Tim Russert dead at 58

Tim Russert passed away today at the age of 58 from an apparent heart attack.  

He was a great political reporter, the moderator of Meet the Press, and was always a neutral voice on any program.  He will be dearly missed by anyone familiar with his work.

Out with a whimper, but there's still life in Ron Paul

Ron Paul ended his campaign tonight. Everyone, including me, has forgotten about him.

He started off very strong, winning a lot of grassroots support, and raising a boatload of money. Despite all of this, Paul's campaign failed. The reason for this is probably Paul himself. He did not become very active in his own campaign and let disorganized supporters handle much of it.

Despite this, Ron Paul was able to propogate his message. He wants to continue his path, and has launched a new website: www.campaignforliberty.com

I have signed up. Have you?

Habeas Corpus Remains

Today in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court rule that the "enemy combatants" in Guantanemo deserve to be tried in a real court, not a kangaroo court in Cuba.  

Habeas Corpus is an ancient doctrine that basically says a person must be brought to a real court, presented with real charges, and a decision must be made as to whether the person should remain in custody.

Abraham Lincoln suspended the write of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War to hold Confederates in the Union without bringing them to trial.

It was wrong then, and it is wrong now.  If these are truly bad people we have in Guantanemo (and I'm not convinced that all of them are bad, since many of them were given to us by other dictators they pissed off), then there should be no issues with bringing them to trial.  A country should not be afraid to take people to a real courtroom, not a military tribunal, if it really believes that the said persons committed crimes.  

This ruling is an important victory for Liberty, since the government was on a slippery slope of being able to detain anyone, including American citizens, and keeping them locked up forever without a trial.

I have long been against holding these people without a trial.  If it is proven that they killed Americans, we should execute them.  But every person deserves the right to a fair trial, and this is what we were denying.

Sorry Bush, sorry McBush, oops I mean McCain.  You aren't above the law anymore.

Mac, PC, or stupid?

When it comes to John McCain, he knows about as much about computers as he does about the economy.  I understand he's a bit old, but if you want to run the country you need to show that you understand things that younger (and I'm talking under 60) understand, like how to click a mouse, how to send a email, and how to read my blog.

Veterans Day Should be Election Day

This is a response to Roland Martin's recent article that election day should be a Saturday.

Election day is the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. Roland Martin believes that we should make it a Saturday, in order to give more people the opportunity to vote. While I am all for making election day more accessible to Americans, a Saturday in November just won't cut it.

Picking a weekend automatically disenfranchises religious voters. Orthodox Jews most likely would not be able to vote on any Saturday, no matter which month it is. Sundays are problematic for conservative Christians, for many of the same reasons.

Either day of the weekend is typically a day when the week's remaining affairs are taken care of, whether it be getting your haircut, buying a new pair of shoes, or cutting your lawn. Weekends are not made for going out and doing your civic duty; we are Americans after all and we value our leisure.

For that reason, I propose Veterans day as election day. For one, all federal and state employees have the day off, as do all bank employees and many others. It always falls in November (currently the closest weekday to November 11) and it could easily be standardized to a Monday or Tuesday.

Why not combine one of America's forgotten federal holiday's with our democracy. Our veterans fought in many wars to give us the liberty to choose our representatives in government and tying election day with our military tradition would add a lot to both holidays.

TSA punishes protests

To all you privacy advocates:

It is still OK to travel without ID, even on an airplane.  You just have to tell the TSA officer that you lost it.  As part of TSA's new policy, people who willfully refuse to show ID will not be allowed to board.  Others will.  

Could be a fun policy to test, but who'd want to get stuck in the airport.

No Upset at the French Open

Despite being ranked lower (#2) than his opponent, Rafael Nadal easily beat Roger Federer (#1) today in straight sets at the French Open for his fourth win in a row.  He has now beat Federer 4 times at this event.

Federer is often considered the Tiger Woods of tennis, but he has yet to win at the French Open, mostly due to Nadal.  

