Friday, August 08, 2003

Guest blogger no. 3 here, feeling the need to commemorate a political high point in our nation's history: 29 years ago today Nixon announced his resignation. As much as I'd like to hear a similar speech from W in the near future (maybe something to the tune of "faced with the mounting evidence of my administration's crimes against humanity, I find myself forced to offer the resignations of myself, the Vice President, and my entire staff ") I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, if you aren't a MoveOn member, or haven't already seen this, take a look at what the man we actually elected had to say yesterday.

Thursday, August 07, 2003

And now a word from a technologically-challenged co-guest-blogger--we'll just call him the professor:
Howard Dean's less-than-stellar performance on Larry King Live was sobering, but not to despair, the Republicans should have had an easier time peddling hot dogs to a French chef than they did selling Dubya to a large fraction of the electorate--oh, but wait, this is American political reality I'm talking about here, where Democrats get to spend all of their time trying to make clear where they stand on those issues that conservatives have deemed to be crucial. And so, of course, we get Dean fumbling around ineptly when asked about gay marriage.
Don't get me wrong. In my view, consenting adults should be able to sanctify their domestic unions in whatever way they find it satisfying to do so, and the gov't should not make invidious distinctions among such arrangements in apportioning benefits and privileges BUT . . .
. . . conservatives want gay marriage to be an issue because it divides up the electorate in ways that are favorable to their candidates--given that their strategy for these things is: keep it close, and if you don't actually win it, you can steal it, recall it, impeach it, or redistrict it.
So someone should tell Dean and the other dems that the way to go here is to be crisp and move on. As far as presidential elections are concerned, there's no winning for the dems if the discussion is going to revolve around gay marriage--it calls out conservative troops moreso than it does ours. So the solution? State the obvious: "We should not allow religious prejudices to justify trampling on the civil rights of some of our citizens." And then move on to where we can win: "So, President Bush, are you saying that all Americans don't deserve full health care coverage right now?"

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

Greetings, blogophiles, geeks, ranters and everyone else out there in blog-o-land! I've been lurking in the ether for a long time and now that I've been tapped to guestblog for Lenora, I will be equal to the task. Actually I will be so much more than the task.

58 years ago today "Little Boy", the first ever WMD, leveled the city of Hiroshima, Japan, killing 140,000 human beings, and ushering in the Atomic Age. Commemorate accordingly. The Avalon Project at Yale has a boatload of info.

Anyway, I'm becoming less and less impressed with Mr. Dean. How can you be a candidate for President, appear on a nationally syndicated talk show (Larry King Live) and declare that you've never really given much thought to a subject that every other candidate, including the squatter in the White House, has been questioned about? (whether gays should be allowed to legally marry one another) I just don't think he can deliver the goods. But I'm willing to keep an open mind.

Molly, on the other hand, always delivers the goods.

Here's a reminder to all you sports fans out there to sign this petition and boycott ESPN until they flush Rush.