No time to blog today

My mom forwarded this cool picture to me this morning.

Dream cabinet

OK, here’s a fun fantasy exercise while we wait patiently for the never-ending primary process to play itself out. Who would be your ideal picks for the top cabinet posts in the next presidential administration. Here are some of my choices:

President Barack Obama
Vice President Bill Richardson
Secretary of State Chris Dodd
Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel
Attorney General John Edwards
Secretary of Education
Secretary of Health and Human Services
Secretary of Energy
Secretary of Homeland Security Joe Biden
Secretary of Interior Clint Eastwood
Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Secretary of Commerce
Secretary of Treasury
Secretary of Agriculture
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
Secretary of Labor
Secretary of Environment Al Gore (New cabinet level position)

And Hillary Clinton will return to the Senate and challenge Harry Reid for the job of Majority Leader.
I’ll try to fill in the blanks over time. Any suggestions?

Embedded music

Jed over at Boots and Sabers has been highlighting different musical artists each day and having readers post their favorite songs. It’s kind of fun to see what other people pick as their favorite music by acts that are familiar to most everyone. It’s also interesting to see which group or individual gets highlighted each day.
Here are the groups they’ve featured so far in order:

The Rolling Stones
Aerosmith
Led Zepplin
U2
Lynyrd Skynyrd
AC/DC
Motley Crue
Jim Croce
Queen
Bruce Springsteen
Guns n Roses
The Clash

The exercise is apparently limited to the availability of songs Jed can find on the SeeqPod web site. This cool site lets you search for songs that you can then embed on your blog. Here is my first attempt:



I want to dedicate this one to Aretha Franklin!

Delegate math update

For those who may still be unconvinced of the futility of Hillary Clinton’s continuing bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, MSNBC has helpfully run the numbers again:

Obama leads among pledged delegates 1408-1251; Clinton leads among superdelegates, 255-218. Added together, Obama's overall delegate lead is 120, 1626-1506. Now, what's left? There are still 10 pledged delegates NBC News hasn’t allocated from contests already held. In addition, there are 566 delegates at stake in the remaining contests. On the supers front, there are 321 folks who haven't picked sides (76 of whom have yet to be named; they'll get named at state convention meetings held between now and the end of June). OK, now, let's play the math game. If the remaining contests split up "as expected" meaning Clinton wins her base states (PA, KY, WV etc.) and Obama wins his base states (NC, OR, MT etc.) and the two split Indiana down the middle, the two campaigns will likely split those 566 delegates right down the middle 283-283 (margin of error +/- 5 delegates). This means Obama would need 34% of the uncommitted superdelegates to hit the magic 2024 number, while Clinton would need 72% of the uncommitted Supers to hit 2024.  

And splitting the remaining delegates down the middle is probably an overly optimistic scenario for Hillary right now. But even if that does happen, she has to somehow persuade an overwhelming majority of the Super delegates (72 percent) to overturn the will of the Democratic primary voters and support her at the convention. Ain’t gonna happen.

In the meantime, the Jeremiah Wright controversy is starting to fade as the pack-dog press has turned its attention to chasing a sex scandal in the Detroit Mayor’s office; Obama has increased his poll lead in North Carolina to 20 points; and his fundraising efforts continue to outpace Hillary and is leaving John McCain in the dust.

Conservatives for Obama

Andrew Bracevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, makes the conservative case for Barack Obama.

Conservatives who think that a McCain presidency would restore a sense of realism and prudence to U.S. foreign policy are setting themselves up for disappointment. On this score, we should take the senator at his word: his commitment to continuing the most disastrous of President Bush’s misadventures is irrevocable. McCain is determined to remain in Iraq as long as it takes. He is the candidate of the War Party. The election of John McCain would provide a new lease on life to American militarism, while perpetuating the U.S. penchant for global interventionism marketed under the guise of liberation.

The essential point is this: conservatives intent on voting in November for a candidate who shares their views might as well plan on spending Election Day at home. The Republican Party of Bush, Cheney, and McCain no longer accommodates such a candidate.

So why consider Obama? For one reason only: because this liberal Democrat has promised to end the U.S. combat role in Iraq. Contained within that promise, if fulfilled, lies some modest prospect of a conservative revival.

