Greetings again loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is going to, in true blog fashion, just do some comments on different stories around the net.
I am very disappointed in reading this story about how Germans are nostalgic for the old Communist DDR. I am especially distressed by the quotations from Katarina Witt. I would have hoped that after so many years in the west she would have come around to see the oppresive nature of the DDR. But, since she was one of their shining stars, and she was not hounded by the secret police, and she was the receipient of the full benefits of being a good little member of the party; I can see why her memories of the DDR are “good.” However, were I one of her corporate sponsors, I would be a bit distressed that she is still a communist.
I forget how I navigated over to his site, but I started to read Daniel Drezner’s site today. I really like what I read. So much I added him to my links.
As I do every day, I went over to the Poet Laureate’s site and read his bloggings of the day. I know he doesn’t like to engage in cross-blog debates or discussions, but I will at least as this. Why does the strong debate on a liberal leaning blog site surprise him? Politics summons up the blood and causes people to siffen the sinews. He notes that reading this was very eye opening. I would like to know in what way it opened his eyes. Neither of the US political parties are particularly monolithic in terms of ideology. Democrats and Republicans run the gamut of political views. It is my firm belief that people choose their political affiliation (if they choose one at all) mainly on the basis of which party matches more of their beliefs than the other. I think news reporting tends to show more internal fighting of the Republicans. But, thanks to the blogosphere we now see these debates happen all over the political spectrum.
I read Steven Den Beste’s blog very frequently. I appreciate his thoughtfulness and thoroughness when writing. And his most recent post about the State Department is a very good one overall. But I suppose I am going to engage in some quibbling with a little bit of what he writes. He writes:
The permanent bureaucracy is supposed to work for elected officials, who in turn work for the people of the nation. In our sysem, the government leads us and serves us, but does not rule us. It is supposed to be reactive to our will.
I suppose I will engage in some semantic argument here. (Even when I was dismissive towards changing semantics in my big post on homosexual marriage.) I think we elect government officials to rule us - until the next election. Then we decide to switch rulers, or retain the ones we have. We, as a people in the US, do not exercise direct control over our government on a daily basis. (Unless you live in California, then you get to recall your governors and replace them.) We elect people to rule over us. I feel a little churlish taking issue with one phrase in an otherwise outstanding post. Read it.
Speaking of the California recall… I watched some of the debate between the major non-Ah-nold candidates. It was really interesting to watch. I came away with a very favorable opinion of Tom McClintock. He was strong, direct, and didn’t pander. I was, as much as I hate to admit it, impressed with Arianna Huffington’s fiestyness. I also liked the way she really strong-armed Cruz Bustamante. She went after him on everything. And, as I was watching I thought to myself, “Cruz must be very unhappy that Ah-nold isn’t there. If Ah-nold was there, Arianna would be going after him with a vengance.” Then, this morning I either read (or heard on TV) Tim Russert saying that Arianna might be inadvertently helping Ah-nold by attacking Bustamante. If she could cause some of his support to go to her or to the Green Party - Ar-nold could become the front-runner again. Interesting.
More on the recall… If you haven’t read Arnold Steinberg’s article on NRO about Governor Davis and how he might survive the recall. The candidates have to make sure they campaign against Davis just as much as they do against each other. That isn’t going to be easy.
Well, enough blogging. I now go to sit in front of my widescreen TV and watch the NFL.
Carry on.
