“No Faith Justifies These Murderous and Craven Acts”

Yesterday’s service at Fort Hood for the soldiers murdered last week was a haunting introduction to Veterans Day. These are trying times for our country, President Obama said in Texas. He’s trying to bring the Iraq war to an end, and trying to understand what path is best in the desperate mountains of Afghanistan.
At a [...]

The Wall

A wall is a symbol. Of fear. Of hope.
The Berlin Wall — and its absence — is a symbol that change is possible. Change can come. There is always hope, in the deepest dark, that the world can change. For 28 years in prison, Nelson Mandela held on to that hope. Lech Walesa, in [...]

Whither Obama?

Did yesterday’s election tell President Obama to go more to the right or more to the left? Spinners are making the Arachnid Hall of Fame these last 24 hours. Obama’s done, the Right will Rise Again. Or, these were local elections and they were about the individual candidates and blahmeblahblah. Or, the votes show that [...]

IRV Votes and He’s Kinda Rank

Chalk this up to me being an old fuddy-duddy, a conservative, but I voted today in Minneapolis using the instant-runoff ranking, and it felt stupid to me.
I wanted to be interviewed by somebody — newsies were interviewing voters about the new ranked-choice voting, and most of the comments were about whether it was clear or [...]

Obama Wrong on Fox, Right on Journalists’ Shield Law

The Obama administration has gone one for two on issues with the media recently — and it’s gotten the most important one right.
I think they’ve muffed it on Fox — good lord, grow a thicker skin and don’t give those twerps the satisfaction of successfully picking a fight with you. Cable shows draw less than [...]

Health Care Expert Backs Public Option

Don’t want to overlook Lois Quam, quoted in yesterday’s StarTribune, supporting a public option for health insurance.
This is a big deal. Quam is smart — one of a handful of incredibly smart women in health care, including former state health commissioner Jan Malcolm, I had the privilege to meet when I did a little PR [...]

Let the Pirates Stand Up and Filibuster

Senator Joe Lieberman threatens a filibuster to fend off the dreaded Public Option. It’s a serious threat — who would want to listen to Lieberman blither and dribble for hours on end?
Why are the Democrats so afraid of a filibuster — other than the reasonable concern that there wouldn’t be enough air-sickness bags to go [...]

In the Year Twenty Eighteen…

I just re-upped for the domain name thesamerowdycrowd.com. For nine years. Don’t know why nine, exactly. Mainly because I’m terrible at keeping track of things and now we won’t have to worry about it again until 2018.
When a small nerdy herd of us dreamed this blog up three years ago — mostly it’s Austin’s fault, [...]

“Breaking” a News Story That’s Quivering in Plain Sight

A story in the StarTribune today made me think about how covering the health care debate the way we cover elections — as a horse race — results in such lame coverage and an electorate that knows very little about what’s truly going on.
The story is about a small young girl in Colorado who was [...]

Blame Blame

New York Times headline today:

U.S. Deficit Rises
To $1.4 Trillion;
Biggest Since ‘45
______________
Two Parties Trade Blame
A brushfire is about to torch your house, the wind is blowing and cinders are falling on your roof. You see two fire engines pull up — and the firefighters jump out of their trucks and start to argue, yell and point [...]