Lie, Cheat and Steal

When I saw this story the other day about Hillary needing to do three things to win the Democratic nomination, my first thought was "Yeah - Lie, Cheat and Steal."
But then I read the article and here are the three things they actually suggest she needs to do:

1. Win big in Pennsylvania and claim that that proves she deserves the nomination even though she will still be behind in pledged delegates... In other words, LIE.

2. Find some way to have the Florida and Michigan delegates seated on her behalf even though they did not hold legitimate primary elections... In other words, CHEAT.

3. Find some way to get the superdelegates to abandon and Obama and support her... In other words, STEAL.

So my first impression turns out to have been dead on. Ha!

5 year anniversary

No, not the war in Iraq. My blogiversary!
Actually, I just realized that I totally neglected to note my blog’s fifth anniversary back in January - Jan. 10 to be precise.
Here is my first ever blog post from 2003.
I didn’t have titles for my posts back then. I didn’t have comments. I didn’t know how to post links or pictures or videos. But I had a blog!
It is strange to think that my blog has been around longer than the war-that-will-not-end in Iraq. It is older than both of my children. I’ve had it longer than either of the two cars I currently own.
Amazingly enough, I’ve lived in the same house and had the same job for this entire period. That is unusual for me. But I have no plans of ever moving again and I expect I will keep this blog going for the forseeable future. It’s too much fun to stop now!

Failure to Communicate

I’ve always enjoyed sparring with people over politics and since I started blogging I have sought out people who I could engage in debate over the political issues of the day.
But forming and maintaining such relationships - cordial yet adversarial - has proved difficult at times. A lot of bloggers simply don’t stick around for very long. Many of the rightwing bloggers I have engaged in debate over the years have simply shut down and tuned out. Sometimes the dialogues we’ve had have proved fruitful and informative on both sides. Other times they have simply reinforced stereotypes and animosities and have gone nowhere.
One recent effort of mine to strike up a discourse with a political adversary has just ended in dismal failure. The other day I was formally banned from commenting at the blog run by TexasFred. It didn’t take long. I think I was allotted three comments on the site before I was pitched out on my rear.
I should have known better. I was intrigued by TexasFred because he was one of the many rightwing bloggers to announce steadfast opposition to John McCain’s presidential candidacy. I was curious to see how long this would last before the prospect of a Democratic boogeyman getting in the White House would force a reversal of that position. Sure enough, once it became clear that Obama would be the nominee, TexasFred began to bitterly denounce him in tones that were both objectionable and over-the-top.
It should have been clear then that there was no opportunity for dialogue at that point. But I let my curiosity overrule my better judgment and I attempted to open a dialogue on his blog. This is always difficult because many people will assume that someone posting an adversarial comment on their site is a “troll” who is only seeking to pick a fight or make fun of them. So I tried to ease into the discussion by first noting an area where we are in agreement - he is adamantly opposed to the Iraq War in the same way that Pat Buchanan is. But, I wondered, how can he still consider supporting the Republican ticket in that case?
But my attempt to raise this issue backfired when he mistook one of my comments and lambasted me with his response. And then he made it clear that if I were a supporter of Obama he would have no interest in anything I have to say. I should have bailed at that point, but I then made the mistake of trying to lighten the mood by cracking a joke in my next comment only to find that TexasFred takes his politics very seriously and does not share my sense of humor. So I was banned and all my previous comments on the site were deleted and pitched down the memory hole.
So, as in the Cool Hand Luke clip above, I had failed to communicate and I walk away with the impression that there are some people that you just can’t reach.
But, honestly, I still don’t believe that. Not entirely.

A historic speech

Here is the full text of Obama’s “Race Speech” that he delivered today. It is most remarkable because he addresses the race issue from both the perspective of a black man and a white man. There are not many people who can do that today with any degree of credibility. Obama, because of his unique racial heritage, can.
He doesn’t just dismiss and denounce the racist words of Rev. Jeremiah Wright, he puts them into their historical context and then shows a path by which those views can be changed. He does not excuse the offensive remarks, but neither does he condemn the man for saying them.
And then he changes gears and discusses the race issue from a white perspective. He talks about the racial resentments that white people feel over busing and affirmative action, and he puts that into its historical perspective too.
I don’t know how anyone could listen to this speech in its entirety and not come away affected by its eleoquence and sincerity. This is the power of rhetoric that has been missing for far too long in our society. I am more excited than ever now about the possibilities that Obama’s candidacy brings for reconciliation and healing in our fractured society.
There will always be people who will dismiss and ignore what he says, but as long as he continues to find forums to spread this unifying message, it will be difficult for the naysayers to hold back the positive changes that are long overdue in our country.

