Journal of Post-Ralphaelite Thought

I have so far restrained myself from offering any opinions on this year's presidential race. It hardly seems necessary. I'll say this much: I had a choice of watching the debate or indulging in a martini on the porch with a good friend who doesn't share my political views. Guess which I took.

Back when I was in college, a couple of my hippie friends decided they'd vote in the Republican primary, with the intention of boosting the prospects of the Republican candidate they felt would be least electable in the general election. They pulled the lever for former California governor Ronald Reagan. Whoops. In the 2000 election, a number of "progressive" voters (my dear wife among them) turned up their collective noses at Al Gore and voted for Ralph Nader. Enough of them did in Florida to usher in 8 years of George W Bush. Whoops. Despite years of voting primarily for Democrats (with a few notable exceptions ) I found Gary Johnson, Libertarian presidential candidate intriguing - fiscal conservative, socially progressive, and to all appearances, not a bad sort. I reasoned that since Obama had a snowball's chance in hell of carrying Texas, it didn't really matter if I abandoned him to vote for Johnson. Besides, I found myself somewhat incensed at seve...

The great circus sideshow that is our political process continues to be about the "debt ceiling." It's like the cliff-hanger ending at the end of a mediocre reality show. The self-aggrandizing and self-righteous Tea Party wing of the Republican party is hell-bent on driving the school bus off the cliff to make a point. Stephen Colbert sums it up nicely: Meanwhile, not a peep from much of anyone about such things as the tracking of American citizens via cell phones , warrantless wiretapping , or other Bush era shenanigans now taken over by the present administration ( Wired has more on this ).   I guess the Tea Party is okay with this sort of thing as long as it doesn't raise anyone's taxes. The Romans learned a long time ago the best way to distract the citizenry from the signs of their crumbling republic was with circuses. I'd say that lesson was not lost on our present elected officials.

This will shock some of my friends, but there was a time when I had little use for Edward Kennedy. His flaws were many and it seemed readily apparent that initially he rode on the coattails of his older brothers. Mike Royko, the Chicago columnist (known generally as a liberal), regularly heaped abuse on Teddy, and (like some others) sneeringly suggested if his name had been Edward Slabotnik instead of Kennedy, he'd never been elected. There's no doubt the Chappaquiddick incident guaranteed that he'd never be president. His abortive run against the floundering Jimmy Carter in 1980 was the proof of that. Perhaps the knowledge eventually lifted a burden from him, because he ultimately became the third-longest-serving senator in U.S. History. His career had its ups and downs (some of these fueled by Kennedy's drinking habits). His marriage to his second wife is credited by many with turning his messy personal life around. He was not the smartest of the Kennedy brot...

I don't have time for a long post (trying to get out of town -- to Washington, ironically) when I learned that Edward Kennedy, a true lion of the Senate, passed away at the age of 77. Yahoo's Reuter feed has more , but I dare say you'll find tons of stories all over the 'net. I'll try to write more later.

If you've never seen it, Spin , by film-maker Brian Springer, is a brilliant essay on the art of political spin. Created over a dozen years ago it's still relevant today. It's part of the Illegal Art Exhibit , which features a number of works considered "illegal" because of various copyright encumbrances ( Spin makes use of pirated, raw unedited network satellite feeds). It's yet another example of how copyright law has been twisted to all sorts of purposes not intended by by our nation's founders. This is the brainchild of StayFree! a non-profit magazine founded by Carrie McLaren in 1992 about the politics of culture. Check the other stuff on the Illegal Art site - worth your time. Spin and other films can be downloaded from Archive.org .

Arlen Specter , formerly Pennsylvania's oldest Republican Senator, is now Pennsylvania's newest Democratic Senator. A Democrat in his youth, he joined the Republicans in 1966, back when the phrase "moderate Republican" didn't seem like an oxymoron. At his press conference today, he stated he was, "at odds with the Republican philosophy," and declared himself a Democrat. Alas, as the GOP continues its slow slide towards foaming-at-the-mouth insanity, it has no use for moderates. In his last primary run, the Pennsylvania Republican establishment fielded a conservative opponent to run against Specter, claiming he wasn't conservative enough. This despite the fact he is held in high regard by the Pennsylvania voting population as a whole. Get ready for the flood of sneering, pontificating and general character assassination soon to be heading your way by Fox News and their appointed thugs.

