Obama and the media's faux populist heart

They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

-Barack Obama

In case you missed it, (but how could you?) the media is a flutter with the above perceived swipe at the working class folks of PA. Certainly a bit of a blunt assessment for Obama who is usually more nuanced, but why the dust up? for whom (insert McCain/Clinton/wingnuttery)? I mean it has become so absurd that Bill Kristol, with an assist from Joe Lieberman is using the “M” word in questioning Obama’s remarks.

Please, is this all they have left to resort to? Red baiting? Is Obama so far off the mark? Doesn’t economic hardship lead to reactionary beliefs? A loss of hope and reliance in leadership? Isn’t this the neo-con argument regarding the spread of Islamism?

These comments are not a big deal and they are not off base in my opinion. I see the transformation of “back home” over the last 20 years. I’m not saying there is a one to one relationship between economic hardship and the type of church you attend, but in many cases it is a factor. The role of church in rural communities is very complex and the Obama comments at worst are a bit tone deaf, but hardly indicate some lack of empathy on his part.

Let’s look at the broader issue here instead of the media’s caricature of the quote – Rachel Maddow excluded of course.

Thomas Frank’s “What’s the Matter with Kansas” looked at the trend of Republican policies over the years, and the impact on the working class.

What we are observing, then, is a populist movement that has done irreversible harm to the material interests of the common people it professes to love so tenderly-a form of class animosity that rages against a shadowy "elite" while enthroning a new aristocracy of bankers, brokers, and corporate thieves.

Obsidian Wings takes this up quite well with the recent Obama PA comments.

From Obsidian Wings:

While his theory may not adequately explain why working class people support Republican cultural policies, it’s far more persuasive in explaining why they support Republican economic policies.

To back up, Frank’s argument is more complex than I suggested in that there are various potential ways to understand it. First, he could be arguing that working class culture is determined by economics. Under this view, religious zeal is actually caused by economic hardship. This is closer to the traditional Marxist view, but I don’t think either Obama or Frank is making this argument. In any event, I think it’s wrong.

The second potential argument is more interesting. It’s not that economics causes the culture wars, but that the culture wars are distractions from economic issues. This one hits far closer to the mark. There’s no doubt that Republicans fan the culture war flames to distract working class voters from other issues.

This “distraction” argument is the one Democrats use the most often, but it too has weaknesses. In particular, it’s not clear why cultural issues should play second fiddle to economic ones. Objectively speaking, economic issues don't necessarily have more value than cultural ones. Sure, most of these cultural grievances seem silly to me, but I drink steamed milk with espresso (sometimes even with delectable pumpkin spices) so what do I know. But seriously, if I thought abortion was truly murder, then marginal tax rates would be a lower priority.

That leads to the third potential argument, which is Frank’s strongest — and the one most damning to working class Republicans. To repeat, it’s not irrational for working class Americans to support conservative social policy. It’s not even irrational for them to support Republicans on the basis of these cultural preferences. After all, I support the Democrats even though I disagree with their slavishness to Hollywood on IP law.

But what is irrational is for working class Americans to support Republican economic policies themselves. It’s one thing to support the Republican Party, but it’s quite another to support its regressive, anti-work, pro-wealth economic policies on the merits. If working class Republicans were acting rationally, they should at least advocate for more populist economic policies within the confines of the party.

OW then asks a crucial question about activism (or lack of) within the Republican party:

But you don’t see that. Unlike the IP example above, it’s not like a big chunk of working class Republicans support the party on cultural issues, yet push behind the scenes for more equitable tax codes or more labor-friendly legislation/regulation. Most are as gung-ho on tax cuts for the rich as they are on gay marriage and abortion.

It’s here, then, that Frank’s “false consciousness” argument gains steam. It’s not so much that the culture wars are distracting people from economic issues. It’s that the culture wars cause people to prefer specific economic policies that they should be opposing.

Specifically, the anger and resentment triggered in the culture wars bleed into the realm of economics. If the liberals like it, it must be wrong. For instance, if contemptible secular liberals prefer gay marriage, then whatever economic argument they are making is probably wrong too. In this sense, the culture wars cause many working class Americans to give their “proxy” to Republicans, even on economic issues.

More on varieties of religious experience at Andrew Sullivan

Michael Kimmelman on the new anti-intellectual fad in politics.

tithing postcards and mouse pads

The New York Times reports this morning that N.Y. State officials plan to offset government spending by levying a tax on museum gift shops. For years lawmakers have been asking why an Alessi corkscrew should be taxed in one kind of shop but not in another. Now it’s official: “An array of smaller tax law changes — requiring nonprofit organizations like museums and advocacy groups to collect sales taxes on T-shirts, mugs and other items — will bring in more modest amounts.

Nobody tackles the hard budget deficit decisions like Albany!

Continue reading at Artworld Salon.




image: MET - Starry Night mouse pad

planes over Hong Kong

I think you'll agree that this video is stunning and well, claustrophobic (in the best way). The short snippet videos were shot from Kowloon city under the approach path to Hong Kong's Kai Tak airport in 1998. I'm unclear as to who the artist is - if someone knows please comment.

the love/hate of French theory

This book was pointed out at Larval Subjects. I'm not certain many camps within the art world care anymore (for some reason) but this could be a useful read for many laboring in the trenches of continental thought.

