Some political comments ...
Charlie Brown Had A Better Shot At Kicking That Football: Another time when a minority in the Senate blocks a leaves something to be desired "restrain Bush on Iraq like a majority of the American public wants" bill passed by the House and supported by a majority of the Senate and we hear how "the Senate" (Salon even framed it that way) rejected it. Likewise, the Dems, even if over forty of them voted for the measure, refuse to force the minority to have a real filibuster -- you know, continual debate etc.
Thom Hartman was on Rachel Maddow yesterday noting the Dems are not really a party as such as a coalition. Strange how a certain portion (Blue Dogs) keep on getting disproportionate power ... again, not being forced to suffer even a wee bit for their minority stance. Maddow is on a "proud to be a liberal" kick this week. Sometimes, it is hard to be proud to be a Democrat. Foreign affairs and executive power is THE issue of the day. Let's see if the Senate chokes on FISA.
Obama: Open Left disputes how a Talking Points Memo piece framed the issue, but the overall point of the piece that various members of "the Left" are concerned with Sen. Obama is true enough. I sure am. The Paul Krugman piece today that is cited by OL reaffirms the point -- he wants to be above the fray, provide a middle ground, but sometimes the right path is not the average of the two sides. Since we have gone to far right on some issues, this is actually a bad way to approach the situation. And, some of his comments on religion -- as mentioned in the past -- concern me. Talk of "faith" as if this meant certain religious believers per se.
Debates: There has been a loads of debates, though honestly, I think a large portion of the population does not truly know this -- often they are on cable stations that blogs and such might frequent, but not so much the general voter. There also seems to be somewhat fewer Republican debates. And, now Media Matters suggests all these debates uh sorta don't even properly cover the key issues of the day:
Through 17 debates this year, roughly 1,500 questions have been asked of the two parties' presidential candidates. But only a small handful of questions have touched on the candidates' views on executive power, the Constitution, torture, wiretapping, or other civil liberties concerns.
Sometimes, there are questions from the audience -- not just about Hillary's jewelry choices (see link) -- dealing with personal experiences. I had one that hits upon an important issue in the next election, going back to the Krugman piece, since it will be an important economic factor in the upcoming years -- health insurance. I am having some minor dental work done, and even with insurance, it cost a good amount of money. Many who have very little or no savings would not be able to pay it.
This is a sad state of affairs. Any Democrat is likely to deal with such matters better than the likely Republican choice, but we can expect better than that. We can demand better than that.