In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row, . . .

[ . . . more]

I don’t mind that Guantanamo is being closed. It doesn’t really matter to me either way where prisoners are held; unlike the GOP (and their ridiculous attempt at terror-inducement with their O Fortuna video), I have confidence in our ability to confine people. We manage to confine criminals of all sorts; we even managed to confine a terrorist like Timothy McVeigh—so what are they so afraid of?

I’m happy that some rule changes have been implemented to remove the worst of the abuses of the Bush administration, and look forward to more oversight and the firm application of the rule of law.

But I have a real problem with these three paragraphs: [ . . . more on “prolonged detention”]

This depresses me beyond easy explanation. [ . . . more]

We haven’t had one of those in a while.

There are other times when that period is merely uninteresting; the president does little besides issue last-minute pardons, and the president-elect puts together a cabinet.

We have reason to miss dull transitions at this point.

It seems that our outgoing administration is bound and determined to make sure that our president-elect inherits a disaster of unprecedented proportions. The sheer amount of incompetence has produced an equal impatience on the part of 75–80% of Americans to see the end of this administration. It just can’t happen soon enough. [ . . . more]

Vote.

Vote as though the country depended on it. [ . . . I mean it]

The problem with that vision is that it also depends on having someone (a) with a high degree of ethics and honesty, and (b) sensible enough to surround themselves with smart, ethical advisers.

The McCain/Palin campaign has not managed on either point.

[ . . . more on the conduct of the McCain campaign, Palin’s incompetence, GOP hypocrisy regarding Palin’s beauty and wardrobe expenses, and Ashley Todd and the worst of the GOP “base.”]

There’s not much to be said for the vice-presidential debate, really. Biden had a very tough tightrope to walk—essentially, it came down to “Don’t be sexist, but treat her gently”—but he did well enough by reserving his barbs for McCain and continuing to refer to “Governor Palin,” not taking her bait of “Can I call you Joe?” (which turned out to be the precursor of such pathetic memorized lines as “Say it ain’t so, Joe.”)

Palin’s performance was absolutely cringe-inducing. Between the lies about her own record, her misrepresentations about the GOP platform, her refusal to answer direct questions with her “I’m just gonna talk straight to the American people” schtick, and her winking at the camera, she has managed to become so infuriatingly annoying and idiotic that I now have the same reaction to seeing her chirpy mug on television that I do to seeing GWB’s squinty visage: I immediately want to change the channel. [ . . . more. ]

At the time, I was living a night-owl schedule; I was never up that early. Nothing psychic about it. I didn’t have any sense of dread. I was just irritatingly unable to sleep. [ . . . more. ]

The summary:

• DNC—a mixed bag, some of it iffy, some of it actually downright impressive.
• RNC—the same old sack of manure, with twice the stink.

[ . . . more on the convention speeches, and introducing user comments (horrors!). ]

The cowards pulled the video earlier this month. But I don’t think God likes those who pray for that sort of thing. Indeed, Denver had perfect weather all week, while the Republican National Convention is now going to have to compete with another hurricane bearing down on the site of one of this administration’s most spectacular failures.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Remember 1998? [ . . . a look into the evangelical success with pleading for God to bring down disaster on the enemy. ]

Let me know what you think, by clicking on that “email me” link to your right.

As for this past week, it’s been something of a mish-mash; no major political stories, just revisiting the old ones. [Wherein: This column and the rest of the Internet, stupid justifications for torture, the activist judiciary, originalism, and Russert.] [ . . . more ]

But apparently, California has some analogues of Sally here as well, because somehow, I wound up on a email list “alerting” me that THE GAYS IN CALIFORNIA WILL DESTROY THE NATION. That is, if I’m following their “logic” correctly.

Up until today, the only mail I’ve received has been spam and a few messages from friends, plus a couple of autoresponses to things I’ve sent out. I never figured this ’blog would be popular—Democrats and most thoughtful people would be put off by the “Republican” in the title, and most Republicans would be put off by the word “Thoughtful.”

