Japanese Hyperpizza

Once upon a time we began to differentiate pizza into thin and thicker crust, pan crust they called it. Then somebody came up with "stuffed crust" - which seemed like a crazy gimmick.

Now our friends in Japan have completely gone berserk:

Here's the TV advertisement:


Hat tip JapanProbe.

Hillary and Hostages

Certainly the hostage situation at the Hillary campaign headquarters in Rochester, New Hampshire is an unfortunate turn of events - one which everyone should hope ends safely. But it's also a rare chance to see how candidates respond to emergency situations. Two data points: The gunman is a local with a history of mental health problems - in other words, a loner, in all likelihood - and the Hillary campaign has apparently decided to close all of it's offices in Iowa.

There is a political value that will be attached to the proceedings, fairly or unfairly. But the folks on HRC's staff would be well advised not to over-manage the situation, or attempt to use it as leverage. Certainly they must be aware of this - or the downside of being caught doing so - but they have been so hyper-reactionary that it's easy to imagine they might blow it.

Events developing in real-time ...

Murtha: The Surge Is Working

Nobody should get ahead of themselves about the recent success in Iraq. Progress in the Middle East is defined by several staggers forward and one bloody lurch backwards. But by the time former outspoken war critic (to put it kindly) John Murtha is forced to admit the surge is working the Democrats have an obvious political problem on their hands.

It doesn't need to be that way, of course. There's a very clear road to the White House that doesn't involve playing to the seething anger and defeatism of the nutfringe. I think the Democratic Party could broaden their base substantially by offering a strong vision on national defense, which includes (heaven forbid) something that amounts to actually winning in Iraq.

But they need the seethers to win the nomination, and there's a lot of political rhetoric that has gone under the bridge in the past few years - many negative prognostications about the war that can't be taken back, and which will now be used with glee by their Republican opponents (who need to be very careful, per the stagger/lurch above).

What's striking is that if you read the history of the United States during warfare, things always start out on the wrong foot. We tend to lose, and sometimes very badly, in the first phase of the conflict. Then we figure out how to win, and the momentum is unstoppable. Every war is different, and Iraq is part of a larger mess, but it still seems like a bad idea to bet against the eventual success of the U.S. military.

John Murtha, thank you for your continued service to our country.

More: Cliff May has some advice for the floundering Dem leadership.

Update: Murtha "clarifies" his remarks - and now the story is only that he "seemed to suggest" the surge is working.

New Years and Domains

No, I haven't forgotten you. The usual excuses apply - work and family, back in school part time, halfway-thinking about the upcoming holidays. There are plenty of topics that have me animated these days - I am actually following the 2008 race very closely these days - but I haven't had time to dash off a post. (A comment on the horse race here, responding to a post at Nixguy.)

Next year I'm changing my blogging approach fairly radically, and I'm excited about the prospect. Spacetropic will very likely cease to exist, and posting will be split into two entirely new efforts - one concerned with politics and society, and another more personal effort that focuses on writing, stories, literature and music. I've bought the domains already, and I'm tinkering with the WordPress templates whenever I find a spare moment.

Meanwhile, for the next few weeks I may changeup my approach. Shorter posts, more quotes and links, less long-winded pseudo-analysis.

Paula Deen in High Definition

My cable provider keeps adding HD channels without any fanfare, leaving us to discover them by accident, since most of the time our viewing is done by cycling through the 'favorites'. Now we've learned to surf through a previously-unused patch of channels - heck, there are only about 1000 of them - to see if new HD content has been made available. This was how we discovered 'Food Network HD'.

Overall, Food Network is decent entertainment. Alton Brown is incredibly useful, and Gaida DeLaurentis is easy on the eyes. Rachel Ray and Emeril are both overexposed - evidence that someone in the marketing and promotion chain forgot that all they do, at the end of the day, is make dinner. Mario Batali seems like a real chef - a couple of days beard growth and some obviously high blood pressure - which is why they don't put him on screen very often.

The new Food Network in high definition, however, seems to feature one particular chef in the pantheon, Paula Deen. Her specialty is home-style, southern cooking - rich with animal fats and sugar, and topped off with a squealing, cloying country smarm that dances a little jig after licking the spoon. Bacon, barbque, butter rolls, deep fried steak - there it is in high definition, with Paula mugging delightedly above the spread. (They keep the electric paddles just off camera, Mrs. Spacetropic remarked.)

She seems like a nice lady, but watching her in HD is like sitting in her lap. And she's on there constantly.

