My Political Diary
Sunday, November 21, 2004
Sometimes it's like fog..
Sometimes it's all just like being lost in fog. If you step too far away or take your eye off goings-on for just a minute or two, everything gets blurry.
IBD front page: I thought Clinton was bad when he was elected. That look of disgust on his face while walking next to Dubya... And the smirk on Dubya's face... Oh, the spite, the spite.
What a dull game we are paying for...
- posted by Zeeper @ 5:31 AM 0 comments
Thursday, November 18, 2004
It's the Most Embarrassing Time....of the Year...
So the majority leader of the Senate is nearing indictment and so the Senate changes the rules and says now that it's alright for members to be under indictment just as long as they are not convicted. Of course, DeLay is moaning on about how it's the insidious scheming of the Democrats that "caused" the indictment in the first place.
Okay, so it's like this: The Republicans are all going to vote for issues that Republicans decide are appropriate and the Democrats are going to do the same with a Democratic agenda. Further, the Republicans and Democrats seem to have embraced the vicious vindictiveness of nine year-old children playing in a schoolyard recess and so vote en bloc against whichever proposals the "other side" might put on the table. Right? Right. So, why are we spending billions of dollars a year in salaries and expense accounts on a Congress that represents only two points of view? Why are we spending this much money just so two groups of aging adolescents can spite each other? Why are we giving any time, respect and votes to these people who have "somehow" managed to place us all in the position of financing what is arguably the most expensive game of "King of the Hill" in the history of the United States? What possible good can come to the rest of us from decisions made by such people, other than by happenstance? How, in the name of God, did we become so stupid. When, exactly, did we fall asleep and let this happen? It would be of great benefit, I think, "to ourselves and our posterity", to figure this one out.
Truthfully, I have to think that if being an American means being this abysmally stupid, maybe it's time to formulate an exit strategy.
- posted by Zeeper @ 1:49 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
How Will the Dems Win?
If the Democratic Party is going to have any considerable or worthy impact on the next presidential election:
1. Understand that it is theirs to lose, as it has always been.
2. The one lesson the Democrats need to learn from the Republicans is that the next election campaign started on 11/02/04, if not before.
3. Before the Democratic Party floats a candidate, it needs to float itself. If any Democratic candidate is going to win, he or she must be an outgrowth of the party rather than visa-versa.
4. The democrats need to form a political platform that is _American_ rather than Democratic. I think the true foundation of the Republican "win" is that the party functions like a tribe. They can be successful at this because of the large numbers of people who like being tribal. The Democrats have always been a coalition and so require a great deal of consensus to get anywhere. It would a fatal mistake to think of this as an advantage for the Republicans. And, DNC, the only political position that requires 45 pages to explain is a position of confusion.
5. STOP trying to sneak in a Democratic agenda behind some popular issue. Honesty and candor are good things.
5a. If you promote an agenda that is co-opted and implemented by the current administration, you have still accomplished your goals at least somewhat, right? This is better than nothing, yes?
6. I think everybody needs to accept that the next presidential election is going to be essentially decided in the next 10-12 months. What this means is that campaign management has become sophisticated enough that elections can be quite likely predicted this far out. Isaac Asimov's Psychohistory comes to mind.
The Dems might as well at least give it a try. Rove will.
Lastly, consider the notion that the Republicans were not so much trying suppress the vote as they were trying to suppress _enthusiasm_. Enthusiasm on the rise is an unpredictable wildcard. It can screw with your trendlines. And it's easier to discourage enthusiasm than it is to forecast its effects. Right, George, Don, Dick, Karl?
- posted by Zeeper @ 5:19 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
Killed an wounded unarmed man in a church...
I wonder how will this play out. I think it will go something like this:
1. Soldiers are accused of murder.
2. Spin-meisters will make it look like these few are responsible for all the atrocities everywhere in Iraq.
3. Spin-meisters will continue just until boredom in the viewing audience begins to set in. IOWs, the spin fling reaches a saturation point.
4. Soldiers will be acquitted because of the extenuating circumstances of war.
5. This implies that all atrocities should be forgiven in the same way.
There is one small bump I see that I imagine will be smoothed nicely away: When the approaching soldiers were asking about the conditions inside the mosque from the soldiers already there, the first question asked was if the Iraqis inside had been shot. The second question asked about weapons the Iraqis might have had on them. BTW, the first question was answered with words, the second with a shrug (Like, "I don't know" or "Who cares").
