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.

For my friends:

Amanda and I were watching the news last night (the good ol’ Newshour) and a story ran about how strong McCain is looking in New Hampshire for today’s primary. They made a big deal about how well he was doing in New Hampshire “despite” his fourth place finish in Iowa. I groaned and said to Amanda, “You know he didn’t campaign at all in Iowa.” And she says, “I know.” Look at her, becoming all political junkie on us!

I really have no idea whom I’ll be voting for in November, or whom I want to become the next president. I do think that all the candidates in the (exceptionally wide) field would make perfectly competent presidents. I’m also betting on there being at least one viable independent or third-party ticket emerging after the primaries.

I have leanings toward Ron Paul. I have to say, though, this article on him published online today in the New Republic has me troubled. He has been producing a quarterly newsletter since 1978, and the reporter dug up some of the lost pre-1999 issues. The key paragraph from the article: “What they [the newsletters] reveal are decades worth of obsession with conspiracies,
sympathy for the right-wing militia movement, and deeply held bigotry
against blacks, Jews, and gays. In short, they suggest that Ron Paul is
not the plain-speaking antiwar activist his supporters believe they are
backing–but rather a member in good standing of some of the oldest and
ugliest traditions in American politics.”

What better way to look back on 2007 in public life than with Harper’s Yearly.

It’s three paragraphs of just the facts, ma’am, but the magic is in the arrangement:

“Eighty percent of Iraqis were reporting ‘attacks nearby’ and it was estimated that 90 percent of Iraq’s artists had fled the country or been killed. Halliburton announced that it would add 13,000 jobs, and President George W. Bush underwent a colonoscopy.”

“Drought was driving tens of thousands of snakes into Australian cities, female koalas in Australia were ignoring males in favor of five-bear lesbian orgies, and developers were planning to open a Hooters in Dubai.”

Happy new year, everyone. May your days be merry and bright.

Merry Christmas from Amanda, Thornley, Brick, and me.

It’s 4:15 and I leave work at 4:30. I didn’t take a lunch break today, so I can ethically burn a bit of time Xanging. I feel incredibly fortunate this Christmas, in large part because at this moment I am happy to be here. In a little while I will go home and that will be nice, but I’m not crawling out of my skin to get out of here. I like it here. Everyone is in a good Christmassy mood, and today I’m doing necessary and valuable things. (Primarily some year-end filing and purging.)

I barely remember the days surrounding Christmas last year. All I know is I still didn’t have all the tools I needed at work, I hadn’t received a raise yet, and the work was rough, and often out in the winter cold. None of my bosses cared much that it was Christmas, and they certainly didn’t do anything to show us they appreciated us at that time of year. Oh, wait, that’s right: we had a “Christmas party,” which involved pizza after we clocked out at the end of the day, with our boss’ family joining us to stand around in awkward silence eating pizza and drinking soda.

I work the day after Christmas, Wednesday through Friday. And I’m actually looking forward to it. A little normalcy amidst the craziness of family visits for Christmas. Both Tom and Cheryl are on vacation those three days, and I plan to spend that time taking care of a big pile of old files I have removed from Tom’s office. In early 2008 we’re reorganizing their offices.

I’m making the corn pudding for the Christmas dinner Sunday evening. I have a feeling that dinner is going to be something else. I can’t wait.

My brother coaches defensive secondary for the Quince Orchard High School varsity football team. Tonight they face Arundel in the Division 4A Maryland State Championship game, at M&T Bank Stadium, where the Ravens play. Needless to say, I will be there, and needless to say, I will be freezing my butt off. I’m excited for him, though, particularly because his football career has had a lot of downs with not enough ups like this one.

The game starts at 7 p.m., and after it’s over I am driving a dozen or so miles south to the Cap’n's Quarters, where I have been generously offered a guest bed. Tomorrow I’m being the Grunerts’ elf, then I hope to see many of you in the evening for their Yuletide Bash.

Sunday is our one-year wedding anniversary. Amanda works Saturday and Sunday this weekend, so we are still deciding how to celebrate Sunday evening.

Today is December 7, a day, as Stitch told me this morning, that will live in infinity. Having Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day early in Advent certainly adds poignancy to the Christmas wish for peace on Earth.