podpolia

There are some pretty hair raising descriptions of what is currently going on for Rep. Massa from New York. From what I’ve read so far, it looks like he’s being slimed out of Washington using absolutely disgusting political tactics. I just wrote him an email, and thought I would share it:

Rep. Massa,

Despite not being one of your constituents, I felt that I should still write to offer you encouragement. The situation you currently find yourself in in Washington, while the result of your actions, is not YOUR fault. It is the fault of what you correctly term the toxic atmosphere of Washington, D.C. When the words and actions of an individual are taken in ways entirely beyond the way in which they were clearly meant, merely for partisan political purposes, the political culture is out of control. We need to find a way to correct that. Your willingness to take responsibility for your own actions shows that you ARE one of the people we need to have in Washington — someone who feels their responsibility to their constituents and to the nation.

While we may not necessarily agree politically, I would like to ask you to continue standing up for your principles in the nation’s capitol, and rescind your resignation. Your decision to stay and stand up against the corrosive politics there would be a brave act, and I believe would be appreciated accordingly.

The White House has released the text of Obama’s speech to the country’s schoolchildren. On the whole, it is far better than I had feared it would be, and in fact I agree with much of it — particularly the parts about the student’s responsibility for their education. He (or his speechwriters) couldn’t refrain from putting in the setpiece success stories and smarmy comments that typify his speeches, however, and depending on how well he manages to deliver it, “when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country” may well become a humorous quotation bandied about the classroom. (Don’t expect high school students to swallow this sort of thing blind — most of them have a quite healthy cynicism about them.)

Opening a link to a story about the ‘bipartisan salute’ paid to Ted Kennedy upon his death, I found a real knee-slapper in the first paragraph, although somehow I don’t think that the Washington correspondent for the Financial Times really intended it to be funny:

Edward Kennedy’s death on Wednesday triggered a rare moment of bipartisan unity in Washington at the end of a bitterly rancorous month in which the “Lion of the Senate’s” lifelong goal of achieving universal healthcare had been called un-American by rightwing critics.

Read that last phrase again.

Nevermind the fact that the debate has seen the SPEAKER OF THE U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES calling PRIVATE CITIZENS “Un-American”, the author has to portray Kennedy’s party (and more importantly, the party of Obama) as being wronged. Reading on, that’s really what this article is about. Not memorializing the passing of a major (if controversial) figure in the U.S. Senate, but writing a dismal political piece about the health care bill, and more importantly, Barack Obama:

It is unclear whether the outpourings for Mr Kennedy, whose almost half-century tenure made him the third-longest-serving senator, will improve Mr Obama’s ability to sell healthcare reform to an increasingly sceptical public.

This article is the epitome of what modern ‘journalism’ has become. They have taken the death of an important American  — one that was a major ally of Mr. Obama — and cheapened it by making it a paltry article about current politics, mixed in a little bit of idol worship of President Obama, and topped it all off with a major distortion of facts intended as a cheap political hit on the President’s opponents. It’s really quite disgusting.

And they wonder why there is such dissatisfaction with the media in the country.

Rest in peace, Senator Kennedy. I can’t say I agreed with you most of the time, but you stood up for what you believed in. May we all find the courage to do the same.

My dad sent me a link to a very good political analysis of the current situation of the Obama administration. It certainly seems to ring true, and it explains exactly what Obama’s advisors don’t seem to understand — why everything seems to be coming apart for him right now.

This really doesn’t look very good.

Well, this is the third iteration of my blog. I started on Live Journal in 2002, mostly writing about life as I saw it (mostly being depressed and suchlike). I shifted to podpolia.com at the end of 2004, where I used simplog. After simplog was hacked once and then inundated by comment spam, and then the developers stopped supporting it, I finally decided to switch to something else. Thanks to the world’s greatest cousin, hiking partner, and tech guru, I’m now up and running in WordPress, and I’m working on setting things up. It may take a while, as it involves kerjiggling the whosamawhatsits some, and other random pokings and proddings, but it looks fairly straightforward.

Well, it’s finally happened. I’m getting spam about my blog. I got an email today inviting me to join a yahoo groups group. My ranking on The Truth Laid Bear is rocketing past being 18,000th! Unfortunately, it’s rocketing downward, much like many of the space program’s early rockets.
Not that I’m complaining. There are actually a few people out there that read the random crap I spew out once a day or so. As my crap spewing has been rather light of late, here’s some for today.
French teenagers have decided that taking your aggression out on murderous dictators is BAD, so it must be better to mug a much-beloved seasonal figure if he doesn’t give you enough candy. However, you could also be an American and simply shoot at the man with a pellet gun. At least we don’t use the real ones on unarmed civilians, so at the moment I believe we still have bragging rights.
Then again, we have to chain down the Son of God to keep him from being stolen. All over the country.
So we’re not up by much.

This blog is now defunct. However, for the two and a quarter people who read this, don't despair! I've simply moved it. My new website is http://www.podpolia.com. It's nothing particularly fancy yet, but I'm busy settling in. It includes more features and stuff than I have with livejournal. Also, I will be able to tell just how many people ACTUALLY visit it. Update your bookmarks, or make a bookmark incorrectly so you can update it! And then delete it, because you probably got here by accident and have no desire to ever see any more of this!

Interesting bit on the oath of office. Personally, I'd like to see George H. W. Bush swear in George W. Bush if Rehnquist can't do it, but that would probably cause quite an outcry from the people who insist the former is the only reason the latter has the job (despite complete lack of proof). Then again, he doesn't exactly have to run for reelection, does he?

More on the Oil for Bribes scandal.