It won’t be the last time we hear about the distinction between “green” as in ecological and “green” as in monetary, but my fellow Stranger refugee Geov Parrish thinks Mayor Nickels’s latest proposed development deregulation scheme ain’t the planet-saving move Nickels claims it to be.

(Here’s a respectful opposing argument.)

…is a longstanding advocate of inventive thinking and of progressive politics. It turns out that these two causes just might be more than coincidentally related. Some UCLA and NYU researchers now claim there are distinct “liberal” and “conservative” brain patterns.

If true, it would help explain why I, and most of my lefty friends, always fail to be persuaded by righty lines of argument, as seen in the op-eds, the talk radio, the Fixed Noise Channel, etc. Those screeds are meant to appeal viscerally to what conservative-bashing liberals call “the lizard brain,” via calls to fear, greed, and prejudice.

Still, I wouldn’t take this study as gospel truth. But then again, a healthy regard for skepticism’s a key component of the liberal brain…

…to remember when Lou Dobbs was a square-but-sane weekend news anchor on KING-TV, what with his recent string of silly anti-immigrant, anti-brown-skin, faux-populist tirades.

…comes in the form of a federal court ruling against warrantless govt. eavesdropping, at least on Internet service providers’ customer records.

The longtime state Republican party chief, later an 8th District Congress member for six terms, passed away five days after the passing of her former state Democratic Party counterpart Karen Marchioro. They can now eternally argue policy in Heaven’s most tastefully appointed wine bar.

I’ve been reading Glenn Greenwald’s new book,
A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency. As you might expect, it’s a mighty depressing read.

Salon contributor Greenwald’s thesis is evident from his title:

• Greenwald believes the whole BushCo machine is run by a cabal of pompous authoritarian dweebs suffering from delusions of Godhood. These dudes n’ dudettes have cynically manipulated politics, the media, and the whole social zeitgeist for their own collective power/money trip.
• One of their principal tools has been to spread fear–fear of the unknown, fear of the stranger, fear of the foreigner, fear of the brown-skinned, fear of what conservative-bashing liberals call “teh gay,” fear of the intellectual, fear of the different.
• In a related tactic, they’ve positioned themselves, at least in their own minds, as the guardians and sole assayers of all that is Truly Good. Anyone who dares to differ from or disagree with the BushCo line is, if not directly Evil, then at least Evil’s co-dependent, hence deserving of the most virulent insults and smackdowns.Everything that’s gone so titanically wrong in the Administration, and in the country and the world, is either a direct result of this mentality or has been markedly worsened by it.

That’s all fine and scandalous as far as it goes.

And it fits something I once wrote in an essay in which I attempted to become the next Robert Fulghum: “The really evil people don’t say ‘I’m evil.’ They say ‘I’m so completely Good, I can do evil things and it’s OK.”
But how accurate is Greenwald’s depiction?

What if the Bushies (or at least some of them, some of the time) aren’t really that inflexibly bull-headed?

What if some of ’em know they’ve been behaving like SOBs and con artists? What if they privately relish in this behavior, in a bad-boy “ain’t I a stinker?” way?

It wouldn’t change the horrible mess the Bushies have made of our economy, our ecology, and our Constitution.

But it would change history’s judgment.

And besides, as I’ve said before, demonizing The Other isn’t just something “Those People” do.

Just look at the comic strips This Modern World and Get Your War On, which conflate anti-war and anti-Bush protest with the most prejudiced hipster square-bashing, as if all short-haired necktie wearers were reactionary neocons and vice versa.

In reality, there are many “nerds against nukes,” and more than a few right-wingers with hip aspirations of one sort or another (fundamentalist punk bands, metrosexual CEOs, etc.).

America can’t defeat the influence of brutal intolerance by imposing it on our own people.

And the left can’t win over America’s hearts and minds if it practices its own reverse prejudices.

The longtime state Democratic leader was a heckuva lot more than your proverbial “pioneer woman in a hitherto male dominated field.” She proved herself fully capable of running things, and continued to prove herself for decades. Under her watch, Washington became one of the most progressive, Dem-dominant states in the union. Remember when “moderate” Republicans could get elected governor and senator from here? When an overt wingnut pol like Jack Cunningham could get elected to Congress from south Seattle and Renton? Those days haven’t been with us in a while, and Marchioro’s long service is one reason why.

…towards one particular Presidential candidate (yeah, I know, 14 months before the general election). And this speech shows why.

Mayor Nickels now wants to ensure that Seattle “industrial” areas remain preserved for industry, after previously appearing to support condo/offices/retail development on every tract of land not reserved for single-family homes.

Let’s hope the scheme succeeds. We could use living-wage jobs. And as a community we need the connection to physical-level reality we get when more of us are involved in making physical, tangible things. This is especially vital as more and more of America’s stuff-making capacity is transferred to low-wage countries.

Let’s just stay vigilant about the definition of zoning-official “industrial” activity.

Software offices are not industrial.

Biotech offices are not industrial.

(And for that matter, architectural offices are not “artist spaces.”)

…without the “writers’ embellishments,” but now it’s a total scream. It’s Effin’ Unsound’s annotated Bush in Bellevue speech.

