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

Thursday, May 10, 2007

The Perils For Democrats In The Real World 

...there will never be a Reaganesque 11th Commandment in the world occupied by the Democratic Party. Speaking ill of other Democrats has been such a staple of the party for such a long period of time (See: Will Rogers, re. "I don't belong to..." etc.) that future generations of scientists mapping the Democratic genome will find glowing clusters of nucleic acids within which reside the building blocks for both a neo-Democratic quasi-Green AND a DNC Clintonista, all at the same time. It's the nature of the beast. To a degree not seen in Republic party members, Democrats span the opposing limits of the political spectrum so much that it can make a person dizzy. That's why we have a Democratic Senate Majority Leader who is a devout Mormon, no great friend of some of the social issues that passionately inform most progressive Democrats, and yet a sufficiently stout opponent of the George W. Bush administration that he earned the proud battle honor of being called an 'embarrassment' by "Dean of 'Mobbed-up' Out-Of-Touch Beltway Insiders" Broder...

Harry Reid does have his downside for progressives. One of them is his staunch opposition to revisions to the General Mining Act of 1872. The Mining Act, as it is known in circles that I frequent, is - at best - a pain in the ass. At its worst, it allows the creation of personal recreational properties all across the federally-managed high mountain lands of the West under the disguise of "mining claims" that require a surprisingly small amount of investment to maintain. At a lesser level, it allows the establishment of 'claims' on road cutbanks and in active rock pits that require a pretty impressive amount of time to track down and address any time you want to do road reconstruction or crush rock for asphalt pavement or to place as new gravel on forest roads. And then there is the patent process, which effectively gives ownership of mining claims on federally managed public lands to the claimant for a few dollars per acre...although there have been general congressional moratoriums over such ownership transfers over the last several years...

This is the point at which a certain degree of peril is introduced for congressional leaders like Harry Reid. He is a Senator from a relatively conservative state and, more importantly, one that has a strong economic influence provided by mining. As a result, he has engaged in political survival by opposing revisions to the Mining Act of 1872. He has been a relatively reliable opponent to those who have objected to the lax standards, absurdly low fees, lack of royalty payments, and absence of environmental protections that plague the Mining Act for pretty much all of his political career. He may well have problems with the most recent proposals; any smart wagering person with a fist full of money will not go wrong betting on past performance...

This is an almost perfect demonstration of the problem that faces the Democratic problem with trying to craft working majorities out there in the real world these days. The party has seen in the 2006 elections a remarkable recovery of its prospects, and there is every chance that it can realize even greater gains in the next election because of the weariness that the public is starting to express over the policies and war-making tendancies of the Bush administration. Unfortunately for confirmed progressives, there are many places in the country that aren't ready to completely throw off the chains of Republican regression. Those places are capable of electing a Democratic candidate, but that candidate won't win and won't survive successive elections if he or she throws in wholely with progressive viewpoints...

So here we have situation coming up once again where many voices are clamoring for - at the very least - the most minimally acceptable changes to the Mining Act to at least incorporate environmental restrictions and royalty reform. Harry Reid, in order to maintain his chops as Senate Majority Leader, is being forced into a position that comes with that particular visibility, one that at least appears to be sympathetic to the idea of reforming the Act. At the same time, he needs to keep The Folks Back Home happy or at least not terribly unhappy about changes that may affect their hobbies or livelihood through the changes that he is willing to sign off on in order to not face a stong Republic challenge in 2010. It's one of the ugly realities of grassroots efforts to turn more of the nation's map blue that there are going to be Democrats elected to Congress who don't perfectly subscribe to the ideals held by the progressive base. The tightrope that Harry Reid finds himself teetering on over revisions to the Mining Law is a perfect example of the struggles that Democrats have to face out there in the real world...
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:05 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Dial-Up SUCKS 

...y'know, I was going to fire off a fiery blast at Gee Dub and his festering stringwart-encrusted band of hapless half-bright minions over their lame nitwitted effort to lie their way out of the simple fact that National Guard units across the United States are struggling to redeem their non-federalized responsibilities of disaster relief. I found links from Vermont, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and Nebraska demonstrating that Tony Snow's gaggle comments today - seemingly geared to blot from our minds even the most raw human sympathy for the medical plight of another human being - were at best ill-informed and at worst just another attempt by Chimpco to paint it's own strange brand of smiley faces all over the well-known facts surrounding it's disastrous bit of imperialistic colonialism in Iraq...

