Today's links

Thursday, September 04, 2008 by Dave Winer.

It's super-hot here in Calif today. Oy! 

If you read one political article today, read this explanation of community service by Time's Joe Klein. Yesterday two Republicans, Rudy Giuliani and Sarah Palin, mocked Obama for giving three years to community service betw college and law school. I wondered too what it meant, when I read this piece I couldn't believe how sloppy the Republicans were. This is exactly what McCain says people should do, and we all agree that giving to your country is a very American value. They should retract and apologized, and Republicans who applauded this should be ashamed.  

I wish more conservatives would write pieces like this. We agree on more than we disagree. I'm not voting for McCain for the exact same reason he says he's reluctant to. "The only real risk in voting McCain-Palin -- and it's a huge one, possibly the biggest one -- is putting into office a bellicose, perhaps reckless, president." Yup. I've been impressed with how thoughtful and competent Obama is. That's why he's got my support. I also think our country is up shit's creek unless we can upgrade our economy, and to do so we need health and education, and that means public spending. It's not as if the Republicans don't believe in public spending, they do -- they just waste the money on blowing up communities overseas. I want us to borrow to build strength here at home. I don't see it as a liberal vs conservative thing, rather a smart vs dumb thing.