The Dumbing Down of America Continues...

The war in Iraq is more mismanaged by the day; the North Koreans are ready to test long range missles; Iran is rattling their own nuclear saber...

...and MSNBC spends over 5 minutes (an eternity in broadcast news) discussing whether or not Superman is gay??

Dysfunctional Pattern

Quote of the Day:

We’re borrowing huge amounts of money from China to buy huge amounts of oil from the most unstable region on the planet to bring it here and burn it in ways that destroy the habitability of the planet.

-Former Vice-President Al Gore, June 19th, on the Charlie Rose show on PBS.

Memo to Tom Friedman: Run for President...Please!

Once again the New York Times foreign affairs columnist proves why he'd be a formidable presidential candidate...

Seeds for a Geo-Green Party
By Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times
Published: June 16, 2006

The recent focus of the Republican-led Congress on divisive diversions, like gay marriage and flag burning, coupled with the unveiling of Unity '08, an Internet-based third party that plans to select its presidential candidate through online voting, has intensified the chatter that a third party, and maybe even a fourth, will emerge in the 2008 election.

Up to now, though, most of that talk has been about how a third party might galvanize voters, using the Web, rather than what it would actually galvanize them to do. I'd like to toss out an idea in the hopes that some enterprising politician or group of citizens or Unity '08 will develop it. It's the concept I call "Geo-Green."

What might a Geo-Green third party platform look like?

Its centerpiece would be a $1 a gallon gasoline tax, called "The Patriot Tax," which would be phased in over a year. People earning less than $50,000 a year, and those with unusual driving needs, would get a reduction on their payroll taxes as an offset.

The billions of dollars raised by the Patriot Tax would go first to shore up Social Security, second to subsidize clean mass transit in and between every major American city, third to reduce the deficit, and fourth to massively increase energy research by the National Science Foundation and the Energy and Defense Departments' research arms.

Most important, though, the Patriot Tax would increase the price of gasoline to a level that would ensure that many of the most promising alternatives ethanol, biodiesel, coal gasification, solar energy, nuclear energy and wind would all be economically competitive with oil and thereby reduce both our dependence on crude and our emissions of greenhouse gases.

In short: the Geo-Green party could claim that it has a plan for shoring up America's energy security, environmental security, economic security and Social Security with one move.

It could also claim that however the Iraq war ends the Geo-Green party has a strategy for advancing political and economic reform in the Arab-Muslim world, without another war. By stimulating all these alternatives to oil, we would gradually bring down the price, possibly as low as $25 to $30 a barrel. That, better than anything else, would force regimes like those in Iran, Sudan, Egypt, Angola, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia to open up. Countries don't reform when you tell them they should. They reform when they tell themselves they must and only when the price of oil goes down will they tell themselves they must.

Moreover, by making America the leader in promoting clean power, the Geo-Greens would be offering a credible plan for recouping at lot of America's lost prestige in the world prestige it lost when the Bush team trashed Kyoto. This would put America in a much better position to galvanize allies to combat jihadism.

Last, Geo-Greenism could be the foundation of a new American patriotism and educational renaissance. Under the banner "Green is the New Red, White and Blue," the Geo-Green party would seek to inspire young Americans to study math, science and engineering to help make America not only energy independent but also the dominant player in what will be the dominant industry of the 21st century: clean power and green technology.

Frankly, I wish we did not need a third party. I wish the Democrats would adopt a Geo-Green agenda as their own. (Republicans never would.) But if not, I hope it will become the soul of a third party.

"Historically, third parties arise in America when they seize a neglected issue and demonstrate that there is a real constituency for it," said Micah Sifry, author of "Spoiling for a Fight: Third-Party Politics in America." "They win by forcing that issue into the mainstream even if the party itself is later forgotten. Conditions certainly seem ripe for such a third-party bid today."

But rather than artificially splitting the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans, Mr. Sifry added, "a successful third party has to get in front of both with an agenda that inspires hope and with leadership that inspires trust. Fear of a dark future isn't the best motivator; hope for a better one is."

That's Geo-Greenism. To be sure, Geo-Greenism is not a complete philosophy on par with liberalism or conservatism. But it can be paired with either of them to make them more relevant to the biggest challenges of our time. Even if Geo-Greenism couldn't attract enough voters to win an election, it might attract a big enough following to frighten both Democrats and Republicans into finally doing the right things.

