A Grand Illusion

Greil Marcus’ blurb about Bryan Ferry’s 1999 covers album As Time Goes By is just as apt concerning Ferry’s new collection of Dylan covers: “Bryan Ferry is a god. This is the most boring album of the year.”

I’ll have more to say when my review’s published in a few days.

Cubans fleeing Castro could be terrorists? Good one, Freddy T.

Hillary Clinton slammed the douchebag for it today.

“I was appalled when one of the people running for or about to run for the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists,” Clinton told Hispanic elected officials. “Apparently he doesn’t have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else, and doesn’t know a lot of Cuban-Americans.”

Nice. Here’s the story.

Now, let’s say you hadn’t paid attention to the day’s news, because it is, after all, Sunday. And you navigated over to the Herald website, and saw this piece of online mise en scéne, what would be the first thing that would come to your mind?

The AP seems to think so:

Unlike the traditional early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire, Florida will test the candidates’ ability to compete in a large and ethnically diverse state.

Nearly 20 percent of its 17.7 million residents are Hispanic, and more than 15 percent are black. The state has several large cities as well as vast agricultural areas, while the condo communities that dot the coastline are brimming with newly arrived retirees.

Politically, the state remains nearly as divided as it was during the contested 2000 election, when Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore by just 537 votes. Registered Democrats slightly outnumber registered Republicans, and the ranks of independents are growing.

Republicans have scored big in Florida in recent years, thanks to a muscular political operation developed by the president’s brother, former Gov. Jeb Bush. But Democrats picked up two House seats in 2006 and gained ground in the state Legislature.

More here.

Let’s forget wardrobe malfunctions and a too-strenuous obsession with her sexuality (she wasn’t erotic so much as a purveyor of eroticism, like a newstand clerk who’ll sell a teen Penthouse while smiling and winking) – Janet Jackson once recorded solid long statements. For too long I slighted Rhythm Nation 1814 in favor of its apolitical predecessor, but snagging a used copy a few days ago reminded me of what a staggering achievement it remains. As far as Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis’ beats, only The Bomb Squad was purveying anything harder into Billboard’s Top Ten album chart. Sure, the album showed that, for all their sonic mastery, Jam/Lewis weren’t as resourceful as is commonly assumed (”Come Back To Me” is Alexander O’Neal’s “Sunshine” is Human League’s “Human,” and don’t pay close attention to how those synth stabs on “The Knowledge” remind you of “Nasty”); and Jackson often sounds like she just happened to be sitting in front of a microphone and decided to sing. Still, while a more powerful singer would have turned platitudes like the ones embedded in “Rhythm Nation” into statements, h/she might also have detracted from the beats. Note the percussion breakdown in the middle of the title track, the Herb Alpert trumpet mournfully blowing over “Someday is Tonight”’s rapt conclusion – a breeze through an abandoned Rustbelt factory – and that sampled Rob Base turntable screech effect underpinning “Alright.” Only the hamfisted hair metal of “Black Cat” fails to impress: co-producer/guitarist Jellybean Johnson rocked to better effect on Alexander O’Neal’s “Innocent.”

In a sense, Rhythm Nation 1814 is the best industrial record ever made. Embracing the genre’s facile alienation, finding ecstasy in shrill, deafening noise, Rhythm Nation scared Janet enough to find solace in the boudoir.

The blogosphere has been buzzing after the slew of extremist decrees handed down by the Supreme Court these last few days, which really started with Gonzalez v. Carhart, putting a constitutional seal of approval on the idiocy of the Partial-Birth Abortion Act back in April. Today’s theme is a little bit of I-told-you-so Monday morning quarterbacking. Or as TalkLeft refers to E.J. Dionne’s column today, “closing the barn door after the horse has gotten out.”

Dionne’s aspirational column calls on the Democratic refuse to hold hearings on every judicial nominee they weren’t consulted on.

Just say no.

The Senate’s Democratic majority — joined by all Republicans who purport to be moderate — must tell President Bush that this will be their answer to any controversial nominee to the Supreme Court or the appellate courts.

The Senate should refuse even to hold hearings on Bush’s next Supreme Court choice, should a vacancy occur, unless the president reaches agreement with the Senate majority on a mutually acceptable list of nominees.

Which is great, but it wouldn’t have worked out when Alito was nominated and the Senate was split down the middle at 49-49. Democrats could have filibustered however, and they probably should have.

Slate has a similar, if more obnoxious, article by Emily Bazelon, pointing the finger at every liberal who defended the Roberts nomination.

And yet some liberal and moderate lawyers and academics didn’t predict this at all. These members of the legal literati urged Roberts’ nomination, promising that he would be a model of restraint and principle and modesty. Why did they think that then? And how do their arguments on his behalf look now?

Dionne and Bazelon, and the hullabaloo on the blogosphere about the decisions bring up a larger issue. Our judicial confirmation process, even on a procedural level, begs to be politicized. I’m talking specifically about requiring only a simple majority to confirm a nominee.

A simple majority means that the party in the White House, if they don’t have a majority in the Senate, bully a couple of weak members from the opposite party and get whatever kooky judicial nominee they want confirmed. This is the Alito scenario.

European countries with constitutional courts have solved this problem by requiring that most judges be elected by a super majority. By requiring a larger majority of votes, the Europeans have ensured that minority parties have a greater say in the makeup of their constitutional courts, and have kept controversial or extremist judges off it. It appears to work. Admittedly, they have implemented other policies that help depoliticize the courts as well, like reducing the amount of dissents or keeping them anonymous, and having the judges serve limited terms.

