Dreary Day - Happy Thoughts

This is Berkeley Lake (where Melissa and I run every morning) looking west toward that wonderful snow storm that is headed our way.

It might be helpful to orient all non-Denver readers: Berkeley Park sits immediately south of I-70. As a matter of fact, the northern portion of the running surface around the lake is probably not more than twenty? thirty? yards from eastbound lanes of I-70.

Now, happy thoughts...

Ashcroft is gone. I'm not really sure I understand his conclusion that, "I take great personal satisfaction in the record which has been developed. The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved. The rule of law has been strengthened and upheld in the courts."

Are we safe from crime because of Ashcroft's tenure? Are we safe from terror because of Ashcroft's tenure? Uh, I don't think so. But, let's just put that happy face on and be thankful that he's gone. (Pray for a more reasonably constitutionally-schooled successor!)

This passed along to me from my niece-in-law: "...Cope with Bush's win. This line of dialogue is from Orson Welle's THE THIRD MAN. It's very apropos to the current period:

'In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.'

I think the next four years will be a boon for artists everywhere."

Perhaps. Perhaps not.

This from Evan Kerkacz, at Alternet: Conscience and Politics Can Play Nice Together

"The seven Democratic senators who voted against the Iraq war all won re-election – and they did it by an average margin of nearly 30%.

Anti-war Democrat senators who won:
Barbara Boxer – California – 58%-38%
Daniel Inouye – Hawaii – 76%-21%
Barbara Mikulski – Maryland – 65%-34%
Patty Murray – Washington – 55%-43%
Russ Feingold – Wisconsin – 56%-44%
Ron Wyden – Oregon – 63%-32%
Pat Leahy – Vermont – 71%-25%

Zoom in and the point becomes even clearer. In Oregon, where Kerry, who voted for the war, won by a mere 4 percent, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden won by over 30 percent "despite" his vote against it. Wisconsin, which was too close to call on election night, didn't take very long to declare Russ Feingold, who voted against the war (ignoring warnings from his staff), the winner. He won by 11 percent. Writer John Stauber concludes, 'The lesson is this: Russ Feingold proves that an anti-war, populist Democrat, a maverick campaigning to get big money out of politics, can win and win big.'

These statistics should strike fear out of the Democrats the next time issues of war and peace are on the table. Maybe, just maybe, if they can persuade the Democratic establishment to disabuse itself of the mistaken belief that reelection comes to those who adopt the safest position, rather than to those who make a strong case for the values they hold most dear, it has a shot at being relevant in the 21st century."

So, once again... Happy thoughts today.