The must-read exposé of America’s love/hate affair with French theory.

During the last three decades of the twentieth century, a disparate group of radical French thinkers achieved an improbable level of influence and fame in the United States. Compared by at least one journalist to the British rock ‘n’ roll invasion, the arrival of works by Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean-François Lyotard, Jean Baudrillard, Gilles Deleuze, and Félix Guattari on American shores in the late 1970s and 1980s caused a sensation.

Outside the academy, “French theory” had a profound impact on the era’s emerging identity politics while also becoming, in the 1980s, the target of right-wing propagandists. At the same time in academic departments across the country, their post-structuralist form of radical suspicion transformed disciplines from literature to anthropology to architecture. By the 1990s, French theory was woven deeply into America’s cultural and intellectual fabric.

French Theory is the first comprehensive account of the American fortunes of these unlikely philosophical celebrities. François Cusset looks at why America proved to be such fertile ground for French theory, how such demanding writings could become so widely influential, and the peculiarly American readings of these works. Reveling in the gossipy history, Cusset also provides a lively exploration of the many provocative critical practices inspired by French theory. Ultimately, he dares to shine a bright light on the exultation of these thinkers to assess the relevance of critical theory to social and political activism today—showing, finally, how French theory has become inextricably bound with American life.

The Imagined Community in Europe and the United States

Via The Monkey Cage, Jack Citrin and John Sides are introducing a new paper they have authored looking at the current/historical attitudes towards immigration in the US and Europe. Both Europe and the US are confronting historic challenges of immigration and cultural integration.

What are American and European attitudes toward immigration? Do they differ? Clearly, the centrality of immigration in “settler societies” such as the United States — both in terms of the literal populating of the country and in terms of its founding myths — is greater than in most, if not all, European countries. But does this make the United States “exceptional” in how immigrants are viewed?

well worth the read.

see also: European Social Survey, Citizenship, Involvement, Democracy Survey

"Olde" europe still ahead

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has unveiled his new cabinet, which for the first time includes more women than men. He has also created a new Equality Ministry. Pretty good for a former police state. Spain doesn't get enough credit for how far it has come in 25 years. A truly remarkable story I think.

full story at the BBC.


Here in the US - our cabinet is well, still dominated by torturers....

keef

I meet Keith Richards at his office....

the [GQ]interview.

image: Keith Richards in Tonite Lets All Make Love in London (1967) (vertigo magazine uk)

Mesopotamia

Mesopotamia

They shall not return to us, the resolute, the young,
The eager and whole-hearted whom we gave:
But the men who left them thriftily to die in their own dung,
Shall they come with years and honour to the grave?

They shall not return to us; the strong men coldly slain
In sight of help denied from day to day:
But the men who edged their agonies and chid them in their pain,
Are they too strong and wise to put away?

Our dead shall not return to us while Day and Night divide--
Never while the bars of sunset hold.
But the idle-minded overlings who quibbled while they died,
Shall they thrust for high employments as of old?

Shall we only threaten and be angry for an hour:
When the storm is ended shall we find
How softly but how swiftly they have sidled back to power
By the favour and contrivance of their kind?

Even while they soothe us, while they promise large amends,
Even while they make a show of fear,
Do they call upon their debtors, and take counsel with their friends,
To conform and re-establish each career?

Their lives cannot repay us -- their death could not undo --
The shame that they have laid upon our race.
But the slothfulness that wasted and the arrogance that slew,
Shall we leave it unabated in its place?

-- Rudyard Kipling, Rudyard Kipling: Complete Verse (Anchor; 1988).

via grrlscientist (for national poetry month)
image: British police commissioner inspecting his men, Basra WWI

Anna Malagrida

I haven't written about the current round of fairs in NY or thought that much about them now that they have closed. I did manage to spend a day at Pulse and Scope. In all they were well executed with Pulse having the stronger group. Somehow in these events, everything manages to blur for me which is why I've never done much on the review side of these events. I've exhibited at Scope twice and the experience was pretty much the same. My guess is overload but I'm never sure if it is my weak constitution or that most of what gets shown really does look and feel the quite the same. Is it cancellation or standardized multi-style? That perplexes me.

Anyway, one artist that blew me away and has really been lodged in my head is photographer Anna Malagrida who was showing with Galeria SENDA at Pulse. I think this works is wildly strong in terms of concept, history and aesthetics. I keep coming back to Chris Marker/Tarkovsky somehow
and definitely early color works by Saul Leiter. Regardless, the work is very humane and exciting. Makes wish they were my own photographs!

Judge for yourself and enjoy these images and the links below.


Video: Anna Malagrida exhibition at Figge von Rosen Gallery.


images: Anna Malagrida, [via artnet]

a weak dollar IS the policy (hello dubai stock exchange)

"If you're one of the 2 million American families losing your house this year, it's a depression," argues Greg Palast, BBC investigative journalist, author of Armed Madhouse and onetime student of neoconservative privatization guru Milton Friedman. "If you're a mortgage shark, happy days are here again. The difference between the Great Depression and this one is that, back then, everyone was in it. Now, it's a selective mangling. Exxon's profit hit $40 billion, the highest of any corporation since the pharaohs. So how can you say the economy is going down? For whom?"

