The most recent 20 comments posted to Electrolite by BSD:

I'm not exactly a war and tactics buff, but even I can tell that the plan PNH suggests Bush II would use for Iraq is clearly bad enough that he (who, though he only served in the Reserves, certainly would have (as PNH grants him not only Powell but also a number of other very experienced strategists) sufficient advice) would have tried almost anything different.
Even assuming he engaged in an invasion of Iraq (the reason for which PNH leaves sadly unclear -- he says they'd accuse the provably-disarmed Saddam of having WMDs, or of harboring terrorists (who mostly wanted him out as a secularist), or most laughably, of using a humanitarian rationale for invasion. Come on, Mr. Nielsen-Hayden, do you really expect us to believe that Republicans would really invade anywhere for humanitarian purposes?) it's more likely that he would have, like his father, taken the wise choice of keeping out of Baghdad and not trying to occupy a notoriously difficult country to occupy.

And really; after the massive national and international support for Gore's intervention in the Sudan, can he suggest that had Bush been elected we'd sit by for a second Rwanda?

Every word I read about or by him leaves me more impressed.

I think I have three politics memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life:

1: Working a full election day with my father, in the city we both love, in the neighborhood that is deep in both our bones. I understood then what local politics is, and I forgave him for any absence during my childhood.

2: Reading today's (7/27/02) AP wire story about my brother.

3: Watching that speech today.

As jealous as I am of (2), I'm more jealous that JRS heard (3) live, saw it live, and has probably had a chance by now to meet Mr. Obama.

I have four words:

Holy shit. Obama.

Sorry, I forgot that the World is not New York. To explain simply, any party in NY is free to put whoever they'd like on their party line on the ballot (ballot presence is by petition, a minimum number I can't remember, order based upon votes received in the last gubernatorial election). As a result, in addition to the Dems, the Reps, the Greens and Reform, we also have Independence, Independents, Right to Life, Green, Communist, etc. Until recently, the two major non-majors were the Conservative and Liberal parties, which were both forces in their own right, aligned with but not subject to the D's and R's. The Liberal party was, for much of recent history, a sham, really, and recently died of scandal. Working Families is essentially a standard "Labor" party, with much union backing, and while it is fully aware it is going to usually endorse the Democrat for a seat, they do run their own people for local posts, and they use their endorsement as a carrot to encourage good candidates that they like. It's a minor inducement, to be sure, but it carries some votes, and every one helps.

Of course, one of the other side effects of our system is Lenora Falani, but hey, it's a tradeoff I can deal with.

From where I'm sitting, the primary response to the DLC has been "Sit Down and Shut Up". Is Lieberman looking like a party big wheel to you, these days? Or do we have a pair of, y'know, people who it is possible to actually call liberal at the top of the ticket?

And as stated above, now is not the time to fight over internal positions. The primary was (and if you think Kerry's stance, and choice of VP, is not substantially leftward of what it would have been had there been no Dean, no Kucinich, well, you weren't listening to him speak before his handlers let Kerry be Kerry again). The congressional and local primaries of the past umpteen years were (I've volunteered on primaries in sure dem seats for this exact purpose).

Do I wish national voting were different? Sure. If my candidate is double-lined, I vote for him or her on the Working Families line, and if the post is too low that double-lining is assured, I tend to know why they're not and vote accordingly.

Kerry is exactly who I want. I'm happy with Edwards as VP. Our primary produced a stunningly left-wing ticket for our time, and frankly, I didn't like Kucinich, and don't like Nader -- they're the type of lefties that tget their lunch eaten, not the kick-'em-in-the-balls-take-their-money-and-give-it-to-someone-who-needs-it lefties, so I'm not up for putting them in the room with rabid rightwing mastiffs, anyway.

So after all that rambling, my question is this. Did those of you unwilling to vote Kerry do anything between, say, June 02 and March 03 to make some other person, or some other platform, the coming result of the DNC?

I just came to the realization that most colleges and universities start the same week as the RNC -- my brother is going to be orientated, and I returning to such institutions. I guess that midtown isn't going to be on his "Welcome to NYC" tour.

Let me correct myself -- the statement and goal are racist, but I'm not sure that this dipshit, for all his failings, hates black people for being black. I'm sure he hates democrats, and that means, often, hurting people for race.

Duh. Duh. Duh.

The only positive thing one can say about this is that I think he is honest that the motivation is strategic, not racist. Same, I think, for K. Harris, and her little purge.

Doesn't make it OK.

My brother and father will both be at the DNC, and I find this, as a fan, noxious.

The proper response, in the case of a domain-collision, is for one party or the other to put a link to the other (or both to do so). Rude jokes, especially when, let's face it, fandom isn't exactly hard to mock, are simply the wrong way to go about it.

If it were not self-mocking, which I'm not in the mood for right now, I would start typing up a list from the other side.

Exactly, Mr. Nielsen Hayden. As the reasons for shame increase, the need to counteract shame with pride increases, and those who have invested their personal pride and value in the success and rightness of this group will cling ever harder to that which defends their worldview, and fight ever harder to silence that which attacks it.

I'm reading Lord of Light right now, largely on Avram's recommednation, and the parallel is not exactly unobvious.

"Well, at least we don't have any mass graves." is not acceptable. Not, not, not. Nor is condoning the torture of innocents. Not, not, not.

We should expect the denunciations of Inhofe from the right-blogosphere any day now, I'm sure.

That's the Bush doctrine in a nutshell, that is.

People often forget that the Twilight Zone, like much of SF then and now, is deliberate social commentary or warning-pieces.

And decidedly liberal, too boot.

Ahhrm, Terry.

The reason lawyerly questions seem so odd-and-bad to you is they have an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT PURPOSE. You are trying to learn things. Any litigator who asks a question in open court (or even, really, in a deposition) believes he or she knows exactly what the answer will be.

Similarly, the idea, to a lawyer, of actually trying to recover information directly from an adversary is chilling -- not only for the bar against ex parte contact, but because you don't want them framing the answer.

To a lawyer, the facts as they are believed, or purported to be believed, by everyone involved are generally known, and it is how those facts are framed and presented to the factfinder is the important thing -- hence the compound, complex, leading, vague questions.

I have always been, and continue to be, aware of a difference between interrogation and torture. This is torture. I can't imagine that "contract interrogators" are anything other than freelance torturers.

A note to all the "private armies funded by insurance companies" libertarians -- this is what money gets you all alone.

IDCs positing a sub-optimal creator aside, Pond Scum was not delicately crafted for malice.

Wonderful. NLP will be solved by spammers. Great. I'm not sure I want to persist in a post-singularity world where our never-organic bretheren were born from Make Money Fast.

One could say that David Neiwert, over at Orcinus

Because I can't get my brain out of gear right now:
Civil or Common?*
Lexis or Westlaw?
Statute or Regulation?*

*Nontrivial

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