Yes, I am a Warren fangirl, but no, I still don’t think she’s planning to run for President in 2016.
Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, on the other hand, seems to be — at the very least — campaigning for the 2016 VP slot. Ed Kilgore at the Washington Monthly:
Even as Hillary Clinton prepares for the unofficial opening of her 2016 presidential bid as co-headliner, with her husband, at the final Harkin Steak Fry on September 14, another campaign is reportedly underway. No, it’s not the much-desired Elizabeth Warren or the eccentric Brian Schweitzer or the ever-steady Bernie Sanders who seems to be gradually gearing up, but instead outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, per this report from the Wall Street Journal…
If you want to understand the substantive case O’Malley’s people will be making for him, last year’s WaMo piece by Haley Sweetland Edwards remains the gold standard…
That 2013 profile is indeed most informative — includes lots of detail on O’Malley’s mayoral career, explaining how he made his rep as “a real manager type”, for good and bad. Near the end of the long piece:
…More importantly, in recent White Houses, vice presidents have often taken on key managerial roles in the government. That proved disastrous in the case of Dick Cheney, but Al Gore, who was responsible for driving the largely successful Reinventing Government program in the ’90s, did a much better job. Joe Biden, who spearheaded the project tracking stimulus spending, which has been successful in minimizing fraud, also did well. O’Malley, given his history, would be a natural fit for that role—a fact he’s probably aware of. In April, chafing at accusations that he was too far left, he began referring to himself as a “performance-driven progressive,” and describing his management style in an interview with Bloomberg as a “fundamentally different way of governing.”…
***********
Meanwhile, Senator Kristen Gillibrand has a book to sell:
… In her sixth year in the Senate, working out of Clinton’s former quarters in the Russell Senate Office Building, Gillibrand has carved out territory including military and middle-class issues, and fashioned an image as a tenacious fighter for women. Now, she has taken another step along the modern-day passage to the presidency: writing a political memoir. With an introduction by Clinton, “Off the Sidelines: Raise Your Voice, Change the World” is due out Sept. 9. Like Gillibrand’s political action committee of the same name, it exhorts women to take the lead in politics, in business and at home. “I wrote the book to encourage women to use their voices,’’ she says…
… Only after earning a degree at the UCLA School of Law and landing a job at the international law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York City did Gillibrand get involved in politics.
“The voice that inspired me to take my life in a new direction came in a pink suit,” she writes. On Sept. 5, 1995, first lady Hillary Clinton spoke in Beijing at the Fourth World Conference on Women, forging the phrase that became a mantra for women worldwide: Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights. Hearing about the speech made Gillibrand wish she had been there and had been part of the conversation. And it brought back her childhood dream of being in politics, like her grandmother…
Along with broadening her electoral base, Gillibrand has come to be associated with several high-profile issues. She was a leader in the successful struggle to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” She was on the front lines of the campaign to gain approval of marriage equality in the New York legislature, and was among the first Democrats to call for bringing combat troops home from Afghanistan. To address the plight of low- and middle-income families, she has fashioned an ambitious agenda that includes raising the minimum wage, affordable day care and universal pre-K education. She established Off the Sidelines as a PAC in 2011 and raised $1 million for female candidates in the 2012 cycle. Her goal is to double that for the midterms this year, and she says she is close to doing it….
***********
But soon-to-be-no-longer-Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick says he won’t be running in 2016, although he’s not above showing a little leg if the local talking heads beg enough. I kinda wish he’d kept his mouth shut for another couple months, because the main effect I can see right now is to drum up GOTV efforts among the reactionary mouthbreathers of our beloved Commonwealth, and I’d rather not give Charlie Baker (R-Who? Me?) that much help!
hilts
The Economist magazine withdrew its review of “The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism” by Edward Baptist which contained this jaw dropping sentence:
“Mr Baptist has not written an objective history of slavery. Almost all the blacks in his book are victims, almost all the whites villains.”
From Economist editor’s note
“Slavery was an evil system, in which the great majority of victims were blacks, and the great majority of whites involved in slavery were willing participants and beneficiaries of that evil.”
http://www.economist.com/news/books/21615864-how-slaves-built-american-capitalism-blood-cotton
Jonathan Chait weighs in:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/09/economist-denounces-one-sided-slavery-account.html
Baud
Any of these Democrats will make a better president than anyone the Republicans will put forward.
Same goes for control of Congress and the Supreme Court.
This brief respite from the circular firing squad has now ended. Feel free to resume your normal activities.
gogol's wife
@Baud:
Yes, I can’t get into parsing them all because they are all miles ahead and head and shoulders above any Republican other than Lowell Weicker.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@hilts:
Ummm… ::headdesk::
Baud
@hilts:
Scientists say their objective, but none of them will talk about all the times gravity causes objects to repel.
Baud
Blacks were the real slave holders.
