Rapid Fire
I’ll be blunt: there’s a lot of news I’m not happy about over the past week, and I don’t want to dwell on it. So, today I’m doing a rapid-fire blog to get through it all. We can hash it out in the comments.
Healthcare. The Senate debate is already infuriating, as Sen. Ben Nelson is offering a Stupak-like amendment to their version of the health care bill.
Governor. It looks more and more likely that Bill White will enter the Texas Governor’s Race rather than waiting (probably until 2012) to run for KBH’s Senate seat. This was always a possibility, as White’s campaign was always known as “Bill White for Texas,” keeping it flexible. White will win whichever race he enters, in my opinion. I’m not upset about that, but I am upset about losing out on Hank Gilbert, a great candidate who I believe can also beat Perry (but probably not Bill White in the Primary). If Bill White enters, I wonder if Hank will stay in the Governor’s race or switch to another. My guess right now is that Hank would stay.
“Climategate.” It’s shameful and ridiculous at the same time. It’s shameful because professional scientists should know and act better than the bunch from East Anglia. Scientific activity must withstand peer review and (informed) public scrutiny to be any good. It’s ridiculous because (1) all of a sudden those on the right decide they want to pay attention to scientific evidence (now that they have some that suits their worldview) and (2) those on the right believe that a few bad scientists somehow eliminate the mountain of evidence already out there on global warming. Man’s adverse effect on our climate is both observable and measurable, regardless.
Afghanistan/Pakistan. I’m not happy with President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 more troops there. I think we need to get the hell out asap. His speech Tuesday night was eloquent, but could have been written by one of dubya’s speechwriters — the same talking points were sprinkled throughout.
Silver lining: would Hillary have announced a planned end to the war? Would McCain? No and hell no. So, at least we got a clearer strategy, an exit timeframe, and most likely the best result out of any of the three Presidential candidates of 2008.
In conclusion, this week is full of news that makes me grumpy, except for exciting local developments, which I will blog about later in the week.
Feel free to discuss these topics in the comments.
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