Can the highest court shut down a political party that becomes too far-right in its beliefs?

It happened in Belgium. BBC reports the following:

Belgium's highest court has ruled that the Flemish far-right Vlaams Blok party is racist.

[Now please, readers, I am not advocating any such measures here, and since I am still getting tons of traffic from the wonderful people from the site that advocates the use of assault weapons, I do not want at at all lead you to believe that I am out there promoting any ban on far-right political agendas. Uh-uh, no way! Free speech and all that, go 2nd Amendment! --or whatever it is that you are seeking to protect.]

Back to the Belgians then: With the ruling comes an end to federal funding and access to TV airtime and so the party has effectively been run out of business. Note that this wasn’t just a fringe movement. The BBC notes that recent opinion polls indicate that the Vlaams Blok party is the most popular party in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders. Where did it run into trouble? In taking a strong position on immigration (toned down recently from advocating the return of immigrants to their home countries, to saying that non-European immigrants can remain in Belgium so long as they adopt Belgian rules and values).

I’m sorry for every short cut I ever took in teaching law

This afternoon I had to attend a hearing and listen to a lawyer present an argument on behalf of a client. To say that he was a sleazy, crass, lacking in civility to say nothing of intellect – would be an understatement.

How did he ever ascend to the status of “primary litigator” in a local law firm? More importantly, how did he ever make it through law school?

I am determined to get tougher, to tighten-up in the classroom and demand even more of my students at every turn.

Am I scaring my one-L’s yet? Not to worry. Every single one I have right now is already better suited to practice law than the attorney I dealt with this afternoon. Ever try directing questions to a horse’s rear-end? I did, today.

Now, if the Republicans would like to pluck this character out of the ranks of trial attorneys and send him packing, it would be okay by me.

2 soon 2 B 4-got-10

An elementary school buddy wrote that in my autograph book (so ‘hot’ in the early 60s). She was bad at arithmetic and she made it out to be equation (2+2+4=10) that of course failed to be very convincing.

This morning a WashPost article describes a re-energized Kerry who not only is intending to be a powerful force in the Senate in the next several years, but is currently also assessing the possibility of running again on the Democratic ticket in 2008. Other faces: Howard Dean is considering becoming chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Let’s be honest here. How excited about these developments are we? I myself did not vote for Kerry as merely an anti-Bush statement. Although initially an Edwards supporter, somewhere along the way (try: first debate) I became convinced that this guy was running on a pretty decent platform.

But now I want to say “step aside, fellows. I loved you when you were up (in the polls), I mourn your fall, but I do not want another ‘come up from behind’ election.” It’s not only about electability, but electability is a minimal prerequisite. I have toughened my position here. I don’t want the possibility of success. I want surefire success. The Democrats have lost to the Republicans in 5 out of the last 7 presidential elections. Enough already. Don’t we have a Karl Rove-type among our ranks (cunning, evil, effective)?

Uhhh, welcome almost all?

Pssst!

What do you do when your blog gets linked to by a site that promotes the sale and use of assault weapons and makes references to prayer and belief in a mission (of sorts)?

And what if that site then generates a flood of readers who come to you because the site author has posted your blog, along with Michael Moore’s as ones deserving of…attention?

Hmmmmm, I’m thinking about the answer to the above.

All I need is an ashtray filled with cigarette butts and a plate of sushi and I’d feel complete

Yesterday I spent the day writing a paper that summarizes interviews I had conducted over the years in Japan. Basically that means I sat in front of my computer in flannel pajamas, hair pulled back messily, stacks of papers (did I really take notes once on a napkin? ..how me!) spread in varying degrees of orderliness, and pounded at the keys of my laptop all day long.

Today a friend wrote – Congratulations! The first draft of any paper is always the hardest! Is it just me then who thinks that the first draft is the easiest? It’s almost as fun as doing the interviews and collecting the information. How grand it would be to now retire the whole thing and go on to something new. Spoken like a true scholar.

