In response to a Tuesday decision to remove the limit on the number of stories a downtown building can have, the following appeared on pressdemo.com:

Wednesday, Jun 21, 2006 08:55A

Well, there goes the sky line…. up, up and away….. How sad…

Note that decision affected the arbitrary 10-story limit on downtown buldings, not the 150-foot total height limitation. I suspect that this is an artifact of not having actually read the article.

Wednesday, Jun 21, 2006 08:39A

Santa Rosa needs to stop trying to play catch up with other big cities! We dont need big high rises and more small housing units that promote overpopulation. We want to be the small, open, country-like place that we used to be!

This poor writer hasn’t noticed that the open, country-like places in the Santa Rosa valley have fallen prey to something far worse than dense population centers. It’s called sprawl. If we want to keep our open spaces, we’re going to have to provide ample opportunity for people to reduce their homes’ geographic footprint. City governments have never been able to resist the lure of increased tax bases. Should we give up our pug-ugly skyline, dominated as it is by the old Pacbell building, or plop million-dollar mc-mansions on the ridges of our hills?

I submit to you, gentle reader, that these people are on crack.

Happy “Mission Accomplished” day. Three years ago, the President of the United States had the following to say from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln:

Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

The body count would seem to disagree with this rather optimistic assessment, but hindsight is 20/20.

While Dan’s on the “complaining about the President” bandwagon, I’ll toss this one in for kicks. From Bill Maher’s September 19, 2005 show, some closing remarks directed at our fearless leader, possibly the worst president ever:

Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you any more. There’s no more money to spend–you used up all of that. You can’t start another war because you used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Listen to your Mom. The cupboard’s bare, the credit cards maxed out. No one’s speaking to you. Mission accomplished.

“Now it’s time to do what you’ve always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company and the baseball team. It’s time. Time to move on and try the next fantasy job. How about cowboy or space man? Now I know what you’re saying: there’s so many other things that you as President could involve yourself in. Please don’t. I know, I know. There’s a lot left to do. There’s a war with Venezuela. Eliminating the sales tax on yachts. Turning the space program over to the church. And Social Security to Fannie Mae. Giving embryos the vote.

“But, Sir, none of that is going to happen now. Why? Because you govern like Billy Joel drives. You’ve performed so poorly I’m surprised that you haven’t given yourself a medal. You’re a catastrophe that walks like a man. Herbert Hoover was a shitty president, but even he never conceded an entire city to rising water and snakes.

“On your watch, we’ve lost almost all of our allies, the surplus, four airliners, two trade centers, a piece of the Pentagon and the City of New Orleans. Maybe you’re just not lucky. I’m not saying you don’t love this country. I’m just wondering how much worse it could be if you were on the other side.

“So, yes, God does speak to you. What he is saying is: ‘Take a hint.’

I particularly enjoyed the bit about the medal.

You might just get it.

Specifically, the United States of America has been looking for a way to democratize the Islamic world, especially in the middle east. One of the primary reasons that is bandied about for our strong support of the Israeli government has been their democratic system of government. Ten years ago the PLO renounced terrorism and held elections for a Palestinian government. To nobody’s surprise, Yassar Arafat was swept into power, and never held another presidential election during his life. Recently, however, the government of his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, has consented to holding parliamentary elections again. Huzzah! Democracy in the Arab World! Multiple parties entered the electoral fray. Joy! Real public debate and a hope for transparency and accountability to the public! A triumph for US foreign policy and a foothold for a lasting peace with Israel!

But Hamas was the opposition party. Hamas is an unabashed supporter of suicide bombings, mortar attacks against settlements, and calls for the eradication of Israel as a state. This doesn’t play well in Israel or most western countries.
We westerners would generally like to think that a general population, given a choice, will decide on a party that favors diplomacy, peace, prosperity, and progress. Well, it turns out that they like prosperity and progress, but dislike the corruption, cronyism, and nepotism of Fatah even more. Contrast this to the American public, which in our recent national election chose to re-elect a government that is demonstrably belligerant, blindly ideological, and reckless regarding the safety of its citizenry. Perhaps we have more in common with the Palestinians than we thought?

The true test of a democracy is when the party in power is called upon by the people to peacefully give up their mantle of authority to their opposition. It appears that Abbas is willing to do this, and this is to be applauded.