Supremes - Some things you never get used to

Much has been written and said about the Supreme Court decision giving terror suspects detained at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility the right to challenge their status in Federal Court.
One of the most well reasoned discussions comes to us from the smart, vivacious, and fashionable Emily Zanotti, who offers lines like this, "The three dissenting judges went all Ike Turner on the majority opinion. "
Click on over to the American Princess and enjoy. Then come on back.

I suspect that in coming years, much as history will eventually count George W. Bush as one of this nation's best Presidents, we will look back on this decision and recognize the delicacy with with the Court attempted to balance the various needs of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branches.
Can’t say I agree with the ruling, but I begin to grasp the logic. And I give kudos to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Thomas in their strongly worded dissents.

A song for you

Kristin Mainhart (I do not believe we are related) is a talented independent artist in NYC. Her CD Stranger Things is good stuff. Here's one song from the album:

Climate change consensus

I'm in Philadelphia today where the temperature is preparing to soar to 99°.
Must be global warming, right?
Oh, wait, it's snowing today in Washington and Idaho. Must be global cooling, right?
Here's a link to an interesting article on the real scientific consensus regarding global warming over at Pirates Cove.

Inspired silliness

She IS the Internet. Just ask her. She is iJustine a talented (and not unattractive) video/multimedia producer/editor from the Pittsburgh area.
This clip is...
uhhh...
well, you decide...



She also does the lifecasting thing.





(Photo is © Justine Ezarik. All rights reserved.)

Who will McCain choose for VP

Hello there. Long time no blog.
Still busy at work, the golf game is improving, and [insert another lame excuse here].

Now that the Dems have BO - attention shifts to the second banana. My guess is he'll select a woman not named Hillary. If he were to select the New York Senator, he and Michelle would be well served to sleep with one eye open.
On the GOP side, McCain appears to have done a decent job of positioning himself in the center of the political spectrum. A younger (not hard to do), conservative would be an ideal choice. I've written here before of my growing fascination with Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. I think she's still a considerable long shot , but she would turn the race in November on it's ear.
Here's a video clip put together by a couple grassroots organizations promoting Gov. Palin.



(h/t Adam Brinkley at Draft Sarah Palin for Vice President)

The Greatest Generation & the latest generation

I'll be updating this one shortly. I have a lot to say.
For now, take a look at nearly 1,000 representatives of the "Greatest Generation" - World War 2 veterans from Cambria County, Pennsylvania.

From WWII Vets Hon...

From WWII Vets Hon...

Quote of the day

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."

John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873)

h/t The Quotations Page

So, did you miss me?

Having wrapped up another major writing assignment at work (and it seems with another one looming in the next couple of days,) this seems as good a time as any to offer some words of wisdom.
There's no meter or rhyme to this post, but let's get started.

The presidential campaign remains a hot topic on the intraweb tubes. One thing that keeps nagging at the back of my mind is the huge concern that the Democratic party have decided on a candidate before the convention. The convention system was established in the first place as the method of selection, but in recent decades it has devolved to little more than a formality. I'm showing my age here, but I distinctly recall watching the 1964 Democratic and Republican conventions on TV. Back then coverage was nearly gavel to gavel. That year the Republican nomination was still an open question. The biggest question in my 12-year-old mind was, why did San Francisco have a Cow Palace, and why did the GOP select that site for their convention?

Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater was the presumptive nominee, but many moderate and liberal-leaning Republicans (we would call them RINOs today) opposed his conservative views. His main opposition had come from New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whose candidacy was scuttled by an ill-timed divorce. Pennsylvania Governor Bill Scranton came on as a reluctant replacement for Happy Rockefeller. Scranton's half-hearted campaign reminds me today of the effort Fred Thompson gave in his brief run for the White House. In any event, it was too little, too late and Senator Goldwater won the nomination. The Democrats had no such political intrigue at there convention, coming less than a year after President Kennedy's assassination. Lyndon Johnson as the incumbent faced no serious opposition, and he went on to easily defeat Goldwater in November.

My point here is not that the GOP had a contentious convention and lost the election. There was little that would have prevented LBJ's election. The importance of the contested convention was that it gave both the left and right wings of the party an opportunity to duke it out and to decided whether the GOP would remain anchored in conservative values, or would become Democrat-lite under RINO leadership. It was democracy in action, and live on TV. (Okay, the real action happened behind the scenes, but still...)

Now the MSM pundits are so concerned that delegates at this year's Democratic convention might actually have to think and make actual decisions about the future of their party. If that is such a bad idea, then why not just do away with the conventions, schedule a national primary and be done with it?

On another note, it's beginning to look as though vice presidential candidates may play a larger than usual role in this year's election. Elephantman of the Draft Sarah Palin site obviously has a dog in this fight, but he points us to an interesting veepstakes polll at Congressional Quarterly. It's an exercise in bracketology. Check it out.

That's all for now. Keep those comments coming.

John Adams

He was a one term president - the first U.S. President who failed in a reelection bid. But then John Adams was only the second American chief executive. The just concluded HBO miniseries offered a reasonably fair and balanced look at this often controversial public figure. I for one found the theme music (clicky below) haunting. It was also instructional to see how politics has not really changed all that much from the turn of the 19th Century.





Photo courtesy: The Harvard University Collection

3,000 miles from home

This week finds me in sunny (yeah, it's true) Seattle. I'm attending a conference along with several colleagues from my organization.
It was all going pretty well until I stepped across the street to use an ATM. I needed some extra cash because the taxis and shuttles in this otherwise modern city "know not of this 'plastic' you speak of." Anyway, I pop in my card, punch in the PIN and out spits a receipt telling me the card has been confiscated. It would appear my card # has been hacked/stolen. But I can't find out until tomorrow since the bank back in Pennsylvania is closed for the night. I have a backup credit card so it's not the end of the world, just a huge hassle in the midst of a busy road trip.