Maybe it's just me, but it seems pretty clear that the inquiring soldiers were more concerned with whether the Iraqis were dead than whether they were armed. Could you say this is evidence of intent?
We need some time since the last atrocity to put barbarism behind us. We really do.
- posted by Zeeper @ 7:58 PM 0 comments
If There Were 11 Cents Worth of Difference
Yeah, yeah, I know they've protected us from terrorism for three years or so. The problem is, if meteorites had hit the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, I have no reason to believe this Administration wouldn't be making all the same claims it has made, just "adjusted" for meteors.
I have no trouble seeing President Bush pounding softly but firmly on his podium for the umpteenth time and, for the umpteenth time, loudly and firmly telling us that if the United States even for a moment loses its focus and resolution the world will drift into the path of another meteor "and that will not happen on my watch!"
You have no idea how much I would give to have difficulty seeing that.
- posted by Zeeper @ 4:33 AM 0 comments
Monday, November 15, 2004
God Help Us All
I found a site: http://fallujapictures.blogspot.com/
We can put photos like these in front of the whole world with an almost casual ease but we continue to find the kind of human butchery the photos depict somehow unavoidable and therefore tolerable. How much strain can civilization stand before it warps into something as disfigured as the children in these photos or it shatters altogether?
There must be limit to the strain and we are surely moving closer to it rather than further away from it.
God help us all.
- posted by Zeeper @ 7:18 PM 0 comments
It's a Sqiggly, Slimy, Nasty Thing...
The one thing this administration has done that is so much at odds with the ones which came before is that it has embraced as assets all of the negatives (apathy, ignorance, fear, envy, etc.) that its predecessors have tried to reduce or eliminate. I think we are seeing there is a fairly vast store of these detrimental states and attitudes to draw on.
The truth is, I see so many themes and elements from such books as "Lord of the Flies", "Animal Farm", "The Fountainhead", "1984", "Brave New World", "Atlas Shrugged", etc., in play, I think it would surprise no one if Freddy, Jason, and Michael Meyers strolled up to the White House and took their places on the Cabinet.
- posted by Zeeper @ 6:37 PM 0 comments
My apologies, George. We tried. We really did.
"All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels and modified by mutual interests."
-- George Washington, Farewell Address 1796
Isn't it just a tad embarrassing that his observations are this poignant 208 years later? Don't you think that in the last couple of centuries we could have matured as a people to the point of being able to rightly call Washington's apprehension "quaint" instead of the Geneva Convention? Do you think we could have grown up enough to have, figuratively speaking, just wiped the blood away and gone on as Americans after being punched smartly in our Trade Centers rather than becoming this mass of trembling, fearful indignation shouting inappropriate epithets--and hurling really inappropriate ordinance--at the world? Wow. These questions seems so...reasonable when you just come right out and say them.
Damn. What went wrong?
Santayana was (and is) right: "Those ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it".
It is a shame that those of us who have not forgotten our history will suffer along with those who have and without the benefit of the bliss of ignorance and, of course, with the always scintillating, rewarding company of those who remain determinedly, energetically blissful.
Isn't it?
------------------------------------------------------
This is one of those moments when courtesy requires me to step out "diary" mode and acknowledge the ineffable pain endured by the individuals directly hurt by the 9/11 attack. On this personal side, there are, I truly believe, no words that can express the impact of such a thing. These people deserve only the deepest deference and respect as does anyone anywhere who has been wounded in any fashion, or killed, by this war in Iraq.
On the national side, however, it was just a stout, swift punch that caught the country off-guard. Any actual threats to the foundations of our democracy have come about in the government's response to the attack. In fact, I have to consider that there will indeed be no more attacks because our response to the first one has been far more damaging to our democratic, American way of life than a second attack could ever have been.
Nevertheless, I'm sure there are herders watching who are ready to prod us again should the need arise.
I ask forgiveness in advance from anyone who might mistakenly believe that I in any way wish to diminish the effect to the individuals harmed by the attack by trying to find perspective on the actual harm to the nation.
- posted by Zeeper @ 7:10 AM 0 comments
Sunday, November 14, 2004
Arnold rising...
They want to amend the Constitution so foreign born citizens can become President. They're gearing up to pass around the presidency like a drunk freshman at a homecoming victory party, a homecoming won on a technicality, you know.
