SUNDAY STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS



. . . What happens in Las Vegas may stay there, but what happens in Armstrong Ranch oozes out of so many birdshot holes. . . Is there anyone in the Democratic Party more principled than Russ Feingold? . . . How can I get excited about the Winter Olympics when the coverage fans the flames of selfish nationalism, while "our" team seems capable of winning gold medals only in sports that were recently invented here? When and how will China start calling for the collection of accounts with D.C. . . . Why does Karl Rove still have a job, and why is anyone still afraid of him . . . How stupid did Don Rumsfeld sound this week when he said We're losing the propaganda war because of bloggers - this from a wag of the Administration that has 2 cable networks in their back pocket, and the 3 major network news organizations on a tight leash at their heels . . . Roll on David Gregory, Keith Olbermann, Jack Cafferty, and Arianna Huffington, journalism's motto of "comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable" still resonates with a few of you . . . What is taking the jury so long in the case of People v. ("Father") Michael Wempe . . . If Congressman Duncan Hunter is really serious about his 2000 mile wall from Tijuana to Corpus Christi, why not create a "Sponsor a brick" drive? I'm sure lots of folks wishing to curb "illegals" will spring for a brick after eating their $2.99 Grand Slam at Denny's, or after cutting a check to Marco, their gardener, or Lucia, their housekeeper . . . when I want to know whether a scientifically studied phenomenon like global warming is real, I think the scientists should be asked before the novelists, by Crichton . . . Frank Capra and Wickard v. Filburn made the same great point . . . "Strange, isn't it, how one man's life affects so many others?", and "in the aggregate, everything affects Interstate Commerce" are different ways of saying the same thing - that we're all interconnected in some way. The cynical strain of the same observation is never underestimate the ability of people to narrow their vision and make selfish decisions . . . keep plugging away, Patrick Fitzgerald, you may be all that is standing between us and totalitarian Executive . . .