DoodleBlog

Fans are angry that the naming rights to a field named after a brand of chewing gum are up for sale. Probably not a larger indicator of anything, this being Chicago sports fans.

Farewell William F. Buckley Jr. There was a period as a boy where he was my favorite writer, although at this point I’d gladly give heaven another conservative writer if they’d give us Mike Royko back.

I know it’s sports, and Chicago sports, but do we have to kick every player in the ass on their way out the door? Brian Griese performed as well as could be expected in a terrible situation where teams were disappointed if they couldn’t limit the Bears to less than a yard per carry, and where the defense made an opposing no-name player a star every week. He, like Grossman, is a respectable back-up quarterback. Ben Wallace has been villified this year pre- and post-trade, after helping us get to the playoffs last year. It’s early but in Cleveland, where there’s someone who can actually score, he’s freed up to rebound like he’s capable even at his advanced age (and he’s still a far younger man than I). In any case, good luck Brian Griese. Think twice about some of those deep passes and get some run support.

The real problem of course isn’t the candidates. It’s the consumers, it’s us. We want something and we don’t have the ability to articulate what it is, and there’s no clear roadmap on how to get it even if we did know. We want something other than Pepsi so we’re all excited about New Pepsi. Folks, New Pepsi is just old Pepsi with corn syrup instead of sugar. It’s still gonna rot our teeth and it’s still going to make us fat and alternately hyper and sluggish. And all the advertisements, and slogans, and miracle drink ads won’t change the fact that it’s a not very nutritious liquid with some bubbles in it. Lady Remington Pepsi isn’t any better nor worse, nor is Stale Biscuit Pepsi any better but possibly, yes, Stale Biscuit Pepsi is worse. I mean, it’s got chunks of stale biscuit in it.

A scathing indictment of the current three candidates, but no run, although he’s apparently saying he’ll support whichever candidate stops fear-mongering/pandering and starts looking at the actual current American situation and how to improve it. And it immediately gets consumed by the media as “he can help that candidate raise a lot of money!” This. Country. Is. Now the question is, is he positioning himself for a 2012 run knowing the depth of problems the 2008 winner will face and probably not be able to fix? That would also allow him to finish his run in New York.

Hillary with the “Obama wants to bomb Pakistan” canard. During her husband’s administration* we had information on bin Laden’s location in Afghanistan and failed to take him out before the intelligence lapsed, but we were prepared to launch a couple of missiles to his location. This is American policy, standard American policy right or wrong with established precedent. Some of us might not agree with it. There is of course a difference - Afghanistan at the time is not comparable to Pakistan, an established mock democracy.

I personally favor the idea of having super spies infiltrate countries and take out targets but that’s me.

Sigh. I will vote for either one of these people and we’ll get started early getting a real candidate for 2012.

* And let’s get this clear, it was her husband’s administration. She has been trying to point out that she opposed NAFTA while it was being crafted but wasn’t running things. Exactly! Hillary was not running things, and for her to both claim credit for the good and disown the bad is duplicitous.

How often does that happen? I hope the wax museum’s okay…

The governor has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and St. Eve did not suggest that he was aware of the alleged extortion attempt. In earlier court filings, however, prosecutors have alleged that Blagojevich told a former political operative now cooperating with federal authorities that he could steer contracts, legal work and investment banking their way in exchange for fundraising. - Chicago Tribune

When will we get a governor who isn’t under investigation? The judge apparently made it clear that one of the unnamed officials is Governor Blaogjevich. There’s also another unnamed official, who is pretty clearly Obama, who hasn’t been explicitly named yet and is also not charged with any wrongdoing. Of course, this is trial one of two for Rezko. There’ll be plenty more Illinois style dirt come to light in the upcoming year.

In other news, is anyone noticing that it’s beginning to feel a lot like 1978-1982? Empty storefronts, shooting rampages, “high”* gas prices, rust belts and uncertainty? Of late I’ve been thinking that we didn’t win the Cold War - it’s sort of like the end of Seven Samurai. We didn’t win, the farmers (France, Germany, etc) won. It’s of course a relief that that omnipresent threat of global thermonuclear war isn’t here any more, but the institutions and attitudes, and the public mindset, that we created during that protracted conflict persist and cloud our perception, often times binding us to courses of action which we rationally should abandon. In what ways are we a super power? Militarily, undoubtedly, but is this a sustainable military force economically and in deployment? As consumers Americans are a force in the world but not necessarily in a way that is sustainable and/or damaging long term to our well being as a nation and of course to the environment and all that other stuff. Questions questions…

* for Americans, adjusted to what Americans feel is the right price (which is a little less than the least they paid in the past two years)

Now I’m no Born-Again-Obama cultist, nor a Hillary partisan, but this is really quibbly. There have been multiple times where Obama has truly overblown numbers in terms of the cost of the Iraq War, potential savings to Medicare, etc., but in this instance he’s fairly close given that these are estimates anyways.

Obama stretched the facts when he said there are “two-and-a-half million displaced people inside of Iraq and several million more outside of Iraq.” The International Red Cross put the figure of those displaced inside the country at 2.3 million as of September 2007 but has since lowered its estimate to 2.2 million, as the security situation has improved and some people have returned home.

As for displaced Iraqis outside the nation’s borders, according to a recent report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, that figure is around 2 million.

factcheck.org

I can gladly say, now, that I voted for Dick Durbin in his re-election bid, uncontested on the donkey side. Early reports seem fairly close to the Tribune’s estimate a week ago that Obama had a two to one lead on Clinton here. It’s obviously a difficult choice to make between the two - Obama is a person who came here by choice, married a native, but he’s from Hawaii and I suspect in private talks like a surfer guy. Clinton was born and raised here, but she refused to say that she would support the Cubs over the Yankees in a World Series. Next time she brings up Obama’s “present” votes she should be brought to task on that.*

Early indicators are that we’re going to have a one-term presidency no matter who it is. 2012 comes along the easy slogan for the opposing candidate will be “are you better off than you were four years ago?” Given the declining state of America’s fundamentals the answer won’t be good for President Huckobamintoneycain.

* 2/28/08 - Of course, Obama is a White Sox fan, which is much worse than dithering about the Cubs or Yankees. But let’s remember what unites us as a party, which is the Bears.