I'm reading again, due to some down time. I thought I'd share with you all the awesomeness going on in the world, insofar as I've read:

1. While some of our own citizens can't see the downright crazy that is some of the current GOP Senators, the Ambassador from Russia to NATO sat down with Senators Kyl and Kirk. His reaction? As quoted in Foreign Policy:

   "Today in the Senate, I met with Senators Jon Kyl and Mark Kirk. The meeting is very useful because it shows that the alternative to Barack Obama is a collapse of all the programs of cooperation with Russia," he said. "Today, I had the impression that I was transported in a time machine back several decades, and in front of me sat two monsters of the Cold War, who looked at me not through pupils, but targeting sights."



2. What is the Grand Plan of some members of the Tea Party Freshmen currently holding the country hostage through their tenuous grip over just over 1/2 of 1/3 of government? Leave it to God! Here's Rep. Tim Scott on his plan to stave off economic meltdown:

   "Where’s the chapel?” Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) asked as he emerged from an arm-twisting session with Majority Leader Eric Cantor Thursday night. The freshman lawmaker explained that he wanted to “go to the divine source.”
   In a room off the Capitol Rotunda, Scott joined a prayer session with fellow South Carolinian lawmakers. “I hope the Lord. . . gives men wisdom when they desperately need it,” Scott explained.
   

   As it happens, the Lord gave Scott the wisdom to oppose Boehner. “I think divine inspiration already happened,” Scott said. “I was a ‘lean no’ and now I’m a ‘no.’” And he’s not much worried about default, saying: “I hope the Lord blesses our nation in a way that is measurable.”




3. World Net Daily, the least useful of all news-sources (and thus most quoted from current crazy congressmen and one particular Presidential hopeful), blames the fall of America on...it's founding fathers while comparing Obama to Hitler



4. And last, Paul Krugman explainswhy centrism isn't always the answer (and why calling one a "centrist" despite shifting goalposts is probably an invalid title to begin with). It reminds me of a quote I've kept on my facebook wall for sometime:
   
   

   When two opposite points of view are expressed with equal intensity, the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them. It is possible for one side to be simply wrong.~ Richard

And so, such is the nature of things. Crazies on foreign policy, crazies ignoring reality and just imploring their God to make all better and crazies writing newspapers just shilling more crazy because if you say it loud enough and it echoes long enough, people will believe to forget the truth.

Pete&Adam

Due to the fact that for the short term future, Peter and I will not be co-located, we've decided to start a blog about...us. Why? Because we like "us" and because to write everything I'd want on my own blog or on my facebook wall would unnecessarily bully everyone with sappy and romantic crap that most of you probably won't want to read. But, for those of you who do...the blog is here. Pete & Adam.

I cannot get the settings as we'd like them yet, so please be kind as we attempt to fix it to our specifications. Also, this is a new undertaking, so posting will be sparse, and probably incredibly random in terms of content as we empty our brains of thoughts pertaining to "us". I hope you enjoy!

If I were Karl Rove and writing commercials for the Democrats, this is what I'd be compiling now:

• voice over quoting economists that not increasing the debt ceiling would create economic catastrophe


• quotes from Tea Party Republicans, including Michelle Bachmann, saying that they would not under any circumstances raise the debt ceiling. Examples:
  
  
  
  • Tea Party founder Jenny Beth Martin, "Do not raise the debt ceiling, it's that simple."
  
  
  
  • Rep. Allen West,
    
    

    "there's revenue that will be there, about 250 billion, that will allow us to prioritize and then take care of that debt interest payment, take care of our seniors and take care of our military as well."

  
  
  
  • Rep. Jeff Duncan:
    
    

    I will be voting against increasing our nation’s debt ceiling and against any attempt to raise taxes.
    



• The commercial would cut to a pictureof John McCain on the floor of the House with the text quotes, "The Tea Party Hobbits could return to middle earth" "bizzaro" and "that's the kind of cracked political thinking"



• It would close with the video of Obama's speech imploring the Republicans to pass a debt ceiling increase.
  

Politically, I can imagine such a commercial being toxic--paint the President as the one who wanted to negotiate, paint the Tea Party as the obstructionists. If you really wanted to sink it in, throw in a clip of Boehner looking sad as his coalition falls apart and he can't pass a bill even past his own Party and viola--you've turned out a political ad that I think can turn a pile of crap into election gold.

reading...

A quick wrap up of what I'm reading:

• Michelle Bachmann, yes, the same one who said Obama was un-American because of what his pastor said and who said Congressmen should be investigated for being un-American, doesn't like when people question her associations. Her husband owns a clinic teaching people to not be gay anymore, and while she's "proud of his work", when asked about it she replied, "I am running for the presidency … My husband is not running for the presidency … Neither is our business.”


• The GOV of Texas quickly backpedals to remind us he's no REAL Federalist and that he doesn't like the gays as much as the next (republican) guy...


• Hillary Clinton continues to impress with her diplomatic acumen and professionalism. While the DC politicians embarrass the country with their bickering, Sec. Clinton is out there reminding the world that we can still do things right.


• California GOV Jerry Brown appoints Goodwyn Liu to the State Supreme Court, rebuking the Republican filibuster of his nomination to the Court of Appeals.

roads, money and a study

I've had some ongoing conversations with friends about America's transportation system, funding and public transportation. The conversations usually revolve around how much money the US should put toward public transportation and how much toward roads. (This is where I'd add in something about how the more "libertarian" of my friends tend to support publicly subsidized roads, lots of them, and as far and wide as possible whereas my argument for more public mass transportation is assailed as hippie and/or communist).

Then I stumbled upon this report, "Where We Need To Go: A Civil Rights Road Map to Transportation Equality". There are a lot of staggering statistics in it, which I won't re-print here because you can just click the link and read it yourself, but it does frame the debate in a way that I have not been able to previously.

If there is a tie between transportation, access to jobs and poverty, then the Country needs to consider this when allocating funds. Public goods are only "public" if they are equally accessible to all people. If, however, public funds are spent on "goods" that are monopolized by a small percentage of the population, then they are no longer public.

In any case...it's an interesting read, and if you have the time, take a gander.

Today, the debt talks collapsed.

This will be a short post, but I've already updated my facebook status too often to respond there. What I want to point out is, only today...in 2011...do we call a President who has offered to cut Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid as well as lower tax increases than the bi-partisan Senate Panel a "Socialist". If that doesn't demonstrate where the Republican party has degenerated into today, I don't know what has. Combine that with the primary where each of the candidates feels the need to out-anti-Islam, out-anti-gay and out-Christian the others and it's genuinely scary this party is considered a valid governing body.

I thought last election that with the rise of Palin, four years later we'd see a re-generated and newly thoughtful party that returned to its genuinely Conservative roots, but apparently not. Instead of stepping out of the hole, they've entrenched themselves deeper. It's a pity really. There was a chance, today, to achieve genuine change in the American entitlement system, and to help bring down the deficit. Instead, we get nothing...because of a dogmatic, religious-like zeal against any kind of tax increase.

Taxed. Enough. Already. they say...and they remember the days when things were good. The funny part is, the days that current Republicans become so nostalgic for were neither romantic for Women or Minorities, but they were also spurred by MASSIVE government spending in almost every sector of the economy. Moreover, tax rates are lower now than they have been since, what, the fifties?

I sometimes get the impression Obama wants to just put the ball up and go home. Not because he's defeated, but it's like playing cards with a three year old. They make up rules that don't make sense and just throw down a two and say, "I win!" Any grown up would be exasperated. The unfortunate part is, he has to keep playing because he knows in the end, we must win this fight or the nation will lose in the long term.

Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum have both singed The Pledge against all kinds of things, including pornography, spousal infidelity, women in combat roles, marriage equality and lots of other things. It includes the words:

Support for the enactment of safeguards for all married and unmarried U.S. Military and National Guard personnel, especially our combat troops, from inappropriate same-gender or opposite-gender sexual harassment, adultery or

intrusively intimate commingling among attracteds (restrooms, showers, barracks, tents, etc.); plus prompt termination of military policy makers who would expose American wives and daughters to rape or sexual harassment, torture, enslavement or sexual leveraging by the enemy in forward combat roles.

It seems an odd pledge, to me, for many reasons. But, just the quote above, which implies that sending men to be enslaved, tortured, raped or otherwise is totally fine.

I'm interested to see how many of the other ones will sign this awesome pledge during the primaries and then pretend they didn't know what it meant in the general.