4 days until something which won’t be addressed in this post

Here is an interesting article about the key difference between Reagan and Jr. Bush (hint: When the shit hit the fan one of them started to compromise with the newly elected majority party). I still generally find Reagan irritating on many levels, but this article does bring to light why he was a successful politician and why W. is just an uncompromising buffoon who stumbled into a job that the country didn’t even feel he was the most qualified for.

It’s nice to see that the FCC has less of a problem with media consolidation and the corporate news media which has a large control over what a lot of people see (due to what people have access to as much as anything else), but are hands on in areas where parents should be making their own decisions (such as what their child is exposed to via radio and tv). It would allow large news papers to claim a larger peice of the media as a whole, and does nothing to diversify an industry which should not be bending to interests of a few corporations.

It’s nice to see congress really pushing through meaningful legislation (I hope the sarcasm is apparent, but since this is a text medium…)

Here’s an idea from Edwards that I rather like (of course, it’s not going to happen if he doesn’t get the nomination).

Veterans aged 20 to 24 are 4 times more likely to commit suicide than non veterans of the same age group. Here’s the article which goes a bit more in depth statwise. CBS called the rates “Stunning” and some suggest a hidden epidemic. People are coming back from a hellish situation, they’re coming back wrong and people who were in a position to let loved ones know of the risk here did not come through. But I’m sure they support the troops (if we define that statement as meaning they support the war).

There’s an interesting development, that if it plays out would suggest that the Democrats might have relocated their spines (as odd as that sounds).

Here is the most obvious sign that people (not just internet news readers) are getting to the point where bloggers are being taken seriously. The founder of the Daily Kos will be doing presidential coverage for Newsweek. This could have interesting implications on the influence of bloggers depending on how this plays out. I’m interested in seeing the process.

A particularly weak Senate democrat is facing censure. Guess which one.

Olbermann clip.

A person of my political orientation can only hope the Republicans are stupid enough to push for Liberman as their VP nominee.

The only thing people should be scared of regarding Tancredo is the very remote possability that he becomes president. Scratch that. He’s not going to be president, no matter how hard he tries to scare people.

Letterman is paying his entire staff through the end of the year out of his own pocket. I’ve always kind of liked him, even though I don’t actually catch his show all too often and this is nice to see. I hope the writer’s can get what they want soon, but I’m not holding my breath. This is pretty amusing, from the writer’s of the Daily Show.

That’s all for now.