The Notion

Celebrating the Fourth by Remembering the Fifth

By Eyal Press

Other than consuming copious amounts of beer and barbecue food, what can Americans do on the Fourth of July to celebrate their freedom? Erwin Knoll, the late editor of The Progressive, used to pin a copy of the Bill of Rights to a tree at the parties he hosted. I'm not hosting any parties, and I'll spare you a virtual posting of the entire Bill of Rights, save for the Fifth Amendment, which merits special attention because Democrats and Republicans seem to have forgotten what it says. Here, then, is the forgotten fifth:

No person shall be held to answer for any capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

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July 3, 2009

Destroying America to Save It

By Leslie Savan

It's not only neocons who desperately need enemies, like Ahmadinejad, to succeed so that they'll have an excuse to bomb bomb bomb Iran, or any place they damn well please. It's also the paleocons and the concons (conspiracy conservatives), or whatever Michael Scheuer, former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, could be called these days.

Hard to categorize and hard to completely dismiss, Scheuer is the thickly bearded guy who's been all over the media the last few years calling his cable hosts "Sir," speaking out against the Iraq war, and making the sensible case that one reason "they hate us" is because of our support of Israel--not unlike paleo Pat Buchanan. But Scheuer's getting so wigged-out lately (writing in his most recent book, Marching Toward Hell, that Americans are now in "a place worse than hell"), that he's been finding common ground with Fox News' brightest conspiracy star, Glenn Beck. On Beck's show the other night, the two got themselves into such a froth over lax security on the Mexican border that Scheuer let loose with this:

"The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States."

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July 2, 2009

Michael Jackson: Trans Man.

By Laura Flanders

Michael Jackson. Dead at 50, with over 750 million albums sold. A genius, a freak, a trail blazer, a victim. Jackson's been called all that and more  – sometimes  in a single piece of prose.

People will be talking about Jackson, his music, performance style, but most of all perhaps his persona, for decades. But ironically, one of the most perceptive reflections on Jackson was penned not since he died on June 25, but years before. Circulating around the internet over these past few days, has been an essay by James Baldwin which originally appeared in Playboy in 1985.

It's not about Jackson, James Baldwin, wrote in the essay, originally titled "Freaks and the American Ideal of Manhood" (and later renamed "Here be Monsters.")  Our culture's discomfort with those we consider "freaks" actually reveals something about ourselves. 

"The Michael Jackson cacophony is fascinating in that it is not about Jackson at all," Baldwin wrote. "All that noise is about America, as the dishonest custodian of black life and wealth....the burning, buried American guilt; and sex and sexual roles and sexual panic; money, success and despair…"

Baldwin put his finger on it: we're provoked -- and call "unstable" those who actually destabilize us. While Jackson may have been struggling with his own demons, he powerfully stirred up ours.

"Freaks are called freaks and are treated as they are treated–in the main, abominably" continued Baldwin, "Because they are human beings who cause to echo, deep within us, our most profound terrors and desires."

Freaks, so-called, destablize notions we're more comfortable keeping fixed, and mess about with ideas we prefer to box in -- like ideas about identity, sexuality, race, and control. "Freaks"  destabilize. They also release something, if we let them.

So thanks to Michael, and to freaks and transformers everywhere.  On a good day, loosening up that previously fixed-space opens up room for change.

The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow "GritLaura" on Twitter.

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July 1, 2009

Sanford's Telltale Heart Exposes GOP's Money/Honey Problem

By Leslie Savan

When Governor Mark Sanford was merely thought to be clearing his mind on the Appalachian Trial on Naked Hiking Day and all the nanny-state fuss-budgets and media finger-pointers were freaking out, Joe Scarborough knew better: His pal Sanford was the real tax-hating, stimulus-refusing, rugged individual deal, a John Wayne 2.0 who'd stroll back into South Carolina's capital without a care in the world.

Yeah! That's what I'm talking about, wrote RedState.com editor Erick Erickson who called it "refreshing that Mark Sanford is secure enough in himself and the people of South Carolina that he does not view himself as an indispensable man." Government can go take a hike.

