This and That

Hi everybody! Brazen and I are sitting in bed plotting our weekend. The undergrads are returning, so there are going to be whole quadrants on town we shouldn't go to. How annoying. At least the weather finally broke last night - it's not scaldingly hot anymore.

There are a couple of political things I felt like commenting on, but have been too lazy until now. (Blogging is more fun that actually getting out of bed, you see).

1) There are a number of sources stating that a lot of beltway types want to overthrow the Prime Minister of Iraq. The idea is that if we put someone new in charge, everything will somehow get better. I find this particularly funny given Bush's recent statements tying Iraq to Vietnam. Excuse, haven't we seen this movie? The U.S. was constantly meddling in South Vietnamese politics, toppling leaders and replacing them with new ones. It didn't really help, since it only introduced yet more instability and removed any semblance of credibility or autonomy in the regime.

The broader problem I have is with this obsession with men and not situations. It's all of a piece with the folks that we should just pick the right President (either a Gore or a Bush) and all of our problems will go away, rather recognizing objective reality or getting off the couches and doing it ourselves. Relying on men (and it's always men) is a form of authoritarianism in appropriate for a self-governing people. So there.

2) Hillary Clinton has been taking a lot of grief for saying that the Republicans would benefit politically from a terrorist attack. Look, I know it's unpleasant to think about it, but it's probably true! Clinton is referring to the "rally around the flag" effect - that in times of national crisis people look to whoever's in the White House. Add this to the Republican Party's insistent framing as the "tough" party and the media's likely response ("Yay! Republicans! Boo Democrats!") and Clinton's statement looks more like common sense than "furthering a right-wing meme." Honestly.

And with that I'm going to make some toast. Regrettably nothing I do to toast is going to turn it into sausage.....