And what a Monday it was...

So much happened today that just... well, I shall begin where I begin and end shortly before my fingers begin to bleed:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (yes, I copy/pasted it) spoke today at Columbia University and successfully (from what accounts I could find) said basically... nothing of substance. Frankly, he'd do well in the US if he hadn't chosen the wrong strain of bat-shit-insane-pedagogy. And he's clearly not that crazy or that stupid, because he noticeably ratcheted back on the lunacy. He also showed a distinctly political aversion to either outright owning or outright disowning previous, unpopular statements.

So, of course, with Ahmadinejad not really providing anything new in the way of controversy, the question remains: was it appropriate to allow him to speak at an American institution of higher learning at all?

Yes. Tasteful? Well, that's an entirely different debate. But Columbia was holding a series of such forums with many, many different world leaders, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a president. In fact, he's the president of a country that will, like it or not, have a HUGE impact on how the next decade rolls out. Sooner or later we're going to have to have a real talk about Iraq with Iran.

Moving on... straight past the lingering "MoveOn.Org" whipping boy (seriously, can we talk about something that matters now?)

President Bush predicts that Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic primary against Obama! Shock and aw... crap. Look. I'd love help elect the first woman president. I really would. But I just hate her politics. Her and nearly every other incumbent Democratic Representative and Senator. Centrist politics gets us NO WHERE. And even Obama has been pounding the bi-partisan drum. Gag me. Did Democrats not get the message in 2006? We want to change the direction of this country. And it's not a small adjustment. We need something drastically different : not Republican Lite.

And Hillary is Republican Lite. Which is sad, because she wasn't always, but progressive politics is no place for "once bitten: twice shy" individuals.

Who am I backing then, you may ask? Edwards. He's electable, he's populist, he's progressive, he's for workers, for families, for the poor. He was the first one to come out with a health care reform plan (and four months later, Hillary pillaged it). Of all the candidates, he's the only one who I can actually believe cares.

I'm sure this won't be a particularly popular point of view but I really, really want to see a significant change in discourse. I want a president who speaks on the issues and actually says something worth listening to; I'd like to see an end to soundbites.

A girl can dream, can't she?

And the Jena 6. Personally, I think that the entire country has been over-criminalizing youths. Trying children as adults does nothing except land them in cells with real adult criminals. Basically, we send them Crime U. Once again we've reacted out of pure fear and the minute that someone crosses the line we're ready to throw them in jail and lose the key. This does no one any good. Whatever happened to rehabilitation? Yes. Sometimes someone has to go to jail for life, but we've been lowering the bar for decades. I remember when getting into a fight, even a brutal one, just got you suspended. And it worked. Maybe we just had particularly good parents in my school district, but kids were far FAR more afraid when our teachers called our parents.

And of COURSE race had to do with it! Something violent was going to happen eventually. Did they really think that it would just...blow over? That kids would get bored with it after hanging nooses from trees and cars and committing arson? What scares me is that, eventually, the adults will get bored with it. This won't be the start of a larger, nation-wide (much needed), movement to address the racism that still thrives in this country. It'll hang around for a few news cycles and then...fade away.

Frankly, looking around these days, I'm shocked we ever had the attention span to watch the entire OJ Simpson trial on cable TV LIVE. We didn't just get highlights and hand-picked "facts." We actually watched the whole thing...at SCHOOL. I'm not saying it was particularly educational (I can think of a lot of better ways to learn about our legal system). But I really can't imagine anyone doing that now. No wonder it's so hard to get a real discussion of the issues going. Serious issues are boring.

And to prove my point: lost in today's hubbub was the UN summit on climate change began. And guess who's not going to be there? You guessed it! Our very own Commander in Chief. Interestingly enough, y'know who did speak to the assembly? Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governator of California. He wants to legislate green house gas emissions. Bush wants to to stick his fingers in his ears and blame it all on the sun. Woo boy. But, let's not forget, Bush also raised the legal limit of arsenic in our water. That's right. It was just too much of a financial burden on those poor ol' chemical-waste producing corporations. This is years ago, of course, and it got lost like a fart in the wind then.

I guess he figures he won't live long enough to see the full damage he's wrought. But he'll die knowing that his name will live on forever - probably as an expletive.