I was just wondering the same thing - heraldblog

I was just wondering the same thing

Julie Saltman asks:
It appears that good policy, sound judgment, intelligence, and respect for others will not win in this country over low cunning. So what should we do next time round? Do we have to play this game on Rove's terms, or is it still possible for decency to prevail in America?
Perhaps the Democratic party's greatest contribution will be to prove that there is no room for Karl Rove in a liberal democracy. But we'll have to win first.

And enough with these stupid maps, please

After the 2000 election, my Republican friends said something like "Oh sure, Al Gore got more popular votes, but the US map is more red than blue." And then I'd point out that corn fields don't vote, people do, and then my Republicans friends would look at their watches and say "Oh, look at the time," and I'd leave. Montana looks like the fortress of Jesustude on a red/blue map, and what's with that long, red shanklike projection staring in North Dakota and running down to the Rio Grande? But the fact is, the population of Rhode Island is 100,000 more than Big Sky Country, let's knock it off with these maps, OK?

Hate crime round up

Orcinus has a round up of hate crime news from the past week. Here's a really dumb one:
SAN DIEGO -- A man was beaten just outside his University Heights apartment by a group of five men who believed he was from the Middle East, San Diego police said Thursday.

The victim was trying to park when the assailants, all white men, threw a beer bottle and shattered his car window just after 11 p.m. Wednesday, Sgt. Rich Nemetz said.

The assailants then knocked down the victim as he got out of his car, kicking him, yelling racial slurs and telling him to go back to Iraq, Nemetz said. The victim is of Portuguese descent.

The men took the victim's shoes and fled in a black SUV, threatening to return and kill him, Nemetz said.

The attackers remained at large Thursday, Nemetz said.

At least the assailants were consistent. Black SUVs would be the vehicle of choice for beating up Arabs. Even if they are Portuguese.

The values party

From Newsweek's election post mortem:
By August, the attack of the Swift Boat veterans was getting to Kerry. He called adviser Tad Devine, who was prepping to appear on "Meet The Press" the next day: "It's a pack of f---ing lies, what they're saying about me," he fairly shouted over the phone. Kerry blamed his advisers for his predicament. (Cahill and Shrum argued responding to the ads would only dignify them.) He had wanted to fight back; they had counseled caution. Even Kerry's ex-wife, Julia Thorne, was very upset about the ads, she told daughter Vanessa. She could remember how Kerry had suffered in Vietnam; she had seen the scars on his body, heard him cry out at night in his nightmares. She was so agitated about the unfairness of the Swift Boat assault that she told Vanessa she was ready to break her silence, to speak out and personally answer the Swift Boat charges. She changed her mind only when she was reassured that the campaign was about to start fighting back hard.
What was George Bush dreaming about all those years?

The pro-life President

Abortion rates increased under Bush. I blame the gays.

The minority party

Chris Bowers at MYDD gives us one more reason why George W. Bush has no intention of unifying anyone:
"Coming up with some unifying narrative for Kerry's coalition is not only going to be difficult, it may in fact be impossible. The fact is that the Republican Party represents the interest of the nation's white Protestant plurality, the Democratic party represents the necessarily diverse interests of everyone else. It is in this sense that we are inherently a negative party, an anti-Bush party, an anti-Republican party, and not a party that can be summed up in a quick and convenient message narrative."
I'm starting to believe that the best way to defeat the Rethuglicans is to give them everything they want, which they're probably going to get anyway. Endless war, Christian theocracy, an SUV in every garage. No nation can sustain that. Not even one that makes its own reality.

5.11.04 04:37

Permalink

To date 2 Comment(s) TrackBack-URL

john / Website (5.11.04 21:24)
and Taxachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country. I blame the gay marriage for this.

(5.11.04 22:18)
Gays tend to be more educated, better travelled, higher earners, and more likely to be entrepreneurs than the rest of the population. So I'm thinking that an economic case can be made for gay marriage. Any state that legalizes it is basically opening its doors to educated, talented, creative taxpayers. I'll take that over another casino any day.