Zorbing – Stornoway (link removed on request)
Folk-pop with a bit of a psychedelic tilt to it. It’s the sort of track that makes you wish you there were more concerts held at Stonehenge. And check out that sprightly horn interlude at about 1:40.
Stornoway are named after a Gaelic village off the coast of Scotland. At least, I think they are. This song came out last year but it looks like an album is on the way sometime in 2010.
Kevin Drum, who is one of my favorite daily reads, has a very peculiar post today. The subject is whether Joseph Stack (the crazy IRS bomber guy) is a terrorist. Now, this is not a question that interests me at all, and I’ve actually been ignoring the debate. But I read Drum because I figured he might have some kind of spin on it. Turns out the answer is yes, but not in the direction I was expecting:
Stack doesn’t really have a policy he wants changed. He’s mad at the government, he’s mad at paying unfair taxes, and he’s mad at the turns his life has taken. But if, instead of killing people, suppose he had been holding them hostage. What would his demands have been? Repeal of Section 1706 of the tax code? That’s about the closest he comes to saying something specific.
“Jews out of Palestine” is a policy grievance. Ditto for “abortion is murder,” “freedom for Tamil,” and “Jim Crow forever.” But all Stack has is a vague and inchoate rage caused by his feeling that he’s been screwed by the IRS and nobody is willing to help him. Calling that a policy grievance is to strip the word of all meaning.
That’s a really bizarre thing to say. First of all, it’s not like anarchists don’t exist. Anarchism is a perfectly legitimate ‘political’ doctrine, even in the very constricted terms that Drum is trying to establish. Of course, the evidence suggests that Stack wasn’t an anarchist but instead was simply a seriously anti-tax dude. Which aligns him quite well with the (admittedly fairly extreme end) of what we’re now calling the Tea Party folks.
Drum asks what his demands would be. This seems pretty obvious: “repeal the income tax.” “Eliminate social services paid for by tax money.” And he’d probably want an assurance that no one would pass the Fairness Doctrine, too.
Drum also calls attention to another part of the FBI terrorism definition: “appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.” Drum’s comment about this one: “Is he talking here about more killing of civilians? Or is he hoping that other people follow his lead and kill themselves, with the numbers eventually getting so big that the “American zombies” wake up? At best, it’s unclear. He’s certainly not trying to inspire civilian fear here (he wants them to wake up, not give in), but beyond that it’s hard to say.”
This is exceptionally strange. The guy attempted to kill a bunch of IRS workers. It doesn’t seem very hard to read into that: “IRS workers should fear for their lives.” In the same way the people who murder abortion doctors are clearly intending to terrorize a population. I can’t tell if Drum just didn’t consider this, or if he thinks that IRS workers aren’t ‘civilians.’ I hope it’s the former.
Now, if you want to say that it wasn’t an act of terrorism because you have a problem with the label itself, that’s fine. That, in fact, is pretty much why I found the whole debate about this so pointless in the first place. Calling something ‘terrorism’ is purely a matter of emotional manipulation and I’d prefer if we could just discard it entirely. But if we can’t, I’m not really very interested in finding out that people are going to use the term to serve their pre-established purposes.
But if we want to pretend there is such a thing as an objective definition, it seems pretty difficult to exclude this guy. Degree of premeditation doesn’t really seem like a very relevant calculation here.
Today’s installment of utterly preposterous things:
– Charlie Cook says:
I sort of reject the notion that there is a communications problem with President Obama. I think it’s just fundamental, total miscalculations from the very, very beginning. Of proportions comparable to President George W. Bush’s decision to go into Iraq.
I just don’t even know where to start. Tell me, Charlie, how many people have died because Obama decided to pursue health care? Also, remind me again how Obama tricked the public by pushing this radical idea of ‘health care reform’ which did not feature in any of his campaign promises. Or how he lied about WMD in order to rally votes up for health care.
Beyond that, it’s worth pointing out that Iraq was a blunder because it was bad policy – even though it was popular at the time of the invasion it ended up being a massive drag. On the other hand, health care is unpopular right now because it’s a mess trying to get anything done in the institutional structure of the US government. However, when they finally get their act together and just pass the damn bill it will end up being a perfectly popular thing that will help a lot of people.