Here's my idea for a show: Drop a team of five young athletic people, female and Jessica Alba-like, preferably, into the northern wilderness of Canada with nothing but bowie knives and a team of HD camera people following them around. Make them catch, kill, and eat their dinner. Lets see the next generation of Food Network stars dressed like Betty Rubble and wrestling an elk to the ground before impaling it on wooden stake above an open-pit barbecue. Maybe the network could drop key supplies in caches throughout the forest - a bundle of truffle oil and garlic - but otherwise they'd be forced to live off the land. Get Anthony Bourdain, half loaded, to provide color commentary from a helicopter.

Obviously this is a superior idea, one which resonates on many deep psychological levels. I offer my services as executive producer. Reps from the E.W. Scripps Company can reach me at the email link above.

Tags: Paula Deen, HDTV, Food Network, E. W. Scripps Company

Field Notes From the Democratic Debate

I'm not exactly live-blogging this turkey, but I'm watching intermittently. Some thoughts and observations about what I've seen so far.

• Campbell Brown is a sweet kid, but she's not about to lose any Connecticut or Chappaqua dinner invitations over the tough questions she tossed Hillary's way.
• Hillary has a giant head. And it's amplified by makeup. I've got a fat nut myself, so I'm not going to knock her too hard. But damn. Look at that thing.
  
• Why do all of the "undecided voters" seem like people who are jonesing for more and bigger handouts - in other words, lefties who can't decide who will give them more? What about the centrists who want to hear a strong Democrat? How will you contain Iraq? How will you grow the economy and create jobs? I guess those are wacky right-wing concerns.
• I want to like Obama more. But he comes off as humorless at times.
• One of the "undecideds" actually asked a good question about unifying national opinion behind our foreign policy. It seems like a pipe dream to imagine that we might ever be at a point where our disagreements end at the water's edge. Good answers were given by Obama and Biden - but the fact that Hillary would be almost staggeringly polarizing is undeniable.

Update: Word on the street is that Hillary's campaign thought Wolf Blitzer did an "outstanding" job. In other words, play along and do not dare ask hard-hitting questions like Tim Russert, or you will be demonized relentlessly and blacklisted. This campaign may be the final nail in the coffin of the myth of independent, objective journalism.

Pre-game: The Las Vegas Rumble

Snap:

“When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it’s easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, a rival in the race for the nomination.

If you follow the link, the article explains how HRC has finally decided she's against drivers licenses for illegal immigrants. In other news, New York Governor Eliot Spitzer recently decided to drop his plan to give drivers licenses to illegal immigrants.

What's that? Oh, you think A and B are related - that perhaps Spitzer is banking a favor with any future HRC administration by giving her cover on the issue? What are you, some kind of cynic? Her campaign is about the politics of hope, friends.

Make no mistake, I'd delight in seeing this great nation led by a woman president in my lifetime, but it's a secondary consideration. Mostly I yearn (as do many of my fellow citizens) for a president who's smart, tough, articulate, and fair - one who has the courage of his (or her) convictions, even if I disagree on certain issues. No wafflers, no back-room "deciders", and nobody who is anything less than unrelenting towards our enemies and optimistic about the future.

Meanwhile we have chumps like Hillary Clinton running for office. If possible I'll be watching the debate tonight - I can't contain my delight over this kind of political combat. There's an artistry to putting out the right critique - the above quote is a gem of political rhetoric - but more and more of her opponents in both parties are learning how it can be done.

Update: The folks over at the Edwards campaign are having some serious fun with the scripted question story.

Using the TV Strike Productively

The Lovely Mrs. Davis writes an entertaining and useful weblog about parenthood, media and music. Sometimes her posts are dispatched from the front-lines of parenthood, other times they are useful tips about great songs and bands that are actually listenable to both adults and smaller children.

Musical development matter quite a bit for the wee ones. Our 10 month old responds to anything with a beat. And the older ones continue to surprise me - both the 8 and 12 year old have started to request repeat listenings of songs from REM and the Talking Heads. One night I pulled out a stack of CDs - and they seemed mesmerized by the diversity. We ran through Robyn Hitchcock, Fela Kuti, Bob Dylan, Joanna Newsom, Loretta Lynn, talking about the songs, the instrumentation, the feel.

The Lovely Mrs. Davis in her latest post mentions going back to see TV shows like 'Friday Night Light' in their entirety, having missed them the first time or joined late in the game. It's something that seems increasingly popular. Mrs. Spacetropic and I recently did this with the Sopranos - we watch an episode or two every week. Hollywood has produced some good content in the past few years, such that some are calling it a 'golden age'. But one of the side effects is that there's almost too much to see - we can really use the strike to catch up.

Or use the time to listen to music again, with your kids. Some form of culture, like greeny, cruciferous vegetables, is an important part of a healthy, balanced intellectual diet for youngsters and all ages.

Hooray for Corporate Profits!!

