News from Today

So, I was reading about how Democrats are feeling "insecure" in the White House because of Obama's policies and how especially his military push in Afghanistan has strained the relationship between him and his party. The party is worried about losing footing in government in the future, etc etc. And then this charming statement:

"Some Democrats worry that the administration is willing to sacrifice some House and Senate seats in the interest of accomplishing its broader goals."

Wow, the administration is actually willing to sacrifice in order to accomplish broader goals? That's sort of the way life works. And besides, what about Obama's broader goals aren't worth a little sacrifice really? Is paranoia that your party is losing footing really worth avoiding "accomplishing broader goals." She short sighted views of politics as a simple power struggle to maintain more numbers than the other guy is starting to drive me crazy. Its time to get those boys some glasses. Politics isn't supposed to be a simple numbers game, its supposed to be a numbers game so that things can actually be accomplished. The future is the point, a few seats here or there is hardly going to tear this country apart but while given the opportunity to actually change something about the way the government works, to make sure everyone has health care, to actually admit global warming is a serious issue and do something about it.

The other news from today is bombings galore, updates on the Somali bombing, al-Shabab pointing to the government as the culprit while the government points back. Its horrible to think of a class of medical students at their graduation getting massacred. It is posited the government officials caught in the blast were the main targets but it seems more damaging that a country in chaos loses the people recently trained to heal its people.

Also another suicide bombing in Pakistan during Friday prayers killing ten wounding more. It has been assumed that the Pakistani Taliban was responsible.

Though of course all this comes second to the Global Warming emails that are taking center stage. It seems to be the most common headline in all the news feeds I get. Corruption in climate change oh no. It will be interesting to see what the UN says as it investigates the emails. It seems like all messaging is dangerous you'd best be careful what you say behind closed doors over the interweb. This is a heady scandal and everyone loves a good scandal.

I am surprised though the emphasis that these stories get in the press. My emphasis mirrors the emphasis they received. The NYT focus on Obama's policies, and no headlines were about bombings but one can't expect that to compete with internal strife of democrats. The back-biting and balking at actual politicking rather than the appearance of it, what would we do if actual change became a central theme of government? We might all implode. Too much change is perhaps a danger but the changes that are being put forth are hardly going to keep the world from working. Besides, there is so much more chaos in the rest of the world our paltry rows and worrying about whether or not "a few seats" will be lost to "accomplishing broader goals" sort of seems ridiculous when paired with the strife found elsewhere. Perhaps it is time to start focusing on broader goals and long term change to put on those spectacles and really think about what the future ought to look like and work towards that.

Anyway, those are my newsie thoughts this morning. Visit here for a comic: http://xkcd.com/209/