Nate Silver's Curious Categorization of Obama's Policy Agenda

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Sunday November 30, 2008 · 9:04 AM PST

2008/11/30 · 09:04

In my earlier diary, Digby, Hegemony and the Policy-Personnel Debate, I wrote that:

Wednesday, Nate Silver weighed in with what purports to be a fairly comprehensive sorting of Obama’s policy initiatives into their ideological positions, showing a huge overall tilt in the progressive direction. I think Nate’s categorization is somewhat questionable, but I do think that the impression he has is one that is widely shared: Obama appears quite progressive to many who have supported him, and that is a major reason why they have felt little or no need to pressure him. Digby is correct in saying that there’s misperception involved, but it’s just not as simple as she indicates.

In contrast, Nate seems to think that his analysis shows that progressive criticisms of Obama are misplaced. I’d argue that they’re not—rather, they’re mis-articulated.

Paul Rosenberg

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Saturday December 29, 2007 · 8:01 AM PST

2007/12/29 · 08:01

Cross-posted from Open Left.

Polarization is the great evil, the great scourge of our times. All our great authorities tell us so.

All our great authorities are wrong.

Polarization is not a great evil, so long as great evil lives in our land. This was a primary message of one of Martin Luther King's most famous writings, his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" [PDF].

Indeed, King himself was one of the most polarizing figures of American history, and his entire career consisted of polarizing public opinion, breaking down apathy and comfortable indifference in the face of great evils-racism, poverty and war. Those evils are still with us today, though in differing guises and proportions, and yet we not only hear repeated calls for unity, for rejecting polarization, we see King himself obscenely misrepresented as a harmless, Santa Claus-like figure of fuzzy-headed unity. It is hard to conceive of a greater insult to his memory.

Paul Rosenberg

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Thursday October 04, 2007 · 9:56 AM PDT

2007/10/04 · 09:56

Frontpaged At OpenLeft

Of course Congressional Democrats realize that Bush's veto of SCHIP is good for Democrats and bad for Republicans politically. But do they really have any idea just how bad it is? I doubt it. And because they don't recognize how bad it is, it won't be. Failure to capitalize on the political opportunity will largely squander it.

For example, it's a little known fact, but Bush was opposed to fully funding SCHIP when he was Governor of Texas, and Democrats failed to make an issue of that in the 2000 campaign. If they failed to fully capitalize on it then, they will surely do so again.

But what is it, exactly, that they will fail to do? Simple: They will fail to show how deeply out of step movement conservatives are with the rest of the country. And more importantly, that gap is growing, as younger voters are even more supportive of social spenging than older voters.

Paul Rosenberg

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Sunday September 09, 2007 · 10:10 AM PDT

2007/09/09 · 10:10

(Cross-posted from OpenLeft)

Think of the Children!
(Global Warmining Is Scaring Them To Death!)

A network of anti-global warming activists is gearing up for yet another assault on the scientific consensus that global warming is real, and has a significant human-caused component.

Their chosen vehicle is a not-yet-published paper, by a British endocrinologist, Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte, claiming to "update" and essentially overturn historian of science Naomi Oreskes 2004 finding that there was no opposition to the consensus view in a representative sample of 928 peer-reviewed articles whose abtracts she surveyed.

This is the last of a four-part series: Part I. Part II. Part III. And Part IIV--taking another look back at Schulte's paper, and a closer look at Senator Inhofe's staffer who's pumping out this propaganda on Inhofe's blog--picks up just over the fold...

Paul Rosenberg

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Saturday September 08, 2007 · 12:56 PM PDT

2007/09/08 · 12:56

(Cross-posted from OpenLeft)

Senator Inhofe's Blog

A network of anti-global warming activists is gearing up for yet another assault on the scientific consensus that global warming is real, and has a significant human-caused component.

This is the second of a ~~three...~~ sorry! four-part series. Part I is here. Part II is here. And Part III--focusing on Senator Inhofe's blog--picks up just over the fold...

Paul Rosenberg

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Friday September 07, 2007 · 2:18 PM PDT

2007/09/07 · 14:18

(Cross-posted from OpenLeft)

A network of anti-global warming activists is gearing up for yet another assault on the scientific consensus that global warming is real, and has a significant human-caused component.

This is the second of a three-part series. Part I is here. And Part II picks up just over the fold...

Paul Rosenberg

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Thursday September 06, 2007 · 9:35 AM PDT

2007/09/06 · 09:35

(Cross-posted from OpenLeft)

British MD Makes Shocking Discovery: Climate Scientists Newly Doubtful About Holocaust!

A network of anti-global warming activists is gearing up for yet another assault on the scientific consensus that global warming is real, and has a significant human-caused component So far, the network has visible nodes in Senator James Inhofe's Environmental and Public Works (EPW) Committee Minority Staff, in the tech blogosphere, and in a fringe science journal devoted to pushing denialist views.

