All posts by Jack

Liberating Thoughts, Politics

Can these crashers save this party?

Can these crashers save this party? – San Francisco magazine, May 2006.
A lot of interesting concepts in this bit, including MoveOn and cognitive linguistics. It will be interesting to see what the Rockridge Institute produces.

Since I don’t consider myself a Democrat, I will leave it up to the party faithful to coordinate and consolidate their message/platform.

Either way, I don’t expect to vote for or support anyone who has gotten into bed with Rupert Murdoch, which includes all Republicans.

And then there is the ultimate rub:

… the agenda. Progressive leaders, latte drinking and otherwise, have no trouble telling the world what they’re against but more difficulty describing what they’re for. Man or woman, black or white, they will readily discuss the need for bold new ideas, but the ideas themselves are in short supply.

The Republicans of the past didn’t have much trouble articulating what they were against, but they also had a list of what they were for. (I don’t think they’ve delivered on much, or any, of it at the federal level, but that’s another story.)

General, Politics

American patriot

CSIndy: American patriot (May 4, 2006) I thought this was a well done article in last weeks Independent.

Scott Ritter, former weapons inspector of non-existent weapons, comments on what he sees as a major problem, the ignorance in the American Public. I agree with his sentiments.

DR: You’ve said Americans aren’t against the war in Iraq because it’s wrong; you say they’re against it because we’re losing. Is it just that Americans don’t like getting their asses kicked?

SR: I’m saying Americans don’t know enough about anything to have a well-informed opinion; this is all superficial. At the end of the day, yeah, we don’t like to get our asses kicked. We have a lot of national pride that’s based around the notion that we can kick anybody’s ass — we’re the biggest, baddest boys on the block. And in Iraq, we’re not winning, so a lot of Americans have their ruffles up.

Continue reading American patriot →