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Monday, December 02, 2002
Andy has a note from his mom, he was "upset" that day.
Lord of the Power Glutes, Andy Sullivan, is probably wishing he hadn't ever heard of the expression "fifth column".
Tim Noah rushes in to poo-poo the notion that Al Gore's "fifth column" reference is anything comparable to my own qualified use of the term over a year ago. (I say 'qualified" because I wrote "what amounts to a fifth column," meaning it need not be a self-conscious or literal one. And in retrospect, I should add that I wish I hadn't used that inflammatory phrase. But it was two days after 9/11 and my emotions were in full flood.) Noah defines the term by referring to the following definition: "a clandestine group or faction of subversive agents who attempt to undermine a nation's solidarity by any means at their disposal. The term is credited to Emilio Mola Vidal, a Nationalist general during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39)." Given that definition, it seems to me that my point was prescient.
and
Noah may disagree. To which I have to respond: How would he describe the beliefs of someone who says, for example, that the real enemy in this war is the United States? What is his view of, say, ANSWER, the organizing group behind the anti-war rallies? Or the views of Noam Chomsky? Do such people exist on the American left? The answer is empirically yes. Among the academic class, this ambivalence about defending America and the Consitution from Islamofascism is endemic. I can see why embarrassed liberals like Noah don't want to acknowledge the existence of such types; but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Now compare this to Al Gore's statement about the "fifth column" in the media. What could he possibly mean? Does he mean that some journalists, under the cover of objectivity, actually favor a conservative agenda? If he does, I think he's right. But it also surely applies (and to a far greater extent) to the left as well. But the use of the term "fifth column" is completely unnecessary here and deliberately inflammatory. And Gore doesn't even have the emotional excuse of writing two days after a mass murder.
Not content to furiously tapdance his way around the his usage of the term, he has an excuse: he was "upset" and therefore not responsible. Now, the next time a "journalist" misuses a term, they can invoke the Andy Sullivan defense by raising the back of their hand to their forehead and proclaiming, in their best Southern Belle accent, "Oh dearie me, I do believe I have a case of the vapors and I feel faint". Mickey Kaus would buy it..
posted by tbogg at 9:53 PM
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Bed head for John J. Dilulio...and not the good kind
Looks like John J. DiIulio woke up with a horse's head in his bed this morning (the horse's ass having been spotted giving a speech at the Pentagon earlier today) after comments were attributed to him regarding Karl Rove's influence over President Short Bus.
DiIulio denied that his exchange with author Ron Suskind, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote a piece last summer about the power of departed adviser Karen Hughes, included such comments. DiIulio also stated that Suskind's piece contained factual errors, mentioned exchanges that never took place and attributed comments to DiIulio that DiIulio denies having made.
"My work schedule being too packed to permit sit-down interviews ... I gathered up [Suskind's] questions and responded in a single long memo in late October 2002. However, several quotes and anecdotes concerning or attributed to me in the article are not from that response," DiIulio said in a written statement.
Sounds like a non-denial denial to me. Yeah. Ron Susskind just pulled "Mayberry Machiavellis" out of his ass. I always thought Dilulio bailed out of the administration pretty fast, but you know what they say: if you can't stand the heat, get out of hell.
But DiIulio did add this, which I was thought was very Christian of him:
"I regret any and all misimpressions. In this season of fellowship and forgiveness, I pray the same."
I assume that God will have time to intervene now that he is spending a lot less time guiding the passes of the now-out-of-favor Kurt Warner.
posted by tbogg at 1:13 PM
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Does Howard Kurtz think before he writes?
Howie makes an easy target for the Self Made Pundit.
posted by tbogg at 10:24 AM
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I get email...
From Rich P.
"Andrew Sullivan just makes up all those unnamed Times staffer quotes," an unnamed Times staffer told this reporter. "Aren't you a little suspicious when this 'unnamed staffer' always says exactly what Sully wants him to say?" the unnamed Times staffer went on. "Sully should just tell the truth, and call his source 'the little man who talks in my head and won't let me alone and makes me do the bad things, like blogging when I don't have anything to say," concluded the unnamed Times staffer, who actually is an unnamed Times staffer.
posted by tbogg at 10:11 AM
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The best that they can come up with...
Now that John Kerry has thrown his hat in the presidential ring for 2004, it's time for the right wing to unleash the hounds of war. Or, in this case, Internet shih-tzu Matt Drudge:
Kerry haircut costs $150
Democrat all-star John Kerry of Massachusetts is positioning himself as a populist politician while he takes the first step for a White House run...
But the self-described "Man of The People" pays $150 to get his hair styled and shampooed -- the cost of feeding a family of three for two weeks!
Omigod!!!!
This surely disqualifies the Massachusetts Senator and war hero from running against inside-trading, alcoholic, deserting, hiding-in-Nebraska, President Le Moron (as they call him in Canada).
posted by tbogg at 10:07 AM
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The other Supremes throw Clarence a bone....
The Supreme Court said Monday it would consider whether states can punish homosexuals for having sex, a case that tests the constitutionality of sodomy laws in 13 states.
Justice Thomas has promised to make himself available to the other justices (well, actually just Justice Souter) to share his personal experiences as well as the pros and cons of flavored versus non-flavored water-based lubricants.
posted by tbogg at 9:08 AM
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Choice in America
The Daily Kos takes up Bob Novack's advice to the Democrats.
One of the major issues where Democrats part ways with the Republicans is the right to a women to choose. With the looming threat of the possible overturn of Roe V. Wade, I can't think of a more important issue for the Democrats. I will never, ever vote for a candidiate who doesn't support a woman's right to choose. While it is easy to sit around and make statements like "well, I support choice, but I don't support it for birth control", the reality is that once you support choice you can't control the factors or the reasons that dictate a woman's decision to have an abortion. This is a simple yes and no question. If you support the rights of women to make a choice for themselves, then you have to trust them to make the right decision for themselves.
There is no middle ground.
posted by tbogg at 8:55 AM
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Sunday, December 01, 2002
Discovering a phony "trend", making a case for it, and then shooting down your own premise...
Taking a cue from Time magazine, Newsweek tries one of those shallow "youthful trend" cover stories...and fails as miserably as Time.
This time its Choosing Virginity
REJECTING THE GET-DOWN-make-love ethos of their parents’ generation, this wave of young adults represents a new counterculture, one clearly at odds with the mainstream media and their routine use of sex to boost ratings and peddle product.
According to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control, the number of high-school students who say they’ve never had sexual intercourse rose by almost 10 percent between 1991 and 2001.
Yeah. I'm an American teenager and I love to answer government questions about my sexual habits honestly. Jeesh. Article authors Lorraine Ali and Julie Scelfo go to great lengths to find assorted teens to back up their thesis, which is just the kind of article that Newsweek wants to feature to make America feel all warm and snuggly again (but without the tingly feelings "down there") in these times of goverment inflicted anxiety. But then they keep finding kids who make comments like this:
Lucian, now an engineering major at the University of Alberta in Canada, is a “renewed virgin.” His parents are strong proponents of chastity, and he attended school-sponsored abstinence classes. But the messages didn’t hit home until he’d actually had sex. “It’s a pretty special thing, and it’s also pretty serious,” he says. “Abstinence has to do with ‘Hey, are you going to respect this person?’ ” He has dated since his high-school affair, and is now hoping a particular cute coed from Edmonton will go out with him. “But I’ll try to restrict myself to kissing,” he says. “Not because I think everything else is bad. But the more you participate with someone, the harder it’s going to be to stop.”
It’s not easy to practice such restraint, especially when those around him do not. Lucian lives in a single room, decorated with ski-lift tickets and a “Scooby-Doo” poster, in an all-male dorm, but he says most students “get hitched up, sleep around and never see each other again.”Meanwhile he does his best to push his own sexual urges from his mind. “I try to forget about it, but I have to say it sucks. Homework is a good thing to do, and going out for a run usually works.” He also goes to Sunday mass. Lucian figures he can hold out until he’s married, which he hopes will be by the time he’s 30.
Guilt, repression, self-deception...Yup. Sounds like this new abstinence trend is really going to take off.
posted by tbogg at 10:06 PM
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Collapsing buildings make me hot
Porno for Ann Coulter.
posted by tbogg at 9:27 PM
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Get a cell ready for Aaron McGruder....
How long do you think John Ashcroft is going to allow this to go on?
posted by tbogg at 9:24 PM
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Maybe US News and World Report will do an article on Time doing an article on Newsweek doing an article on the NY Times....
Seth Mnookin at Newsweek is concerned that the NY Times under Howell Raines is becoming just a little too "activist" for their own good.
The criticism of the Times comes at a time when the search for ulterior motives in the media has crescendoed. Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, a former Republican strategist, was outed last month for writing a letter to President George W. Bush advising him in the days after September 11 (a revelation that prompted an aggressively snide Times column). And Al Gore recently attacked Fox News and The Washington Times as being shills for the Republican Party.
But it’s the Times that drives the nation’s news agenda—and therefore presents the biggest target.
Seth should go down the hall and meet Howard Fineman, the guy with the kneepads.....
Of course, with the scent of Howell Raines in the air, we knew that Andy would weigh in:
THE MEME PROPAGATES: Newsweek has picked up on the damage Howell Raines' dictatorial paleo-liberalism has done - and is still doing - to the New York Times. His unhinged campaign against the Augusta National Golf Club appears to have been the final straw for some Times journalists. "That was just shocking," one anonymous Times staffer tells Seth Mnookin. "It makes it hard for us to have credibility on other issues. We don’t run articles that just say so-and-so is staying silent. We run articles when something important actually happens." Of course, this notion that the silence of others makes something a news story is one of Raines' leitmotifs. It was under that loopy rubric that he justified turning the Times into an anti-war propaganda sheet last summer. Meanwhile, Raines is ... silent. Newsweek reports yet again: "Raines refused to discuss the Times’s coverage." In fact his only recent response to his critics was to an audience of lefties at Berkeley. Here's a simple question: what kind of journalist won't talk to the press about legitimate stories about his coverage?
I guess that would depend on what is a legitimate story about coverage and what is concerted effort to discredit the non-complacent media orchestrated by the RNC and Karl Rove with the help of the Moonie Times, Fox News, Newsweek, and, yes, Andy Sullivan.
Perhaps Andy will enlighten us on the justification for his working for Reverend Moon. Now, that would be a story...
posted by tbogg at 8:56 PM
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I thought when you left the Bush White House, they cut out your tongue
WHITE HOUSE FAITH-BASED ADVISER TURNS ON ROVE; CLAIMS ALL DECISIONS ARE POLITICIZED
posted by tbogg at 8:25 PM
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Putting the Mary in the "Hail Mary" pass...
Rittenhouse has an excellent link and commentary on the uniquely American intersection of sports, Christianity, and homophobia.
I really flinch whenever I hear about college football coaches preaching morality. I can't help but remember former University of Colorado Coach Bill McCartney testifying to the power of Jesus and morality at the same time his daughter was going all Mary Magdalene with his players, culminating in her becoming pregnant with quarterback Sal Aunese's son. McCartney was famous for not only injecting his Christianity into discussion about his team, but also forcing his players to attend church and prayer sessions. The ever tasteful McCartney went on to make the following statement at Aunese's campus memorial service:
"Kristy McCartney, you've been a trooper. You could have had an abortion, gone away and had the baby somewhere else to avoid the shame, but you didn't. . . . You're going to raise that little guy and all of us are going to have an opportunity to watch him."
Gee, thanks dad.
McCartney then went on to found Promise Keepers, also known as Stadium Full O' Losers....
posted by tbogg at 8:11 PM
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It's the end of the world as we know it, and it kinda sucks....
According to the local paper, a touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar is due to hit town this week starring, wait for it... Sebastian Bach, of Skid Row fame, as Screaming Jesus. Really.
Later in the week we expect a plague of locusts, frogs raining from the sky, and the opening of J-Lo's Maid in Manhattan.
posted by tbogg at 6:39 PM
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Saturday, November 30, 2002
I'm back...
Sorry for the time off. It's been soccer tournament weekend, with games played an hour and a half away with starting times at 7:45 AM. You do the math on getting up and driving there plus time for warmups. Needless to say, it's been 8PM bedtimes, leaving no time for snark. The good news, my daughter's team is in the finals Sunday morning. Bad news. 8:30 AM gametime. I can't wait to get back to work so I can rest.
Best news of the weekend. After a very nice Thanksgiving at my parent's house, my dad gave me a box of books that the lady next door gave him before she passed away, to give to me. In the box was a very nice 1st edition of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Pretty cool, huh?
Two sad notes...this week saw the passing of Karel Reisz, director of Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The French Lieutenant's Woman, and Who'll Stop the Rain (adapted from Robert Stone's Dog Soldiers). Additionally this week we also lost Harriet Doerr, author of Stones for Ibarra, an absolute gem of a novel. Ms Doerr finished her BA in her late sixties and published Stones, her first novel, at the age of 74, giving hope to all aspiring novelists that sometimes that book inside of them just takes a little longer to incubate than expected.
Both are talents that will be missed.
I'll be back Sunday night. I did a little catching up below.
posted by tbogg at 9:56 PM
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I guess freedom of the press is contingent on who owns the presses....
Paul Krugman points out what is obvious, while the rest of the journalistic pack looks the other way and whistles tunelessly.
But my purpose in today's column is not to bash Fox. I want to address a broader question: Will the economic interests of the media undermine objective news coverage?
For most of the last 50 years, public policy took it for granted that media bias was a potential problem. There were, after all, only three national networks, a limited number of radio licenses and only one or two newspapers in many cities. How could those who controlled major news outlets be deterred from misusing their position?
The answer was a combination of regulation and informal guidelines. The "fairness doctrine" forced broadcast media to give comparable representation to opposing points of view. Restrictions on ownership maintained a diversity of voices. And there was a general expectation that major news outlets would stay above the fray, distinguishing clearly between opinion and news reporting. The system didn't always work, but it did set some limits.
Over the past 15 years, however, much of that system has been dismantled.
Will media critics Micky Kaus and Howard Kurtz take up the story, or just beat the messenger? Do you really have to ask?
posted by tbogg at 9:44 PM
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But enough about me...let's talk about me...
Peggy Noonan took time out from her Thanksgiving holidays to, well, lie about Tom Daschle so she can whine and ask for the country's pity while saying that she never asks for the country's pity because that would be...whining. You really have to read it:
Let me not pick on a teenager, for teenagers are by definition unfinished. They often confuse their needs and wants with the world's. Let's pick on adults. Let's pick on Tom Daschle.
He, as a leader of a great political party, is an example-setter for the young. Some of them might look to him as a famous man who knows how to be an adult. After the dreadful showing of the Democrats in the election he held a news conference in which he famously blamed Rush Limbaugh and other conservative radio talk show hosts for inciting people to . . . well, to not liking Tom Daschle. Rush says mean things about Tom. His listeners, who Tom Daschle subtly suggests are possibly unstable and insane--how could they not be, they're conservative--get a little too excited when they hear Rush, and start to make rude sounds. "The threat level goes up," says Tom Daschle.
Oh, please. Boo hoo. When people disagree with you they criticize you. When you're trying to tell an entire nation how to live, which is what big-time politics comes down to now, some people will fight back with terrible weapons such as sarcasm, irony and vulgarity. They will sometimes be mean. So what?
Whoa there, little filly. Let's look at what Tom Daschle said (according to faux media journalist, Howard Kurtz):
The conservative radio host has been all over the tube this week accusing Daschle of "whining," while casting himself as a champion of free speech and generally reveling in the attention that the senator has bestowed on him.
"What happens when Rush Limbaugh attacks those of us in public life is that people aren't just content to listen," Daschle told reporters. "People want to act because they get emotional . . . and the threats to those of us in public life go up dramatically, against us and against our families, and it's very disconcerting." He compared Limbaugh's "shrill" tone to that of violent fundamentalists abroad.
Let's review what Peggy said again:
His listeners, who Tom Daschle subtly suggests are possibly unstable and insane
Now Tom:
"What happens when Rush Limbaugh attacks those of us in public life is that people aren't just content to listen....People want to act because they get emotional . . . and the threats to those of us in public life go up dramatically, against us and against our families"
I'm still looking for the subtle suggestion that Daschle said these people are "...possibly unstable and insane". Under most circumstances I would bow to Peggy's expertise in this matter, using the time-tested axiom that it "takes one to know one", but, unless the Americans With Disabilities Act adds sexual hysteria as a covered disability, I'm not going to let her slide with 'shading' the story just so that she can vent farther down the page. To wit:
My political philosophy is conservative. I am pro-life. I live in New York City, surrounded by modern people. They are mostly left-wing, they are all pro-choice, many of them passionately and even furiously so. I have written books saying Ronald Reagan is a great man and Hillary Clinton is a bad woman. I know something about being a target, and I know something about hate mail. I have received not hundreds but thousands of the most personal and obscene denunciations; I have received death threats; I have been threatened with blackmail; I have been informed that I do not deserve to live; I have received a three page typed double spaced letter with perfect grammar and syntax the first sentence of which was "Dr. Ms Noonan, Let me explain to you why you are a . . ." and here I cannot suggest the word used. But damned if he didn't make a good case. I used to hear regularly from a woman who'd tell me she hopes I have a brain hemorrhage.
I have never talked about this because I would consider speaking of it both self-pitying and self-aggrandizing. But there's another reason. I'm a grownup. I know you pay a price for the stands you take.
Which is, of course, why she takes the opportunity to mention it. But she's not whining, you see, or looking for pity or attention. Oh no, she wants Daschle to be A MAN and take it like a man, because if there is one thing that Peggy loves, it's men. Big manly, testosterone-soaked, manly, male men. Up column she reverted back to her post 9-11 NY-Fireman-moist-panty stalking mode:
We are a big muscle-bound nation. We are so physically strong! We have muscles and missiles and more.
Muscles and missiles and more....oh my!
I have often refered to Peggy as the Blanche DuBois of the Wall Street Journal. But with this latest outburst of sexual aggression I have to amend my appraisal. I'm leaning more towards the voracious Sue Ann Nivens from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
God help us all...the men, especially....
posted by tbogg at 9:16 PM
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National Retail Emergency Announced
With over $1.43 billion in sales on November 29, Wal-Mart has seriously depleted the United States Strategic Crap Reserve, leaving the country dangerously low. Manufacturers are adding additional shifts to crank out more Zip & Zoom Shannens, Dancing Ostriches, Spiderman bedsets, creepy nightmarish Diva Starz Fashion dolls, and Alan Jackson CD's.
The 23% of Americans who are morbidly obese will be happy to know that sales of stockpiled Segways stayed flatter than Dick Cheney's EKG, meaning that they may still be able to obtain one, speeding up that run from the couch to the kitchen to grab a 2 liter of Royal Crown Cola and a handful of Little Debbie Cakes without all the walking and huffing and puffing and sweating.
posted by tbogg at 8:27 PM
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Thursday, November 28, 2002
Beat me, hurt me...send me to Iraq
Looks like the State Department has changed quite a bit under the Bush Administration.
The United Nations launched perhaps its most important weapons inspections ever yesterday with a team that includes a 53-year-old Virginia man with no specialized scientific degree and a leadership role in sadomasochistic sex clubs.
An Internet search of open Web sites conducted by The Washington Post found that McGeorge is the co-founder and past president of Black Rose, a Washington-area pansexual S&M group, and the former chairman of the board of the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. He is also a founding officer of the Leather Leadership Conference Inc., which “produces training sessions for current and potential leaders of the sadomasochism/leather/fetish community,” according to its Web site. Several Web sites describe McGeorge’s training seminars involving various acts conducted with knives and ropes.
McGeorge said yesterday that a State Department official invited him to apply for the U.N. team, and officials at State and the U.N. did not ask about his S&M background. But he said he would tender his resignation to Blix if The Post printed a story about it.
Is this what they meant when they said the adults were going to be back in charge?
posted by tbogg at 1:09 PM
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Wednesday, November 27, 2002
Football, food, and folks...feh
We're just not a big Thanksgiving family around our household. Outside of getting together with our extended family, it's just some days off...and that's about it. None of us like turkey or pie, and the idea of sitting around watching football all day doesn't exactly get our nipples hard. Shopping the day after Thanksgiving? We don't know anybody who needs the Christina Aguilera Bendable Dirrty Slut Doll, so "no thanks".
So there will be blogging on Thanksgiving as well as the day after (minus time out for a local soccer tournament). Not heavy blogging mind you, just some light blogging that will allow me to get caught up on some reading as well as time to make my wife scream out, "Make me a woman, Mandingo!!!", if you know what I mean, and I think you do....
Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving whether you are Pilgrim or a bound-for-the-fiery-pits-of-hell-with-smoldering-entrails-and-a-wicked-headache-non-Pilgrim.
posted by tbogg at 9:20 PM
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Twas the night before Thanksgiving....
Just some quick hits to keep you informed Thanksgiving morning, unless you're the kind of person who watches the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, in which case, well...seek help...
As expected, Chris Hitchens popped a hemorrhoid about Henry Kissinger. And for good reason....
But can Congress and the media be expected to swallow the appointment of a proven coverup artist, a discredited historian, a busted liar, and a man who is wanted in many jurisdictions for the vilest of offenses? The shame of this, and the open contempt for the families of our victims, ought to be the cause of a storm of protest
Next
Apparently you can change the past. Martha Brant points out the President 65% Approval can't seem to shake his predecessor (you remember, chubby guy, eight years of peace and prosperity, attracted blowjobs like Rush draws slack-jawed yokels...):
But whenever Bush has had to follow Clinton anywhere—notably to the D-Day ceremonies at Normandy last Memorial Day—his administration has been keenly aware of Clinton’s shadow.
This even carries over to the White House Web site. A friend who recently went online to look up remarks by Clinton and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa easily found the text of Albright’s four-year-old press statements on the State Department site. But on the White House site, the only reference he could find to Clinton was a standard biography. “I’ve checked out the ‘site map,” the ‘history’ section, the ‘current news’ etc,” quipped my friend. “It seems history began on Jan 21 of last year.”
Next.
I know Rittenhouse has this link up already, but he e-mailed it to me this afternoon and its way too good to not link.
Paul Musgrave on Peggy Noonan. Genius. Absolute genius.
Next
You'll forgive Howard Fineman if he's too full to eat Thanksgiving dinner. He spent Wednesday servicing President Poltical Powerhouse. He should have saved some room for pie.
A year ago this week, I was in the conference room of Air Force One, interviewing a still-new president about an uncertain new post-9/11 world. A year later, George W. Bush is a political powerhouse, at home and abroad. And yet Democrats are eager to run against him in 2004. Why? Because they know something his father learned, and that the current President Bush shouldn’t forget: A year is a lifetime in the turbulent world of American politics. He’s aced his exams so far – exceeding expectations that I always knew the Washington Establishment had set too low
Next
Micky Kaus is feeling neglected:
Hate Me, Please! My hate e-mail has all but disappeared, which is vaguely disconcerting. For the past two years (ever since the Florida recount) I've gotten at least two, sometimes 200, abusive missives a day -- until about three months ago, when the stream of vitriol seemed to dry up. Other bloggers still complain to me that they're oppressed by offensive correspondence. I join in the griping, not daring to tell them the truth. ... Does the link at the bottom of the page not work anymore? (No, it does.) Is nobody reading kf? (No, the stats look healthy.) Has the Web suddenly become more civil? Were all the nasty e-mails orchestrated by obscure talk shows and sites like Media Whores Online -- so that if you're not on their radar, you don't get flamed? I'm at a loss. ...Update: Now that's more like it! Thanks to all the kf readers who came through with vicious calumny and opprobrium. Glad to know you're still there. Have a good Thanksgiving! .. 3:03 A.M.
Irrelevance is a bitch...
And finally
Norah Vincent finds a reason to move to Germany. (Yes. More of that leftwing gay baiting....)
posted by tbogg at 8:58 PM
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The Music Critic Full Employment Act
I'm not sure where they come from, but it seems that we have more music critics than you can shake your groove thang at. There was a time when we enjoyed the psychotic, yet interesting, ramblings of a Lester Bangs, and it is my understanding that the turgid and calcified Greil Marcus was a critic of some repute, although I would tend to ask for at least three letters of reference and a blood test from Greil, if he has any blood left. Which brings me to David Samuels over at Slate. In his latest, The Real King of Rap he posits that Nas is a better rapper than Eminem.
I should say here that, back in 1994, the idea that Nas was the king of rap was a matter of local pride to many New Yorkers. After all, New York City had invented rap music—a genre that took brains and humor to master. At the time, to lose the rap crown to a rapper from Detroit—or, more to the point back then, Los Angeles—was widely understood to be impossible. Unfortunately, the West Coast then discovered Dr. Dre, the production genius who invented the sound of NWA (Niggas With Attitude) and then followed up that group's massive commercial success with the playful-yet-menacing bounce of Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tha Dogg Pound. Arguably the single most influential producer of popular music in the world during the '90s, Dr. Dre has a supernatural ability to write (and steal) hooks and beats that are simple and catchy enough to power hit rap songs. Eminem may have Hollywood and Dr. Dre behind him—but he's still nowhere near as good as Nas.
Okay. Let's stop right here. Would it be too much to ask that an "artist" be judged on the merits of his or her art without drawing into the discussion the whole East Coast vs. West Coast rap wars myth? Isn't the whole rap "rivalry" storyline kind of.....stupid? Like everything else in the music business, it's all about marketing which is all about the benjamins and the bling bling it can buy (as I go all urban for your reading pleasure). East Coast versus West Coast was just a way of selling a product that was cheap to produce thereby flooding the market. Why buy Tupac and not Biggie? East coast vs west coast, yo. When a critic spends their time, and ours, reinforcing the marketing people's message, they have stopped being a critic we should take seriously (which is a whole other can of worms) and become...a marketing person themselves. Although rap has a certain entertainment value, I'm not so sure that it really warrants any additional discourse on how culturally important it is, how it reflects the world the rapper lives in, how it keeps it real, or any other stock phrase from the rap critic's well-worn toolbox. Nowadays any discussion on rap is apt to be as important as a Gilligan's Island symposium combined with a Steel Cage Deathmatch over who would win a battle between Mighty Mouse and Superman. We're not talking Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan here. While " I like big butts" or "sippin on gin and juice" may appeal to the Clarence Thomas in us all, I don't feel any rush of enlightenment firing off any additional synapses.
