Iran never disappoints.
But then reality set in and I realized that if I were to get swept away into the pounding surf of the Caspian, no one would ever know what happened to me -- let alone be able to e-mail my family -- and so I went back into the hotel.
Forget about the politics of Bush and Ahmadinejad and everything you've ever heard about Iran on Fox News. This country is amazing. You just GOTTA come here. I gotta join the Iran Chamber of Commerce! I gotta write a book about this place.
****
Words of wisdom from Woody Smith regarding the Dems' tendancy to be too merciful with neo-con Republicans:
Whatever are we to do about Joe the Turncoat? Joe Lieberman had a meeting yesterday with Harry Reid. Reports say that Reid wants to strip Lieberman of his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, but Lieberman says that this is unacceptable.
Well, TOUGH NOOGIES, Joe. I really don't think that we should allow Lieberman to dictate terms here. The guy's a turncoat. So he joins the Republican caucus. Let him go, and then maybe we can then defeat him in 2012 when he runs as a Republican. We aren't going to get our party-line filibuster-proof majority anyway, so let's stop him from pretending to be a Democrat when he stands for reelection.
This guy shouldn't be chairman of anything. Joe Lieberman has stabbed us in the back, and now he wants his knife back. Screw him. I only wish that the Governor of Connecticut were a Democrat (she's not), and then we could maybe even vote to oust him from the Senate.
We've got to make it perfectly clear: What he did was an absolute and deliberate affront to our party, and an unforgivable abomination. He must be slapped down as hard as we can, and if it costs us a head in our caucus, well, so be it.
Whatever are we to do about the Republican rump?
Republicans are all running around these days wringing their hands, bemoaning the evils of partisanship. They are talking about how this is a "center-right" nation and that they should therefore be permitted to remain as perhaps the most influential force guiding the hand of the new administration. They are warning us that if we try to implement a liberal agenda, they will smite us mightily.
What a load! First off, how can the center possibly be located to the right of center? I know geometry and politics, and this is genuinely nonsensical in either field. From what I can discern from the outcome of the vote, however, after the kind of election that was run and the positions espoused by both the winning and losing campaigns, it seems as we have moved the "center" considerably leftward, toward enhanced social programs and social justice, sensible income redistribution, much heavier-handed regulation of the business community, greater protectionism, and diplomatic rather than military solutions to international conflicts. We as a people are tired of the rich eating all of our lunches and sending us to wars without end.
For another thing, they will try as hard as they can to bring us down whatever course we chart, and however foolishly we may try to accommodate their wishes. When have the Republicans EVER done otherwise? It's just what they do. It's pointless to try to make them like us or even work with us. They are treacherous. The meetings they've been having have nothing whatsoever to do with any "soul searching," as the press has reported, but instead have been to plot a strategy to obstruct any progressive programs and try to bring down Barack Obama like they tried to bring down Bill Clinton. Any compromise or conciliatory gestures we might offer will only be used against us to the maximum extent they can figure out how to do. Whenever we give them an inch, they will grasp for a mile. Whenever we offer them a bone, they will take it and try to strike us about the head and body with it.
Look at how they have reacted to the appointment of Rahm Emanuel as Obama's Chief of Staff. Somebody needs to inform John Boehner about the actual meaning of the word "ironic." It is quite ironic that he would complain about the appointment of a partisan to this post, as archly partisan as he has always been and has always advocated for his own party.
The first move I would suggest in the Senate is to restore the OLD filibuster rule, the one where you actually had to hold the floor by making uninterrupted speeches in order to mount a filibuster. Under the current 60-vote rule, we could never have passed the voting rights and civil rights legislation of the 1960s, and Medicare would never have become law. This country needs changes now that render the current filibuster rule not just inconvenient, but actually dangerous in the extreme.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
