John Edwards
I ran into this post from John Edwards' campaigners.
I would still welcome any discussion about the Edwards campaign.
He's a good man.
He's still in my own 'top-tier' of the Democratic field.
Even though Edwards is from the South and I hail from the North, my own Grandfather worked in the coal mines of Pennsylvania in his youth and went on to send his
children to college so they could have a better life than he did.
Our stories are much the same.
I can identify with the place from which Senator Edwards has come and I appreciate his view of where
he thinks we should be headed.
I think he made a mistake recently in his comments to Howard Dean during the "Rock the Vote" debate, but I can
understand why so many of the contending Democrats feel the need to take the front-runner down a few pegs.
I don't think, however, we should make suspicion-generating statements about our geographic differences
when we are talking about leadership and cooperation.
Senator Edwards should emphasize we're in this together.
I look forward to seeing what Senator Edwards has to say on Meet the Press with Tim Russert this Sunday.
A Good Article on the Political Effects of Temporary Upswing in Economy
Bottom line, it's mostly about public perception.
People are easily swayed to believe all is suddenly rosy wth our economy.
Most people do not have a good understanding of the economy and rely upon Greenspan, Buffet,
brokers and talking CNBC heads to drive their opinions.
I heard Ron Brownstein on CNN yesterday chatting manically about the latest news as if we hadn't lost
2.7 million jobs in the last two years and that the news of 126,000 jobs (mostly McJob quality) was the ticket for a Bush reelection in 2004. (That's 126,000 jobs nation-wide..there are 50 states..58 counties in California alone..average out 126,000 jobs amongst 50 states and then by county).
Brownstein's a professional...he should know better than to mislead CNN viewers.
How disappointing.
Most people do not understand what this huge defecit will eventually mean for them personally if we do not turn things around.
From the article:
"...The train wreck that has been arranged for the day when the government's ravenous appetite for IOUs to finance unheard of red ink collides with both the capital needs of a recovering economy and the huge cost of my generation's impending retirement will come after next year's election. It will come, but deficits do not matter politically the way they mattered in 1992 when they were an obvious factor in the stagnation that hurt Bush's dad.."
"...There is not going to be a repeat of the third quarter performance. The latest round of tax cuts has been mostly spent, imports will go back up, there is a much smaller volume of mortgage refinancing to provide extra cash, and states and localities have only just begun slashing services and jobs.
Nonetheless there has been an unprecedented amount of budgetary and monetary stimulus applied to the US economy over the last 30 months and at some point it is going to respond. The political question is partly how much, but it also involves whether the output recovery is perceived by people as actually improving their standard of living.
For the perception question to be answered favorably for Bush, there have to be a lot more jobs producing more after-tax, after-inflation income for people who live off their paychecks and pension checks..."
~~~~~~~~
Another note on the subject.
Check out the headline:
DISASTER FOR DEMS
By JOHN PODHORETZ
NY Post
I would imagine "Great News for Americans" would be a healthy title...even though I don't
agree that the news is all that great.
I don't believe that Podhoretz considers Democrats to be "American".
There was a word I used to like to use as a kid to describe the attitude of people like those at the NY Post..
the word was "skeevy".
I looked the word up..it was actually in the dictionary.
It said:
Skeevy:
Adjective; Personal attributes that may arouse nausea an another.
Used in a sentence: "From a distance he's suave and debonair; but when he gets close, you can see he's all skeevy with his greasy hair, unshaven face, and mix of body odor and cheap cologne."
I suppose that sums up the way I view the NY Post. The cover looks inviting,
but when you get close, they're pretty skeevy.
Here's the line Skeevy Podhoetz used to end his ninth-grade-reading-level column:
"That's pretty impressive, even before you think about the 7.2 percent growth figure. The dark lining in this silver cloud is, of course, the loss of 2 million jobs - but that will be ending. Even if growth slows down to a less sizzling pace of 4 percent or so, there will be sustained job creation throughout 2004.
And if that does happen, it's almost a certainty that one person will be keeping his job: George W. Bush"
Wait until growth comes down to a fizzling pace.
I shake my head increduously and wonder how people can be so gullible.
Sanitizing the truth may become Bush's downfall
It's time to remove your news filters, Mr. Bush
This opinion rings of so much truth.
Bush has obviously been avoiding the subject of casualties in his speeches. He's attended no funerals or memorials for soldiers. I heard a father of a deceased troop stating that Bush never called him. Shouldn't a father of a
troop who gave all expect that call?
In public, Bush has been making strong and unrealistic suggestions to the American media, suggesting they self-censor when it comes to the news that isn't "pretty".
