My post debate spin:

Bush repeatedly spoke about it being ‘hard work’.

It is hard work telling the truth to the American people.
It is hard work getting other countries to work with us.
It is hard work establishing a plan that fights terrorism and makes the country more secure.

It is about time we elect someone who isn’t afraid of hard work.

Thanks to Robert J. Berger for passing this along:

Pulling Back the Curtain: What a Top WSJ Reporter in Baghdad Really Thinks About the War

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000650551

Wall Street Journal correspondent Farnaz Fassihi confirms that she penned a scathing letter that calls the war in Iraq an outright “disaster.” She also reveals that reporters in Baghdad are working under “virtual house arrest.”

Full letter on boing boing site:
http://boingboing.net/text/fassihi.txt

Wonkmonkey writes:

How can he win? Three ways that George can win, and none of them are beneath Karl Rove.

First, George ignores the rules. He completely ignores them. Kerry negotiates in good faith and has prepped to follow them. George looks funny and smooth, Kerry is seething and furious. He particularly ignores rules he personally demanded, rules Kerry was happy or willing to accept, but seemed arbitrary. However, these arbitrary rules were used by Kerry when prepping for the debate so he is handicapped.

Early morning, August. Photograph

Out of curiosity, why do you blog? Is there more to bloging that sharing ‘gifts’, vanity publishing, and staking a claim to participate as an active creator – to not settle for consumption only? Just for the Hell of it?

Please make a gift of your answer as a comment.

Thanks,
Jock

So Dewayne asked me my thoughts on our current political situation and this triggered a review of a few ideas and meditations in the stew pot.

To start with, why are there so few comments on the postings on the Greater Democracy blog? We get 1,000s of visitors and essentially zero comments. And just a few track backs.

Is it because the posting are antithetical to a culture of consumption, celebrity, and entertainment?

“That’s why I said to the Taliban in Afghanistan: Get rid of al Qaeda; see, you’re harboring al Qaeda. Remember this is a place where they trained — al Qaeda trained thousands of people in Afghanistan. And the Taliban, I guess, just didn’t believe me. And as a result of the United States military, Taliban [...]

Well, my blogging at Greater Democracy makes the New York Times Magazine, sort of. I am the greybeard sitting behind and to the left of Markos Moulitsas. However, my name, nor Greater Democracy, isn’t mentioned in the article.

[Slightly rewritten by and mostly plagiarized by Jim Warren, from a 9/22/04 piece by Michael Moore, mmflint@aol.com, www.michaelmoore.com .] 1983-88: WE LOVE SADDAM. On December 19, 1983, Donald Rumsfeld was sent by George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan for a friendly meeting with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq. Rummy appeared proud and happy in [...]

Media for Democracy is offering an opportunity for the public to submit questions to the moderators of the 3 upcoming presidential debates (Jim Lehrer of the PBS NewsHour, Charles Gibson of ABC News, and Bob Scheiffer of CBS’ Face the Nation). Click here to submit your questions on their form, or email them to grassroots@commoncause.org.

I think we do need to think about whether or not we are better off today then we were four years ago. However, Jock’s final question, “Are we leaving our children a better world for their children”, is the question that most resonates with me, and I believe that by asking these questions, we can help make this a better world.