Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The First Hundred Days...Who Cares?

Citizen K. will not participate in the ludicrous efforts to grade President Obama's first 100 days in office because he thinks such stuff is pointlessly arbitrary. The lone observation he will make is that the president has been effective in communicating to the public that our problems run too deep to be resolved during an arbitrary period of time...

Dan Balz of the Washington Post wonders whether Arlen Specter's defection will motivate Republican's to the honest introspection necessary to revive the party:
Specter's decision provides further evidence that the party is continuing to contract, especially outside the South. Northeastern Republicans have gone from an endangered species to nearly extinct. Obama's victory in Pennsylvania in November was due in part to a sizeable shift in party registration toward the Democrats. Republicans have lost ground in the Rocky Mountains and the Midwest in the past two elections. That is no way to build a national party.
Balz' observation is correct, if beside the point. His analysis casts the dying breed of big tent Republicans against those who see themselves as true conservatives and view Specter's departure as good riddance to bad rubbish. But the real issue is the dynamic underlying this looming civil war: The Republican party is in the grip of a coterie of whiny anti-intellectuals who blame their predicament on the lies of unscrupulous liberals as amplified by a compliant and biased mainstream media. This precludes introspection of any kind...

Just A Song: The Heptones' great reggae hit, "Book of Rules"...

Abita, I just drank a beer named Abita...I have it on trusted authority that the products of Abita, a new New Orleans microbrewery, are outstanding...

I recently discovered an excellent blog called Just my little piece of the world. It's author writes passionately and persuasively about torture and has an eagle eye for conservative hypocrisy. Check it out...

An Officer's Obligation: Say No To Torture. (Thanks to Just my little piece of the world for this link.)...

Jacoby Ellsbury's daring steal of home Sunday night prompted this look back on the practice by USA Today...

6 comments:

Ima Wizer said...

"The Republican party is in the grip of a coterie of whiny anti-intellectuals who blame their predicament on the lies of unscrupulous liberals as amplified by a compliant and biased mainstream media. "

Now THAT'S a sentence!

Foxessa said...

Alas, I hate to say this but Abeita, though local and acceptable, is not a great beer.

Czechs and Poles brew great beer. Their experience with growing hops and brewing are unparalleled anywhere.

Love, C.

Sylvia K said...

Great post, K! I'm with you, what is all the hoohah about the first 100 days! Are there those who actually think all the damage done to this country over the past 8 years is going to be healed, fixed -- whatever in 100 days??? I don't think so!

K. said...

Ima: We here at Citizen K. try!

Foxessa: Different strokes, I guess. My son -- who is a microbrew aficionado and who has brewed his own beer -- tells me that he likes styles by Abita that he normally doesn't like from any other brewer.

Sylvia: Hear, hear!

Frank Partisan said...

Spector is opposed to The Employee Free Choice Acr (EFCA). Hopefully labor will withold support for him.

K. said...

My hope is that he will back off of his opposition. He's an odd duck, though: He may have it in his mind that continued opposition to EFCA is necessary to maintain his independence. It wouldn't be the first time that an elected official's ego interfered with good policy.