Rural Thoughts

President Obama gave a really outstanding speech this evening, as usual. It's one of his gifts - this speechmaking. The tone and words were just right for the occasion. But let's not kid ourselves. If we think that we are past troubles caused by interests in Iraq, we are delusional.

If Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan ever becomes a national political figure, which I think is definitely a possibility, Tina Fey is going to love it! She may look more like Tina Fey than Tina Fey looks like Sarah Palin.

I was listening to the Diane Rehm show this morning, and they were talking about yesterday's primaries in several states and the political implications. I had to call in. And I was on the verge of getting on when I got a telephone call that I had to take, and when I got back to the Diane Rehm show call I guess they had called on me and passed cause I wasn't there. Oh well, that's life.

But what I was going to say was that I think that people in general are not going to make up their minds until the very last minute in November. And here is why I say that:

The news shows were kinda interesting today. But I'm going to focus this piece on two things that were in the shows which I found most fascinating. The first was the piece on "To the Contrary" on a new bill that has been introduced or is going to be introduced soon to deal with the industrial carbon emissions. Of course the legislation that has already passed the House but has bogged down in the senate is called "Cap and Trade."

I posted my first blog entry on Aug. 20, 2007. This will be entry 437, ost of them mine, but a number of really good columns were written by West Kentucky writer Berry Craig, and Craig Rhodes also contributed a little. My wife Kristi has contributed a few writings, and some photos.

As we approach the elections in November, an interesting dilemma is facing corporate America. On the one hand, they want to keep money tight because that keeps the economy stagnant and unemployment relatively high. That is bad for Obama politically, and the big money folks would like to see more republicans in the legislature. That is always good for their interests.

I was told today that these researchers from University of Kentucky that I have written about are having some kind of meeting tomorrow in Paducah to meet with some selected members of the public. Of course, I got no notice of any meeting. So, I wrote Ms. Hoover, who has been my contact over this research, (and who called the police on me)

I watched a number of Sunday news shows today. As usual, there were several themes. One of the themes was the confirmation of Kagan. Yawn. As I wrote a long time ago, she was a shoo-in from the beginning.

Kristi and I and our friend LaNelle went to Fancy Farm picnic yesterday together. The main reason we wanted to go was because the big time media has chosen the Conway/Paul U.S. senate race, and we thought it would be particularly crazy and interesting. Also, the day just happened to be a little bit of a respite from the 100 degree plus weather we have been having, and it didn’t feel quite as hot. (only about 95)

http://www.ag.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/05586AA1-146F-47DE-85BA-C2D06829764D/0... <--link to opinion

I am tired and hot and want to go lay down, but I do want to write my thoughts about wikileaks and the publishing of the all the Afghanistan war documents and the poll in yesterday's USA Today about how the country's support for the war in Afghanistan is slipping.

Once upon a time, Pat Quinn had some standing with grassroots social justice activists in Illinois. But oh how things change. He has become institutional very quickly. The answer to Illinois' problems isn't just cutting spending or raising revenues. It's cultivating an attitude of being able to recognize that we are in this together and we need cooperation. Quinn blew that one.

It wasn't a completely boring day in the news show world, but it wasn't the most interesting either. The most common topics were the Wikileaks posting of 10s of thousands of pages of so-called "classified" documents about the war in Afghanistan. The mainstream pundits are keeping more than an arms length from this. For the most part, the leak has been called "irresponsible," "harmful," and potentially "life-threatening" for some Afghans and Pakistanis who have been "co-operating" with the U.S.

The Sunday News shows were pretty good today. I thought that E.J. Dionne had one of the most important points when he said that the conservative movement for the last 40 years has been portraying the press as "liberal" and that they had been successful in that portrayal - so much so that many members of the mainstream press were terrified at being labelled "liberal." This was in the context of the Sharrod incident, as a contributing factor as to why this happened.