] "It's extremely difficult to govern when you control all
] three branches of government," says [House Speaker, Denny]
] Hastert spokesman John Feehery...

[ Uh, what?

Maybe he means that it's difficult to spread the blame when you control all three branches of government?

Or, uh, It's difficult to govern when you control all three branches at a time when the populace is not happy with the overall state of the nation?

There's got to be *something* more to that quote... doesn't there? -k]

For Republicans, a House (And Senate) Divided (washingtonpost.com)

"Conservative institutions have been more dogged and focused in their approach than liberal ones." This is certainly so; greed and selfishness are great motivators.

The mistake of small and large "d" democrats was to think that society had gotten past them, and to stop fighting vigorously for such equally durable counter-ideas as fairness, justice, equality and reason.

Liberals don't suffer from a lack of ideas of how to change our nation for the better. But we have been losing ground because so many of us have chosen an approach that leaves us thinking "I need to convince my representative how important (name of political issue) is" instead of choosing to run for office ourselves.

You might call it The Petition Mentality.

Liberals Are Down but Not Out

] President Bush said on Wednesday he would not release
] strategic oil stocks to curb record gasoline prices while
] he was waging war on terror and accused Democrats of
] playing politics on energy.

[ No one else plays politics with energy, of course. 5 seconds later he started whining about his energy bill and about how drilling up the forests in alaska would make this problem go away. [short term short term short term thinking]. of course, saying, effectively, that gas prices are dems' fault for blocking the energy bill is totall fine. disagreeing is undermining the war on terror. -k]

Bush Invokes 'War on Terror' in Energy Debate

[ Sorry to link a PDF, and a poll at that, but some interesting things going on in here, particularly in the way that the independents are breaking.

All in all, bad news for Bush, relatively good news for Rumz, and conflicting views on the validity/worth of the sacifices made for Iraq (which shows, of course, how sensitive polls are to the exact wording of the question). -k]

CBS Poll == Iraq, Bush, & Prisoner abuse - iraq_0512.pdf

[Crossposting from the Supernicety :

Indeed, more proof that Shakespeare has already said pretty much everything that’s worth saying… Josh Marshall over at Talking Points Memo provides the following excerpt from Henry V in which the king, disguised, talks with two soldiers :

KING HENRY. I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him here alone, howsoever you speak this, to feel other men’s minds; methinks I could not die anywhere so contented as in the King’s company, his cause being just and his quarrel honorable.

MICHAEL WILLIAMS. That’s more than we know.

JOHN BATES. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough if we know we are the King’s subjects. If his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us.

MICHAEL WILLIAMS. But if his cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make when all those legs and arms and heads, chopp’d off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all ‘We died at such a place’ - some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of anything when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it; who to disobey were against all proportion of subjection.

…Act IV, Scene I

Our president wishes himself king, and wishes us to be Bates’ — unknowing, unquestioning followers of his cause, which he believes both just and honorable. The neocon movement, by denouncing all forms of dissent, subverting open discussion, wontonly tossing Coulterian charges of Treason at anyone who would challenge their King, would simultaneously have themselves absolved of whatever wrong may someday come to light. “Our obedience…wipes the crime of it out of us”, they’ll say, in so many words… “Who are we to question the King… he said there were Weapons of Mass Destruction and we obeyed his call to war!” At the same time, they deny that the King Himself should shoulder any guilt either, for he is the King, whom God alone may judge, not mere mortals, not his SUBJECTS, not us.

But we are not like Mr. Bates. We have more information and more freedom. We are *not* subjects, and we have the capacity, the right, and even the duty to challenge our leaders. Challenge them to justify their actions, so that we can be satisfied that their cause is just, their quarrel honorable, so that we can be sure that the crying dead have bought something of value with their lives. As such, we are all accountable as well. We owe no obedience to any King, and nothing but ignorance un-asked-for may absolve support for a dishonorable King.

