Maybe you’ve heard of FOX News’s new show, The 1/2 Hour News Hour (THHNH). (There have been ads on Facebook, and also on FOX, if you’re the type who, like me, watches O’Reilly for kicks from time to time). The latest project of Joel Surnow, the producer of the FOX primetime hit 24, THHNH is billed as a conservative foil to The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, and as a more lighthearted version of other “news” programming on FOX News.

Most reactions I’ve heard have been to the tune of: “This has got to be a joke.”

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You may have noticed that conservatives like attacking programs such as…free health-care, public education, ending corporate welfare, taxation, and any proactive governance as the evil “Big Government.” The old phrase, “government is the problem, not the solution” is spewed forth like the word of God in an attempt to create so-called freedom through the market.

There’s just one problem with this: conservatives don’t practice it. Neither side does; a large government is far more convenient, something we can’t live without today. What we have now isn’t a battle over whether we should have a small government or a big government, but what KIND of big government we should have. What I see as the political/philosophical debate of our day is if we should have a government which invests in people, or one that invests in bombs.

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Today we celebrate the 275^th birthday of the Father of Our Country, George Washington:

Not bad for a near-tricentenarian, eh? Of course this is no ordinary man: President Washington is six-foot-eight and weighs a ton.

He’s also pretty smart. Take his famous Farewell Address, in which he warned the country against becoming overly entangled with foreign nations. (Contrast this doctrine of modesty with that of our current President George.) He also said in that address:

Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.

It is with such an aim in mind that Cal Dems is launching this blog, which we call Connected. We hope you’ll enjoy our bloggers’ perspectives on politics, current events, and the like.

Even if they’re only six-four.