[ Posted Thursday, October 11th, 2007 – 16:15 UTC ]
The elitism and disdain dripping from Pelosi's comments are staggering, considering the fact that she knew she was on the record when she uttered them. Not content to rail against anti-war protesters on her front sidewalk (which likely would have been enough to gain her some sympathy from normal people, who might agree that the protesters had crossed some line of propriety), Pelosi can't resist the urge to twist the knife by complaining about the First Amendment. Wow. You don't hear Democrats saying things like this very often, for a good reason -- the Democratic base actually believes the First Amendment is a good thing.
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 – 03:54 UTC ]
Sovereignty (n) -- government free from external control
Is Iraq a truly sovereign state, or is the Maliki government a puppet of America? We may know the answer to this crucial question in a very short time. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki could show independence from American interests in many ways, some of them decidedly not to President Bush's liking.
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[ Posted Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 – 17:09 UTC ]
Is Basra a lot better than when the British were holed up downtown? Or is it a lot worse? Or is it currently experiencing a lull in violence that will prove to be the calm before the storm of factional Shi'ite war? Or are the Iraqi militias actually working out their differences with agreements rather than bullets?
Of course, this is not Jeffersonian democracy at its finest. It's closer to warlordism than we'd care to admit as a nation. The process is going to be messy and unpleasant, no matter how it works out. And the lessons of Basra likely can't be applied to other parts of Iraq (due to different ethnic and sectarian populations).
But, as I said previously, Basra bears watching. Because there is a larger question to be asked here: If U.S. troops pull out, will Iraq become more or less stable when we're not around to shoot at anymore?
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[ Posted Friday, October 5th, 2007 – 17:33 UTC ]
Most of this week's talking points deal with the children's health bill which President Bush vetoed last week. This is good offense when it comes to politics (we're in football season now, so it's time to put away the baseball metaphors for the year and dust off the football metaphors). There are big Big BIG budget battles brewing in the next few weeks, and (for once) Democrats did the right thing tactically and strategically -- lead with your best shot. The SCHIP bill polls at over 70% of the public in favor, Bush has staked out an almost irrational position on it, and House Democrats are within 10-15 votes of being able to overturn Bush's veto in the House. While Democrats already have a 67-vote veto-stomping majority in the Senate, the House will vote to overturn first.
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 – 14:54 UTC ]
[ Posted Monday, October 1st, 2007 – 17:22 UTC ]
There's a raging debate within the Bush administration, the punditocracy, and the blogosphere about whether or not it is time to bomb Iran. While this conversation scares small children (and other sane people), most of the focus has been on (1) whether President... oh, excuse me... Vice President Cheney truly is moonbat-crazy enough to do so, and (2) whether anyone else in America (including the military) would go along with the idea. But not enough attention is being paid to what happens after we rain death from the skies down on Iran. Which is a shame, because that's what we ignored during the ramp-up to war with Iraq. And we all know how that turned out.
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[ Posted Monday, September 24th, 2007 – 13:48 UTC ]
We need a Senate Majority Leader who will believe in something, say so in a telegenic and charismatic fashion on television, and then back it up by fighting for it in the Senate. It's all about that intangible quality called leadership. A strong leader might lead us off a cliff, or into the wasteland of permanent minority status -- but they could also lead us back to being a party people can believe would stand up and fight for what is right.
The question remains: Is Harry Reid the right person to do so, right now? Or is it time for Harry to go?
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[ Posted Sunday, September 23rd, 2007 – 18:14 UTC ]
I'd like to thank B. Driscoll for publicly making these photos available, and allowing me to post them here. I am always open to consideration for photos of other events which the mainstream media largely ignores as well.
The first photo is of the "die-in" where most of the arrests were made. The black and white photo of a speaker is Eton Thomas from the Washington Wizards basketball team.
Enjoy!
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[ Posted Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 – 12:49 UTC ]
[ Posted Friday, September 21st, 2007 – 18:21 UTC ]
Why are Democrats so lame on basic PR?
Someone asked me that question on my blog the other day, and I didn't really have an answer. Why are Democrats so incredibly weak on framing their message correctly? Many books have been written exploring this subject and offering sound advice on how to make it better across the board, and yet it still continues.
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