The burden is heavy for all, and I’m not so unreasonable as to believe that President Bush doesn’t feel it as strongly as any. I believe he is genuine in his respect for the fallen. But his reckoning has not yet come. More and more we learn that the cause was misguided, mishandled and ill conceived… and the price grows ever higher. The King’s reckoning must come in November, when the people voice their disapproval and choose a new leader; one whose causes will be worthy of our support.

Just some thoughts I had while sitting idle this evening. -k]

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: May 02, 2004 - May 08, 2004 Archives

] The Bush administration is spending $18 million on a new
] round of taxpayer-funded television advertising to
] promote the Medicare discount drug card, the Medicare
] administrator said Tuesday.

So id this an $18 million dollar ad to try to get people to vote for the shrubbery or is it $18 million dollars that could be spent on something practical, like maybe a medicare system that doesn't suck?

And oh yeah... this is the benefit plan that it was said would "only" cost $400 billion, whenthey hid numbers saying $500+ billion, and it is only covering about 7 million out of 41 million people eligible?

Wait... does that mean if everyone signs up it costs $3 trillion???

[ As far as i can tell it means "fuck off, no coverage for you" for the vast majority of people.

400 billion, 500 billion, what's the difference? Dammit stop distracting us from the real issues. You're going to be gassed in your sleep by Osama if you question medicare. Why do you hate america so much?

Mars, bitches! -k]

Yahoo! News - White House Spends $18M on Medicare Ad

] "I saw some war heroes ... John Kerry is not a war hero,"
] said John O'Neill, a Houston lawyer who joined the Navy's
] Coastal Division 11 two months after the future senator
] left Vietnam. "He couldn't tie the shoes of some of the
] people in Coastal Division 11."

[ The repubs are trying to pull another Max Cleland on John Kerry. I wouldn't have predicted that it could work on Max, so I don't know if it'll work here, but it's amazing to me that that the GOP would want to bring military service into this debate at all... seems like a dangerous gamble. -k]

CNN.com - Fellow vet blasts Kerry's antiwar comments - Apr 21, 2004

] Tens of millions of Indians have voted in phase one of
] the country's first all-electronic election.
]
]
] Every vote in the world's largest democracy is being
] recorded at the press of a button.

[ This will definitely be something to watch. I want technical information about how these machines work... this page lacks such.

edit: this page has a little picture at least... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3493474.stm
these look decidedly low tech compared to the US systems. No touch screens and it appears only one race per device, which could be problematic in the US, where multiple offices are voted upon in the same day.
-k]

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | First stage of India polling ends

] "Maybe the law isn't about right or wrong. The concept
] that the government lied to the Supreme Court seemed to
] me a terrible thing to do. It appears that the justices
] were not as appalled as I was."

[ Quite an interesting story, though it's a bit wordy and somewhat less sophisticated than I'd expect, given the amount of research that obviously went into it's creation. I suggest reading quickly and turning off your grammar checking... the story itself is very much worthwhile. -k]

Yahoo! News - A Daughter Discovers What Really Happened

] IRS polls suggest that the share of Americans who think
] it is acceptable to cheat has risen from 11 percent in
] 1999 to 17 percent in 2003. At the same time, the IRS has
] been starved of the resources it needs to go after
] evaders.

[ This is nonetheless a serious problem that must be addressed. Certainly, making it easier to file taxes, such as with eFile and simplifying some regulations can go a long way towards increasing people's participation, but the apparent decline in people's willingness to pay their share is troubling.

The article suggests that part of the reason for this stems from our leaders demonizing taxation. To be honest, I can't disagree... for many people, the "taxes are bad" rhetoric sinks in to a subconcious level and they start feeling like it's ok for them to cheat. I don't think that's the whole story, certainly... few things have a single explanation.

At any rate, I'd like to see the administration come out on this issue, but taxes are such a political landmine, I imagine they'll let the IRS keep bitching and stay far away from it. -k]

Taxes and 'Terror' (washingtonpost.com)