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Showing posts from March, 2007

the president versus the people

I've been looking for a simple and direct formula to characterize the impending standoff between the President and Congress over Iraq. The most direct way to express this stand off, in my view, is this: The mid-term elections of November 2006, if they meant anything, reflected the desire of a clear majority of the American electorate for a change of course leading to a withdrawal of United States combat forces from Iraq. It goes without saying that voters saw this change as happening in the near term. A change of course taking effect on any slower timeline...ie. after the 2008 election cycle...would make the 2006 mid-term elections meaningless. The "stand off," then, between the President and Congress is, in point of fact, actually a double stand off between the President and a clear majority of the American electorate. I say double stand off for this reason. First, the voters did not vote for, and by and large, do not support, the current administration policy of a su

one evening in san francisco

There's a kind of balmy spring evening that visits the Mission District in San Fransisco from time to time. The sun shines warm on the fronts of buildings. A kind of stillness hangs over streets like Folsom and Mission and Valencia. Warm. A brief respite from the fog's chill. A reprieve from the oncoming night. The kind of evening, after a hard day's work, you might be driving with a buddy listening to music on the radio...looking out at the faces on the street...the kind of evening where, of a sudden, you get reminded of simple things that link us human animals together. Weather. Sun. That tangible feeling of commonality that comes when the gods of nature deign to give us some little gift... :: I wish I could paint the picture for you. I wish I could show you the man as I saw him. A junkie, no doubt. Waving his arms exuberantly. His face turned to the sun. A speed walker. A man singing in public. A man who had lost all care. A careless man. Somebody's brother. Someone&

for steve gilliard: 1966-2007

I've watched with a mixture of trepidation, anguish and hope as Jen updates us on Steve Gilliard's health . Like so many of you, I want nothing more than to click on Steve and Jen's News Blog and read Steve's distinctive, unmistakeable voice. There is no substitute. While, selfishly, we all would like to have Steve back writing again as soon as possible, I can also speak for all of us when I say that, most importantly, we want Steve to be healthy for those who are most close to him. I hope Steve and Jen know how many of us are thinking of them right now. :: For those of us writing and reading in this new medium...the blogosphere, online community, the blogs...there can be an awkwardness when a voice we've come to know goes silent through a personal crisis. How do we bridge the gap in what is, at times, a cold and impersonal medium? Frankly, I don't know. I can say this: There is nothing cold and impersonal about Steve Gilliard. Whether it is his coverage of the