Category Archives: Politics

GOP Needs to Offer More than 'No'

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I told a television reporter earlier today that the Republicans have to do more than saying, “no.” In the current economic debate the Republicans are led by a grim-faced Sen. Mitch McConnell or Rep. John Boehner giving 300 reasons why the next Obama policy is a bad idea.

They may not be wrong – but they sure are losing the public relations battle. As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes in his latest column there is plenty the Republicans should be doing to offer alternatives. This economy is a crisis, and it demands leadership and ideas. Right now, the top of the GOP just isn’t doing that.

Now on to more important matters, like finishing up my NCAA bracket.

Steele and Limbaugh Doing Their Part to Ruin GOP

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This is the state of the nation’s two political parties: the Democrats are led by a young, dynamic, and popular president. The Republicans are locked in a power struggle between a rambling radio host and a maundering party chairman.

After trashing the McCain campaign, Rush Limbaugh is now actively cheering for Obama to fail and having a war of words with inept Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. The spat is all over the media with The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and others devoting coverage to the implosion that is now the Republican Party. When Rush isn’t busy hoping Obama will fail, Steele is promising to reach out to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings” with an “off the hook” campaign. At one point he even criticized Rush, arguing the Sacred Large Cow was merely an entertainer and not the true leader of the party.

Unfortunately, cowardice won over courage.

There are plenty of articulate voices that could be leading the dialogue. New York Times columnist David Brooks is a far better choice from the media than Limbaugh. Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has also now felt the need to kowtow to the hard right. Instead, right now we have Steele pledging to win over “one-armed midgets.”

So thank you, Michael Steele, for ruining things for all Republicans ever. Anyone up for re-forming the Whig Party?

Save TV News

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Will someone who is smart and rich please start a new cable news channel? My choices at this hour are currently Glenn Beck on Fox, Wolf Blitzer, and Jack Cafferty on CNN. I can only take so many stupid jokes, uninformed comments, and repetitive phrases.  No wonder some people watch C-SPAN. Or better yet, maybe I should just stick to ESPN.

A rapper who lives up to his name – Ludacris

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Add rapper Ludacris to the group of people that Barack Obama “didn’t know.” After praising him earlier this year as among “great talents and great businessmen” Obama denounced Ludacris for his song, “Obama is Here.” The video (seen below) kind of speaks for itself.

But really, this is a surprise that Ludacris would offer such astute political analysis? This is the rapper with songs like “Get the F— Back” (lyrics below)

F— That!
Get the f— back!
Luda make your skull crack
Tuck that
B—-, your whole town’s on my n—–k
Cuff that
Put it in your weed, n—-, puff that
What’s that
People gon’ die tonight

Or there is of course “Roll Out:”

Twin glock .40s, cocked back
Me and my homies, so drop that
We rollin on twenties, with the top back
So much money, you can’t stop that

Obama is willing to connect with anyone who serves his interest, but then throw them under the bus when necessary. Ludacris is only talented in a culture where we expect the worst from ourselves. No one with any brains or love of decency should consider themselves one of the “we” that Ludacris is referring to. Racial reconciliation and American identity have far greater models that we should follow. It is tragic that angry, mindless words should be embraced by anyone.

But what do I know, I guess I just be hatin’ on him.

Crouching Tiger, Hacking Dragon

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Much has been in the news lately about Chinese hackers who have wreaked havoc on the Pentagon web site and various U.S. government pages.

Apparently Chinese hackers are responsible for a number of attacks on U.S. government sites. But instead of being sponsored by the Chinese government, they operate independently and out of a sense of national pride. To them, hacking into U.S. sites is how they can do their part to take on the American enemy.    In addition to the government, corporations, who would be similar targets for attacks, need to get their cybersecurity in order. And this presidential campaign, which has made the Internet a central hub for fundraising and the dissemination of information, makes American web sites a prime target.

The fact that these hackers are acting independently makes them more dangerous, I believe, than if they were Chinese government surrogates. They will likely be more brazen, more willing to take on higher-level targets, and difficult to locate.

The hacking looks like it’s accelerating into a full-fledged cyber war. Recently a few e-Minutemen are taking the fight back to the Chinese. This should be fun to watch. More so than another dry 16 days of Olympics coming soon to Beijing.

Harry Reid, YouTube star

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Apparently Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has joined the ranks of skateboarding dogs and stupid human tricks that have amassed thousands of hits on YouTube. The Las Vegas Review-Journal editorializes about his popular speeches trashing coal and American energy usage. Fortunately he is a Senator from Nevada, a state that relies on energy for it to even exist in the baron desert.

Below is a sample from his greatest hits: a speech where he complains fossil fuels are “ruining our country.” It’s one thing to argue we need to reduce our oil usage, it’s quite another to say they are bringing about our impending national doom.

All the flip flops that are fit to print

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The New York Times blasted a Fourth of July bottle rocket straight at Barack Obama: an editorial ripping his recent flip flops on many of the campaign’s top issues. This editorial illuminates the ways in which Obama’s high and idealistic rhetoric has not meshed with his recent policy pronouncements.

He tossed his pledge to campaign within public spending limits. It was back and forth on how soon he would get troops out of Iraq. He sided with the conservative members of the Supreme Court in agreeing with the decision overturning the D.C. handgun ban and opposing the reversal of a Louisiana law making child rapists eligible for the death penalty.

Then there was the cardinal sin of all: agreeing to continue and even expand President Bush’s policy of doling out federal money to faith-based charities.

While some of those views would be welcome to those on the right, it sounds eerily like someone who is a calculating politician trying to maneuver his rhetoric to appeal to the middle. Which is nothing unusual, but the problem is that is not who Obama has claimed he would be. He was supposed to be the “change candidate,” offering a transcendent view of politics and promising to change all the rules.

The problem is such high idealism seldom pans into reality because politics is, well, politics. It does not mean we should cynically assume that all politicians are evil and corrupt. But any who offer to transform politics or offer a generic slogan with the word “change” in it is unlikely to, in all reality, alter things on a messianic level.