Palast's point is well taken, even as it is ignored by everyone from the Bush administration to the financial (which is to say, entertainment) media and all the way to homeowners who ignorantly refinance so they can buy that new Hummer: Your life may suck ass, but others around you are sucking you dry. And most importantly, they're crushing the dollar on their way out the door to Dubai, or wherever suits hide in the New World Order's afterlife.

"I'm sorry to tell you this," Palast adds, "but higher oil prices and weak dollars is not a failure of policy. That is the policy. Clinton had a strong dollar policy and Bush hated it. The weak dollar is a way to temporarily hike exports to create short-term pretend juice for the economy. But the weak dollar also made it easier for foreigners to buy up U.S. assets. The capitalists are cashing out of America. They're keeping condos in New York, Palm Beach and Malibu, but their investments are where the returns are fatter: Malaysia, China, India. A weak dollar helps the transfer of capital ownership."

read on at Alternet.

all in The Family

From the jacket

The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power—not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the Far Right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a “family” that thrives to this day. In public, they host prayer breakfasts; in private they preach a gospel of “biblical capitalism,” military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao, Doug Coe, the Family’s current leader, declares, “We work with power where we can, build new power where we can’t.”

Sharlet’s discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the Cold War, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not “What do fundamentalists want?” but “What have they already done?”

Looks to be a must read for anyone on theocracy watch here in the states. Also, and alarmingly,
here is a post about candidate Clinton's apparent relationship with the dark prince of the neo-pent mafia. More at Kos here.

I'm glad that a major news outlet is looking into this, not to single Clinton out, because I'm sure she's playing the same game many others are, but bright lights need to be shown on this topic. too much is at risk. These people need to be identified and removed from the political process.

via wood s lot, daily kos, dark christianity

France slips to 4th in art sales...and why nationalism is good for business (part 1)

It's official, France has slipped to #4 in international art sales and has been eclipsed by upstart, China. This has prompted French officials to put forward a proposal for interest-free loans (up to $10,000) to less wealthy people toward the purchase of contemporary art.

Via Winkleman -

From the BBC:

Banks providing the loans will be compensated through tax breaks for corporate art patronage.

Small businesses, too, are to be given greater tax incentives to buy art works and auction houses will be modernised.

An independent study by art market experts Artprice showed France with 6.4% of art sales worldwide in 2007.

China has 7.3%, Britain 29.7% and the US 41.7%, according to the survey.

Figures suggest the French art market is growing at only 13%, compared with 36% globally.

The new proposal/strategy mirrors programs in the UK and the Netherlands. (see Bill Gusky)
The UK's Own Art program works something like this.

Own Art offers interest free loans (typical 0% APR) of £100 to £2,000, which are repaid in regular instalments, making it easier for people to buy high quality contemporary art and crafts. By encouraging sales in a wide range of visual art and craft including painting, sculpture, photography and ceramics, Own Art aims to encourage new buyers and patrons of contemporary art and develop the visual arts economy through increasing sales, which will benefit both galleries and artists.

Galleries are selected by an independent panel which assesses each application based on certain criteria including the quality of work on sale, their professional relationship with artists, the quality of exhibition space and the knowledge and training of staff.

Blogger Katherine Tyrrell adds more detail on the Own Art program.

The schemes were set up by the Arts Council and, as my post makes clear, the intention behind it was threefold ie that they should:

* enable people from all walks of life society to access and own original works of art - by having an affordable means of buying art
* help artists to live by means of their own creative endeavour and output - by helping more people to buy their art
* support galleries which sell high quality contemporary art - and stimulate local and regional economies through promoting the small-scale gallery network in the regions – with a particular focus on supporting the tourist economy.

Ed's dilemma on the subject and from the comment thread:

But back to my originally stated uncertainty about this. I'm not a raging free market nut by any means, and I appreciate that one goal of such programs is to help emerging artists, but there's a little voice in the back of my head saying there's a longer-term side effect of this that will possibly do more harm than good. Also, I'm also not so sure the nationalistic pride component that's driving France to this measure isn't antiquated in the global market.

If nationalism has to play a role (because that's what politicians do), then rather than put energies into making it easier to buy or sell the art France is producing (which, quite frankly, can be seen as somewhat insulting on one level...the notion that French artists needs a government program to help them compete), why not put the money into promoting it to a wider audience instead?

My take on these schemes is a basic one. If it keeps artists producing and generates a wider audience then this is sound investment for the countries involved. These countries are basically getting on board with what most banks and the high net worth set are already invested in - the new asset class is global contemporary art. It's a lot less messy than oil or arms, and it is a sector that is basically the last outpost of unfettered, unregulated capitalism. Look at how obsessed Dubai and Abu Dhabi are at getting in on the action. There is a lot of money to be made and a lot of structuring to be implemented, which in itself sets up new and unknown market niches.

With regulatory oversight - something painfully missing in the U.S. - then I don't see why these schemes can't achieve mostly the desired result - global competitiveness matched by local business development. That local development is not only, tourism, and gallery growth but also sustainability for smaller cities like a Glasgow or a Rotterdam. Artists stay instead of fleeing which helps real-estate development/ renewal, etc. Let's not forget the arts service sector - local arts storage, framers, shippers, etc. Lot's of potential new business and tax bases, plus bragging rights.

