Indignant Desert Birds

When the California primary came around, I had this idea: I would vote for Barack Obama– who would lose the nomination– and then I would vote for Hillary Clinton in the general. This way, I though, I would have the pleasure of voting for them both. That seems to have been an error.

Hillary ran a fantastic campaign. Not a perfect one. But a fantastic one that– had she run against anyone else– would have resulted in victory. Her mistakes were worth learning from, but– for now– not dwelling on. The problem for her, it seems, is that Hillary fell victim to Zeno’s Achilles and the tortoise paradox. She could see herself making up ground, but never quite making up _enough_ ground, never _quite_ pulling ahead. It could never be enough ground– the math was working against her from February. Then the finish line came…
click here for a nifty chart.

Hillary gave it her best shot. I would guess that she is unused to trying as hard as she can and still losing. The qualities that would have made her such a fantastic president are combining to make her into a liability for the party. She’s a smart woman– I’m sure she will recognize it soon. As a party, we owe her the space to come to terms with her loss. Our country is stronger for her having run.

Tags: politics by Punning Pundit
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I do kind of wish it went without saying that the War in Iraq is an unmitigated disaster. Even if the country turns into the Eden which the Christian Bible hints might once has been there, the cost in lives and money will have been too high. Where America was once seen as a fearsome, slumbering colossus; our blundering about the middle east has caused actual fear among the nations of the world. Where once we were the good guys, the fact that we employ torture, indefinite detention, secret tribunals, and are moving toward permanent occupation of a nation that wants us gone.

Perhaps most damning, we stand in violation of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Our country is being run by criminals who are demonstrably guilty of the same crime for which we tried, convicted, and hung many of the people who stood at Nuremberg.

But there will never be a trial.

This post started out light-hearted. Have a funny chart:

more graph humor and song chart memes

Tags: politics, war by Punning Pundit
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As I understand it, conservatives think that it is silly to talk with Iran until Iran A) stops supporting Hammas B) gives up it’s nuclear ambition C) stops repressing its own people. Doing anything about point C) would violate the priciples of the treaty of Westphalia, so I assume this is mere saber rattling.

As for the rest: my understanding is that these are the points to be negotiated. Which means setting them as preconditions indicates that certain parts of our governing class really do not wish to meet at all– outside the field of honor. This, of course, makes them wildly out of touch with most Americans:

.

Seems like talking with people we don’t like in an attempt to settle our differences is a political winner. Who knew?

Tags: conservative, liberal, politics by Punning Pundit
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