Call It A Comeback
Not that anyone asked, but I think Smith will win in New Hampshire. I haven’t seen any exit polling, but they are dead even in polling and he excites the wacky base that polling usually misses.
Addendum. Oops. Apparently the NH GOP has returned to the mainstream. I’ll miss Bob.
Not election wacko. I love that Aldrin just took off like a crusty old test pilot would. And he is 72.
In most circles, getting your butt kicked by a 72 year old when you are 37 would be cause for embarrasment. Then again, most people aren’t fruitcakes. I wonder if Aldrin ever tried to hit Irwin when he started talking about Noah’s Ark?
The Washington Post has an op-ed by Karen Armstrong. I’ve schlepped for her before and I’ll do it again. Read it and love it. And then be critical of it. I think her writing is some of the best when it comes to religion, but there are two problems with her article.
First, Iraq’s children haven’t been victimized by the embargo. They have been victimized by a fascist dictator who has chosen to spend money on weapons and refused to allow a market economy. I will certainly agree the perception is present that the embargo has killed children in Iraq, but that is a different question than what has caused the actual problem. The Kurdish zone is doing quite well under the same sanction regime. The problem is Saddam Hussein.
The above is not meant to absolve the US of years of backing despots in the region and she is correct in that criticism.
Second, attacking Iraq may be necessary. I would prefer to look at increasing aid to domestic resistance groups, but the current President doesn’t seem to want to even acknowledge the possibility. Hussein has attacked American interests and he will do so again. He is (probably) not responsible in any way for September 11th. However, trying to kill a former President of the United States is an act that should have clued us in to this guy.
It is true that we must deal with the Arab perception of our actions and the way to do that is with UN sanction. However, the President bungled this by allowing the debate to drift while he was on vacation. Going it alone would be disastrous. However, approaching it from a multilateral position focused on previous promises by Hussein gives us the ability to force him out while setting a reasonable precedent for future actions. Her point that we need other nations is essential, but also we must act.
And we must change how we interact with the Arab world. Fundamentalist dictators are never friends of democracy no matter how much oil they have underneath them.
More bad news for J-Ry. Apparently Blagojevich is leading in most categories. It is very strange. J-Ry, despite being fun to ridicule over the name confusion, isn’t a bad guy. He may look the other way from time-to-time, but he has no worse of a reputation than Blagojevich.
Who knew, Blago would have the more attractive name….
I guess I don’t get the Joe Conason controversy over Andrew Sullivan writing for Salon. He can write great articles on occasion when he sticks to logic and avoids name-calling. When he starts random name-calling he is kinda funny like a parody. Of course, I always assumed they had Horowitz write because he is funny. Kinda like the whole Friday the 13th film series.
Rich Miller provides some good counterbalance to Birkett’s ads in the Trib. Oh wait, those are news stories. Actually they are and those stories are important. However, a bit of balance is in order. Madigan is far from perfect and her ties to her father’s machine are entirely legitimate for news stories. However, Birkett’s issues are just as relevant and this story is revealing. Too bad the Sun-Times and the Trib have left the work to Rich Miller.
In referencing another blog, Counterspin Central carries a story about DFS in Florida. Jeb ran against the utter incompetence of the agency 4 years ago. One would think he would have figured out that not cleaning up the agency might leave a challenger an opening now.
Zell Miller is one of my least favorite Democrats, but he voices my position nearly perfectly on Iraq. One caveat–I’ve convinced myself that action needs to be taken to remove Saddam. I’m open to the type of action, but the current administration can’t convince me of anything until they convince themselves of something, anything.
I suppose it is hard to point out that Hussein tried to take out a former President of the United States, when that former President is your father.
How bad are things in Illinois for the Republicans? This article seems to indicate the Rs are losing endorsements they should be winning. Topinka is competent and reasonable. If the Ds are rolling over everyone this hard, pulling out the Treasurer or AG race are going to be damn hard in the fall for the Rs.
Ryan should be careful about aboutbadrod.com or it might backfire. I’m all for airing the claims made as John Kass did back in February, but this sort of back handed attack has a way of raising more questions about the one doing the insinuation than the subject.
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