What it gets down to is this: the average "rap" is about as culturally important these days as "My Sharona". It's a beat with words suitable for head nodding, not head expanding. If critics can draw a paycheck for discussing its merits, well, good for them. But don't expect me to take it seriously. Then again, as the Refreshments once said, “ Baby I was never cool enough to get a job at a record store”. So what do I know, yo.
posted by tbogg at 5:18 PM
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Thou shalt not commit hyperbole
Tis the season for Christian Fundamentalists to act crazier than usual (not that it's easy to tell).
Some Christians are lashing out at Planned Parenthood for a greeting card they say mocks their holiday season
The cover of the light-blue card features a snowflake design and the words "Choice on Earth."
Several national Christian groups opposed to abortion are protesting on Web sites, radio shows and in letters to newspapers nationwide. They say the language demeans the Christmastime "Peace on Earth" message proclaimed by the angels.
Charlotte's Diane Hoefling, who helps lead the anti-abortion effort at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, e-mailed 50 friends, family and supporters, urging them to protest the cards, which she claims "pervert the Biblical announcement of the Son of God as a newborn baby."
I wasn't aware that Christianity had trademarked "Peace on Earth". I know the Catholic Church has submitted the paperwork for "We're looking for a few young altar boys".
Then there is this calm well-reasoned statement of fact:
Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America noted that Christmas celebrates the birth of a baby to a young mother -- a baby who was laid in a manger because there was nowhere else to go.
"If Planned Parenthood had been around 2,000 years ago," she said, "then Jesus would have been a target to be aborted."
Order you cards here.
Your t-shirt here
posted by tbogg at 9:25 AM
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The Kissinger Kommission
President Bush signed legislation creating a new independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks Wednesday and named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead the panel.
Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the idea behind creating the commission to look into what went wrong? How the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Bush Administration failed the country? But, of course, that would increase the possibility of revealing to the country that that they were all asleep at the wheel, and we can't have that. So what is the commission going to do? Glad you asked. According to President I Didn't Do it:
However, Bush did not set as a primary goal for the commission to uncover mistakes or lapses of the government that could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks. Instead, he said it should try to help the administration learn the tactics and motives of the enemy.
“This commission will help me and future presidents to understand ... the nature of the threats we face,” he said.
Isn't that the responsibility of the CIA and the NSA?
Although they are a poor example, this is like asking the Warren Commission to make suggestions of how to keep Presidents from getting killed. In other words, the Kissinger Commission is just a big fraud. A way for the Bush Administration to look like they are doing something until the next election rolls around (also see: Homeland Defense Department). Democratic Senators should be howling from the rooftops over this, demanding real 9/11 accountability, but that is unlikely until modern medicine perfects the spine implant.
In the meantime we are left with a phony investigative panel run by a fraud selected by a fake President . Karl Rove must be laughing his ass off.
posted by tbogg at 9:02 AM
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I'd tell you, but then I'd have to actually show proof...
Michael Kelly, who gets a little bit stupider with every word he types, is oh so happy that those Clinton foreign policy types are gone.
The important person leaned forward, his eyes unusually ablaze with deep and subtle and clever thoughts, and he said, in a demi-whisper: No, you don't understand. As long as Hussein behaves like this, the U.N. sanctions will stay in effect, and as long as the sanctions stay in effect, Hussein will stay weak. If he obeys the U.N. mandates, then the sanctions will disappear, and he will become strong again. We've got him just where we want him.
This Thanksgiving, I am thankful that this person, and all the other deep and subtle and clever people of the Clinton White House, and all the thoughts they thought, and all the damage they wrought, are history.
Kelly then explains to us how Hussein has become powerful again, and how he is a threat to the US.
Actually, he doesn't. Because then he would have to play journalist and marshall his facts and explain why we have to go get the Evildoer Saddam. But he isn't and he can't so he doesn't. It's so much easier to start off with a few self-deprecating remarks followed by a campy over-dramatization with an unnamed Clinton source, before proceeding to what should be the meat of the column. But there's no main course served here. Instead he delivers a smirky (it must be in the air during this administration) condemnation of the Clinton Administration while extolling the "accruing foreign policy triumphs of the Bush administration". Evidence of the triumphs? We don' need no steekin' evidence....
Basically, Kelly's column is as fact-free as a Christy Whitman EPA report, so the question is, if Kelly couldn't take the time to do just a little bit of research, give us a little taste of those Bush foreign policy triumphs or how Saddam threatens the US, then why should we take the effort to read it?
posted by tbogg at 8:39 AM
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Tuesday, November 26, 2002
Maybe the Tea Cup ride on the Lido deck was a bad idea...
60 Disney cruise passengers fall ill
I will die a happy man if the cause is mouse droppings.....
posted by tbogg at 3:52 PM
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The Bush twins suffer denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance
Three University of Oklahoma students were ticketed after Norman police stopped them and found 2,100 cans of beer in their truck.
The three said they were taking the beer to the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house about two hours before Saturday's football game between the University of Oklahoma and Texas Tech University
Officers have poured the 70 cases of beer, valued at $836, down a sink. Each case contained 30 cans.
Jenna Bush later found on her bed crying and moaning, "Oh, the humanity...".
posted by tbogg at 3:42 PM
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Okay. I got "ladies" to rhyme with "Euphrates". But I can't get "Mecca" to rhyme with "Lexus".
Yo yo yo..check it out. Muslim hip-hop group draws on Islam in America
So wave your hands in the air, like Muhhamed don't care.....
posted by tbogg at 3:28 PM
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Okay...I'm going.....
This week's Onion may be one of the best ever.
posted by tbogg at 2:09 PM
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Have you heard the news...there's no bloggin' tonight...
No blogging tonight as I will be spending the evening with Shirley Manson and Gwen Stefani (and my wife and daughter too). I'll bring everyone home a t-shirt. Garbage? Or No Doubt?
Please use the time to keep up with the 24/7 coverage of the Lisa Marie/Nicholas Cage divorce and recriminations.
posted by tbogg at 12:42 PM
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Activating nerd deflector shields...
Rittenhouse Review has taken the view that he won't link to any blogs that link to Little Green Footballs because, well, LGF is kinda rabid hate-mongering nutso. I can respect that. I've been to LGF and it's not my thing. What is hard to respect is the aptly named USS Clueless criticizing the decision. I'm sure that my lack of respect has as much to do with the ludicrous Star Trek theme of the blog as for statements such as this:
Initial examination of RR's site instantly conveys an unmistakable pomposity anyway
After which Star Fleet Commander den Beste cites reasoning gleaned from John Stuart Mill, and further comments:
I found all of his arguments persuasive; Mill was an amazing philosopher, and Mill and Bertrand Russell are the two historical minds who have influenced me the most strongly.
Yeah. And episode 49 The Trouble with Tribbles was a landmark in my life too.
Quite frankly, anyone who blogs outside of his Star Trek ring, criticizes someone as being pompous while citing Mill, and expects to be taken seriously, really needs a slap upside the head, or at least needs to be deprived of conjugal visits from his imaginary girlfriend.
Added: Counterspin and Eschaton are already on this. Okay. So I'm late coming to the party. But it's fashionably late....
posted by tbogg at 10:19 AM
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Georgia out of its mind
Jeff Berry at Creative Loafing doesn't think much of the recent election in Georgia.
What you heard on Nov. 5 was not a Republican earthquake. It was the sound of progressive men like William B. Hartsfield and Robert Woodruff and Charles Weltner rolling over in their graves. For the first time in a generation, the reins of Georgia government have been handed over to a wide-eyed hick who proudly panders to the neo-confederate crowd, a shadowy and racist gang of baccer-chewin' morons most city folks had believed to be extinct, if not permanently powerless
posted by tbogg at 9:38 AM
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A travellers guide to the vast wasteland
Outside of The Simpsons I just don't watch TV. It's not a snob thing, I can be just as low brow as the next guy (within reason). It's just that with the Internet, magazines, newspapers, books, and servicing my wife's unnatural, but delightful, cravings, I just don't have the time to invest in TV. But I still want to know what is going on in the world of TV since it's a window to the nation's soul (cue: chill going up your spine). For that reason, I enjoy Television Without Pity. It lets you know what is going on without watching TV, and if you are watching TV, it lets you know how bad you should feel for watching what you watch. (That sentence sounds better spoken than read). Anyway, check it out for a heaping helping of snark with a side order of guilt. Kind of like having Janeane Garofalo as your mom....
posted by tbogg at 9:14 AM
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Should I stay or should I go?
Rep. Ken Lucas of Kentucky is thinking about jumping parties.
Rep. Ken Lucas, the only Democrat in the Kentucky congressional delegation, is considering switching parties to become a Republican, congressional sources said Monday.
Lucas, a conservative, is considering the change in an effort to head off what is expected to be a strong GOP challenge in the 2004 election, the sources explained.
I'm sure that Republicans will deplore his jumping parties so soon after the election and will hold him in the same contempt that they hold Jim Jeffords.
Yeah. That'll happen...
Meanwhile, Lucas could not be reached since he was busy serving as Grand Marshall in the annual Greater Louisville Rickets Parade.
posted by tbogg at 8:08 AM
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Monday, November 25, 2002
Hey mister, where you headed? Are you in a hurry?
Punk pop band Green Day (one of the greatest live acts...ever) have an anti-war petition going. Sign here.
posted by tbogg at 11:03 PM
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Suffering from poverty envy...
EJ Dionne points out what most of us already knew: the editorial page writers at the Wall Street Journal are nuts.
I am not making this up. The Wall Street Journal's editorial page always provides important clues about the Next New Thing among conservatives, and there it was last week assailing "The Non-Taxpaying Class."
snip
The editorial writers are roiled by the fact that the richest Americans, those with incomes of more than $500,000 a year, account for 28 percent of total tax revenue and that the top 5 percent "coughed up more than half of total tax revenue." The Journal contrasts these unfortunate souls with the thriving person who earns $12,000 a year and ends up "paying a little less than 4 percent of income in taxes."
Worse yet, various tax credits, mostly aimed at helping families raise children, further reduce the income tax burden on low-income folks to the point that "almost 13 percent of all workers have no tax liability and so are indifferent to income tax rates. And that doesn't include another 16.5 million who have some income but don't file at all."
Then comes this remarkable sentence: "Who are these lucky duckies?"
posted by tbogg at 10:50 PM
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The parent trap
Some Financially Strapped Parents Dipping Into Their Unwitting Kids' Credit
CHICAGO (AP) - It was her first credit card application, or so she thought, prompted by an offer on her Ohio college campus for a free T-shirt.
But a rejection letter uncovered troubling news - someone had already opened four credit cards in her name and racked up $50,000 in debt.
That someone, it turns out, was her father.
"I couldn't believe it," says the young woman, who asked not to be named for fear of humiliating her father, who was never charged criminally.
Now 25 and living in Chicago, she says she knew her father was struggling financially after his divorce from her mother and the failure of his restaurant. But she never imagined he'd fill out credit card applications sent to his home in her name. "He completely violated my trust and my privacy and my future," she says
I see the credit card companies are doing their due dilligence.
posted by tbogg at 9:38 PM
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Barbie's plus-sized friend who has a real pretty face and a sunny outlook on life
With her inhumanly tiny waist and ample bosom, she's long been criticized as sending the wrong message to girls about how they should look when they grow up.
But this holiday season, Barbie will have to make room on the toy store shelf for a new friend, the plus-sized Emme doll -- fashioned after the model of the same name.
Emme, which was introduced at FAO Schwarz in New York and Hamleys in London last month in time for the holiday shopping season, is a 16-inch collector's doll. Tonner is working on a 12-inch play doll version to be released in the spring.
"It was fun to sculpt -- I got to put weight on her -- and then dressing her was a blast," said Tonner, who worked in fashion in New York for 20 years. "I wanted a new canvas to put the clothes on."
The Emme doll comes with a sweat pants, oversized t-shirt, nine cats, a Diana Gabaldon novel, and a phone that never rings on Saturday night.
(Man...that was mean. Even by my standards)
posted by tbogg at 9:29 PM
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He ain't heavy. He's my moron.
Canada's prime minister Jean Chretien has told his country's media that George W Bush is not "a moron".
According to the New York Daily News,
Mr Chretien said: "He is a friend of mine. He isn't a moron at all."
Then Mr Chretien went and had sex to keep up the National average. (see below)
posted by tbogg at 9:17 PM
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More fallout from the Bush administration.
Sex 138 times a year is U.S. average
Americans have sex an average of 138 times a year, according to a survey released Monday by condom manufacturer Durex. The British have sex more often than Americans, but are outdone by the French, Dutch, Danes and Canadians
The Canadians!
Of course we all know why our National average is down.
The Virgin Ben.
Just like him to make the rest of us pick up the slack. Maybe he could start pulling his weight instead of his pud. Then again...look at him. It's not like he has many outlets for...expression.
posted by tbogg at 9:11 PM
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One time, at band camp....
The Freeport High School Rock 'n' Roll Club
Last spring, Green became one of the founding members of Freeport High School's Rock 'n' Roll Club, a unique extracurricular activity group that teaches budding musicians how to perform rock music ranging from Chuck Berry to Green Day. The club now has 12 members and two bands — "The Hawks," mostly made up of freshmen, and "Tuck and Roll," which includes mostly sophomores and juniors.
Led by Ed Roy, a Freeport dentist and parent of one of the members, and Jerry Parent, owner of The Music Center in Brunswick, the youths have learned about 20 cover songs and performed at least 10 concerts so far. They plan to begin song-writing workshops soon and perform a spring concert with new, original material.
"It was an idea whose time had come," said Roy, whose wife, Jane Roy, is a math teacher at Freeport High School and serves as the club's adviser. "When young people get together to have a band, they don't always have this kind of focus and direction," Roy said
Note to the Freeport Rock 'n' Roll club: If you have advisers and one of them is a kid's dad who is a dentist.... it's not "rock 'n' roll". Like " South Park Republicans, written about by Stephen W Stanton who is not a dork regardless of the picture, high school "Rock 'n' Roll club" members are just band geeks with enough attitude to make their parents shake their collective heads and wonder if those "crazy kids" have been smoking Ecstasy or huffing Pop Rocks or something.
With a bit of work though, they may get a gig at at a Trekie Convention...Live long and prosper.
posted by tbogg at 2:40 PM
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You got to give Drudge credit for linking this:
KEEP BIG BROTHER'S HANDS OFF THE INTERNET
The Clinton administration would like the Federal government to have the capability to read any international or domestic computer communications. The FBI wants access to decode, digest, and discuss financial transactions, personal e-mail, and proprietary information sent abroad -- all in the name of national security. To accomplish this, President Clinton would like government agencies to have the keys for decoding all exported U.S. software and Internet communications.
This proposed policy raises obvious concerns about Americans' privacy, in addition to tampering with the competitive advantage that our U.S. software companies currently enjoy in the field of encryption technology. Not only would Big Brother be looming over the shoulders of international cyber-surfers, but the administration threatens to render our state-of-the-art computer software engineers obsolete and unemployed.
There is a concern that the Internet could be used to commit crimes and that advanced encryption could disguise such activity. However, we do not provide the government with phone jacks outside our homes for unlimited wiretaps. Why, then, should we grant government the Orwellian capability to listen at will and in real time to our communications across the Web?
Then again, the internet is Drudge's basket of eggs that he doesn't want scrambled...
posted by tbogg at 1:51 PM
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What a difference two years make...
Todays headline:
Bush signs homeland security bill
a couple of years ago it would have said:
Clinton creates massive new bureaucracy. Hillary thought behind it. Burton vows hearings.
posted by tbogg at 1:09 PM
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When did America become the short-bus country?
From the NATO meetings Elisabeth Bumiller writes:
Mr. Bush has also been at ease, American and foreign officials said, in one-on-one meetings. His style will never be that of former President Bill Clinton, who could talk for hours on a breadth of subjects. But Mr. Bush does not live up to his reputation in parts of Europe as a know-nothing lone ranger, diplomats said.
"You go in there thinking, `Oh my God,' and you come out thinking, `Hmmm, not bad,' " said a senior European diplomat who has been in meetings with Mr. Bush. "Maybe it's a triumph of low expectations, but the reality is that this is the experience a lot of people have had. Clinton was like a charisma bomb — he just wowed people. But Bush comes across as a decent guy who's up to the job.
"Hmmmmmm, not bad"...the "gentleman's C" of foreign diplomacy.
Jeez. Our "President" gets applause for not putting his pants on backwards in the morning.
(Thanks Kimberly...)
posted by tbogg at 12:51 PM
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Getting ahead of the Sullivan curve.
Well obviously this John Reed guy is an America hater.
What if Snowball had his chance? An American novelist has written a parody of "Animal Farm," George Orwell's 1945 allegory about the evils of communism, in which the exiled pig, Snowball, returns to the farm and sets up a capitalist state, leading to misery for all the animals. The book, "Snowball's Chance" by John Reed, is being published this month by Roof Books, a small independent press in New York. And the estate of George Orwell is not happy about it
Here is where it will get fun:
Snowball's Chance" is being published at a time when Orwell's reputation has been under attack because of revelations that in the late 1940's he gave the British Foreign Office a list of people he suspected of being "crypto-Communists and fellow travelers," labeling some of them as Jews and homosexuals as well. One of those condemning Orwell has been the writer Alexander Cockburn, whose father, Claud, a British journalist and member of the Communist Party, was a bitter foe of Orwell's.
"How quickly one learns to loathe the affectations of plain bluntishness," Mr. Cockburn writes in an introduction to Mr. Reed's novella. "The man of conscience turns out to be a whiner, and of course a snitch."
Coming to Orwell's defense in a book published in September, "Why Orwell Matters" (Basic Books), Christopher Hitchens calls Orwell "a great humanist" whose opinions still hold water. "It has lately proved possible to reprint every single letter, book review and essay composed by Orwell," he writes, "without exposing him to any embarrassment."
The debate is set to continue this evening, when Mr. Hitchens is scheduled to appear at Cooper Union with Simon Schama, James Miller and the New Yorker writer Bill Buford for "Orwell Now," a symposium presented by the PEN American Center.
Mr. Reed said he was watching the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on television in his East Village apartment on Sept. 11 when the idea came to him to rewrite the Orwell classic. "I thought, `Why would they do this to us?' " he remembered. "The twin towers attack showed us that something is wrong with our system, too."
After Sully gets over the vapors after reading that last comment, what do you think? Begala Award or Sontag Award? I can hear his power glutes tightening up from all the way across the country. Taking on American corporatism using Orwell? My god!. ..the depths to which the depraved, despicable, deluded, debauched (wait a minute, Sully likes debauched...) liberals will go to! Shame! Shame!
posted by tbogg at 12:43 PM
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Man. I'm glad Rittenhouse is back.
This is really good. Take the time to read it.
posted by tbogg at 11:33 AM
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Born for the role: Or why I love it when conservatives play stupid...
Sullivan has company. Eugene Volokh, who is supposed to be smart, jumps on the bashing-Krugman/neoptism- bandwagon.:
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS: The Phantom Tollbooth forcefully criticizes Paul Krugman's complaint about powerful Republican children of powerful Republican parents. (Yes, it's just the Republicans who come in for criticism, and not Democrats, such as Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, Andrew Cuomo, Jesse Jackson, Jr. -- and this partisanship is part of The Tollbooth's complaint.)
Three out of the four cited by Volokh were...here it comes....wait for it....elected to office, not appointed.
But what particularly bothers me is the way that Krugman lambasts the children without any inquiry into whether they might have actually earned the jobs on the merits. After all, isn't it possible that children of smart people may be smart (partly out of heredity and partly out of upbringing)? That children of ambitious people may be ambitious? That children of successful politicians might have the attitudes or experiences that are helpful to making them successful politicians? (Actually, both Bush 43 and Jeb seem to be more gifted in the political arts than their father.)
Krugman points to the Bush brothers, Elizabeth Cheney, Eugene Scalia, Eugene Scalia (sic), Janet Rehnquist, William Kristol, and John Podhoretz, and says "What's interesting is how little comment, let alone criticism, this roll call has occasioned." Now maybe some of these people got their posts chiefly because of their lineage, and maybe others didn't. But shouldn't it occasion comment and criticism that Krugman is essentially impugning the qualities of each of these people -- by suggesting that each got his or her post as a matter of "inherited status," which is to say based primarily on family connections -- without any attempt to prove this?
As Volokh points out, Krugman says:
"What's interesting is how little comment, let alone criticism, this roll call has occasioned."
Volokh leapfrogs over Krugman's comment and asks 'shouldn't we comment and criticize Krugman for asking if we should comment on and criticize these appointments'. Which means that Volokh has chosen to not answer Krugman's assertion (offense being easier to play than defense). It's a nice rhetorical dodge made all the easier by the unfounded charge that Krugman "lambasts" the children. Evidence of "lambasting"? It looks like counsel has chosen to not submit it.
Now let's look at the names involved here: Cheney, Scaila, Rehnquist. Not exactly children of the First Assistant to the Under Secretary of Dairy Products Assigned to the World Bank. To say that these three were the best possible choices who got where they are by hard work and pluck, and not by their names, is to give new meaning to being obtuse. And, just in case you weren't entirely thrown off the scent by Volokh's tapdance, he provides the obligatory immigrant-child-who-pulled-themselves-up-by-their-bootstraps stories of Viet Dihn and himself so that we can forget what the gist of the Krugman story was. Because no matter how sad the story, everyone enjoys a happy ending...
*******
One last comment. Volokh also writes:
Is having a prominent Republican father prima facie evidence of inadequate competence?
I rest my case.....
posted by tbogg at 11:28 AM
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Reporters accidentally given access to unscripted, kinda-stupid-looking President.
We got'cher picture right here.
A surprised President Bush (news - web sites), right, in his running tights, looks at reporters and photographers spilling out of vans, which were accidentally driven onto the grounds of Fort McNair, Sunday, Nov. 24, 2002, in Washington. In the background is first lady Laura Bush, and a Secret Service agent, left. The news media was immediately told to get back in the vans by security agents and driven off the Army grounds
Crisis averted. What if they had asked him some questions and he had felt compelled to answer without Karl's scripted comments?
Hope the reporters enjoy their stay in Camp X-Ray.
posted by tbogg at 10:54 AM
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Now if we can only get Michael Jackson on that Child Safety Board....
Jeb! (you remember, chubby guy, got a daughter who's a crack whore...) anyway, Jeb! has decided to appoint hapless butterfly-ballot-designing Teresa LePore to Florida's 15-member, 2002 Select Task Force on Election Procedures.
That's right. Teresa LePore who had a claw in screwing up the 2000 election (in favor of Bush's brother, oddly enough) is going to share her experience with the good people of Florida so that they get the elections that they deserve.
Meanwhile South American strongman dictators are having peasants shot for refering to their country as a "Florida Republic"....
(Thanks to Maia for pointing this one out)
posted by tbogg at 9:20 AM
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Journalistic shortcuts
Normally, I like Frank Rich's columns but this one seems like he just mailed it in.
Republicans profess to be delighted at this prospect while non-Gore Democrats are despondent. They are united in their recognition that he is the least spontaneous presidential contender since Richard Nixon, who similarly kept rolling out "new" incarnations of his public persona after each defeat.
It would be safe to say that any journalist that rolls out the old "Gore-is-re-inventing-himself" storyline just didn't feel like working that week. I mean, jeez, it took Rich fourteen days to come up with that? Every time Gore speaks you've got some lazy pundit lurking around the corner ready to jump in a say, "Gore says he like chicken. But two weeks ago he said he liked pizza. There he goes again re-inventing himself and pandering to people who like chicken...".
Rich can do better...and so can the other "reporters", if they feel like actually working.
posted by tbogg at 8:27 AM
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We may have to build a new wing in the Spin Hall of Fame....
for Ken Kachigian. Kachigian, famous for advising Gov. Pete Wilson to alienate Hispanics during his last campaign, thereby condemning Republicans to wander for 40 years in the Inland Empire without holding a statewide office, now thinks that the Republicans are poised to take back California. While many of his points are debatable, one is, well it's downright hilarious:
The governor and his entrenched legislative allies served up a $24 billion budget deficit this past year, and just last week the state legislative analyst projected another $21 billion shortfall for 2003-04. The botched state finances are tied right into an energy crisis that also took place on the Democrats' watch. Their party has hitched its wagon to a couple of ugly horses. And neither taints the popular president.
Yes. While the energy companies were doing their best to rape the California economy during the energy "crisis" where were the Republicans? Oh, that's right. Holding the energy company's coats and making suggestions for a few new positions. Kachigian complaining about the Democrats letting the energy crisis happen on their watch is like having the getaway driver point out that the bank never would have been robbed if they hadn't opened for business.
posted by tbogg at 8:15 AM
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...stock in Anheuser-Busch Companies doubles on early trading.
President Bush’s daughters turn 21
posted by tbogg at 7:41 AM
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Friday, November 22, 2002
Andy degenerates into pure stupidity
While I think that Andy Sullivan is a fairly intelliegent person, I have to wonder if I am giving him too much credit. Case in point:
KRUGMAN'S NEW LOW: If you want a good example of the sheer partisan degeneracy that now marks Paul Krugman's New York Times columns, check out today's. It's about the rise of nepotism in America's political system. It's a worthwhile point, and one I've made myself on several occasions. But Krugman manages to make it an entirely partisan issue. Every example of nepotism he gives is Republican or conservative, implying a seamless connnection between family favors and his increasingly unhinged idea that America is now in the grip of a brutal plutocracy. He doesn't mention Al Gore or Nancy Pelosi, for example, two of the most prominent Democrats whose families were already in the business
From Krugman:
America, we all know, is the land of opportunity. Your success in life depends on your ability and drive, not on who your father was.
