Politics

McCain has had a number of policy mis-steps lately. Actually kind of a staggering number of them. It's almost as if he decided it was time to start taking policy positions, but hadn't quite gotten around to talking to an advisor about it. Yesterday Joseph Lieberman had to step up to McCain while he was still at the microphone and correct him after he claimed that Iran (shiites!) was helping Al Qaeda (sunnis!), which of course is their blood enemy! It's more than a little embarassing, and if so much attention wasn't being focused on the Democratic "civil war" at the moment I think it would be getting a lot more attention.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7308563.stm When I read this I had think "Wow, that is a really good idea. Finally, someone in the West is making a sane foreign policy move." This is just one more reason why I like Sarkozy. These are the steps that smaller nuclear powers need to be taking toward disarmament and non-proliferation. Now I just want to see if the UK leadership has the guts to do the same. What do you think?

First, Glenn Beck: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/14/beckfloridamichigan/index.html "People who bought houses they couldn't afford with loans they didn't understand want their lenders to change the terms." Next the BBC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBIJH6--vsM First, let assume Glenn Beck wasn't directing his comments at everyone affected by this situation but just at the people who were truly ignorant of the terms of their loans. The BBC program highlights people who were unable to meet their mortgage payments resulting from outside circumstances like illness. However, I'm a little bit annoyed by placing the onus of this problem squarely on the …

I have mixed feelings about the John Hagee situation, but I think more questions need to be asked. For those who haven't heard, he's McCain's pastor, has been drawing controversy after some of his more insensitive (but apparently quite common) remarks became public. Here are some examples: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/02/28/hagee/index.html Source here Hagee also said that I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that. and that I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans. Anyway, to sum…

So, let's vote. That's what Democracy is all about, right? http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=164519&title=recessional-terms http://thousandreasons.org/ http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushresume.htm

76% of Americans think their (and also my) country is in a recession: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-03-17-economy-poll_N.htm For the first time in history, the Swiss Franc is worth more than the dollar: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aeOYYi8PVJG8 Not to mention that the Japanese Yen now outvalues the dollar, which it hasn't been for more than ten years. Oh, and Canadian dollars are worth more than American dollars. So much for all those jokes. This is scary: I know it hasn't been 2 quarters yet, but can we start calling it a recession?

There was fascinating Supreme Court debate yesterday over gun ownership. For the first time in 70 years the Supreme Court is going to consider, and perhaps finally resolve, one of the great unanswered questions in US constitutional law. The case involves a total ban on handguns in (ironically?) Washington, D.C., which has been in place for over 30 years but has more or less failed to stop handgun violence. Opponents accuse the ban of being unconstitutional, and in most parts of the US lawmakers would agree (in fact over 300 congressmen & women signed an amicus brief to that effect). The D.C. mayor has a different view, and his view does have its supporters. …

Women ski jumpers -- the only Winter Olympic sport that doesn't allow competition for both men and women. It may not sound like a big deal, but I think it's interesting to look at why they're being denied. In the case of most male sports, female versions were brought in under an equal rights action. But ski jumping wasn't included back then because it was considered "too dangerous". That excuse isn't used anymore, now they say "not enough competition". But that argument doesn't work either, because over 80 women would like to compete in Vancouver in 2010, versus only 36 in the first female snowboarding competition that was allowed just a few years ago. Accordin…

This is a subject I'll admit I don't know a lot about. I've read various places that the technology now available to drill is very low impact and could be used without any significant ecological damage. I do recall a cartoon from back when this issue was hot that I thought made a fair point. If I can recall it had the US on an ark while the Flood was proceeding and they were preparing the drill through the bottom of the ark (i.e. drilling in ANWR to make gasoline to contribute to global warming). That's one of my favorite political cartoons. So what do you think about this? Is it ecophilia gone amok or does drilling really present a great enough danger to the Arc…

