In the Words of Dina Babbitt

Dina Babbitt was a young girl at Auschwitz when Dr. Mengele noticed her painting ability. For the next several years that painting ability kept Babbitt and her mother alive. She has been involved in a decades long battle to get her paintings back. Here is her story in her own words.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DiSzjQRX44&eurl

Obama Mania

Barak Obama is an amazing and inspirational man. I remember walking into my office the day after his keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and telling my officemate that Obama's speech was the most inspirational speech I had ever heard. I can't even describe the emotions that ran through my body when he said:

"The pundits like to slice-and-dice our country into Red States and Blue States; Red States for Republicans, Blue States for Democrats. But I've got news for them, too. We worship an awesome God in the Blue States, and we don't like federal agents poking around our libraries in the Red States. We coach Little League in the Blue States and have gay friends in the Red States. There are patriots who opposed the war in Iraq and patriots who supported it."

Nothing had ever captured my thoughts so succinctly in so few sentences. But it wasn't just that line. It was the whole speech. When he spoke of "the audacity of hope" he had me completely. I was willing to follow this man into the promised land. I knew he was special.

But now the Junior Senator from Illinois is testing me by allegedly considering running for President. I can't figure out why, besides his personal attributes, he would make a good Presidential candidate. I can't say I have any disagreements with Obama's politics. But I don't have a great sense of what his politics are. We are talking about a man who spent 2 years as a member of the minority party in the Senate. As a Senator he has few legislative accomplishments, and before serving in the Senate he served a few years as a State Senator.

However, there is the counter-proposal that sitting Senators do not make good Presidential candidates. After all, we have not elected a sitting Senator President since John F. Kennedy. Therefore, Obama should run sooner rather than later so that his Senate record does not weigh him down as it did, for example, John Kerry. Furthermore, Obama's record of accomplishment, even in his brief political career, is far more distinguished than president Bush's record as Governor of Texas. I don't think that the current President is a particularly good measuring stick, though. There probably hasn't been a less qualified President since Civil War General and raging alcoholic Ulysses Grant was in the White House.

Maybe Obama is the best choice because the remaining candidates are so seriously flawed. Many argue Clinton is unelectable, Biden is wacky, and Bayh is too centrist. Clark has zero legislative experience, Dodd has more Skeletons in his closet than a Halloween store after Halloween, and no one has ever heard of Vilsack. With this matchup, why not just put your faith in the guy who inspires people the way Bill Clinton did?

I am suspicious of all the attention Obama has gotten. I suspect it is helping him sell books. I also suspect that the media would love to write stories about the first serious African American Presidential candidate (with apologies to Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Alan Keyes, and others). I must admit though that the idea of voting for such an intelligent, inspirational, African-American man tugs at my liberal heart strings. His candidacy could be so vitally important to this country, and his victory could be the world-changing event the caliber of Kennedy's 1960 victory.

Still, I go back to a basic principle. A man should be qualified to lead this country. Bad things happen when they are not. Is Barak Obama qualified to be President of the United States? I am not ready to say no, I am just waiting for someone to convince me.

Derek Jeter Irrelevant Again

Derek Jeter added to the Yankees season of failure by losing the MVP race to Twins Designated Hitter Justin Morneau. Jeter's loss is one of the most embarrassing in MVP race history. First of all, there is the coastal bias as Jeter plays for the media darling NY Yankees and Morneau plays for the almost contracted Minnesota Twins. Not only is Moenuau a designated hitter offering his team nothing defensively, but he is Canadien as well. Derek Jeter and the Yankees are said to be shocked and embarrassed. Alex Rodriguez was seen laughing and was heard saying under his breath "see, I am not the only lose on the Yankees."

Apocolypto Never

In case you have been under a rock, Mel Gibson has a new movie coming out. In typical fashion, the Gibson movie, titled "Apocolypto," is filled with blood and guts, and traces history back all the way to the Mayan empire. When the preview came on in my New York City movie theater, it was met by boos and hisses.

