Category Archives: Politics

We may be on our way to a kinder gentler era when the smoke (no pun intended) clears and the only actual no-harmful-side-efects pain releiver we have is marijuana. After all, those heart-stopping drugs treated the pain and left you with the stress that causes or contributes to most disorders that kill people. You could cut the ache in your shoulder and still make your quota on the assembly line or the performance chart, damp the pain that is a caution sign and crank out the work until your heart stopped.
Who knows what may follow when the reality-based universe kicks in and tells us that pain means you should do your stretches, eat smaller portions of better food, smile once a day, and chill out a little? And who knows what may follow when the “drug” it takes to help you get started will grow in vacant lots unless you spray it with weedkiller and can be baked in brownies?
Look twice, we might not even need Ritalin.

From NY Times Kerik’s Position Was Untenable, Bush Aide Says, By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LIPTON:

Mr. Kerik’s withdrawal was the first major blunder in the administration’s process of assembling its second-term cabinet, but not a new experience for Mr. Bush’s team. Four years ago, when Mr. Bush nominated Linda Chavez as labor secretary, it was discovered after the initial vetting process that she had given shelter to, and employed, an illegal immigrant. At the time, Mr. Bush’s aides were outraged and promised to change their methods for reviewing potential nominees, but on Saturday several officials said that because Mr. Bush wanted to make his decisions speedily, their initial review had been quick.

But rest easy:

“I am confident that President Bush will move swiftly to find a replacement for Bernie Kerik,” Senator Collins said in a statement on Saturday.

We count on the President’s swift responses. Look where we might have been if he had taken time to assess the WMD question or the association of Osama Bin Laden to Saddam Hussein.
Anyway, for Kerik, according to Rudolph Giuliani, who recommended Kerik, it was just one little mistake, hiring the illegal nanny. Nothing serious at all:

“…Whenever this happens, there is always the idea that it must be something else, it must be something else,” Mr. Giuliani said. “But that is when there is not a good reason. This is a good reason. Who would actually think he could go forward with this issue?”

Well, Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Kerik thought so. Mr. Kerrik told the press:

“I think when you’re in a position like this, the press, the media and all your enemies try to find things that a person has done wrong,” he said. “But I don’t think that there would have been a problem with the nomination.”

So according to Giuliani, we should not speculate upon any of the (many) other problems related to Mr. Kerik. If we did, do you suppose we might find some of them tied to Mr. Giuliani?
In a related New York Times story yesterday,

Mr. Kerik, who took over the Police Department without a college degree, had credibility with street cops and a rough-hewn charm he used to ingratiate himself with many New Yorkers. But critics contend he was prone to lapses of judgment, pointing to the use of an elite homicide task force to question several people who his book publisher, Judith Regan, believed had stolen her cellphone, and the use of other detectives to research his book, an action for which he was fined by the city’s Conflict of Interest Board.

I’m sure Giulani just found out about this fine for conflict of interest yesterday in the Times, otherwise he would not have recommended Kerik for such a responsible position. And of course the nanny is also beyond the scope of our inquiry, since:

The nanny Mr. Kerik had employed, who has not yet been identified, left the country about two weeks ago, just prior to the announcement of his [Kerik’s] nomination, a former New York City official said on Saturday, adding that her departure had been planned for at least two months.

Apparently somebody plans ahead and covers the possibilities for negative outcomes. Maybe we could get the nanny back and nominate her.

I am still not too happy about the local Republicans stealing my Kerry/Edwards yard sign. That is just not nice at all. That kind of sneaking-around-at-night taking-what-does-not-belong-to-you breeds terrorism. I am usually a peaceful person, but I was trying to figure out a way to connect the sign to the 220v circuit that runs my dryer.
I am ready for a little more tolerance and a little less bullying.
Reason of the Day to
Vote for John Kerry and John Edwards

How wrong can you be? An article “Estimates by U.S. See More Rebels With More Funds” by Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker in The New York Times yesterday said senior American officials have raised the estimate of the number of insurgents, previously 2,000 to 7,000, to 8,000 to 12,000. So it is either about twice as bad as we thought (comparing the maximums) or about four times as bad (comparing the minimums).
If the new portrait is just spin designed to keep Americans too frightened to think, it is its own brand of terrorism. If the new estimate is true and the wealth of the Saudis is behind the insurgency with the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein’s relatives still in charge, as the article states, then we have not removed Hussein from power.
And between you and me, I’m not feeling like we have made the world or ourselves any safer.

Apparently in my little corner of the Commonwealth, the Republican majority has only nine commandments. Deuteronomy 5:19 has gone missing. Otherwise, we wouldn’t all be having our Kerry Edwards yard signs stolen.

The New York Times endorses John Kerry for President. It continues to amaze me that any single person anywhere in any state in the United States still supports George W. Bush. If John Kerry promised only to undo half of what Bush has done, that would be enough. Instead he offers hope on many fronts, strong and reasonable plans that relate to real problems, and a record of public service that demonstrates character and consistency. In addition, he has something we have not seen in Washington for a long time, the willingness and ability to actually think.

The New York Times endorses John Kerry for President. It continues to amaze me that any single person anywhere in any state in the United States still supports George W. Bush. If John Kerry promised only to undo half of what Bush has done, that would be enough. Instead he offers hope on many fronts, strong and reasonable plans that relate to real problems, and a record of public service that demonstrates character and consistency. In addition, he has something we have not seen in Washington for a long time, the willingness and ability to actually think.

John Kerry will not privatize Social Security. In case you missed it, since it was mentioned in the debate so briefly, the “gap” that Kerry referenced in Bush’s plan occurs when the working generation, under the Bush plan, would presumably take money out of Social Security for the proposed private investment accounts. Since the working generation pays for the retiring generation, this money re-directed to private investment accounts would result in a loss of funds to support Social Security payments to the retiring generation. If privatizing were eventually to prove successful, the gap would last until the retiring generation for whom there was no money passed away and the private Social Security investment accounts started paying out.
Like all Bush initiatives, privatizing Social Security would produce more of a gap between the “haves” and the “have nots.” A person with a $25,000.00 a year income and two children would not have much to invest, but a person with $100,000.00 would do well if the investment decisions were consistently wise. If not, well, that’s the way it goes in private investment. You win some, you lose some. It wouldn’t really be security at all, just another way to produce more poor people and richer rich people.

An article from The Army Times,06/27/2003, “Nothing But Lip Service for Our Soldiers”, available in full on the web site of Veterans for Common Sense:

In recent months, President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress have missed no opportunity to heap richly deserved praise on the military. But talk is cheap — and getting cheaper by the day, judging from the nickel-and-dime treatment the troops are getting lately.

I live in the Bible Belt, and in case you haven’t noticed, wide belts are “in” now. There is a lot more Bible Belt than there used to be. But even when it was narrow, I was in it. So I hear quite often “I am with Kerry on the economic issues, but I am voting for Bush because I am with him on the moral issues.”
What is invisible here is the link between the economic issues and the moral issues:

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