For anyhow who somehow has missed this bit of news:

Guelzo will be on The Daily Show tonight.

I think the world may end. This is impossible.

I have to be honest. I expected that when he appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press this morning, Ralph Nader would announce whether or not he was running. And when he announced, just an hour ago now, that he is running, I felt briefly disappointed. But once again, his thinking was clear and his words persuasive, so that by the end of his 20-minute interview with Tim Russert, I was happy that he is running.

Briefly, some key parts of what he said:

• All three leading-party candidates at this point oppose a having a single-payer health insurance system in this country, a system that a forthcoming poll indicates 59% of physicians support.
• None of the major candidates are addressing bloated Pentagon spending and waste
• They aren’t addressing the sad state of labor law, which currently keeps hard-working everyday Americans from organizing to protect their interests and their families in the face of massive globalization
• They aren’t talking about cracking down on corporate crime, which over the past few years has resulted in trillions of dollars being fleeced from workers, investors, and pension-holders
• In many ways Ralph’s candidacy is again about getting better ballot access, allowing voters the additional voices and choices that we want. He wants to make room for dissent in our political system.
• One weakness of Barack Obama is how he has shifted his views on Israel-Palestine. While in Illinois, he consistently supported the rights of Palestinians. Now he supports Israel with a blind eye to the 300:1 civilian death ratio in that conflict (300 Palestinian civilians killed for every 1 Israeli).
• Will he “spoil” this election for the Democrats? “If the Democrats can’t landslide the Republicans in this election, they ought to just wrap up, shut down.”
• Perhaps the slogan this election should be “power to the babies.” We can’t continue to saddle the next generations with trillions of dollars of debt, and a democracy in which they as individuals have less and less power.
• The Nader campaign will accept money only from individuals. No companies, corporations, political action committees, or lobbyists.
• Tim Russert asked Ralph if he was concerned that running again in 2008, and perhaps once again being pegged as a “spoiler,” would ruin his legacy. Ralph said “no, Tim, my concern doesn’t come from that”–I’m concerned about making the country better for all its citizens, not about creating some legacy for myself.
• 58,000 people die every year from workplace injuries and illness, and hundreds of thousands die yearly from other similarly-preventable causes (hospital infections, medicine mistakes, air pollution) and we’re not addressing those life-or-death problems.

Where does this leave me? I have decided that in the presidential election this November, I will be a single-issue voter. And that single issue will be the sanctity of democracy. If Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, or their party henchmen attack my right to have a third viable candidate on the ballot, they will straight-up lose any chance at my vote. If they challenge the ability of a serious candidate to have a shot at elected office, I will vote either for Ralph Nader or for no one. BUT, if they walk the talk about believing in democracy and about giving me a voice and a choice, they will have a great shot at my vote.

Will Barack or Hillary support Nader’s right to appear on televised debates? Will they restrain their party from sending teams of corporate lawyers to states like Pennsylvania to challenge Nader’s right to be on the ballot? The only way I will believe their claims that they believe in democracy will be if they do.

If it had been a while between political posts, it’s been even longer between religious-quest posts.

I went to church this morning. With Amanda, Timothy, and Karin. We went to Wheatland Presbyterian (PCA, for those who care). My acquaintancey-type friend Ned Bustard (editor most notably of the outstanding anthology It Was Good: Making Art to the Glory of God) goes there, as do the folks behind the Word>>>Flesh Christmas album some of us were digging on this December. It turns out that one of Karin’s regular kids at the library goes there too, with his family. I thought it was a good service and that it felt like a solid church.

So where am I in my whole religious questy thingy? Who knows. I haven’t done any serious reading on the subject for a few months. And in fact, while I’m in the middle of writing about it now, I just don’t feel like writing about it any more at the moment. Where’s everyone else in spiritual/religious terms?

Here’s Ralph Nader explaining why he is considering a run for president. It’s from Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer this past Sunday.

For more information on the Nader exploratory committee, the site is naderexplore08.org

So I haven’t written about politics here in a long while and feel compelled to weigh in.

The biggest reason I haven’t gone all political on your Xanga selves is that I’m not crazy about any of the major candidates. I have said for months, from the time when the field of candidates was very wide, that I believed every single candidate would make a perfectly capable president. I thought they all could do the job, and from a historical perspective would be likely to go down as effective and respected presidents. I thought they were all qualified, leaving the differences to those of ideology and personality.

I find myself hoping for the outcome of Hillary/Romney or Hillary/Huckabee, for a slimey and tactical reason: tons of people couldn’t bring themselves to vote for either. That would leave the door wide open for an independent or third-party ticket.

Mike Bloomberg could run. I would be very likely to support his campaign. While Obama is inspiring and talks about uniting, I have seen Mayor Bloomberg actually do it. He isn’t partisan, and yet he understands partisanship enough to navigate it effectively to get things done. Obama wants to unite, but he almost never crosses the aisle to work with Republicans as equals. Bloomberg crosses the aisle in his sleep.

Ralph Nader has formed an exploratory committee. If Hillary gets the Democratic nominations, I am confident that he will run. If Obama wins, Nader may run with the intention of pulling him in a better direction. You know the depth of my admiration and respect for Ralph Nader.

Then there’s the promise that the Green Party will nominate someone. It could be Ralph, or it may be someone different–most likely former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. I happen to think that Cynthia McKinney is crazy as all get-out. I love the promise that the Green Party holds, but I do not think McKinney would lead it in a good direction.

