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AOL Fires Tommy Christopher; Why?

As a former blogger with Cristina Cedeno at “Yes to Democracy,” I have a special place in my heart for Tommy Christopher, an AOL News blogger at “Politics Daily,” who frequently referenced and relied upon YtD’s scoops.

Make that “former” AOL News blogger. For whatever reason, Politics Daily has fired him. This comes on the heels of Christopher breaking a story about Playboy degrading all women – conservative or otherwise – in an abnormally sexist article targeting conservative women. Christopher’s piece, and the buzz it generated, resulted in Playboy pulling the piece (good for him, no?), but PoliticsDaily, in turn, pulled Christopher’s piece.

If Christopher was indeed fired for his Playboy piece, as seems likely, it’s an odd article to fire someone over. His coverage was tasteful and insightful, and the best kind of journalism – that which, through its coverage, corrects a societal evil. For his working at covering the fracas, and leading a Twitter campaign (of all things) to convince Playboy to pull the article, one would think he’d be promoted. No such luck.

A popular theory about Christopher’s termination is that AOL fired him because of some alleged corporate relationship between Playboy and either AOL, or parent company TimeWarner. No such luck. Neither AOL nor TimeWarner are the parents of, or substantial investors in, Playboy Enterprises, nor is there any substantial nexus between either giant and Playboy’s board of directors.

There is, however, the much more enticing theory that either AOL or TimeWarner are in merger negotiations with Playboy, a delicate relationship that Christopher’s holy war threatened to disrupt. There’s something to this theory, although not much. For one, Playboy is in trouble: it was even threatened with delisting from the NYSE – a.k.a., corporate death. Further, Playboy’s new CEO, Scott Flanders, has made no secret that one realistic remedy for Playboy’s dire financial straits is finding a purchaser to bail it out. TimeWarner could loom large in any field of prospective buyers. I stress that all of this is idle speculation; I have no insider information, nor any real knowledge of either company.

So we’re left with what might just be a garden variety termination, so common these days, or maybe just queasy stomachs at PoliticsDaily, who can’t bear to have Playboy mentioned in any capacity at all. Regardless of the motive, it remains disappointing, and we wish Tommy well.

Update: it’s a cold day in Hell when Michelle Malkin and I are on the same page, but here we are.

When Will We Learn? Never Take Rush Limbaugh at Face Value

There are two problems with Rush Limbaugh’s surprise statement that he “can be convinced” to support Judge Sotomayor’s nomination: first, it’s not true, and second, who cares?

Limbaugh said his  “support” for Sotomayor stems from the possibility that she’s somehow a stealth conservative, who’s even managed to conceal her intention to reverse Supreme Court precedent on abortion from Obama. She’s not, she hasn’t, and she won’t. Limbaugh simply hopes that, by discussing the possibility, he can scare liberal Democrats into questioning the nominee, and potentially upset her confirmation. Call it a reverse-Meiers, an attempt to trick the left into doing what the right is no longer strong enough to do. But don’t believe it.

First, though, we should ask ourselves why CNN cares enough to put Limbaugh’s latest machinations on the front page. The man only matters as long as we let him. It’s a sign of the right’s ideological bankruptcy that Limbaugh is still an opinion leader to them, but he needn’t matter to the rest of us.

“Responsibility”: the Answer to Republican Tax Spin, and a Chance to Vanquish Reaganomics

Since Obama announced his tax plan in the run-up to the 2008 election, the Republican Party’s one and only response has been simple, predictable, and wholly beside the point: “Socialism.”

By focusing on the recipients of the greatest tax increases, the GOP has managed to effectively dodge a more essential and (for them) damaging debate – that of the value and effectiveness of tax cuts, in general. Both the Reagan mythology and Republican appeal are premised on the idea that cutting taxes is the solution to any economic crisis threatening the nation. It’s an easy idea to sell: who doesn’t like saving money? But it’s also a vast oversimplification.

No nation can cut taxes without also cutting spending. For tax cuts to be safe, let alone desirable, the government must cut both, a feat that no Republican President in the modern era has ever managed to accomplish (despite all talk to the contrary). Reagan’s attempt to divorce tax cuts from coordinate spending cuts failed utterly, a fact that ultimately doomed his successor by forcing him to raise taxes. While Bush junior’s attempt to succeed where his father failed is the direct cause of our current predicament, the root of the problem remains in the irresponsibility of “Reaganomics.”

