Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Instapundit:

JOHN KERRY -- a gift that keeps on giving. Unfortunately, it's a gift for the Republicans. . . .

Kerry's suggestion that the troops in Iraq are dumb failures is not only reprehensible, but false on the facts. In other words, a typical Kerry performance, just in time for the elections. Democrats must be wondering what they were thinking to nominate him in 2004, and why he won't go away now.
I just had this conversation with a friend the other day. He asked me what it was going to take for the Democrats to win both houses in November.

I told him that it was simple. All the Democrats had to do is keep their mouths shut, the Reds have been making every effort to lose the houses on their own. And a week away from the elections former Presidential candidate John Kerry has done just the opposite. So kudos Mr. Kerry. You are a blundering moron of the highest rank, and you just unnecessarily set your party back further than even a John Murtha could have I think.

Monday, October 30, 2006

More Headlines For Rove

Along with some speculation of what may happen to him and his party whether he turns out right, or wrong concerning the coming elections.

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Wired News:

Some of the web's more popular "milblogs" -- blogs maintained by present or former active duty military personnel -- are going quiet following a renewed push by U.S. military officials to scan sites for security risks.
I can understand the government's reasoning behind such a censor, as there could potentially be serious national security issues in publishing military blogs for millions to read. Still. . . I wonder what kind of first amendment issues will arise out of this, as keeping a weblog must be protected under the free speech clause.

And second, this makes me sort of sad on a personal level because I love reading milblogs. There are some really professional and informative sites out there, like this one, that stand to suffer from this and though it may be on a smaller scale, I think the blogosphere will notice the hit.

The Washington Post:

Dick Armey, former house majority leader from 1995 -2003 has written a pretty powerful essay for the Washington Post.

I don't feel as though I have anything to add to it at this time, but hope that you read it because it is quite the thought provoking piece.

Rallying, Just Days Before The Election

The Washington Times:
SELLERSBURG, Ind. -- President Bush yesterday yelled himself hoarse in his first public political rally of the 2006 election campaign, whipping thousands of supporters into chants of "USA!" as he criticized Democrats for being weak on national security and anxious to increase taxes.
President Bush made an appearance in the Ohio River Valley yesterday supporting incumbent Rep. Mike Sodrel. His vehement tirade on the Democratic Party's lack of political strength comes as no surprise as Republicans face mounting challenges leading up to the elections.

What I think will be interesting to note over the next nine days will be just how many appearances the President is able to make for individual campaigners. After the recent reform in campaign funding candidates are no longer able to use the National Committee's soft-money, instead having to rely on their own hard dollars to produce the appearance of prominent republicans that can boost their chance at victory.

A Couple Of Notable Deaths

Red Auerbach, legendary Celtics basketball coach passed Saturday; and Enolia P. Mcmillan, legendary president of the NAACP passed this last week at the ripe old age of 102.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

The Weekly Standard

In the midterm elections of November 1986, six years into the Reagan presidency, the Republican party lost control of the Senate. Barely six weeks beforehand, that still-GOP-led body had handily confirmed two crucial Reagan Supreme Court appointments: Associate Justice William Rehnquist's promotion to the chief's job and Antonin Scalia's nomination to the resulting open seat. But the newly Democratic Senate of 1987 would not prove so accommodating.
William Kristol conservatively reminds whoever it may apply to the dangers of losing a republican senate, and what that means for the continued effort on the right to build a conservative court.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Amy Sullivan of the USA Today:

On the surface, solid majorities of Americans agree with Democratic Party values. They want universal health care, support increasing the minimum wage, believe stricter environmental regulations are needed and worth paying for, and think the best way to achieve peace is through diplomacy.
Here in this nutshell of an article Sullivan has cohesively expressed what I believe to be the democrat's problem with the democrats.

Namely their penchant for polarized behavior, which begins on the active radical side of things, is quickly squashed by people who actually think with their brains, and their ensuing silence on all things related to that particular issue from fear of being called more names.

That silence coupled with a moderately cogent mantra from the right, leads to victories for the conservatives every time because as Sullivan so brilliantly states in her article "In politics, as in most areas of life, something always beats nothing."

Unfortunately for the blue team they consistently paint themselves into the silent corner and thereafter become too timid to fight their way out again.

What the democratic party needs are some politicians who are willing to think first, speak next and when the day is done not be afraid to admit to and learn from a mistake. We'll see.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Wired News:

A hacker who as a teen cracked the encryption on DVDs has found a way to unlock the code that prevents iPod users from playing songs from download music stores other than Apple's iTunes, his company said on Tuesday.
I wouldn't have thought that this type of information would be so quickly disseminated to the media, as hackers work more often than not on the DL; because this kind of thing is still illegal, right?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Play With It And See For Yourself

Economists at the American Enterprise Institute have developed a website, where through graphical interface one can adjust different factors that will affect the overall cost of the war in Iraq, to see for themselves what economic damage will be done where.