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June 30, 2009

Sex, Hypocrisy & Governor Sanford

By Eyal Press

Before we push the story about Governor Mark Sanford's "hiking the Appalachian Trail" (i.e. seeing his lover in Buenos Aires) entirely out of mind, I'd like to call attention to some statistics that appeared on yesterday's op-ed page of The New York Times. There, courtesy of Charles M. Blow, we learned that the three states with the highest teenage birthrates in the country are Mississippi, Texas and Arizona. The three states with the highest number of online subscriptions to pornographic sites are Utah, Alaska and Mississippi. Eight of the ten states with the highest divorce rates are Arkansas, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Idaho, Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and West Virginia.

What do all these states have in common? Yes, they are all "red states" that went for John McCain. The people preaching to us about what to do in our private lives and voting for politicians who espouse "traditional values" seem curiously incapable of applying these standards to themselves.

But, hypocrisy aside, my first thought when I heard the news about Sanford was the same thought I always have when a story breaks about a politician's personal life: namely, so what? Why is it our business to track who a politician is sleeping with so long as no laws have been broken? Why should press conferences be wasted on such matters? Sanford's case was an exception because he disappeared for five days, a matter of public significance, some would argue. Fair enough. But as a friend of mine pointed out a few hours after the story about his escapade to Argentina broke, the inevitable result of showering attention on such matters is to humiliate the individuals involved and to reinforce the puritanical strain in our culture. It's somehow newsworthy that (shock!) a public figure has been unfaithful to his or her partner, that a marriage may be unraveling, that lies have been told.

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June 29, 2009

Obama Courts Disaster With New Detention Plan

By Ari Melber

The Obama administration is rushing towards a unilateral plan to imprison people without trial, according to a huge, new joint article from the Washington Post and ProPublica. The proposal would completely cut Congress out of the process by using an executive order to essentially bring Gitmo stateside:

The Obama administration, fearing a battle with Congress that could stall plans to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, is drafting an executive order that would reassert presidential authority to incarcerate terrorism suspects indefinitely, according to three senior government officials with knowledge of White House deliberations. Such an order would embrace claims by former president George W. Bush that certain people can be detained without trial for long periods under the laws of war. Obama advisers are concerned that bypassing Congress could place the president on weaker footing before the courts and anger key supporters, the officials said.

That is a terrible idea. For its part, the White House dispatched aides to push back. From the article:

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June 26, 2009

Adultery in South Carolina: Blame the Woman

By Jon Wiener

Here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, the famed "redneck Riviera," the death of the King of Pop has taken second place to the adultery of the Governor in the local news. But it's the comments posted online at South Carolina daily newspapers that suggest something about local sentiment on this issue. I guess I should not have been surprised by the number that blamed the woman, especially after the media identified her as Maria Belen Chapur, a journalist for the Argentine TV station Canal America.

In the Myrtle Beach Sun News [all quotes verbatim]: "Like most married men, he got caught involved with a woman of ways who seduced him. . . His biggest mistake was getting involved with a woman that when he tried to end it, sent copies of emails to his wife and the press anonymously and all knows she did it"-- tooclassy4you.

"This gal is having the time of her life. She's enjoying a sexual encounter with a governer in the US, AND most likely has another local stud on call for quickies. WOW! Ladies and gentleman this gal is a professional COUGAR" – ibshagn.

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June 26, 2009

Is Max Baucus Change We Can Believe In?

By Ari Berman

For months, advocates for and against true health care reform in Washington have been closely watching Senator Max Baucus of Montana, chairman of the all-powerful Finance Committee, and wondering what he'll do. We don't know the answer yet. Baucus was instrumental in helping George Bush pass tax cuts for the rich and privatize Medicare, but he's also said he wants to shepherd Barack Obama's healthcare plan through Congress and make universal coverage a reality once and for all. Thus far, we don't which Baucus will show up, the Bush-loving friend of big business or the populist ally of Obama.

There's a reason The Nation dubbed Baucus "K Street's Favorite Democrat" in a profile I wrote back in March 2007, after the Democrats recaptured Congress and Baucus became chair of the Finance Committee. Some background:

After helping to craft the largest tax cut in a generation, Baucus raised more than $1 million in campaign contributions from the financial sector for his 2002 re-election campaign. Opening doors in both directions were former Baucus staffers. During the debate over whether to add a $400 billion privately run prescription-drug plan to Medicare, his former chief of staff, David Castagnetti, and legislative aide, Scott Olsen, were part of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's $8 million lobbying effort. Shortly after the legislation--written largely by the pharmaceutical industry--passed, Baucus's top staffer on the Finance Committee, Jeff Forbes, left to open his own lobbying shop, with clients including PhRMA, the drug maker Amgen and the American Health Care Association. These companies have in turn donated generously to Baucus; almost $700,000 between 2001 and 2006 from the healthcare industry and pharmaceutical lobby.