Still, a celebration of step one is in order. How opportune that a pal, sensing my dismal mood of the week-end had said “we should do sushi soon” and I took her up on it today. I’ve never been to the Muramoto. I’m all about escapes. Japan seems plenty far.

Afternoon conversation in the faculty lounge

So how’s it going?
It’s been tough. We had a guy from Move On staying with us for over a month before the election. He worked so hard! Fourteen hours a day, every day…

At least he was successful here in Wisconsin.
True; and he said in the next election it will be so much easier because they now have a network in place.

It’s amazing how well-organized the Republicans were though... The right of the right always delivers their busloads right on schedule, from the pulpit to the voting booth.
Do you know what my theory is? I think that Bush’s fundamentalist beliefs are just a brilliant strategy, invented by the conservative Republicans so that they could reach that strategic vote.

You mean you don’t think GWB really is guided by God and prayer?
I think he acts the part well. You see, they knew, they KNEW that in order to keep the GOP viable in the face of an increasingly economically polarized nation, they had to get 100% of the Conservative Christian vote. And so they geared him for it. They had their man – he has very convincing facial expressions and he can speak down to people and talk of God and also get away with his prior record of drinking and carousing…He has, after all, ‘seen the light.’

Do you really believe that?
Uhhh, maybe.

Another hurricane heading for Florida?

Is it possible that registered Democrats, voting overwhelmingly for Kerry in all states, chose to turn pink and eventually red under the glare of the Florida sun? How could Bush have carried, by large margins no less, these Democratic counties? Is it another instance of our endlessly squabbling over return numbers (that have been turned in and tallied) because they produced a result we cannot accept? Perhaps it is more that we cannot fathom this one.

Tom Bozzo writes this at Marginal Utility:

I can think of some potential explanatory mechanisms -- stale party ID on old registrations, incompetent reporting of the registration data by the State of Florida, more evangelical-leaning Democrats, for instance -- but on the whole, the idea that Democrats largely stuck by Kerry (89 to 11, according to the exit polls; sorry, Ann Althouse) everywhere but Florida takes my credulity and drops it down a wormhole where it emerges in the Gamma Quadrant in no recognizable form.

Interestingly, the issue is with counties using optically-scanned ballots, which is generally considered the most reliable available voting technology. Though as a result, the optical scan jurisdictions would be under much less scrutiny than those using touch-screen voting. At least it should be straightforward, in principle, to validate the vote totals from the original ballots; I fervently hope someone with appropriate legal resources does so (hello, Florida Democrats)!

Emboldened, embedded, embittered

A headline in the NYTimes this morning reads: President Feels Emboldened, Not Accidental, After Victory.

Depending on your fate, you could wake up on this Monday morning and find yourself in a state of one of the three E’s.

If I were to do a documentary-type film of this morning, I would have a three-way montage. In the first frame, there would have to be a CNN-type clip from Iraq with the word Embedded underneath, followed by the words (from CNN.com) “thousands of U.S. Marines and Iraqi soldiers braced for all-out urban combat;” then in the second, we’d see a refreshed, smiling, raring-to-go image of GWB with the NYT reference to his “Emboldened” state of mind and their words: “re-election has already had a powerful effect on his psyche, his friends and advisers say;” followed, finally, by a clip of me (hey, it’s my film, for my own archives), tossing aside yesterday’s Week in Review with the tables that break down who voted in what way on November 2nd. I’d just stay with the “Embittered” label underneath the last frame.

I’d leave Kerry out of my film. Bad enough that anyone can now park in front of his house (yesterday it was reported that the minute he lost the election, he lost also the security detail that kept his street clear of unwelcome loiterers), he shouldn’t have to also suffer the indignity of being in my short film.

I’d end the documentary (it would only be about ten seconds long because I have only that much energy for it) with a flash to the text of the NYTimes, this time to the passage that picks up on my posted hubris contest from the other day (a not-so-impartial panel of judges decided that the winning entry may well be “megalomaniac”):

"The big danger is one of hubris," said David R. Gergen, a professor of public service at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and a veteran of the Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Clinton White Houses. "There's a tendency after you win your second term to think you're invulnerable. You're not just king of the mountain, you've mastered the mountain. That can often lead to mistakes of excessive pride."

