There are 16 acres of debris and under-construction land fenced off in lower Manhattan. Is that Ground Zero? It depends on who you ask:

The evolving boundaries of Ground Zero have informed — or misinformed — the debate about its proximity to the planned [Islamic mosque] Park51 community center. The farther away from the place, the bigger it seems.

“It’s constructed as hallowed ground when people don’t actually have a clear boundary for it or a clear sense of what’s within the boundary,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a University of Pennsylvania communications professor who studies political rhetoric. “What you have is a classic instance of people responding to a symbol whose meaning is physically divorced from the actual space.”

Ironically, as symbolic of American imperialism as the World Trade Center towers were to al-Qaeda, the site of their remnants has become just as potent a symbol of resistance and remembrance for Americans. And in both cases, perhaps to a greater degree than they ought to be.

Let’s take note of the contrasting spectacles this past week from the scions of two American political families:

- Chelsea Clinton, daughter of the liberal bogeymen that are Bill and Hillary, got married in a traditional (if opulent) wedding.

- Bristol Palin, the unwed teenage baby-mama offspring of conservative standard-bearer Sarah, broke it off (again) with her child’s father, Levi Johnston.

And this left-right behavioral contrast jibes with the seemingly paradoxical higher divorce rates in red states versus blue states. So, remind me again which end of this country’s political spectrum has the credibility to spout off about “family values”?

Until recently, a “sugary beverage tax” of one-penny-per-ounce seemed destined to become law in New York State. But apparently, counter-lobbying by the American Beverage Association killed the proposed bill, and supposedly more persuasive advocacy by the industry turned the tide:

Next, this TV ad from New Yorkers Against Unfair Taxes, a name calculated to make the blood boil. A mother unpacks groceries in the kitchen as her son mixes a powdered lemonade, one of the drinks that would be taxed. “Tell Albany to trim their budget fat and leave our groceries alone,” the mother says…

It is too early for a final tally of the money spent on advertising and lobbying by either side in New York. But by most accounts, the beverage industry has outspent the pro-tax side and has succeeded in painting the soda tax as a naked money grab cleverly disguised as a health policy.

I question how convincing the ABA’s advertising was, at least with the general public. I caught their commercials a few times; frankly, I wouldn’t have been aware of the tax if hadn’t. I found the ads — including the one referenced above — to be particularly grating and transparently self-serving. In fact, I came away from them more in favor of the tax, just because the industry opposition was so blunt. I think this is more a case of the state legislators getting swayed by their corporate constituents, prompting the burial of this bill. Democracy at work, right?

I guess that’s just me, though. I don’t froth at the mouth every time a new tax is proposed. Plus, I don’t consume all that many soft drinks. So that makes me the silent minority in this arena.

While the eleven alleged Russian spies just nabbed by the FBI didn’t seem to dig up much sensitive information, one of them is finding another brand of blown-cover success:

Anna Chapman cut a wide swath in New York even before her arrest on charges of spying for Mother Russia, judging by the sultry shots and videos suddenly popping up everywhere, starting with her own Facebook page.

Now, thanks to her penchant for seductive poses, she’s an international star. You’d hardly know her real pose, according to U.S. officials, was deadly serious: seducing government officials and businessmen into providing state secrets.

Seems like a roundabout way to generate some online buzz. If Chapman had wanted to make it big on the Web, she could just as easily have exposed herself on Chatroulette…

Given how many hours per year the average Californian spends staring at the gridlocked traffic in front of him/her, the Golden State’s scheme to install electronic ad-enabled license plates on cars is probably a sure moneymaker:

[State Senator] Curren Price, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area, said the technology will resemble traditional license plates, with plate numbers visible at all times. However, digital ads and public service announcements would flash on the plate’s screen when the vehicle is stopped for more than a few seconds.

The technology could provide an additional source of revenue for the cash-strapped state, according to Price, the bill’s author, as advertisers and technology companies contract with the Department of Motor Vehicles. He said the plates could also aid small businesses and add jobs to the ailing economy in the technology, sales and marketing, and service industries.

Seems like California’s drivers should get a cut of that advertising income — if nothing else, in the form of lower annual registration costs, etc. Unlikely, I know.

Scholarships collide with semantics in the Golden State, where colleges and universities officially don’t charge the natives with tuition, but rather “fees”:

The state’s renowned master plan for higher education, which in 1960 established separate roles for the University of California, California State University and the community colleges, also declared that the public institutions “shall be tuition free to all residents.” Since then, even as the amount students pay for their education has soared, campuses here have stubbornly insisted on using the word “fees” for the instructional charges that other states call tuition.

