"All that is old and already formed can continue to live only if it allows within itself the conditions of a new beginning."
Kevblog 2004 Archives
December blogs
12/09/04
Note to Baseball: Ban the Bums
The Kevblog Returns after a month-long hiatus prompted by the Blue-state Blues. Having recovered enough from the Election '04--just not sufficiently to write about it just yet--we're taking on steroids in baseball with a simple, clean solution to the crisis: Lifetime ban for all proven offenders.
November blogs
NO NOVEMBER BLOGS
October blogs
10/30/04
Osama's 'Little Gift'
If Saturday's edition of the New York Daily News is any guide, the Bush campaign is feeling rather good about Osama bin Laden's October video surprise. According to the newspaper, an unidentified "senior GOP strategist" baldly states that bin Laden's late-hour videotaped intrusion into the presidential campaign Friday was "a little gift" for the president.10/29/04
Al-Qaqaa Seems to Seal Doubts
About Bush's War Judgment
Perhaps I'm being sold a left-wing bill of goods, but I feel very much that the al-Qaqaa story really does serve as a symbol for the arrogance--even idiocy--displayed by U.S. leaders who rushed to war without preparing for its aftermath--apparently without even believing there would be an aftermath. Just chocolates, hugs and flowers.10/13/04
Did Kerry Really Flop on the War?
Frustrated at having heard in debates and elsewhere President Bush's insistence that John Kerry stood in lock-step with him when it came to voting for an Iraq war resolution in 2003 and that Kerry has now "flip-flopped"; and having heard Kerry's insistence that he had always maintained a consistent posture when it came to the war--and not really knowing the real story on my own--I decided tonight to go back to the record. So, who comes closest to telling the truth? Advantage, Kerry.10/07/04
News Vet Bill Moyers Raps 'the Rapture'
The Kevblog features a partial transcript of a powerful speech delivered by the veteran newsman Bill Moyers to a group of journalists Sept. 11, at a Society of Professional Journalists convention in New York. Its centerpiece is a pointed challenge to journalists to delve into one of the crucible issues of our time: the religious fundamentalism that Moyers suggests drives the foreign policy of George W. Bush, represented by a vast swath of Bible Belt Americans that Moyers maintains welcomes a global Christian war versus Islam, as signaling the end-times prophecy of "the Rapture."10/01/04
'Minnewisowa' -- A New Political Super-state
In today's Kevblog, and with the kind permission of the author, is reprinted an interesting piece by Washington Times columnist Barry Casselman, published earlier this week. Writes Casselman: "In the supra-atomic regions of American politics, the Constitution has collided with history and technology, and the result is a political super-state called Minnewisowa."
September blogs
09/29/04
Don't Be So Quick To Dismiss Blogosphere
Dear Mr. Nick Coleman:
I am a blogger and, like not a few other bloggers out there, I actually am a trained and experienced journalist. Contrary to your suggestion in today's Star Tribune, I stringently maintain the same standards of my reporting when I compose my commentaries online or write pieces for regular media. I urge you not to be so quick to paint the entire blogosphere too thickly with one giant broad brush.09/28/04
SMiLE: Wilsonian Democracy
Thanks to a friendly record-store clerk, on Friday I bought an advance copy of "Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE." I haven't listened to anything else since, and here's why: Finally, we can say with authority that the aborted 1967 Beach Boys record "SMiLE," in its now completed state, is every bit the revelation we Wilson cultists believed it could be.09/27/04
In Minnesota, a Victory for Open Democracy
The Minnesota State Supreme Court made the right choice today when it ruled that two dozen Independence Party candidates must be placed back on the Nov. 2 general election ballot, after the hopefuls were summarily ousted because of an obscure election law. Justices didn't detail their reasons for a decision they reached one hour after oral arguments. But the fact that they decided so quickly speaks volumes.09/22/04
Iraq: There Are Terrible Ways
To Do a Good Thing
With the kind permission of the author and columnist Matt Miller I have reprinted his column, which was published today. His words of advice to John Kerry were exactly what I needed to hear; I literally felt a strain being lifted from my chest as I read them--though that strain in part remains, given that the thoughts are Miller's, and have not yet been uttered by Kerry.09/20/04
Put Independence Party Back on Ballot
It's outrageous. And it must not stand. Anyone with a sense of fair play should be outraged by the decision rendered by the tag team duo of Minnesota's Secretary of State, Mary Kiffmeyer, (a Republican) and its attorney general, Mike Hatch, (a Democrat). Together they have rubbed the names of all Minnesota's 26 Independence Party members off the Nov. 2 ballot.09/11/04
9/11: The View from Ground Zero
As I emerged from the subway, the first thing my eyes fell upon were the two emerald-topped buildings that stand adjacent to where the Twin Towers once loomed. Though I nevergot this close to the World Trade Center on my one previous visit to New York in February of 2001, I knew immediately where I was. I think any American would have recognized the place.09/09/04
John Kerry Needs a New Set of Frames
You must hand it to the Bush campaign. These folks have figured out what liberals and, I'd say even centrists, can't quite understand--that when it comes to making people see things the way you want them to, what matters is emotional resonance. Emotion is not logical. And facts simply don't matter.
