Saturday, November 11, 2006

You want some insightful analysis?

Here's an essay that touches bases in the Middle East mess that I've not seen before. Maybe because it's written by someone "on the ground."

Lean to the left

I agree with this analysis that reminds us peaceniks that the Democrats who replaced Republicans on November 7 are no doves. Indeed, they're mostly "Blue Democrats," as likely to hold conservative views on domestic and foreign affairs as not.

So, I agree, this is no time for us lefties to dance with glee. Rather, we must, with as much determination as before November 7, take to the barricades to demand the same changes in policy that we've been demanding for years. The only change, perhaps, is the environment in which we make those demands: an environment that may be a bit more receptive. Which means, of course, that we must make our demands all the louder, all the more strident, now driven by the hope that we may, at long last, be heard.

(Here, however, is a different take on the result of the election in the House: The progressive coalition of representatives will be the largest of the sub-coalitions of the Democratic majority and this, coupled with the presence of many progressives in leadership positions, make the progressives the most powerful component of the House.)

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

The Split

Forget about those silly elections and Rummie's resignation. Here's the important news of the day.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

I will be really pissed off

if those 25,000 Green votes for US Senate in Virginia (a one-issue campaign by a candidate favoring a monorail or something) ends up costing the Democrat (Webb) a victory over the racist swine George Allen, he of "macaca" infamy, and therefore ends up placing tied Senate votes in Cheney's hands.

I mean really pissed off.

I'm disappointed

You mean that after all that hoopla the only October/November surprise Karl Rove could pull off was the Saddam Hussein verdict?

Monday, November 06, 2006

Thanks to BBC

we--those few Americans who dial past Faux News and the other faux news outlets--are exposed to succinct, finely written analysis of historic events like this.

My previous post

It, and the two comments it has received so far, capture the span of fair-minded reaction to the future of the US as presaged by tomorrow's election: Fear of seismic shift vs. fear of not much happening at all.

My wish is that somehow, one way or another (or by some path we can't foresee) we end up in a kind of benign Swedish-ish, or Danish-ish or Swiss-ish socialist democracy that's content to be just another fine peaceloving nation that is willing to participate on an equal basis with other nations of the world, and that long after I'm gone all nations merge into one body of loving humanity.

In case that doesn't sound familiar, check out John Lennon's lyrics.

Okay, I admit it

There's a tiny part of me (not my best part, I concede) that wants the Republicans to carry the day. Hold the Senate, hold the House majority, hold a bunch of governorships. Why? First, so that they maintain responsibility for the messes they've created and can't fault the Democrats for not cleaning it up by 2008. Second, because it might convince me, and the rest of the world, that the US is done. Put-a-fork-in-it done as a decent nation. Finally, because it might lead to a bottoming out, a true revolution, in the US. A takeover, in the next decade or so, by the people who live in that nation.

Worth thinking about, isn't it?