Bush's reliance upon a rarely-used rule allowing him to censor
the media's showing of the dead as they return from overseas is causing many Americans who may have been shakily supporting him to now think of him as a leader without a lot of empathy or character.
How do I come to this conclusion?
I talk with people.. everyday Americans like you and me.
"Time to remove your filters, Mr. Bush. It's a messy world out there, but we all have to live in it."
Civil Rights Attorney to Dean: "Confederate Flap: Stand Firm, Howard Dean"
By Constance L. Rice, LA Times
"Go for it. And you don't need to apologize."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giant union throws its weight behind Dean
~~~~~~~~~~~
Dean: Brutal Ruler Doesn't Justify Force
Bill Frist proving to be worse than Trent Lott as Senate Majority leader
Leadership and uniting Senate are obviously not his strong points
Current Senate train wreck:
Frist Accuses of Democrats of Undermining Intelligence Panel
By Ken Guggenheim Associated Press Writer
This is about a a Democratic memo leaked this week that outlines a strategy for exposing contradictions between intelligence reports and Bush's claims about Iraqi weapons programs.
The memo in question was apparently STOLEN...then leaked.
Jay Rockefeller's capability as an effective Senator has been in much doubt as of late, IMHO,
judging from what I've seen from him on recent FOX interviews. Rockefeller was totally
careless in allowing something like this staff-memo to fall by the wayside.
The paranoid Pat Roberts is whining that Democrats are "plotting against him".
Roberts went on with his paranoid complaint (which may actually be a deceptive way to pull the plug on a
decent investigation), saying:
"The memo said that at some point the Democrats could 'pull the trigger'. When I read that, I felt like they're going to pull the trigger on me."
Dirty business all around.
This is a clarion call to elect a President in 2004 who is outside the sloppy and jaded Washington loop.
I'm convinced that few of them hold the people's interest as their priority.
I'm especially convinced that these GOP-ers would sell their mothers to Saddam Hussein to steal power
from Democrats.
The Dems don't owe them an apology...they owe them a gobulous spit in their thieving slanderous faces.
If the Bush administration hadn't abused intelligence and misled the people so many times while troops continue
to die, it never would have come to this sad state of affairs in the Senate. The Republicans on the Intelligence
Committee are in a pickle. How long can they continue to cover for the worst President in American history while attempting to slander their political Democratic brethren in Congress?
They're beginning to look ludicrous.
Here is the most ludicrous statement of them all...not to mention insulting to the intelligence of the American people:
From NewsMax:
"Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Thursday that Sen. Zell Miller, D-Ga., was right to charge this week that a memo outlining plans by Senate Intelligence Committee Democrats to politicize Iraq war intelligence borders on "treason."
Oh, please. Someone get Orrin Hatch a valium or a lollipop. He's going off again.
MUSIC BREAK: Go here to hear Orrin's
lovely and inspirational recording of "Heal Our Land". Then start praying we obtain a real leader
who will do just that.
I hope this committee investigation derailment orchestrated artfully and stealthily by the GOP members of
the committee will speed us toward a full and independent investigation.
This memo could never be a bigger scandal than the scandalous reason the Committee is there in the first place--
a President who misled (perhaps criminally) the people of America about the reasons our sons and daughters would meet horrendous
conditions..horrendous injury...horrendous death.
Now THERE'S the scandal.
Cowardice violations can be punished by death.
Luckily, the Army dismissed a cowardice charge and filed a lesser count against an Army interrogator who sought counseling after he saw the body of an Iraqi man cut in half by American fire.
The poor fellow won't have to die because he got upset and sick over a bloody mangled corpse cut in half.
Oh, goodie.
How awesome of the Army to not kill him.
I'm feeling warm and fuzzy..how about you?
There's a great recruiting come-on...
"Join us and we just might not KILL you for puking when you see someone's guts blown all over you."
The bogeymen are allegedly stalking American cities
'Mwuhahahaha!'
MEMRI, the Middle East Media Research Institute, is reporting a message titled "A Warning to Muslims in America". It's an alleged directive which was issued by the previously unknown "Islamic Bayan Movement" and first ran on the Global Islamic Media Web site this past Monday.
I wonder--is this a deliberate scare tactic on the part of MEMRI (who has shown unusual bias against the Arab world in the past) ...or our own government?
I trust them so little these days that I wouldn't put it past them.
FOX is always a seemingly willing and avid participant in the dissemination of dramatic and terrifying information.
Maybe it's just fundamental Islam f*king with our minds.