Just ask the Bush brothers. Talk to Elizabeth Cheney, who holds a specially created State Department job, or her husband, chief counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. Interview Eugene Scalia, the top lawyer at the Labor Department, and Janet Rehnquist, inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services. And don't forget to check in with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and the conservative commentator John Podhoretz.
With the exception of Jeb Bush, everyone mentioned by Krugman in the government jobs, (George W Bush, Elizabeth Cheney, Janet Rehnquist, and Eugene Scalia, and let's not forget Jim Bunning and Strom Thurmond's sons, or Michael Powell) were appointed to their positions. Not elected, like Al Gore or Nancy Pelosi. Once again, they were A-P-P-O-I-N-T-E-D. Nepotism is part of the patronage system that was supposed to have fallen by the wayside, but is rearing its ugly little head again during the Bush Administration, with the appointment of the sons and daughters of the well connected. Al Gore ran for his first offices and won, and we will grant that Gore had the advantage of his famous last name, but he was voted into office by the citizens of his district, not handed the job like the others. Pelosi was elected to office in San Francisco which, last I checked was not Baltimore.
Why can't Andy get this through his head? He's really starting to look like an idiot about this...
Talk about "partisan degeneracy"...
posted by tbogg at 10:43 PM
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Thomas Title Time
So what should Clarence Thomas call his book?
I will admit that I had some that were funnier than hell but didn't pass the Websense test (meaning they were too racist or obscene to get through many people's work firewalls). We started with these:
The Pinhead from Pinpoint
Not Black Like Me
Scalia's Bitch: The Supreme Court Years
The Founder's Intent, Natural Law, and Why I Like Big Butts
Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Holmes, and Me
and collected these:
Long Dong's Journey On The Right
No Man Is A Hero To His House Boy.... The Real Antonin Scalia
SCOTUS Gone Wild!
How To Sublimate Blind Rage Caused By Guilt Over Your Unearned Status In Life, By Dr. Phil
I Done Paid His Daddy Back
Black Like Me? I Could Give A Shit
Clarence Thomas: Pubic Servant
Judicial Legislation and Judicial Sexification
Fade to Black
Roe Vs. Wade?... Tommy Lee Vs. Pamela...Now You're Talking My Kind Of Law
Uncle Tom's Justice
...and my favorites:
My Big Fat White Wife
and
Boyz In Da Robez
Thanks for all the submissions.
posted by tbogg at 9:59 PM
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Well, it would be quieter and it would eliminate those late night calls for bail from the twins...
Judge: Allow woman in coma-like state to die
No word on whether Laura Bush will take him up on the offer as she still has a few more Lavyrle Spencer novels to finish.
posted by tbogg at 12:55 PM
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Another book George Bush won't read.
I still have Clarence Thomas book titles coming in, so I will post them tonight about 10 Pacific Time, I-Don't-Give-A Crap-What-Time-It-Is Central Time.
If you've got a good one, get it in: tblogg@hotmail.com.
Remember I'm not getting any younger, and Proust isn't getting any more enjoyable....
posted by tbogg at 12:48 PM
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Everybody loves a Top Ten list...
..because it gives them something to make fun of and helps establish the cultural pecking order. Cal Pundit links an interesting article on the musical tastes of Princess Di:
The list of her 10 favourite artists is almost shocking in its banality. In order: Elton John, Verdi, Billy Joel, Sinead O'Connor, George Michael, de Burgh, Supertramp, Duran Duran, Leo Sayer, Cliff Richard.
to which Kevin adds:
No, this one is easy: it's a good excuse for a shot across the bow at people who mock others for their taste in art. Not the art itself, mind you, criticizing that is part of the human condition. But people who think that it's sophisticated to make snarky remarks about someone else's taste in books, or popular music, or movies, or whatnot, need to grow up.
I agree with Kevin that is easy to mock others for their cultural tastes, and that it's a cheap shot to boot. But c'mon, don't you think that anybody who reads the Left Behind books or listens to Creed has it coming? I mean, really. I think that we should expect at least a modicum of cultural taste from people, even if they did grow up in Indiana. If Americans stopped making fun of other Americans this country would become quieter than the Philosophy Annex of the George W Bush library.
With that in mind, and since I feel it my both my right and my duty to make fun of other people's taste (as well as their clothes, hairstyles, children, jobs, and physical disablilities) here is my Top Ten "Favourite" Artist's of the Moment (in a vague order) that you may use to mock/look down your nose at/be appalled/and feel culturally superior to:
Nine Inch Nails, Aimee Mann, Diana Krall, Dead Can Dance, Tool, The Stone Roses, The Crystal Method, Green Day, Cassandra Wilson, and The Jesus and Mary Chain. I also like White Zombie...so there.
C'mon you bastards...I can take it....
posted by tbogg at 12:29 PM
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Rittenhouse is back....
...now if we can only get those slackers at Media Whores Online back to work.
posted by tbogg at 11:32 AM
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Vaseline on the teeth?...check....Kevlar swimsuit?...check...
Miss World pageant riots.
You know, I always thought we were just one more rendition of Wind Beneath My Wings away from something like this....
posted by tbogg at 10:14 AM
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Getting all giggly about naked people
America's virgin (no, not Erika Harold) Ben Shapiro saw a naughty picture on the Internet and couldn't wait to type, one-handed, about it:
In West Marin County, Calif., home to such world-renowned figures as John Walker Lindh, anti-war protesters simultaneously revealed their breasts and their stupidity. Believing that boobs do more for world peace than bombs, 50 intrepid women shed their clothing, then lay in the aptly named Love Field and spelled out the word "PEACE" with their bodies to show solidarity with the Iraqi people. But before you run to your computer to find the picture, be warned: It's ugly. Many are seniors, and there is at least one morbidly obese woman posing in the buff. Some people were just not meant to undress. Ever.
You know, I saw this picture, but I wasn't so interested in it that I F11'd it so I could make out which women were seniors and which one was obese. Looks like that 24" monitor is really paying off for Ben these days.
Then he writes this:
What's even funnier than batty women getting naked for peace is what they said while they were doing it. "Women from all ages and walks of life took off their clothes, not because they are exhibitionists but because they felt it was imperative to do so," the organizers solemnly explained. "They wanted to unveil the truth about the horrors of war, to commune in their nudity with the vulnerability of Iraqi innocents." What a great idea! To promote peace with Islamic fanatics who hate women, have a mass pseudo-lesbian event!
"Pseudo-lesbian event"? Yeah, he wishes...
..and finally The Virgin Ben writes this:
In Sydney, Australia, three women ripped off their clothes and poured red paint on themselves and then arranged themselves on a homemade American flag under a sign reading "Stop the war on women." Sorry, fellas, no pictures of this one, but it's safe to assume it wasn't too pretty either -- the police picked the protesters up for "offensive conduct."
A less dirty but similarly moronic protesting technique is the die-in.
I have to ask: In Ben's case, was the protest "dirty" because they poured paint on themselves or because they got (snicker snicker) all naked and stuff showing their boobies and other parts that Ben isn't even vaguely familiar with?
You can learn a lot about an author when they write on topics that are important to them, and, although Ben seems to want to write about how the war protestors are "funny", what comes through loud and clear is Ben's attitude towards women in general. In his case it is helpful to remember that some people choose celibacy, while others have it thrust upon them. Poor Ben. He no more chose abstinence than Clarence Thomas chose to be black.
I'd buy Ben a ticket to see The Vagina Monologues, but lately he's been too busy looking for the dirty parts in Lysistrata. After all, a boy has to have a hobby....
posted by tbogg at 10:02 AM
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The one minute Noonan watch.
Thankfully, Peggy has made it easy today. She writes:
The big things to say about the recent JFK allegations--amazing, isn't it, that "recent JFK allegations" is still an operative phrase in 2002?--are obvious.
• Illnesses as serious, varied and potentially debilitating as JFK's, which included Addison's disease, chronic and intense back pain due to the collapse of bones in his spinal column, intestinal problems including colitis and ulcers, chronic prostatitis and urethritis, frequent fatigue, high fevers, increased vulnerability to infection, frequent headaches, diarrhea and a chronic abscess in his back, should have been fully divulged to the American people before they voted in the 1960 election.
Reading through the column, there exists an elephant bigger than Manhattan sitting in the middle of the room.
Whither Reagan?
I mean, if there is one thing that Peggy is known for it's her attachment to Ronald Reagan. Yet not once does she mention Reagan's Alzheimer's and whether it might have begun while he was in office (...as my daughter would say, "no duh"). Isn't this sort of like Robert Caro discussing Kennedy, but avoiding Johnson?
I'll give Noonan a mulligan on this one. After all, with Reagan in a race with Strom for a plot with a view at Arlington, Peggy looks to be in the denial stage. And when he's gone, she is going to have to be strong to lead the country in a nationwide Reagasm, so it's best that she save her strength. She, of all people, is going to need it....
posted by tbogg at 9:05 AM
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A lesson in nepotism.
A week or so ago, Andrew Sullivan accused Nancy Pelosi and Harold Ford of being beneficiaries of nepotism, showing a disregard for what nepotism really is. Paul Krugman today shows us the true meaning of the word and why it is wrong.
America, we all know, is the land of opportunity. Your success in life depends on your ability and drive, not on who your father was.
Just ask the Bush brothers. Talk to Elizabeth Cheney, who holds a specially created State Department job, or her husband, chief counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. Interview Eugene Scalia, the top lawyer at the Labor Department, and Janet Rehnquist, inspector general at the Department of Health and Human Services. And don't forget to check in with William Kristol, editor of The Weekly Standard, and the conservative commentator John Podhoretz.
Let's also not forget Tucker Carlson, Jonah Goldberg, Michael Kelly, and L. Brent Bozell.
Later today, Micky Kaus will criticize Krugman for dangling a participle, which will negate everything that Krugman wrote. Count on it.
posted by tbogg at 8:34 AM
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Thursday, November 21, 2002
Buy a book at Amazon and keep Coulter from turning tricks. A win-win plan for America....
Ann Coulter, the vaguely female-like homunculus of the right-wing apparently isn't getting much...in the way of pay from David Horowitz. How else to explain her continual linking to books at Amazon throughout her columns. It would appear that Ann has an afiliate program going with Amazon that makes her enough money to keep her in botox, vodka, and Newport Menthols, but apparently not Xanax . Shouldn't commerce be kept seperate from the serious writings of a "Constitutional" expert? Nevermind, we're talking about Ann... This week's latest binge/purge contains links to:
Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential
George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right
Militant Islam Reaches America
and
Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right
...again.
Oddly she doesn't have links to:
Transgender Care: Recommended Guidelines, Practical Information, and Personal Accounts
Addictive Thinking: Understanding Self-Deception
or
Looking for Mr. Goodbar
Maybe next week...
posted by tbogg at 2:53 PM
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...and I am not trying out for the NBA.
Diane Feinstein is not running for President.
Who in the hell thought she would?
posted by tbogg at 2:00 PM
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On the matter of Andrew Sullivan's "Eagles"
Another one of my very smart readers (Richard P.) sent this to me:
Consider the following from Ben Franklin to his daughter on the choice of a national bird. . .
"For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the labor of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him.
"With all this injustice, he is never in good case but like those among men who live by sharping & robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our country . . .
"I am on this account not displeased that the figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the truth the Turkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on."
posted by tbogg at 1:49 PM
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For God's Sake! Someone close the casket before he bounces out again!
Dr. Earl Warwick dies. Created Silly Putty.
posted by tbogg at 1:39 PM
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Woo-Hoo! Hooters comes to Springfield!
SPRINGFIELD - A Hooters is coming to town, and owners of the sexy, campy restaurant are hoping to hire a staff of women with very specific qualifications:
Big personalities.
snip
"I'm in this phase where I want to try things I've never done," said LaNarshia Bell, 21, a college student from Springfield who last week hopped a bus with her cousin to fill out applications.
The restaurant is scheduled to open next month. Owners are seeking to hire 40 to 50 Hooters girls and 20 to 30 kitchen staff. A spokesman for the restaurant said salaries for kitchen staff will be $8 to $9 an hour and waitresses will earn $2.67 an hour plus tips.
Bell, who is black, wears glasses and has a pierced tongue, looked around at the walls where posters depicting blonde, buxom Hooters girls were hung.
"I don't even know if they'd hire any minorities here," she said doubtfully.
The official position of Hooters is not to judge an applicant by the color of their skin, but by the content of their D-cup.
posted by tbogg at 12:57 PM
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If you don't find Jesus in thirty minutes...your pizza's free!
Tom Monaghan, the founder of Domino's Pizza is building a Catholic college/town in Florida.
Ave Maria University should start classes in a temporary location in Naples next fall, then move several years later to 750 acres near the Collier County hamlet of Immokalee, about 20 miles northeast of Naples. The campus would be the hub of a new college town.
"Our goal is nothing less than to build the finest Catholic university that we can build," Monaghan said at the announcement in Naples.
snip
A major partner in the venture is the Barron Collier Companies, which donated the land. The Naples-based developer owns thousands of acres of rural farmland where the development will be located.
Gov. Jeb Bush praised the Ave Maria backers as "visionaries" in a video played at the announcement.
"As a Catholic, I am very proud that students will be able to obtain an education with the highest academic standards and with firm grounding in religious and moral values," he said.
If a developer is giving away land and Jeb! is involved...you know that a dead fish or two will be rising to the surface any day now.
posted by tbogg at 12:49 PM
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Just use the standard press release form. It already has the heading.
Security flaw disclosed in Windows
posted by tbogg at 12:29 PM
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Peggy gets the night off....
Since I will be attending a Tool concert tonight, with my lovely and talented daughter, Peggy Noonan gets a free ride this week...unless, of course she says something profoundly stupid in which case I will weigh in tomorrow night. With any luck, I will be able to combine the two with a discussion of both Peggy Noonan and the lyrics to either Eulogy or Aenema.
posted by tbogg at 12:19 PM
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Not the evil faux journalist one
Roger Ailes added to the Hot Links today. Always worth a read.
...also Road to Surfdom link is fixed.
(Company is coming over so it's house-cleaning day)
posted by tbogg at 11:56 AM
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If there were fewer Republicans would that make them more valuable?
See the Forest has this:
"...rub-their-noses-in-it statement offered recently in a court case brought by the Center for Biological Diversity. In a feather-brained brief, the administration argued that conservationists should consider the upside of bird deaths at a remote Navy live-fire range. "Bird-watchers get more enjoyment spotting a rare bird than they do spotting a common one." Besides, the government added, Navy bombardment keeps away people who might otherwise disturb the birds."
Go read it.
posted by tbogg at 11:01 AM
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After you're done shaving my back-hair, you may annoint my loins with oil
Gee. I never thought of Howie Kurtz as a chubby chaser, but he's sure got a Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name thing going with Rush that he owned up to today.
What we can't understand is how the South Dakotan can suggest that a mainstream conservative with a huge radio following is somehow whipping up wackos to threaten Daschle and his family.
Has the senator listened to Rush lately? Sure, he aggressively pokes fun at Democrats and lionizes Republicans, but mainly about policy
Let's see: Chelsea Clinton dog jokes, jokes about Janet Reno's Parkinsons Disease, Barney "Fag" jokes, Clinton "Bubba" jokes...when did these all become "policy?
I guess someone had to be Rush's suppository, and Howie is just the man for the job....
Update...From Drudge:
NOW MCCAIN BASHES LIMBAUGH: Arizona talk radio station KFYI 550 AM, morning host Barry Young asked Senator John McCain (R-AZ) about the flap created by Sen Tom Daschle's (D-SD) comments criticizing talkradio host Limbaugh. The Snowy-Haired Senior Senator from Arizona replied that he thinks of Limbaugh as a 'circus clown' and is 'entertaining' in much the same way as a clown...
...except there's no room in the little car for all the other clowns.
Good thing that Rush has Kurtz to fight his battles for him since that anal cyst is flaring up again...and, well, you know.
posted by tbogg at 10:04 AM
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That's Andrew Sullivan, Grand High Supreme Uber-Klaxon of the Secret Order of Eagles, to you buddy...
Neologist and Pet Shop Boys aficionado Andrew Sullivan really wants us to use his latest term "Eagles" because of that tired old hawk/dove paradigm:
There's a new group of people out there who are socially liberal but also foreign policy realists, especially among those who have been awakened to political engagement by September 11. Some of these used to be Scoop Jackson Democrats, but today's breed doesn't buy into the big government liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s either. Some are neocons who don't love the social right. Others are just Generation X and Y, who simply accept the social diversity of modern culture and want to see it defended against theocratic barbarians. These people are not comfortable with the Republicans' flirtation with the religious right, or their prosecution of the drug war or mixing of church and state; and they're not impressed by the Democrats' lack of seriousness in foreign policy or enmeshment with public sector interest groups. They're politically homeless, these people - but were probably key swing voters in the last election. Instead of hawks and doves, call these people "eagles." I think they'll play a key part in shaping the politics and culture of the next few years.
Therefore, Andy has taken to using it with greater frequency here and here:
"Good for liberal Polly Toynbee for seeing what we eagles have long argued:"
"AHNOLD THE EAGLE: Schwarzenegger is surely the Eagle candidate par excellence"
Sullivan continuing usage of the term (much like Micky Kaus' equally laughable "faster") reminds me of a person who receives a word-of-the-day calendar, and then proceeds to use each day’s word at every available opportunity no matter what the context. But then I started to wonder...
Outside of Andy's mind, do the "Eagles' really exist, or is this his Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius claim to immortality? I don't hear anybody else using it, so maybe it’s a secret society that we just don't know about yet. Late night meetings in mysterious dark places with secret hand shakes, blood rituals, and the trading of tracts that can only be deciphered using the Official Eagles Secret Decoder Cock Ring.
Now that I think about it, I'd rather not know....
posted by tbogg at 9:37 AM
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Wednesday, November 20, 2002
Terrorist attack or Nebraska...Terrorist attack or Nebraska...Terrorist attack or Nebraska...Well, how bad of a terrorist attack?
Bush has his Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to run to. Cheney has his "undisclosed location" which happens to be a Hooters out on Lee Highway in Fairfax. But what about the rest of us? Where is a safe place for common Americans just like you and me, with the threat of additional terrorism hanging over our heads?
The U>S> State Department has some advice:
This Worldwide Caution supersedes the Worldwide Caution dated November 6. It is being issued to alert U.S. citizens to the need to remain vigilant and to remind them of the continuing threat of terrorist actions that may target civilians. This Worldwide Caution expires on May 20, 2003
Feeling better? How about this?:
On November 14, 2002, the State of Virginia executed Mir Ahmad Kasi, a Pakistani national, who was convicted in 1997 of the 1993 murders of two CIA employees. The potential exists for retaliatory acts against U.S. or other foreign interests in response to the execution.
Attacks on places of worship and schools, and the murders of private American citizens and other westerners, demonstrate that as security is increased at official U.S. facilities, terrorists and their sympathizers will seek softer targets. These may include facilities where Americans or possibly other foreigners are generally known to congregate or visit, such as residential areas, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, hotels, outdoor recreation events or resorts and beaches. Americans should increase their security awareness when they are at such locations, avoid them, or switch to other locations where Americans in large numbers generally do not congregate. There is a possibility that American citizens may be targeted for kidnapping or assassination.
So. Since security is being beefed up at government offices and military bases, the terrorists will now be coming after...us. Nice to know that my ass can get blown up while President Gameboy is sitting in a bunker in Nebraska playing Quake Arena.
Remember when Bill Clinton was President and all we had to worry about were sloppy blow jobs?
Sigh.....
posted by tbogg at 10:28 PM
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Does this mean that they kill last years winner?
According to the People Magazine which is high literature to people who take the short bus to work if-you-know-what-I-mean, Ben Affleck is this year's "Sexiest Man Alive," meaning that last years winner, James Bond star Pierce Brosnan, is either no longer sexy, or he will be put to sleep, much like the viewers who saw him The Tailor of Panama.
Now I have no quibble with People annointing Affleck "sexy", yet I am appalled at their referring to him as a "actor". Affleck is an "actor" in much the same way that Michael Bay is a "director" as opposed to a guy who films shit blowing up. But it gets worse:
Also included on the 2002 "sexiest" list are Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, gospel singer Kirk Franklin, "American Idol" judge Simon Cowell and chef Rocco DiSpirito.
Donald Rumsfeld? Could it be that there are some women in this country who find a smirky 70 year-old man who smells of Brylcreem, scotch, and bloodlust, sexy? I mean, besides Lynne Cheney and Howard Fineman?
posted by tbogg at 10:12 PM
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The wonderful Pauline Kael
Salon has a terrific review up of "Afterglow: A Last Conversation With Pauline Kael" by Francis Davis. Allen Barra doen't hide his affection for Kael, which is fine with me. Growing up in San Diego I lived just a few blocks from a little theater just three blocks from the beach, called the Roxy, where I coulld be found every Saturday afternoon watching a double feature with cartoons in between. I briefly studied film in college and spent most of my evenings at the Ken Cinema in Kensingtion, which was (and still is) an "art house" run by Landmark Theatres. But it wasn't till I bought a copy of Kael's Reeling with it's reviews of Mean Streets, Nashville, The Long Goodbye, and Shampoo, that I learned to love the movies.
Like the best fiction, Kael's reviews were completely immersive and made me feel that I was seeing and understanding something fresh, new, and important. Although there are many Kael detractors out there, I have never lost the feeling that she was the most important film reviewer of our time, as well as one of our best writers (along with John McPhee, Philip Roth, and Don DeLillo). All quality film writing begins from where she stopped.
posted by tbogg at 1:09 PM
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Anti-abortion activist stops a beating heart.
James Kopp is really, really sorry that he killed Bernard Slepian. Sort of.
"The truth is not that I regret shooting Dr. (Barnett) Slepian. I regret that he died," Kopp told the newspaper in an interview published Wednesday. "I aimed at his shoulder. The bullet took a crazy ricochet, and that's what killed him. One of my goals was to keep Dr. Slepian alive, and I failed at that goal."
snip
"To pick up a gun and aim it at another human being and to fire, it's not a human thing to do," Kopp said. "It's not nice. It's not pleasant. It's gory, it's bloody. It overcomes every human instinct.
"The only thing that would be worse, to me, would be to do nothing, and to allow abortions to continue."
That kind of moral clarity must be blinding.
posted by tbogg at 12:34 PM
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...and Michael Kelly as the Beaver.
Yes. It's another Michael Kelly column.
Along with some reflexive Gore bashing, he throws in a little gay bashing as well the "other" bashing:
So, "Joined at the Heart" is an extended celebration of what the Gores call "new family forms," in which the family is bravely and newly seen not in the old moralistic Mom-and-Dad terms, but as "a group of people who love and care about each other, regardless of blood relation or marital status."
The problem with this is the preponderance of evidence that the old Mom-and-Dad model is the only one that, speaking generally, really works -- in terms of taking care of children, building a constructive society and broadly advancing the happiness of the species.
I'm so relieved that Kelly has pointed out that the "happiness of the species" can only be acheived in a family like...well, his. You know, a married white couple with two boys, practicing the Catholic faith. Not those nasty divorced people or that gay couple or the unwed mother who manages to raise her kids well while balancing a carrer. No, for the species to be happy and constructive they need to be like the Kellys: Ward, June, and the two darling little boys. Hilarious hijinks to follow.....
posted by tbogg at 10:13 AM
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The Gods of Poetry stand mute and horrified
No More Mr Nice Blogg points us in the direction of the poetry of Alabama whackaloon Judge Roy Moore. Should you click on the second poem, beware it comes with the kind of cheesy music which is an affront to cheesy music. Here is an poetry excerpt form OUR AMERICAN BIRTHRIGHT (poetry lovers may want to avert their eyes):
So with a firm reliance on Divine Providence for protection,
They pledged their sacred honor and sought His wise direction.
They lifted an appeal to God for all the world to see,
And declared their independence forever to be free.
I'm glad they're not here with us to see the mess we're in,
How we've given up our righteousness for a life of indulgent sin.
For when abortion isn't murder and sodomy is deemed a right,
Then evil is now called good and darkness is now called light.
While truth and law were founded on the God of all Creation,
Man now, through law, denies the truth and calls it "seperation."
No longer does man see a need for God when he's in full control,
For the only truth self-evident is in the latest poll.
But with man as his own master we fail to count the cost,
Our precious freedoms vanish and our liberty is lost.
Children are told they can't pray and they teach them evolution,
When will they learn the fear of God is the only true solution.
Holy crap!
No really....this is holy crap.
posted by tbogg at 8:47 AM
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Too bad...The Human Stain is already taken.
Clarence Thomas is writing his memoirs.
PUBLISHERS are said to be looking at a proposal for a memoir from conservative and controversial Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
"He has written about 100 pages himself," said one source with knowledge of the project.
So far, no ghost writer is attached to the project, but according to the source, "he needs one."
Thomas is hoping to snag big bucks - possibly as high as $1 million - for the book.
Wonder what he's going to call it?
The Pinhead from Pinpoint
Not Black Like Me
Scalia's Bitch: The Supreme Court Years
The Founder's Intent, Natural Law, and Why I Like Big Butts
Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Holmes, and Me
I'm open to suggestions E-Mail me
posted by tbogg at 8:14 AM
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Tuesday, November 19, 2002
Sullivan asks a rhetorical question...
BEGALA AWARD NOMINEE: "The legacy of Harry Potter in popular culture remains to be seen - those who'd burn the books as demonic are encouraged to get library cards pronto - but at present, despite its sophomoric awkwardness, the film of Chamber of Secrets is a welcome delivery of childlike wonder for a planet of ever-increasing ugliness. We've accidentally allowed a retarded monkey to rule America, but otherwise it's not such a whimsical place. Perhaps works like this can help set that to rights." - Gregory Weinkauf, Dallas Observer. What must it feel like to lose an election to a retarded monkey?
I don't know and neither does Al Gore.
