Let me 'splain, no let me sum up
Work is more than a little hectic, and even when I get home I've hit my aggravation quota, so I have been ignoring politics/news lately.
Near as I can tell, the Democratic Party's primary race has degenerated into Mrs. Hillary Clinton's triumphal procession. That's possibly the worst thing they could do, regardless of whether you are talking in terms of good for the country, or good for the Democratic Party, or in terms of producing a Presidential race where I have to engage even one solitary brain cell to think about who I should vote for.
If Mrs. Clinton and Rudy Guliani go head to head, I'm voting for Cthulu in the write-in bloc. I'm tired of this whole 'lesser evil' crap.
California is on fire, and it's all George Bush's fault, according to Ms. Boxer, a notable example of the Democratic Party's taste in stupidity.
Speaking of California congresscritters, what is up with Pete Stark? Did he miss a dosage or three of his medication? I mean, Congress may not be able to get socialized health care passed for the rest of us (Thank God) but they have their own health care plan worked out. You'd think he could get an Alzheimer's screening or something.
Meanwhile, Iraq is dropping out of the press because reality is as far off their main message as Pete is off the Democratic Party's public message. (Note: I believe that the Democrats, privately, agree with him. They just aren't senile enough to say so in public). Why? Well, apparently Iraq is safer than Jamaica. Not a ringing endorsement, but hey, all things are relative. And even when we have good news, we have to spin it so it sounds like bad news.
Here's a couple samples of the Real News from Iraq, with a chart. RealClearPolitics has a thought on what the means for the Democrats, especially if trends continue.
One other note, the Medal of Honor was presented to the parents of Michael Murphy for actions in Afghanistan. Stories abound (although approximately .001% of the stories devoted to a skanky female private first class from the Reserves and her man-pyramids) but Xavier Thoughts has the summary of the action up along with a photo and links.
Near as I can tell, the Democratic Party's primary race has degenerated into Mrs. Hillary Clinton's triumphal procession. That's possibly the worst thing they could do, regardless of whether you are talking in terms of good for the country, or good for the Democratic Party, or in terms of producing a Presidential race where I have to engage even one solitary brain cell to think about who I should vote for.
If Mrs. Clinton and Rudy Guliani go head to head, I'm voting for Cthulu in the write-in bloc. I'm tired of this whole 'lesser evil' crap.
California is on fire, and it's all George Bush's fault, according to Ms. Boxer, a notable example of the Democratic Party's taste in stupidity.
Speaking of California congresscritters, what is up with Pete Stark? Did he miss a dosage or three of his medication? I mean, Congress may not be able to get socialized health care passed for the rest of us (Thank God) but they have their own health care plan worked out. You'd think he could get an Alzheimer's screening or something.
Meanwhile, Iraq is dropping out of the press because reality is as far off their main message as Pete is off the Democratic Party's public message. (Note: I believe that the Democrats, privately, agree with him. They just aren't senile enough to say so in public). Why? Well, apparently Iraq is safer than Jamaica. Not a ringing endorsement, but hey, all things are relative. And even when we have good news, we have to spin it so it sounds like bad news.
Here's a couple samples of the Real News from Iraq, with a chart. RealClearPolitics has a thought on what the means for the Democrats, especially if trends continue.
One other note, the Medal of Honor was presented to the parents of Michael Murphy for actions in Afghanistan. Stories abound (although approximately .001% of the stories devoted to a skanky female private first class from the Reserves and her man-pyramids) but Xavier Thoughts has the summary of the action up along with a photo and links.
posted by Just A Decurion at 10/24/2007 04:03:00 PM
10 Comments:
I mean, Congress may not be able to get socialized health care passed for the rest of us (Thank God)
... correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you have socialized health care? Payed for by the government, through government facilities, and government medical professionals?
This, for the record, is also a question I'd really appreciate someone asking the President the next time he bitches about the idea, because he gets the exact same thing.
Anyway, now that I've read the whole thing twice and the links...
Re: Hillary.
