Is this Hope?

The New York Times offers up some evidence of the long-promised post-racial society, but not the sort that Obama supporters had in mind. 

Among the many reverberations of President Obama’s election, here is one he probably never anticipated: at least 32 African-Americans are running for Congress this year as Republicans, the biggest surge since Reconstruction, according to party officials.

….

Party officials and the candidates themselves acknowledge that they still have uphill fights in both the primaries and the general elections, but they say that black Republicans are running with a confidence they have never had before. They credit the marriage of two factors: dissatisfaction with the Obama administration, and the proof, as provided by Mr. Obama, that blacks can get elected.

I detest the idea of anyone considering candidates on the basis of their skin color, and I welcome greater competition into the ranks of both parties, including the sort that comes from folks who might not have expected that they could be successful in the past. 

I suspect that, as the Obama love starts to fade and people start to feel OK about criticizing him, many blacks in particular have realized that opposition to him is not related to his race, and that their race is similarly irrelevant.  I hope (there’s that word again) that this has led many people to explore their own political opinions, divorced from identities, a bit more, and that this will, ultimately, lead to openings of minds across the spectrum.

“Fantasy in, fantasy out”

The New York Times (I know, right?) discusses the real costs of the Healthcare Bill:

The answer, unfortunately, is that the budget office is required to take written legislation at face value and not second-guess the plausibility of what it is handed. So fantasy in, fantasy out.

In reality, if you strip out all the gimmicks and budgetary games and rework the calculus, a wholly different picture emerges: The health care reform legislation would raise, not lower, federal deficits, by $562 billion.

Read the whole thing for the details; there are far too many to excerpt here. 

We really need a new tort: legislative malpractice.  One possible way to get there would be  obscenely dishonest misrepresentations like this.

And you want these people in charge of your healthcare, part ???

Whoops!

The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons.

The publication of the document was revealed Monday in an online newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy. That publicity set off a debate among nuclear experts about what dangers, if any, the disclosures posed. It also prompted a flurry of investigations in Washington into why the document had been made public.

But, you really shouldn’t expect too much.  After all

“These screw-ups happen,” said John M. Deutch, a former Director of Central Intelligence and deputy secretary of defense who is now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Remember that when its your medical records.  These screw ups happen.

In case you were wondering about the maturity level of the press with regards to the Obamas . . .

The New York Times apparently thinks that Michelle and Barry are really Cinderella and Prince Charming, reigning over the castle in DisneyWorld.

New York Times Reporter: What has . . . enchanted you the most . . . about this office?