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Showing posts from April, 2005

I wish I heard more often....

"I'm an American, not a partisan." Evolutionary theory suggests that animals routinely engage in "arms races" against each other, never climbing up the hill of relative fitness because their nemesis is always one step ahead or behind. Sometimes, I feel like a bystander watching the cheetah chase the antelope until fortune's favorites reverse positions and the game continues in the opposite direction of pursuit. But sometimes I wonder, what will you do when you finally run down your opponent and stand athwart the bloody mess of their political corpose? While the Great Chase was on the world around has fallen to pieces and you find yourself the King of Nowhere.

Giuliani 08 after all?

To be honest, I am a Rudy fan. I may be infatuated with the idea of a Hillary run, but were America's Mayor to claim the Republican nod, I would be genuinely conflicted indeed on election night. However, I was lulled from horse-racin' anticipation by the unremitting hostility towards any pro-choice candidate by the Red State crowd, into thinking that there was essentially no chance for Da Mayuh to run in 08. Looks like I was wrong :   With Rudy Giuliani often saying he'd probably run for office again, there were three options: governor, senator, President. When an aide said last week the first two were out, only one choice remains standing. Rudy's running for Prez. It's unofficial, of course, but there's no other way to read Giuliani's decision to skip the governor and senate races next year. Win or lose, running for either would have made it impossible to run for President in 2008. The development brought to mind a conversation with a Giuliani friend in 19

From Meetups to Donuts

Meetup will now be charging $20/month to the designated organizer for a given meetup. I think it is safe to say that this kills meetup as a political rallying tool for the grassroots. This may be for the best, however, as the Meetup model may be outdated - and donuts are the new thing . UPDATE: DFA will cover the cost of Meetups in the interim. You can get a coupon for your DFA meetup here: http://www.democracyforamerica.com/meetup_coupon

Irony of the day

"Democratic societies don't empower their executives to make unilateral decisions to plunge countries into war. Wars have been started by tyrants who have complete control and who can squander the resources of their people to build up military machines." -- Richard Perle

What does Schiavo mean for Federalism and Roe v. Wade

The proprietor of this blog asked me a week ago to post a good faith article on "whether Republicans - as a party led by Tom Delay, Bill Frist, and other grandstanders who have forcefully inserted themselves into the Schiavo case, requested judicial activism, and made a mockery of federalist principles - can be trusted NOT to interfere with federalism again should Roe vs Wade fall." I apologize for the slow turn around. First, my ideal world.... (Read on)   Roe v. Wade is rescinded because it is a poor legal decision and the right to legislate is returned to the states. Furthermore, the Supreme Court takes a strong stand for states’ rights control issues reserved to the states which include abortion (and the death penalty, gay marriage, gun laws, medical decisions, education, etc). The abortion debate follows the death penalty into a state-by-state debate that allows for local differences. Abortion falls from the national debate (although not entirely) and it becomes a

Chris Bell gets Trippi

via Kuff, Joe Trippi has joined Chris Bell 's exploratory committee for Texas Gov - it's an audacious step, and one that speaks well of Bell's understanding of the power of the netroots. More details below the fold...   We ran into former Congressman Chris Bell at the Capitol this afternoon. He was in town touching base with legislators and Democratic poohbahs as part of exploratory effort. Bell has two campaign operations in motion. One is in his hometown, Houston. For the time being, the other is shared office in Austin with his media/research operative, Jason Stamford. Bell presumes that his official campaign office will ultimately be in Austin. While his effort is still deemed "exploratory", Bell has already assembled a campaign team. Heidi Kirkpatrick is doing fundraising. Joe Trippi is bringing his experience with the Howard Dean presidential campaign to bear building Bell's internet community. Bob Doyle has been retained as general consultant. Doyle is

playing defense on Cornyn

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) lowers the level of discourse: I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in -- engage in violence. Certainly without any justification but a concern that I have that I wanted to share. Faced with deserved and widespread outrage over what Joshua does not shy from acknowledging was "not a terribly bright thing for the Senator to say", the response from Republicans is to try and change the subject :   The broader lesson here is not that John Cornyn occasionally says unf

Feingold

can someone explain to me Feingold's appeal? (paging Brian) I am not skeptical, just ignorant. Well, I am also more conservative than most liberals (while firmly associating myself to the liberal label, of course), which is probably why I am leaning Hillary if anything. I just want to hear a case for Feingold on its merits rather than "He's Zaphod Beeblebrox, baby!!" rock star kind of thing.  

Remember

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in 1964 these two men met. Some would say they represented polar opposites: Christian and Muslim, pacifist and warrior, mediator and antagonist. Others might just see two black men. I see two men, of faith but also of resolve, who saw an injustice and articulated its downfall, who serve as an inspiration to me as the son of immigrants that this great nation is a land of promise. But fulfillment of that promise often requires struggle. Struggle - jihad - crusade - a righteous endeavour for justice. Pope John Paul II was also one of a kind with these men, against a different type of oppression, but oppression all the same.

The pro-business case for socialized medicine

I am a relatively recent convert to the idea that we should have socialized medicine. The trick is justifying it on more than humanitarian grounds, and answering the real critique about whether it would degrade the quality of care. I want to address the first point, on the grounds of economic development. Here's a perfect case study: Toyota's competitive advantage in the global marketplace over GM. Read on...   Imagine how much stronger General Motors would be if it launched three additional new-model programs every year, each costing about $1 billion. It could, if it didn't have to pay for its retirees' health care. That is one of the most fundamental differences between GM and Toyota Motor Corp. GM pays for the health care of 339,000 retirees - and the number grows every year. In contrast, Toyota pays for fewer than 3,000 retirees' health care in Japan, a number that remains fairly stable. That difference gives Toyota and other Japanese carmakers a massive advant

Liberals Go South

While I see how people might get the wrong impression, I am not on board with the "Feingold 2008" movement, and am avoiding choosing sides for now. However, I read about him a lot being in Wisconsin, and via Matt Bruce I find this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel article on a swing to the south with campaign overtones:   "Wisconsin's junior senator spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday driving around this politically forbidding 'red state,' meeting with liberal and conservative Democrats, Bush voters, local dignitaries and a curious Alabama media, enjoying the improbability of it all. "'When was the last time some Democrat from another part of the country went into Greenville, Alabama, and just said, 'What's the deal here?' ' Feingold said before his trip. "You could look at Feingold's Alabama adventure as an extended conversation between North and South over the current woes and future direction of the Democratic Party. This is