"Playing the Race Card"

Josh Marshall makes a point that is so obviously true,that I'm surprised I haven't seen this point made over and over again during the last few weeks. Referring to the conservative argument that the Democratic Party is addicted to "playing the race card" (which is meant to take some of the attention away of all those "Southern Strategy" stories): "…the premise that there is a basic equality between appeals to racism and charges of racism. It's a equation which is as morally vacant as it is logically flawed.". Read his whole post.

More Double Trouble

Mary McGrory has more to say on the Korean non-crisis crisis, and emphasizes an interesting dichotomy in Bush's approach to Saddam and Kim: the former is so evil that only bombing the crap out of Baghdad will solve the problem; the latter is so evil that only not talking to him will solve the problem. Huh?

Double Standard

Washington Post: For Wary White House, A Conflict, Not a Crisis. "In the case of Baghdad, the United States is preparing to go to war with a country that has just readmitted a hundred or so United Nations weapons inspectors. In the case of Pyongyang, the White House has said it has no intention of resorting to the military option, even though Pyongyang has just ordered the last three U.N. inspectors to leave."

Two quick questions: 1) Why is Bush deemed "wary", which is a positive description in this context, instead of "clueless", which seems to be a more accurate characterization? 2) Has Bush's crack team of psychoanalysists judged that Kim is not a serious threat due to the fact that Korea's mid-range missle is named the "No Dong"?

Back Home

Feeling oh-so-smart, I bypassed I-95 and instead came back via I-77/I-81/I-66, adding about 45 miles to my trip, but figuring I would miss all the holiday traffic and actually save some time. And I probably would have, except for the accident on I-77 that kept me stationary for about an hour. Best laid plans and all, I guess.