The Best of 2006

Another year begins anew here in Baltimore, announced with the hearty shelling in the inner harbor, followed by a litany of sirens of police and fire engines: 2007 arriving with a bang and buzz. Of course, in my champagne induced haze, I started thinking about the events of 2006 and decided to order them in the time honored tradition of a Best Of list.

• Best American Waste of Time: (tie) The Iraq War and Web 2.0. The discontent of Americans toward the continuing conflict in Iraq has reached an all time high, what with unending sectarian violence, loss of US troop life, and the quagmire of American political leadership. Yet, the reason why I tie the war and the insipid hoopla over user-submitted internet content is the frustrating aspect of oversaturation. Turn on any political show (both left and right) and you'll hear the latest in Iraq. Meanwhile, get any neat little viral video and you'll have the punchline blaring out on Sportscenter. Watch the Daily Show, Fox News, or Katie Couric looks cute news hour and you'll see that President Bush is in "listening mode" about the Iraq conflict. Watch T.V. or read a magazine and you'll hear something about the totally rad blogosphere. Enough already. Politically, whatever we do in Iraq is going to be unpopular and too-little-too-late, while as soon as the Web 2.0 celebration dies down as the technology is less feted (really, do we need another video diary from a 15 year old talking about how meanness sucks), the better.
  
• Best Knee Jerk Reaction: The Democrats Reclaiming Congress. Grumble, grumble...we're all tired of the Republicans. So, what do we do, as Americans with a grudge? We vote out the pachyderms and vote in the jackasses. Yeah! Time to celebrate...but wait, here's the problem. First off, the American populance didn't really shift their political ideology from the base conservative thoughts to that of liberal logic. The vote of 2006 was a reflection of the disgust that the citizens who actually voted held against the war in Iraq and the rampant corruption in the national government. Second, the mandate for the Democrats was actually only 52% of the general election voters. Hopefully, the Dems don't make the same mistake of the Bush Republicans as seeing an election result as manifest destiny from the wholesale installation of Democrat legistation during the next two-four years. Rather, this needs to be a legislation session with two goals - 1> Don't get caught with your hand in the cookie jar (keep squeeky clean) and 2> mend some of the damage of partisanship and make some friendly connection with those basta...I mean, leaders of the grand old party.
• Best Reason Not To Feel Hopeful About America - The 2006 Elections. Here's the ballot initiatives that came up for vote in the U.S.A. in 2006 that have me a bit glum... 7 out of 8 states passed initiatives to ban same sex marriages (is that really necessary Colorado, Idaho, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wisconsin?); Michigan passed an initiative banning affirmative action (cause those darn minorities have so many advantages); a referendum failed in Massachusetts to relax wine sales...really, do we need to make it hard to buy wine; Marie Steichen of South Dakota won an election for Jerauld County commisioner despite dying two months before the election; and this gem from Wikipedia - Millions of allegedly harassing and deceptive "robo-calls" were reported or placed in at least 53 house districts. The vast majority of the calls were reported to begin with the message "Hello, I’m calling with information about (Democratic candidate)" and continue with a negative message concerning the candidate. Regulatory statements concerning the sponsor of the message (usually the NRCC) allegedly did not come until after the message, instead of before, as the FCC mandates. Citizens reported receiving calls several times an hour and as late as 2:30 AM, and many held the mistaken belief that the calls were from Democratic campaigns. How's that for fair and balanced, eh?
• Best Quote From a Supreme Court Justice About the Environment, or Al Gore is a Chump - Justice Scalia. "Troposphere, whatever. I told you before I'm not a scientist. That's why I don't want to have to deal with global warming."
• Best Reason to Lose One's Life - The Playstation 3. Peyton Brooks Strickland (18) was shot and killed as he was served with a search warrant at his campus apartment in Wilimington, North Carolina, USA on Friday. Strickland was allegedly involved in the assault of University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) student Justin Raines (20) during the theft of two new PS3 units. From Spong news.

More coming.