gave his wife and rescuers a thumb's up sign as he was being lowered to safety by harness.

The worker spent the day stuck in about 10 to 12 feet of corn on the south side of the Feely grain elevator, about 50 feet from the top entrance. The corn sloped upward from where he was located.

Crews made a hole in the silo above him and lowered down materials to create a barricade around him in order to hoist him up by harness while protecting him from the shifting grain. With temperatures dropping, they also lowered a medic to check on him.

There was "quite a lot of digging, and all of it done by hands and pails," Lindquist said.

Updated: 02/04/2010 09:12:37 PM CST

I welcome the news that people are opening up to accepting abstinence education as part of the sex ed curriculum, don't get me wrong.

"There are populations that really want an abstinence intervention. They are against telling children about condoms. This study suggests abstinence programs can be part of the mix of programs that we offer."

But I have to wonder:
is it really that hard to convince 11- and 12-year-olds (plenty still pre-pubescent without the hormones yet kicking in) that it's in their own best interest to wait to have sex?

Show me a similar study that works with 16- and 17-year-olds, and let's talk.

Speaking of PR...

Why is the President bowing to Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio?

Is it something from his Asian background that makes these moves instinctual? If so, somebody should elaborate on that custom, because it's really starting to look funny...

Souvenirs.

I keep this note from Mal in a magnetic plastic case on the side of the fridge. An honest friend.

~John Prine and the late great Steve Goodman:

All the snow has turned to water,
Christmas days have come and gone.
Broken toys and faded colors are all that's left to linger on.
I hate graveyards and old pawn shops,
For they always bring me tears.
I can't forgive the way they robbed me of my childhood souvenirs.

Memories, they can't be boughten.
They can't be won at carnivals for free.
Well it took me years to get those souvenirs,
And I don't know how they slipped away from me.

Broken hearts and dirty windows
Make life difficult to see.
That's why last night and this morning
Always look the same to me.
I hate reading old love letters
For they always bring me tears.
I can't forget the way they robbed me,
Of my sweetheart's souvenirs.

Memories they can't be boughten,
They can't be won at carnivals for free.
Well it took me years to get those souvenirs
And i don't know how they slipped away from me.

Earlier version with Steve, in their prime. And if you're a fan, click on the sidelinks for Goodman's BEST.

Vegematic
Talk Backwards

and his most famous

City of New Orleans

"Good morning America -- how are ya? ...
Don't ya know me? I'm your native son."

Willie's more celebrated version.

"The Greatest Country Song Ever."

Bitterroot or Bust!

This one's for Gail.

I get the sneaking suspicion that it would be easier to change the maps than it would the Constitution, if you're all that interested in proportional Senatorial representation. Of course, we lost Denali and Mokuʻāina o Hawaiʻi. And they should rename the vast High Plains ... Dakotas.

Let's see... I'm from Lincoln; went to school in ... Green Bay (appears to have absorbed Evanston, if the Chicago city borders aren't extended there -- can't tell); interned and started my career in ... Everglades? Spent the late 90s and early years of this century in ... St. Croix (which actually was the county I lived in.) Back to Green Bay (Madison) for law school ... and now back in more northern St. Croix, where it's currently 13 and snowing.

(Yep, sometimes I wish I lived in the Everglades again.)

They should do a map like this with localized animals and wildlife, or predominant regional treees. And go back in time too, when the giant sloths and saber-tootheds roamed. Fun to see things broken down in graphically interesting ways -- that's a gift too, much like communicating well in writing. And breaking that fourth fifth wall with words only.

--------------------

~ Neil Freeman did the map.

McCain-Feingold: well intentioned, unconstitutional

Tom Blackburn, whose opinions I usually respect and agree with, gets this one wrong.

Here's why, from an article way back in 2001:

Let us be honest. The reason so many pundits support McCain-Feingold is because their influence over the process will be magnified. Media conglomerates are one big business that isn't silenced by the McCain-Feingold regime. But this doesn't contribute to objectivity or free discourse.

James Madison believed that majorities composed of temporary coalitions of factions were likely to be less injurious to individual liberty than permanent majorities. Such "majorities of minorities" may seem sloppy to proponents of direct democracy but it has worked rather well in preserving our vast republic. If he were alive today, he might notice the hypocrisy of those who criticize the role of privately contributed money in politics but remain silent about (or are participants in) the promised disbursement of trillions of dollars of taxpayer money in order to win votes.

Which brings us to McCain-Feingold's fatal flaw: Yes, it is bad to live in a society where the wealthy can purchase special favors from the government. But perhaps the proper solution is not to limit their ability to make such purchases, but to reign in the government's abilities to perform favors for the chosen few. If government were less far-reaching, people would invest less money influencing its direction. Contributors may not be seeking control of the government as much as they are seeking protection from it; they would not feel the need to pay tribute to officials in a more limited, civic-minded government.

I'm glad the New Media allows me to freely respond to Mr. Blackburn's column, even though I'm not employed by a conglomerate media group like Cox, which pays and widely distributes Mr. Blackburn's columns weekly.