...then Andy makes a stupid statement
THE YOUNG AND WAR: I've been impressed by George W. Bush's support among the young. Maybe it's not as anomalous as I thought. Here's a study by blogger Jim Miller that shows how the young were consistently more supportive of the Vietnam War than their elders - throughout the conflict.
Seeing as Andy has already misrepresented war-poll numbers by the young weeks ago, and was called on it, it's surprising to see him make this apples/armadillos comparison. Then again, lets ask the youth of today if they would be for Bush's war if they faced a draft..
Oh. That's different.
posted by tbogg at 10:09 PM
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Jessie's Girl, Dean Barkley gets his fifteen minutes of fame
Dean Barkley got to go on Crossfire and explain about how unhappy he was with the Homeland Security bill on Friday. Then today he voted for it. So what did he find in his bed over the weekend?
A) a bag of cash
B) A horses head
C) A horses ass
Well we know it wasn't C because Rush was in Florida, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Too bad, Barkely would have made a good Senator, he already had the comb-over down pat.
posted by tbogg at 9:59 PM
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What do you give a guy who's way past his sell-by date?
Senate Republicans gave the decaying-and-most-probably-already-dead Strom Thurmond a parting gift today by promoting U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Shedd to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. It would appear that the Senate was in a hurry as Thurmond was going bad faster than a bowl of potato salad in a hot car, and they just wanted to get him out of the Senate quarters before they had to fumigate for that old man smell...again.
(Anyone else think Shedd looks like actor Bruno Kirby on the Spencer Abraham diet?)
posted by tbogg at 9:42 PM
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The bitter Mr Krauthammer cracks a morbid little smile
Talking Points Memo directs us to the 1200 word spinfest by the dyspeptic Charles Krauthammer. I know that Mr. Krauthammer doesn't get out much, but what to make of the fact that he glosses over so many of the Bush Administration’s initiatives and achievements and their ramifications? Shall we say that he is obtuse, willfully ignorant, or just a liar who brushes aside facts in order to make a point?
To start with let us remember that up until the election the conventional wisdom was that the election would revolve around "local issues". For example, for the people of Georgia it was a debate about whether the state would keep a symbol of the Confederacy as a part of the flag. Nothing riles up the crackers like the joys of battles lost. In the process a war hero was beaten by a coward. After the election, the Republicans began to immediately crow about a mandate for George Bush. After all, all the Karl Rove-selected candidates Bush campaigned for won...not so fast there John Thune, wait a second Greg Ganske, sit down Bill Simon. Surely, Charles Krauthammer would have us believe, the Republicans are fully in control of this great nation of ours. Except that the election may indicate otherwise. According to the all-wise Daily Kos:
In the final tally, the GOP lost 1 governorship, while the Democrats picked up 3. The two independent governorships (in ME and MN) split evenly between the two major parties.
The GOP picked up: AK, AL, GA, HI, MD, MN, NH, SC, and VT.
The Democrats picked up: AZ, IL, KS, ME, MI, NM, OK, PA, TN, WI, and WY.
An extraordinary 20 governorships changed parties, out of 36 contested. Democrats did far better in picking up key swing states for 2004. CW is that a governor can give his or her party's presidential nominee a 1-3 point boost through the use of the gubernatorial bully pulpit and state party apparatus.
As such, the following GOP pickups could help Bush's chances in 2004: MN, NH, and VT (17 electoral votes). On the Dem side, we have AZ, IL, MI, NM, PA, TN, and WI (95 electoral votes).
It is more than fair to say that Bush has control of all three branches of the government (Scalia and Rhenquist have seen to that), but as far as a mandate or a repudiation of everything that the Democrats stand for...not so fast Charlie. (Keep in mind the Republican Rule of Elections: when a Republican wins by a single vote it's a mandate. If he loses by a single vote, it's because of voter fraud). Recent polls have shown that Bush hasn’t even hit the fifty percent mark when it comes to “would you vote for George Bush for President again”.
There are two selections from Krauthammer's House of Bile that are worth reviewing. First:
Odd. In a country where the great assault, such as it is, on "choice" consists of parental notification of teenage abortions, in a country where most people don't particularly enjoy having their wealth "transferred," where they support reasonable environmental regulation and believe in some separation between church and state, how could this conjunction of "piety, profits, and military power, all joined at the hip by ideology and money"--Moyers's summary of Republicanism--command such public support?
With a litmus test for judicial appointments based on "pro-life" credentials, a massive tax-cut for the wealthy with a tuppence for the masses, environmental regulations dictated by former industry lobbyists/lawyers/shills, and a Majority party that includes religious freak acts like John Ashcroft, Orrin Hatch, Tom DeLay, Asa Hutchinson, and John Walters...why doesn't Krauthammer's vision of America look like mine? Oh, that's right, he's in gloat mode.
Then he writes:
This is truly bizarre. George Bush, extremist? This is a president who passed an education bill essentially written by Ted Kennedy. His tax reform involves the most modest of rate cuts for the upper brackets and is what any Keynesian would have done in the face of a recession. It is, for example, more moderate than the (John) Kennedy tax cuts. The other alleged parts of his agenda--the environmental rape, the imposition of theocracy, the abolition of civil liberties (Moyers: "secrecy on a scale you cannot imagine")--are nothing but the delusion of liberals made quite mad by defeat.
Leaving aside the notion that Bush "passed" an education bill (although he did pass on his obligation to fulfill his military duty) Bush did sign the bill...then proceeded to not fund it. It's a unique Bush trick. Money for New York reparations? Sure, I’ll sign that! Oh, you actually want the money...can I get back to you? As far as the other "alleged parts of his agenda" I give you the Environmental Regulations by industry insiders, for civil rights I've got your Patriot Act right here and here, and for the Bush theocracy we have this. If Krauthammer sees nothing extreme in any of these, I suggest he get himself to an optometrist. That tunnel vision of his is getting worse…
posted by tbogg at 9:34 PM
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I shot a birdie on the seventh hole...no, really, I actually shot one...
Smith & Wesson to license name for golf clubs.
Major golf courses prepare for change from traditional "fore" on mis-hit balls to, "yeehaw! d'jew see tha' sumbitch go?".
posted by tbogg at 12:45 PM
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That's what he gets for setting free his slaves...
Confederate Group Removes Official
A regional leader in the nation's largest Confederate heritage organization says he has been stripped of his post because he does not embrace the far-right politics of other members.
Meanwhile JCPenney is having a White Sale and all 31,000 members (minus Ron Wilson) get a 15% "Heritage" discount on all 180 thread count white percale sheets.
posted by tbogg at 11:54 AM
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Alert reader alert
pben makes this great point:
From the (60 Minutes) interview of Woodward:
"When Powell would be asked to go on television talk shows, the White House would tell him no," Woodward tells Wallace. "And Powell would say, privately to his deputy Richard Armitage, 'I'm in the refrigerator. — I'm in the ice box. — They've got me put away and they'll pull me out like a carton of milk when they need me, and then put me back.'"
Woodward says it is the hidden political hand in the White House, and communications operations.
"Often they called on Powell to carry the message, but sometimes into the refrigerator he went," Woodward says.
---------------
Kinda puts Powell right where Mr. Tallyman said he was, doesn't it?
Harry Belafonte:
"You got the privilege of living in the house, if you served the master exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."
posted by tbogg at 11:19 AM
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PLA
If you haven't been over to Dwight Meredith's PLA to see what all the fuss is about regarding the Bush administration selling out children out to Big Pharma, then you're missing the boat on how bad this whole Homeland Bill is. Read this and get pissed.
posted by tbogg at 9:15 AM
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Republicans say "Yes" to pharmaceutical companies. "Screw you" to children.
Homeland bill to pass with more protections for corporations than citizens. We have now reached the point where we would put our own children at risk just so that the adults can feel a little safer.
President Alcohol Braindeath was given "Sophie's Choice" and decided to sacrifice the children for a little political leverage. What a sad, stupid, evil man.
posted by tbogg at 9:08 AM
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Monday, November 18, 2002
Mail...I get mail.
Lots of good mail too...
From Molly in NYC:
Hitchins--and every other apologist for these weiners--is right that it doesn't much matter whether a wartime Prez has military experiance; FDR (no experience) handled WWII well and Nixon (former Seabee) handled Vietnam poorly. But what he's missing is: FDR was a decent public man and Nixon was a shit.
The "chickenhawk" stuff isn't about experience--it's a character issue. Bush and his cronies are not simply cowards; they have no sense of duty whatever. It's not just that in the 60s when (according to them) they heard their nation call, they ran the other way--it's that they evidently thought only a sucker would do otherwise. This administration is composed of men who have never EVER put themselves out on behalf of their country. Their most consistent domestic stance is: God forbid guys like them should have to pay taxes. When working in the public sector, their priorities invariably favor feathering their own nests over the needs of the public that pays them. An obligation as basic as obeying drunk driving laws?--"that's for nobodies, my daddy will fix it." They have turned JFK's "Ask not . . . " exhortation on its head. ("Social contract? Bite me.")
The big exception of course, is Colin Powell--the only grown-up voice in the cabinet. And at best, Bush treats him like a spoilsport.
Then from Rich P:
First, wingnut gasbag Cal Thomas in the Moonie Times on Pelosi:
"The first victory, on Election Day, gave Republicans control of Congress and the White House for the first time in half a century. The second will come with the election of Mrs. Pelosi as minority leader. It will allow Republicans to again invoke the image of Democrats as the big-government, high-taxing, over-regulating, entitlement-establishing, unaccountable, irresponsible, gun-confiscating, totalitarian-coddling, peace-at-any-price, American Civil Liberties Union card-carrying, same-sex-marrying, unrestricted-aborting, anything-goes philosophy of the Dukakis-Mondale-McGovern extreme left wing of their party."
Do you think the same paper, or any paper, would (properly) refer to the appointment of Tom DeLay as "allowing the Democrats to invoke the image of Republicans as Crony Capitalist, Pro-Corruption, Regulation-Skirting, Cop-Killer-Bullet-Using, Dictator-Coddling, Hand-The-Treasury-Over-to-Defense-Contractors, Gay-bashing, Confederate-Flag-Loving, abortion-doctor-killing, use-the-Bill-of-Rights-as-toilet-paper Gingrich/Trent Lott/Jesse Helms extreme right wing of their party."
and finally...
I received an email from Steven Stanton with a legitimate complaint about my refering to him as an " uber-dork" which he may very well not be. I will take him at his word that he is not a "uber-dork" until such time as I hear differently. I must say that I was somewhat disappointed that someone who is a self-proclaimed "South Park Conservative" would send an email that was more Alex Keaton than Eric Cartman.
posted by tbogg at 8:27 PM
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Suzie Terrell watch.
As documented below, from her own website, Louisiana Republican Senate candidate Suzie Terrell is strongly against allowing women to make their own choices about their bodies. How strong? Here's Suzie:
Meanwhile, Terrell said she would vote for a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions with "no exceptions." When Russert asked how Terrell then would handle physicians who performed illegal abortions or women who received them, Terrell said, "That would be something we would have to look into."
As a mother of three girls, who thankfully didn't inherit her looks, we might want to ask Suzie a Bernard Shaw-like question:
Ms. Terrell, if heaven forbid, one of your daughters were raped or faced a life-threatening pregnancy, would you force them to give birth and allow them no options?
Take your time...this should be interesting.
posted by tbogg at 7:29 PM
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All the news that's fit to be tied up and hidden in the closet for the duration....
According to the New York Times, the Federalist Society is just a "debate club".
Despite a budget of $3.2 million and nearly 30,000 members, the Federalist Society does not stake out official positions or endorse candidates. It does not bring lawsuits or file legal briefs. What it does, organizers say, is promote dialogue about constitutional principles and the law. Along the way, it has attracted conservative admirers throughout the Bush administration and the federal judiciary.
Talk about putting the tort before the whores. The Federalist Society played a major hand in appointing Bush. Case in point:
Federalist Society members, once ticklish about such attacks, seemed to delight in them at this week's conference, as Mr. Ashcroft, Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson and others lampooned the liberal voices who dread the group's influence.
"There are some who would paint the Federalist Society as a nefarious underground cabal with secret handshakes and blood oaths," Mr. Ashcroft deadpanned. Then, as his audience cackled, he added, "I called you all here because I want to know who squealed."
snip
"Who would have thought 20 years ago," Justice Scalia said at the society's black-tie gala on Thursday, "that that little organization of students at a couple of law schools would have evolved today to a power of such proportions" that mere membership could endanger a judicial nomination?
Pausing, he said, "It could have been a grand flop."
The Federalist Society is a debate club in the same way that the Ku Klux Klan is a bunch of guys getting together for poker and barbeque.
posted by tbogg at 6:42 PM
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Postcard from the "duh" cafe.....
Christopher Hitchens just discovered that al-Qaida is a "terrorist" group.
Thanks Hitch, we never would have figured that out ourselves....
posted by tbogg at 3:56 PM
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This isn't going to make it any easier to hear your answer...
An Iranian woman cut off her henpecked husband's ear after he dared to query why she was late coming home, the Entekhab newspaper reported on Saturday
Meanwhile, in Washington DC, Lynne Cheney smiled knowingly...
posted by tbogg at 1:13 PM
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Sending all my love to you....
If you get a package from William Reno Gerber, you may want to open it with gloves on.
The Supreme Court showed no sympathy Monday for a California inmate who wants to become a long-distance father.
Justices rejected William Reno Gerber's claim that he should be allowed to ship his sperm to his wife.
A band of the Luiseno Mission Indians urged the high court to review the case. Evelyn Gerber is a tribe member who wants to be artificially inseminated and raise children in the traditional Luiseno culture and language, lawyer Richard T. Williams told the court.
"A prison warden has decided to exercise racial and genetic control and has relegated Mrs. Gerber to a life sentence -- one without the possibility of having children with her husband," Williams said in court filings
Justice Clarence Thomas mentioned that he had something in his briefs for her, causing Justices Kennedy, Breyer, and Souter to start giggling and snickering while Chief Justice William Rehnquist gave them a disapproving glance and cleared his throat like a fifties-era TV dad.
posted by tbogg at 12:26 PM
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Sunday, November 17, 2002
Only six more shopping days...
...until the Bush twins birthday.
Small airline-sized bottles of gin or tequila or anything with an alchohol level higher than vanilla extract would make wonderful little gifts. Oh, and if you send them to the White House, don't bother sending vodka since Laura has first dibs...
posted by tbogg at 11:10 PM
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Helping Landrieu out...
I'm not a big fan of Sen. Mary Landrieu of LA. she's a bit too centrist for my taste, but then she does represent a southern State (another reason to hate that damn Republican Lincoln, for not letting them secede...). The Daily Kos covers her race here. Having said that, consider the alternative: Suzanne Haik Terrell.
Here is one important fact about Suzie Terrell:
“We will never create a culture in this country that honors life until we have a pro-life woman making the case every day from the Senate floor. Today, there are no pro-life women in the Senate. That must change. Louisiana can change it.”
I pledge to vote to ban partial birth abortion.
I pledge to join John Breaux in protecting the statute banning abortions in military hospitals.
I pledge to support a bill requiring parental consent for those under the age of 18 seeking an abortion.
I pledge to help President Bush nominate and confirm pro-life federal judges and Supreme Court Justices.
I pledge to vote 100% for life
That's enough for me. Contribute to Landrieu here.
posted by tbogg at 10:52 PM
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We just throw the Canadians back....them's not good eatin'...
God-fearing heavily-armed Americans are working hard to keep "illegal immigrants" out of their really shitty community.
Cochise County's "official newspaper" has issued a call to arms and is spearheading the formation of a local militia to combat illegal immigration.
Tucson human rights activist Isabel Garcia said the Tombstone Tumbleweed's rhetoric is the latest manifestation of a militant vigilantism that has long existed in Cochise County with the acceptance and encouragement of local officials.
She said Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever's public friendship with groups like Glenn Spencer's American Patrol, the sheriff's lack of investigation into Roger and Don Barnett's armed detention of illegal entrants and the clear unwillingness on the part of Cochise County Attorney Chris Roll to investigate and prosecute the two brothers have given them credibility and encouraged groups like Texas-based Ranch Rescue and the new Tombstone Militia.
The best comment:
This has nothing to do with the Mexican people per se. . . . It's about stopping uncontrolled immigration," he said.
So all you Canadians trying to sneak across the Rio Grande...watch your ass, eh.
posted by tbogg at 10:23 PM
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Ron who...George what??
Nixon apologist Bill Safire is still trying to beat Kennedy. Now it's Kennedy's health:
Hospitals where Kennedy was privately cared for a half-century ago will be more free to add to his medical history: the "absentee senator," as opponents labeled him, may have preferred to be seen more as playboy than patient.
These emerging revelations display Kennedy's penchant for political concealment and media manipulation — ameliorated by his inspiring example of willingness to undergo great pain to succeed in wielding great power.
But this drives home the point that candidates should not put ambition above honesty in dealing with questions about their physical and mental ability to serve. And they should order their doctors to tell the public the whole truth.
Any chance they're going to bring us to date on the Reagan's last few years or, hey, how about all of President Peruvian Marching Powder's medical records from his "irrresponsible" years?
Nah. I didn't think so......
posted by tbogg at 10:12 PM
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Why control of the courts matter
Indiana (which is the ugliest state in the Union) seems to think that women just can't make up their pretty little minds without some goverment-mandated help.
A federal appeals court blocked an Indiana abortion law that would require women to get face-to-face counseling before having an abortion.
The stay Thursday by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago keeps the state law from going into effect at least until the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to hear a challenge of it.
The law, passed in 1995, has never taken effect.
In September, a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit found the law constitutional, and the court was expected on November 5 to let the law take effect. With a day to spare, however, attorneys for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy requested the stay.
Name me one other personal medical procedure that requires a waiting period for the patient so they can be talked out of it...
posted by tbogg at 9:50 PM
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Its never too early to start your Christmas shopping...
The Homer Beer Opener.
posted by tbogg at 9:32 PM
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Days of future past...
There is a new biography of H.L Mencken out, "The Skeptic: A Life of H.L. Mencken" (HarperCollins, 410 pages, $29.95), and this allowed Arthur Salm of the San Diego Union to quote a rather brilliant excerpt from the writings of Mencken:
But many of Mencken's essays still luminesce with clarity and precision. The relevance of the opinion in the following selection will depend on whether the reader considers its author pessimistic or prescient.
From the Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920:
" ... when a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental – men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost.
" ... all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre – the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.
"The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
posted by tbogg at 9:28 PM
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Friday, November 15, 2002
It's time to take the weekend off...
So I leave you with Wiley Miller who has it all figured out.
See you Monday. Sleep tight. Don't let the Ashcrofts bite...
posted by tbogg at 7:21 PM
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Say it! "I'm proud to be free." Louder! "I'M PROUD TO BE FREE...please stop hitting me..."
Pennsylvania is going to make their kids into freedom-loving patriots even if they have to coerce the little bastards into doing it.
Republican Rep. Allan Egolf said he introduced the measure, which also would mandate the display of the American flag in all classrooms, after finding that some schools did not ask students to recite the pledge.
"It's getting away from teaching about what our country stands for, what our founders did, and why we have the country we have," Egolf said.
Yes, our country stands for forced flagrant displays of faux patriotism by children. Extra credit given to children who turn in their parents for saying things like "Boy. That Bush guy is really stupid" or "Lets play Ashcroft and the swarthy person of interest...now bend over and tell me who's your god now, Muslim-bitch?".
posted by tbogg at 2:05 PM
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Stop the Bushes from cutting down the trees.
Conservation Action Network
posted by tbogg at 1:27 PM
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Today is...
the two month anniversary of the tbogg blog. I've had close to 53,000 visits in that time and I want to thank each and everyone of you who have stopped by. I was going to throw a party for you all, but the Bush twins stopped by and now the liquor's all gone, all the windows are broken, the police have my house on a "watch' list, and the dog won't come out from under the bed... so there goes that.
Thanks to everyone who has stopped by, and thanks to the other established bloggers who have linked here and given me encouragement. You guys are swell.
posted by tbogg at 1:24 PM
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Just added to the Hotlinks:
Michael Finley and RubberNun, , both of which are worth watching daily.
posted by tbogg at 12:33 PM
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WTF is it now?
Has lots of funny stuff up...including this.
posted by tbogg at 12:13 PM
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For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son...Mickey.
Mysterious Shroud of Mouse baffles theologians.
Okay, it's not a shroud...but try telling that to his Twelve Dwarf Apostles: Dopey, Grumpy, Doc, Bashful, Happy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Sleazy, Pimpdaddy, Cheney, Skanky, and Little Creepy Guy.
posted by tbogg at 12:05 PM
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Bush kicks Ridge's butt off of the couch.
It looks like President Pretzel Ninja is going to appoint Tom Ridge to head up the Homeland Security Department.
Sources say the president has settled on the former Pennsylvania congressman and governor to take on the gargantuan task of heading the huge new bureaucracy. The move would take Ridge out of the West Wing of the White House, where he has served as Bush's homeland security adviser for more than a year, and put him in charge of a Cabinet department charged with preventing and responding to future terrorist attacks.
This will also get Ridge out of Bush's house where he's been sleeping on the couch and totally monopolizing the PS2, playing DDRMAX Dance Dance Revolution way into the night with his friends between beer runs and trips down to Georgetown to score some CIA Primo.
Laura Bush is said to be relieved as she can now go back to roaming the West Wing in the nude and having Lynne Cheney, Gail Norton, and Christie Whitman over for Tupperware parties...also in the nude.
posted by tbogg at 11:20 AM
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No. That wheezing and coughing is just the Pope.
Alert reader Jon G. points out;
Is she nuts? Did she know that the Vatican, too, banned smoking? See:
Vatican smoking rules
See, I guess the Vatican is home to all those kiddie-porn-watching, crack-smoking, intolerant, drunken, obese, abolitionists ....
I have great readers.
posted by tbogg at 10:04 AM
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No, really! We're hip! We're "with it". We can still score chicks...except for Ben... and Andy
Andy Sullivan wants so much to fit in, but he doesn't want to be known as a Republican. What to do, what to do? I know! Create a new sub-group with a really cool name and maybe even get matching jackets and have a secret handshake and everything....Let's call ourselves South Park Republicans.
It looks like uber-dork Stephen W. Stanton is pretty excited about finally fitting in somewhere:
A recent column titled "South Park Republicans" challenged conservative stereotypes by suggesting that a many Republican voters are more inclined to watch Comedy Central than the Christian Broadcasting Network. The piece struck a chord. Actually, it struck several. You can read the reaction for yourself by doing a Google search for "South Park Republicans." Responses range from enthusiastic support to outright ridicule.
A few clarifications are in order. First, not all viewers of "South Park" are Republicans. Certainly, not all of Barbara Streisand's listeners are steadfast Democrats. And the concept of South Park Republicans is not new. Back in 2000, an article was published detailing The Inherent Conservatism of "South Park". The term "South Park Republicans" was first coined by Andrew Sullivan.
snip
When you lift the flap to peek inside, who will you see in the Republican tent? After looking at the ad hoc membership of the left, it becomes easy to accept the South Park crowd as a viable Republican caucus, numerically dwarfing other factions such as, say, the Log Cabin Republicans. Of course, with congressional control and a sitting president, there must be far more people - and far greater diversity - in the Republican party than Hollywood might have you believe. Hilary Clinton got it half right: The right wing is truly vast, encompassing a vibrant and diverse base holding many different priorities. However, there is no conspiracy; the party is not monolithic.
In fact, the party is evolving rapidly. The newest and youngest members do not look, act, or think like the old guard. Generation X grew up with computers and cable TV. They entered the workforce at the same time as the Internet and embrace technology. They access the information and entertainment they want when they want it. They are individualists, with little patience for censorship or prejudice. Generation Y grew up even later, after political correctness had already firmly taken root. They now rebel against the very institutions, such as racial quotas, that were put in place by the progressives who fought the conservatism of the '60s.
Wait till Stephen finds out about the South Park Republication initiation ceremony. Hope he's got his power glutes on....
posted by tbogg at 9:24 AM
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Joseph Farah counts to three...the world holds it breath
It's hardly worth commenting on (not that that will stop me) but Joseph Farah of World Net Daily ( a Scaife-funded repository for cranks, skanks, and wankers) has a disagreement with Bill Moyers:
I think I have finally met a person who is my polar opposite.
If there were a parallel universe and each one of us had an opposite personality, this fellow would be mine.
This is a guy who is wrong about everything. Even when he's right, he's wrong because of his evil motivations.
Who is this man?
It's Bill Moyers, the political activist masquerading as a journalist and living the comfortable, taxpayer-subsidized life at PBS.
Then he writes this:
Moyers: "That brand of Republican is gone. And for the first time in the memory of anyone alive, the entire federal government – the Congress, the Executive, the Judiciary – is united behind a right-wing agenda for which George W. Bush believes he now has a mandate."
Isn't this rich? The U.S. Supreme Court, as currently constituted, according to Moyers, is part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy. The last time I counted the heads on that court, there were three conservatives out of nine. George Bush is a right-winger? The Congress? For the life of me, I can't name even one right-wing vote in the U.S. Senate – not one.
As they say, some jokes write themselves, and some are written by Joe Farah.
Farah then gets busy making a strawman just so he can set it on fire:
"That mandate includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives," Moyers continues.
Now, I have to assume here that Moyers is referring to abortion – a procedure that undeniably kills one human life usually for the convenience of another. Moyers thinks so little of motherhood that be believes women "give up control over their own lives" when they see a pregnancy through nine months. Moyers would rather see the power of the state used to force people of conscience and conviction to pay for the violent execution of unborn babies on a massive scale. In other words, he would pay for the "liberation" of women with the blood of innocent children.
The fact that Moyers said nothing about "forcing people of conscience and conviction to pay for the violent execution of unborn babies on a massive scale", doesn't stop Farah from embellishing the Moyers interview. I mean, why let a few facts get in the way of trying to score points with the slack-jawed yokels. I found it amazing that a man who couldn't find one "right-wing vote in the U.S. Senate " could manage to find words that don't even exist. Guess it depends on where you're looking....
posted by tbogg at 8:56 AM
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The reason why George Bush has two legs....