- posted by Zeeper @ 8:14 PM 0 comments
Friday, November 12, 2004
Electronic Voting...Phase 1
Counting backwards, limits to counting, reversed totals. For any business doing software development profitably, these mistakes are like a professional driver not being able to tell right from left reliably. Imagine Mario Andretti putting a car into reverse by mistake. It's like that. For real. It is NOT an "accident" or "oversight". My God, it's embarrassing to hear so many people talking about these things like there is any doubt it was deliberate...
- posted by Zeeper @ 9:39 PM 0 comments
So this is blasphemy...
Today's IBD front page tries to compare the flag raising at Iwo Jima with a group of soldiers fighting on the rooftops of Fallujah. As terrible as this undeclared war is, it doesn't amount to a pimple on a bull's ass next to the pervasive horror of World War II. And it is the essence of blasphemy to try to co-opt the incomparable heroism of the veterans of the World Wars.
It's just this simple: Dan Rather, the most stoic of stoic news broadcasters, lost control of his voice in talking about the strength and valor of the face of a soldier in a photo. Rather was correct. I saw the photo and that soldier deserves the honor and praise of our entire nation as do all of our soldiers everywhere. But, do you think that soldier would have the constitution to look like that staring into the face of war without the example of the soldiers in the photo of the flag-raising? I don't think so, but I really don't know.
And neither do the editors of IBD. Damn their cowardly, narrow pettiness.
- posted by Zeeper @ 5:29 AM 0 comments
Hey, Democrats, I see you!
I think I have found a good analogy for the political fervor of the Democratic Party. I live in the Northeast and we have a beltway around the city. When the traffic starts to build, but before it gets jammed, cars will group up by the dozens with stretches of almost open road between them.
Within a group, the cars jockey mightily for position, showing amazing assertion of position with each other, anticipation of each other’s “moves”, manipulation of each other’s itinerary, and outright aggression when all else fails.
Now, this whole process happens pretty quickly, rarely lasting more than a few minutes. Eventually, the most talented driver (sometimes myself) will fight his way to the head of the pack and will be poised to break free of the herd and “explore” the open road. And, you know what happens? – Most of the time, they stop pushing. They are so cowardly comfortable that they refuse to break from the herd and just end up blocking almost everyone else. Meet John Kerry and the Democratic Leadership.
Do you know who doesn’t stop, who blasts away and goes boldly into the “abyss”? The young drivers, the ones who “don’t know better”, who “have no sense”, no experience and no fear. Meet John Edwards, Dennis Kucinic, Al Sharpton, and the one and only Howard Dean.
It is true: Our future and our hope lie with the “young”.
- posted by Zeeper @ 5:16 AM 0 comments
Heeeeerrrrreeee's........Julius!
It seems that among members of the United States Congress partisan loyalty has largely replaced personal integrity, the partisan platform has largely replaced personal conclusions, public polls have largely replaced personal deliberation, and the honor and prestige of the office of Senator or Representative has largely been put up for sale to the highest bidder though within the constraints just listed.
I have to wonder if this is similar to the state of political affairs in Ancient Rome when the Julius declared himself Emperor. God, it has the all the feel of it.
- posted by Zeeper @ 4:59 AM 0 comments
Thursday, November 11, 2004
The King is dead...
Arafat died. Let's see...
Mysterious re-election of Bush, Wolfowitz, Perle, et. al., mysterious collapse, mysterious coma, mysterious persistent bleeding in the brain, seemingly irreversible condition (as yet unidentified), advanced age, considered a major roadblock to Peace in the Middle East, aka, the "benevolent" supremacy of Israel, and then that word keeps trying to break through...wa, wah, wuh, war, oh, what is it, wahf, warf, warfa, oh, yeah, now I remember: Warfarin!
- posted by Zeeper @ 11:51 AM 0 comments
Suggestion for Air America
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Hi,
First off, like so many others, I want you to know how much I appreciate the work you have done. Fantastic job. Just to give this some perspective, I have NEVER listened talk radio before Air America. Now it's part of my daily life.
Lately I've, well, noticed something missing, if you will. Since Air America has survived the election and is still growing (Hooyah!), I think you should consider something that might bring Air America more into the mainstream and it actually expands on a small trend I've noticed in your news broadcasts, that is, referring to items that have been discovered by your own investigations and referring to excerpts from interviews with your own guests as news items. It's great.