Who says escapes don't cure an ailing spirit?

A friend boarded a plane on November 3rd and flew to Hawaii. Today she really rubbed it in with this message:

Aloha Nina,

Maybe you could use some distance from the political bog to gain some perspective. Here on Hawai'i, we don't even receive the NY Times until a day later. By then, the news is old -- so who cares? Who needs to see photos of the smarmy smirk on Bush's face? We are busy contemplating which umbrella drink to order and which beach chair to choose. Mandate? Our only mandate is to notice the gorgeous view from the hotel room lanai:

big deal, a coupla palm trees and a boat... 

Madison: Halloween party town of the Midwest, commiserate now with Prague, where things are a lot worse:

I read European blogs and papers when I think I cannot take another ounce of American political chatter. Today I eventually made my way to the Prague TV site, which is a frequently linked-to source for European bloggers.

The Prague story elicited much cheering around the Czech blogland. “About time we took charge of this!” was the common response.

What’s at issue? In the last year or two, with the introduction of very cheap intra-European airfares, British men have been traveling in hordes to Prague in search of cheap beer and sex. Here are some excerpts:

[Prague] has become the stag capital of Europe. A report, released last week by the Czech tourism office, revealed that the historic capital of the Czech Republic, famed for its beautiful architecture, is now attracting large gangs of rowdy [British] men looking for a good time.

Mr Paroubek [the Czech tourism minister] said that tourism officials were planning an advertising campaign in London that would focus on the culinary experience that Prague could offer. The hope was that it would attract more refined tourists rather than the rowdy crowds."Food here is as good as in London. We don't need nightclubs or prostitutes to attract visitors," Mr Paroubek said. …

A petition of Prague residents was handed in recently at the town hall. … "Prague is a beautiful and romantic city and they are ruining it. We do not need this kind of visitor and the council and government should act."…

[Many] Britons acknowledged that they were in Prague to party, rather than to experience the city's history and culture. Neil Wilson, 39, from Newcastle, said that he had come to Prague for a friend's birthday and had no interest in sightseeing."We've come for a weekend to get drunk. It's not really a culture visit.”

The outpouring of support for the crackdown on the “drunken Brits” has been remarkable. Bloggers, native to Prague, but also to the British Isles, have cheered the efforts to rid the city of its party capital reputation. But a note of realism came through as well in the blog comments of this Czech resident:

I really support any initiative that will rid our streets of this shameful menace but I am not sure that the tourism minister is being entirely realistic when he writes"Food here is as good as in London." I would have thought it's more a question of like the old CSA [Czech Airlines] advert used to say "OK and getting better" !!

Please, no comparison to Polish cuisine at this time. What's been happening with Polish cooking is the subject of a separate (later) post. I do like the "truth in advertising" that the CSA adhered to. I'd like to see some of our airlines take to this more humble approach.

It's not like a hang-over, it's more like a hang-in-there

A reader writes about the pressure she feels from conservative victors to “move on,” “get over it,” etc. I, too, have heard my share of comments on this. And I know readers wonder how long Ocean will remain so immersed in postmortem politics.

My answer:

There is no cataclysmic death that we are trying to cope with. There is no sorrow for a loss experienced just on November 2nd. For me, there is no retro-wallowing in a campaign that failed to bring about the desired result. The sadness in not in the event of the election, it is in turning on the news and living with the result of it each and every day. It is the daily coverage of Cabinet Meetings, of the setting of a new policy agenda, of the poor health of Rehnquist, of the loss of life in Iraq, of struggles faced by people who can hardly afford life. That is the playground where feelings of loss are tossed around.