…about the latest Republican closet-case scandal, that of Idaho Senator Larry Craig getting busted for lewd conduct in a Minneapolis airport men’s room: TBogg’s “Boys Will Be Boise.”

Today’s piece is long and goes all over the place. Consider yourselves warned.

Steven Brant is one of the many commentators who’ve noted the dangerous link between the Bushies’ I-can-do-any-goddamn-thing-I-want sense of privilege and the corporate-motivation side of new age create-your-own-reality philosophy, as particularly realized in the soon-to-end reign of Alberto Gonzales–a tenure which fellow pundit Greg Palast calls “Wrong and Illegal and Unethical.”

By Brant’s line of reasoning, the right-wing sleaze machine has spent the past seven years determined that it can get everything it wants just by believing in it really hard (and, of course, by hustling and dirty tricks and corruption and torture and favors etc.); but cruel reality is increasingly catching up with their fantasies.

I’m getting less sure about this interpretation.

First of all, the GOPpers have remained “successful” at their prime goals–to concentrate wealth upward, to swap favors with the insurance, drug, oil, and weapons industries (even at the expense of the economy as a whole), to turn the entire federal government (with the recent exception of Congress) into an operating subsidiary of the Republican campaign operation, to rig the election process by hook or by crook, to reward friends and punish enemies, to promote a more authoritarian society at home and imperial ventures abroad.

The administration’s simply failed at tasks to which its devotions are shallower–democracy, security, justice, public health, education, economic prosperity beyond the ruling class, and the whole basic spectrum of good-guy goals America used to claim to care about.

But that leads to another question. If us “reality based” progressives are gonna pooh-pooh the right’s positive-thinking shtick, how do we account for the right’s success at so many of its real goals–particularly the goal of persuading and keeping loyal dittohead voters?

This is where a few recent books come in.

The first is Drew Westen’s The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation.

Westen (no relation to ABC News execs Av and David Westin, or to Westin Hotels) argues that the right’s policies may have had a near-totally negative impact on the body politic’s health, but its public messages have been cleverly crafted for optimal emotional impact. Those emotions could be sunny, or fearful, or bigoted, depending on the particular audience “buttons” needing to be pushed; but they were always effectively presented.

Us left-O-centers, in contrast, have had a lousy rep for left-brain, policy-wonk talk that resonates with nobody except ourselves; or for downer everything’s-hopeless cynicism; or for mealy-mouthed, middle-of-the-road wussiness.

To change this sorry state-O-affairs, Westen sez Dems have to show up with some emotionally compelling narratives of their own, and to fearlessly shout ’em out.

This notion coincides with the premise of Chip and Dan Heath’s new marketing guidebook, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.

The Heath brothers seldom mention politics in their book, save for lauding JFK’s “Man on the Moon” speech. Their main target is the business person looking for a way to connect with potential customers.

But their premise, if it works to sell shoes and burgers, would also work to sell policies and politicians.

That premise: Ideas that spread, that “hit” with audiences, all employ six key ingredients: “simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions, and stories,” in various amounts.

Let’s explore how these principles might work in a marketing drive whose “product” is progressive-Dem candidates for public office:

• 
  Simplicity: Have the wonky details of our plans available online and in print. But have clear, memorable goals and promises in front of them. Defuse the Mideast powder keg. Get our troops home safe n’ sound. Health care for all. Back to balanced budgets.
• 
  Unexpectedness: Voters and pundits may expect another play-it-safe, make-no-waves Dem campaign, vetted by consultants and triangulated for minimum offensiveness. Let’s pleasantly shock ’em with some real passion and guts.
• 
  Concreteness: A budget-deficit cut by X each year. A Medicare-like health card in every wallet. A proud homecoming for our sons n’ daughters from Iraq.
• 
  Credibility: Have the wonk-data ready. But also show the resolve to get these policies up and running.
• 
  Emotions: Where there was fear, there will be hope. Where there was hatred, there will be compassion. Where there was blind ambition, there will be cooperation. Where there was spoiled privilege, there will be responsibility.
• 
  Stories: Life’s been tough. Ordinary folks struggled to get by; while the few at the top kept acting greedier and stupider. A gang of thieves has ripped up the Constitution as well as the social fabric.But, together, we can turn it around. America can mean something again.

P.S.: Yesterday’s electronic town hall by progressive heroine and Congressional candidate Darcy Burner had a few technical glitches (the video stream went down a couple of times). But it was a fundraising smash. Burner raised over $100,000 from nearly 3,000 contributors before and during the event, which got great write-ups on the national political blogs.

The puppet ruler of a once-great nation is on the Eastside today, for a completely inside-the-bubble, zillionaires-only fundraising junket on behalf of Rep. Dave Reichert and the state Republican Party.

The good news: Reichert’s once and future election opponent, the courageous and totally on-the-bean Darcy Burner, is hosting an “online town hall” this same day, at 3 PM PDT. Be there.

Gay, piercing fan, cock ring wearer.

“Stillwell” reminds us that Karl Rove may be gone (for now), but plenty of other right-wing thugs are still around to do his work for him.