Now, however, a movement is underway to drop what many education experts consider an outdated, even dishonest term. It’s high time, they say, to adopt the “T-word” in registration bills and campus discussions.

For example, with UC’s basic undergraduate educational cost now topping $10,000 a year, three times more than a decade ago, “tuition” is the accurate term, they say. They also note that in 2009, California’s confusing terminology nearly kept the state’s veterans from receiving certain federal education benefits and financial aid.

I’m sure Mom and Dad will feel less of a sting now that their checks are going toward the “T-word”, versus the “F-word”. The “F-word” still being appropriate for when Junior winds up incurring dorm-damage charges…

According to some, liberalism travels on its stomach:

…The idea of being in a city without a decent Thai restaurant drives [liberals] frantic. As long as they can point to a Cambodian eatery or a Syrian café in their town they can reassure themselves that they are among the civilized. Their greatest fear is to be stuck in some flyover burg where the only food available is exactly like the stuff they were raised on in their bland, white, upper middle class childhoods.

Well, yeah — if you were, in fact, raised on bland tripe, I’d think you would want to branch out culinarily once you’ve grown up. Sticking with the same meat-and-potato options your entire life — including what goes into your head, as well as your mouth — doesn’t seem all that appealing to me.

Anyway, demographic shifts are helping that traveling army of thought infiltrate even flyover country. If Oklahoma City can boast of an Ethiopian restaurant (sub-Saharan cuisine being an apparent marker for diverse discourse), there’s no telling where the dining/thought experiment will end.

In response to an investigative journalist moving in next door, Sarah Palin is walling off her Wasilla homestead:

“[Husband] Todd and his buddies started a fence yesterday and it’s looking good,” Palin said. “It’s about 14 feet high. That’s what we’re going to have to do this summer, I guess.”

The real tragedy here? The hit to Caribou Barbie’s foreign policy preparedness. Because with this fence in place, Palin obviously won’t be able to see Russia from her house anymore.

While around town today, I saw at least three young women sporting what looked like ballpoint-pen markings on their hands and forearms. From my vantage point, these markings looked like random letter- and number-scribblings — not at all like tattoo or henna patterns, or anything else that might have stylish permanence.

Is this some new trend? I haven’t seen extensive pen-marks on skin since sometime in grade school. Hard to believe they could be making a comeback in this day and age, with so many other, more reliable (mainly digital) ways of recording random information. Maybe they’re emulating Sarah Palin?

This week featured some prime political irony in the UK: After televised debates and sound-bite slips brought criticism that British national elections were becoming too Americanized, the poll results delivered the most un-American outcome of all in a no-majority “hung Parliament”.

So I guess this is the right time for Stateside gloating over our much-maligned two-party system. Except that, of course, its electoral underpinnings are the same as those of Britain’s:

Under the current system, voters in 650 parliamentary districts, called constituencies, choose a favorite from a slate of candidates. The candidate with the most votes wins the seat, regardless of how small a percentage of the overall vote the winner attracts, or the size of the margin between first and second place.

The system is similar to that used in most Congressional races in the United States, where there are fewer viable parties to contend with.

The alternative is proportional representation, which is favored in most of Europe and elsewhere. It allows regional and fringe parties to get seats at the table, although their main function is to build coalitions once they get there. And really, it still doesn’t prevent two or three main national parties from attracting the most votes, and ultimately calling the shots anyway.

The reason that’s not the case in the U.S. is because the Democrats and Republicans are “big-tent” parties, each encompassing left- and right-wing elements. The bipartisan approach is so ingrained into the political system here that divergent interests recognize that the only way to effect governmental action is by going through established party channels. That’s why a Tea Party movement doesn’t simply set up shop as a third party, and instead attempts to take over the existing GOP apparatus.

The alternative is the present UK situation, with the Liberal Democrats basically owing their king-maker role to protest votes against Labour. The Lib Dems now have the unenviable, but unavoidable, task of forming a ruling majority coalition with the Conservatives — a party with which they are philosophically opposed (save on a few tactical points). As the next few months of this disjointed joint government should demonstrate, it doesn’t make a convincing case for making third-party penetration more possible.

The full-court press to get out the count for this 2010 Census is especially marketing-oriented when compared to the usual governmental calls to action. The notable Super Bowl commercial kicking off the campaign seemed to set a consumerist approach toward Constitutional enumeration, and that focus on the to-be-apportioned Federal lucre is rubbing some the wrong way.

