summer aint over

Back from Holiday.

I'll reckon labor day is as good as any to reunite with our web discussion. I look forward to a new season of helpful chatter with my friends Mike and Lily.

Here's hoping everyone is squeezing the tastiest out of the remaining summertime. That I can't type while swimming has caused our scant attention to this forum of late. That, and trading in New Republic for Rolling Stone for summer reading.

As for the substance of reporting today, am I mistaken in noting a few paradigm shifts? The common wisdom seems to be dim for the President. I would have thought his fairly pitiful bout with Social Security reform would pass and we'd reenter a non-descript sunny couple years for the man. Rather, from the bits of news I caught, the not-necessary war appears to have, at last, caught up his ankle. And once down, he gets grief rather than grandeur from the Katrina fallout. It will be interesting to see how the Supreme court fillings work into this context. But more immediately, I wonder if the mood will persist into the 2006 elections.

This is a good time for those with ideas to get loud. And I disagree with the standard "Democratics need to voice a clear plan" complaint. Rather, I want broad brush ideas about what government can and can't do for its people; and, more importantly, in what kind of society--made up of what kind of commuities--do we want to live?

The policies we invent, the bonds we build abroad, our system of Justice, and, importantly, the rhetoric we engage in, will remain as important as ever over the coming years. I've seen a good deal of prophesy of paradigm shifting lately (see this, from David Brooks). If we are indeed in a societal/civic flux, let's have a say in the outcome. I look forward to the coming discussions.