Saturday, May 15, 2010
The Profound Truth of the Ken Griffey Scandal
Sports fans know that fading mega-star Ken Griffey jr. was caught napping in the clubhouse during a recent Seattle Mariners game. The underlying truth of Griffey's little nap was that baseball is b-o-r-i-n-g. And there's the pitch--ball one.
Friday, May 14, 2010
It's More Than Lebron Losing
Lost in all the commentary on Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers "losing" to the Boston Celtice is the fact that the Celtics "won." The Cavs might be built more for the regular season than the playoffs, but the Celtics got their act together from a mediocre regular season, won their series with the Cavs 4-2 and looked good doing it.
There's a lot of criticism for the way GM Danny Ferry put together the Cavaliers, but the critics don't mention the extraordinary success of Danny Ainge in Boston. When the Celtics are healthy, they start Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, and Kendrick Perkins. Except for the very serviceable Perkins, all of these guys are likely Hall of Famers. Of course, Pierce, Allen, and Garnett are one step beyond their primes. But they're still All-Stars when they get it going and Rondo has been such a good point guard that the Big Three almost always has it going.
Ultimately, the Celtics won the series more than Cleveland lost.
There's a lot of criticism for the way GM Danny Ferry put together the Cavaliers, but the critics don't mention the extraordinary success of Danny Ainge in Boston. When the Celtics are healthy, they start Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Rajon Rondo, and Kendrick Perkins. Except for the very serviceable Perkins, all of these guys are likely Hall of Famers. Of course, Pierce, Allen, and Garnett are one step beyond their primes. But they're still All-Stars when they get it going and Rondo has been such a good point guard that the Big Three almost always has it going.
Ultimately, the Celtics won the series more than Cleveland lost.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
With Friends Like Randall Kennedy, Elena Kagan Doesn't Need All the Enemies She's Going to Have
In "Letter from Birmingham Jail," Martin Luther King criticizes white Southern ministers for responding to the civil rights movement in Birmingham with "pious irrelevancies and sanctimonious trivialities."
Unfortunately for Kagan, that's pretty much what she got from Randall Kennedy's effort in HufPost to defend her record on minority hiring as Dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan's problem is that Harvard only hired only hired 7 women and one member of a racial minority in the 32 law school searches that occurred while she was Dean from 2003 to 2009.
Maybe Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond would approve. Otherwise, these numbers look bad. By not hiring any black faculty, Harvard Law is implicitly claiming that there were either zero or one black legal scholar who was qualified for either entry level job offers or senior appointments. That's barely tokenism. And the situation with women isn't much better?
By way of comparison, my former political science unit had ten searches and had a fairly even distribution between white males (2), African-American males (2), and white women (3). We weren't exactly paragons of diversity and presently we're back to three white males. But we were much more effective than Harvard.
However, perhaps Harvard's poor minority hiring record doesn't reflect on Elena Kagan herself. Maybe Kagan didn't have very much influence over hiring new professors or maybe there was some sort of institutional priority to hire for legal fields in which women and African-Americans were severely under-represented.
That's the question that Prof. Randall Kennedy tried to address in his op-ed and there was undoubtedly some hope that Kennedy's being black would give him more credibility on the issue.
But it's hard to be very credible while being sanctimonious and irrelevant.
According to Kennedy, Kagan aced her "race relations law" class from Kennedy as a law student and went on to clerk for Thurgood Marshall before settling in as a law professor back at good ol' Harvard.
Good for her.
Kennedy also claims that Kagan is "committed to a vision of racial inclusiveness that reflects the best of our national traditions." That sounds great if Kagan was also committed to using her position to further that vision. Otherwise, Kagan's vision of racial inclusiveness is more of a "pious irrelevancy" than anything else. Indeed, if Kagan did have a "vision of racial inclusiveness," that would increase her responsibility to ensure that Harvard Law School hired a diverse faculty and magnify her failure to do so.
Kennedy goes on to claim that Kagan didn't really have the power to do much about minority hiring anyway. "First, it is mistaken to suggest, as some have, that the Dean of Harvard Law School is responsible for all that happens or does not happen with respect to hiring."