Very interesting.

Who Dunnit

Washington Post:
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) spent nearly three hours behind closed doors with the House ethics committee yesterday, describing what he knew about then-Rep. Mark Foley's relationships with young male pages and when he knew it.
So Foley flirts with boys, Reynolds calls him on it, Hastert has to testify to the ethics committee and all the while there is this he said she said game going on in the background among all the other people involved in this scandal.

I could here point out that this just keeps getting worse and worse for the GOP, but I won't. Instead I would like to emphasize the disgust that is festering amongst the American people concerning Congress, and the Senate as wholes.

How can they expect us to believe that they can run this country when they can't even run a proper investigation on only one of their members? How can they expect us to believe what any of them are saying when in this entire investigation, the one thing that has been missing is somebody coming out and saying "oh yeah, that was me; I did that?"

What has been replacing the truth has been a lot of "no, it didn't happen that way," or "that person's account is inaccurate, believe me." Well sirs, we don't believe you. Period.

Unfortunately what will be lost in this scandal because of it's timing is the overall corruption of both of our houses, and instead will further lend to a bitter loss for the Republicans, of at least one of the houses next month.

I Don't Buy It

Marc Cutillo, Guest Butler over at Head Butler:
“Overwhelm my resistance.”

These were the Butler's words when I approached him about reviewing John Mayer's new album, “Continuum”. My argument: Mayer is this generation's Eric Clapton.
Well I haven't heard the album yet, but given what I have heard from Mayer's past performances, Mr. Cutillo's opinion seems to be a bit of a stretch.
Still, I haven't heard it, so I won't here cast too many stones.

A Squash Of The Same Old Color

I just finished reading an op-ed peice in today's New York Times that I found intriguing:
THIS time of the year, the windows of America are beginning to be dotted with carefully carved jack-o’-lanterns, but in a week or so, the streets will be splotched with pumpkin guts. Orange gourds will fly from car windows, fall from apartment balconies, career like cannon fire from the arms of pranksters craving the odd satisfaction of that dull thud.
McWilliams goes on to discuss the dietary and cultural injustice that is being exacted upon our society, not by youngsters with their squash graffiti, but by modern farmers who have cultivated a strictly for show pumpkin that barely resembles the orange globes of old that were a staple to the diets of our ancestors.

The reason I found this so interesting is because I always wondered growing up what exactly was happening to our Jack O' Lanterns the day afterHalloweenn. My mother would typically make pumpkin pie, which was always a bonus, but I never believed that the entire pumpkin was being put to use for this task. So I surmised that it was simply being thrown out.

But why? Because the pumpkins grown today are mass produced to fit the $5 billion mold they have gotten themselves into, making them bitter, stringy and generally not all that appetizing. This is unfortunate. I have always wanted to cook an entire pumpkin and simply eat it as though it were meat, or any other type of squash. Now I know why I never have, and more importantly, I know how I can.

There are all kinds of websites online, like this one, where one can purchase heirloom pumpkin seeds which are much more kin to the old style pumpkins. There are also accounts like these by people who are much crazier than I am about this whole edible pumpkin thing. But crazy or not, this year I look forward to roasting a whole pumpkin and fulfilling my childhood dreams.

The Preferred Drug Of Hope

The Christian Science Monitor:
BUTARE, RWANDA – The "land of a thousand hills" is in the midst of an uphill climb back to normalcy. Known for the genocide that a decade ago claimed 800,000 lives in 100 days as Hutus massacred Tutsis, Rwandans may find that one road to healing leads through their country's thousands of coffee fields, where Hutus and Tutsis now grow their crop - together.
I'm sure I will be hearing more insider information about this from Starbucks in the near future.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Going Nowhere, Fast


Proposition 107

The Arizona Republic:
In November, Arizona voters will be asked to decide on 19 initiatives, on issues from state trust land to public smoking. But no measure strikes the emotional chord of Proposition 107, known as Protect Marriage Arizona.

On its surface, the initiative is about gay marriage. But it's also about morality and religion, sex and family, politics and health insurance, the role of government in setting a moral tone and the right of individuals to find happiness in their relationships.
Though I haven't found same sex marriage to be as prevalent as say illegal immigration in this state, it's not surprising that it is an issue as Arizona leans a little to the right. However, I think it is important to note one thing from this article:
Con: Same-sex marriage is illegal in Arizona. The real impact of the initiative will be to take away domestic-partner benefits, such as health insurance, from the partners of hundreds of government employees, gay and straight.
This is true. It is perfectly illegal to have a same sex marriage in this state. So while I offer no indication of my own personal stance on this issue, I do think it is important to illuminate the proposition with some clarification, call a spade a spade and decide whether we are willing to take away any and all opportunity of government assistance for people in same sex relationships. When put in more moderate and rational terms such as these, effectively shedding some of the religious stigma associated with homosexuals; it is not so black and white.

