As space cadets around the nation hoped, it now looks like China’s recent foray into the stars will draw dividends stateside…Apparently, Bush is about to announce a US return to the moon. “‘You’ve got the Chinese saying they’re interested — we don’t want them to beat us to the Moon. We want to be there to develop the sweet spots,’ Republican Senator Sam Brownback says.” Now here’s a Dubya campaign initiative I can get behind.
Category: GOP
Escape from New York.
While Dean and Clark parry for New York votes, Tom De Lay laments the loss of his GOP convention booze cruise. As of yesterday, “some Republicans in Washington who supported the cruise liner idea were still saying that it would not have taken much money away from the city and that perhaps there are some Republican members of Congress who want to take their families to the convention but do not want them to stay in Manhattan.” I see. So for the GOP, New York City is a great place to wave the bloody shirt, but God forbid they spend a night there.
Red and Swollen?
The NY Times surveys the demographic and electoral changes to the red state/blue state map going into 2004, and apparently Dubya states have picked up 7 electoral votes since the last go-around. Well, unless you’re going to presume that all the people that have moved to the red zone in the past four years vote Republican, I’m not sure this tells us all that much.
Botched Prescription?
In a boon for President Bush’s reelection chances, the GOP succeed in remaking Medicare. (At least the Dems can content themselves with defeating the energy bill.) To be honest, I haven’t been following this bill as closely as I should…I always get a bit annoyed when both parties prostrate themselves before the AARP, far and away the richest (and most likely to vote) portion of the electorate. In fact, the US spends 12 times more on its oldest, wealthiest citizens than it does on its children, even though kids are three times more likely to live below the poverty line. Hence, budget and deficit-busting prescription drug giveaways in the midst of child poverty…great investment.)
All that being said, Medicare is one of the foundations of the American social safety net, just as AFDC was until 1996, and as such this act is a biggie. Mickey Kaus of Slate seems to think the bill is actually good for Dems, while Urban Institute experts believe the back door to privatization is in fact only “window dressing.” But still, most Senators I trust came down against it (including John McCain, who railed against the giveaways to drug-makers in the bill.) And, while I still find it absurd that we’re giving prescription drug benefits to a select portion of the electorate before finding a way to insure every citizen, even paying lip service to the idea of privatizing Medicare does not seem a step in the right direction towards universal health care.
Finally, if this bill is so innocuous, why are the GOP so gung-ho for it? I hope it’s because they believe they wrested the Medicare issue away from the Democrats rather than due to any real movement towards privatization in the bill. Still, I fret. I mean, would you trust a prescription filled out by a cat-slaughterer?
Holy Matrimony, Unholy Wrath.
As the Religious Right preps for their coming crusade against sodomites and liberals, the NY Times examines the impact of yesterday’s landmark gay marriage decision in Massachusetts on the 2004 Presidential race. I dunno…I think the potential fallout for the left is being overstated. For one, it’s not as if jackasses like these are going to vote Democratic anyway. For another, if Tom DeLay succeeds in pushing a constitutional amendment on marriage to a vote, it will just redound negatively on Dubya and the GOP (as even the Weekly Standard realizes.) So by all means, let’s see the right-wing crazies get their dander up on this issue…the electorate will know where to stand after seeing ’em frothing at the mouth and threatening to encode their prejudices into the U.S. Constitution.
Of Soccer Moms and Nascar Dads,
Via Webgoddess, Mother Jones wonders why blue-collar Nascar Dads continue to stand with Dubya. (I think “Nascar Dad,” by the way, is a much better formulation of this demographic than confederate flag-thumping truck drivers.)
Electoral Moles.
Try your hand at Presidential Whack-a-Pol, via Slate. Alas, you can’t win a kewpie doll…only a Commander-in-Chief.
Head in the Sand.
Facing increasingly tough queries from the other side of the aisle, the White House announces it will no longer answer questions posed by Dems. Somebody should tell Dubya the “Nah! Nah! I can’t hear you!” defense timed out after grade school.
A House Divided?
In a series of state-of-the-election polls, the Washington Post finds the Dems split on tactics and the nation split on Dubya. Only one year to go until the big show, folks.
Don’t Know Much About History.
Sorry about the lack of updates since Sunday….As it happens, encroaching November has frightened me into working harder on my US history orals site. My note-taking is still two months or so behind my reading, but – in case you’re interested – I’ve recently put up notes and reviews on the following books:
| John Morton Blum, Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961-1974. William Leach, Land of Desire, Merchants, Power, and the Rise of a New American Culture. Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right. Rick Perlstein, Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus. Ellen Schrecker, Many are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America. Robert Schulzinger, A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941-1975. Robert Weisbrot, Freedom Bound: A History of America’s Civil Rights Movement. Gary Wills, Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home. |
Updates to the orals site should come relatively frequently for the next few months, so expect more to come.