Would this work in America? Right now, I don't see how. The political and regulatory atmosphere is wrong. Plus at 41% of the global market, I don't think the movers and shakers want to rock the very lucrative boat they are in.

The real question isn't the economics which seem quite timely, but how will it impact the making of art in the 21st century? How (by whom) will the new audience/owner be cultivated into owning? Can a lifetime commitment to collecting be articulated through these schemes? Or will this new demo-graphic's approach resemble buying a car? Will a new class structure arise within the gallery system/network where these subsidy schemes are in play? Will it create a new aesthetics regime?
What role will the university play in all of this?

Big questions, which also lead to a very large and somewhat en vogue notion of the economics of
national pride. This is particularly applicable for France, England and China. Sorry, just not convinced America sees its global identity in art terms. However, the truth is that no matter the nation, as nationalism grows so does a nation's wealth. Something to think on.


More on the economics of nationalism in a following post.



links: Winkleman, Gusky, BBC, and Artprice

Amnesty International takes aim at Beijing

The text reads: “In the name of ensuring stability and harmony in the country during the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese Government continues to detain and harass political activists, journalists, lawyers and human rights workers.

more here.

seat the delegates - a primary parable

this is a funny dramatization of the Clinton campaign's logic for demanding that the Michigan primary delegates be seated.


via john cole

the artworld is not the world

Indeed, what does happen when there is publicness without a public sphere? When the language of philosophy and politics is used everywhere, at all times, but without referent? We are afloat in a world in which the endless invocation of theoreticians, philosophers and political theorists serves very little purpose other than to bolster the cultural capital pretensions of an artworld detached from anything other than its communicative connectivity and its obscure economic value in an economy of fleeting and faddish desires.......

Pick up any gallery catalogue, read the blurb stuck to any gallery wall and this conflation will come back to you: creativity is communication, and vice versa, and all is well in the world. Whilst there is no doubt a real immaterial practice that corresponds to the happy belief that creativity is communication, it is increasingly the case that the artworld simply is the unfolding of a series of ‘creative communications’ – and that it is in fact quite pleased to think of itself in this way.

continue reading at Long Sunday

Bush/Maliki regime looking irrelevant in Iraq

McClatchy has the most detailed report on the surprise peace deal in Basra yesterday. It signals that Iran now holds a very high level of political power in Iraq - unthinkable under Saddam. Al-Maliki's own party members out maneuvered him and have more or less publicly outed him as irrelevant to Iraq's future.

The NYT notes the irony here that the al-Maliki government is dependent on Muqtada al-Sadr to pull its fat from the fire:

'Many Iraqi politicians say that Mr. Maliki’s political capital has been severely depleted by the campaign and that he is now in the curious position of having to turn to Mr. Sadr, a longtime rival and now his opponent in battle, for a solution to the crisis.'

more at Juan Cole

image: Juan Cole

Surge Breaker

With the cease-fire of the Sadrists now officially over, we will see afresh how degraded things are in Iraq. The civil war will now come to light and there is no catch phrase or false flag to spin around this moment. Links below are well worth reading about this bad development.

Police mutiny at Juan Cole

Who's who in the battle for Basra

Sadr's defense strategy

Iran's doubt's about Sadr?

"Zippy" the mortgage loan

As reporter Jeff Manning described Thursday, a JPMorgan Chase employee distributed a memo called "Zippy Cheats & Tricks," which reads like a tipsheet for beating a video game. It advises employees at the banking company how they can help mortgage brokers jigger the in-house system, called "Zippy," that evaluates loan applications. Overstate the borrower's income, it suggests. Don't mention that some borrowers are relying on gifts to repay their loans. Inflate assets. "Never fear," the memo reads. "Zippy can be adjusted . . ."

There's plenty of blame to go around in this debacle. But it's not overstating things to say that a set of financial sophisticates figured out some ingenious ways to profit from the desires of would-be homebuyers. Along the way, the system of incentives and accountability that used to characterize mortgage lending was unmoored and sent floating away, never to be missed until it crashed into the dock at the U.S. Treasury.

The JPMorgan Chase memo emerged from an environment in which wealth was generated from the size -- not the substance -- of the transaction. If a bank could sell a $600 million bundle of mortgage-based securities, instead of just $400 million; if a homebuyer could be delivered into a $550,000 house, instead of just $255,000; if there was always a willing lender somewhere in the chain; why should anyone worry about the risks?

Continue on at the Oregonian

tip via Kevin Drum

anatomy of a smear: the Obama campaign

White Democrats who hold unfavorable views of Obama are much more likely than those who have favorable opinions of him to say that equal rights for minorities have been pushed too far; they also are more likely to disapprove of interracial dating, and are more concerned about the threat that immigrants may pose to American values. In addition, nearly a quarter of white Democrats (23%) who hold a negative view of Obama believe he is a Muslim. - Pew Foundation.

NOW on PBS tracked this smear campaign back in January - Anatomy of a Smear.

Timeline of a Smear

2006: The first chain e-mail circulated on the Internet contending that Obama is Muslim. (Politifact and other fact-checking websites have been unable to pinpoint the exact date)

Jan. 17, 2007: A discredited news story from InsightMag.com, "Hillary's team has questions about Obama's Muslim background," reported that Obama had attended a madrassa, an Islamic religious school, as a child.

