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A Newish Twist

4. September 2008 by admin.

Doing something new, I’m going to provide small blurbs explaining the background of the Paper Bag Ninja comics.  I hope you’ll enjoy seeing how the creative process worked and it’ll remind me to post regularly.

Today we get a two for one:  when I updated the site on Monday, I forgot to actually post the new comic.  I didn’t realize my error until Wednesday, so today I posted the Thursday comic but left the Monday comic posted on the main page as well.

Monday’s comic was my first reaction to the announcement of Sarah Palin as the GOP VP nominee (say that 3 times fast, it’s kind of fun).  After all the fuss about Obama’s lack of experience, the McCain Campaign seemed to ditch that line of attack overnight.  Only to see it resurrected against them by the same party that had been claiming for months that it wasn’t truly important!  Each candidate embodies change indeed.

Thursday’s is typical of conversations between myself and my wife.  She is a much more grounded person than I am, and much more appreciative of people and policies as humanistic entities instead of power blocks to be manipulated.  But sometimes even she can’t help analyzing the situation from a political viewpoint.

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Yes, I’m Back

4. September 2008 by admin.

After a 3 month hiatus, I have returned.  Why, you may ask, was I gone so long?

Because quite frankly, things got boring.

The candidates were trading recycled fluff at each other, 4th Edition had come out for D&D and the world hadn’t ended, and inflicting my meandering musings on you, gentle readers, fell down my priority list.  I had planned on returned after the conventions were over, when the presidential race would be heating up and things should be interesting.  But I was pulled out of my stasis pod early.

I watched Sarah Palin speak last night, capping the list of people who came in second to John McCain, and while I thought she did a decent speech, as an undecided Independent voter I don’t feel it is the slam-dunk knock-it-out-of-the-park (I know I’m mixing sports metaphors) the pundits are claiming.   But that’s not what pulled me back to the keyboard.

I spent last night with a vague sense of discomfort watching Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani rant and Palin emote, and only after the tv was off did I figure out why.

During the Democratic convention everyone went to great pains to laud John McCain for his service and sacrifice.  The speakers seemed required to emphasize he was a good man, even if they disagreed with his positions.  I saw little if any reciprocal love from the Republicans, and the poor sportsmanship and return to the politics of division was jarring in its contrast.  The GOP came across as mean tempered bullies sucking sour grapes, and completely lost the opportunity to steal Obama’s mantle of running a different type of campaign, of moving away from politics as usual.  I’m hoping John assumes a more statesman like approach tonight; if all the Republicans show is hard edges, they may enthuse their base but I don’t see them  winning the undecided center.

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18. June 2008 by admin.

Or at least, my coding abilities do.

I’m not naturally gifted at learning languages, which I think would make learning coding easier.  I’ve always known, at least vaguely, how much work it was to actually write code, but my nascent respect for web jockeys has grown greatly over the last few days.  There must be a different mindset that turns what for me is mind numbing frustration into an exciting challenge.

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Postings will be slightly more erratic.

10. June 2008 by admin.

So, it’s not like I follow a regular schedule anyway, but I do try to post Sunday-Thursday (Friday/Saturday is my weekend, and I’m rarely able to get close to a computer).  But at the moment I’m trying to convert Ontheblob.net & Paperbagninja.com to a straight HTML format so I’m not trapped in the template restrictions I’m currently using.  Since I don’t know HTML, this means I’m learning as I go, and is of necessity slow.  My goal is to post four days a week, and if something interesting happens, or I get a thought I want to pass along I’ll certainly post more.  But if I’m not as regular as usual, gentle readers, please don’t think I’ve forgotten you.  I’m hoping having the sites more standardized will allow me more time to do things like write and blog for your reading pleasure!

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Worst. Idea. Ever.

10. June 2008 by admin.

Trust Dennis Kucinich to inject some humor into the staid political arena, and to do so in the worst way possible.  Rep. Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced numerous articles of impeachment against Bush, most having to do with the administration’s justifications on starting the Iraq war.  And while I see no reason to let Pres. Bush sit on his laurels (if he can find any) for the last few months of his presidency, if Rep. Kucinich is successful it will be disasterous for several reasons:

1) PRESIDENT CHENEY.  This sends a shiver down the spine of even my most ardent Republican friends.

2) It’s a major distraction.  We finally nailed down who’s running for president; we should be concentrating on who’s going to be the next POTUS, instead of a pollyannaish rehashing of the (egregious) mistakes of a lame duck.

3) It would remove one of Obama’s strongest electoral arguments.   Pres. Bush is associated with the faults and failures of his administration, while Cheney is associated with being the Prince of Darkness hiding in his secure location.  While that sounds good for the Dems at first blush, the electorate is interested in removing Bush from office.  If this happens prior to the election, it could remove the impetus to vote against a Republican, for some people, this is all Obama has going for him (or needs, for that matter).

