What must underlie petitioners’ entire federal assault on the Florida ... procedures is an unstated lack of confidence in the impartiality and capacity of the state judges who would make the critical decisions ... Otherwise, their position is wholly without merit. The endorsement of that position by the majority ... can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land.

The case? Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98 (2000) [*.pdf].

First, the bombshell from D.C. today: WHFS, a longtime part of the D.C. cultural firmament, kicked the bucket today and went Spanish. Format changes happen all the time, but this one deserves attention, because HFS — more than all but a handful of stations out there — pioneered the alternative movement that dominated the pop culture landscape for a time in the late ’80s and early ’90s. From the sixties forward, they embodied a spirit of experimentation that you couldn't get in most cities — let alone most stations — and not only created the mold for the alternative stations you hear in every city now, but really became a part of the D.C. culture. From the HFStival every summer to the shows at the 9:30 Club, they were, for a time, the source in the Washington region for new music.

Of course, like so many stations, they tilted pretty hard toward the "active rock" once the alternative music scene started running on fumes. The last few years saw the station playing way too much nü metal and aggro rock for my taste, and the takeover by the Infinity Broadcasting division of Viacom — hello, media consolidation! — hardly helped. Still, given the place HFS once held, if losing any station would qualify as the end of an era — well, this would have to rank right up there.

So what's the turning point here? For whom does the bell toll?

• Alternative radio, for sure — moribund for years, and now missing completely from a market where it was pioneered. Stations like Indie 103.1 in L.A. and 99x in Atlanta have tried to reinvent the model, to modest effect, but this change sends a thunderclap sounding — people in the industry will notice it, and some in other markets will see this and give themselves license to follow suit.

• Reading the talk about HFS on the blogs, though, I have to wonder whether terrestrial radio has — for a healthy segment of the local populace — killed itself off. Two conglomerates, Viacom and Clear Channel, compete here for listeners in one of America's top markets, yet thousands of listeners have just been left stranded.

  "Tough," you say? Fair enough, but when you remember that Washington ranks with the best educated, wealthiest regions in the country, doesn't it stand to reason that the listeners up for grabs know about other choices — such as internet radio and satellite radio? Does anyone honestly think orphaned listeners plan to sit tight en masse and wait for another corporate chain to fill the gap, even though XM and KEXP — to name only two options — offer replacements here and now?

  Speaking for myself: no, I won't wait. Hasta luego, Clear Channel; I may not miss what HFS became, but whatever comes down the pike next, I expect to be worse. So, no thanks — satellite radio, here I come ...

On the bright side — hey, someone needs to be Mr. Bright Side, now that HFS can't — read this news from Vermont:

BRATTLEBORO -- After years of airing conservative radio talk shows, program directors at a local AM station have decided to spin the dial towards the left.

Starting next week, listeners tuning into WKVT-AM 1490 will hear an all-new lineup of daytime programming taken from Air America Radio, a progressive talk network.

"This is basically going exactly from the right to the left," said Peter Case, the station's program director.

Ushered out the door will be the Rush Limbaugh Show, Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor, the Howie Carr Show, the Clark Howard Show and the Lars Larson Show.

"We're in a liberal area and here you've got all these right wingers on the air," Case said about the shakeup. "It was just something we felt needed to be done."

In their places will be the Al Franken Show, the Ed Schultz Show, Unfiltered News with Rachel Maddow, the Majority Report with Janeane Garafalo and Sam Seider and the Randi Rhodes Show. Alan Colmes will round out the new lineup with a news-based program, Case said.

With the exception of Colmes, all of the new shows come from Air America, which was launched in March 2003 as an alternative to conservative dominated AM talk radio.

In two years, Air America has incorporated 41 affiliates across the nation and two satellite radio stations. In the Northeast, the network broadcasts on nine stations, including WTWK-AM in St. Albans.

Case said the idea to bring on a lineup of shows from the network was being considered by the station late last year.

Ironically, on the morning that station officials were mulling the switch, he received an e-mail from Christian Arvard, a graduate student at the School for International Training, who put in a request for the Air America programs.

"I just thought given the environment here in Brattleboro, that this is something that people would want to listen too," Arvard said.

Arvard then contacted several local activist groups about the programming, urging them to write similar requests to the station to balance out the conservative viewpoints.