Mel Gibson had everything going for him. He was a great action hero. Not only did he star is such great films as Lethal Weapon, but he made a name for himself as a director with films like Academy Award winner "Braveheart." But Gibson really stuck his neck out with his last film, "The Passion of the Christ" which perpetuates a long debunked anti-Semitic myth of Jewish deicide. At the same time, Gibson refused to distance himself from his father, Hutton Gibson, who has long espoused anti-semitic religious views. For example, Hutton Gibson is on record as saying that the Second Vatican Counsel was a secret anti-Catholic plot perpetrated by Jews and Masons. Mel's father has also denied much of the Holocaust.

Mel was able to sidestep much of the negative publicity surrounding the film and his father and "The Passion" was a commercial success. However, those who believed that Gibson was in fact an anti-semite had their suspicions confirmed one August evening when Gibson had a little too much to drink. An inebriated Gibson was arrested for DUI and once in police custody said "fucking jews...The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

Now this brings us to his latest film Apocolypto. As far as I am concerned it is reprehensible that Gibson's movie is being released with fanfare and a million dollar push. There are higher causes for a movie studio than making money. We must speak out against hatred and bigotry. In this instance, the only way we can speak out against Gibson's anti-semitism is by not going to his movies. We need to send a message to the studios that would allow this man to continue to make movies that we will not tolerate hatred. Mel Gibson has a right to make movies. But because he has that right, we have the responsibility to counter that by advocating that people not pay to see his movies. Gibson may be a good filmmaker but then again, so was Leni Riefenstahl.

I still have not seen "The Passion" and I will never see Apocolypto. If you are thinking of going to see Apocolypto, I say don't. Take the 20 bucks you were going to spend on tickets and popcorn and send it to the Anti-Defamation League. Send a message, no matter how small, that anti-semitism has its consequences.

Is Tom Brady Hurt?

My beloved Jets completely outplayed rival New England in their victory this past Sunday. Of particular note, Tom Brady had his second poor performance. Brady was off all day sunday continually missing his receivers who helped him out with a series of very nice one-handed grabs. Today the Patriots announced that Vinnie Testaverde is coming out of retirement to sign with the team. Tha Patriots have only one other QB on the roster, former USC backup Matt Cassel. The signing of Testaverde is curious. The Pats have gone this far with only 2 QBs on the roster. The signing of the veteran suggests that there might be concerns about Brady's health. After all, the most plausible reason for the signing is that they are worried that Brady might miss some time and need/want a veteran QB to back up Matt Cassel. Not exactly sure what is going on in NE, but this is something worth keeping an eye on.

Its Time to Welcome Joe Back to the Party

Ned Lamont ran a great campaign and the Democratic Party of Connecticut let Joe Lieberman know what they think of him. I have serious reservations about whether Joe got the message. While the Democratic party was telling Joe he is too far to the right, that only pushed Joe to the right in order to win the Republican vote. Joe's election is due to a calculated decision by the Republicans. Perhaps in a race between Lamont and Schlesinger they would have been full steam behind their candidate, but with Joe in the race they conceded the seat to work for the more conservative Democrat. This was there one victory on election day. They won, we lost. Now its time to welcome Joe back to the Democratic Party.

I say this not because of craven political reasons, such as we need to keep him from defecting to the Republican party. I don't think that is a real possibility. I say that because it is the right thing to do. Joe Lieberman never changed his political ideology. Joe Lieberman never said he wasn't a Democrat (although his campaign tactics sure were Republican). And as Democrats we need to continue to have our big tent philosophy. Ours must be a democratic party that is as welcoming to Joe Lieberman, however painful that might be, as we are to Ted Kennedy.

