Words that drive me crazy

Here are some words that drive me crazy, some are neo-logisms, some words which once had perfectly fine, even noble, meanings but are now being twisted and distorted into something ugly.

Pro-active--this is a non-sensical word, which doesn't mean what people think it means. It is used to indicate a policy or practice that is not reactive. However, pro- is not an antonym for re-. "Pro" means to support or favor. When someone or some organization says they will be "pro-active," it is usually an expression of vague intention.

Militant--has become the state of art to describe an irregular fighter for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah or Hamas. It used to mean a grass roots activist in a left wing political party. A New Yorker article in the late 1940s described Leon Birkhead's League for Democracy as "militant" defenders of civil liberties.

Dissident--a while back, NPR described the breakaway violence-prone splinter of the Irish Republican Army as "dissidents." The term that once described brave men and women like Andrei Sakharov who spoke and acted for democratic rights against the Soviet dictatorship is now being applied to thugs who have more in common with the Gulag masters and the KGB than with real dissidents. Apparently, the term "dissident" is used in Irish political discourse in this manner., but that is no excuse for the journalists of NPR to adopt it.

The state of small "d" democracy in Kansas

With the August 5 primary a few days away, some thoughts of the state of democracy in Kansas seem appropriate. An article in Friday's Wichita Eagle predicting  low turnout for Tuesday's primary, despite heated US Senate and House Republican primaries, indicates that there is a real problem. Here are some thoughts.

 The biggest issue, in my opinion, is the restrictive voter identification laws enacted by Secretary of Sate Kris Kobach, but there are others.

Another problem is outsider dark money which has poured into Kansas elections at the last minute with minimal transparency, minimal honesty, and minimal respect for the facts.

Kansas has a closed primary, only one of 12 in the nation.  That means that you have to be a registered Democrat or Republican to vote in the respective primary.  However, the chair of the party can allow independents to vote in their primary. In recent elections Democrats had allowed this. This year the KDP, at its February state convention,  joined the Republicans in adopting the more restrictive policy.

The Kansas legislature at the prodding of Kris Kobach made it more difficult for voters to change party registration. In the past this could be done up to 21 days before the election. This year the deadline was moved back to July 1 and in future elections it will be June 1. If I understand correctly, there will be different deadlines to change party registration and to change from unaffiliated to a party.

CORRECTION August 4: Unaffiliated voters can still chose a Democratic or Republican ballot at the polling place on election day. and thereby register for that party.  That hasn't changed.
  

Kansas Democrats have filed a full Federal and state-wide slate.  In 2010, Democrats had no candidate in the prohibitively Republican Big First District and no candidate in the potential swing 3rd Congressional District. (The 3rd gave Obama 48.8 percent in 2008 and 44.3 percent in 2012.)

Far too many Kansas voters won't have a choice on their ballot for the state legislature this November. Forty-seven seats, nearly 40 percent of the state's 125 House seats, will  have only one candidate on the ballot.  This includes 38 Republicans.  And, of these, only 16 have a Republican primary challenger.  Also, two Republicans will face only a Libertarian challenger.  Nine Democrats will face no challenger, and two will have only a Libertarian challenger.

The same problem crops up in the State Board of Eduction races where Democrats filed candidates for only one of the five seats up this year; they filed for only two when the same set of seats were up in 2010. And, for three of the different set of five seats up in 2012.

It would take a detailed analysis to figure out what is behind this low state of competitive elections.  From what I can tell it's not just a Kansas problem and it's not new.  A 2005 article reported that "state legislative races were even less competitive [than Congressional races.] Nationwide, 40 percent of the more than 7,000 races were uncontested."

Parties can put energy into recruiting as many candidates as possible, even in districts that are very strongly partisan for the other party.  Or, they can concentrate resources on a smaller number of swing districts. I don't know if a switch like can explain the poor number of Democratic candidates, but it is certainly possible.

Campaign finance reform, some form of public financing of legislative campaigns might increase the number of districts with races.  One possibility, for example, has had a system where candidates can get public financing after they show a basis of support, raising, say, $50 each for 100 district voters. Arizona has a system somewhat like this.

Ballot access for parties and candidates is the other side of the right to vote.  On the positive side, the Kansas legislature passed a law allowing out of state canvassers for petition drives.  (It is not obvious to me that this is a good development, but courts have been ruling this way so it seems a positive.)

Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach changed the interpretation of state law making it more difficult for minor parties to remain on the ballot and ruled the Reform Party off the ballot. In 2012, Kobach argued successfully that Kansas did not have to allow voters register in unqualified parties that are active in the state.

To be established as a new political party in Kansas, the group must present petitions must be signed by qualified electors equal in number to at least two percent of the total vote cast for all candidates for governor at the last preceding general election. In Kansas, currently, that would mean 16,777 valid petition signatures.

To nominate an independent candidate for statewide evidence takes just 5,000 signatures.

To maintain party ballot status, a qualified party must get one percent of the vote in the lowest voted race it contests. In 2010, that threshold would have been 6,772 in the Commissioner of Insurance race.

If a minor party gets five percent of the vote in the Governor's race it will become a "major party" and thereby hold primaries instead of conventions.  That is a major goal of Kansas Libertarians  in the belief that being port of a statewide primary along with Republicans and Democrats will give them the potential for further growth. They may be helped by the demise of the Reform Party as there have been several statewide races where the LP +RP vote came to 4.4 percent (2010 Governor) or 4.2 percent (2006 Secretary of State).  Libertarian Patrick Wilber received 4.2 percent in the three-way 2006 Insurance Commissioner race.  With Libertarian nominee Keen A. Umbehr drawing five percent in the latest SurveyUSA poll that Libertarian goal doesn't appear unreasonable, although there is usually a fall off from polls to election results.

