Remember Memo-gate? Particularly the memo about Miguel Estrada and how he was "especially dangerous" because he was Latino. This brought charges from the right of racism on the part of Democrats. I don't want to get into that fight again (suffice to say that the way I read it, the Democrats thought he was "especially dangerous" because the Republicans would use his nomination precisely to force Democrats to oppose him and charge them with racism. Which is why the Democrats thought he was so dangerous; that opposing him would forever be linked to the fact that he was Latino, and not for the extremism of his views, according to them.). The charge was that the Democrats were opposing him because of his race. The Democrats countered that the Republicans were using his race to make him more difficult to oppose because they, the Republicans, would charge that this was based on his race alone.

The Democrats position on this leapt into my brain when I read this post by World O'Crap. It details a "spam" letter she received from NewsMax about supporting Vernon Robinson for Congress in North Carolina. And why should the readers of NewsMax support Mr. Robinson? Well, because he is black!

"Right now you and I have a wonderful opportunity to advance a cause we both believe in - stemming the tide of illegal immigration into this country, and returning our national immigration policy to some semblance of sanity.

"How can we do this? By helping a man named Vernon Robinson get elected to the Congress. Vernon Robinson is a very conservative black City Councilman from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

[...]

"Think about it - if the only black Republican in Congress is an insistent supporter of immigration reform, it will become impossible for the Congressional leadership and the White House to keep putting the issue on the back burner. This is the opportunity we've been waiting for!"

So basically, you need to support Vernon Robinson because once a black guy speaks out on illegal immigration, it would become a major topic because why would anyone oppose a black congressman? You know, unless they are racist or something.

But the Republicans would never use race for political advantage, that's only something a Democrat would do.

If only the Democrats could have seen this coming...

So I start a new blog and then don't update it at all. Mostly, I use it as a launching pad to other blogs while I am at work. But today I will do my lame impression of instapundit.com, i.e. link to a bunch of stuff and basically not comment on it. So here you go.

Gene Healey has a good article on Cato about the Jose Padilla case and the danger of giving the President discretionary power to hold a prisoner essentially forever.

My good friend Popeyechicken writes about the torture in Iraq that everyone and their brother has blogged about (except me). Just insert his view for mine.

Arthur Silber writes a post on the draft that I totally agree with. I don't always agree with Arthur, not being an objectivist/libertarian (at least not totally) but I find him, again and again, to be the most lucid and reasonable objectivist I have ever come across. If you aren't reading him often, you should be.

I just downloaded (gasp!) most of the new album from Ministry, Animositisomina For anyone who was a fan of industrial/punk in the late 80's, this is a welcome back!

Meanwhile, in my personal livejournal, I relate some much needed inventions for infants. Plus, dirty talk.

Unfortunately, living in Norway means I don't have the kind of access to the cable news networks that you have in the States. Sure, we get CNN international and the BBC. And my satellite company recently added FoxNews, although the 6 hour time difference from east coast USA makes for difficulty in viewing the nightly display of propaganda. And hardly anyone get's CNBC (although more people than get MSNBC, which I am pretty sure is not carried anywhere in Norway).

It's too bad, too. I really miss watching the trainwreck that Dennis Miller's career is becoming. I used to really like that guy. Saw him live once, in the late 80's. I even bought his first book of rants. But based on the commentary I saw on Hannity and Milquetoast and from what I have read and seen on the net, he has really lost it. And this isn't a knee-jerk political assessment. He just isn't funny anymore. Limbaugh is funnier, and that is me climbing way out on my political limb, bacause I hate that guy.

Anyway, that all leads me to what South Knox Bubba had to say after watching Miller's "interview" of Eric Alterman. And see it for yourself here. It seems pretty obvious that not only has Dennis lost his funny bone, he is way out of his depth in political commentary and debate.

Too bad, he used to be good.

Not that anyone is probably reading this at this point, but, uh, on to the next sentence. The purpose here is to provide a place for basically unedited political rumblings and comments about the news and other blogs. Unedited means off the top of my head, meaning that I am probably full of shit and absolutely wrong. I will correct myself if necessary (I strive to be factually correct, regardless of where that leads me politically).

I am what I like to call a left libertarian. I have definite libertarian leanings but have been a leftist in the past and still retain many of my lefty traits. I do tend to agree with liberals more than conservatives, although I think both have problems.

Posting will be sporadic and totally inconsistent (which are basically the same thing but I like both words). Trained and experienced (but not schooled) in marketing, advertising and computers, I currently live in Norway, where finding a job with no degree and little Norwegian work experience (I speak the language adequately at this point) has necessitated my taking a job as a porter at the hospital here (i.e. wheeling people around in beds, delivering supplies, taking bodies to the morgue, etc...) to feed my wife and two young daughters.

So that's the intro, as it were. Hopefully it will be less than a week before my next post (my job and home life provide less online time than any other period of my life). Links to my diary/journal sites are to your left.

Uh, ok then. See ya later.

Testing, one two.

Opening post. Unfortunately, I have no time right now. More to come.