And even if you set aside those objections, there’s the broader problem where we seem to find it totally reasonable for journalists to focus exclusively on the game element of politics. In Cook’s world, the only thing worth talking about is how a guy or a party is messaging, how their strategic decisions seem designed to cater to interests.
Never mind that health care is a massive, real problem that deserves attention. Never mind that Obama’s first priority was a 700 billion dollar stimulus bill (remember that) which very much DID focus on the economy. Never mind that no one really seems to know precisely what ‘focusing on the economy’ would even mean or accomplish.
Look, unemployment is at 10%. I know our political culture has the collective memory of two goldfish circling around a little plastic castle but c’mon. How in the world is it surprising to anyone that incumbents don’t get a lot of good will in the midst of the worst economic crisis in generations?
Unless you’ve got a POLICY argument about what Obama could have done (given the institutional constraints he faced) to significantly change the economic situation right now, what are you even talking about?
Good News – Vanessa Peters
Good news, everyone! Here’s some awesome news about the state of health care reform.
Judd Gregg is coming to the rescue. Yes, you remember Judd Gregg, who agreed to be Commerce Secretary until he realized that Obama was…wait for it…a Democrat. Well he’s back now, and all excited to help us put together a brand NEW health care bill that will get tons of Republican support and help lots of Americans oh wait, no, it’ll drag out negotiations and then receive zero Republican votes despite massively curtailing the beneficial parts of the bill.
I will remind House Democrats once again that they ALREADY have a health care bill. If 218 of them decide to just vote for the damn thing it’ll be on Obama’s desk the next day and within a few years will be not only uncontroversial but will actually be popular and well-supported. And if they do that, you can bet your bottom dollar that the Senate will feel obliged to use reconciliation to patch up the mess they made of their bill.
What else? Anthem Blue Cross is raising premium rates dramatically for some of their clients! Why are they doing this? Because healthy people are abandoning their insurance and crossing their fingers. Which means that the insurance pool is increasingly occupied by sick people who take out more than they put in. Result: higher rates for some! No insurance at all for others!
As Kevin Drum says, it’s a pretty strong demonstration of the need for a mandate:
Basically, any system that doesn’t rely on pools of customers (the entire country, an entire age cohort, an entire union, an entire company, etc.) runs the risk that healthy people will opt out, driving prices up for everyone else in an endless spiral. They’ll eventually opt back in, of course, but only when they get sick — and this is, needless to say, not a sustainable business model.
So, yeah, pass the damn bill already.
Story – Great Northern
Another 2009 artist that I never got around to posting about: Great Northern. Their record Remind Me Where The Light Is got quite a few plays from me back in the summer but never quite lit a fire for me. Returning to it in the past couple weeks, it’s hard for me to say why that was. It’s a very nicely constructed piece of good old fashioned indie rock, featuring some very nice melodies and more than enough oomph (to use the clinical term).
I guess the problem is that it all feels just a little bit too compact. I don’t know whether that is to do with the songwriting, which tends to stay a little safe, or the production. I’m leaning toward the latter. These songs, I think, would sound just that little bit better if they had a bit more space to breathe, if the compression was dialed down a notch, you might be able to grab hold of a little something more.
I realize I’ve started my review by criticizing things, so let me change the tone. When things work, as they do quite often here, this is a very nice record. Driving, insistent guitar-driven rock with big, bold, bright choruses and sonic atmospheres that feel as soft and comfortable as a brand new fleece. It’s panoramic in all the best senses.
“Story” is my favorite: coming right out of the gates with a drum beat that cannot be refused and supplementing it with a diving and swooping interplay of guitar and vocals. “Snakes” is a little more slinky, but offers much of the same pleasure. “Fingers” and “Warning” take things down a slightly different road: changing up the pace without abandoning the scope or precision in layering sounds.
When I reviewed their debut record a few years ago I said they reminded me a lot of the Delgados, and this album does nothing to change that opinion. It’s not up to those great heights, of course, but for a post-Delgados world it’s quite a pleasant addition.
This list could go hundreds, thousands deep and it would still only touch the surface, so you know how much a struggle it was for me to cut it down to just 50. Ranking art is always a bit of a silly process, and it’s even more here, when every single song is brilliant. So don’t take the order too seriously. The real point of this is to give people a chance to hear the things that I simply couldn’t live without, the songs that make my whole world go around – and to hopefully turn you onto something that will hit you as hard as it does for me.