Perhaps if the Libertarian Party achieved "major party" status (with five percent of the vote) they might field more than seven legislative candidates they have in 2012. And, that could increase participation.

Perhaps if there were additional parties--a Moderate Party,  Constitution Party, a Working Families Party, or others there might be more competitive elections, a higher turnout, and better state government.

But, I think, there is a limit to the potential of additional minor parties to enhance participation and increase democracy.  Kansas is one of a vast majority of states that ban fusion voting.  By allowing a candidate to aggregate votes on more than party line, fusion voting avoids the spoiler affect when voting for a more conservative (liberal) candidate takes votes away from a slightly less conservative (liberal) candidate and thereby elects a third more liberal (conservative) candidate.   Fusion enables minor parties to influence election results and policy by offering to endorse or nominate a major party's candidate.

 Wichita activists have gathered signatures to place a referendum on the ballot to decriminalize marijuana possession.  This could have the potential to increase turnout among voters who usually stay at home during off-year elections.

The real path to improving Kansas democracy will be based on re-invigorating the Democratic Party, the growth of grass-roots progressive organizations like Kansas People's Action, and a more creative and energized political effort by teachers and other unions.

Country Club 49: long haired redneck

The lead-off song to David Alan Coe's Long-Haired Redneck album, the single was the follow-up to "You Never Even Called Me by My Name" and was a fairly big hit reaching number 17 on the charts. Besides the references to the "outlaw country" movement, it is notable for the chorus which features Coe impersonating classic country artists Ernest Tubb, "Whisperin" Bill Anderson, and Merle Haggard.

I recognized the impersonations, but I have no idea which Tom T. Hall melody Coe borrowed for this song.

Dueling Kansas Gov Polls: who to Believe

There are now two recent polls with very contrasting results out on the Kansas Governors race. A poll from Survey USA showed the Democratic team of Paul Davis and Jill Docking with a 48-40 lead over incumbent Republican Governor Sam Brownback and Lt. Governor Jeff Coyler. Then, on Sunday a poll done by British YouGov polling firm for the New York Times and CBS News showed Brownback with 47 to 37 lead, and including leaners at 52 to 40 lead.

Naturally, this has prompted some questions. How can such divergent results, around a 20 percent swing, be explained? Which poll is most reliable?

The first thing I noticed is that the YouGov poll didn't include Libertarian candidate Keen Umbehr who draws about 5 percent of the vote in the Survey USA poll.

The NYT/CBS/YouGov poll is part of massive national poll of every Gubernatorial and Senate race in every state, with over 100,000 taking part.

Taniel at DailyKos notes

In 2012, the margin of YouGov's final polls favored Republicans by an average 5 points, including large errors in competitive races in Nevada, Wisconsin, Connecticut, and Virginia—all in the GOP's favor.

YouGov doesn't use the same random-digit dialing use by Survey USA and traditional pollsters. Instead they use a panel of respondents, who aren't random selected. In a scientifically valid poll every voter should have an equal chance of being randomly selected, making the sample representative.

Nate Cohn of the New York Times observes:

 YouGov attempts to build a large, diverse panel and then match its panelists to demographically similar respondents from the American Community Survey, an extremely rigorous probability survey conducted by the Census Bureau. This step is intended to mimic probability sampling. But it can require significant assumptions about the composition of the electorate, including partisanship. These assumptions are contestable and based on varying amounts of evidence.

Some groups tend to be underrepresented in web panels: the less educated, the less affluent, Hispanics and those over age 65. You Gov then blows up the under represented groups. So those in the subgroups in the panel, if they have unrepresentative views can skew the entire poll.

Comparing Internals/Crosstabs

Let's peer underneath the topline to understand the differences and see if there are signs that one or another poll is implausible.

 Black voters. One of the more implausible results in the YouGov poll is its claim that black voters prefer Davis by only a 53-46 margin.  There is no "race" breakdown in the latest Survey USA poll, but a November 2013 had Davis up by 65-21 margin.  I think the YouGov result  is implausible and quite likely that Davis-Docking will carry the black vote by a bigger margin.

If blacks are five percent of the electorate, the difference between a 50-50 split and a 90-10 split would be about 4 percent, about one-third of YouGov's Brownback edge.

By the way, YouGov interviewed only 31 black out of 1274, or 2.4% of the panel. In contrast blacks are estimated to have been 5 percent of the 2012 electorate.

YouGov also interviewed only 25 Hispanics.  

Women voters. Incredibly, the YouGov poll has Brownback leading Davis 50-41, while Survey USA has Davis up 51 to 35.

A news report on an exit poll for the Kansas 2012 said that among women Obama was almost equal, while 69 percent of men favored Romney. That is a gender gap of about 20 points in 2012, compared to a YouGov gender gap of 6 and a Survey USA of 13 points.

Republicans.  YouGov, in contrast to Survey USA has Brownback doing exceptionally well with Republican voters grabbing 82 percent to only 9 for Davis. In contrast, Survey USA has Davis getting an impressive 29 percent of Republican voters, compared to only 60 percent for Brownback. It may just be a coincidence, but the Survey USA poll shows "some dudete" symbolic candidate Jennifer Winn drawing 30 percent in the Republican primary.

Independents.  YouGov shows this segment, breaking narrowly for Brownback 46 to 43, while Survey USA has Davis leading 48 to 27. (Independents are 36% of the YG panel and 24% of Survey USA.)

