Baby Bears on the Prowl

Although I like St. Louis (I chose to live here), as some of my readers might know, I'm a Cubs fan. I grew up in Iowa, a state that has legions of Cubs fans. And being a Cubs fan is part of my psyche.

I was happy to discover that in an overt move to increase the value and asking price of my beloved franchise, the Tribune Co. is going on a spending spree comparable to a drunken lawyer at a Vegas strip club.

Link: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20061120&content_id=1743683&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Money seems no object, and this Cubs fan is happy. The public rationale offered by some is that the team has to "keep up" with the Cardinals, but it's mostly about the Tribune Co. making out well in its sale of the franchise. Hopefully, we fans will receive a windfall too, like a World Championship in '08--the hundred year anniversary of our last World Series Championship.

Everyone's entitled to a bad century, right?

Huzzah for Sir Nicholas Stern

An economist who gets it...

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6096084.stm

Unfortunately, the Bush administration and various corporate influencers are willing to cloud the issue of global warming as much as they can to create, as Chris Mooney says in his article "Some Like It Hot," a "rhetoric of scientific uncertainty" (Mother Jones May/June 2005, p. 48) . Or they offer up a novelist's dreamings about an environmental conspiracy theory (Crichton's State of Fear) as a suitable piece of support why global warming needs to be studied further, which is simply a ploy to delay needed action on this issue. They don't take into account that the overwhelming majority of the "science" referenced in Crichton's novel (which means that it's fiction, remember?) comes from sources that haven't been peer-reviewed or "research" that is funded through ExxonMobil in particular or various think tanks tied to petro-corporate interests. Thankfully, at least the head honchos at BP and Shell have admitted that global warming is a serious problem and have taken steps, albeit small, toward action on this issue.

As Donald Kennedy, the editor-in-chief of the prestigious and peer-reviewed Science, related back in 2001, "Consensus as strong as the one that has developed around this topic [global warming] is rare in science."

Here's the link to the full report by Stern: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/Independent_Reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm

Assessing the Presidential Field

As soon as the midterm election was over, the MSM turned to the prospects for the '08 Presidential election. Here lies a humble assessment of the potential candidates. I begin with the Democratic Party and then move to the GOP.

The Democrats:
Hillary Clinton
Various media outlets and polls indicate that she's the "front runner," but I wonder how accurate that is. She certainly has name recognition, and she knows how to raise a heck of a lot of money. However, Clinton would be easy to demonize, so the Repubs would love to see her win the nomination. I think she's a major player in the field, but I don't see the US having a female president before an African-American male; African-American men typically have broken barriers in leadership positions before women.

Barack Obama
You had to see where I was going with that last sentence. Regardless of his voting record in IL and in the US Senate, Obama has created a "middle of the road" image and has used his stature to become a celebrity, with trips to Africa and frequent visits to Oprah, who publicly stated she would vote for Obama if he ran for Prez and implored him to announce on her show (shameless). The GOP should fear the "Oprah vote," and Harold Ford Jr.'s close loss in Tennessee (a Southern state that's only 18% African-American) bodes well for Obama.

John Edwards
Here we have another Oprah guest, strangely enough. He's a skilled rhetorician; his "Two Americas" stump speech and his crusade against poverty plays well to many. Like Obama, he has a good story to tell/sell. He probably will get hammered on national security issues and one would expect to hear a lot about "trial lawyers," but he's an interesting candidate--one to watch.

John Kerry
I don't see the Dems going down that road of obtuseness again. Like Gore, he had a good shot and lost.

Al Gore
See John Kerry.

Evan Bayh
He's unknown nationally and comes from a predominately "red" state that has become purple in some areas.

Tom Vilsack
Who?

Bill Richardson
Of the lesser known candidates, he could use his Latino heritage to bring an unpredictable but growing voting public under the wing of the Democratic Party. It's Machiavellian to think that way, but people do.

Joe Biden
He's not as boring as John Kerry but longer-winded.

The duos that have the best chance of winning: Obama/Richardson or Edwards/Richardson.
The duos that the GOP wants the Democratic Party to field: Kerry/Gore, Clinton/Kerry.