"In the e-mail, I said we had abandoned the airwaves to the right and now let's take it back."

A short time later, Case said he received a veritable barrage of e-mails and phone calls requesting Air America, prompting the change in programming sooner than originally anticipated.

"Since we made the announcement, we've received probably 120 e-mails thanking us for making the switch," he said.

Well, well, well — the first switch of many, I hope.

That strikes me like the best idea I've heard in a long while — besides which, I can hardly wait for the fireworks to start once he takes over. Pass the popcorn.

Agree with me about Howard being the one to put some pep in the Democrats' step? Help us draft him for the job — sign this petition post haste.

To level with you, I can remember how much of a rush I got when I copied (shhhh!) Marathon 2 — a game by the same guys — on my old Macintosh Performa. [The guy I copied it from ended up practicing at the Justice Department. I kid you not. Oh, the irony ... =, ] Bungie games rock, period — and I half wish that Apple had bought it out from under Microsoft, and kept the company a Mac-only studio.

I understand why Apple took a pass — and the iPod sure looks like a better bet than the XBox, from where we stand today. For this evening, though, you can color me envious.

When I find myself in times of trouble
Mother Mary comes to me
speaking words of wisdom —
'Let It Be ...'

— "Let It Be," the Beatles

Or maybe I worry about our looming national bankruptcy:

WALK! WITH YOUR CREDIT CARDS IN THE AIIII-IR!
SWING IT ROUND JUST LIKE YOU JUST DON'T CAAAAA-ARE!
THIS IS THE SLOW SICK SUCKING PART OF ME!
AND WHEN I SUCK YOUR JUICES dow-ow-owwwwn ...

— "Unfair," Pavement

Or a song dedication to the losingest consultant in Democratic politics, Bob Shrum — who clearly deserves his own blog post tonight, entitled "Throw Shrummy From the Train" —

Why you tryin' to second guess me
I am tired of second guessing
Who will be your book this season?
Who will be your book this season?

— "Second Guessing," R.E.M.

You will, Shrum-bub — and I think I'll give you to the library for the 10-cent sale. Buh-bye.

Or maybe I just lay it out there — let it all hang out.

aaaaAAAAAH-HA-HAHA!
OoooooooOOOOOHHHHHH-HO-HO-HOOOOOH!
SUCKER! SUCKER!
Ooooooohhhhhh, SUCK-ERRRRR!! YEAHHHH!

— "Liar," Henry Rollins Band

That's a long-distance dedication to you straight from the White House, Red America©. And hey — thanks for listening.

Update: Yeah — I know this is just the sort of liberal claptrap that makes sensitive souls like Bush adviser Mark McKinnon hate my guts. But you know what? F––– that. People around the globe now hate my guts — and have a right to — because of that crap.

If it makes you mad, don't look at me. Look at your consciences.

• Mike Krempasky: "I'd be lying if I said that it didn't cross my mind that we might have waded a little too deep in the righteous indignation pool."

• Robert Garcia Tagorda: "Yet his speech often seemed to aim below the belt. ... Miller posed as a 9/11 politician, but his approach harkened back to 9/10 bickering."

• James Lileks: "Holy Crow is he perturbed."

Wow. Feel the love, y'all.

Listen to that voice, compadre.

WALLACE: Let me switch subjects. You both had very deep reservations about McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform before it was passed. In fact, I think you say in your book, Mr. Speaker, that you thought it was the worst piece of legislation that had been passed by a Republican Congress since you've come to Washington.

Now that everyone seems upset with these so-called independent 527 groups, whether it's MoveOn.org on the liberal side of the spectrum or Swift Boat Veterans for Truth on the conservative side, do you feel like saying, "I told you so"?

HASTERT: Well, you know, that doesn't do any good. You know, but look behind us at this convention. I remember when I was a kid watching my first convention in 1992, when both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party laid out their platform, laid out their philosophy, and that's what they followed.

Here in this campaign, quote, unquote, "reform," you take party power away from the party, you take the philosophical ideas away from the party, and give them to these independent groups.

You know, I don't know where George Soros gets his money. I don't know where -- if it comes overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from. And I...

WALLACE: Excuse me?

HASTERT: Well, that's what he's been for a number years — George Soros has been for legalizing drugs in this country. So, I mean, he's got a lot of ancillary interests out there.