No Triple Crown this year

Da Tara wins the Belmont Stakes, Big Brown finishes in 8th place.  

No Triple Crown winner in 30 years, not one this year.  Maybe next year?

Clinton: "Yes We Can!"

Hillary Clinton today officially suspended her campaign and endorsed Barack Obama.  In what I consider to be a great and powerful speech, Hillary was able to weave together the civil rights struggle, women's rights struggle, and four decades of public service to tell all of her supporters to support Barack Obama.  She went as far as speaking to the women in the room and around the country who were hopeful to see a woman as president, that defecting to McCain would be a set back for women's rights.  

Early on, a few of those in the crowd booed, but by the end the overwhelming majority were cheering on Barack Obama's name.  Quite a historical moment, and one can only hope, a prelude to McCain's defeat in the fall.

Based on Clinton's tenacity, and the fire that she still has for this election, I think that it might be a good move for Obama to pick her as VP, so long as she knows where her place is in his administration.  It will be interesting to see how that part of the story plays out, but if she is his VP there is no possible way he could lose, as she would likely deliver states like PA, MI, OH, WV, and AR if she was on the ticket.

Update: When Pat Buchanan calls a speech by Clinton "magnificent" you know it was special.

John McCain must be shitting his pants right now (and no, that wasn't a crack at his age).

McCain OK with spying on Americans

Today the NYT reports that McCain has said he agrees with the Bush Administration's use of wiretaps without warrants against citizens of the United States.  If this man is elected, I expect a further erosion of liberties.  

So next time you pick up a phone, just remember who might be listening, and keep in mind that no due process need be followed.

Obama cleans up the DNC

As of today, the Democratic National Committee is prohibited from accepting money from lobbyists, a rule that the Obama campaign has followed for some time.  It is now his party.  Meanwhile, McCain and the GOP continue to be funded by lobbyists, mainly because they do not have enough citizens backing them to compete effectively without the help of oil companies, drug companies, etc.

Obama Rally in VA

Today I went to the rally for Barack Obama rally at the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA. We arrived at about 2pm in order to avoid traffic (which ended up not being too bad) and were inside by 3pm.

It was very interesting, a very diverse crowd and everyone was generally very nice. I met some interesting people there too. A country/rock band played from 4-5 and then Virginia Governor Tim Kaine arrived. He has been a pretty decent moderate governor thus far and he was one of the first state officials to endorse Obama. He spoke for about 20 minutes. We then waited for another 10 minutes and eventually Barack and Senator Jim Webb both appeared simultaneously.

Webb started talking, he and Kaine were both pretty fiery guys. I hope that Obama picks either Jim Webb or Mark Warner as VP: having a Virginia Democrat as a running mate would provide very good balance as they are both moderate and also are lively enough to help deal with John McCain. Also, in Webb’s case, he is a former Marine who also served in the Reagan administration so he has good policy experience in both republican and democratic circles.

Obama spoke for about 40 minutes. Like most speeches from politicians, he used a lot of language I had heard before but customized it very well good for Virginia. I believe that Virginia is key to this election and will do what I can to make sure that Virginia’s electoral votes go to Obama.

Tonight's Speeches

Obama - officially declared himself to be the nominee for the Democrats.  He stressed unity and also welcomed Hillary's supporters.

McCain - boring speech, not much substance.  He did not seem quite himself tonight; he had very little fire in his speech and seemed to be dreading this coming contest.

Clinton - what a nut job.  She did not concede even though she congratulated Obama with getting the most delegates and said she would make a decision within a few days.  What planet is she on?

The Democratic Nominee

Obama has now clinched, so say all of the media outlets. 

McCain looked very old and tired in his speech.

Obama Clinches Nomination!

Barack Obama has now clinched the Democratic Nomination, per the AP.

He should be giving a victory speech later tonight, but it will be Hillary's speech that will be interesting.

Will she officially suspend her campaign?

Will she officially concede?

Will she come out forcefully for the VP spot?

We should have answers to these questions within the next few hours.