Great Scott!

Can you believe the Scott McClellan tell-all book? He really lets his old masters have it. He is a sympathetic character because as I look back I could really see his discomfort up there. Obviously, he was being forced to give the media a story that he didn't really believe himself.

Onion headline

Just popped into my head:

"New interstate bypass to be built entirely by suit-wearing officials with ceremonial shovels."

A good quote

I came across the following quote during work the other day. I think it says much about what perspective one should have in writing commentary about the world.

"Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous."

Chuang-Tzu

Chinese essayist (c.369 B.C.-c.286 B.C.)

China vs. Myanmar

Watching the disasters in Asia unfold offers a telling story about power.

In Myanmar, we see a regime that has held power for its own sake. It cares little for its own people and would rather see the victims of the cyclone die from disease, starvation and exposure than to seek outside help. The regime has power, but demonstrates no power as far as helping its own people.

They may stay in power, however, because they understand one simple fact: The key to holding on to power is their army. Keep the army happy, keep it in control and they will stay in power. The disaster actually has helped them stay in power because any dissident factions within the nation have been so terribly weakened they lack the strength to rise up.

In China, we see a regime that seized power from the bottom up, instead of from the top down as in Myanmar. The Communists came to power as a people's revolution. Then, when the people who lead the revolution seized control, they became institutions of the establishment. But as authoritarian as the regime is, there is a core philosophy of Communism that puts emphasis on the worker. That Marxist viewpoint has been superseded by the Leninist philosophy that the state comes first. But there is still an understanding that the state cannot exist without the worker. It was Mao who said that power grows from the barrel of a gun, and we saw that in Tianamen. But we have seen the benevolent side of that philosophy as the state has come to rescue its workers from the earthquake. More than 6,000 people were pulled from the rubble by rescuers this past week.

Outmaneuvered

On the eve of the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, Barack Obama has allowed Hillary to flank his message.

Last week, McCain and Clinton announced plans for a summer gas-tax holiday, which Obama dismissed as just another political gimmick. He's right of course, but his initial criticism that such a move would endanger critical road projects and maintenance allowed Hillary an opening.

No, she said, don't leave the taxes uncollected. Collect them from the oil companies instead.

Obama stands firm in rejecting this position. Afterall, the oil companies could just raise their prices to cover the additional taxes they would pay.

But still, he's been put in a corner, forced to defend a position that says, "I don't want to help average Americans with outrageous gas prices."

When a politician stands between voters and the money they see as theirs - even as small amount like $30 for the summer - he (or she) just can't win.

Case in point: The tax rebates may not have been financially responsible. But the second the words were stated publicly in Washington, no one could oppose it. Once the words were said, everybody in the country knew how they wanted to spend/save that money. Anyone who resisted the plan, or slowed it down too much, would just be standing between voters and their money.

From The Observer

I just liked this commentary on the Obama-Clinton matchups in Indiana (Go Hoosiers) and North Carolina:

http://www.observer.com/2008/time-expectations-work-obama