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June 26, 2009

Michael Jackson: Freak Like Me

By Richard Kim

Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, is dead of a heart attack at the age of 50. In the next few days we will be treated to endless eulogies mining the rich archive of his music, dance, videos, performances and especially his purported habits, hobbies, misdemeanors and alleged crimes. After all, what writer could resist mentioning the various critters and tchotchkes he collected: the hyperbaric, youth-preserving oxygen chamber, the Elephant Man's bones, his pet chimp Bubbles, the Beatles catalog, Neverland Ranch, Macaulay Caulkin, Elizabeth Taylor, his many noses, skin pigments and hairstyles, his one bright white glove. I certainly can't.

These mutations will inevitably be placed in the tragic narrative of his decline. We will be asked to remember Jackson in his prime--as the smiling, dancing, "P.Y.T." black child star who outshone his less talented siblings in the Jackson Five or as the pop-and-dance virtuoso who transcended Motown by bringing us "Thriller," "Beat It" and "Billy Jean." Forget the eccentricities and footnote the accusations of child abuse and molestation (he was never found guilty). Those are but sad stains on the larger spangled fabric of his life and career.

Well, I am here to say: fuck that shit. Without his extravagant eccentricities and ambiguous, obsessive relationships to race, gender, mortality and childhood (and children)--indeed without the conspicuously tenuous link he had to the category of the human itself--Michael Jackson would have been a B-list has-been. Most likely last seen on the latest episode of Celebrity Apprentice, his obit would have followed Farrah Fawcett's. In short, he'd be John Oates.

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June 25, 2009

George Tiller: Healthcare Provider

By Eyal Press

Rare in the news coverage of the murder of Dr. George Tiller were the voices of physicians who referred patients to him. That's because, in the media, abortion features as an "issue," a battlefront in the culture wars, and only secondarily, if at all, as a medical procedure. The letter below, written by a physician in response to my comment in The Nation on the murder, is a rare exception, shedding light on Dr. Tiller's role as a healthcare provider. Many thanks to Dr. Laurence Burd, its author, for writing it.

In his article, "A Culture War Casualty", Eyal Press underscores with accuracy that those who use hateful invectives, should not feign shock or dismay when their message produces murder and violence. This article, however, like the majority of others I have read following the death of George Tiller, MD, is fixated upon the abortion debate and neglects to recognize the real tragedy of Dr. Tiller's loss to the profession of medicine and to the American public. As a practitioner of Maternal Fetal Medicine, I have referred several patients to Dr. Tiller, since he was one of the very few physicians in the country, because of state laws and because of his desire to provide compassionate care, who provided late pregnancy termination services. He was an exemplary physician who believed very strongly in what he was doing. Both women whom I referred to Dr. Tiller's clinic in Kansas were carrying infants with birth defects that were incompatible with survival. One had anencephaly, a condition where a large part of the forebrain was absent, and the second had multiple midline defects, allowing vital organs such as the heart and the abdominal structures to lie outside the fetal body (Pentalogy of Cantrel). Dr. Tiller accepted my referrals graciously, and cared for these women skillfully, and by so doing, ended their risk of further complications inherent in any ongoing pregnancy. As a physician, I believe that the volume of the "abortion debate" has brought silence to the essence of the medical issue, and that is how to provide the best care to our patients. The assassin's bullet not only ended an honorable life, but ended a conduit to provide good medical care to the American public. We all are victims of this terrible, heinous crime. The beliefs of those on each side of the abortion issue will never be resolved. In all my years of medical practice, I have never met a patient who was glad to terminate a pregnancy, but only did so because of an awareness of danger to themselves. We must stop the shouting and name calling that has so divided our society and follow President Obama's suggestions to come together and devote our efforts to decrease the number of abortions by preventing unwanted pregnancies. This seems to be an approach that will end much hatred and violence and will greatly contribute to an improvement in the physical and mental health of all Americans.

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June 24, 2009