All I know (and/or believe) is this--
1. There's a hell of a lot more good people in this world than there are terrorists.
2. We have never come close to meeting the objective of bringing Saddam or Osama Bin Laden to justice.
Where are they? If we were really going to be tough Texas-troopers, why weren't a couple of cheap-ass bullets to the back of the head used to remove Saddam and Osama instead of hundreds of American troops' lives and hundreds and hundreds more troops' limbs (while we still don't have them?)
3. We haven't come close to meeting the objective of 'draining the swamp' of terrorists. The bogeymen are still
taunting us (or at least we're being told they are) and they are multiplying like baby rabbits since we hopped on the Iraq war-wagon.
4-With righteous and simple, decent leadership, we could turn this mess around.
Who's the Enemy?
Have you seen this theory?
Do you buy into rumors and suspicion when you consider that in the Middle East, November 9th is written as "9-11"?
Are you going to let this stop you from shopping?
Will you still keep that Broadway show on your intinerary?
A great cross-section of Politics in the real America
General Discussion at American View is one of the best cross-section representations of the real America.
This is a group of people who are decidedly diverse in their political affiliations.
They have known eachother for several years and through all forms of heated argument, have found a way to
stay together and talk it through..and walk away when necessary.
This is what America's all about.
The view cannot possibly be more American than this.
Executive privilege seen as leak-case option
Shielding material is not ruled out
Beyond belief.
Filthy treason may be upheld and shielded under the name of Executive privilege.
I'd say "only in America.." but this kind of thing would happen in any nation in this world where
the people are corruptly barred from justice.
Without a special prosecutor, there will never be any justice...let alone any fruitful investigation.
"Despite President Bush's repeated pledges of full cooperation, administration officials yesterday refused to rule out invoking executive privilege to shield some documents from Justice Department investigators looking into whether someone in the White House illegally leaked the name of a CIA operative...."
PEACE DEAL ABORTED
ABC did some damn good investigative journalism here.
This story has long, swift legs. Congress had best keep up with it.
Note to Congress:
Investigate.
NY TIMES STORY
BBC STORY
GUARDIAN STORY
ANANOVA STORY
~~~~~~~~~
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfled said at a Pentagon news conference Thursday:
"The regime of Saddam Hussein had ample - well beyond ample - opportunity to avoid war..."
They forgot to add a line he didn't vocalize, yet what I imagine must be true...
"...but we did not- in good faith - allow them an ample - opportunity to avoid a war that we knew would take the lives of hundreds of our own troops and thousands of Iraqi civilians' lives."
I strongly believe Donald Rumsfeld is lying through his teeth.
Sports, Ideology and Other Distractions
-On Exploiting Decent People
-Rising to the Top
-The Evolution of Cooperation
~~~~~~~~~~~
This is an excellent column by blogateer (modern-day pamphleteer) Anonymoses.
Democratic Debate: Senator John Edwards Has Made A Grave Error
"Let me tell you, the last thing we need in the South is somebody like you
coming down and telling us what we need to do."
Who said this?
Was it a Civil War-era white Southerner speaking to Lincoln?
Was it a Civil-Rights-era white Southerner speaking to LBJ?
Was it Zell Miller speaking to Tom Daschle?
Most curiously, no.
It was Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards speaking to Howard Dean.
Why?
Because Howard Dean wishes to include all Americans under the "big tent"...proclaiming that those
with Confederate flags were welcome.
I think this one line may prove to be the biggest mistake John Edwards ever could have made..
for his own candidacy and for the self-destructing Democratic party.
If you are truly American, it's all our Heritage..whether you live in Bangor, Maine or Biloxi, Mississippi
I walked through a Confederate cemetary in Fredericksburg, Virginia last Spring.
I understood that the young men laid under that ground in their beloved and beautiful Virginia
didn't fight for that flag because they hated blacks. It wasn't as simple as that. I wish we could say it was.
There is still a civil war going on. It's a war of ideologies.
Howard Dean could be our Uniter.
God and Nature know we need a Uniter.
Our united nation is withering before our very eyes.
John Edwards sounded more like Zell Miller...or a rebel secessionist..or a resentful 1960s-Selma white... last night than sounding like a 21st-century enlightened, inclusive Presidential candidate.
He made a mistake far more revealing than anything Howard Dean could have said on the subject.
By simply separating Southerners from Americans and feigning offense at Dean's supposed Northern arrogance and
intervention, Edwards is showing America that he's a throwback to 1850s-America.
My God, we don't need that kind of thought anymore.
I suspect there is still strong Southern separatist thought within the GOP, but I did not suspect
that those who claimed to be progressive still harbored such territorial suspicion.