(Is “antipandering” a word?) [ . . . more ]

Recently, Johnathan Pearce took Andrew Sullivan to task for his support for Senator Obama. Pearce seems to understand that all three candidates are in favor (sorry, favour) of big government; what he doesn’t seem to grasp is that while the Democratic Party tends to err on the side of big government, the Republicans are supposed to err on the side of smaller government, but are instead acting in a ridiculously hypocritical manner that betrays a number of their basic ideals. In so doing, he misses the point: Malkin et al are not actually Republican supporters—they are supporters of the modern GOP, which is a very different animal indeed. [ . . . more ]

On Tuesday, the McCain campaign denied this.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that an unidentified woman who attended the dinner confirmed that indeed, McCain had said that he had not voted for GWB.

On Thursday, McCain himself denied it. “I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush's election in 2000 and 2004. It's nonsense,” adding that discussing it was “hardly worth our time—this happened eight years ago.” [ . . . more ]

Barack Obama has been getting ripped for a couple of short snippets of a sermon of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s for weeks now. Everyone seems to have piled on, including Senator Clinton.

Now, I don’t know about you, but as a thoughtful Republican, I’m suspicious of outrage over a sound bite. Nuance is important. Context is important. Reality is crucially important. That’s why I’m going to suggest that it might be a good thing not to let some moronic talking head try to use a tiny snippet of videotape to unfairly shift your emotions.

So to that end, I started tracking down the sermon Wright delivered—and the first thing I discovered is that the sound bites that have been playing over and over and over were from two separate sermons. The media not only removed the context, but also did some cherry picking. Lovely. Nice going, media! Way to present an accurate picture! [ . . . more ]

I freely admit I haven’t read all of his work, or even been aware of everything he’s been involved with, but I did respect his intelligence and his wit—particularly after seeing him compete on Win Ben Stein’s Money, a now-defunct Comedy Central game show. The man was bright, certainly, and knew a lot. But that personal regard has now taken a deep and possibly fatal blow. [ . . . more ]

Oklahoma has developed quite a reputation in the last several years for being—well, uh, crazy, at least as far as their most outspoken politicians go. Ms. Kern is merely competing for this year’s Oklahoma Lunatic of the Month Hat/Codpiece. [ . . . link . . . ]

So far, I’ve been trying to remain carefully neutral regarding the Obama vs Clinton brouhaha. Almost a month ago, I said that I’d been refusing to be swayed by those who just despise the Clintons for some past dreck. Frankly, their pasts have been so besmirched by the GOP fecesfest that I’d be hard pressed to tell what’s truth and what’s fiction at this point. I’d rather focus on what’s going on now.

Unfortunately, it isn’t pretty. [ . . . link . . . ]

Admittedly, I’m not counting Ralph Nader, who is back for another attempt at the Presidency.

While this might shock the Adam Smith hardliners among you, I have a lot of respect for what Nader has accomplished in his life. Certainly it hasn’t been a perfect record of sensibility, but he did bring to light a number of things that had been overlooked (or irritatingly obfuscated) by various industries, and did manage to raise the level of debate in this country regarding safety issues and ethical concerns. [ . . . link . . . ]

But I was still taken aback by a column he wrote yesterday. [ . . . link . . . ]

There are certainly liberal journalistic publications, just as there are conservative journalistic publications. In fact, journalism is practiced across the political spectrum in this country. This is, in fact, one of American journalism’s greatest strengths: every publication can report on the news, every publication can investigate its accuracy, and every publication can challenge the reports of others. In this way, facts that are widely reported tend to be more reliable than facts that are reported by only one or two publications. [ . . . link . . . ]

Obviously, I felt that several kazillion political blogs out there weren’t enough, so you may already suspect that I have a bit of an ego. However, this perspective might be a little different than most. For one thing, I don’t pointlessly slap labels like “Traitor” or “Enemy” on people that have a different take on the problems facing this nation today. For another, I actually know what terms like “balanced” or “fair” actually mean. [ . . . link . . . ]