Albums list coming at some point in the next week or so.
1. You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve – Johnny Boy
It begins with the drum beat from “Be My Baby,” and right away you know it’s going to be something special. Then in come the guitars, the background starts to swirl, and then: “I just can’t help believing, though believing sees me cursed…” After one time through the verse, it explodes and she sings it all again, this time accompanied by the Wall of Sound. Before the next verse, the “oh baby baby”s fly back and forth. And then, at the 2:01 mark, the whole song is set on fire. The fireworks go off (literally), and all she sings is “Yeah, yeah! Yeah, yeah!” but it sounds like poetry. There’s the smallest respite as it cuts back into the last verse when the music recedes, apart from the occasional burst of fire and light. The verse ends, there are a couple more “yeah, yeah!”s, and then, before you know it, the song is over, and you realize you’re about to pass out because you haven’t breathed in 3 minutes.
2. All Apologies and Smiles, Yours Truly, Ugly Valentine – Carissa’s Wierd
It walks the line between despair and joy more perfectly than any other song I’ve ever heard. Depending on my mood, it can bring me to the edge of tears or can make me smile with delight. Or, sometimes, do both at the same time.
3. Elevator Love Letter – Stars
Shimmering, tender, lovestruck, and just about the prettiest thing in the entire world, even as it’s breaking your heart. No part exemplifies this more than the bit where the boy says “I don’t think she’ll know that I’m saying goodbye” and her voice comes right over the top, with eyes fixed upward and the purest sound of hope and wonder: “My office glows all night long, it’s a nuclear show and the stars are gone. Elevator, elevator…take me home…”
Any of these top three tracks could easily have been the #1. I literally cannot find a single thing wrong with any of them, so it’s really just a matter of chance which one I declare my favorite.
4. The War Criminal Rises and Speaks – Okkervil River
“Does the heart wants to atone? Oh, I believe that it’s so, because if I could climb back through time, I’d restore their lives and then give back my own.” The tension rises, the music begins to pound on the brain and Sheff’s voice crackles with intensity, bending and breaking, threatening to shatter at every moment. He makes no excuses, he cannot even cry, but it is clear that the mistake of 30 years ago has haunted him for every second of his life since. He does not ask to escape punishment, he only asks that those reading and watching to understand that he is not really any different from them, and for the hope that somehow he can be forgiven for falling into the abyss. An already brilliant song only becomes more so with the final verse, where Sheff turns his eyes back on the person watching at home, wryly mocking their show of shock and horror. If you only knew what you were truly capable of…
5. The Bleeding Heart Show – New Pornographers
It slowly builds until just after the 2-minute mark when the guitars kick into gear, the pulse quickens, they go up one more notch, and then Neko Case belts out “we have arrived too late to play the bleeding heart show” and your heart stops. Every time I come back to this song I’m astonished once again by just how good it is. Just listen to the drums in the bridge, or the guitar riff that transitions from the “oooohs” to the final “hey la” bit. Just unbelievable.
6. Antarctica – Antarctica Takes It!
The embodiment of everything lo-fi was ever meant to be, it exudes joyfulness without pretense and feature a sound so warm it could keep you comfortable on even the coldest of Antarctic nights. At times soft and tender, at others gloriously carefree, it careens through a number of different tones but never loses its pure beauty. An attack by a giant squid, sailors sinking to the depths of the frozen ocean, and yet somehow it retains a sense of wonderment as they exclaim “Antarctica, you stole our hearts!”
7. Johnny Boy Theme – Johnny Boy
Just seven songs in and we’ve already got a repeat artist. This one has the same general ethos as “Bought More Shoes” (60s era girl-group goes punk, makes good) but it’s a bit more contained. Of course, by contained I mean that it’s just a regular nova instead of a supernova. I absolutely adore the little bit where she sings/whispers “Johnny, what’s got into you?”
8. Coming In From the Cold – The Delgados
If there’s an indie-rock Hall of Fame, this song deserves a prominent plaque. It’s everything you could hope for. The bit where the final chorus seems to be fading and then Emma Pollock hits you with “we’re coming in from the cold…” is one of my all-time favorite musical moments.
9. Life Goes On – Modest Mouse
It’s an early version of “Float On” from a show that I went to in Seattle right before Christmas, 2002. It’s significantly longer, with a lot more verses and more Isaac mumblings. It still has the same unbelievably catchy riff, but has a little bit less of the pop shine. As good as the studio version is, there’s something truly special about how raw and loud and unpolished this one is.
