Discussions of a Different Sort

“Armageddon is not exactly a foreign policy.”

–Madeline Albright on The Colbert Report.

I’ve been meaning to blog about one of my Senators for the past couple of days but my main squeeze stole Webb’s thunder for the time being. My Boyfriend, Karl Rove, was in rare form Wednesday night at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner.  Colin Mochrie and Brad Sherwood of Whose Line is it anyway, cajoled Rove up on stage where he told jokes and rapped (I’m not making this up).  He was asked by Mochrie and Sherwood what he likes to do in his spare time, “Tear the tops off of small animals,” and then was led by the two actors in a rap song where he played a rapper named, “MC Rove.” Apparently the video is must-see bordering on the cringe factor and outright hysterical.  I haven’t seen it yet, but click here to watch: 

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2007/03/rove_raps_at_radiotv_follies.html

Tom DeLay was interviewed last week on NPR.  I found the interview fascinating…in the way that watching an impending (or in his case past) train wreck fascinating.  I’m not going to editorialize on this…I think DeLay’s words more than speak for themselves.  This is an excerpt from the interview.  Check out the whole interview here: 

The K Street Strategy 

DeLay: For 40 years, if you were an organization or company who hired lobbyists, you wanted to hire people who had access to the people in power, so you hired Democrats. And K Street was overwhelmingly Democratic.

Inskeep: Every firm would have republicans though of course. 

DeLay: Yeah, but they were all tokens  and we started the effort to convince people that if you wanted to bring your petition to the government you should bring somebody that believes the same things  we do.   

Inskeep:You said you weren’t going to meet with a lot of democrats specifically.  

DeLay: I didn’t. I didn’t[meet with Democrats]  

Inskeep: You said go hire a Republican and send him to me.  

DeLay: Why would I meet with the enemy?  Why would I meet with somebody that wanted to make me the minority whip and keep me from being the majority whip? 

 Inskeep: Somebody might say because he’s an American with an interest?   DeLay: He’s not an American with my interest or the interest of the agenda we’re trying to promote  From his book:

One more thing: Because liberals and the press are influenced by socialism’s hatred of the private sector, they speak of business people and corporations like they are the evil empire. Not only is this a silly lie that defies history and reason, the vital truth is that a congressman is sworn to represent the people in private industry just as surely as he is public school teachers and policemen. Not only should we be thankful for what the private sector has accomplished in this country, we should start recognizing that those who work in that sector have a right to political representation also. A close look at their spending on political lobbying will reveal that they actually spend less than labor unions do to achieve their political goals. 

He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.

 —Nietzsche; Aphorism 146

The past couple of days the subject of my religious and scientific beliefs have simmered up to the surface.  I’ve never really had much of a quandry between the two, but every once in a while I think about what I believe when I read a discussion about it–a flip statement by a diehard Christian Conservative or an article like this.  While my beliefs about God and predestination are different than this gentleman, its still food for thought.

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The Handgun ban in DC has recently been overturned, and the law may make it up to the Supreme Court depending on the Appeals process. While the 2nd amendment crowd has been jumping cartwheels in the streets, NPR spoke with the DC Mayor about it.  Anyway, it made for a very interesting read.  Personally, I grew up in a “2nd amendment” household, have taken hunter safety and feel very comfortable about guns.  That being said, many arguments of the diehard 2nd amendment crowd doesn’t cut it with me.  When you use false correlations to prove a point, I don’t buy it.  The emotional rhetoric–falls on my deaf ears.  That being said, many of the arguments of the die-hard gun control crowd doesn’t cut it with me either.  Fenty comes off pretty weak in this.  So, like many topics; I end up in the middle.

The article is after the jump:

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India’s a lil’ dream of mine–so I’m stashing this article here (since the NY Times has that lame archive rule) for a rainy day.

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Newt–not only a possible Presidential Candidate, but also a self-help guru has the Five Reasons we should be helpful about the future.  It’s sweet really.   All I can say is whoever is running the blog failed how to set it up–which is sad really because it doesn’t take a genius to set up a proper wordpress blog.  You don’t need to know any html and yet they’ve failed miserably.  Oh well!  That doesn’t mean we should be depressed about the future!

Newt’s Five Reasons to be Hopeful about the Future

 Reason #1: Coming Explosion of Scientific Knowledge
In the next 25 years, there will be an explosion of scientific knowledge in the areas of health, energy, and the environment. We will be able to use that knowledge to combat disease, become energy independent, and work towards a better environment.

Reason No. 2: The Metrics of Accountability
Metrics are vital for measuring and comparing the results of an action. Rudy Giuliani used CompStats to develop metrics for his police force when he was mayor. This kept police officers accountable for their job and as a result has made New York City 75% safer than it was in 1993. Metrics can be used for education, health care, and the effectiveness of government, but only when those responsible are held accountable to that metric.

Reason No. 3: The Private Sector Revolution in Productivity and Quality
In the private sector, there is an ongoing revolution in quality and productivity. The government has not kept up with this and is stuck in a pre-information age landscape that is inconvenient and ineffective. If the government was able to take advantage of private sector improvements in productivity and use principles of outcome based metrics, the government will achieve real change. Not only that, but the costs of running government will substantially decrease.

Reason No. 4: The Entrepreneurial Courage of America
One of the greatest aspects of America is ability to allow entrepreneurs to take their ideas and succeed with them. Some of the hurdles to entrepreneurship is bureaucracy and unionization. There are many teachers out there who want to do more for their students but are restricted by bureaucratic red tape. At NASA there are engineers who want to be more active in space but are restricted by cold war era rules and regulations. By removing this red tape America will see a flurry of scientific activity and the flourishing of creativity that hasn’t been seen in a long time.

Reason No. 5: Citizens Out-Competing Bureaucracy
Today billions of dollars are spent on federal programs such as the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and NASA on trying to develop cutting edge technology through slow bureaucratic processes. This is highly ineffective. The X Prize for putting a vehicle into suborbital space is a perfect example of private sector creativity that pushed the limits of technology without spending tax payer dollars. Pushing government leaders to focus on prizes, metrics, and entrepreneurship, we would see humongous growth in productivity and effectiveness while cutting down the….

http://votenewt.net/?q=newts-five-reasons-be-hopeful-about-future 

Bush Phones Attorney General Gonzales to Reaffirm His Support

 What does this mean?  Well, if the past has taught us anything about President Bush giving his support to Administration Officials that are under fire……..Gonzales will be resigning by Friday (at the latest).  Personally, I think he’ll announce it Thursday afternoon or at latest Friday afternoon using the ”take out the trash” tactic.