We’ve arrived in Rome, and save some trouble adjusting to the time-shift, we’re having a great time. I think it would be difficult not to enjoy any country where cured pork is available at every meal.
What's been on my mind lately? Read on...
Well, I didn’t end up playing the State of the Union drinking game, but I did watch a few minutes of the speech (any more than that, and I woulda thrown something heavy at the TV).
[ If you happen never to have seen one of these addresses to the nation, you should know that every 15 seconds or so, the president says something dramatic and with great emphasis, and all the congresspeople and senators and other audience members stand and applaud for about 30 seconds, finally quieting down so the speech can proceed. ]
Well, my favorite part by far last night was when Bush was discussing the PATRIOT Act and said “Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year,” when an unexpected round of applause burst from the Democrats (and any sane-minded person) in attendance. He looked for a second like a deer caught in the headlights, poor guy.
He went on, of course, to ask our representatives to renew those provisions and help fight the war on terror. He didn’t note, unsuprisingly, that the PATRIOT act has been grossly misused to investigate (non-terrorism related) corruption in Las Vegas, coerce reporters into giving up their First Amendment rights, and threaten Federal Air Marshalls (the people hired to protect you from terrorists on airplanes). It’s for certain the act has been invoked many more times, but since the law actually prohibits anyone (banks, libraries, ISP’s, etc.) from mentioning that they’ve been asked to provide a law enforcement agency with any information, we might never know.
Good thing I didn’t watch the whole thing, I’d have been too angry to come in to work today.
I’ve been a little sick this week and hoping that it’d go away before I left for Italy. Just in case, I’ve stocked up on Sudafed for the plane rides.
The New York Times has a good page on all the (Democratic) candidates in the 2004 election, as does Project Vote Smart.
In retrospect, it probably shouldn’t be too surprising that Kerry won the Iowa caucus – he’s a pretty stereotypical Democratic candidate. He supported the war, but now says it wasn’t such a good idea. He voted for the PATRIOT Act (how could anyone have?), but now says he’d let it expire. He’s your average, waffling, non-commital, Clinton-like democrat.
Interestingly enough, Edwards also voted both to authorize force in Iraq (i.e. voted for the war) and also for the PATRIOT Act, though the NY Times page on him doesn’t note that (at least not in the same way as it does on Kerry’s page – so much for unbiased reporting). They don’t seem too different.
Though I’m pretty interested in Dean, I can’t blame the public for not voting for him. There’s really very little information on him out there – he didn’t really do that much as governor of Vermont. Beyond that minimal voting record, we’re to judge him based on the things he says, and it’s pretty clear he’ll say whatever he thinks is necessary to get elected.
Of all the candidates, it’s sad (for me, anyway) that the one with a record to back up their rhetoric, will probably not climb out of the single digits for percentages in primaries. Kucinich (excepting his flip-flopping on abortion some years ago), actually voted based on his principles (against the PATRIOT Act and going to war).
Even with all the waffling and position-changing, I’ll happily take any of the democrats over Bush (for tons of reasons, including: increased spending on education and the environment, tax cut repeals, foreign policy that doesn’t buck common sense, increased civil liberties, etc.).
For more political fun, try the State of the Union drinking game. For more depressing news on how GW is screwing the American people and probably lying about it on TV tonight, check out MoveOn’s Medicare Drug Plan fact sheet (with a decidedly liberal spin, of course, but rather large grains of truth).
After hearing about them from Rif last week or the week before, I finally saw a bean delivery truck this morning with the great slogan on the side:
“Without beans, chili would just be a bowl full of meat.”
How true.
Abby and I are off to Italy on Thursday!! I can’t wait.