Perhaps she wasn't responsible for "all" that happened in relation to hiring. But Kennedy makes it clear Kagan had real power rather than just a positionk. He goes on to say that "the Dean is the single most influential member of the faculty. One does not get hired at the law school without the Dean's blessing." It also turns out that Dean Kagan was a member of the "Entry Level Appointments Committee" that Kennedy himself chaired.
In other words, Kagan had real responsibility rather than merely formal responsibility for the lack of minority hiring.
As Dean, Kagan was much more worried about ideological diversity than racial or gender diversity and invested a great deal of her credibility in hiring conservatives like Jack Goldsmith. Like a lot of moderate Democrats, Kagan seems to be more interested in conservative ideology than the various ideological positions of the left. There was certainly an argument for this during the Bush years. Given the tilt of Bush administration judicial appointments to the right, it could be claimed that Harvard could not adequately train lawyers unless they were exposed to enthusiastic representations of conservative views. Likewise, it might be argued that an agenda to hire conservatives would bias the hiring process toward white males like Goldsmith because relatively few female and African-American lawyers are conservative.
In other words, hiring conservatives was not necessarily a bad thing.
However, feminism and African-American perspectives are also important to American law and are becoming more important as more women become lawyers and the American mainstream has been transformed in the ways needed to better integrate African-Americans. Kagan's focus on conservatives tends to distort the law by narrowing the scope of theoretical conflict to white male liberals and white male conservatives with only token representation from lawyers like Kagan and Kennedy.
In practice, Kagan's "vision of racial inclusiveness" boils down to a white male cockfight between liberals and conservatives.
Kennedy seems to recognize that Kagan's record of concern for minority hiring is still thin. So he rolls out the "santimonious triviality" of citing that Kagan supported fellowship programs for minority law students.
As if that really mattered to the issue of faculty hiring.
I basically support Kagan. In fact, I highly doubt that Obama could have nominated her at all if Kagan in fact had proved successful at diversifying the Harvard Law School faculty. But she's starting to look like a lightweight who's main skill is the politics of personal relationships.
Still, Randall Kennedy's defense makes Elena Kagan look worse than she probably is.
Maybe Kagan needs to find smarter friends than she had at Harvard Law School.
Unfortunately for Kagan, that's pretty much what she got from Randall Kennedy's effort in HufPost to defend her record on minority hiring as Dean of Harvard Law School. Kagan's problem is that Harvard only hired only hired 7 women and one member of a racial minority in the 32 law school searches that occurred while she was Dean from 2003 to 2009.
Maybe Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond would approve. Otherwise, these numbers look bad. By not hiring any black faculty, Harvard Law is implicitly claiming that there were either zero or one black legal scholar who was qualified for either entry level job offers or senior appointments. That's barely tokenism. And the situation with women isn't much better?
By way of comparison, my former political science unit had ten searches and had a fairly even distribution between white males (2), African-American males (2), and white women (3). We weren't exactly paragons of diversity and presently we're back to three white males. But we were much more effective than Harvard.
However, perhaps Harvard's poor minority hiring record doesn't reflect on Elena Kagan herself. Maybe Kagan didn't have very much influence over hiring new professors or maybe there was some sort of institutional priority to hire for legal fields in which women and African-Americans were severely under-represented.
That's the question that Prof. Randall Kennedy tried to address in his op-ed and there was undoubtedly some hope that Kennedy's being black would give him more credibility on the issue.
But it's hard to be very credible while being sanctimonious and irrelevant.
According to Kennedy, Kagan aced her "race relations law" class from Kennedy as a law student and went on to clerk for Thurgood Marshall before settling in as a law professor back at good ol' Harvard.
Good for her.
Kennedy also claims that Kagan is "committed to a vision of racial inclusiveness that reflects the best of our national traditions." That sounds great if Kagan was also committed to using her position to further that vision. Otherwise, Kagan's vision of racial inclusiveness is more of a "pious irrelevancy" than anything else. Indeed, if Kagan did have a "vision of racial inclusiveness," that would increase her responsibility to ensure that Harvard Law School hired a diverse faculty and magnify her failure to do so.
