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The situation of our country and the world has me feeling very uneasy. I don’t understand anymore. I never did understand. Karl Rove is an evil genius. I can’t figure out what their ends are.
Continue reading ‘Trying to Make Sense, Please Help’ »

Democrats Block Bolton

From the all indications, Bolton is not the man that I want representing our country at the UN. Well, Bush isn’t the man I want for president either, projecting our image to the world, we all know how that’s going.

I wish the Democrats would offer up an alternative. They aren’t helping themselves by merely continuing to block Bolton. I have no ideas who this credible alternative would be, but conceivably, they could come up with someone a majority of the senate would approve.

Abuse Week – Behind Bush’s latest assault on the press. By Jacob Weisberg

Newsweek hardly bears sole responsibility for rioting deaths in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which were fomented by anti-American agitators and reflect both a pathological religious fanaticism and anger over many other issues. What’s more, Bush’s flacks are in no position to prosecute this case. When it comes to torturing inmates to death, sexually humiliating prisoners, and otherwise doing our best to outrage the religious sensitivities of devout Muslims, Scott McClellan has nothing to say. But faced with an erroneous charge that an American guard might have insulted a copy of the Quran, he turns livid and demands satisfaction. There’s something of a pot-and-kettle problem here.

But the problem with the Bush administration excoriating Newsweek’s insensitivity to Islam isn’t just hypocrisy. There’s a larger issue of bad faith and an underlying lack of appreciation for the necessary role of a free and independent press. With increasing forcefulness, Bush has tried to undermine the legitimacy of the media, or at least that subculture within it that shows any tendency to challenge him. When the Bushies say there ought to be more of a check on the Fourth Estate, they aren’t really asking for more care and accuracy on the part of journalists. They’re expressing frustration that they still have to put up with criticism at all.

Reminds me of a certain Wilco song…

It’s become so obvious
You are so oblivious to yourself

You’re tied in a knot
But I’m not gonna get caught
Calling a pot kettle black
Every song’s a comeback
Every moment’s a little bit later

I guess Bush hopes we’ve forgotten about everything else they’ve done.

Awesome, awesome, awesome!

Twins, Hennepin County have stadium deal.

Under the terms of the plan to be unveiled at a Metrodome press conference Monday, the Twins and the county would build a $360 million, 42,000-seat open-air stadium. The site is near the confluence of Interstate Hwy. 394, the end of the Hiawatha Light Rail line and the proposed Northstar commuter rail in downtown Minneapolis.

Now I REALLY want to live closer to the light rail line…

Privatize Social Security? I can tell you who is happy about that idea: See That Line at the Ferrari Dealer?

I forgot to post this editorial up on Thanksgiving, but as usual Thomas Friedman wrote an excellent opinion piece for the NYTimes:

Yes, I want to get almost the entire Republican side of the House of Representatives to bend its ethics rules just for me. I want to be able to twist the arms of House Republicans to repeal a rule that automatically requires party leaders to step down if they are indicted on a felony charge – something a Texas prosecutor is considering doing to DeLay because of corruption allegations.

My favorite, since I love the H2:

If I can’t be The Man, then I at least want to be the owner of a Hummer – with American flag decals all over the back bumper, because Hummer owners are, on average, a little more patriotic than you and me.

Yes, I want to drive the mother of all gas-guzzlers that gets so little mileage you have to drive from gas station to gas station. Yes, I want to drive my Hummer and never have to think that by consuming so much oil, I am making transfer payments to the worst Arab regimes that transfer money to Islamic charities that transfer money to madrassas that teach children intolerance, antipluralism and how to hate the infidels.

Very interesting article in the Economist that I found today, entitled The Fear Myth

The author’s premise is that the Republicans didn’t beat the Democrats because of fear, but because they sold hope better.

But if they are going to extract any useful lessons from their humiliation, the Democrats need to realise that the Republicans didn’t just beat them on fear. They clobbered them on hope.

I don’t think that the author gives enough credit to the power of fear. I think that it is a very powerful motivator, and I would argue that fear is a bigger motivator than hope. But I do agree with him that the Democrats didn’t spend enough time on hope.

There was no way to compete with Cheney’s “You’re all gonna die” speeches, but there was no effort to channel the soaring optimism of Obama’s convention speech:

Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation, not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

That is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles.

and…

In the end, that is God’s greatest gift to us, the bedrock of this nation; the belief in things not seen; the belief that there are better days ahead. I believe we can give our middle class relief and provide working families with a road to opportunity. I believe we can provide jobs to the jobless, homes to the homeless, and reclaim young people in cities across America from violence and despair. I believe that as we stand on the crossroads of history, we can make the right choices, and meet the challenges that face us. America!

Obviously, Obama wasn’t running. From the Economist article:

Arguably the only optimistic thing about the Kerry campaign was its slogan: ‚ÄúHelp is on the way‚Äù. In general, the Democrats focused on America’s intractable problems. By contrast, Mr Bush not only sounded upbeat, but also came up with solutions, of sorts.

So read the article, it’s quite good. Not that I agree with the whole thing. But there are things to ponder…