Senior Voters.  YouGov has Brownback leading 57-39, Survey USA has Davis on top 56-36. (65+ voters are  projected to be about 29% of voters.)

Summing up: YouGov has a historical +5 GOP bias, excluding the Libertarian candidate likely gives another +5 bias for Brownback.  Adding in the very suspicious cross tabs for blacks (and Hispanics) and women, not to mention the other categories, makes a strong case that the Survey USA poll is closer to the truth and that the Davis-Docking team is very well positioned to win in November.

Country Club 48: a little too late

Tanya Tucker had here first country hit in 1972 at the age of 13 with her recording of "Delta Dawn." Since then, she has had a string of hits, including 1993 s "It's a Little Too Late," which reached number 2 on the country charts.

Country Club 47: the country side of Charlie Haden

Charlie Haden, the great jazz bassist died on July 11.  He is most famous for being part of the revolutionary Ornette Coleman Quartet.  I was fortunate enough to discover Coleman before I graduated from high school. 

In 2009, a wrote a post on George Strait and Haden and commented  about Haden's then new CD, Rambling Boy

a country CD. Not country-twinged jazz or some hybrid. But straight out country. Rambling Boy is not even contemporary country, the music harks back to an older time, circa 1930s-1940s. Haden grew up in a family that was sort of a Midwest Carter family, making a radio debut at age two.

Here's a trailer for a video documentary of Haden. The whole documentary can be seen here.



Here is a performance of the group on the David Letterman show.



Tom Jurek reviewed it on allmusic.com very perceptively (though it is one of those infuriating reviews where you read the review, look at the star rating --3 1/2--and think I thought he was gong to rate it higher.  I would have given it at least 4 stars.)

This 19-song set features all the members of his immediate family -- daughters Petra, Rachel, and Tanya, as well as son Josh. The players and vocalists are numerous but they include guitarist Pat Metheny, Rosanne Cash, Vince Gill, Bruce Hornsby, Stuart Duncan, Jerry Douglas, the Whites, Sam Bush, Ricky Skaggs, Elvis Costello, and Russ Barenberg, among others. Despite the wide range of players here, this album can only be called Americana in the strictest sense of the term as its selections are new readings of mostly traditional folk and country songs.

On his 1997 CD with Pat Metheny, Beyond the Missouri Sky, Haden included "The Precious Jewell" a country classic by Roy Acuff.



And, here is the original

Country Club 46 Hank Jr.'s Two Liberal Songs

Hank Williams, Jr. has the kind of reactionary, red-wing politics that uninformed pundits like Richard Cohen think that Merle Haggard has. Haggard dud right some jingoists songs back in the 1960s and 1970s, but Haggard has mellowed and evolved. Looks for my "Left Side of Merle" playlist here later in 2014.

The same can't be said about Hank, Jr. He's far more a musical spokesman for the Tea Party than Merle Haggard who Richard Cohen cited in an infamous column, in which he misreads the Hag's "Are the Good Times Over for Good" as the national anthem of the tea party, neglecting to mention that the Hag lent support to Hillary (with a song, no less) and Obama.

In that same column,  Cohen wrote that "People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex" when thinking of inter-racial marriage.  Yet, Haggard recorded a pro-interracial romance song "Irma Jackson" in 1969. Strangely, even progressive bloggers who know country music didn't call Cohen on this.

That's enough of a digression for now.  Sometime I'll do a post on Hank Jr. reactionary songs, but this Saturday, I'll highlight his two liberal songs. (If I've missed any let me know in the comments.

"I'm for Love" was written and recorded by Hank, Jr. in 1985 and was his seventh number one hit. There's a nice touch in the first verse where what you think is going to be anti-union ("The unions against the workers...") turns out not to be in the next phrase. ("... working against their will")



Hank Jr. recorded,  but did not write, "Red, White, and Pink Slip Blues" on his 2009 album, 207 Rose Avenue.  The album also included a song "Sounds Like Justice" which is a paean to vigilante justice.

I'm for Love lyrics

Mothers against drunk drivers, the Pope is against the pill
The unions against the workers working against their will
The Presidents against the Congress, the Senate is against the House
People are against politicians and Im against cats in the house

But Im for love and Im for happiness
And Im for 'If you dont like it, cant you just let it pass?'
And Im for turning off the music, turning down the lights
Cause Im for nothing else but me and you tonight

The cities against the counties, the counties against the state
The state is against the government and the highways still aint paved
The bankers against the farmer, the farmers against the wall
Doctor's against me smoking and the devil is against us all

But Im for love and Im for happiness
And Im for 'If you dont like it, cant you just let it pass?'
And Im for turning off the tube and turning down the lights
Cause Im for nothing else but me and you tonight

The cops are against the robbers, the laws are against the cops
Justice is against the system and some people are blowing their tops
The horse is against the automobile, the bus is against the train
The train is against the jumbo jet and Im against fishing in the rain

But Im for love, Im all for happiness
And Im for 'If you dont like it, cant you just let it pass?'
And Im for turning off the tube and turning down the lights
And Im for nothing else but me and you tonight

Hey, Im for love, Im all for happiness
And Im for 'Not looking for something to make us mad'
Im all for turning off the music and turning down the lights
And Im for nothing else but me and you t

Red, White and Pink Slip Blues lyrics

I used to love this town and this neighborhood
The streets were safe, the schools were good
The mill was hummin' twenty-four seven
I was formin' on the line, three to eleven
But eighteen months, two days ago
The Mill closed down and moved to Mexico

I payed my bills, I payed my dues
I payed my share of taxes too
Now I cant buy my baby shoes
Ive got the red, white, pink-slip blues

I hide the pickup truck in Ricky Browns garage
Over on the next block, cause there's Repo's to dodge
I slip out the back door Lord, I never thought Id live to see this day
Where gonna need that truck when they come to take the house away

You know I love my country and I'm not one to complain
But there's a lot of us that feel like we've been left out here
Out in the rain

I payed my bills, I payed my dues
I payed my share of taxes too
Now I cant buy my little baby shoes

New York Photos

From the 9/11 Memorial

More photos here.

