In a post from the blog The Carpetbagger, Steve Benen talks about a ‘third term’ for Karl Rove. He documents cases where the media has embraced a style of Rovian politics.

A Rovian style of politics is geared towards eliminating the substance, which is just the way major news outlets like it. The feeding frenzy is easier than actual journalism anyway.

Recently, When Wesley Clark went after McCain’s military service as a qualification to be President, the media went after Clark, instead of going after McCain. What was the real story? I say it was weather or not John McCain’s military experience really makes him more qualified to be president.

I call this style of politics not ‘Rovian” but “Orwellian”. Rove was quoted in the book “Bush’s Brain”:

“When we act, we create our own reality. While your studying that one, we’ll act again, creating other new realities.”

Rovian can be called Orwellian because it employs George Orwell’s principle of Newspeak.

The basic idea behind Newspeak is to remove all shades of meaning from language, leaving simple dichotomies which reinforce the total dominance of the State.

The substance of Wesley Clark’s comments are now gone, McCain evades serious questions as to his credibility. Problem solved again.

Technorati Tags: Clarke, Election 2008, George Orwell, Karl Rove, McCain, Obama

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Update: Three hostages have arrived home in the United States.

15 hostages detained by FARC for six years in Columbia were freed today. The operation to free them was seemingly brilliant. It’s re-assuring to know that some good things still happen in this world. With so many news stories bringing us all unpleasent news, this is most certainly a relief. Who would have thought that from a country with such a bad reputation, something to good could happen.

What is really interesting, is that the article talks about how Betancourt said a prayer that morning, then she was notified that she was so be set free shortly thereafter. Kind of makes you wonder.

Technorati Tags: Betancourt, Columbia, Hostages, World News

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Though I am not officially a member of the Episcopal Church, I have while living down here in Baltimore been attending it. This past Saturday was a joyous occasion for the Maryland Diocese with the official consecration and ordination of the new Bishop, Rev. Canon Eugene Sutton. It was joyous as we ordained the first African American bishop for the Maryland Diocese, also it was a time to celebrate the now bright future for the church in this state. As many of you know the Episcopal Church is a very traditional denomination, worship wise. While they do incorporate new ideas for worship, the style is very true to its liturgical roots. The denomination however has become very well known in the recent times for being progressive in its beliefs, mainly pertaining to the stance the church has taken towards the involvement of homosexuals in the faith. [Read more →]

Technorati Tags: Baltimore, Episcopal Church, Gay Marriage

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In December of 2007 the Bush Administration recieved a new N.I.E or National Intellgience Estimate. This document stated that Iran had halted it’s nuclear weapons program.

See: December 2007 NIE look under “Key Judgements”

Now word has gotten out in an article in the New Yorker that the Bush Administration is “stepping up” its moves against the country of Iran and it’s current regieme. See The Article.

It seems that the Bush Administration despite having engaged our military forces in two unsuccessful and unproductive operations in two Middle Eastern countries, will not rest until it causes chaos in Iran as well. Doesn’t this disturb anyone else besides me? Our forces are spread very thin, taking military action against Iran would be suicideal at best! We would have the United Nations, NATO and every other civilized nation screaming at us! The NIE said that Iran wouldn’t be able to produce enough Uranium to make a weapon until at least 2010. That leaves plenty of time to explore other options to solve the “problem”.

Technorati Tags: Iran

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CNN Article

Perhaps he is vying for a VP position? Well Duh! Of course he is. He is also the perfect person to go after McCain in these areas. He has the military experience as well as the political clout to make his words known to a wide audience.

There have been calls from the McCain side of the fence Obama to condemn the comments. Seems like wishful thinking from the McCain camp. I do not see the need for him to condemn anything! I will leave you all with this:

John McCain served his country. He was captured and taken prisoner. That was very brave and honorable. How does flying a plane and getting shot down make you qualified to be the President of the United States? It just makes you a bad pilot, that’s all.

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I can see both sides of the issue here. Sen. Obama has set records raising money during the primary season. He did this with small donations. It stands to reason that during the general election with new supporters being drawn into the fold, he stands to raise and outstanding amount of money! However, he is the first candidate to refuse public money since 1975. That in and of itself is tolerable in my mind simply because Sen. Obama has been the candidate to “break the mold” since the beginning.

However, I feel that the reasoning that he gives for his refusal is a bit convoluted. I think that Sen. Obama filp-flopped here and he will get caught red-handed. The underlying question becomes: Does the money gained by this decision outweigh the loss due to the flip-flop? I say yes, the potential money to be gained here far outweighs all else. What do you think?

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Bet you never thought a dinosaur skeleton, popcorn, and steak would ever have anything in common? I know I sure didn’t. But to anyone that has followed the flooding in Iowa now knows they have a good deal in common. The common thread they all share, not being seen around the average house anymore.

