Return from the brink
Yes, I'm alive, as readers of my LJ can attest. I haven't really had time for posting news commentary here in quite some time. Even my Xmas break wasn't really a break, between grading, incompletes, and temp jobs occupying most of my time.
For the time being, though, I just wanted to direct attention to a piece that just appeared in the LA Times about George Bush's new budget. Initially, I was pleased to hear that for once, Bush was going to do something about runaway spending. After all, what buzz I had read and heard on NPR and elsewhere seemed to indicate that it angered and annoyed all the right people. (Rule of thumb - with the possible exception of some social morality issues, if it pisses Jack Beatty off, it's probably a good thing). But this piece, if accurate, means that my initial hopes were misplaced. The era of big government is back with a vengence. God help us.
This is one thing that makes life so much better for Democrats than libertarians. They can lick their 2004 election wounds and put their hopes in 2006 and 2008 (though perhaps not if Hillary runs...). Who do we libertarians have? None of the prospective Republican presidential candidates are even vaguely close to libertarian - Bill Frist? Rudy Guiliani? John McCain? Newt Gingrich? Condi Rice? (Maybe Rice is, not counting foreign policy, but I speak in hopeful ignorance here...)
I suppose that's the trade-off for Election Nights that aren't nearly as depressing for us as for Dems.
For the time being, though, I just wanted to direct attention to a piece that just appeared in the LA Times about George Bush's new budget. Initially, I was pleased to hear that for once, Bush was going to do something about runaway spending. After all, what buzz I had read and heard on NPR and elsewhere seemed to indicate that it angered and annoyed all the right people. (Rule of thumb - with the possible exception of some social morality issues, if it pisses Jack Beatty off, it's probably a good thing). But this piece, if accurate, means that my initial hopes were misplaced. The era of big government is back with a vengence. God help us.
This is one thing that makes life so much better for Democrats than libertarians. They can lick their 2004 election wounds and put their hopes in 2006 and 2008 (though perhaps not if Hillary runs...). Who do we libertarians have? None of the prospective Republican presidential candidates are even vaguely close to libertarian - Bill Frist? Rudy Guiliani? John McCain? Newt Gingrich? Condi Rice? (Maybe Rice is, not counting foreign policy, but I speak in hopeful ignorance here...)
I suppose that's the trade-off for Election Nights that aren't nearly as depressing for us as for Dems.
2 Comments:
Glad to see you're back! I can't remember where I first saw your blog, but I was thrilled to see an academic from Madison blogging. I'm a UW graduate from a few years back. I still love that city and return on a regular basis! Keep up the good work.
Thanks! It's good to hear from you. I'll check out your blog, and as long as it's not weird or anything, I'll provide a link to it in my sidebar. I keep meaning to discuss more Madison stuff, but I didn't think many of the few people who read it are even local. There was a story that Mayor Dave apparently fessed up, at a meeting of Democrats, to have researched Canadian citizenship law the day after Election Day, so I thought I might mention this in the coming week. Then there's the new North Korea bluster of the month, and I still sort of thinking about what I could say about it that hasn't already been said better elsewhere.
Anyway. If you had your choice, would you live here in Madison full time?
Post a Comment
<< Home