Chance dot

Ron Paul Blimp air assualt to begin Monday

2007-12-07T15:53:00.000-08:00

If you haven't heard yet, (and where have you been hiding if not?) supporters of Ron Paul are getting ready to launch a blimp on Monday DEC 10 to fly around and advertise for their candidate. I for one, think this is a great idea.

Now, I am not a Ron Paul supporter. I'm a liberal, and while I agree with quite of few of his positions on the issues, I just don't subscribe to enough of them to consider voting for him. However, if you held a gun to my head and said I had to vote for a Republican, he'd be the one I'd pick.

So why do I think this is such a great idea? Because politics is so freaking boring now! All the candidates from both parties just seem so bland and lifeless, where's the fun? Where's the unexpected that doesn't involve a mistress or embezzling funds? I like to stay informed, but I don't even bother to watch most of the debates anymore. Bland bland bland.

But then this comes along. This is silly. This is crazy (crazy enough to work?). A blimp??? This is a lot of things, but a 197 foot blimp flying over your head dumping tea into Boston Harbor isn't boring. Even though I wouldn't vote for him, I hope he takes a big jump in the polls. I hope his moneybomb on the 16th makes $5 million. I hope other campaigns notice this, and come up with their own crazy ideas. And I cannot wait to see what his supporters come up with next.

Here's my suggestion to any independently wealthy Paul supporters out there, advertise in space! Yes, it's crazy, but who ould have thought of a blimp a year ago?

I guess we're not going to war with Iran.

2007-12-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

I'm not usually an optimist, but today's report that the National Intelligence Estimate assesses Iran gave up its nuclear weapon program in 2003 fills me with cautious optimism. Why? Because that's one potential casus belli gone from the Bush administration's bag o' reasons to invade.

Then there was the report a few weeks back that Iran is at least trying to stem the flow of weapons into Iraq. That's another excuse to invade gone.

For a while there, I was pretty worried. Now, the smart thing to do in this case is to do a whole "Nixon goes to China" thing and begin some intense open diplomacy with Iran. Dangle some real carrots in their face, and even (gasp!) make some real concessions. I'm not saying we have to like the regime, I'm not even saying we have to fully normalize relations, but this is an opportunity for this administration to get something right, or at least make a good faith effort for lasting peace. The initial rumblings out of the White House aren't encouraging, but tomorrow is another day.

I'd also like to give my compliments to the writers of this NIE. It is clear, readable, and more "fair and balanced" than anything I've seen from the media in a long while.

In the beginning...

2007-11-29T05:20:00.000-08:00

Hi, I'm Chance, and this is my blog. Stay tuned for more posts, or don't. It's a free country.