I believed that we could inhabit a better world had Kerry won. I am living in the world that suffers, therefore, a lost opportunity for significant improvement. Yes, the loss of Kerry is a singular event. Indeed, on November 2nd, the air was sucked out of my lung. But now it remains oxygen-deprived. It’s hard to get over that enduring disability because you feel it at every step. Ah well, I suppose I could take one big gulp of air and hold my breath for four years. It would be a Guinness Book of World Records moment, but I could give it a try: ………………………………………no, sorry, I am a mere mortal, good for only about 45 seconds.

Reading the news: local fame and distant rumblings

Once again Ann makes an Op-Ed appearance, this time in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. She writes about the quest for peace and unity following a pre-election season marked by bitter argument and rancor. Because in the piece she graciously acknowledges Ocean, noting that I blog with still not a small amount of pain and disbelief, I am again getting the email from less sympathetic readers (much of it fueled, I’m sure, by Ann’s reference to the map that I posted that’s been going around the left-leaning blogs – of Jesusland versus the United States of Canada).

Consider this generous soul:
I will pray for your peace of mind...that oughta creep you out big time

Not really. I am more “creeped-out” by news of the day than by someone’s praying for my peace of mind.

But I also read stories that are plain old fascinating accounts of ‘politics as ususal.’ For instance, I have noticed in past days how many Bush supporters are saying that we can again engage in an honest discussion of, say, the war in Iraq, now that the Kerry supporters no longer feel compelled to take a unilateral position against the invasion. Personally, I thought it was honest all along (at least it was on my part). I, of course, say the same thing about the “other side” and I was initially tickled to read the following in the NYTimes today: “The Antiwar Right is Ready to Rumble” with the side-quote: “Conservatives like William F. Buckley Jr have begun questioning the Iraq war.”

At first glance, “questioning the war” resonated with me and I felt a surge of good will toward those who were willing to speak against it from the other side. But as I read further, I became disturbed by the Republicans who were only questioning it because it was becoming a political liability. Here’s a callous comment, quoted in the Times: Mr. Bush now has two years to “solve Iraq” to protect Republican candidates at the midterm elections, [Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform] said. His suggestions: withdrawing United States tropps to safe citadels within Iraq or by “handing Falluja over to the Iraquis and saying, ‘It’s your headache.’”

I am not commenting on the correctness of the Iraq strategy, but I am commenting on how amazing it is to keep learning about how so much of what happens in Iraq is dictated by Republican agendas that have little to do with destroying terrorism or with freedom marches.

Ah well, I did allow myself a chuckle as I looked at the NYT cartoon of Kerry standing in front of a giant heap of smoldering debris, noting: “…and to think, all this could’ve been mine.”

Simple arithmetic and mandates, another contest, and the 2008 ticket

You hear it all the time: Bush enters his second term with the largest popular vote ever recorded in presidential elections. Mandate! – says our man of great humility. Mandate! – repeat the pundits (in horror or in joy, depending on their leanings). Okay, but we know who has the second largest number of votes ever:

GWB (04): 59,459,765
Kerry (04): 55, 949,407

Followed by:

Reagan (84): 54,455,075
Gore (00): 50,999,897
GWB (00): 50,456,002
the other Bush (88): 48,882,808
Clinton (96): 47,402,357
Nixon (72): 46,740,323
Clinton (92): 44,908,254
Reagan (80) 43,901,812

Note that in addition to the 55,949,407 Kerry supporters, more than 75,000,000 did not feel compelled to demonstrate their support for a GWB Mandate (meaning, more than 40% of eligible voters did not vote). Thus the *Mandate* effectively comes from about 30% of Americans.

The other interesting statistic is that, aside from the 2000 election (which Bush *won* by just 5 votes in the Electoral College), it was the smallest margin of victory won in the Electoral College since 1916, when Woodrow Wilson beat Charles Evans Hughes by 23 votes, 277 to 254.

Mandate indeed! With this in mind, I’ll post another contest, call it the “Hubris Contest” (it originated in my neighborhood, but people are feeling stumped). Here it is: Come up with a word that would describe the way over-the-top, overarching pride Dubya now has.

