I want to thank all for their suggestions about how better to handle material like this, expecially civil_truth.

What did I mean in the home post?  Well, Obama was a hook, not the story.  But just the hook is something to ponder on.  There’s a lot in that piece to chew on, which can be good or bad . 

Regarding Obama, Judeo-Christian religion tells us to beware of false prophets.  So, we have to be on guard.  But it also tells us to have faith.  God tests us.  But He also provides.  And He teaches us to forgive.  He also works in mysterious ways, and He brings us great gifts in strange packages sometimes.  So maybe we can forgive the drugs as a young man.  Maybe we can forgive the comment about clinging to guns and religion. 

America has a way of having the right president at the right time –Washington, Lincoln, FDR, Truman, Kennedy, Reagan, some of them deeply flawed, but all seeming to be the right person for the moment.  I believe right at 9/11 and following, George W. Bush was the right man for the job.  He kept us safe.  No small accomplishment, that the history books will not be able to ignore.

If Rush Limbaugh is seeking to tear the country for the sake of building his own financial empire, he’s lost his way, and I hope he sees the error.  Because he has real talent.  He has the capacity to do real good work.

Right here.  The Internet is very powerful.  God didn’t invent it.  We did.  But He gave us incredible capacity to do it.   Now, it’s saving children.    The Internet is today’s great equalizer, like the Colt Peacemaker of the Old West.  Or rather, God is the Great Equalizer.

“Proposed development of a 144,000-square-foot Wal-Mart on land outside the Wilderness Battlefield in Locust Grove, Va., threatens the area near a monument that honors…”

Big Bag of Wind has a great response today.  I would add that instead of whining to the State Legislature, why don’t they outbid Wal-Mart for the private land?

I don’t blame Reverend Al for this as much as Middlebury College.  It seems that the Vermont school that really puts the liberal in liberal arts has invited Reverend Al Sharpton to speak next month.

Known for his rhetoric that isn’t quite yet post-racial, Reverend Al is not a surprising choice for Middlebury College.  Except that they’re paying him $40,000 for the brief appearance.  At a time when their endowment is shrinking (23 percent in the last six months).

One hour with Al Sharpton could put a scholarship student through that school for one more year.  Or maybe it could prevent an inevitable layoff from the college staff.

It’s not easy being green.  Especially with two million people coming.  They’ll recycle a few things, no doubt.  They’ll do just enough to get some green p.r.  But the Inauguration is going to leave a large carbon footprint, what with all the celebrities showing up in their private jets and SUVs.

And it’s not easy being green during a recession either.  The voluntary carbon trade business is going in the tank.  And cap-and-trade legislation will no doubt be pushed back.  Emissions will decline on their own during the recession.  But the people making the green off the green, like Al Gore’s investment company, will suffer.  Gee, that’s too bad.

[They're generally uninteresting to the rest of our readership, encourage a tone that I don't like to see, and yea, indeed, do drive down other people's diaries.  As near as I can tell, there's nothing actually pernicious about Big Bag of Wind itself, but comments on this are now closed.  - Moe Lane]

From today’s Big Bag of Wind:

“Would you like to just leave your blue state? Sometimes I would. Or are you really only just ready to give up arguing with your neighbors? And can you write?  Well, then reach out to like-minded people on the web. And break out of the hostile environment in which your ideas are received.”

BBOW is auctioning off the domain name “bluestaterefugee.com” in order, apparently, to raise some cash for and promote its own site.  Minimum bid is $500.  It’s being offered along with protective domain names and a promotional arrangement, presumably to be determined later.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is a screamer.  A rabid, frothing-at-the-mouth, wild-eyed, arm waving screamer.  But The Nation is calling him their “Most Valuable Progressive.”  Progressive?  Sure.  Valuable?  Who are they kidding?  Maybe the most volatile progressive.  That would be an MVP award more appropriate for him.

As a House member of 16 years, what piece of legislation did he ever get passed?  He got the post office in Fair Haven, Vermont renamed for Matthew Lyon, a Vermonter who spent as much time in jail as he did in Congress.  It’s a befitting accomplishment for a man who, in the hearts of Vermonters, has become Lyon-ized. 

But he’s ineffective.

Moonbeam’s at it again.   California Attorney General Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown is working to fudge the California Constitution to fit his politics.  At first, he said he’d follow the state’s Constitution and the will of the voters.  Then he discovered the “Declaration of Rights” clause in it.  Proposition 8, he has declared, is a violation of “fundamental rights.”

Okay, well what about the fundamental rights of children to have a mother and father?    Is he putting the desire of adults ahead of the needs of children?

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child called for in all political and judicial actions concerning children, “the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”  That goes for you too, Moonbeam.

First he thought maybe Chief of Staff?  But that went to Rahm.  Then maybe he was going to be Secretary of Health and Human Sevices.  But that went to Tom.  Then the talk was about him becoming Surgeon General.  Well, for now, he’s talking about traveling to Europe.  Looks like it will be with no official portfolio.

For his “50 state” strategy, Dean has been called a genius, an unsung hero, and a victim of his own success.  The Burlington Free Press recently made him “Vermonter of the Year.”  If you want to see what some Vermonters really think of him, check out the reader comments to that story. 

I like the way Big Bag of Wind describes him:  Basically he’s like the Peter Sellers character in Being There, Chance the gardener.  His strategy benefited from the war in ’06, and it benefited this last year from the economy and  Obama-Mania.  Maybe the Obama team realizes Dean’s limited talent.  Victim of his own success?  Give me a break.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appears not to know his constitutional law very well. Of course he’s going to seat Roland Burris. Apparently, he just doesn’t realize it yet.

When Blagojevich’s predecessor, George Ryan, was governor, and his administration was rocked by scandal,he too made some important decisions. He picked death row inmates to commute their sentences.   As Bigbagofwind points out, nobody suggested then that these inmates should be executed anyway.

Blagojevich has the legal authority to make the Burris appointment. And while it’s true that Congress has the power to judge Burris’s qualifications, he’s clearly qualified. He’s extremely well over the age of 30. He’s been a U.S. citizen for over nine years. And he is a resident of Illinois.

Burris will be merely a caretaker senator. He has a spotless career. And Illinois residents probably want full representation as Congress takes up important legislation. So, what can Harry Reid possibly be thinking?