On the so-called “major” candidates…

John McCain has drifted far to the right to appeal to a selection of right-wingers who are conservative only in the sense that they like a ten- to twenty-year delay on everything. They don’t have an active agenda, they just distrust quick change and prefer to drag their feet. They call this being “traditional.” McCain is also an adamant supporter of President Clinton and of our unconstitutional occupation of the sovereign nation of Iraq. That’s bad. But I think he would conduct the war very differently and with much stricter oversight. He vehemently disapproves of any torture being conducted by our soldiers, and that is very important to me. He is fiscally conservative (unlike the Republicans in Washington for the past eight years), which I am also. He wants to restrain the influence of corporate influence on our self-governance. For me it’s a lot of bad with the good, or vice versa.

Hillary Clinton would get a heck of a lot done while in office. There’s no doubt about that. The question I would have is whether it would be the right stuff, or stuff that would take a long time to repair. A lot of both, I suspect, so again–bad with the good. I favor a single-payer universal healthcare system, and she favors a system of universal healthcare based more on legal requirement and privatization. But, I think there is a realistic chance of her system coming to be, and it would be better than what we have now. I don’t think we’ll see a single-payer system in this country in my lifetime, unfortunately. She of course is a supporter of the Iraq occupation, and that’s not cool. She also sees inherently selfish corporations as entities to work with, rather than undemocratic forces to be constrained. That’s no good either.

Barack Obama doesn’t do it for me emotionally, so I miss a lot of the magic he seems to be misting down upon my peers. He’s an orator, and I want someone who can just talk, and who rolls up his sleeves and gets things done. He is one to lead from behind, rather than to lead by, well, being in the lead. He would be the general who gives an inspirational speech and hangs in back, not one who is the first into battle. So stylistically he doesn’t resonate with me. And as you can tell, I don’t think there is a ton of substance to Obama. His substance is his charisma and his ability to inspire. Is that enough? Can a president be great by simply inspiring the country and those under him? I don’t know. I could vote for him, but if the vote was tomorrow it would still be a toss-up for me. The way I see it, if everything Obama dreams of became reality, I would still be dissatisfied. That’s in contrast to the dreams of Ralph Nader, for instance. Obama’s dreams are more likely to become reality (though only partially, and only some of them), but I don’t know if they’re bold enough dreams.

I love Huckabee’s style. But he’s a creationist, he favors flag-burning and marriage constitutional amendments, and he’s all jolly about his evangelicalism, which is so nicely compatible with American capitalism. Romney makes me want to slap him. Ron Paul would be cool in that he would do a good job of re-calibrating the country. I would not want to see all his dreams come true, but if he had a full term of pulling the country in his direction, I think we would be better off for it.

I’m very much wait and see on this one. I still think the field is still way more wide open than we realize even now.

A New York Times headline today: “Suicide Attack in Israel Kills One.”

I thought that was sort of the given minimum for that sort of thing.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted.

All is well; the new year is starting off with promise and small successes. I’m slowly beginning to realize and trust that my job is as great for me as it seems. In addition to my “standard” work, I’ll be dabbling a bit into project management and knowledge management this year.

A scandal: I have never read the currently reading. I do love Hawthorne, and the novel is introspective and pensive in a way that makes for great winter reading. It’s also good to read before falling asleep, since the chapters are short enough that I can finish one before dozing off, and at the end of each chapter I’m ready to sleep for, say, eight hours.

Our biggest resolution for 2008 is to get our finances in order and headed in a strong direction. Down the road we want to buy a house, travel, have a dog, be ready for retirement, and be able to support the causes that are important to us. We have been following a new financial regimen (i.e., we have one), and already after just thirty-nine days it’s night and day. It’s relieving so much stress.

Early in January I entered year two of psychoanalysis. I do think I have a good analyst, and I am experiencing big changes in how I look at and respond to myself and the world. They’re not outwardly big changes, but in terms of how I “work,” they’re drastic. For instance, this week I got my hair cut–and for the first time, I found myself doing it for myself, knowing I would feel good about it, rather than doing it for other people because I’m “supposed” to. Same outward results, completely different mental phenomenon.

Last week I finished reading Mary Oliver’s latest book of poetry, Thirst. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Poems of transformation and beauty and humility and exultation and delight in the natural world.

Timothy and I are on the homestretch of the Frodo’s Notebook complete overhaul. That project elicits such mixed emotions from me; I don’t yet understand it. This time around it will be a piece of cake to involve more editors, and so I’m hoping some of you will be interested. I’ll explain more in the future… or you can ask Timothy or me about it. The increased social nature of the site with this re-launch should increase the joy and decrease the isolation of working on it.

I fell on my ass walking to work this morning. No harm done. I was surprised to learn that brick sidewalks ice over much more easily than concrete ones, and have less traction.

I think I mentioned before how much I loved reading His Dark Materials, which is friggin brilliant. The Bartimaeous Trilogy was also a hoot.

I received a Christmas gift of 3 months of Netflix. I recently had Ingmar Bergman’s film Persona at home for a week and a half, and I watched it four times. Unbelievably awesome film. Now I’m working my way through a second watching of Trufaut’s The 400 Blows, also great.

We also now have a junk mail shredder. Protecting my identity has never seemed worth it… but this is fun.