Party Discipline: A modest proposal.

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Friday June 13, 2008 · 7:53 AM PDT

2008/06/13 · 07:53

I have a modest proposal for dealing with Party idiots and apostates:

Eat their babies.

No, just kidding. This isn't a Jonathan Swift-style recommendation. It's too late for that: the children have grown to adulthood and now stand at the gates of the "fourth estate" spouting the talking-points of the opposition.

Ye gads! What to do?

If you're thinking of picking up the 'phone and chewing off their ear, or dashing off a fevered email of righteous indignations, allow me to offer this suggestions:

Don't.

Call the HammerHand.

Gooch

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Tuesday June 10, 2008 · 1:10 PM PDT

2008/06/10 · 13:10

Let me get this out of the way first: I am a backer of Obama for President. I don't think he's the second coming (of Bill thank goodness), or the next JFK (better than that, I hope). His candidacy is historic, his policy positions are sound (if fairly pedestrian in most cases). He's highly charismatic. I'm not inclined to praise his every move, however.

That said, one of the first things he did after securing the Democratic nomination made my heart leap. He extended his campaign's ban on money from political action committees (PACs) and lobbyists to the Democratic National Committee.

Gooch

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Tuesday June 03, 2008 · 8:17 AM PDT

2008/06/03 · 08:17

This is a thought experiment I want you all to try with me.

I just finished reading LauraD's wonderful diary I was the "crazy screaming woman," and it is full of heartfelt gratitude for Dr. Howard Dean. Let me share a few comments with you:

Gooch

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Saturday May 31, 2008 · 1:41 PM PDT

2008/05/31 · 13:41

Introductory rambling: So much to write about these days, what with the rules committee hearing going on in DC (moot in any case), the war, the Democratic Convention in Augusta, the Celtics, international disasters--it's all been on my mind to comment, disparage or celebrate. Instead, I'm going to write about Memorial Day.

I've been thinking about this since I went to Portland's parade on Monday, and links sent by a friend have kept it in the front of my mind. Last night I had pizza and beer with my city councilor and we chatted about it as well. Time to write.

Portland's Memorial Day Parade was pathetic. Embarrassing, actually, on several levels. It was thinly attended. The delegations were small. The community was not represented. The American Legion and VFW were predictably bitter. I was pissed.

I shot off a text message to the three city councilors who I know, and they all had the same general response. It is the VFW and the American Legion who organize the parade, and they only talk to each other. I don't mind beefing with those guys--you have to involve the community. Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:

Poll

25 votes Show Results

The Memorial Day celebration in my town was

25 votes Vote Now!

The Memorial Day celebration in my town was

Outstanding, touching and uplifting

2 votes

ordinary, but comfortable

5 votes

meh

5 votes

weak

6 votes

nonexistant

7 votes

Bill Moyers, Smart Guy

Gooch

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Friday May 09, 2008 · 7:48 AM PDT

2008/05/09 · 07:48

In the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., "Rarely do we find men who engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think."

Moyers has always been both willing to think and unwilling to simplify, which I suppose is why he wound up in public broadcasting. But the reason he finds such a follower in me has more to do with his message than his mode.

Follow me below for more:

Gooch

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Wednesday May 07, 2008 · 12:43 PM PDT

2008/05/07 · 12:43

I slapped this together today, in the aftermath of Tuesday's good work. Tips for the sentiment, flames for failing to make seamless the transition between pagemaker and photobucket. Obama fans will recognize the fine art produced for the campaign and stolen shamelessly.

Hope you like it.

title=

Do you believe in a deity? Poll

Gooch

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Monday April 07, 2008 · 1:33 PM PDT

2008/04/07 · 13:33

I saw this comment on a diary today:

Progressives are just as adamant about the morality of their cause. They just don't believe in a deity, so they don't invoke it.

I responded:

What in the world makes you think [that lack of faith] applies to "progressives" as a group?

My interlocutor suggested that I take a poll. So I am.

[PS: sorry about the spelling errors. Too quick with the mouse.]

Poll

480 votes Show Results

Do you BOTH consider yourself a Progressive and believe in a diety?

480 votes Vote Now!

Do you BOTH consider yourself a Progressive and believe in a diety?

No. I am a Progressive and Progressives by definition do not believe in a diety.

14 votes

No. I am a Progressive but do not believe in a diety.

280 votes

No. I believe in a diety, and Progressives do not believe in dieties.

3 votes

Yes.