WALLACE: You think he may be getting money from the drug cartel?

HASTERT: I'm saying I don't know where groups -- could be people who support this type of thing. I'm saying we don't know. The fact is we don't know where this money comes from.

So, to sum up: Soros supports drug legalization, ergo he must pimp himself out to the Cali cartel, Q.E.D. But wait — whaddaya know, Hastert fought efforts by the 9/11 commission to complete its work. So he must have a secret thing for terrorist suicide hijackers, right? You feel me?

Oh, wait — there's more [emphasis added]:

Obey's amendment would add $6.5 billion to the administration's budget for homeland defense. ... The most important feature, Obey said yesterday, would be the boost in spending for security at nuclear sites in the United States and abroad.

He called for a $316 million increase for securing Russia's nuclear plants and weapons depots. The money would be used to help prevent the theft in Russia of nuclear fuel that terrorists could use to make radioactive bombs, to pay for monitoring equipment to help Russia detect smuggling, and to tighten security for the Russian navy's nuclear weapons.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R.-Ill.) thinks he has the votes to defeat Obey. The amendment "breaks the budget; that's the reason we won't allow it," Hastert spokesman John Feehery said.

If the evidence didn't sit right before my eyes, I wouldn't believe it, but I can hardly argue with the truth: the House speaker, a hijacker lover who supports the incineration of entire American cities. Far be it from me to quibble, but I think the Republicans may want to do something about the guy ...

• Office Depot has teamed up with Hewlett Packard, the computing industry giant, to establish a nationwide computer recycling program through the retailer's stores. The program — which runs through Sept. 6 — gives people, according to an Office Depot executive, a chance to "see [the company] as more than just a provider of goods and services."

• Whatever your take on Costco's new coffin cornucopia, the warehouse chain — which can claim me as a satisfied member — still does right by employees. The company not only pays its CEO only $350,000 — less than 10 times the top pay rate for hourly employees — but also gives new hires starting pay of $10 per hour. [The fact that $10 per hour amounts to more than the average pay at Wal-Mart tells you all you need to know about that mom-and-pop shop.]

• People berate Starbucks as a chief force behind the chaining of America, but it deserves credit where due: it manages to turn a profit even though in spite of offering health insurance to part-time workers, and its stores sell a goodly amount of fair trade coffee to boot.

Have other examples of good corporate citizenship? Hit me with ’em in the comments.

When this stuff comes down the pike, Kerry has to fight back mercilessly. And he can win those fights. But, fundamentally, every day of this campaign that isn't spent talking about the sluggish economy and the president's debacle in Iraq is a day wasted, a strategic failure for the Kerry campaign.

But Democrats don't have to choose between hard-hitting lines of attack on the president himself and focusing on the main issues that are facing the country today. The most damning attacks turn out to be the most compelling, the most relevant for what the country faces, and the most difficult for the president to combat.

I've said several times over recent days that it is an example of the president's moral cowardice that he has such a long record of having others savage his opponents -- for sins of which he is usually more guilty than they -- and then denying any responsibility for what's happening. It's like the moment captured in that recent Kerry campaign spot where John McCain tells Bush to stand by his attacks or apologize, and the now-president is painfully caught off guard, bereft of the protective phalanx of retainers.

He's not used to having to stand behind what he's done. And when McCain comes at him one on one he's jelly. His life has always been a matter of others doing his dirty work for him, others bailing him out. And in that moment it shows.

The current debate about these two men's military service has put the spotlight on physical courage. But that really is a side issue in this campaign, if we're talking substance. The real issue isn't physical bravery but moral cowardice.

My thoughts exactly. Go ahead — read the whole thing.]]> Greg Greene 2004-08-24T21:21:35-05:00 http://greenehouse.net/archives/2004/08/lets_get_it_what So over breakfast the other day, my friend Sarah tells me — while we talked about the Black Eyed Peas, for reasons I promptly forgot — that the group, on its latest album, doesn't call its current hit "Let's Get It Started" at all. The actual title: "Let's Get Retarded." No, really.

So, two questions:

• Would I be the only guy who didn't know that?

• Does it make me a total wuss to say — not only as a certifiably politically correct weenie, but also as someone who spent a good deal of time in school with special-needs children — that I find that totally offensive?