10. I Am John – Loney, Dear
It took me several years to fully understand the genius of “I Am John”, but I’m completely on board now. The whole song is a giant, escalating spiral as verses double back and trample on one another and the chorus jumps out whenever it has a chance until the end when the falsetto emerges and it is repeated as a final running-over-itself refrain. Remember that scene at the end of Back to the Future where Doc says “where we’re going, we don’t need roads”? He was talking about this song.
11. Westfall – Okkervil River
Another artist repeat. It won’t be the last we hear from these guys either. Where “War Criminal” is big and heart-rending and and mythical, “Westfall” is far more stripped down. This time, the murderer isn’t asking for forgiveness. The song really hits its stride in the second half as the pace picks up, only to fall away for the devastating final lines: “evil don’t look like anything.” That’s the truth of Okkervil River: evil lurks within all of us and as much as we want to tell simple stories we all know deep down just how much we are capable of.
12. Photobooth – Death Cab for Cutie
This one really marks the decade for me. It’s the epitome of the stripped down indie rock revival that eventually far overstepped its bounds: the literate and boyish charm, the absolutely perfect pop sensibilities. I became less and less enthused about Ben Gibbard as the decade progressed but there is absolutely no denying the vitality of this song.
13. Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl – Broken Social Scene
This song just defies explanation. I’ve delayed posting this list several days – despite every other entry being done – because I just couldn’t figure out what I wanted to say about it. Obviously, it’s beautiful, with the sort of aural landscaping that makes people want to reference Pet Sounds. But there’s something much else going on, too. That banjo, the strings, the deeply flanged vocals…and the way it creeps up on you until you realize you’re completely encased in sound and totally weightless. “Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me.” Yep.
14. Are You There Margaret? It’s Me God – The Lawrence Arms
It’s chaotic and beautiful, hardcore and honest, a three minute firestorm filled to the brim with slashing chords and screams and passion. The chorus is out of this world, but the absolute best part is the bit at the end, after the final chorus, when you think that the song is starting to fade out but they come back one last time to punch you in the gut.
15. Third Planet – Modest Mouse
“Everything that keeps us together is falling apart.” In seven words, the zeitgeist of an era is summed up, setting the stage for a record that will delve deeply into our sense of isolation. It taps into the inescapable feeling that, even as the world grows smaller, the things which helped us feel close to one another are fracturing.
16. My City of Ruins (youtube) – Bruce Springsteen
The link is for the version of him playing this song about a week after 9/11. It’s just Bruce and his guitar and you can just see in his eyes and the little quavers of his voice how much it hurts. He wrote it about a neighborhood falling apart but I’m not sure it would be possible to write a better song about 9/11. Possibly the most emotional musical moment of the decade is when he asks: “Tell me how do I begin again? My city’s in ruins…”
17. Title Track – Death Cab for Cutie
The song starts out as lo-fi as can be, with a beautiful little guitar riff that sounds like it’s coming from some deep, dark chamber. And then, a minute and a half in, they burst out and leave you stunned, speechless, and desperately wanting to hear more.
18. The Lethal Temptress – The Mendoza Line
It’s about just barely staying afloat, holding onto the dreams you once had, but knowing deep down that you’re probably never going to see them happen. You know that you’re never going to get what you wanted, but you struggle anyways, to find a way to create some new dreams, without glamour, fame, or a silly idea of perfection, but which will be all the more beautiful because they have been tempered by pain. “Just one more glass of gin before I fall back in to the arms of the lethal temptress.” It’s a devastating song.
19. Idyllwild – Trembling Blue Stars
“A girl whose favorite thing is snow – snow and being alone.” A voice that makes me stop in my tracks, and a line that makes me believe that love is real, and all around us. To listen to this record is to know how it feels to ride on the wind.
20. So Much Beauty in Dirt – Modest Mouse
One minute and twenty-four seconds long, and it’s exactly the right length. It’s about those moments, gone before you know it, but perfect in themselves. The refrain “so much beauty it could make you cry” is repeated a number of times, emphasizing that life is perfect in all its imperfections. The randomness, the pain, the mistakes, and the stupidity, all of these things are intermixed with the beauty, the wonder, the silliness, and the joy.
