Teddy in Trouble

It's not the first time and no one can say he was a saint his whole life, but if anybody has ever redeemed himself through legislative service, it's Senator Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy.

And now he has an inoperable brain tumor. Per Shannon at Frank:

The particular type of tumor affecting Sen. Kennedy is a malignant glioma, the most common among adults. Survival ranges from less than a year to five years, depending upon type and responsiveness to treatment.

Intense NY Times piece here, the Senator's website with Best Wishes form here. But embedded in the above post comes is rather staggering list:

Legislation and causes Sen. Kennedy has either introduced or supported includes:

-Civil Rights Act of 1964
-Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
-Establishment of the National Teachers Corps, 1965
-Created a national health center system, 1966
-Bilingual Education Act of 1968
-Older American Community ServiceEmployment, 1970
-Voting Rights Act extension, 1970
-Meals on Wheels, 1972
-Women, Infants and Children program, 1972
-Bipartisan campaign finance legislation, establishing public funding for presidential elecions, 1973
-Family Planning Initatives, 1975
-Individuals with Disablities Education Act, 1975
-Civil Rights Commission Act Amendments of 1978
-Deregulation of airlines, bringing down prices for consumers, 1978
-Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons Act, 1980
-Refugee Act of 1980
-Congressional support of Low-Income Energy Assistance Programs, 1981
-Job Training Partnership Act of 1982
-Reinstatement of the Summer Jobs Program, 1982
-Voting Rights Act Amendments, 1982
-Opposed Star Wars program, 1983
-Supported Nuclear Arms Control, 1983
-Legislation requiring polling places be handicap-accessible, 1984
-Employment Opportunities for Disabled Americans, 1986
-Handicapped Children's Protection Act, 1986
-Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments, 1986
-Minimum Wage Increase, 1987
-Welfare to Jobs incentives,1987
-Even Start program, 1987
-Fair Housing Act Amendments, 1988
-National Military Child Care Act,1989
-Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990
-Ryan White CARE Act, 1990
-Immigration Act of 1990
-Civil Rights Act of 1991
-Head Start Improvement Act,1992
-Summer Jobs for Youth Program improvements, 1992
-Mammography Quality Standards Act, 1992
-Budget Reconcilliation Act of 1993
-National and Community Service Trust Act, creating AmeriCorps, 1993
-Family Medical Leave Act, 1994
-School to Work Opportunities Act, 1994
-Human Services Reauthorization Act,1994
-Crime Act, 1994
-Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996
-Mental Health Parity bill, 1996
-State Children's Health Insurance Program, 1997
-Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Act, 1998
-Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act, 2000
-Public Health Threats and Emergencies Act, 2000
-Pediatric Graduate Medical Education Program, 2000
-No Child Left Behind, 2001
-Bioterrorism Preparedness Act, 2002
-Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform, 2002
-Project Bioshield Act, 2003
-Gulf Coast Recovery and Preparedness Act, 2005
-Family Opportunity Act, 2006

Maybe the most impressive record in United States Senate history. A case where term limits would have been a bad idea. And the Boston Herald says that losing him at this critical unity juncture is less than desirable:

Political analysts say Kennedy is among a small group of top Democrats who has the popularity and influence to mollify disenchanted activists who have fought tooth and nail for Clinton. Those activists are seen as critical to generating the money and organizational strength needed to defeat GOP contender John McCain.

“There is no Democrat who is better able to pick up the phone and get disparate groups of people in the room together,” said strategist Michael Goldman.

Kennedy was among the first national political figures to endorse Obama’s candidacy this year. He has been a mentor and adviser to the Illinois senator and was among officials who counseled him to challenge Clinton for the nomination.

So if the Clintons can get over Teddy's encouraging their defeat, he could be the unifier. Maybe by his appeal to older Democratic voters? Women, who's rights he's been defending for decades?

Maybe he lives long enough to bring everyone together. Maybe his being stricken gives the Clintons and their supporters a healthy sense of mortality, ergo fallibility.

Just the novelistic view, so incredibly apt this election season. Giant.

Hollywood Royalty

There were three Charlton Hestons.

One was the very fine leading man who could actually anchor a movie and used his power to get Orson Welles' last Hollywood directing job (Touch of Evil), as well as anchoring the brilliant Planet of the Apes and iconic 1970's science fiction pictures Soylent Green and The Omega Man.

Then there was the parody of Heston, sometimes seeming self-parody, of his rock-jawed line delivery and toga-esque performances.

Finally, there was the National Rifle Association Heston where, as President of that organization, he seemed bizarrely tone-deaf to the gun-fueled slaughter of Columbine high school students, a hero to the callous, the selfish, the brutes.

Of the first Heston, let it be said that he had the chops and held the screen. It seems that Australia is minting this sort of leading man these days. Can an urban kid do it, or does it have to be someone closer to the land, a Midwesterner like Heston or Brad Pitt? And Heston had excellent taste, a huge fan of both Welles and Laurence Olivier, even turning down a big role with Marilyn Monroe to do an Olivier play, and doing less successful pictures in his later years because he liked them, including his personal favorite, Will Penny.

