A Ford, not a Lincoln...

A decent man. A good man.

I have just finished an outstanding book, Write it When I'm Gone. It is the work of former Newsweek political correspondent Thomas DeFrank.

DeFrank was assigned to Gerald Ford when Ford was made Nixon's VP. The Newsweek editors rightly thought Nixon wasn't going to last long and they wanted a reporter who could become trusted with Ford.

DeFrank not only became trusted by Ford, but became a friend and later a confidant. Ford agreed to regular interviews in the years after his presidency with the caveat that the contents would not be divulged until after his death.

What a walk down memory lane. What a great reflection on a man who served his country in the toughest post... patching together a torn and battered land.

Thank you, Jerry Ford. Thank you for holding us together, for being the stable, calm helmsman for our battered ship of state.

A good reminder that we can't alwasy predict our path, but that character and courage shine best in darkness.

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My choice ... Huckabee

My night at the New Hampshire Presidential Debates in Durham a few weeks back was different than I'd expected. I'd thought I'd be accompanied by my eldest (a politico in DC) and my good liberal Democrat friend.

Life intervened and my kiddo won her prized job in DC and my friend had a commitment she could not shake.

I pressed my 15 year old son and 16 year old daughter into being my companions.

They were not pleased. It seemed it was going to be the most boring event ever forced upon them. There was a virtual coup in the SUV on the way to Durham. If either had had a license, I have no doubt they would have forced me to the side of the road, dumped me in the back and headed to Hampton for fried dough.

But instead, we scarfed down pasta and tasty cakelets at the pre-dinner and made our way in to the debate. Slowly they were won over by the hoopla and the pageantry.

And then the real fun began! Their highlight of the night (and mine) was the heated exchange between Rep. Ron Paul and Gov. Mike Huckabee over our role in Iraq.

Yes, I pretty strongly lean to the libertarian side of things. I believe that we work best when we govern least. But I'm a realist and was glad to see Gov. Huckabee fire back at Paul. His cut and run would absolutely destroy our military.

Huckabee showed life, a grasp of the issues and an ability to articulate. Guiliani came off as a recording ("What I did in New York"), Romney seemed robotic and lifeless, McCain seemed like a tired, wise (and a little bit cranky) grampa. The others were almost absent from the stage, except for Paul ... whose libertarianism seemed more crazed than sage.

I'm an evangelical Christian. I believe (as my sporadic posts show) that faith MUST inform politics... that it does whether we admit it or not. I believe that it is our duty to serve in the temporal world as well as the spiritual one. And this service takes the place of being well-informed citizens.

But I am NOT a lock-step evangelical conservative. I am conservative and libertarian. That is an informed decision primarily from my faith. But I am deeply suspicious of most of the moves to get an evangelical power base.

So I come to my support of Gov. Huckabee NOT because he is an evangelical like myself. I come to my support because he makes sense. He seems to be a man of his word. He is a principled pragmatist.

AND I believe he is in touch with what I believe is the biggest issue our country faces, our deep divide. His "Vertical Politics" that seeks to reach the issues and deal with them and strip the left/right argument resonates with me.

So today I have signed up to work for and be a part of the Gov. Mike Huckabee for President campaign.

D--

The world, she is a-changin'

Saw an article in Information Week that spoke of Google's move to offline application chunks. They are giving, free, to developers hunks of code that will work inside any browser.

The chunks (I think they were called "bricks") will allow word-processing, spreadsheet and other standard computing apps to be downloaded once and then used off-line. Google is encouraging "mashups" such as what has been done with Google Maps (real-estate companies employing Google to map out sale properties, etc).

On top of that, Novell announced they were pulling back from their non-litigate agreement with Microsoft. They'd entered into that under threat that MS would sue them for patent infringement over intellectual property inside SUSE Linux (now owned by Novell).

MS has been pushing these agreements on the big Open Source players to force them to limit development and cooperate with MS. There has to be a reason that MS is trying to get a control on Open Source... and the reason is Open Source can now compete on a level playing field with MS ... and is absolutely free -- except for support which is where these companies aim to maike their money.

But Novell is considering pulling out of the agreement. The reason is that the Open Source world has crafted a new license, called GPLv3. The license takes aim square at alliances like MS/Novell. Core GPL software (i.e. Linux core) cannot be distributed by any company in such an alliance.

These two windstorms are highly significant. The world of software and high proprietary costs are beginning to evaporate. We're looking not just at a commodity world. We're looking at a world whose only analog is the free library. You won't have to buy the software, you just download it when needed.

I see a world where the PC is no longer an operating system which runs multiple programs. I see a world where the browser will be the operating system.

The paradigm has shifted. It may already be too late for MS.

D--

The Best All-Star Moment

Cardinal Albert Pujols never even got to play last night... There's debate over why. But he gave me the best moment of the whole affair.

The night before during the 2nd round of the Home Run Derby a little boy, maybe 4? stood... dressed just like Pujols. I assume it was his son.

When Pujols needed a towel, the little boy trotted it over to him. When he hit, the camera went in on the little boy and his face glowed. When he missed, the little boy looked as if he had missed.

I love baseball.

D--

Thoughts on Iraq, Iran, War and Peace

"Third aircraft carrier sent to waters off Iran..."

That headline started a conversation with my favorite war skeptic.

"Shoot, that means more boys dying," was her response.

I firmly believe war has a necessary place. I wonder about Iraq, but I understand the premise. Like it or not we are in a war... a war with Islam. We are the infidels. Our culture is their enemy.

We can either choose our battles or have them chosen for us. Military wisdom says that in that situation, the wisest thing to do is to choose your battle, choose your ground.

Either take the war on your own grounds and lose some, or have it brought to you and lose many many more...

Israeli intelligence is saying that we're running out of time to destroy Iran's nuclear ability. Imagine a nuclear Iran... When they speak with a bomb in one hand, will we HAVE to listen??? Are we willing to strike pre-emptively regardless of public opinion...

It seems to me we must.

D--

:) Here we go again

Just a quick thought on the primary. Candidates are giving lip-service to New Hampshire, saying it's still important, but look at their agendas. And look at our own Merrimack Fourth of July parade. Only Duncan Hunter (GOP) and Bill Richardson (Dem) were a part.

Four years ago we had Kerry, Dean, Edwards, and all the 2nd and third tier.

Another interesting note, the only folks with any decent contingents were Dem, Clinton, Obama and Edwards.

D--

Picking up the Gauntlet...

Why is it so danged hard to keep up with my blog? Might it be life? Might it be illness, a dam bursting in my hot-water-heater? Might it be a washing maching breaking? Might it be its replacement also breaking?

Might it be life?

I've been active of late in the local realm here in M-Town. Our school board is going through yet another spasm of "tax-cutting". I used to be right in line with the tax cutters until I realized that they were more about gutting than cutting.

I admit it, I LOVE the political process... the game of it... the heat of battle... the smell of gunpowder... the roar of the greasepaint and the smell of the crowd!!

General Lee is quoted and saying to General Stonewall Jackson, "It is a good thing that war is so bloody and terrible else we would learn to love it too much."

As for the picture, it turns out I am still not free to fully discuss the how and why that we got in to a receiving line on the South Lawn of the Whitehouse. All I CAN say is that I'm very proud of my eldest daughter. Her access badge has a different color and a different letter than ours.

Where to go next here...

D--