Kris Schultz

Paul Begala said the problem with the Democratic party isn't ideology -
that we are liberal - but that we come across as week. I agree.
Democrats who stand up for something - ANYTHING - will do well.

People want to know we stand up for them and have a backbone in
Washington.

New on DVD is last summer's release THE CONSTANT GARDENER. I highly recommend you see it. It's a political thriller and love story in Africa based on a John LeCarre novel. Ralph Fiennes has never acted more lovely, and does a wonderful job in the title role as a British diplomat and husband to activist Rachel Weiss's character. It examines what bad things a drug company could do with government cooperation and viewing Africans as expendable human beings.

Rent it.

The bonus features are pretty good too, including a piece on adapting LeCarre's novel and on filming in Kenya.

Digression: ironically, tuberculosis is a sub-theme I just blogged about yesterday (see post below.)

OKAY, y'all. Randomizing is back for a second round. Here’s to the hodgepodge of things catching my eyes today:

Reprise (or is it coda?):On Virginia Woodward & the KY State Senate: What about the basic art of “dancing with the one that brung you?” How about supporting a person because she did everyone’s work to get the seat back open through the court system? Seems plenty enough to me. If for no other reason, the people who didn’t support her should be ashamed due to this principle: it simply was the right thing to do, and I’ve heard no decent excuse to support their poor decision to leave the dance with somebody else.

Reprise #2 (again, or is it coda #2?): Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World: I’ll look it up in time for the next Randomizing™ Here is a new article about Albert Brooks’ new movie.

Don’t miss this article on out of control health care costs. Have you signed this pledge yet?

Don’t miss this op-ed in the NY Times by Nikolas Kristof on eliminating extreme poverty in Africa. Nevermind! I can't link it for you because it's on blasted Times Select. Am I the only one that hates Times Select? I miss regularly reading Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd, much less linking to them from this blog. Please, New York Times people, ditch it, so we poor on-line folk can be liberated by their thinking once again. Times Select, I ain't payin'. It's really too bad that I can't blog about this important op-ed, as it's really good - but Times Select says "NO!" But I digress...

Back to Africa. Have you signed the One Campaign pledge? Just 100 years ago, extreme poverty existed in the U.S.A., and preventable disease once plagued us too. 50 years ago, Africa and most of Southeast Asia were at the same place, development-wise. Now it’s time to help the poorest countries in Africa catch up and live up to their potential. I can’t sit idly by while so many are dying of the most extreme poverty and preventable disease like tuberculosis, when there are decent plans to end it in the next 10 years. Digression: I reconnected with Chantel McCormick, who’s organizing great things for the One Campaign in Lexington. If you are in Kentucky, look her up, help her out, and get involved. More Digression: did you know that if it weren’t for tuberculosis, I wouldn’t be alive? My grandparents met and fell in love while living in a t.b. sanatorium. My Grandmother lived there for four years, can you believe it? So to hear that t.b. exists after all these years and advances in science while being so treatable here, well that just doesn’t jive with my morals and values.

Bill Clinton Spontaneously Greeting? I loved this story and this story about Clinton accidentially greeting troops returning to the U.S. Just the way I think about him, able to hang with regular people, talking about life. He’s already done more off the record talking with soldiers than our current President. Go, Bill, Go! Can’t we election you again?

Another Greeting in the Works. President Bush is going to Kentucky tomorrow – my home town. Hope all my friends back home are going out with signs to say "bring home the troops." I am there in spirit, y’all.

Are you in DC, and wanna go see any of the following with me? I hope to go to them and blog about them: Fat Pig, a play about body image and dating; Eve Ensler’s Good Body, another play about body image & the ladies; Betty Rules, a fun musical about cool women who do great singing.

This weekend I got two pieces of bad news about friends.

First, Staff Sgt Dana Christofferson is being deployed to Afghanistan in February. I am following lots of stories about our troops, but didn't realize we were still deploying them to Afghanistan. I told him I was happy it wasn't Iraq, and that Afghan food was tasty. I know it's still hard for him to leave, and thought that would make him laugh. Honestly, I pray for his safety. Feel free to post your well-wishes here, as he does read this blog. Yes, Dana and I dated this fall, and he is a good guy who enlisted to earn money to support his daughter and to recover from heavy student loan debt. Ironic that congress decided to cut student loan funding, isn't it? Sort of a back-door draft, ehu? Anyway, Dana would appreciate your well wishes.

