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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Chilly Days In The Republican Caucus 

...tell-all autobiographies are sometimes a real hoot. I mean, as a read, the entire book isn't all that great, usually being some sort of self-serving effort to begin the historical positioning that the 'author' wants to see brought to market to cement his or her place in a beneficial portrayal of personal history. But when they are written before the actor has made that last curtain call bow, they can lead to some, shall we say, interesting personal relationships. Every liberal's favorite Dixiecrat, Trent Lott, has decided to throw his hat into that particular muddy fetid stream with his new book...

...this is one version of what burning your bridges actually looks like. One can only imagine what future conversations between Majority Leader 'Cat-Man' Frist and former Majority Leader Lott might go, but the least that can be said is that Lott's interactions with the leadership in both the Congress and the White House are going to be extremely interesting, if not highly entertaining. It took the Democrats a few decades to get to this level of institutional heartrot, and they almost immediately lost enough seats to move to the minority when folks got tired of their action. It will be interesting to see just exactly how all of this "all for one" Republican spirit plays out over the next 15 months...
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:28 PM 0 comments

Monday, August 15, 2005

Firing Up the Troops...The Wrong Way 

...SCOTUS nominee John Roberts doesn't have much of an apparent track record, but for folks on the left there are sufficient peeks around the curtain to generate enough concern to go around. Whether your particular line in the sand is abortion itself, or the larger right to privacy issue, or civil rights, Roberts has at some point in his professional life has committed to paper some observation that would give you pause. Given the fact that several groups, most famously amongst them NARAL, have indicated a cheerful willingness to get down and have a good old fashioned bar fight over this nomination, this little piece of inside-the-Beltway gossip probably isn't going to be well received...


...while it probable isn't a bad piece of political strategy, I can imagine that this will fire up some folks in the activist region. Senatorial Democrats are in the sort of bind that comes from being a minority to a Republican party that has stumbled on the novel idea of throwing out most established practices that have stood the Senate in good stead for over a century. Specializing as they do at overplaying their hand, Republicans are hungering for a fight, better yet a filibuster, so they can blow up the truce hammered out by the 'gang of 14' and void the practice for votes on judicial nominees. This may well not be the nominee to have that fight over, but it's not going to set well with the wavering faithful who are already convinced - with ample and justifiable reason - that our current crop of Democratic legislators come from some part of the animal kingdom other than the phylum Chordata. Time will tell if the stern promises of intense questioning actually pan out to be anything that amounts to the flexing of what puny political muscle the Democrats have, but for now there is going to be trouble out here in the hinterlands as we digest what appears to be more of the same old song where a weak Democratic minority bows to a Republican majority that is far less popular than either lawyers or used car salesmen and one of the more unpopular presidents in the history of reliable poll-taking...
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:40 PM 0 comments

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Welcome to My World, Steve 

...one of the grim facts of life for those of us who live on the outskirts of civilization is the fact that we don't get to immediately share in - and may never - all the great technological advances that this society affords. High-speed internet is, at least at the home level where we can't afford dedicated T-6 lines, simply a rumor. It is as it has always been, but the noticable effect has built over the last year or so, where the wide-spread urban/suburban availability of high-speed internet has led to the development of just absolutely the most cool websites that are simply lousy with a world of cool effects and images and other stuff. Out here in dial-up land, these advances have only brought the sort of hatred and frustration normally reserved to differing sects of some fundamental religion. Given all this, Steven Levy's observations from his dial-up hideaway in Massachuttes seems like some sort of cruel insult...

...Nepal?! That's cold, man. This is the life we lead. It's good to see that the cavalry is riding across the next ridge in the form - in part - of our own Gordon Smith, the Designated East-of-the-Cascades US Senator for the Great State of Oregon. We unwashed masses of the non-DSL internet population have learned to explore our own way, seeking ISP's that offer accelerated dial-up services so we don't have to face the prospect of actually being able to finish an entire load of laundry before that one special page loads, but we certainly would be more than happy to be part of whatever the heck generation this high-speed internet group claims for itself. In the meantime, I guess I'll go fold that load of whites in the dryer while I wait for this post to be transmitted. Hey, our internet may be out here in the hinterlands, but we are very, very productive, nonetheless...
Posted by: Jack K. / 9:29 PM 0 comments

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