Country Club 45: pedal steel master Buddy Emmons

Steel guitar is the quintessential country instrument, with dues respect to banjos, mandolins, and fiddles.  Buddy Emmons is arguably the foremost steel guitarist ever. He has played on hundreds, if not thousands, of country sides, but is stylistically cathollic, having recording in jazz, country-rock, folk, and other idioms. Here's a short display of Emmons' virtuosity.



There are a number of videos of Emmons performing at Steel Guitar conventions and the like on Youtube.  If you like clip above, check them out.

Allmusic.com has a discography of albums issued under Emmons' name.  Some are worth noting.   In 1963, Emmons recorded a highly regarded album for Verve Records, Steel Guitar Jazz, with sidemen such as saxophonist Jerome Richardson. In the 1970s, he recorded with Lenny Breau (Minors Aloud) and Danny Gatton (Red Neck Jazz Explosion) and, still later, did performed and recorded several fine albums with Ray Pennington as the Swing Shift Band, a grouping of Nashville area musicians who did swing and western swing on the side.

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts Re-ignites Residency Controversy

 

With the Kansas primary only a month away, it  looks like Senator Pat Roberts has "Lugared" himself with what the right-wing media outlet Breitbart,com  called a "Freudian slip" in an interview on radio station KCMO and reported on July 3 in the DC insider newspaper The Hill saying he returns home to Kansas “every time I get an opponent”  and proclaiming that he doesn't measure his voting record by "how many times I sleep wherever it is."

Back in February Roberts got caught in a controversy with an interview in the New York Times

In an interview, the three-term senator acknowledged that he did not have a home of his own in Kansas. The house on a country club golf course that he lists as his voting address belongs to two longtime supporters and donors — C. Duane and Phyllis Ross — and he says he stays with them when he is in the area. He established his voting address there the day before his challenger, Milton Wolf, announced his candidacy last fall, arguing that Mr. Roberts was out of touch with his High Plains roots.

“I have full access to the recliner,” the senator joked. Turning serious, he added, “Nobody knows the state better than I do.”

"We’re not going to get Lugar’d," Roberts adviser David Kensinger told the Times, in a reference to long-time Indiana Senator Richard Lugar who lost a 2012 primary to a Tea Party challenger, who in turn lost to a Democrat Joe Donnelly in the general election.


Roberts fits the Lugar profile, so Kensinger concern was understandable. Roberts is getting up in years; he's 77. And he's been a Congressman and Senator since 1980 and before that, starting in 1967, a D.C. staffer for Kansas Senator Frank Carlson and Congressman Keith Sebelius.   

Roberts made some astute moves to avoid Lugar's fate.  He lined up almost every conceivable challenger, virtually every state Senator and Representatives for an endorsement.  He shifted his voting record from conservative to very, very conservative.

Despite this, Roberts got a primary challenger:  Milton Wolf, a distant cousin of President Obama and radiologist.  Wolf is being backed by many of the same Tea Party organizations and media that backed Dave Brat's upset of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Mississippi Senate challenger Chris McDaniel.  In fact, Wolf has gone on national right-wing shows like that of Mark Levin to back McDaniel and attack not only Roberts, but the state's other Senator Jerry Moran, chair of the National Republican Senatorial Campaign.

There have been signs that Roberts is vulnerable. A 2013 poll, for example, found that just 42% of Republicans say they would vote to re-nominate Roberts, while 34% say they would prefer someone "more conservative."  And, a February  2014 PPP poll show that Kansans disapproving of Roberts by a 38 to 29 margin.

But Wolf hasn't caught on.  The February PPP poll found Roberts leading Milton Wolf 49 percent to 23 percent among GOP primary voters. A June Survey USA poll showed Roberts ahead of Wolf, 56-23 percent.

One reason is that Wolf, though he is sometimes an effective sound biter, has some big problems of his own,which are highlighted on "The Real Milton Wolf" tumblr created by the Roberts campaign.  The tumblr doesn't mince words promising to document.

character flaws, missteps, and flat-out lies. We assure you that the incredible array of evidence below will leave no doubt in your mind, Milton Wolf is not only unvetted, untested, and unelectable, but a completely discredited candidate.

Personally, I hope that Roberts and Wolf have a full out slugfest in the nice month and that votes come to see the former as an out-of-touch, D.C. insider, carpetbagger and the latter as an unethical, right wing nut job.

Then, perhaps Kansas can elect its first non-Republican Senator since  George McGill was re-elected in 1932.  The Democrats have a potentially strong candidate in Chad Taylor.


In a future post, I'll take a look at vanity austerity millionaire independent candidate Greg Orman threatens to split the anti-Roberts (or anti-Wolf) vote. 

