tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-64558602011-12-14T18:38:14.931-08:00The Motor City Meets The Heart Of TexasDanielnoreply@blogger.comBlogger481100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1100848230569258652004-11-18T23:08:00.000-08:002004-11-18T23:10:30.570-08:00

Announcing the launch of my new and improved blog! http://www.sixdayslater.com/ I have already posted a new article up there: http://www.sixdayslater.com/index.php?page=Politics but it also will include much more than the usual political essays. Hope to see ya there! Thanks, -Dan

Danielnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1099956327114968022004-11-08T15:22:00.000-08:002004-11-08T15:38:10.273-08:00

Where does it leave us if it turns out Kerry wins Ohio after they’re done counting the votes? I have been thinking a lot about how to explain why deficits do matter ("Reagan proved that deficits don't matter" - VP Dick Cheney), and have whittled it down to the following three statements. 1. We cut taxes and then borrow the money back from the people we just gave it to - at interest. The

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1099636639072885842004-11-04T22:19:00.000-08:002004-11-04T22:58:46.970-08:00

Well, it’s over. Kerry conceded this morning, despite what appeared to be legitimate doubts about the outcome. Dubya has been re-elected. I think that’s fine. This is a president who entered the election with a less than 50% approval rating, usually a bad sign. And I suppose it was a bad sign - this election was as close as it gets. With 120 million folks voting, the election was decided by

Danielnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1099378960834117622004-11-01T22:49:00.000-08:002004-11-01T23:02:40.833-08:00

Okay, kids, this is it. It is 12:49 AM. Tomorrow will be the most significant election in the last quarter century, if not longer. Taking everything into account, from the pundits to the polls to the professor-types doing their statistical thing, it appears that Kerry is a virtual lock. But it also looks to be a sure thing that at least two or three states will be close enough to warrant court

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1099290290025424792004-10-31T22:03:00.000-08:002004-10-31T22:24:50.026-08:00

Seven signs that Election 2004 will be a disaster, ranking it among the most significant in our history: The turnout. Regardless of the outcome, if, as it now appears, this election sees a turnout some 10-20% greater than the last one, it will mark a watershed moment in election history: a dramatic reversal of the apathy and steadily dwindling voter turnout that characterized past elections.The

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1098412911695029972004-10-21T19:13:00.000-07:002004-10-21T19:41:51.696-07:00

I am generally a sports fan. But there are some sports, nonetheless, that I don't particularly enjoy. Car racing and bowling, for example. But I hate baseball. Like all hate, this one is a perverse remnant of what was once a great love. And I did love baseball, once upon time. I used to daydream incessantly that I was a famous baseball player making a run at Babe Ruth's record or hitting a

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1098411074044997032004-10-21T18:55:00.000-07:002004-10-21T19:11:14.046-07:00

George Will is at it again with another interesting, if typically annoying, column contemplating the effect that the Supreme Court's 2000 decision to halt the recount could have on this year's election. I have come to believe that the Supreme Court intervened in 2000 not because they were trying to do the Bush family a favor but because the alternative was too risky. Imagine if the recount had

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1098054925437329662004-10-17T15:29:00.000-07:002004-10-17T16:15:25.436-07:00

W's record as president is so bad that it is confounding to hear people ardently defend his presidency. And disappointing. You have to go back some ways before you can find an election where one side felt so strongly about the other. Well, except for Bill Clinton, who inspired similar enmity. But, for the most part, it wasn't really that awful if the other side won. It wasn't great, but it

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1097464801342359202004-10-10T19:30:00.000-07:002004-10-10T20:25:16.806-07:00

Well, it's been over a month since I last posted. I've been pretty busy and am also planning to relaunch the blog with a more attractive layout and more interactive features. Anyway, a few thoughts on the upcoming elections. My insider sources on the Hill are very optimistic about the possibility of a Kerry landslide. Not just a victory. Sound crazy? It would seem so, given that the latest

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1094093912636701192004-09-01T19:39:00.000-07:002004-09-01T19:58:59.163-07:00

I think one of the biggest problems the Dems face right now in unseating Bush is that the GOP message is crystal clear and relentless: a Christian nation at war, led by a folksy but tough man of faith. End of story. Meanwhile, the Dems seems endlessly baffled by Rove's pit-bull imitation. What if Rove were working for Kerry? How would that change things? How would the message change? Here's my

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1093106268771620252004-08-21T08:58:00.000-07:002004-08-21T09:38:59.366-07:00

Hey kids! Sorry for the long absence. I've been doing a lot of traveling lately and am having to adjust to a new routine. Anyway, I expect to be back in this space on my regular schedule again - not that I really know what the schedule is, but hey, life is a mystery. Okay. On to the "mailbag." My friend V. asks me if I think that Will's column is more a question of him shilling for the moderate

