- I see where Ron Paul is being excluded [1] from the Iowa boredom festival. I don’t know. Perhaps they figure they didn’t need the comedy relief. Look, let’s call this what it is, OK? Ron Paul is to sanity, what a fish is to track and field events. And with that statement, perhaps we’ve identified why he so popular amongst the denizens of the left, of late. But I certainly don’t consider him a libertarian, in any event.
- I make no secret of the fact that I am a Fred Thompson supporter. Not only do I think he would make an excellent president, I think in fact he would make the best president of any of the current crop. One thing I have not heard him speak and, yet, is energy. Specifically, gasoline. What I hear a politician talking about cutting through the red tape to get increased refining capacity on line as quickly as possible, thereby lowering the price of the fuel, he, she, or it, will have my unvarnished support.
- On the point of presidential campaign support, I’ve been working on an extended writeup, examining all of the various players and almost players in the upcoming election. Without getting into any great detail, I will tell you that any of the republican candidates, with all of their flaws, any one of them would make a better candidate than any of the democratic party candidates. The best qualified democratic candidate at this point is probably John Edwards. Which, since I consider John Edwards to be a bad joke in terms of his presidential capacity, will give you a general idea of where I’ll be going with this. I’ll post the extended writeup when the time comes.. as in… whenever I get it done.
- I see where the prosecution of the Marines at Haditha, is falling apart, once exposed to the facts. despite having been convicted in the press, it turns out that the prosecution’s case is not being supported by the forensic evidence nor is it being supported by any of the other evidence being presented. John Murtha has not commented on all of this. He’s been strangely silent, in fact. Power line [2] has been following this one. So have Forum [3], Gateway Pundit [4] and Let Freedom Ring [5].
- The space Shuttle, Atlantis is on it’s way back to earth. [6]I can remember watching , along with a couple hundred other school kids, Gemini seven lifting off, on a black and white TV that just barely held the TV signal in. I remember the tremendous national excitement over the event. These days, such an event hardly causes a blip on the national radar. And I am concerned. I suppose it is the way of improving technology, that lifting off from the face of the earth and going out into outer space has become nearly as commonplace as running down the corner store for gallon of milk. Still, I worry for what has been lost; That sense of wonder. I’m beginning to suspect, my friends, that the sense of wonder itself, in the end, is a far greater importance than the events we wonder about.
- I was rather nonplused when Michael Bloomberg jumped ship from the Democratic party, some time ago. True, I was glad to see the democrats losing whatever degree of force he represented, but it seemed to me at the time somewhat opportunistic. That is particularly true, given that his underlying stance on the issues they haven’t changed all that much. Once coming over to the Republican Party, he started making different noises, but not by much. There was something always disquieting about his reluctance.Now that he’s succeeded in doing this again, this time jumping ship from the Republican party, Mr. Bloomberg appears to be even more opportunistic.Make no mistake; Mr. Bloomberg is a good politician. But one really must wonder what his basic values are? Or, if indeed, he has any at all, past getting himself elected. He seems to be trying for the middle. The trouble is, he has succeeded in labeling the Republican party and the Democratic party as the ends of the spectrum. Which, I suppose, might make sense to some, until they considered how far left the Republican party has been leaning of late.There is, admittedly, part of me that would like to think that Mr. Bloomberg was taking the moral high road, because both parties have leaned so far to the left. But the logical mind says that what’s really going on here is the Bloomberg is cynically attempting to do what Dick Morris counseled the Clintons to do a decade gone, now: Triangulation.I could be wrong, (Lord knows, it’s happened before ) but it’s my take that the center is like a played out mine… there’s not enough gold left in it to make it a viable enterprise. On that basis, and assuming that Mr. Bloomberg decides to use some of his vast personal funding to launch an independent campaign for president, it will succeed in freeing up a conservative candidate and a liberal candidate to play more to their base in the general election. The center, what there is left of it after Bush Clinton, and Bush, will be off the table, and yet not large enough to win an election. In the end, Bloomberg running as an independent might be just the thing to help put someone like Fred Thompson in the White House.
- As a casual observation, the domination of right wing talk radio is not because of any background deals, it’s not because left wing voices are being silenced (witness Err America) it’s because the American people simply don’t want to listen to it. they don’t buy what the leftists are selling. It’s really just that simple. All the “reports” [7] in the world are not going to change that one fact. And let’s get one thing straight: the supposed “Center for American Progress” is a far left organization. Believe me when I tell you that American progress is the last thing on their minds. The likelihood of them actually issuing a fair report on the subject, is about on par with the likelihood of a Toyota salesman telling you what a good car the Ford is. But then again, they do have polyps like Trent Lott in their corner , don’t they?
- I would say, Billy, [8] that perhaps we do owe each other something, but I would hasten to add as a prerequisite for taking any action, the government is not the one to be making that decision… And for the very reasons that you listed. Government, by stepping in, has precluded any realistic action toward those who need it.