This morning I was furious to hear NPR spout out how Democrats had blocked two Medicare Malpractice bills (please excuse the link - I couldn't find it anywhere else).
This made me furious, because I know that although Malpractice reform is needed, it should go hand in hand with medical insurance reforms. But that is not the message I heard from the Democrats on this one.
One of the biggest clubs that the Republicans use against Democrats is that we are "soft on defense".
I was thinking about that and how so many Democrats today continue to support the military-industrial sector by increasing already mind-bogglingly huge spending bills year after year. This has got to stop people!
In modern times, conventional warfare, fought on the battlefield, resolves almost nothing! After Iraq, do we really think we are going to go to war against Iran, Syria or North Korea? If not, then who are we defending ourselves from? Russia, China, Europe?
The fact is that the United States is very vulnerable to an attack, but not a conventional one and not a terrorist attack, contrary to Republican dogma.
The U.S. is frighteningly vulnerable to a financial attack, and the Republicans are busily strengthening our real rivals every day.
The second recession is coming.
The signs are clear now - this is what you get from Republican mismanagement of the economy. But you can't blame George W. Bush. He grew up in two societies which never really accepted what was learned by the New Deal - the conservative South and the land of wealth and privilege.
Yesterday I was privileged to share some time with a fairly successful author of technical books. This was a pleasure for me as he writes about the field I work in. He was very smart, and successful and clearly fairly wealthy. I knew he was well off as he talked at length about his beautiful new house and showed me pictures of the vast acreage and home. He has a wonderful family, and was proud of his healthy newborn son.
So I was surprised when I went to lunch with him to hear him complain about the homeless in San Francisco. He wasn't complaining that there were homeless. He was complaining that they got a $500 check each month after registering with the city.
I just was watching the Daily Show where Mr. McAuliffe was a guest and I swear, for a party chair he sure as hell didn't sound confident or positive.
What the hell is WRONG with the Democratic Party?
Jon Stewart is asking him if he is always has to stay positive, even if things were looking bad for the Democrats. Joking that it would be tough to be DNC chair for McGovern.
This would have been a great time to say something like "Jon, I'm upbeat because I truly believe John Kerry is going to be the next president! Not only that, you are going to hear at our convention why W. is going to be only the first of many Republicans going home after this election!"
But no, we get the same damn wishy-washy Democrat fare (I paraphrase a bit from memory):
"Maybe I should be saying we're going to lose this and that, but no... We have a great convention coming up?" Maybe I should be saying we're going to lose???
I know its a Democratic friendly audience - but my god! You are the party chair Terry - is this the feeling of our leadership?
I can't imagine Newt Gingrich saying anything remotely like this during the Republican revolution of the 90's.
Maybe there are other reasons why Terry McAuliffe is a decent party chair - but I personally can't wait to get this broken, demoralized, gun-shy leadership out.
Question: Who came up with this idea of courting NASCAR dads anyway?
It sounds like something that would come from Fox, since the network would love to reap the benefits of political advertising in its NASCAR coverage during the 2004 elections.
In fact, who came up with wooing soccer moms?
Seems like the Democrats are playing into the hands of the Republicans to me. Most of the soccer moms and NASCAR dads I know are firmly (and naively) entrenched in the R column.
I have an idea: why don't we tell the pundits: f**k NASCAR dads! Let the Republicans promise to build an autobahn from coast to coast through all the national forests so they can blaze around at 150 miles-an-hour in souped-up SUV's getting 2 gallons to the mile while zipping from hunting ground to hunting ground.
Damn, they would have that NASCAR dad vote all wrapped up.
Meanwhile, back in sanity land, perhaps the Democrats could woo the rest of America. How about the 50% of the electorate that doesn't bother coming out to vote?
