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As I type it is seven hours and a couple of minutes until the exact time I’ll be exactly 36 years old. It will happen at 14:13:38 UTC today. That’s 7:13:38 AM Pacific, 10:13:38 AM Eastern. Wow, I sure am old. I’ll probably be asleep when the exact moment hits. At least that is the plan. I’ve been using Google reader for slightly over a month now, so I can now look at the monthly stats and have them mean something. I’ve been “sharing” every article that I actually read most or all of rather than just skimming past based on the headline. So, here are the top 10 sources I’ve been reading over the last month:
Of course, those 10 account for 44% of the items I read. So there is still a lot form other sources as well. But those were the biggest ones this last month. Also interesting is that there are a bunch in this group (and also in the next 10) that I didn’t read at all before I was reading via Google Reader rather than actually going to the websites. The highest ranking of these is Huffington Post. I can’t stand the website. I would never go there. But via RSS, I’ve obviously found a few things I thought were worth reading. Anyway, interesting.
Walk 10 feet to the next room over? How silly! The President did his speech thing a little earlier, but I don’t feel like talking about it. So instead here is a link to Unusual Wikipedia Articles that was on Digg earlier. You could spends days reading the articles linked to from that page. I think the point made in this article, and the one it links to is very pertinent… The Master Narrative that Went Missing During the Bush Presidency
Read the whole article, and the TPM Cafe one. They are good. But in any case, I think the point is correct. It may not be what the big issue becomes in the next election, but it is what the big issue SHOULD be… what the limits on the executive branch should be, and how to roll back the massive expansion that has occurred… frankly not just in the Bush Presidency, but for many decades before that. Executive power has been gradually expanding… well, OK, ever since George Washington… but it has accelerated lately. The balance has gotten way out of wack. And neither congress nor the courts seem to be particularly interested in reversing the direction. This is extremely worrying. So, as the article asks, would your candidate roll back presidential power? I frankly don’t see many of the candidates who are running that would. Certainly none of the front runners. And this certainly isn’t a Republican vs Democratic thing. Would Hillary repudiate outright any of the power W has accumulated? Hell no. She would use it in very different ways, I am sure, but is she about to say, “You know, no, I can’t push forward this agenda that I believe in deeply because I don’t have the power.” No, I don’t think so. She would use every bit of power she inherited to do what she thought was best. And more to the point, even if a new president actually did refrain, and didn’t use any of the expanded powers, that would not be enough. Once the precedent is set, even if the power is unused, it is still there, ready to be used by the next president who DOES want to use it. No, to roll back expanded powers, you would actually have to actively seek to reverse it. New laws or even constitutional amendments to make absolutely clear the boundaries of executive power. Or aggressive prosecutions of members of the previous administration for overstepping their bounds (this might not even be possible in most cases). Just not using the power, just not enough. You would need to create new counter-precedent that explicitly reversed previous expansion. And unfortunately, I just don’t think that will happen, no matter who wins. Even the limits on executive power after Watergate were short lived. Congress (and the courts) just have not had the mettle to aggressively protect their own prerogatives and resist the expansion of the powers of the presidency. And that is a horrible shame. So early today when I was ready to leave work, I headed down to the car and it wouldn’t start. Brandy had to come and give my poor Saturn a jump start. I hadn’t left the headlights on, which would be my usual excuse. This time I’d left the dome light on. I don’t actually remember turning it on ever, so who knows how long it had been on. But in any case, it killed the battery. Brandy came and rescued me, then we went out to dinner. Then we went home. I watched one TV show, and then immediately fell asleep for the night. My productivity last night was obviously limitless. For the last hour or so I’ve been watching MSNBC’s replay of their coverage from 6 years ago. I turned it on after the main events. They are covering aftermath now and slowly trying to figure out what happened. But it is amazing how strongly watching this minute by minute replay, as opposed to the summary retrospectives you see elsewhere, brings back so vividly and strongly the emotions of that day. It was a profoundly powerful moment and still is to this day. And I don’t really feel like saying much more than that.
In any case, there were many twists and turns and it definitely kept my attention. I’d talk more about some of the specific items, as I definitely have opinions on them, but for anybody who hasn’t seen the film (or perhaps read the book) that would just be spoiler after spoiler. So I shall refrain. Suffice it to say, I really enjoyed this movie. It was well executed and it explored some interesting ideas. It was worth the watch for sure. This is one of the rare movies I’d actually consider watching a second time just to see if I would catch things I didn’t catch the first time around. I probably won’t actually do that, but I’d CONSIDER it. :-) |
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Ivan couldn’t make it yesterday at taping time, so as a special guest, Amy co-hosted with me this week and also picked all of the topics. So, today’s topics:
