Otter Formation
Congratulations to Rivka who has been a bit preoccupied:
It turns out that there actually is something in this world that’s more obsessively all-consuming than politics – gestation.There’s more!
Election 2004
Walter’s Free Advice to kerry
Do something liberal.
As Walter says: guaranteed advice on how to win the election.
Electoral Vote Poll Watching
Michael at Southern Appeal finds David Wissing’s state-by-state rundown interesting.
It is interesting but not near as easy to read and interpret as Electoral Vote Predictor 2004 which also appears to be a bit more current in tracking poll results.
Helping w into the National Guard
Ex Texas Lt Goveror Ben Barnes tells the story:
“I got a young man named George W. Bush into the Texas National Guard when I was lieutenant governor, and I’m not necessarily proud of that. But I did it. I got a lot of other people in the National Guard because I thought that was what people should do when you’re in office, and you help a lot of rich people.”There is apparently a video of Barnes making this statement at the austin4kerry but so far the site seems to be overloaded at the moment (20:22 UTC/GMT).
“And I walked to the Vietnam Memorial the other day,” Barnes continued, “and I looked at the names of the people that died in Vietnam, and I became more ashamed of myself than I have ever been, because it was the worst thing I ever did, was help a lot of wealthy supporters and a lot of people who had family names of importance get into the National Guard. And I’m very sorry about that, and I’m very ashamed, and I apologize to you as voters of Texas.”
Update: PZ Meyers has put up a copy of the video.
A Plan
w and his administration are not well known for providing comprehensive public policy plans for public discussion and possible action. For instance, regarding the economy the bush buzzward is ownership. See here and here. There is not much depth and from a planning perspective these appear to be more like action items without any overall strategy direction. And looking deeper on the bush campaign site finds more of the same kind of thing.
Tyler Cowan proposes a somewhat expanded plan for bush (I presume he’d like kerry to adopt it as well)and does include at least a bit of overarching vision in his 12th point:
Get on TV and tell the nation that a free economy is a critical source of our strength. Tell them you mean it, and then mean it. Economic growth is the greatest long-run gift we can give to the world.The rest of the list is incomplete but, for the most part, a great start toward implementing the proposed vision.
To all of this Ideablog says:
Big problem: it’s politically impossible.To which I say, well, that’s ok. What is impossible today happens tomorrow but only if you start talking about it.
This is why, whether you ultimately agree point by point, you should go read Cowan’s proposal, think about it, talk about it, discuss your alternatives, refine it, and go at it again, and again, until we get it closer to right.