Kennedy goes on to claim that Kagan didn't really have the power to do much about minority hiring anyway. "First, it is mistaken to suggest, as some have, that the Dean of Harvard Law School is responsible for all that happens or does not happen with respect to hiring."
Perhaps she wasn't responsible for "all" that happened in relation to hiring. But Kennedy makes it clear Kagan had real power rather than just a positionk. He goes on to say that "the Dean is the single most influential member of the faculty. One does not get hired at the law school without the Dean's blessing." It also turns out that Dean Kagan was a member of the "Entry Level Appointments Committee" that Kennedy himself chaired.
In other words, Kagan had real responsibility rather than merely formal responsibility for the lack of minority hiring.
As Dean, Kagan was much more worried about ideological diversity than racial or gender diversity and invested a great deal of her credibility in hiring conservatives like Jack Goldsmith. Like a lot of moderate Democrats, Kagan seems to be more interested in conservative ideology than the various ideological positions of the left. There was certainly an argument for this during the Bush years. Given the tilt of Bush administration judicial appointments to the right, it could be claimed that Harvard could not adequately train lawyers unless they were exposed to enthusiastic representations of conservative views. Likewise, it might be argued that an agenda to hire conservatives would bias the hiring process toward white males like Goldsmith because relatively few female and African-American lawyers are conservative.
In other words, hiring conservatives was not necessarily a bad thing.
However, feminism and African-American perspectives are also important to American law and are becoming more important as more women become lawyers and the American mainstream has been transformed in the ways needed to better integrate African-Americans. Kagan's focus on conservatives tends to distort the law by narrowing the scope of theoretical conflict to white male liberals and white male conservatives with only token representation from lawyers like Kagan and Kennedy.
In practice, Kagan's "vision of racial inclusiveness" boils down to a white male cockfight between liberals and conservatives.
Kennedy seems to recognize that Kagan's record of concern for minority hiring is still thin. So he rolls out the "santimonious triviality" of citing that Kagan supported fellowship programs for minority law students.
As if that really mattered to the issue of faculty hiring.
I basically support Kagan. In fact, I highly doubt that Obama could have nominated her at all if Kagan in fact had proved successful at diversifying the Harvard Law School faculty. But she's starting to look like a lightweight who's main skill is the politics of personal relationships.
Still, Randall Kennedy's defense makes Elena Kagan look worse than she probably is.
Maybe Kagan needs to find smarter friends than she had at Harvard Law School.
Elena Kagan Celebration Continues--Madonna Version
The Elena Kagan celebration continues at RSI. This morning "Celebration" by Madonna.
"Celebration"
I think you wanna come over,
yeah I heard it through the grapevine.
Are you drunk or you sober?
Think about it, doesn’t matter
And if it makes you feel good then I say do it,
I don’t know what you’re waiting for
Feel my temperature rising
There’s too much heat I’m gonna lose control
Do you want to go higher, get closer to the fire,
I don’t know what you’re waiting for
Come join the party, yeah
Coz anybody just won’t do.
Let’s get this started, yeah
Coz everybody wants to party with you.
Boy you got a reputation, but you’re gonna have to prove it
I see a little hesitation,
Am I gonna have to show you that if it feels right, get on your marks
Step to the beat boy that’s what it’s for
Put your arms around me
When it gets too hot we can go outside
But for now just come here, let me whisper in your ear
An invitation to the dance of lifeCome join the party, it’s a celebration
Anybody just won’t do
Let’s get this started, no more hesitation
Coz everybody wants to party with you
Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?
You look familiar
You wanna dance? Yeah.
I guess I just don’t recognize you with your clothes on… (laughs)
What are you waiting for?
Boy you’ve got it
Coz anybody just won’t do
Let’s get it started, no more hesitation
Coz everybody wants to party with you
"Celebration"
I think you wanna come over,
yeah I heard it through the grapevine.
Are you drunk or you sober?
Think about it, doesn’t matter
And if it makes you feel good then I say do it,
I don’t know what you’re waiting for
Feel my temperature rising
There’s too much heat I’m gonna lose control
Do you want to go higher, get closer to the fire,
I don’t know what you’re waiting for
Come join the party, yeah
Coz anybody just won’t do.