No doubt, the economic benefits are being expounded to the hilt, and not just by the bureaucrats: Among others, the president of Univision is pushing Census participation as a dollars-and-cents benefit for its target audience. When stacked up against mere civic duty, it’s easy for the money concerns to grab the spotlight.

I’m not so sure that the Federal dole is being oversold, though. The messaging I’m seeing is certainly unconventional, but it’s definitely couched more in themes of participation and representation more than compensation. Perhaps the injection of any talk of governmental funding obscures the main point, for better or for worse.

Who knows why I spontaneously started humming the tune to the old Schoolhouse Rock “Preamble” song earlier this afternoon? I suppose that, with as many times as I watched those animated Saturday morning shorts back during my 70s childhood, the edutainment-themed rhythms burrowed their way permanently into my brain. (It’ll be interesting when senility hits.)

And indeed, any creative effort that makes a catchy ditty out of fusty 18th-Century legalese is worthy of an encore performance:

Nostalgia, courtesy of Constitutional indoctrination. Only in America!

In his own words, here’s what Will Eisner was going for in his second full-length graphic novel, “Life on Another Planet”:

“This was… an attempt to produce a graphic novel that was constructed in the same structure as a classic literary work. By taking what would be a science-fiction plot and treating it from a more humanistic viewpoint, I hoped to come up with a book that would deserve adult interest.”

The book — originally entitled “Signal From Space” and based upon the broad sociological repercussions from a SETI-like confirmation of intelligent life in outer space — was written in the late 1970s. As such, it’s full of contemporary trappings: Cold War intrigue, New Age-ish religious cults, and corporate co-optation. These elements, among others, were what Eisner used to instill that “humanistic viewpoint”. As a result, the science-fictional catalyst to the story is largely relegated to the background.

There is an interesting plot device that Eisner came up with, and I’m surprised that I’ve never seen it employed anywhere else, before or since. It concerns an Idi Amin-like dictator (again, a contemporary element) who exploits the discovery of alien radio transmissions from “Planet Bernard” in a decidedly unique way:

ETERNAL PRESIDENT: Can we possibly pay on any debts to the other nations, Mr. Mbobe??

FINANCE MINISTER MBOBE: No, we owe over 100 billion to 5 nations, mostly in the West…

ETERNAL PRESIDENT: So… Then we shall freeze all foreign property… close the borders, and… WE SHALL SECEDE FROM THE PLANET EARTH… We will no longer owe money to anyone! I DECLARE OUR MEMBERSHIP IN THE PLANET BERNARD! Invite the Star People cult to Sidiami! WE ARE NOW A COLONY OF ANOTHER PLANET!!

This is a fairly brilliant concept. What’s to prevent some human-rights abusing thug regime from declaring its membership in the international community to be null and void, if it has the option of aligning itself with some absentee offworld master? As far-fetched as it seems, it makes perfect sense as the most cynical of maneuvers in power politics. Or, in an even more timely manner, in the late maneuvers of debt-burdened Eurozone countries…

And again, I can’t believe no one else has employed this concept in other mediums, whether in books, movies, or elsewhere. Eisner used it as an integral subplot, but I could see it as the main plotline for a farcical comedy. Someone in Hollywood needs to get on it.

The Civil War was 150 years ago, so it’s a bit late for Maryland to switch sides. But it is, by switching from the Southern region of the Council of State Governments to the East region, thus disassociating from its fellow former slave-holding states.

This official shift merely confirms what’s been happening in the Old Line State for a long while now:

Longtime residents note a shift too. Diane Schwallenberg, who has lived in the Annapolis area all of her 53 years, said she feels more Southern because of the state capital’s laid-back waterside atmosphere and small-town friendliness. But she said she has noticed a change over the years as more people have moved to the area.

“Some of the new people that come in – not the real, true Annapolitans in particular – but people that have come in are kind of preppy and all,” she said.

And then there are those who put the situation in a harsher light:

The state of Maryland exists as it does due only to our proximity to the high paying jobs of the federal government. If not for that, the entirety of our one-party dominated anti-business state would be wallowing in filth, crime and food stamps. We consistently rank at the bottom of business-friendly states. We have no idea how to sustain ourselves without jobs and assistance from the federal government.

A state-sized dependency of Uncle Sam? Sounds about as anti-Southern (in the 19th-Century sense) as you can get. Maybe this puts the final nail in the coffin of the Mason-Dixon line as the traditional North-South divide. It also calls for a replacement for “Dixie” as a regional nickname; maybe “Potomaca”?