Jan. 19, 2007: Fox News' Fox & Friend First and Fox & Friends highlighted the report from InsightMag in its coverage without discrediting it. The weblog Think Progress noted that Fox even took caller comments about the allegations.

Jan. 20, 2007: New York Post article titled 'Osama' Mud Flies at Obama quoted Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson saying, "We have no connection to this story."

The week of Jan. 20, 2007: CNN, ABC-TV and the Associated Press sent reporters to the school Obama attended and reported that it was not a religious school but a public school.

Jan. 23, 2007: Washington Post article by media columnist Howard Kurtz, "Headmaster Disputes Claim That Obama Attended Islamic School", reported that the school Obama attended was not a religious school but a public school.

March, 15, 2007: A Snopes.com website article titled "The Enemy Within" dispelled the claim that Obama is a "radical, ideological Muslim."

Sept. 16, 2007: A photo of Obama that would later be used as the basis for anotherTime photo read, "Respect: Senator Barack Obama, Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin stand during the national anthem."

Oct. 2007: The first chain e-mail accompanying some version of an e-mailed photo circulated on the Internet questioning Obama's patriotism based on its contention that Obama refused to put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. One of the e-mails read: "He refused to not only put his hand on his heart during the pledge of allegiance, but refused to say the pledge ... how in the hell can a man like this expect to be our next Commander-in-Chief?"

Oct. 27, 2007: Snopes could not find any information substantiating the claim that Obama refused to put his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. However, they did say that the following claim, "Photograph shows Barack Obama without his hand over his heart while the U.S. national anthem is being played," is true.

Nov. 9, 2007: The St. Petersburg Times publishes an article "E-mail assailing Obama's patriotism misses mark" pointing to the original Time photograph as evidence that the e-mail rumor makes a false claim. The article also discusses the new phenomenon of chain e-mails "ricocheting" around Internet.

Nov. 11, 2007: A video from ABC News confirmed that the photo was taken during the singing of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Nov. 29, 2007: The Washington Post publishes an article, "Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him", by political reporter Perry Bacon Jr. exploring the rumors that Obama was Muslim. The article did not explicitly dispel those rumors.

Dec. 9, 2007: In response to "ferocious" criticism from readers and others, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell addresses Bacon's story in a column titled Refuting, or Feeding, the Rumor Mill. She writes: "My problems with the story...were that Obama's connections to Islam are slender at best; that the rumors were old; and that convincing evidence of their falsity wasn't included in the story."

Dec. 13, 2007: Despite being debunked by mainstream news organizations, the claim that Obama didn't place his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance is repeated on Bill O' Reilly's show. In response to a caller who says she's disturbed by Obama's alleged action, O'Reilly doesn't correct her and, according to MediaMatters.org, replies: "I think that Obama needs to answer some questions about his point of view, not only on the USA, but on a lot of things." negative rumor was taken in Indianola, Iowa, at the Harkin Steak Fry, an annual political event hosted by Sen. Tom Harkin. The caption on the

via: Art Levine/HuffPost/PBS NOW

obama gets it right again - a year ago

From Andrew Sullivan:

Obama warned of the impending mortgage crisis a year ago. Here's the relevant letter on March 22, 2007. On this and on Iraq and on Pakistan, his actual judgment simply put him on a level far beyond Clinton and McCain, let alone the current president. Judge for yourself:

Dear Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson,

There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures. Because regulators are partly responsible for creating the environment that is leading to rising rates of home foreclosure in the subprime mortgage market, I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership preservation summit with leading mortgage lenders, investors, loan servicing organizations, consumer advocates, federal regulators and housing-related agencies to assess options for private sector responses to the challenge.

We cannot sit on the sidelines while increasing numbers of American families face the risk of losing their homes.

continuing...

I would also urge you to facilitate a serious conversation about the following:

* What standards investors should require of lenders, particularly with regard to verification of income and assets and the underwriting of borrowers based on fully indexed and fully amortized rates.

* How to facilitate and encourage appropriate intervention by loan servicing companies at the earliest signs of borrower difficulty.

* How to support independent community-based-organizations to provide counseling and work-out services to prevent foreclosure and preserve homeownership where practical.

* How to provide more effective information disclosure and financial education to ensure that borrowers are treated fairly and that deception is never a source of competitive advantage.

* How to adopt principles of fair competition that promote affordability, transparency, non-discrimination, genuine consumer value, and competitive returns.

* How to ensure adequate liquidity across all mortgage markets without exacerbating consumer and housing market vulnerability.

art market pushing your creative buttons?

This looks like a good panel topic at MOMA this coming Saturday.

DAA Collectors' Forum Is the Killer Art Market Killing Art?
Saturday, March 29, 2008, 10am - noon

Are the extravagant prices and record sales of the current art market affecting the creation and presentation of contemporary art? ADAA brings together curators, artists, and gallery owners to discuss the implications of today's "killer market" and its influence on how we look at art. The panelists will discuss such questions as: How do market forces impact the art being made today? Do these forces change the way the public approaches work? How can we make a distinction between art, fashion and design when confronted with the overwhelming commodification of culture? How does one find meaning in art if its significance is equated with its price?

