Friday Night Rant

Ah, what lovely incident of the week should be its end. Perhaps the eternal question:

Who won the effing debate.

Pundits will argue but I know who lost. We, the people. The asker of the question, "Pearls or Diamonds" is now claiming CNN made her ask the question. At gunpoint? Was waterboarding involved? Or is this a fifteen minutes moment? Don't know but as long as Wolf Blitzer doesn't shave or learn to ask intelligent, germane questions, I don't watch CNN. Of course, I don't watch the Continuous Nonsense Network anyway so Wolf isn't going to lose too much of an audience.

Another of Life's Persistent Questions (nod to Garrison Keillor) is have the Democrats finally grown a set. They're facing off with Bush over spending for the Iraq war. In the past, Bush called the Dems a few bad names and the Dems (read "leadership") have caved. Can it be they've grown a set and will really force him to veto spending measures or will they, with great noise and shaking of fists, cave once again? Remains to be seen. I'd love/hate to think this is a part of a larger strategy: We played nice for a while and you didn't play along so now we're going to pull out our can of checks-and-balances whoopass and open it up on you. I'd love it because it's great political strategy. I'd hate it because men and women died for that strategy.

And finally, a kudo. Good on ya, Dems, for pulling Telecom immunity from the FISA bill. Now keep it out of there. The telecoms knew they were breaking the law and only Qwest did the right thing (it really hurt to have to praise my ISP but credit where it's due). They went ahead and forked over mountains of customer data without a warrant. They deserve their day in court and then to pay every cent of damages they're found to owe. Unfortunately their CEOs are contract workers and can't be held criminally liable for the Corporation's actions.

Happy weekend!