Howdy folks!  We're probably going to have an argument, but at least it isn't an argument about what primary candidate we should support.  I guess that's progress.

I was absolutely shocked that Proposition 8 passed in California.  That was a true crime against our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters.  I just can't fathom why a majority of Californians would do such a thing.  It hurt.  It hurt me less than it might have hurt someone who planned to marry the person they love, but it's still a crime against me too.  We are, all of us, brothers and sisters.  A crime against the few is a crime against all.

But I'm seeing too many people at too many websites lashing out against whole groups, namely African Americans and Mormons.  Be better than this, please.

Crossposted at The Motley Moose

I'm in my last year of law school.  In my first year I made a good friend who'd had some time in IT before giving law school a try.  It didn't work out.  The man worked like he was possessed by some particularly motivated demons, but it just wasn't in him.  He moved to Pennsylvania and got a fantastic IT job, making more than he would have as an attorney.  We've remained good friends.

My friend considers himself a conservative.  He believes in a small government, low taxes, generally less regulation, and is moderate on social issues.  He's a big believer in a strong national defense and he absolutely cannot stand the Clintons.  I mean at all.  He can go on for quite awhile about how much he cannot stand Bill or Hillary.

He's voting for Obama and he's made a donation to the Obama campaign.  And he ain't the only one.

Crossposted at the Motley Moose

I expect I'll take some hits for this one, but it's an honest conclusion that I've held for months.  Nothing has changed my mind and I don't think anything will.  The only complaints are political, and I'm fighting for policy here.

Robert Gates, our current Secretary of Defense, is a foreign policy realist.  What this means is that he frames the whole of international relations as a question of what's actually going on and what can this country actually accomplish.  We have interests, and those interests must be secured.  This will mean doing business with bad people in bad places, from time to time.  Remember, Gates is one of Bush 41's people, and he was brought in to clean up W's mess.  Gates did NOT want the job, and had turned down a prior appointment by President Bush just the year before.  He rather liked Texas A&M.

Crossposted at the Motley Moose

Why think when you can feel?  Why reason when you can react?  Why contemplate when you can obliterate?
These are important questions, I'm afraid.  Altogether too many of our fellow countrymen believe things that are not only untrue (we're all guilty of that to some degree), but things that are pernicious and evil, things that are to their own disadvantage.  Al Gore wrote a book titled Assault on Reason wherein he discussed this at length.  I would recommend that anyone who values intellectualism, ideas, and ideals read it.  

The recent attacks on Barack Obama are really attacks on intelligence and reason.  The people we've recently seen on Youtube who have bitterly clung to these memes are doing something monstrous.  They are taking a mental shortcut.  Barack Obama is a square peg and the Presidency is a round hole.  He doesn't really fit their preconceived notion of what a President should be.  This is not wholly racial.  He is an overt intellectual.  Bill Clinton is one of the smartest presidents we've ever had, but he did not win on that.   President Clinton ran on empathy and camaraderie, with his skill less displayed than his pluck.  Barack Obama's life story and his family story are very unconventional.  He doesn't come from an old family, nor a hardscrabble long shot story such as Clinton's.  No, Barack Obama is very different in a number of ways.

Crossposted at the Motley Moose

"Pallin' around with terrorists."

I just cannot fathom the level of desperation it takes to say such a thing.  I just cannot comprehend the lack of decency it takes to say such a thing.  I just cannot believe that an honorable public servant could say such a thing.

Mercifully, I don't consider Governor Palin an honorable anything.  More troubling, perhaps, is the fact that someone I did consider to be an honorable public servant sending her out there and allowing her (or perhaps asking her) to say such a thing.

This hurts our country more than Bill Ayers ever did.

Crossposted at the Motley Moose

Please forgive the source:

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/02/ mckinney-accuses-government-slaughtering -prisoners-dumping-bodies-katrina/

Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, known for her provocative statements when she was a congresswoman from Georgia, accused the Department of Defense this week of using Hurricane Katrina to cover up the slaughter of 5,000 prisoners.

At a news conference in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, McKinney claimed the Pentagon authorized the execution of the prisoners with one bullet to the head three years ago and then dumped their bodies in a Louisiana swamp.

McKinney said she heard the story from the mother of a National Guard soldier who said her son was assigned to help dispose of the bodies.

"And these were mostly males and her son was afraid to talk because he had signed a silence agreement," McKinney told the crowd. "So he only complained to his mother. But the data was entered into a Pentagon computer."

McKinney said she verified the story from "insiders" who wanted to remain anonymous.

Folks, it is about to get messy.  Very messy.  We're gonna need a mop and a bloodbucket.  The next 34 days will probably be the most negative we've ever seen.

The polling has gone completely bonkers.  John McCain is so far back at this point Obama's approaching Reagan numbers here.  The only good news for John McCain is that he's doing pretty well in New Hampshire.  Yep.  That's totally worth Pennsylvania, Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Mexico, and Colorado.  Oh, and Missouri.

He's boned.  And that's not good.