Raw, unfiltered hatred

A while back I noted that a lot of rightwing bloggers were swearing up and down that they would never vote for John McCain.
Their revulsion for McCain’s alleged liberalism was just too much for them to bear.

But I should have known not to underestimate the power of raw, unreasoning, unfiltered hatred.
Case in point: One of the wingnut bloggers I referenced was one called Texas Fred who had this to say back then:

I will officially go on record, here and now, and I make this a public disclosure to any and all that have doubts as to where I stand, IF John McCain is the candidate chosen by the RNC to run for the White House, I will NOT support the Republican choice...

But now, using the drummed up controversy over Obama’s former pastor as his excuse, Texas Fred has suddenly backtracked:

”If it means supporting McCain to keep this skinny, purple lipped, half-assed black son of a bitch stealth muzzie OUT of the White House, then by God I’ll support McCain...”

Texas Fred precedes this tirade by claiming that he is “not a racist” and I would agree. It’s not that he is a racist that makes him say these things, it’s that he is an a**hole. I’m sure he would find some excuse to vent his hatred at the Democratic nominee regardless of who it turns out to be.

Not all rightwingers are like this, fortunately, but for far too many this raw hatred that builds up in their twisted psyches becomes the primary motivation for all their political views. It is the touchstone of their politics. It is what motivates them and drives their political agenda. They build up a strawman, fill it up with their worst fears and prejudices and then sit back and scream hateful invectives at it.
Trying to engage people such as this in constructive debate is usually futile. Their hatred runs too deep and blinds them from any rationale thought.

It does not surprise me that Texas Fred and others of his ilk are going back on their pledges of non-support for McCain, but I was a little shocked to see it done with such foul and hate-filled intensity as demonstrated by Texas Fred.

Mutton Busting

This is what my little boy got to do on Saturday.

Heck of a job, Mr. President

This is some way to cap off the final year of his presidency, isn’t it?

"The current financial crisis in the US is likely to be judged in retrospect as the most wrenching since the end of the Second World War," Alan Greenspan said in a Financial Times commentary.
    "It will end eventually when home prices stabilise and with them the value of equity in homes supporting troubled mortgage securities," he said, referring to the meltdown in the US subprime home loan market and subsequent massive losses for the banks holding the debt instruments.
    "The crisis will leave many casualties," he said, his remarks coming after Bear Stearns, the fifth largest US investment house collapsed Friday and was taken over by JPMorgan Chase for a fraction of its value of only a week ago.

So.... what happened? Why haven’t Bush’s tax cuts made everything wonderful for our economy? How come after eight years with Bush at the reins we are heading towards the most wrenching financial crisis since WWII?
Not his fault, you say? 9/11 and all that?
Ridiculous.
There could not be clearer evidence that Republican economic policies have FAILED miserably. The prospect of electing John McCain to carry on another four years of these same failed economic policies is frightening.

Desert Island Music

Over at Boots & Sabers they have been running a series of posts where people pick their favorite song by different bands. Today, they take it one step further with a deserted island post.
The game is that you are stuck on a deserted island with plenty of electricity and a good stereo system. In one version you are allowed to have three songs and only three songs. In another version you are allowed three albums - double albums allowed but no greatest hits compilations or box sets. And in a third version you are allowed the entire discography of three artists.
I decided to combine the three versions and make them cumulative so that I could get the most musical variety on my little island as possible.
Here was my answer:

The complete discographies of:

The Beatles
Bing Crosby
Duke Ellington

The Albums:

Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
The Sun Sessions - Elvis Presley
Modern Sounds in Country Music - Ray Charles

Songs:

Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic - The Police
The Sixth Symphony (Pastoral) - Beethoven


That still leaves out a lot, doesn’t it.

Warning shot

Jonathan Gurwitz can see what’s coming. The Republicans are heading for a major election defeat in November and the loss of former Speaker Dennis Hastert’s seat in what used to be a solidly Republican district in Illinois is just one indicator.
But Democrats still have a long primary fight ahead of them with the next big primary - Pennsylvania - nearly six weeks away. Obama won Mississippi handily - 61-39 percent - adding to his victory a few days earlier in Wyoming. That gave him enough delegates to wipe out any bump that Hillary saw out of her March 4 victories in Ohio and Texas.
There is no way at this point that Hillary can win this thing so it is not clear why she is staying in the race. But it will all be over in time and Democrats will unite behind their nominee just as the disgruntled Republicans have obediently kow-towed to John McCain.