Since Maryland unavoidably includes Baltimore, I’ll let John Waters have the last word. Or I would, if I could actually track down a memorable quip I could swear he once tossed out about his hometown. I cannot find a trace of it on the Web, but I remember it pretty well, and it went something like this:

“I love Baltimore. It’s like every oddball in the South decided to head North, and when their cars broke down halfway there, they decided to stay put.”

From border state to borderline state. Explains everything, really.

Once-proud branches of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are now rushing to shed that video-stung ACORN tag:

One of the latest groups to adopt a new name is ACORN Housing, long one of the best-funded affiliates. Now, the group is calling itself the Affordable Housing Centers of America.

Others changing their names include what were among the largest affiliates: California ACORN is now Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, and New York ACORN has become New York Communities for Change. More are expected to follow suit.

The former close association with President Obama — which prompted the conservative targeting against ACORN in the first place — seems to have been lost in this rebranding scramble. Or, more likely, it’s long since worn off, and the taint of scandal has wiped out any lingering positive vibes that the brand might have retained.

Among the predictable anti-1960s culture-war changes proposed by the newly-reactionary Texas State Board of Education for school textbooks is an almost out-of-place targeting of the nation’s third President:

- Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins. Jefferson, a deist who helped pioneer the legal theory of the separation of church and state, is not a model founder in the board’s judgment.

Despite a rationalization that Jefferson’s ideas were derivative of others’ (and thus are curriculum-redundant), it’s pretty clear that his lack of devotion to strict Christian ethics puts him out of favor with modern-day conservatives.

As it turns out, this makes for strange bedfellows. A long-standing argument on the left that Jefferson was too much of a socio-political extremist to merit continued reverence basically aims for the same result: A marginalization of Jeffersonian ideals within American political culture. While there hasn’t been a concerted push from the liberal side to excise the Sage of Monticello from U.S. history, an unexpected impetus from across the political aisle could prompt a critical reappraisal that transcends ideology.

Considering all this, I guess it’s a wonder that Jefferson hasn’t been purged from his founding-father perch yet. The notion of his ideals might be just about correct, considering that they incur offense from both sides of the political divide, might be what’s saving him.

Rielle Hunter is back, with a tell-all interview in GQ Magazine about her Presidential-quashing paternity affair with John Edwards.

Not that I care much for political scandal, even one as sorted as this one. I am happy to see that Hunter took a little time in the interview to acknowledge her antecedaneous 1980s fictional depiction:

There’s been one time period in my entire life that I would qualify myself as promiscuous. There’s this Jay McInerney book ["Story of My Life," narrated by a character based on Hunter, who briefly dated McInerney], and let’s correct a part of that right now. In my early twenties, there was a time period when I, in the late ’80s, did cocaine. And partied. I was living in New York City… But the point being, I was never, as it’s been reported, a drug addict. The word “addiction” means inability to stop. I stopped doing drugs in my twenties. As for being promiscuous, I would say that I was a bit promiscuous for about six months. But it was because I was partying, and there were a lot of very good-looking available 20-year-old men around that you’d be partying with, and there was a lot of, you know, hooking up going on.

So Hunter confirms that she was the inspiration for Alison Poole. At least, the Alison Poole character in “Story of My Life”. Maybe not so much for Poole’s crossover appearance in another, contemporary literary setting:

It must have also impressed fellow ’80s lit sensation Bret Easton Ellis, because he wrote McInerney’s Alison Poole right into the cultural earthquake that was “American Psycho.” Being “American Psycho,” Poole’s scene was short and includes brutal sodomy — and the Kentucky Derby, if memory serves.

No need for Hunter to deny ever attending the Kentucky Derby. Or hooking up with Patrick Bateman — because let’s face it, Edwards was close enough.

UPDATE: I guess I need to reread “Glamorama”, because I’d completely forgotten that Ellis had revived Poole-slash-Hunter in that later novel:

In “Glamorama”, Poole’s characterization is amplified, but only slightly more nuanced. She’s the coke-addled, sex-fiend girlfriend of a jealous club owner who happens to also be sleeping with the protagonist of the novel, Victor Ward, who is a model and promoter. Once again, the first time readers meet her is during a sex scene. After which, she berates Ward for not breaking up with his other girlfriend, a supermodel… Later, Poole loses it at her boyfriend Damien’s club opening after a rival for Ward’s affections, Lauren Hynde, sets her off.

