No, this isn't a political entry. Just to let you know, in case the viewing public misses me so much they need to see me walk by on a crappy low resolution camera, here's your chance. The Academy has installed a webcam, which is user controllable, linked from the main web page. This is a little creepy period, but especially so for the five cadets currently living on the ship (as I will be next fall for a few weeks).
Anyway, its kind of cool in a creepy way, so check it out if you want.
I enjoyed hearing the President speak tonight. On behalf of all the members of my party (which is fairly easy as I'm the only one), I heartily endorse the President's calls for cooperation on many important issues. Still I have to wonder, what would this country be like today had this President's first State of the Union been more like this one?
It's probably naive, but those of us in the RM Party believe that its always a good time for bipartisan cooperation, not only when your party has lost control of Congress and your approval ratings are slightly lower than OJ Simpson. We believe that small incremental change is preferable to sweeping reforms that are ahead of public opinion, so long as the changes are regular and continuous. We believe that getting halfway to the goal is an absolute success if you can carry an overwhelming majority in favor. In short, we are moderate in our approach, which is truly radical in modern politics.
If this President had taken this kind of honest apolitical approach to his first term we likely would have some form of health care improvement that isn't an (expensive) campaign ad rather than real change. The Congress could have tackled Immigration and made regular improvements that would be showing results by now. And its hard to imagine how the Iraq War would be worse with such an approach. Is this unrealistic? Is it impossible to expect politicians to attempt to actually solve the problems of the country rationally and to do the greatest good, no matter who takes the credit? Sadly, yes it is, and that's just the beginning of what's wrong in our country.
I hope this new Congress can work with the President to accomplish *something* on Immigration and Health care, though I'm skeptical about tax credits (or a more arcane tax code) will really get the job done. But if it represents a positive incremental change and not just an excuse for employer loopholes, I can support it. And as nice of a soundbite as "[dealing with illegals immigrants with] no animosity and no amnesty" is, I'd love to hear what that plan actually is.
I'm cautious on the troop surge. In my deepest thoughts, I consider this war unwinnable. I feel like we've opened the box and reacted too slow and there's no way to get it all back inside again. But I do feel that the consequences of that failure are high for many reasons, and that it is certainly worth one last push to see if we can't get this thing back on the rails. There's little doubt that higher troop numbers is 2003 and 2004 would have left us in a much better situation today, even with all other things remaining the same, but as time only goes in one direction we're left with accomplishing something today. So I'm cautiously supporting the surge, until such time as it becomes clear that it is effective or not (absolutely less than a year). And if after this push it becomes even more clear that we can't really succeed at our (re)stated goals in Iraq, then we need to withdraw, as quickly as we can.
I was especially pleased to hear the President talk about energy independence and conservation, a topic quite dear to our party. While he has mentioned these issues in passing before, tonight he took the time to get into some specifics. I certainly support the investigation of ethanol creation using waste products, though from the reaction of (Iowa) Senator Chuck Grasselly, I suspect that it will continue to be largely a corn subsidy program for many years yet. Biodiesel and improved fuel efficiency standards are both important steps that are completely realizable, no matter what the Big Three in Detroit tell you. And it was thrilling to hear the President mention "plug-in hybrids", of which I am an ardent supporter (as many of you readers may have had the misfortune to find out if you brought up a tangential subject nearby me).
It was good to see the distinguished guests in the gallery with the first lady. It was terrific to see the first ever woman as Speaker of the House, and the President was incredibly gracious and charming in his congratulations to her.
I wonder how many more years will pass before a female President delivers a State of the Union, and reflect that the number could be only 2. I only wish that could happen without that particular woman being Senator Clinton.
A note to Senator John McCain: If you're going to be on national television and plan on running for President in the next election, it might be worth having a latte or No-Dos or mini-thins or anything at all up to and including crack before the speech so that you absolutely Do NOT have a shot of your nodding off during the speech go out to the TV audience. Its generally bad form.
A note to Vice President Cheney: It might be wise to avoid smiling demoniacally as soon as the President mentions energy reform. We all know you're going to stop it before it starts, but you could at least allow us to have a few minutes of believing it.
A note to Chief Justice John Roberts: Nice robe, but were you surprised to find three other attendees wearing the same exact thing? How weird is that?
Finally, I was pleased to listen to the Democratic response from Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. Sen. Webb is a (very) moderate Democrat, and put forth an intelligent plan simply and confidently. I can only hope that the new "moderate" President Bush can work with those moderate elements in the Democratic party to actually salvage something of value from the 8 years of our 43rd President. I remain hopeful, but not naive.
Good night, and may this country be blessed by anything available.
Notes:
--- Full text of the speech (with a video link)
---MSNBC yet again puts Matthews and Olberman together, and either they're getting better at hiding it or Matthews is starting to despise Olberman a little less. Of course, this was only a 4-hour gig as opposed to the election, at the end of which I could see Matthews intentionally biting his lip to avoid telling Keith to shut up or punching him in the face.
---More about plug-in hybrids in a future article, as I just realized that while I've ranted on the topic to many of you in person, I've never done so in this space, and I know you're all just dying to hear it over again.
---Finally, apply for membership in the Radical Moderate party today! You get to be idealistic without being idealogical. Plus, by requiring that all political discussion be based on rationality first, you get to be totally irrelevant. Although our bumper sticker slogans need work:
"Support a woman's right to choose, though only in a non-federally funded way due to the divisiveness of the issue, although the economic aspects could be offset by independent non-profit groups"
OK, this entry is not safe for work. Or for children. Or for sane people. In fact, I'm not even sure you should follow this link and listen to it, but having just seen it myself I feel completely obliged to pass it on.
I've never really been amused by prank call comedy in the past, but this takes things to a new absurd geeky level that transcends the genre. In fact I burst into spontaneous bouts of crazy laughter on a regular basis without even knowing why just thinking about it. File Under: Microsoft fetishists
The others are interesting, but this one... ah hell just listen.
OK, I haven't updated this worth a damn, I know. I'm basically in the same place I have been. Just got back from sailing on the Cason J. Callaway over the Holiday break, which brings me 25 days closer to writing my license and being finished. So I have about 4 more months of classes, and then I go out to finish my sea time over this summer. Right now I'm expecting to be sailing for Matson on a containership between the West Coast of the US and Hawaii over the summer. I should have my time in around the end of August and write my license in the beginning of September, after which I will take a deserved 3-week hiatus to hang around and do nothing of value.
Still working on music, though it was hard to get too far while I was doing my schoolwork on the boat. A wedding coming up in about of month (not mine). Thinking about doing another marathon, though it might be too insane even for me.
Otherwise not much to report and not enough time to provide any genuine content. And I'd rather the site sit dormant than update it with stuff saying "nothing going on". So thanks for reading, any of you who still bother, but it will be another several months before anything too interesting shows up here. But I do appreciate you all bothering to check every so often and hope to have something for you to find eventually.