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Guest Blogger: Andrew Gumbel

I'm going to be tied up the next few days in Las Vegas. Tuesday night is the sneak preview of the PBS American Experience series on Sin City that I've had some hand in and I plan to be there.

In my absence for the rest of the week, I've invited in world-class journo Andrew Gumbel as guest blogger.

Andrew is the widely-traveled, multi-lingual, many-talented Los Angeles-based correspondent for The Independent of London.

His new book, "Steal This Vote,"  has just gone into a second printing.

Be nice to Andrew because I'll be baaack, as Arnold says.

Banned And Banished

Journalist and writer Celeste Fremon – known as commenter "Rosedog" on this blog—has turned in yet one more of her moving, insightful feature stories on those who have fallen between the cracks of the modern American foundation.

Writing in Sunday’s Los Angeles Times Magazine , she artfully tells the story of “Javier” – a thirty year old Mexican born father and husband whose entire family has suffered the ingrained irrationalities of the U.S. immigration apparatus.

Thanks to a law passed in the mid-90’s, and signed into law by Bill Clinton, legal residents of the United States are now routinely deported after having served time for felonies. No matter they have done their time and that they are legal and their spouse and children may even be U.S. citizens –as is the case with Javier.

I also applaud Fremon for taking on a hard case. Javier is no angel. He’s clearly made some Herculean screw-ups and bad choices in his life. That’s why he did a three year prison stint. But isn’t that enough? What sense does it make to add onto that sentence forced separation from one’s own family? The nut graphs:

It used to be that if a green-card-carrying U.S. resident committed all but the most serious crimes—murder, rape, large-scale trafficking in drugs or firearms—he or she paid their debt to society and went on with life.

In 1994, Congress added to the list a few more crimes that triggered deportation. Still, in many cases immigrants could apply for a 212(c) waiver, which allowed a judge to decide their fate. People who hadn't done something hideous and showed evidence of having turned their lives around usually got to stay.

Then in 1996, conservative lawmakers grafted a last-minute rider onto a must-pass bundle of legislation called the Omnibus Appropriations Act that would fund the entire federal government for 1997. The rider was known as the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act. "When it was being proposed, I and others said it was terrible," recalls Democratic Congressman Barney Frank. "But often members of Congress don't listen in advance." Moreover, voting against an appropriations bill would mean temporarily shutting down the government, thus the legislation sailed through both houses of Congress and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton….

Criminal deportation numbers shot up after the law passed—a total of 591,301 between 1996 and 2004, with 85,583 in 2004 alone (up from 32,526 in 1995)—the overwhelming majority for nonviolent offenses.

Before any conservative starts mouthing off about how wonderful this horrid, little law is…you might want to go back and read all of Fremon’s article. When evidence started mounting about how heartlessly stupid this law was, liberal Congressman Barney Frank introduced a measure to remedy it. The Republican Senate killed it a first time. And then when it was making headway a second time, the nationalist backlash to September 11^th blocked it again. Then conservative California Congressman Darrell Issa of all people, himself from an immigrant family, indicated he might come on board and give the fix a bi-partisan boost. He was last seen wavering. But there’s still some hope that this national embarrassment can be taken off the books. We can do better than this.

Announcing "Democratiya"

I'm happy to join in announcing the official birth of "Democratiya" -- a free bi-monthly online review of books.

I'm even happier to be among the advisory editors who are united in a belief that an internationalist Left has a crucial role to play in a troubled world.

Please take a read of this inaugural issue.

Some Gallow(way) Humor

On this lazy Friday afternoon I have nothing better to do than kick around one more time Gorgeous George Galloway and his gaggle of goofy fans.

Seems like the backers of his anti-war pro-war, pro-Baathist militia tour have a blog of their own and they are not very happy about what I wrote a few days ago regarding their boy.

The very appropriately named Todd Chretien, one of the stalwart contributors to the widely read and highly authoritative and influential International Socialist Review, writes of me and other Galloway critics:

"It’s worth holding your nose and reading these rants, because they do a marvelous job of illustrating the diminishing distance between the pro-Kerry section of the Democratic Party and their “opponents” on the Republican side of the aisle. They both want to “win” the “war on terror,” they simply differ over the means. As US public opinion turns sharply against the war, these tactical differences within the pro-war camp (Bush on one side, Kerry and his scribblers on the other) are harder to explain, or even to see, as they become more disassociated from mainstream opinion..."

