The Rest of the (Long) Week In Review

Look, it's a holiday weekend, so I think this still qualifies as the end of the week. So here's some things I missed while on a semi-holiday myself:

• OK, it felt almost as hot by the beach today as it did in the desert all week. The power outages weren't widespread but were still significant. It's all Gray Davis' fault!

• Over the weekend a judge in Iowa struck down the statewide ban on gay marriage on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. This set in motion the first same-sex marriages in the state, only to be stopped a few hours later by a stay order. More than making gay rights an issue in the Presidential race, this forces the heartland to really discuss the impact of disenfranchising a whole class of people, and how they can continue to call themselves in favor of equality and freedom in such a circumstance. This is a great first step to the eventuality of legal marriage for two people who love each other, no matter the gender.

• The anniversary of Katrina didn't get in the rear view mirror very long before some wingnuts, including a Presidential candidate, just wanting to wash their hands of the Gulf Coast and blame the citizens of New Orleans for runaway spending (when the truth is closer to graft for no-bid contractors and practically no money flowing to the people. Meanwhile, John Hawkins wins the crassness award for telling residents still living in FEMA trailers to get over it.

• And the man likely to replace Larry Craig as Senator from Idaho, Lt. Governor Jim Risch, has the Katrina conservatism disease as well. Here's what he had to say last year, along with Mark Schmitt's reply:

"Here in Idaho, we couldn’t understand how people [in Louisiana] could sit around on the kerbs waiting for the federal government to come and do something. We had a dam break in 1976, but we didn’t whine about it. We got out our backhoes and we rebuilt the roads and replanted the fields and got on with our lives. That’s the culture here. Not waiting for the federal government to bring you drinking water. In Idaho there would have been entrepreneurs selling the drinking water."

I won't repeat all of my earlier post, but what makes Risch's nasty contempt for Louisianans all the more disturbing is that he was referring to the 1976 collapse of the Teton Dam, which was built entirely by the federal government, for the benefit of a handful of whining millionaire ranchers, and when it collapsed (which had been predicted) it was not the entrepreneurs of Idaho who fixed things up, but once again, the federal government, which rebuilt the irrigation systems and paid hundreds of millions of dollars in claims, far more promptly than in Louisiana.

I have a piece in the Guardian on this today, in which I argue that this kind of hypocrisy -- in which one public position (we're self-sufficient, the rest of you people need to make it on your own) coexists with a completely contradictory public position (a slavish dependence on big-dollar federal subsidies) -- is far more consequential and dangerous than the trivial hypocrisy on which we tend to focus, when someone's public and private lives seem to be in conflict.

• Note to everyone: we suck. I can't find much to argue with there. Although writing about all this sucking, it's really kind of a bummer.

• I've always considered "carbon offsets" to be the tithes of the 21st century: a feel-good way to buy yourself out of damnation without having to do any hard work like adhering to fixed laws. The LA Times confirmed this Sunday with a pretty good article detailing how these carbon offsets are essentially meaningless unless backed up with drastic emissions cuts that don't spill out gradually over 30 years.

• Congratulations to Sen. Tim Johnson, who returns to the Senate this week after making his first public appearance since his brain aneurysm in South Dakota last week. For his bravery and toughness I've put Senator Johnson on my ActBlue page.

• The Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, commuted the death sentence of a man who was just driving along in the same car as a murder occurred, proving that Perry is more the compassionate conservative than the man he succeeded ever will be.

• I guess Condi Rice is trying to rehabilitate her public image with a series of upcoming books. This anecdote isn't going to help:

Coit Blacker, a Stanford professor who is one of the secretary of state’s closest friends, recalls going into a shop where Rice asked to see earrings. The clerk showed her costume jewelry. Rice asked to see something nicer, prompting the clerk to whisper some sass under her breath.

Blacker remembers Rice tearing the woman to shreds.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” he recalls her saying. “You are behind the counter because you have to work for minimum wage. I’m on this side asking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more.”

What is it about becoming rich that makes you lose all concern for human dignity?

• Business and labor groups assailed Bush Administration plans to crack down on illegal hiring of undocumented workers using fake Social Security numbers, and a federal judge in San Francisco blocked the implementation of the law. Personally I would rather see the harshest penalties be put to employers rather than workers, and the judge is right that little harm will come of taking the time to ensure that legal workers don't get caught up in the dragnet. But clearly the government needs to be allowed to enforce the laws on the books. I'll continue to monitor this.

• Ezra Klein had some really good thoughts about the failed hunt for Bin Laden and the media's failure to challenge Bush on his obvious lie in the debates about never saying he wasn't that concerned about him ("I think that's one of them exaggerations.") Kerry hit this hard throughout the campaign and the media considered it a non-event. To an extent they still do.

• And finally, seriously, Kid Nation? I thought that Telemundo show "Gana La Verde" about competing to get a green card was bad, but an entertainment program built around child labor? How about "Factory Fire," where women and minors have to escape the blazing garment center while still getting their pieces done on time? Or "No Lunch Break"? Or "Forty Hours, Schmorty Hours"?