Country Club 44: Bobby Womack's Country Song

This is an unexpected post. Bobby Womack, the great R&B singer, guitarist, and song writer, died yesterday at age 70. I remembered that the Rolling Stones, early in their career, covered "It's All Over Now," a song Womack wrote and recorded with his group the Valentinos. When I pulled it up on Youtube, I was surprised at how country it sounded and wondered if any country artists had also covered it. It turns out that Waylon Jennings and John Anderson had. So here is Jennings and Anderson, followed by the Valentinos and the Rolling Stones.




Here's the original by the Valentinos. There's a definite country tinge.




The country tinge was even more pronounced in the Rolling Stones cover, captured here as part of the legendary TAMI concert film.



Here's a little confirmation for my hearing this as a country tune. Steve Huey in the allmusic.com bio notes

Womack pushed UA into letting him do a full album of country music, something he'd always loved but which the label regarded as commercially inadvisable (especially under the title Womack reportedly wanted to use: Step Aside, Charley Pride, Give Another Nigger a Try). They eventually relented ... BW Goes C&W met with predictably minimal response,

Rebirth Bass Band, despite everything above, makes a strong case that it's really a R&B song, after all.

Country Club 43: Bob Wills and Merle Haggard Swing JImmy Rodgers

This is a really interesting compilation video, combining two versions of "Swing Blues" recorded by Bob Wills in the 1930s and Merle Haggard's take on the same tune titled "Stingaree." The tune and lyrics come from Jimmy Rodgers.

If you like Bob Wills and Western Swing, check out Radiobob805's YouTube channel.

Listening to the Iraqi Left on the ISIS Crisis

It's difficult to know what a socialist policy towards Iraq should be beyond deep suspicion of the warhawk architects of the US invasion. Some have formula, isolationist, non-intervention, and revolutionary, that they apply to every situation.  Often those formula seem unconvincing or incomplete to me. A better place to start, I think, is looking at the viewpoints of the Iraqi left. There are four-plus organizations I would  look at:

•  the traditional Iraqi Communist Party (wikipedia, English ICP site, the Iraqi Letter)
• the Worker-Communist Party (wiki,  website) which has provided leadership to  the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq, the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq and the Union of the Unemployed in Iraq.
• the National Democratic Party, a 2003 revival of the revive the historic  National Democratic Party of the 1940s and 1950s, which was inspired from the British labour movement and, while it did not define itself as "socialist," it cooperated with regional parties in the Asian Socialist Bureau.
• the Kurdish political parties (including Kurdistan Democratic Party, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and others.) The PUK is affiliated with the Socialist International, the Progressive Alliance, and the Party of European Socialism.  I do think that socialists should support the right of Kurdish self-determination.

 I couldn't find a statement by the National Democratic Party, but did find information on the other three.

Martin Thomas of the British Workers Liberty group interviewed Nadi Mahmood of the Worker Communist Party of Iraq.

Nadia Mahmood of the Worker-communist Party of Iraq told Solidarity:

"What's going on now with ISIS is a new phase of the sectarian violence which reached its peak in 2006-7 with the bombings in Samarra".

That simmering sectarian civil war died down in 2007-8 and after. But, said Nadia: "After the Arab Spring [in 2011], the Sunni [minority in Arab Iraq] became more assertive.

"In 2013, [Iraq's Shia-Islamist prime minister] Maliki ended the [peaceful, and not sharply Islamist] protest camps outside the roads to Fallujah and ignored their demands.

"Now in 2014, after the election two months ago, Maliki wants to stay in power and has marginalised even the other Shia parties.

"Because of the sectarian nature of the government, this sort of violence will happen again and again. Socialists need to call for a secular state.

"The left and the labour movement in Iraq are not powerful right now, so first of all we need a secular state without religious identity which will give us ground to build. The target now is to end the sectarian nature of the state".

A statement of the Iraqi Communist Party from the Iraqi Letter, a blog associated with the party.

It is truly the battle of the homeland that is now being threatened. Political, material, logistic and military prerequisites must be provided to stop the expansion of this malignant cancer. Terrorism is targeting all, and it has no religion or denomination or nationality, and it wants to finish off the political process in our country and return it back to the days of tyranny and obscurantism.

Terrorism is the enemy of all. Our people, of various nationalities, religions and sects, and of all ideological and political affiliations, should be aware of the reality of the dangers and beware of falling into what Da’ish (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant - Isis) and the regional and international powers standing behind it are planning, with the aim of destabilizing national unity and stirring up sectarian strife and narrow nationalist and chauvinist tendencies.

We in the Iraqi Communist Party, while condemning terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, renew our full support and unlimited backing for the military and security forces, and call upon all the political blocs and parties, whether in power or outside, to meet immediately and conduct an urgent national dialogue. This should consider ways of confronting effectively the forces of evil, aggression and crime, defeating the terrorists, and providing political, material and moral support for the armed forces in the ongoing battle, in addition to sound management of the overall security policy.

See also:

• Iraqi CP calls for Urgent National Conference to Defeat Terrorism 
• Communist rally in Baghdad against terrorism

 Kurdish Parties

The BasNews site has an article on the positions of the two main Iraqi Kurdish parties.

the leading KDP believes that the Kurdish enclave should remain neutral and protect only its territories, including the disputed areas, the PUK claims that the Kurdish region should provide the Iraqi army with military support.

BasNews has been informed that Iranian Agha Sobhani met the Chief of the Executive Body of Polit Bureau of PUK Mullah Bakhtiar. Following the meeting Bakhtiar published an article in a local Kurdish newspaper in which he wrote: “in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS), Kurds shouldn’t just defend, they should participate in the fight”.