So that Michael Kelly and Bob Woodward each have one to hump.
From Kelly's column:
Bush is not a stupid or incompetent president. In the ways that matter, he is smart and very competent. He possesses the first requirement of greatness in a president -- not the only, but the first -- a clear understanding of what he wants to achieve and the determination to achieve it, seemingly regardless of the risk of personal failure. He presides over an administration that is unusually intelligent -- and also cunning -- unusually experienced, unusually disciplined and unusually bold.
With Woodward mounted on one leg, Kelly, grunting and huffing on the other, and Howard Fineman's face buried in Bush's crotch, looks like President Cartman has hit the media trifecta.
posted by tbogg at 8:09 AM
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Thursday, November 14, 2002
Pelosi! But what about DeLay? Pelosi! But what about DeLay?
Looks like the national media got their talking points from the RNC again. Not too many columnists, besides Joe Conason, noticed that the Bug Man is about to become the face of the Republican Party. And it ain't a pretty face.
No More Mr Nice Blog explains why...
posted by tbogg at 11:40 PM
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Hey, Neil? It's your brother George. Got any plans for the next 18 months?
Lawmakers and the White House reached a deal Thursday on creating an independent commission to investigate why the government failed to foil the Sept. 11 attacks.
Joe Lieberman negotiated the Democratic side on the bill, so you know it's going to blow. Former members of the Warren Commision should be very excited.
Bush gets to pick the Commision's Chair, just like he picked Harvey Pitt at the SEC.
Harken? Halliburton?
Who are they?
posted by tbogg at 11:21 PM
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So, if I tattoo Eli Lilly across my forehead, I can have all the 'cocktails' I want? Deal.
Sullivan (sigh) again.
AL GORE, SOCIALIST: The final move in Al Gore's shift to the left came last week, according to ABCNews.com's The Note. He has now formally abandoned his earlier centrist position on healthcare and plumped for a Canadian single-payer system of the kind specifically avoided by Clinton. It's good to know that this is the new Gore: statist, populist, and the most left-wing member of the current group of Democratic contenders. Maybe he should take a look at yet another story from Britain's vaunted National Health Service. Here's a testimony from a man who is still attached to the idea of collectivist healthcare, but who saw what it means when it mattered most. He needed urgent radiotherapy for a brain tumor.
Maybe if the English guy had proprosed to use his blog to promote big pharma, thay would have kicked him a little help.
Nah. That never happens in real life...
posted by tbogg at 11:08 PM
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The Lord has arisen..and it looks like I've got my own little resurrection going too...
Pastor Accused Of Fondling Parishoners During Exorcism
A jury is deliberating the fate of a local pastor who is accused of fondling two women during exorcism ceremonies.
Rev. Gennaro Joseph Piscopo (pictured, left), 50, is the former pastor at Evangel Christian Church in Roseville.
He was charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.
He is accused of fondling female parishioners during a religious ritual called "The Deliverance" in 1995 and 2001. The victims are reportedly in their 30s and 40s.
I think I would have been having doubts at the name "The Deliverance". Banjos or no banjos...
posted by tbogg at 10:57 PM
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Someone drops a heavy book at FBI headquarters. America put on the alert
White House chastises FBI about hospital threat
Yeah. This new Homeland Security thing is going to work out just great with the FBI independent of it. Yup. Can't wait....
posted by tbogg at 10:47 PM
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Completely useless fact that I just figured out.
My wife and Satchmo the Wonder Basset get up every morning at 5:30 to go for a walk. Satchmo then goes back to bed by 6, getting up briefly to get a dog biscuit at 7 and share breakfast with my wife, returning to bed (our bed I should point out) by 7:30. When my wife leaves at 8, he is already back on the bed asleep. When I get home about 5, Satchmo (still on the bed) wakes up and we go for a walk and we play. He eats at 6:30, at his insistance. He stays awake until about 8:30 at which time he goes...back to bed.
All told, Satchmo sleeps for approximately 19 hours per day.
I just needed to tell someone that.
posted by tbogg at 10:39 PM
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You've come a long way Peggy...
''What can you say about a fifty-something old girl who went nuts? That she had a father figure obsession with Ronald Reagan. And she believed in God-directed dolphins who deliver little Cuban boys to our shores. That she loved Mozart and Bach and the Pope and firefighters with their bulging biceps, rubber boots, and red suspenders that make her go all humid in her nether regions. And the Beatles. And writing utterly bizarre columns for the Wall Street Journal that make Paul Gigot scratch his head and wonder what he had gotten himself into...."
Okay. Today Peggy takes the cause of those huddled masses yearning to...well...actually not exactly breathe free. Smokers. Peggy is crusading for smokers. Because, you see, smokers represent great conservative values. Really.
Within blocks of where the smokers stood in front of the office building on Madison Avenue the other day, there were people who last night bought five rocks of crack cocaine. There were people who watch child porn. There were people who drive by with the sound up so you can hear the lyrics of the song they're listening to, which is about how women are ho's who should be shot. Talk about air pollution. There were people who gorge on food, people who drink too much, people who perform abortions in the eighth month of pregnancy--the eighth month, so late that the child could almost come out and shake his little fist and say "I wish you had not killed me!"
Within blocks of where the smokers stood there were thousands of purveyors of and sharers in all the mutations and permutations of human woe, sin, malfeasance, messiness and degradation.
And they all get to stay inside. They all get to sit at their desks.
It's the smokers we ostracize.
snip
I think it is an insufficiently commented-upon irony that cigarette prohibition and the public shaming it entails is the work of modern liberals. They're supposed to be the ones who are nonjudgmental, who live and let live, but they approach smoking like Carry Nation with her ax. Conservatives on the other hand let you smoke. They acknowledge sin and accept imperfection. Also most of them are culturally inclined toward courtesy of the old-fashioned sort.
If you tried to light up near a left-wing big-city attorney, she would cut off your hand the way Christopher chopped off Ralphie's the other night on "The Sopranos." But if you are a smoker and you go visit a nice little unsophisticated Baptist lady in a suburb of Tuscaloosa, she will not only allow you to smoke, she will scurry into the dining room to find the china ashtray she put away 10 years ago under the folded table cloths. She would do this so you could have a nice place to put your ashes. She wouldn't dream of making you uncomfortable. That would be impolite and inhospitable.
Modern liberals are not culturally inclined toward courtesy. They are inclined toward knowing what's good for you and passing ordinances to make sure you get the picture. The first Thank You For Not Smoking sign I ever saw was in 1976, on the desk of Massachusetts governor Mike Dukakis. I thought: I have seen the future, and it is puritanical.
For those keeping score at home:
Conservatives/smokers = accepting, nonjudgemental, genteel, courteous, polite, hospitable.
Liberals/non-smokers = kiddy-porn watching, crack-smoking, drunken, obese, abortionist Puritans.
What she wants to really get at though, is Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City:
Which gets me to Michael Bloomberg. New York is still suffering from 9/11, threatened by huge budget deficits, struggling with Wall Street's downturn, facing draconian tax increases including a brand new commuter tax--that'll certainly encourage new businesses to come here!--and trying to come to contract agreement with big unions. Our realistic and no-nonsense mayor has surveyed the scene, pondered the landscape, and come up with his answer: Ban all smoking in bars.
In bars, where the people we force out of our business offices seek refuge! In bars, where half of us plan to spend our last hours after Osama tries to take out Times Square. In bars, the last public place you can go to be a dropout, a nonconformist, refusenik, a time waster, a bohemian, a hider from reality, a bum, a rebel, a bore, a heathen. The last public place in which you can really wallow in your own and others' human messiness. The last place where you can still take part in that great American tradition, leaving the teeming marching soldiers of capitalism outside to go inside, quit the race, retreat and have a drink and fire up a Marlboro and . . . think, fantasize, daydream, listen to Steely Dan or Sinatra, revel in your loser-tude, play the Drunken Misery Scene in the movie of your life, meet a girl, meet a guy, meet a girl who's a guy. The last public place you could go to turn on, tune in, drop out and light up
snip
For Mr. Bloomberg now, it is Bloomberg Has Decreed. Mr. Bloomberg doesn't allow smoking in his east side townhouse, Mr. Bloomberg will not allow it anywhere in New York. Those nasty working-class folk who still suck on cancer sticks while swilling Buds will be put down. Bloomberg Decrees.
What an idiot. What a billionaire snob bullyboy
and finally there is this:
A short word on smokers. They are people who've made a deal. They are old-fashioned, and it's an old-fashioned deal. Their sense of life is essentially conservative: They know it is short, they know part of how you say thank you for it is to really feel it and enjoy it, and they know this life isn't the most transcendent and important one you'll be living. Smokers are disproportionately Catholic, did you know that? They know that eventually something will kill them. They accept death and illness as part of the equation. They love smoking so much, it so enhances their enjoyment of each day, that they'll gamble. Some of them, they know, will die in a car accident next year, so it won't matter if they smoked; some will die of old age at 97; some will get emphysema or lung cancer at 50 and pay the price. Fine. You buys your smokes and takes your chances.
This is a hardy and, as I said, old-fashioned approach to life. It is not modern. Modern people think that if they're tidy, floss and eat fennel they'll never die, and if they get sick they'll clone themselves and go get reborn. Smokers are more stoic and sacramental. They don't want to be cloned, they want to go to heaven and see grandma.I made up the part about how they're disproportionately Catholic but I bet it's true and in any case why shouldn't I assert phony facts? The other side does.
There are so many bizarre statements in this piece that I could stay up all night taking them on one by one (like I have time for that). But taken as a whole, it so downright...weird, I'm not sure what to say. I guess I'll have to take Peggy at her word that people who smoke cigarettes are just exercising good old fashioned conservative American values like self determination and smoke 'em if you got 'em and if you die, oh well. But those who choose to do drugs, or have an affair, or not bring a child to term may want to ask her how they can get be a part of Peggy's Great American Wagontrain of Conservative Values where they can live and let live and if their ticket gets punched, well, it was a hell of a ride. Someone should ask Peggy that, but in the meantime, someone should ask her what she's been smoking...
posted by tbogg at 10:25 PM
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Meanwhile back at the ranch...
The election is over and the Republicans seem to believe that they have a mandate, so it's time to get back to work stuffing the courts with idealogues, corporate apologists, and religious cranks. The rape of the environment may now commence. Permanent tax breaks for the rich. Increasing deficits. The dismantling of Roe v. Wade. War in Iraq soon because the oil companies are starting to get all twitchy. Deep sixing investigations of Enron, Halliburton, and Harken. And just in case the media considers reporting on any the preceding:
FBI WARNS OF 'SPECTACULAR ATTACKS' THREAT
**URGENT** FBI issued confidential terror alert Thursday evening warning taped message from bin Laden, recent overseas strikes by al-Qaida raised threat of 'spectacular attacks' in USA... Developing... NYT reporting: 'In selecting its next targets,' the FBI alert said, 'sources suggest al-Qaida may favor spectacular attacks that meet several criteria: high symbolic value, mass casualties, severe damage to the U.S. economy, and maximum psychological trauma. The highest priority targets remain within the aviation, petroleum, and nuclear sectors as well as significant national landmarks'...
Yeah. That ought to keep 'em occupied.
Bush doesn't pay Karl Rove near enough....
posted by tbogg at 9:14 PM
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Wednesday, November 13, 2002
He doesn't post much...
But they're all good. The Self Made Pundit.
posted by tbogg at 11:42 PM
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The messy meltdown of Ann Coulter
One would think that 1999 Chlamydia Poster Girl Ann Coulter would have been happy with the results of last weeks election. But she appears to have jumped the shark. Her latest is, well.... its a trainwreck of a column.There's not enough Lithium in New York City to straighten this putative woman out.
I've noticed over the past two weeks that she has developed an obsession with abortion, mentioning it over and over again, leading me to believe that someone's biological clock is fast approaching midnight and the ticking is getting louder than the Tell-Tale Heart. I'm not saying that Ann needs to get laid since I'm sure her neighbors can attest to the nightly screams of "Ravish me, Mandingo" from her bedroom window. But you really have to wonder about anyone who has become so obsessed with another woman's uterus instead of the barren, rocky moonscape of her own. Perhaps as H.I. said in Raising Arizona "no seed can find purchase" there. Maybe Ann is staring at a future filled with fifteen cats each bearing the name of an imaginary child she never had, and the lost tender memory of the only man who could ever make her feel like a woman: Spencer Abraham. Love is cruel that way.
I'll leave it to future psychologists to read her writings and trace her decline from New Canaan debutante to Heritage Foundation Lizzy Borden, so for now let us be gentle and understanding and say that life has been most unkind to Ann Coulter, and because of this sad state of affairs she has become one crazy bee-yotch who needs a good smackin'.
posted by tbogg at 11:29 PM
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We will now read from the book of Hooters 3:16
Woman Charged With Reading Bible Naked
On the other hand she is more than welcome in the Gwinnett County School District.
posted by tbogg at 10:25 PM
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Inside tip for those in the Ben Shapiro Virginity Pool
More Teens Lose Virginity in June, December
Since Ben is spending his Christmas holidays with his parents at Six Flags Over Your Unused Genitals Theme Park in Orem, Utah, I'd say Ben is looking at a long hard winter with little relief in sight.
posted by tbogg at 10:19 PM
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Clarence Thomas seeks Judge exchange program with Taipei
Judges rule: Oral sex does not constitute adultery
TAIPEI - A group of 60 Taiwanese judges and lawyers concluded during an annual gathering that oral sex should not be regarded as intercourse, and therefore does not constitute adultery.
Although judges are not bound by the conclusion, it can be used as a reference in future cases, reported the Taipei Times.
'Since there is no law that clearly states whether oral sex is a form of intercourse, judges still possess full authorisation to make their own decisions during trials,' said a spokesman for the Taiwan High Court, Mr Tsai Kuo-tsai.
Next week the Taiwan Court will codify the fact that the "blow" in blowjob is just an expression and may not constitute "false advertising".
posted by tbogg at 10:12 PM
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Okay, that's one large Flesh of My Flesh pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni and an order of Mary Magdalene Crazy Bread
They're serving Jesus with lunch at High Schools in Georgia.
Now the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia is looking into a complaint of lunchtime proselytizing at Gwinnett County Schools.
Parents have accused representatives of two religious groups of crossing the line during their lunch visits by sharing their faith with students and inviting them to church
snip
ACLU officials contend that giving ministers special access to students on school time to proselytize goes against the protections of the U.S. Constitution.
Gwinnett County Schools administrators have not yet been contacted by the ACLU, said Sloan Roach, a spokeswoman with the district.
Visits to the lunchrooms by members of the community have "been going on as long as we have been a free country," said school board Chairman Dan Seckinger.
"If the ACLU is against it, most people with brains are going to think it's awesome,'' said Seckinger said. "If we begin regulating who's allowed in and out of the building based on their occupations, we'd have a lot of work to do."
I don't suppose that Dan Seckinger would mind if I decided to stop by with a bucket of chicken and few kind words about our Dark Majestic and Glorious Master, Satan, since he's not all regulatin' people and stuff?
posted by tbogg at 9:59 PM
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Molly Ivins could get a job at a big newspaper...except she tells the truth...
Tbogg correspondent Kim B points us to the unsinkable Molly Ivins:
If the Republicans really think it is such a good idea not to have government regulation, let's try an experiment. Let's just take down all the traffic signs and signals and see what happens. Think voluntary compliance will make us safer? And there's not even a monetary incentive to drive unsafely.
Check her out...and buy some Ben & Jerry's while you're at it......mmmmmmmmm Phish Food......
posted by tbogg at 7:38 PM
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"The pilot has turned on the Strap Your Fat Ass To The Seat sign. Thank you for flying Wheezing Sweaty Iowans Airlines"
Jerry Sparks of Pella needs to drop a few, okay?
Jerry Sparks of Pella was driving home in his pickup truck when he broke out in a sweat. He told himself it was the August heat.
And the pain in his arm? Probably caused by lifting something.
Paramedics arrived at his home a short while later to find Sparks barely able to breathe.
He was having a heart attack. A serious one.
He was rushed to Pella Regional Health Center. Emergency crews also dispatched Iowa Methodist Medical Center's Life Flight helicopter from Des Moines in an attempt to get Sparks, 46, to a heart specialist as quickly as possible.
That's when Sparks, who weighed 365 pounds, learned what only a handful of people already knew: Helicopters have limits.
A few patients each year find out that helicopter ambulances are unable to help them because they are too large or weigh too much. The situation prompted officials at Iowa Methodist to lease a more advanced aircraft that has been in service for about a month
It gets worse...
While the average patient will fit onto a helicopter, the fact remains that Iowans are statistically a heavy bunch. Obesity rankings by the National Health Foundation put Iowa in a tie for 12th. The Centers for Disease Control says one in five Iowans is obese, a measure of the relationship between height and optimum weight. The number is growing, health officials say. Added to the problem is that overweight people are more at risk for emergency health problems that might need air ambulance service.
"At first I was really embarrassed about all of this. I couldn't fit into a helicopter," said Sparks, a factory worker at Maytag Corp. in Newton. "But I know at least 50 people at work who are as big or bigger than me."
I wonder if Maytag is going to reconsider their weekly Wednesday morning Cup O' Bacon Fat & Handfull of Twinkies Employee Appreciation Day?
posted by tbogg at 12:58 PM
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Best viewed in letterbox
If you needed a reason to buy a wide-screen anomorphic TV, well here's a reason.
Anna Nicole wants to strip on TV show
Then again...maybe not...
posted by tbogg at 12:44 PM
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Car-wreck headline of the year
You can't turn away when you see a headline like this....
Charges reduced in dog-sodomy case
You know you're going to click on it...go on...no one's looking......
On the other hand, the Ben Shapiro Virginity Watch marches on...
posted by tbogg at 12:32 PM
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A slight change in the lesson plan....
State police say the Oswego County BOCES students working on cutting a tree during class Friday all would have been safe if they had stood still.
One student, Christopher Longo, 15, of Granby, ran into the tree's path and died. Several other students also ran when the tree began to fall, Investigator Michael C. Pastuf said Tuesday.
Monday, two students told a Post-Standard reporter that they feared for their lives as they outran the tree, which fell in a direction they hadn't expected.
But state police investigators say that's not what the students told them hours after the accident.
"This is a very emotional investigation, but we have to separate the emotion from the facts," Pastuf said.
The state police investigation found that the teacher accurately predicted where the tree would fall and that the students were out of harm's way before the tree fell, Pastuf said.
But the lesson in Darwinism went well, I see.....
posted by tbogg at 12:28 PM
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Last call for Cliche, party of four...due up on the first tee....
Ann Telnaes
Really now. Could Augusta National have a more cliched representative of a stuffy-old-rich-white-man-Country-Club-golfer than "Hootie" Johnson? Maybe he should have discussed the repercussions of his decision with the rest of the Augusta National Board: "Cooter", "Sparky", "Red", and "Booger"...
posted by tbogg at 12:13 PM
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Now this is nepotism
If Andy Sullivan had just waited one more day he could have had a perfect example of nepotism.
Thanks to Atrios for finding this one.
posted by tbogg at 9:05 AM
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Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Looks like Bush hit the Trifecta again...
The SEC casualty list:
Harvey Pitt
Robert Herdman
William Webster
Nothing like restoring investor confidence in the Stock Marke---
Look! It's bin Laden!!!
posted by tbogg at 11:18 PM
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Don't know much about geography.
What would I do without Andy Sullivan? The latest:
NEPOTISM WATCH: More evidence that America is as much an aristocracy as a democracy. Forget the Bush dynasty. Both candidates for the Democratic House Minority leadership post are essentially scions of well-established political dynasties. A reader points out:
Pelosi's father was a Congressman for a decade, then mayor of Baltimore for a dozen years while she was growing up. Her brother later was elected mayor of Baltimore. She graduated from Trinity College in Washington, DC, which was established as a finishing school for Catholic girls. Ford's father, Harold Ford, Sr., was elected to Congress from Memphis in 1974 and the youngster spent most of his time in Washington. He attended the tony St. Albans prep school on the grounds of the Episcopal National Cathedral, then went on to the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan Law School. He took over his father's seat when the elder decided not to seek reelection.
Not exactly a populist alternative, eh?
Leaving aside the obvious, that neither of these cases falls under the definition of nepotism.(Andy, look it up for Christ's sake...) We take the case of Nancy Pelosi. Pelosi's father was the mayor of Baltimore which-is-in-Maryland. Nancy Pelosi is a Congresswoman from San Francisco which-is-in California. Now, I'm sure if Andy were to break out his Denny's Color-In-The-USA map he would find that they are on opposite sides of the country. Yes. It's true. Maybe if he moved his finger really slowly on the map, it would make those little dotted lines just like the ones that follow Billy in Family Circus.
How very sad that this is the best he can do attacking Ford and Pelosi. But then he wouldn't be Andy if he didn't make a fool of himself, now would he?
And if he is really so concerned with nepotism he should look at the job appointments (now, that's nepotism) given to the son of Colin Powell, the son of Fat Tony Scalia, the son of Jim Bunning, the daughter of William Rehnquist, and the daughter of Dick Cheney (the straight one...not the lesbian one who has been safely tucked away in the Lynne Cheney Institute for Teaching Girls to Like Dick.)
posted by tbogg at 11:09 PM
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News that should make us embarassed...
Somewhere in the world people are dying of starvation, drought. disease. exposure, religious intolerance, and any manner of genocide.
In North America we are having a rock/paper/scissors tournament.
TORONTO - Rock, paper, scissors, the popular childhood game of chance, will be played by 250 adults this weekend in an international championship with $2,000 in prizes, proving the age-old pastime is no longer played only to determine who gets the last slice of pizza or the shotgun seat in a car.
"We were trying to decide something and we played rock, paper, scissors and had a best of 15 rounds," Douglas Walker, 31, said in explaining how he and his brother came to be co-organizers of the Toronto-based World Rock Paper Scissors Society
Oh those wacky Canadians. The sure know aboot having a good time, eh?
posted by tbogg at 10:28 PM
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The nice thing about writing a blog...
is you get to connect with some pretty smart people. I'm not a history buff, so this assist regarding the total hack job by Chris Hitchens (see here) comes from Jim who both knows a bit about our military history as well as being retired military himself:
In re your comments concerning Hitchen's column on chickenhawks:
Please note that in addition to Lincoln's service as an elected (militia) company officer in the Blackhawk War, Harry Truman was an Artillery Captain during WWI.
"As for McClellan, he was fired for failure to prosecute the war, not his "slavery-loving." Although it must be said that if McClellan were truely a "slavery-lover", he probably would not have stayed in the Union Army."
"As for the "glorious" Douglas MacArthur, his rise from Major to Brigadier during WWI came at the expense of the deaths of a majority of his superior officers in the 42nd Infantry Division, whose symbol of "Half a Rainbow" represents the horrendous over-all percentage of (dead) casualties suffered by that division in WWI. But MacArthur really "made his bones" when he became the U.S. Army officer willing to lead an assault against, and order his troops to fire on, American veterans assembled outside Washington during the early 1920s and seeking to persuade Congress to provide the WWI veterans bonus that had been promised to them. Subsequently, MacArthur was sent as far away from America as possible while still being rewarded, which turned out to be the post of Miliary Governor of the Philipines. During the next decase and a half, he remained in exile, amassing a large fortune from "gifts" given him by Filipino politicians. He totally failed to prepare the Philipines for defense against the Japanese, even failing to take elementary precautions and alerts AFTER Pearl Harbor. Subsequent to the Japanese invasion, his limited WWI (and total lack of post-WWI) combat experience led him to make additional disastrous mistakes in disposing his forces in the Philipines, resulting in his forces being penned up at Corregidor. He was given command of the Pacific Theater based on his SENIORITY, not his experience or any demonstrated capability, a seniority he built while sitting on his butt in the Viceroy's Palace in Manila. And, finally, he was removed by Truman during the Korean War for insubordination. And deservedly so, as he repeatedly disobeyed the orders of his Command-In-Chief and civilian authority, a direct violation of his oath of office as an officer of the United States. And no amount of self-pitying West Point speeches will change that fact."
Jeez. First Michael Kelly now Christopher Hitchens. You would think that the Washington Post and Slate would employ fact checkers. You would think that, but you would be wrong...
posted by tbogg at 9:58 PM
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The man who makes DeLay look sane...well, almost
I see Julia over over at Sisyphus Shrugged shares my "affection" for JD Hayworth. For those not acquainted with JD, you really have to watch for him on the blabfests...or you could just wait for the "Angry Dad" episode of the Simpsons. He's a lot like Homer, but without the endearing qualities. Or brains. Or looks.
posted by tbogg at 9:49 PM
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Christopher Hitchens: Drunken babbling on Bill Gate's dime
The sodden and vaguely unsanitary Chris Hitchens weighs in on armchair generals over at Slate. As usual, he gets a lot wrong.
Continuing with the hidden vernaculars of "regime change" and hoping to build toward a Bierce-like series (last week the Straussian language of revolution from above and next week "terrorism"), one must pause simply to expel one term, to retire it, discredit it, and make its further employment an embarrassment to those who use it. The word is "armchair."
You've heard it all right. The concept embodied in the contemptuous usage is this: someone who wants intervention in, say, Iraq ought to be prepared to go and fight there. An occasional corollary is that those who have actually seen war are not so keen to urge it.
The first thing to notice about this propaganda is how archaic it is. The whole point of the present phase of conflict is that we are faced with tactics that are directed primarily at civilians. Thus, while I was traveling last year in Pakistan, on the Afghan border and in Kashmir, and this year in the gulf, my wife was fighting her way across D.C., with the Pentagon in flames, to try and collect our daughter from a suddenly closed school, was attempting to deal with anthrax in our mailbox, was reading up on the pros and cons of smallpox vaccinations, and was coping with the consequences of a Muslim copycat loony who'd tried his hand as a suburban sniper. Should things ever become any hotter, it would be far safer to be in uniform in Doha, Qatar, or Kandahar, Afghanistan, than to be in an open homeland city. It is amazing that this essential element of the crisis should have taken so long to sink into certain skulls.