With the Iowa flood waters came the rise in price of corn. The crop is now being charted at a record high of eight dollars a bushel. Some market insiders do not expect the price to just sit at eight dollars. They now project that before the end of summer we could see prices upward of seventeen dollars a bushel! That’s bad news for all you corn lovers out there.

But corn will not be the only thing to suffer, remember anything that has anything to do with corn will go up in price. Milk, steak, and fuel just to mention a few things that could and more than likely will be affected by the flooding. If there are a few of you out there scratching your heads as to what corn has to do with milk or fuel you’re not alone. A vast majority of all the corn grown is fed to live stock which produces or becomes what you and I sit down at our tables to eat. It then becomes clear that if farmers have to pay more for the corn then that cost is put right on our plate as consumers right next to that steak. That only leaves fuel and we all get screwed onthis one no matter if your car uses ethanol or not. You will feel the pain. In ever y gallon of gas you pump there is a percentage of ethanol which is a fuel additive made from corn. So no matter if you use 100% gas or you use E-85 ethanol your price is going up.

It has never been clearer that we as a people need to diversify our energy sources. As we are currently seeing, one problem can be set us back very easily. That is why the only real option on the table is a blending of solutions. In a way we need to put as many eggs in as many baskets as possible, so if one is knocked over set back or just plain destroyed as in the case of the corn in Iowa we have other places to turn and prices can stay about the same as they were before. That needs to be a focus for our country, not only finding new power but preserving what we have. Are we as safe energy and food wise as we all think? Just ask yourself that the next time you pick your kid up from soccer practice in that SUV or when you’re looking at prime cuts of meat at the store. Till then pass the fish and green beans, I am eating cheap and saving up for the pump.

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Hi all, well this will probably be a very brief post, cause well this boy has to get up early and face the Baltimore rush hour to go to work. So my thoughts on some reason events that, well, appeal to my lifestyle. The California marriage situation. My opinion, THANK GOD ALMIGHTY!  In a nation that prides itself on providing equality for all of her citizens, we have for long enough been denied the equal right to marriage. I understand there is this battle over the definition of marriage. We constantly have the “Man and Woman” mantra shoved down our throats. If marriage is a legal concept, then why do the right wing evangelicals, who dare to call themselves Christian, have the right to change the laws? I think too long we have been show bigotry because people fail to understand homosexuality. Hetero’s seem to be under the assumption that being gay was a choice, just like being straight is. How would they know? How can they tell me about what’s right when they don’t know the facts. They constantly throw scriptures out at us to try to scare us into thinking that we are some kind of mistake. That God would never create something “abnormal” and that it is a sin. Ok I’m going to step off the religious soap box right now, that can be a different topic altogether. Anyway if this makes little to know sense I do apologize as it is now my bedtime.

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Today was the day when Al Gore finally threw the full weight of his support behind Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama. But how much weight does Al Gore really have to throw? I would say that the endorsements from both Obama and Edwards are pretty much par for the course. They keep the Obama campaign on track. The endorsements most likely do not come as any surprise to the Obama campaign.

It seems to me that the campaign needs to keep the big “M” going. The “momentum” that they gained from Obama becoming the nominee was reinforced by these two endorsements. Many people say that Gore should have done this during the Obama primary campaign. What good would it have served in the overall goal of getting rid of GWB? The endorsement coming at this point does much toward continuing the momentum of the Obama campaign and uniting the Democratic party.

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The Washington Post published an article about cyber crime occurring on government computers. Representative Frank Wolf from Virginia reports that several of the machines in his office were hacked into from a computer located somewhere in China. He introduced a resolution which called for congressional hearings and more training sessions to educate government officials about the threat of cyber-crime, especially from foreign governments.

I feel that this is an excellent idea. The Center on Congress at Indiana University states that the average age of a United States Representative is 57 years and the average age of a United States Senator is 61 years old. These are no spring chickens here, folks. These people were in high school in the 1960’s and 1970’s. They did not grow up in the computer age. I know many people around this age right now who can barely turn on a PC, let alone protect themselves from cyber crime. My mother is in her late 40’s and she calls me once a week with computer problems. She can barely open a webpage.

My point is this, if my parents can barely use a computer, then our elected officials should be expected to at least be able to complete the basic everyday tasks on a computer. But to expect them to grasp the concept and implementation of computer security without some sort of in depth training is simply ludicrous! Training would be a potential solution. However, shouldn’t our all high and mighty government take care of it’s own computers and let the lawmakers do their jobs? Isn’t there a branch of our government assigned this task? I certainly hope so.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/11/AR2008061102790.html?nav=rss_metro

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