 “What we can do now is only protect the Kurdistan Region. The US, Iran and Iraq will hit ISIS and the Ba’athists, the Kurdistan’s excuse for only defending the region will appear weak. For this reason Kurds should have policies that allow them to deal with Baghdad, US and neighbors. Kurds should consider that a federal Iraq must survived this plan by ISIS and Ba’athists and Kurds should participate in it,” said Bakhtiar.

 In contrast 

member of KDP Leadership Council Ali Awni told BasNews that high Shiite marja Ayatollah Sistani has called for Jihad and that this is a conflict between Sunni and Shia.

“Our case is different, it is an ethnic case. Therefore, it is better to not be part of this fight in order not to lose our case,” said Awni.

Awni noted that while other party’s may pull them into the fight, he believes that the Kurdish government’s duty is to protect the region, including the disputed areas.

Horace Silver, a gem of Blue Note Jazz from Senor Blues

Horace Silver, piano player, jazz composer, and creator of the hard bop school of jazz died on June 18 this week at the age of 85.

I'm not sure when and where I first heard a Horace Silver song, but I do know the first record of his I bought.  Sometime in my sophomore or junior year of high school, I happened across a remaindered compilation album entitled Blue Note Gems of Jazz. which included "Safari" by the Silver Quintet. Silver was also featured on a great version of "Bags Groove" by Milt Jackson.

Remainders, for the younger set, were overstocked albums that were sold at a discount with a corner cut off or a notch cut in a side.  So, I probably got it for $1.99 (or less) instead of $4.99. How this particular remainder got to Winfield or Wichita, Kansas is a mystery or miracle depending on your point of view.

And what a bargain.  Here are the selections:

• A1 Miles Davis Sextet - Tempus fugit
• A2 Bud Powell Trio - A Night in Tunisia
• A3 James Moody and His Modernists - Tin Tin Deo
• A4 Jay Jay Johnson Sextet - Get Happy
• A5 Milt Jackson Quintet - Bags' Groove
• B1 Thelonious Monk Quintet - 'Round Midnight
• B2 Tadd Dameron Sextet - Dameronia
• B3 Horace Silver Trio - Safari
• B4 Clifford Brown Sextet - Easy Living
• B5 Art Blakey and Sabu - Message From Kenya

Safari is a nice, well done tune, but it wasn't one of Silver's tunes that became a standard.  He wrote many that did.  Here's one: a live version of "Senor Blues"


Ray Charles did it for his "Genius+Soul=Jazz" album.

Bluesman Taj Mahal was one of many singers who have performed the tune. This live version features Wichita's Mike Finnegan on piano and organ.

Indian Left at a Crossroads

Prasenjit Bose,  a Researcher in Economics, Political Activist, has an interesting article on the debacle of the 2014 election for the Indian Left in Pragoti (a Sanskrit word meaning Progress), which I first saw in the Canadian Socialist Project website.

Indian politics is exceedingly complex and Bose seems well informed  as he presents a mass of data, facts and analysis. He presents a lengthy and devastating critique of the shortcomings of the Marxist-Leninist left in India. There is a lot to agree with in his conclusion.

Serious debates and discussions need to be initiated within the Left regarding the ideological-political course it needs to adopt today. On the one hand, getting co-opted by the neoliberal establishment would be suicidal; the Left will lose its raison d'être if it gives up on the struggle against class exploitation and social oppression and opts for collaboration with big capitalists and their establishment. On the other hand, dogmatic adherence to the shibboleths inherited from the failed socialist models of the twentieth century will only lead to further decay and ossification.

Special emphasis should be given to re-building the Left movement in Indian conditions, marked by an utterly imperfect, hugely unequal and yet functional, multi-party democracy; rather than trying to imitate models from abroad. The issues raised by veteran peasant leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah, regarding social justice and the need to ensure adequate representation of socially deprived sections within the leadership of the Left needs to be seriously addressed. Unless there are more women, Dalits, Adivasis and Muslims within the Left leadership, the neglect of social issues will continue. Most importantly, there is no way forward for the Left in India unless there is a vigorous effort to establish broad-based unity of all Left and democratic forces on a principled basis.

Is the CPI(M) still capable of bringing about this radical self-restructuring and infuse fresh energy within the Left movement as a whole? We are at an inflection point now. If things continue to remain the same and a movement for renewal gets stymied within the CPI(M), the birth of a new political force within the Left will become inevitable. With the Modi-regime taking its shape at the centre, time is running out.

As a decidedly non-expert, I am bothered that Bose, like most writers on India I've read, writes about only a portion of the Indian left--namely, those that derive from the Marxist-Leninist tradition and practice, even as he subjects the practices of that left to severe criticism and calls for a thorough-going ideological reconstruction.

There is another Indian left. The Congress Socialist Party (CSP) was founded in 1934 as a socialist caucus within the Indian National Congress. After Independence, there were various Socialist Parties which had a significant role in the country's politics. Jayaprakash Narayan,  George Fernandes, and Ram Manohar Lohia were influential political thinkers and actors from the 1940s throughout the 1970s. M. N. Roy was a colleague of Lenin who later broke with Stalin and developed a Radical Humanist Movement, which if not formally socialist was certainly part of the left. There is even a continuing  socialist/social democratic strain in the corrupt and family dynastic Indian National Congress (INC) as reflected in the 2013 two-volume publication, An Indian Social Democracy: Integrating Markets, Democracy and Social Justice edited by Sunil Khilnani  and Manmohan Malhoutra.

Let's look at the two lefts. 

In the 2014 elections, the Marxist-Leninist "Left" got 23,525,488 votes (Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India,and All India Forward Bloc.)