As with the “American Psycho” appearance, no surprise that Hunter wouldn’t have brought up this later, even more unflattering portrayal. All told, I still go with the late truth about Hunter, because it’s easily stranger than either Ellis’ or McInerney’s fiction.

Now that the Supreme Court has OKed unbridled corporation spending on political campaigns, one intrepid company is cutting out the middleman:

In a soothing voice, a narrator bemoans that “as much as corporate interests gave to politicians, we could never be absolutely sure they would do our bidding.” The ad includes images of gleaming office towers and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and promises Murray Hill will bring “enlightened self-interest and corporate accounting” to Congress.

It concludes with a rousing call to action: “Vote for Murray Hill Incorporated for Congress — for the best democracy money can buy.”

Yep, Murray Hill Inc. for Congress is dripping with sarcasm, right down to a franchising program for other corporate-politico aspirants:

The first corporation to enter into a franchise agreement with Murray Hill Inc. is Computer Umbrella Inc. of Sterling Virginia. Computer Umbrella’s own Designated Human, Jonathan Stewart, is charting the corporation’s run for U.S. Congress in Virginia’s 10th District.

“We are proud to embrace the Murray Hill Inc. Brand,“ Stewart says. “From steel to silicon, it’s America’s entrepreneurs who find and exploit the new markets. The democracy market in Washington DC today looks like Silicon Valley 30 years ago. CUI wants to position itself as early leader in this emerging market along with Murray Hill Inc.”

There are pesky electoral and Constitutional requirements to overcome before corporate entities start stumping for office. But imagine the possibilities:

- Individual office-seekers setting up their candidacies as corporations, so that any irregularities or scandals later on can be deflected from them personally (“I didn’t hire those hookers, it was my limited liability partnership!”)

- Launching single-purpose business ventures every election cycle

- Watching mergers and acquisitions consolidate a fragmented corporate-constituent landscape

- Initial public offerings and stock market indexes for tracking incumbent performances

And if Murray Hill Inc. doesn’t make it to Capitol Hill, maybe the plucky PR firm could run for a local position in New York. I’m thinking a certain Manhattan neighborhood would be a good fit.

While Manhattan has just successfully spurned the potentially-disruptive Federal trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, my upstate hometown is ready to take the rebound as the new venue.

The offer is not driven by a sense of justice, so much:

“If they want to have it here, we’ve got the state-of-the-art courthouse,” [Newburgh, NY] Mayor Nicholas Valentine — a Republican — told radio host Curtis Sliwa this morning. “I’ll offer it to them, but there’s got to be money attached.”

He cited the figure of $200 million floated by New York City officials.

“Two hundred million and something dollars to Newburgh would completely change this city around. It would double my police force. It would pay off my debt,” Valentine said. “Maybe it’s just crazy enough that we could pull something like this off.”

Given the town’s previous brush with quasi-Islamic terrorism, I’d say the “crazy” rating is pretty high in this instance. A money-grab for hosting a media-circus public tribunal? I think we can slot this proposal under the “this is why the terrorists hate us” category.

I was quite amused today to see a copy of Sarah Palin’s “Going Rogue: An American Life” sitting on dashboard of my morning bus, obviously in possession of the bus driver.

Because it was all too obvious that he was practically brandishing the hardcover, making sure that every rider that got onboard had a good view of it. Between that, and the staredowns he was administering, I’m pretty sure the driver was daring someone, anyone, to challenge him on it. Given the well-known proclivities of a good cross-section of New Yorkers, I’d imagine the odds are good that he got into more than one verbal joust with various passengers during his shift.

All I can say is that, during my half-hour trip, no one took the bait. Not that you could tell the difference by the driver’s customarily crabby demeanor.

Not only did New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow make an overt comparison between Sarah Palin and Lady GaGa in the headline of his “Lady BlahBlah” piece today; he also weaved some GaGa-ness into the body of his writing:

I embedded as many of her song/cd titles as possible in my column. How many can you find?

I’m a sucker for word games! Especially pop-cultural ones. In descending order, starting from the top of the column, I find:

1. She’s never speechless.

2. And, she has one of the best poker faces in the game…

3. She continues to command the spotlight while they dance in the dark.

4. The race for the nomination may not be given to the slick or to the strong, but to this fame monster who seems to have the stamina to endure until the end.

Really not that many embeddings, even considering how short Blow’s column is. Overall, I prefer comparing Palin to G.I. Joe’s Baroness…