[ Posted Thursday, December 6th, 2007 – 17:17 UTC ]
While many have commented on various different quotes from Mitt Romney's speech on religion today, there was one passage that stood out for me:
Today's generations of Americans have always known religious liberty. Perhaps we forget the long and arduous path our nation's forbearers took to achieve it. They came here from England to seek freedom of religion. But upon finding it for themselves, they at first denied it to others. Because of their diverse beliefs, Ann Hutchinson was exiled from Massachusetts Bay, a banished Roger Williams founded Rhode Island, and two centuries later, Brigham Young set out for the West. Americans were unable to accommodate their commitment to their own faith with an appreciation for the convictions of others to different faiths. In this, they were very much like those of the European nations they had left.
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[ Posted Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 – 22:23 UTC ]
[ Posted Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 – 13:51 UTC ]
This is, to coin a phrase, a hell of a way to run a country.
It is also a bipartisan problem. Both parties do this when they're in power in Congress. Republicans were in charge last year, when no budget passed at all. Democrats are in charge now, and it is over two months since the due date and not much progress has been made yet. One bill passed and was signed. One bill was passed and vetoed. The other ten bills have yet to get out of Congress.
This is pathetic. Passing a budget is the number one responsibility of everyone in Congress. If "Member of Congress" had a job description, this would be the first item on the list. And yet they fail, year after year, to get it done in a timely manner. This means they are failing to perform one of the key functions of their job.
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[ Posted Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 – 16:21 UTC ]
Back in the old Soviet Union, official groups both large and small always had at least one "political officer" in them, to guarantee that whatever the group did was in step with current Party ideology. The Bush White House, taking its cue from this Soviet-era practice, decided that this was a good idea, earlier this year (after the Democratic takeover of Congress in last year's elections).
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[ Posted Monday, December 3rd, 2007 – 16:28 UTC ]
We're now about a month away from the first caucus in the nomination race for president. The Democratic race in Iowa is currently neck and neck and neck. Obama, Clinton, and Edwards are all roughly even in the polls, and it's anybody's guess who will emerge the victor. This is partly due to the bizarre caucus rules in Iowa, it's partly due to the notorious instability of the state (victors often emerge late, in the last few days before the caucus), and it's partly due to the possible overestimation by all three candidates on who will actually turn out on caucus day.
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