Blog hopping

Mark Morford is really too good. He's has a great year end column up that manages to be encouraging to those of us who fight against the empire every day, puts our critics in their place and is still hilariously funny.

Kathy at Stone Soup doesn't give out her signature recipe as requested by Midamerica Progressive but she does serve up a good Helen Thomas piece I missed, which could explain the sudden crick in my neck and gives us the recipe for ushering in the best of luck for the New Year. Unfortunately since I live alone, it's not going to be easy for me to follow it. I guess on the other hand I use the front door so rarely I could wait until a delivery guy shows up and get him to help out.

Bostonian Exile is suffering from a little malaise over the polarity of the blogosphere and the nation. I been going through that myself lately and left a thought I've been trying to grow into a viral meme.

Midamerica Progressive is looking for his muse and makes a reader request to what I've begun to think of as our group of "Detroit bloggers." I always get the hard questions.

"What is one good thing that the Bush administration has done?"

I read his post after I read this post at Kevin McKeague's place. I had an answer for Kev's question.

The Libbytarian in me wouldn't make any new laws, we have too many already. I would restructure the drug laws making the illegal substances legal and available in a regulated manner.

As for your law, I'm not so sure I like it. I think the problem right now is there's too much money in campaigns and the media blitz goes on too long. McCain-Feingold had the right idea but got it backwards. I think we should limit political ads to the last six weeks before the election. Nothing before. I think it would lead to a much more engaged and informed electorate. The way it is now, by the time the elections roll around, anyone but the most ardent political junkies are bored comatose by the spin. I mean 04 was just ridiculous. You remember the blogger burnout phenonmenon by the time we got to the election?

You need contribution limits,even on indivuduals because the corporate interests are run by rich people. You still have the same problem with undue influence. And I like midwest midamerica's idea about eliminating PACs and corporate donations so only individuals can contribute.

The other obvious solution is to consider term limits, at least on the national level. If they're not worrying about reelection, they won't be fundraising instead of legislating.

I have an answer to Midamerica's question to Boston Exile as well although it can't be printed in polite society. However, I'm still trying to think of an answer to mine.