I have good news and bad news. The bad news is I’m taking an exceedingly rare day off and will be away from my desk.
The good news is I’ve recruited The Reaction‘s Michael J.W. Stickings to, once again, help out in my absence. Stickings did a terrific job filling in for me in April and June, and by popular acclaim, is back for another run.
Be nice to the sub and I’ll be back tomorrow with more long-winded tirades for your reading pleasure.
Welcome back, Stickings-It-to-the-Man.
It’s good news and good news. Never apologize for taking a day off. That’s the problem with the USA. Too many people work way too hard and do not take time off. People are overworked and overstressed and taking the time to lounge on your sofa with some ice cream watching TV is a great thing.
Thank you, Steve. It’s great to be back.
I’ll be posting regularly all morning and afternoon long, mostly in response to 9/11, terrorism, and Iraq, but also with a few curiosities thrown in. I look forward to all the comments.
My first post will appear shortly.
Thanks, Dale. I’ll do my best — sofa, ice cream, and all.
Hi Michael. Welcome back.
I wonder if you might look for conservative reaction to Bush’s speech last night.
He seemed to argue that the US should be in the position of guaranteeing freedom and democracy for the Mideast. His promises were so expansive.
Conservatives were once wary of nation building and becoming hte world’s policemen. Now they want us to become the founding fathers of world democracy.
I’ve checked the usual suspects, i.e. Powerline, Wizbang, the Corner, but no one is commmenting on the speech. It terrified me. Didn’t it frighten them as well?
NeilS: I wonder what terrifies them anymore. Certainly not a government that eavesdrops on them illegally, renders detainees to faraway tyrannies (and tortures some of the ones that remain), sends America’s men and women in uniform off to fight endless wars without a plan, and launches crusades to transform the globe.
But so many of America’s conservatives aren’t conservative anymore. They’ve been taken in by authoritarianism at home and idealism abroad (an idealism rooted in arrogance and greed, however). And they’ve become the most shameless partisans. Perhaps they do find fault with Bush and his transformational dreams. But we won’t hear that from them, for that would mean criticizing their leader.
But I’ll have a look. Like, I’m curious.
Michael:
Last night when Bush was talking about expanding freedom and democracy at first I thought he was talking about the United States, but then I realized that he was talking about other countries.
Here he wants to limit freedom and democracy.
Some of the conservatives (Will?, Fukuyama?) must have been horrified when they heard this speech.
That’s right. The restriction of freedom at home, the expansion of freedom abroad. Although even the expansion of freedom abroad is just rhetoric.
It’s good of you to mention Will and Fukuyama, though. Will has never bought into the neoconservative project, though his partisanship has been quite blatant in the past. Fukuyama is a reformed neocon, I suppose, and well worth reading. He is realistic enough to see where the neocons have gone wrong.
CB, would this explain your absence?
A little group of us bloggers ate lunch with the last elected President of the United States today, in his Harlem office. I’m afraid if I try to name everybody I’ll leave someone out, so I’m not going to try, but attendees included (in no particular order) Dave Johnson of Seeing the Forest; Matt Stoller of MyDD; Duncan Black of Eschaton; Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft, who has photos up already; Jane Hamsher and Christy Hardin Smith from firedoglake; Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis, and, um, more people. And moi. I’ll post the full list eventually.
The purpose of the meeting (as near as I can tell) is that Mr. Clinton has been reading blogs and just wanted to do a little outreach, facilitated by Peter Daou. We had a lovely time schmoozing about, you know, political stuff.
No big bombshell revelations, but it was certainly an interesting discussion. Lots of smart folks in the room. I took a few notes, but I think I’ll wait until I get the official meeting transcript to write in detail.
But how cool was that?
Americablog confirmed the Carpetbagger had an audience with the last real prez. I heard much of the meeting was off the record , but I’m anxious to see what Steve has to say when he gets back.
Here’s an interesting thought: Bush has been illegally spying on Americans for some time now and is trying to get the laws he violated changed. If he succeeds then he will already have established precedence in such things as holding US citizens without charging them (Jose Padilla).
Now suppose for a second that democrats win control of the House and maybe even the Senate and it angers certain neo-cons, rednecks, etc. to the point of commiting violence, such as burning things down. Wouldn’t we then have a new “class” of “terrorists”? One’s that would “require”
“monitoring” and “detainment”? Surely these “terrorists” would be getting some form of “inspiration” from the RNC and funding from K Street. All communications by the RNC would have to be monitored…..
Thanks George. Thanks for paving the way.
BTW – I would rather die in a terrorist attack then let a president disregard the Constitution.
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