leftfielder.org

America needs a better opposition party. The GOP has only been on the job one week, and they’re already sucking at it. I mean, this economic stimulus package is a big deal. We’ll be saddled with a huge debt, and it may not even work. While ultimately it may be necessary, and maybe it should be passed, there need to be some hard questions asked first, and that’s the role of an opposition party.

But the GOP’s answer to the plan isn’t to question its necessity, or look for how effective it will be, or try to find ways to cut costs. Oh, no… their complaint is that there aren’t enough tax breaks for the rich Wall Street types who got us into this mess. That’s not an opposition party. That’s a joke. And not a particularly funny one at that.

I don’t get why the GOP isn’t looking in the mirror after this recent election and trying to get some new leadership that actually… ya know… leads.

It turns out I have just been the victim of credit card fraud from the world’s dumbest criminal. The fellow stole my credit card number, and used it to check into a room at a Marriot Hotel. He then proceeded to try and make purchases online, but since he didn’t have the expiration date, all of those purchases failed, and moreover alerted the credit card company that something fishy was going on. As the room that was rented is attached in the computer system to the credit card that was used to rent it, the police know exactly where the person who stole my credit card number is currently staying. If only all criminals were so easy to catch…

My preliminary thoughts on the Obama speech:

1) Very well delivered

2) Inclusive of everybody – religions, races, ideologies. His rhetoric, at least, is making good on the post-partisan pledge.

3) About a third of the way through the talk I thought to myself that this was the death knell for the GOP. He basically co-opted all the viable ideas from the GOP. Work ethic, cutting government that wasn’t effective, markets are powerful. By having Warren as his invocation preacher he even cut into their claim to be the party of values and religion. By claiming as his own the ideology from the right that still holds sway, Obama has effectively left them with no viable talking points. Couple that with Bush’s incompetence and I see a very dark period for the GOP from which they may not recover for a long time. If you’re small third party, now’s your time to try and take over the opposition role from the republicans. They’ve never been so weak.

4) Wow… those crowds were huge!