Framed

It's Friday . . .

. . . and the streets are ours.  Though dancing Jesus should look both ways before he Crosses.

And singing vampires should too.

Troglodytic

Now that the Bushies' oil buddies have tumbled to the stupidity of our economic isloation of Cuba, it's fair to ask: is there anybody, other than some troglodytic right-wing Cuban exiles, who thinks that our policies toward that country make any sense at all?

Sometime later this year, less than 70 miles from Florida, a consortium of Spanish, Indian and Norwegian companies will likely start drilling for oil. It could mark the beginning of a Cuban oil rush - one that American oil companies won't be able to join, despite their proximity to the action.

And that has some U.S. oil industry executives and lobbyists seething, especially since the American Association of Petroleum Geologists calls the offshore Cuban oil deposits a "significant find."

U.S. oil companies can't play in these waters, of course, barred as they are by sanctions prohibiting them from doing business with Cuba.

Ironic, isn't it: it may take the prospect of a capitalist energy bonanza to make our leaders realize that maybe dealing with socialists isn't so bad.

1,001 Nights

The emergence of "the Egyptian Dr. Ruth" is encouraging for those of us who believe that one of the best ways to encourage development, democracy and human rights in the Arab world is to empower women.  So much energy in the Middle East goes into controlling female sexuality; so much human potential is wasted when more than half of the population of a country is invisible.  Discussing sexual matters openly on the radio may enable men to put aside their socially incapacitating gynophobia and help the Muslim world begin to regain its heritage as a culturally enlightened society.

270 days . . .

. . . until the New Hampshire primary.

Tonight is the first televised candidate debate.  All eight Democratic Presidential candidates--Biden, Clinton, Dodd, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Obama, and Richardson--will mix it up in South Carolina at 7:00 on MSNBC.  MSNBC's website, by the way, has a nifty compare-and-vote page up which has videos from all eight candidates and allows people to rate each one.

With debates come drinking games, and at Drinking Liberally last night, we devised one for tonight's contest.

When any of the candidates say--

"working families," take one drink.

"let me finish," take one drink.

"exit strategy," take two drinks.

"failed policies," take two drinks.

"our brave men and women," take three drinks.

"Virginia Tech," take four drinks.

Bonus: take two drinks whenever Mike Gravel mentions his national initiative proposal or Joe Biden goes overtime.

At the end of the evening, the winner will be the person who, in spite of all the alcohol, can most accurately explain Hillary Clinton's position on Iraq.

Subpoenas

I'm not sure dropping a subpoena on Condi Rice in connection with the Niger uranium fakeout is such a great idea.  Sure, I'd like to know why we went to war in Iraq, but I don't think that hearings like this are going to get us any closer to an answer.  And I fear that the Democrats will get too bogged down in hearings and investigations and not enact the kinds of programs that the country so desperately needs.  The country is with the Dems now; more subpoenas and hearings are not going to sway any more voters over to the liberal agenda.

Note the first three words of this post: I'm not sure.  I am certain, though, that there is a point at which hearings, investigations and inquiries become a distraction from more pressing problems at best and counterproductive at worst.  It's worth keeping that in mind so that every House and Senate committee chairman with a lust for the limelight doesn't go subpoena-happy.

Tonight

Hey, liberals of Northwest Ohio and Southeastern Michigan: unwind your minds and rethread your heads tonight at Drinking Liberally.  Come by Manhattan's, 1516 Adams Street, at 7:30 and commune with your political soul mates.

271 days . . .

. . . until the New Hampshire primary.

Today it's the major Republican candidates' turn to have their websites examined for actual policy content.

Rudy Giuliani has a page entitled "on the issues" which contains airy, two-sentence explanations of his positions on the issues.  According to Giuliani, three of the seven major issues of the day are "cutting taxes," "abortion," "the Second Amendment" and "marriage."

John McCain's website is more substantive. It has one page of two-sentence issue statements, each of which is linked to other pages that more thoroughly explain his position.  These pages are more philosophical than specific, however.

Mitt Romney takes a similar approach, offering statements of philosophy more than details of policy.

Assuming that Giuliani is the frontrunner in the GOP race, he and Clinton appear to share the idea that when you're in the lead, proposing specific policies can only hurt.

Typo

Apparently CNN's spell-checker is on the fritz again:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vice President Dick Cheney accused Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday of pursuing a defeatest strategy in Iraq to win votes in the next election -- a charge Reid said did not warrant a response.

Used in a sentence, I guess their coinage would work something like this:

The Boston Celtics were the second-defeatest team in the NBA this season.

Alas for that.

Wagging

I would love to be one of the scientists who published the paper entitled "Asymmetric Tail-Wagging Responses by Dogs to Different Emotive Stimuli."  Sometimes, being an academic is just the greatest job in the world.

Gingrich's Vocabulary List

I've mentioned this before, but now we've got Newt Gingrich's 1996 GOPAC Memo up online in all its Orwellian glory.  Aspiring political framers, take note.