The Republicans:
John McCain
He has cultivated a "maverick" yet centrist image while still being very conservative on some issues. Like Obama, he's a consummate political opportunist. Centrist and independent voters seem to like him even though his voting record may show different things. He's made nice recently with the Conservative Christian wing of the party, who seems to have had a grudge against him for whatever reason. He's the clear front runner.

Mitt Romney
He seems to be the current darling of the hard right, but--it's sad to say this--I don't see Americans voting for a Mormon president.

Rudy Giuliani
He'd be a considered a "moderate" Republican, and as the last Presidential campaign showed, the GOP will shamelessly use 9/11 as a political prop.

Newt Gingrich
He's been out of the political scene after shutting down the government during the reign of Clinton (I kid, I kid), but he seems to be well liked in GOP circles. He's not a direct talker though.

Bill Frist
Did he really think Terry Schiavo and flag burning were two of the most important issues during his tenure as Senate majority leader? Yes, yes he did.

Chuck Hagel
He's a popular Senator from a midwestern state, but he has the national profile of someone like, uh-what's his name?, Viszlick?

George Allen
Stick a fork in him.

Duncan Hunter
He believes fences make better neighbors.

The duos that have the best chance of winning: McCain/Giuliani or McCain/Gingrich.
The duo that the Democrats want the GOP to field: Frist/Hunter.


To me, it seems to be advantage Republicans.

Giving the Rove His Due

I have to hand it to Karl Rove. In response to good old fashioned licking the GOP took in the midterm election (the Iraq midterm), the advisor has been carefully crafting some solid PR to steal the headlines away from the Democratic Party's glory.

It's obvious that firing Rummy was planned a while ago, and it's smart--from a PR standpoint--for the President to make a big announcement of Rummy's resignation as a response to the Republican thumping. The move on the surface indicates that the Bush administration, after six years of not doing so, is willing to reach out to Democractic leadership. Now they have to, and they created good PR by turning the resignation of Rummy into a perception that things will change.

What's comical to me is that so many pundits and politicans have stated that the Dems need to work in a bipartisan manner with Republicans. Where was that sentiment when the GOP controlled Congress? For a party that loves to paint itself in Christian terms, they sure haven't walked the walk on "do unto others..." As has been chronicled over the course of Bush's tenure, Democratic leaders have been shut out of negotiations and decision making in Congress.

While it makes sense for the greater good of the country and from a political/perceptual standpoint that Democrats work with the GOP in a bipartisan manner, I certainly hope there is some serious investigation into where all our money has gone and is going in Iraq.

Bush's Political "Capital"

Although I think Bush wasn't the single cause for what happened last night, I think it's clear that Bush's assertion two years ago that the American people gave him political capital has been found to be fallacious.

That capital seems to have been a result of ideological junk bonds. To extend the specious economic terms even more, it's a "market correction" of sorts.

Or, in another view, if he was given political capital, it was because of Kerry's nitwitish campaign.

Attack/Campaign Ads

Most of us here in Missouri are probably tired of the McCaskill and Talent attack/campaign ads.

However, here are some curious slogans, campaign pitches, or photo opps. that never got produced for commercials or fliers.

I wonder why?

From the Talent Campaign:
-"Claire McCaskill, She Wants to Raise Taxes, especially for Log Cabin Republicans and the Gun Nuts"
-A commercial with background music mimicking Saturday Night Fever's theme "Staying Alive," but the chorus says "Staying the Course."
-Party pics with Virginia Senator George Allen that show Talent putting Allen's notorious noose around the his neck as a gag. The ad states, "See, Jim Talent isn't really a nerd!"
-A photo of Talent, Mark Foley, Kenneth Lay, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, and Rev. Ted Haggard all praying together.

From the McCaskill Campaign:
-"I'm rich like everyone else in D.C., but I know what you poor folks need."
-"Jim Talent, like most Republicans who protected Mark Foley, blames the Catholic Church."
-"I'm a cuter and smarter Hillary Clinton."
-"Vote or Die" (obvious plagiarism)

Embryonic Stem Cells

I was thinking the other day, would the stem cell issue be different if we could extract crude oil from them?

What do you think?