There’s nothing keeping the Senate from adopting this system. Even if the opposition party was in the minority, they should filibuster every single nominee the administration refuses to seek consensus on. That would force a party that doesn’t have a 60-vote majority in the Senate to work with the minority party.

That still doesn’t address the problem of Roberts. And maybe this vindicates Emily Bazelon, but there might not be a quick fix for Roberts, at least not procedurally. Maybe Bazelon’s shame system’s all we got.

British police defuse bomb in London.

I’m not exactly immune to Apple’s charms–I swear by my iPod and MacBook Pro–and I think the iPhone, though not perfect, is freaking awesome. But these nerds need to stop camping outside the Apple stores and get a job. Especially, this guy:

“This phone is going to blow everything out of the water,” Tony Cecchini, 40, a San Antonio, Texas, air conditioner salesman said while braving a downpour to wait outside an AT&T store Thursday morning.

For the love of God, man, you’re 40 years old. You can’t wait a couple of days to buy a damn phone?

Why are we not surprised?

From AP:

WASHINGTON – The Senate Judiciary Committee subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s office Wednesday for documents relating to President Bush’s warrant-free eavesdropping program.

Also named in subpoenas signed by committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., were the Justice Department and the National Security Council.

The committee wants documents that might shed light on internal squabbles within the administration over the legality of the program, said a congressional official speaking on condition of anonymity because the subpoenas had not been made public.

Wait, it gets better.

On an unrelated note: remember that stupid clip I refuse to post of Anne Coulter wishing John Edwards would die in a terrorist attack, or some nonsense like that? Well, it turns out the Edwards’ camp is using the clip to raise money from donors.

The campaign has sent two e-mails to supporters this week, asking them to send donations to defy her attacks and help Edwards meet his goal of raising $9 million in the second quarter ending Saturday. The first e-mail from campaign adviser Joe Trippi showed a clip of Coulter on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” where she said Monday that she wished Edwards would be killed by terrorists.

When Coulter appeared Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” Elizabeth Edwards called in to ask Coulter to stop making personal attacks on her husband. The exchanged deteriorated, with Coulter shouting over Mrs. Edwards and demanding that the campaign stop using her name to raise money if they want her to stop personal attacks.

Mrs. Edwards followed up with an e-mail to supporters Wednesday morning that included a clip of their exchange and a donation request. The campaign said they raised more money this week than from any previous e-mail campaign, but declined to give a total.

“I think when they engage in these attacks and use the language of hate, it’s very important to stand up,” Edwards said. “What happens if you are silent when this kind of hateful language is used — not just by her, but by anyone — hate gets a foothold.”

Edwards pointed out that Coulter’s attacks haven’t been limited to him, but also included his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination. Coulter has made fun of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s legs and compared Barack Obama to terrorists because his middle name is Hussein.

“What she said about Senator Clinton and Senator Obama is outrageous,” Edwards said. “And somebody has to stand up when she makes these kind of attacks.”

It wouldn’t be the first time Coulter’s crazy ramblings help Edwards. After she called him a “faggot” in March, Edwards used the video to help raise $300,000. Keep the attacks coming, Annie C.

There’s a new NYT/CBS/MTV poll showing that young Americans, between the ages of 17 and 29, are a good deal more liberal than older people. The overall conclusion is kind of obvious but the individual results are enlightening stuff.

Fifty-four percent of respondents in the group say they would vote for a Democrat in the 2008 presidential election. They generally have a negative a negative view of President Bush, who has a 28 percent approval rating with the group; after the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush’s approval rating among young people was at 80 percent.

At a time when Democrats have made gains after years in which Republicans have dominated Washington, young Americans appear to lean slightly more to the left than the general population: 28 percent described themselves as liberal, compared with 20 percent of the nation at large. And 27 percent called themselves conservative, compared with 32 percent of the general public.

The same goes for social issues.

Forty-four percent said they believed that same-sex couples should be permitted to get married, compared with 28 percent of the public at large. They are more likely than their elders to support the legalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana.

* * *

In the current poll, 62 percent said they would support a universal, government-sponsored national health care insurance program; 47 percent of the general public holds that view. And 30 percent said that “Americans should always welcome new immigrants,” while 24 percent of the general public holds that view.

On abortion, 38 percent said it should be legal but with greater restrictions, 37 percent said it should be available on demand, and 24 percent oppose it altogether. These numbers are not very different from the general public’s take on adoption.

But the real interesting stuff is their views on politics.

In one potential sign of shifting attitudes, respondents, by overwhelming margins, said they believed that the nation was prepared to elect as president a woman, a black person or someone who admitted to having used marijuana. But they said that they did not believe Americans would elect someone who had used cocaine or someone who was a Mormon.

Mr. Obama has suggested that he used cocaine as a young man. Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a candidate for the Republican nomination, is a Mormon.

By a 52 to 36 majority, young Americans say that Democrats, rather than Republicans, come closer to sharing their moral values, while 58 percent said they had a favorable view of the Democratic Party, and 38 percent said they had a favorable view of Republicans.

Asked if they were enthusiastic about any of the candidates running for president, 18 percent named Mr. Obama, of Illinois, and 17 percent named Mrs. Clinton, of New York. Those two were followed by Rudolph W. Giuliani, a Republican, who was named by just 4 percent of the respondents.

That doesn’t bode well for the Republicans, and you can expect to see the Democrats getting together a huge get-out-the-vote movement among young people in 2008. The question is, what will the Republicans do to keep the demographic from voting?