Amir Khalid
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Maybe there is an objective history of American slavery somewhere, perhaps published by Regnery, in which white people were the victims. It’s conceivable, if only just …
Baud
@Baud:
Ugh. “they’re.” Sorry, Amir.
Tenar Darell
@hilts: that line was jaw-droppingly stupid, ahistorical twaddle. No, really, this CSA bullsh*t? Next thing you know someone’s gonna say “…there were so, black Confederate sojer boys.” Blech, can’t even debunk this mess fast enough to make it stop!
Mnemosyne
I’m surprised they didn’t go with something like the good news/bad news Wanda Sykes got about her ancestry from Henry Louis Gates.
(If you want the SPOILER without watching the whole video: the good news was that her family has been free since the 1680s because her white ancestress had children with a male slave and slavery was “passed down” only through the female line, but the bad news was that some of her free black ancestors owned slaves when slavery was still legal in New England.)
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
As most of you know, I am planning a Kickstarter campaign in order to be able to fund my novel. I have a list of expenses I will be trying to cover; it’s a best case scenario list and the actual goal will almost certainly be lower than this. I have an editor I want to work with. Paying her to help me make it the best story it can be is the most important part. After that I will be looking to pay for the costs of publishing an ebook edition. The final steps would be doing marketing and producing a print edition and to what extent either happens would depend upon how much I raise.
At this point, I’m trying to get a sense of how much I’ll be able to raise from my already existing network and you lucky duckies qualify. So I would appreciate hearing from those who would like to participate and how much they might contribute. The rule of thumb seems to be that you should raise 25-30% of your goal from your existing network and so this will help me to determine what a reasonable goal is.
I’m including an itemized list of how much I am anticipating needing for each item, as well as a list of rewards that will go to those who contribute at various levels. And I’m attaching the current version of the book’s prologue and first chapter so that you can get a sense of what it is like.
Expenses:
Editing: $4,500
Cover: $750
ISBN and Barcode: $250
Layout: $2,500
Proofreading: $500
Ebook conversion: $150
Kirkus Review: $500
Other Marketing: $1,000
Consulting: $1,000
Additional Costs for a Print Edition: $1,800
Rewards:
$15 Copy of the ebook
$25 Above, plus mention in acknowledgements
$40 Above, plus copy of any print version
$75 Above, plus signed copy of any print version; if there is no print version, I will mail you a signed .pdf copy
$125 Above, plus go to a hockey game with the author: pick any 2014-15 or 2015-16 University of Minnesota women’s hockey home regular season game, or road game in the following cities: Mankato, St Cloud, Duluth, Bemidji or Grand Forks. I will arrange the tickets and meet you for meal before the game. Inquire about the possibility of meeting for games in Columbus or Madison.
$200 Above, plus a digital copy of the current draft and a file of additional scenes once the novel is done.
$500 Above, plus name a character in the novel. There are four characters whose names are set in stone (as are the last names of their relatives), but you may pick a name for any of the others. The author reserves the right to veto any inappropriate names.
Mnemosyne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
Psst. You forgot to put in a brief summary of the book, like we all talked about the other night.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Wrong thread.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Mnemosyne: This is what I’ve got at the moment. It’s still being revised.
And to better answer one of the questions you asked, I’d say that parts of it are inspirational. Other parts probably aren’t and whether a reader thinks that the story as a whole is inspirational will probably depend upon which parts really resonate with them.
Then again, you can ask Schlemizel if he shows up, because he’s read it.
Suffern ACE
Cockfosters is my new favorite underground station name. Because I am 9 and thinking about why it might be called that makes me giggle a bit.
kindness
I just don’t want to talk about the 2016 Presidential race until the 2014 midterms are over. And then some.
geg6
I’ve said this before, but I have a good impression of O’Malley. Not because I live near MD or know a huge amount about him. But I have a friend who was (and is back again) an admissions director at another campus of my employer who quit and went to work for him back when he was first elected mayor. I respect this friend quite a bit and he can’t say enough good things about the guy. From what I have gathered is that he is very much a good management type but also a straight up liberal. We could do much worse than that.
Davis X. Machina
@Baud:
Ah, but what if the normal activity…..is the circular firing squad?
I’m voting for undead zombie Eugene V. Debs.
Or undead zombie Henry Wallace.
Or perhaps both: Debs/Wallace 2016!
I’m more progressive than all of you!
thefax
Somehow I didn’t realize Gillibrand’s ben in the Senate for six years. I wish there was a little more buzz about her possibly running in 2016.
Trollhattan
@hilts: Hmm, how unfortunate for The Economist. Will note in passing they once employed this person, so they’ve endured dread embarrassment before.
Frankensteinbeck
Ditto what @kindness said.
