Times Online: Bush Sr. has a message for his son. Quote: “The first President Bush has told his son that hopes of peace in the Middle East would be ruined if a war with Iraq were not backed by international unity.” Here is the full text of his speach at Tufts. Salon’s top story today is larger analysis of their differences. Thanks to rc3.org for bringing this to light.

Read the Salon piece. There is a major split, as far as foreign policy goes, in the Republican party. Check out today’s NYTimes story on The Weekly Standard and see the gulf between it’s view point and The American Conservative. That split goes beyond the Republicans.

Is it a generational split?

Disconnectedness defines danger. Memorize the phrase. According to this story in Esquire we are about to embark a strategy that President Clinton pursued thru peaceful engagement. The article gives you a bigger picture then what’s been explained so far. I wonder how anti-globalization activists feel about this? The idea – “Disconnectedness defines danger” – rings true to me, but what of the strategy to fight it?

Tom Brokow in the NYTimes tells us that the Arab world is starting to tune in and “the fundamental structure of Middle East politics has been altered, if not over-hauled. Today, political pressure develops quickly and independently from the ground up, not just from the top down, a dramatic difference from a decade ago.” He is, of course, more then a little biased.

The same is true in weblogging. Mike Sanders says, in his great 7-Habits series, “the solution is through reading other blogs and realizing that they are a mirror into ourselves.” True of any media. But you need to have access to it in order to use it. Many webloggers act as islands of thought, only linking to sites similar to themselves. “Cyberspace is republican” according to the rule. But having easy access to alternative media changes everything. Even alternative blogs. I imagine many so-called far righties and lefties checking out the other side’s sites in private, if not in public on their sites. That is a good thing. It’s a start.

Speaking of a start, did you know we were launching a new high tech peace corps? Good news.

CNN, while declaring Blogging has gone mainstream, may have something when it quotes Chris Cleveland, “The way bloggers link and influence each other’s thinking could lead to a collective thought process, a kind of hive brain.”. The hive isn’t a great thought to me, but people connecting to each other across vast expanses of geography is.

Maybe the digital divide should be purposely tackled after all, but not for the simplisitic idea that it helps to fight poverty. The primary reason(s) would be to spread freedom of expression and thought with the free flow of information, education, and commerce. If “Disconnectedness defines danger”, then “Connectivity builds security”.

I must share what I expect to be a great resource in the months ahead: Wikipedia’s U.S. presidential election, 2004 page.

I promised not to post anything bad. So here goes the good – In this country people might slander metal, but they don’t jail you for it listening or playing it.

However, in Morocco heavy metal is a threat that deserves jail time. 14 fans and musicians thrown in jail. For music.

Charity packages including compilation CDs of the greatest metal tunes of all time anyone?

The Democrats have candidates. Just not of the typical variety. Atrios nominates Jim Capozzola, of The Rittenhouse Review, to run for Sentate against Specter.

Works for me. Do it Jim! Do it!

Too much bad news. Just too much. Everywhere you turn it’s doom and gloom. Layoffs. Stock market losses. Leaders that don’t instill confidence. It just goes on and on.

Fight it.

There are principaled people out there. Yesterday I linked to two of them. A Democrat and a Republican. Here goes four more… or should I say two more, a very good sign, and something to never forget:

1. Minneapolis agent Coleen Rowley still fights to fix the system.

2. Principal Joan Jackson is doing more with far less. With per-pupil spending among the lowest in the state, and 13 percent of students in poverty, Hill has all fourth graders at proficient or advanced levels on the state tests. I know her husband. And like her, he does what he can to make the world a better place. He’s a Boy Scout troop leader.

3. Whether you agree with their politics or not – the youth of America are waking up. Like I said immediately after 9/11 – “whatever” is dead. There are things worth fighting for. The Boomers and Gen-Xers either can let these kids down, let the world down, or rise to meet the challenge of what’s ahead. Let’s hope that voter participation rises back to 60s levels. For too long, too few people have been voting.

4. Yesterday, in church, in the pew ahead of me, was an elderly gray haired man and his asian wife. At his side was a blue baseball cap. On it read “WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War Veteran”. The love between him and his wife touched me. Knowing this man faught to defend me made me feel like the wuss I am. While I am heartened to see people voicing their beliefs – please – unlike the 60s – let’s never put down those that are standing up to defend us. They deserve our respect, our understanding, and our prayers. Fight the politicians, if you feel they are wrong, it is them that make the policies. Vote them out of office. Use your vote. It’s your right. Remember that. It’s your right. So please do not put down these brave souls that are putting themselves in harm’s way to defend it.

For Lent last year I joked about giving up weblogging. I did cut back, but I was joking. This time I do have a Lenten goal in mind for my site – to post the positive (like the above) and not the negative. To emphasize what I am for instead of what I am against. A crazy thing to try. Should be interesting.

Facing terrible deficits what does Rendell do – instead of offering tax breaks to buy votes that in the end will only make matters worst? He breaks down the budget into two steps: 1. Trim the size of government – balance the budget, get the house in order. 2. Invest in the future.

On the other hand, John McCain is more a Democrat then most Democrats.

Only true if you believe in the sweeping generalizations that everyone holds dear. What makes these two special is that they try and act on their principals.