Birdsong's Blog

Birdsong Commented on Election Central Saturday Roundup by Eric Kleefeld

2008-12-07T18:29:46Z

Back in the day, folks thought it was a GOOD thing if the kids coming up behind them had a better shot. Back in the day, people didn't resent unions for winning better benefits and shorter work weeks, they figured that would eventually be good for all of us. Back in the day, people considered that progress.

Close, but no cigar. Education is about attitude more than about history, buildings, or IT. We don't value learning enough to push our kids and our teachers into putting out the mental effort required to achieve rigorous standards.

Birdsong Commented on Election Central Saturday Roundup by Eric Kleefeld

2008-12-06T18:29:40Z

Yeah, me too. But I'm still not a fan of Sen. Reid's.

Birdsong Commented on Thomas mulls case about Obama's birth certificate by 1849

2008-12-06T17:50:37Z

How would you feel if your life were to be summed up as "a pubic hair on a Coke can"?

Birdsong Commented on Senate Leadership Working To Get Hillary Past Wingnut Effort To Block Sec State Appointment by Greg Sargent

2008-12-03T19:15:04Z

Would you believe piss-ants?

Birdsong Commented on Richardson To Be Named Obama's Commerce Secretary Tomorrow by Greg Sargent

2008-12-02T23:10:44Z

Half the Repugs have hair just like a televangelist.

...Hagee, Robertson, Graham, Roberts, Bakker... Help me!!!

Birdsong Commented on Top Brass Measuring Up Obama (and talking about it) by Matthew Stavros

2008-11-30T17:26:26Z

I entered the Army in 1963, served in Germany from 1964-66 - the generals of that Army would not have commented on the President because the officers of that Army saw it as perforce apolitical. Times have changed; today's Army is much more part of society - today's standards of conduct have been assimilated by the officer corps: ask General Barry McCaffrey

Birdsong Commented on Would Hillary Bring Her Old-Guard Foreign Policy Advisers To State Department? by Greg Sargent

2008-11-21T19:37:31Z

Jonze says:

"I think Obama is using Clinton as a suck-all-of-the-air-out-of-the-room distraction while he..."

What is obtained by the players if HRH as SoS is a ruse? Obama gets cover for other position selections. Obama gets credit from remaining PUMAs for recognizing Hill's value. Hill's rep is enhanced. Bill's dealings appear to have been vetted, even if the public doesn't get to see. Hill can graciously decline and pick up Teddy's offer to become main mover in health care, get help raising money to cover her debt, and position herself for whatever the future brings.

It's enough to make Machiavelli chortle.

Birdsong Commented on Chuck Hagel For Secretary of Defense - Expect It by coonsey

2008-11-19T16:25:49Z

How you see it is how you see it.

As I see it, if Sen. Obama asks Sen. Hagel to serve as SecDef, Sen. Hagel will serve - that's the kind of person he is. And that's more to the point of JNagarya's comment - those of us who were on active duty in the early sixties were imbued with a notion of service, based on an oath to the Constitution which we took seriously. We went to Viet Nam because our nation ordered us to go. We went aremed with the notion that we wouldn't obey an illegal order, an idea which is clearly laid out in Article 38 of the UCMJ. Like most of us, I was never given an illegal order - CPT Medina and LT Calley aside. I think Sen. Hagel carries that same old fashioned, in some people's view beknighted, sense of duty to their sworn and accepted duty - one which you don't lay down even in retirement - "this we'll defend".

Do I think Viet Nam was a just war? No, because I know a hell of a lot more today than I did when I was twenty-five. But war and injustice seem to me to be inextricably linked, and even those few which history "sort of" calls just wars had major cases of injustice. Certainly our present war has/does. Sen. Hagel's sense of duty seems to me to be the kind of antidote we need for our present political malaise.