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1091528050843211842004-08-03T01:59:00.000-07:002004-08-03T03:34:58.963-07:00

Cormac McCarthy fans, prepare to be offended. Here's the thing: if you write a book that is virtually incomprehensible to 99% of your contemporaries, doesn't that make you a lousy writer? Critics love books like this, and so they go down as classics, and their writers become legends. James Joyce accomplished this with Ulyesses. Cormac McCarthy accomplished this with Blood Meridian. That's just

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1091322084313397342004-07-31T17:33:00.000-07:002004-07-31T18:01:24.313-07:00

I have decided to make my blog even more appetizing than ever by adding movie and art reviews. So, appropriately enough, I will start by reviewing a mediocre comedy. Will Ferrell is a funny man. He reminds of Bill Murray, in the sense that he doesn't really have to do anything to be funny. He can just stand there and smirk and it's already funny. So you can't really lose with a Will Ferrel

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1091134842827340952004-07-29T13:16:00.000-07:002004-07-31T17:32:48.736-07:00

George Will made the point in his WaPo column yesterday that Kerry isn't so different from Bush, and, moreover, the GOP and the Dems aren't so different either. This is exactly what the Greens and Naderites having been saying; and to a great extent Howard Dean's meteoric rise (and fall) were due to his passionately stated belief that the Dems had drifted too far right. But it is interesting to

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1091032969120163402004-07-28T09:24:00.001-07:002004-07-28T09:45:30.186-07:00

Thanks to the WaPo and kottke.org: The Executive Summary as an HTML document The full PDF report, with an HTML index The recommendations in a nutshell are to hunt down Al Quaeda, run a charm offensive in the Middle East, and invest in domestic security infrastructure, such as a universal biometric screening system, national ID system, etc. A notable paragraph to me, because it

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1090945818996771452004-07-27T08:39:00.000-07:002004-07-27T09:30:18.996-07:00

Bushies rather ironically, if predictably, slam Kerry as being a flip-flopper. The biggest flip-flop I think I've ever seen came from Bush, who famously poked fun at Gore for engaging in "nation building." Of course, today Bush is entangled in the biggest nation-building exercise since the end of World War II when we remade Japan in a friendlier cast. The funny thing is that I thought Bush was

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1090941146400229142004-07-27T07:56:00.000-07:002004-07-27T08:16:45.876-07:00

Kerry doesn't seem to be getting much of a bounce from the convention. I haven't been watching - are you kidding? - but I am still getting sick from the second-hand smoke. Lots of Bush bashing and then Clinton comes on and reminds everyone how boring Kerry really is. Meanwhile, Bush has quietly turned the 9/11 Commission report into an advantage, boldly resolving to put its recommendations

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1090604266124077712004-07-23T09:13:00.000-07:002004-07-23T10:49:55.170-07:00

The Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) has been going around suing people using file-sharing programs like Kazaa, Gnutella, etc. for violating music copyright. The courts have been largely receptive to their arguments. These amount to saying that copying a file from a network is no different than shoplifting a CD from a music store. Further, they want to include anybody who

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1089704099350035202004-07-12T23:30:00.000-07:002004-07-13T00:34:59.350-07:00

One of the things that critics of the Bush Administration are often accused of is negativity. While they (we) are obviously against the current President's foreign policy, they (we) don't seem to offer a coherent alternative. There is some truth to this, although part of the problem is that they (we) might well ask, "Alternative to what, exactly?" In other words, the current policy seems

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1089103814482399372004-07-06T01:16:00.000-07:002004-07-06T01:55:30.413-07:00

It’s a Crusade, capital ‘C’, thank you very much. I’m talking about the Bush Doctrine, but I could be talking about any one of the divisive issues that face Americans today: abortion, gay marriange, or school finance. It always comes back to religion. Zeroing in on the Bush Doctrine … first of all, that’s a generous name to put on it, seeing as how it has been conjured up after the fact, and

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1089101641267610962004-07-06T01:12:00.000-07:002004-07-06T01:14:01.326-07:00

I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say I have been very busy, which, financially speaking, is a Good Thing. But Blogwise, obviously not so much. Bear with me. I have lots of good stuff coming. Really. No, I mean it this time. Seriously.

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1085955931884459332004-05-30T15:04:00.000-07:002004-05-30T15:34:39.816-07:00

Stray thought #1: What if beauty is a product of evolution? I have often wondered why we perceive things the way we do. Computers, no matter how sophisticated we make them, don't actually "experience" things. They might seem very intelligent and even talk to us. They might say, "The sky is blue." But they would only say that because some sensor made a measurement which turned out to be within

Danielnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1085954674573564252004-05-30T15:02:00.000-07:002004-05-30T15:04:34.573-07:00

One of my readers actually complained that I was not posting enough! This is the first time that's happened, so I am marking today as a milestone. To those of you who might agree (that I'm not posting enough), all I can say is that do plan to pick up the pace. I have lots of material, so don't go away!