It is not my place here and now to cast a personal partisan vote. I do believe however, as I have stated in the past, that the majority of this country are moderate, while only the few, the proud and the ignorant are those with enough campaign money to buy the megaphones. With that in mind, I will pounce on any opportunity that may arise, to take the initiatives of either the too far left or too far right, and put them in more moderate terms; so that we may have some idea of exactly what it is we are voting on.

For more on the Pro/Con debate look here and here.

More A Problem Than A Solution

Jurist:
The US Supreme Court ruled Friday that Arizona can enforce a new law requiring voters to show government-issued ID cards at the polls for the November elections, reversing a decision rendered earlier this month by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The problem I have with this decision is that it's simply one more hoop that the youth of this country aren't going to want to jump through.

Not only will it take time out of their lives, which is never a selling point, they also have to pay for these ID cards. I think we can expect this to just not happen with the majority of the students and young workers who don't warm up to the idea of voting as it is.

So, though I do think it is well intentioned and does address some of the problems we have with border and registered voter protection, I think it will do more harm than good. I just hope it doesn't catch on.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Understandably Hesitant

The Christian Science Monitor reports:
NEW DELHI AND BOSTON - Chris Brookfield can fairly say that this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner changed his life.

He is not one of the hundreds of well-wishers who thronged Muhammad Yunus's Bangladesh home this weekend to celebrate a bright moment for a troubled nation. Nor has he ever received one of Dr. Yunus's microloans - loans of as little as $30 that have helped raise millions from abject poverty.
Read further and you will find that Yunus is none too happy with the idea of big western banks coming in and capitalizing on this phenomenal program; which is understandable. Unfortunately this is the way of things, especially when it comes to economic ventures.

Eventually it all comes down to capitalism. Which I am in no way saying I have a problem with; I don't. It's just notable to mention here because of the sheer inevitability of it all.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

This is just cool, even if it is a little ridiculous.


Senator Kerry Casting Stones

The Washington Post reports:
MANCHESTER, N.H., Oct. 14 -- Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) barely said hello to the New Hampshire Democrats who filled a banquet room here Friday night before unloading on President Bush.

"This war in Iraq is a disgrace," he said in the second sentence of his speech at a party fundraising dinner.
So what else is new?
Does anyone still listen to this guy?
I don't even mean for that to be offensive. I am genuinely curious, does anyone still listen to anything he says?

Well Rounded Up

Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit has a lengthy personal perspective of what the GOP has unnecessarily botched over the last year or so which may or may not lead to the loss of a coveted home in November.

Along with his "partial list" of errors, there is also some pretty good dialogue that follows.

I was talking last night with a fellow polisci major and the one thing that she stressed was that she felt like more and more even politicians weren't making any difference. It is well know that this is the general consensus among the populace, but I am seeing it grow stronger and stronger among the youth in the field of politics.

So of course I reminded her that all politics are local, which I have found to be true over and over again, and that when students place too much of their focus on Washington they tend to lose sight of that. And if you focus on Washington the first thing you will find is that Washington refuses to have anything to do with your difference.

Secondly I expressed my frustration with the two party system as it stands. The majority of this country are moderate, both as far as the citizens are concerned and as far as the politicians are concerned. Unfortunately all we ever hear and see are the squeaky wheels. This is of course because all of the rational moderates out there believe there is no way their voice will count for anything if they try and use it. It is a classic case of a rather intelligent 4th grader forced into silence by the big bully who will toilet dunk him and steal his lunch money if he acts up; and also occasionally for no reason at all.

This is of course no one's fault but our own. Fear of acceptance, or fear of any kind for that matter should never stand in the way of the intelligent getting in their two cents. Still, this is what's happening. So the two party system dominates because their dumb brutes, controlled by sly puppet masters in the wings are the loudest, so they get the most support in terms of sheer numbers, which in turn means the most money.

The problem for the moderates is that by definition they are not the loudest, though they inherently will have more to say. And unfortunately for them they have yet to have the innovative ideas necessary to put themselves on the map. So the $600,000 question is: What will it take for rational individuals who aspire to do great things in politics, to come up with the funding to run a smart, innovative and successful campaign against say, an oil tycoon.

I do not believe this country has given itself so completely over to the NFL that an intelligent, middle of the road kind of guy or gal with a minimal budget and some bangin' ideas doesn't stand a chance. What we need is a whole lot more of a whole little.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

This Guy's Gonna Do Alright


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