August blogs
08/27/04
CBS: FBI Hunts Israeli Spy in Pentagon
This is stunning: CBS News reports tonight that the FBI is investigating what it believes is a spy working for the Israeli government at the very highest levels of the Pentagon--an analyst working in the office of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.08/16/04
Memo to Dems: Misunderestimate
Bush--at Your Own Peril
If Democrats want to win the '04 election, they may want to get past their false sense of confidence that President Bush is going to bumble his way out of office. Instead, given the Dems' "soft bigotry of low expectations," the president may be perfectly positioned to blunder his way right back to a second term.08/10/04
Do You Mind if We Go On Background?
What does it mean when a source discusses matters with the press "on background"? If it sounds to you like it should mean that issues discussed between a source and a reporter should remain unpublished, that is what National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice apparently wants you to think. But, that's not how the rules work.08/05/04
Why St. Paul's DFL Mayor Supports Bush
The Kevblog republishes a St. Paul lawyer/activist's analysis of the city's mayor, who has followed his predecessor by coming into office a Democrat, then shifting party loyalties. Mayor Randy Kelly, as it happens, remains for now a Democrat. But his support from the DFL side appears to be eroding. Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman wryly called Kelly "the outgoing mayor" of St. Paul.
July blogs
07/29/04
John Kerry's Long Drive to Center
With his surprisingly effective stump speech tonight before a national audience, is it possible to say that John Kerry tonight walked away with the presidency? No way, it's too early. But he certainly took no steps backward.07/27/04
Obama: The Democrats'
Roaring 'Prairie Fire'
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry came one step closer to winning over a majority of voters in the Red Sox Nation tonight. On the eve of the Democratic nominating convention in Boston, the candidate appeared during the 5th inning of an ESPN baseball telecast--sounding off solidly in favor of the Red Sox over the hated Yankees.07/25/04
John Kerry Pulls Ahead
in Red Sox Nation
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. John Kerry came one step closer to winning over a majority of voters in the Red Sox Nation tonight. On the eve of the Democratic nominating convention in Boston, the candidate appeared during the 5th inning of an ESPN baseball telecast--sounding off solidly in favor of the Red Sox over the hated Yankees.07/22/04
So Long, Jim Crow;
Hello, Jim Smoke
I watched my emphysemic father slowly drown in his own membranes and cough fractures into his ribcage, and it forever turned me off to cigarettes. You might figure me for one of those folks who would happily mount the trounce-the-smokers bandwagon that has seized the Twin Cities metro area and other areas of the nation. Guess again.07/18/04
Let's Do Our Homework,
Scrutinize Political Ads
Broadcast advertising is how presidential camps communicate their messages to voters, and it's far and away the chief means by which voters receive the information. Too bad so much of it is bogus. So let's check out one way to halt the dizzying spin.07/15/04
On the Lamm: Universal Health Care
While a genuine political centrist, former Colorado Gov. Dick Lamm--who nearly replaced Ross Perot on the Reform Party presidential ticket in 1996--champions a single-payer universal healthcare system. But he is a proponent with reservations, and serious concerns about what the system would really mean for America.07/11/04
Penny's Thoughts on Moe, Pawlenty
My post to the Minnesota Politics Discussion email list, which introduced Featherly's Kevblog to a group of wonky, email-loving Minnesotans, wound up inspiring a subscriber to query about what it means to be a centrist: How did the "centrist" gubernatorial candidate Tim Penny differ from the Democratic candidate Roger Moe, for instance? Penny himself chimed in himself with an answer.07/08/04
Rethinking Ralph
I am on record supporting Ralph Nader's right to run for president on the grounds that the nation needs a high-profile third-party voice in this most polarized of election years. I'm not retracting that position. But I am growing increasingly troubled by the Nader campaign.07/04/04
It's July 4: Know Where
Your Independents Are?