The current economic crisis gives Democrats a rare chance to make this historical point, and vanquish once and for all the notion that we as a nation can live beyond our means. The real danger for America today isn’t that the rich might – heaven forfend! – pay what they paid under Clinton (the horror!). It’s that, sometime after Obama leaves office, we’ll let ourselves be seduced again by the promise of easy answers and $300 rebates. Raising taxes isn’t about “socialism.” It’s about basic responsibility. Or, more simply still, “freedom isn’t free.”

Instant Runoff Voting, and the Course of Human Events

On NPR’s “Talk of the Nation” yesterday, a caller made an interesting point – if Minnesota used “instant runoff voting,” which lets voters “rank” their preferences rather than voting for only one candidate, this whole Norm Coleman fracas would’ve been over, a very long time ago. Watch the election results:

• Franken (Dem.): 1,212,629
• Coleman (Rep.): 1,212,317
• Barkley (Ind.): 437,389 (assume 60% rank Franken second – +262,433)
• Aldrich (Lib.): 13,916 (assume 55% rank Coleman second – +7,654)
• Niemackl (Con.): 8,908 (assume 100% rank Coleman second – +8,908)

All other things being equal, and using these very simplistic assumptions, Franken would have won a clear victory, after eliminating the first choice of every third-party voter (final tally: Franken, 1,481,324; Coleman, 1,403,835). Minnesota finally has two senators, Coleman stops wasting taxpayer’s money, and third parties – and voters’ true preferences – suddenly matter.

Now, we also know that, if Florida had used instant runoff voting to allocate its electoral votes in 2000, by the same logic, Al Gore would’ve won the state handily as well, and he would’ve been the 43rd President, with a clear mandate.

• Bush (Rep.): 2,912,790
• Gore (Dem.): 2,912,253
• Nader (Grn): 97,421
• Buchanan (Ref.): 17,412
• Browne (Lib.): 16,102
• Hagelin  (Nat.): 2,274
• Phillips (Con.): 1,378

No such complicated math is needed here – assuming, reasonably, that all Nader voters would break for Gore (97,421), and even giving Bush all other third party votes (37,166), Gore still wins clearly after the elimination rounds. Of course, this conclusion is entirely unremarkable. We all know that, had any one of eight million things not occurred, Al Gore would’ve won Florida in 2000, and consequentially the Presidency. But play out the hypothetical: I’m well aware that this is amateur experimentation, but it is kind of fun: Continue reading »

We’ve Moved Servers!

UPDATE: Move complete! We’re now 100% hosted on WordPress.com, which means stability, for one, among other wonderful things. To help us rebuild our statistics here, please visit us and tell your friends – we’ll appreciate it! – and link, as our Technorati authority is still split between two different but equivalent sites. Bummer.

A few problems will persist for a while. Posts between August of 2008 and today may not display images. I’m working backwards to fix them one by one – yes, it sucks – and I’m currently through May of this year. All pictures are back on this server, so that’s step one. Step two’s going to suck though.

Also, for the next day or so, some attempts to access the site may fail, or redirect to the old site. That’ll fade and eventually disappear within seventy-two hours.

Thank you to the many readers who’ve stuck with us through epic Dreamhost fails, server moves, etcetera. We hope you still enjoy it here. Please, please tell us what you think of the new theme: it’s a radical departure, but until told otherwise, I think it kinda works.

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Dear users – we’re in the process of switching to WordPress hosting. We’ve had it with DreamHost, their lies, and their useless-but-vaguely-funny status blog! Goodbye forever!

It may take some time for the servers to realign. Until then, keep visiting here, and maybe don’t expect, ahem, “content,” so much for the next few days. Keep checking back though!

I would NOT continue to comment here, as they won’t be saved. If you’d like to keep up with the continuing debates – they are manifold – visit <a href=”http://acandidworld.wordpress.com”>here</a>. You can also go there to check out our plans for what the new site will look like – and either comment on the first post available there, or tweet us @DemocracyInUSA to let us know how you like it! Thank you all for your patience during this random outage.