This is really the essence of what continues to drives this war. Should we feel obligated to make everything perfect for however long it takes, or should we step back and realize that this was already a big mess that we just happened to complicate? I think the answer is pretty obvious, but I had to do a little research to back up my claims. Yeah, there has always been old wounds between Sunnis and Shias, between pagan Persians and Shia Arabs, between Iranians and Iraqis, and between secular Baathists and anyone else, though they obviously favored Sunnis over Shias. It looks like the key issue these days is that the Baathists are out of power, especially Saddam is o…

I was a bit surprised to find that the typical suicide bomber in Iraq is not a born and bred, down-and-out Iraqi youngster with nothing left but to take out their frustration on the current system. Rather, they are pawns in an organized recruiting system involving young Sunnis from Saudi Arabia and North Africa, not necessarily on their last legs, but social outcasts coming from large families where they want to make their mark on the world. Kind of interesting to see that they know about this operations center in Syria. It would seem that if we know this much about the system, then fellow Moslem nations should be doing more to stop it, especially Saudi Arabia. This …

This is the title of a new book that details some of the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to the American people and the American taxpayer. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2008/03/08/bosti108.xml The direct costs of the Iraq war - including salaries, munitions, materials, aircraft flying costs etc - are now approaching a trillion dollars. However, the INDIRECT costs are far greater. This includes what the war is doing to oil supplies and oil price, the cost of rehabilitation of the wounded, psychological trauma etc.

Two weeks ago I wouldn't have thought much of anything could convince Rush Limbaugh and the far right to get behind John McCain. But this story seems to be doing exactly that. I doubt Limbaugh is outright supporting him (has anybody caught his show this week, by any chance?), but he certainly railed at the New York Times over this story. McCain stood before reporters yesterday and fielded questions until they literally ran out of them. As I understand it, the general idea is that he's being accused of cheating on his wife with a lobbyist about eight years ago, and more importantly, giving inappropriate legislative favors to the lobbyist in question. This is…

[edit]split from here[/edit] So is your deductive reasoning, then. Halliburton is not an oil company, and its stock rise is due to the fast-track, bidless contracts they received from the Bush administration regarding the rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructure, not the rising price of oil or the reopening of Iraqi oil production, neither of which benefit Halliburton in any way. You would have been better served linking ExxonMobil stock. But then you can't just throw an ellipses after it and auto-link them to the Bush administration, huh? This is what I mean by SFN political correctness, by the way. You can just scream "Hallburton!" and throw an ellipse…

Lots of chatter today about the possibility of a new primary in Michigan. Florida governor Charlie Crist is still holding out for a seating of the existing delegates, but that would be hard to rationalize in Michigan, where Obama didn't even appear on the ballot (something I was surprised to hear today). Michigan could hold a new primary as soon as June, but what I thought was interesting (and therefore worth mentioning here) was that the kind of primary they're talking about having is a firehouse primary. That's not a term that you hear every day in on the national level but you do hear from time to time on the local level, especially in the old South. I've hear…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080308/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_torture Certainly not entirely unexpected, but I really dislike living under leadership whose bottom line seems to be the argument that torture (in addition to stripping us of our civil liberties like spying on us and imprisoning people indefinitely without trial) keeps us safe. How about we sacrifice some of that alleged safety for basic human rights and civil liberties?

Back in January we had what I felt was a pretty congenial and interesting discussion about the surge (which can be found here). People seemed willing to agree that the surge seemed to be producing a lower level of violence, and some degree of political progress was happening. More has occurred since then, including further coalition steps between Shiite and Sunni, and a continuance of Al Sadr's cease fire. But I for one am becoming increasingly concerned that the dip in violence has bottomed out (and, as we saw the last few days, may be increasing again), and that we may not see the desired conclusion of political progress before it ends and we have to pull back f…

