I haven't been blogging since the last election. Partly because of the Republican collapse, partly because I didn't want any part of the recriminations, partly because the Republicans deserved what they got, but mostly just overwork and blogger burnout. Been commenting here and there, but nothing quite got me back to posting on my own blog. Things have built up
Where things stand today, in no particular order:
I'm fed up with George W Bush. Not hate, not even dislike. Just fed up with all the missed opportunities, needless errors, and just general drift into irrelevance. They guy they sold as a Sun-belt Conservative has become a Christian Liberal on domestic policy. Not to mention a clay-footed incompetent on the world stage. Sure, everyone in Europe is against him, but Reagan had the same problem several times over and still prevailed. Bush has managed to take a military victory and dawdle his way into a strategic disaster that may yet turn nuclear. He's added 100's of billions of entitlements at a time when we really need to scale them back or privatize. He's left education reform half-done, with the bureaucracy still in utter control. His religiosity grates even when I agree with the sentiment. He's far too comfortable with big government, having turned several large and unresponsive agencies into larger, more numerous, and less responsive agencies. INS/CIS. Homeland Security/TSA. Did I mention the recent immigration bill, where even folks like me that might support a paid amnesty for long-term illegals -- if the border were secured -- were unhappy? It looked like it was written by the Gahan Wilson Legislative Computer. Depressing all around.
I'm sick of West LA traffic. On a good day, you can go 8 miles in 30 minutes on surface streets at 6PM. Freeways take longer, especially since you have to get to and from them. It can easily take 20 minutes to go a mile down Bundy, Santa Monica Blvd or Wilshire. The city councilman, Rosendahl, has a few good ideas (more trains, and soon please) but seems torn between that and the bicycle people. He's alienated most of the big players in his district -- he got elected bashing Playa Vista -- rather than co-opting them. He recycles old, discarded ideas (more stop lights(!), synchronized signals (not possible), bus lanes and car pooling), and his good ideas get shuffled off to studyville. Even with trains, he wants to run the Green Line through Venice to Santa Monica -- two places that are most likely to oppose it and neither dense enough to use it much. The only thing he's been utterly successful on is gridlocking traffic on Wilshire Blvd by taking a lane for buses during rush hour. I despair.
The war. We have to win. When we leave, there has to be a functioning government that can root out the last of al Qaeda and resist the efforts of Iran and Syria to dismember the country. There's some hope on the former, less on the latter as Iran already seems to be infiltrating for the day we leave. Just like Viet-Nam. But, unlike Johnson's Folly, we really can't just walk away from the Middle East. The war might not have been about oil, as such, but the aftermath very much will be. If we leave things undone, we'll just have to come back. Only we'll wait until we have no choice and it will be World War 2 all over again. Or worse. The draft will be the least of our problems. Or maybe we'll just use H-bombs, although that doesn't encourage me much. We need to win now. Those that would lose just to spite Bush are so very, very wrong.
The Supreme Court. Bush's one success, and the only reason I remain glad Kerry didn't win. Too bad Stevens won't step down during a Republican administration. As a putative Republican, it's his duty to return the seat to the party that chose him. But 5-4 will work as long as Kennedy doesn't drift left again. Were it not for the Court, I'd change my vote to abstain. Did I mention I'm unhappy with Bush?
2008: It's competence, stupid. The issue for Republicans had better be competence, because it surely will be for the Hillary/Bill team. If it's anything else, and especially if it's about being a social conservative, it'll be a Democrat landslide. Don't count on Obama being the candidate -- it'd be wonderful but Democrats are too hungry and Clinton is by far the strongest candidate in a competence election. People want a President who will fix things. Sure, we all disagree about how to fix them, but there's really no denying that lots of stuff is broken, and the current administration isn't doing the job. The best (only?) bet for Republicans is Giuliani. Fred might beat Obama, but not Hillary. If I had to lose, I'd prefer to lose with Gingrich. But I'd rather win.
Bluray vs HD HVD: I'm for HD DVD. Bought a Toshiba HD-A2 last Christmas and have been very happy with it. Stunning video, audio that outperforms the rest of my system, and lots of movies available. And way cheaper than Bluray. I just wish that all studios supported both formats, so people could choose a format based on their needs, not on which cartel is supporting it. The EU may have something to say about that.
More later.
Posted by Kevin Murphy at July 4, 2007 03:38 PM | TrackBack