This isn't North vs. South..it shouldn't be.
THIS IS AMERICA.
We cry "United We Stand" and in the next breath betray animosty toward our
fellow party-member because of his geographical origin.
If this is still North vs. South, even among our most progressive politicians,
then we've made no progress since the end of the dreadful Civil War.
It only leads me to believe what I have believed for a long time.
The Civil War was never competely resolved.
War rarely provides a true healing or a true resolution.
When the North "won" the Civil War, they applied a really good band-aid, but I think it had a "TO BE CONTINUED" sign stashed under the bandage.
The GOP is slick and savvy enough to know not to air their filthy laundry in front of all America.
They are the worst of all in all their white hegemony.
We know it. It speaks for itself.
The Democratic party shows weakness by letting themselves fall all over each other in all these debates when they know the GOP Wolf and all the drooling right-partisan pundits are on their heels.
Howard Dean is a maverick who refreshingly spills the truth..he's the blatantly honest child in the
"Emporer's New Clothes" tale. He is intelligent enough to spill the truth and let all other candidates
betray themselves for the people they truly are.
Win or lose in 2004, he is the face of the future of America.
John Edwards made a grave error for himself and for his party last night.
Howard Dean is holding a hand out to the South.
(It's amazing-the lengths to which our politicians go to pander to them)
Howard Dean: "I am not going to take a back seat to anybody in terms of fighting bigotry.”
"We [Democrats] are not going to make progress if we don’t broaden the tent.”
John Edwards: "Let me tell you, the last thing we need in the South is somebody like you
coming down and telling us what we need to do."
WHO IS THE REAL SEPARATIST?
~~~~~~
see William Saletan's commentary about the bum rap that was laid on Howard Dean by his fellow Democratic candidates.
I heard James Carville on NPR saying that the Democrats lost a crucial opportunity to turn the whole issue around
to Bush's hypocrisy-through-silence on the Confederate flag issue in South Carolina.
They should have known better than to trash one another. As Anonymoses eloquently wrote recently,
"Democrats, Use Your Time Wisely".
~~~~~~
"Howard Dean is a maverick who refreshingly spills the truth..he's the blatantly honest child in the
"Emporer's New Clothes" tale. He is intelligent enough to spill the truth and let all other candidates
betray themselves for the people they truly are."................
"But he has nothing on!" cried a child.
"The child tells the truth," said his father quietly.
And the people began to whisper to one another what the child had said.
"He has nothing on ! The child says he has nothing on!"
And the Emporer, hearing what they had said, shivered. For he knew their words were TRUE.
But it would never DO to stop the procession...so he held himself stiffer than ever.
Real Men Aren't Metrosexual (?)....
Being Anti-Iraq-War is Gay...No decent Republican is Metrosexual...
infers Columnist Mark Steyn
Someone should suggest to Steyn that he use a better ending for his columns
than his cheapshot "Nah-Nah"-quality
"Or maybe that 7.2 percent economic growth will collapse to 6.4 percent.."
That 7.2 percent, over time will prove to be like the first little pig's house.
One huff..one puff of stinky air and it's bound to be blown to hell with no solid foundation.
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"7.2%, eh?"
( (whooooooooooosssshhhh) )
As Paul Krugman quoted the late Herbert Stein in today's NY Times column,
"Things that can't go on forever, don't."
A real man---a political metrosexual--would understand that in his trying to see Venus best
from his vantage point on Mars,
there is a very, very big picture to be viewed.
A dynamo-American political metrosexual would be concerned with liberty and justice for all instead of living in a state of denial in dark ignorance.
It is no sin for a real man to change his mind when he sees what a blooming disaster has been
produced by his darkness.
Ego-driven Republican men tend to fail to see things clearly and therefore fail to
do the right things..even though they claim to BE 'the Right'. What's worse, ego-driven Republican men tend to
pridefully and stubbornly hold to their "absolute truths" and destroy others in the process.
In order for any of us to 'do the right thing', we first need to see not only Mars,
but Venus and the rest of the big picture.
There is an entire universe out here, boys.
That's why I love Metrosexuals. They see the true and right relationship of all things.
That's the only path to liberty and justice for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters.
Oh---and they usually have the hottest coifs and threads.
Too, too Mars
No hinge-head hairdos will do for our men.
And ohhhh, they understand the secret to a happy life is well-moisturized skin!
Metrosexuals have the secret to happiness
I'm glad Steyn admits to being a Metrosexualphobe.
It confirms every suspicion I've ever had about the collective ego of the GOP male population.
Guess what?