Let’s get this started, yeah
Coz everybody wants to party with you.
Boy you got a reputation, but you’re gonna have to prove it
I see a little hesitation,
Am I gonna have to show you that if it feels right, get on your marks
Step to the beat boy that’s what it’s for
Put your arms around me
When it gets too hot we can go outside
But for now just come here, let me whisper in your ear
An invitation to the dance of lifeCome join the party, it’s a celebration
Anybody just won’t do
Let’s get this started, no more hesitation
Coz everybody wants to party with you
Haven’t I seen you somewhere before?
You look familiar
You wanna dance? Yeah.
I guess I just don’t recognize you with your clothes on… (laughs)
What are you waiting for?
Boy you’ve got it
Coz anybody just won’t do
Let’s get it started, no more hesitation
Coz everybody wants to party with you
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Elena Kagan Just Wants to Celebrate
More music for Elena Kagan--
Rare Earth's "I Just Want to Celebrate."
I just want to celebrate another day of livin'
I just want to celebrate another day of life
I put my faith in the people
But the people let me down
So I turned the other way
And I carry on, anyhow
That's why I'm telling you
-
I just want to celebrate, yeah, yeah
I just want to celebrate, yeah, yeah
Another day of living, I just want to celebrate another day of life
-
Had my hand on the dollar bill And the dollar bill blew away
But the sun is shining down on me
And it's here to stay
That's why I'm telling you
-
I just want to celebrate, yeah, yeah
Another day of living, yeah
I just want to celebrate another day of living
I just want to celebrate another day of life
-
Don't let it all get you down,
Don't let it turn you around and around
And around and around
-
Well, I can't be bothered with sorrow
And I can't be bothered with hate, no, no
I'm using up my time by feeling fine, every day
That's why I'm telling you I just want to celebrate
Aw, yeah
I just want to celebrate yeah yeah
Another day of living, yeah yeah
I just want to celebrate another day of livin', yeah
I just want to celebrate another day of life
-
Don't let it all get you down, no, no
Don't let it turn you around and around,
And around and around, and around
Around round round 'round and
around round round
round don't go 'round
Damn That Ezra Klein
Ezra Klein pretty much gets it right on Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan when he says that Kagan looks a lot like Obama himself.
Still, I've been thinking that all day myself and hate to admit that Klein wrote it first. Damn you, Ezra Klein.
When Obama announced Kagan's nomination, he praised "her temperament, her
openness to a broad array of viewpoints; her habit, to borrow a phrase from Justice Stevens, 'of understanding before disagreeing'; her fair-mindedness and skill as a consensus-builder." This sentence echoes countless assessments of Obama himself.Obama is cool. He makes a show of processing the other side's viewpoint. He's more interested in the fruits of consensus than the clarification of conflict. In fact, just as Kagan is praised for giving conservative scholars a hearing at Harvard's Law School, Obama was praised for giving conservative scholars a hearing on the Harvard Law Review. "The things that frustrate people about Obama will frustrate people about Kagan," says one prominent Democrat who's worked with both of them.
Still, I've been thinking that all day myself and hate to admit that Klein wrote it first. Damn you, Ezra Klein.
Elena Kagan "Celebration" Song
Here's some Kool and the Gang lyrics for Elena Kagan.
"Celebration"
-
Yahoo! This is your celebration
Yahoo! This is your celebration
-
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
-
There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
-
Come on now
-
Celebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gonna celebrate and have a good time
-
It's time to come together
It's up to you, what's your pleasure
-
Everyone around the world
Come on!
-
Yahoo!
It's a celebration
Yahoo!
-
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration
Celebrate good times, come on!
Let's celebrate
-
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
-
Baby...
-
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
-
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
-
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on!It's a celebration!
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
-
Come on and celebrate, good times, tonight (Celebrate good times, come on!)
'Cause everything's gonna be all right
Let's celebrate (Celebrate good times, come on) (Let's celebrate)...
