No More Senator Stevens

Contrary to my dad's assertion that he could get re-elected from a jail cell, Senator Ted Stevens, by a very close margin, has apparently lost the election.

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

A lot of Republican pundits have said they wished he had been re-elected so he could resign and allow Governor Palin to appoint a Republican successor, but unlike most states Alaska law calls for a special election within 90 days; a legacy of Alaskans being pissed off at then-Governor Murkowski appointing his daughter Lisa to his vacated Senate seat on his election to the governorship.

Full disclosure: Senator-elect Mark Begich was a friend of several friends of mine back in high school, although we only met once or twice at most. Also, Ted Stevens was my dad's attorney back the the '60s before Stevens entered politics. (Thus I am two degrees of separation from pretty much everybody elected to national office since 1972, which degree of separation will continue.)

Originally published at No Clever Pseudonym. » Click here « to leave any comments.

Victory in Iraq Day, November 22, 2008

Blogger Zombietime says what most of us have been thinking for some time: the war in Iraq is over. Major combat operations, the Baathist insurgency, the al Qaeda jihad, the Sadrist uprisings, the Sunni holdouts, the sectarian death squads. All beaten.

There is no serious fighting still going on. What is left is a few diehards (like those Japanese soldiers in the jungle who refused to surrender), criminal gangs, and Iranian infiltrators. There will continue to be suicide bombers, a nagging low level of insurgent violence, and an occasional flareup, but as Zombie points out, similar things are happening today in India, Mexico, Thailand, the Philippines, and lots of other places we would never consider to be "at war."

The Bush Administration, the Obama Administration, and the media will never declare a victory for their own separate reasons. That doesn't mean it's not true.

It's time to celebrate another victory for American arms, and the defeat of a large number of very very bad people. Zombie arbitrarily chose November 22 to be Victory in Iraq Day.

Go read the whole thing. Really.

Originally published at No Clever Pseudonym.
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