The new Harry Potter comes out at midnight and I am very excited. For those of you that don’t like Harry, I can only say, with all sincerity, “Bite me.”

(Ever notice that people who don’t like the books haven’t read them?)

The dorky English Major in me would love to write a paper about why the books resonate so much a la Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.

I went to work this morning but they sent me home. They still haven’t set up my computer from the move to the new office and it wouldn’t be a great idea to put me on the phones since I sound like Demi Moore after smoking a carton of reds. So, I am taking another sick day. The fever broke this morning but I am still attempting to remove internal organs from the force of my coughing.

No Comments »

Karl Rove’s America

By PAUL KRUGMAN

John Gibson of Fox News says that Karl Rove should be given a medal. I agree: Mr. Rove should receive a medal from the American Political Science Association for his pioneering discoveries about modern American politics. The medal can, if necessary, be delivered to his prison cell.

What Mr. Rove understood, long before the rest of us, is that we’re not living in the America of the past, where even partisans sometimes changed their views when faced with the facts. Instead, we’re living in a country in which there is no longer such a thing as nonpolitical truth. In particular, there are now few, if any, limits to what conservative politicians can get away with: the faithful will follow the twists and turns of the party line with a loyalty that would have pleased the Comintern.

I first realized that we were living in Karl Rove’s America during the 2000 presidential campaign, when George W. Bush began saying things about Social Security privatization and tax cuts that were simply false. At first, I thought the Bush campaign was making a big mistake - that these blatant falsehoods would be condemned by prominent Republican politicians and Republican economists, especially those who had spent years building reputations as advocates of fiscal responsibility. In fact, with hardly any exceptions they lined up to praise Mr. Bush’s proposals.

But the real demonstration that Mr. Rove understands American politics better than any pundit came after 9/11.

Every time I read a lament for the post-9/11 era of national unity, I wonder what people are talking about. On the issues I was watching, the Republicans’ exploitation of the atrocity began while ground zero was still smoldering.

Mr. Rove has been much criticized for saying that liberals responded to the attack by wanting to offer the terrorists therapy - but what he said about conservatives, that they “saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war,” is equally false. What many of them actually saw was a domestic political opportunity - and none more so than Mr. Rove.

A less insightful political strategist might have hesitated right after 9/11 before using it to cast the Democrats as weak on national security. After all, there were no facts to support that accusation.

But Mr. Rove understood that the facts were irrelevant. For one thing, he knew he could count on the administration’s supporters to obediently accept a changing story line. Read the before-and-after columns by pro-administration pundits about Iraq: before the war they castigated the C.I.A. for understating the threat posed by Saddam’s W.M.D.; after the war they castigated the C.I.A. for exaggerating the very same threat.

Mr. Rove also understands, better than anyone else in American politics, the power of smear tactics. Attacks on someone who contradicts the official line don’t have to be true, or even plausible, to undermine that person’s effectiveness. All they have to do is get a lot of media play, and they’ll create the sense that there must be something wrong with the guy.

And now we know just how far he was willing to go with these smear tactics: as part of the effort to discredit Joseph Wilson IV, Mr. Rove leaked the fact that Mr. Wilson’s wife worked for the C.I.A. I don’t know whether Mr. Rove can be convicted of a crime, but there’s no question that he damaged national security for partisan advantage. If a Democrat had done that, Republicans would call it treason.

But what we’re getting, instead, is yet another impressive demonstration that these days, truth is political. One after another, prominent Republicans and conservative pundits have declared their allegiance to the party line. They haven’t just gone along with the diversionary tactics, like the irrelevant questions about whether Mr. Rove used Valerie Wilson’s name in identifying her (Robert Novak later identified her by her maiden name, Valerie Plame), or the false, easily refuted claim that Mr. Wilson lied about who sent him to Niger. They’re now a chorus, praising Mr. Rove as a patriotic whistle-blower.

Ultimately, this isn’t just about Mr. Rove. It’s also about Mr. Bush, who has always known that his trusted political adviser - a disciple of the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped President Bush’s father win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker.