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1085347395650569072004-05-23T14:20:00.000-07:002004-05-23T14:28:11.486-07:00

I read Breakfast of Champions as a teenager and thought Vonnegut was a genius. Of course, what did I know, I was just a kid? But here is a little something that might restore your faith in one of America's oldest living masters. A rambling, fatalistic (well, it is Vonnegut after all), and uniquely compelling look at the War In Iraq, and who we are as Americans. A quick quote, if you're not

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1085152915829300272004-05-21T07:50:00.000-07:002004-05-21T09:21:18.073-07:00

I find it remarkable that so many of us are willing to give up our freedoms to fight terrorism. The most egregious example of this is the ironically named PATRIOT Act, which makes it possible for the government to fight its citizens. But the latest is the serious talk of reinstating the draft. Where did we lose the idea that freedom is the very thing we are fighting for in the first place? It's

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1083473857484474822004-05-01T21:57:00.000-07:002004-05-01T22:07:43.153-07:00

The Onion strikes again. An open letter from National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. "There was no way the federal government could have prevented the horrific events of Sept. 11 without accruing an enormous amount of overtime."

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1083473157946672772004-05-01T21:45:00.000-07:002004-05-01T21:58:59.843-07:00

Ralph "Don't Call Me Beautiful" Nader has announced, to the exasperated dismay of moderate Democrats, that he is again running for president, virtually assuring Dubya of another four years in the White House. And that is exactly what he should be doing. The fact that Nader feels compelled to run, and that millions of angry Democrats and independents are willing to vote for him, is a clear

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1082191066697053262004-04-17T01:37:00.000-07:002004-04-17T02:23:50.950-07:00

Conservatives want badly to believe that Bush, is ultimately leading America down a path where fundamentalist Islam is displaced by democracy. Lying is a career skill for politicians, partly habitual and partly consciously manipulative. Politics on the national stages is about the big leagues of lying. And I am not at all sure that is a bad thing. Abe Lincoln, for example, lied quite often about

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1082000850185680722004-04-14T20:47:00.000-07:002004-04-17T01:50:33.216-07:00

My original post on this topic gave the nod to Kerry in an extremely tight race because of the economy. However, since then Nader has entered the race, Kerry has failed to maintain the aggressive stance he was forced to adopt to defeat Dean, and the economy appears to be ticking back up. Bush has been weathering a storm on both the Iraq situation and 9/11, and his credibility has definitely

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1082000102342460702004-04-14T20:35:00.000-07:002004-04-14T20:56:31.390-07:00

According to the Washington Post, there was a series of memos similar in nature to the August 6th PDB. The Bushies continue to blame the FBI and, to a lesser extent, the CIA. And, of course, there was Dubya's blunder during his news conference last night, where he froze up when asked to identify his foreign policy mistakes. The bottom line, however, is that the blame game regarding 9/11 is a

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081985483424371962004-04-14T16:31:00.000-07:002004-04-14T16:35:20.170-07:00

The latest just in from The Onion.

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081985187599178062004-04-14T16:26:00.000-07:002004-04-14T16:30:24.403-07:00

Click here for the full story from Borowitz.

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081705017523650392004-04-11T10:36:00.000-07:002004-04-11T10:52:29.576-07:00

PUNDITS Initial reaction to the declassification of the August 6 PDB by Big Media is disinterest, although it may that it's too early to call. What commentary I've seen has been qualified with the disclaimers of the "not sure we could have done anything differently" variety. The President himself issued a statement to the effect that he saw the memo as more or less a status report, which jives

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081667554476566622004-04-11T00:12:00.000-07:002004-04-11T09:28:36.746-07:00

Click here to view the Hart/Rudman report that warned of the possibility of a terrorist attack on the "homeland". The report's number one conclusion: America will become increasingly vulnerable to hostile attack on our homeland, and our military superiority will not entirely protect us ... Americans will like die on American soil, possibly in large numbers. This document has been cited a

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081666372948480772004-04-10T23:52:00.000-07:002004-04-11T09:28:48.436-07:00

The full text of the memo: Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America." After US

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081570451687700222004-04-09T21:14:00.000-07:002004-04-09T21:21:09.873-07:00

No sooner do I declare the debate surround 9/11 a moot point than emerges a potentially devastating piece of evidence incriminating the Bushies of negligence. The August 6th Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB), which has long been rumored to contain specific warnings about a planned Al Quaida hijacking, and which surfaced ominously during former Sen. Bob Kerrey's questioning of Condi on Thursday,

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081567881258807242004-04-09T20:31:00.000-07:002004-04-09T20:35:35.966-07:00

I noted in a prior post the irony of one of having the student newspaper from one of America's most stridently Baptist universities endorsing gay marriage. Well, sure enough, the Baylor University President cracked down on the intrepid would-be journalists, suggesting that the paper adopt a creed probiting "the advocacy of any understandings of sexuality that are contrary to biblical teaching."

