Around The Sphere Blog Roundup October 11, 2007

Our linkfest offering readers links to blogposts from websites of many different viewpoints. Linked posts do NOT necessarily reflect the opinion of TMV or its writers.

FROSTY RECEPTION: The furor continues over the role and/or treatment of 12-year-old Graeme Frost, who delivered a counter radio address to President George Bush’s…complaining of the President’s veto of the bipartisan-supported children’s health care plan. Pajamas Media offers an informative blog-opinion roundup HERE.

RON PAUL’S BIG IMPACT? Andew Sullivan offers this excellent quote from The Anonymous Liberal:

In fact, I suspect Republican party officials are a little worried about Paul’s plans for the general election. …If Paul can raise his profile enough to secure himself a place in general election debates (as Ross Perot did in 1992), he may well be tempted to accept a third party nomination.

Paul is much more like Ross Perot or Ralph Nader than Howard Dean. His support comes from people who are fed up with the two major parties and don’t feel represented by either of them. Those who want to see a Republican in the White House come 2009 should be very careful how they treat Ron Paul and his supporters. He has the potential to become a very effective spoiler in the general election.

AL is on the dime on this. But don’t forget: a certain person who ran in 2000 insisting there was really nooooooooooo difference between the parties, and who ran in 2004 (when it came out that some of the folks bankrolling him in key states were GOPers hoping to siphon away Democratic votes) may run again. Ralph Nader may ride again (if so he will be the Harold Stassen of the 21st century). 2008 could see two major party candidates – and two major/minor third party candidates..

AND COULD RON PAUL BENEFIT FROM “LBJ’S LAW?” Political scientist Steven Taylor looks at this fascinating issue…NOTE: the fact that Taylor (who has one of the most serious and blogwar-free political blogs on the Internet) is looking at this means…there is indeed increasing informed speculation that Ron Paul could possibly wind up a third party candidate. (His supporters are certainly staunchly loyal and dedicated to him).

AN INTERESTING TAKE ON FRED THOMPSON: We don’t usually link the same person twice in ATS but Sullivan has a great take on former actor and Republican Presidential wannabe Fred Thompson. Here is part of it:

I haven’t changed my mind on the essential vacuousness of Fred Thompson’s candidacy. But watching the debate last night and judging it purely as style, I can see his appeal. Others have written of his solemn demeanor. For me, what stood out was that he seemed the only candidate who held something back, who wasn’t obviously aiming to pander or please, who has a sense of self that isn’t purely that of a candidate. (That’s partly what I like about Obama as well: he hasn’t become a total politician yet.) You get the sense that Thompson may actually have a view that is his own and not filtered through various polling mechanisms. When you compare him to the oleaginous Brownback, whose witlessness only propelled him to try about seven times to make an actual joke about his mother, he seems refreshingly sane and calm. He’s also the only one who talks about the structural debt with any hint that he could win a bipartisan deal to head it off.

And, indeed, that’s what comes across when Thompson speaks, even with his past history as a lobbyist. Are Americans tired of candidates who appear to be willing to run over their own grandmothers in a pick up truck if it could win them the nomination? Are they sick of candidates who seem as if they’d dismember a kitten in front of a kindergarten class to take a lead in the polls? Are they getting stomachaches watching all these men (and woman) who seem like they have fires in their bellies that are coming out of their ears? Just as blogs have fallen into “blog-speak,” politicos fall into “politico-speak.” Thompson does less of that. Or…so far…at least (his advisers will cure him of that).

BATTLING ISLAMOPHOBIA: Dean Esmay is continuing to denounce those involved in broad-brush attacks on Muslims in general. His post needs to be read IN FULL but here is a small part of it:

One free piece of advice to the All American Bloggers: As a supporter of the War Against Terrorism, a voter who supported President Bush in both 2000 and 2004, as a man whose stepfather and with many friends who’ve served in Iraq and Afghanistan, as someone who thinks it’s all a noble cause worth fighting for, I am truly, and deeply, disgusted by the Islamophobia of so many on the right. It has nothing to do with “moral equivalency,” and everything to do with not lying about a people or a religion, even a people I am not a member of (which I never will be) or a religion I am not a member of (which I never will be). It’s about honesty. And respect. And basic decency.

EBAY CAN BE DANGEROUS TO YOUR JOB and spark a lawsuit.

YOU GOTTA TEACH KIDS EARLY AND YOUNG to be partisan. (Uh, oh. You can now just SEE these adults deciding to go after that 12-year-old kid in that counter-Bush health care commercial with another kid. Pre-pubescent surrogates? Why not? Every OTHER BAR is being lowered…)

DO YOU LIKE A NICE GOOSE? Well, here you are..

TRANSMITTING HATE: One view (and we know there are others from fans) of radio giant Rush Limbaugh.

HE’S STILL HERE: One of TMV’s original co-bloggers who doesn’t blog much due to a great full-time writing job, Greg Piper, occasionally posts on his own blog (and once in a while here). He was one of TMV’s greatest co-bloggers and writers…and here is an example of WHY. (NOTE: As a rule we don’t link to co-bloggers’ blogs, figuring they will do it themselves…but we had to pass this one along).

THE TORTURE RACE: Ace-writer Jon Swift (tongue in cheek or serious?) looks at the issue.

HAS NANCY PELOSI HAD IT TAKING YOU KNOW WHAT FROM THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S BASE? Possibly…

THIS JUST IN!!! about Nancy Pelosi.

GOVERNMENT DEMANDS TO PROFILE BLOGGERS HAVE SPARKED PROTESTS in Bangladesh (a country I had the supreme pleasure to visit as a freelance journalist in the mid-1970s).