8.12.2005

"santorum"

I didn't really have much of an opinion about Rick Santorum, aside from thinking his stance in the gay-marriage debate was, like the President's, wrong and reeked of political posturing. Now I really don't like him. I read this quote on BuzzMachine the other day:

(From an NPR piece on Santorum's book, "It Takes a Family")

This whole idea of personal autonomy — I don’t think that most conservatives hold that point of view. Some do. And they have this idea that people should be left alone to do what they want to do, that government should keep taxes down, keep regulation down, that we shouldn’t get involved in the bedroom, that we shouldn’t be involved in cultural issues, people should do whatever they want. Well, that is not how traditional conservatives view the world. And I think that most conservatives understand that we can’t go it alone, that there is no such society that I’m aware of where we’ve had radical individualism and it has succeeded as a culture.

Uhhh, right. What Americans really want is to be told what to do by a sanctimonious prig. The "conservatism" he's talking about bears no resemblance to the conservative notions I've heard espoused by Republicans in every election since I've been alive. So what gives? Is he saying what other Republican congressmen think and believe but never say, or is he alone in this?

Ronald Reagan famously said, "Government is the problem, not the solution." Now, I've been slow to see the wisdom of this statement in and of itself, because somewhere along the line I decided that history would remember Reagan was a hack and a fool. As I've gotten older, my view of him and his basic conservative philosophy has tempered to the point that I'm now finding myself agreeing with him (on some of the big stuff anyway). Reading this tripe from Santorum, the third most powerful Republican congressman, makes me wonder how much the recent up-and-comers from the GOP took Reagan's conception of conservatism to heart, or whether they were just paying it lip service to bide time for the big power grab.

How long will it take for the more libertarian/Reagan-style Republicans to reject Ricky and his power-trip and what will it look like? I will be disappointed if it doesn't come to pass, but of course if it's to happen, Republican's are going to have to break Reagan's 11th Commandment, "Thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Republican." Here's hoping...

Hee-Hee...

I find this endlessly amusing. Having written a couple things for printed publication (college newspaper and small local magazines), I've experienced the thrill of seeing my name on a bunch of pieces of paper enough times to be somewhat jaded about it. However there's something much more thrilling, for me anyway, to know that I've been helpful to someone whose ideas and writing I respect. I got the chance to thank Jeff for providing some worthwhile information by giving a little back.

It harkens to something Kevin Kelley wrote for this months Wired:

... I run a blog about cool tools. I write it for my own delight and for the benefit of friends. The Web extends my passion to a far wider group for no extra cost or effort. In this way, my site is part of a vast and growing gift economy, a visible underground of valuable creations - text, music, film, software, tools, and services - all given away for free. This gift economy fuels an abundance of choices. It spurs the grateful to reciprocate. It permits easy modification and reuse, and thus promotes consumers into producers.

I got to play different role than I do on this blog towards "producing" for the greater public's ability to access and index knowledge. Granted, we do that every time we post stuff here, but on a different scale. I have no idea how many people check out his site, though I'm certain it gets more eyes than have glazed over our stuff here.

On a sidenote: I came across Jeff's BuzzMachine post before going to bed and decided I really wanted to see this Daily Show clip he was talking about. It wasn't that hard to find, and was definitely worth watching, but the only thing that sort of concerns me is, how long will it remain there? This is the kind of thing that should have a permanent home somewhere, and be relatively easy to find. I may just be paranoid, but it didn't appear as though Comedy Central is planning on keeping it there very long.

Ah well, I'm sure some enterprising person will find it a good home or let us "consumers" know where to find it when the time comes.

8.11.2005

If yer really, really curious about the Plame thing...

Factcheck.org has a ridiculiously throrough timline of the Wilson/Plame/Rove business which features links to original source material where it's possible. This is for someone who really cares about this crap. I don't, so if you go to the touble of looking at all this stuff, tell us lazy folk what you got out of it.

ALSO: If you haven't thought to yet, check out Andrew Sullivan's blog. Dan Savage is filling in for Andrew while he's on vacation, and I for one think he's doing a fine job. If he had a blog instead of a sex-advice column, I'd read him more often. Plus he really doesn't like Rick Santorum (the biggest damn-fool Senator alive), so much so that he started a campaign to coin a meaning for the word "santorum" [warning, it's not for the faint of heart, but very appropriate - here's the backstory].

8.10.2005

Voter Fraud

I’ve sort of wanted to blog about this for some time but, as Joe noticed, things are so slow news-wise that it seems like as good a political topic as any.

Every few weeks since November 2000 a story like this makes its way into mainstream media coverage parroting completely unsupported allegations of “voter disenfranchisement” while virtually ignoring stories such as this involving the attempted murder convictions of democratic officials seeking to kill a witness to voter fraud.

"In the state of Ohio, where they had fewer voting booths and long lines in minority neighborhoods and no lines and many voting booths in white neighborhoods, that the balance is not what it should have been." –Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi

In fact, while Nancy Pelosi wails on about our inevitable return to Jim Crow, many stories such as the following get little or no national coverage.

1.) Paid democratic operatives who also happen to be Children of Democratic house members (not state) convicted of slashing the tires of Republican vehicles.
2.) Democratic Mayor of Milwaukee demanded release of far more ballots in 2004 than there are eligible voters and, predictably, there are 7000 more votes cast than the total eligible voting population of Milwaukee. (>100% turnout = Fraud; Milwaukee is heavily Democratic; Kerry only won Wisconsin by 11,000 votes)
3.)Yesterday Wisconsin Republicans released evidence that 9 individuals from Milwaukee voted several times in different cites.

And thats just Wisconsin who's news I still closely follow.

While I’m sure that we’ll continue to see news stories repeating vague charges of Ohio conspiracy well into 2008, like Florida, it’s clear that the lack of media coverage Democratic voter fraud has received continues to embolden activists to push ever farther beyond what is legal. Yes I tirelessly beat the drum of media bias for just about everything, but this is an example where it is having a tangible effect on the democratic process.

8.09.2005

random stuff

I haven't done much in the way of blogging lately, both because I've been settling into my new apartment and because there doesn't seem to be all that much going on in the realm of politics, at least nothing that I care all that strongly about....(I guess I would have liked to see a bigger push for the subidization of renewable energy research in the energy bill, along with more pressure on auto companies to increase fuel efficiency, but other than that, nothing really grabbing my attention). Oh, and people are starving in Africa again, which is bad.

I start school in a week and I still need to decide if I should do law school or not, which is somewhat dependent on my deciding what I want to do with my life. I was gonna try to eventually work at State or USAID, for which my MPA would probably be sufficient, but I'm feeling good about being in Indiana, and I think I'd grow frustrated by being an administrator. Now I'm leaning toward the dirty business of politics, where lawyers abound, and so i think the law degree might be more useful. Any of you wise people have any advice?

I'm off to a job interview with KAPLAN, the testing people. I will wow them with my new tie.