Author Archive: Bill Black
I'm a baby boomer, lefty Democrat, Boston Irish Catholic, born in 1953. I work as a public affairs consultant in Washington.
Loyal Bushies
Josh Marshall has a great post referring to an Andrew Sullivan critique of the Republican messaging that the Libby prosecution was all political. The charge is ludicrous on its face. Everyone involved in moving this case forward was appointed by George W. Bush, most particularly the prosecutor and the judge. Everyone, of course, except for the jury. But I’m sure if they could have found a way to rig the jury, they would have. IRS audit, anyone?
But the point Marshall makes is a good one. To the extent anyone, in this case New Republic publisher Marty Peretz, can claim the case was political, it was because the Republicans pushing it were not “loyal Bushies.” This point made something clear to me; that George W. Bush has divided the Republican Party in to two camps, Bush loyalists and all others. The Bush loyalists believe in the Divine Right of Bush. The others, not so much. So you have a category in the spreadsheet evaluating the U.S. attorneys as to their “loyal Bushiness.” Anything short of that is suspect. Think of some of the Republicans who fail this test; John Ashcroft, Paul O’Neill, the old John McCain, Colin Powell, etc., etc. If you are not willing to subject your personal will to that of George Bush (really Dick Cheney), your resistance becomes “political.”
The problem is these “loyal Bushies” are both ignorant and passionate. They are what’s left of the base of the Republican Party. They are now completely divorced from reality, but can’t be ignored by Republican presidential candidates. So, you have the spectacle of people like Mitt Romney, who prides himself on never granting a pardon and commutation as governor, defended the Libby commutation. Tough luck for the Iraq War veterans whose conviction at age 14 for a bb gun incident prevents him from achieving his dream of becoming a police officer. For Romney, it’s all black and white….except for the Libby case. He can’t risk alienating “loyal Bushies.”
At what point does it matter that the principle of being a “loyal Bushie” above all else disqualifies a candidate being president.
Soon, I hope.
You Don’t Know Dick!
I love Stewart’s imitation of as Sen. Leahy as mafioso. Being half Italian, I’m sure the Senator was amused.
Stewart will be so sad when Cheney leaves office. He will have to start working again, since Cheney’s endless supply of material will cease.
Folklife Festival 2007
As noted last year about this time, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is my favorite annual event in Washington. Today, I made my annual pilgrimmage and had that moment of grace I described in last year’s post. This year, the cultures presented were the Mekong Delta, the Commonwealth of Virginia and Northern Ireland. As one might expect, the highlight was the music performed in the Northern Ireland performance tent.
The genius of this festival is the way the Smithsonian Folklife Center plucks local musicians out of their natural habitat, in this case presumably a circuit of Irish pubs, and brings them to Washington to delight and surprise us. This year, it was a band called Four Men and a Dog that brought down the house. I’m not sure which of the players is considered the dog, but they had the performance tent rocking.
What I love best about the festival is the spontaneous dancing that occurs. People strolling along the Mall hear music and are drawn to it. Next thing you know, they are on the dance floor, sometimes dancing with strangers. I truly consider those moments of grace and it happens every year.
Check it out in this longish (3 minutes) and somewhat poor quality video I took and edited. Hang in there for the shots of the dancers. As you can see, inhibitions are left at the door. There’s the old guy who leaped from the crowd and did a poor imitation of Irish step dancing right in front of the bandstand, a younger guy with similar pretentions, a very smooth couple who clearly know how it’s done and the children scampering in betweent the larger dancers.
Beautiful.
Impeach Cheney
“The legal precedent set by Cheney would justify a decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin to kidnap American tourists in Paris and to dispatch them to dungeons in Belarus if they were suspected of Chechen sympathies.”
And he concludes with this:
“In the end, President Bush regularly is unable to explain or defend the policies of his own administration, and that is because the heavy intellectual labor has been performed in the office of the vice president. Cheney is impeachable for his overweening power and his sneering contempt of the Constitution and the rule of law.”