Dump Spitzer

What is he still doing in office?? Get the hell out! Resign now! He should have been out yesterday.
There is no way that New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is going to survive this sex scandal. The fact that he used to be a prosecutor who aggressively went after people caught up in prostitution rings sends this case way off of the hypocricy scale. Democrats should not waste one ounce of political capital trying to defend his stupid ass. What an idiot! His political career is over, regardless of how the legal case plays out.
There are a lot of questions about how the Justice Department came to snare a Democratic governor. These should be pursued vigorously and exposed if it turns out the investigation was politically motivated. But that doesn’t mean Spitzer is going to get off the hook. His goose is cooked no matter what. He needs to clear out and make room for the Democratic Party’s next rising star - Lt. Gov. David Paterson. Paterson would not only become the fourth African-American governor in history, but he would also be the first one who is legally blind. What a great story! Dump Spitzer now and start promoting Paterson!

A question of experience

When they are not darkly alluding that Barack Obama is a terrorist sympathizer because of his middle name, they will attack him for his percieved lack of experience.

On that note, here is an interesting exercise on picking presidents based on experience:

Suppose you had to choose between two Presidential candidates, one of whom had spent 20 years in Congress plus had considerable other relevant experience and the other of whom had about half a dozen years in the Illinois state legislature and 2 years in Congress. Which one do you think would make a better President? If you chose #1, congratulations, you picked James Buchanan over Abraham Lincoln.

There are many other examples like that where you can persuade people to pick Warren G. Harding over Franklin Roosevelt; or Millard Fillmore over John Adams.

Clearly, “experience” is almost a random factor when it comes to determining the success of a president. One of the most galling things about Hillary’s “threshhold” argument for being commander-in-chief is that her own husband would never have passed the test the way she is using it today.

Some people will argue that having too much experience is actually bad. They will point out that most presidents fare more poorly during their second term after gaining experience than they do during their first term. I don’t necessarily buy that argument. I just think that experience by itself is overrated. What matters most is what you do with the experience you have and not just the simple fact that you have it.
Some people can do a great deal with very little experience while others do almost nothing with lots of experience.

Crossing the threshhold

For the last few days, Hillary Clinton has been pushing a new campaign theme where she claims to have “crossed a threshhold” for becoming Commander in Chief of our military, while implying that Barack Obama has not. The outrageous part is that each time she does this she assumes that Republican John McCain has crossed that threshhold as well. So, in effect, she is endorsing McCain’s bid for the presidency over Obama’s.
What is she thinking?!?
Hillary has crossed a threshhold alright! Right into Joe Lieberman territory. What’s next? Will she be making a nomination speech at the Republican National Convention this summer like Zell Miller did?
I’m not a Hillary basher by any measure. I’ve always admired and supported her in the past. But lately it is becoming extremely difficult for me to defend her actions to my friends. What is going on?
Hillary is not stupid. I know that she can count. I know that she can see the writing on the wall. As Jonathan Alter pointed out in Newsweek, she has no chance of catching up to Obama in the pledged delegate count at this point, even if she were to blow him out in every contest from here on out.
So what is her gameplan with this new line of attack? How does she expect to win over Democratic voters by praising John McCain? It’s nuts. Is she just being vindictive, with the idea that if she can’t win, then nobody can win?

District 23 challenger

It seems like just yesterday that I was celebrating Ciro Rodriguez’ victory over Henry Bonilla in the 23rd Congressional District.
Now, it’s time to gear up for the next challenge. Bexar County Commissioner Lyle Larson won the Republican primary the other day and will take on Ciro this fall. Larson handily defeated millionaire businessman Quico Canseco despite being outspent nearly 10-1.

I was glad to see Larson win, partly because I think he is not as noxious as Quico and partly because he does not have the personal wealth and financial resources at his disposal that Quico has.
Larson seems like a mainstream Republican who is not out on the wingnut fringe. But then, I thought the same thing about John Cornyn before he got elected to the Senate.