Leaving aside the INC, parties which identify or are identified as socialist or social democratic got a much larger vote.  After all, the Samajwadi Party (SP; literally, Socialist Party) received a 2014 vote of  18,672,916 alone almost equal to the M-L left.  

Combined together, the parties of the non-Communist left received a 2014 vote of 91,730,386 [All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Janata Dal (United) {JD(U)}, Janata Dal (Secular) {JD(S)}, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Samajwadi Party, All India Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Biju Janata Dal (BJD)]

Dr. Klaus Julian Voll, former Diplomat, former Director of Friedrich Ebert Foundation in in India, writing before the election on the website of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, the Green Political Foundation. 

European ideologies with their clear demarcations are only partially applicable in India. The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ are not really viable. The generation of Indian socialists is extinct. There is no genuine social-democratic party even though, given the socio-economic conditions on the ground, including the widespread poverty, another social-democratic space certainly exists.

Although the BJP won a majority of parliamentary seats, they received only 31% of the popular vote and 39% with their allies.  That means that 61% of Indian voters rejected the BJP.  There is certainly room for a new Indian left.  It will emerge, in my opinion, as much or more from the non-Communist left as the Communist left.

_____________________________________________________________________

INDIAN NON-COMMUNIST LEFT

Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) is a centre-left Indian political party with political presence mainly in Bihar and Jharkhand. Janata Dal (United) party mentor and patron is the veteran socialist leader George Fernandes.

Wikipedia defines its ideology as integral humanism secularism social democracy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janata_Dal_%28United%29

5,992,196   2014 Vote

The Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) (Kannada: ಜನತಾ ದಳ (ಜಾತ್ಯಾತೀತ)) is a centre-left Indian political party[4] led by former Prime Minister of India H.D. Deve Gowda.

Wikpedia defines its ideology as Social democracy Secularism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janata_Dal_%28Secular%29

3,731,481 2014 Vote

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (lit. "Dravidian Progress Federation"[2]) (founded 1949, Madras Presidency, India), a former member of the United Progressive Alliance is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, India. It is a Dravidian party

Wikipedia defines its ideology as Social Democracy Populism Democratic socialism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dravida_Munnetra_Kazhagam#Connections_with_LTTE

9,636,430 2014 Vote

Samajwadi Party (SP; literally, Socialist Party; founded October 4, 1992) is a recognised state political party in India based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh (UP). It describes itself as a democratic socialist party and is mainly representing the interests of a caste grouping called Other Backward Classes (OBCs)

Wikipedia describes its ideology as democratic socialism populism

18,672,916 2014 Vote

The All India Trinamool Congress (Bengali: সর্বভারতীয় তৃণমূল কংগ্রেস; Hindi: सर्वभारतीय तृणमूल कांग्रेस; abbreviated AITMC, TMC or Trinamool Congress) is a sub-national state-level ("state party") ruling political party in West Bengal.

Wikipedia describes its ideology as Populism Democratic Socialism Secularism

Party constitution defines it as “socialist”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Trinamool_Congress

21,259,684 2014 Vote

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) (Hindi: बहुजन समाज पार्टी) is a national political party in India. It was formed mainly to represent Bahujans (literally meaning "People in majority"), referring to people from the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Castes (OBC) as well as minorities. The party claims to be inspired by the philosophy of B. R. Ambedkar. The BSP was founded by a Dalit charismatic leader Kanshi Ram in 1984, who was succeeded by his protege Mayawati in 2003. The party's political symbol is an Elephant. The party was the third most-voted party in the 2014 Indian general election, but still failed to win any seat in the 16th Lok Sabha.[1] The BSP has its main base in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Wikipedia describes its ideology as Dalit Socialism  Secularism   Social Engineering

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahujan_Samaj_Party

22,946,182 2014 Vote

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) (lit. All India Anna Dravidian Progress Federation) is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, India. It is currently in power in Tamil Nadu. It is a Dravidian party founded by M.G. Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) in 1972 as a breakaway faction of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

Wikipedia describes its ideology as Social democracy, Populism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_India_Anna_Dravida_Munnetra_Kazhagam

18,115,825 2014 Vote

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) (Oriya: ବିଜୁ ଜନତା ଦଳ) is a state political party of the Indian state of Odisha  

Wikipedia describes its ideology as Populism Social liberalism Social democracy

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biju_Janata_Dal

9,491,497  2014 vote

Flawed "Expert" for Presbyterian "Zionism Unsettled"

This week the  Presbyterian Church USA will vote on a controversial motion to divest from certain companies that do business with Israel.  The chief force behind the motion is the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church USA which earlier this year issued a controversial, biased,  and error- ridden report and DVD Zionism Unsettled.

While the study guide has been thoroughly critiqued, not as much attention has been given to the accompanying DVD.  The watchdog organization CAMERA notes

a DVD that accompanies Zionism Unsettled. In an on-camera interview, Irving Wesley Hall ... reports that prior to the Six Day War, Israelis and Jews did not care too much about Jerusalem.

Up until the 1967 conquest of Jerusalem, it was not regarded by any element of Israeli society or any of the streams of Judaism as somehow central to God's plan for the Jews. But that all changed in 1967.

The notion that the city was unimportant to Israel and to all of the "streams of Judaism" prior to the Six Day War is, to put it politely, an outrageous misstatement of fact.

Hall, apparently, has no academic expertise in the Middle East or Jewish history or theology, though he has made a video documentary "Onward Christian Zionists" and written a not- very-funny, 800 page political satire attacking Christian Zionism, which promoted by a bizarre series of videos with Hall wearing a clerical collar..\

A little web search would have shown the Presbyterians Hall's extreme and uniformed views.

