St. John Loves Constant War

E.J. Dionne, Jr. has a useful column for the Democratic presidential candidates in today's Post. The basic thrust of Dionne's argument is that Obama and/or Clinton should not hesistate in critiquing McCain's view, and the neoconservatives (which McCain is, in fact, now among), that terrorism comprises the greatest struggle the U.S. has faced since the Cold War. Dionne argues, in effect, that McCain places too much emphasis on terrorism and too little on other foreign policy dilemmas. He lists strained relations between Latin America and the U.S. and poverty in Africa among others as issues that deserve more focus. It seems to me that reducing poverty aound the world would restore much of the goodwill the rest of the planet use to have for America. Needless to say, if America adopted a foreign policy guided more by humility and compassion, it would do more to combat terrorism than a million-man army.

Tuesday White Man's Burden Blogging

Bill Kristol's latest column in the Times is a joke. In fact, calling it a joke is probably too kind. In his column, Kristol argues that Democrats would be much better off if they read Rudyard Kipling. I mean, what? He envisions the Republicans as the heirs to Kipling, whereas the Democrats are the opposition. Kipling, while a talented writer, was a rascist bigot and an imperialist. In his defense, Kristol does briefly mention that Kipling was "politically incorrect." However, that's like saying the Joker has a screw loose.

Go Vote!

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, has just contacted me with a request for all you Wisconsin people out there. He would like you to support democracy and vote! I really don't want the Avengers coming after me, plus Steve is a really good guy, so please go and vote!

Apologies

Sorry for the lack of blogging today. I had a big meeting at work today, and it turns out that one of my co-workers is leaving. Everybody have a great President's Day Weekend! I'll be back on Tuesday.

Go Crew!

This article from Tom Friend of ESPN magazine is probably the best piece of sport's journalism I've read in an extremely long time. Although the article isn't necessarily about Tony Gwynn Jr.'s hitting ability, after reading it I am more convinced than ever that he should be the starting centerfielder this year. Sorry, Mike Cameron. Anyways, please read this post, and pass it on to any Brewer's fans, or really, baseball fans in general you might know.

Shady

Ezra Klein has two must read posts today, here and here. Hillary Clinton is a brilliant woman, a good Senator, and she would probably be a pretty good president. However, some of the tactics she's rumored to be planning to garner the nomination, as Klein lays out in his posts, would literally tear the party apart. If Clinton were to steal the nomination, it would just be more fodder for the Republicans to hurl at her come November. I'm not as of yet too concerned about this. Despite what the media says, Clinton is still in this race. In fact, Clinton still has a reasonable shot at winning the race. That being said, as Josh Green details in his fantastic report over at the Atlantic, the Clinton campaign is obviously in disarray. My thinking is that as long as Clinton doesn't win Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, Obama pretty much has this thing locked up (that is, minus any shady dealings by the Clinton campaign). I'm hoping that Howard Dean, Clinton, and Obama can come to some kind of agreement. This election brings with it the best oppurtunity for Democrats to make huge gains that we're going to get for a long, long time. One can only hope that individual ambition does not derail this oppurtunity for the collective good.

P.S. Maureen Dowd has gasp! a very good and fair column on Hillary Clinton. I miss the old Maureen, but she's had a few good columns in a role now, I hope this means that she's back!

Not Good

This is a wee bit disturbing. I have to confess that I don't know that much about Mughniyah, but one thing I do know is that it's not clear which party is responsible for his death. I'm not surprised that Hezbollah is using this, or at least threatening to use this, as an excuse to attack Israeli and American targets. Needless to say, this is a very dangerous situation, and one can only pray that it won't worsen.