Commentators say Edwards is in an excellent position to jump into the race again in 08. And who on the Republican ticket? On the other side of the ocean, where people are trying to understand how we pick our leaders, Jeb and Jenna have both been mentioned.

The otherworldliness of sleep deprivation

Where am I? What time is it? Well might I ask. I know one thing – I’m into the fourth day after the election and I have yet to sleep more than two hours each of the nights. I’ve jotted some notes from when Friday turned into Saturday and I didn’t even notice:

Friday: one hour late for a dinner party (they were on dessert already when I arrived! Hey, these were ravenously starving individuals if you think about it, but still, how rude is that on my part – ONE HOUR LATE!); an hour and a half late for the Torts section party (I’ve lost all awareness of time passing); one broken glass at said party (thank you for pretending it was just some cheap piece of junk you picked up at Sears; I know darn well the Sears does not sell delicate, long-stemmed, tinted-blue wine glasses, but it was nice of you to try to make me feel better); a late start at L’Etoile this morning (when I dragged myself in at 7, the Market was robust, the Café was already opened and Chef O had called twice leaving messages for me); and a late finish at L’Etoile. [More than six hours of picking and lugging vegetables in slo-mo; SIX HOURS! How did I survive? With the help of this:]

I needed that. 

It may surprise some to learn that today, on the last Outdoor- Market day, I ate my first L’Etoile croissant for the year (I had their pumpkin & chocolate one and it was fantastic!). If you work in a restaurant, you don’t really eat the food that is being prepared there. If you are cooking, you have to taste to adjust for flavors, but that’s all. Just about everyone I know practices this type of abstention. Oh sure, they, like me, will go to dine there now and then, but on days that they are working, there is a real separation of powers between labor and consumption.

While sipping my café au lait and munching on the croissant, I picked up a copy of yesterday’s paper. I found the front-page photo of the first post-election Cabinet Meeting quite entertaining in a sardonic sort of way. Take a look:

The gray suit and the white shirt are back in style.  

Missing is the look of people hard at work. There is not a single rolled-up sleeve at the table, figuratively-speaking or otherwise. And note the guy in the circle because he is on his way out! I have heard rumors from very well-informed sources that if he goes, half the staff at the State Department is going to quit. That, of course, would be awkward or awesome, depending on your perspective. But Donald Rumsfeld seems to feel that we want him to continue to pound his fists at everyone and their shadow overseas. So two more years of him. Two years? Want kind of a commitment is that anyway? He’s already announcing that two more years of this Administration is about as much as he can take? How about the rest of us? We're stuck with four!And aren’t we all happy happy to see that Condoleezza Rice may well be the next Rumsfeld. Such disarming people, the both of them!

At the Market today, farmers were engaged in political speculations (I only buy from Democrats. Honestly. It’s not that I disdain food coming from Red-tainted soil, it’s just that I have yet to MEET a Market farmer who voted for Bush). What now, why, where to... One young guy over at Harmony Valley was explaining to a customer how the only way this country can survive is if we take on seriously the task of providing information to people who are simply not knowledgeable about the crisis facing this country. He is sending his Bush-voting in-laws a subscription to the New York Times. I told him they either wont read it or call it a lefty rag. “No,” he said, “because I am not just a random person out there. I married their daughter. They like me. I can make inroads because they trust me. I tell you, this should be our mssion for the next 4 years: to educate those without access to hard facts. Education is huge!”

There’s a reason why it’s always refreshing to talk to farmers at the Market. They see their crops fail, they deal with droughts and flooded fields. And, if they at all can, they come back to it next year anyway.

Just two photos from the Market today – the post is obscenely long as it is. The first focuses in on the essence of a great Market: stacks of carrots, in the glow of a beautiful, sunny day. The other is more suggestive of things to come. The peppers are still there, but they are strung with seasonal pine cones. Damn. The Market changes, seasons change, but the president and vice president stay the same. Damn.

a gaggle of carrots, reaching for the warm rays of the sun