Is Hillary laying the foundations?

Sen. Clinton urges use of faith-based initiatives

Seems like a smart thing to do if you're planning to run for president. Wouldn't it be something if Hillary won the White House in 2008? Just think: in the space of 20 years, we could have a father/son presidency and a husband/wife presidency! I hope Hillary runs; I think she's more electable than Kerry, who might well pursue the nomination again. As a practical matter, if Hillary's in the White House, Bill will be too, so we'll get the best of their combined brainpower. If you liked the policies of the first Clinton administration, you're almost guaranteed to like the possibilities of a second Clinton administration. I would imagine that Chelsea will enter the political arena too someday. Or maybe not -- after seeing what her parents have gone through in the glare of the spotlight, maybe she has no interest. After all, if she stays out of politics, she'll be able to live very comfortably -- she's already making six figures -- and the press attention on her will fade over time.

13 women could have been spared

Ohio Serial Rapist Given 68 Years

Robert Patton Jr. raped 37 women over 16 years.

Patton, 42, was arrested in June after a DNA sample that had been in storage for two and a half years was tested and entered into a database. The sample had been taken in 2001 when he was serving time for burglary and other offenses. Because of federal funding shortages, it was not immediately tested.
Thirteen women were attacked after the sample was collected but before it was catalogued in 2004.

13 women were victimized for no reason. Actually, there was a reason, just not a good one. The reason was that the Bush administration (and its allies in Congress) made it a priority to give billions of dollars in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans, while neglecting to fund DNA testing to get violent criminals off the streets. God only knows how many other crimes have been committed in the last three years by people who would have been collared sooner if their DNA had been tested in a timely manner. How could the priorities of our national leaders be so misplaced? These are the people who claim to be so dedicated to keeping Americans safe?

Anti-abortion candidate for DNC chairman

Anti-abortion Roemer joins race for top Dems job

Roemer lashes out in DNC chairman race

I don't think Tim Roemer should be excluded from consideration just because he's anti-abortion. We shouldn't send the message that pro-lifers are unwelcome in the Democratic Party. Hell, our Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, is pro-life.

Is military service a political liability?

Mark Shields (one of the finest political columnists in America) made a striking point in his January 8 column:

The 2004 presidential election was the fourth in a row won by the candidate who had avoided serving in his generation's war when the loser, as a young man, had actually gone to serve in the theater of combat where Americans were dying.

A special kind of evil

Cambodia, Where Sex Traffickers Are King

Absolutely sickening. It amazes me that so many men around the world are so depraved that they'll violate a teenage girl. (Not that it's ever right to hire a prostitute, but it's especially despicable when the victim is so young.)

We need to do all we can to fight sex trafficking, and to fight the trade in hard drugs that supports it (by keeping prostitutes addicted and uniquely vulnerable). This is a moral imperative of the highest order. The abuse of women around the world is a disgrace for all humanity. Molestation of young boys, of course, is equally reprehensible.

Flood photos

The pictures of the recent southern-Nevada flooding are terrible. The scene in Overton is hard to believe.

George Knapp on fair elections

Election reform shouldn't be a partisan concern

An impressive column by Knapp, particularly seeing as how it's so ambitious: it veers from the Ukrainian elections to Washington to Ohio and finally back home to Nevada. I'm afraid that I expect voting shenanigans to continue, however. Democrats have little incentive to tamper with the voting process; they know that the more people who vote (and the more votes that are counted), the better they generally do. That leaves the Republicans...

Also in this week's Mercury: Geoff Schumacher delivers an entirely appropriate rant about Governor Guinn's proposed $300 payoff... I mean, tax rebate. I completely agree with Schumacher, even though I'm glad the Packers got whupped. The rebate proposal is manifestly unfair, a handout that overwhelmingly benefits those who are driving new cars and those well-heeled enough to have several vehicles. (See John L. Smith's Tuesday column for more on this.) The appropriate response would be to use the money to patch some of the many holes in state infrastructure and services, and then to scale back the parts of the last tax increase that produced this windfall.

Thoughts on some of today's Drudge Report stories

AIDS Problem Growing in Russia

The worldwide AIDS situation just horrifies me. If we don't get a handle on the HIV epidemic (hopefully through a cure, or at least a vaccine), the consequences will be earth-shattering. Think of all the children who are growing up as orphans because of AIDS. These are going to be some seriously messed-up adults in twenty years. Already, we see all kinds of problems with children adopted from abroad. Many of these children were raised in orphanages without proper social interaction or mental stimulation, and they are permanently impaired as a result. Meanwhile, the U.S. government (at the behest of conservatives) refuses to fund or promote realistic family-planning and sex-education programs, here and around the world. I agree that abstinence and monogamy are the best solutions, but we need to face reality. The upheavals that AIDS could cause are shocking. We need to try and leave our children a better world.