I’m ignoring the conspiracy theories that Cheney would refuse to relinquish power, or would engineer an attack or disaster in order to suspend the election or transfer of the presidency; I have faith that our system is more resilient than that.  I also believe VP Cheney is a smart man who understands that the American public expects a new president to be sworn in and any shenanigans interfering with that process would have disasterous long term effects on the Republican Party.  And even if Cheney was willing to risk it, I think the rest of the Republican establishment would nip any political coup in the bud.  After all, Cheney is set to ride off into a future of drunken gunfoolery (does anyone know what he’s actually planning to do after he leaves office?) but the Rep. members of Congress and the RNC will still need to work for a living, and that’s difficult to do if people spit when they speak your name.

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Down But Not Out

5. June 2008 by admin.

Hillary is going to suspend, but not shut down, her campaign.  It should happen this Saturday, and will allow her to a) continue fundraising to pay down the massive debt she incurred during the last few months of the campaign, and b) she will retain control of the delegates she won in the primaries so she can try to play kingmaker.  Although at this point he doesn’t really need her, she has enough clout, and her supporters can make enough noise, to cause trouble in Denver.

MSNBC reported that Hillary is leaving open the possibility of having her name nominated at the convention, and news reports say Hillary only agreed (she didn’t ‘decide’) to end her active run after being pressured by Democratic leaders and having discussions with them on her future within the party.  Look for her to come out of this, if not with the Veep position, with some nice spot (SCOTUS?) from which to influence policy.

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Do you want them split horizontal or lengthwise?

29. May 2008 by admin.

When I heard that the DNC was thinking of seating 1/2 of the delegates from Florida and Michigan I got the vision of them being chopped in twain.  I guess they’ll half to do it horizontally, so they can get the keisters on the seats.  Also a good symbolism for how much of a pain in the ass this has been.

Hillary is now talking about appealing the delegate ruling to whatever committee has oversight, and is still threatening to make this a divided convention.  I think this is counterproductive for her at this point.  If she’d conceded gracefully when the delegate count had turned against her, I think she would have been seen as a grand stateswoman and would have built positive support for a later run, or perhaps a higher position (Veep, or Supreme Court Justice).  At this point though she seems to be coming across as a desperate whiner who doesn’t know when to quit.  If she creates havoc at the convention, I wouldn’t be surprised if she becomes a pariah within the party.

Non-political: US Air has just announced it’s joining the other airlines in boosting prices by about $60.  No surprise there.  But now they’ve announced they’re no longer offering peanuts or other in-flight snacks.  Hmm, increasing prices and cutting services, yeah, that’s worked in the past .  How about bumping the prices up $70 but then offering real food and full cans of soda (or other beverages)?  People will pay more if they perceive a corresponding increase in their return.  But by adding a bevy of additional fees while removing amenities, the airlines are decreasing the incentive to fly in a time when they need to be driving as much business as possible.

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Character Assassination

25. May 2008 by admin.

Hillary has been staying in the race hoping for a Macaca moment.  It happened, only it’s happened to her.

She’s actually been pushing the RFK angle for months, but the recent cancer dagnosis by Sen. Ted Kennedy gave the MSM an excuse to suddenly notice. The sharks were already circling the Clinton campaign but with the new blood in the water watch for a bloody froth to drip from your newspapers.

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It doesn’t look like this is going to get harder any time soon.

22. May 2008 by admin.

In my last entry, I remarked on how the Bush administration made mocking our government easy.  Well, the Dems aren’t going to make me work any harder.

So Congress passes a huge farm bill, that is only marginally related to farming, and send it to the president.  The president vetoes it, as promised, and sends it back.  The House overwhelmingly votes to override the veto, and gets ready to send it to the Senate.  Simple so far, right?

No.  It seems when Congress printed up the Farm Bill, they  forgot to include, oh, about 34 pages.  So the bill vetoed by the president was technically a different bill than the one passed by Congress.

The upshot, it looks like Congress will have to go back and redo the thing from the start.

Considering the billions being spent on pork and unnecessary subsidies, couldn’t Congress afford to hire a proofreader or two?

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So Do You Think They Just Don’t Tell Him These Things?

21. May 2008 by admin.

Last week Pres. Bush, in a speech to the Israeli Knesset, mocked those who would negotiate with “terrorists and radicals” as appeasers to the Nazis.  Today we discover in the NY Times that Israel and Syria are engaged in exactly those kind of talks with the aim of creating a comprehensive peace agreement.  The kicker is, according to the Times, the talks “were coordinated with the United States”.  So now we have a president who is criticizing his own administration?  Or is the president out of the loop?

I’m going to miss the Bush administration.  They make this blog so easy.

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