Call It A Comeback
Florida seems to be producing the best news coverage right now. MediaWhoresOnline points to this article. One of the Jeb’s minions throws this out
“Most of those [political scientists] are idiots who have never worked in a campaign. I’d like to put ’em all in a room and shoot ’em,” he said.”
Of course, those idiots would have advised him not to make comments that one should shoot people providing political commentary. Perhaps they know just a little more than him.
This is excellent news. McBride is a far stronger candidate and generally a good guy. The rumors of a big buy by the state Republicans after the holiday are interesting. The last thing you want to do is improve someone’s name recognition when that is his biggest liability.
Perhaps the Florida Republicans are trying to pull a Gray Davis move. The problem with that is Simon didn’t win because Riordan had negative commercials killing him, Simon won because the Republican base in California decided to commit hari kari. Attacking McBride will probably backfire because the strongest argument he has going is he can win. Demonstrating that Jeb is afraid, is the best commercial McBride can have.
Even more interesting is if McBride wins in November. I can’t wait for the spending analysis by the Bush administration to compare pre-McBride and post-McBride. What could be even funnier is if the administration reneges on the off-shore drilling deal.
This is a strange Poll. It uses mail-in responses that would seem to me to be problematic if one wants to ensure a representative sample. If the poll is accurate, and that is a big if as far as I’m concerned, it is probably an important indicator of some underlying problems for the Republicans this fall.
Dawn Turner Trice gives a basic description of the problem for public school choice. The Leave No Child Behind Act is either going to be gutted or cause mass chaos in many systems. Some of that chaos may be beneficial, but the law is not well thought out. One of the more intriguing arguments is made by Howard Dean. He may get some traction on this issue, especially in Iowa where they have long refused to institute testing like the LNCBA requires, but still have excellent schools. His problem is that Iowa is an organization state and he is more of a independent who is likely to do well in neighboring New Hampshire.
Chapman kills again. This is another example of the New Republic producing some of the more provocative and readable writers.
Friedman does one of the better pieces on the potential war. It is about the only decent piece I’ve seen that discusses the historical problems present. While I could be supportive of a war that included the support of our allies, this is just one more question the Bush administration doesn’t seem willing to address. Solving historical problems with Kurds provides an especially tricky (Duke reference) problem with our closest Arab ally.
CounterSpin Central points out Lugar has called for UN action first. Lugar, who would be the Republican president if the party hadn’t jumped over the right wing cliff, makes the excellent point that such a move would be easy–it isn’t like Saddam is going to comply, so why not abide by the process the US set up to serve its needs?
Lugar has bothered to look down the game tree and see things strategically. Given the bungling of the hawks in the Bush administration to date, it doesn’t appear they have bothered to figure out the game tree even. Lugar’s suggestion also will bring along some of our allies in Europe and maybe an Arab country or two outside of Turkey.
Taking out Hussein is a necessity. However, there are different strategies for doing so and this administration does not seem to be considering any other option besides unilateral action. I was surprised to see this from Victor Levine. Levine is usually much less shrill. Then again, perhaps shrillness will get someone’s attention.
I forgot to mention this article by Kristof. Hale is a special piece of garbage from my original stomping grounds. I’m sure he was beaten up a whole bunch as a kid. I have to admit I still don’t understand the Illinois Bar Associations decision to reject him for a law license. He is repugnant, but that is what the first amendment is meant to protect.
For something on the lighter side, Keith Olberman’s new column in Salon is beautiful. In other publications he seems to have been limited in what he could say. Salon, for as long as it stays afloat has really improved itself–Joe Conason’s weblog is first rate.
I can’t seem to muster much sympathy for either side in the whole ordeal, but the sheer keystone cops imitation by the owners never fails to provide great humor. This quote is the best reason why there will be no extended work stoppage:
” Cancel the World Series this year and you immediately owe Fox Television $300 million plus up to $230 million more in penalties to compensate the network for lost advertising revenue. ”
The owners ought to be thankful the players have moved at all with that guillotine over the heads of the owners.
Of course, I’m all for a strike. I’m a huge baseball fan and whenever they strike attendance goes down. Thus, ticket prices don’t go up as fast and there are more good seats to choose from.
I haven’t had time to comment on this recent article by Bjorn Lomborg. To start off on the picky level–not all environmentalists think alike and so the neat rhetorical trick in the title is telling of what Lomborg is trying to accomplish–getting lots of attention and selling lots of books.
Lomborg is essentially correct in arguing that development will lead to environmental awareness. Steve Chapman has made the point before, but Lomborg misses two critical points.
The United States isn’t advocating any serious solution to development or sustainability. While some environmentalists might be focusing on one side of the equation, the United States isn’t focusing on any portion of the equation and instead is avoiding the issue entirely.
Second, encouraging development isn’t an exclusive goal. One can encourage sustainability and development at the same time. Indeed (the most overused word on blogs–instapundit especially), technology transfers of cleaner energy sources and pollution reducing technologies encouraged by the 1990 Clean Air Act encourage development and sustainability.
In line with the above, he tries to use the Kyoto Protocol’s flaws to force a false choice. One can support taking serious action to mitigate global warming and argue that Kyoto was terribly flawed all at the same time–maybe even chew gum while doing so…
The problem with Bush choosing to walk away from Kyoto is his complete inability to offer an alternative of any substance. Reducing emission intensity is a joke–a cynical joke at that.
And with any mention of Lomborg or any other alternative science type, one should point out a reliable alternative source.
About time. Friedman does a bang up job on fundamentalist ignorance. It’s almost like he has been reading some Karen Armstrong. I’ll link to any letters to the editor in the P-D that show up to ‘defend creationism’ on blogsaintlouis. I expect they’ll pour in tomorrow.
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