While being married to Hitch may be a dangerous proposition, what with the pools of vomit and shattered empties laying about the floor, I really don't think living in a typical homeland city is more dangerous than being in Kandahar. Unless, of course, someone gives Laura Bush the keys to the jeep, then all bets are off.
Then Hitch makes his most ridiculous statement:
There are some further unexamined implications of this stupid tactic. It is said, for example, that someone like former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey has more right to pronounce on a war than someone who avoided service in Vietnam. Well, last year Kerrey was compelled to admit that he had led a calamitous expedition into a Vietnamese village and had been responsible for the slaughter of several children and elderly people. (He chose to be somewhat shady about whether this responsibility was direct or indirect.) Do I turn to such a man for advice on how to deal with Saddam Hussein? The connection is not self-evident, more especially since, as far as I am aware, Kerrey knows no more about Iraq than I know about how to construct a chess-playing computer.
No. But Kerrey knows about war and what can happen to those who serve and who get caught in the crossfire which is particularly apt in Baghdad. Hitch's comments indicate that he is unable to understand the lesson of Kerrey's story and of war in general. Like Michael Kelly, Hitch has seen war, albeit from a hotel room with a well-stocked, but soon to be depleted, mini-bar. Kerrey's war stories are about mistakes and death and not throwing people's lives away. Hitch's are about empty ice machines and the problems with finding an inexpensive 14 year old hooker. Advantage Kerrey.
next:
One hopes that the next implication is inadvertent, but the clear suggestion is that there ought not to be civilian control of the military. What—have callow noncombatants giving brisk orders to grizzled soldiers? How could Lincoln have fired the slavery-loving Gen. George B. McClellan, or Truman dismissed the glorious Douglas MacArthur?
As covered in the great Kelly Chickenhawk debate, Lincoln served in battle. Let's give Hitch a D in American History since at least he knows who won in the Revolutionary War.
A related term is "chicken-hawk." It is freely used to defame intellectual militants who favor an interventionist strategy. Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska made use of the implication recently, when he invited Richard Perle to be first into Baghdad. Someone ought to point out that the term "chicken-hawk" originated as a particularly nasty term for a pederast or child molester: It has evidently not quite lost its association with sissyhood. It's a smear, in other words, and it is a silly smear for the reasons given above, to which could be added the following: The United States now has an all-volunteer Army, made up of people who receive fairly good pay and many health and educational benefits. They signed up to a bargain when they joined, and the terms of the bargain are obedience to the decisions of a civilian president and Congress. Who would have this any other way?
Bzzzzt. Wrong. Again, like Michael Kelly, he chooses to misunderstand the term: "Chickenhawk". A chickenhawk is someone who supports a war, then does everything possible to avoid fighting in it themselves. Years later, when yet another war rears it's ugly little head, this same "patriot" advocates the fighting of it by others, since they themselves are in no danger of having to participate. That is a chickenhawk. Also implied is the fact that, hey, the all-volunteer military knows what they signed up for, so let's get them all killed. A lovely conservative sentiment also heard from Andrew Sullivan. Jeez, those Brits are still steamed about the late 1700's...
As an Orwell "scholar", Hitchens knows exactly what he is doing. He is trying to make his case by changing the meanings of words. But he's not the only one who read 1984, and an overview of his previous writing can only lead us to regard anything he says with more grains of salt than could fill a margarita pitcher.
posted by tbogg at 2:58 PM
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Great post...
over at No More Mister Nice Blog
One poignant photo said it all: Georgia's defeated Democratic senator, Max Cleland, sitting in a wheelchair, missing both legs and an arm lost in combat in Vietnam. This highly decorated hero was defeated by a Vietnam war draft-dodger who had the audacity to accuse Cleland of being "unpatriotic" after the senator courageously voted against giving Bush unlimited war-related powers. I do not recall a more shameful moment in American politics.
...from the Toronto Sun.
posted by tbogg at 1:31 PM
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Bush administration says "Let's kill some elephants". Entire NRA gets simultaneous group hard-on
For some reason the Bush administration want to kill off the symbol of their own party. Oh yeah, I remember why: money.
A U.N.-sponsored conference on Tuesday agreed to partly lift a trade ban on ivory, saying several African nations could sell stockpiles. The move follows a decision by conference officials to lift a 3-week-old ban on the trade of Caspian Sea beluga sturgeon and caviar. Conservationists protested both actions, saying the ivory decision would encourage poaching of elephants and that the caviar ruling would further reduce a species near extinction.
snip
On Tuesday, CITES delegates agreed to let Botswana and Namibia make one-time sales of 20 and 10 tons of ivory, respectively. The ivory has been stockpiled from elephants that either died of natural causes or were culled because of crowding in certain areas.
Similar proposals from South Africa and Zimbabwe for 30 and 10 tons were expected to be approved later Tuesday.
CITES drew up guidelines inspired in part by the United States, which surprised delegates by saying it would support the proposals
Although many nations argue that any legal sale of ivory would tempt another outbreak of poaching, Craig Manson, head of the U.S. delegation disagrees.
The U.S.-inspired proposal calls for strict monitoring of elephant populations across Africa and in Asia, along with tighter customs controls. If approved, ivory sales would begin in four years.
“If the conditions we’ve set are met, we believe (the ivory trade) would be consistent with sustainable management of the species,” Manson said.
More elephants. Less Republicans. That's a sustainable management plan I can get behind.
posted by tbogg at 1:09 PM
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Fanmail from some flounderers
Since I don't get any hate mail of my own (oh, maybe a few, but hardly worth talking about) I have to go to DemocraticUnderground for some really good ones. As you may know, DU is an obsession of the freepers, right up there with guns, NASCAR, Jesus, and anal sex. So they get all the really good letters, which you can find right here. (Beware: really bad language alert). This one is my favorite, though:
From: "John -----, --- ----------" <---------@cetlink.net>
Date: Fri, 8 Nov 2002 09:09:58 -0500
To:
Subject: IDIOTS
You People are IDIOTS. Hey, open up your stupid forum to free discussion.
I tremendously resent your general assertion that I am a SHEEP, simply because I do not agree with you. Let me tell you a little about myself. I am a highly scientist. I have eaten meals with Nobel Prize winners (yes, plural), I have given talks among the worlds greatest scientists. I have taught both Chemistry and Physics at several institutions of higher learning.
I have been a Police Officer and a Firefighter. I have helped little old ladies change flat tires in the rain, and I have pulled human beings form burning buildings. I have had guns pointed at me and knives pulled on me.
I fish, hunt, camp and hike.
I am also a Conservative who is absolutely more thoughtful about the opinions I hold than the vast majority of Liberals. My wife, too, is a Conservative. She, by the way, is a medical doctor who presently works at an urban hospital, including the clinics for those that 'cannot afford' a 'regular doctor office.'
In reality, you know nothing about me. But here is something you should know, and take it seriously. I know why you don't open your forum up to honest debate.
Because you will lose.
Good Day,
J. -----, Ph.D.
Man. That is one cool hatemail letter. I'm jealous.
posted by tbogg at 10:53 AM
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Clarence Thomas; Coming to work early...staying late....
Finally, a case where Clarence has some hands-on experience.
Court takes library porn filter case
The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will decide if public libraries can be forced to install software that blocks sexually explicit Web sites, the latest in Congress’ string of attempts to shield children from Internet pornography.
snip
The Bush administration argued that libraries are not required to have X-rated movies and pornographic magazines and shouldn’t have to offer access to porn on library computers.
In a related note, Internet domain name hotcheneyoncheneyaction.com is still strangely available...
posted by tbogg at 10:31 AM
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Resting comfortably...soon to return.
I was surprised to see Media Whores Online take off the rest of the year, but completely understand. The work they do must be exhausting, and it's not like the pay is great, or even existent for that matter. So we wish them a relaxing rest of the year and look forward to their return, tan, rested, and ready to do battle with the real evildoers.
posted by tbogg at 10:10 AM
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So how are things going in those Bush states?
15-Year-Old Boy Steals, Crashes, Broward Sheriff Cruiser
Father explains why he shackled daughter
Nevermind. Forget I asked....
posted by tbogg at 9:52 AM
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Kerry Watch
Drudge had something up about Kerry filing Presidential Papers (since removed). But I like this post over at Lean Left. Despite his vote for Operation Inigo Montoya, I still like Kerry in 2004. Team him up with a Southerner (the smart, but overly cautious, John Edwards) and you've got a good shot at, what I expect to be, a damaged President Where'd the Economy Go?
posted by tbogg at 9:34 AM
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Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but invading Iraq would be delightful...
Ruminate This points out that the if Bush doesn't get his war for Christmas he's going to be one unhappy Boy Emperor.
One wonders whether the administration has plans for extra security during that Big Business Season of Christmas. You know, when folks are out, shopping the malls of America - consuming far too much crap for their own materialistic good, in these rather unfestive times of econonimic fatigue? Certainly, Mr. Bush must be sharp enough to recognize what the US intelligence agencies have already figured out: that were we to begin a preemptive attack upon Iraq, retalliatory terrorist acts are likely to befall our shores. Is the administration ready for that schizophrenic jingle bell scenario?
If there is another domestic terrorist attack on Christmas Day, Jesus-Americans are going to be in a quandry, reconciling running around shouting, "Remember 12/25!". "Which one? The good one or the bad one?". "Um..."
posted by tbogg at 9:17 AM
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When states rights aren't convenient...
In their efforts to overturn the right of woman to make a choice about her own body, Anti-Choice advocates (read: pinched-faced religious busybodies) have always stated that they would leave it up to the individual states to decide. God won't like it that they lied.
The upshot: Religious conservatives will pressure the Republican House and Senate to pass antiabortion measures previously passed by the House but buried by the Democratic Senate. After the ban on the "partial-birth" procedure -- passed by the House in July -- the next priority is a ban on human and embryonic cloning -- which the House passed last year.
Next on the list of House-passed measures come the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (giving legal status to a fetus hurt or killed during the commission of a federal crime), the Child Custody Protection Act (making it a crime to take a minor for an out-of-state abortion in violation of a state's parental notification laws), and the Abortion Non-Discrimination Act (forbidding state and local government actions against hospitals or health-care workers who refuse to participate in abortions).
Connor predicted Senate passage of all five and vowed that "you can count on fact that we will be pressing the Congress to act with dispatch." Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, said he expects the Senate at least to take up all five "at some point" during the next Congress. As for Bush, Johnson said: "We're very happy with the support the White House has given on all of these bills. I would expect that to continue."
snip
Abortion opponents also expect a boost from Bush's judicial nominations, including the likely reconsideration of Texas Supreme Court Judge Priscilla Owen, who had been rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee for a federal appeals court. "We're going to see a philosophical revolution in the courts," said Bruce Fein, a Reagan administration lawyer. Though he said the courts will let stand the landmark Roe v. Wade decision because undoing it would be "too wrenching," he said Bush's nominees will impose a variety of new abortion restrictions. "The impact will be enormous," he said. "It will be almost as profound as if [Supreme Court nominee Robert] Bork had been confirmed."
Abortion foes are unlikely to see action on their most sweeping priority, a constitutional amendment banning the practice. But they may see new restrictions on public funds going to international population-control groups. They also are likely to see congressional investigations into the Food and Drug Administration's approval of the abortion pill.
Any woman who voted for Bush, Chambliss, Coleman, Talent, Dole, or Sununu is too stupid to trust with children. If you can't trust yourself to make a private decision for yourself without goverment interference, you have no business having and raising kids.
posted by tbogg at 8:31 AM
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Americans want war...USA Today says so....
A majority of Americans support President Bush's push for war against Iraq and say Democrats are not tough enough in dealing with terrorism, a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll shows.
The poll over the weekend also found that most surveyed believe that Republicans have a clearer plan for managing foreign affairs and the economy. Even a majority of Democrats in the survey say their party is too liberal.
snip
''Democrats are holding back more than Republicans on attacking Iraq, and we need to clamp down on Saddam Hussein,'' said Democrat Bill Howard, 68, a retired equipment operator in San Angelo, Texas.
In California we call a Texas Democrat a....Republican. Of course nothing is mentioned in the article about how people feel about the war if there will be massive casualities.
At the end of the article:
But 52% of those polled oppose additional tax cuts being considered by Bush to stimulate the economy
posted by tbogg at 8:16 AM
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Monday, November 11, 2002
The eternal vigilance of little Andy Sullivan.
I used to work with this guy who was a big Raiders fan. About Thursday of every week he would inevitably start talking about what "we" needed to do that weekend to secure the win for the Silver & Black. The "we" being himself at home watching, and, of course the Raiders wherever they happened to be playing that week, which I assume wasn't at his house. "We" have to shut down Elway. "We" have to keep Seau out of the backfield."We" "we" "we"...
So what does this have to do with Andy Sullivan?
Well apparently he has taken the lead in leading America in it's battle against Islamo-fascism, nihilism, isolationism, but not hedonism because he's kinda partial to that -ism. Not even the Hindenberg had this much gas.
IS IT OVER? Since September 11, this blog has been galvanized by the need to fight the battle of ideas over the war against Islamo-fascism. That means exposing the vacuous nihilism of the academic left, the poisonous isolationism of the anti-war right, the thinly veiled anti-Semitism of some parts of the anti-war movement, the incoherence of the Democrats, and the p.c. delusions of much of the media. That's also what has propelled the blogosphere into stardom - voicing what most people really think, sentiments and arguments that are routinely barred from many mainstream media outlets. But after last week, things have changed, haven't they?
snip
It's certainly clear to me that those of us who have been consistently anti-terror and anti-Saddam have scored a huge victory. I'd say the academic left and the left-liberal consensus in the media and Washington have been largely routed by events. But that doesn't mean that many of these misguided individuals have genuinely seen the light. If and when war comes, they will still try to turn it against the West, spin every military victory as a defeat, and do all they can to undermine the Bush administration's difficult job in this war. If another terrorist attack occurs, they will blame it on Bush and the West. There is a lull now, while the anti-war camp regroups. That's predictable and understandable. Not only have they seen the American people vote decisively against them, they've even had to watch while Syria backs the U.S.'s new U.N. resolution. That must hurt. But they'll be back. And I have no intention of taking my eye off the ball when they return.
It would be an understatement to say that Andy is full of himself. Perhaps engorged is more appropriate. Or maybe tumescent. But I do know that I, and many other right-thinking Americans, will sleep better at night knowing that should some America-hating, nihilistic, incoherent, PC-indoctrinating, academic type person dare to attempt to undermine the God-given (or at least Scalia-given) authority of President Cartman, well, as God is my witness, a bare-chested testerone-flushed Andy Sullivan will be there at the barricades to...um...post a blog entry about it. Take that! enemies of freedom, righteousness, goodness, and the delightful synth-pop of the Pet Shop Boys.
I have to go lay down now. Just the thought of Andrew Sullivan Blogger Freedom Fighter defending the liberties I so cherish has given me the vapors. Or maybe existential nausea. It's hard to tell...
( Late note: By this morning Andy had changed the end of his Eternal Vigilance proclamation from:
But they'll be back. And I have no intention of taking my eye off the ball when they return
to
But they'll be back. I don't intend to go away.
Now I will admit that I occasionally go back and fix mispellings and typos, but I can't remember ever changing an ending. I assume that Andy just felt that using the expression "taking my eye off the ball" might me an unfortunate choice of words considering his orientation, leading to a whole bunch of that "left-wing gay bashing" we keep hearing about. I personally won't go there. But it's a free country so you can go where you choose...)
posted by tbogg at 9:51 PM
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...and whatever you do, don't sit on the toilet.
Louis Dethy really didn't like his family.
A reclusive pensioner who booby-trapped his home with the intention of killing his estranged family, died himself when he inadvertently triggered one of his own devices.
Belgian police have revealed that Louis Dethy, a retired engineer, had hidden a number of booby traps in walls, ceilings and household objects throughout his three-storey home. The traps appeared to be a revenge on the children and grandchildren he claimed had abandoned him.
At first Belgian police assumed the 79-year-old had committed suicide and bled to death from a gunshot wound to the neck after finding him at his home near the town of Charlerois. It was an assumption that nearly cost one detective his life as he searched the house and opened a booby-trapped wooden chest. A shotgun hidden inside went off, missing the policeman by centimetres.
The detectives called in military mine-clearance experts who, after unravelling a series of clues left in scribbled notes, uncovered a total of 19 death traps, among them an apparently harmless but lethal pile of dinner plates, the TV and even an exploding crate of beer
posted by tbogg at 8:40 PM
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Dude! Roadtrip to Pilot Station, Atqasuk
Guess where Jenna is going for Spring Break
posted by tbogg at 8:17 PM
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Oh, shut the hell up...
Uber-skank Christina Aguilera wants us to know that she had a shitty life and now she going to sing about it whether we want to hear it or not.
In "I'm OK," she sings of the hurt she says she felt watching her mother "every time my father's fist would put her in her place." Another line speaks of "when I was thrown against those stairs," a lyric she told Rolling Stone was drawn from her father's behavior.
Though her parents separated when Aguilera was 6 and friends say she has virtually no contact with her father (who could not be reached for comment), the pain is apparently still vivid. "One time she called me up, and she was crying about how it's so hard to sing these lyrics, because it's her," says Reilly. Stephen Sollitto, 37, a close pal who often styles her hair, does her makeup and with whom she shares her five-bedroom Beverly Hills house, adds, "She said, 'Maybe this will help him to face what he's done and process it.'"
So, is it like Blue, Tapestry, or Little Earthquakes?
Nah. Just more histrionic pop-tart crap. But thanks for sharing, Christina....
posted by tbogg at 8:08 PM
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They've got oil? Since when?
MSNBC's Special Duh Correspondent John W. Schoen reports that Iraq has oil that US oil companies covet.
So far, U.S. oil companies have been stuck on the sidelines of the Iraqi oil rush. Even if Saddam wanted to enlist U.S. firms in the rebuilding of Iraq’s oil infrastructure, U.N. sanctions — as well as U.S. laws — have barred American oil companies from dealing with Baghdad.
But some analysts say it’s unlikely that American firms will be left empty-handed if the U.S. follows through on threats of military action.
“If you turn up and it’s your tanks that dislodged the regime and you have 50,000 troops in the country and they’re in your tanks, then you’re going to get the best deals,” said Credit Suisse First Boston oil analyst Mark Flannery. “That’s the way it works. The French will have three men and a 1950s tank. That’s just not going to work.”
Next week Schoen beats Matt Drudge to the punch and reports that Jennifer Lopez "kinda likes all the attention she gets".
posted by tbogg at 7:37 PM
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Bush makes Karl Rove planned, focus group-tested "impromptu visit" to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
President Bush made an impromptu visit to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Monday's Veterans Day holiday, with the commander-in-chief leaving mementos at the black granite wall.
There is no mention in the article whether Bush found the name of the guy who went and died in his place after he first hid out in the Texas Air National Guard only to later desert. Bush did indicate that the Viet Nam war was a "very tragic era for America" which was why he stayed in a tequila-and-cocaine-fueled haze for the duration of the war.
Bush was scheduled to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery later Monday
...only if his anti-smirk medication is still working that late in the day.
posted by tbogg at 8:19 AM
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Saddam's Evil Weather Satellite wreak havoc in America
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - Devastating tornadoes ripped through the eastern United States from the Great Lakes into the deep South on Sunday and early on Monday, wiping out several small towns and killing at least 30 people.
Officials warned the death toll could mount higher, with possibly hundreds injured and widespread property damage.
This is obviously the work of evil genius Saddam Hussein who is controlling the weather from his mountain-top lair. Meanwhile American Secret Agent double O Trifecta George Bush and perky Bush girl Condoleeza Galore are working feverishly to save humanity and the oil companies from certain destruction as well as declining profits and goverment overregulation.
Stay tuned.....
posted by tbogg at 8:08 AM
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What's it going to be, funny boy?
Through Eschaton and various other blogs we are linked to this, by Dinesh D'Souza.
But what is the need for this coyness? The Democrats should stop hiding behind "freedom of choice" and become blatant advocates for divorce, illegitimacy, adultery, homosexuality, bestiality, and pornography. Indeed the Democrats could become the Party of the Seven Deadly Sins. The political advantage of this approach is that the Seven Deadly Sins are immensely popular. Imagine the political opportunities if all vices were associated with the Democratic party!
Now, Dinesh is trying to do one of two things. He is either to write tongue-in-cheek ala PJ O'Rourke, in which case he failed miserably, because what he wrote lacks even one flyspeck of wit. Or he was attempting the old tell'em what I think and apologize later line of discourse. You know, the one where you say, "Boy. Your kids sure ugly and stupid!"...followed by "What? I was kidding! Can't you take a joke? I'm just a big kidder.". This lets him reveal his true feelings and provides a cover story if he goes too far. What he does prove is that, like most conservatives, he lacks a sense of humor because his motives are so broad and obvious.
Since he's a marginal figure on the right (an AEI whore-of-the-week), I find it hard to get worked up by him, so lets just say that Dinesh D'Souza is Dnot D'Funny and leave it at that.
posted by tbogg at 7:57 AM
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Sunday, November 10, 2002
Another case for regime change...
A poll in the UK picks Bohemian Rhapsody as the greatest song in the past fifty years.
Really.
It's time to bomb the bastards...
posted by tbogg at 11:33 PM
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The New Nixon
You got to hand it to Harvey Pitt. He's got balls.
Harvey L. Pitt, in his first public speech since resigning as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, called on Wall Street executives today to restore investor confidence and said he hoped his successor would be spared the personal and political attacks that he said contributed to his downfall.
Sounding a resentful chord but keeping his tone even, Mr. Pitt alluded to his troubles only in the closing of his speech, which he gave to the Securities Industry Association's annual meeting here.
"It's easy to find fault and it's easy to criticize," he said during the speech. "In a partisan environment, criticism often devolves into attack. This doesn't help anyone. In fact, it's not just unproductive, it's counterproductive."
Taking a page from Richard M. Nixon's resignation speech 28 years ago, Mr. Pitt concluded by echoing a quotation from Theodore Roosevelt that began: "It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doers of deeds could have done better."
He said nothing about how he had handled the appointment of William H. Webster to head an accounting oversight board. Mr. Webster, former director of the F.B.I. and central intelligence, had served as the chairman of the audit committee of U.S. Technologies, a small company that has been accused of fraud and is nearly insolvent. Mr. Webster said he had briefed Mr. Pitt about some accusations against the company, but Mr. Pitt did not share that information with other commissioners before they voted on the appointment, prompting widespread criticism.
I wonder what it must be like to live without a moral center; to be a black hole for ethics?
posted by tbogg at 10:59 PM
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The New Nixon II
Apparently there are some people that still think that Bill Simon is a viable candidate.
At one point during the interview, Simon made a telling reference to Richard Nixon's political comeback, but he said he did not know if he would run for office again.
Shortly before the election Simon was concerned that a campaign-ending assault on Davis' ethics would damage his own political future. But his brusque senior strategist, Ed Rollins, reportedly told him not to worry about it because if he lost he wouldn't have one.
Rollins' assessment was more charitable the day after the election.
"Can Bill run again? Sure," Rollins said Wednesday. "Would he want to run again? What would he say six months from now, two years from now, it's hard to answer. Is there an automatic path for him? No."
On election night and the day after, some Simon supporters were talking up a race for Democratic U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's seat in 2004. One Simon friend said that would involve plunging into another campaign in a matter of months and would be out of the question. A race for a statewide office such as attorney general in 2006 might be more realistic, the friend said.
After having run one of the worst campaigns in recent California history (take that Al Checchi, Michael Huffington, and Ron Unz) against a very beatable Gray Davis, Simon seems to have inherited more money than sense. Is it any wonder the Republican party is completely in disarray in California? Thankfully.
Meanwhile Simon goes back to his old job, as well as hanging out nights with his buddies in their Georgia Satellite cover-band. Actually I made that part up, but it seems dopey enough.
posted by tbogg at 10:42 PM
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Time the revelator
The farther we get away from last Tuesday's election the more perspective returns. Joshua Micah Marshall gives a more measured postmortem. This the important fact:
Though the press is calling the GOP's gains historic, the party's victory was in fact quite modest: It seems to have netted four seats in the House and two in the Senate. But for the Democrats, this offers little consolation: Tuesday night's results were almost more devastating than the cataclysmic losses they suffered in 1994 - and not simply because the loss of two Senate seats eliminated the one bastion of Democratic power in Washington
posted by tbogg at 7:09 PM
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News you can't use
Thin-voiced, acting-impaired, fashion victim Jennifer Lopez has announced yet another marriage to this month's lucky batchelor, the like-wise acting-impaired Ben Affleck. Lopez, also known as J-Lo or PR-Stunt, had gone a personal record three days without having her name in the press before making the announcement to former journalist, and now publicity agent's bitch, Diane Sawyer, on ABC "news".
Meanwhile an AIDS epidemic ravages Africa, the world awaits the start of World War III in the Middle East, and Ben Shapiro is still a virgin for the forseeable future.
posted by tbogg at 6:58 PM
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The media empire strikes back....
Top song on Radio Disney is by a Disney Channel actress under contract to a Disney label.
Among radio broadcasters across the country, Hilary Duff's sugary pop tune "I Can't Wait" has fallen completely flat. A single station -- in Albuquerque -- has played the song just one time, and that was back in September.
There is, however, a glaring exception: the Radio Disney empire. On its 52 stations nationwide, "I Can't Wait" is ranked No. 1, with Duff getting more airplay than Britney Spears. In Los Angeles, Disney's KDIS-AM (710) has played the song a whopping 850 times during the last six weeks.
Disney will justify it as a public service based on the fact that it's keeping Britney off the air.
posted by tbogg at 4:38 PM
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Fortunate sons
250,000 slated for the the Iraqi oil war.