Second, my dear friend Virginia Woodward, the woman who has been fighting for the 37th State Senate District seat in Kentucky for the past year, was by-passed in support of Perry Clark, a Lyndon LaRouche supporting wacko! Yes, it's true - party hacks in my home district of Louisville's South End chose a wacko over a decent woman. This fact isn't in his press clippings, but it's true. When I worked for Al Gore's campaign for President in Kentucky, Perry Clark filed to support LaRouche for President. I saw the signed affidavits myself. They absolutely chose the wrong person, and the decision represents everything I hate about politics. No wonder we lose elections in Kentucky.

I just left a showing of this new movie - Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World - at a premier hosted by the Center for American Progress. Albert Brooks, the writer, director and lead actor in the film, did a lovely job of addressing a range of American assumptions about Muslims,
India, Pakistan, and diplomatic relations. But really, it's a funny movie. Senator Fred Thompson is in it. Go see it.

If you are in DC, and aren't going to events hosted by John Podesta's Center for American Progress, you ought to be. They have a range of events, and I've attended a handful of them. It's egalitarian, too. They open up their attendance to anyone who gets the emails, and it's usually first come, first serve. Senator John Kerry, Paul Begala and Grover Norquist were all there, a few rows behind me and a bunch of regular DC folks at the Regal Gallery Place 14 . It's a lovely roster of events that CAP hosts, and I urge you to join me in the future.

Go see Albert Brooks' film too.

So, here are famed friends (left to right) Oh Tannenbaum, Jeff Pittman,
and Erik Norby. Seems they only gather once a year, but boy do they
make the best of it.

Former U.S. Secretaries of State and defense gathered at the White House yesterday, a full three years after invading Iraq . Finally, the White House feigns interest in the opinions of others outside that cabal.

And who has the ovaries in the room? The only woman in the room, of course - Madeleine K. Albright, Secretary of State under President William J. Clinton. Oh wait... I forgot about Condi. Opps.... I should rephrase... who has the ovaries in the room to stand up to the President about his poor leadership? MKA!

Her best quote from the Washington Post: "I feel very strongly it is wrong to say something publicly critical of the president and then don't say it to his face," she said. "I said this was a war of choice, not necessity. But getting it right is a necessity and not a choice."

Best NY Times quote about her comments during the meeting: His predecessor, Madeleine K. Albright, a bit stirred up after hearing an exceedingly upbeat 40-minute briefing to 13 former secretaries of state and defense about how well things are going in Iraq, asked President Bush whether, with the war "taking up all the energy" of his foreign policy team, he had let the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea spin out of control and allowed Latin America and China policy suffer by neglect.

So, total digression - why do we still say so-and-so "has balls" or "has big balls" when clearly that is a male-only reference? I think we should start gender-appropriate application of such comments - and apply the ovary comments to comparative analogies by gender. That's why I titled this as I did. SHE HAS BIG OVARIES! That means she's strong! If that shocks you - rethink the "big balls" comments before you use them again. Want more proof of cheesy sexism in our analogies of gender bias & adjectives for talent? Read the Gil Cates quote about testosterone & Jon Steward's hiring as Oscar Host. I am thrilled they picked Jon, and his quote in this article is charming... but, come on, Gil! Testosterone???

....so I wanted to pass on some information I'd remember working with last year at the UFCW about Worker's Memorial Day. It's astounding how many people die doing their jobs. I doubt this counts the members of the U.S. military, but I think of them a lot too. I'll be praying for all of them today. But, here you go, an interesting excerpt about a good tradition created at the AFL-CIO:

Decades of struggle by workers and their unions have resulted in
significant improvements in working conditions. But the toll of workplace
injuries, illnesses and deaths remains enormous. Each year more than 56,000
workers die from job injuries and illnesses and another 6 million are injured. The unions of the AFL-CIO remember these workers on April 28, Workers Memorial Day.