To my regular readers, I ask if this this not hilarious? Pegging me -- moi—for being a an exponent of the Pro-Kerry wing of the Democratic Party [ insert laugh track here]?
I will, however, confess to The Party Central Comittee that I am guilty, one hundred per cent guilty, of wanting to "win the war on terror" -- something I find to be marginally more attractive than losing it. 

Chretien's grunting screed is, however, a revealing little peek into the muddled mindset of the fringe left. It’s an alarmingly perfect mirror of the Bushoid mentality i.e. either you’re with us or against us.  In this case, suggesting that running-dog lackeys like myself are not nearly as in touch with “mainstream opinion” as are the ideologues over at, say, the International Socialist Review! LOL.

Though it’s not really that funny. Beyond all the hot air from Chretien, you see his absolute refusal to deal with any of the substantive issues raised in the critiques of Comrade Galloway. Like his stalwart support for the car bombers and Baathist militias; his embrace of various dictators; his reactionary positions on gays, abortion and the death penalty; his lavish life style supported by public and charity payrolls; his general awfulness. Oh well.

For what is both a well-written and insightful look into the Great Galloway-Hitchens Purse-Swinging Slugfest of Wednesday night, take a look at David Usborne’s up close and personal report in The Independent.

Arnie Blarney

Sometime on Friday – probably by the time you are reading this— the California Governator will have announced that he’s running for re-election in 2006.

Absolutely no surprise. But Arnold’s timing -– as George Skelton writes -- tells you everything about the sorry predicament he’s put himself in.

Less than two months from now on November 8, Californians will vote in a special election decreed by Arnold. Tens of millions will be spent so we can give thumbs up or down on three of his pet measures: a spending cap, a reapportionment reform and a senseless law that would make it easier to fire public school teachers.

Little wonder that clear majorities are leaning against all three and against the very notion of the special election. Only the most fervent zealots could believe that paltry agenda has anything to do with the long-term welfare of America's most populous state.

More importantly, about 2/3 of California voters are also leaning against Arnold – his popularity rating in some polls falling into the frigid mid-30’s. How unpopular is Arnold?  So unpopular that when Bush came to California a few weeks ago it was the President who avoided the Governor – not the other way around as in the past. So unpopular, as Joe Scott notes, that the big he-man is now too scared to campaign amongst real voters.

Hence, Arnold’s early re-election announcement. A transparent ploy to reassure his corporate donors that he’s going to stick it out and that they should feel free to pony up for his November 8^th special vote.

After a first year in office in which he succeeded as a pragmatic centrist, Arnold got too cocky, too impressed with his limited political capacities, and decided to start attacking Democratic constituencies in a totally Democratic state. Not very smart. Actually, sort of inexplicable. Ja?

My latest L.A. Weekly column is now posted. Katrina's victicms may have been rescued but unlikely they will ever be restored or redeemed. Please read it.

Mr. Galloway, Please Go Home

British M.P. George Galloway, who I wrote about a few weeks ago, has just begun an “anti-war” speaking tour of the U.S. which is scheduled through the end of next week.

I put “anti-war” in quotes because Mr. Galloway isn’t really opposed to the war in Iraq. He simply supports another side. Apart from being a shill for Saddam (and for Stalin) Mr. Galloway is also a sleazy and corrupt dandy – a tad homophobic, pro-death penalty, and belives – as a pro-lifer—that Teri Schiavo was “murdered.”

So, as someone who has opposed this war from the first day, let me say what too few opponents of the Bush administration have found the impulse to voice:

MR. GALLOWAY, PLEASE GO HOME.

From coast-to-coast, for the next ten days, anti-war activists are not only going to provide this oily goose a platform, they are going to join him on the stage and applaud him like mad as he tosses off his anti-Bush one-liners.

Indeed, his tour culminates in Washington on the 24^th when he will be accompanied on the dais by Cindy Sheehan.

I’d like to be able to say the self-deception or simple naievete of the anti-war movement  boggles the mind --  so many people of good intentions willing to marry themselves to this charlatan. But I can’t. It’s as if the peace movement is currently under the management of FEMA and therefore nothing amazes me.

I was pleasantly surprised, however, to read a column by Greg Palast blasting Galloway. For my taste, Palast is usually too quick to pander to the Loonies (who at least until now have adored him). So it’s especially satisfying to watch Palast take them on:

“…it is not good enough for the Left to oppose Mr. Bush's re-colonization of Iraq. We needed to have actively supported Iraqis fighting to remove their Mesopotamian Stalin. And now, we'd better come up with something a little less nutty than a recent suggestion by one otherwise thoughtful writer that we, "unconditionally support the insurgency" of berserker killers and fundamentalist madmen. If that's the Left's program for Iraq, count me out."

