Friday, February 29, 2008
I spent most of the day in a train. It’s funny how doing nothing can make you so tired. I write this from a hotel room, where I am about to hit the sack. The Amtrak magazine had a list of 10 supposedly obscure albums to download to your Ipod, and one of them was Warren Zevon’s Excitable Boy, which is already on my Ipod. The article made me think that Warren might be a good choice for a Friday Night concert, so here he is with the immortal Werewolves of London.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhSc8qVMjKM[/youtube]
Thursday, February 28, 2008
I’ll try to make up for this tomorrow.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2kyXN4ZVQg[/youtube]
Thursday, February 28, 2008
We are taking some friends out for a 60th birthday tonight, and tomorrow we head off to Washington to see one of our offspring. The hotel has internet, so I’m going to try to post from there, but there won’t be much from here this weekend.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Cute, isn’t (s)he? He (or she) is a hedgehog and scores of its furry brethren have met a fate worse than death..no, wait, a fate equal to death- mainly death, through the miracle of modern design from one of the many American incarnations of evil, the McDonald’s corporation:
Many German hedgehogs have been found dead in recent years after meeting a strange end — they got their heads stuck inside McDonald’s McFlurry containers and starved as a result. The company has gone back to the drawing board and will now introduce a new, hedgehog-friendly design for its dessert lids.
Actually, the company went back to the drawing board almost two years ago, but only recently managed to come up with a design that isn’t hazardous to the cute little creatures. The must have put it on the fast track. Now if they could only come up with a design that would prevent people from getting at their food, they’d save even more lives.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Via Kos, we learn that right wing Senator Tom Coburn has put a hold on legislation that would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage to people who have genetic predispositions to certain diseases or conditions. It’s hard to see why anyone would be against this. Even Coburn says he isn’t against it, he just has some problems with the bill that make no sense.
You remember holds, don’t you. A hold is what Chris Dodd put on the FISA bill. It announces an intent to filibuster, a threat that is utterly meaningless unless you have 39 other senators willing to back you up. Last year a similar bill passed the Senate 98-0, so it’s hard to see how Coburn could successfully stall the bill.
You’re probably saying to yourself: Well, there’s no way Harry Reid would honor Coburn’s hold, not after he disregarded Chris’s hold, and not after he disregarded Ron Wyden’s hold. But you’d be wrong, because Reid is, in fact, honoring Coburn’s hold, at least he is right now.
This is the sort of thing designed to make Democrats see red. Reid refused to honor a hold on legislation he claims to oppose; then he allows Coburn to stall a bill that even Republicans support. If the Democrats were going to use the incident to make political hay it might be somewhat justified, but that’s not the Democratic way. Coburn is a serial abuser of the hold privilege, but it doesn’t seem to bother Reid. He saves his wrath for fellow Democrats.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
This is an interesting story. Mark Penn, the guy who has advised Hillary’s campaign so successfully, obviously has a financial interest in a Hillary victory. But, should Hillary lose the nomination, he also has a financial interest in Obama losing in November. No conflict with respect to Hillary maybe, but a massive conflict in relation to the Democratic party. Is this the reason why he seems to be taking the position that if Hillary can’t win, he’ll make sure she brings Obama down with her? Details here.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Joe Courtney is trying to raise money in response to the attacks that are being mounted against him on FISA. It’s a good thing to do, since this sort of stuff might stop if the Republicans see it’s a money loser for them. Here’s the link to contribute.
Unfortunately, my wife tried twice to contribute and it timed out both times. I’d like to think that contributors are clogging the server, but somehow I doubt it. If there’s anyone on the political side of Joe’s operation reading this, it would be a good idea to try to fix whatever is wrong.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
The attacks on Barack Obama have begun. The Republicans are questioning his patriotism, and CNN immediately runs a poll asking if he’s patriotic enough to be president (sign a protest letter here). No word so far on whether they’ll poll on whether McCain is too dishonest to be president. Then again, even McCain can’t hope to come close to the incumbent, so apparently no level of dishonesty is disqualifying.
It is depressing that Clinton seems to be blazing a trail for the Republicans to follow. Attacking your opponent on policy issues, even if you distort their positions a bit, is part of the game. Injecting racism is a bit different. Recently one of Hillary’s surrogates said she couldn’t see anything wrong with distributing pictures of Obama in native African dress because ” I have no shame or no problem with people looking at Barack Obama in his native clothing, in the clothing of his country.” Barack Obama is an American. The Republican party will do everything it can to paint him as a foreigner, and Hillary and her people are doing everything they can to legitimize that line of attack.
Now we will see if Obama can deal with this sort of thing. If he reacts passively, like Kerry did, we are likely to see a re-run of 2004. He needn’t go after Hillary, he can go after the media, like the Republicans would do. The CNN poll would be as good a place to start as any.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
I just got a call from a group that I believe called itself the Protect America Foundation, trying to spread lies about the FISA vote. Unfortunately, I can’t contain my outrage at these people. In retrospect I should have feigned ignorance, and listened to her whole pitch, but I cut her off and told her I wasn’t interested in approving of phone companies spying on me, which is what she was basically trying to sell. I wonder, though, if I’d played along, whether she would ever have mentioned the immunity issue. More likely it was going to be a lot of malarkey about Democrats supporting terrorists.
If any of you out there get one of these calls, don’t be stupid like me. Instead, act stupid and find out what they have to say.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Recently, Barack Obama made what is actually a relatively non-controversial statement about the state of our Armed Forces:
You know, I’ve heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq.
And as a consequence, they didn’t have enough ammunition, they didn’t have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief. Now, that’s a consequence of bad judgment.
The right wing smear machine has gone into high gear to attack Obama, and Senator John Warner, of Virginia, ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, has joined in the attack:
Warner — a World War II veteran and former Navy Secretary — has been a staunch advocate for U.S. troops. Warner’s letter to Obama asks the senator to provide “essential facts” about the Army captain’s story, including his personal information, so members of the committee can interview him and others to establish accountability, “depending of course, on the accuracy of the facts.”
If the Democrats had the killer instinct, the would take Warner up on his demands. Obama’s statement has already been independently verified twice. If Warner wants hearings on troop readiness, the Democrats should give them to him, and when the White House refuses to co-operate, they should demand co-operation in Warner’s name.
Update. A commenter asks for links demonstrating that Obama’s assertion has been verified. Here’s one, which links to primary sources.
