August 16, 2004

• Off the wall Conspiracy Theory of the Day:

  I just made up a conspiracy theory based on various actual concerns:

  • November 2004 : Either Kerry or Bush wins the presidential elections.
  • January 2005 : During the inauguration, a nuclear blast hits Washington D.C. The remaining federal government declares martial law and shuts down nearly all civil liberties.
    • If Kerry/Edwards have won the election, both will be killed in the blast. Presidential succession will go to the Speaker of the House.
    • If Bush/Cheney have won, Bush will be killed and presidential succession will go to either Cheney, or if he was killed, to the Speaker of the House.
  • In either case, we would see the following:
    • Martial Law
    • Vigorous support of war efforts
    • A Republican controlled government
    • Nearly complete suppression of dissent via both social restraints, and application of the Sedition act when necessary

  For the record, I do not actually think this will happen, but it makes a good conspiracy theory, doesn’t it.
  

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  More than just the Lizard?

  I was recently given a good reason (beyond the lizard strategy) to vote for Kerry. Judicial Nominations. Of course, there are “third party” (and Democratic) candidates who I’d still far rather see in office…

  Where, oh where, is Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) when we need it?
  

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  Score 1

  In Venezuela, Chavez has won recall referendum by at least 15%. An interesting highlight is that voter turnout ended up being much higher than expected and they decided to keep the polls open 8 hours longer than they had originally scheduled. A nice nod to Democracy.
  

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  Hell

  The Sudanese are in hell. I’ve already mentioned the refugee camps and genocide. To compound it all, they’re due for a swarm of locusts.
  

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  More to ponder

  Interesting. I’ve never really had a problem with the 17th amendment which changed Senate seats from being appointed by the state legislature to being determined by a popular vote, similar to the House of Representatives.

  Alan Keyes (a conservative Republican challenging Barack Obama in the Illinois Senate race) has come out against the amendment. He does make an interesting point:
  

  The Republican Senate candidate in Illinois, asked about past comments on the election process, said Friday the constitutional amendment that provided for popular election of senators upset the balance between the people and the states.

  “The balance is utterly destroyed when the senators are directly elected because the state government as such no longer plays any role in the deliberations at the federal level,”

  Of course, it is being received as an anti-democracy stance, but I’m going to have to think about it a bit. As to the Illinois senate seat, I very much would like to see Obama continue in politics, and I have no desire to see Keyes in power.
  

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  Be Sensitive

  Stolen from Atrios, an excerpt from Hugh Hewitt’s show:
  

  HH: Vice President Dick Cheney, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show.

  VP: It is good to be on here.

  HH: Today you brought attention to John Kerry’s plan to wage a more ‘sensitive’ war on terror. What do you think John Kerry meant when he said ‘sensitive,’ Mr. Vice President?

  VP: Well, I’m not sure what he meant (laughing). Ah, it strikes me the two words don’t really go together, sensitive and war. If you look at our history, I don’t think any of the wars we’ve won, were won by us being quote sensitive. I think of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant, they didn’t wage sensitive war. Neither did Roosevelt, neither did Eisenhower or MacArthur in World War II. A sensitive war will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans, and who seek chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more….

  …[later]…

  HH: Will the Najaf offensive continue until that city is subdued even if that means a siege of the Imam Ali shrine?

  VP: Well, from the standpoint of the shrine, obviously it is a sensitive area, and we are very much aware of its sensitivity. On the other hand, a lot of people who worship there feel like Moqtada Sadr is the one who has defiled the shrine, if you will, and I would expect folks on the scene there, including U.S. commanders, will work very carefully with the Iraqis so that we minimize the extent to which the U.S. is involved in any operation that might involve the shrine itself.

  And there you go.
  

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  Wha?

  They’re looking at giving the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products. Wow, it never even occurred to me that they didn’t have that authority.

  One thing I don’t understand about this article is that they are talking about a government buyout of tobacco farmers. What does that mean, and in the House version of the bill, why should taxpayers cover it? Both Kerry & Bush support some version of the buyout.

  As an aside: On the one hand, it is good to have someone who makes sure that foods and drugs meet minimal safety standards. On the other hand, the FDA is a centralized bureaucracy with little oversight and has all the issues one would expect in that case.
  

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  Hm.

  Stolen from The Moderate Republican; A guy named Ted Halstead is supporting an idea he calls “Universal Capitalism” which would functionally give every newborn American financial assets at birth. Hm.

  He also supports mandatory health insurance coupled with subsidies for those who can’t afford it. Interesting approach.

  • 5:36 pm
  • 1 Comment