Most common surnames: Johnson, Garcia, Padilla, Washington, Kim, Gonzalez, and Mendez.
Least common names: Limbaugh, Lott, Hastert, Scalia, Ashcroft, Cheney, and Bush.
posted by tbogg at 4:26 PM
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Proof that Bill still has it....
Bill Clinton still has that magic....
BILL Clinton got more than he bargained for when he ate at Palm Beach's famed Bice restaurant with James Carville and 10 others last weekend. A pal asked Clinton to meet his female dining companions in the garden, and Clinton complied, shaking hands with one while the other put on her lipstick. When the lipstick-applier was finished, she "squealed loudly" and declared her willingness to give Clinton oral sex, according to New York magazine. Clinton "just stood there for like a minute. But then all these people at other tables broke out in hysterics. Bill just went inside and had his dinner."
When was the last time that anyone offered George Bush a blow job? I mean, besides Howard Fineman....
posted by tbogg at 3:57 PM
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Friday, November 08, 2002
Mark Morford...
wants to comfort us.
And really, when you step back just a little, in the grand and even not-so-grand scheme of things, it really doesn't make that much difference who runs the nation. The balance always seems to shake out, the people only suffer the party in power for so long, and no matter who is assaulting the national common sense, most people go about their days same as ever, despite skyrocketing unemployment and smog and hate and general sense of dread and fear of guns and evildoers and your swarthy neighbor. And the pendulum swings.
Dems hold majority control for a number of years until taxes soar and the bureaucracy explodes and we get really sick of it and hand it all over to Repubs next election, right until we realize they've screwed it up even worse and have driven the economy into a black hole and have thrust the nation into a dozen covert bloody wars for oil all while further insulting women and gays and minorities and slashing/burning the environment in the name of corporate greed.
And we shake our heads and say screw you crusty old white cigar-chomping country-club snakes, and give majority control back to the quivering Dems, who just look all baffled and stunned and launch a million new mostly useless social programs and raise taxes and get all smug and overconfident and then get blow jobs in the Oval Office and ruin it for everybody
posted by tbogg at 12:20 PM
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George meet George. You two have a lot in common, including a drinking problem and a propensity for lying.
Interesting quote from President Bi-Polar from yesterday's Press Obfuscation.
Bush insisted that although Republicans will control both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, he would not be beholden to conservatives. "I don't take cues from anybody, I just do what I think is right," Bush said
Proving that, yes, he is clueless. And, um, George? George? Put down the Gameboy.....you are a Conservative. Just ask Karl....
posted by tbogg at 11:43 AM
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Getting Bush's war on....
The UN is finally throwing the car keys to the drunk.
In a unanimous vote, the U.N. Security Council put Iraq on notice Friday that it must either disarm or face possible military action. The new resolution was welcomed by President Bush, who warned Saddam Hussein that he now faces the “severest consequences” if he fails to meet United Nations demands.
Meanwhile, the last car he drove is sitting by the side of the road with flat tires and smoke pouring out from under the hood.
The U.S. military is losing momentum in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan because the remnants of al Qaeda and the Taliban have proven more successful in adapting to U.S. tactics than the U.S. military has to theirs, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this week.
GEN. RICHARD B. MYERS also said there is a debate taking place within the Pentagon about whether the United States needs to change its priorities in Afghanistan and de-emphasize military operations in favor of more support for reconstruction efforts.
“I think in a sense we’ve lost a little momentum there, to be frank,” Myers said in after-dinner comments Monday night at the Brookings Institution. “They’ve made lots of adaptations to our tactics, and we’ve got to continue to think and try to out-think them and to be faster at it.”
Looks like it's time to declare victory, hand out some medals, and go blow up some other countries, particularly ones with oil reserves.
The Bush Doctrine. Hit, run, and leave a mess for someone else to clean up. That's the way he's gone through his life, run his companies, and how he left Texas.
posted by tbogg at 9:01 AM
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Andy hated it.
I like it
posted by tbogg at 8:29 AM
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No time for Noonan
I didn't have time to address Peggy's latest. Hopefully I can get to it this weekend. It's just this kind on delicious anticipation that is known to moisten her thong.
I guess you wish I hadn't said that. Also...
It's raining in San Diego, which is weird. Like seeing Bush at a MENSA meeting.
posted by tbogg at 8:27 AM
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The Pelosi bandwagon
Lisa at Ruminate This is on-board.
But the Daily Kos makes a pitch for Harold Ford.
Hmmmmmm. Choices, choices.....
posted by tbogg at 8:10 AM
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Behavior modification
The Self Made Pundit weighs in on what the Democrats failed to do.
posted by tbogg at 8:07 AM
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Thursday, November 07, 2002
I really like William Burton.
You may remember earlier, William Burton wrote about the knuckle-dragging inbreds of Georgia.
Well apparently one of them has a computer, and just like Washoe, has been taught rudimentary communication skills. Meet acidman. (Please note the pensive photo, kind of faux non-cretin.)
Which led to this response.
Can't wait to see what the bitter, wife & prostate-abandoned "acidman" has to say next just as soon as he gets back from the Sip 'n Shoot.
posted by tbogg at 10:21 PM
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Picking a Texan to lead the party is like asking Ben Shapiro along to cruise for chicks...
Frost vs Pelosi. No thanks, Martin, We got our hands full trying to shut up that ass, Lieberman. Git along back to Texas there, Sparky.
posted by tbogg at 9:50 PM
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A little quote to start your morning....
"The public have an insatiable curiosity to know everything. Except what is worth knowing. Journalism, conscious of this, and having tradesman-like habits, supplies their demands." - Oscar Wilde
posted by tbogg at 9:34 PM
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All-American barrel-stroking sycophantic wolves
Yup. Must be Mark Morford time.
And onward they come, like a pack of happily violent completely misinformed all-American barrel-stroking sycophantic wolves, but without the all the grace or beauty or mythology or intelligence.
Salivating at the sound of a rifle shot and cooing at the sight of a Glock .357 and cheering at the spectacle of crusty enfeebled leader Charlton Heston as he struggles with both weakened arms to raise a rifle over his head one last time and croak the group's adorably macho little mantra, "From my cold, dead hands!" Awww.
Like a band of angry ferrets the gun-drunk NRA marches, stomping into American towns to rally, rally, rally for more guns for more people, often in a city that just so happens to have suffered a deadly and horrific shooting spree within the past few days, isn't that just the cutest and most small-minded, insulting thing you ever did hear.
posted by tbogg at 9:28 PM
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Well, he didn't lie when he said his name was Rush, but it went downhill from there.....
Don't read this if you have high blood pressure. Rush Limbaugh giving advice to Democrats. Maybe he'll grace us with diet tips and the secret to a good marriage, at a later time.
I really got a laugh out of this one:
Limbaugh also had face time on television during Election Night, explaining to Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert of NBC News why the Republicans were doing so well.
"The Democrats' success in the past has been to demonize the Republican figurehead who was the leader," he said. "They got away with that with Newt Gingrich, but they can't demonize George Bush – he has no character deficiencies. He's an honest man, the people love him, he seems to have a very decent way about him. And so all of these threats that the Democrats were promising people, nobody believed them this time around. ...
The fact that Brokaw and Russert didn't call the sweaty, stroke-candidate on this statement says a lot about the myth of a "liberal media". The fact that NBC even invited him on either says that they have totally given up as serious news network, or that there is some obscure FCC equal time rule mandating that networks must invite bloated talking anal-cysts to appear...and Candy Crowley was already under contract to CNN.
Drunken, deserting, inside-trading, anti-intellectual, thieving, lying, coke-headed, moronic, thinskinned, oil company-owned, chickenhawk. (Did I miss anything?).But no character deficiencies. Nosiree... Looks like ol Rushbo has set the bar pretty low, even by his standards.
posted by tbogg at 9:26 PM
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Harvey Pitt...the gift that keeps on giving...
William Webster's got some 'splainin' to do.
An accounting firm released documents that contradict some of William Webster’s statements about when he first learned about financial-control problems at a troubled Internet incubator whose audit committee he headed.
snip
Meanwhile, President Bush publicly offered the former federal judge qualified support. “He served the country well,” Mr. Bush said of Mr. Webster, who also headed the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency. “I know he can do the job.” The president, speaking at a White House news conference, also noted that the SEC was conducting an investigation of Mr. Webster’s role at the troubled company. “We’ll see what they say,” he said
That's the problem....
posted by tbogg at 8:52 PM
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Andy Sullivan...what a kidder that guy is......
SLUM CLEARANCE More solid liberal arguments for ridding the world of Saddam
Which leads to Andy's slovenly, drunken, latest best friend... Chris Hitchens.
Hey look Andy! Bruce Weber's hottest new studboy.
See. Two can play that game.
posted by tbogg at 8:43 PM
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Sure...but will Fox quit running it nightly?
Clinton picture
The photograph should have been a gold mine: Bill Clinton, running for president in 1992, shaking hands with the alien from outer space who had endorsed him.
But Douglas M. Bruce, the freelance photographer from Fairhaven who snapped the picture of Clinton and a Secret Service agent that was altered by The Weekly World News, had to fight a four-year battle in federal court.
Last week, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ordered the Florida tabloid to pay Bruce $25,000 for splashing the picture on its front page, on T-shirts, and in advertisements throughout the Clinton presidency.
Picture of the alien. Creepy little bastard isn't he?
posted by tbogg at 8:34 PM
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No. No. Look over there!!...
Matt Drudge headline:
Arkansas Senator-Elect Housekeeper Signed 'False Affidavit'
Story:
The woman now tells El Latino editor Michel Leidermann that she was indeed an illegal worker when employed by Pryor for about six months in 1999 and that she told his wife this at the time. She also says she made $70 a day for a day of work a week or more for six months, which could mean she earned enough to have required small tax payments by the Pryors. She says she was encouraged by Pryor in-laws to sign a statement absolving Pryor and that she did so because she was unnerved by being the center of controversy.
George Bush & Harken
Story:
What is the fuss over Mr Bush's financial transactions?
On June 22 1990, George Bush, then a director with a company called Harken Energy, sold 212,140 shares for $848,000 (£548,100). Almost exactly two months later, on August 20, Harken announced a $23.2m loss, which caused its shares to drop to $2.375 from $3. The next day, Harken returned to $3, but fell to $1 at the end of 1990.
Did Mr Bush do anything wrong?
Although the law requires prompt disclosure of what are called insider sales, or sales by senior executives, Mr Bush did not inform the securities and exchange commission (SEC), the US market regulator, until 34 weeks later. So technically Mr Bush was at fault. Bush supporters say that he did fully disclose the transaction, and that "half of corporate America was filing forms late at that time".
How does Mr Bush explain the episode?
A decade ago, Mr Bush blamed the SEC, which he said had lost the forms he had filed. When the story resurfaced last week, the White House admitted that this had not been the case. Instead, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer blamed the delay on "a mix-up with the attorneys", but could not shed light on how the confusion arose.
Just in case Matt needed a little perspective.
posted by tbogg at 8:27 PM
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Eric Alterman..
is feeling fiercely independent today:
But let’s take a moment to say “good riddance” to Dick Gephardt. He had four chances to craft a strategy to win back the House and blew it every time. He has been moving to the right for years now, capping it off with his embrace of Bush on this dangerous and deluded pre-emptive war scheme. That nutty Barbara Streisand fund-raiser over which he presided is a near-perfect metaphor for the Democrats’ strategy in this election. She tells a pro-war politician to show more backbone on opposing the war, then uses a phony Bill Shakespeare quote to do it. The media, prodded by Drudge, focuses on the goofy quote. The party’s message: “Well, we got the money.” Well, you didn’t even do enough of that, guys.
Glad to see your back, Dick: you sold out your fair-trade constituency and replaced it with … what? You didn’t support repealing the rest of the tax cut. You didn’t oppose Bush on foreign policy. You got nothin’ to run for president on except your exciting personality. You might want to reach out to those Viagra people ASAP.
I also like his take on the media saying that the 2002 election validates the 2000 theft. Nice shot man, hey man, nice shot...
(Can you tell I've listening to Filter today/)
posted by tbogg at 3:19 PM
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Serial masturbator, Ben Shapiro, sees no light at the end of the tunnel...
Poor Ben Shapiro. It seems that he just found out that some women don't need a man.
Teenage girls are now almost as likely to initiate sex as boys. So reported The New York Times on Nov. 3, in a piece entitled "She's Got to Be a Macho Girl." "After a half-century during which generations of young women were advised to never even call a boy on the telephone," read the article, "it is now teenage girls who not only do the calling, but who often initiate romantic and even sexual activity." The article highlights this new girls-as-aggressors phenomenon as "daring," a logical outgrowth of women's "empowerment." But in truth, the new development reveals the failure of the modern feminist movement. A major goal of the feminist movement was to put women in the workplace. Advocating job over family, the "women's equality crowd" told women that men were unnecessary for long-term relationships. "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," said militant male-basher Gloria Steinem.
Men became "boy-toys." Use them, and then, lose them. Men became to women what for too long women had been to men -- sexual objects. Sex is fun, the logic went, and the more sex the better -- so go get 'em, tigress! "There is a kind of machismo among girls now," Marty Beckerman, age 19, told the Times. "They have the male-conquest attitude."
Where were the parents to prevent such a despicable chain of events? The feminists had discarded them, too. Marriage was a sham perpetrated by the male power structure, the all-knowing feminists told society.
snip
This supposedly "empowering" ideal cuts men out of the loop. Want a career and a kid? Get pregnant, and then, throw the bum out. A single mother is sufficient for the child. The liberal media endorses this idea, championing pregnant single mothers on many prime-time television programs.
And so men have become non-entities in the household. Young men suffer without the presence of a father -- paternal absence is perhaps the primary cause of gangbanging and other crime. But what is less talked about is the effect on young women who lack strong fathers.
Ben, who is profoundly un-Brad Pitt-like, is apparently worried that he may not find a virgin to his liking when he gets married in about...never, and the irony of women having lots of casual sex while Ben is left hat in hand, so to speak, must be unbearable.
For those who like to gamble, odds at Harrahs on Ben-Getting-Laid-Before-Bush-Gets-Genius-Grant just increased to 3000 to 1. Odds of his skin clearing up are at 80-1. Odds of his being on Cribs has been taken off the board.
All and all, its amusing to see him flogging the old Murphy Brown storyline again. But, then again, flogging is Ben's specialty.
Just don't tell his mom.
posted by tbogg at 9:43 AM
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Andy wants his war on....
NOW WIN THE WAR: I've been reading with some disbelief all sorts of proposals for president Bush's next two years. Here's the only one that matters: win the war. If we can rid the world of Saddam Hussein and see Iran's dictators pushed to the brink, then an entirely new set of circumstances prevails in the world. What the president needs to focus on now is disarming Saddam. This election wasn't a mandate for tax simplification or welfare reform (however important those two things are). It was a vote of support for victory. If Bush lets Saddam wriggle through the gaping U.N. net, and lets al Qaeda off the hook, then he will deserve to be defeated in 2004. Getting the war right is paramount. Everything else will follow. Nothing else, in comparison, matters
Would someone please explain to Andy, much to his dismay, that its not going to be like Beau Travail?
posted by tbogg at 8:52 AM
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Bravo
To William Burton for this post. (I can't get the archive link to work...so here it is)
To the Voters of Georgia
The original version of this post was filled with obscenities, threats, and invective (and I will be down shortly to piss over the state line), but I deleted it in order to appear slightly less insane. I do have a few words for you.
Saxby Chambliss, who faked a knee injury to avoid the draft, ran ads questioning the patriotism and courage of Max Cleland, who lost both legs in Vietnam. For this, you rewarded Chambliss by electing him to the US Senate. Georgians should be ashamed of what they've done. I know many of them aren't, so I'd like to point a couple things out.
You, the voters of Georgia, deserve everything bad that will happen to you over the next few years. You deserve to breathe dirtier air. You deserve to watch your investments dwindle as CEO's get rich at your expense. You deserve to lose the guarantee of Social Security benefits when you retire. You deserve to watch global warming flood your coastal areas and wash away your condominiums. Unfortunately, your kids don't deserve any of these things, and neither does mine. But they'll have to live with them long after we're gone. Hope you enjoy the f_cking tax cut.
(I made one small edit so that nobody gets blocked out at work because of the use of the "most foul of the foul words".)
F-cking A....
posted by tbogg at 8:30 AM
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Trent Lott: Womb Invader
Tuesday's stunning victories for Republicans in the House and Senate are good news for pro-family issues.
The new Senate Majority Leader, Trent Lott of Mississippi, says with Republicans now in control of the White House and both houses of Congress, the logjam of bills is going to be broken. Lott says not only will important legislation dealing with homeland security and the economy be moved along quickly, but also a key issue of importance to Christians: a ban on partial-birth abortion.
"We will move the partial-birth abortion bill through [the Senate]," Lott says. "The House did it this year -- [but] once again, [outgoing Majority Leader] Tom Daschle would not call it up [in the Senate].
"I will call it up, we will pass it, and the president will sign it. I'm making that commitment -- you can write it down."
Why this is of any concern to Lott eludes me. When Trent can have a baby, then he can talk. Until that time, he should leave it in the hands of the woman and her doctor.
And, as if that wasn't chilly enough, the Republicans drive to interfere with a woman's right to choose may lead to the birth of more horribly disfigured children like this one.
posted by tbogg at 7:53 AM
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Wednesday, November 06, 2002
One half million thoroughly emasculated dads breathe a sigh of relief.
Chrysler is recalling a lot of minivans.
For a few awe inspiring days a half million dads won't be known as "that goober in the dorkmobile" and their odds of scoring with a supermodel will increase a significant 13.4%.
posted by tbogg at 9:09 PM
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Decision 2002 redux....
Bubonic plague in NYC.
or
New Justin Timberlake solo CD at Best Buy?
You know, you can get over a 105 degree temperature.....
posted by tbogg at 8:31 PM
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Scientist discovers cause of "Republicanism"
Are you a man who is feeling irritable, depressed and bloated? Well, those are symptoms related to a condition called "irritable male syndrome," which may affect millions of men.
Connie Hillegass said she hit a snag in her marriage a few years ago because something was different about her husband, Michael.
"It's like a switch was turned off. There was no lust -- no desire," Michael Hillegass said.
Scott Simmons, an IMS patient, noticed changes when he hit middle age, too.
"(I felt) tired, lethargic, and (I) didn't have a zest for work anymore. (I) started gaining weight," Simmons said.
IMS Posterboy Dick Cheney told assembled and bemused reporters, "You try being married to Lynne for a few years and see what it does to you. Besides the lethargy and the weight gain, it takes me four popsicle sticks and a yard of athletic tape to splint myself hard enough to satisfy her unnatural cravings." The Vice President then winced at the thought and slugged back one of the mini airline bottles of scotch he keeps in his coat pocket for just such grim mental images.
posted by tbogg at 8:25 PM
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Crappy little California town blows its chance at immortality.
The California Milk Advisory Board was looking for a small town to change its name to Got Milk?, Ca. This town decided to take a pass.
Well, there's always Dairyville.
The little Tehama County community hasn't gotten a call from the Got Milk? publicity machine, but it might now that Biggs has taken itself out of the running for California's milk town.
They've decided to stick with Vulva Pass, and can you really blame them?
I'm feeling fiercely independent tonight.....
posted by tbogg at 8:11 PM
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Matlock: The Lost Episode....
As usual, this story comes to us from Florida, America's most retarded state that we really don't like to admit is part of the country and always have to hide when one of the good foreign nations comes for a visit.
Lakeland Police: Bean Bag Shooting Of 81-Year-Old Justified
A police department review found that two police officers acted correctly when they subdued an 81-year-old nursing home patient with a chemical spray and bean bags fired from a shotgun.
Willie Foster was shot four times with bean bags after he became unruly and nursing-home staff called officers on Aug. 27.
Bean bag'im Danno.....
posted by tbogg at 8:03 PM
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Clinton's mighty penis has finally struck out.
...or at least that's what Chris "That's not a genital wart. That's my dick" Ruddy thinks over at NewsMax.
Tell you what, Chris. I'll bet my car against your car in a matchup of Clinton against Bush anytime, chump.
posted by tbogg at 7:58 PM
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...and speaking of cocks
In Oklahoma, cock fighting in not OK. But I would bet my pink slip that Clinton would win that too.
posted by tbogg at 7:56 PM
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Peep this, yo.
For the uninitiated, Cribs is a...well, its a lifestyles of the rich and soon to be forgotten on MTV. But you gots to represent when you on, know what I'm sayin'?
posted by tbogg at 7:48 PM
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President Cartman's gracious speech
Reflecting his upper-class roots, Bush celebrates yesterday, as only he can.
THE PRESIDENT: And so now, my brothers, while the Sodomites lick their wounds - and God knows what else - we need to get down to business exploiting our newfound absolute and total power. Because like I said: there's New Vision in town. One that knows the future is full of clichéd thunderclouds and penny-ante dictators whose single nukes threaten our paltry collection of 12,000. A future where chain-smoking alcoholic high school dropouts are armed to the teeth, and where America flips the bird to the rest of the world. A future where freedom finds its necessary limits, and where slutty cocktease teens who were just asking for their daddys to knock them up must carry their octopus babies to term! That's the GOP's future - and that future is NOW!
posted by tbogg at 2:53 PM
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We hate our kids...but we treat our pigs real good.
Well the people of Florida are nothing if not consistent. They sure know how to take care of their pigs.
Florida voters on Tuesday resoundingly approved a state constitutional amendment that would prohibit commercial hog farmers from housing pregnant pigs in cages too small to turn around in.
The proposal, placed on the ballot by animal rights activists, passed 55 percent to 45 percent, state election tallies showed.
Additionally this little piggy is going to Jacksonville and this little piggy is going to DC and this little piggy goes whee! whee! whee! all the way back to rehab..
posted by tbogg at 2:46 PM
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Kiss your wallet goodbye...
Daniel Gross looks at the massive deficits America voted for yesterday.
Perhaps the least-surprising news of the night: As soon as it became clear that Republicans would regain the Senate, Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley told CNBC that making last year's tax cuts permanent would be a key item on the GOP agenda.
The prospects have similarly improved for several other Republican economic projects that have been bottled up by Senate Democrats, including tax breaks for investors who have taken losses and tax cuts for profitable corporations.
Such moves may or may not help jump-start the sputtering economy. But they will virtually guarantee a return to the era of structural budget deficits. That may be the most far-reaching economic implication of yesterday's unexpected Republican sweep. We are now blessed with a Congress and executive branch devoted to the proposition that the government should spend, but not tax. (And what's more, it shouldn't try too hard to collect the taxes that are owed, especially if they're owed by companies or the cheating wealthy.)
Last month, the books were closed on a disastrous fiscal 2002. The government ran its first deficit since 1997—$157 billion—and the $6.3 trillion, 10-year surplus that President Bush inherited all but evaporated.
posted by tbogg at 1:49 PM
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Apparently God's work isn't done....
According to the Freepers (you know....the overweight people with more guns than teeth)
God was responsible for yesterday, and he still has many more miracles to perform.
Some snippets from the Jebus circle jerk:
Thank you for the victories that You have granted us.
We pray that those who would dishonestly and unfairly contest close races will be thrown into confusion. Also, we pray that the Republicans will hold onto the Senate in spite of the army of lawyers poised to fight the victories
and
I thank you Lord Jesus for blessing our leader George W. Bush, a man who follows in David's footsteps, patiently waiting on and trusting in You!
I thank you for seeing us all through this horrible time of evil; the Islamic terrorist threat and our sinful domestic swarray into cultural darkness.
I am so deeply encouraged to see that so many people voted to turn the tables on these whose delight was so bent on ignoring your will and obstructing the people's will because they thought they knew best.
Thank you God so much, and I pray that the Republicans might now be true to this victorious mandate and please you in all their actions.
and
Thank you God for all your blessings. Although I live in California...the good man (Bill Simon) almost won, and this is satisfaction enough. I know you are watching over him and his family God, and I know he will come back and serve our state as a legislator in some capacity. Thank you God for being there, for giving us a Republican majority. You have blessed our nation. Thank you God for the South, and southerners, they have once again helped our nation, thank you for all the northerners who voted with a capital R, they have saved our nation.
Pretty friggin' scary, huh? Where's the ATF with a tank when you need them?
posted by tbogg at 1:41 PM
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We're having absurdity for breakfast.
Leaving home this morning my daughter had on MSNBC (which is weird since she usually watches CNN in the morning), and as I walked through the room, I saw a commercial promoting MSNBC's " fiercely independent political coverage".
That's enough to make you hork a waffle through your nose.
I assume they meant "independent" of the facts.
Saw my gal Peggy for about 45 seconds last night. When Mathews stopped to take a breath, she actually spoke. I don't know what she said but she did manage 3 hair-flips-behind-the-ears in that brief period. That must be a record somewhere.
(Clarification: I don't know what I was thinking, however, in fairness to my daughter I have to admit that I accidentally said that she watches CNN in the morning. That is so not correct. She watches ESPN. My bad. I screwed up, and now my daughter has something else to tell Oprah...)
posted by tbogg at 1:18 PM
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Another post-mortem
From The American Prospect
It is the first sign of trouble in a play about nothing but trouble. Asked by her father in the play's first scene what she can say to demonstrate her love for him, Cordelia says, "Nothing." To which Lear responds, "Nothing will come of nothing."
Which is a pretty fair summation of the Democrats' 2002 campaign. They had no message. They were an opposition party that drew no lines of opposition. They had nothing to say. And on Tuesday, their base responded by staying home in droves.
Nothing came of nothing. The Democrats lost the Senate, lost seats in the House, and picked up significantly fewer statehouses than they had counted upon.
On what should have been the Democrats' defining issues, they endeavored to be indistinct. They could never bring themselves to oppose Bush's tax cut, his trillion-dollar handout to the rich, though that made it impossible for them to advocate any significant programs of their own. Nor could they bring themselves to oppose the White House's headlong charge into Iraq, though polling showed over two-thirds of the American people oppose a unilateral war. So Missouri's Jean Carnahan, Colorado's Tom Strickland, New Hampshire's Jeanne Shaheen, Georgia's Max Cleland and South Dakota's Tim Johnson -- Democratic Senate candidates in close races -- backed the president. All of them lost (though as I write, the South Dakota race may go to a recount).