On the other hand, I got a flier from Allison Grimes. She is both avoiding ever mentioning the word ‘Obama’ (necessary in the State of Hate), and aggressively attacking McConnell for his whole economy-destroying #1 priority to get rid of Obama thing. Really emphasizing that McConnell has gotten in the way of Kentuckians having jobs. I like this strategy.
Cervantes
@Anne Laurie:
Not interested in 2016 elections at the moment — somewhat pre-occupied — but since you mention Deval Patrick … are you supporting Berwick to replace him or Coakley?
another Holocene human
Nope. Fuck “Reinventing Government. ” I do not forgive Al Gore and Newt Gingrich for writing shitty politically motivated hard to enact regulations and making my life harder for no damn reason except to fluff their cosseted egos. No.
Alison
RIP Domino :( http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2014/09/friday-cat-blogging-5-september-2014
But I like to think she’s playing with Inkblot again now… *sniffle*
another Holocene human
@geg6: The downside I’m seeing is the sounds of A Sorkin’s unceasing orgasmic pleasure should this man be elected President.
Oh, and even more peer pressure to finally see The Wire.
Mnemosyne
@Alison:
Awww, poor kitty. I read Drum so long ago (CalPundit days) that I remember when they first got Domino.
Cervantes
@Baud: Slavery is the new black.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid: Is your cat a Maine coon?
Cervantes
@another Holocene human:
Funny you should say that. Taking a clue from Steeplejack and others, I watched the show last winter. It was interesting, about worlds I had only glimpsed. The first season was better than the second — and I have not had a chance yet to watch further.
Matt McIrvin
Deval Patrick has an obvious vulnerability: Massachusetts went from being the original model for the ACA to screwing up its health-care-exchange website worse than the federal government did (by hiring the same bunch of incompetents, as it happens). I could see any opponent making hay out of that.
Aunt Kathy
I don’t think Elizabeth Warren is running either, and I hope she doesn’t, not even as VP. She is essential right where she is. I half-remember a NPR report recently about federal regulators being unhappy with the biggest banks “living wills,” those plans for unwinding themselves if they get in trouble, ensuring that they don’t have to rely on taxpayers. Banks were being sent back to the drawing board to try again. I can’t help but think that being repeatedly raked over the coals by Sen Warren in hearings is wearing regulators down. How many times do you have to be asked, “No, really, honey, what is it that you DO? I mean, you know, DO? For a LIVING?” before you decide that maybe you should do something.
Matt McIrvin
@Cervantes: There are three major Democratic candidates: Coakley, Berwick, and Steven Grossman. I suspect Coakley is going to get the nomination mostly because the anti-Coakley vote is split. Of the three, I think I prefer Berwick, but he’s trailing the other two.
Cervantes
@another Holocene human:
Your meaning is somewhat obscure, at least to me.
Anyhow, the acronym they used, “ReGo,” was an anagram for “GoRe.”
Matt McIrvin
Also, the progressive left seems to be belatedly realizing that on foreign policy, Elizabeth Warren is a pretty ordinary Democrat with conventional ideas, not an anti-imperialist firebrand. That might end the love.
Scott Peterson
@thefax: Same here. She’s my first choice for Democratic nominee. I like Martin Martin O’Malley, but the two times I’ve heard him speak, he hasn’t seemed as ready for the national stage as he comes across on paper.
Anne Laurie
@Cervantes: As long as the Democrat wins, I’ll be happy.
I’m partial to Coakley, because fuck the old boys of the Masshole legislature, and Grossman who is their shill. Berwick’s probably a very nice man and he sounds a lot like Bernie Sanders, but (a) he’s not gonna win the primary, and (b) if he did win the primary — say, because Coakley is hit by a bus this Sunday, goddess forbid, and Grossman is caught on video doing something sexually obscene in public — Charlie Baker would stroll into State House corner office come November, and I don’t want to see the words “Governor Baker” for the next four years.
Cervantes
@Matt McIrvin: Yes, Berwick is certainly a long shot, to put it mildly, but I prefer him, too. I know him quite well, and his brother — both good people. Re Grossman and Coakley, they are neither of them my cup of tea.
Cervantes
@Anne Laurie: Yes, I agree that Grossman is a hack. I imagine you’re also right that Berwick can’t defeat Baker.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin:
There is no perfect Democrat. I wish we were a little less religious when it comes to our political leaders.
Kay
@Matt McIrvin:
I love Berwick. I followed him during the health care law and I loved his complete astonishment and horror at how insane Republicans were to him in Congress, because that’s an appropriate reaction.
Because they said he wanted to euthanize people! He couldn’t buddy up with people who spent months hissing at him and blatantly lying about him, smearing his entire life’s work because they had an egotistical hissy fit about a recess appointment? Good! That means he isn’t insane!
Baud
@Kay:
“I think you’re a murderer. Let’s be pals.”