In an article on the CrossCurrents website Hall asserts that Christian Identity and Zionism are equally racist theories. He favorably quotes at length from antisemitic authors Jonathon Cook and Gilad Atzmon on a book by Shlomo Sand (Zand) The Invention of the Jewish People,

Hall favorably quotes Atzmon

the largely accepted assumption that the Judaicised Khazars [14] constituted the main origins of the Jewish communities in Eastern Europe

Of course, the Khazar theory is not only not "largely accepted," it is widely discredited.

Hall even writes writes

Remarkably not one of Zand's academic colleagues has seriously disputed his findings. 

This, too is whopper.

Simon Schama, University Professor at Columbia University, wrote that Sand's book is characterized by

many such twists of historical logic and strategic evasions of modern research in this book. To list them all would try your patience.

his book prosecutes these aims through a sensationalist assertion that somehow, the truth about Jewish culture and history, especially the 'exile which never happened,' has been suppressed in the interests of racially pure demands of Zionist orthodoxy. This, to put it mildly, is a stretch.

Anita Shapira, head of the Weizmann Institute for the Study of Zionism at Tel Aviv University, wrote

Sand bases his arguments on the most esoteric and controversial interpretations, while seeking to undermine the credibility of important scholars by dismissing their conclusions without bringing any evidence to bear.

She adds that Sand

drag[s] history into a topical argument, and with the help of misrepresentations and half-truths to adapt it to the needs of a political discussion

Israel Bartal, dean of the humanities faculty of the Hebrew University, called Sand's book

bizarre and incoherent

and Sand's 

…treatment of Jewish sources is embarrassing and humiliating

 Hall seems to have asked the notorious, rabid antisemite Israel Shamir in 2008, well after Shamir had been widely denounced by Palestinian activists Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish warned pro-Palestinians to stay clear of him (2001) and well after British antifascist organizations Searchlight and Hope Not Hate reported on Shamir's antisemitism, holocaust denialism and links to far-right organizations (2004).

Hall is clearly a flawed expert for a flawed group that promotes a call for boycott, divest,and sanction pretending that it is about Israeli abuses while actually being a movement which fundamentally rejects the existence of Israel and the right of the Jewish people for self-determination.

More Resources:

• Why Reinhold Niebuhr Supported Israel , by Gustav Niebuhr and Elisabeth Sifton, Huffington Post, May 7, 20114
• A Statement on Zionism Unsettledfrom Katharine Henderson, president of Auburn Theological Seminary
• An Open Letter to the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Chris Leighton, Executive Director of the Institute for Christian & Jewish Studies.
• The True Agenda: the End of the Jewish State of Israel, Presbyterians for Middle East Peace.
•  Outrageous resource guide, The Jewish Chronicle, February 14, 2014
  
• Troubling Presbyterian Document, Editorial, The Jewish Week, February 12, 2014
• Outrageous resource guide, The Jewish Chronicle, February 14, 2014

Country Club 42: you'll never leave Harlan alive

Darrell Scott's song "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive: has been featured in the television show "Justified" with versions by Brad Paisley, Ruby Friedman, and Dave Alvin. I'm not sure whether Patty Loveless's recording has been included, but it's very nice. Here is a live version.

Dan Gallin on the International Labor Movement

 Cross-posted from Talking Union

Dan Gallin's book Solidarity was officially and fittingly launched at the recent LabourStart "Global Crisis, Global Solidarity" conference. Gallin, now in his eighties, is a legendary figure in the international labor movement, having served for many years as General Secretary of the IUF, the international trade union secretariat of food workers union. Gallin transformed, modernized, and democratized the IUF. Unafraid to break new ground, guided by the values of "third camp socialism" he learned in the American Independent Socialist League, he embraced the organization of domestic and informal workers decades ago. Currently, he is Chair of the Global Labour Institute (GLI), a labor service organization established in 1997 with a secretariat in Geneva, with affiliates in Moscow and New York . In this video, he is introduced by Eric Lee, founding editor of LabourStart.


Gallin has become a mentor to a new generation of trade union activists through his work with the GLI and the Global Labour University. Liza Merliak, an activist with the Belarusian Independent Miners Union, was asked to make a response to Gallin's talk.


Solidarity is  collection of 19 essays by Dan Gallin, the former general secretary of the Geneva-based International Union of Foodworkers (IUF). The essays include two autobiographical articles, three pieces from the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the remainder from the last two decades. Gallin writes about a broad range of issues including the Algerian revolution, the French Left, Victor Serge, Scandinavian social democracy, the international labour movement, domestic work, the informal sector and much more. Often controversial, always interesting, this is essential reading for social change activists, trade unionists and everyone on the left.

In his introduction, LabourStart  editor Eric Lee writes

LabourStart is very proud to publish this collection of essays by Dan Gallin, the former general secretary of the International Union of Foodworkers (IUF).

Gallin's writings over the course of the last six decades are an important contribution to thinking about the labour movement and, we hope, will reach a wider audience through the publication of this book.

In the course of these essays you will learn much about the history and the future of the labour movement, and the principles and values that must be at the core of its existence.

Dan's criticisms of the labour movement, from a movement insider, are often sharp. I expect that some of you reading this will find parts of this book difficult going. For Dan, there are no sacred cows. He says what he thinks.

The independent, democratic labour movement has nothing to fear from sharp criticism. Indeed, we thrive on it.

Talking Union will review Gallin's book in the near future. For now, enjoy the video and order it on-line.