My guess is of course it is if you are visible in that market. At minimum it affects the time artists have to give to their work which is why a lot of things look rushed and incomplete these days. I can't help but notice that Lehman Brothers is the sponsor ;)



image:Holger Thoss

iPhoned

I'm not an IPhone owner, and have plenty of problems with the AT&T aspect of the device, but I got say reading this LA Times piece makes me shrug even more about owning one, in a lighthearted sort of way. Just listen to how one customer has enhanced his life and probably managed to irritate the hell out of everyone in the grocery store ...

Wil Shipley, a Seattle software developer, uses his iPhone at the Whole Foods fish counter to check websites for updates on which seafood is the most environmentally correct to purchase. He quizzes the staff on where and how a fish was caught. Because he carries the Internet with him, "I can be super-picky," he said

Oh I bet you are!

Note :Fewer than 1% of the 219 million cellphones in the U.S. are iPhones, according to M:Metrics. (One possible reason: An iPhone costs about $400.) That hasn't been enough to trigger a broader boom of Internet browsing on hand-held gadgets. The percentage of U.S. mobile phone users surfing the Internet over the last year has stayed flat at 13%, M:Metrics found.

image: LA Times

damming

Some very interesting observations on the surprising relationship global damming has on rising sea levels.

Sea levels have been rising for decades, due mostly to global warming caused by greenhouse gases.

The oceans are on average about 6.3 inches (16 centimeters) higher now than in 1930, when they started a noticeable upward climb. Melting glaciers and ice caps, along with ocean warming—water expands as it heats up—are the main culprits behind the increase.

But the new study shows that reservoirs are also an important factor. Rather than adding to sea-level rise, however, they have counteracted it by storing more water on land.

Since 1930 the storage of water has prevented a total of about 1.2 inches (3 centimeters) of sea-level rise.

Without dams, sea levels would have risen 30 percent more than they already have, according to research led by Benjamin Chao of National Central University in Taiwan.

Chao and colleagues report their findings in tomorrow's issue of the journal Science.

more reading at National Geographic

image: Reuters

moving round

we used to ask what might become after the orgy - mourning or melancholia? Doubtless neither, but an interminable clean-up of all the vicissitudes of modern history and its process of liberation (of peoples, sex, dreams, art and the unconscious - in short, of all that makes up the orgy of our times), in an atmosphere dominated by the apocalyptic presentiment that all this is coming to an end. - Baudrillard

image whiting tennis

5 painful years

Five years of Iraq lies:" How President Bush and his advisors have spent each year of the war peddling mendacious tales about a mission accomplished. I posit that each year of the war has been characterized by a central lie by the Bush propaganda machine.
Year 1: "There is no guerrilla war."
Year 2: "Iraq is a model democracy."
Year 3: "Zarqawi is causing all the trouble."
Year 4: "There is no Civil War."
Year 5: "Everything is calm now."
I also suggest that John McCain is pushing for:
Year 6: "Total victory is around the corner."

...continuing at Juan Cole and Salon


image:NY Times

and who is the ideal Playboy man?

As Hugh Hefner once famously wrote in an early Playboy, his ideal reader enjoyed “inviting a female acquaintance in for a quiet discussion of Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, and sex....

Today we have the Emporer's Club - high rollers, get your art here.



image: Emporer's Club/Artnet

obama mama

"She felt that, somehow, wandering through uncharted territory, we might stumble upon something that will, in an instant, seem to represent who we are at the core," said Maya Soetoro-Ng, Obama's half-sister. "That was very much her philosophy of life - to not be limited by fear or narrow definitions, to not build walls around ourselves and to do our best to find kinship and beauty in unexpected places."

The International Herald Tribune has a fantastic bio piece on Barack Obama's mother - Stanley Ann Dunham Soetoro. Read it and you'll feel better about people. A truly fascinating and courageous person. I can't remember which rightwing talkin nut was postulating that she was some 'red activist' from the '50's - underscores how absurd our media pundtry is and how lazy in their 'research'.

Image: Herald Tribune

for your lil' brown shirt at home

Playmobil Security Checkpoint

Product Description

From the Manufacturer
The woman traveler stops by the security checkpoint. After placing her luggage on the screening machine, the airport employee checks her baggage. The traveler hands her spare change and watch to the security guard and proceeds through the metal detector. With no time to spare, she picks up her luggage and hurries to board her flight!

I can't tell if this is legitimate or a hilarious hack job into Amazon. Really worth reading the comments here.

web duty

image: xkcd

Hillary's Inner Tracy Flick

Because elections are not popularity contests damnit!




tip: Perverse Egalitarianism

but how do I decorate my $900,000 mini loft?

Art paralysis: It is a widespread and often crippling malady, striking everyone from the new college grad in his or her first apartment to the super-rich banker, lasting anywhere from a few months to a lifetime. How many are affected is not known, perhaps because the victims are often too embarrassed to come forth. Who wants to admit that “I’ve had these posters since college, I know that as one of the American Top 10 Orthodontists I should get some real art, but I don’t know what that means”? Or that “It’s not that I’m trying to make a minimalist statement with these empty white walls, I just don’t know what to buy”? Or “I walk into those snooty galleries in Chelsea and feel like I just don’t belong”?.........

