The State of the World Today

So, it looks like Gates will be confirmed as the new SecDef incredibly fast. I've been watching the talking heads discuss and report on the confirmation hearings and such. They drag out the Iran contra thing every so often. They talk about all kinds of stuff about him. I guess they have to fill the time. In reality, why is this guy going to get confirmed so fast? He is not Don Rumsfeld. It's that simple. Congress would confirm Robert McNamara, Jack in the Box, or Snow White at this point.

Job Posting - Secretary of Defense Qualifications - Not Don Rumsfeld and not named Bush (Everyone else welcome.)

Carter's book that I mentioned earlier is pretty interesting so far. Lots of good background on the Palestinian v Israeli situation and Carter always seems to say what he has to say in a pretty straightforward way. Good stuff. I know the country hated him when he was president, but we sure could use someone like Carter right now.... smart, dedicated to peace, a mediator, willing to talk to anyone in order to learn and find common ground, willing to say what he thinks, not running for anything.

I'm pretty sick of hearing about Russian spies and assassins and whatever.... The Tsars, Romanovs, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, and on and on now to the current regime..... Russias leaders have tended to be ruthless and despotic and their secret police don't really change much from one era to another. It's bad stuff, but none of it is all that surprising. I don't know the etymology of sanguinary, but it definitely won't be a surprise if it is Russian.

The US budget deficit right now is a disgrace. If we were really paying to fight a global war on terror or cure poverty or really fight aids or really trying to find an alternative fuel source, it might be understandable. Or if we even fully funded the No Child Left Behind initiatieves, that might be more understandable. Unfortunately, we seem to be just puttering around with that stuff and dumping tons of money into military and security in Iraq, a gigantic prescription drug giveaway program that is nothing but corporate welfare, and massive growth in other medical costs along with gigantic amounts of pork that are used to get anything passed. I don't know why we don't use the traditional terms for this pork - baksheesh, fragrant grease, or bribery?

And former President George H W Bush broke down and cried in a speech about his son (the governor) yesterday. You're kidding me. This is news? Who cares? And the attempts to tie this to Baker trying to help out the son (the president) or some kind of description of how similar or different the father is from the sons or the sons from one another. Bush fatigue resulting in Bush the senior crying. Geez. Bad reality TV this stuff.... time to change the channel.

Nancy Grace? Worthless. About 15 seconds is all I can take.

I've been watching TV for a lot of the last 48 hours. I've been home nursing allergies. And wow, this stuff is bad. I did see an old movie about Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens. That was pretty good. But most of the rest of it... and the news may be the worst - not slanted - not prejudiced - just a case of never has so much been spent to say so much and accomplish so little. There are bits and pieces of worthwhile reporting, but Comedy Central may have the best stuff out there. The "mainstream" news is hard to take seriously when you see some of this junk on TV. I need to go back to reading books again.