"Celebration"
-
Yahoo! This is your celebration
Yahoo! This is your celebration
-
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
-
There's a party goin' on right here
A celebration to last throughout the years
So bring your good times, and your laughter too
We gonna celebrate your party with you
-
Come on now
-
Celebration
Let's all celebrate and have a good time
Celebration
We gonna celebrate and have a good time
-
It's time to come together
It's up to you, what's your pleasure
-
Everyone around the world
Come on!
-
Yahoo!
It's a celebration
Yahoo!
-
Celebrate good times, come on!
It's a celebration
Celebrate good times, come on!
Let's celebrate
-
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight
Let's celebrate, it's all right
-
Baby...
-
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
We're gonna have a good time tonight (Ce-le-bra-tion)
Let's celebrate, it's all right
-
Yahoo!
Yahoo!
-
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
Celebrate good times, come on!It's a celebration!
Celebrate good times, come on! (Let's celebrate)
-
Come on and celebrate, good times, tonight (Celebrate good times, come on!)
'Cause everything's gonna be all right
Let's celebrate (Celebrate good times, come on) (Let's celebrate)...
Monday, May 10, 2010
Elena Kagan? I'll Be Surprised If There's a Vote
The definitive word is now out that Solicitor General Elena Kagan is going to be nominated for the Supreme Court by President Obama.
Lefties like Glenn Greenwald oppose Kagan because she's too closely aligned with conservatives and is pretty much a judicial blank slate because she's never been a judge. Likewise, Kagan seemed to be favorably toward the expansion of executive power during the Bush years, has been too close to Goldman Sachs, and did little minority hiring while she was the Dean of Harvard Law School.
That all bothers me as well.
But I'd be surprised if Kagan's nomination came to a vote.
The main issue is that Kagan was the leader in Harvard University's decision to exclude ROTC from campus as long as gays were excluded from the military.
That's a position I support.
But the Republicans are going to frame the Kagan choice as "Gay Rights vs America" and they'll most likely have a great deal of success in mobilizing Tea Party support as the Obama administration struggles to get beyond its initial tone deafness.
It's hard for me to see how the politics of the Kagan nomination are going to be anything but pretty grim because of the likelihood of Democratic defections. It's easy to see Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson declaring against Kagan as a way to stick it to the left. At the same time, it's hard to see Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu as standing up to conservative pressure to vote the "pro-military" values of their constituents.
That's four Democratic "no votes" right off the top of my head. So Harry Reid is going to start with 55 votes out of the 60 he's going to need to overcome the inevitable GOP filibuster.
I'm a big believer in fuzzy math. But I don't see anything fuzzy about the the math of a Kagan nomination.
Apparently, the Obama administration thought a Kagan nomination would be difficult to demonize.
They're in for a rude awakening.
Lefties like Glenn Greenwald oppose Kagan because she's too closely aligned with conservatives and is pretty much a judicial blank slate because she's never been a judge. Likewise, Kagan seemed to be favorably toward the expansion of executive power during the Bush years, has been too close to Goldman Sachs, and did little minority hiring while she was the Dean of Harvard Law School.
That all bothers me as well.
But I'd be surprised if Kagan's nomination came to a vote.
The main issue is that Kagan was the leader in Harvard University's decision to exclude ROTC from campus as long as gays were excluded from the military.
That's a position I support.
But the Republicans are going to frame the Kagan choice as "Gay Rights vs America" and they'll most likely have a great deal of success in mobilizing Tea Party support as the Obama administration struggles to get beyond its initial tone deafness.
It's hard for me to see how the politics of the Kagan nomination are going to be anything but pretty grim because of the likelihood of Democratic defections. It's easy to see Joe Lieberman and Ben Nelson declaring against Kagan as a way to stick it to the left. At the same time, it's hard to see Blanche Lincoln and Mary Landrieu as standing up to conservative pressure to vote the "pro-military" values of their constituents.
That's four Democratic "no votes" right off the top of my head. So Harry Reid is going to start with 55 votes out of the 60 he's going to need to overcome the inevitable GOP filibuster.
I'm a big believer in fuzzy math. But I don't see anything fuzzy about the the math of a Kagan nomination.
Apparently, the Obama administration thought a Kagan nomination would be difficult to demonize.
They're in for a rude awakening.
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