21. Henney Buggy Band – Sufjan Stevens
As good as the Illinois album was, how astonishing is it that the very best song of the project didn’t even make the cut for the record. Instead, we had to wait until the following year to hear this gem.
22. Black – Okkervil River
It’s full of barely contained anger, dragged along by the beat, the tension building. You can just see Sheff on the stage: his hair is drenched, he leans over his guitar, comes back up and lets loose a piercing “I’d call, some black midnight, fuck up his new life where they don’t know what he did.”
23. The Day John Henry Died – The Drive-By Truckers
Jangly, swaggering, big, boisterous. Triumphant even while it’s depressing. Everything that John Henry was meant to be.
24. No Rest for the Weary (youtube link) – Blue Scholars
“Hold your head high soldier, it ain’t over yet. That’s why we call it a struggle, you’re supposed to sweat.” This song is all about reveling in the rhythm of life, over a smooth beat and insidiously beautiful backing track that worms its way deeply inside you. It’s insistent, nagging, powerful. Angry but honest in its hopefulness, too.
25. Samson – Regina Spektor
A brief glimpse into that other world: where Regina and Samson live a quiet life together, where Samson never tears down the walls, and instead just shares a quiet night together with the girl he loves.
It really speaks to me because, well, given the choice: epic fame or a few happy years of love, I would happily fall into the mist with a pretty girl and her piano. I wonder how many of the larger-than-life heroes of our past would wish the same.
26. Grace Cathedral Hill – The Decemberists
It glows like the porchlight of a house in the woods in the deep mist of a cold evening. They were always at their best making dreamy-chamber-pop, and never more than on this track. I still am blown away by the simple beauty of: “are you feeling better now?”
27. Don’t Lose Yourself – Laura Veirs
This song is full of imagery that could entrance even the most prosaic of souls. And it’s got an awesome beat, too.
28. Rebellion (Lies) (youtube link) – The Arcade Fire
What’s there to say that you don’t already know? It’s big, glorious, sparkling, magical. A force of nature just barely harnessed. It might well be the definitive song of the decade. And it’s every bit as good as the hype.
29. How a Resurrection Really Feels – The Hold Steady
I never really got on their bandwagon. They’re just a little bit too in love with the catastrophe of the stories they tell. On this song, however, the pathos rings true in a way that is absolutely transcendent. They only really have one kind of story that they tell over and over, but when it’s done right it truly is epic and heart-wrenching.
30. Head Rolls Off – Frightened Rabbit
What we used to look for in God we now see reflected back in the world around us, in the eyes of a million hopeful souls, living, loving, singing, dancing, touching hands, writing stories. And this song is a mirror for it all.
31. Fluorescent Lights – Carissa’s Wierd
When he breathes “and I just hate these fluorescent lights” the weight of the world, the sadness of it all, and the harshness is palpable. And yet, you can’t help but just shrug it off. Sure, the world is a tough place, and sure lots of people are mean, cruel, or indifferent, but that’s no reason for despair. Not when it sounds like this.
32. State of the Union – David Ford
It starts quietly and then just builds and builds. What begins as a little folk song transforms into a full-fledged sonic onslaught, until you’re left wondering if the whole world is going to collapse around you.
33. The Con – Tegan and Sara
Tegan and Sara’s definitive statement of intention. A rambunctious pop masterpiece, packed with hooks and synths and unadulterated joy. It’s charming beyond belief, sensitive, swaggering, anxious, and compassionate. Everything you could ask for.
34. Spectacular Views – Rilo Kiley
It’s a huge, overwhelming song, surrounded by fireworks, and sweepingly anthemic. It’s all wide-eyed innocence, full of light and joy, until about 2 and a half minutes in, when she just lets it all go: “It’s so fucking beautiful!” And in that moment, everything in the universe makes sense. That’s just all there is to it.
35. Source Tags and Codes – And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
Perhaps the best album closer of the decade. It rises above the noise and chaos, like some sort of glorious rock and roll city on the hill.
36. Next Exit – Interpol
I love this track so much in part because it’s a bit of a break from their usual sound. The doo-wop beat elevates the typical sort of dark and woozy Interpol ethos into something far more beautiful.
37. People Got A Lotta Nerve – Neko Case
Everyone knows how good a singer she is – and you get a nice dose of that here – but this song is really elevated by the interplay between that silvery voice and the jangly guitar. It just makes you ache inside it’s so beautiful.