Picture of the Day

(Via AmericaBlog)

Bush & Blair: NeoSoviets

Quote of the Day:

Today, brandishing ideologies that appeal to domestic political audiences and intimidate everyone else, American and British leaders sound like Leonid Brezhnev...

By the standards of [Ronald] Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, our neoconservatives are not conservative, they are neosoviet. In the process, George Bush and Tony Blair are losing the so-called war on terror. Their policies backfire and play into the hands of Osama Bin Laden.

-S.J. Masty, former speechwriter to President Ronald Reagan

In Limbo

The major move is now complete. Our belongings have been moved from the Santa Barbara townhouse into our new San Francisco condo. I, however, am back in Santa Barbara - in limbo - with only a big chair, an air matress, a TV, and a Boston Terrier until my final trip north on the morning of June 29th.

The President's Assault on the Constitution

fascism: n. An extreme form of nationalism that rejects individual freedom, liberal individualism, democracy, and limitations on state.

See Republican.

With the war in Iraq being run incompetently; with Iran ready to go to the mat over nukes; and with a President in the White House who feels he can pick and choose the laws he should follow and the laws he can break...the Republican-led U.S. Congress have decided the most important issue facing America today is...gay marriage (???) Important enough to...amend the Constitution (???)

Today the U.S. Senate is expected to begin debate on a Constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. The President will defile the White House Rose Garden by announcing from there his support for the amendment.

And so, following are comments I posted back in February 2004 - the last time ol' Georgie tried this crap. I've revised them slightly, but for the most part the main point remains: Under this man's leadership the country is headed down a dangerous path...

The long, slow crawl toward fascism in the United States has picked up tremendous speed.

With his trademark smirk, President George W. Bush will today declare war on gay Americans - and their families and friends - by proposing an amendment that would defile the Constitution of the United States - the most sacred government document in the history of the World.

This President and his party have proposed that we be deemed second-rate citizens. This President and his party have proposed that civil rights be stripped from a group of Americans that number in the tens of millions...that discrimination be written into the Constitution.

In doing so, George W. Bush and the Republican Party not only declare war on gay people and their families & friends, they declare war on the Constitution of the United States of America.

His message is plain as day: "You don't belong here."

A uniter, not a divider? The hypocrisy slays me.

Bush takes issue with what he calls "activist judges" who have made "an aggressive attempt to redefine marriage." (Actually Mr. President, they are simply doing their job...interpreting constitutional law without regard to politics!)

No, the real issue here is with an "activist president."

Mr. Bush has revealed his true colors. He's a divider, not a uniter. There is no "compassion" in his conservatism. As a matter of fact, he's a right wing zealot and by taking this action has proven beyond a doubt that he is the most dangerous man ever to occupy the presidency.

To the 1.1 million gay citizens who voted for the President in 2000 and then voted to re-elect him in 2004, I offer this: Your president has betrayed you...AGAIN. He has announced to the world that you are his enemy and that he will fight the ultimate political war to make sure you are discriminated against. He has disassembled his Republican Party's "big tent." The mighty Republican elephant is now the definitive emblem of cruelty, division, and intolerance. By voting for his re-election in 2004 you betrayed us all.

In the February 17, 2004 issue of the Advocate, marriage rights proponent Andrew Sullivan offered an argument that essentially rips through the heart of the conservative movement to ban gay marriage. I leave you with the final paragraph from that essay:

Here's a deal for straight conservative America. You're perfectly entitled to rhapsodize about traditional marriage. If that's your reason for barring gays from marriage, fine. But until you criticize straight trashing of traditional marriage, until you support a constitutional amendment banning or restricting straight divorce, until you show even a scintilla of moral consistency, no one need take you seriously. You're not pro-marriage. You're anti-gay. And the evidence of your prejudice mounts daily.

Life In Flux...Continued

Once again life has been way too busy to post and I apologize. Major changes have been brewing for several months but I was unable to talk about them until now (I couldn't have people at work knowing until such time that I was able to tender my resignation, which I plan to do this morning).

My partner recently accepted a position with a company in the San Francisco Bay area and between now and the end of June we will be packing up the Santa Barbara townhouse and moving into the city. A very nice two bedroom, two bath apartment in the Noe Valley neighborhood awaits us.

My postings will be few between now and then; and when we get settled up there the name of the blog will probably change (I won't be on the South Coast anymore), but - for you few readers who log on and take a peek at my scattered writings - the blog will continue. Just bear with me over the next month or so.