Now there's an article that is sure to hack off all of the progressive media types and bloggers, and to make it worse it's a feature item on the (hiss) Cincinnati Enquirer website: Clear Channel Earnings Rise. Cue the goose-stepping minions marching in lock-step to those fear-mongering right wing radio hosts! Insert tirade here about how profits are the enemy to Truth and how people have a Right To Be Heard!

At a high level I have some concern that more and more media outlets are in the hands of fewer corporations. But I cannot describe in any rational terms why this is necessarily bad, especially when other publications are able to find their audience. One notable example is the Cincinnati Beacon - our local alternate media organ for outraged pseudo-progressivism - they object to the term 'liberal' - and anti-corporate venom. They continue to keep kicking after several years in the business, and have even expanded to include a print edition.

A sample of their political rhetoric explains at once why the Cincinnati Beacon continues to earn an audience. The Cincinnati downtown has recently seen an explosion of growth, and a part of that success can be ascribed to the 3CDC, a non-profit development group that has played a role, for example, in revitalizing Fountain Square. Here's how the Beacon describes 3CDC on their wiki:

This is a non-profit group established by powerful members of the area’s inner-sanctum for the purpose of advancing a private development agenda for key areas of downtown Cincinnati. Though the group’s work impacts Cincinnati and its residents, as of this posting (October 22nd, 2006), no public oversight group exists to insure that the public’s interests are protected or represented through the group’s activity.

The purple prose is totally priceless. And a Google search for Beacon articles about the 3CDC yields a treasure trove of scandalous and shocking assertions and discoveries about, say, the parking garage downtown, or (gasp) the fact that some of the businesses on the square may actually be attempting to make money. And no oversight group exists! No oversight group exists for sanitattion workers either - the difference here is that filthy, sinful profits may be involved, and therefore there's an invented civic obligation for some public involvement beyond basic voting.

Some people lap that stuff up - it plays to a mindset that suggests that the world is controlled by forces beyond our control, that prosperity locks people out, and that if we stopped rewarding commerce with wealth our society would somehow become more fair. I'd love to see the Beacon, like Clear Channel, rake in the advertisers and make a booming business from the political agitprop they do so consistently well. In fact, I'd be pleased to see them rolling in profits ...

Tags: Clear Channel, Cincinnati Beacon, 3CDC, Capitalism

Swift Boats and War Machines

Here's how the Clinton war machine plays the game:

1. Attack early and often. Respond to everything.
2. Attack by characterizing even the faintest criticism as the most vicious form of politics. Even if the disagreement is strictly concerned with policy, and the tones are respectful, it must be handled as a outrageous, mean-spirited assault on the Clinton in question.
3. Use proxies and spokespeople to reciprocate by characterizing opponents in the harshest terms. Those friendly parties can use more leeway to spin character assaults on opponents as merely "making sure people know the truth".
4. Use friends in the media to control the message. Urge them to wait through a news cycle before running with any story that casts the Clinton in question in a negative light. Once they do run the story, make sure counter-spin is included in the story (true or not) as a form of "balance". The wait is important, since it enables a crafted response, and reduces the possibility of hot-headed errors. If repeat-offender reporters persist in using an angle that doesn't suit the Clinton machine, threaten to deny all access in the future.
5. Stay on message. Use the same talking points via all proxies. It doesn't matter if this is entirely transparent to any observers in the media, they won't draw attention to it - and most average citizens do not consume enough media to notice the repetition.

All campaigns use these strategies to some extent, but nobody does it better than the dynamic duo from ... well, I was going to say Little Rock, but really it's wherever it's convenient to be from lately. They know how to bring their A Game.

Or do they? Now Bill Clinton is back in the fight, and he may be overreaching, early. Even the most Clinton-friendly voters might feel some disgust at the notion that the recent questions from the Obama and Edwards campaigns about Hillary's evasiveness and contradictions are a form of "swift boating". This breathtaking gall and ruthlessness from the Clinton war machine may cause many Democrats to look at each other with a sense of fear and dread, and a yearning desire to avoid hitching their fortunes to these people all over again.

If she makes it to the general election, we can expect Hillary to use this tactic again. It will work like this: She will get criticized, and Bill will respond with a incredibly withering assault, and then he'll score bonus sympathy points by claiming that he "just couldn't bear to hear people say that about his wife", etc. - thereby leveraging the wounded-spouse routine to earn a free pass for a grossly unfair and disproportionate counter-attack.

Another possibility is that the Hillary campaign will slowly implode, dragged downward by the fact that people want to get off the Bush-Clinton Presidential Bus and the obvious equivocations and forked-tongue policy positions from the candidate herself - which will seem stale and charmless in comparison to the efforts of the war machine of yore.