38. Balcony – Birdmonster
I love this whole song, but it’s this high on the list for one reason: at roughly 4:15 when they come back to the chorus. It’s like the whole thing has been building to that one single moment. It’s a climax to end all climaxes.
39. Portions for Foxes – Rilo Kiley
It bursts out at you, knocks you over with the guitar riff. It’s a song about physical (and emotional) need, the joy of another person, and the realization that we’re all a little lonely, all a little messed up, and maybe that’s just okay. At the end when she repeats “but you’re bad news” over and over before concluding “I don’t care I like you,” you realize that it might just be enough. There’s no perfection, but there is something to be said for just getting by.
40. Let’s Get Out of This Country – Camera Obscura
I absolutely adore this song. It deserves to be played on a sunny day when you throw all your cares to the wind and just enjoy yourself.
41. Zolpidem – The Sinister Turns
Beautiful, funny, intelligent, and full of enough pop charm to make the even the hardest heart blush. It’s irresistible in the way only the very best songs can manage – where you can hear two seconds and instantly need to listen to the whole thing.
42. Subtle Changes – Sambassadeur
That galloping beat! Those soaring strings! That voice that wraps around you like your favorite blanket on a cold winter morning. This is a song to be treasured, to be listened to on repeat as you begin the long task of healing a broken heart. It’s the kind of song that reassures you – any world that contains something so beautiful can’t be all bad.
43. Night on the Sun – Modest Mouse
Isaac’s voice is in fine form – for all the lispiness the guy really could sing back in the day. Particularly on the “hopelessly hopeless, I hope so…for you” bit. But this song makes the list for the guitar work, which might be my favorite from any Modest Mouse song. It builds up languidly, but insistently. But then you get the instrumental section starting at about 3 minutes where it rings like the bells of God.
44. New Slang (youtube link) – The Shins
It would be almost impossible for a song to live up to the hype that this one got, but somehow it just about manages. I mean, of all the indie songs that could change your life, “New Slang” has to be pretty high on the list, wouldn’t you agree?
45. Modern Girl – Sleater-Kinney
It’s probably not their best song or anything, but it’s the one that I just can’t help but return to. One of the prettiest songs you’re ever likely to hear, but it would also win a bar fight with just about any other track in recent years.
46. Reason to Believe – Aimee Mann and Michael Penn
A great Springsteen song, made even better when covered by Aimee Mann and Michael Penn. The harmony created by the two singers gets at the heart of the song in a way that Bruce, by himself, simply cannot. The connection, the perfect interlinking of voices, is the ideal for which we strive. When the song is simply Bruce by himself, it feels like a simple song about a few people. With Mann and Penn together, it still feels incredibly personal, but it also hints at something a little broader, where we all take part.
47. Calendar Girl – Stars
This song is all about Amy Millan, owner of one of the most exhilarating voices on the planet. It’s the second verse that really does it to me. “I dreamed I was dying as I so often do…”
48. Parking Lot – The Coathangers
Sleater-Kinney meets The Replacements. Featuring the best scream of the decade.
49. Drunk With the Only Saints I Know – Carissa’s Wierd
Sometimes you just wanted to pound your hands against the unseen walls, rattle the bars, do something to make people understand what they were missing. We made mixtapes and CDs for friends, including a track from them on every one. At every chance we casually put on “Fluorescent Lights” or “The Color That Your Eyes Changed With the Color of Your Hair” or “Drunk With the Only Saints I Know” and hoped someone would (High Fidelity style) ask what was playing. Because we just knew deep down that if we could ever get people to take the time to truly listen it would all solidify, become as perfectly clear in their minds as it was in ours.
50. Marrow – Ani DiFranco
Her best work was in the 90s but Ani had quite a few great songs this decade, too. And none better than this one, which goes bigger and brighter than pretty much anything else she’s done.
Honorable mentions:
Piazza, New York Catcher – Belle and Sebastian
Paper Planes – M.I.A.
On Marriage – The Six Parts Seven (with Carissa’s Wierd)
This Song Is You – Antarctica Takes It!
