Exploring the Intriguing
Category: Current Affairs
I wonder if it really has significance but there are numerous pundits already speculating on the possibilities of Presidential/Vice Presidential pairings. Clinton/Richardson, Hagel/Bloomberg or Bloomberg/Hagel, Gore/Obama are all being floated as likely teams. Is this a painfully premature shift or the start of a new mechanism for creating momentum, support and anticipation?
Just one of the speculative ideas:
Clinton-Richardson ticket in the making?
TP
John Perry Barlow
[Dick] Cheney believes the world is an inherently
dangerous place and he sees the rest of the world
as… populated by four-year-olds with automatic
weapons.
Reading this quote by Barlow in the book Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency helped me understand why I struggle so much to relate to him at all. Not personally but politically. It’s frequently hard to make sense of his paranoia, sense of entitlement and obsession with secrecy. Barlow’s quote makes it a bit easier to decipher the madness behind his methods.
TP
I just have to share this.
We attended a memorial service recognizing 3500 American deaths in Iraq. While there, someone named Jim engaged my son in conversation about George W. Bush. Jim asked my son what he would trade for GWB. My son said he’d trade Bush in for garbage. Jim asked how anyone would know the difference. My son paused for a moment then said, ‘Garbage doesn’t lie.’
Train up a child…
TP
I am looking forward to tonight’s Republican debate. The million dollar question on my mind is this: Which Republican(s) will attempt to vault into top tier status at the xpense of Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani?
Romney is an easy target and I imagine at least a couple candidates will jab at him at least indirectly. My guess is that there will be a stronger, more pointed attack on Giuliani over abortion. This is still the big ticket issue for a great number of social conservatives who can forgive nearly anything else. Death penalty? Optional. Gay marriage? No sell but there’s at least wiggle room. Abortion? Fuggedaboudit. We don’t vote for you.
While it’s true that Romney has also been, uh, inconsistent, about his perspectives on abortion, Giuliani is more likely to be the subject of a bromide this evening. He’s the bigger target and seems so, pardon the pun, divorced, from his religious principles, Romney can at least couch his change as connected to his personal religious journey. No one would buy that from Giuliani.
Tonight should be fun.
TP
<a href="http://www.gregpalast.com/rfk-rove-and-roves-brain-should-be-in-jail-not-in-office/
“>Vote Caging
<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2167284?nav=tap3
“>Slate responds to vote caging
Has this really been a standard practice? This is simply bizarre to me.
Is the Bush White House so insulated from scrutiny that even disenfranchising oh, a million or so, Americans is actually going unnoticed? Apparently yes. I’m gonna get sick.
What is an appropriate response to this level of disdain for the rule of law? Where’s a Cindy Sheehan on this?
TP
I have a good sense of the direction of the Democratic presidential candidates so far. Yes, there’s sniping but that’s to be expected. The stakes can’t be much higher. Edwards is consistently pushing to make certain that Iraq is still the big deal, Obama is pumping up health care and Clinton is doing a good job of keeping her head on the swivel.
There are even a couple more candidates for whom I’d feel perfectly comfortable voting. That’s such a change from the last few presidential elections. Thank goodness.
TP
Okay, here’s the link. The Sports Guy on ESPN.com writes about Cry Me A River as “the most destructively vengeful song of all-time”. My wife and I have been talking about this for a couple years now. It’s hard for me to remember sometimes (or maybe I just want to forget) but Britney was the first White Aailyah.
{Eventually I ‘ll work through why NKOTV was the Black New Edition but it seems so obvious I haven’t bothered.}
When Aaliyah died it was national mourning for Black America; I suppose what we’re seeing now is the possibible slow death of Britney.
In Freakonomics, there’s a great line from Stephen Dubner about Britney Spears being ‘an effect not a cause’ (of her given name not anything more, uh, public). I like to think of her that way sometimes, ‘an effect not a cause’.
Apparently, vengeance hath no fury like a Justin scorned.
TP
One of the few TV shows I try to watch weekly is the Lehrer newshour. Actually, I want to make a point of watching a single segment. It’s David Brooks and Mark Shields on Friday evenings. They usually get a nice chunk of time and have fascinating, wide ranging conversations like yesterday’s. It’s this kind of political conversation that makes me sad for the folks for whom Fox News and Air America are the sole providers of information. Well, among other things.
TP
the headline speaks volumes…
Bush calls for ‘Culture of Life’
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18091269/
Abortion and war are entirely different of course but isn’t the bottom line the same? It’s so hard to imagine the logical gymnastics Bush must do on a regular basis. Well, I guess, actually, it’s about what someone once told him Jesus woujld have wanted.
TP
The WhoDeannyPod 