Joseph Higgins, a 43-year-old portfolio manager in New York with a $900,000 mini-loft in west SoHo and a house in the suburbs, is one of the rare sufferers who will speak openly about his art paralysis. He blames it on galleries, and overcame it, he said, by breaking free of their grasp.

“You’re going into an intimidating space and having a curator or a gallery owner ask you ‘Do you like this style or this art’ when you have no idea what the price tag is,” he said. “It’s hard to say, I’m browsing, after someone spends time with you in a gallery and tells you ‘I’ll put it under a light for you’ and sets you up in a little room and brings you a cup of coffee.” from Joyce Wadler, The Terrible Toll of Art Anxiety

Bill Gusky has some good ruminations on this outgrowth of collector's 'anxiety' I'm always skeptical of these type of articles where everyone is griping about prices and elitism. All I know is I need roughly $800 a month to run a studio so when people start taking about cutting prices my survival anxiety kicks in.

Obama and the terror principle

Obama during a Q&A addressing issues related to Israel and a Palestinian state

I am not naïve. There is a hard core of jihadist fundamentalists who we can't negotiate with. We have to hunt them down and knock them out. Incapacitate them....And that is where military action and intelligence has to be directed. So all the things I've talked about in the past — improving our intelligence capacity, improving our alliances, rolling up financial support, improving our homeland security, making sure that we have strike forces that are effective — that's all the military, intelligence, police work that's required.

The question then is what do we do with the 1.3 billion Muslims, who are along a spectrum of belief. Some extraordinarily moderate, some very pious but not violent. How do we reach out to them? And it is my strong belief that that is the battlefield that we have to worry about, and that is where we have been losing badly over the last 7 years. That is where Iraq has been a disaster. That is where the lack of effective public diplomacy has been a disaster. That is where our failure to challenge seriously human rights violations by countries like Saudi Arabia that are our allies has been a disaster.

And so what we have to do is to speak to that broader Muslim world in a way that says we will consistently support human rights, women's rights. We will consistently invest in the kinds of educational opportunities for children in these communities, so that madrasas are not their only source of learning. We will consistently operate in ways that lead by example, so that we have no tolerance for a Guantanamo or renditions or torture. Those all contribute to people at least being open to our values and our ideas and a recognition that we are not the enemy and that the Clash of Civilizations is not inevitable.

more on his attitude toward the war on terror

via Kevin Drum

rockin the rock

viva Obama

the best campaign song ever!


via Phronesisaical

st.mcCain

oh boy - button recall.....


image:mccainblogette

the 7 mile march to vote

Absolutely amazing story in TX:

Early voting starts today in Texas. In Waller County, a primarily rural county about 60 miles outside Houston, the county made the decision to offer only one early voting location: at the County Courthouse in Hempstead, TX, the county seat.

Prairie View A&M students organized to protest the decision, because they felt it hindered their ability to vote. For background, Prairie View A&M is one of Texas’ historically Black universities. It has a very different demographic feel than the rest of the county. There has been a long history of dispute over what the students feel is disenfranchisement. There was a lot of outrage in 2006, when students felt they were unfairly denied the right to vote when their registrations somehow did not get processed.

According to an article in today’s Houston Chronicle:

Waller County has faced numerous lawsuits involving voting rights in the past 30 years and remains under investigation by the Texas Attorney General’s Office based on complaints by local black leaders. Those allegations, concerning the November 2006 general election, related to voting machine failures, inadequate staffing and long delays for voting results.

The article adds,

“I was angry after registering to vote in the 2006 election only to be turned away at the voting booth,” said sophomore Dee Dee Williams.

So what are the students doing?

1000 students, along with an additional 1000 friends and supporters, are this morning walking the 7.3 miles between Prairie View and Hempstead in order to vote today. According to the piece I saw on the news (there’s no video up, so I can’t link to it), the students plan to all vote today. There are only 2 machines available at the courthouse for early voting, so they hope to tie them up all day and into the night.

more at Crooks and Liars

regarding the Wisconsin primaries

You have to be impressed by the voters of Wisconsin last night. Despite -11 temps. people turned out in droves to vote.

Total Democratic vote in Wisconsin: 1,110,702
Total Republican vote in Wisconsin: 409,078

Those are outrageously large numbers...

permalance

Last night I broke my personal ban on watching NOW on PBS. Why do I have a ban? Just because every time I watch I get so depressed that it makes the Sunday blues ever more painful. Beyond that it has been an essential news program post 9/11.

Last night was a particularly good piece on the Freelancer's Union and traditional labor.

How corporations are using the designation "freelancer" to avoid paying benefits.

Temporary workers and independent contractors make up nearly a third of the U.S. workforce, and represent a growing asset to companies who rely on freelance flexibility. But corporations are using the designation “freelancer” to avoid paying health care and other benefits, even though many of these workers put in the same hours as their covered counterparts. This week, NOW looks at the effect of this tactic on the lives and personal economy of freelance workers.

We also examine an Enterprising Idea to help independent workers manage their personal needs, including benefits, networking, and investment help. Freelancers Union, founded by former labor lawyer and MacArthur grant recipient Sara Horowitz, provides a safety net for over 60,000 workers, but how is it viewed by the traditional labor movement?