The Velocity of Saul at the Time of His Conversion – Okkervil River
Taxi Ride – Tori Amos
No Children – Mountain Goats
Oh, Susquehanna! – Defiance, Ohio
Come On! Feel the Illinoise! – Sufjan Stevens
Fresh Feeling – Eels
Lots of chatter from all kinds of places about how health care might die with a whimper rather than a bang, as Democrats claim to still want to do it but just never quite manage to prioritize it enough for things to actually get done. This is bolstered by Rahm Emmanuel basically stating that this is the plan, and by a bunch of Senators (the old, endlessly frustrating 54th-60th most liberal Senators) talking about how they’ve got the ‘message’ from 52 percent of the voters of one state.
It’s worth remembering amidst all of this that the only true blockage is the House. While I believe that an Obama administration who made this a priority could help build up the willpower, ultimately it comes down to Nancy Pelosi and her capacity to get 217 people to vote with her.
And, importantly, if they can manage to do it, then the whole calculus changes. At that point, health care reform will be LAW. It will be the new status quo, the point of departure which the Senate will have to consider. The question of whether they can push the ‘patch’ through in reconciliation will seem a lot more imperative, because if they truly believe that they’re going to get dinged for some of the garbage they tossed into the Senate bill, then they will sure be motivated to fix it.
Basically, while House Democrats seem to want to hold out for some kind of complicated dual process where the patch and the actual bill all get deposited on the president’s desk at basically the same time, I really hope they understand that if they make the first move all the Senate’s bluster will get revealed as such.
Remember, once again, that back in the pre 1/19 days the relevant parties had all pretty much agreed to the various deals – and 60 Senators were set to vote for the revised bill. As much as people would like to think that Scott Brown ‘changed everything’ the mechanics of the deal are just as workable now as they were then.
Dems right now should be thinking about FDR. The only thing (well, the primary thing) they have to fear is fear itself. If they’re too terrified to govern, then they can go into November looking like a party too terrified to govern. Let’s see how that goes…
Anyone Else – Emily Long
Sometimes you just want to drive with the windows down and the radio up high. There’s a certain type of song that fits that mood. Sunny, bright, a little nostalgic, and totally unselfconscious.
This is a song like that. Sounding like it could have come right out of the 80s, “Anyone Else” is nobody’s idea of an uber-sophisticated track. But it makes no claims to be. What you will get is a nice little slice of Blondie/Benatar inspired rock and roll.
And sometimes, that’s all you really need.
The album is When I Was in Love With.
Burn, Don’t Freeze – Sleater Kinney
Ugh. So the new big thing on the Democratic block is…wait for it…a spending freeze. That’s just swell.
Setting aside all the good arguments about ceding the framing of this stuff to the right (which I think are valid, but occasionally overstated), there’s the basic problem that this is PRECISELY the sort of gooey ‘we should do something but we can’t really say exactly what’ sort of approach that has generated so much trouble with the other big legislative items.
There is a strong case to be made for the hands-off approach on health care. The lesson from Clinton was definitely to avoid micro-managing the process. Many would say Obama went too far in this direction, but that’s not really the issue here. The important thing with health care was getting health care. There were lots of debates at the margins but there was some pretty core agreements on the central stuff.
This spending freeze though, is NOT good policy in all of its possible permutations. If spending cuts means agricultural subsidies, then great. It sends a signal about long-term fiscal discipline and eliminates some pretty wasteful spending. However, that’s not what Obama is proposing. Instead, he’s just asking for a target but leaving it to Congress to sort out the details.
What exactly about Congress makes us think they’ll make sound policy decisions when choosing what to cut? Not only are the individual members not known for covering themselves in wonkish glory, the institutional structure (which has been a pretty common concern lately, for those of you who have been living on a filibusterless moon for the past few years) is basically designed to ensure decisions get made according to the whims of the rich and powerful.
When you combine all that with the fact that Obama has ALREADY taken off the table cuts to defense, homeland security, and entitlements…well, you’ve got a recipe for stupid, stupid policy. As Nate Silver points out, there’s every chance that it will poll well in the short term, but the fact that it a) makes no damn sense and b) is probably going to end up so broken and battered by the legislative process (remember the thing that convinced everyone they hated health care reform?) that it will be a long term drag.
