Old joke.

There's a special place reserved in Hell for salespeople who use the phrase "new and improved".

If only because while that seems to want to entice you with promises of heretofore unparalleled levels of gloss and/or excellence, it can also be spun to imply that what you've been heretofore offered is old and not so hot.

So, I won't be using that phrase as I share the following with you.

The Center Line is no more.

More to the point, The Center Line will now be known as...

"politics in plain english"....

...and can be found by either clicking this link

http://politicsinplainenglishsep.blogspot.com

or the link at the masthead of this page.

The obvious question.

Why the change?

It occurred to me as I wrote pieces for The Center Line that I wanted to...

1) broaden the range of discussion and debate, something that trying to always find "the center" made more difficult...

2) try to be of some use to everyday folks who profess a disdain for politics, but who are, often, simply unclear as to what the hell politicans are talking about at any given time.

So, to paraphrase an old beer commercial, I hope you'll find "politics in plain english" to..."taste great...and be more filling....".

It will still, I hope, be insightful, thoughtful and, ideally, entertaining.

But I won't insult your intelligence by promising it will be "new and improved."

Though I think we both know that's pretty much a given.

"...And No IPod, TV, Video Games or Long Range Missile Tests For A Month, You Hear Me?...."

There's an obvious problem here.

More on that shortly.

Pyongyang, North Korea (CNN) -- Officials from the United States and the United Nations say the U.N. Security Council will meet Friday to discuss North Korea's botched long-range missile launch -- an act U.N. officials called deplorable and destabilizing despite its failure.

Amid concerns that North Korea will try to recover from the embarrassing failure with a nuclear test or military move, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned the secretive country's regime not to "undertake further provocative actions that will heighten tension in the region."

The missile launch was heralded by North Korea as "an inspiring deed and an event of historic significance." The missile broke apart shortly after launch Friday morning, then fell into the ocean.

North Korea said the missile was designed to carry an observation satellite into orbit. But the United States, South Korea and Japan said that was a cover for a long-range ballistic missile test.

The launch drew condemnation from United States and countries in the region, as well as an unusual admission of failure from Pyongyang. The normally secretive regime has previously insisted that failed launches had actually been successful.

The U.N. Security Council will meet Friday on the launch, two U.N. diplomats and a U.S. official told CNN. The meeting had previously been scheduled, U.S. officials said.

Before the launch,, diplomats had warned that Pyongyang would face further isolation if it went ahead.

The U.S. official said that, despite the launch's failure, "it will not change our response."

The last time Pyongyang carried out what it described as a satellite launch, in April 2009, the U.N. Security Council condemned the action and demanded that it not be repeated.

That rocket traveled 2,300 miles before its third stage fell into the Pacific Ocean. And in 2006, a missile failed after about 40 seconds in flight.

Governments insisted that Pyongyang would still face consequences for flaunting U.N. resolutions.


It should, in fairness, be noted that the United Nations response falls, at the very least, into the category of something better than nothing.

Not much better, though.

Which brings us to the problem mentioned earlier.

Sanctions, like any other form of punishment, are intended to serve as notice that future similar behavior will not be tolerated, resulting, ideally, in a modification of said behavior.

Think grounding a teenager for missing curfew.

Here's the problem.

The punishment won't move the transgressor one inch toward that behavior modification if they are, for example, psychotic and, therefore, unable to recognize the fair, just and right thing to do.

Like, for instance, a drug addled teenager.

Or anyone in power, at any given time, in North Korea.

"...There's Never A Door Number Three Around When You Need One...."

Today's spot-on political insight comes from a guy whose name you won't hear being bounced around on CNN or Fox News or MSNBC.

Frank R. Stockton.

The more obsessive compulsive among us will, of course, already be typing their way to a Google answer to the obvious question....

"Who is Frank R. Stockton?"

For the more reflective and patient of the rest of us, the answer will be forthcoming.

First, today's breaking political news.

Rick Santorum has called it quits.

That, of course, pretty much amounts to the declaration that the fall presidential campaign will pitt Mitt Romney against Barack Obama.

And, not for nothin', but one interesting sidebar is that while all the major news organizations are already gearing up for that campaign, the candicacies of, at the very least, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich are still, technically, alive, if not well.

The point being the obvious reflection on the impotence of Gingrich's efforts, given that he has been dismissed without so much as a see ya later, legislator.

Meanwhile, predictably, the news site comment sections, blog sites and social network sites are already Draino worthy glogged with liberals who can't stomach the idea of four years of Mitt and conservatives who can't stomach four more years of Barack, even before the wheels on the campaign bus begin to go round and round.

This writer will not be contributing any respective raspberries to that particular cacophany crop.

Primarily because a clear cut disdain for one side or the other in any choice situation requires a clear cut preference for one side or the other.

And barring some dramatic, last minute convention shenanigans, this year's contest really reads more like a new work from...

...wait for it...

...Frank R. Stockton.

The lady or the tiger?

The elephant or the donkey.

Six of one.