Sunday, April 30, 2006

Seal the Borders

But against illegal immigrants from the United States going to Mexico. Here’s a story from Tijuana about the mayor complaining of U.S. citizens coming over to Mexico to enjoy his countries lax marijuana laws, which may become even more lax in the future.

Unlike the illegal immigrants coming to the U.S. looking for any kind of pay including those jobs that pay so low no citizen would do it, the ones going to Mexico from the U.S. are not looking for work and don’t want any at any price. Who’s getting the bad end of this deal?

The idea that local Americans would be crossing the border to do something that is considered illegal in this country will do more to put up an impregnable fence between the two countries no mater how many are steaming across the border into the U.S.

Many Republicans can tolerate the exploitation of illegal workers rather than pay a decent wage to a legal citizen or foreign worker, but they will not be able to stand the thought of some liberal college kid going over the border to smoke pot. The will they play lip service to tighter border security to prevent illegal immigration since they are actually benefiting financially from the cheap labor, but their moralistic self-righteousness will not allow the situation of citizens casually going across the border for pleasure.

The border must be tightened.

Saturday, April 29, 2006

More Better Star-Spangled Banner

Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Under darkness of night and bright stars, through our perilous flight,
O’er the boarder we swam, we were so gallantly streaming.
And the spotlights’ bright glare, the ‘copters buzzing in air,
Gave proof through the night that our ass was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the jobs and the home of the payday?

Is the rewrite of the national anthem opened to anyone or do you have to be a recent arrival? I hope I’ve captured the essence of the new nation.

What’s interesting is watching the immigration situation divide the Republicans between the classic moneyed ruling class and the blue collar, cloth coat middle class majority. Business loves the current immigration policy that allows them to pay low wages and no benefits. The working class sees their wages being held down by the influx of cheap labor and strong belief that laws should be obeyed. An interesting article on this subject by Craig Shirley appeared in the WaPo a few days back.

The More Better Bush

The sudden three prong attack on high gas prices – is this the new and improved Bush? Are we seeing the Josh Bolten effect? President Bush responding to a crisis. I'm shocked and awed.

All the media are saying what Bush is offering will have little to any effect on high gas prices and is at best window dressing. What they fail to see or they refuse to comment since it would validate the liberal bias charge – if only their problem was liberal biasness, we would be better served – is that Bush is doing something. What we are not seeing is poor people crying out at the pump for relief while Bush flies by overhead looking down on them.

We will need to watch for the More Better Bush in the coming days: the proactive Bush, the in charge Bush, the decider deciding Bush, the go forward with the President you have instead of the one you want Bush. While Bush has always had a political spin master, now maybe, he has got himself a policy spin master.

Watch for Bush to come out on the attack, the attack Bush (Bushwhack?). The previous strategy blaming the liberals and their party, the Democrats, for what's ailing America or the scare strategy will have to be replaced with the actually doing something strategy. Substance is not as important as looking responsive and engaged. He will become the man of action his former wonks fail to portray.

The ideology of the Neocon’s is over; he is ready to play hardball. And he will be facing the hardest ball he has ever played if the Democrats win either house come this November. The Power=>Corruption curse has gravely afflicted the Republican Party and most of those birds will come to roost at the White House. We will watch it unfold on the MSM as we have done before – LBJ’s Curse on the Second Term – however this time there will be the net and the blogs.

That is if the Republicans lose either house.

Come on More Better Bush.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Karl Rove, Deja Vu All Over Again

Karl got no demotion. Karl has other more important work to do than any domestic policy. While Karl may have failed as a domestic policy wonk with the botched Social Security revamp and Katrina response among others, he is the current past master in politics. And that is where he is needed. Flash the political bat sign; Karl needs to don the black cowl, the black uniform, evoke the black arts and come to the rescue of the administration. Take out your notepads, the lesson from Karl is about to begin.

The administration cannot allow the Republicans to lose the majority in either house of Congress in the coming mid-term election. If the Democrats win the majority in either house, then they gets to be chairperson of all the committees in that house; the chairman can initiate investigations; and the chairman can force witnesses to testify under oath.

If the Democrats win the majority in only one house, they could make the Bushies last two years a living hell – televised nightly. They will not look good even on Fox News. The administration will be forced to testify before committees about practices that never need be questions should the Republicans maintain control. Even if Bush has lost a significant section of the Republican Party, he needn’t worry about investigation as long as they have the majority in Congress … if only. Republicans honor Reagan’s memory by not speaking (or too closely investigating) bad about one of their own.

The tactic of getting initiatives on the ballot that was sure to bring in their base such as gay marriage and abortion in the last election was pure genius. Those who live in a state or district in which an election for a member to Congress is up for grabs or the incumbent in viewed as weak are in for a show. The Karl Show.

In Tennessee, Bill Frist, the majority leade – in name if not in accomplishments – is not running for re-election, so the senate seat is up for grabs. I’m hopeful I’ll get to see Karl’s magic. I may not; it might be all behind the scene with negatively laced push polls, stoking of NRA members, or fundamentalist churches, and I’ll wake up the first Wednesday in November with a Republican senator for the next six years and wonder how and why.

Harold Ford Jr. seems to be the major candidate from the Democratic side. Although, Harold is carrying some heavy baggage with his family name – seeing as his relatives may be doing time for malfeasance while in office – that’s not where he need and worry as much as you might think.