A bit of recommended reading: Pete Peterson, Nixon's former commerce secretary, has a new book that gives both political parties the what-for over their failure to take care of business, particularly as it pertains to the runaway spending that threatens to push the nation to disaster--right about the time the Baby Boom morphs into the Geritol Boom.07/03/04
Now Batting for Boston: Sisyphus Stone
Little did I know when I forked over the $160 it cost me to buy the Major League Baseball Sports on Demand season package from the Time Warner Cable, that I would be putting my health and sanity at risk. The Boston Red Sox are killing me.07/02/04
Hy-Order Intelligence On
Gopher-state Gridlock
I thought it would be good to check in with the noted (now retired) Minnesota history professor Hy Berman to evaluate, historically, the dead-enders now running Minnesota's state government.
June blogs
06/28/04
The Apple (Valley) of Independents' Eyes
She looks a little like Cher and talks a little like Hubert Humphrey. But as a politician, she answers to no one. At least, no one in either of the two major parties. And she might be a key to the momentum of Minnesota's fading third-party movement.06/25/04
How Kerry Became Dubya's Vice President
I have uncovered a strikingly plausible scenario in which John Kerry and George W. Bush end up Election Day tied--269-269--in electoral votes. The scenario favors another Bush presidential term, since the House now seems safely Republican, and representatives would then choose the next president. But weirdly, an Election Day tie conceivably could lead to a Bush-Kerry administration. No kidding.06/22/04
Saddam/Al-Qaeda Ties? Czech It Out
I've come to believe the administration is deliberately spreading confusion bombs to keep lingering doubts in play, so that the last shred of justification for the war in Iraq doesn't disintegrate before the election in November. Case in point: the alleged "Czech meeting."06/16/04
Damn Your Eyes, Johnny Democrat!
Blame it on the Civil War. A noted historian tells the Kevblog that the enmity Republicans feel for the Democrats traces all the way back to the War Between the States, when the GOP saw itself as the party of democracy and patriotism, while Democrats were viewed as traitors to the causes of national unity. Some things, it seems, never change. They just get adapted for changing times.06/13/04
Iraq and the Clash of Civilizations
Unless the Bush administration's operatives can pull together wildly competing interests and cobble together a genuine Western-style democracy in Iraq--a tall order for a civilization that might not be able to handle one--then we might be faced with a three-front civil war. Kurds against Shiites, Shiites against Sunnis, Sunnis against Kurds. Everyone against everyone. Utter chaos.06/11/04
I'm The Problem
"Dear Mr. Featherly: You represent everything that is wrong with American voters today." Wow! How do you respond something like that? Well, where there's a will ...06/08/04
The Reagan Legacy
A great president? It's too early to say; perceptions and idealizations have yet to fade into hard historical analysis. But I think it is safe to say, even from the perspective of one who did not agree with much of his agenda, that Ronald Wilson Reagan proved himself a worthy president, despite the flaws, despite the errors of omission and commission. Despite it all. We will remember Ronald Reagan.06/06/04
Governor Pawlenty Responds
I'm suffering from no delusions here--to my knowledge, Gov. Tim Pawlenty does not read the Kevblog. But while attending a Humphrey Institute breakfast, I was able to get his response directly to the basic questions raised by my last column. (Hint: He got just a bit personal.)06/02/04
The Non-Stick Governor
Let's pose this challenge to the state's Fifth Estate: Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has been in office for a year-and-a-half now. Think it's time to end the honeymoon?
May blogs
05/30/04
Election Industry Inc. and the Reich Stuff
It was clear from watching the festivities the Worst Political Ads in America awards is that Election Industry Inc. accomplishes its task with its attack ads--to rally partisan viewers. Many of the lefties' ads being lambasted were met with laughter, and in some cases applause. Still, it will be good if this really event--which featured a speech by diminutive former U..S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich--becomes a once-every-four-years event.05/28/04
Memo: Army Predicted Contractor Problems
A March 2002 memo from former Secretary of the Army Thomas E. White to three Department of Defense officials indicates that the Army didn't have the information--and hadn't performed the proper analysis--to manage and oversee its ballooning number of private contractors.05/27/04
Terror Warning: What The Hell Was That?
I admit it. I don't appreciate my government going out of its way to spook me, whether it's because the "war on terror" is the only area where the president's polling numbers remain high, or if it's in the cause of shoring up John Ashcroft's sagging fortunes. No, I don't like that one bit.05/25/04
Iraq: The Bitter Lessons of History
Egypt, 1798-1801: Napoleon Bonaparte invades a desert state with the promise of liberating impoverished, ignorant Arabs from the clutches of a brutal dictatorship. An Islamic resistance movement arises, and remnants of the old regime launch a guerilla campaign. Cities involved in insurrections are violently repressed. Stop me if you've heard this one before.05/23/04
Where Do I Fit?