Most of all, it’s about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?

E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com

No Comments »

Still have a 101 temp and now my ears ache so I called in. I did manage to get some sleep after my 4:30 AM wake up by sleeping sitting up. I’m sure work thinks I am taking a piss but I don’t care. I feel much too crappy.

Called my doc but she is out today but the receptionist asked me what the dealio was and she said she would call the doctor.

They just called me back and she is going to prescribe me a Z Pack (what the hell is a Z pack?) and they want me to go in and give them a throat culture to make sure I don’t have strep.

Going to swing by Cantors for some matza ball soup.

My brain feels crispy from the fever. I am such a baby when I am sick.

No Comments »

I feel beyond crapified.

Keep waking up coughing, can’t breathe. Blah. 101 temp.

Think I am going to go to the doctor tomorrow. If it is bronchitis, they can’t really do anything but it will make me feel better.

I wish Stu was here to make me a cup of tea. Then again it is 4:30 AM in LA. He wouldn’t be inspired to make me a cup of tea at this hour.

No Comments »

Dropped Stuart off at the airport.

I’m sad but not that bad since we will see each other in a few weeks and in a few months I will be back over the pond.

Have felt like Grade A crap since Monday afternoon. Been hacking up my lungs and have a 100.9 fever. Going to hide in my house and watch lots of television.

First day back to the US office is tomorrow. I don’t think they would look kindly on my calling in sick- even if I am. . .

No Comments »

I’ve had that terrible, “It is Sunday night and you have to go back to work or school or prison soon” feeling for a few days. Is silly. Yes, Stuart is going home but I will be seeing him soon.

Been reading a lot of the news about the bombing. Someone asked me if I was still going to move there and I said of course. You can’t live your life afraid of what might happen. No where is safe. I could be hit by a car crossing the street tomorrow. Given that Los Angeles has one of the highest rates of pedestrian deaths in the country. . . that wouldn’t be unusual.

When we drove back to LA Friday from Vegas we stopped in the ghost town Calico. I’ve wanted to go there for years and now I’ve done it and I don’t have to go back ever again.

Saturday I took Stuart to what I think is the best pizza joint in LA, Village Pizza on Larchmont then we drove down Hollywood, cut over to Sunset all the way to the coast, blasting Led Zeppelin as we drove along the PCH.

It was a good day.

I’m fighting a cold right now so we are staying in. Been feeling exhausted all week. Not sure if it is a mixture of Jet Lag or what. Old age?

I turn 35 next Saturday. Need to figure out if I want to plan a “yeah me” soirée. Maybe I’ll see how many people we squeeze into the Tiki Ti.

No Comments »

.flickr-photo { border: solid 1px #000000; }.flickr-frame { float: left; text-align: center; margin-right: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

London Tube attack,
originally uploaded by nicdthomas.

My German friend Richard has a photo blog (see the link to the right). This was the picture and text that he posted today.

50,000 disoriented people, fearful. Sirens, men try to make eye contact with me - what happened. Bits of news - we must get away from Victoria station, there’s a park over there. Started to rain - stupid British calmness. Damned, 5 minutes later and(). Terror.

2 Comments »

I had intended my first post in America to be a funny, frothy description of being dragged to Area 51 and the Little A’Le’Inn where my ten year old nephew exclaimed. “I drove two hours to look at a sign?!” I was going to talk about how my first day back to driving I got rear ended in Primm, Nevada and my car barely has a scratch and the person that hit me knocked out both headlights and buckled their hood. I was going to talk about how Stuart has been pleasantly surprised by the part of Las Vegas that is not casinos and even the casinos have their charms (99 cent breakfasts and free drinks while you gamble away your life savings).

I woke up this morning to discover that the city that will be my adoptive home was attacked.

Last week Janelle and I were on the Central Tube Line, and we both saw a big black duffle bag on the ground without an apparent owner in sight. We looked at each other. Tilted our heads.