Karl’s genius is to attack his opponent’s strength. What is Harold Ford’s greatest political strength? Don’t take this lightly. This is the man who ran against Max Cleland’s patriotism and won.

I can’t wait to see. I hope I see it coming. If I do, I’ll try and keep you informed.

Same Bat Time; same Bat Channel. (I’ve always wanted to use that.)

Saturday, April 15, 2006

The Global Warming Chill

I am not alone. To see the hype over global warming and wonder why no one spoke out against it has always concerned me. One of my first posts when I got into blogging was about global warming. Our Climatic Future (Or is Global Warming Full of Hot Air)

I could understand why the MSM ran with it. They are part of the hype, but it is also trendy, it's the current syle. How could they maintain their reputation for liberal bias unless they embrace global warming as if it was an established fact. From the way the MSM report it, to be against global warming is like being against child molestation. Who isn’t?

But I was seeing so few papers debunking the hype of global warming. And then I saw this: There IS a problem with global warming... it stopped in 1998 In the UK of all places. But it is support for what I have known for sometime, and it explained why I was see so little debunking of the global warming hype. It would seem scientists are as affected by the hype and trendiness of global warming as the rest of us.


Scientists are not only concerned with their particular science, but they must also worry about funding. If there is no money, there is no science. Do science curriculums include a course in funding? They should – it seems a major aspect of any field anyone would like to pursue.

I only wish Bod Carter – the prof who penned the opinion piece – had put links to the charts and references he mentioned. I would like to see them. You can’t have everything.

Actually, global warming is true. The climate will heat up eventually. It always has; it always will. I would be an idiot not to think it would not happen again. But I'm going with global cooling if I have to choose a future climate, or more likely, global stay-the-same – at least in the short run of the next 5,000 years.

Time magazine recently had a story about global warming, and I didn’t see one mention of the predominate climate in the past three million years – global cooling from our perspective – or the return to the Ice Age. Rather than a flooded New York, a New York wiped out by glaciers as tall as skyscrapers is the more likely future for earth’s climate. (I got a subscription to Time, but I went to the site and did a word search for Ice Age. I only got hits on references to the last glacial maximum, not the one we are currently -- and until I hear otherwise -- still in.)

I saw nothing about the forces of global warming offsetting the forces pushing us back into the Ice Age from the interglacial warm period we are currently in. The Ice Age has been going on for some three million years. Are we to assume the Ice Ages have finally ended? On what scientific data is that based?

Anyway, it’s nice to know I am not alone.


(I know I ended some sentences with prepositions, but you go to blog with the sentences you have, not the ones you would like.)

Sunday, April 02, 2006

The Bush Contrariety

How is it that the Bush Administration can be so inept to the point of clueless during a crisis either domestic or foreign, so clumsy in policy implementation, and yet, have one of the best political spin machines this country has ever seen?

Am I the only one who admires a really good politician? We admire those who excel in sports and arts, and criticize those excel in politics – not corruption and self-enrichment (no one but those directedly benefited likes that) but the commerce of a people self-governing themselves: politics. I used to marvel a LBJ’s ability to manipulate Congress to achieve his agenda. Ronald Reagan always looked good on TV whether it was a friendly situation or not. Bill Clinton has one of the best political minds in this country, today. FDR and TR, I can only read and imagine. However their statesmanship ineptitude, I have to give Bush and his political wonks their due for spinning the here and now.

No one has tapped into the American majority the way they have. To read about such political ability is one thing; to see it happen is something entirely different. Acting like strange attracters in the chaos of American politics, they have solidified tendencies in the heartland in their favor. Getting their people to the polls using crowd drawing ballet initiatives and sensitive issues is one for the books.

Earlier, I had awarded Bush
The Fickle Finger of Fate Award for his ability to be so wrong about Iraq and yet maintain the support of the American people for so long and then to be blamed for the Hurricane Katrina response fiasco which was more probably a lack of local leadership than that of any national leader.

The Fickle Finger of Fate Award seems to be the kind of award that just keeps giving. Bush’s constant harping on the fear of another terrorist attack, using it to chastise his critics and defeat democrats has back fired on him. He and his people have continuously played the fear card, and now he has it thrown back in his face on this port deal. Did he really think that all this talk of fighting terror, of using the 9/11 meme to degrade those that opposed him and then turn over the ports to a bunch of Arabs? That may not be how it is, but that is how it looks. Oh! That fickle, fickle finger of fate!

The Bush administration is proof of the old adage that what it takes to get elected is not necessarily what it takes to run the country. If only the purpose of government was to get elected.

In addition to that, Cheney and friends want to bring about a more powerful executive. Since Watergate and Nixon, too much power had been eroded by Congress, as they saw it, and they were of a mind to change it for what they saw as the better. Quietly, while the Neocons pursued their foreign policy goal of overthrowing Saddam and interjecting democracy in the Middle East, Cheney and friends move to accumulate more power in the Presidency.

His power without vision is sort of like an old line of a blind bull in a china shop responding to expectations rather than what's really there. What a more visionary politician could have done with that power. Cheney has a vision of a powerful executive but no vision as to what he should do with all that power. He could only respond with more base ambitions for he and his friends.

What a contrariety.


By the way,
another memo has leaked.