A few positives to look at.

Topping the list was this morning's (28 November 2007) Good Morning America live broadcast of a holiday parade and light show (with fireworks) being broadcast nation wide over a two hour period and then rebroadcast on the regular Good Morning America show. I watched the "Flip the Switch" live starting at 4:00 am after going out to give my dogs their late night feed and water. I didn't figure I needed to stand around for hours waiting for what would amount to snippits and bits of parade/fireworks/lights to be interspersed with other news. After all, GMA was only showcasing the actual parade, fireworks and millions of twinkling lights that I first saw the day after Thanksgiving. Just as they said they would do. What did it do for my home town of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho? It put us on the map as a tiny town (compared to other much larger cities) capable of putting on a damned good show. Hey, looky here, we are now comparable to Disneyland! Which is where GMA will finally finish their holiday tour.

In the opinion pages, James Pinkerton holds a low opinion for Rudy Giuliani when it comes to border security. A virtual security fence instead of a real one. His column first appeared in Newsday and has been republished in the Spokesman-Review as of 28 November 2007. Why do I particularly like what Pinkerton wrote? Many of what has been called the Republican front runners, Giuliani among them, has tried to position themselves--not as Reagan--but as the bigger and badder GW. It is Bush who pushed the virtual security fence, it is Michael Chertoff who supported it right along with key Democrats. Problem is, as Lou Dobbs pointed out, such a virtual security that has proven to be far more spendy than building a fence has also proven to be a lot of useless electronic junk. It basically says that drug dealers, terrorists, and illegal alien labor can cross the borders with impunity. Pinkerton also noted the Campeon and Ramos case where the border patrol agents doing their jobs were arrested, charged and convicted for doing their jobs. Such harsh penalties from the Bush run Justice dept. because they failed to fill out the paperwork in PC style. That is, politically correct to what the federal attorney in this case thought was necessary. There are very few times when I can agree with Pinkerton, this is one of those times when I can. While Pinkerton did cut out the GW administration policies for the most part in his invective against Giuliani, he did manage to prove that the former mayor of New York wants to be just like George. Just what the American public needs.

Going from there was a bit of wisdom from Barbara Shelly, originally writing from the Kansas City Star. She took note of how the GOP are now lower in the polls than the Democrats and secularism (in the form of new atheists and religious non-believers) are now on the rise. And points out why exactly the trends are this way. Americans are contrarians. Correct. And Americans as a truly independent people are capable of self-correction when they see major problems arising whether social or political. That is what makes the U.S. so unique. So, while the GOP in seeking power praised the idea of "self-government" to the skies and turned around as the majority and went the other way; the very proofs of self-government, when Americans themselves are fed up with the way things are, are showcased then in what Shelly had published.

Last but not least, Huckleberries on-line informs us of an Eye on Boise (Idaho state capitol) where a federal judge threw out a GOP splinter group led lawsuit trying to force closed primaries that allows only registered Republicans to vote. I happen to be a registered Republican and am also a highly contrarian GOP. If I don't vote the ticket in the general election it happens to be because (pointing to Shelly) I don't care for religion to be shoved down my throat and made a part of public policy. Far too many of my party think this is how to get elected, basically cater to the fringe elements. Given the disasters of the Bill Sali votes in the House of Representatives (Rep. Sali of Idaho), you wonder if he is truly Christian by the fact that he seems too intent on hurting his state with his votes, or who or what he really represents (since he isn't representing the needs of his fellow Idahoans). Closing those primaries would guarantee that Idaho would be represented by nut cases. At least the federal judge showed more sense than the GOP splinter group. Bet there will be a lot of published whining from here to doomsday that the judge thwarted the GOP on this issue.

So, when did self-government become an issue of inconvenience to the GOP? After all, self-government is part and parcel with deciding if you wish to register independent and deciding if you wish to vote the person over the party. On the above, the GOP found they couldn't tolerate the idea here in Idaho and went the route of Socialism that they had long accused the Democrats of doing because of and certainly through their solid majorities. Socialism is controlling how people vote and that is what the GOP tried to do through the lawsuit.