The second Heston, the hammy guy, we loved him, too. Thank him for giving something to parody. And he seemed very smart about this as well, going against it brilliantly as Cardinal Richelieu in the Richard Lester versions of The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers. Heston played the evil Cardinal like a leading man, without gimmicks, and with great intelligence and grace. And if you really hate ham, then you're denying yourself one of the greatest final scenes ever, on the beach in front of the Statue of Liberty, in a world ruled by simians.

As for the political Heston, it's nice to see obits reminding us that he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King before it became fashionable, also lending his voice to an important civil rights documentary. Although I was very unhappy about his role with the NRA, I was also embarrassed by Michael Moore's ambush of Heston at his home, which made the aged actor seem the gracious one, and Moore the opportunist, desperate to score points with which to buttress attention to his otherwise salient documentary, Bowling for Columbine.

It's interesting that the other dominant rightwing actor who was once a liberal Democrat, Ronald Reagan, also suffered from Alzheimer's Disease towards the end of his life. One wonders if such a political shift might someday be revealed as a very early stage indicator of the disease. After all, scientist have already proven that liberal brains and conservative brains respond differently to the same set of stimuli.

It's also nice to find out that Heston's original name, John Carter, had to be changed for being too close to that of Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter of his Mars series (starting with A Princess of Mars). It's actually hard to imagine a better actor to cast in that role, although it appears Heston never had the opportunity to play Carter.

So give the man his conservative flaws. As an actor, he contributed liberally to the opening of the imagination.

Oh, and by the way, soylent green...is people.

Digby

Blogging is a great way to participate in the marketplace of ideas without having to physically put yourself in that marketplace. Since you can always be tracked down and hounded it isn't exactly a cowardly way to participate, but there is one prominent blogger who has always made a point of keeping her privacy, as even her online name plays genderless, or even shades male.

This past week, at the Take Back America Conference, Digby came out.

It turns out she's a she from Santa Monica and besides having one of the finest voices in the liberal blogosphere, she revealed herself as a hell of a speaker. You can read the text of her remarks here, or watch the video here.

She does a great job of providing context for the leftist blogging revolution we're currently experiencing, lists some of the key bloggers writing today, points out how diverse the group is, and then sums up what brings us together. An excerpt:

All of us who blog in the progressive blogosphere, have a common goal. It's the same goal of virtually everyone in this room tonight. We want to begin a new era of progressive politics and take back America.

We may argue about tactics and strategy or the extent to which we are partisans vs ideologues--and believe me, we do. But there is no disagreement among us that the modern conservative movement Of Newt and Grover and Karl and Rush has proven to be a dangerous cultural and political cancer on the body politic.

You will not find anyone amongst us who believes that the Bush administration's executive power grab and flagrant partisan use of the federal government is anything less than an assault on the constitution. We stand together against the dissolution of habeas corpus and the atrocities of Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. We all agree that Islamic terrorism is a threat, but one which we cannot meet with military power alone.

She sat for an interview at the conference which reveals a little more about her in an informal setting. With an eyes-wide-open appreciation of this moment borne of having lived through the later 1960's progressive apex (and subsequent undermining), I couldn't agree more with her conclusion:

I actually feel very confident about it because there is this new political debate going on that is allowing us to make arguments that have not been made in a very long time. I don't think people have heard the progressive argument explicitly in a long time, not filtered through the right wing and the conventions of their media and interpreted by the mainstream media. I think as a lot of people are going directly into the blogosphere people are going to be hearing our arguments again. Now, whether we make them all and whether they are effective you never know; I don't think there are any guarantees there. But I think there is a new political debate that has opened up at a very propitious time for us as a result of the unfortunate failure of the conservative project under George W. Bush, and let's just say there will never be another time like this one.

Only time will tell if the current progressive blogging end up being considered a golden age or not, but if it is it wouldn't be unjust to consider Digby a middle-aged, female, publicity shy Thomas Paine of our time.

Two Lists

The first one is more devastating, the second is good choir preaching.

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

(click on the link for details):

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens' groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Then there's this spine-straightener.

Top Ten Lies about Liberals
(click for detail):

10. Liberals destroy American culture and traditions.
9. Liberals have no backbone - don't stand for anything - they're "soft" on principles.
8. Liberals promote World Government.
7. Liberals are soft on crime.
6. Liberals subsidize laziness.
5. Liberals are socialists, extremists, marginal, never mainstream.
4. Liberals tax & spend, promoting Big Government.
3. Liberals are unpatriotic.
2. Liberals are bad for business.
1. Liberals are soft on defense, and weaken America's superiority and stature in the world.

Just remember this is all in the context of El President hitting a new low of 28% approval in the Harris poll just released tonight. Oh, and America is on the side of a firm timetable for withdrawal. They agree with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) who's driven the rightwingers batshit crazy by saying the War cannot be won, at least in any conventional sense.

The Democratic House just passed the bill, which I'm guess is the most popular piece of legislation from Congress since 1999 and maybe 1993, and could only get more popular if it strengthened or shortened the "suggested" exit date.

Comparing the Bush/Cheney/Rove Administration to a term Rumsfeld once used for the Iraqi insurgency, Ronald Brownstein in the L.A. Times calls it the dead-ender presidency:

Forget "the decider." Bush has become the dead-ender.

There's nothing to be afraid of.

Time to remake reality -- in reality's own image.