...but I can't; not because I had some change of heart or suddenly got a better deal from the Republicans, some "Roger the Rocket" deal for an aging angry American to come out of retirement to hurl a bit of high and tight chin music for 'America's Team'. Nope...it's all about dial-up and my linked-to-earth dial-up ISP. Glaciers are like Indy Cars flashing across the finish line at the Brickyard compared to what's going on here, so after 90 minutes of trying to fight with this monster, I concede. It's bed time, so I will retire to a night of sweet dreams of me strapped in the cockpit of an A-10 Warthog delivering 500-lbs bombs and an uncountable rounds of 30-cal. depleted uranium shells into a number of internet-related targets. Tomorrow will be a better day...or not...
Posted by: Jack K. / 8:43 PM 0 comments

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Time For A Big Ol' Can Of Tenet-Be-Gone 

...I'm a church-goin' man. It's part of who I am, but that's not the point here. The point is that as a result of my Sunday trips to church, I don't spend much time watching the usual Sunday fare of political talking head shows. Sometimes I'll watch the 7 p.m. replay of Meet The Press on MSNBC; not during football season, of course, and sometimes not even if there is a particularly compelling baseball game or competitive crochet match or some gripping movie on that's at least as good as or better than "Formulaic Silly Teen Movie Where Nerds and Cheerleaders/Kewl Kids Defeat A Badness". Even with the admittedly flexible standards I have for things that rank higher on the "Ways to Waste My Life" scale, an airing of MTP featuring Former CIA chief George Tenet ranks somewhere below a biology class discussion of the citric acid cycle on UCTV on my satellite system...

I could care less about either the Phillies or the Giants, unless there's some sort of bench-clearing brawl involved (it's always fun to watch baseball players converge at the mound, cursing and swinging wildly until the thing is broken up with no blood or injuries; great comedy), but that's tonight's baseball game - not a citric acid discussion to be found - and it is far more interesting fare than anything Medal of Freedom recipient Tenet has to say, even if Timmeh Rush-ert is trying to rip him up to defend his Masters and their Rule. "Day late and a dollar short" doesn't even begin to capture the book effort that Tenet has flung out onto the national stage; he has demonstrated, through a media blitz that makes a person want to shake the hand of his publisher's publicist for getting George on everything from MTP to a voice-over on "The Simpsons" (Is that right? Or did I just dream that last part? This guy's been cropping up everywhere...), that he has a tale to tell that is at odds with both the Bush administration's storyboard and every shred of evidence that has been dug up over the last five years...

His season is over, even before he was able to get suited up for the game. There's a bottom line here, spiraling around the whole "what did you do to help start the war, Daddy" question when it comes to his role in the Iraq war. He's out there now trying to tell us that he had qualms but tried to work within the system rather than take the "honorable" approach of walking out the door when this train built up its uncontrollable head of steam. Too much has been paid, too much has been sacrificed to allow anyone to finesse his or her storyline about this particular conflict. There's a good reason that Tenet isn't finding much love out there in the real world: Bush/war supporters don't like anyone pointing out the failings inherent in Dear Leader's mess and opponents don't appreciate some guy wandering out of the the smoke insisting that he really actually had reservations about the whole thing at the time when there isn't any evidence to support that premise. George Tenet's buzzards have come home to roost, and the stench of their droppings is overpowering his storyline. It's time for him to fade away and be gone...
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:13 PM 0 comments

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