It is genuinely scary the things that this administration has done to the country. And the precedents they set will be enshrined in our government if Congress doesn’t act.
Let’s hope they have the courage to do so.
In Defense of PR Experts
I am proud to work for what I consider the premier public relations firm in the world. We are an extremely ethical firm and are the best in the business at any comminications challege an organization might face. One of the best parts of my job is that I get to dabble in other people’s business, professions and avocations. But I am always acutely aware that what we do is explain what they do. We don’t do what they do. But it sure is fun learning what they do.
One of my all-time favorite clients was the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. I believe we provided great communications services and came to understand the enormous complexity involved in keeping planes from bumping into one another on the ground or in the air. But after four years working with the association, I had no illusions that I was qualified to manage air traffic. That is why I take no offense that my friend John Carr uses the term “PR expert” as an epithet in his current post on the Main Bang.
Which brings me to the current administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration. Like me, she’s a PR person. But unlike me, she thinks she can run our nation’s air traffic control system. After almost five years on the job, we have impirical evidence that I’m right and she’s wrong. On the other hand, I actually had more experience with air traffic control than she did going into her job. I even visited the tower at Dulles Airport. And, more importantly, I really like all the air traffic controllers I’ve met and many of them like me. That certainly distinquishes me from the current administrator.
So, maybe I am more qualified that I thought. In fact, maybe I’m just the guy for the job of FAA Administrator. Yeah, that’s the ticket, Bill Black, FAA Administrator! I like the sound of that. So, stand aside John Carr, what this country needs is a qualified PR expert to be FAA Administrator and, therefore, I’m throwing my hat into the ring.
Click here to vote for me! While you won’t find my name, just click on “OTHER.” We’ll fill in my name later.
Welcome Main Bangers!
It’s been pretty quiet here at the Preferential Option. While I do admit to giving John Carr the idea of starting a blog, I have preferred to blog away in obscurity. John has taken his blog to places I could not have imagined when I suggested he start one. He has actually had an impact on peoples’ lives. I stand in awe of his accomplishments.
For me, I mainly use this blog as an opportunity to vent my rage at the Bush Administration, for which my loathing knows no bounds. But I’ve also tried various and sundry new blogging techiques. You’ll see in the previous post that I’ve figured out how to create and post little music videos. I’m so excited about that, it even distracted me from Bush bashing, albeit temporarily.
So, feel free to look around. While I wasn’t expecting company, you are certainly welcome. And now I will feel an obligation to post more frequently, in case you choose to come back.
For those of my readers not coming from the Main Bang (Hi, Mom!), here’s a link to the post I’m responding to here.
Thanks, John.
Gettysburg Part 2
God, I love Macs. Here’s a music video I created of my trip to Gettysburg on Tuesday of this week. Done in less than a day.
Gettysburg
Just came back from a business meeting in Gettysburg that included a tour of the battlefield. Part of the meeting was “Leadership Lessons from the Battle of Gettysburg.” Very cool and informative. Here’s some video I took out the window of the bus as we traveled along the line that the Union held on the third day, looking across the field where Pickett’s Charge took place. Watch and listen:
Rock Creek After the Rain
Took this on a bike ride today through Rock Creek Park in Washington. This mostly a test post, to see if I can still do the video thing with my new camera. But it is a nice nature shot.
Spear chucker???
I was watching Fox News’ Sunday morning news show. Brit Hume was commending on Fred Thompson for President. He described the campaign finance reform hearings that Thompson chaired and was bemoaning the fact that he was buffaloed by Sen. John Glenn who he described as “not your typical spearchucker for the Democratic Party.” He obviously meant “spear carrier.” But the word rolled off his tongue in a way that suggested it was not the first time he’d used the racist term.
Wonder of Juan Williams had a sidebar conversation with him after the show?