I am not a defender of Joe Lieberman. I can't ignore his views on the war, the rhetoric he employed, his views on school vouchers and his attempts to censor Hollywood. But I also can't discount his economic policy, his work for civil rights (even as he talks out of both sides of his mouth attacking certain African-American Leaders) or his work on health care and other important social issues. The bottom line is that as a Democrat I can't dismiss Joe any more than I can Ben Nelson.

I hope that Joe Lieberman is as forgiving to us as we are to him. While the people of Connecticut put Joe back in the Senate, the rest of the country rejected the agenda that Joe Lieberman aligned himself with. With a new Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate, I would hope that Joe realizes that the right wing policies he championed have been rejected and come back left. I have no illusions that he actually will. But if we are going to be a party of big and diverse ideas we have to accept Joe Lieberman back into our fold.

The Republican Party is a party that has no room for dissenting views and no room for moderates. We are a better party than that. We accept Bob Casey and James Langevin into our party despite their incorrect views on a woman's right to decide what to do with their own bodies. We accept Roberty Byrd into our caucus despite the bile that he has spewed in his life about racial equality. And God knows how many Democrats we accept despite their perfect voting records with the NRA.

I wish Ned Lamont had won. I wish that Joe Lieberman had the vision and integrity of Jon Tester and Jim Webb. He doesn't. He is easily the least likeable Democrat since Zell Miller. But we must remember that the Democratic Party that rejected the Bush agenda is millions strong while Joe Lieberman is but one person. Joe Lieberman may have won his battle, but the rest of us are winning the war.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Today is a great day. Democrats have regained majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate for the first time since losing control in 1994. However, we would be remiss if we did not analyze everything about this election, both what went right and what went wrong. So, stealing a methodology that has been done over, over and over again, here is my list.

THE GOOD - I am really bummed that some of our best and most exciting candidates lost. Tammy Duckworth, Larry Grant, Scott Kleeb and Gary Trauner would have been terrific members of congress. However, even their losses demonstrated how great Howard Dean's 50-state strategy was. These races were in Henry Hyde's district in Illinois, Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming. Not exactly Democratic strongholds. Yet we lost these seats by a TOTAL of 36,579 votes. An amazing result in its own right.

Since the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a movie theme, I will continue along those lines. The key phrase from the great baseball film "Field of Dreams" is a great way to describe Dean's 50-state strategy. "If you build it, they will come." First of all, if you put credible candidates on the ballot, people will come out and vote for them. Some of them will win, and some of them will lose, but you won't know unless you get the candidates. We could have easily given up on Hyde's district but we didn't. We found a terrific candidate whose integrity and ideas simply forced people to vote for her. She created Democratic voters where there hadn't been any before.

By finding these candidates you also force the Republicans to spend money. If you build the Democratic Party everywhere, the Republicans will be forced to come and spend their money to protect their position. Every dollar spent in Idaho, Nebraska and Wyoming is a dollar not spent in New Jersey, Missouri, and Florida. The viability of the candidacies of Duckworth, grant, Kleeb, and Trauner forced the Republicans to spend money in Red districts making it easier for Joe Courtney and Chris Murphy to win their blue districts.

THE BAD - I hate to focus on the negative on what is such a great day. However, if we ignore these things we will be worse of for it. Chris Shays is still a Member of Congress. Heather Wilson is still a Member of Congress. Jim Gerlach is still a member of Congress. These are blue seats that we absolutely had to win. There is no reason with the national climate that these three were able to hang on.

It probably shouldn't, but it worries me that so many of our victories came from 2nd, 3rd, and no-tier races. I am ecstatic that wife-beating John Sweeney was shown the door, but how hard are we going to have to fight to keep NY-20 in the blue column. Florida 16 sent Mark Foley a message, but is Tim Mahoney going to be anything more than a 2 year Congressman? In perhaps the most favorable atmosphere a political party could hope for, we lost more close races than we won. John Doolittle, Marilyn Musgrave, and Jon Porter are all still in Congress. If the Democratic message isn't resonating with these constituencies in the current atmosphere, we need to take a long hard look at why. We would be remiss if we celebrated the victories of John Hall, Jerry McNerny, Jason Altmire, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter without analyzing the failings of Diane Farrel, Patricia Madrid, Lois Murphy, Charlie Brown, Angie Paccione, and Tessa Hafen.