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081567354161420882004-04-09T20:22:00.000-07:002004-04-09T20:38:18.013-07:00

There was once a neat Internet startup with a whimsical name that made it possible to search the then-still-emerging World Wide Web. They became wildly popular, particularly with geeks, who loved them because of their seemingly altruistic mission to make the Web a better place. But as time passed, the apparent altruism that had fueled their phenomenal growth gave way to ... well, an obsession

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1081097257131141892004-04-04T09:47:00.000-07:002004-04-04T09:53:44.046-07:00

IN A SENSE I am surprised by the Bushies efforts to impugn Richard Clarke's character. They appeared to panic in the face of his allegations that the Bush Administration had failed to effectively combat terrorist threats, popping up on talk shows like spring daisies, making incredible statements, such as suggesting that Clarke was "out of the loop" or "disgruntled" or just out to make a quick

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1079866064079947712004-03-21T02:47:00.000-08:002004-03-27T17:57:46.293-08:00

What follows is an early and unfinished draft about economic policy. I know, I know, yawn away. But what I am trying to get to here is to make such discussions - which happen to be critical to our future - a bit more palatable. I am among those who can't ever seem to get straight why it is that low unemployment is inflationary or higher interest rates is deflationary, etc., etc. I have come to

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1079218982535856512004-03-13T15:03:00.000-08:002004-03-13T15:09:09.250-08:00

In one of my little strategems to "bootstrap" my readership, I have been placing topical ads on Google with headlines like "Will Kerry Beat Bush?" That was going along fine for a couple of weeks, until I got a polite little notice via email from the support team at a Google telling me that my site did not meet their content guidelines for advertisers. Specifically, my content spoke "specifically

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1079207587443440872004-03-13T11:53:00.000-08:002004-03-13T12:11:29.593-08:00

As I've gotten a clearer picture of what I am writing about and why, I felt it was important to share that with my readers. What follows, therefore, is a revised version of the About This Blog post. The blogsphere is truly a wacky and wonderful world. One of the great things about it is simply that there are so many blogs whose sole purpose is to allow people to express themselves. The imposing

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1078473747242039442004-03-05T00:02:00.000-08:002004-03-11T07:48:15.860-08:00

Almost everybody is down on our public schools. Parents hear all the time about how bad they are, and, reasonably enough, they fret that their kids aren't getting the best possible education. That is, if they even have them in public schools at all. Politicians prey upon these fears to win votes while for Big Media they make good news fodder on a slow day. A host of initiatives have been trotted

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1078126212692100382004-02-29T23:30:00.000-08:002004-03-02T07:31:54.186-08:00

Adapted from a Letter to the Editor of our local Austin Chronicle ... I will be expanding further on this theme later, in conjunction with some analysis of our public education system. I keep hearing that in this age of discount bookstores and Web surfing, the library is no longer as relevant. The reality, however, is that it is even more relevant than ever: the digital divide is as real as the

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1078125626922173112004-02-29T23:20:00.000-08:002004-02-29T23:54:57.280-08:00

How's this for evidence that the "center" has truly drifted pretty far to the right? Even the student newspaper for a conservative Baptist university can accept the idea of gay marriage. The editorial board of the Baylor Lariat voted 5-2 on Friday in favor of gay marriage, with this refreshingly straightforward common-sense reasoning: Just as it isn't fair to discriminate against someone for

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1078122970969601602004-02-29T22:36:00.000-08:002004-02-29T22:39:06.263-08:00

Surely you've wondered how it was that Mario found himself battling the legions of evil to save the princess in the first place? Now, at last, the story is being told, thanks to one Alexander Leon, who has put together this three part epic (with part IV apparently due soon). Thanks to the folks at Boing Boing for bringing this wondeful thing to our attention. Part I, Part II, Part III.

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1077731487010668182004-02-25T09:51:00.000-08:002004-02-25T14:54:52.826-08:00

John Kerry won three more primaries yesterday and polls show him holding absolutely staggering leads in both New York and California. It's as though the entire Democratic party has ADD: like, just get it over with already. Now everybody can get back to focusing on their favorite reality TV show, and then, after that, the November elections for president, which is kinda like the opposite of

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6455860.post-1076372335865457382004-02-18T16:18:00.000-08:002004-02-19T22:11:22.903-08:00

You can talk about the scream. You can talk about Vietnam. You can talk about electability. But that ain't it. Howard Dean is too short. His suits are from JC Penny. And his wife stays home while he's out campaigning. Oh, yeah. And there's that whole "ripping the Democratic party a new asshole" thing. And that's why John Kerry is going to be the Democratic nominee. So, That Means, Uh ...

Danielnoreply@blogger.com0