At first glance, there is much to admire about California's senior senator, Dianne Feinstein: first female President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, San Francisco's first female mayor, first woman to serve in the Senate from California, first woman on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and first woman to chair the Senate Rules Committee and Senate Intelligence Committee. During the 1990's she led the fight to ban semi-automatic weapons and supported a number of environmental issues, including bills to protect the California desert. Lately she seems to have turned to the dark side. In August 2007, she voted with Republicans to modify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) making it easier for the government to monitor phone calls and email messages of American citizens. In February 2008, she again joined Republicans in voting to grant immunity to telecommunication companies for illegal wiretapping for Government agencies. In December 2005 she stated, ...

I have a shocking confession. I'm not who I pretend to be. Hypocrite that I am, I rail against excessive and ostentatious displays of wealth and consumption, sneer at those enjoying the fruits of their success, and yes, even suggest they ought to pay more in taxes. And yet (I can barely bring myself to say it) I have flown on a private business jet! Twice! (Once there and then back again) I feel so dirty even saying it. Never mind that the inside of this bird was not much bigger than my 12 year old Saturn station wagon, or that I was crammed in there with five other people -- it was a private business jet! Never mind the fact that 86% of those aboard business aircraft are not big wigs, but people like me: technical resources or specialists going to meetings or to solve problems in the field. That seems lost on grandstanding politicians of both parties, playing to the cameras. My business comrades flew on the company jet because it was actually cheaper to pack us into that than it ...

It's bad enough Rush Limbaugh would rather have us suffer than see Obama successful. He's just a bloated loudmouth. But Pete Sessions? He's an elected official, sent to Washington by his Dallas constituents to represent their interests. Do they really want him to play Texas Taliban ? "Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban," sez Pete. "We need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with." He goes on to say, "If they do not give us those options or opportunities then we will then become insurgency..." In other words, despite the fact we got our asses handed to us in the 2008 election, if we don't get our way, we're going to be as disruptive as hell . As usual, Stephen Colbert sums it up better than I ever could. The Colbert Report Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c The Word - Loyal Opposition Colbe...

Looking back, 1968 was when I stopped being a child. I was in 8th grade that year, at Hubbard Trail Junior High, in Crete, Illinois, just outside Chicago -- a clueless 13 year old. Events would take place that year -- terrible events -- that rocked our society and would force me to stop seeing the world through innocent eyes. The first of these was the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. At the time, I still lived in a community largely uninhabited by people who were not white. In fact, despite the segregation that still gripped the south where I was born, I had much more exposure to African-Americans growing up in as a young child in Texas. On April 5th, the day after Dr. King's assassination, our usually wise-cracking U.S. Government teacher (or was it history?--memory fails me here) dropped his lesson plans and instead poured out his despair over the soul of a nation where such a heinous act could take place. As I listened, I realized this made as little sense to...

This is a follow up to my previous post, To my Libertarian friends , in which I laid out some of my thoughts and criticisms of the Libertarian Party, which includes amongst its numbers several friends and associates. To sum up (so you don't have to be bored twice) I have a lot of respect for Libertarians (they tend to be extremely bright, intellectually curious people) but I don't necessarily agree with all of their positions. On economic issues, their faith in the Invisible Hand of the Free Market strikes me as a bit like believing in Intelligent Design. Their take on civil rights, workplace regulations, and some other areas strike me as naive at best. Where they have my full agreement is in the area of personal freedoms. God bless 'em. To pull a few quotes from the 2008 National Libertarian Party platform: We favor the repeal of all laws creating "crimes" without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes. Recognizing that aborti...