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07/24/2003 Archived Entry: "Hannity"

Interesting news, sent to me via AASG (All Around Spiffysorta Guy) Stephen Kinsella, who wrote, "Wendy you probably have heard, but yesterday Sean Hannity read extensively from your recent column on Kobe Bryant, and he praised you a great deal. It was a good column, I had already read it--I was driving home and heard him on the radio yesterday, he read quite a lot of it." As I told Stephan...the author is always the last to know.

According to an article in the Detroit Free Press, U.S. Army leaders are poised to announce "a plan to start relieving exhausted troops in Iraq with thousands of soldiers from U.S.-based units and an additional 10,000 National Guards members who will be called to active duty." Many of them will serve for a one-year stint. More than 200,000 U.S. military reservists are already on active duty in Iraq -- reservists who were never meant to substitute for regular army in planned foreign policy gambits, who never signed on to act as policemen in Baghdad. Two implications of misusing reservists are rarely discussed: 1) the dislocation costs imposed on businesses who must, by law, keep jobs open for those employees who were called up. The dislocation includes the many small businesses that are owned by reservists and, so, must be closed...sometimes permanently; and, 2) the probability that enlistment in the reserves is going and has already plummeted. With the timeframe for US occupation of Iraq being now forecast at 4 years, it becomes more likely that a draft will be instituted. This is likely to occur in Bush's 2nd term -- if he is re-elected, as I believe he will be -- because Bush will not so much as hint at such a controversial move during this term. I dread the prospect of a 2nd Bush Presidency. The Cartoon Network's tagline for its upcoming new series, Duck Dodgers In The 24-1/2th Century captures my reaction, "...If he's our future, we're history..."

On the other hand, I am encouraged by the disillusionment with Bush now being expressed by people who were willing to give him the benefit of the doubt during a time of crisis. For example, in a recent article Dan Judge analyzes his own naivity in ever giving Bush a free pass. Judge writes, "Suddenly France and the Dixie Chicks don't seem quite so dumb, do they?" Moreover, I'm hearing more and more jokes that have Bush as the brunt...and *that's* a telling sign. The one thing a President cannot withstand is becoming a widespread joke among people on the street. Clinton's popularity could have withstood the Monica scandal if it hadn't made people snicker at him.

My favorite email today comes from Gordon Pusch who writes in reaction to an earlier blog on the intrusion of technology and government into everyone's privacy. Gordon comments, *Some pretty scarey stuff --- particulary the guy reported to the FBI for reading an editorial while waiting for coffee, and that RFID technology... 8-( (I predict a brisk market in "bug zappers" --- home EMP units to burn out the ID chips --- until, of course, the Gov't makes frying the bugs illegal... :-( I can just see it now: Microscopic print etched onto the chip, saying "Do not disable this ID-tag, under Penalty of Law"...)*

Best to all,
mac