I saw this story first at Wired News but got a more complete story at Craig's War & Peace Blog. The U.S. government is publishing Hi Magazine, a lifestyle magazine for 18-35 year old Arab youth in the Middle east.
Continue reading Hi, from America!.
My mind struggles to find words to describe this unbelievable product. How deep and unquestioning must be your adoration of the President (or "patriotism") to conceive, design, manufacture, and market such a thing? How willing must you be to ignore the almost daily attacks on American soldiers, the billions of dollars spent every month on Iraq, and the fact that Bush skipped a year of his Air National Guard duty?
More importantly, when are the rest of the Administration action figures coming out? And will this one be worth more if Bush is re-elected, or if he is defeated? The mind boggles.
I got an email from the MoveOn.org people about this today, but I didn't read the full text of Al Gore's speech to an audience of MoveOn members until just now. It must have been a hell of a show; the text is very affecting by itself.
I feel bad for Al Gore. I think he's a good man and would have made a great President. He didn't have to make this speech, and since he again confirmed he is not running for President, he has little to gain from it. But he made it anyway, and said a lot of thoughtful and forceful things. Here's hoping the Democrats, and the people who saw or read his speech, follow his example and start to ask more of their government and the political process.
Well, here we go: the California recall "election" is now officially a circus. Good for Dianne Feinstein for backing away from this disaster. If I were her I wouldn't want to share a debating stage with Arnie, the Huffingtons, Larry Flynt ("the smut peddler who cares"), and God knows whom else, either. With this gang of freaks on the ticket, and the growing chorus of jeers and derision from the rest of the country, maybe by October Californians will come to their senses and defeat the recall.
I'm not holding my breath, though.
My wife and I went to our first official Meetup for the Dean campaign tonight. It was pretty impressive. Despite a last minute venue change, there were about thirty people there, including a few from the Illinois for Dean group. They had a PowerPoint and everything. What impressed me was how organized and active they were. They marched in four parades last month, they raised money for their own Dean buttons, and are now working on bumper stickers, they're getting out into the communities.
I am hopeful about Dean. The party seems to be getting antsy about him, saying that he will lead the party into the wilderness and all, but I don't know, he doesn't seem too liberal to me. The Bush administration has made a lot of Democrats and moderates of both parties very angry, and I think Dean's willingness to confront the President directly is a big reason why people are excited about him.
The next thing for the Dean campaign to do is to get serious about their plans. Dean's positions on the issues are becoming more well known, and his record as well, but to be taken seriously as a candidate he will soon have to start offering specific plans and programs. People like Dean now, but they will like someone like Wesley Clark later unless Dean or one of the other candidates starts offering concrete ideas for people to get behind.