Janelle said, “Let’s move.” We moved to the front of the car away from the bag, feeling silly but after 9/11 your brain starts to think that way. We may have even said how easy it seemed it would be for someone to do something.

I don’t have anything insightful or interesting to say. Our friends that are there are okay.

My thoughts are with everyone there.

No Comments »

Stuart left at 5:30 AM for the airport.

This is the first time I have been up this early here and the light is rather nice and I can hear the birds outside. You don’t notice birds so much in the late morning. Back home this would be a normalish wake up time for me in order to get to work at 7AM. After being here and consistently getting 8 hours of sleep every night even though I am going out, I really think I have been majorly sleep deprived the last few years. Does a bad thing to your personality I think.

A sure sign that Stuart thinks I am pretty groovy is his flight itinerary today. He had initially bought his ticket when he thought he would be in Vancouver and was going to meet me at the airport when I arrived. Now with his being over here, he had to settle for a rather nasty schedule. His flight leaves at 8 and he lands in Toronto then he gets to enjoy a leisurely 3-hour layover before his flight to LAX arriving at 4PM.

My flight leaves at 4PM and I arrive at 7PM. . . (I love the time difference coming home.)

Joe, bless him, is picking Stuart up at the airport, dropping him off at my place and then coming back to fetch me. I feel a bit funny about Stuart seeing my apartment without me. My apartment is a definite reflection of my personality– a bit cluttered around the edges. I tried to warn him about how many books I had. He asked if I had fifty books. I snorted and said I might have fifty cookbooks. . .

A few weeks ago I read reviews for a new novel that just came out– The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Everything I have read in the pre-reviews is that it is the next big thing and that it is actually deserved. It’s a vampire story. . . Vlad the Impaler stuff which I loved to read about when I was a kid. (Okay, yes I know. How many nine year olds do you know sit and read about Cortez, Vlad the Impaler and Mummies. I was (am) a weirdo. I was a library junkie. I don’t know how I managed to not get beat up every day after school.)

Last Saturday Stu texted me.

Next to your bed hun
I came home and there was the book, all 642 pages of it, so I have something to engage me on the way home. I am going to try and not sleep and just crash when I get home so that it is something near a regular sleep pattern.

Saturday I pick up my car and then we drive to Vegas for a few days.

So glad that he is coming with me. I would be a mess. I will be a wreak when he needs to leave.

So I must pack now. Will catch a cab at noon for Heathrow.

The time next we meet, dear reader I will be in America.

No Comments »

This article was on the front page of The Metro- a free paper you can get on the tube.
———————————————————————————————————
TONY BLAIR HAS conceded defeat in his battle to get America to help the world tackle climate change.
The Prime Minister admitted he had ‘no chance’ of getting George Bush to sign up to the Kyoto treaty to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

He said it would be absurd to negotiate on the environment at next week’s G8 conference.

But Mr Blair’s refusal to stand up to the world’s biggest polluter led green groups to call for the US president to be banned from the conference so he could not wreck others’ efforts to tackle the crisis.

The Prime Minister wants to use the G8 gathering to get world leaders to agree on the science of climate change - that man-made pollution causes global warming. Mr Blair said: ‘There is a disagreement over Kyoto and I can’t negotiate a new climate change treaty at the G8.

‘The important thing is that we at least agree that we move over time toward a low-carbon economy, that curbing greenhouse gas emissions is an important part of that.’

In an interview last night, Mr Bush admitted greenhouse gases were creating a ‘long term problem’, and insisted he is committed to finding new energy sources to replace fossil fuels.

The world needed to move beyond Kyoto, he added. But he praised Mr Blair for inviting India and China to the G8 meeting - raising hopes a limited deal on emissions may yet emerge.

Greenpeace said: ‘Blair admits Bush won’t take the step the world demands but still he won’t condemn the president. He should not allow Bush to come to Gleneagles and wreck the efforts the other seven nations are determined to make.’

2 Comments »