Their chosen vehicle is a not-yet-published paper claiming to "update" and essentially overturn historian of science Naomi Oreskes 2004 finding that there was no opposition to the consensus view in a representative sample of 928 peer-reviewed articles whose abtracts she surveyed. Yet, despite the secrecy and overblown claims, enough of the contents have already spilled out to discredit the study. One paper cited as rejecting the consensus was not even about climate science, but about public attitudes regarding climate science debates.

What’s This About The Holocaust??? JUMP!-->

Paul Rosenberg

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Monday August 27, 2007 · 1:56 PM PDT

2007/08/27 · 13:56

The Bush Dog campiagn, started at Open Left with this analysis by Chris Bowers. Its focus so far is merely criticizing representatives who supported Bush on FISA and the Iraq War, and suggesting that some of them should be subject to primary challenges.

With the example of Joe Liebarman apparently still fresh in people's mind, the p-word seems as hard to handle as the i-word, and over-reaction is the order of the day. Above all, we are told that the members in question are not at fault, that they have to vote that way because of their districts. But a simple, straighforward analysis shows that this just isn't true.... On the jump.

Paul Rosenberg

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Monday July 16, 2007 · 8:14 AM PDT

2007/07/16 · 08:14

Glenn Greenwald's new book, A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, is doing quite well, especially considering the virtual press blackout. Here's an opportunity to help lift that blackout: A book review for alternative weeklies to pick up, direct from the website they use for syndication purposes.

The review (reprinted below the fold) was just published by the paper I work for, Random Lengths News, and is available on the Altweeklies.com website at this link. You can find a listing of weeklies here. It only has phone numbers—get emails from the papers' websites.

A brief email to the editor with the link to the review on the Altweeklies.com website is recommended. Be sensible, polite and respectful.

So jump the fold, and read the review.

Paul Rosenberg

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Wednesday June 20, 2007 · 2:11 PM PDT

2007/06/20 · 14:11

I was going to title this "Much Ado About Just A Little," but wanting at least one or two folks to take a look, I thought better of it. But the title would be quite apt, I thought. Until I finished writing it. Turns out, there was a bit more here than I first thought, at least as a point of departure for further reflection.

I've looked at all the presidential electoral maps from 1896 to 2004, analyzed how many contiguous regions the states won by each party's candidates fall into, and come to the conclusion you'd expect, if you thought about it: the losers' states are more fragmented than the winners.

But I hope that putting so much work into it will at least yield a moment or two's reflection on the seemingly obvious to carry something of value away. And if you'd like to see how that hope turns out, then join me over the flip.

Paul Rosenberg

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Wednesday January 17, 2007 · 4:50 PM PST

2007/01/17 · 16:50

We all know that the red-state/blue-state vision of American politics is too simplistic—and yet, due to the nature of our political culture, particularly our winner-take-all election system—there is a powerful logic behind the two-party system that finds its expression in the seemingly static red-state/blue-state configuration. At the same time, we also recognize a sort of four-way logic, with two axes—social and economic. In a recent article at Huffington Post, novelist Jane Smiley argued for another four-fold vision of American politics—one rooted in four distinct cultural traditions dating back to Colonial America. This vision, elaborated in David Hacker Fischer’s book, Albion’s Seed, has the advantage of being rooted in rich, concrete cultural traditions, rather than stripped-down theoretical ideals. In this diary, I want to tease out some of its potential power.

Paul Rosenberg

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Monday January 15, 2007 · 1:50 PM PST

2007/01/15 · 13:50

In his PC screed against novelist Jane Smiley, diarist AaronBa accused her of unfairly stereotyping the Scots-Irish. In my last diary, I argued she was doing nothing more than talking about group characteristics, and doing so in an historical context that has the exact opposite thrust of stereotyping. By showing such characteristics to be a product of historical and sociological forces, Smiley’s approach—based on the book Albion’s Seed, by David Hackett Fischer—undermines the stereotypical belief that such characteristics represent an immutable essential nature.

Here, I’ll take a look at a 2004 Wall Street Journal op-ed by Senator James Webb, himself a proud Scots-Irish who’s written a whole book on the subject, and compare his views with Smiley’s. Webb’s and Smiley’s views coincide to some extent, but differ in major ways. Yet, we could not even begin to compare them, and learn from doing so, if we bought into AaronBa’s vitriolic PC attack on Smiley.

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Nate Silver's Curious Categorization of Obama's Policy Agenda

Martin Luther King and The Moral Imperative For Polarization

Bush's SCHIP Veto--Stupidier Than The Dems Realize

Anti-Global Warming Surge On The Way? [Part IV]--The End!

Anti-Global Warming Surge On The Way? [Part III]

Anti-Global Warming Surge On The Way? [Part II]

Anti-Global Warming Surge On The Way? [Part I]

Bush Dogs By The Numbers: It's The Members, Not The Districts

A Tragic Legacy By Glenn Greenwald (Help Promote It With This Review)

Electoral Maps 1896-2004--Contiguous Regions

A Four-Fold Vision of American Politics

Jane Smiley and James Webb—Contrasting Views on The Scots Irish