PSoTD

What happened yesterday in Pakistan magnifies the sense of a world out of control. There are no Presidential candidates running that provide a sense that they can actually gather the reins. Frankly, I don't believe it is a capability of an American President at this point of time, but is the responsibility of all nation's leaders to tamp down the pressure, both domestically and internationally. There probably was a time in this century where the actions of one good American President could have reduced international pressures considerably at a benefit for the United States, but unfortunately, we haven't been graced with a good American President in this century.

Citizens of the world probably feel a LOT of anxiety after what happened to Benazir Bhutto yesterday. I know I do. I'd like to see my government work towards reducing that anxiety. I'd like to see Presidential candidates say something that indicates they see that as a priority as well. But I'm not really seeing anyone do that. And I know we don't have an American President that has any ability to do that currently. The world feels like it is sitting on the precipice of something far disastrous than the last horrible 6 years, and there are no statesmen or stateswomen available to draw the world away from the edge.

I'm sorry, but the Vatican needs to work much harder to make this a newsworthy item for every day. This "on the holidays" approach seems rather unsuccessful.

Lieberman to endorse McCain

There's not much to add here. I'm not sure anyone really cares who Joe Lieberman endorses, actually. If one of the big pollsters did a "Which Senator's guts in the U.S. Senate do you hate the most?" survey, I suspect Lieberman may very well win.

I really don't see any way that McCain is going to win the Republican nomination, which makes me wonder what Lieberman really thinks he is accomplishing here.

I watched Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose last night as well. I thought most of the interview was actually pretty boring, since it was so much horserace about Hillary, but at some point Charlie Rose should have just come out and said "Of course you think that she's the best candidate for President. You're her husband, if you believe in her, of course you believe that. But why should the rest of the country believe it?" Because that was the seeming nub of Rose's questions all night, and Bill Clinton never came close to answering it.

There does seem to be a sense in the news media of a panic in the Hillary campaign - and a sense that there should be a panic. Olbermann was hammering this case last night. I'm wondering if we're watching her candidacy dissolve under the scrutiny of the claim "most experienced" in balance with the question of whether she's really electable, and whether "most experienced" is what we really want, anyways. The Senate is full of very experienced Senators, and yet the changes they have enacted for this country are pretty depressing for many in this country. Most experienced may very well translate into least acceptable.

Stunning, ain't it?

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

Also, more government contractors worrying about state revenues.

The housing slump impacted revenue in 24 states this year and 18 say they are “concerned” about their revenue outlook, triple the number from last year, a new report released Dec. 10 shows.

The glum assessment from the National Conference of State Legislatures echoes similar concerns about state finances issued last week by the nation’s governors. The governors predicted as many as 20 states will have to patch holes in their budgets in 2008.

20 seems low. Florida's problems might get kinda ugly.

The Republicans are bickering over diabolical dogma.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, an ordained Southern Baptist minister, asks in an upcoming article, "Don't Mormons believe that Jesus and the devil are brothers?"

The article, to be published in Sunday's New York Times Magazine, says Huckabee asked the question after saying he believes Mormonism is a religion but doesn't know much about it.

Crazy Mormons! Everybody knows Satan is a red dude with horns and a tail who lives in a hot place in the middle of the earth. I've seen him on South Park.

Snark aside, there's an interesting diary at Kos on Southern Baptist - Mormon tensions.

It sure seems to me that a "balanced budget initiative", however defined, should be tied to legislator, staffer, and Presidential pay. No balanced budget? Vouchers, not cash, payments for members of Congress.

But I don't think I've ever heard anyone running for office say this. Anything short of a penalty on legislators - not the country, but legislators - for failing, isn't a serious proposal.

I'm not even arguing that I support a balanced budget amendment, because how it is defined makes all the difference in the world as to whether it will be useful or constraining or window dressing. But until such an amendment puts real pressure on members of Congress and the President to do the job by making penalties personal for them, I don't see it working.

Downloadable signs from

Romney
Paul
McCain

Or any of the other Republican candidates. Maybe there is a God. In our area, this is somewhat a surprise, as Republicans outnumber Democrats considerably, and in the past have been active and early supporters of their party's elections. Of course, the Pennsylvania primary is quite a ways away still, but in the past I've seen signs earlier. I suspect the Central Pennsylvania Republican community is like their counterparts around the country, basically depressed about the status and condition of their party and less than convinced about the particulars of any of their candidates.

It seems like most candidates offer a free "download" version of marketing crap, and then have a store for the odd people who actually want to buy marketing crap. But not Rudy Giuliani - it appears there's none of that free download crap from him.