THE UGLY - I try to stay as naive as possible and pretend that elections really are about contrasting ideas. When I was working on "The Hill" I really thought that for the most part people on both sides of the Aisle were doing their civic duty. They really believed in the message they were trying to sell to the American people. But this election has disillusioned me of that notion, perhaps for good.

Robo-calls and election shenanigans demonstrate that politics is not about having a conversation with the electorate. It’s not about laying out contrasting visions for America's future. Politics has become such a win at all costs endeavor that where the message was not resonating with the voters the solution became suppressing the vote. The American people deserve better. If, as the media and the Republicans claimed, the Democrats had no message, than there was no reason for the Republicans to resort to dirty tricks. But it turned out to be the Republicans whose message the people rejected. And as poll after poll suggested this, the Republicans turned their attention away from holding a political discourse to intimidating and lying to voters. They Republicans lost, they lost ugly, and I just hope they didn't drag down the notion of a national political discourse with them.

POSTSCRIPT - No movie themed post would be complete without the promise of a sequel, and that is what we need to work for. We need a sequel that is even better than the original, which movie fans know is rare. We need a sequel where we fix the problems with our message and/or operation that caused us to lose winnable seats in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and all over the country. We need a sequel that finds more and better candidates than we ran in 2o06. We need a sequel that talks to the American people in such a way that they demand a trilogy.

So go and out and celebrate tonight. We deserve to revel in our success. But we have the responsibility to govern now, and we have the responsibility to do the people's work so that they keep demanding another sequel.

Vote Democrat

I know the title to this post isn't all that surprising, but it is actually an important message. Over the last few weeks I have heard a lot of people saying that they were going to vote for the Working Families Party ("WFP"). For those of you who don't know, New York has a lot of different lines on the ballot. Besides Democrat and Republican there is also the Conservative party, the WFP, and the Independence Party. Typically, those parties endorse one of the major candidates. Thus, Eliot Spitzer is running on the Democratic line AND the WFP line.

The rationale of the people advocating for voting the WFP line is commendable. In a state as blue as New York voting the WFP line is seen as a good way to influence the party. Their thinking goes that by voting for a progressive party forces the Democratic candidate to the left. I am all for forcing the party to the left, I just wonder if this is the proper methodology.

The importance of voting or not voting for the WFP is that if the party gets a certain amount of votes they are guaranteed a spot on the ballot and do not have to participate in petitioning. For example, I believe that if the WFP gets 50,000 votes for governor, it guarantees that a WFP candidate will be on the ballot next election. That is all well and good if the WFP continues to endorse Eliot Spitzer. But, if the WFP decides it wants to run a WFP candidate and not endorse the Democratic nominee it creates the possibility of vote splitting on the left.

With Spitzer and Clinton ahead by so much, it is difficult for a lot of people to think of Republicans in New York as having any success. I merely wish to remind them that we just survived 11 years of Republican governance. Republicans can, and have, won elections in New York state. I am not willing to take the chance that I might be assisting them the next time around by creating a challenger on the left of the Democratic candidate.

So I went into the booth today and I voted for Eliot Spitzer, and I voted for Hillary Clinton, and I voted for Andre Cuomo, and I voted for Yvette Clarke. But more important than all of that...most important in our two party system...I went into that booth and I voted Democrat.

Blog pimping

With an election tomorrow there is only 1 thing to do. Pimp some blogs.

Therefore, please check out 2 blogs that have recently been brought to my attention. The links are on my sidebar.

http://taooffau.vox.com//

and

http://stilldocked.vox.com/

Enjoy and please vote (unless you are a Republican. if you are a Republican please remember that you vote on WEDNESDAY!)