We can't define ourselves as the "anti-Bush," blindly supporting those he opposes, and thereby letting the nitwit Napoleon in the White House pick our enemies for us. Nor can our revulsion for Bush's horrors throw us into the arms of swamp-things like George Galloway.

Swamp things, indeed. Take a gander at some of what Galloway said a handful weeks ago to Al Jazeera when referring to the Iraqi “resistance.”

"These poor Iraqis – ragged people, with their sandals, with their Kalashnikovs, with the lightest and most basic of weapons – are writing the names of their cities and towns in the stars, with 145 military operations every day, which has made the country ungovernable by the people who occupy it... they decided when the foreign invaders came, to defend their country, to defend their honor, to defend their families, their religion, their way of life from a military superpower which landed amongst them...the Iraqi resistance is not just defending Iraq. They are defending all the Arabs, they are defending all the people of the world from American hegemony.”

Galloway’s bleating apology for the Jihadists and the Baathists has special resonance just as their bloody handiwork has massacred 160 people and wounded more than 500 others. A massacre, please note, that intentionally targeted civilians:

"In what was believed to be a new tactic, the bomber set off the explosive after calling the construction and other workers to his small van and enticing them with promises of employment, a witness said. At least 112 people were killed and more than 200 were wounded, according to Health Ministry officials. Twisted hulks of vehicles blocked the bloodstained main street in Kazimiyah's Oruba Square."

So this is how Mr. Galloway’s heroes are writing their names in the stars. Apparently with broad brushes soaked in civilian blood.

Any anti-war activist with an IQ above room temperature should make it loudly known that Mr. Galloway is not welcome here. He is not our ally, nor our friend. He is a Swamp-thing.

My pal Marc Danzinger and I respectfully disagree with each over this war. But we have the same view  of Galloway.

Think about taking Marc's lead and showing up to one of the Galloway events to let him know, whatever you think of George W. Bush, that apologists for murderers are not welcome amongst us.

Open invitation for Southern California locals: On Thursday, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. I’ll be dialoguing with John Powers, author of Sore Winners: American Idols, Patriotic Shoppers and Other Strange Species in George Bush’s America. It all happens at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles. Admission is free but please RSVP to sstreet@laweekly.com

Bushism R.I.P. 9/11/2001 - 9/02/05

I wrote last week that the Bush era was over, that he was the ultimate lame duck. Crippled and drowned, ultimately, by the Katrina fiasco. This is an incontrovertible fact.

I’m now happy to be joined in this conclusion by the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne who similarly declares that the age of Bush has come to an end. Born in the ashes of September 11^th , 2001 and then suddenly extinguished on September 2^nd, 2005.

Says Dionne: “The Bush Era is over. The sooner politicians in both parties realize that, the better for them -- and the country.”

Curious has been the reaction to this notion over the last week. My personal conversations and my email reflect a liberal mindset reluctant to grasp that fact.

I’ve had to contain my laughter as one correspondent after another continues to natter on about the clever Karl Rove, the unscrupulous Fox News, the evil Rush Limbaugh, and the cynical White House and how surely, certainly, absolutely and eventually they will conspire and succeed in turning this bumper crop of lemons into a sweet river of political lemonade.

But Bush is, indeed, over. A clear and sizeable majority of Americans now have a definitively negative view of him, his administration and his policies. His domestic agenda is dead in the waters of Louisiana. And his foreign policy is hopelessly swamped in Iraq.

Why can’t liberals now simply accept these facts? The last five years have seen liberals adamantly, sometimes with excessive shrillness, insist that this president was the worst in history. That the American people had been fooled or lulled or stampeded or hoodwinked into supporting him and that in their own best interests they should desert him.

Well, now they have. That moment is here.

I’m getting tired of saying it. And you are probably getting weary of reading it. But this is the pivotal period. When Bush was riding at 60% popularity one could make the argument, at least, that oppositional politics had to be primarily a matter of tearing down the administration.

But when the president’s popularity is submerged at 38%, it’s time to say, “Mission Accomplished.” And time to tell the nation what you’re going to do instead. What is your oppositional offer? We are all waiting to hear.

If Bush pulls off the miracle of resurrecting his fortunes it will be only because his opposition failed to make a convincing counter-offer. As I said, we are waiting to hear.