Women adore Metrosexuals...
..and we still have the right to vote, much to your bloody chagrin.
Andrew Cohen on 21st century enlightenment
What does enlightenment mean in the 21st century?
What does enlightenment mean in the 21st century? It really means everything. It means the evolution of our species and the survival of our species. It doesn't mean anything less than that. And very practically, it means that more and more of us have to be willing to recognize who we truly are, take responsibility for the implications, and be willing to live the gift of human life for very different reasons than the ones we've been living for up until now.
Andrew Cohen
Oslo, Norway, May 2003
from AndrewCohen.org
or additional inspiration, see The Guru and the Pandit
-Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber in dialogue.
Andy Rooney: "If I Were Bush's Speechwriter ..."
Here's at least one good thing from CBS this week.
The bad news is that the cowardly CBS has allowed themselves to be censored by the free market.
The unobjective screamers who have never seen the television movie about Ronald Reagan
have ensured that it will be hidden from non-premium TV-customers' sight due to a risk of financial damage
to the network through advertising loss.
When first amendment rights are removed by 'special interests', via the free market, which is what has doubtlessly occurred here, we see
just another example of how "liberty" is imperfectly produced by the free market.
There were no real debates...no votes...only loud complants from a few partisan people with a stick up their ass
about artistic freedom.
I plan to boycott the integrity-challenged CBS and their sponsors..period.
I hate most of their shows, anyhow. They've nearly broken Dan Rather. He even looks broken nowadays..have you noticed?
CSI (not 'Miami') is about the only worthwhile production I've seen there in the past five years.
The damage caused to CBS by the silent majority will wind up doing them far more damage
than they could possibly imagine.
I hope the Showtime version omits nothing from the original script.
The anti-war camp was right, but that's no reason to be smug
By Jonathan Freedland
THE GUARDIAN
It IS, however, reason to elect new American leadership in 2004.
Freedland is right on the money, however, when he says:
"..It's no good thinking, as some on the left have, that there could be merit in the US (especially) getting a bloody nose in Iraq."
"..People who can murder UN or Red Cross workers do not deserve to be viewed as warriors in a heroic anti-imperialist struggle."
"..Those who opposed the war need to start thinking ahead. Some activists are already doing just that, debating what needs to happen next."
"..occupiers have responsibilities: once they take over a country, it is up to them to make sure power and water work, schools and hospitals function. The Americans and Brits cannot just cut and run. Rather, they should work out a fast-track plan for a peaceful withdrawal, handing power over Iraq to Iraqis themselves...In place of an American pro-consul, the country needs to come under a UN mandate. This would require a loss of face by Washington, letting the likes of France and Germany in on the action, but the alternative -- young American soldiers remaining a shooting gallery for Iraqi fighters -- is surely worse."
"...the peace camp has to put its victory in the last argument behind it -- and fight the battle ahead."
I suggest a full reading of ths article.
It makes a world of sense.
Political schadenfreude is dandy until you realize that the Iraqis are suffering injustice upon injustice.
I only hope people will not forget the dangerous stupidity of Bush if and when this is all said and done.
Afghanistan Will be 'Islamic Republic of Afghanistan'...
Nation to Remain a Theocracy
Will the progression from Islamic Emirate to Islamic Republic create conditions for healthy democracy at all?
Does the absence of sharia law equate to liberty?
An Islamic Republic is based more on obedience and allegiance and less on democracy.
There is always extreme contradiction when you have what constitutes the rule of God vs. the rights of citizens.
An open society, a crucial ingredient of healthy democracy, is discouraged when theocratic forces are allowed to
dominate.
THINK IRAN!
I am having serious doubts about America's post 9-11 success in Afghanistan.
It causes me grief to think our troops are dying for a similar result in Iraq.
~~~~
Ref: Afghanistan Constitution
Clinton the Philosopher
" Once you believe you have the absolute truth,
then it’s not possible for everyone to count..
or for everyone to have a role to play in the world.
There is a truth,
life is a search for it,
religion is a pathway to it,
but we’re all imperfect and nobody has it. "
_______________
William Jefferson Clinton
from a speech at Yale Center for the Study of Globalization
31 Oct 2003
~~~~~~~
Clinton the Democratic advisor
To a Yale student’s pessimistic query of how to battle what he perceived as a right-leaning uncritical media and the Republican dominance of the federal government, Clinton advised to fight against it.
"Instead of being bereft, go work for someone who wants to do something different and turn it around,"
the president said, pointing to the energy surrounding the presidential campaigns of Democrats Howard Dean and Gen. Wesley Clark.