On his campaign website, Larson seems to downplay (or ignore) the more divisive issues on his website and promises to “bring fiscal discipline to Washington, D.C.,” secure our borders and care for our veterans. Hardly controversial ideas.
Still, Larson covers his right flank by declaring "I am pro life and I value the sanctity of every human life.” and "I believe in traditional marriage; a union between a man and a woman". But then he goes on to emphasize his support for adoptions programs which everybody supports.
But there are some worrisome areas on Larson’s “issues” page that voters should be aware of. He talks about Social Security in alarmist terms and hints that “tough decisions must be made” about the level of benefits younger generations will recieve.
And on taxes, Larson embraces the nutty “Fair Tax” scheme most recently promoted by Mike Huckabee that would eliminate the IRS and fund the entire U.S. government (inadequately) with a massive 36 percent sales tax on everything. The goofy idea was initially dreamed up by the Church of Scientology, and is now being endorsed by the rightwing fringe of the Republican Party.

One issue that Larson skirts on his web site, not surprisingly, is the Iraq War. But one can be assured that as the Republican candidate on the ballot with John McCain next fall, Larson will have no choice but to wear the Iraqi albatross around his neck.

This should be a good year for Democrats and Ciro should not have too much trouble getting re-elected after knocking off Bonilla by a 55-45 margin less than two years ago. But he needs to take the challenge from Larson very seriously with the understanding that Larson or someone like him will be back again and again trying to pry him out of this newly blue congressional district.

A muddled election

I am deeply disappointed in the elections results last night. I very much wanted to see Texas go for Obama.
We had a chance to pick the next president of the United States here in Texas the other day and we blew it.
The election results, which gave a slim popular vote victory to Hillary Clinton and a caucus-driven delegate victory to Barrack Obama, only served to muddle things up and send the whole campaign packing down the road for the next states to decide.

Hillary is claiming a huge victory for herself, which is understandable, but when the delegates are all counted and divvied up there is less there than meets the eye.
Hillary won big in Ohio and Rhode Island, but lost in Vermont. In Texas, she split the primary delegates and lost the caucus delegates. The final tally looks like she may end up with a net gain of two or three delegates, maybe.
In other words, she did nothing to make up the gap in pledged delegates between her and Obama which stands at something like 157.
So now, instead of bowing out of the race and allowing Democrats to regroup around their eventual nominee, we are going to continue the bloody fratricide to the delight of the Republicans for the next six weeks. Hillary’s only chance of winning the nomination will be to continue her negative campaigning and tear Obama to pieces before the Democratic convention this summer so that the super delegates will be more willing to abandon him and support her.
Lovely.
The part of John McCain will now be played by Hillary Clinton for the next six weeks. Meanwhile, McCain will have time to raise a huge warchest with which to beat Democrats over the head this fall.
I don’t know if I have the stomach to put up with this for another six weeks. Yech!

E. Gary Gygax RIP

Gary Gygax, the creator of the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game, died today at age 69.
I actually got to meet Mr. Gygax back during the summer of 1983 and got his autograph when I attended the GenCon gaming convention in Lake Geneva, Wis. with my friend Jim Miller.
My friends and I were big into D&D when I was in high school. My friend Robert introduced me to the game when I was a freshman or sophomore and we played pretty regularly until we all left for college.
D&D has gotten a bad rap over the years from fundamentalist churches and that lame TV movie that starred Tom Hanks and so forth, but I have to say that for a kid growing up in small-town South Texas it was a godsend. Back before we had home computers and VCRs and cable TV, there just wasn’t much for young teens to do in the evenings. Rather than driving around town, cruising the local Dairy Queen, drinking beer and generally getting into trouble, my friends and I would gather at someone’s house, sit around a card table with a big bowl of popcorn and play D&D until late in the evening.
The game was complex and had lots of rules, but was otherwise very low-tech and required little more than the rule books, some pencils, paper and special dice. When we started, we didn’t even have dice and had to use little cardboard chits with numbers that we would keep in styrofoam cups. I remember when we finally got the special 20-sided, 12-sided and 8-sided dice it was very exciting. Back then, finding D&D games and accessories meant searching through the back corners of old hobby shops that mostly catered to people who built models and train sets. The closest one to us was in Kingsville more than 30 miles away.
Today, the game has been taken over by computers. Whereas it used to require gathering all your friends together to play a decent game, you can now play all by yourself in front of your computer, sometimes with other people half a wold away sitting in front of their computers. It’s just not the same.
I still have all my D&D books and stuff at home, packed away in a closet somewhere. Maybe when my kids are old enough and if they show any interest I might drag it all out and hopefully the magic will still work at that point. All it takes is a little imagination.