Tags: Politics, Elections, Swift Boating, Hillary, Bill Clinton

Pak

In some Western countries, the sight of lawyers rioting might be a good sign. But in Pakistan, a country without any durable civic infrastructure or "system" that exists to preserve democratic rights .. well, in this case the lawyers have a legitimate complaint.

It's a big, fat problem for forward-thinking Pakistanis and those of us in the West that are sympathetic - democracy means democracy for the crazy people too.

Newspapers Circling the Drain?

The Artful Strikers

The best place to get the lowdown on the Hollywood writers strike is a blog called the Artful Writer, written by a couple of industry professionals. There's a lot of need to "control the message" with these types of negotiations, so it's a quite interesting peek behind the kimono of the entertainment industry - especially the comments.

It's an issue that confuses me - what do "rights" mean in this era of ubiquitous content? At the end of the day, media companies don't seem to treat creative people very well, be they rock bands or joke writers. A couple of thousand dollars and your name on the credits - it all seems very dazzling, especially when there are thousands of others trying to crack into the business. But when economies of scale allows the media conglomerate to profit exponentially - and that's the key concept, and the economic difference - and when writers have leverage (which is the key distinction versus other types of labor markets) - they would be foolish not to exercise that bargaining power when they are obviously undercompensated.

Storytelling, being funny, developing compelling characters and narrative arcs - those are extremely specialized and difficult tasks. Big media production is a collaborative exercise, and they are only word on a page until directors, actors, effects and cinematography folks add their talents. But the words are primary and irreplaceable.

How will this play out? The late night talk shows will go dark almost immediately, but other than that, the public won't notice until it drags on for months. It could end up like the baseball strike - with no sympathy for either side, and mounting public disgust. Whatever happens, I do hope the situation is resolved in such a way that gains are made for writers and creative types, since the transformations that are being wrought on the entertainment industry by the Internet age are likely just the beginning.

Tags: Writer's Strike, Hollywood, WGA

The Clintonesque Counter-attack

Everybody from every political quadrant and the media has made a big fuss over Hillary's lackluster performance in the debate the other night. This, they claim, is her fatal flaw - the fact that she never really answers the questions that have political consequence. She's on both sides of every issue. Regardless of how events play out, she's covered. It's the same familiar Clintonesque playbook - but without that twinkle-in-the-eye that her husband would use to make the B.S. more palatable.

And I have to agree with those who claim that she's only doing this because she's in election mode. You better believe she has strong opinions on each of the topics she dodged on Monday - but she's sure smart enough to keep them under wraps while pandering to John and Sally America.

But it's the response to the criticism that I see as the greatest mistake. If Hillary and her proxies had sheepishly admitted that that debate was a rough one, and that yes, some of her answers weren't phrased correctly - then everyone would have blabbed for a few days and forgotten the whole episode. But instead they went to DefCon 5, and hammered the talking point that everyone was ruthlessly attacking Hillary like a bunch of wild men.

By that convenient standard, of course, she does not appeared to have fared too badly. Nevermind that it wasn't true, that the worst of it consisted of the candidates very mildly pointing out that Hillary didn't answer some questions, or that she appeared to give two conflicting answers. No, this was a brutal attack! Some people may buy that defense - but they won't be the ones who actually watched the debate, and actually saw what happened.

But by using that tactic, the Hillary war room has skipped ahead to the political play that everyone knew would be attempted later in the campaign. Rudy, or whoever the GOP nominates, will be some horrible, mean-spirited savage whenever he merely questions the validity of Hillary's position on any issue. If he points out a contradiction - goodness me, it's "gotcha" politics. Their obvious, ultimate gameplan is to characterize their opponent as a jerk for drawing attentions to these plain-as-day contradictions.

In playing that card early, Hillary risks making that counterattack sound tedious and implausible by the time we move into the general election. The girl who cried wolf will have claimed, by then, that everyone is attacking her - including the media, of course - who may want a horse race badly enough that they will ignore the inevitable phone calls from Clinton operatives asking them to delay or re-spin the latest story of Hillary's evasions. The victim ploy, hinging on a mis-characterization of her rivals as unfair and cruel - this will get incredibly tiresome to the general population by the time we are asked decide who is more presidential at the voting booth.

Meanwhile, in contrast, the Republicans will continue to take a hammering from the media over any apparent wisp of hypocrisy. (Did you hear about Rudy's views on abortion?!) And to their credit, from everything I can see, they handle these issues in a somewhat good-natured way, with quite a bit of cleverness and decency. They don't resort to complaining, and by the time we go into the general they will have weathered those criticisms for months and months, and it won't be easy to knock them off stride (without ginning up some kind of scandal at the last minute, which should be duly expected).

By playing the "attack" counterattack this early, Hillary may have made herself a wildly desirable candidate.

... to the GOP.

Tags: Hillary Clinton, Debate, 2008 Election