Anne Laurie
@Cervantes: Well, in that case I’m a little sorry Berwick is unlikely to win the primary, and wish even more that the Repubs had chosen a less smooth & experienced liar to front for them than Charlie Baker!
rikyrah
St. Louis County Sounds Like One Big Shakedown Racket Targeted at Black People
By Ben Mathis-Lilley
Yesterday the Washington Post published an epic investigation of the municipal-fine system in outlying St. Louis County cities and towns like Ferguson. If that sounds boring—and I admit, as the person who wrote the preceding sentence, that it sounds boring—try this: In appalling detail, reporter Radley Balko makes a case that St. Louis County is home to a large-scale state-enforced shakedown racket that extorts black residents by using unjust imprisonment as a weapon.
Balko is a civil liberties advocate who’s written for the libertarian publication Reason, so if you’re inclined you can take his framing of the issues with a grain of salt. But the most stunning parts of his piece aren’t anecdotes or rhetoric; they’re facts about a system that raises money for itself by deluging a largely-black population with fines and tickets for minor civic infractions, then punishes them again and again with arrests and imprisonment for not being able to navigate a convoluted judicial system. Here’s a quote (about drivers’ licenses) from the former president of the Missouri Municipal and Associate Circuit Judges’ Association:
“There are now 26 different ways you can lose your license in St. Louis County,” he says. “There used to be five. You can now lose your license for things that have nothing to do with driving. We definitely have a problem with over-criminalization.”
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/09/04/st_louis_fines_system_washington_post_reports_on_tickets_arrests_in_ferguson.html
chopper
@geg6:
Okay, let’s see it.
WereBear
@Baud: I would make a better president than anyone the Republicans will put forward.
And I’m an Internet Cat Guru with no political experience and little patience with fools.
Baud
@WereBear:
If you decide to run, you have my vote.
Kay
@Baud:
I get the ulra-savvy “levers of power” argument, where he’s supposed to be able to threaten these people or whatever, but I get tired of rewarding bad behavior. We could conceivably set a higher bar, instead of making people who arrive in DC go down to that level. How about they be better, instead of him becoming just like them?
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: Those are the exact qualifications necessary for dealing with members of Congress, especially the cat herding experience.
WereBear
@Baud: Thanks!
One down, 99,999,999 to go.
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: Can feline Americans vote for you?
WaterGirl
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN):
I would give $25 to your kickstarter project but if you were close to your goal, I would give another $25 and eat ramen for dinner if it meant putting you over the top.
I think it might be best to pick an open thread that doesn’t really have a subject – or maybe one of the front pagers could put up a thread for you?
Michael Bersin
Martin O’Malley was the featured speaker at the 2012 Harkin Steak Fry:
Harkin Steak Fry 2012 – press availability with Sen. Tom Harkin (D) and Gov. Martin O’Malley (D)
Anne Laurie
@Michael Bersin: Yeah, commentors keep asking ‘why aren’t you guys saying more about O’Malley?’, so I figured I’d front-page the Washington Monthly profile.
As I keep saying, I want a Democratic candidate who can keep the Repubs out of the White House. If my fellow Dem-voters decide that person is O’Malley, we’ll all need to talk a lot more about him.
WereBear
@schrodinger’s cat: Of course, I’m running on full citizenship rights for Feline, and Canine, Americans.
If I get the Pet Lover’s vote….
schrodinger's cat
@WereBear: Can kittehs vote 9 times because they have 9 lives. Its only fair because they are that much better than mere humans!
WereBear
@schrodinger’s cat: I like the way you think. You can be my Campaign Manager!
A Humble Lurker
@Anne Laurie:
False Dilemma
If Hilary’s so great, she doesn’t need her supporters employing this argument for her, my loves.
mikefromArlington
Hillary/Warren 2016!
You read it here first.
Anne Laurie
@A Humble Lurker: How the fvck do you get from “I agree we should talk more about Martin O’Malley (and Gillibrand, and even Patrick), so here is a long profile I found interesting” — which is what I said — to “If Hilary’s so great, she doesn’t need her supporters employing this argument for her“?
askew
@Anne Laurie:
Thanks for saying more about O’Malley. He’s doing another swing into Iowa and Wisconsin this weekend as well as campaigning for Durbin and Quinn in Illinois. That’s on top of him being the only potential candidate who is sending staff to help out in IA, NH and SC for midterms and giving the NC Dem Dinner speech next month.
He’s also getting honored by Equity Maryland for his work on LGBT issues from the time he was Mayor through his time as Governor.
As for long stories on O’Malley, I like this one.
Bill D.
Whew! I thought you said you were a Warren ferengi…
Note to self: wear glasses when reading computer.
Amir Khalid
@Cervantes:
I don’t know if you’ll even see this reply. But no, Bianca isn’t a Maine Coon. She’s just a plain old Cat.