Politics Archive

• Fixing Social Security

  The title of this post is not as accurate as it probably could be, but “Eliminating Social Security and Implementing a New, Improved Federal Retirement System” doesn’t have the same ring to it. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t fit on one line, and that’s the type of stuff that eats away at me. Current (and [...]

• Political Stars

  This is a post a long time in the making.1 The content of this post has been on my mind for quite some time. I have thought long and hard on this topic — too hard for too long. This is my culminating effort. This is the post that will make me famous. No pressure. [...]

• First Read Bleeds

  MSNBC’s oft-cited First Read, yesterday… Will Obama be able to articulate specific policy proposals on health care that he’s for, or will we hear more of the same chatter on his principles? Repetition is always important to pushing a message, but one of the things that may be slowing down the process in Congress is [...]

• Fixing Health Care

  Quick and dirty… Eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, and every other federal health coverage program (and states would follow), and any associated taxes. Levy a five percent income tax on every American, with no income limit, to pay for universal single-payer coverage, the best the world has seen. Problem solved.

• Senators That Should Retire

  I am not a proponent of term limits — at any level of government1 — but there is something disconcerting with the number of senators that have held their seats for more than a generation. The House tends to be more radical — either left or right — and the Senate tends to be more [...]

• Reflections On Bush

  I miss George W. Bush. To be completely honest, I have a lot less to write/blog about since he’s left… Oh, I love Obama’s idea on [fill in the blank]. It is such a terrific idea. He is the greatest president ever. I am so proud to be an American right now. It just doesn’t [...]

• Jon Stewart, Secular Jew

  A long, long time ago (July aught-six), on a blog called DCeiver — run by a person now reporting for the Huffington Post — Jason Linkins wrote that he was the “only one who got Stephen Colbert’s best joke” that evening… “Wow. Bill Donoghue really opened my eyes. I had no idea that secular Jews [...]

• Duplicity

  Duplicity at its finest… Modoc has the highest Republican registration of any county in California, it unfailingly elects anti-tax Republicans to office, and the vote here against last month’s ballot measure that would have raised a variety of taxes was one of the most lopsided in the state. And yet, per capita, Modoc County gets [...]

• California Parks, Use Fees, and Cost-Neutrality*

  Although the state of California is the seventh- or tenth-largest economy in the world, depending on when and what measure you read, and therefore the most important economy within the United States, and although the federal government has rescued investment banks, insurance companies and car manufacturers, as a result of behavior that all parties have [...]

• Cheney’s Trauma

  Also while I was away, Dick Clarke penned an op-ed, criticizing the excuses being laid down (loudly and all too often) by Dick Cheney… Yes, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice may have been surprised by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — but it was because they had not listened. And their surprise led them [...]

• Absentee

  For the first time in my voting life, I will be voting absentee. I do have the option in California to permanently vote absentee, but I have never been an outright supporter, so I rely on the practice on an as-needed basis. In comes the California special election in two weeks, where six highly-contentious measures [...]

• A GOP Makeover

  The GOP does need a makeover — and quick. If you were to ask people to name members of the GOP, based on what they see on television and read in the news, they’d say: Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Norm Coleman, Michelle Bachman, Rush Limbaugh, Eric Cantor. That is not the greatest crop of [...]

• An Oldie

  Jake Tapper blogged back in December 2006 (do you still remember such a time?) that “many leading Democrats have serious concerns that [Hillary] Clinton is unelectable, opposed as she is out of the gate by 4 in 10 Americans, according to polls.” I would have had to consider myself one of those with concerns, although [...]

• Supreme Court Appointments Are Rare

  Just a few thoughts on the surprising news (well, surprising to most, I assume) that President Barack Obama will be nominating a Supreme Court Justice following the now-planned retirement of Justice David Souter… This doesn’t happen that often. Bill Clinton and George W. Bush both served two full terms, and they each made two appointments [...]

• Debunking the Obama Election

  This post is not going to make readers happy (well, most of them anyway), and it is not supposed to. It is time for some real honest truths in response to the truly historic election that we have witnessed. Well, most of us. I was flat-out drunk-and-stupid that evening. Obama won — in record fashion, [...]

• Okay

  Is it safe to come out and play? Or has everything been fixed already, with nothing to gripe about? World peace and hunger; health care? Have lobbyists been run-out of town? Has there been substantive banking reform? I do plan on opining on Tuesday’s historic election — at times even against my better judgment, and [...]

• Campaign Thoughts

  - I wonder how Joseph Lieberman’s feeling about his big gamble. He certainly should be removed from the Democratic caucus, especially if the dems can reach 60 votes without him. Lieberman not only stepped across the fine line this election season, he pole vaulted over it. – Driving through Berkeley last week, I noticed some [...]

• Election Ramblings

  With my work schedule ramping up, and all of the other bullshit* that life entails, I haven’t been able to blog as much about the election as I have wanted to. So here goes… – Two issues that should have been discussed at the debates, or at least mentioned once somewhere, anywhere during this election [...]

• Schwarzenegger: Palin Will Be ‘Ready’ Come January

  This Arnold Schwarzenegger quote on Palin’s ‘readiness’ to be president is the same argument that Hillary Clinton used to say that Barack Obama was now ready to lead (after he secured the nomination, despite Clinton’s persistent campaigning for months on-end arguing the exact opposite): “By the time that [Sarah Palin] is sworn in I think [...]

• Wake Me When It’s Over

  If only the election were held tomorrow. Three weeks is an eternity in presidential politics. The October surprise is still in the waiting room.

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