Benign Nazi occupation?
Soccer fascism
The spirit of Hitler and Mussolini lives on. It's sickening that, after the death and devastation of World War II, there are still so many Europeans who are drawn to fascism. These people only worship one god: pure, brute force.

Harry, what were you thinking? He's an early contender for this year's bad-taste awards.

No justice for chickens The employees should have been prosecuted, even if the penalties were light and mostly symbolic. A message needs to be sent that animal cruelty is unacceptable, even in a slaughterhouse. What kind of sick freak gets off on torturing animals, anyway?

No WMD When the Iraq war began, I idly wondered if the CIA might secretly plant a stash of chemical weapons in Iraq for our troops to find (assuming that no genuine Iraqi WMD were found). Some cops allegedly carry "throwaway" guns to plant on dead suspects; I almost wondered if the CIA might manufacture some "throwaway WMD". I guess my imagination got a little carried away.

Don King says, "Show me the money" How the hell did Don King get off with just four years for beating a man to death? I'm amazed that anyone still does business with this man.

Promising signs in the Middle East

Mahmoud Abbas' overwhelming election victory is an auspicious start to the post-Arafat era. (See also the USAToday story.) I'm also relieved to see that the Israeli disengagement plan is still on track.

Educated opinions

Today's Las Vegas Sun opinion page is excellent. The pros and cons of the proposed auto-registration rebate are thoughtfully considered. The less-weighty subject that follows, discussing how gift cards lose value over time, is also worth reading. It's outrageous that companies penalize people for not redeeming their gift cards right away. What a scam! It absolutely should be illegal.

Am I a flaming liberal?

Many conservatives would call me a liberal, and plenty of liberals would call me too conservative. That's a good sign, if you ask me, because on most issues, I think the truth is in the middle.

Here are some issues where I share some ground with conservatives:

1) Law and order -- I don't have much sympathy for criminals, especially violent ones. The people in society who play by the rules need to be protected from those in society who don't. I support severe penalties for predators who make decent people fear for their safety.

2) National defense -- I believe we need to analyze the kinds of missions we're likely to ask our military forces to perform, and then we need to obtain the equipment that will allow our troops to perform those missions with a minimum number of casualties. It sickens me to see American soldiers in Iraq dying because of a shortage of body armor and armored vehicles.

3) The value of work -- I believe we should adopt sweeping measures to get the homeless off the streets, to bring medical attention to the sick, and to provide treatment for the mentally ill. The purpose, though, is not simply humanitarian. I want America to have a healthy, well-educated, highly-skilled work force. I want to rehabilitate the down-and-out in order to enable them to be functioning, productive members of society. Otherwise, in the long run, we won't be able to compete with Europe, Japan, China and India.

4) Incentives for achievement -- As the years go by, more and more of our national wealth is being concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and it makes me worry about the future of this country. At the same time, I realize that, for most people, the desire for personal excellence is not a sufficient motivation to excel. In general, people need the lure of wealth, fancy possessions, prestige and status. I don't believe in a national program of "share and share alike". I think that a safety net should be provided, and that it's okay for government policies (e.g., the tax code) to broadly aim at some degree of redistribution of wealth. But inequities have always existed and will always exist. The United States needs to be a country where people can reasonably believe that if they work hard, work smart, and play by the rules, they'll get rich. Do I hope I'm rich someday? You bet! But I will never lose my empathy with the poor.

5) Tough love -- The safety net doesn't have to coddle the people at the bottom. When I say that even the poorest U.S. citizens should have shelter, I'm not talking about private apartments or homes. I'm thinking more along the lines of gymnasiums, or big tents, even. Someplace where the winter temperature won't drop below about 60 degrees, and where the summer temperature won't climb above, say, about 90. And when I say that they should be provided food, I'm definitely not talking about anything fancy. I'm talking about bread, corn, rice, and potatoes, with a fruit or vegetable every couple days. I'm talking about water to drink, with an occasional glass of milk or fruit juice. I think there should be communal showers so they can keep clean and at least rinse out their clothing. What I have in mind is, frankly, more spartan than most jails. But at least it would enable people to survive, so that a better day might come. Preventive health care should be emphasized to try to keep the indigent out of our emergency rooms. Job-training and back-to-work programs should be stressed heavily.

6) Religion in public life -- I think that the drive to secularize our society can easily go too far. We have historically been a religious nation. Religion can be honored without forcing a particular doctrine on people. I certainly think the words "under God" should be kept in the Pledge of Allegiance. (If a kid doesn't want to say those words, that's fine.) Also, I have no problem at all with communities putting up Nativity scenes in public places at Christmas time. There's no point trying to hide the reason why December 25 is a holiday.

7) Border control -- In this day and age, we need to know who's entering our country; not just from the south, but from the north, too. (Don't forget: the man who wanted to pull off the millennium bombings entered the U.S. from Canada.) With modern technology, it would be easier and cheaper than ever to secure our borders. Unfortunately, the political will is lacking, among both Republicans and Democrats.