Common Sense

Go see this movie

CHUD has a review up of the much-anticipated Syriana. You must watch this movie.

Now. What are you waiting for? Go wait outside the theater so you can be first in line. Go.

Endorsement Watch

Hey, Tommy Adkisson has endorsed Chris Bell's bid for the governor's mansion.

My name is Tommy Adkisson, and I serve on the Bexar County Commissioners Court in San Antonio. I am proud to endorse Chris Bell for Governor, not just because he's an exciting new leader for Texas, but because he and I share a special interest on an important issue: ethics reform.

You can read the whole thing at the Chris Bell Blog.

Is he serious?

I don't know how, but I ended up getting lots of regular emails from California Conservative. But, you know, I check it out every once in a while because I'm fairminded and all. Today's takes the cake, however.

Christmas has been officially recognized and celebrated in America for over 150 years and, by some historical records, even since the first settlers arrived. Today, over 80% of Americans celebrate Christmas as identified Christians, and this includes our nation’s largest (and growing) immigrant population: Latinos. In total, reportedly 95% of Americans celebrate Christmas as the accepted year-end holiday for gift-giving.

Yeah, another "Save Christmas" petition. You would think that if 95% of Americans (which is a monster overestimation, I think) were celebrating Christmas, that it wouldn't really be in danger. So what if a store says Happy Holidays instead? Maybe it's just because they don't want to upset the guy buying Hannukah presents for his kids by putting them in sacks that have 'Merry Christmas' splashed in big, bold letters on the side. I don't know.

But Christmas isn't going anywhere. If you have to have Mervyn's tell you 'Merry Christmas', it's possible you've got bigger fish to fry. If you're spending this much time putting together an online petition and accompanying graphics, you really have bigger problems. Try porn; that's always good for burning extra time.

And really, you shouldn't send these sorts of things to a liberal like me. I'm just going to make fun of you.

Are we safer, yet?

I feel safe, how 'bout you?

Sharp Objects May Be Allowed on Planes

WASHINGTON - Airport security screeners are reportedly going to let passengers bring sharp objects on board airplanes again. Today's Washington Post says the Transportation Security Administration plans to announce security changes Friday.

Can you say 'Road Trip!'

All I want for Christmas

If any of you spectacular readers wanted to oh, say, buy me a Christmas present, this would be the shizit.

"You don't have to be a Political Junkie, Consultant or, Pundit to love this game. In fact, average and apolitical Americans love playing it just as much. With just the right mixture of skill and luck (this is politics, after all), and with every roll of the dice, you'll find yourself increasingly caught up in the excitement of a hard-fought Presidential contest that goes down to the wire...

All right, you don't have to buy it for me, but it looks really cool and I think it might be fun to play with some friends who are visiting during the holidays.

On the road to Victory, just a little behind schedule

I slept all day (big surprise) so I didn't watch out Glorious Leader's speech on the kick-assedness of America and our super-special plan for Ultimate Victory. Do I really need to read it? You know I'm just going to get depressed and curl up in a corner and sob myself into a coma.

All right, let's take a look.

The speech, the first in a series the president will deliver in the run-up to the Dec. 15 elections in Iraq, broke no new ground in the increasingly impatient and vocal debate about U.S. strategy there.

Fuck.

In an oft-repeated message, Bush said that setting an artificial deadline for U.S. troop withdrawal sends a statement that "America is weak and an unreliable ally" and vindicates "terrorist tactics of beheadings, suicide bombings and mass murder," inviting new terrorist attacks on the United States.

Because it's not like they can't get on a plane or something.

Reading from a letter written by a U.S. soldier on his lap-top computer before his death, an emotional Bush said America owes those who have died in Iraq to "take up their mantle, carry on the fight and complete their mission."

And here I thought we owed soldiers the best equipment and training money can buy, a clear plan before the start of the war for victory and the promise not to send them to war unless it is absolutely necessary.

If I can sum up: We can't set timetables because this is going to take an awful long time, "politicians in Washington" can't be counted on to know anything, which is why Congress has the power to declare war and civilians in the White House are in charge of the military, and we are actually winning the war in Iraq, you just can't see it, just like them WMDs.

You can look at the great strategy we have now here. While you do, I'm going to find the Haagen Das and a box of tissues.

It's been a long night

And it's technically not over yet. I'll be here another hour, then I may actually get something to eat before going home to watch Volumes 9, 10 and 11 in the Rurouni Kenshin series. Then it is up at at 'em early to write my Texan of the Year: Blogger Style post.

That's right, we have a winner. Bet you'd really like to know who it is. Well, you'll just have to wait for me and the other participating bloggers to tell you tomorrow.

Can you tell the difference?

I had just enough time to look at some different templates that Typepad offers and find one that I kind of liked. It is a little subtle, but nice I think. I'll make some changes and probably overhaul the blogroll in the next few days.

Give me a break

I haven't even had time to eat the Kit Kat bar that I bought for dinner tonight. We need to find a more efficient system than having coaches call in and say "uhm" 27 times.

Centrism is a vice

I like to quote Sen. Barry Goldwater's floor speech at the 1964 National Convention where he said "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." I think it shows that not only are the Republicans crazy, but they've been that way for quite a while.

But that doesn't mean that modern-day centrism is the answer.

One person that espouses the "Third Way" is my fellow Wacoan Marshall Wittman, the Bull Moose Blogger. I think he is an intersting if enigmatic person, if the reason is that I can never decide what exactly Wittman stands for. Other than being against partisanship.

But, my readers, partisanship wasn't built into the system, it developed on its own. And that is because groups of men rallied around ideas. Some saw a country with a strong national government as being the way; other sought to increase the power of the many states. All worked together in political parties to promote their ideas.

It is the same today, two parties competing with two very different views of the world. Certainly no one falls purely on one side or the other, but we find the ideas that attract us most and we side with them.

Wittman seems to take an entirely different appoach; that is to find a person and follow them no matter what those ideas are. His blindly following the likes of Sens. McCain and Lieberman make me wonder if he has a vision for what America should be and what we should do, or is opposing the established political parties enough?

Wittman often likes to talk about his hero, Teddy Roosevelt. Certainly there are a lot of things I like and dislike about T.R., but I would consider him one of the good Republicans. He campaigned hard for Republican victories, was elected Governor of New York as a Republican, was elected Vice President as a Republican, succeeded to the presidency as a Republican, and was re-elected president as a Republican. He only formed the Bull Moose party after he failed to gain the Republican nomination over the incumbent Republican president in 1912. And his third party only succeeded in handing over the presidency to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

T.R.'s legacy is that he was a Republican that Republicans hated and derided as a traitor to his class. And that is because of his mostly socially-liberal policies, like ending child labor and trust-busting. T.R. had an ideology and that's why he ran for president over his hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft. That's admirable.

Wittman doesn't do that. He rejects parties outright and seeks some middle way that holds no promise of new ideas or new leaders. Wittman jsut takes the leaders he likes that occassionally bolt from their party, wraps his rhetoric around their personalities and continually tries to position himself based on what others have already said. That's not the way to win votes, nor is the way to govern a country.

In a free-thinking Republic, we should be wowed by ideas, not soundbites, not positioning and not some personal story. Wittman can't get past the surface to see what's inside the candidate and that's why he has no vision.

Thanks to Ezra for pointing all this out before I got a chance to write something.