All of which drives me ever closer to completely abandoning my “Obama is smart and is doing a good job with a bad situation” arguments. This is terrible idea in terms of policy, and it really isn’t very good politics either. It’s a panicky, ridiculous faux-move designed to appeal to the .000001% of the population who resides on editorial boards of newspapers, and it makes no sense. It’s also seriously depressing. Not least because there’s a strong implication that they’re working on this pile of poop rather than putting up a fight on health care.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see how much effort Obama puts into making the case for health care in the state of the union tonight.
A Meaningful Moment Through a Meaning(less) Process – Stars of the Lid
Karen Tumulty says:
The deal now known as the “Cornhusker Kickback” may have been one of the biggest blunders in modern political history. Normally, you’d be surprised if people in Massachusetts even know who the Senator from Nebraska is. But the number of people I talked to who brought up Ben Nelson’s name, unprompted, was striking. I’m also told, by some who were doing phonebanking, that they got an earful about it over and over.
This struck me as profoundly mistaken when I first read it, but I couldn’t quite articulate the problem. I’m positive that plenty of people were complaining about the Nebraska thing, and I have no doubt that it generated a narrative that was toxic for the Democrats.
I had the impulse to just make this a dig at the media. Namely, the only reason why this ended up being a Big Deal is because the media decided that it was going to be one. This sort of legislative dealing is totally commonplace and they were already working on a patch to give the Nebraska deal to everyone when the final bill came out.
That’s all true, but it doesn’t quite grasp the deeper issue. Fortunately, Jonathan Bernstein wrote exactly what was fluttering in the back of my mind but couldn’t quite find a way out:
Tumulty says that “[t]he deal now known as the “Cornhusker Kickback” may have been one of the biggest blunders in modern political history.” What that misses is that if it wasn’t Nelson’s deal that the talk radio yakkers were gabbing about, it would have been the deal with Louisiana, or if not that then perhaps it would be death panels, or something else.
Here’s the point: Politics, in one respect, has really changed over the last two decades. Both parties, but especially the Republicans, now have highly efficient ways to get their talking points out to the rank-and-file, without confusing things by also informing them of the larger context. That’s really different than things were in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Back then, politically attentive people would watch the network news and the local news and look at the occasional newspaper, and maybe Time or Newsweek, and on top of that they would also be exposed to party talking points. Now, to a great extent, people’s only exposure to the news may consist of the party’s talking points (again, especially on the Republican side). So the old job of finding out how well those talking points are resonating by hearing whether ordinary folks use them to talk about politics is no longer a useful task. Increasingly, the only language to which people — once again, especially Republicans — are exposed is those talking points. For a Rush/Beck listener, there isn’t another language available to discuss the health care bill.
Quoted at length because, well, it’s smart and I think it’s spot-on I disagree to some extent that this is a particularly new phenomenon. You can see a variation on this in Douglas Arnold’s Logic of Congressional Action – which is 20 years old at this point. Some of his essential points were based on the idea that what people say they’re voting for is a lot different than what actually drives their vote, and the content of the spin matters a lot less than it’s style. But there’s no denying that this process is a lot more developed now than ever before.
What does this mean for health care reform? Well, it’s just another example of the general point I’ve been making for a long time. The legislative process is slow, arduous, and poisonous to the policies that are run through it. All of which makes it difficult to get things done. But the REAL problem is how this gets portrayed.
When the story is constantly about which group is being forced to sacrifice, which deal of the week is getting spun as toxic, and process public opinion is ALWAYS going to shift against the underlying policy. The public sphere is simply not a place where ideas get debated in the abstract. They are pushed and pulled by deep and powerful interests. In our current context, those interests are predominantly framed through the lens of the talking points Bernstein talks about.
All of which means that the longer things drag on, the less disposed people will be to the policy – not because of an intrinsic and a priori opinion, but because opinions are far more malleable than we’d like to believe.
The “process” story is fascinating in the moment, but has relatively little long-term pull. Even more, process stories only ever drive opinion in one direction: down. No one votes for a party because they’re honest and fair and use nice process, but they vote AGAINST what they perceive as corrupt or illegitimate all the time.
The effect: a bunch of weak-willed Democrats appear to be on the verge of falling into the trap I warned about quite a while ago. At the moment of the final push across the goal line for health care, it’s not going to be popular. It never was. This is not unexpected. It’s how the system works. The way you deal with it is, you just pass the bill anyways and you wait for the overwhelming majority of process critics to move onto some new shiny thing.
If you don’t think that the American people actually want health care reform, then WTF are you doing as a Democrat anyways?