Open invitation for Southern California locals: On Thursday, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. I’ll be dialoguing with John Powers, author of Sore Winners: American Idols, Patriotic Shoppers and Other Strange Species in George Bush’s America. It all happens at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles. Admission is free but please RSVP to sstreet@laweekly.com

The John Roberts Kabuki

I don’t know if any of you fared much better. But I had to prematurely check out of the John Roberts confirmation hearing because I felt a deep numbness setting in. Or was it a nausea?

A transcript of the hearing should be put under glass as one more prime example of why normal Americans hate and despise politics-as-usual.

On the one side, Republicans who would vote for their President’s nominee whoever he was. Why not send up Mike “Brownie” Brown now that he quit his other job Monday morning. Wouldn’t it be great to hear the Republican Senators praise his fine record as a Chief Counsel to Arabian Horses?

Anyway, there was Committee Chair Arlen Specter decrying a list of outrages committed by a right-wing Supreme Court while everyone knows that the same Mr. Specter is going to vote to confirm this latest of right-wing nominees!

Just as farcical were the Democrats. Harrumphing and clearing their throats in concern over the process involved in questioning Roberts. The oleaginous Senator  Chuck Schumer and the equally slippery Joe Biden, suggesting (not vowing) that they might – just might—vote against Roberts. As if anyone cares how they will vote. All 45 senate Democrats can vote NO and Roberts is still going to be confirmed. So who gives a flip?

If the Democrats want to thunder against Roberts, then at least make it worth it. Instead of nitpicking the Committee rules on procedure, they could use these hearings to articulate an entire different vision of government in the wake of Katrina. And why, when they come to power, they would choose nominees very different than Roberts.

If there was ever a moment when America needs a compelling, persuasive alternative to the sinking policies of Reagan-Bush-Bush it is right now. This week. Today.

But, then again, if my auntie had cojones she would be my uncle.

If you have the stomach to review all of the details of Monday’s congressional shadow dance, then tune into my pal David Corn’s comprehensive report and analysis.

Open invitation for Southern California locals: On Thursday, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. I’ll be dialoguing with John Powers, author of Sore Winners: American Idols, Patriotic Shoppers and Other Strange Species in George Bush’s America. It all happens at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles. Admission is free.

Times Are Tough All Over

The deplorable circumstances of Katrina’s victims, while a worthy subject to ponder, has nevertheless distracted us from the heartbreaking plight of other Americans currently facing tough times.

If you thought it was as bad as it could get languishing in the Superdome and then being shuffled into oblivion by Brownie’s FEMA, you obviously haven’t been reading my local paper, the L.A. Times.

On the front page of this Sunday’s Real Estate section, writer Darrell Satzman, lyrically evokes the numbing, heart-rending story of local middle-aged couple Damir and Anne Pevec.

Humble commercial real estate investors, the Pevecs raised their family in modest Malibu, then sold off their longtime beachside home to spend a year living (no doubt on the edge) in Europe. But when they came back to So Cal, and delved back into the red-hot housing market, they just couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t find a worthy new home, thanks to the shortage of quality listings. Of course, the Pevecs only had a budget of $3 million, says the Times. But even with such a modest sum, you’d think – after 16 months of searching (!) – they’d find something they could make do with.

But no…. Crack Times reporter Satzman says the poor Pevecs are “reaching the exasperation stage.” His article finds them poo-poohing one more Santa Monica hovel:

"It's a wham-bam contractor house," said Anne of the lot-swallowing, 5,500-square-foot, $3.7-million home. "It's a spec house," Damir added. "It's a lot of home for the money, but it's lacking in character."

Not to fret. These brave homesteaders are not about to give up. Nor will they mimic the spoiled Louisiana layabouts who have become dependent on government hand-outs and subsidies. These brave Angelenos vow to soldier on and do what they must until they find something worth their $3 milllion.

"It's rough, but that's what you have to do if you want to be in this market," Anne said. "You have to suck it up and keep going."

The Times article, by the way, was written without as much as a  suggestion of irony. Please also note the Times photo reproduced above. Fabulous. The poor Pevecs, imprisoned with their $3 million.

Open invitation for Southern California locals: On Thursday, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. I’ll be dialoguing with John Powers, author of Sore Winners: American Idols, Patriotic Shoppers and Other Strange Species in George Bush’s America. It all happens at the Silent Movie Theater, 611 N. Fairfax Ave. in Los Angeles. Admission is free.