What I am suggesting is a news _hour_. We routinely hear broadcasters refer to "developing" and "late-breaking" political news stories as well as the political "weather" and, let's face it, there is massive ongoing pressure to regard political events as though they were spectator sports. So, why not have a morning, noon, and evening news hour (or half hour) similar to the major networks with news, weather and sports all focused on politics. I can imagine there would be considerably more work involved but it just has that “feel” that it would be beneficial to the listeners in that it gives a break to the somewhat persuasive, ever so slightly pressured, perhaps a bit contentious, only a little confrontational format of the talk shows and gives you a chance to present the information in an “unbiased” format. It just seems more solid somehow while keeping just a touch of your trademark quirkiness. You could also expand your regular broadcast day with fewer “best of” broadcasts. These are usually just as good as the original but it you’ve heard the original already, the rebroadcasts can get a little thin. But only the teensiest little… And what if the "weather" and "sports" "forecasts" become reliable? Whoa.
Please do not think I am any way complaining in anything I have said. This is strictly in the spirit of an FYI, a feedback. These are the sorts of things I think I would like to hear if I were doing something like you are, as if I could actually imagine myself doing what you do. Major whoa.
Frankly, I think it could lay the groundwork for something wonderful.
Thanks again for everything. It’s been really neat.
Please don’t use my name,
- posted by Zeeper @ 8:24 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
The Ringbearers have taken flight...
Bush put Rove on the market by crediting Rove during his acceptance speech. Barak Obama complimented the Republican campaign machine the following Sunday. Wait for the hookup. Think Smeagal and the Ring of Power.
- posted by Zeeper @ 6:17 AM 0 comments
For the last time, Karl Rove
This is how he does it.
1. Use the candidate with the most homogeneous constituency.
2. Absolute acceptance of a quantifiable, fixed goal.
3. Complete ongoing and historical research of all issues and trends.
4. Complete, dynamic portfolio of the evaluations of the efficacy of using varying combinations these issues and trends to achieve the goal, ordered by probability of success. Includes all combinations that could, to any degree, support the goal.
5. A dynamic, collection (three-layer, at least) of contingency plans for each checkpoint in the campaign strategy.
6. At least three or more layers of projections of outcomes ordered by probability of success.
7. Be prepared to repeat items 2-6 whether the goal is achieved or not.
Note: He also probably has the modern equivalent of J. Edgar Hoover's files in a database that would be the envy of any database manager.
Item 1 is the reason why Rove works for Bush. The rest are simply parts of an admirable work ethic.
- posted by Zeeper @ 5:24 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
2004 Election Feedback
1. How did you participate in this election?
Donations, bulk emailings.
2. Is this the first time you participated in election activism?
Yes.
3. How would you like to continue to stay involved? (Volunteering, phonebanking, fundraising, local organizing, etc.)
None of your above options describe the type of involvement I intend to pursue. I do not believe the Democratic Party will ever win anything using a conventional approach.
4. Did you feel the actions you took were effective?
Of course. Weren't yours?
5. Was it a good experience for you?
Very much so.
6. How would you make it better?
By not depending on reactive committees for guidance.
7. Please share other thoughts and comments you have about the 2004 election and what Democrats and the Democratic Party should do going forward.
The Democratic Party needs to understand the benefits of Karl Rove's work ethic without embracing his methodology. Rove is obsessive about details and preparation and he is equally obsessive about the _efficiency_ as well as the effectiveness of his pursuasion points. You went up against an unlimitedly funded, laser focused, detail oriented, fanatical penny pincher. The Democratic Party became ineffectual as an attempt to deny Bush's initiative to re-acquire the White House when Rove, Inc. was able to define the Democratic campaign as a challenge to the status quo.
How did Rove, Bush and Co. do this? They took lessons from you. This was the basis for the Democratic bid: Bush represents a serious threat to the status quo.
I can explain it very simply to the old time Trekkies out there: They had a Corbomite Device and they used it very effectively.
The next time you step into the ring look up and look around BEFORE you step through the ropes.
You went in expecting to win on points and they beat you on _patterns_. You started a movement without understanding _inertia_. You went in to pursuade and without knowing how to _manipulate_.
You were afraid of winning.
I think the beginning of the end was when Kerry said that he would not discuss the details of his plans because the Administration would usurp them to their own uses. It is difficult to define your priorities in any meaningful way after that. He didn't say that? See the previous paragraph.
- posted by Zeeper @ 5:28 AM 0 comments