183 votes

Rev. Wright's Church Needs Your Help [Updated x2]

Gooch

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Thursday April 03, 2008 · 12:17 PM PDT

2008/04/03 · 12:17

As many of you know already, Trinity Church in Chicago, the church of Dr. Wright and Barak Obama, is affiliated with the United Church of Christ (UCC).

The UCC is one of the Protestant "Mainline" churches--a name which refers to their theology and their lineage, not their popularity. Although I'm not religious, I was raised in a small UCC congregation and I still have deep familial ties to the wider church. It's a group of folks, by and large, who subscribe to the "know them by their works" school of faith.

What does that mean?

Gooch

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Monday February 12, 2007 · 12:18 PM PST

2007/02/12 · 12:18

For your consideration, from Gorillas Guides. I offer this without comment. And because I am not there. And because if I was, I'd probably be in uniform, with Kevlar on my head and a gun in my hand. And because no matter how you feel about the "surge," it's your surge and mine. Not just the Bush.

That's just the way it is.

No I do not care about your feelings. I am interested in what if anything you have done to stop your country from murdering yet more of my people. That is all I am interested in. When I want to decide about someone I look at what they do not at what they say.

Enjoy your surge and have a nice day America. I do not think you will enjoy the countersurge but that is your problem not mine. I for my part will be cheering on the Iraki resistance. Irak is for the Irakis. This is my home, these are my people. Leave.

War Debt Paid. Hooray! (w/poll)

Gooch

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Tuesday February 06, 2007 · 12:13 PM PST

2007/02/06 · 12:13

cross-posted at Borrowed Suits

Wages of War: No one can predict the long-term consequences of the Iraq War, but we note that only last summer did the U.S. stop collecting a 3 percent tax on long-distance telephone calls that was begun in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War--a war that only lasted several months.

Christian Century, January 9, 2007

Let that one sink in for a minute.

Did you know you were paying a 3% tax on your long distance phone calls from the day you were born until the end of 2006 to pay for the SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR?

I don't really know what to say about that.

It feels so good to finally pay off those debts, doesn't it? Looks like we're all going to need to pick up a few extra hours. For the next 2 thousand years or so.

Poll

30 votes Show Results

Help out! What are you going to do to help SuperBoy pay our war debt?

30 votes Vote Now!

Help out! What are you going to do to help SuperBoy pay our war debt?

I'm goin' SHOPPIN'!

3 votes

I'm selling a limb!

1 vote

I'm going to voluntarily pay twice the taxes I owe, just to get used to it.

1 vote

Breed. Hey--it's a tax break, and you can sell them if things get tight.

4 votes

Nuthin. My great-grandchildren will take care of it.

7 votes

I'm gonna use more stamps than necessary.

2 votes

Buy War Bonds! Wait...

2 votes

Win American Idol, then donate any profits to W's pResidential Library Campaign at SMU.

1 vote

What, me worry?

9 votes

The Dark at the End of the Street

Gooch

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Friday January 12, 2007 · 9:03 PM PST

2007/01/12 · 21:03

crossposted at Borrowed Suits

We’ve been down this road before. That Bush et al have steadfastly refused to learn their history is axiomatic. But I can’t help but wish that someone at PNAC or the American Enterprise Institute or the Federalist Society (ideally several someones at all three) had read T.E. Lawrence before they stooped to whisper in Bush’s ear.

Gooch

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Tuesday December 05, 2006 · 8:22 AM PST

2006/12/05 · 08:22

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune and Borrowed Suits

Just in case you've stumbled upon this post with no idea of what's been going on for the past six years, let me start by saying this:

Holy shit, guy! Where have you been?

But let me continue. The foundation of western government, from the moment the Magna Carta was wrung out of King John, has been the Rule of Law. That document was practically useless to the English common man, and if we fail to act more forthrightly and sternly than we seem about to, our Constitution will become equally useless to us. I'm writing this only in the hope that a few more paragraphs can help: if America can return to grace, impeachment is the only sure way.

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Party Discipline: A modest proposal.

Lobbying the Donkey

A chill down my spine and tears in my eyes

In Memory of Memorial Day [w/ poll]

Bill Moyers, Smart Guy

Heir Obama

Do you believe in a deity? Poll

Rev. Wright's Church Needs Your Help [Updated x2]

"Have a Nice Surge"

War Debt Paid. Hooray! (w/poll)

The Dark at the End of the Street

The Moral Imperative of Impeachment