I refer to our new system of fencing along the Southwest border, and the continuous successes to circumvent it by any means thinkable. My first reaction is that, well, it's not fortified enough, not a good enough fence. One of the rough drafts I saw of the fence is that it was supposed to be a double layered fence, 12 ft. apart, with lots of razor wire around it. You know, the kind with electricity running through it and sensors placed every 100 ft. for when someone tries to break in. Of course, when you have a 3,000 pound battering ram around you, it really changes the dynamics of everything. Judging by this article I have read, this fence doesn't quite compare.…

I read about this and I`m like WTF!??? as a Christian Myself, I still cannot believe the utter Hypocrisy going on here, not to mention Who gives them the RIGHT to add "new things" to the Bible!? (a sin in itself) http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hOr8FN-nX3tSMtDAAk-6sgPGCu7g http://africa.reuters.com/odd/news/usnL1096023.html http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,23348817-5005962,00.html if Wealth is a Sin, how do they reconcile that with the fact that the Vatican and all it`s Treasures and artwork worth Billions! and are the Richest religious organisation on the planet (we`re talking Obscenely Rich!), and then spouts off This crap, when the…

Going in to this election, I held the belief that Hillary would have a vast advantage of personal experience to draw from in order to get things done right within the realm of things that can actually get accomplished. Experience counts for a lot. Of course, it wasn't long enough before I found out about Obama's rhetorical abilities and thought to myself, "Well, this means either way, things should turn out fairly well either way, from a Democratic standpoint. Granted, he's a good talker, but he is knowledgeable with the basic aspects of the general job description, so he is not another Reagan. Call him another Slick Willy if you want, but that's just the way it is w…

It's been nine years since war ended here (in Kosovo) and three years of tiring negotiations with the serbians which turned out to be a complete failure. The Security Council did not manage to solve the issue of Kosovo since Russia contradicted vigorously to support the independence of Kosovo, and now it seems like everything is coming to a happy end! On the 17th of this month we expect from our parliament to declare Kosovo's independence and soon after a big big number of countries are expected to accept our independence. IT"S COMING TRUE! I can't believe it! If you guys only had the possibility to see the emotions that are living among us! It's an absolutely wonder…

The whole episode is available for online viewing at this URL: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/haditha/ I put off watching this for a couple of weeks because I assumed it would be pretty ugly and uncomplimentary of the Marines. Boy was I wrong. They completely destroyed Iraqi eyewitness testimony and in the end seemed to support the overall exoneration of the Marines, focusing instead on the complexities of ground combat. And John Murtha does not make out well in this at all. I tell you what, anybody who believes in liberal bias in the media should watch this. And of course anybody who thinks Haditha was a massacre should watch it as well. They …

Michael Ramirez is my new favorite political cartoonist: As I understand it, Obama wants to go after "Al Qaeda"... in Afghanistan. You know, the people who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. He thinks the war in Iraq has diverted attention from this group. McCain and the conservative blogosphere retort: "But Al Qaeda is already in Iraq lolz! U are teh stupeed" If the BBC documentary "The Power of Nightmares" is to be believed, Al Qaeda (bin Laden's loosely organized militant Islamicist organization) assumed the name after US media began reporting that as their name. In other words, they chose the name to fuel media coverage and speculation. That's e…

We got spirit, yes we do! We got spirit, how about you? We got more! We got more! We got more! This was so silly. Once they closed the regular polls at 7:00, if you got spirit and enough of it you could come back and vote again! The ones with the most drive and spirit wins! This does not even include superdelegates.

I'm getting up a head of steam to put some support behind a national health care program. The US healthcare system has been hijacked by insurance carriers whose business is seemingly inimicable to good health care; they make more money if they neglect our health and deny our claims. The insurance companies and health manglement companies have become so wealthy and powerful they can affect legislation and the media in their favor. Lobbying for US healthcare dollars allows them to mire us even deeper into a system that is neither effective nor efficient. They've spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to shoot down any reform, even resorting to smear campaigns…