This is part of NOW’s series on social entrepreneurs called “Enterprising Ideas“.

At NOW’s website, learn more about the issue, read personal stories of freelance workers, and watch recent more NOW reports of America’s hard-pressed workforce.

Freelancer's discuss the good/bad of freelancing.

Some additional permalance stories at Gawker

No secret that many of the workers in this roll are creative workers and people highly involved in media/tech fields. Most of the economic development is being developed by people working in these fields and largely done by the growing freelance work force. Global business dictates the short term - unfortunately for workers, that's bad.

For NYers one of the interesting sides mentioned in the article is a task force by Governor Spitzer to investigate fraud by company's that take advantage of the freelance/permanent worker divide. So far in 4 months, $29 million has been found to be unpaid to the state by private companies. Those are profits that should have gone towards employee benefits and state taxes designed for the state's infrastructure.

Of course New York is the leading state by far for freelance union membership. To get a complete 50 state coverage for freelancers is something completely other. Many states have completely allowed insurance companies to dominate local governance regarding health care.

Watch the clips as I assume the majority of artists fall into this purgatory of permalance and adjunct
teaching. Perhaps the freelancers union is a partial solution for you.

475 Kent - fighting to save it

Perhaps like many of you, I have had several friends displaced by the city since the evacuation of 475 Kent. Despite a lot of hearsay, about 100 or so of the tenants have banded together to fight and save their home and in many cases their studios and livelihoods. The NY Times has a pretty good article here on the displacement and the history of the efforts of the tenants to reclaim this lost building into a home and the new struggle to keep it. Remember these are not some random collection of jaded hipsters, but real people- real cultural producers.

And if you are in a fighting mood contact the mayor's office with the following.

Please show support for the artists living at 475 Kent Street.

Online Petition here or write the Mayor:

Please email your letter to the Mayor at:

mike@cityhall.nyc.gov

mbloomberg@cityhall.nyc.gov

___________________

Here is a sample letter:

To:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

City Hall

New York, NY 10007

USA

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

My attention has recently been drawn to the problem of the artist's building at 475 Kent Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.

You are certainly aware by now that over 200 artists are in danger of losing their homes and workplaces permanently - which usually spells financial ruin in a community already subjected to considerable risk.

In the spirit of the cultural tradition that has long prevailed in this great city, I urge you to do everything you can to help the artists return to their professions immediately and to foster our common creative capital.

image: artist/resident Simon Lee

map of the internet

this is what the internet looks like - rather what it looked like in January '06. Quite nebular eh?


via Next Nature

bad news for 475 Kent Ave. tenants

Brownstoner has this new update.

After two frustrating weeks, tenants of 475 Kent Avenue finally got to sit down with representatives from the Department of Buildings and the Fire Department on Monday night. And the news wasn't good. To recap: The FDNY ordered the 200-some-odd tenants out last month after a routine inspection of a street-level pipe led to the discovery of an illegal matzo factory being run in the basement by the landlord and assorted other safety violations. On Monday, with the immediate hazard of the basement remedied, the FDNY presented tenants with an extensive punch list of items that have to be brought up to code before anyone is allowed to move back in. According to Councilmember David Yassky, the list would likely take several months to complete, and that's assuming cooperation from the landlord, a big assumption given the value of the building (which is zoned residential but lacks the proper certificate of occupancy) as a potential condo conversion if he were permanently rid of his tenants. "The agencies are setting an alarming and dangerous precedent by keeping residents of 475 Kent out on these relatively small remaining infractions which I imagine many buildings in New York City also have," Yassky said. One idea floated by Yassky is for HPD to exercise its right to make building repairs when derelict landlords refuse to do so. It's unclear whether the necessary political will exists at the city level, so for the time being it appears that 475 Kent's tenants aren’t going allowed back into their old homes anytime soon.

NOYFB - the work of Trevor Paglen

We find ourselves in a time where the life of the individual becomes ever more public and transparent. This is starkly contrasted by the growing opaqueness of our institutions and government. With this reality trend in mind, We make money not art has a good primer on the
work being done by Trevor Paglen.

Paglen works at the border of art and research and is currently completing a PhD in the Department of Geography at the University of California at Berkeley. His artistic work deliberately blurs the lines between social science, contemporary art, and other more obscure disciplines in order to construct unfamiliar, yet meticulously researched ways to interpret the world around us. He has published two books (Torture Taxi: On the Trail of the CIA's Rendition Flights (Amazon USA and UK) which documents the use by the CIA of modified commercial aircraft for extraordinary rendition; and I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me (Amazon USA and UK) about the secret world of military imagery and jargon revealed by patches from classified projects) and is currently preparing the third one (Blank Spots on a Map,

Paglen's work is fascinating to say the least. The core question being -

How do we study something that doesn't exist? Something that must stay hidden?"

It's a great question for the now. How do you engage phenomena which are only detectable through the influence they exercise on the visible world? Take some time to read the run down of his projects as the conceptual frameworks are deep and extremely current.



images: Code Names, 2005 Trevor Paglen
NOYFB. Fabric patch, Ed. of 20, 2006 Trevor Paglen

tip via Kazyz Varnelis