Saturday, July 11, 2009

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

I was going to entitle this post "Because it would be irresponsible not to speculate," but that's been taken. Oh, sure, the smart money's on Larry or Lindsay, but what if????

Just sayin'...
From 2Millionth Web Log

Friday, July 10, 2009

NOLA

Heading down to the city. Back later.

Update: OK, back. And...I'm zonked. Hope you don't mind me taking a day off...perhaps I can catch up this weekend, and next week I'm back at work, where I need to keep my internet use in check for the near future, i.e., I'll mostly be updating during the evening.

Aside from that, ah--it's NEVER a bad time to visit New Orleans. Had lunch at Ignatius' on Magazine St., did some wandering around, and even stopped by NOMA--free for Louisiana residents, but I'm doing ok, so I made a donation anyway.

The other day I told someone that while New Orleans has Kenner and Metaire, Baton Rouge IS Kenner and Metaire...sigh.

Catch you either this weekend or Monday. Thanks again for coming by to take a look. Cheers.

Thursday, July 09, 2009

The Gift That Keeps On Giving
From 2Millionth Web Log


If I had access to something like Lexus-Nexus I'd love to run a search to see what John Ensign was saying or doing publicly while he and his parents were busily paying off the various Hampton family members.

Meanwhile, Tom Coburn is claiming doctor patient privilege in refusing to discuss his role in the affair, no pun intended...however, as Rachel Maddow pointed out, Coburn is an OB-GYN. Hmmm...
Sometimes You Just Can't Ignore Goodwin's Law
From 2Millionth Web Log


Cross posted at First Draft.

See here and here.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Some Smelling Salts for Senator Lieberman, Please
From 2Millionth Web Log


Joe takes to the fainting couch...h/t Atrios--ha--but yeah, he's right: a free society doesn't exist without accepting a measure of risk.
FYI

Was out of town today, taking a quick trip to Cajun Country. Will post a little later.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

The Substitute Teacher
From 2Millionth Web Log


I wonder if Alberto's gonna try for the tenure track...
A Little Eerie
From 2Millionth Web Log


Being all of three two years old when Robert McNamara concluded his tenure as SecDef I can only feel by proxy the sort of wrath David Halberstam held towards him in the form of his successor Rummy...though, as far as I can tell, the latter has yet to engage in any sort of soul searching beyond vague regrets about abandoning the Geneva Conventions. In contrast, McNamara seemed to evince some measure of doubt and/or sorrow, and, if nothing else, the Pentagon Papers (sigh--full disclosure: have the book but have never read more than a few pages), anyway, the Pentagon Papers, at least when released, were the smoking gun that exposed the lie that was the Vietnam War.

Still...that was quite a hell of a price paid by a LOT of people in order to save the collective face of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, including that of Mr. McNamara himself. And, even sadder, it was a lesson of history not merely unlearned, but actively ignored--hubris doesn't get much worse.

By now, I've come to realize that heaven and hell are merely constructs of the mind, but if there was any truth to the concept(s), wouldn't it be appropriate for McNamara--or Bush, Cheney, Rummy, et al--to be judged by the very people they sent off to die in the most horrible of ways?

Monday, July 06, 2009

More Mythbusting
From 2Millionth Web Log


Phil Nugent links to a Matthew Dallek article in The American Scholar.

However, the mythology is so deeply entrenched in the public and political psyche that I don't know if this sort of sober analysis can even gain a foothold. Any attempt to bring Reagan down to size is instantly met with howls of protests from the ever present noise machine. It also didn't help that especially DLC'ers were either silent, or worse, actively embraced the myth (e.g. "the era of big government is over") when it was embedded in the national conscience.
Memories
From 2Millionth Web Log


Once upon a time soon-to-be-former-Governor Palin took a hard line against hosting pity parties. But I guess that was before she realized playing the victim could be so...fashionable.

And let's be real: Hillary Clinton--or ANY Democratic politician--demonstrated this degree of selfish inconsistency would be absolutely skewered by the national press corpse.