Nader, Kerry, Bush--none seems to represent what I believe in or feel. My liberal friends call me a conservative because of my feelings toward business. My conservative friends feel I am a flaming liberal because I do not follow their bible to a tee. Where do I fit?05/19/04
Rest in Peace Civility and Common Sense
It was the sort of thing that have might helped Tim Penny attract more angry-voter attention had he not foresworn publicity stunts while running for governor in 2002. As it was, it was still pretty potent symbolism.05/16/04
Running The Other Way with Ad Guru Hillsman
Anyone who knows Hillsman knows two things. He's serious. And he is masterful at the art of promotion--including self-promotion. He has no compunction in saying things about his North Woods Advertising firm like, "We've revolutionized the art of political advertising." But what the heck? He's right.05/09/04
Friendless in St. Paul
In its way, St. Paul is beginning to look a lot like Washington, D.C. That's not to say you'll find underground transport anywhere in the Minnesota capitol, but you will find plenty of underhanded politics. Witness the case of Sen. Sheila Kiscaden.05/06/04
The Bad CEO Theory is Proven
By passing up his opportunity to dump Donald Rumsfeld--a notion even Rumsfled acknowledged might be a good idea to settle the dust in the wake of Abe Ghraib prison fiasco--President Bush has proven his ineffectiveness as the nation's chief executive.05/03/04
The Bad CEO?
It's an interesting theory that furnishes an explanatiion for much of what we have seen. This president may simply be the quintessential weak, mediocre CEO.05/02/04
Say There, Brother,
Can You Spare a Mil?
Here's an idea for the folks who are gaining big time under the Bush tax cuts: Adopt a reservist.05/01/04
Leave Evangelizing to the Evangelists
PBS' Frontline put the spotlight on the president's devotion to his faith. That's all well and good, but maybe he should talk a little less often to God, and listen to a little more good advice here on the temporal plane.
April blogs
04/29/04
In Early '01, Bremer Bashed Bush on Terror
Paul Bremer, currently the de facto president of Iraq, sharply criticized the Bush administration's failure to go after terrorism, just months before 9/11.
04/27/04
Giving President Bush Credit Where It's Due
The president's initiative to hook up the nation with electronic medical records could turn out to be his most positive legacy.
04/23/04
Dean, Stewed in Weber's Kettle
Could Howard Dean have become the anti-Goldwater?
04/21/04
Incurious George
What if George Bush, not JFK, had been in charge of the country during the Cuban Missile Crisis?
04/19/04
Free Wally
Wally Wakefield, a Twin Cities reporter, is being run through the legal wringer at tremendous cost because of his insistence on maintaining his pledge of anonymity to a source.
04/18/04
How I Discovered the Kinks
It all started with a storming volcano of a song called "All Day and All of the Night," a lovable monstrosity that seemed loud at any volume.
04/17/04
Youthful Voters Engage
Young adults are paying attention to the forthcoming presidential election and plan to vote. And they're skewing independent.
04/15/04
Killed Bill
The Minnesota Legislature scrubs a bad bill that would have ruined a proud Minnesota tradition--third-party politics.
04/13/04
Aggrieved--But Not Feeling Responsible
The Kevblog reviews the president's bumbling press conference performace.
04/11/04
A Good Question
When Paul Bremer says, "Good question," when asked who's taking charge of Iraq after he leaves, it's not a good answer. Or a good sign.
04/09/04
The PDB: It Ain't Just 'History'
Turns out there was something more than just old news in the infamous 8/01 presidential daily briefing, regardless of what the national security advisor wouuld have us believe.
04/09/04
Condi's Take: Swatting at Flies
Condi Rice says terrorism was a top priority in the seven months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks. Are you convinced?
04/06/04
The Secret Plan for Iraq
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee--and everyone else--remain in the dark on plans to hand over Iraqi sovereignty. The White House fetish for secrecy has reached new extremes.04/04/04
McCain for Veep
Dear Mr. Kerry: I hereby request that you set aside your reservations, steel yourself to the inevitable protests of the Democratic "party faithful," and select John McCain as your running mate.04/01/04
O'Franken's Flatness Factor
Al Franken's got a problem: In its early run, his Air America radio show isn't terribly funny--just sort Limbaugh-lite--with the shouts coming from the opposite side of the fence.
March blogs
03/31/04
The Nader Factor
He's not getting my vote. But Ralph Nader has every right to run for president--and this nation needs a third voice as an alternative to the two-party duopoly.03/29/04
Mad as Hell
Richard Clarke is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore.03/27/04
Introducing Featherly's Kevblog
Richard Clarke is mad as hell, and he's not going to take it anymore.
About Kevin Featherly
Copyright 2004, by Kevin Featherly
