Links and Minifeatures 2008 09 04 Thursday

Neighborhoods of La Mesa: Normal Avenue

For that matter, Neighborhoods of La Mesa: Summit Hill

Sarah Palin vs. Barack Obama

via Q and O, this article is humorous, but also pretty much a fair comparison between the two: Palin in Comparison

Just when I had lost all hope for the left side of the political spectrum, an article like this one comes along and restores it. There are honest, patriotic people on the left. It's just that sometimes they become totally eclipsed by other, louder, more common voices.

I have never seen such a smear campaign in my life as the last few days, based upon "Make stuff up. Don't fact check, just rush it to print. Even after it's debunked, there will be suckers who think it's still true" Here is a partial list three pages long, and it's limited to the stuff that made it into major media.

To be fair, there are also those on the right (Pat Buchanan and Ann Coulter, to name to) who need to have their microphones permanently disconnected and be banished to the Political Wilderness of Shame, where they are free to say what they want, but nobody pays attention to them. Kind of like the way Quakers treat those who have gone beyond the range of acceptable conduct.

The problem is that while the Republican party has these people who should be social pariahs on the fringes, on the Democratic side of the aisle they have taken over the party. I'd really like to see that change. The Democratic party used to be rational and respectable, and will be again if they can find enough like wizardfkap. They might start by inviting Joe Lieberman, a man I disagree with about everything except the war on terror but I have to admit that he's a class act that I respect and admire, back into the party.

I got to see most of Sarah Palin's speech Wednesday night. My wife, who is rarely interested in politics, was so rapt that she accepted my offer to do the bath and bed for the kids. My impression is that, like most politicians, she needs to work on delivery, but the content was first rate. Yeah, it was written for her. But she lived what it talked about, and it wouldn't have been nearly so effective without being the truth. And if we're going to disallow politicians who employ speechwriters, that leaves us with nobody above the local level. They've still got to communicate what they want the speech to say, most of them write modifications, and they've got to agree with the content.

However, I do not agree that the election is won. In fact, it's too close to call. There are two months left before the only poll that counts, and anything can happen.

Thursday: Missed the beginning of John McCain's speech, but what I saw was very good. The ending was magnificent. I'm a cynical old fart in my late forties, and it brought a few tears to my eyes, because John McCain has actually lived the life he talks about. He convinced me that he believes every word of that wonderful ending in his speech, and that's something nobody else has done since Ronald Reagan. (I've been a cynical old fart since my mid twenties...) He doesn't have Reagan's beautiful delivery. But for those familiar with his story, he has something Reagan never did: The sense that he has walked some of the darkest paths there are in service to this country himself, and come out still believing in the ideals by which this nation was founded.

Cynical old fart that I am, that is something I will believe in until the day I die.

Armies of Liberation has a translated article from the Yemen Times, editorializing about Al-Khaiwani spending Ramadan in jail for criticizing the regime and exposing its lies.

This is a good editorial, and not just because it shows that others are willing to stand up for him. It also has what we'd call a "sympathy at Christmas" note to emphasize the humanity of the Yemeni people, something that it's easy to lose track of in a war.