Some topics to regale you with while I'm deceased
Well, I don't ache quite as much as I did, though I have to say that my voice is almost entirely kaput. I can't really speak at all. *pause for applause* Still nowhere near 100%, and that likely means a slow and house-ridden weekend - meaning that I'm likely to miss the roller derby championship in Baltimore, dangit.
I guess I'll go ahead and admit that I'm happy that Gore received the Peace Prize, if mostly, as dragonscholar notes, for the frothing reactions of the rant-wing. I'm also happy that this means the topic is finally getting the gravitas it deserves - a gravitas that was probably most disrupted and damaged by the refusal of - surprise! - Al Gore to push the Kyoto Protocols through the Senate when he actually had the chance. And this, of course, was after he'd released Earth in the Balance. I for one refuse to entertain any thoughts of running Al Gore for President again until those in favor of the prospect identify which Al Gore they're planning to run.
This, along with the Pennsylvania Senate race in 2004, has prompted a bit of residual Green-bashing on some blogs and journals.* It's particularly sad, because I thought better of the Democrats. I've always been very careful to limit criticisms of the Democrats to the party leaders themselves, not to those who actually vote for them, as I figured most folks, given actual choices, would do the right thing and vote their actual consciences...not to mention that Green candidates need votes from R's and D's in order to win races. (Ironically, I've been known as one of the Green leaders who's most concilliatory towards Dems by Nader supporters in the Party; one of them labeled me as "the Green Party's Bill Clinton" in a memorable rant.) Unfortunately, there are simply those out there who no longer have an actual conscience to vote. They're so absorbed with the Two Minutes' Hate of bloviators like Chris Matthews and the salesman-like pitches of the "handlers" who "steered" Al Gore that they've forgotten to stand for anything other than not being Republicans. So of course they cave on things like criticizing MoveOn in the wells of Congress - the alternative would be to actually have a message.**
Like the Republicans, they tend to fall back on cherished myths of victimhood. Sure, Al Gore failed to win his own home state, failed to continue the court challenges, failed to call attention to the "mobs" of paid Republican staffers who disrupted recounts, failed to push for the Kyoto Protocol...sure, Jews voted for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, and ballot boxes went missing...sure, Republicans got the idea from the Dems swiping an election in Illinois in 1960...but we know why Gore really lost the election, don't we?
And when the Green and Libertarian Parties found evidence - and got prosecutions based on them! - that the vote was tampered with in Ohio in 2004? Or that George W. Bush was late applying to the ballot in Florida in 2004, but the Dems instead chose to sue independent Ralph Nader, who wasn't? Oddly silent on that, aren't we?
The Bush administration will likely be attempting to invade Iran soon. The Green Party, in attempting to oppose it, is not engaging the Democratic Party or any of its groups at all. There is simply no point in doing so. Instead, we'll be attempting to talk to Republican voters and getting them to write their Congressmen, telling them they'll lose the election if they do so. It's a long-shot strategy, but we have a better chance with that than with getting the Dems to actually do anything.
Today, 600 years ago, King Philip IV of France captured Jacques de Molay and most of the leadership of the Knights Templar, subjecting them to torture and burning at the stake, ostensibly for heresy, but actually because Philip was heavily in debt to the Templars because of the conflict with England prior to the Hundred Years' War.
When Louis XVI was executed in 1793, more than one in the crowd is said to have shouted, "De Molay is avenged!"
Urgh. Back to using my laptop's text reader for my voice.
More later, I guess.
* It's a good thing they got that Green out of the race! After all, Pennsylvania might've elected a pro-war, anti-choice, anti-health care culture-warrior in the pocket of trial lawyers and big businesses, with no named individual donors among his top ten contributors!...oh, wait.
** I'm waiting for Fred Thompson to come out of the GOP primaries with the nomination. Can you imagine that? With Hillary, we'd have the first guaranteed issue-free campaign!
I guess I'll go ahead and admit that I'm happy that Gore received the Peace Prize, if mostly, as dragonscholar notes, for the frothing reactions of the rant-wing. I'm also happy that this means the topic is finally getting the gravitas it deserves - a gravitas that was probably most disrupted and damaged by the refusal of - surprise! - Al Gore to push the Kyoto Protocols through the Senate when he actually had the chance. And this, of course, was after he'd released Earth in the Balance. I for one refuse to entertain any thoughts of running Al Gore for President again until those in favor of the prospect identify which Al Gore they're planning to run.
This, along with the Pennsylvania Senate race in 2004, has prompted a bit of residual Green-bashing on some blogs and journals.* It's particularly sad, because I thought better of the Democrats. I've always been very careful to limit criticisms of the Democrats to the party leaders themselves, not to those who actually vote for them, as I figured most folks, given actual choices, would do the right thing and vote their actual consciences...not to mention that Green candidates need votes from R's and D's in order to win races. (Ironically, I've been known as one of the Green leaders who's most concilliatory towards Dems by Nader supporters in the Party; one of them labeled me as "the Green Party's Bill Clinton" in a memorable rant.) Unfortunately, there are simply those out there who no longer have an actual conscience to vote. They're so absorbed with the Two Minutes' Hate of bloviators like Chris Matthews and the salesman-like pitches of the "handlers" who "steered" Al Gore that they've forgotten to stand for anything other than not being Republicans. So of course they cave on things like criticizing MoveOn in the wells of Congress - the alternative would be to actually have a message.**
Like the Republicans, they tend to fall back on cherished myths of victimhood. Sure, Al Gore failed to win his own home state, failed to continue the court challenges, failed to call attention to the "mobs" of paid Republican staffers who disrupted recounts, failed to push for the Kyoto Protocol...sure, Jews voted for Buchanan in Palm Beach County, and ballot boxes went missing...sure, Republicans got the idea from the Dems swiping an election in Illinois in 1960...but we know why Gore really lost the election, don't we?
And when the Green and Libertarian Parties found evidence - and got prosecutions based on them! - that the vote was tampered with in Ohio in 2004? Or that George W. Bush was late applying to the ballot in Florida in 2004, but the Dems instead chose to sue independent Ralph Nader, who wasn't? Oddly silent on that, aren't we?
The Bush administration will likely be attempting to invade Iran soon. The Green Party, in attempting to oppose it, is not engaging the Democratic Party or any of its groups at all. There is simply no point in doing so. Instead, we'll be attempting to talk to Republican voters and getting them to write their Congressmen, telling them they'll lose the election if they do so. It's a long-shot strategy, but we have a better chance with that than with getting the Dems to actually do anything.
Today, 600 years ago, King Philip IV of France captured Jacques de Molay and most of the leadership of the Knights Templar, subjecting them to torture and burning at the stake, ostensibly for heresy, but actually because Philip was heavily in debt to the Templars because of the conflict with England prior to the Hundred Years' War.
When Louis XVI was executed in 1793, more than one in the crowd is said to have shouted, "De Molay is avenged!"
Urgh. Back to using my laptop's text reader for my voice.
More later, I guess.
* It's a good thing they got that Green out of the race! After all, Pennsylvania might've elected a pro-war, anti-choice, anti-health care culture-warrior in the pocket of trial lawyers and big businesses, with no named individual donors among his top ten contributors!...oh, wait.
** I'm waiting for Fred Thompson to come out of the GOP primaries with the nomination. Can you imagine that? With Hillary, we'd have the first guaranteed issue-free campaign!