Andy Sullivan (you remember the guy...lonely...unloved in his own country) thinks Myerson is worthy of a "Begala award" (which I assume means telling telling the unvarnished truth);
BEGALA AWARD NOMINEE: "Only the filibuster now stands between the nation and the unchecked rule of the most rightwing, xenophobic and belligerent administration in the nation's history." - Harold Meyerson, the American Prospect. They still don't get it, do they?
So tell me Andrew, or speak to your muse George Orwell, what was the "most rightwing, xenophobic and belligerent administration in the nation's history"? We'll wait..but here's a hint...it's right in front of your nose.
posted by tbogg at 1:10 PM
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Notes from an occupied country...
Well, its mourning in America...I only have a few minutes, so I thought I would make a few quick points and then run. Needless to say I was very disappointed with yesterday's results. Although I'm not too suprised at Cleland losing in Georgia (it is the South afterall, home of no Ivy League schools...) I was very suprised at Shaheen losing to Sununu, and disappointed that Strickland couldn't beat a personality-impaired Allard. I think those two races were crucial. So...what to do, what to do....
First off, the Democrats have to look at their leadership. Whereas the Republicans have a face (simian as it is) in George Bush, the Democrats have no face to represent to the public. Daschle may be a good backroom manipulator, but he failed to get the Democrats to fall in line and he isn't exactly riveting when speaking to the press. Gephardt through the party overboard when he jumped ship on the war resolution, standing shoulder to shoulder with President Chickenhawk. As leaders they both have to go. Thye failed in the midterm elections and there are no mulligans in politics. My fear is the Lieberman-DLC wing of the party will look at this election and think that they have to move more to the middle. They could not be more wrong.
Define a platform. Make everyone hew to it. Then run on it.
posted by tbogg at 8:42 AM
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Check back later....
It's going to be a long day picking through the wreckage, and I've got a busy day at work. I'll try and have something up this afternoon.
But, boy, did yesterday suck....except for the fact that I got my new laptop. That part of the day was pretty cool.
Joe Conason
A party that will not criticize the incumbent president cannot defeat him, now or two years from now. A party that has nothing to say about unfair tax breaks, a vanishing surplus and a looted economy cannot expect anyone to listen when it asks for votes. A party without passion or vision is hardly a political party at all. Even in their righteous defense of Social Security, Democrats too often sounded as if their chief concern was to preserve their own institutional position. Today the future looks grim for them because they blurred the purposes of their partisanship
posted by tbogg at 6:50 AM
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Tuesday, November 05, 2002
Self Made Pundit
has his predictions up.
It looks like it is going to be a slow day in the blogosphere (can't we call it something else...blogiverse, blogylvania, bloganapolis, blogistan, Blog Mawr, San Diblogo...?) for everyone. I'll be back tomorrow with stuff I'm saving up. The election is just too much of a distraction.
On observation though. After reading a bunch on the web today, it's become pretty obvious that, if you hear a Republican complaining about "voter fraud", it's because they can't grasp the concept that minorities are actually allowed to vote. Imagine that...
posted by tbogg at 1:27 PM
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Prediction time addendum...
I'm such a tool. I missed one other important Senate race today: Colorado.
I'm going to have to go with Strickland, only because Allard is a bigger tool than me, not to mention a lackluster candidate who severely damaged himself by appearing on Meet the Press with Strickland.
So, lets make that a +2 pick-up for the Democrats. I'll still stand by my other comments...
(Thanks to an alert reader who pointed out my omission)
posted by tbogg at 8:09 AM
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Monday, November 04, 2002
Prediction time...for what it's worth
Well, everyone else is doing it, and based on some of the ones that I've seen, I don't think I can do any worse (see Michael Barone's in TPM). My choices are based almost entirely on internet "chatter", as the spooks at the CIA like to call it. Valuable resources include The Daily Kos, Eschaton, Table Talk, and even Free Republic where there is sometimes a pony to be found under all the horseshit. Since I live in the Democratic state of California, and we still have a free press here, I've aso picked up a few things here along the way..
I also want to take time to compliment the Daily Kos for all the work he has done tracking all the races. Absolutely terrific work.
I haven't expended the energy looking into the House races because I expect that the Republicans will hold onto their majority, and also due to the fact that I consider the House to be the Minor Leagues when it comes to our political system. The Senate is The Show, where thought and prudence are at play, Jesse Helms and Don Nickles notwithstanding. So...my picks:
Arkansas -- Pryor +1
Minnesota -- Mondale
South Carolina -- Graham
Missouri -- Talent -1
South Dakota -- Johnson
Georgia -- Cleland
New Hampshire -- Shaheen +1
Tennessee -- Alexander
Iowa -- Harkin
New Jersey -- Lautenberg
Texas --Cornyn
Louisiana -- Landrieu runoff in December
North Carolina -- Dole
That is a pickup of one Democratic seat. Johnson in SD is the only one that I'm not completely sold on.
It's stupid to make far-reaching predictions, like predicting in April what a baseball team will be doing in the playoffs, and then three weeks later their star pitcher blows out his elbow, but here are some other things I think:
1) I think that no matter who wins control, Lincoln Chafee will jump parties within a year. He is so marginalized within his own party, there's no reason for him not to.
2) If Bush gets stuck for the rest of his term with a Democratic Senate, I think that McCain will become a major thorn in Bush's side. Revenge being served cold.
3) Rehnquist or O'Connor will retire in the next two years for fear that Bush may lose in 2004 and not be able to name their replacement, and John Edwards will try and make his mark in the Supreme Court candidate hearings.
4) Post-war, and there is going to be a war, Cheney will resign for health reasons, but really to get out before the energy papers are turned over and Halliburton starts becoming an issue again. There is no way he is going to run in 2004, and it's in Bush's best interest to have an "incumbent" VP to run with. Who will take his place? They want Condi Rice, but I think that the big money that backs the Republicans will balk. Too much of a gamble. Everyone may think I'm cracked, but I think it will be Rob Portman of Ohio. Don't ask me why, but his name pops up in weird places that remind me of when I first heard of Clinton.
5) I think there will be a challenge to Gephardt's leadership in the house. Nancy Pelosi has balls that Gephardt can only dream of.
6) The campaign for 2004 starts on Wednesday. Campaigning for the Democratic 2004 ticket will be between Gephardt, Lieberman, Gore, Kerry, and Edwards. It will be ugly, but I'm picking Kerry with Edwards as his running mate. Kerry has the money and Edwards gives him an edge in breaking the Republican stranglehold on the south.
I could be wrong. I'm most likely wrong, and I bet you are all wishing I had a comments section so you could kibitz about it. But I don't so you can't, and, hell, in two years I may not even be doing this blog anymore because either John Ashcroft will have me locked up, or I will be too busy playing Doom III.
Life is like that in America.
Remember to vote...and stay tuned to Eschaton tonight (11/5) for updates on the election (even though it's Buffy night). Me? I going to vote, go to dinner with my wife and daughter, and then go look at a new laptop my wife is going to let me buy which will allow me to spend more time with them, basking in their loving glow.
Life is like that at our house.
posted by tbogg at 9:07 PM
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Harry Potter and the Filthy Rich Woman Who Lives In a Country with Really Bad Food
JK Rowling is, like, really rich.
posted by tbogg at 7:43 PM
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Great moments in public relations
You've really got to hand it to the boneheads at Pepsi
SALEM, Ore. — West Salem High School cheerleader Andrea Boyes didn't mean to land in hot water with soft-drink giant Pepsi.
The 15-year-old just wanted to raise money for her new squad, which can't afford to travel to national competitions or hire an assistant coach. So Boyes hit upon what she thought was a bright idea: to sell bottled water bearing a label with her school logo at school events. She got a $750 donation for startup costs, designed a label, had 6,000 printed, found a supplier and ordered 15 cases.
Then Pepsi, which has an exclusive 10-year, $5 million contract with the district, got wind of the deal. The contract allows only Pepsi products, including its Aquafina brand water, to be sold on school grounds. The district also has exclusive contracts with food-service, furniture, athletic-equipment and computer dealers. "It was really disappointing," said Boyes, who had hoped to net 55 cents in profit for every $1 bottle sold. "I guess now we'll just have more car washes."
Combine Pepsi's stepping in on her fund raiser with the district pimping out the kids to a softdrink company, and this is so wrong on so many levels.
posted by tbogg at 7:36 PM
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An informed opinion...
from Dahlia Lithwick.
Last week, Mickey Kaus asked for my thoughts on the possibility of these midterm elections turning into "Florida times 50," with dozens of Mini-Me, Bush v. Gore-style lawsuits blooming nationwide, as disparities in vote-counting, chad-reading, and absentee-balloting lead to contested results in various state elections—some of which will inevitably wind up in the courts. More specifically, Mickey wonders how the Supreme Court can avoid being drawn into these battles, especially if there are equal-protection allegations as "compelling" (imagine!) as those leading to the court's halting the Florida recount in 2000.
Lithwick makes this, I believe, self evident point:
The U.S. Supreme Court won't take these cases because they lost too much political capital over Bush v. Gore, and they aren't willing to look that bad again.
Equally important:
The reason Bush v. Gore doesn't create a precedent for the court to jump into midterm election battles is that Bush v. Gore deliberately and reflexively didn't create a precedent for anything. Remember the court's brazen limitation of its holding: "Our consideration is limited to the present circumstances, for the problem of equal protection in election processes generally presents many complexities."
Even the staunchest defenders of the majority decision in Bush v. Gore defend it only on the grounds that the presidential election needed to be resolved quickly and definitively, not because they believe its holding was consistent with the court's federalism, equal protection, or voting jurisprudence. So who could expect the court to apply this reasoning to any future cases? Even the majority knew they were just making it up!
Thank you, Dahlia for reminding everyone what happened.
posted by tbogg at 7:01 PM
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More than slightly unbalanced
Looking forward to election night coverage? Look who is joining Chris Matthews over at MSNBC.
And we’ll go to America’s foremost political reporter Howard Fineman, Democratic insider Donna Brazile, GOP communications expert Peggy Noonan, and bomb-throwing pollster Pat Cadell for his unique and unpredictable analysis. If you like your Election Night coverage smart, edgy, and spicy, you won’t want to miss us for a second. MSNBC on Nov. 5: Exciting. Fast-paced. And all night long
Okay, Donna Brazile will represent the Democrats. Since we know that Howard Fineman is a notorious Bush-fellater as well as the reigning MWO Whore of the Year, well, we know where he stands or kneels as the case may be. Pat Cadell "bomb-throwing"? I'm not sure I ever heard what Cadell "throws" refered to as bombs. They used to identify Cadell as a "pollster" but that was so long ago, it like referring to Paul McCartney as a Beatle. It's so far in the past, and the work since then has been so crappy, that it's hard to believe it's the same person. During the 2000 coverage Cadell was so disconnected from what was happening, you started to wonder if some mumbling moron just walked off the street and just took a chair.
Then there is "GOP communication expert" Peggy Noonan. Apparently Pegs will be communicating with Paul Wellstone, Tip O'Neill, and Strom Thurmond (yeah, he's not dead yet, but the night is young...). Actually it was during the 2000 coverage that I developed my fascination with La Noonan. Between the hair-tossing and incipient hysterical vibrato in her voice, I always get the feeling I'm about to see a Ronee Blakely-in- Nashville-like meltdown. Noonan is my preferred 'reality TV'.
Missing from this years MSNBC coverage is Mike Barnicle and Doris Kearns Goodwin who are busy co-authoring the Pierre Menard version of Don Quixote.
Other than that, it should be smart, edgy, and spicy.
posted by tbogg at 6:51 PM
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Madame La Noonan has returned from the land of the recently departed...
...and her crystal ball is a bit foggy.
That was some debate, the best so far of the political year. Each man was up to the battle. Each revealed what he thinks, how he operates, where he stands.
Norm Coleman won. But Fritz Mondale showed there's life in the old boy yet.
I wouldn't have bet that Mr. Coleman would emerge the victor. The narrative of a grand old man taking up the standard of a fallen local hero and waging forth valiantly in spite of age seemed to me the kind of thing most politicians wouldn't be able to knock down or change.
But Mr. Coleman read the psychological landscape astutely. He knew he had to be both respectful and firm. He understood that Mr. Mondale's prime aim in the debate was to demonstrate that he still has it--he may be from another time but he's feisty and all there and ready to stand firm for Minnesota in Washington. Mr. Coleman seems to have known that Mr. Mondale would attempt to show strength by adopting a piercing and pugilistic style. Mr. Mondale did. Mr. Coleman came back with earnestness and a calm desire to find "common ground." It was the kind of calm and earnest demeanor you use when you're talking to the cranky old guy in the diner who likes to patronize young people.
Considering Peggy's father fixation on the Ronsicle (speaking of whom, I expected Ron to have sauntered off this mortal coil before the election if only Karl Rove could just get near him with a pillow, thereby igniting a media Reagasm, and a spectacular Noonan breakdown on camera. I guess scrappy little Nancy guards the Kings Chambers better than we thought she could.) you would think that Noonan would have been humping Mondale's leg while moaning "Momma loves her elder-statesmen..." , after the debate. But no, she decided to swoon and pitch woo at the young virile Norm:
Mr. Mondale adopted the language of us vs. them. He used the language not of the Democratic Party of his era but of the Democratic Party of today. He name-called. Mr. Coleman is "right wing," he runs with "the right-to-life crowd," he is "an arbitrary right-to-lifer."
Mr. Coleman didn't insult Mr. Mondale in turn, but he came back strong, challenging Mr. Mondale's characterization of his stand. He had lost two children early in their lives, and there is "nothing arbitrary" about his support for life. But he called too for "common ground," especially in the area of parental consent for minors' abortions.
Mr. Coleman seemed moderate and sober. Mr. Mondale seemed sarcastic. He literally began to point his finger at Mr. Coleman as he made his points. Mr. Coleman didn't take the bait, and sat with his hands clasped on the table. Mr. Coleman used Mr. Mondale's aggression against him, suggesting it was a problem: "We have to change the tone."
Based upon Peggy's words it would seem that Mondale, who is leading in the polls, did just what she said he needed to do. To quote from above:
Mr. Mondale's prime aim in the debate was to demonstrate that he still has it--he may be from another time but he's feisty and all there and ready to stand firm for Minnesota in Washington. Mr. Coleman seems to have known that Mr. Mondale would attempt to show strength by adopting a piercing and pugilistic style. Mr. Mondale did
That being the case, it looks like Coleman tried to play rope-a-dope with Mondale, but that style of fighting only succeeds if you come out fighting by the end and land a knockout punch. Coleman failed to do that. Instead he played punching bag to Mondale's thrusts, responding with Bush-like platitudes repeated over and over. His miscalculation was that the public would accept yet another callow empty-suit like Bush, when evidence has shown that one is more than enough.
Peggy ends with:
I think Mr. Coleman won the election this morning. I think he solidified his rising numbers, and picked up some undecided voters. And I think that considering what has happened in Minnesota the past few weeks that is one amazing story
I think Coleman tried to paint himself as a moderate who disagreed with Bush on certain topics, while dismissing the fact that the people of Minnesota remember that he was handpicked by Bush. He's Bush's boy and Wellstone was pulling away based on that. I don't think this one debate changed that perception.
I guess we'll see.
posted by tbogg at 1:31 PM
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Least suprising headline of the day....
From Drudge:
Long Lines, Confusion at Miami polls
Election officials call it ''convenience voting,'' but it didn't seem all that convenient Friday. Thousands of voters hoping to avoid long lines on Election Day found themselves enmeshed in long lines four days before Election Day.
Many advance voting sites were jammed Friday as early birds confronted lengthy, complex ballots and relatively few machines at six locations in Broward County and 14 in Miami-Dade County.
Was it a harbinger of things to come in South Florida? Probably.
Broward Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant was so worried about overcrowded polling places on Election Day that she asked Gov. Jeb Bush to officially lengthen voting hours. Request denied.
''I didn't think I'd have to wait an hour,'' said Mark Sanchez, 34, of West Kendall, one of 40 people in a line that snaked through the children's section of the West Kendall Regional Library. ``But I'm sure it will be worse Nov. 5.''
An hour? He was lucky he wasn't at the Broward County satellite courthouse in Hollywood. There, an hour carried you only halfway to the touch-screen machines, if you decided to stay.
''You gotta be kidding me,'' Rick Dunn, 49, said as he gazed at a line twisting around courthouse corners. ``No way. I'm out.''
His words were repeated nearly verbatim in North Miami, where Rita Cecilio reversed course after learning she'd have to wait 45 minutes to vote at the library.
' 'It's frustrating,'' she said. 'I walked in and said, `No way.' Once I saw the line, I said 'I'm outta here.' ''
I'm not from Florida..have never been to Florida...will never go to Florida, so will someone please explain to me why it looks like Jeb! is going to win tomorrow? To call Florida a banana republic is to demean banana republics. How do we vote them off the country?
posted by tbogg at 12:53 PM
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Gotta getta Gund
Win or lose, when Christmas comes around this year, and we all should be making toy donations for underprivileged kids, make sure that some of those toys are Gund Stuffed Animals. Why? Because a friend of the Democrats is a friend of mine:
Louise L. Gund.
In the final days of above-the-board soft money, Democrats and Republicans alike are desperately searching for people like Louise L. Gund.
A reclusive philanthropist living in California's East Bay region, Gund has gone from being a generous donor to Congressional Democrats to one of the single most important contributors in the final weeks of the campaign, particularly to Senate Democrats.
In just the first 16 days of October, Gund - an heiress to the Cleveland family that made its fortune in teddy bears, beer, coffee and banking - cut $550,000 worth of checks to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. In little more than two weeks she gave more than twice as much money to Democrats than she had donated to candidates and party committees in the 2000, 1998 and 1996 election cycles combined, records show
If Jeanne Shaheen wins, and she very well may, Louise Gund, will have had a big hand in it:
In New Hampshire, sources said, Gund told the Senate campaign of Gov. Jean Shaheen (D) that she would give $350,000 to the DSCC, money that would be essentially earmarked to the Granite State. But to get Gund's money Shaheen's camp would have to meet her "challenge" - raising a quick $350,000 for the DSCCthemselves.
On Oct. 8, records show, Gund gave $100,000 to the DSCC, around the time she issued her challenge. In about five or six days the Shaheen people raised their $350,000 for the party committee, and on Oct. 15 Gund gave the DSCCanother $250,000.
Within a week, a quick $700,000 was infused into the Boston media market through Gund's work.
posted by tbogg at 9:35 AM
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Sunday, November 03, 2002
Cut, paste, and E-mail this to everyone you know...
Why you must vote on Tuesday
Thanks to Two Tears in a Bucket, who got it from Eschaton who got it from...)
posted by tbogg at 10:50 PM
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Put your money in my cold, clammy, dead hands...
Dick Cheney has been on the road a lot lately keeping those subpoenas at bay and selling influence by the pound. Avoiding the sexual advances of Lynne is just a bonus...
Vice President Cheney likes to tell donors that the Republicans' battle to reclaim the Senate is personal for him, since "my only job as vice president is to preside over the Senate."
Hardly, but it is one reason Cheney took on a grueling 10-month campaign schedule that raised more than $40 million for GOP candidates and party organizations. Cheney all but disappeared from public sight after the terrorist attacks, but the high-stakes election brought him out of his secure, undisclosed location for constant trips around the country, even as he remained largely invisible in Washington.
snip
Like Bush's travel, Cheney's is subsidized by taxpayers because the government pays for the costs of flights, security and communications wherever he goes, even when the Republican Party picks up some of the costs of the events and receptions. Cheney has traveled so frenetically this year that the White House said in a July letter to Congress that he had exceeded his travel budget and was transferring $100,000 from other accounts so he could keep up his itinerary. The letter cited "unanticipated travel by the vice president," which has included visits to military bases. Aides said the transfer of funds was required because of his trips to secure locations, not his political travel.
If this was Clinton/Gore, Dan Burton would be on this like Noelle Bush on a dime-bag. Then there is this:
Many swing voters said they found Cheney a reassuring teammate for George W. Bush, and fans at the vice president's rallies still praise him with terms like competence, dignity and experience. "I don't want to insult President Bush, but -- you know!" said Spencer Harrison, 17, who was among the Young Republicans at the North Carolina event.
After two years, even the War on Terrorism hasn't convinced 17-year old Young Republicans that President Gameboy has grown into the job. Looks like Karl Rove still has his work cut out for him.
posted by tbogg at 10:39 PM
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Sorry, Mam. Your kitty is going to have to stay in that tree until he dies...
MACOMB TOWNSHIP - Fire Department Capt. David Koss may be suffering from acrophobia, which is fear of heights, or another psychological condition that prevents him from climbing ladders.
Township officials want to determine the diagnosis and have ordered the 20-year veteran to undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
...maybe they should start by asking one more question during the hiring process.
posted by tbogg at 9:58 PM
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If you like pina coladas and making shivs in metal shop....
How many times have you said to yourself, "Why can't I meet a nice attractive bi-sexual woman, who is behind bars, and settle down in five to seven years with time off for good behavior"?" Oh, if I had a dollar......
Here's your chance.
Me? I'm saving myself for Winona Ryder...
posted by tbogg at 9:54 PM
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My name is Chuck and I'm a Vanilla-holic. Hi Chuck...
What ever happened to the good old days of asking people to buy you beer. Cheap highs in Pa.
posted by tbogg at 9:46 PM
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I fought the bras and the bras won
A bunch of guys talk about boobs and try to to sound rational and sensitive and stuff.
posted by tbogg at 9:41 PM
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Me and God are watching Georgie grow,,,,
As noted last week, in the Note, Karen Hughes is writing a book about her experiences with President Almost Potty Trained:
Also, "Viking Penguin has made the winning but undisclosed seven-figure bid in the auction for George Bush confidant Karen Hughes's White House memoirs. The book, an account of Hughes's 'unique relationship with the president' and her life as a working mother and wife, is tentatively titled '10 Minutes from Normal.'"
We asked for book titles for Karen, because we love that fact that she brought androgyny out of the walk-in closet and into the White House. Keeping in mind that she wrote, Bush's fact-challenged 'autobiography" A Charge To Keep, we thought we could be of some assisitance. Here you go Karen, feel free to go all Doris Kearns Goodwin on us:
A Candidate to Prop Up
Ten Shoe Sizes from Female
Bringing Up Baby
President On Only Fives SCOTUS Votes A Day
What I Saw At the Pretzel-choking Party
The One-Minute Enabler
The Idiot: Year 2000 Edition
Adventures in Babysitting - Travels with Georgie
President for A Day: September 11, 2001
On The Island Of Dr. Karl Rove, A Monkey President Makes Perfect Sense
D.I.Y. Media Whoring
Stupid White Men…and The Women Who Cover for Them
George Bush and the Secret Cabal of SCOTUS
If I Believe It--It's Not a Lie
Soft Bigotry, Low Expectations: What To Expect From Bush
Pretzels, My Ass!
Escape From The Monkey House
I Quit To Spend More Time With My Son...Now Which Kid Is He?
Slouching Towards Buchenwald
Not So Great Expectations
I Got Him Elected. He’s Your Problem Now
Travels With The Chimperor
No. Nebraska is Not Pink Like On the Map. We’ll Be There Soon.
George Bush and The Pretzel of Doom
…and our winner:
Empire Falls: The Bush Years
posted by tbogg at 9:35 PM
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The Hucakabee Hillbillies
It's hard to believe that the same state that had Bill Clinton as Governor could end up with the Huckabee's...
Some choice bits:
It began with The New York Times quoting Republican legislators in Arkansas saying Janet Huckabee has damaged her husband politically.
The article described her as "the ball and chain around Mr. Huckabee’s campaign."
snip
In the Times article, state Senate Republican Leader John Brown of Siloam Springs and state Rep. Randy Minton, R- Ward, said voters don’t approve of Janet Huckabee’s running for secretary of state. Minton said it cost the governor as much as 5 percentage points. "I do think people look at having a married couple holding two of the highest elected offices in the state, and there is a negative connotation to that," Brown told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette when asked about the Times piece. "Mike Huckabee has to have the crossover and the independent vote. That’s where I think both of them have been hurt."
Janet Huckabee said in the Times article that her critics have bothered her. "If it wasn’t for the grace of God, I’d have shot a few people already," she said. "Jesus wasn’t liked either. And Jesus was mistreated and called names."
Of her Democratic opponent, Land Commissioner Charlie Daniels, Janet Huckabee said, "He says his problem with alcohol was 12 years ago, and I know that’s not true. He could hardly stand up at the governor’s gala last Christmas."
During a recent televised debate, Janet Huckabee brought up Daniels’ driving-while-intoxicated convictions in 1983 and 1990. Daniels said the media covered them at the time. He added that he has apologized and has changed, and he doesn’t drink and drive anymore. "I’m not going to address Mrs. Huckabee’s continued personal attacks on me," Daniels told the Democrat-Gazette when asked about the Times article. "What I will continue to do is run a positive campaign."
Joe Quinn, spokesman for the governor’s campaign, called the story an "odd journalistic approach" because the governor’s campaign wasn’t contacted for comment. Quinn wouldn’t address whether Janet Huckabee has hurt her husband’s campaign. "We feel real good about where we are five days before the election," Quinn said. Various polls show the governor leading by from 1 to 10 points. After quotes from the Times article were read to her, Janet Huckabee didn’t retract her quotes printed in that newspaper. She said she wasn’t dragging down her husband’s race. Of Daniels, she added, "There is a problem. I’m not sure that’s the leadership we want."
Finally. Someone who makes Ann Coulter look sane...
posted by tbogg at 8:40 PM
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News from the front...
The Daily Kos which, this election season is as important as air to me, has the latest Zogby's up.
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