Keep in mind that four years ago at this time, people thought it was all starting to look like Howard Dean could do no wrong. This cycle may be no different. Sen. Dodd has begun to attract more attention and donations in the wake of his announcements that he'll oppose any bill that comes to the floor that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications corps that illegally turned over records and access to their networks. Given that it's come out that this access was asked for and granted in the early months of 2001, the '9/11 changed everything' excuse is even more boneheaded and negligible than ever. As has been said elsewhere, and must continue to be asked:
If they committed no crime, why do they need immunity?
Actually, no.
Let me explain my "socialized" health care.
The military medical system was designed to cope with high casualties rates associated with conventional (ie: WWII, but bigger and better) wars. This takes LOTS of doctors. So rather than having these doctors sitting around doing nothing, they were used to take care of dependants. This is even more important when you consider how remote a lot of military posts were in the past.
As for my medical care, mine personally? I pay into the system. With my life. When I stop paying into the system by permitting the Government to abuse my body (incidentally causing most of my medical issues over the past 9 years) I stop getting it, unless I either spend 20 years in and retire, or prove that the Government did enough damage to break me permanently.
Besides, do note that I do pay taxes. I'm paying my share for all this.
Hooray for Chris Dodd.
He has a record of support for the FMLN, the FSLN, Fidel Castro, and Hugo Chavez.
He favors mandatory "community service" for minors.
He voted against the Vitter Amendment and has an otherwise consistent anti-firearm record.
He supports socialized health care, except for the mentally ill, whom he would apparently prefer to wander the streets until they kill someone.
He's a proponent of "carbon taxes," AKA Indulgences for Global Warming.
He's got a 100% consistent pro-terrorist record on Iraq, except of course for the one vote that counted, authorizing the war in Iraq.
He's less electable than Hillary, really. He's not going to appeal to any swing voters. He's not going to appeal to any moderates. And the small-government conservative who might approve of his anti-wiretapping stance won't vote for him because of his other stances.
So no, he's going nowhere.
Other than Dodd's vote on the telecommunications bill, I can't find a single *thing* we agree on. Not one, except possibly the abuse of mentally ill folx in institutions.
Not sure what makes him think he'd appeal to swing voters.
My point re: Dodd is more that despite how the national media is casting the primary race, those voters likely to actually participate in the primary process are still, to a significant extent, looking for someone they can believe in. Hillary's flaws are many, and Obama's making the mistake of playing it soft in the early stages when he should be playing the firebrand, then tacking centerwards once the nomination's in hand.
Don't believe the coronation reports just yet. They are still highly premature.
I hope the reports are premature, 'cause right now, I'm with John.
If it's a Clinton/Guliani race, I'm writing in Cthulu.
I'm another person who will be voting write-in/third party if it is a Clinton/Guliani race. When Governor Good-Hair (aka Rick Perry) endorsed Guliani, it told me that is the one candidate I don't want.
I am about as excited by Hillary as anyone else (that is not). My impression is that she is poll driven.
What blew me away about Gore, when Abu Greb broke--was the fire and the passion that he had. I screamed "Where was this for the election??!!"
That is what I want to see in my candidate and President.
And frankly--if we are talking about write in candidates--I am going for Ron Paul. I agree with him on about half the issues.
A couple items.
First, Pete Stark is, well, a loon. Both parties have them, unfortunately.
Second, there's actually a real (and narrowly focused) issue with the California ANG that Boxer's right about - but she's using that narrow issue in a much more generalized way than is justified. THis wiki article disccuses MAFFS, which theoretically would have been available to fight the fires in CA. Problem is, the last MAFFS-capable C-130 was withdrawn from CA-ANG service about a year ago. MAFFS II is designed to work with the more modern C-130 marks (C-130H/J models). It was originally ordered in 1997, and were supposed to be available by 2003. Instead, they _still_ aren't ready - meaning that the firefighting capability that used to be ready-to-hand, isn't, courtesy of the USAF. And there are only 6 remaining MAFFS-capable C-130Es in the inventory, the closest being in Colorado, and requiring Federal callup to be used in CA.
That beingg said, there's a DC-10 that's been converted into a tanker, too. But getting that monster pig down to 300 feet for an airdrop is just, well, scary. Especially in high winds, and canyon country.
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