A contrarian toward people on the far left and far right, Kevin Featherly is an interesting commentator on politics and technology--and on the glory--and former futlity--of being a Red Sox fan. His centrist positions set him up as a target from both sides. Set your sights on Kevin and be ready to be challenged by his ideas. http://www.featherly.com There are legitimate reasons to worry about what a Barack Obama presidency represents. His foreign policy philosophies seem to tilt backwards to the he's-a-bastard-but-he's-our-bastard "realism" of Dean Acheson and George Kennan. We don't know nearly enough about how Obama will seize the executive reins to steer us out of our economic morass. But weighing it all out, Obama--as a man of intellectual heft, varied worldly experience and temperamental steadiness--is for my money the better choice. I'll be voting today for Barack Obama. http://www.featherly.com/kevblog08/kevblogarchive_1104.htm Barack Obama's $5 million-or-so prime time infomercial/docudrama/live address was about as pretty--and dull--as your average  "Masterpiece Theater" episode. Was it effective television? Barely. Was it a brilliant demonstration of Obama's cool, empathetic  steadiness, for voters worried by Palin-McCain's latest charges about Obama's incipient Marxism? Oh yeah. It was gloriously boring that way. http://www.featherly.com/kevblog08/kevblogarchive_1029.htm Barack Obama may be not just the first African-American to lay his nameplate on the Resolute desk in the Oval Office. He may get there by winning as many as four former Confederate states--Virginia, North Carolina,Florida and Georgia. No doubt, John McCain might still win this thing. But it is getting harder to see how. The way the numbers lay, one week from Election Day, it is just as easy to imagine Obama cutting a path to victory in 30 of the 50 states...  http://www.featherly.com/kevblog08/kevblogarchive_1027.htm The ghost of Sen. Joe McCarthy has just crossed the border from my home state of Wisconsin into my current state of residence, Minnesota. Yippee. http://www.featherly.com/kevblog08/kevblogarchive_1017.htm Tonight in Lakeville, Minn., Sen. John McCain called off the dogs he unleashed when he allowed his campaign to paint, for his revved-up rallies, a portrait of Barack Obama as a young terrorist. Whether this change of heart will last, or whether it is just another leap and a skip to a temporary new strategy, we will see. But give credit where it is due. Tonight, the Republican candidate for president did the right thing by acknowledging Obama's basic decency--and his U.S. citizenship. http://www.featherly.com/kevblog08/kevblogarchive_1010.htm In the biggest bet of John McCain's career, his campaign is trying to redefine Barack Obama as a Wright-loving, terrorist-consorting enigma who may or may not wish his nation harm. The Republican certainly wishes to visit no physical on his opponent, but make no mistake--McCain's irresponsible tactics cavalierly place Obama's safety at risk. Simply by dint of who he is, by dint of the black man's traditional place in this society, Obama was born with the faint outlines of a target on his forehead. It shouldn't be too much to ask John McCain to take his laser pointers off of it. http://www.featherly.com/kevblog08/kevblogarchive_1007.htm While I was covering the protests for Politics in Minnesota Sept. 1, I took along my little digital camera. None of the photos I took got published, but they make for a pretty good pictorial essay of what I personally witnessed. And to answer your question, no. I never got arrested. But there was a point where I thought I might get my head cracked, along with a bunch of anarcho-morons who shattered a squad car window. But the cops didn't crack any heads at that point. They let the little masked cutie-pies go--to a point down the street where they were herding them up anyway. I personally saw nothing but police acting with restraint. Others, including some journalists, apparently saw things quite differently--some from the inside of a jail cell. I can't speak to that. http://www.featherly.com/kevblog08/kevblogarchive_0906.htm A contrarian toward people on the far left and far right, Kevin Featherly is an interesting commentator on politics and technology--and on the futlity of being a Red Sox fan. His centrist positions set him up as a target from both sides. Set your sights on Kevin and be ready to be challanged by his ideas. http://www.featherly.com